The Yes Album
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (16 August, 1994)
list price: $11.98
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Editorial Review

Not quite the classic lineup (even Rick Wakeman would not join until Fragile), but thanks to new recruit Steve Howe here for the first time is the mature Yes sound in all its sonic glory. On tracks like the barnstorming showpiece "Starship Trooper" Chris Squire's monstrous bass looms large in the mix, Bill Bruford's jazz drumming skates edgily around the beat, and layered on top are those remarkably long-limbed solos from Howe--one of the very few guitarists to fuse the best of jazz with rock (as well as creating a landmark in acoustic guitar literature with his Chet Atkins-inspired solo "The Clap"). Singer Jon Anderson's elliptical lyrics had yet to flower into the truly bizarre realms of Close to the Edge and Tales from Topographic Oceans, but he was already using words more for their sound value than sense ("Yesterday a morning came, a smile upon your face / Caesar's Palace, morning glory, silly human race"). Put it all together and you've got an album with a much sharper edge than their later bloated extravaganzas. --Mark Walker ... Read more

Features

• Original recording remastered

Reviews (57)

The Yes Album, The Best Album
In my opinion, the best of Yes albums, though I could accept an argument for Close to the Edge.Fade-out guitar solo on Starship Trooper is infectious.Yours is no Disgrace has some great sterophonic effects, sounds great with head phones. After a few listenings, you'll find yourself chanting "I've seen all good people turn their heads each day so satistfied I'm on my way."A tight, clean album with memorable themes and melodies.Great craftmanship and musicianship without the self-indulgence of some later albums, i.e. Topographic Oceans. Every musical bar of this album is forever etched on the hard drive of my brain. This is certainly a very significant and classic album in the evolution of progressive rock.

Yes!
The arrival of Fragile just eight months after The Yes Album signaled the beginning of the end of innocence for Yes.Blame it on Rick Wakeman, if you will, but nothing in the Yes canon, save perhaps Drama, is as un-pretentious and downright fun as The Yes Album.

The album starts with the classic Yours is no Disgrace.This song has become a staple of Yes concerts, and rightfully so.It's the epitome of pre-Topographic innocence.Fluid key work from Tony Kaye, and seemingly effortless soloing by Steve Howe, wrapped around rumbling rhythm lines by bassist Chris Squire and drummer Bill Bruford.This song is just plain fun.

The song's rising crescendo finale segues into Clap, a little acoustic piece recorded live that shows off Steve's youth and vitality.

Then, just as the applause is fading out, we hear the first rising bass line of Starship Trooper sliding in.This song could be called a precursor to the multi-song suites of Close to the Edge, as the spacey lyrics and virtuoso musicianship foreshadow what is yet to come.Steve's riff in the second part, Disillusion, will knock your socks off!

Next comes Yes' first real "hit," the sing-along I've Seen All Good People.Your Move is a lovely little tune with Jon Anderson's poignant lyrics about capturing all you want in life, while All Good People is a crowd-moving rocker that ranks as probably the most adroitly crowd pleasing tune they've ever furnished.

After this is Jon Anderson's A Venture, with a more calm, reflective spirit than the songs previous.Bill Bruford's drumming is very unpredictable here.Despite everyone's claims that the song is just filler, I enjoyed it a lot.

The album closes with it's third near ten-minute piece, Perpetual Change.Like Starship and Yours, the song is wonderfully arranged and never drags.The verses sound faintly like a Broadway musical!And, like Starship, it closes with a manic Steve Howe solo.

This is Yes at their most infallible.No Rolling Stone critic can rightfully bash this album as pretentious in the same league as Tales From Topographic Oceans, Rush's 2112 or Hemispheres, and ELP's Tarkus.It's a beautiful "starting" point, and these songs would become concert staples for many years to come.

Such a Waste of Time...
I say this because every time I see, think of, or am reminded of this disc, I feel compelled to play the entire disc.It wastes so much time.I was going to rip it to MP3, but now I have to sit here and listen through the whole thing again.Oh well... ... Read more

Asin: B000002J1C
Subjects:  1. Pop    2. Rock   

The Pink Panther Strikes Again
Director: Blake Edwards
Average Customer Review:
DVD (14 August, 2001)
list price: $19.98
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Editorial Review

Although A Shot in the Dark is often cited as the best of the Pink Panther comedies starring Peter Sellers, the fifth film in the series--The Pink Panther Strikes Back--is a close runner-up. Combining a James Bond-ish plot with Sellers's trademark lunacy as Inspector Clouseau, the film finds Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Herbert Lom) driven insane by Clouseau's incompetence, threatening global destruction unless Clouseau is eliminated once and for all. Of course, the bumbling Clouseau leads a kind of charmed life, emerging relatively unscathed (and completely oblivious) from a phalanx of 26 unlucky assassins! Along the way, Sellers dons a variety of costumes and hilarious accents, and his improvisational style is given free reign. Karate showdowns with his valet, Cato (Bert Kwouk), once again keep Clouseau on his toes, and lovely Lesley-Anne Down plays a would-be assassin who finds Clouseau amorously irresistible. Highlights include the memorable "Does your dog bite?" scene between Clouseau and a goofy innkeeper, and a dental extraction scene in which Sellers and Lom reached the peak of their on-screen comedic antagonism. For good ol' fashioned slapstick comedy, they don't get much funnier than this. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Features

• Color
• Closed-captioned
• Dolby
• Widescreen

Reviews (37)

My Favorite Panther
I saw this movie at 13 when it was released during the holidays in 1976 (its big competition was Dino De Laurentis' KING KONG), and I think the Panther won.I absolutely loved it: they pulled out all the stops with this one.
From Chief Inspector Dreyfus's relapse in the opening scene (it was great to see Herbert Lom giving such an inspired comic performance this time out: he's wonderful!) to the animated homage to movies in the titles to the wacky James Bond ending, THE PINK PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN was and remains my favorite Panther movie.A SHOT IN THE DARK is also great, but STRIKES AGAIN is where I found the biggest belly laughs.

If you're a Panther fan, you've probably seen the recent bio pic, THE LIFE & DEATH OF PETER SELLERS (Geoffery Rush deservedly won a Golden Globe for his performance).I've read the book on which it's based (the original 1000-plus page British version, no less) and MR. STRANGELOVE by Ed Sikov, along with several biographies of Stanley Kubrick.
Obviously, Mr. Sellers had issues.I'd always wondered why there had been a ten-year gap between the first two films (1964's THE PINK PANTHER and 1965's A SHOT IN THE DARK) and the rest (starting with 1975's RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER).It's unfortunate that Sellers had so little regard for what was probably his most popular character, and that he put poor Blake Edwards through such a volatile process every time, but at least a couple genuine comedy classics came together.
DR. STRANGELOVE is Sellers's greatest performance, but Inspector Clouseau is his funniest.

All the scenes work and this is the Panther film I recommend to everyone.

Lesley Ann Down is stunning as the Russian agent, and look fast for Blake Edwards in a cameo in the gay bar (he's wearing sunglasses and checking out Clouseau--who, typically, can't quite figure out where he's at at first).
I even bought the soundtrack album and remember Tom Jones singing "Come To Me" at the Oscars that year.(If I remember correctly, the Best Song went to "You Light Up My Life").

I've seen the trailer for the upcoming movie with Steve Martin as Clouseau...but he, or no one else for that matter, will ever nail it like Peter Sellers.

The most insane of the Clouseau films
This is the most insane of all the Clouseau (Pink Panther) films.Dreyfus escapes from an insane asylum willing to destroy the world in order to save it from Clouseau.He puts together a master plot, bending a scientist to his bidding by torturing his daughter (by scratching metal fingernails on a blackboard).Using the death ray created by the scientist, Dreyfus compels the world's governments to send their best assassins to kill Clouseau in order to save themselves from further annihilation.

You already know that Clouseau cannot be killed and will be oblivious to all that is going on around him.Much of this movie is absolutely hilarious.We also get the unbelievably beautiful Lesley-Anne Downe as the assassin Olga Barisova.Omar Shariff also does a turn as an assassin and does a service that actually ends up saving Clouseau from Barisova.

Dreyfus even has a scene playing the organ as a Phantom of the Opera kind of madman.It is hard to see how Dreyfus could return after the ending of this movie, but of course, he did.

This movie takes Clouseau off in a much different direction than the other movies and is so overwhelmingly insane that it might be too much for some.However, I liked the laughs.

Pink Panther Strikes Again Review
This Pink Panther movie is not as good as A Shot In The Dark or the original Pink Panther.However, it is quite entertaining.Peter Sellers is funny as usual. ... Read more

Asin: 6305308748
Subjects:  1. Feature Film-comedy   

Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud (Lift To The Scaffold): Original Soundtrack
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (25 October, 1990)
list price: $14.98 -- our price: $14.98
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Editorial Review

Performed by a Miles Davis-fronted European band for a movie by Louis Malle, this music helped define the sound of film noir. It made viewers think the genre's films had always sounded just so, with slow-walking bass beats and muted, slithering horn lines miming the characters on the screen--and underlining their emotions. The melodies here are brief fragments, sometimes rising up only to disappear and then briefly return. This is Miles playing in the moment, improvising musical impressions as he watched the screen. And what he played managed to capture the era of postwar everywhere, while it offered Davis the freedom to test his on-the-spot compositional skills within a minimalist context. How many other beboppers who worked within the shadow of Charlie Parker could have ever recorded these little gems? --John Szwed ... Read more

Features

• Soundtrack

Reviews (25)

Yes!
Recorded in one session in 1957 or '58, Miles Davis is backed by Barney Wilen on tenor saxophone, Rene Urtreger on piano, Pierre Michelot on contrabass, and Kenny Clarke on the drums, in this record (Verve 8363052, reissue 20 March 1989), which was also the soundtrack to the Louis Malle film L'Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud.

This is a great record. Not one of the heavyweights of Davis' oeuvre, but absolutely a gem in its own right. The cool, spare compositions foreground Davis' trumpet. From the plaintive wail that opens "Générique" to the relaxed wanderings of "Nuit Sur Les Champs-Élysées," these pieces are as expressive and as emotional as Davis' other work of the same era. Yet the album is not simply Davis-plus-a-band. Barney Wilen's tenor sax is a full and effective counterweight to Davis' trumpet. Throughout "Au Bar du Petit Bac" the two dart and weave around each other, heading in the same direction, walking the same path, but with a difference as vivid and breathtaking as that space between Picasso and Matisse. Kenny Clarke tears it up on "Diner au Motel," playing so fast and far ahead that, at times, Davis seems to be pushing hard to keep pace with his rhythm section.

There is a great deal more to be said for this album, but the one word that comes to mind whenever I listen to any of these cuts, is "Yes." Even the alternate takes are a fascinating look into Davis' thinking, not only at a particular stage of his exploration, but more immediately: after a screening of the film, at the end of a European tour, late at night after a drink. I think this album is often overlooked by less-active jazz fans, and that's a shame. It might be one of the top five cool albums ever.

Up with the very best of Miles
Twenty six tracks all written by Mr Davis performed by at least two other legendary musicians - Mr Pierre Michelot, bass, and Mr Kenny Clarke, drums - with sterling support by Mr Wilen on tenor and Mr Urtreger on piano with Mr Davis in an intoxicating love affair with the delicious and iconic actor Jeanne Moreau, must have brought out the best in him.A terrific album without one uninteresting musical moment, which must be included as one of the greatest sound tracks ever, and superior by far to say, Mr Davis at the Blackhawk.Brilliant.

Great soundtrack, often under-rated work.
Miles loved France, and this album is an excellent soundtrack to a movie starring Juliette Greco (one of Miles's favorite girls, ha).The music is quite good and makes me imagine what the movie might actually have been like.It's still something I need to check out.Miles plays pretty well although it's definitely not his best work, but it is plausible by his standards.All of the songs are basically the same song played in a bunch of different settings and environments, aside from "Dinner At The Motel", which is a speedy piece played with the harmon mute.A funny story about this song is that on one particular take part of Miles's lip came off in the mouthpiece and got stuck, changing the sound, but he ran with it and it basically went un-noticed (although this recording in itself went pretty un-noticed).I love the haunting "Generique" (a slow, intense melody that sounds like it was probably the theme of the film), and "Flores De Champs Eleseeys" (I can't spell it correctly off of the top of my head) is another great little tune with Miles and saxophonist Barney Wilen playing on a French sounding melody.

This album is for Miles enthusiasts for sure, if you're not a Miles Davis fan already, you might want to start with something else, though. ... Read more

Asin: B000004785
Subjects:  1. Hard Bop    2. Jazz    3. Pop   

Come Fly with Me
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (23 July, 1996)
list price: $11.98
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Editorial Review

When critics refer to Sinatra's Capitol albums, their highest praise is usually reserved for the dark melancholy of Wee Small Hours or Only the Lonely. But the upbeat &qout;Swinging&qout; records should not be ignored. Probably the finest of these albums is Come Fly with Me. The first of Sinatra's albums with arranger Billy May (whose less arrangements have been overshadowed by Nelson Riddles), Fly is the conceptual equal of Lonely-a carefree, romantic musical travelogue. From the opening invitation--one of Sinatra's most rollicking vocals--to the tender invocations of "Autumn in New York" and "April in Paris," and the serene seductiveness of "Moonlight in Vermont," Sinatra personified the modern traveler--jaunty, cosmopolitan, irrefutably cool. --Steven Mirkin ... Read more

Reviews (31)

Around The World With Mr. S
From the Isle of Capri and Rome to Vermont and New York, from Paris and London to Brazil and Hawaii, from Peru and Mandalay to Chicago and South of the Border, Mr. Sinatra is all over these beautiful and exotic places. He loves to "take a boat to Bermuda ... and get away from it all." He loves to "go traveling but always love to come home." ("No more Customs ... burn the passport ... no more packing ... and unpacking ... light the home fires ... get my slippers ... make a pizza!")

This is a far cry from the lonely and melancholy Sinatra. This recording personifies a jetsetter and footloose Sinatra who loves to go around the world. Billy May's very first project with Mr. Sinatra proved one thing - that he could be in the league of the best Sinatra arrangers/conductors in the company of Nelson Riddle, Don Costa, Axel Stordahl, Claus Ogerman, Gordon Jenkins, Robert Farnon and Quincy Jones.

This CD welcomes the listeners with an upbeat "Come Fly With Me," a Sammy Cahn & James Van Heusen gem, which was composed exclusively for the Chairman of the Board at his request. I love his gentle treatment of Victor Young & Harold Adamson's "Around The World" ("No more will I go all around the world ... for I have found my world in you!"). Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger's "Blue Hawaii" is also remarkable. I can't think of any awesome interpretation than this one. He sung it so splendidly that I could listen to it endlessly. Ary Barroso & Bob Russell's "Brazil" and Cole Porter's "I Love Paris" with their jazzy arrangements and Mr. Sinatra's sublime renditions are so invigorating and refreshing to the ears.

The last three tracks were not arranged and conducted by Billy May but by the greatNelson Riddle, equally nice arrangements of "Chicago," "South of the Border" and"I Love Paris."

"Weather-wise it's such a lovely day
You just say the words and we'll beat the birds
Down to Acapulco Bay
It's perfect for a flying honeymoon, they say
Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly...
Pack up ... let's fly away!"

A very nice addition to your Sinatra collection. Very highly recommended for your listening pleasure. . . now and forever!

Just has to be his best!
Frank is 5 star on this all the way.Heard him in a High School auditorium in 1942 with Cy Oliver at the piano.Knew he was gonna make it and he did.Has to be best modern American singer ever....he can sing anything and everything great.This album is a tribute not only to his great voice but his selection of songs, fantastic arrangements and a sound that just makes you wanna get up and dance...Go Ahead you'll see.the duke

Fine work
I never really cared for most of the selections on this album but Come Fly With Me is so good it saves the day.
Buy if you have extra money. ... Read more

Asin: B000005JJE
Subjects:  1. Pop    2. Pop Vocals    3. Swing    4. Traditional Pop    5. United States of America    6. Vocal Jazz   

Moondance
Average Customer Review:
Audio CD (25 October, 1990)
list price: $11.98 -- our price: $8.99
(price subject to change: see help)
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Editorial Review

Van Morrison went a long way towards defining his wild Irish heart with his first two classic albums: the brooding, introspective Astral Weeks (1968), and the expansive, swinging Moondance. If the first was the work of a poet, its sequel was the statement of a musician and bandleader. Moondance is that rare rock album where the band has buffed the arrangements to perfection, and where the sax solos instead of the guitar. The band puts out a jazzy shuffle on "Moondance" and plays it soulful on "These Dreams of You." The album includes both Morrison's most romantic ballad ("Crazy Love") and his most haunting ("Into the Mystic"). "And It Stoned Me" rolled off Morrison's tongue like a favorite fable, while "Caravan" told a tale full of emotional intrigue. Moondance stood out in the rock world of 1970 like a grownup in a kiddie matinee. --John Milward ... Read more

Reviews (141)

Not really a review.....
I know I will catch grief for taking up space without any review but...will someone tell me when in blazes they are going to remaster this masterpiece?!!

Masterpiece - His all Time Best Album
My Favorite Van Morrison album of all time and One of the Best album Of the Rock Era. My favorite Songs are the Title Track, "And It Stones Me" and "Caravan". But all the Songs are Terrific. A classic Rock album.

moondance
This album is like a greatest hits album in its self. Instead of buying that messed up greatest hits album van released a couple of years agobuy this. you will be listening to this for the rest of your life. Its great. ... Read more

Asin: B000002KHF
Subjects:  1. Album Rock    2. Blue-Eyed Soul    3. Celtic Rock    4. Folk-Rock    5. Ireland    6. Jazz-Rock    7. Pop    8. Pop/Rock    9. R&B    10. Rock    11. Singer/Songwriter    12. Soft Rock    13. Vocals