Bob McBride - Sea of Dreams. 1973 Capitol Canada (LP). As with the Harvey Mandel below, Sea of Dreams was being prepped for sale, when I heard some very intriguing music. The album cover originally drew me in at the thrift shop, and when I saw it had some value, I added it to the stack. So who is Bob McBride anyway? He was the primary vocalist for the famous horn rock band Lighthouse. Sea of Dreams is tagged as folk rock, and I suppose that's the hard truth, but there's far more of a rock element here than is usual for the genre. It grooves hard, and there's plenty of electric guitar that is quite acidic in tone. A4 recalls Neil Young, and my mind at that point began to wander and lose interest. A5 has a bit of an America feel to it. The B side did little to bring me back, and completely loses steam about midway through. Ah well, not a bad listen overall, with a strong opening. A familiar tale, drugs ultimately did McBride in, and his promising solo career mostly ended here. He did manage a couple of albums in the later 70s that remain unnoticed despite major label releases. I'll eventually spin up a Lighthouse page, and will add McBride in at that point. (11/21)
*Harvey Mandel - Feel the Sound of Harvey Mandel. 1974 Janus (LP). I'm largely ignorant of Harvey Mandel's work, so when I put this on to ensure the quality for resell, I was pleasantly surprised at what was coming back. I then placed it as aside for a full listen. And here we are. Mandel is most known as a blues guitarist, who spent time with Canned Heat and John Mayall. It appears he took about 20 years off from the late 70s until the mid 90s, and has been recording ever since. Starting off with a strong funk number, Mandel plays various forms of blues and rock. I really like the grooves on this title, along with Mandel's guitar tone. I think B1 sold me. Picking up some Frank Marino at the end of this. The cover is pretty darn great too. I'll keep my eyes peeled for Mandel albums in the future. Might build out a page eventually. I'm considering Mandel as Classic Rock in the same sense as early ZZ Top. (11/21)
Electric Light Orchestra - No Answer. 1972 United Artists (LP) (1971). After hearing the below, I decided to pull out A New World Record and this, their debut (the record show isn't until November). A New World Record just isn't for me. But I felt this one at least deserved a few words. Consider that both Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne essentially wanted to expand upon The Beatles' experiments with classical instrumentation. For example, 'Eleanor Rigby' and 'I Am the Walrus'. Both are favorites of mine, so let's give this one more listen. At this stage, the Electric Light Orchestra really is a small chamber unit. No crazy synthesizers here. This isn't a rock album, and really belongs in its own category. It does have a Beatles flair, without the psych element. I'm tempted to keep this for being unique, but I'll let it go. I love the story of how the album was named for the US pressing. Apparently a secretary from United Artists called Harvest over in England to find out the name of the album, and no one picked up the phone. So she wrote "No Answer". Perfect! This isn't urban legend either, and has been confirmed. (9/5)
Electric Light Orchestra - Face the Music. 1975 United Artists (LP). Well I think I finally found the ELO album I was looking for. I've documented a couple of their late 70s albums that were more ubiquitous in my youth, neither to my taste. Since that time I found the first album along with A New World Record. And they didn't do too much for me either. The opener of Face the Music is a track I remember liking when I first got into FM radio in 1977. I didn't realize until now that it was ELO behind it! Has sort of this odd 'Pinball Wizard' meets Alan Parsons Project thing going on. A2 is a sappy ballad that blows. A3 is of course their first true megahit 'Evil Woman'. I liked this song when I was 11 and I still do. It's probably the best song they ever did, at least of those I know. Well OK, I recognize A4 as well. Haven't heard 'Nightrider' in forever, and probably didn't pin ELO on it either. You have to remember that ELO would have dominated the radio airwaves in '77 and '78 when that's pretty much all I listened to, along with my puny record collection I possessed back then. B1 is kind of a punky prog track, an oxymoron if there ever was one. With Zeppelin undertones. B2 is their other great hit. 'Strange Magic' is probably their second best track ever (in my book). It's pretty weird honestly, especially for a Top 40 smash. B3 is an out of place rural infected song. B4 is a nice closer. This is the best I've heard from ELO to date. I can let the LP go, but if I find the CD cheap, I might keep it. (8/30)
GTR. 1986 Arista (LP). Steve Howe approaches Steve Hackett and says: "I have an idea. Let's recreate the glories of my past, with you and me in the lead". Intrigued, Hackett pursues further. Like who he asks? "ASIA". God bless. And then name the band as gee-tar. What a waste of talent. Now all these guys are closing in at the end, many already have. Can you imagine if they chose to recreate classic Yes meets Genesis in the mid 80s? A renaissance of the great prog rock style could have commenced. But noooooooo. I gave this an objective 2.5 rating on RYM. I should have given it a 0.5 on principle. (6/22)
* - Keeping for the collection
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