548
Albums Rated
3.43
Average Rating
50%
Complete
541 albums remaining
Rating Distribution
How you rate albums
Rating Timeline
Average rating over time
Ratings by Decade
Which era do you prefer?
Activity by Day
When do you listen?
Taste Profile
1950s
Favorite Decade
Singer-songwriter
Favorite Genre
US
Top Origin
Balanced
Rater Style
105
5-Star Albums
22
1-Star Albums
Taste Analysis
Genre Preferences
Ratings by genre
Origin Preferences
Ratings by country
Rating Style
You Love More Than Most
Albums you rated higher than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Boots And Panties | 5 | 2.7 | +2.3 |
| One World | 5 | 2.82 | +2.18 |
| Want Two | 5 | 2.84 | +2.16 |
| 69 Love Songs | 5 | 2.84 | +2.16 |
| Grievous Angel | 5 | 2.86 | +2.14 |
| Kick Out The Jams (Live) | 5 | 2.91 | +2.09 |
| The Gilded Palace Of Sin | 5 | 2.93 | +2.07 |
| The Who Sell Out | 5 | 3 | +2 |
| The Modern Lovers | 5 | 3.06 | +1.94 |
| Heartattack And Vine | 5 | 3.07 | +1.93 |
You Love Less Than Most
Albums you rated lower than global average
| Album | You | Global | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black Sabbath | 1 | 3.83 | -2.83 |
| Funeral | 1 | 3.57 | -2.57 |
| Rio | 1 | 3.49 | -2.49 |
| Tusk | 1 | 3.46 | -2.46 |
| ...And Justice For All | 1 | 3.43 | -2.43 |
| S&M | 1 | 3.26 | -2.26 |
| The Holy Bible | 1 | 3.14 | -2.14 |
| Hunting High And Low | 1 | 3.12 | -2.12 |
| White Ladder | 1 | 3.08 | -2.08 |
| Talk Talk Talk | 1 | 3.03 | -2.03 |
Artist Analysis
Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Beatles | 6 | 5 |
| Bob Dylan | 6 | 5 |
| The Rolling Stones | 5 | 4.8 |
| The Who | 5 | 4.6 |
| Steely Dan | 3 | 5 |
| Leonard Cohen | 3 | 5 |
| Led Zeppelin | 3 | 5 |
| Jimi Hendrix | 3 | 5 |
| Elvis Costello & The Attractions | 4 | 4.5 |
| Stevie Wonder | 2 | 5 |
| The Band | 2 | 5 |
| Talking Heads | 2 | 5 |
| Van Morrison | 2 | 5 |
| Ray Charles | 2 | 5 |
| Creedence Clearwater Revival | 2 | 5 |
| Pink Floyd | 3 | 4.33 |
Least Favorite Artists
Artists with 2+ albums
| Artist | Albums | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Metallica | 3 | 1.33 |
| Arcade Fire | 2 | 1.5 |
| Radiohead | 4 | 2 |
Controversial Artists
Artists you rate inconsistently
| Artist | Albums | Variance |
|---|---|---|
| Fleetwood Mac | 2 | 2 |
| Bruce Springsteen | 4 | 1.22 |
5-Star Albums (105)
View Album Wall
Popular Reviews
5/5
I still have my U.S. pressing of this album that I purchased from Ashwoods for $1.50. Like any Stooges or VU albums, they couldn’t give this record away. I always thought it was one of the most raucous live albums I’d ever heard. But it wasn’t until later that decade, particularly when I got into Radio Birdman, that I appreciated the part this record played in promoting the so-called Detroit Sound. In 2004, I finally got to see the remnants of the band at Selinas when they were on their world tour as DKT-MC5, with Michael Davis, Wayne Kramer & Dennis Thompson in a band padded out by guests, including Deniz Tek from Birdman & Evan Dando from The Lemonheads. They were terrific. They opened with Ramblin’ Rose (one of the great live album openers of all time) & included all 4 songs from Side 1 of the album, and nothing from Side 2. Unfortunately my pressing has John Sinclair’s (see song about him by John Lennon)word “motherfuckers” overdubbed by “brothers & sisters” in the intro to Kick Out The Jams, but what a track. Tyner’s vocals are so crazy on this record. Anyway, I’m a fan. I love the covers. They’d played with The Troggs in ‘68 - I’m not sure what they’ve done here with I Want You, but it certainly rocks. And whatever Sun Ra had to do with Starship, it’s a cacophony that makes perfect sense. I imagine.
Great production by Bruce Botnick. In the 60’s, you rarely got noisy live recordings that were this clear.
8 likes
Blood, Sweat & Tears
5/5
In 1969, I turned 19 &, still living at home, also held the first backyard party where I invited everyone I knew. I seem to remember that this album was a large part of the soundtrack to that bash. I’s copped a lot of criticism over the years for being too mainstream, particularly when compared to the band’s debut album. I just played them back-to-back & the fact is they are both great but totally different. The debut album was half written by Al Kooper, who was essentially the band’s creator, but also highlighted a bunch of songwriters who had yet to make their mark as performers - Nillson, Randy Newman, Tim Buckley. Then Al left the band & his somewhat weak vocal was replaced by David Clayton-Thomas. You could not get 2 more different voices. But the thing I’m forever grateful for are the song choices the band took on the second lp. They introduced me to such great music - I had never heard of Erik Satie. The opening cover of a Satie variation is a piece of music I’ve heard so often over the years, but this was where I heard it first. I had never heard Billie Holiday, let alone God Bless The Child. I’d never heard Laura Nyro’s And When I Die. I’d never heard the Motown classic, You’ve Made Me So Very Happy.
Not to say that there wasn’t great original material here as well - especially Spinning Wheel - covered by so many artists over the years. Anyone whose ever had a child in a school choir in the last 50 years knows that song. You can hear the band’s live set from Woodstock (1969) on youtube. I do love this record.
8 likes
Taylor Swift
4/5
The only Swift stuff I’m familiar with is the cd that contains Shake It Up. This is nothing like that. When I first started listening to this, I immediately thought that she sounded so much like Suzanne Vega. But what ‘s impressive about this is that she is such an impressive songwriter. It’s like she’s majored in popular music & topped the class. Cowboy Like Me slayed me. What a lyric. And she follows that with the poppy Long Story Short. I’ve played this album half a dozen times now & find it totally engaging. I kept thinking : but is there anything as good as Luka or Marlene On The Wall. I think there is (not sure about Tom’s Diner).
A great listen.
5 likes
The Clash
4/5
I wasn’t a fan of The Clash when I first heard their early singles. Strummer did not thrill me as a front man like Rotten did. I was besotted with The Sex Pistols & then pretty quickly moved onto new wave bands like Costello & The Attractions & later The Pretenders. I pretty much ignored The Damned & The Clash. Until the release of London Calling, released in the last month of the 70’s, when, all of a sudden the band started doing tunes, not so much just anthems. All of a sudden they seemed like a different band. Then in the early 80’s I became friendly with young blokes who adored the band, & Strummer particularly, as much for their politics as for that early sound. And that’s when I heard this album a lot & started to appreciate its highlights. And there are plenty. Janie Jones kicks the album off at lightning speed. I’m So Bored With The U.S.A. seems to use a riff very similar to the opening of The Pistols’ Pretty Vacant(Glen Matlock always said it was inspired by hearing ABBA’s S.O.S) which was recorded a month before the Clash song. White Riot is probably the standout. It was also their first single, based on Strummer’s recollections of the famous Notting Hill riots of 1976. It moves at a furious pace. I love the lyrics to Career Opportunities & the song about condoms, Protex Blue. And Garageland is a good closer. And, of course I’ll be forever grateful for The Clash introducing me to Junior Murvin’s Police & Thieves, one of the 70’s greatest reggae tunes. The version here doesn’t compare with the original, but the content fits so well with the rest of the album.
4 likes
Lou Reed
5/5
I was pursuing tertiary education in Newcastle but travelling to Sydney by train every Friday afternoon on the so-called Flyer. I still remember rushing from Central to the nearest record shop to buy Transformer, all because I’d heard Walk On The Wildside & just had to have it. I’d heard nothing else on the album & was thrilled when I first played it & realised it was so good. Vicious is one of the great opening tracks. Perfect Day & Satellite Of Love are among Lou’s best. There are only 2 of his albums that I ever play regularly - this and the live album that followed it - Rock & Roll Animal. And further proof of Bowie’s greatness that he brought out the best in Reed. A truly great record.
3 likes
1-Star Albums (22)
All Ratings
The Young Rascals
4/5
The Young Rascals were essentially a singles band. The first album of theirs that I owned was a greatest hits called Timepeace (1968) - not a dud track on it. The Groovin lp however does have some filler. In fact I would rate five of these eleven tracks as such. But the other half dozen songs still make this a mighty listen. They were great pop songwriters and great artists clamoured to record their songs. Dusty Springfield did a great version of How Can I Be Sure & Aretha almost owned Groovin in the end. I think The Young Rascals were the first white boys to be signed by Atlantic & this album must have made Ertegun & Co. very happy indeed. The song Groovin became an immediate classic - from the instrumental opening you are immediately lazin on a Sunday afternoon. The flute on It’s Love turns what could have been an ordinary rocker into something much better. But they could certainly rock - A Girl Like You & You Better Run are up there with their best recordings. The only cover version on the album is their take on A Place In The Sun which, while interesting, pales next to the version Stevie Wonder had recorded the year before. Anyway, I always wait to hear the concertina in How Can I Be Sure & it always knocks me out. So, despite the filler, there’s enough greatness on this album to give it 4 stars.
The The
2/5
I like Matt Johnson’s politics - it’s partly what makes Heartland the highlight of this album for me. Sweet Bird Of Truth is less interesting musically but the lyrics are cut from the same cloth. Problem for me is that The The sound like so many other English bands of the 80’s. I kept thinking : he sounds like Lloyd Cole. But then I discover that Lloyd had been influenced by the first The The album, Soul Mining. So, I’ll never play this album again. I can hear the merit in it, but it’s not my taste.
OutKast
4/5
I’ve always loved Ms.Jackson. It’s the only track on this disc that I was familiar with. Happy to say I loved the rest of it. Outkast have a lot to say. They can be funny (Gangsta Shit). They can be political (B.O.B.). But it’s mainly the sounds I enjoyed. The musical soundscape is so interesting. And subsequently the album is rarely boring. Highlights for me are I’ll Call Before I Come, Bombs Over Baghdad (loved the guitar solo), Xplosion & Gangsta Shit.
Super Furry Animals
4/5
Foolishly, I’ve avoided this band because of their name. Recently a friend sent me a bunch of their video clips, which i discovered are well worth a look. Having finally listened, I find that I’ve fallen in love with this album. There are so many highlights. Juxtaposed With U sounds like a great Burt Bacharach composition. I love No Sympathy. The instrumentation & harmonies in it remind me of Crosby, Stills & Nash. In fact, the harmonies are generally wonderful and they combine with the full-on psychedelic approach of the band to create a great sound. There’s something schizophrenic about Sidewalk Surfer Girl. It wants to be soft & sweet and loud & noisy at the same time. Beachboys go metal.
And a big mention to Run! Christian! Run! and my favourite lyric - on the midnight train to Jordan. This album was recorded at the legendary Rockfield Studios. I can recommend a doco doing the rounds about that Great Welsh institution. So glad I’ve discoveed this album.
Living Colour
4/5
Once again the only track on this LP I was familiar with was the hit single - Cult of Personality. Although I do own the 7 inch single of the Clash cover, Should I Stay Or Should I Go, which appears on the CD reissue, and which I’m quite fond of. Anyway, I really enjoyed the album. At the time it was released it was pretty unusual to find a guitar-based rock band membered by a bunch of black guys. But I have to say that these guys do the memory of Jimi Hendrix proud. Side 2 is terrific. It begins with Funny Vibe, a great track with a false ending featuring the dudes from Public Enemy, and an excellent cover of the Talking Heads’ Memories Can’t Wait. Mick Jagger’s harmonica opens and closes the album’s only ballad, the beautiful Broken Hearts. I love What’s Your Favourite Colour? and cannot understand why it was edited to less than 2 minutes on the vinyl. The side ends with Which Way To America?- which opens like an INXS song but then goes guitar-crazy. Loved it. Realy enjoyable.
Al Green
4/5
I saw Al Green at a free concert in the Sydney Domain in January 2010. After being told the place was full & being turned away, I crawled under a rope partition & ran into the crowd. I was not gonna miss Reverand Al. And he delivered. I reckon the majority of the crowd had been introduced to Al Green by the inclusion of this album’s title track in Tarentino’s Pulp Fiction. In the wake of that I saw him perform the song on Letterman in early 1995. He was outstanding - so relaxed, laid back & in the groove that he & producer Willie Mitchell had created decades earlier. His sound is unique. This album is not full of hit singles but it flows. It immerses the listener. The oddity on the record is his cover of The Bee Gees’ How Can You Mend A Broken Heart (the only time I saw them was not far from the Domain, also outdoors in the old Showground in January 1972). This song had toppedgthe American charts in 1970. What Green does with the track on this album is remarkable. He totally slows it down and he makes it his own. I really liked the original, but Al gives it soul & takes it to a whole new emotional level. My copy of this LP is on Motown, who distributed Hi Records back-catalogue in the 80’s. Hardly surprising. It’s a great listen.
Manic Street Preachers
1/5
I’d never heard any of the tracks on this album before. I really enjoyed the opening track - it had what sounded like a Cure riff happening in the background and the lyric content was interesting. But, for me it was downhill after that. Except for This Is Yesterday, which slowed the tempo down somewhat, the band were going hell for leather and I got bored. They might be good at what they do. The sounds & samples used were often interesting (hear The Intense Humming Of Evil). But I found the majority of the tracks to be repetitive & very samey. A bit boring, really.
The Police
2/5
I loved the first two Police albums. But by the time this (their fifth & last) album was released, I’d moved on. Except for the stalker’s theme song (Every Breath etc.) & King Of Pain ( I actually would be more likely to play Weird Al’s piss-take - King Of Suede), I was unfamiliar with the rest of this record. I found the Andy Summers- penned Mother pretty interesting, but the rest was a tad boring. Still, the 2 afore-mentioned singles are strong. Two stars from me.
MGMT
2/5
I was only familiar with the opening track, Time To Pretend. If you were alive in 2008, you could not have escaped it. Extra catchy tune. As for the rest of the album, I liked Weekend Wars & Pieces Of What & the drums in 4th Dimensional Transition, but found the rest of it lacklustre.
Arcade Fire
1/5
I just don’t understand this disc. I find it dead boring. There’s the odd instrumental flourish, but I really can’t stand the lead vocalist’s voice. Can’t really find anything positive to say about it.
Ash
2/5
I was totally unfamiliar with this album. Ash were obviously a tight outfit. It seemed to be all about the guitars. I really liked I’d Give You Anything - the guitars on this track were outstanding. But I found the rest of it samey & it really didn’t hold my interest.
Butthole Surfers
3/5
Here we have around 30 minutes of the wackiest sounds you’re likely to hear. And I find it pretty compelling. I saw these dudes at the Burland Community Hall in Newtown in 1991. I wasn’t sure what to make of their set, but I loved the images being thrown onto the big screen behind the band. It was definitely part of the package. I loved Kuntz, partly because it reminded me of an American baseball card I have for a player by the name of Rusty Kuntz. Only in America. The production is great. Well worth a listen.
Minor Threat
2/5
Not really my bag. But they do what they do do well. I do like the sound of the bass-playing.
The Cars
4/5
This was The Cars’ debut album, released in June ‘78. The month before, Cheap Trick released their break-out album, Heaven Tonight. I put them on either side of a cassette & for the next 12 months I flogged that tape to death driving around Sydney in my girlfriend Julie’s Holden station-wagon. So I know this album well. And it gives me just as much listening pleasure as it did back then. Side 1 is flawless. And the flipside is almost as good. Ocasek could write a terrific pop song. The Cars were one in a long line of American bands that may never have existed if The Beatles had not taken America by storm. My favourite moment is the Beatles guitar line in My Best Friend’s Girl - total homage to the Fab4. The song even ends with a Yeah Yeah Yeah in the fadeout. I love this record.
Beatles
5/5
For most of my adult life, my reply to the query “What’s your fave Beatles album?” was Revolver. When It was released, I’d just turned 16. The same day it was released, the new Beatles’ single was released - in Australia, the A-side was, unbelievably, Yellow Submarine. The B-side was Eleanor Rigby, one of McCartney’s greatest compositions. None of the Fab4 play on it. George Martin claimed his score for the strings was inspired by Hitchcock’s favourite composer, Bernard Herrman. It’s exceptional. McCartney was also responsible for Got To Get You Into My Life & Good Day Sunshine, both up-tempo belters, and two beautiful ballads, For No One (just Paul & Ringo) and Here, There And Everywhere (with beautiful vocal harmonies which Paul claimed was inspired by Brian Wilson’s God Only Knows). George got 3 songs on the album, more than ever before, including the opening track, Taxman, on which Paul played lead; Love You To, with George on sitar, Anil Bhagwat on tabla & no other Beatle taking part; and I Want To Tell You. Ringo got to sing Yellow Submarine, which was actually a #1 single. And Lennon featured on I’m Only Sleeping; She Said She Said (inspired by an acid experience with Peter Fonda); the wonderfully poppy And Your Bird Can Sing; Dr Robert (re a NY dealer who supplied hallucinogens); and Tomorrow Never Knows, a track which single-handedly changed the course of popular music. We’d never heard anything like it before. But then, we’d never heard anything like The Beatles before. This is a great record.
David Bowie
4/5
This album was released in October 1977. The title track was impossible to dislike and has over time become one of Bowie’s most popular songs. It’s one of 4 tracks on the album co-written with Eno & features Fripp on guitar. Six tracks feature vocals and four (most of Side 2) are instrumentals. For me, “Heroes”, Beauty And The Beast and Blackout are the standouts. These 3 & Sense of Doubt are the 4 tracks from this album included on the live double album Stage, which was released in September 1978 to coincide with Bowie’s 9 month world tour. I saw his first Sydney concert at the old Showground in November. He was in great voice. It was the music event of the year & felt a bit like the gathering of the tribes. This isn’t an album I’ve ever played a lot and having given it several spins in the last few days, I don’t know why. The production (Bowie & Visconti) is terrific. And it ‘s never boring - even the 4 consecutive instrumentals are full of surprises. I loved it.
Red Snapper
1/5
I’m afraid their aim was off. Played it once. Life’s too short. Not at all interesting to me. Enjoyed hearing the famous backbeat from David Essex’s 1973 hit, Rock On, on Some Kind of Kink. And Karime Kendra’s voice on The Rough And The Quick was effective. Other than that, I found it difficult to stay awake. Not one for me.
GZA
3/5
I saw Wu Tang Clan at the Enmore Theatre in August 2011. I was really there to see the support act, Daily Meds. The audience was so excited. It was a great night. This album was 15 years old at the time but 3 of the tracks were featured that night - Liquid Swords, Duel Of The Iron Mic & 4th Chamber. Two of them feature the hypnotic hammond organ sample from Willie Mitchell’s version of The Rascals’ Groovin. And the other uses the repetitive piano piece from a David Porter(as in Isaac Hayes/David Porter) track. I’d never heard this album before. I spent a lot of time listening to the many tracks sampled here & marvelling at how the samples were used. I enjoyed the film dialogue used. The album has an edge-of the-seat atmosphere that is maintained throughout. It sounds great. Shadowboxin, with the Ann Peebles sample was a standout for me. At times it was just a bit too repetitive. And in a post-ISIS world, I doubt if you’d open your album with a track in which a kid talks about his dad being a decapitator.
Black Sabbath
1/5
I guess it’s an age thing. In the 1970’s I lived in a lot of share-households. I saw & heard a lot of record collections. This wasn’t in any of them. My brother, 8 years younger than me, was the first person I knew with a Sabbath lp, but that was their 2nd album, the one with Paranoid on it. It’s the only track of theirs I could name in a line-up and I’ve always liked it. This album is totally new to me & I don’t feel like I’ve missed anything in the intervening half-century. Derivative & boring.
Arrested Development
4/5
I’ve owned & loved the single Tennessee/People Everyday for years. When I owned a jukebox, it was often on it. But I’d never heard the rest of this album before. It’s such a great listen. There’s a positivity about it that is missing from a lot of hip-hop released in the 30 years since this came out. There’s not a dud track on it. And so much of it is made to dance to - Mama’s Always On Stage, Give A Man A Fish, Mr Wendal. And the flow of the tracks is terrific. I loved it.
Jimmy Smith
4/5
I only own 2 Jimmy Smith albums & this is one of them. Recorded in 1960 for Blue Note, it really swings and is very much an ensemble album. The great guitarist Kenny Burrell features on half the 4 tracks. But I reckon it’s as much Stanley Turrentine’s album. His tenor playing embellishes the whole record. By contrast, the other album I have is a 1967 album he did for Verve, titled Respect, and the difference in Smith’s approach is marked. It’s very funky. Four of the five tracks are covers of soul/funk standards of the day, and it’s very much a Jimmy Smith album. And there are no horns. It’s all about the organ. This reflects the development of his taste through the 60’s. But it doesn’t detract from the greatness of Back At The Chicken Shack - a wonderful listen.
PJ Harvey
4/5
I’m a big fan of Polly’s, but I obviously did not give this much of a listen when I bought it. I was taken aback by the high-pitched voice and I think it got filed away pretty quickly. What a big mistake. I now can’t stop playing it. It ticks a lot of boxes - particularly the length of most of the trax - 5 are 3 minutes or under & only 2 only 2 are longer than 4 minutes. Takes me back to the late 70’s. The stories in the songs are heartfelt and the music is as original as you’d expect from her - possibly a bit to do with Mick Harvey’s involvement. Special mention to the native American drums & cavalry charge bugle in The Glorious Land and the nod to Eddie Cochran’s Summertime Blues in The Words That Maketh Murder. I saw her at the Horden earlier this century - so good live. And rarely fails on disc. Loved this.
The Blue Nile
3/5
This sounds great. If anything, the tracks are a bit samey, but there’s no doubt the band know what they’re doing. Not particularly my cup of tea, but definitely a polished effort.
Rufus Wainwright
5/5
I have never listened to a whole Rufus Wainwright album before, just the odd track. I’ve always liked his voice. But, for me, this is a masterpiece. The range of music on this cd is astounding. As is the quality of his lyrics. As a one-time altar boy myself, I was knocked out by the opening track, Agnus Dei, and every track that followed was a winner. I loved The Art Teacher, which made me recall Meg Christian’s Ode To A Gym Teacher; Gay Messiah, which brought to mind his father’s Talking the New Bob Dylan; and Memphis (not Nashville)Skyline, his heartfelt tribute to Jeff Buckley, is outstanding - Then came hallelujah sounding like Ophelia - referencing a Cohen song they both covered. He surrounded himself with such talent - a lot of family, the great Van Dyke Parks’ string arrangements, Levon Helm drumming on The One You Love. The album is so full of surprises. I loved it.
Beyoncé
2/5
I liked Rocket. i liked Flawless. Take or leave the rest. She’s a talent, but this stuff does nothing for me.
The Cure
2/5
For me, The Cure were a great singles band, but the only albums of theirs I’ve ever been able to listen to are the hits compilations and a live album I own. I checked the hits cds I own, Standing On A Beach : The Singles & The Cure : Greatest Hits, and nothing from Pornography appears on either. This doesn’t surprise me, because I can’t hear any toe-tappers here. I find it just a little boring, except for The Hanging Garden, which was the only single release off this album.
Tori Amos
3/5
I always loved the single Crucify, which I found on a terrific 5-track EP that featured covers of Nirvana, Led Zeppelin & the Stones. Pleased to find some other gems on this album, particularly Leather & Me And A Gun. It’s impossible to hear her voice without Kate Bush being brought to mind, but she’s not alone in that regard. She can write a tune, and this disc doesn’t get boring. A good listen.
Silver Jews
3/5
I had never heard of this band before. And when I started listening to the album, I thought - can I actually put up with this guy’s drone of a voice? Well I could, because he’s such an interesting lyricist. There are so many wonderful lines. From the track Tennessee : writing sad songs and paid by the tear & Punk rock died when the first kid said punk’s not dead. From Horselike Swastikas : … And I wanna be like water if I can cause water doesn't give a damn. Not surprising to learn that David Berman was first & foremost a poet. The music is fine, but it’s Berman’s words which steal the show. It’s been a real discovery for me.
Steely Dan
5/5
I’m a massive Dan fan. After waiting over 30 years for them to tour Australia, I saw them in Sydney and in Canberra in 2007 and was not disappointed. I love this, their 2nd album. I love the photo of the band in the studio. Becker looking cool with the sunnies, Fagen looking like a rabbit in the headlights, having finally been lumbered with lead vocals on all 8 tracks, and Skunk Baxter with his feet all over the mixing desk, looking like he has no doubts about his own ability on the guitar. The opening two songs on each side of this lp are outstanding. The album’s opener, Bodhisattva, is unique in their catalogue - breakneck rock’n’roll, with Baxter & Denny Dias ripping it up with some dual guitar harmonies. It’s followed by Razor Boy, once described as based on a bruised bossa nova groove, featuring the vibraphone of Victor Feldman & Baxter’s pedal steel. Side two begins with the funky Show Biz Kids, featuring the outstanding slide of Rick Derringer’ and the very soulful My Old School, with 4 saxes & a terrific Baxter guitar solo. There are no dull spots on this album and, as usual, the lyrics are often a mystery, but compelling nonetheless. Not my favourite Steely Dan album but easily 5 stars here.
Leonard Cohen
5/5
There are ten songs here. For me, six of them are worth 5-stars, so I rate the album similarly. I love his poetry and there’s plenty to enjoy here. Opening with Bird On The Wire sets a pretty high bar. On the surface, it’s addressed to a lover that he’s not treating well, but it’s so much more than that. As is the other great love song - You Know Who I Am. He loves using the word naked, as he does here and also in the more light-hearted Tonight Will Be Fine. Then there are the songs addressing war and the youth. I assume he wrote a lot of these songs in 1968, when the anti-war movement in the U.S. was at it’s peak. The biblical Story Of Isaac and The Butcher fit in here. The Partisan, which he didn’t write, was an unofficial anthem of the Free French in WW2. I only saw him once, in early 1980, at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney. It was his first tour to Australia. And the only other concert I’ve attended where emotions were so high was the first Brian Wilson concert at the State Theatre early this century. The love for the performer was palpable. I remember that people were constantly screaming requests, and I remember that a lot of them were for Nancy. For me it is one of his greatest compositions. Love this album.
The Smiths
5/5
What a great record. From Marr’s aggressive guitar in the opening track, the band never lets up. Morrissey provides some great lyrics (although I can’t get Frankly, Mr Shankly out of my head). And the hits just keep coming. Cemetry Gates has always been a favourite, and from that point in the album, it’s just one great track after another. No filler on this. Can’t believe I don’t listen to The Smiths more often.
Elton John
5/5
Comes from a time in my life when Reg released one memorable album after another, in this case a double album. A superb opening side - the instrumental Funeral For A Friend segues into 3 great tracks, ending with Bennie And The Jets, a hugely successful singles & John’s first song to make the R&B charts in the U.S. There’s some great stuff on Sides 2&3, notably the title track, Jamaica Jerk-Off,Sweet Painted Lady, etc. and he brings it home with Side 4, beginning with 2 absolute belters then easing out with the beautiful Roy Rogers, the country-inspired Social Disease & the mellow Harmony. Still does it for me.
Q-Tip
3/5
I wasn’t familiar with any of this album. Three or four tracks in I was finding it a little boring, and then was really taken with We Fight We Love, featuring Raphael Saadiq. From that point on, I found it to be most engaging. The 2 standouts for me were Move (featuring a Jackson 5 sample) and Manwomanboogie, featuring Amanda Diva. Great production. Enjoyed it.
Digital Underground
4/5
I knew nothing about the band or the album. And when listening to the opening track, The Humpty Dance, I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear much more. Then the Hendrix sample on The Way We Swing got me totally interested & I have to say I loved this album. The title track is terrific, as is Rhymin On The Funk, both with Parliament samples, and I was also taken by Underwater Rimes, which felt like a hip-hop version of The B-52’s Rock Lobster. The impersonation of Edward G. Robinson’s gangster persona is a scream. And I loved the final track, Doowutchyalike. It said a lot about the band’s approach to music, as well as life. This is one of the most soulful hip-hop albums I’ve ever heard. A great listen.
My Bloody Valentine
2/5
Shoegazing? Perfect description. I found the first few tracks dead boring. However when the band got really noisy, particularly on Feed Me With Your Kisses, it took me back to early Jesus & Mary Chain. Sometimes there’s a point to pure noise. These guys were obviously good at it. Will probably never listen to it again.
The Jesus And Mary Chain
3/5
I was a big fan of their debut album, Psychocandy (1985). I loved their use of feedback. I remember a friend visiting me while I was playing that album on a portable cassette player and advising me “why don’t you tune that radio properly?” For a while they could do no wrong. Darklands was what would have in 1987 been called their very difficult second album. Never easy to follow a classic release. It never thrilled me like Psychocandy did. Not sure how much that had to do with the replacement of their drummer with a drum machine (one of the 80’s notable scourges), but it probably didn’t help. It’s still a good listen. I always liked April Skies.
Pink Floyd
5/5
Five Stars. I hadn’t played it for a while. It still sounds like a million, and that’s probably a lot to do with Alan Parsons’ production. And these days I probably play Syd Barrett’s Floyd recordings and his solo records more than I play seventies’ Floyd. But there’s no denying the greatness of this album. It’s one for the ages. This lunatic is still on the grass.
Radiohead
2/5
Not for me. Have never listened to this, or indeed any other Radiohead album, before. I thought Creep was a great song but that’s about where it ends.Not keen on Yorke’s voice. Instrumentation was often interesting but overall I found the songs to be boring. Didn’t mind Go To Sleep, but I almost did.
New Order
2/5
I was never a fan of New Order. I always found it difficult to get past Bernard Sumner’s weak vocals. His best vocal on this is on Sunrise, where he sounds like he’s channelling Robert Smith. No surprise, therefore, that the track I enjoyed most was the instrumental, Elegia. A lot of British bands either sounded like New Order, or were desperately trying to at the time. But this sound never grabbed me.
Frank Sinatra
5/5
Hadn’t played this for a while, but I was brought up attending the Church of Sinatra on a regular basis, so am totally familiar with the album. Great thing about the opening track is that he not only feels so young but he sounds so young, even though he was 40 when these songs were recorded. He was in great voice. The period he was with Capitol Records produced his best work, as far as I was concerned. And there’s no doubt Nelson Riddle had a lot to do with it. The arrangements are sensational.
Most of the 14 tracks rate highly in the so-called great American songbook. Worth it just for I’ve Got You Under My Skin - one of Cole Porter’s finest & one of the great vocals of all time. A classic.
Isaac Hayes
5/5
I’ve never seen the movie Shaft, but I do remember watching the Academy Awards the night that Isaac Hayes won 2 Oscars - one for the now legendary theme song & one for the best dramatic score. Hayes was a mainstay of Stax Records during the 60’s - a great musician & composer and he had started a solo career in 1968. Four solo albums preceded Shaft but there’s no doubt that his career peaked with the soundtrack. Hardly surprising. A double album, it is thoroughly engaging, whether you’ve seen the film or not. It is soulful, funky and jazzy. Hayes enlisted the great Stax band The Bar-Kays to provide the instrumentation. I listened to the album from go to whoa & loved it. Here was a man who was only the 3rd Black American to win an Oscar, with a style of music that the Academy had never celebrated before. And 25 years before Salty Balls.
Morrissey
3/5
You have to admire someone who would record Margaret On The Guillotine while Thatcher was still the Prime Minister. Problem is, it’s not that memorable a tune when compared to, say, Stand Down Margaret by The Beat (1980). And herein lies the problem for me with Morrissey’s solo output - there’s no Johnny Marr. Morrissey’s words are still interesting but it ain’t The Smiths. Still, Morrissey’s lyrics are worth listening to. And the epic 8-minute Late Night, Maudlin Street stands out for me, although claims that the music is based on the work of Joni Mitchell are totally deluded.
The Strokes
4/5
I think I came across Last Nite on a compilation CD that came free with a magazine, and was so taken with it that I got a copy of this album & have always loved it. It still sounds fresh to me. The title track is one of the great openings to any album. I love the way the song opens, and, in fact, so many of these songs have great openings, that inevitably suck you in. No point selecting favourites here, I love them all.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
3/5
I owned the original vinyl of this back in the day. I was a fan of Emerson’s previous band, The Nice. I was always a sucker for any band that did strange cover versions & they certainly did quite a few - wacky covers of Dylan, Bernstein, Brubeck, Tim Hardin, etc. so when Emerson broke up the band & formed ELP, I went along for the ride. I don’t remember ever hearing the term Prog Rock at the time. I hadn’t heard this for decades. I decide to listen to it on my phone while I went for a walk. As it turned out, The weather was overcast, windy & rainy & this seemed the perfect setting for the frenetic Side One. Side Two’s more straight-forward songs are less compelling, especially where vocals are involved. But, overall, It was an interesting listen.
Aerosmith
2/5
Another album I bought back in the day (through the Australian Record Club), but have since offloaded. Just played it through and it’s better than I remember, but Robert Plant he ain’t. I think they peaked in the late 80’s.
Elliott Smith
4/5
I think this is the only Elliott Smith cd I don’t have. All the others I’ve picked up in op-shops over the years. Really enjoyed it. Particularly love his guitar playing. Nearly every song has an acoustic guitar intro and none of them are the same. Some of these intros remind me of Beatles songs (I was expecting him to break into Rocky Racoon at one point); the folky intro to the beautiful Angeles brought Paul Simon’s playing to mind; and I was chuffed to read that he used an open tuning for No Name #5, because that’s the intro that immediately made me think of Joni Mitchell, & open-tuning is her middle name. The lyrics are always interesting, and the melodies are never repetitive. And I love the fact that the album’s title comes from the writing of the philosopher Kierkegaard, because that name immediately transports me to the Piranha Brothers sketch by Monty Python - a man they called Kierkegaard, who just sat there biting the heads off whippets . A great listen.
Sleater-Kinney
3/5
There’s a lot of this I loved - the opening (title) track is great & sets the tone, although I found some of the rest just a bit repetitive. I liked Turn It On & Words & Guitar, but my favourites were the very poppy Little Babies and Dance Song 97, which I thought was outstanding. A good listen.
The Cardigans
2/5
It was hard to avoid hearing Lovefool back in the day & I have to say I never wanted to hear it again. There are a few tunes here I didn’t mind - Happy Meal II; Never Recover, which sounded like 60’s pop; and particularly Great Divide. The band were obviously talented but I really find the lead singer’s voice irritating. Blondie, they ain’t.
Abdullah Ibrahim
4/5
I did not know what to expect from this album. I’m a huge jazz fan but Ibrahim is not someone whose music I’m familiar with. He’s a pianist, but this is very much an ensemble effort. And it covers so much ground. It opens with Mandela, which really swings, and it never sits still. There are steamy, edgy tunes that reek if New York (Song For Sathima, Tuang Gura). Long, slow pieces (the title track & The Mountain). The Wedding is a beautiful tune in march time. I thought Mannenberg Revisited sounded very 60’s. Turns out it is a re-interpretation of a song he originally recorded in the early 70’s. A song which is often remembered as an unofficial national anthem. And the album ends a bit like it started, with the band really stretching out, on Sameeda. A terrific record.
Roxy Music
4/5
My favourite Roxy albums by far are the first four. This was the 4th, the 2nd without Eno. It’s not full of great songs but it does well enough. The Thrill Of It All, Three And Nine & All I Want Is You are the standouts for me. As are Ferry’s lyrics throughout the album. He’d already released his 2nd solo album a few months before this, complete with dress suit & bowtie on the cover, and that would be the Ferry we’ve watched for almost 50 years now. No surprise then that, except for Cole Porter (who was always in a dinner suit), he’s the only songwriter I’ve come across to use the phrase “that old ennui” (If It Takes All Night). Favourite lyric though is from Casanova : Now you’re nothing/ But second hand/In glove. Great to hear Ferry attack the harmonica a couple of times on Side 1. The band are all fabulous. Not their best album, but in the running.
Dire Straits
5/5
I remember hearing Bob Hudson play Sultans Of Swing on 2JJ one afternoon in 1978 & thinking that it would be big. The album was even better. Not sure how much the production of Muff Winwood (Stevie’s bro) had to do with it but the flow from track to track is terrific. There are the moody songs (In The Gallery),the rocky tunes (Setting Me Up is pure rockabilly) and, let’s face it, the ones that sound so much like J.J.Cale, it ain’t funny (Southbound Again). It’s all about Mark Knopfler’s laid-back vocals & distinctive guitar sound. From then on you could always identify his sound. Within a year Dylan employed him to play lead on the Slow Train Coming album. I hadn’t played this for quite a while, but thoroughly enjoyed it. A great album.
Lou Reed
3/5
I never liked this album &, even though I’ve owned it for decades, I haven’t played it for that long either. Released in October 1973, it was bookended by the only 2 Lou Reed albums I was ever passionate about - Transformer(released November’72), the album that made him famous & Rock’n’Roll Animal (recorded live December’73 & released February ‘74). These are great records. Not sure what Berlin is. There’s nothing wrong with the band and a lot of Lou’s music is beautiful, but I can’t stand the vocal delivery. And the same was true when I saw him live - first at the Hordern Pavlova in July1975 and ten years later at the Civic Theatre in Newcastle. His bands on both occasions were great, but he just wasn’t engaging. At both concerts, the opening bands stole the shows for me - in ‘75 it was a Kiwi band I’d never heard of - Split Enz - and ten years later it was a band I was very fond of - the Hoodoo Gurus. Anyway, I’ve given Berlin another listen and discovered that there are a couple of songs on it that I do enjoy - How Do You Think It Feels & Sad Song. Apart from that, it leaves me cold, although, as I said, the music is often terrific.
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
When I bought the first 2 Springsteen albums through the Australian Record Club, he was virtually unknown in this country. After the success of his 3rd album, Born To Run, he truly was the next big thing. Unfortunately, due to a dispute with his ex-manager, the much awaited follow-up album - this one - took 3 years to surface. When you’re a big fan, that’s a long time between drinks. I remember that it wasn’t what I expected. It’s moodier than it’s predecessor (the title track says a mouthful) with songs about fathers & labour(Adam Raised A Cain; Factory) & basically the American dream (The Promised Land). Thankfully there were no shortage of songs involving cars (I think cars/driving get mentioned in 7 of the 10 tracks) or girls. I’ve always loved Candy’s Room - the speed of it & Springsteen’s guitar tribute to The Yardbirds. He was in his prime. The 70’s were his real glory days.
The Smashing Pumpkins
4/5
The only track I was familiar with here was 1979, which I used to include on compilation tapes quite a bit after finding it on a cd single. Great track. Happy to find many great tracks on this album. Bullet With Butterfly Wings is terrific. I listened to the remastered 2012 double cd version. I thought the 2nd cd was outstanding. The music was so diverse and the musicianship of the highest order. I am not big on Corgan’s voice, but despite that, I found the album really engaging. Great listening.
Madness
3/5
I’ve never heard this album before, but, being a big Costello fan, I picked up the 12” single of Tomorrow’s Just Another Day at the time, because it included a version with Elvis on lead vocals. Great track, as were the other tracks on that record - Blue Beast and Madness(Is All In The Mind). As was the single Our House. But having now listened to the other nine tracks, I have to say they sound a bit samey. They were a good band but they weren’t The Specials.
Buzzcocks
5/5
What a pleasure to hear this album again. When I want to hear the Buzzies I usually just throw on Singles Going Steady. I guess I always thought of them as being a singles band. But this, their debut album, proves that theory wrong. I listened to the original vinyl eleven tracks and 36 minutes of joy. Fast Cars is a brilliant, breakneck opening track. No Reply ( the title of a Fab4 classic)opens with a repeating ring-tone that Blondie would copy later in 1978 on Hanging On The Telephone. Pete Shelley almost yodels his way through Get On Our Own. Sixteen ends Side One with the conclusion that only older folk could possibly enjoy disco - No disco / No being twenty wo wo wo one. Every track on Side 2 is great, particularly Fiction Romance & Autonomy. Even the almost 6-minute long closer, Moving Away From The Pulsebeat, is terrific. Essentially an instrumental (only 2 sung verses), it gives the band a chance to go for it, and the guitarists & drummer John Maher don’t disappoint. I did eventually see the band at The Marquee Club in Sydney in early 1990. They were terrific. My clear memory of that night is that the support act, Falling Joys, were so much louder than Buzzcocks. I don’t think volume was necessary. They were a pop band. But they were a great pop band.
The Smashing Pumpkins
3/5
I did not know this record at all. I did not find it as interesting as Melon Collie etc. I liked Cherub Rock, Disarm & Mayonaise. And I really enjoyed Silverfuck - definitely could have been a late 60’s drug-induced marathon. They were good, but I find this album to be a bit samey.
Everything But The Girl
4/5
I fell in love with Tracey & Ben via their debut EBTG album, Eden. Idlewild is their 4th album and one of their best. My original vinyl has 11 tracks, all penned by the couple. My cd of the album, however, contains an extra track, which opens the record. It’s their cover of the Crazy Horse classic, I Don’t Want To Talk About It, which had charted for Rod Stewart in 1977. The EBTG version is to die for. Tracey Thorn has a voice made to sing about broken hearts. The album hangs together so well. Sophisticated, to say the least, it’s a great listen.
Suede
3/5
I wasn’t familiar with this but quite enjoyed it. I thought that musically it was good. Loved the drummer. Once again the vocals I thought were quite generic & uninteresting. And some of the lyrics were a tad embarrassing - You’re a water sign & I’m an air sign - Really?????? But I liked Animal Nitrate, She’s Not Dead & Pantomime Horse & really enjoyed The Drowners & Metal Mickey. Solid.
Cornershop
4/5
Was there a better single released in the 90’s than Brimful Of Asha? I fell in love with it on the very first listen. And I feel the same way about this album. From the opening moments (Sleep On The Left Side) when you hear something that sounds like a piano accordion but probably isn’t, the soundscape here is intriguing. As with the instrumental Butter The Soul, which sounds like somebody whistling while trying to tune a radio. Great to hear Ginsberg on When The Light Appears Boy (he died 6 months before this album was released). His life was greatly influenced by Indian culture. Really enjoyed the duet with Paula Fraser (Good To Be On The Road Back) & the rapping by Justin Warfield on Candyman. And for me the great thing about the version of Norwegian Wood is that it reminds me of the cheesy cover of that song by The Folkswingers (sitar & all). I love this album.
Thundercat
4/5
I loved the vocals on this - so much of it reminds me of The Beachboys (Inferno, for instance).The guest singers do well - Pharrell can sing the phone book as far as I’m concerned. Kenny Loggins can still hit the high notes. There’s a jazzy feel, overall and the bass-playing is often sublime (Them Changes). I loved the title track - in fact I loved the whole album. I own Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly, but had no idea this cat was involved in that. He’s definitely got great form.
Einstürzende Neubauten
1/5
At my age, life’s too short for this. I did enjoy all 1:25 of the Jetaime cover & Negativ Nain was amusing. Other than that, it’s all I could do to ward off a headache. I think the nearest we ever had to a band like this in Sydney was SPK. Mind you, I did enjoy that one of the tracks was titled Schmerzen.
Alanis Morissette
4/5
I have no memory of ever listening to this cd, but I realised quickly that I was familiar with a good 80% of the tracks. I had never taken much notice of the lyrics - I think I wrongly assumed that this was a musical version of a rom-com. Couldn’t be more wrong. And musically, the only issue I had was with the singer’s harmonica playing. A little dodgy. But, overall, I really enjoyed this. A standout.
John Martyn
5/5
In July 1978 I was working for the Migrant Services Section of the Social Security Department, in Clarence St Sydney. One morning I received a phone-call from a mate who was a student at Sydney University, telling me to get my arse up to the Union Theatre (now The Footbridge) on campus, because John Martyn was playing a free concert at 1.00pm. As it turns out, this was part of a world tour to promote the album One World. I got there in time. John Martyn was late, and extremely hung-over, carrying what appeared to be an acoustic guitar with a plethora of wires coming off it (and no doubt a bunch of effects pedals). It was one of the great concerts I’ve ever attended. At the time I was only familiar with the 1970 album Road To Ruin, which he recorded with his wife, Beverley, & which is an all-time favourite of mine, so most of what I saw him play that day was unfamiliar to me, but he was in blistering form. And I imagine a lot of what he played came from this album. How lucky I was, because this is a great record. I can’t think of anything else that sounds like it. About 30 years later, a different mate gave me a dvd titled The Transatlantic Sessions, which features many great artists & includes an enthralling version of Big Muff with Martyn on guitar & Danny Thompson on double bass. Do yourself a favour & google it. This is the song he co-wrote in Jamaica with Lee Scratch Perry the year before he made the album. You also hear the great reggae trombonist Rico Rodriguez on Certain Surprise. I love the fact that Chris Blackwell set up mikes in the middle of a lake on his property(where the lp was recorded) to catch whatever noises nature was providing at the time. This was way ahead of its time. Love it.
Cyndi Lauper
3/5
I have this album but I really only know the singles, most of which were really good. Most of Side 2 I find to be a little average. Never know Annie Leibovitz shot the cover.
Rod Stewart
5/5
You know how you remember some albums from the party you were at where that was the only album that got a spin all night. I remember the Abbey Road party in Sefton when I was 19 & a local thug named Harold Smith did a job on my mate Geoff & we ended up in Emergency at Fairfield Hospital. I remember the Hot August Night party at Ultimo when I was 23. And in-between those two, I remember the Every Picture Tells A Story party at Dulwich Hill when I was 21 & the party’s host, Glenn, was sniffing around my girlfriend. I think I was totally familiar with this album by night’s end. I have to say it still sounds great. And I have to agree with Robert Christgau that “ it's the mandolin and pedal steel that come through sharpest.\" So true. Ronnie Wood and “the mandolin player in Lindisfarne” are terrific. Stewart was always great at choosing material & it’s no different here, but I reckon the best 3 tracks are the 3 originals. This is Rod at his peak. A winner.
The Velvet Underground
4/5
This was an album I’d stopped listening to until I heard Edwyn Collins’s version of Pale Blue Eyes (1984) & was reminded what a great song it was. This was post-Cale VU and it sounds so different to the first 2 albums. Except for The Murder Mystery, which harks back to their avant-garde ethic, the music is restrained and melodic. And Reed’s lyrics are more reflective than on the first two albums. I love Jesus and What Goes On (Side One is a real winner). Side Two begins well but is less compelling. Still, a terrific listen.
The Stooges
5/5
I really did not discover this record until the late 70’s, when punk exploded on the scene. It was then I fell in love with the first 3 Stooges albums, particularly this one. Read Danny Sugarman’s Wonderland Avenue to find out what a crazy bastard Iggy was in the late 60’s/early 70’s. No doubt Bowie’s remixing and James Williamson’s addition to the band played a big part in the beauty of this record. The Vietnam war was still raging & Search & Destroy is as good an opening track as you would hear in 1973. And, except for the more subdued pace of I Need Somebody, it’s full steam ahead for the rest of the record. Gimme Danger, Search & Destroy & the title track are highlights for me. My favourite Stooges.
Todd Rundgren
4/5
My introduction to Todd was the purchase of the Nazz single of Hello It’s Me from the discount bin at Grace Bros record bar on Broadway in 1969. I think I prefer the version on this album. Never heard this record before and was only familiar with I Saw The Light, which still gets played on retro radio. Thoroughly enjoyed it - very poppy but so well done, because he’s such a good producer. I think Side 4, which involved using other musicians, is the weakest side. He didn’t need them. Love his vocals & guitar and his ability to create 2 or 3-minute pop masterpieces.
Jerry Lee Lewis
4/5
Predictably raucous and great. I’ve heard him do the same stuff (except for Money) a million times & he never fails to entertain. The audience chanting his name was pretty cute. A legend only just taken from us.
Stan Getz
4/5
The Cure
3/5
Like I said the last time, I always thought The Cure were a great singles band but I never paid any attention to their albums. So, except for The Forest, which I always loved, I was not familiar with this album. Having given it a listen, I can honestly say I’ll never listen to it again, but it’s not without merit.
David Gray
1/5
Apart from Babylon, the material on this album was unfamiliar to me. Now I have to try to erase it from my memory. Very forgettable, I hope.
R.E.M.
4/5
4/5
I was familiar with a fair bit of this album, but I’d never appreciated how good it is. It’s first-rate. The cd I have includes lots of extras. As well as the classics, Look Of Love & Poison Arrow, I was really impressed by 4ever 2gether, Alphabet Soup, Tears Are Not Enough & Valentines Day. In fact, there’s nothing here that I didn’t feel like singing along with.
Great record.
Prince
5/5
After the great 1999 album, the release of each new Prince LP was keenly awaited. This was the follow-up and it didn’t disappoint. The sheer pomp of When Doves Cry & Purple Rain & the rock & roll chops of Let’s Go Crazy was more than enough, but the other 2 singles gleaned from this, Take Me With U & I Would Die 4 U, were also classics. There was something a little embarrassing about the movie clips that were used for some of these, but, really, he could do no wrong at the time. This is the album that made him the icon that we still sorely miss.
fIREHOSE
3/5
I was totally unfamiliar with Firehose’s material. I think I was expecting grunge but this is nothing like that. Very listenable, at times poppy, sometimes a bit ordinary. The rhythm section is awesome. They actually let the drummer have some (one whole track). The bass is prominent. Vastopol is a beautiful, if brief, instrumental. A pleasant surprise
Stevie Wonder
5/5
Let’s get one thing straight - Innervisions is definitely Stevie’s finest album. It’s been decades since I’ve played Songs In The Key Of Life from go to whoa ( I remember one review at the time of its release with the headline Songs In The Key Of Money, referring to the record deal he’d just signed with Motown). The thing about Stevie was that as far back as the late 60’s, he could write songs that my parents generation would love (people born in the 1920’s) - think My Cherie Amour, Yester-Me etc. This side of his huge talent peaked with For Once In My Life. Between 1973 & 1975 I worked weekends in an RSL club to support myself through Uni. I could not count the number of 3rd-rate tenors I saw sing that song in the club auditorium. I’ve always thought that there was too much of that material on this album - Sir Duke, Isn’t She Lovely (glad I’d moved on from the RSL in time to avoid endless interpretations of that), If It’s Magic etc. I was wrong. Unlike a lot of bloated double albums, there’s gold on this one. I’d forgotten how good Joy Inside My Tears, Black Man, I Wish, If It’s Magic & Pastime Paradise were. There’s funk here that I’d forgotten about. The only filler is the 4-track 7” EP included in the package - it didn’t need one. A great record.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
There were a couple of times while listening to this album yesterday that I thought : that sounds a lot like The Beatles or like a Beatles song. Now I just read the Elvis got Geoff Emerick, the man who engineered Sgt Pepper, to work on this album. And of course Elvis, like the Fab4, was a Liverpudlian. I’m a huge Costello fan & this album is worth it just to hear him sing Almost Blue ( the Chet Baker cover of that song is also worth a listen). The 3 singles released from the album are also highlights - Man Out Of Time, Town Cryer & You Little Fool. And I always loved Shabby Doll, which he was still playing in concert many years later. He did do some ordinary stuff in the mid-80’s but this isn’t that. Well worth a listen.
Shuggie Otis
4/5
Until last year , the only Shuggie material I was familiar with was a 1969 album he did with Al Kooper (very bluesy) that I’ve had for years, an album called Giants of Rhythm & Blues, a 70’s album featuring greats like Louis Jordan, Shuggie’s father Johnny Otis, Big Joe Turner, etc, on which Shuggie plays guitar, bass & some piano, and his guitar on Peaches En Regalia from Frank Zappa’s Hot Rats lp. I knew he’d written Strawberry Letter 23, but had never heard it until last year, when I acquired a copy of the cd reissue of Inspiration Information, which include 4 tracks not on the original album, of which this was one. It’s a very laid-back listen, very 70’s, jazzy at times, funky at others, quite a few instrumentals, on which he plays just about everything. A talent who shunned the bigtime to do it his way. Really enjoy this album.
The Roots
3/5
I really knew little of The Roots until Elvis Costello did an album with them in 2013. Around the same time I was able to enjoy seeing them nightly as the houseband on The Jimmy Fallon Show, when it was on free-ro-air. I have a copy of this cd & find a real diversity among the tracks. My favourites are Thought And Work & The Seed, both produced by
?uestlove, who is a wonderful musician. The music on this album is so interesting. And my copy came with a great 5-track DVD. A winner.
Bruce Springsteen
2/5
I’m a big boss fan, but I never liked this album. I just played it for the first time in years & it hasn’t improved. There isn’t a track on it that I ever got off on. I loved his 70’s output but there are a bunch of his lp’s since then that just didn’t do it for me. This is one of them.
Nico
3/5
I love the fact that Nico hated this album, especially the use of flutes on so many tracks. Let’s face it, she was as much a singer as Marlene Dietrich, but it really didn’t matter. Her part in the VU/Warhol album was great, partly because she only appeared on a few tracks. This album is a different kettle of fish however. Where she got lucky was the material she was given to sing. Three Jackson Brownes, a Dylan, a Tim Hardin & the rest written by her VU bandmates. Highlights : I’ll Keep It With Mine & These Days (one of Browne’s greatest lyrics) & It Was A Pleasure Then, which reminds me so much of her live version of The End. I had not played this for years but so glad to hear it again.
The Beau Brummels
3/5
The Beau Brummels reached #20 on the 2UE Top 40 in 1965 with their single Just A Little. I remember it well - I was 15 at the time & I loved it. I never heard another thing from them, so reading their wiki entry & listening to this album is all news to me. It’s not a world-beater, but it is quite listenable - some of it is poppy, some country & some is very 1967 psychedelic, The Wolf Of Velvet Fortune in particular. But it seems to me that the best 2 tracks on the lp are the cover versions - Nine Pound Hammer (Merle Travis) & Old Kentucky Home (Randy Newman). They jump out at you. The rest of the album has its moments, and there’s no rubbish on it. But I find it amusing that their previous album had been an album of covers, which they resented Warners forcing them to record. Oh well.
Soundgarden
3/5
I would not have known a Soundgarden song if I’d tripped over one. Can’t say that I was a big fan of grunge. So this was a big surprise. There were only a couple of tracks I found just noisy & boring. The highlights for me were the Nirvana-like Fell On Black Days - loved the guitar in the second half of this; Black Hole Sun - can’t hear The Beatles influence in this or Head Down, as Wiki claims, but loved the melody of this song; Kickstand - a track that actually sounded like an old rock’n’roll song; and Like Suicide, particularly for the drumming & the pace of the tune. And the production was great. It sounded like a million.
Eminem
3/5
The thing I was most surprised about here was the humour. Right from the directive “Don’t do drugs”in the opening Public Service Announcement, there’s some funny stuff here. My favourites : “This is Paul Rosenberg, your faithful attorney at law
Listen, I listened to the rough copy of your album
And uh... you know I've just got to be honest with you
Can you tone it down a little bit?”( Paul-Skit); “Look at the store clerk, she’s older than George Burns” (Guilty Conscience). Unfortunately there’s also a lot of misogyny (My Name Is ; 97 Bonnie & Clyde; As The World Turns)and a lot of violence (Role Model ; & particularly 97 Bonnie & Clyde). Musically I find it a bit repetitive. I liked the 3 tracks produced by Dre, especially Role Model. And I loved the sampling of Big Brother & the Holding Company’s version of Summertime at the beginning of Rock Bottom. I guess he had a hard life. I guess it paid off for him later on.
Iggy Pop
4/5
God bless Bowie. He took Iggy to Berlin, got him off smack & helped him record the best post-Stooges album of his career. It still amazes me that Jim has outlived Davy. Love this record. Side One is a killer. Is there a better opening track than the title track here? The drums are a wonder. The rhythms on The Passenger are equally infectious. Bowie has his prints all over the album - co-producer, vocalist & pianist. I saw Iggy at The Capitol in Sydney in the early 80’s, and it wasn’t that thrilling, but saw him again at The Hordern in Sydney in 2013 & he was sensational, limping around, wearing nothing but jeans, and sounding as great as he ever did. You have to wonder what course his career would have taken without the friendship of Bowie & then later the use of the title track of this album in Trainspotting? My fave Iggy story - his dad was a high school English teacher. His students used to call him Iggy’s Pop.
The Slits
4/5
Sometimes there’s no explaining why you like an album so much. For me, Cut is a total one-off. Of it’s time, it contains The Slits debut single, Typical Girls, released at the same time as the album, and one of the defining tracks of the punk/post-punk era. The flip-side of Typical Girls is one of the greatest cover versions of all time - their crack at Marvin Gaye’s I Heard It Through The Grapevine. But the album is not an easy listen - it depends on dub & reggae but it’s weird, it’s shambolic, to say the least (like so much post-punk music). But it’s never boring and, hey, Side 2 opens with a track called Newtown. I saw the reformed band at the Gaelic Club in 2007, and there’s no denying they were all over the shop, but they were bloody entertaining. See if you can find the episode of Spicks & Specks that Ari Up appeared on during that tour & you’ll have some idea how crazy she could be on stage. I walked out of the Gaelic that night, jumped straight into a cab out the front & looked at the driver - it was Blackie from the Hard-Ons. Top night.
The Notorious B.I.G.
4/5
Last thing I felt like today was some epic hardcore hip-hop cd, so I wasn’t really looking forward to this. But whaddya know - this is a classic. I don’t know how he pulls that off, but he does. It’s in the music, the beats, the samples but most of all his words. What a storyteller. The first 3 trax knocked me out - Intro, Things Done Changed & Gimme The Loot. Much to my surprise, it never gets boring. Absolute highlight for me is Diana King’s vocals on the reggae-influenced Respect. You do get a bit sick of “bitches” & “motherfuckers”, over & over, but this is the context for it, I suppose. I love Randy Newman’s summary - one of the best records ever made…the first cut says “Let’s stop killing each other”- and then the rest of the record is all about people killing each other! It’s the damnedest thing.”
James Brown
4/5
The audience are the real stars here. It’s worth listening to just for the intro, and I swear that the intro was exactly the same the night I saw him at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion in February 1988. The tracks are the usual suspects, and the whole concert just flows. Wonder if any of the band got fined that night?
Elvis Presley
2/5
I’ve never bought this bullshit about how great comeback-Elvis was. Sun sessions Elvis was great. Leiber & Stoller Elvis was great. Religious Elvis was great. But this album is the prelude to Vegas Elvis, which generally leaves me cold. Big voice, big ballads and some terribly ordinary material.
And when he does cover good songs that had already been hits for others, he crucifies them. Hank Snow’s I’m Movin On is a classic (listen to the version by Matt Lucas) and John Hartford’s Gentle On My Mind was a big hit for Glen Campbell, & even Aretha recorded it. But Elvis does nothing for these songs. I love In The Ghetto, and I have no idea how Suspicious Minds & Kentucky Rain missed the cut from the original album. This record just doesn’t do it for me.
The Byrds
4/5
I love the psychedelic. Eight Miles High says it better than anything else. The rest of this albums is a bit all over the shop. Mr Spaceman delivers. The two extremely folkie tracks are folk classics : John Riley & Wild Mountain Thyme, which Dylan would perform at the Isle Of Wight Festival 3 years later. They both sound great here. The cover of Hey Joe is unnecessary, just like every other version apart from Jimi’s. Could have been a better slbum if Clark hadn’t left the band. But Eight Miles High was his departing gift. The Byrds never came to Australia, but I saw McGuinn, Hillman & Clark at the Regent in Sydney in 1978, & was not disappointed.
Sheryl Crow
3/5
I’d not heard this cd before. I own a greatest hits cd which contains 5 of these 11 songs - I think all 5 were singles & I liked them at the time, without feeling rapturous about Crow. But I found some stuff I quite liked among the other 6 tracks. I really liked the latin feel of Solidify. I loved the wacky Na Na Song (which sounds like a demented Subterranean Homesick Blues). The bass in No One Said It Would Be Easy is totally reminiscent of the Twin Peaks soundtrack, from around the same time. And she could be channeling Dian Kraal on the very jazzy We Do What We Can. Some of the stuff here is straight out of the Seventies Singer- Songwriter text-book. But she generally does okay with it.
Stephen Stills
4/5
I bought the cassette of this album from a bargain bin back in the day. Then promptly loaned it to my dear friend, & future NDP senator, Bob Wood, and that was the last I ever saw or heard of it. Until today. What a terrific listen, although, like a lot of double albums, it was probably an album overweight. Stills is in top form on this, & a lot of it has to do with the band, particularly the great Chris Hillman. Many styles are traversed - bluegrass (Fallen Eagle); country(Jesus Gave Love Away For Free); acoustic blues (Blues Man)and great rock & roll (It Doesn’t Matter still slays me. There are also a lot of obvious influences, to my ear, anyway : Rock & Roll Crazies is reminiscent of Stills’s own Love The One You’re With; Both Of Us reminds me of Neil Young’s The Loser; So Begins The Task could be C,S& N ; Hide It So Deep harks back to Hank Williams; Right Now opens just like a Stones’ song. I can also hear Jimmy Buffet & Lynyrd Skynyrd, but it was them being influenced by Manassas. The second album is not as strong as the first, but hey, I’m not quibbling. It was so good to hear this again.
Radiohead
2/5
Except for Creep, Radiohead have never done anything for me. I listened closely to this & I have to say I would not cross the road to hear any of it again. There’s nothing wrong with it. It just bores me.
Beatles
5/5
I was 15 years old & in 5th Form at Parramatta Marist Brothers when the double-A-sided single Nowhere Man & Norwegian Wood was released in Australia in March 1966. I can still remember how I was so taken by the sophistication of those songs. This was the Fab4 at another level. By the end of that year I was familiar with most of Rubber Soul, because AM radio had woken up to the fact that, when it came to The Beatles, they did not just have to play singles. There was gold to be mined from the latest Beatles album. I remember Girl & Michelle getting so much airplay even though they had not been released as singles in Australia (they were released as a double-A-sided single in Europe). This was some album. One of the best opening tracks of all time. George Harrison’s coming of age as a songwriter. The sitar would soon be everywhere. In My Life would become one of the great contemplative pop songs. One of my sisters sang it as my brother was signing the marriage certificate. The joy this album has brought me over almost 6 decades - well, that’s what The Beatles could do.
The Rolling Stones
4/5
This has the makings of a great single album, but there’s not enough quality to make a great double album. Take out Sweet Virginia, Tumbling Dice, Loving Cup, Happy (Keith on vocals), Rip This Joint & All Down The Line. What are you left with? Reasonable, but not classic Stones material. The idea that this album is superior to any of the 3 studio albums (or even the live Get Yer Ya-Yas Out) that preceded it, I find ludicrous. Still, a good listen & the good stuff is still really good.
Lou Reed
5/5
I was pursuing tertiary education in Newcastle but travelling to Sydney by train every Friday afternoon on the so-called Flyer. I still remember rushing from Central to the nearest record shop to buy Transformer, all because I’d heard Walk On The Wildside & just had to have it. I’d heard nothing else on the album & was thrilled when I first played it & realised it was so good. Vicious is one of the great opening tracks. Perfect Day & Satellite Of Love are among Lou’s best. There are only 2 of his albums that I ever play regularly - this and the live album that followed it - Rock & Roll Animal. And further proof of Bowie’s greatness that he brought out the best in Reed. A truly great record.
Tom Waits
3/5
Don’t get me wrong - I love Tom Waits. The concert I saw him give at the State Theatre, Sydney, in 1979, was one of the greatest concerts I’ve ever attended. But that was 70’s Tom. From Frank’s Wild Years onward, I’ve had to deal with a different Tom. The problem for me was that he just stopped writing tunes. I own Rain Dogs, but I don’t think I’d played it for a couple of decades. It hasn’t improved with age. There are only a couple of throwbacks to what I consider his golden period - Walking Spanish is the best thing here by a mile & ranks among his best talking songs; 9th & Hennepin is also terrific, but very short; while Downtown Train was always a good song & was covered by quite a few. The rest are just okay. There’s little else here that really grabs me.
Megadeth
2/5
Not my bag at all, but I guess they’re good at what they do. There’s some tasty guitar & the production’s good. I quite enjoyed Peace Sells & I Ain’t Superstitious. Otherwise, all a bit generic.
Joni Mitchell
5/5
I love the idea that around the time Joni recorded this album, she spotted a 15-year-old Prince in the front row of a concert she was giving in Minnesota. He sent her fan-mail that her office thought was possibly coming from the “lunatic fringe”. Like Prince, I was so passionate about her that I hand-delivered a letter to her when she was staying at the Sebel Townhouse in the Cross during her only Australian tour in 1983. As for this album, I’d heard the single Raised On Robbery on the radio before the album was released & really liked it. But it was the single Help Me /Just Like This Train (20 cents in a bargain bin somewhere in Newcastle) that made me go out & find the album. Side One of the album is outstanding. The title track is her storytelling at it’s finest. Free Man In Paris (about David Geffen) & People’s Parties reflect her life at the time in such a poetic way. Side Two is also quality-plus & concludes with one of the few cover versions she’d ever released at that point, the Annie Ross classic Twisted, which Bette Midler had also covered the year before. This began a love for Lambert, Hendricks & Ross which continues to this day. Joni was at the peak of her powers here. What a songwriter.
The Cramps
4/5
I discovered The Cramps in 1982, courtesy of dear friend & inner-city raconteur Stephen Niblett. It was when I first heard the term “psychobilly”. The Cramps were a lot about attitude. They were a blessed relief in the 80’s from the serious young insect bands. The concert I saw them give at Selinas at the Coogee Bay Hotel in 1986 was extraordinary. It was the only time I’ve ever been caught in a crowd surge where I had absolutely no control over what was happening. I think Lux ended up in his jocks, climbing a speaker stack. There are some classics on this record, produced by the legendary Alex Chilton - I Was A Teenage Werewolf is great and all of the covers - Strychnine, Tear It Up, Fever & Sunglasses After Dark - are really terrific. Nobody sounded like them.
Faust
3/5
Did not expect to, but loved this. A real variety of music, from the pomp of the long opening track, to the softer cuts on Side Two. A real surprise.
The United States Of America
3/5
In the late 60’s I picked up a Columbia compilation from the 50c bin at Ashwoods In Pitt St, Sydney. Called Aquarius Revisited, it featured John Kay (pre-Steppenwolf), The Great Society, featuring Grace Slick (pre-Airplane), The Rising Sons (Ry Cooder & Taj Mahal, pre-solo careers), Tim Rose (with the version of Hey Joe that Hendrix covered soon after), etc. Track One on Side Two was The American Metaphysical Circus by this band. Until today that was the only track I remember hearing from this band. I really enjoyed this. Especially I Won’t Leave My Wooden Wife For You, Sugar & Hard Coming Love. It covers many styles but does it well. I still have that album, water-damaged & all, from the xmas break from uni when I was living in my parents’ laundry & mum let the sink overflow. A lot of good covers came to grief that day.
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
2/5
A band I was never fond of. I didn’t mind Enola Gay but I found none of their output after that at all inspiring. I didn’t mind Souvenir on this album. But the band sound the same as so many British bands from that period sounded - boring.
Various Artists
5/5
Brilliantly conceived by one of rock’s greatest innovators, who died as a convicted murderer. I remember some of these tracks being played at xmas in the early 60’s. And there’s been a tv commercial running for at least the last month that uses a large chunk of The Ronettes doing Sleigh Ride. Much credit must go to arranger Jack Nitzsche. Darlene Love steals the show - she’s listed as performing 4 tracks but you can bet Spector used her on more than that. The way he thwarted her career is one of his earlier crimes. She’s terrific here, as usual. Ronnie Spector’s unique vocals also shine on the three Ronette’s tracks. I’ve had the vinyl for over 40 years and spin it every December, religiously. It used to make us all piss ourselves when we got to the last track to hear Phil’s whiney voice as he pretended to be normal. Now it’s just creepy.
Gorillaz
3/5
Has it’s moments & the best couple are great - Clint Eastwood, which was the only track I was familiar with, and Rock The House. Makes sense, because I’m a fan of Del & he embellishes both tracks, which I was not aware of. Found the first half a bit ho-hum, but the backend is a lot more interesting. , although I don’t like what they do to Roadrunner - can’t see the point. Glad I finally heard it, though.
Country Joe & The Fish
3/5
I reckon I owned this vinyl for 40 years until somebody made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Thankfully I burned a copy onto disc before I sold it. It wasn’t an album I was mad about but when I played it today it actually sounded better than I remember. I always loved Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine. It sure sounds like the period that it came from. And a nice time it was.
Lynyrd Skynyrd
4/5
Big fan but somehow missed their first album altogether. Always assumed it wouldn’t be as good as Second Helping, which was the first Skynyrd lp I picked up, & which contained Sweet Home Alabama. But I did have one single featured here, the iconic Free Bird, perhaps their finest tune ever. Almost as good are Simple Man & Gimme Three Steps, and there’s no filler here. Al Kooper does a great production job. Not sure they ever sounded any better.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
4/5
A lot of the Captain’s work is difficult to deal with. However this, their debut album, is user-friendly. Musically, it takes no prisoners. Lyrically, it’s not always easy to decipher, but it’s far easier than what was to come on future lp’s. Ry Cooder has a lot to do with the quality of this recording. Both his playing & arranging. The album kicks arse from the opening tracks, Sure ‘Nuff ‘N Yes I Do & Zig Zag Wanderer, which is one of Beefheart’s most covered songs. It’s very blues-influenced but, like most Beefheart, manages to maintain it’s very own flavour.
Napalm Death
1/5
I skimmed it. I really can’t take that guttural Lucifer bullshit. Painful.
Serge Gainsbourg
4/5
Really, until the early 2000’s, the only Gainsbourg track I would have recognised was the infamous Je T’aime Moi Non Plus, a worldwide chart-topper in 1969. Then I received a visit one night from friends Liam & Lauren of Sydney indie band, Belles Will Ring. They had just returned from an American trip & wanted to regale me with the goodies they had picked up there, including a Gainsbourg cd. I thought this was strange until we played the disc. Belles played quite a psychedelic brand of rock & that night I realised that Serge also didn’t mind a bit of that., which surprised me. From then on, I collected quite a few of his old records, including Histoire De Melody Nelson. It’s brief, more like an ep, but it’s a knockout. When I first listened to it, I was amazed at the music & not all that interested in what the French-language lyrics were about. I now realise the story he was telling was, not surprisingly, quite controversial.
Nevertheless, this is a terrific listen.
Circle Jerks
2/5
I enjoyed this, but not enough to ever want to hear it again. Still, any band with a member named Roger Rogerson fills you with confidence.
Ghostface Killah
3/5
The first half dozen tracks, which were very much about drugs, didn’t thrill me greatly. Then the extremely funny skit Called Heart Street Directions made me laugh so much (as did the Bad Mouth Kid skit a bit later) & it seemed that the music just got better from then on. I particularly liked RAGU, with it’s Look Of Love sample, Whip You With A Strap, Jellyfish, Momma, with cool vocals by Megan Rochell, & Three Bricks, with its Biggie samples. A really great listen.
Public Enemy
3/5
You can always tell if you’re listening to Public Enemy, but sometimes I wonder if that’s a good thing. Still, I love Chuck D & I love the band’s politics, which are on full display here. And any band who can name a song Get The Fuck Outta Dodge deserves huge credit in my book. Not their best album, but worth the trouble, all the same.
Drive Like Jehu
3/5
I found this record compelling. Never heard of the band before. I loved the pace/speed of the music. The lyrics were irrelevant but the singer’s voice was as important as the instruments. The band rushed headlong & took you with them. I particularly enjoyed the 4 lengthy trax, on which the band really stretches out. A wonderful surprise.
Thin Lizzy
4/5
This album was recorded at concerts in 1976/77 & released in June 1978. In October 1978, I was one of 100,000 people who saw Thin Lizzy at the free 2SM Rocktober concert, in the forecourt of Sydney Opera House. I have to say I was more interested in the support bands Sports, from Melbourne, & American band Wha-Koo, whose lead singer, David Palmer, had sung lead on the Steely Dan classic, Dirty Work. Wha-Koo were dreadful. It was Thin Lizzy’s concert for the taking. I imagine the set-list would not have been too different to this album. The line up, however had changed - Brian Robertson had quit the band when this album was released, replaced by Gary Moore. The twin-guitar thing was a killer. Unsurprisingly, the album sounds great - it was produced by Tony Visconti. I never thought Lizzy wrote great songs, except for The Boys Are Back In Town, but they make up for it with their gung-ho approach here. As live double-albums go, this one’s a real winner.
Ministry
3/5
I bought the Jesus Built My Hotrod CD maxi single sometime in the early 90’s & have never stopped loving it. It contains the Redline/Whiteline version of the song, which, at 8:11, is considerably longer than the album version. The guest vocal by Butthole Surfer Gibby Haynes is to die for.
The CD single also contains a version of TV Song, but, until today, I had never heard the rest of the album. I love the frenetic approach of the music. The devil voice that recurs is somewhat annoying, but, in the end, doesn’t really detract from the impetus created by the music. The title track is a winner. In fact, I really enjoyed the whole disc. And I love the fact that Paul Barker’s nom-de-plume as co-producer was Hermes Pan - the genius who choreographed 17 of Fred Astaire’s films.
Mike Ladd
3/5
I had never heard of Mike Ladd. This is quite unlike any other hip-hop album aI’ve heard. The soundscape is unique - sometimes the backing is orchestral, often strings dominate. The beats sometimes dominate (5000 Miles West Of The Future). It can be funky (The Animist). Drums can dominate (Wipe Out On The Wave Of Armageddon). Sometimes the track is frenetic (Red Eye To Jupiter) & sometimes slow (Takes More Than 41). Sometimes you just focus on the words (For All Those Killed By Cops). My favourite line is from the title track :
“I got swallowed by a record label
In the tower of Babel”.
Really enjoyed this.
Caetano Veloso
2/5
Easy listening in such a beautiful language. Sounded fine to me but not thrilling.
Def Leppard
2/5
Must have been all about the hair, because the music is bog ordinary. How did this sell millions? I got as far as Track 8, then pulled the plug. Lange’s production is predictably polished, straight from doing 3 AC/DC albums in a row. But the music does nothing for me. It was good to find out that Offspring got their intro to Pretty Fly from Rock Of Ages. Who knew? I guess all the dudes who shelled out for this mediocre album.
R.E.M.
4/5
The first 4 tracks sound just a bit samey, but from there the album really gets interesting. The 2 big singles, The One I Love & It’s The End Of The World As We Know It, still shine after all these tears. And Lightnin’ Hopkins & King Of Birds both embellish Side 2, as do the horns on Fireplace. Not their best, but pretty good, nonetheless.
Sly & The Family Stone
5/5
I first heard Everyday People on the radio in late 1968 & copied it onto my reel-to-reel tape recorder. It had been released as a single 6 months before this album was released. In the meantime, the band were the highlight at Woodstock. But I did not get this album until after I bought the Woodstock 3-lp set & then saw the Woodstock film, which was released in 1970. When I look at Sly’s Woodstock set-list, 5 of the 8 songs they performed were from this album. No wonder. This is a truly amazing album. And to think that Sing A Simple Song was the flipside of the Everyday People single & I Want To Take You Higher was the flipside of the Stand single. What value. The band closed their Woodstock set with Stand. What shocked me when I finally got the album was the title of Track 2 - you just didn’t hear the n-word in those days. What thrills me when I hear the album now is Sex Machine - I’m lost for words (& the band didn’t need any). Stand is one of the great 60’s albums.
Janelle Monáe
4/5
Great album. I’ve always admired her work. I own & really like the cd that followed this, but I’d never heard this album before. It’s an absolute knock-out. There are so many styles here & she masters them all. The beautiful lyrics of Oh Maker & 57821, the rip-it-up approach of Come Alive, the gorgeous piano ending to Say You’ll Go, with the nod to my fave Claire de’Lune. Love her voice. Love the disc.
Iron Maiden
2/5
It’s tolerable. But only just.
Bad Brains
3/5
Really enjoyed this. Never boring. A variety of musical approaches. Not stale after all these years.
Primal Scream
4/5
Really enjoyed this. Knew some tracks already, but a lot of it was new to me. Loaded is probably my favourite Primal Scream track. I really liked I’m Comin’ Down, although it reeks of Jesus & Mary Chain. And also loved Don’t Forget It Feel It - especially the female vocals. Enjoyed the dub approach on Come Together & Jah Wobble’s part in Higher than The Sun. In fact, the laid-back feel of the last 4 tracks was really easy to listen to.
Did they ever make a better album?
Kate Bush
3/5
Metallica
1/5
I tried but I could not sit through an hour of this.
Gang Starr
4/5
Well this definitely lived up to the hype. After a slow start, it really kicked into gear with Who’s Gonna Take The Weight?, and just got better and better ( Just To Get A Rep, for instance), peaking with the sublime As I Read My S-A, one of the finest hip-hop tracks I’ve ever heard. The disc finished with Precisely The Right Rhymes & The Meaning Of the Name, which also knocked me out. I was totally unfamiliar with this album. What a find.
Eurythmics
3/5
The song Sweet Dreams was one of the 80’s great dance tracks. Hard to believe it was the 4th single released from this album, because it’s far & away the best track on it. Only the opening cut, Love Is A Stranger, is in the same ball-park. For me, The Eurythmics were a terrific singles band, but their albums often missed the mark, as does this. Their cover of the Sam & Dave classic, Wrap It Up, written by Isaac Hayes & David Porter, & supposedly featuring vocals ( I can’t hear them) from an old favourite of mine, Green Gartside of Scritti Politti, is less than thrilling. A couple of years later The Fabulous Thunderbirds, featuring Stevie Ray Vaughan’s brother, Jimmy, did a much grittier version on their album Tuff Enuff. Any way, nothing else on the album really excited me, but, as I said, the title track is exceptional.
Black Flag
3/5
I gave each track a score out of five & it averaged at 3, exactly. The band was generally terrific. Some great guitar licks. Highlight for me was definitely TV Party. Rollins killed it on that, as he did on Room 13, Six Pack & Damaged I - “My name’s Henry…” - an ominous intro to an illustrious career. I never saw him live with his band but I did get talked into a spoken word concert at the Enmore Theatre in 2010 - the Frequent Flyer Tour. It was okay, but I prefer his tv show, which was really good. And, above all, the night he hosted Rage & really gave it to Morrissey - do yourself a favour & catch that on youtube. As for this album, it’s really not my cuppa but I can see the point.
Queen
2/5
This was the first Queen LP I bought (courtesy of the Australian Record Club) in early 1975. It did not grab me. The following year I bought A Night At The Opera, & the rest is history. That album was full of poppy singles, tunes you could hum and Bohemian Rhapsody, which my housemate/fellow teacher & I would sing at the top of our voices every morning, as we drove the expressway from Lurnea to Campbelltown. I have to say I’ve rarely played Queen II since then. Having just given it a few spins, I don’t think my opinion has changed. But it is fascinating to hear so much in the sound that indicates where they were heading - May’s guitar sound particularly. There are just no killer tunes on it.
Stereo MC's
3/5
This is like easy-listening hip-hop. There’s not one aurally offensive track here. The opening cut is a real winner. In fact the first 4 , from Connected to Sketch, reel the listener right in. Problem for me was that it just starts to feel a bit samey. I loved some of the samples, though - the Stones piano bit in Playing With Fire & the repetitive riff from Carole King’s It’s Too Late, in The End. Overall, a pretty good listen.
Tears For Fears
3/5
I have 3 of the singles from this album - the 2 biggies ( Shout & Everybody Wants To Rule The World) & I Believe. Apart from these, I was unfamiliar with the trax on this album. I quite enjoyed the whole record. I thought the music was interesting, and the vocals are fine but they suffer from that 80’s English thing where, for some reason, so many male lead vocalists sound the same. Anyway, I thought it was a good listen.
Astor Piazzolla
4/5
Love a tango & love Piazzolla. Also keen on the vibes (since I first heard Lionel Hampton)& on Gary Burton, ever since I found the vinyl of his 1973 album, Norwegian Wood. The tunes are all composed by Piazzolla, but the jazz treatment that Burton & the combo offer cannot be denied. All six cuts are standouts for me, but particularly Little Italy 1930, a beautiful autobiographical piece. Such a unique sound from 2 great artists.
Sade
3/5
The best tracks on this are the opening 2 tracks, both killer singles in their day & still holding up very well, track 3 (Hang On To Your Love) & the last track, a cover of a song by American r’n’b singer Timmy Thomas, Why Can’t We Live Together. The other 5 tracks are not quite as good, but, put them all together & the album flows quite well. I was really only familiar with the first 3 tracks, but thought the LP was a pretty good listen.
Parliament
5/5
Maceo Parker was the favourite musician of an old mate of mine, who passed away in 2021. And Fred Wesley probably ran a close second. So it was great to hear how their horns were so strong on this album, right from the get-go on the opening track & still there, ripping it up on the final cut. Every track is a winner, especially Give Up The Funk, which was really the only track I was familiar with. A perfect track.
Clinton can be so funny - the humour highlight for me was his reference to blue-eyed soul:
Then I was down South and I heard some funk
With some main ingredients like
Doobie Brothers, Blue Magic, David Bowie
It was cool, but can you imagine Doobie-in' your funk?
[From P-Funk(Wants to Get Funked Up)]
I loved every moment of this record.
The Band
5/5
Back in 2007, I went to the Chauvel at Paddington to see a brand new print of The Last Waltz, Scorsese’s concert film celebrating The Band. I went with my great mate Ian. Two weeks later Ian dropped dead one Saturday arvo while playing oztag footy at Milperra. I was a pallbearer, and I organised the music for the service in a church at Revesby. We carried his body out of that church to the strains of the version of The Weight on this album. Probably The Band’s greatest song. Levon Helm’s vocal on this is sublime. Almost as impressive is Chest Fever - another of their out-and-out classics which highlights the amazing keyboard skills of Garth Hudson. The album starts and finishes with a bunch of Dylan tracks from the period that threw up his Basement Tapes album - most notably the first released version of This Wheel’s On Fire, which decades later was the theme song for Absolutely Fabulous - the Julie Driscoll version. There’s a great version of the country/folk standard, Long Black Veil. I love the record. But really, The Weight is enough by itself.
Jurassic 5
4/5
Sometime early this century, Jurassic 5 toured Australia. I knew very little about hip-hop at the time, but both my kids had been infected by it. Anyway, one afternoon, I remember them racing downstairs & out the door. Had no idea why, but half an hour later, when they returned, discovered that a radio station had announced that Jurassic5 were at the BP Station on Erskineville Road, & the kids were proudly waving their autographs at me. They’ve always been loved by the dynamic duo & I can see why after listening to this. And I’d say J5 definitely influenced the kids’ brand of hip-hop. This was an easy listen. I loved the flute in If You Only Knew. And some of the samples are so tasty - don’t know where the Love in Them There Hills steal comes from ( not the Pointer Sisters version) but it’s so effective in I Am Somebody. And the sample from Ray Manzarek’s Golden Scarab is a real winner in the final track, Acetate Prophets. A band at the top of their game.
Talking Heads
5/5
Saw them on their first tour here, at Sydney’s beautiful State Theatre. Went with my Girlfriend Julie & my gay friend, Fish. I was already in love with the band - I think Life During Wartime had just been released. I went home convinced I had just seen the next big thing. Fish went home having fallen in love with the dreadful support band, Mi-Sex. This album sounds as fresh today as it did then. Talking Heads were unique. Thank You For Sending Me An Angel is as good an opening track as you would want. It literally gallops - as does I’m Not In Love. In fact, as do so many cuts here. The flow between tracks is great - 1 runs into 2, 3 runs into 4.
You’re breathless after Side 1, but Side 2 keeps at it. There’s a sidetrack with the band’s cover of the Al Green classic, Take Me To The River, one of the great covers of all time, but by the album’s end with The Big Country, you just knew David Byrne & genius producer Brian Eno were onto something great. And the great rhythm section should not be overlooked. I was lucky enough to see Byrne’s American Utopia tour in 2018. A genius still.
Stereolab
1/5
This was like being kidnapped & tied to an early-80’s game machine, with no way out. I can’t believe I lasted over 40 minutes with this - I just kept expecting something to happen - BUT IT DIDN’T!!! This is where we really need a MINUS option. Horrible & needless.
Faith No More
3/5
I was only familiar with Epic / The Morning After because that single was regularly on my jukebox. The band is extremely tight. Patton is a terrific frontman. The whole album stands up well after 35 years. It certainly rocks.
Aretha Franklin
5/5
My parents were huge Al Jolson fans &, subsequently, so was I. In 1961, when Columbia was trying to turn Aretha into a lounge singer, they released a single of her covering the Jolson classic Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody. It was the first song I ever heard her sing. reached #20 on the 2UE Top 40 & at age ten, I bought that single & still have it. She could sing the phonebook, which is why Rolling Stone voted her the Greatest Singer Of All Time in 2008. There’s a clip you can catch on Youtube of Aretha on Shindig in 1964, performing The Shoop Shoop Song, which wasn’t a song she ever recorded. This was when she was still signed to Columbia, before Atlantic stole her away & gave her the chance at true greatness. And as she absolutely tears the song up, Darlene Love, performing backing vocals with the house girl-group, The Blossoms, starts waving & shouting encouragement at Aretha, because she can see just how good she was. It’s one of my absolute favourite pieces of live 60’s TV. What a voice. This is a truly great record. And it’s not just her doing - the material is outstanding - the cream of American songwriters from that period - Curtis Mayfield, James Brown, Don Covay, Goffin & King, The Rascals & Aretha herself. The producer, Jerry Wexler & the engineer, the great Tom Dowd. And, as well as the cream of Memphis’s Muscle Shoals musicians, there’s Clapton, The Sweet Inspirations, Cissy Houston, & the great King Curtis. And Aretha was never in better voice. A true classic.
U2
2/5
I auite enjoyed early U2, but I’d pretty much given up on them by the time this album was released. The only 2 tracks zi knew from this album before today were One(hard to avoid) & Mysterious Ways, which I quite liked. I just listened to the whole album & there’s nothing there that I’ll ever listen to again. I’m bewildered as to it’s high rating with the critics. It did give me a real laugh though - Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses? Were they serious? Prince could get away with that sort of lyric, but not Bono. Disappointing listen for me.
The Replacements
3/5
Look, this album’s okay, but hardly earth-shattering. I liked the opening track, which featured Peter Buck, & the final track, Answering Machine, which I thought was the most interesting track on the album. I also enjoyed Seen Your Video, which is almost an instrumental. But that was about it. I don’t think the rest of the album was bad - it just seems overrated. Black Diamond, the Kiss cover, was disappointing.
Miriam Makeba
3/5
This is an important record - it was her debut effort & she was such an influential South African performer, who strutted the world stage with great dignity & to great success. But it’s not her best work. Still, it introduced The Click Song, which was so famous when I was ten years old. With Mbube (on which she used the Chad Mitchell Trio, who would soon launch John Denver’s career) she showed a different take on the song westerners knew as Wimoweh or The Lion Sleeps Tonight. She recorded House Of The Rising Sun the year before Dylan got his hands on it. It’s of it’s time & well worth a listen.
Pet Shop Boys
3/5
I was never a fan of Pet Shop Boys. I’d never listened to any of their albums before. And I never expected to enjoy listening to this. But, somehow, it wormed its way into my consciousness while I was desperately trying to ignore it. Johnny Marr’s guitar on tracks 2 & 6 was a welcome surprise, as was the part Angelo Badalamenti played on tracks 2 & 5 - amazing that he was working on this album at the same time that he was creating the soundtrack for Twin Peaks. So by the time they got to So Hard, I was almost singing along. Almost. Somehow I enjoyed this album.
Motörhead
3/5
Lemmy died less than a fortnight before Bowie. The only reason I know that is that I was in Canberra that January & the January 20th edition of BMA Magazine, the local free music mag, had a cover with 2 words on it : BOWIE / LEMMY. Such was the fondness for Motorhead’s main man. To have been a roadie for Hendrix & an early member of Hawkwind might have been sufficient to retire on, but he went on to form Motorhead, a noisy trio if there ever was one. This is a totally noisy record, in fact, but it does tick a lot of live album boxes, mainly the fact that it’s a bit like actually being there, without actually being there. I’d never heard it before & probably won’t again, but I enjoyed it.
Elliott Smith
2/5
I think the thing with Elliott Smith is that you had to be there. He was probably great at some intimate gig, playing for a small crowd who were sure he was the next big thing. But in the ranks of American singer-songwriters, I find it hard to rate him that highly. Mind you, the album we previously rated, Either/Or, was a much better record than this. I really didn’t find a standout track here.
Def Leppard
2/5
Look, I just listened to this. An hour I’ll never get back. Though I did enjoy some of the guitar & actually didn’t mind the last track, Love & Affection.
But, really, not my style.
Tom Waits
5/5
I saw Tom Waits at Sydney’s State Theatre in May 1979, the year before this album was released. I went with my dear friend, Jackie. Waits was supported by local legend Mark Gillespie, whose gear was delayed by a vehicle breakdown, delaying Tom’s set by around 90 minutes, giving Jackie & I the opportunity to retreat to Hyde Park & get even more stoned than we already were. Subsequently, this was one of the most memorable concerts I ever attended. Waits was great, with just his piano, a double bass, drums & a horn player. It’s always been a romantic notion of mine that this album was born on that world tour.I can find no confirmation on the net, but I’m sure I heard back then that he wrote On The Nickel in Glebe. The album opens with the title track - pure 70’s Waits, when he still wrote tunes. There’s In Shades, a rare & wonderful instrumental from this period & Mr Siegal, which features terrific New Orleans piano. And each side of the record ends with great Waits ballads - Jersey Girl & Ruby’s Arms. For me, this is the last truly great album by Tom Waits. After that, experiments took over from melodies.
The Fall
3/5
Was there any more prolific post-punk band than The Fall? Between 1979 & 1990, including live albums & compilations, they released close to 30 albums. This was one of their most user-friendly, partly due to the introduction of new member, & Mark E. Smith’s new missus, Brix. I found many of their album’s difficult to listen to, but this one certainly had its moments. I have the single L.A./ Cruiser’s Creek, which is a ripper. Side 2 of the original L.P. is some of the best work the band ever did.
Funkadelic
5/5
I had never heard this album before today (only admired the cover over the years). It is truly great. The opening track is outstanding - Eddie Hazel gives one of the all-time great performances on electric guitar. And the band just launches from there & no prisoners are taken. I’m gob-smacked at how good this record is & how I’ve spent the last 50 years not listening to it.
The Sonics
4/5
Let’s face it - no British Invasion - no regional garage bands all over the U.S. & definitely no Sonics. They may have existed before the Beatles & the Stones got to America, but without the invaders, we wouldn’t be reading about them now. I enjoyed this. There’s not one cover version here that’s as good as the originals by The Contours (Do You Love Me), Chuck Berry (Roll Over Beethoven), Richard Berry (Have Love will Travel), Money (Barrett Strong), Walking The Dog (Rufus Thomas), Night Time Is The Right Time (Nappy Brown & Ray Charles) & Good Golly Miss Molly (Little Richard). Or the British covers that preceded this album, by Brian Poole & The Tremeloes, The Beatles, The Stones & The Swinging Blue Jeans. But it doesn’t matter. The greatness of garage music was in the garage. And this is as good as that shit got. What’s more, it includes 2 absolute classics, written by the band - Psycho & Strychnine, which were just as covered by future garage & punk outfits. Loved it.
Travis
2/5
Don’t know Travis from a bar of soap. This album sounds a lot like Coldplay at their most boring. Didn’t mind Why Does It Always Rain On Me? but I had to wonder if the answer was obvious. I noticed that some bonus cd had a bunch of cover versions, so I gave them a listen. They included ordinary versions of The Ronettes’ Be My Baby, The Band’s The Weight, and Joni Mitchell’s River, but a really good version of Joni’s Urge For Going, & a cracking live version of Britney’s Baby One More Time.
Fats Domino
4/5
Listening to an early Fats Domino album is like attending a history lecture. Fats was steeped in music that was so influential to the growth of rock’n’roll, &, indeed, popular music. This album features two classics - Blueberry Hill & Blue Monday (puts Geldof’s Monday tune in the shade). It’s a great listen, if a little samey, but the beauty is in the brevity - a dozen songs clocking in at around 27 minutes - you don’t have time to get bored.
Gang Of Four
4/5
I remember hearing Love Like Anthrax on the original Doublejay & deciding I had to have it, so went out & bought this album. The other standout track was At Home He’s A Tourist. In 2019, I bought tickets to see them in March at the Manning Bar, but Andy Gill took ill & the tour was postponed, but they eventually came in November, just before Covid.
They really were terrific & trax off this record featured heavily. Gill sadley passed away the following year. This record was very influential & somehow still sounds fresh.
The Temptations
4/5
Worth it for Cloud Nine & Run Away Child, Running Wild, the latter of which I was only familiar with the edited single version. This 10 minute version is fantastic. In between the two is not the greatest version of Grapevine - give me Marvin Gaye , Creedence, The Slits or even Gladys Knight ( the first version released but not the best) any day. But their voices are so good they almost get away with it. And it’s their voices that make Side 2 of the album worth listening to, not the songs as such. They were a great vocal group.
The Beach Boys
5/5
I had a great mate at my last workplace (where I worked for 20 years) named Dermot. A music nut, he was always burning cd’s & leaving them on my desk to surprise me. One day I lobbed at work to find a cd with the title : The Godlike Genius That Is…..BRIAN WILSON. If the house I live in ever catches alight & I only have time to grab one cd, that’s the one I’m grasping for. For years I thought it was some rare compilation, but turns out it was a collection put together by a friend of Dermot’s. It is a joy, and it celebrates the eloquence of Wilson’s lyrics, music, production,etc. Not a bunch of hit singles. There were 5 tracks from Pet Sounds & 4 tracks from the Today album & I knew none of those 4 tracks - the glorious I’m So Young ( a cover version of a 1958 release by The Students); Please Let Me Wonder; She Knows Me Too Well; & Kiss Me Baby. These are the first 4 tracks on Side 2, & are widely regarded as a precursor to the majesty of Pet Sounds, although, for me, I don’t think The Beachboys ever sounded any better than this. As for Side 1, it opens with a cover of Bobby Freeman’s Do You Wanna Dance that’s pretty good, if unnecessary, and closes with the great Dance, Dance, Dance. In between is a version of Help Me R(h)onda that is not as good as the single version they subsequently recorded. But if you are not familiar with this album, it’s a revelation. Godlike.
Pixies
5/5
Dear friend Simon & I saw Pixies at the Opera House in 2014 as part of the Livid Festival. According to a set-list I found on the net, they played 9 of the 15 songs on Doolittle, &, even without Kim Deal, did a great job. And when I mentioned to Simon that my vinyl of the album had gone with my ex, he also gifted me a spare copy that he had. Now this is a mate. I therefore have many reasons to love this album. Here Comes Your Man is one of the great, great singles. Debaser & Monkey Gone To Heaven are also among the band’s greatest songs. Gouge Away & La La Love You - there’s so much to love here. Thanks so much, Simon.
Pink Floyd
5/5
There was a time in the mid-80’s when Scratches Records in Newtown would always have a colourful handbill on the wall, hand-delivered by a very long-haired teenager named Hugh. They advertised the upcoming happening organised by The Syd Barrett Appreciation Society. Really, up to that point, all I knew of Syd were the 2 fantastic Floyd singles that preceded this debut album - See Emily Play & Arnold Layne. For me, Floyd started with Dark Side Of The Moon. But pretty soon I was becoming all too familiar with Syd’s solo output as well as the early Floyd albums, including this masterpiece. It reeks of late- sixties London. The mixture of Barrett’s whacky, childish songs with the experimental work of the rest of the band works so well. The opening track, Astronomy Domine, has those two strands colliding in a totally unique way. And Side 1 just takes off from there - Lucifer Sam, Matilda Mother, the jazzy Pow R Toc H. Side 2 opens with the ten-minute instrumental, Interstellar Overdrive - a psychedelic landmark & then moves between Syd craziness & more experimentation by the rest of the band. The album, recorded at Abbey Road at the same time that the Fab 4 were recording Sgt Peppers, even concludes with a track of repetitive noises, not unlike the way The Beatles concluded their album. This album sounds better to me now than when I first heard it. A keeper.
Happy Mondays
2/5
I can see how an eccy or two might improve this. It begins well - I enjoyed the opening 3 tracks - they are loud & quirky & well-produced, but once the Fat (or should I say “enormous”) Lady starts wrestling, it really is downhill - except for Wrote For Lunch, probably the standout track here. Side 2 is a real disappointment - I think somebody left the drugs at home.
Mott The Hoople
3/5
I really only knew the band from the album Bowie produced for them in 1972. To think he gave them All The Young Dudes, which they really nailed, is amazing enough but to think he offered them Suffragette City, which they rejected, is incredible. I don’t think this album is as good as the Bowie-produced effort ( though there’s a bit of a Bowie hangover here - listen to WhizzKid) but it has its moments, not the least of which is the opener, All The Way From Memphis (Ian Hunter at his best), one of 2 cuts on Side 1 that features Roxy’s Andy Mackay on sax. The other standout for me is I’m A Cadillac/El Camino Dolo Roso, totally a Mick Ralphs effort, the second part of which is a terrific instrumental. I have to say that I became a bigger fan of both Hunter & Ralphs after they left the band. I was a big Bad Company fan - probably Ralphs at his best & a big fan of Hunter’s solo work, a lot of which involved collaborating with Mick Ronson, after Bowie decided he no longer needed him. Inevitably Hunter will be most remembered for his 1979 hit, Cleveland Rocks, which was recorded by Presidents of the USA and used as the theme song for The Drew Carey Show.
Elastica
5/5
From the moment I first saw Elastica on Rage, I was a big fan. And I had a huge crush on Justine Frischmann. The song was Stutter - still one of my Top 5 favourite Britpop songs from the 90’s. The look of the band - like who gives a fuck - the low-slung guitars,the thrift-shop clothes & the fabulous, breakneck tune, clocking in at about 2:20. This was well before the album was released & the great singles just kept coming - Line Up, Car Song & the amazing Connection. The album is a great listen - 16 tracks at an average 2&1/2 minutes long per track. It never gets boring, right to the great closer, Vaseline. Yes, they were sued by both Wire &The Stranglers for “borrowing” from their work. But, hey, how many times did The Beatles get sued for the same thing? This is a classic album.
50 Cent
2/5
Sorry, just does not grab me. I persevered with it, waiting for the penny to drop. Still waiting.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
5/5
It’s early 1992. The relationship is wobbling ( Sometimes I feel like I don’t have a partner). The record shop is about to turn ten but is also under the pump. Keating’s Recession We Had To Have is wreaking havoc (don’t ask what interest rates were). I start a clerical job at the Social Security Office in Campsie & leave the shop in Simon’s capable hands, because we really need the money. I miss it (Take me to the place I love). This album is the soundtrack to this part of my life. The song is Under The Bridge. Give It Away is on the jukebox at home ( with a cover of The Stooges’ Search & Destroy on the flip). For over a year this album leaks great singles. I purhase tix to see the band at the Hordern in May. The tour gets postponed. I finally see them there in October, by which time I’ve resigned from Social Security but am also resigned to closing the shop. They’re terrific live. Very fond of this record. Can take or leave most of their others, but love this.
Rocket From The Crypt
4/5
Never heard this lot before. There’s a photo on their wiki page in which they appear to have copied The Hives’ dress-code. I loved The Hives. This band’s sound is not as frenetic as The Hives but it’s very classy, all the same. Blown away when I read that this was recorded at Gold Star Studios, where Spector’s wall-of-sound was built. The production is great, and there’s not a song here that I don’t enjoy. It seems to be classified as punk, but it just sounds like great rock’n’roll to me.
Sonic Youth
3/5
Have never gotten over the fact that I was out of the shop chasing stock when Thurston Moore came into Scratches during Sonic Youth’s 1989 tour. Look, I was never a huge fan, but I enjoyed some of their stuff - I have the Starpower single, but I actually prefer the flipside, the Kim Fowley cover, Bubblegum. They were still a bit too noisy for my liking at this point in their development. I finally got to see them at the Enmore in 2008, when they were doing their Daydream Nation tour. Now that was an album.
Sonic Youth
4/5
Well, whadya know? This is a terrific listen. All over the shop, as usual. When I now listen to the great opening track, Teen Age Riot, it sounds like they’re trying to channel The Go-Betweens. They follow it with Silver Rocket, which feels a lot like Kool Thing Part2. I love Kim Gordon & it’s hard to believe her vocals on tracks like this didn’t influence PJ Harvey. I love Gordon’s Kissability, which precedes The Trilogy - three tracks that end the album with what’s been described as “convulsive beauty”. About right. Hadn’t heard the album for a very long time, but it still stands up.
Pavement
3/5
Look, I know that Pavement are regarded as important & influential & all that other stuff. But they’re not a band I’ve ever listened to. I just gave this album a couple of listens & quite enjoyed it, but the first thing I noticed was that Malkmus’s voice reminded me of John McCrea, the lead singer of Cake. Now there are a few big differences between these 2 bands - one is that Cake are not at all regarded as important or influential. The other is that Cake had Number 1 singles & platinum albums, which Pavement were never going to do. So does it make me a bad person that I’d rather listen to Cake? Gee, I don’t know. I know that they were one of the few bands that my 10-year-old son & I were able to bond over at the time that Fashion Nugget was all over the radio & just before he was infected with the hip-hop virus. Anyway, I still enjoyed this Pavement album. Summer Babe’s a great opener. I love the dialogue in the background of Conduit For Sale! And I really enjoyed it when they got rocky in Two States. Three stars.
Spiritualized
4/5
I had never heard any of this album before. I thought the opening couple of tracks were okay, but it lost me for a while from I Think I’m In Love onwards & I was pretty much gonna write it off as background music - quality, but background music nonetheless. Then I was woken up by The Individual - Sometimes noisy shit just works so well. No God Only Religion had a similar effect on me, but the final track, Cop Shoot Cop, clinched the deal. Where’s this mother been hiding for 25 years? Beginning with the most famous lines John Prine ever wrote, featuring the great Dr. John on piano & backing vocals (nice that he could be involved in something this epic 30 years after recording Walk On Gilded Splinters) this is an amazing piece of music. Background music indeed!
Siouxsie And The Banshees
3/5
I always thought The Banshees were a good singles band, but I never paid much attention to their albums. Spellbound is a terrific track. But I really found the bulk of this album to be just a bit repetitive. That is, until you get to the closer, Voodoo Dolly a 7-minute epic that highlights just how good the band members were. You get that throughout the album - each musician is outstanding - but the actual songs are less than stellar. Still, worth it for the opening & closing tracks.
B.B. King
4/5
“I gave you seven children / And now you wanna give ‘em back” - one of the great lyrics in popular music. I love B.B., but I never think of him as down & dirty blues - that’s Howlin’ Wolf or Muddy Waters. King is more like cabaret blues & this album is the ultimate example of that. He doesn’t miss a beat & you can feel the audience eating out of his hands. The music is predictable until you get to Help The Poor, which has a totally different rhythm. But it’s all great. Just not the greatest blues album ever, as has been spruiked for quite a while now. Give me “This is Howlin’ Wolf’s new album. He doesn’t like it. He didn’t like his electric guitar at first either.”
The Zombies
5/5
The Zombies reached #7 on the 2UE Top 40 in Late 1964, at the height of the so-called British Invasion. The following year they had a Top 10 American hit with the great Tell Her No. Then I don’t remember hearing them at all on the radio until Time Of The Season topped the U.S. charts in early 1969. And on the basis of falling in love with that track, I borrowed this album from Chester Hill Library (and I do mean borrowed, not stole - you were able to do that in those days). Pretty sure you could borrow 2 albums at a time, & the other one I borrowed was Grateful Dead’s American Beauty. But I really enjoyed The Zombies’ album & still do. They sound so like an English band, and this is extremely classy pop music, sadly overlooked at the time. The harmonies are sometimes so much borrowed from the Brian Wilson songbook - the opening track, Care Of Cell 44 is a classic example of this. Time Of The Season sounds unlike anything else on the album - so moody & atmospheric & has a jazzy ending that would have been worthy of Georgie Fame. This Will Be Our Year is a fabulous track that’s worn well, and that I remember embellishing an episode of Marvellous Mrs Maisel a few years ago. And Butcher’s Tale(Western Front 1914)is a great anti-war song that features great organ by Rod Argent. There’s not a dud on this record. Sounds as good as it ever did.
Ice T
3/5
Look, it’s dated. It hasn’t weathered the last 30 years all that well. The fact that the track I enjoyed most was Body Count - the name of his band & not as good as Cop Killer - speaks mouthfuls really. Still, there are tracks here where the message gets through - Home Of The Bodybag, Escape From The Killing Fields & Straight Up Nigga all have important things to say. There are also some really funny moments - First Impression & Ya Shoulda Killed Me Last Year (touching & funny). A lot of the rest I find a tad boring, but I only gave it one listen & that was the first time I’d heard it.
X-Ray Spex
4/5
There aren’t that many original British punk albums that I can throw on & listen to from go to whoa these days, but this is definitely one of them. The ex has the vinyl but I have the 1991 Caroline cd, which changed the track listing and added 4 bonus tracks, including the iconic Oh Bondage Up Yours! and the wonderful I Am A Cliche. From the original album, the highlights for me are Identity & especially the title track, which shows how they could be be equally compelling when they slowed things down.
Poly was a stunningly great front-person, but even though Lora Logic had been sacked from the band before the album was recorded, they used the sax charts she had drawn up for those songs, so she’s all over it & that horn sound was so influential in the post-punk years. I love this record. It still sounds fresh to me.
Kate Bush
4/5
I was always a fan but I have no memory of this record. Really enjoyed it - nothing like hearing a lass celebrating her Irish roots. And what help she had. From the moment you hear Davy Spillane’s (Afro Celt Sound System) uilleann pipes & Donal Luny’s (the great Planxty) bouzouki on the opening track, the sound of this album is a joy. The Fog is a knockout - the legendary Alan Stivell on celtic harp & Nigel Kennedy (legend in his own lunchtime ) on violin, and Kate’s old man getting a spoken piece. Reaching Out features a terrific string quartet arrangement by Michael Nyman, but really, it’s Kate’s vocals & backing vocals that soar here. As they do throughout. It was great to hear Trio Bulgarka on Side 2. For some reason I thought they were a bit low-rent compared to the music on the classic 4AD albums of the 80’s that went by the name Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares. I couldn’t be more wrong. They are outstanding on Rocket’s Tail, as is David Gilmour’s brief but blistering guitar solo there. A great listen.
Jazmine Sullivan
3/5
Look, I liked this. Could take or leave the spoken bits, but musically I thought it was good. Her voice is great. The tunes are good. Highlight for me was the one featuring Ari Lennox, “On It”.
Metallica
2/5
I loved Enter Sandman. Do not know the rest of this album & what with Easter & all, & having once watched that doco where this lot took themselves so seriously it made me double-upwith laughter, I have no time or desire to listen to it now. Two stars.
Cee Lo Green
2/5
I have the follow-up album he did 6 years after this - The Lady Killer - and I love it, but this leaves me a bit cold. I couldn’t find a stand-out track here. I love Pharrell, but his involvement doesn’t help. There’s a Funkadelic reference in Glockapella that I enjoyed. A bit samey & uninspiring for me.
AC/DC
5/5
I remember where I was when I heard the news of Bon Scott’s death. It was early in a February morning in 1980 & I was driving along George’s River Road on my way to see a mate at Punchbowl. It was shocking news really. He was a one-off. Irreplaceable in that band, so we all thought. Anyway, in March I met the woman who I’d spend the next 25 years with & in December we headed down the Hume to Melbourne to spend a month with her family. On xmas day, her brother was gifted Back In Black & it became the soundtrack of our summer. The 4 killer singles from the album had already been released by xmas. So I’m totally biassed about this record. I’ve never tired of listening to it. I knew all of AC/DC’s singles as they happened but this is the only AC/DC album that I know intimately. Brian Johnson is no Bon Scott but they did bloody well finding him as a replacement. That was the big question waiting to be answered leading up to the album’s release. Fortunately the material was so strong, & he managed to pull it off. Love this record.
Fela Kuti
4/5
I bought this vinyl at Ashwoods in the early 70’s for $1. I’d never heard of Fela Kuti but I was a big Cream fan so Ginger Baker’s name sealed the deal. About 20 years later I mentioned the fact that I had it to a punter at a record fair & he made me an offer for it that I couldn’t refuse. Big pity, because having listened to it this morning for the first time in 30 years, I’m reminded of what a wonderful live album it is. And it’s a lot more to do with Fela Kuti than it is to do with Ginger. The music is joyous, to say the least. Do yourself a favour & watch the doco Finding Fela (2015) - it’s on youtube. And this album is one of the great live discs.
Little Simz
3/5
I find her voice quite irritating at times & her lyrics juvenile at other times. But not all the time. Sometimes she nails it. And I really like the music. It’s a big, full sound. And it never feels repetitive or boring. She’s obviously a talent.
Nina Simone
4/5
I remember when I first heard Nina Simone. It was her version of Ain’t Got No/ I Got Life from the Broadway musical of the moment, Hair. It was 1968 & it was the first of a long list of songs from Hair that were hits. And the reason I remember well hearing it for the first time on radio is that when the dee-jay back-announced it as being by a woman, my jaw dropped, because to me it had sounded like a man’s voice. I also remember when I first heard the song Wild Is The Wind - it was in the early 80’s when I first saw the black & white clip of Bowie miming his 1976 recording of the song. I then heard the Johnny Mathis version & eventually Nina Simone’s cover. I love all three versions but Simone’s is particularly emotional, & longer than the other 2 versions combined. The other well-known cover on the album is the beautiful Lilac Wine, written for a Broadway musical in 1949, first recorded by the great Eartha Kitt in 1952 but now best remembered as a track on Jeff Buckley’s album, Grace. Simone’s version is a as good as any. There are 2 songs on the album written by black ongwriter Horace Ott, who had written the classic Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood for Simone in 1964, and 2 songs written by Van McCoy, who had alreadyvwritten Baby I’m Yours for Barbara Lewis & Getting Mighty Crowded for Betty Everett & would go on to have a huge disco hit with The Hustle in the mid-70’s. When you add the 2 songs written by Bennie Benjamin, including the opener, the wonderful I Love Your Lovin’ Ways, and Simone’s own extraordinary composition, Four Women, it means that 7 of the 11 songs here were written by black American composers - no coincidence, because Simone was an important figure in the civil rights movement & she no doubt fostered black talent when she had the opportunity. This is not the greatest collection of songs she ever gathered on one disc, but the highlights shine.
N.W.A.
3/5
I tend to agree with the exquisitely-named reviewer for Q magazine, Charlie Dick, who, at the time, wrote : The all-mouth-and-trousers content is backed up by likable drum machine twittering, minimal instrumentation and duffish production. Still this regressive nonsense will be passed off as social commentary by thrill-seekers all across the free world. And it was. Straight Outta Compton, as an opening track, is a very clever scene-setter. Then Fuck tha Police was just iconic at the time. It’s with the next track, Gangsta Gangsta that the sexist, mysoginistic shit just gets a bit too hard to listen to - and there’s too much of it from then on, for my liking. The one exception is what they do with the Charles Wright classic, Express Yourself - I hope he got a healthy cheque for their using it. And I think they did pretty well with it.
Bebel Gilberto
4/5
I enjoyed this. It could have been recorded 40 years earlier, when bossa nova was first a world-wide phenomenon. Sure, some aspects of the instrumentation might be more contemporary, but essentially this is a bossa nova record. Take So Nice - it was one of the biggest-selling bossa tunes of the 60’s (under the title Summer Samba) - the English lyrics were supplied by Norman Gimbel, who also did the translation for The Girl From Ipanema & would later write the lyrics of Killing Me Softly. To me, Gilberto’s version sounds like it comes straight out of the 60’s, like so much of this record. And that’s fine, although the tunes I enjoy most are the handful that stylistically veer elsewhere - the beats in August Day Song are infectious; the pace of Sem Contencao ; on Alguem, she reminds me of Sade at her best. I was not familiar with her work at all, but I thought this was a great listen.
Elvis Costello
4/5
I’m a big Costello fan. I’ve rarely missed seeing him when he tours here, going back to the 1978 Regent concert. He’s always terrific live, whether solo or with a band. But his recorded work over that 45 year period hasn’t always done it for me. This has not been an album I’ve revisited much since it’s release, But after a couple of plays I have found a few diamonds. 13 Steps Lead Down is the only song here that I remember staying in his live repertoire for quite a while. It’s like several tracks on this album that are reminiscent of earlier Costello songs. My Science Fiction Twin begins a lot like Pump It Up. Just About Glad is very much like an early song of his that I just can’t nail. And as usual, he borrows from the classics - he claimed London’s Brilliant Parade was a Kinks tribute, but the opening line is straight from Cream’s World Of Pain. I do like the ballads, Still To Soon To Know, All The Rage & the epic concluding track, Favourite Hour, which spawns the album’s title, & is reminiscent of the mid-80’s singles he put out as The Imposter. So in the end, this album grew on me after all these years.
Heaven 17
4/5
Fascist Groove Thang is one of the very great dance trax of the 1980’s. And the title track of this album, which follows it, isn’t far behind it in quality. The rest of the album is good dancey stuff. I think the lyrics reach a bit of a nadir with The Height Of The Fighting & the repeated refrain “He-la-hu”. Really? But I have to give this album a high rating just for the opening 2 trax - they’re so good.
MC Solaar
3/5
I love listening to French speakers. No language rivals that sound. And there are plenty of great French singers that float my boat - Piaf, Charles Trenet, Francoise Hardy. But when it comes to rock & roll & all its hybrids, the French language doesn’t often cut the mustard. The exceptions tend to be novelty acts - Nouvelle Vague doing punk classics or Plastic Bertrand - or some of Gainsbourg, or one-offs like Les Rita Mitsouko.
So does the French/hip-hop combo work for me? Not really. But it’s not horrible. And the music/ beats are fine. I love the jazzy Armand est mort - the saxophone rules here. I love the slow tempo of Caroline. I find the deep Barry White vocal bits in English in La musique adoucit les mœurs pretty amusing. But he does get me with his lightning-fast staccato rapping in the 2 improvised tracks towards the end of the disc, particularly Ragga Jam. If I played this album a few times, maybe I’d learn to love it.
Rush
2/5
Hey, I gave this a listen. Sounds great. Production must have been. Really good. But it’s just not my bag. I missed Rush totally. Probably the main reason was that I read an article about them early on & as soon as I read that they were Ayn Rand fans, I scrubbed them.But I can see why they were popular.
Fred Neil
4/5
I have Neil’s first 2 solo albums on vinyl. This is the second of them. I just played them both & found them to be equally entertaining. One thing that really struck me was just how much Tim Buckley’s voice was like Neil’s. Buckley may have used it slightly differently & his music was certainly funkier than Neil’s folk-influenced tunes, but their voices are very similar. On the previous album John Sebastian featured heavily on harmonica, but on this album it’s Canned Heat’s Al (Blind Owl)Wilson with those duties & he’s great, particularly on That’s The Bag I’m In, Sweet Cocaine & particularly on the last track with the crazy name, an 8-minute instrumental described as a piece of raga rock. It’s unlike anything else on the album. Neil’s signature tune, Everybody’s Talkin’ opens Side 2, marginally slower than the version by Harry Nilsson, who had the big hit with it after it was used in the film Midnight Cowboy. The album has no duds on it. Still a great listen.
Gene Clark
5/5
For me, this album was another victory for share-houses. I think a dude named Tony owned the vinyl & I fell in love with it. It was the title track that I fell in love with first - the strange sound he gets with his voice. It’s an eerie song. From the man who wrote one of the 60’s greatest - Eight Miles High - & then left The Byrds because of a fear of flying. Go figure.
Anyway, I’ve been listening to it for nearly 50 years & it still does it for me.
Strength Of Strings stands out for me these days. Clark’s slide guitar is straight out of early 70’s Stones albums. And the song itself is very reminiscent of Neil Young’s Words(Between the Lines Of Age) from the Harvest album. But it is so beautiful. In fact, the whole of Side 1 is outstanding. Side 2 might not have standout tracks but it does the job. I got to see Clark when he toured here in 1979 with McGuinn, Hillman & Clark (basically a Byrds’ greatest hits tour). They played at The Regent in Sydney & were great. But I was hoping he might play No Other or some track from this album, but, alas, no.
Elvis Presley
4/5
It’s not The Sun Sessions, although 4 of the 12 tracks here were recorded at Sun Studios before Sam Phillips sold The King’s contract to RCA. And it’s worth it to hear Elvis’s version of Blue Moon - this is the most ethereal version of Rodgers & Hart’s most covered song. Always been a highlight for me. The cover of Carl Perkins Blue Suede Shoes is musically no better than the original, except for Elvis’s superior vocals. However the 3 covers of songs made famous by black artists - Ray Charles’ I Got A Woman, Little Richard’s Tutti Frutti & The Drifters’ Money Honey are all inferior to the originals. The highlight on the album is Trying To Get To You. The band & Elvis really rock on this. Not his greatest record & that’s understandable, because it was thrown together just to get product out. But what a voice.
Arcade Fire
2/5
Never been a big fan, but didn’t mind this. Really loved Month Of May, which is the only track here that gallops at a clip & could have belonged to a punk outfit. A lot of this has a dreamlike feel about it. The tracks do reflect the subject matter in a way I can’t really explain. But I have lived there.
The National
2/5
I knew they were big, but I never paid The National much attention. Just listened to this album & really enjoyed Sorrow, Bloodbuzz Ohio & Conversation 16.
Nothing’s offensive here, but nothing is too thrilling, either.
Blue Cheer
4/5
In Sydney in 1968 there was only one radio show where you were likely to hear this album - Thompson Underground, hosted by John Thompson on 2UW, very late on Friday night & early Saturday morning. It’s where I first heard bootleg trax, Zappa, Paul Butterfield, & definitely where I first heard Blue Cheer. I was in love with Eddie Cochran’s Summertime Blues when I first heard his original single ten years earlier. What Blue Cheer did with it on this album became a template for the way metal bands would interpret rock’n’roll classics or, indeed any music - I think it reached a crazy nadir/peak when Nazareth decided to do Joni Mitchell’s This Flight Tonight. They give B.B.King’s Rock Me Baby more of a blues treatment & the late, great Mose Allison’s Parchment Farm cops a bit of both approaches. I remember hearing this album back in the day very fondly. And it still sounds good to me. Even the drum solo.
Wilco
4/5
The only Wilco stuff I own are the 2 Woody Guthrie cd’s they did with Billy Bragg. But I do have the dvd about the making of this album - I Am Trying To Break Your Heart - so I dragged it out last night & had a look at it. It’s so interesting looking at the bare bones of some of these songs before the musical effects are added. And there is a lot of weird music here - War On War. Sometimes quite psychedelic - Pot, Kettle Black. Often with outstanding guitar - I’m The Man Who Loves You. And always with some of the best rock drumming I’ve ever heard (or seen) - Glenn Kotche, who, amazingly had just joined the band. These were his first recordings with Wilco. When you add all the 9/11 references, it just makes it all the more interesting. And, of course, there’s Heavy Metal Drummer.
A real winner.
CHIC
3/5
Well listening to this album certainly set me straight on one thing. For over 40 years I’ve owned & listened to a 1980 Robert Wyatt single with Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit on one side and a song called At Last I Am Free on the flipside - always assuming this was a Robert Wyatt tune. No siree Bob!!! It’s the longest track on this album & one of the best. And it couldn’t be more different than the other album highlight - the iconic Le Freak. The rest of the album is fine, but not compelling for me.
LL Cool J
3/5
I’ve always liked him & some of my favourite hip-hop is stuff he’s done. But I’d never heard most of this album before. It was an easy listen. The title track is a real winner. I also really loved Eat ‘Em Up L Chill, & The Power Of God. The musical setting for his words rarely get boring. A big plus in this genre.
Aerosmith
3/5
The only Aerosmith album I’ve ever owned was their 4th album, Rocks (1976), via the Australian Record Club, which I never liked & have since disposed of. But I have collected some of their singles over the years, including the 2 killer tunes off this album - Love In An Elevator & Janie’s Got A Gun.
The latter is particularly listenable. The rest of the album is inoffensive & I do enjoy the didge on Don’t Get Mad, Get Even. And nice to see that Holland-Dozier-Holland successfully sued them for ripping off Standing In The Shadows Of Love in the track The Other Side.
Guns N' Roses
4/5
I have never listened to a Guns’n’Roses album before. Pity. This was a real surprise. I don’t know quite what I expected, but above all, this is just really good rock’n’roll. I have a couple of their singles, including Sweet Child O’ Mine, which I always liked. And like anyone who was alive at the time, I was familiar with Paradise City, which I also liked. But there’s so much here that I really enjoy - the opening 2 tracks set a fierce pace &, really, it just rocks all the way. Slash is terrific. The music never gets boring. Who knew? Not me.
N.E.R.D
4/5
What a great record. I’ve always liked Pharrell, but knew nothing about his part in this outfit. This is not a hip-hop album. It’s high-quality pop.
Full of great hooks and totally interesting music. Particularly love the opening track, Don’t Worry About It, Backseat Love, She wants To Move & the epic Wonderful Place (with hidden track Waiting For You) - so personal & unlike anything else on the album. And special mention to Maybe, which features Lenny Kravitz & Questlove - a quality ballad. No duds here. They even get away with the repetitive refrain of the name Mildred in the final track. That’s good going.
The Kinks
3/5
Metallica
1/5
The orchestra was terrific.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
5/5
His 3rd album & one of his best. Produced by one of Britain’s great pop producers, Nick Lowe, it jumps out at you from the opening bars of Accidents Will Happen, & like the rest of Costello’s early albums, it just moves at speed. He’s always been a wordy songwriter & these tracks are certainly choc-full of lyrics. And he can write a great lyric - I love some of his rhymes - this is a particular fave verse from Sunday’s Best :
Don't look now under the bed
An arm, a leg and a severed head
Read about the private lives
The songs of praise, the readers' wives
Listen to the decent people
Though you treat them just like sheep
Put them all in boots and khaki
Blame it all upon the darkies
There’s theft all over the album - the one I like most is the repeated riff from The Beatles’ I Want You(She’s So Heavy) on Party Girl, but there’s the Abba-style piano Steve Nieve plays on Oliver’s Army, and the music- hall feel of Sunday’s Best, written for & in the style of Ian Dury.
I think reviewer David Quantick summarised it best :
Armed Forces has all the piss and vinegar and spleen of its predecessor, This Year’s Model, but disguised as fizzy pop and cartoons.
I love the record.
Beatles
5/5
In January 1964 I bought I Want To Hold Your Hand and life was never the same again. By June I had a plastic Beatle wig, a growing collection of their singles and Fabulous magazines with poster-sized pages. On June 6th, I got up at 6.00 a.m., and settled in front of the tv to watch The Beatles arrive at Sydney Airport at 6.30. My memory is that there initially were no studio announcers, just images of the rain pissing down, with this album playing over the top. Why was I hearing Little Child and It Won’t Be Long for the first time? Even though this album was released over 6 months before, on November 22nd - the day Kennedy was shot.
Because, at that time, radio ruled, and singles were the thing. Shit. I didn’t even know this record existed.
They wrote 8 songs, 6 were covers. Nobody covered Motown better : the trifecta of You Really Got A Hold On Me, Please Mr Postman & Money is outstanding.
Look, this is not my favourite Beatles album by any stretch. I’m more likely to play Help! or Rubber Soul these days. But this was the third and last album I’d buy at Chester Hill, where I grew up. Everything about playing it in my room was so exciting.
By next Christmas I owned a tape recorder and just taped all my music from radio & tv. It was way cheaper for a budding addict. I would not actually buy another album for 4 years. But I wore this one out.
Doves
3/5
Never heard this band before. Enjoyed it
Le Tigre
4/5
Loved this. Fortunately the mention of (John) Casavetes, an actor & film director I admire, in the title of track 3 inspired me to check out the lyrics of that track - “Misogynist? Genius?…Alcoholic? Messiah?” Subsequently I read the lyrics of all 12 tracks. I don’t usually do that. But I was interested to see how the band approached the “girl power” movement of that time. They do it in an often lighthearted way from the get-go. The opening track, Deceptacon, which sounds a bit like X-Ray Spex & a lot like the B-52’s, revolves around the lyrics of the Barry Mann 1961 novelty hit, Who Put The Bomp, in an attempt to equate riot grrrl with The Spice Girls, who were huge at the time. Hot Topic is a name-dropathon of feminist icons, many musicians. I love the opening line of Slideshow At a Free University - “ We favor the simple expression of the complex thought.” And that’s what they do on this album. Loved it.
Beatles
5/5
There are more great tunes on this album than most bands manage in a career. But albums in Australia at the time of this release cost £2/12/6, an amount I was never likely to accumulate. So until I was given a reel-to-reel tape recorder for xmas 1964, I just knew these tracks from the radio. I clearly remember getting dressed to go to school & listening to Can’t Buy Me Love the morning radio stations here were able to play it. I remember thinking it wasn’t quite up to their earlier singles although I loved the flipside, You Can’t Do That. Soon the Ella Fitzgerald swing cover version of Can’t Buy Me Love was a Top 40 hit. It was 4 months before the A Hard Day’s Night single & album were released in July, by which time they’d shot the film & toured Australia. The flipside of that single was Things We Said Today - the value you got from their singles & E.P.’s was amazing. That was followed by I Should Have Known Better, backed with If I Fell, & by that time radio stations were all over the album trax like a cheap suit. Particularly the glorious And I Love Her, which was a single release in the U.S., but not here. But also I’ll Cry Instead & the beautiful closing cut, I’ll Be Back. I had most of it on tape by January 1965, off the radio. Just thinking how lucky I was makes me smile. Like all their early albums, the remastered cd gets a regular flogging around here.
The Only Ones
3/5
Another Girl, Another Planet is one of the great songs of the late 70’s. The rest of this album is more interesting than outstanding. I like the slower tunes, The Whole Of The Law & Breaking Down & I do like City Of Fun. With a few more listens, I may learn to love it.
Steely Dan
5/5
This was the first Dan album I ever purchased, from Ashwoods, while on leave from Newcastle Uni in 1974. I was already in love with the band’s biggest ever hit single, Rikki, Don’t Lose That Number. My knowledge of jazz was not great and it would be at least 20 years before I discovered that the piano intro to the song ( and, for that matter, the album) was totally lifted from the Horace Silver track, Song For My Father. This was the album that showed just how strong Becker & Fagen’s love of & influence by jazz was. The Duke Ellington composition, East St. Louis Toodle-oo is the only cover Steely Dan ever recorded. To get the sound of a muted trumpet on the original, Becker sang through a Talkbox, while Jeff Baxter used a pedal-steel for the trombone part. It may be an instrumental, but it never feels out-of-place here & has always been a highlight for me. Parker’s Band is inspired by Bird. They might have recorded this album on the west-coast, but Steely Dan are definitely from the Big Apple. Not that they didn’t use some of the west coast’s finest on this album. Jeff Porcaro was only 19 when called in to play on Parker’s Band & Night By Night, the latter which featured Jeff Baxter’s fiercest solo on the album. The flipside of Rikki, Don’t Lose That Number was Any Major Dude Will Tell You - one of the best tracks on the album & the reason behind the conspiracy theory that the Coen Bothers’ film The Big Lebowski is a coded tribute to Steely Dan, & this album in particular ( you know - The Dude). The whole of Side 1 is particularly strong. Side 2 has highlights but is not as immediately engaging. I know this album backwards but I still loved playing it 3 times in a row while I pondered it’s greatness. It’s not my favourite Steely Dan, but still great.
The Doors
5/5
I cannot see the title of this album without being reminded of the classic Morrison Hostel, from TISM’s Great Truckin’ Songs of the Renaissance (1988), in which they crucify Morrison, as the representative of & reason behind every serious young insect that followed him & considered themself a poet (Cave, Morrissey, Robert Smith, etc). I love that track. Does it stop me loving this album? No way. This is one of The Doors’ finest. Roadhouse Blues is one of the great album openers of all time. Not until now did I realise that the great guitarist Lonnie Mack played bass on this track (The Doors never had a bass player in the band) and John Sebastian played harmonica. It sets a cracking pace, but there are a bunch of wonderful slow tracks interspersed - Waiting For The Sun, Blue Sunday, The Spy (what a great track) & Indian Summer, often embellished by Robbie Kreiger’s guitar. One of the highlights is Peace Frog - a real blood in the streets anthem, obviously partly inspired by the 1968 riots at the Democrats’ Convention in Chicago. There’s no filler on Side 1 - You Make Me Real & Ship Of Fools both rock, & Side 2 opens just as powerfully with Land Ho!, although that side is not quite as strong.
All in all, a terrific record. A great band.
The Rolling Stones
5/5
Between November ‘68 and March ‘69 I had to find work while I waited to start my illustrious public service career. I did a week digging ditches at the Shell Oil Refinery. They sacked me. Before that I worked in a factory operating a machine that wound Scotch sticky tape onto spools until the work ran out. But it was the first of my jobs that I remember fondly - working on the process line at the Victa Mower Factory in Milperra. And what a factory - it was the size of a football field. The idea was that the line was constantly moving. I was part of that line, standing in front of a huge vat of paint (usually green), inside a rectangular room. The line came in a window at one end carrying mower parts, dipped down into the vat then rose up and out the window at the other end. My job? To stop the parts from catching on the sides of the vat. Because if that happened, the line might have to stop moving, which just wasn’t on.
I reckon at least half the workers there were European migrants, many with not much English. Not that it mattered in that factory, because the noise was almost deafening. So loud, in fact that I spent my time singing at the top of my voice, because no-one was ever gonna hear me. And for some reason my 2 favourite songs to crucify were both Stones songs - No Expectations, off their 1968 l.p. Beggars Banquet and You Got the Silver, off Let It Bleed. I still cannot play either song without joining in. The rare thing about You Got The Silver is that Keith Richards makes his debut as lead singer.
The album was recorded between February & October 1969. In that year, the band sacked Brian Jones, who drowned in his swimming pool a month later; they held a free concert in Hyde Park for between 1/4 & 1/2 million people to commemorate Brian and introduce Mick Taylor; they missed Woodstock but went on a hugely successful American tour; and ended the tour with the disastrous free concert at Altamont in front of 300,000. In the wider world, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jnr were assassinated, the Vietcong launched the Tet Offensive and the Russians marched into Prague. Some year.
Just as on Beggars Banquet, Keith had to play lead guitar because Brian was incapable and Keith laid down most of the tracks before Mick taylor joined. He does a great job. Jagger is in great voice. He shares the lead vocals on the opening track, the raucous Gimme Shelter, with Merry Clayton, who recounts the experience in the film “20 Feet From Stardom” - how she was pregnant, asleep, it was midnight & she got a call to go to the studio to do that song. She knew nothing about the band. She sang the famous “Rape, Murder” lines. She did it in 3 takes, left the studio & had a miscarriage. The film released in 1970 about the tour & Altamont was called “Gimme Shelter”.
Mick and Keith wrote all the songs except for Love In Vain, which was written by the legendary Robert Johnson. Honky Tonk Women had already been released earlier in the year as a single so on this album they did a countrified version of the song & called it Country Honk. The first side ends with the title song, another country-flavoured song and featuring a great Jagger vocal.
Side 2 opens and closes with the longest tracks on the album. It opens with Midnight Rambler, a 7-minute blues belter that features some great harmonica by Jagger. The juxtaposition with the slow country blues of You Got The Silver, which follows, is so clever. The album ends with the 7 & 1/2 minute-long You Can’t Always Get What You Want. The original sounds as good today as it did 50 years ago. The song opens with the London Bach Choir, and then a french horn intro is played by Al Kooper - remember Al? - the guy who played the organ intro on Dylan’s Like a Rolling Stone. Charlie gave the drums over to producer Jimmy Miller because he coudn’t “get the groove”. And Jagger’s vocal is terrific.
As Steve Van Zandt has claimed, the greatest ever 4-consecutive-album run is The Rolling Stones on Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers & Exile On Main Street.
Might be something to that.
The Incredible String Band
3/5
I totally missed ISB back in the 60’s. I just don’t think I ever heard them. I picked up Mike Heron’s first solo album (1971) in a bargain bin in a Charlestown record bar in 1975, but it did nothing for me & I offloaded it. But I was lucky enough to see a Q&A at The Basement in Sydney in 2011, with Joe Boyd, who signed the band to Elektra, produced this album & was their manager for a while. He was accompanied by Robyn Hitchcock, who would alternate with Joe’s reminiscences by playing a tune, and did take a crack at an ISB song. Boyd only spoke lovingly of the band, but I have to say I was more interested that night with his memories of Dylan & Hendrix. Look, I find this to be totally weird shit. At first listen, it started sounding like music for kiddies. But by Waltz Of the New Moon & Three Is A Green Crown, I was starting to embrace the whacky instrumentation & vocals. I’ve always been a sucker for a sitar. I can certainly see how drugs would have helped. Weirdsville.
3/5
The only track by Muse that I’m at all familiar with is their cover of the Tony Newley/ Leslie Bricusse classic, Feelin’ Good. Apart from that, Im unfamiliar with their catalogue. I enjoyed this album. I guess they were really popular by this stage because they sound like a band who know they’re big & are gonna take full advantage of it. There’s stuff here that verges on the pompous (Tracks 1, 4, 6 & 10) but it’s musically so good, I have to give it the benefit of the doubt. I really liked the slower Soldier’s Poem & the Prince impersonation in Supermassive Black Hole. A good listen.
The Byrds
4/5
I didn’t hear this album till the very late 60’s. For me, The Byrds were a singles outfit in that decade. And I hadn’t heard Dylan’s original version of Mr Tambourine Man when The Byrds released their version. The sound of McGuinn’s 12-string was totally new to my ears. They do well with the other 3 Dylan covers, but the highlight of the album is Gene Clark’s I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better, one of five songs on the album that he either wrote or co-wrote with McGuinn. Clark was a great songwriter. The band’s harmonies really shine on the Pete Seeger classic, The Bells Of Rhymney. But why they bothered to record a version of Vera Lynn’s WWII anthem, We’ll Meet Again is still a mystery.
The La's
5/5
At La’st!!! My album of the 90’s. Still sounding as fresh as ever, over 30 years on. And still waiting for the follow-up. The album ends with an 8-minute epic, Looking Glass, which begins with the lyrics : Oh tell me where I’m going / Tell me where I’m bound. Appropriate. The other 11 tracks average less than 2 & 1/2 minutes in length. Just like an early 60’s album. From Liverpool, The La’s somehow build a bridge from The Fab Four to Oasis with this amazing record. They’re quick out of the gates with Son Of A Gun, and just when you’re loving it, they abruptly end it in less than 2 minutes. (But read the lyrics & then read the lyrics of Flanagan & Allen’s Run Rabbit Run, recorded 50 years before this. Everything the band does here is cleverly conceived). There are no duds here so I ‘ll just mention my highlights - all of them. It never gets boring.
There She Goes is deservedly a classic, Timeless Melody is one of Lee Mavers’ finest vocals, Feelin is such a clear nod to The Beatles & tears it up in only 1:45. Freedom Song is unlike the rest of the album, more like a statement than a song. The variety here is rare. I feel lucky to have been enjoying this record for so long now. The best.
Wilco
3/5
Would have made a pretty good single album, but dunno if it’s a great double lp. I had never heard any of these tracks before & I’ve only just given the album a single listen. It sounds to me like a 70’s album - The Lonely 1 reminds me of Jackson Browne ( I was a huge fan, but not the biggest - I had a mate who thought Browne was in the T.S. Eliot class - really!) & there are a lot of 70’s alt/country sounds on the disc (Forget The Flowers or Someday Soon). Not that that’s a bad thing. I’m one of those who loves banjos - works well on What’s The World Got In Store. It was a good listen but 19 tracks was a bit of a stretch.
Funkadelic
4/5
Must be one of the absolute highlights of George Clinton’s illustrious career. And so influential on contemporary music. Without Clinton, would stuff like Uptown Funk have ever happened? {Listen to Cholly (Funk Get Ready To Roll) - Uptown Funk would appear to be a direct descendant). Just like Clinton’s success was a direct result of the fact he was influenced by the golden period of funk that preceded albums like thus one - by James Brown (who lost band members to Clinton - principally the great bassist, Bootsy Collins) & by Sly & The Family Stone. And also influenced by the greatness of Hendrix (Who Says A Funk Band Can’t Play Rock?!). This is a terrific record.
Cat Stevens
5/5
My old man, Bodgie Bill, had a very old friend, Vince Emery, who I only ever knew as Gunga (as in Gunga Din). Both men had spent some time working on the wharves in Sydney. In the early 70’s, Gunga had opened a pet-shop in Bankstown. In early 1971, I went with my old man to visit the pet-shop one afternoon. While we were there, Gunga pulled out a box of records, all brand new, lots of multiples. All for only $1.00 each, at a time when albums cost $5.95 in Australia. I think I parted with $5.00. I know I grabbed a Peter Sarstedt album, but the 2 prizes were Elton John’s breakout 2nd LP & Cat Stevens’ Tea For The Tillerman. One of the many times during my childhood/youth that I asked the question “Where did this stuff come from?” & was told “It fell off the back of a truck”. My parents’ house was full of such goods. Anyway, I hadn’t yet heard the Cat Stevens album. I only knew him from his mid-to-late-60’s pop output - Matthew & Son, I Love My Dog, &, most notably, The First Cut Is The Deepest. His career had been put on hold in 1969 when he almost died of TB, & I’d missed his 1970 album release, Mona Bone Jakon, which had heralded a change in style (they called it folk-rock). My sister Deborah was onto it, but I have no memory of hearing it, so Tea For The Tillerman was definitely my introduction to the juggernaut that would be Cat Stevens career in the first half of the 70’s. And I loved it. Still do. I wasn’t familiar with any of these songs when I first played it, although I had heard Jimmy Cliff’s version of Wild World. Look, this was hippy-shit. By 1972, I was wearing kaftans, and my favourite cult flick that year was Harold & Maude, which had stiffed on release in 1971, but was doing the art-house circuit the following year - I saw it at the Union Cinema on Sydney Uni. It’s soundtrack was built around Stevens’ recent output & featured 4 tracks from this LP, which is very much an album of its time. And every time I listen to it, I’m 20 years old again. The early 70’s in Australia were our version of the 60’s in the rest of the west. However, the fact is that now, every time I pull this vinyl out to play, I’m reminded of the fact that Yusuf Islam (ex-Cat) totally endorsed, in public, the death fatwa against Salman Rushdie in 1989. A fact that’s been magnified by the vicious attack on Rushdie last year. Stevens has back-pedalled on it over the decades but the proof of what he said & continued to say is there to be seen. To this day, I have good friends who refuse to play his records, because of what he said. I also still watch my favourite Woody Allen & Roman Polanski films. It’s the art v. the artist thing. Gervais used the title track of this album as the closing song to every episode of his series Extras. (Except for the episode where Chris Martin sang the song).
Maxwell
2/5
I did not know Maxwell from Adam. I just listened to the album. There’s nothing offensive about it. But I think I have to side with Robert Christgau (Village Voice) who did not go along with the great reviews it got & rated it a DUD (see Wiki). Actually, I suppose I don’t think it’s a total turkey. It’s just annoyingly derivative. I didn’t mind the opening track (an instrumental), but the clown (RoniSarig?) who compared the first 2 tracks to Steely Dan - well I’d horse-whip him if I had a horse. By the time you get to Lonely’s The Only Company, it’s really sounding like a Sade outtake. But, hey, it’s reasonable background music.
1/5
I lived through Limp Bizkit when my 12-year-old son got into them. Those are only unpleasant memories, so I became extremely nervous when this album popped up. Still, I skimmed it (pretty quickly) & the nausea was only mild. It’s just not for me, for a plethora of reasons that I’d rather not go into. Thank Christ he moved onto hip-hop, which, while also challenging, at least threw up some great music. Not like this.
Jeff Beck
4/5
I missed this album when it was released. Sometime in the early 70’s I grabbed the follow-up album, Beck-Ola(1969) , the first album credited to The Jeff Beck Group, however Truth has pretty much the same line-up, especially Rod Stewart & Ron Wood, who eventually left Beck later that year to keep The Small Faces (Faces) going. Prior to that I only knew Beck from his work with The Yardbirds & the single Hi Ho Silver Lining, more a pop effort (thanks to producer Mickie Most). I had been lucky enough to see Antonioni’s film Blow Up (1966) when it was released, so I’d seen that fantastic clip of The Yardbirds with Beck & Page in all their glory. Then in the early 80’s, when I had a record shop in Newtown, Andy Glitre, who had just moved to Sydney from the U.K., was a customer. He had a radio show on 2SER, & I used to loan him records for his show & he used to give me interesting cassettes. One of these, which I still play, is a tape of Bowie doing a radio show on the BBC (1979). I’ve never ever heard a better 60 minutes by a deejay & one of the jaw-dropping moments for me was when he played Beck’s Bolero, which I had somehow never heard before. For me, it is easily the highlight of Truth. The rest of the album is fascinating for hearing early Rod Stewart, but it’s Beck’s guitar that keeps it interesting. The cover of The Yardbirds’ Shapes Of Things is unnecessary (probably Most’s idea) &, as much as I love his voice here, I’m constantly irritated by Stewart’s sloppy attention to the lyrics of great songs, although even that cannot stop me loving the band’s treatment of Howlin Wolf’s I Ain’t Superstitious. Pity it was all recorded in 4 days. I love it, but it might have been so much better.
Curtis Mayfield
5/5
I had this album on cassette for years. Great driving music. Eventually I picked up a cd copy. And only in the last month I somehow managed to find the vinyl in an op-shop for $1.00. The cover was battered & the record was filthy, but elbow-grease did the trick. Sounds great. And what a great album. As they say, way more successful & popular than the flick it came from, which I have to say I’ve never seen. There is only one track that you hear & think - yeah that’s soundtrack music - the beautiful instrumental Think, totally unlike the funk & soul on the rest of the album. But, like all the rest it’s written by Mayfield - such a talent. Interesting that Johnny Pate is listed as the “orchestrator & arranger”. He was a jazzman who had a big hit in the 50’s with Swingin’ Shepherd’s Blues. He would go on to produce B.B.King’s Live At The Regal LP(1964), regarded as one of the greatest blues albums ever recorded, so he had plenty of form when he got involved here. Highlights : Pusherman, Freddie’s Dead & the title track, but there are no duds here. The softness & quality of Mayfield’s voice is one of the highlights, as is his songwriting. The lyrics certainly tell a stary.
The Cure
3/5
The Cure have always been a great singles band for me, but I’ve never been that enamoured of their albums. Their late 70’s/80’s output was full of great singles ( Killing An Arab, Boys Don’t Cry, A Forest, Let’s Go To Bed, The Lovecats, In Between Days, Close To Me), but their albums didn’t do it for me. And the singles from this album were never on my jukebox. So I really wasn’t expecting to enjoy this, but I did. There’s a certain grandeur about the way synthesisers are used, right from the opening track, Plainsong. I have the single of Pictures Of You, & it still wouldn’t make it to my jukebox, but somehow it fits in this album. There’s not a tune here I’ll remember, but the album flows & I did enjoy it.
Slint
4/5
Well I read the Wiki entry & thought I probably wouldn’t like this. At first, while listening to Breadcrumb Trail, I was trying to think what the spoken vocal delivery reminded me of - it was Detachable Penis by King Missile, which was released a year after this album. The big difference, of course, was that Detachable Penis was funny, whereas, even when struggling to hear the words, this stuff was not funny. By the time aI got to Track 3, Don Aman, I was becoming so frustrated at not hearing the words that I googled the lyrics. What I found was more like poetry - an extremely well-written narrative -than a lyric sheet. And as I listened & looked, I found that most of the songs were like that. As for the music, I found it to be so interesting. Totally guitar-driven but never boring. Extremely moody. And something I’ll definitely be listening to again.
Steely Dan
5/5
I missed this when it was released in 1972. My introduction to the Dan was their 3rd album, Pretzel Logic(1974). But I remember that I read a Rolling Stone interview with Jimmy Page, who was asked what guitarists he was taken with at the time & his reply was Elliott Randall’s fuzz-toned lead guitar on Steely Dan’s Reeling In The Years. So I was compelled to find out what that was all about. I was surprised that it was on an album that took it’s name from a Dylan lyric. But I guess I wasn’t surprised by its quality. From the latin feel of the opening Do It Again, they don’t miss a beat. I was already in love with Dirty Work from an Ian Matthews’ album I had. It was covered a lot in the 70’s. It’s one of a few vocals on the album not taken by Donald Fagen. It’s sung by David Palmer, who I later saw fronting Wha-Koo at a free Rocktober Concert on the Opera House Steps(1978). He also sings lead on the soulful Brooklyn(Owes The Charmer Under Me), memorable for Skunk Baxter’s pedal steel. Drummer Jim Hodder sings lead on Midnite Cruiser, which opens with a reference to Fagen’s idol, Thelonious Monk. In fact, Becker & Fagen’s jazz chops (one of the main things that brought them together) are all over this record. Fire In The Hole includes a great piano solo from Fagen, with just drums & bass behind him. Only A Fool Would Say That resurrects Do It Again’s latin feel with its congas. Great record to kick off a career.
Paul Revere & The Raiders
2/5
I never heard Paul Revere & The Raiders on local radio when I was in my teens. They never ever charted on the 2UE Top 40 (I just checked). (Eventually their lead vocalist, Mark Lindsay, had a Top3 hit here in 1970).
But I did see them quite often on American pop music shows that were televised here. They were almost regarded as a novelty act because of the uniforms they performed in. They most famously had a regional hit with Louie Louie in 1963, before The Kingsmen had the worldwide hit later that year. Both versions were recorded in the same studio, a week apart, & The Kingsmen recorded it first. Midnight Ride was their 5th album, released in 1966 & produced by Terry Melcher, very much the go-to producer on the west coast, having produced the first 2 Byrds albums the year before (also an associate of The Beachboys & eventually a target of Charles Manson). You can hear The Byrds influence on some of these tracks ( listen to There’s Always Tomorrow). However the 2 most interesting cuts on the album are Kicks & (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone. Kicks was an anti-drug song, co-written by the very recently deceased Brill legend, Cynthia Weill & offered to The Animals, who knocked it back. So The Raiders recorded it first, although it was recorded by many artists in the 60’s & is still being covered. Their version is fine, the jangly guitars reminiscent of The Byrds &, notably, the drummer on this is the Wrecking Crew legend, Hal Blaine - the only track he was called in for. I first heard Stepping Stone in early 1967 - it was the flipside of The Monkees’ smash hit, I’m A Believer, & got considerable radio play at the time. But the only Monkee on the track was Mickey Dolenz, & his vocal is terrific. Once again, some of the Wrecking Crew were called in to play the instruments.
The Monkees version is similar to The Raiders’, but Dolenz’s vocal is far superior. (Ten years later, The Sex Pistols version was released on TheGreat Rock’N’Roll Swindle album). The Raiders’ album ends with the corny Melody For An Unknown Girl - spoken word over an orchestral backing - so reminiscent of Davy Jones’s Theme For A New Love, a flop in 1965, but reached #4 on the 2UE Top 40 in 1967 on the back of Monkeemania. Midnight Ride is interesting at best, but not a great record.
Hawkwind
2/5
Hippy that I was in the early 70’s, I somehow totally missed Hawkwind. This is the first album of theirs that I’ve ever listened to & I have to confess that I only skimmed quite a few tracks (so many of them are so bloody long). I find the whole cosmic space thing just a bit irksome - all that constant whirling synth & all that serious spoken-word sci-fi bullshit.
Still I did find a couple of decent rock tracks here - Orgone Accumulator (whatever that is) & Time We Left This World Today. Unsurprisingly the latter is one of the songs Lemmy is the vocalist on. I own a single by Inner City Unit, who I’ve always thought were Hawkwind under another name. Having googled the name , I find that only Nik Turner & Dead Fred were members of this band - but do yourself a favour & listen to their last single, Bones Of Elvis. I find this more listensble than anything on Space Ritual. And it’s funny. In a good way.
Blood, Sweat & Tears
5/5
In 1969, I turned 19 &, still living at home, also held the first backyard party where I invited everyone I knew. I seem to remember that this album was a large part of the soundtrack to that bash. I’s copped a lot of criticism over the years for being too mainstream, particularly when compared to the band’s debut album. I just played them back-to-back & the fact is they are both great but totally different. The debut album was half written by Al Kooper, who was essentially the band’s creator, but also highlighted a bunch of songwriters who had yet to make their mark as performers - Nillson, Randy Newman, Tim Buckley. Then Al left the band & his somewhat weak vocal was replaced by David Clayton-Thomas. You could not get 2 more different voices. But the thing I’m forever grateful for are the song choices the band took on the second lp. They introduced me to such great music - I had never heard of Erik Satie. The opening cover of a Satie variation is a piece of music I’ve heard so often over the years, but this was where I heard it first. I had never heard Billie Holiday, let alone God Bless The Child. I’d never heard Laura Nyro’s And When I Die. I’d never heard the Motown classic, You’ve Made Me So Very Happy.
Not to say that there wasn’t great original material here as well - especially Spinning Wheel - covered by so many artists over the years. Anyone whose ever had a child in a school choir in the last 50 years knows that song. You can hear the band’s live set from Woodstock (1969) on youtube. I do love this record.
Big Star
3/5
Another band I totally missed in the 70’s. I was a big fan of Alex Chilton’s previous band, The Box Tops. They had at least 3 hit singles in Australia, most notably The Letter. I don’t know what happened to Chilton’s voice, but it sounds a lot weaker on the Big Star album. I really like the music here, but his voice here just doesn’t do it for me.
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
5/5
In 1982 I opened a second-hand record shop in Newtown. I spent a lot of time in the car, checking out op-shops, auction houses, junk shops, searching for stock. The title track of this album was a big part of that year’s soundtrack. By the 1990’s there was a fantastic mural painted on a wall in Enmore that included the words “It’s like a jungle sometimes”. That song has been so loved & so influential. And it still works for me every time I hear it. I’d never heard this album before, and I wasn’t familiar with most of the other tracks, although I well remember It’s Nasty (long before I realised it was a Tom Tom Club sample at the heart of the track). Scorpio is outstanding. Love the Stevie Wonder cover followed by the Stevie tribute. Just shows how loved & influential his music was for these guys. The vocals on this album are immaculate. A great, great record.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
2/5
I reckon I’ve owned this vinyl for at least 30 years. It’s still in pristine condition. Mainly because I’ve only ever played it a handful of times. I still find it hard work. I’ve always found Beefheart interesting. And there are a couple of his albums that I really enjoy - his debut album, Safe As Milk & his 7th release, Clear Spot. One had Ry Cooder all over it & the other, Little Feat. What’s not to like there? But this is a discordant double album. Back in the day I shared houses with guys who loved it. They usually had mental health problems. I know it’s supposedly very influential & all that, but I really don’t rate it that highly.
Sigur Rós
3/5
This is a gorgeous album. I have the 2 albums they did directly after this, but I’d never heard this before. I don’t know what I can compare it to. I’m sure it reminds me of something, but can’t quite nail it. It’s a great listen.
Stevie Wonder
5/5
The first I heard of Little Stevie Wonder was Hey Harmonica Man in 1964. But it was the funky Uptight (1965) & the glorious I Was Made To Love Her (1967) that made me a big fan. His version of Blowin’ In The Wind (1966)was Bob with a beat, & his cover of The Beatles’ We Can Work It Out (1970)is to this day one of the great cover versions.
At the same time, in the late 60’s, he had dropped the “Little” & had a string of hit singles that started with For Once In My life (1968), which he had not written & had already been recorded by Tony Bennett & would soon be covered by Sinatra. My Cherie Amour(1969) followed, then another non-original, Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday (1969). These were all big hits, but were the kinds of songs that were soon being performed in RSL clubs by passing tenors. I should know, I worked in an RSL Club every weekend from mid-1973 till the end of 1975. These tunes were butchered regularly.
So by the 70’s, Stevie had mastered a lot of styles. And this was nowhere more obvious than on his 1972 l.p., Talking Book. It contained the biggest RSL club crossover of the 70’s - the self-penned You Are The Sunshine Of My Life. I heard that song performed so many times. Yet for the same album he writes & performs one of the landmark funk tracks of the 70’s - Superstition. And, as usual, plays most of the instruments himself.
He was at the top of his game when he recorded the tracks for Innervisions. I ate the album up when it was released. He wrote, arranged & produced all 9 songs, played all the instruments on 3 of them, & most of the instruments on the others.
And his songwriting goes to another level. He Deals with drug abuse in the funky opening track Too High. He had embraced synthesisers and you get them from the opening verse. The final track, He’s Misstra Know-It All is a blistering attack on Richard Nixon.
And, in between, you get 2 of his greatest songs : Side 1 Track 3 - Living For The City - it was one of the first songs to deal with systemic racism & also to use street sounds, sirens & spoken dialogue. He played all the instruments and it is 7&1/2 minutes of blues/soul greatness. Which was covered soon after by both Ray Charles & Ike & Tina Turner.
And the opening track on Side 2 & one of the finalists in the Funkiest-Song-Of-All-Time Competition : Higher Ground. Unbelievably funky. Funky white Boys Red Hot Chili Peppers were right into it. Still the most successful cover they ever recorded (1989).
So around the time I bought the album, I was getting drunk one night with my cousin Michael, We ended up back at his house in Guilford. It was a late night and I remember him going on & on about how great Stevie Wonder’s version of You Are The Sunshine Of My life was & playing it over & over. He was a fan of the club-style Stevie song. He wasn’t interested in the funky Stevie. And that was okay. I don’t have many cousins. So I’ve always enjoyed any quality time I’ve had with Michael. It was all good.
I told him there was a song he’d like on the new album - All In Love is Fair was the lush ballad that would make it to the clubs. Pretty sure I heard it from the stage of Chester Hill RSL before I finished my stint there. And it had Bab’s imprimatur - Streisand released it as a single in 1974. And 30 years later I saw a performance of it one night in a talent show at Newtown High School of Performing Arts. Heartwarming to see another generation embrace Wonder’s talent.
Stevie Wonder is one of the greatest - without a doubt. And the genius of these compositions is there for all to see.
The Flying Burrito Brothers
5/5
There were 3 ways I just listened to this. An original vinyl (Aust. Stereo pressing), a 1988 vinyl best of (Aust pressing - with the whole album compressed onto one side) and on a 1997 cd with Burrito Deluxe on the same disc. And without a doubt the original vinyl sounds best. I missed The Byrds with Parsons & Really I missed The Burritos with Parsons when they were briefly around. It wasn’t until I discovered Grievous Angel (1974)his 2nd solo album, that I fell in love with Gram Parsons. And by that time he was already gone. I love Grievous Angel & G.P., the 2 studio albums he did with Emmylou Harris, but, as good as they are, they don’t match this album. So accomplished for a debut release by such a talented band. Terrific songwriting by Parsons (sometimes with Chris Hillman, sometimes with Chris Etheridge & even one with the great Barry Goldberg). And beautiful covers of two Dan Penn/Spooner Oldham standards - Do Right Woman, Do Right Man & The Dark End Of The Street. The greatness here lies in the great harmonising of Parsons & Hillman (Parsons vulnerable voice always sounded better with another voice) & the quality of the band’s musicianship, with special mention to the pedal steel of Sneaky Pete, & Etheridge’s bass. So influential - I’d totally forgotten that Elvis Costello had included Hot Burrito #1 on his country album, Almost Blue, but renamed it I’m Your Toy (from the song’s refrain). And hard to believe that the Stones weren’t thinking of Hippie Boy when they did Faraway Eyes. No duds on this one. A pleasure to hear from go to whoa!
Radiohead
2/5
Sorry, I just don’t get Radiohead. Never have. Great background music while I was doing my stretching exercises this morning. Best I can say about this cd.
Mercury Rev
4/5
I have Q magazine to thank for my introduction to Mercury Rev, specifically the Essential Chill Out cd which came with one of their issues in 2000. Sixteen tracks that started with Novio by Moby, was almost exclusively British in content, but concluded with Holes, the opening track on Deserter’s Songs. It was the track on that cd that I was really taken with. I then read an article about the band that compared their sound to Neil Young (presumably Jonathon Donahue’s vocals more than anything else), so I was intrigued enough to eventually track down the disc. It’s an eerie album. I don’t know what they use to get that theremin sound (listen to Endlessly) but it’s so effective. I love Opus 40 - it seems to reference Bowie (All The Young Dudes), The Beatles(Golden Slumbers) & did Springsteen come up with the phrase “suicide machine”(Born To Run)? Whatever, it got me in & the bonus was having Levon Helm from The Band on drums. It’s followed by The Hudson Line, which features Garth Hudson from The Band on saxes. Really enjoyed discovering this album when I did.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
4/5
I’m a big Young fan, but also a big Crazy Horse fan. And nothing else sounds like the racket that the combination of the 2 provides. This isn’t their best work, but it’s still pretty good. The songs are so listenable, even when they remind you of songs he’s recorded before this. A lot of credit must go to producer David Briggs, one of the few who Young would ever allow to wield the whip. (Two years later he produced Nick Cave’s Henry’s Dream, although the relationship was acrimonious & Cave re-mixed the album. Three years later, Briggs died of lung cancer at only 51). I’d never heard Farmer John performed at this tempo before. I certainly didn’t know it was written by R&B duo, Don & Dewey. I knew it from The Searchers debut album, & their version was much quicker. Days That Used To Be is a total steal ( in both content & melody)from Dylan’s classic My Back Pages. And the melody of Mother Earth (Natural Anthem) is totally lifted from the traditional folk-song, The Water Is Wide. But they both work for me, as indeed does the rest of the album, which may be the last really good album Young did with the band. I finally got to see him with the Horse in 2003 at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, when he was touring the Greendale album (ho-hum!). The first half was Greendale - Young & a large combo that only included Ralph Molina from Crazy Horse. After a ten- minute break, he came back out with Crazy Horse & they played for a bit over an hour & only played 6 or 7 songs. After all those years they still loved a jam. And, largely, that’s what this album sounds like.
Billy Joel
5/5
Hey, doesn’t everyone have a guilty pleasure? I’ve probably got a stack of them & Billy Joel is certainly one. I first became aware of him in 1975 through Reg Livermore’s cabaret show, The Betty Blockbuster Follies at the Balmain Bijou - he covered 3 or 4 Joel songs, most memorably Captain Jack ( as in “smack”) off Joel’s breakout album, Piano Man(1973). So by the time The Stranger was released in 1977, I was already a fan. And when he toured that album out here in May ‘78, I saw him with my sister Kath at the Hordern in Sydney, with the same band that features on the album. Great show. Great album. Some of his sweetest ballads ( Just The Way You Are & She’s Always A Woman), terrific up-tempo stuff (Movin’ Out & Only The Good Die Young) and brilliantly quirky things like the epic Scenes From An Italian Restaurant & Vienna. An album I still play often, but rarely in front of others.
The Band
5/5
This album was released in 1969, about six months after Dylan released Nashville Skyline. The participants in the 1966 Dylan Goes Electric world tour were now all down- home boys. It was a few years before I heard this record, but the singles from it were all over the radio in the early 70’s. Amazingly, Up On Cripple Creek & The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down were a double - A- sided single that just about laid down the formula for what is now known as Americana. That single was followed by more of the same with Rag Mama Rag, though the plaintive flipside, The Unfaithful Servant, showed the other side of what The Band had to offer, & indeed the beauty of this album. The other two great songs here are the opener & closer. Across The Great Divide is a fantastic tune to begin the album with - it has multiple meanings - they almost called the album America. There’s an idealism in the song that contrasts starkly with the closing track, King Harvest(Has Surely Come), regarded by some as Robbie Robertson’s greatest composition. Sort of a what unions promise but can’t always deliver (I worked for a union for 20 Years). The band is great. The voices of Helm, Manuel & Danko are exceptional. Great record.
Simply Red
2/5
Don’t think I ever got over the Harpo Marx impersonation on the album cover. No doubt Hucknall had a terrific voice, but I don’t think most of the material on this album has weathered well. His performance on Holding Back The Years is great. The cover of Talking Heads’ Heaven is abysmal up against the original. And even though their version of Money’s Too Tight is okay (although not nearly as interesting as the original), the fact they covered something that had been a disco hit in the UK only 3 years before they released this album does suggest they were not totally confident in their original material. And with good reason. I find most of these songs pretty limp. And what ever happened to Hucknall?
Cheap Trick
3/5
Even though I’d seen grainy footage of The Beatles live in Japan (1966) over the years, I wasn’t aware these performances were filmed at the Budokan. I don’t think I’d heard of the venue until the double album, Bob Dylan at Budokan was released in August ‘78, about six months before the American release of the Cheap Trick at Budokan in February ‘79. (Of course, by now it’s a matter of who hasn’t released a live at Budokan album - even Sheryl Crow & Willie Nelson). As for Cheap Trick, I totally missed their first two releases (both 1977), but I was all over the third, Heaven Tonight, released in April ‘78, the week before they flew to Japan & recorded the album at Budokan. Generally regarded as their best album, it’s surprising that only one track from Heaven Tonight made it onto the live album - the iconic Surrender. Especially because I find some of the material here less than inspiring (particularly on Side 1). The band, however are in good form. Among the highlights are their hit single from ‘77, I Want You To Want Me & their very respectable cover of Fats Domino’s Ain’t That A Shame. Obviously Budokan was used for recordings so often because of the acoustics. The clarity is really good compared to a lot of live rock albums.
k.d. lang
4/5
I have to say I was a huge fan of k.d.’s four country albums that preceded Ingenue, and was a little disappointed when she changed tack. I haven’t played this album for decades, but I’m so happy I have. The production is terrific. Her voice sounds great. The backing is excellent - did piano accordion ever sound better than it does here? I thought I would only remember the 2 big hits, Constant Craving & Lady Chatelaine, but I actually was familiar with most of it, right from the opener, Save Me. What a voice.
Wild Beasts
2/5
I probably got up on the wrong side of the bed. Nothing here got me hooting & howling. I found this a bit on the pedestrian side. Reasonable background music.
The Beach Boys
4/5
I notice that WIKI lists the last track on Side 1 as Student Demonstration Time. My very old Australian vinyl pressing of Surf’sUp, on the Stateside label, lists that track as Riot in Cell Block Number Nine. It’s the same Leiber & Stoller classic, first sung in 1954 by the great Richard Berry (lead singer with The Robins), who two years later would write & record Louie Louie. What The Beachboys did was change the setting from prison to a series of tertiary campuses (Berkeley, Kent State). It works okay. Apart from that, the tracks are all originals, with Mike Love being the only member not responsible for a composition. Bruce Johnston’s sole effort was the one song most covered - Disney Girls(1957) was recorded a year later by (Mama)Cass Elliot, with help from Johnston & Carl Wilson & then in 1975 by Art Garfunkel (again with Johnston). It’s a little MOR for The Beachboys, but it’s way ahead of the composition that Johnston will always be remembered for - I Write The Songs - a huge hit for Barry Manilow. But the album’s highlights are both on Side 2, which opens with Carl Wilson’s Feel Flows, always a great, musically weird track, which had a second life after it was featured in the film Almost Famous. Cameron Crowe claimed it was his favourite Beachboys tune. And the album ends with Brian Wilson’s Surf’s Up, the second song he ever wrote with Van Dyke Parks, voted by Mojo staff members in 2011 as the band’s greatest song. It’s not a great album but it features two clasics.
Turbonegro
4/5
Listening to this album was like being at a pub gig in Sydney in the late 70’s or 80’s, watching some Detroit-influenced, post - Birdman band, and having a great time. Totally generic. Full of those quirks that you only get with Scandi bands who have a particular way of using the English language - Rendezvous With Anus? Really??? Absolutely. The Scandis do not take a backward step when it comes to sex. There’s hardly a track here that doesn’t remind you of some 70’s American rock band. I love Euroboy’s guitar. A big highlight. I’m a Hives fan & for a while I was sure that the track Get It On borrowed heavily from their song Hate To Say I Told You So, but turns out the Turbonegro track predated the Hives cut by a couple of years. This is so not a 90’s album & that’s a really good thing. There’s nothing ground-breaking here, but what a pleasure it was listening to it.
Ian Dury
5/5
Beautiful record. I have an original English vinyl copy on Stiff, before they started adding Sex & Drugs etc. to Side 2. I can understand why they did that, because Side 1 is so outstanding that the flipside does pale a bit by comparison. The band is terrific & Dury’s vocals are unique. His lyrics throughout are so entertaining - so real. I saw them at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney in 1981 - their only tour here, when Wilko Johnson was with the band. I remember being amazed at how many musicians were onstage. It was one of the great concerts I ever attended. My favourite moment of this album is that point in Sweet Gene Vincent after the quiet intro where you you hear Dury say Who Slapped John (one of Vincent’s greatest) and the band go berserk. He never again did an album this great but he certainly kept the singles coming for the next few years. What a champion.
Deep Purple
4/5
I didn’t mind the early incarnation of Deep Purple - the one that had a double sided hit in Australia in 1968 with a Neil Diamond song (Kentucky Woman) & a Joe South song (Hush). But they were a much more exciting band once Ian Gillan took over as lead singer the following year. I first heard him on the single Black Night (not on this album, although Speed King was the b-side. But before I found a second-hand copy of In Rock, I heard him perform the title role on the original studio album of Jesus Christ Superstar, which I bought when it was released in late 1970. That involved some of the greatest rock screaming I’d ever heard that side of Robert Plant. So I was totally ready to see Deep Purple when they played Randwick Racecourse one sunny Sunday afternoon in May 1971. They headlined, supported by local Santana- wannabe's, Piranha, the Manfred Mann Earthband (more prog than pop) and the amazing Free. I can tell you tickets were $3.00, but if you presented a coupon (cut from that day’s Sunday Mirror) at the gates, you got in for $2.50. Needless to say the best value gig I ever attended. Purple were fantastic & Blackmore & Gillan at the peak of their powers. I had not played this album for a long time, but I have to say it is a great record, and the band’s best. Side 1 is particularly good, from the Little Richard tributes in Speed King to the contrasting slowness of Child In Time. And Side 2 almost as good - I did not remember any of those titles but as soon as I started listening, I remembered the music completely. And it’s gonna get a good flogging this weekend.
Frank Black
2/5
Look, I have this cd, but hadn’t listened to it for a long time. Black’s solo stuff has never grabbed me like The Pixies did. I played it through once this morning & it was interesting but not thrilling. I mean, I really enjoyed The Breeders’ stuff. Not happening here, though.
The Sugarcubes
3/5
Heard this a lot around the time it was released. It’s weathered well. Particularly Birthday,, one of the great singles of the late 80’s & the springboard for Bjork’s bizarre career. Other highlights for me are F***ing In Rhythm & Sorrow & Motorcrash. Until this band arrived, all I knew about Iceland was that Bobby Fischer beat Boris Spassky at Reykjavik.
The War On Drugs
3/5
Had never heard this band before. Really interesting songs, vocals straight out of the 70’s (Wiki namechecks just about everybody as an influence - for me, Granduciel’s vocals remind me of Steve Forbert). But it’s the music that rules here. The ethereal sound of the guitars is a knockout. Well worth the trouble.
TV On The Radio
5/5
I cannot believe I’ve never heard of this band. There is not a bad track here. I was affected by hearing this in much the same way that the Scissors Sisters (Tits, not TV on the radio) debut album affected me back in the day. I can hear S.S. in the use of falsetto voices & particularly on a couple of tracks - the very funky Crying & the intro to Shout Me Out. I love the 50’s pop intro to the opening track, Halfway Home, on which the falsettos are pure Beachboys. I love the techno/hip-hop approach in Dancing Choose. And there are at least 4 terrific ballads here. The diversity is so good. And I’ve only had a close look at a couple of song lyrics but Family Tree is definitely related to the Billie Holiday classic, Strange Fruit, & Lover’s Day features some of the raunchiest (but not crass) lyrics I’ve heard in a while. I loved hearing this.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
3/5
I have this cd but hadn’t played it for a long time. It’s a good listen. I enjoyed the first half of the album, with 5 songs of 2&1/2 minutes or less. (I’m) Rich reminds me of Iggy’s I’m Bored. Date With The Night is strong & her vocals remind me very much of Shirley Manson. Man (where the album title comes from) & Tick both work for me, both being under 2 minutes. Not so thrilled with the rest, either too long or just a bit pointless - except for Maps, which I think is outstanding. The band stars on this - Zinner’s guitar & Chase’s drums are great. I never saw the band, as such, but I did see Karen O (Stop The Virgens{sic}) - A Psycho Opera at the Sydney Opera House, as part of the 2012 Vivid Festival. And both Zinner & Chase (& Money Mark) were in the band that night. Don’t know what it was all about but it was entertaining. I think I prefer The Strokes from this period of the edgy New York scene. But each time I do listen to this now, I like it more.
Van Morrison
5/5
I don’t know how to talk about this record. It’s like reviewing the Bible or something. As a teenager I was a huge fan of Van’s band Them - I don’t think anything I heard in 1965 was as radical as Gloria. But when they broke up, I lost touch with Van. Brown Eyed Girl may have been a Top Ten hit in America but it was never on the 2UE Top 40. So I missed his Bang label stuff and his first 3 albums for Warners when they were released, of which Moondance was the second. It was after a weekend in a farmhouse outside Goulburn, visiting a mate who’d moved there in mid-1972 & had a bunch of Morrison lp’s by joining the Australian Record Club. As soon as I got back to Sydney I signed up & soon had Astral Weeks, His Band And The Street Choir & Moondance. And I’ve been a devotee ever since. Even after what is generally regarded as one of the most disappointing concerts ever held at the old Sydney Entertainment Centre in 1985. (His only 20th Century tour here). But that’s another story. This is one of the most played albums I own. I love these tracks. The first 5 are all classics. The following 5 are not padding, they just exist in less rarified air. I love the voice he uses on the exquisite Crazy Love. I love the grandeur of Caravan. And I love the fact that Moondance became a go-to song for saloon singers over the last half-century. (Most notably Buble in 2003 - would have been a nice little earner for Van). A great, great record.
Blur
3/5
I remember when I first saw the outstanding cover to this cd - I immediately thought of the song Dogs (1968) by The Who, which actually namechecks 2 champion greyhounds of that time. I thought, being mods, Blur might have followed The Who’s lead, but no. Not a greyhound reference to be heard. However there are plenty of plight of the working class lyrics here that remind me of 60’s mod classics by The Who, The Kinks, The Small Faces, Syd Barrett’s Pink Floyd. The opening track is a classic, as is the title track. And I love the nod to Syd (Far Out).
I don’t think it’s great. But it’s pretty good.
Iron Butterfly
4/5
During the first long COVID-19 lockdown of 2020, there was nothing I enjoyed more on those autumn late afternoons than to head into the prison backyard & play In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida so loud it might annoy the nearby inmates. I’m sure this was a throwback to my teens, because once I owned this album, I would torture my parents with it. I know Ron Bushy was no John Bonham (this came out a good 18 months before I would hear Moby Dick), but I knew his drumming on the title track off by heart. And now, because of The Simpsons’ episode Bart Sells His Soul(1995), I get to share that track with my kids. From the album’s opening track, Most Anything You Want, it’s obvious that organist Doug Ingle has been listening to fellow Californians The Doors. That track particularly references Ray Manzarek’s playing on Light My Fire(1967).
I particularly like the closer on Side 1, Are You Happy, but I have to be honest, for over 50 years now, I usually only play Side 2, the 17-minute title track. It’s still silly & I still love it.
JAY Z
3/5
I love the structure. I love the music. I really like the sampling - any track that’s based on The Doors Five To One will do me. It was obviously influential. That cartoon female voice in U Don’t Know must have given Hilltop Hoods the idea to use such a voice in their classic, The Nosebleed Section (2003). Great to hear Bobby “Blue” Bland’s sweet vocals (Heart Of The City). In fact, quite often I enjoy the samples way more than the vocals, which I find boringly repetitive. Some hip-hop really works for me &, like I said, most of the music & sampling here is terrific. But his rapping bores me.
Sepultura
1/5
Nah!!!
Scritti Politti
3/5
I was a fan. Really liked Green’s voice. And this album contains 3 of my favourite SP trax. Wood Beez(Pray Like Aretha Franklin) & The Word Girl still sound so fresh & Absolute is not far behind . I have the Word Girl 12” single featuring Ranking Ann, which is outstanding. It’s great that the album was co- produced by Atlantic Records legend, Arif Mardin, who worked on Aretha’s I Never Loved A Man etc. album. The production is great. I don’t think the band ever made it to Australia, but, ironically, Fred Maher, the drummer on this album & guitarist Robert Quine, who also appears on it, both toured Australia six months before this album was released, in January 1985 as part of Lou Reed’s touring band. I saw Reed at Newcastle’s Civic Theatre on that tour & definitely remember Quine’s bald pate on stage. Great guitarist.
De La Soul
4/5
They get me from the opening track - the intro, which parodies a tv quiz show & is a rip- off of Cheech & Chong’s Let’s Make A Dope Deal (from their debut album, 1972) down to the tinny organ in the background. The sampling here has never been bettered. Steely Dan’s Peg sounds great in Eye Know, as does Hall & Oates’ I Can’t Go For That in Say No Go. And the song’s copied are totally interesting, from the great Bob Dorough’s Three Is The Magic Number, in The Magic Number, to The Jarmels’ A Little Bit Of Soap ( written by the legendary Bert Berns). These guys had great taste to start with, & knew what to do with it. Love this record.
Elton John
3/5
Not every Elton album in the 70’s was a stellar effort. This wasn’t. But it does open with one of his ( & Bernie’s) greatest - Tiny Dancer, glorified forever by Cameron Crowe in Almost Famous. I had not played this album for decades. It’s just a bit limp. Although I am lucky enough to have the cd reissue of Tumbleweed Connection ( one of my faves) & as an extra, it includes the original version of Madman Across The Water. It features the great Mick Ronson & is spectacular compared to the version they eventually ran with, which used Chris Spedding, no slouch himself.
The Bees
3/5
I remember being at a party in Enmore one night in the noughties & asking the hostess who we were listening to on the hi-fi. It was The Bees, who I’d never heard of. I was quite smitten by them. I couldn’t tell you which album it was. In the years that followed I picked up their 2nd & 3rd cd’s, but I’d never heard this, their debut album, before now. It’s totally engaging. And well named. There are so many summery melodies here. Maybe that’s an Isle of Wight influence. But they (there were only 2 of the band on this recording) were not confined to one approach. The dub sound on No Trophy; the almost calypso approach on Binnel Bay; and the wonderful cover version of Os Mutantes’ A Minha Menina, which forced me to drag out my Best Of O.M. cd, to compare the 2. The Bees do a great job with it. I really enjoyed this.
Pulp
4/5
This has been a real eye(or ear)-opener. I have never found Jarvis Cocker’s voice at all enjoyable. Not that I’ve ever heard a lot of it. Until this weekend, I really was only familiar with the song Common People. I’d never heard this, or any other Pulp albums. But I noticed one of the you-tube comments attached to Common People claimed it to be the best song ever written about the working class. So I immediately googled the lyrics & I have to say they’re pretty bloody good. Which led me to look up more lyrics from this album. He’s a good writer. I love Sorted For E’s & Wizz. I’ve played the album so many times now that I’m used to his voice. He’s not Caruso, but it reminds me of other ordinary voices that I do like - Syd Barrett for instance. Of all the so-called 90’s Britpop bands, Pulp sound more like a 60’s British Invasion band than any of the others. Did not think this would happen, but I really like this album, almost against my better judgement.
Guided By Voices
1/5
Look, I was happy to listen to this, but when I got to track 16, Hit, & heard the line “giggling faggots”, I lost all desire to listen further. I googled that track & saw that it had not been missed in online debates about homophobic band lyrics &, indeed, homophobic bands. I’d already spent considerable time following online discussions about the meaning of “lo-fi”, a term used to describe this band. That was a fascinating exercise. I’m pretty sure my ears are extremely lo-fi. I wasn’t perturbed by the quality of these recordings. And I’ve never been against the idea that less is more. But these guys ain't The Ramones. And their 20-second tracks just sound like a wank to me. Other than all that, they certainly sounded like they could write a decent pop song. But I’m not listening.
Method Man
1/5
Look, I like Wu-Tang. Saw them at the Enmore. And I liked the RZA album we rated - Liquid Swords(1995). But I found this repetitive & boring. And the Gloria Gaynor re-write was rubbish. Can’t believe this was so successful.
Black Sabbath
3/5
I’ve never been a fan (except for Paranoid) but I did quite enjoy a lot of this album. Mainly the music, because I do have a problem with Osbourne’s voice. Still, I really liked Supernaut - the one where the drummer appears to have ripped off the intro to Theme from Shaft. And the bluesy intro to Wheels Of Confusion (& most of Iommi’s playing on that). And okay, after a couple of plays I found myself rocking along to this album. And I don’t know why???
Marvin Gaye
3/5
Look, I love the title song, but I don’t think anything else here is nearly as good. It’s fine, but it’s not riveting. I enjoyed listening to it. But I’d much rather listen to the album that preceded it - What’s Going On.
Steve Earle
3/5
Never heard this album before. But I do have a bunch of Earle’s cd’s. And 5 of the 10 tracks appear among the 13 tracks on Essential Steve Earle (1993) - pretty good, considering he’d released 4 albums up to that point. ( By contrast, there are no tracks from this album on the 2003 live album Just An American Boy). It’s an easy listen. He’s in fine voice & the musicianship is first-class. And every now & then I hear a lyric that confirms the class in what he would go on to do. But somehow it all sounds a bit generic. Like I’ve heard it all before. Little Rock’nRoller? Really?There are times when I think it’s a Jimmy Buffet album (not that there’s anything wrong with that). On the remastered 2003 cd, the best track is the bonus track - a live version of Springsteen’s State Trooper also recorded in 1986 - the band sounds so good.
Beatles
5/5
It was December 1969. Abbey Roadhad been released a couple of months prior. It was already all over the radio. The double-sided single, Something/Come Together was still #1 on the 2UE Top 40 in the middle of a 19-week run on the charts. I was at a Saturday night backyard party in Sefton with my mates & Abbey Road was definitely the preferred soundtrack. We’d headed there from the pub, so we’d definitely had a few. My mate Geoff had had more than a few. He was sitting on a swing when a local red-headed hooligan (appropriately with an English accent) named Harold Smith walked over to a girl we knew, Kim Ticehurst, and proclaimed, “You fuck, don’t you Kim?” At which point Geoff lifted his sagging head & said, “You shit me Harold”. And all hell broke loose. I was fine, but I ended up in the emergency ward at Fairfield Hospital with Geoff, whose face was the worse for wear & required stitching. So I cannot put Abbey Road on the turntable without a nod to that hot summer night. What a record. Considering it’s got some pretty limp stuff on it - Maxwell’s Silver Hammer - really? Octopus’s Garden - really truly?? They take up a third of Side 1, but still leave you with the aforementioned Come Together (a great opener); Harrison’s Something( Peggy Lee had already released a cover of it in November & Tony Bennett would do the same before xmas); one of McCarney’s greatest vocals on Oh! Darling; & the Yoko-inspired I Want You(She’s So Heavy), which I never grow tired of. And that’s just Side 1. Harrison fuels the hippy tribes with Here Comes The Sun to open Side 2 & they really don’t miss a beat. Because is all about wordplay - one of the few songs (like Carry That Weight) ever written by John, Paul & George). You Never Me Your Money is McCartney with a tune that can make you cry and is the opening part of an 8-track medley lasting 16 minutes, when you just cannot come up for air. The music & vocals (& harmonies) are great. Some of the guitar work is laced with late 60’s psychedelia. Her Majesty was ill-advised & unnecessary. Sun King would probably not have existed if Fleetwood Mac’s Albatross had not been released just before this. This has never been my favourite Beatles album. But what a ripping listen it is.
The Icarus Line
3/5
I swear that I owned a book in the early 70’s with the same title as Track 1 on this. So I googled the phrase & what a good read that was. Could not locate the book I was thinking of but it was a good excuse to drag out The Worst Of Jefferson Airplane LP & listen to We Can Be Together, where they use the phrase. I wasn’t sure if I was up to this album until I got to Spike Island. After that, I enjoyed what I heard. The 9-minute track, Getting Bright At Night was terrific - the beginning of a wonderful trifecta with Big Sleep & White Devil. Both also winners. And the closing track, Party The Baby Off, was a great closer. Pity I was not able to see Virgin Velcro or Sea Sick. I was able to read the lyrics. Can’t believe I’d never heard of this band. Loved the singer’s voice & the music was totally interesting.
Sister Sledge
3/5
Title track is outstanding. Because it’s so good, I’ll give the album 3 stars, even thought there’s nothing else here that I really find engaging. Reasonable background music. Sometimes boring & repetitive. I love Nile Rodgers. I love his guitar playing. But most of this album doesn’t do it for me.
Santana
5/5
Abraxas was released the same month that I saw Woodstock, in which one of that film’s highlights for me was Santana doing Soul Sacrifice off their debut album. In the 70’s I saw them twice at the Hordern (73 & 76). But most memorably I saw them at the Sydney Showground on Remembrance Day 1977. That day the concert started in the afternoon with the Felix Pappalardi-involved Japanese band Creation, then the Kevin Borich Express, and then, around 6.00p.m., as the sun started to set, Santana (they were followed by LRB & then the headliners that day, Fleetwood Mac, touring on the back of Rumours, which had been released earlier in the year. This was their first Australian tour since they’d re-invented themselves.) Santana, as the sun was setting, was one of the great concert experiences I ever had. I remember Santana performing Black Magic Woman that day, but according to setlists now available on the internet, Fleetwood Mac did not (the song having been written by their original guitarist, the late, great Peter Green). Black Magic Woman is one of the highlights of Side 1 of Abraxas, on which there are no duds. It is an outstanding side of music. Their version of Tito Puente’s Oye Como Va is wonderful. Side 2 consists of 5 tracks all written by band members. The only one written by Carlos himself is Samba Pa Ti, the first half of which is slow & atmospheric. Very much like the Santana-penned track Europa(Eath’s Cry, Heaven’s Smile), from the Amigos album, which the band played that day just as the sun set. Almost 50 years later I can still picture that scene. I play the first 2 Santana albums regularly. There was nothing else like them at the time.
The Jam
2/5
I’d read about The Jam in NME & Melody Maker long before I heard them. Then one day, around the time this, their third album, was released, I was spending lunchtime in Chelsea Records. This was an import shop in Pitt St,Sydney. They were having a sale & I picked up the first 2 Jam L.P’s for $2.99 each (at a time when the R.R.P. was $5.99). Couldn’t wait to get them home but was pretty disappointed by them - I really did not like Weller’s voice - & did not bother listening to the band again for a good 5 years - around the time they broke up & Weller formed Style Council. I acquired quite a few of their old singles & realised that they had released some really good ones, most notably That’s Entertainment, which I think is one of the best English singles released in the 80’s. As for this album, I think the best song on it is The Kinks’ David Watts, the first single released off the album, and featuring bassist Bruce Foxton on vocals. I also really enjoy English Rose - a ballad & totally different to the rest of the material here. I first heard the last 2 tracks on singles & they’re fine, but not among my favourite Jam singles. I had not played this album for decades.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
4/5
I was a C,S&N fan from the get-go. I probably play their debut album more than I play this. Because both sides of that album work for me. Side 1 of DejaVu is stronger than anything C,S&N have ever done, but Side 2 drags a bit for me. Still, that first side is such a winner. Stills’s Carry On is a perfect opener. Crosby’s Almost Cut My Hair is the highlight for me - my freak flag was flying at the time. Neil Young’s Helpless is the great survivor from the album - who hasn’t covered that song? Both Nash’s tracks on the album work for me. Our House was all about living with Joni & she wrote Woodstock, which closes Side 1 & is probably the finest composition on the record. Love Side 1 but the flip is not nearly as thrilling.
Jamiroquai
4/5
Had never heard this album before & thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s so often very funky. I love the didge. I love the brass (e.g Hooked Up). I love the nod to Stevie Wonder in so much of it, including calling a track Music Of The Mind. It rockets along & is never boring. Fantastic.
Richard Hawley
4/5
I have never before listened to Richard Hawley. It’s quite a surprise to hear a voice recorded in this century but so clearly rooted in the last. That’s fine for me, because that’s where I’m rooted (in the best sense of the word). I reckon I’d only need to listen to this album a couple more times to fall in love with it. It’s not the greatest voice, but I love his songwriting. The strings that open the title track, & the album, are so 50’s. A time when singers thought that recording with strings meant they’d made it (I seem to remember even Ray Charles to some extent had that attitude. For Chrissake!) But Hawley refuses to be tied to a genre. (Wading Through) The Waters Of My Time is pure country, complete with beautiful lap-steel guitar, which he provides. In fact, there is so much tasteful instrumentation here. There’s 70’s singer-songwriter stuff, that is never anything but interesting. I love this record.
Beastie Boys
4/5
Okay, just spent 45 minutes raving about this album then accidentally lost it. Life’s too short to do it again. I love this record. It’s all about those brilliant samples & my memories of my kids discovering this album back in the day. I love it.
Slade
2/5
Slade were a singles band. Which doesn’t mean they didn’t have hit albums. This was a big hit album. But, apart from the 2 hit singles taken from it, Gudbuy T’Jane & especially Mama Weer All Crazee Now, the remainder is less than thrilling. They actually released 2 other singles, both covers : the Janis Joplin hit Move Over (Japan only) & the old Shirley & Lee rocker, Let The Good Times Roll (U.S. only) neither of which they embellished. I found most of this album dead boring. Slade’s best album by a country mile was Slade Alive, the album that preceded Slayed. It was great, probably because they were terrific live. I have a single, Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me, which was released in 1973 & the B-Side, Kill ‘Em At The Hot Club Tonite is amazing - it’s like a nod to Django Reinhardt. So they were an interesting band. But not a lot on this album.
The Gun Club
3/5
I always liked the raucous approach of The Gun Club. I thought Jeffrey Lee Pierce was a tad overrated as a vocalist, but he certainly was wild. In late 1983 they toured Australia. (It’s worth checking out Spencer Jones’s account of that tour on the internet - he was one of 2 Australian musos enlisted at the last minute to round out the band after half the band decided at the last minute that Pierce was a wanker & refused to board the plane in L.A.). Piece also enlisted Kid Congo Powers, an original member who had left in 1980 to join The Cramps, but had left that band earlier in 1983. I saw their last Sydney gig at Players in Oxford St (AKA The Paddington Green Hotel). Personally, I thought the support band, The Hoodoo Gurus, blew them off the stage that night. And the lasting memory I have of the Gun Club playing is of Gurus guitarist Brad Shepherd inching his way along a wall, absolutely off his face, coming to my partner Janette & grabbing onto her for dear life because he couldn’t stand up. Of course, her re-telling of that over the years has turned into Brad trying to take advantage of her undoubted charms. This album is a fair indication of what they were like live. I especially love Sex Beat & She’s Like Heroin To Me. And the way they use slide guitar throughout. In fact, I find it far more palatable than I did when I first heard it.
Robert Wyatt
3/5
For a decade from the mid-70’s to the mid-80’s I loved Robert Wyatt’s recorded output, although I have to say that, on reflection, a lot of the highlights for me were cover versions - I’m A Believer (Neil Diamond); Yesterday Man (Chris Andrews); Shipbuilding (Elvis Costello); Strange Fruit (Billie Holiday); At Last I Am Free (Chic). So, unsurprisingly, the highlight for me on this album is the Dylan-inspired Blues In Bob Minor - totally a nod to Subterranean Homesick Blues, itself inspired by Chuck Berry’s Too Much Monkey Business & inspiring Costello’s classic, Pump It Up, among others. Other than that, the sound of this album is so dense that I think it will take quite a few listens before I totally get what’s going on. I enjoyed it .
The Kinks
4/5
Sunny Afternoon was one of the highlights of 1966. I didn’t hear much else from this album at the time. Herman’s Hermits had the hit with Dandy. And, inexplicably, the great double-sided single Dead End Street/ Big Black Smoke (Top 5 in the UK but didn’t make the 2UE Top 40) was left off the album, where both songs would have fitted so well & released as a single a month after the album came out. There’s a level of sophistication about Ray Davies lyrics on a lot of this album. Who else but Lennon & McCartney were writing songs about the English that were this good? And, like The Beatles, there’s very little repetition. Each song is a whole new ball-game. The band are in great form & everyone’s keyboard Session Man of choice, the great Nicky Hopkins is a big bonus. I hadn’t heard this album for a long time (I accidentally destroyed the cd) but I’ve played it 3 or 4 times in the last 24 hours & it gets better with each listen.
Buffalo Springfield
4/5
I don’t know if I’ve ever heard this album before, but I know most of these tracks either from singles or compilations. I think the Neil Young songs here are the standouts. Expecting To Fly was the flipside of For What It’s Worth (1969 re-issue of the band’s classic hit). Mr Soul & Broken Arrow both appeared on Neil Young’s 1976 retrospective triple album, Decade. So I love these tracks, particularly Mr Soul. And I really enjoy Stills work from around this time. What’s interesting is that Richie Furay has 6 songwriting credits on this album - more than his more illustrious bandmates. It’s an album of its time.
Not choc-a-bloc with memorable tunes but it works as a whole.
3/5
I only went to the Sunbury Rock Festival once - in January 1973. It kicked off on the Friday night, leading into the Australia Day long weekend. I drove from Sydney with Dave Kelly. We met up with his brother John at the festival & when it was all over, you could say I drove the Kelly Gang home. Unfortunately Dave & I did not leave Sydney early enough to catch the Friday night performers. By the time we arrived in the middle of the night, the music was over. And that’s how I missed seeing Spirit, who were the first international band to ever appear at Sunbury, & had headlined on Friday night. What a bummer. I have never heard this album before. I really enjoyed it. There’s a diversity about the music It’s poppy, then folky, then psychedelic. David Briggs’s production is terrific. I’m still not sure how Randy California’s estate didn’t win their case against Led Zeppelin stealing one of his riffs to use in Stairway To Heaven. And listen here to the keyboard opening to Space Child & tell me it’s not the same keyboard intro to Steely Dan’s FM.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
I was 21 when I saw Led Zeppelin’s only ever Sydney concert, at the old Showground in February ‘72. Their most famous album, Led Zep 4, had been released 3 months before. The band played 4 songs from that album. But 6 of the 17 songs they played that day were from Led Zeppelin III, which demonstrates how fond of this album the band were. I have to admit that when III was to be released, I just wanted more Whole Lotta Love. What we got was quite a surprise, and it took me a while to embrace it. But I soon did. The acoustic aspect to it still sounds fresh today. I hadn’t played it for a while.
They were such a talented band. Such great songwriters. No filler here.
PJ Harvey
4/5
When I saw P.J.Harvey at the Hordern in 2004, I was amazed that she could play 20 songs but leave out 50Ft Queenie. I regard it as one of the great songs of the 90’s. I mean, would it have killed her to slip it in - it’s only 2:23 on the album. (She also omitted Sheela-Na-Gig off her debut album - also hard to fathom). But, hey, she was still awesome. The only track she did play off this album was the great Me-Jane. I love it that she could pen such a great song & bring it in at 2:43. Of the 14 tracks on this album, there is one under 2 minutes, 4 more under 3 minutes & 5 more under 4 minutes. Mind you, the longest song on the album at 5:03, Rub ‘til It Bleeds, is just as good a listen. Albini’s production is perfect for Polly. (For chrissake, the man worked on Surfer Rosa. He had his shit together). The cover of Highway ‘61 Revisited is very cute. Great listen.
5/5
I still have my U.S. pressing of this album that I purchased from Ashwoods for $1.50. Like any Stooges or VU albums, they couldn’t give this record away. I always thought it was one of the most raucous live albums I’d ever heard. But it wasn’t until later that decade, particularly when I got into Radio Birdman, that I appreciated the part this record played in promoting the so-called Detroit Sound. In 2004, I finally got to see the remnants of the band at Selinas when they were on their world tour as DKT-MC5, with Michael Davis, Wayne Kramer & Dennis Thompson in a band padded out by guests, including Deniz Tek from Birdman & Evan Dando from The Lemonheads. They were terrific. They opened with Ramblin’ Rose (one of the great live album openers of all time) & included all 4 songs from Side 1 of the album, and nothing from Side 2. Unfortunately my pressing has John Sinclair’s (see song about him by John Lennon)word “motherfuckers” overdubbed by “brothers & sisters” in the intro to Kick Out The Jams, but what a track. Tyner’s vocals are so crazy on this record. Anyway, I’m a fan. I love the covers. They’d played with The Troggs in ‘68 - I’m not sure what they’ve done here with I Want You, but it certainly rocks. And whatever Sun Ra had to do with Starship, it’s a cacophony that makes perfect sense. I imagine.
Great production by Bruce Botnick. In the 60’s, you rarely got noisy live recordings that were this clear.
System Of A Down
2/5
Gee, I was excited by the instrumental intro to the opening track, but then the vocals kicked in. I find it funny that this is lumped under Heavy Metal. The vocal style reminds me more of The Dead Kennedys than heavy metal. Anyway, I gave it a listen. I can see the point. But it’s just not my bag, as they used to say. Very clean Rick Rubin production does it all the favours.
Suicide
2/5
At the time, I just never got Suicide. Listening to this album now, it makes a bit more sense. I really like the opening track.and Cheree very much reminded me of early Jesus & Mary Chain. But nothing else here floats my boat. It may be a very influential recording. But not for me.
Ray Charles
5/5
I think I’ve raved before about the desperation with which popular( i.e. “pop”)singers in the 1950’s felt that the yardstick for success was recording with strings. Brother Ray was no different. What I didn’t realise was that Ray climbed that mountain when he was still with Atlantic, who released this record. All of Side 2 features strings. I always thought that Charles left Atlantic & went to ABC Records because they promised to record him with strings. Apparently, however, it was because they offered him higher royalties & ownership of his masters. Anyway, there’s nothing not to like on either side of this record. It opens with a Louis Jordan cover that’s almost the equal of the original. A great version of It Had To Be You follows (the song now most identified with the film When Harry Met Sally) & then the only dud here - Alexander’s Ragtime Band? Really? I’ve never understood why This song is constantly wheeled out by great singers who should know better. But then he slides straight into Percy Mayfield’s Two Years Of Torture - the bluesiest song on the whole record & an absolute winner. The band on Side 1 is awesome - the horns are drawn from great swing bands and their charts are arranged by people like Quincy Jones. Side 2 is a huge contrast. But Ray Charles ‘s vocals shine with any backing & the strings also work for him. The highlights are the final 2 cuts - the great, great Am I Blue (written in 1929, the line “Was I gay?” really makes you smile these daze) & Ray’s magnificent version of Come Rain Or Come Shine. Swings & Strings. It’s a winner for me.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
2/5
Guess they had their reasons for doing this. It’s okay. After I listened to it, I played a traditional piano only version. It was so stark that I could see why an orchestral version would be popular. But as for ELP’s version - well, I’m not sure what it was offering. I had to laugh every time Emerson went crazy with the moog (you have to remember how new on the scene they were in the early 70’s) and the crowd went into rapturous applause. And as for the version of Nutrocker tacked on at the end, give me B.Bumble & The Stingers’ version anyday.
Richard Thompson
4/5
This album was part of many a hippy record collection in the mid-70’s. I’ve never owned it, but the pleasure of hearing it after so long makes that an omission I’ll need to rectify. I’ve long been a Richard Thompson fan, but I’d forgotten just how much I loved what his then-wife, Linda, brought to this record. Just as Beverley Martyn’s records with then husband John were among the highlights of his career, so were Linda’s 6 albums with Richard Thompson. Highlights : the title track; the beautiful Withered & Died (which Elvis Costello, as The Imposter, would resurrect a decade later as the flip of his anti-Falklands War single, Peace In Our Time); the amazing instrumental intro to The Calvary Cross - in fact, Thompson’s guitar, dulcimer, mandolin - just great. A terrific listen.
A Tribe Called Quest
4/5
From the great Ron Carter’s eerie double-bass opening & Q-Tip’s amazing opening rap on Excursions, this album proves to be like no other hip-hop album I’ve ever heard. And, indeed, I’d never heard this album before, even though I realise that it’s been one of the most influential albums on my son’s career, and on the development of the genre in the last 30 years. Carter’s bass is prominent on many tracks, notably Buggin Out & the knockout Scenario, which also includes very early Busta Rhymes. The sampling is extremely tasteful - Average White Band’s Love Your Life used in Check The Rhime, the first single off the album, is a good example. And the lyrical content is always interesting - I loved Verses From The Abstract, Rap Promoter - in fact the album contains some of the most intelligent lyrics of any hip-hop album I’ve ever heard. This was a delight to listen to.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
My daughter, Billie Rose, had a leading role in the 2008 Australian feature film, Monkey Puzzle. At one point in the film, actor Socratis Otto looks at the Led Zeppelin t-shirt that Billie is wearing &, in an attempt at small talk, announces that “I really like Kashmir”. Billie replies, “I prefer cotton. I get itchy with anything else”. He looks at her strangely, then says “It’s a Zeppelin song.” For many fans, it’s not just a Zeppelin song, it’s the great Zeppelin song (check the websites). This is almost a great double album - and that’s no easy thing to do. Rock music is littered with ill-conceived double albums. Side 1 eases the listener in, without delivering a killer tune. But, after that, it takes off. Side 2 is outstanding as it builds from Houses Of The Holy, through Trampled Underfoot, a personal fave, until it reaches the aforementioned Kashmir. Side 3 is reminiscent of Side 1 - all about demonstrating the artistry of the players without providing a memorable tune. But Side 4 is a terrific closer, and from the condition of my original vinyl, definitely the side that I’ve hammered most over the last half a century. Largely to do with my keenness for Boogie With Stu, based on an old Ritchie Valens song, & featuring the great Ian Stewart on piano & what sounds like John Bonham beating a cardboard box to death. Although the whole of the Side 4 is terrific & exquisitely diverse, which is a quality that the band had achieved in spades by this point in their career. I don’t think they were ever this good again.
Arctic Monkeys
3/5
I had never heard this album before. I’ve played it a few times. It’s a good listen. There are some terrific lyrics here - When The Sun Goes Down is terrific. So is Fake Tales Of San Francisco. I get the feeling they were listening to those early Strokes records. They can really rock but their overall approach is quite diverse. I enjoyed it.
Can
3/5
I only know of Can by reputation. I had never heard this album before. I enjoyed it. Even the backwards track (Oh Yeah). And it’s true what they say about the drummer - Jaki Liebezeit - his drumming is mesmerising. I only listened to it once, but I imagine I’d learn to love it with a few more listens. It’s very much of its time. And the standard of the musicianship is very high.
Neneh Cherry
4/5
The first time I heard Neneh Cherry’s voice was on a 1982 single by Rip Rig & Panic, entitled You’re My Kind Of Climate. Great track & I often wondered during the 80’s what had happened to her. Then this album happened. What a terrific record. Buffalo Stance still stands up as one of the great 80’s singles. In fact the first 3 tracks on the album were all successful singles. Apart from Buffalo Stance, my favourites here are Love Ghetto - any song with repetitive sporting metaphors will do me - and Heart. So many winners on this album.
Run-D.M.C.
3/5
From the opening bars of Hard Times, you feel that this is gonna be special. It’s followed by Rock Box, which apparently broke new ground by mixing hip-hop with rock & doing it so well. I had not heard this album before, although I was very familiar with It’s Like That, which opens Side 2 & is so catchy. Such a great track. A really good record.
Foo Fighters
3/5
I wasn’t familiar with this album, or any of these tunes. I’ve listened to it just once. It’s an interesting listen. The content’s diverse enough to keep it interesting. Weenie Beenie couldn’t be more different than For All The Cows. I really like the noisy Wattershed. And I love the 2-minute Big Me, which sounds so much like a 60’s pop song. Alone + Easy Target sounds a lot like REM to me. In fact there’s not much here that reminds me of Nirvana. Amazing that Grohl did it all by himself. Obviously a big talent.
Meat Puppets
3/5
With a decent vocalist, this could have been a 5-star album for me. Because the music is so often sublime. The three instrumentals are among the real highlights. Nowhere moreso than in Magic Toy Missing, where Curt Kirkwood’s guitar playing flows from country picking to the psychedelic with such ease. Aurora Borealis & I’m A Mindless Idiot are also thoroughly interesting. And, despite the shitty vocals, the songs are well-written, but I just can’t get over that voice. At least someone knows how to whistle.
Todd Rundgren
4/5
I really like Rundgren & I have a lot of his solo stuff, Nazz & Utopia stuff & a lot of the stuff he engineered (The Band) & produced (Badfinger, NYDolls, Meat Loaf, Tubes, XTC). But I had never heard this album before. How he crammed all of this on a single LP is a mystery to me. It’s all over the place & a lot of the tracks sound like unfinished ideas. But some of the highlights are typical Todd & truly beautiful. The Rolling Stone Album Guide suggested there were only 3 “fully realised songs” here. I think there’s more than that. I really enjoy the Broadway cover - Never Never Land & the nod to German cabaret in Zen Archer. Not to mention the Al Jolson imitation in Just Another Onionhead : Da Da Dali. And I thought he did well with the ten-minute soul medley - particularly with Smokey’s Ooh Baby Baby & Al Green’s La La Means I Love You. But the highlights are the tunes he wrote & bothered to complete - International Feel, When The Shit Hits The Fan : Sunset Blvd, Sometimes I Don’t Know What To Feel, Is It My Name &, particularly Just One Victory - an outstanding closer. Loved this.
The Psychedelic Furs
1/5
I was never a fan.
Dizzee Rascal
3/5
I clearly remember when this dude was the new big thing for my kids. Pretty sure they went to see him at The Metro in Sydney when he finally toured here. Personally speaking, I’d never heard him before I listened to this album yesterday. It’s certainly not like anything I’ve heard before. The music is totally interesting on just about every track - the bells on Brand New Day, the strings on 2 Far, bass drum on Hold Ya Mouf, drums on Wot U On? and the choir on Jus’A Rascal. I love Jezebel - “She came with Natasha / But she’s leavin’ with Joe” - lyrically it’s outstanding. Dizzee’s vocal assault is a bit too much & a bit too repetitive for my taste. But the sound of this album is unique to my ears.
Joy Division
2/5
For my 30th birthday, in 1980, a mate gave me a copy of Unknown Pleasures. I really didn’t like it. By the end of that year I was besotted with the single Love Will Tear Us Apart. I’d picked it up in a bargain bin in Liverpool (Aust.)somewhere. I’d never really listened to this album, though. Or if I did, the sombre feeling of it would not have been to my liking. And it’s still not.
New York Dolls
4/5
A record very much of its time. Never gets better than the opening two tracks - Personality Crisis is a ball-tearer & Looking For A Kiss not far behind. I like the way that, despite their differences with producer Todd Rundgren, the band reckon that what he achieved was to make the record sound very much like they sounded on-stage. Which means the listener is getting a real idea of what the Dolls were all about. As if they knew. It’s a suitably noisy record. The cover of Bo Diddley’s Pills is a great example of that - Johansen’s strained vocals & closing harmonica flourish after a great guitar solo. The record sounds better with each listen.
The Stooges
4/5
There are really only 7 songs here - Little Doll is basically 1969 with different lyrics. Excellent bookends all the same. The highlights are definitely the opening cuts on Side 1 - 1969 & the distorted-guitar classic I Wanna Be Your Dog ; and the opening track of Side 2 - No Fun, which less than a decade later would be covered by The Sex Pistols. As for the the ten- minute elephant-in-the-room, We Will Fall, I love Seth Jacobsen’s description of it : “..a ten-minute slab of druggy stupor straight from the Velvet’s canon”, complete with viola courtesy of producer John Cale. I’m extremely fond of this - Iggy’s first album.
Ozomatli
3/5
My kids were totally into this band. Pretty sure they saw them at The Metro in Sydney in 2007. This sort of Latin dance music wasn’t new but it sure was catchy. The use of rapping was probably what attracted my kids to the band. I see that Track 5, Who’s To Blame, features rapper Chali 2na, from Jurassic 5., who also produced it. It’s one of the cuts that features a strong middle-eastern influence. Check out the lyrics to that - I imagine they were penned by Chali. I saw him perform earlier this year at the Oxford Art Factory, at a gig promoted by my son. The guy is a saint. I also loved the track (Who Discovered) America? - worth it for the fantastic distorted guitar break in the middle. The whole disc was an extremely enjoyable listen.
Fleetwood Mac
5/5
I was a big Peter Green fan & when he left Mac, I lost interest. Until I heard (& probably saw)Rhiannon, bought that album in 1975, thereby also buying into the west coast sound that they mastered. That was a good album. This is a great album - it only lets up when you get to the last 3 trax. Up until then it ‘s one banger after another. The 3-vocalist thing is crucial to it’s success, as well as the blend of acoustic & electric, & a rhythm section that had been together for over a decade.
Faves? Songbird, Never Going Back Again & Dreams - one from each of the 3 songwriters at the peak of their powers. I just played it through a couple of times & it’s still such a pleasure to hear. I also played the eponymous album, which hasn’t worn nearly as well. As well I dug out Legacy - the tribute to Rumours produced by Fleetwood - average at best. And also a Mac covers album called Tumours (2009) by Sydney band Ripping Dylans - tragic. The original is one of the best.
TV On The Radio
3/5
Whacko album. Track 1 sounds like there’s a motorbike in the background. Every track has some different sort of drum-beat happening. Ambulance is built around some sort of recurring doo-woo refrain. And it ends with the 7-minute Wear You Out, which seems to be built on drumming that brings to mind a native American beat, before it heads off into the territory of free jazz. I didn’t take any notice of the lyrics. But I really enjoyed the music.
The Who
5/5
I tried desperately to embrace Tommy in 1969, but, except for a few tracks, the whole rock opera thing sounded bloated & unnecessary. This album, on the other hand, jumps out at you from the start & takes no prisoners. All the band members are in great form, but, for me, it’s the drumming of Keith Moon that has always made this album so special. He’s all over this. And also the song selection. To start with the great Mose Allison’s Young Man Blues, which had been part of their set at the beginning, & also include Eddie Cochran’s Summertime Blues (which I’d see them performing live 6 months later when the Woodstock film was released) & Johnny Kidd’s Shakin All Over (which had been a huge hit in Australia for Normie Rowe) - all on Side 1 - was almost exhausting. They play Substitute very much like the original single. The long version of My Generation, interspersed with pieces of other Who tracks, works well, as does Magic Bus, although it’s not a patch on the original. I think this is a cracker of an album. I’ve listened to it half a dozen times in the last few daze & it just gets better.
The Pretty Things
3/5
I really enjoyed this. Only gave it one listen. And I’d never heard it before. It’s much more acoustic than The Pretty Things that I grew up with (Rosalyn, Don’t Bring Me Down). But there’s something very classy , very Moody Blues about it. The Journey sounds so like a Beatles song of that time.
CHIC
3/5
If my kids never play another gig, they can always say they were on the bill at a dance festival held at Barrington Tops & headlined by the great Nile Rodgers. This album is more about dancing than listening to. And it achieves the aim of getting them up on their feet. The thing that irritates me with a lot of these tracks is the repetition - how many times can you put up with the same phrase being repeated over & over? (And please, don’t throw Hey Jude at me!) Pity Nile doesn’t give the guitar a workout more often. But it’s a lively listen, nonetheless.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
5/5
I clearly remember attending a Saturday night dance somewhere in Bankstown, where the band that night was Tamam Shud. And they played covers of a bunch of early Creedence tracks that I wasn’t familiar with (some could have been off this album & some off the 1st lp). Up to that night, all I knew about CCR was Proud Mary. I soon acquired the early records & still enjoy them immensely. John Fogerty was a great songwriter. And a terrific singer. The opening & closing tracks are probably my favourites off this. Personally, I’m still chooglin’ as much as I can get away with.
Jacques Brel
4/5
In the 60’s, all I knew about Brel was that he’d written Ne me quitte pas (If You Go Away), one of Dusty Springfield’s greatest. Then, sometime in 1973, I got a copy of Bowie’s hit single, Sorrow, and the b-side was Brel’s Amsterdam. Bowie’s version is absolutely outstanding. And Brel’s version here is the highlight of this album for me. Pretty closely followed by Les Bourgeois (which I first heard in the late 70’s by Tom Robinson, under the title Yuppie Scum) - and this is where you need a translation , because Brel wrote wonderful lyrics. Check out a translation for Les Bigotes - timely after NO voters sank the weekend’s referendum. Brel was a huge talent. Unique.
Paul Simon
4/5
I don’t think Paul Simon’s ever made a bad album. So while this album didn’t originally jump off the turntable at me, it eventually became a favourite, revealing some hidden gems. I feel like Allergies & Think Too Much were written with me in mind. The title track was certainly written about his marriage to Carrie Fisher. And it is definitely the highlight. Thank god her father Eddie was Jewish, so that we get the wonderful opening line : One and a half wandering Jews. The other highlight for me is the song about the Magrittes. Only a great, great songwriter can come up with stuff like this. Might not be his best, but it’s still quality.
Orange Juice
3/5
I’d never heard this album before. I enjoyed the diversity of the content, particularly the tracks featuring drummer Zeke Manyika, notably A Million Pleading Faces & Hokoyo. The title track is also a winner. There’s no doubt this album must have been influential in the UK at the time. It certainly never gets boring.
The Mamas & The Papas
4/5
I have this on vinyl, although unfortunately not with the valuable cover - the toilet bowl beside the bathtub has been covered, having been considered indecent. Really?? I was a big fan of the band, and I think Side 1 is the best album side they ever did. The four originals are all terrific, especially the opening & closing tracks. The 2 covers are both really interesting because they totally change the tempo in both - The Beatles’ I Call Your Name & Bobby Freeman’s Do You Wanna Dance are both slowed down to good effect. Monday Monday was the first M’s & P’s track I ever heard & I hadn’t heard anything quite like it before. However it was the 3rd single released off the album, making the Top 5 in Australia, after Go Where You Wanna Go, which charted nowhere & California Dreamin’, which was Top 5 in America but only made 87 in Australia & I have no memory of hearing it on the radio at the time, which is amazing, considering it may be the best thing they ever did. It opens Side 2, on which half the 6 songs are covers. Side 2 is less impressive - they don’t do much with 2 great songs - Spanish Harlem & In Crowd. And, apart from California Dreamin’, the originals aren’t as good as those on Side 1. But it’s still a hell of an album. Some of the Wrecking Crew provide the backing, most notably Hal Blaine on drums. Jazzman Bud Shank provides the flute solo on California Dreamin’. But it’s John Phillips songwriting, and the band’s harmonies that made their name. And the fabulous voice of Mama Cass.
Tito Puente
4/5
Impossible to not enjoy an album like this. And I had no idea that Tito was a native of New York. I love everything on this disc, although I was hoping for a bit more from the cover of Varsity Drag - a 1920’s Broadway smash that, for me, is most memorable for Peter O’Toole’s piss- take of it in the satirical 1972 film, The Ruling Class (google it). Still, this is a fantastic listen, with the pedal almost never off the metal. Great.
Kings of Leon
4/5
I can’t believe that I’ve ignored this band for 20 years. I loved this album. When I first started listening, I thought Caleb was singing in another language. Whatever. I live his voice. The drummer is great. The variety of styles on the album always keeps me engaged. I usually love brevity, so a dozen songs in 35 minutes isto be admired, although there are quite a few times here where the songs feel like they’ve been cut short by ill-advised editing. I can’t wait to check out their other albums. So many great trax on this one. And yes, sometimes they sound a helluva lot like The Strokes.
Motörhead
3/5
Predictable but an easy listen. I love the way that Jimi’s ex-roadie uses that famous riff from Foxy Lady on Shoot You In The Back. I can’t argue with this album, but I’ve got no real desire to ever hear it again.
3/5
John Zorn - from another planet. I’ve got 4 Coleman cd’s & 1 lp, & I thought they were difficult enough listening, but Zorn makes Coleman’s music even more challenging. Mind you, I only have 1 Zorn cd - The Big Gundown - where he plays the music of Ennio Morricone - and that’s a much more relaxing listen than Spy Vs. Spy. Still, I got through this, without knowing any of the Coleman originals, because none of them are on any of the 5 releases I own. I wonder if knowing the originals would help?
I don’t mind the cacophonous approach up to a point, although I reckon the AllMusic reviewer, Scott Yanow totally nails it : "The performances are concise with all but four songs being under three minutes and seven under two, but the interpretations are unremittingly violent. The lack of variety in either mood or routine quickly wears one out". I really liked Feet Music & Mob Job, the 2 longest cuts here. Anyway, I’m gonna go back to this one day when I’m totally off my face & see what that’s like.
American Music Club
2/5
I had never heard this band before. Maybe I should have given it more than one listen here. It’s like there’s a stack of potential here but it’s unrealised. Maybe they were a really good band but I’m not quite hearing it. I really liked Lonely & Western Sky but I thought a lot of it was ragged. Sometimes amateurish. Sometimes boring.
Pet Shop Boys
2/5
I agree with the guy on the right(of the cover). Never really been a fan. But undoubtedly hugely talented, very influential, blah, blah….and full marks for getting Dusty back into the recording studio and giving her her last successful release(s) before she died. For me, though, too much of this sounds like the soundtrack to a rave party where only drugs might save the evening (but I’ve never been on that dancefloor & I’ve never dropped an ecky, so that was never gonna happen). I read the wiki entry & I’m pleased to see that their politics were very Anti-Thatcher at the time, but I didn’t learn that for myself because I just wasn’t hearing the lyrics. I never liked the voice, whoever owned it, & obviously wasn’t a fan of the music.
Ride
3/5
I enjoyed it. Sort of Jesus & Mary Chain without the grunt. I loved the guitars. Not so much the vocals.
Talking Heads
5/5
The album that followed this is often regarded as the high-water mark for Talking Heads, but surely Fear Of Music gives it a run for it’s money? Side 1 is particularly excellent, with the trifecta of I Zimbra, Cities & Life During Wartime. Listening to Life During Wartime is as thrilling now as it was when I first heard it. The only track on the album co-written by all four Heads, Its official title as a single, "Life During Wartime (This Ain't No Party... This Ain't No Disco... This Ain't No Foolin' Around)", makes it one of the longest-titled singles. Side 2 includes one of the most covered of the band’s songs, Heaven. One British critic suggested the song “ epitomises pop as Samuel Beckett might write it: tedious, beautiful and desperate”. It’s a great lyric. I saw them on their first tour here in June 1979, the month after they finished recording this album & two months before it’s release. And the 4 tunes they played from it were Mind, Paper, Heaven & Electric Guitar, in other words, none of the biggies on Side 1 of the album. When I saw David Byrne live in Sydney in 2018, the only track he played from this album was I Zimbra. Both concerts were to die for.
Duke Ellington
5/5
I’m lucky enough to have an American copy of the original vinyl, which features only 5 tracks over 44 odd minutes, so that’s what I’m talking about here, not the remastered 1999 cd set, which added an extra dozen tracks, mainly consisting of a selection of Duke’s greatest hits. The original album is startling. It was only when I read the wiki entry that I discovered that only 40% of that recording was live - the album had been fabricated by a studio recording made after Newport, because Ellington thought the festival recordings were not quite up to release standard. When you’r listening to it, that makes very little difference. The quality of the orchestra is second to none. The fact is that by 1956, big band swing music was pretty much buried, particularly after the birth of rock’n’roll. But Ellington had kept the faith, even to the point of subsidising the band out of his own pocket to keep it on the road. He did not even have a recording contract when he went to Newport, but he certainly did straight after this performance. The record ends with the magnificent Diminuendo And Crescendo In Blue, featuring an amazing solo by tenor-sax man Paul Gonsalves. The record swings from go to whoa.one of the great live albums.
The Monkees
3/5
I’ve got the first 3 Monkees albums on vinyl & this would have to be my least favoured of the 3. Mainly because the first 2 were stacked with hits, mainly written by well-known songwriters and the backing was largely done by musos-for-hire. But as the band prepared for this album, they refused to do it unless they were given more control. So half the songs here were written by band members & they go to great lengths on the back of the record cover to point out that, except for some cello, french horn & occasional brass, they themselves were the actual musicians. Back in the day, I only knew 2 of the songs here, because the only Monkees you heard on the radio were the singles, and the only 2 singles here were Nesmith’s You Just May Be The One & Dolenz’s Randy Scouse Git, which was released in Australia as Alternate Title(Randy Scouse Git). In the UK it was just called Alternate Title, because the phrase Randy Scouse Git was considered rude, even though you could hear Warren Mitchell’s character Alf Garnett use it every week in the TV series Till Death Do Us Part, as he abused his Liverpudlian son-in-law. I was also vaguely familiar with Nesmith’s Sunny Girlfriend, only because I have the cover single by Pam &The Passions (1984). Pam was Pam Burridge & at the time she was going out with the late Damien Lovelock, who produced & played on that single. Pam would go on to be Australia’s first female world surfing champion in 1990. And it was only a few years ago, when I decided to give the record a spin that I discovered that the throwaway track Zilch was obviously the inspiration for Del Tha Funkee Homosapien’s 1991 hit single Mistadobalina, which in years to come may be the main thing this album is remembered for. Interestingly, No Time sounds a lot like CCR’s Travellin’ Band (not released until 1970). It’s mentioned in the Wiki entry for Travellin’ Band , as is the fact that CCR had to settle a plagiarism claim with the publishers of Little Richard’s Good Golly Miss Molly in 1972 because they believed Travellin’ Band had ripped off that classic. Personally, I reckon the opening track, Nesmith’s You Told Me (which opens with great banjo by Tork) sounds a helluva lot like The Beatles’ Dr Robert off Revolver, released 6 months before The Monkees album was recorded. It’s interesting to note from the compilations I own, how the tracks on Headquarters have been regarded by their record companies over the decades since it’s release. In ‘76 Arista released an 11-track Greatest Hits with only one track from this album - Shades Of Gray; three years later, in ‘79, Glenn A. Baker was behind a double album, 40 Timeless Hits, which included Shades Of Gray, Randy Scouse Git & For Pete’s Sake ( this was around the time that Baker had a show on 2JJ & was often heard to claim that The Monkees were a better band than The Beatles); in ‘89, Arista released a 16 track self-titled CD that included You Just May Be The One, Shades Of Gray & Randy Scouse Git; & in ‘95, Rhino released a 20-track Greatest Hits CD with just Randy Scouse Git on it.
Peter Gabriel
3/5
Whatever I was doing in the 70’s, it did not include Genesis ( the book or the band). I missed the band altogether. So my real introduction to Peter Gabriel was via his debut solo album, which I actually purchased brand new because I was in love with Solisbury Hill. For me, it’s still the best thing he ever did. Although, to be fair, I really only know some of his singles. I sold that first album on, once I found a copy of Solisbury Hill on a single. His second album is a mystery to me. And from this, his third album, I only know Games Without Frontiers & Biko. I really like Games Without Frontiers. Great tune. And I love the idea & the politics behind Biko, although I prefer Sweet Honey In The Rock’s Biko, released the year after this. I’ve listened to the rest of the album & it’s a good listen, but not a thrilling one for me.
Laibach
2/5
Nah.The only Laibach track that’s ever moved me was their amazing cover of The Beatles’ Across The Universe, which was really the work of the vocal choir (Germania?) This album really does nothing for me.
Bonnie Raitt
3/5
I’ve always been fond of Bonnie Raitt, but I definitely prefer her earlier 70’s albums to this. Her voice is still great on this, as is her slide guitar, which we don’t hear enough of. But there are only a couple of standout tunes here - the reggae-tinged Have A Heart & definitely the title track.. To this day the second verse of Nick of Time makes me weepy :
“ I see my folks, they're getting old, I watch their bodies change...
I know they see the same in me, And it makes us both feel strange...
No matter how you tell yourself, It's what we all go through...
Those eyes are pretty hard to take when they're staring' back at you.
Scared you'll run out of time.“
Probably even more so now that I’m in my 70’s with a daughter who is now the age I was when this album was released. Her father John was a Broadway & Hollywood star (male lead opposite Doris Day in The Pajama Game) & I saw them perform together on Letterman a few times in his later years. Very touching. Three stars for the title song alone.
Blur
3/5
Interesting that around the time this album was released, Albarn was having a drug buddy relationship with Justine Frischmann of Elastica. I was a big Elastica fan, but really thought Blur were neither here nor there. Until I heard Song 2. For me, that song was one of the highlights of the 90’s. Apart from that & the single Beetlebum/On Your Own, which spent a lot of time on my jukebox, I’d never heard this album before. It’s a decent listen (I love the Bowie-influenced Strange News From Another Star), although I don’t think it compares with the best of Oasis.
Rod Stewart
4/5
The album that set Stewart up to top the charts (on both sides of the Atlantic)with the follow-up, Every Picture Tells A Story. As usual, a mix of originals & covers, it opens with the title track, an original written by Rod & Ronnie Wood, which has always been my favourite track on the album. The guitars & mandolin mix are to die for, as will prove crucial on the next album. It’s All Over Now follows & Stewart’s version is good, although I still think the Stones’ version is the defining version of a great song that the songwriter, Bobby Womack, never really did justice. The compulsory Dylan cover follows - Only A Hobo - & this was the first time most of us, including me, ever heard this song. It missed the cut for Dylan’s third album, released in 1963, & did not appear on an official Dylan release until 1991, although I have it on 3 different bootlegs issued before then, most notably the double album, Great White Wonder, according to Wiki “the first notable rock bootleg album, released in July 1969”. Rod’s version is terrific, a little slower & with a backing that outdoes Dylan’s acoustic guitar & harmonica. Side 1 ends with a full-voiced cover of The Small Faces’ My Way Of Giving (Lane/Marriott), again slightly slower & stretching the 1:58 original out to 3:55. The Small Faces/Faces were so lucky to have such great frontmen as Marriott & Stewart. I think Steve’s original version is still definitive but again Stewart’s backing by Faces members is terrific. Side 2 carries on with a cover of Elton John’s Country Comfort, & a rousing cover of Eddie Cochran’s Cut Across Shorty. Cochran was probably more revered in the UK than the US, because he died there in a car accident when only 21 & this was supposedly the last song he recorded before he died. Two Stewart compositions follow, both ballads, the latter featuring Stewart on acoustic guitar. The album ends with a song first recorded by Little Richard in 1966 & Rod & the band do well with it. Side 2 not quite as riveting as Side 1, but, overall, a fine album.
Pavement
2/5
Look, the fact is that I just can’t tolerate Malkmus’s vocals (I’m assuming he’s the lead on most of this). And he makes so many of these songs sound the same. Pity he doesn’t cut loose more often, like he does in Unfair, where it’s all about yelling & screaming & he doesn’t have to hold a tune. I also really like the instrumental track (for obvious reasons), 5=4=Unity & love the little steal in it from The Beatles’ I Want You(She’s So Heavy), as I loved the steal from Buddy Holly’s Everyday in the opening track, Silence Kid. I checked out some of the lyrics - really liked Cut Your Hair. But the vocals bugger it up for me.
Culture Club
2/5
I always thought Church Of The Poison Mind was the best thing Culture Club ever did, by about 10 lengths. That single spent a lot of time on my jukebox. On the other hand, I couldn’t really stand Karma Chameleon - the fact that it was constantly being played probably didn’t help. But apart from those 2 songs & It’s A Miracle, an ordinary single, I had no recollection of anything else on this album. I always thought George had a great voice, but I find a lot of these tunes less than inspiring. Great to be reminded what a great voice backup vocalist Helen Terry had.
The 13th Floor Elevators
4/5
I had never heard this band until Lenny Kaye released the Nuggets double-album compilation of garage rock classics in the early 70’s. You’re Gonna Miss Me was the last track on the first album. It’s the opening song on this album & what an opening. Straight away you’re dealing with Tommy Hall’s electric jug. In his liner notes to Rhino’s reissue of Nuggets in 1998, Mike Stax nails that track :
An adrenalised rush that’s almost frightening - guitars chomping out sinister, reverberised riffs, while Roky Erickson shakes and screams and an electric jug babbles a strange delirious subtext. This is the seminal Texas punk record.
I probably did not hear the rest of the album until the 80’s. Nothing on it is as good as that opening track. But it’s still a great listen, especially when Tommy Hall lets rip with the electric jug.
Lloyd Cole And The Commotions
3/5
Actually didn’t know this album very well, although I’m familiar with a bunch of tracks from my 7” single & 4-track 12” EP of Perfect Skin. It’s a track I’ve always enjoyed. However over the years it’s the album’s title track that I go back to often. Rattlesnakes always reminded me of Where Do You Go To by Peter Sarstedt, just because of the lines :
She looks like Eve Marie saint in on the waterfront
She reads Simone de Beauvoir in her American circumstance
Which always remind me of Sarstedt’s opening lines :
You talk like Marlene Dietrich
And you dance like Zizi Jeanmaire
Where Sarstedt’s 1969 composition was definitely placed in a fashion/ swinging 69’s context, Cole’s is definitely a more literary lyric, as indeed are a lot of the songs on the album.
A common question ever since the 80’s has been : whatever happened to Lloyd Cole? This is such a quality record that it’s hard to believe he didn’t find big success.
Leonard Cohen
5/5
Possibly his greatest album. Not only is the material great - the words and the music - but his voice was never better than this. Quite a few of these tracks were covered at the time & in the ensuing years, but I honestly don’t think anyone outdoes Cohen. My favourites are Everybody Knows & Tower Of Song. But there is not a dud song here. He was at the peak of his powers. Nothing sounds like anything else on the album. I regret I didn’t see him perform in his later years. I saw him at The Capitol in Sydney in March 1980 with basically a gypsy band. It was his first Australian tour. People did not stop screaming out requests. But he was still to record some of his greatest songs & quite a few of them are on this record. The only other concert I ever attended where the love of the audience for the artist was so palpable was the first Brian Wilson concert at the State Theatre in 2002. Giants.
Ms. Dynamite
3/5
I enjoyed this. Never heard of her before. Some of her vocals reminded me a lot of Amy Winehouse, & this album preceded Amy’s debut release by a year.
Bill Evans Trio
4/5
I first knew Bill Evans as the pianist in the Miles Davis Sextet that did Kinda Blue(1959), supposedly the best-selling jazz album of all time. He had started working with Miles in 1958, but had started his own trio by 1960, most notably with the line-up here. I always liked Evans’s playing. Waltz For Debby, which is on the extended cd release of this album, is a big favourite of mine. Nat Adderley once said that : "When he started to use Bill, Miles changed his style from very hard to a softer approach." and you can hear it on Miles’s early 60’s stuff, which I’ve always preferred over his 70’s jazz-fusion albums. Anyway, I really enjoyed this album, which I wasn’t familiar with. You can see why Evans was distraught when bassist Scott LaFaro died a matter of days after this recording. What a talent. As was/is usual with jazz artists, this live recording features versions of two standards, My Man’s Gone Now by Gershwin, from his opera Porgy & Bess & the beautiful All Of You, by Cole Porter, from his Broadway show Silk Stockings. I always enjoy hearing how much of the original melody survives when jazzmen get their hands on it. I can hear Porter but not Gershwin. But it’s irrelevant, really. This band was cooking on the Sunday afternoon in question.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
5/5
Those were the days - when you could release an album where 6 of the 11 tracks had already been issued as 3 double A/sided singles that all were Top-4 hits in the U.S. And all ball-tearers. No duds here. And the gall to do an 11-minute version of a Motown classic & totally nail it. They were at their peak. On the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, I heard for the first time their complete set, via some American radio station. They killed it. Faves? Maybe Run Through The Jungle? Maybe Long As I Can See The Light? Maybe Grapevine? A great record.
Eagles
4/5
I was a huge Joe Walsh fan - The Smoker You Drink The Player You Get was one of my favourite early 70’s albums. I also quite enjoyed a lot of Eagles tracks, so when Walsh joined the band, I had no idea what to expect, because his stuff was a lot rockier than what The Eagles were doing. Without him there would have been no Life In The Fast Lane and the title song would not have been as interesting. They never sounded the same after Walsh joined. The harmonies were always interesting & I have to say I always liked Henley’s voice. A few years ago Dylan claimed Pretty Maids All In A Row was his favourite Eagles song (Walsh on vocals & he wrote it). I always thought the album copped an unfair hiding over the years. I think it was more to do with people’s perceptions of the band, the west cost, cocaine thing of the 70’s than the actual music. I always enjoyed this album.
Beck
4/5
You cannot pigeon-hole Beck. I have this cd but haven’t played it in years. It’s great. The sound superb. It creates such atmosphere for him to perform in. His voice terrific - a bit Nick Drake, but always perfect, and never always the same. The melodies are sometimes stunning. He’s singer-songwriting a lot. But he’s so good at everything. Lonesome Tears is great.The Cobainish Little One is a real winner. Bt there are no bad songs here. This is such a pleasure to enjoy.
Fairport Convention
4/5
For me, the gem here is the French-language version of Dylan’s If You Gotta Go, Go Now. We all knew the song from Manfred Mann’s version, which had climbed as high as #17 on the 2UE Top 40 in 1965. But Dylan’s version had only been released as an unsuccessful Dutch single in 1967 & would not be available legally until the first Bootleg Series CDs were released by Columbia in 1991. I was not familiar with Unhalfbricking, but I was lucky enough to pick up the Australian-release single of Si Tu Dois Partir, which was a Top 20 UK hit, but didn’t chart here. If Hendrix’s cover of All Along The Watchtower is the greatest cover version of all time, this rates pretty highly as well. It’s as much the bizarre backing track, featuring drummer Martin Lambie, who was tragically killed 2 months before the album’s release, on “stacked chair backs”; Dave Swarbrick guesting on fiddle (the first folkie ever to electrify the violin); & Australian-born Trevor Lucas (who would go on to marry Sandy Denny) guesting on triangle. I know nothing else that sounds like it. They do 2 other Dylan covers - the first known legal version of Million Dollar Bash, which was released by Dylan on The Basement Tapes(1975) & a beautiful cover (& the first known legal version) of Percy’s Song, which was first heard sung by Joan Baez in the Pennebaker film Don’t Look Back (1967). But neither of those two are as memorable as the Denny-penned Who Knows Where The Time Goes? which very quickly became regarded as a classic. It had already been recorded (& released as the b-side to her hit single release of Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now) by Judy Collins in 1968, & has since been covered by everybody from Nina Simone to Susanna Hoffs. Other highlights for me are Richard Thompson’s Cajun Woman & the 11-minute traditional A Sailor’s Life. Terrific record.
The Hives
3/5
I discovered a lot of great bands on those cd’s attached to English music magazines in the 90’s & noughties, and this was certainly one of them. Still a big regret that I missed seeing them at The Metro in 2009. Anyway, this compilation cd was the first cd of
theirs that I bought. I just love the madness of it and the first track, Hate To Say I Told You So, is as good a track as they’ve ever done.not a classic album but a bloody good listen.
5/5
I’ve never regarded myself as an Oasis fan, but I think the greatness of this album is undeniable. I don’t know if I’d ever played the cd all the way through before, but I knew all of those songs (except for the two so-called Swamp tracks) because it dominated the airwaves so much. From the opening Hello (featuring a tribute to Gary Glitter 3 years before he got done for child porn), the hit tunes just keep coming. The only track I was always worried by was Champagne Supernova, featuring Paul Weller, which I thought was bloated (& I just didn’t like the title - a bit of a wank). Faves? Definitely the title track & I get to hear it every Friday morning in footy season, introducing Matthew Johns’s exceedingly irreverent & politically incorrect Morning Glory radio show ; Roll With It; Hey Now; She’s Electric (but I really fancy her mother - a bunch of lads indeed) and all the rest, really. Nearly 30 years on & it stands up well. I’d be here all day naming the influences, but there’s something very 60’s about a lot if these melodies. Love it.
Bob Dylan
5/5
I saw my youngest sister last week. We were reminiscing & she mentioned how she couldn’t get over the way I could often remember when I first heard a song. I immediately retold how I first heard Like A Rolling Stone on my valve radio one afternoon in late 1965. I was standing in my parents’ bedroom, where I had a desk that I completed my homework on every afternoon, away from the noise of my 3 siblings. I was 15. I stood there thinking - what is this? What am I listening to? That’s the point here. Nobody had heard anything like it before. I fell in love with it on that one hearing. Fortunately I was able to record it on reel-to-reel tape, so got to know it well as It climbed to #5 on the 2UE Top 40. That was the first time I ever heard Bob Dylan. I knew a couple of his songs - Blowing In The Wind & The Times They Are a-Changin - but I only knew the Peter, Paul & Mary versions. I had never heard any of Dylan’s first 5 albums. I only heard singles on AM radio & this was his first charting single in Australia, released the same week as this album. It was a couple of years before I first heard Highway 61 Revisited. I still love it dearly. Still, nothing sounds like it, except maybe his follow-up album, Blonde On Blonde. Apart from Like A Rolling Stone, I’m most fond of Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues (the original here is great, but I have to say that Nina Simone’s version often reduces me to tears), Ballad Of A Thin Man, the epic Desolation Row, & the title track - you have no idea how hearing a song start with the line “God said to Abraham kill me a son” could affect a good Catholic boy at that time ( it wasn’t till much later I learned that Dylan’s father’s name was Abraham). And the fact that one of my favourite bands, Steely Dan, took the title of their debut album from the opening lines of It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry - “Well I Ride on a mailtrain baby / Can’t buy a thrill”. This really is a ten out of five for me.
David Bowie
3/5
Bowie’s death hit me hard, as it did for so many. The following night I was among a group of grieving fans in Hyde Park, listening to his music at a gathering arranged overnight. I have never listened to this album before. The only track I had ever heard before was Lazarus. For me, Bowie’s passing was bookended by 2 trips to Melbourne - in September 2015, four months before he died, to see the David Bowie Is exhibition from London’s Victoria & Albert Museum and in early 2019 to see a production of the off-Broadway production of Lazarus (Bowie’s last public appearance had been at the opening of Lazarus a month before he died). If I wanted to be narky, I might suggest that seeing it hastened his demise. It was dreadful. On the other hand, the exhibition, which featured his music, costumes, everything about him, was amazing. (Why Melbourne? Because they were not going anywhere else.) I suppose I’m just trying to make the point that I was a big fan, even though I’ve not been able to bring myself to listen to this album before. The last Bowie album I ever paid full price for on release was Scary Monsters (1980). I collected a heap of his stuff after that, but only because it was Bowie & none of it ever affected me like his great 70’s work. This album was painful to listen to but I’m glad I finally have, even though I’d rather not talk about it. Three stars.
Echo And The Bunnymen
3/5
Killing Moon was a real favourite of mine back in the day. As was The Cutter. But apart from that I really didn’t listen to this band. Tight band alright. Musically gifted. I just find the compositions a tad boring & a bit repetitive on this album, which I’ve never listened to before. They embarked on a European tour straight after this & a half- hour film was shot of the band, called Shine So Hard, which you can find on youtube. Just skip all the arty filmmaker stuff & go straight to the live footage - they were so good live. The only 12” vinyl I have by them is the 4-track live EP taken from the film, which includes great versions of Crocodiles & especially All That Jazz. Maybe I’ll give the album another listen. Maybe not.
Queens of the Stone Age
3/5
I’ve heard the odd track from QOTSA over the years, but I’ve never listened to a whole album before. Really enjoyed this. Particularly If Only, Regular John & the exquisitely- titled I Was A Teenage Hand Model. Would not know how to categorise the band’s music but, whatever it is, it’s tight, & very enjoyable.
Pink Floyd
3/5
Double albums have always been hard to pull-off. Apart from Blonde On Blonde & The White Album, what double album released in the 60’s or 70’s was outstanding? I’m still thinking. What’s even harder is to find a rock opera / concept album that’s a double album & worth that trouble. The original Jesus Christ Superstar is the only one that I really rate. Tommy had some moments & so does The Wall, but they both still seem bloated to me. Still, Another Brick In The Wall & Comfortably Numb are both classics (although I have to say I prefer The Scissor Sisters version of the latter - sacrilege I know). And I quite enjoy Young Lust, Hey You & Run Like Hell. But only three stars from me.
Sonic Youth
3/5
Kool Thing, written by Kim Gordon, has always been my favourite SY track. Kim Gordon & Chuck D nail it. Kim Gordon is terrific on Goo. Her spoken vocal on Tunic is so reminiscent of The Shangri-La’s. I love Titanium Expose’, which she co-wrote with Moore. It was on the soundtrack to the 1990 film jPump Up The Volume & MCA released it as the flip-side of Concrete Blonde’s 7” single, Everybody Knows (Cohen) from the same film. It was a regular on my jukebox. I love the lyrics to Mary-Christ & really like Disappearer. Suitably noisy album. Three stars.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
5/5
I saw Costello on his first Australian tour, at The Regent in Sydney in December ‘78. That was only a month before his 3rd album, Armed Forces was released, but 6 of the 12 tracks he played that night were 6 of the 12 tracks from This Year’s Model, which had already been out for 9 months - The Beat, Pump It Up, You Belong To Me, Hand In Hand (which he opened with), (I Don’t Want To Go To)Chelsea & Lipstick Vogue. This was The Attractions’ debut album with Elvis, and they were never better than this. As was his songwriting - so sharp. And producer Nick “Basher”Lowe was at the top of his game - he produced Costello’s first 4 albums, The Damned’s first album (which beat the Pistols to the title of first British punk album) and just about everything at that time by Dr Feelgood & Graham Parker & The Rumour. Why “Basher”? Because in the studio, he instructed bands to bash it out, we can tart it up later. So with Costello, he tried to capture the band live, with few overdubs. Which has to be a major reason why this record just jumps out at you. And Costello’s obsession with 60’s music is everywhere. Chelsea has always been my favourite here, but Pump It Up is the enduring success. If Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues grew from Chuck Berry’s Too Much Monkey Business, then Pump It Up has similar genealogy. One of my favourite albums.
Dead Kennedys
3/5
I remember hearing Holiday In Cambodia on 2JJ & on the way home from work I dropped into a record store in Liverpool & grabbed this album. Side 2 is an absolute winner, beginning with California Uber Alles (giving it to Democrat Californian Governor Jerry Brown, who had run for President in 1980; he was Linda Ronstadt’s boyfriend for a while) & ending with a great cover of Viva Las Vegas. But Holiday In Cambodia is the standout - the “Pol Pot” refrain was inspired. The album only has one gear, but it’s a good one.
Van Morrison
5/5
I was a Van fan going all the way back to Them. However his solo work after leaving Them in 1966, on the Bang label didn’t get much coverage in Australia. For example, his first single on Bang, Brown Eyed Girl (1967), a Top Ten hit in the U.S., was never released here. My copy of the first album he released on Bang, Blowin’ Your Mind (1967), is an Australian pressing on the World Record Club label, and pop/rock albums on that label had either stiffed badly on original release or had never been released here in the first place. Astral Weeks was the first album Van did for Warners, released late 1969. But I missed it, as I did the great follow-up album, Moondance. And, in fact, I didn’t hear Astral Weeks until 1973, while visiting a mate in Goulburn. When I returned home I bought that mother, &, as I thought, I’d never heard anything like it before. And that’s still true. Madame George was always the favourite. You are prepared to believe Morrison when he says the lyric was a stream-of-consciousness effort. It sure sounds like it. Morrison was always pissed off about the strings used on the album, but I notice that strings are there on the cd released in 2009 of Astral Weeks Live at The Hollywood Bowl (taken from 2008 concerts). I recommend it. His voice is still great. I won’t go on, except to mention how pleased I was when I bought a copy of Jeff Buckley’s EP Live at Sin-e in the late 90’s & heard his version of The Way Young Lovers Do. Astral Weeks is an extraordinarily great record. The flow is outstanding. Five big ones for me.
The Who
3/5
Tommy landed between The Who Sell Out (1967) & Who’s Next (1971) & I have to say I’d rather listen to either of those albums than Tommy. I think I recently discussed the difficulty of double albums & so-called rock oera double albums. I gave this a listen yesterday & it’s weathered the 54 years since it’s birth a little better than I’d anticipated, but I’m unlikely to ever play it again. For me, Tommy represents Daltrey in his fringed jacket, twirling the microphone as he sings See Me, Feel Me at Woodstock (where the band performed the bulk of the album); Tina Turner delivering Acid Queen in the bloated Ken Russell version of Townshend’s work; and Pinball Wizard, a worthy single.
Isaac Hayes
4/5
What’s not to love with this?? The great Stax songwriter, producer and when it was really necessary to survive, performer, almost at the peak of his powers, with this, his second album. The two extremely long cover versions make for riveting listening. I also have the single-length versions of Walk on By (edited from 12:01 to 4:32) & By The Time I Get To Phoenix (18:41 to 7:02). Both versions of both standards work so well. Hayes’s melodramatic introductions are fantastic. Kitsch at times, but fantastic nonetheless. Is it any wonder that his voice became an essential part of one of television’s classic series. The other 2 tracks on the album are also great listening, particularly the very funky Hyperbolics…. song. One Woman was later covered by Al Green. Love this record.
Brian Wilson
4/5
We never heard Smile in the 60’s. It was trashed & its bastard son, Smiley Smile (1967) was released instead. Only 5 of the songs on Smiley Smile, which I picked up in the early 70’s, are included on this 2004 Brian Wilson release - Heroes And Villains, Good Vibrations, Wonderful, Wind Chimes & Vegetables (re-titled Vega-Tables for the 2004 release). Cabin Essence & Our Prayer turned up on The Beachboys’ 20/20 LP(1969) and Surf’s Up was the title track of a 1971 Beachboys LP. Listening to the 2004 CD, I’m reminded of what seeing Wilson twice in the early 2000’s was like - he had put together a band that sounded so much like The Beachboys & that you knew would sound better than the original Beachboys if they magically reformed before your very eyes. So this CD is just a pleasure to listen to. I love the inclusion of bits of 3 old standards that obviously meant something to Wilson - Gee (the 1953 Crows doo-wop classic), You Are My Sunshine (written in 1940 by Jimmie Davis, who went on to be the Governor of Louisiana) & Johnny Mercer’s I Wanna Be Around (first recorded by Tony Bennett in 1962). Cabin Essence & Surf’s Up are the standouts for me.
White Denim
4/5
I have never heard of this band before but I have to say I love what they do. This is an album steeped in 70’s rock. The singer, on the opening track It’s Him! is channelling Marc Bolan. The band, on Is and Is and Is, sounds like early Led Zep. Keys is straight from the country rock songbook - the country guitar break is great, as is the string ensemble. Back At The Farm is pure Allman Brothers - the benefit of the extra guitarist joining the band for this album. And River To Consider has a latin feel that is almost funky, flute & all. I really enjoyed this.
LCD Soundsystem
4/5
Never heard any of this album before but I have This Is Happening, the follow-up cd, which I’ve always liked. And this is a really good listen, so diverse, some terrific lyrics & musically so interesting. No two tracks are alike. Too many standouts to list but, musically, Someone Great is hard to top. Then they follow it with All My Friends, which has the most compelling piano intro since Roxy Music’s Virginia Plain, and wonderful lyrics. Terrific album.
TLC
2/5
I remember Waterfalls but nothing else here. I also remember later on having trouble believing that this was the biggest selling American girl group of all time. I’ve just listened to this album & it fails to thrill me. These ladies were not in the same league as The Supremes, The Vandellas, The Marvellettes, The Shangri-La’s……Sorry, I don’t get it.
Ramones
5/5
I missed this when it was released in 1976. But the following year the band released two albums. I was living in a share-house at Concord. One of my housemates was a dear friend named Warwick, an ex psych-nurse & also an ex psych-patient. One Saturday afternoon he got a visit from a thoroughly entertaining & totally crazy friend, who had kayaked his way from Gladesville along the stormwater channels. I saw this guy walking up our street with his kayak under his arm & for the whole visit he could not stop singing the title of Sheena Is A Punk Rocker in a quite deranged fashion. I had no idea what the song was. Then soon after that, for 25cents, I picked up the single Pinhead/Swallow My Pride from the discount bin at Dukes Record Shop in George St Sydney. These tracks came from the 2nd & 3rd albums & pretty soon I became familiar with this first album. It sounds as fresh today as it did when I first heard it. Side 1 takes no prisoners - Blitzkrieg Bop, Beat On The Brat & I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend stand out for me. And on Side 2 the cover of one of my old favourites, Chris Montez’s Let’s Dance, is outstanding. I think the producer, Craig Leon, did really well, because I reckon this is probably very close to what the live Ramones sounded like. Hey, Ho.
SZA
3/5
Never heard of this person before. I think she has a voice but I’m not sure that I totally enjoy the way she uses it. The wiki references to her sounding sometimes like Billie Holiday confuse me - nothing on this album sounds like Billie. I do like the fact that she favours brevity with her songwriting. I think the opening track is a standout. I also enjoy Prom, Go Gina, and Broken Clocks (love this lyric - so much more intelligent than the “pussy” song, Doves In The Wind, on which she duets with Kendrick Lamar). And 20 Something is a good closer. Still not sure about her pipes.
Ice Cube
2/5
Dodgy lyrics & repetitive sounds do not make this that listenable for me. Didn’t mind Once Upon A Time In The Projects & Turn Off The Radio. But really, I can do without it.
G. Love & Special Sauce
3/5
Been a fan ever since I saw Cold Beverage on Rage one nineties night. Had not played this album for quite a while & I must say I’d forgotten how ramshackle the band was. Sometimes they make my old post-punk Sydney faves Lighthouse Keepers, Particles & Cannanes sound professional, which they were not. The drummer sounds like he’s using kitchen utensils. But I really enjoyed revisiting this. I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed the roll-call in Blues Music - more than a dozen legends, from Blind Lemon Jefferson to Jimmy Smith to Woody Guthrie. By the time they played Woodsock 99, the band were a lot tighter. I remember seeing G. love on Rockwiz - he duetted with Megan Washington on The Velvets’ What Goes On. Google it.
Kid Rock
1/5
Not sure what I don’t like more - the cover or the music. I remember seeing him do the rounds of the American late shows & just thought he was ridiculous. It’s not a horrible listen, just a pointless one.
The B-52's
5/5
This album was bigger in Australia than just about anywhere else - almost certainly thanks to DoubleJay. The retro approach of the band - in attitude, looks & music - was infectious. Side 1 is outstanding - those 4 tracks make up almost 20 minutes of perfect pop. When the morse-code noises at the beginning of Planet Claire meld into a slightly sped-up riff based on Henry Mancini’s Peter Gunn theme, you know straight away you’re in for a treat. 52 Girls & Dance The Mess Around are both terrific dance trax & Rock Lobster understandably became the band’s signature tune. I’m pretty sure it was in his Playboy interview, on the stands at the time he was shot, that John Lennon went on about how the B-52’s female vocals validated the screeching that Yoko Ono had been subjecting the world to for the previous decade. Personally I thought he was drawing a long-bow, even if the band did later claim she had influenced them. Really?? Anyway, this is a killer album - Side 2 is also a ripper - There’s A Moon In The Sky (Called The Moon) always gets me. Could have done without the cover of Downtown (written by Jackie Trent & Tony Hatch - 8 years before they would compose the theme song to Neighbours), but, really, this is an outstanding debut album.
Led Zeppelin
5/5
I was just looking at the liner notes to my copy of this album -Plant & Bonham were 21, Jones was 22 & Page was 23. Youngsters, really. I missed this album on release. The first I heard of Led Zeppelin was Whole Lotta Love, big hit off the second album. But I quickly tracked this one down. What can you say? They were great from the get-go. This is perhaps the bluesiest album they ever did. Side 1 is outstanding - every track a winner. Babe I’m Gonna Leave You a personal fave. Dazed And Confused a legendary track. Side 2 opens with Your Time Is Gonna Come - strange track - not sure what the massed chorus is all about, but then another four tracks of real gold - from the tabla-embellished Black Mountain Side to the relentless How Many More Times with a riff to die for. They sure hit the ground running. What a band.
Nas
2/5
Really does nothing for me.
Solange
3/5
I enjoyed this. It was news to me, having never heard Solange before. The comparison of her soprano vocals with those of the great Minnie Ripperton are well-founded. I think Andy Gill from The Independent nailed the album’s shortcomings : "there's little punch or pop charm to the album, which boasts a surfeit of luscious textures and feisty attitudes, but a shortfall of killer melodies." And that is the main problem with this record - it all starts to sound the same. But there are a few real standouts - Cranes In The Sky deserves the kudos it gets. And I love F.U.B.U. I’m interested to know where she went from here.
Taylor Swift
4/5
The only Swift stuff I’m familiar with is the cd that contains Shake It Up. This is nothing like that. When I first started listening to this, I immediately thought that she sounded so much like Suzanne Vega. But what ‘s impressive about this is that she is such an impressive songwriter. It’s like she’s majored in popular music & topped the class. Cowboy Like Me slayed me. What a lyric. And she follows that with the poppy Long Story Short. I’ve played this album half a dozen times now & find it totally engaging. I kept thinking : but is there anything as good as Luka or Marlene On The Wall. I think there is (not sure about Tom’s Diner).
A great listen.
Can
3/5
Thoroughly enjoyed this while I did 3 loads of washing. Background music par excellence.
Cypress Hill
3/5
Like most hip-hop bands, I first heard the sound of Cypress Hill coming from my son’s bedroom - the track was Insane In The Brain, which was a big hit off Black Sunday, the album that followed this one. I don’t think any other hip-hop band sounds like Cypress Hill. It’s the music & samples they use ( and the weed). Ultraviolet Dreams might only last 42 seconds but what a track, no vocals but it ends with someone declaring that it’s “good shit”, and is followed by a track called Light Another. I love the funky tracks in the second half of the album. Especially Born To Get Busy, which is based on some sample that’s straight out of Muscle Shoals. I love all the wah-wah & I really enjoy Latin Lingo.
Frank Sinatra
3/5
I was raised in a household where Sinatra was king (until the old man started to lose it & proclaimed late in life that actually a different Italian, Jerry Vale, was the superior vocalist). When I was ten years old, the second album I ever bought was Sinatra’s Come Dance With Me, one of his last for Capitol. By 1961 he had formed his own label, Reprise (can you believe that this was the label that in 1967 released the first Jimi Hendrix album in the U.S.?).
Jobim’s fame in the west peaked with the success of The Girl From Ipanema. The version by Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto (featuring vocals by Astrud Gilberto) won the 1965 Grammy for Record of the Year. According to wiki, “ It is believed to be the second-most recorded pop song in history, after "Yesterday" by The Beatles.” Indeed, before it was the opening track on this 1967 release by Sinatra, the song had been recorded by Peggy Lee, Ella, Nat King Cole, Julie London, Sarah Vaughan, Mancini, Chris Montez, Cliff Richard, Connie Francis, Pet Clark, Sammy Davis & Count Basie, The Supremes, Esther Phillips, King Curtis & ( god bless her) Mrs Miller. Seven of the ten tracks are Jobim compositions. The other three are Change Partners (written by Irving Berlin for Fred Astaire to sing in the 1938 film Carefree), I Concentrate On You ( classic Cole Porter lyric written for the film Broadway Melody Of 1940) & Baubles, Bangles & Beads (credited to Robert Wright & George Forrest, from the 1953 Broadway musical, Kismet - the melody, like almost all the music in the show was based on the works of Alexander Borodin). And all three versions by Frank are terrific. Are any of the versions of Jobim’s songs the best you’re likely to hear? Probably not. Two things make the album memorable for me - first the vulnerability in Sinatra’s voice (he was in his early 50’s by this time). Remember, Sinatra topped the charts the year before this with Strangers In The Night, and a fortnight before this album was released Nancy & Frank released Something Stupid, which also topped the charts. The following year, My Way was a big hit & became his signature song. But in 1971 he retired. His voice was starting to wear & he knew it ( although he only stayed retired for 2 years - the lure of the lire, I imagine). The second thing is Jobim’s guitar. How often did we ever get to hear Sinatra with a guitar featured behind him? This isn’t a Sinatra album I play a lot, but I’ve given it a hiding in the past few days. Loved it.
The Kinks
3/5
Waterloo Sunset is one of the great 60’s pop songs. Terry(Stamp) & Julie(Christie) immortalised in a way I’m sure they never expected to be. It takes me back to being on a school bus travelling from Fox Hills golfcourse to Parramatta Marist on a sports afternoon in 1967. One of those magic moments. But, for me it’s the only real standout on this album. The album stiffed worldwide. My vinyl copy was a reissue on the cheapie Australian label, Summit, with the title changed to Waterloo Sunset. I mean, okay David Watts & Death Of A Clown were both good singles, although neither charted in Sydney. I love Harry Rag, but mainly remember it as a staple of Sydney jug-band The 69’ers. I saw them perform it at Sunbury in 1973 - it’s on the triple album Mushroom Records released of the festival highlights. I’m sure Ray Davies lyrics shine on a lot of the other tracks, but I don’t find them that engaging. Still, Waterloo Sunset - outstanding.
Crowded House
3/5
My Neil Finn moment : It was early 1984. I was sitting in a Greyhound in Melbourne, waiting to begin the horrendous trip back to Sydney with my very pregnant partner (we couldn’t afford the plane fares). Who should stumble onto the bus with a lot of luggage but Neil Finn. He was helping some departing friends/relatives with their gear. Lots of hugs & farewells. And I just thought : this dude seems like a really genuine, lovely guy. That was the year Split Enz broke up & within a year Crowded House had formed. I’d never heard Woodface before now. But I’m totally familiar with 4 of the 5 singles released from the album. And with Tim Finn joining the band for this album, an Anzac balance was created in the membership. I know I’m not supposed to, but I love Kiwis. And these brothers have distinguished themselves over the last 50 years. Weather With You is one of the great songs in the Australasian songbook. It reminds me of all those share-houses I spent my twenties in. It’s Only Natural, Fall At Your Feet & Four Seasons In One Day are all winners. Great listen.
Prince
4/5
Little Red Corvette - just about my favourite Prince track. To open an album with 1999 & Little Red Corvette is just showing off. So talented. And this is a ripper of a listen.
Dirty Projectors
3/5
I’d never heard of this band before. I’ve only listened to the album once. Wacky, to say the least. I love the harmonies. And I love the musicianship. Impossible to categorise. Constantly surprising. Changing approach from song to song, & often within a track - Useful Chamber is a good example.
I really enjoyed this.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
2/5
What is this? A bunch of marginally interesting soundscapes, with Karen O singing a bunch of banal lyrics over the top of them.
Doesn’t work for me.
The Byrds
4/5
Pretty sure I did not hear all of this album until well into the 70’s. And before I did, I already owned the 2 solo albums Parsons did for Reprise (1973 & ‘74). So, I knew Hickory Wind from the version he did with Emmylou Harris on the Grievous Angel L.P. before I heard the version on this album. This album was recorded at a time when it was almost compulsory to include a cover of a Dylan tune (here they open & close the record with one) & preferably an obscure song from what would become known as The Basement Tapes (eventually released in 1975). You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere & Nothing Was Delivered qualified on both counts. Both were the first released recordings of the songs in question & both work well. As if to top that off, the band also includes a cover of a Woody Guthrie (Dylan’s “mentor”) song - Pretty Boy Floyd. I never thought Parsons had the greatest voice, but there was always something compelling about it (you could almost say the same about McGuinn’s voice, except it wasn’t really compelling, & when Gene Clark & David Crosby left the band, McGuinn needed another vocalist - which is where Parsons came in). My faves here are Hickory Wind & You’re Still On My Mind (both lead vocals by Gram Parsons) & the covers of William Bell’s You Don’t Miss Your Water & the Louvin Brothers’ The Christian Life ( both lead vocals by Mc Guinn). Love it.
Beach House
3/5
I had never heard of this band before. I thought I was listening to Nico at first - not just the voice, but the style of the lead vocals as well. I really liked Zebra & Norway. It’s an easy listen.
OutKast
4/5
Hey Ya! What a track. I had never before heard the whole 2 albums that make up this double. I do prefer The Love Below - some sweet vocals on this, mainly by Andre, but also memorably helped out by Rosario Dawson (She Lives In My Lap) & Norah Jones in the wonderful Take Off Your Cool. There are some terrific jazz-influenced tracks, notably Love Hater and the cover of My Favourite Things, a-la the famous Coltrane version, which is sampled here even on a track like Vibrate, the trumpet in the background is straight out of the Miles Davis book. There’s some funky stuff here ( I really like Happy Valentines Day) and I love the slower tempos he uses in the second half of the album. On the other hand, Speakerboxxx is more hip-hop. However it does contain some wonderful throwbacks to 70’s soul (The Way You Move & Church are highlights). Overall, a great listen.
Weather Report
4/5
As a parent, I can testify that one of the biggest thrills my children can give me is to fall in love with a piece of music that I myself love. This happened a couple of years ago when my son declared his love for Birdland, the opening track here. He had only just discovered it & I had not played Heavy Weather for years. Fact is, I first discovered the song, not on Heavy Weather, but on the Manhattan Transfer album Extensions (1979). That version had lyrics written by the great Jon Hendricks (Lambert, Hendricks & Ross) & would go on to win 2 grammies (Best Jazz/Fusion Performance & Best Vocal Arrangement). These days I prefer the original - it doesn’t need words. Other standouts on the album are both Pastorius compositions - the frenetic Teen Town & the closer, Havana. Here was a great band at their peak, performing listenable fusion.
Shack
3/5
I enjoyed this. They're not The La’s, but there’s plenty here to keep you listening. Natalie’s Party recalls Oasis somehow; Streets Of Kenny reminds me so much of The Moody Blues; Reinstated begins with a brass intro straight from the Burt Bacharach songbook; and in Cornish Town, Michael Head sounds so much like James Taylor. The band can be poppy or folky. The songwriting is stylish. Never heard of them before.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
I’ve never been a big fan of Nick, but this is pretty good. The contrast between the 2 albums is pronounced. Over 80 minutes of Cave is a big ask for me. The constant intensity of his songs is a bit much for me &, at times, repetitive. But this is better than I expected. I think I prefer The Lyre Of Orpheus. Babe, You Turn Me On is a standout.
Radiohead
2/5
Like I said before, I just don’t get post-Creep Radiohead. And you just can’t play music backwards (Like Spinning Plates) to be the next Beatles. I did enjoy hearing an 80-year-old Humphrey Lyttelton & band on the final track - a dirge embellished with some real New Orleans trad jazz. But, apart from that, nothing thrilled me on this.
Fishbone
3/5
Fishbone & Living Colour - these are the first 2 black bands I remember that had more of a rock edge than you usually got from a coloured group (okay, I forgot The Chambers Brothers). And obviously Fishbone were even more diverse than that - the forays into ska on this album are great. I only gave the album one listen, but really enjoyed it.
The Go-Betweens
3/5
One Thursday afternoon in the early 90’s, Simon Marnie & Amanda Brown (they’re still together) came into Scratches Record Shop in Newtown to sell a bunch of records. This was one of them. And I reckon I haven’t played it for at least 20 years. For me, The Go-Betweens were a singles band - from Lee Remick (1978) to the standout track on this album - Streets Of Our Town - they released a decade’s worth of really interesting singles. But their albums never really won me over. As Forster later said, he always had problems with this album until he realised a decade later that it was simply “a pop album”. I love what Amanda Brown’s violin brings to it. Compared, for instance, to Robert Forster’s harmonica (listen to it on Quiet Heart - it makes Dylan sound like Little Walter). And Streets Of Our Town is undoubtedly an Australian classic. In 2017 I was lucky enough to see the documentary about the band, Right Here (Dir: Kriv Stenders), followed by a q&a with Amanda Brown & Lindy Morrison, at the Randwick Ritz. Both women were still bitter about the way they were treated by Forster & McLennan during & after the recording of the album & leading up to the band’s dissolution. I’m gonna give it another listen.
Amy Winehouse
5/5
It was February 2007. My first day back at work after annual leave. I arrived at my desk to find a burned cd, courtesy of a good comrade of mine, Rebecca Garden. It came with a note exclaiming the quality of the artists on the disc - snippets of the latest release from French band, Nouvelle Vague & the latest album by someone called Amy Winehouse. I’d never heard of either artists before. I was stunned by the quality of the Amy Winehouse album. And still regard it as the best album I’ve heard this century. It was also my gateway to both Mark Ronson & The Daptones - artists who brightened the musical landscape of the time. At the time I was a participant in an annual competition (Mortal Coil) to predict what famous people would die in the coming 12 months. Pretty soon Amy’s name started to appear on people’s lists. Never on mine I just couldn’t predict that seeming inevitability. The week she died a friend & I went to the Beach Road Hotel at Bondi to see Paris Wells, a favourite of mine who was up from Melbourne. She did a beautiful version of Back To Black & there was not a dry eye in the joint. A few years later I saw a travelling exhibition about Amy at the Jewish Museum in St Kilda - her clothes, notebooks & her record collection. This album speaks for itself. Side 1 is particularly outstanding. Ten outta five for me.
ZZ Top
4/5
One of the great rock trios of all time. From the pencil marking $1.50 on the record’s centre, I’d say I picked up my American pressing of this at Ashwoods sometime in the 70’s. There just is not a bad track on this album. La Grange is an all-time favourite of mine - Jon Lee Hooker rip-off that it might be. ZZTop were versatile & not just a boogie band, but I doubt there’s been a better one than they were on this record.
Michael Jackson
5/5
Outstanding. Side1 particularly is to die for. Jackson owned Countdown TV show week after week following this album’s release. Disco ruled & this album played a big part in that. So did Quincy Jones. If you look at his producing record over the years, the 3 albums he did with Jackson were definitely the peak. He never again had that sort of success. And even though I find Side 2 of this album nowhere near as compelling as Side 1, for me this still gets 5 stars. Not sure if Jackson was ever better than this.
Badly Drawn Boy
3/5
It was because of Nick Hornby that I became familiar with Badly Drawn Boy. Like any ex-record shop worker, I loved Hornby’s High Fidelity (1995) so much that I became a fan & avidly read each novel, about as far as Juliet, Naked (2009). His second novel was About A Boy (1998), which became a film in 2002, with a soundtrack by Badly Drawn Boy, & this was when I first heard him. I enjoyed this cd, which begins with The Shining & a string intro straight from Bowie’s version of The Merseybeats’ Sorrow. The Avalanches did a great remix of this track. Other standouts - Another Pearl, Magic In The Air, Pissing in The Wind, Say It Again & Once Around The Block, which I really like. Whatever happened to this dude?
Paul McCartney
4/5
Struggling to believe this album is 54 years old & the vinyl copy I bought brand new at the time still does the job. I can’t explain how momentous the break-up of The Beatles was, particularly to big fans like myself. So the release of this (the month before The Beatles’ Let It Be was released) was a big deal. There’s a lot I love on this - That Would Be Something is a great opener. Every Night is a standout (although Phoebe Snow’s 1978 cover is probably a better version).Both versions of Junk are just beautiful, & Maybe I’m Amazed has become a classic. He could have done without Teddy Boy (long before Peter Jackson’s Get Back film, I had a Beatles bootleg of the same name on which McCartney sings & whistles while Lennon takes the piss in the background. Understandably. It’s a boring ditty. And the drum solo bits of the closer, Kreen-Akrore were ill-advised. Maybe Ringo wasn’t even the best drummer in The Beatles, but he never did anything quite that lame. Still, I love this. I was 19 when I got it, after all.
Leonard Cohen
5/5
I missed this when it was released in 1967 (the year I finished the HSC) although I was familiar with Judy Collins’s version of Suzanne. Then in 1970 I met my first girlfriend/lover, an art school student who was a big Cohen fan, & became besotted with this album. This was magnified in 1971 when Robert Altman used 3 of the songs as the soundtrack to his film, the western, McCabe & Mrs Miller - The Stranger Song, Winter Lady &, most memorably Sisters Of Mercy, playing when a group of prostitutes arrive in a wintery western town. To this day, I picture that scene every time I hear that song. The 3 classics on the album are Suzanne, So Long Marianne & Hey That’s No Way To Say Goodbye, but there are no duds on this album. Cohen is unique. His lyrics are superb. I soon became infatuated with his writing & devoured his poetry & then his novel Beautiful Losers several times - it is credited with introducing post-modernism to Canadian literature. I know I’d never read anything like it. This album still blows me away every time I play it & I’ve hammered it in the last few days. I understand that Cohen is not to everybody’s taste. The night In the late 70’s when I first took the woman who would become the mother of my children home, Songs Of Love & Hate was already on my turntable, so I just started playing it, quickly discovering she definitely was not a fan. Life’s funny, eh?
The Flaming Lips
3/5
The only Flaming Lips album I’ve ever been familiar with is Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, the album that followed this one. And like most of the band’s tracks that I’m familiar with, I found them on compilation cd’s given away with British music mags, probably Uncut. I very much enjoyed this - the vocals & harmonies are totally engaging, although I find the comparisons with The Beachboys’ Pet Sounds a bit ridiculous. Still, there’s nothing here I disliked. Highlights for me : A Spoonful Weighs A Ton, Buggin’, The Spiderbite & Race For The Prize.
Kanye West
2/5
Sometimes you just get tired of constantly hearing : bitches, pussy, titties. I really like Frank Ocean but even he couldn’t save New Slaves for me - I’d rather be a dick than a swallower? Very clever, but Kanye has gone on to prove that he’s a total dick. Musically, this is very inventive. I just can’t take the bullshit lyrics.
The Birthday Party
3/5
I was never really a Cave fan (although his performance of The Pogues Rainy Night In Soho at Shane MacGowan’s recent funeral was breathtakingly good). And at the time I thought The Birthday Party were just unjustifiably noisy. I remember their first gigs back in Sydney after this album was released, in May 1983. The vibe surrounding them was huge among punters who avoided the mainstream musical route. To this day the only Birthday Party vinyl I own is the 4-track E.P. The Bad Seed, because it includes the only track of theirs that I’ve always enjoyed, Deep In The Woods, released in March 1983, before they returned here. Anyway, I’ve been flogging Junkyard for the last few daze. I really like Hamlet (Pow Pow Pow), which includes some lines from Gloria by Them (Van Morrison); The Dim Locator, which features some mesmeric guitar by Roland; & Several Sins - all three of these were either written or co-written by Howard, which points to how important he was to the band. They still sound like a noisy bunch, but I seem to deal with it better than I did at the time. Old age, I guess?
Paul McCartney and Wings
3/5
For me, this album has always been overrated. My favourite track here is Let Me Roll It. By a wide margin. Picasso’s Last Words would have been a lot better at half the length. Jet, Helen Wheels & the title track are serviceable singles, without being earth-shattering. And I’m not at all enamoured with the remainder. I much prefer Paul’s first 2 solo albums to anything he’s done since. Fact is, Beatles’ fans knew by 1974 that the only Beatle with any hope of recording an album that might be up to Beatles’ standards was McCartney. Subsequently they loved this album more than it ever deserved to be admired. I mean, Bowie released Diamond Dogs around the same time - not his finest record, but a mile ahead of this (and Tony Visconti worked on both).
Marvin Gaye
4/5
There are 3 great tracks here - the title track, Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) & one of my all-time Gaye faves - Inner City Blues(Makes Me Wanna Holler). That’s enough to make this a great record, although I have to say the other half-dozen tracks don’t thrill me greatly. Still, the big three are outstanding, for many reasons & there’s no doubt that this album had enormous influence over the music that was to come. A great listen.
The Magnetic Fields
5/5
For someone like me, brought up in the 50’s, in a home where my daily soundtrack was the so-called Great American Songbook (even after the arrival of Elvis), these 69 songs were a revelation. But it wasn’t until I heard the reference to Rodgers & Hart, composers of the standard Isn’t It Romantic (1932) in How Fucking Romantic (track 15 on Disc One), that I realised where Stephin Merritt was coming from. I named my son Lorenz after Lorenz Hart, one of the great Broadway lyricists (My Funny Valentine, Blue Moon, The Lady Is A Tramp, etc.) and was known for his witty rhymes - e.g. from I Wish I Were In Love Again :
“ When love congeals
It soon reveals
The faint aroma of performing seals
The double-crossing of a pair of heels
I wish I were in love again”.
My favourite on 69 Songs comes in the very last track, Zebra :
“We've got so many tchotchkes
We've practically emptied the Louvre
In most of our palaces
There's hardly room to maneuver
Well I shan't go to Bali today
I must stay home and Hoover
Up the gold dust
That doesn't mean we're in love“.
I should have realised after Track 5, Reno Dakota, that the musical references here were coming from all over :
“ Reno Dakota, I'm no Nino Rota”.
Track 11 on CD Two - My Only Friend - is a beautiful tribute to Billie Holiday, who I named my daughter after, so, by that stage, the album was becoming a real family affair, across three generations. I’ve only had time to play this once, but it is full of winners. World Love (sounds like a world music track from a Soweto album); Washington D.C. (girl group sound); Papa Was A Rodeo (70’s singer/songwriter/c&w); and so many songs where Merritt could be channelling Leonard Cohen with that voice. Look, the whole things worth it for Busby Berkeley Dreams. I love this recording & will be hammering it severely.
Miles Davis
4/5
It wasn’t until last year, when I picked up a vinyl copy of this album that I became familiar with it. Ever since I found a second-hand copy of In A Silent Way (1970) sometime in the 70’s, it is still the Miles Davis fusion album that I’ve enjoyed most & the album that preceded Bitches Brew. It was the album that marked Davis’s move to using electric instruments. It was also very influential - Santana’s Caravanserai (1972) & the album Carlos Santana did with John McLaughlin, Love Devotion Surrender, were both incredibly influenced by In A Silent Way. McLaughlin was still in Miles’s band when Bitches Brew was recorded, but there’s none of the subtlety of In A Silent Way. Bitches Brew sounds less structured & more like a series of jams. Not sure why it opens with Pharaoh’s Dance, which I find too loose & just a bit noisy. However, the title track, running for almost half an hour, is totally engaging & the second record is also a winner. Funny that the track John McLaughlin is the only track on the album that Miles sits out. I saw McLaughlin in 1979 at Newtown’s Elizabethan Theatre. I know the violinist L.Shankar was in the band, so it was probably the One Truth Band. They released their only album that year & McLaughlin included a song entitled Miles Davis, retuning the favour Miles had paid him on Bitches Brew.
Lenny Kravitz
3/5
I had never heard any of this album before I just played it. I don’t know if there were any new ideas on it - it sounds quite derivative at times. Halfway through, I thought : shit, was this recorded at Abbey Road? I then read that Kravitz had been criticised because “the simple drum patterns brought to mind Ringo Starr” (poor Ringo - always copping a bashing). There are so many grabs from old songs, but, look, it works for me. It’s not great but it’s certainly not boring. And I cannot work out why the 3 bonus tracks on the cd were not on the vinyl?
Echo And The Bunnymen
3/5
Killing Moon is one of the 80’s great British singles. As good now as it was 40 years ago. Silver & Seven Seas were, predictably the follow-up singles. They used the 35-piece orchestra well. I really liked the variety of ways songs would begin - the brushes on Yo Yo Man; the slightly distorted guitar on Thorn Of Crowns; whatever it is (squeezebox?) on My Kingdom; double bass on the title track. An easy listen.
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
In 1968 I started Law at Sydney Uni - off-campus at the Law School in Philip St. University wasn’t free but I had a Commonwealth Scholarship, for which I received $10.00 a week living at home allowance. I gave Joyce $6.00 of that for food and board. That’s 4 bucks a week to have fun. An album cost $5.25. I was still taping my music from Thompson Underground, and Jimi was featured a lot. But I’d actually heard the first 2 e.p.’s released in Australia, and been able to tape them. They were loaned to me by a ten pound pom named David Jones. I was trying to crack onto his sister Christine. I ended up liking the brother a lot more. He had great records.
Anyway, so I knew most of the first album, “Are You Experienced” (1967) with the classics - Purple Haze, Fire, Foxy Lady, Manic Depression- and I had the single Hey Joe, so I was a bit of a fan.
This album was released in January. In July I turned 18. I organised a piss-up on a Saturday afternoon, just with the New Breed - these were the 5 guys I hung out with at school. That was what the cool kids at school called us to take the piss out of us. But the name stuck. We got together at Chester Hill in my family home. I remember it was overcast. We sat around playing records. And I could now legally drink. Bob was the last one to arrive - on a bike, with much longer hair and a present for me under his arm - this record.
It’s nothing like the earlier l.p. It’s so varied. I have to say I didn’t know what to expect after playing the first track - EXP - which was very experimental at the time. Lots of feedback and wild guitar. But that runs into Up From The Skies, the first single off the album, which has always been a favourite of mine.( Ellen McIlwaine did a beautiful cover version of it). It is unlike anything on his first album. Beautiful wah-wah on it.
It was an album I had to listen to a lot. Preferably loud (Which wasn’t always easy at home). The other highlights for me are If Six Was Nine, which 2 years later was used so well in the film Easy Rider - areal youth anthem and the final track on side one ; Bold As Love - the final track, which to call psychedelic may be true but almost underplays it’s greatness - it has so many moods (Chrissie Hynde nailed it with The Pretenders in the early 90’s); and, above all, the majestic Little Wing, only 2&1/2 minutes long and for me, easily the most beautiful ballad Jimi ever wrote. Two years later, in 1970, Eric Clapton would record it in June for the Derek & The Dominoes album, which would be released in November. Jimi died in London, in between on September 18. He was 27.
The New Breed live on and 5 of us still talk regularly.
Brian Eno
4/5
This must have lived in one of the many 70’s share-houses I occupied, because I know it so well, but do not own it. I own the vinyl of his first 2 solo albums & the one he did with Fripp before this, but I don’t know them nearly as well as I know this. And I have to say I lost interest when he went on his ambient trip. This is such a good record. He might only sing on 5 tracks, but they are all such good tunes, especially St Elmo’s Fire & I’ll Come Running, both of which feature Fripp on guitar. Really, I didn’t know the term Frippertronics until I saw it on the liner notes of The Roches’ debut album (1979), but, according to Wiki, this Eno album was the first to use this tape-delay system of Fripp’s & it fits perfectly. As for the instrumentals, they are also engaging - In Dark Trees uses a rhythm generator & no other musicians & sounds like an outtake from Autobahn, which had been released by Kraftwerk in November 1974; Little Fishes & The Big Ship sound exactly like their titles; & the trifecta of tunes (7-9) featuring only Eno (title track/Sombre Reptiles/Little Fishes) are just terrific. I’ve listened to it half-a-dozen times since yesterday. Outstanding.
Mudhoney
3/5
The year before this album was released, Mudhoney played live at the Burland Hall in Newtown, but , sadly I missed it. That same year, lead singer Mark Arm released a single on Sub Pop which he called The Freewheelin Mark Arm, in honour of Bob Dylan; the A-side being a cover of Dylan’s Masters Of War. Fortunately I did manage to grab a copy of that. I’m pretty sure I knew Mudhoney before I knew Nirvana. I think there’s some truth in the Trouser Press review of the album : "Conrad Uno’s dry 8-track production sharpens Mudhoney’s garage-rock edge — evident in Arm’s fuzzed-out vocals and a shared fondness for second-hand blues progressions — enough to stand apart from the watered-down metal of most flannel merchants, but they don’t go anywhere with it." Still there are highlights here. I really like Who You Drivin Now? They take no prisoners on Into The Drink. The blues-influenced Something So Clear. Move Out is a rousing 60’s throwback that features Arm’s harmonica (more successfully than his harp on Pokin’ Around). I enjoyed it, but can someone please tell me where they got the intro to Broken Hands from? It’s driving me mad.
Bob Dylan
5/5
Look, I’m a Bob fanatic, but I do try to keep some perspective. Before this album was released, I hadn’t really enjoyed one of his albums since 1989’s Oh Mercy, also produced by Daniel Lanois. I thought Bob had lost the plot with Slow Train Coming (1979 - an album I now love). I didn’t like any of the 6 albums he released in the 80’s between those 2. And I didn’t like any of the 3 albums he released in the 90’s before this one. As for his live performances, I found his versions of his classic songs harder to listen to on each tour he made here. He’s admitted that before Time Out Of Mind he’d lost his way. The album was immediately lauded on release. As for his live performances, I finally realised that he was always gonna mangle the classics, but what was left of his voice always sounded fine when he was singing a song that he’d recorded with the same voice. And so, his live performances of songs from this album have always entertained me. And it helps when he writes crackers like these - Love Sick (the live version that came with the bonus CD on my copy is better than the studio version); Standing In The Doorway & Million Miles are heartbreakers; Cold Irons Bound is just a great track; Make You Feel My Love has become a standard (although I’d rather listen to Adele’s version); Highlands is epic; but Not Dark Yet has always been my favourite, and the older I get, the more it moves me. And I haven’t even mentioned the quality of the songwriting or the band. He hasn’t done an album anywhere near as good as this since.
The Stone Roses
3/5
Although I always liked the long version of Fool’s Gold, I never really understood why this mob were so big, but I’ve given this a few listens & did find some highlights. Of course, Fool’s Gold was left off the original U.K. album release, but included in the U.S. For me, it’s still the best thing they ever did. She Bangs The Drum still works. I liked Shoot You Down & I loved I Am The Resurrection, which I don’t remember hearing before. And I thought the psychedelic guitar flavour of Don’t Stop was really good.
Machito
4/5
Loved this. The bands achievement was to blend latin & jazz in an exciting way. The opener, Wild Jungle, takes off at breakneck speed - the horns are relentless throughout, as are the bongo/conga/timbales players. Then Congo Mulence slows things without missing a beat - it’s like a latin version of a late 50’s crime drama soundtrack. The horn solos (Cannonball Adderley & Doc Cheatham are among the players) drive it. The title track uses bata drums, but is slightly less thrilling. The other standouts are Tin Tin Deo, the only non-original here, & the bluesy Blues A La Machito. But there aren’t any duds. A great listen.
John Lee Hooker
3/5
Sometime in the late 60’s, on one of my weekly visits to Ashwoods Records in Pitt St, Sydney, for $1.00, I picked up a blues compilation on the cheapo L.A. label, Custom Records. When I got home & threw it on, this was the first time I ever heard John Lee Hooker. His 2 tracks were gripping - acoustic, rather than electric - Boogie Chillen & I’m In The Mood, which appears on The Healer in a very different form. Lots of foot-stompin, as was regularly his want. I’d known the name, courtesy of the British bands that covered his classics - both The Yardbirds & The Animals covered Boom Boom in the early 60’s - but I’d never heard his voice before. I made up for that in the next 20 years & I was glad to see him finally get some big success with The Healer. However it’s not one of my favourite Hooker releases. I liked the title track, but it feels more like a Santana tune than a Hooker. Although, make no mistake, Santana’s guitar work on this is wonderful (& he also co-produced the track). The duet with Bonnie Raitt on the aforementioned I’m In The Mood won a grammy. Her slide playing was so good. They are the outstanding trax on this album. The rest are a good listen. It was just good to see John finally pull a good pay-cheque.
The Good, The Bad & The Queen
3/5
Worst band name. Never heard any of it before.. Some good tunes. I really like History Song. The guitar bit in 80’s Life sounds like it’s straight out of a late 50’s pop tune. Wonder if it was a plan to sample As Tears Go By in Northern Whale or just recognition after the fact. Good track, though. And I guess it just rolls that way - a bunch of very listenable tracks that don’t get me that excited. I’ve given it 3 or 4 spins and it’s hard to knock it.
The Clash
4/5
I wasn’t a fan of The Clash when I first heard their early singles. Strummer did not thrill me as a front man like Rotten did. I was besotted with The Sex Pistols & then pretty quickly moved onto new wave bands like Costello & The Attractions & later The Pretenders. I pretty much ignored The Damned & The Clash. Until the release of London Calling, released in the last month of the 70’s, when, all of a sudden the band started doing tunes, not so much just anthems. All of a sudden they seemed like a different band. Then in the early 80’s I became friendly with young blokes who adored the band, & Strummer particularly, as much for their politics as for that early sound. And that’s when I heard this album a lot & started to appreciate its highlights. And there are plenty. Janie Jones kicks the album off at lightning speed. I’m So Bored With The U.S.A. seems to use a riff very similar to the opening of The Pistols’ Pretty Vacant(Glen Matlock always said it was inspired by hearing ABBA’s S.O.S) which was recorded a month before the Clash song. White Riot is probably the standout. It was also their first single, based on Strummer’s recollections of the famous Notting Hill riots of 1976. It moves at a furious pace. I love the lyrics to Career Opportunities & the song about condoms, Protex Blue. And Garageland is a good closer. And, of course I’ll be forever grateful for The Clash introducing me to Junior Murvin’s Police & Thieves, one of the 70’s greatest reggae tunes. The version here doesn’t compare with the original, but the content fits so well with the rest of the album.
Aerosmith
4/5
In 1976, I purchased a discounted copy of Rocks, the album that followed Toys In The Attic, as a member of the Australian Record Club. Except for the track Back In The Saddle, I found Rocks to be hugely disappointing. It was the only Aerosmith I’d ever heard. I’d read plenty about them, but had never actually heard them before & took very little notice of them again until Run DMC co-opted them in their cover of Walk This Way (1986) & their great 1989 singles, Love In An Elevator & Janie’s Got A Gun. What a pity I’d not purchased Toys In The Attic rather than Rocks. This is a great album. The title track kicks it off at speed & the band kick major arse - no duds here. Uncle Salty & Adam’s Apple are terrific - I feel like I’ve known them in a past life. Walk This Way is one of the great 70’s songs - that drum intro is so good & the track is just relentless. Big Ten Inch Record is exactly what it sounds like, courtesy of Bullmoose Jackson (1952). The intro to Sweet Emotion recalls The Stones‘ We Love You, I think. It’s an absolute killer track. Round & Round is as close to metal ( & Led Zeppelin) as the album gets. I can’t believe I’ve missed this record for almost 50 years. Unreal.
The Rolling Stones
5/5
I picked up my mono Australian pressing for 2 bucks at Ashwoods Record Store sometime in the late 60’s. Before that, I was familiar with the single released in Australia - Mother’s Little Helper / Lady Jane & the odd album track that made it to radio at the time - Under My Thumb, Stupid Girl & Take It Or Leave It. I also knew Out Of Time, but the Chris Farlowe cover, not the Stones’ original. As for the other eight tracks, I didn’t hear them until that visit to Ashwoods. I doubt if the eleven & a half minutes of Goin’ Home was ever played on 60’s radio. The first Stones’ record with all Jagger/Richard compositions, this album has a diversity that, among British bands, only The Beatles had been able to achieve by this time. Side 1 is so good - a great band hitting its stride. And Side 2 is so diverse - High And Dry even provides some acoustic blues. This album sounds as good as it did when I first heard it.
Roxy Music
4/5
I remember first owning this on cassette. Side One is outstanding. Do The Strand is a great opening track, taking no prisoners. It is also one of the best Roxy tunes. Beauty Queen & Strictly Confidential slow the pace, before Editions Of You cranks it back up - another winner. The side ends with In every Dream Home a Heartache. What other song is like it? I don’t know one. Ferry’s vocals on this are outstanding. Side Two is not quite as engaging. It contains Grey Lagoons, bookended by two very long tracks, The Bogus Man, which runs for almost ten minutes, while the title track, featuring a lot of Eno, is seven minutes long. Side Two seems more experimental than Side One. I do prefer early Roxy, & this cuts the mustard.
Booker T. & The MG's
4/5
Green Onions - without a doubt one of the funkiest trax ever laid down. The first single released off this album & so good that the only other single released from this album was Mo’ Onions, which was exactly what its title suggests. There are a few cover versions here that were ill-advised - Stranger On The Shore sticks out like a sore thumb (although Steve Cropper’s guitar solo is worth a listen). And they don’t do much with Twist & Shout (considering what The Beatles did with it two years later) or Rinky Dink (a pretty lame instrumental to begin with). But there’s gold in the rest of this record. Steve Cropper’s guitar on I Got A Woman & You Can’t Sit Down is outstanding. As is his blues playing on Lonely Avenue, where the whole band nails it., like they do on Jackie Wilson’s A Woman, A Lover, A Friend. The bluesy Behave Yourself almost has a gospel feel. And what blew me away was their cover of Comin’ Home Baby, originally written as an instrumental & first recorded in 1961, it was recorded by Booker T before Bob Dorough put lyrics to it & Mel Torme had a hit with it (also on Atlantic). And 50 years before the TV series Upper Middle Bogan firmly embedded that riff into the Australian psyche.
When you consider that in the 50’s & 60’s hammond organs were almost exclusively M-O-R weapons, I think it’s amazing what Booker T managed to do with one.
The Police
4/5
In the summer of 79/80 I was already driving around in my girlfriend’s second car (what a girlfriend), a holden station-wagon, thrashing a cassette of the first Police album, when this one landed as well. And by March 1980, I was watching them at the Hordern Pavilion, admittedly in such a stoned state that I wasn’t able to fully appreciate their efforts.
Side One is terrific. It’s diverse - Message In A Bottle is a killer single, the title track won a grammy for best instrumental (I never knew that), It’s Alright For You is one of their speedy new-wave efforts, Bring On The Night is part of the band’s “reggae rock”, & Deathwish a totally rhythm-driven effort. Side Two has fewer highlights but Walking On The Moon & The Bed’s Too Big Without You are both terrific trax.
Most of this record still works well for me.
The Go-Go's
3/5
I’ve always been a big fan of girl groups. I loved the two hit singles off this album. I actually thought the album was a bit limp at the time, but, on reflection, it sounds okay. Interesting the Belinda Carlisle only has one co-writing credit on the album. Also interesting that The Specials’ Terry Hall co-wrote Our Lips Are Sealed (better known these daze as Alex The Seal). He and Weidlin were an item at the time they wrote it. (Hall sadly died of pancreatic cancer in 2022). It is one of the 80’s great pop anthems. We Got The Beat was an even more successful single & it certainly was different in style to the other - it was rockier I guess. I enjoyed listening to the rest of the album, but nothing jumped out at me like the two songs this band will always be remembered for.
T. Rex
3/5
Electric Warrior (1971) is Bolan’s 5-star album. Slider was the follow-up, and it’s definitely not in the same league, but it’s better than I remember. In fact, even though I’ve owned the record for decades, I really only remember the 2 singles, Telegram Sam & Metal Guru. So playing it 3 times in the last day has been a revelation. A lot of the songs sound familiar, not because I remember them - they just sound like Bolan songs. Hard to believe that Stevie Wright’s Evie (1973) wasn’t influenced by Buick Mackane. Of the rest, I really like Baby Strange & Rock On. Visconti again shows what a great producer he was. And I did not know that Flo & Eddie supplied the backing vocals - to great effect. I wanna give it 4, but I think it’s a 3.
The Smiths
3/5
Not nearly the best Smiths’ album. I really like Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before. It’s classic Smiths. Girlfriend In A Coma & Paint A Vulgar Picture both contain terrific Morrissey lyrics. It’s an easy album to listen to, without being riveting. They never made many albums & never made a bad album. But they were usually more interesting than this.
Adam & The Ants
2/5
Look, I turned 30 the year this was released. Antmusic was a very listenable, quirky single. But you always had the feeling the band were more about the costumes, hairstyles & face-paint. Maybe they’d have been more interesting if McLaren hadn’t stolen that half of the bandb that supplied the Burrundi drumming sound to the band’s early incarnation. Of course he stole them so he could form Bow Wow Wow. Ant continued to feature that drumming on some tracks - listen to the drums on the title track, Kings Of The Wild Frontier, then play Bow Wow Wow’s c30 c60 c90 - you’d swear it’s the same drum track. I like some of the references to late 50’s guitar tracks - Link Wray’s guitar on Rumble is the basis of the guitar intro to Killer In The Home. And the guitar on Los Rancheros could be lifted from a Shadows’ album. The freaky guitar sounds on Ants Invasion successfully refer to the sci-fi film Them (a film about giant ants wreaking havoc). I still think it’s only a 2 star album.
Kings of Leon
4/5
Terrific debut album, which I’d not heard before. Eight of the twelve tracks are full-on southern-influenced rock’n’roll. The first three singles released off the album are all real winners - the opening track, Red Morning Light, a full-on rocker, sets the scene; Molly’s Chambers is moodier, poppier, not as quick as most of the album, but not a ballad; and Wasted Time is somewhere between the other two. I feel like there’s a lot here that reminds me of songs I knew as a youth - specifically during my Allman Brothers’ phase (Musically, Joe’s Head is so Allman Bros. it ain’t funny). Dusty is a fine, bluesy ballad & the hidden track, Talihina Sky, is more like a laid-back country ballad, with Floyd-Cramer-like piano accompaniment. This band is one of the real finds for me from this whole process.
Supergrass
3/5
I always enjoyed whatever Supergrass brought to the (turn)table. And this album is never boring. Richard III (one of my father’s favourite pieces of rhyming slang) stands out - takes no prisoners. There are so many times when the synth sound here reminds me of mid-70’s Rick Wakeman, especially during Sun Hits The Sky & Late In The Day. There’s some great guitar (G-Song is a good example), including a lot of wah-wah (listen to Hollow Little Reign & It’s Not Me). The latter also features classy harmonies, as opposed to the grunting, which substitutes for drums on Sometimes I Make You Sad. Tonight begins a bit like a Quo song; Late In The Day opens with acoustic guitar similar to Bowie’s Space Oddity; & Cheapskate’s rhythm track is very similar to Gloria by (Van Morrison’s Them). A really good listen.
Crosby, Stills & Nash
5/5
I was 19 years old when I first heard this. I remember the girl I was seeing at the time was named Priska Wurz - I found it difficult to conceive that if by some chain of events I married her, her name would be Priska Prichard - something you wouldn’t wish on an enemy. But I have strong memories of spending time with her with this album as the soundtrack. I first heard the band when Marrakesh Express(written by Nash) was released as a single. When I bought the album that year, I became besotted with the harmonies on the Stills-penned Helplessly Hoping, a favourite of mine to this very day. Then Guinevere (Crosby) entranced me - so obviously It was the more melodic, less rocky material that I enjoyed most at first. But by the time I saw the film of Woodstock in September 1970, I know I was as much a fan of the rockier tracks, especially Suite : Judy Blue Eyes (Stills’s paean to ex-girlfriend, Judy Collins) & Wooden Ships (co-written by Crosby, Stills & Jefferson Airplane’s Paul Kantner), both of which appeared in the film. As good to listen to now as when I first heard it.
Gram Parsons
5/5
This was his second solo album, but it was the one I heard first. It’s important to note here that when you flip the original album cover over, the biggest words are “with Emmylou Harris” at the top of the sleeve. This was the first time I ever heard Emmylou, and there’s absolutely no doubt that she embellishes the album considerably. I know this record like the back of my hand. She isn’t listed as a backup singer. It says “Vocals-Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris.” There are beautiful ballads (Hearts On Fire, the oft-covered Love Hurts, originally an Everly Brothers’ hit, Brass Buttons & $1000 Wedding). Every track’s a winner, but the 2 absolute highlights for me are Las Vegas (which Parsons co-wrote with ex- Blind Faith & Traffic bassist, Ric Grech) & the Medley Live from Northern Quebec : (a)Cash On The Barrelhead (a Louvin Brothers’ classic) & the great Hickory Wind (co-written by Parsons & ex-bandmate Bob Buchanan). This stands beside Iris Dement’s Our Town as one of the very great “hometown” songs. (And the medley wasn’t sung live. The applause was fake). A great album.
Neu!
3/5
Neu?
Drei!
I enjoyed it.
Lightning Bolt
3/5
Never heard of this lot before. Can’t believe it’s just bass & drums causing all this ruckus - and there certainly is a heap of noise involved.
And I do mean noise. What’s making the noise on Crown Of Storms? It opens with what sounds like a Keith Emerson synth solo. Just drums & bass? But there’s something ordered about it. It’s not a mess. I quite enjoyed it.
5/5
The memorable thing about Bob’s 1966 world tour was that this was the last time you would ever hear him perform this bunch of mid-60’s classics in anything like the same voice they were recorded in. Dylan would spend the rest of his life re-inventing these songs to such an extent that it was sometimes impossible to recognise what song he was singing. And I have to say, as much as I love him, it hasn’t always been pretty. I was thrilled when this was released on CD. I already owned a vinyl copy of the electric CD - a real bootleg on the Trade Mark Of Quality label - Bob Dylan : Royal Albert Hall - long before it was discovered that it had actually been recorded at Manchester Free Trade Hall. The beauty of this double cd is that you got a clarity that wasn’t in the original bootlegs. For fans, the release of this was such a gift. The acoustic set is stunning & I’m not gonna go through it - these are 8 masterpieces that Dylan does proud . And I guess I feel the same about the electric set. The difference is that this was where history was made - specifically this was where some cat cried “Judas” at Bob for plugging in, which prompted his reply : “I don’t believe you…” (ironically the title of Track 2 on this CD) “You’re a liar”. This is my favourite Bob vintage. The footage from it in Scorsese’s doco, No Direction Home, is priceless. Dylan’s either off his tits or extremely tired, but his performance (& the band’s) is outstanding.
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
5/5
The mother of my children grew up in Melbourne, where there was a much stronger jazz following than we had in Sydney. Among her childhood keepsakes are a handbill for The Red Onions Jazz Band (they became The Loved Ones) & a hand-drawn foolscap copy of the artwork on the cover of Time Out. That’s what this album meant to her. It threw up one of the greatest double-A-sided singles of all time - the Paul Desmond-penned Take Five & Blue Rondo A La Turk. This single lived on my jukebox. A few years ago I picked up a home-copied dvd that included a 25 minute interview with Brubeck about the album (unfortunately I can’t find it on youtube). One thing he said was that Saxophonist Desmond wanted great drummer Joe Morello to use only brushes, not sticks. Yet Morello’s sticks are one of the stars of the title track. This was the first jazz album to sell a million & Take Five is the biggest selling single of all time. It was produced by Columbia staff producer, Teo Macero, who went on to produce much of Miles Davis’s output, including my favourite, In A Silent Way. Somehow, the stars aligned for this record - released in the same year as Miles’s Kinda Blue, often regarded as the greatest jazz album. I love them both.
Killing Joke
3/5
Musically, I really enjoy this album, which I’d never bothered listening to before. From the opening of Requiem to the final track, Primitive, I’m totally engaged by the music - I just find Jaz Coleman’s vocals a bit boring. He may have influenced a whole host of British post-punk vocalists, but I’m afraid that’s no gold medal as far as I’m concerned. Still, there’s some great stuff here - none better than the first single taken from the album - Wardance, or Bloodsport - these are both absolute winners. If I played this a few more times, it might score more, but it’s 3 stars from me.
Syd Barrett
3/5
In the early daze (early to mid 80’s) of Scratches Record Shop in Newtown, we would be visited regularly by a long-haired, often bare-footed young man named Hugh. He usually had a couple of written/drawn handbills that he wanted displayed in the shop - one for either the Sydney Peace Squadron or Paddlers For Peace (they took to Sydney Harbour whenever U.S. or British nuclear ships came to town) & the other for meetings of The Syd Barrett Appreciation Society. I knew the story of Syd & the Floyd, but this was when I first realised just how much of a following Barrett had. It was also around this time that I first heard this album. I didn’t quite know what to make of it, but it got played so often in the shop that familiarity bred some kind of feeling for it. It opens with the best track on the album - Terrapin. And after that, you just make of it what you can. I think Robert Christgau in the Village Voice summed it up pretty well : he praised some of the music as "funny, charming, catchy – whimsy at its best. I love most of side one, especially 'Terrapin' and 'Here I Go,'" but he also opined that some of the material was "worthy of the wimp-turned-acid-casualty Barrett is."
Yes
3/5
I was never a huge Yes fan, but it was hard not to like I’ve Seen All Good People, the single released earlier in 1971 (& given another life when used by Cameron Crowe in the film Almost Famous). And based on that I got a copy of Fragile, the follow-up album, from the Australian Record Club. Standout track was the opener, Roundabout. Given it a few spins in the last couple of days. It’s aged well enough. I never saw them (although I did see Rick Wakeman when he eventually turned up in 1975). However I have a mate, Dennis Aubrey, who was probably Sydney’s best-known busker in the 70’s, & was always busking outside concert venues before big gigs (which he could then afford to attend with his bundle of coins). I didn’t know him then, but met him in the 90’s at Bob Dylan Appreciation Society monthly meetings. And he was in no doubt that the best live concert he ever saw was Yes at the Hordern Pavlova in 1973. And only a couple of weeks ago, at about 4 a.m. one morning, I heard him confirm that to a dee-jay on 702 who was trying to keep his audience awake by getting them to ring in & tell us all what was the best gig they ever attended.
Dr. Dre
3/5
For Christmas 2005, I made my son a cd consisting of hip-hop trax I’d gathered from magazine compilations & the odd cd single I’d collected. He was already in a hip-hop band & I assume I was trying to convince him that , at some level, I was along for the ride. I still have my copy of that cd. The title of it, & the opening track, was The Day The Niggaz Took Over. About a decade later, while I was at work, where I was allowed to blast out whatever I wanted to listen to as I completed mindless tasks on a computer, I was enjoying that cd so much that I decided to ring my son & tell him. As soon as I mentioned the title of the cd, he replied that I should never say the n-word & chastised me roundly for it. Anyway, it’s a track I do like, although as for this album, I love the music & the flow but I find a lot of the words hard to take.
Joan Armatrading
5/5
I opened Scratches Record Shop on April 3rd 1982. Three days beforehand, even though we were flat out getting ready for opening day, we went to see Joan Armatrading on her first Australian tour at the Capitol Theatre. I remember a bunch of us hung around the stage door, hoping to see her, which we did, & a gay friend of mine was so thrilled that he got to touch her shoulder as she walked past. And I can put most of this down to this album, which was one of the highlights of 1976/77. For me it was driven by 2JJ pushing the album - I think the title track was the first song from it that I heard - one of the great album openers. Then Love & Affection was released as a single & she was on her way. It’s easily the most played song she’s performed live over the years. All 5 tracks on Side 1 are winners. The flip is not quite as stunning, but it does end with another of her great ones - Tall In The Saddle. Two of the best moments on this record occur in the opening track, when B.J. Cole’s steel guitar comes in & Jerry Donahue’s exquisite guitar solo on the closing track. A great record.
Pixies
4/5
This album sure got a flogging in Scratches Record Shop in the late 80’s/early 90’s. Pixies were a much-loved alternative band. The only single released from the album was Gigantic, definitely the standout track. And always remembered as the tune Simon & Sascha left the church to on their wedding day - and didn’t it sound even better in that church. The other standout for me is the opener, Bone Machine. Apart from those 2 trax, the rest of the album is a noisy mix that time has definitely not dimmed. When Simon & I saw Pixies at Sydney Opera House around a decade ago, this album was well-represented on the setlist. Champion band.
The Who
5/5
I have both versions of this on vinyl & it’s so hard to believe that the cover of Bo Diddley’s I’m A Man was removed from the American release due to its sexual content. I could understand if they removed it because of its quality, because I don’t think it’s a patch on the Yardbirds’ version, which was released in 1964. Anyway, they replaced it with Instant Party, later the flipside of Substitute after it’s name had been changed to Circles. Look, My Generation is one of the greatest rock songs ever written. I renember hearing it on a.m. radio at the time & being blown away by it. The Kids Are Alright (3rd single off the album)is also a killer track. And they both still sound as good as they did 50 years ago. Other highlights include the other 2 singles from this record - A Legal Matter & La-La-La-Lies - both have aged very well- & Out In The Street, which was the flip of My Generation in the U.S. All of these trax were familiar to me long before I ever collected the albums. Of the rest, The Ox (an instrumental & John Entwhistle’s nickname) stands out for me. Each of the 4 band-members were outstanding musicians. Special mention to Keith Moon - one of the great, great drummers. The music here is diverse & never boring. It is, in fact, an outstanding debut album.
David Bowie
3/5
This album contains 2 of Bowie’s best post-Ziggy songs. It opens with Young Americans & closes with Fame. Both would have been given plenty of spins in the burgeoning disco culture of the late 70’s - because they are both terrific slow-dance trax. That’s enough to earn the album a gold star. Of the rest, I really like Somebody Up There Likes Me, but am not that thrilled by much else. He really doesn’t do that much with Across The Universe (Laibach’s cover of that is hard to go past). John Lennon not only played guitar on Across The Universe & Fame, but co-wrote & did back-up vocals on the latter. The then-unknown Luther Vandross also provided backing vocals & co-wrote Fascination with Bowie. Jean, one of the Millington sisters from the all-girl band Fanny, a band Bowie admired, also added back-up vocals. But it should have been a 5-star album. Maybe cocaine got in the way that time.
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
In 1969, when it was obvious that I was going to get the boot from Sydney University Law School, I started applying for jobs. One I applied for was as a cadet journalist at the Newcastle Morning Herald. And when I decided I should include an example of my writing,I threw together an 800-word review of Electric Ladyland. I didn’t get the job, but I still have a copy of the review. I’ve read worse. I’d bought the album when it was released in Australia at the end of 1968. The greatest cover version of all-time, Hendrix’s take on Bob Dylan’s All Along The Watchtower, was released around the same time (reached #6 on the 2UE Top 40). The following year, when I first heard Dylan’s version on the John Wesley Harding L.P., I could not believe that that was what Hendrix had turned into such a masterpiece. Burning Of The Midnight Lamp had been released as a single in 1967 & I still remember where I first heard it - on a jukebox in the old Surreyville Dancehall on City Road, Darlington(complete with sprung dancefloor & not long before it became part of the Wentworth Building at Sydney University). This was the song that introduced me to the wah-wah effect, being the first time Hendrix used it. The other single released from the album was the double-A-sided Crosstown Traffic (in my original review I praised “the clever use of stereo separation) & Gypsy Eyes, the latter being one of my very favourite Hendrix tracks. As is Come On (Part 1), a reworking of Earl King’s Let The Good Time’s Roll. But the track from the album that I played most often was definitely Voodoo Child (Slight Return)- really a jam developed in the studio, it was released in the U.K. as a single after Hendrix died, and reached #1. The copy of the album I purchased in 1968 was an Australian pressing, with the staged photo of the Experience in their finery on the cover. I now have a reissued Australian copy with the 19 naked women on the cover - which was never Jimi’s idea - he wanted to use a photo taken by Linda Eastman (later McCartney) of the band with a group of children on the sculpture of Alice In Wonderland in New York’s Central Park. My original review ended with this Hendrix quote : “My own thing is in my head. I hear sounds and if I don’t get them together, nobody else will”.
Steve Winwood
2/5
I’ve loved Steve Winwood since he emerged as the lead singer of The Spencer Davis Group. He had been 14 years old when he joined the band in 1962, 16 years old when they released their first single in 1964 & 17 years old when I first heard him on their hit single Keep On Running in 1966. He would follow that in 1967 with Gimme Some Lovin & I’m A Man before splitting to form Traffic when he was still a teenager. I loved Traffic & the supergroup he formed with Clapton, Blind Faith. We called my littlest sister Stevie after him because she had a head of long red hair, looking very much like Winwood’s hair at the time. Why am I telling you all this? Because I really never liked this album. Winwood wrote the music played everything & engineered & produced the album, but had 3 different songwriters write the lyrics. I was a big fan of the opening track, which had been a big hit single & I didn’t mind the title track (the only lyric provided by the great Vivian Stanshall, best remembered as a member of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band & the MC heard on Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells). But I find the rest of the album a bit limp. An exercise in demonstrating how talented Winwood is, but dud songs don’t help.
Neil Young
5/5
I don’t think he was ever better than this. Can’t remember when I first heard the album. I was familiar with Don’t Let It Bring You Down & Southern Man, both of which were featured on the live Crosby, Stills, Marx & Engels album, 4 Way Street (a recording of the band’s 1970 tour, released in 1971).
These 2 songs demonstrate the variety on this record - it’s partly very Crazy Horse (with some members of that band) and partly heading directly for the more laid-back Harvest album. Some of my favourite Young lyrics are here. It had me with the opening phrase of Tell Me Why - “Sailing heart-ships (to this day I always thought that word was hardships) through broken harbours”. Southern Man (the song responsible for Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Sweet Home Alabama) gives us : “Southern change gonna come at last/ Now your crosses are burning fast”. The title song : “ There was a band playin' in my head/ And I felt like getting high/ I was thinkin' about what a friend had said/ I was hopin' it was a lie” & “Look at mother nature on the run in the nineteen seventies” (a reminder that the Woodstock generation was all over climate change more than 50 years ago). And all of the lyrics from Don’t Let It Bring You Down & Birds. The only cover version here is of Don Gibson’s Oh Lonesome Me(1957), which Young slows right down. I was brought up with the original, so the arrangement for Young’s version here was a total surprise. The players on this record are outstanding - most of Crazy Horse, out-of-nowhere a teenage Nils Lofgren, Stills & Young’s producer-of-choice, David Briggs. A great record.
Siouxsie And The Banshees
2/5
They were a singles band for me. I’d never heard this album before. There were no singles released from this album. The only track I’d heard before was the cover of Helter Skelter, which is good. It’s on some cd of Beatles covers I own. They must have liked the White Album, because I also have their cover of Dear Prudence on a 7” single. They’ve covered Dylan, Velvet Underground & Iggy, all worthy covers. Musically this album is interesting enough, but the compositions are less than thrilling for me.
James Taylor
5/5
I suppose I first heard James Taylor when Fire & Rain first got radio play after its release in August 1970. It eventually entered the 2UE Top 40 in November, where it spent 19 weeks in that chart, reaching #5. So it was big and I was a big fan. Taylor had been touring with Joni Mitchell that year & they played a concert recorded by the BBC at the Royal Albert Hall in October 1970. Sometime in 1971 ABC announcer Chris Winter featured the broadcast of that concert on his radio show Room To Move. And not long after that I purchased a copy of a vinyl bootleg of the concert, called In Perfect Harmony, at Martins Record Store, corner of Pitt & Goulburn Streets in Sydney. They were literally selling bootlegs from under the counter. That was when I first heard Steamroller, which had become the comedic part of Taylor’s set. I bought this album soon after & it’s been a favourite ever since. I’m a sucker for western movies & therefore also a sucker for songs about cowboys, so the title track, which had been the first single released from the album but never charted, was a no-brainer for me. The last single released from the lp was Country Road, which did chart. Except for Stephen Foster’s Oh, Susannah, Taylor wrote all the songs. Except for Carole King (who was about to release Tapestry, the biggest-seller of the 70’s) on piano, the musicians were among the cream of west-coast soft-rockers. And the album was produced by Taylor’s manager Peter Asher, who had signed Taylor to Apple Records in 1968, produced his first album for Apple, which he left to follow Taylor back to the U.S. when that album failed. It still works for me.
Incredible Bongo Band
3/5
Never heard of this lot, but love the music. I’m familiar with Preston Epps, the dude who wrote Bongo Rock in the 50’s. I see it’s been used in several films, most notably Julien Temple’s Absolute Beginners (1986), which featured Bowie. I enjoyed this a lot.
The Who
5/5
Hard to believe that this was only their 3rd album. This was released more than 6 months after The Beatles released Sgt. Peppers (their 8th studio album in the U.K. & 12th album in the U.S.), although I Can See For Miles / Mary Anne With The Shaky Hands was The Who’s 13th consecutive ripper single, & the only single released from this album. It takes some getting used to when you first play the album, what with the radio & advertising jingles (the basic Radio London jingle had already been altered & used by Sydney radio stations long before The Who did this with it). There are some great melodies here - Our Love Was is a personal fave, and like I Can’t Reach You, which could easily have been a single, it featured Townshend on lead vocals, without Daltrey. Entwhistle wrote 3 tracks, including Silas Stingy, which I really enjoy. Interesting that Armenia City In The Sky features just Speedy Keen on lead vocals. He had been the band’s chauffeur at one point, but in 1968, Townshend convinced him to form a band, Thunderclap Newman. They weren’t around for long but managed in 1969 to top the British charts with Something In The Air. Ironically, The Who never topped the British charts.
Luckily, almost 20 years ago, while I was looking at recent releases in the dear-departed Fish Records in Newtown (my daughter worked there), I discovered that Petra Haden (Bassist Charlie Haden’s daughter) in 2005, had released the home-recorded album Petra Haden Sings: The Who Sell Out, a complete a cappella rendition of The Who Sell Out by The Who. I’m not joking - it’s almost as good as the original & I highly recommend it. Oh yeah, obviously the boys had listened to Sgt Peppers, because they pulled the same album-ending as The Beatles had, with a run- out groove that repeats endlessly.
Stan Getz
4/5
Great record (I have an original Australian mono vinyl copy on MGM). I also have the edited version of The Girl From Ipanema on a 7” ep, and this was probably the version I heard on the radio in the early 60’s. There’s something deadpan about Astrud Gilberto’s voice that I’ve always really loved & she’s great on this album, although only on 2 tracks - the other is Corcovado. Both tracks inspired numerous cover versions. Corcovado was covered by everyone from Miles & Sinatra back in the day to Queen Latifah in the noughties. And Desifinado was just as popular a tune. Jobim had already become known in the west, especially from the film Black Orpheus (1958), for which he wrote the bulk of the music. But this album, on which he wrote 6 of the 8 trax & played piano, really made him hugely successful worldwide.
Within a couple of years he recorded an album with Sinatra. This is an easy listen. That’s bossa-nova.
DJ Shadow
3/5
Neil Young
4/5
This was another album released while I was at Uni in Newcastle and rushed back to Sydney on the Flyer every Friday. Often I’d hit a record shop in the city if I wanted something urgently & this was one of those. I still have my American pressing & it still jumps half-way through Ambulance Blues, one of my favourites, with its refrain of “You’re all just pissing in the wind”. When I got back to Newcastle & put it on, I was hearing all those trax for the first time. I was probably hoping for Harvest Part2 but this wasn’t that. It was a gradual love affair, but Neil had me before long. The big news story around it, of course, was the fact that Revolution Blues had been inspired by Charles Manson, who Young met through Dennis Wilson, about 6 months before the Tate-La Bianca murders. Great work on this by The Band’s rhythm section. See The Sky About To Rain sounds like it should have been on Harvest but missed the cut. I love Young’s banjo on For The Turnstiles & I love Ben Keith’s slide guitar throughout. Of course we didn’t know at the time that he had already recorded the Tonight’s The Night album, with most of Crazy Horse, but put it on hold (released in 1975). The 2 albums are so different but both so good.
Sinead O'Connor
3/5
It’s still just a bit painful talking about Sinead. At some level she was the conscience of a big chunk of her generation. And it’s hard not to believe that that helped cause her early death. This album was played so often in Scratches Record Shop. It is so familiar to me. It still touches my heart, but especially since her demise. For a while I preferred the first album, but now that I listen to them, I don’t think she was ever better than this. Nothing Compares To You is one of the great cover versions. Jump In The River, which she co-wrote with Marco Pirroni is probably my favourite. He also plays guitar on The Emperor’s New Clothes, also a personal fave. I love the a cappella treatment of the title track. There’s so much variety on this album. Three Babies is Beautiful. And I Am Stretched On Your Grave is terrific, not least for the celtic fiddle as it concludes, courtesy of The Waterboys’ Steve Wickham. Love this record.
Duran Duran
1/5
Never liked ‘em.
One star. (Which should be added to my Sinead O’Connor score, because I pressed 4 stars for her & only got 3).
Thereby giving this a zero.
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
3/5
Crazy band. I saw them perform live a few times in the late 90’s on ABC TV shows (Recovery &, most memorably an anarchic performance on Studio 22 - it’s on youtube). I can’t describe them any better than Mark Deming of AllMusic, who proclaimed about this album : “If you want to get slapped upside the head while you boogie all night long, this is the album for you." Because sometimes it feels like an aural assault. Great to hear the Funky Chicken-man himself guest on Chicken Dog. He was about to turn 80 when this album was released. Worth a listen.
Marilyn Manson
1/5
In 1999, before my daughter had totally embraced hip-hop, she was keen on Marilyn Manson. So much so that she wagged school (not unusual - she wagged one day before this with her girlfriend Natalie & they hopped a train to Newcastle just so they could get a bus to Merriweather, where they could stand outside the house that Daniel Johns grew up in & give thanks) to line up & get Manson’s autograph at HMV record Store in Sydney’s Pitt Street Mall. I can’t remember how she went getting his autograph, but there were other Big Day Out artists there, & she got my Hole CD autographed by Courtney Love. Good daughter. As for myself, I’ve never been a fan of MM. I’d never heard this cd before & won’t be going in for seconds. It just does not interest me.
Jeru The Damaja
2/5
Gave it a quick listen. Two stars.
Sisters Of Mercy
2/5
Gothic really ain’t my go. I never enjoyed this band back in the 80’s & nothing’s changed.
Little Richard
5/5
When Little Richard died in the early daze of COVID, Bob Dylan tweeted the following :
“I just heard the news about Little Richard and I’m so grieved. He was my shining star and guiding light back when I was only a little boy. His was the original spirit that moved me to do everything I would do.
I played some shows with him in Europe in the early nineties and got to hang out in his dressing room a lot. He was always generous, kind and humble. And still dynamite as a performer and a musician and you could still learn plenty from him.
In his presence he was always the same Little Richard that I first heard and was awed by growing up and I always was the same little boy. Of course he’ll live forever. But it’s like a part of your life is gone.”
In Dylan’s high school yearbook in 1959, then-senior Robert Zimmerman famously wrote that his life ambition was “to join Little Richard.” As the Star Tribune reported, Dylan even attempted to emulate Little Richard’s imitable performing style during his first-ever public performance at a Hibbing High School talent show in 1957.
Thankfully the early Little Richard hits were all over Sydney radio in the 50’s. Both Long Tall Sally & Jenny Jenny made the Top 20 on the 2UE Top 40 in 1957. ( Of course The Beatles took Long Tall Sally to #2 on the 2UE Top 40 in 1964 - Paul McCartney no doubt gives thanks for Richard every night before bed. Luckily, Auntie Rose, my godmother, had a Little Richard 78 & two 45’s, which I flogged mercilessly then (& inherited on her death). I love an album that has 12 terrific trax & opens with the line : A Wop bop a loo bop a lop bom bom - which was the title Nik Cohn in 1969 gave to what is generally regarded as the first history of rock’n’ roll.
The energy Little Richard brought to his recordings & live performances is outstanding. What a champion.
Malcolm McLaren
4/5
I had never played this album before, and was only familiar with Buffalo Gals, a traditional American song, which most memorably featured in Frank Capra’s classic film, It’s A Wonderful Life(1946). In 1994, Liz Phair would lift lines from Double Dutch for her classic song, Whip-Smart. Both these singles made the 2UE Top 40 - Buffalo Gals reached 25 & Double Dutch climbed to #17. This is a terrific record that must have had a huge influence on the popularity of world music. So many styles, including some classy hip-hop, & all so well-done. In early 1986, I took a call at Scratches Record Shop from someone at the NSW Art Gallery. They wanted to know if I had a copy of the Bow Wow Wow album,
See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang Yeah, City All Over! Go Ape Crazy! McLaren had created & managed the band. They just wanted to borrow the cover, which they blew up into a wall-size copy for the 1986 Biennale, in which McLaren was one of the guest artists. We were invited to the opening & that’s when I got to see the bastard. The album cover famously copied Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe as a photograph. I really liked aBowWowWow, but I think Duck Rock is a better album.
Simple Minds
2/5
Was never really a fan. Just another deep-throated British vocalist, sounding just like all the others (all Bowie wannabes). And I was pissed off that he beat me to Chrissie Hynde. Promised You A Miracle and Glittering Prize are the standouts.
Joy Division
2/5
I missed this in 1979 when it was released. I fell in love with their big single, Love Will Tear Us Apart in 1980 & in 1981 a mate, Tony Gain, gave me this album for my 31st birthday. I played it once, couldn’t stand it & filed it. I still have it. Gone back to it every now & then but have never been able to understand what all the fuss is about. It is definitely related at some level to the sound of Velvet Underground, but I’d rather listen to them.
Bob Dylan
5/5
Ten out of five - close to his best album. I was in my final year at Newcastle Uni, sharing a unit in Charlestown with 3 other reprobates (I think we ruined the carpet by leaving bags of garbage in the house for so long that it ate through the bags). I still remember getting a U.S. import copy (still have it), I think in White Light Records, because it hadn’t yet been released here. It was on a Monday morning before I hopped on the Flyer & headed back up north. I couldn’t wait to give it a spin when I arrived back at the flat. Ever since Nashville Skyline, I’d had to ease my way into each of Bob’s new albums, but not with this one. With this it was love at first spin. The opening bars of Tangled Up In Blue got me - I think it’s one of his greatest songs, but this album is full of classics - If You See Her, Say Hello is as beautiful a lyric as he’s ever written. Simple Twist Of Fate & Shelter From The Storm aren’t far behind. When I first played the album, I was taken by Lily, Rosemary & The Jack of Hearts - because it had been a while since Bob had recorded a long, rambling, story-telling number. Also, for a long time I just wasn’t sure about Idiot Wind. Now it slays me - I love it when he proclaims “I can’t help it if I’m lucky. About 20 years ago a workmate gave me a copy of a bootleg cd called Blood On The Tracks - The New York Sessions, which had surfaced in 1998. It was the original test pressing, which Bob rejected because he thought it was too downbeat. He was probably right but it’s still a great listen. Lots of lyric variations & a much more acoustic feel. Blood On The Tracks - even the title is an absolute winner.
John Cale
4/5
I saw John Cale a decade later at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney, on a double bill with Jonathan Richman. My memory is that both of them were playing solo. The only thing he played from this album was the title track, indeed one of his best. In fact, I think this may be his best post-VU album. I’m a big Lowell George / Little Feat fan, but had no idea that George & drummer Richie Hayward ever recorded with Cale. They really rock out on Macbeth. And the whole b-side of the album is a real pleasure, with the title track & Graham Greene standouts. I also must mention that there’s something about the guitar flourishes at the beginning of the opening track, Child’s Christmas In Wales, that is so much like the opening of Slice Of Heaven by Dave Dobbyn & The Herbs (1986). And the keyboard opening to Antarctica Starts Here could be straight from a Carpenters’ track. Wonderful record that is never boring.
Public Enemy
3/5
This was very much of its time. And it was revolutionary &, thereby, incredibly influential. So for Hip-hoppers its a milestone. Has it aged well for the rest of us? It sounds like a million, if these are the sounds that turn you on. I can see the value in it, but I’ll never play this album again. Nonetheless, Fight The Power is an absolute highlight of 90’s popular music. Chuck D is a saint. The sampling is great & any sample from Billy Stewart’s version of Summertime is alright with me. I’m sure if I actually concentrated on the words, I’d rate it higher.
Bob Dylan
5/5
As well as my vinyl of this (an Australian mono & an American stereo) I have 2 CD copies of this - a remastered copy (2003) & a copy I bought in New Zealand (the hire car had a CD player & this was $5NZ in a bargain bin - great driving music) that was named after the opening track. And what a track it starts with - I first saw the famous clip of Bob standing in an alley dealing big cards with lyrics from the song, with Ginsberg making a guest appearance in the background, when I saw Pennebaker’s film, Don’t Look Back (1967) at the Mandala Cinema in Paddington in 1969. I see wiki refers to it as a music video, but this preceded music videos by a fair margin. The fact that it made the top ten in the UK shows just how swinging England was at the time. As Dylan himself admitted, it owes a lot to Chuck Berry’s Too Much Monkey Business (1956), and is the midpoint between that song and Elvis Costello’s Pump It Up (1978), which Elvis said was inspired by S.H.B. There are so many songs on this record that I copied the lyrics of, from listening to the record. One was Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream, which I loved. I cannot listen to it without thinking of the night of a party my parents let me have in the backyard in the late 60’s, where a now dear departed mate, Ross Treacy, sang along with it well after midnight,in full voice, knowing all the lyrics. Two of Dylan’s greatest love songs are here (She Belongs To Me & Love Minus Zero/No Limit) and one of his greatest break-up songs(It’s All Over Now Baby Blue). And the rocking Maggie’s Farm has been a staple of his live concerts to this very day. The b-side of the record is just solid gold, although I have to say that I was so enamoured & familiar with The Byrds’ version of Mr Tambourine Man, a huge world-wide hit, that Bob’s minimalist version shocked me when I first heard it. Gates Of Eden is poetry (I fell in love with the idea of the “motorcycle black madonna”) and It’s Alright Ma(I’m Only Bleeding) will always be remembered for giving us the lines :
“But even the President of the United States
Sometimes must have to stand naked”
When Dylan & The Band toured America in 1974, during the last months of Nixon’s presidency, the crowd would go berserk when Bob sang those lines (as on Before The Flood - the live album from that tour). As did English crowds a decade later when he was touring England during Thatcher’s reign and would play Maggie’s Farm to rapturous applause.
I’ve listened to the album at least half a dozen times before I sat down to write this. And loved it every time.
Alexander 'Skip' Spence
2/5
Look, I was a Moby Grape fan, & I can’t believe this guy wrote what is generally regarded as their greatest song Omaha. I listened to this twice. I like some of the music. But, generally speaking, I don’t think he was much of a vocalist - something I hate saying after I’ve just favourably reviewed a Bob Dylan album. I’ll never play it again.
A Tribe Called Quest
4/5
There were two calls to action in the household as my kids were stung by the hip-hop bug. One was The Beastie Boys’ “Root Down!”
And the other was definitely “Can I Kick It?” by A Tribe Called Quest. This album must have copped a hiding in our house, because there’s so much of it that I remember - nothing more so than the wonderful way they intertwine segments of Lou Reed’s Walk On The Wildside into Can I Kick It? And Bonita Applebum (which first throws up the Can I Kick It? call & response); and what was my favourite - I Left My Wallet In El Segundo. I always liked this style of hip-hop - give me Tribe, MC 900 Ft Jesus or Us3 any day. More about music & melody than angst. And the sampling on this album is sublime. It was a pleasure to revisit.
Elis Regina
2/5
If I owned this, I would not know where to file it. It’s not jazz, despite it’s nods to bossa nova. It’s just a bit too mainstream for me, but it’s not offensive. I didn’t mind it but I’d never listen to it again.
Ray Charles
5/5
I think Robert Christgau sums this album up best :
"It transfigured pop, prefigured soul, and defined modern country & western music." Apparently I purchased the album sometime in the early 70’s at Ashwoods in Sydney for 85c. (I also have Volume Two, which was quickly recorded & released in the same year, after the huge success of this album. Apparently it cost me $2.00 at Cash Converters sometime in the 90’s.) As is shown in the 2004 biopic “Ray”, after over a decade of recording in the jazz & r&b genres, Charles had a big hankering to record with strings, & this was the album on which he achieved that aim, with amazing success. AllMusic's Stephen Cook writes that "Charles intones the sleepy-blue nuances of country crooners while still giving the songs a needed kick with his gospel outbursts." The fact is that over 60 years since these recordings were made, I sometimes find the strings & particularly the background singers when they sound particularly white, to be a little jarring. You Don’t Know Me is a good example of that, but what makes it work is the magical voice of Brother Ray. One of the great post-war vocalists. And once he started using strings & strayed from pure r&b, even my father started buying Ray Charles records. The other things behind the album’s greatness are the arrangements and the country songs chosen. Superb, whether you like those strings or not. I Can’t Stop Loving You (Don Gibson) & You Don’t Know Me (Eddy Arnold/Cindy Walker) are the standouts. I loved Ray before I’d ever heard of Hank Williams, who died when I was three. But ever since discovering him in the 70’s, he has been one of my favourite songwriters. And it’s just a treat to hear Charles’s voice interpret Hank’s lyrics on the two Hank tracks, You Win Again & Hey Good Lookin’, which also ends the album with a rousing big-band arrangement. The arrangements also reinvent The Everly Brothers’ hit Bye Bye Love (Bryant/Bryant) & the Curley Williams classic Half As Much. But let’s face it, Ray Charles could sing the telephone book & make it work.
Dire Straits
3/5
The song Money For Nothing was a huge part of the mid-1980’s pop music soundtrack. You couldn’t escape it. And even the lyrics of the song ushered in the colossus that was the relatively newborn MTV. I think it’s a great track, from Terry Williams’s drum intro (I’d seen him at the Regent in 1979 drumming with Dave Edmunds & Nick Lowe’s Rockpile) to Sting’s repeated cry “I want my MTV”, which works so well & was probably the last time his vocals were ever on high rotation on radio. I like the rest of the album, but I don’t rate it with the band’s debut album. I hadn’t played it for years, but found it to be well worth a listen.
The Modern Lovers
5/5
Have no doubt - when punk hit Sydney in 1976/77, part of it’s soundtrack, apart from The Pistols singles,The Ramones first album & I’m Stranded by The Saints, was Roadrunner by The Modern Lovers. On tour in Australia in 1983 with rock singer and songwriter Jonathan Richman, producer and former Velvet Underground member John Cale summed up the appeal of Richman’s pioneering early-1970s recordings. “There was this music being presented that was extremely anemic and was highly unlikely to be successful,” he told interviewer Donnie Sutherland about Richman’s early songs. “But because the assumption was made that it was not gonna be successful, it was successful.” I think Cale had it spot-on. Although I’d prefer the term “minimalist” to anaemic. Richman was a notorious VU fan, so it was fitting that Cale ended up producing most of this album. I have an original American pressing on Home Of The Hits label, before it changed it’s name to Beserkley Records. I also have The Original Modern Lovers LP, on Kim Fowley’s Mohawk label, recorded in 1973 but not released till 1981. It includes half of the tracks on The Modern Lovers album and it’s great, but doesn’t have the production values that Cale brings to their music. Anyway, Roadrunner began my long love-affair with Jonathan Richman. I saw the Cale/Richman gig at The Capitol in Sydney in 1983 & saw Richman again (with just his guitar) in a wondrous gig at the Paddington RSL in 1990. I was with a crowd of friends from bands including The Cannanes, Particles, Lighthouse Keepers & somebody made a bunch of cardboard masks of Jonathan’s face for us to wear. These friends were members of minimalist post-punk Sydney bands & it was a testament to their love for & influence from Richman & The Modern Lovers. Apart from Roadrunner, special mention to Astral Plane - the great thing about it is that you don’t know if he’s serious or taking the piss (I suppose you could say that of his whole career) and very special mention to Pablo Picasso. I first heard it on John Cale’s Helen Of Troy LP (1975). What a song. And I recommend Phranc’s lesbian interpretation -Gertrude Stein(1991). I love JR.
Paul Simon
4/5
The first four singles released off this album are all absolute winners: You Can Call Me Al, Graceland, The Boy In The Bubble & Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes are each outstanding. The fifth single was Under African Skies, controversially including Linda Ronstadt’s vocals throughout. But the other great song on the album is Homeless, which like Diamonds etc. features Ladysmith Black Mambazo & like Diamonds etc. was co-written by Simon & Joseph Shabalala from Ladysmith. It was difficult at the time of the album’s release to avoid the debate over whether or not Simon should go to a still-segregated South Africa, and whether or not the album represented him stealing music from an ethnic underclass. I had no idea what was right or wrong at the time. He was a bit of a hero & I liked to think he was promoting South African music. But I really am still not sure. But as for the record, I think it was the last great album Paul Simon ever recorded.
Beck
4/5
Over the years I’ve built up a big collection of Beck cd’s from op-shops & this is just about my favourite. So diverse - from the poppy (e.g. Girl, Send A Message To Her) to the very funky (Money Mark’s organ solo on Earthquake Weather) to the Latino influence all over it to the hip-hop influence (e.g."Qué Onda Guero"). Sometimes his vocals are reminiscent of Michael Stipe. The funky Hell Yes features Christina Ricci’s spoken part; Petra Haden’s vocals (she’s a fave of mine) feature on Rental Car; Go It Alone is built around Jack White’s bass part; & Beck’s slide guitar is terrific often (e.g. Farewell Ride, Emergency Exit). I really like this album.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions
4/5
Yes, I’m a Costello tragic. I hadn’t played this for quite a while. By the end of the 80’s I must have seen him live at least a half dozen times snd the tracks on this album featured heavily in the back half of the decade. The two singles released from it have aged well. There’s a weird musical bit in the middle of the very uptempo Tokyo Storm Warning that sounds like it’s been lifted from a psychedelic Beatles track. Not the first time EC ever dipped his lid to his fellow Liverpudlians. The other single was the extremely slow & almost 7-minute long I Want You. My favourites are Uncomplicated, Honey Are You Straight Or Are You Blind?, Blue Chair, & Next Time Round. This album followed King Of America, which had seen Costello return to form after a couple of ordinary releases (Punch The Clock & Goodbye Cruel World). Hardly surprising that Nick Lowe was brought back to produce this album. He had produced Costello’s first 5 albums but had not been in the studio for the next 5, so had not produced him since 1981. Once again he seemed to get the best out of The Attractions, even if Elvis & Bruce Thomas could not stand each other.
(See Thomas’s 1990 book The Big Wheel). I’ve just given the record 3 spins - sounds better each time. If only I’d kept the a copy of the
cassette release which was packaged like a chocolate bar.
The Jesus And Mary Chain
3/5
This album starts spectacularly with a Phil Spector/ Ronettes riff to die for & that opening track, Just Like Honey, is the record’s highlight. The other two singles released from the album are also winners - Never Understand (Jan & Dean on acid) &, particularly, You Trip Me Up. When it was released on cd, Some Candy Talking was added( it’s not on my vinyl copy) & it is also a terrific track. I’ve probably told this story before but I remember being on a holiday up at Blackheath, not long after this album was released. I’d copied it onto cassette & was listening to it in the house I was renting, when my friend Trish visited to take me to lunch. After a couple of minutes, as I was getting changed, Trish called out to me - Peter, how do you tune this radio properly? I thought their noise was a welcome change to new romantics, etc.
Mudhoney
3/5
I only listened to the original 6-track version. Worth it for the drumming on In ‘N’Out Of Grace, & the crazy wah-wah on that track but especially on Mudride. A good listen.
Pentangle
4/5
I was enough of a Pentangle fan to buy tickets to see them live at Sydney Town Hall in 1972. But unfortunately my seats were almost at the very back of the hall & the sound back there was so bad that my girlfriend & I gave up & left well before the concert’s conclusion. (Jansch left the band in early 1973, but, luckily, in 1978 I saw Bert Jansch do a free lunchtime concert at Sydney University in the Union Theatre - now Footbridge Theatre). I really like this album, especially the band’s version of Sally Go Round The Roses, which had been a 1963 hit for Bronx-based girl group, The Jaynetts. I don’t remember hearing that original version on the radio, but I have got the single of Australian band, The Questions’ version (1967), which was a Top 40 hit here & probably the first version of the song I ever heard. The lead singer of The Questions was Doug Parkinson. Anyway I love Pentangle’s version. I also love John Renbourn’s sitar-playing (e.g. Once I Had A Sweetheart - the first single released off the album - & House Carpenter). I like Light Flight, the second single off the album. And I love the Lyke-Wake Dirge, which sounds like it’s recorded in a church. I always liked Jacqui McShee’s voice, & the players here are superb.
Cocteau Twins
3/5
I’d be lying if I ever claimed I knew what Cocteau Twins were ever on about. I just know that I’ve always been a big fan of Elizabeth Fraser’s voice. There were a handfull of their songs that I really liked - The Spangle Maker (1984), Aikea-Guinea (1985) - but generally speaking in the record shop I worked in, each of their albums, as it was released, was like aural wallpaper. It didn’t matter that I didn’t get a handle on them, because Fraser’s voice was sublime & her approach to singing was unique. A bit like Kate Bush with no boundaries. It was her vocal on This Mortal Coil’s cover of Tim Buckley’s Song To A Siren(1983 & one of the greatest covers of all time) that I never tire of hearing. So by the time Heaven Or Las Vegas was released, I was used to the Cocteau Twins. For me, this album was more wallpaper - classy & her voice was as good as ever. I do love Wolf In The Breast.
Jeff Buckley
4/5
The emotion on this album is palpable. I never heard it for quite a few years after it was released, but saw all the live clips on Rage & had picked up the Live At Sin-e e.p. From an op-shop in the mid-90’s, & knew Mojo Pin & Eternal Life from that. The versions on Grace are excellent. And I really love his choice of cover versions - the Benjamin Britten carol is beautiful. I knew Lilac Wine from Elkie Brooks’ version(1978), though it had been written by Broadway composer James Shelton in 1950, and was recorded by Eartha Kitt in 1953. However apparently Buckley claimed the only version worth listening to was Nina Simone’s(1966). Then, of course there’s his cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah ( I recommend the book “The Holy Or The Broken : Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley & The Unlikely Ascent of Hallelujah” by Alan Light). Buckley’s version is sublime. There is just something about his voice that is reminiscent of his father’s voice & it often makes me cry, because I loved Tim Buckley & the fact that they both died at such young ages is extremely sad. This is a terrific listen.
Liz Phair
3/5
My introduction to Liz Phair was Whip-Smart(1995) - the song, not the album. It was on some magazine compilation I’d acquired & it was definitely one of my favourite songs of the 90’s. Later I picked up her 1998 album Whitechocolatespaceegg & really enjoyed it, but I had never heard Exit To Guyville until last night. I've given it a few plays. Personally, I don’t think there’s anything on it as great as the track Whip-Smart, but I do like Never Said, Soap Star Joe, Mesmerizing, Fuck And Run (outstanding lyrics), Divorce Song, Shatter & Flower (more great lyrics).
If I gave it a few more listens it may well be 4 stars but I’m giving it 3.
The Undertones
2/5
I never liked The Undertones, mainly because I could not stand Feargal Sharkey’s voice. Sure, Teenage Head is a great track, but it’s about their only track that qualifies, & it ain’t on this album. It’s not a terrible listen, but it does nothing for me. And it could be the worst cover of Under The Boardwalk I’ve ever heard. Two stars.
The Yardbirds
3/5
I was a big Yardbirds fan from their first hit in Australia - their 3rd single, For Your Love (March 1965). The first Yardbirds album I ever owned was an Australian pressing of The Best Of…(1968). I didn’t hear Roger The Engineer until the 1980’s, when Edsel reissued it on vinyl in the U.K. It’s a strange album. It includes two hit singles - Happenings Ten Years Time Ago & Over, Under, Sideways Down - both of which still hit the mark. Other than those two, the highlights on this album for me are : The Nazz Are Blue ( the b-side of Happenings etc. in the U.S.)with Jeff Beck on vocals & Elmore James-influenced guitar riff; and Jeff’s Boogie (the flip of Over, Under etc. in the U.K.) with some great guitar again by Beck. Lost Women & Rack My Mind are okay; the weird Psycho Daisies (b-side of Happenings…. in the U.K.) features Beck & guest Jimmy Page on guitar; Turn Into Earth has the same echoey sound as Heart Full Of Soul; What Do You Want sounds like something Mike Nesmith might have written for The Monkees; & Hot House Of Omagarshid sounds like it has Rolf Harris playing wobble-board in the background. And the other tracks are neither here nor there. The only thing I know for sure is that Beck steals the show on this record. You can already hear Keith Relf’s voice on the decline. Overall, they were a great singles band, but this album is still a very interesting listen.
Rufus Wainwright
4/5
I’m a fan. There’s something lazy about his singing style, but I’ve always loved his voice. I’ve hammered this cd all weekend & it sounds better each listen. His songwriting on this is terrific. The opening two tracks (both single releases) are outstanding. Whereas the great 60’s rockers might have channelled Chuck Berry or Muddy Waters, or even Elvis, I love the fact that he often references broadway or classical music here. The use of Ravel’s Bolero on Oh What A World is inspired. Rufus is a great student of popular music, as you’d expect from his pedigree. There’s a horn break in Harvester Of Hearts that is pure Bacharach. I really like the longest song on the album - Go Or Go Ahead; and Natasha is beautiful. And to end with what Bowie called the best father/son song he knew (sorry Cat Stevens) - the great Dinner At Eight - what a lyric. Love the record.
Ella Fitzgerald
5/5
I saw her at the Sydney Opera House in November 1978. She was 61 years old and I remember thinking that she sounded like a teenager. Her voice sounded so young. She was still a big woman ( she shrunk considerably before she died in 1996, aged 79) but she wore a full skirt, about knee-length, and she was fabulous. As for the Gershwins - George was a genius & Ira would have to be one of the 2 or 3 greatest lyricists of his generation. The joy of this collection is as much hearing the songs (usually from Broadway shows) that you are not familiar with, as it is hearing the classics - and there are certainly plenty of those here. And by no means are they all the best versions of these songs that I’ve ever heard. But to have 59 Gershwin tunes collected together for Ella to sing, to the arrangements of Nelson Riddle, was a gift to us all. As indeed was the whole idea of The Great American Songbook - the idea of her manager & the founder of Verve Records, Norman Granz. (Just try to forget that Rod Stewart went anywhere near said Songbook).
The highlights for me- the slowed-down version of the belter, Lady Be Good; Love Is Here To Stay - one of Ira’s greatest lyrics; They Can’t Take That Away From Me - the tune we played at my mother’s graveside as the casket was lowered, and too many more to list here. A great collection.
Belle & Sebastian
3/5
I really enjoyed this. At first I thought I was listening to Nick Drake. I decided I had to read the lyrics, because the song titles pricked my interest - a song called The Stars Of Track & Field - really? It’s terrific & so is Seeing Other People - they sound like their written by a teenager. And calling a song Like Dylan In The Movies just so you can use the phrase Don’t Look Back? Loved it. And the title track is outstanding & references the Catholic Church, not in a positive way :
“But if you are feeling sinister
Go off and see a minister
Your chances are you'll probably feel better
If you stayed and played with yourself”.
Stuart Murdoch may not have been able to work for 7 years in his early twenties due to chronic fatigue syndrome but it was having that time on his hands that he claims made him a songwriter. And a bloody good one.
Haircut 100
2/5
I have never heard this album before. I like the opening track - Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl). It opens with a frantic guitar break, which is great, but the next 3 songs on the album all begin with a very similar break, including Love Plus One, the only song by the band that I remember - it made #13 on the 2UE Top 40. This is better than I was expecting, but never earth-shattering.
The Style Council
4/5
After Mick Talbot ditched Dexys & formed The Bureau, they had a Top 5 hit in Australia with Only For Sheep (didn’t chart in the U.K.), before Talbot split to form The Style Council with Paul Weller after Weller broke up The Jam. Through 1983 the band released a bunch of successful singles before releasing Cafe Bleu, their debut studio album, in March’84. I have to say it’s worn extremely well. It includes a couple of big hit singles - My Ever Changing Moods & You’re The Best Thing; four instrumental tracks (my favourite is The Blue Cafe, on which Weller’s guitar work tries to channel Django Reinhardt); a rap by Dizzy Hite (on A Gospel); a couple of vocals by D.C.Lee; and what a gift - Tracy Thorn’s delicious vocal on The Paris Match, which also features her Everything But The Girl partner, Ben Watt, on guitar. I don’t think the band were ever again as interesting as this.
Terence Trent D'Arby
3/5
Apart from Wishing Well & Sign Your Name, which were both killer singles, I wasn’t familiar with this album. So I was happy to discover a bunch of other terrific trax, notably Dance Little Sister, I’ll Never Turn My Back On You, Rain & the beautiful accapella track, As Yet Untitled. And I’d always figured D’Arby was a low-rent Michael Jackson. How wrong.
Beastie Boys
4/5
I think I may have mentioned it before, but Root Down, the last single released off this album, was incredibly significant in my household - I can still remember my kids running amok in the house doing the call & response bit from that track - How ya gonna kick it? Gonna kick it root down - this was when I knew they were onto hip-hop, &, for the two of them there’s been no turning back. It is the highlight of this album, for me, but there is a mile of good music here. They can punk it up, as in Tough Guy & Heart Attack Man. There are a bunch of great instrumentals - the very funky Sabrosa; Futterman’s Rule; the violin-based Eugene’s Lament; Ricky’s Theme & Shambala. All very different to each other. Q-Tip’s guest spot on Get It Together & Biz Markie’s piece on Do It both work well. Although, besides Root Down, the highlight for me is Sabotage, which was the first single off the album & features a great film-clip. A terrific record.
Green Day
2/5
Never really been a fan. Title track’s okay, although I prefer the follow-up single, Boulevard Of Broken Dreams. Apart from those, i enjoyed the change of pace with Wake Me Up & I liked the closing track, Whatsername, but the most of the rest of it all sounds the same to me.
Korn
1/5
The best thing about my son embracing hip-hop was that almost immediately I no longer had to listen to Korn or Limp Biscuit. I see L.B’s Fred Durst features on Track 8 here - All In The Family. Thankfully Fred was no longer affecting my family. One Star.
5/5
Really? It’s like having to rate The Bible. I was 16-years-old when it was released. It was a few years before I owned a copy but I managed to record most of it from the radio onto reel-to-reel tape. That is, all except for A Day In The Life, which I’m pretty sure was banned from Sydney radio stations because of the drug references. So It was a few years before I heard what was the most revolutionary track on the record.
It’s never been my favourite Beatles album, but I’ve given it at least half-a-dozen spins in the last few daze & never stopped singing along to it.
Fave tracks? Within You Without You rates highly. As does A Day In The Life. With A Little Help From My Friends is easily the best song they ever gave Ringo to sing lead on (& was followed closely by Joe Cocker’s great cover version & performance of it at Woodstock). Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, Lovely Rita & She’s Leaving Home are all classics. And if you can tolerate When I’m Sixty-Four (and I appear to be able to), there's nothing wrong with the rest of the album.
My favourite moment is when John sings :
“And Mr H will demonstrate
Ten summersets he’ll undertake
On solid ground”.
For thirty years I thought he might have mistakenly sung “summersets” instead of “somersaults” & just let it go. Then when Volume 2 of The Beatles Anthology was released in 1996, it included an early take of the song, on which he sings ”summersets”. Just John being a smartarse.
Anyway, I was inspired to go through a large pile of magazines & newspapers that I’d put aside because the issues had focussed on the greatest albums of all-time. Because from the time of its release Sgt Peppers was often touted as being just that. And here’s what I came up with, in chronological order :
Time Magazine (26/12/69) : One of the Top Ten Popular LP’s of the 60’s;
Daily Mirror (May 1981) : #4 in 2MMM’s Election 105 as voted for by 30,000 fans (beaten by Dark Side Of The Moon, Born To Run & Led ZeppelinIV);
NME (30/11/85) : Did Not Make It into NME’s Top 100 of all time as voted for by NME staff (Revolver was #11; The White Album was #33; Hard Day’s Night was #74; Rubber Soul was #98). (The Top 3 were What’sGoing On; Astral Weeks & Highway 61 Revisited)
Massive Magazine (Feb 2000) : #6 in The Hottest 100 Albums Of All Time as voted for by readers (beaten by OK Compurer, Nevermind, Grace, The White Album & Stone Roses);
Mojo Magazine (August 2000): The 100 Greatest Songs Of All Time as voted for by “the world’s finest songwriters” included 7 Beatles songs, but none from Sgt Peppers. The Beatles songs were In My Life(#1); Here, There & Everywhere (#4); Yesterday(#11); Something(#14); Eleanor Rigby(#19); Hey Jude(#29). &Let It Be (#60). In a sidebar they asked Paul McCartney to name his 10 Favourite songs (in no order)& he included A Day In The Life from Sgt Peppers (the other Beatles songs were Help!, Here, There & Everywhere & Something).
Uncut Magazine (July 2001): The Beatles - Their 50 Greatest Songs as voted for by “an all-star panel” of mainly musicians : A Day In The Life topped the poll & Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds came in at #37.
FHM Magazine (2004) : 100 Essential Albums You Must Own - not sure how it was assembled but it didn’t make it. The White Album was #6 & Revolver #29.
The SMH (6/7/2004) : An article by Richard Jinman included a list of the Top 5 Albums of the 60’s (in no particular order) - Did not make this list, but Revolver did.
Mojo Magazine (June 2007) : 100 Records That Changed The World as voted for by musicians (included albums & Singles). Came in at #16. The other Beatles’ items were I Want To Hold Your Hand at #2 & Revolver at #40.
Rolling Stone Magazine (2010) : Special Collectors Edition - The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs. There were 7 off Sgt Peppers : A Day In The Life(#1); Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds(#19); Sgt Peppers etc.(#60); With A Little Help etc.(#61); She’s Leaving Home(#82) & Within You Without You(#96). On a sidebar they asked McCartney to list his favourite Beatles songs & he listed 6, including She’s Leaving Home. They also included a list of Lennon’s 5 favourites & it included Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite.
The SMH(12/12/16) aricle by Rob Easdown reporting that Bowers & Wilkins, the premium hi-fi brand, to celebrate their 50th birthday, put together a list of the 50 albums that its”sound engineers, staff & hangers-on believe are the best ever put down”. Ironically it came in at #9.
Future Bookazine - 100 Greatest Albums You Should Own On Vinyl(2017):
In no particular order, Sgt Peppers is the only Beatles album on the list.
David Crosby
3/5
Crosby’s debut solo album, this could almost be another C,S,N &Y album, except that Steve Stills is nowhere to be seen. Mind you there are many members of Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane & Santana to take his place. Graham Nash appears on 6 of the 9 trax, prescient considering that he & Crosby went on to record 4 albums together. It sounds a lot like a C,S & N or C,S,N & Y album. It’s just missing some killer trax. But I think if I played it a few mire times I could learn to love it. I bought my copy at Ashwoods over 50 years ago for $1.00 but I just have not played it much over that half-century. Silly, really.
The Cult
3/5
I think I always had The Cult earmarked as a goth outfit &, although I quite liked their hit single, She Sells Sanctuary(1985), I paid them scant attention. I’d never heard this album before & was delighted to find that, really, it’s pretty much just a loud rock’n’roll album.it’s a good listen. But very derivative. The big single off the album, Love Removal Machine, could be a Led Zeppelin outtake. And they make a reasonable fist of Steppenwolf’s Born To Be Wild. I enjoyed it more than I expected to.
Spiritualized
3/5
I knew nothing about the band. The album sounds a bit like a user-friendly Jesus & Mary Chain. Or perhaps an ambient relation. It’s background music for me. I have no desire to pull it apart. but I quite enjoyed it, particularly Run.
Fela Kuti
3/5
I loved it. The guy was a legend in his own lifetime.
The Darkness
2/5
Back in the day, I saw these guys a lot on Rage.They did nothing for me then & nothing’s changed. They’re not horrible. They’re just notkicking any goals that I can applaud.
Bruce Springsteen
5/5
The first Springsteen album I owned was his second release, The Wild, The Innocent & The E-Street Shuffle(1973), which I bought from the Australian Record Club. It’s still my favourite. I then bought his first album, Greetings From Asbury Park(1973), also from the A.R.C. I loved it almost as much. Then came the big wait for the follow-up, which was Born To Run(1975). I was in my last year at Newcastle Uni, sharing a unit in Charlestown with three mates, & I bought it the moment it was locally released from a record bar in Charlestown. He had me from the opening lines of Thunder Road :
“The screen door slams, Mary's dress sways
Like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
Hey that's me and I want you only”.
Listening to Springsteen’s lyrics on these early albums is a bit like watching The Sopranos (how ironic that future Soprano actor Steve Van Zandt would join Springsteen’s band soon after this album hit) or even The Jets in West Side Story. Tenth Avenue Freeze Out, Jungleland, Meeting Across The River - I still love these songs. This is still a great album to play.
Or, if you’re a Monty Python fan, it’s a “blind bat” (the Nudge Nudge piece). It’s just good to hear Ronnie Lane singing lead on 3 of the 4 songs he either wrote or co-wrote on this. He was much loved by fans & , after The Faces split in 1974, he continued performing even after being diagnosed with M.S., until his death in 1997. This was easily the Rod Stewart- led Faces most successful album. Stay With Me virtually became their theme song. I like the slowed-down version of Chuck Berry’s Memphis and I love Ronnie Wood’s slide guitar on That’s All You Need. I don’t think any of the 4 Stewart-led Faces albums are outstanding. I never saw them (although I did see Stewart perform solo; Wood with The Stones & McLagen in Billy Bragg’s late-90’s touring band) but I do get the impression they were a terrific live band. This is a fine record but not a great one.
Count Basie & His Orchestra
3/5
Smooth! That’s how I think of Count Basie - both as a pianist & a band-leader. This album might be a Count Basie album, but the music here has a lot to do with Neal Hefti, who both composed & arranged the music. Hefti was hot in the 50’s & 60’s. I was a kid but I knew his name. He composed & arranged music for the Woody Herman & Harry James Orchestras, before connecting with Basie in the early 50’s. The emphasis is on the brass. No strings here, which was Hefti’s want. He had started as a trumpeter, after all. He’ll always be best remembered for two compositions - his theme song for the TV show, The Odd Couple, but most of all for the title track to the TV series Batman.
This album moves at a pace that hardly gives you time to breathe.
And, as one critic has remarked, it was probably The Count’s last great album.
Hookworms
3/5
Well the band’s wiki site reads like a melodrama. This is a band I have definitely never heard of. However I found this album to be quite enjoyable. The synths are prominent &, for once, I don’t mind. The music is so varied. They don’t stick to any particular road - they’re all over the place. Wiki describes them as a neo-psychedelic band. Whatever, I enjoyed it.
The Undertones
3/5
Like I said last time their name came up, I was never a fan, but that was mainly because of Sharkey’s voice. Musically, this is quite interesting. Hardly surprising they reissued it within 6 months of its original release date so they could includeTeenage Kicks - their first single(1978) & best-known song - on it. Better thannI expected.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
3/5
As I’ve said before, I’m definitely not a staunch Cave man. But I have to hand it to him here for one of the greatest opening lines to a song, or, indeed, an album :
“ I don’t believe in an interventionist God”.
Hear, hear. Into My Arms is a fantastic song. And Brompton Oratory is not far behind it - beautiful lyrics. In fact, after 3 or 4 listens, I’m warming to the album as a unit. It’s all a bit down-tempo, but it works well.
Public Enemy
3/5
It’s refreshing to hear a hip-hop album that’s not littered with “motherfuckers” & sexist references. This album obviously was a game-changer. Chuck D was the man. The lyrics are a terrific read. Some of the samples are inspired, & not just musically. The Black Panther intro to Night Of The Living Baseheads is a winner. Party For Your Right To Fight is a nod to The Beasties from a different angle. It’s interesting that the band wanted to create a politically-charged album that would be a hip-hop version of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On album(1971). One of Gaye’s earliest hit singles was Can I Get A Witness (1963) & here the band include a song called “Caught, Can I Get A Witness?” With a funky guitar sample that sounds like it’s straight outta Shaft. I liked Show ‘Em Whatcha Got, mainly because it’s slower than the rest & offers relief from the relentless lyrical attack.
Fugazi
3/5
This band were definitely of that late 80’s/early 90’s, edge-of grunge musical milieu. I reckon they’ve played a lot of early Pixies stuff (listen to Turnover). I enjoyed the music. The instrumentals - Brendan #1 & most of Styrofoam are terrific.The drumming is excellent (listen to Merchandise). I really liked Two Beats Off & Sieve-Fisted Find. Enjoyable slbum.
The Rolling Stones
5/5
The album that preceded this, Satanic Majesties Request, had convinced many that The Stones had lost the plot. Well they certainly found it with this album. It’s regarded by mist critics as the beginning of their golden period, & quite rightly. Sympathy For The Devil, with its relentless samba beat, is one of rock’s great album openers. It was the 2nd single released off the album, after Street Fighting Man, which I always thought was a weak follow-up to the previous single, Jumpin’ Jack Flash. (I only realised when I got an extended cd of B.B. which included bonus tracks that Jumpin’ Jack Flash came from the same sessions but was left off the album). The song I could not stop singing when I got the album was No Expectations - still a favourite, as much for Brian Jones’s beautiful slide guitar - one of the last great contributions he made to the band’s output.
There’s nothing I don’t like here - Dear Doctor is a hoot; Stray Cat Blues soon became a concert standard for the band; & Salt Of The Earth is a fitting way to finish. I love this album.
Slayer
1/5
I’m afraid I was away the day they did thrash metal.
The Streets
2/5
I discovered The Streets when, on spec, I bought a 7” single of When You Wasn’t Famous, off their 3rd album, The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living (2006)from the discount bin at Redeye Records. So I didn’t know the A Grand Don’t Come For Free CD (2004) until I found it in an op-shop much later. I have to say that the opening track, It Was Supposed To Be So Easy, is very reminiscent of When You Wasn’t Famous. I had not played A Grand etc. for years & I have to say that I don’t think it’s aged well.
Mike Skinner’s voice & delivery are just a bit too repetitive for me.
Ryan Adams
3/5
I first heard Ryan Adams on a series of those cd’s that come free with music mags. He seemed to be prolific & I suppose I assumed he wasn’t selling well & that’s why those tracks were turning up gratis. One of my favourites was To Be Young, the opening track here on his debut album, & it still sounds wonderful almost 25 years later. I eventually collected several of his cd’s, including Heartbreaker. And it still sounds fresh. No wonder, with personnel like David Rawlings, Gillian Welsh & the great Emmylou Harris. A good listen.
Super Furry Animals
4/5
One for the taffies. (And while we’re on it, let me recommend a doco you can catch on youtube about the famous Rockfield Studios in Wales, where this was recorded - The Studio On The Farm.)This is the second of their albums we’ve been asked to rate, after Rings Around The World, and I love it. It is steeped in late 60’s/early 70’s British beat music. It embraces the “pop” in Britpop. I wish I could remember what song they channel on the opening track - it’s still driving me mad. The use of flute with brass backing on Fuzzy Birds is so 60’s it ain’t funny. Something For The Weekend could be a Roy Wood/Move track. Hometown Unicorn is definitely a SydBarrett thing. They really get the guitars out for Bad Behaviour -pure early 70’s, guitar-driven pop - & for Hangin With Howard Marks, dareisay the heaviest track on the album. I reckon the band loved The Kinks & The Beatles a helluvalot. Top effort.
The Who
5/5
I reckon I’ve played this a dozen times in the last week. More than fifty years after the event, it’s still a wonderful record. The winning trifecta were all released as singles, first Won’t Get Fooled Again (Top Ten on both sides of the Atlantic & a monster of a rock song); then Baba O’Riley (a great, great album opener - Townshend’s use of synth sounds to open the album was radical & totally unexpected); & Behind Blue Eyes (one of Townshend’s great lyrics & definitely one of Daltrey’s best vocals). But it’s been good to be reminded of the quality of the other half-a-dozen tracks on the album - particularly Getting In Tune, Love Ain’t For Keeping & Song Is Over(some of Townshend’s best vocal work ). Townshend thinks it was their best album. I think he’s close to the mark. Warning : Limp Biscuit’s huge hit cover of Behind Blue Eyes pales next to Daltrey’s vocals.
The Rolling Stones
5/5
I knew most of the tracks off this from radio-play in 1964/65. I didn’t own the album until the mid-70’s & for many years after that, it was the Stones album that I gave more spins than any other. There are 3 songs penned by The Stones : the instrumental Now I’ve Got A Witness; Little By Little - co-penned by Phil Spector (& majorly influenced by Jimmy Reed’s Shame, Shame, Shame) & featuring Spector on maracas & Gene Pitney on piano (they just happened to drop into the recording session in London), it was the b-side of Not Fade Away in the U.K., released two months before the album; and Tell Me, their first self-penned single in the U.S., in June’64, with Honest I Do on the flip. So the bulk of the album were covers - Route 66, written by Bobby Troup, who also co-wrote (unbelievably) My City Of Sydney, had been a big hit for The Nat King Cole Trio; I Just Want To Make Love To You written by Willie Dixon, who also gave them a big hit with Little Red Rooster; Bo Diddley’s Mona - they’d just had a hit with Buddy Holly’s Not Fade Away, which had been a variant on the unique Diddley beat; I’m A King Bee was written & recorded by Slim Harpo (James Moore); Carol was the beginning of the band’s love affair with Chuck Berry; Can I Get A Witness had been a hit for Marvin Gaye, having been written by the great Motown composers, Holland / Dozier / & Holland (on my original Australian mono copy of the l.p., Lamont Dozier is listed as Bozier); Walking The Dog was written & recorded by Rufus Thomas (Carla’s father); Ted Jarrett, a Nashville r&b composer & producer wrote You Can Make It If You Try; and, although the writing of Honest I Do is attributed to Hurran/Calvert, it was in fact written by Jimmy Reed.
One of the things that struck me when I gave the album several spins in the last few days is the amount of harmonica on the album - 3 tracks feature Mick & 3 tracks feature Brian Jones. And they both do really well with it.
A record I love dearly.
Raekwon
2/5
I love Can It Be All So Simple for the inspired use of a sample from Gladys Knight & The Pips’ live version of the Barbra Streisand classic, The Way We Were, from their I Feel A Song album, which I did flog mercilessly in my mid-twenties. But, overall, I really don’t understand the hype about this. Probably a generational thing.
Nirvana
3/5
Not sure that, as a genre, grunge has weathered the three decades since Kurt croaked. I never paid much attention to this record at the time. The highlights for me are, predictably, Heart Shaped Box, Rape Me & Dumb. I always thought Pennyroyal Tea was just a bit overrated. Musically, there’s some great shit here, but a little too much screaming at times. Three stars.
Calexico
4/5
I’d never heard Calexico before, but I really enjoyed this. Just about half of the trax are instrumentals. Some have a mariachi or even a tex-mex feel about them. The acoustic guitar at the beginning of Pepita almost sounds like the beginning of some ancient Robert Johnson song. Close Behind sounds like it’s been lifted from an epic Hollywood soundtrack. Crumble, on the other hand, sounds like a 70’s jazz cut & is unlike anything else on the album. The variety is broad & very infectious. Four Stars
Scott Walker
4/5
I have this CD but had not played it for years. However in the last few daze, I couldn’t stop playing it. Hugely influenced by Brel, Walker in turn influenced many singers, not least Bowie. I didn’t really know Brel until I picked up Bowie’s hit single, Sorrow(1974) & discovered Bowie’s version of Brel’s classic Amsterdam on the flipside. Bowie’s version was surely influenced by Walker’s version, off Scott 3(1967). Scott 4 was the first album Walker did with only his own compositions, and it’s a riveting listen. The opener, The Seventh Seal, might take its name & the substance of the lyrics from the Ingmar Bergman film, but, musically, it’s pure spaghetti western. Down to the male chorus behind Walker. The lyrics are always interesting. Hero Of The War precedes all those Hollywood movies about Vietnam vets in wheelchairs by a good stretch. The Old Man’s Back Again (Dedicated to the Neo-Stalinist Regime) is a wonderful lyric - probably the highlight for me. If he’d put it out as a Scott Walker album at the time, instead of a Scott Engel album, I’ve no doubt it would have sold as well as the solo albums that preceded it. But, let’s face it, his career was a mess. However that’s another story. I love the Camus quote he included in the sleevenotes :
"a man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened".
Absolutely.
Rush
2/5
I have to say I took no notice of Rush after reading an interview in either MM or NME in the late 70’s, in which they espoused the writing of Ayn Rand. I listened to this - musically talented, but not big on the vocals.
Everything But The Girl
3/5
I fell in love with Tracy Thorn’s voice the first time I heard it, on EBTG’s first e.p.(1982), which featured a great version of Cole Porter’s Night &Day. I was an acolyte all the way through to Language Of Life(1990), but lost track of them after that, until the dance remix of Missing became their biggest ever hit single in 1994. Clearly the music they were playing had moved into new territory. Territory that was alien to me - I still have no idea what trip-hop or drum’n’bass mean. But the fact was that I was still in love with her voice. I have this cd. It’s a good listen, but I rarely play it. I still prefer the early stuff. Recommended reading : Thorn’s book, Bedsit Disco Queen (2013). As she says in the book, “the record we were making was ultimately more Ben(Watt’s)baby than my own”.
John Martyn
4/5
Pretty sure I’ve already recounted how I got the phone call mid-morning from a mate studying at Sydney Uni, telling me to leave work (at the Immigration Dept in Sydney)& get my arse to the Union Theatre (now The Footbridge Theatre) at Sydney Uni, to catch a free lunchtime concert by John Martyn. To this day, that concert - just Martyn with guitars that had more wires & effects pedals connected to them than I’d ever seen before - was one of the most amazing I’ve ever witnessed. He walked onstage looking so hungover - his drinking & drug abuse were legendary - but his performance was mind-blowing. I love this record - I’ve listened to it a half-dozen times in the last few days & it always thrills me. It opens with the title track, which is such a highlight. He wrote it as a tribute to his mate, Nick Drake, who would die a year later of a drug overdose. His vocals on that track are sublime & the sax, Danny Thompson’s double bass & Tristan Fry’s vibes (he was a timpanist on The Beatles “A Day In The Life)are all major contributors to the track. Other highlights are OverThe Hill, on which Richard Thompson contributes mandolin; Rabbit Bundrick’s beautifully restrained keyboards on Don’t Want To Know; & very 70’s Go Down Easy. But above all, May You Never - one of the greatest ballads written in the 70’s. Throughout, despite the great musicianship, it is Martyn’s unique voice that stars. The only slightly limp track is the closer - The Easy Blues. I’d say John might have been eager to get to the pub. His right leg was amputated below the leg in 2006 & he was only 60 when he died in 2009. His first wife & musical partner, Beverly Martyn, in her autobiography, accused him of bouts of domestic violence. Didn’t stop him getting an OBE just before he died. Really.
Bob Dylan
5/5
I probably didn’t hear these songs in their double-album format until I got a copy in the early 70’s - I couldn’t afford to buy single albums in the 60’s, let alone expensive doubles. But I knew it from the two singles it spawned in Australia - Rainy Day Women & Just Like A Woman - which both were Top Ten hits on Sydney’s 2UE Top 40. (Although I think the Manfred Mann cover of Just Like A Woman, one of four Dylan covers that band had hits with between 1965/68, got a lot more airplay than Bob’s original.) I found I Want You on a cheap CBS sampler, “26 Groovy Greats Volume 2”(1967) - I kid you not. The rest of the album I heard in bits & pieces, mainly from John Thompson’s Underground, a late-night radio show on 2UW. Highlights? It would be easier to consider what isn’t a highlight on this record. Dylan broke the rules again - the first rock double-album & the fact he agreed to record it in Nashville and use country session musos. It worked. My faves? Visions Of Johanna - one of rock’s finest lyrics, let alone Dylan’s, & one of his most compelling vocals, with Robbie Robertson’s guitar & Joe South’s bass outstanding; Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again - memorable lines abound here; Most Likely You Go Your Way &I’ll Go Mine - in 2007 I went out & bought a 7” single (for an extravagant price) of the Mark Ronson remix, because I was a Ronson fan, but found it quite underwhelming - it’s like toying with perfection; & Absolutely Sweet Marie - a great tune & I can’t tell you how I laughed years later when I read what the phrase “beating on my trumpet” meant. I’ve also always loved the fact that 4th Time Around was Dylan’s reply to The Beatles Norwegian Wood. And that Joan Baez still believes Sad Eyed Lady was written about her, even though Dylan insists it was about his new wife Sara Lownds & that her surname is part of the word Lowlands. It’s a record I love deeply.
Brian Eno
4/5
My two favourite trax on this, by several furlongs, are Baby’s On Fire & Driving Me Backwards. Long before I heard Here Come The Warm Jets, I knew these two songs from an album Island Records released in 1974 called June 1, 1974 - a live album recorded at London’s Rainbow Theatre on that date. It featured Kevin Ayers, John Cale, Eno & Nico & it opened with those two Eno songs. And the live versions were as good, if not better than the originals, which are still great. Eno’s vocals are terrific. I also really like the opener, Needles In The Camel’s Eye, co-written with ex-Roxy bandmate, Manzanera & the Diddleyesque Blank Frank. A lot of the remainder is arty & avant-garde, but as throughout Eno’s career, always interesting. Most Roxy members lend a hand, except, of course, for Ferry.
Drive-By Truckers
4/5
I found Lynyrd Skynyrd’s second album, Second Helping, pretty early on & was a fan right up until the 1977 plane crash ended the career of the original band. So when I realised what this album was about, I became pretty engaged with the way these southern boys were going to tell that story & I think they do a pretty good job. I read all of the lyrics as I was listening. In Ronnie & Neil, they look at the relationship between the band & Neil Young, who had effectively castigated southern attitudes in Southern Man(1970),which the band name-checked in Sweet Home Alabama. But they also pretty much recite the band’s history, in songs like Guitar Man Upstairs & Life In The Factory ( mentioning how they opened for the Stones & the Who). And they also look at Alabama’s history in four consecutive tunes -
Birmingham (re Governor George Wallace); The Southern Thing (takes us from the Civil War & Robert E. Lee to Martin Luther King); Three Great Alabama Icons (George Wallace, Ronnie Van Zandt & Bear Bryant - apparently one of America’s most famous football coaches), a seven-minute spoken word piece; and Wallace ( a pretty funny song about Wallace’s reception in hell). I There are probably too many songs that relate to the plane crash, although I do like Shut Up & Get On The Plane - “Living in fear’s just another way of dying before your time” is a line I definitely identify with. Other standouts for me are Let There Be Rock, in which they list the bands they saw live without ever seeing Lynyrd Skynyrd - Blue Oyster Cult, Molly Hatchet, 38 Special, Ozzy Osbourne, Randy Rhoads, who also died in a plane crash, & AC/DC - which ends with the line : “ With Bon Scott singing, let there be rock!”;
Zip City - a touching tale of bogan young love; & Plastic Flowers On The Highway - a sad but universal tale that is all too common. I’m so glad to have been introduced to this album.
Pere Ubu
2/5
The hype around Pere Ubu among the punk/alternative community at the time was real, but I missed the point, whatever it was. I’ve just given the album about three spins & I can see a bit more clearly why it had the reputation it gained at the time. But it’s still not my bag. The first two trax sound like the same track to me & they set a chaotic course that rarely varies. Life Stinks may be amusing, but it reminds me too much of Captain Beefheart at his least accessible. Interestingly, there are so many times on the album that, to me, Thomas’s voice sounds very much like early David Byrne (Real World; Humour Me). I went online to see if this was a common belief & debate certainly rages about who influenced who. I’d say the difference between the bands was that Talking Heads had melodies & Pere Ubu generally did not. With another dozen listens I might get used to this album, but that ain’t gonna happen.
Bee Gees
2/5
Hey, I was a fan. And the year this was released, I saw them live at the Sydney Showground, when the glorious How Can You Mend A Broken Heart was about to climb to Top 5 on the 2UE Top 40. And that was a great concert. But, for me, they were a great singles band. And with the exception of maybe Odessa & certainly Saturday Night Fever, their albums never thrilled me, this album included. Well produced their vocals are great, but the songs I find pretty boring.
Bobby Womack
2/5
If it wasn’t for Stand Up, which is the only track here approaching funky, I wouldn’t have given this a second listen. But I did, and it still sounds to me like a run-of-the-mill sophisto-soul album that is more rooted in the early-to-mid-70’s than the post-Off The Wall 80’s. Surely this stuff had already been done to death by 1981. Two stars.
Hole
2/5
When my daughter was fourteen, she queued for hours at HMV Record Store in Sydney to get Marilyn Manson’s autograph, so I gave her my Hole CD, the one that included a cover of The Ronettes’ He Hit Me(And It Felt Like A Kiss), unbelievably written by Carole (You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman) King, for a member of Hole to autograph - both bands were out here for the Big Day Out. And she got me Courtney Love’s autograph. I really like the three singles off the album & can’t really be bothered with the rest.
Dinosaur Jr.
3/5
Decades have passed since I last heard this album. I was all set to just say “Nice t-shirt / Ordinary record”, but I found when I listened to it that it’s worn pretty well after almost 40 years. On the first half of the album the band is relentless. From Little Fury Things to Raisans, they don’t get out of top gear - Mascis’s guitar work is outstanding. Not sure what Poledo is all about - maybe the band’s Revolution #9? Not sure if Little Fury by The Breeders(2003) was at all influenced by Little Fury Things.
Buena Vista Social Club
3/5
Eight of the nineteen songs featured in the film are on this album. And there are no duds in either format. Ry Cooder has never stopped collaborating - as a sideman with everyone from Beefheart to the Stones, as a band member with Taj Mahal, as a leading player in the 80’s & 90’s world music explosion & as a composer for at least twenty films, notably Paris Texas, for Wim Wenders, who also directed the film of Buena Vista Social Club. The album just flows - and, as you listen, eyes closed, it transports you to a nightclub in Havana (listen to the piano arrangement in Pueblo Nuevo).You can feel yourself being serenaded at your table. The opening track Chan Chan is perfect. A beautiful album.
Erykah Badu
3/5
For over a decade, until he died in 2022, I used to store my old mate Neil’s insulin in my fridge, because his fridge had given up & he wasn’t interested in buying a new one. As a way of thanking me for this arrangement, he would often run me off cd’s or dvd’s. He was a few years older than me & was an encyclopaedia of funk. And it was Neil who woke me up to Erykah Badu, when he gave me a copy of her 2008 dvd, Live at VH1 Soul Stage. I’d missed Badu when she landed in the late 90’s. I’ve since picked up her hugely successful debut cd, Baduizm, which I love, but I’d never heard this, her second album before. Not quite as exciting as her debut. I have to agree with the dude from Entertainment Weekly, who claimed that it “ too often substitutes good taste for good tunes." Still, there’s a lot to like. Any album that opens with some wah-wah (it was after all recorded at the studio named after Hendrix’s great album) on Penitentiary Philosophy, co-written with the great Questlove, has credentials. I don’t know about the references to her sounding like Billie Holiday. Sometimes she sounds more like Blossom Dearie to me. I really like the funky Booty (hush your mouth) & the following track, Kiss Me On My Neck (one of two tracks featuring the great Betty Wright). And I really enjoy her duet with Bob’s son, Stephen Marley, on In Love With You, which they co-wrote. But the best is left for last - the ten-minute-long Green Eyes, together with record scratches to place it back in the day. One of her better lyrics here. A really good listen.
Incubus
2/5
A band I know absolutely nothing about. I played it through once - it reminds me of so many late 90’s American “hard rock” bands that I was never really interested in. I liked Stellar & Drive, but even they’re generic. Not for me.
U2
2/5
The only tracks I’m familiar with are Sunday Bloody Sunday & New Year’s Day. I’ve played the album through once & don’t feel like I’ve missed anything in the last 40 years, during which time Bono has just become more insufferable. Two stars
Bruce Springsteen
4/5
If ever the release of an album shocked me, it was when Springsteen dropped Nebraska. After a stellar decade that ended with The River (1982), this was the last thing I expected. And after a few listens, I dutifully filed it for a couple of years. But it eventually wormed its way into my heart, mainly via hearing Highway Patrolman on a compilation somebody gave me & realising how much I loved that song :
“ I got a brother named Franky and Franky ain’t no good” and
“Me and Franky laughin’ and drinkin’ nothin’ feels better than blood on blood”. Then I also realised what a great song Atlantic City is when I heard the version on the Live 1975 - 1985 triple album (1985). The Band did a great version of it on their album Jericho(1993), but make no mistake, Springsteen owns it. The sound he got from the home recording of these songs is remarkable - his voice, guitar & harmonica are perfect for the songs & their subject matter. This is working-man stuff to the nth degree. Speaking as someone who, like my father, has never owned a brand new automobile, I have to say that Used Cars still makes me tear-up. Well worth the trouble.
The Velvet Underground
4/5
Not sure when I first heard the title track. Probably heard some punk band cover it in the late 70’s, or possibly when I first saw the Pennebaker film of Bowie’s last concert as Ziggy, at the Hammersmith Odeon. I certainly didn’t hear this album until the 80’s, by which time the title track was a punk standard. And as much as I like Bowie’s versions of it, I love the original. And I know that I first heard The Gift on a German compilation entitled Once Upon A Time. I think I always assumed that John Cale wrote it because his reading and his accent seemed so integral to the story. But turns out Reed wrote it. It’s a piece I’ve always loved & it’s in perfect stereo - words from one speaker & music from the other. I’m also very fond of Here She Comes Now (as opposed to There She Goes Again on the first album). It sure sounds to me like he’s dropping the c-word on that track. But hey, how would you know - the sound is so muddy on this album, & nowhere more so than on the epic Sister Ray. .I’m prepared to believe that the producer, Tom Wilson, was spending more time talking to his girlfriends in the studio than controlling the sound levels. Amazing that he produced Sounds of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel & Like A Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan on his way to Sister Ray. It’s something else. But more than half a century later, it still sounds great at volume eleven.
a-ha
1/5
Really??? Best things about this are the single, Take On Me & the excellent photo by Just Loomis used on the cover. But, sorry, I tried to listen to the whole album but fell asleep.
Jimi Hendrix
5/5
I turned 18 in 1968. I discovered girls & had the hots for Christine Jones, an Auburn lass. But a big part of the attraction of visiting her was her older brother - David Jones, I kid you not. He had 2 locally-released vinyl Hendrix e.p’s & I soon acquired them myself & to this day I still believe I never saw better value for e.p’s than these. The one released in 1967 contained the beautiful The Wind Cries Mary; his signature tune at the time, Purple Haze (Excuse me while I kiss this guy); his first hit single, Hey Joe (the only track on the album that wasn’t written by Jimi, it’s a nasty domestic violence ditty, although not a patch on Johnny Cash’s Delia’s Gone); & 51st Anniversary. The one released in January 1968 contained Stone Free; Foxy Lady; Fire, a personal fave at the time; & the great Manic Depression (always one of the highlights of the dear departed Jackie Orszáczky’s live sets).So, between the two, I had seven of the eleven tracks on Are You Experienced, & it was quite a few years before I owned the album. Of the other four tracks on the Australian release, I love May This Be Love, which foreshadows the grandeur of Little Wing; who had ever heard anything like the totally experimental Third Stone From The Sun & the title track before? The fact was, you had never heard anything like Jimi Hendrix before. I’m with Rolling Stone magazine : "Every idea we have of the guitarist as groundbreaking individual artist comes from this record."
Fleetwood Mac
1/5
After years now of spotting hipsters walking around Newtown with a vinyl copy of Rumours under their arms so we can appreciate their taste, you might wonder if the same fellows will cart copies of Tusk around? I doubt it. This was one of those releases that gave double albums a bad name. As soon as we saw the film clip for the title track, which was released the month before the album, we knew the band were way too full of themselves. From a single album that hardly had a dud track on it, they came out with a double album that barely had a great track on it. As it turned out, when we eventually heard the album, Tusk was one of the few interesting tracks on it. Then maybe Sara. But after that - not much. How they squeezed another 4 singles out of it is beyond me. And I was a fan. I saw them at the Sydney Showground in 1977. They were great. This album is not.
Sam Cooke
4/5
In the early 80’s I read a book called Nowhere To Run : The Story of Soul Music by Gerri Hershey. It included 2 stories about Sam Cooke that I’ve often retold over the years. The first recounted how Cooke’s beautiful voice & good looks changed the way gospel music was received in the southern church circuit traversed by gospel groups. Cooke was 19 when he took over as lead singer of the Famous Soul Stirrers, and in Hirshey’s book, both Wilson Pickett & Aretha Franklin recall the effect Cooke had on the young females in church. As Pickett said : “Them sisters fell like dominoes when Sam took the lead. Bang. Flat out. Piled three deep in the aisles”. And Aretha recalled how there was a strange seating shift in the New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, where her father led the congregation. Whenever Cooke & The Soul Stirrers turned up, suddenly the young people, who always left the first rows for the elders, began crowding up front to see him. The other story from that book is extremely disturbing. Solomon Burke recounts how he & Cooke were dragged from their motel room in Shreveport, Louisiana by the local police in the middle of the night, taken to the fire station, made to undress and sing for the assembled cops. As Burke says in the book : “He never did get over it”.
In my opinion, Sam Cooke had one of the finest voices in popular music. He was one of those who provided a bridge from gospel & r&b to the hugely successful soul music explosion of the 60’s. The pity was that his death in 1964 meant that he never got to see it. This 1963 concert was recorded but never released at the time, because RCA considered it too raw for his pop audience, who were used to his silky smooth vocals.(Remember RCA? They didn’t know what to do with Elvis half the time, either).
It wasn’t released on vinyl until the mid-80’s, which is when I first heard it.
The original 1985 mix contains a louder audience response, creating a "claustrophobic, frenzied power". A new mix created for the 2000 box set, The Man Who Invented Soul, turns the audience elements down, cleaning up Cooke's vocals as well as the music. I can understand why they did that, because the audience noise on my vinyl copy is constant. But it’s also very exciting.I don’t play this album a lot. I prefer the Soul Stirrers stuff & the smooth pop hits Cooke had later in his shortened career. But let’s face it, like Aretha, he could sing the phonebook. And it’s worth listening to just for the excitement of it all. What a voice.
Thelonious Monk
4/5
For a long time, all I knew about Monk were Round Midnight & Blue Monk &, from various film clips, his often bizarre mannerisms as he played. Then, about ten years ago I lucked upon an original Australian vinyl copy of Brilliant Corners in excellent condition. What a revelation. I’m not sure if I ever really knew what “cool” was, but I think this album qualifies. Especially Ba-lue Bolivar Ba-lues-are, featuring the 26-year old Sonny Rollins on tenor sax and the great drumming of Max Roach. That 13-minute track gives all of Monk’s sidemen the chance to shine and they do. Apparently he was some taskmaster, which is why you get a slightly different lineup on each side of the album. The only track not composed by Monk is I Surrender Dear, the 1931 hit for Bing Crosby, which launched his solo career. It was recorded in the same year by Louis Armstrong, and became a go-to standard thereafter for jazz players. It is interesting to listen to the Ray Charles version, also released in 1957, on his second album for Atlantic. It’s also an instrumental, but with a band behind him, including Oscar Pettiford, who also plays bass on the Monk album. Monk’s version however is completely solo. The difference between the two versions is extreme - more gymnastics involved for Monk. I’m so glad to have given this album several listens in the last few daze.
Primal Scream
3/5
I was never the biggest Primal Scream fan, but there were certain early trax that it was impossible not to like, such as Loaded and Rocks, always a personal fave. However, having never heard this album before, I ran through it a few times and found it to be astonishingly good, without the help of drugs. I have the book, Creation Stories(2013), by the label’s founder, Alan McGee, and he describes them as a “drug band” at the time they made this album. Whatever, this record is thoroughly enjoyable. The major emphasis is on the music. In fact, with the exception of Medication, which reminds me of Rocks, and the cover of Motorhead, there’s nothing rock here - it’s almost like listening to an instrumental album, with light vocals & weird vocal effects here and there. They like their space noises, particularly on Out Of The Void & especially on If They Move Kill ‘Em, which also features funky guitar that could be a Shaft outtake. Kowalski is something else. McGee recounts in the book how he had to override his own A&R staff to have it released as a single, to please Bobby Gillespie, who wasn’t really talking to him at the time. It was a Top Ten in the U.K. started listening to this album expecting to be bored, but really loved it. The melodica of Augustus Pablo on Star was a real bonus. Love this.
The Soft Boys
4/5
I saw Robyn Hitchcock at The Basement about 15 years ago, as support for a Q&A by famous 60’s & 70’s rock identity Joe Boyd (most notably worked with Incredible String Band, Nick Drake, John Martyn, R.E.M.). Can’t remember what he played except for a few Dylan covers & his voice, which was never the greatest voice, was in decline by then. So I was keen to listen to this album, particularly when I discovered that Kimberley Rew was a member of the band. When The Soft Boys broke up, Rew formed Katrina & The Waves & wrote their big hit Walking On Sunshine, but more importantly, wrote my favourite Bangles track, Going Down To Liverpool. And I wasn’t disappointed. This is a terrific record. Often influenced by the 12-string approach of The Byrds (which R.E.M. would cite as the influence they took from The Soft Boys) the music here is not one-dimensional. From the opening track, I Wanna Destroy You, which is very reminiscent of We Love You by the Stones, to Queen Of Eyes, which sounds so much like The Byrds, to the quality pop of Kingdom Of Love, every track is a delight. And then there’s I Got The Hots, which comes out of nowhere & almost steals the show. Really enjoyed hearing this album for the first time & I’ve just kept playing it.
Morrissey
2/5
I was a big Smiths fan from the getgo, but even they started to sound a bit samey by the time they folded. And I think I had the same problem with Morrissey’s solo output. This was the third solo album & by the end of it, I have to say the same thing was happening. True, Mick Ronson’s more muscular production gave it slightly more oomph. The rockabilly feel of Certain People I Know was a welcome change mid-disc, but really, I was bored with his voice long before the end of this.
Beck
3/5
I have this cd but, having played it through a few times lately, I realised that really there are only 3 tracks here that I was really familiar with : Devil’s Haircut, a great track that I think I knew from seeing the clip on Rage; The New Pollution, also probably from the clip on Rage; & Where It’s At, which I always loved because of the Mantronix sample from their Needle To The Groove single. The 2 other tracks that I really enjoyed from finally listening to the whole album are Jack-Ass - & I didn’t even realise until I saw on Wiki that, musically, it’s based on Them’s version of Dylan’s It’s All Over Now Baby Blue; & Sissyneck, a wonderful country piss-take - I like any song that mentions “good old boys”.
Then I find that these are the five singles released from the album. How appropriate. And it is a really good album.
Quicksilver Messenger Service
3/5
This album is so San Fran, psychedelic, Summer Of Love it ain’t funny. I found it to be a terrific listen. Bo Diddley can never get too many kudos for his contribution to rock & roll. I was lucky enough to see him at the Stagedoor Tavern in Sydney in December 1979. Like Chuck Berry, he would tour here without a band & pick up a local band to back him - I think they were called The Aliens. He was still great. And Q.M.S. do pretty well with their versions of Who Do You Love & Mona. John Cipolina’s guitar work is outstanding here, as it is on the 13-minute epic, Calvary. Roy Roger’s Happy Trails (I never knew it was written by his wife, Dale Evans) really takes me back to my childhood. Really enjoyed this album.
Throbbing Gristle
2/5
So what do we have here? Computer noises, long before we all had to deal with them; Hit By A Rock - definitely sounds like it; a 4-minute song reduced to 17 seconds for some reason; noise plus dialogue I can’t be fucked trying to decipher; a steam train being chased by outlaws and/or indians; more train noises with more words; car racing noises; a child’s voice with creepy sounds in front of it; something that makes you think the band just played Autobahn through several times; perhaps plane noises with more indecipherable dialogue; apparently death threats left on a phone, but I really struggle to hear the words; electric train noises that are not related to Phil Spector; and a deranged voice actually singing - about blood on the floor.
Two stars for the name, which, unlike their output, I always thought was one of the best band monikers ever.
Solomon Burke
4/5
I had never heard this album before. In fact, in the 60’s, I doubt very much that I ever heard Burke on the radio. He never charted a single on the 2UE Top 40. Eventually I became familiar with Cry To Me - a classic indeed. It & Just Out Of Reach (Of MyTwo Empty Arms) were included on an Atlantic Records compilation, History Of Rhythm & Blues : The Beat Goes On 1961-62, which I picked up at Ashwoods. Ironic that Atlantic included Burke on this album, considering that ,according to Wiki at least, he hated being referred to as an r&b singer, for religious reasons. When I checked Volume 5 : 1962-1966 of the definitive Atlantic Rhythm & Blues history, one of 8 double albums released by Atlantic in 1985, neither of those tracks made the cut & the only track by Burke included there is If You Need Me, written by Wilson Pickett. No matter. The man had a unique voice, which you always recognise immediately as his voice. And when I finally did own a Solomon Burke album, his 2002 comeback album, Don’t Give Up On Me, that voice was still strong. Van Morrison, Yom Waits, Brian Wilson, Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe & Bob Dylan were among the songwriters who provided Burke with new songs for that album, which finally won him a Grammy. But Rock ‘N Soul is the real deal. Cry To Me & You Can’t Love ‘Em All both have that New York sound created by Leiber & Stoller & Phil Spector all over them (think Spanish Harlem). But his flirtation with country & western, exquisite on his version of He’ll Have To Go, while it may have been influenced by Ray Charles’s c&w crossover albums, sounds quite unique to me. A terrific record, which I’m thrilled to have finally heard.
Beastie Boys
4/5
I have a lot to thank the Beasties for. Firstly, my kids grew up with a 1961 AMI jukebox living in the loungeroom (almost a third child). But it wasn’t until I put (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)/Paul Revere on the jukebox that they thought I might be anywhere approaching cool (for 5 minutes, anyway). Secondly, I have to thank them for their early indy 12” releases which I discovered one day, in abundance in one of those anarchist storefronts in Botany Road Alexandria(The Black Rose, maybe?)
I would visit it every week & buy a few, take them back to the record store I worked in, & mark them up substantially. They were flying off the shelves, and then, one day, the guy behind the counter recognised who I was & refused to sell them to me. My argument that nobody else was buying the bloody things & at least I was contributing to the cause didn’t wash. Oh well. Anyway, it wasn’t long before my kids had introduced me to this album &, together with the great film-clips of many of these tracks that I saw on Rage, I became very familiar with it. Fight For Your Right & No Sleep To Brooklyn are outstanding. And I love Girls & Hold It Now, Hit It. I listen to these songs now & it immediately reminds me of what living with a teenage boy was like. “Best porno mags”? You’re telling me. Four Stars.
ZZ Top
2/5
I love early ZZ Top. La Grange is one of the 70’s great singles. They were agreat boogie band, but they changed course with this album. It was a huge disappointment for me. The best thing about Legs was the film clip.
Greatband, but ordinary album.
The The
3/5
Every time I hear Matt Johnson’s voice, I always think to myself, Why does this guy sound so much like Lloyd Cole? But of course, this album came out the year before I first heard Cole, so shouldn’t it be the other way around? I guess I ignored this record when it was released, so really I’m listening to it for the first time. I didn’t take much notice of the lyrics, but musically it’s extremely interesting. And when you hear how Johnson grew up above his father’s pub & he & his brother would sneak downstairs when the pub was closed & play around with whatever musical instruments were left lying around on the stage, you begin to understand why this record just overflows with such a variety of sounds. And good players too. From Zeke Manyika’s drumming on the opening track to Jools Hilland’s terrific piano on Uncertain Smile, Wix’s accordian on This Is The Day, Thomas Leer’s synths on The Twilight Hour & New York Dolls’ David Johansen’s harmonica on Perfect. And, of course, Johnson’s involvement is all over it.
Rage Against The Machine
2/5
Pretty sure I’d never listened to this album before. I was familiar with Killing In The Name but that’s about it. Not sure it’s weathered well, although it probably has for those who were teenagers at the time. Too much anger & yelling for me & I wonder if this was the template for so many horrible bands that followed in the nineties.
10cc
3/5
At the time this was released, 10cc were a singles band, as far as I was concerned. And a good one. Rubber Bullets was outstanding. And the opening track here, Wall Street Shuffle, was really the only track I was familiar with from this record. Then, in 1975, they cracked it big with the worldwide hit single, I’m Not In Love. It’s interesting that most of the band think that Sheet Music was “the band’s zenith”. Personally, I think their 1976 album, How Dare You! is far & away their best album. But Sheet Music is still a winner. As usual all four voices & the harmonies they create make for an enjoyable listen. And no other band sounds like them. It’s the two sets of very different songwriters combining to do something quite unique. And they don’t just take turns at providing a song, they engage within a song. As usual Godley & Creme are the pricipal songwriters, with 4 of the 10 tracks; Stewart & Gouldman provide 2; but then there are tracks from Creme/Gouldman, Creme/Stewart, Godley/Gouldman & Godley/Stewart. I’m pretty sure this cross-pollination among 4 very talented songwriters is what makes this album a good listen.
Skunk Anansie
2/5
I remember that when I first saw Skunk Anansie on Rage, I felt they were more interesting to watch than they were to listen to. And having just played this album through a couple of times on Youtube, I don’t think my opinion’s changed. There’s something formulaic about these songs - but it’s the wrong formula. It’s as though they’ve lifted things from a variety of sources in both popular music, to put it broadly, & specific styles, such as metal, for instance, but it just sounds so derivative to me & there’s nothing here that thrills me.
Kelela
2/5
Look, this artist is totally new to me. Nice voice. The music is okay. The problem is she never gets out of first gear. So, subsequently, I got pretty bored waiting for something startling to happen. I played it through again. Nice background music, but nothing that I found at all thrilling.