Author Archives: Steve Matteo

Remembering Nicky Hopkins, born on this day in 1944. —Ed.

Ever since the late ’50s/early ’60s pop music explosion, session or studio musicians were integral to recording. Whether they be backing singers, soloists, part of such illustrious posses as the famed Wrecking Crew, or the musicians who were the heart and soul of the Motown sound, these formerly somewhat anonymous players have been given their due over the years in books and in such movies as Standing in the Shadows of Motown from 2002, The Wrecking Crew from 2008, and 20 Feet from Stardom from 2013.

For anyone who has followed the birth and evolution in particular of British rock, from the singles-based British Invasion or album-based ’70s, one name stands out for those who read liner notes: British pianist Nicky Hopkins. In 2011 the book And on Piano …Nicky Hopkins: The Extraordinary Life of Rock’s Greatest Session Man by Julian Dawson was published. The book came many years after Hopkins passed away in 1994 at the age of 50. That book did a lot to recognize what an important musical artist he was and solidified his place in rock music history.

A new film entitled The Session Man: Nicky Hopkins is sure to bring his legacy alive for even more fans of great British and in some cases even American music. The film was directed by Mike Treen who has primarily worked in television. The timing is just right as it was just announced that Hopkins will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with the “Musical Excellence Award.”

This is a perfectly crafted musical doc and includes a star-studded cast of interviewees with whom Hopkins worked. There are interviews with Keith Richards, Bill Wyman, Peter Frampton, Nils Lofgren, Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Casady, Jim Keltner, Terry Reid, Chuck Leavell, Graham Parker, P.P. Arnold, Harry Shearer from Spinal Tap, and record producers Glynn Johns, Shel Talmy, and Chris Kimsey, among many others. There’s also an audio interview with Pete Townshend and a previously filmed interview with Mick Jagger.

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It’s hard to believe it’s been 50 years since The Alan Parsons Project debuted in 1976 with their album Tales of Mystery and Imagination. The group was somewhat of an anomaly when they started. They were the brainchild of British songwriter Eric Woolfson and British superstar producer Alan Parsons. Parsons began as an engineer at Abbey Road Studios on recordings by The Beatles and Paul McCartney, among others, and quickly made the leap to uber-producer, working on defining ’70s albums such as Year of the Cat by Al Stewart, and struck gold with the iconic Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd.

Parsons initially enlisted Woolfson to start a production company and serve as his manager, and then the duo was suggested to form a studio group. Few record producers have made the transition from producer to performer or group leader. Still, in the case of The Alan Parsons Project, it worked: 11 successful albums over 15 years saw the group explore ’70s rock, prog, and a unique combination of electronic soft rock/MOR and pop, resulting in hits.

The albums, however, were surprisingly complex, sometimes dense, lyrically thematic and conceptual, reflecting peerless state-of-the-art studio innovation and with a shifting musical cast. They were far ahead of their time in exploring the vast possibilities of electronic music and in tackling the philosophical themes of thinkers/writers such as Issac Asimov.

Tales of Mystery and Imagination is an album that, while primarily based on the stories of Gothic horror writer Edgar Allen Poe, draws on a variety of musical styles. It starts a bit heavy in spots and has moments of ’70s bombast, but it is quite varied. Arthur Brown, from the group The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, takes a star turn on “Tell Tale Hearts.” Terry Sylvester, who replaced Graham Nash in the Hollies, guests on vocals on “The Cask of Amontillado” and “To One in Paradise.” The musical foundation of the album is unique, as it features all members of the bands Pilot and Ambrosia, along with Francis Monkman of Curved Air.

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Jethro Tull holds a unique place in rock history. Led by flute-playing, musical minstrel, and Dickensian vagabond Ian Anderson, the quintessential British group has been lumped into various trends, most notably prog, but it is so much more. Their melding of folk, jazz, rock, classical, and pop began with their bluesy debut, This Was, in 1968, and successfully evolved through nearly the end of the 1970s before their sound became heavier and more straightforward.

Arguably, their first 10 studio albums are exceptional, and much of their music still stands up today. Along with Anderson, the key members of Tull who contributed to this rich period are Glenn Cornick, Clive Bunker, Martin Barre, Jeffrey Hammond, John Evan, Barriemore Barlow, John Glascock, and Dee Palmer, in an ever-shifting lineup that found guitarist Barre as Anderson’s most important and consistent collaborator.

The 1972 double-album release Living in the Past came at perhaps the group’s peak and is an odd, yet excellent album in the Tull discography. Their sixth overall album was also their first on Chrysalis in the States. It has recently been reissued in both vinyl and a deluxe CD/Blu-ray box set, billed as Still Living in the Past, further enhancing the album’s stature.

What made the initial double-album release so successful was that rather than being the standard compilation album or just a simple collection of bits and bobs (or odds and sods), it offered a rich variety of music, much of it B-sides, different single mixes, live material, EP tracks, and previously unreleased music from various album configurations or territories. It was a beautiful presentation in an era when the rock album package was truly a thing of beauty.

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Remembering Bob Marley, born on this day in 1945. —Ed.

Live concert music from Bob Marley and the Wailers during their ’70s heyday has often been presented at mid-size to large venues, as evidenced by their 1975 album Live! and 1978 double-album Babylon By Bus, along with the 1978 video Live at the Rainbow. Sometimes the spectacle of the music is quite pronounced and, as amazing as those albums are, the musical subtleties can get lost.

The Capitol Session ‘73 should rectify that. A live session, for the cameras from October 24th, 1973, just a week after the release of their latest album, Burnin’, produced by Denny Cordell, received a video and audio release from Mercury Studios, co-executive-produced by Cordell’s son Barney.

Filmed and recorded at the Capitol Records Tower in Los Angeles using Cordell’s portable rig of four cameras and mixing the sound live on the fly, even though Marley was under contract at the time with Island Records, this one-off show was thought to be lost, but after a twenty-year, international search, the film and audio were found.

The concert came on the heels of the group’s second Island Records release, Burnin’. That album featured the original version of “I Shot the Sheriff,” later made into a hit by Eric Clapton in 1974 from his 461 Ocean Boulevard album. Burnin’ also included a version of “Get Up, Stand Up” and the classic “Burning and Looting.” The group was then on only its second U.S. tour, after having been in the States the previous spring. For both tours, the group also played in England.

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Three recent releases, two reissues, and one soundtrack album spotlight guitar gods who, in varying degrees, fuse rock, jazz, and blues to create their own unique musical vision.

John McLaughlin remains one of the most innovative and relevant guitarists to first emerge in the 1960s. In fact, his guitar prowess, insatiable search for new sounds, and penchant for playing music that seems light-years ahead of his peers may have been matched only by Jeff Beck in the 21st century. Like many British guitarists, he began in the London blues scene. Unlike his contemporaries, however, he detoured away from the rock god road and pursued a jazz journey.

His work with Miles Davis, his solo albums, and his formation of both the Mahavishnu Orchestra, which defined the jazz-fusion movement, and Shakti, which, while crossing jazz and Indian music, were forerunners of world music, are peerless. Now, McLaughlin tackles another musical realm with startling results. His latest release, Music for Abandoned Heights, is the soundtrack album for a movie that never happened.

As a standalone album, it’s a rare gem. Influenced by the Miles Davis soundtrack for the 1958 Louis Malle film Elevator to the Gallows, Abandoned Heights began in 2019 and, unlike the Paris-set Malle film, was set in New York. McLaughlin began working on the score, which was eventually recorded in London, after reading the script, even before he saw any film footage.

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Rhino continues to release Quadio discs that seek to recapture and replicate the quadraphonic audiophile album format of the 1970s. Instead of vinyl albums, Quadio releases present the four-channel audio experience on Blu-ray audio discs with 192/24 resolution and also provide listeners with high-res two-channel stereo and, in some cases, 5.1 surround sound mixes at very affordable prices for such a bespoke product.

The discs are transferred from the original half-inch four-channel master tapes and mixed for a fully dimensional immersive experience. The releases include technical notes on the Quadio format and have beautiful visual interfaces. These new Quadio Blu-ray Audio albums are available in bundles and individually. Multiple musical genres are featured in the series, and all the releases first appeared in the 1970s. The success of these Qaudio disc releases proves the quality, viability, and continuing relevance of the optical disc format.

Three recent Quadio releases represent distinct California sounds, and two of the three discs are spin-off groups of one of the most important San Francisco groups that began in the 1960s and were both originally released on the airplane’s Grunt record label.

America’s Choice was Hot Tuna’s third studio album and the second album released by the group since Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady departed from the Jefferson Airplane. Hot Tuna’s first three albums were all recorded while the two prominent members of the group, Casady and Kaukonen, were still in the Airplane.

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In The Wee Small Hours, the 1955 album from Frank Sinatra, is a recording weighted down by history. Its place in the evolution of 20th-century popular recording history is peerless. The album came out at a key point not only in Frank Sinatra’s career but also for his label, Capitol Records, and the recording world in general.

Capitol was Sinatra’s third label after RCA and Columbia. The album was his third on Capitol. His Capitol tenure up to this point had included producing Voyle Gilmore and, more importantly, the arranging and conducting duties of Nelson Riddle. Riddle is the most important collaborator Sinatra worked with, and it is Riddle’s ability to arrange strings in particular that distinguishes Sinatra’s best music.

Sinatra’s two previous albums on Capitol marked the beginning of the mature Sinatra period. The teen matinee idol was being replaced by a man who, for all his talents, bravado, and success, had been battered by life and wasn’t afraid to let it show. Dropped by Columbia, considered by some to be past his prime, battling voice issues and emotionally scarred by being spurned by actress Ava Gardner, Sinatra didn’t just sing a selection of great American songbook popular songs; he turned them into his own, wearing them like a perfectly fitting dinner jacket.

What he also did, with his producer and arranger, is produce the first fully realized concept album, a full twelve years before Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band from The Beatles. The album, through song selection, musical backing, and mood, gives voice to the lonely saloon singer, drinking in the wee small hours of the morning, at a mostly empty dive bar in some run-down part of town. The singer is thinking about that girl: the one that got away—the one who would haunt his dreams for the rest of his life. Of course, the listener can relate, and it’s the simple universal appeal of that feeling that makes this album still sound so powerful 70 years later.

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Pink Floyd’s album Wish You Were Here was released in 1975, and listening to it today, it sounds like the soundtrack for these times. At the end of 2025, it was given a big box archival release, and the quality of this new reissue is commensurate with the importance of the album.

The release came two years after the group’s monumental Dark Side of the Moon. Following up on that album was nearly impossible, but Wish You Were Here is a strong record. While Dark Side of the Moon reflected a variety of emotions and themes that tackled growing old, dying, the passing of time, greed, a world out of control due to rapid advances in technology, and so much more, Wish You Were Here, while still touching on some of these themes, was very different.

The central theme of the album was very much about loss. It was about loss of innocence, a planet out of control and, on a very personal level for the group, the loss of their original guiding light, Syd Barrett, who left the band due to severe mental problems from drug abuse while they were making only their second album, A Saucerful of Secrets in 1968, with original members Roger Waters, Rick Wright, and Nick Mason joined by new guitarist David Gilmour. And, strangely enough, Barrett made a surprise appearance in the studio one day while the group was making the album.

There is an unsettling, eerie, almost post-apocalyptic feel to the music. The music is filled with longing, regret, and sadness. While delving even further into the use of synthesizers, there is also beautiful acoustic guitar work by Gilmour, as well as subtle jazzy touches. In fact, it is the subtleties and jazz tinges that are more pronounced on this new remaster of the album, particularly on the vinyl records.

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Ron Wood has had a remarkable musical career. After starting in London in the mid-1960s with The Birds, he played on many recordings and was a key part of both the original Jeff Beck Group and the original Faces, and has been a member of The Rolling Stones for 50 years. Three recent releases feature music from the Faces, The Rolling Stones, and an anthology that spans almost every part of his career, right up to the present day.

Although Wood was in the Jeff Beck Group and was also in a band and played on several records with Rod Stewart, his tenure in The Rolling Stones is formidable. The Black and Blue Super Deluxe box set reissue celebrates his grand arrival as a member of The Rolling Stones. Black and Blue was released in 1976 and was Wood’s first full album with the group, following Mick Taylor’s departure from the band. Taylor joined the Stones as a replacement for Brian Jones, before Jones’ death, and made his live debut with the group at the free Hyde Park concert the Stones put on in July 1969, which served as their musical memorial to Jones.

The Black and Blue album proved to be a pivotal release for the Stones. In the face of glam and disco, and just before punk exploded, the Stones began to shed their mid-’70s sound for something new. Mick Taylor was a consummate guitarist, and his departure from the group was not well-received by the other members. They loved his tasteful playing, which added a fluid grace to their more rough-and-ready, expansive ’70s work while having come from the same bluesy background as the other members of the band, notably his stint with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers.

He was the perfect replacement for Jones. The Stones flirted with other guitarists to replace Taylor, including Harvey Mandel of Canned Heat, Wayne Pekins, Rory Gallagher, and, most notably, Jeff Beck. They ultimately settled on Wood, even though he was still in the Faces, and there seemingly could not have been anyone better to fill Taylor’s shoes, both in terms of playing ability and compatibility. They recorded the album over several months in Munich, Rotterdam, and Montreux, in tax exile.

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The Beatles are arguably the most influential group in the history of pop music. Three recent releases reflect three different groups that have probably been the most influenced by the band, although one of them was most influenced by The Beatles in their second incarnation. It is also worth mentioning that one other group, ELO, should be included here, but they do not have a recent release for us to include.

Oasis is clearly not the first group to be influenced by The Beatles, or maybe even the last, but how significant that influence was propelled and underpinned their best work without making them merely derivative. Over the past several years, the group’s music has been reissued in many different configurations. Last summer, the band reunited for a 30th-anniversary stadium tour, which was by all accounts just short of a rock ‘n’ roll miracle.

One of the best of the spate of archival releases is the recent three-LP, vinyl reissue of their second album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, released in 1995, one of many configurations. While their first album was a powerful debut and their records right after their sophomore effort were quite good, this album is the mother lode. It’s the best Brit-pop album (sorry, Blur and Pulp fans) and one of the best British albums of the 1990s.

The album features a collection of songs written by Noel Gallagher (who also co-produced the album), showcasing the group’s perfect balance between gritty rock and lush production. Listening to the album 30 years later is to be bowled over by the majesty of the music. It’s big and grand like U2, but scrappy like an indie band of drunken teenagers late on a Saturday night in Camden. Liam Gallagher was born to be a rock ‘n’ roll frontman, and his sneering vocals turn his brother Noel’s bewitching and heartfelt songs into convincing rock anthems. They are part of a long line of rock ‘n’ roll siblings who have that familial chemistry that can’t be duplicated.

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The best archival Christmas release of the 2025 holiday season is easily the Classic Holiday Singles Box. The limited-edition box set includes fourteen 7-inch, 45-RPM color vinyl records of some of the most iconic Christmas singles ever released. The fourteen singles are from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. The singles are drawn from a variety of musical genres. They are also from a number of record labels that now fall under the Universal Music family of labels.

Some of these color vinyl singles were released individually during the 2024 holiday season. There are additional items included in those releases, comprising the complete set. All the releases are housed in a Christmas-themed, retro flip-top carrying case singles box with a handle and latch.

The 1950s singles include such evergreens as “White Christmas” from Bing Crosby, Rat Pack favorites from Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, and early rock ‘n’ roll chestnuts from Bobby Helms, Brenda Lee, and Chuck Berry.

1960s classics include “The Christmas Song” from Nat King Cole and “A Holly Jolly Christmas”/“Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer” from Burl Ives, from the animated 1964 television special, Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer. There are also singles from The Beach Boys and Ella Fitzgerald. Solo singles from two members of The Beatles are included: “Wonderful Christmastime” from Paul McCartney and the seasonal anthem “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” from John Lennon, Yoko Ono & The Plastic Ono Band.

All of the singles include their original B-sides and picture sleeves produced with thick, durable card stock. These are timeless classics and the format of this box set makes for a fun, nostalgic experience.

2025 marked the anniversary of a major Beatles project. It is the 30th anniversary of the Anthology ABC television series and its related projects, which included a three-volume audio companion set and a book.

While it began in 1995, the entire Anthology project was rolled out over several years. Neil Aspinal, erstwhile group insider since their scuffling Liverpool days and eventual long-time head of their Apple empire, launched a project during the first incarnation of Apple to collect all the visual material on the group

To be called The Long and Winding Road, it was to be a documentary-style film about the group’s history. The Complete Beatles, released on VHS in 1982, would beat the Beatles to the punch on releasing a documentary on the band. That documentary is out of print, and Paul McCartney owns the rights to it.

By 1994, with the fractious business and personal bitterness behind them, Apple was transformed into more than just a holding company for the group’s ongoing business enterprise, and the Live at the BBC double-volume set was released. It featured audio recordings of the group performing on various BBC radio and television programs. This was the most fulsome release of archival music from the group since the 1978 and 1980 single-disc Rarities releases.

While the Rarities albums offered a few choice, previously unreleased recordings, for die-hard fans of The Beatles, the Anthology project was more of what they were looking for, and would initially yield three double-CD and vinyl releases of previously unreleased radio, television, live, and, most anticipated, studio recordings.

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If there ever is a box set that is needed right now, it’s the recently released Power to the People from John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band.

Available in various configurations, the 9-CD/3-Blu-ray The Ultimate Collection slipcase box set, featuring a lenticular cover, is the one to get. It is the one that tells the whole story of a time in New York City (and elsewhere), when John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, became politicized and, through their music, believed that with the power of the people, there could be peace in the world.

The Lennons didn’t just think big; they used creativity, the media, and the power of art, and with the savvy eye of a hustler and the idealism of the times, both co-opted and became co-opted by “the movement” and inspired political engagement and hope that has resonated for decades and brought about results.

Why this box set is so timely is that much of the progress made by the various movements that began in the 1960s and were solidified in the 1970s is under siege—women’s rights, gay rights, equal rights, the environmental movement, social justice, and government transparency, to name a few.

While the movement became part of the establishment in positive ways, the current political environment is erasing 60 years of gains. The people who are causing the damage are the obvious root problem, but what spells disaster for the future of the country, if not the world, is that there is essentially a weak resistance.

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Celebrating Dave Clark on his 86th birthday. —Ed.

The Dave Clark Five were one of the most successful and acclaimed bands of the British Invasion of the 1960s. Unlike The Beatles and many others of that time and place, however, they were not from Liverpool. The group was from Tottenham, in north London. Their big, booming, stomping, brassy and infectious sound propelled them to seven top-ten UK singles and eight top-ten US singles.

The DC5’s unique sound centered around Clark’s pounding drums, Mike Smith’s full-throated voice and wide-ranging keyboard styles, and Denis Payton’s honking sax. The group was rounded out by guitarist Lenny Davidson and bassist Rick Huxley. Huxley also played harmonica and all four members, other than Smith, supplied bracing backing vocals. Unlike most of the groups of the British Invasion, their sound did not center around guitars. They were the first British group after The Beatles to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show and they were inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2008.

The group disbanded in 1970, but Dave Clark, who was the group’s manager and producer, has always curated the group’s legacy with aplomb. Among his many other activities through the years are acquiring the rights to the seminal British music television show Ready Steady Go! and, in the 1980s, he wrote and produced the 1986 theatrical musical Time.

There have been excellent collections of the group’s music on CD and vinyl, but the latest reissue is the best yet. The group’s debut U.S. album Glad All Over, originally released in 1964 and one of four albums released by the group in the U.S. that year, has been reissued on white vinyl in glorious mono, from the original master tapes from BMG.

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It’s been a busy year for Paul McCartney, and he capped off 2025 with the conclusion of another tour and a retrospective of the music of his band Wings. This will make the third Wings/McCartney best-of, after the single Wings Greatest album, double Wingspan, and double All The Best. All of these sets include both Wings and solo McCartney tracks. This is truly the first all Wings set and the best of the sets in every way.

The Wings 3 LP Limited Edition Color Collection, available exclusively through Paul McCartney’s website, is a three-album set of 180-gram color vinyl, featuring clear, green, and pink colors, respectively, housed in a die-cut hardback slipcase box. Sometimes, reissue projects can appear rushed, make questionable choices, and prompt fans and critics to debate format and approach. By contrast, it’s evident that great care and thought went into the packaging of this set.

McCartney has again recruited Hipgnosis legend Aubrey “Po” Powell as the Creative Director. His involvement here is a key factor in how well-conceived this box is and what a welcome addition it is to McCartney’s extensive reissues and archival projects over the years. Powell had previously worked with McCartney on projects such as Venus and Mars, Wings Greatest, video projects, and tours.

Along with two posters, an art print litho, and a sheet of stickers, the booklet in this package is beautifully designed. This is a textbook case in how to create an information-rich yet aesthetically pleasing booklet. Each Wings album, presented in chronological order, is given a two-page spread featuring photos and artwork for the sleeve, album, and single jackets. Also included are sidebars that tell the story of Wings in a way that is neither dry nor the typical factual history, and that include a summary of releases, tour dates, and session notes.

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