The second of three Allison albums issued on Motown's Gordy subsidiary in the 1970s, Luther's Blues captures the guitarist's uncovered-wire sound in its full glory. The crescendo ending of "Let's Have a Little Talk," one of five Allison originals here, is more than another standard variation on crowd-pleasing clichés. It's an apocalyptic, blues-wailing roar, with Allison's pleading vocal at its core. Berry Gordy turns up in the composer credits for one tune, "Someday Pretty Baby," which, along with "Part Time Love," trawls the company's early raw-edged back catalog. Even the funk-flavored "K.T."–an attempted hit single?–fits the mood. The three bonus tracks on this exemplary remaster nearly double the original LP's length, with a raw version of Freddy King's "San-Ho-Zay" glowing alongside an alternate version of Allison's "Bloomington Closing" and a lengthy medley from the 1973 Ann Arbor Blues Festival.

24-bit remastered reissue of the Chicago rock act's 1971 sophomore album includes two bonus tracks, 'Superman' (Single Mono Version) & 'Melody', packaged in a digipak.

All American Alien Boy is the second solo album by Ian Hunter. Because of management issues, Mick Ronson did not appear on this album; instead, Hunter brought in keyboardist Chris Stainton to act as a balancing force in the studio. Unlike his previous album, the album didn't feature any of his trademark rockers (apart from "Restless Youth") and he opted for a more jazzy direction including budding bass legend Jaco Pastorius.

Ian Dury, like Ray Davies and Paul Weller was a very English talent. The colorful, metropolis-inhabiting characters like Billericay Dickie or Plaistow Patricia he sung about, and the ever so cockney music hall accent he chose to sing in, were a big part of that. But mostly, it was the detailed, poetic way he cataloged English life and the melting pot of musical styles he used to do so, from punk and funk to jazz and rock'n'roll, which left no doubt that Dury's work could only come from one place: The very heart of England. So few were surprised when after his death Sir Paul McCartney, Robbie Williams, Madness and more all lined up to pay their respects with cover versions of some of his best loved songs. You'll find plenty of them here, in their original versions, culled from his entire career from the mid-'70s with pub rockers Kilburn & the High Roads through the golden years with the majestic Blockheads right up to the last studio recordings at the start of the '90s. 2 CD set is comprised of 34 tracks. Music Club. 2005.

Psych', a newly compiled 64 song 3CD set celebrating an extraordinary era in British Pop and Rock music that saw an expansion of musical styles that heralded Psychedelia and the arrival of Prog (or Progressive) Rock. It coincided with the launch of the eclectic, occasionally esoteric but always interesting Deram label - the music press of the day described it as a 'hip label for groovy people'. Includes esteemed artists such as Genesis, The Moody Blues and Caravan alongside hidden gems within the catalogue.

With our release of well-received titles by Blood, Sweat & Tears and Tower of Power, we at Real Gone have become something of a home for the great horn bands of the late '60s and early 70s, and with our reissue of The Ides of March's classic Vehicle album on the 50th anniversary of the band s founding, we are bringing another one into the fold. The Ides began in a basement in the Chicago suburb of Berwyn on October 16th, 1964, and have stayed together ever since; only the Rolling Stones really rival them for longevity. And this album, Vehicle, was their commercial high-water mark; its title track went to #2 and the album to #55 on the 1970 charts. It's a happy collision (no pun intended) of the band s garage-y British pop influences and the more progressive sounds of Chicago and BS&T that were sweeping through FM radio at the time; our Expanded Edition features four single bonus tracks and notes by Richie Unterberger featuring quotes from the band's Jim Peterik and Larry Millas. Highly recommended!

This Art Farmer studio session from 1971 has a slight contemporary flavor to it, due to the addition of conga player James "Mtume" Forman and percussionist Warren Smith, Jr. to a core group of collaborators including Jimmy Heath, Cedar Walton, Sam Jones, and Billy Higgins. Unfortunately, the additional percussionists are too prominent in the mix, greatly distracting from the driving arrangements of Farmer's "Homecoming" and Kenny Dorham's "Blue Bossa" as well as a peppy bossa nova, "Cascavelo." Far better are the quintet tracks, including the laid-back and mellow interpretation of Leonard Bernstein's ballad "Some Other Time," featuring the leader's matchless flügelhorn and Heath's soprano sax, and an upbeat chart of "Here's That Rainy Day." Another annoying problem is the seemingly out of tune piano, though Walton makes the best of a bad instrument. Not an essential album in the vast Farmer discography, but worth acquiring if found at a reasonable price, though it will be difficult.

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 “Nuggets”of Krautrock?
“Cologne Curiosities” collects, for the first time on vinyl, all the otherwise unpublished/un-reissued material that firstly appeared on the three "Unknown Deutschland - The Krautrock Archive" CDs released on Virgin during 1996. These CD only releases were originally compiled by Trevor Manwaring (Paratactile, Impetus, Virgin, Harmonia Mundi) from tapes supplied to him by Toby Robinson. Toby - aka The Mad Twiddler, aka Genius P. Orridge - is well-known to Krautrock collectors as one of a number of engineers working at Stockhausen’s WDR and Dierks Studio in Cologne in the mid-1970's, where he assisted on recordings by many famous Kraut bands such as Can, Birth Control, Mythos or Dzyan. The recordings included here were made between 1972 and 1976 using studios in and around Cologne, produced by Toby Robinson for his own amusement, just having fun on the studio. Inevitably, bands would come in for practice sessions, to record demo's, and during slack periods impromptu jams would happen. Most of these sessions were recorded by Toby, and they feature Toby himself plus a revolving cast of friends and musicians (some of them apparently big Kraut names under pseudonym).

In the mid-20th century, Louisville gospel music was occasionally recorded when members of the local gospel community pressed 45rpm records and LPs, and released them through grassroots record labels such as Sensational Sounds, Grace, Blessed, and D.J.S. Over the years, a substantial body of work was produced in our city, but those recordings are in danger of being lost forever.The Louisville Story Program has been working with dozens of people in the local gospel music community to locate, digitize, and preserve hundreds of these recordings and to develop a book that documents and honors the legacies of the people and communities that produced them.For decades, the passion, hard work, and support of countless people across dozens of Black church communities in Louisville have nurtured and sustained a rich gospel music ecosystem. This music has served as a central part of people's religious practice and as an expression of Black pride, joy, affirmation, love, dignity, determination, and hope. This legacy continues to this day.

The very thing that made Luther Allison noteworthy became an albatross around his neck. Years after his initial run of records in the '70s, he was known for the same thing he was at the time – he was the only blues artist on Gordy, or any Motown affiliated label. This was true and novel, but many focused on the novelty, not the truth, ignoring Allison's status as a terrific torchbearer of raw Chicago blues. Some of material illustrates some contemporary influence – dig that funky groove and organ on "Raggedy and Dirty," or the rock-oriented slow burn of Mel London's "Cut You A-Loose" – but as his original title track illustrates, he can also deliver a torturous, impassioned slow grind. Still, this isn't an album about originality, it's a record how tradition can remain alive in a contemporary setting. Apart from the slightly cleaner production and the extended running time, this could have been released 15 years earlier, since its heart is in classic Chicago blues, particularly Chess. He draws on Willie Dixon via Howlin' Wolf for the first two tracks, dipping into Elmore James and B.B. King's catalogs later on in the record.

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.

No frills on the final Excello blues sessions of the late 60s and early 70s aimed at the Southern Blues audience, but here for hippies, yuppies and anyone with the ears to hear the heart & soul of the real blues. Although Excello Records is famous for its swamp pop sound, a good part of which was due to Jay Miller's production approach that favored a deadened, muffled drum sound and tons of delay and reverb, by the late '60s and early '70s the label was struggling to grab hold of its share of the Southern soul market, and the sound of the label's singles became much slicker, sharper, and more funk-driven. Excello never really abandoned the blues, but the studio started to give the genre some fancier clothes, as this interesting collection of late-era singles recorded between 1966 and 1974 clearly shows. Slim Harpo's "I'm So Sorry" from 1968 and his cover of John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillun" from 1970 are cases in point. Both singles are far more professional sounding than his earlier output, and decidedly less swampy in feel. Better production and clearer sound didn't translate into more sales, however, and these tracks are some of the last gasps of the famed Excello catalog. Worth noting are two fine 1970 cuts from Otis Spann, the atmospheric and off-kilter "Bloody Murder" and the sharp-edged title track, "Blues for Hippies," where Spann sings about meeting Daniel in the metaphoric (one assumes, anyway) Lion's Den.

Almost every track new to CD. Includes best-selling albums from the mid-70s. Features numerous major Jamaican hits.
Few Jamaican music makers have demonstrated greater versatility or proficiency than Lloyd Charmers, who first made his name on the Jamaican music scene as a youthful singer- songwriter in the early 60s, performing as half of the popular duo, The Charmers. Subsequent solo works along with a spell with The Uniques vocal trio ultimately led on to a move into record production. Over the years that immediately followed, his output as both a performer and producer included multiple major reggae hits, most notably Ken Boothe’s chart-topping version of ‘Everything I Own’, the success of which confirmed Charmer’s position as one of the Jamaica’s finest talents. Soon after this international best-seller, he produced works by a number of other leading Jamaican-based acts, their number including keyboard maestro Harold Butler, popular singer Dobby Dobson and the multi-talented Richard Ace - and it is these three supremely gifted artists whose work primarily comprises this collection.

This 2 CD set looks at the beginnings of country rock in the late 60s and follows it through the heady days of the 70s. Includes tracks both classic and rare from a stunning array of artists, including Gram Parsons, the Byrds, Emmylou Harris, Bob Dylan, David Crosby, Michael Nesmith and many more.