It's 10:51 PM on Friday night, January 25th, 2008...just left a message for producer Rob Fraboni re: Virginia MacNaughton's 2003 disc, "Levers, Pulleys & Engines"...boy is this disc special. It sets a mood by opening up with 4:57 minutes of a dreamy "Essentially Grey" - "Time and space have taught me to be patient..."...picture Kraftwerk backing up Norah or Rikki Lee Jones - the Jones Sisters...a sweeping arrangement and devoted vocals with cosmic guitars erupting underneath...this is special stuff...will have to email Fraboni...answer the phone, man...Track 10 (you know computers, always in shuffle mode), "Shadow Me", 6:05 of something that sounds like an answer to John Lennon's "Plastic Ono Band" album...an album I adore...this is very different from track 1, and the piano/drum combo is played to perfection...at 11:33 PM track 4 "Anonymous" has totally captivated me!
Thrilling, excellent...a very necessary album!
CLASSIC RECORDS WE CAN'T LET GO OF
What in God's name was John Kongos doing performing on "Pyromania", the 1987 album from Def Leppard?
John Kongos
Review by Joe Viglione
This classic 1972 album on Elektra by John Kongos has Queen/Cars director Roy Thomas Baker remixing superb production by Gus Dudgeon, the man who created many an Elton John hit. Elton sidemen Ray Cooper, Caleb Quaye, Dave Glover, Roger Pope, Sue (Glover) and Sunny (Leslie) -- pretty much the crew from John's 1971 epic Madman Across the Water -- are all excellent here. But this album has more to offer than the solo records by Kiki Dee and Bernie Taupin, which also proliferated around the same time. Though he never made it to Joel Whitburn's Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits in the U.S.A., there were three minor splashes on this disc: "Tokoloshe Man," "Jubilee Cloud," and "He's Gonna Step on You Again." The totally original sound -- producer Dudgeon on "asses jawbone," bicycle bell, maracas, and Mike Noble playing the "clapper board" -- build a texture one didn't hear on Elton John records. Highly experimental, the brilliant piano and guitar by Quaye invigorate "Jubilee Cloud," which can only be described as psychedelic gospel. Not only a gospel feel, the mysterious Sue and Sonny personify a church choir next to Mike Moran's ARP Synthesizer. Read more here:
http://wm04.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE47319DD49A87520E89B2C45F6A672FE19D650DA971F28455A92B63E45913E65CA46F68BA5DBB674AB7BAAE02CA45A079FCBEF5CFCDD6C3F3E9D8EDB&sql=10:gxftxqq5ldae
The Joe Vig Top 15 for Friday Night 10:55 PM - These are tracks that I find
exhilarating. The art of the hit single has got to come back to save radio...and the world. "There's Nothing Like A Hit" is our mantra and we need to find those essential songs and exploit them...in a good way, of course!
1)The First Cut Is The Deepest - P.P. Arnold
The "Sixties Summer Love" 50 track double CD from Universal Music Group UK (probably a release for sale on television) is as attractive as The Beach Boys "Endless Summer" lp. Really! Tracks by The Kinks, Herman's Hermits, Bobby Hebb and this lovely P.P. Arnold track will keep you glued to this collection.
Read review here:
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE47319DD49A87520E89B2C45F6A672FE19D650DA971F28455A92B63E45913E65CA46F68BA5DBB674AB7BA9E02CA45A079FCCE453F9D6643B2DFC93&sql=10:g9frxqyrld6e
2)Shadow Me - Virginia MacNaughton
3)Jubilee Cloud - John Kongos
4)Traffic
5)Margaret MacDonald
http://www.myspace.com/margaretmacdonald
http://wm04.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE47319DD49A87520E89B2C45F6A672FE19D650DA971F28455A92B63E45913E65CA46F68BA5DBB674AB7BAAE02CA45A079FCBEF5CF9D56C3E3D9D8EDB&sql=10:hpfpxzu5ldje
Here's a great disc I received from my good friend Harriet Schock. Harriet is one of my heroes, she puts music together the way Bobby Hebb does, constructed with inspiration, vision and methodically. Margaret's album has lots to offer, I need to give it a few more spins before the full review but check out her my space (above) for some samples; 11:44 PM 1-25-08 (I still have Virginia MacNaughton in the player as Mr. Fraboni needs a full essay on it...and it is more impressive with every spin!)
MORE JOE VIG PERSPECTIVE...
My days as A & R man...doing A & R for Jimmy Miller (and six years later for Fraboni's Domino Label while promoting Alvin Lee & Rusty Kershaw), is a lot like reviewing a record...though from my point of view it is always about how much the music stirs me. MacNaughton's disc does it for me...it's great...and one of the difficulties is that it was sitting on my desk for a couple of months...with stacks of articles to write it is very difficult to isolate the time to spend on the multitude of CDs, DVDs and other media that fly into the mailbox...
SPECIAL MENTION
Phoebe Snow It Looks Like Snow
David Rubinson's production of Phoebe Snow on the 1976 release It Looks Like Snow is an overpowering collection of pop-jazz-funk-folk that puts this amazing vocalist's talents in a beautiful light. Whether it's the Bowen/Bond/Hazel blues classic "Shakey Ground," which Elton John, Etta James, and so many others have explored, or her exquisite interpretation of the Beatles' "Don't Let Me Down," there is no doubt the material here should have ruled on the airwaves the year after her Top Five smash, "Poetry Man." How could Columbia Records not have this material saturating radio across America is the question ... read more here...
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE47319DD49A87520E89B2C45F6A672FE19D650DA971F28455A92B63E45913E65CA46F68BA5DBB674AB7BAAE02CA45A079FCBEF5CFCD56C3F349D8EDB&sql=10:fbfixq95ldhe&writer=1
Monsieur LeRoc on Barnes & Noble.com
A clever array of sounds permeates this outing by the inventive dancemaster Monsieur Leroc. Though not as complex as Marvin Gaye and the soul legend's unique body of production work, the artist is certainly a student of that part of the musical landscape. As far out as Parliament/Funkadelic during their wild '70s explorations -- though milder and with more manners -- a segment like "P.off" unintentionally ripples with Sly Stone musings, a little "Family Affair" bubbling under the dance beats. Courtney Mace and Bargain Josh add much to the thick, grooving undercurrent, which trances on for close to seven minutes. "Baby" is low-key Prince from the 1999 era, a good diversion found somewhere inside the 46 minutes and 38 seconds that make up I'm Not Young But I Need the Money. German dancehalls are overflowing with American music, riding the wave of the U.K.'s vibrant Northern soul scene, and Arne Drescher in this incarnation takes that devotion further with Jerry Lee Lewis samples all over "Great Balls." It's a strange mutation of the Killer's neo-rockabilly evolving into what feels like an evening of Earth, Wind & Fire bandmembers having a musical tug of war on-stage. Jerry Lee's in-your-face sexuality simmers on the stove here, some kind of prelude to "Freewheelin' Frankie," an ode to Sinatra and a place that goes even further back in the time machine. Leroc unabashedly turns bachelor pad music on its head, though his sincerity is obvious and part of the charm. If Esquivel is the serious older brother, Monsieur Leroc is the kid who puts his inquisitive mind to good use while the elder sibling is not using the chemistry set. I'm Not Young But I Need the Money concludes with a multimedia track of "Cooley McCoolsen," the hipster opening cut that grooves steamier than Charles & Eddie or Terence Trent D'Arby at their most velvety sublime. Joe Viglione, All Music Guide
http://www.cdconnection.com/details/_Monsieur_Leroc_-_I'm_Not_Young_But_I_Need_the_M_/235234&source=googbase
All Music Guide
A clever array of sounds permeates this outing by the inventive dancemaster Monsieur Leroc. Though not as complex as Marvin Gaye and the soul legend's unique body of production work, the artist is certainly a student of that part of the musical landscape. As far out as Parliament/Funkadelic during their wild '70s explorations -- though milder and with more manners -- a segment like "P.off" unintentionally ripples with Sly Stone musings, a little "Family Affair" bubbling under the dance beats. Courtney Mace and Bargain Josh add much to the thick, grooving undercurrent, which trances on for close to seven minutes. Read more here:
http://music.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp?ean=788377103721
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