Altered Images "Happy Birthday" (1981)

Happy Birthday [debut]
release date: Sep. 1981
format: digital
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,18]
producer: Steven Severin
label: Epic Records - nationality: Scotland, UK

Track highlights: 2. "Love and Kisses" - 4. "Idols" - 8. "Happy Birthday" - 11. "Leave Me Alone"

Studio album debut by Scottish band Altered Images produced by bassist and musical composer of Siouxsie and the Banshees, Steven Severin (only track #8 is produced by Martin Rushent). At this early stage of its short-lived life-span the band is a quintet consisting of lead vocalist Clare Grogan, guitarist Tony McDaid, bassist Johnny McElhone (who would later join the Scottish band, Texas), and drummer Michael 'Tich' Anderson. Allegedly, the band had sent a demo tape to Siouxsie and the Banshees who responded by giving the band the chance by supporting its "Kaleidoscope" tour in 1980.
Altered Images plays new wave and post-punk with a clear positive touch - at times referred to as twee pop and with early jangle pop elements. Musically, the album contains only one great song, track #8, released one month earlier, which launched the band's career and secured it a singles chart peak at number #2 in the UK. The debut album made it to number number #26 on the albums chart list and the band was among the most promising new acts coming out of Britain.
Like many others, I was attracted to the band due to the title track but I was also left disappointed as the other songs on the album are shaped as more direct post-punk compositions. My guess is that the Banshees and Severin was more confident with the band's new wave and post-punk qualities, and that the successful single hit with Rushent as producer drew the band toward another and potentially more mainstream sound and audience.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Uncut 4 / 5, Smash Hits, Q Magazine 3 / 5 stars ]

Pink Floyd "Ummagumma" (1969) (live)

Ummagumma (live)
release date: Oct. 25, 1969
format: 2 cd
[album rate: 2 / 5]
producer: Pink Floyd, Norman Smith
label: Harvest Records - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: "Grantchester Meadows" - "The Narrow Way (Part 1)"

4th studio album by Pink Floyd released four months after the band's soundtrack album More to a movie by Barbet Schroeder (dealing with youth and heroin addiction). The album was released as a double lp (sold at the price of one normal album) with disc 1 as the recording of four live tracks, and with disc 2 featuring five new studio recordings. I recall this album from my brother's lp collection and an album he played frequently in the 1970s. The studio cd contains tracks composed exclusively by all four band members starting off with "Sysyphus (Part 1-4)" by Richard Wright - four pieces of highly experimental instrumental music (touching on modern classical), followed by two tracks by Roger Waters, "Grantchester Meadows", the finest track on the album in a blend of folk pop and psychedelic baroque pop, and the track "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving With a Pict", which again is a highly experimental track of sounds and noises. followed by "The Narrow Way (Part 1-3)" (of different styles of instrumental and mostly harmonic music) written by David Gilmour, and ending with three experimental pieces "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party (Part 1-3)" by Nick Mason.

Well, my guess is that the album's popularity at the time of release had to do with the band's mix of highly experimental rock combined with chunks of more ordinary music, putting the band at the edge of creativity as avant-garde of pop / rock and as European counterparts to Frank Zappa. Today, I only find it somewhat amusing but generally of little musical interest.
[ allmusic.com 3,5 / 5, The Daily Telegraph 3 / 5 stars ]

Altered Images "Happy Birthday" (1981) (single)

Happy Birthday, 7'' single
release date: Aug. 1981
format: vinyl (EPCA 1522)
[single rate: 4 / 5] [3,86]
producer: Martin Rushent
label: Epic Records - nationality: Scotland, UK

Tracklist: A1. "Happy Birthday" (4,5 / 5) - - B1. "So We Go Whispering"

Single release by Altered Images preceding the band's forthcoming debut album. The single is produced by Martin Rushent who previously had worked with The Raybeats on their fine Guitar Beat and Human League on its great album Dare. The B-side is not an original album track, but has been included on later issues of the debut album containing bonus material.
"Happy Birthday" entered the singles chart list in the UK in Sep. '81 and peaked as high as number #2 one month later, ultimately making it the band's best-selling single ever but also, in retrospect, placed the band in the category as 'one-hit wonders'.

Bauhaus

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l-r: Kevin, David, Peter, Daniel

Bauhaus: is a British gothic rock and post-punk band formed in Northampton in 1978. The band split in 1983 after its fourth studio album release, and re-united shortly in 1998, and again in 2006-08 for primarily live concerts, although, a second final album was released in 2008. Members: Peter Murphy (aka Peter John Murphy [birth name], vocals, occasional instruments), Daniel Ash (aka Daniel Gaston Ash [birth name], guitar), and the brothers Haskins: Kevin (drums), and David J (aka David John Haskins [birth name], bass). Initially, the band was called Bauhaus 1919 with reference to the German art school. The band is one of the pioneers of gothic rock, a musical style developed from post-punk played by British bands like Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and The Cure. Bauhaus became exponent of a darker, gloomier, and more theatrical gothic rock, which also have sources in music by artists like David Bowie, Marc Bolan, The Velvet Underground, Iggy & The Stooges, The Doors, etc., i.e. bands and artists who also inspired in shaping punk rock and post-punk. After the disbandment in 1983, Peter Murphy launched a solo career into art rock alt. rock with elements of gothic rock, and the remainders of the band formed Love and Rockets (with Ash on vocals), a successful band playing an original combo of alt. rock, neo-psychedelia and pop / rock, and who became pioneers of college rock and the alternative rock scene of the 1990s. Bauhaus briefly re-united in 1998 for a live tour, and again in 2005, which followed a longer period of live concerts and tours throughout 2006, and the band began writing new material. They worked in the studio on a new album, released in 2008 but without a promotional tour, and once again, they ultimately split up. I first heard of the band when it was played on a late-night program on the national radio, dedicated to punk rock post-punk and all the new styles of the early 1980s. The first song I heard was "The Passion of Lovers", and I remember recording it on cassette, and I really enjoyed that track but didn't get hold of the band's name until weeks later. A couple of years later, I had found and bought a vhs-tape of a Bauhaus live concert film in a small music store with lots of import, and that video just made my day, and soon my teenage room had the b/w Bauhaus poster "Bela Lugosi's Dead" next to one featuring Elvis Costello.

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poster

Elvis Presley "O sole mio (It's Now or Never)" (1960) (single)

O sole mio (It's Now or Never), 7'' single

release date: 1960

format: vinyl (47-9314)

[single rate: 4 / 5] [4,00]

producer: ?

label: RCA - nationality: USA

Tracklist: A) "O sole mio (It's Now or Never)" (5 / 5) - - B) "Make Me Know It"

Single release credited Elvis Presley and The Jordanaires. The title song is a cover of an Italian song credited Eduardo di Capua and Alfredo Mazzucchi with English lyrics by Wally Gold and Aaron Schroeder.

This German issue was part of my parents' record collection, although, I don't have clear memories of actually having heard my parents play this particular single. I did, however, used to play it on a portable turntable at 6-10 years of age. I liked Elvis but frankly never was a big fan. I think, growing up in the early seventees I had a more fixated image of Elvis in his late career, when he had gained weight, was all dressed up, and sometimes behaving as if intoxicated. I thought of him as a performer as someone more for my parents - say on par with Charles Aznavour and Frank Sinatra - and in that battle, Sinatra always won. And then, I was more a fan of The Beatles, whom I saw as more vital and with more to offer. In retrospect, and already into my 30s I had a more mature and positive perspective on the role of The King. His legacy is unquestionable, despite him overshadowing many great performers, who would only be known and put to fame long after Presley's death. His music lives on, and he made some truly great recordings, and "O sole mio" is one of many to know of.

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This post is part of MyMusicJourney, which enlists key releases that have shaped my musical taste when growing up and until age 14. Most of these releases come from my parents' and / or my older brother's collection.

Toots & The Maytals "Funky Kingston" (1973)

Funky Kingston
release date: 1973
format: cd (1991 reissue)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,68]
producer: Warwick Lyn, Chris Blackwell & Dave Bloxham
label: Island Records - nationality: Jamaica

Tracklist: 1. "Sit Right Down" (3,5 / 5) - 2. "Pomp and Pride" (4 / 5) - 3. "Louie Louie" (4 / 5) - 4. "I Can't Believe" - 5. "Redemption Song" (3,5 / 5) - 6. "Daddy's Home" (4 / 5) - 7. "Funky Kingston" (3,5 / 5) - 8. "It Was Written Down" (3,5 / 5)

7th studio album by Toots & The Maytals org. released on Dragon (Records) and the first to be released internationally. It's quite evident that the album had been in the hands of more talented producers, as the sound is clearly bettering the predecessor Slatyam Stoot (1972). The album comes in two major different versions: the original Jamaican and similar European issues, and a 1975 issue released for the American market with a completely different track set [found here].
Many of the tracks had been issued on previous albums. "Pomp and Pride", "Louie Louie", "Redemption Song" and "It Was Written Down" were all on the '72 album in other versions. "Daddy's Home" is also found on the previous album and on the debut The Sensational Maytals (1965) as "Daddy", but here that song has been given its original name and the song has doubled its running time and become a reggae composition instead of the former rocksteady version(s), which built on the original 1961 doo-wop single by Shep and the Limelites (written by James Sheppard. The song has been covered by a vast number of artists).
[ allmusic.com, Sputnikmusic 4 / 5, Rolling Stone 5 / 5 stars ]

Jimi Hendrix Experience "Electric Ladyland" (1968)

Electric Ladyland
release date: Oct. 16, 1968
format: vinyl 2 lp (1988 reissue?)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,38]
producer: Jimi Hendrix, Chas Chandler
label: Polydor Records - nationality: USA

3rd and final studio album by The Jimi Hendrix Experience originally released by Reprise (US) and Track (UK). The album is naturally included in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".

1968 Favourite releases: 1. Van Morrison Astral Weeks - 2. Jimi Hendrix Electric Ladyland - 3. The Beatles The Beatles [The White Album]

Weather Report "Heavy Weather" (1977)

Heavy Weather
release date: Mar. 1977
format: vinyl (81775) / cd (1999 Millenium Edition)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,76]
producer: Joe Zawinul, Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter
label: CBS Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: A) 1. "Birdland" - 3. "Teen Town" - - B) 2. "Palladium"

8th studio album by American jazz fusion band Weather Report originally released by Columbia Records. Joe Zawinul is credited as producer, Jaco Pastorius as co-producer, and Wayne Shorter as assistant producer. The album is enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".