Greetings girl and welcome to my world of phrase
Continuing my trip up Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time...
#103 : Three Feet High And Rising - De La Soul (1989)
Long Island high school friends Posdnuos, Trugoy, and Maseo linked up with Stetsasonic DJ Prince Paul to create a left-field hip-hop masterpiece, heralding a “D.A.I.S.Y. Age” and weaving samples of Steely Dan, Malcolm McLaren, and Johnny Cash with raps about everything from Public Enemy-style politics (“Ghetto Thang”) to individualism (“Take It Off”) to body odor (“A Little Bit of Soap”). “There was no plan back then,” Trugoy told Rolling Stone in 2009. Indeed, De La Soul’s anything-goes spirit sparked generations of oddballs to rise up and get theirs.
Our second visit with De La Soul on this list and last time we had all sorts of bother because none of their stuff is available on any streaming mechanism - and funnily enough, despite my complaints to the proper authorities, they haven't managed to resolve it. YouTube did better in serving up more tracks from this considerably more well-known album, but the sound quality was particularly rubbish on most of them and the adverts did little to improve my mood (I really don't need Neil "Razor" Ruddock telling me how to be a good dad) - so I'm just going to stick with my overriding memories of this being a joyous album (a stark contrast from De La Soul Is Dead). The singles are particularly fine, but it also has an acceptable amount of quirk - just perfect for a sunny day like today (if only I could actually listen to it).
Wikipedia tells us this is a hip-hop record like no other and that the critics loved it - and that's about it, which seems criminal to me. The band's entry isn't a lot more informative, although they come across as nice enough guys and they're still hanging around doing the odd bit here and there. It also tells me that Trugoy is so named because it spells "yogurt" backwards and he likes yogurt. And Posdnous is "sound sop" backwards. So there you go.
"Customers also listened to" - I've no idea because of the lack of streaming options, but I'd imagine this one has fans from across the spectrum because they're just dudes, man! I'm not entirely sure I agree with WIkipedia that there are no other hip-hop records like it, but I would agree it was the quite probably the first of its kind. And quite possibly the best - so sort out the streaming situation!
#102 : The Clash - The Clash (1977)
“I haven’t got any illusions about anything,” Joe Strummer said. “Having said that, I still want to try to change things.” That youthful ambition bursts through the Clash’s debut, a machine-gun blast of songs about unemployment (“Career Opportunities”), race (“White Riot”), and the Clash themselves (“Clash City Rockers”). Most of the guitar was played by Mick Jones, because Strummer considered studio technique insufficiently punk. The American release was delayed two years and replaced some of the U.K. tracks with recent singles, including “Complete Control” — a complaint about exactly those sort of record-company shenanigans.
Our second visit with The Clash and last time, things didn't end well. I was expecting this to be better than that load of old shite, but suspected my "what's the point to them?" view to be unchanged. And yeah, that's very much where I still am - the songs are OK (at best) and do at least seem to have some sense of purpose to them, but I'm afraid it's just not for me. I can appreciate they were a different proposition live, but that's not going to happen now, is it? This album is way better than Sandinista though, so I have some hope left for London Calling (which is still some way off)
The album's Wikipedia entry consists of a random collection of sentences of varying levels of relevance. I was surprised to read the album got to #12 in the UK charts - as usual with things I don't like, I don't remember it being all that popular at the time. I'm afraid to say this was the high point of the entry for me - ""Garageland" was written in response to Charles Shaar Murray's damning review of the Clash's early appearance at the Sex Pistols Screen on the Green concert – "The Clash are the kind of garage band who should be returned to the garage immediately, preferably with the engine running"". The band's Wikipedia entry isn't much better constructed, but does tell me that Joe Strummer died in 2003 - which makes me feel super-old because it feels like it happened just a couple of years ago.
"Customers also listened to" Pistols, Damned, Buzzcocks and Generation X - no major surprises there. I just don't get any of it, I'm afraid - I can appreciate it all meant a lot to those who lived it at the time, but that doesn't mean for me that this is a great album now, I'm afraid.
#101 : Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin (1969)
On their first album, Led Zeppelin were still in the process of inventing their own sound, moving on from the heavy rave-ups of guitarist Jimmy Page’s previous band, the Yardbirds. But from the beginning, Zeppelin had the astonishing fusion of Page’s lyrical guitar playing and Robert Plant’s paint-peeling love-hound yowl. “We were learning what got us off most and what got people off most,” said Plant. Yet the template for everything Zeppelin achieved in the 1970s is here: brutal rock (“Communication Breakdown”), thundering power balladry (“Your Time Is Gonna Come”), and acid-flavored folk blues (“Babe I’m Gonna Leave You”).
The last two Led Zep albums (II and Physical Graffiti) have resulted in me saying surprisingly nice things about a group that I didn't think I had a lot of time for. Obviously, this unfortunate state of affairs has left me feeling somewhat shaken - would the trend continue? Well, no. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for it, but I didn't find this nearly as immediate as the previous two - let's just put it down to them being "in the process of inventing their own sound". It was obviously skilful, but I found most of it boring, cliched and self-indulgent - it reminded me of groups I heard in sixth form, where everyone had to be given their turn doing their thing. Also, Black Mountain Side was a godawful track - there's just no excuse for that. There was also a bit somewhere on the album that sounded like the theme tune to "Cheggers Plays Pop" (and yes, I know that chronologically it's the other way round) but it still made me laugh (and to think that kids these days don't even know who Cheggers is - shameful!)
Wikipedia gives the album the full track-by-track fan breakdown - it's safe to say I didn't bother reading any of them. The album wasn't critically well received, but was commercially successful - top 10 in both the US and UK, which was somewhat impressive (and hence, of course, has been critically re-evaluated as a masterpiece). The band's entry is still a lengthy read - with no facts of interest from this period at all. Oh well, one more entry of theirs on the list (can you guess which number it might be?) for me to read it in more detail.
"Customers also listened to" almost exclusively Jimi and The Doors - no major surprises there! This one just didn't do it for me, I'm afraid - I'm happy to accept that it lead on to better things which I might revisit, but no chance of me coming back to this, I'm afraid.
I imagine all these albums bring back happy memories for music fans from different eras, but for me there's only one that hits me anywhere near the feels, so well done to De La Soul for their all-round happiness.
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