Artistically and commercially, the Stevie Nicks/Lindsey Buckingham/Mick Fleetwood/Christine and John McVie edition of Fleetwood Mac had been on a roll for over a decade when Tango in the Night was released in early 1987…

Shot of Love finds Dylan still in born-again mode, but he's starting to come alive again – which isn't as much a value judgment as it is an observation that he no longer seems beholden to repeating dogma, loosening up and crafting songs again…

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the release of The Jimi Hendrix Experience masterpiece Electric Ladyland, Experience Hendrix and Legacy Recordings present a special Deluxe Edition box set that gives the listener an amazingly intimate look into the making of the most fully realized, cohesive project of Hendrix's entire career. Spread across 3 CDs and 1 Blu-ray the set includes CD1: the original album, now newly remastered by Bernie Grundman from the original analog tapes. CD2: Electric Ladyland: The Early Takes, which presents 20 never before heard demos and studio outtakes. Included are incredibly intimate demos for song ideas Hendrix recorded himself on a reel-to-reel tape at the Drake Hotel, as well as early recording session takes featuring guest appearances from Buddy Miles, Stephen Stills and Al Kooper CD3:The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Live At the Hollywood Bowl 9/14/68, part of Experience Hendrix's Dagger Records official bootleg series…

Each of Jade Warrior's Island albums was a revelation, both musically and thematically. Floating World's exploration of the Japanese philosophy of Ukiyo, Waves' oceanic voyage, the ninth century Buddhist monk whose story is told on the B-side of Kites (and who takes airy flight across the flip) – all were extraordinary expeditions into the Orient…

Although Eric Martin is best-known as the lead singer of rock quartet Mr. Big, he was a seasoned music veteran before that outfit in 1988. Born on October 10, 1960, in Long Island, NY, Martin moved often during his childhood due to his father's career as an Army officer…

Eartha Kitt was an actress, singer, and cabaret star whose mother was African American and Cherokee, and whose father was a White-American. Very busy throughout the 1950's and 1960's as a performer, Kitt was also active in social and political movements. She spoke four languages and sang in seven, which she effortlessly demonstrated in many of her cabaret performances. Orson Welles once called her the "most exciting woman in the world"…

With its jarring rhythms and unusual instrumentation – marimba, accordion, various percussion – as well as its frequently surreal lyrics, Rain Dogs is very much a follow-up to Swordfishtrombones, which is to say that it sounds for the most part like The Threepenny Opera being sung by Howlin' Wolf…

Who could ever have thought, going back to the Pretty Things' first recording session in 1965 – which started out so disastrously that their original producer quit in frustration – that it would come to this? The Pretty Things' early history in the studio featured the band with its amps seemingly turned up to 11, but for much of S.F. Sorrow the band is turned down to seven or four, or even two, or not amplified at all (except for Wally Allen's bass – natch), and they're doing all kinds of folkish things here that are still bluesy enough so you never forget who they are, amid weird little digressions on percussion and chorus; harmony vocals that are spooky, trippy, strange, and delightful; sitars included in the array of stringed instruments; and an organ trying hard to sound like a Mellotron…

Twenty-eight years after the band's inception, Deep Purple venture into the most adventurous album of their storied career. With guitar virtuoso Steve Morse, of ex-Dixie Dregs and Kansas fame, replacing the legendary Ritchie Blackmore (his second departure from the band), fans get the breadth of Morse's influences…

For whatever reason, Pretty Things failed to make significant inroads in the U.S. when the window of opportunity was open widest. Perhaps the Rolling Stones, the Who, and the Animals more than fulfilled the quota for invading bad boys. Maybe their sophomoric (and less than artistic) obsession with drugs played a role, though that's doubtful, given the preponderance of mind-altering substance cheerleading by '60s bands. Like the Stones, Pretty Things incorporated garage, R&B, and psychedelia into their aggressive style of rock & roll…

In Jade Warrior's second album for Island Records, atmosphere takes center stage over melody, and jam sessions supplant structure. The record consists of a single composition. Parts one and two were needed because it was released in pre-CD days and the song took up both sides of the LP, identifying the entire album under a single title – an unwise strategy. "Waves" has no recurring theme; it opens with a Brian Eno-influenced ambient passage and meanders from there…

Fleetwood Mac retreated from the insular strangeness of Tusk and returned to straightforward pop songcraft for Mirage. Boasting a glossy, friendly production that makes even the lesser numbers pleasant and ingratiating, Mirage nonetheless suffers from a lack of substance…

Its massive success – it is one of the rare albums to be certified as diamond in the U.S. and it went platinum all over the world; it also won the Album of the Year Grammy for 1992 – makes it difficult to place Eric Clapton's 1992 MTV Unplugged in context, but it's important to do so…

If Saved did anything, it proved that the born-again Christianity of Slow Train Coming wasn't merely a passing fad, and that it did, in fact, mean something significant to Dyla…