Are you there, Bobby Americano? I expect you would have far more knowledge on the subject of Yesmusic than myself, so please feel free to add any info relevant to Yes as they appear if you wish
Time And A Word was the band’s second album and featured the line-up of Jon Anderson, Peter Banks (who left after recording), Chris Squire, Tony Kaye and Bill Bruford and was the first chart album by Yes in the UK.
There were two versions of this album. One was titled simply ‘Them’, but there was a simultaneous release with an alternate track listing which named the album ‘The Angry Young Them’.
Whatever, it was the first appearance we saw of a young and moody Van Morrison (who would be increasingly more moody as the years passed by) and his Irish cohorts. They fitted in perfectly with the British r’n’b scene as populated by groups such as The Rolling Stones, Yardbirds and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and was an alternative to the perfect pop music of The Beatles and the thousands of other inferior mop-topped cast-offs.
This is the classic ‘Gloria’:
No.490: “New Gold Dream 81-82-83-84” by Simple Minds (1983)
Unfairly dismissed by some as a sort of ‘poor man’s U2’, Jim kerr’s Scots rockers were on the cusp of superstardom with this 1983 album after tempting the charts with a series of great post-punk nearly-hits since 1979. Containing the band’s first proper his in ‘Promised You A Miracle’, that was followed up with the songs ‘Glittering prize’ and my favourite of all Simple Minds songs, ‘Someone, Somewhere (In Summertime)’ (coming up on vid). A year later came The Breakfast Club movie and it’s ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’ from the soundtrack and the rest is history.
Jarvis Cocker’s alternative pop indie band were around for at least a decade before the indie boom of the 90’s happened and championed many times by John Peel and, like Garbage who were mentioned earlier, they fitted in exquisitely with that scene. His ‘n’ Hers got them noticed and they became one of the biggest bands of the genre.
Teenage garage surf punk from the USA when it really took off, Johnny, Joey, Tommy and Dee Dee Ramone were the driving force of that genre which so many other bands tried to copy. The secret of The Ramones success was doing things in very basic form true to the original spirit of the 60’s college garage bands but at 100mph. Always. Well, until Phil Spector got hold of them that is.
This debut set the foundations, although I prefer their follow-up Rocket To Russia in '77. Two of their classics for you:
In a similar vein to Tim Buckley or Clifford T. Ward, Nick Drake would write his tender, very meaningful songs and sing them with such beauty they would take you away to a place where you could actually imagine the scenes he was singing about. This album featured Richard Thompson also on guitar and although it passed by relatively unnoticed when it was released, it has become one of the classic folk-songwriter albums in subsequent years.
Hi mate, just noticed your post as I always have a quick glance back as I’m compiling this.
Pulp seem to be on permanent hiatus I think as Jarvis Cocker has released a few solo albums in the past decade or so, and lends his DJ talents to BBC6 Music as well as other projects.
Different Class is still to come. Some even better songs on that one
Them on the other hand another group from my early years the other song that stands out apart from Gloria is Here Comes The Night. Think I will post that in a minute when I find it.
Keep em coming buddy enjoying the listening.
https://dreamingspiresquadarchive.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/mike-oldfield-hergest-ridge-ds55p-front.jpg?w=250&h=250
With Oldfield’s groundbreaking Tubular Bells still in the charts a year after it’s release, Mike Oldfield was understandably getting rather itchy as were his record company Virgin for new material. Hergest Ridge was the result, a rather low-key and meandering piece compared to the varied themes of it’s predecessor but a fine, mellow album all the same which hit the No.1 spot a for a week before sliding away unnoticed whilst Tubular Bells carried on like that other behemoth of 1973 by a group called Pink Floyd.
Annoyingly, they have blocked all the official versions of this album on YouTube, but I did find this shortened medley of the album’s excerpts.
Did he really? What way to go though if he had!:shock:
Superb Yes album, yes. many more of theirs to come.
Good idea with the Here Comes The Night video mate. I didn’t post it as it wasn’t on the album but it’s from the same year and released only as a single I believe. Yeah, would be good to see it thanks
No.485: “Surrealistic Pillow” by Jefferson Airplane (1967)
Grace Slick, Paul Kantner and the rest of the psychedelic gang with their glorious debut album, following their transition from The Great Society which were one of the leading bands of the fledgling San Francisco psych scene. Two videos here, ‘Somebody To Love’ from Woodstock and the classic alternative to Alice In Wonderland, ‘White Rabbit’.
No.484: “Nine Tonight” by Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band (1981)
Following the great success of Seger’s Live Bullet album a few years previously, he did the right thing and returned with an update covering songs from the albums he recorded since. Nine Tonight (or ‘Tonite’ in America!) featured some great tracks from such albums as Stranger In Town, of which two are featured here. A song from the same era as the recording of the beautiful ‘We’ve Got Tonight’ (or ‘tonite!’), and because it won’t feature in a post anywhere else, I have to show you this more recent teaming up with Bruce Springsteen from a few years back of one of Seger’s best-loved recordings ‘Old-Time Rock ‘n’ Roll’. Take it away guys…
I welcome your comments as always, a few more albums tomorrow.
Surprisingly I can still enjoy Surrealistic Pillow.I had a girlfriend at the time who never took it off the record player.
Mike Oldfield seems like a nice bloke but Tubular Bells.What was all the fuss over that about ???.So I never took much interest in him after.Probably missed out but there you are ,you can’t like everything.
I guess it’s a number of things with Mike Oldfield, PS.
The way he assembled Tubular Bells when he was still in his teens playing something like 48 instruments solo and multi-tracking them in the studio and just 20 years old when the album was released. It was also the first record on Richard Branson’s Virgin label and set his empire in motion. Also, the album is full of tuneful melodies and was used in The Exorcist when that film came out also.
I enjoy listening to it occasionally but I think there are far too many reboots of it. That’s going too far. Anyway, we haven’t seen Tubular Bells yet, so I best save a little to speak about when (or if?) it does make an appearance.
I don’t go that far back mate. Living in Hull I used to love going down to London and visiting the Virgin Megastore, along with the flagship HMV store and Tower in Piccadilly. Used to spend a fortune in those shops.
Virgin was a small shop in Notting Hill Gate to begin with dealing mostly in Krautrock bands when Branson and some other businessmen came across Mike Oldfield. He recorded Tubular Bells at Branson’s Manor Studios and the rest is history. The shop carried on and so did the label releasing Krautrock records and more Mike Oldfield stuff until the Sex Pistols debut came out in 1977, when the label embraced the punk and new-wave scene.
So love him or hate him, Branson gave us some great bands over the years.
I got into his music quite late on to be fair, only about five years ago when I saw a BBC4 documentary about him. Such a shame when these lads go so young.
