An Ear For An Era: 1970

And so begins another decade. A bummer decade? The decade where everything got overly polished and the hippies stopped and everything got lame? Until eventually punk rock came along to put an end to that stuff?

That may be generally true, but this is based on my music. I don't have much crap in my collection. So the 70s here is going to be where it starts shifting more away from the mainstream. Because there was still lots of great stuff happening. For 1970, it mostly means funk and folk.

But it's kind of a gradual change. I still have all the old people that were making music in the 60s, continuing into the 70s, and it's not like they suddenly sucked. Let's talk about some of that and some other things.

It started with the end of The Beatles. Which I appreciated, because I was hoping it'd come on before the solo projects started up. Just as I skewed the results so I'd listen to Led Zeppelin I before Led Zeppelin II, I was hoping Let It Be would come on before the post-Beatles solo work. Let It Be. Well, it does kind of sound more like the solo careers than The Beatles. Beatles Beatles Beatles. Get it out of your system because this is going to be the end of writing about The Beatles for awhile. Uhhhh...it has classics like "Let It Be" and "Across The Universe." And over-produced messiness. And I kinda like "For You Blue." And I think "Get Back" should have been played harder, like "Helter Skelter." This album version is just kind of a boring way to end things. Abbey Road should have been the proper end.

How about those solo projects though, huh? Those're something! I didn't have Macca's solo album digitally so I can't speak to that, but George's was very much the work of someone that only got to have one or two songs on the albums his band put out. A triple album? My Sweet Lord! But it's quite great. And Lennon's was pretty interesting as well. Just from those two you can see the different directions they may have wanted to take The Beatles. Hey! I mentioned them again! It's also interesting that Harrison's was called All Things Must Pass, and Lennon's had that song about how "the dream is over." Actually I'll say something about that song. It's called "God" and sings about all the things Lennon doesn't believe in, kind of a way to tear down idols and whatnot, but when it gets to "I don't believe in Beatles," the whole rest of the song is about how they're not a band anymore. I know they were kind of to a point of being idolized at that point but it just seems kind of not focused to me.

You know who wasn't breaking up? The Who. In fact, they were playing Live At Leeds! So that's one of the first vinyl albums I ever bought (yes, this was in a time after CDs existed, so it's not one of the first ALBUMS I ever bought, I'm not that cool), and I was mostly excited about the 15 minute rendition of "My Generation." Of course, it turned out to be more of a medley than anything, but it ruled. It's a quality live album.

It's been a little while since I heard from the Beach Boys but Sunflower is quite a good way to bring them back in. Dig the Dennis Wilson contributions! I love/hate the song "Forever." It's such a great ballad, but it had to be sung by Jesse and the Rippers on Full House which makes me also kind of hate it. But I still kind of love it!

And The Kinks. Lola Versus Powerman and the Money Go Round is quite the title for an album. The song "Lola," is that supposed to be a guilty pleasure? Because most music snobs seem to hate the song (although they otherwise appreciate this album) but I still dig the song. It's kind of silly, but it was pretty forward in how it blurred gender lines without passing judgment. Plus I like it because of "Yoda" by Weird Al Yankovic. Most of the rest of the album is as cynical as Arthur, only this time it's more about the music industry instead of war. And I dig me some cynical Kinks. But the most gorgeous song on the album, I think everyone can agree on it, and it's not cynical at all. It's just pretty:

The Kinks, "Strangers"

You know, it's kind of surprising to me that I quite enjoyed Derek & The Dominoes' Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. Since I didn't like Cream and thought they sounded to 70s in the 60s, I figured this'd be even more 70s-ish. But instead it's really just simple blues songs that give plenty of room for Clapton to wail on the guitar, and that just makes for a very enjoyable listening experience.

The Stooges are something completely different! And Fun House was already something completely different from their first album. Well not completely different. But it seems a bit slower. Just a hair. It still rocks harder than anything else I heard from this year. Turn it up! Also the song "Dirt" is so great, so menacing as it just grooves right along.

I keep not talking about stuff from those Eccentric Soul compilations other than small name-drops here and there. But off the Capsoul Label collection, I have to talk about Marion Black a bit. Not that I can say too much based on two songs, but he has such a wonderful voice and I wish there was more out there. How was he not super popular? It's not like his sound is all that "eccentric." Just a sad breakup ballad ("Go On Fool") and a groovy dose of cool:

Marion Black, "Who Knows"

Other soul was good. Did you know The Jackson 5 released "ABC" this year? Kind of a sign of the disco-doomed direction Motown was headed but I still love these early Jackson 5 cuts. And "You Keep Me Hangin' On" by The Supremes. And we got the start of Diana's solo career! And Stevie Wonder in the 70s is something to keep an ear out for, and for 1970 that means the single "Signed Sealed Delivered."

But the obvious most favorable direction soul was taking was to a funkier place. 1969 had a lot of funk and it seems people just wanted to out-funk each other. Funk each other's brains out. James Brown had "Sex Machine." Slim and the Soulful Saints had a song called "Fish Head." Blood Sweat and Tears went super funky with "Lucretia MacEvil" (I blame this song for making me think everything else they'd do would be so funky). Tower of Power's East Bay Grease has kind of the perfect album title for the music contained therein. Greasy funk. We played some Tower of Power in marching band in high school because we had an awesome teacher so I really admire how damn tight that horn section is. It's just so dirty and foonky and great. And Jimmy McGriff with stuff like "Fat Cakes" and "Blue Juice," and The Meters' "Chicken Strut" (complete with chicken sounds) kept everything light but funky. funk funk funk funk funk funk funk. 

Merry Clayton always has to be written about. Crap, now wikipedia says her album Gimme Shelter came out in 1969! Whoops! Anyway, it's such an enjoyable album even if it follows the trend of the time of being full of covers. But I kind of see it like a Bettye LaVette album. Taking great songs and spinning them into a great funky version that is also a great song? Does that make any sense? Here's a song that doesn't reflect that, because it's not a cover and it is a ballad:

Merry Clayton, "I Ain't Gonna Worry My Life Away"

And...ska! Toots & The Maytals' "Monkey Man" is what made me get that whole anthology set in the first place. And they also had "Pressure Drop," another one that would be covered years later by another influential band. Another fun song (that just missed the "moon/space song trend of 1969" by a year) is "Skinhead Moonstomp" by Symarip. 

Let's change the subject again. Bitches Brew by Miles Davis is one of those things. Fusion, they call this thing. And I apologize for not speaking for accurately about this, but I'm still very much a novice about jazz. And I know I missed a lot (or all) of his 60s output that got him here. Still I very much enjoy most of this album. Some of the guitar based stuff I don't like as much as other guitar jazz (such as the Sonny Sharrock from 1969). It's not as good when you think of it as bringing rock to jazz as it is when you think of it as bringing jazz to rock. I don't care it makes no sense! Care not, ye, for what is important is that "Pharaoh's Dance" sounds so sinister and Egyptian, and "Sanctuary" takes you to a place of peace. It takes me there at least. 

What else is arty? To a degree, The Velvet Underground are. They used to be so art and then they got so pop, like a bunch of Campbell's soup cans or pictures of Marilyn Monroe. Every one of these makes me long for the wild experimentation of the previous. I think they're running out of my collection here with Loaded. I don't think they're coming back up. So just like The Beatles, it's time to say goodbye to a band here with one of their weaker(ish) efforts. Not that it's particularly weak. After all, this is the album with "Sweet Jane" on it. It's just so poppy, I don't know what they were going for. 

Their former collaborator, however, put out this great song:

Nico, "Afraid"

How about we talk about some singer songwriters?

Nilsson Sings Newman. Yes, Nilsson was a singer and Newman was a songwriter and they were also both both. I don't know why I didn't hear this one more growing up because my dad is a fan. My parents seem to know this album well (and picked "Love Story" it as a song to be played at my brother's wedding) but I mostly just grew up with Nilsson Schmilsson so I'll have a whole lot to say about that one when it comes up. But I do quite like Randy Newman's songs, and Nilsson picked some good ones to sing. 

My dad also introduced me to Kris Kristofferson, but it wasn't this self-titled debut. But I still know this self-titled debut well because I got it back before I got way too much music to be able to seriously listen to it all. So I listened to it a lot in college. It's a nice collage of political satire (not too far off from Phil Ochs if you remember what I wrote about him) and heartfelt ballads. The funny political ones sound a bit aged but the rest of the album (which is most of the album) sounds just timeless. I will say something about the satirical song "Blame It On The Stones" though. In the early 00s the song would be just as relevant if it was changed to "Blame It On Marilyn Manson" or "Blame It On Eminem." I don't know who the current scapegoat is but it's always gonna happen. But the timeless songs? Those are the ones. Kris Kristofferson is easily one of the best songwriters of the century. 

Kris Kristofferson "Just The Other Side of Nowhere"

And the Neil Young stuff! Both with CSN (Deja Vu is a great album full of hits like "Teach Your Children" and "Our House" as well as some great Neil Young solo-ish jams like "Helpless) and solo. The solo one is one of my favorite Neil Young albums: After The Gold Rush. I love my Neil Young mellow and unplugged, and this is one of the highest quality singer-songwriter albums I've ever heard. It just makes me try to sing along even though I can't sustain those notes. Mostly it just sounds so sad.

And there was Rodriguez' first album Cold Fact. Yes, I had no idea who he was before I saw that documentary Searching For Sugarman. But thank goodness for that documentary. He fits right in along with these other great early 70s singer songwriters. It really is a mystery why he couldn't find his audience. He exudes a cool not far from Lou Reed, writes lyrics not far from Bob Dylan, but doesn't really sound like anyone but himself. 

The last album I heard for 1970 (full disclosure: it actually ended with a Christmas song by Donny Hathaway) was the second album (I don't have his first, for shame!) by Nick Drake, Bryter Layter. Unfortunately I don't know what to say here about how this will shed a light on what's coming up or whatever. But I love his voice, and I wish he'd kept the arrangements a bit more spare (but that's what's coming up on Pink Moon!). I guess that's the 70s for you?

Where I Stand: 3926 of 36824 (10.66%!)

Other Highlights Worth Mentioning:

• Curtis Mayfield's debut solo album, in particular the song "(Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below We're All Going To Go."
• The four songs I have off Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water, of course, are great.
• "Fire And Rain" by James Taylor. Cannot get enough of this song!
• Isaac Hayes had another epic version of a simple song, this time "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling"
• Elvis' comeback must have continued as "Walk A Mile In My Shoes"
• Another bunch of Creedence songs that rule. 
• Johnny Cash's cover of "Sunday Morning Coming Down" is pretty great...Not sure why he changed the line about a kid "cussin' at a can he was kickin'" to "playin' with a can he was kickin'" but it's fine.
• Cat Stevens has entered the picture but I don't have much of anything by him.
• I thought I had a late period album by Little Richard but it turned out to be really old recordings that were finally released in 1970 so while I was going to say "wow, he put out something that sounded like T-Bone Walker in 1970? He must've been going for the nostalgia crowd!" it turns out it was just the record label that did so.
• I just got some Donny Hathaway material (just in time) mostly because he seems to be to Roberta Flack what James Taylor is to Carole King. Not much to say about him yet, but stay tuned?

On The Next Installment...

We'll see what changes from 1970 to 1971. It doesn't seem like much will. More funk, more singer/songwriters. Now let's look at the list and see if I was right: more Nilsson (THREE albums including the Nilsson Is For The Children album!), Joni Mitchell, more Rodriguez, Anthony Braxton (oooh even crazier jazz!), T Rex, Al Green (2 albums!), more Bowie, more Lennon, a big release from Serge Gainsbourg, Zeppelin comes back up (sorry I didn't have Led Zeppelin III so nothing on them today), Elton John, Jean Knight, Janis Joplin, Paul McCartney at last, an actual Curtis Mayfield album, Shaft, more Kristofferson & Cohen, Sticky Fingers, yet another Beach Boys album, Carole King, CAN (OMG), What's Going On, Who's Next

So...yeah. mostly funk/soul and folk but some significant rock & roll coming up, including Tago Mago by Can. Righteous.

An Ear For An Era: 1968

1968 was another year that happened right after 1967 when music was still sitting high on the summer of love but starting to show signs of breakage as the war continued on and whatnot. That's what it was. It was full of passion in both directions.

That's what I would say confidently if I felt like I could be declarative here. But I wasn't there, man! This is still based on just like, my music, man!

So it started with the soundtrack to The Graduate. My, how that Simon and that Garfunkel made some beautiful music together. But did you know that The Graduate soundtrack CD doesn't have a full version of "Mrs. Robinson"?!? Just two interludes?! That's weird (it had to come from Bookends). I mostly just found it odd how the Dave Grusin tracks seemed less mature than the Simon & Garfunkel tracks. Because isn't this famously the first movie soundtrack to be all rock/pop music based? Was rock & roll that mature that fast?

But I guess they were folk. Those singer/songwriters were really starting to come into prominence at this time. This track by Donovan, "Jennifer Juniper," came up and it sounds a lot like Belle & Sebastian. So good on him! You know who else was a great singer/songwriter of this time? James Taylor of course. His eponymous album was out this year. I don't know if it's the most special of his works, but it includes "Carolina in my Mind" so it is by far great.

Now I should mention The Kinks' Are The Village Green Preservation Society. By far their strongest album even though if you'd told me they would sound like this a few years ago (before I delved into their catalog) I probably wouldn't have been interested. But it is such a lovely sound on this album, something purely nostalgic when most everyone else was going harsh and pessimistic...it's nice to put this on and "remember" village green. But you know what Kinks song was great from that year but not from that album? "Days," a single that I spent oh so much time tracking down. I knew the words from an Elvis Costello cover but I couldn't find it anywhere except as a part of more expensive collections of songs. Do you know how many record stores I've searched through the Kinks 45s looking for this one? Finally, after searching Amazon on a fairly regular basis (for at least the damn digital version), I saw it pop up on the Made in Dagenham soundtrack. Turns out to be a pretty great soundtrack (I still haven't seen the movie)! Now I have the song and it is one of my favorites, maybe my favorite song by The Kinks. Optimistic and sad at the same time, it captures those fond memories with someone that (for whatever reason) isn't around anymore.

The Kinks "Days"

Now for some more miscellany. Harry Nilsson's Aerial Ballet was a pretty great follow-up to Pandemonium Shadow Show. Not particularly different but it shows development and maturity. And looking through my ratings, damn near every song was 3 stars or higher, which is saying quite a bit. I'm pretty picky with my ratings. It includes the original version of the song Three Dog Night made popular ("One"), the original version of his first huge hit ("Everybody's Talkin'"), and this lovely ditty.

Harry Nilsson, "Little Cowboy"

You know, he was a favorite of both John Lennon and Paul McCartney so of course this is my transition to The Beatles' self titled/White Album. This was my first favorite Beatles album. It can be traced back to "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me & My Monkey." Hear me out. I was a casual Beatles fan, like everybody else, for years. I figured I heard it all because I knew so many singles and it seemed like I had to have heard pretty much all of it. Then I was listening to some Sirius radio and that song came on. I loved it so much! It showed a different side of this band, a freewheeling rock n roll machine full of monkey piss. And I looked it up and found out it was on The White Album. So I actually bought a Beatles album (whereas originally I kind of thought it would be unnecessary (I now have found it necessary to own all of their albums and whatever other stuff I can track down)). I love this album because of two things: they were experimenting (for better or worse) with all sorts of different sounds, and they were drifting more toward rock 'n' roll as a baseline after tinkering with different sounds on their previous few records. If that's not contradictory to you, then you understand. Lots of different sounds, but they kept coming back to guitar-based rock & roll. "Revolution 1." "Happiness is a Warm Gun." Obviously "Helter Skelter." Beautiful record despite the negative sides of experimentation (I will say that "Revolution 9" was a very, very noble failure).

The Beatles "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me & My Monkey"

Hey, The Zombies were back! And that's gonna do it for me for The Zombies. But Odyssey & Oracle is a damn near perfect album that seems to me to predict a whole sect of indie pop in the 2000s. As much as it sounds like the 60s ("Time of the Season" is kind of a cliche to play in movies/miniseries in late 60s montages) it's so timeless in a way that their peers did not really accomplish. I don't know how many contemporary artists directly name-check The Zombies but I can hear the influence of this album all over this century's loveliest indie pop.

The Zombies "A Rose for Emily"

And now something completely different-ish. Soul was evolving in a couple different directions here. Lots of funk, The Impressions brought a new(ish) level of social consciousness to Motown with This Is My Country, and the southern soul was going deeper and harder. The definitive posthumous album of all posthumous albums came out this year as well, which was The Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding. That's gonna do it for Otis from my collection, so I have to say a few words. I guess he followed in Sam Cooke's footsteps a little too closely, dying just way too young. His Sam-with-edge style was just such a beautiful creation and you can just feel every emotion listening to him. It's comforting and heartbreaking at the same time.

Otis Redding "Let Me Come On Home"

Take soul even further south and you've got ska. That Toots & The Maytals anthology from my high school days seems to be holding up. "54-46, That's My Number" turns out to be quite the song. I guess Bradley Nowell had a good mind to cover that one. Also Desmond Dekker's "Israelites" (from that same Made in Dagenham soundtrack!) was another great one.

Nancy Sinatra put out the album of duets with Lee Hazlewood called Nancy & Lee and this time I couldn't help but think She & Him should cover songs from this album. Although I don't think M. Ward could bring the authority to the songs that Lee Hazlewood conveys. But I think Zooey would fit well into Nancy's shoes on these songs.

For the purpose of this project, 1968 ended with Jimi Hendrix' Electric Ladyland. He seemed to double down on psychedelia, pushing the limits of rock guitar even further than on Are You Experienced? It doesn't get much more "of the times" of the late 60s than Hendrix, blending blues and psychedelia, rock & roll and drugs. I have one more Hendrix "album" coming up in this project, which is a live recording of his performance at Woodstock. We are getting to the year of Woodstock, but there was so much more developing at this time, about to explode all over this thing.

Where I Stand: 3204 of 36674.

Other Highlights Worth Mentioning:

• "Hey Jude"!
• "Daydream Believer"!
• Creedence made their debut (to me) with "Suzy Q" and "I Put A Spell on You."
• I quite liked Lou Rawls' "Lifetime Monologue"
• A later-career Gene Pitney track "She's A Heartbreaker" was quite nice.
• I kind of think of The Band in the same way as Cream where they could be kind of boring in a pre-70s style of 70s rock but I actually kind of like Music From Big Pink. Probably the Bob Dylan factor.
• Hey, I finally got to another full Rolling Stones album in Beggars Banquet. "Salt of the Earth" is a great track to close the album.
• Aretha Franklin's Lady Soul is probably the best almost-as-good-as-the-last-one album of 1968 I think.
• The few years I have of French pop were brief, but 1968 had some great fun tracks from Monique Thubert, Marie Laforet, and Nino Ferrer. And good ol' Serge Gainsbourg was really rollin along with songs like "Bloody Jack" and "Ford Mustang."
• The Velvet Underground seemed to fall back into somewhat traditional rock n roll a bit with White Light/White Heat. At least compared to their debut. Still highly experimental and forward, but something about this album seems less so than other parts of their catalog. However, it is probably the best evidence to justify the strange claim I have heard a couple times in the past that they were the "first punk band."
• Johnny Cash ruled and played at a prison. The recording captured it quite well. I'm not sure what else to say about it at this time. I feel like I should have something profound to say. I listened, I enjoyed it quite a bit, I was able to picture him playing for a bunch of prisoners. 

On The Next Installment...

1969 was 'uge! In addition to my favorite Beatles album, we're bringing jazz back with Sonny Sharrock, George Russell, and others! The Temptations get their psychedelic soul on! Debuts from Bowie, Neil Young, Roberta Flack, MC5, The Stooges, and Led Zeppelin (rock & roll is about to be changed forever)!! We've got Dusty Springfield's definitive album, Elvis makes a comeback, Isaac Hayes kills it, and much much more. Stay tuned. I'll try to make it less thrown-together next time.