Pilot - From The Album Of The Same Name 1974

Collectables' Magic is a retitled reissued of Pilot's eponymous debut album, boasting five bonus tracks: "Just Let Me Be," "January," "Do Me Good," "The Mover" and "Canada." With its swirling keyboards and falsetto vocals, "Magic" became one of the great one-shots of the '70s, and it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone familiar with one-hit wonders that Pilot's accompanying full-length isn't as good. Despite the lack of strong material, the album is hardly without merit. Pilot, along with producer Alan Parsons, crafted an album of light prog-rock and melodic soft pop-rock. All of the album sounds terrific, and there are some catchy melodies, but there aren't many great songs, just a lot of adequate ones. As a result, it's simply an artifact of its era, but it's an enjoyable one at that. AMG.

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Cochise - Swallow Tales 1971

Prior to recording their second album, Cochise underwent a major change in personnel, with singer Stewart Brown getting replaced by John Gilbert. As Brown had written some of the material on Cochise's 1970 self-titled debut, that left the songwriting wholly in the hands of guitarist Mick Grabham and pedal steel player B.J. Cole. Still, the music remained largely the same -- middle-of-the-pack early-'70s album-oriented British rock, sometimes hard and sometimes with a more reflective, folkier feel, though always with a more country-rock-ish tinge than most (owing largely to Cole's pedal steel). But as on their first album, Cochise had neither the stylistic distinction nor the top-shelf songwriting to attract wide notice, their approach encompassing a hard rocking update of Buddy Holly's "Love's Made a Fool of You"; original material which somewhat recalled the Guess Who's rootsier side; and lightweight U.S. West Coast folk-country-rock. As far as the latter style goes, "Lost Hearts," with a light early Love influence, is their best effort, while "Another Day" sounds a little like a cross between Crosby, Stills & Nash and the early Bee Gees, as peculiar as that mixture may seem. AMG.

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Arrival - Arrival 1970

Active for a few years at the end of the 1960s into the start of the '70s, Arrival were a London-based soft rock band who scored a few hits with their easygoing arrangements and close harmonies. They released two self-titled albums (one with Decca in 1970 and another with CBS in 1972) before disbanding. Arrival's music was re-collected several times as the years went on, most substantially with the 2022 anthology Friends: Complete Recordings 1970-1971, which included previously unreleased radio sessions and other material.

After spending the mid-'60s in Liverpool playing in beat/R&B band the Excelles, bandleader Frank Collins and several bandmates relocated to London and reconfigured the Excelles as Arrival in 1969. Expanding from a five-piece to a ten-piece with an emphasis on vocal harmonies, their songs were built on the interplay between vocalists Collins, Dyan Birch, Carroll Carter, and Paddy McHugh, and backed by smooth rock instrumentation and occasional string arrangements. They signed with Decca and released their first single in 1969. Dusty Springfield was an early devotee of the band and wrote a short note of praise for their sounds that was included on the back cover of their first album. That self-titled record was released in 1970 and included the group's first hit, "Friends." The same year, Arrival had another non-album hit with "I Will Survive," made various television appearances, and performed at the Isle of Wight Festival. Their second, also self-titled, album was released in 1972. The band broke up shortly after the record's release, with some members continuing to work as session players/vocalists and some forming new acts like Kokomo and Olympic Runners. AMG.

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Clouds - Up Above Our Heads 1970

Clouds were a promising psychedelic-cum-prog-rock band who never found the commercial success to match their critical raves. In contrast to most of their contemporaries and rivals who hailed from England, the trio's roots were in Scotland and trailed back to the mid-'60s. Ian Ellis (vocals) and Harry Hughes (drums) originally teamed up as part of a Brit-beat band called the Premiers, formed in Edinburg in 1964. They were a conventionally configured quintet with bass, two guitars, and drums behind Ellis' vocals. Sometime later, they added Billy Ritchie on the organ, and they were good enough. It was decided that an organ would help the sound of the band, and Billy Ritchie joined. Bandleader/producer Cyril Stapleton recorded a few sides with the group in London but was unable to interest any record companies in their work, and it was at that point that the band disintegrated, leaving Ellis, Ritchie, and Hughes, who decided to go it alone as a trio, with Ellis taking over on bass in addition to his singing. They also took on a new name, 1-2-3, and began writing their own material, all in a decidedly psychedelic mode -- coupled with their new sound, they soon found themselves lacking an audience in Edinburg, and headed for London, believing (correctly) that they'd get a better hearing there. They began building a cult audience among general listeners and a respectful following among their fellow musicians after a series of shows at the Marquee Club. At the time, there weren't too many organ-based trios around -- even the Nice still had a lead guitarist when they started out, but Ritchie's playing and their overall sound began to attract serious critical attention. And they were signed up by Brian Epstein's NEMS management company in the spring of 1967, an event that got them as much exposure as their music. The NEMS connection died with Epstein that summer, however, and it was back to the London clubs for the trio. Lightning struck a second time when Terry Ellis, a young, aspiring manager, and producer, saw them at a gig and signed them up. Ellis and his partner Chris Wright had a management company called Chrysalis, which would eventually turn into a record label as well (subsequently sold to EMI), but at that time they didn't have a label. As a result, the group -- now rechristened Clouds -- was signed to Island Records. They also got to tour America, where the critical reception was more than enthusiastic, coming off of shows in Chicago and New York (the latter at the Fillmore East). Their debut album on Island, entitled Scrapbook, was a quasi-concept album, with beginning and end pieces and an array of songs that ranged from psychedelic pop to spaced-out, highly progressive and experimental art rock. Island put their work out in front of the British public throughout 1969, on singles and sampler albums, and heavily promoted their debut, and the critical response was highly favorable, as were their concert reviews.

All wasn't well between the trio and its management, however -- Chrysalis had made a decision to devote its efforts and promotional budget to a rival act, Jethro Tull. Gradually, Clouds got lost in the shuffle and their recording activity was somewhat confused, between England and America -- in the U.S., an album called Up Above Our Heads appeared on the Deram label, while in England a second LP, Watercolour Days, was issued, showing up in 1971. Clouds called it quits late that year, their moment has passed. Their albums lingered in cut-out bins well into the 1970s, however, and based on the CD reissue activity of the 1990s and beyond, including a collection from Universal Music in 2007, indications are that someone out there is still interested in their work, 30 years after their debut release. AMG.

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Dillinger - Bionic Dread 1976

Although recorded during the same Channel One sessions as its predecessor, CB 200, Dillinger's second international long-player, Bionic Dread, is comparatively uneven. Once again the Revolutionaries -- Channel One's house band -- supply the "rockers" approach. Much in the same way that Western culture would be influenced by the social and political aspects of rap music, at the heart of Dillinger's clever rhymes is the toaster's ability and finesse when combining hip or otherwise "underground" street lingo and cultural references into his talkin' verse. Bionic Dread failed to produce a breakout track on par with what "Cokane in My Brain" had contributed to the CB 200 album. Still, there are several significant updates and reworkings of melodic motifs liberally borrowed from the magnificent Mighty Diamonds -- a trio of roots reggae vocalists whose "Why Me Black Brother Why" is converted into "Combination Two" and whose "Poor Marcus" was the obvious inspiration for the paean to Ethiopian King "Selassie I." [In 2004, both Bionic Dread and CB 200 were officially released on a limited-edition single-CD compilation from Hip-O Select, with newly remastered audio courtesy of Grammy-winning engineer Gavin Lurssen.] AMG.

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Steve Swindells - Messages 1974

Messages is the debut studio album by English singer and musician Steve Swindells, released in 1974 (see 1974 in music). Produced by his manager Mark Edwards, Swindells felt the production was poor despite the presence of quality musicians. Steve Swindells was also part of Hawkwind and Hawklords.

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The Rascals - See 1969

Scaling back from their musically adventurous tomes Once Upon a Dream and Freedom Suite, the Rascals closed out the 1960s by narrowing their focus to what they did best: writing tough, tight, soul-rock tunes (and a few others). Whereas co-lead vocalist Eddie Brigati had been the songwriting partner of organist/vocalist Felix Cavaliere throughout the band's tenure to that point, and especially from Groovin' through Freedom Suite, his role in the band had been reduced here to being a harmony vocalist with only a single lead and co-write on the session. Cavaliere wrote the lion's share of the tunes with a couple from guitarist Gene Cornish and a cover. That's not to say the music here is without merit -- from the opening two cuts, the title track with its pile-driving rhythm and B-3 bashing to the sweet, soul-rock of "I'd Like to Take You Home" -- this is evident. But whoever told these cats they could sing country, as they attempt on Cornish's "Remember Me," in which Cavaliere sounds like warmed over Mike Nesmith, is anybody's guess. "I'm Blue," co-written by Brigati, holds its soul-blues groove deep in the pocket. Ray Charles' inspiration comes to the fore here and it works like a charm. The musical adventure of East Meets Western groove is dropped in the center of "Stop and Think," and the cover of "Temptation's Bout to Get Me," carries the blue-eyed soul groove to the pinnacle. Likewise, "Real Thing" captures the euphoric Rascals' chorus line soul at its best. The set closes with a screamer in "Hold On," with a raw, rowdy, soul, garage-band rip. With Arif Mardin enlisted as co-producer, the band also relied on the session musician talents of Ron Carter and Chuck Rainey on bass, as well as flutist Hubert Laws to round out the picture. AMG.

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Lee Michaels - Lee Michaels 1969

One of the masterpieces of the period, Lee Michaels was essentially recorded live in the studio by only Michaels (organ/bass pedals) and Frosty on drums. It's a fabulous performance and one of the finest R&B/rock sets of the period. The first side is comprised of a medley of soulful workouts that come out sounding not unlike Led Zeppelin. Here, Michaels pulls out all the stops (literally) and showcases the organ as a bona fide rock instrument. Despite the lengthy drum solo, it's one of the finest sides of Los Angeles rock & roll. Michaels also reprises "My Friends," a song from his first album, to great effect. Lee Michaels is also home to the good-time, pro-drug anthem "Highty Hi," as well as an awesome cover of "Stormy Monday." A true party platter. AMG.

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Live Wire - Pick It Up 1979

Live Wire was a London pub rock band led by guitarist/vocalist Mike Edwards and featuring bassist Jeremy Meek, drummer German Gonzales, and guitarist Chris Cutler. Following the group's 1979 AM debut, Pick It Up (which resembles Kilburn and the High Roads, or early Dire Straits without the flashy guitar work), Cutler was replaced by ex-Advertising guitarist/producer Simon Boswell, whose production skills lent the group a more polished, commercial sound. This lineup recorded 1980's No Fright and 1981's Changes Made before disbanding.

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Timothy Leary - You Can Be Anyone This Time Around 1970

"The musical equivalent of a full-blown LSD trip," according to the liner notes. If that's what you're looking for, you should opt for something a lot more clichéd and conventional, like Sgt. Pepper's, Piper at the Gates of Dawn, or Electric Ladyland. Long a scarce collector's item, this features three extended "raps" by Dr. Leary over collage-like backing tracks of music (including brief samples of the Beatles and Pink Floyd), percussion, and electronics. The raps, which were guaranteed to make parents recoil in horror at the time, sound quaintly dated and silly today, rife with self-conscious mantras and revelatory declarations of breakthroughs into different planes of consciousness and celebrations of the wonders of drug use. This timepiece owes much of its collectibility to "Live and Let Live," which features an unspectacular jam in the background by an all-star band of Jimi Hendrix (on bass), Stephen Stills, John Sebastian, and Buddy Miles. AMG.

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Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon 1973

By condensing the sonic explorations of Meddle to actual songs and adding a lush, immaculate production to their trippiest instrumental sections, Pink Floyd inadvertently designed their commercial breakthrough with Dark Side of the Moon. The primary revelation of Dark Side of the Moon is what a little focus does for the band. Roger Waters wrote a series of songs about mundane, everyday details which aren't that impressive by themselves, but when given the sonic backdrop of Floyd's slow, atmospheric soundscapes and carefully placed sound effects, they achieve an emotional resonance. But what gives the album true power is the subtly textured music, which evolves from ponderous, neo-psychedelic art rock to jazz fusion and blues rock before turning back to psychedelia. It's dense with detail but leisurely paced, creating its own dark, haunting world. Pink Floyd may have better albums than Dark Side of the Moon, but no other record defines them quite as well as this one. AMG.
 

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Richard Betts - Highway Call 1974

After the runaway success of the Allman Brothers' classic Brothers and Sisters LP -- an album on which Dickey Betts virtually architected the open loping country sound with his newly found singing voice and easy, slimmed-down guitar style -- the guitarist decided to try his hand at a solo album. Highway Call is, in essence, the second chapter in Betts finding his own voice as not only a singer but also as a songwriter as well. At a brief half-hour in length, Highway Call is nonetheless an emotionally powerful slice of small country life offered with a vast emotional landscape. The tone is nostalgic in that each of the songs here reflects memory and the yearning for a simpler, less cluttered life lived in the open spaces, away from the chaotic roil of rock stardom and all of its trappings. The title track reflects an acceptance of Betts' life as an itinerant musician, destined to play out his hand on the road. There isn't a hint of regret in the ringing, slippery guitars, and harmony vocals, but there is a sense that life could have been different. In "Let Nature Sing," Betts calls forth the spirits of America, from its rock and crags, its lakes and panoramic vistas, and from the ghosts of the people who've traipsed through Betts' life, leaving an emotional and indelible impression upon him. Each song here, such as "Rain," with its sideways pedal steel, "Long Time Gone," with its runaway slide, or even the aforementioned "Let Nature Sing," with its glorious dobro and fiddle (courtesy of Vassar Clements) underscoring Betts' lead and the ringing pedal steel of Jon Hughey is a testament to the pastoral in American life. And for Betts, the rambler, gambler, and hard-living guitar man, there is no contradiction. All of his cards are on the table in "Hand Picked," a nearly 15-minute country swing romp through Bob Wills, Merle Haggard, the Allmans, and bluegrass, Betts creates the ultimate road instrumental. The listener can hear Clements and Betts roaring down the two-lane blacktop on the back of a flatbed truck, ripping this one out with easy abandon. Highway Call stands as the artist's finest solo moment, one that holds his true voice easily expressing itself far from the madding blues wail of the Allmans, deep in the center of a Georgia holler with the sun beating down on the peach trees or on the incessant babble of a backwoods creek calling his listeners to the mystery inherent in simple living and in playing honest, heartfelt music. AMG.

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Hawkwind - Doremi Fasol Latido 1972

Doremi may not be Hawkwind's most renowned album, but it carries the same type of prog rock spaciness as their first two releases. Even though the keyboard playing is trimmed down just a tad, the introduction of Ian Kilmister, otherwise known as Lemmy of Motörhead fame, makes up for it. With Lemmy's hard-lined guitar playing and Del Dettmar's synthesizer stabs, tracks like "Space Is Deep" and "The Watcher" are infused with elaborate instrumental meanderings in perfect Hawkwind fashion. The longer tracks, both "Brainstorm" and "Time We Left This World Today," find Lemmy settling into the band's extraordinary milieu, but it ended up being the album's strongest cuts. There's a harder feel to the songs all the way through, with the guitar and drums coming to the forefront ahead of DikMik's "generators" and "hot electronics." Doremi is the inaugural album for drummer Simon King, and with guitarist Dave Anderson and percussion man Terry Ollis now departed, Hawkwind still manages to muster up a firm intergalactic space-metal atmosphere, but with a more rugged thrust. AMG.

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The Peanut Butter Conspiracy - The Great Conspiracy 1968

The Great Conspiracy, the second long-player from the Los Angeles-based Peanut Butter Conspiracy, was much more a reflection of their live sound than their debut effort, the pop-driven Peanut Butter Conspiracy Is Spreading (1967). Around 1964, the quintet was literally born from the Ashes (another burgeoning L.A. rock combo whose personnel featured soon-to-be Jefferson Airplane drummer Spencer Dryden). After solidifying their lineup, they inked a deal with Columbia Records, which assigned staff producer Gary Usher to work with them. His well-meaning but over-the-top production style diffused the band, which came off sounding more like the Mamas & the Papas than the Jefferson Airplane or It's a Beautiful Day -- both of whom also sported female lead singers. However, by the time of this release the Conspiracy were sonically asserting themselves with a decidedly hipper approach. This is especially evident on the stretched-out and psychedelic "Too Many Do" and the deliciously trippy "Ecstasy" -- which sports frenzied and wiry fretwork similar to that of Quicksilver Messenger Service string man John Cipollina. Equally inspired are "Lonely Leaf" and the somewhat paranoid and darkly guilded "Time Is After You." These contrast with the somewhat ersatz hippie fodder "Turn on a Friend (To the Good Life)," the 38-second throwaway "Invasion of the Poppy People," or the simply wretched "Captain Sandwich." [In 2000 the Collectables reissued label coupled both The Peanut Butter Conspiracy Is Spreading and The Great Conspiracy on a single CD. Also included were the 45-rpm sides "I'm a Fool" and "It's So Hard" as well as the previously unissued track "Peter Pan."] AMG.

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Miles Davis - In A Silent Way 1969

Listening to Miles Davis' originally released version of In a Silent Way in light of the complete sessions released by Sony in 2001 (Columbia Legacy 65362) reveals just how strategic and dramatic a studio construction it was. If one listens to Joe Zawinul's original version of "In a Silent Way," it comes across as almost a folk song with a very pronounced melody. The version Miles Davis and Teo Macero assembled from the recording session in July of 1968 is anything but. There is no melody, not even a melodic frame. There are only vamps and solos, grooves layered on top of other grooves spiraling toward space but ending in silence. But even these don't begin until almost ten minutes into the piece. It's Miles and McLaughlin, sparely breathing and wending their way through a series of seemingly disconnected phrases until the groove monster kicks in. The solos are extended, digging deep into the heart of the ethereal groove, which was dark, smoky, and ashen. McLaughlin and Hancock are particularly brilliant, but Corea's solo on the Fender Rhodes is one of his most articulate and spiraling on the instrument ever. The A-side of the album, "Shhh/Peaceful," is even more so. With Tony Williams shimmering away on the cymbals in double time, Miles comes out slippery and slowly, playing over the top of the vamp, playing ostinato and moving off into more mysterious territory a moment at a time. With Zawinul's organ in the background offering the occasional swell of darkness and dimension, Miles could continue indefinitely. But McLaughlin is hovering, easing in, moving up against the organ and the trills by Hancock and Corea; Wayne Shorter hesitantly winds in and out of the mix on his soprano, filling space until it's his turn to solo. But John McLaughlin, playing solos and fills throughout (the piece is like one long dreamy solo for the guitarist), is what gives it its open quality, like a piece of music with no borders as he turns in and through the commingling keyboards as Holland paces everything along. When the first round of solos ends, Zawinul and McLaughlin, and Williams usher it back in with painterly decoration and illumination from Corea and Hancock. Miles picks up on another riff created by Corea and slips in to bring back the ostinato "theme" of the work. He plays glissando right near the very end, which is the only place where the band swells and the tune moves above a whisper before Zawinul's organ fades it into silence. This disc holds up and perhaps is even stronger because of the issue of the complete sessions. It is, along with Jack Johnson and Bitches Brew, a signature Miles Davis session from the electric era. AMG.

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