Music Reviews | Colossal Reviews

Willie Nelson’s Greatest Hits (& Some That Will Be) (Vinyl record album review)

August 27, 2022 By Natan Gesher 1 Comment

Record basics

Album name: Willie Nelson’s Greatest Hits (& Some That Will Be)
Artist name: Willie Nelson
Year: 1981
Number of discs: two
Label: Columbia Records
Collection: Selman
Buy it on Amazon: $94.95

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I listened to Willie and Family Live a few months ago and loved it, and that was the only time in my life that I’ve ever given much thought to Willie Nelson.

What I expected

Country, country rock, blues rock.

What it was actually like

I put the first side of this compilation on, started filling out the details above, and I was just reading what I wrote back in June about how Whiskey River got included twice on the previous Willie Nelson record, and then Whiskey River started playing on this one… so that was a good sign! Besides that one, I was very pleased with the fast tempo of Good Hearted Woman and thought it was the best song on side 1.

My favorite song on side 2 was Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys, which I’ve always considered to be an incredibly silly song whose humor builds with every additional exhortation to the singer’s fictional audience of… mammas. And it’s catchy!

The second disc of Willie Nelson’s Greatest Hits (& Some That Will Be) was in general much slower and more boring than the first disc, but at least side 4 picked up extremely nicely with On the Road Again, which I think might be the Willie Nelsonest song that Willie Nelson has ever sung, and which has a wonderful percussion part that almost makes me feel like I’m on the road, despite barely having left New York City since 2019.

I didn’t care very much for his version of Heartbreak Hotel, though, even though I liked how much more of a rock song he made it than Elvis Presley’s version – I just think it’s weird to hear any voice singing this song than Elvis’s.

I also really enjoyed the final song, Stay a Little Longer, which I just heard a couple weeks ago on Hall of Fame by Bob Wills & Tommy Duncan and which I couldn’t quite place in my memory at the time, but which I now realize I probably knew all along as a Willie Nelson song!

Grade

4/5: would listen again

Bonnie Raitt (Vinyl record album review)

August 26, 2022 By Natan Gesher Leave a Comment

Record basics

Album name: Bonnie Raitt
Artist name: Bonnie Raitt
Year: 1971
Number of discs: one
Label: Warner Bros.
Collection: Selman
Buy it on Amazon: $100.00

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I don’t know a lot about Bonnie Raitt, but I did listen to Takin My Time a few months ago, and thought it was all right.

What I expected

Blues and country rock.

What it was actually like

This was Bonnie Raitt’s debut LP and consisted largely of covers.

I was definitely impressed from the first track, Stephen Stills’ Bluebird, that it would be bluesy and I would enjoy it, but didn’t realize quite how much until I got to a point in the Sippie Wallace song Mighty Tight Woman when I was just remarking to myself how great Raitt’s version was, how fresh and clear her voice sounded – and then the wah-wah effect kicked in.

I didn’t really care for Thank You, which I thought it was too slow, or Any Day Woman, which maybe wanted to be much more of a country song than it actually was. I also didn’t like her version of Buddy Johnson’s Since I Fell For You, which was both slow and very jazzy and out of place on this blues record.

Probably the high point of the record were the first two tracks on the second side, Big Road (Tommy Johnson) and Walking Blues (Robert Johnson), both solid Delta blues songs that Raitt interpreted beautifully.

Grade

4/5: would listen again

Made in the Shade by the Rolling Stones (Vinyl record album review)

August 25, 2022 By Natan Gesher Leave a Comment

Record basics

Album name: Made in the Shade
Group name: The Rolling Stones
Year: 1975
Number of discs: one
Label: Atlantic Records
Collection: Selman
Distinguishing characteristics:
- Sticker: Promotional Copy / NOT FOR SALE
Buy it on Amazon: $79.99

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve previously reviewed Beggars Banquet, which was good but not great, and Some Girls, which was bad but not terrible.

I’m familiar with several of the songs on this Rolling Stones compilation record from the mid 1970s, covering their studio releases from the early 1970s, but as I mentioned previously, the Stones should have retired by December 1969.

What I expected

1970s rock.

What it was actually like

Brown Sugar is a bit of an obnoxious song and I’ve never cared for it, and it doesn’t help that it also features a saxophone solo, and as I’ve written before:

I want to stress that rock musicians really need to avoid using saxophone in their music. If you’re Charlie Parker, I want to hear your saxophone part, but in rock I just don’t think there’s a lot of use for it.

And on that note, Rip This Joint would actually be an outstanding song (have I mentioned that fast music is good?) if it would lose the saxophone, which totally doesn’t belong.

Angie is a great song and I think I never listened to it closely enough until now to realize how solid it is, particularly Jagger’s vocals, even though every time I imagine him singing, I have to think of his face, which is a bit of a downer. I felt similarly about Wild Horses, which had the most in common musically with Angie and the least in common with all the other songs on the compilation.

I love the guitar riff on Bitch, but hate everything else about it.

Grade

4/5: would listen again

Sail Away by Randy Newman (Vinyl record album review)

August 24, 2022 By Natan Gesher Leave a Comment

Record basics

Album name: Sail Away
Artist name: Randy Newman
Year: 1972
Number of discs: one
Label: Reprise Records
Collection: Selman
Buy it on Amazon: $55.00

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I listened to Little Criminals a few months ago, and wasn’t a fan, but I haven’t heard of Sail Away or any of the songs on it.

What I expected

Little Criminals doesn’t really give me a lot to go on!

What it was actually like

It’s difficult to imagine that a record could be this boring. It was much more consistently bluesy than Little Criminals, but I did not enjoy it.

Lonely at the Top was Oompa Loompa music, albeit slow, so I consider it to have been the record’s worst song.

Grade

2/5: bad, but I was able to listen to the whole thing

11-17-70 by Elton John (Vinyl record album review)

August 23, 2022 By Natan Gesher Leave a Comment

Record basics

Album name: 11-17-70
Artist name: Elton John
Year: 1971
Number of discs: one
Label: MCA Records
Collection: Selman
Distinguishing characteristics:
- Sticker with “J-8-4” and “1971(2)”
- Sticker with something crossed out
- Sticker with “J” (presumably for filing under John, Elton)
Buy it on Amazon: $8.99

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’m not familiar with this live record or the songs on it, with the exception of the Rolling Stones’ Honky Tonk Women.

What I expected

Bad Elton John music.

What it was actually like

I really am not an Elton John fan, as I may have mentioned when I reviewed Caribou, but I actually have to give him a lot of credit for doing a good job on 11-17-70.

I didn’t really care for much of it and won’t listen again, but the parts of it that had a more rock sound, such as the fast bits of Burn Down the Mission (and working the Beatles’ Get Back into it, medley style), were quite decent.

Take Me to the Pilot was also good in that way, and the best song on the record was his version of Honky Tonk Women, which I thought could easily hold its own against how the Stones did it.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me