Happy New Year 2025!

 

One more year is gone, and more to come yes!!! Thanks to B., Spunkie, Snakeboy, Miles, Alfred Venison, FiveGunsWest, E.W., T.G., Juan Muñoz... and so many more, and to all this blog followers,....thanks for sharing life around!!! Happy New Year 2025!

Iain Matthews - If You Saw Thro' My Eyes 1971

In late 1970, shortly after his band Matthews Southern Comfort hit number one in Great Britain with its version of Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock," Ian Matthews decided that he needed more creative freedom and left for a solo career. The subsequent album, If You Saw Thro' My Eyes, his fourth and best release since leaving Fairport Convention in 1969, was recorded and released within the next few months. It also reunited him with former Fairport bandmates Sandy Denny, who had left the band in late 1969, and Richard Thompson, who would depart by the time of this album's release. Both would bring their distinctive personalities to the proceedings without ever overwhelming Matthews' own vision. As a bandleader and songwriter, Matthews' growth is quite evident here, guiding a stellar cast through seven excellent new originals and three well-chosen covers (also included is the a cappella "Hinge" and its instrumental reprise). Throughout, Matthews' sweet yet evocative tenor is perfect for the material, which succeeds in its blend of British and American folk, rock, and pop. Furthermore, he once again shows a keen eye for the work of others, while also proving his prowess as a first-rate interpretive singer. A pair of songs written by the late folksinger Richard Farina -- "Reno, Nevada" (resurrected from Ian's days with Fairport) and "Morgan the Pirate" -- are given fresh, inspired readings, highlighted by Thompson, Tim Renwick, and Andy Roberts' superb guitar interplay, providing a real folk-rock edge. But it's the beautiful, prayerlike title track that is the record's crowning moment. Joined simply by Denny's piano and breathtaking second vocal, along with a tasteful backward guitar interlude by Renwick, Matthews' quiet plea for guidance is as moving and personal a song as he's ever recorded. A number of other highlights, such as "Hearts," "Southern Wind," "It Came Without Warning," and "You Couldn't Lose," make If You Saw Thro' My Eyes one of the best efforts by a Fairport alumnus. AMG.

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Steamhammer - Mountains 1970

Starting out as an electric blues group in the '60s, Steamhammer transformed into a hard progressive rock group on this 1970 album. A highly collectible album in the British prog scene, the guitarists of this group -- Martin Pugh and Martin Quittenton -- were both, in fact, hardworking session musicians who made their names co-writing "Maggie May" with Rod Stewart for Stewart's debut solo album. Although throughout they maintain their electric blues roots, this album is a fairly awkward and mediocre transition period for the group. However, hardcore collectors of progressive rock will find much to delight in. AMG.

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Grinderswitch - Pullin' Together 1976

Grinderswitch was a white blues-rock band that never rose above being a second-tier Capricorn Records act, not remotely as popular as the Allman Brothers or the Marshall Tucker Band. But Dru Lombar (vocals, guitar, slide guitar), Larry Howard (guitar), Stephen Miller (keyboards), Joe Dan Petty (bass), and Rick Burnett (drums) built a loyal following in the tens of thousands playing music that was influenced by British blues outfits like John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Cream and T.S. McPhee's Groundhogs, but also the real article, especially Albert King and Booker T. & the MG's -- Lombar sounded more Black than any White rock singer you've ever heard. They could have been a more soulful and exciting competitor to Canned Heat, but they weren't lucky enough to appear in hit festival movies or get the right single out at the proper time. Working in the commercial shadow of better-known acts, they counted as fans members of the Marshall Tucker Band and a lot of other musicians who felt they deserved a break. The group failed to emerge as much more than a top regional act and an opener for the Allmans and Charlie Daniels, among others, despite recording seven album between 1972 and 1982, first for Capricorn and later for Atlantic. AMG.

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Elvin Bishop - Juke Joint Jump 1975

Elvin Bishop's Macon Takeover continued on his second Capricorn album, which had a slightly less country feel than Let It Flow but continued to be dominated by twin guitar playing (courtesy of Bishop and Johnny "V" Vernazza) and honky tonk piano playing (from Phil Aaberg). The song quality wasn't quite as consistent this time, but "Sure Feels Good" became Bishop's second singles chart entry. AMG.

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Tim Buckley - Blue Afternoon 1969

Blue Afternoon was Tim Buckley's first self-produced record and his debut for Herb Cohen and Frank Zappa's Straight label. Buckley's first two albums were very much of their time and place, with their psychedelically tinged folk-rock compositions; naïve, romantic lyrical content; and moments of earnest protest. The introduction of acoustic bass and vibes into the arrangements on Happy Sad signaled a change in direction, however, Blue Afternoon displayed similar jazz tendencies, using the same group of musicians plus drummer Jimmy Madison. Several tracks on Blue Afternoon are songs Buckley had intended to record on earlier albums but had not completed. The brooding "Chase the Blues Away" and the lighter, more upbeat "Happy Time," for instance, are numbers he had worked on in the summer of 1968 for possible inclusion on Happy Sad. (Demos can be heard on Rhino's Works in Progress album.) Here, as he did on Happy Sad, Buckley takes the folk song as his starting point and expands it, drawing on jazz influences to create new dynamics and to emphasize atmosphere and mood. This approach can be best appreciated on the mournful "The River," as simple acoustic guitar, cymbals, and vibes build a fluid, ebbing, and flowing arrangement around Buckley's beautiful, melancholy vocals. The period between 1968 and 1970 was an intensely creative one for Tim Buckley. Remarkably, during the same four weeks in which he recorded Blue Afternoon, he also recorded its follow-up, Lorca, and material for Starsailor. It's not surprising, then, that Blue Afternoon hints at Buckley's subsequent musical direction. While not in the experimental, avant-garde vein of the more challenging material on those next two albums, "The Train" foregrounds Lee Underwood's quietly intense, jazzy guitar and Buckley's vocal prowess, prefiguring the feeling of tracks like Lorca's "Nobody Walkin'" and Starsailor's "Monterey." AMG.

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George Harrison - George Harrison 1979

George Harrison is, except for the overdubbed London strings, a painstakingly polished L.A.-made product -- and not a particularly inspired one at that. It's an ordinary album from an extraordinary talent. "Love Comes to Everyone" leads it off on a depressing note -- it's a treadmill tune with greeting-card verses -- and there are too many other such half-hearted songs lurking here, although some are salvaged by a nice instrumental touch: there's a catchy recurring guitar riff on "Soft Touch" and some lovely slide guitar on "Your Love Is Forever." Compared to the original, tougher Beatles version that was left off the White Album, the remake of "Not Guilty" is an easy listening trifle, though it was a revelation when it came out (the original had to wait until 1996 and Anthology 3 for an official release), and the succeeding "Here Comes the Moon" is a lazy retake on another Beatles song. "Blow Away" would be the record's most attractive new song -- and a number 16 hit -- but "Faster," a paean to Harrison's passion for Formula One auto racing, probably better reflected where his head was at this time. There are a few quirks: "Soft-Hearted Hana" is a strange, stream-of-consciousness Hawaiian hallucination, and "Dark Sweet Lady" is a Latin-flavored tune written for his new wife, Olivia. Finally, the inevitable spiritual benediction "If You Believe" offers some thoughtful philosophy to ponder, even if it's not an especially memorable tune. AMG.

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The Mandrake Memorial - The Mandrake Memorial 1968

By far their best album, this suite-like collection features some haunting, first-rate songs, such as "Bird Journey," "Here I Am, " and "Dark Lady." With their harmonies and interplay between guitar, electric keyboards, and occasional sitar, they were very much a band of their age. Still, they played with a drive and precision that anticipated progressive rock. AMG.

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The Impressions - Check Out Your Mind! 1970

Just before he departed the Impressions for a solo career, Curtis Mayfield performed on one last album with the group. Check out Your Mind! saw Mayfield departing with class, driven by big, brassy nuggets of psychedelic soul like "Check out Your Mind," "You're Really Something, Sadie," and "(Baby) Turn on to Me." Despite the raised consciousness of the title, Check out Your Mind! also featured quite a few fine examples of traditional sweet soul, like the hit "Can't You See" (which hearkened back to the group's early days), "You'll Always Be Mine," and "Only You." Mayfield wasn't quite the workhorse he seemed to be; though Check out Your Mind! was released around the same time as his solo debut, a few of the songs here weren't really new: he'd originally written both "Madame Mary" and "We Must Be in Love" for the Five Stairsteps, while "Do You Want to Win?" takes elements from both "You're Really Something Sadie" and "(Baby) Turn on Me." Still, there was much more great material than average, and the trio ended with style an eight-year reign as one of the most talented, intelligent, and successful of all soul groups. AMG.

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The Mads - Molesto 1971

Peruvian Rock/Psych Rock- a band founded in 1965, playing covers and a few of their own songs on Peruvian television. But a chance sea-side encounter with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards after a private party in Lima got Los Mad's the chance to go to England. They recorded some demos in the studio of The Rolling Stones and at Jagger's Stargroves castle by using the Rolling Stones Mobile.

In the UK they translated their band name first to The Mad's and later for live gigs into "Molesto". The group subsisted from 1965 till 1971.

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Fancy - Meeting Your Here 1971

Rare album issued by anmerican band which sound was hard rock with strong touch of blues, fuzz guitar, harmonica and female vocal Christine Ohlman.

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Juicy Lucy - Lie Back And Enjoy It 1970

If Juicy Lucy's debut album ranks among the most haunting, haunted blues-rock albums of the late 1960s, its follow-up only illustrates how damaging the last six months had been for the band. Fully half the band had been replaced, including vocalist Ray Owen and guitarist Neil Hubbard, and with them went much of the evil electrics and swamp-conscious blues that gave Juicy Lucy its most scintillating shivers. The players who replaced them -- former Zoot Money singer Paul Williams, ex-Jeff Beck drummer Rod Coombes, and guitarist Micky Moody -- were no slouches, of course, and the interplay between Glenn Ross Campbell's steel and Chris Mercer's sax is as chilling as ever. But songs like "Built for Comfort," "Thinking of My Life," and even a cover of Frank Zappa's "Willie the Pimp" owe more to a premonition of ZZ Top than a bad dream in the bayou, while the rest of Lie Back and Enjoy It found the group pursuing a distinctly country-rock flavored direction. Even the first-album era "Changed My Mind, Changed My Sign" sounded more like the Dils than Dr. John, and Lie Back and Enjoy It emerged a distinctly unenjoyable disappointment, at least by the standards Juicy Lucy once held so high. AMG.

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Grateful Dead - Blues For Allah 1975

The Grateful Dead went into a state of latent activity in the fall of 1974 that lasted until the spring of the following year when the band reconvened at guitarist/vocalist Bob Weir's Ace Studios to record Blues for Allah. The disc was likewise the third to be issued on their own Grateful Dead Records label. When the LP hit shelves in September of 1975, the Dead were still not back on the road -- although they had played a few gigs throughout San Francisco. Obviously, the time off had done the band worlds of good, as Blues for Allah -- more than any past or future studio album -- captures the Dead at their most natural and inspired. The opening combo of "Help on the Way," "Slipknot!," and "Franklin's Tower" is a multifaceted suite, owing as much to Miles Davis circa the E.S.P. album as to anything the Grateful Dead had been associated with. "Slipknot!" contains chord changes, progressions, and time signatures which become musical riddles for the band to solve -- which they do in the form of "Franklin's Tower." Another highly evolved piece is the rarely performed "King Solomon's Marbles," an instrumental that spotlights, among other things, Keith Godchaux's tastefully unrestrained Fender Rhodes finger work displaying more than just a tinge of Herbie Hancock inspiration. These more aggressive works contrast the delicate musical and lyrical haiku on "Crazy Fingers" containing some of lyricist Robert Hunter's finest and most beautifully arranged verbal images for the band. Weir's guitar solo in "Sage & Spirit" is based on one of his warm-up fingering exercises. Without a doubt, this is one of Weir's finest moments. The light acoustic melody is tinged with an equally beautiful arrangement. While there is definite merit in Blues for Allah's title suite, the subdued chant-like vocals and meandering melody seems incongruous when compared to the remainder of this thoroughly solid effort. AMG.

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Santana - Caravanserai 1972

Drawing on rock, salsa, and jazz, Santana recorded one imaginative, unpredictable gem after another during the 1970s. But Caravanserai is daring even by Santana's high standards. Carlos Santana was obviously very hip to jazz fusion -- something the innovative guitarist provides a generous dose of on the largely instrumental Caravanserai. Whether its approach is jazz-rock or simply rock, this album is consistently inspired and quite adventurous. Full of heartfelt, introspective guitar solos, it lacks the immediacy of Santana or Abraxas. Like the type of jazz that influenced it, this pearl (which marked the beginning of keyboardist/composer Tom Coster's highly beneficial membership in the band) requires a number of listenings in order to be absorbed and fully appreciated. But make no mistake: this is one of Santana's finest accomplishments. AMG.

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Albino Gorilla - Detroit 1984 (1970)

Weird funky rock album by this obscure band on Kama Sutra. The music's pretty funky and instrumental at times, but at other times, there are sort of these bad soulful rock vocals. The best tracks on here are the minute-long interludes between songs. They're all pretty funky, and they have no vocals, which is a plus! Cuts include "Jamaican Lady" and "Swamp Fox", both of which are interludes spread out over the two sides of the LP. "Dusty Grooves"

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Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells 1973

Mike Oldfield's groundbreaking album Tubular Bells is arguably the finest conglomeration of off-centered instruments concerted together to form a single unique piece. A variety of instruments are combined to create an excitable multitude of rhythms, tones, pitches, and harmonies that all fuse neatly into each other, resulting in an astounding plethora of music. Oldfield plays all the instruments himself, including such oddities as the Farfisa organ, the Lowrey organ, and the flageolet. The familiar eerie opening, made famous by its use in The Exorcist, starts the album off slowly, as each instrument acoustically wriggles its way into the current noise that is heard until there is a grand unison of eccentric sounds that wildly excites the ears. Throughout the album, the tempos range from soft to intense to utterly surprising, making for some excellent musical culminations. Mandolins and Spanish guitars are joined by grinding organs and keyboards, while oddball bells and cranking noises resound in the distance. In the middle of the album, guest Vivian Stanshall announces each instrument seconds before it is heard, ending with the ominous-sounding tubular bells, a truly powerful and dominating instrument. The most interesting and overwhelming aspect of this album is the fact that so many sounds are conjured up yet none go unnoticed, allowing the listener a gradual submergence into each unique portion of the music. Tubular Bells is a divine excursion into the realm of new-age music. AMG.

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Procol Harum - A Salty Dog 1969

This album, the group's third, was where they showed just how far their talents extended across the musical landscape, from blues to R&B to classical rock. In contrast to their hastily recorded debut, or its successor, done to stretch their performance and composition range, A Salty Dog was recorded in a reasonable amount of time, giving the band a chance to fully develop their ideas. The title track is one of the finest songs ever to come from Procol Harum and one of the best pieces of progressive rock ever heard, and a very succinct example at that at under five minutes running time -- the lyrics and the music combine to form a perfect mood piece, and the performance is bold and subtle at once, in the playing and the singing, respectively. The range of sounds on the rest includes "Juicy John Pink," a superb piece of pre-World War II-style country blues, while "Crucifiction Lane" is a killer Otis Redding-style soul piece, and "Pilgrim's Progress" is a virtuoso keyboard workout. [A Salty Dog was reissued by Repertoire Records in 1997 with enhanced sound and the lost B-side "Long Gone Geek," a Robin Trower guitar workout par excellence.] AMG.

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Bobby Lance - Rollin' Man 1972

Recorded in New York in 1972, Bobby Lance's Rollin' Man was cut from the same cloth as the previous year's First Peace, but it's a straighter affair, hitting the rock rhythms a bit harder, keeping the grooves linear and ever so slightly ratcheting up that smidgeon of showbiz that lurked on First Peace's edges. Naturally, the latter surfaces on the ballads (and also the hippie-dippie "Tribute to a Woman"), but it's usually drowned out by the effective Allman Brothers nod "John the Rollin' Man" and an overdose of driving boogie. Lance handles these curves admirably and it's a nice bit of early-'70s Southern rock, although it slightly pales next to the seamless Southern stew of First Peace. AMG.

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Melanie - At Carnegie Hall 1973

On Leftover Wine, the live album preceding this one by only three years, Melanie sounded optimistic and outgoing. Here, she sounds like an artist on the verge of a nervous breakdown, battling chronic fatigue syndrome to boot. Over four sides, she struggles through her back catalog and, judging by the performance does so reluctantly. There's nothing wrong with the selections -- "Ring the Living Bell," "Beautiful People," "Psychotherapy" -- all her fans' favorites are here. It's just the ill-concealed tedium with which she trawls through them, accompanied only by her own acoustic guitar, that spoils the set. Even her between-song patter is testy and almost scornful. She lights up briefly with "Baby Guitar" and also delivers a quick lighthearted rant about pollution in New York. The rest of the time, though, it's clear her heart's not in it. AMG.

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Rahsaan Roland Kirk - The Inflated Tear 1968

The debut recording by Roland Kirk (this was still pre-Rahsaan) on Atlantic Records, the same label that gave us Blacknuss and Volunteered Slavery, is not the blowing fest one might expect upon hearing it for the first time. In fact, producer Joel Dorn and label boss Neshui Ertegun weren't prepared for it either. Kirk had come to Atlantic from Emarcy after recording his swan song for them, the gorgeous Now Please Don't You Cry, Beautiful Edith, in April. In November Kirk decided to take his quartet of pianist Ron Burton, bassist Steve Novosel, and drummer Jimmy Hopps and lead them through a deeply introspective, slightly melancholy program based in the blues and in the groove traditions of the mid-'60s. Kirk himself used the flutes, the strich, the Manzello, whistle, clarinet, saxophones, and more -- the very instruments that had created his individual sound, especially when some of them were played together, and the very things that jazz critics (some of whom later grew to love him) castigated him for. Well, after hearing the restrained and elegantly layered "Black and Crazy Blues," the stunning rendered "Creole Love Call," the knife-deep soul in "The Inflated Tear," and the twisting in the wind lyricism of "Fly by Night," they were convinced -- and rightfully so. Roland Kirk won over the masses with this one too, selling over 10,000 copies in the first year. This is Roland Kirk at his most poised and visionary; his reading of jazz harmony and fickle sonances are nearly without peer. And only Mingus understood Ellington in the way Kirk did. That evidence is here also. If you are looking for a place to start with Kirk, this is it. AMG.

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The Zombies - Odessey and Oracle 1968

Odessey and Oracle was one of the flukiest (and best) albums of the 1960s, and one of the most enduring long players to come out of the entire British psychedelic boom, mixing trippy melodies, ornate choruses, and lush Mellotron sounds with a solid hard rock base. But it was overlooked completely in England and barely got out in America (with a big push by Al Kooper, who was then a Columbia Records producer); and it was neglected in the U.S. until the single "Time of the Season," culled from the album, topped the charts nearly two years after it was recorded, by which time the group was long disbanded. Ironically, at the time of its recording in the summer of 1967, permanency was not much on the minds of the bandmembers. Odessey and Oracle was intended as a final statement, a bold last hurrah, having worked hard for three years only to see the quality of their gigs decline as the hits stopped coming. The results are consistently pleasing, surprising, and challenging: "Hung Up on a Dream" and "Changes" are some of the most powerful psychedelic pop/rock ever heard out of England, with a solid rhythm section, a hot Mellotron sound, and chiming, hard guitar, as well as highly melodic piano. "Changes" also benefits from radiant singing. "This Will Be Our Year" makes use of trumpets (one of the very few instances of real overdubbing) in a manner reminiscent of "Penny Lane"; and then there's "Time of the Season," the most well-known song in their output and a white soul classic. Not all of the album is that inspired, but it's all consistently interesting and very good listening, and superior to most other psychedelic albums this side of the Beatles' best and Pink Floyd's early work. Indeed, the only complaint one might have about the original LP is its relatively short running time, barely over 30 minutes, but even that's refreshing in an era where most musicians took their time making their point. AMG.

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Sam Cooke - Mr. Soul 1963

Sam Cooke released two albums in 1963, and the second, Night Beat, is often cited as the best of all his long-players. But the first, Mr. Soul, shouldn't be ignored, despite some flaws in its conception and execution. At the time, the powers-that-were at RCA Victor didn't know which audience to aim for with Cooke's albums. LPs were seldom huge sellers among teenage listeners, so the notion of trying to connect to an adult audience -- à la Nat King Cole -- probably seemed logical, and Mr. Soul suffered somewhat from this uncertainty of purpose and audience; it is a soul album, to be sure, but by the standards of the time a somewhat tentative one in many spots. Unlike Night Beat, which was an exercise in production restraint, Mr. Soul is over-produced and relies too much on strings where they aren't needed and choruses that are overdone, even when they work. But Cooke rises above all of it, and turns even some of the more questionably arranged songs, such as "Send Me Some Lovin'," into mini-masterpieces. A couple of tracks off of this album, "(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons" and "Nothing Can Change This Love," were part of Cooke's live repertoire at the time and have, indeed, found a separate life on various compilations, but the rest was unavailable for over 45 years, until Sony/BMG re-released most of Cooke's RCA library. The best of that rest -- which is most of it -- shows him still rising to the peak of his powers, his voice wrapping itself around lyrics and melodies that might seem too familiar ("Cry Me a River," etc.) and bland, and making them much more significant and powerful than they seemingly have a right to be. The strings are overworked at times, but where they are held back, as on "Little Girl," their presence only adds to the impact of the track -- and elsewhere, Cooke quietly overpowers them. Modern listeners should bear in mind that, as a soul album, this is a fairly laid-back record -- those expecting anything like the exuberance of Otis Redding, or Clyde McPhatter or Ben E. King, may be disappointed at first; Cooke does work up a sweat on various parts and phrases, but a lot of what is here, by virtue of the label's wishes for a crossover record, is what might be terms "cool" soul -- smooth and sometimes bluesy, in a low-key way, quietly emotive on numbers such as "These Foolish Things," with the hot moments in special abundance on numbers like "Chains of Love" and "Send Me Some Lovin'." But even in these cool, restrained settings, Cooke's was still one of the finest voices of his century, and worth taking in for every breath and nuance. AMG.

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Graham Bond with Magick - We Put Our Magick On You 1971

Even in his mid-'60s prime, Graham Bond's forte had never been original material. At his best, he compensated for his limitations as a composer by incorporating many covers into his repertoire and surrounding himself with some great musicians, like the pre-Cream Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker. By the early '70s, he was working with a lesser caliber of supporting players, relying almost wholly on his own songs, and focusing many of his lyrics on obscure "magickal" concerns. As the unfortunate consequence, the music itself became a pedestrian blend of blues-rock with elements of soul and jazz, albeit one that was more eccentric and interesting than those of many of his journeyman peers mining similar styles. Less sprawling than the similar, preceding Holy Magick by virtue of not containing a side-long medley, it really isn't all that bad, just unmemorable. There's a bit of a burnt-out progressive-psychedelic-blues fusion feel, and certainly a bit of early Dr. John in the invocational chants and mood at times, particularly on "Ajama" and "I Put My Magick on You." The album was combined with the 1970 Bond LP Holy Magick on a single-disc CD reissue on BGO. AMG.
 

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Gallagher & Lyle - The Last Cowboy 1974

The pop duo phenomenon that spawned such acts as Simon & Garfunkel, Brewer & Shipley, and Seals & Crofts was predated by the duo formed by songwriters, guitarists, and vocalists Benny Gallagher and Graham Lyle. Initially attracting attention as songwriters of Dean Ford & the Gaylords' single "Mr. Heartbreak's Here Instead," Gallagher and Lyle went on to record as a duo and as members of McGuinness Flintand Ronnie Lane's group Slim Chance. Gallagher and Lyle continued to balance their performances and recordings as staff songwriters for the Beatles' Apple label, writing "Sparrow" and "International" for Mary Hopkin. The title track of their sixth duo album, Breakaway, was later covered by Art Garfunkel.

Gallagher and Lyle first played together in Largs, a small town near Glasgow in Ayrshire, Scotland. Relocating to London in 1967, the duo became full-time writers at Apple. Three years later, they joined with Tom McGuinness and Hughie Flint to form McGuinness Flint. Although McGuinness Flint recorded two successful singles, "When I'm Dead and Gone" and "Malt and Barley Blues," the group disbanded in 1971. Recording their self-titled debut duo album for Capitol, Gallagher & Lyle switched to the A&M label by their second effort. Their first release on A&M, however, was a reissue of their debut album. In the spring of 1974, Gallagher and Lyle joined Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance, remaining with the group until May 1974. Gallagher and Lyle balanced their work with the band with additional duo albums, How Come and The Last Cowboy. They continued to record on their own following the breakup of the group. Breakaway was released in 1975, Love on the Airwaves in 1977, and Showdown in 1978. Switching to the Phonogram label, they recorded their final album, Lonesome No More, in 1979. Following a tour to support the album, Gallagher and Lyle went their separate ways. Lyle continued to write, in collaboration with Terry Britten, reaching his peak with "What's Love Got to Do with It," covered by Tina Turner, and "Just Good Friends," recorded by Michael Jackson. AMG.

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