Get Yer Yer Out

By the time the Rolling Stones got around to issuing the third live album of their career, 1977's LOVE YOU LIVE, the legendary band had reinvented itself from a dangerous and sleazy rock & roll group to a more polished arena rock outfit. That said, the group was going through one of the rockiest and most uncertain periods of its lengthy career; Keith Richards had just been busted for heroin possession in Canada with the threat of a long prison sentence hanging over his head, new member Ron Wood was still finding his niche in the band, and Mick Jagger appeared more concerned with jet-setting…

A live document of the Brian Jones-era Rolling Stones sounds enticing, but the actual product is a letdown, owing to a mixture of factors, some beyond the producers' control and other very much their doing. The sound on the original LP was lousy – which was par for the course on most mid-'60s live rock albums – and the remasterings have only improved it marginally, and for that matter not all of it's live; a couple of old studio R&B covers were augmented by screaming fans that had obviously been overdubbed…

This album stands as something of a minor landmark, musically - as far back as the late '70s, its presence in used record bins attracted a great deal of attention from historically minded collectors, as a genuine live recording of its era, and of a hard rock, heavy metal band, at that. Not too many concert recordings were attempted in hard rock in those days, and even a lot of what was issued in the way of live albums - John Lennon's Live Peace in Toronto and the Rolling Stones' Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! come to mind - were done under duress, as an attempt to undermine bootlegs that had shown up. And when one considers that Atlantic Records never even got around to recording the Rascals in concert, the very existence of Iron Butterfly Live can only be regarded something of a gift (though one that a lot of us would gladly trade for a period concert recording of Felix Cavaliere, et. al)…

Middle of the Road is a Scottish pop group who have enjoyed success across Europe and Latin America since the 1970s. Before ABBA established themselves in the mid 70s, Middle of the Road were the sound of early europop with their distinctive harmonies and lead vocals from Sally Carr. Four of their singles sold over one million copies each, and received a gold disc: "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep". "Sacramento", "Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum" and "Soley Soley". By early 1972 the group had sold over five million records…