MAN - Be good to yourself at least once a day (United Artists, 1972)

The front cover.
The inner bag contained all the extremely complicated genealogy of the group and single components updated to 1972.

The album opens with a large inner pop-up accordion-poster with the Map of Wales.

Together with the "Live at Padgett Rooms", this is for me the best LP of Man

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In my opinion, apart form the two LPs which I posted separatedly, all the albums of Man are good. I don't have the last two, "All's well that ends well" and "Friday the 13th".
Further albums for your collection:

REVELATION (PYE, 1969)
The first edition inclued a track titled "Erotica" (based on some rocking music with a groaning woman's voice on her way to the orgasm), which was banned from the eventual reprints.  Deke Leonard is still listed as Roger Leonard and although the covers show five elements, the group's bassman, Ray "Taff" Williams, is not named on the liner notes.

TWO OZS OF PLASTIC WITH A HOLE IN THE MIDDLE (Dawn, 1969)

MAN (Liberty, 1970)

DO YOU LIKE IT HERE NOW?... (United Artists, 1971)


BACK INTO THE FUTURE (2 LP, United Artists, 1974)

RHINOS, WINOS AND LUNATICS (United Artists, 1974)

SLOW MOTION (United Artists, 1974)

MAXIMUM DARKNESS (United Artists, 1975)
Originally the album came out with a poster, but some early copies came out with the side-A label stuck on both sides and NO poster at all.  Unfortunately, this is the case of the copy I own... I would have rather preferred to have the poster instead of two side-A labels!!!

THE WELSH CONNECTION (MCA, 1976)

Your COUNTESS

MAN - Live at the Padget Rooms, Penarth (United Artists, 1971) - Limited edition

This LP was issued in a limited edition (the same that happened for Help Yourself's "Happy days/The return of Ken Whaley"), the label was numbered USP 100.
Among the titles, this live version of "Many are called but few get up"  is something devastating, with those powerful guitar riffs entwining again and again, such an incredible drive..!  In comparison, the studio version (on the LP "Do you like it here now?" - see foto below) loses all its aplomb...
Unacceptable that albums such as this were released in limited editions!!
Together with "Be good to yourself..." is in my opinion the best album of Man.

The complete title is:
"Do you like it here now? (Are you settling in allright?)"
(United Artists, 1971)
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UPDATE:
Sad sad news about Man's effective leader and main composer, guitarist/singer  Mickey Jones, who died on 14th March, aged 63, exactly during the days I was preparing a big part of Man's discography for these columns.  He was the only original member always present in those roaring years, from 69 to 79, responsible for the75% at least of the band's musical material. I always loved his licks and sounds, especially on wah-wah, that he was able to extract from his splendid GIBSON SG Standard.  Thanks him for so many good albums, that I hold tight, shame only that he never recorded a solo album, I would always have been curious to hear one from him. Rest in peace.

XXX
Dame V.

DEKE LEONARD - Iceberg (United Artists, 1973)

Deke Leonard and Mickey Jones were the two fundamental engines of the group Man (see posts).

This album joins various styles and expresses various moods, not exactly what a Man-fan would expect.  When I bought it, I found it a slight letdown, in comparison to what DL can do on the works of the band.

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I also recommend this LP (foto below) of Clive John, keyboardist of Man, "You always know where you stand with a buzzard". Just search a lil bit and you will easily find it in some other blogs.

YPSILON - Metro music man (Philips, 1977)

LEONARD BERNSTEIN - Mass (2 LP, CBS, 1970)

To the wide spread fast-food audience, is sometimes a defect to be famous (or even TOO famous!), for just one single title, in our case "West side story", because Bernstein has composed many more musical works, extremely beautiful and / or extremely interesting for what regards the musical evolution of the past century, spacing from Classical to Jazz and even Pop-Rock!  But his other works (maybe with the only exception of the opera "Candide") remain unknown to the large audiences... "Mass" is not exactly (not just) a mass, not just Classical, not just Gospel, or Avant-Garde, etc etc, is a lot of different "things",  difficult to label (hence so interesting!), and deserves absolutely to be discovered, or better: RE-discovered.  Practically, a perfect item for crazy people, those who frequent this blog  ;-)  It's a shame that "Mass" doesn't exist on any blog, I just noticed today, by case.... Anyway, this is an experiment, I'm not sure if this double album can be liked/loved/digested by you too;  for me it's a great work, but I prefer for now to upload it with a 96 bitrate, as I often do in these uncertain cases.  If some of you want the high rate, tell me and you will get the 320 version, ok?  :-)

A friend of mine says that there was a double CD reissue around, totally unattractive and anonymous, nothing to do with the original big cardboard box edition , where also a 32 page book was included... Ahhh, these modern times...! And they call it "progress".....

Your COUNTESS :-)

JUDITH SAINTE CROIX - Visions of light and mystery (CD, Sonic Muse, 1999)

A group of classical/contemporary compositions with a fundamental inspiration - so says the Composer herself - owed to the American Indians. Extremely beautiful and complex orchestrations and arrangements. Personally, being a lover of Classical and Operatic music too, I'm not new to a certain experimentalism and other expanded Avant-Garde music, also where "standard" orchestras are employed, but I have the impression that also many of you might like it. Unfortunately this seems the only release that Mrs. JSC made, and the news I read on her website don't report about possible new works on the market..  On the leaflet there are names of further works, including two operas... Where are they? ... It was a case that I discovered this CD, a friend of mine needed to make a short review of it for the Austrian Radio (ORF Kultur), and didn't have the time to listen, so he asked me to do it for him and tell him my opinion. Well, I was so amazed that I didn't give him the CD back...! - Oh, I forgot, the review was good, of course  ;-))

CHRIS McGREGOR GROUP - Very urgent (Polydor, 1968)

CAMELO PARDALIS - Manor live (Virgin, 1973)

It's named Steve York's Camelo Pardalis, but it's actually a kind of supergroup: ex-King Crimsons, ex-Pattos, ex-Stone The Crows, etc, produced by Tom Newman, the same of Tubular Bells.
Despite the presence of so many heroes of those times's Progressive, the album goes much more to the direction of a robust blues.  The people involved are: Mike Patto, Ollie Halsall, Tim Hinckley, Elkie Brooks, Ror Tait, Lol Coxhill, John Lee, Dave Thompson, Jim Mullen, Graham Bond, Mick Moody, Diane Stewart, Pete Gavin, Marc Charig, Barry Duggan, Dave Brooks, Pete Gage.

UPDATE, August 2010:
This is one of the most requested and downloaded albums of this blog, that's why after the original files had been deleted by Sendspace, I did a complete new scan of the vinyl, corrected some small mistakes, and now the LP is ready in a new 320 bitrate format. To all those who requested it, I repeat: please include your email address in your post, otherwise I can't send the link to anywhere...  :-)

As the album results to be quite sought-after, I also did some new pictures, for your pleasure...

.... one of them is an "eulogy" by John Varnom on the back sleeve ;-))

KISS,
Your COUNTESS

ORNETTE COLEMAN - Crisis (Impulse, 1969)

Despite the presence of the unexperted Denardo, Crisis is a good album. This scan is immaculate, tho it comes from my vinyl LP

PETE FINE - Northstar (recorded 1976)

Pete Fine, a valid guitar wizard but practically unknown outside the connoisseurs circuits, is relatively famous for his solo LP "On a Day of Crystalline Thought", which is more or less easy to find on some blog. His second LP "Northstar" didn't see the light at the time of being recorded (1976), but was released in a limited edition, about thirty year later. Also check Pete Fine's 1972 group named The Flow, I have already posted their self-titled album.

EXCELLENT album!

Your  COUNTESS

 

FLOW - The Flow (1972)

Don't get confused with the pre-Eagles band of Don Felder (one LP in 1970, label CTI), this is the power psycho-acid trio of Pete Fine (erroneously spelled Pete Line on this album cover), on the LP which is believed to exist in just a bunch of copies.  Pete Fine is known for his solo LP "On a Day of Crystalline Thought", which is more or less easy to find on some blog.  I will post his unreleased second LP, Northstar", soon.

ELTON DEAN - same (CBS, 1971)

If you don't like free jazz, this album is not for you.

Elton Dean left us on Feb 7th 2006, shortly after giving new birth to Soft Machine (Legacy). Also Hugh Hopper, founder Soft Machine member, left us last year. I'm going to post his first solo LPs, "1984" here.

I have later read of a CD reprint of this album, but it's under the name "Elton Dean and Just Us".  This was the name of a band that Dean gathered for a tour, I remember having seen them in Italy, but it was one year later after the publication of this LP.  Now, some members of Just Us are the same playing on the studio album of Dean, but for the concerts the elements were others. And the Just Us band didn't ever record any official LP. Furthermore, there are only two tracks present on the CD, recorded live.

The back cover of the LP, yes, it's upside down

Your COUNTESS V.

MIKE GIBBS - Tanglewood '63 (Deram, 1971)

I discovered Mike Gibbs after Colosseum's cover.

And I loved him ever since!

This is his second LP

(Not yet present on the server)

The COUNTESS

MIKE GIBBS - Michael Gibbs (Deram, 1970)

Yes, the album is named Michael (not Mike) Gibbs, but I use Mike for these 2 earlier LPs of him, coz this is the name he adopted for all the following albums of his production.

A musician with a great sense of domain over all the sections, great 360° mastery of the instruments!  Soon to appear...

and his 2nd, "Tanglewood '63" will also see the light here! :-)

The COUNTESS

ROBERT WYATT - The end of an ear (CBS, 1970) @320

Impossible for me to live without this record.

ABOVE: The original edition:

orange label, cat. nr. 64189; the year is 1970 as printed on the labels,

CBS blue logo present on front cover, top corner left.

The CBS' official vinyl reissue: yellow/orange label, cat. nr. 31846, wrong year (1971) printed on the back sleeve, CBS blue logo ABSENT from the front cover, and as tho it wasn't enuff, the title "Las Vegas Tango" is misspelled on BOTH labels as "Las Vagas Tango".
Luckily, the music is the same, the masterpiece is preserved in case of flood!

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Update 28 April 2010:
Dear Friends, unfortunately the track nr. 5, due to a problem during the uploading on the server, got damaged and therefore drastically reduced in its length (from about 9 minn. to about 2!!), so please download the two following links, and substitute the complete track nr 5 to the other existing in the album folder.  Sorry for the inconvenient, and thank you to the Anonymours visitor who reported me about the problem!

ALBUM DOWNLOAD:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/05fiif

password:
091209n1209n1029n12098n1209unwduioepfjieohjsnjkd

TRACK Nr. 5 UPDATED, DOWNLOAD:
http://www.4shared.com/audio/kTOJs9Hq/05_-_to_nick_everyone.html

(no password!)

THANKS to the magic FRANZ for the multiple editions.

The COUNTESS

PACIFIC EARDRUM - same (Charisma, 1977)

Franz saved a copy of this album for us.

A band that still today represents a huge question mark for so many improvised "CONNOISSEURS" of Progressive. An album neglected from the very time of its release.

Very rare.

Very good.
Resumed and available here, of course, where else?

Titles will follow soon

The COUNTESS

FIRESIGN THEATRE - In the next world you're on your own (CBS, 1975)

[Theater or theatre? Both versions seem right, depends which album cover you hold...]

IF YOU DON'T KNOW THIS GROUP
AND YOU'RE HUNTING AFTER UNDISCOVERED MASTERWORKS OF PROGRESSIVE...

....be careful, this is an album where NO MUSIC at all is included, apart from some incidental sounds or jingles.  This is a quartet of great people who filled their 5 or 6 records on CBS with funny stories and comedies.

I saw that all their LPs are online, except for this: I found a message of someone who asks for it to be psted, so here we go. Each side has a single piece, it was almost always so on FT's records.

Have fun, this time for real, cos it's supposed to get you laughin out loud ;)

http://www.sendspace.com/file/jt8mkj

NO PW :-)))
ENJOY!
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I also wanna recommend, among the others, these two albums which you can easily find in other blogs::

WAITING FOR THE ELECTRICIAN OR SOMEONE LIKE HIM (CBS, 1967)

HOW CAN YOU BE IN TWO PLACES AT ONCE..... (CBS, 1969) 

The COUNTESS VANESSA

YOKO ONO - Plastic Ono Band (Apple, 1969)

This tetralogy of early albums of Yoko Ono resulted to be a success here, especially "Feeling the space" and "Approximately infinite universe", which are exquisite musical gifts, and also inexplicably absent from the blogs.  Now is the turn of her first solo LP, which is a hard hard proof, even for completists. Personally, I approached this LP in those years because of other reasons, I always LOVED the great Ornette Coleman, who (together with Cecil Taylor) is today practically the last of the greatest old forerunners of Jazz still alive, and when I discovered that he was present with his group in a live performance (on the track named "AOS"), I flinged myself to get this LP.  What else remains to say?  Don't expect to find gems and delicacies like in the LPs of 1972 and 1973, my friends. 

I also decided to scan some of my vinyl 45's, and I added a folder with a small group of singles and bonus tracks, some gathered from this 1969 LP and others from some B-sides of singles by John Lennon, for examples "Listen the snow is falling" or "Who has seen the wind", things that otherwise seem quite hard to find.  After a short research, I learn that some of them (but which of them? just some?  or all? and where?) are today available on anthologies, but frankly I preferred to make it short and get things directly from my good old vinyls,

The COUNTESS

YOKO ONO - Fly (2 LP, Apple, 1971) @320

Yoko's "Fly" - not yet the period of the beautiful songs... ;);)

This is the scan of the recent CD reissue, includes two bonus tracks at the end of LP 2, especially "Will you touch me" is a fabulous demo song with John Lennon playing guitar (one of his two Gibsons, most likely his J 200 model!) and guiding his wife for the singing line.  Shame that this wasn't present on the original release, I used to have this LP in the early 70s, but I didn't keep it long, and maybe with this song included, I wouldn't have sold it.  I was happy to re-get it back today on CD.  I regret having given away the original gatefold copy, where also a poster and a sticker were included.

I'm virtually in debt to another blogger, Mr. Earl, whom I had a sympathic exchange of opinions with, on his blog, check this link:

http://earlspsychedelicgarden.blogspot.com/2009/12/yoko-ono-fly.html

I name Yoko Ono "the woman who killed the Beatles", after the title of a book published in Italy about 6 years ago (see foto below), which would definitely be interesting for all of you who can read Italian.

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However, apart from my previous plans, this version of "Fly" comes from a CD, hence the high rate.

Talking to Mr. Earl (by the way, a Count?!?!), I mentioned Robert Wyatt's solo LP "The end of an ear", which I'm planning to post here soon, although it's an item that you can also find posted somewhere else in other blogs.  It's an album that I always loved very very much, not made for everybody's ears, I must confess, but surely for crazy people like I am.  Aren't you crazy as well?

Well, how come you're members of this blog then? LOL!!!

http://www.sendspace.com/file/i0cesd

456vgbh56cv456xcv567cv67cv67vb6789

One last thing: Yoko made also a short film named "Fly", which I find really nice, so in the next days I'll see to make a package for you all who are interested ;-)
Stay in touch

XXX

The COUNTESS