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My favorite albums from 1961-1970: 50-26

Songs in Latin and French.

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: Goodbye (1969)
Album has three live songs, including the definitive version of ‘I’m So Glad’. It also features Badge, written by Clapton and George Harrison.

45. Janis Joplin: Pearl (1970)
Contains the posthumous #1 single Me and Bobby McGee. I was singing ‘Mercedes Benz’ at work around that time. and someone thought it was a Temptations song. Weird.

44. Aretha Franklin: Lady Soul (1968)
It was my sister’s album, so I played it less than it warranted.

43. Jefferson Airplane: Surrealistic Pillow (1967)
Their second album, with ‘White Rabbit.’

42. Neil Young: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969)
Two very long songs, but also my second favorite Neil song, Cinnamon Girl.

41. Vanilla Fudge: Vanilla Fudge (1967)
Great covers of the Beatles, Supremes, Zombies, Sonny & Cher.

40. Led Zeppelin: III (1970)
The worst-selling LZ album. I liked it because it was more mellow.

39. Four Tops: Reach Out (1967)
I believe it was my sister’s album.

38. Temptations: Psychedelic Shack (1970)
That’s where it’s at.

Meet_the_supremes_1965 — **Cover of the 1965 reissue, which I still own.**

37. Supremes: Meet the Supremes (1962)
The first several singles from the former Primettes were commercial flops, but I enjoyed them, especially ‘Buttered Popcorn.’

36. Traffic: John Barleycorn Must Die (1970)
Was always ‘Glad’ to listen to this album.

35. Jefferson Airplane: Volunteers (1969)
Heavily political, but also has the lovely ‘Good Shepherd.’

34. Judy Collins: Who Knows Where The Time Goes (1968)
My grade school friend Lois gave this to me on my 16th birthday. She said apologetically, “I don’t know if you’ll like it; it’s kinda countryish.” Yes, there is a pedal steel guitar on a couple of songs, but I liked it very much, thank you.

33. Best of Joan Baez (1963)
After Joan made it big on Vanguard Records, a minor label put out this misleading title, which I wrote about.

32. King Crimson: In The Court Of The Crimson King (1969)
I was in a mall in Oneonta, NY a few years ago and heard some really irritating remake of ‘21st Century Schizoid Man,’ a song I loved. Used to play it as loud as the neighborhood would bear.

31. Steppenwolf: Steppenwolf (1968)
This album contains ‘Born To Be Wild’ and ‘The Pusher’, both of which would end up on the Easy Rider soundtrack, but it is ‘The Ostrich’ that was the highlight for me. I forgot that I used to have a feature on this blog called Underplayed Vinyl.

30. Diana Ross and the Supremes: Love Child (1968)
The last good Supremes album, with ‘Keep An Eye’ and ‘Honey Bee’ standouts for me.

29. Paul McCartney: McCartney (1970)
It was like a home recording, Paul, with Linda, noodling about. Yet created my favorite Macca song ever, ‘Maybe I’m Amazed.’

28. Santana: Abraxas (1970)
The segue from ‘Black Magic Woman to Gypsy Queen’ was, well, magical, then followed by ‘Oye Como Va’. The second album, and the first after Woodstock.

27. Hair: Original Broadway Cast Recording (1968)
Played this so much on vinyl that I knew where all the pops and skips were.

26. James Taylor: Sweet Baby James (1970)
There was a law passed in 1971 that every college dorm room in the US HAD to have Carole King’s Tapestry and this album.

The Health Report, Spring 2013

What ARE those thing that look like snow flurries or spent dandelions?

So what’s been going on with me since I got out of the hospital in mid-April, knowing my cardiovascular system was OK? Went to my primary care physician, where we kvetched together about public education. She’s going to schedule me for a stress test.

Meanwhile, I went to an orthopedic practice. My left knee has hurt on and off since I tore the meniscus in 1994. Now I have a touch of the bursitis. (My grandmother always used the definite article before all ailments, such as the arthritis, which she called the arthuritis; don’t think it had anything to do with Kiwis from Chicago.) The bursitis and the arthuritis, which I had in that knee before, sound like an old person’s ailments, but then I took a look at my date of birth on my passport, only to be surprised to find how old I really am! Got a cortisone shot in the knee, which helped some.

I’m supposed to go for physical therapy for my left elbow. Not sure if I have tennis elbow or golfer’s elbow – I don’t play either sport and certainly not with my left arm. The brace does aid me a bit.

Then I went to the gastroenterologist’s office in anticipation of getting a colonoscopy in late June. It’s been 10 years. Not incidentally, my wife gets one every five years because her brother John died of colon cancer at the age of 42 back in 2002.

While my wife and daughter went on a 4.5-mile CROP walk against hunger this past Sunday, I rode my bike nearby. It had been so cold and overcast for so long that I did not prepare properly and got a bit of sunburn on the top of my head, and even worse on the back of my hands, where the vitiligo is prominent; it has been red and itchy for days, and lotions aren’t helping.

Meanwhile, why is it that I’m so stuffed up? Could it be the stuff floating around here? And what ARE those things that look like snow flurries or spent dandelions? I decided to ask my Facebook friends. A couple of them said it was cottonwood, but Lynn Moss, a longtime reader of this blog, added: “It’s probably not the cottonwood that is causing your allergies, but something else coincidentally releasing pollen.” She even provided this video. Another said, “It is the pine pollen. Coincides with the release of cottonwood seeds in our area…” The picture above may or may not be the culprit, but someone sent it to me, so what the heck.
***
Here’s some sage advice about the problems with self-diagnosis.

Those damn standardized tests

Someone lied to my child that she’ll otherwise flunk third grade, and this caused her undue stress, which really ticked me off.

There’s a columnist for the Metroland weekly newspaper, Miriam Axel-Lute, who wrote on her Facebook page the middle of last month: “Good luck to all the parents and kids who are refusing this crazy high stakes testing tomorrow. Stand strong.” My daughter had been stressing over these same tests, but I was unaware of this “opt-out” thing. I replied, “Damn test is ticking me off.” She then asked me and a few others: “Would you guys talk to a Metroland reporter about this? I’m going to be opinionated about it in my column next week, but I think they are also interested in maybe doing a reported news story.” Another guy said likewise, adding “Albany schools get enough unwarranted BS, and removing my kids from the mix will cause more.” True enough; if fewer than 95% of the kids take the test, the school could be taken over by the state, as I understand it.

This is how busy I am lately: I received a Google Alert on April 25 based on ‘Roger Green’. Usually, it’s some OTHER Roger Green, but in this case, it was the story for which I was interviewed by phone the previous week. Also in that issue: Miriam’s column on opting out.

I hope it’s clear that I believe my daughter would/will probably do well on the test. It’s just that someone lied to my child that she’ll otherwise flunk third grade, and this caused her undue stress, which really ticked me off. We HAVEN’T opted to opt out – yet – because it’s unclear what it would mean to my child. Would she sit in the classroom silently for 70 minutes at a time while others take the test? Would there be some type of retribution against her? Indeed, after the fact, I worried about participating in the article.

Also, my wife’s teaching schedule – she’s an iterant teacher of English as a Second Language – has been mightily disrupted. If I thought the end was worth it, I wouldn’t complain. But this No Child Left Behind/Race To the Top stuff, to my mind, is bogus.

My favorite albums from 1961-1970: 75-51

Just THINKING about this album gives me a buzz.

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: Please Please Me (1963)
I didn’t grow up with those early UK Beatles albums, but with the US equivalents, which were, more or less Introducing the Beatles (VeeJay Records) and The Early Beatles (Capitol Records).

67. Simon & Garfunkel: Bookends(1968)
Wrote about ‘At the Zoo’ HERE.

66. Walter Carlos (Wendy Carlos): Switched-On Bach (1968)

65. John Lennon: Plastic Ono Band (1970)
Sometimes painful, but sincere.

64. Three Dog Night: Three Dog Night (1969)
Though it always bugged me that the a cappella ‘It’s For You’ is flat.

63. Yes: Yes (1969)

62. Jimi Hendrix: Electric Ladyland (1968)
Just THINKING about this album gives me a buzz.

61. Van Morrison: His Band and Street Choir (1970)
‘Domino’ and ‘Blue Money’ and a bunch of songs you don’t know, but should.

60. Chicago: Chicago Transit Authority (1969)
The first album, which didn’t really hit its peak until after the second album was released. Especially love ‘I’m a Man.’

59. Mamas And Papas: If You Can Believe Your Eyes And Ears (1966)
That first album.

58. Rascals: Groovin’ (1967)
In addition to the hits, ‘It’s Love.’

57. Beatles: Magical Mystery Tour (1967)
The UK never had a comparable album, so they adopted the US model in 1976.

56. Simon & Garfunkel: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme (1966)
Actually, my father bought this album. He liked ‘7 O’clock News/Silent Night.’

55. Isaac Hayes: Hot Buttered Soul (1969)
Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic!

54. Bill Cosby: I Started Out As a Child (1964)
Loved the liner notes, how it described how his descriptions weren’t jokes but slices of life that caused one to laugh in recognition.

53. Beatles: Help (1965)
Though I missed the instruments from the US version – which was finally released a few years back – the rest of the songs make up for the loss.

52. Blood Sweat & Tears: Blood, Sweat, and Tears (1969)
Yup, that second album, the one with all the hits.

51. Rolling Stones: Aftermath (1966)
The first LP of theirs I considered an album, rather than singles and filler.
Slightly different in the US and the UK, but I have both.

Q is for quixotic quest

The Impossible Dream was written for the 1965 musical Man of La Mancha. It is the main song from the musical and became its most popular hit.

I love the fact that many words we use every day come from literature. The notion of quixotism “appeared after the publication of El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha in 1605. Don Quixote, the hero of this novel, written by the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, dreams up a romantic ideal world which he believes to be real, and acts on this idealism…”

Merriam-Webster’s first definition of quixotic is “foolishly impractical especially in the pursuit of ideals.” I happen to like the notion of tilting at windmills; some of the greatest successes of social justice seemed impossible to achieve.

Speaking of impossible, “The Impossible Dream (The Quest)” is a popular song composed by Mitch Leigh, with lyrics written by Joe Darion. “It was written for the 1965 musical Man of La Mancha. It is the main song from the musical and became its most popular hit.

“The song is sung all the way through once in the musical by Don Quixote as he stands vigil over his armor, in response to Aldonza (Dulcinea)’s question about what he means by ‘following the quest’. It is reprised partially three more times—the last by prisoners in a dungeon as Miguel de Cervantes and his manservant mount the drawbridge-like prison staircase to face trial by the Spanish Inquisition.”

It seemed to have been sung by most of the “grownup” singers of the day. Possibly most notably, on an episode of the sitcom Gomer Pyle, USMC, entitled “The Show Must Go On,” which aired November 3, 1967, watch Marine PFC Pyle (Jim Nabors) transforms from the high-pitched former auto mechanic from Mayberry, NC to a confident, rich baritone.

See also a scene from the movie Man of La Mancha (1972, directed by Arthur Hiller), with Peter O’Toole singing to Sophia Loren.
***
Do you know what would make a great SCRABBLE word? – quixotry.

ABC Wednesday – Round 12