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Ooh La La (Album of the Day)
When Faces officially called it quits on this day in 1975, the band left behind four studio albums, each a rough-hewn gem. By the 1973 release of the last of these, OOH LA LA, frontman Rod Stewart was more focused on his solo career and co-founder Ronnie Lane picked up the slack in spectacular fashion – the title track may be the best thing he ever wrote, and “Glad and Sorry” isn't far behind. Stewart makes his raspy presence felt on such tracks as “Cindy Incidentally” and with producer Glyn Johns rallying the troops, the rest of the boys play superbly. A chart-topper in the group's native U.K., OOH LA LA is a rousing finale to the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers' career.
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (Album of the Day)
In a career filled with peaks, THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS is likely David Bowie's Mt. Everest. The performer's fifth studio album featured irresistible glam rock anthems in a conceptual framework combining sexual ambiguity, science fiction and rock star autobiography. As a songwriter, Bowie was firing on all cylinders here – “Starman,” “Hang On to Yourself,” “Suffragette City” and the title track were instant classics – and Mick Ronson's punchy riffs made it clear he was a guitar hero to be reckoned with. The 1972 collection hit the U.K. Top 10 and THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS has been a staple of critics' “greatest albums of all-time” lists ever since.
Zuma (Album of the Day)
Neil Young's batting average in the 1970s was extraordinarily high, and ZUMA is another home run. Named after the California beach where Neil resided, the 1975 Reprise collection largely ditches the despair running through his preceding “ditch trilogy,” and the 9 originals include such tender songs as “Lookin' for a Love” and even a CSNY recording, “Through My Sails.” Cut with a reconfigured Crazy Horse, the album has plenty of raw energy and some of Young's best-ever guitar solos, most notably on “Danger Bird” and historical epic “Cortez the Killer.” The gold-certified ZUMA is an ideal showcase of the intensity, versatility and heart that put Neil Young in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Anthem of the Sun (Album of the Day)
The Grateful Dead's second studio collection, 1968's ANTHEM OF THE SUN, was an unprecedented hybrid of studio and live recordings. It also marked a departure for the band, as they began to channel their creativity into longer jams on songs like “Alligator” and “Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks)” – two concert staples of the Dead’s early days. As band archivist David Lemieux notes, “This is one of the most thrilling albums the Grateful Dead ever produced, mixing portions of live recordings from the first six months of Mickey's tenure with the band, along with studio experimentations that would hint at where the Dead would go when they started recording to 16-track tape the following year.” ANTHEM OF THE SUN captures the legendary group at the summit of psychedelic music.
Pretties for You (Album of the Day)
When Phoenix, AZ garage band The Nazz relocated to L.A. and renamed themselves Alice Cooper, opportunity knocked in the person of Frank Zappa, who signed the quintet to his Straight Records label. The band's debut album, PRETTIES FOR YOU, followed in June 1969, and its spontaneity and eccentric arrangements reflect the psychedelic spirit of the time (Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, with whom the group hung out, was an influence). Though the big hits were still a couple of years away, you can hear one in embryonic form: “Reflected” would later be rewritten as “Elected.” On this day in 1969, Alice Cooper opened for Led Zeppelin at Hollywood's Whisky A Go Go, and PRETTIES FOR YOU is a snapshot of the band before another move (to Detroit) put their career into high gear.
We are Family (Album of the Day)
Sister Sledge already had a couple of studio sets under their belts when they released WE ARE FAMILY, and it stands as not just the group's finest, but one of the greatest longplayers of the disco era. The title track became a No.2 hit and remains an anthem of pride and solidarity; opener “He's the Greatest Dancer” also reached the Top Ten (the album itself went platinum). Philadelphia siblings Kathy, Debbie, Joni and Kim Sledge harmonize like angels and each gets a chance to sing lead, and the sisters get a huge assist from Chic's Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers, who wrote and produced these 8 tracks. Rogers once declared that “pound for pound, I think WE ARE FAMILY is our best album hands down,” and it's tough to argue with that assessment.
Ronnie Hawkins (Album of the Day)
Though he was born in Arkansas, Ronnie Hawkins is revered as one of the founding fathers of rock 'n' roll in Canada, which the performer has called home since the mid-1960s. Recorded in New York in 1959, his eponymous debut for Roulette Records is an effective mix of pop and rockabilly that includes a pair of minor hit singles in “Forty Days” and “Mary Lou.” While his longtime group The Hawks had at this point only gone through a few permutations, Levon Helm is here on drums several years before Bob Dylan would help turn Ronnie's backing musicians into The Band. “Mr. Dynamo” turns 87 today, and we'll give RONNIE HAWKINS another listen to wish him a happy birthday.
Hunky Dory (Album of the Day)
David Bowie himself recognized HUNKY DORY as a turning point in his career: “I guess it provided me, for the first time in my life, with an actual audience – I mean, people actually coming up to me and saying, 'Good album, good songs.'” Brilliant is more like it - “Changes,” “Oh! You Pretty Things” and “Life On Mars?” remain among Bowie's most enduring recordings. Though Mick Ronson's guitar work is less prominent than the keyboard playing here (by Yes' Rick Wakeman), the collection is nonetheless a milestone of glam rock – flamboyant and anthemic, even if it's not as loud as follow-up ZIGGY STARDUST. To mark the 50th anniversary of the seminal set, a limited-edition picture disc of HUNKY DORY is now available.
Low (Album of the Day)
The fast life in Los Angeles was taking a serious toll on David Bowie by the mid-1970s; fortunately the singer-songwriter saw the danger signs and opted for a new career in a new town, moving to Europe. Recorded in France and Berlin, LOW reflects the influence of krautrock and ambient music, with Brian Eno a key collaborator along with producer Tony Visconti (whose use of an Eventide H910 Harmonizer created the set's distinctive drum sound). The 1977 collection is split between a side of shorter art-rock songs (the classic “Sound and Vision”) and a side of atmospheric, predominantly instrumental tracks (“Warszawa”), a combination that label executives initially balked at releasing. Yet the album reached the Top 10 in England and just missed it in America, and outlets such as Pitchfork, Q and Paste now cite it as one of the decade's greatest. David Bowie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on this day in 1996, and the radical self-reinvention of LOW is one of the reasons why.
Green Onions (Album of the Day)
While the years between the heyday of Elvis Presley and the arrival of The Beatles are often thought of as a fallow period, there was still a lot of wonderful music being made, much of it by girl or instrumental groups. One of the finest of the latter was Booker T & The MG's, with Hammond organ great Booker T. Jones fronting a band whose name was both a play on the popular car and their status as a “Memphis Group”: guitarist Steve Cropper, bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn and drummer Al Jackson, Jr. The quartet went on to back such '60s soul royalty as Otis Redding and Sam & Dave as well as scoring a number of hits on their own – none greater than “Green Onions,” an instro that reached #3 on the pop chart and opens the quartet's first album. While that song's simmering keyboard work and lean guitar riff may be the set's most recognizable music, the other 11 tracks on the debut are equally impressive – nearly 60 years after its original release, GREEN ONIONS remains as tasty as ever.