Child Is Father to the Man is keyboard player/singer/arranger Al Kooper's finest work, an album on which he moves the folk-blues-rock amalgamation of the Blues Project into even wider pastures, taking in classical and jazz elements (including strings and horns), all without losing the pop essence that makes the hybrid work. This is one of the great albums of the eclectic post-Sgt. Pepper era of the late '60s, a time when you could borrow styles from Greenwich Village contemporary folk to San Francisco acid rock and mix them into what seemed to have the potential to become a new American musical form. It's Kooper's bluesy songs, such as "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know" and "I Can't Quit Her," and his singing that are the primary focus, but the album is an aural delight; listen to the way the bass guitar interacts with the horns on "My Days Are Numbered" or the charming arrangement and Steve Katz's vocal on Tim Buckley's "Morning Glory." Then Kooper sings Harry Nilsson's "Without Her" over a delicate, jazzy backing with flügelhorn/alto saxophone interplay by Randy Brecker and Fred Lipsius.
An English hard rock institution founded by former Deep Purple vocalist David Coverdale, Whitesnake emerged in the late 1970s with a style steeped in the driving British blues-rock of bands like Thin Lizzy, Led Zeppelin, and of course, Deep Purple. After recalibrating their sound to better adapt to the burgeoning '80s hair and pop-metal scene, they found commercial success with 1984's Slide It In and then cannonballed into the mainstream in 1987 with the release of their multi-platinum-selling eponymous seventh effort, which spawned the power ballad "Is This Love" and the massive crossover number one hit "Here I Go Again."
While mostly accurate, dismissing Never Mind the Bollocks as merely a series of loud, ragged midtempo rockers with a harsh, grating vocalist and not much melody would be a terrible error. Already anthemic songs are rendered positively transcendent by Johnny Rotten's rabid, foaming delivery. His bitterly sarcastic attacks on pretentious affectation and the very foundations of British society were all carried out in the most confrontational, impolite manner possible. Most imitators of the Pistols' angry nihilism missed the point: underneath the shock tactics and theatrical negativity were social critiques carefully designed for maximum impact. Never Mind the Bollocks perfectly articulated the frustration, rage, and dissatisfaction of the British working class with the establishment, a spirit quick to translate itself to strictly rock & roll terms. the Pistols paved the way for countless other bands to make similarly rebellious statements, but arguably none were as daring or effective.
In November 2018, Jeff Tweedy (singer and guitarist of the legendary band Wilco) released 'WARM' to much critical acclaim. 'WARMER' was recorded during the same studio sessions, and this release features both albums. Tweedy himself comments: 'At some point I separated the songs from the 'WARM/WARMER' session into two records with individual character, but still tried to keep the overall tone and texture of the combined session consistent. In a lot of ways these two records could have been released as a double LP'. Jeffrey Scot Tweedy is an American songwriter, musician, author, and record producer best known as the singer and guitarist of the band Wilco.