Category Archives: vinylrecords

Below the Salt – Steeleye Span

First of all – what a great album cover. The frisky play on being peasants well and truly ‘below the salt’ is riotously captured by the band playing up to the camera. I cannot help thinking they are also saying to the traditionalists that actually we do not care what you think but this is our version of traditional folk. This album captures all that is wonderful about these old songs but does so in a way that is more palatable, shall we say, for the non-devotee of traditional folk. This album will never, can never date. The songs are so old anyway at the time of recording that another couple of hundred years will not age them.

The Band – Best of The Band

With the passing of Garth Hudson THE BAND is no more. I was listening to The Band well before I started listening seriously to Dylan. I encourage you to seek out or stream a collection and enjoy America’s finest Canadians bottling the spirit of the States in a way no one else has been able to do. Musically they had few if any peers as a collective group of musicians.
The Band – yes, THE band. Enjoy their legacy as with Garth Hudson’s passing we will not see their like again. TAKEN FROM MY BOOK ‘Tracks of our Years’ bit.ly/bookneal

Paul Simon – Paul Simon

Paul Simon released his second solo album in early 1972, having spent two years moving forward from the breakup of his partnership with Art Garfunkel. Looking back some fifty years from the release of this album you can see the template for Simon’s love of using varying styles of music gathered from all over the world. There is a sense of release from the constraints of working as a duo in this work. It is intensely personal, as is most of Simon’s writing. The album represents a crossroads for him but one that he negotiates with a fresh impetus to his writing, but most especially to his musicality. This has a feel of a great starting album from an exciting new artist, one not fully developed, but one of exceptional promise of what is to come. http://www.nealatherton.com

Musical Reflections: Uncovering the Stories Behind My Vinyl Collection

Today, as I listen to the Bruce Springsteen ‘River’ album, I am wondering what it is that shapes our love of music and particularly a genre that we seem to stay with for life. To be fair I did come to Springsteen a little later in life although the seeds were already there for him to step into my collection. My reason for starting this journey through my past, to paraphrase Neil Young, was my father’s vinyl collection. My father died recently, and he left a vast collection of vinyl including 78’s which I suppose are technically shellac. His CD collection was even more extensive, but it was the vinyl that fascinated me.

Fairport Convention – Unhalfbricking

I appreciate Liege and Lief is considered the most important album Fairport produced but Unhalfbricking is my favourite. It is difficult to imagine that there was a finer group of British musicians at this time. The whole album has moments of sheer perfection. In the case of Sandy’s immortal ‘Who Knows Where the Time Goes’ the perfection holds throughout the track.

Paul Simon – Live Rhymin’

Live ‘Rhymin’ is a largely forgotten gem in Paul Simon’s catalogue. It captures the Simon of the time beautifully, as well as giving an insight into how he must have sounded in those heady mid ’60s days touring the bleak Northern towns of England.

Joni Mitchell – Court & Spark

Blue is my favourite Joni Mitchell album and that will never change. However, I listen more often to Court & Spark. This is probably because of the musicality of the album and also it coincided with the only time I saw her perform live – at Wembley stadium in 1974. That was a never to be forgotten day when she blew all the cobwebs out of that old stadium with an exhilarating performance with Tom Scott and the L.A.Express. Please enjoy my new book of Musical Memories & bit.ly/bookneal

Bruce Springsteen – Darkness on the Edge of Town

It is this classic, definitive collaboration with the E-Street Band that is my number one go-to album by him. It is pre the superstardom he was to have. The process of making great art is pressed into these tracks on ‘Darkness.’

Sandy Denny – Sandy

Sandy Denny’s solo albums can be flawed to a degree, as is her work with Fotheringay. Sometimes it is the song choice being patchy, it can be over-blown arrangements or just too many musical influences on one album. But in all of them are absolute gems. She is THE English female vocalist of the 20th Century – I do not engage in arguments over that one. If I was encouraging someone coming new to her work, then I would certainly suggest going to a compilation of which there are several worthy ones. I don’t own a vinyl compilation so I must as I write about my collection go to my favourite solo album.