Category Archives: Records

Steve Miller Band’s 1976 album showed the trio fully develop their space blues sound, with really catchy guitar riffs, keyboards and lots of effects. Steve Miller formed the band 10 years earlier in San Francisco, and started by playing psychedelic music and blues popular there. It shows in the spacey elements of the title song, […]

A classic from the Isley Brothers, the first to officially feature members Ernie Isley, Marvin Isley and Chris Jasper and released by Epic Records. This lineup immediately produced a double platinum album and would release a string of highly successful recordings throughout the ’70s. The recording sounds fantastic, the first of many fruitful collaboration between […]

Classic album from Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66 that includes their enormous hit The Look of Love, written by Burt Bacharach (music) and Hal David (vocals) and originally performed by Dusty Springfield for the film Casino Royale. After performing at the 1968 Oscars, Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66 saw their rendition of the song reach […]

Great album by George Benson that reached the top of the pop charts in the U.S., surprising for someone who had played with Miles Davis in the 1960’s and recorded jazz records on CTI to that point. But his first album on Warner Bros. records won two Grammy awards, including Record of the Year This […]

One of Tangerine Dream’s most popular records, Rubycon is standard fare from the electronic bands heyday in the 1970’s. A seminal electronic album, it establishes a setting and remains in it throughout the course of the album, which is only divided into two sides with no track listings. Very atmospheric, if relatively primitive in the […]

Conducted with the London Symphony Orchestra, Apocalypse is the first album by the *Second Incarnation* of Mahavishnu Orchestra, which John McLaughlin formed in 1974 by adding Jean-Luc Ponty on violin and Gayle Moran on keyboards, among others. There is even a silhouette listing a photo of the people who contributed to the album on the […]

1977 album from the Los Angeles-based L.T.D. that reached 21 on the soul LP charts and the single (Every Time I Turn Around) Back in Love Again reached #1 on the Billboard R&B charts and #4 on the top 100. It is accessible funk, very danceable, and the highlights like (Every Time I Turn Around) […]

This was my first movie soundtrack purchase, and mostly because its title song was written and composed by Steely Dan, FM (No Static At All), a great song recorded during the sessions for Aja. For $4, sure, its a soundtrack to a movie I’ve never seen about FM radio DJs fighting the system and the […]

Awwww yeah, I knew this was going to be a good one when I saw the cover. This is funky, funky jazz from Ronnie Laws, who plays tenor sax, soprano sax and flute on this 1976 Blue Note release. Laws was a one-time member of Earth, Wind & Fire and played on their Last Days […]

One of Neil Young’s very best albums, After the Gold Rush was the third solo album from Neil Young, and was recorded and released in 1970. Every song is fantastic, with only two exceeding four minutes, Southern Man and When You Dance I Can Really Love. The album demonstrates Neil Young’s songwriting talent and features […]