Randy & The Radiants ‎– Memphis Beat - The Sun Recordings 1964-1966 (2007 Big Beat) Flac & mp3@320

Randy Haspel was a 16-year-old kid whose band the Radiants played dances and frat parties in Memphis, TN when one day, a fan at a show offered to introduce the band to his father. The fan was Knox Phillips, and his father, Sam Phillips, happened to run Sun Records, the legendary independent label that gave the world Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and many other trailblazing acts. Randy & the Radiants recorded for Sun during the label's waning days in the mid-'60s, with Sam Phillips producing most of their sessions, and Memphis Beat, which collects two dozen of the band's Sun sides, documents a curious time and place where the influences of the British Invasion and the garage rock explosion were being felt at the house that rockabilly built.

On record, Randy & the Radiants sounded significantly tighter and more professional than the average teenage band of the era, and they had an outstanding songwriter in guitarist Bob Simon, though Phillips occasionally prodded them to cover the likes of "Boppin' the Blues" and "Blue Suede Shoes," and they also tackled a few blues numbers and British Invasion hits.

 Haspel and his bandmates had a strong knack for harmonies, and there are moments on Memphis Beat where the Radiants sound like the lost middle ground between blue-eyed soul and the Hollies, but oddly enough Phillips' production, for which the band is best remembered today, doesn't often suit the band especially well, making them sound looser and less disciplined than they really were and sometimes making the group vocals sound mushy.

Still, as a document of Memphis' Anglophile underground in its infancy, this is fascinating stuff, and the best tunes -- the local hits "My Way of Thinking" and "Truth from My Eyes" -- suggest they could have matured into one of the great bands of the garage era if college and the draft hadn't stalled their progress in 1966.(allmusic)

These guys were really great. A lot fine stuff on this recordings. ''Nobody Walks Out On Me'', Be Good While I'm Gone'', To Seek And Then Find'' just to name three of a bunch of songs who shows what had could be. Highly recommend!
Enjoy
          Frank   Flac p1   &  Flac p2     - mp3@320

Tim Buckley - Greetings from L.A. 1972 (1990 Rhino) Flac & mp3@320

Stepping back from the swooping avant-garde touches of Starsailor for a fairly greasy, funky, honky tonk set of songs, the opening lines of Greetings from L.A. set the tone: "I went down to the meat rack tavern/And I found myself a big ol' healthy girl." Sassy backing vocalists, honking sax, and more add to the atmosphere, while Tim Buckley himself blends his vocal acrobatics with touches not unfamiliar to fans of Mick Jagger or Jim Morrison. The studio band backing him up might not be the equal to, say, War, but in their own way they do the business; extra touches like the string arrangement on "Sweet Surrender" help all the more. The argument that this was all somehow a compromise or sellout doesn't seem to entirely wash. While no doubt there were commercial pressures at play, given Buckley's constant change from album to album it seems like he simply found something else to try, which he did with gusto.

"Get On Top," one of his best numbers, certainly doesn't sound like something aimed for the charts. The music may have a solid groove to it (Kevin Kelly's organ is worth a mention), but Buckley's frank lyrics and improv scatting both show it as him following his own muse.(allmusic)

Surely one or maybe that most commercial album of his career. But what it means to use the word ''commercial'' together with the name of Tim Buckley? Anyway it's one of my three favourite albums by Tim Buckley.
Enjoy
          Frank   Flac p1  & Flac p2    - mp3@320

Jacqueline Taieb - Jacqueline Taieb LP 1967 (Debut album RCA Victor France) Flac & mp3@320

Taïeb arrived in France with her parents at age eight. She began composing songs with her guitar at 12 and in 1966 was discovered by a talent scout while Taïeb was singing with friends. After arriving in Paris, she was signed to Impact Records and released the song "7 heures du matin" in 1967, which became her biggest French hit. She was subsequently voted Best Newcomer at the inaugural Midem music festival in Cannes for the song. The song was about a teenage girl who fantasizes about Paul McCartney.
In the early 1970s, Taïeb took a break from recording. In 1988, she penned the song "Ready to Follow You", which became an international hit for American singer Dana Dawson. The single sold more than 500,000 copies, and the album sold 300,000 in France alone.

The album is very fine french female pop from the sixties. If you like sounds like this
grab it.
Enjoy
         Frank                  Flac p1  & Flac p2    -   mp3@320

Sixties Psychedelic by The Electric Prunes - Underground 1967 ( 2013 Rhino) Flac & mp3@320

According to Electric Prunes members Jim Lowe and Mark Tulin, producer Dave Hassinger enjoyed enough success as a result of the group's early hit singles and their subsequent debut album that he was too busy to spend much time with them as they were recording the follow up, and that was arguably a good thing for the band. While Underground didn't feature any hit singles along the lines of "I Had to Much to Dream (Last Night)," it's a significantly more consistent work than the debut, and this time out the group was allowed to write five of the disc's twelve songs, allowing their musical voice to be heard with greater clarity. As on their first LP, the Electric Prunes' strongest asset was the guitar interplay of Jim Lowe, Ken Williams and James "Weasel" Spagnola, and while they became a bit more restrained in their use of fuzztone, wah-wah and tremolo effects, there's a unity in their attack on Underground that's impressive, and the waves of sound on "Antique Doll," "Big City" and " "Children of Rain" reveal a new level creative maturity (though they could make with a wicked, rattling fuzz on "Dr. Do-Good"). If Underground ultimately isn't as memorable as the Electric Prunes' first album, it's a matter of material -- while the outside material that dominated the debut was sometimes ill-fitting, it also gave them some stone classic tunes like "I Had Too Much to Dream" and "Get Me to the World on Time," and the band themselves didn't have quite that level of songwriting chops, while the hired hands didn't deliver the same sort of material for Underground. Still, the album shows that the Electric Prunes had the talent to grow into something more mature and imaginative than their reputation suggested, and it's all the more unfortunate that the group's identity would be stripped from them for the next album released under their name, Mass in F Minor.

The album is from the Rhino original albums series box released in 2013. I will post more albums from the box in the next days if there is any interest.
Have fun
              Frank                       Flac p1  & Flac p2          mp3@320

The Jam - Direction Reaction Creation (1997 Polydor 5 Disc Collection) Disc 1 Flac & mp3@320

Okay folks, here comes the last disc. With disc one the collection is complete. I hope you will have fun with the box. Unfortunately i can't find the booklet neither on the web nor my own. But i will search furthermore in my boxes here at home. If i find it i will post it. It's really a very fine book.

Have fun
              Frank               Flac p1  &  Flac p2  & Flac p3         mp3@320

The Jam - Direction Reaction Creation (1997 Polydor 5 Disc Collection) Disc 2 Flac & mp3@320

Disc 2 of the Jam collection and as always: Listen LOUD!
Have fun with the Jam

Frank   Flac p1 & Flac p2 & Flac p3     - mp3@320

The Jam - Direction Reaction Creation (1997 Polydor 5 Disc Collection) Disc 3 Flac & mp3@320

Here is disc three of the great five disc collection by british mods The Jam.

Have fun
               Frank        Flac p1 & Flac p2 & Flac p3    -   mp3@320

CHANGED !!! The Jam - Direction Reaction Creation: Disc 4 link is wrong !!! CHANGED !!!

Hello folks, Chris from Australia send a comment that the links for mp3 disc four and five have the same songs. I changed the link for mp3 disc 4 in the post from yesterday. You can dowmload now the correct mp3 disc 4. Sorry for that folks! And thank you Chris!

Kind regards
                    Frank

The Jam - Direction Reaction Creation (1997 Polydor 5 Disc Collection) Disc 4 Flac & mp3@320

 

Here comes the next disc by british mod heros The Jam. Disc four of the five disc box ''Direction Reaction Creation'' from the year 1997. Have fun and pump up the volume.

Cheers
           Frank       Flac p1 & Flac p2 & Flac p3       new mp3@320 link

The Jam - Direction Reaction Creation (1997 Polydor 5 Disc Collection) Disc 5 Flac & mp3@320

Direction Reaction Creation is the ultimate Jam package, offering 117 tracks over five discs -- essentially the band's complete studio recordings. With a strict adherence to chronological order, the box presents each single followed by its B-side(s) (six of which appear on CD for the first time, including the brilliant "See Saw"), followed by the proper album tracks -- oddly, though, the album versions of the singles are chosen in most places. Unfortunately, this approach sometimes disrupts the flow of the albums, especially in the case of All Mod Cons, which loses three tracks to the treatment, and Setting Sons, which loses "Eton Rifles" to a separate disc. This is a small point for purists to debate -- the difference is really unnoticeable in light of the truly great music found on the discs.

In addition to the regular studio tracks, disc five offers over an hour of studio demos -- 22 previously unreleased tracks of considerably different takes of better-known material, a few never-before-heard Weller and Foxton originals, and some interesting covers like "Rain," "Dead End Street," and "Every Little Bit Hurts." The Jam, simply put, were one the finest bands in rock & roll history, and Direction Reaction Creation offers the proof, showing both their remarkably rapid growth and their incredible consistency.(excerpt, allmusic.com)

I want post this 5 disc collection in the next days. Today i begin with disc 5. Nothing extraordinary to say about it except (In addition to the regular studio tracks, disc five offers over an hour of studio demos); Like all the other discs from this compilation extraordinary great. One of the ten finest british bands in rock'n'roll history in my opinion. Hope you will enjoy!
Have fun
               Frank                       Flac p1 & Flac p2 & Flac p3       mp3@320

Sixties French Mod & R'n'R Sound By Ronnie Bird - Twistin' The Rock " 2 CD 1964-1968 (2002 Mercury France) Flac & mp3

During the mid-'60s, Ronnie Bird was the only French artist to successfully emulate the sounds of the British Invasion across the channel. Bird was one of the few French singers with a facility for singing rock & roll in French without sounding strained or embarrassing.

His first few discs were crafted with the help of expatriate guitarist Mickey Baker, the same Mickey Baker who was half of Mickey & Sylvia and responsible for great session work on numerous rock and R&B songs in the '50s. Baker played on Bird's discs and actually wrote a few tracks with him, although most of Bird's records were French covers of songs by British giants like the Stones, the Who, the Pretty Things, and the Hollies. For a time, Bird's band included guitarist Mick Jones, who went on to fame with Foreigner in the '70s.

Although extremely derivative of the tougher side of the British Invasion, Bird's covers and originals were respectably hard-driving and well-executed. Dabbling in soul and psychedelia at times as the '60s progressed, Bird eased out of the music business and emigrated to New York in the '70s.(allmusic.com)

This guy was a very talented performer and musician. I love his kind of mod style rock'n'roll. I prefer a little bit more his later works but nearly all of what i know from this guy is very good. Hope you will enjoy it, too.

Cheers
           Frank    Flac p1    &   Flac p2         mp3@320

At Request: The Motels! The Motels - All Four One/Little Robbers 1982/83 (2009 BGO Records) Flac & mp3@320

All Four One:

The Motels' third album All 4 One finds the group working the fine line between mainstream arena-rock and quirky new wave pop. Their roots lie in the sleek, polished Californian hard rock that dominated late-'70s and early-'80s album-oriented radio, but All Four One has a shiny new wave production, complete with keyboards and processed guitars.

Still, it plays like arena rock, especially since Martha Davis oversings each track, but its best moments -- "Take the L" (out of lover and it's over) and the single "Only the Lonely" -- are embarrassingly catchy guilty pleasures that make the album an entertaining nostalgia piece. [One Way's CD reissue is even more attractive, since it adds the group's two other big singles, "Suddenly Last Summer" and "Shame," as bonus tracks.]

Little Robots:

Little Robbers, the follow-up to the Motels' commercial breakthrough All 4 One, is nearly as consistent as its predecessor, finding the perfect balance between mainstream rock conventions and quirky new wave flourishes. Again, the singles are the best parts of the record, with the hazy "Suddenly Last Summer" deservedly reaching the Top Ten and "Remember the Nights" being a fine AOR workout, but the remainder of the album suffers from undistinguished material and a distinct lack of hooks.

I was never a big fan of the Motels but they had some very strong songs. And a good looking singer :-) .
Enjoy it
            Frank            Flac p1 & Flac p2 & Flac p3   -  mp3 p1   -  mp3 p2