Author Archives: Steve Matteo

A look back at what was in stores, and perhaps some of your scores.

Maybe the best Record Store Day Black Friday 2025 release was The Complete Elektra Albums from Love. The box set comprises five vinyl records, including the first four albums from the pioneering 1960s LA group, and a bonus disc of rarities. Love was one of the most important bands of the West Coast ’60s music scene, which had a devoted cult following that is nearly unequaled for that time and place.

The group was led by Arthur Lee, who, like Jimi Hendrix, was a black man whose sound was rooted almost entirely in rock. Signed by Jac Holzman of Elektra Records, the band was one of the first rock signings of the mostly folk and roots Elektra label, but it became overshadowed by the other rock signing of that period, The Doors.

Love’s self-titled debut, its first album in 1966, came out the year before the self-titled debut of The Doors. While it showed real rock muscle and had a garage sound with tinges of psychedelia to come, and included such superb covers as “Little Red Book” and “Hey Joe,” it was the group’s next album, Da Capo, also released in 1966, that was a revelation. Fully embracing subtle psychedelic touches, its baroque instrumentation and production, along with Lee’s emotive singing, made it an instant cult classic that has lost none of its luster nearly 60 years later.

However, this was truly a band, and key member Bryan MacLean’s contributions are significant, particularly on “Orange Skies.” Additionally, the production team, comprising engineers Bruce Botnick (who also co-produces) and Dave Hassinger, along with the production supervision of label boss Holzman, makes this a textbook on ’60s record-making. The group’s next album, Forever Changes (1967), was an even better release. While a long-extended jam took up all of side two of Da Capo, Forever Changes was an 11-track masterpiece.

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As indicated in the recent review published here on Neil Young’s latest studio album, for some time, Young has issued unreleased music from his bottomless archives, reissues of previous works, often in expanded and creatively packaged editions, and albums of all-new songs and recordings. There have been many releases from Young this year, and the one just coming out is a 2LP reissue of his 1975 album Tonight’s the Night, part of his Analog Originals, Neil Young Archives Official Release Series.

Tonight’s the Night may be one of the most groundbreaking, pivotal, and influential albums of Young’s canon. While fuzzy and organic first-take band-oriented cuts had populated Young’s previous albums, Tonight’s the Night was a stark, revealing album of raw simplicity. The music occasionally has a queasy frankness, particularly about the price of drug addiction, that was almost entirely absent in song lyrics during the drug culture music of the day.

This wasn’t just some “just-say-no” sloganeering. This was a man bearing his soul over the sudden loss of one of his bandmates and one of his roadies. The stark, unvarnished way Young sang of losing his bandmate Danny Whitten, fired by Young during rehearsals for the Time Fades Away tour because his drug problems affected his playing, and roadie Bruce Berry, was both brave and unsettling.

Notably, Berry was the brother of both Jan Berry of Jan and Dean and Ken Berry of S.I.R. Rehearsals, where nine of the album’s studio tracks were recorded (two were recorded at Young’s Broken Arrow ranch studio). Young had written about Whitten’s addiction and heroin’s effect on musicians in general on “The Needle and the Damage Done” on Harvest in 1972. How Young was able to hold it together on the title cut when plainly singing about losing those men is astonishing.

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Halloween is over, and the last remnants of leftover Mars bars may still remain, but for Frank Zappa fans, every day is Halloween. Frank Zappa’s Halloween shows (which sometimes lasted more than just Halloween night) in New York, at the Palladium, are not just legendary among Zappa fans, but caused quite a stir in the music world at the time and paved the way for many others to do annual theme shows or take up annual residencies in various locales.

What unofficially began in 1972 and more or less went on (although not every year) until it unofficially ended in 1981, is now part of the Zappa mythical allure. While some entertainers are associated with Christmas, and others, like Guy Lombardo and then later Dick Clark, are associated with New Year’s Eve, Zappa became the musical ringleader for nights that brought out the freak in his fans.

This is the fourth in a series of archival Zappa Halloween releases that have included Halloween 77 (which also spawned the movie Baby Snakes), Halloween 73, and Halloween 81. For those who followed Zappa’s live Halloween concert bag of tricks, they know 1978 was the peak, making this release a real treat.

There are several editions of this new release, including an Expanded Super Deluxe Costume Box Set, which features 62 tracks across five CDs. The set comes with a pop-out mask of Zappa resembling the Devil (which was not a stretch), complete with a pitchfork and a UV light, and showcases some supernatural (or unnatural) artwork. There is also a Grimoire book, a book of spells, that includes photos and memorabilia.

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With the death of Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac several years ago, the possibility of a full-fledged reunion of that group’s classic lineup is over. Fortunately, McVie and her partners in that iconic group have left a fulsome recorded legacy behind.

Most incarnations of the group made albums that have stood the test of time. Also, much of their work, particularly in the 1970s, reflects the heyday of well-conceived albums that were impeccably recorded during the analog years of studio innovation and sound. Reissues of the group’s music have been steady, with many albums being reissued over and over again. Two recent reissues prove that even for albums that have been reissued often before, new reissues offer much for fans, particularly audiophiles.

The group’s 1975 self-titled album, celebrating its 50th anniversary, was their breakout commercial release featuring new members Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. While some often regard the album as the precursor to their mega-smash Rumours, it stands on its own, and only Rumours is equally as good when considering the Buckingham/Nicks version of the group.

Members Mick Fleetwood and John McVie have been constants in the band throughout their entire history. The album was Christine McVie’s sixth with the band, after she left Chicken Shack. After appearing uncredited on keyboards on two Mac albums, she joined the group full-time for Future Games (1971). Ever since Bare Trees, McVie was coming more and more into her own as a songwriter and a more confident singer. With Fleetwood Mac, she hit her stride with such songs as “Warm Ways,” “Over My Head,” and “Sugar Daddy.” Her “Say You Love Me” was so strong that Lindsey Buckingham handled most of the lead vocals, and the two then collaborated on co-writing “World Turning.”

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Celebrating Joni Mitchell on her 82nd birthday. —Ed.

After reports that her death was imminent in 2015 after she had an aneurysm, Joni Mitchell has risen, phoenix-like, to resume a somewhat normal life and even make public appearances, although she has difficulties walking.

Through Rhino Records, Mitchell has now embarked on the most ambitious and thus far fruitful archival reissue series of her long and illustrious career. She has never been a fan of greatest hits or archival releases, as she feels they can lead to a halt in sales of individual albums.

The initial batch of archival releases included Live At Canterbury House 1967 as a three-album vinyl set, recorded in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Early Joni as a single vinyl album; and Joni Mitchell Archives – Vol. 1: The Early Years (1963–1967), which included radio, television, live recordings, tapes, demos, and more previously unreleased material as well as the Live at Canterbury House 1967 performances available as a 5-CD set. There has also been the “Joni Mitchell Blue 50 (Demos & Outtakes)” Digital EP Flac release, which includes five previously unreleased recordings from the 1971 Blue sessions.

The latest release is Joni Mitchell The Reprise Albums (1968 – 1971) available as either a 4-CD set, or a limited edition of 10,000 copies, four-LP vinyl box set. The limited edition vinyl box set is beautifully packaged in a slip-case and features authentic gatefold replicas of her first four albums on 180 gram vinyl: Song To A Seagull (1968), Clouds (1969), Ladies Of The Canyon (1970) and Blue (1971).

Mitchell’s debut album is presented in a brand-new mix by Matt Lee, overseen by Mitchell, and all the albums have been remastered by Bernie Grundman. The cover art of the outer box is by Joni Mitchell and there is an essay included by Brandi Carlile. Carlile will actually be performing the entire Blue album at Carnegie Hall on November 7th. She has done this once before in Los Angeles at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2019.

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Jethro Tull is one of those groups that often get slotted into the classic rock or prog genre, but in fact, it once offered so much more. While the British group’s 1971 fourth album, Aqualung, is regarded as a ’70s rock classic, the band released a run of excellent records from its beginning in 1968 through 1977.

Though albums like War Child and Too Old to Rock ‘n’ Roll: Too Young to Die! were iconic Tull albums, they may be, in retrospect, the weak links in that marvelous run from ‘68 to ‘77. A reissue of Minstrel in the Gallery, which came out between those two releases, shows what Tull was capable of long after Aqualung and before the group’s creative peak ended.

Minstrel in the Gallery, like most of the albums of the group’s first 10 years, particularly the first three, as well as Thick As a Brick, perfectly mixed rock, folk, jazz, prog, orchestral, and almost medieval and baroque music to come up with intelligent, richly drawn albums that defined the singular Tull sound. After the success of Aqualung, the group alternately aimed at the commercial rock marketplace with mixed creative results (the aforementioned heavier rock War Child and Too Old to Rock ‘n’ Roll: Too Young to Die!), or expanded their musical palette, which was focused on broadly conceptual works that leaned into their classical musical ideas, and balanced the classical structures with acoustic folk.

These various sides were always there, but beginning with their two 1972 releases, Thick As A Brick and the fulsome and well-conceived grab-bag collection of singles, outtakes, live and EP tracks, Living in the Past, and continuing with A Passion Play (1973) and then later with Minstrel in the Gallery (1975) and Songs from the Wood (1977), their music revealed a depth that transcended classic 70s rock and prog.

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Neil Young remains one of the most consistently prolific artists in music. He turns 80 on November 12, and his latest album is a self-reflective work that is heartfelt, honest, and occasionally angry, but ultimately uplifting.

Young’s output is staggering. Every year, he puts out unreleased music from his vast archives, reissues of previous works, and often albums of all-new recordings. It’s the variety, quality, and approach of these new recordings that spotlight his continued relevance. Young does not rest on his laurels, he favors making gritty, organic music with songs that are deeply personal and is not creating product for the marketplace or pandering to popular tastes.

The new album features many of the musicians Young has been recording and touring with since 2015. They are musicians who play with Young as Promise of the Real (Lukas Nelson, Anthony LoGerfo, Tato Melgar, Corey McCormick, Logan Metz) and in the case of this album, the Chrome Hearts (Micah Nelson, Spooner Oldham, Corey McCormick, Anthony LoGerfo). Lukas and Micah are Willie Nelson’s sons.

Oldham is one of the true legends of American music, stretching back to his unparalleled work as a lynchpin of the history-making Muscle Shoals sessions, including the key Atlantic Recordings of Aretha Franklin. He is a member of Young’s current touring band and has collaborated with him on a total of nine albums, dating back to 1978. His contributions to Young’s albums and music in general cannot be overstated. He was inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 2009 as a sideman with Bill Black and D.J. Fontana.

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Celebrating Bill Wyman in advance of his 89th birthday tomorrow. —Ed.

As far as reissues and archival releases are concerned, The Rolling Stones are clearly on a roll. Hot on the heels of the group’s lauded Live at the El Macombo release comes what must be considered one of the best reissue packages from the group in its entire career.

This limited-edition mono box contains 18 seven-inch discs that are either singles or EPs. The set includes both UK Decca Records releases and US London Records releases. The music was remastered by Bob Ludwig and engineered by Sean Magee at Abbey Road Studios. The music was taken from the original analog tapes that were transferred to digital files, although the digital transfer has not in any way been a deterrent. In fact, most of the UK singles and EPs, although a bit different from the original seven-inch releases, sound great and the London US discs in many instances sound better than some of the originals. Still, one wonders why the discs weren’t cut directly from the analog tapes.

The physical discs were manufactured at MPO, the legendary and long-running pressing plant in France. The discs are flat, sturdy, thick, flawless slabs of pristine plastic that will sound great and last forever with the proper care. As for a few minor quibbles, there are no inner sleeves included, and the jackets for the UK Decca releases are not laminated, and the EPs do not have flip-back packaging. In fact, although the replication of the original art of the generic Decca sleeves and picture sleeves is done well, it is not an exact duplication in many instances. All the contents are housed in a sturdy box and the package also includes five photos, a poster and a 32-page booklet.

The poster is of a photograph that became the first major break for a Town and Country magazine staffer named Linda Eastman, who would eventually marry Paul McCartney. The photos, including the one which became the poster, were taken on a boat docked off of a Manhattan boat basin in June of 1966. They launched Eastman’s esteemed career as a rock photographer, which led to her brief time as the house photographer at the Fillmore East. Unless the photo was from another photographer, which is doubtful, oddly, she is not credited in the booklet’s notes.

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In 1979, Supertramp released Breakfast in America, an album that was one of the biggest-selling albums of a decade that defined the blockbuster album. While many of those albums were by American acts and a group that included both Brits and Americans (Fleetwood Mac), along with Pink Floyd, Peter Frampton, David Bowie, and Led Zeppelin, Supertramp was a British band with one of the era-defining albums of the time. Breakfast in America, like many of the big albums of the decade, came after several albums from a particular group or artist who had been slowly building their sound and following, were part of the musical underground, or had just enjoyed considerable airplay on the FM rock radio of the time.

The group’s third and fourth albums (Crime of the Century; Crisis, What Crisis?) have recently been reissued. While their first two albums (Supertramp; Indelibly Stamped) established their unique sound, these two albums that have just been reissued spawned tracks that were in heavy FM radio rotation and preceded the album Even in the Quietest Moments…, that yielded their biggest hit (“Give a Little Bit”) to date and which was recorded entirely in America, the first such album of theirs before the Breakfast in America album to be recorded in the States. Their fourth album would also be their last one recorded in England and their first to be recorded in America.

The group’s sound on these two albums is difficult to categorize. While very much in the vein of British progressive rock acts of the time, like Genesis and even Pink Floyd to some degree, the group’s jazzy sax and keyboards, sing-song lyrics, and quirky and unforgettable trademark keyboard sounds set them apart from just about every other British group of the time. They could be expansive and thoughtfully imaginative with their deep and philosophical lyrics, but also ebullient and just a little madcap, but in a fun way.

In many respects, Crime of the Century, released in 1974 and an album that took three years to make, was the album that began the group’s ascent. It featured two staples of FM radio of that time, “Bloody Well Right” and “Dreamer.” While the album is not strictly a concept album, it artfully explored ambitious musical ideas and lyrically didn’t shy away from pondering the big questions about life. It also became a cornerstone for audiophiles. It has the distinction of being the first pop album reissued on the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab label, when it was reissued in 1977.

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The Zombies are primarily known for their British Invasion hits of the 1960s, such as “Tell Her No” and “She’s Not There.” Rock critics, pop music historians, and those who are deeply in the know about the key albums of the 1960s likely know about the group’s second album, Odessey and Oracle, with Odyssey misspelled.

Released in the UK in April 1968, it comprised the original lineup of singer Colin Blunstone, keyboardist Rod Argent, guitarist Paul Atkinson, bassist Chris White, and drummer Hugh Grundy. It isn’t a stretch to say that the album shares much with the Pretty Things’ album SF Sorrow, also released in 1968, in that it is an obscure, underrated gem from the ’60s. However, it is more of a seminal rock opera than a psychedelic pop masterpiece. Odessey and Oracle is also an album that can easily be mentioned in the company of Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys and The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. In fact, the album was recorded at Abbey Road Studios, where The Beatles had recorded Sgt—Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Pepper, and was very much influenced by that album.

While all those kudos are merited, the album was nearly not released in America and effectively marked the end of the group’s ’60s run. If it wasn’t for Al Kooper (Blues Project, Blood Sweat & Tears) working in a somewhat A&R and staff producer role with Columbia Records at the time, it’s hard to say what the fate of the album might have been. It was his suggestion to the top brass at the company to release the album, which, by the way, contained perhaps the group’s biggest hit, “Time of the Season,” the last song written for the album and one that in some respects has more in common with the group’s earlier hits.

The group now holds full rights to the album, and their label has just reissued it in mono for the first time in the US. The group produced the album themselves for a mono release. Throughout 1965 and 1966, the band primarily released singles on Decca that they did not produce. Their time with CBS in the UK was no better, and when the group finished Odessey and Oracle, the label told them to remix it in stereo. It was the last straw for the frustrated group, and only a month before the album’s release, they broke up. Even though the group had broken up, Kooper’s advice to release the album in the States paid off, as the last track on the album, “Time of the Season,” eventually became a hit, peaking at number three in February 1969.

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Remembering Yusef Lateef, born on this day in 1920. —Ed.

There are certain jazz albums that transcend the genre and become timeless classics. Eastern Sounds by Yusef Lateef is one of those albums. It is a stirring, meditative musical excursion of sound, that could be considered a precursor of world music, or even a more nuanced, textured, and varied early new age recording, without the negative baggage of that now almost nearly forgotten musical genre.

The closest album that it shares some musical and spiritual sensibilities with is Something Blue from Paul Horn, released the year before this 1961 release. Both albums are almost musical mantras of sound, but are also very accessible releases that don’t stray too far from mellow jazz.

Lateef had been exploring these kinds of sounds on previous albums as a leader, most notably on Prayer to the East from 1957, but Eastern Sounds galvanizes all of the elements that make Lateef’s take on this sacred jazz sound work so well. While the album starts off with the subtle swing of “The Plum Bossom” and readings of the love themes of the epic films Spartacus (Alex North) and The Robe (Alfred Newman), it’s the other six tracks that reflect more of the contemplative side of this groundbreaking album.

Lateef is supported by the rhythm section of Barry Harris on piano, Lex Humphries on drums, and Ernie Farrow on bass. Farrow also plays rabat (spelled various other ways through history), a lute-like instrument that blends perfectly with Lateef’s work here on tenor saxophone, oboe, and especially flute, the Chinese globular xun.

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Jazz trumpeter Miles Davis died in 1991 at the age of 65. Even before his death, music from various stages of his career had been reissued. From 1955 to 1976, Davis recorded for Columbia, and most of the reissues of his music over the years, in various formats, have been drawn from his fruitful time with the label.

From roughly 1951 to 1961, he had a nearly equally critically successful stretch with Prestige Records. His time with them began during the era when 10-inch vinyl records, from 1951 through 1954, were still a widespread format, and some of those 10-inch albums on Prestige were later released in various ways on 12-inch vinyl records. There is an overlap between the end of the music Davis recorded and released on Prestige and his initial recordings for Columbia.

Last year, Craft Recordings released the acclaimed and bespoke 4-LP box Miles ’54: The Prestige Recordings. The period covered in the box represented a rebirth for Davis, after a time of substance abuse and recovery, which resulted in confident new recordings. The era marked the beginning of his initial key period as a solo artist and group leader, which lasted well into the 1970s. The ’54 sessions served as the springboard for the music he created later, referred to as his first great quintet (Davis, John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones) recordings, which is more reflected in the music on the new ‘55 box set.

Due to the way much of the music Davis recorded during that period was initially released on 10-inch and then 12-inch vinyl, in addition to overlapping with his first recordings for Columbia, it can be a bit tricky to follow a purely linear recording history. Add to that the reissues of the massive Chronicle: The Complete Prestige Recordings in 1988, The Legendary Prestige Quintet Sessions in 2006, The Complete Prestige 10-Inch LP Collection in 2016, and the recent spate of OJC (Original Jazz Classics) Prestige single album releases, and it becomes downright confusing.

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Music snobs, crate diggers, rock critics, and music geeks and nerds are obsessed with cult figures in music. For example, artists like Captain Beefheart, Syd Barrett, Skip Spence and select others sold very few records in their careers, are virtually unknown by the causal music fan, but are lionized by the aforementioned. An artist who would fit into this category, but also transcends it, is the late Brit Nick Drake. Drake only released three albums in his lifetime, beginning with his starling debut Five Leaves Left in 1969, and died when he was 26.

Drake was part of a stable of artists managed, produced and/or championed by American concert promoter and producer-turned expatriate musical tastemaker in England in the latter ’60s, Joe Boyd. After launching and producing the first two singles for Pink Floyd and then producing albums for the Incredible String Band and Fairport Convention (just before Sandy Denny joined the latter), Boyd signed Drake to his Witchseason production company.

Drake was a shy Cambridge student with a remarkable musical talent that mixed breathy Donovan-like vocals, that were more modestly precocious than pretentious, with an ability to write evocative and impressionistic songs, while drawing from folk, classical, and jazz in brand new ways for a solo artist. His brilliant debut, for a variety of reasons, including Drake’s lack of much in the way of touring and promoting the album in print and radio interviews, was not a hit during that explosive year of 1969. Neither were his next two, Bryter Layter (1971) and Pink Moon (1972). Pink Moon was the only one of his three albums released in full in his lifetime in the US.

After his death, Drake seemingly faded into obscurity while in England heavy rock, prog, glam, punk, new wave, and any number of trends came and went in the 1970s and 1980s. Although often receiving praise in laudatory posthumous books and articles, along with major rock artists citing him as a huge influence, it was, oddly enough, a Volkswagen car commercial in 1999 that used that title track from his album Pink Moon that kicked open a seismic interest in his music.

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Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) are back from the dead and join a long list of iconic pop and rock bands, such as the Eagles, The Who and The Doobie Brothers, among many others, who have repeatedly retired, but couldn’t stay retired and just want to rock again.

Like some of them, they’re older, maybe not wiser, but surprisingly sounding better than ever. And can you blame the boys, I mean men, of Spinal Tap for wanting to barnstorm around the world, play deafening music, and eat bad airplane food? Not to mention hobnobbing backstage with record company regional sales reps in satin baseball jackets and psychotic fans after their grueling 60-minute sets in some cavernous hockey arena.

How can a band who said in song “Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight” stay away from the rickety stages of the rock hell holes of middling American cities that most rock bands wouldn’t go near even after every member of the group just went through a messy divorce? The Tap members know that for their fans there is a majesty to rock that can only be experienced live in overpriced (thanks to Live Nation) nosebleed seats at venues more suited for pro wrestling.

The group returns to a record business that is all business and no record. How much the group will earn from Spotify plays for their new album will barely cover their M&M rider expense. But these veterans aren’t in it for the money, or even the fame, or, heaven forbid, the girls. They do it because they can’t face the fact that they’re old and basically want to feel young again, although two weeks on the road in the South or Midwest of America will make anybody old fast.

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The group Chicago has, for a number of years now, been wrongly consigned to the soft-rock ’70s hit parade and viewed as a classic rock boomer summer touring act. While it can be easy to describe the group this way, they created some of the most ambitious albums of the end of the ’60s and first half of the ’70s, and their hits are enduring evergreens that can satisfy both fans of ’70s FM ballads and fans of the cream of classic American ’70s rock.

Anyone who truly thinks they know the group, but who has not heard their first three studio albums, which are all double albums, and their first live four-album set (Chicago at Carnegie Hall), doesn’t really know the full breadth of their music and is missing out on some of the best albums released in the late ’60s and early ’70s. The band would continue to make fine albums and after two more studio albums would make another double album, but those first three studio albums are truly special.

Their self-titled first album, Chicago Transit Authority, released in 1969, their one and only album under that band name, displayed all the characteristics of what made them so special. While groups like Blood, Sweat and Tears were also focusing on being horn-driven rock bands, Chicago was so much more than that. Along with three horn players (Lee Loughnane, James Pankow, Walter Parazaider) and a drummer (Danny Seraphine), the group boasted three bona-fide frontmen who could sing, write, and play.

While guitarist Terry Kath in many ways drove the edgier side of the group, he wrote and sang beautiful ballads. And conversely, keyboardist Robert Lamb and bassist Peter Cetera, along with writing poppy love songs, could also write and sing bracing rockers, with all three being the base for soaring harmonies. To add to all of this, the group’s albums in this period were ambitious, sprawling affairs, that encompassed rock, pop, jazz, and soul, but with carefully crafted arrangements and occasional song suites that had movements like a classical music album structure.

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