Various - What A Groovy Day: The British Sunshine Pop Sound 1967-1972 (Grapefruit Records)(2023)(3CD Box Set)

 Another gem from Grapefruit Records. This 3 CD box set is focused on British bubblegum and sunshine pop from the late 60s to early 70s. These CDs really capture a vibe. From the liner notes we find out that the term 'sunshine pop' was created by a Record Collector editor! Yes, a magazine editor. Apparently, the tag of 'harmony pop' was considered too bland. What was harmony pop? Well, from a U.S. perspective it was the sound of the Beach Boys, The Association, The Mamas & Papas, and The 5th Dimension. This box set is a collection of harmony pop, sunshine pop, and bubblegum pop from a British perspective.  Definitely worth getting if you like melodic music and you enjoy vocal harmonies...but with a British accent! Need a taste? Check out Harmony Grass - What A Groovy Day  How about Barbara Moore - Fly Paradise.

Various- Beyond the Pale Horizon: The British Progressive Pop Sounds of 1972 (Grapefruit Records)(2021)(3CD Box Set)

 

Another interesting Grapefruit 3CD box set that is worth getting. The focus is on British progressive pop from 1972. Most of these songs are unfamiliar to me so it always exciting to find new songs, new bands, and new melodies. Be aware that "progressive pop" in this context does not mean that all the music here is like Yes or Genesis. No, the music here is much more varied. So, Thin Lizzy, The Move, Status Quo, and Roxy Music are amongst the well known bands here. But I had not heard much from bands like Trapeze, Family, or Pagliaro before. In fact, listen to Lovin' You Ain't Easy by Pagliaro to experience some of the gems found in this set. The great things about these CD box sets are that you can put one disc on the deck and just sit back for over an hour and enjoy 1972 all over again. Then you move to disc 2 and 3 : 0  - I would have been 9 in '72 : )

Kossoff - Back Street Crawler

I am late to the band Free. Free is the band that contained Paul Rodgers on vocals (pre Bad Company) and Paul Kossoff on guitar. This album from 1973 (after Free) is a fine blues rock album. The first side is one long, glorious instrumental called Tuesday Morning. The second side has more songs and some vocals by Jess Roden and Paul Rodgers. Highly recommended for those into that classic blues rock from the 70s. As usual, Kossoff's guitar playing is superb. Very melodic as well. Take a listen.

Record of the Week - Artful Dodger - The Complete Columbia Recordings (CD)

Those that follow power-pop closely, especially mid 70s power pop, are probably already familiar with this band from Virginia.  Their great song, Wayside, was included in a key various artists compilation, DIY: Come Out and Play - American Power Pop 1 (1975-1978), that was quite popular amongst the rabid pop fans of the early 90s. 

In order to listen to Artful Dodger records today, one usually has to search used record bins. I found at least one that way and have seen their other releases in various shape around Los Angeles.  This CD is then a welcome addition to my collection because it gathers their three albums for Columbia Records on 2 CDs in a nice package.  So, less time digging through used bins for Artful Dodger albums (at least momentarily).  In addition, the liner notes are excellent and are penned by Jeremy Cargill- so you know they will be good.

The first album, for my taste, is the best one of the bunch. Aside from opening with Wayside, there are other great songs like, It's Over, that are both melodic and have a bit of bite to them. The bite, in part, comes from the throaty vocals of Billy Paliselli.  Most of the songs on the first LP are written by guitarist Gary Herrewig and Paliselli and they make a nice songwriting combo. They seem to carry much of the first album and their songs are excellent.  The other songwriter in the band was Gary Cox, who is no slouch by any means, but his songwriting tended to be a more pure pop sound; a sound with less bite but more polish.  In fact, on the third album (Babes on Broadway), Cox carries more of the songwriting credits and actually pens a song that could easily be mistaken for an mid-era Bee Gees composition (Who in the World).  Not surprising, as Cox wrote more songs, Artful Dodger became a little less crunchy and a bit more polished. Becoming a bit more polished is not a bad thing if the melodies are still there and luckily for us Artful Dodger was always melodic.

Artful Dodger was a good band and based on some of the live videos that you can find on YouTube, a pretty good live band.  While they never quite reached the high standards of their first LP, the next two albums had enough good songs on them for it to make it worth while to buy this CD. Yes, you should still hunt those used bins for the vinyl copies as well!

Bad Company - s/t (1974) Vinyl

I never thought I would actually buy a Bad Company album even though I actually like their music.  This debut has a number of songs that were played on FM radio back when I was in Jr High and High School.  There sound is a blues based hard rock that was the norm in the early 70s.  Listening to this album now is bringing back memories of me and my brother sharing a room and falling asleep to the hard rock station in San Diego. There were likely a few times that I fell asleep listening to Paul Rogers singing some of the songs on this album.  I know have an urge to go buy Robin Trower albums for some reason.

Big Star - complete columbia: live at university of missouri 4/25/93 (vinyl)

Big Star. One of the greatest bands ever that were ignored when they first came out and then treated as royalty (deserved) years later after they were long gone.  I am sure I am going to write up about Big Star in the future on this blog so I will save something for those times. However, this is a historic recording since two members of the original band were paired up with two members of a band called The Posies (also faves of mine), who had recorded two Big Star songs on their own for a single.

When this took place I think everyone believed that this was going to be a one-off event. However, this band were eventually convinced to tour and I was lucky enough to catch them once at the Fillmore in San Francisco and then at the House of Blues in Los Angeles in the 94/95 time frame.

For fans of melodic guitar pop this is a must have. Note, a lot of this has been originally released but I believe that this is the first time that the entire performance has been available on vinyl. Released as part of Record Store Day 2016.

Elton John - Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975) CD

This album contains my favorite song - Someone Saved My Life Tonight. A beautiful, passionate song that really moves me. Worth the price of the album by itself. Loved when I heard it on the radio as a kid and still kills me when I listen to it in my 50s.

Elton John - Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player (1973) CD

Here is a distinct memory I have from the early days. My family had just moved from Phoenix, AZ to a suburb of Washington, D.C. I was in the 4th grade and I was getting use to a new school, new kids, new everything. It was a rainy day and we couldn't go out for recess so we stayed inside and one of the young teachers decided to play the radio or records (45s) and Crocodile Rock by Elton John was played. I loved the song! I do remember that I was familiar with the song before that moment but this may have been the first time that the song really registered for me for some reason. Hell, if I was in the 4th grade it would have been around 1973-1974. Maybe my first real introduction to Elton John that I can remember.

The school was Adelphi Elementary School in Adelphi, Maryland and my home room teacher was Ms Friedman. Ms. Friedman was a beautiful woman, with straight long-hair and glasses. It was the first school I had ever been in that actually had carpet! Memories. This album also has Daniel - which is also top-notch. By the way, Ms. Friedman sort of had that Danielle Heim look, that I just adore.

Elton John - Honky Chateau (1972) CD

More Elton from the early 70s. This album has Honky Cat and Rocket Man. Classic songs from Elton and the non-hits are also interesting to listen to for the first time. I am enjoying my tour through Elton's catalog,

Elton John - Madman across the Water (1971) CD

Elton was a significant subject in my pop music education since he was such staple of 70s radio. Radio was king back in the 70s. People would fight over what station was cool to listen to or what station played the best bands. I was an FM listener but my younger sister was more of a AM listener. Either way, Elton John was always present. It didn't matter if you liked AM or FM, Elton John was always represented. This is was not true of all artists.

Up until this last week, however,  I had never owned any Elton John releases since I heard most of Elton's hits on the radio 5x a day (or it seemed). I thought, "why buy the records when the songs are played all the time?" Well, most of you know the answer to that question. By not buying the records I missed out on all the great songs that were not "hits". Trust me, I missed on a lot because this record is full of great tracks.

What is surprising about collecting the CDs now is discovering just how early in the decade some of these hits came. For instance, both Tiny Dancer and Levon are on this album from 1971. I was about 8 years old when these came out! Yet, for some reason I thought that all of Elton's songs came from the "mid 70s". 

I am not going to bother to post links to Elton John songs since you have probably heard these a million times. I am enjoying this record a lot. This stuff never gets old or outdated.