Bayou Country, Creedence Clearwater Revival

Retrospective Review

Bayou Country, Creedence Clearwater Revival, 1969, :34

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

CCR's double-platinum second album is another masterpiece.  Every song, every note is fire on this disc.  A lot of people assume "Proud Mary" is a blues standard.  Nope, it was written by John Fogerty.  There is a cover on this album, though; it's "Good Golly, Miss Molly," made famous by Little Richard.  CCR's version is just as blistering and raw.  To me there are no skips on this record; even the nearly nine-minute "Graveyard Train," a plodding, swampy, languid blues, is delivered with enough growl to keep you listening.  Favorite tracks: "Born On the Bayou," "Bootleg," "Penthouse Pauper."

Excitable Boy, Warren Zevon

Excitable Boy, Warren Zevon, :31

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

This is almost a Retrospective Review, but I have never heard this album in its entirely.  And what an album, just a solid rocker from start to finish!  Zevon's third album has nine tracks (in its original form) and of those nine, four are absolute, five-star classics of black humor.  With "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner," "Werewolves of London," the macabre title track, and "Lawyers, Guns, and Money" on here, the rest of the album could be recordings of Zevon belching and it still would rank as an all-time classic.  I don't know if Zevon intended these songs to amplify and lampoon typical masculine tropes, but that's how I read them, and either way, they rock.  Favorite tracks that were new to me until now: "Accidentally Like a Martyr," "Johnny Strikes Up the Band."

Hums Of the Lovin' Spoonful, Lovin' Spoonful

Hums Of the Lovin' Spoonful, Lovin' Spoonful, 1966, :27

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

The third album by one of the very best hippie folk-rock bands of the early 1960s.  Despite its absurdly brief length, it's startling how many absolute classics it boasts.  Now, apparently with this disc the lads were attempting to try their hand in as many styles and genres as possible, rather than simply making the best Lovin' Spoonful record they could.  The result is an album that is, a little bit uneven, but even the experiments which don't work, like "Bes' Friends" aren't bad, per se, just somewhat disappointing in comparison.  Even jokey toss-offs like "4 Eyes" and "Henry Thomas" (about a dog the singer's "cat dragged in") are toe-tappers.  Favorite tracks: "Summer in the City," "Darlin' Companion," "Rain On the Roof," "Nashville Cats," "Coconut Grove."

Labour Of Lust, Nick Lowe

Labour Of Lust, Nick Lowe, 1979, :39

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Elvis Costello's idol and collaborator is not someone I ever paid attention to much, despite being a superfan of the Little Hands of Concrete.  This is yet another in a series of albums that showed my I came to my senses much too late.  This is a spectacular album, full of wit, pop hooks, and occasional weirdness.  I loved the eclectic virtuosity of the album, from swaggering pub rock to crooning ("You Make Me") New Wave pop to country-rock ("Without Love") to modern folk (Endless Grey Ribbon").  "Switchboard Susie" is a litany of telephone-related sexual double entendres; I was hugely tickled by the wit it displays, and so was somewhat disappointed to find out it's a cover song.  Favorite tracks: "Cruel To Be Kind," "American Squirm," "Switchboard Susan," "Without Love."

A Nod Is As Good As a Wink To a Blind Horse, Faces

A Nod Is As Good As a Wink... To a Blind Horse, Faces, 1971, :36

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

I've been a lifelong fan of Rod Stewart (but not his later, AOR shite) but have never ever heard anything by his early group, Faces.  Why?  Just a stubborn old codger, I guess.  Well, that was a mistake.  Some of Rod's strongest vocal work backed by a cracking band!  Ronnie Wood!  Youthful energy and leering innuendos!  It's just a superb example of early British rock.  I could do without the cover of Chuck Berry's "Memphis," as it adds nothing to the song and only proves that the lads aren't as rollicking as the king of rock.  Favorite tracks: "Miss Judy's Farm," "Stay With Me" (which I always knew only as a Rod track), "That's All You Need," the very solo-Rod-esque "Too Bad."

Fetch the Bolt Cutters, Fiona Apple

It's the title word count-up to ten! Four words.

Fetch the Bolt Cutters, Fiona Apple, 2020, :52

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Well-known or being one of the very few perfect score albums on Pitchfork. I'm a big fan of When the Pawn, so I was looking forward to this. It does not disappoint. I don't know if it's deliberate, but Apple overcomes her somewhat limited range (most of her songs rattle along at a bump-pa-PUM, bump-pa-PUM pace) in that everything comes out sounding like percussion: the piano, handclaps, bass. Tribal songs and schoolyard chant rhythms influence her vocal delivery, which is also percussive. It all feels and sounds like Apple is lambasting you around the head with words and snark and anger and internal rhyme and more words. It's quite brilliant. The album contains multitudes. Just dig this one verse: "While I'd not yet found my bearings / Those It Girls hit the ground / Comparing the way I was to the way she was / Sayin' I'm not stylish enough and I cry too much / And I listened because I hadn't found my own voice yet / So all I could hear was the noise / That people make when they don't know shit / But I didn't know that yet." This is real talk for the girls and other kids who need to hear it. Hell, I'm an old man, and I'm still learning. Favorite tracks: "I Want You To Love Me," "Ladies," "Relay," "Cosmonauts," "For Her."

Fanny Hill, Fanny

It's Womyn Week! 

Fanny Hill, Fanny, 1972, :42

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

I've never heard of this group, and that's a shame!  They deserve to be better known.  With infectious harmonies and catchy hooks, they should have had more than four years in the spotlight.  There's a variety of styles here.  "Knock on My Door" sounds like a lost ABBA track, while "Blind Alley" is blistering Southern boogie-woogie rock, and "You've Got a Home" is all soft vocals.  And there's a version of "Hey Bulldog" with new lyrics.  Throughout, this album is toe-tapping, enthusiastic energy and talent!  Favorite tracks: the terrific rendition of "Ain't That Peculiar" (which boasts Beatles-like harmonies and a sizzling slide guitar), "Wonderful Feeling," "Hey Bulldog," "Sound and the Fury."

Here's Little Richard, Little Richard

It's black Music month!

Here's Little Richard, Little Richard, 1957, :29

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

The debut album of the man who, along with Chuck Berry, can most fairly be described as an inventor of rock and roll.  The Penniman whoop and wail, the fuzzy guitar, the sultry sax, the crashing drums: every song announces that Little Richard is going to fly rock's freak flag high. The unrelenting staccato buzz of "Jenny Jenny" is garage before there was garage.  Good gawd!  Favorite tracks: Slipping' and Sliding' (Peepin' and Hidin')," "Tutti Frutti," "Rip It Up," "Jenny, Jenny."

Where Did Our Love Go, the Supremes

It's Black music month!

Where Did Our Love Go, the Supremes, 1964, :30 

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Though it's a little dated in parts, content-wise ("his every wish is my command" type mooning over boys), the music is ultra-catchy girl-group perfection. Every song is a toe-tapping bit of vocal virtuosity. Favorite tracks: "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes," "Where Did Our Love Go," "Baby Love," 'Come See About Me," "Your Kiss Of Fire"… It's all so good.

A Love Supreme, John Coltrane

It's Black Music Month!

A Love Supreme, John Coltrane, 1965, :32

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

It really doesn't get any better than this.  I love the insistent drumming that begins the third track, "Pursuance."  From the cymbal wash at the start to the front and center talking tenor sax that dominates part four, this is just a complete, perfect jazz experience.  Favorite tracks: well, it's a through-composed suite so it's really all one piece of music, but if I were making a Coltrane sampler and had to break it up, I'd be sure to include fully half of this album, "Part III: Pursuance" and "Part IV: Psalm."

Honky Chateau, Elton John

Continuing the alphabet of albums, H is for Hits! 

Honky Chateau, Elton John, 1972, :48

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

This is another album that I actually have heard and even own but that deserves a solid listen front to back a couple times in a row. The bloated and somewhat ridiculous (but of course damned catchy) "Rocket Man" dominates, so I tend to miss stuff like the absolutely gorgeous "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters," and the rocking "Honky Cat." But what of the hidden gems that aren't classic rock staples?  Favorite tracks in addition to the hits: "Susie (Dramas)" hits hard, "Salvation" is beautiful, and the funky blues "Amy" would have gotten a lot more attention were it not on an entire album of brilliant, bewildering, rocking songs. This might be John's best album.

We Shall All be Healed, Mountain Goats

Currently doing one album for each year, 1960-2020. Today: 2004.

We Shall All be Healed, Mountain Goats, 2004, :44

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 

I knew almost nothing about the Mountain Goats when I started this one up; I'd heard a couple of songs and enjoyed them.  Judging from this album, they're pretty clearly a one-man operation.  This is a song cycle loosely based around some friends of the singer who got strung out on heroin.  It's an enthralling, literate, unflinching, and dazzling set of songs.  Singer and mastermind John Darnielle sounds like Phil Ochs leading the Decembrists, Collin Meloy if he were writing true life stories rather than fantasies.  It's sad and sharp and uncompromising.  Favorite tracks: "Letter From Belgium," "The Young Thousands," "Against Pollution."

The Feeding of the 5000, Crass

Currently doing one album for each year, 1960-2020. Today: 1979.

The Feeding of the 5000, Crass, 1979, :31

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Holy fuckballs!  Where has this band been all my life?  From the utterly-shocking-even-in-2020 gratuitous spoken-word blasphemy of the first track, to the inexorable proto-Clash machine gun bass and guitar, to the denunciation of sexual politics on the female-bellowed "Women," to the anti-war chants, to the social rebellion of the last track ("Do they owe us a living? Course they do, course they fucking do"), this is pure punk.  A less melodic, angrier, and more vulgar Clash, they rail against all organized religion, the military-industrial complex, private prisons, war, Thatcher, and every other authority.  In true punk fashion, they also include a personal complaint, about being "Banned From the Roxy."  These guys should have taken over the fucking world.  Apparently later they moved closer to something like a feminist art collective.  Their third album was called Penis Envy!  Truly, the world was not worthy of Crass.  A lot of people I know would hate this.  To me it's the antidote to the infected tattoo on the face of music that is David Lee Roth.  I could listen to it on repeat several times in a row.  Could, and did.  Favorite tracks: "Do They Owe Us a Living?," "So What" ("So what if the master walked on the water / I don't see him trying to stop the slaughter"), "General Bacardi."

After the Gold Rush, Neil Young

Currently doing one album for each year, 1960-2020. Today: 1970.

After the Gold Rush, Neil Young, 1970, :34

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

I generally like Neil Young well enough, but came to his music mostly through his later material like Freedom and Harvest Moon (aside from the classic rock radio standards, of course). On this album we hear a young Young, his voice higher, his spirit a little less ragged.  His fierce streak of independence and his refusal to censor his voice are already proudly on display, however.  This is a career-making album, the kind that can keep an artist's reputation solid for decades. There's very few the heavy-handed maudlin lyrics of his later period (like on the leaden "Natural Beauty").  What we do get are thoughtful, earnest messages like "Southern Man" and "After the Gold Rush."  But also love songs and (yes, at times) some dreamy, maybe-druggy-not-very-sensical lyrics. But there's a revelatory remake of "Oh, Lonesome Me" that shows that Young has power as an interpreter as well.   Favorite tracks: "After the Gold Rush," "Southern Man."  Favorites that are new to me: "Tell me Why," "Cripple Creek Ferry."

Aretha Now, Aretha Franklin

Currently doing one album for each year, 1960-2020. Today: 1968.

Aretha Now, Aretha Franklin, 1968, :29

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

I haven't heard a lot of Aretha beyond the hits everyone has heard, but this is just a stunning soul album,  scorching and energetic from start to finish. She takes "The Night Time is the Right Time" and remakes it into something her own, and even breathes new life into "You Send Me."  The sheer power of her voice and her ability to inhabit a song are astonishing.  Favorite tracks: "Think," "I Say a Little Prayer," "You're a Sweet Sweet Man."

With the Beatles, the Beatles

Currently doing one album for each year, 1960-2020. Today: 1963.

With the Beatles, the Beatles, 1963, :33

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

The second Beatles album. I’ve never actually heard this album all the way through. In fact, I think I have never so much as heard maybe six of these songs, ever. Some Beatles fan I am! In my opinion, the Beatles' godlike songwriting skills tend to overshadow their very solid interpretation ability. They should get more credit for it.  Their rollicking "Please Mr. Postman" overshadows the original, and even Chuck Berry and Smokey Robinson's material, if not definitively redone, are given a bold new energy by these four daring lads from Liverpool.  Some favorite tracks: "I Wanna Be Your Man," "It Won’t Be Long," "Hold Me Tight," "You Really Got a Hold On Me."

Talking Heads: 77, Talking Heads

It's Finally-Got-Around-to-It-Friday!  Wherein I discover a classic that everyone else already knows about.

Talking Heads: 77, Talking Heads, 1977, :38

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

I've been a Talking Heads (and David Byrne) fan for a long time.  A long time.  And yet, I never got around to listening to much of their debut album.  What a waste of three decades!  This album remains today so disjointed, so strange, so punk in its ethos and New Wave in its sound, that it must have sounded positively Martian when it was released.  Syncopated rhythms, funky choppy bass, Byrne's staccato yelping, his lyrics gazing puzzled at the daily life of other people through the small end of a telescope. "Don't expect me to explain your indecisions / Go talk to your analyst, isn't that what they're paid for?" I don't think anyone else in music (except maybe Loudon Wainwright, and he'd be doing it self-referentially) would voice such thoughts.  And nobody else would chirp "Oh the boys want to talk / Would like to talk about those problems / And the girls say they're concerned / Concerned with decisiveness / And it's a hard logic to follow / And the girls get lost / And the boys say they're concerned." Presumably, when Byrne finishes his study of humanity he will ascend back to his home in the stars.  Favorite tracks: "Tentative Decisions," "Psycho Killer," "Pulled Up."

Fear, John Cale

Fear, John Cale, 1974, :40

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Some say that John Cale has an uninspiring singing voice.  But I love his deadpan Welsh rasp.  And those gorgeous melodies and enigmatic, poetic, unsettling lyrics!  Cale played a lot of the instruments, but Brian Eno's synths are not to be ignored.  I knew "Fear is a Man's Best Friend" as a Billy Bragg song long before I discovered the Cale original; but this is the better version.  Even if Cale hadn't been in the Velvet Underground, he'd still be one of the great artists of the 1970s based solely on this album.  Favorite tracks: "Fear Is a Man's Best Friend," "Buffalo Ballet," "Barracuda."

Astral Weeks, Van Morrison

It's Finally-Got-Around-to-It-Friday!  Wherein I discover a classic that everyone else already knows about.

Astral Weeks, Van Morrison, 1968, :47

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

I've listened to this album before, all the way through, once, and I didn't get into it.  I've heard a few of the songs separately since then, and still nothing  But this time, this album finally got through to me.  Maybe all the jazz I've been listening to helped me hear it.  It's hard to say anything about this album.  That upright bass, leading the band, and Van's voice somehow magically blended together in a way that is very rare.  I read that Van hated the strings which were added later, but I think they lend an unearthly quality to the songs, as if they aren't jazz or folk or rock, but some heretofore unheard-of blend. This album takes you into the mystic and you're real real gone.  Like a sort of enlightenment, and it stones you.  Or the healing has begun, and ye get healed.  Favorite tracks: "The Way Young Lovers Do," "Sweet Thing."

Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd

It's Finally-Got-Around-to-It-Friday!  Wherein I discover a classic that everyone else already knows about.

Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd, 1973, :42

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Being a Classic Rock Guy from a young age, I’ve heard most of these songs at one time or another (I'm sure "Time" and "Money" are played on the radio at any given point on the globe 24 hours a day), but not all at once, in this order, and probably I’ve never heard the last three tracks. I started listening thinking I knew what my reaction would be: oh, Pink Floyd, not my thing, shoe gazing noodling, this album does have some great songs but it’s way over-hyped. Turned out I was wrong. I revise my opinion. Listening to it all at once, on headphones, in order? This blows your mind, man. I like the spoken word pieces that fade in and out, the chopped and scattered sounds, the way the songs segue into one another — everything, all the “concept album” features that have become so commonplace and trite since. Yes this is a five star album. It definitely sets a mood. “Any Colour You Like” is guitar noodling, yes, but not dreamy, indulgent, psychedelic noodling. It’s an energetic sort of noodling. Don’t forget the headphones! Favorite tracks: “Time,” “Money,” “Us and Them.” Favorite unheard tracks: “Brain Damage,” “Eclipse.”