Day 0153 - The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground "The Velvet Underground" (1969) - got it

The Velvets aren't doing too badly so far.  This was their third album released, it's also their third album on this list.

A much more straight-ahead, mellower album (and possibly my favourite from VU) than previous outings. "Some kinda love"  is almost like a more languid, loping read on the Beatles' "Get Back". "Beginning to see the light" is cathartic, "Jesus" is lovely, "the murder mystery" is a touch of the older, weirder Velvets (and is brilliant).  Things calm back down for the closing track "after hours" ...which, incidentally, is the first VU song that I ever heard.

According to the book, the band's equipment was stolen when they arrived in town to record, but that didn't stop them from having quite a relaxed, enjoyable recording session.

Day 0152 - From Elvis in Memphis

Elvis Presley "From Elvis in Memphis" (1969)

 
Elvis had been sinking a bit of time into making his movies.  He got back into the music thing with a TV special that was hugely popular and revitalised him and inspired him to get back into the studio. He went down to Memphis and unlike Dusty (in yesterday's post) he apparently had a laid back and enjoyable recording experience, dipping back into the RnB sound that worked so well for him in the past.

Another success, and some great tracks.  You can kind of hear the start of the added cheese that would segue the King into his sequinned disco suits and Vegas residencies.

Day 0151 - Dusty in Memphis

Dusty Springfield "Dusty in Memphis" (1969)

The old "one person's trash is another's treasure" thing.  Apparently Dusty was appalled when she heard this music.  She didn't want to do easy-listening ballads, she wanted to sing gritty funk and RnB.

Ahmet Ertegun (that genius again) persisted and, after some fraught recording sessions with the odd ashtray flung, they came out with a wonderful album.

The album gave Dusty her first hit in ages with 'Son of a Preacher Man'.  The album received rave reviews, but it tanked commercially.  Personally, I love it.

Day 0150 - Five Leaves Left

Nick Drake "Five Leaves Left" (1969)

ND seems to have attracted a few followers from being slightly ambiguous and morose in his music, and then dying young.  I'm not slamming his music or anything, but it kind of seems like a number of people get into him before they even hear a note of one of his songs because they like his mystique or backstory or something.
I prefer to listen to this album just taking the music on its own merits.

In the past when I've listened to ND (I keep wanting to refer to him as Drake but... y'know) I haven't been overly impressed, but this time it turns out I quite enjoyed this album.  It's delicate and nicely orchestrated.  Sparse in places and lush in others to match what the songs need.

Apparently the album features contributions from folkies from the Fairport Convention and The Pentangle but feels somewhat grounded in a hippy pop sensibility.  "Fruit Tree" is probably my favourite of these tracks.

Day 0149 - Let it Bleed

The Rolling Stones "Let it Bleed" (1969)

Another solid RS album, almost feels like it's half greatest hits album or something, with gems like "Gimme Shelter", "Country Honk" "You Can't Always Get What You Want".  This is the Stones at the height of their powers: snarling, moaning, musically vital, Jagger tapping into the angst of the unsettled times to come up with some great lyrics.

This quest has kind of turned me onto the Stones a bit.

Day 0148 - Basket of Light

The Pentangle "Basket of Light" (1969)

I'd never heard of these guys but it sounds as they're a sort of folk 'supergroup' led by Bert Jansch. Their music is a thing of beauty with occasionally complicated time signatures, wistful vocals and virtuosic musicianship. It all works to serve the music, rather than being musical wank just for the sake of it.  The mix of male and female voices works beautifully.

Day 0147 - Odessa

The Bee Gees "Odessa" (1969)

Wow, so double albums seemed to be fairly popular back in the day. I wonder if it was because there was (I think) a 50 minute limit to how much you could fit on an LP/record, so as soon as bands went over that they just thought "well okay, let's do a double album!"

Apparently this album was released shortly before the band broke up for a while.  It was an attempt at a concept album based around the story of the loss of a fictional ship... I don't have much time for concept albums, unless I like the music.  I don't mind the Beegees, but to be honest, aside from the odd melody that worked its way under my skin, this one didn't really impress me that much.

Day 0146 - In a Silent Way

Miles Davis "In a Silent Way" (1969)

 
This one has been on my 'to check out' list for a while. I tend to buy Miles' albums, er... sound unheard, so this is a rare case of doing some research first.

It's a nice bit of fusion-jazz with some great atmospheric moments, and lovely textures.  It totally lives up to its name much of the time with it's gentle minimalism, interspersed with flights of jazzy fun within, yet feels more focussed than his rambling fusion albums like 'bitches brew' and 'big fun'.

Day 0145 - Tommy

The Who "Tommy" (1969)

Moments of greatness, but there was too much of it. I'm sure that if I (a) was a rabid Who fan or (b) paid enough attention to lyrics that the underlying story really 'spoke' to me, then maybe I'd be down for the entirety of this.  As I say, there are some great tracks but I found myself losing focus at times.

Day 0144 - Abbey Road

The Beatles "Abbey Road" (1969) - got it

For the longest time this was (despite not containing my favourite song by them) my favourite Beatles' album, and in fact it may still be.  The two pre-Sgt Peppers albums (Revolver/Rubber Soul) have come up to compete for my affections, but I just love what a complete artistic statement this one is.

To me it feels like if the white album was the sketch book; this is the painting. They had matured past their mod/beat stage, they'd matured past their psychedelic stage and had fully developed the mix of bluesy rock and intelligent baroque pop music that could still take unexpected twists and turns and explore interesting territory as and when the band liked.

'Come Together' is an original funky groove with brilliantly obscure Lennon lyrics; 'Something' shows George staking his claim as potential equal to Lennon and McCartney, and the others are happy to do great work on it with some interesting drum parts from Ringo and Paul almost playing lead lines on the bass. 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' is more of Paul's twee pop, but in all fairness I enjoyed singing it at school and that sound did go on to inspire a lot of other pop acts in the future.  Then Paul digs deep in his guts for the searing 'Oh Darling'.  The sudden switch from John's blues monster "I Want You (She's so Heavy)" to George's gentle folky 'Here Comes the Sun' is brilliant sequencing. 

Apparently a lot of fans don't love the medley on side-B, but I've always thought it was brilliant.  A series of songs that could potentially have been great in their own right, but as short, sharp, 'not overstaying their welcome' doses of music they work even better.  Of course, then you come to 'the End', possibly the perfect close to an album with everyone getting a moment to shine.  The brilliant last line "and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make" just sums them up nicely.  I don't resent them tacking 'her majesty' on the end as a P.S., it's a nice little precursor to the 'hidden track' trend of albums in the 90s and showed that the Beatles still didn't take themselves too seriously, even at the end.

I think that for all the crap that some of them may have talked later, the fact that Paul and John had already launched solo careers and George was heading that way, it speaks to their love of the band (and maybe their competitive spirit) that they all still bring such great songs to the table for the last 'hoorah' even Ringo does pretty well with 'Octopus's Garden'. 

This is a 10/10 album for me

Day 0143 - Green River

Credence Clearwater Revival "Green River" (1969)

More CCR, and so soon after the last one.  It's similar to that previous album, in that this is good solid workmanlike bluesy rock.  I'm not too worried about listening to their albums, but they seem like they'd be an enjoyable live band.

Day 0142 - Johnny Cash at San Quentin

Johnny Cash "At San Quentin" (1969)

Riding the success of "At Folsom Prison" Cash took the recording gear into San Quentin Prison.  Apparently it actually was the fourth time that he'd played at that particular establishment, so it feels like less of a gimmick than it might for another artist.  That is, he wasn't just there to make this one record.

Cash seems to be right in his element, joking with the inmates and whipping them into a frenzy.
Good, fun live album, only made annoying by the fact that I was watching it on youtube and every 10-12 minutes it would pause (usually mid-song) for "imagine you're writing a really important email for work...." STFU!

Day 0141 - The Gilded Palace of Sin

The Flying Burrito Brothers "The Gilded Palace of Sin" (1969)

I was not at all familiar with the FBB outside of seeing them featured in the film 'the Festival Express' years ago.  To be honest, I had few, if any memories of that.

The band was formed by two ex-members of the Byrds.  They play some really good country music; it has the necessary melodies, the arrangements and the heart, but without the cheese that sometimes accompanies the genre.

Day 0140 - Blood Sweat and Tears

Blood Sweat and Tears "Blood Sweat and Tears" (1969)

 
Wow, not what I thought it would be. For some reason from the last time I flicked through the 1001 albums book a few years ago, I could have sworn that these guys were some kind of proto-punk group.   Instead this is a group that (it does not surprise me to learn) did a stint in Vegas.  Kind of blues, jazz-fusion with rock and lounge elements.  Horns aplenty.

Day 0139 - Crosby Stills and Nash

Crosby Stills and Nash "Crosby Stills and Nash" (1969)

Brilliant album from 3 talented songwriters, some great melodies and painted in rich textures with vocal harmonies and interesting arrangements.... not much else to say about it really.

Day 0138 - Bayou Country

Credence Clearwater Revival "Bayou Country" (1969)

 
You could suggest that CCR were a band that needed to create an identity for their music.  They had been tootling along doing British influenced rock, then after a stint of national service the Californian vocalist and primary songwriter Fogerty reunited with his bandmates to bring Southern Rock to the people....

I'm not a huge CCR fan but I enjoyed this well enough.  Another one of those where I won't run out and buy it, but if someone puts it on, I'll sit and groove to it.

Day 0137 - Trout Mask Replica

Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band "Trout Mask Replica" (1969)

 
I find this one to be kind of 50/50.  It's a really interesting collection of sounds and there are some flat out great tracks; but where a 40-45 minute album of weirdness can be quite fun (and just about the right length) a double album of weirdness in this case is just too much for my tastes.  It starts to turn into muddy aural wallpaper after a while.

Beefheart apparently didn't wear headphones to hear the playback while recording, he just sang... which seems to work more often than not.

Day 0136 - Everybody Knows This is Nowhere

Neil Young & Crazy Horse "Everybody Knows This is Nowhere" (1969)

...and so finally the slew of 1968 albums is over (clearly a year of great and innovative music). There's an immediate change in pace from much of the psychedelia and fuzzed out bluesy rock that filled that year to a recorded-as-live stripped down country-ish rock album with some pretty simplistic but relatively effective guitar solos here.

Neil is one of those artists I've kind of dabbled in but would really like to hear more of, so I'm glad to see there are more of his albums coming up in the list.

Day 0135 - We're Only in it for the Money

Frank Zappa "We're Only in it for the Money" (got it)

Way ahead of its time, I could see Zappa being the spirit animal (ugh) of Mike Patton.  The cynicism, the density of the sound, the forays into musique concrete, along with the genre mashing/bending that Zappa was famed for.  It feels like this album must have been a bit of an influence on the Residents too, though there were always rumours that Zappa, Beefheart and/or members of their bands contributed to the Res.

So essentially you have here the framework for that vein of alternative music that rides relatively close to the mainstream without quite crossing over... on top of that you have a great, imaginative, sarcastic pile of music to sift through at your leisure.

Day 0134 - The Beatles (AKA 'The White Album')

The Beatles "The Beatles" (AKA 'The White Album") (1968) - got it

The band were not on best terms by this point, and were clearly heading off more and more in their own creative directions here.  They still had enough input on each other's music that it still sounds like a band.

Lennon and McCartney deliver some great cuts between them such as "Julia", "Happiness is a Warm Gun", "Helter Skelter", "Back in the USSR" etc etc, with "Sexy Sadie" being shameless ripped off by Radiohead a few years later for 'Karma Police'.
Ringo contributed a song too, but the real star songwriting-wise is George with the beautiful 'while my guitar gently weeps' and 'long long long' that really sounds like it could have been released last week... possibly because a few bands are still copying/being influenced by that sound at the moment.

The band mostly eschew their former psychedelic and baroque pop sensibilities (outside of a few tracks) for a more stripped down blues and rock sound.

Basically you know it's a good collection of songs when everyone is trying to use/copy/reference them; the most famous example probably being Danger Mouse's "the Grey Album" which combines this album with Jay-Z's "Black Album".

Day 0133 - Sweetheart of the Rodeo

The Byrds "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" (1968)

With the previous Byrds albums in this list I was somewhat 50/50 about them.  They had some good songs but they didn't really hold my attention for the duration.  The last one in the list was an improvement, this one continues the upwards trend.  I guess the fact that it's largely made up of covers helps in that they don't have to come up with song ideas; just put their best spin on the material.

The original concept had been to chart the history of American song from its beginnings through to a moog-heavy futuristic sound; but, new member and multi-instrumentalist Gram Parsons convinced them to just stick with the country sound.  The album is seen as an early pioneer of the country-rock/alt-country sound.

Day 0132 - Astral Weeks

Van Morrison "Astral Weeks" (1968)

I mainly know of Van Morrison through 'Brown-eyed girl' ...and I don't really like that song... I don't hate it or anything but it's one of those overplayed classic rock tracks that was just always 'there'.

This album is a whole other beast.  Jazzy, free-flowing with songs just feeling like epic jams with VM just singing over the top.  He still isn't my favourite artist, but this was enjoyable.

Day 0131 - Odessey and Oracle

The Zombies "Odessey and Oracle" (1968)

The Zombies had released an album in 65 that enjoyed moderate success, but after 2 or 3 years of near constant touring they decided that the music thing wasn't really working out.  They resolved to break up after making one more album, meaning that they wouldn't need to worry about its commercial success or lack thereof.  That approach led to them make this thoroughly interesting pop album with their biggest hit to date "Time of the season".

 The guy who painted their album cover misspelt Odyssey but the band stuck with it. 

Day 0130 - Scott 2

Scott Walker "Scott 2" (1968) - got it

I've made no secret in the past for my love of Scott Walker.  His luscious, lush arrangements, his brilliant croon, his quirky sense of humour... this is possibly the peak of his early work (to my tastes).
This set is somewhat typical of the 'Scott' albums: some translated Jacques Brel covers with an added swagger, some syruppy easy listening ballads and some other grandiose galloping arrangements.  Ranging from the trumpeting upbeat 'Jackie' the almost Bond-esque epic sound of 'best of both worlds' (a great near-breakup song).  The elephantine Eastern swagger of 'the girls from the street' slips into a nimble European bounce without a thought spared!

Day 0129 - Caetano Veloso

Caetano Veloso "Caetano Veloso" (1968)

 
Groovy and quirky, Veloso was at the head of the 'Tropicalia' movement, playing highbrow art pop psychedelic bossa-nova.  He was hated by the dictatorship in Brazil and was forced out of the country to live in exile in the UK (which just made him seem cooler to the various anti-establishment types who were attracted to him at the time).  Veloso went on to become hugely popular with artists in the UK and US such as David Byrne and Beck.

Great album.

Day 0128 - Truth

Jeff Beck "Truth" (1968)

 

 
Hadn't really heard much of Jeff's music outside of some of his work with the Yardbirds, and his beautiful playing on the version of 'A day in the life' for Sir George Martin's "In my life" album.

This is a nice bluesy rocking album (aside from a breezy acoustic rendition of Greensleeves) with various star players featuring, most notably Beck's upcoming young singer Rod Stewart.  The Who's Keith Moon appears on one track and the Rolling Stones' Ron Wood pops up on another. Beck shines most in the instrumental tracks, but then I'm glad that it's not an entirely instrumental guitar album as the vocals add some variety to proceedings.

Day 0127 - Songs From the Big Pin

The Band "Songs From the Big Pink" (1968) - got it

 
I'll preface my comments by saying that I really like this album.  It's a good solid collection of songs without any real filler. I say that in advance because I kind of feel like this album is a bit 'too' even, the songs feel like they're all roughly the same tempo and sound, in fact it's not until towards the end (the mellow 'lonesome Suzie' and the raucous "this wheel's on fire") that you get some noticeable variety. This doesn't ruin the album or anything, it just makes it slightly less exciting listen than I'd like.

For those that don't know (I'm sure that many do), the Band was Bob Dylan's backing band of the time.  Bob co-writes some of the tracks here, but this is largely the band making their own name. The music eschews the popular fuzz guitar and psychedelic buzz of the time by sonically digging into a little American music history, utilising violins, mandolins and organs.

Day 0126 - Ogden's Nut Gone Flake

Small Faces "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake" (1968)

Grr had kind of an uneven experience trying to listen to this one.  The album features various spoken-word interludes (that sound suspiciously like excerpts from John Lennon's books) and I was listening to it on youtube which had broken the video up with a bunch of commercials throughout so it was occasionally confusing whether you were listening to the album or an annoying bloody ad.  Kind of ruined the listening experience a bit.

Good music though.  Rowdy, psychedelic, and catchy.

Day 0125 - Bookends

Simon & Garfunkel "Bookends" (1968)

That was a bit different; I was so used to mellow folky Simon and Garfunkel that the blurt of more raucous sound at the start of this album threw me off!  This is a really nice mix of sounds, with Garfunkel's sound collage "voices of old people" being an interesting interlude to the more considered and crafted songs of Simon.

I know it's overplayed, but I think "Mrs Robinson" may still be my favourite thing on here.

Day 0124 - S.F Sorrow

The Pretty Things "S.F Sorrow" (1968)

 
Apparently this was a concept album/rock opera that greatly inspired the Who's "Tommy", to the extent that when this one was released in the US after a sizeable delay, they were accused of copying the Who!  The concept album thing is kind of lost on me because, as usual, the lyrics didn't really interest me beyond musically filling in their spot within the songs.

To be honest, I'd never heard this band or album, but to my ears it is just good music, no more no less. It sounds like a rowdier Beatles... which sounds like I'm describing the Rolling Stones, but I'd say I preferred this to a lot of RS stuff.

Day 0123 - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

Iron Butterfly "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" (1968)

According to the book, this was the first album to be certified platinum million selling... you'd have thought it would have been the Beatles or Elvis or even Miles Davis but nope... Iron Butterfly.

The title track, which takes up the whole second side of the album, was the big winner.  It gained its title because the guy who wrote it was too drunk to say 'in the Garden of Eden'.

The first half of the album is a relatively enjoyable collection of fuzzy psychedelic jams mixed with proto-metal riffery that kind of pre-empts Black Sabbath.