You touch me - I hear the sound of mandolins

Continuing my trip up Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time...

#212 : Wild Is The Wind - Nina Simone (1966)

Aretha was the Queen of Soul, but Nina Simone, as one of her album titles proclaimed, was its high priestess, and this 1966 LP is among her most enthralling and eclectic. With her dusky voice at its most commanding, Simone works her way through roadhouse soul (“I Love Your Lovin’ Ways”) and dramatic set pieces (the melancholic “Lilac Wine,” later covered by Jeff Buckley). It peaks with “Four Women,” an ambitious saga of racially diverse women and their struggles, written by Simone.

Nina Simone is one of those artists I feel I should like, but never quite manage to make it beyond the "admire" stage - so I wasn't expecting too much from this.  I actually found this album surprisingly difficult to listen to but not for any musical reason - somewhat bizarrely, on Amazon all the tracks are named incorrectly and it completely threw me. Once I'd got my head round that, I found the tracks fell into two categories - the smoother songs on the album (eg "The Other Woman", "Wild Is The Wind") where her voice comes across well, which I liked, and the other more raw tracks which were more like the Nina Simone I was previously aware of (and on some of them, her voice is very low in the mix) and I didn't enjoy them so much.  But whatever I was expecting from the album, I REALLY wasn't expecting to find "Cotton Eye Joe" on there - I never knew it was an old American folk song.  Excuse my ignorance, but I'd just assumed that Rednex had written a dreadful song, rather than ruining a perfectly decent song.  

The album's Wikipedia entry doesn't have a lot to say, although it did remind me that Bowie covered "Wild Is The Wind", which I'd completely forgotten.  Her entry has much more to it - it's fair to say she lead an "interesting" life.  I'll just include a couple of sentences to tempt you in - "Simone stayed in Barbados for quite some time, and had a lengthy affair with the Prime Minister" and "While living in France, she shot and wounded her neighbor's son with an air gun after the boy's laughter disturbed her concentration".  However, we should really concentrate on her musical output - 40 albums over 35 years with some stone cold classic tracks scattered throughout.  "My Baby Just Cares For Me", "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" and "Feeling Good" are all up there with the best of anything - she also wrote "Young, Gifted And Black" which I called out as a fine anthem for the ages on Aretha's album here.

"Customers also listened to" a lot of other Nina and some other fierce looking black ladies, who I suspect make sweet sounding music.  I've found the whole thing an interesting education and have realised I like Nina more than I was aware of - it feels like some time with her greatest hits might be a good option (40 albums feels like too much of an undertaking though!).

#211 : Unknown Pleasures - Joy Division (1980)

Joy Division came from the northern England industrial gloom of Manchester, four blue-collar lads chasing a new kind of goth-punk grandeur. Right from the opening, “Disorder,” Unknown Pleasures sounds like nothing else, with the doomed Ian Curtis yelping his dark poetry (“I got the spirit!”) over Peter Hook’s bass pulse. But for all the despair, there’s something inspiring in the surge of “Interzone” and “New Dawn Fades.” Black-clad young bands have been imitating Joy Division ever since.

We previously met the cheery Mancunian funsters at #309 where they (thanks to the competition) managed to win the round with a very challenging album indeed, so I wasn't exactly looking forward to experiencing the album that launched a thousand teeshirts.  But, whilst I wouldn't exactly say I liked it (are you even supposed to like Joy Division albums?), I definitely preferred it to Closer - whilst it's still a pretty challenging listen, it doesn't feel like it's daring me to hate it.  I couldn't give you any actual opinion on any of the tracks though - sorry!

So, I wasn't entirely serious or joking about "the album that launched a thousand teeshirts" but Wikipedia tells me "In 2012 the Disney corporation used the cover image for a t-shirt with Mickey Mouse, which was taken as a joke but not meant as one".  Errr - wtf?  The album was well received by critics upon release (amusingly, Smash Hits reviewed it and didn't totally hate it) but apparently didn't sell well.  Amusingly, some of the band didn't like it at the time but grew to grudgingly accept it - in the light of that, this is quite an interesting quote from the producer "[Joy Division] were a gift to a producer, because they didn't have a clue. They didn't argue".

I've already considered the chuckle-a-thon that is the band's Wikipedia page and I don't feel the need to visit it again, I'm afraid.  "Customers also listened to" New Order, Echo And The Bunnymen, The Jesus And Mary Chain - all bands you'll like or very much not like.  I think we can safely say I'm not a Joy Division kinda guy though.

#210 : The Birth Of Soul - Ray Charles (1991)

Ray Charles was just about the first person to perfect that mix of blues and gospel, holy and filthy, that we know as soul music. He was knocking around Seattle when Atlantic bought out his contract in 1952. For the next eight years, he turned out brilliant singles such as “What’d I Say” and “I Got a Woman.” This box collects every R&B side he cut for Atlantic, though his swinging take on “My Bonnie” will have you thinking it covers his Atlantic jazz output as well.

My main experience with Ray Charles' music is watching the Jamie Foxx film - in which he did an excellent job to my uneducated ear, but I'm not sure this makes me a Ray expert.  So was I looking forward to listening to this 53 track, 2.5 hour extensive collection?  I'll leave you to guess the answer but, obviously, I was spared because it's not available on Amazon so I stuck his greatest hits on instead.  And, I didn't mind it, but I didn't get the "aaaah - I know loads of this" that I was expecting.  I can hear it's pretty influential on what came afterwards, but not really my cup of tea if I'm being honest.

Wikipedia has absolutely nothing to say about the album other than two critics liked it.  His entry is much more interesting - it's fair to say Ray had a "challenging" start to his life.  His mother was abandoned by her father after her mother died, so she was adopted by another family - and her adoptive father got her pregnant at 15.  He then left, with Ray being brought up by his mum and stepmum/gran alongside a younger brother.  When Ray was 4, his brother drowned.  When he was 7, he went blind.  And when he was 14, his mother died.  I think we can quite safely say "that sucks".  So for him to go on and produce nearly 60 albums over 50 years is somewhat impressive.  He also produced 12 children by 10 different women, which suggests he may have had some fidelity issues - but to be fair to the lad it's not like he denied it - "Cigarettes and smack (heroin) are the two truly addictive habits I've known. You might add women" - and it sounds like he looked after them all (to varying degrees).

"Customers also listened to" Aretha, James and Louis - classic artists the lot of them.  But I'm more likely to listen to the best of Nina than the best of Ray, I'm afraid.  And this album is, of course, completely invalid for this list.

Hmmm - tricky one.  I have a suspicion that if I'm being entirely fair, Joy Division just sneak the round.  But, they were extremely lucky to win their last round and I really don't want to be seen to be encouraging them.  And Ray isn't up for consideration, so it's going to Nina on the basis of the tracks I liked and her entertaining Wikipedia page.

#215-213 - Who doesn't love an ambigram?
#209-207 - Hip-hop.  Hip-hop.  Not hip-hop.