pier_paolo_farina

I tried to like the Bolton of the early career phase... no way: his powerful voice is handled in an overly emphatic manner (my tastes, I don't care for bombastic singers like Dio, Mercury when he overdid it, etc.). Even the compositions and arrangements are on the wrong side of AOR, rhetorical flatness. Okay for Dock Of The Bay, with a delightful solo by Schon. Impeccable reception.

The Pretender, not The Fuse. Listen to "Call It A Loan" again.

In the late seventies, as an Italian boy living in Italy and a lover of classic rock, from Nick Drake to Black Sabbath (had I lived in London, things would have definitely been different), I felt surrounded by Barry White, Donna Summer, KC and the Sunshine Band, Earth, Wind & Fire... and above all, the Bee Gees. I noticed how fashionable it was, and the rhythm turning funky even in many rock records, the bass drum on four, etc. Of course, in hindsight: if only today's discos had music that matched the level of those days! But at the time, disco bored me. Punk interfered very little; its revolutionary role that sent everyone home, as many love to quote at every opportunity, was simply nonexistent here in Italy, and it didn’t send home anyone who hadn't already messed up on their own (ELP, Deep Purple, Yes... whoever you want, even the drugged-up and burned-out Led Zeppelin from a dazzling, unrestrained career). I never saw punk records sell in Italy, while disco music was sold by the mountains. The New Wave that followed was another matter altogether, but it had very little to do with Punk, given the role of synthesizers in it, machines that punks didn’t even know how to turn on, let alone play. As for "music for those who can't play (or sing)," people like Bob Dylan had long been an excellent representative of that category.

It's not important to understand music to enjoy it fully and even write about it profitably. However, you filled the review with technical data about who does what, who plays this and who plays that, half of it wrong. If you can't distinguish between the three guitarists of the Skynyrd, who are all very different in style from one another, it's better to skip it, or at least read the album notes, which in this case are explanatory about the roles of the three. For the record: Ed King's famous Stratocaster can only be heard in "Mississippi Kid"; for the rest, Ed plays bass on this album because Wilkenson, the regular bassist, had a fight with Van Zandt and deserted the recording studio. The slide in "Mississippi Kid" is therefore Ed's. Collins NEVER plays slide. The specialist is Rossington (who will become a recognized guru in this matter over the years) and King can handle it too. The famous lengthy solo in "Free Bird" is entirely Collins's, who personally overdubs the second guitar in harmony with the first. Rossington is NOT capable of playing that fast and with that kind of energy! He’s a "Slowhand" guitarist, like Clapton, and as the years go by, he will adopt an increasingly relaxed style, with a sound that is longer, saturated, and easy to trigger harmonics, suitable for those who love to play a few notes at a time. A sound that rightly has been influential, and that in this debut album you still cannot hear. In "Ain't The One," there are therefore two guitars; Ed's Strat in the mix is something you made up; he is on bass. The subsequent album "Second Helping" will see the return of bassist Wilkenson and will be full of Ed's guitar, particularly bright and inspired.

It's not about accusing someone of racism; it's about the proof of the facts. In fact, Daniels has repeatedly demonstrated, through the media, his miserable and abominable closed-mindedness. That said, his best records—as this one is—are filled with class, technique, cleanliness, musicality, drive, measure, and charm, and that’s what truly matters, at least on a music review site, even if one cannot overlook the social context and ideological shortcomings of the man. However, those are his personal issues; the musicians who accompany him should not be grouped together with him, as they have never spouted nonsense on television and radio.

The album is beautiful and captivating, by far the best from Rare Bird. Here are some tips: there weren't two organists, but rather one organist (very skilled) and one pianist - in the same year 1970, Genesis released Trespass, a beautiful work that even surpasses this - "Sympathy" had been a great single, unique and enjoyable - the bassist "in the style of Ian Dury" (?) had an astonishing blues voice, powerful and effective, worthy of a better career.

Nice group. I love "Split."

Beautiful album. Catley's declamatory voice isn't for every day, but once a month it still does nicely. Clarkin is an intelligent, measured, and passionate musician. It's my favorite album by the band; it's a shame that in the subsequent Goodnight L.A., having gotten carried away by the producer, they didn't meet the hopes for another leap in quality. I've always liked how both the guitarist and the keyboardist choose their sounds. Their earlier phase (the first half of the eighties), which was more epic and emphatic, bores me quite a bit. One of the best AOR albums of all time, in the top ten.

The hell of Vigorelli was unleashed by the police, who started firing tear gas towards the stage, certainly by the choice of their leaders, who intended to sabotage the evening. The kids had successfully chased away Morandi and the other trash from Cantagiro (with boos and insults), unworthy of opening the concert for the best band on the planet. The band was quite scared (of the police, not of their fans) and made a hasty escape, not exactly a rebellious act. Do you have the journalist's trip? Italian-style, I see (except for noble and rare exceptions), second-hand news piled up from readings here and there, interspersed with details, judgments, and comments that seem relevant. They don't even pay you, so why bother?

A seabed doesn’t give a sense of buoyancy; it’s quite the opposite.
The fusion, not the fusion.
A wink towards black music? Fagen spent sleepless nights in his room in New Jersey, tuning into New York radio stations that at night featured the "alternative" DJs of the time, who were jamming with Davis Gillespie. Fagen is immersed in black music; he doesn’t just give it a nod.
Ambient Donald Fagen? You don’t know English.
A listen to Fagen at the hairdressers? Maybe, he’d be happy about it, but hairdressers are mostly ignorant, so no Fagen.
Fucking charming Fagen? Not at all. He’s a crazy man, exaggerated rather than not. All the musicians tolerate him solely because he’s a genius.
You’re superficial, ignorant, or lazy, or fake.