Well liked albums from each of the 50 years of my life (1971-2021)

  Hair of the Dog is the 6th album from the Scottish band Nazareth.  It's a good listen.  Stylistically, they fit in with bands like Aerosmith, Bad Company and AC/DC.  Vocalist Dan McCafferty has a gritty, high pitched approach reminiscent of AC/DC's Brian Johnson.  Let's go through the tracks: Hair of the Dog : So iconic, non-stop cowbell, talkbox solo, "Now you're messin' with a son of a bitch!"  My band The Night Howls covered it our very first show as a 2-piece.  See link: https://youtu.be/CMHZYL_vk8g Miss Missery : A nice mid-tempo rocker, tempo speeds up at the end Love Hurts : An Everly Brothers cover, a ballad with some tude, love it! Changin' Times : Influenced by Black Dog by Led Zeppelin, a head-bobber, nice mood change for solo section during last part of song. Beggars Day : Good rock, some synth at the end. Whiskey Drinkin' Woman : Lamenting about being in a relationship with a hard drinkin' lady, nice lead guitar Please Don't...

This was the first full album I heard from Frank Zappa and it made an impression!  I had heard Yellow Snow and was intrigued!  I love the drums alternating between the slow and faster tempo with that cool high hat thing at the beginning.  Such a silly song which continues the story with Nanook Rubs It.  I love the fast, complex single note guitar and marima lines in Saint Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast and Father O'Blivion. The album continues on with lots of complex instrumentation and musical ideas.  I like that it is a very progressive album but at the same time, most of the songs are very short and concise.  The song Apostrophe has a nice groove and some sweet bass playing from Jack Bruce.  Uncle Remus has a nice piano melody.  The album ends with the important message of Stink Foot. Frank Zappa recorded 60 plus albums so there are many I have not heard and I don't like everything I have heard but he was a great guitar player, comp...

 I lived in North Carolina for 5 years.  I think this was influential in getting my into southern rock.  The best of the batch was undoubtedly Lynyrd Skynyrd and their debut (Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd) is classic!  Four of the eight tracks are radio staples to this day.  A band has to be really tight to put out a debut like this. Let's go through the tracks, shall we: I Ain't the One : Neat backwards cymbals to start and nice guitar leads and our introduction to Ronnie Van Zant's cool vocal delivery. Tuesday's Gone : Good song with a tasty beat, song orchestration, you mighta heard it. Gimme Three Steps : A great bass part (Skynyrd has a lot of good bass parts), song tells a good story. Simple Man : Simply amazing, if you are cool with the term, "power ballad", this is one of the best power ballads ever!  If you can resist singing along with this chorus, then you are dead inside. Things Going On : I like the slide into a harmonic to start, the what I ca...

  I haven't gotten into a lot of Bowie over the years (planning to listen to more, the interweb affords me this opportunity!) but one album I got into was The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust .  I was intrigued by the character and the album has it going on.  There is nobody like David Bowie.  He has such a vision and tone, always great vocal layering.  Let's go through the tracks: Five Years : great drum intro/outro, build and orchestration. Soul Love : good sax, I can't get that sax outta my head. Moonage Daydream : tasty flatwound bass sound, nice moody outro guitar solo Starman : nice dissonance in the into, great acoustic guitar chug, especially with headphones, just a beautiful song! It Ain't Easy : love it, nice gospel vibe, nice variation verse to chorus Lady Stardust : nice piano melody Star : some good rock 'n roll Hang On to Yourself : so punky, love the hand claps Ziggy Stardust : so classic, great jam song, I have jammed this on guitar with peeps man...

  I love Jethro Tull.  They are awesome musicians, mixing blues, hard rock, folk and baroque music. They are led by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Ian Anderson.  This guy made flute playing cool and most of the acoustic guitar in the band was played by him.  He also has a unique, quirky vocal style. Aqualung is Jethro Tull's best selling album with hard-rocking hits like Aqualung, Hymn 43, Locomotive Breath and Cross-Eyed Mary cohabitating with some beautiful acoustic numbers.  The song Aqualung has been played to death on classic rock radio but it's a classic fucking song!  My God is a great deep cut in it's being a deep cut and also deep.  I got to see Jethro Tull live a couple times and they were great. I will move onto my 1972 album review next.  One more rule I wanted to state, I recently posted a list of  The 30 Albums That Most Influenced Me As a Lifelong Music Fanatic and Musician. I will list these now as they can't be included ...

  This is the first entry in my new blog: Well Liked Albums From Each of the 50 Years of My Life (1971-2021)  I am going to go back to 1971 and start moving forward chronologically but first, I decided to review my favorite album 0f 2020, Mr. Bungle - The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo . The only thing I did not like about this release was how hard it was for me to get a physical CD copy.  I pre-ordered it on Amazon a month before the October 30th release date.  On that day, I got a notice that the download was available but the CD would be available between Nov 23rd and Dec 23rd.  Christmas rolled around and I got a notice it would be available in early January.  Finally, I was notified it was unavailable.  There was definitely a manufacturing issue.  I looked around online for a bit in January and could only find it as an expensive import.  Just today, I noticed it is available again on Amazon so I ordered it and it should arrive Thu...