An Ear For An Era: 1974

I'm running out of things to say here. I think I'm missing something. There were a few great albums in here but it mostly seemed pretty insignificant in 1974. Maybe I'm still getting over the highs of 1973 and getting excited about the advent of punk that it's not advancing quickly enough for me. Anyway, this one will be short.

It started with some really great jazz. Billy Cobham's Shabazz, a live album from a 1974 performance (oops! the official release was from 1975! no wonder it seemed so ahead of its time!) in "Europe." This was full of great trombone solos and ridiculously complicated drumming. That's mostly what I remember. I think it'd go over well with some of my friends that don't particularly listen to jazz but would be open minded enough. That whole fusion thing or whatever.

Now I'm going to write about a bunch of artists I've already written about at some point. Because there was so little "new to me" stuff in my collection from 1974. (Looking through rateyourmusic's list, I mostly missed out on King Crimson, Genesis, Brian Eno solo (damnit!), and Leonard Cohen (I thought I had all his significant releases! oops!). Among much other stuff. Remind me not to look at that again, because it reminds me how incomplete this whole exercise is!).

Stevie Wonder will be discussed now. I know Fulfillingness' First Finale is yet another acclaimed release from the golden age of Stevie Wonder, but I wish I hadn't made this promise because I don't know what to say here! It's starting to seem less cheesy as I listen to him more and more. He created quite the grooves in this era; I quite enjoy the Jackson 5 featuring "You Haven't Done Nothin'" and the ballad "Too Shy To Say" is a real showcase of his vocal talents.

But what about that Neil Young? On The Beach is an album I've only listened to once or twice, but I need to spend a lot more time with it. He was at the height of his talent in these days, and I could hang out in the nine-minute "Ambulance Blues" all day long. Is this secretly his best album? I don't know if I'm ready to make any statements like that but it's certainly underappreciated by me. 

The first Tom Waits album I ever bought was The Heart of Saturday Night. This was kind of a random choice (I didn't know where to begin) but it was a pretty appropriate one. It's a great introduction if you need to ease into his more experimental, later work. The coolness that oozes all over this album is undeniable. I think it inspired me to try to come up with a list that have that undefinable "cool" quality and nobody else really had it quite like Tom Waits on The Heart of Saturday Night. It's cooler than a well digger's ass. He'd fit well with the beat poets and whatnot. And because he's Tom Waits, he sang the saddest songs you will hear. And I now present to you: the song to play at my funeral. If it comes down to it and anyone that may read this happens to also help plan my funeral one day, it is my request that this is played.

Tom Waits "Shiver Me Timbers"

Those outlaw country guys were doin' stuff too. Willie Nelson put out Phases and Stages which was pretty good. It's nice that he had the thought to tell the story from both sides of a doomed marriage, and it's just a sad ol' time like good country oughta be. I also have Johnny Cash's Ragged Old Flag on here, for what it's worth. The title track seems like blind patriotism but sounds fairly convincing. If I want to get the people riled up on Memorial Day or something I'd play this I guess. I do still like "What On Earth Will You Do (For Heaven's Sake)" at least as far as the vocals go.

Now we'll move on to the power pop or whatever you'd call it, Big Star's other album Radio City. In my opinion it started out a bit boring but as the album moved along it got more and more interesting, more and more catchy, with the climax being (what I assume was a single) "September Gurls." I think Big Star would have been a good band to listen to in high school. Then listening to it now would be even more nostalgic.

And finally, Roxy Music's famous Country Life. I don't think it quite ranks as high as For Your Pleasure for me, but it's still very very gorgeous. The arrangements are flawless, hitting all the right notes in slow ballads, heavy brooding beats, and catchy pop tunes. I might like Ferry's vocals the most here. Here he is channeling Elvis (?)...

Roxy Music "If It Takes All Night"

Newcomers:

Some of the emerging rock n roll of this era just flew by me in that I only have some singles and not full albums. But there was the first taste of Rush with the song "Working Man." A few Queen songs as well (I have Sheer Heart Attack on vinyl but not digitally if you can believe it). "Killer Queen" and "Stone Cold Crazy" are some quintessential jams.

I guess that's all? 1974 was not a highlight here.

Other stuff worth mentioning:

• Some more James Brown funk singles from the collection I spoke of last time. Still very repetitive, still don't mind it one bit.
• Bob Marley's "No Woman No Cry" came on. I wish all of his music hadn't been ruined by frat boys everywhere. Also Eric Clapton's cover of "I Shot the Sheriff."
• In less-ruined reggae, Toots & The Maytals' cover of "Country Roads" makes me happy.
• Bowie's "Rebel Rebel" came on. Apparently I don't have Diamond Dogs. I know I have it on vinyl.
• I had a Frank Zappa epic track "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" come on. I wish I had more of his stuff.
• Nico covered "The End" by The Doors, and that was my "the end" to Nico.
• Billy Joel may be Mr. Cheesy, but "The Entertainer" is a pretty good scathing critique of the music business.
• Jr. Walker kept up the funky goodness with "Dancin' Like They Do On Soul Train." So now you know the world I've been listening to. 1974.

On The Next Installment...

I will have a lot more to discuss. We'll be past the early 70s and music will move forward with purpose thanks to artists like Bruce Springsteen, Blondie, Patti Smith, Emmylou Harris (two albums!), and Queen, while the veterans will still be putting out landmark albums like Blood On The Tracks, Metal Machine Music (is it that time already??), Nighthawks At The Diner, Physical Graffiti, Red Headed Stranger, Wish You Were Here, Young Americans, and Zuma. Looks good to me.

An Ear For An Era: 1973

Happy 40th Anniversary, All Of The Music Discussed In This Post!

Remember when the Pet Sounds 40th Anniversary Edition came out? That was already several years ago! Now some of the stuff discussed here has gotten such 40th anniversary deluxe reissue treatment but it'd be interesting to wonder why others may have not this year. Of course, it's still only August. And maybe some of the bigger ones are waiting for the big 50th. Who knows.

The stuff that came up this round can be described mostly as refreshing. Something about most of what came up was just such a step up from the last couple years, be it from refreshing "new" artists, returns of those that I hadn't heard from in awhile, or just great improvements. And funk. Somehow there was so much more funk in 1973 than the last couple years. Maybe even more than any of the previous years where I talked about how awesomely funky stuff was. Maybe. So where to begin?

Maybe I'll start with the soul/funk. Because a very indicative song came up very early. Jr Walker & The All Stars' "I Ain't Going Nowhere." This is one of my favorite songs by them, despite it being from such a late point in their career. I love the early stuff, I kind of didn't like most of the early 70s cheesy stuff, but they turned a corner in '73 with this song as well as "Gimme That Beat." Not exactly funk as far as rhythms went, but a strong, hard, northern soul sound exemplified by hard vocals and a driving fast pace that begs to be danced to and whatnot. Most of what I associate with funk without being funk.

Jr Walker & The All-Stars "I Ain't Going Nowhere"

Al Green also stepped it up (quite a bit in my opinion) with Call Me. I appreciated his wispy vocals on the earlier albums mentioned here but found myself getting bored on those ones. Call Me is a different beast to me. More rhythmic without compromising his style, I think it's mostly the production and the arrangements that make it stand out, it's just more dynamic. Just a little bit more of a beat makes it feel like it's going somewhere which makes me feel more invested.

Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On is his "other" greatest achievement after What's Goin' On. The album as a whole might not be as grand of a statement but the vocal achievement alone is his best work in that regard. And yes, the title track has become a gigantic cliche for movies to make cheesy love scenes but damn it if it isn't one of the best vocal efforts in all of music ever. Marvin Gaye puts so much soul into every syllable, running the gamut of everything in his rather extensive vocal range, all to try to seduce that special lady. It doesn't matter how much I hear this song, it doesn't matter how much movie producers try to make me hate it by associating it with garbage cheesy films, I will always love this song. And the rest of the album, yup it's pretty amazing too. Nothing as over-the-top vocally but still full of great ballads.

But what about the funk? I'm not gonna tease you that much, am I? Just mention it and then talk about other stuff? OK now. Most of my funk comes from different soul/funk rarities compilations. Like Eccentric Soul: The Prix Label from Numero Group. This may be my most recommended such compilation. Who would have guessed: Ohio soul! On it I found an irresistible gem by a ridiculously short-lived group called OFS Unlimited, called "Mister Kidneys." At the time when I first heard it I called it the funkiest song I'd ever heard. Now, that's probably not true. But still one of my favorites ever.

OFS Unlimited "Mister Kidneys"

That Prix stuff also included great stuff by Marion Black and Mitch Mitchell. I cannot recommend that compilation enough. Absolute Funk 3 is another great one. Check out Wee Willie & The Winners' "I Don't Know What You Got But I Know What You Need." And The Funky 16 Corners is another great one. Soul Vibrations' "The Dump" is another highlight.

And I can't talk about funk of 1973 without talking about the main man, James Brown! The Payback is a beautiful record, 73 minutes of pure funk gold. Almost all the tracks are marathon sessions as he was known for (all but one track are over 7 minutes, two surpass 12). It's really just the perfect James Brown album, because none of the tracks are overplayed in movie trailers to the point of cliche, it takes its time to build all the tracks out to the way they deserve to be heard, and it never gets old because anything that is repeated (and yes, lots of his work is quite repetitive) continues to sound fresh and exciting. I also have the compilation The Singles Vol. 9 (1973-1975) and four of the eight 1973 tracks are kind of variations on "Stone to the Bone" from this album with the repeated chorus "I've got a good thing, I ain't gonna give it up." And that kind of says it all. He ain't gonna give up this amazing groove, let's just keep it going for 20 minutes because it's working so well.

Let's switch gears. There's not much left to talk about before I get into what I'll call the "Hellos and Goodbyes" section that seems pretty essential to this entry.

Paul McCartney & Wings' album Band On The Run is probably the best thing he did outside The Beatles. Is that a universal sentiment? Probably? I never thought about it too much. I thought maybe his s/t was considered as such. But Band On The Run shows a maturity that most of his solo stuff doesn't seem to have based on what I've heard. These songs have different movements within them, many aspects are explored where I feel like that was missing in lots of his other solo work (as well as mini-reprises within songs of other songs that make the album at itself even more cohesive than it already is otherwise). Apparently he was still a genius in the 70s! He was holding out on us! And the stuff since this, I feel like he's holding out on us some more. Anyway, I'll be speaking later about songs I want played at my funeral...here's a song I want played at my wake. I assume I will have a wake, what with being 1/4 Irish.

Paul McCartney & Wings "Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me)"

Johnny Cash is back! Kind of! I counted some stuff on Personal File, a (relatively) recent release of some stuff he worked on that was more personal, not recorded for any commercial reason, during the time he was less "active" in the commercial scene because commercial country music got less good and more bad in the 70s, as 70s because it was recorded then. This Personal File stuff was excellent, mostly completely naked arrangements of just Johnny and his guitar. Lots of covers of old songs (I was excited to hear his take on "Galway Bay" because I'm going to be visiting Ireland in a couple months and will certainly watch the sun set over Galway Bay with this song in mind) as well as some original material (one was written when he was driving from Denver to Cheyenne, which is awesome because I've been on that stretch of highway countless times in my own lifetime and I'm glad it could be inspirational). Lots of gold here.

OK now let's say some "hello"s to the freshman class of 1973, the finest we've had in quite some time. Yes, I understand that some of these artists had stuff going back even back to the 60s but my music collection isn't as all encompassing as it should be. So this is, again, based only on what I have.

There was one major voice in country music (that I can speak to somewhat extensively) emerging in 1973 and that was Willie Nelson. His album Shotgun Willie is quite wonderful, kind of a first step in the direction of "outlaw" country, "anti-mainstream" sounds of traditional country music in the face of emerging pop crap. The album title makes me laugh a bit because in Denver we have a very prominent strip club of the same name, but beyond that it's a wonderful album of country ballads and drinkin' songs. The most indicative song I can think of for what I was talking about above is "Sad Songs and Waltzes," a sad waltz that will break your heart with a chorus stating that "sad songs and waltzes aren't sellin' this year." I don't want to hear the songs that were sellin' this year because this is probably about 1000x better than that stuff.

Let's move on to...jazz? I've never known how to label Tom Waits. This early stuff could probably fit better into the jazz category (or singer-songwriter whatever that means) than other stuff. I always called him the blues even though it's so far different from blues music. But yes, his debut album! Closing Time! It just makes me so happy that from here on out there will be Tom Waits to guide me through the 70s, 80s, 90s, etc. I can keep looking forward to a Tom Waits album. This is before he got crazy experimental, it's traditional music in one sense or another of jazzy, bluesy ballads in his unmistakable voice. Here is a song that was on my shortlist to be played at my wedding. I don't know why I didn't end up putting it on the list I gave the DJ (other than deciding to surrender some creative control in the interest of having my friend that is an actual DJ make some actual DJ decisions and not just play a playlist I created), but here's a great song for other people to dance to at their weddings.

Tom Waits "Little Trip To Heaven (On The Wings Of Your Love)"

I watched a (relatively) recent New York Dolls live set where they verbalized their genre, stating "we're not punk, we're glam." Fine. But seriously, this self titled album of theirs sounds to me a lot closer to The Ramones and maybe Rancid than T Rex, Bowie, or whatever other band you'd call glam. I can see the glam in the way they present themselves, their attitude, etc. But the sound has a lot to do with punk rock. The looseness, the unrestrained energy, it's just so crass and punk rock to me. And they've been covered by pop-punk heroes The Groovie Ghoulies ("Lonely Planet Boy")! I think lots of punk groups were influenced by them (and they probably had some Stooges influence in them) so whether they like it or not they will be associated with this genre that will be fully established in 3-4 years time. It's the energy, man! Is this an actual music video?

The New York Dolls "Trash"

Roxy Music had two albums this year! One with Eno, one without. So that's exciting. It means the Eno influence/hand is entering the picture. First was For Your Pleasure. Art and rock and roll, together at last. I love this album. It's probably my favorite of their releases. There's a good amount of potential energy that builds up as the tracks go on, building and building until the payoff which is great. That sounds like it could be describing stuff from any type of music but I'm using it to describe this. Then their next album Stranded came up. It's been well publicized that this was Brian Eno's favorite Roxy Music album despite not including Brian Eno contributions. It was great but might have been missing something. I don't want to say it was a Brian Eno factor, it was something else I think. But still great. Whatever.

The most out of place entry here is Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. They were definitely around since the 60s but I don't have any of that older stuff. Is it good? Should I check it out? There's not much to say about this because it's been studied more extensively and written about in ways that I could never imagine. It's a pretty perfect LP, front to back. I haven't listened to it as much as I should, but it fit together so logically that I could tell when it hit the final track "Eclipse" that this would be it, that it was the logical conclusion and then it happened. Well played sirs.

And finally, let's say goodbye to the graduating class of 1973. Again, some of these artists released stuff after 1973 (and it's possible I'll pick some of it up in time to hear from them again here!) but it looks like they'll mostly be spent.

The Who has been a presence damn near since I started counting year-by-year. I don't really have any personal history with Quadrophenia, it's an album that I never checked out until relatively recently but it's probably the one that would have spoken to me most directly of all of theirs had I listened to it in high school when I first started getting into them. I still haven't seen the movie but the music itself sounds like a more raw exploration of pure rock & roll, a bit looser and heavier. Maybe I should look into The Who By Numbers as a worthy successor? Maybe I should. But yes, I do quite love that song "Love Reign O'er Me." Who doesn't?

But speaking of loose, heavy, raw rock & roll...Iggy & The Stooges! Their last album (until very recently) was Raw Power. There's something very interesting about the sound of this album. It's so dirty, so full of piss & piss, that it's hard to believe it's the David Bowie mix (and Iggy's sounded even "worse"). Bowie, who was the king of glam, mixed this album, a super raw and opposite-of-glam dirty angry rock & roll. Their first album was kind of a precursor to punk. The second was kind of a precursor to other hard rock styles. And this one doubles down on the punk, sounding as mean as almost any other punk rock album you'll hear. The Stooges go down in flames and they are rocking the soundtrack while it happens. After this we'll find ourselves in Iggy Solo land where he won't sound nearly as dirty or angry as he does here. But just as a finale, my copy of Raw Power came with a bonus disc called Georgia Peaches, a live performance from 1973. It's an odd recording where you can hear a quite loud woman commenting on wanting another drink among other things, Iggy trying to start a fight with someone in the crowd, and oh yeah! Music! Some songs that don't show up on any of their studio recordings, some from Raw Power, and that's it. No older songs. This is a band that didn't look back (until I saw them this century playing old hits). Nope, they knew they were the future of rock & roll and this album shows it. They just didn't care.

Where I Stand: 4833 of 37675 (currently I'm in the middle of a big mistake of ripping lots of my old CDs from high school...I'm sure I'll regret having to listen to all of this when I hit the late 90s...)

Other highlighty stuff worth noting:

• Harry Nilsson put out a standards collection called A Touch of Schmilsson In The Night. It's mostly a showcase of his great vocal work. And he picked songs that match his style well, as far as levels of wit and whatnot.
• Vince Guaraldi's "Little Birdie" was a great pop jazz tune. Yup.
• "Jungle Boogie" by Kool & The Gang. I'm tellin ya, it was a funky year!
• Stevie Wonder's cheesy-but-good streak continued with Innervisions. It probably deserves a full paragraph but I don't know what to say about it right now. I'll probably give his next one a full paragraph though.
• Waylon Jennings snuck in there with "Ain't No God in Mexico"
• David Bowie followed up the great Ziggy Stardust... with the still pretty great Aladdin Sane. I just have to make this post not too ridiculously long and keep room for the newcomers! I don't have the album Pin Ups.
• I had a bunch of stuff by Jane Birkin pop up and let me tell you one thing. Her daughter (Charlotte Gainsbourg) sounds a lot like her. Like, a lot a lot.
• Barry White's Stone Gon' is a sexy good time.
• I got my first Queen single, "Keep Yourself Alive." Yeah!
• There was a live Rolling Stones album called Brussels Affair. I've decided that for live albums I'm trying to associate them with the year of the performance, so this was a 1973 performance (that I think was recently released). I want to visit Brussels someday. In 1973 the Stones had quite a library of great material and they were near their peak, so it's a pretty great performance with lots of great songs. 
• More funk is Aaron Neville's "Hercules" produced by Allen Toussaint. Talk about a groove! It's more laid back than most of the stuff I talked about here but it's still quite great.

On The Next Installment...

Another Roxy Music album that is quite the big deal. More Stevie Wonder. Some more great Tom Waits. Keeping it coming with Big Star, Neil Young, Willie Nelson, and Johnny Cash. Not much else though. This may be the shortest one of all at 176 tracks. So...I'll be back with you soon with a short entry?

An Ear For An Era: 1972

It started out bold, got boring for awhile, then got better. Or something like that. 1972 was not a great year for soul in my opinion despite a few landmark albums released. The highlights were in the glam/power pop/whatever genre it's considered. I think they go together. And singer/songwriters had a great year as well. Stuff was music back then, you know? You don't?

Stevie Wonder's Talking Book is kind of maybe the first in his famous great-70s-albums series, but most of it seemed to be ballads and kind of bored me (although I did appreciate the many layers of orchestration). Still, "Superstition" was on the album so that was an obvious highlight. I think I like his later stuff a bit more though, it gets deeper and more complex soon.

Then a string of R&B popped up and it was all kind of continually weightless. Bill Withers, Allen Toussaint, Roberta Flack with Donny Hathaway, Jr. Walker, Smokey Robinson...all artists I do quite like, but this all seemed too slight, flighty. Too many ballads, not enough funk.

Then Can came back on. And oddly was the funkiest thing I'd heard yet. Yes, the album Ege Bamyasi is quite a bit more grounded and accessible than Tago Mago, mostly because of shorter song lengths, lots of funky rhythms, and the song "Vitamin C," which was kind of a hit I believe. But my mind was completely blown when "Vitamin C" ended and "Soup" came on. The longest song on the album, it was advanced post punk before punk was even a thing. Crazy rhythms, blasts of guitar, screaming vocals, shifting time signatures and tempos, a drawn out version of loud (and fast) - quiet (and slow) - loud (and fast and slow) dynamics.

Can "Soup"

I don't have a good transition out of Can because there's really nothing else like them in this era in my library. How about back to soul, but the more positive stuff I have to say?

Maybe I just don't have any of the possibly great possibly popular funk of the day. But the best I got was from compilations of obscure stuff, like The Funky 16 Corners (Ernie And The Top Notes Inc. had a great song called "Dap Walk.") and Eccentric Soul: The Prix Label (Chip Willis & Double Exposure!).

The main, kind-of-funky, cinematic and great soul album (ok obviously it's cinematic, but I'm just saying he did a great job with it) was Curtis Mayfield's Superfly, the soundtrack to the movie. It's tough not to compare it to Isaac Hayes' Shaft, but it really is a different beast. Lots of very apt commentary in the lyrics (and lots more songs with lyrics!), Mayfield's completely different style of arrangements, it does really feel more like an album to listen through in a sitting without needing any context of the movie to go along with it.

And that's it for soul. Awkward transition to singer songwriter types?

Lou Reed solo. The album is called Transformer. It has his gigantic hit "Walk On The Wild Side." It has more of those sentimental songs in the style that I liked so much in the later Velvet Underground material, such as "Perfect Day." That may be my favorite. Or maybe "Hangin' Round" is my favorite. The line from the chorus, "You're still doing things that I gave up years ago" seems pretty apt considering the history of the Velvet Underground and how influential they were. Not that that seems to be what this is about.

Now the last we'll hear from Rodriguez (unless he decides to put something new out one of these days), some bonus stuff recorded after his last album that can be found as bonus tracks on the reissue as well as the Searching For Sugarman soundtrack. I just wanted an excuse to post this song, as he was slipping away from the music biz.

Rodriguez "I'll Slip Away"

We're also hearing our last of Nick Drake (other than a posthumous album that will be waaaay later). Such a tragic loss. Such a beautiful album Pink Moon was, appropriately sparse in a time when more and more music was getting overproduced. All short simple folk songs, mostly just a guitar and vocals.

Harry Nilsson followed up on the great Nilsson Schmilsson with Son of Schmilsson. I have a long standing opinion of this album as kind of a big laugh, not too memorable or really much of a successor to his probably-greatest achievement, but this time I realized that amongst all the joke lyrics ("I sang my balls off for you baby..." "Let me be your Joy boy," "You're breakin' my heart, tearin' it apart so f*** you," "I'd rather be dead than wet my bed...") there is a lot of Nilsson's impeccable vocals and plenty of heartbreak and authenticity. "You're Breakin' My Heart" is kind of the spiritual grandfather of Shellac's "Prayer To God," which is an id-driven, raw expression of heartbreak that can make you laugh through your own pain (at least both of those songs worked for me when I went through heartbreak). Still a silly follow up to Schmilsson, but far from something to be dismissed.

Neil Young's Harvest is yet another brilliant album, a very worthy successor to After The Gold Rush. I don't feel the need to say much aside from the fact that it's the album with "Old Man," "The Needle & The Damage Done," and "Alabama." What else do you need, man?

A couple words about Kris Kristofferson. He started sounding just slightly more 70s country on Jesus Was A Capricorn, but at this point it was pretty subtle and he still had some brilliant songs. It's not quite on the level of his first two albums but still quite enjoyable.

Rock & Roll! The Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street may be my favorite Stones album. Mostly because the double album is usually something bands will use to indulge in more experimental material because hey, everything fits, but the Stones just kind of made their rockin' more loose and fun and wild. Then the slower songs are all winners. Particularly "Sweet Virginia." Yep.

Rolling Stones "Sweet Virginia"

Big Star popped up. I was definitely in the 70s based on the fact that the song "In The Street" came on. The one that was covered as the theme for That 70s Show! So there's that. But seriously, #1 Record is damned amazing. Of course the song "Thirteen" is one of the best throwback nostalgia tunes that will remind anyone of grade school crushes. Something very authentic in the songwriting considering this was basically pop music.

Big Star "Thirteen"

I like to think Big Star alongside the glam heroes of this time. T-Rex came on shortly afterwards with their album The Slider and I found a lot of parallels in the atmosphere developed. More authentic, lovely songs but with a bit more edge...

And it ended of course with the ultimate 1972 album, the ultimate in the world of glam rock, and possibly the ultimate David Bowie album:  The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. Front to back, just a great album of space travel, song structure experimentation, protopunk, and glam party music.

Where I Stand: 4537 of 37161

Other Highlights Worth Mentioning:

• It actually started with Alice Cooper. "School's Out." Yeah!
• A couple Johnny Cash cuts...I'm not sure when he totally fell off the radar, but "Jacob Green" was from this year so maybe he was still doing all right.
• Chuck Berry had some sort of comeback as he had the live hit "My Ding-A-Ling." I have the full 9 minute version and some sort of edited short version. Maybe not a song that needs to be 9 minutes.
• Michael Jackson's version of "Rockin' Robin." That goes out to my sister.
• We say goodbye to Ricky Nelson here with "Garden Party." A nice sentimental song about an earlier era of rock & roll.
• Aretha Franklin's Young, Gifted and Black kind of toed all the different lines of the different directions soul was heading, from the overproduced lightweight stuff, a bit of funk, and a bit of disco. 
• Elvis! "Burning Love."
• Some more post-Morrison Doors, the song "The Mosquito" is quite the curiosity.

On The Next Installment...

Soul is Al Green, Curtis Mayfield, Barry White, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder is definitely in his stride, and others. More Bowie (I think pretty much every year will have some sort of Bowie for the 70s). Iggy & The Stooges have a finale. The return of James Brown. Band on the Run. Quadrophenia. And these guys all make their AEFAE debut: New York Dolls! Pink Floyd! Queen! Roxy Music! Tom Waits! Willie Nelson!

In UMSmation

The day after two days and four nights of exhaustive music research, sun, food trucks, music, rock and roll, hip hop, beer, and music. I wanted to do a daily blog of the previous day's findings but that didn't happen. So now I have to remember all four days, or who-knows-how-many shows, and tell you what I can recall. Let's do this.

I will also note that I attempted to link to bandcamp whenever available. Support these artists!

Thursday

I thought about not even going on Thursday. I thought, three days will be plenty. I thought, it's annoying that you have to wear the same wrist band for four days when you have to go to work on Friday (and in the past it's been having to wear it all days because I used to work weekends and could only catch shows at a certain time in the evening). But I looked at the schedule and I always feel compelled to see any band my friends may be in (and Bonnie and the Beard were playing at 11:00) so I went for it. I at least behaved myself by not drinking. The first two acts I saw were recommendations from my friend Alisha. Thanks Alisha!

After getting my primary UMS tradition out of the way (food at Famous Pizza) I picked up my wrist band and headed over to Blue Ice for Kitty Crimes. Pretty amazing female hip hop artist who used Kendrick Lamar's "Backseat Freestyle" beat and also covered "Bombs Over Baghdad." She crowd surfed, made everyone dance, used some heavy rock beats in a way that brings attention to my main complaint about the new Kanye album (that it doesn't have enough to say for how urgently it tries to say it, it sounds angry but doesn't go where it needs to go lyrically), and just started everything off with a bang. Bang.

After that I headed over to the Hi-Dive for Varlet, which was something completely different. I was told that singer Lilly Scott was on American Idol, which at first made me not like them without even hearing them. But I was in there, had nothing to do for the hour, so I gave them a chance. I'm glad I kept an open mind about that because the band itself was very creative, very talented, and yes, with a great singer. In a way she sounded kind of like someone that would be a contestant on American Idol (singing in an Amy Winehouse style) but it was very entertaining and engaging.

Then the evening ended at Illegal Pete's with Bonnie and the Beard. It was kind of cool when Open Air head Mike Flanagan introduced them saying we were about to get our "asses rocked." And we did! I hadn't seen them in a while and they had a couple extra guest musicians and played a bunch of songs that were new to me. It reminded me of Gogol Bordello, the energy levels generated with the crowd and the band. It may have been their best set that I've seen yet.

Friday

I think I saw more female singers than male this year. By a wide margin. So far we're 2 1/2 to 1/2. We'll check back on the tally a little later on. Friday I started at 3 Kings for Esme Patterson. Not much to report here, but I did like that she did a response song to Elvis Costello's "Alison." I think a big part of her appeal is her lyrics though, and I couldn't hear them very well in the mix. Still a good set.

Then we trekked all the way up to the 404 to check out New Jazz Order, a jazz New Order cover band. But the only thing that was really jazzy about it was the horn section and somewhat free jazz vocals. The overall rhythm and atmosphere were very New Order. It was really cool.

Then to the main stage for Mudhoney! I never got into them back in the day but obviously they are great. 

Then dinner and Jeffrey Dallet at The Hornet (delicious! (the dinner part)). Jeffrey was good, folk music in the old timey style of Woody Guthrie, just good ol' story songs, a Bob Dylan cover, and fun lyrics. He used to play silly songs on a show I produced in the old ManiaTV days about graduation, Neil Young, and other random topics. He could write a song overnight to sing the next day. Now that he's actually doing this for real the songs have gotten a bit more serious but they have the same charm and style.

The evening ended at the Irish Rover with the great Land Lines. Always gorgeous, hypnotic, and rockin', this time we were in the back and it was a little difficult to hear (the full night's worth of beers didn't help either!) but they were still fantastic as usual.

And then it was Socorro burritos and a ride home. A successfully partied out night.

Saturday

Saturday I got there pretty early and did some aimless wandering. The first place I wandered into was Eslinger Gallery to see WhiteCatPink. A guy in a cat costume as seen to the right there. He played drums to a pre-programmed ipod. He also had some go-go kittens dancing to his sweet beats and there was a cover of Kraftwerk's "Pocket Calculator." It was compelling enough for me to stay for the whole set without seeking out anything else, but I don't know if there's much else to it, or anything else to say about it.

I wandered around some more after that, had some delicious barbecue from the Moe's food truck and walked and walked some more to fill space so the next picture is below this picture here. It was a good time of wandering and eating.

I decided I'd wander into 3 Kings because I was curious about a strange band name Panal S.A. de C.V. There was some fog seeping out of the front of the place and I knew I was in for something. It ended up being one of my favorite shows of the festival. Instrumental post rock, very dark and brooding. The visuals to the left there are pretty indicative of what it sounded like if that makes any sense. High contrast, foggy, there were also lasers but they wouldn't translate to my camera phone very well. I highly recommend them and I plan on seeing them some more in the future.

I might start making this faster. OK, Sauna at the Hi-Dive was wonderful, it reminded me of Scott Pilgrim but that was probably just the style of music, the age of the musicians, and the girl drummer. It was a lot of fun and a very good recommendation from Pam. Thanks Pam! Then we saw Ian Cooke at South Broadway Christian Church. Just like last year! 

Another repeat from last year was Wheelchair Sports Camp at Compound Basix. Last year it was the amazing finale to the thing. This year I think it was even better. Possibly because I got a spot where I could actually see, that may have been a factor. But they rocked it so hard with two trumpets that just blasted away while the beat just went on and on and on and f***in' on. The lyrics were so insightful, the flow was smooth and hard, everything just came together so perfectly. Check out that linked bandcamp, they have lots of great free music available.

And then we ate. And then we got in line at the Hi-Dive because I knew that it would be packed for this next band because it always is. Because they are a Denver favorite.

I hadn't seen Snake Rattle Rattle Snake in ages. They haven't done much that I've been aware of. Except writing songs apparently. I maybe recognized one or two songs this time. And I have their one album! The new stuff is great, I look forward to whenever they get around to putting out another record. I thought Sineater would propel them to national attention but maybe that didn't happen. So maybe this next one will do so? Hey, as long as they keep rocking Denver on the regular I guess I'll appreciate that we still have this gem in town. But seriously, if you're one of the few people that know of the local Denver scene but somehow don't know SRRS? Fix that.

And then it was just about midnight.

And I went to The Skylark to see Dressy Bessy. Everybody was exhausted. Everybody. But we all held out and watched the full set (and the band played said full set) and an encore. And it was great. Hard to show enthusiasm though. But the band themselves didn't let it slow them down. They rocked it hard like the veterans they are. Dressy Bessy will always have a special place in my heart because back in the early 2000s when I was listening to nothing but mopey emo/hardcore music and moping about an ex girlfriend I saw some band I liked open for Dressy Bessy and stuck around to see them. They just kind of turned that whole thing around. Just the pure optimism of their music made me realize I could let myself be happy. So I am eternally grateful to this band. On Saturday night the vocals were pretty low in the mix making them sound somewhat similar to Sauna earlier in the day, with the pure pop punk fuzz and high energy rhythm. It was a good night!

Sunday 

Sunday Mornin' comin' down. UMS knew what we would need when they booked Sunday morning. Lots of low key country music, folk, etc. to ease us into it. I saw a lot of incomplete sets Sunday morning. I was indecisive. Clouds & Mountains were the very first band I saw at 3 Kings and there were people sitting on the floor. Of 3 Kings. That's how tired we were. brim liski played some sort of spacey synthy rock at the Hi-dive. Not sure what to call it. Something with the word "chill" maybe but I hate calling things that. I stuck around for them for a while before I got antsy and went over to Gozo to check out Megan Burtt and The Cure for Love. Pleasant enough. Stopped by the main stage for a song by SHEL. Pleasant enough. More wandering. Eventually wound up at the Skylark to catch the end of New Ben Franklins, a very nice sounding country group. This was where I found Leah & Jeff and we shared recommendations. We went by the main stage to see Rachel & The Kings. Not really my thing (nor theirs).

Then we ate at Punch Bowl Social in anticipation of Dirty Femmes featuring Gordon Gano. We ended up right up front for this. Wowza! An incredibly talented Violent Femmes cover band accompanied by the violentest of the femmes, Gordon Gano himself, on fiddle! A violin femme if you will. I wanted to use this but it wouldn't be accurate: "Gordon Gano literally played second fiddle to his own songs" (He actually played lead fiddle; there was another second fiddler). But this show was a complete blast. All killer Femmes tracks (mostly from the first album) that had the whole crowd singing along, Gano proved himself to be a quite amazing fiddler, playing some insane solos (as well as some great back & forth with guitarist/band leader Jen Korte for some extended instrumental breaks) and even sang a verse or two here and there (including in "Good Feeling" so that was pretty magical). The rhythm section is a giant part of why it is a successful Violent Femmes cover band as well. And all the funniness of Gordon Gano talking about how great the band was, them calling the songs masterpieces, Gano blowing that off and then accepting the compliment...it was nice.

Then we went over to the Hi-Dive to see Wire Faces at the recommendation of Leah & Jeff (thanks Leah & Jeff!). Any time you see the drum set front & center you know it's going to be a rhythmic assault. And wow, how he assaulted those drums. Almost math-rock-esque but I guess not really but certainly influenced by bands from that genre (think Rodan, Don Caballero, other Touch & Go staples from the late 90s) and also obviously influenced by Television (they ended their set with a Television cover), it was really something special and I highly recommend you see them if you haven't. So many highlights!

Then we went to the main stage and Lord Huron was pretty good. 

Then I ditched out on Born in the Flood's main stage headlining performance (dooming me to miss seeing the governor's introduction!) to go see good ol' Sour Boy Bitter Girl at the Irish Rover. As usual they were awesome and played a bunch of songs off the new album that just came out this year that you should totally get off that bandcamp link above. Heartbreak, analogies, words.

I was about ready to call it a festival but not quite. So I wandered into the book store but didn't care for what I heard so I wandered some more, ending up in Blue Ice where I started it with a party. So I also ended it with a party: The Skeleton Show. There weren't a ton of us, but everyone there was dancing pretty hard to the garage core punkish sounds. I'd definitely see them again, but I also hope they get more interactive. It seemed like the type of show that should've erupted into a crazy end-of-UMS fiasco with the singer in the crowd (kind of like the old Black Black Ocean shows) but it didn't particularly. It was still a party though. Always end with a party.

And then I had to find a bed that could take this weight.

*final count: 13 1/2 to 12 1/2 for the ladies (counting instrumental dude bands as "dude singers"). I thought the margin was wider.

An Ear For An Era: 1971

"Classic rock." The changing face of soul. Jazz still being jazz. Folk getting personal. That's what 1971 means to me.

And my dad's music. Wherever that fits. But two of the main albums I remember listening to with my dad all the time growing up seem to be from 1971. The first is Kris Kristofferson's The Silver Tongued Devil and I. We listened to that one a lot in the car, but I don't think my mom is a fan. I just remember the chorus from the title track as well as "Christian Soldier" and "The Taker" playing very loudly in the car. I less remember those sadder ballad songs from riding in the car (they probably played but were less memorable at the time) but those have since hit home really strongly. I was listening to this album not too long after my friend passed away and two of the songs just said everything I was feeling so perfectly. There's "Billy Dee" with lines like "The world he saw was sadder than the one he hoped to find but it wasn't half as lonesome as the one he left behind" which so exemplified how full of life this man was, how he enriched the lives of everyone that was lucky enough to know him and how it feels to have that ripped away. And the other one "Epitaph (Black and Blue)" which hurts even more because it speaks of the harsh reality that we didn't return the favor and take care of him the way he took care of us. "But when she was dying, Lord, we let her down...there's no use in crying, you can't help her now." And the way he sings it, it's different from every other Kristofferson song. It's more of a "country" style drawl. Just heartbreaking. So listening to this album personally takes me to two wildly different places...the happy and the sad.

The other 1971 record that my dad listens to all the time is Harry Nilsson's Nilsson Schmilsson. The best memory of this album is something that he used to do that would make us so mad...when we were sleeping and he wanted us to get up in the morning he'd put on the opening track "Gotta Get Up" REALLY LOUD. There was no escaping the clunking piano sound it starts with, you just had to get up. Since then, I think my brother has done the same thing in the morning to me, and someday I may torture my own offspring with the same song. And they will love it someday even further down the line. The whole album is such a wonderful thing, showcasing all these different styles but thematically somehow staying consistent. I think it's his voice too. Such an amazing, versatile singing voice. Of course there's "Without You" which will make anyone a believer, and there's the super goofy "Coconut" which is completely different (and actually follows "Without You," in the sequence) but I kind of prefer the bluesy songs like "Early In The Morning" and the rock numbers ("Jump Into The Fire" could go even longer than the 7 minute running time and I'd keep on dancing). Altogether, it is one of my favorite albums of all time and I have my dad to thank for introducing me.

There were actually three 1971 albums from Nilsson. Another one was Aerial Pandemonium Ballet, a strange "remix" album that combines material from Aerial Ballet and Pandemonium Shadow Show. I think I prefer the originals though, because this collection shortens a bunch of the songs and is over too quickly. It's like when I saw Kris Kristofferson live and he must've played about 30-40 songs but for the most part he'd do about one verse and call it good. I want to hear the next verse! And finally, Nilsson also put out The Point! in 1971, kind of a children's story about how everybody and everything has a point and if it doesn't, well, that's the point. Or something like that. It's a cute story but of course I'm in it for the music. Just to show a special part of Nilsson's skill with singing here's a song of vocal acrobatics (just the way he bends harmony is something else!), that I think has to have been a huge influence on of Montreal:

Harry Nilsson "Poli High"

Here's a quick roundup of grandpa bands so I don't spend too much time writing about them since I already have: The Who's Who's Next is a very enjoyable selection of songs that was actually not telling a story for once. It's kind of quintessential 70s classic rock but I still enjoy it, although it seems that half of the songs are used by cop shows. Maybe just a couple but the whole sound seems like it could soundtrack opening credits to cop shows. The Rolling Stones had Sticky Fingers, which has a few different styles but I really go for the ballads in this case. "Dead Flowers" is one of my all time top Stones songs. And once when I saw The Flaming Lips at Red Rocks they ended their set with a cover of "Moonlight Mile" and it was so perfect for that night that I am always reminded of the view whenever I hear that song. We had some Beatles solo material which I'll throw here as well...John Lennon's Imagine and Paul McCartney's Ram. Neither stuck with me particularly. Of course, the song "Imagine" is a classic and always makes people think of dead Vietnam soldiers.  The Beach Boys put out an album called Surf's Up, which is way less gleeful than the title would suggest (of course it ends with that Smile song). It's a very pretty album and kind of a downer as far as Beach Boys go. In the best way I could mean that.

And then there were the younger rock heroes, Led Zeppelin. Led Zeppelin IV is such a huge album, full of so many huge songs...I don't know what to say about it but it has to be acknowledged. "Stairway to Heaven." "Black Dog." "Rock and Roll." "When The Levee Breaks." It's just full of classic Zeppelin tunes. There's a lot of energy here. If there's something to be said for 70s rock, it's Led Zeppelin.

Carole King's Tapestry is another one of those albums that is so stuffed full of hits that it's a bit overwhelming. What to say about it? Should I just list songs and you'll say "ohhh ok. wow." and call it good? "I Feel The Earth Move." You know that one? How about "It's Too Late" and "You've Got a Friend?" and "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman." Like Kristofferson, she was a tour de force songwriter and when she finally put out her debut album, it played like a greatest hits collection because other people had already sung them. So putting them together on one album just shows off all the great stuff she's written.

Now the super hip cool singer-songwriter folks round-up. Serge Gainsbourg put out his essential L'Historie de Melody Nelson. Melody! No idea what the words are about on this album but it's so beautifully put together, such lovely melodies complement the cool mood established by his French whispers. Listening to Serge Gainsbourg just makes you feel sexy, doesn't it? And then there's David Bowie's next album Hunky Dory. I quite liked this one. It was his return to mellower stuff after 1970's The Man Who Sold The World, but this contrast was ruined by a filing error: Apparently I had The Man Who Sold The World listed as 1972 so I didn't hear it at the right time. Whoops. But yes, Hunky Dory is quite the album. As a follow-up to his self titled album (since that's the order I got them in) it just shows incredible growth in arrangements and an increased confidence in trying out new ideas and not being afraid to get weird. It makes sense, as we're only one year away from Ziggy Stardust at this point. Leonard Cohen's Songs of Love and Hate might be my favorite of his, mostly for the "hate" aspect. The first couple albums are great. Very great. but there wasn't a whole lot to differentiate the two. This one shows him getting some sneer, growing old and bitter. This is exemplified I think by this song:

Leonard Cohen "Diamonds in the Mine"

Soul was trying to be socially conscious and had varying levels of success. For example, I don't particularly enjoy Jr Walker's 1971 output because it's a bit overly cheesy...however, Curtis Mayfield's album Roots is very strong. I think it's the way he uses orchestrations. It just sounds urgent with all the flourishes and dark moments, and yet as a whole it's quite uplifting. Marvin Gaye's What's Going On sounds just the opposite to me. Also highly orchestrated but its mood is more sad (but less dark, less pressing) and at the same time sounding like it should be uplifting. But instead it's all about asking if anybody cares, if anybody's going to do anything about all this suffering. Gorgeous album. And it has "Save The Children" which now makes me think of Frank Ocean's "Sierra Leone" (which is an obvious homage to this song). Full circle!

It wasn't all political though. I quite enjoy Jean Knight's album Mr. Big Stuff for its funky sass (or sassy funk?) although when you listen to the full album through some songs certainly sound a lot like some other songs. One song at a time though? Perfect for a soul dance party!

Al Green Gets Next to You is one of my favorite Green albums, I think mostly because it's still kind of grounded in a bed of funk. His later work would be a little less rhythmic and the way his voice floats it seems more like it could just float away and get lost. So I prefer that one.

Isaac Hayes was pretty unstoppable in these days. The 10 minute "Never Gonna Give You Up" is yet another great sweeping epic that only he could do, and of course the soundtrack to Shaft was so perfectly composed, so "gritty" if I want to use that damn word, just a masterpiece. And it's got another epic (19 minute!) song, one of the few with vocals, "Do Your Thing."

Jazz jazz jazz jazz jazz I type about jazz. I have a few songs by Anthony Braxton and it's just out there as far as it can be. The freest jazz I've heard yet. At least the fast songs are. Then there's some slow moody stuff to make sure you know he has a soul. I checked Braxton out because I saw that Tyondai Braxton (from Battles) had an avant garde jazz musician father, so I looked into it. It makes perfect sense that this is what Tyondai's father does. And the other jazz jazz jazz album of this year that I have? Joe Farrell's Outback. In contrast, this one is (oddly enough, this was refreshing) "normal" jazz. Not envelope-pushing particularly, just the jazz drumming with soloing over it. There's a flute which is pretty nice, and the mood definitely fits the title (it's like taking a journey through a desert).

And last but certainly wildest...Can. The album Tago Mago is where I hop on the Can train. I always considered them one of those super influential late 70s bands that kind of pushed post-punk forward but it turns out they were quite different from that. And way earlier.  What I like is how the long grooves that get settled into while mind blowing stuff sneaks in there and screams at you but when it backs off again you get even more into said grooves because you can trust them, they will take you on this journey and they will be consistent, but you will hear some crazy things. At least that's the middle section for me. When we get to the latter part of the record it's more like being abandoned in a dark cave. The groove has disappeared and every step you take you don't know if you are about to fall into an abyss. Or you fall into something else. Maybe a pool of water. You'll take a swim and you'll be free. And at the very end you find the groove again and it takes you home.

Where I Stand: 4294 of 36980 (11.6%)

Other Highlights Worth Mentioning:

• Chase "Get It On." This was a song we played in jazz band in junior high. Groovy horn lines!
• T. Rex "Bang A Gong." So apparently this was happening in 1971. There'll be more T. Rex coming right up.
• Joni Mitchell Blue. "River" is one of those songs. This is what I meant when I was saying folk was getting personal. 
• Elton John Madman Across the Water. I can't believe the very first Elton John song in the whole project was "Tiny Dancer." Where do we go from there? That's the best song! Still liked hearing "Levon" and "All The Nasties." It should be good.
• Some more Rodriguez came on because his second album Coming From Reality was from this time. Still great, obviously, but maybe even greater was the experience listening to these songs on my way to work. The guy in the SUV in front of me must have been listening to metal or something super hardcore and was banging his head, and I was hearing Rodriguez and it seemed to just about fit the same beat.
• I only have one Jethro Tull song and it's probably their most famous ("Aqualung") and I guess it's kind of weird that their biggest hit doesn't really feature the flute.
• Johnny Cash's song "Man in Black" is such a great, noble thing and it's awesome that he stuck with it to the end. Even as the 70s went and he went out of style he stuck to his guns.
• Janis Joplin will be missed. The posthumous album Pearl is quite great!
• The Stylistics' "You're A Big Girl Now" is another favorite.

On The Next Installment...

1972 seems important. Not sure why. It will include more funk than 1971 it seems. Including a song called "Can We Rap." Could this be the start of hip hop??? And then there's the other big deal Can album (see if I can do another awesome description of the music!), Exile on Main St, another favorite Neil Young album (Harvest), another Kris Kristofferson album (Jesus Was A Capricorn), Pink Moon!, Ziggy Stardust, T Rex's The Slider, Alice Cooper's "School's Out," Son Of Schmilsson, Superfly, Stevie Wonder gets started with his crazy amazing 70s output, Lou Reed goes solo, some more Aretha, Big Star, and Chuck Berry has a comeback!

Things are going to start speeding up. 1971 had 360 songs (and going back to 1965 it seems all these have been in the 300s) and most of the years from 1972-1988 have fewer than that. So it might start going a bit faster before it slows down to a crawl in the 90s and (something slower than a crawl) in the mid 20-aughts. 

I'm going to take a break though so it could still be awhile until the next installment. I have a lot of new stuff I need to hear! Did you know Man or Astro-Man put out a new one this year?? And someone called Kanye West?

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: 1969

The old adage is that the greatest music comes from the times of the greatest social turbulence. That seemed to all come to a head here in 1969. It just seemed so urgent, so relevant. Passion in more ways than one. It was annee erotique, it was the year of the moon, and everything just meant something.

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.

On The Next Installment...
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.