Sunday, January 31, 2021

Procol Harum - Discography - 320kbps

By Ozzieguy8:12 PMProcol Harum14 comments

PROCOL HARUM

Procol Harum is arguably the most successful "accidental" group creation -- that is, a band originally assembled to take advantage of the success of a record created in the studio -- in the history of progressive rock. With "A Whiter Shade of Pale" a monster hit right out of the box, the band evolved from a studio ensemble into a successful live act, their music built around an eclectic mix of blues-based rock riffs and grand classical themes. With singer/pianist Gary Brooker and lyricist Keith Reid providing the band's entire repertory, their music evolved in decidedly linear fashion, the only major surprises coming from the periodic lineup changes that added a new instrumental voice to the proceedings. At their most accessible, as on "A Whiter Shade of Pale" and "Conquistador," they were one of the most popular of progressive rock bands, their singles outselling all rivals, and their most ambitious album tracks still have a strong following.

1967 - A Whiter Shade Of Pale

1967 - Procol Harum

1968 - Shine On Brightly

1969 - A Salty Dog

1970 - Home

1971 - Live (Beat Club Workshop)

1972 - The Best Of Procol Harum

1974 - BBC Live In Concert

1974 - Butterfly Boys (Live in London)

1974 - Exotic Birds And Fruit

1975 - Procol's Ninth

1977 - Something Magic

1985 - The Collection

1987 - Classics Volume 17

1989 - Rock Roots

1991 - Conquistador

1991-The Prodigal Stranger

1992 - One More Time (Live In Utrecht)

1992 - The Definite Collection

1994 - Best Collection

1995 - The Long Goodbye

1997 - 30th Anniversary Anthology

CD01 - CD02 - CD03

1999 - Pandora's Box

2001 - Live In Copenhagen

2001 - The Best

2002 - Classic Tracks & Rarities - An Anthology
CD01 - CD02

2003 - The Well's On Fire

2017 - Novum

Gordon Lightfoot - Discography - 320kbps

By Ozzieguy5:23 PMGordon Lightfoot9 comments

Gordon Lightfoot

One of the leading singer/songwriters of the 1960s and '70s, Gordon Lightfoot was Canada's most successful contemporary folk artist, establishing himself as an important songwriter in the mid-'60s and going on to become a major international recording star in the following decade. Lightfoot's songs are literate but down to earth, and deal with personal matters as well as global issues in a manner that's poetic yet accessible, and his rich, strong voice is a superb vehicle for his material, though his songs are versatile enough that many artists have enjoyed success with his tunes.

Lightfoot was born in Orilla, Ontario on November 17, 1938. His mother had an interest in music and recognized her son's talent at an early age; he was singing in church at the age of five, and came in second in a local talent competition when he was ten. At 12, Lightfoot began studying piano and voice, learning the rudiments of both pop and classical styles, and after winning a Toronto Kiwanis Festival music contest in 1951, he performed as part of a special concert at Toronto's Massey Hall (widely regarded as Canada's equivalent to New York's Carnegie Hall in terms of prestige). After Lightfoot's voice changed, he taught himself to play guitar and began performing with a folk group called the Teen Timers, and also took up drumming and singing with a barbershop quartet. After graduating from high school, he moved to California to study orchestration and jazz composition at the Westlake College of Music. While Lightfoot found work singing on demo recordings and commercial jingles in Hollywood, he didn't care for life in California, and returned to Toronto to focus his efforts on folk and country music. In 1960, he became a member of the Swinging Eight, the in-house vocal group on the popular Canadian television series Country Hoedown, a position he held for two years, and formed a duo with fellow singer Terry Whalen called the Two Tones. While the Two Tones were popular enough to play at Canada's celebrated Mariposa Folk Festival and release an album in 1962, the duo was short-lived, and Lightfoot gave Europe a try in 1963, spending some time in Great Britain and hosting an eight week BBC-TV series, The Country & Western Show. By this time, Lightfoot had begun playing occasional solo dates, and had a regional hit in Canada with the single "Remember Me (I'm the One)," a moody pop ballad.

Back Here On Earth

Cold On The Shoulder

Did She Mention My Name

Don Quixote

Dream Street Rose

East Of Midnight

Endless Wire

If You Could Read My Mind

Lightfoot

Old Dan's Records

Salute

Shadows

Summer Side Of Life

Summertime Dream

Sunday Concert (Live At Massey Hall-1969)

Sundown

The Way I Feel

The Chieftains - Discography - 320kbps

By Ozzieguy11:47 AMThe Chieftains7 comments

THE CHIEFTAINS

The Chieftains were first formed in Dublin during 1962, as a semi-professional outfit, from the ranks of the top folk musicians in Ireland. Until that time, and for some years after, the world's (and even Ireland's) perception of Irish folk songs was rooted in either the good-natured boisterousness and topicality of acts such as the Irish Rovers or Tommy Makem and the Clancy Brothers, or the sentimentality of Mary O'Hara. That began to change in Ireland with the advent of Ceoltoiri Chualann, a group formed from the ranks of the best traditional Irish musicians by a composer named Sean Ó Riada, who hailed from County Cork. Ceoltoiri Chualann, which specialized in instrumental music, stripped away the pop music inflections from Irish music -- the dances were played with a natural lilt and abandon that came from deep within the music's origins, and the airs, stripped of their worst modern inflections, came across with even greater poignancy than anyone had recognized them for in decades, and perhaps centuries. Tempos were changed in midsong, from reel to polka to jig to slow air and back again.