The Vinyl Countdown

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May 21, 2019 by Simon Sweetman

The Vinyl Countdown # 301 

Van Halen, Diver Down (1982)
It’s funny when you love a band so much and your favourites change. Or you just reevaluate the whole catalogue – as I have been doing a lot lately with Van Halen. I can’t say this was always a favourite album, but maybe it was something of a guilty pleasure. Certainly, I loved Cathedral before I even knew what it was called – there’s some stunning guitar work on this record. You go to Van Halen albums for that I guess, particularly the first few. But there’s really some innovative stuff on here. And some good covers. And some decent originals too. Maybe it’s a slight comedown after the relentlessness and breakneck pace of four albums in as many years and epic tours in support of them. But I like it. And I like it more now if anything. So much so I had to re-buy a copy of this – because I owned it once long ago and had figured I only really needed the two most obvious diamond-selling VH albums on vinyl. I was wrong about that. Very wrong.   Read More »

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May 19, 2019 by Simon Sweetman

The Vinyl Countdown # 302 

David Lee Roth, Crazy From The Heat [EP] (1985)
When “Diamond Dave” released this he was still a member of Van Halen – though not for very much longer. This EP was basically his resignation letter. He’d blown the world apart with that band and reconfigured heavy metal – and now he was off to be a silly/wonderful pop star. The motor-mouth of charisma and madness was a forced-natural. And here he was dining out on himself as he devoured camp, colourful, awful, brilliant covers of Just A Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody and California Girls; both playing for Diamond Dave and his audience because of the sheer force of his personality – and for the videos as much as anything. I loved these songs as a kid. I was surely already a Van Halen fan – at least on some level – but I do know that it was David Lee Roth that sold the band to me, first time around. And I wouldn’t be alone in that experience. His early solo albums have a lot to recommend them – wise songs choices, great players. And just the largeness of Diamond Dave. He’s a mad genius of a sort. I’m sure of that.  This EP wasn’t just his letter of resignation – he was already flaunting his business card from his new job! Read More »

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May 16, 2019 by Simon Sweetman

The Vinyl Countdown # 303 

Bob Marley & The Wailers, Exodus (1977)
I love Bob Marley – and yet I reckon he’s somewhat underrated. Hear me out…he’s a legend (pardon the pun), he’s an icon, he’s a figurehead. To many he is Reggae. To at least as many others he is the gateway. He is a hero to some people that don’t even care about his music. Poet and a prophet. Philosopher. All of this. And more. But I still think he’s underrated…as a songwriter. I mean the best of his work shines and there have been many covers but you never seen him high on the list of influential/important songwriters. And he should be. At his best the work is stunning. And he knew how to craft a pop hook – within the reggae sound. I’ve loved Marley since I was a little kid and yet there’s a lot still to learn and absorb for me. I’ve been going through the catalog a lot lately, and realising there are a few gaps in my vinyl collection. So this is the latest kick. An album I owned on CD but had never got around to getting on vinyl. One of his stone-cold classics. Jam-packed with good songs. And great performances. One of my favourites. But I feel like they’re all about to become favourites. One way. Or another.   Read More »

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May 15, 2019 by Simon Sweetman

The Vinyl Countdown # 304 

Bob Dylan, Fort Collins Stadium Radio Broadcast, Colorado May 23rd 1976 (2017)
It’s a dirty bootleg – it says it’s limited to 500 copies and is on a ‘label’ called BAD JOKER – I ask no questions and access the music. I know this recording well – it was released on TV also and is readily available for your streaming – and the “official” document from around this time is the Hard Rain album – all of this stuff is great. But I saw this, cheap, and wanted it. Because this is Bob Dylan. And because this is Bob Dylan at a killer-good time – just ferocious and mesmerising and maybe never better vocally. In fact this radio/TV broadcast is recorded a day shy of his 35th birthday if my maths is good enough. Anyway, it’s all here. Bob in all his brilliance and glory. Pretty decent transfer being that this was radio-broadcast quality for the time. 

Read More »

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May 13, 2019 by Simon Sweetman

The Vinyl Countdown # 305 

Sharon O’Neill, Smash Palace (1982) 
This EP is the soundtrack to the movie Smash Palace – one of the first Kiwi films I can remember seeing and one of the first “adult” films I can remember making an impact on me, I’ve rewatched it a bunch of times and it’s both a great complete story/movie and a virtuoso performance from Bruno Lawrence. The music didn’t immediately make an impact on me, I have to say, though it was fine – in no way off-putting. But it was revisitng the film as an adult and connecting that it was music written and performed by Sharon O’Neill – both a huge star and yet still one of our most underrated songwriters – that made me single out the music. One of my great experiences in live was meeting Sharon O’Neill and talking to her for my podcast. Not only that we got to talk at reasonable length about Smash Palace – the music and the making of the film. Sharon shared some cool memories. And when she said she was working on a new EP of music I suggested she re-record or at least re-release the entire Smash Palace EP as bonus tracks or a bonus disc – a double-EP or something. She was into the idea. Told me she’d even credit me if it happened. I don’t need the credit – but it’d be cool if the reissue/re-record/re-release happened. It’s be cool to hear brand new music from Sharon too. Of course. I just got this vinyl copy – a bit of a holy grail for me – recently, having collected a bunch of singles (including the title track/movie theme) and other key singles and albums from across the late 1970s and early 1980s by Sharon O’Neill. Must be due another watch of the film now…  Read More »

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May 12, 2019 by Simon Sweetman

The Vinyl Countdown # 306 

Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel As “Tom & Jerry”, Singles and Rarities 1958-1962  (2016)
 Before they were Simon & Garfunkel it was “Tom and Jerry” for Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel and the enduring number from the late 1950s is Hey Schoolgirl – it gets played in their reunion concerts, and turns up on compilations…they broke up and then reformed a few years down the track as the duo under their own names and became hugely famous. This compilation of their Tom and Jerry material is dubious for many reasons – a sneaky cash-grab of sorts, alleging to be an authentic Hits/B-sides collection – well I’m in. I want to hear this material anyway, because there’s some fun stuff on it. It’s cool to read the YouTube comments – people telling you it’s not even Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, others pointing out that you can hear Simon’s songwriting and Artie’s vocals taking shape in this embryonic stage. A good night’s reading on the YouTube. 
 

Sample Track: Our Song Read More »

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May 9, 2019 by Simon Sweetman

The Vinyl Countdown # 307 

Harry Nilsson, Flash Harry (1980)
The last album completed in Harry Nilsson’s life. He’d had a fascinating – often fantastic, sometimes ramshackle, frequently both – 1970s and it ended with this: a record where he sorta couldn’t be fucked, but in and around that he knocked out a couple of flat-out gems, including his own version of a song he and John Lennon co-wrote about a half-decade earlier. But there’s also material here written by Eric Idle and by this stage Nilsson was recording albums to essentially facilitate the party and to make sure the sad-guy good-times never ended. Tragic, fascinating figure. And I love it all. The good, the bad, the brilliant. There’s some of all of that here. Which is why I had to get a copy of this record. It’s actually one of my favourites from Mr. Nilsson. Though I recognise, even as I’m saying that, it’s neither a recommendation nor any hint of actual quality.   Read More »

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May 8, 2019 by Simon Sweetman

The Vinyl Countdown # 308 

Alberta Hunter, Amtrak Blues (1980)
Alberta Hunter – the name and face comes to me from 10,000 budget ($10) CDs; the budget CD was such a drawcard in the late 1990s and the early 00s – even better if you worked in a store. You paid about $5-6 with your staff discount. Try getting people to even spend that now hey? That was just the way to discover things back then. You could take a punt. Alberta Hunter’s final albums of her life – recorded in the last 70s and early 80s were $10-CD gold. This was a big seller. And I was always curious – it was years before I took a copy home to sample. And dug it. And it’s also a regular to spot on vinyl. So just recently I decided it was time to have this Alberta Hunter in the house again. And I’m glad I did. There’s a real warmth to this. Such sad songs – but these stories are so beautifully sold/told.  Read More »

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May 7, 2019 by Simon Sweetman

The Vinyl Countdown # 309 

Nicole Atkins, Neptune City (2007)
I was hooked on Nicole Atkins from when I first heard – and saw – her. By saw I’m referring to this clip from her appearance on the Letterman show; everything about that is great. The band, the song, the arrangement – but it’s Atkins’ conviction, her performance, delivery, her ownership of the song, embodiment of it, that really sells it to me; seals the deal. This whole debut album is great. And I loved it back a decade or so ago and I still do now. I got to talk to Atkins – but it was when I was pen-naming as Mark Reid from time to time. So I think that particular interview is lost to time. It would be great to speak to her again, given she’s still making wonderful music.   Read More »

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May 4, 2019 by Simon Sweetman

The Vinyl Countdown # 310 

Peter Green, In The Skies (1979)
I first became aware of Peter Green when watching the wonderful TV doco – Fleetwood Mac at 21. I’ve been a lifelong fan of the band, but at that point though I knew the song Albatross I didn’t really know about Green nor even the blues years; must have just thought of Albatross as some weird instrumental anomaly (which, come to think of it, it still is…it always was…) Anyway, that documentary was a revelation – all the different pieces of the puzzle. I was maybe 10 and since then I’ve been tracking down and collecting up everything connected to Mac and its various versions – including the solo albums. This was Peter Green’s return to music after a 1970s out in the wilderness, it’s – technically – his second solo album but really it’s the start of his solo career since his 1970 album was a fever-dream of a frenzy-jam that was so very much in the vein of the then-Mac’s wilder moments. But this is Green and his bluesman’s touch attempting to reconnect. It’s got some gems. But his playing wasn’t always up to it. Snowy White, a veteran sideman – or on his way to being one at this point anyway – was on hand to fill in the gaps.

Sample Track: A Fool No More
The Vinyl Countdown is a document of every LP I listen to, brand new discoveries and old-old favourites; extremely pre-loved, previously abandoned or with the shrink-wrap having just been removed it’s all here at The Vinyl Countdown 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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May 1, 2019 by Simon Sweetman

The Vinyl Countdown # 312 

Lou Reed, Berlin (1973)
I got to this one pretty early in my Lou Reed worship – I guess because I was reading the bios and whatever I could get my hands on…I approached the discography in a giant scatter-grab; trips to Auckland to the ‘big’ record stores to get whatever I could, armed with as many names as I could keep in my head – album titles…Lou Reed was the priority in the high school years (but there were other names swirling in my head on those ‘field trips’ to the music stores…) and Berlin wasn’t the first Lou Reed album for me but it was there early. And with the warning that it was a serious bummer. And it was. (And it is). But I’ve always loved this harrowing ride, this deeply depressing story of junkie lovers in a city divided. And the mythology deepened as more bios told further stories including the famous one that producer Bob Ezrin tape-recorded his kids for the song The Kids – he needed crying sounds so told them their mother wasn’t coming home. That’s a horrific story – even if it’s been embellished, even if it was never close to true. But that used to blow me away as I listened to this. And it still does now.   Read More »

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