Regarding The Big Ball...I don't think Dion and the Everly Brothers are as out of sync with the rest of the lineup as you make them seem. They weren't the chartbusters they were ten years earlier, but they still found a bit of a niche in the early-70s folk-rock scene.
I think my local record shop has a copy of The Big Ball in its used bins, right now. This is another album that I've seen countless times over the years.
One more trivia note: the original album said they would replace the mono "Oh Well" with a stereo mix, if they ever received one. As far as I know there still is no stereo version of "Oh Well" 45 years later.
Sunny Goodge Street is an early Donovan song, and a contender for the earliest psychedelic song, as well.
The first group that comes to mind is The Association. (if they did appear on a later Loss Leader I apologize, I'm only familiar with the first four or so releases not including 10/10/69).
I have that album. It was a regular priced single album "VA Comp". While it had some of the tracks found on these Loss Leaders, other than being a WB/Reprise release I don't think it had a direct connection (aka a "best of") to the Loss Leaders.
Yeah, forgot to mention in my post that Schlagers! is next up. There is some confusion about the release order of the 1970 releases, so I'm just following the order used here http://www.willardswormholes.com/archives/28018 (He seems to be the authority on the series, and while I'm at it, I would like to thank him for the images I've linked; I hope he doesn't mind) Without his site, I couldn't do this thread properly. Basically, I'm going by order of catalog number.
Thanks. While I was familiar with the title, I only had access to the first two double albums (I borrowed them from a friend). I selectivly copied certain tracks from the first two to a reel to reel tape back in my high school days. That friend probably was not interested in the "safe" concept of Schlagers!"
when we go through them all, will we continue with the 'cassette-only' "Survivor Sampler" & the "Just Say YES...." series?
2 comments: WPLJ was originally recorded by R&B Vocal group The Jayhawks ca. 1954-55. It's an acronym for White Port & Lemon Juice (which really sounds disgusting) and Hassinger walked out when Dead bassist Phil Lesh told him he wanted the sound of "thick air" and if that ain't psychedelic...
WPLJ was the station I had on, the day after John Lennon died. They had made a 'black-n-white' poster of all the Beatles US releases (LP's & singles) that was on the wall of my room for years!! Sorry.... back to the subject at hand....
This is not only a return to form, but one of the best Beach Boys tracks ever, amazing performance and production, and harmonic progressions that sound effortless but are quite complex, especially for a pop song, I know my music theory but it doesn't take me many bars to get lost trying to follow where the chords are going. It is criminal that Sunflower performed so poorly and was so overlooked by the general public (although not by critics and hardcore fans) at the time. Correct, "Oh Well" was never mixed in stereo, so this version is the only one that exists. I am surprised that they used up so much real estate by including both parts and not just the "hit" Part 1. I guess they are edited together in the same way as on Then Play On, in such a way that the a section is repeated?
How "Stay With Me" was not a huge hit is one of the great mysteries of the music business. This is, simply, one of the greatest records ever made. Ellison's voice is incredibly powerful. It's as if - if he doesn't stay with her, she is simply going to die. Literally die.
The Big Ball is definitely one of my favorites and it was real bang for your 2 bucks. All of them were, but this one is especially generous. Side 2 alone clocks in at over 32 minutes and I was thrilled to get all 9 minutes of "Oh Well" because my copy of Then Play On is the pressing that doesn't have the song. Again, it's not only eclectic but marvelously sequenced, and again we get a nice mellow folky side (Side 3 this time). I love all of the 5th Avenue Band songs I heard on the Loss Leaders and I'm still searching for their album. 2 years ago, my son found a good copy of An Evening With Wild Man Fischer on line and gave it to me for Christmas. I had never seen that one before either, but it's great in its own twisted way.
The stores and radio stations were supposed to return those promo albums to the record company by a certain date, but sometimes they just donated them to thrift stores. That's how I got Display Case #7 and lots of other great radio promo albums.
I noticed the length of Side 2 in the capsule review above. Great value, but how could the SQ be any good? Curious. Amazing idea for an ABA thread, by the way. I am enjoying this. I never owned a copy of one, but am familiar with the series. Now I’m wanting to go to my local store of choice (within walking distance, fortunately) and search for some.
I am listening to rips of the original vinyl albums on FLAC files, and they sound pretty good to me. I've heard worse. I'm no expert (at all; repeat: not an audiophile here), but I've been noticing details in the mixes that I hadn't noticed before in some of the songs. But I'm also concentrating more than usual, too. Later in our story, we will note how the two oil crises of the 1970's directly affected the Loss Leaders packaging, which got less lavish to save money. I would not be at all surprised if they switched to inferior vinyl as the decade wore on, but I have no knowledge of such things and welcome any input of someone who does.
It's an amazing song, and it was interesting to hear the backstory about how the canceled Sinatra session caused it's arrangement and recording, which makes it even more impressive. I didn't really know this this song until I heard it on the Beg, Scream & Shout! box set, but since becoming aware of it I have actually heard it played in some public places, which is cool, but it's not really backgroud music, is it?
Since I don't have most of these, but wanted to follow this thread, I found a download of the complete series in MP3 format, but dissapointingly it seems they are not rips of the actual albums, but someone has tried to recreate these by piecing togeteher the songs from other sources, so precisely these alternate versions, which are the most interesting aspect, are missing and replaced with more common versions (and some of the specially edited tracks/medleys/suites are missing altogether)...