The pleasure is to play, makes no difference what you say
Continuing my trip up Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time...
#410 : Wild Honey - The Beach Boys (1967)
After Pet Sounds and the aborted Smiley Smile, what was left for the Beach Boys to do? Invent the idea of DIY pop. Ditching the opulent and intricate arrangements of those two albums, Wild Honey returned them to their days as a spunky, self-contained band. In 24 concise but utterly winning minutes, they romp through set of low-fi sunbaked melodies and R&B and soul homages — all suffused with warmth, sly hooks, and a sense of band unity, even as a frazzled Brian Wilson was starting to pull back.
I'm not a massive fan of Pet Sounds (I suspect we'll get a chance to go into that later) so I was not expecting to enjoy this album. However, I was not expecting my response to be (in the infamous words of Marcus Greil) "What is this shit?". "Darlin'" is just about OK, but all the stuff I love about The Beach Boys is almost completely missing from this album. And the version I listened to wasn't just 24 minutes either - it was the deluxe, remastered, reissued, collector's edition (or something) which went on for 3 days (or it felt like it anyway).
I'm sorry - that's all I'm going to say here. I'm grumpy now.
#409 : Workingman's Dead - Grateful Dead (1970)
“We weren’t feeling like an experimental music group, but were feeling more like a good old band,” Jerry Garcia said. The Dead stripped down for Workingman’s Dead, with eight spooky blues and country songs that rival the best of Bob Dylan, as in the morbid “Black Peter” and “Dire Wolf.” Garcia and Robert Hunter proved themselves one of rock’s sharpest songwriting teams, with the acoustic hymn “Uncle John’s Band.” Hunter said, “It was my feeling about what the Dead was and could be. It was very much a song for us and about us, in the most hopeful sense.”
It wasn't that I'd actively avoided Grateful Dead but I hadn't exactly gone out of my way to listen to any of their stuff either. I think I just assumed it was a load of old hippy shit - but having listened to this album I stand corrected. There's some folk shit in there, some country shit and a liberal dash of blues shit. I'm being unfair there - the songs are all "absolutely fine". And what says "great album" more that a load of "absolutely fine" songs?!?
Wikipedia has surprisingly little to say about the album - particularly when compared with the length of the entry on the band (which I totally couldn't be bothered reading). "Customers also listened to" a LOT of other Grateful Dead albums - they certainly are loyal fans. It's surprising that such a cultural phenomenon in the US has made so little impact over here - I think the references I'm most aware of are Don Henley's "Boys Of Summer" ("Out on the road today, saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac"), Sam running off to a Grateful Dead concert at the end of Freaks and Geeks (which is well worth a watch if you haven't already) and Ben & Jerry's "Cherry Garcia" ice cream (which is well worth a taste if you haven't already!). None of which have anything to do with their music and unfortunately, this album does nothing to explain their massive popularity to me, but it also doesn't make me begrudge them their fame (unlike some others on this list)
#408 : Ace Of Spades - Motörhead (1980)
Neither punk nor metal, Motörhead played rock & roll nastier, grittier, and snarlier than their forebears on Ace of Spades. Amid a miasma of hypercharged guitar riffs and death-rattle drumming, frontman Lemmy Kilmister, splits his time between sleazy come-ons (“Love Me Like a Reptile”), war stories (“(We Are) The Road Crew”), and underdog maxims (“Live to Win”). The blazing title track epitomized the Motörhead experience: “You know I’m born to lose, and gambling’s for fools,” Lemmy growls, “but that’s the way I like it, baby, I don’t wanna live forever.” He meant it, too.
Back in the day, it was compulsory for every boy a) to own a canvas schoolbag (preferable a weird kind of mustard colour) and b) to write Motörhead on it in blue biro, preferably attempting (and failing) to copy their logo. Was that REALLY 40 years ago now?!?
I'm not sure I'd ever listened to the whole album, but I knew what I was expecting - a huge wall of noise. And that's what I got! And if you've read some of my previous album reviews, you'll know I have had some issues with noise - but Motörhead somehow manage to do a particularly enjoyable, rocking type of noise so I have absolutely no issues with this album. I mean, your mum is still going to hate it - but she'll smile because you're enjoying it so much. Now, which track to pick as the highlight. Hmmm - tricky one. OK, I'll pick "Ace Of Spades" then
Wikipedia tells me that the band appeared on Tiswas to promote the album - the mind boggles. The first time I remember seeing them (and the song) was on The Young One's Bambi episode - and if you are of a certain age and want to cast your mind back across the years, just read the Wikipedia plot precis for that episode
One of Vyvyan's dirty socks comes to life and tries to escape the house...Vyvyan sticks his head out the window as the train enters a tunnel and accidentally decapitates himself.The four leave the train to chase down Vyvyan's head and end up hitchhiking to the studio. They arrive two weeks later, bedraggled and filthy, and Vyvyan tries and fails to smuggle in a pig...They are suddenly squashed by a giant Ă©clair, which belongs to a medical doctor who has been observing the events of the episode as a bacterial culture under his microscope. The episode ends when the doctor later feeds it to an elephant, Jumbo, who is supposedly a horribly disfigured man.
Right, that's quite enough Wikipedia for the time being - "customers also listened to" Girlschool and Iron Maiden, which were also acceptable bands to biro their names onto your mustard canvas bag. And whilst it was never really my thing then, I do view it with some fondness now. They promise to rock you - and they definitely deliver on their promises!
So it's a win for the noise this time around!
#413-411 - A winner almost as old as me
#407-405 - Not a good selection
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