Dusty In Memphis

This week we get some soul on Live Drive as we step back to 1969 and the sultry sounds of the incomparable Dusty Springfield with her classic album Dusty In Memphis. Recorded surprisingly enough in Memphis Tennessee and produced by production legends Jerry Wexler and Arif Mardin.

Dusty In Memphis was Springfield's first album with Atlantic Records. Dusty signed with the label to reinvigorate her career and boost her credibility. Atlantic was the home of a number of soul artists including Aretha Franklin who was a hero of Dusty's. Memphis was chosen as the location to record as a number of blues musicians had come from Memphis including Dusty's new backing band The Memphis Cats, who had backed Wilson Picket and Elvis Presley. Not only that but her backing vocalists were The Sweet Inspirations (Founded by Whitney Houston's mother Cissy)

The album is filled to the brim with Dusty's signature vocals, warm and seductive she drifts the listener from track to track, most of which were written by greats such as Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Randy Newman of course Burt Bacharach.

Not only is this some of Dusty's finest work it is some of the finest soul music ever recorded. If Dusty wanted to revitalise her career and in due course boost her credibility she did it in style with Dusty In Memphis.

Track Listing

1. Just A Little Lovin
2. So Much Love
3. Son Of A Preacher Man
4. I Don't Want To Hear About It Anymore
5. Don't Forget About Me
6. Breakfast In Bed
7. Just One Smile
8. The Windmills Of Your Mind
9. In The Land Of Make Believe
10. No Easy Way Down
11. I Can't Make It Alone

Watermark - Enya

For the St Patrick Says week that is in it we're featuring an album from home from perhaps one of the most enigmatic Irish artists, Enya.
Watermark was released in 1988 and quickly won critical acclaim. The unusual fusion of celtic music and synthesised technological layering gives Enya her signature sound.
Album tracks have featured in numerous advertisements and Films, Exile features on both LA Story and Green Card
Singing in Gaelige, Latin and English, Irelands best selling solo artist created a mysterious and spiritual multi million selling new age classic. Watermark is this Thursdays critical Junction!

Track Listings
1. Watermark
2. Cursum Peficio
3. On Your Shore
4. Storms In Africa
5. Exile
6. Mis Clare Remembers '59
7. Orinoco Flow
8. Evening Falls
9. River
10. The Long Ships
11. Na Lacha Geal M'oige
12. Storms In Africa II

Dirt - Alice in Chains

Their second full-length album and released on September 29th, 1992, “Dirt” was recorded while lead singer Layne Staley was suffering from a crippling heroin addiction, an affliction that overshadowed both this release and most of the band’s career. Although steeped in doom and gloom, this album is one of the best metal/alternative rock records ever recorded and is considered by many to be Alice in Chains’ best album. “Dirt” was released on the same day as the Stone Temple Pilots album “Core”, another very important and successful album of the grunge era. The group received massive exposure in 1992 when one of the songs from “Dirt”, “Would?”, appeared on the soundtrack for “Singles”, a motion picture by filmmaker Cameron Crowe based on the lives of a group of Seattle singles. The band also appeared in the film, performing the songs “Would?” and “It Ain't Like That”, from their debut album “Facelift”, during one of the club scenes.
While never officially labelled with the often debilitating term “concept album”, “Dirt” shows the slow but steady decline of the habitual heroin user. Tracks like “Sickman”, “Junkhead”, “Dirt”, “Hate To Feel”, “Down in a Hole” and “Would?” all showcased this and sadly they also showed just how quickly, in real life, Staley’s heroin addiction was spiralling out of control. However, a track almost halfway through the album sees one of the band’s best efforts and the only song not about drugs and the inevitable misery that comes with them. “Rooster” was written by guitarist Jerry Cantrell and is based on his father’s experiences of the Vietnam war. Cantrell Senior’s nickname was Rooster, the origin of which is believed to be connected to the time he spent in Vietnam. Along with his fellow members of the 101st Airborne, he wore a patch on his arm featuring a bald eagle; as there are no bald eagles in the country, the Vietnamese referred to them as “roosters”. The uneasy relationship between father and son was healed somewhat by this song along with the music video that accompanied it, cut with clips of an interview Cantrell’s father did with film director Mark Pellington, the first time he had ever spoken about the war. “Iron Gland”, the untitled track before “Hate to Feel”, is a parody of the Black Sabbath song “Iron Man” and features vocals by Tom Araya of Slayer, whom the band brought in so he could provide an “Angel of Death”-style scream (“Angel of Death” being the opening track on Slayer’s 1986 “Reign In Blood” album).
During the summer of 1993, Alice in Chains joined bands such as Tool, Rage Against the Machine and Babes in Toyland for the alternative music festival Lollapalooza. It would be the last time that Alice in Chains would undertake a major tour. Although mostly on hiatus, the band briefly came together again on a number of occasions in the following years. 1996 saw them record their first concert in three years for “MTV Unplugged”, in 1997 they appeared at that year’s Grammys and in 1998 they recorded two new tracks for the “Music Bank” box set, released in 1999.
After more than a decade spent fighting his heroin addiction, Layne Staley was found dead in his Seattle condominium on April 19th, 2002.


Track listing:
1. “Them Bones”
2. “Dam That River”
3. “Rain When I Die”
4. “Sickman”
5. “Rooster”
6. “Junkhead”
7. “Dirt”
8. “God Smack”
9. “Iron Gland”
10. “Hate To Feel”
11. “Angry Chair”
12. “Down In A Hole”
13. “Would?”

Grease

The year is in 1978, theres a 50's revival in the air, the Fonz is burning up the small screen in Happy Days and John Travaolta is about to slick back his hair and become a superstar. 29 year old Olivia Newton John was about to squeeze her way into impossibly tight pants and become a house hold name. It was non other than Grease, the biggest grossing movie of 1978 and one of the biggest selling soundtracks of all time often selling 7,000 copies a week even today.

Opening track and indeed the title track Grease was written by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees and is performed by Frankie Valli the song became a number one hit for Valli in the US. It was'nt the only hit from the film, Olivia Newton John scored 3 top 5 singes from the film. Your The One That I Want written by John farrar was released before the film and went straight to number one. It spent 9 weeks at number one and sold nearly 4 million copies. Summer Nights Written by Werner Casey and Jim Jacobs spent 7 weeks at number 1 in the UK chart. Hopelessly Devoted to you, was also written by Farrar and was nominated for an Oscar, Newton John performed the song but lost out to Last Dance performed by Donna Summer.

The other big numbers on the soundtrack are Sandy, Greased Lightnin (which really should have been released as a single), Look at me I'm Sandra Dee and of course Beauty School Dropout performed by one other than Frankie Avalon. Not forgetting the big We Go Together the ensemble number.

The album contains some early classics, Blue Moon, Love Is A Many Splendoured Thing, Tears on my Pillow and Hound Dog which add to the 50's feeling of the entire musical. ut what is amazing about this album is the size of it 24 tracks!!! Every tune from the film is on here, its not only over indulgent its almost rude, well maybe not to a fan as you surely get your moneys worth.

Track Listing

1. Grease
2. Summer Nights
3. Hopelessly devoted to you
4. You're the one that i want
5. Sandy
6. Beauty School Dropout
7. Look at Me
8. Greased Lightnin
9. It's Raining on Prom Night
10. Alone at a drive in
11. Blue Moon
12. Rock N Roll is here to stay
13 Those Magic Changes
14. Hound Dog
15. Born to Hand Jive
16. Tears on My Pillow
17. Mooning
18. Freddy My Love
19. Rock N Roll Party Queen
20. There are Worse things I Can Do
21. Look at me I'm Sandra Dee (Reprise)
22. We Go Together
23. Love Is A Many Splendored Thing
24. Grease