The Classic Vinyl Record » Rock

The Tubes – The Completion Backward Principle on LP

Ben — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:45:48 +0000

I really like The Tubes. I do think that a lot of their later stuff was much more pop than their earlier work. I love the original self titled album. It’s very different and almost prog.

The Completion Backward Principle is a pretty good example of 80′s New Wave, leaning towards pop, and it does have some good songs on it. It was the 6th studio album put out by the band, and it made it to #36 in 1981. The single, Talk To Ya Later went to #6 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. You can buy The Tubes at Musicstack.

This album is supposed to be a little stab at corporate America I believe. The back cover has all of the band members is suits, looking very professional and yuppie-ish, with important sounding jobs appointed to them. For example;

Bill Spooner – Analyst, Guitar, Vocals

Michael Cotton – Trend, Synthesizers

Fee Waybill – Motivation, Lead Vocals

Roger Steen – Development, Guitar, Vocals

Prairie Prince – Systems, Drums

Vince Welnick – Accounts, Keyboards, Vocals

Rick Anderson – Policy, Bass

Haven’t we all heard important sounding titles that really don’t mean anything?

The Completion Backwards Principle Track listing

Side One

Talk To Ya Later
Sushi Girl
Amnesia
Mr. Hate
Attack Of The Fifty Foot Woman (mp3)

Side Two

Think About Me
A Matter Of Pride
Don’t Want To Wait Anymore
Power Tools
Let’s Make Some Noise

Overall, I don’t listen to this album very much. I really like The Tubes original and older stuff. It was much more experimental and almost on the verge of prog. This is a great album though, if you are into early new wave, and 80′s pop.

By the way, Fee Waybill has also appeared in the movies ‘Xanadu’ as a rock singer, a little known movie call ‘Ladies and Gentleman, the Stains’ as lead singer for the band The Metal Corpses, and also in ‘Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ as one of the Three Most Important People in the World.

Men at Work – Business as Usual on Vinyl

Ben — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 18:12:31 +0000

I love the 80′s. I really do. That’s when I grew up. I love most everything about them, especially the music. Although some of the pop music I could do without, I still think it was better than today.

Men at Work is one of those iconic bands with their single “Down Under”. I’m not sure I know anyone who would change the station if that came on the radio. Of course, if you are lucky enough to own the vinyl (like me), you can listen to it anytime you like. If you don’t own the vinyl, you can buy Men At Work, and more at Musicstack.

Released in 1982, Business As Usual spent 15 weeks at #1 on the US album charts. It also sold 6 million copies in America, and 15 million worldwide. It was knocked out of 1st place by none other than Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

I consider Men At Work to be sort of a minimalist type of music. There is not a lot of instrumentation, and the arrangements are very sparse, yet it’s very melodic and easy to listen to.

“Down Under” has become a patriotic song in Australia, and is named the 4th greatest Australian song of all time. It is also VH1′s 96th song on the 100 Greatest Songs of the Eighties.

The track listing is as follows;
Side One:

1. Who Can It Be Now? – mp3

2. I Can See It In Your Eyes

3. Down Under

4. Underground

5. Helpless Automation

Side Two:

6. People Just Love To Play With Words

7. Be Good Johnny

8. Touching The Untouchables

9. Catch A Star

10. Down By The Sea

Re-Mastered Bonus Tracks:

11. Crazy

12. Underground (Live)

13. Who Can It Be Now (Live)

14. F-19

ZZ Top – Eliminator Record Album

Ben — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:25:54 +0000

All right, time for some good hard rock.

Eliminator by ZZ Top is now at Diamond status for sales. It’s not surprising as this album rocks. There are great songs such as ‘Gimme All Your Lovin” “Sharp Dressed Man” and “Legs”. You can buy this album by ZZ Top at Musicstack.

Eliminator is the 8th album by ZZ Top, and is #396 on Rolling Stones Greatest 500 Albums of All Time. Here is the track listing:

Side A

1. Gimme All Your Lovin’
2. Got Me Under Pressure
3. Sharp Dressed Man
4. I Need You Tonight
5. I Got the Six

Side B

1. Legs
2. Thug
3. TV Dinners
4. Dirty Dog
5. If I Could Only Flag Her Down
6. Bad Girl

Instead of an MP3 this post, I thought that I’d put up a video. So here is the video to ZZ Top’s “Gimme All Your Lovin”;

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSLa08J6rv4

Can I just say that the 80′s rock.

The car on the front of this album is actually Billy Gibbons (guitar, vocals) 1933 Ford 3 window hot rod, as seen in the video above. Many of his cars are featured on album covers and in videos. Oh, and a little known fact, ZZ Top made a puppet music video for Sesame Street for the letter Z.

Coverdale Page on Vinyl Record

Ben — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:53:49 +0000

About 15 years ago, this album came out. I still remember hearing it on the radio, as it got a lot of airplay. However, it took a long time to actually hear who it was. David Coverdale of Whitesnake and Deep Purple, and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin. Great combination. I think they really had something with this album. I always wondered why they never did anything more together. You can buy Coverdale Page on vinyl or CD at Musicstack.

David Coverdale almost sounds like Robert Plant on this album. I’ve heard him sound like that before, but it really seems to come through here.

A lot of people think that this album is Zeppelin Light. I can see that, although others say that it is better than LZ’s “Walking Into Clarksdale”. I hate to categorize albums like that. I feel that if the artist is truly trying to create music, who are we to say it’s not good enough. After all, how can Jimmy Page help sounding like Led Zeppelin, he is Led Zeppelin.

This song, “Shake My Tree” is the first cut of the album, and I love the sound of Page’s guitar. Coverdale starts singing like he has a throat full of sandpaper (which I am jealous of by the way) and then starts singing up in the stratosphere, and that is where I think he sounds like Plant.

Here is the track listing for Coverdale Page:
Side One

Shake My Tree

Waiting on You

Take Me For a Little While

Pride and Joy

Over Now

Feeling Hot

Side Two

Easy Does It

Take a Look At Yourself

Don’t Leave Me This Way

Absolution Blues

Whisper a Prayer For the Dying

This copy I have is also an import from England. I don’t think that makes it very valuable, but hey, it’s an import.

Journey – Escape Album on LP

Ben — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:25:58 +0000

Journey is one of those great 80′s rock bands that people either love or hate. Personally, I love Journey, otherwise I wouldn’t have their album. You can buy this album at Musicstack. I have also recently posted about Journey – Frontiers album.

This was actually referred to as the worst number 1 album ever by Dave Marsh of Rolling Stone. It has gone 9 times Platinum, and is Journey’s best selling album after the Greatest Hits album.

Escape (or ESC4P3, or E5C4P3 depending on how you see it) was the first album with keyboardist Jonathan Cain, and was released in 1981. The songs from this album are a staple of classic rock radio, even adult contemporary radio now. I heard “Don’t Stop Believin” on the secretary’s radio at church the other day. You can’t ESCAPE Journey. Ha. You like what I did there. Can’t escape Journey, Journey – Escape? Nevermind.

“Don’t Stop Believin” “Stone In Love” “Who’s Cryin Now” and “Open Arms” are the most popular songs off of this album, but that doesn’t mean that the rest of it sucks. Here is the track listing;

Don’t Stop Believin’
Stone In Love
Who’s Crying Now
Keep On Runnin’
Still They Ride
Escape
Lay It Down
Dead or Alive
Mother, Father
Open Arms

By the way, Journey has hired a new singer. Just last month, December ’07. I saw Journey last year with right after singer Steve Augeri got throat cancer [update: He does not have cancer, it was a throat infection.] and was replaced by Jeff Scott Soto. But he was fired, and after seeing a local Philipino bands’ uploaded videos on YouTube, Arnel Pineda was hired as the lead singer.

Van Halen Self Titled Debut on Vinyl LP

Ben — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 19:47:13 +0000

All right, time for some rock.

Nobody rocks like Van Halen, even Van Halen (Hagar era) can’t touch them. Sorry to those Sammy Hagar fans out there. I like his stuff, but it just doesn’t do it for me like Van Halen with David Lee Roth.

Released in 1978, this album has made it past Gold and Platinum status, and made it to Diamond. Actually, 1984 by Van Halen also went Diamond. There are only four other bands to have two original albums go Diamond, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Def Leppard.

I know that almost all of the guitar players I know, (being a musician I know quite a lot) say that Eruption off of this album was the reason they played guitar. Eddie Van Halen is probably the most influential guitar player in history along with Jimi Hendrix.

This record is one of those albums where almost every song is a hit. “You Really Got Me” “Runnin’ WithThe Devil” “Eruption” and of course, one of my favorites “Ice Cream Man.”

By the way, the track listing on the back of the album cover is out of order. I don’t know if that makes any difference, but hey, there it is.

Here is “Ice Cream Man” on MP3 for your listening pleasure;

And out of the kindness of my heart, here is “Eruption” for all you guitar players;

As always, you can find Van Halen albums on vinyl, and CD at Musicstack.

Cream – Disraeli Gears on 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl Record

Ben — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 16:54:16 +0000

When I was at the record shop the other day, I saw a great classic album that I immediately picked up. Cream – Disraeli Gears on 180 gram virgin vinyl. Sweet!

It was brand new, unopened on 180 gram vinyl! I was surprised to see it their, as the owner didn’t have a lot of new stuff. I couldn’t wait to get it home and listen to it. Disraeli Gears was when Cream started to get more of a psychedelic sound, and the songs Strange Brew and Tales of Brave Ulysses really bring that out.

When I started to play the record though, I was very disappointed. It wasn’t that it was in mono (a lot of album were in mono in the sixties), but it just doesn’t sound very good. I know that the recording technology back then wasn’t like what we have today, but i have heard these songs before, and this just didn’t sound good. It’s OK, but not great, not 180g vinyl should sound like. So I looked and realized that it was put out by a different label. It was released by Lilith Records, which I can’t find much information about, so they must be a small company. It really doesn’t sound like they used the masters to produce this album. It almost sounds like they used another record or even a cassette tape to record onto the vinyl. It reminds me of a saying (paraphrased so there isn’t any language), “You can’t polish poop.”

Here is an MP3 of my favorite song off the album, Tales of Brave Ulysses;

If you want to buy Disraeli Gears by Cream, you can get it at Musicstack.

The track listing is;

Strange Brew
Sunshine of Your Love
World of Pain
Dance the Night Away
Blue Condition
Tales of Brave Ulysses
Swlabr [She Walks Like a Bearded Rainbow]
We’re Going Wrong
Outside Woman Blues
Take It Back
Mother’s Lament

Leviticus – I Shall Conquer Vinyl Record

Ben — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 15:05:04 +0000

Here is one that not a lot of people will have. Leviticus is Christian metal from the eighties. There is another band out there called Leviticus, also metal, but they have a much different set of lyrics.

I know, there are a lot of people out there who think that Christian music sucks, and well, I’m one of them. I can’t stand most of it. But every once in a while something comes along that is good, at least to some people.

Leviticus came out of Sweden, formed by singer Björn Stigsson. I Shall Conquer was their second album, but their first full length release. It has good, catchy riffs, and great playing. The engineering leaves something to be desired though. It almost sounds like it was recorded in a hall, rather than a studio.

I Shall Conquer has been remastered, but I haven’t bought that one yet. I saw this in a record store the other day and just had to pick it up. I don’t think it was played more than a few times. The cover looked new, and so did the record. It had no popping and clicking at all. It just sounds great.

Here is an MP3 of the second track off of the album, Let Me Fight;

The track listing is:

I Shall Conquer
Let Me Fight
He’s My Life
Doubt
Action More Than Words
All Is Calm
Day By Day
Strive Forwards
Psalm 23
Folj Mig *
Leva Han Som Lar *
Min Mastare *

The last three * tracks are bonus tracks on the re-release in 2000. Unfortunately, not on this record. They are in Swedish, use more keyboards, and have a little bit less quality production, but they are still good tracks. Min Mastare is actually kind of prog (progressive).

You can this CD on Amazon:

Or you can go to Musicstack and find the album on CD, cassette or LP, however, not every Leviticus is the same band. Just do a title search, all formats for I Shall Conquer. Or just search for whatever you want.

U2 – The Joshua Tree 20th Anniversary Remastered, Reissued Vinyl Record

Ben — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 17:51:51 +0000

I have this album. Well, the original at least. It has been played a lot. A whole lot. So you can imagine that the sound quality has been degraded over the years. I’d love to have this new one by U2. I thought that I should talk about The Joshua Tree since it will be released tomorrow on Amazon.

This album was their passage from cult band to mainstream act. The fifth album by U2, it was released 20 years ago in 1987. Considered by many to be one of the greatest rock albums of all time (I like it, but wouldn’t go that far),it did get a Grammy for Best Album of the Year in 1988.

Of course, it is a political album. Bono used the lyrics to show how he felt about America’s involvement and policies in Central America.

If you want the the new vinyl LP of The Joshua Tree, you can buy the vinyl at MusicStack or you can find it at Amazon below.

Supertramp – Breakfast in America

Ben — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 16:47:08 +0000

Today’s record is “Breakfast in America” by Supertramp. I love this album. Of course, I guess I say I love every album I have, but that’s beside the point. “The Logical Song” is one of my all-time favorite songs.

This is a great album, you can buy it and find out for yourself at MusicStack.

You can decide for yourself if it’s a great song with this mp3 of Supertramps “The Logical Song”.

This is the 6th album by Supertramp, and it had 4 singles, The Logical Song, Take the Long Way home, Goodbye Stranger, and Breakfast in America. It reached number 1 on the Billboard top albums, and was Supertramps best selling album.

The tracks are as follows:

Gone Hollywood
The Logical Song
Goodbye Stranger
Breakfast in America
Oh Darling
Take the Long Way Home
Lord It Is Mine
Just Another Nervous Wreck
Casual Conversations
Child of Vision