When David Bowie recorded what became DAVID LIVE at Philadelphia's Tower Theatre in July 1974, he had fully made the leap from Ziggy Stardust and landed feet-first into the shoes of the Thin White Duke. Despite announcing his retirement from live performance the year before, Bowie seemed no worse for wear fronting a ten-piece directed by future LETHAL WEAPON composer Michael Kamen and featuring new guitarist Earl Slick and horn player David Sanborn. This 2-CD set finds the chameleonic performer mixing in Ziggy-era classics such as "Rock 'N' Roll Suicide" with material from DIAMOND DOGS ("Rebel Rebel," "1984"), ALADDIN SANE ("Cracked Actor") and HUNKY DORY ("Changes"). The fullness of the horn section and the style of his back-up band give this set a soulful tilt powered by Slick's ballsy playing. This, along with a cover of the Stax nugget "Knock On Wood," pointed at Bowie's immersion in a Philly soul direction that emerged full-fledged on YOUNG AMERICANS.
Emerging from his self-imposed exile in Berlin, David Bowie assembled a new band and took to the road to promote his Berlin-recorded albums, LOW and HEROES. STAGE chronicles that 1977 tour, and captures Bowie at one of the most creative periods of his career. Though STAGE was criticized for having somewhat lackluster sound when it was originally released, the remastered CD versions present a noticeable improvement over the original album.
Nina Simone was a singular artist, and she went where she pleased, leaving behind a recorded legacy that is passionate, political, defiant, and delicate by turns, no matter what strain of folk, blues, jazz, or gospel she was dipping into, and she did it all with dignity, grace, and intelligence…
Nina Simone was one of the most gifted vocalists of her generation, and also one of the most eclectic. Simone was a singer, pianist, and songwriter who bent genres to her will rather than allowing herself to be confined by their boundaries; her work swung back and forth between jazz, blues, soul, classical, R&B, pop, gospel, and world music, with passion, emotional honesty, and a strong grasp of technique as the constants of her musical career. Nina Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina on February 21, 1933. Her mother, Mary Kate Waymon, was a Methodist minister, and her father, John Divine Waymon…
"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is a 2003 special issue of American magazine Rolling Stone, and a related book published in 2005. The lists presented were compiled based on votes from selected rock musicians, critics, and industry figures, and predominantly feature British and American music from the 1960s and 1970s. From 2007 onwards, the magazine published similarly titled lists in other countries around the world.
Replicas was his first number 1 album. This Replicas Live DVD was filmed on the night of his 50th birthday at the Manchester Academy and so was THE show of the tour to have a ticket for. It was an amazing night. The DVD contains every song played that night including the three encore, non Replicas, songs: Cars, Everyday I Die and A Prayer For The Unborn. The 2008 Replicas tour was put together so that Gary Numan could celebrate two important anniversaries, 30 years as a professional musician and his 50th birthday, with the fans, the people that have made his long career possible and given him the life he's been able to enjoy. It was felt that the songs played on the tour should be taken from the 1979 Replicas album, and those associated with it, as that was the album that launched the Gary Numan career.
Lead guitarist Esa Holopainen and drummer Jan Rechberger formed the band Amorphis in Finland in 1990. To complete their lineup they recruited vocalist/guitarist Tomi Koivusaari and bassist Olli-Pekka Laine. They released a demo in 1991 called Disment of Soul. The demo was so successful in getting attention for the group that they acquired a record deal and released an EP the same year. They next released their first full-length album, The Karelian Isthmus, in 1992. The following year, their early demo recording session was released as Privilege of Evil…
The series was revived as "AM Gold" in 1995, with a different cover design (early volumes had an artist's drawing of a pocket transistor radio, with later volumes bearing a "gold record" with the year or era spotlighted emblazoned over the top). The first 20 volumes were re-titled issues of volumes from the former "Super Hits" series with identical track lineups, while new volumes covering the mid- and late-1970s (including individual volumes for each of the years 1974-1979) were included.