51. Otis Redding - Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul (1965)





















Track Listing

1. Ol' Man Trouble
2. Respect
3. Change Is Gonna Come
4. Down In The Alley
5. I've Been Loving You Too Long
6. Shake
7. My Girl
8. Wonderful World
9. Rock Me Baby
10. Satisfaction
11. You Don't Miss Your Water

Review

This is one of those albums, which I really like but can't really put my finger on why. This, of course, makes for a crappy review. I really like it, I don't love it however, but it has its moments, and although all tracks are good here some outshine the rest of the album. This is the case of Respect and Satisfaction, as well as the eternally schmaltzy My Girl.

Yes, the Satisfaction is the Rolling Stones song, which Otis covers here surpassing the Stones by quite a lot. The album is a mix of covers and originals and he is equally good on both. In fact he is quite amazing throughout and it is a pity that he died so young, a lot could have developed from here.

Otis Redding had a very expressive voice, in fact that is probably the best thing of the album. There is nothing particularly innovative about it in terms of sound, but Otis just has a great voice which adapts itself equally well to the more rocky or ballady styles. Still, for some reason it doesn't blow me out of the water, although I listen to it with a lot of enjoyment... maybe if he had lived longer, it would have been a different case. It is however a case of "listen to it and make up your own mind".

You can stream this album from Napster or just buy it from Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Satisfaction
2. My Girl (No, Macaulay Culkin don't die!)
3. Respect
4. Wonderful World

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wiki:

Redding and six others were killed when the plane on which they were traveling crashed into Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin on December 10, 1967. Ben Cauley, one of the members of Redding's backup band, The Bar-Kays, was the only person aboard the plane to survive. He had been asleep until just seconds before impact, and recalled that upon waking he saw bandmate Phalon Jones look out a window and say, "Oh, no!" Cauley then unbuckled his seat belt, and that was his final recollection before finding himself in the frigid waters of the lake, grasping a seat cushion to keep himself afloat. Otis Redding's body was recovered when the lakebed was dragged with a grappling hook and photos exist of his body being brought out of the water. The cause of the crash was never precisely determined. Redding was only 26 years old when he died. A persistent Madison local urban legend continues to hold that the body was never recovered; generally asserting that an attache case with a large sum of money likewise disappeared.

Redding was laid to rest in a tomb on his private ranch in Round Oak, Georgia, 23 miles north of Macon.

Hey people! You can see a picture of his body being dragged out of the lake here! And don't say I'm not your friend!

50. Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home (1965)





















Track Listing

1. Subterranean Homesick Blues
2. She Belongs To Me
3. Maggie's Farm
4. Love Minus Zero/No Limit
5. Outlaw Blues
6. On The Road Again
7. Bob Dylan's 115th Dream
8. Mr. Tambourine Man
9. Gates Of Eden
10. It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
11. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

Review

I wasn't a big Dylan fan a couple of years ago. I found his voice annoying, his lyrics pretentious so on and so forth. Yet, the more I've listened to him the more I have to recognise his absolute brilliance, as a lyricist and composer as well as just a performer. There is very little of Dylan I don't like now. If anyone out there still doesn't get why Dylan is so loved just listen to him. The more you do the more you'll get it.

So, you must have guessed that I also loved this album. You guessed right. If I had to rate the songs here individually there would be none under 8/10 and plenty over it. If you apply this to a whole album it is pretty damn impressive. No skipabble tracks at all, they are all beautiful in their own right.

This is one of those albums which makes much more sense in vinyl (note to self: replace vinyl player, as it sounds like some one is frying chips in the background, thats what you get from buying a "vintage" 1973 player on eBay...humph.). And why does it make more sense in vinyl you ask? Because the first half is completely different from the second. So, Side A and B make sense, something completely lost in the CD format. Side A is much rockier than B which is folkier. Which side is better? They're equally fantastic! I need to give him top marks because there is a quality to Dylan that edges him just ahead of his contemporaries, it's like he is on a different plane, and maybe for that reason his songs don't sound nearly as dated as most other albums I've reviewed here.

Do yourself a favour and get this. From Subterranean Homesick Blues to It's All Over Now Baby Blue, passing through Maggie's Farm and Mr. Tambourine Man there are no tracks far from perfect here. Stream it from Napster or buy it from Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
2. Maggie's Farm
3. Subterranean Homesick Blues
4. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

(it was really hard to decide favourites here... Sophie's Choice hard)

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

His voice is still annoying.

From Wiki:

One of Dylan's most celebrated and ambitious compositions, "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" is arguably one of Dylan's finest songs. At fifteen verses long, it is also one of his most verbose. Clinton Heylin wrote that it "opened up a whole new genre of finger-pointing song, not just for Dylan but for the entire panoply of pop," and one critic said it is to capitalism what Darkness at Noon is to communism. A fair number of Dylan's most famous lyrics can be found in this song: "He not busy being born is busy dying"; "It's easy to see without looking too far / That not much is really sacred"; "Even the president of the United States / Sometimes must have to stand naked"; "Money doesn't talk, it swears"; "If my thought-dreams could be seen / They'd probably put my head in a guillotine."

"Snagged by a sour, pinched guitar riff, the song has an acerbic tinge...and Dylan sings the title rejoinders in mock self-pity," writes NPR's Tim Riley. "It's less an indictment of the system than a coil of imagery that spells out how the system hangs itself with the rope it's so proud of."

49. The Sonics - Here Are the Sonics (1965)
















Track Listing

1. Witch
2. Do You Love Me
3. Roll Over Beethoven
4. Boss Hoss
5. Dirty Robber
6. Have Love, Will Travel
7. Psycho
8. Money
9. Walkin' the Dog
10. Night Time Is the Right Time
11. Strychnine
12. Good Golly Miss Molly
13. Keep a Knockin'
14. Don't Believe in Christmas
15. Santa Claus
16. Village Idiot

Review

More than a decade before Punk there were The Sonics. They can't play, can't sing but they sure can scream at the mike. And they are great. They sound like what they are, Sex Pistols/Little Richard love child. With the sounds and songs of the Sixties rock but the sensibility of a punk band. Even their lyrics reflect this. The best song in the album Strychnine has very punky lyrics, and the Village Idiot sung in a moronic style is years ahead of its time.

Where The Sonics are at their best is in their original songs. This is not to say that they don't inject their covers with a good dose of raw energy, Good Golly Miss Molly and yet another version of Money are good examples of that. Although the Flying Lizards still have the best version of Money, this one comes a close second, beating even the Beatles.

This is really an album that has to be listened too to be believed. Lovely screeching going on, the birth of punk and psychobilly and all 'round pretty influential stuff as well as a big breath of fresh air for the mid Sixties. I can hardly fathom what people listening to this in 1965 thought! Maybe that is why they never became chart-toppers.

Still, be sure to listen to this, not the most technically accomplished people but damn fun to listen to. Buy it at Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Strychnine
2. The Witch
3. Boss Hoss
4. Psycho

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

Fucking insane bat-shit crazy stuff. Me Loves It!

A few quotes from Wiki

"We were a wild, dirty, kickass band." - Bob Bennett

"We were nasty. Everything you've heard people say about us is true." - Larry Parypa

"If our records sound distorted, it's because they are. My brother (Larry, guitar) was always fooling around with the amps. They were always overdriven. Or he was disconnecting the speakers and poking a hole in them with an ice pick. That's how we ended up sounding like a train wreck." - Andy Parypa

From Wiki:

The Sonics had an often overlooked but notable influence on subsequent rock music, not just in the Washington area. They are often-cited contenders for the title of 'the first punk band', due to their wild and unconventional style. Gerry Roslie was the first white man to record a frightening rock 'n' roll scream in earnest, thus influencing Iggy Pop and the rest of protopunk, such as The New York Dolls. The band also have a clearly marked influence on golden age American punk bands such as The Dead Boys in their brash, immature, masculine style and posturing, and on the nineties grunge bands (who originated in the same area), especially Mudhoney, who adopted some of the darker themes from Sonics music, and a lot of their groundbreaking techniques on over-driving and distorting electric guitars. Their reach stretched beyond the US; influencial Manchester post-punk group The Fall covered Strychnine during a session for the late John Peel's programme in 1993 and they repeatedly performed the song live around this time. As well as all these, there have been whole generations of garage rock revival bands (such as The Things) who make no bones of plagiarizing The Sonics and their ilk.

The lyrics of The Sonics' original material dealt with early '60s teenage culture; cars, guitars, surfing, and girls (in songs like "The Hustler" and "Maintaining My Cool") alongside darker subject matter such as drinking strychnine for kicks, witches, psychopaths, and Satan (in the songs "Strychnine", "The Witch", "Psycho", and "He's Waiting", respectively).

48. Jerry Lee Lewis - Live at the Star Club, Hamburg (1965)



















Track Listing

1. Mean Woman Blues
2. High School Confidential
3. Money
4. Matchbox
5. What'd I Say
6. Great Balls Of Fire
7. Good Golly Miss Molly
8. Lewis Boogie
9. Your Cheatin' Heart
10. Hound Dog
11. Long Tall Sally
12. Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On
13. Down The Line

Review

Jerry Lee, this man was on constant speed. In fact, if there is one big complaint to make about this album is that it is too relentless. It is so relentless that you can't even appreciate how fast it is after the first couple of tracks, because you get used to the sound. The only exception is Your Cheatin' Heart, the only ballad in the album. A refreshing breather in the non-stop speed-fest.

This also means that it is one of the most infectious live rock albums ever. Lewis plays the piano like no other, in an instantly recognisable style which is that of a speed addict. If that's what marrying your 13 year old cousin does to you... it's still wrong.

It is a wonderfull album to listen too though, and put some drinks down you and you'll be completely enraptured by it. Kind of like the religious feeling of gospel in full swing. Great, great stuff. Whatever one might say about Jerry Lee Lewis' personal life there is no denying that he was fucking talented. Although a song like High School Confidential might not make him any friends considering his personal life.

Still, as shock goes in rock, you can't get much better than this. You can buy this album from Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Great Balls of Fire
2. Money
3. What'd I Say
4. Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

He liked them young.

No relation to Jerry Lewis.

From Wiki:

Although he was always a heavy drinker, he increasingly became plagued by alcohol and drug problems after Myra divorced him in 1970. Tragedy struck when Lewis' 19-year-old son, Jerry Lee Lewis Jr., was killed in a road accident in 1973. During the 1960s, his second son, Steve Allen Lewis, had drowned in a swimming pool accident. He also has a daughter, Phoebe Lewis, who is a singer and musician. Lewis' own erratic behaviour during the 1970s led to his being hospitalized after nearly dying from a bleeding ulcer. Again addicted to drugs, Lewis checked himself into the Betty Ford Clinic.

While celebrating his 41st birthday in 1976, Lewis playfully pointed a gun at his bass player, Butch Owens, and thinking it was not loaded, pulled the trigger, shooting him in the chest. Owens miraculously survived. A few weeks later (November 23) he was involved in another gun-related arrest at Elvis Presley's Graceland residence. Lewis had been invited by Presley, but security was unaware of the visit. When questioned about why he was at the front gate, Lewis displayed a gun and jokingly told the guard he had come to kill Presley.

47. Buck Owens and his Buckaroos - I've Got A Tiger By The Tail (1965)

















Track Listing

1. I've Got a Tiger by the Tail
2. Trouble and Me
3. Let the Sad Times Roll On
4. Wham Bam
5. If You Fall Out of Love With Me
6. Fallin' for You
7. We're Gonna Let the Good Times Roll
8. Band Keeps Playin' On
9. Streets of Laredo
10. Cryin' Time
11. Maiden's Prayer
12. Memphis

Review

This is not my kind of music. I like some country and such, but this suffers the same faults as Ray Price's Nightlife. But it is a better affair, at least this one grows on you like a bad fungus. First time I heard it, I hated it, second I could see something there and third I started to actually be quite fond of it. So, a bit like Bjork albums. But also very much unlike Bjork.

It has got some funny songs like Wham Bam, some quite nice ones like Memphis and Streets of Laredo, but it is still not my thing. It is very hillbilly but there are some elements of something else here, which is probably rock. The guitars take more of a center stage there is a faster speed to some of the songs and it feels like it is integrating some rock elements in what is traditionally redneck music. Still, in no way could this be called rock or even country-rock or anything of the kind. It is fully hick, which can sometimes be quite fun.

I really don't feel like the most qualified person to make a review of this album, seeing as I don't care for this type of music on most days (except thursday nights when I go line dancing with the girls). Still, if your life depended on listening to Buck Owens or Ray Price I'd go for Buck Owens (and let's not forget his Buckaroos) anytime.

You can buy it at Amazon UK or US

Track Highlights

1. Wham Bam
2. We're Gonna Let the Good Times Roll
3. Memphis
4. Streets of Laredo

Final Grade

5/10

Trivia

Wiki:

Alvis Edgar "Buck" Owens, Jr., (August 12, 1929 – March 25, 2006) was an American singer and guitarist, with twenty number-one hits on the Billboard magazine country music charts. Both as a solo artist and with his band, the Buckaroos (so named by Merle Haggard, a former bandmate), Buck Owens pioneered what has come to be called the Bakersfield sound—a reference to Bakersfield, California, the city Owens called home and from which he drew inspiration for what he preferred to call "American Music

OH, WHO THE FUCK CARES!

Snails are hermaphrodites.

46. Rolling Stones - Rolling Stones (England's Newest Hitmakers)




















Track Listing

1. Not Fade Away
2. Route 66
3. I Just Want To Make Love To You
4. Honest I Do
5. Now I’ve Got A Witness
6. Little By Little
7. I’m A King Bee
8. Carol
9. Tell Me
10. Can I Get A Witness
11. You Can Make It If You Try
12. Walking The Dog

Review

Well, it is a good album and there are definitely stuff to recommend it, but it leaves me a bit underwhelmed. Basically it's Blues, and that is a good thing. Another good thing about the album is the fact that the band, and particularly Jagger's voice, infuse the Blues with a rawness and angriness not much present in earlier Blues' albums.

So that's the good bits. On the other hand there is nothing particularly exciting about it. It's basically Jagger screaming the Blues, and not much original material here as well. There is some kind of innefable underwhelminess to the thing. There will be plenty of other Stone's albums to review and I hope that their more original stuff will make it better.

Interestingly the original UK cover has nothing written on it, it was of course dumbed down for the US market where they made the cover seen above. In the UK it was just the picture of the guys and the decca tag on the lower right corner. The track listing was also different from this one.

So it is worth listening too, but I won't bother sticking it into my Ipod. You can stream it from Napster or buy it at Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Not Fade Away
2. (Get Your Kicks On) Route 66
3. Walking the Dog
4. Little By Little

Final Grade

6/10

Trivia

It really annoying when a Stone Rolls and burns your trousers.

Mick Jagger could probably do double oral.

I'd love to give you some wiki trivia but wikipedia is down and I can't be arsed.

45. Dusty Springfield - A Girl Called Dusty (1964)





















Track Listing

1. Mama Said
2. You Don't Own Me
3. Do Re Mi
4. When The Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes
5. My Colouring Book
6. Mockingbird
7. Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa
8. Nothing
9. Anyone Who Had A Heart
10. Will You Love Me Tomorrow
11. Wishin' And Hopin'
12. Don't You Know

Review

Ok, I admit it. I like Dusty Springfield, she was a nice person, refused to play in front of a segregated audience in South Africa, has a great voice and she was an attractive lesbian...at least until she was older, where there was something of the Dutch water barrier to her. If there is something I like it's attractive lesbians, needle in haystack, but there you go. (Except in the L-word, websites I peruse and in my brain where no one has a flannel shirt and it's lala-fantasy lesbian land.)

So there, I like Dusty and she's got some pretty nice songs too. Who, tell me! Who could nay-say Twenty-Four Hours From Tulsa? No one, that's who! And that is not the only good track here, Anyone Who Had a Heart is a personal favourite, the guitars in it and the piano make it an almost Pulp Fictiony track. Yes, of course there is a 10 Feet-Wide Gouda Wheel of Cheese tm here, but don't let that put you off, it is a great album.

Dusty Springfield wouldn't be the artist most easily identifiable with being British, and in truth this album sounds no different in style to many other soul singers from the States, and that was exactly what she was trying to do, so there is nothing wrong with it. A Girl Called Dusty is a very good soul album, and a lot of fun.

Do listen to it, either by streaming from Napster or buying from Amazon UK or US

Track Highlights

1. Anyone Who Had A Heart
2. Twenty-Four Hours From Tulsa
3. Will You Love Me Tomorrow
4. Wishin' and Hopin'

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

I Like Lesbians

from Wiki

At various times during her life and career, Springfield either identified herself or was identified by others as being bisexual or a lesbian. Springfield first broached this idea into the media mainstream in 1970 when she told a reporter for The Evening Standard that "A lot of people say I'm bent, and I've heard it so many times that I've almost learned to accept it....I know I'm perfectly as capable of being swayed by a girl as by a boy." By 1970 standards, Springfield had made a very bold statement.

There is some debate among friends and fans regarding this issue; Springfield was intensely private about her personal life, and after the 1970 interview, she did not directly address the question or make a definitive statement regarding her sexuality in the press. Springfield occasionally made subtle references; during a 1978 concert at Drury Lane in London, attended by Princess Margaret, Springfield noted a number of gay men in the front rows and made a comment that she was "glad to see that the royalty wasn't confined to the box". At another concert, Springfield told her audience, “Give a butch roar or a girlish shriek, I don’t mind who does what, sort it out for yourselves!”

Several biographies about Springfield also have conflicting information. Lucy O'Brien's biography, Dusty (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1989) mentions the rumors in passing, whereas Penny Valentine's 2000 book Dancing with Demons, which included significant contributions by Springfield's friend and manager Vicki Wickham, identifies Springfield as a lesbian. Singer-songwriter Carole Pope of the Canadian band Rough Trade disclosed in her 2001 book Anti-Diva that she and Springfield had a relationship and lived together in Toronto when Springfield worked with her. (Pope wrote the song "Soft Core" which appeared on "White Heart". Wickham was Springfield's close friend and manager for over a decade of the enigmatic British singer's career, she stated that Springfield was terrified of divulging the fact she was lesbian.

44. Solomon Burke - Rock 'n' Soul (1964)




















Track Listing

1. Goodbye Baby (Baby Goodbye)
2. Cry to Me
3. Won't You Give Him (One More Chance)
4. If You Need Me
5. Hard, Ain't It Hard
6. Can't Nobody Love You
7. Just Out of Reach
8. You're Good for Me
9. You Can't Love 'Em All
10. Someone to Love Me
11. Beautiful Brown Eyes
12. He'll Have to Go

Review

The original cover of this album is in the lower left of the picture.

The King of Rock 'n' Soul, Mr. Solomon Burke. Yeah, he's good, actually in some bits he is amazing. He brings the soul that we've heard before here with Sam Cooke and such and adds to it a definitely rock vibe. There's some amazing use of guitars for example, while keeping the soul going.

Some of the tracks here you'll definitely know, like Cry to Me or Just out of Reach others will be pleseant surprises. But in all cases pleseant, there is not track out of place or on the "crappy" side here. Frankly, however, I would prefer to be reviewing a live album. I don't know Burke live, but if a live session brought about such a transformation to Sam Cooke, I wonder what it could do to Burke. This studio album is much better than anything that Cooke ever recorded on a studio, it lacks however when compared to the sheer energy of Live at the Harlem Square Club.

This isn't of course to say that this is a tame album, anything but, actually, but there is something missing here. Whatever is missing is not enough to make this an album that you can not listen to. Some tracks here shine, like Cry to Me, but others seem not to follow in terms of quality, although they do fit the album. This is not an Elvis-style haphazard affair.

Most definitely give it a listen, you can't stream it or anything, so you'll have to buy it from Amazon UK or US .

Track Highlights

1. Cry To Me
2. Just Out Of Reach
3. If You Need Me
4. Beautiful Brown Eyes

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

As of October 2002 Burke was the father of 14 daughters and 7 sons with 64 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren. Several of his children and grandchildren have had successful careers in various facets of the music industry, though none as much so as their patriarch.

Boy... his filofax must be busy...

http://www.thekingsolomonburke.com/

43. Jacques Brel - A L'Olympia 1964 (1964 duh!)





















Track Listing

1. Amsterdam
2. Timides
3. Dernier Repas
4. Jardins de Casino
5. Vieux
6. Toros
7. Tango Funèbre
8. Plat Pays
9. Bonbons
10. Mathilde
11. Bigotes
12. Bourgeois
13. Jef
14. Suivant
15. Madeleine

Review

And now I'm back, from outer Europe and here I go again on my own. (yes, Gloria Gaynor/Whitesnake tribute, not something you see everyday). A nice little holiday thank you and one in which I was given a chance by my friend Sara to listen to a cover of Les Toros by Marc Almond, who she's told me she wants to marry. Good luck on that project. I don't remember much of it as I was wondering what makeup I should get on my face before going to a goth night. I got some burgundy eyeliner which was a bit sticky because my girlfriend kept licking the eye-liner pencil thing... not very comfortable, but fab. And girlfriend was not an euphemism I am, against all odds, straight.

And now to Brel! This is a very very good album. Brel is not only a great writer and composer but also an amazing performer. I can only imagine that he is not that well known outside mainland Europe because of the language barrier. Still, he has been very influential on english-speaking performers, most noticeably on Leonard Cohen, but David Bowie also has a very good cover of Amsterdam on a B-side and also the BBC Sessions... the things I know...

The most impressive thing about Brel, and again this is more present in his live albums, is his energy and his performative capacities. He sounds angry, outraged, determined, retarded (listen to Bonbons) or just plaintive, all in the space of a few songs. It is very impressive to listen to, if you don't understand French just look for the translations of his songs online, very worth it.

Coming from a country like Portugal, where there is a big tradition of protest singing, mainly from singer/songwriters who were exiled in Paris during the fascist regime which ended in 1974, Brel sounds very familiar. I'm sure people like Sergio Godinho were taking notes during this concert. I don't think the English speaking world really has an equivalent, if Leonard Cohen was more political and funny he could be one, but the cabaret and parisian influence is absent.

So Brel is unique and uniquely original. Definitely worth a listen which is available by buying the album at Amazon UK or US

Track Highlights

1. Amsterdam
2. Bonbons
3. Plat Pays
4. Mathilde

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

He was actually Belgian


From Wikipedia

* In the comic strip Asterix Brel is referenced in the album Asterix in Belgium. When Asterix, Obelix and chieftain Vitalstatistix walk through the flat Belgian landscape Vitalstatistix makes a comment about the landscape. The Belgian chieftain answers in the original French version that "dans ce plat pays qui est le mien les seules montagnes sont des oppidums". ("in my flat country the only mountains we have are called 'oppidums'" (an 'oppidum' is Latin for village.) This is a reference to Brel's song "Le Plat Pays" (The Flat Country) in which he sings that in his flat country the only things as high as mountains are churches. In other languages this remark hasn't been translated in a way to reference Brel.

* In 2002, Brel Bar Restaurant opened in Ashton Lane in the West End of Glasgow (Scotland, UK). It offers Belgian food and drink, and some Jacques Brel memorabilia can be seen on the walls.

* In 2005 Brel was voted to the 7th place of De Grootste Belg (Dutch for "The Greatest Belgian"), a Flemish television program on the VRT. In the same year he was considered the greatest Belgian by the audience of the Le plus grand belge (French for the "The Greatest Belgian"), a Walloon television show of the RTBF. In both programs the audience could vote by using the website, sending an SMS or using the telephone. In total several hundred thousands votes were cast.

* Brel was a pilot. He first got his PPL in 1964, bought a Gardian Horizon, later changed it for a Wassmer 40; and then stepped forward in 1969 by taking - successfully - his IFR qualification at Les Ailes flight school in Geneva, Switzerland. He pursued his formation until he was qualified copilot on Lear 25. During his late years in the Marquises (French Polynesia), he flew a small bimotor and served the population as a taxi-plane. Brel was also a sailor.



How cool was he?

Intermission

Well, go get some popcorn and shit, as I am going South to sunnier climates until next Tuesday, so don't expect updates until Wednsday the 21st.

I will be performing research by whoring, drinking, sniffing Coke and choking on a big Mac in a toilet somewhere in Lisbon. Or I could try the producer's side of the thing and shoot a woman in the head or talk about the Iraq war on Channel 4.

42. The Beatles - Hard Day's Night (1964)




















Track Listing

1. A Hard Day's Night
2. I Should Have Known Better
3. If I Fell
4. I'm Happy Just To Dance With You
5. And I Love Her
6. Tell Me Why
7. Can't Buy Me Love
8. Any Time At All
9. I'll Cry Instead
10. Things We Said Today
11. When I Get Home
12. You Can't Do That
13. I'll Be Back

Review

There's something you can see in The Beatles and that is the fact that they do improve with time. This is an incomparably better album than With The Beatles, and although it doesn't have any song as exciting as Money (That's What I Want), it is a much more coherent and overall better piece of work. It is still not their best stuff and it is a bit pedestrian as rock albums go. Still, some songs sound quite original and new, and these are not the most well known singles here which have been played to an inch of good taste.

It is a good album, but I'd frankly still rather listen to the Buddy Holly or the Soul/Proto-Funk acts like Sam Cooke or James Brown, which haven't aged as badly as some Beatles tracks. I can't for example take Can't Buy Me Love or And I Love Her seriously anymore. That is, however, the bane of the very successful albums such as this one.

Importantly this is the first Beatles album where all tracks are written by them and there are no covers. The Beatles would eventually come to master the singer-songwriter malarky, but this is not it. This might not be very fair, as I am judging 1964 Beatles by the standard of their later albums and not by its merit alone. So...? It's my fucking blog!

Amputee Fetishist and The Crappy One won't allow their albums on the Internet so you have to buy it from Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Any Time At All
2. I Should Have Known Better
3. Tell Me Why
4. Hard Day's Night

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

The Beatles are known as "The Other Four Boys From Liverpool" forever living in the shadow of Echo and the Bunnymen.

41. Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto - Getz/Gilberto (1963)





















Track Listing

1. Girl From Ipanema
2. Doralice
3. Para Machuchar Meu Coracao
4. Desafinado
5. Corcovado (Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars)
6. So Danco Samba
7. O Grande Amor
8. Vivo Sonhando (Dreamer)

Review

If you've read my review of Jazz Samba earlier on you know that this is the album that I've been expecting as the much better Getz Bossa Nova project. Firstly it has lyrics, and they are lovely. It's the kind of album which is worth learning Portuguese just to actually get it. Corcovado and Girl From Ipanema both have English verses, and although Astrud Gilberto's voice makes up for it, they are a pale reflection of the Brazilian lyrics. The main singer here is João Gilberto, who has a beautifully unsure voice which adds to the sentiment of the mostly plaintive songs in this album. And yes I knew all the lyrics by heart before even reviewing this. This is bread and butter in Portugal and even more in Brazil.

You might have thought that this would be seen by Brazilians as inauthentic American reworkings, but it fact it never was. This is because the only American person here is Getz. You have the great Jobim on piano, and João and Astrud Gilberto singing. And of course Girl From Ipanema has become a standard elevator/hotel lobby song, this does not mean that it isn't a great, great song. Frankly, however, the rest of the album is probably a more convincing argument for the beauty of Bossa Nova precisely because it hasn't been done to death and reproduced in insane amounts by all the lounge acts that you can think of. Ipanema is, however an integral part of this album, and along with Corcovado and Desafinado one of the big songs to come out of this album, but in fact all the other songs are equally as great.

Frankly, there isn't much to criticise here. In an evolution from Jazz Samba, this album has become much more heartfelt and beautiful, precisely because of the addition of Brazilian performers, who feel this music like Byrd and Getz could never do. Even Getz's performance is improved here due to the pace imposed on him by the other performers, the whole sense of rythm is much tighter. And although Getz does some really nice Sax playing, the Gilbertos are the real stars of the show, as are Jobim's compositions. Getz only gets top billing because he is the American guy making a record for the American market.

If you don't know it, you don't deserve to live. Stream it from Napster or buy it from Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Desafinado
2. Doralice
3. Para Machucar Meu Coração
4. Só Danço Samba

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

On the Album from Wiki:

Its release created a bossa nova craze in the U.S., and subsequently internationally. It brought together saxophonist Stan Getz, who had already performed the genre on his LP Jazz Samba, João Gilberto (one of the creators of the style), and Jobim, a celebrated Brazilian songwriter, who wrote most of the songs in the album. It became one of the best-selling jazz albums of all times, and turned singer Astrud Gilberto, who sang on the track of "The Girl from Ipanema" and "Corcovado", into an international sensation.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 454 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

On Girl From Ipanema from Wikipedia

"The Girl from Ipanema" ("Garota de Ipanema") is considered the best-known bossa nova song ever written, and was a worldwide hit in the mid-1960s. It was written in 1962, with music by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Portuguese lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes with English lyrics written later by Norman Gimbel.

It is often claimed to be the second-most recorded popular song in history, topped only by The Beatles' "Yesterday". The first commercial recording was in 1962, by Pery Ribeiro. The version performed by Astrud Gilberto, along with João Gilberto and Stan Getz, from the 1963 album Getz/Gilberto, became an international hit. Numerous recordings have been used in movies, often as an elevator music cliché.

The song was inspired by Heloísa Eneida Menezes Paes Pinto (now Helô Pinheiro), an 18-year-old girl who lived on Montenegro street in the fashionable Ipanema district of Rio de Janeiro. Every day, she would stroll past the popular "Veloso" bar-cafe on the way to the beach, attracting the attention of regulars Jobim and Moraes.

The song was originally composed for a musical comedy entitled Dirigível (Blimp), which was a work in progress of Vinicius de Moraes. The original title was "Menina que Passa" ("The Girl Who Passes by"), and the famous first verse was completely different.

In Revelação: a verdadeira Garota de Ipanema (Revealed: The Real Girl from Ipanema) Moraes wrote that she was:

"o paradigma do bruto carioca; a moça dourada, misto de flor e sereia, cheia de luz e de graça mas cuja a visão é também triste, pois carrega consigo, a caminho do mar, o sentimento da que passa, da beleza que não é só nossa — é um dom da vida em seu lindo e melancólico fluir e refluir constante."

which roughly translates to:

'"the exemplar of the raw Carioca: a golden-tanned girl, a mixture of flower and mermaid, full of brightness and grace, but with a touch of sadness, in that she carries with her, on her route to the sea, the feeling of that which passes by, of the beauty that is not ours alone — it is a gift of life in its constant, beautiful and sad ebb and flow."

Today, "Montenegro Street" is called "Vinicius de Moraes Street", and the "Veloso Bar" is named "A Garota de Ipanema". There is also a "Garota de Ipanema" Park in the nearby Arpoador neighborhood.

40. James Brown - Live at the Apollo (1963)



















Track Listing

1. Introduction To James Brown
2. I'll Go Crazy
3. Try Me
4. Think
5. I Don't Mind
6. Lost Someone
7. Medley: Please, Please, Please/You've Got The Power/I Found Someone/Why Do You Do Me/I Want You So Bad/I Love You So Bad/I Love You, Yes I Do/Strange Things Happen/Bewildered/Please, Please, Please
8. Night Train

Review

Mr. James Brown, indeed. As you could expect from him this is a very funky album, and again, like the Sam Cooke and Muddy Waters' albums it works due to its rapport with the public. I would definitely advise you to get the re-release, if you find the original take care! The original audience was redubbed with clapping instead of the crazy screaming that actually occurred in the live performance. And the last thing that you would expect people to do with this kind of music is to politely clap.

Girls, or very effeminate man, just go crazy in this album. And James Brown uses it to his advantage, he screams back and gets replies. So it is a good album, where all the songs are pretty short in the pop style of 3 minute tracks, but as you get to the end he starts extending his tracks to the 7 to 10 minute mark. Again this is the good thing with live albums you can feel the progression of the night as the public gets more excited and Brown feels at ease to extend his tracks.

So, it is a great live album, but don't expect Sex Machine in it. That comes later. Still, both the Sam Cooke and Muddy Waters ones are better. But some good shit here, particularly Night Train at the end and the long medley. You can stream this from Napster or buy it from Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Night Train
2. Lost Someone
3. Medley (long title)
4. I'll Go Crazy

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

Night Train was later remade in a much better version by Lionel Richie on the Dancing on the Ceiling album, but also even better on some shitty Euro-Techno ensemble.

From Wiki

* Brown was a recipient of Kennedy Center Honors for 2003, and a scheduled 2004 unveiling of a statue of Brown in Augusta was delayed because of James Brown's ongoing legal problems.

* Brown's eyebrows are tattoos.

* James Brown appearanced in the Jackie Chan movie The Tuxedo, in which he is flipped and knocked unconscious, forcing Chan to do his routine.

* In December 2004 Brown was diagnosed with prostate cancer, which was successfully treated with surgery.

* At around the time of his legal troubles in the late 1980s, there happened to be a Supreme Court vacancy. Late-night talk-show host Arsenio Hall proposed nominating Brown, because "He's black, he's liberal... and he's familiar with the court system!"

39. Charles Mingus - The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady (1963)




















Track Listing

1. Solo Dancer
2. Duet Solo Dancers
3. Group Dancers
4. Trio And Group Dancers

Review

Very, very interesting one, this one. I really enjoyed it, but I must say that it is most definitely not for everyone. Imagine free-jazz, now imagine it mixed with very slow, almost porn/gangster film like music and a dash of flamenco guitar. Can you? Neither could I. Strangely it all comes together pretty well in the end.

Charles Mingus is brilliant at the piano, particularly at the beggining of track 3, with a beautiful heartfelt solo. Heartfelt is a very important word for this album. In fact this would be the last kind of music that you would associate with beauty and feeling at first listen through, but it grows on you like a demented fungus.

It is quite telling that the liner notes on this album are written by Mingus' therapist. This is a tumultuous record, where rage, love, despair and beauty come out of it in equal measures. I am really not a big fan of this more experimental jazz, but if something can make me review my ideas it is this album. This is not a trio playing, this is a big band, and the work that orchestrating this some times chaotic album must have been is beyond my grasp. The way it changes from beauty to a chaotic sound where you can almost close you eyes and see Mingus falling into a spiral Vertigo style and back is truly amazing. It's like a weird jazzy portait of a mind, and a not very sane one at that.

You can get it on Napster or Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlight

Its four tracks people....

Favourites are tracks 3 and 4.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

My mind is melting!

From Wiki

The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is a 1963 jazz composition and album by bassist Charles Mingus. The piece consists of a single six-part suite performed by an eleven-piece band. An intensly emotional work, it displays Mingus' skill as composer, orchestrator, and technician.

Written as ballet, the work borrows from Ellingtonian and Latin sources, but creates a unique orchestral style that Mingus called "ethnic folk-dance music". The orchestrations (described as "one of the greatest achievements [...] by any composer in jazz history" by the All Music Guide) are rich and multi-layered. Mingus' perfectionism led to extensive use of studio overdubbing techniques, the first for a jazz album.

The album liner notes were provided by Mingus' psychotherapist, Dr. Edmund Pollock.

38. Sam Cooke - Live At The Harlem Square Club (1963)



















Track Listing

1. Feel It
2. Chain Gang
3. Cupid
4. Medley: It's All Right/For Sentimental Reasons
5. Twistin' the Night Away
6. Somebody Have Mercy
7. Bring It on Home to Me
8. Nothing Can Change This Love
9. Having a Party

Review

Truly one of the great live albums. When I was a kid, me and my parents used to go out every weekend and explore castles around the place where I lived in Évora (about 1 hour away from Lisbon by car). As you can imagine there were quite a lot of them. The tape selection was limited and one of them was the Best of Sam Cooke, so it always reminds me of the little towns around Évora, like Borba, Estremoz, Vila Viçosa. I'm sure you all know them heh. So, it was quite a pleseant surprise to listen to this particular album. In fact, it is very different from the studio versions of the songs which I know by heart. Much funkier and more fun than what I was used to.

Frankly this is much superior to Sam Cooke's studio recordings, the way in which he feeds off the public's attention and love is amazing. It almost reminds me of religious music like in Pakistani Qawwalli where the performer is really there to make the public get into a trance. Maybe he was just on drugs. You get kind of the same feeling you do with Muddy Waters here, although the music approaches James Brown more than blues.

That sexy James Browniness is what's cool about this album as well. That rapport with the public, who make as much part of the album as Sam himself. And more than anything it is the King of Soul at his prime. So, please get it, buy it, steal it... not available on Napster, but it is on Amazon UK and US.

Track Highlight

1. Chain Gang
2. Bring it on Home
3. Cupid
4. Medley: It's All Right/For Sentimental Reasons

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia

Sam Cooke is considered by music critics and fellow artists alike as the most important singer in soul music history.

The title "the king of soul" is often over-used but Sam Cooke's legacy is a very big one. He had 29 Top 40 hits in the U.S. between 1957 and 1965. He is therefore seen by many as "the creator" of the genre. Major hits like "You Send Me", "Chain Gang", "What a Wonderful World" and "Bring It On Home To Me" are among some of his very best work.

Cooke was also among the first modern black performers and composers to attend to the business side of his musical career, and founded both a record label and a publishing company as an extension of his careers as a singer and composer. He also took an active part in the Civil Rights Movement, paralleling his musical ability to bridge gaps between black and white audiences.

His Mysterious Death

Cooke died at the age of 33 under mysterious circumstances on December 11, 1964 in Los Angeles, California. Though the details of the case are still in dispute, he was shot to death, apparently by Bertha Franklin, the manager of the Hacienda Motel, where Cooke had checked in earlier that evening. Franklin claimed that Cooke had broken into the manager's office/apartment, in a rage, wearing nothing but a shoe and an overcoat (nothing beneath it) demanding to know the whereabouts of a woman who had accompanied him to the motel. Franklin said that the woman was not in the office and that she told Cooke this, but the enraged Cooke did not believe her and violently grabbed her demanding again to know the woman's whereabouts. According to Franklin, she grappled with Cooke, the two of them fell to the floor, and she then got up and ran to retrieve her gun. She said that she then fired at Cooke in self-defence because she feared for her life. According to Franklin, Cooke exclaimed, "Lady, you shot me," before finally falling, mortally wounded.

According to Franklin and to the motel's owner, Evelyn Carr, they had been on the phone together at the time of the incident. Thus, Carr claimed to have overheard Cooke's intrusion and the ensuing confrontation and gunshots. Carr called the police to request that they go to the motel, informing them that she believed a shooting had occurred.

A coroner's inquest was convened to investigate the incident. The woman who had accompanied Cooke to the motel was identified as Elisa Boyer, who had also called the police that night shortly before Carr did. Boyer had called the police from a phone booth near the motel, telling them she had just escaped from being kidnapped.

Boyer's story was that she had first met Cooke earlier that night and had spent the evening in his company. She claimed that after they left a local nightclub together, she had repeatedly requested that he take her home, but that he instead took her against her will to the Hacienda Motel. She claimed that once in one of the motel's rooms, Cooke physically forced her onto the bed and that she was certain he was going to rape her. According to Boyer, when Cooke stepped into the bathroom for a moment, she quickly grabbed her clothes and ran from the room. She claimed that in her haste, she had also scooped up most of Cooke's clothing by mistake. She said that she ran first to the manager's office and knocked on the door seeking help. However, she said that the manager took too long in responding, so, fearing Cooke would soon be coming after her, she fled the motel altogether before the manager ever opened the door. She claimed she then put her own clothing back on, stashed Cooke's clothing away and went to the phone booth from which she called the police.

Boyer's story is the only account of what happened between the two that night. However, her story has long been called into question. Due to inconsistencies between her version of events and details reported by other witnesses, as well as other circumstantial evidence (e.g. cash Cooke was reportedly carrying that was never recovered and the fact that Boyer was soon after arrested for prostitution), many people feel it is more likely that Boyer went willingly to the motel with Cooke, and then slipped out of the room with Cooke's clothing in order to rob him, rather than in order to escape an attempted rape.

Ultimately though, such questions were beyond the scope of the inquest, whose purpose was simply to establish the circumstances of Franklin's role in the shooting, not to determine exactly what had happened between Cooke and Boyer preceding that. Boyer's leaving the motel room with almost all of Cooke's clothing in tow, regardless of exactly why she did so, combined with the fact that tests showed Cooke was inebriated at the time, seemed to provide a plausible explanation for Cooke's bizarre behavior and state of dress, as reported by Franklin and Carr. This explanation together with the fact that Carr, from what she said she had overheard, corroborated Franklin's version of events, was enough to convince the coroner's jury to accept Franklin's explanation that it was a case of justifiable homicide. And with that verdict, authorities officially closed the case on Cooke's death.

However, some of Cooke's family and supporters have rejected not only Boyer's version of events, but also Franklin's and Carr's. They believe that there was a conspiracy from the start to murder Cooke, that this murder did in fact take place in some manner entirely different from the official account of Cooke's intrusion into Franklin's office/apartment, and that Franklin, Boyer and Carr were all lying to provide a cover story for this murder.

My brother was first class all the way. He would not check into a $3 a night motel; that wasn't his style.

— Agnes Cooke-Hoskins, sister of Sam Cooke, attending the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 2005 tribute to Cooke.

37. Phil Spector - A Christmas Gift For You (1963)




















Track Listing

1. White Christmas - Darlene Love
2. Frosty The Snowman - Ronettes
3. The Bells of St. Mary's - Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans
4. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town - Crystals
5. Sleigh Ride - Ronettes
6. Marshmallow World - Darlene Love
7. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus - Ronettes
8. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer - Crystals
9. Winter Wonderland - Darlene Love
10. Parade of the Wooden Soldiers - Crystals
11. Christmas - Baby Please Come Home - Darlene Love
12. Here Comes Santa Claus - Bob B Soxx & The Blue Jeans
13. Silent Night - Phil Spector & Artists

Review

I deeply dislike Christmas music. I always did, my parents always have the habit of having the same fucking crap Casio Keyboard operated handfull of CD's playing on constant repeat during the festive fucking season. Oh my god, I just want to bust my brains out, but am mollified for the prospect of money to come. The true spirit of Christmas.

That said, this is probably the best Christmas album I've heard. Also, this is probably not the best time of the year to be listening to it. Manchester in June, in the whole of a sweltering 5 celsius outside (fortunately going to Portugal for a week next week, which also means no updates, as Blogger doesn't accept smoke signals). But Phil Spector, the alleged killer, does have an impressive sound here, well not his sound, the sound of the groups he produces. But no doubt most of the merit is on the Killa'(allegedly).

Killer (allegedly) Phil, shows off his "wall of sound" thing, like nowhere else, bringing a killer sound to old Christmas songs. Particularly in tracks like Frosty The Snowman and Santa Claus Is Coming To Town To Shoot A Lady In The Noggin'. The joke about Spector's alleged shooting of a woman in the head is murdering this review. I need to stop. Although the last track in the album, with Spector's pleseant voice talking about love and harmony and shit is really funny with hindsight.

So to sum up, good Christmas albums, but I hate Christmas music... soooo... I wouldn't kill for it. Buy it at Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Frosty the Snowman
2. Santa Claus is Coming to Town
3. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
4. White Christmas

Final Grade

6/10 (if it wans't Christmas Music probably more... i just dislike it deeply).

Trivia

From Wikipedia

Spector has shunned publicity and is widely regarded as eccentric, having descended into many conflicts with the artists, songwriters, and promoters that he worked with. Stories include his discharging a firearm while in the studio with John Lennon during the recording of his cover album Rock 'n' Roll and placing a loaded pistol at Leonard Cohen's head during the sessions for Death of a Ladies' Man (1977). Dee Dee Ramone also reported that Spector threatened his bandmates during their recording sessions with his group, The Ramones.

Phil and Ronnie Spector divorced in 1974. In 2000, Ronnie Spector successfully sued him for over $2 million for breach of contract over unpaid royalties to the Ronettes.

On February 3, 2003, Spector was arrested for murder after the body of 40-year-old starlet Lana Clarkson of Los Angeles was found at his faux-castle mansion (called Pyrenees Castle) in Alhambra, California. Police responded to a 9-1-1 phone call from one of Spector's neighbors and discovered Clarkson, who had been shot and was pronounced dead at the scene. On November 20, 2003, Spector was indicted for Clarkson's murder.