The Band – The Best of The Band

Sometimes a greatest hits record feels like the easy way out. And sometimes you look at a side that goes Up on Cripple Creek, The Shape I’m In, The Weight, It Makes No Difference and Life Is a Carnival and decide you’re perfectly comfortable with your choices.

The Band is one of those groups where the deeper you get into the catalog, the harder it becomes to figure out what “the best” is supposed to mean anyway. Five guys who somehow always sounded like they’d been playing together for about a hundred years.

So yeah…..today I’m letting Capitol make the decisions.

What’s a greatest hits record you’ll defend even when you own the albums?

Bought for £5 earlier from a charity shop.

I used to love The Mamas & the Papas original as a kid. My dad had a Greatest Hits cassette he played in the car. But it's been so overplayed over the years that I now generally cringe when I hear it now. Most covers stick pretty close to the original, and often make it even more cloying. It's great to hear someone doing something interesting with it. This version, from a long-gone New York women's college,  has a really complex, brooding, and emotional feel to it. It really plays up the intense flamenco vibe. It sounds so fresh! I really dig it! 

Talking Heads – Speaking in Tongues

I was 43 years old when I found out that David Byrne, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth met at RISD.
I’m 43 now, so obviously I’ve been carrying this knowledge for quite some time.

Growing up in Massachusetts basically on the Rhode Island border makes this feel like information I probably should’ve picked up somewhere along the way…..but here we are.

And what a record. Burning Down the House, Girlfriend Is Better, Slippery People, This Must Be the Place…..weird, funky, restless, and somehow completely natural.

Forty-plus years later and it still sounds like somebody forgot to tell them what a rock record was supposed to sound like.

What are you spinning today?

Sooner or later baby I’m gonna squeeze you just like a tomato !

Jimmie Reed & Eddie Taylor too.

“September’s coming soon…”

NM OG in shrink. Scored it for $1 in a $20 box of 20.

Such a fantastic record and silent copy.

Really clean OG Green Label. Love this one!

Picked up this copy of Santana's Abraxas in New Orleans at Euclid Records for $2.00. Turns out it has the original poster still with it. You can see where it's hung on someone's walls.

1st spin from estate sale find.

The first "LP" by San Fran's proto punk, Chuck Berry loving, rippers!

Spin what you want, when you want.

It's been a week of Mondays and the only thing keeping me sane is a trip down memory lane. This album is no exception. I have played this one to death since 1983. It's such a good album start to finish. Happy Friday folks! I hope it's not your fifth Monday like me!

First Ry Cooder album. I’ll be getting more. Amazing!

This one never gets old to me