On this day in 1968, the Byrds released Sweetheart of the Rodeo. It wasn't their first foray into country or even countrified rock. Nor was it the first country-rock album. The International Submarine band had put out Safe at Home in the spring, Jerry Lee Lewis had gone country two months earlier with Another Place, Another Time , and Merle Haggard had been putting out similar albums for two years. For most, it did serve as an introduction to Gram Parsons, the only Byrd to contribute any new material to the album. Gram had been the leading creative force in the International Submarine Band, and upon joining the Byrds he joined forces with Chris Hillman to transform the current project from an album that covered SOME country into one in which country was the sole focus. Gram sang lead on not only his two songs - "One Hundred Years From Now" and "Hickory Wind" - but on the Louvin Brothers' "Christian Life" and the Stax number "You Don'...

He was a great guitarist, so here's a playlist of Prince's guitar-based stuff. We won't include the stuff from before he got....um....weird. His jazz work is great, but let's limit this to rock and pop. Oh, and funk, but the raw stuff that reminds one of Funkadelic rather than the slicker stuff that plays like Parliament. Let's also cut out the power ballads, or, at least, most of them....we'll leave those for Aerosmith or somebody to cover on a tribute album.

Elvis, the conventional wisdom goes, came out of the army, cut Elvis is Back,  and went into Hollywood, where he goofed off until his late '68 comeback special, followed by the Memphis sessions. It's true, for the most part. In the early '60's Elvis made three studio albums, a fourth was compiled from outtakes and old tracks. By '64, he began focusing on soundtracks alone. In '67 some of these included some better quality bonus tracks that had been cut as singles. His last few films tried to focus on Elvis the actor rather than the singer. Ironically, some of the songs associated with those films - "A Little Less Conversation", "Clean up Your Own Backyard", "A Change of Habit", and "Rubberneckin'"- are not only among the best of the period but also lead the way, artistically, toward his Memphis sessions (which yielded Rubberneckin') and the Comeback. So, about 20 songs from about 20 soundtrack albums - exclu...

We salute an American Hero, Captain Joe Kittinger of the USAF. Sixty years ago today - August 16, 1960 - Captain Joe made the last of three jumps of Project Excelsior. His space jump, from 102,800' (31,300m) set a record that stood until 2012. During Kittinger's first jump, almost a year earlier, a malfunction caused him to go into a spin - 120 rpm. He blacked out and was saved when his equipment opened his chutes automatically. Captain Joe Kittinger turned 92 about three weeks ago. Captain Joe. You rock!

Which is not to say, Workin', nor -again- is it with his quartet. Instead, we have largely the same players as featured in last week's Chillin' post. Most of Miles's studio output from the period 1970-1974 comes from a series of sessions - Bitches Brew , Jack Johnson , Cellar Door (Live Evil) , and On the Corner - that largely ended by mid '72. In addition to the main albums that came from each session, the albums Live Evil , Big Fun and Get Up With It were also compiled from the sessions. With regard to his fusion period, the story goes that Miles was impressed with a Sly and the Family Stone show and tried to incorporate those sounds into his music. These tracks are in line with that story. We have here the gritty funk of There's a Riot Goin' On rather than the slick sounds of Fresh . It's a sound like early Funkadelic more than Parliament.... ...and the On the Corner outtakes somehow catch the vibe of the cover more than that album did.