So it all started this time with a song called "1969." That's how I know I'd picked the correct playlist. Yup, The Stooges made their big debut right out the gate and tore the music world apart. I cannot over-state this. 1969. I Wanna Be Your Dog. No Fun. This is punk rock. Loose, sloppy, loud, fast. An edge of experimentation with some sax, but overall just back-to-basics rock and roll.
That Detroit (+Ann Arbor) scene was pretty amazingly vibrant at the time, it would seem. MC5 was also kicking out the jams and tearing another hole into the fabric of rock and roll, as their self-titled (live!) album captures such an amazing energy...I can only imagine what it was like to be at one of those shows. Pure energy.
It's almost enough to make me forget about the music Detroit was most famous for at the time...good ol' Motown. At this point in the listening project, we've got all this stuff tearing down the foundation and it's almost an obligation to check in with Motown because it happened to still be putting out music. But on the other hand...it was evolving as well. The Temptations' album from that year, Cloud Nine, showed a different side of the band. Including a 9-minute opus "Runaway Child, Running Wild" and shades of funk and psychedelia it was quite different than the band that sang "The Way You Do The Things You Do." Motown also put out more Impressions jams and an early single by The Jackson 5! And "My Cherie Amour" by Stevie Wonder, but that song now just makes me think of Silver Linings Playbook.
But it seems the funkiest stuff was coming out on different labels. Maybe Motown started losing its relevance around this time. One catchy, funky record that I quite enjoyed was Stand! by Sly & The Family Stone. It was half-funk, half-pop, and all party. All pretty positive, but the turbulence of the time made its way into the song "Don't Call Me N***, Whitey."
Immediately after that album came James Brown's Say It Loud--I'm Black & I'm Proud. I kind of had a perception of this album, and I assumed it'd take things funkier and more political than Stand! but instead it was an album of mostly ballads. I'm sure my music collection is missing a good amount of his funkier material of these days, but if not, it's kind of a disappointment.
Roberta Flack put out First Take and oh my. I have six album covers framed on my wall here and one of them is First Take. For one, because the photograph is stunning. And also because it is just absolutely some of the greatest music I've heard. I want to call her music soul but it's so different. Maybe jazz-soul? Soul-jazz? The music itself is kind of in line with jazz and her voice has that coolness to it. Would you believe I first checked her out because of a Spanish language cover song that Cat Power performed on a bonus track from her Jukebox album? It was so stunning when she performed it, that I had to know more about this song. And Roberta took it to higher highs, something that can make me cry even if I'm not quite sure what exactly is being sung. On top of that, she covers Leonard Cohen (solidifying her "cool" status among people like me), goes political with "Compared to What," and performs the definitive version of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face." So cool, so pretty, so perfect. Here's the song that sold it for me, for you to hear if you haven't had the pleasure:
Roberta Flack "Angelitos Negros"
I also love Dusty Springfield for pretty much the same reason. A beautiful voice but she doesn't overdo it. There's just an effortless quality to her delivery. Even Jan from The Office cannot ruin "Son of a Preacher Man" for me. "Breakfast in Bed" is another great song. But maybe my favorite thing about Dusty in Memphis is the full disc worth of bonus tracks it came with. All previously unissued, all solid gold.
And then there was potentially the greatest composer of this era: Isaac Hayes. His album Hot Buttered Soul is an absolute masterpiece of composition. Four epic songs that create such atmosphere, such an environment is created that listening to any one of these songs is to take a journey. That sounds cliche. I'm sorry. But I can't think of a better way to describe it right now.
You know who else took us on a journey? And captured America's fascination with space at the time? Why, David Bowie of course! His self-titled debut is quite folkier than what he would go on to do, but still. It has "Space Oddity" which is one of my favorite Bowie songs of all time.
I don't think I've gotten any better at writing about Leonard Cohen since last time. But Songs From A Room is another masterpiece. I'm not sure if much evolution took place between this and Songs of Leonard Cohen, but it's still such gorgeous songwriting that I don't really care.
I regret what I said last time around in regards to The Velvet Underground. I called White Light/White Heat basic and straightforward. In the scheme of things, it was not really. I just thought the experiments being done on that album were more straightforward (telling a story in one channel and having a highly distorted guitar playing on the other, a very punk-rock-style song that goes on for 17 minutes, etc) than stuff like the song "Heroin" from the first album. But now in the context with the third album (self-titled), I see that White Light/White Heat was pretty damn crazy. And this one is much more digestible and poppy. Very mellow. But I really do like the songwriting so even if the musicianship is less experimental than it used to be, it's still very enjoyable. "Pale Blue Eyes" is still one of my favorites.
Harry Nilsson's album Harry didn't take long to become a favorite. From the first time I listened to the record (and the only reason I have this digitally is because I recorded it from my record onto my computer) it's just been catchy and it makes me feel good to listen to it. From the whimsical ("The Puppy Song") to the sentimental ("Mr. Bojangles") to the inspirational ("I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City"), everything just makes me feel better. There aren't a whole lot of records in existence that do this for me. The only other one I can think of off the bat is Elvis Costello's King of America.
Harry Nilsson "Mournin' Glory Story"
Let's talk about the old guard of 60s rock. Some of them were winding down, some of them would continue for decades and decades and never give up...I feel like these bands were still relevant at the time but with artists like The Stooges, MC5, VU, etc. I can't say for sure how much I'd have been interested if I were around at the time. First up: The Kinks' Arthur. This album is pretty great. After being the nerdy band singing about the good old days they put out something so pessimistic, the turbulence of 69 definitely affected them. "Brainwashed" seems kind of influenced by the aforementioned proto-punk bands. Most of the songs are more subtle, sounding sweet with dark meanings in the lyrics about the horrors of war, the hypocrisy of wealth, the inequalities between the classes. The Who is up next. Tommy holds a special place in my heart, as I've been quite familiar with it for quite some time. My dad used to listen to this soundtrack a lot and I even went to a performance of it at the local playhouse. It was a good time! I remember listening to "1921" when I turned 21 just because I liked the line "Got a feeling 21 is gonna be a good year..." even though I knew it was about 1921. But yes, it's kind of a cheesy story but has some great songs in it. And finally The Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed. The first Stones album I ever bought because it was at a sidewalk sale back in Fort Collins. Forever I just liked it for "You Can't Always Get What You Want" because I hadn't heard the full 7:29 version of it and it just became so epic.
And of course The Beatles. My favorite Beatles album is currently, and probably will always be, Abbey Road. Just the way that most of the songs would be out of place in any other context, but they fit so well together here. It took me a long time to know that "Come Together" was a Beatles song because it doesn't really sound anything like The Beatles as I knew them. Some of the goofier songs would fit on The White Album but the majority of this music wouldn't fit even on that one. It's so mature, so warm, and so gorgeously composed. The way "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" ends and "Here Comes The Sun" begins, the way they rock so hard on "The End," the way the medley of side B bounces around, the harmonies created on "Because," everything about this works here and here only. It's an album unlike any other Beatles album, and it's rare for anything to have so many "hits" but belong together as one unit as this one does. It would have been the perfect cap to their career. If only they'd let it be after this one...
OK now the new guard. Can someone explain to me how is it that Led Zeppelin started out so fully formed? I know they stand on the shoulders of their predecessors who established a plateau of rock & roll, but it's just strange to listen to the very first and second Zeppelin albums (they came out in the same year!) and think "yep, that's Led Zeppelin as I know them." I'm sure I'll pick up on how much they evolved as I go through this but it's surprising when I'm used to The Beatles going from "Love Me Do" to Abbey Road, and Zeppelin just kind of started with a full (up through the 60s) history of rock & roll established. It makes sense that they did, but it's still astonishing how talented they were on their debut. They picked up where Hendrix left off with blues & some psychedelia and a lot of energy.
How about some jazz? George Russell's Electronic Sonata - 1968 is something I got because it was so cheap to get digitally (two 25 minute tracks) that may be labeled 1968 because it was probably recorded then, but it was released in 1969 so there. You know, I had been away from jazz for so long in this project that I didn't know what to expect besides "crazy!" And it was. But even more bonkers was what the 60s ended with for me. Sonny Sharrock's landmark album Black Woman, featuring some very passionate vocals from his wife Linda Sharrock. I got into Sharrock because of Space Ghost and I'm glad I did. He works with a lot of different styles here and experiments freely.
Sonny Sharrock "Peanut"
Not the best way to end the 60s as I wanted to express my distaste for leaving this decade and this is more of a preview of things to come in the jazz world (I have several 70s compositions I'm looking forward to hearing) and more of a positive look at the future. But don't be fooled! The 70s are not the 60s and that is a problem.
Where I Stand: 3596 of 36763 (whoa I have a palindrome right now! Also nearing 10%!)
Other Highlights Worth Mentioning:
- Serge Gainsbourg took it pretty far with Jane Birkin in the song "Je T'Aime...Moi non Plus." Pornographic or just super sexy? Tough line to draw in this "Soixante Neuf Anne Erotique."
- Lots more Creedence came on including one of my all time favorite songs (and back in my punk rock days, leading into the Iraq war, I found myself drawn to it especially) "Fortunate Son."
- The Moon People - "Happy Soul" and "Hippy Skippy Moon Strut" were so of-the-time songs, I guess everyone was all excited about the moon landing.
- Jimi Hendrix Live At Woodstock. The year of Woodstock and this is the closest I'll be getting to it! I think the most interesting thing about this was hearing the way he spoke between songs, the way he describes things are so hippie-ish and pure love.
- Those Beatles started hinting at their solo careers. Amongst the demos and whatnot was a recording of "All Things Must Pass." And further so, John Lennon put out some solo singles "Give Peace a Chance" and "Cold Turkey." It was really ending/over!!
- A way-posthumous recording of "Love is Strange" by Buddy Holly. I think NOW I'll be done with him in this project?
- Elvis' big comeback! Two songs: one that is often mocked but it seems to be in the right place ("In The Ghetto") and the other that is possibly my favorite Elvis song ("Suspicious Minds").
- Among all the great obscure-ish funk artists of the time was Bill Moss. It was kind of unfortunate/ironic that in the song "Sock It To 'Em, Soul Brother" he was naming all these great black leaders and included OJ Simpson's name on the list. Oh, hindsight, how cruel you can be.
- Those Crosby Stills & Nash cats kind of sound to me like old men even when they must have been quite young (back in 1969). How gentle they played compared to some of the other stuff going on, it's like the original dad rock! But I still quite like it. Once an ex girlfriend included their song "Helplessly Hoping" on a mix tape and it was very effective.
- I feel like Neil Young deserves more than just a footnote here but I'll have more to say about him very soon. But since I didn't have any Buffalo Springfield and I didn't have his self-titled debut, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere is my first taste of his unique, very 70s-to-me sounding sound. But he was great with words and rockin', and I hope to do him justice starting with the next entry.
Kicking and screaming out of the 60s. But they have done everything they could have done. I have squeezed it all out of them and now I must move on. This will be slowly evolving to a more personal experience, as there will be less mainstream 70s music (because I generally hate it) and higher ratios of the stuff I actually like. So this won't be so bad.
As far as 1970 specifically, I don't think there was any sort of drastic change from 1969. More funk. More Neil Young. Some solo Beatles stuff along with Let It Be. Miles Davis (for the first time here since 1959!). Nick Drake. Rodriguez. CSNY. Some sort of Little Richard comeback?! More Stooges. Mary Clayton. Kris Kristofferson. More Kinks. More Velvet Underground. The return of the Beach Boys.
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