Tags
AFI, Eugene B Sims, Eugeology, Funkadelic, Jon Lowder, KISS, Lou Reed, Love, NME, Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums
Salutations™!!
Well, it’s a new year. Last year around the new year, I finished two long-time lists, The Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums of All Time and the 400 nominations for the AFI 100 Years… 100 Movies. Again, those were long, drawn-out treks. The movies list took almost nine years and the RS list was a three-year jaunt. Lots of hours spent in that. One day I may add up the run times of each film and each album to see how much time those actually took. I’m really curious.
©NME
Then, this past year, I did Eugeology: Eugene’s List of Hard Rock Albums and Possible Gems where Eugene and Jon and I listened to a random list of 50 hard rock albums that Eugene thought were fantastic and perhaps lesser known to everyday music folk. I finished it in almost perfect time. Eugene got somewhere barely over half done and Jon never made it to half. Oh well.
Now, the point is, Dear Reader, you know that I do lists. That’s how I operate. Eug jokes that the only way to get me to do something is to put it on a list or let it involve a streak and watch me burn through it. He’s not far off from the truth, there.
I feel I need to explain this again, but I’m always asked why I have to have lists, why can’t I just listen to stuff? I’ll condense it and say that where I grew up there were no top 40 or pop music radio stations until at least 1982 and at that, it was a limited playlist. We didn’t have MTV and I really had no access to the plethora of music that was out there. My father listened only to what we now know as “classic country” and my mother listened to Leslie Gore and gospel stuff. She isn’t really a “musical person.” I spent most of my time, ages 8 until around 12/13, listening to nothing but KISS. I don’t regret that, but I do wish I had more knowledge of the rest of musicdom.
As I said at the beginning, it’s a new year. And, since I’m out of lists that I was already working on, well, I need another. So, I was looking through some Google searches and came across a few lists but the one that I think is manageable right now is NME’s 101 Albums to Hear Before You Die. I will figure out how to structure the listen. I know for the RS list I did 10 at a time and with Eug’s list we did one a week. I don’t know, just yet, how I’m going to approach it. I know that about half of the albums on that are on the RS list in different spots (obviously) but there are some out there things that I’ve never even heard of. You never know I may find the next Forever Changes (Love), Maggot Brain (Funkadelic) or Berlin (Lou Reed) on this list. Or, I may find the stuff too out there for me and abandon it. We’ll see. I know that NME has a 500 of all time, too. Who knows. I have the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (2011 edition) book and there’s a website with the whole list including all editions. You never know I may pick all of those. For now, however, I’m going to say the NME list is what I pick. You’ll see how it works out because I know you read every day, right? Right.
Until tomorrow, same blog channel…
Scorp out!
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“Lists are how I parse and manage the world.” – Adam Savage
I went downstairs to the Library Bar and awaited my witness and our planner; they were a package. I removed my jacket to get more comfortable. I was offered a drink and chose my favorite libation of them all, Grand Marnier. It came in a quaint snifter and was warm and sweet and allowed me to close my eyes for a second and take in the situation. George, my witness, and his wife Kimmie, our planner, came in and introduced themselves and told me how things were going to work. Kimmie had me put a Boutonnière in the jacket lapel. I was then met by the registrar who went over the pertinent info and explained what to expect. I nodded and agreed.
I looked down at the box and the faintly sparkling stones sitting within it and said, “I got a ring…?” She finally said, “yes!” Whew, I thought I was going to fall over. I thought I had all this figured out. I thought there was no way she’d say no. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. She said yes. Yes. YES! Cap’n Ron announced what had happened. We were
with, I wish that I had. I really, really like this. It’s beautiful, it’s hard, it’s fresh (even 50 years later) and it’s sad. It’s easy to listen to and melodic. The production is slick and the orchestration, lush. Love, it turns out, was the first rock band to sign with Elektra Records. I was thrilled to find out that a few of the tracks on the album were accompanied by Wrecking Crew folks: Carole Kaye (bass), Billy Strange (guitar) and Hal Blaine (drums) all played on “Andmoreagain” and “The Daily Planet,” while Don Randi (piano) played on those same two songs and “Bummer in the Summer.” This is perfect late-60s psychedelia and fits that mold quite well. It’s also a bit weird. I mean the song “Live and Let Live” talks about snot caking on his pants and it’s hardened into a crust of crud. All this in what I can only figure is a metaphor for bureaucratic baloney, but isn’t it all bureaucratic baloney? I believe that it is. Some of my favorite things on this are “Alone Again Or,” “Andmoreagain,” “The Red Telephone,” “Live and Let Live” and “You Set the Scene” (although that one went on a bit long). I haven’t heard of it before but I dug it!
favorite Beatles album; nowhere near, but it’s darn fine. I dug it!
down on the list, really. The songs are all well written (three co-written by her ex-husband Gerry Goffin, two with lyricist Toni Stern). The musicianship is immaculate, as well. She’s a great pianist and the accompanists are tight and near perfect while still keeping the feel of the album groovy. Even a song that gets on my nerves like you wouldn’t believe, “You’ve Got a Friend,” I love when she does it (it’s James Taylor’s version I get annoyed with). James Taylor plays on almost every song, too. He’s playing acoustic guitar and singing backup on most of it. If you’re wondering the name of the cat on the cover, it’s Telemachus. I can’t say exactly what it is about this album that I love so much. I just know that the first time I listened to it, I listened to it three times in a row and all without doing anything else other than reading lyrics to the songs. I really love this album. I bought it used on vinyl from my buddy Jonathan at Underdog Records but it had a lot of skips. He hasn’t located me another used copy, yet. It’s hard to say what my faves are because I love them all, but I’ll go with “Where You Lead” (I am a Gilmore Girls fan after all), “So Far Away,” “I Feel the Earth Move,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” and “It’s Too Late.” Again, I love this album. And, again, it should have been higher.
timey jug band. At least after the first side, I didn’t have to hear Helm doing lead. For whatever reason, this time listening to “The Weight” made me hear the song in a different light. I liked “Wheel’s on Fire,” “Chest Fever” and “We Can Talk.” Really, overall it wasn’t a bad album at all. Some of it even reminded me of The Beatles. I dug it, surprisingly.
seven and a half minute opus, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” I said it was better than Beggar’s and I’ll stick with that, but I’ll say it was just by a skosh. Meh (except for “You Can’t Always…,” and “Gimme Shelter.”)