1001+ Albums: 60s Block 7

1001+ Albums:

60s Block 7

Highway 61 Revisited

   Artist: Bob Dylan

   Year: 1965

       That opening drum bang, kicking the door in, is the sound of an icon becoming a legend. It's a perfect song, one Rolling Stone magazine (partially named after it) called the greatest of all time. It lives up to that title. There is no wrong note, no wrong moment, everything fitting perfectly but feeling absolutely spontaneous at the same time. The rest of the album is pretty spectacular, it's slightly unfair that it's essentially eclipsed by the cataclysm that is "Like A Rolling Stone". Dylan has almost totally left folk in the dust (save for the epic eleven minute finale of "Desolation Row"), totally embracing the rock star. If it weren't for this change, Dylan's legacy would still be secure, his original folk singer persona being that enduring and strong. But it's this phase, almost a second career kickstart (along with Bringing It All Back Home, but this is where he really blew the hinges off) that would turn him into one of the greatest musical artists of all time.

   Rating: A

Mr. Tambourine Man

   Artist: The Byrds

   Year: 1965

       The title track: I think I mostly resent turning a wistful, magically surreal head trip of a Dylan masterpiece into a pop song. Also the lead singers voice is so goddamn goofy! Every other song (which is also weird) it's just putting me off. I like the other sounds, the jangling guitars, but that voice I just cannot take seriously. It sounds like its either incredibly mocking and sarcastic, like whiney five year old, or he's disabled in some way. You can see the Dylan inspiration clearly, as they cover four of his songs, a third of the album. When they all sing together, it's actually pretty gorgeous, Beach Boys type harmonies. The overall sound is great, it's just those songs where that guy is singing by himself, in what, I think, is a purposefully put on voice. Like he's trying to emulate Dylan but coming across as nearly a cartoon Woody Allen at times, but mostly part of the cast of scooby-doo. Having heard this version of Mr. Tambourine Man, I was kind of dreading this album. But most of it is awesome, and I'm glad I heard it.

   Rating: B+

Rubber Soul

   Artist: The Beatles

   Year: 1965

       The breakthrough album, and a pretty good one by itself too, although to be honest, a bit overrated. There is a lot of great stuff here, but it is by no means perfect. Songs like "The Word", "What Goes On", "Wait", "You Won't See Me", "If I Needed Someone", and "Run For Your Life" are second and third tier songs, and while some are underrated, others are disregarded with fair cause. On the other hand, "In My Life", "I'm Looking Through You", "Drive My Car", and others are top rate Beatles. To me, it just doesn't match up as well compared to nearly everything after (maybe not Magical Mystery Tour or Let It Be). That is no insult though, in fact it's high praise considering how phenomenal the rest of their discography past this point is. What this album accomplishes is being the first that feels like a complete whole, something that every song involved, while not all brilliant, really fit the album well. When I listen to this, I think of being on the road, in fact I can almost smell gasoline and feel the heat on the seat of the car after it's been sitting in the sun. That in itself is quite impressive, creating an album with such a unique and undeniable feel. It's at the upper middle portion of the Beatles discography, which makes it pretty much a great album just by that.

   Rating: B+

Here Are the Sonics

   Artist: The Sonics

   Year: 1965

       It's like if punk rock happened in the 50s. The low grade production, the speed, the ferocity, the screaming all applied to "Roll Over Beethoven". I've found a lot of things going through the 1001: jazz, early rock, soul, and this is one of the coolest things on this road of discovery. Is it a great album? No, not really. Its just so original and not what I was expecting, easily a contender for the first punk band, certainly an influence on the genre. "Some folks like water/some folks like wine/but I like the taste/of straight strychnine." Thats pretty punk to me.

   Rating: B

My Generation

   Artist: The Who

   Year: 1965

       Speaking of punk rock origins, the title track of this is a good argument as well for the birth of the genre. Aside from a few standouts and that track, the rest is good but not great, with the occasional spot of not very good. I'm expecting greater things from the Who in the future, based upon their reputation and other more famous entries in the 1001.

   Rating: B-

1001+ Albums: 60s Block 6

1001+ Albums: 

60s Block 6

The Beach Boys Today!

   Artist: The Beach Boys

   Year: 1965

       White suburban beach teen problems, brought to the fore with beautiful harmonies and perfect pop melodies. Sometimes it is unbearably drenched in white picket privilege perfection and obliviousness that comes with an easy life and sweet nothingness. Not that all music has to reflect some kind of struggle or pain, but it is so blindingly innocent at times when compared to the sex and drugs and rock n' roll beginning to form all around at the time. It's so... teeny. You can argue that there isn't much to separate it from the early Beatles of the same era, but there is this thing that is impossible for me to articulate about the way this music comes off. It isn't even that it's shallow (although it is, but so is lots of the music I listen to). Maybe it's just the Beach Boys. It doesn't even sound bad, it just brings me to a place I find it hard to identify with. An attitude completely devoid and naive to anything in life except holdin' hands and dreaming about getting married. It feels hypocritical to say and then turn around and call A Hard Day's Night a great album, but there is something there that comes off as less childish than what comes out of this piece. All that being said, I still liked it. Maybe I connect more to the world of teenage dreams and schmaltzy adolescent sentiments than I'd be comfortable admitting.

   Rating: C+

Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul

   Artist: Otis Redding

   Year: 1965

       An excellent run through of soul classics. There are many better versions of these songs, "Respect" has it's definitive version with Aretha Franklin, "My Girl' with the Temptation, "Wonderful World" with Sam Cooke, and even surprisingly "Satisfaction" with the Rolling Stones. However, these are all strong covers by Redding, not touching these above versions, but being pretty damn good anyhow. The others I don't know how many of which are original and how many are covers, but they are just as good as the above mentioned tracks. Consistently solid soul throughout. Redding is a great singer singing great songs, and it's hard to go wrong with that. It is so very nearly an A-, but I have to be as sparing with those as I can (an A obviously ever more rare), and it's not quite that good. 

   Rating: B+

Live at the Star Club Hamburg

   Artist: Jerry Lee Lewis

   Year: 1965

       This is rollicking, raving, rockin' and rollin' music steam trained by an unstoppable and insatiable Jerry Lee Lewis on fire at the piano. It nearly never slows down or pauses, going at a jet pace and blazing a trail through every song like a great ball of fire itself. Making the blues red hot and rocking. 

   Rating: B

A Love Supreme

   Artist: John Coltrane

   Year: 1965

       Unexpected vocals for a brief few seconds, echoing the refrain "a love supreme". Another solid jazz album, a genre that I'm beginning to understand as on different level (let it be known not a better one, just a different one) when compared to rock or soul or blue or pop or what have you. It's more like classical music than the more sing along variety of music in the book. In fact, why is there no classical? I guess all the guys who did that stuff were dead by now. It's hard to interpret jazz. All there is is mood (which is often complex) and there are (usually) no lyrics to point you in any particular direction. It isn't always obviously sad or obviously upbeat, as is mostly the case with classical which I've just compared it to. It's abstract and sophisticated, sometimes I worry too sophisticated for me to fully understand. But I'm learning. What I do know is this has a powerful, understated, towering, rolling thunder finale. I can picture Coltrane standing on the tallest building, playing as storm clouds gather in the distance before the rain starts.

   Rating: B+

Bringing It All Back Home

   Artist: Bob Dylan

   Year: 1965

       A sign of things to come, if not quite the explosion that comes in the next album. Initially causing an uproar among folkies but soon being regarded as a masterpiece by everyone else, this is where Dylan plugged in his electric guitar and made one of the boldest transformations in rock history. It isn't as big a departure as it is said to be though. The politics are still there to an extent, just this time less blunt, more masked by lyricism and seemingly stream of consciousness songwriting. And on the second side he picks up the acoustic again, only this time singing less about the masters of war and more about the tambourine man. I wouldn't look too hard to analogies and enjoy the vision.

   Rating: A-

1001+ Albums: 60s Block 5

1001+ Albums:

60s Block 5

The Rolling Stones

   Artist: The Rolling Stones

   Year: 1964

       This is the sound of a band that shows promise, one that would emerge to be called one of the greatest of all times. At this point though, it's sloppy and spotty, and you can tell this is a group still finding its way more than anything. Blues filtered through a rock n roll mentality, or possibly vice versa, but most likely a little both ways. A couple good tracks, but also a lot that just don't work very well.

   Rating: B-

A Hard Day's Night

   Artist: The Beatles

   Year: 1964

       This is the Beatles first great album, as far as I'm concerned. What worked very, very well before simply transcends at this point. The flow of the songs is perfect, and so are many, in fact nearly all, of the songs themselves. 

   Rating: A-

Bert Jansch

   Artist: Bert Jansch

   Year: 1964

       It's hard not to compare every folk artist of the 60s with Dylan, but his shadow really is so large it is difficult to. Bert Jansch is actually pretty different in his style than Dylan. He is, for one, a better guitar player, a lot more picking and complex playing than Dylan's mostly strumming. And while it isn't really matching the visionary or social heights of Dylan's songwriting, it is still pretty well worded music, with at least a little political heft in some places.

   Rating: B

Live at the Regal
   Artist: BB King
   Year: 1965

       Not my favorite of the live albums I've listened to. There is certainly enough energy, but it never goes electric for me like Sam Cooke's or even as much as James Brown's (although, to be fair, that's probably my own fault and depends on the mood I'm in). The music is still good though, upbeat, fast blues.

   Rating: B


I've Got a Tiger By the Tail
   Artist: Buck Owens and His Buckeroos
   Year: 1965

       This isn't as terrible as the cover promises it will be. Don't take that as praise, it's still not very good, or to be fair, not my thing. I've heard worse country, but I've also heard definitely better too. It has a touch of rock with the electric guitar, but it's still through and through a country album.

   Rating: C-

1001+ Albums: 60s Block 4

1001+ Albums: 

60s Block 4

With the Beatles

   Artist: The Beatles

   Year: 1963

       Honestly, this isn't as good as their first LP, Please Please Me. I guess this is the one that rocketed them to fame, and while it's still pretty good, it doesn't have the consistency and sheer vibrancy of that earlier album. There are some classics here, but there are also so-so covers and filler. I didn't feel that as much listening to its predecessor. This is mostly slightly lackluster just because of the incredibly high standard for the band knowing what they will come to achieve in the future.

   Rating: B+

 

 
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
   Artist: Bob Dylan
   Year: 1963

       And with the first track, Bob Dylan changes the game for the first of two (arguably more, but inarguably to the same degree) times with an opening song on an album in the 1960s. That song is Blowin' In the Wind, and it is the spark that really ignited the career of a man who would later be deemed "the voice of his generation", a title Dylan never wanted and never asked for. It's hard not to see him in that light however when listening to his piece of perfect articulation and lyrical genius. 

   Rating: A-

A Girl Called Dusty

   Artist: Dusty Springfield

   Year: 1964

       Admittedly infectious pop, melodic and tuneful throughout. It always sounds nice, simple and sweet songs of love and other pop subjects and worries. Didn't really think I'd be in to this but I did find myself enjoying against my expectations.

   Rating: B

Olympia 64

   Artist: Jacques Brel

   Year: 1964

       Shouting in a language I can't understand. It might be okay if I didn't get the feeling that much of this is lyrically based (which doesn't work for me if the lyrics are in french), or if the singer had more a pleasant voice. 

   Rating: D

Rock N Soul

   Artist: Solomon Burke

   Year: 1964

       Not my kind of thing. His voice isn't as good as Brown or Cooke, and after listening to two good live soul albums, this one just looks less exciting in comparison. There are a few pretty good tracks but mostly they were just so-so. Don't know why you'd call it Rock N Soul, there's really not a lot of rock here (although, rock is kind of hard to define).

   Rating: C+

1001+ Albums: 60s Block 3

1001+ Albums:

60s Block 3

The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
   Artist: Charles Mingus
   Year: 1963

       This is making me want to go back and listen to those earlier jazz albums in the 1001 again, because I think I'm starting to get it now. This however, is nothing like what I'd before on those records. This is avant-garde, noisy, furious, chaotic jazz, with all kinds of sounds I didn't expect to hear. Incredibly expressive, and one of my favorites in the jazz genre so far. Sounds ahead of its time.

   Rating: B+

Live at the Apollo
   Artist: James Brown
   Year: 1963

       Pretty good, but not as affecting as Sam Cooke's live album the same year. Really like the cover art though. You can tell the difference in location by the way the crowds react in each album. In Cooke's, they are more involved, more raucous and lively. Here there are screams during the songs (and to be fair, enough throughout some of them to be quite alive, especially when Brown asks for it), but lacks the groove and exact there-ness of the other superior album.

   Rating: B-

A Christmas Gift for You
   Artist: Phil Spector
   Year: 1963

       I used to think I hated Christmas music. No, that isn't true. I fucking despise it. There's nothing else to say.

   Rating: D-





Live at the Harlem Square
   Artist: Sam Cooke
   Year: 1963

       A powerful and textured voice with nice tunes and good live atmosphere. Live albums tend to be a gamble, but this one pulls it off and you feel like part of the crowd, whom Cooke interacts with to a good extent without overdoing it. He gets everyone involved, including listeners fifty years later.

   Rating: B



Getz/Gilberto
   Artist: Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto
   Year: 1963

       A more chilled out version of Jazz Samba, also by Stan Getz, with vocals accompanying the other instruments. The vocals by Joao in particular are seductive and gently, quietly enrapturing, creating an elusively gorgeous companion to the background soft jazz and bossa nova.

   Rating: B

1001+ Albums: 60s Block 2

1001+ Albums:

60s Block 2

Sunday at the Village Vanguard
   Artist: Bill Evans

   Year: 1961

       The live aspect with the table chatter and clinking of glasses in the background is a nice touch. Just lay back with your eyes closed for this one or scan through the internet or a book. Very relaxing and just nice to listen to. 

   Rating: B+



Green Onions
   Artist: Booker T and the MGs
   Year: 1962

       The title track is essentially the definition of cool. The rest is more of the same kind of thing: organ driven jazz with a little rock and soul spirit. This is mostly a lesser version of the awesome green onions, more like white or red onions, not quite achieving that perfect green again. Not to say it isn't enjoyable though, or even pretty damn good.

   Rating: B

Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music
   Artist: Ray Charles
   Year: 1962

       Ray Charles doesn't seem to do it for me. As I can recall, probably a little better than his first album in the 1001, but still not my taste. I don't like that heavy orchestration, big band sound. A little too saccharine and sentimental. It is, to be fair, toned down a bit from the other album.

   Rating: C


Night Life
   Artist: Ray Price
   Year: 1962

       The introduction is funny (unintentionally so) and unnecessary. The 1001 albums book describes this as Nashville's answer to Sinatra's In the Wee Small Hours, and for me it seems to do the same thing to country music what that album did for me and Sinatra's big band swing type style: cooled it down with melancholy and therefore made it enjoyable. That's not to say it's as good as that album, because it's not. Just more enjoyable than most of the country I've listened to before on reviewing the 1001.

   Rating: B-


Jazz Samba
   Artist: Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd
   Year: 1962

       Cool hearing the guitar as a jazz instrument. I like my jazz light on the blaring horns, and this reflects my tastes rather well. It isn't calm, necessarily, but it isn't annoying or busy. It had me moving but also relaxed. Something I could dance to but also just chill out with, which is a combination I've found rare in jazz thus far. Makes me think of salsa. The food not the dance. But also the dance.

   Rating: B+

1001+ Albums: 60s Block 1

1001+ Albums:

60s Block 1

Elvis is Back!

   Artist: Elvis Presley

   Year: 1960

       Nowhere near as good as his earlier self titled album, but still not bad. There aren't as many classics as compared to that one, in fact maybe not at all. That doesn't stop it from being consistently solid though.

   Rating: B

A Date with the Everly Brothers

   Artist: Everly Brothers

   Year: 1960

       It starts hilariously with what looks like a father beginning to give his son "the talk", and while it ends up not going there, I got a kick out of the fact that they started their album with "My father looked at me one day and said "Son, it's plain to see
That you're getting older and should have a talk with me
You'll soon be going on lots of dates as to a man you grow
And there's one important thing every boy should know."
Anyway, as 50s rock will soon begin to give way to the folk scene, british invasion rock, and eventually psychedelics and hippie culture, this is a pretty solid last hit of good ole rock n' roll music in its earlier phase. It sounds very much like the 50s, and to be honest it shows no signs that this style is getting weak or old, despite what history tells us will happen to popular music in the next few years.

   Rating: B+

Back at the Chicken Shack

   Artist: Jimmy Smith

   Year: 1960

       The birth of soul jazz, or so the book tells me. Has a great groove to it and works well as nice background music for working. Cool stuff and easy listening, not like other types of jazz that may require a more acute ear to fully appreciate. Not that this is shallow music, just more laid back I'd say.

   Rating: B

Joan Baez

   Artist: Joan Baez

   Year: 1960

       Joan Baez has an incredible voice, but I found the line up of traditional folk songs, while still enjoyable, somewhat repetitive and lacking in the political punch from the one who's life was apparently dedicated to social change. It just doesn't have the originality or social power of Dylan, although it does sound lovely at times.

   Rating: C+

Miriam Makeba

   Artist: Miriam Makeba

   Year: 1960

       No doubt hers is a gorgeous voice, and the music is often just purely joyous. With the bells on some tracks sometimes sounds vaguely christmasy. In fact in ranges from everything from island sounding to some kind of holy religious thing with the backup deep male voices. When it sounds nice its nice, but sometimes the extra voices or certain instrumentations annoyed me. Also how do you do that click noise?

   Rating: B-

Muddy Waters at Newport

   Artist: Muddy Waters

   Year: 1960

       Mostly sounded the same throughout every song, but maybe that's what every genre tends to sound like on first listens, before you can pick out all the nuances. Good thing it all sounds pretty good.

   Rating: B

1001+ Albums: 1959

1001+ Albums: 1959

Album of the Year: Kind of Blue Best Album Cover
   Artist: Miles Davis

       Jazz better than anything I'd heard before. Just might mark the moment I really got the genre, although I still wouldn't call myself a diehard fan, I definitely have a newfound appreciation for the genre. It really has a gorgeous melancholy feeling throughout, and makes me feel more deeply than other jazz I've heard.

   Rating: A-

The Rest: 

Time Out

   Artist: Dave Brubeck Quartet

   Rating: B

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Gershwin Song Book
   Artist: Ella Fitzgerald
   Rating: C











Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs
   Artist: Marty Robbins
   Rating: D+












The Genius of Ray Charles
   Artist: Ray Charles
   Rating: C-