When Gram Parsons was on, he was really, really good. My favorites on this album are "Hot Burrito #1" and "Sin City" (of which Dwight Yoakam does a great cover version). Side note--I visited Parsons' hometown, Waycross, Georgia, several years ago--not a whole lot there. You can see why he was anxious to get out.
I like Big Star, but I'm not CRAZY about them like some people are. I feel like they're one of those bands that's a bit overrated now because they were underrated at the time. This would be heresy to some of my friends, but I'm actually kind of partial to Alex Chilton's former band, The Box Tops. That said, "Ballad of El Goodo" is one of my favorite songs, and I do like the album overall.
So I'm a huge ELO fan, BUT . . . I don't think this is one of their best albums. The curse of the double album--too much weaker material watering down the good stuff. "Turn to Stone" is a great opener, and "Sweet Is the Night" is probably the best ELO song that never became a hit, and there are some other good moments, but the two albums preceding this one--El Dorado and A New World Record--are both better front to back. I hope El Dorado is also included in "1001 Albums," because if it ain't it should be.
If you'd asked me when I was about twenty-one, I'd probably have said this was my favorite album ever. I wouldn't go that far now, but I could still listen to "Down by the River/Cowgirl in the Sand" all day long--they're two of the most distinctive songs I can think of by any songwriter/musician. No one could have made this album other than Neil Young, which is why, like all Neil Young albums, it contains a couple of duds ("Round and Round" and "Requiem") . . . but the rest of it is stellar.
Ha! Nic, you want to just copy and paste?
Not as good as any Steely Dan album from '72 to '80. Which, I think, would mean all of them.
I could never understand why everyone went wild over this album at the time of its release. It's good, sure . . . but not THAT good. Strokes, Franz Ferdinand, Interpol--I was always about a half-ass fan.
I have mixed feelings about this one. "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love" still sound great sixty years on, but some of the other material tends to sink into the primordial psychedelic ooze. I'm a much bigger fan of JA's album "Volunteers," which came along a few years later.
I really like this album EXCEPT for the thing I'm always told I'm supposed to go crazy over, which are the two long, extended, shrill and increasingly annoying songs/guitar jams/sonic explosions that open and close the album. The stuff sandwiched in the middle is interesting and quirky and kind of fun. But it comes out to about fifteen minutes of material. Overall, it feels like another entry in the "didn't get enough attention when it came out and for that reason and others (George Clinton eventually becoming GEORGE CLINTON) wound up getting a bit TOO much love ultimately" category. I appreciate that they were branching out into uncharted waters, but 1971 was a fantastic year for soul/r&b; Marvin Gaye, Roberta Flack, Sytlistics, Chi-Lites, Sly Stone, Al Green, Ike and Tina and more I'm sure I'm forgetting put out major albums that year. Not to mention that it was also one of the best years ever for pop/rock. It's kind of easy to see how Maggot Brain got overlooked. And I can't say I'd put it in my top 20 albums for that year. 3 1/2.
