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.
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