An Ear For An Era: 1967

This was the big one. The apex. The year that changed music? Maybe. So much happened that would go on to shape and influence the direction things would go, so many landmark albums, I fear I may not do justice to everything from this year just because I don't have all day to write this post. Although it is long. So I also worry it's too long. But all of this stuff deserves attention. I'll still try. You can skim if you want, I'll bold the artist so you can just read the stuff you're interested in.

I guess I'll start where we left off (basically) last time, and that's The Beach Boys. The whole switcheroo after Pet Sounds. The promise of Good Vibrations. The great album that wasn't. You know, that whole thing. I feel like Smile would have been the one that would have topped all the rest of the 1967 albums despite the greatness that resided in this year (as you will discover, if you did not already know, as you go through this post). Good Vibrations took "God Only Knows" and went even further into the symphony. I wonder how well publicized the abandonment of Smile was. If when Smiley Smile came out, if people have the same idea about it that we do today, that it was a consolation album. I wish I could hear Smiley Smile without knowing that it was inherently lesser. I could appreciate it more for what it is. I tried to listen to it in this way but I couldn't help but think "oh, the 2004 version is so much better." Because it has these great songs and there is a lot of complexity going on. But why did they go so lo-fi with "Wonderful?" The full version is one of my favorite songs! It's still great, but everything about it feels lesser.

The Beach Boys "Wonderful" (Smiley Smile version)

After that, they took a complete left turn and put out Wild Honey. I don't know what to say about Wild Honey. I do respect it a lot, but it just signifies the band giving up. It's a great album but damn it they were verging on something bigger. It's a very simple, straightforward recording with some great songs. Ugh. I need to give it more spins to form an opinion because it keeps changing.

Ok, moving on. I only have one album by the band Love, I believe it is their big artistic statement though. Forever Changes. It just feels so much like the 60s, summer of Love, but it feels good. Dated in its positivity, it kind of exemplified for me the point of this project, which was to put me mentally into different eras. To try to experience these times as closely as I can simply by listening to music. Of all the music of 1967, this one is the most of a time capsule, mostly because only one song ("Alone Again Or") has really endured on oldies stations and whatnot. So I didn't really know the music outside the full album, which I've only listened to a few times.

Another album that feels a little stuck in its time is Disareli Gears by Cream. But in this case, it's more of a foreshadowing of the coming 70s rock movement. I'm not sure why, but most of the album actually had me bored. Not something I associate with this time period. I want to say that it is because I was pretty tired after a long day at work when I listened to it and because it failed to take me out of that state  I'm unfairly judging it. So maybe it's that. But even the big hit "Sunshine of Your Love" seemed slow and like it just kept going, repeating that same guitar line over and over. The closing tracks on the album are either much better or I was in a better mood when I finished it off. It got catchy though.

From one great guitarist to another, in a very similar context, I think Jimi Hendrix pulled off the psychedelic blues a little better than Clapton. Are You Experienced seems like it should feel dated (especially looking at the super psychedelic cover art) but it has endured. Probably because we still hear these songs all the time outside their original context. So many songs have gone on to be such giant hits ("Purple Haze," "Manic Depression," "Hey Joe," "Foxy Lady") that it almost seems like a greatest hits album. The energy put into these recordings, it's druggy but positive, it feels like the 60s instead of the 70s, and just hearing Hendrix wail through these songs is astonishing. 

The Rolling Stones put out two albums in 1967 but I still feel they were a bit of a singles band at this time. At least I hope so. Actually I know that's not a very accurate statement. But I only have singles from this year, so I'm trying to justify that. I haven't heard Between The Buttons so I can't speak to that other than saying that "Let's Spend The Night Together" and "Ruby Tuesday" are classic Stones jams that I always appreciate hearing. Although those were only on the American tracklisting. So I'm kind of lost. But I have spent some time with Their Satanic Majesties Request and that is definitely art in album form. It's the Stones embracing this psychedelic sound that most of the rock albums I'm discussing from 1967 are based on. 

The Who Sell Out did not really fall in line with the trends of psychedelia though. Instead, they put out a concept album all about the radio, commercials and all. I've always considered this album "essential" but I don't know if it really is. There are several great songs, it's very original conceptually, but in the whole canon of 1967 music (and the whole canon of The Who's catalog) it might not be at the same level. I do have to say that it does hint at their upcoming Tommy project (one bonus track even has a part where they sing "It's a girl, Mrs. Walker, it's a girl") but one of the more amusing parts of this album was listening to "Odorono." It sounds like a typical Who-story song and it ends with "She should have used Odorono" making this song itself yet another commercial. I also must attest that there are a lot of great, great songs on this album. I feel like I've been putting it down a bit here. I love the opening song "Armenia City In The Sky," "Mary Ann With The Shaky Hand" is classic earlier-style Who, and "I Can See For Miles" is one of the greatest songs they ever recorded, showcasing Townshend's fantastic guitar wailing and Keith Moon's frenetic drum fills. 

Of course, all of this rock has to climax with what is probably the highest rated album of all time, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by some band called The Beatles. It is inevitably overrated but just barely. The journey the album takes us on includes some druggy freakouts, catchy lighthearted romps, and some big hits. But the best part of the album is the coda: after the reprise of the opening, closing out the main trip, we go into a condensed study of this era of the Beatles. "A Day in the Life" exemplifies everything they do greatly in 5 1/2 minutes. Lennon's balladry, an instrumental freakout including a full orchestra just building and building, McCartney's whimsical ditty within the song...it plays like a collage. It's one of the greatest accomplishments of the band (that I don't think they'd approach again until the medley on Abbey Road).

But I also have to mention Magical Mystery Tour, which came out that same year. I used to want to rank it about Sgt Pepper to be contrarian, although I don't think I can really justify that here. It is simply yet another collection of fantastic Beatles songs, just like everything else they'd done since 1965. It's like a sequel to Sgt Pepper in that it does the same thing. Lots of druggy freakouts but also some McCartney whimsy. I think it's just underrated, considering the songs included. Particularly because it ends with "All You Need Is Love." One of those songs that people always like to use to close out discussions of their career as a whole. Is it the last song they played on the rooftop or something? I don't feel like looking it up. But yeah, great album, underappreciated because of what it followed.

Let's switch gears to soul. I'll divide it into three categories: Motown, Atlantic, and the unknowns. Because I didn't get much Stax from this year.

Motown had another interesting year. Every year in the 60s is going to have several huge hits because that's the whole idea of that label. An odd choice was made with The Temptations in a Mellow Mood album (covering standards), which I think of as kind of a lesser album of theirs, but it's interesting (and has a pre-Stevie Wonder version of "For Once In My Life!"). However, they also put out "I Wish It Would Rain," my favorite of the "rain drops to hide my tears" subgenre of soul songs. I have the full album on vinyl but because we're focusing on my digital collection that's all I've got. And of course two huge Smokey Robinson & The Miracles hits "Tears of a Clown," and "I Second That Emotion," and The Supremes kept the hits coming with "The Happening," and "Love Is Here And Now You're Gone," 

But while Motown was churning out classic hits, Atlantic was busy putting out classic albums. I think I am discovering that I actually prefer southern soul with this project. It just sounds like it has more soul to its soul. The Sound of Wilson Pickett was a great album that came out (although "Funky Broadway" was almost too silly to bear). I also heard several hits from  Percy Sledge (I only have a greatest hits comp), so while we were past "When A Man Loves A Woman," there were great takes on classics like "The Dark End Of The Street" and "Love Me Tender." And last but the opposite of least, I finally got to an Aretha Franklin album I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You. One of the great soul albums of all time. Of course the hits are there ("Respect," the title track, "Do Right Woman - Do Right Man") but the whole thing is solid. I particularly love "Soul Serenade" and her take on "A Change Is Gonna Come."

As for the lesser-known stuff, I am still loving those Numero Group Eccentric Soul compilations with stuff like Betty Wright...although that's going to become much more prominent in the 1969-1972 era. We finished what we started with James Carr's You Got My Mind Messed Up...you really just have to hear his album, it's astonishing. I know she's not unknown, but Dusty Springfield's take on "I Can't Wait Until I See My Baby's Face" is another great kiss-off performance. But I really gotta play you a clip of Billy Wade & The 3rd Degrees' "Tear It Up," which I discovered thanks to the Absolute Funk 3 compilation. 

Billy Wade & The 3rd Degrees "Tear It Up."

I'm not going to discuss ska too thoroughly in this entry but Desmond Dekker's classic song "Unity" was from 1967 and I love it. It's what I played/quoted/something when he passed away a couple years ago. 

French pop was picking up a lot of steam in these years with songs sung by actresses from Godard movies, such as Brigitte Bardot and Anna Karina, all so great! France Gall also had a great song "Teenie Weenie Boppie" (I think it makes me like the songs even more when I can't understand what they're saying). If you want to hear a song and say "whoa, the Futurama song is from 1967?!" listen to Les Yper-Sound's "Psyche Rock." But the clip I'm going to present is the epitome of 60s French playfulness. It includes the authoritative voice of the era, Serge Gainsbourg, Brigitte Bardot, and vocalized comic strip sound effects!

Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot "Comic Strip"

Now for some singer/songwriters. The only Phil Ochs album I have is Pleasures of the Harbor. I've read critiques that it is overproduced. And I can hear that. I'm sure I would quite love to hear him in a more stripped down raw version. Because to me he is kind of an early version of Elvis Costello. Part ballads, part biting satire, his songs hit home. 

Hey, we've got Nilsson! Harry Nilsson is one of my favorite artists of all time and we've gotten to Pandemonium Shadow Show (I don't have his very first album but Spotlight on Nilsson isn't so much an album as a collection of early singles). He would go on to much greater heights but this is still a very strong debut. A playfulness with a high level of satire can be heard through the whole album, one that would be a big part of why I love his songs so much. The cover of "You Can't Do That" by The Beatles is so much more than that, something I've still never heard anyone else do before (kind of a mash-up/medley of lots of Beatles songs contained within the cover of the one song). I'll have more to say about him in the coming entries.

You know how I know 1967 was bigger than what the above entries indicate? Yes, landmark albums abound by all sorts of rock artists, some great singer/songwriters made some great statements, and soul hit new highs. But beyond that, a whole new movement was taking shape with debuts by artists that would turn out to be some of the most influential artists of the 20th century, influencing damn near every great fringe artist I listen to.

Leonard Cohen came out with his debut album Songs of Leonard Cohen at the very end of 1967. I think of his style of songwriting as a kind of cool that has influenced everyone that is now cool. Does that make sense? And how he sings, kind of the opposite of the bombast showcased by other artists of this time, the way he sticks to one note for the majority of the song on "Suzanne" makes every variation, going only up a third all that much more impactful. "'Follow me,' the wise man said, but he walked behind." I love that line from "Teachers." I don't know how else to talk about him besides quoting this song. "Are you the teachers of the heart? We teach old hearts to break." Such a cold, lost song. "I was handsome, I was strong, I knew the words of every song, did my singing please you? No, the words you sang were wrong."

In that same league, at least my view of it, is The Velvet Underground & Nico, the debut album by The Velvet Underground. Probably even more influential although Lou Reed does seem to have a lot in common with Leonard Cohen. They were more experimental with their melodies though, so while the vocal delivery has the same minimalist approach, it's more to make room for sonic experiments. Where would music be without this album? Would anyone else have created something like this to kickstart the whole fringe/underground/indie/whatever movement that would follow and shape music by pushing it into new directions?

Once I was drunk on brandy listening to music and "Heroin" from this album came on. I then drunkenly declared it as the greatest song ever. Yes, I am subject to hyperbole especially when drunk, so I'm not going to make that argument right now. But it is a brilliant song. I've never done heroin, and I've heard that this song kind of feels like what it feels like to take it. I can believe that. The shifts in tempo, the way the screeching guitars come in and out, drowning out the vocals occasionally, it is something else to listen to this song. Especially on a decent pair of headphones, isolating everything else. 

The Velvet Underground "Heroin"

The album actually was the first one I got to when I listened to 1967's music. It kind of reminded me of what I was in for as far as music going forward. I was ready for more Beatles, Beach Boys, and soul, but I wasn't yet thinking too consciously about this fringe arty stuff, and figured it'd belong at the end of 1967 as a way of reminding readers that this element is starting to take shape, miles ahead of everything else, sounding like it's coming from the future when presented within its own context. It would've been a perfect closer. But that didn't happen.

What it really ended on was Carla Thomas' "Give Me Enough (To Keep Me Going)" which I think of as kind of a soul version of a country song. I don't know how to say it leads into 1968 other than the fact that she is featured on Otis' song "Tramp" from the posthumous album The Dock of the Bay. Which will be coming next year. So I'll just say this. Otis passed away at the very end of 1967. I'll be discussing said posthumous album next year. His career was tragically cut short but he did give us enough to keep us going, so this song is a fitting tribute to the man.

Carla Thomas, "Give Me Enough (To Keep Me Going)"

Where I stand: 2850 of 36595.

Other Highlights Worth Mentioning:

• I got a sweet live cut of Ella Fitzgerald with Duke Ellington performing "It Don't Mean A Thing (If it Ain't Got That Swing)" and it features Ella doing some pretty awesome scat singing. Love it!
• ? And The Mysterians put out another album called Action. It was great, just like the first one. Just didn't fit into the narrative above, as it didn't really build too much on the first one.
• Heard some Doors. I've long thought of The Doors as overrated and whatnot, but I think I judge Morrison more harshly than others. Especially after reading the Patti Smith autobiography when she talked about the influence he had on her. I do love "Alabama Song."
• Ben E. King made a triumphant return with "What Is Soul," a super funky vocal performance.
• She got lost in the shuffle when I was talking about The Velvet Underground, but Nico had some great solo stuff come out as well, including her landmark song "Chelsea Girl."
• I'm not sure why I had Otis Redding's "Try A Little Tenderness" marked as 1967 but I did. I didn't write about it because it should've been 1966. But duh, amazing song!
• Hey, The Bee Gees started out as a very 60s sounding flowery pop band! "Massachusetts" is a pretty good song too.
• I heard a live take of "Summertime" by Big Brother & The Holding Company. I think I have more Janis on the way.
• The Whyte Boots "Nightmare" from that girl group compilation was pretty great.
• Lots of Monkees singles. Very serviceable songs.

In The Next Installment...

Hopefully a shorter entry! I'm going to take a small break to try to catch up on some of the new stuff that's come out this year. When I return, 1968. More Aretha, more Nilsson, more Hendrix, the band, The White Album, a definitive Kinks album, a definitive Zombies album, Nancy & Lee, Johnny Cash plays at a prison, I finally get into Rolling Stones albums, a farewell to Otis Redding, James Taylor, The Graduate soundtrack, and yes, more Velvet Underground. It's not like the greatness stopped in 1968, it seems. Some stuff was just getting started.

An Ear For An Era: 1966

It's late. I don't know if people actually click on the youtube videos I post here so I'm going to not bother this time. It's also going to be A Quick One (other than the extensive typing about Pet Sounds because I can't resist).

1966. The year of expansion, of reaching new highs, probably lots of acid, and also the year for southern soul. And other stuff.

It started (for me at least) with The Who. A Quick One. Which chronologically came after the My Generation album, but because I have the American version (titled The Who Sings My Generation) it came out in 1966 instead of 1965 and thanks to the shuffly nature of this project those two were out of order. So My Generation should probably be considered 1965 but let me say that it is a very enjoyable album full of great short rock songs. A Quick One showed them veering away from R&B covers and toward original material. And they already started with the whole rock opera thing with the title track "A Quick One (While He's Away)." Storytelling via song snippets combined into a whole. Something they would do a lot of going forward.

Nancy Sinatra had a huge year! Two albums that contrast each other in so many ways (I never really put together how different they are without hearing them in this context), there was Sugar, which could almost in full be used to soundtrack a burlesque house, and then Boots, which has a much more emotional core, abandoning just a little bit of the playful sex kitten from Sugar to get to something deeper (despite the fact that the title track is Sinatra's signature sexy song). I also love that she turns the tables on "Run For Your Life" by The Beatles due to conflicting feelings discussed in the last entry.

This year there was plenty of great Motown and other northern soul (The Isley Brothers in particular put out a great album in This Old Heart Of Mine, Jr Walker, one of my favorite Temptations singles "Ain't Too Proud To Beg," more Gloria Jones, etc etc) but I have to give it up for the south here. Two Otis Redding albums. Sam & Dave. Percy Sledge ("When A Man Loves A Woman" just always takes me back to The Wonder Years!). And the great unsung James Carr. I have different sources crediting his You Got My Mind Messed Up to both 1966 and 1967. The album itself had some songs labeled 1966 and 1967 (which probably means the album itself came out in 1967) but I'll just take it as a way to expand this across multiple listening years. I got 6 of the 12 tracks in this round. I first heard of James Carr via Elvis Costello covering "Pouring Water On A Drowning Man" as well as "The Dark End Of The Street." These are still two of my favorite soul songs, as I seeked out the Carr versions pretty quickly because as much as I love Elvis Costello and his vocals, he ain't no James Carr. But then...nobody is really.

Also for southern soul apparently Allen Toussaint had a big year based on the album Allen Toussaint: The Lost Sessions, which collects songs recorded/produced by Toussaint mostly by other artists (Diamond Joe, Willie Harper, Lee Dorsey, and many more!) and it is just a gem of New Orleans soul.

I don't know if I quite put it up there with Highway 61 Revisited, but Dylan released Blonde on Blonde in 1966 and wow. Actually, looking at it again I might rank it higher. Dude was on fire this year. "Just Like A Woman," "Obviously 5 Believers," "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands," I could pretty much name off every track and you'd be on board. So yeah. A double album worth of great Dylan.

The other folk master of the time was Phil Ochs, and I only have one song from this year. It's called "Love Me, I'm A Liberal" and it takes liberals to task for talking from their high horses without doing anything about anything. I want to hear more from him from this era.

I don't have the Rolling Stones album from this  year but based on the singles I need it. Paint It Black is maybe my favorite Stones song.

? And The Mysterians put out 96 Tears. It's kind of like psychedelic proto-punk to me or something. I think I only associate them with psychedelia because of the organ and era. It's mostly organ based short rock songs that harken back to the old timey 50s rock while looking forward. If you haven't listened beyond the famous "96 Tears" song, give them a shot. They were pretty great rock & roll. Check out the song "You're Telling Me Lies."

The Beatles put out a little album called Revolver. And yeah, I argued for Help last time and everyone speaks of Rubber Soul as the first real brilliant statement by the band but it's still a giant leap forward for rock & roll to get to Revolver. Probably the biggest artistic leap in the Beatles' chronological catalog. From here on out it's going to be VERY significant when a Beatles album comes on.

And then the response to Revolver. Maybe my biggest anticipation for this project at least for the 60s was knowing I would get to listen to Pet Sounds twice. This is due to the fact that I have both the stereo and mono versions of the album and I called them both 1966. The build up was pretty great, as I kept anticipating it would come on at different times, first during the very warm spring Colorado days, thinking it'd be the perfect soundtrack driving around in the sun, to the supposed blizzard we got, thinking it'd be the perfect mental escape from the snow, to finally on the plane to California when it came on for the first time. I was down toward the very end of 1966 without it coming on once (even though it would come on twice eventually) and then thought it'd make the perfect way to end the year, as I've lately been writing about the very last thing to come on and using it to kind of speak toward the future year. But instead it came on in stereo on the flight to California, which was perfect because I was flying out of the blizzard and about to go to the beach, and then there were two songs in between (Paperback Writer and a Frank Sinatra tune) and the mono came on (but not early enough so I had to stop it and not listen until the flight out of California to blizzardy Colorado).

I spent all this space talking about the anticipation of the music instead of the music itself because so much is already known about this album. It's all been written. So hearing the opening notes to "Wouldn't It Be Nice" were more of a relief than anything. My paradise. I wish I could hear Pet Sounds with a fresh pair of ears again but it is now still just a great familiar comfort and puts my head in a good place. The highly conflicted lyrics, the masterful orchestrations, and the way the vocals are used as if it were a honest to god symphony (particularly in the I-wish-I-could-give-a-song-more-than-5-stars "God Only Knows"), it's just a piece of art that is so complex yet so perfectly straightforward, catchy, and comforting. Flying back to Colorado to the mono version was another relief (particularly due to some troubles with a cancelled flight, a hellish next day at the airport, etc. and I finally put the music on once we were approved to use electronic devices and I was finally officially on my way home) as I heard those same notes, arranged in a slightly different manner from the stereo but I'm not going to call it particularly different to my palette, I closed my eyes and let Brian Wilson & company take me away to a magical land.

After that was some Francophonic, some other stuff, and since I always mention where it ended, it ended on Smokey Robinson & The Miracles' "(Come 'Round Here) I'm The One You Need." I'm not sure if I have anything to say about it though! We are about to come 'round to 1967, the year I have long professed to be the big one. We'll see how it does in this context. Coming out of 65 and 66 there has been quite a build up.

Where I stand: 2473 of 36459 and counting (damn you Amoeba!)

Other Highlights Worth Mentioning:

• I didn't even discuss the French pop music! Serge Gainsbourg as well as others. Well I love it. Annie Philippe, etc. I first started exploring it because a filmmaker buddy said he liked 60s French music even though he didn't like the cinema (which is crazy to me because 60s French cinema is the greatest cinema). Also, the French film Masculine Feminine featured some pop music of the time and it's just so damn catchy. 
• Motown should just have a standing place here: The Supremes ("You Can't Hurry Love"), The Four Tops "Reach Out," Kim Weston, The Monitors, THe Spinners, oh my! And so many more!!
• That obscure girl pop and northern soul just kept on a-comin'. The Satisfactions, Barbara Lewis, Chris Clark, 
• The Monkees came up! I like some of their singles like "I'm A Believer"
• Loretta Lynn's You Ain't Woman Enough. Sassy but a little too upbeat for my tastes as far as country goes.
• Bo Diddley had a 45 that I have digitally! "We're Gonna Get Married" with the Bo-Dettes and "Do The Frog." YEAH!
• The Troggs' "With A Girl Like You." I first heard this song via TWO very hip covers (Yo La Tengo & Dave Sitek). I still love the covers but the original version is really something for a silly pop song.

In The Next Installment...

Just going through this real quick. It will be insane. I hope I can give it proper time to properly write about all the insanity. Aretha Franklin, Beach Boys' follow-up half-Smile-ish recording Smiley Smile as well as their soul album Wild Honey, Sgt Pepper, Cream, Nilsson, more James Carr, Jimi Hendrix, Leonard Cohen, Love, lots more Monkees, ? And The Mysterians, Phil Ochs' Pleasures of the Harbor, Velvet Underground & Nico, The Who Sell Out, and Wilson Pickett! HOLY CRAP.