1 comments about Mellow Rock Hits Of The 70's: Ventura Highway.

1. All of these titles, although some are worn out in the listener's mind, will take one right to the backseat of the car on saturday night in the latter 1970s. They also may be good driving songs for the car. The only one missing is Bad Co shooting star.

4 comments about Smoke on the Water: A Tribute.

1. it's a very powerful and funny tribute cd of Deep Purple band. In this cd you can find malmsteen, glenn hughes, joe lynn turner and so many other artists and fans of deep purple. The track i prefer is Stormbringer.



2. Yuucckk! This really sucks, but what else is new, Yngwie Malmsteen is just a wannabe.



3. Smoke on The Water (imaginative title) is a star-studded tribute album dedicated to the world's pre-eminent progressive/metal/classic rock band, Deep Purple. All the artists involved are no doubt huge fan's of Purple's unique sound, and all of them are great players, but I find that for the most part this album lacks a lot of spark. It's a typical Varney project, shred guitar placed over a perfect but pedestrian rhythm section, and boring packaging. Almost all of the guitarists involved play it too close to the belt--in fact, the guy who does "Smoke on the Water" plays the solo note-for-note. If there is any exception, it is the opening number, "Speed King." Yngwie Malmsteen absolutely burns on it, and the singer sounds exactly like Ian Gillan. Overall, however, you'd be best to check out the real thing.



4. This CD by far has the best line-up i've ever seen assembled for a tribute. All the BIG name guitarists are on this-Malmsteen, Tony MacAlpine, Richie Kotzen, Paul Gilbert, Reb Beach, John Norum, and Vinnie Moore. For vocalists, one time Purple voice Glenn Hughes, Don Dokken, Kelly Keeling, This is a terrific disc with performances that will knock you over. Malmsteen turns in two tracks and they are much, much better than anything on his Inspiration CD. He does Speed King and Lazy both of which are highlights. Glenn Hughes does a killer rip on Strombringer with John Norum providing the guitar, who is one of my favorite guitarists. Don Dokken teams up with Reb Beach, many years before Reb would join Dokken, coincidence? They do Fireball, which of course smokes! Richie Kotzen does a fine job singing and playing guitar on an obscure D.P. trakc, Rat Rat Blue. Vinne Moore joins voice Tony Harnell for Woman From Toyko, another highlight. All-in-all this is a fantastic tribute, fans of the above mentioned artists or fans of Purple will want to pick this one up.

No comments about Rock Hits of the 70's.

5 comments about Dazed and Confused.

1. I was born in 1976, so I didn't really grow up listening to these songs. However, many of them still get heavy airplay on classic rock stations. Not one song on this album is bad. Personal favorites include "Cherry Bomb" and "Tuesday's Gone." Other solid tracks include "Low Rider," "Tush" and "Love Hurts."
   
   If you've seen the film, you already know that it lives and dies by the music that's constantly played in it. Much like "Swingers," "Dazed And Confused" is a very good film, but the soundtrack selection makes it great.
   
   I gave this album four stars because there are some key tunes missing (most notably "Hurricane," by Bob Dylan). Also, the classic rock vibe is broken up by "Jim Dandy," which doesn't quit fit in as well as the rest of the tunes. It's still a good song, though. This is an excellent album, and if you enjoy classic rock or grew up listening to these tunes, I'm sure you'll enjoy it (and the film). Highly recommended.



2. Loved the CD. The music is a much fun as it was the first time I enjoyed it!



3. I loved the movie and I love the soundtrack. Contains all those songs from the 1970s that were very "feel good". Also highly recommended is the companion CD which contains more songs that this one couldn't fit. Recommend both of them.



4. I was looking to get the DVD of DAZED AND CONFUSED but got the CD. When it was advertised on the AMAZON website it led me to believe that it was a DVD as you see it above. (1993 Film) I had to return it and my expense. Very disappointing transaction with AMAZON. Threfore, i am not impressed.



5. I've owned this terrific CD since waaaay back in 1993 & have lost my numerous copies purchased since then to dear friends & family who come to adore this soundtrack once they've heard it. It's full of great middle & late '70s tunes that if you were alive & aware of hit rock n roll music then, you will remember these tunes with joy & may even sing along to them too. This CD even has "Cherry Bomb" by the Runaways (Joan Jett & Lita Ford's band before they went solo) which is not an easy tune to find in complitations. If you liked the non-disco & non-"AM Gold" sounds of the 70's then this is your next CD purchase! : D The tunes range from Black Sabbath's Paranoid, to Foghat's Slow Ride to the ever popular rock anthem Kiss' Rock & Roll All Night. I love this CD,when I play it the songs take me right back to being a pre-teen/teenager hanging out with the older kids in the shag-van, the smell of ganja wafting around, real rock n roll blaring from the speakers, Ditto jeans, halter tops, Friday nights at the roller skating rink & Pop-rocks! LOL

No comments about 70's Rock Hits.

No comments about Classic Rock Traxx.

2 comments about Psychedelic Mind Trip, Vol. 2: Another Flashback.

1. What an unexpected treat! Not only does this disc feature the original 11:02 version of Time Has Come Today (the only one worth listening to IMHO) but it also contains the full 6:42 version of Hocus Pocus. The sound quality of this disc is excellent, too! ALL THIS FROM K-TEL???!!! We all remember K-Tel as being one of the dreary marketers of schlock 8-Tracks on late night and Sunday afternoon TV! Dreadful songs on an 8-Track tape guaranteed jam even the best Ampex machines. Not so here. A quality release. I just wish they would have included some text about each song. All you Hippie Chicks, get your peasant dresses down from the closet! Dudes, grab your fringed buckskin coats! Let's groove, man.......



2. I enjoy this album. It contains the LONG version of Time Has Come Today by the Chambers Bros.

5 comments about A Fair Forgery of Pink Floyd.

1. This is a refreshing and innovative interpretation of many PF classics by a diverse array of musicians, who not only manage to pull it off without causing offence to the good reputation of the magnificent 'floyd', but do so with considerable aplomb. Actually, there are several brilliant songs on disc 2 in particular and I must admit that having a few ladies belt out amazing versions of some of my favourites was quite an eye (and ear) opener. Go girls! Anyway, I highly recommend it as a new and daring take on one of the best bands of all time, and this from a bloke that considers himself not only a PF purist through and through, but also one of their most devoted fans!



2. It is with curiosity that I bought this album. I know only very few of the artists who realised it, but I am since always a big fan of the "Flamand Rose", especially of the period Barrett-Waters (many less the last albums of Gilmour).
   There is nothing to throw. All the covers are original and innovative... Surprising, sometimes.
   One of my preferred pieces is "Paintbox" (one of the first singles, written by Wright).
   
   
   A French fan (with a very bad english) of the best group of all times...



3. I have what I feel is a very ligitamate question. Why buy a tribute album when you could buy stuff the actual band made? I'm not saying this album is bad I'm just saying if you want floyd you should listen to floyd. cover bands are great for concerts but not albums in my opinion. so Why?



4. When you want nothing more than to hear new music from Floyd and you know it will probably never happen, a CD like this is a great deterant. The mix of genres showcased here is so refreshing to hear when you've been through the Floyd library so many times you just crave more. Sure, some songs will take a bit to get used to, but popping this disc in gives you a new perspective on the great music Roger, David, Sid, Nick, and Rick so wonderfully constructed years ago. I'm proud to slide this disc in the rack with the likes of The Division Bell and Dark Side. All in all, a nice mix of re-makes that will be taken out again and again. Now, I just need to get to CA to see Which One's Pink? Anybody wanna buy me a plane ticket?



5. Finally someone has done the "tribute record" right. Over the course of two CDs you get covers of "the hits" (Money, Comfortably Numb, Dogs) and "deep album cuts" (San Tropez, Childhood's End, Not Now John) Most of the arrangements are unique and provide a fresh take on the originals. Even an actual Pink Floyd tribute band (Which One's Pink?) offers something different by recording What Shall We Do Now? a song never released by Pink Floyd on a studio album. This album has a nice mix of recognizable artists and talented unknowns. Like the Pigs and Pyramids album, there's plenty of hard rock to go around with bands like Mike Keneally, Numira, Billion Stars and Samarin, Morgan & Hull LLP (I guess they really do "represent"). Like the well regarded Echoes of Pink CD, there's a generous sprinkling of female vocals (Sally Semrad, Courtney Fairchild, North Green, Becca & Pierre). Like Luther Wright and the Wrongs, there's folky roots rock (Yortoise, Quetzal, 50 Cent Haircut, Graham Parker, Tortfeasor). There's some great "prog" too (Shaun Guerin, S.A.M., Glass, Shark & The Smoke). This record does the impossible -- it appeals universally and simulatanously to Floyd and non-Floyd fans alike. This record belongs in the collection of every fan of rock n roll.

5 comments about Stairways to Heaven.

1. Look this album ins't for everybody. I love it as it shows the diverse interpretations of a great song and they are good versions. People like to make songs their own and this is a great example. Andrew Denton went on to do similar things with his breakfast radio show called the Music Challenge. They are also great covers with some from international artists and most of them are just as hilarious.
   
   By the way the guy who implied Australian bands are, in the majority, cover bands, I suggest you listen to some Australian rock/pop music to find out that you are very incorrect.



2. This CD features 12 versions of "Stairway to Heaven". They were recorded for the Australian talk show "The Money or The Gun", hosted by Andrew Denton, which ended every episode with a different guest artist performing that song. Lots of different kinds of styles are featured here. Some of the styles are: big band, Doors tribute band, Elvis impersonator, B-52s cover band, opera, Beatles cover band, reggae and spoken word. But the highlight is the version of "Stairway to Heaven" by Rolf Harris. You may remember Harris from his novelty hit "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport". Well, his version of "Stairway" is done in an arrangement similar to "Kangaroo", and is absolutely hilarious. The CD is worth getting for that track alone, but most of the other versions of "Stairway" are also amusing.



3. While this album is a great novelty it is not something I would pay more than $10 for. The musicianship is minimal and the quality of the versions has much to be desired.



4. Listeners may be interested to know that this album came out of a TV series.

   "The Money or the Gun" aired on Australian public television in the early nineties, a unique combination of documentary and variety show. Each week, host Andrew Denton (since sold out and gone commercial, alas) developed a theme around interviews, sketches, musical numbers, and plain, old-fashioned news reports. It was pretty hard-hitting; the episode on Prostitution got censored when a madam demonstrated, using her mouth and a handy microphone, how to get a condom on an unwilling customer.

   Every show ended with--you guessed it--a different artist/band doing its version of Stairway to Heaven. Denton is on record somewhere explaining why he chose this ever more bizarre way to close the show, but his exact words escape me.

   The joke worked better when it was delivered once a week rather than, in the words of Rolf Harris, "all-together-now". But on listening to the CD, I'm surprised at what a diverse and stimulating collection a dozen versions of the same song can be.

   But then, it's a great song.




5. I am here to tell you that there is clearly no middle ground on this album. You either love "Stairways to Heaven," with its dozen different versions of the consensus choice of greatest rock and roll song of all time or you look at people who love this album as if their brains had melted and were oozing out of their ears. But then I had a teacher who played Spike Jones in grade school, I grew up on the Smothers Brothers, got hooked on Tom Lehrer and thoroughly enjoy Weird Al Yankovic. Add to my vote for Led Zeppelin as the greatest rock and roll band since the Beatles and why wouldn't I love this album? It is even better than the first Dred Zeppelin album. But then, I recall once hearing on the radio the infamous song that set the lyrics to "The Ballad of Gilligan's Island" to "Stairway to Heaven," so my mind was warped in this direction a long time ago.

   The contents of this album are easily reduced to a single declarative sentence. One dozen versions of Led Zeppelin's classic "Stairway to Heaven" done in the (mostly) notable styles of different musical groups. This album was produced in Australian and is a major reason they were awarded the Summer Olympics (which took place just after the Australian winter). If you prefer early Beatles there is a "I Want to Hold Your Hand" style version by The Beatnix as well as a "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" version done by Robyne Dunn for those who prefer the later work of the Liverpool lads. There is Elvis in a "Blue Hawaii" mood courtesy of Neil Pepper and a dignified Moody Blues poetry reading from Leonard Teale that appropriately closes out the album. The Rock Lobsters do a B-52's take on the song while the Australian Doors Show do, well, you should be able to figure it out. John Paul Young does a disco version, the Vegimite Reggae a reggae version, Kate Ceberano and The Ministry of Fun a sulty soul version. Sandra Hahn and Michael Turkic tackle an operatic duet, Pardon Me Boys a Be-Bop duet, and Rolf Harris is just out in the outback doing whatever comes into his fertile little mind ("All together now!"). Jimmy Page might have played his guitar with a violin bow, but you must admit he never tried playing a saw.

   I have yet to grow tired of listening to this album and have found a great way of having fun with it at the expense of others. Simply go up to a family member, friend, co-worker or somebody walking down the street with a CD player and ask them to pick their three favorite groups a list that covers the above. When they have made their choices, from Early Beatles to Joan Sutherland (note the Australian reference in keeping with the origin of this CD down under), play the appropriate trio of tracks from "Stairways to Heaven." Watch their faces contort as they go from confusion to understanding, from amusement to trepidation, and from familiarity to contempt. And when they have turned their backs on you, just remember: "There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold . . ."

5 comments about What's Shakin'.

1. In 1966 I was 14 & had been reading about all these great bands. I wanted to hear their music but was afraid to spend my limited resources on 1/2 dozen albums. This album was a godsend. It had the songs by Paul Butterfield & others along side of songs by the Lovin' Spoonfull who I was already a fan of so I knew I'd at least like their songs. Funny thing is their's were my least favorite songs on the album. As soon as I played the album I was blown away and ran right back down to the record store to buy full length Paul Butterfield & Tom Rush albums with a whole months worth of my school lunch money. I may have had an empty stomach but my mind was on fire! It was the end of top 40 music for me. At least until groups like the Doors & Big Brother had hits.



2. A great album any BLUES fan must have. Al Kooper's "I Can't Keep From Cryin' " is listed as a Paul Butterfield song in the Amazon breakdown of cuts.That particular cut, w/Al on Paino is one of my alltime favorites.The rest of the album is superb also! A great compilation.



3. "What's Shakin" is a mid-'60s blues-rock sampler, featuring rare tracks from several great bands - most prominent being Paul Butterfield and the Lovin' Spoonful. However, what makes this collection truly historic are the tracks by Eric Clapton & the Powerhouse, which included the young Stevie Winwood. This marked Clapton's first recorded collaboration with Winwood, and their only recorded collaboration outside of Blind Faith and Clapton's "Rainbow Concert" album. History was never this much fun.



4. This album is almost obsolete, thanks to the recent (and much welcome) "The Lost Original Elektra Sessions" by the Butterfield Blues Band, which features every Butterfield cut on this album among the selections. But note we say "almost" - the cuts by Eric Clapton's one-off tweener (he was between stints in John Mayall's Blues Breakers, if I am not mistaken; one member of the group was billed then as Steve Anglo - in reality, Steve Winwood) and the Lovin' Spoonful are worth the ticket, especially Clapton's first known crack at "Crossroads". This was one of the better samplers of the mid-1960s and it still wears well.



5. I purchased this album (vinyl record) as a Sophomore in college in 1966, still have it in good condition. It's a great album, but since my turntable no longer works, I need the CD. Incidentally, the record jacket has the Lovin' Spoonful on the front and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band on the back.