Year One! And I'm done!

  Howdy readers,

  It was one whole year ago today I started this thing with Astral Weeks, and man, what a strange tumultuous year it has been ... it's gone from good to weird to bad to weird to good to bad to worse and everything else in-between ... well you get the point.

  My record collection went from a humongous horde to a well maintained stock pile of goodies, plus I bought myself a new setup, which I had never done before, I usually just had the junk shop variety players which can be totally unspeakable.

  Point is, I had set out to review an album every working day for a year, so it was like I was getting paid.  I discovered some new stuff, re-discovered some old stuff and uncovered some total sh*t ... while some of the reviews were inspired, some were uninspired and some were a total sham.  I might be back eventually, although it's going to be whenever the f*ck I want! Ha!  But at the same time I might just leave it as it's own work of art!

Anyway thanks!

Sayonara!

J!

P.S. Sorry to all the albums that didn't make it!  Better luck next time!!!!

Robert Johnson -- King Of The Delta Blues Singers

  As I sat there alone, contemplating existentialism, my own potential ultimate purpose, or maybe I am just a carbon based creature experiencing random events in a meaningless sea of utter bullsh*t ... there's no life ... there's no love ... but there sure as sh*t IS a Robert Johnson!

  Johnson's story is the quintessential music legend ... going to the crossroads to have a meeting with the devil ... trading his soul for a guitar playing mojo hand, and man, you know what, some of those instrumentation's are so damn slick you start to believe that the legend might be fact.  King Of The Delta Blues Singers features all the best known Johnson tunes.  Thematically the numbers are mostly dark and almost mythological.  His sound is very much in the Folk Blues tradition of the time, but has that modern Blues feel in the noodlings, almost like snippets of the future, the birth of modern music.

  The man himself sounds like the ultimate badass, drinking, smoking, and lusting after married women, all-the-while he's got the devil on his side.  His murder is left in mystery, story goes he accepted a jug of whiskey, the jug was laced with strychnine by a woman's jealous husband, against Sonny Boy Williamson's advice, Johnson drank it, and soon after died.  Although I had read it might have been his then girlfriend who shot and killed him out of a jealous rage ... or better yet, maybe it was the devil initiating his first victim of the 27 club ... we'll probably never know, what I do know is thank God for these recordings, too bad someone had to shake hands with the devil first!

Woody Guthrie -- This Land Is Your Land

  Woody's sound is like the definition of American music.  He sang songs for everybody, using his skill and talent for the people.  The record itself is short and poignant, but can hardly touch Guthrie's vast catalogue ... and his tremendous impact on Amerian and music history!!!!

Thelonious Monk -- Monk's Greatest Hits

  After a Monday night of drinking, deliberating whether my latest painting is any good, a hunk of junk or just needs more work, I put on Monk's Greatest Hits to give me some Jazz prospective.  What I had concluded is, this album is awesome, Thelonious Monk is probably the best piano player of all-time, and that my painting definitely needs more work!

The Mamas & The Papas -- 20 Golden Hits

  Lush, cool, Sunshine Pop luminaries The Mamas & The Papas.  20 Golden Hits features all their major hits that we've heard millions of times, plus a slew of tunes I never knew, which were all great, even the radio numbers.  Where the real brilliance lies on this double LP set is in their cover tunes, especially Twist and Shout, they slowed it down and gave it an airy Baroque feel ... anyway I loved it and you should too!

Btw, this is my first ever The Mamas and The Papas album, I surprised myself on how good it was, I was expecting maybe a couple good tracks, that I knew and heard, but I got a whole lot more!

The Platters

  After the month from hell ... living above a funeral home with a crazy teenage girl, wacko Germans and a seemingly normal substitute teacher ... I blasted this crooning Doo Wop Platters Lp.   Funny as smooth and relaxing as they sound, while most certainly having Grandma's approval too, these guys have been busted countless times with a mile long rap sheet, making the Stones look like courtroom pussies, but who knows what Grandma up to in those days either ... point is the Platters ain't no jive a** square bait vocal group, they're the real deal!