Post Number FIVE HUNDRED

OK so what is so special about this post?

Well it is post number 500 in 15 years so what?

OK so nothing special move it along folks move it along. NEXT!

Album Review: 07 Toying In The Attic With Aerosmith

Album Review: 07

Toying in The Attic With Aerosmith

This review was originally posted on rateyourmusic. It was one of the reviews I was assigned in the "Go Review That Album" game on their community forums. This version of the review has had some editing and corrections.

Aerosmith Toys In The Attic

1975 Columbia Records CK 33479

***.5

“Backstroke lover always hidin’ ‘neath the covers

‘Til I talked to your daddy he say

He said you ain’t seen nothin’ ‘til you’re down on a muffin

Then you’re sure to be a changin’ your way” 

This classic rock album produced what would be two of Aerosmith's biggest world-wide hits Sweet Emotion and Walk This Way (which would be revived in the mid-1980s by Run-DMC's rap version cover of it.) It would also help put them onto the rock and roll map and help keep them on it. The album starts off fast with the title track, it loses a little bit of steam after Sweet Emotion though. It had been several years since I've listened to this album, before relistening to it for this review. That was in part due to being tired of hearing Sweet Emotion on the radio and the rap-a-sizing of Walk This Way. At first I didn't like the Run DMC cover but after it had een around for about 15 years I started to at least tolerate it.

An odd fact about this album is that the song Big Ten Inch Record came to the attention of the band via The Doctor Demento Show, Steven Tyler had heard the original recording of the song and the band played it for laughs and for their producer who liked it and wanted it on the album. As a result, in the album credits there is a thank you to Doctor Demento and that is the reason why.

It occurred to me while listening to the title track Toys In The Attic that the chorus harmonies sound very much like some Blue Oyster Cult songs. The style of the second song Uncle Salty near the beginning is similar to a Shania Twain song, I think it is Man, I Feel Like a Woman.

This album doesn't disappoint and if you consider yourself an Aerosmith fan it should be in your collection.

I reviewed the CD version of this, I also have it on Minidisc, but unfortunately I don't have a functioning minidisc player anymore, my portable one crapped out on me years ago. That's OK I only have 4 pre-recorded minidiscs. Someday I'd like to get a Sony minidisc deck for my stereo. 

Album Review: 06 Dissecting Stereos With Alan Parsons What?

Album Review: 06 

Dissecting Stereos with Alan Parsons What?

So Yeah this is getting to be a sort of regular thing. Sorry if this blog hasn't had any other type of posts all these weeks. I decided to schedule a whole bunch of these reviews to get them published so I wouldn't have yet another unfinished project. I have been scheduling them to publish Mondays at 12 Noon. At this rate (if I keep up with the scheduling) they will run every Monday until at least mid August. It also helps me with my posting quota for this year, maybe I'll get out of the red this year.

This review was originally posted on rateyourmusic. It was one of the reviews I was assigned in the "Go Review That Album" game on their community forums. This version of the review has had some editing and corrections.

The Alan Parsons Project Stereotomy

1985 Arista Records AL9-8384

****.5

"I am just a dreamer, when I close my eyes

I can fly so close to the sun, that I can not see it rise

Going round in circles, in a silent sky

I am lost for so many worlds

I can not say why

I can not say why"

Of all the The Alan Parsons Project albums this was the first one I purchased near the time of its release. I don't usually get albums even close to when they are first released unless it is one of my super faves and I am Jonesing for the album. This album is also in the top 3 or 4 of my favorite APP albums.

I feel it is a sort of mix of the typical Alan Parsons sound with the 1980s pop-rock movie soundtrack sound. I could picture movie producers using the title track Stereotomy, Limelight, In the Real World or even Light of the World as a beginning theme song, ending theme song or maybe even the music used for the climax reveal maybe that is just me. The Grammy nominated instrumental track Where's The Walrus? has that Miami Vice/Smugglers Blues kind of sound and feel.

Every track I feel has its own sort of energy that has the ability to lift you up and take you on a journey of the senses.

On the track Light of The World the lead vocalist Graham Dye sounds a bit like John or maybe even Julian Lennon. That alone makes that track even cooler sounding.

I have always found the title "Stereotomy" an interesting word. Pronounced as ster-ee-auto-mee instead of ster-ee-oh-to-my as one might think. I didn't know until I looked on the Wikipedia page for the album that the word Stereotomy was used in an Edgar Allan Poe work "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (not the first time The Alan Parsons Project was inspired by Poe). The word means the cutting of solid shapes. Which would explain the cover art concept for the first pressing of the album.

The first pressing of this album had a cool cover art concept. Wikipedia mentions it. The album had a plastic outer sleeve that was red on one side blue on the other. The cover design used both colors so depending on which side of the plastic cover you had over the cover it would filter out one of the colors making the artwork look different. This color effect was used in the 1950s and 60s a lot, often on sports trading cards and non-sport cards for "secret" messages. Similar to early 3-D simulations that use red and blue colors and those "cheap sunglasses" made of cardboard that have the read and blue plastic film (lighting gels) lenses. 

NOTE: During a collection purge (I think in my infamous 1987 purge that I may or may not go into detail sometime) I had gotten rid of my original vinyl version. I based this review on the CD. In my original RYM review years ago I mentioned having the original pressing at one time, but being unsure if I still had it. I had in fact at one time gotten rid of it and for many years only had the CD copy. In recent months got a copy from Ebay for pretty cheap. Sadly there is a little tear in the plastic sleeve at the corner opening. It is a very tight fit when you slide the cover in the way that appears to be proper so that is probably why the approximately inch long tear is there. Oddly the "hype" sticker appears to be a second hype sticker covering over the remains of an original one that had been damaged.

Album Review: 05 Experiencing The Best Of Jimi Hendrix

Album Review: 05

Experiencing The Best of Jimi Hendrix

This review was originally posted on rateyourmusic. It was one of the reviews I was assigned in the "Go Review That Album" game on their community forums. This version of the review has had some editing and corrections.

Jimi Hendrix Experience Hendrix: The Best of Jimi Hendrix

1997 MCA Records MCAD-11671

****

"I'm not the only soul who's accused of hit and run
Tire tracks all across your back
I can see you had your fun
But darlin' can't you see my signals turn from green to red
And with you I can see a traffic jam straight up ahead"

This is almost the ultimate Jimi Hendrix greatest hits collection. But why is it called Experience Hendrix when it doesn't even have Are You Experienced? on it? Oh well I guess you can't have everything you want. The tunes that are included on this album are most of the rest of Jimi's greatest hits. Some of the intros and outros of a few of the songs, seem like they are missing something. I'm not sure but I think they weren't quite sure where to begin or end a song from an original segue from one song into the next.

I remember when I was a kid, I had gotten bored of some of the Hendrix songs because I heard them so often on my local "classic" rock radio station. * Back in the days when they called it "Album Oriented Rock" or just plain "rock" just before stations started using the "Classic" rock label. In fact, I used to get annoyed whenever I would hear Hendrix's recording of The Star Spangled Banner from Woodstock. I used to think it was horrible because he was being "creative" with the national anthem. Well when I got older, I started to appreciate creativity by putting your own spin on a standard. Even if Hendrix was stoned while he was playing it, you have to admit that he was a talented guitarist.

I feel that the first part of the album is practically super hit after super hit, then somewhere after Foxy Lady the pace slows down slightly then picks up some and then of course it ends with the show stopping (or rather morning starting) The Star Spangled Banner, maybe because some of those songs I had barely heard, before I had gotten this disc.

* I have a whole lot of songs and artists that I have heard so often I am tired of them. It doesn’t necessarily mean I hate the artists I am just tired of them or their “anthem” songs/hits. Some of the artists on my list are Led Zeppelin (especially Stairway To Heaven), The Doors, Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, James Taylor and probably a few other artists.

Album Review: 04 Christmas In America With Pat Benatar

 Album Review: 04

Christmas Time in America With Pat Benatar

This review was originally posted on rateyourmusic. on their community forums. This version of the review has had some editing and corrections.

Pat Benater Christmas In America/Please Come Home For Christmas

2001 Gold Circle Records GC58804-2

****.5 

“Coz It's Christmas in America

Let the angels sing

It's Christmas in America

Let freedom ring

Let peace resound throughout the world

Especially on this day

It's Christmas in America

God bless the USA”

This song was written as a heart-felt reaction to the tragic events of Setember 11, 2001.

I got this CD single at a time when it was only available via the official Pat Benatar website. In 2003 The Title song Christmas In America was included as a bonus track on the album Go. It is one of my favorite Christmas songs ever.