Greg Easterling's Blog

Weekdays Midnight - 5am

Great Guitars: Frampton-Page
Posted:Thursday, 09/02/2010 at 03:09am by Greg Easterling
We delivered Frampton Comes Alive yesterday morning, the best selling live album of all time, especially impressive since it was a two record set. This was an unexpected success for guitarist Peter Frampton who'd never sold anything close to that many records before. Most of the songs included had been previously recorded by Frampton on several solo outings leading up to this landmark live recording. Many of these live versions are more dynamic than the original studio recordings (ie "Show Me The Way") but it's still a major case of right place, right time for Frampton, who'd also recorded several albums as the original lead guitarist for Humble Pie before he split for a solo career. We jumped right into Side 2 of Frampton Comes Alive with a nice acoustic version of "All I Want to Be" followed eventually by the hit "Baby I Love Your Way" and "I Wanna Go To The Sun".

We're spotlighting Led Zeppelin today on our Thursday Artist Portrait and also here on our Overnight Album Side like we usually do. This morning we played a rarely heard side from the 1982 album Coda that came out after the band decided to call it quits in the wake of drummer John Bonham's death. It's admittedly an odds and sods kind of affair featuring some musical leftovers from the band's archives. This was the last official Zeppelin release for a number of years before the box set(s), later live albums and various best of configurations. Side 1 included "We're Gonna Groove" and a nice alternate take of the Willie Dixon Chicago blues classic "I Can't Quit You Baby" which originally appeared on the very first Zeppelin record.

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Van's Birthday
Posted:Tuesday, 08/31/2010 at 03:08am by Greg Easterling
We're celebrating Van Morrison's birthday today. He first came to our attention in the mid 1960s with his band Them from Belfast, Northern Ireland, recording classics like the original version of "Gloria" and "Here Comes The Night".

It wasn't long though before Van was out on his own, spending most of his time in the U.S. and cutting the hit, "Brown Eyed Girl" and then, writing and recording classic albums such as Astral Weeks, Moondance and Tupelo Honey. This morning we featured Morrison's 1978 release, Wavelength, which at the time was his highest charting album in almost five years. We listened to Side 2, containing the album's title track plus "Hungry For Your Love" and "Santa Fe/Beautiful Obsession".

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Hey Jude, 42 years later
Posted:Monday, 08/30/2010 at 04:08am by Greg Easterling
The Beatles released their 7 minute plus single, "Hey Jude" on this date(8/30)back in 1968. It was the first Beatles song to come out on their own label, Apple Records making the event even more special. "Hey Jude" spent an amazing 9 weeks at #1 on the Billboard Singles chart.

The flip side was the faster, heavier version of "Revolution" that also became a hit, peaking at #12. Both songs appeared on lp for the first time in 1970 with the release of the album, Hey Jude, a collection of singles and b sides previously unreleased on lp here in the U.S. The songs varied in age from "I Should Have Known Better" (A Hard Days Night) to later tracks such as "Rain", "The Ballad Of John and Yoko" and George Harrison's "Old Brown Shoe".

The Hey Jude album never made it to CD, superseded by the two Past Masters compact discs that offered many more non-US album tracks, making the re-release of Hey Jude unnecessary.

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More Moodies
Posted:Thursday, 08/26/2010 at 04:08am by Greg Easterling
We're spotlighting the Moody Blues today on our regular Thursday feature and also here on the Overnight Album Side. This morning we tracked a side from the Moodies' summer of '71 release, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, which arrived at a time when the band was near the height of their popularity.

EGBDF spent three weeks at #2 on the Billboard Album chart and a total of 21 weeks relatively high on that same chart. Every member of the band contributed a least one song as all members of the Moody Blues were also songwriters. The album's best known track was the rockin' "The Story In Your Eyes". We listened to Side 2 this time containing some good songs not often heard on the radio("One More Time To Live", "Nice To Be Here".)

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Living In The Past
Posted:Wednesday, 08/25/2010 at 03:08am by Greg Easterling
We featured Jethro Tull this morning with a side from their early career compilation, Living In The Past, a double album released in 1972. Not strictly a greatest hits or best of album, LITP has the kind of songs and rarities that you would normally find on a career spanning box set, years before that type of collection came into vogue.

Living In the Past is a great overview of select songs from the first three Tull album plus B-sides, live recordings and songs from EPs(extended plays) previously unavailable in the U.S. Tull hit the big time with their Aqualung record and LITP was an attempt to focus attention on underappreciated early Tull records like Stand Up and Benefit. We listened to Side 4 this morning highlighted by "Hymn 43"(fr Aqualung) and "Life Is A Long Song".

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Stones and Spirit
Posted:Wednesday, 08/18/2010 at 03:08am by Greg Easterling
We continued Tuesday morning with one of the Rolling Stones' most classic records, Exile On Main Street from 1972. Exile got mixed reviews originally for its ragged but real approach with the Stones' musical influences showing...blues("Stop Breaking Down", "Shake Your Hips"), country("Sweet Virginia") and even gospel("Shine A Light").
There were also songs soon to be Stone classics, "Tumbling Dice" and "Happy".

Two records stuffed full of rootsy songs with blurry, black and white cover art and Mick's vocals are sometimes buried in a mix which is often muddy but time has been kind-- Exile is now largely regarded as one of the Stones' best albums, prefiguring punk and later back to the roots movements in rock and Americana music. We heard Side 4 which includes "All Down The Line" and "Soul Survivor".

We reached midweek Weds with a classic side from the Los Angeles band, Spirit and their 1970 LP, Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus which is generally regarded as the band's finest moment musically.

Spirit included guitarist Randy(Wolfe)California and his step dad, drummer Ed Cassidy, one of the few bald rock musicians of the day and a focal point of the band visually. Jay Ferguson and Mark Andes were also in the group with Jay now remembered for his later solo hit, "Thunder Island" and Mark going on to play in Heart and Firefall.

Side 1 of Twelve Dreams flows from song to song and includes "Nature's Way" and "Mr. Skin".


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Ready For Muddy
Posted:Tuesday, 08/17/2010 at 02:08am by Greg Easterling
We came back after a week away, jump starting our late night vinyl feature by returning to the roots of classic rock with the music of Chicago blues legend Muddy Waters.

In the late '70s, Muddy's recording career was revitalized by a trio of hard rockin' albums he cut for the Blue Sky label with Johnny Winter producing. Yesterday, we featured the second in that series, I'm Ready, released in the summer of 1978. There's a mix of classic blues songs here written by Muddy, Willie Dixon and Sonny Boy Williamson combined with some then new compositions. Muddy's touring band plays on this record(incl. Pinetop Perkins, Bob Margolin and Willie Smith) plus leading Chicago blues figures Jimmy Rogers and Big Walter Horton. We listened to Side 2 which featured "Hoochie Coochie Man" and "Good Morning Little School Girl".

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Eric Unplugged
Posted:Friday, 08/06/2010 at 03:08am by Greg Easterling
We finished up our week of overnight album sides today with Eric Clapton and his Unplugged album from 1992. Recorded for the MTV program that helped start the whole back to acoustic trend, Eric's Unplugged appearance was one of the finest performances associated with the show.

It also displayed a side of Eric that we hadn't seen before. Clapton at a much lower volume, playing acoustic guitar and playing blues that we'd mostly heard him play in the highly amplified, electric style of Cream and Derek and the Dominoes. As it turned out, this acoustic Clapton release became one of Eric's most popular albums in many years, surpassing his more pop oriented '80s efforts.

While Unplugged was released after the demise of the record album, we secured a vinyl copy to play this morning, listening to Side 2 which included "Running On Faith", "Old Love" and two songs from Eric's most important influence, Robert Johnson-- "Walkin' Blues" and "Malted Milk".



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Yessongs
Posted:Tuesday, 08/03/2010 at 04:08am by Greg Easterling
We continued our late night vinyl obsession this morning with Yes' first live album, Yessongs(1973). Recorded on tour in '72, most of the pieces here come from three records, The Yes Album, Fragile and Close To The Edge. Drummer Bill Bruford is heard on several cuts but his replacement Alan White drums on most of this three record set, joining the classic Yes lineup of Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire and Rick Wakeman. Anderson appears at Park West August 19th in a solo performance; his former bandmates Howe, Squire and White played Chicago earlier this year as Yes with a new singer and Wakeman's son in the band. Here at least, they were all together again this morning as we listened to Side One of Yessongs including "Siberian Khatru" and "Heart of The Sunrise".

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For Jerry...American Beauty
Posted:Monday, 08/02/2010 at 04:08am by Greg Easterling
We started our new week by looking back...yesterday, August 1st was the date on which Jerry Garcia was born(1942). We remember Jerry as the lead guitarist and focal point of the Grateful Dead, certainly one of the most important American bands of its day. He's been gone for awhile now but we still have his recordings and this morning we listened to a side from the Dead's 1970 classic, American Beauty, the followup to Workingman's Dead which was released earlier the same year. It truly is a thing of beauty with a number of great songs that would remain on the Dead's setlists for years to come. On both their 1970 efforts, the band really found a way to roll their musical roots in folk, bluegrass, country and blues into these vital new original songs they were writing, many of them by Jerry with his longtime lyricist, Robert Hunter. We listened to Side 2 this morning which featured classics like "Ripple" and "Truckin'" as well as lesser heard gems such as "Brokedown Palace" and "Attics Of My Life".

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Thursday, Sep 2, 2010
12:00am
Thursday Artist Portrait
Led Zeppelin (all day)
1:45pm
One 45 @ 1:45
Electric Light Orchestra
5:00pm
Live @ 5
9:00pm
Long One @ 9
Led Zeppelin
10:00pm
Ten @ 10 Replay
1970
Friday, Sep 3, 2010
3:00amOvernight Album Side
The Beach Boys
10:00amTen @ 10
1977
1:45pmOne 45 @ 1:45
The Beach Boys
5:00pmLive @ 5
9:00pmLong One @ 9
Pink Floyd
10:00pmTen @ 10 Replay
1977
Saturday, Sep 4, 2010
11:00pmThe Deep End

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