By the time Bill Withers made this, his debut recording, he'd already served for many years in the US Navy, had a job as a milkman and installed toilets in jets for American airplane construction companies. All the while, he bombarded record companies with self-produced demo tapes that landed in the dustbin. In 1971 came his breakthrough when the successful producer Booker T. Jones hauled him onboard and sent him into the studio with guitarist Stephen Stills, drummer Al Jackson and bass player Donald "Duck" Dunn. In his debut album, Withers demonstrates his universal, mature competence as a singer, composer and performer, which was hardly surpassed in his later recordings.

Saxophonist Stefano Di Battista's third release for Blue Note records, Round About Roma, is awash with lush, orchestral arrangements in concert with a silky smooth jazz touch and shifting rhythms. With this outing, the artist pays homage to his birthplace as he paints a vivid musical canvas of Rome, Italy – where he conjures up imagery of a city beset with intrigue and romance.

He is an Alabama cowboy, a male camellia lady, a godfather of grunge. On the occasion of his 60th birthday on November 12th, 2005, Neil Young played three days in the NBC late night show from talk master Conan O'Brien to present his album Prairie Wind. He staged himself as long-haired grandfather, patriarch of a widely ramified musical family between LSD-, country-, blues-, heavy metal- and grunge-rock. However he didn't forget that he is an outlaw and that he has to make a stand against the whole world. No, this man can't stop, he loves his country and provokes with statements about patriotism and against the Bush administration as well as with the essential question what remained from the dream of the hippie generation. This man is not getting any older. Whilst other rock musicians in his age confine themselves to serve the nostalgic wants of their fans, Neil Young tries to prevent that. This man has no need to acknowledge any guilts. Neil Young was always older and that's why is now younger than anybody else. Long may you run! [Amazon]

If you're a Dr. John fan and don't have this (and if you do, it will be on vinyl, not this with its superior sound), you need it as part of the missing link between two eras of a career. And if you haven't properly discovered him yet, this is a great way to ease through the door.

«… в соответствии с материалами Канадской Телеграфной Пресс-службы, влияние хэви-метал на молодого канадца Джеймса Джоллимора оказалось так сильно, что в канун Нового 83-го Года он вышел на улицу и заколол кого-то. Друг подсудимого засвидетельствовал, что Джоллимору, двадцатилетнему жителю Канады, которому было предъявлено обвинение в убийстве первой степени 44-летней женщины и двух её сыновей, понравилось закалывать людей, после того, как тот начал слушать музыку вроде „Bark at the Moon“ Оззи Осборна». «Джимми сказал на суде, что каждый раз, слушая эту песню, у него возникало странное чувство, и, когда он вновь услышал её в канун Нового Года, он вышел на улицу и заколол кого-то».

«Вспышка Рок-Насилия», Ассоциация Канадской Прессы: Галифакс, Канада, 26.9.84.