Once I had a love and it was a gas

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

#149 : John Prine - John Prine (1971) 

When John Prine resigned from his job as a USPS mailman, his supervisor snickered, “You’ll be back.” Instead, Prine became a revered folk-country-rock songwriter, starting with this first album, which is loaded with enduring gems, including “Angel From Montgomery,” “Hello in There,” and a song that regularly returns to relevance, “Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore.” Prine seemed like a Zen sage. He filled his songs with an uncynical live-and-let-live morality, and wrote in a colloquial voice that showed a love of the way Americans speak. His closest parallel isn’t another songwriter, it’s Mark Twain.

I had just about heard of John Prine, but couldn't claim to be familiar with the man or his music, so I approached this with caution.  And whilst I can't say it's entirely my thing, it's quite interesting - it feels very old-school country, but I can imagine that it was anything but old-school at the time.  I don't particularly like his voice (it's quite Dylan), but the lyrics and the delivery have intelligence, charm and humour - I think I'll just put it down as "not my cup of tea" and let Wikipedia tell me how great/influential/enduring it is.

Wikipedia tells me it's a "very good first album by a very good songwriter" - that's me told, eh?  It also makes the believable point that they're not immediate songs and they take some work to get into - whilst I have a problem with his voice, the good news is that a lot of his songs have been covered by other people, so maybe I should check them out.  The album drew praise from his contemporaries - Dylan said "Prine's stuff is pure Proustian existentialism. Midwestern mindtrips to the nth degree" whereas Kris Kristofferson went for the slightly more accessible "Twenty-four years old and writes like he's two-hundred and twenty!".  His Wikipedia page also has a lot of nice things to say about him - unfortunately he died of Covid-related issues last year, but the last song he recorded was "I Remember Everything", which seems kinda a nice way to go out.

"Customers also listened to" Blaze Foley, Tia Baker and Iris DeMent.  No, me neither - none of them.  Some names I recognised did appear further down the list, but there was no Dylan which surprised me.  Overall, I'd say it's not my thing but I'm tempted to check out his greatest hits.  If you like Dylan and you're not aware of this album then I think you should probably check it out - I'd certainly describe it as preferable to early 70s Dylan.  But then again, I'd describe gouging my eyes out with a rusty spoon as preferable to early 70s Dylan - so maybe I'm not the best judge here.

#148 : Channel Orange - Frank Ocean (2012) 

On Channel Orange, Frank Ocean became one of music’s most elusive superstars — shy about speaking in public, impossible to pin down musically. He emerged from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, writing pop tunes for the likes of Brandy and Justin Bieber. But he stepped into his own avant-soul territory with Channel Orange, his official debut. Soon after coming out of the closet — still a rarity in R&B at the time — Ocean had a hit with the falsetto slow jam “Thinkin Bout You.” He mixes up genres and vocal personae, with guest shots from André 3000 to John Mayer. The peak: the spacey 10-minute suite “Pyramids,” an Egyptian fantasy starring Cleopatra as an around-the-way girl. Years later, Channel Orange still sounds like the future.

I bracket Frank Ocean along with Kendrick Lamaar in that they're both artists I feel I should appreciate, if not actively like - but whenever I listen to any of their albums, I find myself somewhat perplexed by them.  I don't hate them, but I don't like them either and just feel like I'm missing the point to them.  I had already experienced this with this album, but listened again just in case things changed.  And not really, although I enjoyed bits of it more than I remembered doing so the last time I listened to it (which was probably in 2013, so it wasn't recently).  I do agree with Rolling Stone that it "still sounds like the future" - it doesn't have any obvious reference points to me in order to help me describe it to you.  But to be honest, you're probably going to be similarly perplexed to me.

The Wikipedia entry for the album is very, very long - it does feel like the sort of the album you could spend a lot of time on, and someone has obviously done just that.  It also tells me that "He titled the album as a reference to the neurological phenomenon grapheme-color synesthesia" - OBVIOUSLY!  Bizarrely, all the tracks are credited as performed and produced by Frank Ocean, whereas they are credited as written by Christopher Breaux - and they are one and the same person.  His Wikipedia entry tells us he's also known as Lonny Breaux - it does feel like some people lead unnecessarily complex lives.  He seems quite a complex person and I can imagine that the situation around his sexuality ("not heterosexual" seems to the safest description to apply) required some difficult and brave decisions and I particularly like his quote "I'll respectfully say that life is dynamic and comes along with dynamic experiences, and the same sentiment that I have towards genres of music, I have towards a lot of labels and boxes and shit".  His dad suing him for $15 million for defamation can hardly have helped make his life any easier as well.

"Customers also listened to" Childish Gambino (who I also find to be a somewhat perplexing character) and Miguel (who I know nothing about).  Yeah, all in all - an odd one which I'm not sure what my opinion is.  I want to like it, but I can't say I do.

#147 : Grace - Jeff Buckley (1994) 

In an era when love was an unpopular song topic, Buckley was a swooning romantic. He was the son of the late 1960s cult singer Tim Buckley, but identified himself as “rootless trailer-trash born in Southern California.” On extended slow-burning ballads like “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over” and his cover of “Hallelujah,” Buckley used unrestrained amounts of falsetto and vibrato to create an unearthly longing. His music had a smattering of grunge, a plateful of Led Zeppelin III (check the fierce rocker “Eternal Life”), and an opulent sense of tragedy. Grace is the only album Buckley released in his lifetime; he died in 1997 after going for a swim in a Memphis river known for its unpredictable currents.

I had listened to this back in the day and remembered liking it, but haven't listened to any of it since, apart from his cover of "Hallelujah" (which is up there with the best of them, although I think I prefer Rufus Wainwright's version).  So I was intrigued to see how much I must have liked it to never listen to it again.  And a relisten cleared it up - the good bits are good, but the less good bits are, well, I think "whiny, needy noise" covers it for me.  And the less good bits overwhelmed the good bits for me, I'm afraid.

Wikipedia basically tells me I'm wrong - I can't say I'm surprised (Bowie was a big fan, who is someone who's judgement I usually trust).  It also mentions - a lot - how popular the album was in Australia, which seems an odd thing to specifically call out.  Apart from that, it has remarkably little to say about anything.  His Wikipedia entry is a thing of seriousness with some quite peculiar stories - apparently when he was growing up he was called Scottie Moorhead until Jeff Buckley (who he only met once) died, at which point he found out from his birth certificate that his first name was actually Tim, so he changed his name.  The situation around his death is also somewhat peculiar - no drinks or drugs involved, but what makes a person decide to go swimming in the river fully clothed?  It feels like it would have been interesting to see what he would have gone to do had he been around for longer.

"Customers also listened to" Gary Jules, Radiohead and Sinead O'Connor.  Errr - OK, I guess.  I suspect if I put more effort in, I would grow to like most of this album but I feel the annoying bits will prevent me from doing so.

So, the verdicts are "not my cup of tea", "perplexing" and "whiny, needy noise" - although I feel I could grow to like all of them given time (or at least like them more).  But as of this moment, could it be time to play the joker?  A peak ahead didn't result in an overwhelming "YES!", but I decided it was worth a listen to see if it was a definite improvement over this three and the fact that I have included it will probably give you some idea on the verdict.

#146 : Parallel Lines - Blondie (1978) 

Here’s where punk and New Wave broke through to a mass U.S. audience, thanks to the Number One hit “Heart of Glass,” also known to Blondie fans as “The Disco Song.” “I was trying to get that groove that the drummer for the Bee Gees had,” said Blondie drummer Clem Burke, who credited Kraftwerk and the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack as influences on “Heart of Glass.” Parallel Lines is a perfect synthesis of raw punk edge, Sixties-pop smarts, and the cool New Wave glamour that Blondie invented. Debbie Harry, of course, invented a new kind of rock & roll sex appeal that brought New York demimonde style to the mainstream. Madonna was surely watching.

Last time we bumped into Blondie, someone had some very unkind things to say about Debbie's singing voice, so when this popped up as a potential joker option, you can understand my uncertainty at proceeding.  However, when you look at the track listing - including "Hanging On The Telephone", "One Way Or Another", "Picture This", "Sunday Girl", "Heart Of Glass" - even someone as old and cynical as myself struggles to believe I misremembered all these tracks as being really quite good.  And playing the album, they were indeed "really quite good" - as is the rest of the album.  I was very pleasantly surprised by the whole thing and it also has a very cool album cover.  In the last round, I said I thought The Pretenders album struggled to play the "massively influential" card - and after having listened to this album from 2 years earlier, I can only assume they also owned a copy or two.

The Wikipedia entry for the album is interesting, particularly the section around the recording - Mike Chapman, the producer, remembered them as "the worst band he ever worked with in terms of musical ability".  He also says they hated each other, were completely juvenile, he had to teach them all how to play their instruments and Debbie was highly emotional and would disappear off in floods to tears.  However, when the record label said the finished article was rubbish and they should start again, he backed the thing - and I think history validates his opinion.  Again, I gave up reading all the drama involved on the band's Wikipedia page - although I was amused that when they were inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, they managed to have an on-stage argument between current and previous members of the band as to who was going to be allowed to play.  Children, children - calm down now!

"Customers also listened to" Dexy's Midnight Runners, Status Quo, Steve Miller and The Proclaimers - which is a particularly random selection, even considering the randomness we often see for 80s albums.  I really enjoyed this album - much more than I was expecting to and it was nice for Blondie to restore their reputation for me.

So, Blondie for the win!

#152-150 - The 80s take over!
#145-143 - Two huge albums - and one not quite so big one