Procol's Ninth is the eighth studio album (ninth including Live) by Procol Harum, and was released in September 1975. Produced by songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Procol's Ninth featured a slightly different direction from the previous album, with a much more stark sound than Chris Thomas's more elaborate productions. According to an interview with guitarist Mick Grabham, conducted by Roland Clare for the 2009 reissue, Leiber and Stoller focused less on the production sound and more on "the structure of the songs".
Whether it was singing with Big Brother And The Holding Company or with her Full Tilt Boogie Band, Janis Joplin had one of the most identifiable, most emotional and most soulful voices ever recorded. Coming to San Francisco from Texas in 1966, Janis soon had the music world’s total attention, simply blowing the audience away at Monterey in 1967 while fronting Big Brother and gaining a record deal with Columbia Records in the process. After that, it was hit after hit with songs like her signature Piece Of My Heart, Cry Baby, and her Number One take of Kris Kristofferson’s present day standard Me And Bobby McGee, all included here. Through it all, Janis Joplin established herself as one of the very best and one of the most important singers and song interpreters ever to hit the music scene.
The Who's second album is a less impressive outing than their debut, primarily because, at the urging of their managers, all four members penned original material (though Pete Townshend wrote more than anyone else). The pure adrenaline of My Generation also subsided somewhat as the band began to grapple with more complex melodic and lyrical themes, especially on the erratic mini-opera "A Quick One While He's Away." Still, there's some great madness on Keith Moon's instrumental "Cobwebs and Strange," and Townshend delivered some solid mod pop with "Run Run Run" and "So Sad About Us." John Entwistle was also revealed to be a writer of considerable talent (and a morbid bent) on "Whiskey Man" and "Boris the Spider." The CD reissue adds bonus tracks: some 1966-1967 B-sides, their U.K.-only 1966 Ready Steady Who EP, an acoustic version of "Happy Jack," and a previously unreleased cover of the Everly Brothers' "Man with Money."
The music Earl Hooker and Junior Wells made together demonstrates the blues in transition, still upholding its traditions but recasting them in a format that reflected the musical taste of contemporary black society. Shortly after these records were produced, the Blues Boom shifted the music’s focus on to young white audiences. The tracks featured here represent some of the last instances of Chicago blues being produced for the artists’ own community.
Born as Alberto Favata in Piacenza, Simon Luca was among the respectable figures of Italian Rock through the first half of the 70's. He started his career as Alberto Oro, having already moved to Milan, releasing some singles in a Beat style at the end of the 60's, before launching his first album ''Da tremila anni'' on Victory as Simon Luca. Later he found his own backing band L'Enorme Maria, featuring some great members of the Milanese Rock scene, such as Ricky Belloni of New Trolls and Nuova Idea fame, his brother Gigi, Eugenio Finardi, Alberto Camerini, Lucio "Violino" Fabbri (later a member of Premiata Forneria Marconi), the last drummer of Nuova Idea Flaviano Cuffari, keyboardist Franco Orlandini, harmonica player Fabio Treves and Donatella Bardi.