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The seventieth comic: #218 Asterix the Gladiator The seventy-first comic: #245 Asterix in Britain The seventy-second comic: #274 Asterix at the Olympic Games The seventy-third comic: #341 Asterix in Corsica

We've got four entries on the comics list from Asterix. While there are four different books on the list, there are quite a few similarities. Besides, I've read a lot more entries in the series, so it makes sense to treat it as a whole.

There are a couple of layers to the books. The first times I read it, I just saw the basic jokes and had a comic book set in the past. As I grew up I started to understand some of the history jokes and the juxtaposition of the two worked. Now, the broad jokes may not land as well, but understanding the mafia subtext in Asterix in Corsica becomes a lot more amusing. The books deal in pretty broad stereotypes, but it only becomes amusing when you get deeper in it. Obviously, the books play fast and loose with history, but at the same time there are enough reference sin there that it feels like it tries - using the history without it getting in the way.

At the same time, there are times where the plotting isn't as tight. It can take a while to get going and the action is pretty constrained through parts of it - the diversions for jokes don't always seem worth it, while they leave the final resolution to the last two pages, which feels like a letdown. It's unsubstantial, which I felt some books did better than the other, but which I also remember being good elsewhere. This may not have been helped by the four stories being journeys away from the main village, where that village works as a better base. It means that at this point, the books were fine, but at my age, and having read more, not amazing.

The one hundred fifty-third album: #153 The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground

For me, the first song on this album starts off as strongly as anything. Candy Says is a lovely ballad about Candy Darling, a trans woman, and how she's unhappy with how she was born. It feels touching and effective, immediately reaching me. While not all the subsequent songs make as much of an impact on me emotionally, the other songs remain good pop ballads, with enough rock sounds to qualify as such but not going as experimental or weird. The album clearly sets out to make good songs rather than be experimental. Murder Mystery is the one exception to this, and it stands out for not fitting quite as much into the rest of the album. Even here, though, it mostly comes from the spoken verses interrupting the sweeter chorus, drawing from the contrast of the sounds of this album and these frantic interruptions. It just feels incredibly appropriate for the entire album - some lovely pop songs with that bit of art mixed in.

The four hundred and fifty-fifth song: Black Betty - Ram Jam

Probably one of the oddest covers on the list, Black Betty has a white rock band covering a work song - mostly keeping the lyrics, of course, but it's nonetheless interesting. The high speed drive of the song is quite a stand out in how it becomes form over function, a driving rock song over the contets of the lyrics, working to create its own classic.

The four hundred and fifty-sixth song: Born for a Purpose - Dr. Alimantado & The Rebels

There's an odd juxtaposition to this song. I can't say I've credited reggae songs with much meaning or value, but here the sound I started to find obnoxious fade to the background and the lyrics take more of a front stage, which feel like they have more meaning than in previous songs, giving the song more power. It clearly feels like it's intended to be more palatable for a larger audience, who would want to take the message on board, and despite my concerns at the start, this worked out really well.

The four hundred and fifty-seventh song: Zombie - Fela Kuti & Africa 70

I always dread it when a twelve minute song comes it. When it does, I hope for something that has a good reason to be that length and knows how to hold your attention. This being a song that draws on jazz that, of course, isn't guaranteed, and it takes over five minutes for any lyrics to come in, instead starting with a long introduction that manages to fade into the background quite effectively. After the lyrics come in, the song takes on more energy and the driving refrain of "zombie" works well to support the rest of the music. The drawn back instruments make sense as Fela Kuti's lyrics drive through. I only pick up words here and there, but there's something frantic about his delivery, shouting "fallout" and putting on a performance that, if you were involved in the conflict that was happening at the time, would have inspired me.

The four hundred and fifty-eighth song: Wuthering Heights - Kate Bush

Having been reading a lot of gothic novels recently, it feels appropriate that this song comes up during it. Based on a gothic novel itself, Wuthering Heights has its own sense of mystery and the supernatural in it. Kate Bush's ethereal, slightly distant vocals have a lot of power, but also feels ghostlike enough that it's not quite clear what going on and the music supports that as much - it's not quite as timeless as the lyrics, but still helps create that same sense of mystery that the vocals bring in. There's not been something quite like it, and it feels up there with the most experimental artists as almost creating its own new corner of music.

The four hundred and fifty-ninth song: Uptown Top Ranking - Althea & Donna

Here's a new version - reggae with two female vocalists. It creates a slightly different sound the song that feels a bit out of place. Many of the same elements are still there, but it feels like the song is recorded more for fun rather than to tell a story, creating a friendlier vibe. It still feels like it doesn't give me that much more, but at least it feels like a twist on the genre.

The four hundred and sixtieth song: I Feel Love - Donna Summer

Reading up to prep for these songs, I saw that this is where electronic music really starts. Aside from Donna Summer's vocals (and a kick drum) everything is electronic and it just stands out how different this song sounds from everything before it. Sure, Kraftwerk has some of these elements, but here it is obvious and in your face and the sound is different from beginning to end. Donna Summer's vocals work great for the song and fit in smoothly, but they don't stand out as much as the ongoing electronic beat and sounds that you hear throughout, sounds that must have sounded alien at the time. There is so much musically that I can trace back to this idea and again, we see new options in music open up.

The four hundred and sixty-first song: Peg - Steely Dan

And after some genre-breaking works, Peg is a pretty standard soft rock song. There's nothing wrong with that - it works well here anyway - but in a revolutionary year this moves along as it should, a jazzy song that sounds good, has a good beat and gives a bit of a chance to sing along. It's a competent respite and probably does more to solidify the solid rock genre than it does anything more remarkable. Sometimes that's what you need, anyway, and it's a good prep before starting another long one.

The four hundred and sixty-second song: Marquee Moon - Television

Although Television is considered a punk band, Marquee Moon leans more towards the glam rock and art rock end of the scale, a decent but straight forward rock riff combined with lyrics with their own symbolism, but vocals that don't go too complicated. There are no screeching guitars, no loudness for the sake of being loud and subdued drums. There are times in the song where it shines through, but there's a restraint that you don't really here in other punk songs. Instead, it's a well constructed song, building to its moments well and capable of enough variation in its music to keep you interested, but that wears off about seven minutes in - there's just one solo too many in there, which feels like it goes against the way the rest of the song is set up.

The four hundred and sixty-third song: Like a Hurricane - Neil Young

I feel like I've heard most from Neil Young from his collaborations, which led me to be more disappointed by this solo song than I expected. I was hoping for something a bit more lyrics-driven than this is, with the vocals not convincing me while they feel combined here with a fairly standard rock track. It's not necessarily bad, but it doesn't feel as big or fresh as it could be, which is mostly what's disappointing about it. It's a bit uninspiring, in a year where there are so many more standouts.

The four hundred and sixty-fourth song: The Passenger - Iggy Pop

There's this weird side-genre to songs of travel songs. It has a driving beat, like a train racing along or trees passing your car as you race down the motorway. The Passenger is one of these, a rock song with an on going beat and chorus and Iggy Pop's low voice singing about his travels along some road or tracks. David Bowie's backing vocals are one of the things that break up the monotony of the trip. It's well executed as it all fits together, but also creating something that's a bit of an anthem and that feels layered enough to not belabour the metaphor - there is enough variation for that and all of the song works here.

The sixty-ninth classical recording: #59 Henry Purcell - The Fairy Queen

With today's classical peace we're looking at a Shakespeare play turned into a musical by Henry Purcell. It's fairly early in the list and shows how much movement classical music goes through in these early stages - these aren't the monk's chants we got 30 earlier. Instead, this full-on opera has a lot of musical interludes. It has decent music - not quite the otherworldly charm the title implies, but it sounds decent regardless, with some decent songs but mostly as its own orchestral piece that would, I assume, normally accompany the spoken word. I don't think this is one where I felt I really missed out by seeing the performance - it all stood out well enough on its own.

The sixty-ninth comic: #205 Jungle Book

Not based on the Kipling novel, this Jungle Book is a collection of stories by early MAD's Harvey Kurtzman. Some of these four are pastiches of popular genres at the time, while The Organization Man in the Gray Flannel Executive Suit is a satire based on his early experiences with publishing. It's probably the most interesting story, even though it's a fairly straight forward satire the structure is good and it doesn't work out its welcome. This works with Thelonius Violence's take on detective stories as well, playing with the jazzy noir stories while still delivering a strong story - it feels like it holds up well.

The other two story don't work as well though. The western story gets repetitive and boring while the southern story never quite grabbed me - I think it's the one where I really didn't know enough A mixed bag in the end - with a clearly stronger first half.

The seventieth book: #59 The Monk - M.G. Lewis

We've really arrived in the era of the gothic novel. The Monk has a fairly convoluted plot with a lot of characters who often have their own side stories and go off for a chapter or two to give some change of direction. The core character, the titular monk, is Ambrosio, a devout monk (raised by the monks after being left at the door as a baby) who through the novel descends into sin and becomes a definite villain, even until he's literally taken away by Lucifer at the end.

I found it hard to focus enough to keep track of the story. There are plenty of diversions that I lost tracks of parts of the story and the prose was overwrought enough that it started to bore me. I can see how it would inspire others, but I am looking forward to this developing a bit further.

The one hundred fifty-second album:#152 Elvis Presley - From Elvis in Memphis

While we heard more from him in the early parts of this list, we now come to his last album on the list in what I guess was his revival period. One of the big changes that I felt straight away is the larger influence of soul in this - while I'm sure there were some, it feels like there are more choirs and tambourines as the album starts. That veers a bit more into rocky blues songs - sometimes fully into blues (maybe with some violins playing) although something like Power Of My Love In The Ghetto goes the other way. Elvis still sounds good and his performances are as powerful as ever, while the large production suits his voice well. It's an impressive combination and in the end, I feel the album worked far better than I would have expected based on when this was in Elvis's career.

The one hundred fourteenth TV show: #111 Batman

We wanted to put a simpler, fun show against the heavier subject matter of the other show that we'll get to in a few weeks and Batman's 1960s iteration felt like it fit the bill best. The show is cheesy by today's standards, although in a way this is probably one of the shows that defined it. Sure, it's tame and not as dark as we envision Batman (especially these days), but this was meant as a family show in the sixties, almost focused on working for the kids. The effects aren't the best, the fights predictable (with cartoon sound effects overlaid to hide hits not actually connecting) and there are plenty of other things that look cheap now.

However, the formula still works. There are enough fun bits in there to keep enjoying the show and the performances are delightful - hacked, at times, sure, but delightfully campy and hammy. It gets a bit less interesting after twenty episodes, but it's been good to watch for some fun, some predictable but fun story and always keeping you guess what weird thing they came up with for the story this time. Somehow, there's something here that still holds up and stays fun.

The one hundred fifty-first album: #151 Dusty Springfield - Dusty In Memphis

We return to Dusty Springfield's vocals about a hundred albums after the previous one. It's a lovely pop album, with some soul influences, giving us some influential songs but also a general sound that really works - the orchestra adds enough swing but Dusty Springfield's voice holds up well on its own and it's worked great a music to work to. Son of a Preacherman, of course, stands out as the big song, a clear soul song that sounds a bit more subdued here than it normally does, but it works well in its original context.

In the previous write up, I mentioned that album really starting to feel like pop, and I feel that's set up more here - no big focus on country, no rock elements, and while there are some clear R&B songs as well, on the whole there's a sound that works on its own.

The one hundred fiftieth album: #150 Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left

Musically, Nick Drake's folk rock is decent, mostly a simple guitar rhythm but regularly introducing violins and other instruments. Add to that vocals that are a bit slow and careful and I get a feeling of distance, symbolizing the depression that plagued him and that comes through. It's introspective, and while there's a lot going on at times, the core vocals dominate. I needed to move myself away from the feeling of this being standard, as there's a depth to it that only came out slowly. It's beautiful, but something feels ephemeral about what it's trying to express.