Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} All Time Top 1000 Albums The World's Most Authoritative Guide to the Perfect Record Collection by Co The Virgin Encyclopedia of Heavy Rock. This encyclopedia of heavy rock and metal music is taken from the database of the Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Containing over 1400 entries, this book provides reviews of all the big names in the history of the genre. Read More. This encyclopedia of heavy rock and metal music is taken from the database of the Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Containing over 1400 entries, this book provides reviews of all the big names in the history of the genre. Read Less. All Copies ( 6 ) Softcover ( 6 ) Choose Edition ( 1 ) Book Details Seller Sort. 1999, Virgin Publishing. Edition: 1999, Virgin Publishing Trade paperback, Very Good Details: ISBN: 0753502577 ISBN-13: 9780753502570 Pages: 512 Publisher: Virgin Publishing Published: 02/2000 Language: English Alibris ID: 16594538784 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Very good. Shows some signs of wear from usage. Is no longer bright/shinny. Edge wear from storage and shelving. ► Contact This Seller. 1999, Virgin Publishing. Milton Keynes, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, UNITED KINGDOM. Edition: 1999, Virgin Publishing Trade paperback, Good Details: ISBN: 0753502577 ISBN-13: 9780753502570 Pages: 512 Publisher: Virgin Publishing Published: 03/18/1999 Language: English Alibris ID: 16610344214 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Ex-library **Simply Brit** Shipped with Premium postal service within 24 hours from the UK with impressive delivery time. We have dispatched from our book depository; items of good condition to over ten million satisfied customers worldwide. We are committed to providing you with reliable and efficient service at all times. ► Contact This Seller. 1999, Virgin Publishing. Edition: 1999, Virgin Publishing Trade paperback, Good Details: ISBN: 0753502577 ISBN-13: 9780753502570 Pages: 512 Publisher: Virgin Publishing Published: 2000 Language: English Alibris ID: 16587996435 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99 Trackable Expedited: $7.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972. Used books may not include companion materials, some shelf wear, may contain highlighting/notes, and may not include cd-rom or access codes. Customer service is our top priority! ► Contact This Seller. 1999, Virgin Publishing. Waterfoot, LANCASHIRE, UNITED KINGDOM. Edition: 1999, Virgin Publishing Trade paperback, Good Details: ISBN: 0753502577 ISBN-13: 9780753502570 Pages: 512 Publisher: Virgin Publishing Published: 1999 Language: English Alibris ID: 16510092402 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Ex Library Book with usual stamps and stickers. Slight tan to the page edges. The free end page has been removed. Good condition book. Good condition is defined as: a copy that has been read but remains in clean condition. All of the pages are intact and the cover is intact and the spine may show signs of wear. The book may have minor markings which are not specifically mentioned. Most items will be dispatched the same or the next working day. ► Contact This Seller. 1999, Virgin Publishing. Goring-By-Sea, WEST SUSSEX, UNITED KINGDOM. Edition: 1999, Virgin Publishing Trade paperback, Very Good Available Copies: 3 Details: ISBN: 0753502577 ISBN-13: 9780753502570 Pages: 512 Publisher: Virgin Publishing Published: 1999 Language: English Alibris ID: 16594700717 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Very Good. This encyclopedia of heavy rock and metal music is taken from the database of the "Encyclopedia of Popular Music". Containing over 1400 entries, this book provides reviews of all the big names in the history of the genre. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 512 p. ► Contact This Seller. 1999, Virgin Publishing. Edition: 1999, Virgin Publishing Trade paperback, New Available Copies: 2 Details: ISBN: 0753502577 ISBN-13: 9780753502570 Pages: 512 Publisher: Virgin Publishing Published: 2000 Language: English Alibris ID: 16642336526 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: $3.99. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Christmas books: Pop - A couple of thousand Pink Floyd fans can be wrong. Cole Moreton reviews the year's best rock books (and Ian Gillan's) Article bookmarked. Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. What's your favourite pop single of all time? Mine got to number 49 in the charts in 1984 then disappeared, just like the band who made it. "Breakfast" by The Associates might be the most preposterously operatic affair ever to appear on vinyl (apart from opera itself, of course) but my heart is won by the glorious, swooping vocal performance of Billy Mackenzie, a beret-wearing pop tart who knew he was a genius but had a hard time convincing the rest of the world. The story of how this working-class aesthete from Dundee took a stab at stardom and missed, only to fall into depression and kill himself at the age of 39 is told in Tom Doyle's new biography The Glamour Chase (Bloomsbury pounds 12.99). It has a foreword by Bono, no less, in which the leading rock vocalist of his generation admits that Billy was a better singer. Too late, old son, too late. My reason for revealing such bizarre taste is to point out that pop is about the transient, the ephemeral and the marvellously insubstantial. It is also, in short, about whatever takes your fancy (and your fancy is certain to be different from mine) so the only way to choose from the dozens of new books on music available this Christmas is to follow your heart. I was fascinated by Andrew Collins's biography of Billy Bragg, Still Suitable For Miners (Virgin pounds 12.99), for example, because the Bard of Barking was a hero to young socialists such as myself whose political sophistication extended to standing on picket lines discussing how much of a cow Mrs Thatcher was. You, on the other hand, might prefer to read the autobiography of Ian Gillan (Blake pounds 6.99), lead singer with the newly resurgent Deep Purple (although we won't be seen together in public if you do). The idea of a pop canon is preposterous, but it is also the central conceit behind the Virgin All-Time Top 1000 Albums by Colin Larkin (Virgin pounds 16.99). After five years of research that involved compiling the votes of 200,000 musicians, writers and listeners in Britain and America, Larkin reveals that the greatest recording artists of all time are . the Beatles. Big surprise there then. John, Paul, George and Ringo take four of the top five slots in this survey, the other going to Nirvana. The voters were obviously all big fans of white guitar rock, because the first soul album to appear is Marvin Gaye's What's Going On? at number 32 - way below even the Stone Roses. Dance music, the dominant genre of our time, registers less than 0.7 per cent of the vote. The cover describes this as "the world's most authoritative guide to the perfect record collection", but if you know anyone sad enough to go out and buy the top 30, say, on the basis of what a couple of hundred thousand Pink Floyd fans think, the only humane thing to do is shoot them. Alternatively you could broaden their minds with A Century of Pop (Hamlyn pounds 25). Despite its gaudy, childish jacket, Hugh Gregory's history of the musical melting pot is learned and comprehensive, running from light opera and music hall to bhangra and boy bands. If your friend or relative is an anorak, however, a better gift this Christmas would be The Great Rock Discography by Martin C Strong (Canongate pounds 25). This thick, black, self-important book is perfect for looking up the name of the song on the B-side of the picture disc of Twisted Sister's "The Kids Are Back". (It was called "Shoot 'Em Down" by the way, but surely anybody who wanted to look that up would know it already?) The Seventies emerged from the Virgin poll as the "all-time favourite decade", so there should be a market for Rolling Stone: The Seventies (Simon & Schuster pounds 20). It contains the Frank Zappa quote that rock journalism is about people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk, for people who can't read. Fortunately, in its greatest period, Rolling Stone magazine knew that rock was only relevant when it was woven into the wider culture. Chrissie Hynde, founder of The Pretenders, opens the book by looking back to the day in 1970 when state troopers shot dead four of her fellow student protesters at Kent State University in Ohio, an event marked almost immediately by Neil Young's raging song "Ohio". An impressive list of contributors includes Deborah Harry of Blondie, Joan Baez, Hunter S Thompson and Tom Wolfe. Forget Boogie Nights and flare-wearing retro nonsense - from Nixon and the Jonestown massacre to the birth of hip-hop, this fabulous book tells (or reminds) you what the Seventies were really like, at least in America. Over here at the time, a bunch of blues- riffing navvies with glitter gummed to their cheeks were pushing glam. Roxy Music rose from the pack because they understood the Warhol way, and the story of Bryan Ferry, Brian Eno and the other non-Brians nobody remembers is told in Paul Stump's book about the band, Unknown Pleasure (Quartet pounds 12), which bears the ominously pretentious subtitle "a cultural biography". This is a labour of love, released to cash in on the movie Velvet Goldmine. Zappa's dictum does not apply because none of the band would talk to Stump, but he makes up for it with the overblown style that is so easy to fall into when you're writing about art-school graduates you consider to be geniuses. The same condition afflicts Sean Egan in Star Sail (Omnibus pounds 9.99), his loving biography of last year's favourite rock band The Verve, who are surely destined to become the Camel of the Nineties. Speaking of tragedies, Who Killed Kurt Cobain? by Ian Halperin and Max Wallace (Blake pounds 14.99), reveals the shocking truth that the Nirvana singer's middle name was Donald. Oh, they also conclude that he might have been murdered and that Courtney Love might know who did it (so that's saved you reading the thing). Clang! No, it's not Courtney coming at me with an axe (she wouldn't, of course), just the sound of another name being dropped by the writer and broadcaster Paul Gambaccini in his hagiographic Close Encounters (Omnibus pounds 9.99). Each chapter describes a meeting between Gambo (as Linda McCartney called him) and a succession of legends from Marvin Gaye to Diana. It's all terribly camp - with chapter headings such as "Sting Makes Me Feel Fat" - and hideously fascinating. If you really must buy someone a book by a DJ it should be Showbusiness: Diary of a Rock 'n' Roll Nobody by Mark Radcliffe (Sceptre pounds 10), an account of his struggles to become a star drummer. Gigs in Scout huts, endless squabbles and being ripped off by dodgy managers are the stuff of rock and roll for most of us who try it - and the deadpan, self-deprecating Radcliffe renders it all hilarious. Finally, another Northern lad with his head screwed on right. Let me Entertain You: The Official Book (Virgin pounds 12.99) contains as many glossy pictures of Robbie Williams as the tomes that were once issued in the name of Take That, but there is a twist. Tucked away next to a shot of Robbie in the full groin-hugging spandex regalia of American glam-rockers Kiss is a quote with which he claims to have the same relationship to traditional pop as Eddie Izzard has to Jimmy Tarbuck: "It's the art of self-deprecation." His tunes may be anaemic, but once you notice the irony that drips from every page this is a bloody funny book whose inspiration (of course he didn't write it) understands what pop is all about. So he should be able to cope with becoming old, fat and hitless far better than poor Billy Mackenzie. Now go and put another record on. Join our new commenting forum. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. My Fair Lady (cast/soundtrack) Alan Jay Lerner/ Frederick Loewe (composers) Opened on Broadway: March 15, 1956. Cast Album Charted: April 28, 1956. Soundtrack Charted: October 10, 1964. Sales (in millions): US: 8.0 c , 1.5 s UK: IFPI: -- World (estimated): 8.0 c , 1.5 s. Genre: show tunes. Overture: Orchestra/ Why Can’t the English? Wouldn’t It Be Loverly? * I’m an Ordinary Man With a Little Bit of Luck ** Just You Wait The Rain in Spain I Could Have Danced All Night Ascot Gavotte On the Street Where You Live You Did It Show Me Get Me to the Church on Time A Hymn to Him Without You I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face. * 2 versions back-to-back on cast album ** appears only on soundtrack. On the Street Where You Live - Vic Damone (1956) #4 - Eddie Fisher (1956) #18 - Lawrence Welk (1956) #96 - Andy Williams (1964) #28. I Could Have Danced All Night - Sylvia Syms (1956) #20 - Rosemary Clooney (1956) #49 - Dinah Shore (1956) #93 - Ben E. King (1963) #72 - Biddu Orchestra (1976) #72. I’ve Grown Accustomed to Your Face - Rosemary Clooney (1956) #70 - Gordon MacRae (1956) #96. With a Little Bit of Luck - Percy Faith (1956) #82 - Jo Stafford (1956) #85. Get Me to the Church on Time - Julius LaRosa (1956) #89. My Fair Lady is “the crowning achievement” AZ for lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe. In fact, some consider it to be “the most perfect stage musical ever.” CL “It boasts a magnificent score…witty, intelligent, beautiful, and romantic.” NRR This is “a collection of performances that long ago became a ubiquitous and indispensable fixture of American musical theater.” AZ. Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner. After several productions in the 1940s, Lerner and Loewe first tasted major Broadway success with 1947’s Brigadoon . They next worked together on 1951’s Paint Your Wagon before adapting George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion into My Fair Lady . It was a story about “the mythic Greek figure who falls in love with his sculpture.” TM In My Fair Lady , the story focuses on “the relationship between an elocutionist” R-C and “pre-World War I London flower girl Eliza Doolittle, who aspires to a better accent and the social advantages that will come with it.” R-S. The show opened on Broadway on March 15, 1956. It ran for 2717 performances, closing on September 29, 1962. It had what was then the longest run in history for a major musical. W-M The production has been called “the perfect musical.” W-M. Julie Andrews was a “twenty-year-old revelation” ZS as “the fairest of all ladies,” ZS making the “loverly…score soar” ZS with her “glorious voice and emotional range.” ZS Rex Harrison is “effortlessly charming” ZS in his recreation of the stage role as “Professor Henry Higgins (he had also appeared in the film adaptation of… Pygmalion .” R-S He “enjoys every wink of his ironies: When he describes himself, in I’m an Ordinary Man , his exaggerated demeanor suggests his character is anything but ordinary. That Harrison caught this specific dynamic so early in what became a historic extended run is remarkable.” TM. “The show yielded an astounding number of songs that became standards, including the luminous I Could Have Danced All Night and I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face .” TM Among the other gems in this “embarrassment of riches,” AZ including The Rain in Spain , Wouldn’t It Be Loverly , Why Can’t the English? , and On the Street Where You Live . As was common in the 1950s, the cast album “was recorded in one marathon fourteen-hour session on March 25, 1956.” TM “Producers tried to schedule the sessions as close to the opening of the musical as possible, thinking that the nuances of the work would be fresh in the performers’ minds.” TM This sometimes backfired, but here Harrison and Andrews “are beyond lively… and the supporting cast – which, as was often the case with Lerner and Loewe, got the meatiest songs – positively sparkles.” TM. “The recording established a new relationship between Broadway productions and record companies; the album’s critical success and popularity with the public were unrivaled at the time of its release.” NRR The cast album spent fifteen weeks atop the Billboard album chart, making it one of the biggest #1 albums in U.S. chart history. What’s incredible, however, is that those chart-topping weeks were spread out over four years time. Billboard magazine named it album of the year – in 1957 and 1958. The album stuck around on the charts for a total of 480 weeks. Only Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and Johnny Mathis’ Johnny’s Greatest Hits have logged more weeks. For the film version, Harrison and Holloway were back, but since they were making their third recordings of the score, they didn’t have much to add…The result was an acceptable recording that did not surpass the Broadway or London cast albums.” R-S However, despite starring in the Broadway and London stage productions, Julie Andrews was deemed “not enough of a star to carry the movie. (Embarrassingly, by the time the movie opened, Mary Poppins had made her more than enough of a star to do so.) Instead, Audrey Hepburn stepped into the role.” R-S. Hepburn’s singing voice was dubbed by Marni Nixon, who “was an accomplished Hollywood voice ghost, having previously sung for Deborah Kerr in The King and I , Natalie Wood in West Side Story , and Rosalind Russell in Gypsy .” R-S She “was fine…lacked the flair that Andrews would have given it.” R-S. I Walk the Line. Johnny Cash ranks as one of the top 5 country artists of all-time according to Billboard magazine. However, in 1956, his career was barely underway. Signed to Sun Records, Cash had charted with “Cry! Cry! Cry!” (#14), “So Doggone Lonesome” (#4), and “Folsom Prison Blues” (#4). His fourth chart entry, “I Walk the Line,” Cash hit #1 on the Billboard country chart and #17 on the Billboard Hot 100. Over the next thirty years, he sent well over 100 songs to the country charts, fourteen which topped the chart. The song’s unusual chord progression dated back to 1950. During Cash’s days in the Air Force in Germany, he wrote songs with the help of a tape machine. Five years later, he was fiddling around with it backstage while on tour with label mate Carl Perkins. Perkins said that Sam Phillips, the head of Sun, was looking for something different and that Cash should build a song around it. Cash didn’t come up with the idea for the song until he and Perkins talked later about guys running around on their wives while out on the road. Cash, who had a new baby and was newly married, said, “Not me buddy. I walk the line.” Perkins said, “there’s your song title.” CR. Interestingly, Cash had suggested the title to Perkins for his biggest hit, “Blue Suede Shoes”. Cash relayed the story to Perkins of a buddy in the Air Force who would get all dressed up to go out and warn people, “don’t step on my blue suede shoes, man.” CR. Cash recorded “I Walk the Line” with Perkins and his own regular Tennessee Two duo of guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant. CR To get a more percussive sound from his guitar, Cash wound a piece of wax paper through the guitar strings. RS500 Cash has explained that he started each verse with an eerie hum to get his pitch since he had to change keys several times. SF He also sped the song up at Phillips suggestion. TB Bob Dylan said, “It was different than anything else you had ever heard…a voice from the middle of the earth.” RS500. DMDB encyclopedia entry for Johnny Cash CR Toby Creswell (2005). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time . Thunder’s Mouth Press: New York, NY. Page 626. RS500 Rolling Stone (2004). “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time” SF Songfacts TB Thunder Bay Press (2006). Singles: Six Decades of Hot Hits & Classic Cuts . Outline Press Ltd.: San Diego, CA. Page 20. Friday, July 14, 2006. July 14, 1956: My Fair Lady cast album hit #1. Originally posted March 7, 2011. Last updated September 4, 2018. My Fair Lady (cast/soundtrack) Alan Jay Lerner/ Frederick Loewe (composers) Opened on Broadway: March 15, 1956. Cast Album Charted: April 28, 1956. Soundtrack Charted: October 10, 1964. Sales (in millions): US: 8.0 c , 1.5 s UK: IFPI: -- World (estimated): 8.0 c , 1.5 s. Genre: show tunes. Overture: Orchestra/ Why Can’t the English? Wouldn’t It Be Loverly? * I’m an Ordinary Man With a Little Bit of Luck ** Just You Wait The Rain in Spain I Could Have Danced All Night Ascot Gavotte On the Street Where You Live You Did It Show Me Get Me to the Church on Time A Hymn to Him Without You I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face. * 2 versions back-to-back on cast album ** appears only on soundtrack. On the Street Where You Live - Vic Damone (1956) #4 - Eddie Fisher (1956) #18 - Lawrence Welk (1956) #96 - Andy Williams (1964) #28. I Could Have Danced All Night - Sylvia Syms (1956) #20 - Rosemary Clooney (1956) #49 - Dinah Shore (1956) #93 - Ben E. King (1963) #72 - Biddu Orchestra (1976) #72. I’ve Grown Accustomed to Your Face - Rosemary Clooney (1956) #70 - Gordon MacRae (1956) #96. With a Little Bit of Luck - Percy Faith (1956) #82 - Jo Stafford (1956) #85. Get Me to the Church on Time - Julius LaRosa (1956) #89. My Fair Lady is “the crowning achievement” AZ for lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe. In fact, some consider it to be “the most perfect stage musical ever.” CL “It boasts a magnificent score…witty, intelligent, beautiful, and romantic.” NRR This is “a collection of performances that long ago became a ubiquitous and indispensable fixture of American musical theater.” AZ. Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner. After several productions in the 1940s, Lerner and Loewe first tasted major Broadway success with 1947’s Brigadoon . They next worked together on 1951’s Paint Your Wagon before adapting George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion into My Fair Lady . It was a story about “the mythic Greek figure who falls in love with his sculpture.” TM In My Fair Lady , the story focuses on “the relationship between an elocutionist” R-C and “pre-World War I London flower girl Eliza Doolittle, who aspires to a better accent and the social advantages that will come with it.” R-S. The show opened on Broadway on March 15, 1956. It ran for 2717 performances, closing on September 29, 1962. It had what was then the longest run in history for a major musical. W-M The production has been called “the perfect musical.” W-M. Julie Andrews was a “twenty-year-old revelation” ZS as “the fairest of all ladies,” ZS making the “loverly…score soar” ZS with her “glorious voice and emotional range.” ZS Rex Harrison is “effortlessly charming” ZS in his recreation of the stage role as “Professor Henry Higgins (he had also appeared in the film adaptation of… Pygmalion .” R-S He “enjoys every wink of his ironies: When he describes himself, in I’m an Ordinary Man , his exaggerated demeanor suggests his character is anything but ordinary. That Harrison caught this specific dynamic so early in what became a historic extended run is remarkable.” TM. “The show yielded an astounding number of songs that became standards, including the luminous I Could Have Danced All Night and I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face .” TM Among the other gems in this “embarrassment of riches,” AZ including The Rain in Spain , Wouldn’t It Be Loverly , Why Can’t the English? , and On the Street Where You Live . As was common in the 1950s, the cast album “was recorded in one marathon fourteen-hour session on March 25, 1956.” TM “Producers tried to schedule the sessions as close to the opening of the musical as possible, thinking that the nuances of the work would be fresh in the performers’ minds.” TM This sometimes backfired, but here Harrison and Andrews “are beyond lively… and the supporting cast – which, as was often the case with Lerner and Loewe, got the meatiest songs – positively sparkles.” TM. “The recording established a new relationship between Broadway productions and record companies; the album’s critical success and popularity with the public were unrivaled at the time of its release.” NRR The cast album spent fifteen weeks atop the Billboard album chart, making it one of the biggest #1 albums in U.S. chart history. What’s incredible, however, is that those chart-topping weeks were spread out over four years time. Billboard magazine named it album of the year – in 1957 and 1958. The album stuck around on the charts for a total of 480 weeks. Only Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and Johnny Mathis’ Johnny’s Greatest Hits have logged more weeks. For the film version, Harrison and Holloway were back, but since they were making their third recordings of the score, they didn’t have much to add…The result was an acceptable recording that did not surpass the Broadway or London cast albums.” R-S However, despite starring in the Broadway and London stage productions, Julie Andrews was deemed “not enough of a star to carry the movie. (Embarrassingly, by the time the movie opened, Mary Poppins had made her more than enough of a star to do so.) Instead, Audrey Hepburn stepped into the role.” R-S. Hepburn’s singing voice was dubbed by Marni Nixon, who “was an accomplished Hollywood voice ghost, having previously sung for Deborah Kerr in The King and I , Natalie Wood in West Side Story , and Rosalind Russell in Gypsy .” R-S She “was fine…lacked the flair that Andrews would have given it.” R-S. Countdown to Ecstasy. Countdown to Ecstasy is the second studio album by the American rock band Steely Dan, released in July 1973 by ABC Records. It was recorded at Caribou Ranch in Nederland, Colorado, and at The Village Recorder in West Los Angeles, California. [4] After the departure of vocalist David Palmer, the group recorded the album with Donald Fagen singing lead on every song. [5] Although it was a critical success, the album failed to generate a hit single, and consequently charted at only number 35 on the Billboard 200. It was eventually certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 1978, having shipped 500,000 copies in the United States. Well-received upon its release, Countdown to Ecstasy received perfect scores from music critics in retrospective reviews. Contents. Musical style [ edit ] Like Steely Dan's 1972 debut album Can't Buy a Thrill , Countdown to Ecstasy has a rock sound that exhibits a strong influence from jazz. [6] It comprises uptempo, four-to-five-minute rock songs, [7] which, apart from the bluesy vamps of "Bodhisattva" and "Show Biz Kids", are subtly textured and feature jazz-inspired interludes. [8] Countdown to Ecstasy was the only album written by Steely Dan for a live band. "My Old School" features reverent horns and aggressive piano riffs and guitar solos. "The Boston Rag" develops from a jazzy song to unrefined playing by the band, including a distorted guitar solo by Jeff "Skunk" Baxter. [9] Jim Hodder's drumming eschews rock music for pop and jazz grooves. [10] Bop-style jazz soloing is set in the context of a pop song on "Bodhisattva". [11] Commenting on the album's style and production, Tom Hull says it is "clean, almost slick", with "no dissonance, no clutter", reminiscent of 1940s bop and "the overproduced early 60s pop rock". [12] Lyrics and themes [ edit ] Countdown to Ecstasy also has themes similar to Can't Buy a Thrill . [7] It explores topics such as drug abuse, class envy, and West Coast excess. [13] "My Old School" is inspired by a drug bust involving Walter Becker and Donald Fagen at Bard College, [9] "King of the World" explores a post-Nuclear holocaust United States, and "Show Biz Kids" satirizes contemporary Los Angeles lifestyles. [14] Hull describes their lyrics as "a running paste together joke . sufraintelligent, witty and slyly devious", citing as an example the following lyrics from "Show Biz Kids": "They got the booze they need / All that money can buy / They got the shapely bods / They got the Steely Dan T-shirt / And for the coup-de-gras / They're outrageous." [12] "Your Gold Teeth" follows a jaded female grifter who uses her attractiveness and cunning. [15] According to Rob Sheffield, Fagen and Becker's lyrics on the album portray America as "one big Las Vegas, with gangsters and gurus hustling for souls to steal." He views it as the first in Steely Dan's trilogy of albums that, along with Pretzel Logic (1974) and Katy Lied (1975), showcase "a film noir tour of L.A.'s decadent losers, showbiz kids, and razor boys." [16] Erik Adams of The A.V. Club writes that the album is a "dossier of literate lowlifes, the type of character studies that say, 'Why yes, the name Steely Dan is an allusion to a dildo described in Naked Lunch .' These characters hang around the corners of the entire Steely Dan discography, but they come into their own on Countdown to Ecstasy ". [17] Other songs explore more spiritual concerns. The opening song "Bodhisattva" is a parody of the idea that the disposal of one's possessions is a prerequisite to spiritual enlightenment. Its title refers to the Bodhisattva, those of the belief that they have achieved spiritual perfection but remain in the material world to help others. Fagen summarized the song's message as "Lure of East. Hubris of hippies. Quick fix". [18] "Razor Boy" is a bitter, ironic pop song with lyrics that subtly criticize complacency and materialism. [19] According to Ivan Kreilkamp of Spin , "Steely Dan speaks to us from that 'cold and windy day' when the trappings of hipness and sexiness fall away to reveal a lonely figure waiting for a fix. 'Will you still have a song to sing when the razor boy comes and takes your fancy things away?' Fagen asks a generation stupefied by nostalgia and self- involvement". [19] Title and packaging [ edit ] The album was titled as a joke about attempts to rationalize a state of spirituality. [18] The original cover painting was by Fagen's then-girlfriend Dorothy White. At the insistence of ABC Records president Jay Lasker, however, several figures had to be added when he found the discrepancy between five band members and three figures on the cover unacceptable. The proofs for the album cover were later stolen during a dispute over the final layout. [20] The back cover features an orchid surrounded by the band and their recording equipment. [12] Marketing and sales [ edit ] Countdown to Ecstasy was released in July 1973 by ABC Records in the United States and Probe Records in the United Kingdom. It was less commercially successful than Can't Buy a Thrill . [21] The album failed to generate a hit single, [22] and only charted at number 35 on the Billboard 200. [5] Nonetheless, it spent 34 weeks on the chart, [21] and was eventually certified gold, in 1978, by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), having shipped 500,000 copies in the United States. [23] Critical reception and legacy [ edit ] Retrospective professional reviews Review scores Source Rating AllMusic [8] Chicago Tribune [24] Christgau's Record Guide A [25] Encyclopedia of Popular Music [26] The Great Rock Discography 8/10 [27] MusicHound Rock 3/5 [28] Music Story [29] Rolling Stone [9] The Rolling Stone Album Guide [30] Tom Hull – on the Web A– [31] Countdown to Ecstasy was met with positive reviews. [22] Reviewing in August 1973 for Rolling Stone , David Logan said that the album's musical formula, while not redundant, said that despite ordinary musicianship and occasionally absurd lyrics, Steely Dan's "control" of their basic rock format is "refreshing" and "bodes well for the group's longterm success." [7] Billboard complimented the "studio effect" of the dual guitar playing and found the "grandiloquent vocal blend" catchy. [10] Stereo Review called it a "really excellent album" with "witty and tasteful" arrangements, "winning" performances, "high quality" songs, and a "potent and persuasive" mix of rock, jazz, and pop styles. [14] In Creem , Robert Christgau observed "studio-perfect licks that crackle and buzz when you listen hard" and "invariably malicious" vocals that back the group's obscure lyrics. [32] He named Countdown to Ecstasy the ninth best album of 1973 in his year-end list for Newsday . [33] Hull, in a review published in Overdose in April 1975, said the album is "perhaps the most representative [and] certainly the best realized" of Steely Dan's confounding mix of smooth production quality and intellectual lyrical content. "The effect is strange, strangely comfortable, queasy almost", he explained, calling the band "a dangerous group, one that should be watched". [12] In Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Christgau said that Steely Dan had achieved a "deceptively agreeable studio slickness" with Fagen's replacement of Palmer, who Christgau felt did not fit the group. [25] Music journalist Paul Lester later viewed it as a progression from their debut album and wrote that "Becker and Fagen offered cruel critiques of the self-obsessed 'Me' decade", while their "blend of cool jazz and bebop, Brill Building song craft and rock was unparallelled at the time (only Britain's 10cc were creating such intelligent pop in the early Seventies)." [21] In his 1999 autobiography A Cure for Gravity , British musician Joe Jackson described Countdown to Ecstasy as a musical revelation for him, that bridged the gap between "pure pop" and his jazz-rock and progressive influences, while furthering his attempts at songwriting. [34] In The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), Rob Sheffield called Countdown to Ecstasy "a thoroughly amazing, hugely influential album" with "cold-blooded L.A. studio rock tricked out with jazz piano and tough guitar." [30] Pat Blashill later wrote in Rolling Stone that the "joy in these excellent songs" and in the band's playing revealed Steely Dan to be "human, not just brainy," "like good stretches of the Stones' Exile on Main St. " [9] AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine found Countdown to Ecstasy musically "riskier" than the band's debut album, and wrote that the songs are "rich with either musical or lyrical detail that their album rock or art rock contemporaries couldn't hope to match." [8] Chris Jones of BBC Music found Steely Dan's ideas to be "post-modern" and "erudite," and asserted that they were "setting a benchmark that few have ever matched." [13] Countdown to Ecstasy has appeared on several professional listings of the greatest albums. [29] In 2000, it was voted number 307 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums . [35] Based on such rankings, the aggregate website Acclaimed Music lists it as the 625th most acclaimed album in history and the 179th most acclaimed from the 1970s. [29]