ALBUMS

• THE KINKS: SCHOOLBOYS IN DISGRACE: 1975: 2 STARS OUT OF 5 STARS: This was the last of the theatrical Kinks album period-thank the lord. 5 albums in a row of this stuff- I can’t think of a major great band what had such a bad period of failure after failure yet recovered. Clearly Ray Davies was going through some kind of crisis. Ray Davies as recently as 2015 claimed this was a great album. No Ray. It is better than the previous few because it was shorter.

• DUKE ELLINGTON: AT NEWPORT: 1956: 5 STARS OUT OF 5 STARS: Famed jazz promoter George Wein called this concert the greatest of Ellington’s career saying “It stood for everything that had been and could be.” I listened to the version that was a little over an hour- next time I will listen to the one that goes over 2 hours. One of the albums on the 1001 albums list.

• HARRY NILSSON: NILSSON SCHMILSSON: 1971: 5 STARS OUT OF 5 STARS: Nilsson’s finest album- his second release in 1971. His cover of the Badfinger song  “Without You” went to #1. Jump Into The Fire” and “Coconut” written by Nilsson were also hits. Gotta Get Up is one of those songs I thought for sure was a hit but wasn’t. A perfect pop-rock album from start to finish.

• HARRY NILSSON: SON OF SCHMILSSON: 1972: 4 STARS OUT OF 5 STARS: Released 8 months after the above album-this album was also produced by Richard Perry. You’re Breaking My Heart is a great Nilsson song but well that wasn’t going to be a hit single with Harry dropping the F- bomb in it. Superman was a hit though #23.

• THE KINKS: SLEEPWALKER: 1977: 3 1/2 STARS OUT OF 5 STARS: Not a great Kinks album but an improvement over the past 5- their best since Muswell Hillbillies back in 1971. It was a return to rock music- it sounds like a Kinks album! The title track, Juke Box Music and Brother the best tracks. A move to the right direction.

• FATS DOMINO: THIS IS FATS: 1956: 5 STARS OUT OF 5 STARS: Fats sometimes gets overlooked when the discussion is great 50’s rockers. Maybe it was because he came before most of the others and before the rock and roll explosion, maybe it was because he was a recluse the last four or five decades of his life in which he rarely left his New Orleans. On the 1001 Albums You Must Hear- list.  Fats was great and this is just a little sampling of his greatness.

• FRANK SINATRA: SONGS FOR SWINGIN’ LOVERS: 1957: 5 STARS OUT OF 5 STARS: Sinatra was making some of the best albums of the 50’s- an era before the album format became big in rock music. When they talk of rock groups in the late 60’s inventing the ‘concept’ album- well Frank did a long string of them at Capital in the 50’s and early 60’s. One of the 1001 Albums To Hear…