The Hissing of Summer Lawns   Joni Mitchell (1975)   Asylum Records

“In France They Kiss on Main Street”, “The Jungle Line”, “Edith and the Kingpin”, “Don’t Interrupt The Sorrow”, “Shades of Scarlett Conquering”, “The Hissing of Summer Lawns”, “The Boho Dance”, “Harry’s House/Centerpiece”, “Sweet Bird”, “Shadows and Light”

Graham Nash, David Crosby and James Taylor all contribute background vocals.   Taylor, Robben Ford, Jeff Baxter, Larry Carlton on guitar.   Victor Feldman, Joe Sample on keyboard.   Max Bennett and Wilton Felder, bass.   Chuck Findley and Bud Shank, horns.   Plus the Warrior Drums of Burundi on “The Jungle Line”.   Fun fact: the Burundi drums on this track were sampled on the Beastie Boys ‘B-boy Bouillabaisse’ from Paul’s Boutique

The follow up to Court and Spark, Joni’s most commercially successful album, Summer Lawns saw her risking new-found success with an edgier, experimental and adventurous album (and perhaps rock’s first dabbling in World Music?)   Critically scorned at the time, its now much loved as one of Joni’s most brilliant, personal artistic statements.

(37 votes, average: 3.51 out of 5)

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“Blues Helping”   Love Sculpture   Rare Earth Records (1967)   Love Sculpture was a British band that formed in Cardiff in 1966 out of the remnants of another local band called The Human Beans. The band, featuring lead guitarist Dave Edmunds (Right), John Williams on bass, and drummer Bob “Congo” Jones disbanded in 1970 after two LPs, this is their first. (Edmunds then went on to success with the number one song “I Hear You Knocking” and “I Knew the Bride (When She Used To Rock and Roll)” and then with Nick Lowe formed the band Rockpile.)

“Blues Helping” is pretty straight forward British blues rock with covers of “Summertime,” “Wang Dang Doodle,” and “Shake Your Hips”

Below is Robert Indiana’s “Love Sculpture” located on the corner of 6th Avenue and 55th Street in Manhattan, NY.

Below is the album cover for “Renegade” by Rage Against The Machine which parodies the “Love” sculpture.   (Neither Robert Indiana nor Rage have any other connection with the “Blues Healing” LP that started this ramble.   None that I know of that is.)

(29 votes, average: 3.24 out of 5)

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“All-Star Rock and Roll”   An Atlantic Records EP from the early days of “rock and roll” which really means the R&B stars of the day like Ivory Joe Hunter, Clyde McPhatter, Ruth Brown and LaVern Baker.

(36 votes, average: 3.86 out of 5)

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Rock-A-Ballads A Cadence Records compilation with the Everly Brothers, Andy Williams, Johnny Tillotson, The Chordettes, etc.

(31 votes, average: 3.55 out of 5)

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Los Bravos “La Moto”   Columbia.   (1966).   Los Bravos was the first Spanish group to reach #2 on the UK charts and #4 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.   That one-hit wonder, “Black is Black,” sold over one million copies worldwide.   (A sad aside:   One of Los Bravos’ founding members Manuel Fernandez committed suicide on 20 May 1967, at the age of 23after the death of his bride Lottie Rey in an auto accident. He had been driving the car and was riddled with guilt.)

(35 votes, average: 3.49 out of 5)

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The Smoke   “My Friend Jack”   An EP on Impact records (1967 – French)

(36 votes, average: 3.78 out of 5)

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The original Nuggets LP on Elektra (1972) “Original Artyfacts from the First Psychodelic Era 1965 – 1968″   The seminal and influential double-record compilation of American garage band rock singles produced by Elektra founder Jac Holzman and Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith’s guitarist).   I discovered this in 1978 in Boston’s Kenmore Square – fittingly at a used record shop called “Nuggets” (Nuggets was next to “The Rat,” i.e., the Rathskeller, a raw basement concert venue that featured many local punk bands.)

Nuggets spawned an entire cottage industry of small record labels dedicated to unearthing and releasing obscure but worthy garage and psychedelic rock music from the 1960s.   Contrary to popular belief, more than a third of the original Nuggets were American Top 40 hits.   Among them “Dirty Water” (Standells), “Liar, Liar” (Castaways), and at number five the highest-charting 45 of the bunch, “Psychotic Reaction” (Count Five).   Several sides never made the Top 200 including “Let’s Talk About Girls” (Chocolate Watchband), “Don’t Look Back” (Remains), and “An Invitation to Cry” (Magicians).   Nuggets influenced Patti Smith, The Ramones, The Talking Heads and R.E.M. .   Each track is also given a brief bio which was researched and penned by Kaye. His comments go beyond the facts and figures of the typical discography, relating to the music as the personal experience that it was.

(47 votes, average: 4.43 out of 5)

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The Rolling Stones “Jumping Jack Flash” (released originally in May 1968 b/w “Street Fighting Man”) and “Honky Tonk Women”   (released originally in July 1969 b/w “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”) Decca Records

One picture has the band with Brian Jones and the other with Mick Taylor.   Taylor, who at 17 had replaced Eric Clapton in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, joined the Stones in June, 1969.   Jones died in July, a month later.   Though Brian was at the recording of “Honky Tonk Women” in early ’69, by the time it was released he was out of the band and replaced by 20-year old Taylor whose guitar work was overdubbed for the release of the single.     Mick Taylor was with the Stones until he left the group in December of 1974, to be replaced by Ron Wood.   Many would say that the Mick Taylor years were the band’s greatest period.

(43 votes, average: 4.19 out of 5)

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“The Buddy Holly Story”   Compare the U.K. Coral   (top) and U.S. Coral Records (bottom) releases.

(18 votes, average: 3.72 out of 5)

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