Salutations™!!
Today is the 46th anniversary of Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions album and it contains my favorite Stevie tune, which Project Soul here does a great cover of. I’m off to call a football game. Enjoy!
Until tomorrow, same blog channel…
Scorp out!
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“A boy is born in “Hard Time,” Mississippi. Surrounded by four walls that ain’t so pretty. His parents give him love and affection to keep him strong moving in the right direction. Living just enough, just enough for the city.” – “Livin’ for the City” (Wonder)
wheelhouse. We just have gotten to know more about the music. Our summer Sundays on the lawn include dialing up some JM on Pandora and letting it play through. It wasn’t always her but when it was, we really enjoyed it. This was a catalyst for the whole modern singer-songwriter movement. Some people that guested on the album are James Taylor on three songs and Stephen Stills who played bass on the whole album. He does impressive work, too. I’m not quite sure what was going on, or the effect they were trying for during “This Flight Tonight” but it’s weird. I don’t not like it, it’s just weird. The title track is one of my faves from this album and “California.” Joni is a definite storyteller. It’s not just songwriting for the sake of writing a song, she has something to say and the lyrics are a vivid tale, not just rhyming babble. I like her piano playing, too. It’s simple but effective. “All I Want, “A Case of You” and “River” are also great tunes. I dug it!
Times” and “Your Time is Gonna Come.” Understanding the importance and significance of this album is key. I’d rate Zep II or IV in front of this album on the list, if it were me. But, I still dig it good bit.
reminds me of a time when I hated U2 (what I knew of them) because it wasn’t the other pop drivel I had come to love. I know better, now, considering them one of my top 10 acts, if not top 5. It doesn’t have a bad song on it. I LOVE this album.
bombastic, energetic and loud. This was early, I get it, but it just wasn’t fun to listen to, history and significance be darned. I just didn’t care for it. I did like “Night Train,” so there’s that.
Spector plays piano on “Love,” which is a little bit of fresh air after all the depressing songs that precede it. I was thrown off by the little instrumental interlude before the end of the song; the song disappeared and came back. “Well Well Well” is just an abundance of screaming. I can’t find any redeeming qualities about it, really. Billy Preston plays piano on “God” where Lennon pretty much questions everything and I can’t blame him for that. It’s a beautiful song, though, musically. And the album ends as morbidly as it starts and keeps with the sad theme, “My Mummy’s Dead.” I like John Lennon. He’s never been my favorite Beatle, or even my second fave, probably. I’m used to his stuff being better than this. That doctor (and Yoko) really messed him up. Other than a few flashes, I really couldn’t get into this album. For the three or four songs I did like, I’ll say I dug it, but just barely.
absolutely nothing about them. In fact, other than maybe in passing, I’ve never even heard of them. Yes, I know that floors you, Dear Reader, and yet, comes as no surprise, whatsoever. All that said, I really wish I still didn’t know who it was and I really wish I hadn’t heard this. I remember being in high school, having only played the bass for about 2 years and getting together with a bunch of other high school musicians who also hadn’t played very long and never in a “band.” What we pulled out of our arses noodling around on instruments we barely knew our way around sounded 800x better than this. The mere fact that Frank Zappa had anything to do with it makes me question my respect for him and that was spotty to begin with. I did some research to find out more about the album before I passed harsh judgement but nothing in my readings made me feel any better about this. All I read was about how important it is and how the Magic Band was a “well-rehearsed” band for these recordings. The construction site across from the studio makes better music than this when they’re running the cement mixer, running a brick saw, riveting aluminum studs and hauling stuff around the building on heavy equipment. This is an hour+ that I will never get back. I don’t care about the “importance” of it, it sucks. Pure and simple. It’s gawd-awful. The fact that it’s on this list at all, much less Top 60? That is an atrocity. There’s no explaining to me how important or fantastic it is, because no matter the significance, there’s no changing that I got a headache from it and wanted to step in front of a passing city bus while and after listening to it. I hated this.
sat this high, in my opinion. I’ve never made it a secret that I don’t like the bluesier stuff. This was a return to their roots (read: more blues) than the nearest previous stuff. To ME, this is less Stones than I’m used to. I know, too, that it was the last album released while Brian Jones was alive. So, there’s some kind of creepiness there, although I’m used to hearing stuff from people who have passed on. I remember listening to Pearl, it was creepy knowing that Janis had died after recording it, even one song instrumental because she died mere days before the scheduled vocal session. Creepy. Okay, sorry. To me, this album drags, almost the whole time. I like “Sympathy for the Devil” (one of my favorite Stones songs) and “Street Fighting Man.” But, the rest, meh. I can look back on this entire list and find almost any other Stones album and put it before this one. I’m not saying it doesn’t belong on the list, I get its importance. I just think most of the other albums on this list should, could or would be higher. Even the last that we listened to, Sticky Fingers, much better album than this. Tattoo You, Some Girls, all should have been higher than this, certainly higher than they were. I don’t get it, other than that roots mess. Meh, at best.
instruments but most of the instrumentation was done by him. Of course, he had guest players and this there was a great deal of them: “Maniac” Mike Sambello, Nathan Watts, Raymond Pounds, George Benson, Minnie Riperton, Herbie Hancock, just to name a few. The guest list was extensive. It’s jazz, it’s rock, it’s R&B, it’s soul, it’s everything. Great ballads, jammy jazz riffs and swinging horn sections, oh yeah! “Sir Duke.” ‘Nuff said with that. Well, maybe not ’nuff said. This album would be worth it alone just for that tune. Luckily, there’s a shload more on here to enjoy in addition. How in the world did I not know that Coolio totally ripped off Stevie with “Pastime Paradise?” I was like what the heck is that!? And, Coolio had any room to get upset when ‘Weird Al’ used “Gangsta Paradise” as one of his parodies? Yeah, perhaps he had permission from Stevie to use it, but still, it was only partly his to complain about. This version is the best of all of them, I say. I have to say, too, that synth basses in 1976 were actually more advanced than I realized. Stevie plays the crap out of it, too. The runs are like someone actually playing bass. When it is bass, it’s Nathan Watts.”I Wish,” “Isn’t She Lovely” and “Joy Inside My Tears” are some of my faves on this album. I have the video for the Classic Albums series on this album. I’ll have to break that out and watch it again. Great album from a great artist! DUG!
and “Money Honey.” This was the first rock and roll record to sell one million copies, which makes sense since it was one the first rock records. I dug it!
Garfunkel. Another album released in the year of my birth, 1970, this one is older, by 10 months. It’s the fifth album and is the swan song for the duo, each going their own way. I’m thinking it was a bit contentious, who’s with me? The album starts with the sweet “lean on me” themed title track. There were rumors that the song was about drugs (“silver girl”), but it wasn’t. Apparently, it’s about Peggy, Paul Simon’s then-wife. I love the overall feel of this album. There’s tension and there are times you can sense it but even with the deteriorating relationship of the duo going on they’re able to keep it together and make it work, even renting a house in L.A. while Art was filming Catch-22. They experimented with sounds and effects, much used during the song “Cecilia,” which is one of my favorite S&G tunes. “The Boxer,” another fave, is probably the one that took the longest to record. From what I understand, it started in 1968 and was recorded in several places over the course of almost two years. While he was the more prolific of the two, I think Paul Simon was jealous of the growing popularity of Art Garfunkel. “The Only Living Boy in New York” was the product of feeling lonely in NYC while Art was filming in Mexico. The last tune on the album, “Song for the Asking,” from what I’ve read, was like Simon and Garfunkel, each trying to reconcile and keep the channels open for future opportunities to work together. I believe they only did spot reunions after that. A landmark album that instead of boosting the duo was the sunset for them. Simon, of course, went on to monster success as a solo guy and Art didn’t do too bad, as far as I can tell. It’s a great album. Great, well-written tunes and it’s S&G, hard to go wrong with that, yeah? DUG!