What is this that stands before me? Figure in black which points at me, turn 'round quick and start to run...

Black Sabbath - "Black Sabbath" (1970) - Warner Bros.

Hello Friends,

Its a great night for drinking cocktails and conjuring demons by the light of the full Hunter's moon.

And there's no better soundtrack to a stoned and spooky October evening than the original doom rockers, Black Sabbath.  Tonight we're cranking their self-titled debut record on the ol' turntable.  An album that remains one of rock & roll's most influential featuring a sound that was unlike anything else being done at the time!  Its the sound of a demonic jam session outside the gates to Hell where partygoers are clamoring to get invited in. Hippies, Jesus freaks and holy rollers step aside, tonight we're getting our faces melted with the deliquents, the long hairs, the other assorted ne'er do wells and outcasts. 

Couldn't agree more!

Things start off, like most good things, with some menacing thunderclaps and foreboding rain.  "Black Sabbath" would remain one of the band's most evil and sludgiest-sounding songs. Featuring a doom-filled guitar playing the devil's chord over and over again until the dam finally breaks open and Hell is unleashed in the form of one Tony Iommi's imitable guitar solos.  Fucking great!  If the dark lord Satan himself isn't sitting at the barstool next to you after playing this song (on vinyl) then you really should pick the needle up and play it again!

Next up, "The Wizard" is conjured.  Like Sabbath's contemporaries, Led Zeppelin, a lot of the imagery being used seems pretty influenced by J.R.R. Tolkien.  "The Wizard" is no exception; a heavy rocker featuring some bluesy harmonica, stomping Bill Ward drums, misty mountains and some more great guitar & bass work.

From Tolkien the band shifts gears to the much darker worlds of H.P. Lovecraft.  "Behind the Wall of Sleep" is based on the Lovecraft short story, "Beyond the Wall of Sleep", about a spirit who tries to communicate with the living through a prisoner in a mental hospital. Its another sludgy masterpiece featuring Ozzy's mournful vocals repeating the line "Take your body to a corpse..."

Closing out the side is a fantastic, heavily wah-wah'd bass solo by Geezer Butler ("Bassically") that blends right into the epic, "N.I.B."  "N.I.B."-- a song about Lucifer falling in love for the first time and begging this woman to spend eternity with him-- sounds like what Cream might have sounded like if Anton Lavey had produced Disraeli Gears.  

The fun continues on Side Two.  "Wicked World" picks up with a boogie beat and a guitar riff that sounds a little like something Robbie Kreiger was doing on The Doors' song "Wild Child".  The band switches focus from the supernatural to the political here and instead of singing about Wizards, figures cloaked in black and the dating troubles of Satan, "Wicked World" seems to focus its attention on the Viet Nam war and the ineptitude of elected leaders.  (I guess in this way, it would be kind of a precursor to "War Pigs".)

To wrap things up is the 15 minute suite, "A Bit Of Finger / Sleeping Village / Warning". 

"A Bit of Finger" starts off pastorally enough featuring some minstrel-like finger-picking by Iommi while Osbourne sings about crying cockerels and soft blowing breezes accented by the occasional spooky twang of a Jews Harp. (Actually, the guitar work here sounds like it might have influenced the finger-picking at the beginning of Radiohead's "Street Spirit".)

This gives way to the ripping instrumental "Sleeping Village" which would not sound out of place as a jam on Led Zeppelin I.

Things get bass-y and heavy again on "Warning", a cover of a song by The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation.  Its bluesy and Zeppelin-y, but its also weird-sounding, psychedelic and even a little sloppy (in a GOOD way!).

An essential record to any rock & roll collection (especially for fans of early hard rock/heavy metal!)  Black Sabbath must've freaked a lot of people out in 1970, but still holds up very, very well today.  

RATING: 5 my name is Lucifer, please take me by the hand out of 5

Little Games

The Yardbirds - "Little Games" (1967) - Sundazed

Hello Friends,

We're listening to this great 180-gram vinyl reissue of The Yardbirds' fourth and final studio record.

It sounds great on vinyl, especially the Jimmy Page guitar parts!  An overlooked record that sounds closer to something found on Led Zeppelin I rather than on previous Yardbirds releases! 

It's probably best known for its sugary title track and the british invasion minor hit, "Tinker Tailor". 

The instrumental track, "White Summer", would be featured by Jimmy Page at Led Zeppelin concerts throughout the 70's (usually paired as a medley with "Black Mountain Side"). 

"Smile On Me" is a searing rhythm & blues tune.  

Side One's closer "Glimpses" is a cool psychedelic instrumental with some Gregorian chanting thrown in for good measure.  It almost sounds like something to be found on Pink Floyd's More soundtrack or Atom Heart Mother.

Side Two's opener, "Drinking Muddy Water" is another driving blues tune that most closely resembles earlier Yardbirds songs.

"Puzzles" (a bonus track on this LP's release) and "No Excess Baggage" both sound as if they could have been an outtake from The Who Sell Out. 

The old timey sounding "Stealing Stealing", a Gus Cannon cover, is annoying.  As is the original LP's closer, "Little Soldier Boy" and the second bonus track, "I Remember The Night".  It really sucks when a gritty, down-to-earth blues rock band with an ear for melodies and a talent for song-structure gets too creative for their own good and wind up sounding showtuney!

The pensive "Only the Black Rose", penned by singer Keith Relf, again sounds like nothing else in the Yardbirds library, but there's something strange and hypnotic about it.  Its almost like a Bee Thousand-era Guided by Voices tune. 

One might wonder what would have happened if the band stuck around for another album or two.  Unfortunately, it probably would have been an increasingly scattered affair with a lack of structure and focus.  By 1967 everyone in the band seemed to be going in a different direction and, unless you were The Beatles, that usually doesn't make for the greatest results! 

RATING: 4 rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief out of 5

Prog Rock Saturday: Moving Waves

Focus - "Moving Waves" (1971) - Sire

Hallo Vrienden,

Its another Summer Saturday which means the drinks are flowing and we're rocking out to the second release by the severely under-appreciated Dutch progressive band, Focus!

Anchored by what would become their signature, the incredible, "Hocus Pocus", Moving Waves (released in Europe as Focus II) is a classic in the annals of Dutch progressive rock!

And speaking of anals, how good is the song "Hocus Pocus"?  Wow!  Its so good that if I worked out it would be my go-to workout song!  Epic! Operatic! With fantastic riffage on par with the best of Deep Purple or Black Sabbath and probably the greatest vocals on a rock & roll song without any lyrics! (Courtesy of frontman, Thijs van Leer, who also plays flute and all the keyboards on the record!)

Its six & half minutes of ball's out prog fucking rock!  

Things calm down quite a bit on "Le Clochard" (French for tramp or beggar), guitarist Jan Akkerman's Spanish-guitar influenced instrumental accompanied by an ambient mellotron.

Akkerman also wrote the next track, "Janis" which is a Renaissance-y piece highlighting van Leer's multitracked flute playing.   Very mellow.  Reminiscent of Greg Lake-era King Crimson or Pink Floyd around the time of Atom Heart Mother.


"Moving Waves" is a three-minute piano solo piece by van Leer who sings the lines of a poem written by musician, philosopher & spiritualist Inayat Khan-- who founded London's Sufi Order of the West in 1914.

Side One closes out with the jazz-influenced instrumental, "Focus II" which starts out relatively quiet and pastoral and builds to tricky, ever-changing jazz time signatures not unlike some of sounds Zappa was making around this time!

In true prog fashion, Side Two is entirely dedicated to one song, "Eruption"-- a 23 minute instrumental piece which re-tells the myth of Orpheus & Eurydice.  Its a little weird and meandering but when you're in the right state of mind, it sounds pretty fucking awesome. 

Here again, there's lots of changing parts, time signatures, instruments, etc.  At times it sounds like the jazz-fusiony stuff of Zappa or King Crimson; at others, it sounds like the melodic and cerebral stuff of early Pink Floyd.  There's even some abrasive synth stuff in there that recalls some early Genesis or Tarkus-era ELP.

This record is a bit more refined, instrumental and a lot less trippy than their debut record (review here.)  Moving Waves, aka Focus II, is the sound of a band growing up, mastering their instruments, feeling their oats and using the studio as an additional instrument! 

Proost!

RATING: 4.0 moving waves the wind has left you and you are still in commotion out of 5

Prog Rock Saturday: A Trick of the Tail

Genesis - "A Trick of the Tail" (1976) - Charisma

Hello Friends,

The cicadas are out in full force tonight.  The sun has set.  The drinks are flowing.  Its another prog-rock Saturday on Vinyl in the Valley.

Tonight we've got the seventh album by the English band, Genesis, on the turntable and the first one since the departure of lead vocalist/songwriter, Peter Gabriel.

Trick of the Tail has the band's drummer, Phil Collins, reluctantly taking over on vocal duties by stepping out from behind the kit in order to become a full-fledged and successful frontman.  (In this way, Phil is the Dave Grohl of 1970's prog-rock.)  Although the band remained pretty weird by mainstream standards, A Trick of the Tail is warmer and more whimsical than their previous record, the post-modern rock opera, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.  They seemed to get back to basics with the focus on being a band again. By the end of the decade (and well into the next), Gabriel would be all but forgotten and Genesis would become Phil Collins's band.    

And what a way to kick things off with the awesome, "Dance on a Volcano", a slow-building prog rock epic!  Aside from the effective slow-fast-slow arrangement, one of the first things that the listener actually notices about the song is how similar Phil Collins actually sounds to Peter Gabriel.  Better start doing it right!      

"Entangled" is next and features some nice Steve Hackett 12-string guitar work (he also wrote the song) and lyrics about the British mental healthcare system and/or being molested in your dreams (or both!)

The live-staple & fan-favorite, "Squonk" is next.  It seems to be about hunting down the Squonk-- a mythical forest creature who hides from humans out of shame of being so ugly.  When catpured the creature dissolves into a puddle of tears.  Sounds pretty disgusting, but then again, a Squonk might be the perfect prog rock mascot! 

The first side concludes with the Tony Banks's keyboard-heavy ballad, "Mad Man Moon." 

Side Two opens up with "Robbery, Assault & Battery" which would not sound out of place on 1973's Selling England by the Pound (which we reviewed here.)  A song about a whimsical criminal eluding the police; Collins even does a cockney accent during some of the verses!

This is followed by the album's highlight, "Ripples".   A slow-building, beautifully-sung prog-rock ballad about getting older.  

▶ Genesis - Ripples - Vidéo Dailymotion 

Featuring some great Bee Gees worthy harmonies, the title track is next.  Another song that seems to be about a mythic creature ("The Beast") that has been captured and put on display in a freak show.  The song also beara a more-than-slight resemblance to The Beatles' song "Getting Better".

▶ Genesis _ A Trick of the Tail - Video Dailymotion

The record ends with a great very Genesis-y-sounding instrumental, "Los Endos", that sounds like something off of Yes's Tales from Topographic Oceans if that album was a bit more user friendly. Its okay to be good at your instrument, kids, just don't be a dick about it!  

Although technically an instrumental, before the final fade out, Collins can be heard singing the lines, "There's an angel standing in the sun / There's an angel standing in the sun / Free to get back home."
   
FUN FACT: When Genesis toured in 1976 in support of this record, Phil Collins still couldn't manage playing drums and singing lead vocals at the same time.  Fellow prog rocked, Bill Bruford (Yes, King Crimson) filled in on drums for the tour!

RATING: 4.5 bluegirls come in every size out of 5

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

Elite Hotel

Emmylou Harris - "Elite Hotel" (1975) - Reprise Records

Hello Friends, 

Kick back and relax because we're checking in to the Elite Hotel tonight!  There's no room service, but we got cable t.v., a comfortable bed and a tall bottle of wine chilling in the ice bucket!

Elite Hotel was Emmylou Harris's second amazing record released in 1975 (the first being, Pieces of the Sky) and a groundbreaking work in the burgeoning country-rock genre.  Like "Pieces", the ghost of Gram Parsons (Emmylou's close friend, object of affection and musical mentor who died of an overdose in '73) looms large over nearly every note on the album.  

Featuring three Gram Parsons songs ("Sin City", "Ooh Las Vegas" and "Wheels"), a Buck Owens cover ("Together Again"), a Don Gibson/Patsy Cline classic ("Sweet Dreams"), the Louvin Brothers ("Satan's Jeweled Crown"), Hank Williams ("Jambalaya") and even a Beatles song ("Here, There & Everywhere"), Elite Hotel is an eclectic mix of traditional country, alternative country, the blues, rock & roll, fast & slow, loud & quiet, light & dark.  A very 1970's country LP that put the focus on the album as a whole as opposed to one or two radio-friendly singles.

On all the songs, her voice is strong and ethereal with just the right amount of twang and vulnerability!  There's some great pedal steel guitar work on the record and Emmylou has a "Grade A" backing band, including Rodney Crowell, Glen D. Hardin, Ben Keith, Jonathan Edwards, James Burton and Linda Ronstadt among others.  Its a real hootenanny!

RATING: 4.5 Satan Jeweled Crowns out of 5

Setting the Bar...

Hello Friends!

Tiki Tuscadero chiming in here with a few tips on home bar decor.

While the central focus of "Vinyl in the Valley" is the record at hand, your living room lounge should be nothing to sneeze at. The most industrious scrapper can make a living room bar out of some stuff from Goodwill and Job Lots...so strap on your "Can Do" Pants, bucko!

Should Ned and I ever have the opportunity to get this record show on cable access, I feel you would better understand what we're trying to achieve with the red light bulbs and stolen Chinese restaurant napkins. But for now, I suppose I can only try to best use the written word...

1. I like colored light bulbs in the lamps at the bar. We favor red ones, actually. What better color to set a sultry tone for tiki records? Or a spacey tone for prog rock records? Or a glowing backdrop for your triumphant fist pumps and leg kicks at 2 am?
2. Frame your cooler album covers for the walls around the bar. Why didn't you think of that, dummy?
3. As mentioned before, lots of Chinese restaurants have kitschy paper napkins that are yours for the taking. Set up little piles of cheerfully designed ones for your delighted guests (or no guests, as is often the case for us!)

See you next week. Until then, happy vinyl!

XO,

Tiki T.