This is Vinyl Tap

Send us Fan Mail On this weeks episode, we dive deep into Heart Like A Wheel , the 1974 LP from  Linda Ronstadt. Possessing one of the strongest, versatile, and distinctive voices in rock has allowed Ronstadt to sing some of the greatest songs ever written in just about every musical genre. On this album, she interprets songs by variety of singers and songwriters to stunning effect, including Jame...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode, we talk about the 1982 self-titled debut from Marshall Crenshaw. Arriving in New York after a stint with the traveling production of Beatlemania , Detroit born Crenshaw caught the attention of the New York music scenesters by writing and performing tight little pop tunes. Lauded by Critics, making several end of year “best of” lists. The album also stood out at th...

Send us Fan Mail The year 1967 was quite a year for rock music and this second album from The Jefferson Airplane was one of the first and most influential albums released that year. It's a psychedelic album with strange guitar sounds, strange lyrics, and strange arrangements, and the influence of new member Grace Slick cannot be overstated. Embrace the strange with us on this episode of This...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode we let you, our loyal listeners and fans, pick the album we reviewed. That's right, its our first "Listener's Choice!" and you all picked a doozy: Forever Changes by Love. Love's third album has come to be appreciated as a classic.  Released around the time of the "Summer of Love", the album's lyrics and themes are not the &q...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode, we discuss the 1988 LP by Leonard Cohen, I’m Your Man.  Cohen gained fame as a writer of poetry and novels before he gained fame as a musician. He writes some of the most compelling (and often covered) songs in popular music (including the ubiquitous “Hallelujah”). His early albums fit more into the folk idiom, but on later albums, he began to experimenting with s...

Send us Fan Mail On this week’s episode, we take a two-steppin’ deep dive into the debut LP of a true original, 1971’s Lost in the Ozone by Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen. The band members came from varied musical backgrounds and interests, but they brought a love of  pre-1970s American music to the table, to including boogie-woogie blues, honky tonkin’ shuffle tunes, 1940’s jumpin’ jiv...

Send us Fan Mail On this week's episode, we discuss Elton John's third, 1970's Tumbleweed Connection. Elton John's second LP was a lushly orchestrated affair that launched Elton John's career into the stratosphere, largely due to the single "Your Song", which was a top ten single all over the world. Not wanting to be pigeonholed, Elton John, chose to make an albu...

Send us Fan Mail On this week's episode, we look at the second LP by Lou Reed: Transformer. After a disappointing debut solo LP (both critically and commercially),  Reed’s solo career was destined to be somewhat short-lived. However,  interest to produce his next album by one of the hottest musical acts at the time (David Bowie) prompted Reed’s label to give it another go.  Aided by his right...

Send us Fan Mail On this week's episode, we look at the second LP by quite possibly the most influential band to wear a pentagram: Paranoid by Black Sabbath. Black Sabbath may not have invented the genre of "heavy metal," but the group certainly did more to mold it into the doom-and-gloom, distorted, heavy blues-based music it became associated with. Paranoid finds lead singer Ozzy...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode, we look at the Who’s monster-selling 1971 LP: Who’s Next. Coming off the surprising success of Tommy , Pete Townsend was looking to take the "concept album" in a new direction: a full, multimedia experience where music, film, and stage would become one. The Lifehouse project (as it was known)  had a backstory: a dystopian future where humans can experien...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode, we look at what is regarded by most critics as the Talking Head's masterpiece: Remain in Light . Brian Eno, who had produced their previous two LPs, took a more active role in the songwriting and playing and pushed the band to explore the African rhythms he had been exploring with the band's singer and main songwriter, David Byrne. It is an album of expe...

Send us Fan Mail Crowded House seemingly came from nowhere in 1986 with the debut album. The hits "Don't Dream its Over" and "Something So Strong" were welcome respites from the hair-metal-and-faux-rap blur that dominated the airwaves that year. But the song crafting on that album begin more than a decade before when Neil Finn joined his older brother Tim's band, Spli...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode, we dive into the last album by the highly influential band, Roxy Music, 1982’s Avalon. Avalon was free of the experimentations found on the group's earlier records. The synthesizers are more atmospheric and provide the bed where the other instruments can find space and be heard. Sonically, it is beautiful, and the musicianship and recording are first-rate. Ro...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode, we discuss the fifth album by Queen, 1976’s A Day at the Races . The band blended elements of hard rock, prog rock, power pop, glam rock, and even opera into their own unique rock-n-roll stew. While this often makes Queen’s music difficult to categorize, there is little doubt that what they created was a sound that was completely and uniquely their own. A Day at t...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode, we finally complete our look at the Holy Trinity of the Jersey Shore sound by diving headfirst into the 1982 debut by Little  Steven and the Disciples of Soul - Men Without Women (We talked about the other two on Episode 34 - Springsteen and Episode 38 -  Southside Johnny). It is not hyperbole to say that Steven Van Zandt has likely done more to promote rock-n-rol...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode, we talk about the 6th studio LP by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, 1985's Southern Accents.  Released three years after their last album, it was originally conceived as a  concept album about the Southern experience. However, the band was at a  bit of a crossroads and that concept became derailed when Petty, looking for outside inspiration, teamed up with Da...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode, we look at Harry Nilsson’s 2nd album for RCA, 1968’s Aerial Ballet.  After signing with RCA, he received adulation from many of popular music's most notable figures, including the Beatles who called him their “favorite band” during a press conference. The man never toured or even really played in front of a live audience. Instead, he found solace in the studi...

Send us Fan Mail Every now and then, we have to cut stuff from the show to due time constraints. These are some of the recent exchanges we've had: How do you say "Pogues"? Arguing the intellectual and entertaining merit of "Land of the Lost". "Who was Andy Warhol by chipmunks?" There will be more to come. Visit us at www.tappingvinyl.com.

Send us Fan Mail On this episode, we discuss Fleetwood Mac’s sixth album, 1972’s Bare Trees. This album was released during the period between co-founder Peter Green's departure from the band and  Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nick's arrival and is easily the most overlooked and underappreciated period in Fleetwood Mac's long history. This period marks a tumultuous time for the band...

Send us Fan Mail Joe Ely, Adam Carroll, and Willis Alan Ramsey. What do these three have in common? They're all born and raised in Texas and they have each released fantastic albums that are uniquely Texan.  Joe Ely's 1978 album "Honky Tonk Masquerade" is a mixture of old school country, with a touch of zydeco and norteno mixed in, and a collection of songs written by Ely and h...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode, we take a look at the fifth album by arguably THE band of the 1970s: Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy.    After Led Zeppelin’s monster success with their fourth LP (Zeppelin IV, ZOSO, etc.), the band felt uncertain about how to follow up such a successful album. That success also gave the band a sense of artistic freedom that found them in a more experimental moo...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode, we take a deep dive into the third album by the power-pop band, Fountains of Wayne: Welcome Interstate Managers.   After two critically acclaimed, but in the eyes of the Atlantic Records commercially underperforming LPs, the label dropped them. The band shopped around for a label, but with little success, As a result, Welcome Interstate Managers. was self-financed...

Send us Fan Mail On this week’s episode, we discuss the 10th album by Aretha Franklin, and her first for Atlantic Records, the groundbreaking I Never Loved a Man the Way That I Loved You .  The  Queen of Soul had made a series of decidedly un-soulful albums when her career began with Columbia Records. Discovered by the legendary John Hammond (Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Billie...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode, we discuss the 1975 album by Jerry Jeff Walker, Ridin’ High. Prior to moving to Austin, Texas,  Walker was essentially a folkie, but he distinguished himself by penning "Mr. Bojangles” a song covered almost as many times as "Yesterday" and by a very wide variety of artists, most famously by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. After he and the Lost Gonzo Ban...

Send us Fan Mail On this week’s episode, we take on an “angry young man” and dive headfirst into what many consider Graham Parker’s finest artistic statement, 1979’s Squeezing Out Sparks. By 1979, Parker, backed by a fantastic group of former pub rock musicians known as the Rumour,  had recorded three albums of horn-infused soulful rock and roll, when he decided he needed to take a different direc...