Chairmen Of The Board (General Johnson, Harrison Kennedy, Danny Woods) - The Complete Invictus Studio Recordings: 1969-1978 (9 CD, 2014/FLAC)

 Motown’s legendary songwriting/production team, Holland-Dozier-Holland, left the fold in 1967, to establish their own Invictus/Hot Wax group of labels.

They had worldwide hits with their flagship act, Chairmen Of The Board, debuted the first album by Parliament, as well as scoring a UK #1 with Freda Payne’s ‘Band of Gold.

Chairmen Of The Board were unusual at the time, with all the group members being featured vocalists in its line-up.

This 9 CD, 97-track anthology includes Chairmen Of The Board’s four studio albums for Invictus, as well as the Invictus solo albums released by General Johnson, Danny Woods and Harrison Kennedy.

The two bonus discs include alternate versions, non-album singles and selected mixes, including two Tom Moulton remixes of their two biggest UK hits ‘Give Me Just A Little More Time’ and ‘(You’ve Got Me) Dangling On A String’, which were first released in 2014.

 

 

Louisiana Red discography [1952-2014]

 Louisiana Red (born Iverson Minter) was a flamboyant guitarist, harmonica player, and vocalist. He lost his parents early in life through multiple tragedies; his mother died of pneumonia a week after his birth, and his father was lynched by the Klu Klux Klan when he was five.

Red began recording for Chess in 1949, then joined the Army. After his discharge, he played with John Lee Hooker in Detroit for almost two years in the late '50s, and continued through the '60s and '70s with recording sessions for Chess, Checker, Atlas, Glover, Roulette, L&R, and Tomato, among others.

Louisiana Red moved to Hanover, Germany in 1981, and maintained a busy recording and performing schedule through the subsequent decades into the new millennium, his 21st century releases including 2001's Driftin' on Earwig, 2002's A Different Shade of Red on Severn, 2004's Bad Case of the Blues on Mojo Tone, 2005's No Turn on Red on Hightone and Hot Sauce on Red Lightnin', and 2008's Back to the Black Bayou (recorded in Norway with producer/guitarist Little Victor) on Ruf. He died in Germany in 2012 when his thyroid imbalance brought on a stroke.

 

 

VA - Supernatural Fairy Tales: The Progressive Rock Era Vol.1 - 5 [5 CD, 1996]

 

Rhino has a history of doing things up right, but this time it's outdone itself. More than five hours of prog, from The Nice to Golden Earring, presented thoroughly and largely chronologically. Depending on your outlook, it's either heaven or hell. There's plenty here to occupy the idle, drug-riddled mind; some well known (Focus's "Hocus Pocus," ELP's "Knife Edge," Genesis) and some wonderfully obscure (Wigwam in their pre-Virgin days, when they were an obscure, Finnish-Irish outfit, and Hatfield and the North's delicious first single, "Let's Eat Again [Real Soon]," which had nothing to do with food). With cover art by Roger Dean, it's everything you could imagine a prog rock box being.

 

 

Bo Diddley - Road Runner: The Chess Masters, 1959-1960 (2 CD, 2008/FLAC)

 

Road Runner, the second volume of Hip-O Select's ongoing chronicle of Bo Diddley's complete Chess/Checker master recordings, covers roughly one calendar year whereas its predecessor, I'm a Man, spanned four -- a good indication that 1959 was an eventful year for Bo. During this one year, he had his biggest pop hit in the jive-talking "Say Man" and had another sizable R&B hit with "Crackin' Up," but both these sides were cut in 1958 and released as a single in 1959. As they climbed the charts, Diddley was frenetically recording, spinning off his "Bo Diddley" into "Nursery Rhyme aka Puttentang" while mythologizing himself yet again in "The Story of Bo Diddley," attempting to steal back his signature beat from Johnny Otis' "Willie & the Hand Jive" with "Willie Fell in Love," slamming out a sequel to "Say Man," trying to catch the Caribbean winds that were blowing in, hauling out his violin, pushing his amp on instrumentals -- basically doing anything that popped into his head. So many ideas were spilling out of his head that perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that by the time 1959 was coming to a close, Bo set up his own studio in his house, then delivered finished tapes to Chess -- a practice completely unheard of that year!

 

 

Lionel Richie discography [1982-2019]

 Lionel Brockman Richie Jr. (born June 20, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and television personality. During the 1970s, he recorded with the funk band the Commodores, and his solo career made him one of the most successful balladeers of the 1980s. Outside of his music career, he has served with Luke Bryan and Katy Perry as a judge for the singing competition American Idol since its move to ABC from the Fox network, since 2018.