"The Who Sell Out" - The Who

Some albums are albums that you go back with a long while, and they never leave you. The Who's "The Who Sell Out" is one of those for me. As with many of the hundreds of albums I own, I can remember when and where I purchased it. I purchased it way back in the summer of 1995 at the flagship Sam The Record Man in downtown Toronto on Yonge Street (miss that chain). The version I picked up is the MCA CD reissue from 1995 which includes 9 bonus tracks, and it's these 9 bonus tracks that really made this a favorite of mine.

Both the snippets which are interspersed between the album bonus tracks and some of the tracks themselves are "ads" which advertise products that are sometimes real ("Heinz Baked Beans") and sometimes made up ("Odorno"). Yet the strongest tracks are completely unrelated to the album's concept of "selling out". The triumphant "I Can See For Miles" combines phenomenal drumming and guitar riffs with a malevolent glee at finally finding out the truth. The ethereal but heartbreaking "Sunrise" is the complete opposite, just Pete Townshend singing and accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, singing about the love of his who he's too afraid to approach.

The bonus tracks on this CD version include both b-sides not included on the album and tracks that were not even released until the 1990's. Standouts include the strikingly despondent "Melancholia," the lovely pop of "Someone's Coming" and the proto-heavy metal instrumental "Hall Of The Mountain King". Another fascinating bonus track is the CD's closer, "Glow Girl" which both musically and lyrically serves as a very important precedent for the upcoming Rock Opera "Tommy".

While this album may not be as influential as "Who's Next" or "Tommy," it definitely ranks as one of The Who's greatest albums and is a lot more 'fun' than either of those later, more serious albums.

They must shop at Costco

"Summer Rain: The Essential Rivers 1964–1975" - Johnny Rivers

Surprisingly, there's a lot more to Johnny Rivers than "Secret Agent Man" and Chuck Berry covers. Some of his most interesting work was done in the late 1960's, when he helped popularize Jimmy Webb's songs and recorded quite a number of them. The album opens with "Memphis," his first hit and a Chuck Berry cover and continues with his good but not inspired covers of quite a number of what today we would call "Roots Rock" songs (all of them hits to varying degrees). Among those is also the campy but irresistible "Secret Agent Man," which was not a cover.

My favourite song on the album, and Johnny Rivers' only #1 hit, is the deeply soulful and moving "Poor Side Of Town". This song is interesting in a number of ways. For one thing, it is the only one of his Top Forty hits which he had a hand in writing (he co-wrote it with his produce Lou Adler). Secondly, it is Soul-oriented (with backing vocals, strings, etc.) and not Rock-oriented. Also, it makes you wonder why there aren't more songs like this on the album! As far as I know, Johnny Rivers did not record very many of his compositions, unfortunately. The followup to "Poor Side Of Town" was a Motown cover ("Baby I Need Your Lovin'") which isn't quite as strong as The Four Tops' original, but still has a charm of its own and became another sizable hit. After another Motown cover and hit ("The Tracks Of My Tears") we got to the strongest section of the album. A trio of strong Jimmy Webb songs are followed by equally well-written tracks such as the title track and "Look To Your Soul," all of them quite introspective. This leads up to an improbable cover that knocks me out every time I hear it, his somewhat Countryish take on Bob Dylan's "Positively Fourth Street". Bob Dylan has famously proclaimed that he prefers Rivers' version to his own. The final three songs on the album were all hit covers of hit songs and are all uniformly uninteresting.

So really there may not be enough primo material to make this album worth it. However I still enjoyed it and am glad to have the stronger tracks on album, especially since this material is not available on Itunes.

"The Convincer" - Nick Lowe

Nick Lowe is not exactly a household name. Even to music connoisseurs of some knowledge he is mostly known for his 80s pop (his biggest hit was "Cruel To Be Kind") and his production work with Elvis Costello, Dave Edmunds & others. But some of his strongest work has been the albums he has been releasing on a regular basis since the mid-90's, when he realized that he didn't want to be an aging rocker pretending that the new wave was still happening. Instead, he took the route of quieter, more acoustic and more countryish songs. The resulting albums have been consistently rewarding in their depth, original songs and choice covers. The results remind me a bit of Charlie Rich, actually, generally classified as a Country singer (the genre where he had his biggest hits, i.e. "Behind Closed Doors") but an artist with a lot more soul and depth than your average Country singer.

The album being discussed here is "The Convincer," released in 2001. This is the third album available in a 3-CD set called the "Brentford Trilogy," which also has the equally worthy predecessor albums ("The Impossible Bird" and "Dig My Mood"). While Nick Lowe's songwriting skills are nothing to sneeze at, my two favourite tracks are actually both covers. The first is the heartbreaking "Only A Fool Breaks His Own Heart," which has a tender, almost lullaby-like arrangement which is somehow pretty and painful at the same time. The other is "Poor Side Of Town," which was a #1 hit for Johnny Rivers in the late 60s and tells the story of a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who had ditched her poor boyfriend only to realize the error of her ways. By the end of the song they realize that they can get out of the poor side of town, together. Lowe's cover of the latter song is fairly faithful to the original, whereas his cover of "Only A Fool Breaks His Own Heart"is quite different from the various versions that I've listened to since I heard Lowe's version (and actually more moving).

As far as originals go, the intriguing "Indian Queens" grabbed my attention. It is the lament of an inveterate rogue who has traveled the world but desires to return to "Indian Queens". After hearing the song, I was more than curious to know if this is a real place. And lo and behold, it is a village in England where Pocahontas may or may not have been. One of the few uptempo songs is the Rockabillyish and humorous "Has She Got A Friend?" which asks the obvious question: 'sure, your new girl is great, but I've heard enough about her, does she have a friend?!'. "The Convincer" of the title is surely the narrator of the penultimate track of the album, the explicitly seductive "Let's Stay In And Make Love".

If you like intelligent and varied roots music, be sure to give this album a listen.

"Electric Warrior" - T. Rex

So last week I had $50 worth of gift cards to use at any Cadillac Fairview mall. Naturally I spent it all at an HMV. I decided to look through the entire Pop/Rock section (or whatever they call it these days), A-Z and see what caught my eye. When I got to the 'T' section, this album caught my eye. I had never owned any T. Rex albums. The only song that I could remember hearing by them was their biggest hit ("Bang A Gong (Get It On)," on this album). I knew they were kind of glam rockish and that this was supposed to be one of their best albums.  It was a Rhino special edition with extra tracks, and I'm always a sucker for that. So I took a chance and picked it up.

And you know what? I'm glad I did! The sound on the album is just somehow slightly..... otherworldly. The lyrics are rather on the trippy side. "Girl I'm just a jeepster for your love" anyone?! That's from the song "Jeepster,"an R &Bish romp which is pretty damn catchy. Reading more about T. Rex, it's incredible how absolutely MASSIVE they were in the U.K. while barely denting the U.S. In The U.K. they had #1 hit after #1 hit, whereas the only song to make the top ten in the U.S. is "Bang A Gong (Get It On). I also realized I knew a few more of their songs, such as "Children Of The Revolution" and "20th Century Boy" (both great songs, btw). Listening to the most famous song on the album, "Bang A Gong (Get It On)," it's easy to see why this is the song that broke T. Rex in the U.S.; the groove is undeniable. The bonus tracks on the Rhino reissue are mostly singles from the same period which were not released on the album. "King Of The Mountain Cometh" is the best of that bunch, "Hot Love" was also a big hit. Next thing to do? Get my hand on his next two albums ("The Slider" and "Tanx").

P.S. For those wondering, I spent the rest of the $50 (and a bit more) on U2's "Boy," Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" and "The Essential Guess Who".

"The Wicked Pickett" - Wilson Pickett.

First things first. This album is just about entirely covers. Even the big hit on the album ("Mustang Sally") is a cover. That would seem to indicate that it is a weak album and/or is full of filler. Nothing could be further from the truth.

For starters, the album was recorded entirely in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, at the soon to be famous Fame Studios. Aretha Franklin recorded her first #1 R&B hit there around the same time ("I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You") and soon everyone from Paul Simon to Cher was recording in Muscle Shoals. Secondly, this means that the band backing Pickett was one of the strongest backup bands of the 20th century, including little known figures who deserve more credit, such as Spooner Oldham on keyboards, Jimmy Johnson on guitar and Roger Hawkins on drums. This was a mostly White band playing a Wilson Pickett album, and you wouldn't have suspected as much by listening to it!

The covers are well chosen and often improve on the original. The original version of "Mustang Sally" was by the author, Sir Mack Rice, and had been a minor R&B hit before Pickett put his distinctive stamp on it. He sped it up a bit and the band provided a funky backdrop which resulted in one of his most famous performances and is a song that everyone assumes started with him. Other highlights are his hit cover of Solomon Burke's "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" (sped up in the process) and the Deep Soul classic "She Ain't Gonna Do Right" (written by one of my favorite songwriting duos, Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham). The two other songs co-written by Dan Penn on the album are classics of Deep Soul, the devotional "Up Tight Good Woman" and the heartbreaker "You Left The Water Running".

If you're as much of a Soul fan and a Wilson Pickett fan as I am, this album will not be enough. If that is the case, and you have a bit of spare box set money lying around, you need a copy of "Funky Midnight Mover - The Atlantic Recordings (1962-1978)," a 6-CD set which includes everything he recorded for Atlantic Records, including this album, as well as numerous rarities. It is much, much more consistently strong than I would have thought; only the Discofied second half of disc 5 drags (disc 6 contains the rarities).

"Something/Anything?" - Todd Rundgren

A lot can and has been said about this wide-ranging 1972 double album. It has entered the Rock canon (Rolling Stone top 500 albums, etc.) and was Todd Rundgren's breakthrough album. Does it live up to the hype?

For me the answer is a definite 'yes'. I received this album last Xmas and I have already listened to it over a dozen times I'm sure. The 'something for everything' way the album is chronologically arranged (four album sides, four concepts) could have been distracting and left the album sounding very dated, but somewhat surprisingly that is not the case. The album opens with a tremendous 1-2 punch, namely the purest of pure Pop: "I Saw The Light" and "It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference". Not one of the most well known songs on the album, but one of my favorites is the theatrical "The Night The Carousel Burnt Down". The music probably adds more to the songs than the lyrics, but the song works. The big hit on the album was "Hello It's Me," which was the only song off of the album that I was familiar with. Interestingly enough it had been previously released by Rundgren's old group, Nazz. It is a memorable tale of uncertainty and longing. A song about "it's complicated" relationships years before the term came into common usage.

The musical joy that this album brought to me made me rush out and investigate his albums preceding this one. Thankfully Edsel Records has the two albums before this one ("Runt" and "Runt. The Ballad Of Todd Rundgren") both available on a double CD with extensive liner notes and extra tracks. They're not quite up to this album, but they did not disappoint.

If you're into 70's Rock, definitely check this out. Be prepared for some musical weirdness though!