Extra video:
Concert video:
No.78: “A Momentary lapse Of Reason” by Pink Floyd (1987)
By 1983, Pink Floyd were virtually a one man band with the ever-increasing megalomaniac antics of songwriter/bassist Roger Waters taking over almost entirely with his own visions of what the band should be doing. The Final Cut was released that year and aside from some scant drumming from Nick Mason and only one ‘proper’ David Gilmour-led rock song (‘Not Now John’), the record received mixed reviews as a Floyd album – though Waters gained some rave reviews for its songwriting themes and the orchestral arrangements were superbly produced. Keyboard player Richard Wright had been “sacked” by Waters after The Wall and didn’t appear on The Final Cut at all. But that’s another story…
A Momentary Lapse Of Reason suddenly appeared in late 1987 due to Gilmour and Mason refusing to kow tow to Roger’s notification that Pink Floyd were over. The duo made their own album instead under the name and all hell broke loose on both insiders’ camps. The resulting album was a pretty good stab at bringing back some of the heavier rock music of the old days, with a number of more discerning ‘mood’ songs and instrumentals in tow too. David Gilmour isn’t a particularly brilliant lyricist and so had help from various outside sources but the music is faultless and the subsequent live dates showed that Pink Floyd were still a major force to be reckoned with.
See also the double live album ‘Delicate Sound Of Thunder’.
Sleeve image, other images:
Videos:
Concert video:
Interview:
Track listing:
- “Signs of Life” (Instrumental)
- “Learning to Fly”
- “The Dogs of War”
- “One Slip”
- “On the Turning Away”
- “Yet Another Movie”
- “Round and Around” (instrumental)
- “A New Machine (Part 1)”
- “Terminal Frost” (instrumental)
- “A New Machine (Part 2)”
- “Sorrow”
Personnel:
Pink Floyd
• David Gilmour – vocals; guitars; keyboards; sequencers
• Nick Mason – electric & acoustic drums; sound effects
Production
• Bob Ezrin – producer
• David Gilmour – producer
• Andrew Jackson – engineering; mixing
• Robert (Ringo) Hyrcyna – assistant
• Marc Desisto – assistant
• Stan Katayama – assistant
• Jeff Demorris – assistant
• James Guthrie – additional re-mixing
Additional musicians
• Richard Wright – piano; backing vocals (“Learning to Fly”, “On the Turning Away” and “Sorrow”); Kurzweil; Hammond organ
• Bob Ezrin – keyboards; percussion; sequencers
• Tony Levin – bass guitar; Chapman Stick
• Jim Keltner – drums
• Steve Forman – percussion
• Jon Carin – keyboards
• Tom Scott – alto saxophone; soprano saxophone
• Scott Page – tenor saxophone
• Carmine Appice – drums
• Patrick Leonard – synthesizers
• Bill Payne – Hammond organ
• Michael Landau – guitar
• John Helliwell – saxophone (credited as “John Halliwell”)
• Darlene Koldenhoven (as Darlene Koldenhaven) – backing vocals
• Carmen Twillie – backing vocals
• Phyllis St. James – backing vocals
• Donnie Gerrard – backing vocals
No.77: “Too Long In Exile” by Van Morrison (1993)
With help from such legends as John Lee Hooker and mainstay keyboardist Georgie Fame, Van Morrison put together a musical ensemble of such professional quality that ensured this very much jazz-based album would prove a big success.
On the Blue Note label, it is one of Van’s finest records in my opinion. It contains some old covers as well as Morrison originals.
Sleeve image:
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FrZfUSVb8-w/hqdefault.jpg
Videos:
Concert videos:
And with Bob Dylan:
Track listing:
- “Too Long in Exile” – 6:18
- “Big Time Operators” – 6:03
- “Lonely Avenue/You Give Me Nothing but the Blues” (Doc Pomus, Morrison) – 6:24
- “Ball & Chain” – 5:36
- “In the Forest” – 4:38
- “Till We Get the Healing Done” – 8:29
- “Gloria” – 5:19
- “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl” (Sonny Boy Williamson) – 4:07
- “Wasted Years” – 3:57
- “The Lonesome Road” (Nathaniel Shilkret, Gene Austin) – 3:16
- “Moody’s Mood for Love” (James Moody, Dorothy Fields, Jimmy McHugh) – 2:52
- “Close Enough for Jazz” – 2:39
- “Before the World Was Made” (text by William Butler Yeats, adapted by Morrison, music by Kenny Craddock) – 4:24
- “I’ll Take Care of You” (Brook Benton) – 5:19
- “Instrumental/Tell Me What You Want” – 8:08
Personnel:
• Van Morrison – vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, alto saxophone, harmonica
• John Lee Hooker – vocals, electric guitar on “Gloria” and “Wasted Years”
• Georgie Fame – Hammond organ, backing vocals
• Ronnie Johnson – electric guitar
• Nicky Scott – bass guitar
• Candy Dulfer – alto saxophone
• Kate St John – tenor saxophone, cor anglais
• Teena Lyle – backing vocals, Hammond organ, percussion, vibraphone
• Jonn Savannah – backing vocals, Hammond organ
• Geoff Dunn – drums
• Howard Francis – Hammond organ, piano
• Paul Robinson – drums
• John Allair – Hammond organ
• Richard Cousins – bass guitar
• Kevin Hayes – drums
A double-helping (I didn’t know this until I posted it), but why not, Van Morrison is great isn’t he?
No.76: “No Guru, No Method, No Teacher” by Van Morrison (1986)
The 1980’s was a very productive period for Morrison. Like always, he released an album every year without fail and the quality always stood up well and never faltered. No Guru…was one such record and as he was dwelling very much on the more mellow side of things at that time, the songs here are an absolute thing of beauty. A few are listed below, in audio form and live. A lovely record.
Sleeve image, other images:
Videos:
I’m gonna need three posts to contain this next one…
No.75: “The Joshua Tree” by U2 (1987)
One of the biggest albums by anybody ever, The Joshua Tree sealed this Irish quartet’s reputation as the world’s biggest band – arguable still so to this day. From the Anton Cobijn sleeve inwards, The Joshua Tree remains a great album. Opening with the three massive singles (featured below in order of release) and a following world tour, which they brought back once more in 2017 performing the full album right through start to finish. The follow-up album Rattle And Hum saw the band live on tour the same year.
It wasn’t just those classic singles which made this album great, there are some cool. Moody, broody songs amongst those grooves – ‘Bullet The Blue Sky’, ‘Mothers Of The Disappeared’ etc. It’s not about Bono’s preaching and posturing either – On ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’ The Edge performed one of the best intros to an album you will ever hear. A legendary record if ever there was one.
Sleeve image, other images:
https://img.wennermedia.com/480-width/joshua-tree-tour-401d77ba-7c84-4696-b95a-d31b1987563f.jpg
The singles:
Extra videos:
Interview:
Full album audio:
Personnel:
U2
• Bono – lead vocals, harmonica, guitars
• The Edge – guitars, backing vocals, piano
• Adam Clayton – bass guitar
• Larry Mullen Jr. – drums, percussion
Additional performers
• Brian Eno – keyboards, DX7 programming, backing vocals
• Daniel Lanois – tambourine, Omnichord, additional rhythm guitar (track 5), backing vocals
• The Armin Family – strings
• The Arklow Silver Band – brass
• Paul Barrett – brass arrangement
No.74: “Tug Of War” by Paul McCartney (1982)
This one may surprise you. If you play the album and stop it just before the final song – the gloopy, mawkish syrupy schmalt of the goppingly awful hit ‘Ebony And Ivory’, this is a brilliant album.
McCartney is on top form with his melodies, songwriting and overall arrangement of this high class record. It’s the brass section that further makes this a good record, plus the addition of the aforementioned Stevie Wonder, Ringo, Denny Laine, Eric Stewart, Stanley Clarke, Carl Perkins and other top name figures just add to the proceedings. Songs like ‘Wanderlust’ and ‘Ballroom Dancing’ are later classics. And the song ‘Here Today’ is a poignant and heartfelt tribute to his old mucker, John Lennon.
The second single ‘Take Is Away’ is probably my favourite post-Beatles Paul McCartney single with its tremendous production and great lyrics – plus it features John Hurt in the video too!
I never tire of this great record.
Sleeve image:
Videos:
Extra videos:
Interview:
Personnel:
• Paul McCartney – vocals, guitars, piano, synthesizers, drums, bass, vocoder, percussion
• Denny Laine – guitar, guitar synthesizer, bass on “Wanderlust”
• Eric Stewart – guitar, background vocals
• Campbell Maloney – military snares on “Tug of War”
• Ringo Starr – drums on “Take It Away”, “Wanderlust” and “Ballroom Dancing”
• Steve Gadd – drums, percussion on “Take It Away” and “Somebody Who Cares”
• George Martin – electric piano
• Adrian Brett – pan pipes
• Andy Mackay – lyricon
• Adrian Sheppard – drums
• Dave Mattacks – drums, percussion on “Dress Me Up As A Robber”
• Carl Perkins – vocals, guitar on “Get It”
• Stevie Wonder – synthesizer, electric piano, drums, vocals
• Jack Brymer – clarinet
• Keith Harvey – cello
• Ian Jewel – viola
• Bernard Partridge – violin
• Jack Rothstein – violin
• Linda McCartney – background vocals, piano on “Ballroom Dancing”
• Stanley Clarke – bass on “Somebody Who Cares” and “The Pound is Sinking”
More tonight.
Pleased you like that album, Solo. I’ve never come across anybody who has even mentioned it before. It’s one of those albums I’ve always treasured as a very unsung record.
Nice to see the clip from his earlier band too, which I won’t say anymore about 
Good call on No Guru, No Method, No Teacher. In The Garden is one of my favourite Van songs. Reminds me a lot of Astral Weeks.
I don’t know what it is, but I just can’t listen to U2 these days…I think there is far better other stuff I can choose from.
It is like Astral Weeks actually. A very mellow and distinctly personal album.
U2 I can take or leave. I played The Joshua Tree again last year and really loved it, but I can definitely do without even looking at Bono on TV. He’s such a hypocrite.
Being off work today I have quite a few more ready to roll in the pipeline, in fact I’m all sorted up to No.63, but I’ll wait a while until those above are seen a little more yet. Maybe post a few tonight 
Sad to think that many only know Van from Brown-Eyed Girl or the song Moondance - so much more to this artist.
#puts on headphones, vaper at his side, and listens to Quadrophenia in its entirety.#
Morrison went through a bad patch in the late 60’s I think and seemed to come back saying “I’ll Show 'em”. And he did.
Great to see you’re listening to these albums, probably the audio videos I’m posting? Is anybody else doing this or is it worth me not posting them, I don’t know.
Is there too much in the way of info/videos etc?
I’m happy with it all myself but I don’t know if it’s overkill? 
It’s fine mate. Sometimes I have a flick through, listen, but don’t necessarily comment. I’m normally too busy arguing with someone on the forum…
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