Charles Bukowski’s first novel, Post Office, was published in 1971. Taking on the persona of Henry Chinaski, the book is a semi-autobiographical time of Bukowski’s life where he worked as a letter carrier, quit to bet on horse racing, then returned a few years later to become a mail clerk. In between, Chinaski has several boozy relationships with various women that never work out.
A highly readable book, Post Office is a non-judgmental look at a way of life for someone with little ambition other than to get through the day with a, roof over his head, lady on one arm and a case of beer in the other.
The first sounds heard on Black Sabbath’s 1970 debut album is rain and church bells. The opening title track is an ominous song, full of doom and dread about a figure dressed in black standing in front of the person, it’s a terror as Ozzy Osbourne screams, “OH NO…”. A new sound was born with that song, one that would influence thousands of other bands.
Short, clipped Ozzy vocals punctuate the chorus on the harmonica driven “The Wizard”. A heavy, bluesy groove envelopes the standalone track “Wicked World” where Ozzy sings, “people go to work just to earn their bread/While people just across the sea are couniting their dead”. On the North American release, several tracks are stuck together to form a suite of music. Geezer Butler’s bass solo on “Basically” leads into “N.I.B.”, a song about lucifer falling in love. The last suite of music closes out the album including a cover of “Warning”.
The Black Sabbath debut is a classic metal album. The riffs that Tommy Ionni spreads across the almost 40 minute album that was reportedly recorded in one 12 hour session. To add to the legend, a mysterious woman graces the cover, distorted and standing in front of a medieval castle. Turns out, the world was ready for the hard blues sound mixed in with what we now call doom metal, the album went top ten in the UK. Welcome to 70s rock!
The Bee Gees in the 1970s is the follow-up to the 1960s book that was published in 2021. The three music writers of Andrew Mon Hughes, Grant Walters, and Mark Crohan write about all the songs the band recorded throughout the 70s. At the beginning of the book we are greeted with the fact that the brothers were completely broken at the beginning of the decade, each working on separate projects.
But by 1979 they were the biggest band in the world with smash hits that would eventually lead to Bee Gees overload. The band got their groove back while working with producer Arif Mardin on songs such as “Jive Talking” and “Nights on Broadway”. Eventually the brothers would contribute greatly to the Saturday Night Fever OST that saw them hit the stratosphere of fame and fortune. The 1970s edition of the series is a well-researched book that will have the reader regularly searching for songs on Youtube and Spotify.
In early February, Brittany Howards released her second solo album since Alabama Shakes went on hiatus in 2018. What Now is a soulful kaleidoscope of sound in every song. First single from the fall of 2023, the title track is a dirty funk number where Howard sings of a relationship, “I don’t wanna get used to all the tension”. A fuzzy guitar buzzes in the final few minutes of “Power to Undo” whereas “Prove It To You” is a propulsive electronic dance track.
The introspective tracks are the ones that standout. “Samson” has the heartbreaking lyrics of finding it hard to leave a partner – “I’m split in two/Should I stick with you?”. Howard sings in “Red Flags” of running full through the warning signs of a bad relationship. What Now is an album full of tension and noise, avant-garde jazz right through to quiet storm tracks. This almost gets all wrapped up in last track, “Every Color In Blue” that has an insistent drum beat pushing it along. Certainly, an album for fans eclectic RnB.
Dylan (1973) is an album made up of studio outtakes that Bob Dylan did during recordings for Self Portrait and New Morning. After Dylan left Columbia Records for Asylum, the former released this set of mostly forgettable tracks with no input from the singer. The album gets off to a decent start with the upbeat “Lily Of The West”, a traditional track that Dylan adapted to make the story take place in Louisville.
It’s mostly downhill from there. Two songs popularized by Elvis appear including the funky “A Fool Such As I”. His version of Joni Mitchell’s classic “Big Yellow Taxi” sounds thin – like the band warming up, which it possibly could have been. His version of “The Ballad of Ira Hayes” is atrocious. It is hard to fault Dylan as these songs were not intended for release. Instead, it’s Columbia who deserves the scorn for having OK’d this uninteresting mess.
The Light Appears 