Officially released for the first time ever, a previously unknown half-hour from cosmic mythologist and sound scientist Sun Ra's 1971 U.C. Berkeley course "The Black Man in the Cosmos." Ra's soft-spoken intensity is underscored by the sound of chalk on the board as he ambles effortlessly through his potent and prescient ideas. The class session closes with two musical tracks, a piano version of "Love In Outer Space" and a blistering Moog solo.A very cool document of the great Sun Ra – and a set that combines both music and a spoken passage from a class that Ra was teaching at the University of California in the 70s! The spoken work is fascinating – as it really captured Ra as he lived, but in ways that are different than you might expect – still as intellectual as any of his writings, and ideas you might have picked up from other sources – but with a very down-to-earth approach that maybe makes the man seem more human than some of his future-thinking music, or the cosmic garb that he's usually wearing on a record cover! Ra is completely captivating during the 30 minute lecture – which was part of a cours titled The Black Man & The Cosmos – then the set moves into a wonderful five minute solo piano piece, and an extra cool solo Moog performance that runs for over sixteen minutes in length – mindblowing analog electronics that has Ra getting some very noisy sounds from the Moog!

The untitled fourth studio album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, commonly known as Led Zeppelin IV, was released on 8 November 1971 by Atlantic Records. Produced by guitarist Jimmy Page, it was recorded between December 1970 and March 1971 at several locations, most prominently the Victorian house Headley Grange. Led Zeppelin IV was a commercial and critical success, featuring many of the band's best-known songs, including "Black Dog", "Rock and Roll", "Going to California" and "Stairway to Heaven". The album is one of the best-selling albums of all time with more than 37 million copies sold. It is tied for third highest-certified album in the United States at 23x platinum. Writers and critics have regularly cited it on lists of the greatest albums of all time.

E Pluribus Funk is Grand Funk Railroad's fifth studio album and was released in November 1971 by Capitol Records. Like previous Grand Funk Railroad albums, it was recorded at Cleveland Recording Company and is the final album produced by Terry Knight. The title is a play on the former motto of the US government, E pluribus unum. The original release cover (designed by Ernie Cefalu) was completely round and covered with a silver-like film to resemble a large coin. The back side of the cover of this album included a die cast picture of Shea Stadium to celebrate Grand Funk beating The Beatles' Shea Stadium attendance record by selling out in just 72 hours.

From the Inside is Poco's most unusual record, and one the band – especially founder Richie Furay, whose songs were sort of pushed into the background – finally didn't like all that much. But it was a very good one anyway, produced in Memphis by guitar legend Steve Cropper and featuring the group generating a leaner, more stripped-down, somewhat bluesier sound. The harmonies are less radiant and the guitars more subdued, and the spirits also a little more low-key than usual.

This reissue British artist Mike Cooper's two excellent albums, originally released in 1970 and 1971, respectively; his departure from folk-blues is evident on these two documents. His diversity is one of the most striking traits of his work, considering that Cooper has worked in free improvisation, avant-garde, Hawaiian guitar music, and – much later in the '90s – even drum'n'bass-inflected electronica. As a British folk-blues artist of the '60s, obvious comparisons to Bert Jansch and John Renbourn abound. Like many of his contemporaries of that movement, he progressed to a folk-rock singer/songwriter mode by 1971 and gave listeners Places I Know, which is rooted in the tradition of Tim Buckley, Jackson Browne, and Randy Newman's sophistication with the form.

Poco is an American country rock band originally formed by Richie Furay, Jim Messina and Rusty Young. Formed following the demise of Buffalo Springfield in 1968, Poco was part of the first wave of the West Coast country rock genre. Throughout the years Poco has performed in various groupings, and is still active.

One minute The Action were the ultimate mod cult band, belting out exuberant Anglicised approximations of Tamla/soul material in clubs across the country, the next they’d shed singer Reggie King and mutated into questing countercultural adventurers Mighty Baby.
Under the leadership of guitarist Martin Stone, they would become increasingly insular as four of the five band members converted to Islam and they moved slowly towards a more improvised sound. By the end of 1971, fasting for Ramadan had left them almost too weak to perform onstage, at which juncture they came to the reluctant conclusion that rock’n’roll and the Muslim faith were incompatible…

Following the meltdown of the original King Crimson lineup, Ian McDonald and Michael Giles brought brother Peter Giles back, which helps to account, in some ways, for the resemblance of this album to the 1968 Giles, Giles & Fripp recordings - though the songs here tend to go on at some length, combining prog rock's traits of length and multiple sections with some of the lighter feel of the GG&F days. The 20-minute "Birdman" tends toward self-indulgence, while "Tomorrow's People - The Children of Today" loses focus halfway and spends the next four minutes being a blithering - if pretty - musical idiot. The main attraction is really the performances turned in by McDonald and the Giles brothers - they all sound fabulous, even when waffling musically, while Michael Giles has a unique drum tone that never has been duplicated (Giles himself abandoned the sound for his later career in Jackson Heights and as a session drummer)…

Amon Düül was a German art commune whose members began producing improvisational psychedelic rock music during the late '60s. The group's members released several albums, mostly recorded during a single extended jam session. Concurrently, some of the commune's more musically inclined members formed the longer-lasting Amon Düül II, who made their debut with 1969's Phallus Dei and continued releasing ambitious efforts such as 1971's Tanz der Lemminge and the more pop-minded Made in Germany (1975). Both acts proved to be a major influence on generations of experimental rock musicians to come and are regarded as pioneers of the Krautrock style.

Electric Warrior is the sixth studio album by English glam rock act T. Rex. It's the group's second album released under the name "T. Rex", with the first four billed as "Tyrannosaurus Rex". It was released on 24 September 1971 by record label Fly in the UK and Reprise in the US. The album marks a turning point in the band's sound, dispensing with the folk-oriented music of the group's previous albums and pioneering a new, "glammier" style of rock known as glam rock. The album also drew attention to the band in the United States with the top 10 hit "Bang A Gong (Get It On)". This would prove to be the band's only successful single in America, deeming the band a "one-hit wonder" there.

Fans of AC/DC's original singer Bon Scott who pick up Livestock expecting to hear AC/DC redux will be rather surprised with this release. These cuts, recorded in 1971 with Scott's previous band, Fraternity, reveal a drastically different sound than the bluesy hard rock Scott made his name with. Fraternity veer all over the stylistic map, from the funky "Summerville" to the extended prog-rock epic "Raglan's Folly" (which wouldn't sound out of place on an early Genesis album). Only "Race" (both parts) and "Livestock" bear any resemblance to Scott's most famous band, and even then just barely, since they sound closer to the Doors or mid-'60s Rolling Stones. Part of the discrepancy is that, as the extensive liner notes explain, Scott had very little creative input in Fraternity, which was chiefly the vision of bassist Bruce Howe and guitarist Mick Jurd…

Previously unreleased Chicago 1971 Live Concert from The John F. Kennedy for the Performing Arts available on 4xLP and 3xCD. Chicago was one of the first musical acts to perform at The Kennedy Center, after spending their time in 1971 developing songs for their live shows that would be included in future projects, such as Chicago V, which was recorded soon after. Fans will enjoy hits such as "Saturday In The Park" which was first performed at this show, "25 to 6 to 4", and many more!

A beautiful fusion of Joe Zawinul's roots in the groups of Miles Davis and Cannonball Adderley - a set with some of the far-reaching jazz ideas of the former, and much of the soulful subtleties of the latter! The album features Joe on electric piano throughout, playing alongside Herbie Hancock in a twin-piano style that's quite spacious, and filled with slow-building, long-flowing lines! Other players include Woody Shaw on trumpet, Earl Turbington on soprano sax, George Davis on flute, Miroslav Vitous and Walter Booker on drums, and Joe Chambers, Billy Hart, and David Lee on a range of percussion. All these elements are used slowly, and sparingly - brought in with a style that's modern, but in a gentle sort of way - not as over the top as some of the work that Joe cut with Miles at the end of the 60s - and almost a more sensitive, compositional approach to the same territory of music.

Pilgrimage is the second studio album by the rock band Wishbone Ash. The album focuses more on folk and acoustic music as opposed to the blues rock sound that dominated the first album. The album also contains an instrumental jazz workout ("Vas Dis") and a four-part harmony vocal track in the spirit of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young ("Valediction"). The album sold well, reaching no.14 in the UK charts, but the band would reach their creative and commercial peak with their next studio album release.

Singer Ruby Starr was best-known as a backup singer for '70s macho man rockers Black Oak Arkansas, but also issued several recordings as a solo artist as well. Born Constance Henrietta Mierzwiak in Toledo, OH, in 1949, the future rock singer got her start at the age of nine (performing renditions of Brenda Lee songs) before changing her stage name to Connie Little and forming the Phil Spector-esque Connie & the Blu-Beats. Following stints in such obscure outfits as the Downtowners and the Blue Grange Ramblers (aka BGR), the latter of which mutated into the outfit Ruby Jones (a name that the singer was going by at the time). Signed to Curtis Mayfield's Curtom label, the recording of Ruby Jones' 1971 self-titled was even supervised by Mayfield…