Photo from our #1 disc - Paul Rodgers Live In Glasgow
To contact Joe Viglione
linernotes@varulven.com
Joe Vig Top 40
P.O. box 2392
Woburn, MA 01888 U.S.A.
http://www.joeviglione.com
We have a delicious TOP 40 this month! Paul Rodgers (Free, Queen, The Firm, Bad Company) was an absolute gentleman in our interview with him this past July.
His DVD / CD is a very inviting overview of his compositions with the brilliant
Howard Leese from Heart playing superb guitar. We've included a bunch of my
Heart reviews on this Top 40! Two bands from the U.K. who have bands in the
U.S. that have their names (shades of the British "Spinners" vs. The Detroit Spinners), well Kaleidoscope have yet a third version of their classic Tangerine Dream album in release and it is superb. The new group, Veldt, is one of our favorite bands at the moment - they are also from the U.K. and you can read about 'em on Joe Vig's Top 40 for August.
Please click on to my Willie "Loco" Alexander interview on North Shore Sunday the first week of August - and then tune in to my interview with Bobby Hebb from 91.7
FM.
It is an honor to be one of the most published critics in New England!
More surprises coming in September.
Pick up the August 1, 2007 issue of http://www.radioworld.com My in-depth biography of Little Walter DeVenne, the D.J. and mastering engineer is in the print edition only. Badger them for a copy, it's really worthy of your time because of Walter's tremendous history. Check out his name in the middle of the top of the RW cover (above)Some of the material was adapted from my Medford Transcript article:
http://littlewalter.com/transcript.htm
Previous Little Walter stuff from Joe V
Replication News/Medialine Magazine
http://web.archive.org/web/20010505025106/http://www.medialinenews.com/issues/2000/preparation/0606/0606.2.shtml
Walter's Home Page
http://www.littlewalter.com
Little Walter DeVenne
Photo credit Joe Viglione.
No, it's not Paul Rodgers, it's Little Walter.
Mr. Rodgers is in the neighborhood atop this page.
OUR #1 DISC this month is/are actually 2 discs in one
OUR #1 DISC this month is/are actually 2 discs in one
1)Paul Rodgers Live in Glasgow DVD
Visual Radio taped an interview with Rodgers in July. It will be airing soon.
Watch for review of the CD and DVD here. See photo above.
2)Kaleidoscope (U.K.) Tangerine Dream German re-release
This is a fantastic BONUS TRACK German release - expanded from the bonus track
Japanese release! The Japanese edition added "Dream For Julie", "Just How Much You Are" and "Jenny Artichoke" as tracks 12, 13 and 14 to the original 11. Germany's
Repertoire label http://www.repetoire.de
adds the mono single mix of "Flight from Ashiya" as Track 12, the mono single mix of "Holiday Maker" as track 13, "A Dream For Julie" as #14, a single mono mix of "Please Excuse My Face" as #15 with "Jenny Artichoke" as 16 and "Just How Much You Are" as the 17th and final track, switching it around from the Japanese release.
The album sounds wonderful - the songs "Dive Into Yesterday" and "Kaleidoscope" as trippy and 60s as you remember them.
Here's Richie Unterberger's original AMG review
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:wjftxqtsld0e
3)VELDT (U.K.) The Cause: The EffectReview by Joe Viglione
The wonderfully eerie "Sleep" opens this eleven song debut CD, The Cause: The Effect, by the U.K. group Veldt, not to be confused with Chapel Hill, North Carolina band The Veldt from the 80s/90s. "Sleep" has bending guitars right out of The Good, The Bad & The Ugly or any other spaghetti Western you can think of - this trio certainly likes their movie soundtracks - and the haunting backing vocals and voice on the hook are enhanced by explosive sounds and tight edits making for an extraordinary little piece of music with a lot of surprises. The title track, "The Cause, The Effect", has flavors of Roxy Music and more film music nuances as does "Walking In Silence", the effective video which recalls the great British synth pop of groups like Human League and pandau Ballet's "new romance" sound, only with more sweeping ambiance for a new millennium.
Read more:
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:hvfuxqldldke
2006 CD Outstanding Records 005
4)Willie "Loco" Alexander article
in North Shore SundayWillie Alexander on Garage Records
Willie Loco Alexander Front Page Story in
NORTH SHORE SUNDAY
http://www.townonline.com/northshoresunday/homepage/x225115227
“A lot of the songs will be about Gloucester,” he says. And why not?
“I love Gloucester, this is where I lived as a boy. My dad was a Baptist minister; I live about a block from where his church was,” he says.
The Old First Baptist Church of Gloucester, near City Hall, was directed by the Rev. Edward Gordon Alexander. Willie went to the Forbes School through the third grade and then the Central Grammar.
“They have old people in one of them, other people in the other one now,” Alexander says. “Condos are the big trend ... churches don’t have choirs in them, they’ve converted to people living in them.”
His mother was in the Cape Anne Symphony. “She played the violin,” recalls Alexander. “I run into people here, they knew my dad and stuff. It’s really nice hearing reports of what life was like back then. I don’t see too many of my generation from school — I guess the people I went to school with left, they didn’t go fishing.”
Alexander already has a batch of Gloucester-inspired songs, including “Lady of Good V” ”Bass Rocks” and the somewhat eerie “Fishtown Horribles,” a song which draws on Gloucester’s annual Horribles Parade.
The Lost 45 with Willie Loco
Please click on the North Shore Sunday link!
Joe Vig's SPIDERMAN article was the #1 Download of the week!
Please make Willie Loco #1 as well!
Willie Loco Alexander Front Page Story in NORTH SHORE SUNDAY
http://www.townonline.com/northshoresunday/homepage/x225115227
5)THE RICH RECORD STORY -Bobby Hebb's first 6 solo sides!
Bobby Hebb recorded with Poppa John Gordy, the phenomenal Honky Tonk pianist when Bobby was only 12 years of age.
Those were his first recordings on vinyl, but towards 1959 or so he recorded with Dr. John the Night Tripper on Rich Records and that music has just been released!
Bobby appeared on radio to talk about his new disc on Allegro,
"That's All I Wanna Know" as well as this reissue of his very first 6 songs released under his name!
Hear Bobby talk to Joe V. about the new release on WMWM 91.7 July 29, 2007
http://bobbyhebb.com/hebb7-29-07.mp3
See the album tracks here:
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:gbfixzy5ldse
6)MICHAEL FREMER'S TURNTABLE SETUP DVD
Label: Michael Fremer
Item #: VFREMERSETUPDVD
Price: $29.99
Joe Vig's review will appear here soon!
It's 3:22 AM on Thursday morning August 9, 2007
I have to sleep sometime! y'know...
(actually there was a cat fight outside so if you saw me walking the streets with a flashlight ....
7)Jay And The Americans SUNDAY AND ME
Jay & The Americans are being interviewed on Visual Radio August 11, 2007
Review by Joe Viglione
Nine months before "Cherry Cherry" would launch the career of Neil Diamond as a singer, he had his first Top 20 chart record as a songwriter, "Sunday and Me," the leadoff track to Jay & the Americans' album of the same name. Continuing with the Spanish-flavored sound found on 1964's "Come a Little Bit Closer" and 1965's "Cara Mia," the light pop comes in with flamenco guitar, Jay Black's familiar voice, and bullfight trumpets. "Granada" also features old-world instrumentation and Black emulating an operatic Mario Lanza more than the teen idol sound of the day.
Full AMG review here:
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:axfoxql5ldse
Freedom Flight CD cover / Marty Balin
8)Marty Balin's MIRACLES
Song Review by Joe Viglione
"Miracles" is one of those phenomenal compositions and productions which could only have come from another universe and is exactly what the title promises -- a miracle. The biggest hit and long overdue vindication for one of the founding members of Jefferson Airplane, Marty Balin's exquisite voice finds its most perfect setting soaring above Craig Chaquico's silken guitar lines and Grace Slick's wonderful vocal accompaniment.
Full review here:
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:gjfoxbwgldte
9)Mott The Hoople -
Brain Capers Reissue
Angel Air Records
This is probably my favorite MOTT THE HOOPLE disc, it is just absolutely superb with DEATH MAY BE YOUR SANTA CLAUS and THE MOON UPSTAIRS. They don't make them like this anymore. You need this CD!
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:jbfpxqraldse
10)Hirsh Gardner "Wasteland For The Broken Hearts"
For fans of arena rockers New England who wanted and needed more from John Fannon, Gary Shea, Jimmy Waldo and drummer Hirsh Gardner there were obscure tapes by many artists utilizing the group's trademark sound, Fannon and Gardner producing recordings when New England went their separate ways in 1983. 15 years after the breakup, New York's GB Music re-issued the original three-LP catalog on CD including a 20th anniversary, 10-song collection of demos for a fourth disc, "New England -1978".
Full review here:
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:wxfuxqwaldae
11)Kaleidoscope Dive Into Yesterday
Review by Joe Viglione
In 1996 the British Fontana label issued a best-of for the U.K. band Kaleidoscope with the appropriate title of Dive Into Yesterday, after the first track. It is a wonderful journey containing a 12-page booklet chock full of photographs, extensive liner notes, and 23 original recordings from 1967 to 1969, all evolving over the course of the disc. The music is dramatically different from the box released in 2000, The Fairfield Parlour Years, on the Burning Airlines/NMC label, and helps put this important ensemble's work into perspective. "Flight From Ashiya," "Dive Into Yesterday," and "The Murder of Lewis Tollani" are among those culled from the album Tangerine Dream, while "Poem" and other titles come from the follow-up, Faintly Blowing.
Read full review here:
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:gvfoxq9hldae
12) Leonard Cohen: Under Review: 1935-1977 EXCELLENT DVD PICK TO CLICK!
Review by Joe Viglione
Leonard Cohen - Under Review 1934-1977, An Independent Critical Analysis from Sexy Intellectual and Music Video Distributors is a wonderful biography and well-deserved documentary on the life of Cohen from his 1934 birth in Montreal to his interest in literature and poetry during his college years and beyond into his success as an underground musical icon. The ninety minutes or so give much to the viewer detailing the world of this legend with important and compelling interviews ranging from biographers to those who worked with him. Hearing Janis Joplin/The Band producer John Simon give his input along with Cohen's guitarist and bandleader Ron Cornelius, Phil Spector engineer extraordinaire Larry Levine, critics Robert Christgau and Anthony De Curtis, well, it's a real cavalcade of behind-the-scenes stars discussing this important figure in an informative and highly entertaining way. These "unauthorized critical analysis" discs can be hit or miss, the U2 DVD Collectors Box a double DVD waste of time, The Killers Leaving Las Vegas even more so, while investigations of Kate Bush or the Pink Floyd album Meddle are very worthy of your attention.
Read Full Review Here
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:gpfrxzw5ldfe
13) MASS CRACK OF DAWN
http://www.myspace.com/masstheband
This might be the best MASS album yet. It's phenomenal. Production by Michael Kronlund and Mass is topnotch. "It's You" kicks the album off with solid hooks and an immediate blast that makes you stand at attention. This is a group that has matured with time and have mastered the art of hard rock. They should be on tour with Ozzy and Black Sabbath as the ONLY opener. It's that good. I am so tired of a lot of stuff being passed off as rock & roll music or hard rock or heavy metal.
CRACK OF DAWN is the real deal. If Louis, Lou, Gene and Joey missed the mark I'd be the first to say it. Gene D'Itria's guitarwork is monstrous. Check it out on their MySpace if you don't believe me:
14)SYD
http://myspace.com/syd
Syd is managed by James Kenly who handles BRADDIGAN from Dispatch.
Review forthcoming
15)Todd Royce Waiting For You
Review forthcoming
PROJECTED HIT FOR NEXT MONTH
RX For Lonely Housewives & Desperate Lovers
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:jnfyxztgld0e
16)Urban Spotlight Video Magazine Various Artists
Urban Spotlight DVD-Zine: Us West Coast World Premiere} is a slick and intriguing "magazine" on DVD that evolved from the video mag of the same name. Released in April of 2007 it's a bargain listed at $9.95 but available via a variety of web retailers for about $5.00. What's inside has more depth than many rap/hip hop videos available at twice the price, a professionally filmed collection of clips with a variety of hosts talking to the artists.
Read more:
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:dcftxqwrldde
17)YES Live at Montreux
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:jpfqxze5ldfe
Review by Joe Viglione
18)Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton Islands In The Stream Song
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=CASS70310091935&sql=X876265
19)Mondo Deco - The Quick
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=CASS70310091935&sql=A9pez97e7krkt
20)Velveteen After Hours
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=CASS70310091935&sql=A87320r8ac48i
21)Lisa Burns
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=CASS70310091935&sql=Arm6atr3lkl7x
22)Everybody Needs It Ellen McIllwaine
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=CASS70310091935&sql=Absug6jp77180
23)The Paupers Ellis Island
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:hxfyxqt5ldke
24)David Peel Rock & Roll Outlaw Japan Tour 2003 (Electric Version)
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:kjfixq8rldje
25) Petula Clarke DOWNTOWN
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:dvfqxcl5ldhe
26) HEART "All I Want To Do Is Make Love To You"
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:0jfwxc9aldte
27)What About Love song review / HEART
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:hxfqxcwgldde
28)Never Heart
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:jxfqxcwgldde
29)Nothin' At All / Heart
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:fjfwxc9aldte
30)Tommy James MY SPACE quotes Joe Vig
"The title track works, as does much of the music here, and it is great to have the pop maestro back. Where Lou Reed, truly James' underground dopplegänger, kept releasing product over the decades, the world has not yet had enough of Tommy James' creativity. If Hold the Fire marks his rebirth, it's a good first step."
Joe Viglione
All Music Guide
http://www.myspace.com/tommyjamesmusic
31)BOSTON ROCK & ROLL RELICS - Willie "Loco" Alexander with The Bagatelle
Bagatelle
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:jvfoxq8kldse
32)Eden's Children "Eden's Children"
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:kzfyxqt5ldke
33)Eden's Children "Sure Looks Real"
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:0zfyxqt5ldke
33)Eden's Children "Sure Looks Real" on MP3
http://www.mp3.com/albums/29629/summary.html
34)"Listening" with Walter Powers from Willie Loco Alexander, The Lost & The V.U.
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:jzfpxqq0ldde
35)Modern Times Jefferson Starship
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:g9fqxq95ldke
Review by Joe Viglione
37)Love Among The Cannibals Starship review Jefferson Starship
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:abftxqt5ldfe
http://www.mp3.com/albums/59996/reviews.html
38)No Protection Jefferson Starship
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:g9foxq95ldje
39)Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:0nfpxcw5ldae
One of my very favorite singles - Grace Slick & Mickey Thomas of Starship - it is the doppelganger of Marty Balin's Miracles
LOST CLASSIC
#40)Mickey Thomas AS LONG AS YOU LOVE ME
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:w9fpxqyhldhe
Review by Joe Viglione
The man who replaced Marty Balin in the Jefferson Starship while Balin was practicing the song "Jane"(which became the first hit for Mickey Thomas when he
joined that group) sings a Grace Slick staple, Somebody to Love, backed by Booker T. & the MG's with Toto's Jeff Porcaro on drums. With 20 or so musicians involved, Thomas pulls out all the musical stops on this disc, performing songs by Van Morrison, Barry Mann Cynthia Weil, George Clinton and more.
The fact that it was recorded on November 29, 1976 is an eerie premonition as
"Jane" went top 10 exactly three years later, almost to the day. Had only Jefferson Starship taken a bit more of this soulful strut and added it to their early '70's adult oriented pop! rather than go the Arena rock direction they did. Thomas sounds so refined in this setting, with more than just the Elvin Bishop Group surrounding him - "Fooled Around And Fell In Love" charting six months before these
September - November sessions means Mickey was getting a lot of recognition on Top 40 radio, his name mentioned along with Elvin Bishop by many radio jocks. David Paich (not to be confused with Ambrosia's David Pack and Booker T. Jones
make a George Clinton co-write - "Dance It Off" - sound more like, well, Ambrosia than the Parliament/Funkadelic you'd expect, Ambrosia only flirting with chart success around this time, their sound not truly hitting until two years later.
If you want to know where {$Crowded House} got 1987's {&"Something So Strong"} just listen to the opening track co-written by singer Mickey along with Bill Slais and Michael "Fly" Brooks of Elvin Bishop Group. It sounds like early Edgar Winter and drives. The disc is a who's who of musicians bringing in all sorts of wonderful flavors and you'd never guess that over a decade later drummer Donny Baldwin and Thomas would graduate from the Elvin Bishop Group to becoming half of the last remnants of Starship. This is as far from the techno they would evolve into as you can get and with other titles like {$Van Morrison's lovely "The Street Only Knew Your Name" and Barry Mann}/Cynthia Weil's "Take Me To Your Lover" (borrowing liberally from Elton and Bernie's "Take Me To The Pilot" ) the album vindicates a singer who was rightfully branded a generic rocker when he reached his peak. A pity the world hasn't discovered this gem because As Long As You Love Me is a real treasure. Dates of all the recordings are conveniently noted on the credit sheet chock full of photographs that accompanied the original vinyl.
Almost the worst DVD of the month:
41)THE KILLERS Leaving Las Vegas
One of the problems with {$The Killers} DVD, {^Leaving Las Vegas}, is that the packaging looks and feels like a new product from the band when the fine print on the cover says "an unauthorized documentary film packed with exclusive interviews". It's a pop music version of the rap/hip-hop world's {^Urban Spotlight DVD-Zine: Us West Coast World Premiere} only focused on one band, not many, and playing like a {@PBS} documentary of a modern day group and the music scene that launched them. {$Laurie Steele} from KOMP 92.3 FM is hardly a household name, nor is "Homie" from XTreme Rock radio, but they talk over images of Vegas and discuss the Las Vegas local music scene at length as if they are a modern day {$Nina Blackwood} and {$Dick Clark}. {$Matt Norcross}, former drummer for {$The Killers}, gives his input as does {$Nicole Slider}, owner of Shoestring Promotions, not the marquee type luminaries found on similar projects like the excellent {^Leonard Cohen: Under Review 1934-1977} which actually has solid information from key personalities involved in Cohen's career. Enlisting {$Alex Stope}, a student and friend of drummer {$Ronnie Vannucci} is hardly as difficult as asking {$Celine Dion} a few questions about her competitors playing in the local dives off of the strip. Obviously Celine wasn't available to chat so {$Bronson Mack}, vocalist of the group {$Attaboy Skip} and - you guessed it - a friend of {$Ronnie Vanucci}, gives his pearls of wisdom on this expensive disc.
Read more here:
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:jcfuxzu5ldte
WORST DVD OF THE MONTH!
42)THE MENTORS EL DUCE VITA
Review by Joe Viglione
The title of The Mentors DVD, El Duce Vita, combines the name for Federico Fellini's 1960 film La dolce vita - which is Italian for "The Sweet Life" - and a variation of "Il Duce", the term Benito Mussolini chose to convey his supremacy. But where Fellini had substance, style and an early performance from The Velvet Underground's Nico in his acclaimed work, this effort comes off like a bad college video project featuring in your face gross-out "humor" and The Mentors music, such as it is. To add to the "mystique" someone hands him a marijuana cigarette only proving this was a group in desperate need of Armand Schaubroeck as lyricist and producer. Or Jayne County with some decadent savoir-faire to make the gutter jokes somewhat appealing. El Duce Vita is the worst of G.G. Allin without the danger or the hype.
Read more here:
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:hcfuxqwrld6e
BONUS REVIEW: GREAT COMPILATION FROM WHIMSICAL RECORDS, U.K.
RICHIE UNTERBERGER REVIEWS U.K. DISC ELEVATE which
Joe Viglione appears on with "There's Nothing Like A Hit" so - obviously, I'm not going to review my on record on my Top 40. Thanks to Richie for an objective review.
43)ELEVATE (Whimsical Records)
Review by Richie Unterberger
The booklet to this CD has brief notes about all of the tracks on this various-artists compilation, and it can be deduced that most though not all of these bands are British. But it's not really clear when these cuts were recorded, or, in most cases, where they might have been originally issued.
For more:
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=&sql=10:dcfuxqlrldke
