Cowboys ain't easy to love and they're harder to hold...

Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson - "Waylon & Willie" (1978) - RCA Victor

Howdy Partners,

We've got some golden era outlaw country on the turntable tonight and its fucking great!

This 1978 release captures these two singing cowpokes at the height of their strung out, rebellious powers!

Things get kicked off with the ultimate cowboy anthem, "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys", a # 1 song on the Country charts as well as a Grammy Winner that year!

This song alone is worth the price of admission but Side One continues on with a Kris Kristofferson tune, "The Year 2003 Minus 25"; two Nelson originals "Pick Up The Tempo" & "It's Not Supposed to Be That Way"; a Jennings original, "Lookin' For A Feelin'"; and Nelson's gorgeous take on Lee Clayton's mesmerizing, "If You Can Touch Her At All."

If you can believe it, Side Two gets even better!

Kicking off with the only tune penned by both Jennings & Nelson for this record, "I Can Get Off On You" with amazing lyrics like:

Take back the weed, Take back the cocaine baby
Take back the pills, Take back the whiskey too,
I don't need them now, You love was all I was after,
I can make it now, I can get off on you.



This is followed by another Kristofferson tune, "Don't Cuss the Fiddle" and then Waylon's sincere & fantastic interpretation of Stevie Nicks' "Gold Dust Woman."

The partners in crime sing back and forth vocals on the Shel Silverstein-penned, "A Couple More Years" and the results are nothing short of stunning!  Absolutely perfect!

The side and the album ends with Waylon's classic ballad, "The Wurlitzer Prize" aka "I Don't Want To Get Over You".  A great and fitting end to a great record!

As Rolling Stone associate editor writes on this record's liner notes, "I humbly submit that the world needs a lot more Willie and Waylon right now and a whole lot less of that other crap!"

True 'dat!

RATING: 4.5 silver spoons to dig your grave out of 5

Yvonne Craig R.I.P.

Holy Sexpot Batman,

Yvonne Craig, most notable for her role as "Batgirl" on the 60's Batman television series, passed away last week at the age of 78.

Ms. Craig has always been a favorite of ours here on Vinyl in the Valley!

In addition to Batgirl, she was also an accomplished ballerina, a girlfriend of Elvis Presley and even played a sexy, green alien who tries to kill Captain Kirk on an episode of Star Trek.

Wow! Doesn't get much cooler than that I suppose?

RIP Yvonne Craig!

Bruce Springsteen - "Jungleland" (1975)

Hello Friends,

Born To Run was released 40 years ago today and its held up remarkably well over the years!  Listening to it never, ever gets old!

Sure some of Springsteen's blue collar epics appear quaint by today's standards, but no one can listen to songs like "10th Avenue Freeze-Out", "Thunder Road", "Backstreets" or the title track without wanting to gas up the muscle car, pick up Wendy and make a run for the border.

And if "Jungleland" doesn't make you wet, nothing will!

AC/DC - "Let There Be Rock" (1977)

Hello Friends, 

Great song to kickstart your Sunday hangover!

Surely Bon Scott and the boys were no strangers to an epic hangover or two back in the day!

If this song doesn't melt your face, you don't have a face!

\m/

JEFF The Brotherhood - "Black Cherry Pie" (2015)

Hello Friends,

Great new song by Nashville, Tennessee's JEFF the Brotherhood from their 2015 release, Wasted on the Dream. 

Aren't we all?

Hey friends, does that flute-playing sound familiar? It should! Its none other than Jethro Tull frontman, Ian Anderson, contributing his flute skills to this track!

Mac Davis - "Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me" (1973)

Hello Friends,

You've got to really hand it to Mac Davis here in this song.

I mean he's laying it all out there for you ladies!

Please, don't get hooked on him, his denim jacket, his side burns nor his massive belt buckle!  

He'll just use you and set you free!

Don't get clingy and whatever you do, don't use the "F" word around him... Its a HUGE turnoff! 

(The "F" word = Family!)

I wonder if anyone ever made this their wedding song without realizing what the song was really about? Answer: Probably!

A Solid Gold classic!  They don't make 'em like this anymore kids!

Bruce Springsteen - "Friday On My Mind" (2014)

TGIF Friends!

Its been a Springsteen kind of week! 

KADAVAR - "Last Living Dinosaur" (2015)

Hello Friends,

Sweet riffage from our favorite German hard rock band of the moment!

We cannot wait to hear the new album, Berlin, by these guys!

Sounds like they're picking up right where they left off with 2013's remarkable, Abra Kadavar.

\m/

Prog Rock Saturdays: Going for the One

nice ass!

Yes - "Going For The One" (1977) - Atlantic Records

Hello Friends,

It's another Summery Prog Rock Saturday here at the ol' Vinyl in the Valley Headquarters and tonight we're back with some classic lineup Yes on the turntable.

Going For The One is the band's eighth album and their first after a three year hiatus due to extensive touring and the releasing of various solo albums.  It also marks the return of Rick Wakeman who left the band after differences over Tales for Topographic Oceans. And while not as proggy as some of their earlier prog classics, Going For The One would be the last truly listenable prog album by the band.

The album would crack the top 10 in the U.S. and reach number 1 in the U.K. 

***************************************************************************************************************
Fun Fact: Hey kids, when Going For the One reached # 8 on the Billboard album charts in August of 1977, which album occupied the # 1 spot for a solid four months?

If you guessed Fleetwood Mac's Rumours buy yourself a drink!
***************************************************************************************************************

Things get started with the title track, probably one of their most accessible songs since 1971, a five-minute and thirty-second rocker featuring some blistering Steve Howe slide guitar playing.  Its like a kick-ass workout song for some late seventies prog nerd with sweatbands and oversized headphones.

That's at the right speed, kids.  Jon Anderson's vocals were actually that high!

Next up is the eight minute, New Age-y sounding, "Turn of the Century" which may or may not be vaguely about Russian artist, Marc Chagall, and how he grew distant from his wife when he moved from Russia to France in the 1920's to become a famous and important artist! 

Side One closes out with Chris Squire's (R.I.P.) Parallels.

Side Two kicks off with the short, sweet and airy ballad, "Wonderous Stories" which sounds like it could be a love theme on Game of Thrones.  Winter is Coming, friends! 

The album closes with the 16 minute, Awaken, which in our opinion is a little too long and little too underwhelming but overall the album has held up alright for over 30 years.

For the sleeve art, the band would get Hipgnosis to design the cover art, a stark departure from the fantastical and otherworldly brushwork of artist Roger Dean. The album definitely looks more like Wish You Were Here than it does Fragile.

By the end of the Seventies, Progressive Rock was on its way out and on its way to becoming more of a punchline in the rock & roll history books.  Never Mind the Bullocks would be released in October of '77, just two months after Going for the One.  Yes's next album, 1978's Tormato, would be a fucking disaster and don't even get us started about 1980's Drama which would attempt to merge Prog-rock with New Wave in a way no one asked for!  It would also feature The Buggles(!) on lead vocals and keyboards!

But that's for another Summery Saturday, kids!

RATING: 4 and here you stand no taller than the grass seas out of 5