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

Many say that 1975's Searchin' For A Rainbow was The Marshall Tucker Band's most country album but you can add this one in there too, for sure. Get an earful of Charlie Daniels joining the band on fiddle for the superb country rock of Long Hard Ride followed by Property Ride . Country or what? Yee-haw indeed. Lots of pickin'. Lots of fiddle. The cover backs the sound up as well.  Material like this was enormously successful in the US in the mid-seventies, but in the UK it did not appeal at all at that time. There was definitely not a market for it. There was The Eagles and not much else for us here. Certainly not anything like this to be found alongside David Bowie, 10cc, Steve Harley and Ian Hunter, not for me, anyway. Back to the songs. Am I The Kind Of Man is a really good ballad, featuring superb instrumentation and a country-soulful vocal. Walkin' The Streets alone is a really good song too, with a fetching melody, great guitar and great saxophone. There

This is slightly different to  Eric Clapton 's other mid-seventies offerings in that although it is till made up of laid-back, bluesy folky rock, it is performed at  The Band 's studio with various members of The Band contributing throughout, thus making it sound very much like a Band album with Clapton guesting.  You hear  Robbie Robertson 's guitar as much as Clapton's on  Sign Language  and that trademark Band organ is around a lot.   Beautiful Thing  is slow tempo and melodious, also in a Band sort of way.   Carnival  is a slightly incongruous mock-Caribbean upbeat rock number. It is lively enough, despite Clapton's naturally sleepy voice.  The afore-mentioned  Sign Language  is a duet with  Bob Dylan  and sounds very much like it ought to be on  Desire . It has a real vibe of that album about it. Dylan's vocal makes it very much a Dylan song.  County Jail Blues  is a muscular blues more typical of Clapton, but still very Band-esque in places, particularly t

  This was quite a solemn, serious and poignant album from  Linda Ronstadt , with a couple of upbeat exceptions. As always with her stuff, the music quality is top notch too. Also notable was the cover to the album, which was one that got teenage boys such as myself all hot under the collar back in 1976. No bra necessary in those hot South-Western evenings, it seemed. The album begins in comparatively low-key fashion with an appealing ballad in Lose Again, which, while country in essence, has a big rock band backing on the chorus - full drums and bass and a rock guitar solo mid-song to boot. The Tattler is slightly gentler and more melodic and once again it is a country rock ballad. A tattler is a gossip, by the way. The tone for the album is pretty firmly set by these two openers. That tone is not changed by the walking pace slowie If He's Ever Near. Thus far, we have ourselves a pretty sleepy album.  Things change now, though - Linda always liked a rocking cover version (often a 

Of the albums released after Rod Stewart "sold out"  and became a somewhat preposterous, preening superstar, this is by far my favourite. I prefer it to the incredibly successful predecessor  Atlantic Crossing . It is packed full of excellent, riffy rock songs and big rock ballads of the sort that Stewart did so well.  The "slow side" starts with the smoochy Tonight's The Night . Here we get the sensual, seductive majesty of   this knee-trembler   with Rod going all lecherous - the lusty cocksman telling his innocent and apparently virginal young companion just exactly how good her night is going to be. It is ludicrously horny and corny, of course, but who cares, I can't help but love it. The original recording had Rod's squeeze at the time,  Britt Ekland , sighing and cooing in French all over the end part. Subsequent releases have deleted it out, which was a shame as the vocals added a certain erotic atmosphere.  The First Cut Is The Deepest   is an ab

  "So it (Somebody To Love) was very much gospel construction and allowed him to sing in the way which he loved" - Brian May After 1975's multi-million seller A Night At The Opera,  Queen's star had never burned brighter and they needed to repeat the formula, quickly. They did too. In many ways, I enjoy this album much more than its predecessor. It is a harder, rockier album, and that is how I like my Queen.   Queen had become massive by now - million-selling rock gods like Led Zeppelin as opposed to up-and-coming proggies/folkies/imitators on the make.  They now had to live up to their own success and, most importantly, try to match Bohemian Rhapsody. A difficult, almost impossible job. They almost pulled it off, though.  They also produced the record themselves, feeling they needed a change in dispensing with the services of Roy Thomas Baker. From A Night At The Opera onwards, Queen's albums were a mix of all sorts of different unconnected songs, like Beatles on

The Gladiators,  were, along with  The Mighty Diamonds  and  The Wailing Souls , one of those roots reggae groups from the mid seventies that combined a devotional  Rasta consciousness  with some melodic, mid-pace reggae  “riddims” .  Their brand of roots was, on the whole, upbeat, gently singalong and while having a full bass line, was certainly not in the realms of heavy dub.  There was something pleasant and eminently accessible about their sound. Let's join those soul rebels.... Their best albums came  from 1976-1978,  and were their debut   Trenchtown Mix Up   from 1976   and   Proverbial Reggae   from 1978.   Bellyfull  and  Mix Up  are classic examples of the sound to be found on these offerings. The sound quality on both albums is excellent, crystal clear on the trebly percussion and rich and warm on the ubiquitous bass lines.  A favourite of mine is the subtly melodious  Looks Is   Deceiving  - a delicious slice of lilting reggae, rumbling guitars and some  “stream of Rast

I remember a friend of mine had this album back in 1976 and thought it was great. However, I thought it was somewhat underwhelming Eagles-style fare - melodic and quite pleasant but nothing to get your juices flowing.  My opinion hasn't really changed, to an extent. It is immaculately played by a band that including later-to-be Eagle Timothy B. Schmidt on vocals, bass and harmonica but it just sort of washes warmly over you and its thirty-five minutes are gone before you know it.   The sound is very much like that of Firefall from the same era, a bit more the rock side of country than, say, Pure Prairie League. Eagles influences abound too, but not overpoweringly so, it has a bit of its own feel. I must say the bass is lovely and warm and the string arrangements are most winsome in that Western way. There is some fine lead guitar floating around too and the vocal harmonies are impressive.  I was amazed to find that this as the group's ninth album. These country rockers were aro

Amazingly, this was the seventh album from five-piece seventies soul vocal group  The Manhattans .  It was released on the back of their biggest hit, the infidelity-themed heartbreaker,   Kiss And Say Goodbye  and is largely comprised of lushly orchestrated smooth, slickly produced and beautifully harmonised ballads, with a couple of disco soul numbers in there too. The overall ambience, however, is a laid-back one. Although released on the  CBS  label, it is a very  Philly -sounding offering.  Searching For Love is a melodic piece of string-backed disco soul in the Tavares-Detroit Spinners style. It has a good vocal-percussion-bass interplay bit near the end as well. It has an alternate version with less strings and more of a bassy disco feel, which I prefer.  We'll  Have Forever To Love   is a slow, tender ballad with one of the spoken intros the group specialised in.  Take It Or Leave It  is also from the late night smoocher school.  Reasons  is a bit more punchy but still stick

Three-girl (sometimes four - all Hutchinson sisters) soul group The Emotions had been around on the Stax label for several years, putting out several excellent singles, but they became better-known when they started performing back-up vocal duties for Earth, Wind & Fire.   EWF producer Charles Stepney and Maurice White produced this, the group's third album, from 1976. Stepney unfortunately died in May of the same year and White took over the production. The album has quite a bit of EWF influence on it, understandably, and it sounds a bit like a EWF album from the same era without the male voices. The girls could sing soul, of course, but the EWF production added that distinctive brassiness. At only 28:40, it is an extremely short album - take off two short vocal interludes and you have only eight tracks. Short but warm, relaxing bath sweet. I Don't Wanna Lose Your Love is an upbeat, brassy opener before some quality seventies soul balladry arrives on Me For You. You Got th

This  album, from 1976, has two massive disco hits - the floor filling, iconic Boogie Nights and the “last dance” smoocher in Always And Forever (included here in extended form, including a great laid-back vocal-bass-cymbals bit).  However, this is also a quality album with excellent sound and a band playing some top notch funk at the top of their game.  It is often forgotten just how musically impressive the backing was to these disco funk songs. Rod Temperton, who wrote many hits for Michael Jackson, including Off The Wall and Thriller, features on keyboards and a little known fact is that the album was produced by early 70s “glam” artist Barry Blue.   The  Parliament -esque funk of  Ain't No Half Steppin'  is five minutes of funk heaven, while  Super Soul Sister   burns red hot with its clavinet-drums intro and wah-wah guitar together with some excellent backing horns. Also impressive are  Lay It On Me  and  Beat Your Booty . In many ways, tracks like this are the heart of t

This is a most intriguing "new wave" album. Released in 1976, produced by the Velvet Underground's John Cale, and featuring the enigmatic singer Jonathan Richman as well as future Talking Head keyboardist Jerry Harrison it contained music recorded in 1971 and 1972. It became one of the first "proto-punk" records, along with Television's Marquee Moon. Give me this any day though. What an incredible creation it is - new wave five years before it even existed. Despite that, apart from Roadrunner, it still slipped under many people's radar at the time. Its critical kudos was garnered over subsequent years. Yes, it contains huge Velvet Underground influences, but geeky, fey singer Richman was certainly no drug-addled Lou Reed, bringing a teenage angstiness and naivête to the music. the Modern Lovers' garage band-style rough enthusiasm lends the album a freshness and vigour too. Were there geeky anti-heroes in rock music in 1972? No sir. Jonathan Richman m

Blue Öyster Cult released loads of albums, but this is the one I remember from those looking through record shops' stock days, and, of course, it contains their most famous track. Get that air guitar out.   This best-selling album from 1976 is one of those that punk was supposed to blow off the face of the earth - heavy rock riffs, harmonic vocals, AOR breeziness, supposedly sinister, disconcerting lyrics - all the things that punk despised. I have to say that as I got into punk in 1977, I too loathed stuff like this. However, listening to it now, with unprejudiced ears, I find myself able to appreciate it a lot more, it is a fine serving of rock, every track is a fine one. Look, it's just a great album. I can't believe I'm saying that! Time is such a great musical healer.  The point must be made, too, that within a year or so, producer Sandy Pearlman was hired by The Clash to produce Give 'Em Enough Rope. Every now and again you can hear the similarities on the big

  Want more funk? Coming right up. Let's get a bit smoochy too. The group were not all about funk, were they? The Commodores' fourth album gets underway with the lively brassy funk-pop of Let's Get Started . They were quite innovative with this funk-pop stuff, before Kool & The Gang became more poppy. In contrast to the previous album, though, it is not now funk all the way as we immediately go into late-night soul ballad territory with Girl I Think The World About You . While this track still a bit of punch about it, the next one, High On Sunshine , is a classic smoocher, full of romantic after dark grooves and a delicious vocal. Now, ease yourself over on that couch next to me, baby.... The funk has really deserted us now as we get the extended version of the hit single Just To Be Close To You , which is the attractive sibling of the previous album's Sweet Love . Just cop yourself an earful of Lionel's opening spoken part - so soulful, so beautiful. I love thi

    It had been three years since The Steve Miller Band broke big with The Joker. I must admit that when I saw this sleeve as I flicked through the album covers in the record shops, I perceived it to be a full-on rock album, from Miller's guitar hero pose on the cover. Apart from a few obvious rock moments it is far more of a country rock album, with a definite laid-back vibe pervading throughout proceedings. The album kicks off with a brief, proggy hark back to the band's space rock past on  Space Intro  before we get the delightfully irresistible warm funk-lite groove of  Fly Like An Eagle , which is just such a country piece of AOR.  Wild Mountain Honey  is even more country-ish and sounds like The Beach Boys in the early seventies (and not just because of the title, either).  Serenade  casts its mind back to the white funk of The Joker album with its main riff, although its lyrics and vocal delivery are decidedly hippy as is the overall ambience. As with the previous alum,

  This was Joan Armatrading’s third album. Upon its 1976 release, nobody had heard of her. After, a few weeks, lots of people had.  This appealing mix of acoustic folky rock made the artist a well known, credible name, and the album became a dinner party favourite.  The opener,  Down To Zero ,  gives it a great start, a staccato acoustic rhythm and full band backing and some killer lyrics and ambience.  Help Yourself   continues the laid back acoustic feeling mixed with occasional full band power backing and Joan’s versatile, infectious voice, at times soul deep then beguilingly high.  Water With The Wine  is almost funky at times, but jazzy too.  Then, of course, we get the big one - the sumptuous, timeless  Love And Affection . This was the hit single, the track that made everyone sit up and take notice. Nobody disliked it, it seemed, it garnered full praise across the board. When Joan sings the first line -  “I am not in love, but I’m open to persuasion”  one is hooked. The wonderfu

  Along with its predecessor, this is possibly Steeleye Span’s finest example of commercial folk rock.  Once again produced by Mike Batt of Wombles “fame” (indeed, a little known fact is that several members of Steeleye Span were the musicians behind The Wombles, even donning Womble costumes to appear on “Top Of The Pops” as the furry litter picker-uppers), the album perfectly blended traditional British folk songs with a rousing electric guitar and pounding drum sound. Then, of course, as always, there was vocalist Maddy Prior’s excellent folk voice.  The album is perhaps the band's most rock-influenced offering, with very prominent guitars and a strong rhythm section. Some found it too overpowering, though. Certainly, the folk purists among the band’s following were not too happy with the album, seeing it as a commercial sell-out. As it was, it didn’t sell well, as punk was starting to be the order of the day by its release. The previous album had sold well, however, maybe this o