The mission of this blog is to review, discuss and appreciate various music and musicians. Your contributions on these topics will be both welcome and appreciated. From major label to indie release, all music is fair game.
Some artists seem forever chained to their pasts, no matter their efforts. Sure, there are revivals. There are periods of renaissance. There are reinventions. But all of those phases seem to go back to an original idea of what an artist is, or represents.
Bob Dylan is one such artist. His name is forever tied to folk and the folk tradition, roots music, the songs of the past. And with a new album out, called "Tempest," much of his history is being discussed by rock critics and fans ... and non-fans, too. And some of that history is seemingly embraced, as Bob performs material that evokes "old-time" music from long-gone eras when wax and radio were magic and spiritual and life-affirming and scary ... Music wasn't just streamed, picked and chosen, praised for hooks or breasts or being bizarre.
I've got almost half of a blog entry finished on Bob Dylan's new "Tempest" album.
I've got my preamble written. All that's left is giving the album a listen and giving my thoughts in the comments area, as I've done with my past "live blogging" entries.
It's my hope to get that done tonight!
I'm definitely looking forward to giving the album a listen in its entirety. Should be very cool!
In 1967, The Beach Boys were having some bad luck. After the critical acclaim "Pet Sounds" received and the chart success enjoyed by "Good Vibrations," fans and observers alike were primed for the massive payoff that was promised with the "SMiLE" project.
But "SMiLE" didn't happen, and "Smiley Smile" was issued in its place. A bunt instead of a grand slam? Perhaps. Carl Wilson described it that way, and it seems appropriate.
There's a lot of brilliance, analysis and bile there. It's a great read! You can pick it up and put it down, come back later, read a few at a time ... But it's worthy of perusal!
In 1985, The Beach Boys released a self-titled album. It was the first new record the group released since the drowning death of drummer and founding member Dennis Wilson.
It also was the last group album of new studio material to feature Brian Wilson in any sort of dominant fashion.
There came an album of odds and ends, called "Still Cruisin'." Then there was the studio disc (sans Brian) called "Summer in Paradise." Following that was the lamentable "Stars and Stripes Vol. 1" album that featured country stars singing the lead vocals, with backing vocals from The Beach Boys.
There were compilation albums, a live disc and an album of live and solo tracks released through Hallmark stores. Then came the wonderful "The SMiLE Sessions" materials.
But modern work, with all the surviving members, contributing actively (whether in songwriting or singing or playing)?
Sometimes I really enjoy retrospective packages. Listening to original albums is certainly enjoyable, worthwhile and (in some circles) the preferred way to go. And many compilations, especially "greatest hits" and "best of" collections, really tend to leave out the best tracks from an oeuvre.
But some retrospective packages are able to avoid those situations by mining previously unreleased materials. And that's where "The Beatles Anthology" project really shined.
When the Anthology project was first announced, I was HEAVILY into The Beatles. No other group mattered. I was reading everything about The Beatles, listening to everything I could find, buying anything that I could afford. They were my first huge musical passion, and it is fair to say I was obsessed with them. (I still am ... but now I handle it in slightly more civilized fashion.) And when I heard the Anthology project was going to mean new music, and previously unreleased music, in addition to videos and a book? Whew. Man. TOTAL frenzy. This was the first new Beatles music in my lifetime! Being born in 1980, I'd missed out on the glory years.
What a different Weezer we saw in 2008, and how familiar they remained ...
Weezer's third self-titled album, referred by many -- including me -- as their "Red album" because of the dominant color of the cover, follows in the footsteps of "Pinkerton" and "Make Believe" by throwing a handful of gems out into the world, with a lot of tracks that grow in appreciation with more listens.
An album homage to the music of the Fifties and Sixties that Joel so loved, "An Innocent Man" at times emulates the structures or sounds of these songs, or dips into lyrical stylings from this era, or is focused on elements of the time (when the youth culture was starting to separate from the Eisenhower-personified adult structure).
Following three electric, eccentric, frantic and essential albums comes this record, which makes almost as much impact by making LESS noise.
With "Bringing It All Back Home," "Highway 61 Revisited" and "Blonde on Blonde" in succession, Dylan was on top of the rock world. His arrangements were electric, and he'd attained that "thin, wild mercury sound" that he'd been seeking.
After touring constantly, pushing his muse to the brink and taking more drugs than most people could stand, Dylan was frazzled (and rightfully so). Then there came the motorcycle accident (or, at least a story of a motorcycle accident) that brought the whole frenzy to an end.
For as powerful as John Lennon's "Plastic Ono Band" surely is, or as masterful as Paul McCartney's "Band on the Run" undeniably is, or as beloved as "Imagine," "Ram," "Double Fantasy," "Tug of War," etc. all are ... "All Things Must Pass" is a masterpiece.
As talented as Syd Barrett undeniably was, his solo output highlights the issues that surrounded his departure from Pink Floyd.
What were those issues? Scattered performances, uncommercial lyrics/topics, an aversion to honing the material in the attempt to preserve the spontaneity of first performance (or whatever). Uneven temperament, increasingly weird behavior ... All of that and more.
Believe it or not, there are a lot of great Monkees albums out there. The group didn't just do great singles.
Ignore the foolish controversy of being a fabricated group. Especially in this modern age, far worse corporate musical atrocities have taken the spotlight. Focus instead on the great music, and accept The Monkees as the musical powerhouses that they were.
"Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd." is the fourth album released by the group, and it is a close second in terms of being my favorite Monkees album ("Headquarters" claims the top spot for me). The quality of the songs, the experimentation and the camaraderie of the group are all at their peaks with this release.
Harry Chapin has many albums that could stand as his "defining album," including "Sniper and other Love Songs" (featuring "Sniper," "Circle" and "Better Place to Be") and "Verities and Balderdash" (with "Cat's in the Cradle," "I Wanna Learn a Love Song" and "30,000 Pounds of Bananas").
But, for me, "On the Road to Kingdom Come" from 1976 is his best release.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers had a pretty good decade in the 1990s. In 1991, the group released "Into the Great Wide Open." If you've never heard the album, it's like "Full Moon Fever, Vol. 2." Just about every song on the album sounds like it could have / should have been a radio hit (and a couple of them surely were).
Then you had the first "Greatest Hits," which featured "Mary Jane's Last Dance." Anyone who was conscious in the mid 1990s knows this song (and probably loves it). And for the Kim Basinger haters, well, the video featured her as a corpse. Win-win, right?
Then came Tom Petty's second "solo" album "Wildflowers" (the first being "Full Moon Fever," and the "solo" distinction reflecting that ... one again ... many of the Heartbreakers were actually involved). "Wildflowers" is my favorite of all the Petty-related albums released through 2011, so I don't need to speak further on my opinions of its qualities.
And THEN you have the great soundtrack to the movie "She's the One." I'm not a big fan of the film itself, but the album is an enormous success. Everything about the variety of the music screams to the immense strengths of the band. And it had one of their last great frilly psychedelic hits: "Walls (Circus)."
And finally ... you hit "Echo." Released in 1999, it's something of a curiosity.
Will there ever be such a consummate performer and powerful singer as Freddie Mercury ever again? I hope so, but with quality such as this ... it is hard to imagine.
Being best known for his remarkable work with Queen, Mercury is no less a talent on his solo work. He didn't produce many solo albums ("Mr. Bad Guy" and "Barcelona" were the only legit records he put out in his lifetime), but his personality and style are stamped upon each song he recorded and released.
Whereas "Pet Sounds" is perhaps the Beach Boys' most powerful record, "Sunflower" their most united effort and the "SMiLE" sessions their most creative period (or, at least, Brian Wilson's most creative period), "Love You" may be their most real ... if slightly goofy ... release.
Mixed-bag releases are notoriously rough in quality. Taking the odds and ends that didn't make official releases often opens up listeners to material that supports the initial decision not to release it.
Surprisingly enough, that isn't the case with Weezer.
When I was in college, I had a semester where I worked nights for a big chain store. On the televisions, we had a music channel loop that would play different clips over and over again. Some of it was schlock, but "Obstacle 1" was one of the soundbites.
Thank you, Paul McCartney. With "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard," you gave us a studio album that has next-to-no fill and has so much atmosphere and mood that I get transported every time I listen to it.
Following "Driving Rain," an album that I found rather flat and disappointing, I feared that Paul was maybe on a downward cycle (hey, it happens to all artists, I'm not judging). Considering the high quality of "Flaming Pie" and "Run Devil Run," I really couldn't blame him if he was a bit tapped out creatively.
