The Five Americans - I See The Light 1966

lf you're curious enough about the Five Americans to want more than a greatest hits collection, this 1966 album is a worthwhile supplement. Ten of the 12 cuts are group originals, and they lean toward the gutsier side of what this sometimes pop-oriented act could offer, with occasional influences of Beau Brummels-like folk-rock. Most of the songs are not on their CD best-of (Western Union), and this disc adds previously unreleased alternate takes of "The Train" and "Good Times." AMG.

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Truck - Truck 1973

Formed in 1966, Ingersoll, ON, Canada. Original line up was Bill Caldwell, Sandy MacKay, Dave Borland, Rob Oliver and Bruce Fleming. The group was called Sound Spectrum then. When they played at the Rock Hill Festival in Ontario, 1970, they were still called Sound Spectrum. Group Lighthouse was the star attraction at that festival. They later changed their name to Truck possibly in '71 or '72. They were managed by Peter Francey of Slic Bros.. Their solo álbum was issued in 1973 with interesting folk, jazz, and rock style. Give it a try. 

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Sparrow - Hatching Out 1972

British harmony pop group founded by members of the London stage production of Hair. 

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Flo & Eddie - Moving Targets 1976

For their final (of two) projects for Columbia Records in the mid-'70s, Mark Volman (Flo) (vocals/guitar) and Howard Kaylan (Eddie) (vocals) serve up a mixed bag of rockers as only Flo & Eddie can. With the exception of the Turtles' "Elenore" and "Guns" -- the latter of which features a shared credit with former Turtles' and Mother of Invention bandmate Jim Pons -- the remainder of Moving Targets (1976) was written entirely by the pair. While their lyrics might come off as cynical (read: realistic) or whiney to some, they counteract the typical pop/rock fare by presenting the listener with an undeniably fresh vantage point. The (perhaps) semi-biographical "Mama, Open Up" seems to be a psychological profile of its authors disguised as a typical '70s power ballad. Sounding like a combination of Chicago and Todd Rundgren, Alan MacMillan's horn-fuelled arrangement on "The Love You Gave Away" -- not to mention Flo & Eddie's impeccable harmonies -- almost disguise the odd spin on a love triangle. Marked by a bright jangle guitar introduction and strong dual-lead vocals, "Hot" stands out as a return to a feel that recalls earlier Flo & Eddie material. MacMillan's brass score provides some punch to "Best Friends." The compact and catchy tune lives up to its parenthetical moniker that indicates it as a "theme to the unsold T.V. pilot." "Best Possible Me" is truly exceptional, equaling anything in the Flo & Eddie cannon. MacMillan earns his keep as the orchestration underscores the powerful melody. In a very different way, the same can be said of the tongue-in-cheek "Keep It Warm" as they mull over their life and future as singer/songwriters. "Guns" is an upbeat rocker with the occasional anti-war sentiments, while the new recording of "Elenore" is taken at a noticeably quicker pace that reflects the way Flo & Eddie were concurrently performing the song in their live shows. "Make Your Own Kind of Music" meets "Add Some Music to Your Day" on "Sway When You Walk" as the highly recommended entry not only brims with positivity, it taps into the duo's silly and cerebral sides as well. Bucking the norm of placing the title track at the beginning of the disc, "Moving Targets" can be found at the conclusion of the platter. The mid-'70s proto-heavy metal vibe bears an Alice Cooper or Kiss influence, contrasting the rest of the effort in its relative straightforward approach. AMG.

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The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed 1969

Mostly recorded without Brian Jones -- who died several months before its release (although he does play on two tracks) and was replaced by Mick Taylor (who also plays on just two songs) -- this extends the rock and blues feel of Beggars Banquet into slightly harder-rocking, more demonically sexual territory. The Stones were never as consistent on album as their main rivals, the Beatles, and Let It Bleed suffers from some rather perfunctory tracks, like "Monkey Man" and a countrified remake of the classic "Honky Tonk Woman" (here titled "Country Honk"). Yet some of the songs are among their very best, especially "Gimme Shelter," with its shimmering guitar lines and apocalyptic lyrics; the harmonica-driven "Midnight Rambler"; the druggy party ambience of the title track; and the stunning "You Can't Always Get What You Want," which was the Stones' "Hey Jude" of sorts, with its epic structure, horns, philosophical lyrics, and swelling choral vocals. "You Got the Silver" (Keith Richards' first lead vocal) and Robert Johnson's "Love in Vain," by contrast, were as close to the roots of acoustic down-home blues as the Stones ever got. AMG.

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Curtis Mayfield - Superfly 1972

The choice of Curtis Mayfield to score the blaxploitation film Super Fly was an inspired one. No other artist in popular music knew so well, and expressed through his music so naturally, the shades of gray inherent in contemporary inner-city life. His debut solo album, 1970's Curtis, had shown in vivid colors that the '60s optimist (author of the civil-rights anthems "Keep On Pushing" and "People Get Ready") had added a layer of subtlety to his material; appearing on the same LP as the positive and issue-oriented "Move On Up" was an apocalyptic piece of brimstone funk titled "(Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below, We're All Going to Go." For Super Fly, Mayfield wisely avoids celebrating the wheeling-and-dealing themes present in the movie, or exploiting them, instead using each song to focus on a different aspect of what he saw as a plague on America's streets. He also steers away from explicit moralizing; through his songs, Mayfield simply tells it like it is (for the characters in the film as in real life), with any lessons learned the result of his vibrant storytelling and knack of getting inside the heads of the characters. "Freddie's Dead," one of the album's signature pieces, tells the story of one of the film's main casualties, a good-hearted yet weak-willed man caught up in the life of a pusher, and devastatingly portrays the indifference of those who witness or hear about it. "Pusherman" masterfully uses the metaphor of drug dealer as businessman, with the drug game, by extension, just another way to make a living in a tough situation, while the title track equates hustling with gambling ("The game he plays he plays for keeps/hustlin' times and ghetto streets/tryin' ta get over"). Ironically, the sound of Super Fly positively overwhelmed its lyrical finesse. A melange of deep, dark grooves, trademarked wah-wah guitar, and stinging brass, Super Fly ignited an entire genre of music, the blaxploitation soundtrack, and influenced everyone from soul singers to television-music composers for decades to come. It stands alongside Saturday Night Fever and Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols as one of the most vivid touchstones of '70s pop music. AMG.

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Déjà Vu - Cosmic Zack 1977

German fusion band with nods to various earlier Krautrock bands, and notable leanings towards Canterbury and Dutch prog fusion acts.

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Charles Lloyd - Geeta 1973

Saxophonist Charles Lloyd is a free-spirited musical visionary whose improvisational talents and interest in cross-pollinating jazz with folk, rock, and non-Western traditions, established him as a key figure. Albums like Of Course, Of Course in 1965, Love In (1966), Forest Flower (1967), and In the Soviet Union (1970) were so successful in showcasing his warm, accessible playing style on tenor saxophone and flute that they charted. Lloyd spent the '70s in retreat but recorded independent dates including 1973's Geeta and 1979's Morning Sunrise, wedding global traditions, jazz, and rock. Between 1992 and 2013 he issued a series of albums on ECM that established him as an innovator and elder jazz statesman. He signed to Blue Note in 2015, issued the charting live album Wild Man Dance, and formed an all-star fusion outfit called the Marvels with guitarists Bill Frisell and Greg Leisz. Their debut, I Long to See You, followed in 2016. Two years later, Lloyd, the Marvels, and singer/songwriter Lucinda Williams joined forces on Vanished Gardens. 8: Kindred Spirits (Live from the Lobero) was released in 2020. Lloyd's Marvels released the studio album Tone Poem in March 2021. Trios: Chapel, the first in his Trio of Trios series, arrived in March 2022, with Marvels' Frisell and bassist Thomas Morgan. The second, Trios: Ocean with pianist Gerald Clayton and guitarist Anthony Wilson, arrived in September. Trios: Sacred Thread included percussionist Zakir Hussain and guitarist Julian Lage and arrived in November. Lloyd returned in 2024 with The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow leading an all-star quartet with pianist Jason Moran, bassist Larry Grenadier, and drummer Brian Blade. He formed a trio with Moran and guitarist Marvin Sewell to release the double-length Figure in Blue in October 2025. AMG.

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Victor Peraino's Kingdom Come - No Man's Land 1975

Victor Peraino was the American keyboard player for Arthur Brown’s Kingdom Come, a band often overlooked in the pantheon of UK progressives. Following the group’s final album Journey, Peraino returned to the States, and somehow retained the rights to the group name. Details are sketchy, but according to legend only 100 copies of “No Man’s Land” were pressed making this a major rarity selling for four figures more often than not. Peraino’s Mellotron use is, again, quite magnificent, with lashings of strings, choir, cellos and brass all over the album.

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Invisible - Invisible 1974

Invisible was an Argentinian band playing a mix of blues, prog/art/psychedelic rock and jazz, active from 1973 to 1977. They were formed as a trio in Buenos Aires by Luis Alberto Spinetta (after the breakup of Pescado Rabioso and the release of their last album, Artaud), in October 1973. The original Invisible lineup was completed by Pappo's Blues' on and off rhythm section, Carlos "Machi" Rufino (bass, backing vocals) and Héctor "Pomo" Lorenzo (drums).

Their selftitled debut was released in 1974. From 1976 until their breakup a year later, the band expanded into a quartet with the inclusion of guitarist Tomás Gubitsch, and the release of two more albums of which the third and last, the 1976 El jardín de los presentes, is considered the best and a classic, Argentinian rock album. In early 1977, the band called it quits after "musical differences".

 

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John Braheny - Some Kind Of Change 1968

Singer/songwriter John Braheny's most well-known song is "December Dream," recorded by Linda Ronstadt & the Stone Poneys for their second album. An unreleased version was also done by Fred Neil in the late '60s, and was issued about 30 years later on the compilation The Many Sides of Fred Neil. Braheny also did an interesting, extremely obscure solo album on the small Pete label in 1970 that included his own version of "December Dream." The LP was quite eclectic and eccentric for the singer/songwriter genre, also containing some off-kilter psychedelic-influenced material without sacrificing a folk-rock base. Some Kind of Change is an odd mixture of folk-rock, California singer/songwriter, and very slightly unhinged psychedelia. While there are songs here and there that are un-eyebrow-raising, Southern California 1970 singer/songwriter rock, the more interesting tracks suggest an anxious man being pushed toward a dazed and distraught state of mind. Think of more normal, far less worrisomely troubled acid folk in the Skip Spence mode, and that's somewhat along the right track. Odd psychedelically treated voices, reverb, and effects decorate about half the cuts, effectively weaving around Braheny's tense and yearning voice. "Don't Cry for Me" is quality spooky blues acid folk, with its constant haunting refrain "Don't cry for me/I'm free" suggestive of a man who's obtained freedom at some cost to his grasp of reality. "Free Fall" is another highlight, somewhat reminiscent of Tim Buckley's stranger earlier numbers like "Hallucinations," but not imitative. Other weird detours, not all of them successful, crop up, like the eerily bittersweet blues-psych instrumental "Silver Cord," and "Tour Line Ladies," built around the narrative of a Hollywood tour guide that goes on at least twice as long as it should. In a less offbeat mood, this also has his own quality version of "December Dream," an outstanding melancholy folk-rock love song. This is an LP deserving of a CD reissue, although that prospect might be unlikely given that it doesn't fit into any comfortable niche of rock that's been revived for the collector market. AMG.

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Nina Simone - High Priestess Of Soul 1967

Perhaps a bit more conscious of contemporary soul trends than her previous Philips albums, this is still very characteristic of her mid-'60s work in its eclectic mix of jazz, pop, soul, and some blues and gospel. Hal Mooney directs some large band arrangements for the material on this LP without submerging Simone's essential strengths. The more serious and introspective material is more memorable than the good-natured pop selections here. The highlights are her energetic vocal rendition of the Oscar Brown/Nat Adderley composition "Work Song" and her spiritual composition "Come Ye," on which Simone's inspirational vocals are backed by nothing other than minimal percussion. AMG.

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José Feliciano - Souled 1968

One of the most prominent Latin-born performers of the pop era, Puerto Rican guitarist, singer, and composer José Feliciano found mainstream success in the late 1960s with his appealing mix of flamenco guitar, bolero, folk, and easy listening pop music. Already a success in Latin America, Feliciano scored a major American hit with his 1968 cover of the Doors' "Light My Fire," before inciting controversy with his jazzy rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" during the World Series in October of that year. His 1970 Christmas pop classic "Feliz Navidad" went on to become one of the most ubiquitous songs in the holiday canon. Throughout the '70s and '80s, he remained a popular touring and recording artist, releasing a variety of Spanish- and English-language albums, guesting on albums by major artists like John Lennon, Joni Mitchell, and Bill Withers, and composing for television shows like Chico and the Man and Kung Fu. Feliciano's success extended into the next century as he continued to explore a variety of musical styles, earning a pair of Grammy Awards for his 2008 album Señor Bachata and recording a high-profile collaboration with Jools Holland on the 2017 jazz and R&B set, As You See Me Now. In the seventh decade of his career, he was still in demand, releasing a pair of albums in 2022, Right Here Waiting and Love & Christmas. AMG.

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Spot - Spot 1971

Rock group based in Geneva. Spot's single, eponymous album was released in 1972 on Evasion, a label mainly specialized in pop and folk artists, and is one of Switzerland's rarest collector's items from the 1970s. Part of its mystique comes from the fact that its only availability outside the relatively few copies of the LP in existence was on a bootleg vinyl release.

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The RFD - Lead Me Home 1971

USA 1971 obscure Christian folk-rock album with an appealing, understated feel. Close male/female vocal harmonies and ringing guitars create a secular late 60’s California sound, with strong songwriting that reaches back to a Byrds / Simon & Garfunkel hook sensibility. 

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