Feature: Liner Notables

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Gordon Hauptfleisch

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• Liner Notables: Ray Davies - See My Friends

  Ray Davies' commentary illuminates his collaborations with Bruce Springsteen, Alex Chilton, Black Francis, Lucinda Williams, Metallica, Jackson Browne, and more...

  Opinion by Gordon Hauptfleisch — on May 31, 2011

• Liner Notables: Best of the Bobby Fuller Four

  "With only a couple of albums under his belt, his life was suddenly taken. If he were alive today, those who knew him speculate, there's no doubt he would be very big."

  Opinion by Gordon Hauptfleisch — on Sep 14, 2010

• Liner Notables: Cher - The Sonny Side of Cher

  "[Cher] hopes there is something / Special here for you. / You are special to her, / And this is her way of telling you."

  Opinion by Gordon Hauptfleisch — on Mar 23, 2010

• Liner Notables: The All-Time Greatest Hits of Roy Orbison

  With obvious appreciation for Orbison, Boudleaux Bryant extends his songwriting craftsmanship and musicality to his cohesive and incisive commentary, with an appealing wit and wordplay.

  Opinion by Gordon Hauptfleisch — on Nov 07, 2009

• Liner Notables: Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean Blue

  "He had no brakes, and he didn’t think about consequences ... That makes for passionate music, but it can be a hard way to live."

  Opinion by Gordon Hauptfleisch — on May 22, 2009

• Liner Notables: 24 of Hank Williams' Greatest Hits

  "Hank Williams crowded a lot of living into twenty-nine years. Someone said he went into anything like 'killin' rattlesnakes.'"

  Opinion by Gordon Hauptfleisch — on Nov 25, 2008

• Liner Notables: Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks

  "He's as personal and as universal as Yeats or Blake; speaking for himself, risking that dangerous opening of the veins, he speaks for us all."

  Opinion by Gordon Hauptfleisch — on Jul 24, 2008

• Liner Notables: Elvis Costello and the Attractions - Armed Forces, 2002 Rhino Edition

  "The highly charged language...is full of gimmicks and almost overpowers some songs with paradoxes and subverted cliches piling up into private and secret meanings."

  Opinion by Gordon Hauptfleisch — on Apr 09, 2008

• Liner Notables: B.B. King - Live in Cook County Jail

  "...a manifestation of human generosity and beauty on B.B.’s part and the raw appreciation of 2,117 of his most ardent fans.”

  Opinion by Gordon Hauptfleisch — on Jan 11, 2008

• Liner Notables: Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Rodgers and Hart Song Book

  Ella handles nuances of wit and humor, "one of the prime requisites with Lorenz Hart lyrics, by turns satirical, sardonic, sexy, sophisticated, and sweetly simple."

  Opinion by Gordon Hauptfleisch — on Oct 25, 2007

• Liner Notables: The Great Lost Kinks Album

  With no 20/20 about it, disheveled Davies’ ditties, B-sides and Besides are anthologized and annotated with the perceptiveness of hindsight in a house of mirrors.

  Opinion by Gordon Hauptfleisch — on Aug 25, 2007

• Liner Notables: Nuggets, Volume Three - Pop (Various Artists)

  From the Knickerbockers to the Cyrkle to Bobby Fuller, your “One Stop Pop Culture Shop” brings you a refresher course in '60s pop-rock history.

  Opinion by Gordon Hauptfleisch — on Jul 10, 2007

• Liner Notables: Iggy and the Stooges - Metallic 2 K.O.

  “It’s the only rock album I know where you can actually hear hurled beer bottles breaking against guitar strings.” --Lester Bangs

  Opinion by Gordon Hauptfleisch — on Mar 26, 2007

• Liner Notables: Honkers & Screamers - Roots of Rock 'n' Roll, Vol. 6 (Paul Williams, Hal Singer, Big Jay McNeely, Lee Allen, and Sam “The Man” Taylor)

  America's alright if you like saxophones.

  Opinion by Gordon Hauptfleisch — on Mar 05, 2007

• Liner Notables: Frank Sinatra - In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning, Only The Lonely, No One Cares, Point Of No Return

  Just in time for Valentine's Day - but we're not exactly talkin' "Songs for Swingin' Lovers" here, okay?

  Opinion by Gordon Hauptfleisch — on Feb 07, 2007

• Liner Notables: The Kinks - Face To Face

  "About rainy days and sunny days, about sessions men and dark ladies, about P.V.C. grass skirts in Waikiki, about memories, and dandies..."

  Opinion by Gordon Hauptfleisch — on Jan 12, 2007

• Liner Notables #9: Dave Alvin - West of the West

  With California songs from Brian Wilson to Merle Haggard, a beautifully realized album completes its harmony in finely-rendered liner notes.

  Opinion by Gordon Hauptfleisch — on Nov 19, 2006

• Liner Notables #8: The Rutles

  The album that introduced the Prefab Four - the "legend that will last a lunchtime."

  Opinion by Gordon Hauptfleisch — on Oct 31, 2006

• Liner Notables #7: Chuck Berry - The Great Twenty-Eight

  Happy 80th Birthday to someone whose records are "power-packed plastic, intense sonic creations that sparkle and cut with the brilliance of diamonds."

  Opinion by Gordon Hauptfleisch — on Oct 19, 2006

• Liner Notables #6: The Jam - Dig The New Breed

  "...SWITCH near tears when 'Going Underground' goes to the top! SWITCH 'Why'd you wear that apron?'! SWITCH a night in the nick in Leeds! SWITCH..."

  Opinion by Gordon Hauptfleisch — on Oct 06, 2006