VINYL RECORD COLLECTING: My Picks of the Top Ten Albums that Need to be Issued on Vinyl for their Very First Time...

1. Natalie Merchant - OPHELIA

This is the second studio album by the former lead singer of 10,000 Maniacs released in 1998. It includes her hit songs “Kind & Generous” and “Break Your Heart”. Released during the CD era of the time, vinyl records were rarely being pressed. Recently, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab released her first album TIGERLILY on two LP vinyl records. It is about time that this album also gets the vinyl record treatment.

2. One EskimO – One EskimO  (aka All Balloons)

English singer Kristian Leontiou is the lead singer of the indie rock band One EskimO and released an amazing album in 2009. The album is listed as both “One EskimO” and “All Balloons”. I tend to go with Discogs that has it listed as “All Balloons”. The atmospheric album, which to my ears sounds like it was influenced by David Bowie, is a very emotional journey with the story of a man in love with a woman who struggles in love. The entire album from start to finish is excellent with each song. The song “Kandi” is a stand out alongwith “Astronauts”, “Simple Day” and the close out “Amazing”. I’m surprised this album hasn’t had more attention. Go to One Eskimo Vinyl Records & Discography - Vinyl Me, Please to ask them to release this on vinyl.

3. B.B. King - Let The Good Times Roll (The Music Of Louis Jordan)

One of my favorite musical artists is the “King of the Jukeboxes” – Louis Jordan. With his orchestra. Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five rocked the juke joints through the 1930’s to the early 1950’s with hits like “Caledonia”, “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie”, “Saturday Night Fish Fry”, “Let The Good Times Roll”, and so many many more. One of my other favorite musical artists is the “King of The Blues” – B.B. King.

Back in 1999, B.B. King released an album that was completely a cover of Louis Jordan’s songs. B.B. King has been on record many times for stating that Louis Jordan was one of his greatest influences. Here he pays tribute. Go to B.B. King Vinyl Records & Discography - Vinyl Me, Please to ask them to release this on vinyl.

4. B.B. King – BLUES ON THE BAYOU

Another B.B. King album on my list. There are actually several that have not been released on vinyl or are just out of print, but this list spotlights three of them. The other one is this 1998 album. B.B. King went into the studio with his band to record this album in just four days, He wrote in the linear notes, "Found some old B. B. King songs. Wrote some new ones. [...] All live, all real. No overdubs, no high-tech tricks. Just basic blues." The album won the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. Maybe Elemental Music might want to press this on vinyl for the first time? https://www.elemental-music.com/

5. Paul McCartney and Wings – WINGS OVER EUROPE

Okay. This is a long shot and will probably never happen. In 2018, Paul McCartney released a combined Archive Collection CD Box Set that contained both RED ROSE SPEEDWAY and WINGS WILD LIFE into an exclusive box set entitled WINGS 1971-73 that included a bonus live album of WINGS OVER EUROPE. The Box Set sold out in minutes online and I was unable to purchase a copy. The 1972 live album was unfortunately not sold separately, however I was able to acquire just the CD off of eBay from a seller. My CD looks legitimate but could possibly be a counterfeit. It is hard to tell. Still, I really want to see this released on vinyl record since it has not yet. Perhaps a Record Store Day exclusive?

6. John Lennon – ACOUSTIC

In 2004, Capitol Records released ACOUSTIC. This contained is a compilation of John Lennon’s solo era demos, studio and live performances featuring his acoustic guitar work. The album was met with criticism as many of the song had appeared on one of his compilations albums previous with the others were available unofficially on the LOST LENNON TAPES set of bootleg albums.  The album was taken out of print and you cannot officially stream it anywhere. I do have the original Capitol Records CD and admit I haven’t listened to it in over a decade, but realized when making this list that it would be a good addition now since the bootleg material is now hard to find and expensive and the other anthology is out of print also.

7. The Beatles – GET BACK – THE ROOFTOP PERFORMANCE *

In 2022, Disney+ released the marvelous Peter Jackson produced series GET BACK which featured the Beatles recording LET IT BE. He would also clean up the LET IT BE film for a release that came out about a year ago. At the same time, Giles Martin released a remastered anniversary box set of LET IT BE that include outtakes and the original Glynn Johns album. There were many extras, however the glaring omission was the Beatles Rooftop performance. This classic performance first seen in the LET IT BE film is the culmination of these sessions which was the last time all four would play live together on the rooftop of their Apple Records office building in downtown London on January 30, 1969 with Billy Preston on keyboards.   

Since it was wrongly omitted in the LET IT BE boxset, many Beatles fans expected this album would be released separately --- and it officially was released by The Beatles as it can be found available for streaming format ONLY. Not on any physical media!!!  (I’m listening to it at the moment as I write this on YouTube Music). Why oh why it hasn’t been released in physical media on CD or vinyl record I do not know. This concert was often bootlegged over the years, but The Beatles and Martin put together an “official” cleaned up copy. (*Some bootleggers recently ripped the new audio and put out their own counterfeit vinyl record bootleg using these new audio upgrades and even used the official cover of the album cover using the new branding and art. I confess that I bought a copy on eBay. However, I would love to see Apple Records release an official version and I think Beatles fans deserve this.)

8. Johnny Cash / Willie Nelson – VH1 STORYTELLERS

Another one of those albums released in 1998 that did not get a vinyl record release. This was Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson sitting down with a small studio audience taking turns on playing each other’s songs together, joking, and telling stories. This album was produced by Rick Rubin during that resurgence era for Johnny Cash and is one of his last live recordings released before his death. It is a treat to hear these two friends sit around on their stools, play their acoustic guitars, and sing together. Available on CD and streaming, it would be nice to have a vinyl copy edition.

9. B.B. King – LIVE

Okay, I am slipping in a third B.B. King album needing released on vinyl. In 2008, B.B. King released an album of his live show from Memphis in his club. This show was released on CD, DVD, and Blu-Ray at the time, but missed the vinyl record treatment as it happened just when the vinyl resurgence was about to take off. I particularly enjoyed this album because it represented what I saw live in concert with B.B. King at that time.

10. Jim Byrnes – FRESH HORSES

One of my favorite modern bluesmen is actor/singer Jim Byrnes who is originally from St. Louis and has been living up in Canada for decades now. He has won many Blues Album awards in Canada and worked with many blues artists. Most of Jim’s discography is available only on CD and only a few albums are available through streaming. However, his album FRESH HORSES released in 2004 is such a great album. I wish all of his albums would receive more recognition and receive vinyl record treatment, but this album in particular.

 

I hope in a year or two, that some of these albums will be issued on vinyl for the first time.

What are some of your favorite albums never released on vinyl that you would like to see pressed?

Next time, I will write about ten albums that I think should be re-released on vinyl records with a new pressing.

 

VINYL RECORD COLLECTING: Just Arrived! Deluxe Edition of My Gateway Drug to Meeting The Beatles

Late to the game, I just picked up my copy today of THE BEATLES 1962-1966 & THE BEATLES 1967-1970 (2023 Limited Edition) 6 LP box set. I originally wasn't going to get this since I own the individual albums in several variations, but this was on sale for about $100 and I couldn't pass it by this time. It has remixes of all of the tracks and I wanted to give it a listen. Especially the stereo mixes of the early material since Peter Jackson's software can pull apart the individual elements out of a mono recording. 

This compilation box set even includes The Beatles' "new" song "Now and Then", which was finished and released last year by the band's living members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, just won a best rock performance Grammy last Sunday. So THAT'S a bonus. (However, I do have a copy of the 7 inch single, but it is nice to have it on a full album with the rest of their body of work. I digress.)

What is interesting, the The Beatles 1962-1966 ("Red Album") and The Beatles 1967-1970 ("Blue Album" albums were my original "Gateway Drug to The Beatles" when I was a little kid. Around 1978 or so, The Bee Gees and Peter Frampton starred in the really terrible SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND movie that took the characters from The Beatles songs and placed them in a storyline. I won't get into the movie... but it was a shit movie. It isn't a knock against the musicians or some of my favorite actors like Steve Martin. Just a shit movie.

However, my father bought the soundtrack and I played it to death. Along with STARS ON 45 that had a Beatles medley with Beatle sound-a-like singers.  He got so sick of me playing those albums as it was just cover songs of The Beatles that he decided to introduce me to "the real thing".

He got me the two compilation albums and from about 1979 to 1985, that was all of The Beatles that I would listen to at home on the turntable until I was introduced to the original SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND and ABBEY ROAD albums by my Uncle Mike. I immediately bought those two albums on cassette tape with my allowance money. Then in 1987, EMI/Capitol Records released the original UK Beatles albums onto CD when I was a sophomore in high school. My father offered me the gift of either getting a class ring or this brand new thing called a CD Player. Guess what I chose?

Then with money earned with my new job working at Godfather's Pizza when I was sixteen, I spent it on buying all of The Beatles album on CD that year. I rarely returned to listening to the "Red and Blue" Greatest Hits albums as it was a moot point. 

But now, all these years later, I look forward to giving this "expanded" album box set a good listen.

Goo goo gajoob!

VINYL RECORD COLLECTING: Rest in Peace Denny Laine

SAD NEWS. Just read the news that Wings band member Denny Laine passed away this morning from Lung Disease. His wife posted on his Facebook page. Poetic that his greatest album with Paul McCartney was released 50 years ago today in America. BAND ON THE RUN. My favorite Paul McCartney and Wings album. Which ironically, I just pre-ordered the 50th Anniversary 2 LP special edition from paulmccartney.com website today because it is a 45 rpm Half-Speed Master plus the never before released "undubbed" version of the album of just the three of them without all the overdubbed orchestra and extras. Thank you, Denny, for the wonderful music you made with the Moody Blues, with McCartney, and solo. He's a rock legend in my book.

VINYL RECORD COLLECTING: Record Review of Junior Wells - Cut That Out: 1953-1963 Sides

This will be a first in a series of record reviews that I'll offer here on my blog site that I'll do from time-to-time. As many of my family and friends know, I have a deep love for music -- especially classic rock and blues. 

I also have had a long appreciation and love for collecting my music on vinyl going back to my teenage years and when I used to work in a record store back in high school. I collected both vinyl and CDs. Many times, I'd buy certain albums on both formats. I tend to enjoy listening to vinyl at home on my turntable and listening to CDs in the car. With that said, in recent years with the resurgence of vinyl, I tend to just buy vinyl LP records now only. The exception might be buying both formats for certain artists like The Beatles and their solo work, David Bowie, and Sting.

There is something very spiritual feeling for me to listen to music on vinyl. Perhaps the warmth of the needle falling in that groove. The zen-like way I remove carefully an album from the cover and place it on the turntable, listen to the whole album, and then turn it over to the second side. All the while, reading the liner notes and admiring the art and photography of an album cover. Appreciating the packaging, admiring the record label, etc.

Over the past few years, I've picked up quite a bit of reissues from the Spanish record label called WaxTime. I've mainly picked up about B.B. King reissue albums from WaxTime and this is my first Junior Wells album. These are pressed on 180 gram vinyl and have excellent covers in English. I've read some reviews of some albums reissued on the WaxTime Record Label and some reviewers hate the sound quality, believing the albums were cut from audio CDs and not the master tapes or whatever. Well after the whole Universal Music Group fire fiasco where they admitted this past year that hundreds of thousands of songs were destroyed in blaze in 2004, I think we'll be fortunate to get any reissues and they will probably come from alternative means. What I ultimately want to say, is that I love the reissues on WaxTime Record Label and think they're doing an excellent job at reissuing hard-to-find blues albums.

I first heard of Junior Wells back in the late 1970's when I was a little kid listening over and over to my father's Blues Brothers album entitled A Briefcase Full of Blues when John Belushi, a.k.a. Joliet Jake Blues on stage, introduced the song "Messin' With the Kid" as a Junior Wells blues tune. Years later in college in 1991 when I went through my own personal blues music discovery phase, I first heard Junior Wells in his collaborations with Buddy Guy on the album Alone and Acoustic. I was blown away by that album and dug further to discover an earlier 1972 album Buddy Guy & Junior Wells Play the Blues that had they aforementioned "Messin' With the Kid" and the song "Man of Many Words" which was what the Black Crowes at the time took their hit song "Hard to Handle" from. Then there were a few other live albums the two did together until I discovered that Buddy Guy was a session man with Chess Records in the Sixties and was a sideman in Junior Wells Chicago Blues Band.

This album, Junior Wells - Cut That Out: 1953-1963 Sides, I picked up last week off an eBay "Buy it Now" purchase that cost around $13 sealed. Many of the WaxTime records can also be found for sale on eBay as a tip -- especially with these being imports. This album includes his first hit with "Messin' With the Kid" and other singles that Junior Wells recorded between the years 1953 - 1963. In one of the bold hype pieces on the back of the album, it has a quote from Rolling Stone lead singer Mick Jagger that exclaims, "Junior Wells was a great harp player. He was one of my influences."

This album collects singles from some of the independent labels that include Chief and Profile and the albums states these tracks are remastered. Junior Wells did indeed have a laid back approach to playing his harmonica and singing. While listening, what struck me was the youth-like sound of his voice with these recording compared to some later recordings he did with Buddy Guy in their collaborative albums that sounded much richer and deeper. I truly enjoyed this album, especially with tracks like "Cut That Out" and a song that I have heard Eric Clapton cover called "It Hurts Me Too".

On the same day that I acquired this Junior Wells album, I also picked up a Little Walter album also. I'll see about perhaps reviewing that album also in the future. Little Walter was another Bluesman harp player that Junior Wells was inspired by, and like Little Walter, Junior Wells adapted the style of playing a modern amplified harmonica like him. Junior Wells even replaced Little Walter in Muddy Waters's band and played on one of Muddy's sessions for Chess Records in 1952.

So, for me, I did listen to the two albums back-to-back, and it made an interesting listen.

Junior Wells - Cut That Out: 1953-1963 Sides

Rating: 3.5 out of 5. Easy listening to put on in the background and chill to. Very nice blues album