The Long Play with Al Neff" is a continuing Sunday evening Feature on The GOAT. This year, Every Sunday Evening, Album Rock WXYG, The GOAT will feature a full album at 8:00 PM from the halcyon musical days of 1974.
1974 was one of the top Years in Album Rock history. Another year of tough choices every week. So many great ones to choose from.
We hope you’ll tune in the evening of Sunday, September 8th for “Shock Treatment”, the fourth studio album by Edgar Winter and the second by the Edgar Winter Group. The album went to No. 13 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart, and had two charting singles: "Easy Street” and "River's Risin'".The album was certified gold July 18, 1974 by the RIAA. In Canada, the album reached #9 (2 weeks) and was #69 in the year end chart.
With this release, Edgar Winter was faced with the question that haunts many a superstar following a highly successful album -- can he outdo himself? The answer is yes. It manages to rock pretty damn righteously. Beginning with this album's answer to their previous "Hangin' Around," "Some Kinda Animal," the band moves into the excellent blues torcher "Easy Street," which is painted with highlights from the substantial saxophone talent of Winter, not to mention some of his finest singing. Like They Only Come Out at Night, this recording includes a pair of haunting ballads, "Maybe Someday You'll Call My Name" and "Someone Take My Heart Away." "Queen of My Dreams," along with "River's Risin'," showcase the Edgar Winter Group doing what they do best -- rocking out with passion and lots of drums and guitar. Not as good as their previous album, but still a winner in its own right.
After the platinum success of dynamic debut THEY ONLY COME OUT AT NIGHT, THE EDGAR WINTER GROUP fought off the dreaded "sophomore slump" with SHOCK TREATMENT, an almost equal sequel. Along with some of the most glam-inspired cover art of its day, it boasted a potpourri of styles ranging from dirty RNB and sparkling pop to hard charging boogie. Producer/axe ace RICK DERRINGER proved an ample replacement for departed guitarist RONNIE MONTROSE. Another secret weapon was multi-instrumentalist/blue eyed soul belter DAN HARTMAN, who wrote and sang lead on many tracks, from rockin' warning sign RIVER'S RISIN' (a Top 40 hit) to the sublime SUNDOWN. Sax wailin' band leader EDGAR WINTER's laid-back jazz pipes made EASY STREET the polar opposite of the speaker-distorting ANIMAL, a creature-feature cousin to his slam jam FRANKENSTEIN. SHOCK TREATMENT is probably the best early 70s album that many fans never got to hear, unless they had a station like The GOAT in their towns.
Tune In and Turn On the evening of Sunday, September 8th, and every Sunday evening at 8:00 PM for The GOAT'S "The Long Play with Al Neff.”
Don’t forget, right after the “Long Play”, we do a “Replay” of this week’s GOAT GUEST DJ SHOW.
