Desert Island Albums
Jul 21
THE HOT 100 CLASSIC ROCK ALBUMS I’ve compiled a list of the top 100 CLASSIC ROCK albums which some of which have been featured as album of he month on the ROCK-IT With the Artist-Cat radio show – on Sydney’s triplehfm. I play these start to finish ‘unabridged’ and additional plays will be featured as part of specials from time to time. So the criteria here is simply that you can play the album end to end and there isn’t a bad track on it – if you were stuck on a desert island, these would be the albums you’d be happy to play time and time again and still be enjoying them years later. So here goes – here is the HOT 100. Commentary on the list is welcome, but there were strict criteria in compiling this. Firstly, we do have standards, so no punk or disco will be added. Secondly, we have standards, so the musicians have to be able to actually play their instruments and the singers have to be able to sing – no shallow gloss, which probably wipes out anything that appeared on the likes of ‘Idol’ for a start… Finally, we have standards, so anything which is droning and miserable sounding (like Radiohead) will be excluded. With all this in mind here are the “Desert Island Albums” which will be featured on the show. Check out Facebook or the “ROCK IT with the ARTIST-CAT” blog for dates when these will be played. The Hot 100 … (subject to change). 1. The Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd [Played]. The ultimate in prog rock. This album stayed on the top 100 billboard albums chart for over 10 years – enough said. If you haven’t heard it – get yourself a record (or DVD audio) player, crank it up and close your eyes. 2. Hotel California – the Eagles [Played]. From the haunting opening riff and guitarist Don Felder’s incredible guitar solo on the title track, through to the beautifully tragic ‘Last Resort’, this masterpiece is the Eagles at their absolute zenith. If you could only buy one Eagles album, this is it …! 3. Déjà vu – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young [Played]. This seminal supergroup only ever produced one studio album together, but as they say – the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. A must have in any serious music...
Medium, Rare and Well Done – Hard To Find NZ LP’s From The 1970’s and Early 80’s
Jun 15
There are some rare little gems from the shaky isles still on vinyl which have never been re-mastered and released on CD and for years it was assumed that they never would. Sadly, this means that they are as rare as hens teeth and attract ridiculous prices from vinyl scalpers around the world. Case in point are “original presses” of albums like “Ticket – Awake” which up until recently changed hands at prices akin to gold … well not quite, but a 120 gram vinyl record selling for $400 USD has got to be considered gold. There is some call you’d think to reissue these on CD and thus alleviate the pressure on prices. Only the resellers benefit; the bands themselves get no royalties for second hand sales and as for those who simply want to listen to the music it’s just downright hard to get hold of, if you can. OK there are a few “Best Of’s” and various artist compilation albums about – but they are largely eclectic collections that leave you somewhat wanting. Basically, nothing beats getting the original album, with perhaps a few bonus single tracks added. Now back in the 1980s when I started up my archival music collection (I’m still going some 30 odd years later) I tried to track down bands to see if they would be putting out their records on CD. To my dismay I discovered that record labels like CBS had dumped the original masters. But it gets worse… other producers sold the rights off-shore and as to access to the masters, well, who knows … the bands certainly don’t have the rights! Then you get all the label buy outs and the signing away of rights in perpetuity, so that even if the artists want to release their own works 30 years or more after the so called “sound recording mechanical rights” normally expire – it all just becomes ‘too hard’! There is some relief in play though – Ticket have released their classic 1971 album AWAKE on CD, so it’s available to the world again (and hopefully this will take the sting out of second hand record prices). You can now buy this in music stores, on eBay and on websites (like www.gocatalogue.com ) around the world. Wellington band ‘Highway’ have re-release their only self titled album on CD – great, I won’t have to try and...
Stoned Guitar
May 08
Stoned Guitar is the second album by New Zealand blues-rock band The Human Instinct. It was released in 1970 and featured the guitar talents of Billy TK senior. The cover featured a painting by New Plymouth artist Michael Smither, “Two Rock Pools”. Photo courtesy of Billy TK (Senior)