What Are You Listening To?

[CRAZY-HORSE]

ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA "a new world record" cd, 1976

career stats:
studio albums.........13
singles...................50

this album.................#6 UK..#1 AU......#4 NZ...#5 US
singles:
"livin' thing".............#4 UK....#2 AU...#13 NZ...#13 US...#8 CAN
"rockaria!"...............#9 UK..#10 AU....#17 NZ
"do ya".................................................. ........#24 US...#9 CAN
"telephone line"........#8 UK..#10 AU.....#3 NZ.....#7 US...#9 CAN

ELO's sixth studio set....
first to make any real impact on the UK charts, yet Australia and the US latched on to these guys
way before this one.....
Beatle-esque lyrics, melodies and tunes, lots o lush strings and orchestrations and their usual simplistic
three chord rock..
great stuff from one of the great rock bands of any era...
even though I do like the track I picked as worst on this one, it is still cringeworthy with its immature, almost
childlike lyrics, but ELO can do that and make anything sound good!
and a quote rom John Lennon when once asked what he thought The Beatles would sound like if they went on
and made it to the mid to late 1970s, he replied...."we'd sound like ELO, but as it is, they sound like us!"...
high compliments indeed for a band that were always criticised in the UK music press for making 'boring, simplistic,
over the top, bombastic, sugar coated rock"!

I LOVE THIS ALBUM

worst track: telephone line
best track: livin' thing

[video=youtube;MxjcUtSoWlU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxjcUtSoWlU[/video]

tracks:

1...tightrope ***
2...telephone line **
3...rockaria! **
4...mission ( a world record) **
5...so fine ***
6...livin' thing ***
7...above the clouds **
8...do ya ***
9...Shangri-la **

3s=4
2s=5
1s=0

rating: 2.5

[bob_32_116]

^^^ ELO could be great at times, but I grew to hate "Telephone Line" with a passion. That bloody "call tone" intro - it seemed a particular rfavourite with every DJ at the time.

--------------------------------------------


Currently listening to:

Procol Harum - Grand Hotel.

Possibly their best album. These guys were definitely progenitors of the progressive movement.

Supposedly the title track was inspired by The Restaurant At the End of the Universe, from the Douglas Adams "Hitch Hiker" trilogy.

[korovo]

New tune to like - Dead Furies "Listen To T Rex".
It's got a video too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue7A-uTC3wo

[Ruby]

Strawbs by Choice – a vinyl freebie from a local purveyor of vintage goods - must be buying too many records from them! It’s a compilation album from 1974 and includes two tracks that were released only as singles and which never appeared on any other studio albums; “Forever” and “Here it Comes”. In all, there are ten tracks, all chosen by Cousins and which, according to his notes, were selected both because he liked them, and to showcase the band’s progression over a certain period of time (1968 - 1973).

One of the aforementioned singles, which despite Dave Cousins having a lyrically aberrant and very basic rhyming moment, still manages to sound lush and dreamy! ... incidentally arranged and produced by Tony Visconti ...

[video=youtube;Msv726hR92Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Msv726hR92Y[/video]

[bob_32_116]

^^ I wonder what label that was released on? (Scratches head in puzzlement.)

[Music Head]

pretty sure it's A&M bob

[bob_32_116]

pretty sure it's A&M bob

That possibility did cross my mind.

[CRAZY-HORSE]

TONY JOE WHITE "the best of" cd, 1993

career stats:
studio albums........16
singles..................29

had never heard of Tony until a month or two ago...
best known as a writer than a vocalist he wrote "rainy night in Georgia" and
"polk salad annie" amongst others...
Polk salad Annie is more representative of his style and sound that Georgia so that
makes him rock and roll IMO and not country as the experts call him...
twenty tracks on this career spanning set, I guess youll either love or dislike him...
love the guy's vocal tones, he should have been a bigger artist than he was, but hey,
thems the breaks in show biz...

I LOVE THIS ALBUM

worst track: even trolls have rock and roll
best track: polk salad annie

[video=youtube;WrT-TQTLoiw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrT-TQTLoiw[/video]

tracks:

1...polk salad annie ***
2...soul Francisco ***
3...willie and laura mae jones ***
4...rainy night in Georgia **
5...Roosevelt and ira lee ***
6...Stokholm blues **
7...high sheriff of Callhaun Parrish ***
8...old man willis ***
9...the train im on **
10.if I ever saw a good thing ***
11.as the crow flies **
12.even Trolls have rock and roll **
13.backwoods preacher man **
14.takin' the midnight train **
15.did somebody make a fool out of you **
16.they caught the devil and put him in a jail in Eudora, Arkansas ***
17.saturday night in Oak Grove, Louisiana ***
18.ive got a thing about you baby **
19.for 'ol times sake ***
20.ol' mother earth **

3s=10
2s=10
1s=0

rating: 2.5

[Jerome]

Dire Straits - Dire Straits - classic simplicity. Not a bad track on the album.

[CRAZY-HORSE]

they may have made two, maybe three tracks I didn't like over all their albums...pure class IMO.

same for Knopfler as a soloist...pure class!