Keith Eleftheriou: Meister DJ

Music, my first true love...aside from the guitar carry on, I have a passion for music, albeit eclectic. From Heavy Metal to Classical, to Blues, to Disco, I love it all.........except Country & Western!

Tom Waits - you just know by looking
at him he is going to be different

Mmmmmmmmmmm....

I remember my dad playing a variety of records (I say variety, but what I mean is either Slim Dusty or Olivia Newton-John) on his expensive (and beautifully sounding ) German hi-fi. He had an incredible number of records, and me and my older brother used to flick through them as we got older and started to appreciate more than just Sesame Street. He had a lot of Rock n Roll, Classical, Blues and even a bunch of Xmas albums. Warren (my older brother) was very much influenced by the Elvis and Gene Vincent records and even started 'looking' like them with the hair and denim. I enjoyed this music as well, and got into his Olivia (she is hot!), but three of dad's records really got me - "Heartattack & Vine" by Tom Waits (Jacquie, where is this? I lent it to you 20 years ago!), "Blues Explosion", and Deep Purple "Live In London".

Blues Explosion - check out the harmonica
from Sugar Blue!

Tom Waits introduced me to a jazz/blues/Leonard Cohen fusion that has stuck with me for a long time, although I do admit it is a mood thing, and I will never forget the line "colder than a well-digger's arse". Blues Explosion is a live recording from the Montreaux Jazz Festival of '82 and had some relative unknown Blues exponents such as Sugar Blue (amazing harmonica!!!), Junior Guitar Johnson and John Hammond Jnr. But the one song on this album was Stevie Ray Vaughan who was an unknown at the time and asked to play, and "Texas Flood" is unbelievable! And it was on this perfomrance (which he actually got booed for) where he was 'discovered' by David Bowie who was in the audience and asked him to play on "Let's Dance"!

My favourite album of all-time!

The other album was one dad got as a freebie from a mail-order record distributor and just sat in the drawer. I liked the look of the cover and played it, and immediately was blown away by the anthem-like "Smoke On The Water", a tune that up until then I believed to be the property of Woodford Glen, a stock car track in Kaiapoi! Deep Purple have been my favourite band since, and Richie Blackmore my hero, and I have to admit, David Coverdale has a better voice than Ian Gillan (although would have been better suited to Blues as opposed to 'funk'). My love for guitar based rock and heavy rock grew from DP, as did my burning desire to be a lead-guitarist!

The lesser-known Beatles classic

I once won an album on a flight (for Chomondley House) called Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, not by The Beatles but by The Bee Gees (and friends) which was a movie soundtrack - I became the boy to know at the home with that double LP, but sadly in my moving about it has been misplaced...maybe dad still has it. A fantastic album (no disrespect to the Beatles of course) which had some great songs covered - "Come Together" by Aerosmith, "When I'm 64" by George Burns, and "Sgt Peppers" itself by The Bee Gees & Peter Frampton. If you find it, I recommend a listen.
Over the years, and with this springboard, I got to appreciate a wider and wider range of music. A neighbour (and where I lived, a neighbour was 5km away) introduced me to Pink Floyd, Marillion, Level 42, John Lennon (as opposed to the Beatles) and the such. And slowly but surely my vinyl, cassette and eventually CD collection grew.

Favourite Albums (other than the above)

Pink Floyd - Meddle (yep, it's a nose)

Pink Floyd - The Final Cut - Roger Waters at his darkest and angriest best. Technically not a "Dark Side" or "Wish You Were Here" and slated by critics, but musically and lyrically I think it is a great listen - "Not Now John" is my favourite track.
Pink Floyd - Meddle - not considered a great album by a lot of Floyd faithful, but with "One Of these Days" and "Echoes", how can it not be?
Deep Purple - Live In Japan - apart from "Frampton Alive", is there a better exponent of a live recording? "Strange Kind Of Woman", with the hell scream at the end still makes me get goose bumps.
Deep Purple - Nobody's Perfect - another great live album from DP. "Perfect Strangers" is awesome.

Satch's first and best...
check out G3 though

Joe Satriani - Surfing With The Alien - do I need to say anything?
AC-DC - TNT - guitar rock, loud and simple. Chuck Berry cover "School Days" is heavy!
Bad News - Bad News - The Comic Strip Presents at it's best. Vim, Colin, Spider and Den are the ultimate anti-heroes. If you haven't seen it, get the documentary ("Bad News" and "Bad News, More Bad News")

Alan Parsons Project - the (female)
voices are sexier

Alan Parsons Project - Eve - the mastermind behind "Dark Side" produces his own...and this is the pick in my mind.
Baby Animals - Baby Animals - the best Australian band there is. "Ain't Gonna Get" hits the spot!
The Beatles - Abbey Road - the quintessential Lennon/McCartney collaboration.
Dire Straits - Bothers In Arms - I had been a DS fan for a while before this album, more commercial but hey, who cares!?
Eagles - Hotel California - "Wasted Time"...anything but.
Eurythmics - Be Yourself Tonight - Dave Stewart is an awesome guitarist.
GnR - Lies - the acoustic half of the album by far and away betters the live stuff. "One In A Million" beautifully un-PC!
Iron Maiden - Live After Death - a close third in ultimate live albums.

Iron Maiden - Powerslave
must have been great live.
Iron Maiden - Powerslave - Rime Of The Ancient Mariner!!!! Performed it as English project, guitars and all! I had heaps of Eddie posters.
Joss Stone - Soul Sessions - I am in love with this girl...with the woman's voice! "Fell In Love"...hell yeah I did!
Judas Priest - Killing Machine - the title track is awesome, the twin axes and yet Halford sings minus his normal falsetto...
Lita Ford - Best Of - duet with Ozzy doesn't get enough recognition on the radio...always by Ozzy.
Meat Loaf - Bat Out Of Hell - my break up song "Two Out Of Three", and "Paradise".
Paul Young - No Parlez - my older brother's fave, became mine by default from hearing it all the time. Not bad from someone who never wrote his own songs.
Ozzy Osbourne - Ultimate Sin - never regarded by himself as a fave, but stereotypically '80s Metal, and Randy doing his thing.

Paul Kossof - under rated and
under done
Kossoff - Blue Soul - died tragically young, and hard to imagine what he could've done. Awesome live cover of "Crossroads".
Prince - Sign O The Times - to me one of the great modern composers.

Blackmore - The Legend

Rainbow - Best Of - the best anthology of Blackmore's project. "man On The Silver Mountain" and "Sixteenth Century Greensleeves" amongst the best.
Rainbow - Final Vinyl - a mix of recordings and live - "Difficult To Cure" even better on video.
Samantha Fox - Greatest Tits - hey! she is hot!
Thin Lizzy - Renegade - with "The Boys Are Back".