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My favorite albums from 1961-1970: 125-101

This album was named for its Warner Brothers Records catalog number.

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 the 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: Between The Buttons (1967)

119. Van Morrison: Moondance (1970)

118. Righteous Brothers: Back to Back (1965)
Features ‘Hung On You’, written by Goffin/King/Spector plus ‘Ebb Tide.’

117. Ramsey Lewis Trio: Hang On Ramsey! (1965)
A live jazz album that features ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ and ‘Hang On, Sloopy’.

116. Donovan: Open Road (1970)
‘Celtic Rock’ is a particularly engaging tune.

115. Cream: Fresh (1966)
My 7th-grade history group referred to the group as The Cream. My friend Karen disdainfully corrected him: “It’s Cream.”

114. Peter, Paul, and Mary: Album 1700 (1967)
This album, with ‘Leaving On A Jet Plane,” was named for its Warner Brothers Records catalog number.

113. Bill Cosby: Wonderfulness (1966)

112. Laura Nyro: Eli And The 13th Confession (1968)
This woman belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, if only as a songwriter.

111. Herbie Hancock: Maiden Voyage (1965)

110. Mamas & the Papas: The Mamas & The Papas (1966)
The second album.

109. The Night They Raided Minsky’s – movie soundtrack (1968)
This is a slight album – only four or five songs, repeated – in a film I saw at the time. I went with my friend Carol and her friend Judy, for whom I developed a bit of a crush; nothing ever came of it. I know the lyrics to the verse of ‘Take 10 Terrific Girls (But Only 9 Costumes)’ by heart.

108. Derek and the Dominoes: Layla (1970)
My neighbor’s cat in college was named Layla. (My cat, Layla’s sister, was named Doris.)

107. Bob Dylan: Blonde on Blonde (1966)
This is about the time I first really knew Dylan as the artist, rather than as the songwriter, but bought much later.

106. Doors: The Doors (1967)
I prefer the single version of ‘Light My Fire’, actually. The organ solo was boring to me.

105. Beatles: Beatles for Sale (1964)
Now we get into the murky Beatles territory since this did not exist in the US when I was growing up, only in most of the rest of the world. So it’s a new collection for me – OK, 25 years old, but not nearly 50.

104. Mamas & the Papas: The Papas & The Mamas (1968)
The group went on hiatus, had a greatest hits album, then got together again.

103. Simon & Garfunkel: Wednesday Morning 3 AM (1964)
Much more folky than their later output.

102. Grateful Dead: Workingman’s Dead (1970)

101. Joni Mitchell: Ladies Of The Canyon (1970)
When I was in the play Boys in the Band in the spring of 1975, the cast was at someone’s house and played side one. Enough folks had disdain for the album so that we never heard Side 2, which is more uptempo and might have gone over better with the group.
***
Re: my previous post on the topic, Dustbury discusses the song ‘Reflections.’

April Rambling: Kiwi marriage equality; Eddie’s aunts

Jaquandor has been doing this musical A to Z, and they’re all interesting.

Roger Green.child — moi, a couple of years ago

“If every kid having a mom and a dad is really what you are concerned about,” Miriam Axel-Lute expects “to also see you showing up” for these struggles.

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.

J: The sexiest letter.

Neil Gaiman: There wasn’t anything in there that indicated that I was going to be a writer, a real writer, with something to say, except for one thing, and it was this: I was writing. There was lots of writing going on.

I whine a lot about writing, but I never have whined quite so persuasively as this.

Healing the Wounded Womb.

MY FAVORITE STORY OF THE MONTH: Eddie writes This is the Story of Gussie and Bertie, two of his aunts, of a sort.

Tegan tells a story.

Amy’s momoir.

Mark Evanier sells the house he grew up in.

Happy Navroze – a personal look at the Zoroastrian holiday

SamuraiFrog’s fond memory of Turkey in the Straw.

Math Anxiety: What it is and How to Relieve Its Stress and Impact.

Here’s an alphabet mural Ken Jennings painted on his daughter’s wall when she was a newborn. Very clever.

Jaquandor has been doing this musical A to Z, and they’re all interesting. Cheri asked what music makes me cry. One of them is his B. “Bach’s music is, to me, architectural. It is mathematical. Now, to some that might make it sound like the music is clinical and sterile in emotion, but nothing could be further from the truth.” Another is his D; funny story therein. He ALSO wrote a great obit of trumpeter Bud Herseth, who you’ve probably never heard of – I hadn’t – but still a most worthwhile read, and listen.

Lost in translation: CHEERS theme in German, and an ad for the musical Wicked when it got to Helsinki, Finland. Also, If you don’t understand this commercial…

The latest Carl Reiner book, and an anecdote about a funeral.

From the 1940 Charlie Chan movie, Murder Over New York: The police round up every Hindu in town.

Always liked Jonathan Winters, and sorry he died. Here’s what Ken Levine had a nice piece. Mark Evanier wrote several pieces; first thoughts; Jonathan receiving the Mark Twain Award at the Kennedy Center in 1999; him at a recording session for Garfield and Friends in 1990.

Willie Nelson turns 80 this week, and Coverville celebrates the occasion.

I probably watched Pat Summerall announcing sporting events for 40 years. And Maria Tallchief, a great dancer.

Never DID trust Winnie the Pooh.

Someone on Facebook wrote: “If you’re a geezer, you’ll hear it in your head.” And I do.

K-Chuck Radio: Miles to go before I sleep…

Contraptions: Oreo separator machine. Also, a recipe for making ice.

The state capitals.

Photos of Insects with Drops of Water On Their Heads

My favorite albums from 1961-1970: 150-126

I couldn’t stop with 100, so I went to 150, and I’ll go through them 25 at a time. I won’t post every day, but it’ll be every three or four days.

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 the greatest hits. Herman’s Hermits, much of my early Motown, Donovan, and especially Sly and the Family Stone.

“Third, I apologize if this list isn’t really that different from the myriad of greatest album lists already in existence.

“Fourth, as always, I reserve the right to cheat my rules because they’re my rules.”

In deference to the originator, I will play by most of these rules. That said, I did NOT engage in a massive listening. I took a couple of greatest albums of the period lists, added some top sellers lists, and augmented with my rapidly fading memory to come up with the raw list from which to pare down. The chances I’m forgetting SOMETHING is very high. Also, some of the dates have come from secondary sources, so if they are wrong, you can tell me and I will correct them.

Also, I couldn’t stop with 100, so I went to 150, and I’ll go through them 25 at a time. I won’t post every day, but it’ll be every three or four days.

150. Blind Faith: Blind Faith (1969)
That group with 2/3s of Cream, Steve Winwood, and a guy I hadn’t hear of.

149. Neil Young: Neil Young (1968)

148. Judy Collins: Whales & Nightingales (1970)

147. Jefferson Airplane: Crown Of Creation (1968)

146. Iron Butterfly: In A Gadda Da Vida (1968)
What else was even ON that album?

145. Rolling Stones: Beggar’s Banquet (1968)

144. Diana Ross: Diana Ross (1970)
Her first solo album, with ‘Reach Out And Touch’, and ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’.

143. The Byrds: Sweetheart of the Rodeo (1968)
Came to this album this century.

142. Silver Apples: Silver Apples (1968)
A “psychedelic electronic music duo”. Got the LP in the 1980s. “Oscillations, oscillations. Electronic evocations of sound’s reality.” Opening lyrics to the single from the album.

141. Beatles: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
I found it revolutionary at the time, and much imitated (often badly), but, to me, it feels its age. Still I listened to it a lot. And my friends in high school referred to themselves as Holiday Unlimited. Our motto came from ‘Mr. Kite’ – “A splendid time is guaranteed for all.”

140. Beach Boys: Wild Honey (1968)

139. Jimi Hendrix: Axis: Bold As Love (1967)
I think I bought this album twice, by mistake.

138. Temptations: Cloud Nine (1969)
The first side was the first iteration of psychedelic soul on Motown, with songs written by the late Norman Whitfield with Barrett Strong, and produced by Whitfield.

137. Rolling Stones: Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967)

136. King Crimson: In the Wake of Poseidon (1970)

135. Jeff Beck Group: Truth (1968)

134. The Band: Stage Fright (1970)
The third album, which I played a lot in my dorm room freshman year in college.

133. Rascals: Once Upon a Dream (1968)
I was a sucker for the Rascals, even when they got a bit – weird.

132. Three Dog Night: It Ain’t Easy (1970)

131. Diana Ross and the Supremes and Temptations: Join (1968)
‘Try It Baby’, a cover of a Marvin Gaye song, is my favorite.

130. Cream: Wheels Of Fire (1968)

129. Jimi Hendrix: Band of Gypsys (1970)
Buddy Miles’ ‘Them Changes’ featured here.

128. Blood, Sweat, and Tears: 3 (1970)

127. Diana Ross and the Supremes: Reflections (1968)
There is this Motown compilation I have on LP, and I think it was Mary Wilson who said, in the intro, that the title tune, is a “weird, weird song.”

126. Stephen Stills: Stephen Stills (1970)
Stills could be rather preachy, but I was OK with that at the time.

N is for Nutcracker

The NY Philharmonic plays a section from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker followed by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra playing the Ellington/Strayhorn arrangement of the same section.

You are almost certainly familiar with the music from The Nutcracker, a two-act ballet, with “a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann’s story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on Sunday, 18 December 1892… Although the original production was not a success, the twenty-minute suite that Tchaikovsky extracted from the ballet was.” Jaquandor shared a link to all the music.

The Nutcracker Suite is also “an album by American pianist, composer and bandleader Duke Ellington recorded… in 1960 featuring jazz interpretations of ‘The Nutcracker’ by Tchaikovsky, arranged by Ellington and Billy Strayhorn.”

Overture
Toot Toot Tootie Toot (Dance of the Reed-Pipes)
Peanut Brittle Brigade (March)
Sugar Rum Cherry (Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy)
Entr’acte
The Volga Vouty (Russian Dance)
Chinoiserie (Chinese Dance)
Dance of the Floreadores (Waltz of the Flowers)
Arabesque Cookie (Arabian Dance)

I discovered on YouTube a “Live From Lincoln Center special called ‘Nutcracker Swing’ featuring both the New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Slatkin, and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis that originally aired on PBS in December 2001.” The compiler said: “As far as I know this special never aired again, nor has it ever been made available to purchase anywhere…The way it works is that the NY Philharmonic plays a section from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker followed by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra playing the Ellington/Strayhorn arrangement of the same section.

“The special starts with four sections from Wynton Marsalis’ “All Rise,” [parts 2-5], introduced here by Leonard Slatkin [part 1].

There are several other iterations of The Nutcracker, but I’ll deal with just one more. Nutrocker, a rock version of The Nutcracker March, was recorded by B. Bumble & The Stingers, released in February 1962, and went to # 23 in the US and # 1 in the UK. Emerson Lake and Palmer performed it live about a decade later.

These variations show how rich the original music is.

Of course, “the complete Nutcracker has enjoyed enormous popularity since the late 1960s and is now performed by countless ballet companies, primarily during the Christmas season, especially in the U.S.” In the Albany, NY area alone, there were at least six different companies performing it in December 2012. On December 16, I watched the Albany Berkshire Ballet performance at both 2:30 (so my daughter could see it) and 6:30 (the performance my daughter was in, as an angel). THAT was a lot of Nutcracker for one day!
***
American Ballet Theatre’s Paloma Herrera in the Nutcracker with Gennadi Saveliev

ABC Wednesday – Round 12

L is for Leadbelly

When my father would come to my elementary school to sing, he’d always perform the song Goodnight, Irene.

The Wikipedia post for Leadbelly starts “Huddie William Ledbetter (January 20, 1888 – December 6, 1949) was an iconic American folk and blues musician.” Truer words were never written. He is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an early influence.

Huddie spent time in and out of prison between 1915 and 1934, including for killing a man. It’s almost certain that he got his nickname Lead Belly, or Leadbelly, while behind bars. In 1933, “he was ‘discovered’ by folklorists John Lomax and his then 18-year-old son Alan Lomax during a visit to the Angola Prison Farm. Deeply impressed by his vibrant tenor voice and huge repertoire, they recorded him on portable aluminum disc recording equipment for the Library of Congress.”

Possibly his best-known song was Goodnight, Irene; LISTEN to his take. The year after he died, The Weavers recorded a version [LISTEN] which “first reached the Billboard Best Seller chart on June 30, 1950, and lasted 25 weeks on the chart, peaking at #1. The Weavers’ enormous success inspired many other artists to release their own versions of the song, many of which were themselves commercially successful.” When my father would come to my elementary school to sing, he’d always perform the song, causing my classmates to assume that I had a crush on the girl in my class named Irene – I did not – and that I had put my father up to it – I had not.

Here is Yahoo’s list of the ten best songs by Lead Belly:

10. Ain’t It a Shame
9. Blood Done Signed My Name
8. Gallis Pole – LISTEN HERE or HERE. You may be familiar with the cover, Gallows Pole by Led Zeppelin [LISTEN, I hope].
7. Midnight Special – LISTEN. A live cover by Creedence Clearwater Revival [LISTEN]
6. Bourgeois Blues – LISTEN HERE or HERE. LISTEN to a live cover by Taj Mahal
5. He Never Said a Mumblin’ Word – LISTEN
4. On a Monday – LISTEN HERE or HERE
3. In New Orleans (House of the Rising Sun) – LISTEN. You probably know the version by the Animals [LISTEN]
2. Black Betty – LISTEN
1. Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” (In the Pines) – LISTEN. It was later covered by Nirvana.

My favorite song performed by Leadbelly, though, is We’re in the Same Boat, Brother [LISTEN]. “And if you shake one end, you’re gonna rock the other.”

Here are some more lyrics:

The Lord looked down from his holy place
Said Lordy me, what a sea of space
What a spot to launch the human race
So he built him a boat with a mixed-up crew,
With eyes of Black and Brown and Blue.
So that’s how come that you and I
Got just one world and just one sky.

Leadbelly songs that have been covered

ABC Wednesday – Round 12