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The Strawbs
Mary C Carpenter
Billy Bragg
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The Beat: You Just Can't Beat It: The Best Of The Beat

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Of the late seventies/early eighties UK "two t one" punk meets ska groups, it was Birmingham's The Beat who were always my favourites. I seriously loved their first two albums and was lucky enough to catch them live on a couple of occasions. They were great.  A six-piece, they featured the clever, culturally-relevant lyrics and distinctive voice of Dave Wakeling on shared lead vocals, shared with the ebullient Ranking Roger. The group's distinctive saxophone sound was delivered by Saxa, a veteran Jamaican who was said to be fifty, sixty, seventy, or eighty. Nobody really knew. It added to the mythology.  The music was essentially ska, full of lilting guitar licks, dub influences and that deep, gloriously tuneful saxophone wailing away beneath nearly every tune. This is, by far, the best Beat compila tion, featuring pretty much all three of their albums, save for one track off the third album, Rotating Head . They may as well have just put it on there. So, let's ge
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Burning Spear: Man In The Hills - 1976

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  After its cult-status predecessor (certainly in UK reggae-punk crossover circles) this was a credible follow-up, although it was noticeably more pastoral, relaxed and chilled-out than its incendiary and righteous forebear.  This is highlighted by the title track, Man In The Hills , which champions a rural existence over an urban one, just as Jacob Miller did with his "Rasta c'yaan live in no tenement yard" sentiment.  Door Peep , released as Spear's first, unsuccessful single, actually dated from back in 1969, when Winston Rodney, after a surprise meeting with Bob Marley while out waking in the fields, decided to go to Studio One to promote his work.  Other highlights are No More War, Lion, People Get Ready and Black Soul . I like this album a lot, it has a nice sound quality to it, melodic basslines and a subtle vibe that is infectious. Not sure about the strange green head cover though! 
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Lynyrd Skynyrd: Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd - 1973

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  Lynyrd Skynyrd were, in many ways, the archetypal Southern States good-time whiskey and bar-room guitar-piano boogie rock'n'roll band.  Maybe not as innately talented as The Allman Brothers Band, they were earthier and more flawed, but always retained an irresistible bluesy appeal. The plane crash that took the lives of three band members and effectively ended the first phase of the band's existence is well-documented, but it doesn't make it any the less tragic. This was the debut album from  Alabama ’s  favourite sons and daughters . It is full of muscular, often slowish-paced bluesy rock, as you would expect - drums, guitars and rollicking bar-room piano topped off with  Ronnie Van Zant ’s rousing, charismatic Bourbon-sodden vocals. The sound is a bit rough and ready in places but hell, just turn it up, buddy. Ain’t no goddamn audiophiles round these parts, boy. Having said that, I have an old copy of the album, the latest remaster of it is excellent, so there you g
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Lynyrd Skynyrd: Second Helping - 1974

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  This was a slightly more polished follow-up to  Lynyrd Skynyrd ’s raw, bluesy debut from the previous year.  As the title suggests, though, it is pretty much more of the same - muscular, soulful Southern blues rock. It has yet to be remastered, however, so the sound is a bit duller than it might be. Skynyrd are often seen as the archetypal Southern rock band, certainly the rawest, but probably the more perfect one were  The Allman Brothers . Skynyrd were no musical perfectionists, but it did give their albums an unfettered edginess. You got the impression that they wouldn’t do endless re-takes of songs, they laid them down and got on with the next one.  The iconic  Sweet Home Alabam a  opens the album. It is a timeless, superb rocker and needs no further comment, really. Along with  Free Bird , it is the song everyone knows from the band. I have always had a bit of a problem with the band’s castigation of  Neil Young  for daring to call into question the South’s institutionalised rac
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Crosby, Stills & Nash: CSN - 1977

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Released at the height of punk, was there any desire for harmonious, laid-back, airy and peaceful acoustic music together with idealistic lyrics? Certainly not in the UK, where it was disco, prog-pop-rock and punk-new wave all the way.  In the US, though, this album reached number two, beaten to the top spot by Fleetwood Mac's behemoth Rumours. It is an album that functions far better when listened to now than it would back in 1997. Personally, I would have had no time for it then. 1970's Deja Vu album and the zeitgeist it was released into certainly seemed a long way away. The music is unsurprisingly gentle and subtle, full of light rhythm and acoustic melody.  The highlights are Stephen Stills' wryly musing and rhythmic  Fair Game , the (comparatively) rocky  Dark Star  and  Run From Tears  along with  See The Changes ; David Crosby's beautiful, quietly attractive  Shadow Captain , the sleepy  Anything At All  from the extravagantly-moustachioed one and Graham Nash
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Paul Simon: Shining Like A National Guitar: Greatest Hits

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Paul Simon is just such a clever, sensitive, observational individual and he has been one of music's major singer/songwriters for many a decade. Now retired, his contribution has simply been immense. He has been one of the greats. No question. I have reviewed all his solo albums in detail - click on the blue label link at the bottom of this page.  If you just require a sampler then let me take you to the Mardi Gras...... We begin with two of the big eighties hit tunes - Graceland , where Simon sings about Elvis Presley’s house against a wonderful South African township guitar riff and  You Can Call Me Al , which includes legendary bassist Ray Phiri’s famous “backwards” bass solo part. Then it's back to the early seventies with the convincing reggae experiment of Mother And Child Reunion. Not all non-Jamaican musicians could play reggae well, but Simon's band managed it., maybe surprisingly. I remember the song from the time of release. It was a big hit.  The Cool, Cool Riv
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The Band: Greatest Hits

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The Band, erstwhile musicians at Bob Dylan's court and everyone's favourite sharecropper lookalikes. They, almost single-handedly, launched the whole Americana sub-genre in music before it took off hugely as the sixties became the seventies and everyone sang a few country numbers and reminisced about the good old days farming the land. The Band took it further, though, growing their beards and dressing as if it were 1875, even as glam rock was all around. Strange, I have to say. Despite that, their music was hugely influential, particularly on artists with a taste for Americana such as Elton John.  I have reviewed five of their albums in more detail - click on the blue label link at the bottom of the page.  The Band were not really a "greatest hits" outfit, were they? There are many other songs that should have been included (arguably) but, as a taster of what they were about, this is a pretty good album's worth of material.  In the meantime, let's roll into
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Trojan Presents Classic Reggae

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There are certainly some fine collections in this series from the legendary Jamaican Trojan label but this is arguably the best, functioning as a sort of compressed, bite-size history of reggae itself. It also has remastered its many classic cuts outstandingly well.  Let's look at what's on offer - Disc One The collection kicks off by including an original ska number in Byron Lee & The Dragonaires' joyful  Jamaica Ska . Ska was where it all began, of course, before the rock steady rude boys came along.... Desmond Dekker & The Aces' 007 (Shanty Town)  is  Rude Boy Heaven. The song became a hit in the UK. Its James Bond/007 message is unclear, he is only mentioned in one line, but the rest of the song would seem to be another anti-Rude Boy condemnation. "Rude Boy him a weep and a-wail" . Continuing the rude boy theme, Dandy recorded the original of A Message To You Rudy , memorably covered by The Specials. Rico Rodriguez, who played on The Specials'
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Lynyrd Skynyrd: Gimme Back My Bullets - 1976

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  The heavy vibe continues on this, the band’s fourth album, and for some, this was a somewhat tired-sounding offering.  You can’t help but feel it is more of the same, though, and not quite as good. Some impressive guitar solos save many of the tracks from being a bit ordinary. The sound quality isn’t quite as clear or defined as on the previous album. It was received as a bit of a disappointment at the time, and, to an extent, it still evokes a reaction like that.  Gimme Back My Bullets  is the usual reliable bluesy rock opener, while  Every Mother’s Son  is a nice slow number with a great guitar solo near the end, but it suffers a bit from a muffled sound.  Trust   rocks solidly enough but is nothing outstanding. There is nice guitar in it too, although one bit lifts straight from  Sweet Home Alabama .  (I Got The) Same Old Blues  is the  J.J. Cale  song also covered by  Bryan Ferry . Skynyrd do it justice.  Double Trouble  rocks along impressively enough.  Roll Gypsy Roll  causes n
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Burning Spear: Marcus Garvey/Garvey's Ghost - 1975

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  Burning Spear (Winston Rodney) gave the world one of the great roots reggae albums here. Burning Spear’s  Marcus Garvey  was released at the end of 1975 and was at the forefront of the black consciousness movement within reggae. It was a veritable foundation stone of the whole roots reggae movement.  It was tied in, of course, with Rastafarianism, and the Jamaican Rasta hero prophet.  Marcus Garvey  gives his name to the album’s title and, indeed its powerful, horn-driven title track that opens the album. This is very much a militant, issue-led album, with a dual attack of religious devotion and cultural awareness, as was so often the case with roots albums. As with the others, too, this does not detract from the appealing, tuneful sound of the album, however. This pretty much applies to all the roots reggae albums of the period. The mid to late seventies were fertile years for authentic roots reggae.  Slavery Days  is an iconic song with clear references - “ Do you remember the days
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