Be Careful With THE MOTELS

Original released on LP Capitol ST-12070

(US 1980, June 9)

With their second release, the Motels make steps toward a more seamless style of new wave-inflected pop. Careful kicks off with the perky, sax-driven "Danger," and there are more hits than misses. The lyrics still lean toward the darker side as on the moody, watercolor melody of the title track, but there are also moments that are pop gems like the Europop-styled "Bonjour Baby," the midtempo rock of "Days are O.K. (But the Nights Were Made for Love)", which features the album's catchiest hook, and the uptempo "Cry Baby." Martha Davis, with her distinctive vocals, is still the band's trump card, but this time around the band gives her a little more backing. (Tom Demalon in AllMusic)

ERIC CLAPTON: "Just One Night"

Original released on LP RSO RS-2-4202

(US, May 1980)

"Just One Night" is a live double album by Eric Clapton, released in 1980. It was recorded live at the Budokan Theatre, Tokyo, Japan, December 1979 when Clapton was touring to support "Backless", his latest record at that time. The sleeve contains a Japanese painting by Ken Konno. The album reached No. 2 in the U.S. and No. 3 in the UK, and was certified gold by RIAA. Well, these are the facts. But, personally, I can tell you that “Just One Night” is one of the great Live albums ever appeared in the history of Pop/Rock (it contains the very best version - the slow one - of "Wonderful Tonight", the song that a passionate Clapton wrote for Pattie Boyd in 1977, when they were husband and wife). I bought the vinyl when it first appeared in 1980, and the double-cd much more later. Today the mail man appeared at my door with a little package, wich arrived directly from Japan (less than 2 weeks). The package contained the SHM-CD mini replica LP (13,5 cm X 13,5 cm), and my friends, it just have a terrific sound! Never heard this powerful album with such quality. If you are a Clapton fan like me, don’t hesitate to offer this precious jewel to yourself. Meanwhile you can download the mp3 files, but of course... isn't the same thing.

THE BAND:
Eric Clapton: guitar, vocals

Albert Lee: guitar, vocals; organ on "Worried Life Blues", co-lead vocals on "Setting Me Up" and "All Our Past Times"

Henry Spinetti: drums
Chris Stainton: keyboards
Dave Markee: bass

"Think" By ARETHA FRANKLIN

THE BLUES BROTHERS OST

Original released on LP Atlantic SD 16017

(US, 1980)

Comic actors John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd received a lot of flak for their Blues Brothers shtick - mostly for the albums, not 1980's beloved classic film. But they should be given credit for exposing many people - including this reviewer -to the music of blues and R&B veterans. "The Blues Brothers" soundtrack was released on Atlantic Records. On the surface this doesn't seem unusual, since the Blues Brothers' Atlantic debut, "Briefcase Full of Blues", was a number one album; but the movie was released by Universal, and its parent company, MCA, passed on the soundtrack. The rollicking remake of the Spencer Davis Group's "Gimme Some Lovin'" was a hit, featuring an arrangement notable for the horn section that replaces Steve Winwood's rumbling organ work. Ray Charles has a good time with "Shake a Tail Feather," and he's helped out by Jake and Elwood Blues (Belushi and Aykroyd, respectively). The cover of Solomon Burke's "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" is a lot of fun, thanks to the great overall rhythm and Elwood's lightning-fast stage rap, while James Brown and the Reverend James Cleveland Choir provide a blast of gospel music on "Old Landmark." Aretha Franklin's "Think" is explosive, and Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher" is slyly irresistible. Charles, Brown, Franklin, and Calloway all have small roles in the film, yet so does John Lee Hooker, but he's not represented here. (Bret Adams in AllMusic)

"Como Yo Te Amo" By RAPHAEL

PAUL SIMON: "One Trick Pony"

Original released on LP Warner Bros HS 3472

(US 1980, August 12)

Though it was released to coincide with the opening of the film "One-Trick Pony", which Paul Simon wrote and starred in, the "One-Trick Pony" album is not a soundtrack, as it is sometimes categorized, at least, not exactly. If it were, it might contain the Paul Simon song "Soft Parachutes" and other non-Simon music featured in the movie. Instead, this is a studio album containing many of the movie songs, some of them in the same performances (two were cut live at the Agora Club in Cleveland). The record is not billed as a soundtrack, but a sleeve note reads, «The music on this Compact Disc was created for the Paul Simon Movie "One-Trick Pony."» Anyway, if Simon was in fact writing songs for Jonah, his movie character (as seems true of songs like "Jonah," "God Bless the Absentee," and "Long, Long Day"), he intended that character to take a somewhat less considered lyrical viewpoint than Paul Simon generally does, but to be even more enamored of light jazz fusion than Paul Simon had been on his last album, "Still Crazy After All These Years". Tasty licks abound from the fretwork of Eric Gale, Hiram Bullock, and Hugh McCracken, and the rhythm section of Steve Gadd, Tony Levin, and Richard Tee is equally in the groove. This is the closest thing to a band album Simon ever made, and it contains some of his most rhythmic and energetic singing. But it is also his most uneven album, simply because the songwriting, with the exception of the title song and the ballads "How the Heart Approaches What It Yearns" and "Nobody," is not up to his usual standard. Maybe he was too busy writing his screenplay to polish these songs to the usual gloss. (It can't have been than Jonah wasn't supposed to be as talented as Paul Simon. Could it?) In any case, though the album spawned a Top Ten hit in "Late in the Evening" and may have sold more copies than the film did tickets, it remained a disappointment in both artistic and commercial terms. (William Ruhlmann in AllMusic)

From what I see in the ratings, this seems to be Paul Simon's lowest rated album. I don't really see why. I think it is a great album. It must be a curse based on it's ranking: ranked #666 for 1980. Ouch. Regardless, his contains some very underrated tunes. The songs have a soft-rock, jazzy r&b kinda feel. It's a similar type sound that he did with "Still Crazy after all these Years", but he steps it up a notch. The songs are more upbeat and a bit catchier in my opinion. My favorite numbers here are "That's why god made the movies", "Oh, Marion" and "Long, Long Day". It's possible that this album isn't recognized as much is because the movie didn't do to well (I think), but overall, it is a solid and very enjoyable album. It's great to relax to and it provides a great atmosphere. It's not a Paul Simon album to dismiss or pass over. Check it out! (in RateYourMusic)

AMÁLIA Canta AMÁLIA

Edição original em LP Columbia (EMI) 11C 078 40533

(PORTUGAL, Outubro 1980)

"Gostava de Ser Quem Era" foi o primeiro álbum de material inédito, composto por dez fados originais com letras da própria Amália, escritas em sua casa durante a convalescença de uma doença. As músicas são dos dois guitarristas, Carlos Gonçalves e Fontes Rocha. A estes dois associam-se Joel Pina (viola-baixo) e Pedro Leal (viola). A pintura de capa é de Enric Ribô e a fotografia interior é de Augusto Cabrita. A edição original incluía uma capa de abrir (gatefold), com um livreto de oito páginas ilustradas, as letras das canções e ainda duas páginas em papel manteiga com uma poesia de Alexandre O’Neill dedicada à fadista.

GAL's Tribute to Ary Barroso

Original released on LP Philips 6485.216

(Brasil, October 1980)

Recorded at the height of the MPB movement, "Aquarela do Brasil" is the singer Gal Costa's tribute to the famed Brazilian songwriter Ary Barroso, the author of the celebrated title track as well as many others not as well known outside his native land. While the album bears slight traces of the neo-disco production that would soon come to plague Brazilian pop music in the '80s, it is mostly a wholly successful showcase for Gal Costa's extraordinary voice and interpretive abilities. About this time, the singer was reaching her full stature as Brazil's premier pop singer, her only serious rival being Elis Regina, who had recorded her own very different, celebrated version of "Aquarela do Brasil." Many of these compositions were actually written in the '40s and '50s, but in Gal's capable hands, songs like "Tu" and "Inquietação" sound like fully contemporary pop of the '80s and beyond. Longtime collaborator and peer Caetaeno Veloso joins in a duet on the samba-inflected "No Tabuleiro da Baiana," also known as "Bahia." (Richard Mortifoglio in AllMusic)

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: "The River"

 Original released on Double LP Columbia PC2 36854

(US 1980, October 10)

After taking his early urban folk tales of cars and girls as far as he could on "Born to Run", Bruce Springsteen took a long, hard look at the lives of those same Jersey street kids a few years down the line, now saddled with adult responsibilities and realizing that the American Dream was increasingly out of their grasp, on 1978's "Darkness on the Edge of Town", an album that dramatically broadened Springsteen's musical range and lyrical scope. With 1980's "The River", Springsteen sought to expand on those themes while also offering more of the tough, bar-band rock that was his trademark (and often conspicuous in its absence on "Darkness"), and by the time it was released it had swelled into Springsteen's first two-LP set. "The River" was Springsteen's most ambitious work to date, even as the music sounded leaner and more strongly rooted in rock & roll tradition than anything on "Darkness" or "Born to Run", and though the album wasn't the least bit short on good times, the fun in songs like "Two Hearts," "Out in the Street," and "Cadillac Ranch" is rarely without some weightier subtext.

As the romantic rush of "Two Hearts" fades into the final break with family on "Independence Day" and the sentimentality of "I Wanna Marry You" is followed by the grim truths of the title tune, nothing is easy or without consequence in Springsteen's world, and the album's themes of youthful ideals buckling under the weight of crushing reality are neatly summed up as Springsteen asks the essential question of his career, "Is a dream a lie if it don't come true?" Like many double albums, "The River" doesn't always balance well, and while the first half is consistently strong, part two is full of songs that work individually but don't cohere into a satisfying whole (and "Wreck on the Highway" is beautiful but fails to resolve the album's essential themes). But if the sequencing is somewhat flawed, Springsteen rises to his own challenges as a songwriter, penning a set of tunes that are heartfelt and literate but unpretentious while rocking hard, and the E Street Band were never used to better advantage, capturing the taut, swaggering force of their live shows in the studio with superb accuracy (and if the very '80s snare crack dates this album, Neil Dorfsman's engineering makes this one of Springsteen's best-sounding works). "The River" wasn't Springsteen's first attempt to make a truly adult rock & roll album, but it's certainly a major step forward from "Darkness on the Edge of Town", and he rarely made an album as compelling as this, or one that rewards repeat listening as well. (Mark Deming in AllMusic)

PRETENDERS: THE FIRST 2 ALBUMS

Original released on LP Sire SRK 6083

(US 1980, January 19)

Few rock & roll records rock as hard or with as much originality as the Pretenders' eponymous debut album. A sleek, stylish fusion of Stonesy rock & roll, new wave pop, and pure punk aggression, "Pretenders" is teeming with sharp hooks and a viciously cool attitude. Although Chrissie Hynde establishes herself as a forceful and distinctively feminine songwriter, the record isn't a singer/songwriter's tour de force - it's a rock & roll album, powered by a unique and aggressive band. Guitarist James Honeyman-Scott never plays conventional riffs or leads, and his phased, treated guitar gives new dimension to the pounding rhythms of "Precious," "Tattooed Love Boys," "Up the Neck," and "The Wait," as well as the more measured pop of "Kid," "Brass in Pocket," and "Mystery Achievement." He provides the perfect backing for Hynde and her tough, sexy swagger. Hynde doesn't fit into any conventional female rock stereotype, and neither do her songs, alternately displaying a steely exterior or a disarming emotional vulnerability. It's a deep, rewarding record, whose primary virtue is its sheer energy. Pretenders moves faster and harder than most rock records, delivering an endless series of melodies, hooks, and infectious rhythms in its 12 songs. Few albums, let alone debuts, are ever this astonishingly addictive. (Stephen Erlewine in AllMusic)

Original released on LP Sire SRK 3572

(US 1981, August 15)

The Pretenders' debut album was such a powerful, monumental record that its sequel was bound to be a bit of a disappointment, and "Pretenders II" is. Essentially, this album is an unabashed sequel, offering more of the same sound, attitude, and swagger, including titles that seem like rips on their predecessors and another Ray Davies cover. This gives the record a bit too much of a pat feeling, especially since the band seems to have a lost a bit of momentum - they don't rock as hard, Chrissie Hynde's songwriting isn't as consistent, James Honeyman-Scott isn't as inventive or clever. These all are disappointments, yet this first incarnation of the Pretenders was a tremendous band, and even if they offer diminished returns, it's still diminished returns on good material, and much of "Pretenders II" is quite enjoyable. Yes, it's a little slicker and more stylized than its predecessor, and, yes, there's a little bit of filler, yet any album where rockers as tough as "Message of Love" and "The Adultress" are balanced by a pop tune as lovely as "Talk of the Town" is hard to resist. And when you realize that this fantastic band only recorded two albums, you take that second album, warts and all, because the teaming of Hynde and Honeyman-Scott was one of the great pairs, and it's utterly thrilling to hear them together, even when the material isn't quite up to the high standards they set the first time around. (Stephen Erlewine in AllMusic)

ELBA RAMALHO - OS PRIMEIROS ALBUNS

Edição original em LP Epic 235.027

(BRASIL, 1979)

Normalmente escrevo sobre apenas um disco em cada post aqui em meu blog. Mas neste caso não há outra saída. Meu coração ainda não decidiu de qual dos dois discos sobre os quais quero falar ele gosta mais. Quantas lembranças em cada um. Quantas tempestades de emoções. Quantos trovões sacudindo a alma. Mas tudo bem, cabem os dois em meu coração . E são eles "Ave de Prata" e "Capim do Vale". Primeiro e segundo trabalhos de Elba respectivamente. São parecidos no som e nas lembranças. O mesmo mandacarú rasgando a carne, o mesmo carcará voando alto sob o sol. Após ouvir todo o disco "Ave de Prata", fica a certeza: este disco era necessário, essa cantora tinha de existir. "Canta Coração", um recado de Geraldo Azevedo e Carlos Fernando, traz um sentimento morno ao coração. Uma guitarra que acredito ser de Robertinho do Recife ( me corrijam por favor se estiver enganado), faz meu "alegre coração triste como um camelo" chorar a ausencia da namorada. Primeiro disco, primeira música, primeiro impacto. Chico Buarque não poderia escolher alguem melhor para cantar "Não Sonho Mais". Eu é que vivo sonhando com aqueles bons tempos. A sanfona lembra que o forró é bom, mesmo moderno. Não vou ficar aqui dizendo que antigamente se fazia discos com um time de primeiríssima linha de músicos, é só pesquisar a ficha técnica e confirmar.

Zabumba, sanfona, triângulo e Elba Ramalho. "Eu sonhei contigo e cai da cama...diz que me ama e eu não sonho mais". Veja se não dá vontade de ver a lua nascer em uma cidadezinha do interior ao ouvir "Veio d´Agua". A voz de Elba causou estranheza naqueles anos efervescentes. Alguns diziam que ela gritava. Este meio que baião "Razão de Paz" deve ter ajudado neste engano. A voz forte e cristalina é alta e cortante. Eu adorei já na primeira palavra. Uma coisa a aprender com este disco e principalmente nesta faixa chamada "Baile de Máscaras", é o uso de elementos modernos perfeitamente casados com o tradicional. E esta música apesar de não ser nenhum hit, ou alguma obra prima, tem uma estrutura gostosa de ouvir, simples, franca e direta. "Filho das Índias" foge um pouco do clima, mas não estraga o disco. Mas a faixa título, "Ave de Prata", esta sim é responsável pela emoção principal  que traduz o disco. Tinha de ser de Zé Ramalho. Violões e bordões e cavaquinhos e o lamento na voz de Elba. Bastava isto mas logo após temos Kukukaya - o jogo da asa da bruxa. "São quatro jogadores nesta mesa, frente a frente para jogar", eia, eia o jogo sujo da vida. E meu amor onde andava nestes tempos? Kukukaya eu quero voce aqui, presta atenção em mim. Ainda temos outras coisas...ouça o disco.

Edição original em LP Epic 235.048

(BRASIL, 1980)

Uma cascavel armando o bote e balançando o maracá. A segunda investida, o mesmo som perfeito, ainda o nordeste queimando sob o céu azul sem sol dentro do "Caldeirão dos Mitos". Forró, um fole de oito baixos no sertão. Quem já se apaixonou sabe o "Nó Cego" que dá no peito. Essa canção tem algo de maracatú no sacolejo da voz de Elba somado a um som de cítara. Eitcha nóis. Pés de Milho, andarilhos como nossos filhos. Um naipe de cordas emoldura com elegância clássica a melodia andarilha desta canção. Pura emoção. Depois vem um revisitação de "Légua Tirana" de Luiz Gonzaga (sua benção) e Humberto Teixeira. Quem teve a felicidade de ouvir mestre Lua cantar esta música, sabe da responsabilidade desta moça recem-chegada ao mundo do estrelato da mpb. "Porto da Saudade" tem todos os elementos nordestinos, desde a letra, até o triângulo marcando sempre e até o fim da canção. O auge da reverência ao nordeste está na interpretação visceral de "O Violeiro" de Elomar. Só Elba e uma viola ponteada. "Amor, forria, viola, nunca dinheiro. Viola, forria, amor, dinheiro não". Como disse antes, tem mais coisa no disco. Ouçam estes discos...eles são muito bons. (in OuçaEsteDisco)

WALLPAPER: "Just One Night"

PETER GREEN: "SAME OLD BLUES"

Peter Green (born Peter Allen Greenbaum, 29 October 1946, in Bethnal Green, London) is a British blues-rock guitarist and founder of the band Fleetwood Mac. A figurehead in the British blues movement, Green inspired B. B. King to say, «He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats.» Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page have both lauded his guitar playing as well. Green's playing was marked with a distinctive vibrato and economy of style. Though he played other guitars, he is best known for deriving a unique tone from his 1959 Gibson Les Paul - a result of the magnet of his guitar's neck pickup being accidentally reversed to produce an 'out of phase' sound. The Les Paul would come to be referred to as Green's "magic guitar" but Green told Guitar Player in 2000 that «I never had a magic one. Mine wasn't magic...It just barely worked.» Green was ranked 38th in Rolling Stone magazine list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" (in Wikipedia)

This double CD set reunites the essential songs Peter Green recorded in his first comeback after being diagnosed with schizophrenia in the early seventies (he spent all the mid seventies in treatments and inside a psychiatric institution in London). After 6 albums ("In the Skies", 1979; "Little Dreamer, 1980; "Whatcha Gonna Do?, 1981; "Portrait", 1981; "White Sky", 1982 and "Kolors", 1983), he suffered a relapse and went down again, until 1990.