Well here we go again! I’ve decided to start with some A’s that I listened to before I started this blog that I haven’t listened to in over six years. I’ll see if I can come up with 100 that I have bought since starting this and see if I can go till the end of the year. This second album from Automatic man has been a favorite since I bought it in 1977, a period in my life when I was still living at home, working in a restaurant, and pretty much hanging out and partying while attending community college for a while. I was over at a high school friends house (one of a couple people in high school who had more records than me) and he put on their first record. I had never heard of them, but he remarked that their singer Bayete (Todd Cochran) sounded like Jimi Hendrix. I really didn’t think so but thought the record sounded pretty good. The following year I saw this in the record store with a similar cover as the first and bought it. In 1975 Michael Shrieve, drummer from Santana, started a group called Go with Steve Winwood and Japanese percussionist Stomu Yamashta. Pat Thrall and Jerome Rimson were also in the band. After putting out one album Shrieve formed Automatic man with Bayete then left after their first record. The second features Bayete, Thrall, Rimson and new drummer Glenn Symmonds. This music is Rock, Soul and Funk. Side two has the more Funk Rock songs. The title track leads off side two with some nifty keyboards by Bayete. “Here I Am Now” and “Daughter Of Neptune” follow with Thrall’s guitar spotlighted on “Daughter Of Neptune”. The final song on side two is “What’s Done”. Love the final two minutes of that one with Bayete and some female singers singing “Turn your face to it” with the music and singing building in intensity begore fading out. All four tracks are on my playlist. After a while I listened to side one. A decidedly different sound on four songs but I’ve grown to love them as much as side two. “Give It To Me” and “Live Wire” are bouncy Soul flavored Funk with another great Thrall solo on “Live Wire”. “So You Wanna Be” is the one true Soul song on the record with both Bayete and Thrall toning down their instruments. The side one closer “Y 2 Me” is another favorite with Bayete’s falsetto singing on the chorus. I believe all of these songs are also on my playlist and if not they should be. The band broke up after this with Pat Thrall joining the Pat Travers Band and co-writing their hit “Snortin’ Whiskey”. The cover of this record shows heavy ring wear and the spine is pretty much destroyed as all my records from that period are. After being played hundreds of times it still sounds amazing. I’ll say it again, they don’t make records like they used to.