Vinally Friday – 11/4

Leave it to Craig to come up with some obscure, off-the-wall guitarist for his weekly Vinally Friday selection.

Except, wait … Ry Cooder is not only ranked 8th on Rolling Stone‘s 2003 list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, but he’s situated right between Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimmy Page?

We’re pretty sure that makes us the off-the-wall ones.

Yep, it’s true: The multi-instrumentalist Ry Cooder, known primarily for his slide guitar work, is described by the magazine’s David Fricke as a “teen prodigy” who graduated to “one of the world’s foremost performing musicologists” – performing with Taj Majal in the Sixties and later teaching Keith Richards how to play open-G blue tuning.

This week, Craig will give Cooder’s 1979 release, Bop Till You Drop, a few good spins on the ol’ turntable.

Cooder’s eigth studio album, Bop is comprised mostly with early R&B and soul selections. It’s major claim to fame is that it was the first digitally recorded pop album.

AllMusic panned it’s individual tracks for their “thinness”, but said overall it’s worth a good listen “given Cooder’s penchant for choosing great tunes, as well as the tight performances, brilliant guitar work, and a handful of great guest vocalists.”

And once again, we can thank Craig for bringing us up to date on what everyone else seemingly already knew.

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Also on the table this week:

-Mike, who is filling in for Alanya, will play a few tracks off The Cure’s first greatest hits collection, Standing on a Beach.

Released in 1986, the album marked the first decade of the British post-punk band’s existence. Thirty years later and still going strong, it’s amusing to remember that this marked only the first quarter of the band’s seemingly non-stop career.

AllMusic’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine described Standing as “one of the finest albums of the ’80s’.

-Robert will, as per usual, push against the tide with the album Neil Young called the worst record he ever made, 1973’s live collection, Time Fades Away.

All but one song were taken from that year’s tour featuring You ng and backing band The Stray Gators. As a follow-up to the instant classic, Harvest, it didn’t do so well. But as a standalone Young record, it’s among his most critically acclaimed and influential.

Young – who was struggling with alcohol, fatigue and those existential issues all mega-stars face at one point or another – said he hated Time but released it anyway “so you folks could see what could happen if you lose it for a while.”

Ultimate Classic Rock put together a niece piece on the album’s backstory HERE.

-Tommy will wrap up the day with MGMT’s debut studio album, Oracular Spectacular.

There is, however, a caveat: Tommy has been out sick all this week, and no matter how much fun it is to spin the black circle we wouldn’t blame him for extending his bed stay through the weekend.

However, if Tommy DOES make it in, you’re in for a treat.

Released in 2007, Oracular just barely cracked Rolling Stone‘s The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time at No. 494.  It was named the best album of 2008 by NME, the 18th best album of the decade by Rolling Stone, and it set psychedelicly rocking precedent for a band that’s since gone on sell millions.

Finally, it’s Friday! It’s Vinally Friday, all day on the Trail 103.3!

#RyCooder #TheCure #MGMT #TheTrail #Trail1033 #vinallyfriday #neilyoung