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Phonograph Record

Phonograph Record

Phonograph Record was founded in Los Angeles, California, by Marty Cerf in September 1970, as an alternative to Creem and Rolling Stone. It was available on newsstands and also distributed free via radio stations across the USA. The magazine was subsequently edited by Greg Shaw and Ken Barnes and featured contributions from many of the best music writers of the time. It ceased publication in May 1978.

613 articles

List of articles in the library

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Canned Heat: Future Blues (Liberty)

Review by Anne Moore, Phonograph Record, September 1970

CANNED HEAT is back with the familiar boogie blues with their new Liberty album, Future Blues. ...

David Ackles: The Troubadour, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Anne Moore, Phonograph Record, September 1970

Ackles Intellectual ...

Jackie DeShannon: Century Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Anne Moore, Phonograph Record, September 1970

DeShannon Shines ...

Uriah Heep: Uriah Heep

Review by Marty Cerf, Phonograph Record, September 1970

URIAH HEEP may sound like a skin disease of some kind of animal manure, but in actuality it's the name of a fictional character. Uriah ...

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band: The Troubadour, Los Angeles

Live Review by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, October 1970

FOR several years, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has been a steady fixture in such local L.A. clubs as the Troubadour. ...

Al Kooper: Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, February 1971

MAKING HIS first Southern California appearance as a single after three previous attempts, Al Kooper proved that the wait wasn't worthwhile. Whatever his stature is ...

Creedence Clearwater Revival: Pendulum

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, February 1971

DON'T LET 'EM fool you. Pendulum is as distinctly Creedence as 'Proud Mary' or 'Lodi'. And that, I think, is good; Creedence music is one ...

Ballin' Jack, Dave Mason & Cass Elliott, P. F. Sloan: Dave Mason & Cass Elliott, Ballin' Jack, P.F. Sloan: Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica CA

Live Review by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, February 1971

THE WORLD debut of Dave Mason's new group, featuring Cass Elliot, was a noteworthy occasion in more ways than one. For second billed was Ballin' ...

John Mendelsohn, Rock Critic

Comment by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, February 1971

(This article was a response to an article in Jazz & Pop highly critical of rock criticism in general, and John Mendelsohn in particlular, by rock writer ...

J. Geils Band: The J. Geils Band: The J. Geils Band (Atlantic)

Review by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, February 1971

VARIOUS MEMBERS of the J. Geils Band have been playing around, separately or together, in the Boston area for a number of years. It's rumored ...

David Bowie: The Man Who Sold the World (Mercury)

Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, March 1971

THE MAN Who Sold the World is a vaguely-sophomoric, vaguely-mystical, thoroughly logical extension of the Music Hall tradition in British pop music. This is a ...

Ike & Tina Turner: Workin' Together (Liberty)

Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, March 1971

TINA TURNER ought to be ashamed of her fine self, screaming and shouting and carrying on the way she does. If she isn't the sexiest ...

Rahsaan Roland Kirk & the Vibration Society: Rahsaan Rahsaan (Atlantic)

Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, March 1971

RAHSAAN ROLAND Kirk is an irrepressible wit, musically and verbally; he's also a fine, funky philosopher, an exhilarating entertainer, and one of the best damn ...

The Incredible String Band: U (Elektra)

Review by Anne Moore, Phonograph Record, March 1971

U IS A creative concept by the Incredible String Band and Stone Monkey (a musical dance troupe) — in reality it is a new double ...

Dada: Whisky a Go Go, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, June 1971

DADA, A group from England which, so far as I could tell, exercises none of the grand illogicity or intellectual impudence their name would imply, ...

Ohio Knox, Seals and Crofts: Seals and Crofts, Ohio Knox: The Troubadour, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, June 1971

JIM SEALS and Dash Crofts exercise a rare and nearly faultless contextual hegemony over the musical province they have staked out for themselves. I don't ...

Spencer Davis Group: Spencer Davis

Interview by Harold Bronson, Phonograph Record, June 1971

SPENCER DAVIS was just disgusted with the whole London pop scene. He had hit records, yes, ‘Keep On Running’ and ‘Gimme Some Lovin'’ among them. ...

Argent Again

Interview by Harold Bronson, Phonograph Record, August 1971

WITH THE SUCCESS of the Beatles came countless other English rock groups, among them the Zombies. This combo employed a very satisfying Beatle-ish approach that ...

Crowbar: Bad Manors

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, August 1971

CROWBAR IS THE most interesting group to come out of Canada in a long time. Their first LP with King Biscuit Boy was a blessed ...

Grand Funk Railroad: Survival (Capitol)

Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, August 1971

GRAND FUNK are a real good group. A lot of media critics don't like them, they say they're not real artists and that they just ...

Long John Baldry: It Ain't Easy

Review by Jon Tiven, Phonograph Record, August 1971

IT REALLY DOESN'T matter whether you like Long John Baldry or not, if you like Elton John and Rod Stewart that's good enough. The chances ...

Doobie Brothers: The Doobie Brothers: The Doobie Brothers (Warners)

Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, August 1971

THE DOOBIE Brothers may turn out to be, it has been subtly hinted by the Warner Brothers promo department, the world's first successful "over-the-transom" recording ...

Hot Tuna: First Pull Up, Then Pull Down (RCA)

Review by Jonh Ingham, Phonograph Record, September 1971

I FIRST HEARD Hot Tuna at a free concert in late 1969. It consisted of Jack and Jorma on guitars, Joey Covington on drums (Spencer ...

Loudon Wainwright III: Album II (Atlantic)

Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, September 1971

LOUDON WAINWRIGHT II was (still is, for that matter) one of the best, most readable of the bleeding-heart-liberal slick-paper journalists; his son, Loudon Wainwright III, ...

Michael Nesmith: Mike Nesmith: Nevada Fighter

Review by Mark Leviton, Phonograph Record, September 1971

MIKE NESMITH is about as noncommital as a person can be. Ask him about his music's derivation and he's likely to say that no, he ...

Shiva’s Headband: Take Me To The Mountains

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, September 1971

EVERY SO OFTEN a company will try the "shotgun" strategy – releasing large numbers of albums by new groups in hopes that a few will ...

Sonny Til & the Orioles: Sonny Til and the Orioles: Sonny Til and the Orioles (RCA)

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, September 1971

BACK IN THE FIFTIES there was something called The New York Sound. It was classed as R&B, but unlike the tough, electrified R&B of Ike ...

Stephen Stills: Stephen Stills 2

Review by Jon Tiven, Phonograph Record, September 1971

DO YOU REALIZE that in the past eight months there have been two solo albums by Steve Stills, in addition to 4 Way Street (which ...

Humble Pie, The Small Faces, Steve Marriott: Steve Marriott: Humble As Pie

Report and Interview by Jon Tiven, Phonograph Record, September 1971

AFTER A COMPLETELY satisfying set by Humble Pie at the Capitol Theatre, I went backstage for an interview with Steve Marriott, their trebly-talented lead singer, ...

MC5: The MC5: High Time

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, September 1971

WHENEVER I USED to say I liked the MC5, I would always preface the statement with some remark like "sure, I know they're a bunch ...

The Moody Blues: Every Good Boy Deserves Favour

Review by Jon Tiven, Phonograph Record, September 1971

CLAD IN LUSH blue and scarlet robes, a monk descends from the sky. Raising his brow, and pointing his forearm at the heavens, he ...

Manfred Mann: An Exploration Of The Four Chapters Of Manfred Mann

Overview by Harold Bronson, Phonograph Record, November 1971

PREFACEMANFRED MANN in his pendulum-like exploration of the modem music scene has at given times emerged himself in more fully committed idioms than just about ...

Clyde McPhatter: Welcome Home

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, November 1971

CLYDE MCPHATTER is one of the best singers to come out of the early 50s vocal group tradition. After a stint with Billy Ward and ...

Jefferson Airplane: Grunt Records: What A Lovely Sound

Report by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, November 1971

IT WAS going to be, if you believed the hype and hung on to your hopes, the event on an otherwise lackluster social calendar for ...

John McLaughlin: My Goal's Beyond

Review by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, November 1971

JOHN MCLAUGHLIN has been around: gigging with Graham Bond in 1966, Jack Bruce in ‘68 and intermittently with Miles Davis since then, he has cut ...

Nick Drake: Nick Drake (Island)

Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, November 1971

NICK DRAKE — who is, despite his name, a singer/songwriter and not a prototypical 1942- vintage private detective radio hero — has made a first ...

Ian Matthews, Randy Newman: Randy Newman, Ian Matthews: The Troubadour, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, November 1971

RANDY NEWMAN looks like a kid you used to know in high school — the one who always read Scientific American and got A's in trig. Which ...

Seatrain: Marblehead Messenger (Capitol)

Review by Mark Leviton, Phonograph Record, November 1971

SEATRAIN WAS the first major splinter of the Blues project (now reformed in rather truncated version) and have consistantly been one of the best recording ...

Grateful Dead: The Grateful Dead: Grateful Dead (Warner Bros.)

Review by Jon Tiven, Phonograph Record, November 1971

I APPROACHED THIS album with mixed feelings; one side of me saying "Well, you love the Dead don't you?" and the other half repeating "They ...

The Sun Records Revival

Review by Jonh Ingham, Phonograph Record, November 1971

SUN RECORDS and Phil Spector's Philles Records were the two most important independent record companies in the history of rock and roll. ...

Jimmy Page, The Yardbirds: The Yardbirds: Live Yardbirds Featuring Jimmy Page

Review by John Morthland, Phonograph Record, November 1971

THE YARDBIRDS must be one of the most oft-recorded live groups. There's the 1963 set at the Marquee available on a British import (parts are ...

Crabby Appleton: Is Crabby Appleton The Supergroup Nobody's Heard?

Profile by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, December 1971

"I heard an acetate of their first single 'Go Back'...I sat there with my jaw at knee-level and the top of my head blown off, ...

Pentangle: Reflection

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, December 1971

THE APPEARANCE on the display wall of my favorite local record merchant of Pentangle's fifth album, Reflections, triggered a lightning search of my wallet, pockets, ...

The Band: Cahoots (Capitol)

Review by Jon Tiven, Phonograph Record, December 1971

WELL, IT'S DIFFERENT. ...

The Move: Everything You've Always Wanted to Know!

Profile by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, December 1971

What Is The Move? The Move are one of the four or five most magnificent rock and roll bands in England, and therefore in the ...

The Who: Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy (Decca)

Review by Jonh Ingham, Phonograph Record, December 1971

WELL, THEY'VE (and we all know who they are) finally gotten around to putting 'I Can't Explain', 'The Seeker', and 'Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere' onto an ...

The Who: Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, December 1971

WHO FANS have been saying it for years: "Those bastards at Decca! Why don't they put out an album of early singles?" For the Who ...

Labelle, Dusty Springfield: Vicki Wickham: The Secretary That Roared

Interview by Toby Mamis, Phonograph Record, December 1971

I'D CONSIDERED doing this piece since mid-June. So, frankly, when the time came, I was thoroughly prepared. Prior to my interview with Vicki Wickham, I'd ...

Don McLean

Interview by David G. Walley, Phonograph Record, 1 December 1971

DON WALKS INTO MY cluttered house, up four flights and to the left, arriving in a confusion of papers, cats, ashtrays. ...

Billy Preston: The Troubadour, Los Angeles

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, January 1972

IT'S NOT EASY to be uncompromisingly religious in a den of drugs, drink and iniquity like the Troubadour, but Billy Preston has both the Power ...

Bobby Womack: Communication (United Artists)

Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, January 1972

I'VE MET Bobby Womack a couple of times, more or less interviewed him, written things about him, etc. He's so strong and sure that he ...

David Bowie: The Darling of the Avant Garde

Profile and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, January 1972

IS THIS FRAIL-LOOKING young Englishman with the delicate, birdlike features, arresting Capricorn eyes and page boy waves of sandy blonde hair indeed destined to become ...

The Byrds: I Love The Byrds But...

Comment by Kim Fowley, Phonograph Record, January 1972

IN ALMOST 1972, the Beatles have broken up, the Stones are husbands and fathers, Sonny and Cher are famous again, Jimi Hendrix is dead, and ...

J. Geils Band: The Morning After (Atlantic)

Review by Nick Tosches, Phonograph Record, January 1972

GOOD HARD fast kool kat musick is the best kind. Anything without any metaphysical pretentions and with a lot of rebop raunch. ...

Elvis Presley: Jerry Hopkins: Elvis – The Biography

Book Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, January 1972

THERE HAS never been an entertainer quite like Elvis Presley. His life and his contribution to rock 'n' roll have assumed such legendary proportions, which ...

John Prine: The Troubadour, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, January 1972

EVERYBODY'D BEEN talking about this guy Prine, how he was Kris Kristofferson's boozin' buddy or something, and since I like Kristofferson's Kerouacian American romanticism I ...

The Kinks: Kinks: Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut

Live Review by Jon Tiven, Phonograph Record, January 1972

POISON RING Records recording artists FANCY opened the show with their joy-evoking rock 'n' roll which is always something that I'm immediately susceptible to. ...

Traffic: The Low Marks of Well Heeled Boys

Comment by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, January 1972

SOME NOTES ABOUT THE SLOWING DOWN OF TRAFFIC ...

Grand Funk Railroad: E Pluribus Funk (Capitol)

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1 January 1972

It's time to admit we were wrong about Grand Funk. Oh, we were right too, but wrong just the same. Those three or four (I ...

Paul Anka: Paul Anka (Buddah)

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1 January 1972

DO YOU HAVE trouble thinking of Paul Anka as anything but a greasy Italian dork from Brooklyn who whined his way adeniodally through a series ...

Rory Gallagher: Rory Gallagher (Atco)

Review by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, 1 January 1972

‘RORY GALLAGHER, formerly of Taste, is now on his own and happening.’ That's what the ads say, but what do they know? ...

The Faces

Interview by Jonh Ingham, Phonograph Record, 1 January 1972

AS FAR AS AMERICA is concerned, the Small Faces were notable for one single, 'Itchycoo Park', and one album, Ogden's Nut Gone Flake; the former ...

The Faces: A Nod Is As Good As A Wink To A Blind Horse (Reprise)

Review by Jon Tiven, Phonograph Record, 1 January 1972

The original Small Faces were quite a band in their day, and although before this album I had my doubts, I have now answered the ...

Bernie Taupin: Bernie Taupin (Elektra)

Review by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, March 1972

ON NEW YEAR'S EVE of 1972 I attended a great party thrown by someone I didn't know and inadvertently fell into a protracted conversation with ...

Captain Beefheart: The Spotlight Kid (Reprise)

Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, March 1972

WHO'S THE greatest white blues singer in America today? Shame on you if you said John Hammond or Dave Van Ronk or maybe Kate Taylor. ...

Mott the Hoople: Brain Capers

Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, March 1972

IN THEIR FOURTH bid to make a lasting impression on the fickle folk who buy America's records, the usually-underrated, intriguingly-monickered Mott the Hoople have opted ...

Oldies In The 70's

Overview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, March 1972

The dog days of rock are upon us. ...

Marc Benno, Rita Coolidge, Crazy Horse, The Dixie Flyers: Rita Coolidge, Crazy Horse: The Troubadour, Los Angeles

Live Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, March 1972

CRAZY HORSE, which was once Neil Young's sometimes back-up group and which also used to have Jack Nitzsche sitting on the piano bench, is currently ...

The Persuasions: Streetcorner Music

Profile by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, March 1972

THE MUSIC-BUYING public (which has something – how much or how little is a matter of opinion – to do with determining the trends) can ...

America: The Whisky, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Jeff Walker, Phonograph Record, April 1972

THE WHISKY is not the ideal club for the debut of an acoustic band; one whose demands on its audience are more cerebral than physical. ...

Badfinger, The Kinks: Badfinger/The Kinks: Berkeley Community Theatre

Live Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, April 1972

IT WASN'T YOUR usual Berkeley concert, the type you'd hear, say, Joy of Cooking at. I can't imagine where they came from, but sprinkled liberally ...

Colin Blunstone: One Year (Epic)

Review by Mark Leviton, Phonograph Record, April 1972

AFTER the Zombies hit about two years ago with 'Time of the Season' they broke up for good. ...

Colin Blunstone: One Year (Epic)

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, April 1972

COLIN BLUNSTONE sang all those unforgettable Zombies hits, made a couple fairly successful solo singles, and disappeared for about three years before finally re-emerging with ...

Fairport Convention: Babbacombe Lee

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, April 1972

FOR THEIR SEVENTH album, Fairport Convention has presented us with a "concept" or "unified theme" LP (avoiding the oppro-briously-connotated term "rock opera"). ...

Jackson Browne: Jackson Browne (Asylum)

Review by Jeff Walker, Phonograph Record, April 1972

IT HAS TAKEN a long time for a whole album of Jackson Browne's music, actually sung and played by Jackson Browne, to be made and ...

Spirit: The Whisky, Los Angeles

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, April 1972

THERE'S NOT MUCH Spirit left. That doesn't refer only to the departure of Jay Ferguson and Mark Andes and the retirement of Randy California. The ...

T. Rex: "The Mania Never Stops"

Interview by Harold Bronson, Phonograph Record, April 1972

HUMILITY HAS never been one of man's virtues. Whether warranted or not, we tend to exaggerate our credibility. What we must never forget is why ...

The Incredible String Band: Liquid Acrobat As Regards The Air (Elektra)

Review by Steven X Rea, Phonograph Record, April 1972

THIS IS THE Incredible String Band's ninth album (tenth, if you include the soundtrack to their film BE GLAD...), and their first in over a ...

Bobby Womack: The Stark Soul of Bobby Womack

Essay by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, April 1972

A NEW WOMACK record is at hand. So what? the more unenlightened among you might ask. So plenty, now that you mention it. Plenty and then ...

Jesse Colin Young, The Youngbloods: Youngbloods: Good And Dusty; Jesse Colin Young: Together

Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, April 1972

THERE'S REALLY no way around it. The Youngbloods' career divides quite clearly into three distinct periods: (1) The Youngbloods with Jerry Corbitt (2) Elephant Mountain ...

Badfinger At The Crossroads

Profile and Interview by Mark Leviton, Phonograph Record, May 1972

ONE WOULD THINK that a group as successful as Badfinger, a group with their momentum (three top-selling singles, one LP million seller, association with Bangla ...

Creedence Clearwater Revival: Mardi Gras (Fantasy)

Review by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, May 1972

CREEDENCE AGAIN. Their sixth or seventh LP, the first minus Tom Fogerty on rhythm, the first with Stu Cook and Doug Clifford contributing songs and ...

Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks: Striking It Rich (Blue Thumb)

Review by Jeff Walker, Phonograph Record, May 1972

IT IS BOTH a relief and a pleasure that STRIKING IT RICH is as good as it is; as long as I've been familiar with ...

Deep Purple: Machine Head

Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, May 1972

I was pretty pleased with the new Deep Purple album when it first came in the mail, since it was a good heavy metal album ...

Hawkwind: In Search Of Space

Review by Jeff Walker, Phonograph Record, May 1972

IT'S BEEN an eternity since I've writhed to a record on a physical level, but I still recall fondly those stoned hours spent engrossed in ...

Lou Reed: Lou Reed (RCA)

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, May 1972

THIS IS one of those albums you have to have spent at least a year waiting breathlessly for to appreciate the full import of. This ...

Fleetwood Mac, Long John Baldry, Savoy Brown: Savoy Brown/Fleetwood Mac/Long John Baldry: University of New Haven, Connecticut

Live Review by Jon Tiven, Phonograph Record, May 1972

ASHMUN & REYNOLDS, two singers (one of whom also plays bass) with the Baldry band, opened the show with a couple of numbers of their ...

The Beach Boys: Carl And The Passions – So Tough (Reprise)

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, May 1972

It's become increasingly evident that the Beach Boys are dead serious about shedding their hedonistic California surf-cars-and-fun stand for a more "contemporary" image. Surf's Up ...

Argent: All Together Now

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, July 1972

ARGENT (THE BAND) is an emphatically annoying enigma. ...

David Bowie: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (RCA)

Review by Jon Tiven, Phonograph Record, July 1972

DAVID BOWIE, England’s Answer-To-Alice-Cooper-But-He’s-For-Real, has finally made an album with positive commercial potential and consistent strength. Ziggy Stardust is the Aftermath of the Seventies, where ...

Randy Newman: The Troubadour, Los Angeles CA.

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, July 1972

THIS GUY GAVE me a ride once, back when I was going to UCLA. He was pretty laconic, but under my expert employment of hitchhiker's ...

Spring: Spring

Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, July 1972

SPRING CONSISTS of Marilyn Wilson and Diane Rovell, formerly known as The Honeys (along with original member Ginger Rovell) back in the mid-Sixties. ...

Stories: Stories

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, July 1972

ONCE MICHAEL BROWN led a group called the Left Banke, who produced two of the most memorable singles of the mid-sixties, 'Walk Away Renee' and ...

Raspberries: The Raspberries: Fresh (Capitol)

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, July 1972

I ALWAYS HELD that the next revitalization of pop music would be heralded by a resurgence of interest in the mid-'60's, but I couldn't have ...

Ike Turner, Ike & Tina Turner: The Roots of Ike Turner

Essay by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, July 1972

IKE TURNER'S roots are blues roots. That's obvious, right? You hardly need some wise-ass young punk kid writer in good old PRM to lay that ...

David Bowie: Central London Polytechnic, London

Live Review by Jonh Ingham, Phonograph Record, 1 July 1972

"YES, I'M DAVID BOWIE. These are the Spiders from Mars. And we're the slickest show in town." ...

Alice Cooper: School's Out

Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, August 1972

IF YOU DON'T THINK Alice Cooper are the Rolling Stones of 1972, think again. In innumerable aspects – from the foremost importance of image to ...

Fanny: Slaughter On Tenth Avenue

Profile and Interview by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, August 1972

Cryptic Tales Of America’s Fanny ...

Led Zeppelin: The Forum, Inglewood, California

Live Review by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, August 1972

WHAT BETTER WAY for Led Zeppelin to begin their three-and-a-half hour onslaught on the eardrums than with a crash of the drums? Not a "Hi, ...

The Groundhogs: Who Will Save The Groundhogs?

Profile and Interview by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, August 1972

IT MAY HAVE been The Last Pop Festival. I mean, they didn't even call it a pop festival, but that's clearly what it was — ...

The Hollies Revisited

Retrospective by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, 1 August 1972

The Hollies Are Back Again ...

Tower of Power: Bump City (Warner Bros.)

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1 August 1972

I CAN JUST see the perverse gleam in the editor's eye as he sent me this album to review. He sure knows how to bug ...

Buddy Holly: A Rock & Roll Collection

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, September 1972

I DON'T LIKE to be made a fool of. Last January the folks at Decca told me of their plans for an elaborate Buddy Holly ...

Foghat: Foghat (Bearsville)

Review by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, September 1972

NOBODY LIKES Savoy Brown except everybody. Why? What? Well, you know, you either like 'em or ya don't. If you do, you got no problems. ...

Harry Nilsson: Son Of Schmilsson

Review by David Rensin, Phonograph Record, September 1972

WELL, WELL. Harry Nilsson has sure thrown a big pebble into the music puddle. There's not much to say about the things you hear in ...

Rod Stewart: Never A Dull Moment

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, September 1972

WELL, IT TOOK AWHILE, but Rod Stewart is back again with his fourth straight formula solo album. He's rounded up roughly the same crew of ...

Sandy Denny, Marian Segal: Sandy Denny and Marian Segal

Profile and Interview by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, September 1972

AN ARTICLE on Sandy Denny and Marian Segal, huh? O.K. Now who's Marian Segal? ...

Redwing, Seatrain: Seatrain, Redwing: The Whisky, Los Angeles, CA

Live Review by Jeff Walker, Phonograph Record, September 1972

I WISH there were something really great to say about Redwing; I mean, they've been playing together for a lot of years now, they happen ...

Bobby "Blue" Bland: Spotlighting the Man: Bobby Blue Bland

Comment by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, September 1972

THERE'S A new Bobby Bland single out ('I'm So Tired') that is both typically fine and frustrating: fine in that it is another two and ...

The Wackers: Bodega Club, San Jose, California

Live Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, September 1972

ROCK 'N' ROLL returned to the Pit recently and scored a technical knockout, as the Wackers invaded the Boogie Capital of San Jose, the Bodega ...

Colin Blunstone, Good Habit: Civic Hall, Guildford, England

Live Review by Harold Bronson, Phonograph Record, October 1972

IT WAS MIDNIGHT, and as my nose was dripping, I was freezing on the last train to London. Colin Blunstone, ex-lead vocalist of the Zombies, ...

David Bowie: Fleeting Moments In A Glamorous Career

Report by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, October 1972

WITH NOT SO much as the Ed Sullivan Show, Shindig or Hullabaloo, a Winky Dink screen or a fifth-Spider like Murray the K to add ...

Doobie Brothers: Toulouse Street

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, October 1972

I DON'T KNOW about you, but it happens to me all the time. I get some album in the mail, listen to the whole thing ...

Argent, Blue Oyster Cult, Flash, Jeff Beck: Jeff Beck/Blue Oyster Cult/Flash/Argent: Gaelic Park, New York NY

Live Review by Jon Tiven, Phonograph Record, October 1972

BLUE OYSTER CULT had a real bad time at the big park and oh boy did they know it...one of the guys backstage connected wit ...

Johnny Rivers: The Folks Dancin' There Were All Shook Up

Profile by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, October 1972

IF THE SEVENTIES are starting out, as they appear to be, making good on the debts incurred against all the various minorities over the years, ...

David Ackles: Oh Lord, Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood: The Overrating of David Ackles

Essay by Jeff Walker, Phonograph Record, October 1972

A FEW MONTHS ago a sometimes pleasant, sometimes depressing, sometimes intriguing, sometimes boring album by David Ackles, called American Gothic, was released by Elektra Records. ...

Travis Wammack: Scratching in the Shoals: Travis Wammack

Interview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, October 1972

THERE ARE SOME names you never forget. Names like Narvel Felts, Felton Jarvis, Elvis Presley...Good Southern names for self-styled Southern boys that made some of ...

Raspberries: The Story of the Raspberries

Interview by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, October 1972

"I couldn’t say what I wanted to say till she whispered 'I Love You', so please, baby, go all the way..." ...

Them: Them.…Featuring Van Morrison

Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, October 1972

JOHN BALDRY tells of the time in L.A. that he answered his phone. "Lester Bangs here," said the caller, to which Long John replied, "He ...

Various Artists: Nuggets (Elektra)

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, October 1972

1965 Revisited: Lenny Kaye meets the Seeds ...

Slade: Slade Alive!

Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, 1 October 1972

SLADE HAVE BEEN responsible for some excellent singles, but as for this album, forget it. ...

Slade: Slade Alive!

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1 October 1972

THIS IS ONE of the best live albums I’ve ever heard. Mike Saunders is out of his mind. ...

Slade: Slade Alive!

Review by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, 1 October 1972

GOOD FOR SLADE. They made it at last. These guys have been kicking around the Limey lard-tub for a little while now, garnering a fan ...

Black Sabbath: Black Sabbath Volume 4

Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, November 1972

IT'S EARLY 1965. Suppose, just for once, that folk-rock never happens. Instead the English Invasion proceeds to its logical conclusions and rather than marking the ...

Brinsley Schwarz' Amazing Twelve Inches

Profile and Interview by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, November 1972

THE REAL ISSUE HERE is originality. How much does it matter? There are a lot of theories about the true nature of rock and roll, ...

Captain Beefheart: Clear Spot

Review by David Rensin, Phonograph Record, November 1972

THERE ARE TYPICALLY three schools of thought surrounding Captain Beefheart. The first love him and feel he can do no wrong. The second find him ...

Gary Glitter: Glitter

Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, November 1972

THE APPLE'S BEEN a teeming teen-town lately, what with the Dolls, Teenage Lust, Eric Emerson's Magic Tramps, and Ruby and the Rednecks shaking it down ...

Mott The Hoople: Top Rank Suite, Birmingham, England

Live Review by Mark Leviton, Phonograph Record, November 1972

YOU'D THINK that a group with a top ten record in Britain ('All The Young Dudes'), associated with David Bowie to boot, would have no ...

Rock and Roll Revival: Richard Nader's Lament

Interview by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, November 1972

UNLESS YOU'VE actually heard it, you just can't appreciate how strange phonetically and otherwise, it sounds to hear a nasal 'Mr. Didduly. Telephone for Mr. ...

SLADE………..ARRIVE!

Report and Interview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, November 1972

WHEN A GROUP PUTS out five or more singles in their first year, hits the upper regions of the Top Ten with each of them, ...

The Faces: Hollywood Bowl, CA

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, November 1972

DOES THE FACT that Faces were able to elicit a thunderous response from their Hollywood Bowl audience with what was definitely a sub-par performance say ...

The Standells: The Blue Max, Van Nuys, California

Live Review by Mark Shipper, Phonograph Record, November 1972

IT WAS the best kept secret in town, but yessir, the Standells came through here a couple of weeks ago to play their tough-as-nails brand ...

Mogan David and His Winos: Savage Young Winos

Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, 1 November 1972

HATED. DESPISED. SCORNED. That's Mogan David & His Winos. Columbia Records won't touch them, and The Duke (of American Rock Critics) won't let them near ...

America: Homecoming (Warner Bros.)

Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, December 1972

IMAGINE IF YOU WILL, a kid that does a soul-wrenching ( I mean this literally) job of imitating Neil Young. The whiny little creep down ...

The Amboy Dukes, Bob Seger, Brownsville Station, MC5, Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels, The Stooges: Detroit's Rock Culture

Overview by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, December 1972

DETROIT, FOUNDED in 1736 by a turncoat (to both sides) halfbreed Indian named Quazimodo from the Kuitee tribe which dwelled circa 1670-1777 on the shores ...

Earth Quake: The Long Branch, Berkeley, CA

Live Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, December 1972

IT WAS Halloween in Berkeley, and consequently time for the mildly legendary annual costume contest at the Long Branch, to the musical accompaniment of Earth ...

Elvis Presley: The Cobo Hall, Detroit, Michigan

Live Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, December 1972

I'M GETTING pretty sick of all this talk about what a gross Tom Jones imitation Elvis has become. Baby fat and other people’s songs, indeed. ...

English Trends in L.A.: Rodney Bingenheimer Makes Good

Report and Interview by Marty Cerf, Phonograph Record, December 1972

HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA — Just when we all expected it least, it happened. With our pants down, mouths wide open, Rodney Bingenheimer fulfilled the unknown pledge ...

Pete Townshend: Peter Townshend Who Came First (Decca/Track)

Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, December 1972

HERE WE HAVE the debut album of Peter Baba. Believe it or not, in his youth Baba fronted an incorrigible reds-popping teenage quartet responsible for ...

Rick Nelson: You're Not A Kid Anymore!

Retrospective and Interview by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, December 1972

ROCK AND ROLL was here to stay. We knew it in 1957, and Danny and the Juniors put it into song in 1958. But what ...

Raspberries: The Raspberries: Fresh (Capitol)

Review by Mark Shipper, Phonograph Record, December 1972

THEY'RE A monument to youthful exuberance, a triumph of pure adolescent joyousness over post-teen disillusionment, and maybe just the last straw it's gonna take to ...

10cc: 10cc

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, 1973

WITH THIS DEBUT ALBUM, 10cc are well on their way to becoming the true studio wizards of the seventies. It's a startling record, bursting with ...

Michel Pagliaro: M’Lady/Pagliaro/Pag/Pagliaro Live

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1973

ABOUT A year ago we reviewed a single called 'Some Sing, Some Dance' by one Pagliaro. Genuine pop-rock being so much scarcer in those days ...

Ringo Starr: Ringo

Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, 1973

IT's DEFINITELY worth having, that's for sure, but the main problem with Ringo is that it's uneven. The Beatles rarely, if ever, made an uneven ...

Raspberries: The Raspberries: Side Three

Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, 1973

MENTION THE RASPBERRIES, and right away you're caught in a crossfire. In one corner are those (a few over-zealous rock critics and enough real kids ...

Peter Hammill: Fool's Mate

Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, February 1973

WITHIN A DOUBLE-FOLD checkerboard of good natured psychedelia that would make sweet 1967 blush at her staying power, Peter Hammill, late of the morbidly super ...

String Driven Thing: String Driven Thing (Buddah)

Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, February 1973

THIS HAS GOT TO be one of the strangest albums I've heard all year. String Driven Thing (some name, huh?) are a Fairport Convention-ish British ...

Mott The Hoople: The Complete History of Mott The Hoople

Profile by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, February 1973

IN THE WAKE of their first hit single, Mott The Hoople have begun to generate a publicity splash of sorts. It hasn't hurt that rock ...

The Troggs: Troggs: Fond Rememberings And Frank Quotes From The World's First Punk Rockers

Retrospective and Interview by Harold Bronson, Phonograph Record, February 1973

WHATEVER HAPPENED to all those exciting, tuneful British rock acts who thrilled us during the mid-Sixties? ...

Wizzard: Mayfair Suite

Review by Mark Leviton, Phonograph Record, February 1973

...AND I WAS STILL raving about it the next week: And they had this piano player (assulter more like it) named Pianos Demolished who pounded ...

Allman Brothers Band, Wet Willie: Allman Brothers, Wet Willie: Cincinnati Gardens, Cincinnati, Ohio

Live Review by Richard Riegel, Phonograph Record, March 1973

DON'T KNOW how it is up in those choice stageside seats you pro critics reputedly get your asses greased with, but auditing a rock concert ...

Deep Purple: Who Do We Think We Are!

Review by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, March 1973

HOT DAMN, it's a new Deep Purple album! ...

Grin: All Out

Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, March 1973

IF YOU'RE A Nils Lofgren fan, the first thing you'll notice here is that the whole setup is wrong. The album flops open from the ...

Grin: All Out

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, March 1973

GRIN HAS DONE it again. Following up 1+1, one of the most exciting album of '72, the new opus from Nils Lofgren & Co., ALL ...

Paul Revere & The Raiders

Retrospective by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, March 1973

IF THERE ARE still any doubts in your mind about the deterioration of AM radio (pop music's most immediate barometer) since, say, 1966, a glance ...

The Rowan Brothers: Rowan Brothers: Somewhat Glam And Slightly Teenage

Interview by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, March 1973

"THE BROTHERLY Loverlies" – kind of catchy, isn't it? That's what one of the teen mags called the Rowan Brothers when it tossed them to ...

The Carpenters: Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, California

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, March 1973

IT'S 1973 ALREADY, and still we're trying to figure out who the Big Star of this young decade will be. Many opt for David Bowie, ...

Amon Düül (I & II), Hawkwind, Pink Floyd: The Future Will Happen This Year: Space Rock

Overview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, March 1973

RIGHT NOW we're gonna go back, way back, back before there was FM radio, quadrasonic sound, mellotrons, or any of the other futuristic trappings that ...

The Hollies: Romany

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, March 1973

THE HOLLIES ARE nothing if not resilient. When Graham Nash (long regarded as the key member of the group) left, Allan Clarke and Tony Hicks ...

The Nazz, Todd Rundgren: The Inauguration of Todd Rundgren

Profile and Interview by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, March 1973

NOO YAWK, NU YORK — Beneath the red fluorescence of Max's Kansas City, where the boys wear lipstick and the girls have nails, Alice Cooper, ...

The Stooges: Raw Power

Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, March 1973

ONE OF MY EARLIEST and most special memories is of sitting in front of a big television on a very early weekend morning watching a ...

Bob Marley & the Wailers: The Wailers: Catch A Fire (Island)

Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, March 1973

THE WAILERS is/are a sort of senior, "safe" reggae group, in the same way that the Roiling Stones are a sort of senior, "safe" perverto-bizarro ...

Wilderness Road: Sold For Prevention Of Disease Only (Warner Bros.)

Review by Harold Bronson, Phonograph Record, March 1973

I USED TO THINK producer Jack Richardson was pretty sharp. After all, wasn't he the one responsible for the clean sound on Guess Who albums? ...

A Brief Survey Of The State Of Metal Music Today

Comment by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, April 1973

WHEN YOU get right down to it, the story of heavy metal rock has been the tale of Led Zeppelin. As indicated by its name, ...

Alice Cooper: The Spectrum, Philadelphia

Live Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, April 1973

DIDN'T IT STRIKE you as strange, even back then before Peter and Gordon or the color series of Beatle cards, that they could call a ...

Blue Oyster Cult: Tyranny and Mutation

Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, April 1973

YOU MIGHT remember my brief mention of Blue Oyster Cult's new album in the heavy metal piece. That was after only one listen, however, and ...

Electric Light Orchestra: Town Hall, Birmingham (England)

Live Review by Mark Leviton, Phonograph Record, April 1973

THE TONE OF the evening was set when I spotted Jeff Lynne's electric guitar in the dressing room, leaning up against a sheaf of music ...

Jimmy Cliff and Various Artists: The Harder They Come

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, April 1973

IT'S REGGAE, MON, sweet as cola wine and m'bopo supremo. No lectures, no history lessons, if ya don't know about that sound from Jamaica by ...

Judy Collins: True Stories And Other Dreams (Elektra)

Review by Mark Shipper, Phonograph Record, April 1973

LIKE AIR pollution or a sore that won't heal, Judy Collins will not go away. She is godlike only in that she's been around forever. ...

Little Feat: Dixie Chicken (Warner Bros.)

Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, April 1973

LOWELL GEORGE is probably the best ear-to-the-earth, eye-on-the-bar-line writer of folk-themed rock and roll this side of Robbie Robertson, and Dixie Chicken by Little Feat ...

Silverhead: Whisky a Go Go, Los Angeles

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, April 1973

IF YOU HAVEN'T seen them, you might feel like cramming Silverhead into the flash-in-the-pan bin. Their albums haven't been monumentally impressive, and their publicity veers ...

Blind Faith, Spencer Davis Group, Steve Winwood, Traffic: Stevie Winwood: Not Just A Singer In A Rock And Roll Band

Retrospective by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, April 1973

I MADE INITIAL contact with Stevie Winwood in March of 1966, a weekend rebel still in the high school clutches of suburban Boston. As was ...

Ian Whitcomb: The Ian Whitcomb Story

Profile by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, April 1973

IAN WHITCOMB WAS certainly one of the more obscure figures of that gloriously mythologized pop explosion known as the British Invasion. ...

Yoko Ono: Approximately Infinite Universe

Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, April 1973

YEAH, WELL, believe it or not: this is a totally rock 'n' roll album. It's also so far and away the best Beatles-related effort to ...

Alice Cooper: Billion Dollar Babies

Review by Robot A. Hull, Phonograph Record, May 1973

"One of these days somebody's gonna have enough guts to take a machine gun and fire into all the sicko creeps we got running loose ...

Genesis at Philharmonic Hall, New York

Live Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, May 1973

IN A MUSICAL WORLD dominated by dueling banjos, pop boys, wimpoid artist and Soul Train, is there a place for a British group that writes ...

Led Zeppelin: Houses Of The Holy

Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, May 1973

MERCY ME, it's time to bring out the Sominex again. If it weren't for Slade and the Stooges, God knows what sort of utter decay ...

Robin Trower: Twice Removed From Yesterday

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, May 1973

ROBIN TROWER left Procol Harum well over a year ago, after their BROKEN BARRICADES LP, and has now surfaced with an album and a group ...

The Beach Boys: A California Saga

Essay by Gene Sculatti, Greg Shaw, Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, May 1973

The Revival of Coastal Consciousness featuring The Beach Boys, Dean Torrance, California, American Spring ...

The Left Banke, Stories: The Left Banke and Stories : The Michael Brown Story

Profile by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, May 1973

THE ALBUM DEBUT of Stories was one of the most exciting musical events of 1972. A number of excellent LP's in a new American lightweight ...

Townes Van Zandt: The Late Great Townes Van Zandt (Poppy)

Review by Jeff Walker, Phonograph Record, May 1973

TOWNES VAN ZANDT is so much more than just another singer/songwriter. He's a storyteller; a mood-maker. ...

Blue Ash: No More, No Less

Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, June 1973

I WISH, I wish, I wish. There's this song, 'I Remember A Time', on Blue Ash's debut album. Not that the whole album isn't magnificent, ...

David Bowie: Aladdin Sane

Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, June 1973

FRESH FROM HIS second campaign in the American rock wars, our once and future pop boy fave David Bowie delivers Aladdin Sane as Phase III ...

David Bowie: Aladdin Sane (RCA)

Review by Kim Fowley, Phonograph Record, June 1973

DAVID BOWIE is not a gay act. David Bowie can't dance. David Bowie has no sense of humor. David Bowie cannot write constantly familiar songs. ...

Grassroots: A Lotta Mileage

Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, June 1973

I REALLY LIKE THE Grassroots. They've had a lengthy string of good singles over the years, the current bogus Grassroots kicking their career off with ...

Jefferson Airplane: 30 Seconds Over Winterland (Grunt)

Review by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, June 1973

WHAT A BUNCHA duds. What a deadass disco. What a waste of space, Mace, grease, you name it. Time was when the Jefferson Airplane were ...

Flo & Eddie, J. Geils Band, T. Rex, Wings: Pipeline

Column by Mark Shipper, Phonograph Record, June 1973

EDITOR'S NOTE: After many months of intensive negotiations with his career advisors and financial counselors, Phonograph Record Magazine is pleased to announce the acquisition of ...

Slade: Santa Monica Civic, Santa Monica CA

Live Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, June 1973

SLADE'S PREMIER headlining appearance, coming on the crest of the most explosive streak of singles since the 1965-7 Who, and the equally earthshaking SLAYED album, was as ...

Sun Ra: Atlantis

Review by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, June 1973

SAN RA SURE is a good old dog to have around. He's been spooning out this same clank for years, and it's every bit as ...

The Eagles: Desperado

Review by David Rensin, Phonograph Record, June 1973

THE BACK COVER photo may depict the Eagles as dead losers, but with DESPERADO it is clear that nothing is further from the truth. ...

The Sonics: Explosives (BuckShot Records)

Review by Mark Shipper, Phonograph Record, June 1973

SUPPOSE I TOLD you there actually existed a band at one time (say around 1965) who sounded like (but better than) the Kinks on 'All ...

Argent, Colin Blunstone, The Zombies: The Zombies

Retrospective by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, June 1973

AS ONE of Britain's most undervalued and undeservedly unsuccessful groups, the Zombies have a lot of historical recompense coming. Furthermore, with two offshoots (Argent and ...

Uriah Heep: Live

Review by Robot A. Hull, Phonograph Record, June 1973

SEE THE FUNNY heavy metal group. For some time now they been on top of things; rock critics drooled in agreement that they'd become regular ...

Albert Hammond: The Free Electric Band

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, July 1973

ALBERT HAMMOND, despite his recent ascension to the pop limelight, is no overnight phenom. ...

Big Star: At Overton Square, Memphis

Live Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, July 1973

THIS REVIEW is primarily about Alex Chilton, formerly of the Box Tops and presently with Big Star. The occasions are few and far between that ...

Charlie Feathers: The Minit-Stop

Report by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, July 1973

SO THERE WE were in Memphis, at the rock writers' convention. First morning there I was awakened by a phone call, "Hey, Charlie Feathers is ...

Johnny Rivers: Blue Suede Shoes

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, July 1973

SIDE ONE OF Johnny Rivers' BLUE SUEDE SHOES album is the best work he's recorded in a long and often illustrious career. ...

Jonathan King...

Profile and Interview by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, July 1973

...with Hedgehoppers Anonymous, Simon Turner, 10cc, Ricky Wilde and the UK Gang ...

George Harrison, Jefferson Airplane, Joan Baez: Pipeline

Column by Mark Shipper, Phonograph Record, July 1973

AS THE DUKE of American Rock Critics, I am afforded privileges and favors undreamed of by others in my profession. ...

The Beatles: 1962-1966, 1967-1970 (Apple)

Review by Richard Riegel, Phonograph Record, July 1973

Author's Note, 2009: This review of "the red and blue albums" generated the first-ever hate mail from a reader in my rock-critical career. He wasn't ...

The Carpenters: Now And Then

Review by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, July 1973

YOU CAN'T DEPEND on anybody these days. Once you make your mind up about some group or other, they change their act or audience response ...

Dr. John: Dr John aka Mac Rebennack

Overview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1 July 1973

THE STORY OF NEW ORLEANS ROCK 'N' ROLL ...

Geordie: Hope You Like It

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, September 1973

DESPITE THEIR apparent failure to storm the States, Slade's influence has been felt here – chiefly at, of all places, MGM Records. ...

Harry Nilsson: A Little Touch Of Schmilsson In The Night

Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, September 1973

HERE IS AN IDEA whose time should never have come. Harry Nilsson's newest album, produced by Derek Taylor and arranged by Gordon Jenkins, is a ...

Jackson Browne: in concert at McCabe's

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, September 1973

AT ONE POINT in his show, Jackson Browne told his audience in the packed but uncramped performance room of McCabe's Guitar Shop that he much ...

John Fogerty

Retrospective by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, September 1973

JOHN FOGERTY is many things, none of them ordinary. Besides his obvious musical ability, he is unique even among musicians. A loner, self-reliant and firmly ...

Manu Dibango: Soul Makossa (Atlantic)

Review by Dan Nooger, Phonograph Record, September 1973

THIS IS the best soul dance record in years. It cuts directly against the grain of most black music today, which strives for that sophisticated, ...

Nazareth: Razamanaz

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, September 1973

WHILE AMERICA continues to wallow in endless overblown funk, monotonous middle-of-the-rodomontade, and the unceasing soporifics of multitudinous mellow fellows and laid-back lasses, they've really been ...

Grateful Dead, Steely Dan: Pipeline

Column by Mark Shipper, Phonograph Record, September 1973

"GREAT ALBUMS are hard to find these days," I once wrote in my definitive book on the subject, Great Albums Are Hard To Find These ...

Roxy Music at the Rainbow Theatre, London

Live Review by Jonh Ingham, Phonograph Record, September 1973

KONO IS A a Japanese journalist, top of his class. One week he's flaming around New York, the next week in London, hip to all ...

Electric Light Orchestra: The Electric Light Orchestra at St Louis

Live Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, September 1973

The mere fact of their actual appearance was probably sufficient for most diehard Move-ELO fans, but the Electric Light Orchestra turned in an adventurous, hard-rocking ...

Sweet: The Sweet: The Sweet

Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, September 1973

IT'S BEEN A LONG time coming, but I think the pop revival is finally upon us. This "pop revival" has been somewhat hyped in the ...

The Turtles, featuring Flo & Eddie

Profile and Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, September 1973

FLO & EDDIE are well-known (if rather rotund) figures; their supporting role in the colossal Alice Cooper psychodrama alone assured them a massive national audience. ...

Alan Price: O Lucky Man! and This Price Is Right

Review by John Morthland, Phonograph Record, October 1973

ABOUT THE ONLY thing these two albums have in common is that they show a remarkable number of influences absorbed by Alan Price. After that, ...

Blue Oyster Cult, New York Dolls, Velvet Underground: Blue Oyster Cult, the New York Dolls: New York's Beasty, Brutal Music Explosion

Overview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, October 1973

The N.Y. Dolls & Blue Oyster Cult Revive Manhattan ...

Brownsville Station: Yeah!

Review by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, October 1973

I DON'T KNOW if there's any correlation between Brownsville Station's oddly misplaced power chords on parts of their new album and the band's misreading of ...

Cat Stevens: Foreigner

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, October 1973

IN ANY NORMAL TIME, Cat Stevens would be nothing more than an occasionally annoying inconsequentiality; but in an appalling era of innumerable idiot-savant singer/songwriters elevated ...

Charlie Rich: A Guide

Guide by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, October 1973

If you think you know what frustration is like, try this on for size: imagine you were a singer who had come up with Sun ...

The Animals, Herman's Hermits: Herman's Hermits: Their Greatest Hits; The Animals: Best Of The Animals

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, October 1973

YOU KNOW WHAT? People got me all wrong. They think I'm a fanatic for reissues, getting up on my soapbox each time a new one ...

Iggy Pop, The Stooges: Iggy and the Stooges: At the Whisky a Go Go, Hollywood

Live Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, October 1973

The Stooges have made the Comeback of the Year, no doubt about it, and their energized stay at the Whisky sealed it. The night before ...

Maria Muldaur: Maria Muldaur

Review by Mark Leviton, Phonograph Record, October 1973

I CONSIDER it unfair, even immoral, for Maria Muldaur to look and sing so well. I mean, a reviewer like myself can get pretty worked ...

New York Dolls: The Legendary Mercer Concerts

Live Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, October 1973

THE HEADLINER was Satan the Eternal-Fire-Eater, and the place was the Mercer Arts Center. The room was the Kitchen —approximately 13' x 60' in size. ...

Leon Russell, New York Dolls: Pipeline

Column by Mark Shipper, Phonograph Record, October 1973

ONE OF ROCK'S great unanswered questions (due to the fact that nobody cares enough to ask it) is this one: exactly what is bugging Leon ...

Stories: The Warehouse, New Orleans

Live Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, October 1973

STORIES MADE their first New Orleans concert appearance recently in the incongruous company of yet another Southern Allmanesque boogie band, the Marshall Tucker aggregation, and ...

New York Dolls: The New York Dolls: An Insider's View

Profile and Interview by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, October 1973

THE NEW YORK DOLLS are going to prove to be the ultimate rock critics' band, because, along with David Bowie, Lou Reed, Alice Cooper, and ...

Raspberries: The Raspberries: Side Three (Capitol)

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, October 1973

THEY SAY the third album is the crucial one for any group, and it’s particularly true for the Raspberries. Their first was good, but not ...

Van Morrison: Hard Nose The Highway

Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, October 1973

THE TEMPTATION is simply to quote huge chunks of lyrics, but allow me instead the indulgence of a passage from Kierkegaard, cited by A. Alvarez ...

Average White Band: Show Your Hand (MCA)

Review by Dan Nooger, Phonograph Record, November 1973

A LOT OF British heavies on the order of Led Zeppelin, Humble Pie, and even Elton John came out of the soul club tradition, learning ...

Blue Oyster Cult at Hollywood Palladium

Live Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, November 1973

FEW GROUPS in recent memory have had as successful a California debut performance as Blue Oyster Cult's here this September. Third-billed to Joe Walsh and ...

Chuck Berry: Bio

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, November 1973

IT'S NO SURPRISE that Chuck Berry has managed to slip gracefully into middle age without changing his music or his image to any great extent. ...

Sonny & Cher: Growing Up With Sonny & Cher

Retrospective by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, November 1973

RECENTLY, THE SONNY & Cher Comedy Hour devoted a special show to what they called "The Sonny & Cher Years". ...

Kevin Ayers: Bananamour

Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, November 1973

KEVIN AYERS has never been known for his musical steadiness. This is Kevin's fourth solo album (second U.S. release), and it continues to present him ...

Lighthouse: Can You Feel It

Review by Ritchie Yorke, Phonograph Record, November 1973

THE CANADIAN group Lighthouse had the potential to become one of the biggest bands in the world. They may well do it yet. ...

Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show, Mott The Hoople, New York Dolls: Mott The Hoople/The New York Dolls/Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show: Live in Masillon, Ohio

Live Review by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, November 1973

I'VE SEEN WORSE towns than Masillon but not many. Gila Bend, Arizona is worse by dint of being the asshole of the world, and I ...

Leon Russell, The Rolling Stones: Pipeline

Column by Mark Shipper, Phonograph Record, November 1973

IT WAS AN unusually hot week in Kingston, Jamaica. Early spring this year. I was having lunch at an outdoor cafe with an up and ...

Sutherland Brothers and Quiver: Sutherland Bros & Quiver: They're Not An American Band

Interview by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, November 1973

THERE ARE numerous British groups who admire US units like the Byrds and the Band, but few, if any, have risen above the level of ...

Tanya Tucker: Delta Dawn, What's Your Mama's Name (Columbia)

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, November 1973

TANYA TUCKER just turned fifteen years old and, as they say, she's taken the country music world by storm. Her first hit, 'Delta Dawn', went ...

Elton John: The Elton John Career

Profile and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, November 1973

AMERICA IS BEGINNING to recover now. The damage has been assessed, the injured have been treated, and the jangled buzzing has started to fade from ...

Raspberries: The Raspberries: At Carnegie Hall, September 26, 1973

Live Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, November 1973

FOR THE RASPBERRIES, this night was something special. They had been waiting almost a decade to play in New York, and this was their debut ...

The Rolling Stones: Goat's Head Soup

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, November 1973

THERE IS NOTHING GOOD about the new Rolling Stones album. No redeeming qualities whatsoever. Not even anything that can be turned around and stretched and ...

Bette Midler, Bob Dylan, Linda Ronstadt, Wings: Pipeline

Column by Mark Shipper, Phonograph Record, December 1973

WELL, 1973 IS gone and a new year is upon us. The only reason I mention that is because some of you are so dunced-out ...

Sylvester and the Hot Band: Bazaar (Blue Thumb)

Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, December 1973

WHEN SYLVESTER'S first album came out, his supporters' only defense was to say, "Well, he's a great live act." Now, in his second one, he's ...

David Johansen, Lou Reed: The Head Doll talks about Lou Reed's Berlin

Interview by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, December 1973

Note: Marty Cerf and I conceived of a series of these for Phonograph Record: I think Iggy may have done Aladdin Sane for PRM. I ...

The Who’s Mod Generation: Quadrophenia Through The Years

Overview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, December 1973

If I could somehow live my teenage years over again, I think I would choose to live them as a Mod. What it must have ...

Buffy Sainte-Marie: Buffy (MCA)

Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, 1974

TINA TURNER apparently has some new competition in the ethnic carnality sweepstakes. In the quickest turn of plume since Sacheen Littlefeather showed up in Playboy, ...

10cc: 10cc

Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, January 1974

I DON'T CARE if your heart rests with country twang, surf harmonies, acid riffs, folk strums, commercial muzak, or Anglophile accents. There's one thing that ...

Alice Cooper: Muscle of Love (Warner Brothers)

Review by Kim Fowley, Phonograph Record, January 1974

ALICE COOPER is an American International movie 10 years later set to music. But where is the director, Bob Ezrin? He directed such wow scenes ...

Badfinger: Ass (Apple) and Badfinger (Warner Bros)

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, January 1974

TWO BADFINGER albums in one month! What more could a fan ask for after a two year drought? If only it were so... actually, the ...

Blue Ash: Can Blue Ash Sing The Whites?

Report by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, January 1974

YOU REMEMBER Blue Ash. They put out an album last year that all the critics loved. It was sort of Beatle-Byrdsish, yet quite original in ...

Hawkwind: Ford Theatre, Detroit

Live Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, January 1974

OF THE MERE six dates Hawkwind had chosen for their American debut tour, it seemed most appropriate to be seeing them in Detroit, the ancestral ...

Ozark Mountain Daredevils: Ozark Mountain Daredevils

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, January 1974

KANSAS CITY HAS never been what you'd call a major center for rock music. It's a fairly large city, with a sizeable and extremely devoted ...

The Beach Boys: At The Anaheim Convention Center, California

Live Review by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, January 1974

WHERE ELSE could the Beach Boys preface a performance of 'Surfer Girl' with, "on our way down here tonight, we passed within two blocks of ...

Del Shannon: The Return of the 'Runaway' Man: Del Shannon

Report by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, January 1974

COMEBACKS ARE becoming as common as oldies these days. When you think about it, rock & roll has been around some twenty years now, with ...

Elliott Murphy: Aquashow (Polydor PD-5061)

Review by Gary Kenton, Phonograph Record, 3 January 1974

DON'T YOU just hate to pick up a music magazine (or megapaper, as the case may be) and see a review in which some snot-nosed ...

Todd Rundgren: Todd: Rundgren Reviews Himself

Interview by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, March 1974

TODD WAS RECORDED mostly during July; actually July and August, 1973, and it was my usual hodgepodge approach to performance in the album. ...

Big Star: Radio City

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, March 1974

I HAVEN'T HEARD many albums in the last two years that I like as much as Big Star's first, Number One Record. Responsible for the ...

Black Sabbath: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (Warner Bros.)

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, March 1974

SABBATH BLOODY Sabbath was an album I was eagerly anticipating. I'd become convinced that Master Of Reality was deserving of the heavy medal for highest ...

Carly Simon: Hotcakes (Elektra)

Review by Kim Fowley, Phonograph Record, March 1974

IT USED TO be said in the late '60s that if you wanted to give your kid sister an LP the choice would be the ...

Suzi Quatro: Suzi Quatro

Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, March 1974

IT'S HAPPENED BEFORE — little known American rockers going over to England to be "discovered", and returning to their homeland as superstars. The most obvious ...

The Amboy Dukes, Ted Nugent: Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes: Call Of The Wild

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, March 1974

LONG BEFORE the Midwest was overrun with groups who survived for years without hit records by playing interminable guitar solos to vacant-eyed kids at an ...

Texas Rock & Roll Spectacular!

Overview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, March 1974

WHILE THE AUSTIN scene is the current focus of national attention on Texas, we mustn't forget how truly vast that state is, both in size ...

The Animals, Eric Burdon: Eric Discovers America

Profile and Interview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1 March 1974

Eric Burdon Returns To The Musical Arena ...

Olivia Newton-John: Let Me Be There

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1 March 1974

THERE ARE A LOT of interesting things about this album. First, it features 'Let Me Be There', one of the most pleasant surprises of early ...

The Guess Who: The Best of The Guess Who, Vol. II

Review by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, 1 March 1974

HE PLAYS PIANO as well as Nicky Hopkins Jerry Lee, When he sang 'Running Bear' he sounded like a cross between the late great Jimboy ...

Aretha Franklin: Apollo Theatre, New York, NY

Live Review by Dan Nooger, Phonograph Record, April 1974

MUSIC HAS taken its place with dope and women as a reason for coming to Harlem. Especially these bleak days, it's an emotionally regenerative experience ...

Blue Oyster Cult: Secret Treaties (Columbia)

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, April 1974

BLUE OYSTER CULT was formed with a very definite idea in mind, and they haven't deviated from or enlarged that idea much in two years. ...

Bobby Womack Looks Back

Memoir by uncredited writer, Phonograph Record, April 1974

Bobby Womack's latest hit is called ‘Lookin' For a Love’. By no coincidence, that was also the title of his first hit single, on Sam ...

Johnny Winter, Roy Buchanan: Johnny Winter: Saints and Sinners/Roy Buchanan: That's What I Am Here For

Review by John Morthland, Phonograph Record, April 1974

IT'S A SAD DAY indeed for guitar freaks when two of the best in the business turn out the spottiest albums of their careers. But ...

Lou Reed: Rock N Roll Animal

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, April 1974

LOU REED'S LAST album, Berlin, vividly demonstrated how his talent can be misrepresented and abused. Berlin failed not because of its theme or its viewpoint, ...

Mick Ronson: Slaughter On 10th Avenue (RCA APL 1-0353)

Review by Gary Kenton, Phonograph Record, April 1974

ANOTHER MAINMAN artiste bites the dust. Not to pass the buck — Ronson has to be entirely responsible for the failure of this album, insofar ...

Allman Brothers Band, KISS: Music on TV

Report by Marty Cerf, Phonograph Record, April 1974

IN CONCERT, Midnight Special and Rock Concert will herald mutations, they'll create new music concepts after they themselves are long retired. Dick Clark foresees pop ...

Elliott Murphy, New York Dolls: New York Dolls/Eliott Murphy: The Academy of Music, New York

Live Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, April 1974

VALENTINE GLITTER: DOLLS & ELLIOTT MURPHY, THE SWEETHEARTS OF NEW YAWK CITY ...

New York Dolls: Too Much, Too Soon

Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, April 1974

"WE DON'T PLAY too good, but we dance as bad as we want," Archie Bell once said by way of introduction to his fabulous Drells ...

Slade: Stomp Your Hands And Clap Your Feet

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, April 1974

I've been behind Slade's records 100% since I first heard them, but with this album the backing percentage has doubled. It's a terrific album, with ...

Terry Melcher: Terry Melcher

Review by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, April 1974

I SUPPOSE YOU could call Terry Melcher's long awaited solo debut an extension of California rock and the "West Coast Sound." After all, he was ...

David Bowie, Marianne Faithfull: The TV Monsters: The Bowie Special

Report by Marty Cerf, Phonograph Record, April 1974

AS THE first network music special produced by the featured rock star, the David Bowie Midnight Special bears closer examination. ...

Van Morrison: It's Too Late to Stop Now (Warner Brothers)

Review by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, April 1974

IT'S TOO Late is the perfect album if you're going to have only one by Van Morrison. Everything you'll need to know about the Belfast ...

Bryan Ferry: These Foolish Things (Atco)

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1 April 1974

FOR WEEKS I'd been hearing how bad this album was from people whose judgment is usually reliable. How pleasant then to discover an album so ...

Grand Funk Railroad: 'I Know You'll Get To Like It If You Give It A Chance Now'

Profile and Interview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1 April 1974

A BRISK, ICY WIND was blowing through the overcast skies of Flint, Michigan as the members of Grand Funk Railroad arrived at Whiting Auditorium for ...

Roxy Music: Stranded (Atlantic)

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, 1 April 1974

THOUGH I LIKED the first two Roxy Music albums reasonably well, Stranded is the first one that's immediately impressed me. ...

Bobby "Blue" Bland

Profile and Interview by Dan Nooger, Phonograph Record, 11 April 1974

BOBBY BLUE Bland is a big, genial man, born 1931 in Rosemark, Tenn., former vocalist of the legendary Memphis "Beale Street Blues Boys," (along with ...

Velvet Underground: 1969 — The Velvet Underground Live

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, May 1974

THE LAST YEAR has seen sufficient scholarly exegeses on the subject of Lou Reed to see us through the decade; and the release of 1969, ...

Bob Seger: Seven

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, May 1974

THIS ALBUM has a subtitle, Contrasts, and it's a good word for Bob Seger. At times one of the most no-nonsense rockers the country has ...

Cat Stevens: Buddha And The Chocolate Box

Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, May 1974

ON THE COVER of Cat Stevens' new album is a Japanese buddha of the Heian Period. On the back is a koan or parable depicted ...

Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids: Flash Cadillac: There's No Face Like Chrome (Epic)

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, May 1974

OF ALL THE GROUPS to come out of the Fifties, Flash Cadillac has always shown the greatest promise, and that promise is fulfilled in this, ...

Joni Mitchell: Ellis Auditorium, Memphis, Tennessee

Live Review by Steven X Rea, Phonograph Record, May 1974

JONI MITCHELL has finally accepted stardom and all the craziness that goes with it. During her Memphis appearance she still revealed her female submissiveness on ...

Los Angeles Clubs

Report by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, May 1974

DESPITE (OR maybe because of) its position as a center of the entertainment industry and one of the Big Gigs on any artist's tour, Los ...

The Rolling Stones: Rolling Stones: "Are They Too Rich To Rock?"

Report by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, May 1974

The Rolling Stones: Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones ...

Ronnie Spector & The Ronettes at the Continental Baths

Live Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, May 1974

EVER SINCE Ronnie Spector and the Ronettes folded up shop in the late sixties, the music world has been awaiting their return. But despite one ...

Sutherland Brothers and Quiver: Sutherland Brothers & Quiver: Dream Kid

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, May 1974

WHEN Quiver and the Sutherland Brothers – two groups then practically unknown in the U.S. – joined forces to last year to accentuate the positive ...

The Move: The Best Of The Move

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, May 1974

IF THER IS one band whose legendary attributes and entangled history need no longer be catalogued, that band is the Move. True, of all the ...

New York Dolls, Television: The New York Club Scene

Report by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, May 1974

THE NEW York club scene had its heyday during the mid-sixties. On Long Island, the Action House ruled over the suburban scene featuring house bands ...

The Zombies: Time Of The Zombies

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, May 1974

THANKS TO THE SUCCESS of Argent, Colin Blunstone, and the 'Monster Mash', the long-neglected Zombies are again coming to light. London's fluke smash with the ...

David Bowie: Diamond Dogs

Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, July 1974

RUFF-RUFF-BOW-BOW: Bowie's bewitched, bothered, bewildered and back to play – 25 eastern cities in an intense five week tour concluding mid-July with his single biggest ...

Ducks Deluxe: Ducks Deluxe

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, July 1974

DUCKS DELUXE is the first of the Americanophilic British bands (including Bees Make Honey, Gypsy, the defunct Help Yourself, and the ever-delightful Brinsley Schwarz) to ...

Miles Davis: Big Fun (Columbia)

Review by Vernon Gibbs, Phonograph Record, July 1974

SO MANY expletives have been deleted in praise of this honorable sage, that I feel it necessary to set the record straight. Miles Davis is ...

Ry Cooder: Paradise And Lunch

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, July 1974

RY COODER has a corner of the rock & roll world all to himself. Like the folk traditionalists, he draws on dead or dying idioms ...

The Outlaws: Outlaws

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, July 1974

GOOD NEW rock & roll bands, without frills, excesses, or hyphenated stylistic cross-pollenizations are getting scarcer all the time. That's why discovering the Outlaws is ...

The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band: The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band

Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, July 1974

"HERE I GO AGAIN," Richie Furay sings the opening words of this album, "it's all right." Certainly, especially when the singer is good ol' Richie ...

10cc: Sheet Music

Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, 1 July 1974

ONE PROBLEM with 10cc's first album was that it hit you hard on first listening, but often failed to hold up to repeated playings. Perhaps ...

Brownsville Station: School Punks

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1 July 1974

THERE'S NEVER been a band that wanted to be teenage as desperately as Brownsville Station. They've tried everything, from '50s rock ('Rockin' Robin', 'Hello Mary ...

ABBA: Waterloo

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, August 1974

Sometimes it takes so long for greatness to be recognized that when it finally happens, most people wonder how such a highly-developed ability sprang into ...

American Tears: Branded Bad

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, August 1974

There's something intriguing about a new group that manages to make a powerful impression without falling into any easily defined category. That's how I feel ...

Betty Davis: The Bottom Line, New York, NY

Live Review by Vernon Gibbs, Phonograph Record, August 1974

THE FEEBLE-minded walk out in disgust when Betty Davis wiggles her tush at them, the weakhearted go limp with despair while the lusty ready their ...

Brian Eno, Bryan Ferry: Bryan Ferry: Another Time, Another Place; Eno: Here Come The Warm Jets

Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, August 1974

AS EXPECTED, Eno's first solo album is a sonically innovative and adventurous thing, boldly experimental in its employment of phasing, drones, repetition, shifting of layers, ...

Elton John: Caribou

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, August 1974

For an artist with distinct limitations – vocal, compositional, and stylistic – Elton John makes awfully good records. One of the reasons is his avowed ...

Flo & Eddie's Media Mania

Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, August 1974

WHEN WE LAST left our heroes Flo and Eddie (PRM September '73), they were poised on the brink of substantial obscurity. ...

Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine: Freddie Hubbard and Stanley Turrentine: In Concert (CTI 6044)

Review by Vernon Gibbs, Phonograph Record, August 1974

THERE IS something I don't like about Side One of this album and it's hard to say what it is. One thing I do know ...

Golden Earring: Cowtown Ballroom, Kansas City, Mo.

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, August 1974

IF THE BODY of their set hadn't already convinced you that Golden Earring was just fine and at least lots of fun, the encore left ...

Jackie DeShannon: Your Baby Is A Lady (Atlantic SD 7303)

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, August 1974

JACKIE DeSHANNON is one of the greats. Writing memorable hits for Brenda Lee and the Fleetwoods ('Dum Dum', 'Heart in Hand', 'The Great Impostor'), then ...

Jimmy Cliff: Struggling Man (Island)/ Music Maker (Reprise)

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, August 1974

LAST YEAR, 'the word' was that reggae was all set to become the next big thing. Once radio program directors and listeners heard that irresistibly ...

Joe Cocker: Roxy Theatre, L.A.

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, August 1974

IT MUST BE TOUGH to always be coming back instead of going ahead. Joe Cocker is always coming back, like flowers you'd forgotten had been ...

Matthew Fisher: I'll Be There

Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, August 1974

ON I'LL BE THERE, Matthew Fisher proves not only to be a gifted songwriter and vocalist, but a dazzling producer as well. ...

Sly & the Family Stone: Sly Stone: Small Talk (Epic)

Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, August 1974

THIS RECORD IS more to be appreciated in the mind than enjoyed by the ears – at least when this particular mind and set of ...

Sparks, Sweet: Sparks vs. Sweet: The Battle for Britain

Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, August 1974

The Sweet: Sweet Fanny AdamsSparks: Kimono My House ...

Suzi Quatro In America

Interview by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, August 1974

SUZI QUATRO was thrown out of kindergarten, she never had a birthday party, and she used to steal money from a coin box in the ...

Suzi Quatro in England

Profile by Simon Frith, Phonograph Record, August 1974

"Just ’cause I’ve got a couple of buns in front don’t mean I can’t play rock’n’roll." ...

Suzi Quatro, Queen of Pop

Profile by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, August 1974

I was sitting in my den, as I often do, playing records and making notes for an article, when something clicked unexpectedly in my mind. ...

Jan & Dean

Report by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, September 1974

"You know they're either out surfin' or they've got a party goin'..." ...

Jobriath: The Troubadour, Los Angeles

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, September 1974

JERRY BRANDT isn't noted for doing things in a small way, but Jobriath, his latest project, might prove to be merely mildly successful. ...

Lou Reed: Sally Can't Dance

Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, September 1974

LINES. A LINE here, a line there. Sometimes it seems that the best songwriters are the ones who are sure to pop up with a ...

Kool and the Gang, Nancy Wilson: Nancy Wilson, Kool and The Gang: The Apollo Theater, New York NY

Live Review by Vernon Gibbs, Phonograph Record, September 1974

"SING BLACK!," one dissenter shouted at Nancy Wilson who was the headliner at an Apollo show which included the comedy of Dick Gregory and was ...

Raspberries: Starting Over

Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, September 1974

IT'S A TEEN-CLUB midsummer Saturday night at Papa Joe'sParlour-pizza, pinball, pretzels, and pop-available without I.D. Raspberries, with no fewer than three Top Forty hits in ...

Suzi Quatro: Quatro

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, September 1974

ALTHOUGH SUZI QUATRO exploded in Britain and to an extent in the States with all the sociomusical force of a full-fledged phenomenon, album No. 2 ...

Terry Melcher: A Beach Veteran Looks Back

Interview by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, September 1974

ONE OF THE most influential and talented Californians to prosper during the '60s sun-speed-surf period in pop was Terry Melcher. As producer and (teamed with ...

The First Class, Paper Lace, The Wombles: The First Class: The First Class (UK); Paper Lace: Paper Lace (Mercury); The Wombles: Remember You're a Womble (Columbia)

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, September 1974

BRITAIN'S FACELESS HEROES UNMASKED ...

The Beach Boys: Endless Summer (Capitol)

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1 September 1974

NO SUMMER WOULD BE complete without a Beach Boys reissue. These last couple of years, with Warner Bros. working on the post-Pet Sounds material and ...

Paul Anka: The Rebirth Of Paul Anka

Profile and Interview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1 September 1974

'People need songs about real, human things...' ...

Badfinger: Wish You Were Here

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, November 1974

BADFINGER HAVE finally made the album I always hoped they would – an album whose tracks all match the standards of their brilliant Apple singles. ...

Big Star: 'September Gurls' (Privilege 1002)

Review by Marty Cerf, Phonograph Record, November 1974

Alex Chilton & Big Star: Innocent, But Deadly ...

Brian Eno, Roxy Music: Eno Music: The Roxy Rebellion

Profile and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, November 1974

"The reason I was attracted to the band in the first place was the contradiction of having someone like Eno and someone like Bryan in ...

The Heavy Metal Kids: Heavy Metal Kids: Heavy Metal Kids

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, November 1974

CONCEPT GROUPS hardly ever come off. Unless they have exceptional inspiration and musical ability, like the Raspberries, they find themselves weighed under by the pretension ...

Herbie Hancock Sells In

Profile by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, November 1974

ALL OF A sudden you wake up one morning and find that Herbie Hancock has three albums on the charts. Herbie Hancock, one-time enfant terrible ...

The Hudson Brothers: Hudson Brothers: Hollywood Situation (Casablanca)

Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, November 1974

I'VE ALWAYS BEEN a sucker for groups with brothers in them. I don't know why but all those brother groups seem to have a certain ...

Randy Newman: Good Old Boys

Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, November 1974

RANDY NEWMAN'S new record is all about the South, a concept album of sorts which stops short of operatic unity but which does exist in ...

Linda Ronstadt: The Linda Ronstadt Coverup!

Interview by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, November 1974

IN 1970 DAN Wakefield, who had just published his first novel, Going All the Way (a heartbreakingly hilarious chronicle of America's dismal sex life in ...

Them, The Who: The Who: Odds & Sods/Them: Backtrackin'

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, November 1974

1974 HAS CERTAINLY been a good year for reissues, even if UA's Jan & Dean set didn't quite make it to the starting gate. Four ...

Utopia: Todd Rundgren’s Utopia

Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, November 1974

1974 WAS A year that saw many artists grow up to the reality of a soft music market and a seemingly softer teenage head. While ...

Roy Wood, Wizzard: Wizzard: Eddie & the Falcons

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, November 1974

FOR A MUSICIAN of his acknowledged brilliance, Roy Wood has shown an inordinate interest in paying tribute to the past works of others. ...

Jackson Browne: Late for the Sky (Asylum)

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, December 1974

"IT’S ONLY a pop record – I know that," someone said to me about Late for the Sky. "So why does it affect me strongly?" ...

Kiki Dee: I've Got the Music in Me

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, December 1974

In producer Gus Dudgeon and tourmate Elton John, Kiki Dee has the backing of the most successful team in Seventies pop music. If Elton and ...

Neil Sedaka: The Tra-La Days Are Back

Profile by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, December 1974

I DON'T NEED to refer to any books or charts to tell you that Neil Sedaka's ‘Breaking Up is Hard to Do’ was one of ...

Splinter: The Place I Love

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, December 1974

MY FAVORITE ALBUMS are the ones that have eight or more tracks, each sounding as though it was intended to be a single, if only ...

Stackridge: Pinafore Days (Sire)

Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, December 1974

AS A DURABLE metaphor for teen enthusiasm and articulate emotion, the Beatles' musical vocabulary has proven itself time and time again, even as the Beatles ...

The Dudes: The Moustache, Montreal

Live Review by Gary Sperrazza!, Phonograph Record, December 1974

WHILE THE FREE world lies in wait for the "next big thing," Montreal is living and growing to the status of musical hot-bed of the ...

The Hudson Brothers: Totally Out of Control (Rocket)

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, December 1974

NOW THAT ‘So You Are a Star’ is making stars out of the Hudson Brothers, their earlier recordings are coming out of the woodwork like ...

The Isley Brothers: Felt Forum, New York, NY

Live Review by Vernon Gibbs, Phonograph Record, December 1974

THE ISLEY Brothers have demonstrated a level of tenacity that can only be considered remarkable in a business marked by overnight successes and instant failures. ...

The Rolling Stones: It’s Only Rock ’N Roll

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, December 1974

"The Best Party Album In Years" ...

Michael Des Barres, New York Dolls, The Stooges: The Stooges, Dolls et al: First Annual Hollywood Street Revival & Trash Dance, Hollywood Palladium

Live Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, December 1974

THAT'S WHAT THEY called it, and if one were to believe the advance publicity, which spread by word of mouth through the Hollywood environs like ...

Various Artists: Mersey Beat ’62-‘64

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, December 1974

IN THE LITANY of wondrous 1974 reissues which led off my review of Odds & Sods/Backtrackin' last issue, I neglected to shower proper praises on ...

Sparks: Propaganda

Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, 1 December 1974

SPARKS IS ONE of those aggregations that people seem either to be attracted to or repulsed by. For the first few months of their 'comeback', ...

Billy Paul: Got My Head On Straight (Philadelphia International KZ 33157)

Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, 1975

TYPICALLY SMOOTH and lavish Gamble-Huff production highlights this very commercial collection by the 'Me and Mrs. Jones' man. ...

Frankie Miller Band: The Rock

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, 1975

AFTER AN EXCELLENT debut album (still unreleased in the U.S.) with backing by the underrated Brinsley Schwarz group, Scotish rock & roll singer Frankie Miller ...

The Hudson Brothers: A Real Life Drama Starring The Hudson Brothers

Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, January 1975

KEEP YOUR EYE on the Hudson Brothers. They're probably the most exciting new act of the year. Out of thin air, they've presented us with ...

The Sensational Alex Harvey Band: Alex Harvey: It Pays To Hang Tough

Interview by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, January 1975

"MAYBE I'M GETTING old," says Alex Harvey, sounding a bit puzzled. "It may be that simple." It's a bit of a laugh, after listening to ...

Grand Funk Railroad: All The Girls In The World Beware!!

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, January 1975

MEET THE 1975 Grand Funk. If you liked the 1974 model, you're gonna love this one. The all-new features include an elaborate new cover motif ...

Hot Chocolate: Cicero Park (Big Tree)

Review by Harold Bronson, Phonograph Record, January 1975

AS EVERYONE KNOWS, soul music is in now more than ever, but in the frenzy of cheerful accolades and mountainous monies embracing Barry White and ...

Joni Mitchell: Miles Of Aisles

Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, January 1975

THE TWO MOST annoying things (to me) about Joni Mitchell in the early years of her career were her songs, which often seemed impersonal, shallow ...

Mott the Hoople: Mott The Hoople Live (Columbia)

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, January 1975

IF YOU HAVEN'T heard already, this album's a scorcher. Offhand I can't think of a live album that tops Mott's 50-minute opus here, but I'm ...

The Pretty Things: Pretty Things: Silk Torpedo

Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, January 1975

THE PRETTY THINGS are back, and this time, with a new label and expected tour, can realistically be expected to enter the American top-40 album ...

Roxy Music: Country Life (Atlantic)

Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, January 1975

YULETIDE LAST, energy starved Britons accustomed to tacky displays of teen ostentation were wished a "Ferry Merry Christmas," as Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music's ubermensch, unveiled ...

Bonnie Bramlett: It's Time

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, February 1975

DELANEY & BONNIE made a bunch of fine records in rapid succession around the turn of the decade – if anything, the music on such ...

Cockney Rebel: The Psychomodo

Review by Ira Robbins, Phonograph Record, February 1975

COCKNEY REBEL is a figment of Steve Harley's semi-sane mind. ...

Genesis: The Future of Rock Theatre

Report and Interview by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, February 1975

THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY is a short story that comprises no fewer than 48 different plot movements, and a stage show with 3000 ...

Gladys Knight: In The Beginning

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, February 1975

GLADYS KNIGHT'S rather sudden acceptance as America's reigning songstress not only caught many by surprise, it also created for her an audience that in all ...

Hello People: The Handsome Devils

Review by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, February 1975

I'M FAR FROM entirely convinced that I would trade everything I own to be in Hello People's shoes, or greasepaint, for it seems the sorry ...

Iron Butterfly: Scorching Beauty

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, February 1975

IT'S A WELL known axiom that one hit record is good for ten years of work. Just ask Fabian. ...

Kiss: Hotter Than Hell

Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, February 1975

OUT OF THE ASHES of the New York rock scene came Kiss. They have clearly been elevated (symbolically echoing the ascent their drummer makes during ...

Nektar: Down To Earth

Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, February 1975

NEKTAR'S SMOOTH move from cosmic progressivism (though it was more genuinely rocky than that of past practitioners of the style) to a more straightforward rock ...

Nils Lofgren: Nils Lofgren (A&M)

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, February 1975

WELL, THIS IS more like it. Nils Lofgren, in his first solo attempt, has come up with a smashing album that restores him to the ...

Sutherland Brothers and Quiver: Sutherland Bros: Beat Of The Street

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, February 1975

THEY OPEN WITH a knockout and close like gangbusters. ‘World in Action’ is an energy-overload rocker with a great bridge over doubled wattage, an electrifying ...

Sweet: Desolation Boulevard

Review by Gary Sperrazza!, Phonograph Record, February 1975

FOR A BAND prophesied to be one of the major forces in pop in the Seventies, the Sweet still remain the most misunderstood band of ...

The Hollies: Another Night

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, February 1975

ALTHOUGH THEY survived the Sixties pretty much intact and with a substantial stack of notable hit records as their trophies, the Hollies never became the ...

April Wine: Stand Back

Review by Gary Sperrazza!, Phonograph Record, March 1975

LITTLE DID THE Henman brothers and Myles Goodwyn realize at the time that their Halifax-born band would fall prey to the ins-and-outs of record distribution ...

Bonnie Bramlett: The Bottom Line, NYC

Live Review by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, March 1975

THE PRESSURE is on Bonnie Bramlett now, in a way that it's never been before. As part of a group that served as a way-station ...

Dave Edmunds: The Classic Tracks 1968-72

Review by Gary Sperrazza!, Phonograph Record, March 1975

AH, DAVE EDMUNDS! The Welsh producer-songwriter-rock 'n' roller and guitarist extraordinaire. ...

David Gates: Never Let Her Go

Review by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, March 1975

IF THERE'S A SINGLE behavioral pattern which has emerged over the last four years of pop music, it's the reinstatement of the song, not the ...

Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes featuring Theodore Pendergrass: To Be True (Philadelphia International KZ 33148)

Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, March 1975

THIS EXCITING album by a veteran group (so experienced in working together they seem to anticipate each other's moves) is characterized by masterful use of ...

Joe Walsh: So What

Review by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, March 1975

WHAT A DISTRESSINGLY large percentage of the perfect strangers with whom I happen to chat while waiting in line for ball games, premieres of motion ...

John Denver: An Evening With John Denver (RCA)

Review by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, March 1975

WITH THIS, the live album for which millions of Denver fans have been clamoring for a veritable eternity, John's election to the Playboy Jazz & ...

John Entwistle: John Entwhistle: Mad Dog

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, March 1975

Mad Dog is everything you'd expect from a John Entwhistle album – and more. It catches Entwhistle in rabid transit, combining his obsession with 50's/early ...

John Lennon: Rock 'N' Roll (Apple)

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, March 1975

IN OCTOBER 1973 John Lennon was reported cutting an album of oldies with Phil Spector. After only four sides had been cut, Spector was seriously ...

Phil Everly: Phil's Diner

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, March 1975

THE PAST THREE years have seen comebacks by Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Rick Nelson, Neil Sedaka, Paul Anka and more. ...

Queen: Sheer Heart Attack

Review by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, March 1975

HAVING BEEN duly, uh, blown away by the opening tracks on their previous two albums, I prepared to savor the first cut on Queen's Sheer ...

Richard and Linda Thompson: Richard & Linda Thompson: Hokey Pokey (Island ILPS 9305); I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight (Island ILPS 9266)

Review by Sam Sutherland, Phonograph Record, March 1975

SINCE DEPARTING Fairport Convention, Richard Thompson has risked increasing obscurity to pursue a personal style in direct variance with his most obvious commercial skills. Sinewy, ...

Rodney Bingenheimer: The Patron Saint of Teenage

Profile and Interview by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, March 1975

FORGET THE hillside enclaves of those who either can not yet or no longer afford Beverly Hills, and what's left of the San Fernando Valley ...

Rush: Fly By Night

Review by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, March 1975

A WRITER SHOULD never admit as much, but I'm still not entirely confident that mere words can communicate the full extent to which I abhor ...

Starry-Eyed and Laughing: Starry-Eyed and Laughing

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, March 1975

THIS ALBUM was preceded by a year-long barrage of hype, emanating from England, revolving around the band's stylistic similarities to the early Byrds. ...

Steve Wright: Hard Road

Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, March 1975

SOME OF MY friends keep telling me that it's never coming back, but I'm an incurable optimist and despite the dismal last few years of ...

Thin Lizzy: Nightlife (Vertigo)

Review by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, March 1975

WHEN, IN AN ill-disguised attempt to salvage what little was left of both his physical and psychic well-being after decades of arduous touring, lead guitarist ...

Led Zeppelin: Zeppelin '75

Overview by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, March 1975

PICTURE YOURSELF in a seat in a stadium, with ten thousand teens going mad on all sides. Something's announced and you look up quite swiftly: ...

The Who: Tommy on the Silver Screen

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, April 1975

Pre-release skepticism was clearly in order. The handing over of Townshend’s likeable but jumbled spiritual parable to filmdom’s master of the Technicolor sick joke seemed ...

Ace: Five-A-Side

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, April 1975

WHILE IT'S TEMPTING at first listening to lump Ace's first album with the Average White Band's AWB and then to make broad statements about the ...

Blue Oyster Cult: On Your Feet Or On Your Knees

Review by Steven Rosen, Phonograph Record, April 1975

THOUGH THIS record does not rank with the Beach Boys In Concert for sheer recording quality or the Who's Live at Leeds for spontaneous instrumentation, ...

Chilli Willi & The Red Hot Peppers, Dr. Feelgood, Kokomo: Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers, Dr. Feelgood, Kokomo: Rainbow Theatre, London

Live Review by Jonh Ingham, Phonograph Record, April 1975

THE SECOND wave of '70s bands to emerge from England is an entirely opposite affair from the glitter/glam of the Mark I model. It's centred ...

David Bowie: Young Americans (RCA)

Review by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, April 1975

IN VIEW OF the fact that, in his first major American interview, Bowie assured us, "If I'm mediocre I'll get out of the business: there's ...

Del Shannon: Rock's Runaway Returns

Profile and Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, April 1975

THEY'RE ALL COMING back. Sedaka, Anka and Vinton hit the top of the charts again, but you all know that story backwards and forwards. Almost ...

Brian Eno: Eno: Another Green World

Review by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, April 1975

UP UNTIL THE moment the temporary editor of this august journal telephoned to apprise me that he'd just been in a terrible automobile accident in ...

Fumble: Poetry In Lotion

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, April 1975

FUMBLE'S FIRST album presented them as a typically stylized (if above average) Fifties revival group on the order of Flash Cadillac – and with a ...

New York Dolls: Little Hippodrome, NYC

Live Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, April 1975

AFTER EXAGGERATED reports heralding their impending demise, the New York Dolls returned in early March to the Hippodrome in mid-Manhattan. They were supposedly to sport ...

Roxy Music: Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Ca.

Live Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, April 1975

ROXY MUSIC'S sellout Santa Monica appearance was a carefully executed triumph. They seemed minded to consolidate their newly-won American audience, and played it conservative all ...

Steely Dan: Katy Lied (ABC ABCD-846)

Review by Sam Sutherland, Phonograph Record, April 1975

STEELY DAN is a feisty little outfit. Their songs insinuate themselves onto Top 40 playlists, to blare from car radios and transmute vinylite into gold, ...

Suzi Quatro: Your Mama Won't Like Me

Review by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, April 1975

THERE'S NOTHING like a new Suzi Quatro album to knock one's hormonal balance all out of whack. Were there but the most nebulous suggestion of ...

The Dictators: Go Girl Crazy

Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, April 1975

LIVING IN NEW YORK has never been easy for the older generation, but it's even tougher for their offspring. ...

Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Golliwogs: The Golliwogs: Pre-Creedence

Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, April 1975

BLUESY ROCKIN' quartet from El Cerrito makes debut with this derivative but infectious disc of baker's-dozen-plus-one tunes. Opener, ‘Don't Tell Me No Lies’, will appeal ...

Ben E. King: That Voice

Profile and Interview by Gene Sculatti, Phonograph Record, May 1975

EXTRAORDINARY OR just plain down to earth great, there's something about the name Ben E. King and his powerful voice that conjures up one hell ...

Carly Simon: Attitude Dancing

Interview by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, May 1975

THE HOUSE WAS set back behind a stone wall, at the end of a cul-de-sac off Coldwater Canyon between Beverly Hills and the San Fernando ...

Cecil Taylor: Five Spot, New York, NY

Live Review by Lita Eliscu, Phonograph Record, May 1975

QUINTESSENTIAL JAZZ club, even has patina of history: the perfect place for Cecil Taylor to express his music after a long hiatus. The small stage ...

Cher: Stars

Review by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, May 1975

ALLOW ME TO ventilate my prejudices up-front, just so you'll be hip as to where I'm coming from. I appreciate that being invited out for ...

Chicago: Chicago VIII

Review by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, May 1975

IF YOU'RE A regular reader of the Phonograph Record review section (and in this day and age who isn't?), you're probably beside yourself trying to ...

Dwight Twilley Band: 'I'm On Fire' (Shelter SR 40380)

Review by Marty Cerf, Phonograph Record, May 1975

FOR THE moment there are but two titles that have any meaning for me. One is 'Tell Her No' by Del Shannon. The other is ...

Eric Clapton: There's One In Every Crowd

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, May 1975

IT NEVER CEASES to amaze me – the sycophantic lengths so many "critics" go to in hyping the fashionable superstars' records. ...

Flo & Eddie: The Roxy, Los Angeles

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, May 1975

PERHAPS THE MOST absolutely heart-rending of the many touching moments provided by Flo & Eddie during their show at the Roxy came early in the ...

Ian Hunter: Ian Hunter

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, May 1975

When it comes to making solo albums, it seems that some folks have it and others don't know the difference. ...

Jefferson Starship: Marty Balin Returns To The Fold

Interview by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, May 1975

THE EXCITEMENT around the Airplane Mansion is real. It's in the very woodwork of this huge home in a once-fashionable section of San Francisco, where ...

John Prine: Common Sense

Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, May 1975

FLESHED OUT WITH such guest performers as Jackson Browne, J.D. Souther, Glenn Frey and Steve Goodman, Common Sense comes on like Prine's ultimate supersession production; ...

Gary Burton, Keith Jarrett: Keith Jarrett, Gary Burton: Royce Hall, UCLA, Los Angeles, California

Live Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, May 1975

ONE OF A series of recent jazz concerts at UCLA was to have featured Keith Jarrett on solo piano followed by the Gato Barbieri group. ...

Maggie Bell: Suicide Sal

Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, May 1975

WHILE NOT A debut album, Suicide Sal is the LP that signals Maggie Bell's arrival as the fine, powerful singer we had been touted to ...

Rick Wakeman: The Myths And Legends Of King Arthur And The Knights Of The Round Table

Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, May 1975

I ONCE VAGUELY planned a toney essay, to be modeled on Susan Sontag's ground-breaker, on the grotesque changes rung on the concept of Camp once ...

The Beach Boys: Spirit Of America

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, May 1975

ANOTHER SUMMER, another Beach Boys anthology. It never ends, does it? All you kids who bought Endless Summer last year can now buy Spirit of ...

The Winkies: The Winkies

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, May 1975

THIS MONTH'S import special features a group with a dumb name that sounds like a cross between a marine crustacean and a Hostess snack cake ...

Average White Band: Winterland, San Francisco

Live Review by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, June 1975

THERE ARE THOSE who have had Average White Band pegged from the start as the best blue-eyed soul band since the Young Rascals, and these ...

Bad Company: Straight Shooter (Swan Song)

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, June 1975

Bad Company came in with a literal bang: Simon Kirke’s drum-shot opening to ‘Can’t Get Enough’ (the first track on the first album, and subsequently ...

Elton John: Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, June 1975

THE TIME HAS come to acknowledge just how big Elton John has become. His preeminence has come to pass so gradually that the present magnitude ...

Hunter-Ronson, Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson: Hunter-Ronson: The Ashes Of Mott Comes The Phoenix Rise

Report and Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, June 1975

"SINCE YOU'VE BEEN such a quiet, well-behaved audience tonight, we'd like to send you off a nice, soothing lullaby..." ...

Jefferson Starship: Central Park, NYC

Live Review by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, June 1975

THEY MAY HAVE changed their surname, but Jefferson Starship have arrived at a conciliatory relationship with their past, and with mixed results. With Marty Balin ...

Koko Taylor: I Got What It Takes

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, June 1975

ANYONE WHO maintains that blues is a dead or dying form must not be aware of Alligator Records. This tiny, dedicated company has been operating ...

Neil Young: Tonight's The Night

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, June 1975

...At the canyon bottom, four cruisers were spinning blue light; there was an ambulance and four civilian cars, all balanced on the sloping shoulder of ...

The Rolling Stones, Ronnie Wood: Ron Wood Joins the Rolling Stones

Report by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, June 1975

WITH THE SUDDEN decisiveness of an eagle that spots its unsuspecting prey from hundreds of feet away, the Rolling Stones are touring North and South ...

The Eagles: One Of These Nights (Asylum)

Review and Interview by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, June 1975

The Eagles’ new fourth album is at once the most musically adventurous and the most consistent work yet from this latter-day classic LA band. ...

The Eagles: California Dreamin’

Interview by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, June 1975

"I WANT TO SLEEP with you in some chocolate tonight," Glenn Frey sings in impromptu addition to the lyric of ‘Peaceful Easy Feelin’, and the ...

Wings: Venus & Mars

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, June 1975

FOR ALL THAT we thought we knew the Beatles, I don't think there's one of us that hasn't been surprised at the course their individual ...

Alice Cooper: The Forum, Los Angeles

Live Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, July 1975

WHEN ALICE CAME back to the Forum, it was an owning-up of sorts. This time there were no pretenses of Rock Band Identity (the backing ...

Barry Mann: Rock & Roll Survivor

Profile and Interview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, July 1975

Who put the bomp in the bomp-a-bomp-a-bomp?Who put the ram in the rama-lama-ding-dong?Who put the bop in the bop-shoobop-shoobop?Who put the dit in the dit-didit-didit?Who ...

The Bee Gees: Bee Gees: Main Course

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, July 1975

FOR THE BEE GEES, "change is now," as the Byrds expressed it on the backside of their 1967 mid-charter 'Goin' Back' (Columbia 44362). ...

Bob Marley & the Wailers: Bob Marley: Wollman Skating Rink, New York NY

Live Review by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, July 1975

IT WAS THE first one of those muggy nights this season, when the air is so close it cuts down your breathing, that Bob Marley ...

Dave Edmunds: Subtle As A Flying Mallet

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, July 1975

THIS ALBUM is a less unified work by this individualistic Welsh musician-producer than a gathering of tracks in varying modes that Edmunds has recorded since ...

Jan & Dean: Dean Torrence

Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, July 1975

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? Third year in a row Phonograph's run a surf revival story, as if it were a current event. Looks pretty suspicious ...

Emmylou Harris, Maria Muldaur: Maria Muldaur & Emmylou Harris Live

Live Review by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, July 1975

Maria Muldaur: Carnegie Hall, New York Emmylou Harris: Schaefer Music Festival, Central park, New York ...

Robert Palmer: Sneakin' Sally Through The Alley (Island ILPS 9294)

Review by Sam Sutherland, Phonograph Record, July 1975

ENGLISH REVERENCE for rhythm & blues hasn't stopped with urban and country models of past decades, and as increasing numbers of Britons emulate contemporary R&B ...

Ronnie Wood: Now Look (Warner Bros.)

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, July 1975

Hey, this is good. Not good-despite-sloppiness like Wood’s earlier solo album, but unreservedly good. ...

The Beach Boys

Comment by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, July 1975

"THIS IS A SERIOUS surfing song," Mike Love announces from the stage of Madison Square Garden and the Beach Boys launch into a lively rendition ...

The Carpenters: Horizon

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, July 1975

IT'S CERTAINLY LESS than revolutionary to admit you like the Carpenters these days (in ‘rock’ circles, if you recall, it formerly bordered on heresy). Everybody ...

The Rolling Stones: Metamorphosis

Review by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, July 1975

THE FASCINATION of Metamorphosis, basically a collection of outtakes, oddities and alternate versions, lies in what it adds to our experience and knowledge of the ...

Todd Rundgren: Initiation

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, July 1975

INITIATION IS A RECORD in two senses of the word. That is to say, it's a world record, as Todd Rundgren has been at pains ...

The Tubes: Tubes: The Roxy, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, July 1975

A WARNING TO PARENTS: HERE COME THE VILE, THE HORRIFYING, THE AMAZING, THE FABULOUS TUBES ...

The Bay City Rollers: Bay City Rollers: Once Upon A Star

Review by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, September 1975

THE BAY CITY Rollers campaign is underway, and its components are familiar: screaming female fans in Great Britain, Sid Bernstein masterminding tour plans, back-to-back appearances ...

The Band, Bob Dylan: Bob Dylan & The Band: The Basement Tapes

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, September 1975

WHAT WE HAVE here is the most enjoyable Dylan album yet released. ...

Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids: Flash Cadillac: Sons Of The Beaches

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, September 1975

THEY'VE DONE IT again, and it's starting to get annoying. OK, Flash Cadillac & the Continental Kids are great – leagues ahead of any other ...

Fleetwood Mac: Fleetwood Mac (Reprise)

Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, September 1975

If you’re one of those people like me who lost track of Fleetwood Mac in the post-Peter Green haze of erratic albums and perpetual personnel ...

Flo & Eddie: Illegal, Immoral & Fattening

Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, September 1975

IN THE SPIRIT of fair play which should be utmost in our minds this Bicentennial year, PRM sent invitations to a wide spectrum of rock ...

Grateful Dead: Blues For Allah (United Artists / Grateful Dead Records)

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, September 1975

The first Dead album to be distributed by United Artists contains everything we’ve come to expect from the latter-day group and its offshoots: tuneless songs, ...

John Cale: Slow Dazzle (Island ILPS 9317)

Review by Sam Sutherland, Phonograph Record, September 1975

EACH NEW instalment in John Cale's quixotic solo career has invited the sort of critical involvement and public indifference that have earmarked him as a ...

Dwight Twilley: The Dwight Twilley Band

Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, September 1975

ONCE IN A WHILE a single hits the radio and hooks you immediately. They come out of nowhere, seemingly – happens to me every so ...

Allman Brothers Band: Win, Lose or Draw

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, October 1975

The Allman Brothers haven't been behaving at all like one of the two or three biggest draws in rock & roll. From the lack of ...

Bob Marley & the Wailers: Bob Marley et al: Jamaica

Overview by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, October 1975

FIRST DAY, RAIN. Thick clouds and then more rain. It is, I'm told, the wetter of Jamaica's two wet seasons. ...

Jackie DeShannon: Creemcheese

Interview by Marty Cerf, Phonograph Record, October 1975

"IT SEEMS that I've always been ahead of my time — or 'about to happen' ever since I started in the early '60s," says Jackie ...

KC & the Sunshine Band: KC and Sunshine Band

Interview by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, October 1975

"I'd just put out the George McCrae album, and I kept hearing one of my tunes come busting through the wall up there." H.W. Casey ...

Kokomo: Wollman Rink, New York NY

Live Review by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, October 1975

IF THERE'S ONE thing we don't need it's a group composed of exiles from second-line British boogie bands that has a tendency toward disco-oriented soul. ...

Linda Ronstadt: Prisoner In Disguise

Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, October 1975

AN UNHEALTHY PORTION of the attention devoted to Linda Ronstadt over the years has dealt with her supposed physical attributes at the expense of her ...

Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here (Columbia)

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, October 1975

Although Pink Floyd has always represented itself – through album graphics, song and album titles, and stage presentation – as working in the outer limits ...

Stanley Clarke: Return to Love (Nemperor Records)

Review by Lita Eliscu, Phonograph Record, October 1975

BASS PLAYERS are not really famous for standing out in the world of rock. McCartney, of course...Jack Bruce...Bill Wyman sometimes. In Jazz, however, where the ...

Sweet: Glitter Relics In America

Overview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, October 1975

"THAT WAS 'Ballroom Blitz' by the Sweet! Hard to believe that's the same group that did 'Little Willy' a couple years ago!" – Southern California ...

The Who: The Who By Numbers

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, October 1975

THE WHO'S sovereign elixir is only available about once every two years, and is held most effective when composed of simple, basic ingredients. The 1969 ...

Bobby Womack: A Documented History of Bobby Womack

Memoir by uncredited writer, Phonograph Record, November 1975

HE'S WRITTEN hits for Rod Stewart, the Rolling Stones, Wilson Pickett and the J. Geils Band. He's played on countless sessions from Aretha Franklin to ...

Aretha Franklin: You (Atlantic SD18151)

Review by Lita Eliscu, Phonograph Record, November 1975

Aretha's Latest is a Blend of All that has Made Black Music, American Music ...

Bruce Springsteen: The Roxy, Los Angeles

Live Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, November 1975

PEOPLE WHO who were clearly not accustomed to standing in line formed a reluctant column along Sunset Boulevard; hordes of photographers snapped at the famous ...

Elton John: Rock Of The Westies (MCA)

Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, November 1975

It might seem ridiculous to contend that an artist was weakened by two albums which sold a higher number of copies than I can count ...

Brian Eno: Eno: Another Green World (Island)

Review by John Mendelsohn, Phonograph Record, November 1975

UP UNTIL THE moment the temporary editor of this august journal telephoned to apprise me that he'd just been in a terrible automobile accident in ...

Eric Carmen: Eric Carmen - Brian Wilson with Strings Attached

Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, November 1975

ERIC CARMEN isn't sorry that he asked us to go all the way with the Raspberries, but real life has its own way of intruding ...

Grateful Dead, Jefferson Starship: Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

Live Review by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, November 1975

Reunion in the Park: The Dead & The Starship Back To Basics ...

Little Feat: The Last Record Album (Warner Bros. BS2882)

Review by Sam Sutherland, Phonograph Record, November 1975

DESPITE ITS grim title, Little Feat's fifth album is the work of a band very much alive, its best songs charged with strong ideas, exciting ...

Sparks: Indiscreet

Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, November 1975

INDISCREET, THANKS to a production approach which digs a wide gulf between it and previous Sparks albums, could well win over some new fans for ...

Utopia: Todd Rundgren’s Utopia: Another Live (Bearsville)

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, November 1975

With a running time of just 45 minutes and one entire side of highly accessible rock & roll, Todd Rundgren’s Another Live represents a return ...

Abba: Belly to Belly, Butt to Butt, Sweden Sends Us Rock and Roll Smut

Report by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, December 1975

A LOT OF PEOPLE didn't like Napoleon, but nobody doesn't like gurls. Which may account for the success with which Abba's top five smash of ...

Ann Peebles...and the Hi Records Story

Interview by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, December 1975

THOUGH NASHVILLE, Tennessee, has proclaimed itself "Music City U.S.A.," the traditional center of musical activity in that area of the country, and the city from ...

Artful Dodger (1970s): Artful Dodger: Artful Dodger

Comment by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, December 1975

PLAYING straight uncomplicated hard rock, without a unified theme or specific image, without fantastic flights of lyrical invention or instrumental improvisation, and without pandering to ...

Dave Edmunds: Subtle as a Flying Mallet

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, December 1975

Perhaps you’re thinking it’s either premature or entirely unwarranted that a relative unknown whose sole claim to fame is a 1970 updating of Smiley Lewis’ ...

Electric Light Orchestra, The Move, Roy Wood, Wizzard: Displaying His Favors Once More: Roy Wood's Mustard

Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, December 1975

WHEN OLIVER Ulyses Adrian ('Roy') Wood joined the ranks of Birmingham's professional musicians back in 1964, few observers could have guessed that he would evolve ...

Little Feat in Heat

Profile and Interview by Sam Sutherland, Phonograph Record, December 1975

LOWELL GEORGE is ravaged, eyes wired with fatigue beneath the peak of a floppy leather poorboy cap, face pallid against the dark beard. He smiles ...

Neil Young: Zuma

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, December 1975

Now I remember why I used to rave about Neil Young... ...

Patti Smith: Horses (Arista AL 4060)

Review by Gary Kenton, Phonograph Record, December 1975

WALKING THE NEW JERSEY-MERSEY BEAT WITH PATTI SMITH & THE KAYE STREET BAND ...

Patti Smith: Art for Art's Sake

Profile by Gary Kenton, Phonograph Record, December 1975

I WAS ON the telephone to one of New York's successful management firms last week and, like all successful New York firms, they put me ...

Roxy Music: Siren

Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, December 1975

ROXY MUSIC IS among the handful of very best bands in the world. You didn't know that? You're not exactly alone, but the number of ...

The Band: Northern Lights — Southern Cross (Capitol ST-11440)

Review by Sam Sutherland, Phonograph Record, December 1975

THE BAND'S NORTHERN LIGHTS: AN UNEVEN EXPERIMENT IN EVOLUTION ...

The Kinks: Schoolboys In Disgrace

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, December 1975

RAY DAVIES' NEWEST philosophical treatise directs itself to the topic of education and schooldays nostalgia. While a plot of sorts is undraped at the beginning ...

Ozark Mountain Daredevils: The Ozark Mountain Daredevils: Kansas City Stars

Profile and Interview by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, December 1975

THE SIGN AT the Springfield, Missouri, airport reads "Gateway to the Ozarks." Twenty minutes away is the rehearsal site of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, two ...

The Who Tour: Random Flashes Of Brilliance

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, December 1975

The Who: The Summit, Houston Tx. ...

Kiss: Destroyer (Casablanca NBLP 7025)

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, 1976

KISS CAME into prominence, to put it simplistically, by combining Alice Cooper's horrific visuals and theatrics with Grand Funk's heavy-rock simplicity and lyrical solidarity with ...

Carole King: On This Side Of Goodbye

Retrospective by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, January 1976

HE COMES HOME from a night of petting heavily in the back row of the RKO Fordham. Aching from the pains of halted passion, he ...

David Bowie: Station to Station – A Report

Report by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, January 1976

A YEAR AGO, David Bowie's public face was a mess. The Diamond Dogs tour he'd recently completed had certainly been successful enough, but it was ...

Dr. Feelgood: Dr Feelgood: Malpractice (Columbia)

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, January 1976

People who have seen this determinedly primitive English rock & roll combo on stage tell me Dr Feelgood is very exciting and great fun, qualities ...

Emmylou Harris: Elite Hotel (Reprise MS2236)

Review by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, January 1976

EMMYLOU HARRIS understands the idiom in which she chooses to work, and respects it: this separates Harris from the country-rock crowd, and makes her virtually ...

Laura Nyro: Five Years of Silence

Essay by Lita Eliscu, Phonograph Record, January 1976

BORN LAURA Nigro, she was fated to sing the blues. Though her solitary visions weren't attuned to the pop pulse of the movement-minded sixties, she ...

Lynsey De Paul: Love Bomb

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, January 1976

LYNSEY DE PAUL'S new Aimed-at-America image seems to be Sex & Sleaze – with class. Visually, as any potential consumer can see by directing an ...

Nils Lofgren: Back It Up!

Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, January 1976

AFTER FOUR ALBUMS with Grin, guest-work with Crazy Horse and Neil Young, and one solo album, Nils Lofgren – creator of a body of songs ...

Toots & The Maytals: Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin, Texas

Live Review by Joe Nick Patoski, Phonograph Record, January 1976

DESPITE THIS city's reputation as a comfy little haven for country and progressive-country backwoods folksiness, its music audiences — at least in relation to the ...

10cc: How Dare You!

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, March 1976

In the February Esquire, Douglas Davis discusses the new meaning the word "tough" has taken on in photographic circles: "It has come to mean (particularly ...

Bill Wyman Solo: "Happier in The Stones Because I Have This Outside Freedom"

Interview by Lita Eliscu, Phonograph Record, March 1976

"I'VE BEEN in this band so long that if I haven't sung for a long time, I can't sing. If I haven't written a song ...

Dobie Gray: Back to Stay?

Profile by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, March 1976

DOBIE GRAY'S making something like his third comeback, and seems reasonably pleased with the prospect. ...

Elliott Murphy: Elliot Murphy: Night Lights (RCA)

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, March 1976

Lost Generation, the second album by this hero-obsessed New Yorker, made it clear that Murphy’s haughty, proper-noun-laden style could be undercut by unsympathetic or insensitive ...

Kansas: City Stars

Interview by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, March 1976

KANSAS CITY — The way Kansas see it, their main problem these days is that of their image. Which has to do with their having ...

Lou Reed: Coney Island Baby (RCA APL1-0915-B)

Review by Kim Fowley, Phonograph Record, March 1976

LOU REED is back. Coney Island Baby is the new wimp non-rock of the New Year. 'Crazy Feeling' is George Harrison Meets Buddy Holly's 'Everyday'. ...

Lynyrd Skynyrd: Gimme Back My Bullets

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, March 1976

LYNYRD SKYNYRD are fast becoming one of my favorite American bands, in part because they're starting to sound so British. ...

Nazareth: Close Enough For Rock & Roll

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, March 1976

Close Enough For Rock & Roll, due for release in the near future, is more of the same for Nazareth. That is to say, out ...

Nils Lofgren: Can He Beat The Press

Profile and Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, March 1976

NILS LOFGREN, AS SHAMEFULLY under-appreciated a top-flight rock & roller as America has ever spawned, now finds himself suffering, ironically, from overappreciation from certain sectors ...

Nazareth: Pulling Into Nazareth

Retrospective by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, March 1976

IT'S ALMOST schizophrenic. On the one side there's Nazareth the loud, flashy, hard-rocking boogie band. That's more or less their reputation in England, where they've ...

Queen: The New British Invasion

Interview by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, March 1976

"YOU'RE NOT going to ask me to interpret ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, are you?" ...

Roxy Music: 'Love Is The Drug' in Bi-centennial Year!

Essay by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, March 1976

ROXY MUSIC, once scorned here as the last frontier of glitter'n'glam, may now become the one group capable of closing the two gaps which have ...

Sutherland Brothers and Quiver: Sutherland Brothers: Reach For The Sky

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, March 1976

POSITIVE NOTES FIRST. Of the four Sutherland Bros. & Quiver albums, Reach For the Sky is definitely the most consistent, the strongest yet. ...

The Pretty Things: Savage Eye

Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, March 1976

NOT AS, NOT AT all as, not nearly as, doesn't even come close to being anything at all as good as their last one, Silk ...

Sweet: The Sweet: Give Us A Wink (Capitol)

Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, March 1976

The question with The Sweet has always been one of validity. In England, it was the struggle to become something more than the string of ...

Thom Bell, The Spinners: Thom Bell & The Spinners: Looking For 'Hudson Bros.' Acceptance

Interview by Ian Dove, Phonograph Record, March 1976

WHEN THE SPINNERS recently celebrated 25 years together as a group, amid all the celebrations the soul quintet were quick to point out the part ...

Weather Report: Black Market: Wayne Shorter & Weather Report #6

Profile and Interview by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, April 1976

WEATHER REPORT — the adventuresome, electronically-spiced neo-jazz group founded five years ago by Josef Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, and Mirsolav Vitous, and still co-led by the ...

Todd Rundgren: Faithful: The Todd Rundgren You've Been Waiting For

Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, April 1976

THIS IS THE Todd Rundgren album that a lot of people have been waiting for. The part of his audience that considered Something/Anything pop heaven ...

Aerosmith: "We're the Hottest Band in America"

Profile by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, April 1976

NEW YORK — Photo sessions are a pain in the ass. 8 x 10 glossies are made, not born; press kits aren't built in a ...

Boz Scaggs: Silk Degrees (Columbia)

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, April 1976

For eight years, Boz Scaggs has been making playable, durable albums (counting the new one, there are now six solo LPs, and before that Scaggs ...

John Fogerty Looks At Rock In ‘76

Interview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, April 1976

''Let's face it," John Fogerty was saying, "could I wear eye shadow and get away with it?" He was speaking of the sense of alienation ...

Nils Lofgren: Cry Tough (A&M SP 4573)

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, April 1976

DEFINITELY A star cover. Great guitar hero pose of Lofgren coolly firing away, shrouded in a purple haze — by far his most sympathetic cover ...

The Bee Gees History Lesson

Retrospective by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, April 1976

THE BEE Gees endure. Through changing musical fashions and their own self-induced periods of inspiration and stagnation, they've muddled through. They were an original "next-Beatles" ...

Earl Slick: The Earl Slick Band: Earl Slick (Capitol)

Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, April 1976

THE DEBUT of the Slick white Earl is promising, but the album's preoccupation with precision, correctness and conformity to prevailing hard-rock standards all but eliminate ...

The Outlaws: Lady In Waiting (Arista AL 4070)

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, April 1976

LADY IN Waiting improves on the Outlaws' fine debut set in many ways. The vocals are airtight, the equal of any L.A. country-rock outfit going. ...

The Outlaws: The Hottest New Guitar Band In The Country

Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, April 1976

IT'S A STRANGE-looking crowd at the Hollywood Palladium. Not since surfer days have there been so many wool shirts in one place, and not your ...

The Bee Gees: What Comes After Main Course: Barry Gibb & The Bee Gees on Top Again

Interview by Ian Dove, Phonograph Record, April 1976

BARRY GIBB considers Arif Mardin the main ingredient for Main Course's success. He adds: "Quite simply he's the best producer in the world for us. ...

Bob Marley & The Wailers: Rastaman Vibration (Island ILPS 9383)

Review by Sam Sutherland, Phonograph Record, May 1976

Top 40 Rasta: Marley at his most Mischievous ...

John Sebastian: Welcome Back Hits

Profile and Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, May 1976

"I DID DOZE OFF for a long while." John Sebastian speaking, summing up his last few years. Up until a few weeks ago, that's ...

Patti Smith: Avery Fisher Hall, NYC

Live Review by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, May 1976

FOR SOME OF US, Patti Smith is the girl of our rock and roll dreams. As a performer she doesn't merely flirt with danger, she ...

Steely Dan: Royal Scam (ABC ABCD-931)

Review by Sam Sutherland, Phonograph Record, May 1976

SO YOU wanna dance? Steely Dan will oblige you, punching up their fast songs with hot guitars and bubbling rhythms. You say you like spectacle, ...

Sutherland Brothers and Quiver: Sutherland Bros: Starting Over Again

Profile and Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, May 1976

A LITTLE HISTORY first. Not too much, don't worry; this isn't one of my retrospective tomes. The group is called the Sutherland Bros. & Quiver ...

The Rolling Stones: Black And Blue (COC)

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, May 1976

IN THE FOUR years that have passed since the release of Exile On Main Street, perhaps their greatest album, The Stones have managed to put ...

The Runaways: The Runaways

Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, May 1976

"We're the queens of noise/ The answer to your dreams." ...

Quick, The (U.S.), The Runaways: The Sound of the Cities, 1976: Los Angeles

Overview by Kim Fowley, Phonograph Record, May 1976

LOS ANGELES — Local talent is never taken seriously in England; a yesteryear example is the phenomena of Love being worshiped in London and Savoy ...

The Tubes: Young And Rich

Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, May 1976

ON HUNKY DORY and Crisis, What Crisis?, producer Ken Scott proved himself a master of soft-core avant-garde rock. Resourceful, imaginative, tasteful, able to clean and ...

The Tremeloes: Tremeloes: Even the Bad Times are Good

Report by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, May 1976

THE TREMELOES have a problem – they've been too successful. 15 years together (the first five, backing Brian Poole) and upwards of a dozen pop ...

The Beatles, Wings: Wings: The Band On The Road

Report by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, May 1976

THE WINGS LIVE show has been evolving over the past three years, and McCartney deliberately kept a low profile during its earliest stages, a university ...

Blue Oyster Cult: Agents Of Fortune

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, June 1976

NO MATTER HOW predictable rock seems to become, it can still surprise you, and I've got to admit to being surprised as hell by the ...

Dr. Feelgood: Dr Feelgood: Frighteningly Authentic Punk Posture

Profile and Interview by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, June 1976

THEY'RE EASY-GOIN' guys, but they always gotta have their way: when they tell you it ain't right you know you got to agree. ...

Steve Miller Band: Fly Like An Eagle (Capitol)

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, June 1976

Steve Miller is a bright guy and a fine musician who can rock with the best of them. ...

The Beach Boys: America Celebrates

Report by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, June 1976

"This is gonna be the most outrageous summer story of all"– Mike Love ...

The Isley Brothers: Two Generations Of Innovation

Report and Interview by Joe McEwen, Phonograph Record, June 1976

A SHORT HOP across the George Washington Bridge, Teaneck, New Jersey is a crowded suburban community, dominated by upwardly mobile black families. In the past ...

Rick Derringer, Cynthia Weil: The New Derringer: Rick Derringer & Cynthia Weil

Interview by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, June 1976

DERRINGER: ANOTHER PUNK INCORPORATES ...

The Sex Pistols: 100 Club, London

Live Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, June 1976

LONDON, THE TREND centre of last decade’s mod rebellion, has been running a poor second, if not third, this time around. ...

Warren Zevon: Warren Zevon (Asylum)

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, June 1976

THEY'RE ALL HERE – various Eagles, an Everly Brother, Buckingham/Nicks, Bonnie Raitt, Carl Wilson, David Lindley, J.D. Souther, and Jackson Browne himself, acting as producer ...

Albert King Delineates the Blues...

Interview by Lita Eliscu, Phonograph Record, August 1976

Lita Eliscu Listens! ...

David Bowie in The Man Who Fell To Earth

Film/DVD/TV Review by Lita Eliscu, Phonograph Record, August 1976

THIS FILM stars David Bowie — a logical choice — as a space visitor who comes to Earth in an attempt to find a way ...

Dion Bounces Back

Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, August 1976

MIAMI, FLA. – "Frankie Valii turned my head around. I was in Westbury (Conn.), where he was playing, and he said, 'Watch, this.' He introduced ...

Flo & Eddie: Moving Targets

Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, August 1976

SO WHAT WOULD you do if you were Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman? ...

Keith Jarrett: America's #1 Keyboard Star

Overview by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, August 1976

KEITH JARRETT is the first genuine keyboard star of the seventies. Zawinul, Herbie Hancock, and Chick Corea are stars of a sort, and can certainly ...

Rod Stewart: A Night On The Town

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, August 1976

AFTER HIS LAST great album, 1972's Never a Dull Moment, Rod Stewart began casting off much of what we'd come to love him for: the ...

The Movies (US): The Movies: The Movies

Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, August 1976

THE MOVIES' debut release is a rather spotty, nondescript affair, more likely due to prematurity than to sheer lack of talent. The album reflects the ...

Tommy James & the Shondells: Tommy James: The Troubadour, Los Angeles

Live Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, August 1976

IT WAS INCREDIBLY good and it was incredibly frustrating. Tommy James was stunning. As a terminally addicted Top 40 fetishist I've come to expect the ...

Daryl Hall & John Oates: Hall & Oates: Blue-eyed Soul For The Masses

Interview by Lita Eliscu, Phonograph Record, September 1976

NEW YORK — In this world cluttered with singer-songwriter-performers and other hyphenated musical creations, into this electronic, technologic, upheaving miasma of pure and impure sounds ...

Ian Hunter: Reflections Of A Rock Star

Review by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, September 1976

Ian Hunter: Coping With Modern Day Rock Stardom ...

Earl Slick: The Earl Slick Band: Razor Sharp

Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, September 1976

THE EARL SLICK Band's second album stops just when it gets going. Its ninth and final cut, ‘Games’, is what one hoped would happen when ...

Bryan Ferry: Let's Stick Together

Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, October 1976

WHILE THE POLITICS of self-exposure are evident in every album Bryan Ferry has made, with or without Roxy Music, his solo albums have consistently been ...

Eric Clapton: No Reason To Cry (RSO)

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, October 1976

When Clapton’s good, he’s as good as they get — Layla stays in the "play" pile in every collection I have access to, Disraeli Gears ...

Fleetwood Mac: Universal Amphitheatre, L.A./Sunday Break II, Austin, Texas

Live Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, October 1976

FOR FLEETWOOD MAC success is in the bag, and the bag is soft-rock. Progressive MOR, MOR/progressive, whatever your preference, it's the new formula for wide-acceptance ...

Heart: Seattle's Hard Rock Girls

Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, October 1976

WITNESSING A ROCK band, Heart, genuinely excited about things – they mention how much they love to hear their records on the radio – is ...

Junior Walker & the All Stars: Jr. Walker: 'Everybody's Just Ready For Me To Blow.'

Interview by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, October 1976

JR. WALKER is the man who, it might be said, invented disco-jazz. Ten years ago or more, he was creating a kind of music Ramsey ...

Tom Waits: Small Change

Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, October 1976

CHARACTERS, REAL honest-to-goodness characters, are hard to come by these days, so right off the bat Tom Waits, with his wino outfits and broken-soul slouch, ...

Abba: Mamas & Papas of the '70's

Profile and Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, November 1976

LOS ANGELES – The hottest group in the world recently flew into town, but only a scattered few knew they were even here. ...

Al Kooper: Act Like Nothing's Wrong

Review by Ben Edmonds, Phonograph Record, November 1976

TO PRESERVE WHAT little remains of a once-great dignity, I'm obligated to confess to a blatant conflict of interest in the following evaluation of Al ...

Electric Light Orchestra: A New World Record

Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, November 1976

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT Orchestra was conceived and dedicated toward the fulfillment of a specific musical blueprint, but it's become clear – mainly from the live ...

Elton John: Blue Moves

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, November 1976

THIS ISN'T SO much a review as it is a personally conducted poll. You see, I've been traveling around with Elton (the new album, that ...

Jackson Browne, Winning

Interview by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, November 1976

JACKSON BROWNE sat in a locker room beneath a domed hall at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. It had been a particularly successful college ...

Jackson Browne: The Pretender (Asylum 7E-1079)

Review by Sam Sutherland, Phonograph Record, November 1976

JACKSON BROWNE'S fourth and best album draws its power from a stunning tension of opposites: he continues to revise and refine many of the same ...

Don Cherry, Richard Davis, Billy Taylor: Jazz In The Seventies

Report and Interview by Lita Eliscu, Phonograph Record, November 1976

OVER THE last few years, iazz has re-achieved, to use an inelegant word, the enthusiastic encouragement of a new and important audience: people with money ...

Leon Ware: LA's Most Important New Writer/Producer/Performer

Interview by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, November 1976

LEON WARE'S songs have been recorded by an almost bewildering array of performers — including Ike and Tina Turner, Bobby Womack, the Righteous Brothers, Kim ...

The Alpha Band: The Alpha Band

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, November 1976

STEPHEN SOLES is a singer/writer/guitar-picker from NYC; he's the one Dylan kept whispering jokes to during the Hard Rain special. T-Bone Burnett is a Texan ...

The Rolling Stones: Cocksucker Blues: A Film by Robert Frank and Danny Seymour

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, December 1976

This unreleased – and suppressed – documentary of The Stones’ ’72 US tour is far and away the most revealingly powerful rock & roll movie ...

Burton Cummings, The Guess Who: Burton Cummings, Legitimate

Profile and Interview by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, December 1976

VANCOUVER – For perhaps the fifth time in 20 minutes, the phone in Burton Cummings' Vancouver hotel suite rings, cutting the artist off in mid-answer. ...

Joni Mitchell: Hejira (Asylum 7E-1087)

Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, December 1976

VERY FEW of Joni Mitchell's songs since the Ladies of the Canyon LP have been recorded by other artists, and I suppose that must be ...

The Kinks: Ray Davies & The Kinks at 13

Interview by Barbara Charone, Phonograph Record, December 1976

LONDON – Ray Davies' tired eyes incredulously surveyed the scene before him. The view from the top was a familiar one. The sprawling greenery of ...

The Band, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Bobby Charles, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Dr. John, Bob Dylan, Ronnie Hawkins, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Muddy Waters, Neil Young: The Band's "Last Waltz": Winterland, San Francisco CA

Live Review by Stephen M H Braitman, Phonograph Record, December 1976

WHEN THE announcement came, 5,000 tickets at $25 each were sold out almost immediately. This was the final show, "The Last Waltz." The Band — ...

Funkadelic, Parliament: The Bizarre World of George Clinton (Parliament/Funkadelic Drop The Funk-Bomb On America)

Interview by Joe Nick Patoski, Phonograph Record, December 1976

NEW ORLEANS — Maintaining two separate personalities and record labels for his band Parliament/Funkadelic has been an act of schizophrenic genius on the part of ...

ABBA: Adoring ABBA

Comment by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1977

"ABBA IS the most exciting pop phenomenon of the ‘70s," claims their bio, and for once it’s no hype. My admiration for this group knows ...

Blondie: Blondie (Private Stock)

Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, February 1977

THE FIRST TIME I saw Blondie she was incredible. ...

David Bowie: Low

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, February 1977

THE NEW BOWIE album doesn't make much sense. While practically everybody else in rock is striving for cleaner and more accurately recorded sound, Bowie's Low ...

The Eagles: Hotel California (Asylum)

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, February 1977

To many rock connoisseurs, Eagles records are about as appetizing as a Jumbo Jack: heavy on the packaging, standardized for mass-consumption, with nothing but go ...

Andy Fraser, Free: Andy Fraser

Interview by Don Snowden, Phonograph Record, April 1977

THE SOUND OF Traffic's first album reverberates against barren, functional walls as gray as the overcast L.A. day outside. ...

Bad Company: Revolt Into Style

Interview by Robin Katz, Phonograph Record, April 1977

LONDON — With Bad Company's four-month American tour set to kick off in Denver on April 25th, the group's personal assistants are taking bets on whether or ...

Blondie Chaplin: Blondie Chaplin

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, April 1977

IF YOU CAN RESIST Blondie Chaplin's spine-tingling lead vocal on the Beach Boys' anthem, 'Sail on, Sailor', there must be something wrong with you. Blondie's ...

Ronnie Spector: Cleveland International Records: Ronnie Spector Breaks Cleveland!

Report and Interview by Marty Cerf, Phonograph Record, April 1977

CLEVELAND — It's a freezing night in mid-February for this city that knows no excess in terms of its insatiable hunger for pop. Indisputably, this ...

Fleetwood Mac: Rumours

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, April 1977

I'M CONVINCED there's gonna be heavy bidding on the movie rights to this story. A legendary but unstable British rock band emigrates to L.A., ...

Iggy Pop: From Russia with Love: Bowie's Iggy

Profile and Interview by Stephen Demorest, Phonograph Record, April 1977

"You got a personality crisis,You got it while it was hot But now frustration and heartache is what you got... Personality, when your mind starts to ...

Muddy Waters: Reborn At 62

Interview by Ian Dove, Phonograph Record, April 1977

MUDDY WATERS, the blues singer, relaxed in the kitchen of his home in the Chicago suburbs. He likes Chicago although rarely goes into the city ...

Nils Lofgren: I Came To Dance

Review and Interview by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, April 1977

"I am 25, and I intend to keep playing my ass off when I'm 30 and way past that, too." ...

Syreeta Wright: One To One (Motown t6-349ST)

Review by Tom Vickers, Phonograph Record, April 1977

MOST FEMALE singer-songwriters are prisoners of producers, and Syreeta Wright is no exception. Her most popular release, Stevie Wonder Presents Syreeta Wright, came out in ...

The Band: Islands (Capitol SO-11602)

Review by Mark Shipper, Phonograph Record, April 1977

A FRIEND OF mine called me one night last summer and told me he had an extra ticket to the Band concert that night and ...

Valerie Carter: Just A Stones's Throw Away

Review by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, 1 April 1977

VALERIE IS A singer who happens to be very beautiful, with sulky lips and ethereal Emmylou Harris eyes. This bit of good fortune should not ...

Roky Erickson, Fabulous Thunderbirds, Butch Hancock, Stevie Ray Vaughan: America's Local Talent 1977: The Sounds Of Austin

Overview by Joe Nick Patoski, Phonograph Record, May 1977

THANKS TO the migration of musicians who actually believed Austin's blind boast that it was the new country music capital of the world, the central ...

The Dils, The Hollywood Stars, Quick, The (U.S.), The Screamers, Van Halen, The Weirdos: America's Local Talent 1977: The Sounds of Los Angeles

Overview by Kim Fowley, Phonograph Record, May 1977

ONE DOESN'T need to write any introduction on the general rock history and geographical relevance of Hollywood. Hollywood is Los Angeles, Los Angeles is California ...

Chris Spedding, The Clash, The Count Bishops, The Damned, Elvis Costello, Flo & Eddie, Little Bob Story, The Sex Pistols, The Stranglers, The Vibrators: Blind Date with Flo & Eddie

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, May 1977

A monthly blindfold test by those masters of Slander Rock, Mark Volman & Howard Kaylan ...

The Rubinoos: The Rubinoos

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, May 1977

THE RUBINOOS, Beserkley Records' hot new quartet of Bay Area teenagers, lead off their debut album with a new version of Tommy James' 1967 classic ...

Van Morrison: A Period Of Transition

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, May 1977

"It’s just what it is – it says what it is and nobody is going to analyze it for secret meanings. It’s exactly what it ...

The Beatles: Paperback Writer: A New History Of The Beatles by Mark Shipper (Marship Publications)

Book Review by Marty Cerf, Phonograph Record, June 1977

BEATLEFICTION. It's so simple so obvious, it's amazing no one's thought of it till now. What, short of the re-grouped Beatles, could be more logical ...

Alex Chilton: The Big Star of New York's Underground

Report by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, June 1977

CHAPTER THREE in the adventures of a bona-fide, under-acknowledged rock hero is currently in progress. At the moment, the story is mostly taking place in ...

Burton Cummings: My Own Way To Rock

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, June 1977

BURTON CUMMINGS is destined to be a solo star, if he isn't classifiable as one already. His first single apart from the Guess Who, 'Stand ...

801, Brian Eno, Phil Manzanera: Eno, Phil Manzanera et al.: 801 Live

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, June 1977

I'D WAGER that the market for import albums is sustained primarily by fanciers of various exotic genres (Kraut-rock, pub-rock, punk-rock, zen-rock, bla-bla-bla). Some of this ...

Heart: Little Queen

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, June 1977

IF ANY DOUBT still existed about Heart's big-league credentials, the first notes of ‘Barracuda’ should dispel them forever. Roger Fisher slams into a bonecrunching guitar ...

Jimmy Webb: Ten Years After 'Phoenix' He's Still Looking For Hit City

Profile and Interview by Todd Everett, Phonograph Record, June 1977

JIMMY WEBB is the still-under-30 composer who appeared from nowhere nine years ago with a spate of pop hits including 'By the Time I Get ...

Marvin Gaye Insight

Interview by Tom Vickers, Phonograph Record, June 1977

COMPLEX, MYSTERIOUS, INSPIRED & STUBBORN KIND OF FELLOW ...

Neil Young: American Stars ’n Bars (Reprise)

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, June 1977

Superstar-turned-cult-attraction Young has thrown a change of pace by serving up a tasty platter of palatable musical morsels. Long considered the godfather of agony rock ...

Steely Dan: Excerpts from a Teenage Opera

Interview by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, June 1977

EVEN IN THE DAYS when Steely Dan was a finite rock band of relatively normal constitution, leaders Walter Becker and Donald Fagen insisted that it ...

The Beach Boys: Brian Is Back… Again!

Report and Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Phonograph Record, August 1977

"We're still happening. New people are picking up on us all the time. I don't really analyze why we're successful, but the main reason for ...

Carole King: Simple Things (Capitol SMAS11667)

Review by Lita Eliscu, Phonograph Record, August 1977

THIS ISN'T simple, it's simplistic. An album full of observations on life and living — none of which comes off without an unbelievable amount of ...

Dennis Wilson: Pacific Ocean Blue (Caribou)

Review by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, August 1977

"WE DO SOLO projects for ourselves," Dennis Wilson said during an interview eighteen months ago. "There are hundreds of tunes that we've recorded, a tremendous ...

Dwight Twilley: Twilley Don’t Mind

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, August 1977

EVERYBODY KNOWS that people who write record reviews are supposed to complain every so often about what a crummy year it’s been for music, and ...

Herbie Hancock's V.S.O.P.: Greek Theatre, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, August 1977

"V.S.O.P." — Herbie Hancock's Reunion ...

Norman Seeff by Norman Seeff

Interview by Colman Andrews, Marty Cerf, Phonograph Record, August 1977

As told to Marty Cerf and Colman Andrews... ...

Piper: Can't Wait

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, August 1977

BY THE TIME the first two cuts on Piper's second album had finished, I thought they'd really done it. 'Can't Wait' and especially 'Drop By ...

Rick Nelson: Intakes

Review by Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, August 1977

BEFORE I RECEIVED a test pressing of the new Rick Nelson album, I was informed that this elpee marked a big change in direction for ...

Patti Smith: Easter

Review by Lester Bangs, Phonograph Record, May 1978

Dear Patti, Start the Revolution Without Me ...

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