Less than four months after issuing the landmark and autobiographical Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, Elton John re-emerged with a new band and a slightly modified sound. However, the departure of bassist Dee Murray and drummer Nigel Olsson began a deceleration in terms of John's success, which rivalled only the Beatles' and Elvis Presley's in terms of global acclaim. The revamped band grew to include new associates James Newton Howard on keyboards and Kenny Passarelli on bass as well as drummer Roger Pope and guitarist Caleb Quaye, who had both performed with John as far back as his first long-player. (He also retained the services of guitarist Davey Johnstone and percussionist Ray Cooper from the most recent lineup.) Musically, Rock of the Westies maintains the balance of harder-edged material and effective ballads. In fact, one of the album's strongest suits is the wide spectrum of strong material. The ballsy no-nonsense "Street Kids" and the aggressive gringo rock of the ZZ Top sound-alike "Grown Some Funk of Your Own" contrast with the poignant power balladry of "I Feel Like a Bullet (In the Gun of Robert Ford)" or the dark and brooding tale of addiction on "Feed Me." Perhaps inspired by the crossover R&B appeal of "Philadelphia Freedom," the up-tempo "Island Girl" bears a distinct and danceable groove that lies somewhere between a slightly Jamaican vibe and disco. Perhaps more soulful in the traditional sense are the boogie-based "Hard Luck Story" or propulsive Bo Diddley beat that drives "Billy Bones and the White Bird." While the increasingly fickle public as well as lack of a strong follow-up to the chart-topping single "Island Girl" may have prevented Rock of the Westies from becoming the heir apparent to Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, in the wake of John's flawless predecessors it remains a strong and worthwhile entry that also set the stage for its follow-up, Blue Moves.
~ Lindsay Planer, All Music
***************
Track List:
01. Medley(Yell Help, Wednesday Night, Ugly) [0:06:16.03]
02. Dan Dare (Pilot of the Future) [0:03:30.03]
03. Island Girl [0:03:42.55]
04. Grow Some Funk of Your Own [0:04:44.74]
05. I Feel Like a Bullet (in the Gun of Robert Ford) [0:05:25.31]
06. Street Kids [0:06:22.62]
07. Hard Luck Story [0:05:15.32]
08. Feed Me [0:04:00.66]
09. Billy Bones and the White Bird [0:04:24.46]
Exact Audio Copy V1.3 from 2. September 2016
EAC extraction logfile from 29. February 2020, 21:40
Elton John / Rock of the Westies
Used drive : PLEXTOR DVDR PX-L890SA Adapter: 1 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "PERFORMER=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%--tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" %source% -o %dest%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
---------------------------------------------------------
1 | 0:00.00 | 6:16.03 | 0 | 28202
2 | 6:16.03 | 3:30.03 | 28203 | 43955
3 | 9:46.06 | 3:42.55 | 43956 | 60660
4 | 13:28.61 | 4:44.74 | 60661 | 82034
5 | 18:13.60 | 5:25.31 | 82035 | 106440
6 | 23:39.16 | 6:22.62 | 106441 | 135152
7 | 30:02.03 | 5:15.32 | 135153 | 158809
8 | 35:17.35 | 4:00.66 | 158810 | 176875
9 | 39:18.26 | 4:24.46 | 176876 | 196721
Track 1
Filename H:\AUDIO\MUSIC\Elton John Japan\1975. Elton John - Rock Of The Westies (Mercury UICY-78965, Japan, SHM)\01 Medley(Yell Help, Wednesday Night, Ugly).wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00
Peak level 79.2 %
Extraction speed 5.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 4B132C6A
Copy CRC 4B132C6A
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [56CE3359] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 2
Filename H:\AUDIO\MUSIC\Elton John Japan\1975. Elton John - Rock Of The Westies (Mercury UICY-78965, Japan, SHM)\02 Dan Dare (Pilot of the Future).wav
Peak level 78.2 %
Extraction speed 5.8 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 5C080F11
Copy CRC 5C080F11
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [4F1C7B1D] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 3
Filename H:\AUDIO\MUSIC\Elton John Japan\1975. Elton John - Rock Of The Westies (Mercury UICY-78965, Japan, SHM)\03 Island Girl.wav
Peak level 85.9 %
Extraction speed 5.4 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 6720C500
Copy CRC 6720C500
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [5C12EB30] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 4
Filename H:\AUDIO\MUSIC\Elton John Japan\1975. Elton John - Rock Of The Westies (Mercury UICY-78965, Japan, SHM)\04 Grow Some Funk of Your Own.wav
Peak level 79.6 %
Extraction speed 7.0 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 5F7C3C64
Copy CRC 5F7C3C64
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [3F9B5173] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 5
Filename H:\AUDIO\MUSIC\Elton John Japan\1975. Elton John - Rock Of The Westies (Mercury UICY-78965, Japan, SHM)\05 I Feel Like a Bullet (in the Gun of Robert Ford).wav
Peak level 61.2 %
Extraction speed 7.6 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 8C3BB6E7
Copy CRC 8C3BB6E7
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [081B37A8] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 6
Filename H:\AUDIO\MUSIC\Elton John Japan\1975. Elton John - Rock Of The Westies (Mercury UICY-78965, Japan, SHM)\06 Street Kids.wav
Peak level 91.4 %
Extraction speed 8.3 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC E898B38E
Copy CRC E898B38E
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [E58D3C69] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 7
Filename H:\AUDIO\MUSIC\Elton John Japan\1975. Elton John - Rock Of The Westies (Mercury UICY-78965, Japan, SHM)\07 Hard Luck Story.wav
Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 8.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 28CFD2CC
Copy CRC 28CFD2CC
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [ECFB2121] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 8
Filename H:\AUDIO\MUSIC\Elton John Japan\1975. Elton John - Rock Of The Westies (Mercury UICY-78965, Japan, SHM)\08 Feed Me.wav
Peak level 86.9 %
Extraction speed 8.7 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 66CDC919
Copy CRC 66CDC919
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [2B073485] (AR v2)
Copy OK
Track 9
Filename H:\AUDIO\MUSIC\Elton John Japan\1975. Elton John - Rock Of The Westies (Mercury UICY-78965, Japan, SHM)\09 Billy Bones and the White Bird.wav
Peak level 92.4 %
Extraction speed 8.2 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC BA5E4003
Copy CRC BA5E4003
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [C03C6F1B] (AR v2)
Copy OK
All tracks accurately ripped
No errors occurred
End of status report
==== Log checksum EDE5A3157C7208A4F2D762B16809E5721D5D16B29A05D2B8D6BC2094F593E2EA ====
