ERIC CLAPTON RIDES WITH B.B. KING

Original released on CD Reprise 9 47612-2

(US 2000, June 13)

CREAM's SECOND ALBUM

Original released on  LP Reaction 594 003 

(UK 1967, November 10)

Cream teamed up with producer Felix Pappalardi for their second album, "Disraeli Gears", a move that helped push the power trio toward psychedelia and also helped give the album a thematic coherence missing from the debut. This, of course, means that Cream get further away from the pure blues improvisatory troupe they were intended to be, but it does get them to be who they truly are: a massive, innovative power trio. The blues still courses throughout "Disraeli Gears" - the swirling kaleidoscopic "Strange Brew" is built upon a riff lifted from Albert King - but it's filtered into saturated colors, as it is on "Sunshine of Your Love," or it's slowed down and blurred out, as it is on the ominous murk of "Tales of Brave Ulysses." It's a pure psychedelic move that's spurred along by Jack Bruce's flourishing collaboration with Pete Brown. Together, this pair steers the album away from recycled blues-rock and toward its eccentric British core, for with the fuzzy freakout "Swlabr," the music hall flourishes of "Dance the Night Away," the swinging "Take It Back," and of course, the old music hall song "Mother's Lament," this is a very British record. Even so, this crossed the ocean and also became a major hit in America, because regardless of how whimsical certain segments are, Cream are still a heavy rock trio and "Disraeli Gears" is a quintessential heavy rock album of the '60s. Yes, its psychedelic trappings tie it forever to 1967, but the imagination of the arrangements, the strength of the compositions, and especially the force of the musicianship make this album transcend its time as well. (Stephen Erlewine in AllMusic)

RATO'S MUSIC ~ VOLUME 153

RATO'S MUSIC ~ VOLUME 152

ERIC CLAPTON ~ "MEANWHILE"

Edição original em 4 de Outubro de 2024
Vinyl LP Bushbranch / 88304-1
CD Digipak Surfdog / 88292-6

Como que a abrir o apetite para os próximos concertos no Royal Albert Hall de Londres, aqui fica o novíssimo álbum de Eric Clapton, que se ouve de fio a pavio com imenso agrado. Alguns clássicos de todo inesperados ("Moon River" ou "Always On My Mind"), mas que acrescentam aquelas pequenas estrelas no universo intemporal em que se tornou a música de Clapton. O clássico de Chaplin - "Smile" - é o único tema que parece deslocado em "Meanwhile". Temos direito a mais duas excelentes canções com o carimbo Clapton bem notório ("Heart of a Child" e sobretudo "The Call"), mas todo o LP é bastante apelativo. Atrevo-me mesmo a dizer: um dos mais melhores e mais homogéneos álbums de Mr. Clapton! Participações especiais, entre outros,  de Jeff Beck e Van Morrison.

"The Day Music Died"

Original released on LP United Artists UAS-5535

(US, 24 October 1971)

Don McLean's second album, "American Pie", which was his first to gain recognition after the negligible initial sales of 1970's "Tapestry", is necessarily dominated by its title track, a lengthy, allegorical history of rock & roll, because it became an unlikely hit, topping the singles chart and putting the LP at number one as well. "American Pie" has remained as much a cultural touchstone as a song, sung by everyone from Garth Brooks to Madonna, its title borrowed for a pair of smutty teen comedies, while the record itself has earned a registered three-million plays on U.S. radio stations. There may not be much more to note about it, then, except perhaps that even without a crib sheet to identify who's who, the song can still be enjoyed for its engaging melody and singable chorus, which may have more to do with its success than anything else. Of course, the album also included "Vincent," McLean's paean to Van Gogh, which has been played two-million times. Nothing else on the album is as effective as the hits, but the other eight original songs range from sensitive fare like "Till Tomorrow" to the sarcastic, uptempo "Everybody Loves Me, Baby." "American Pie" - the album - is very much a record of its time; it is imbued with the vague depression of the early '70s that infected the population and found expression in the works of singer/songwriters. "American Pie" - the song - is really a criticism of what happened in popular music in the '60s, and "Vincent" sympathizes with Van Gogh's suicide as a sane comment on an insane world. "Crossroads" and "Empty Chairs" are personal reflections full of regret and despondency, with the love song "Winterwood" providing the only respite. In the album's second half, the songs get more portentous, tracing society's ills into war and spiritual troubles in "The Grave" and "Sister Fatima." The songs are made all the more poignant by the stately folk-pop arrangements and McLean's clear, direct tenor. It was that voice, equally effective on remakes of pop oldies, that was his salvation when he proved unable to match the songwriting standard set on "Tapestry" and this collection. But then, the album has an overall elegiac quality that makes it sound like a final statement. After all, if the music has died, what else is there to say?

THE MOODY BLUES: "Seventh Sojourn"

Original released on LP Threshold THS 7

(UK, 23 October 1972)

Despite the presence of a pair of ballads - one of them ("New Horizons") by Justin Hayward the latter's most romantic number since "Nights in White Satin" - "Seventh Sojourn" was notable at the time of its release for showing the hardest-rocking sound this band had ever produced on record. It's all relative, of course, compared to their prior work, but the music is comparatively stripped down here, and on a lot of it Graeme Edge's drumming and John Lodge's bass work comprise a more forceful and assertive rhythm section than they had on earlier records, on numbers such as "Lost in a Lost World," "You and Me," and "I'm Just a Singer (In a Rock & Roll Band)." The latter, authored by Lodge, was - along with Lodge's "Isn't Life Strange" - one of two AM radio hits that helped drive the sales of this album, issued in early October of 1972, past all previous levels. Indeed, it was with the release of this album that the Moodies achieved their great commercial success in America and around the world, with a "Grand Tour" that kept them on the road for much of the year that followed. The irony was that it was all about to end for them, for years to come, and the signs of it were all over this record - "Seventh Sojourn" took a long time to record, and a lot of the early work on it had to be junked ("Isn't Life Strange" was one of the few early songs to get completed); it was clear to all concerned except the fans that, after six years of hard work in their present configuration, they all needed to stop working with each other for a time, and this was clear in the songs - many have a downbeat, pensive edge to them, and if they reflected a questioning attitude that had come out on recent albums, the tone of the questioning on songs like "Lost in a Lost World," "You and Me," and "When You're a Free Man" had a darker, more desperate tone. Perhaps the group's mostly youthful, collegiate audience didn't notice at the time because it fit the mood of the times - the album hit the stores in America the day before Richard Nixon's landslide presidential re-election victory (the culmination of events behind the scenes that would subsequently drive him from office). But the members were not working well together, and this would be the last wholly successful record - difficult as it was to deliver - that this lineup of the band would record, as well as the last new work by the group for over five years. And oddly enough, even amid the difficulties in getting it finished, "Seventh Sojourn" would offer something new in the way of sounds from the group - Michael Pinder, in particular, introduced a successor to the Mellotron, with which he'd been amazing audiences for six years, in the form of the Chamberlin, which is all over this album. (Bruce Eder in AllMusic)

RATO'S MUSIC ~ VOLUME 151

JIMI HENDRIX: "The Cry Of Love"

Original Released on LP Reprise MS 2034
(1971, March 5)

When Jimi died, on September 18, 1970, he left behind a lot of unfinished material for his next record; ment to be called "The Cry Of Love" or "The Rising Sun". Actually, he had been putting aside tapes of what he has the most satisfied with for the past years, to this album. After his death, Eddie Kramer and Mitch Mitchell sat down to organize his library of halfly finished tapes, and arrange them into an album. Mitch played a whole lot of things again, and added new stuff where something was missing. Because of the general excellence of the engineering and production, it's hard to say just how complete the album was before his death, but it is clear that if these tracks were mostly finished and in the can, then the only thing holding up their release must have been Jimi himself. They are that good. The state of the songs ranged from "Night Bird Flying" and "Freedom", wich was almost finished, to "Angel" and "Drifting", that was missing serious amouts of work. After five months, the record was ready for release. "The Cry of Love" was Hendrix's final effort, and it is a beautiful, poignant testimonial, a fitting coda to the career of a man who was clearly the finest electric guitarist to be produced by the Sixties. This record seems more complete than the album Janis left for us, but like "Pearl", it too seems strangely foreshortened, a venture caught in the process of becoming and suddenly halted. The fact that "The Cry of Love" is still as good as it is must serve as some sort of reminder as to just how large looms the shadow of its creator.

NOTE: In 1997, this album was re-released under the name "The First Rays Of The New Rising Sun", where the ten tracks were mixed with seven more tracks (!). Sincerely, there are things which I really don't understand at all! Why adulterate something that is perfect? Well, never mind, here you have this Hendrix great last album in its pure and original release.

MARILLION - "Script for a Jester's Tear"

Original released on vinyl Lp EMI/EMC 3429 (UK 1983, March 14)

EASY DELIGHTS ~ VOLUME 3

RATO'S MUSIC ~ VOLUME 150

RATO'S MUSIC ~ VOLUME 149

CAT STEVENS - "Catch Bull At Four"

Original released on LP Island ILPS 9206

(UK 1972, September 27)

"Catch Bull at Four" began with a statement of purpose, "Sitting", in which Cat Stevens tried to talk himself into believing that he hadn't stalled, beginning to worry that he might be falling behind schedule or even going in circles. It may be that Stevens' recent experiences had contributed to his sense that he was running out of time. Though he was never a directly confessional writer, one got the sense that his disaffection with the life of a pop star was reasserting itself. And while he was touring unhappily around the world, the world was still going to hell in a handbasket. Yet Stevens was still motivated by his urge to help mankind mend its ways. Love provided some comfort, but for the most part, the singer who had seemed so excited on his last album now sounded apprehensive. Stevens set his reflections to a mixture of musical styles that included traces of old English folk songs, madrigals, and Greek folk music along with more typical rock stylings, all performed with the stop-and-start rhythms that added drama to his performances. Nevertheless, "Catch Bull at Four" was a more difficult listen than its three predecessors. Coming off the momentum of "Teaser and the Firecat", it roared up the charts to number one, but stayed in the Top Ten fewer weeks than its predecessor. Fans who had been stirred by Stevens' rhythmic tunes and charmed by his thoughtful lyrics were starting to lose interest in his quasi-religious yearnings, busy arrangements, and self-absorbed, melodramatic singing. His career still had a ways to go, but as of "Catch Bull at Four", he had passed his peak (in AllMusic)