VA - The Many Faces of Motorhead (3 CD, 2015/FLAC)

 Another volume in the successful and fascinating series The Many Faces, which digs into the inner world of Motorhead, highlighting their roots, their side projects, his rarest recordings and his legacy.Intertwined amongst punk, hard rock, heavy metal or, as Lemmy himself has claimed, in the most classic rock n'roll, Motorhead has created a unique and recognizable sound right from the start. Motorhead is a true innovative band. And just as Ramones or AC / DC, they have created a unique sub culture surrounding their own unique sound.Packaged in a 3cd gatefold set, THE MANY FACES OF MOTORHEAD is a wild ride through the musical legacy of one of the most significant bands in the history of rock & roll.

 

Lonnie Johnson - The Original Guitar Wizard (4 CD, 2006/FLAC)

 Lonnie Johnson was best known for his tonally beautiful guitar playing, but he was also a fine singer and songwriter, and pretty adept on violin, piano, banjo, mandolin, harmonium, and bass as well. Equally at home in the blues or the jazz world (he worked with artists as raw as Texas Alexander and as polished as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington), Johnson's life as a professional musician began in the mid-'20s and stretched all the way into the 1960s, when his career was given an autumnal boost during the folk/blues revival. This four-disc 95-track box from Proper moves chronologically through Johnson's peak years with commercial labels, beginning with his prolific OKeh years, which are covered on the first two discs (highlights include several elegant instrumentals, a particularly fine solo version of W.C. Handy's "Careless Love," and some amazing duets with jazz guitarist Eddie Lang) and conclude on the third disc, the first part of which covers Johnson's last years with the label (he was released from his contract in 1932). After moving to Chicago, Johnson signed with Decca in 1937, and his amazing solo guitar performance called "Swing Out Rhythm" is included here from the Decca stay. In 1939 Johnson moved to RCA Victor's Bluebird imprint, and those sides round out the third disc and begin the fourth. In 1947, having switched from acoustic to electric guitar, Johnson left Bluebird, and after tracking some sides for Moe Asch's Disc label, followed by a brief stay at Aladdin, he began a long association with King. One of his first cuts for the label, "Tomorrow Night," included here, topped the R&B charts for several weeks in 1948 and touched off Johnson's R&B years, which saw the guitarist moving more toward ballads and working increasingly with large horn sections. His association with King ended in 1951, and his final commercial tracks for the label conclude disc four of this set. There are several single-disc releases of Lonnie Johnson's work on the market and casual listeners may well want to start with one of those, since there is a lot of repetition here (none of the musicians from the 1920s and 1930s could have anticipated having multi-disc box sets), but as an extensive overview of Johnson's peak years, The Original Guitar Wizard is a steal at a budget price.

 

Iron Maiden discography [1979-2021] (FLAC)

 

Known for such powerful hits as "Run to the Hills, "Two Minutes to Midnight," and "The Trooper," and landmark albums like Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind, Powerslave, and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, Iron Maiden are one of heavy metal's most prolific and influential bands. They're also one of metal's most enduring and distinctive acts, thanks to their dual-lead guitar melodies, ambitious songwriting, powerhouse vocalist Bruce Dickinson, and iconic mascot Eddie. One of the first groups to be classified as "British metal," Iron Maiden helped set the table for the hard rock/heavy metal scene of the '80s and inspired generations of subsequent bands, including Metallica, Dream Theater, Slipknot, In Flames, and Avenged Sevenfold. Despite a lack of radio airplay or mainstream media support, early allegations of Satanism, and a revolving lineup, they have remained consistently popular throughout their career, releasing late-period triumphs like The Final Frontier (2010), Book of Souls (2015), and Senjutsu (2021). 

1979 - The Soundhouse Tapes

1980 - Iron Maiden

1981 - Killers

1982 - The Number of the Beast

1983 - Piece of Mind

1984 - Powerslave

1985 - Live After Death

1986 - Somewhere in Time

1988 - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son

1990 - No Prayer for the Dying

1992 - Fear of the Dark

1995 - The X Factor

1998 - Virtual XI

2000 - Brave New World

2003 - Dance of Death

2006 - A Matter of Life and Death

2010 - The Final Frontier

2015 - The Book of Souls

2021 - Senjutsu

Grateful Dead - Winterland June 1977: The Complete Recordings [10 CD, 2009/FLAC/@320]

 

Winterland June 1977: The Complete Recordings is a 9 CD live album by the American rock band the Grateful Dead. It contains three complete concerts. It was recorded on June 7, 8, and 9, 1977, at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, California. The album was released on October 1, 2009.

A tenth, "bonus" disc was included with early shipments of the album. The bonus disc contains material from the May 12, 1977 concert at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, all of which was later released, with the entire performance, on the May 1977 box set.

Winterland June 1977: The Complete Recordings was the third Grateful Dead album to contain an entire "run" of concerts. The first was Fillmore West 1969: The Complete Recordings, which was released in 2005. The second was Winterland 1973: The Complete Recordings, released in 2008. 

•     Jerry Garcia – lead guitar, vocals
•     Donna Godchaux – vocals
•     Keith Godchaux – keyboards
•     Mickey Hart - drums
•     Bill Kreutzmann – drums
•     Phil Lesh – electric bass
•     Bob Weir – rhythm guitar, vocals

 

The Who - My Generation (5 CD Super Deluxe Edition, 2016/FLAC)

 

In the half century since its release The Who’s debut album My Generation has lost none of it’s raw visceral power and still stands as the ultimate musical declaration of teenage rebellion. The title track alone has been covered innumerable times by the likes of Oasis, Green Day, Alice Cooper and Iron Maiden amongst many more.

During a break in touring in 2015 Pete Townshend discovered tapes in his audio archive featuring previously unheard demos for the album which also included three totally unreleased songs that the other members of The Who hadn’t ever even heard, ‘The Girls I Could Have Had’, ‘As Children We Grew’ and ‘My Own Love’.

The spectacular 79-track five disc Super Deluxe Edition of My Generation features these unheard songs as well as unreleased demos, unreleased alternate mixes, new remasters and a stereo remix which was created using new overdubs from Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend. For this mix Pete used exactly the same guitars and amps as the original album and Roger used the same type of microphone.

• Roger Daltrey - lead vocals, harmonica
• Pete Townshend - six and twelve-string acoustic and electric guitars, backing vocals, lead vocals on "A Legal Matter"
• John Entwistle - bass guitar, backing vocals
• Keith Moon - drums, percussion, backing vocals on "Instant Party Mixture"

Additional musicians

• Perry Ford - piano on "I Can't Explain"
• Nicky Hopkins - piano (except on "I Can't Explain")
• The Ivy League - backing vocals on "I Can't Explain" and "Bald Headed Woman"
• Jimmy Page - lead guitar on "Bald Headed Woman", rhythm guitar on "I Can't Explain"