Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day

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

#55 : The Dark Side Of The Moon - Pink Floyd (1973)

“I think every album was a step towards Dark Side of the Moon,” keyboardist Rick Wright said. “We were learning all the time; the techniques of the recording and our writing was getting better.” As a culmination of their inner-space explorations of the early 1970s, the Floyd toured the bulk of Dark Side in Britain for months prior to recording. But in the studio, the band articulated bassist Roger Waters’ reveries on the madness of everyday life with melodic precision (“Breathe,” “Us and Them”) and cinematic luster (Clare Torry’s guest vocal aria “The Great Gig in the Sky”). Dark Side is one of the best-produced rock albums ever, and “Money” may be rock’s only Top 20 hit in 7/4 time.

The Floyd are a bit of a cultural blindspot for me, but I know and like this album so was happy to listen to it again.  The quality level is high throughout - I think "Time" is probably my favourite track but there's a lot to enjoy there (and yes, Clare Torry totally deserves her name-check in the description above).  I totally appreciate that this is probably the non-Floyd fan's obvious choice, but I think this list has shown that's pretty much the definition of me, so I'm happy conforming to the stereotype.  If you think you don't like them and have been avoiding, then I'd totally say this is the place to start - it feels unlikely I'm going to go any further than that other than have a few tracks on my general playlist ("Shine On" and "Comfortably Numb") but you may find you're a fan.  It's also a slightly recognisable album cover - up there with the most iconic of them all.

Wikipedia has, unsurprisingly, a lot to say about the album but it's all very much down in the detail of the recording and not exactly a barrel of laughs.  It is obviously a highly regarded album and turned out to be somewhat successful with an estimated 45 million sales, making it (probably) the fifth best selling album ever.  The entry also contains some bizarrely specific statistics - ""Money" has sold well as a single, and as with "Time", remains a radio favourite; in the US, for the year ending 20 April 2005, "Time" was played on 13,723 occasions, and "Money" on 13,731 occasions".  The album has been remade in full by a surprising number of artists - I don't remember reading this about any other albums on the list so far, but I suspect we'll hear more about such activities.  The "Dark Side Of The Rainbow" theory is pleasingly odd - whilst probably untrue you really have to wonder how anyone came up with it.  The bizarrely useless but slightly interesting fact I like to include when I find them comes from Clare Torry's entry - as well as her impressive contribution to this album, she also sang the theme tune to TV series Butterflies.  I'm not going to bother reading the group's entry again - I've spent far too much time on it already!

"Customers also listened to" The Who, The Doors, Led Zep (bizarrely, III comes up as the top match, which is the one no-one likes) and Dire Straits (who seem an odd match, but I guess they both like a long song).  Like Led Zep last time, this is our final visit of many but The Floyd only managed 4 entries - we've had this one, The Wall, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn and Wish You Were Here - for me, this one was streets ahead of the rest.  I also was quite surprised not to see Animals on the list - even I know that's the one that Floyd aficionados tend to go mad over.

#54 : Star Time - James Brown (1991)

So great is James Brown’s impact that even with 71 songs on four CDs, Star Time isn’t quite comprehensive — between 1956 and 1984, Brown placed an astounding 103 singles on the R&B charts. But every phase of his career is well-represented here: the pleading, straight-up R&B of “Please, Please, Please”; his instantaneous reinvention of R&B with “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” where the rhythm takes over and the melody is subsumed within the groove; his spokesmanship for the civil rights movement in “Say It Loud — I’m Black and I’m Proud (Part 1)”; his founding document of Seventies funk, “Sex Machine”; and his blueprint for hip-hop in “Funky Drummer.”

71 songs over 4 CDs?  Yeah - right.  I thought I'd go for one of his "best ofs" but they were all 40 songs over 2 CDs, so I went for his top 10 in Amazon's "most popular" section.  And yeah, they're well done - but they do get a bit same-y to me, so I can't begin to imagine what I'd like trying to listen to 71 of them.  I really don't understand what Rolling Stone were thinking putting this on the list though - it feels like a total cheat.

Wikipedia has nothing to say about the album other than "We really don't understand what Rolling Stone were thinking putting this on the list though - it feels like a total cheat" - that's a bit of a coincidence, eh?  And we've covered his general unpleasantness before, so we'll skip that as well - this is going to be a swift write-up.  

"Customers also listened to" the soundtrack to Quadrophenia - which somewhat perplexed me, but he has a track on there.  Other than that, it was black artists all the way - which probably isn't going to surprise anyone.  This is our third and final trip with Mr Brown and we've had one "proper" album, one live album and this compilation.  I suspect the thinking behind the inclusion of this set is that he's done so much that it's hard for one album to give him credit for everything - but I'm sure there are a million other lists which will sort that out.  He has done a lot but if he hasn't made that one great album, then he just hasn't - so deal with it.

#53 : Electric Ladyland - Jimi Hendrix (1968)

Jimi Hendrix’s third album was the first he produced himself, a fever dream of underwater electric soul cut in round-the-clock sessions at the Record Plant in New York. Hendrix would leave the Record Plant to jam at a club around the corner, the Scene, and “Voodoo Chile” – 15 minutes of live-in-the-studio blues exploration with Steve Winwood on organ and the Jefferson Airplane’s Jack Cassidy on bass – reflects those excursions. In addition to psychedelic Delta blues, there was the precision snap of “Crosstown Traffic” and a cover of “All Along the Watchtower” that took Bob Dylan into outer space before touching down with a final burst of spectral fury.

I was aware and liked of "All Along The Watchtower", originally from the U2 cover, but I had graduated to Jimi's version and I was aware of and didn't like "Voodoo Chile", finding it very self-indulgent - and I was expecting this album to be mostly along the "Voodoo Chile" vein.  And well, it is really and a lot of this album pushes all the wrong buttons for me (it's 73 minutes long and has two tracks over 13 minutes long) - but for some unclear reason I actually didn't mind it and really quite enjoyed it in places (even "Voodoo Chile").  I'm not entirely sure why -  maybe there's just enough variation in there (even when they're being self-indulgent) and the levels of skill on display are most definitely off the charts.  It won't be for everyone and it's very much of its time but I'm glad I checked it out.  It's also got a very cool album cover (although apparently Hendrix specifically asked for something else and they completely ignored him, so he hated it).

Wikipedia doesn't have a lot of interest to say about the album - it wasn't particularly well received upon release, but sold well enough and has obviously been reappraised since as a classic.  I particularly liked the comment that it is "undoubtedly a rock album, albeit rock on the point of evolving into something else" - this seems pretty accurate to me.  It also reminds me that the UK cover featured a lot (nineteen, apparently) of naked women - it was covered up in most record shops, but every so often you'd come across it and think "hmmm - that's an interesting choice of album cover".  Wikipedia also tells me that along with Steve Winwood (who is far more interesting that his 80s "Higher Love" persona suggests), Brian Jones also appears on the album, as does Buddy Miles who is obviously best known as the voice of the California Raisins (apparently there are two California Raisin R&B albums out there - I wonder if we'll get to see them on this list?).

I did try to read Jimi's Wikipedia entry, but it's really, really long and I'm running a bit late with this - it's safe to say that whatever you can imagine, the man probably "experienced" it.  "Customers also listened to" all them late 60s/early 70s names, most of whom are not my cup of tea but I liked this way more than I was expecting - although I have a suspicion I was just in the mood for it and if I came back to it in the wrong mood, I'd hate it.  I'm also intrigued to see what's coming up because this isn't our last visit with Mr Hendrix - he's done well considering we didn't see him at all before #92.

An easy win for The Floyd this round - they go out on a high for me.

#58-56 - Two albums I'd never heard of.  And one everyone has.
#52-50 - Three very different men for your consideration