Astor Piazzola - The Lausanne Concert
Metaphorically, I’m like a thief picking a lock without the right tools when it comes to listening to Mr. Piazzola. I feel like I need my classical music hat to appreciate it better, such an album doesn’t work really well sandwiched between rock and jazz titles. I found this a bit academic as a result.
Scorpions - Tokyo TapesÂ
A strong 10, in fact it’s hard to imagine this at another grade. I always get the impression that Scorpions feel like they’re in a decline during these years, so I think that impinges on my opinion some, plus with a guitarist like Uli on board you really want to hear him more than you get to. Not a bad time to put this away, as a youngster, albums like In Trance and Virgin Killer were big favorites, so most of this is very familiar.
The Yardbirds - Roger the Engineer
And speaking of albums I listened to as a teenager, this is one of the primaries, I was something of a Yardbirds nut at the age of 16. Finally decided to get a CD version (the Repertoire digipack) which has so many bonus tracks that if it wasn’t for my familiarity with the album, I’d probably get confused as to what is what. There was a US version of this named after the song Over Under Sideways down, but my eyes cross when thinking about telling one from the other.
Lonnie Smith - Turning Point
I decided to take this down to a 9, the version of Eleanor Rigby on here is both way too kitschy and way too long, creating something of a rough spot. Many soul jazz albums of the era are patchy, often featuring a slice of cheese next to some bardburner of a jam, but for the most part this album rarely takes off at all and is probably as close to the poppy spectrum of this style as it gets.