1969 in music. • Page 3

They're a band where I know their greatest hits album really well but just for whatever reason never delved into the discography.

 

most of the best songs are the deep cuts. enjoy.

 

By the way, for anyone still peddling the bullshit myth that streaming has "everything ever released" fully THREE of my target albums to listen to are not available to stream.

 

Alright, it's going to be a CCR afternoon. I've heard the debut, but not any of the 1969 albums. Off I go!

 

Lucky bastard. Probably the best year a band has ever had.

 

Even just looking at the tracklists, I can't believe these were all one year. Their 1970 looks pretty nuts, too.

 

yeah 70 takes the cake for me with them, if for ramble tamble alone

 

Listened to King Crimson's In the Court of the Crimson King today. I know this most from the Kanye West sample, so every time I hear that refrain in "21st Century Schizoid Man", I automatically play the Power beat in my head.

There's a lot (a lot!) going on here, and it's something that would definitely take more than one listen to really digest it. I did find there were times when it got a bit too free jazzy or avant garde, with the 12 minutes of Moonchild feeling like quite a long time. When it blends all those disparate sounds into great prog-rock is when I enjoyed it most - but there were definitely difficult parts here for me. Appreciate this is a "dense" album, so definitely need more than one listen.

Killer album cover too.

 

1. The Beatles - Abbey Road
2. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin
3. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II

Others I Love:
Crosby, Stills, & Nash - CSN
The Beatles - Yellow Submarine EP/OST (Yeah, I know this shouldn't really count)
Bob Dylan - Nashville Skyline
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bayou Country
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Green River
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Willy & The Poor Boys
David Bowie - S/T (Space Oddity)
The Doors - The Soft Parade
Glen Campbell - Galveston
The Guess Who - Canned Wheat
The Guess Who - Wheatfield Soul
King Crimson - In The Court of the Crimson King
MC5 - Kick Out The Jams
Neil Young - Neil Young
Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left
The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed
The Stooges - The Stooges
The Who - Tommy

Albums I realized I know one or more songs from but likely never heard the whole thing/ON THE LIST:
Allman Brothers Band - The Allman Brothers Band
The Band - The Band
The Beach Boys - 20/20
Blind Faith - Blind Faith
CAN - Monster Movie
Cream - Goodbye
The Flying Burrito Brothers - The Gilded Palace Of Sin
Free - Free
The Grass Roots - Lovin' Things
The Grateful Dead - Aoxomoxoa
The Kinks - Arthur or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire
Leonard Cohen - Songs From A Room
The Moody Blues - On The Threshold Of A Dream
The Moody Blues - To Our Children's Children's Children
Nazz - Nazz Nazz
Pink Floyd - Ummagumma
The Rascals - Freedom Suite
Santana - Santana
Sly & The Family Stone - Stand
Steve Miller Band - Brave New World
Tommy James & The Shondells - Crimson & Clover
Traffic - Last Exit
The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground

 

Also had a moment last night when listening to that Free record -



Anybody else see any similarities to another piece of album art that was JUST released this week!?

 

yes and the album is very good

edit: the free album lol

 

Got to five records yesterday. Two of which I hadn't heard before, the other three I was revisiting.

Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin I
Thought I had heard this before but I'm not entirely sure and feel like I would've definitely remembered it if I had. Right off the bat they felt like a dream team band. Feels like they entered the studio knowing exactly who they were and what they wanted to do. There's a reason we still talk about them today and I think the debut paints a good picture of why. I could go on forever about Bonham in particular. A million drummers could play those parts note for note and never be able to capture it the way he did. What a star

The Flying Burrito Brothers - The Gilded Palace of Sin
Hadn't listened to this one in a while. Overall FBB is probably one of the easier listening experiences for me. Just super easy to sink into and enjoy. "Hot Burrito #1" and "Hot Burrito #2" are always the stand outs for me.

Genesis - From Genesis to Revelation
I'm mostly familiar with Genesis' 80s stuff so this was a bit of culture shock. Definitely hints at what Peter Gabriel had up his sleeve and some really spectacular arrangements.

Joni Mitchell - Clouds
A hint of the greatness that was to come, but a lot of this knocked me off my feet. There's only one Joni Mitchell.

Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left
I actually haven't spent a ton of time with this one so it was nice to sit down and give it all my attention. Another case of someone being excellent at what they do. It feels lukewarm to just say "this is very nice and I like it a lot" but I really don't have much to say, it's just a beautiful work

 

Who knew Lorde was such a big Paul Rogers fan?

 

My sales pitch for The Moody Blues:

I'm biased because I've loved them since I was probably 11 or 12, but they hold up to continued attention. They are absolutely unique in that they have four distinct songwriters and singers who mostly write alone and sing lead on their tracks, and their records are divided fairly evenly among them. Other bands have it to a lesser degree, but there's some magic in having four creative minds all working at once, but somehow all the songs still fit into a "Moody Blues" sound, in large part because their incredible harmony blend ties them all together.

When I started listening to them, I fell in love with Justin Hayward's epic masterpieces and the rest of the guys were fine. Then I fell in love with Mike Pinder's introdpective/probing stuff. Then with time, the rockers from John Lodge and the prim English ditties of Ray Thomas grew on me. Now I love them all in their own way.

Another huge part of the magic? Mike Pinder was a genius. Other bands used the Mellotron on a song or two ("Rain Song", "Tuesday's Gone", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "She's a Rainbow", "Space Oddity"), but Mike Pinder made the Mellotron his life's work. Dude composed personal symphonies on that keyboard and it gives their music a completely otherworldly grandeur that a regular orchestra wouldn't have. Cannot say enough about his greatness.

A Question of Balance in '70 is their masterpiece, but I love the fuck out of their two '69 releases as well.

 

Ummagumma
Let it Bleed
In a Silent Way

there’s so many it’s insane to pick three

 

I’m going to listen to one or both of these today.

Fun fact - a few years ago during my hotel management days, John Lodge and his wife stayed at the hotel I was working at in Tampa for about 10 days. He was actually a really nice guy. I didn’t even connect the dots until about 3-4 days in when I just got this feeling that he was “somebody”.

 

i don’t think i’ve ever listened to the moody blues. i’m finishing up a guided by voices run and once i do i’ll fire that album up.

 

Seems as good a time as any to share this classic:

“can the poems, it’s arse-whooping time!”

 

Okay jokes aside, DAMN On The Threshold Of A Dream is great.

You all were not kidding about the variety in songwriting and styles, but it all WORKS. This is thoroughly enjoyable - I will spare trying to even describe what makes this good since @cshadows2887 already did this, but I'm loving it. Several of the songs are so immediate too, (but while also being musically interesting), I found myself singing a bunch of them before the song even ended.

Find of the week so far.

 

I listened to Johnny Cash's At San Quentin, which is another prison concert he did. As with Folsom Prison for me, the most enjoyment here is with the banter and between song chatter. Cash is a relaxed and confident performer, playing up to what the prisoners want to hear and a fantastic and funny presence.

I'm not sure I needed to hear "San Quentin" twice back to back, but the audience clearly did, which is what matters! It's solid and enjoyable as opposed to Folsom Prison, which feels a bit more essential to me. I can see there is a longer 31 track cut of this album, so maybe that's a better document of it, than the 10 track standard edition I heard.

I'm not sure if the album itself is censored, or just the copy on Apple Music, but there were a few distracting bleeps whenever Cash says "shit" or whatever.

This concert is also where that famous picture of Johnny Cash comes from too;

 

I totally forgot about this scene. Laughed until I snorted.

So pumped you enjoyed it. On most days, "Never Comes the Day" is my favorite Moodies song.

 

song is absolutely gorgeous. Had a weird feeling with that one as if I’ve heard it quite a few times but never quite tucked it away in my brain as “knowing” it. But that has officially changed as of today.

 

Joni Mitchell - Clouds
Right before she made the leap to holy-shit greatness, but still a beautiful, thoughtful album. "Chelsea Morning" is beautiful but the real winner is the just spine-tingling transition from "The Fiddle and the Drum" into "Both Sides Now", one of the best songs ever recorded by anyone.

Tommy James and the Shondells - Crimson and Clover
Man, I always liked singles but I had no idea how much I was going to fall in love with their albums during this process. They're pros, so they saw which way the wind was blowing and embraced quirky psychedelia, but the songwriting and the production are, like always, there. And hard to argue with an album that has "Crimson and Clover" and "Crystal Blue Persuasion"

Norman Greenbaum - Spirit in the Sky
Always been curious about him because he's from Malden, MA (where I teach) and went to BU (my alma mater). Seeing Allmusic and Christgau give him good reviews sealed the deal. He's pretty delightfully quirky without ever being flashy. Exactly the kind of album I want on during summer. Unpretentious, but well-crafted songwriter-rock.

Pentangle - Basket of Light
Was a little on the fence about this one. The guitars are, obviously, insane (Bert Jansch was in the band). The kinda traditional English vibes I feel like suffer in comparison to the greatness of Fairport Convention and its offshoots (Sandy Denny, Richard and Linda Thompson, etc.) but I suspect they'd grow on me with time.

 

I made it point to listen to every GBV album. Pollard writes great songs with the apparent ease at which most men scratch themselves.

Also, that’s pretty wild to have never listened to The Moody Blues. You must be pretty young. Lost Chord is my personal fave. But Future Passed is probably the best starting place.

imo

 

Days of Future Passed just doesn’t have the songs the rest of their records do. The novelty of the orchestra does a lot and Hayward’s two songs are as good as anything they ever did, but it gets a little thin beyond that