1001 Albums Summary

Album review 012 Live at the Star Club, Hamburg by Jerry Lee Lewis (1964) Rating 1/5 When the 1001 Album Generator dealt me this album, my first thoughts were about separating art from the artist. Is it ok to listen to Morrissey since he outed himself as a racist/fascist, or Phil Spector’s work despite the domestic abuse and murder conviction, or Michael Jackson after he morphed from the abused to the abuser??? With his history of domestic abuse, incest, paedophillia, racism, two dead wives and the associated murder “allegations”, etc, etc… it’s pretty clear in my conscience: No matter how good the performance might be, F*ck Jerry Lee Lewis and Live at the Hamburg. 1/5.

Album review 025 Thriller by Michael Jackson (1982) Rating 1/5 Ignoring context and taking this album for the music only, Thriller is exceptional. However, and it’s a pretty big however… Michael Jackson was “allegedly” abusing young boys from the late-70’s and, at the time of this recording, there were already several reports of him having regular unsupervised “sleep-overs” with children at both his home and in hotel rooms. As good as this album is, Michael Jackson was a predatory paedophile and I can’t separate him and his behaviour from his music.

Album review 027 Eliminator by ZZ Top (1983) Rating 1.5/5 Whilst I wasn’t expecting Eliminator to be an album I’d particularly enjoy, I had no idea it would be so bad. It’s the same song played 10 times over about how women only exist for ZZ Top to “do love to” (yes, that is a lyric), and one song about tv dinners - which is presumably a metaphor for ZZ Top doing love to women. If Eliminator was a person, he’d be on a register, wouldn’t be allowed to see his kids, and probably not allowed within 500 metres of his ex-wives or schools. This is music for the middle-aged lech, day drinking on his own in a Hard Rock Cafe and hitting on girls half his age. Awful paint-by-numbers MTV rock.

Album Review 057 Movies by Holger Czukay (1979) Rating 3.5/5 This is the reason I’m here on the 1001albumsgenerator adventure; findings an album I’ve never heard and would unlikely to find without it being recommended, but would now recommend myself after hearing. Movies sounds like the product of a hugely talented and creative artist given the key to the recording studio and being told “go have fun”, and is the type of album that folk with a more mainstream taste in music would likely turn off in the first 20seconds. Here we have 4 tracks totalling 39 minutes: The first (Cool In The Pool) is quirky and built over a crisp and funky riff. It sounds like it’s trying to be humorous whilst serious and is the weakest track here. Second (Oh Lord, Give Us Money) is a jam session with Czukay’s Can bandmates with sampled snippets of radio. Third comes the most conventional track on the album, which is still unconventional in itself with Arabic melodies and singing and is the highlight of the album. Finally, there is the 15-minute epic of Hollywood Symphony, where Holger takes dozens of song ideas and mushes them together to create something that would take the full 15-minutes to describe. On paper, this has all the ingredients to be an album that I’d love, but on first listen I find it more interesting than enjoyable. However, there is so much here I’ll no doubt give it (or at least side two) another close listen with expectation that I’ll grow into it.