Prog Rock Saturday: In and Out of Focus

Focus - "In and Out of Focus" (1973) - Sire Records

Hello Friends,

Or rather, Hallo Vrienden...

We've got some sweet-sweet prog rock courtesy of the Dutch on the turntable tonight!

Formed in 1969 by singer, composer, organist & flautist-extraordinaire, Thijs van Leer, Focus would release seven excellent prog rock records throughout the Seventies.  Their 1970 debut LP, Focus Play Focus, would be re-released by Seymour Stein of Sire Records in 1973 under the name In and Out of Focus.

And this is a pretty fantastic debut!  We hear a lot of Meddle-era Pink Floyd-style arrangements with some early Genesis and King Crimson thrown in for good measure.   

The album opens with the very Floyd-ish instrumental, "Focus"-- a melodic and classically-influenced, nine minute overture featuring some great guitar work (courtesy of Jan Akkerman) and culminating in a spazzy organ/flute crescendo. As our Dutch friends might say, Ja!  

Menacing organ chords open the next, apocalyptic-themed song, "Why Dream" which sounds like something that could be on an early version of Pink Floyd's Animals.  With lyrics like "Why Dream about a future?  / Now is the present as bad as the present can be! / Why Dream about a future? / The light is dark and darkness is all you can see" all I keep thinking is, Hey didn't I write that in my journal back in high school?

Now with lyrics and music like this, you might be wondering, are these dudes into drugs?  Well, I think our questions are answered on Side One's closing number, the trippy and psychedelic, "Happy Nightmares (Mescaline)".  I'm booking my flight Amsterdam in the morning!  Just say no, kids!



Side Two begins with the court jestery instrumental "Anonymus" which-- mostly because of the prominent flute-- is reminiscent of early Jethro Tull.

Next up is "Black Beauty", but don't let the title fool you, this song IS about forbidden interracial love!  Didn't realize this sort of thing happened in the Netherlands.

The album ends with a reprise of the first song, "Focus", but this time with vocals!  

And once again, we've come full circle on another prog rock Saturday.  The drinks are still flowing, the mosquitos are biting and the neighbors are yelling to keep it down!   Proost!

RATING: 4.5 Clocks of Life Ticking Loud out of 5

The Caipirinha

Tudo Bom, Friends?

Tonight we're cooling off with Brazil's national cocktail, the Caipirinha!

This frosty and tangy concoction transports you right to Brazil in the midst of the lustily humid Carnival season. I can almost see the brilliant parade floats and the voluptuous Brazilian women flashing their ripe bits at the crowd! (Good thing I don't try that. Cover up them mosquito bites, Tiki T.!!) 

Anyway, I digress. The Caipirinha, comprised of Cachaca, lime and sugar, originated as a medicinal drink for the ailing folk. In fact, the original recipe called for garlic and honey which were gratefully omitted in the contemporary version. A cocktail loses a great deal of sexiness when you're breathing garlicky dragon breath all over your loved one.

Anyhoo, enjoy! This recipe is sinfully simple and the rewards are rich!

XO!

2 oz Cachaca (Brazilian sugarcane rum. Very easy to find)
Lime Wedges
Sugar to Taste
Lots of Ice
Start muddling those limes in the bottom of an old fashioned glass until they are bruised and juicy. Add sugar and mix well. Then clink in your ice. Then the booze. Stir again and serve.

Once you go Black Orpheus...

The Vince Guaraldi Trio - "Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus" (1962) - Fantasy Records

Hello Friends,

Three years before he would start composing music for the Peanuts' television specials, Vince Guaraldi released this album of songs from, and inspired by, the 1959 Brazilian film, Black Orpheus; a movie that transplants the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice to the gritty and musical streets of Rio de Janeiro during Carnavale!   We haven't seen it, but it sounds pretty great!  
Its as hot as hell so we're turning the tiki bar into a favela tonight friends! (Editors Note: No we're not!)

Who doesn't love a good threesome?  With Guaraldi on piano, Colin Bailey on drums and Monty Budwig on upright bass, Side One does jazzy justice to the bossanova tunes originally composed by Luiz Bonfá and Antonio Carlos Jobim for the film.  Think Charlie Brown with a Latin flair!  Charlie Marrón, if you will!  Olé!

The second side features Guaraldi's hit, "Cast Your Fate to the Wind"-- a chart topper as well as a Grammy winner!  Atta boy Vince!  There's also a behind-the-beat version of "Moon River", another Latin-flavored original ("Alma-ville"), and a sublime and loungey (in a good way) rendition of Buddy Johnson' jazz standard, "Since I Fell For You." 



Overall a great, fun and relaxed record.  Perfect a late night caprihana at the tiki bar!

"Anyone seen Tiki T?"

RATING: 4.5 Days in the Life of a Fool out 5

Feels like the first time

Duke Ellington & Count Basie - "The Count Meets the Duke: First Time!" (1961) - Columbia Records

Hello Friends,

There's jazz royalty aplenty on this fantastic 1961 LP where the Duke Ellington orchestra and the Count Basie orchestra team up for a big band supergroup.  

The bombastic and uptempo Ellington composition, "Battle Royal" kicks things off.  Right away you can tell there's a lot of talent in the studio but these professionals are not going to let the sound become too overwhelming or overcrowded sounding.  

Thad Jones's subtle and restrained ballad, "To You" is up next and it quiets everything down a bit with its melancholy mood.   Billy Strayhorn's "Take the 'A' Train" and Freddie Greene's "Until I Met You" (formerly known as "Corner Pocket") round out the first side of the LP.  The latter features some great, understated dueling pianos courtesy of Count & Duke.

Side Two begins with another Ellington tune, the exotic-sounding "Wild Man".  The musicians featured here play like a who's who jazz greats including Juan Tizol, Lawrence Brown, Johnny Hodges, Thad Jones, Cat Anderson, Frank Foster & Paul Gonsalves.

"Segue in C" is from the Basie songbook and "BDB" (for Basie, Duke & Billy) is an original composition from Ellington & Strayhorn written for these sessions.

The closing number, "Jumpin' at the Woodside" is the old Basie standard on steroids.      

A highly enjoyable record, the first and (unfortunately) last of its kind!  By 1961, the era of the Big Band was long past its prime.  The hipsters had all moved onto bebop and the youngsters were embracing Rock & Roll.  Basie and Ellington, both pillars of the art form they helped create, would hang around for a few more years and continue to produce some pretty great music.  Ellington would pass away in 1974 and Basie, ten years later, in 1984.  Giants among giants, they don't make 'em like this anymore!  (I'm looking at you Skrillex!)   

RATING: 4.5 Quickest Ways to Harlem out of 5

Prog Rock Saturday: The Yes Album

Yes - "The Yes Album" (1971) - Atlantic Records

Hello Friends,

We're picking up where we left off last summer tonight on Vinyl in the Valley.  Prog Rock Saturdays are back (finally!) and the drinks are flowing, the grill is smoldering, the mosquitoes are biting and we've got Yes on the turntable!

The Yes Album is the group's third album, the first with guitarist Steve Howe and the last with keyboardist Tony Kaye (for now!)  The album is widely regarded as their coming out album with longer songs with more complex instrumentation and strange, mystical lyrics that sound like they've been lifted off the pages of science fiction stories by Robert Heinlein, Asimov or Arthur C. Clarke.

At 9 minutes and 36 seconds the anthemic, "Yours Is No Disgrace" kicks the album off.  Complex bass & drum lines (courtesy of Chris Squire & Bill Bruford) square off against big-sounding organ tremors while Howe's guitar noodles in and out of the melodies all the while Jon Anderson's elfin vocals holding things together (... on a sailing ship to nowhere...) through various time signatures and changes of direction.  The stage is set for what Yes the band would sound like for the duration of the Seventies as well as laying the groundwork for pretty much everything ever done by Rush.

Steve Howe's fingerpicking guitar solo, "The Clap" is next.  Kind of a hoe down feel to this.  Its pretty impressive, to say the least, but I'd like to think its actually written about "the clap" (aka gonorrhea).  Howe has said he wrote it for the birth of his son.  

Side One ends with the amazing three-part mini-suite, "Starship Trooper" which culminates in the climatic three-chord instrumental cadenza of "Würm".  Nothing short of epic!

Side Two begins with the familiar and FM radio friendly, "I've Seen All Good People", the first part of which ("Your Move") was released as a single and features some very folksy acoustic guitar work with lyrics vaguely describing a chess match (...don't surround yourself with yourself, move on back two squares...)  With the help of headphones or decent speakers you can make out the chorus of John Lennon's "Give Peach A Chance" buried in the harmonies towards the song's end.

Jon Anderson's "A Venture" is up next and it kinda sucks.  It would have probably worked better as part of a larger piece and as Tiki T. points out, it sounds like bad Supertramp.

The album concludes with the 9 minute loud-quiet-loud "Perpetual Change" which could be about world politics, time travel, drug use, all three, or perhaps, none of the above.  Who cares?  If you're turning to Yes for deep lyrical insight into say, The Vietnam War, concerns about the environment or the meaning of life, you've got bigger problems to deal with.  

Take it for what it is, virtuosic and strange music with themes and characters out of the the furthest reaches of our imaginations.  Now, Starship Trooper, go on sailing by!

RATING: 4.5 Long Winters Longer than Time Can Remember out 5

Happy Summer... Prog Rock Saturdays Are Back!!!!

Meet the piper at the gate and dance with that moon child in the shadows....BECAUSE PROG ROCK SATURDAYS ARE BACK AGAIN, KIDS!

Tiki T. coming to you from the far reaches of the universe with lots of far out vinyl on the menu! Starting this Saturday we'll be blowing the dust off of some fine pieces of progressive music and spinning them into the wee hours. 


Hope you're ready for some exquisitely eclectic classics from the 60s and 70s, with lots of fun surprises mixed in. Could that be Tiki T. wearing a Peter Gabriel flower head and doing the lawn mower dance? Yup!

And, as always, I'll be behind the bar concocting equally weird drinks to wet your proggy whistle!

So join us this Saturday in the Court of the Crimson King!

XO,
Tiki T.

Behind the Candelabra

Liberace and Paul Weston - "Concertos for You" (1953) - Columbia Records

Hello Friends,

We just finished watching Stephen Soderbergh's Liberace biopic, Behind the Candelabra on HBO.  Starring Michael Douglas as the legendary (and troubled) pianist and Matt Damon as the much younger object of his affection; its like a cross between Boogie Nights and Mommie Dearest and it gets two thumbs up from up here on the tiki bar!

SPOILER ALERT:  Hate to ruin it for you folks, but Liberace was gay!  Really, really gay!  Coulda fooled me!

In keeping up with the Liberace mood, we pull out this early Columbia LP.  Liberace was best known for his over-the-top showmanship and his large, Las Vegas-style stage shows.  However, he was a first-class piano virtuoso with roots planted firmly in the classics.  This album is from the pre-schmaltz era of Liberace's illustrious career.  

There's some fine ivory tickling going on here.  Even if you don't play piano or know much about the instrument, you can tell that Liberace was good!  You can also tell on songs like "Chopin's Fantasia", "Laura" and "Spellbound Concerto" that the pianist had a flair for the dramatic. 

Born Vladziu Valentino Liberace, his father was Italian and his mother was Polish.  He pays tribute to his mother (played by Debbie Reynolds in the movie btw) on the lush and melodramatic, "Warsaw Concerto", written by Richard Addinsell for the 1942 English film, Suicide Squadron, a film about a Polish airman and concert pianist who flies a suicide mission during the Nazi invasion of Poland.  In the record's liner notes, Liberace dedicates this piece to his mother and "to all the Polish people the composition that expresses the wonderful faith, hope and great courage of these peace-loving people during the merciless bombings of their capital city during World War II."   

As I always say, whats better than roses on your piano? Tulips on your organ!

RATING: 4 muddy candelabras out of 5*

* - eww!

Kiln House

Fleetwood Mac - "Kiln House" (1970) - Reprise Records

Hello Friends,

Kiln House is Fleetwood Mac's fourth LP and first of the 1970's, a decade which they would eventually dominate.   The album is more evidence that early Fleetwood Mac is one of the most underappreciated and overlooked bands of the late 60's and early 70's.

Kiln House is a transitional album for the Mac.  Its their first without founding member Peter Green, who left the band in May 1970 to pursue a solo career, drop lots of acid and slowly start going cuckoo-bananas.  Guitarists Jeremy Spencer and Danny Kirwan pick up most of the songwriting and lead vocal duties.  This would be Spencer's last gig with the band and soon after the album's release Christine McVie (née Christine Perfect) would become a full-fledged member.  (In addition to some piano parts and background vocals, McVie would also be responsible for the album's cover art!)  This would also be the last Mac album before the Bob Welch-era of the band. 

Confused?  You probably should be!  Its a more complicated family tree than a "best of" episode of The Maury Show!

To add to the charm and confusion, Kiln House has blues and early Rock & Roll in its foundation but nearly every song has a different sound and feel to it, making it sound more like a mix tape and less like a cohesive LP.  Although, one thing that it absolutely doesn't sound like is the more pop-oriented Fleetwood Mac sound that would follow.

• The album kicks off with Jeremy Spencer's rockabilly shuffle, "This Is The Rock" which sounds vaguely McCartney-ish.  Good opening track.   

• The bluesy, guitar-driven "Station Man" sounds like a cross between something by Delaney & Bonnie and The Band.

• "Blood on the Floor" is a tounge-in-cheeky country-blues lament by Spencer that wouldn't feel out of place on Sweetheart of the Rodeo or on a Burritos Brothers' record.

• The Fats Waller / Ed Kirkeby-penned, "Hi-Ho Silver" is a sneering, raucous delight. 

• The crown jewel of the record is Danny Kirwan's awesome, "Jewel-Eyed Judy"--  a soulful pop "gem" which sounds more like something from Big Star or Badfinger.  

• Side Two kicks off with the Buddy Holly tribute, "Buddy's Song" (writing credit here is given to Holly's mother, Ella, but actually its a "Peggy Sue Got Married" cover with lyrics made up of Holly songs titles.)

• Kirwan's subdued instrumental, "Earl Gray" follows.  A nice follow-up their earlier recording of "Albatross".

• The chameleon-like Spencer is back on "One Together" a ballad reminiscent of something on Workingman's Dead.  (In a good way!)

• Electric guitars are back in a big way on Kirwan's hard rocker, "Tell Me All The Things You Do" (as are the wah-wah pedals!)  Can't understand how a song like this wouldn't dominate early 1970's FM Radio?

• On the ghostly final song, "Mission Bell", Jeremy Spencer seems to be doing his best Buddy Holly impression on vocals on this update of the Donnie Brooks rockin' oldie from 1960.  (both versions after the jump)

"Higher than a mission bell... stronger than a magic spell..."  Spencer would leave the band right after this record and join the Children of God cult-- a hippie/religious group formed in Southern California in 1968 by a guy named Moses David.  The cult is still around today, known as The Family International (TFI.)   Here's a webpage in case you're interested.  Sounds like a bunch of weirdos! 

RATING: 4 Jeweled-Eye Judy's out of 5

Ride Sally Ride

Lou Reed - "Sally Can't Dance" (1974) - RCA

Hello Friends,

Well it seems like we've been on quite the Lou Reed kick lately.

Sally Can't Dance is Reed's fourth solo LP.  Riding the commercial success of Transformer and Rock And Roll Animal, record exec's at RCA thought the time was right for Lou Reed to release a sharp and polished Rock & Roll record that would become an FM radio staple.  But for all his artistry, one thing that sweet Lou never comfortably embraced was the mainstream.

Reed took a backseat when it came to producing the record and only played guitar on one or two tracks.  The result, oddly enough, was his most successful LP yet.  (A trend that would abruptly end with his next release, the feedback/noise opus, Metal Machine Music.)

His harsh, cynical and world-weary lyrics clash with the record's glossy and slick production.  Reed captures the sleaze and grime of mid-1970's New York city better than any other artist.

The characters in his songs have all the familiar Reed traits: men and women who have fallen from grace, who have flown to close to the sun and are now just barely scraping by.  Their experiences have left them completely jaded, cynical and worse-for-the wear.    

Side One kicks off with the Bowie-sounding, "Ride Sally Ride"-- starring another of Reed's  ever popular tortured female characters with a "heart made out of ice."  Plus, we love the line, "Take off your pants, don't you know this is a party?"  Now if I had a nickel for every time I head that...

"Ride Sally Ride" is followed by the over-produced "Animal Language", the homo-erotic, "Baby Face" and the acerbic, "NY Stars".

Side Two kicks off with the super-cynical, sad and autobiographical, "Kill Your Sons", written about Lou's time spend in a psychiatric hospital as a teenager:

All your two-bit psychiatrists are giving you electroshock,

They said, they'd let you live at home with mom and dad instead of mental hospitals,

But every time you tried to read a book you couldn't get to page 17,

'Cause you forgot where you were so you couldn't even read

Don't you know they're gonna kill your sons

Don't you know gonna kill, kill your sons

They're gonna kill, kill your sons 

until they run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run away...

Creedmore treated me very good but Paine Whitney was even better, 

And when I flipped out on PHC I was so sad, I didn't even get a letter,

All of the drugs, that we took it really was lots of fun

But when they shoot you up with thorizene on crystal smoke you choke like a son of a gun

"Ennui" sounds like "Like A Rolling Stone"-era Dylan on some strong, strong downers and sung by a strung-out Leonard Cohen.  

Sally is back on "Sally Can't Dance", now a former-model, she's strung out on meth and no longer living the high life on the Upper East Side.  Instead she's bumming around St. Marks Place and getting raped in Tompkins Square Park.  Ugh... lighten up Lou.     

The final song is the great, "Billy" (featuring Reed playing acoustic and the Velvet's Doug Yule on bass duties), about a childhood friends-- one who gets good grades, plays football and goes to med school (Billy) and the other who drops out of school, plays pool and really doesn't give a fuck (presumably, Lou.)  Ah, but there's a twist.  Billy is drafted to Viet Nam, while the narrator is declared mentally unfit for the Army.   When Billy returns, he is unrecognizable, with shattered nerves, "like talking to a door."  The narrator is then left to ponder, "which one of us was the fool"? 

Forget about dancing, I'm not getting off the couch after listening to this record! 

RATING: 4.5 Dances with Picasso's illegitimate mistresses out of 5