Soft Lights and Sweet Music

Stanley Black and his Orchestra - "Soft Lights and Sweet Music" (1958) - Richmond High Fidelity

Hello Friends,

An imprint of London Records, the Richmond High Fidelity record label was a budget label that re-released mono and stereo LP's in the U.S. from 1958 to 1963 and sold for $1.98.  What a bargain!

British bandleader & conductor, Stanley Black delivers some swinging, late night instrumental lounge music on this 1958 LP.  Lush and softly exotic, its the perfect soundtrack to a balmy spring night at the old tiki bar.

The highlights here include a trio of Cole Porter songs, "Just One of Those Things", "Begin the Beguine" and "Why Can't You Behave?"; the Rodgers & Hart ballad, "My Heart Stood Still"; the Exotica staple "Bali Ha'i"; the South-of-the-Border lounge of "Adios" & "Estrellita"; and the jumpy "Alice Blue Gown"-- which would sound right at home in a Woody Allen movie.

RATING: 4.5 Trips to the Moon on Gossamer Wings out of 5   

Come Fly With Me

Frank Sinatra - "Come Fly With Me" (1958) - Capitol Records

Hello Friends,

If you can use some exotic booze, there's a bar in far Bombay that has Ol' Blue Eyes on the turntable tonight.  

Come Fly With Me is one of Sinatra's "concept" albums with all the songs being about globe-trotting to strange and romantic lands.  It also marks his first collaboration with arranger, Billy May. 

The album kicks off with the inviting title track, written especially for Frank by Sammy Cahn & Jimmy Van Heusen.

It ends with the upbeat "It's Nice to Go Trav'ling" where the tired gypsy traveler returns home and turns his attention away from the frauleins and senoritas to a quiet night at home where he burns his passport, lights a fire, puts on his slippers and makes a pizza!  (Literally, the last words spoken on this record is "make a pizza"!)

In between the departure and the return, there's "The Isle of Capri", "Moonlight in Vermont", "Autumn in New York", "The Road to Mandalay" (based on a Rudyard Kipling poem), "April in Paris",  "London By Night", "Brazil" and a "Blue Hawaii".

Overall its one of Sinatra's most fun and jauntiest records. 

FUN FACT # 1: This album was nominated for album of the year at the very first Grammy Awards ceremony in 1959.  It lost out to Henry Mancini's Music from Peter Gunn!

FUN FACT # 2: Frank Sinatra was supposedly upset with the album cover because he thought it looked like an ad for TWA.  I've never had their coffee, but I really like the TWA Tea!

RATING: 4.5 Paddles Chonkin' from Rangoon to Mandalay out of 5

Happy Birthday Yvonne Craig aka Batgirl! (May 16)

Its Prom Night with The Smiths

The Smiths - "The Queen Is Dead" (1986) - Sire Records

Hello Friends,

Its prom season and you know what that means!  All the cool kids are going to the prom and at we're stuck at home listening to The Smiths! 

And now I know how Joan of Arc felt...

The Queen is Dead is the third full-length released by Manchester, England's favorite sons, The Smiths.   Angst and awkwardness aplenty!  Throw in some drag queens, some Oscar Wilde, some mother fixations and a healthy preoccupation with death & dying and friends, you've got a Classic!

Life is very long, when you're lonely! 

Side One is home to such britpop classics as "Frankly, Mr. Shankly", "I Know its Over", "Never Had No One", "Cemetry Gates" and the title song.

Side Two includes "Bigmouth Strikes Again", "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side", "Vicar in a Tutu", "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others" and the classic, heartbreaking and death-obsessed ballad, "There is a Light that Never Goes Out."

To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die...

What is often overlooked in discussions about The Smiths is their great musicianship and ability to arrange a song.  Mentioning The Smiths immediately conjures an image of their iconic, foppish, baritone frontman, Morrissey.  But listen to this album while paying special attention to the things going on around Moz and you're sure to be impressed.  There's some amazing Johnny Marr guitar parts and nifty instrumental and vocal effects on almost every song.  And every song on this album is pretty amazing.  There's not a stinker in the bunch!  We even like "Vicar in a Tutu"!
  

Has the world changed, or have I changed?

FUN FACT: The cover art for The Queen Is Dead was designed by Morrissey.  Its a still from the 1964 French film, L'Insoumis.  Oui Oui!

RATING: 5 Take Me Back to Dear Old Blightlys out of 5

Happy Mothers Day with Queen!

Hello friends!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mom's out there!

Once again, we're celebrating Mum's day properly this year: with some flowers, some wine and some Queen!

Queen - Jazz (1978) - Elektra Records

Queen's seventh studio album-- and last of the Seventies-- Jazz is a hard-rockin', arena-rock LP with three of the band's best-loved songs like "Fat Bottomed Girls", "Bicycle" and "Don't Stop Me Now".

In addition to this trio of hits, Jazz opens with the perplexing Jewish-Arabic (?) anthem "Mustapha"*, perhaps Freddie Mercury's ode to his Parsi heritage.  There's also the understated, "Jealousy"; the overtly theatrical "Let Me Entertain You"* & "Dreamer's Ball"; bassist John Deacon's hard rocker, "If You Can't Beat Them" (which sounds vaguely like "Queen Bitch"-era Bowie); and the forgettable disco number, "Fun It" (which is definitely a precursor to Queen's mega-hit, "Another Bites the Dust".) 

(* "Let Me Entertain You" would have made a MUCH better opening track and should have swapped places with "Mustapha".)  

Brian May's two songwriting contributions includes the spazzy, furious rocker, "Dead On Time" and the sublime ballad "Leaving Home Ain't Easy" (which he also takes over lead vocal duties!)

Jazz also reunited the band with their original producer, the great Roy Thomas Baker.  All the trademark Queen sounds are present and accounted for here.  From May's sharp, overdriven guitar solos to the multitracked vocal harmonies to the bicycle bell solo on "Bicycle", this is more late 1970's rock royalty at its finest.   

Happy Mum's Day!  Now get on your bikes and ride!

RATING: 4.5 Mister Farenheits travelling at the speed of Lights out of 5

Making Bets On Kentucky Derby Day

The Rolling Stones - "Sticky Fingers" (1971) - Rolling Stones Records

Hello Friends,

Its Kentucky Derby day, our bets are placed and we're on our 4th round of Mint Juleps while we wait for the singing of "My Old Kentucky Home".  Meanwhile on the turntable, ladies and gentlemen, its the Rolling Stones.

Sticky Fingers.  From the album's title to Andy Warhol's cover art to Bobby Keys's sax solo on "Can't You Hear Me Knocking?" this record oozes dick-swinging sleaze!  

Their ninth full-length (and first of the Seventies) every song is an absolute classic.  Produced by Jimmy Miller and recorded at the legendary Muscle Shoals Studios in backwater Alabama there's a swampiness to the sound of the entire record.  Drugs and death are pretty much present on every song!  The ghost of Brian Jones looms large and in its place is some serious Mick Taylor shredding!

Take the opening song, for instance, the hit single "Brown Sugar", a solid rocker with a killer riff that's either about interracial sex or heroin use or, most likely, both!  The stage is set friends!

"Sugar" is followed by the slow, demon-swaying blues of "Sway" which is followed by the classic break-up ballad, "Wild Horses".  Funny enough, as the story goes, Gram Parsons convinced the Stones to let his band, The Flying Burrito Brothers, record this song.  When Mick Jagger & Keith Richards heard his version, they decided that they too should release it.  The Burrito Brothers version came out a year ahead of the Stones version.  

Next up is the aforementioned, "Can't You Hear Me Knocking?" in all its frenzied, coke-fueled glory!  Side One closes out with a cover of the Fred McDowell gospel-blues tune, "You Gotta Move".

And if you thought Side One couldn't be topped, wait until you get to Side Two kids!

The hard-rocking "Bitch" kicks things off followed by the much slower, more intense & bluesy tune, "I Got the Blues"-- which sounds like a classic Otis Redding soul ballad.

Co-written by Marianne Faithfull, the excellent and nightmarish "Sister Morphine" is next.  Again, this song it oozes paranoia!  Why do we hear sirens? Why does the doctor have no face?  Who's Cousin Cocaine?  Lock the fucking doors Tiki, I'm scared!   

Things come back down to Earth (a little) on "Dead Flowers"--  a junkie love letter with a country-twang, killer chorus and some great F you lines like:  

I'll be in my basement room

With a needle and a spoon

And another girl to take my pain away...

Take that bitch!

The last song, "Moonlight Mile", is the perfect conclusion to this drug-fueled sleazefest!  A slow, lamenting ballad about alienation and life on the road. It ain't all fun and games kids!  Once the drugs run out and the groupies are gone, you're left with a used and abused sticky version of yourself.  Sometimes these moments of clarity, no matter how brief, can be devastating! 

As the song goes, "Its just that demon life has got you in its sway!"

And they're off...

RATING: 5 Headfuls of Snow out of 5 

Romantica!

Martin Denny - "Romantica" (1961) - Liberty

Hello Friends,

Tonight on the turntable?  How about the lush and exotic sounds of Martin Denny?  I'll drink to that!

Actually we picked up this gem in a used bin during Record Store Day.  Another great Martin Denny album cover featuring the incomparable "face of Exotica", Miss Sandy Warner and those inviting eyes!

As the liner notes state, "Denny has chosen twelve selections that are ideal for a dream voyage on an ocean of serene romance" and folks we couldn't have said it better ourselves!  

Pianos and vibraphones square off with exotic percussion sounds and lush string arrangements.  

Songs include: "And This Is My Beloved", "Romance", "My Reverie", "Magic is the Moonlight", "A Fine Romance", "Tenderly" and Denny's own compositions, "Love At Sight", "Aloha, I Love You" & "Blue Paradise".

RATING: 4 La Pampas Y La Punas out of 5