Moondance/Bridge Over Troubled Water
This week, On The Turntable will feature two lps celebrating 50 years since their release … One I purchased on purpose .., the other, though widely celebrated, was forced upon me …
Moondance
This is the third studio album by Van Morrison. It was released on January 27, 1970 in the UK and February 28th in the US. Moondance was Van’s first commercially successful solo effort. The album was an immediate critical and commercial success. It helped establish Morrison as a major artist in popular music … The album has become a mainstay on FM radio and would practically define Van Morrison and his career … This album has been a mainstay in my collection since it’s release … I have owned it in every format … On The Turntable will air a reissued copy of Moondance; Mastered from the original analog master tapes and pressed on 180-gram vinyl.
In summarizing the album’s legacy, Ryan H. Walsh wrote in Pitchfork: “The album would solidify Van Morrison as an FM radio mainstay, act as a midwife for the burgeoning genre of ‘soft rock’ and help usher in the 70’s in America” … “The album would solidify Van Morrison as an FM radio mainstay, act as a midwife for the burgeoning genre of ‘soft rock’ and help usher in the 70’s in America” … The album never never topped the charts, however, you were to ask anyone their favorite Van Morrison lp … Moondance would be it … Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Moondance at 65 on it’s Greatest Albums of All Time list … Best Ever Albums Dot Com considers the album as the 7th best of 1970 and the 39th best of the 1970’s … Digital Dream Door Dot Com also ranked the album as the 7th best of 1970 and you will find Moondance in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
Notable Tracks – ‘Caravan’ ‘And It Stoned Me’ ‘Into The Mystic’ ‘Moondance”Come Running’
The Bridge Over Troubled Water
Bridge over Troubled Water is the fifth and final studio album by the folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, the album was released this very weekend in 1970. This is not an lp that I intended to own … Do you remember The Columbia Record Club? You signed up for a new lp each month, if you did not choose an lp and mail back the card, they sent you an lp of the month … Well, I forgot to send it one month and this became part of my collection … The album includes two of the duo’s most critically acclaimed and commercially successful songs, “Bridge over Troubled Water” and “The Boxer”, which were listed on Rolling Stone‘s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Many contemporary critics compared the album to The Beatles’ White Album citing they could hear the break up of the band in the way that the material was separately performed … however … Bridge was a smashing success … It was a multiple Grammy Award Winner – taking home six awards – Album of the Year … Best Engineered Album … Record of the Year and Song of the Year for the title cut … Contemporary Song of the Year and Instrumental Arrangement of the Year … The Bridge Over Troubled Water is listed in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die … Best Ever Albums Dot Com considers the album the 3rd best of 1970 and the 29th best of the 1970’s … Digital Dream Door Dot Com considers the lp as the second best of 1970, and has sold over 25 million copies! Though an accidental addition to my collection – I am very glad it happened.
Notable Tracks – “Bridge Over Troubled Water’ ‘The Boxer’ ‘Cecelia’
‘El Cóndor Pasa (If I Could)’