Missionaria Protectiva

        Rock ’n’ roll was well established in the 1950s – Ike Turner, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard all had hits – but white audiences had largely rejected it. Buddy Holly presented blues, rock ’n’ roll, and country licks in a package the ‘suits’ would put on American television.       Regardless of the questionable values of the marketing machine, Holly and his Stratocaster were immediately popular. Iconic even. His strummed open chords on [1957 single] Peggy Sue were easy to play, embodying the “I can do that!” spirit of early rock ’n’ roll.       And his lasting influence? The Beatles’ name was a deliberate nod to Holly’s band The Crickets, as they and hundreds more sought to imitate him. Holly tragically died only two years later, aged 22, having changed music history in his short time on earth. BUDDY HOLLY & The CRICKETS 20 Golden Greats MCA,1978 https://www.sendspace.com/file/y6j04f

  NEW ENGLAND  New England  (Infinity,1979) - Rock       The AOR radio hit from this album, "Don't Ever Wanna' Lose Ya'", is fairly representative of New England's approach, combining distorted guitar and majestic keys with big vocal harmonies against the backdrop of a straight rock beat to create a swirling confection that is as powerful and compellingly catchy as it is sentimental and sometimes even sappy. TRACKLIST : Hello,Hello,Hello                        Don't Ever Wanna' Lose Ya                        P:U:N:K:                        Shall I Run Away                        Alone Tonight                        Nothing To Fear         ...

  LINDA RONSTADT  Don't Cry Now  (Asylum,1973) - Country folk       DON’T CRY NOW,   produced by J.D. Souther, is the Ronstadt album for which we’ve been waiting. Her first for Asylum, it surpasses in almost every respect her excellent Capitol album of last year, revealing Linda’s supreme vocal abilities in a fine production setting. Of the album’s ten songs, five are familiar: Eric Kaz and Libby Titus’ “Love Has No Pride,” The Eagles’ “Desperado,” Randy Newman’s “Sail Away,” Rick Roberts’ “Colorado” and Neil Young’s “I Believe in You.” Excepting “Sail Away,” Linda’s warm soulful renditions of these songs are definitive musical expositions. Her natural vocal equipment is second to none. Combined with perfect pitch, impeccable phrasing and control, her singing carries a throb that hurts and soothes at the same time, and her feeling for the melodic construction of any given song is always proportionate to its structure. TRACKLIST : I Can Almost See It ...

  JOAN BAEZ  Where Are You Now, My Son?  (A&M,1973) - Folk     The two sides of the album—the first seven songs on the first side and the journalistic exploration on the second side—work to paint a vivid portrait of this period in history. The album itself is full of every form of grief, but also with every form of love imaginable. In her artistry, Baez utilizes music as a tool of healing. Where Are You Now, My Son? serves as a two-fold reminder: first, of the horrors of war but secondly, and more importantly, as a tale of resilience. Baez denies no truth in her exploration of life in Vietnam, but she allows the viewer to see past the tragedy. After all, it is so easy to look at history books and see faces, unnamed and unknown, suffering and simply reduce them to that tragedy. What Baez did was allow for viewers to finally hear the voices of the oppressed. At the time of this album’s release, the U.S. had declared a supposed peace and was evacuating the cou...

  LITTLE RIVER BAND  After Hours  (EMI,1976) - Rock      O n  After Hours , it's possible to hear how tentative Little River Band are. They flit between pub-friendly country-rock and sentimental folk, dabble in jazzy runs as they ramp up rock & roll rhythms ("Take Me Home"), pound home a horn-fueled pop/rocker in the vein of  Chicago  ("Everyday of My Life"), even stretch out into something that feels like inadvertent proto-prog ("Another Runaway," whose chorus uncannily mirrors that of  Pink Floyd 's later "Comfortably Numb").  TRACKLIST : Days On The Road                        Everyday Of My Life                        Broke Again                        Seine City                        Ano...

  GEORGE HARRISON  All Things Must Pass  (Apple,1970) - Rock,Folk rock       Asked what he thought of his monumental Spector-ized debut during a remastering session years later, Harrison simply said, "Too much echo." By then an American publishing company had won a $600,000 judgment after claiming that the chart-topping "My Sweet Lord" sounded too much like the early '60s hit "He's So Fine." Still, nothing could mask the creative triumph that is  All Things Must Pass , as Harrison fully emerged from the long shadow of Lennon and McCartney. If he never did another solo thing, his legend would have already been secured. TRACKLIST 1: I'd Have You Anytime / My Sweet Lord / Wah-Wah / Isn't It A Pity (I) /                                What Is Life / If Not For You / Behind That Locked Door / Let It Down /                    ...

  LAURA NYRO  Gonna Take A Miracle  (Columbia,1971) - Soul       This album comes at the nicest time within Laura Nyro's career, for like most of the other performers that have cut a swath through pop music over the past couple of years, she's lately had to deal with those problems which naturally come with artistic growing up. Her last record showed very direct leanings toward a tired reliance on old faithfuls, and it must have ultimately motivated her to try something different. This album of Laura's interpretations of R&B; classics is the result. And, if nothing else,  Gonna Take A Miracle  bears witness to the fact that Laura Nyro has the best record collection on Central Park West. She touches on quite a divergent span while remaining faithful to a single, very individual vision. TRACKLIST : I Met Him On A Sunday                    The Bells              ...

         Multi-instrumentalist Chris Stainton has been a major presence on the British music scene since joining  Joe Cocker 's backing group,  the Grease Band , in 1966. Although he wasn't a part of the classic lineup of the free-standing version of that group, his longtime association with  Cocker  during the latter's prime years made him very much in demand as a player, mostly on keyboards but also on the bass.        When  Cocker  abandoned  the Grease Band , owing to personal and management considerations, Stainton remained with him and was part of the legendary  Mad Dogs & Englishmen   tour, memorialized in articles, on a triple-LP album, and in a documentary film. By that time, however, he'd also established himself as a top session musician, and had appeared on albums and singles by  Spooky Tooth ,  the Who ,  Leon Russell , et al., in addition to rejoining  the Grea...

  DAVE GREENSLADE  The Pentateuch Of Cosmogony  (EMI,1979) - Progressive rock       Grand epic fantasy concept album dominated with the keyboard genius of Dave GREENSLADE. Based on the wonderful world created and inked by artist Patrick Woodroffe, GREENSLADE transports us musically into his wonderful world. GREENSLADE is assisted throughout by both Phil Collins and John Lingwood on the drums and daughter Kate Greenslade who was 2 years old at the time. In many ways "Pentateuch" plays like a childhood nursery rhyme with GREENSLADE's choice of colorful themes and passages. Along the way we are treated to some nice varieties of keyboards with Mellotron, Church Organ, Polymoog, Tubular Bells, Minimoog, Clavinet, Vibraphone to name a few. TRACKLIST LP1: Introit / Moondance / Beltempest / Glass / Three Birds / Birds & Bats & Dragonflies / Nursery                               ...

  LODESTONE  Time Flies  (Philips,1971) - Progressive rock       It’s more than a little hard to find details about this lost corner of the transition from psychedelic rock to progressive rock. Lodestone never released anything aside from  Time Flies , and it was only available on the German Philips label, apparently in very limited quantity. The musicians credited were Gerry Morris (guitar, bass, vocals), Phil Chesterton (drums, percussion, guitar, vocals), John Da Costa (keyboards, guitar, vocals), and John Hollis (lead vocals, guitar, percussion), all of whom had worked with each other in various other bands.  TRACKLIST : Overture                     Link / Theme                     Castle / The Fault                     I Awake                    ...

  HARLIS  Night Meets The Day  (Sky,1977) - Kraut/Prog rock       “Night Meets The Day” is a conceptal album. It tells the story of a shipwrecked person who lures a ship on a deserted island by means of a beacon, makes a short career as a pirate, and finally ends up as a shipwreck after a lost battle.       Musically, Harlis offer a mixture of progressive rock and melodic hard rock. In the foreground is the guitar with some nice solos, some songs are dominated by simple, hard riffs (“Ruler of the Island”, “King of the Pirates”). The keyboards always remain in the background and are limited to atmospheric background as in the beautiful instrumental “Endless Sea”.       “Night Meets The Day” is not an essential album, but it is too much for simple hard rock.   TRACKLIST : Night Meets The Day                        Shipwrecked Stranded         ...

  FLAKE  How's Your Mother  (Violet's Holiday,1971) - Psych/Prog pop       Aided by their friends, singer and lyricist Gary Paige and guitarist Hubert Williams. The LP's lavish gatefold sleeve was Sporting a 'trippy' cover design, the album featured lighter pop-soul material on Side 1, with Side 2 featuring the band's heavier and more psychedelic side, highlighted by the epic 12-minute track "Violet Jam" (the second part of which was the Vanda-Young track "Quick Reaction"). Like many independent LP releases that came out during this  period the Flake LP had no commercial success at all and it has become a rare collector's item. Just before the album came out Billy Taylor left the group and he was replaced by Mick Meehan (ex Cinnamon). The album track "Under The Silent Tree" was released as the group's fourth single and it did moderately well, reaching #35 in Sydney in November 1971. TRACKLIST :  Under The Silent Tree        ...

  PENGUIN CAFE ORCHESTRA  Music From The Penguin Cafe  (EG,1976) - Chamber jazz       Multi-instrumentalist Simon Jeffes is joined by a collection of guests on eclectic backing instruments for this weird, occasionally folk-tinged slice of abstract avant-garde art-muzak. Presenting chamber music with no apparent connection to any pre-existing musical tradition, in retrospect (thanks in part to the Penguin Cafe's early championing by Brian Eno) we can see this as a sort of mellow, more acoustically-oriented cousin to the sort of ambient pop that Eno and Brand X cooked up on Another Green World. Minimalistic, yes, but never boring, the Penguin Cafe flock are always doing something interesting which sounds like little before or since. Followers of the more abstract jazz, folk, or pop tendencies will likely find it worth their time. TRACKLIST : Penguin Cafe Single                       From The Colonies ...

  SCOPE  Scope  (Atlantic,1974) - Jazz/Progressive rock       Scope  was a Dutch  jazz rock  group that was active from 1971 to 1976. It was founded in the city of Zwolle  by keyboardist/flutist Rik Elings and drummer Henk Zomer as a successor to their band Strange Power. Their compositions utilize elements of jazz  as well as progressive rock  combined with the prominent use of sounds that are typical of the decade such as the use of the wah-wah pedal . During their period of activity they were popular in the jazz rock scene in the Netherlands and often compared by Dutch publications to other jazz fusion groups, mostly those that originated in the United States. TRACKLIST : Watch Your Step                        Can You Follow Me                        Kayakokolishi             ...

        Dave Mattacks is a great and versatile player who’s done prog along with many other styles. Though best-known for his long service in  Fairport Convention , Mattacks has been the ultimate songwriter’s drummer, able to work with the world’s best and figure out exactly what every song calls for. In terms of prog credentials, he’s got a year with Jethro Tull, played on a few Camel   tracks and sessions with Gary Brooker and Phil Manzanera and more surprisingly he played on Bill Nelson’s Red Noise’s groundbreaking bit of prog-punk futurism,  Sound-on-Sound . FAIRPORT CONVENTION Babbacombe Lee Island,1971 https://www.sendspace.com/file/xf3vqy

  DELANEY BRAMLETT Mobius Strip  (Columbia,1973) - Rock,Pop rock       This album came out the year after his divorce. It’s his second solo album and clearly divorce has had an effect on him. Then again, he is singing the “blues’. Otherwise, Delaney seems to have not missed a musical beat. He is drawing on what he was doing with Delaney & Bonnie (I expect that as an accomplished guitarist, songwriter, and producer he would have been the prime mover) … country blues songs about people, love, life and moral decisions. TRACKLIST : Are You A Beatle Or A Rolling Stone                       What Am I Doin' (In A Place Like This)                       A Young Girl (In Her Garden)                       Big Ol' Piece Of Blues                       Cir...

  LEON RUSSELL  Americana  (Paradise,1978) - Pop rock       Not quite as bad as others have portrayed it as while there are a few disco tracks here calling this entire album a disco album is an exaggeration as there are some fine ballads and r&b tracks but as is too often the case with Leon you don't get a consistently good album since the outstanding debut album. The Chicago horns section is certainly not the reason for the bad tracks given that this is the band at their prime with Terry Kath still alive and way before their truly insipid David Foster/Diane Warren phase in the late 80s to early 90s. Not Leon's best work but certainly not his worse either. TRACKLIST : Let's Get Started                        Elvis And Marilyn                        From Maine To Mexico                   ...