This is Vinyl Tap

Send us a Text Message.On this episode we tackle the Rolling Stones 1968 LP Beggars Banquet. 1968 was a tumultuous year for much of the world and a transitional time for the Rolling Stones. Their founder and original leader, Brian Jones, was increasingly absent due to his drug use, and their long-time manager/producer Andrew Loog Oldham had grown disinterested in the band due to hi

Send us a Text Message.On this episode of the podcast, we discuss Spirit and their fourth album Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus. The band Spirit sports an impressive pedigree. Drummer Ed Cassidy (20 years older than the rest of the band) was an established jazz musician, having played drums with many jazz greats throughout the 1940s and 1950s. His stepson Randy California (né Rand

Send us a Text Message.This week, we dig into the debut LP by the Scottish jangle pop band Aztec Camera , 1983's High Land, Hard Rain. The creative force behind the band was Roddy Frame, a fine singer, remarkable guitarist, and very gifted songwriter, who started his career at 15, and was 18 when this album was recorded. Completed in just three weeks, the album is filled with

Send us a Text Message.On this week's episode we look a one of the finest songwriters to come out of Texas, Guy Clark, and his 1975 debut LP Old No. 1. While Clark is considered one of the great county and folk songwriters of the latter half of the 20th Century, he is also one of the least appreciated when it comes to recording his own songs. On Old No. 1, he records his own

Send us a Text Message.On this weeks episode, we take on a big LP, the 1979 monster hit by Supertramp, Breakfast in America. Supertramp struggled early in their career to find an audience. The two main song writers brought different strengths to the band. Founding member Rick Davies leaned more to the progressive rock side of things, where as Roger Hodgson was more pop oriented. Ev

Send us a Text Message.On this weeks episode, we take a listen to the second LP by one of the foundational bands of 1970's power pop: Fresh by the the Raspberries. The Raspberries were an intentional antithesis to everything that was going on in the early Seventies. Instead of focusing on the extended (and as they saw it, self-indulgent) musical jams, the Raspberries would cra

Send us a Text Message.On this week's episode, we discuss Beck and his twelfth studio album, 2014’s Morning Phase. Beck is known for embracing a wide-range of genres, to include folk, lo-fi, funk, soul, hip hop, electronic, alternative rock, country, and psychedelia (just to name a few). He often glides between genres on the same album, and sometimes even on the same song. W

Send us a Text Message.When Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood started hanging out and jamming together after the dissolution of their previous bands (Cream and Traffic respectively), there was no set plan to start a band together. That changed when Cream drummer Ginger Baker joined the fun. With the addition of bassist Ric Grech from the band Family, Blind Faith was born. Their one an

Send us a Text Message.On this week's episode, we dig into Pete Townshend's official debut solo LP, 1980's Empty Glass. As the main songwriter for The Who, Pete Townshend crafted songs that let singer Roger Daultrey flex his powerful voice and lets the rhythm section stretch out and indulge their bombastic sides. But on Empty Glass, Townshend is able to show that he

Send us a Text Message.On this episode, we turn our attention to one of the most successful bands from the late 1960s and early 1970's, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and what is considered by many their masterpiece, Cosmo's Factory. 1970 was a fertile year for music. While the English Invasion was still dominating the airwaves and the psychedelic scene was still influenci