Music History Events: albums released December 4

Music History Events: albums released December 4

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Albums released December 4:

• 1964 – THE BEATLES – ‘Beatles For Sale’

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• 1964 – THE YARDBIRDS – ‘Five Live Yardbirds’

• 1965 – THE ROLLING STONES – ‘December’s Children (and everybody’s)’ (USA)

• 1966 – DIONNE WARWICK – ‘Here Where There Is Love’

• 1972 – J.J. CALE – ‘Really’

• 1975 – STEPHEN STILLS – ‘Live’

• 1977 – SCORPIONS – ‘Taken by Force’ (UK)

• 1981 – SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES – ‘Once Upon a Time: The Singles’

• 1984 – ART GARFUNKEL – ‘The Art Garfunkel Album’

• 1990 – BRAND NUBIAN – ‘One for All’

• 1990 – RAGE – ‘Reflections of  a Shadow’

• 1990 – MATT GROENING AND THE SIMPSONS – ‘The Simpsons Sing the Blues’

• 1995 – VAN MORRISON – ‘How Long Has This Been Going On’ (UK)

• 1997 – LOVERBOY – ‘VI’

• 2000 – WITHIN TEMPTATION – ‘Mother Earth’

• 2001 – MARIAH CAREY – ‘Greatest Hits’

• 2001 – DE LA SOUL – ‘AOI: Bionix’

• 2001 – NEIL DIAMOND – ‘The Essential Neil Diamond’

• 2001 – RICKIE LEE JONES – ‘Live at Red Rocks’

• 2004 – DEVIN TOWNSEND – ‘Devlab’

• 2006 – PETER HAMMILL – ‘Singularity’

• 2007 – GODSMACK – ‘Good Times, Bad Times… Ten Years of Godsmack’

• 2007 – SPONGE – ‘Galore Galore’

• 2015 – COLDPLAY – ‘A Head Full of Dreams’

• 2015 – BATUSHKA – ‘Литоургиiа (Litourgiya)’

• 2015 – SUNN O))) – ‘Kannon’

• 2020 – IRON SAVIOR – ‘Skycrest’

• 2020 – MAJESTICA – ‘A Christmas Carol’

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LP 1964: ‘BEATLES FOR SALE’ (The Beatles)

On December 4, 1964, ‘Beatles For Sale’, the fourth official album of the Beatles, was released in the United Kingdom. It was another of his works recorded in a hurry in order to publish it for the Christmas market.

In fact, despite the prolific creative moment that Lennon and McCartney were going through, the lack of time between concerts and tours forced them to include on the album several versions of American rock and roll authors such as Leiber and Stoller, Chuck Berry, Little Richard or Carl Perkins.

At the height of ‘Beatlemania’, it was the group’s time when John and Paul were more in tune than ever and their lyrics evolved, especially those of Lennon. They were increasingly interested in composing songs of an autobiographical nature, such as ‘I’m a loser’, in which the influence of Bob Dylan is also perceived. With whom the group had a few laughs a few months earlier when the singer-songwriter invited them to their first ‘joint’ of marijuana.

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Chris Hillman

Today is the 81st birthday of American musician Chris Hillman, born in Los Angeles (California).

He was one of the original members of The Byrds, along with David Crosby, Gene Clark, Roger McGuinn and Michael Clarke. With Gram Parsons, one of his most frequent collaborators, he was a key figure in the development of country-rock, defining the genre through his work with Byrds (1965–1968), Flying Burrito Brothers (1969–1976), and later as leader of the Desert Rose Band, (1985–1994)

Chris Hillman spent his childhood on the family ranch in San Diego County, about 110 miles (ca. 177 km) north of Los Angeles. When his older sister returned from college in the late 1950s with records by the New Lost City Ramblers and others, Chris became interested in folk and country music. He watched all the country shows he could on TV and his mother encouraged him in his musical hobby by buying him a guitar, but young Chris had fallen in love with the sound of the mandolin. At age 15, he traveled to Los Angeles to see legendary bluegrass musicians Kentucky Colonels and then convinced his family to let him move to Berkeley to take lessons from famed mandolinist Scott Hambly.

Soon after, Hillman was known in the San Diego folk community as a solid instrumentalist and was soon recruited by his first band, the Scottsville Squirrel Barkers. The band lasted two years and recorded a single album, which was distributed in supermarkets. But eventually gained a legendary reputation as the group that had in its ranks musicians who would play in bands such as the Eagles, Flying Burrito Brothers, Byrds, Hearts & Flowers, and Country Gazette.

Hillman was then invited to join the Golden State Boys, then considered to be the best bluegrass band in Southern California. Soon after, they changed the name to The Hillmen, and with them, the still-teenage Hillman used the pseudonym Chris Hardin and appeared regularly on TV.

When The Hillmen broke up, Chris Hillman frustrated thought about quitting music and enrolling in the University of California. He received an offer from a former manager to join Jim (later, Roger) McGuinn, David Crosby, Gene Clark, and Michael Clarke in a new band, The Byrds.

He was hired to play the electric bass, which he had never played before. However, his bluegrass roots helped him quickly develop his personal melodic style with the instrument. The group”s first single, “Mr Tambourine Man”, was an international hit and marked the birth of a new genre, folk-rock.

Between 1965 and 1966 he kept a low profile and in the background, but after the departure of Gene Clark’s group in 1966, Hillman took the opportunity to gain greater prominence by composing and singing. The song “So you want to be a rock”n”roll star” is co-written with McGuinn and both share the lead vocals. Hillman also wrote “Have You Seen Her Face,” a lesser-hit single with notable Beatle influence. Other songs of his authorship were “Thoughts and words”, “Time between” and “The girl with no name”.

After the departure of David Crosby, on the album “The Notorious Byrd Brothers”, Hillman shares the author credits on seven of the eleven songs that make up the album. For the recording of “Sweetheart of the Rodeo”, Hillman and McGuinn hired Gram Parsons, who with the complicity of Chris (who after all came from country) transforms McGuinn”s musical project into the first country-rock album in history, a direct and fundamental influence on later bands such as Eagles and Wilco.

Hillman and Parsons left The Byrds to form The Flying Burrito Brothers, with whom Chris recorded four albums, including the defining “The Guilded Palace of Sin” (1969) and “Burrito De Luxe” (1970), which despite good reviews did not sell much at the time. In 1969 Bernie Leadon joined and in December 1969 they participated in the eventful free festival of Altamont, organized by the Rolling Stones. In 1970 Parsons left the group and the following year Bernie Leadon also left to create The Eagles. The original group disbanded in 1972, when Hillman took Perkins with him to join Stephen Stills in Manassas, remaining with them until 1973.

After a brief reunion of The Byrds originals for the recording of the album “The Byrds” (1973), Hillman established the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band with Richie Furay (ex-Buffalo Springfield and ex-Poco) and composer J.D. Souther.

The trio never achieved remarkable success and in 1975, they broke up, after releasing two albums. The next few years, Hillman spent working as session musicians for Gene Clark, Poco and Dan Fogelberg, among others. He also recorded two solo albums, “Slippin’ Away” (1976) and “Clear Sailing” (1977).

In 1977, he reunited with McGuinn and Gene Clark, with whom he recorded two new albums and got a hit for “Don’t You Write Her Off” in 1979.

In the eighties, Hillman returned to his country and bluegrass roots and recorded with Herb Petersen (The Dillards) two acoustic albums for Sugar Hill Records, “Morning Sky” and “Desert Rose”. Shortly after, both formed the Desert Rose Band that, between 1987 and 1993 released seven albums, achieving with songs such as “He’s back and I’m blue”, “Summer wind”, “I still believe in you” or “She don’t love nobody”, among others, 16 hits on the country charts.

In 1994, they broke up and in 2008 they reunited again for a series of concerts from which some songs were chosen that made up the only official live album of the Desert Rose Band. Chris currently continues to perform on occasion alongside Herb Petersen and in September 2017 released his most recent solo work, “Bidin” My Time” co-produced by Tom Petty and guests such as Roger McGuinn, David Crosby and members of the Heartbreakers. In November 2020 he published his memoir “My Life as a Byrd, Burrito Brother and Beyond”.

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