No instant gratification for me!

Oh, I don't know.

Bah. I've never heard of Ram - when did it come out?

It was his second solo album, after the self-titled one. So I think it came out around 1971.

It has the hit songs "Too Many People" and "Uncle Albert."

I'm listening to this obscure folk album by Maria Barton and it's freakin' gorgeous. (note the discreet "DL" under the track listing)

Recommended for any fans of Dar Williams and her ilk. Fantastic voice, pretty acoustic guitar and lovely, smart songs.

Incidentally that blog, Time Has Told Me, is an amazing resource for long OOP folks albums. Particularly early seventies stuff.

Oh, I don't know.

Thanks!

Am now listening to some band called The Rolling Stones. Beggars Banquet is the album. Huh. I have 17 Rolling Stone albums. I think Bowie is the only artist who I have more of. Maybe Robyn Hitchcock too.

The Rolling Stones

I think I remember them. They were big in the 80s, right?

I think so. Although the album I'm listening to came out in 1968. So they must have been toiling in obscurity for decades!

eta: See, now the singer is singing about doing a jigsaw puzzle. No wonder they weren't popular back then. (For the record, I gave that song four stars.)

Speaking of the Rolling Stones the outtakes and sessions for Let It Bleed are fantastic. They could do no wrong at that point.

Cool fanvid to the Stones "Sway" using early Marianne Faithfull footage.

Mick Taylor, great Stones guitarist or the Greatest Stones guitarist?

(That's him playing on the entire track except for some sloppy rhythm guitar from Mick.)

Am now listening to Ram. I'm pretty sure I haven't heard "Too Many People" since the early '70s. Huh. (Just thinking about music, memory and aging....)

I was listening to it because I've been going through a lot of amazing yet slightly oddball 70s pop. 10cc and pre-New Wave Split Enz, late Hollies, Dennis Wilson's stunning "River Song," Badfinger, Colin Blunstone's (lead singer with the Zombies) first solo album.

It was just such a wide open period in pop music after the Beatles and the Beach Boys innovations.

It was just such a wide open period in pop music after the Beatles and the Beach Boys innovations.

I think the opposite happened to "alternative music" after Nirvana sold 12 million copies of Nevermind. Alternative music seemed more homogeneous after that.

I think the opposite happened to "alternative music" after Nirvana sold 12 million copies of Nevermind. Alternative music seemed more homogeneous after that.

I agree.

My other seventies thing right now is a mix titled "Ballrooms of Mars and other Glam Rock Ballads." Which (in my mind) should be Jill Tracy's next album -- all covers while she takes her sweet time writing new songs. I mean what's more dark cabaret than doing Bowie's "Time" or "Lady Grinning Soul"?