"City To City" - Gerry Rafferty

So I found this CD in a gas station on the way to Ottawa. I always loved the song "Baker Street" and I knew that the song originated on this album. At $5.99, I figured I would give it a try, as I had heard good things about this album. I was not disappointed. There is not a weak song in the bunch, and the highlights of the album are exemplary examples of 70s songcraft. Within a few days of picking up the CD I had listened to it about 5 times. "Baker Street" is the biggest hit and most well know song from the album and justifiably so. The famously catchy sax riff wraps itself around the song beautifully and the lyrics talk about the longing that so many people have for a far away, mystical place. The next song on the album, and the follow up single is the midtempo ballad "Right Down The Line" which manages to be endearing but not overly sappy. The one downtempo ballad of the album "Whatever's Written In Your Heart" does occasionally hit a note that is too sappy for this listener's ears. Two other highlights for me are the songs "Home And Dry and the closer, "Waiting For The Day". This album is highly recommended to fans of 70s Soft Rock or anyone who loves the song "Baker Street" but has never listened to any other Gerry Rafferty songs.

P.S. Despite what the cover art may imply, this is NOT a guitar dominated album!

"Physical Graffiti" - Led Zeppelin

In many ways, "Physical Graffiti" is the ultimate Led Zeppelin album. It has the winsome Folk ("Black Country Woman"), the heavy, heavy Rock ("Custard Pie"), the world music experimentation ("Kashmir") and much more. The album is a long one, originally released as a double LP and clocking in past 80 minutes, too much to fit on just one CD (though when I bought the album in the mid-90s, it did fit on one cassette!). This might sound like it screams "70s excessive album length", but really there are no weak tracks here - the album is consistently great throughout. Unfortunately this would be it for great Led Zeppelin albums, as their last two studio albums which proceeded this are not terribly strong or consistent.

As with any Led Zeppelin album, there will be some Blues reworks/covers/ripoffs. On this album, we have the 11 minute plus "In My Time Of Dying," which was originally a Gospel song called "Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed" and was recorded by Blind Willie Johnson among others. The fourth track, the swinging "Houses Of The Holy" oddly has the same title as there preceding album from 1973 (more cassette info - I managed to melt my parents copy of "Houses Of The Holy" on a hot dashboard. True story). The band is clearly having a ball on this album, you can hear their banter at the end (and start) of a number of songs, such as the previously mentioned "In My Time Of Dying," as well as "Black Country Woman".

It is certainly one of Led Zeppelin's most well known albums; the cover is a famous one and the track"Kashmir" has been much sampled (Godzilla soundtrack anyone?) and much heard. It probably would make a good starting point for anyone who is not yet familiar with Led Zeppelin (really?), though the same could be said for Led Zeppelin I and Led Zeppelin IV. So, get it and listen to it!

No one's home

"John Wesley Harding" - Bob Dylan

"John Wesley Harding" was Bob Dylan's first album in 1 1/2 years when it was released in December 1967. While this doesn't sound like much in this day and age when groups take 6-7 years between albums, this was an eternity when most artists released two albums a year. The reason for this delay was a motorcycle accident Dylan had suffered in the Woodstock, NY area. Being released as it did after such sonically complex masterpieces as The Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" and The Beatles "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely  Hearts Club Band," this album was decidedly stripped down, even threadbare compared to those releases. Yet with that being said, this album does not suffer one bit from its stripped down sound. Quite the opposite; had these songs been as heavily orchestrated as those albums, they certainly would not have the same power that they possess in the versions found on this album.

This album is one of mythmaking. Thomas Paine, the title character, St. Augustine, The Drifter and many others all fill the songs with mythical tales and cryptic meanings. The most famous song off the album is "All Along The Watchtower," principally through Jimi Hendrix's fairly radical reworking of it, on his double-album "Electric Ladyland".  Another hard rock connection is the fact that the band Judas Priest got its name from the quizzical "The Ballad Of Frankie Lee And Judas Priest". The songs ends with the Countryish love song "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight;" its pedal steel accompaniment and straightforward lyrics pointed the way to his next album, "Nashville Skyline".

Being a very big Bob Dylan fan, and having listened to the vast majority of his albums, I would have to rate this as being my second or third favorite Dylan album. I would put "Blood On The Tracks" higher, and possibly "Highway 61 Revisited". While I think "Blonde On Blonde" is a great album, I would still place "John Wesley Harding" above it.

"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.

"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".