197. Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970)




















Track Listing

1. Bridge over troubled water
2. El condor pasa
3. Cecilia
4. Keep the customer satisfied
5. So long Frank Lloyd Wright
6. Boxer
7. Baby driver
8. Only living boy in New York
9. Why don't you write me
10. Bye bye love
11. Song for the asking

Review

You all know me by now as a fan of Simon and Garfunkel... but not of Garfunkel's pityful solo career. This album is generally seen as their best one and it is also unfortunately their last one. Frankly I don't think it's their best and it is a bit hit and miss, but the hits are soooooo good that it doesn't really matter.

There are songs here which aren't up to their standard, El Condor Pasa is one of them, reminding me of all those Peruvian buskers and those from the Fast Show in particular. But to compensate for that you have some of the most heartfelt and beautiful songs the duo ever produced.

Fuelled by their imminent breakup there is a kind of homoerotic quality to many of the songs where this marriage of years is coming to an end. So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright and Only Living Boy In New York are examples of this, Paul Simon saying goodbye to his Jewfro'd partner, with such a gentle touch that it is actually quite sad. The title song has lost much of its power due to neverending covers, but it is still a standart of great song writing. And at the end Song For The Asking with its length of 1.49 is a little jewel.

Definitely listen to it. Get it from Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. The Only Living Boy In New York
2. So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright
3. Song For The Asking
4. Cecilia

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The album proved to be a vast success in the United Kingdom, enjoying several runs at number one, spending some years in the charts and eventually becoming the country's biggest-selling album of the 1970s. In August 2006 the continued popularity of the album was proven when it charted 7th place in The BBC Radio 2 Music Club Top 100 Albums.

In 2001 the TV network VH1 named Bridge over Troubled Water the thirty-third greatest album of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 51 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.


The Only Living Boy In New York... they're so old...:

196. George Harrison - All Things Must Pass (1970)




















Track Listing

1. I'd Have You Anytime
2. My Sweet Lord
3. Wah-Wah
4. Isn't It A Pity
5. What Is Life
6. If Not for You
7. Behind That Locked Door
8. Let It Down
9. Run Of The Mill
10. Beware of Darkness
11. Apple Scruffs
12. Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)
13. Awaiting On You All
14. All Things Must Pass
15. I Dig Love
16. Art Of Dying
17. Isn't It A Pity (Version Two)
18. Hear Me Lord
19. It's Johnny's Birthday
20. Plug Me In
21. I Remember Jeep
22. Thanks For The Pepperoni
23. Out Of The Blue

Review

Ok, this is a big album, and when I say big I mean over two hours long album. And it is pretty astonishing simply in the amount of quality that Geoge gives us here. Ther is not a bad track in these 23 tracks.

Of course the last 5 tracks are dispensable seeing as they are just jams, but they are quite competent jams, even if not amazing. The previous 18 tracks of pure pop are truly fantastic, with an impressive production by Phil "The Ladykiller" Spector where they use the wall of sound technique to its full effect.

It's not hard to imagine George keeping all these tracks that the Beatles never let him record and just suddenly coming out with all of them when he was free of the group and good thing he did too. My main gripe with the album is also it's main quality, the size of it is just too unweildy, it's so sprawling that the songs get lost in the whole and it becomes hard to pick out favourites or even remember them. I must have played this album about 6 or 7 times in the last 3 days and I am only just starting to be acquainted with it.

It is all good stuff but Harrison should really have made 3 or 4 albums out of this, he would surely have had a much more remarkable solo carrer, instead of just dropping this bomb. Get it at Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Apple Scruffs
2. Hear Me Lord
3. Beware Of Darkness
4. My Sweet Lord

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The outpouring of such consistently great material on All Things Must Pass took many critics by surprise, with Harrison having long been overshadowed by the talents of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, despite the fact that some of his later period Beatles inclusions ("While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Something," and "Here Comes the Sun") were hailed as highlights of their respective albums. Consequently, as Harrison had only placed just a few songs on any given Beatles album, he had amassed many compositions by their break-up, enabling him to offload many of them in one go on All Things Must Pass.

Recorded from May to August 1970 at Abbey Road Studios, and then further recording and mixing at Trident Studios from August to September 1970, Harrison enlisted the aid of Phil Spector to co-produce the album, giving All Things Must Pass a heavy and reverb-oriented sound, typical for a 1960s/1970s Spector production — but a sound Harrison would subsequently regret with the passage of time. The album features the talents of Ringo Starr, Peter Frampton, members of Badfinger, Eric Clapton , Billy Preston, and a young Phil Collins who was about to join Genesis. Bob Dylan, a close friend of Harrison's, composed "I'd Have You Anytime" with him, while Harrison covered Dylan's "If Not For You", which had been recently released on Dylan's New Morning album. Alan White, later of Yes, stated that John Lennon played on "If Not For You".


Beware of Darkness (for those who haven't taken Jackie Hirst's course on Indian Philosophy on your third year of University, Maya is illusion, as in what is in the world around you stopping you from seeing the true form of the universe):

195. Rod Stewart - Gasoline Alley (1970)


















Track Listing

1. Gasoline Alley
2. It's All Over Now
3. Only A Hobo
4. My Way Of Giving
5. Country Comfort
6. Cut Across Shorty
7. Lady Day
8. Jo's Lament
9. You're My Girl (I Don't Want To Discuss It)

Review

If there is one good thing about this project, it is the fact that it is breaking a lot of preconceptions. This album is one of those, I will never look at the disgusting man that is Rod Stewart in the same way, instead of vomit he might now ellicit pity. How can a man make such a good album and then fall so low later in his carrer?

And this is truly a great album, I am not joking. Rod rocks harder with acoustic guitars than anyone before him. I am quite amazed actually at how good it is. Of course it''s not a perfect 10, or even an imperfect 10, actually it is not a 10 at all, but I expected much, much worse.

The main element of all songs here is an acoustic one, however there is some electric guitars and such backing up the acoustics, and it is very good. Rod's cover of Bob Dylan's Only an Hobo is excellent, and I would never have imagined that Rod could make a sensible, beautiful and heart-felt cover of a Dylan song.

My whole world has turned upside down here, I am in a deep indentity crisis... have my tastes gone shit or is this album really good... I don't know anymore. If I can't trust my hatred for Rod Stewart what can I trust? Will Phill Collins surprise me with his mellow tunes? Will the Cheeky Girls reveal hidden qualities? Is Bucks Fizz my thing? OR is this actually a pretty nifty album? I look at myself in the mirror and I don't recognize myself. I find a Rod Stewart album to be pretty nifty. Am I becoming my father? Who clearly had a discerning taste in music in his younger age and now listens to nothing but Diana Krall clones? I AM ONLY 24 FOR GOD'S SAKE! I AM TOO YOUNG FOR THIS!

Oh, buy it at Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Gasoline Alley
2. Only A Hobo
3. Cut Across Shorty
4. Jo's Lament

Final Grade

9/10 (NOOOOOOOOOOOO)

Trivia

In 1999 Stewart was diagnosed as having thyroid cancer, for which he underwent surgery in July 2000. Besides being a major health scare, the resulting surgery also threatened his famous voice, and he had to re-learn how to sing. Since then he has been active in raising funds for The City of Hope Foundation charity to find cures for all forms of cancer, especially those affecting children.

Stewart has remained physically active in recent years, playing in a senior football league in Manhattan Beach, California and still kicking balls into the audience during concerts. When discussing the rock 'n' roll excesses he has been through in his career, he maintains that his love of playing football has been his saviour. As a fan he is a well-known supporter of Celtic F.C. and the Scotland national team. In appearance Stewart still maintains his trademark rooster-style haircut.

Stewart is also known for owning one of 400 Enzo Ferraris.

There is nothing even remotely tasteful relating to this album on Youtube, so instead of Rod you get Patrick:

194. Soft Machine - Third (1970)




















Track Listing


1. Facelift
2. Slightly All The Time
3. Moon In June
4. Out Bloody Rageous

Review

This is a long album. Although it is only 4 tracks long, each track takes up a side of the album and is about 20 minutes long. The first two tracks are mainly jazzy numbers, of the kind which is most certainly directly inspired by Mile Davis' Bitches Brew. They are actually much more listenable than Davis' experiments, and there is some semblance of tune to them. But you really can't tell that Soft Machine are mainly a Rock band by listening to Facelift or Slightly All The Time.

When we get to Moon In June there is something different happening, Wyatt's voice comes into the song and everything changes. I actually really liked this track, there is much more of a rock element and beautiful organ work as well as some crazy electronic stuff. The electronica is even more present in Out-Bloody-Rageous, which is also a good track.

So, the album is very much hit and miss, I dispense ever having to listen to the two first tracks again, but quite like the last two. So two-thumbs down and two-thumbs up... but still a worthy album to listen to and get into which definitely rewards repeated listenings. Get it at Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Moon In June
2. Out-Bloody-Rageous

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The song "Slighty All The Time" was used as the background for the syndicated "Realities" news program distributed by many 1970s-era "underground" radio stations. The album remained in print in the Columbia U.S. catalog throughout the 1970s and into the '80s despite its unusual format, based largely on word of mouth reviews.


Soft Machine Documentary:

193. The Who - Live At Leeds (1970)




















Track Listing

1. Heaven And Hell
2. I Can't Explain
3. Fortune Teller
4. Tattoo
5. Young Man (Blues)
6. Substitute
7. Happy Jack
8. I'm A Boy
9. A Quick One
10. Summertime Blues
11. Shakin' All Over/Spoonful
12. My Generation
13. Magic Bus

Review

Firstly let me say I am reviewing this album not in the way it came out in 1970, but in the way it can be found today in CDs. This is for the simple reason that this version is the complete concert in Leeds instead of just snippets. And it's better.

I've never been a big fan of The Who. They've never bothered me, but they have never wowed me. This album is probably their best output until now, however. They are much heavier here than in any of their albums and that is a great thing. They are also looser and enjoying it more.

Of course herein lies the problem as well, they are enjoying it so much they are sometimes annoying. They talk too much and I just can't stand Keith Moon in the back trying to be funny all the time and failing miserably... the other band members just seems to tolerate him "There goes Krazy Keith again". After a couple of listenthroughs you are going to want to skip the spoken bits and get right to the action. And when the action gets going it is actually pretty great. The 15 minute cut of My Generation is particularly impressive and all the other old favourites are done with so much enthusiasm that it ends up being a great album... if only they had recorded their studio stuff like this. Oh well. Buy it at Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. My Generation
2. Tattoo
3. Substitute
4. Summertime Blues

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Perhaps because of these circumstances, or perhaps because The Who were hyped up due to their international success with Tommy, or perhaps simply because The Who were in their prime at the time of recording, Live At Leeds turned out to be a wildly popular recording. It also became a critical smash, with the New York Times acclaiming it as "the best live rock album ever made." Its reputation as such continues to this day with Q magazine recently putting it at the top of its list of the greatest live albums of all time. The album's reputation has become so lofty that the venue it was recorded at has been named a national landmark in the UK, commemorated with a blue plaque.

The album cover looks like the simple cover of a bootleg LP of the era: it is of plain brown cardboard with "The Who | Live At Leeds" printed on it in plain blue or red block letters as if stamped on with ink. The original LP's cover opened out, butterfly-style, and had a pocket on either side of the interior, with the record in a paper sleeve on one side and facsimiles of various memorabilia on the other, including a photo of the band from the My Generation photoshoot, handwritten lyrics to the "Listening to You" chorus from Tommy, a receipt for smoke bombs, and the early black "Maximum R&B" poster showing Pete Townshend windmilling his Rickenbacker in mid-leap. The label was handwritten (apparently in Townshend's hand), and included instructions to the engineers not to attempt to remove any crackling noise (the recording is in fact very clean, except of course for the deliberate electronic distortion of the amplified instruments).

Rick Wakeman talks loads of crap about the concert... a guy even says it's the birth of Rock... in 1970?! WHAT THE FUCK?:

192. Ananda Shankar - Ananda Shankar (1970)




















Track Listing

1. Jumpin' Jack Flash
2. Snow Flower
3. Light my Fire
4. Mamata (Affection)
5. Metamorphosis
6. Sagar (The Ocean)
7. Dance Indra
8. Raghupati

Review

Here's an album which tread a very fine line between good and kitsch. Fortunately it falls in the category of good, although you'd never be able to tell from the cover of Light My Fire. It would have probably have been a great album if Ananda would have stayed well away from covers, although the Jumpin' Jack Flash one is sublime.

This is an album which could have existed in no other time but the late 60's or early 70's. It's an Indianised Hippie's wet dream, "rock with sitars?" "Awesome!". Well it is quite good in a number of tracks, and particularly Metamorphosis, with it's grand finale and Raghupati, the only track with vocals and litlle sitar.

This album is a product of its time and that is no bad thing, it is definitely a trip to Indian psychadelia with profuse use of synths and an attempt to appeal to the rock audience, which it surely did. But the same use of synths is sometimes pretty cheesy and the songs sound very kitsch. At least it's fun. So buy it at Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Metamorphosis
2. Raghupati
3. Jumpin' Jack Flash
4. Sagar (The Ocean)

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

In the late 1990s Shankar worked and toured in the United Kingdom with London DJ State Of Bengal and others, a collaboration that would result in the Walking On album, featuring Shankar's trademark sitar soundscapes mixed with breakbeat and hip hop. Walking On was released in 2000 after Shankar's sudden death from heart failure the year before.

In 2005, his song Raghupati would be featured on the soundtrack of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories.

Raghupati, by some guy or girl (?) on youtube... for those of you who don't understand Hindi this is a devotional song to Lord Rama, one of the Avatars of Vishnu and a mythical Indian King. There:

191. Nick Drake - Bryter Layter (1970)




















Track Listing

1. Introduction
2. Hazey Jane II
3. At The Chime Of The City Clock
4. One Of These Things First
5. Hazey Jane I
6. Bryter Layter
7. Fly
8. Poor Boy
9. Northern Sky
10. Sunday

Review

As you are probably aware by now I am a great fan of Nick Drake. He is one of those few, like Jimi Hendrix, who were never able to do shit and go the way of Clapton or Stevie Wonder or even Rod Steward. Nick Drake's story is tragic, he died too young, but he never experienced the inevitable decline.

This is his second album, his middle child, and like the first and third album it is excellent. It is not more of the same as Five Leaves Left. In fact it is a very different animal, firstly it's sunnier and secondly much more jazzy. There is of course a lot of credit to be given to Fairport Convention here, Drake is supported by all members if the Convention here, except for Denny for obvious reasons, and you can tell. John Cale of Velvet Underground was also a collaborator and that is just great!

Drake even manages to make a jazz saxophone in At The Chime Of A City Clock not sound cheesy. The arrangements are just so perfect and his voice so beautiful that there is very little that he can do wrong here. The three instrumental pieces are also highlights of the album, almost as a little overture, intermezzo and finale, they frame the album perfectly. Something we would all be better people if we listened more of, so buy it at Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Poor Boy
2. One Of These Things First
3. Northern Sky
4. Sunday

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Though the publicity generated by Five Leaves Left was minor, Boyd was keen to build on what momentum there was. 1970's Bryter Layter, again produced by Boyd and engineered by Wood, introduced a more upbeat, jazzier sound. Disappointed by his debut's poor commercial performance, Drake sought to move away from his earlier pastoral sound, and agreed to his producer's suggestions to include bass and drum tracks on the recording. "It was more of a pop sound, I suppose" Boyd later admitted. "I imagined it as more commercial." Like its predecessor, the album featured musicians from Fairport Convention, as well as contributions from John Cale on two songs; "Northern Sky" and "Fly". Biographer Trevor Dann has noted that though sections of "Northern Sky" sound more characteristic of Cale, the song was the closest Drake came to a release with chart potential. In his 1999 biography, Cale admitted to using heroin during this period, and older friends such as Brian Wells began to suspect that Drake was also using. Both Boyd and Wood were confident that the album would be a commercial success, but it went on to sell fewer than three thousand copies. Reviews were again mixed, and while Record Mirror praised Drake as a "beautiful guitarist — clean and with perfect timing, [and] accompanied by soft, beautiful arrangements", Melody Maker described the album as "an awkward mix of folk and cocktail jazz".

Northern Sky:

190. The Greatful Dead - American Beauty (1970)






















Track Listing

1. Box Of Rain
2. Friend Of The Devil
3. Sugar Magnolia
4. Operator
5. Candyman
6. Ripple
7. Brokedown Palace
8. Till The Morning Comes
9. Attics Of My Life
10. Truckin'

Review

The Dead go in a completely different direction from the masturbatory Live/Dead, and a good thing it is too. Influenced by bands like the Byrds and CSNY there is a turn to folk and country style music here, and actually it's their best album because of it.

I was never a big fan of The Greatful Dead, in fact they are markedly inferior to the bands that they take their influences from, and frankly I never understood the appeal that leads to crazy fandom and Deadheads. Of course the answer I always seem to find is that they were amazing live, and altough I remember the death of Jerry Garcia, I was at the beach at the time, I was a kid and lived in Portugal, so I never saw them live and clearly never will. If Live/Dead was representative of their live shennanigans, I am happy I didn't.

This is however a good album, if you are looking for more stuff like CSN(Y) or later Byrds, this is the place to go to. But frankly none of it is very new or exciting, of course there are a couple of good tracks here, but meh. Buy it at Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Box Of Rain
2. Ripple
3. Friend Of The Devil
4. Truckin'

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

Clearly Being a Dead Head is the fast track into politics:


From Wikipedia:

Celebrity Heads

The following have seen many shows:

* Tony Blair
* Joseph Campbell
* Pete Carroll
* Ed Norton
* Bill Clinton
* Ann Coulter
* Owen Chamberlain
* Al and Tipper Gore
* Keith Haring
* Phil Jackson
* Patrick Leahy
* Carl and Larry Page
* Bill Walton
* Keller Williams
* Al Franken
* Nancy Pelosi
* Jerry Greenfield


Box Of Rain:

189. Van Morrison - Moondance (1970)





















Track Listing

1. Stoned Me
2. Moondance
3. Crazy Love
4. Caravan
5. Into The Mystic
6. Come Running
7. These Dreams Of You
8. Brand New Day
9. Everyone
10. Glad Tidings

Review

Despite the crappy title which spawned many crappy drawings of half-naked elves faffing about in the woods when I was trying to look for the album cover on Google Images and the equally crappy cover of the title track by some brit easy-jazz fuckwit, whose name I think is Bublé or some shit, this is not a bad album.

In fact this is the sunny side of Astral Weeks, Van Morrison's earlier record reviewed here. While Astral Weeks was all doom and whinnyness this is a much shinier listen. Over all it is quite a happy album, with the exception of Into The Mystic, which is nonetheless a great track.

In fact there are quite a few toe-tapping tracks here. While Astral Weeks was a sniffling Irish drunkard, mummbling through depression, Moondance is happy Irish drunk, still mumbling but cheerier. There are problems with it however, Van Morrison thinks he is a good writer, and so do his fans, but he's not that good... Into The Mystic is a perfect example of someone who didn't really know what the fuck he was writing about until later on. The story of the development of that tracks lyrics are actually quite interesting. Of course Morrison says that "He really cares more about the sound of words than their meaning", but talent is in marrying the two and that is a crap excuse. And he already uses his trademark unintelligibility for sound purposes.

It's is still a great album, and a recommended one. Get it from Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Into The Mystic
2. And It Stoned Me
3. Moondance
4. Glad Tidings

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

In 2001 the TV network VH1 named Moondance the 32nd greatest album of all time. It is number 65 on Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

"Moondance" was used over the love scene in An American Werewolf in London. "Glad Tidings" was prominently featured in The Sopranos Season 5 finale. "Everyone" was used over the closing scene and end credits of Wes Anderson's film The Royal Tenenbaums.

From All Music, about Into The Mystic:

He once said that his original title for the song was "Into the Misty," and he may have intended a meaning such as "into the mist," since the song refers to fog horns among other things nautical. The only dictionary definition for the noun "mystic" (a favorite word of Morrison's, which he previously used as an adjective in Them's "Mystic Eyes") is a person who practices mysticism, and that is not the sense in which the word is used in the song. Morrison also said that, when the time came for him to submit a lyric sheet of the song, he couldn't decide exactly what the opening lines were. Was the first line "We were born before the wind" or "We were borne before the wind"? Was the second line "Also younger than the son" or "All so younger than the son"? Was the third line "Ere the bonny boat was one" or "Ere the bonny boat was won"? The original LP release did not contain a lyric sheet, but when the album was reissued on CD in the 1980s, it did, and someone had decided that the song went, "We were born before the wind/Also younger than the sun [not son]/Ere the bonnie boat was won."

Van Morrison's intelligibility reaches new lows in this version of Into The Mystic:

188. Deep Purple - Deep Purple In Rock (1970)




















Track Listing

1. Speed King
2. Bloodsucker
3. Child In Time
4. Flight Of The Rat
5. Into The Fire
6. Living Wreck
7. Hard Lovin' Man

Review

Aaaahaaaahaaah, Deep Purple. This list has taken a markedly heavier sound in the last few days and Deep Purple is one of the first heavy bands together with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. It is also the least interesting of the three. Even though they are not that interesting they are probably one of the best bands technically. There is no comparison to Black Sabbath in terms of technical prowess for example, but Sabbath's simplicity adds something to the enjoyment of it, which Deep Purple with its more experimentalist vein does not.

There are great tracks here, mainly Child In Time and Speed King, the 10 minutes of Child in Time are great, and the bridge shows a technical ability beyond even Zeppelin. But, like in bands such as Phish and albums like the Greatful Dead's Live/Dead being good technically does not make you a good band. There is an innefable quality to heavy music which is present in Sabbath and Zeppelin and is missing here. The charm of the slightly stupid Sabbath or the sonic power mixed with beautiful acoustics of Zeppelin is not here.

This is still an enjoyable album, the lyrics aren't particularly stupid, it's very well played and some tracks are really good. They do lose themselves in experimentation, however, like in the last track. It just didn't do much for me. Get it at Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Child In Time
2. Speed King
3. Into The Fire
4. Bloodsucker

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

This was the first studio effort from the "Mark II" lineup of Deep Purple. Their earlier work was much more pop-oriented, with orchestra-driven tracks and covers that ranged from The Beatles to Neil Diamond, among others, but on this record there are no traces. All tracks are credited to the working efforts of the five members of the band. "Speed King" and "Flight of the Rat" are prime examples of hard rock songs, and the band's new style. "Child in Time" is perhaps the most famous song from this record. This song starts off as a ballad but then becomes a rocker with many improvisations. "Child In Time" is famous for the high notes Ian Gillan hits in the song. "Child in Time" was the only song from this album that was included on Made in Japan two years later (although "Speed King" was the usual encore and is featured on the expanded CD re-issue, as is "Black Night" which was included in the "Deep Purple In Rock" reissue).

Child In Time Live, love the blasé audience:

187. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III (1970)





















Track Listing

1. Immigrant song
2. Friends
3. Celebration day
4. Since I've been loving you
5. Out on the tiles
6. Gallows pole
7. Tangerine
8. That's the way
9. Bron Y Aur stomp
10. Hats off to (Roy) Harper

Review

Another great album, and the third great Led Zeppelin album in a row. Don't worry, ratings will go down a bit tomorrow. I've been rediscovering Led Zeppelin with this project, and in the proper way by seeing their evolution in albums. This album sees Zeppelin moving more towards folk while still keeping their rock hard.

This is the beggining of the direction they would take from now on, the folk element is probably even more prevalent in Led Zeppelin IV, with Stairway To Heaven and Battle Of Evermore for example, but the seeds are definitely here, and probably in a better way than in Led IV. At least it hasn't been played to death as much as that album.

Of course there is a big hit here with Immigrant Song, one of the tracks with the funniest lyrics in the story of rock, but fortunately it is such a good track that you forgive them sentences like "Val-ha-lla I am Coming". The bluesier Since I've Been Loving You is another highlight here, and even though there are accusations of theft from Moby Grape bandied about, Led Zeppelin still manage to make this a better track than anything ever recorded by Grape. I am not here do preside in judgment of the less than transparent copyright problems of Led Zeppelin, I just know it sounds great. The second part of the album goes into folkier mode and some highlights of that are Tangerine and Gallows Pole, probably the only British folk song about a Polish Executioner, two great uses of acoustic instruments by Zep. Highly Reccomended. Buy it at Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Immigrant Song
2. Since I've Been Loving You
3. Tangerine
4. Gallows Pole

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Led Zeppelin III's original vinyl edition was packaged in a gatefold sleeve with a novelty cover. The cover and interior gatefold art consisted of a surreal collection of seemingly random images on a white background, many of them connected with flight or aviation (as in "Zeppelin"). Behind the front cover was a rotatable paper disc covered with more images, including photos of the band members, which showed through holes in the cover. Moving an image into place behind one hole would usually bring one or two others into place behind other holes. This could not be replicated on a conventional cassette or CD cover, but there have been Japanese and British CDs packaged in miniature versions of the original sleeve. In France this album was released with a different album cover, simply showing a photo of the four band members.

The first pressings of the album included the phrases "Do What Thou Wilt" and "So Mote Be It", inscribed on the record itself. This phrase is derived from an important tenet of Aleister Crowley's philosophy of Thelema: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. Love is the law, love under will." Led Zeppelin's guitarist Jimmy Page was interested in Crowley's work and even bought one of his residences.

CROWLEY FTW!

Immigrant Song, in a heavier Live version:

186. Neil Young - After The Gold Rush (1970)




















Track Listing

1. Tell Me Why
2. After The Goldrush
3. Only Love Can Break Your Heart
4. Southern Man
5. Till The Morning Comes
6. Oh Lonesome Me
7. Don't Let It Bring You Down
8. Birds
9. When You Dance I Can Really Love
10. I Believe In You
11. Cripple Creek Ferry

Review

Neil Young is one of my top-five singer-songwriters of all time, and this is probably my favourite Neil Young album. Actually it is an album which is very hard to top by anyone. Young is a master not only of cryptic, yet heartfelt lyrics but also a musical master.

Neil Young's songs in this album have a hard to define quality which brings all the tracks together, even tough they are in quite different styles. Southern Man is a rocker for example while Cripple Creek Ferry is a sing-along and Only Love Can Break Your Heart is a romantic ballad. They are all, however, undeniably Young's music. Maybe it's the trademark drums, or Young's voice that does it. Anyway there is a lot more musical variation in this album from in Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, and the fact that he has been through CSNY really shows.

The music has been toned down and more harmonised since his previous album and this is a good thing. This album is really near perfect, with the possible exception of Oh, Lonesome Me, an unremarkable track, everything here is perfect. Folk-Rock never had it so good and would never have it as good again. Buy it from Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Southern Man
2. After The Gold Rush
3. Don't Let It Bring You Down
4. When You Dance You Can Really Love

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Critics were not immediately enamored; the original review in Rolling Stone began:

"Neil Young devotees will probably spend the next few weeks trying desperately to convince themselves that After the Gold Rush is good music. But they'll be kidding themselves. For despite the fact that the album contains some potentially first rate material, none of the songs here rise above the uniformly dull surface."

As is typical of Young releases, critical reaction has improved with time, and Gold Rush is now considered a milestone in Young's recording career. Ink Blot magazine's retrospective review summarizes more current critical thinking:

"One of his least stylized efforts, the record gains its strength from not only the rock solid songwriting, but the array of musical personalities that Neil displays. ... The variety and quality of the songs causes After The Gold Rush to play like a greatest hits album, which unbelievably it is not."

In 1998 Q magazine readers voted After the Gold Rush the 89th greatest album of all time. It was ranked 92nd in a 2005 survey held by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time. In 2003, Rolling Stone named the album the 71st greatest album of all time.

Why are Rolling Stone critics so shit?

Don't Let It Bring You Down:

185. Black Sabbath - Paranoid (1970)




















Track Listing

1. War Pigs
2. Paranoid
3. Planet Caravan
4. Iron Man
5. Electric Funeral
6. Hand Of Doom
7. Rad Salad
8. Fairies Wear Boots

Review

Another great album for completely different reasons from CSNY. In fact two albums could hardly be more dissimilar. Paranoid has some good moments, some great moments and some moments that are so bad they are great.

Lyrically this is one of the most risible albums I've had the pleasure to listen to, the songs rhyme in the most obvious ways, love, dove, glove style. The sound is however great, the ominous guitar by three-fingered Tony Iommi is simply powerful making for some of the most satisfying songs to play in Guitar Hero - Iron Man is in Guitar Hero I and War Pigs is in II, and they are my two favourite tracks to play advanced air-guitar to. There is just this giggly sense of fun to these songs today, because they are so over the top and their lyrics are so over the top, it is just amazing.

I don't think any tracks here can be considered complex music or even beautiful music but they are amazing at a completely different and visceral level. Of course if you start thinking about it you realise that the guitars sound like the guy only has 3 fingers, Ozzy has a voice like a cat who just had his balls stepped on and the lyrics were written with all the sagacity of a mildly retarded 13 year old goth. And the album is all the better for it. Forget all musical snobbery and just listen to it, you will have fun. Buy it at Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. War Pigs
2. Iron Man
3. Paranoid
4. Planet Caravan

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

After repeatedly being passed over by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since becoming eligible in 1997, Ozzy Osbourne famously demanded that Black Sabbath be removed from consideration for the institution. In 1999, Osbourne said after Black Sabbath was passed over their second year of eligibility, "Just take our name off the list. Save the ink." His basis for this position was that because the fans did not select the members, it was "totally irrelevant". The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ignored this request and Black Sabbath was finally inducted by Metallica members James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich on March 13, 2006.

War Pigs:

184. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Deja Vu (1970)


















Track Listing

1. Carry On
2. Teach Your Children
3. Almost Cut My Hair
4. Helpless
5. Woodstock
6. Déjà Vu
7. Our House
8. 4 + 20
9. Country Girl: Whiskey Boot Hill/Down, Down, Down/Country Girl
10. Everybody I Love You

Review

We are entering another exceptional streak of albums, and this one is a great one. I have been a fan of CSNY since I was a small child and still am one now, so this review might be tainted by a certain sentimentalism... still, it is an amazing album.

Firstly the album's credentials are great; all of the members were amazing artists either by themselves or in other groups like the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and The Hollies. Their only problem is that they are so big that the album isn't as cohesive as it might be, it might even sound like a collection of songs by different artists, as each composer's personality is so marked in their tracks.

But then, even with this lack of cohesiveness each track is near perfect, it is a collection of great tracks, from the beggining to end no track is less than amazing in its own style. From the non-conformist Almost Cut My Hair to the picture of perfect domestic bliss in Our House all tracks are gems. This is a beautiful, beautiful album which if you don't know it, you must get to know it. Buy it now at Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Almost Cut MY Hair
2. Helpless
3. Our House
4. Country Girl

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Stills estimates that the album took somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 hours of studio time to record; this figure may be exaggerated, however much the individual tracks display meticulous attention to detail. Critical reaction to the album tends to be divided along generational lines, baby boomers rating it as one of the all-time greats, later cohorts less so. In retrospect, much of the disparagement that this album, and the band, received as being wildly overrated by later critics probably derived from a reactionary dismissal of the sixties in general, proof of its import as a cultural artifact.

Spiderman sings Our House!

183. John Lennon - John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970)






















Track Listing

1. Mother
2. Hold On
3. I Found Out
4. Working Class Hero
5. Isolation
6. Remember
7. Love
8. Well Well Well
9. Look At Me
10. God
11. My Mummy's Dead
12. Power To The People
13. Do The Oz


Review

Wanna talk about being whiny? Talk to Liverpudlians. Some time ago Boris Johnsson the Conservative MP had to give a public apology for saying that people from Liverpool were whiny, this is Exhibit A for the defense. Oh poor Lennon, who had problems with his mommy and then his mommy died and who is an atheist and why does he have to bother us with his self-referential "poor me" shit?

Still, it is hard to fault the music itself. John was a genius regardless of his lyrics here and musically this is something completely different and innovative. If you disregard his primal scream inspired tracks like Mother and Well Well Well, all the stuff here is pretty much superb and you are often left with a mixed feeling of "What an asshole, but the muzak is purdy!"

Still, it is musically good enough to be a great album and a really great album at that. If you can take the lyrics you are a better person than me. I will explain something of my rating system, all albums which get 9 or 10 out of 10 end up in my iPod, this album will get an 8, meaning iIrecognise it as great, but I don't want to listen to it again because it annoys me. So there! Buy it from Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Working Class Hero
2. Remember
3. Love
4. Isolation

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

"Working Class Hero" is a song from John Lennon's first post-Beatles solo album, 1970's John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. Regarded as one of Lennon's most caustic and overtly political songs, it explores themes of alienation and social status from childhood to adulthood. It was controversial in that it was one of the first popular songs to include the word "fucking" (twice). The album's notes replaced the word with asterisks, and footnotes claimed that the obsecenity was ommitted from the printed lyrics at the request of EMI.

The irony of this song is that Lennon grew up in Woolton, which is one of the most affluent and middle-class areas of Liverpool. Many of the lyrics though derive from his time during Primal Therapy and stem from his acceptance of life as opposed to the continual fight against it that society expects.

Working Class Hero: