CAROL OF HARVEST - Carol Of Harvest (1978-2001) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

One of the many German bands to release a single album on a private label and watch it grow into a collector's dream. Carol of Harvest played a dreamy blend of Progressive Rock and Folk with female vocals that might be compared with Mellow Candle and early Clannad mixed with Jane, Pentangle and Renaissance. The music has the added edge of long arrangements with Moog synth and acid guitar solos, and in reality has little to do with Krautrock.
Information on the band members is very hard to find, helping to shroud this hard to find album with an air of mystery.  progarchives
Tracklist:
1. Put On Your Nightcap (16:02)
2. You And Me (2:31)
3. Somewhere At The End Of The Rainbow (6:26)
4. Treary Eyes (4:17)
5. Try A Little Bit (9:59)
Total Time: 39:14
- Bonus Tracks -
6. River (2:36)
7. Sweet Heroin (7:04)
8. Brickstone (1:14)
Total Time: 50:08
Credits
Bass – Heinz Reinschlüssel
Drums – Roger Högn
Guitar – Axel Schmierer
Keyboards – Jürgen Kolb
Producer – Carol Of Harvest
Producer, Recorded By – Peter Klimek
Technician – Helmut Reinschlüssel
Voice – Beate Krause

JEFFERSON AIRPLANE (1966-1972) 8 Albums / FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Long John SilverJefferson Airplane was the first of the San Francisco psychedelic rock groups of the 1960s to achieve national recognition. Although the Grateful Dead ultimately proved more long-lived and popular, Jefferson Airplane defined the San Francisco sound in the '60s, with the acid rock guitar playing of Jorma Kaukonen and the soaring twin vocals of Grace Slick and Marty Balin, scoring hit singles and landing on the cover of national magazines. They epitomized the drug-taking hippie ethos as well as the left-wing antiwar political movement of their time, and their history was one of controversy along with hit records. Their personal interactions mirrored those times; the group was a collective with shifting alliances in which leaders emerged and retreated. But for all the turmoil, Jefferson Airplane was remarkably productive between 1965 and 1972. They toured regularly, being the only band to play at all the major '60s rock festivals -- Monterey, Woodstock, even Altamont -- and they released seven studio albums, five of which went gold, plus two live LPs and a million-selling hits collection that chronicled their eight chart singles. After 1972's Long John Silver, the Airplane split, with Slick and guitarist Paul Kantner forming Jefferson Starship, and guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady playing together in Hot Tuna. The original lineup of Starship wound up reuniting for an album and tour in 1989.
The initial idea for the group that became Jefferson Airplane came from 23-year-old Marty Balin, a San Francisco-raised singer who had recorded unsuccessfully for Challenge Records in 1962 and been a member of a folk group called the Town Criers in 1963-1964. With the Beatles-led British Invasion of 1964, Balin saw the merging of folk with rock in early 1965 and decided to form a group to play the hybrid style as well as open a club for the group to play in. He interested three investors in converting a pizza restaurant on Fillmore Street into a 100-seat venue called the Matrix, and he began picking potential bandmembers from among the musicians at a folk club called the Drinking Gourd. His first recruit was rhythm guitarist/singer Paul Kantner, who in turn recommended lead guitarist/singer Jorma Kaukonen. Balin, who possessed a keening tenor, wanted a complementary powerful female voice for the group and found it in Signe Toly. The six-piece band was completed by bass player Bob Harvey and drummer Jerry Peloquin. Their unusual name was suggested by Kaukonen, who had once jokingly been dubbed "Blind Thomas Jefferson Airplane" by a friend in reference to the blues singer Blind Lemon Jefferson.
Jefferson Airplane made their debut at the Matrix on August 13, 1965 and began performing at the club regularly. They attracted favorable press attention, which -- at a time when folk-rock performers like Sonny & Cher, We Five, Bob Dylan, the Byrds, the Beau Brummels, and the Turtles were all over the charts -- led to record company interest. By September, Jefferson Airplane was being wooed by several labels. At the same time, the band was already undergoing changes. Peloquin was fired and replaced by Skip Spence. Spence considered himself a guitarist, not a drummer, but he had some drumming experience. Also in September, Signe Toly married Jerry Anderson, who handled lights at the Matrix, becoming known as Signe Anderson. In October, Harvey was fired and replaced by Jack Casady, a friend of Kaukonen's. On November 15, 1965, this lineup -- Balin, Kantner, Anderson, Kaukonen, Spence, and Casady -- signed to RCA Victor Records. They had their first recording session in Los Angeles on December 16, and RCA released their debut single, Balin's composition "It's No Secret," in February 1966; it didn't chart. Meanwhile, Jefferson Airplane began to appear at more prestigious venues in San Francisco and tour outside the Bay Area. In May 1966, Anderson gave birth to a daughter, and caring for the child while performing with the band became a challenge. Meanwhile, Spence became increasingly unreliable as his appetite for drugs increased and was replaced in June by session drummer Spencer Dryden. Spence went on to form the band Moby Grape.
Takes OffFollowing a second non-charting single, Balin and Kantner's "Come Up the Years," in July, Jefferson Airplane released their debut LP, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, on August 15, 1966, just over a year after the band's debut. The album had modest sales, peaking at only number 128 during its 11 weeks on the Billboard chart. (A third single, Balin and Kantner's "Bringing Me Down," was released from the album, but didn't chart.) At this point, Anderson's commitment to her family led her departure from the group. Jefferson Airplane was able to find a strong replacement for her in Grace Slick, the lead singer for the San Francisco rock band the Great Society, which happened to be in the process of breaking up at the same time. Slick joined Jefferson Airplane in mid-October 1966, and by the end of the month, was with them in the recording studio. She brought with her two songs from the Great Society repertoire: the rock tune "Somebody to Love," written by her brother-in-law Darby Slick, the Great Society's guitarist, and her own composition, the ballad "White Rabbit," set to a bolero tempo, which used imagery from Alice in Wonderland to discuss the impact of psychedelic drugs. Both songs were recorded for Jefferson Airplane's second album, Surrealistic Pillow.
RCA did not release either of them as the advance single from the album, opting instead for the departed Spence's "My Best Friend" in January 1967; it became the group's fourth single to miss the charts. Surrealistic Pillow followed in February. It debuted in the charts the last week of March, and its progress sped up with the release of "Somebody to Love," the first Jefferson Airplane single to feature Grace Slick as lead vocalist. By early May, both the album and single were in the Top 40 of their respective charts; a month later, both were in the Top Ten. With that, RCA released "White Rabbit" as a single, and it too reached the Top Ten. Surrealistic Pillow became Jefferson Airplane's first gold album in July.
Meanwhile, the band, which, naturally, had attracted national media attention (much of it focusing on Slick's photogenic looks), began recording a new album and continued to tour. On June 17, 1967, they performed at the Monterey International Pop Festival, which was celebrated for introducing many of the new San Francisco rock bands (as well as the Jimi Hendrix Experience) and launching the "Summer of Love" in 1967. Jefferson Airplane's performance was filmed and recorded. Two songs from their show, "High Flying Bird" and "Today," were featured in the documentary Monterey Pop, released in 1968. The concert recording was heavily bootlegged and over the years has turned up on numerous gray-market releases as well.
After Bathing at Baxter'sThe nature of Jefferson Airplane's commercial breakthrough, and the nature of the band itself, restricted their commercial appeal thereafter. AM Top 40 radio, in particular, became wary of a group that had scored a hit with a song widely derided for its drug references, and Jefferson Airplane never again enjoyed the kind of widespread radio support they would have needed to score more Top Ten hits. At the same time, the group did not think of itself as a hitmaking machine, and its recordings were becoming more adventurous. Kantner's "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil," the band's new single released in August, featured him as lead singer with Slick and Balin harmonizing. It reached number 42 on the strength of the band's prominence. At the same time, the rise of FM radio, attracted to longer cuts and the kind of experimental work the group was starting to do, gave them a new way of exposing their music. Nevertheless, their third album, After Bathing at Baxter's, its songs arranged into lengthy suites, was not as successful as Surrealistic Pillow when it appeared on November 27, 1967, reaching the Top 20 but failing to go gold. Also notable was the diminished participation of Marty Balin, who co-wrote only one song, and now was being marginalized in the group he had founded.
Crown of CreationAfter Kantner's "Watch Her Ride," released as a single from After Bathing at Baxter's, stalled at number 61, RCA released a new Jefferson Airplane single written and sung by Slick in the spring of 1968. But radio was even more resistant, and "Greasy Heart" stopped at number 98. It was included on the band's fourth album, Crown of Creation, released in August. The title track got to number 64 as a single, and the LP, which featured more concise, less experimental tracks than After Bathing at Baxter's, marked a resurgence in the group's commercial success, reaching the Top Ten and eventually going gold. Jefferson Airplane's live appeal was chronicled on the concert album Bless Its Pointed Little Head, released in February 1969. In August, the group appeared at the Woodstock festival, and it was featured on the million-selling triple-LP soundtrack album to the resulting film in 1970, though it did not appear onscreen in the version initially released. The band's fifth studio album, Volunteers, appeared in October 1969 as its title song became a minor singles chart entry. Volunteers stopped short of the Top Ten, but it went gold in three months. On December 6, 1969, the band played at the Rolling Stones' disastrous Altamont free concert in California, its performance (complete with Balin's beating at the hands of Hell's Angels) captured in the 1970 documentary film Gimme Shelter.
Jefferson Airplane released one more single, the non-charting marijuana anthem "Mexico," in 1970 in its familiar configuration, but the turn of the 1970s brought great changes in the group. Already, Kaukonen and Casady, with assorted sidemen, had begun to play separately as Hot Tuna while maintaining their membership in Jefferson Airplane; they had recorded shows the previous September for a self-titled debut album issued in May 1970. Spencer Dryden was fired early in the year and replaced by drummer Joey Covington. At shows performed in October 1970, violinist Papa John Creach, who had been performing with Hot Tuna, first played with Jefferson Airplane. Creach was a journeyman musician decades older than any of the other bandmembers, and his recruitment was evidence of the ways in which the band's approach was changing. An even more radical change was the departure of Marty Balin, who left the band at the end of the fall tour in November.
The Worst of Jefferson AirplaneJefferson Airplane did not have a new album ready for release in 1970, and RCA filled the gap with a compilation, sarcastically dubbed The Worst of Jefferson Airplane and released in November. The album went gold quickly and was later certified platinum. Issued on its heels was Paul Kantner's debut solo album, Blows Against the Empire, featuring most of the members of Jefferson Airplane as well as various other musical friends. Due to that long list of sidemen and the album's science fiction theme about a group of hippies hijacking a spaceship, Kantner co-billed the disc to "Jefferson Starship." As yet, there was no such entity, but Kantner would use the name for a real band later.
BarkHaving completed their recording commitment to RCA, Jefferson Airplane shopped for a new label, but was wooed back when RCA offered them their own imprint, Grunt Records. Grunt bowed with the release of the sixth Jefferson Airplane studio album, Bark, in August 1971. The album stopped just short of the Top Ten and quickly went gold. Covington, Casady, and Kaukonen's "Pretty as You Feel," later issued as a single, gave the band its final placing in the Hot 100 at number 60 early in 1972. Grunt issued albums by bandmembers including Creach and Hot Tuna, as well as discs by friends, but Jefferson Airplane remained its most successful act. by William Ruhlmann
Albums:

Jefferon Airplane Takes Off (1966-2008)

The debut Jefferson Airplane album was dominated by singer Marty Balin, who wrote or co-wrote all the original material and sang most of the lead vocals in his heartbreaking tenor with Paul Kantner and Signe Anderson providing harmonies and backup. (Anderson's lead vocal on "Chauffeur Blues" indicated she was at least the equal of her successor, Grace Slick, as a belter.) The music consisted mostly of folk-rock love songs, the most memorable of which were "It's No Secret" and "Come up the Years." (There was also a striking version of Dino Valente's "Get Together" recorded years before the Youngbloods' hit version.) Jorma Kaukonen already displayed a talent for mixing country, folk, and blues riffs in a rock context, and Jack Casady already had a distinctive bass sound. But the Airplane of Balin-Kantner-Kaukonen-Anderson-Casady-Spence is to be distinguished from the Balin-Kantner-Kaukonen-Casady-Slick-Dryden version of the band that would emerge on record five months later chiefly by Balin's dominance. Later, Grace Slick would become the group's vocal and visual focal point. On Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, the Airplane was still Balin's group. by William Ruhlmann  
Tracklist:
1. Blues From An Airplane
2. Let Me In
3. Bringing Me Down
4. It's No Secret
5. Tobacco Road
6. Come Up The Year
7. Run Around
8. Let's Get Together
9. Don't Slip Away
10. Chauffeur Blues
11. And I Like It
Bonus Tracks
12. Runnin' Round This World
13. High Flying Bird
14. It's Alright
15. Go To Her (Early Version)
16. Let Me In (Original Uncensored Version)
17. Run Around (Original Uncensored Version)
18. Chauffeur Blues (Alternate Version)
19. And I Like It (Alternate Version) / Blues From An Airplane (Instrumental)

Surrealistic Pillow (1967-2008)

The second album by Jefferson Airplane, Surrealistic Pillow was a groundbreaking piece of folk-rock-based psychedelia, and it hit like a shot heard round the world; where the later efforts from bands like the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and especially, the Charlatans, were initially not too much more than cult successes, Surrealistic Pillow rode the pop charts for most of 1967, soaring into that rarefied Top Five region occupied by the likes of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and so on, to which few American rock acts apart from the Byrds had been able to lay claim since 1964. And decades later the album still comes off as strong as any of those artists' best work. From the Top Ten singles "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love" to the sublime "Embryonic Journey," the sensibilities are fierce, the material manages to be both melodic and complex (and it rocks, too), and the performances, sparked by new member Grace Slick on most of the lead vocals, are inspired, helped along by Jerry Garcia (serving as spiritual and musical advisor and sometimes guitarist). Every song is a perfectly cut diamond, too perfect in the eyes of the bandmembers, who felt that following the direction of producer Rick Jarrard and working within three- and four-minute running times, and delivering carefully sung accompaniments and succinct solos, resulted in a record that didn't represent their real sound. Regardless, they did wonderful things with the music within that framework, and the only pity is that RCA didn't record for official release any of the group's shows from the same era, when this material made up the bulk of their repertory. That way the live versions, with the band's creativity unrestricted, could be compared and contrasted with the record. The songwriting was spread around between Marty Balin, Slick, Paul Kantner, and Jorma Kaukonen, and Slick and Balin (who never had a prettier song than "Today," which he'd actually written for Tony Bennett) shared the vocals; the whole album was resplendent in a happy balance of all of these creative elements, before excessive experimentation (musical and chemical) began affecting the band's ability to do a straightforward song. The group never made a better album, and few artists from the era ever did. by Bruce Eder 
Tracklist:

1. She Has Funny Cars

2. Somebody To Love

3. My Best Friend

4. Today

5. Comin' Back To Me

6. 3/5 Of A Mile In 10 Seconds

7. D.C.B.A.-25

8. How Do You Feel

9. Embryonic Journey

10. White Rabbit

11. Plastic Fantastic Lover

Bonus Tracks

12. In The Morning

13. J.P.P. Mc Step B. Blues

14. Go To Her

15. Come Back Baby

16. Somebody To Love (Mono Single Version)

17. White Rabbit (Mono Single Version)

After Bathing At Baxters (1967-2008)

The Jefferson Airplane opened 1967 with Surrealistic Pillow and closed it with After Bathing at Baxter's, and what a difference ten months made. Bookending the year that psychedelia emerged in full bloom as a freestanding musical form, After Bathing at Baxter's was among the purest of rock's psychedelic albums, offering few concessions to popular taste and none to the needs of AM radio, which made it nowhere remotely as successful as its predecessor, but it was also a lot more daring. The album also showed a band in a state of ferment, as singer/guitarist Marty Balin largely surrendered much of his creative input in the band he'd founded, and let Paul Kantner and Grace Slick dominate the songwriting and singing on all but one cut ("Young Girl Sunday Blues"). The group had found the preceding album a little too perfect, and not fully representative of the musicians or what they were about, and they were determined to do the music their way on Baxter's; additionally, they'd begun to see how far they could take music (and music could take them) in concert, in terms of capturing variant states of consciousness.
Essentially, After Bathing at Baxter's was the group's attempt to create music that captured what the psychedelic experience sounded and felt like to them from the inside; on a psychic level, it was an introverted exercise in music-making and a complete reversal of the extroverted experience in putting together Surrealistic Pillow. Toward that end, they were working "without a net," for although Al Schmitt was the nominal producer, he gave the group the freedom to indulge in any experimentation they chose to attempt, effectively letting them produce themselves. They'd earned the privilege, after two huge hit singles and the Top Five success of the prior album, all of which had constituted RCA's first serious new rock success (and the label's first venture to the music's cutting edge) since Elvis Presley left the Army. The resulting record was startlingly different from their two prior LPs; there were still folk and blues elements present in the music, but these were mostly transmuted into something very far from what any folksinger or bluesman might recognize. Kantner, Jorma Kaukonen, and Jack Casady cranked up their instruments; Spencer Dryden hauled out an array of percussive devices that was at least twice as broad as anything used on the previous album; and everybody ignored the length of what they were writing and recording, or how well they sang, or how cleanly their voices meshed. The group emerged four months later with one of the rawest, most in-your-face records to come out of the psychedelic era, and also a maddeningly uneven record, exciting and challenging in long stretches, yet elsewhere very close to stultifyingly boring, delightful in its most fulfilling moments (which were many), but almost deliberately frustrating in its digressions, and amid all of that, very often beautiful.
The album's 11 songs formed five loosely constructed "suites," that didn't ease listeners into those structures. Opening "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil" (a Kantner-authored tribute to Fred Neil) amid a cascading wash of feedback leading to a slashing guitar figure, the band's three singers struggle to meld their voices and keep up. A softer, almost folk-like interlude, highlighted by Slick's upper-register keening, breaks up the beat until the guitar, bass, and drums crash back in, with a bit of piano embellishment. Then listeners get to the real break, an almost subdued interlude on the guitars, and a return to the song at a more frenzied pitch, the guitar part dividing and evolving into ever more brittle components until a crescendo and more feedback leads to "A Small Package of Value Will Come to You, Shortly." This brilliantly comical and clever percussion showcase co-authored by Spencer Dryden and the band's manager, Bill Thompson, is a million miles beyond any drummer's featured number in any popular band of that era, and it leads into Marty Balin's "Young Girl Sunday Blues," the most rhythmically consistent song here and one of a tiny handful of moments that seem to slightly resemble the band's past work. The aforementioned tracks comprise just the first suite, designated "Steetmasse."
"The War Is Over" suite opens with "Martha," the album's folk-style interlude, almost a throwback to the group's original sound, except that the listener suddenly finds himself in the midst of a psychedelic delirium, heralded by the dissonant accompaniment and a high-energy fuzztone guitar solo (spinning out sitar-like notes) coming out of nowhere and a speed change that slows the tempo to zero, as though the tape (or time, or the listener's perception of it) were stretching out, and the pounding, exuberant "Wild Tyme," a celebration of seemingly uninhibited joy. "Hymn to the Older Generation" is made up of Kaukonen's "The Last Wall of the Castle," an alternately slashing and chiming guitar pyrotechnic showcase that rivaled anything heard from Jimi Hendrix or the Who that year, and Grace Slick's gorgeous "Rejoyce," a hauntingly beautiful excursion into literary psychedelia, whose James Joyce allusions carry the Lewis Carroll literary allusions of the previous album's "White Rabbit" into startlingly new and wonderful (if discursive) directions and depths. "How Suite It Is" opens with the album's single, the lean, rhythmic "Watch Her Ride," whose pretty harmonies and gently psychedelic lyrics persuaded RCA that this was their best shot at AM airplay and, true to form on an album filled with contradictions, it leads into "Spare Chaynge," the crunching, searing, sometimes dirge-like nine-minute jam by Kaukonen, Dryden, and Casady that wasn't ever going to get on AM radio -- ever -- and, indeed, might well initially repel any Airplane fan who only knew their hit singles. "Shizoforest Love Suite" closes the album with Slick's "Two Heads," with its vocal acrobatics and stop-and-go beat, and "Won't You Try"/"Saturday Afternoon," the latter Kantner's musical tribute to the first San Francisco "Be-In" (memorialized more conventionally by the Byrds on "Renaissance Fair"); it features many of the more subdued, relaxed, languid moments on the record, divided by a killer fuzz-laden guitar solo.
Needless to say, this is not the album for neophytes -- "Spare Chaynge" remains an acquired taste, a lot more aimless than, say, the extended jams left behind by the Quicksilver Messenger Service, though it did point the way toward what Kaukonen and Casady would aim for more successfully when they formed Hot Tuna. But most of the rest is indisputably among the more alluring musical experimentation of the period, and Kantner's "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil" and "Watch Her Ride," as well as Balin's "Young Girl Sunday Blues," proved that the group could still rock out with a beat, even if not so prettily or cleanly as before. by Bruce Eder  
Tracklist:
1. The Ballad Of You & Me & Pooneil
2. A Small Package Of Value Will Come To You, Shortly
3. Young Girl Sunday Blues
4. Martha
5. Wild Tyme
6. The Last Wall Of The Castle
7. Rejoyce
8. Watch Her Ride
9. Spare Chaynge
10. Two Heads
11. Won't You Try / Saturday Afternoon
Bonus Tracks
12. The Ballad Of You & Me & Pooneil (Alternate Version)
13. Martha (Single Version)
14. Two Heads (Alternate Version)
15. Things Are Better In The East (Marty's Accoustic Demo)

Crown Of Creation (1968-2008)

Crown of Creation appeared ten months after their last album, After Bathing at Baxter's, and it doesn't take the same kind of leap forward that Baxter's did from Surrealistic Pillow. Indeed, in many ways, Crown of Creation is a more conservative album stylistically, opening with "Lather," a Grace Slick original that was one of the group's very last forays (and certainly their last prominent one) into a folk idiom. Much of what follows is a lot more based in electric rock, as well as steeped in elements of science fiction (specifically author John Wyndham's book The Chrysalids) in several places, but Crown of Creation was still deliberately more accessible musically than its predecessor, even as the playing became more bold and daring within more traditional song structures. Jack Casady by this time had developed one of the most prominent and distinctive bass sounds in American rock, as identifiable (if not quite as bracing) as John Entwistle's was with the Who, as demonstrated on "In Time," "Star Track," "Share a Little Joke," "If You Feel" (where he's practically a second lead instrument), and the title song, and Jorma Kaukonen's slashing, angular guitar attack was continually surprising as his snaking lead guitar parts wended their way through "Star Track" and "Share a Little Joke." The album also reflected the shifting landscape of West Coast music with its inclusion of "Triad," a David Crosby song that Crosby's own group, the Byrds, had refused to release -- its presence (the only extant version of the song for a number of years) was a forerunner of the sound that would later be heard on Crosby's own debut solo album, If I Could Only Remember My Name (on which Slick, Paul Kantner, and Casady would appear). The overall album captured the group's rapidly evolving, very heavy live sound within the confines of some fairly traditional song structures, and left ample room for Slick and Marty Balin to express themselves vocally, with Balin turning in one of his most heartfelt and moving performances on "If You Feel." "Ice Cream Phoenix" pulses with energy and "Greasy Heart" became a concert standard for the group -- the studio original of the latter is notable for Slick's most powerful vocal performance since "Somebody to Love." And the album's big finish, "The House at Pooneil Corners," seemed to fire on all cylinders, their amps cranked up to ten (maybe 11 for Casady), and Balin, Slick, and Kantner stretching out on the disjointed yet oddly compelling tune and lyrics. It didn't work 100 percent of the time, but it made for a shattering finish to the album. by Bruce Eder
Tracklist:
1. Lather
2. In Time
3. Triad
4. Star Track
5. Share A Little Joke
6. Chushingura
7. If You Feel
8. Crown Of Creation
9. Ice Cream Phoenix
10. Greasy Heart
11. The House At Pooneil Corners
Bonus Tracks
12. Ribumbabap Rubadubaoumoum
13. Would You Like A Snack
14. Share A Little Joke (Mono Single Version)
15. The Saga Of Sydney Spacepig

Bless Its Pointed Little Head (1969-2008)

Jefferson Airplane's first live album demonstrated the group's development as concert performers, taking a number of songs that had been performed in concise, pop-oriented versions on their early albums -- "3/5's of a Mile in 10 Seconds," "Somebody to Love," "It's No Secret," "Plastic Fantastic Lover" -- and rendering them in arrangements that were longer, harder rocking, and more densely textured, especially in terms of the guitar and basslines constructed by Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady. The group's three-part vocal harmonizing and dueling was on display during such songs as a nearly seven-minute version of Fred Neil's folk-blues standard "The Other Side of This Life," here transformed into a swirling rocker. The album emphasized the talents of Kaukonen and singer Marty Balin over the team of Paul Kantner and Grace Slick, who had tended to dominate recent records: the blues song "Rock Me Baby" was a dry run for Hot Tuna, the band Kaukonen and Casady would form in two years, and Balin turned in powerful vocal performances on several of his own compositions, notably "It's No Secret." Jefferson Airplane was still at its best in concise, driving numbers, rather than in the jams on Donovan's "Fat Angel" (running 7:35) or the group improv "Bear Melt" (11:21); they were just too intense to stretch out comfortably. But Bless Its Pointed Little Head served an important function in the group's discography, demonstrating that their live work had a distinctly different focus and flavor from their studio recordings. by William Ruhlmann  
Tracklist:
1. Clergy
2. 3/5 Of A Mile In 10 Seconds
3. Somebody To Love
4. Fat Angel
5. Rock Me Baby
6. The Other Side Of This Life
7. It's No Secret
8. Plastic Fantastic Lover
9. Turn Out The Lights
10. Bear Melt
Bonus Tracks
11. Today
12. Watch Her Ride
13. Won't You Try

Volunteers (1969-2011)

Controversial at the time, delayed because of fights with the record company over lyrical content and the original title (Volunteers of America), Volunteers was a powerful release that neatly closed out and wrapped up the '60s. Here, the Jefferson Airplane presents itself in full revolutionary rhetoric, issuing a call to "tear down the walls" and "get it on together." "We Can Be Together" and "Volunteers" bookend the album, offering musical variations on the same chord progression and lyrical variations on the same theme. Between these politically charged rock anthems, the band offers a mix of words and music that reflect the competing ideals of simplicity and getting "back to the earth," and overthrowing greed and exploitation through political activism, adding a healthy dollop of psychedelic sci-fi for texture. Guitarist Jorma Kaukonen's beautiful arrangement of the traditional "Good Shepherd" is a standout here, and Jerry Garcia's pedal steel guitar gives "The Farm" an appropriately rural feel. The band's version of "Wooden Ships" is much more eerie than that released earlier in the year by Crosby, Stills & Nash. Oblique psychedelia is offered here via Grace Slick's "Hey Frederick" and ecologically tinged "Eskimo Blue Day." Drummer Spencer Dryden gives an inside look at the state of the band in the country singalong "A Song for All Seasons."
The musical arrangements here are quite potent. Nicky Hopkins' distinctive piano highlights a number of tracks, and Kaukonen's razor-toned lead guitar is the recording's unifying force, blazing through the mix, giving the album its distinctive sound. Although the political bent of the lyrics may seem dated to some, listening to Volunteers is like opening a time capsule on the end of an era, a time when young people still believed music had the power to change the world. by Jim Newsom  
Tracklist:
1. We Can Be Together
2. Good Shepherd
3. The Farm
4. Hey Frederick
5. Turn My Life Down
6. Wooden Ships
7. Eskimo Blue Day
8. A Song For All Seasons
9. Meadowlands
10. Volunteers
Bonus Tracks
11. Good Shepherd (Live)
12. Somebody To Love (Live)
13. Plastic Fantastic Lover (Live)
14. Wooden Ships (Live)
15. Volunteers (Live)

Bark (1971-2011)

Bark, Jefferson Airplane's seventh album, was an album of firsts: it was the first Airplane album in almost two years, the first made after the arrival of violinist Papa John Creach and the departure of band founder Marty Balin, and the first to be released on the group's own Grunt Records label. It was also the first Airplane album made after the onset of that familiar rock group disease, solo career-itis. Rhythm guitarist Paul Kantner had released his Blows Against the Empire, and Hot Tuna, the band formed by lead guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady, had released two albums since the last Airplane group release, Volunteers. Bark, perhaps as a result, was not so much a group record as a bunch of songs made by alternating solo artists with backup by the other group members. (Did someone say White Album?) Kantner's tunes were science-fiction epics reminiscent of Blows; Kaukonen's "Feel So Good" and the instrumental "Wild Turkey" were indistinguishable from Hot Tuna music, while his lilting ballad, "Third Week in the Chelsea," was nothing less than his resignation from the band, rendered in song; while Grace Slick's two contributions were characteristically idiosyncratic. The album's surprise was "Pretty as You Feel," a chart single that emerged out of a jam between new drummer Joey Covington, Casady, and Kaukonen. All of which is to say that there were some excellent songs on Bark (as well as some mediocre ones), even if the whole added up to less than the sum of the parts. by William Ruhlmann  
Tracklist:

1. When The Earth Moves Again

2. Feel So Good

3. Crazy Miranda

4. Pretty As You Feel

5. Wild Turkey

6. Law Man

7. Rock And Roll Island

8. Third Week In The Chelsea

9. Never Argue With A German If You're Tired Or European Song

10. Thunk

11. War Movie

Long John Silver (1972-2011)

The final Jefferson Airplane studio album -- if their half-hearted 'reunion' from 1989 isn't (and really shouldn't be) counted -- presented yet another alteration in the band's lineup. Not only would Long John Silver (1972) be the second project minus co-founder Marty Balin (vocals), who left after Volunteers (1969), but Joey Covington (drums) also split before the long-player was completed, forming his own combo, the short-lived Black Kangaroo. Covington contributes to a pair of Paul Kantner's (guitar/vocals) better offerings "Twilight Double Leader" and "The Son of Jesus," while Hot Tuna kinsman Sammy Piazza (drums) lends a hand to Jorma Kaukonen's (guitar/vocals) whimsical "Trial by Fire." Eventually, Turtles' and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young percussionist John Barbata (drums) would fill the drummer's stool for the remainder of the Airplane's rapid descent. He would likewise make the transition alongside Kantner, Grace Slick (piano/vocals) and Papa John Creach (violin) into the brave new world of Jefferson Starship. Even more so than on their previous platter, Bark (1971), the material featured on Long John Silver rather blatantly exposes the two disparate factions to have emerged from the once unified Airplane. The Kaukonen/Jack Casady (bass) offshoot -- à la Hot Tuna -- and Kantner/Slick, whose Blows Against the Empire (1970) from two years earlier clearly pointed to the exceedingly cerebral approach evident on Slick's indistinct "Aerie (Gang of Eagles)" and "Easter?," or the mid-tempo meandering of Kantner's "Alexander the Medium." The edgy, blues-infused rocker "Milk Train" is one of the few standouts on Long John Silver, giving Creach a platform for his ever-adaptable and soaring fiddle. Quite possibly the heaviest selection on the package is the Slick/Kaukonen co-composition "Eat Starch Mom." Appropriately, it concludes the effort on a positive charge with the Airplane hitting on all cylinders before landing the craft (for all intents and purposes) the last time. When the LP hit store shelves in the summer of 1972, it became instantly notorious for the cover that transformed into a cigar (read: stash) box. The inner sleeve went as far as reproducing the image of tightly compressed domestic ganja, replete with sticks, seeds and stems. by Lindsay Planer  

Tracklist:

1. Long John Silver

2. Aerie (Gang Of Eagles)

3. Twilight Double Leader

4. Milk Train

5. The Son Of Jesus

6. Easter?

7. Trial By Fire

8. Alexander The Medium

9. Eat Starch Mom

A BARCA DO SOL - A Barca do Sol (1974) FLAC (tracks), lossless

A Barca Do Sol was a group that was active between 1974 and 1981. Several of its members became famous musicians or interpreters: Jaques Morelembaum (cello), David Ganc (flutes), Ritchie (flute), Nando Carneiro (violão), and the brothers Muri and Marcelo Costa. The group's concept was to provide acoustic renditions of their originals, based on American folk, in the preferred 6/8 time signature of the Clube da Esquina gang (the structure that their beautiful hit, included here, "Lady Jane," is based on), in the harmony lessons of Egberto Gismonti and Dori Caymmi, and in progressive rock (some of the flute attacks are obviously reminiscent of Jethro Tull's). This is the CD reissue of the first two of their three recorded LPs, A Barca Do Sol (1974) and Durante O verão (1976). The lyrics are an important aspect of their work; for example, "Lady Jane" was inspired both by the Rolling Stones and by D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chaterley roman (in that book, the protagonists call each other's sexual organs "Lady Jane" and "John Thomas"). Egberto Gismonti appears in two tracks playing a synthesizer, an innovation in those times in Brazil. by Alvaro Neder 
Tracklist:
1 A Primeira Batalha 3:05
Written-By – Afonso Carlos Costa, Nando Carneiro
2 Brilho Da Noite 4:03
Written-By – Geraldo E. Carneiro, Nando Carneiro
3 Arremesso 3:43
Written-By – João Carlos Pádua, Nando Carneiro
4 As Boas Consciências 3:07
Written-By – Geraldo E. Carneiro, Nando Carneiro
5 Caminhão 4:33
Written-By – Afonso Carlos Costa, Daniel Mendes Campos, Nando Carneiro
6 Lady Jane 2:20
Written-By – Geraldo E. Carneiro, Nando Carneiro
7 Dragão Da Bondade 3:00
Written-By – João Carlos Pádua, Nando Carneiro
8 Alaska 3:30
Written-By – Geraldão Carneiro, Nando Carneiro
9 Fantasma Da Ópera 2:44
Written-By – Geraldo E. Carneiro, Mauricio Costa
10 Corsário Satã 4:12
Written-By – João Carlos Pádua, Nando Carneiro
11 A Barca Do Sol 3:16
Written-By – João Carlos Pádua, Mauricio Costa, Nando Carneiro
Credits:
Acoustic Bass, Electric Bass – Marcos Stul
Flute – Marcelo Bernardes
Percussion – Marcelo Costa
Percussion, Viola, Guitar, Guitar [Violão] – Beto Rezende
Producer – Egberto Gismonti
Synthesizer – Egberto Gismonti (tracks: 3, 8)
Vocals, Guitar [Violão] – Nando Carneiro
Vocals, Viola, Guitar [Violão] – Muri Costa
Vocals, Violin, Cello – Jaquinho Morelenbaum

A BARCA DO SOL - Durante o Verão (1976) FLAC (tracks), lossless

Tracklist:
1 Durante O Verão 2:48
Written-By – Geraldo E. Carneiro, Nando Carneiro
2 Hotel Colonial 5:55
Written-By – Geraldo E. Carneiro, Muri Costa
3 A Língua & A Bainha 2:50
Written-By – Jose R. Resende, Geraldo E. Carneiro, Nando Carneiro
4 Os Pilares Da Cultura 2:41
Written-By – Geraldo E. Carneiro, Jaques Morelembaum
5 Karen 2:20
Written-By – Alain P. Ribero De Magalhães
6 Memorial Day 4:29
Written-By – Geraldo Eduardo Carneiro, Jaques Morelembaum
7 O Banquete 3:44
Written-By – João Carlos Pádua, Nando Carneiro
8 Belladonna, Lady Of The Rocks 6:25
Written-By – Geraldo E. Carneiro, Nando Carneiro
9 Outros Carnavais 2:44
Written-By – Geraldo E. Carneiro, Jaques Morelembaum
Credits:
Acoustic Bass, Electric Bass – Alain
Arranged By – A Barca Do Sol
Drums, Percussion – Marcelo
Flute – David
Percussion, Viola, Guitar, Guitar [Violão] – Beto
Vocals, Guitar [Violão] – Nando
Vocals, Viola, Guitar [Violão], Percussion – Muri
Vocals, Violin, Cello, Piano – Jaquinho

JONI MITCHELL - 1968-1979 The Studio Albums (2012) 10CD BOX-SET / FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

One has to wonder why this box, Joni Mitchell's The Studio Albums 1968-1979, was issued only in the European market. During this period --and some would argue even after -- Mitchell had one of most consistent quality runs in pop history. She is one of the most influential songwriters and recording artists of the 20th century. Included here are Song to a Seagull, Clouds, Ladies of the Canyon, Blue, For the Roses, Court and Spark, Hissing of Summer Lawns, Hejira, the double album Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, and Mingus. The first four are regarded as her "singer/songwriter" era offerings, the next one (For the Roses) details her crossing over into pop success (without compromise, of course), and the final five as her "jazz period," an era that lasted longer than her tenure with Warner Bros, and into her years at Geffen. What's remarkable is that they are all indelibly Mitchell. From the earliest, her vocal phrasing and guitar playing were just off enough to underscore the depth and poetry in her lyrics. By the time she reached For the Roses, she was already inventing new melodic and rhythmic paths. By Hissing of Summer Lawns, Hejira, and especially on Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, she was off-road, cutting a new swath of rhythmic invention in popular music, utilizing jazz syncopation and harmonics, Brazilian and Latin rhythms, and even modal elements that seemed to make time, melody, and lyric concerns more elastic. There is a great anecdote from Robbie Robertson about Mitchell asking the Band to back her at the Watkins Glen rock festival. They were unable to play with her because only drummer Levon Helm could flow with her sense of groove. All these albums feature their own mini-LP sleeves (no fancy paper, sorry). There is no bonus material of any kind included. The art is not so much redone as extremely reduced, making most of the print small enough that reading can be difficult. There is no liner essay in the package, either. The plus -- in addition to a stellar body of music -- is that the price is right; each album prices out to considerably less than these recordings sell for individually.  by Thom Jurek 

1968 - Song To A Seagull 

Tracklist:
01. I Had A King 03:37
02. Michael From Mountains 03:41
03. Night In The City 02:29
04. Marcie 04:35
05. Nathan La Franeer 03:20
06. Sisotowbell Lane 04:04
07. The Dawntreader 05:04
08. The Pirate Of Penance 02:44
09. Song To A Seagull 03:51
10. Cactus Tree 04:38
00:38:08

Joni Mitchell's debut release is a concept album. Side one, subtitled "I Came to the City," generally exhibits songs about urban subjects that are often dour or repressed in some way. "Out of the City and Down to the Seaside," by contrast, is a celebration of nature and countryside, mostly containing selections of a charming, positive, or more outgoing nature. What sets this release apart from those of other confession-style singer/songwriters of the time is the craft, subtlety, and evocative power of Mitchell's lyrics and harmonic style. Numbers such as "Marcie," "Michael From Mountains," "The Dawntreader," and "The Pirate of Penance" effectively utilize sophisticated chord progressions rarely found in this genre. Verses are substantive and highly charged, exhibiting careful workmanship. "Song to a Seagull" has graceful and vivid lyrics about the joys of freedom set to a haunting, wide-ranging vocal line. Conversely, "Cactus Tree" explores the downside of a no-strings-attached approach to life, the fear of committing to a relationship (ironically wedding these words to a hopeful melody and pulsating guitar texture). "Marcie" utilizes poignant, twisting music set to desolately lonely lyrics about a jilted woman; the recurrent use of red and green imagery in the verses is especially clever. Character studies such as "I Had a King" and "Nathan la Franeer" are painfully bleak in contrast to the lithe domestic scene of "Sisotowbell Lane" and the winsomely reserved love song "Michael From Mountains." Unusual in her oeuvre are the overlapping dialogue prose manner of "The Pirate of Penance" and the jaunty honky tonk stylings of "Night in the City." Mitchell sings in a light, gossamer, at times diffident manner; vocal harmony is sparingly employed here. David Crosby's production is simple and effective. This excellent debut is well worth hearing.  by David Cleary 
Credits:
Bass – Stephen Stills
Guitar [Banshee] – Lee Keefer
Guitar, Piano, Vocals, Written-By, Artwork, Guitar [Banshee] – Joni Mitchel

1969 - Clouds 

01. Tin Angel 04:09
02. Chelsea Morning 02:35
03. I Don't Know Where I Stand 03:13
04. That Song About The Midway 04:37
05. Roses Blue 03:52
06. The Gallery 04:12
07. I Think I Understand 04:27
08. Songs To Aging Children Come 03:10
09. The Fiddle And The Drum 02:49
10. Both Sides, Now 04:34

00:37:42

Clouds is a stark stunner, a great leap forward for Joni Mitchell. Vocals here are more forthright and assured than on her debut and exhibit a remarkable level of subtle expressiveness. Guitar alone is used in accompaniment, and the variety of playing approaches and sounds gotten here is most impressive. "The Fiddle and the Drum," a protest song that imaginatively compares the Vietnam-era warmongering U.S. government to a bitter friend, dispenses with instrumental accompaniment altogether. The sketches presented of lovers by turns depressive ("Tin Angel"), roguish ("That Song About the Midway"), and faithless ("The Gallery") are vividly memorable. Forthright lyrics about the unsureness of new love ("I Don't Know Where I Stand"), misuse of the occult ("Roses Blue"), and mental illness ("I Think I Understand") are very striking. Mitchell's classic singer/songwriter standards "Chelsea Morning" and "Both Sides Now" respectively receive energetically vibrant and warmly thoughtful performances. Imaginatively unusual and subtle harmonies abound here, never more so in her body of work than on the remarkable "Songs to Aging Children Come," which sets floridly impressionistic lyrics to a lovely tune that is supported by perhaps the most remarkably sophisticated chord sequence in all of pop music. Mitchell's riveting self-portrait on the album's cover is a further asset. This essential release is a must-listen.  by David Cleary 

Credits 

Bass, Guitar – Stephen Stills 

Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards, Producer, Artwork, Written-By – Joni Mitchell 

1970 - Ladies Of The Canyon 

01. Morning Morgantown 03:13
02. For Free 04:31
03. Conversation 04:26
04. Ladies Of The Canyon 03:32
05. Willy 03:00
06. The Arrangement 03:34
07. Rainy Night House 03:24
08. The Priest 03:40
09. Blue Boy 02:54
10. Big Yellow Taxi 02:15
11. Woodstock 05:29
12. The Circle Game 04:55
00:45:00

This wonderfully varied release shows a number of new tendencies in Joni Mitchell's work, some of which would come to fuller fruition on subsequent albums. "The Arrangement," "Rainy Night House," and "Woodstock" contain lengthy instrumental sections, presaging the extensive non-vocal stretches in later selections such as "Down to You" from Court and Spark. Jazz elements are noticeable in the wind solos of "For Free" and "Conversation," exhibiting an important influence that would extend as late as Mingus. The unusually poignant desolation of "The Arrangement" would surface more strongly in Blue. A number of the selections here ("Willy" and "Blue Boy") use piano rather than guitar accompaniment; arrangements here are often more colorful and complex than before, utilizing cello, clarinet, flute, saxophone, and percussion. Mitchell sings more clearly and expressively than on prior albums, most strikingly so on "Woodstock," her celebration of the pivotal 1960s New York rock festival. This number, given a haunting electric piano accompaniment, is sung in a gutsy, raw, soulful manner; the selection proves amply that pop music anthems don't all have to be loud production numbers. Songs here take many moods, ranging from the sunny, easygoing "Morning Morgantown" (a charming small-town portrait) to the nervously energetic "Conversation" (about a love triangle in the making) to the cryptically spooky "The Priest" (presenting the speaker's love for a Spartan man) to the sweetly sentimental classic "The Circle Game" (denoting the passage of time in touching terms) to the bouncy and vibrant single "Big Yellow Taxi" (with humorous lyrics on ecological matters) to the plummy, sumptuous title track (a celebration of creativity in all its manifestations). This album is yet another essential listen in Mitchell's recorded canon. by David Cleary
Credits 
Arranged By [Assisted On Arrangements For Cello] – Don Bagley
Baritone Saxophone – Jim Horn
Cello – Teressa Adams
Clarinet, Flute – Paul Horn
Composed By, Arranged By – Joni Mitchell
Percussion – Milt Holland
Vocals [Bop Vocal By] – The Saskatunes
Vocals, Guitar, Cover, Piano – Joni Mitchell

1971 - Blue

01. All I Want 03:34
02. My Old Man 03:34
03. Little Green 03:27
04. Carey 03:03
05. Blue 03:05
06. California 03:50
07. This Flight Tonight 02:52
08. River 04:05
09. A Case Of You 04:23
10. The Last Time I Saw Richard 04:16
 00:36:13

Sad, spare, and beautiful, Blue is the quintessential confessional singer/songwriter album. Forthright and poetic, Joni Mitchell's songs are raw nerves, tales of love and loss (two words with relative meaning here) etched with stunning complexity; even tracks like "All I Want," "My Old Man," and "Carey" -- the brightest, most hopeful moments on the record -- are darkened by bittersweet moments of sorrow and loneliness. At the same time that songs like "Little Green" (about a child given up for adoption) and the title cut (a hymn to salvation supposedly penned for James Taylor) raise the stakes of confessional folk-pop to new levels of honesty and openness, Mitchell's music moves beyond the constraints of acoustic folk into more intricate and diverse territory, setting the stage for the experimentation of her later work. Unrivaled in its intensity and insight, Blue remains a watershed. by Jason Ankeny
Credits 
Drums – Russ Kunkel (tracks: 4, 6, 9)
Guitar – James Taylor (tracks: 1, 6, 9)
Steel Guitar [Pedal Steel] – Sneeky Pete (tracks: 6, 7)
Written-By – Joni Mitchell

1972 - For The Roses 

01. Banquet 03:01
02. Cold Blue Steel And Sweet Fire 04:17
03. Barangrill 02:51
04. Lesson In Survival 03:11
05. Let The Wind Carry Me 03:56
06. For The Roses 03:48
07. See You Sometime 02:56
08. Electricity 03:01
09. You Turn Me On I'm A Radio 02:39
10. Blonde In The Bleachers 02:42
11. Woman Of Heart And Mind 02:38
12. Judgement Of The Moon And Stars (Ludwig's Tune) 05:19
00:40:25

On For the Roses, Joni Mitchell began to explore jazz and other influences in earnest. As one might expect from a transitional album, there is a lot of stylistic ground explored, including straight folk selections using guitar ("For the Roses") and piano ("Banquet," "See You Sometime," "Lesson in Survival") overtly jazzy numbers ("Barangrill," "Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire," and hybrids that cross the two "Let the Wind Carry Me," "Electricity," "Woman of Heart and Mind," "Judgment of the Moon and Stars"). "Blonde in the Bleachers" grafts a rock & roll band coda onto a piano-based singer/songwriter main body. The hit single "You Turn Me on I'm a Radio" is an unusual essay into country-tinged pop, sporting a Dylanesque harmonica solo played by Graham Nash and lush backing vocals. Arrangements here build solidly upon the tentative expansion of scoring first seen in Ladies of the Canyon. "Judgment of the Moon and Stars" and "Let the Wind Carry Me" present lengthy instrumental interludes. The lyrics here are among Mitchell's best, continuing in the vein of gripping honesty and heartfelt depth exhibited on Blue. As always, there are selections about relationship problems, such as "Lesson in Survival," "See You Sometime," and perhaps the best of all her songs in this genre, "Woman of Heart and Mind." "Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire" presents a gritty inner-city survival scene, while "Barangrill" winsomely extols the uncomplicated virtues of a roadside truck stop. More than a bridge between great albums, this excellent disc is a top-notch listen in its own right. by David Cleary 
Credits:
Bass – Wilton Felder
Composed By – Joni Mitchell
Drums – Russ Kunkel
Harmonica – Graham Nash
Percussion – Bobbye Hall
Strings – Bobby Notkoff
Woodwind [Woodwinds], Reeds – Tommy Scott

1974 - Court And Spark 

01. Court And Spark 02:46
02. Help Me 03:22
03. Free Man In Paris 03:03
04. People's Parties 02:15
05. The Same Situation 02:57
06. Car On A Hill 03:02
07. Down To You 05:38
08. Just Like This Train 04:24
09. Raised On Robbery 03:06
10. Trouble Child 04:00
11. Twisted 02:21
00;36:58

Joni Mitchell reached her commercial high point with Court and Spark, a remarkably deft fusion of folk, pop, and jazz which stands as her best-selling work to date. While as unified and insightful as Blue, the album -- a concept record exploring the roles of honesty and trust in relationships, romantic and otherwise -- moves away from confessional songwriting into evocative character studies: the hit "Free Man in Paris," written about David Geffen, is a not-so-subtle dig at the machinations of the music industry, while "Raised on Robbery" offers an acutely funny look at the predatory environment of the singles bar scene. Much of Court and Spark is devoted to wary love songs: both the title cut and "Help Me," the record's most successful single, carefully measure the risks of romance, while "People's Parties" and "The Same Situation" are fraught with worry and self-doubt (standing in direct opposition to the music, which is smart, smooth, and assured from the first note to the last). by Jason Ankeny
Credits
Bass – Max Bennett (tracks: 1, 2, 5 to 9, 11)
Composed By – Joni Mitchell (tracks: 1 to 10)
Drums, Percussion – John Guerin
Electric Guitar – Larry Carlton (tracks: 1 to 5, 7, 8, 11)
Electric Piano – Joe Sample
Producer, Vocals, Piano, Painting – Joni Mitchell
Woodwind, Reeds – Tom Scott

1975 - The Hissing Of Summer Lawns 

01. In France They Kiss On Main Street 03:19
02. The Jungle Line 04:26
03. Edith And The Kingpin 03:37
04. Don't Interrupt The Sorrow 04:05
05. Shades Of Scarlett Conquering 04:59
06. The Hissing Of Summer Lawns 03:01
07. The Boho Dance 03:50
08. Harry's House / Centerpiece 06:48
09. Sweet Bird 04:12
10. Shadows And Light 04:17
00:42:38

Joni Mitchell evolved from the smooth jazz-pop of Court and Spark to the radical Hissing of Summer Lawns, an adventurous work that remains among her most difficult records. After opening with the graceful "In France They Kiss on Main Street," the album veers sharply into "The Jungle Line," an odd, Moog-driven piece backed by the rhythms of the warrior drums of Burundi -- a move into multiculturalism that beat the likes of Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, and Sting to the punch by a decade. While not as prescient, songs like "Edith and the Kingpin" and "Harry's House -- Centerpiece" are no less complex or idiosyncratic, employing minor-key melodies and richly detailed lyrics to arrive at a strange and beautiful fusion of jazz and shimmering avant pop.  by Jason Ankeny
Credits:
Acoustic Guitar – Joni Mitchell (tracks: 1 to 4, 8)
Bass – Max Bennett (tracks: 1, 5, 6 to 8), Wilton Felder (tracks: 3 to 4)
Drums – John Guerin (tracks: 1, 3 to 7)
Electric Guitar – Larry Carlton (tracks: 3 to 5, 8)
Electric Piano – Victor Feldman (tracks: 1, 5)
Flute – Bud Shank (tracks: 3, 9 to 7)
Guitar – Robben Ford (tracks: 1, 3)
Trumpet – Chuck Findlay (tracks: 6, 8)
Vocals, Mixed By, Illustration, Design – Joni Mitchell
Written-By – Joni Mitchell

1976 - Hejira

Tracklist
1 Coyote 5:00
Bass – Jaco Pastorius
Lead Guitar – Larry Carlton
Percussion – Bobbye Hall
2 Amelia 6:00
Lead Guitar – Larry Carlton
Vibraphone – Victor Feldman
3 Furry Sings The Blues 5:03
Bass – Max Bennett
Drums – John Guerin
Harmonica – Neil Young
4 A Strange Boy 4:15
Lead Guitar – Larry Carlton
Percussion – Bobbye Hall
5 Hejira 6:35
Bass – Jaco Pastorius
Clarinet – Abe Most
Percussion – Bobbye Hall
6 Song For Sharon 8:30
Bass – Max Bennett
Drums – John Guerin
7 Black Crow 4:20
Bass – Jaco Pastorius
Lead Guitar – Larry Carlton
8 Blue Motel Room 5:03
Acoustic Guitar – Larry Carlton
Bass – Chuck Domanico
Drums – John Guerin
9 Refuge Of The Roads 6:37
Bass – Jaco Pastorius
Drums – John Guerin
Horns – Chuck Findley, Tom Scott
 00:51:55

Joni Mitchell's Hejira is the last in an astonishingly long run of top-notch studio albums dating back to her debut. Some vestiges of her old style remain here; "Song for Sharon" utilizes the static, pithy vocal harmonies from Ladies of the Canyon's "Woodstock," "Refuge of the Roads" features woodwind touches reminiscent of those in "Barangrill" from For the Roses, and "Coyote" is a fast guitar-strummed number that has precedents as far back as Clouds' "Chelsea Morning." But by and large, this release is the most overtly jazz-oriented of her career up to this point -- hip and cool, but never smug or icy. "Blue Motel Room" in particular is a prototypic slow jazz-club combo number, appropriately smooth, smoky, and languorous. "Coyote," "Black Crow," and the title track are by contrast energetically restless fast-tempo selections. The rest of the songs here cleverly explore variants on mid- to slow-tempo approaches. None of these cuts are traditionally tuneful in the manner of Mitchell's older folk efforts; the effect here is one of subtle rolls and ridges on a green meadow rather than the outgoing beauty of a flower garden. Mitchell's verses, many concerned with character portraits, are among the most polished of her career; the most striking of these studies are that of the decrepit Delta crooner of "Furry Sings the Blues" and the ambivalent speaker of "Song to Sharon," who has difficulty choosing between commitment and freedom. Arrangements are sparse, yet surprisingly varied, the most striking of which is the kaleidoscopically pointillistic one used on "Amelia." Performances are excellent, with special kudos reserved for Jaco Pastorius' melodic bass playing on "Refuge of the Roads" and the title cut. This excellent album is a rewarding listen.  by David Cleary

1977 - Don Juan's Reckless Daughter 

Tracklist
1 Overture-Cotton Avenue 6:35
Bass – Jaco Pastorius
Drums – John Guerin
Guitar,vocals – Joni Mitchell
2 Talk To Me 3:40
Bass – Jaco Pastorius
Guitar,vocals – Joni Mitchell
3 Jericho 3:25
Bass – Jaco Pastorius
Bongos – Don Alias
Drums – John Guerin
Guitar,vocals – Joni Mitchell
Saxophone [Soprano] – Wayne Shorter
4 Paprika Plains 16:19
Bass – Jaco Pastorius
Drums – John Guerin
Orchestrated By, Orchestra [Conducted By] – Michael Gibbs
Piano, Vocals – Joni Mitchell
Saxophone [Soprano] – Wayne Shorter
5 Otis And Marlena 4:05
Acoustic Guitar, Vocals – Joni Mitchell
Electric Guitar – Larry Carlton
Percussion [Snare Drum] – John Guerin
Piano – Michel Colombier
6 The Tenth World 6:45
Bongos – Jaco Pastorius
Congas, Lead Vocals [Lead Voice] – Manolo Badrena
Congas, Vocals – Don Alias
Drums [Surdo] – Airto
Vocals – Alejandro Acuna, Chaka Khan, Joni Mitchell
7 Dreamland  4:37
Congas – Manolo Badrena
Cowbell – Jaco Pastorius
Drums [Surdo] – Airto
Percussion [Shakers] – Alejandro Acuna
Percussion [Snare Drum] – Don Alias
Vocals – Chaka Khan, Joni Mitchell
8 Don Juan's Reckless Daughter 6:40
Bass – Jaco Pastorius
Bells [Ankle Bells] – Alejandro Acuna
Guitar, Vocals – Joni Mitchell
Percussion [Shakers] – Don Alias
9 Off Night Backstreet 3:22
Bass – Jaco Pastorius
Drums – John Guerin
Orchestrated By – Michael Gibbs
Vocals – Glenn Frey, J. D. Souther, Joni Mitchell
10 The Silky Veils Of Ardor 4:02
Guitar, Vocals – Joni Mitchell

A big chunk of the pop audience Joni Mitchell had earned with Court and Spark in 1974 deserted her in 1975 and 1976 when the follow-ups, The Hissing of Summer Lawns and Hejira, proved more difficult works. With the pretentious double album Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, Mitchell lost many of the loyal fans who'd stuck with her from the beginning, but who, upon hearing her here as she spread her obscure poetic observations and thin melodies across whole sides of the album, found her disengaged from the close, personal observations that filled her best songs. This was Mitchell's last album to go gold. by William Ruhlmann

1979 - Mingus 

01. Happy Birthday 1975 (Rap) 00:57
02. God Must Be A Boogie Man 04:35
03. Funeral (Rap) 01:07
04. A Chair In The Sky 06:42
05. The Wolf That Lives In Lindsey 06:33
06. I's A Muggin' (Rap) 00:07
07. Sweet Sucker Dance 08:04
08. Coin In The Pocket (Rap) 00:11
09. The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines 03:22
10. Lucky (Rap) 00:03
11. Goodbye Pork Pie Hat 05:36
00:37:23

In the months prior to the passing of legendary jazz bassist Charles Mingus, Joni Mitchell had been personally summoned by the bop pioneer to collaborate on a musical version of T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets. The project would entail Mitchell to condense the text for Mingus to score instrumentally. He planned on utilizing a full orchestra, as well as the more traditional guitar and bass. They would accompany Mitchell's vocals and the narration of selected portions of the text. After a few weeks of consideration, Mitchell's reaction was that "[she]'d rather condense the bible." Mingus then bestowed Mitchell with six melodies -- "Joni I" through "Joni VI" -- penned specifically for her. Mitchell spent a few weeks with Mingus -- who was totally immobilized from amyotropic lateral sclerosis (aka Lou Gehrig's Disease) -- during the spring of 1978. Their partnership advanced the half-dozen tunes. More importantly, it shook Mitchell from a three-month long writer's block/drought -- yielding two of her best late-'70s compositions: "God Must Be a Boogie Man" and the revisitation and completion of a track she'd been wood-shedding, now titled "The Wolf That Lives in Lindsey." Incidentally, the former piece was inspired by the opening chapters of Mingus' autobiography, Beneath the Underdog. Initial recordings during Mitchell's stay with Mingus in New York City produced several interesting experimental sessions with the likes of Stanley Clarke (bass), Jan Hammer (keyboards), John McLaughlin (guitar), Gerry Mulligan (baritone sax), and Tony Williams (drums). A few of these recordings -- while rumored to have been lost, destroyed, or made otherwise unavailable -- were leaked into the trading community in the late '90s. Arguably, Mitchell could not have chosen any finer musicians than the sextet she ultimately incorporated into this work. The luminaries include Herbie Hancock (electric piano), Wayne Shorter (soprano sax), Jaco Pastorious (bass/horn arrangements), Peter Erskine (drums), Don Alias (congas), and Emil Richards (percussion). Sprinkled amongst these soulfully jazzy pieces are five "raps," or aural snapshots of the time Mitchell and Mingus spent together. Sadly, Charles Mingus passed before he was able to listen to this timeless and ageless paean to his remarkable contributions to bop and free  by Lindsay Planer 
Credits:
Arranged By [Horns] – Jaco Pastorius (tracks: 9)
Bass – Jaco Pastorius
Congas – Don Alias
Drums – Peter Erskine
Electric Piano – Herbie Hancock
Featuring – Charles Mingus
Guitar, Vocals, Mixed By, Painting [Paintings] – Joni Mitchell
Percussion – Emil Richards
Soprano Saxophone – Wayne Shorter 

GYGAFO - Legend Of The Kingfisher [1973] UK

For 1973, British group Gygafo's only album is somewhat of an anomaly as it sounds quite like a psych-rock album from a few years earlier with the fuzz guitar and organ. But despite the 60's tonal qualities, Gygafo also show the prediliction for structural complexity as initially portrayed on the album's second track, "A Room With a View," that trades between a whimsical progression and a more aggressive classical rock section.

And, in fact, it is this threshold betwixt late 60's psych and embryonic progressive rock that Gygafo pirouette around throughout . . .These phases are particularly distinct on the long side one-ending, three-song suite, "Waiting for the Rain/Entering Winds of Long Ago/Season's Weather (Coming Home)," although once the first half of the album is through, Gygafo keep solidly to a whimsical, late 60s, bay area, psychedelic influenced rock.

In conclusion “ The Legend of the Kingfishers” Is a fair prog rock with some folk and hard rock influences, including some sinuous ebb-and-flow guitar lines, well worked-out vocal harmonies, haunting melodic figures, and classically flavored keyboard passages. Progarchives
Tracks
1. Solid Man Song - 3:54
2. A Room with a View - 5:35
3. Waiting for the Rain/Entertaining Winds of Long Ago/Season's Weather (Comning Home) - 12:07
4. And a Timne Tot Hink (Box 1) - 4:43
5. Today I Am - 5:44
6. The Legend of the Kingfisher - 9:56
7. What You Don't Know (Won't Hurt You) - 8:49
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - 5:18
All songs by Gygafo.
Credits
*John Atkinson - Vocals, Guitar, Mandolin, Flute, Glockenspiel
*Paul Kent - Bass
*Pete Nickson - Drums, Percussion
*Charlie Speed - Guitar, Vocals
*Eddie Stringer - Keyboards, Piano, Vocals
*Mike Levon - saxophone, air guitar, producer

GYGAFO - Legend Of The Kingfisher [1973]

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O Púbis da Rosa

DAVID BOWIE - Space Oddity [1969]

When David Bowie's second album appeared in late 1969, he was riding high. His first ever hit single, the super-topical "Space Oddity," had scored on the back of the moon landing that summer, and so distinctive an air did it possess that, for a moment, its maker really did seem capable of soaring as high as Major Tom. Sadly, it was not to be. "Space Oddity" aside, Bowie possessed very little in the way of commercial songs, and the ensuing album (his second) emerged as a dense, even rambling, excursion through the folky strains that were the last glimmering of British psychedelia. Indeed, the album's most crucial cut, the lengthy "Cygnet Committee," was nothing less than a discourse on the death of hippiness, shot through with such bitterness and bile that it remains one of Bowie's all-time most important numbers -- not to mention his most prescient. The verse that unknowingly name-checks both the Sex Pistols ("the guns of love") and the Damned is nothing if not a distillation of everything that brought punk to its knees a full nine years later. The remainder of the album struggles to match the sheer vivacity of "Cygnet Committee," although "Unwashed and Slightly Dazed" comes close to packing a disheveled rock punch, all the more so as it bleeds into a half minute or so of Bowie wailing "Don't Sit Down" -- an element that, mystifyingly, was hacked from the 1972 reissue of the album. "Janine" and "An Occasional Dream" are pure '60s balladry, and "God Knows I'm Good" takes a well-meant but somewhat clumsy stab at social comment. Two final tracks, however, can be said to pinpoint elements of Bowie's own future. The folk epic "Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud" (substantially reworked from the B-side of the hit) would remain in Bowie's live set until as late as 1973, while a re-recorded version of the mantric "Memory of a Free Festival" would become a single the following year, and marked Bowie's first studio collaboration with guitarist Mick Ronson. The album itself however, proved another dead end in a career that was gradually piling up an awful lot of such things.   by Dave Thompson 
Tracklist  
1 Space Oddity 5:14
Arranged By – David Bowie, Paul Buckmaster
Producer – Gus Dudgeon
2 Unwashed And Somewhat Slightly Dazed 6:11
3 (Don't Sit Down) 0:40
4 Letter To Hermione 2:31
5 Cygnet Committee 9:31
6 Janine 3:21
7 An Occasional Dream 2:55
8 Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud 4:47
9 God Knows I'm Good 3:16
10 Memory Of A Free Festival 7:08
Credits
Acoustic Guitar – Keith Christmas
Arranged By – David Bowie (tracks: 1 to 10), Paul Buckmaster (tracks: 1), Tony Visconti (tracks: 2 to 10)
 Bass – Herbie Flowers, John Lodge,  Tony Visconti
Cello – Paul Buckmaster
Drums – John Cambridge, Terry Cox
Flute – Tim Renwick, Tony Visconti
Guitar – Mick Wayne, Tim Renwick
Harmonica – Benny Marshall And Friends
Harpsichord [Electric Harpsichord] – Rick Wakeman
Kalimba – David Bowie
Organ [Rosedale Electric Chord Organ] – David Bowie
Stylophone – David Bowie
Twelve-String Guitar – David Bowie
Vocals – David Bowie
Written-By – David Bowie (tracks: 1 to 10)
Notes
This album has been released and re-released with various titles and various cover-designs over time. It's generally considered Bowie's first rock album.

The 1969 original versions were released on Philips and titled "David Bowie" while the concurrent North American (US and Canada) releases on Mercury had a strap line "Man of Words/Man of Music" at the top of the album. Although Mercury still cataloged it as "David Bowie" it was commonly called by the strap line and when RCA repackaged and re-released it in 1972, they erroneously referred to this advertising title. Both Philips and Mercury releases use images from the same 1969 portrait photo-shoot on the front cover, but as the Mercury image is a different frame and enlarged the artwork surrounding the portrait was not included.

The 1969 North American Mercury release removes a short hidden track, between track 2 and 3. On the UK Philips edition this piece of music was, as indicated by the groove rills, at the beginning of the third track "Letter to Hermione", yet was timed as being part of the second track.

In 1972 following Bowie's commercial breakthrough, the North American version, without the hidden track, was re-released by RCA titled after the album's hit, "Space Oddity", and with a then current facial portrait photo on the cover. Rear cover art, when including timings, still included the hidden track even though it was not present on any RCA issue. This title and cover art version had international re-releases in 1984 by RCA.

In 1990, using the same front cover as the 1972 RCA issue, the album was issued by RYKO and subsequently EMI with the hidden track subsequently restored and named for the first time - "Don't Sit Down".

All later official editions contain the music as presented on the original 1969 UK Philips album - and post 1997 most do not name the hidden track.

In 1999 EMI and Virgin re-released the album with the 30 year old 1969 cover but with the 1972 title.

Finally, in 2009 for the 40th Anniversary edition it was re-released by EMI and Virgin with title and cover art exactly as the original UK release.


The musicians on the album were hired for the sessions and included among others Herbie Flowers, Rick Wakeman, Tony Visconti and members of the band Junior's Eyes, who would act as Bowie's band promoting the album. While the album didn't chart in 1969 and was considered a commercial failure, the 1972 re-release charted in 17th position on the UK charts

 DAVID BOWIE - Space Oddity

 [1969] Philips / CBR320 / scans

O Púbis da Rosa