Regularly updated blog charting the most important albums of the last 50 years
Friday, June 15, 2007
291. Waylon Jennings - Honky Tonk Heroes (1973)
Track Listing
1. Honky Tonk Heroes 2. Old Five And Dimers (Like Me) 3. Willy The Wandering Gypsy And Me 4. Low Down Freedom 5. Omaha 6. You Ask Me To 7. Ride Me Down Easy 8. Ain't No God In Mexico 9. Black Rose 10. We Had It All
Review
My favourite kind of country consists of outlaw songs, and this is a collection of mainly outlaw tracks by one of the best in the business, Waylon Jennings. The album isn't that amazing but you can tell that it is actually a different animal to most country music albums at the time.
As soon as the guitar kicks in in the first track you know you have something special, the guitar is very rocky actually, the lyrics are also great and Jennings sings like a man who experienced much of what he sings about, and he probably has at that. This makes it a good album, but some of the tracks do fall into country cliche, altohugh they are all played at a very morose pace which is not at all common.
The album comes across as a heartfelt collection of tracks about people at the margin of society, but it really isn't as exciting as it could be. I am sure that someone like Cash, even though he is quite a similar performer to Jennings, could have done a better job at the same tracks, but maybe that's because I am such a Cash fan. Still, it is worth looking at and listening to and a good country album is always a rarity nowadays. Get it from Amazon UK or US.
Track Highlights
1. Honky Tonk Heroes 2. We Had It All 3. Ain't No God In Mexico 4. Low Down Freedom Final Grade
8/10
Trivia
With the exception of the tenth and final track, all of the songs on the album were originally written or co-written by Billy Joe Shaver, who helped shape Jennings' movement in the direction of outlaw country. The record was largely produced by Jennings himself, with some of the production handled by Tompall Glaser, and reached #14 on the country charts; "You Asked Me To" and "We Had It All" became successful singles, peaking at #8 and #28, respectively. The liner notes, describing initial mistrust and tension between Jennings and Shaver as well as the emotion that went into each song on the record, were written by Roger "Captain Midnight" Schutt, a radio personality who was also pictured on the album's cover.
Honky Tonk Heroes:
Thursday, June 14, 2007
290. Steely Dan - Countdown To Ecstasy (1973)
Track Listing
1. Bodhisattva 2. Razor Boy 3. The Boston Rag 4. Your Gold Teeth 5. Show Biz Kids 6. My Old School 7. Pearl Of The Quarter 8. King Of The World
Review
Steely Dan are another band with which I wasn't to familiar before starting this project but that I have grown to really like. There are some elements here that sound very AOR, but never in a bad way. Actually Steely Dan are smart enough never to fall into the triteness of most AOR groups, they are not only smart, witty and sarcastic lyrically, but they are also very innovative musically.
Steely go through a big spectrum of music here, from rockabilly in the first track through south-American inspired and even doo-wop choirs but strangely enough every song in the album is very much a sister to every other song. There is a distinctive style here that is stronger than the different stylistic differences between the songs. A lot of this has to do with the fact that all of the songs have jazz as a big part of their background, either in solos or just in the compositional style.
So, Steely manage to make a stylistically diverse album of intelligent adult oriented rock which still feels cohesive despite its variety. There are not many bands which are capable of this, but until now Steely Dan have consistently done it. I await their next album with pleasure. Get it from Amazon UK or US. Track Highlights
1. Show Biz Kids 2. My Old School 3. Boston Rag 4. King Of The World Final Grade
9/10
Trivia
Countdown to Ecstasy, released in 1973, had nowhere near the same level of commercial success as the first album (probably to the surprise of few, as it was much more jazz/blues oriented than its predecessor). Becker and Fagen blamed this on having to rush-record the album between tour dates and they weren't entirely happy with some of the performances on the record. The album's singles included "Show-Biz Kids" (curiously chosen to release as a hopeful hit) and "My Old School", both considered "classic" Steely Dan by fans and critics alike, but failing to make a significant entry into the charts. "My Old School" (and to a lesser extent, "Bodhisattva") did become a minor FM Rock staple as years passed, however, and remains so to this day. "Bodhisattva" was also notable as the only readily available live recording of Steely Dan for many years (as the B-side of the 1980 single "Hey Nineteen").
My Old School:
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
289. Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)
Track Listing
1. Funeral For A Friend (Love Lies Bleeding) 2. Candle In The Wind 3. Benny And The Jets 4. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road 5. This Song Has No Title 6. Grey Seal 7. Jamaica Jerk Off 8. I've Seen That Movie Too 9. Sweet Painted Lady 10. Ballad Of Danny Bailey 11. Dirty Little Girl 12. All The Girls Love Alice 13. Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock 'n' Roll) 14. Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting) 15. Roy Rogers 16. Social Disease 17. Harmony
Review
Yesterday I wrote how much I liked discovering acts that I'd never paid attention to or that I just didn't know about. Today is a different case and one which is at the same time pleasing but also tinged with shame, and that is liking stuff that I previously thought I hated... that is the case with Rod Stewart and Elton John. Of course there are reasons to hate them still, but it is sad when people make some great albums and then slip into a world of mediocrity.
This album is actually a good example of what I am talking about here. Take the very famous second track here, Candle In The Wind. This song has been made and remade to exhaustion, dedicated to Diana and that little kid with AIDS and some other people. Curiously, however it was never improved form the original version found here, all Elton John did with the song was make it overplayed, rob it of any lyrical power it might have had and ruin what is a pretty powerful Pop arrangement into something trite. Candle In The Wind is by no means the best song in this double-album, it is actually one of the worst and sappiest, but the fact that it is actually quite an interesting song to listen to with fresh ears tells you something about this album. The song is really not that complimentary of Marilyn Monroe, who it is supposedly about, it is a song about the shallowness imposed on you by fame and the ruthlessness of the press. And what a fragile and sad woman she was.
All the album is pretty good, Candle In The Wind has been ruined for ever by Elton John himself and there are a couple of skippable novelty tracks, but the same is not true of the title track, another song up there with Rocket Man and Tiny Dancer. If there is anything wrong with the album it is the fact that it becomes boring towards the middle, after a very strong start, but it redeems itself towards the end with great tracks about lesbianism (All The Girls Love Alice) and street fighting (Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting).
This is probably Elton John's best album and even if you must skip the second track and maybe a couple of the novelty songs (Jamaica Jerk Off and Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock 'n' Roll) aren't that good) you will find it very much worth listening to, if you can get over the fact that it is Elton John. So get it from Amazon UK or US.
Track Highlights
1. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road 2. Funeral For A Friend (Love Lies Bleeding) 4. Benny And The Jets 5. Harmony
Final Grade
9/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is the eighth album by British singer/songwriter Elton John, released in 1973. It is regarded by many as his greatest effort. With worldwide sales of 15 million it is his best selling studio album. In 2000 Q magazine placed it at number 84 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In 2003, the album was ranked number 91 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Here you go a nice montage of Elton John singing Goodbye Yellow Brick Road:
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
288. Todd Rundgren - A Wizard, A True Star (1973)
Track Listing
1. International Feel 2. Never Never Land 3. Tic Tick Tick It Wears Off 4. You 5. Need Your Head 6. Rock 'n' Roll 7. Pussy 8. Dogfight Giggle 9. You Don't Have To Camp Around 10. Flamingo 11. Zen Archer 12. Just Another Onionhead 13. Da Da Dali 14. When The Shit Hits The Fan 15. Sunset Boulevard 16. Le Feel Internacionale 17. Sometimes I Don't Know What To Feel 18. Does Anybody Love You 19. I'm So Proud 20. Oh Baby Baby 21. La La Means I Love You 22. Cool Jerk 23. Hungry For Love 24. I Don't Want To Tie You Down 25. Is It My Name 26. Just One Victory
Review
Even if the track listing suggests otherwise this is a single album, about one hour long, but it is indeed a peculiar one. The best thing about this project on a personal level are all the discoveries of things I had never listened to or payed attention to, Todd Rundgren was one of them, I was mildly aware of him, both as Liv Tyler's supposed father and as an alternative 70's icon, I was not however, aware of how brilliant his much was. Actually it is very brilliant, and for a guy who has been many times described as a genius, the truth is he is not very far off.
The first half of this album is particularly impressive, it is a kind of Abbey Road medley but coming from a much more disturbed mind, with the use of all kinds of instruments which weren't really big in Beatles times. Still, the second half of the album has some of the most beautiful songs here. It is not an easy listen, but it is definitely one which more than rewards close listening.
Todd comes across as slightly schizoid throughout the album, but because he revels in this variety of sounds and the insanity of it all it just benefits the album. If you liked Something/Anything? you can probably like this after close listening. But don't for a second imagine it to be an easy listen, but a very, very rewarding one. I loved it. Get it from Amazon UK or US.
Track Highlights
1. Tic Tick Tick It Wears Off 2. Zen Archer 3. Is It My Name 4. Just One Victory
Final Grade
10/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
The album, and especially the first side of the vinyl recording, is an extended medley after the fashion of The Beatles' late recordings; brief songs segue into one another, and the lyrics are frequently humorous or hallucinatory. The first side features a cover version of "Never Never Land" from the Broadway version of Peter Pan; the second side features a much-applauded medley of covers of doo-wop and bubblegum soul hits. Its length (55:56) pushed the limits of just how much music could fit on a long-player record (LP); as a result, the sound quality of this LP is usually less-than-stellar. The compact disc version avoids these difficulties.
Just One Victory... but it can't replicate the amazing overdubbing on the album:
Monday, June 11, 2007
287. Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells (1973)
Track Listing
1. Part One 2. Part Two
Review
Whatever your opinion on this album it was definitely an important happening in the music world of 1973 and subsequent years. This is one of those albums I discovered in some old tapes of my father when I was about 13 and going through a New Age phase, it made an impression then.
It still makes an impression now but not for the same reasons and not such a positive impression. The album is lacking a centre, it is pretentious and not very competently done. That said you have to admire Oldfield's spurt of originality here, although it was probably his only one as he rehashed the same formula for the next 30 something years, with the exception of the best forgotten pop-period with such hits as To France and Moonlight Shadow. There are moments here which are genuinely beautiful the last part of Part One and the next to last of Part Two come to mind, but it is overall a plodding pretentious work of someone who seems to consider himself a genius, forgetting that Todd Rundgren had already done an album where he played all the instruments in Something/Anything? .
In the end it is worth listening to so you can see where Richard Branson made his first big bucks for Virgin and for some nice parts, you might also like it if you associate the first part of Part One with the Exorcist, but that is extraneous to the music itself which is almost never above middling. Get it at Amazon UK or US.
Track Highlights
1. Part One
Final Grade
6/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
Tubular Bells is the album most identified with Oldfield and the reverse may be true as well as he has frequently returned to it in later works. The opening passage of the title track on the album Crises is clearly derived from the opening of Tubular Bells. The opening is also quoted directly in the song "Five Miles Out" from the album of the same name and the song also features his "trademark" instrument, "Piltdown Man" (referring to his singing like a caveman, first heard on Tubular Bells).
Tubular Bells stayed in the British charts for over five years, reaching the number 1 spot after more than a year and taking there for one week the place of his second album, Hergest Ridge, thereby becoming one of only three artists in the UK to knock himself off the first spot. It sold more than two million copies in the UK alone and according to some reports 15 to 17 million copies worldwide. The album went gold in the USA and Mike Oldfield received a Grammy Award for the best Instrumental Composition in 1975.
Here you go a bit of Tubular Bells for your enjoyment:
or US
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