Six More Records
Simon & Garfunkel - Bookends (1968)
First, I want to apologize to S&G. Side two is a remarkable collection of songs, up there with the best sides in rock history, and I have gone 43 years without hearing it. Don't worry, I've already kicked my own ass.
"Fakin' It" is a great opener for side 2 and I instantly fell in love with its groove. "Punky's Dilemma" is a great follow up, although my copy has a scratch in it that covers the first half of the song.
"Mrs. Robinson" is simply one of the top 50 greatest rock and roll songs of all time and "Hazy Shade of Winter" is a late 60s firework display. The album closer, "At The Zoo" is what you'd expect from S&G, pleasant harmonies and quirky Simon lyrics.
Clocking in at a little over 29 minutes (29 minutes for two sides? what the?) their fourth album also contains the hit "America". Ask anyone over the age of 50 how long it took them to hitchhike from Saginaw, without a doubt they will tell you four days.
I am definately going to listen to this in the future, make up for lost time. Also, I will need to find a better copy, there are pops & clicks throughout both sides.
Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978)
Talking Heads second album is very much a continuation of their first, with one big difference. Brian Eno entered as co-producer. This was to be the first of three records with Eno and he made the decision to bring the rhythm section up front.
And what a glorious decision that was. The married bass-and-drums team of Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz are one of rock's best. Granite solid and danceable they made the perfect foundation for David Byrne's disjointed lyrics and the jagged staccato guitar attack of Jerry Harrison.
The bass-and-drum team drive the album's last two (and best) songs. The brilliant cover "Take Me to the River". Its hard to improve an Al Green song, but they do. Turning the r&b classic into a flowing cruise on a river of funk, a windows down, sing-along song that is one of the few covers that outshines the original.
"The Big Country", the album closer, is a lost Talking Heads classic and a poke at the 'fly over states'. The chorus is exactly what you'd expect from an art school punk who lived in New York in the 70s.
I wouldn't live there if you paid me
I wouldn't live like that, no siree
I wouldn't do the things the way those people do
I wouldn't live there if you paid me to
The high note the album closes on would continue onto their next record, the fabulous Fear of Music. Actually, I can't hear the last two songs on the record as there is a skip during the opening of "Take Me to the River" which makes the rest of the record unlistenable.
Genesis - A Trick of the Tail (1976)
The first Genesis album without Peter Gabriel. There's no single here, no real stand out track, just alot of good songs that create a solid album. I've listened to this records often in the 20 odd years I've owned it and I just realized I don't even own a digital copy.
Down to a quartet, they return to the sound before Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, pastoral fantasies that give the band places to expand. Eight songs, 51 minutes, but nothing longer than the 8:03 of "Ripples".
Standouts include the whooshing fuzz stomp of "Squonk" and the album's bookends; the opener "Dance on a Volcano" and the closing number "Los Endos". These two songs were constant during Genesis tours, even after they turned into the 3-piece hit spewing neutered beast that nearly destroyed rock music.
And I am not being too hard on Phil Collins, he has said this about his own career:
"I'm sorry that it was all so successful. I honestly didn't mean it to happen like that. It's hardly surprising that people grew to hate me ... I don't really belong to that world and I don't think anyone's going to miss me. I'm much happier just to write myself out of the script entirely."
Fleetwood Mac - Mystery To Me (1973)
Their 9th album, this record finds the band in one of their many incarnations. This lineup isn't quite the blues band they started as, neither is it the California band of excess that's to come.
This is pre-Buckingham/Nicks and the core of Christine McVie (keyboards), John McVie (bass) and Mick Fleetwood (drums) are joined by guitarists Bob Weston and Bob Welch.
The bad news is that the record is so scratched that I couldn't even finish listening to it. I received this as a gift and plan on replacing it with a newer version when I can. It, too, has an iconic cover, but in a strange 'I can never unsee that' kind of way.
Crosby, Stills & Nash - Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969)
The debut album contains some of the best harmonies in rock music and it succeeds despite having one of the most curious running orders. I got this record from my step mother and its part of the Giannetti subset of my collection. They all have her name written in marker across the top.
My major complaint with this record is opening it with "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes". This is an album closer, or a side closer at the very least, not the opening song on an album. Its like opening Led Zeppelin IV with "Stairway", or Sgt Peppers with "A Day in the Life", it just doesn't work. And they also waste "Long Time Gone", it should close which ever side "Suite" doesn't, instead of being the second to last song on the album
The album also contains classics like "Guinnevere", "Marrakesh Express" and "Wooden Ships", which makes a perfect side two opener. "Helplessly Hoping", a Stephen Stills song, is an alliteration fest that works. Most times when a lyricist tries to get too fancy with language in a song it fails. Those kind of experiments are more suited to poetry, not rock.
But he doesn't try to do too much with the language, he's not forcing any words, the lyrics sound natural, not contrived:
Wordlessly watching he waits by the window and wonders
At the empty place inside
Heartlessly helping himself to her bad dreams he worries
Did he hear a good-bye?
Or even hello?
The harmonies on this song (and entire album) are aural bliss and sound fresh today, its a very Sunday morning kind of album.
REM - Fables of the Reconstruction (1985)
The third album from Athens favorite sons finds them recording in England for Joe Boyd, legendary folk rock producer and founder of the Hannibal record label. Boyd's work includes releases from Nick Drake and Fairport Convention, as well as Pink Floyd's "Arnold Layne".
The departure from the south is evident in the sound. The haunting sound is gloomier as the band travels from A Side to Another Side. While the A Side shares its name with the album, Another Side is entitled Reconstruction of the Fables. Can't do that on a cd. Fuck you digital!
A Side opens with "Feeling Gravity's Pull" that starts with spooky, cavernous guitar from Peter Buck. Then comes the organ work, then the slow outro with the string quartet. Clearly the sign of a band growing up. Of course there's still the jangle pop, "Green Grow The Rushes" & "Maps and Legends", but A Side closer "Old Man Kensey" is their take on CCRs swampy crawl.
Another Side opens with the speeding train of "Can't Get There From Here". Just listen to Mike Mills bass work on the song as he alternately follows Stipe or Buck in a mad chase as Bill Berry keeps everyone heading in the same direction.
The album ends by bouncing back and forth, from the mumble-jangle of "Kohoutek" to the drunken mineshaft stumble on "Auctioneer (Another Engine)". The album ends with "Wendell Gee" a song so Southern you can hear the plantation in the background.
A good album, but not the best of the IRS REM era (that would be the next release Life's Rich Pageant), but a solid release in their extensive catalog.
"Fakin' It" is a great opener for side 2 and I instantly fell in love with its groove. "Punky's Dilemma" is a great follow up, although my copy has a scratch in it that covers the first half of the song.
"Mrs. Robinson" is simply one of the top 50 greatest rock and roll songs of all time and "Hazy Shade of Winter" is a late 60s firework display. The album closer, "At The Zoo" is what you'd expect from S&G, pleasant harmonies and quirky Simon lyrics.
Clocking in at a little over 29 minutes (29 minutes for two sides? what the?) their fourth album also contains the hit "America". Ask anyone over the age of 50 how long it took them to hitchhike from Saginaw, without a doubt they will tell you four days.
I am definately going to listen to this in the future, make up for lost time. Also, I will need to find a better copy, there are pops & clicks throughout both sides.
Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978)
Talking Heads second album is very much a continuation of their first, with one big difference. Brian Eno entered as co-producer. This was to be the first of three records with Eno and he made the decision to bring the rhythm section up front.
 |
| Iconic album cover. |
The bass-and-drum team drive the album's last two (and best) songs. The brilliant cover "Take Me to the River". Its hard to improve an Al Green song, but they do. Turning the r&b classic into a flowing cruise on a river of funk, a windows down, sing-along song that is one of the few covers that outshines the original.
"The Big Country", the album closer, is a lost Talking Heads classic and a poke at the 'fly over states'. The chorus is exactly what you'd expect from an art school punk who lived in New York in the 70s.
I wouldn't live there if you paid me
I wouldn't live like that, no siree
I wouldn't do the things the way those people do
I wouldn't live there if you paid me to
The high note the album closes on would continue onto their next record, the fabulous Fear of Music. Actually, I can't hear the last two songs on the record as there is a skip during the opening of "Take Me to the River" which makes the rest of the record unlistenable.
Genesis - A Trick of the Tail (1976)
The first Genesis album without Peter Gabriel. There's no single here, no real stand out track, just alot of good songs that create a solid album. I've listened to this records often in the 20 odd years I've owned it and I just realized I don't even own a digital copy.
Down to a quartet, they return to the sound before Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, pastoral fantasies that give the band places to expand. Eight songs, 51 minutes, but nothing longer than the 8:03 of "Ripples".
Standouts include the whooshing fuzz stomp of "Squonk" and the album's bookends; the opener "Dance on a Volcano" and the closing number "Los Endos". These two songs were constant during Genesis tours, even after they turned into the 3-piece hit spewing neutered beast that nearly destroyed rock music.
And I am not being too hard on Phil Collins, he has said this about his own career:
"I'm sorry that it was all so successful. I honestly didn't mean it to happen like that. It's hardly surprising that people grew to hate me ... I don't really belong to that world and I don't think anyone's going to miss me. I'm much happier just to write myself out of the script entirely."
He's accepting the fact that the end of his career was crap and that makes me happy, but here, in 1976, he was pretty good.
 |
| Also iconic? If an icing-licking, gorilla that eats books is your kind of thing |
This is pre-Buckingham/Nicks and the core of Christine McVie (keyboards), John McVie (bass) and Mick Fleetwood (drums) are joined by guitarists Bob Weston and Bob Welch.
The bad news is that the record is so scratched that I couldn't even finish listening to it. I received this as a gift and plan on replacing it with a newer version when I can. It, too, has an iconic cover, but in a strange 'I can never unsee that' kind of way.
Crosby, Stills & Nash - Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969)
The debut album contains some of the best harmonies in rock music and it succeeds despite having one of the most curious running orders. I got this record from my step mother and its part of the Giannetti subset of my collection. They all have her name written in marker across the top.
My major complaint with this record is opening it with "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes". This is an album closer, or a side closer at the very least, not the opening song on an album. Its like opening Led Zeppelin IV with "Stairway", or Sgt Peppers with "A Day in the Life", it just doesn't work. And they also waste "Long Time Gone", it should close which ever side "Suite" doesn't, instead of being the second to last song on the album
The album also contains classics like "Guinnevere", "Marrakesh Express" and "Wooden Ships", which makes a perfect side two opener. "Helplessly Hoping", a Stephen Stills song, is an alliteration fest that works. Most times when a lyricist tries to get too fancy with language in a song it fails. Those kind of experiments are more suited to poetry, not rock.
But he doesn't try to do too much with the language, he's not forcing any words, the lyrics sound natural, not contrived:
Wordlessly watching he waits by the window and wonders
At the empty place inside
Heartlessly helping himself to her bad dreams he worries
Did he hear a good-bye?
Or even hello?
The harmonies on this song (and entire album) are aural bliss and sound fresh today, its a very Sunday morning kind of album.
REM - Fables of the Reconstruction (1985)
The third album from Athens favorite sons finds them recording in England for Joe Boyd, legendary folk rock producer and founder of the Hannibal record label. Boyd's work includes releases from Nick Drake and Fairport Convention, as well as Pink Floyd's "Arnold Layne".
The departure from the south is evident in the sound. The haunting sound is gloomier as the band travels from A Side to Another Side. While the A Side shares its name with the album, Another Side is entitled Reconstruction of the Fables. Can't do that on a cd. Fuck you digital!
A Side opens with "Feeling Gravity's Pull" that starts with spooky, cavernous guitar from Peter Buck. Then comes the organ work, then the slow outro with the string quartet. Clearly the sign of a band growing up. Of course there's still the jangle pop, "Green Grow The Rushes" & "Maps and Legends", but A Side closer "Old Man Kensey" is their take on CCRs swampy crawl.
Another Side opens with the speeding train of "Can't Get There From Here". Just listen to Mike Mills bass work on the song as he alternately follows Stipe or Buck in a mad chase as Bill Berry keeps everyone heading in the same direction.
The album ends by bouncing back and forth, from the mumble-jangle of "Kohoutek" to the drunken mineshaft stumble on "Auctioneer (Another Engine)". The album ends with "Wendell Gee" a song so Southern you can hear the plantation in the background.
A good album, but not the best of the IRS REM era (that would be the next release Life's Rich Pageant), but a solid release in their extensive catalog.
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