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Post by berkley on Jul 16, 2024 19:09:33 GMT -5
More top albums of 1964... #4 - All Summer Long by The Beach BoysThe Beach Boys released four albums in 1964 – three studio albums and a live record – something that is unfathomable from the perspective of today's music industry. Of the four, it's All Summer Long that I'm picking for my list. The album mostly eschews songs about surfing and hot rods (which had been the group's mainstays up to this point), and instead focuses on more universal teenage themes. This was the first album that the band's chief songwriter and producer Brian Wilson created after having heard the Beatles, with his own competitiveness spurring him on to create his most accomplished and complex material to date. The album is arguably the apex of the band's early "fun in the sun" period and was also the start of Wilson's musical progression towards later mature albums like Pet Sounds and Friends. Standout songs on All Summer Long include the title track, along with "Little Honda", "Wendy", "Don't Back Down", and the semi-autobiographical smash hit single "I Get Around". Mind you, not every track is a home run – there's some right old filler in here too – but I'd say that around two thirds of the album is damn good. Have a listen to the ebullient title track, which chronicles a series of blissful events that the singer and his girlfriend enjoy during the summer. Yeah, lyrically it's corny as all hell, but the melody is fantastic, the harmonies sound effortless, and the bouncy instrumentation – featuring boogie-flavoured bass guitar, marimba, and piccolo – perfectly captures the sunny, carefree romanticism of the lyric… I may be completely off the mark here but i have a vague feeling that they used parts of this melody in some other song of theirs that I like better. Did they ever indulge in this kind of recycling of material or am I imagining things? Regardless, I think I might look for this cd. I only know their hits, for the most part, and I'd like to check out some of the albums. This sounds like it could be a good one to start with. |
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Post by berkley on Jul 16, 2024 19:14:43 GMT -5
There's something about the sound of a nylon string acoustic guitar to me, it was what I started on and used quite a bit as a student and I still adore them to this day. One of mine is my "daily player" that I will always reach for first when I don't need an electric at the moment. And in terms of genres often associated with it (though it can cover much more ground), while I love traditional classical music, the Spanish style has always had so much appeal to me. And so I present today's selection: 4) Paco de Lucía and Ricardo Modrego - Dos Guitarras Flamencas en StereoThis is where it began for legendary flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucía making it particularly noteworthy, though not to overshadow the fine work of Modrego on this as well. I initially discovered Paco by way of guitar duo Strunz & Farah, who influenced me considerably, and Jorge Strunz mentioning him as a major influence. Oftentimes when I listen to jazz, it takes me back to my hometown of New York City, and my wife and I working and living in Manhattan and enjoying the city life. But we also share a connection to the Southwest as we met in college in New Mexico and have a great love for that region too, and delightful Spanish flavored music like this similarly connects me back to that time and place. Had to grab this video with the later compilation cover, but originally appearing on this album: Video Placeholder
I like this kind of thing very much but know almost nothing about it in terms of who to look for, the history, etc. I tried buying a flamenco cd once - just picked something at random (female artist, forget the name) and ended up not liking it all that much. But I think I've heard of Paco de Lucia before, though not Ricardo Modrego, so perhaps I'll look for this album or something else by Paco de Lucia next time I feel the urge to explore some Flamenco sounds.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 16, 2024 19:30:13 GMT -5
Looking at the charts it looks like he charted in the U.K. with "Engine Engine #9," "Kansas City Star," and "England Swings." I think if you just listen to his biggest hits and not super closely, he can look like a novelty act. But his songwriting and even his own songs are a lot deeper. Which is not to say that a lot of his songs were novelty songs, because they were. "King of the Road" is absolutely not a novelty song though. This is a hill upon which I will die.
I definitely do not see Roger Miller's songs as novelty songs - to me, that would imply something that's specifically written to take advantage of a temporarily popular trend or catchphrase, that kind of thing. Ray Stevens's song The Streaker would be an example. Maybe England Swings would come close to that kind of novelty song approach.
I don't even think of him as primarily a comedy songwriter, though he makes use of humour in a lot of them. Even a seemingly light-hearted song like Dang Me has serious undertones if you look at some of the lyrics: "Out all night and runnin' wild/Woman sittin' home with a month old child" - not too funny for the woman and the child. Or "Just sittin’ ‘round drinking with the rest of the guys/Six rounds bought and I bought five/And I spent the groceries an' half the rent" etc - imagine these words sung with a different delivery and tempo and you're not far from Kris Kistofferson territory.
But of course Miller doesn't sing it like Kristofferson, he delivers it in a much more relaxed and easygoing way and yeah, with a dash of humour, so the overall effect is a sort of light-hearted, rueful acknowledgement or perhaps even celebration of his own waywardness and the serious implications of what he's saying remain an undertone. But I think they're still there.
Dang Me is a pretty sad song wrapped in an uptempo beat. Dude is just generally a terrible husband and father and he recognizes it, but he’s not only not going to stop, but he’s going to ask his wife to put up with it and stay with him. |
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Post by berkley on Jul 16, 2024 21:58:22 GMT -5
I definitely do not see Roger Miller's songs as novelty songs - to me, that would imply something that's specifically written to take advantage of a temporarily popular trend or catchphrase, that kind of thing. Ray Stevens's song The Streaker would be an example. Maybe England Swings would come close to that kind of novelty song approach.
I don't even think of him as primarily a comedy songwriter, though he makes use of humour in a lot of them. Even a seemingly light-hearted song like Dang Me has serious undertones if you look at some of the lyrics: "Out all night and runnin' wild/Woman sittin' home with a month old child" - not too funny for the woman and the child. Or "Just sittin’ ‘round drinking with the rest of the guys/Six rounds bought and I bought five/And I spent the groceries an' half the rent" etc - imagine these words sung with a different delivery and tempo and you're not far from Kris Kistofferson territory.
But of course Miller doesn't sing it like Kristofferson, he delivers it in a much more relaxed and easygoing way and yeah, with a dash of humour, so the overall effect is a sort of light-hearted, rueful acknowledgement or perhaps even celebration of his own waywardness and the serious implications of what he's saying remain an undertone. But I think they're still there.
Dang Me is a pretty sad song wrapped in an uptempo beat. Dude is just generally a terrible husband and father and he recognizes it, but he’s not only not going to stop, but he’s going to ask his wife to put up with it and stay with him. Yeah it's a fascinating contrast between the lyrics and the style or delivery. If there were a country equivalent to John Cale, I'd like to hear them do Dang Me in a slowed-down, mournful style the way Cale did Heartbreak Hotel (OK, that was more menacing than mournful, but you know what I mean). Possibly, though, the sung melody itself is too easy-going emotionally to have the effect I'm thinking of, but there could be ways around that. |
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Post by tartanphantom on Jul 16, 2024 22:44:37 GMT -5
You're gonna roll your eyes at this, but the only thing I know of Roger Miller's is "King of the Road". I'm pretty sure that's the only hit he had over here in the UK. That's a decent enough song though, but if I'm honest I do kinda tend to file it under "novelty song" in my mind. Listening to these two tracks that you've posted, I'm coming to the conclusion that Miller is definitely a novelty act -- or at least a comedic one. I don't hate those two tracks, but at the same time I'm not going to be in a rush to seek out his albums, I'm afraid. Looking at the charts it looks like he charted in the U.K. with "Engine Engine #9," "Kansas City Star," and "England Swings." I think if you just listen to his biggest hits and not super closely, he can look like a novelty act. But his songwriting and even his own songs are a lot deeper. Which is not to say that a lot of his songs were novelty songs, because they were. "King of the Road" is absolutely not a novelty song though. This is a hill upon which I will die. I think Roger was probably OK with people putting him in the novelty category. Because he wrote so much of his own material, as well as songs for others. I think he just laughed at them... All the way to the bank.
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Post by berkley on Jul 16, 2024 22:52:03 GMT -5
Looking at the charts it looks like he charted in the U.K. with "Engine Engine #9," "Kansas City Star," and "England Swings." I think if you just listen to his biggest hits and not super closely, he can look like a novelty act. But his songwriting and even his own songs are a lot deeper. Which is not to say that a lot of his songs were novelty songs, because they were. "King of the Road" is absolutely not a novelty song though. This is a hill upon which I will die. I think Roger was probably OK with people putting him in the novelty category. Because he wrote so much of his own material, as well as songs for others. I think he just laughed at them... All the way to the bank.
Yeah, I picture him as the kind of guy who wouldn't give a s*** what you called him as long as he knew he was getting paid. And where the next drink was coming from. |
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jul 16, 2024 22:54:18 GMT -5
I may be completely off the mark here but i have a vague feeling that they used parts of this melody in some other song of theirs that I like better. Did they ever indulge in this kind of recycling of material or am I imagining things? Regardless, I think I might look for this cd. I only know their hits, for the most part, and I'd like to check out some of the albums. This sounds like it could be a good one to start with. No, to my knowledge (and I'm a pretty big BB's fan) they never used the melody of "All Summer Long" again. There were very rare occasions when they recycled a melody, but that was usually taking an older song and putting their own words to it, like they did with the Four Freshmen's "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring", when they re-wrote the lyrics and turned it into "A Young Man is Gone" from 1963's Little Deuce Coupe album. They later released a live recording of "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring" on Live in London from 1969. Of course, they also re-wrote the words to Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen" and turned it into "Surfin' USA", but they never covered the original Berry tune (at least not on record). "A Young Man is Gone" is pretty much an isolated example of that kind of recycling and I'm struggling to think of another. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 16, 2024 23:01:20 GMT -5
I think Roger was probably OK with people putting him in the novelty category. Because he wrote so much of his own material, as well as songs for others. I think he just laughed at them... All the way to the bank.
Yeah, I picture him as the kind of guy who wouldn't give a s*** what you called him as long as he knew he was getting paid. And where the next drink was coming from. Don’t forget the pills. Most of the guys in Nashville at the time were popping uppers like nobodies business. Miller definitely was. |
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Post by berkley on Jul 17, 2024 2:08:25 GMT -5
I may be completely off the mark here but i have a vague feeling that they used parts of this melody in some other song of theirs that I like better. Did they ever indulge in this kind of recycling of material or am I imagining things? Regardless, I think I might look for this cd. I only know their hits, for the most part, and I'd like to check out some of the albums. This sounds like it could be a good one to start with. No, to my knowledge (and I'm a pretty big BB's fan) they never used the melody of "All Summer Long" again. There were very rare occasions when they recycled a melody, but that was usually taking an older song and putting their own words to it, like they did with the Four Freshmen's "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring", when they re-wrote the lyrics and turned it into "A Young Man is Gone" from 1963's Little Deuce Coupe album. They later released a live recording of "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring" on Live in London from 1969. Of course, they also re-wrote the words to Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen" and turned it into "Surfin' USA", but they never covered the original Berry tune (at least not on record). "A Young Man is Gone" is pretty much an isolated example of that kind of recycling and I'm struggling to think of another.
Most likely Ive picked up some kind of mistaken impression somewhere along the way. If I can ever figure out where I got this feeling from I'll post it here. But it could well be a simple memory-glitch. Or it could derive from a subjective feeling that, although I like the song as it is, it seems as if more could have been done with the melody it's based on. But I'm just speculating at this point.
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Post by berkley on Jul 17, 2024 2:17:29 GMT -5
Yeah, I picture him as the kind of guy who wouldn't give a s*** what you called him as long as he knew he was getting paid. And where the next drink was coming from. Don’t forget the pills. Most of the guys in Nashville at the time were popping uppers like nobodies business. Miller definitely was. Really, eh? I didn't know about that - although of course it should be no shock, Nashville being the centre of the huge US country music industry and thus I imagine lots of money flying around. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2024 5:30:50 GMT -5
The Beach Boys released four albums in 1964 – three studio albums and a live record – something that is unfathomable from the perspective of today's music industry. Of the four, it's All Summer Long that I'm picking for my list. The album mostly eschews songs about surfing and hot rods (which had been the group's mainstays up to this point), and instead focuses on more universal teenage themes. This was the first album that the band's chief songwriter and producer Brian Wilson created after having heard the Beatles, with his own competitiveness spurring him on to create his most accomplished and complex material to date. The album is arguably the apex of the band's early "fun in the sun" period and was also the start of Wilson's musical progression towards later mature albums like Pet Sounds and Friends. Standout songs on All Summer Long include the title track, along with "Little Honda", "Wendy", "Don't Back Down", and the semi-autobiographical smash hit single "I Get Around". Mind you, not every track is a home run – there's some right old filler in here too – but I'd say that around two thirds of the album is damn good. Have a listen to the ebullient title track, which chronicles a series of blissful events that the singer and his girlfriend enjoy during the summer. Yeah, lyrically it's corny as all hell, but the melody is fantastic, the harmonies sound effortless, and the bouncy instrumentation – featuring boogie-flavoured bass guitar, marimba, and piccolo – perfectly captures the sunny, carefree romanticism of the lyric…Nice summary and that last line really sums it up for me, it's just so easy on the ears. I like early era Beach Boys even though I don't listen to them all that often, and this pick is yet another reminder for me of an album I should go back and take a full listen to. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2024 5:41:56 GMT -5
Favorite albums of 1964 #4 - Roger Miller - Roger and Out
Roger Miller's first studio album is anchored by two big crossover hits. "Dang Me" hit #1 on the country charts and crossed over to #7 on the Hot 100. "Chug-a-Lug" hit #3 on the country charts and #8 on the Hot 100. Miller seemed like an overnight phenomenon. Of course looks are deceiving. Miller had been a very hot songwriter, writing a string of hits for the likes of Ray Price, Ernest Tubb, Faron Young and Jim Reeves. Along the way he had recorded a number of singles that had been modestly successful. But with Roger and Out, Miller found the formula that would make him one of the biggest country stars, and something of a pop phenomenon, during the mid-60s. Clocking in at a super svelte 23:42 this almost feels like an EP, except it has 12 tracks. Yep...you read that right. The longest song here is 2:37 and seven of the songs clock in at under two minutes. Roger Miller, the TikTok of the 1960s. There's a lot more here than the two hit songs, though they are both incredible and deeper than a short listen would tend to make one think. "Private John Q" looks at Cold War concerns through the lens of the small individual. "Got 2 Again" is a lost love song that seems super cute on the surface. There isn't a song on here that's not worth a few listens...and they won't take long. But, damn, those two hits. "Dang Me" is about a really bad husband, but is so dressed up as a fun song that you really have to listen to it for it to sink in. "Chug-a-Lug" is just one of the great drinking songs...that shows the road to incipient alcoholism. Just amazing singles that have a bit more punch than the normal "wacky" view of Miller's work. This choice is very interesting to me as well as reading the subsequent discussion here on Miller. I'll have to admit I only knew him from his guest appearance on the Muppet Show back in the day, which probably played especially into the novelty aspect given the format of that show. And yet, reflecting on purely the musical aspect of what I heard there and the songs you selected here, I find something really pleasing about it (again, beyond the "comedic dressing" aspect at times). I could try to put more words around it, but honestly, for me this probably just falls into the old "there's two kinds of music..." saying, and it lands in the good kind to my ears. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2024 6:04:16 GMT -5
Today's selection:
3) Herbie Hancock - Empyrean Isles
A jazz classic with Herbie leading who is flat out one of my all-time favorite musicians, just a beautiful album with so much talent. The quartet here is Herbie leading on piano, a blistering performance by Freddie Hubbard on cornet, Ron Carter on bass, and another appearance on my list of a very young Tony Williams on drums. A fantastic lineup, and I'll keep my commentary minimal and just let this track from the album speak for itself:
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jul 17, 2024 7:12:51 GMT -5
3) Herbie Hancock - Empyrean Isles I really want to listen to more Herbie Hancock. My knowledge of his output is slim and rather scattershot: I know 1973's Head Hunters, the song "I Have a Dream" from his 1970 album The Prisoner, and his 1983 breakdance hit "Rockit", but that's it. Certainly, there's a whole lot of his early Blue Note stuff that I'm completely unfamiliar with. The track you posted is perhaps a bit too Hard Bop for my tastes; what's the rest of the Empyrean Isles album like? I generally like slightly mellower, less frenetic jazz from this era...Cool Jazz especially. Based on that, what would you say would be a good album for me to start with from his early Blue Note period? Also, is The Prisoner a good album in its entirety, do you know? |
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Post by Confessor on Jul 17, 2024 7:20:51 GMT -5
Carrying on with my Top 10 albums of 1964... #3 - Wednesday Morning, 3am by Simon & Garfunkel Simon & Garfunkel's debut album was a bit of a flop upon release. It did very little, commercially speaking, outside of their native New York City and the Greenwich Village folk scene of which they were a part. It was only when the album was re-released in the States in 1966 and in the UK in 1968 – with the duo by then having found international success with subsequent releases – that Wednesday Morning, 3am began to chart. It's an album that finds the duo firmly in a purest folk/protest guise, with several of the tracks being sung in the overly earnest tradition of the likes of Peter, Paul and Mary, Joan Baez, or the Chad Mitchell Trio. Although the album does include a handful of covers – including a serviceable rendition of Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'" – what was clear, even at this early stage, was that Paul Simon's songs were something special. In particular, "Bleecker Street", "Wednesday Morning, 3am", and the original acoustic version of "The Sound of Silence" (prior to it having guitar, bass and drums overdubbed on it to transform it into the hit version most people know) are standouts. Special mention as well to the utterly sublime arrangement of the 16th century Latin mass "Benedictus", in which Simon and Garfunkel's voices intertwine beautifully, against a sparse acoustic guitar and cello accompaniment. Rather than go with "The Sound of Silence", I've instead chosen Simon's haunting "Bleecker Street" to showcase the album. Named after a street in Greenwich Village (where Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum is located, comic fans!), it's an alienated look at the darker side of the local beat and folknik scene. There are some interesting religious overtones in the song's lyric too, as the observer casts a melancholy eye over the neighbourhood's homeless, lonely, and ill-fated… |
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