1966 in music. • Page 2

Ugh am I crazy - is this record not on Spotify? Guess I can YouTube it

 

1. Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde
2. The Beatles - Revolver
3. The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds

Honestly, it's a coin toss on the top two. Revolver is monumental and revolutionary: you can hear the boundaries of what pop music can be simply evaporating on some of those songs. But Blonde on Blonde is arguably the greatest collection of songs ever from arguably the greatest songwriter ever, and it's the one I'm feeling just a tad more today.

Pet Sounds trails behind the other two a bit, for me, but that's no slight. Its highlights are some of the best pop songs ever. (Also, the Pet Sounds bit is my favorite running gag on the Chorus.fm boards.)

 

Listened to The Supremes other record from 1966, The Supremes A’ Go-Go.

I knew a handful of these songs already, but don’t think I’d heard this album from them. They were just effortlessly great, consistent and just the easiest music to listen to. Beautiful voices and arrangements, with perfect production for them. Find it hard to imagine them doing anything ever that wasn’t, at absolute worst, a pleasant listen.

Didn’t look at the track list before I hit play, so I had a massive grin as soon as I heard the first few notes of I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch) play.

A very safe choice for my first new listen from 1966, but I loved this.

 

1966 in Music

Best Albums
1. Pet Sounds - The Beach Boys
2. Revolver - The Beatles
3. Fresh Cream - Cream

Best Songs
Good Vibrations - The Beach Boys
You Can't Hurry Love - The Supremes
Tomorrow Never Knows - The Beatles
Eleanor Rigby - The Beatles
Sloop John B - The Beach Boys
Monday, Monday - The Mamas & The Papas
Wouldn't It Be Nice - The Beach Boys
Reach Out, I'll Be There - Four Tops
I Feel Free - Cream
You're Gonna Miss Me - The 13th Floor Elevators
Gimme Some Lovin' - The Spencer Davis Group
Paperback Writer - The Beatles
God Only Knows - The Beach Boys
Along Comes Mary - The Association
Hazy Shade Of Winter - Simon & Garfunkel
Armee Guineenne - Bembeya Jazz National
Eight Miles High - The Byrds
Summer In The City - The Lovin' Spoonful
You Keep Me Hangin' On - The Supremes
We Ain't Got Nothin' Yet - The Blue Magoos
Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) - Nancy Sinatra
Making Time - The Creation
Bus Stop - The Hollies
Shapes Of Things - The Yardbirds
These Boots Are Made For Walking - Nancy Sinatra
96 Tears - ? & The Mysterians
I'm A Believer - The Monkees
Last Train To Clarksville - The Monkees
Sugar Town - Nancy Sinatra
Get Ready - The Temptations
River Deep, Mountain High - Ike & Tina Turner
Mercy, Mercy, Mercy - Cannonball Adderley
Psychotic Reaction - Count Five
Monk Time! - The Monks
Sunshine Superman - Donovan
Good Lovin' - The Young Rascals
Rainy Woman #12 & 35 - Bob Dylan
Season Of The Witch - Donovan
Sunday Morning - The Velvet Underground
Wild Thing - The Troggs
Knock On Wood - Eddie Floyd

Honorable Mention
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly (Score) - Ennio Morricone

 

I understand that it comes down to a matter of preference in style/bias ... but is there a song on Blonde on Blonde that can make a serious solid argument for being better than “Here, There, And Everywhere”?

I say this as someone that has heard Revolver probably 100+ times and Blonde on Blonde maybe 5 times.

 

I looked at the track listing for Blonde On Blonde and realized I recognize zero of the tracks. And I’ve listened to it front to back at one point in my life.

Not a Dylan hater, he just isn’t for me. The tracks I do like from him are on other albums.

 

yeah I think that’s a good take - it’s fair to say he’s an acquired taste and The Beatles are more “immediate”.

 

IMO, very few songs are better than “Visions of Johanna” or “Just Like a Woman.”

 

This is where to me, it’s beautiful that music is subjective. Everyone can take away their own experience from hearing a song. I’m listening to both of these as I type this. And I totally enjoy it, respect it, and even hear melody in Dylan’s voice (which is more than you’d an say for much of his later work). In fact, my boy Adam G from War on Drugs is clearly aping this vocal style in many ways, and I LOVE me some WOD.

But overall I just don’t get the same FEELING I get when I hear songs from Revolver. They don’t hit me the same way. I know a lot of that is nostalgia and it’s entirely subjective. I also think it’s fair to say that The Beatles are easily digestible for the masses, and Dylan is at least partly revered by critics because many of the masses don’t ‘get’ him.

Any way I look at it, it’s all beautiful music and we are splitting hairs here. I’m thankful for all of it.

 

Just Like A Woman is gorgeous. I love the structure of it. A lot of Dylan songs just sort of repeat verse verse verse another verse. This one changes it up more.

 

1. The Beatles - Revolver
2. The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
3. Bob Dylan - Blonde On Blonde

Honorable Mention (alphabetical order):
The Animals - Animalization
Buffalo Springfield - Buffalo Springfield
The Byrds - Fifth Dimension
Cream - Fresh Cream
Donovan - Sunshine Superman
The Kinks - Face To Face
Love - Da Capo
The Mamas & The Papas - If You Can Believe Your Eyes & Ears
The Mamas & The Papas - S/T
The Monkees - S/T
The Rolling Stones - Aftermath
Simon & Garfunkel - Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, & Thyme
Simon & Garfunkel - Sounds of Silence
The Sonics - The Sonics Boom
The Who - A Quick One
The Yardbirds - Roger The Engineer
The Young Rascals - S/T

Listening This Week:
The Animals - Animalism
The Association - And Then...Along Comes
13th Floor Elevators - The Psychedlic Sounds Of...
The Lovin' Spoonful - Hums of The Lovin' Spoonful
The Mothers Of Invention - Freak Out!
Otis Redding - Dictionary Of Soul
Sammy Davis, Jr. - Sammy Davis, Jr. Sings and Laurindo Almeida Plays
The Supremes - I Hear A Symphony
Them - Them Again
The Troggs - From Nowhere

Singles:
The Beatles -"Paperback Writer"
The Beatles - "Rain" (easily one of the most underrated Beatles songs)
The Beach Boys - "Good Vibrations"

a lot more I'm forgetting.... It's already getting difficult to take in a year in a week hahaha. Work getting in the way!

 

See, the thing with Dylan is that you almost have to commit yourself to an extremely focused listen (or 50!) to really get to the bottom of what makes him so spectacular. Blonde on Blonde is a very musically accomplished record, with (IMO) a lot of great melodies, but it's his lyrical work that makes those songs some of the best ever written. Like, just take a read through "Visions of Johanna." It's so staggering and so unique, with this enormous depth of emotion and scene setting that is so rare in songwriting. "Just Like a Woman" is a little bit different, because I genuinely think it's a spectacular pop song. But "Johanna" and "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" and a few other songs on there are just so layered and interesting. I've heard that record a lot of times and still feel like I find something new in the lyrics every time.

And that's no slight at all to The Beatles, to Revolver, or to "Here, There and Everywhere," which is absolutely one of the most gorgeous songs of all time. If I had to pick one favorite song from The Beatles' or Dylan's remarkable 65-66 runs, it would probably be "In My Life."

Funny story: I first heard "Just Like a Woman" from a Something Corporate cover, and it remains amazing to me how well that song could become a 2000s emo-pop anthem. Like I said, I think it's just a great pop song.

 

plenty! visions of johanna and temporary like achilles come to mind immediately

they appeal to different parts of music though. production mastery vs. lyrical/songwriting mastery

though if I'm being honest, I don't think here there everywhere would be a top 5 song for me off revolver

 

jeff buckley's cover of just like a woman is unreal

 

Yes! Seriously I will admit a massive flaw in my music fandom - to you and @Craig Manning ‘s points, I never put much weight on lyrics. So I can understand completely how that impacts or lessens my appreciation of Dylan’s craft. I would love to have the time to give Blonde on Blonde 50 listens or more. I’m sure in my lifetime I will but damn!

 

So well said, man- I will make a point to do a read-along with lyrics this week to as much of the album as possible, or at least these songs we’ve been discussing. It’s actually one of my favorite things to do with new songs as it has irked me (like I mentioned) that intrinsically I don’t put as much importance on lyrics in music.

 

also i'd rather take robbie robertson's playing that album over anything from, honestly, any beatles album. no disrespect.

 

always a curiosity for me and I haven’t read or watched anything that deep dives into Dylan’s records or anything, so forgive me if I sound naive. But The credits for Blonde on Blonde list 6 guitarists (besides Dylan himself) that contribute to the record, so I always struggle with knowing who did what. It even goes as far to say as :

“The personnel involved in making Blonde on Blonde is subject to some discrepancy.”

Doesn’t take away from the brilliance necessarily - just a curiosity - do you actually know which guitar parts are Robertson’s ? Can you kind of just TELL from his style?

Again my takeaway is I just need to listen more. LOL

 

Next let’s talk for a hot second about Harrison crushing it with TAXMAN.

 

if the lead on "I want you" isn't robertson, I don't know anything

 

“Taxman” is one of those songs that rarely comes to mind for me but whenever I listen to it I’m all in. Great opener

 

it's the best on the album imo

 

I might have to do one of those rankings of every song on the album like we do in the Weezer threads now for Revolver.

 

Okay you got me on that one - incredible song and certainly Robertson.

 

I’m just a sucker for 3 minute pop songs