Two Albums To Talk About

A few years ago I used to post notes on Facebook detailing albums I was adding to my collection. I soon had to stop the practice when I began to collect more albums than I could type about at a given time. Here are two I'd like to discuss at the moment.


And so it goes:

1. Indianola Mississippi Seeds; B.B. King, 1970

"The Thrill Is Gone" is perhaps King's best known song. What makes it great for most is the soaring string arrangement on that track.

Now, imagine, a whole B.B. King album with the same string arrangement through most parts with the addition of Carole King on piano, Joe Walsh on rhythm guitar, and Russ Kunkel on drums. This album is called "Indianola Mississippi Seeds," released in 1970.

A person would be very hard pressed to find a finer album from a composition standpoint. Starting the playlist is a simple piano blues with King on vocals, "Nobody Loves Me but My Mother," which ends abruptly with king asking in spoken word "what I want to know now is what we're gonna do?" This is immediately followed by the fairly driving "You're Still My Woman." I personally think that King's best blues phrasing can be found here on this track. The drums here and on this track and the rest of the following (save for one) are some of the best R&B beats I've ever heard played.

Joe Walsh contributes some fine rhythm guitar on five tracks of this album and his tone is a true complement to that of King's, especially when Walsh grabs bottom. Carole King is no slouch on this album either, especially on the tracks where he plays on the Fender Rhodes piano. Carole King's Rhodes reoccurring riff on "Chains And Things" is simply outstanding. "Chains" itself is basically a rehash of "The Thrill Is Gone," but with the addition of Carole King's piano riff, "Chains" comes out as the better song in my opinion.

In contrast to the simply start of the album on the first track, the last track is the definition crescendo. Building to a climax where a small group of gospel singers join B.B. on the chorus. This has made the hair stand-up on the back of my neck every time I hear it, the effect is heart-stopping if you listen to the whole album through.

I never thought a King album would top a list of mine, but this one does for very good reasons.

2. The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs; Bob Dylan/Columbia Records, 2008

Okay, I'm going to be kind of unfair ... When I type about "Tell Tale Signs," I'm really only typing about the first disc of the album.

But while we are on the subject of unfairness, here is a bit of it put on by Columbia records: They offered two versions of this record. One was a regular two-disc affair for something reasonable (like $24.00) OR you could spring for the super awesome deluxe god-like bad ass version that had three discs and a tiny vinyl in it for something VERY unreasonable (something like $250.99, and no, I'm not shitting you). Needless to say, I just have the regular version and I'm told you are not missing anything by buying the super awesome deluxe god-like bad ass version.

So anyway, on to "Tell Tale Signs." This was the eighth installment of the "Bootleg Series," a set of albums of previously bootlegged Bob Dylan recordings that have been very widely circulated. What Columbia has done is issue these recordings as official albums that they have mastered from the original sources. They have constistanly done an outstanding job with these masters and have always issued these albums with equally outstanding liner notes and essays from the likes of Greil Marcus and Al Kooper.

What "Signs" does is document a series of album outtakes, b-sides, and live performances from Dylan's Renaissance period from 1989-2006.

Something you have to know about Dylan is that he consistently leaves his best songs in the can and off of his albums and this time period was no exception.

The first track on this album is probably his best version of "Mississippi," which features him playing the song clean on electric guitar along with Daniel Lenois on pedal steal. Many people don't realize that not only Lenois produce two Dylan albums, but he played on many of the tracks himself and is he is especially accomplished at pedal steal. This version of the song was recorded by Lenois and it shows. Lenois was genious at microphone placement and could make the absolute best out of a chosen recording space. What this does is give the feel of a Chess recording (think "Muddy Waters: Folk Singer" here). I love the way "Mississippi" sounds in this particular recording. It makes the lyrics really stand out and they WILL break your heart.

There are some incredible blues tracks on "Tell Tale Signs"; almost all of which are outakes from the Lenois produced albums and also bear his unmistakeable recording technique.This includes one of my favorite blues songs: an outtake version of "Can't Wait" done as a slow blues. I absolutely love the guitar work on this track. Some other notable songs are "Dreamin' Of You," "Marchin' To The City," and "High Water For Charley Patton." The last of which is a live recording featuring a several incredible guitar duels.