The Enigin Pez

Classic Albums - American Beauty.

The Grateful Dead had already released ‘Workingman’s Dead’ in 1970 so it was a bit of a surprise when it was followed within a few months by ‘American Beauty’. Like its predecessor, the album was a lazy mix of Rock and Roll, Bluegrass, Folk and Country. It would prove to be the greatest record they ever made.

1970 was the height of the Hippy scene in the US; a time when youth wanted change. Rather paradoxically, ‘American Beauty’ helped the More

Classic Albums - Tea For The Tillerman.

‘Tea for the Tillerman’ is one of the best albums of the seventies. Cat Stevens recorded some wonderful songs and it is actually difficult to pick out only one of his albums as a ‘classic’. ‘Mona Bone Jakon’, ‘Teaser and the Firecat’ and ‘Catch Bull at Four’ were all fantastic records; however, ‘Tea for the Tillerman’ is probably the most universally accessible.

Anyone who likes the Folk/Hippy music of the sixties and seventies will have heard many of Cat Stevens’ More

The Golden Age of Rock And Roll.

I have always had a great love for the Rock and Roll music of the fifties and early sixties. There were some wonderful songs around back then and a lot of it was very innocent. There was certainly no shortage of singers and bands to listen to! Such greats as Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly, The Marcels, Sam Cooke and, of course, Elvis Presley were all busy churning out hits back then.

Dancing is something that I have never been any More

The Sad Song of The Blues.

The old Bluesmen of America’s Deep South were extremely influential on music. The first Blues originated from several different styles of music, namely; Slave songs, Spirituals and Chants. Many Blues songs tell stories of poverty, hardship, injustice and unemployment. Being black in America was tough and many songs told it how it really was.

If there had been no Blues then there would have been no Rock and Roll. Without Rock and Roll we would never have had many other More

The Songs of Matt Monro.

Out of all the crooners from the old days, Matt Monro has always stood out for me. His songs seemed to have more about them than people like Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole.

Matt was born in December 1930 and he was twenty-six when he finally got his big break as a singer. Before this time he had many different jobs including one as a bus driver in London. He experienced only a minor amount of success and by More

The Legacy of Sam Cooke.

One of my favourite singers of all time has to be Sam Cooke.

In the relatively short time that he was recording music he managed to create some truly excellent songs. Tunes such as; ‘Wonderful World’, ‘Cupid’, ‘Chain Gang’, ‘You Send Me’ and ‘Bring it on Home to Me’ sound just as good today as they did all those years ago.

Cooke’s career began properly when he took over as lead singer of the Gospel group, ‘The Soul Stirrers’. They More

Chord Changes.

When you are living in these times and are caught up with modern music it is easy to forget where a lot of it all began. The Rap, Hip-Hop, Metal and Grunge of today all evolved from genres of long ago.

Frank Sinatra, Fats Waller and Billie Holiday were all singing about love and social issues decades before the acts of today. Without the blues riffs of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Lightning Hopkins there would have been no Hendrix. More