Bonnie and Friends' and was extremely pleased to see some of their older work like 'Rock ...
599490
I recall Delaney and Bonnie from their work with Eric Clapton on ' Delaney, Bonnie and Friends' and was extremely pleased to see some of their older work like 'Rock Star', that Bonnie wrote with Leon Russell. I'm somewhat put out though that this album (nor any of theirs but 'D/B and Friends') has been issued in a remastered edition. I think Clapton owes to his old friends to pressure the record companies to reissue Delaney and Boonie's other albums in a better quality format-They truly are a nationa Treasure and set the standard for the massive infusion of Southern Rock that followed them. Come On Eric, don't let these guys fade away because of the limited recording technology they had to deal with in the 60's/70's.
3919256
Deep Purple 'made in japan'
Listening to this album back in the seventies was music to my ears. Great guitar playing with a hard core edge to the music. I found this album to be very innovated and adding the organ to rock music entered rock music into a new category, yet retained the true elements of what rock and roll was all about.
I recently purchased 'Made in Japan' on C.D. and it was wonderful to hear the old classic sounding as fresh as ever, almost as if it were right off the press recordings. I haven't heard this album for quite awhile and sure brought back memories from the good ol days of ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC WHEN ROCK WAS ROCK. 'MAN THOSE CATS COULD REALLY SWING'and still can. It was just great to hear these old songs once again and what more can one say or ask for.
I recently purchased the 'Come Hell or High Water' D.V.D. and it too was a experience to see the guys celebrating 25 years of rock and rolling and then some. I also never got a chance to see Deep Purple in concert. Either they never toured in this part of the world during that time or they just never toured in Toronto, Canada, to my knowledge anyway. So I have an opportunity to see these great rockers doing there stuff here in Toronto, Canada ,August 21, 04. Unfortunately,Ritchie Blackmore and Jon Lord  (retired) won't be on this tour and I will miss their stage presence and hearing their special unique styles. However,three original members are in the present lineup and I am certain that the new members will bring a freshness to the old classics from the 'Machine Head' era.
Back to "Made in Japan". I really enjoyed the music from this recording and to hear the individuals jamming during various numbers such as 'Child in Time' 'Lazy' etc. shows the bands ability to extend their songs and give the audience what they wanted. This band was loud and to get a live recording that seems almost flawless speaks volumes about the bands ability to give the fans a recording that sounds close to perfection as one can get. I purchased another recording of another 70's band and I am not pleased with how much distortion and crowd noise there was especially for a band that prides itself on it's previous recordings. They simply could have done a better job. Why could they not took a page from the 'Made in Japan' album and give the fans something to truly remember them by. Anyway, we are blessed with the music of Deep Purple and their videos and recordings. Lets hope that Deep Purple will be rocking us for another few years with their terrific concerts and music.
'Keep on Rocking' as there are not many good old rock and roll concerts left to go see. See ya all at the concert.
696180
Let me start by saying that I think this is the best album Bonnie has ever made! It absolutely harkens back to some of the 70s style work with of course all of the style she has forged on through out her career. I am glad she still does a good amount of covers because she can interpret another artist's song like nobody's business, (right up there with Sinatra almost). A great take on INXS's Need You Tonight and a tasty cover of Los Lobos Shakin' Shakin' Shakes help to add some nice punch to the album, but even the more ballad style songs still have a nice upbeat feel to them. The album flows really nice and just incredible slide guitar from Bonnie as well as some incredible playing from her entire band make this one hell of a listen, which brings me to the vinyl version. WOW! Did they do a nice job with this one! It comes as a 2-LP set recorded at 45rpm, yes 45rpm, and that really helps to let the music open up and breathe more! Being recorded at 45rpm allows the cartridge to read the grooves at a faster rate, thus delivering some amazing sound quality! The cover is really nice with the inner sleeves containing all of the lyrics. My only issue is that there should have been separate sleeves for the vinyl made of rice paper for better protection, but I had some so easy fix. My wife and I love vinyl and thanks to my son who bought this from Amazon as a gift for us and made sure we had it on street date. Way to go Bonnie, just a wonderful album!
4460671
These guys are from my era.  I had a couple of their records on vinyl.  This is a great opportunity to own 5 records for about the price of a couple of CDs.  It startles me how fresh this music still sounds.  They totally belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  They are strong musicians, they all are decent vocalists, and they really get into the music.

This band did mostly covers in their early years, as did the Beatles and many other bands from the same era.  Their Satisfaction and Time Is on My Side don't compare vocally to The Rolling Stones, but instrumentally both are very good.  These guys were musicians.  Mark Lindsay on vocals and sax, Paul Revere on the organ, Mike Smith "Smitty" on drums, Drake Levin on guitar, Phil "Fang" Volk on bass - this was quite a talented lineup, and every one of them could take a turn at the mic and do a respectable job.

They also had a great sense of fun.  I love to listen to Smitty on I Know, trying to find a key he could sing in, and being encouraged by his bandmates.

The songs they wrote themselves also translate well to the present.  Hungry, Good Thing, Kicks - this is good stuff.  Also, maybe not for everyone, but Little Girl in the Fourth Row from Midnight Ride is a song that still appeals to the teenaged girl in me.

I have really enjoyed rediscovering this music.  It reminds me of a simpler time when making music was pure enjoyment.  I highly recommend this collection.

Edited 3/28/13 - I had a few songs left to listen to when I originally wrote this review.  Unfortunately, I feel compelled to remove a star.  For me the last album Revolution lacks the sparkle of the earlier records.  It is gloomier, less energetic.  In some cases the band (which had lost several of its most recognizable members by this point) seems to be trying to reinvent itself, exploring psychedelia and protest music, occasionally trying retreads of earlier hits, and suffering by comparison.  I don't think I ever listened to Revolution in my teenage years, although I do remember the hit Him or Me - What's It Gonna Be? (which frankly seems out of place with the rest of the songs on this album).

What I loved and still love about this band is the sound of pure joy in making music.  For the most part, when they got all serious, they lost me.  Still a recommendation - I quite like the idea of showing the evolution of a band over 5 albums, even if I don't agree with the path they ultimately took.
4733501
It's amazing to see how well the band has retained their old sound as well as developed a new for this album.  There are no fillers on this CD, I can listen to the whole album from 1-12 and it is all great.  Tracks like Beyond Beautiful, Just Push PLay, Under My Skin and Outta Your Head are all awesome, mixing many genres styles of music but still pertaining that same 70's rock sound that they started with.  This is a great album and you shouldn't be dissapointed.
1391888
Hollywood Vampires--a club of rock stars celebrating debauchery and excess, existed during the golden age of rock n' roll, with members including Keith Moon, John Lennon, Alice Cooper and Marc Bolan. Now, decades later, Alice and actor Johnny Depp (guitar) have released a (mostly) cover album with an all-star lineup, including Paul McCartney, Slash, Robby Krieger, Dave Grohl, Brian Johnson, Perry Farrell, Orianthi, Zak Starkey and Kip Winger. The band plays well-known classics from the 1960's and 70's, covering T-Rex, The Doors, Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Alice Cooper, among others.

I was expecting this album to be good, or at least decent, but what I heard really exceeded my expectations. It's often pointless covering a well-known classic, as the cover often fails to live up to the original. With The Hollywood Vampires, while these songs may not surpass the originals, they still sound really, really good. This album is just so much fun to listen to, as it celebrates these classics, giving them a new life, as Alice, Johnny and friends sound inspired, giving a fresh spin to such well known songs.  And while it might seem out of place to put a song like "Itchycoo Park" on an album with "School's Out," everything on here works, sounding cohesive, and rocks from top to bottom, with Alice somehow putting his own signature on these songs, while still staying true to the integrity of the originals. The opening monologue spoken by the late, great Christopher Lee is a nice touch. The two originals, "Raise the Dead" and "My Dead Drunk Friends" are both quite good and fit nicely on this album, despite being new material.

While "Hollywood Vampires" might not be a masterpiece or an essential album, it's a hell of a lot of fun and worth checking out if you are a fan of classic rock.
2372077
Being a 9th grader in high school back in 1981, I had heard this album from The Go-Go's and was pleasantly surprised by it. Having pretty much grown up in the 1970s here in Southern Ca., this was a welcome relief from all the popular music of that decade.
Belinda Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin, Kathy Valentine, Gina Shock, and Charlotte Caffey bring the rock/pop to the '80s with a force in BEAUTY AND THE BEAT. The album has a really good feel and rhythm to it right from the first track "Our Lips Are Sealed". I must say that this particular CD, when it was first pressed in 1986, had a minor defect in making it. The very beginning of the CD has the wrong start point. "Our Lips Are Sealed" seems to have about 1 second missing from the very beginning of the song. Well, when I played this in my car CD player, I was able to "search" the CD backwards and it went back two seconds before the song started. It is on there in it's entirety. But, if you don't search it backwards, it starts seemingly not right. Yep, a CD defect. Not the first one I have had, I assure you. It happens.
The Cover art in the first release is different and the CD is speckled with pink all over it.

For the 2016 Edsel (2 CD Deluxe Edition), we have the original CD song lineup and some extra tracks, 11 in all added.
*** NOTE ! ~ The song "WE GOT THE BEAT" listed here as part of the original album lineup is also the EXACT SAME VERSION as the "Single Mix", which is track number 13 on the CD! How could Edsel overlook this? Two WE GOT THE BEAT versions on the same CD.
Someone goofed on this one. All the versions on the CDs of this album are exact in timing pretty much coming in at about 2:29/30.

Still this Deluxe 2016 Edition set has the Live At The Metro Club, Boston, 20 August 1981 separate CD. Sounds good! As I edit this review for this edition, it is August 20th, exactly 35 years ago that they recorded that concert.

I got out my first CD pressing of this classic album, the one I described above and sure enough, the WE GOT THE BEAT is the same 2 versions here. I wonder if we will ever get another version of this song on CD? Greatest Hits from 1990 CD is the same, too.
The packaging and new liner notes, photographs are wonderful!

If there is anything I would personally have added to this set and the other two Edsel did for "Vacation" and "Talk Show", it would have been adding the promotional videos to a DVD like they did for the awesome sets for Belinda Carlisle albums. Loved those!
2499907
These guys really know how to hit the sweet spot for prog rock music. Even though a format that is considered a 70's style its good to see how they can make it feel current.
4187956
Tori wrote of the Glory of the 80's, she found her own in 2001 with a breath taking rendition of the songs featured on the album. I am not typically a fan of cover albums, but this has amazed me, with the vocal intensity and emotion of the instrumentation. '97 Bonnie and Clyde reaches down to the core of the beast and draws you in deeper than you ever wanted to see. The album was more than rehashing of old, familiar music, she made the songs new again, and inserted a depth most of them had at their best scarcely fathomed. Some of the songs do not at all resemble thier first form, so if you do not want to hear Slayer completely mellowed, do not pick up this album. Depeche Mode has the best cover on here with Enjoy the Silence. Overall, not the Tori album I would start with, if you are new go back to Little Earthquakes and work your way out. For old Tori fans like myself, you will be pleased to see how she has taken the songs. Though I don't know why they couldn't have put Smells Like Teen Spirit, saying as that was her best cover in my mind. Alas. New album out in November!
2614341
Enjoy seeing this group live as that is a large part of their appeal, however new collections of music from them is fantastic!
974589
I really enjoy this CD. The band is showing a maturity through the years and I feel that it is really being displayed in this cd. Although it is a little softer than former work, it still has a fun rock n roll rythm with the wonderful stories that Bon Jovi can so eloquently narrate. Bottom Line: GET IT.These guys still rock!
1495252
I am not old enough to remember the Beatles from their original conquering of the US. I grew to know them during the 70's through others doing their work: Stars on 45 and the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton's Sgt. Pepper movie. Then in college, I took a history of rock 'n' roll course focusing on the Beatles. That is where I grew to know and love much of the Beatles' music. We were required to learn who sang lead on which songs and the songs on both the EMI releases and the Capitol releases. When CD's first became widely available in the late 80's, I waited anxiously for the staggered releases of the Beatles' music on compact disc. I remember a reviewer saying how clear Lennon's indrawn breath sounded on "Girl."

But recently, I have skipped past most Beatle's songs on my iPod. Familiarity breeding contempt maybe. My wife purchased "Love" for me for Christmas. I sat in my family room and listened on my old stereo to this new take on some very familiar songs. I agree with other reviewers that songs like "I Am the Walrus" sound very much the same as the originals. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is definitely the most stunning departure, stripped down with new lyrics added. The stripped down section in the coda of "Hey Jude" is also one of my favorite departures. There are lots of little changes buried in the mix. Listening on headphones reveals many of those changes.

Overall, I have very much enjoyed getting reaquainted with some of these songs in their new format. It is a testimony to the Beatles and their wonderful producer George Martin that these songs retain such vitality after all the years. I'm sure John and George would have approved of this new take on their work.
2779737
Wet Willie were one of my very favorite "Southern Rock" bands from the 1970s, although to categorize their sound as "rock" would be simplistic if not inaccurate. They fused rock and soul and country and blues to create an energetic, melodic and sometimes funky blend of music. If you were lucky enough to see the band in concert during their heyday, fronted by the charismatic and multi-talented Jimmy Hall, you know that they were one of the very best live bands in the business.

I have almost all of their early albums but was missing these two later ones, recorded in 1977 and 1979. There is another way to get these recordings, as the "Epic Willie" collection, but that CD is going for crazy high prices nowadays, so I was happy to see this new 2-for-1 reissue. The other advantage to getting this instead of "Epic Willie" is that the tracks are in the original running order instead of being arbitrarily changed around.

Overall, the sound of these two albums is a bit slicker than what you'll find on the band's previous albums (5 studio albums and 2 smoking-hot live recordings), but that was by design. Their new label, Epic, had decided that the band needed "more of a commercial rock sound", so the band headed off to England to record "Manorisms" with a new producer and a couple of new band members as well. Indeed the songs were less gritty and raw, but still retaining the trademark soulfulness, and gorgeous harmonies that Wet Willie did so well. "Rainman", the opening track on "Manorisms", and the single "Street Corner Serenade" are great examples of the band clicking on all cylinders and showing off those amazing harmonies. But it wasn't just the voices. These guys were all very skilled musicians and they could play up a storm. As the liner notes point out, there was "obvious chemistry" within the band, even with the new members. If this was the commercial side of Wet Willie, it was still pretty darn fun.

This reissue comes with a 12-page booklet that includes an essay about the band's  history and these recordings, including some quotes from Jimmy Hall. While this might not be prime time Wet Willie, is shows a very soulful and very satisfying side of the band's career, one that is well worth hearing. As one of the songs on this collection says, "Let It Shine."
1691646
Geddy's voice isn't what it used to be, which happens with Age and is understandable, but the music is still the same and you have to appreciate the Union of friendship that Geddy, Alex and Neil still share after all these years together. The way they decided to record this DVD is awesome, taking you from the present to the past, which shows how technology has advanced so much in such little time when you really think about it.
1687771
I still own the original double album and recently purchased the CD.  This is a remarkable classic set of exciting rock gems from the 60's.  Plug it in and crank it up!! These songs showcase artists pushing the boundaries in different ways and this is the music that helped pave the way for much of what was to come to the FM dial in the next decade and beyond. Lenny Kaye did a remarkable job in selecting these songs. Awesome!
1295158
A few years ago, my daughter recommended several CDs by artists that she thought I might enjoy. (She and I have always shared a love of music.) One of them was In Time: The Best of R.E.M., 1988-2003."

I had heard of R.E.M. before, but didn't know much about them. I knew they were an American rock band that had a whole bunch of hits in the 1990s and 2000s, and I even knew a couple of their songs  Losing My Religion and Everybody Hurts  from hearing them on the radio. I borrowed my daughters CD and listened to the whole album.

I liked In Time: The Best of R.E.M., 1988-2003 so much that I recently purchased the MP3 version of it for myself. This is an extraordinarily good album. Its got a very strong line-up of songs, from the ones Ive already mentioned to others like: Man on the Moon, Whats the Frequency, Kenneth?, Orange Crush, and Imitation of Life. I find the lyrics of all these songs very original and interesting, and I really enjoy the bands musical style.

Ive read some of the arguments about whether In Time: The Best of R.E.M., 1988-2003 really includes the best of R.E.M. at the expense of other, better songs. Of that Im not sure; all I know is that In Time: The Best of R.E.M., 1988-2003 is a terrific album in every respect, and that all of the songs that are included are excellent.

Although this particular genre of music  alternative rock  falls a little outside the realm of what I usually listen to, I now spend a lot of time listening to  In Time: The Best of R.E.M., 1988-2003. Highly recommended.
1370776
It is so refreshing to hear a good old rock 'n roll band with all the funky music that's out there today.  Some I like, and some I don't, but these guys just rock!  They also have great ballads (if you want to call them that).  "Bad Day" is a great slower song, and I'm sure it will be released as a single and fly up the charts.  I bought the cd after hearing "Hemmorage" and "innocent" and seeing the videos.  The lyrics are deep, and you can't help but relate.  Brett's voice is amazing!  "Easy" is a great song and so is "Slow".  Every song on the cd is good, and I am not a person who buys a cd unless there is more than a couple good songs on it.  These guys will be around a long time!  And, I liked this cd so much, I just purchased "Sunburn", and I'm waiting for it to arrive.