David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars RCA CD (1984)

The album that made everyone sit up.  The iconic shot under the K West sign in Heddon Street, London.  This has the whole package.  Great artwork, image, music at a time when Glam was about to go really pop this set a standard that others could only dream of.  Fantastic.  This is the CD cover from 1984.

See the Story of the First Bowie CDs...Ever! Here

The Undisputed Truth - Face To Face With The Truth (1972)

 

You have to have this.

Norman Whitfield at his very best - giving this his second string his full attention and reinventing some Motown classics in his own way as a result.  This is Motown as soul not pop but the benefit is obvious.  The man reinvented the label after Holland Dozier Holland defected in my view - not that he wasn't succesful beforehand.

 

The stand out here is the slow burn of "What's Going On" (worth it for the really crying guitar track alone)  - how can anyone do this within a year of MPG and still deliver a definitive version.  Brave or just darn mad? but so good.  Other songs are familiar in name but differ in arrangement "Take Me In Your Arms" beautiful; "Heaven and Hell Right Here On Earth" poignant; "What It Is" a funky workout; "Superstar" surpasses Norman's take with the Temps (and for me that's saying something special).

 

You've got to have this record

CCS - CCS

From The Lost Record Covers Club I searched this out after finding my 7" copy of "Tap Turns On The Water" a brilliant single from the early pre-punk 70s.  CCS had a string of hits including "Walking" "Brother" and the TOTP cover of "Whole Lotta Love".  This includes a wonderful full blown version of the the Jacksons' "I Want You Back" and Led Zeps "Black Dog" A big big band led by the master, Alexis Corner. Produced by Mickie Most. seen at fairs recently for around £10 - worth it UK RAK - SRAK 503 

Syreeta (1972)

By the release of this album in June 1972 Rita Wright was the ex-wife of Stevie Wonder but they were still collaborators and, with a history of writing hits ("If You Really Love Me" and "Signed, Sealed Delivered - I'm Yours" amongst them) it was Wonder who oversaw this debut album.  This was an early release on Motown's new MoWest Label. Syreeta had sung back up on a number of hits previously and been a serious contender as Diana Ross' replacement in the Supremes.

The album is a parallel introduction the the new Wonder who, freed from Motown controls after turning 21, would go on to produce his greatest work; producing ,writing and arranging albums and not just hit singles in the Motown tradition.  Songs here  a Wonder produced version of his earlier recording, "I Love Every Little Thing About You" (from Music Of My Mind released the same year); a cover of Lennon-McCartney's "She's leaving Home" and Smokey's "What Love Has Joined Together".  The killer track for me is "To Know You Is To Love You" which is a duet with a long guitar end segment.

Deodato - Prelude (1972)

From The Lost Record Covers Club

Eumir Deodato was a chosen keyboard session player in jazz circles and here gets his colleagues, Billy Cobham, Hubert Laws, Ray Barretto, Stanley Clarke to feature on his most recognised solo album.  The killer track is the version of the Strauss "Also Sprach Zarathustra" used in Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey in it's original form.  CTI rarely featured in the charts and this came as a surprise as radio strations both in the US and UK picked up on the marathon track featured here.  The single was an edited version.
CTI - CTI 6021

Eddie Kendricks - People...Hold On (1972)

From The Lost Record Covers Club

Eddie Kendricks was one of the stars of the Temptations classic line-up but left the group as Norman Whitfield moved them more towards psychedelic/symphonic soul and the band became only one ingredient of the whole production with lengthy instrumental sections coming to the fore.  He made a couple of solo albums prior to this as he was moved around styles by Motown trying to find the right one for his beautiful falsetto.  Ironically some of the tracks here are more contemporary.  With the underated Frank Wilson producing, there are some real good moments with the title track, "Date With The Rain", "Girl, You Need A Change Of Mind", "Eddie's Love" standing the test of time.  There is some filler material here and whilst those songs are not so strong I think they benefit from Eddie's vocal style and sound.  I'd recommend this.  It seems to be under the radar in the UK where he is best remembered for his Temptations tenure and the later "Keep On Trucking".

This has recently been released on in a CD set of three solo albums - which is worth it for the tracks here alone.


Tamla Motown - STML 11213 (although this is a US copy)

Various - Takin' You There (1972)

From The Lost Record Covers Club

One of my favourite compilations.  This was released as a 50p sampler which summarises the revitalised Stax label's new found success.  Stax suffered a huge blow when the classic masters from the label's first phase Redding/Sam and Dave, Bar-Kays were deemed to be owned by former distributor Atlantic.  The label reorganised, recognised the in-house talent of Isaac Hayes and Davis Porter who had written many hits for Sam and Dave, The MGs who played on virtually all of them; the old hands of Carla and Rufus Thomas and; the developed the new signings of The Staple Singers, Dramatics, The Emotions and The Soul Children. 

This is mixed, so gapless and really works.  I think this may have been put together by Carlos(?) the in-house Polydor engineer who ran many demos for UK acts including the Jam.  It's the Stax album that made me look further.  It again shows that SOUL isn't a 60's genre and that the period 1970 - 1975 (prior to the arrival of mainstream disco) is often ignored or wrongly dismissed with that tag.  All real gems in this track list and available elsewhere.  But to me these songs belong together in this order.  Find it if you can.


Stax - 2369 008

Four Tops - Keeper Of The Castle (1972)

From The Lost Record Covers Club

This was the first album post the Tops leaving Motown in 1972. Produced by Steve Barri, Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter who would go on to be the new hit team for them following on from the long run of Motown hits from Holland-Dozier-Holland.  The album is probably the first real consistent body of work by the group after the "Still Waters Run Deep" album (Motown).  Each member gets a turn at lead vocal with surprising results (given that Motown kept Levi Stubbs up front).  Ronaldo Benson, fresh from the success of his co-writing of "What's Going On", gets writing credits on a number of songs with even Stubbs and Abdul "Duke" Fakir getting a look in on "Turn On The Light Of Your Love".  The real standouts are the Lambert and Potter tunes with the title track, "Ain't No Woman" and "Must Be Dreaming" setting the tone for a new and welcome phase in the Tops career.  I remember buying the singles on import that preluded this, eventually getting hold of the album when it secured a UK release on the then EMI distributed Probe label, which was used for the ABC/Dunhill US releases.  If you can find a copy of this then buy it - it's one purchase you won't regret.

Probe - tba

The Undisputed Truth - The Undisputed Truth (1972)

From The Lost Record Covers Club

As you can clearly see this cost me £12 to repurchase a LP that I had in my collection 35 years ago (cost £1.60) - the pain was it took an age to find - worth it though  -  this is Whitfield at the height of his powers.  Check out the psychedelic soul of "Ball Of Confusion" a great example of Whitfield/Strong pushing the boundaries.  You can also see the Sly Stone influence.

Tamla Motown - STML 11197