Posts Tagged ‘SamuraiFrog’
May 14th, 2013 | 
Author: Now we are hitting those albums that matter the most to me. It should be no surprise that the Beatles show up, more than once.
25. Bill Cosby: Why Is There Air? (1965)
Answer: “To blow up volleyball, basketballs.” It’s how I could ‘”see” Lombard Street in San Francisco a couple decades before visiting it in person. I learned that “traffic tickets are like savings bonds; the longer you keep them, the greater they mature.”
24. Paul Butterfield Blues Band: East West (1966)
The band with Michael Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop. Features a Monkees song (‘Mary, Mary’) and the classic jazz tune ‘The Work Song’.
23. Sly & The Family Stone: Stand (1969)
If I can’t put the greatest hits on the list, this is the album: ‘I Want to Take You Higher’, ‘Sing a Simple Song,’ ‘Everyday People,’ ‘You Can Make It If You Try’, and the title track, plus some interesting non-singles tracks, too.
22. Neil Young: After The Gold Rush (1970)
‘When You Dance, I Can Really Love’ was my song to the college girlfriend. Has a bunch of other good stuff too.
21. Led Zeppelin Read the rest of this entry »
More of the SamuraiFrog-inspired madness shortly. You may find this article interesting: Many classic hits are secretly re-recorded. I remember buying a soul collection (3 CDs), and all but a half dozen tracks were by the original artists, but NOT the original tracks. Likewise with a Herman’s Hermits’ greatest hits collection. VERY disappointing when one discovers it; the ear knows.
50. Temptations: With A Lot O’ Soul (1967)
Usually a Temptations album is under the direction of one producer, such as Smokey Robinson or Norman Whitfield. But this was a transitional time, which made the album more eclectic.
49. Beatles: White Album (1968)
Remember hearing it for the first time in the basement of the Unitarian church in Binghamton, NY.
48. Roberta Flack: Chapter Two (1970)
Three extraordinary songs out of the eight.
47. Doors: Waiting For The Sun (1968)
‘Hello, I Love You’ is the single, and the least interesting song on the album.
46. Cream Read the rest of this entry »
SamuraiFrog turned me onto a Beach Boys song I had forgotten, even though I own it.
Now back to our regularly scheduled list:
75. Donovan: Barababajagal (1969)
Love IS hot.
74. Bob Dylan: John Wesley Harding (1967)
73. Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass: The Lonely Bull (1962)
I preferred the cover of Whipped Cream and Other Delights, but I liked the music of this album better, which was not only the first one by the TJB, but also the first album on A&M Records.
72. Big Brother And The Holding Company: Cheap Thrills (1968)
This is the Janis Joplin album with the R. Crumb artwork
71. Crosby Stills & Nash: Crosby, Stills, and Nash (1969)
The first supergroup: guys from The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and the Hollies, though I did not know this at the time.
70. The Jackson 5: Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5 (1969)
My near twin Gordon once noted that Michael’s vocal on Smokey Robinson’s ‘Who’s Loving you’ belied his tender age.
69. Bob Dylan: Nashville Skyline (1969)
My high school girlfriend really turned me on to Dylan generally, and this album specifically.
68. Beatles Read the rest of this entry »
George Jones’ death reminded me of an album I didn’t put on the list, because I suppose it’s a greatest hits, of a sort: 50 Stars! 50 Hits! of Country Songs, “on two great country albums,” it said on the TV ad. But I didn’t buy it. My grandfather, who worked as a janitor at a radio/TV station, brought it home one day. Being a fan of WWVA, Wheeling, WV, which I could hear at night, I loved it.
Re: Amy’s question about Dusty Springfield: I’ve had a greatest hits album for quite a while, but I’ve only gotten Dusty in Memphis fairly recently, certainly since she died, so it doesn’t have the multiple plays to make the list. Also, there are additional songs on the CD (some leaking into the next decade – 1971) which I like as well or better than the songs on the original LP.
More of my favorite albums; thanks to SamuraiFrog for the inspiration. Read the rest of this entry »
Continuing with this list of my favorite albums of the decade. I want to specifically reiterate that they are not necessarily the best, but that they gave, and not infrequently give, me enjoyment.
Before that, though, gotta mention one album on SamuraiFrog’s excellent finale. Judy Garland: Judy at Carnegie Hall (1961) is not on my list. I never owned it, though I was certainly aware of it. The Capitol Records LP inner sleeves from the mid-1960s – the Beatles and Beach Boys were on the label – always featured it. Probably the first of several albums on his list I’ll have to check out.
125. The Who: Sell Out (1967)
Another album I discovered only in the past decade, via my old friend Fred Hembeck. The motif of faux ads was stolen on some SpongeBob SquarePants CD I own.
124. Joe Cocker: Mad Dogs and Englishmen (1970)
Love the Frenchman’s introduction – “Joe Co-CARE”
123. Rascals: Collections (1967)
The second album, not a greatest hits.
122. Beach Boys: Sunflower (1970)
Underrated at a point the Beach Boys were pretty much written off commercially.
121. Doors: Strange Days (1967)
120. Rolling Stones Read the rest of this entry »
moi, a couple years ago
The Fagbug meets Equality House.
Arthur: “When I was a kid, I expected life to be a certain way, and that way did not include being true to myself. I simply couldn’t imagine that one day I might be a full citizen.” Here is his favorite speech (it IS a hoot) and his favorite moment in the marriage equality passage in New Zealand.
The Man On the Street: Three Decades of Street Harassment.
This month in 1889, the so-called “Unassigned Lands” in what is now central Oklahoma were opened to white settlement, the celebrated Oklahoma Land Run. “The Native tribes, you may be sure, aren’t quite so enthusiastic about celebrating.”
Mr. Frog re: Spike Lee’s School Daze and a Ramble About Racism.
10 Cover-ups That Just Made Things Worse.
27 science fictions that became fact in 2012.
Meryl: Logos: The power of grounding logic and expectations in our communications. Also, Optical Illusions and their role in Education, Brain Training, and Visual Literacy; at least check out the video at the end of the latter one.
I whine a lot about writing, but I never have whined quite so persuasively as this.
MY FAVORITE STORY OF THE MONTH: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Uncategorized | 
Tags: Jaquandor, Jonathan Winters, Ken Jennings, Ken Levine, Mark Evanier, music, SamuraiFrog, science, Sharp Little Pencil, Tegan, writing | 
4 Comments »
SamuraiFrog has ” been doing a massive project for the past couple of years: listening to all of the music I ever wanted to listen to, in chronological order… I thought I’d jump back into the sixties and make a big list of favorites… So, in my journey through the 1960s, here are my 100 favorites of the many, many albums I listened to, 20 a day for the rest of the week.”
He wrote about them HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE.
“A couple of ground rules, though:
“First, I count in units of 10, so the years active here are 1961-1970.”
Well, OK. Must say, though, that most of the albums I listed for 1970 I played in college, while the ones from 1969 and earlier were from high school, so it represents a sea change in perspective, though there was some carryover.
“Second, no greatest hits albums or compilations. I always feel like that’s cheating to have them on the same list as proper albums, because compilations are the cherry-picked best.”
True, though most of my albums early on WERE greatest hits. Herman’s Hermits, much of my early Motown, Donovan, and especially Sly and the Family Stone.