Day 0122 - Gris Gris

Dr John, the Night Tripper "Gris Gris" (1968) - got it

Sonny and Cher had recorded a tv special and had a block of studio time left which they gave to one of their session musicians... here's what he made.  A giant gumbo of different styles of New Orleans music. There's funk, there are wailing voodoo vocals, there are deep deep blues, latin rhythms and the beats of the creole marching bands.

This is another album that I own but probably haven't listened to for a while, so it's been nice to revisit it.

Day 0121 - The United States of America

The United States of America "The United States of America" (1968)

All of the psychedelia.

The band called themselves the United States of America, were formed by a registered communist and given a record contract without even a note of music having been heard by the company.   It was a good judgement call though, as this is a brilliantly controlled mess of sounds.  Avant garde, yet 'rocking', swirling psychedelic music with a certain amount of sonic cutting and pasting going on.

 The band only ever made this one album, but it's as good and definitive a musical statement as a band could hope to make.

Day 0120 - Cheap Thrills

Big Brother and the Holding Company "Cheap Thrills" (1968) - got it

 

Big Brother and the Holding Company were an established, largely instrumental band when they got Janis Joplin on board.  She recorded two albums with them (this is the second) before spitting to get her solo career underway. 

It's hard to know whether this would be the timeless classic it is without Joplin's voice.  The band and the music are great.  Their version of 'Summertime' in particular is delicate and haunting, but Janis just lifts it further. Likewise, 'Ball and chain' is screaming otherworldly blues, but it just feels that bit wilder with Janis moving from a croon to a throat-bleeding wail over it.

As always with members of the 27 club, you have to wonder what Janis could have done, had she lived a longer life.

Day 0119 - The Notorious Byrd Brothers

The Byrds "The Notorious Byrd Brothers" (1968)

With the previous Byrds' albums on the list, I felt that they were alright. but didn't really hold my attention for the duration; this one feels like a step up.  Having listened to it a couple of times, it's still probably not something that I would actively seek out again, regardless, there are some great tracks on here.  My personal favourite is "tribal gathering". 

The album maintained my interest for the duration.  Apparently one of the band-members had left prior to this recording... maybe he was holding them back

Day 0118 - Vincebus Eruptum

Blue Cheer "Vincebus Eruptum" (1968)

According to the book, Blue Cheer blew up the recording studio sound desk the first time they tried to record this album.  That seems fitting consider the wall of wild noise issuing from the speakers/headphones when this band played. Kind of a precursor to bands like Sabbath and the Stooges with banging drums, fuzzy guitars and attitude filled yells!

Incidentally, Blue Cheer is nickname for a variety of LSD, it was also a laundry detergent... I'll leave you to guess at which one this band might have been named after.

Day 0117 - Lady Soul

Aretha Franklin "Lady Soul" (1968)

Beautiful!  So funky and soulful that it hurts.  This builds on her "I never loved a man..." album (mentioned a few posts back), though apparently there is a much more eclectic album in between this and that but this one, but it didn't fare quite as well.  Aretha plays to her strengths here... Lady Soul, truly.

Stand outs include "(you make me feel like) a natural woman" and "ain't no way".

Day 0116 - "Eli and the 13th Confession

Laura Nyro "Eli and the 13th Confession" (1968)

An interesting genre-crossing release, with a definite soul flavour.   Laura is a singer/pianist/songwriter who largely stayed in obscurity, despite several bands going on to have hits with her songs later on, and this album influencing a future generation of female artists.

Day 0115 - Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison

Johnny Cash "Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison" (1968)

Johnny's star had begun to wane (not for the last time), but then it all came together for him.  He got together with June, kicked the drugs, and recorded and released this album.

Johnny is raucous, rude and irreverent, and his crowd is loving it.  The set contains enough songs about shooting those who have wronged you, and killing law-men to please his audience and possibly appeal to future gangsta rappers who gave him a listen.  But, there are also songs enough about redemption and turning your life around to maybe change a few lives.

Quite cool that they have prisoner announcements coming through the PA during the recording, makes it that much more of a historical document, as well as a musical statement of where Johnny was at at the time.

Day 0114 - The Songs of Leonard Cohe

Leonard Cohen "The Songs of Leonard Cohen" (1968)

The songs of Leonard Cohen are sparsely orchestrated, often morose, but always with great lyrics.  It is interesting actually, given how distinctive his deep gravelly singing voice became, that he actually sings with something of a light baritone for much of this album.   Perhaps he hadn't 'found his sound' or maybe he just hadn't aged into his voice just yet.

I'm not usually much of a lyric person.  I prefer the phonetic sounds to actual meaning/interpretation of the words.  There are very few lyricists whose words I pay attention to and draw enjoyment from; Cohen is one of those lyricists.

Day 0113 - Electric Ladyland

The Jimi Hendrix Experience "Electric Ladyland" (1968) - got it

 

 
Possibly the greatest, and most complete artistic statement of Jimi's career (which is saying sommat). It's an enjoyable mix of tight catchy tracks, and sprawling experimental epics, best contrasted between the lengthy blues of "Voodoo Chile" and the much more compact "Voodoo Child (slight return)".

There's blues, hard funk, rock, psychedelia, soul, RnB even touches of pop... and somehow it all holds together and feels cohesive.  The players are all on top form, with Mitchell and Hendrix really just seeming made for each other.

It's kind of ridiculous to think that all 3 of the Experience's albums released in Jimi's lifetime were put out within 18 months of each other... and this one was a double album!

Day 0112 - Os Mutantes

Os Mutantes "Os Mutantes" (1968) - got it

The original Mutantes line-up centred around the three Baptista brothers, one of whom didn't really perform, but built a lot of the band's electronic instruments.

They took the popular Brazilian music forms such as bossa-nova and jammed it together with the mod and psychedelic music of the US and UK, and to be honest, kind of made something better than a lot of those bands were able to.

The Mutantes ended up being hated for a time in their homeland (along with much of the 'Tropicalia' movement) by conservatives for their outlandish, hippy appearance, and by bossa nova aficionados for their subversion of the genre.

As a complete aside, I saw the Mutantes live at a festival in 2008.  They were the last act that night, so were allowed to play for over 2 hours.  Nobody wanted them to stop, it was a brilliant and magical show!

Day 0111 - The Sounds of India

Ravi Shankar "The Sounds of India" (1968)

This is pretty great.  It's not something that you can necessarily put on and hum along to (you could maybe hum some random countermelody to complement the sitar noodlings) but a great bit of music that you can let sit in the background while you do other stuff, or focus on the music and get lost in the awesome musicianship and the kaleidoscoping runs of notes.

There is a bit of instructional dialogue on the methods and forms of raga, so it's kind of 'infotainment'.

Day 0110 - The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society

The Kinks "The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society" (1968)

Another somewhat naive, twee and 'English' sounding album from the Kinks.  The album sank without a trace at the time of its release against the backdrop of psychedelic fuzzed out rock and hippy crazes... despite the fact that it was critically well-received and contains some strong songs.

Really enjoyed it.

Day 0109 - The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter

The Incredible String Band "The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter" (1968)

With their hippy, vaguely folky, pastoral vibe and their inclusion of 'world music' instruments and compositional elements the Incredible String Band were a hit with many in the 60s (including assorted Beatles and Rolling Stones).
To me, it's a really good album.  The songs are 'just right': not too tightly composed, but not too loose and rambling. Some great vocal harmonies and great production that makes creative use of the stereo field.

Day 0108 - Traffic

Traffic "Traffic" (1968)

Traffic were (according to the book) one of the first big British bands to get over the fixation with American music forms such as rock n roll and rhythm and blues that many of the other 60s bands threw themselves into.  Instead, Traffic were all about mixing British and American sounds.

I really liked this one.  It sounds like melodic rock bands like Three Dog Night and Procol Harum could potentially have borrowed a few ideas from these guys.

Day 0107 - Beggar's Banquet

Rolling Stones "Beggar's Banquet" (1968)

According to the book, the Stones had had a shaky few years where they'd tried to delve into the psychedelic sound with an album called "Their Satanic Majesties Request" and being busted for drug possession (presumably by Pilcher).  Brian Jones was losing motivation a bit.

The band stripped their sound down and found their feet in a more acoustic blues/country sound... and it really works for them.  From the epic "Sympathy for the Devil" through to "Salt of the Earth" and including "Stray Cat Blues" which may be one of my favourite RS tracks.

Day 106 - I Never Loved a Man the Way I Loved You

Aretha Franklin "I Never Loved a Man the Way I Loved You" (1967)

Holy moly that is good! Apparently for her previous 6 years (and 9 albums) Aretha had been stuck singing fairly subdued, unadventurous fare... until Jerry Wexler got her out of her contract and onto the Atlantic roster.  As a result, this album sounds like a joyful yell of relief.

Grooves so funky and soulful that it hurts, and Aretha wailing over them, then switching to gentle, yearning heartfelt croons. This album is a beautiful explosion of emotion, sexuality and passion for music.

She repurposed one or two covers (most notably Otis Redding's "RESPECT") as feminist anthems.

Day 0105 - The Jimi Hendrix Experience "Axis Bold as Love" (got it)

The Jimi Hendrix Experience "Axis Bold as Love" (1967) - got it

To borrow a cliche, Hendrix broke the mould on 'are you experienced'.  With Axis he pretty much just moves forward with the broken pieces.  It's not as mind-meltingly original as its predecessor, but it does try out new sounds.   There's the hard funk of 'Little Miss Lover', the weirdo aural experimentation of 'EXP' and the exquisite melodic beauty of 'Little wing' with it's lyrical guitar playing that blurs the lines between lead and rhythm guitar. I could personally do without the Noel Redding track "She's so fine", but once it has Jimi's guitar and Mitch's drums it just slots in nicely and doesn't really detract from the rest of the album.

Day 0104 - White Light/White Heat

The Velvet Underground "White Light/White Heat" (1967) - got it

This was the Velvets' response to suggestions that they pursue a more commercial sound... leading me to conclude that the Velvets don't take suggestion well.  The album features songs about drugs, transexuals and orgies, and "here she comes now" which always sounds suspiciously like Lou is trying to slip some covert c-bombs into the cultural consciousness.

Musically this features some loud, jangly, distorted rock. It explores the noisier areas of music without completely dissolving into nothingness; but definitely not embracing a commercial sound, particular the sprawling, exploratory epics "the gift" and "sister ray".

Day 0103 - Call of the Valley

Shivkumar Sharma, Brijbushan Kara, Hariprasad Chaurasia "Call of the Valley" (1967)

This is an album that many a hippy was said to have in their collection ...presumably next to their Grateful Dead and Moby Grape albums.  Call of the Valley contains Hindustani classical music championed by George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, David Crosby and many others.

There were so many western artists 'borrowing' from eastern music to inform their psychedelic 60s sounds that they kind of ended up paving the way for the originators of these sounds to become popular with a larger audience.   

Day 0102 - Don't Come Home a Drinkin' (with lovin' on your mind)

Loretta Lynn "Don't Come Home a Drinkin' (with lovin' on your mind)" (1967)

Another really solid country album.  Loretta was at the forefront of feminism in the country movement.  The title track to this album was a fun, upbeat sounding country song but with lyrics addressing 'acquaintance rape' .

Loretta was not scared to speak her mind loud and proud in a male-dominated industry, while also making great music.

Day 0101 - I Had Too much to Dream (Last Night)

The Electric Prunes "I Had Too much to Dream (Last Night)" (1967)

I think that I listened to this one when I first had a flick through the 1001 albums book 8-10 years ago.  I remembered not liking it, but I think that I might have been confusing them with the 13th floor elevators, because I quite enjoyed this.

Apparently the band were introduced to a studio engineer who thought that they had potential, but needed some better songs.  He hired a couple of songwriters, the band then reinterpreted the songs in their own psychedelic idiom. When I was a teenager I was always suspicious about artists who didn't write their own music (which is ridiculous because I was a Sinatra fan, and besides - good music is good music, regardless). 

The band brought their own 'essence' to the music.  I think too that it can be quite effective to have an existing band working with other people's material as it means they don't have to think so much about creating the words and music and can focus more on presenting their best version of the material, such as on the covers albums "Renegades" by Rage Against the Machine, or "the Director's Cut" by Fantômas.

Day 0100 - Are You Experienced

The Jimi Hendrix Experience "Are You Experienced" (1967) - got it

A great album to mark number 100 on the list (I'm sure Zappa would have approved of being no.69).

In a way there's not much to say about this album that hasn't already been said.  It's incredible that this is the debut recording by this band; it already feels so fully formed and mature with its mixture of blues, psychedelia, funk and rock.  Jimi's charisma and idiosyncratic guitar sound seep from every groove, Mitchell's drumming flies all around the place, matching Hendrix's control and wildness.  This is timeless and exciting music from start to finish.

In his autobiography, Mitch Mitchell referred to "May this be Love"' as just a bit of filler that they slapped together to have enough songs for an album.  Well clearly one person's trash is another's treasure, because it is my favourite cut from the album.  Even when stacked against explosive tracks like 'fire' and 'manic depression' or the rocking blues of 'red house', it adds a nice moment of calm with a little bit of guts in the middle.

Day 0099 - I'm a lonesome fugitive

Merle Haggard "I'm a lonesome fugitive" (1967)

Apparently Merle was an inmate at San Quentin prison when Johnny Cash (working on his outlaw cred) played there.  He was intrigued at the idea that a country-singin' criminal type could be commercially successful. 

By modern standards this is a pretty standard sounding country album: the vocal harmonies, the acoustic and steel guitar, the songs of love, loss and drinking.

Enjoyable enough.

Day 0098 - Sunshine Superman

Donovan "Sunshine Superman" (1967)

This could easily have been "just another singer/songwriter" type of album; but the electric sitars and other 'world music' elements really elevate it, and lend it a general psychedelic tilt.  Elements of folk, jazz and baroque pop help raise its game too.

Day 0097 - Something else by the Kinks

The Kinks "Something Else by the Kinks" (1967)

I think that the Kinks are becoming a new favourite 60s band for me.  Prior to beginning this quest, I was mostly familiar with "You Really Got Me" and "Lola"-  neither of which really did much for me.  The last two albums of theirs that have popped up on this list though, have been brilliant.

The book points out that their music here comes off as a bit old fashioned when compared to the Creams and Hendrixes of the day in the changing the musical landscape; but with the joy of hindsight, and the removal of that 'fashion' aspect you can appreciate the quality of the strong pop songwriting on show here. 

Day 0096 - Surrealistic Pillow

Jefferson Airplane "Surrealistic Pillow" (1967)

I listened through it a few times but really couldn't come up with an opinion beyond "yep, it's good".

This was the first album to feature drummer Spencer Dryden (half nephew of Charlie Chaplin apparently) and vocalist Grace Slick.

Day 0095 - Groovin'

The Young Rascals "Groovin'" (1967)

Not much to say here, except that there is so much more to this album than the incredibly catchy title track.  The tracks contain a great mix of soul, summery pop, funky rock and just some solid grooves.

Day 0094 - Younger Than Yesterday

The Byrds "Younger Than Yesterday" (1967)

Like the previous Byrds album that I listened to via the 1001 albums list; this one has some good songs.  The album just doesn't seem able to keep me interested for the duration though. Just lacking that necessary je ne sais quois.

Day 0093 - The Doors

The Doors "The Doors" (1967) - got it

See this is what I was talking about in an earlier post.  Some bands carry on the music that has come before them; then you have the ones that BREAK ON THROUGH TO THE OTHER SIDE (I'll see myself out).

I think it's because all four members are firing on all cylinders here.  Sure Morrison is centre-stage (and not just on the cover) with his great lyrics, and his vocals stretching from Sinatra-esque croon to bluesy howl.  But, Densmore's rolling, tiptoeing, pounding drums, Manzarek's twirling organs contribute equally, and Krieger almost ends up being the 'staight-man' by comparison.. but still bringing interesting guitar parts and exploratory solos.

In a way, this album acts as a nice microcosm for their whole career: the easy listening groove of the soft parade is covered in 'The Crystal Ship' the dirty blues of the last couple of albums is all over "20th Century Fox" and yeah the Dionysian epics of 'Strange Days' are represented by 'the end'

They were rocking a 60s sound like so many of the others on this list, but they take it further, they have the 'it' factor.   There is just a great shared chemistry, great songs which (combined with the number of bands they influenced) means they still sound fresh and exciting.  Even the more 'filler-y songs are solid.

Day 0092 - Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim

"Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim" (1967)

Amongst the rock, psychedelia, etc. that dominates much of the 1967 entries in the list, this is something of an oddity: a Frank Sinatra bossa nova album.

There is an orchestra present, but it sits nicely and subtly in the background allowing Sinatra's voice and Jobim's guitar to quite intimately inhabit centre-stage together.

Being a fan of Frank, and a fan of bossa, I dug it.