Howling At The Moon - The Punk Panther's Album Reviews

One of dub reggae's outstanding producers was Augustus Pablo - the man who introduced the distinctive melodica sound that went on to feature on so many dub recordings. He loved echo too, along with a far-Eastern influenced vibe and you get plenty of that here. He was also jointly responsible, along with King Tubby, for a cut that many claim launched dub genre in King Tubby's Meet the Rockers Uptown (I disagree on that claim, actually, many dub cuts were around from the early seventies before that track's 1976 release). Anyway, that's splitting hairs. There is no doubt of Pablo's dub pre-eminence.  As with so much dub material, albums credited to Augustus Pablo, or King Tubby, or many others contain tracks played and sung by others but produced or contributed to by the titular artist. Musicians involved include reggae luminaries such as Carlton Barrett, Aston Barrett, Leroy Sibbles, Robbie Shakespeare and Earl Chinna Smith. So, with that in mind, here is what we get ...

  This is a truly magnificent album that saw  Albert King  augmenting his blues guitar sound with  Stax  horns and  Memphis  soul sounds. It is wonderfully remastered here (in the Stax remasters series) in a warm, full, vibrant seventies-style separated stereo. It is simply a pleasure to listen to.   All the material is top notch - the brooding but melodic, extended   I'll Play The Blues For You , the soulful   Little Brother   and the sublime grinding funky, lyrically cynical soul groove of   Breaking Up Somebody's Home , with its sumptuous horns, get the album off the a superb start. King's guitar is magnificent and the overall vibe is just cooking to boiling point. It drips with soul. Lots of echoes of  Al Green  and  Ann Peebles  all over it. The organ-bass-horns funky guitar interplay four minutes in is truly intoxicating. Great stuff. Man, I love this album.  As on all the albums, the sound is abs...

"Well do you like good music?" This 1967 debut album showed that Arthur Conley wasn’t just the titanic Sweet Soul Music that made his name. He shows himself to be a versatile vocalist on an enjoyable album of Southern brass-driven soul. As with Eddie Floyd’s debut from the same year, this was not an album with “filler” on it. It is full of quality material. Otis Redding produced and contributed songs to it, so that was an endorsement to begin with. Sweet Soul Music . Where do I begin? I have loved this track for years, from its iconic horn intro, through its name checking of other soul artists it is an absolute delight. Arthur asks “do you like good music?” on the song’s first line. What a start. We sure do, Arthur. I know every note of it, even to the fade out bit of “Otis Redding’s got the feeling...”. For years this song was all I knew Arthur Conley for. This album proved that he had more to offer. It never really worked out, though, which was unfortunate, as this was a re...

Here we have another of Elvis's seemingly one a year live albums from 1968 onwards (apart from 1971). This is a keeper, though. Firstly it is performed in his home town of Memphis and secondly, it features an energised, enthusiastic Elvis showing that, on those occasions when he really hit the spot, he was pretty damn good live. Unfortunately - there's usually an unfortunately with Elvis albums, both live and in the studio - an enthusiastic Elvis meant one that upped the amount of between song chatter and introduced his often awful "jokes" into his patter. I know this adds to the live atmosphere and gives an insight into his character, but the whole thing is so much better when he simply sings . That's what he did best. He certainly weren't no comedian. He ruins his cover of Fever in this way. However, the unbridled attack Elvis gives to Long Tall Sally, Whole Lotta Shakin', Mama Don't Dance, Jailhouse Rock and Hound Dog showed that the ageing king cou...

I've never quite understood the collective opprobrium shoved up the ass of Bob Dylan's 1970 Self portrait album by many often po-faced music journalists. Surely, after John Wesley Harding in late 1967 and 1969's Nashville Skyline they knew in which direction Dylan was now heading? I have also never quite bought into the popularly-circulated idea that Dylan recorded and released the Self Portrait material deliberately to deconstruct his own myth. Why would he do that. wasting the time of many respected musicians in the process? No, I think he was simply putting his foot down even more trenchantly, as if to say "I'm going to do country rock so like it or lump it - here's a load more". Furthermore, the sheer volume of unreleased outtake and unused material from this period on show here would hardly show an artist casually tossing off twenty sub-standard songs for an album he didn't care about, would it? There are fifty-three songs here, from the sessions ...

This is one of my least favourite of Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series, despite its Holy Grail reputation among Dylanologists, no doubt. as you may know from my review of the Basement Tapes , I am not a huge fan of Big Pink's collection of lo-fi country covers, goofing around and in-jokes. Listening to this bloated, 139-song collection of even more stuff laid down in that basement as the dog lay on the floor it makes me wonder what people actually get from it. Compared to so much of the treasure that the Bootleg Series has unearthed, it sounds bloody awful. If that makes me a heretic - so be it. There are six discs in this huge set. Play any of them, or indeed play any of the tracks at random, digitally, and you will find lo-fi, muffled, often tinny mono recordings, together with false starts, abrupt endings and chatter. Compare this to, say the Fragments set from the Time Out Of Mind sessions and the difference is light and day, for me, anyway. Dylan's vocals are often whiny and ...

Bob Dylan's Time Out Of Mind was considered by many to be a big "comeback" album, a "return to form" blah blah blah...Quotes referring to its genius were ubiquitous. For me, though, Dylan never went away, he had just been diversifying into traditional Americana and acoustic ballads on the Good As I Been To You and World Gone Wrong albums. Here he managed to merge some of the aspects of those albums with a more robust sound and a lyrical emphasis on ageing and mortality. It became one of his darkest albums and here we have a subsequent box set of outtakes/alternative versions from the album's sessions and an excellent, deep, bassy remix of the original album. Personally, I haven't got a problem with remixes, not viewing them, like some, as heretical. If a remix can be seen to improve on a slightly flawed original recording, then I'm all for it. Listeners can then choose which version they prefer. Invariably I choose the remix. The remix in question he...

This five disc release from Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series includes tour rehearsals and outtakes/alternative versions from the sessions for the Shot Of Love, Infidels and Empire Burlesque albums. It covers the period that saw the end of Dylan's overtly Christian-themed output, merging into the distinctly secular (in the most part) Infidels and on to the very eighties synthesiser-dominated Empire Burlesque. The cuts from that album are actually far rockier and much less synth-dominated.  For many, this would not seem to be the most promising of periods, but, thinking about it, Infidels and Shot Of Love were both pretty well-received and the same is true of this collection. It shows an artist getting himself out of a particular lyrical rut and trying out all sorts of approaches, using many new musicians, such as legendary Jamaican rhythm duo Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare on Infidels for example, as well as Mark Knopfler and ex-Rolling Stone Mick Taylor.  After a slightly in...

This excellent Bob Dylan Bootleg Series compilation differs from many of the others in that it covers a much wider time span and the recording sessions for Oh Mercy, Time Out Of Mind (with some carry-overs to Love & Theft), World Gone Wrong and Modern Times - a period from 1989 to 2006. Also included are songs recorded for movie soundtracks - the movies were North Country, Lucky You and Gods And Generals - as well as several live concert recordings.  The best version of the album is the three disc one. Because of the wide period covered, the collection almost plays out like a new album (particularly Disc One), and the quality of the tracks is simply outstanding, both as songs and in their superb sound. It in no way plays like a collection of ropey demos - all the songs are full ones. No false starts or Dylan stopping the band a few minutes in. I love it for that reason. It's a proper album as opposed to an obsessive's treasure trove. My favourites are many - a slowed-down b...

This is a huge retrospective box set from Elton John, containing eight CDs and 148 tracks. It is, by his own admittance, a self-curated companion set to his Diamonds collection of his biggest hits. Here we have anything but his biggest hits - we have deep cuts, demos, outtakes, 'b' sides, rarities and a disc of songs that mean a lot to the man himself.  It is clearly a voluminous curation but, for me, you can take away the three CDs of early career demos. I know many aficionados will find these to be dusted with pure gold but I, as I so often do with demoes, remain frustrated and dissatisfied by their lo-fi, home-made sound. This detracts from any merit these early songs may have had. There is probably a few good songs among the mind-boggling nearly ranks of nearly seventy but they just don't do it for me. Once I've struggled through about twenty of them I've had enough. They are mainly recorded with Elton on piano and someone of tambourine and often sound as if the...

This is the full two disc set of live recordings from Elvis's show at Madison Square Garden in June 1972. It is pretty much a set based on those he had been delivering in Las Vegas - some classics, some newer material and some covers of other artists' songs. The leather jacket and trousers of the late sixties had gone and Elvis was now in full-on white suited mode. There was a new enthusiasm for Elvis's music from both his original fans and now a new generation of them. Elvis is backed by his trusty band, an orchestra and lots of backing singers. The sound is excellent, particularly considering the cavernous nature of the vast Madison Square Garden arena. As with all his concerts, though, the orchestra often takes any raw, rock 'n' roll edge that the music had away, burying it in a blanket of brass and strings. This was always a shame because Elvis's band was a really good one. Every now and again, you get some good bits from James Burton's guitar and Ronnie...

   This Elvis On Stage Deluxe Edition includes the full fourteen track version of 1970's On Stage and eighteen tracks from Elvis In Person from 1969. The two concerts have a different emphasis on their set lists, which makes for a varied, interesting listen. In Person is still hanging on to the coat-tails of the leather-outfitted 68 Comeback gigs and Elvis and his band are on fine, upbeat rocking form as they run through rock'n'roll hits like Blue Suede Shoes, All Shook Up and Hound Dog. The set is a mix of this sort of material, older ballads like Are You Lonesome Tonight and new, but becoming popular songs like the wonderful In The Ghetto and the rousing, singalong Suspicious Minds. Elvis is chatty and enthusiastic and the band seem very "up for it". Backing vocalist Cissy Houston seems a bit too committed on Are You Lonesome Tonight with some pseudo-operatic additions that sound as if they were done as a joke. Unfortunately they were deadly serious and the vo...

There are numerous burgeoning reviews of this equally abundant six-disc box set of outtakes and alternative versions of Bob Dylan's songs from Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde On Blonde, I won't attempt to add to them in any sort of detail.   You don't need me telling you how great it is to listen to twenty (yes - twenty!) consecutive versions of Like A Rolling Stone to trace the song's development do you? Because it isn't it. Not for me, anyway. False starts, giggles, surly retorts, sub-one minute "there's something wrong", "that's too fast" and "is that ok Bob?" tracks are not my bag, no sir. Only the most devoted of Dylanologists would derive any pleasure from that Herculean aural task. Furthermore, the eventual Like A Rolling Stone was just so damn perfect that I don't really need to listen to another version. Furthermore, all those false starts are really frustrating because just as a song is g...

"If you don't like Cliff Richard, you don't like rock'n'roll" - Van Morrison Look, this compilation is what it is - quality but relatively disposable pop music from an artist whose sheer longevity and steadfast desire to keep going, doing what he loves is to be much admired. I am not really a fan of Cliff Richard in the true sense, but I have to admit to an affectionate respect for him. I use this album for an uplifting, pleasant half hour every now and again. I don't play all seventy-five of the tracks available, I tend to stick to the early "British Elvis" rock 'n' roll stuff. CD 1  This covers the early Shadows rock 'n' roll years. The songs are short, lyrically innocent, catchy, well played and sung and just a joy to listen to, in their unthreatening way. I also have to say that the remastered sound quality is simply breathtaking - great stereo, warm bass and carrying a great thump. Highlights are the magnificent Move It, Mean...

Recorded on December 31st 1977 at London's Rainbow, this was the the first live album to be issued by a punk band and it remains one of the greatest live albums of all time, capturing an iconic band at the peak of their new-found powers. Incidentally, I saw them the night before this gig, at Friars, Aylesbury. I was blown away by the sheer power and non-stop, relentless attack of it all. I had not heard the like. The set comprises twenty-eight songs yet the whole gig lasts only fifty-three minutes, such is the breakneck nature of the all-out assault on the senses. The songs are separated only by endless "1-2-3-4"'s and a couple of verbal intros from Joey - "after eating our chicken vindaloo... I Wanna Be Well... and "this is for all you lonely hearts out there..." for Here Today, Gone Tomorrow. The first three songs make for a absolutely classic opening salvo - Rockaway Beach, Teenage Lobotomy and the wonderful Blitzkrieg Bop. The energy is incredible. ...

You simply can't argue with any of the ELEVEN volumes of James Brown's remarkable singles career, dating from his churchy, gospel roots in 1956, through the rock'n'roll influenced soul/pop of the early sixties, the r'n'b of the mid/late sixties, the bubbling, cookin' funk of the seventies and then interesting experiments into disco and even country by the end of the seventies and start of the eighties. Take your pick, any of it is wonderful, remastered to an incredibly high standard, but my personal favourites have always been the mega-funky years of 1972-75 and even the more disco-influenced period of 1975-79 found many songs delivered with a decidedly funky flavour. Just check out things like Superbad Superslick or Everybody Wanna Get Funky One More Time. There are some critics I have read who questioned the "blaxploitation"/Black Caesar period when Brown tried to get in on the Isaac Hayes/Curtis Mayfield socially-conscious thing, but I never had...

This is a truly excellent compilation covering the remarkable career of The Godfather of Soul.  It covers his early rock’n’ roll/doo-wop influenced era with tracks such as Please Please Please, his first hit from 1956, I Know It’s True, Try Me, with its glorious fifties sax sound and Out Of The Blue, through the sixties horn-driven funk/pop of classics like I Got You (I Feel Good) and Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag. There is also the pure blues of It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World. Also present is the Atlantic-style, churchy, organ-powered soul of tracks like Lost Someone. Brown covered several different genres of soul in his long career.  Check out the Stax-y groove of Licking Stick-Licking Stick, a lyrically simple song but in possession of an absolutely intoxicating funky riff. I Got A Bag Of My Own is also impossibly funky. Brown just owns tracks like this. Listen to how he controls Get Up, Get Into It And Get Involved, like a crazed revivalist preacher. Then we get the copper-bo...