104. Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat (1967)
Track Listing
1. White Light White Heat2. Gift3. Lady Godiva's Operation4. Here She Comes Now5. I Heard Her Call My Name6. Sister RayReviewNow imagine yourself in 1967, you arrive home with the last hits of Peter, Paul and Mary... but, by mistake someone put White Light/White Heat inside the sleeve. Knowing Velvet Underground as the guys who made those nice folk-rocky albums with that German Fuckathon Champion you decide to give it a go. 4 months later you would wake up in an hospital bed.That is just how shocking this album must have been. A lot of it is noise, but what wonderful noise they make. There are textures and complexities to what at first seems a load of noise, after a while it is both catchy and, in a way, beautiful... I know I've been walking down the street muttering "She's sucking on my ding-dong" under my breath... and that has made me a better person.It is not hard to see why one of the only acceptable "old" bands to listen to if you were a punk in the late 70's were the Velvet Underground. In fact they take noisiness much farther than most punk bands did. The soundscapes that Velvet Underground produce here are a testimony to an immense chaos, but a carefully orchestrated chaos. And it is also beautifully written. The Gift, which tells the story of Waldo Jeffers in 8 minutes is one of the most perfect narrative tracks that I have had the privilege to listen to.If you don't know this, you have to. Notice also the beautiful cover inspired on Spinal Tap's Smell The Glove, (actually there's a barely noticable skull tatoo but the contrast is so low that it is hard to see). I am sure that a lot of people will not like this, in fact I am sure that most won't but give it a try and pay attention to it because it is great. Stream it from Napster or buy it at Amazon UK
or US
.Track Listing
1. The Gift2. Sister Ray3. White Light/ White Heat4. Lady Godiva's OperationFinal Grade9/10TriviaIf you own an mp3 player don't sing along to Sister Ray... or The Gift for that matter. Also do not attempt to share The Gift with someone, by you having one headphone and the other person the other one... try it and you'll find out why.From Wikipedia:The centrepiece, however, is the lengthy, improvised murder tale "Sister Ray", based on some of Reed's near-perennial concerns — drug abuse, violence, homosexuality and transvestism. "Sister Ray" is legendary for having been recorded in one take. The band agreed to accept whatever faults occurred in the single take. The song careens off in every direction for over 17 minutes as John Cale's deafening organ (which was routed through a distorted guitar amplifier) and Lou Reed's piercing guitar take turns drowning out the rest of the band. Secondary guitarist Sterling Morrison remarked that he was amazed at the volume of Cale's organ during the recording and had switched the guitar pickup on his Fender Stratocaster from the bridge position to the neck position to get "more oomph". There is a rumor that the producer, Tom Wilson walked out halfway through the song and just said "Let me know when you're done". Also notable about the song is that it features no bass guitar - John Cale, who usually plays bass, was playing his organ on the take. The band had a sponsorship from Vox amplifiers, resulting in use of top of the line amps and distortion pedals to create a very distorted and noisy sound. The title for Sister Ray provided the inspiration for the name of the Salem, Oregon band Sister Ray.
103. Shivkumar Sharma, Brijbushan Kabra and Hariprasad Chaurasia - Call Of The Valley (1967)
Track Listing1. Ahir Bhairav/Nat Bhairav2. Rag Piloo3. Bhoop4. Rag Des5. Rag PahadiReviewSo we are in 1967, for the last couple of years there has been a marked obsession for all things indian in pop albums. This starts with the Beatles but the Byrds and even the more conservative Kinks got on the bandwagon. It is therefore only natural that attentions turned to the origins of these obsessions. Call of the Valley is really a different album from most of those which have been reviewed here.I have always been a big fan of Indian classical music, from Ravi Shankar's collaborations with Phillip Glass and Yehudi Menuhin to traditional Qawwali. In fact I wrote my undergraduate dissertation on Indian Sufi Music, mainly Qawwali. So I have developed a taste for this. But even if you haven't this is a great album to start. It is quite accessible and beautifully performed. There will be other albums of this type of music coming up here and unlike some of the choices on Brazilian music which I find quite innapropriate, the Indian selection is actually quite good. This album has an amazing energy tempered by a quite plaintive sound, while the rythmic tabla drums give it a sweltering energy, the santoor and flute bring it back down to a dream-like quality. It is not hard to imagine the same hippies getting high on Jefferson Airplane and then switching to this. It really has that kind of universal quality to it, it is very easy to relate to it although it is performed in a quite alien form. But no more alien than what people were experimenting with in the West in the 60's. Stream it from Napster or buy it from Amazon UK
or
US
.
Track HighlightsIt is quite pointless to highlight 4 out of 5 tracks... and it is consistently good, so just listen to it.Final Grade8/10TriviaFrom Wikipedia: The santoor is a trapezoid-shaped hammered dulcimer often made of walnut, with seventy strings. The special-shaped mallets (mezrab) are lightweight and are held between the index and middle fingers. A typical santoor has two sets of bridges, providing a range of three octaves.The santoor is a hammered dulcimer, derived from the Persian santur (which is believed to be the first instrument of its type), and related to similar instruments in Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and other parts of Central Asia.The Indian santoor is more rectangular and can have more strings than the original Persian counterpart, which generally has 72 strings. The santoor as used in Indian classical musician is played with a pair of curved mallets made of walnut wood and the resultant melodies are similar to the music of the harp, harpsichord or piano. The sound chamber is also made of walnut wood and the bridges are made of local wood and painted dark like ebony. The strings are made of steel from Germany and England.Notable santoor players of the twentieth century include and Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, Pandit Bhajan Sopori, and Kiranpal Singh.The younger generation of santoor players include Rahul Sharma and Abhay Rustum Sopori, Saurav Chatterjee, and many other prominent names like Kakan Ghosal, Versha Aggarwal, Roshan Ali, and Sandip Chatterjee.
102. Loretta Lynn - Don't Come Home a Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind) (1967)
Track Listing1 Don't Come Home a Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)2 I Really Don't Want to Know3 Tommorow Never Comes4 There Goes My Everything5 The Shoe Goes on the Other Foot Tonight6 Saint to Sinner7 The Devil Gets His Dues8 I Can't Keep Away from You9 I'm Living in Two Worlds10 Get What 'Cha Got and Go11 Making Plans12 I Got CaughtReviewAnother country album, and this one must be one of the best reviewed here up until now. Again like Haggard this is an album which really shines on the lyrics rather than the good but rather formulaic music. Loretta Lynn gives us a smattering of grassroots feminism which is not pretentious or overblown, but truthful and heartfelt. Loretta Lynn has a great voice and cheerily recounts tales of betrayal, revenge and women paying man back in the same coin. And it's just great. This is an album which demands repeated listenings and particular attention to the lyrics. If you don't pay attention to what Loretta is saying, it is very possible that his will just pass through you as an unremarkable country album.Unfortunately this is an impossible to get album. I have it on vinyl and I think that's the only way you can get it. Amazon lists unavailable Audio Cassetes but there is no CD reissue in Europe or the States. This is actually quite sad, as other crappier but more conservative country musicians reviewed here earlier have several editions of their albums available, but maybe that says more about the audience of country than the quality of the musicians. Cash, Haggard, Nelson and some others are of course exceptions but as much due to having found a following outside the Country Music scene as anything. Loretta herself has an audience but this, her best album, is almost lost.Track Highlights
1. Don't Come Home a Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)2. Get What 'Cha Got and Go3. The Shoe Goes on the Other Foot Tonight4. Saint to SinnerFinal Grade8/10TriviaFrom Wikipedia:In her heyday, Lynn was no stranger to controversy. She had more banned songs than any other artist in the history of country music, including "Rated X" (about the double standards divorced women face), "Wings Upon Your Horns" (about the loss of teenage virginity), and most famously, "The Pill" (about a wife and mother becoming liberated via birth control).
99. Merle Haggard - I'm A Lonesome Fugitive
Track Listing1. I'm A Lonesome Fugitive2. All Of Me Belongs To You3. House Of Memories4. Life In A Prison5. Whatever Happened To Me6. Drink Up And Be Somebody7. Someone Told My Story8. If You Want To Be My Woman9. Mary's Mine10. Skid Row11. My Rough And Rowdy Ways12. Mixed Up Mess Of A HeartReviewA country album finally. We haven't had many of these and this one is actualy a worthy one. Not really that impressive musically, it sounds a bit like most other country albums but lyrically it really deserves its presence here. Haggard goes back to the earlier tradition of people like the Louvin' Brothers with hard hitting family unfriendly lyrics.And in lyrical terms this is a pretty impressive and unexpected album, Haggard is a great and a disturbed writer. He heard Johnny Cash in San Quentin in 1958, but unlike Cash he was actually doing time there. This album is very much touched by his prison experience and his criminal past.To me this is what makes a country album good, a certain rawness and sincerity mixed with pain and murderous feelings. However the album isn't that impressive musically. While Haggard certainly has a great voice which is perfect for his themes, the musical accompaniment is a bit run of the mill. So it really isn't the best Country album that you'll ever hear, but it is certainly an interesting one and worth a listen. You can stream it from Napster or buy it from Amazon UK or US.Track Highlights1. Life In Prison2. I'm A Lonesome Fugitive3. Drink Up And Be Somebody4. If You Want To Be My WomanFinal Grade6/10TriviaFrom Wikipedia:Haggard's parents moved from Oklahoma to California during the Great Depression; at that time, much of the population of Bakersfield was made up of economic refugees from Oklahoma and surrounding states. Haggard's father died when Merle was 9, and Merle began to rebel against his mother. Authorities put him in a juvenile detention center. Haggard's older brother gave him a guitar when Merle was 12, and he taught himself to play. In 1951, Haggard ran away to Texas with a friend but returned that same year and was arrested for truancy and petty larceny. He ran away from the next juvenile detention center to which he was sent and went to Modesto, California. He worked odd jobs - legal and not - and made his performing debut at a bar. Once he was found again, he was sent to the Preston School of Industry, a high-security installation. Shortly after he was released, 15 months later, Haggard was sent back after beating a local boy during a burglary attempt.After his second release, Haggard saw Lefty Frizzell in concert with his friend Bob Teague and sang a couple of songs for him. Lefty was so impressed, he allowed Haggard to sing at the concert. The audience loved Haggard, and he began working on a full-time music career. After earning a local reputation, Haggard's money problems caught up with him, and he was arrested for a robbery in 1957. He was sent to prison in San Quentin for 15 years. Even in prison, Haggard was wild. He planned an escape but never followed through, and he ran a gambling and brewing racket from his cell. Merle attended three of Johnny Cash's concerts at San Quentin. Cash inspired Haggard to straighten up and pursue his singing. Several years later, at another Cash concert, Haggard came up to Johnny and told him "I certainly enjoyed your show at San Quentin." Cash said "Merle, I don't remember you bein' in that show." Merle Haggard said, "Johnny, I wasn't in that show, I was in the audience." While put in solitary confinement on death row, Haggard encountered author and death row inmate Caryl Chessman. Haggard had the opportunity to escape with a fellow inmate nicknamed "Rabbit". Haggard passed on the chance to escape. The escape was successful. The man who escaped later shot a policeman and was returned to San Quentin and put to death. Chessman's predicament along with Rabbit's inspired Haggard to turn his life around, and he soon earned his high school equivalency diploma, kept a steady job in the prison's textile plant and played in the prison's band. He was released in 1960 and in March 1972 was pardoned by then California governor Ronald Reagan. Once released, Haggard said it took about four months to get used to being out of the penitentiary and that, at times, he actually wanted to go back in. He said it was the loneliest feeling he'd ever had.
98. Donovan - Sunshine Superman (1967)
Track Listing1. Sunshine Superman2. Legend Of A Girl Child Linda3. Three Kingfishers4. Ferris Wheel5. Bert's Blues6. Season Of The Witch7. The Trip8. Guinevere9. The Fat Angel10. CelesteReviewSo, Donovan, yes. Mellow Yellow it ain't fortunately. It is actually a great example of British folk revival, we will have more interesting ones in the future, but Donovan is definitely a defining artist in the whole movement and also the one with the greatest commercial success.This is both good and bad, you can tell that this album was made to sell, and no matter how good the track Sunshine Superman is, it is a bit out of place. It's a single to sell albums and it makes a good job as what it is. The rest of the album is actually more interesting and if you ignore some unremarkable tracks that it does have it is actually quite good.Notice I say quite, it didn't really blow my mind with the notable exception of Season of The Witch where Donovan seems to sound like the Velvet Underground for parts of it. And that is indeed laudable. Other tracks like Legend of A Girl Child Linda are great narrative tracks with the whole medieval English feel to them. A great album, but really not that remarkable, and I love folk, sometimes more than life itself. Stream it from Napster or Buy it from Amazon UK or US.Track Highlights1. Season of The Witch2. Legend Of A Girl Child Linda3. Sunshine Superman3. Three KingfishersFinal Grade6/10Trivia
97. The Kinks - Something Else By The Kinks (1967)
Track Listing
1. David Watts2. Death Of A Clown3. Two Sisters4. No Return5. Harry Rag6. Tin Soldier Man7. Situation Vacant8. Love Me Till The Sun Shines9. Lazy Old Sun10. Afternoon Tea11. Funny Face12. End Of The Season13. Waterloo SunsetReviewHere are the Kinks again, and this album really is something else. The Kinks sound like nothing else in the 60's at the same time they sound like a throwback and ahead of their time. In the way a retro-ish band would do it. Like Franz Ferdinand or The Coral for example, but the 60's equivalent.This is actually caused by their mild conservativism in ideological terms. The Kinks show a love for English society and all things English which will be later explored in Village Green more fully. But here tracks like Harry Rag or Waterloo Sunset are an example of this. A love for what is at the same time dismal and depressing but also representative of Englishness.I think you kind of have to live here for a while to understand how "Dirty old river, must you keep rolling /Flowing into the night /People so busy, makes me feel dizzy" can have a certain charm. On the other hand it might just be the way of coping with living here, starting to appreciate the horrid and the garbage in the streets.Anyway, The Kinks capture this with actually great songs, all of them are good, all of them will stick in your mind. And that is something the Kinks always did, make whole albums which are not only consistent but consistently catchy and lyrically thoughtful. So buy it from Amazon UK or US.Track Highlights1. David Watts2. Situation Vacant3. Waterloo Sunset4. Harry Rag
Final Grade
8/10TriviaFrom Wikipedia:Songs on the album composed by Ray Davies followed his affinity for strongly English-inspired subject matter, including the stately, harpsichord-laden "Two Sisters," the lazy shuffle of "End of the Season," the sardonic and hilarious "David Watts," and the other standout tracks "Death of a Clown" (written and sung by lead guitarist Dave Davies) and "Afternoon Tea." The album is capped by the otherworldly beauty of the hit single "Waterloo Sunset," considered by many to be the career apogee of Davies' songwriting.The songs on the album were recorded over a transitional phase of Davies' songwriting career, between the fall of 1966 and the summer of 1967. During this time he and the Kinks had cut back on touring, and had begun recording and stockpiling songs for his as-yet poorly defined "village green" project. Also, following the great commercial and personal success of the "Waterloo Sunset" single in May 1967, Davies became less focused on hits and more intent on exploring his own songwriting interests. In fact, the album title may come from Davies' appeal to the Kinks' management in the summer of 1967 that he wanted to do "something else" besides writing hit singles.The album is unusual in the Kinks' catalogue from this period for the inclusion of three songs composed by guitarist Dave Davies, including the solo hit single "Death of a Clown." Based on the unexpected success of the song, the younger Davies began exploring a solo career. The followup singles did not meet with the same success, and by mid-1969 his solo ambitions would be set aside for a decade.The album sold poorly in the UK, in part because it competed with budget-priced compilation albums of early Kinks hits from 1964-1966. Also, singles-oriented Pye Records released "Waterloo Sunset" and "Death of A Clown" many months before the album itself, effectively dulling the enthusiasm of record buyers for the LP. The lack of success also reflected the changes occurring in pop music at the time, as well as The Kinks' rapid movement towards unfashionable song themes, a trend which culminated in the subsequent album The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society. They would score one more big UK hit single shortly after the release of Something Else with "Autumn Almanac," then would not have a big hit again until "Lola" in 1971.
96. Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow (1967)
Track Listing
1. She Has Funny Cars2. Somebody to Love3. My Best Friend4. Today5. Comin’ Back to Me6. 3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds7. D. C. B. A.—258. How Do You Feel9. Embryonic Journey10. White Rabbit11. Plastic Fantastic LoverReviewFirstly I've got to make a disclaimer, White Rabbit is probably my favourite psychadelic song ever. And many other people's as well, it's is probably the most iconic song for acid use in the 60's and just for that this album deserves to be listened to. Other than that this album is a bit hit and miss. However, the hits are really very good, while the misses are only comparatively bland and unfortunately make the album not as cohesive as it could have otherwise been. Not all of it is like White Rabbit or Somebody To Love. Some tracks seem to be more on the pop-rock side of the fence that psychadelia. Fortunately most of the album is really very good and very trippy. If you are at all interested in late 1960's psychadelia this is an essential album, and this is the band that would later grace us with Jefferson Starship and just Starship followed by Jefferson Starship the Next Generation with such tracks of immortal beauty such as We Built This City. Is it better to burn out or to fade away? If Jefferson Airplane had burnt out after this the world would have been a better place... but not as funny. You can stream it from Napster or buy it from Amazon UK or US.
Track Highlights1. White Rabbit2. Somebody To Love3. Comin' Back To Me4. Embryonic Journey
Final Grade8/10TriviaI'll make this all about White Rabbit, from Wikipedia:"White Rabbit" is a psychedelic rock song from Jefferson Airplane's 1967 hit album Surrealistic Pillow, also released as a single, peaking at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in that form. First performed by composer Grace Slick with her band The Great Society during 1966, this striking song proved an inducement to convince members of the Airplane to lure Slick away to join them.One of Slick's earliest songs, written in either late 1965 or early 1966, it details parallels between the hallucinatory effects of LSD and the imagery found in the work of Lewis Carroll. References to Carroll's 1865 fantasy Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its 1871 sequel Through the Looking-Glass pervade the song: the title character, the Dormouse, and the Red Queen. A century after the fact, Carroll was busy in the rock and roll world of 1967; that same year John Lennon would refer to Looking-Glass in his densely textured "I Am the Walrus" composition recorded by The Beatles, and Carroll has often been stated as an inspiration in the writing of Syd Barrett for the first Pink Floyd LP, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.From the Jefferson Airplane website page at http://www.jeffersonairplane.com/grace.html: 'Grace has always said that White Rabbit was intended as a slap toward parents who read their children stories such as Alice in Wonderland (in which Alice uses several drug-like substances in order to change herself) and then wondered why their children grew up to do drugs. For Grace and others in the '60s, drugs were an inevitable part of mind-expanding and social experimentation. With its enigmatic lyrics, "White Rabbit" became one of the first songs to sneak drug references past censors on the radio. Even Marty Balin, Grace's eventual rival in the Airplane, regarded the song as a "masterpiece."'Set to a rising crescendo similar to that of Ravel's famous Boléro, the music combined with the song's lyric strongly suggest the sensory distortions experienced with hallucinogens, the song later utilized in pop culture to imply or accompany just such a state. "White Rabbit" is one of two songs, along with "Somebody to Love," that Slick brought with her to Jefferson Airplane from her earlier group The Great Society when she replaced original Airplane vocalist Signe Anderson.Cultural referencesThe drug-themed novel Go Ask Alice takes its name from the song, which includes the lyrics, "Go ask Alice/When she's ten feet tall." The book's protagonist is never named, but reviewers generally refer to her as "Alice" for the sake of convenience. The Columbia University health website Go Ask Alice!, however, does not take its name from the song.Neo is told to follow the "White Rabbit" in the Matrix. One of many Matrix metaphysical "waking up" metaphors.The song has been used several times on The Simpsons, such as in the episode "D'oh-in In the Wind." It mostly accompanies scenes when the effects of ingested drugs, such as marijuana, peyote, or LSD, are beginning to kick in.The song also features in the thriller The Game at a scene where the film's main protagonist is being subjected to extremely powerful psychological attacks on his sanity and sense of safety.The character of Richard Nixon sings this song in the Futurama episode "A Head in the Polls," telling his audience, "I'm meeting you halfway, you stupid hippies!"The song was mentioned in Hunter S. Thompson's book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in the memorable scene in which Dr. Gonzo (the attorney) asks Thompson to throw the tape deck into the bath with him during a bad acid trip: "…And when it comes to that fantastic note where the rabbit bites its own head off, I want you to throw that fuckin' radio into the tub with me!"The song was also featured in Oliver Stone's Platoon; it is played in the background of the "Feel Good Cave" as the soldiers are getting high. It also forms the main menu music of the PC game Battlefield Vietnam.More recently, the song was used on an episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Jay Leno talked about a town that has baseball "the way it used to be"; the hometown of that team is known for smoking cannabis, and this song played when they showed people in a park smoking.In 2005 the song was used on C.R.A.Z.Y., a film directed by Jean-Marc Vallée.Also in 2005 "White Rabbit" was featured in a delicate drug-related scene in Atom Egoyan's movie Where The Truth Lies, starring Kevin Bacon, Colin Firth, and Alison Lohman.A "White Rabbit" cover portion has been a consistent part of Blue Man Group shows since their inception.The song was played during an episode of HBO's The Sopranos. During a scene when Tony Soprano is struggling with taking more Prozac for his Panic Attacks.A commercial for the video game Red Faction 2 used this song as well.In the movie Stoned from 2005 the song is played when the character of Brian Jones takes LSD for the first time.The song is played during a drug-related skit on an episode of The Daily Show.CoversThe song was covered in the following years: * 1971 – by the jazz guitarist George Benson * 1980 – by the punk band The Last Words * 1980 – by the punk / gothic rock band The Damned [1] * 1981 – by the post punk band The Mo-Dettes in a Peel Session * 1985 – by the hardcore punk band Ruin...[2]for their White Rabbit promotional cassette and later (1986) included in their Fiat Lux Album [3] * 1987 – by the metal band Sanctuary * 1987 – by the rock band Act * 1989 – by the hardcore punk band Slapshot * 1990 – by the house music duo David Diebold & Kim Cataluna [4] * 1995 – by The Murmurs (MCA Records) * 1996 – by the Icelandic singer-songwriter Emiliana Torrini * 1996 – by the Norwegian Heavy Metal Band In The Woods for their White Rabbit EP and later (2000) included in their Three Times Seven On A Pilgrimage Album [5] * 2001 – by the industrial band Collide [6] * 2004 – by the performance art / experimental rock group Blue Man Group with vocals by Esthero [7] * 2006 – remixed by the psychedelic trance act Fuzzion as Little Girl on the album Black Magic [8] * 2006 – by the Brechtian punk cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls at the Bonnaroo Music Festival * 2006 – by the Omaha ska punk band UmlaUt. * 2006 – by The Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps in their show "Volume 2: Through The Looking Glass."
95. The Young Rascals - Groovin' (1967)
Track Listing1. Girl Like You2. Find Somebody3. I'm So Happy Now4. Sueño 5. How Can I Be Sure6. Groovin'7. If You Knew8. I Don't Love You Anymore9. You Better Run10. Place in the Sun11. It's LoveReviewThis is a mildly interesting R&B album with a couple of very good songs. If anything can be said about it, it is the fact that it is very nice. Fortunately, however, there is a certain twist to it. Groovin' doesn't stay comfortably in the pleasing R&B section, they explore both with effects and with psychadelia and garage rock. Therefore not your garden variety easy-listening. Even so, the album stands out more through it's pleasentness than it's innovations. This is at the same time it's strength and downfall. It is non-offensive but also doesn't push itself far enough. There is of course the Young Rascals' most famous track in Groovin' but it certainly isn't the most original thing here. Other tracks are much more interesting, like It's Love where the track starts with a perfectly out of place piano to develop into a great track.It is good, no doubt, but not something I will be adding to my Mp3 player. So, you can either stream it from Napster or buy it from Amazon UK or US.Track Highlights1. It's Love2. You Better Run3. Sueno4. Groovin'Final Grade7/10TriviaFrom Wikipedia: Their first minor hit was "I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore" (1965), followed by the #1 single "Good Lovin'" (1966, originally by the Olympics). Soon, the band began to mature as songwriters and released other hit songs written themselves, including "Groovin'" (recorded in 1967, it's one of their best-known hits), "It's Wonderful", "How Can I Be Sure" (which got to Number 1 in the UK when Coverd by David Cassidy) and "A Beautiful Morning" (1968).Their best-remembered song was "People Got to Be Free" (1968), a passionate plea for racial tolerance. Unusual for their time, the Rascals refused to tour on segregrated bills. After "People Got to Be Free", the Rascals never regained their former fame or had as large a hit.In 1970 Eddie Brigati left the group, followed by Cornish in 1971.Cavaliere and Danelli released two more albums as "The Rascals", Peaceful World and The Island Of Real, using other musicians and singers. They finally disbanded in 1972.Cavaliere released several solo albums throughout the 1970's. Brigati (with his brother David) released "Lost in the Wilderness" in 1976. Cornish and Danelli worked together in other groups, including Bulldog and Fotomaker.In 1982, Cavaliere and Danelli joined Steve Van Zandt in Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul, Van Zandt's project between his stints with the E Street Band.The (Young) Rascals were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.
94. The Byrds - Younger Than Yesterday (1967)
Track Listing1. So You Want To Be A Rock 'N' Roll Star2. Have You Seen Her Face3. C.T.A.-1024. Renaissance Fair5. Time Between6. Everybody's Been Burned7. Thoughts And Words8. Mind Gardens9. My Back Pages10. The Girl With No Name11. WhyReviewIf there is something you can say about the Byrds, it is that they always manage to please. They have a lot of albums in this list and until now they have all deserved inclusion. This is no exception and it may actually be the best Byrds album reviewed until now. In this album the Byrds move slightly away from pleasant folk-rock into a more experimental territory and they do it perfectly. In some songs it is more crass, like in C.T.A.- 102 where the inclusion of alien commentary and UFO sounds on the music might be a bit too much, and yet it works. On the rest of the album The Byrds use a lot of backmasking to very good effect, it doesn't sound weird and experimental for experimentalism's sake, it actually improves the music's texture and melody... if you can imagine that. The Byrds use backmasking for melodic purposes instead of the more common: "because it's weird and we're on drugs" reason.Definitely an album to get and listen to repeatedly. This last reccomendation is essential, Byrds albums really benefit from repeated listenings, while they may sound quite normal and even trite the first go they reveal beautiful hidden depths. You can stream it from Napster or buy it from Amazon UK or US.Track Highlights1. Everybody's Been Burned2. Thoughts And Words3. So You Want To Be a Rock 'N' Roll Star4. C.T.A. - 102Final Grade
9/10TriviaFrom Wikipedia:Despite the album's moderate chart performance, its critical stature has grown substantially over the years. In 2003, the album was ranked number 124 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.Younger Than Yesterday was remixed and remastered at 20-bit resolution as part of the Columbia/Legacy Byrds series, reissued in an expanded form on April 30, 1996. The six bonus tracks included both sides of the "Lady Friend" single, another exemplary Crosby track puzzlingly left off the album "It Happens Each Day," a throwaway written for a Tony Curtis/Claudia Cardinale film vehicle of the same name, "Don't Make Waves," and an instrumental "Mind Gardens" as a hidden track.
93. The Doors - The Doors (1967)
Track Listing1. Break On Through2. Soul Kitchen3. Crystal Ship4. Twentieth Century Fox5. Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)6. Light My Fire7. Back Door Man8. I Looked At You9. End Of The Night10. Take It As It Comes11. EndReviewThis is probaly one of the most impressive debut albums of any band, ever. The Doors come up with a sound that is at the same time complex, artful and visceral on a truly great album. There is really very little here that can be criticised negatively. In fact the only thing is the fact that many tracks should be longer if The End and Light My Fire are examples of The Doors long form in this period of their music.Strangely enough it is the longer songs which stay mostly with you. The brilliance that The Doors allow themselves in the extended tracks is just astonishing. Jim Morrison has since become an iconic legend, but the other members are equally as talented, the proof of this is the instrumental section of Light My Fire where the organ and guitar show the genius or the performers and almost eclipse Morrison's contribuition to the track.The Doors also provide us with a bit of culture with the Whisky Song, bringing Brecht and Kurt Weill to rock, just like it had been brough before to lounge music with Mack The Knife. So, this is really something which you must have, must listen to, and even if you find the idea of The Doors to be cliched undergraduate student splif-accompaniment, judge it by it's merits and not it's fans. You can stream it from Napster or buy it at Amazon UK or US.Track Highlights1. Light My Fire2. The End3. Whisky Song4. Break On ThroughFinal Grade10/10
TriviaFrom Wikipedia:The Doors is the debut album by the band The Doors, released in 1967. It features the breakthrough single "Light My Fire", extended with a substantial instrumental section omitted on the single release, and the lengthy song "The End" with its Oedipal spoken-word section. The Doors credit the sheer awesomeness of their first album to being able to work the songs out night after night at the Whiskey A Go Go or the London Fog. The album presents quality songs that are instantly attractive and easily remembered, a quality of work that is lacking in their following albums. "Alabama Song" was originally written and composed by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill for their opera Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (Rise and Fall of the City Mahagonny); "Back Door Man" was a Howlin' Wolf cover. The End's Oedipal climax was first performed live at the Whiskey A Go Go and The Doors were thrown out as a result of Jim screaming "kill the father and fuck the mother."The album's dark tone and frontman Jim Morrison's sexual charisma and wild lifestyle influenced much of rock and roll to come.The album is generally thought of as the band's best work, in addition to being one of the greatest debut albums by any band. In 1998 Q magazine readers voted The Doors the 93rd greatest album of all time; in 2003 the TV network VH1 placed it at number 60. In 2003, the album was ranked number 42 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
92. Frank Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim - Frank Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim (1967)
Track Listing1. Girl From Ipanema2. Dindi3. Change Partners4. Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars5. Meditations6. If You Never Come To Me 7. How Insensitive 8. Concentrate On You 9. Baubles Bangles And Beads 10. Once I Loved
Review
I think whoever was responsible for choosing Brazilian music for the 1001 Albums book was a bit missing the point of Brazilian music and Bossa Nova. This album is nothing if not a throwback, it is surrounded on the list by Velvet Underground and The Doors, its presence here is an anachronism. Brazil was producing modern music, and we will soon have Os Mutantes here as an example of that. This album is not even a good Frank Sinatra album. I like Sinatra as much as the next man but he is not really shining with charisma or feeling here, he is just flat. Also this is Jobim's ultimate sell out album. He strums his guitar and sings in a couple of songs which he has performed better in 500 other albums. There is no fire and no excitment here, and the same guy who chose this album for the list is probably the one who chose Astrud Gilberto's. Of course there are redeeming features here, this is not unpleasent. It is not bad background music and it is not offensive. That is however not enough to consider any album good, much less great. Buy it at Amazon UK or US.Track Highlights1. Once I Loved2. Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars3. How Insensitive4. DindiFinal Grade4/10
TriviaFrom Wikipedia:Various tributes have been paid to Jobim and his body of work. For example, American jazz singers Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra prominently featured Jobim's songs on their albums Ella Abraça Jobim (1981) and Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim (1967), respectively. Other relatively recent works such as Wave: The Antonio Carlos Jobim Songbook (1996) included performances by the likes of Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and Toots Thielemans.
90. The Who - The Who Sell Out (1967)
Track Listing1. Armenia City In The Sky2. Heinz Baked Beans/More Music (Jingle)3. Mary Anne With The Shaky Hand/Premier Drums/Radio London (jingles)4. Odorono/Radio London (jingle)5. Tattoo/Radio London (Church Of Your Choice Jingle)6. Our Love Was7. I Can See For Miles/Charles Atlas (Jingle)8. I Can't Reach You9. Medac10. Relax11. Silas Stingy12. Sunrise13. Rael 1
ReviewNow here's an album with novelty value. The Who quite smartly decide to "sell out" and create an album which is almost like the recreation of a radio program, with jingles, adverts and songs. These are actually quite funny/weird and are well done, but there is more than novelty value here. The Who are able to create a wide variety of music while still being quite good at all of it. On track 3 they mimic the Byrds for example, and do it perfectly.This is a very good album, and in my opinion much better than My Generation, the conceptual idea behind it is strong and it's here that you see the door opening up to stuff like Tommy. There are some really good tracks here, I have a special place in my heart for Silas Stingy but I Can See For Miles is great rock and their biggest hit in the US.The Who are not one of those bands that easily overwhelms you, and the very concept that makes this album so strong is also its downfall. After a few times of listening to it the interjections are a bit tiring and you just want to listen to the music. Which is quite a compliment. It is also a not very coherent album, but I think that is part of the idea behind it, a radio does not pass uniform music, so it kind of works in the end. Stream it from Napster or buy it at Amazon UK or US.Track Highlights1. I Can See For Miles2. Our Love Was3. Silas Stingy4. Armenia City in The SkyFinal Grade
8/10TriviaFrom Wikipedia:The cover is divided into panels featuring each of the band members, two on the front and two on the back. Front: Pete Townshend applying Odorono brand deodorant from an oversized stick; Roger Daltrey sitting in a bathtub full of Heinz baked beans. Back: Keith Moon applying Medac from an oversized tube; John Entwistle in a leopard-skin Tarzan suit, squeezing a blonde woman in a leopard-skin bikini with one arm and a teddy bear with the other (an ad for the Charles Atlas course mentioned in one of the album's faux commercials). Originally Moon was seen applying a tube of Clearasil, but the manufacturer objected and the cover was changed for the US and subsequent editions.
89. Pink Floyd - The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (1967) 
Track Listing1. Astronomy Domine2. Lucifer Sam3. Matilda Mother4. Flaming5. Pow R Toc H6. Take Up Thy Stethoscope And Walk7. Interstellar Overdrive8. Gnome9. Chapter 2410. Scarecrow11. BikeReviewTrippy album. No, really trippy, but with a foundation in pop, which is nice. This pop-psychadelia is more apparent in Astronomy Domine for example, where a traditionally pop structure is transformed into something else. This album has a sense of constant foreboding which is very well achieved, in all the tracks there lurks a darkness of some kind. Even when the song is about gnomes, you can't help but think of them having satanic orgies at night. All this might be attributable to Syd Barret's rapidly sliding sanity and copious usage of LSD, a bad LSD trip lurks behind all the fairytale imagery. And that decadent, repressed dementia is what makes this such a good album. Ok, it is not an easy album to listen to, in fact it is quite demanding on tracks like Interstellar Overdrive but it does pay off.Overdrive has one of the coolest guitar riffs to be commited to vinyl; pity that between it's first and last appearance on the track there's 7 minutes where the mask of sanity has slipped and noise takes over. Pink Floyd sound like nothing else at this time. It does have its downsides, however, some of the more narrative songs seem a bit out of place, and I really prefer the more instrumental/spacy tracks. Honestly I think it is a good thing Barrett left, letting Pink Floyd explore those sounds on Dark Side Of The Moon for example. I know I will go to hell for this, but Syd was overrated and I am more of a Roger Waters man myself. David Gilmour can go screw himself however (sorry Gilly, you know I love you). Stream it from Napster or buy it at Amazon UK or US.Track Highlights
1. Interstellar Overdrive2. Astronomy Domine3. Pow R. Toc. H4. Bike (just because)
Final Grade7/10TriviaFrom Wikipedia:The album's title comes from the title of the seventh chapter of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, where Water Rat and Mole, while searching for a lost animal, have a spiritual experience. "This is the place of my song-dream, the place the music played to me," whispered the Rat, as if in a trance. "Here, in this holy place, here if anywhere, surely we shall find Him!". The Piper referred to is the Greek god Pan. Vic Singh photographed and designed the album cover, unlike subsequent Pink Floyd albums.
