King Crimson - KC 50 [2019]

 

This series, released across 50 weeks of 2019, aims to document "rare or unusual tracks" from the DGM archive. Each release is accompanied by commentary from David Singleton.

info & tracklist

Elmore James - King Of The Slide Guitar, The Complete Chess, Chief & Fire Sessions (1951-1963) [4 CD, 1992]

Mississippi born and raised, Elmore James learned his trade in the Delta in the 1930s, emerging in the early 1950s as the godfather of modern electric guitar, and no guitarist who ever plugged an instrument into an amp is free of his influence. Not only did he create the template for electric slide players everywhere, he also reworked his amps until they delivered a raw, overdriven sound that became endemic in pop and rock music a decade later, and no punk band ever sounded more ragged or passionate than Elmore James in full stride. James recorded for some dozen labels during his short recording career (he died in 1963 of a heart attack at the age of 45), and he is one of those rare artists whose recorded output was seamless from the first to the last. His first recording, one of many versions he would do of Robert Johnson's "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom," was made for Lillian McMurray's Trumpet label in 1951, and the raw power, swooping slide runs and impassioned singing that track displayed were repeated time and time again on his subsequent releases. This wonderful three-disc set includes that first version of "Broom" along with a half-dozen other versions (and a half-dozen more under different titles) that James recorded for Trumpet, Mel London's Chief Records, and Bobby Robinson's Fire label between 1951 and 1963. But James wasn't a one-trick pony, and aside from recycling killer version after killer version of "Dust My Broom," this set also contains his classic takes on the majestic "It Hurts Me Too," "The Sky Is Crying," "Rollin' and Tumblin'," and his rewrite of another Johnson standard, "Standing at the Crossroads." Check out the distortion, dirt and tone of his guitar on little known tracks like "Got to Move" and "Find My Kind of Woman," or the ragged yet elegant drive of "Can't Stop Loving My Baby" or "Elmore Jumps Up (Up Jumped Elmore)," to hear why he remains a guitarist's guitarist to this day. And don't forget James as a vocalist, either. He sang like his life depended on it every second, which is why there is literally no Elmore James collection that won't deliver the goods. This box set is no exception.  

Disc 1

01. Dust My Broom (I Believe My Time Ain't Long)

02. Country Boogie

03. I See My Baby

04. She Just Won't Do Right

05. My Best Friend

06. Whose Muddy Shoes

07. The Twelve Year Old Boy

08. Coming Home

09. It Hurts Me Too

10. knocking At Your Door

11. Elmore's Contribution To Jazz

12. Cry For Me Baby

13. Take Me Where You Go

14. Bobby's Back

15. The Sky Is Crying

16. Baby Please Set A Date

17. Held My Baby Last Night

18. Dust My Broom

Disc 2

01. The Sun Is Shining

02. I Can't Hold Out

03. Stormy Monday Blues

04. Madison Blues

05. The Sun Is Shining

06. Strange Angels

07. Rollin' And Tumblin'

08. Done Somebody Wrong

09. Something Inside Me

10. I'm Worried

11. Fine Little Mama

12. I Need You

13. She Done Moved

14. I Can't Stop Loving You

15. Early One Morning

16. Stranger Blues

Disc 3

01. Stranger Blues

02. Anna Lee

03. Standing At The Crossroads

04. My Bleeding Heart

05. My Kind Of Woman

06. Got To Move

07. So Unkind

08. Person To Person

09. One Way Out

10. Go Back Home Again

11. Look On Yonder Wall

12. Shake Your Moneymaker

13. Mean Mistreatin' Mama

14. Mean Mistreatin' Mama

15. Sunnyland Train

16. You Know You're Wrong

17. Mean Mistreatin' Mama

18. You Know You Done Me Wrong

19. My Baby's Gone

20. Find My Kind Of Woman

21. Look On Yonder Wall

22. Find My Kinda Woman

Disc 4

01. It Hurts Me Too

02. Dust My Broom

03. Pickin' The Blues

04. Everyday (I Have The Blues)

05. I've Got A Right To Love My Baby

06. The Twelve Year Old Boy

07. She's Got To Go

08. I Gotta Go Now

09. Talk To Me Baby

10. Make My Dreams Come True

11. Hand In Hand

12. Hand In Hand

13. Conversation (Back In Mississippi)

14. Hand In Hand

15. I Can't Stop Loving My Baby

16. Up Jumped Elmore

17. I Believe

John Coltrane - Sun Ship: The Complete Session [2 CD, 2013]

 

Recorded on August 26, 1965 (and not released until after his death), Sun Ship was the final recording by John Coltrane's quartet with drummer Elvin Jones, pianist McCoy Tyner, and bassist Jimmy Garrison. Pharoah Sanders would join the group the following month, and Tyner and Jones would depart in January of 1966 to be replaced by Alice Coltrane and Rashied Ali. It is also one of the saxophonist's most intense taped performances. After nearly four years together, this band had achieved a vital collective identity. When Coltrane moved toward metrically free styles of rhythm and melody (with tunes often based on one chord or a short series of notes as themes), the quartet's rhythmic pulse and collective interplay evolved accordingly. The original album featured edited and sometimes overdubbed performances of its four compositions. Sun Ship: The Complete Session delivers both complete versions of the album's performances, but also multiple takes of "Dearly Beloved," "Attaining," and the title track.

Sunnyland Slim - Slim's Shout [1960]

 

You wouldn't think that transporting one of Chicago's reigning piano patriarchs to Englewood Cliffs, NJ would produce such a fine album, but this 1960 set cooks from beginning to end. Sunnyland Slim's swinging New York rhythm section has no trouble following his bedrock piano, and the estimable King Curtis peels off diamond-hard tenor sax solos in the great Texas tradition that also mesh seamlessly. Slim runs through his standards -- "The Devil Is a Busy Man," "Shake It," "It's You Baby" -- in gorgeous stereo, and two unissued bonus cuts (including another of his best-known tunes, "Everytime I Get to Drinking") make the CD reissue of Slim's Shout even more appealing.

1: I'm Prison Bound
2: Slim's Shout
3: Devil's A Busy Man
4: Browskin Woman
5: Shake It
6: Everytime I Get To Drinking
7: Decoration Day
8: Baby How Long
9: Sunnyland Special
10: Harlem Can't Be Heaven
11: It's You Baby
12: Tired Of Clowning

VA - The Complete Motown Singles Vol. 2 (1962) [4 CD, 2005/FLAC]

 Motown played an important role in the racial integration of popular music as an African American-owned label that achieved crossover success. In the 1960s, Motown and its subsidiary labels (including Tamla Motown, the brand used outside the US) were the most successful proponents of the Motown sound, a style of soul music with a mainstream pop appeal. Motown was the most successful soul music label, with a net worth of $61 million. During the 1960s, Motown achieved 79 records in the top-ten of the Billboard Hot 100 between 1960 and 1969.