It's hard to believe by listening to the sort of watered-down pap that Eric Clapton has cranked out the past few years, but at one time the big King of all Guitar Gods played with great style, passion and ingenuity. Look no further than Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton to find documentation of the artist's early six-string prowess. Reverend Keith A. Gordon, About.com: Blues
Rewind to when fashion was anything from flared jeans to safety pins. Seventies music had a little bit of everything too - Disco to Punk & New Wave, Prog Rock to Funk & Soul. 'NOW 100 Hits: Forgotten 70s' brings you a selection of some of those forgotten gems.
'Seasons Of Change II: More Happening Hits Of The Hippy Era' is the much-anticipated sequel to the original instalment released a couple of years ago. This second volume once again plugs into the 'vibe' and musical mood of that late-60s/early-70s period - focusing on those tracks that became local charts hits, and album cuts that received lots of radio airplay during those heady years.
As the Day-Glo tide of psychedelic that swept over the U.K. in the late '60s began to recede, something far less ornate and flashy took root in its place. Spurred on by the artistic and commercial success of Traffic's folk- and jazz-influenced debut album – which was recorded out in the countryside – the Byrds headlong plunge into country-rock on Sweetheart of the Rodeo, and the Band's brilliant slice of backwoods Americana, Music from Big Pink, all sorts of groups and artists sprouted up to play loose and wooly blends of organically grown folk, country, jazz, and rock. Some of the bands were beat group leftovers looking to evolve past paisley (the Searchers, the Tremeloes), some were city boys gone to seed (Mott the Hoople, the Pretty Things), and some were just weirdos like Greasy Bear, or lazy-Sunday balladeers like Curtiss Maldoon, all doing their own freaky thing.