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DJTees

DJTees Blog — Johnny Recommends...

This is where I indulge in my passions - VINYL & ROCK 'n' ROLL

Steppenwolf - The Second

Steppenwolf - The Second

Authored By Johnny Blogger
Easy to forget now just how huge the 'wolf were in late 60s America. This, their sophomore album, released in October 1968, climbed steadily up the Billboard charts, peaking at #3 in January '69. It has to be one of their best albums, being a great blend of hard rock and psychedelics. Their hit single [...]
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Pat Travers 1st Album

Pat Travers 1st Album

Authored By Johnny Blogger
There was a moment in the late 70s when Pat Travers was pretty big in UK. He'd first come over in 1976 supporting SAHB to promote this first album. I saw him on that tour at Newcastle City Hall and loved their set so much that I went to HMV the following day and bought [...]
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P.F.M. - Cook

P.F.M. - Cook

Authored By Johnny Blogger
P.F.M. where the biggest Italian prog rock band. Their name translates as Award-winning Marconi Bakery, which is a superb name for a group, I reckon. They were signed ot ELP's Manticore label and made some great albums, some with Italian lyrics others with English. Cook is their live album and it's an absolute classic mid-70s [...]
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Cockney Rebel - The Psychomodo

Cockney Rebel - The Psychomodo

Authored By Johnny Blogger
In the history books, Cockney Rebel and the wonderful Steve Harley deserve more acclaim for their music than they often get. They weren't quite rock, they weren't folk, and they weren't glam. This record is such a unique creation. The hit single Mr Soft is weird and infectious but it is theelegiac closing track Tumbling [...]
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Ten Years After - Sssh

Ten Years After - Sssh

Authored By Johnny Blogger
By 1969 TYA had evolved from being a jazzy blues band into a being psychedelic blues rock experience. Sssh was a top 10 album in UK and featured their classic version of Good Morning Little Schoolgirl and I Woke Up This Morning. There are quirky little instrumentals, a bit of phasing and some wonderful guitar [...]
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Vinegar Joe - Rock n Roll Gypsies

Vinegar Joe - Rock n Roll Gypsies

Authored By Johnny Blogger
They never sold a lot of records but they were a storming band. Two wonderful singers in Elkie Brooks and Robert Palmer, Vinegar Joe were a loud, rambunctious R and B outfit, as the cover of this record suggests. Full of great British rockers at one tine or another like Keef Hartley, Pete Gage and [...]
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John Mayall - Bare Wires

John Mayall - Bare Wires

Authored By Johnny Blogger
The last record Mayall put out as the Bluesbreakers, this 1968 release was the second to feature Mick Taylor. It completed a run of four transformative blues records which had also featured Eric Clapton and Peter Green. This was his first hit album in America, peaking at 59 on the Billboard chart. It reached 3 [...]
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Vanilla Fudge - Vanilla Fudge

Vanilla Fudge - Vanilla Fudge

Authored By Johnny Blogger
The Fudge are sometimes forgotten, especially in the UK, a primo, early heavy psychedelic band. Their 'fudged up' versions of songs like Ticket to Ride, You Keep Me Hangin' On and Eleanor Rigby are wonderful excursions into heavy riffing. I often think you can hear elements of Page's Led Zeppelin sound in the Fudge's guitar [...]
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Grateful Dead - Skeletons From The Closet

Grateful Dead - Skeletons From The Closet

Authored By Johnny Blogger
The perfect starter to whet your appetite before consuming the full Grateful Dead dinner. 'Skeletons' was their first and best-selling compilation. It focuses on the Workingman's Dead, American Beauty period, with a few early tracks thrown in. Nice to get the original 2-minute Dark Star here and also The Golden Road(To Unlimited Devotion) This is [...]
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Mott The Hoople - Mott

Mott The Hoople - Mott

Authored By Johnny Blogger
I know a lot of people like the first 4 albums by Mott, but this has always been my go-to record of theirs. Featuring the wonderful, elegiacal Honaloochie Boogie and the driving All The Way From Memphis it is a rock n roll record to its core. I also just noticed it also features a [...]
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Blodwyn Pig - Getting To This

Blodwyn Pig - Getting To This

Authored By Johnny Blogger
Released in 1970, this was the band's second album and sold really well, reaching 8 on the UK album charts. It's a splendid blues rock album with a strong jazz tinge to it and in the 8-minute 'San Francisco Sketches' began to get a bit progressive rock-ish,. Formed by Mick Abrahams after he left Jethro [...]
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Ten Years After - Ten Years After

Ten Years After - Ten Years After

Authored By Johnny Blogger
It's late the autumn of 1967 and the British blues boom is coming to an end, but one of the best records of that era is released in October. Ten Years After's debut waxing reveals a band immersed in Chicago blues and also in jazz. As time went on, they'd lose the jazz and extend [...]
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Uriah Heep - Very 'Eavy Very 'Umble

Uriah Heep - Very 'Eavy Very 'Umble

Authored By Johnny Blogger
Their first record and still one of my favourites. Released 13th June 1970 it opens with their all-time classic Gypsy. There were some famously bad reviews for this album, all totally unjustified, in my view. Their version of Come Away Melinda, which they never seemed to do live, is also superb. The man on the [...]
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Santana - Lotus

Santana - Lotus

Authored By Johnny Blogger
A triple live album is always a thrill. Initially only available as an expensive Japanese import, I coveted this record for years. It's actually a pretty hardcore jazz rock record with long extemporisations and some serious noodling. Which is exactly why I love it. The side-long version of Incident at Neshbar is a high point [...]
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Eric Clapton - Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton - Eric Clapton

Authored By Johnny Blogger
His first solo record and still the best. Never has a rock star looked so reluctant to be on the cover of his own album. Slumped in a chair, Eric was in his phase of shunning the fame that had come with being in Cream and preferring to be more down home with Delaney and [...]
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