Oakland's Vinyl Vault - At San Quentin

Well, the good news is the world has not ended.  The bad news is that that means you get to "enjoy" another episode of Oakland's Vinyl Vault.  Today we get one of the handful of live albums that I have in my stacks.  In order to have seen the live performance that the album captured, you would have had to been a hardened criminal.  That's because today we are looking at Johnny Cash At San Quentin.

Release Date: June 4, 1969
Singles: A Boy Named Sue

The second most famous album to be recorded at a prison, Johnny Cash At San Quentin does not have as strong of a set list as its predecessor, At Folsom Prison.  But what it lacks musically, it makes up for in pure Johnny Cash charisma.  Only Cash could have playful banter with a roomful of some of the most hardened criminals the state of California has to offer, as if they were any other crowd.  At one point, while Cash is addressing the crowd, somebody apparently yells something out, and Cash responds:

"What?  Excuse me, I couldn't hear you, I was talking."

The highlight of the album, for me, is when Cash plays "San Quentin."  The crowd loves it so much (the guards, not so much) that Cash decides to play it again.  And crazy part is that for some reason when they were deciding which songs to include on the album, they opted to keep both performances of "San Quentin," so the second side of the album starts off with back-to-back versions of the same damn song.  I'd be willing to bet there's no other album in history that does that.

Rating: 6 shivs - Johnny Cash really was a unique talent and character in the world of music, and what this album gets right is giving you Johnny Cash, raw and unfiltered (but not uncensored on the original release).  A fun record, even if it's not quite as good as the more famous At Folsom Prison.

And now here's Johnny performing "San Quentin."  Along with the album, the concert was also filmed, so we can watch actual footage!  Huzzah!



I can't believe there wasn't a riot.  Pat is crazy.

Oakland's Vinyl Vault - Meddle

It's that time again, children!  Today we look at another great album, with an awful cover.  It's Meddle, by the Pink Floyd.

Release date: October 30, 1971
Singles: One of These Days

So before we get into the music, let's discuss the cover a little bit.  The image, if you couldn't tell, and I don't blame you if you couldn't, is a close up of an ear.  But not just an ear.  It's an ear underwater, and those ripples you see are caused by sound waves entering the ear. As a concept, this seems like it might make a cool cover.  Unfortunately, in reality it just looks bad.

But luckily for us, once you take the album out of its sleeve and put it onto a turntable, you forget all about the cover.  This album, for me at least, marks the beginning of the golden age of Pink Floyd, in which they would go onto make Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall.  In 1971, it had been roughly 3 years since Syd Barrett left the group.  On Meddle, David Gilmour, who essentially replaced Barrett, finally emerged as a creative force within the group.  The result was that Pink Floyd started making some really good music.  Unfortunately it would also lead to a power struggle between Waters and Gilmour that would eventually break up the group, but what can you do.

Musically, you get a lot of different styles on Meddle.  It starts out with the single, "One of These Days," which other than a bizarre spoken line by Nick Mason, is an instrumental.  That leads to a rare Pink Floyd love song, "A Pillow of Winds."  The album continues with "Fearless" and "San Tropez," a light and breezy number.  The first side ends with "Seamus," which features vocals by a dog, and is what many consider to be the worst Pink Floyd song ever written, but I actually kind of like it.

The back side of the album is what makes this a great album instead of a good one. "Echoes."  It's a masterpiece.  Whether or not you believe that it syncs up with the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey (it totally does), you can still have your mind blown listening to this song.  It is epic.

Rating: 3 black monoliths up - A great album to just sit and listen to (or watch a certain part of a certain movie with a certain song from the album).  Definitely a must-own for any Pink Floyd or prog-rock fan.

And now, because I can, and so you can judge for yourself, here is "Echoes" synced up with the end of 2001.  Enjoy!



Pat is crazy.

Oakland's Vinyl Vault - Head Hunters

Get funky, reader.  This week the randomizer spit out the jazz funk classic, Head Hunters by Herbie Hancock.

Release date: October 13, 1973
Singles: Chameleon

I have to start out by just saying it: I love pretty much everything about this album.  I love the cover art.  I love the fact that there are only four tracks, each one completely different than the others.  I even love saying, "Herbie Hancock Head Hunters."  Must be the alliteration.

Since there are only four tracks, I might as well just go through them in order.  First up, "Chameleon."  If you've heard the single version (which I doubt since it is only available on 45), then you know half the story.  Actually, not even close to half, because the single is heavily edited.  And by "heavily edited," I mean the single is a shade under 3 minutes, and the album version is almost 16 minutes long.  When listening to the album version, it's easy to forget halfway through that you're still listening to the first song on the album, and then the main riff comes back around and you remember.  It's awesome.

Finishing off side one is "Watermelon Man," which I kind of consider to be the core of the album.  It screams "Head Hunters."  It's a fun tune, and is probably one of my favorite tracks on any of the albums I own.  Flipping the disc over gets you to "Sly," a tune dedicated to Sly Stone, of Sly & the Family Stone fame.  Like its namesake, "Sly" is extra funky.  It's another tune that you can sort of lose yourself in in the middle, and then be brought home when the opening riff suddenly reappears near the end of the song.  The album closes with "Vein Melter," which is a fantastic name for a song.  It closes the album on a nice slow, steady groove.

Rating: 10 shrunken heads - A classic album for a reason.  If the words jazz or funk even remotely interest you, then you should pick up this album.  If they don't, then maybe listen to it first.

Now here's "Sly," in all its glory.  Enjoy!



Pat is crazy.