1. BORN IN THE U.S.A. (5 stars)
2. COVER ME (3 stars)
3. DARLINGTON COUNTY (3 stars) - no bridge
Didn't realize how rockabilly this album was until I got to 4
4. WORKING ON THE HIGHWAY (3)
5. DOWNBOUND TRAIN (3.5) - not rockabilly, liked it a bit better
6. I’M ON FIRE (5) - obviously heard this one a thousand times back in the day
7. NO SURRENDER (4.5) - surprised by this one, really liked it.
8. BOBBY JEAN (3)
9. I’M GOIN’ DOWN (3.5) - has a really old-school fifties feel to it
10. GLORY DAYS (5)
11. DANCING IN THE DARK (5) - astonishing how different this song is than all the others
12. MY HOMETOWN (5) - I remember this one - much quieter and folkier than anything else on the record.
1. And It Stoned Me (3.5) - pretty funk/blues feel, reminds me of Ray LaMontagne
2. Moon dance (4?) - I mean, an iconic song but it's not one of my favorites
3. Crazy Love (3.5) a really Motown feel, a Marvin Gaye cover would have been cool
4. Caravan (4) - I'm giving this one a 4 just because of the great la-la-la-la section - very bluesy, this is the one Amy Gardner was singing with Josh ("Radio! Radio!") … best one on the album so far
5. Into The Mystic - (4) this is really one I could see Ray LaMontagne writing and performing. Very folky.
6. Come Running (3.5) - piano blues with a bass shuffle behind, good blues singing
7. These Dreams Of You (3) - good twelve bar blues with harmonica - ugh, a terrible sax solo
8. Brand New Day (3.5) -
9. Everyone (1) - ugh, this sounds like something written for hippies to skip to, it sounds like either a flute or penny whistle with a glockenspiel in the background. It was a 2 until the end which seemed like it was written specifically to piss me off, so it gets a 1.
10. Glad Tidings (3.5) trying not to have a hangover from the previous song.
Speed King - (3) heavy metal guitar to start, then pipe organ? Lots of instrumental sections
Bloodsucker (4) - sounds like the original hair band, makes me wonder why I have never really listened to Deep Purple. Some screamy sections, nice, also a little synthesizer
Child in Time - (3) rock ballad? Lots of hair band hollerin’ - several of the songs have “jam-band” sections in it which is kind of unusual for hard rock/metal. Lots of shrieking
Flight of the Rat (3) - - fast driving rock - nice drum solo at the end
Into the Fire - (3.5) more of a creeping tempo
Living Wreck (3.5) - loved the start - vocals really different than the others
Hard Lovin' Man (3) - synthesizer jam band section didn’t work for me
There was certainly a time in my life when I would have loved this record - I liked it a lot, but I’m not as much of a metal/hair band guy anymore.
9/13/2023 - Miles Davis, Kind of Blue (1959)
1. So What - can already tell I’m going to like it - very nice, smooth jazz
2. Freddie Freeloader
3. Blue in Green
4. All Blues
5. Flamenco Sketches
Jesus, his 33rd album. John Coltrane plays sax on it.
Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison (1968)
Folsom Prison Blues
Dark as the Dungeon
I Still Miss Someone
Cocaine Blues
25 Minutes to Go
Orange Blossom Special
The Long Black Veil
Send a Picture of Mother
The Wall
Dirty Old Egg-Suckin’ Dog
Flushed from the Bathroom of Your Heart
Jackson
Give My Love to Rose
I Got Stripes
Green, Green Grass of Home
Greystone Chapel
It's funny, his guitar is out of tune a lot of the time. His voice is stronger than a mountain stream, and June Carter is kind of unimpressive. He talks to the audience a lot which is nice, and the songs are generally very short! I got a few songs out of here that I want to learn.
9/15/2023 Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
1. Like A Rolling Stone (5) his voice is better on this song than I remember it being - more of a chant than singing, but that's Dylan's thing
2. Tombstone Blues (4)
3. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry (4) - 12 bar blues, lots of harmonica
4. From A Buick 6
5. Ballad Of A Thin Man (3.5) - kind of bluesy/funky, minor key … laughed at first because the piano sound made me think of Rolf from the Muppets
6. Queen Jane Approximately (3.5) - guitar is out of tune, pretty badly
7. Highway 61 Revisited - (4) starts off with a whirligig, bleah. 12 bar blues but damn fast - no bridge
8. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues (4)
9. Desolation Row (4)
I've listened to this before a long time ago - I'm not a big Dylan fan, but I'll keep an open mind.
9/18/2023 Arcade Fire Funeral (2004)
Never listened to this one at all. Never listened to Arcade Fire at all - reading the Wikipedia, it appears that this album is regarded as one of the greatest of all time. That’s a lot of hype to live up to!
1 Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) - lyrics are very hard to understand,the singing is kind of waily. Rhythm doesn’t seem to shake out until after the first verse. (3)
2 Neighborhood #2 (Laika) - singing modded with discordant echo. I wouldn’t say the lyrics make a lot of sense to me … in this one, the neighbors are dancing in the police disco lights, that’s not bad. In one of the later choruses, the female singer kind of shrieks like Yoko, that’s never something I enjoy. (3)
3 Une Annee Sans Lumiere - lyrics are mostly in French and from what I can tell sung in a very poor accent. You can probably tell that I am so far unimpressed with this album. Big mood change late, with fast strum guitars. I guess that was the “outro” (2)
4 Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) - the fast strum continues, a little better melody and singing this time. Ok, I take it back about the better singing. I kind of like the fast strum as a drone. Discordant string playing as a prelude to chorus, ugh. (3)
5 Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles) - a bit folkier start. Man, some of these lyrics are dramatic - “my eyes are covered by the hands of my unborn kids”. I really can’t gather any meaning from these lyrics, not that they have to have any, just not resonating with me much. I guess I like this one a little better than the others I have heard so far? The strings are really nice, but seems like synthesizer from my reading. I guess this band probably set the stage for bands like Bon Iver and Mumford and Sons. (3)
6 Crown Of Love - old timey piano, weak singing like he’s trapped under something. Droning piano part is ok, with strings over the top. Rhymed cancer and answer in a love song, not sure how to feel about that. Big change at the 3:45 mark, didn’t care for it. I am just not connecting to this record. (2)
7 Wake Up - a bit rockier than the previous tracks, then with choral vocals (3 in unison)? Some better lyrics here too, but they kind of scream them and ruin it. “Our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up”. (3)
8 Haiti - much stronger lyrics here, partly in French. Feeling bad about what I said earlier about accents, because they apparently are French. I’ll just go with “they’re not great at singing.” The music is just a drone march, though. (3) Ending leads into next track which is supposed to be the best on the album.
9 Rebellion (Lies) - definitely their most straightforward composition on the album, still pretty drony, and not great singing. (3)
10 The Backseat - female vocals, again, sound like she might be trapped under something part of the time. Something about her singing style really irritates me. (3)
Ok, obviously I’m familiar with Aerosmith. I see a couple on here that are 5s, Walk This Way, and Sweet Emotion. Be interesting to listen to the rest. Oh yeah, Big Ten Inch Record I’ve heard before. Randall was a big Aerosmith fan for a while, I wouldn’t be surprised if he played this record for me.
Funny, I don’t remember the Smith sounding this way. I always thought of them as a backup Rolling Stones. But Steven Tyler is kind of at the back of the sound a lot of the time.
Ok, got to Walk This Way. Is this album 3 good songs with a bunch of filler?
Track 7 starts off nice - yeah, more Tyler upfront, more harmony … it’s almost like they became Aerosmith after that three song run in the middle. Yeah, even this one is kind of bland after a promising start. Nice Joe Perry work on the solo in the middle though.
