The Best of the 60s, Pt. 2

And so, after the "roaring" success of Part 1, I present to you the best of the 1960s, from what I've heard, part two. Another smattering of albums. Enjoy them. I've kept this entry down to five albums, though, because summarizing the highlights is soon going to outrun my listening.

The Kinks, Face to Face (1966)
This album marked the beginning of the Kinks' "Classic" era, where they went from riff-rock to brilliantly fleshed out pop music. And they make the leap perfectly. Most bands trip a little the first time they branch out into a new style, but not these guys. It's another brilliant Kinks album. I'm starting to really love them. As a note, the fact that this album delivered is remarkable, given it's the first Kinks album I've listened to since The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society, an album I listened to way earlier, though it won't be appearing on this blog until a bit later. Brilliant stuff.

Paul Revere and the Raiders, Midnight Ride
I couldn't find Midnight Ride anywhere online to download, so I bought the vinyl off e-bay for ten dollars with shipping. I had yet to buy an album for this book that I didn't love, by happy coincidence, and Midnight Ride continues the trend. It's pre-punk pop-punk, if you will, and every song is a killer. I don't like the Monkees version of "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone," but the Raiders, who wrote the song, add something to it that was missing, something that makes me love it. And opening track "Kicks" is amazing. Highly recommend this one.

Simon And Garfunkel, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
This is a masterpiece of indescribable perfection. Really. You just need to listen to it. Track for track, it's brilliance. This was the album where Simon took all creative control in the studio, and it's clear why his reputation is so large. Bonus points, of course, for taking a big, dead-on shot at Bob Dylan with "A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission)," a vicious mocking of the man's work.

John Mayall's Blues Breakers, Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton
This is a ferocious blues album. Clapton is on-form throughout, and tears it up constantly. It's just a great, great album, with some absolutely gob-smacking playing. I don't know what a gob is, but mine got smacked. If you like the blues or Clapton, or want to hear a great guitar player in top form (I'm not especially a fan of Clapton, but on this album, dear God, on this album...), listen to this album.
Johnny, cause I know you're reading this, make sure Mike knows this album. He does, I'm sure. But just check. Cause if he doesn't, well, he should.

The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
It really is as good as they say, you know. I headphoned this album, with a mono mix, and it was an experience. The mixing is superb, to say nothing of the songs. The compositions contained herein are amazing. Revolver has the best skeletons, but Sgt. Pepper's has the most amazing execution of the psyc vision. After this? The Beatles (The White Album), which I already know is equally as brilliant, if a bit more uneven, but that's not for a bit. And they definitely changed directions for that one. Sgt. Pepper's is the last time all four Beatles worked for one definitive vision, and it's brilliant for that.

Let me know if you listen and what you think.

As we say, Happy Listening!

The Best of the 60s, Pt. 1

Here are the first ten 1960s albums from 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die that I feel everyone truly should hear before they die. As usual, let me know if listen to any of these, and what you think. Or, if you've already listened to one of them, what you thought of it then.

The Everly Brothers, A Date with the Everly Brothers (1960)
I just really enjoy the brothers Everly. The songs aren't anything abnormal, but they're all perfect in their execution and variety. The singing is, of course, top-notch, and some of the harmonies are really tricky. Wonderful album.

Muddy Waters, Muddy Waters at Newport
This, my friends, is the blues. Not guitar-heavy, Claptonesque blues, though it's certainly not lacking in that area, but the real, thick, from your soul blues. Astounding.

Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd, Jazz Samba (1962)
I don't enjoy instrumental albums that feature one player all that often. It's very rare, in fact. But I can relate to Stan Getz, and the way he plays a saxophone. It's just as lyrical as any words, and may very well have more emotion for it. A new favourite.

Charles Mingus, The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady (1963)
Dense, complex, and astounding. I haven't listened to it again since the first time, but I need to. It was an amazing journey, to use the old cliché. Probably not for most, though.

Stan Getz and João Gilberto, Getz/Gilberto
It opens with "The Girl from Ipanema," which has one of the single most attractive female vocals ever laid down in a studio, and just gets better from there. Another wonderful album, but this time with vocals from Gilberto. Absolutely wonderful.

The Beatles, A Hard Day's Night (1964)
This is the peak of their innocent, guitar-pop era. After this, it starts to get serious. Exquisitely crafted songs throughout, as you've come to expect by this point. "Any Time at All" may very well be the least appreciated Beatles track.

Jerry Lee Lewis, Live at the Star Club, Hamburg (1965)
By the time I got to this album, I was wiped out, having had enough of the albums limited to I-IV-V progressions, where every song sounds the same. I assumed it would be more of the same, and while it is, the ferocity with which Lewis performs live is staggering. This is how live rock is supposed to be; energizing, thrilling, exciting, and just a little dangerous. Undoubtedly the best live record I've listened to.

B.B. King, Live at the Regal
Another excellent blues outing, from the King himself. I never appreciated how great his voice is for blues until I listened to this album. An excellent performance from an excellent bluesman.

The Beatles, Revolver (1966)
This might be my favourite Beatles album. The raw skeletons of all the songs here, the craft they were written with, are unprecedented. The way they're all dressed up just adds to the mix. "And Your Bird Can Sing" is the only time I've heard guitars sound like that. And, fun fact, "For No One" is the song I'm most likely to start humming to myself at any given time. Out of every song I've ever heard, that is.

The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds
This is a very unusual album. The songs are all unique in their structure, all of them floating around in their own insular worlds, while still bleeding together into an amazing whole. "God Only Knows" truly is a brilliant piece of work, and there's never been a better opening track for an album than "Wouldn't It Be Nice." Sure, there have been better songs that opened albums, but there has never been a better opening track.

Happy listening!

I Apologize

I said I would post a new song yesterday, and I didn't. I apologize for that (not that I have a legion of people waiting eagerly for the next post, but I should still apologize), but offer no explanation. I'll be posting some more album reviews later today, and I should have another song for Wednesday. The problem is I like to have a recording I consider presentable before I post it, but I'm very picky, and I'm always flat, so it takes a while. I'll be back soon.

The 1950s, In (Relative) Brief

There were 23 albums in the book from the 1950s. That is the only decade I will be counting out; after that, the lists get much, much longer. Strictly highlights, starting in 1960. Out of the 23, I have listened to 19 and a quarter. Three of them have proven difficult (or costly) to track down, and the file for Brilliant Corners by Thelonius Monk crapped out after one song. I loved what I heard, though.

Of said 19 albums, the fifties did pretty well for themselves; I loved nine of them. Here's what albums I've listened to, and I'll write snippets about the ones I loved. I'm going to do my best to avoid hyperbole here, since I've gotten that out of the way in the journal. I apologise in advanced for when I fail to do so.

#1: Frank Sinatra, In the Wee Small Hours (1955)
I've listened to Sinatra my entire life. This is the first time I've been aware of how incredible his delivery is, how nuanced his emotional expressions are. He's mostly melancholy this time around, but he's perfect. It's never over-done. None of the songs dip into the sappy territory so much of his recorded output seems to reside in. The arrangements are perfect as well. It's a master-class in how to fit the arrangements to the song. They are thrilling to listen to, should you choose to focus on them, but they never call for your attention; that's allowed to rest on Sinatra, where it belongs. Fun fact; Originally released on two 10" records, an executive suggested pressing all the songs on the same record, creating the first mass-produced 12" record, the standard size for an LP.

#2: Elvis Presley, Elvis Presley (1956)

#3: The Louvin Brothers, Tragic Songs of Life

#4: Louis Prima, The Wildest
I was initially excited because Louis Prima was the voice of King Louis in The Jungle Book. The album held my interest. Prima and his backing band are full of energy, having fun, and, most importantly, perfect. I love his voice; you can hear that he's just enjoying what he's doing, and the band is too. Really entertaining, wonderful music.

#6: Duke Ellington, Ellington at Newport 1956

#7: Frank Sinatra, Songs for Swingin' Lovers
In stark contrast to In the Wee Small Hours, Sinatra is full of life and zest on this album, where he is, perhaps, in fullest control of his voice as he ever was. The album includes some of his best vocals, particularly on "I've Got You Under My Skin," one of my favourite songs, and "We'll Be Together Again," where, for a moment, he pleads with a nameless girl, and it tears at your soul. This is my favourite Sinatra record. It's not as brilliant as In the Wee Small Hours, but it's my favourite.

#8: The Crickets, The "Chirping" Crickets (1957)

#9: Count Basie, The Atomic Mr. Basie

#12: Miles Davis, The Birth of the Cool

#13: Machito, Kenya

#14: Little Richard, Here's Little Richard

#15: Tito Puente and His Orchestra, Dance Mania, Vol. 1 (1958)
While the album itself wasn't loved, there are three songs I whole-heartedly recommend: "Hong Kong Mambo," "Varsity Drag," which feels like New York City in the movie-montage sense, and "Estoy Siempre Junto A Ti" is my favourite song on the album, and would warrant purchasing the whole album.

#16: Billie Holiday, Lady In Satin
The songs are all very good, and Holiday really gets into the emotion of a vocal, unlike any female singer I've ever heard. When she says, on "You Don't Know What Love Is," "until you've flipped your heart and lost," you don't doubt for a moment that she has flipped her heart and lost, several times. The arrangements are very good as well. There are backing vocals, but they are used more as part of the orchestra than as actual voices. An excellent album.

#18: Sarah Vaughan, Sarah Vaughan At Mister Kelly's
Again, not a loved album, but WHAT a voice. The tone is perfect. She's almost flat once, in an entire live album that didn't use overdubs. If you are a singer, you have to listen to this.

#19: Ella Fitzgerald, Sings the Gershwin Songbook (1959)
There is nothing not to love about this album. Fitzgerald sings all the songs with the perfect amount of joy, sadness, love, whatever emotion the songs call for. Her voice with those melodies is an unbelievable combination. It's a magnificent collection of songs, one that's been deleted from pressings for a few years now. I truly don't know why.

#20: Ray Charles, The Genius of Ray Charles
The two sides of this album are quite distinctive. The first side is more energetic, the second is more laid back. Ray Charles is on form the whole time, with excellent song choices throughout. The first half of the album is truly enjoyable, but the second half, for me, is where the magic happens. It gets more intimate. The songs are full of love, devotion, and the hurt both can cause. I sought this out to purchase on record because I loved it so much. Still sounds great.

#21: Miles Davis, Kind of Blue
There's nothing to say about Kind of Blue that hasn't already been said. I'm not a huge fan of most instrumental jazz. It's not my bag, ya dig? But Kind of Blue has a certain magic to it, a certain perfection, that makes it reach beyond the restrictions a genre can so often place on something. If you haven't listened to it before, you definitely should.

#22: Marty Robbins, Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs
Marty Robbins has an amazing voice for country music. This is straight-up country, with stunningly tight harmonies. They make it infinitely appealing to listen to. Some of the harmonies are very unusual, but they are always on the mark. Knowing most of you, this album won't suit any of your tastes, but it really is magnificent. And, if you like this, check out #3, Tragic Songs of Life.

#23: Dave Brubeck Quartet, Time Out
Along with Kind of Blue, this is one of those rare instrumental jazz albums I can really sink my teeth into. "Blue Rondo A La Turk" is a great opener, setting the pace- energetic without quite being chaotic-, the theme -odd time signatures-, and the quality -amazing. The entire Quartet is brilliant, but it's all anchored by Brubeck's technically perfect and emotively compelling piano playing. There are few players who are as skilled as he is at sticking to the song, but still making it bounce. He plays with a twinkle in his eye, if you will.

So, there you have the 1950s. Again, after this, it's purely the highlights, and entries will be around five albums long. If you listen to any of these, do let me know what you thought about them! I hope you take advantage of this and find some new music that excites you.

1001 Albums

Two months ago, I bought the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. I have subsequently been working my way, albeit slowly, through the albums, hoping to have listened to all of them by 2010. This will, hopefully, be well before I die. Anyway, as I'm listening to them, I'm writing about each album in a journal, just to keep track of which ones I loathed (None yet), which were fine (Three, I think, out of the 67 I've listened to), which were good (so far, mostly good), and which ones I loved (24 out of the 67). Every now and then, I'll put up postings listing the recent highlights. I'm cleaning my room at the moment, so I can't start now, but later this afternoon, I'll put up a short post about the 24 I've loved so far, so those of you looking to find new music can give them a try.

Quick Note

First of all, I'd like to thank Katie and Ryan for commenting, though Katie's overall enthusiasm is a bit questionable.

Second, and last, of all, I just wanted to let those of you reading that I'll be posting two songs a week for the next month or two, and then I'll switch to one a week. I have plenty of songs, so that's not going to be an issue. I'll start up the twice a week system on Sunday, and then another posting on Wednesday or Thursday, depending. Just wanted to give you a better idea of when to check in.

"Trendbetter"

The inaugural song will be my most recent song, "Trendbetter." As will always be the case, please let me know what you think. And if you want to hear it, leave me your e-mail. Thanks!

I've bought up every copy,
and destroyed all but one.
And when I go to sell it,
I'm gonna have some fun.
I don't care if you want to read it,
or want to give the record a spin.
Don't say this isn't art,
it's the art of cashing in.

I'm very good at predicting,
what will be in demand today.
And if I make a bad call,
I don't say.

I'm brilliant at amassing,
what people want with a passion.
And it's only to my credit,
that I'm so apathetic.
See, I'm strictly a man of business
and I stick to my ethics.
If someone really wants it,
than they'll pay more to get it.

I'm very good at predicting,
what will be in demand today.
And if I make a bad call,
I don't say.

I like to follow trends,
You'd be amazed at how much money's at the end.
So, if you are a true go-getter,
might I recommend working as a trendbetter?

I've bought up every poster,
for a movie coming next July.
I'll climb in the actor's window,
and then he's gonna die.
Yes, there's nothing like the fervor,
that comes with an unsolved murder,
and these'll sell out like hotcakes,
oh, all the money I'll make.

I'm very good at predicting,
what will be in demand today.
And if I make a bad call,
I don't say.

The first post

Well, I've started a blog. This is probably going to be a terrible, terrible idea. I'll either spend all of my time on here, or I'll leave it to die in a matter of weeks, but we'll find out. I'm starting this blog because I don't have a full confidence in using Myspace for music postings. As I understand it, they have partial ownership of any music you post, and I don't want to play that game. So, instead, I'm going to try this: Two or three times a week, I'll post song lyrics up on the blog. This is outside of regular blogging, which will be infrequent and HIGHLY unrewarding to read, I promise. If you then want to hear the song, post a comment on the post with your e-mail, and I'll e-mail a demo of it to you. These will vary in quality from me, a guitar, and not much beyond an idea, to more finished stuff. Feel free, also, to leave comments and critiques. What you do and don't like. I need feedback desperately. Just, please, be constructive. If you think it sucks, that's fine, but why, so I know for the future why you think it sucks. I'm going to start high; the first posting will be "Trendbetter," which is by far the most complete demo I've done. So, thank you for stopping by, and I hope this system has some sort of merit to it in the long run.