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Post by nanatod on Aug 1, 2023 9:33:57 GMT -6
Wray channels Taildraggin' Willie Dixon Taildragger and Willie Dixon are / were separate Chicago bluesmen, on different record labels. |
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Post by monasterymonochrome on Aug 1, 2023 9:39:09 GMT -6
Wray channels Taildraggin' Willie Dixon Taildragger and Willie Dixon are / were separate Chicago bluesmen, on different record labels. Was more using the phrase as an made-up adjective based on the song title (written by Dixon) haha Remarkably, I saw Tail Dragger at the UChicago Folk Festival last year - shit was cool |
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Post by monasterymonochrome on Aug 1, 2023 10:23:48 GMT -6
for 1971, i would also add: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8f/The_Baby_Huey_Story_The_Living_Legend.jpegthis is a great funk album with a sad history. baby huey and the babysitters had been around for years without an LP. curtis mayfield wanted to sign huey but not the rest of the band. when huey died during recording, mayfield finished the album with session musicians and left the babysitters out of royalties. still, "hard times" and the "a change is gonna come" cover here are awesome. Revisiting this one again today. One of the great vocal performances ever captured on tape - thank god they were even able to get the few tracks there recorded before it was too late. Huey is a fuckin' titan here. Like, it should be illegal to cover "A Change Is Gonna Come" after this. Not just because it was end the scourge of Greta Van Fleet, but because there's just nothing else you can possibly wring outta this track that Sam & Huey didn't get to already. I wanna mention "Runnin" too - I could listen to Huey wail and scream over this band forever. Indelible, perfect music. |
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Post by venom on Aug 1, 2023 10:27:00 GMT -6
 I've always been partial to Grievous Angel, myself. Gram was probably the first country / country-rock artist I really loved. Saw him included on Rolling Stone's original Top 100 artists of all time list. I was like 14 and thought I had a good grip on classic rock history. So who's this dude I've literally never heard of? Pulled him up on Youtube and listened to enough songs to order his CD on eBay. Happily, it came packaged with GP too, so I soon became well versed in Gram's solo output. Sowed the seeds for when I'd properly get into country music almost a decade later. You can have Simon & Garfunkel. Crosby, Still, and Nash. Maybe even The Beach Boys. But I'll take Gram & Emmylou's harmonies 1st overall in the draft. Unfuckingbelievable. "In My Hour of Darkness" is sublime. I get chills every time I hear it - usually right around that "But he was just a country boy" line. Gram's other originals here are classics, namely the title track and "Ooh Las Vegas," the best gambling song of all time. Eat your heart out, Robert Hunter and Kenny Rogers. And the ballads here are tremendous. Honestly, Gram's known mainly for his country rock impulses, but maaan could this dude sing a ballad. Love Hurts, Hearts on Fire, and the aforementioned "In My Hour" - all stunning. A masterpiece of a record - the swan song of a tragic figure, and the launchpad for an ascending star. i finally acquired this LP in amsterdam last year. inside the sleeve is a review that was cut out of a dutch newspaper when it was released. i've run several lines through translation apps and it's a very positive review. |
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Post by monasterymonochrome on Aug 1, 2023 12:22:38 GMT -6
 Maybe the most important album of my life so far. It basically turned me from someone interested in music to a junkie obsessed with everything I could get my hands on. The first album I heard that I just deeply loved. I'd heard other major albums - some Dylan stuff, some Hendrix, some Who - but this was the first one that fully clicked and showed me how Great albums could be as an art form. The characters! The drama! The stakes! This was a fully realized cosmic ballet played out over 40 minutes. I listened to it over and over again. By the end of my freshman year of high school it was my favorite album of all time. You lived and died with Ziggy, felt the wonder of the kids in "Starman," worked up to a manic peak on "Suffragette City," and mourned the death of a beautiful world on "Rock and Roll Suicide," easily - easily - the greatest album closer of all time. I cried when I listened to that song the day Bowie died. I had a radio show at 6:00am that morning and just played his songs for two hours. Closed with the entire B-side of Ziggy Stardust. I can't think of a more emotional moving, swinging-for-the-fences sequence as that from Lady Stardust to RnR Suicide. Over the years I've come to the album less, others have probably surpassed it in my favorites. But I'll always have a place in my heart for this one. My first favorite album. Still my favorite Bowie album. A perfect primer about everything that makes rock music great. |
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Post by monasterymonochrome on Aug 1, 2023 13:11:50 GMT -6
 Another Bowie album - it's Station to Station. Pretty much deciding today whether it's gonna be this or Low for the final Bowie spot on my list. This one has such an incredible first side. My god, the title track alone is enough to warrant list consideration. Probably my favorite Bowie song, period. And has one of his all-time great lines: "It's not the side-effects of the cocaine, I'm thinking it must be love." Rest of the album is also very good, but it doesn't approach the highs of the opening track. Love the dark, shadowy funk of "Stay" and the brighter but still ominous funk of "Golden Years". I also love love love "Word on a Wing," his verse deliveries are just too good. "Wild is the Wind" is great too, but it pales in comparison to the Nina Simone version. Overall, you end up with one of Bowie's career peaks, definitely a Top 5 moment his catalogue. If I was arbitrarily cutting myself off at 3-albums per artist, it would be a lock for my list. Still TBD at the moment. |
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Post by monasterymonochrome on Aug 1, 2023 13:56:33 GMT -6
 David Bowie - Low: The last Bowie album from his golden decade that I'm gonna post about. Aladdin Sane, Heroes, and Lodger are all excellent too, but I gotta save some time to actually put this list together at some point. Low is such an interesting album. Basically two entirely different albums stitched together. First half is a series of incredible grimy industrial glam songs, feat. some of the coolest drums you'll ever hear (Breaking Glass, especially). Bowie's painting a majestic canvas, even if his tools sound largely metallic and heavy. There's so much beauty, for instance, in the sweeping synth backdrops and his soaring vocals on tracks like "Always Crashing in the Same Car". Then comes the second half - his first major ambient collaborations with Tony Visconti and Brian Eno. Much like above, this shit can sound gorgeous, but it can also sound dark and vaguely menacing. Tracks like "Warszawa" manage to be all of those feelings at once. You can hear the massive influence of German's koscmische scene on this record. It's Bowie trying out Tangerine Dream or Kraftwerk's aesthetics for a spin. And, unsurprisingly, the result is a masterpiece. He would continue this format with 1978's Heroes, containing his best and arguably most iconic single. But I think the ambient pieces work better here. Still don't know if this one edges out Station to Station tho. What do y'all think? |
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Post by Tweet on Aug 1, 2023 21:55:33 GMT -6
Fuck folks this is a top 10 song of this decade I think
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Post by doso on Aug 1, 2023 23:52:52 GMT -6
 How much do you know about Link Wray? ”Rumble” but also that line from “Sign Language” by Dylan: “Link Wray was playin’ on the jukebox I was payin’” |
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Post by monasterymonochrome on Aug 2, 2023 9:30:35 GMT -6
 Aja will be repping the Dan on my list. I really like all their 70s albums, but this is the one I come back to consistently and truly love all the way through. [that said, since we did the 80s list, Gaucho has become my favorite Dan album]. Maybe it's because my love for "Eye Know" predisposed me to be a "Peg" stan? Maybe it's because of the cool-as-shit instrumental break in "Aja"? Maybe it's because the one time my team won pub trivia in college, the final bonus round theme was the entire chorus to "Deacon Blues"? It's also the record I got to see Donald play in its entirety when I caught them at the Beacon in 2018, juuust before the Dan-renaissance came for my generation and made those tickets harder to come by. Regardless, it's hard to argue with its perfection. A timeless record for all seasons, and one where they really became absolute studio wizards. |
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Post by monasterymonochrome on Aug 2, 2023 10:27:40 GMT -6
 Another one of those impossibly cool albums with an impossibly cool cover to boot. Marc Bolan was a god. Of this I am convinced. Dude was a beacon to so much of the UK scene, he's like what the Dolls were to the CBGB crowd - but about 10x better. This record oozes style, sex, and everything intoxicating about rock n roll. We all know the big hits, but the deeper cuts here are just as miraculous. "Planet Queen" - with it's falsetto melodies and swaggering acoustic rhythm. The cosmic gospel of "Monolith". The drugged out symphonic soundscapes surrounding ballad "Girl". And, my god, Bolan is such a profound presence on this record. You can't help but hang on his every word, be drawn into his world. Oh yeah, and the hits? Jeepster, Mambo Sun, Get it On? Three of the coolest fucking riffs ever. Some days I think this is the quintessential rock record. Some days I think it's just as much a psychedelic masterpiece. No matter what, it's truly awe-some. |
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Post by zircona1 on Aug 2, 2023 12:06:05 GMT -6
re: Steely Dan
For a long time I didn't know the "when you smile for a camera" song was called 'Peg'.
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Post by monasterymonochrome on Aug 2, 2023 12:56:47 GMT -6
 Such a classic record. A distillation of everything that makes Leonard great - in just 8 songs we see him as a scholarly poet (The Avalanche), a drunken poet (Sing Another Song, Boys), and a somber bard (Joan of Arc). I guess the only thing we're missing is his Horny Dude persona, anything else I'm forgetting? I also think this is his best melodic album. So many of these songs suddenly turn into stark, forlorn, windswept melodies - with the Field Commander leading the charge. Twice he does this wordlessly, in "Joan of Arc" and in "Sing Another Song, Boys," featuring even more heartwrenching histrionics than on 1967's "One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong". Then, of course, there's the iconic lilting turn of phrase in "Famous Blue Raincoat." I get chills every time I hear the "Then Jane came..." section. Idk - this album is such a vibe. Lonesome, solitary, but not bitter. There's a dignity in these characters, even the doomed protagonist of "Dress Rehearsal Rag". These people aren't going to get their way. But - like Joan of Arc, this album's muse - they will stand ablaze into perpetuity. |
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Post by doso on Aug 2, 2023 13:09:14 GMT -6
re: Steely Dan For a long time I didn't know the "when you smile for a camera" song was called 'Peg'. Understandable given Michael McDonald’s general mush-mouthedness. |
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Post by monasterymonochrome on Aug 2, 2023 14:06:11 GMT -6
 "We are blessed to live in a world where music exists" - that's what I wrote like 2 years ago on this forum when I first heard The Koln Concert. My feelings and enthusiasm for this record are unchanged. It is a blessing that 48 years ago Keith Jarrett sat down at a shitty, out-of-tune piano in Koln, Germany and delivered an hour of some of the most inspired, moving, blissful music ever recorded. I'm sure there's been lots of masterful performances over the years. Some killer Gregorian chants, live Bach organ recitals, a few transcendent gamelan jams. All lost to time. Thank god someone was there to capture this hour of music before it slipped into the ether. And - again - s/o to the general public for making this a surprise hit and putting it in the ears of thousands upon thousands of people. I go back to this record all the time. It still feels as special as it did on that first listen. So what if I like to engage in a little hyperbole from time to time - this record deserves it. |
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Post by monasterymonochrome on Aug 2, 2023 14:45:23 GMT -6
 Probably the most heartbreaking omission from my list, but I had to draw the cut-off line somewhere. It's my 4th favorite Neil record of the 70s, but it'd still probably slot in somewhere in the top 60-70. I've always loved how loose this one sounds. Neil's bar-band sound at its absolute peak. Don't Cry No Tears, Danger Bird, and - of course, Cortez stand amongst his greatest songs. Neil is my favorite artist of the 70s, full stop. |
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Post by monasterymonochrome on Aug 2, 2023 14:46:55 GMT -6
Probably the most heartbreaking omission from my list, but I had to draw the cut-off line somewhere. It's my 4th favorite Neil record of the 70s, but it'd still probably slot in somewhere in the top 60-70. I've always loved how loose this one sounds. Neil's bar-band sound at its absolute peak. Don't Cry No Tears, Danger Bird, and - of course, Cortez stand amongst his greatest songs. Neil is my favorite artist of the 70s, full stop. Edit: Oh FUCK I forgot that Rust Never Sleeps is from 1979. I was thinking it was from 80 ahhh - well, Zuma might be demoted to 5th favorite Neil record of the decade lol |
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Post by monasterymonochrome on Aug 3, 2023 10:10:05 GMT -6
 Gonna try and finish up these write-ups this week/end if I can. So I'm gonna try and make them a bit shorter. Today we start with Larry Young's incredible cosmic jazz opus Lawrence of Newark. It's a classic that has been heavily adopted in recent years by the spiritual jazz / heady community. Like a melding of Sun Ra's abstract laser-beam organ sound with sax sounds from none other than Pharoah Sanders and some seriously heavy, dense percussion. The first two tracks are basically preludes for the last trio of deep space explorations - layered rhythms with solos blasting into orbit from half a dozen different launchpads. The whole thing is like a beautiful soundclash. An essential piece of spiritual jazz. |
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Post by monasterymonochrome on Aug 3, 2023 11:20:08 GMT -6
 Ornette Coleman - Science Fiction: Such a fantastic, classic sounding record from Ornette. He has his classic Quartet together again for some of these tracks (Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, Eddie Blackwell), and this thing rules. It's an Ornette record, so it remains pretty firmly rooted in free idioms, but there's a density and energy to the band here. This sounds like City Music (especially on the aptly titled "The Jungle is a Skyscraper"). Deserves to be in steady rotation alongside his late 50s - early 60s classics. He's not reaching for fusion here, he's reaching deeper and deeper into the chordless sound he pioneered, and arriving at the heart of a changing, moving world. There's a couple of vocal tracks here too which is nice - tho I could do without the crying baby in the title track. I'm cool with it in "Isn't She Lovely," but not here lol. |
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Post by monasterymonochrome on Aug 3, 2023 12:03:21 GMT -6
 Terry Allen - Lubbock (on everything): Hell yes - truly one of my all-time favorite country albums. Just as heartbreaking, hilarious, and *cool* today as it was when I first heard it. Here's what I wrote about Terry back in the Big Ears thread in anticipation of his (fantastic) set: "Terry Allen is the Randy Newman of country music. I'm about the 1,000th person to make that comparison, but it's cuz it's really apt. His songs are populated with cast of hard-luck, bumbling, and equally big-hearted and stone-hearted characters. Truck drivers, diner waitresses, football players, bootleggers, and all sorts in between. In Terry's hands, these people feel like flesh and blood - with stories that thread the delicate balance between making you laugh and making you cry. His Texas drawl is warm and direct, encouraging you to perk your ears up and listen, similar to John Prine's nasally croon. And tho the dude is in his 80s now, he sounds wonderful. He's a gem." |
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Post by monasterymonochrome on Aug 3, 2023 14:02:06 GMT -6
 Faust - IV: Awww man this one was an absolute staple of my 4:00am college radio sets. I'd throw on the 11-minute psychedelic motorik opus "Krautrock," or maybe the 7-minute Floydian ballad "Jennifer" and let the microwaved coffee wash over me as I blissed out in the control booth. Faust is fantastic, part of the B-team of the original kosmische pioneers - too often put in the backseat behind Kraftwerk, Can, and Neu. But at their best, they could go toe-to-toe with any of those groups. IV is, undoubtedly, their best. If you like Meddle, check this out. If you like Mercury Rev, check this out. If you like Duster, check this out. If you like any iteration of psychedelic music at all - check this shit out! I know it's too late to swing any actual votes, but if I can get one Boarder to listen to Faust - IV for the first time, then I'll consider this write-up series to be a success. |
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Post by monasterymonochrome on Aug 4, 2023 7:02:09 GMT -6
 Patti Smith - Horses: A real eye-opening record for me, amongst thousands on thousands of other converts. Hard to articulate how different this sounds from any other classic record I had heard before. Like, okay, I was familiar with "Gloria," aka the best album opener ever. But then when "Birdland" hits... wtf?? Like, 9 minutes of intense energy. Fuck a melody. Just chords suspending you in her world, while Patti's words pour out, intense and incisive and poignant. I listened to this song constantly when I was 17-18. Played it all the time on the radio. Horses, to me, was the coolest album in the whole fuckin' world. Patti didn't give a fuck about conventions! She was 1000% following her instincts and letting the songs flow where they may. In fact, I still don't think I've ever heard a record with so much conviction. A perfect record, still as timeless and vital in 2023 as in 1975. |
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Post by monasterymonochrome on Aug 4, 2023 7:47:38 GMT -6
 Robbie Basho - Visions of the Country: Another record I know won't make the Board list, but I really want to get at least one person to check out. Robbie was one of the leading figures of the American fingerstyle guitar movement (fka American Primitive, but the community's trying to phase that name out*). Alongside folks like John Fahey and Leo Kottke, Robbie Basho devoted his life to combining his lushly plucked guitar lines with traditional Indian or Middle Eastern structures. Visions of the Country is his best raga-influenced record, and it is stunning. First off, Basho's guitar here is a fucking orchestra. Twelve steel strings - that's all Basho needed to create dense layers of sound. Verdant soundscapes that reflected the beauty and terror of the world around him. What I love about this record, specifically, is when he gets on the mic - something he didn't often do. His voice is low and full, bellowing like a bard in the mountains. Check out the sublime "Rocky Mountain Raga" for some of what I'm talking about. "Blue Crystal Fire" is another perfect little nugget. It's a beautiful album through and through. One of the best guitar records I've ever heard. And my favorite release of the Fahey/Kottke/Basho holy triumvirate. It's not on Spotify, so I recommend checking it out on Bandcamp or here, on Youtube: *And shout-out to my friend Eli Winter, for turning me on to Basho back in college, and - alongside folks like Yasmin Williams and Hayden Pedigo, for carrying the fingerstyle torch on for another generation |
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Post by monasterymonochrome on Aug 4, 2023 8:40:16 GMT -6
 Grateful Dead - American Beauty: Since I decided to take Europe 72 off my list (tho I still may renege on this tbhhhh), American Beauty will be holding down the fort for the Best American Band. Easily the best studio effort in the band's catalogue. And I'm a big Dead studio defender. Each of their records is cool in its own right, but none are as front-to-back perfect and well-executed as this one (tho obvs Workingman's Dead comes damn close and so does Mars Hotel). The songs here are classics. Even non-Heads are probably familiar with "Friend of the Devil" and "Truckin" on some level. And the renditions here are nice. Emma once said that FotD sounded like "A Schoolhouse Rock song" and - tho that was NOT meant as a compliment - it made me like the song even more lmao. Otherwise, I want to shout-out Robert Hunter. For those unfamiliar, Hunter was the band / Jerry's primary lyricist, an integral part of their story even though he was never officially a member of the band. And folks, Hunter freaked it on this one. So many of these songs (Ripple, Box of Rain, and Brokedown Palace*) are deeply important to me - and, to get a little cheese, have informed the way I approach the fleeting beauty of life, love, and friendship. Such a long, long time to be gone, and a short time to be there. *This may not be the proper topic for Lolla Friday, but Brokedown is the song I would want played at my funeral. Do any of y'all have Funeral Songs? What are they? |
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Post by goodson on Aug 4, 2023 9:06:04 GMT -6
Do any of y'all have Funeral Songs? What are they? |
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Post by monasterymonochrome on Aug 4, 2023 9:27:04 GMT -6
Do any of y'all have Funeral Songs? What are they? Oh damn this is beautiful. Gotta check out the whole album now. |
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Post by monasterymonochrome on Aug 4, 2023 9:38:04 GMT -6
 Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks: Went like 25 years thinking this album was just okay and mainly something I listened to for "Tangled Up In Blue," my first favorite Dylan song. Then had a real Come to Jesus moment a few years back and listened to Blood on the Tracks like every day for a month. I wasn't even, like, getting divorced or anything. It was just hitting. Tangled, obvs a classic. The next three songs I think are good but don't hook me totally in yet (Simple Twist of Fate is great tho, and Jerry's best Dylan cover). Then we get to "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome" and BAM shit starts getting real. Every song through the end is a killer. An "oh shit, it's Real Love" winding folk track, a psychedelic blues, and then an even more classically psychedelic, inscrutable Dylan story-song. Then a 1-2-3 punch featuring three of Dylan's absolute best songs. "If You See Her, Say Hello" is probably the rawest, most emotionally bare I've ever heard Dylan get. "Shelter in the Storm" is the best song on this record - a true plea. And then closes with "Buckets of Rain," my favorite song on the album - a sad-eyed track of acceptance like only Dylan can do. "Life is sad Life is a bust All ya can do is do what you must You do what you must do and ya do it well I'll do it for you Honey baby, can't you tell?" It's his best album. 1000% - and, if recent RS and P4k lists are reliable, it seems that popular consensus thinks so too. |
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Post by monasterymonochrome on Aug 4, 2023 11:00:06 GMT -6
 Big Star - #1 Record: Do roadies still wear this t-shirt all the time? For years I swear I could spot a roadie / someone on stage crew rockin' a #1 Record tee at like half the shows I went to. Other favorites included Metallica and (Chicago exclusive) Naked Raygun. I guess, what I'm really wondering is: Do people still rock with Big Star like they used to? For decades their narrative was: truly Great band ignored in their time, disbands amidst personal tragedy, and becomes a touchpoint and beacon for leagues of jangly, power-poppy indie rock bands to come. But we're 50 years out from their hey-day now. Where does that leave them? Are they still considered misunderstood outsider rebels when every publication / music journo has been singing their praises for ages? Have they finally earned their place in rock music's popular canon? And how come bands don't really sound like Big Star anymore? Is it the down end of a cycle, or has time softened the edge of their influence? All questions to which I don't have the answers. All I can say is that this record is still wonderful. Still as full and heartfelt, as emotionally and melodically rich, as when I first heard it in high school. I even had the t-shirt myself for a time. Back then I was all about the front-half of this album. The hard-edged power-pop bangers like Feel, In the Street, or Don't Lie To Me. And, of course, the classic school-years ballad "Thirteen". These guys never got on classic rock radio, but between Thirteen, El Goodo, and In the Street, it feels like they did indeed make a sizable impact on pop culture. Nowadays though, I'm drawn to the more down-tempo Side Two. There's more sadness here, as if they could foresee the dashed hopes of their stardom. In this context, "Give Me Another Chance" and the Harrison-esque "Try Again" are devastating. And the functional closer - and jangle/sunshine-pop anthem "Watch the Sunrise" feels extra poignant. These guys never really wrote a hit record, but - with #1 Record - they wrote a damn-near perfect one. |
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Post by nanatod on Aug 4, 2023 12:26:21 GMT -6
Do any of y'all have Funeral Songs? What are they? either the live version of the rainbow stew title track, or southland in the springtime. |
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Post by nanatod on Aug 4, 2023 12:29:05 GMT -6
no. bringing it all back home |
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