Oakland's Vinyl Vault - Brothers and Sisters

Hello again, I'm back from my long break, and I've got some sweet tunes for this week.  It's the southern rock classic, Brothers and Sisters by the Allman Brothers Band.

Release Date: August 1973
Singles: Ramblin' Man, Jessica

The Allman Brothers started Brothers and Sisters a brother short.  This was the first album recorded in its entirety after the death of Duane Allman in a tragic motorcycle accident.  Then, during the early recording of the album, another band member, bassist Berry Oakley, died as the result of a motorcycle accident, just blocks away from Duane's fatal crash.

But the music must go on! Dickey Betts took over the bulk of the songwriting, and with great success.  His "Ramblin' Man" reached #2 on the charts, and the album as a whole went to #1.  There are only 7 tracks (and only 6 of them are listed on the cover of my copy), and the shortest track is "Wasted Words" at 4:20.  There are long instrumental solos ("Jessica," the longest track is all instrumental) and that's just the way I like it.

Rating: 8 thumbs up - A great, complete album.  Perfect for summer, so get all your brothers and sisters together and enjoy the long southern rock jams of the Allmans.

Here's "Jelly Jelly," which is getting the special treatment here on Pat is Crazy because it got left off the cover of the original album cover.  Enjoy!



Pat is crazy!

Oakland's Vinyl Vault - Elton John

This week the old random generator has pulled out another one of the more seldom listened to albums in my collection.  It's the eponymous album from Elton John.

Release date: April 10, 1970
Singles: Take Me to the Pilot, Your Song, Border Song

This is the album that introduced America to one of the most famous singer-songwriter duos in Elton John and Bernie Taupin.  The album starts off on a high note with "Your Song," which remains one of Elton John's biggest hits.  "Your Song" was originally released as the B-side to "Take Me to the Pilot," but proved to be so popular that the sides were flip-flopped, making "Your Song" the A-side.

Unfortunately, the rest of the album fails to live up to that fantastic opener.  This album is very frustrating to me because it is so close to being a good album, but it falls just short.  Some of the songs drag a little too much for me, and there just doesn't seem to be much flow as the album goes on.  The result is a mediocre album that has some bright spots.  You can definitely hear the talent and potential of a young Elton John, but he hadn't quite figured it all out yet.

Rating: Four thumbs up - It's not a bad album, and there are some great tunes to be found on it.  The front side is a little weak following "Your Song," but it finishes strong with a solid second side.

Now here's one of the more up-tempo numbers from the back side, "The Cage."



Pat is crazy.

Oakland's Vinyl Vault - Rumours

How do you measure the success of an album?  Is it by the critics reviews?  The commercial profits?  The awards won?  Well if you go by number of albums sold, with over 19 million copies sold in the US alone, today's album was one of the most successful of all time.  It's Rumours by Fleetwood Mac!

Release Date: February 4, 1977
Singles: Go Your Own Way, Don't Stop, Dreams, You Make Loving Fun

In 1976, Fleetwood Mac was enjoying their greatest success as a band, with their previous album, Fleetwood Mac, reaching number 1 on the US charts and selling over 4 million copies.  Personally, however, things weren't so rosy.  John and Christine McVie got divorced, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were in a tumultuous on again/off again relationship, and Mick Fleetwood discovered that his wife had an affair with his best friend.  But out of this trying situation, the band came together and made one hell of an album. 

You can hear the band's personal problems in the lyrics of this album.  And it turns out that a lot of people can identify with going through relationship problems, and I think that is a big part of what made this album so successful.  The music is also top notch, and perfectly compliments the vocals.

Rating: 10 thumbs up - It's no secret why Rumours is one of the best-selling albums of all time: it earned it.  All the songs are great, and they flow together wonderfully.  A great album to have in the regular rotation, and it's obviously easy to find in the bins because there were so many of them produced and sold.  No reason not to pick it up.

A lot of the songs on this album receive regular airplay on the "hits of the '70s, '80s and today" stations, so here's one that maybe doesn't get as much.  Here's "Songbird."  Enjoy!



Pat is crazy.

Oakland's Vinyl Vault - The Band

This week I've got another good one for you, reader.  It's the classic eponymous album from The Band.

Release Date: September 22, 1969
Singles: Rag Mama Rag, Up on Cripple Creek

There are very few things where a person can say the [noun], and everybody knows what is being talked about.  There is no "The Car" or "The Sandwich," but there are "The Pill," and "The Catch." So if you're going to go around calling yourself "The Band," you'd better be good.  Luckily for the Band, and us, they are damn good.  And their self-titled album, sometimes referred to as "The Brown Album," is probably their best album.

Musically, it's not your typical 1969 rock 'n' roll album.  It feels older.  It sounds sepia-toned.  It takes you back to a time where things were all black and white, life was simple.  There's influences from country, rag-time, blues, and rock and roll.  The result is spectacular.

This album is a joy to listen to, and it sounds like the Band had a good time making it too.  Each member plays different instruments on different songs, there are three different lead singers throughout the album, there's horns, and a fiddle, and a clavinet.

Rating: 15 thumbs up - This is about as good as an album gets for me.  It's a timeless album.  If I could figure out a way to put my turntable on repeat (and have it automatically flip the album each time), I would listen to this album over and over and over again.  I highly recommend checking it out.

It was hard to pick a song from this album, because I enjoy them all.  But here is "Rockin' Chair," and if you want to go listen to the rest of the album on your own, that's fine by me.



Pat is crazy.

Oakland's Vinyl Vault - xx

It's the 21st century, and this week we're actually going to listen to some music from it! Yes, not all of my vinyl is 30+ years old.  So, this week enjoy the eponymous debut album from the xx.

Release date: August 17, 2009
Singles: Cystalised, Basic Space, Islands, VCR

Before I get into the music, let me comment on the cover design for this album.  The black part of the cover you see above is the outer cover, with an x cut out, with the inner sleeve being white.  While this is a nice idea and looks good on its own, it is rather annoying for storage purposes. This is because if you try to slide an album in next to this one, it invariably gets caught up in the x cutout part, and you end up damaging the xx cover.

Anyway, once you get over that fact and put the record on the turntable, everything gets better.  The music is simple and rhythmic, and the vocals are captivating.  The result is a album that is great to listen to.  It is not overpowering, so makes great background music for most activities, or you can simply close your eyes, lie down and enjoy it.

Rating: 6 thumbs up - The rhythms and vocals of the songs combine in such a way that seems to get instantly stuck in your head.  There is just something about the simple arrangements and wonderful vocals that is really quite enthralling.  I encourage you to check it out.

This album was well received critically, and things are looking good for the future of the xx.  You can really see the joy on their faces in this music video for "Crystalised."



Pat is crazy.

Oakland's Vinyl Vault - Born in the U.S.A.

This week we have another iconic album, this time from that decade of decades, the 1980s.  It's our first repeat artist, the Boss, this time with Born (wait for it...) in the USA!

Release Date: June 4, 1984
Singles: Dancing in the Dark, Cover Me, Born in the U.S.A., I'm On Fire, Glory Days, I'm Goin' Down, My Hometown

Is it patriotic? Is it not? Does it really matter?  All I know is that Born in the U.S.A. turned Bruce Springsteen from a rock 'n' roll star into a superstar.  This album had as many top ten singles as Thriller (all freakin' 7 of 'em!).  That should give you an indication of how successful it was.

So, I think, the obvious question is: did he sell out?  And the answer is: sort of.  Musically, there is a much more commercial feel to the songs.  The synthesizer, that staple of '80s pop music, was used by the E Street Band for the first time.  The songs are upbeat, and have a great, driving energy to them.

But lyrically, the New Boss is, as the Who would say, the same as the Old Boss.  He's still singing about union halls, losing your job, hard times, desperation, and the struggle to overcome.  So it's not exactly the "rah-rah America is the greatest" album that it is sometimes portrayed to be.

On a completely separate note for you Conan O'Brien fans, this album also features a familiar back-up singer: La Bamba.  As far as I can tell, this was his first association with the E Street Band, one that continues today, as he played with them at last year's Super Bowl.

Rating: 13 thumbs up (one from each of the original colonies!) - Despite it's more commercial feel, the Boss still manages to put the same passion and energy into this album that he did in his previous ones. Plenty of bands sell out a little bit to be more successful commercially, but nobody has done it better than the Boss, as evidenced by the record tying 7 top ten singles produced.

Now what goes hand-in-hand with selling out musically?  Making music videos!  Normally, I try to give you all a non-single song to listen to that maybe you haven't heard before. But this video is too good to pass up, thanks in large part to Steven Van Zandt.  Here's "Glory Days." Enjoy!



Pat is crazy.

Oakland's Vinyl Vault - Chicago II

This week's album features winds from the Windy City. That's right, it's the band with the least creatively named albums of all time: Chicago, with their album Chicago II!

Release date: January 26, 1970
Singles: 25 or 6 to 4, Make Me Smile, Colour My World

Chicago II (officially named Chicago, since the first album was before they shortened their name from the Chicago Transit Authority, but referred to as Chicago II because pretty much all of their over 30 albums are named "Chicago (number)"), like the band's first album, is a double album.  Although the first album was a success, Chicago II is the album that really made the band a household name, and for a good reason: it's a great album.  All three of the singles off this album charted in the top 10, and "25 or 6 to 4" is still one of their biggest hits.  And the rest of the songs aren't too shabby either.

The first disc flows really smoothly, with the highlight being the "Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon" suite of songs.  The third side of the album doesn't flow as well as the other 3 sides, but more than makes up for it by having three great songs in "Fancy Colours," "25 or 6 to 4," and "Memories of Love."  Early Chicago was not afraid to get political, and did just that on the fourth side, with the great song "It Better End Soon."

Rating: 10 thumbs up - Even though it's a double album, when it ends I always want more.  Great album from start to finish.  It's also a really easy find, as there are a ton of Chicago albums in every record store ever, and you should be able to get a copy on the cheap (I got mine for $0.50), so there's no excuse for not having it!

Well, I wanted to play you "It Better End Soon," my friends, but I could not find it in video form on the big truck that is the internet, so instead I will class up the joint a little with some "Fancy Colours" (and you know it's fancy because they added the "u" to the word color!)



Pat is crazy.