CD Cover

Maurice Ravel - Bolero, La Valse & Other Works
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra / Jesus Lopez-Cobos
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 208 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Telarc # CD-80171 | Country/Year: US 1988
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic, Early 20th Century

"…The recording does, in fact, have a very wide dynamic range – not much use for playing in the car, where the soft passages would be drowned by road noise, unless you have a top-of-the-range limo, and the louder sections would seriously impair your driving, like the head-banging bass sounds one hears, usually emanating from black cars with heavily tinted windows. With ironic inevitability, the moment I typed those words I was disturbed by just such a noise from a car in a traffic queue outside! Even in domestic situations it is hard to cope with such a wide range; most of us have neighbours to consider and, even with good loudspeakers, quieter passages lack presence if played at a lower volume…"

James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 100 million records worldwide…

Faded old-world flowers adorn both sides of the cover with a big strip of black grease disturbing the lovely imagery on the back. Beginning with Arthur Crudup's "My Baby Left Me," like that other band of famous backup players, the Section, how can this be anything but very musical? Guitarist/vocalist Henry McCullough's "Mistake No Doubt" has eerie backing vocals and is suitably well done, as is his "Let It Be Gone," and though this is far from commercial, it is important to have this document of the guys who made magic behind Joe Cocker in 1969 and Marianne Faithfull in the mid-'70s. This came right in the middle, and the Grease Band's collaborative effort, "Jesse James," could be mistaken for Doug Yule singing Lou Reed's "Train Comin' Round the Bend." It's got that chug-a-lug subdued rock sound. With Henry McCullough's Wings connection, The Grease Band gets a touch of the Beatles' guilt-by-association mystique. As intriguing and wonderful as this album is, had Joe Cocker guested on bassist Alan Spenner's "Down Home Mama" or had Marianne Faithfull taken on the traditional "To the Lord," there would have been that something extra, that intangible that makes records so very special.

Under Cover, though regarded a 'just-for-fun' project by Tangerine Dream themselves might become TD's most controversial album of recent years - using vocals once more and being the first album consisting of only cover versions of well-known rock and pop songs. TD have done a handful of cover versions over the years, but most of them instrumental versions mostly played as encores during their concerts, including Jimi Hendrix' Purple Haze or The Beatles' Eleanor Rigby, Back In The U.S.S.R. and Tomorrow Never Knows. The compositions, originally interpreted by international renowned artists like R.E.M., David Bowie, Kraftwerk, The Eagles or Pink Floyd were re-arranged and performed by TD's current live line-up, supported on eight tracks by vocalist Christian Hausl who already had performed with TD on Madcap's Flaming Duty (2007).