Sunday, May 22, 2016

Tbe Beatles - first three Canadian releases

The first three Beatles albums released in Canada were unique titles and song combinations compared the the US releases. Beatlemania! With The Beatles, was the first Beatles record released in North America preceding the US VeeJay Introducing The Beatles by about six weeks. From the fourth album on, the Canadian releases were the same as the American.
Beatlemania! With The Beatles (Nov 63)
Twist And Shout (Feb 64)
Long Tall Sally (May 64,

Friday, May 20, 2016

Badger - White Lady

Anyone who had listened to and liked Badger's first album, the live, "Live One Badger", was likely very disappointed with their second album, "White Lady".
Badger had been founded by former Yes keyboardist, Tony Kaye. The first Badger album was a Yes-ish progressive rock album recorded live while opening for Yes at London's Rainbow Theatre. The album cover was done by artist Roger Dean who had done many of the Yes album covers.
After the first album, Tony Kaye started pretty much from scratch as the original Badger members had gone their separate ways. The new lineup included a new vocalist, Jackie Lomax. Jackie had been in a number of bands and had done one solo album for The Beatles' Apple Records. He was best known for his work with George Harrison and Eric Clapton. Jackie took over the musical direction of the new Badger album and rather than the progressive rock of the first album, White Lady is an R&B / Soul album in the style of Jackie's previous solo projects.
As a stand alone R&B album it has a few tracks that standout from an otherwise average LP. But as a follow-up to their previous album it must have been quite a shock for fans expecting more progressive rock. The band split shortly before the White Lady LP was released. Jackie Lomax continued with the band now called White Lady but soon went back to a solo career.