Archive of

The twelfth classical recording: #985 Steve Reich - Different Trains

As we jump forward in time, we come to a piece that still has the classical elements from before, but also has more modern elements - part of the song coming from tape. It shows how classical in this list isn't the opposite of modern, but more refers to the instruments and style used.

As a longer piece, this evokes the feeling of being on a train - the string instruments following that beat - also creating the urgency of parts of the journey. The three movements have a distinct feel to them - even if coming from the same base - and evoke these different mindsets. Never leisurely, but the second movement - representing the holocaust - creates a far more anxious environment. The third feels brighter - a sunrise of sorts came to mind listening to the music.

The changes in technology really benefit the piece. It adds an interesting layer, partially attempting to integrate the sounds into a melody in a way I wouldn't expect to be possible. It's very visual in a way you hear in very little music, without needing the actual music or further input.

The thirty-sixth album: #36 Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

While rock is starting, Bob Dylan comes in with his folk music. The album leads off with the famous Blowin' In The Wind, one of his most famous songs. As with all songs on the album, Dylan wrote it himself, showing the power of his writing, which feels miles ahead of contemporaries and creates a potent (in this case pacifist) message. The second song shows this too - while a love song of sorts (or ealing with the loss of it), it is deeper than, say, the Beatles songs from last week dealing with similar subjects. Masters of Wars then changes that again, sounding more aggressive (relatively speaking) and feeling more pointed.

The album continues in this vein, folk music that feels more clever than anything else. It might not be at the top musically, but it certainly is when it comes to the lyrics. The former does drag it down a bit - it does little to distinguish later songs on the album from each other, which makes it all blur together and, for me, blurs the message a bit. I certainly prefer the earlier parts of the album to, say, trying to distinguish Bob Dylan's Dream from the others. He really is at his best, for me, when he's trying to sound different, more than just folk songs with an idealistic bent, but when it pulls in stronger personal touches - whether it's anger, sarcasm or using other humour in his songs.

The one hundred and ninety-seventh song: (I’m Not Your) Stepping Stone - Paul Revere & The Raiders

It's good to get back to rock after the albums I've been covering - the two are starting to converge. This song feels fairly simple rock, with a simple chorus and no complicated music. It's punk - and the book mentions this band as one of the early big ones - but despite the lyrics and snarls, there are a few too many harmonies to work for me.

The one hundred and ninety-eighth song: Mas que nada - Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66

This music line suddenly sounded so familiar - used in travel documentaries over the world. It's a basic samba track, but hits all the notes there, keeping your interest and saying swining. The differences in volume - not going all out - help a lot there, making the bursts of sound all the more effective.

The one hundred and ninety-ninth song: El muerto vivo - Peret

Here's the rumba, in a recording that's not the best quality, but the sound here is somewhat specific. The music is swining and decent, including the vocal flourishes, but the singing itself was a bit much and it feels it is unnecessary for the song to work.

The two hundredth song: Tomorrow Is a Long Time - Elvis Presley

Yes, Elvis was still around at this time, and still doing covers. This time covering a Bob Dylan song - not a link you'd necesarily expect - but the sweet, smaller song shows off a side of Elvis that I swear wasn't there a few years before. I remember his struggling with them before, while here his voice adds to the tension and seduction of the song.

The two hundred and first song: Eleanor Rigby - The Beatles

After finally having listened to a full album of theirs, jumping ahead a few years in the Beatles' output is weird. Peter immediately shouted that this is baroque pop, and it's certainly a large step beyond their early love song output. It sounds good, even if a bit weird. The fairy tale sound of it is enhanced by the violins on the song. It's a bit bizarre, but works so well to play a story. The evolution you hear here is so special, it's incredibly impressive.

The two hundred and second song: River Deep – Mountain High - Ike & Tina Turner

Phil Spector and Tina Turner come together here to create something powerful - a powerful voice with a big orchestration leads to a magnificent, large song. It sounds good, although perhaps some of the emotional impact is lost by the way it is set up. Still good to listen to.

The two hundred and third song: 7 and 7 Is - Love

Here's more of the Stones line of music coming in, with an early punk sound throwing out anger that might not even be there in the song lyrics - although with the speed it's being sung at, I'm not quite sure. Everything is fast and tense in the song, pushing you forward and raising my heartbeat quite a bit. It ends in an explosion (oddly enough) and then mellows and fades out, a weird way to end it, but that fits the build up of emotion, making for a more interesting button.

The two hundred and fourth song: 96 Tears - ? & The Mysterians

That organ is a bit too dominating at this point. It's a decent pop song - apparently a punk pregenitor, although I can't say I quite hear it. As garage pop, it's a decent sound, with some interesting lyrics, and certainly an interesting backstory for the band, trying to be weird, but it keeps on track as expected. The revenge lyrics - "You're gonna cry 96 tears" - aren't as sweet, but are that much more of a challenge.

The two hundred and fifth song: Pushin’ Too Hard - The Seeds

This is more that punk sound. Again, pushing too hard makes that clear, while the shrill, angry vocals at that in as well. The music is simpler, sure, with some guitar work building it up, it still gives the angry reaction you want. It's reactionary, young and going against the world, even if it might have been the closure of a popular club or being annoyed by a girlfriend.

The two hundred and sixth song: Psychotic Reaction - The Count Five

Continuing with the punk that is the theme of the back half of this post, here we get a harmonica to make it sound a bit more country like. The vocals sounds nicer. The live performances sound like they got more insane, but here you already here a masterpiece. You may know where it's going early on, but then it suddenly changes tempo, the guitars soudn different and it turns out there is more to this song than just a standard punk tune. It feels experimental and different enough to set it apart, wondering why I never quite heard this. This felt smart and intelligent.

The two hundred and seventh song: Reach Out (I’ll Be There) - The Four Tops

We get some soul now - quite a change from the punk rock, although at times sounding experimental in its own way, the chorus always stands out for me as the pause before the loud "I'll Be There" always sounds a bit off. I can see why it reached a bigger audience though, making for an interesting variation in possible songs.

The thirty-fifth album: #35 The Beatles - With The Beatles

Here we go - I've been waiting to cover these guys for a while, as this feels like modern music really coming in, especially with the rock/poppy sound I imagine them having early on. The guitars jump in early on It Won't Be Long, but there are some harmonies in there as well. It starts off as you imagine early Beatles, and the message would appeal to teenage girls. It leads to the one downside - loads of love songs, which makes the themes less interesting, but Harrison's Don't Bother Me actually works very well as an antidote to that once it comes up.

In sound and vocals, this sounds younger than the later songs of theirs that I'm more used to. Lennon certainly doesn't quite sound how he does earlier, which makes it interesting to work out it's him. Beyond that, the songs always sound interesting, offering more interesting segments and relying so much more on the lyrics and how they are performed than I feel I've heard earlier. It also doesn't let you go - the album absolutely didn't fade into the background as others have done in the past.

Now, this is all ignoring the covers, as those clearly aren't their strengths. I guess this is down to them needing to fill room and not having time to write more, as well as being what's expected (especially considering concerts would need material that wouldn't suffice with their originals early years). They are performed well enough, but without the passion the original songs have, and the combination of that and them not necessarily being written to their strengths always make them the weak entries on the track.

I think I need to seek out more Beatles albums now, the first artists who have made that claim for me.

The thirty-sixth TV show: #469 As Time Goes By

When we started this show, I was warned that it would be somewhat... old fashioned. Twee, perhaps. And sure, it is in place - when you make a show about a September romance, you're not going to get flashy, fast scenes or anything too risque. The same opinion, it seems, was also based on later episodes, while we watched this from the start. It both means things are probably fresher and that we have more time to get to know the characters. The humour relies a lot more on learning the characters and what follows from there.

From there, parts of the show are very 90s, but as many of the concerns are timeless. How do you make a relationship work after you haven't seen each other for 38 years, which covers a bunch of questions that are universal. Moving in together, for example, is something that they slowly build to, making for endearing, fun viewing. Far better than I expected - and a show we will keep watching, rather than throwing out after as we expected.

The thirty-fourth album: #34 Ray Price - Night Life

Getting some country in now, it's already a nice step up from the jazz I've been fairly ambiguous about so far. Ray Price sounds fairly good, although I'm not quite sure these country songs require the biggest vocal workout. The songs cover the standard familiar territory of love and places, and I'm not sure it quite leads me many places. It started off as a good change of pace, but I'm not sure this has the variation you see even in other country albums.

The lyrics are much more distinguishing. While there are a bunch of standard songs, others tell more of a story (as it often feels country does), of loneliness and pride, and thos estand out more. They may not quite get everything there, but it's still pretty decent. That's where the album seems to shine, rather than the music as others would.

The thirty-third album: Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd - Jazz Samba

The start of the bossa nova trend, we're back in gentler, jazzier territory - unfortunately, as I was hoping for more to follow in the rock footsteps from before. It's pleasant, slightly more swing than you otherwise get, but is still somewhat inoffensive jazz. It keeps your attention more than others, but doesn't really stand out in any way for me.

The thirty-fifth TV show: #545 King fo the Hill

We finished watching this show probably a year before we started the list, so quite a bit of it was still fresh - this watch was mostly down to reminding myself. King of the Hill is an interesting show. A Texan family might be a stereotype in other circumstances - leaning one way or the other - but the show mostly sticks in the middle, showing them up while also showing when they're right. It's a nice balance that shows off rounded characters. It allows you to draw in further, mostly with smaller stories that are far more relatable than most.

The breakout star is Bobby Hill, the son of the family, with interests that don't seem normal enough for Hank, causing some of the conflict, but allowing for something far more fun to watch for us. He's portrayed perfectly in the show by Pamela Adlon, who makes him real, more than, sometimes, other larger than life characters can be.

The twenty-sixth book: #26 A Modest Proposal - Jonathan Swift

Here's a short one - more an essay or pamphlet than a full novel - extolling a rather drastic solution to the overpopulation problems in Ireland of the day. It's short, with a simple premise, but incredibly well written and fun in the satire it presents. It's more obvious than Gulliver's Travels, sure, but it works. And on some level, this still feels applicable as a commentary on crazier schemes these days.

The thirty-second album: #32 Booker T & The MGs - Green Onions

We're slowly seeing rock creep into the list. Whie this isn't quite it, the guitar is starting to sound closer to rock. As an instrumental album, this will always have a higher hurdle to clear for me, but the songs hold up better already.

The Beatles are a few albums away, and it feels like this is heralding them and a lot of other artists approaching.It's quite exciting - especially as this is already good and, compared to instrumental jazz albums that came before, more varied. I really enjoyed having this on throughout

The one hundred and eighty-seventh song: Et moi, et moi, et moi - Jacques Dutronc

A nice poppy French song - a bit of a departure of most others coming from the country before. I'm not sure if the revolution had finally reached France, or took a while to take notable hold. Still, it means this makes for a nice, swingy pop song that I really fun to bob along to.

The one hundred and eighty-eighth song: Stay with Me - Lorraine Ellison

A song that came about - at least with this orchestral setting - almost by accident, it's quite powerful from fairly early on, a long, loud shout drawing out the emotion between relatively calmer, more contained verses. It works best when the emotional outbursts comes in, when Ellison goes all in, but the quiet buildups are required to work and make the effect work just as much.

The one hundred and eighty-ninth song: Al-atlal - Umm Kulthum

A ten minute song in Arabic, apparently recording the vocals from six feet away because of the power of her voice. It sounds traditional, but after a while becomes more clearly aimed at dancing, rather than any ritual focus. As a recording of a concert (it seems, based on the applause that interrupts the song a few times) the sound quality can be a bit uneven. It feels like a music genre, however, that we never really learned to appreciate.

The one hundred and ninetieth song: You’re Gonna Miss Me - The Thirteenth Floor Elevators

It's weird when garage rock become a palate cleanser before moving on to other known songs. It's pretty standard punk, aggressive, shouty, working up to its crescendos but not doing anything that really stood out. It's a good example of where the genre was at the time, and how it could even feel a bit mainstream. Then the harmonica comes in and it feels like these guys almost just want to do something weird.

The one hundred and ninety-first song: Substitute - The Who

This song is less aggressive than my generation - more Beatles-like in nature, a more poppy song than you'd expect from them. The vocal style is still there, and the protest is their in the lyrics, the guitars are just played less aggressively. It's not quite clear to me what underlies it, but it's an interesting evolution.

The one hundred and ninety-second song: Eight Miles High -The Byrds

Psychedelic rock comes in here. Good harmonies and good guitar work, it sounds very Californian, very polished. But what makes it special is how it drifts off, not aimlessly, but leading you away from where you are. It sounds slightly distant and otherworldly, exploring this different venue, which is what makes it interesting to listen to and sets it apart at this point.

The one hundred and ninety-third song: Sunny Afternoon - The Kinks

My first feeling? "We've become such wealthy musicians, but now we have to pay tax!". I'm not sure it's quite that intentional, as they seem happy with their life here. The some is relaxed, playing it cool, making everything feel good while a bunch of bad things have happened to the singer. It's still a simple, lazy day.

The one hundred and ninety-fourth song: Paint It Black - The Rolling Stones

This always gives me images of the Vietnam war, based on its use in the TV series Tour of Duty. It's a mysterious sound, partially from the sitar that dominates a lot of the song. Beyond it it's raw and emotive, aggressive and loud without being overpowering. Despite its oddities, it draws me in, in a way that sympathises with a certain depression and a way to try to dispel it.

The one hundred and ninety-fifth song: Summer in the City - The Lovin’ Spoonful

It took me a few seconds to recognise it - but once the lyrics start, you know. It's another poppier song, summery and relaxed - there doesn't seem to be much more to the lyrics, but it certainly sets a mood. It mostly just puts me in a good mood, in a way that keeps its own sound as well. It probably helps that there is a folksy bend to the music, in a way that doesn't get to me as much as it has in other songs. It works well here.

The one hundred and ninety-sixth song: God Only Knows - The Beach Boys

It's been a while since I've watched an episode of Big Love. That doesn't matter much at the moment, but that's the reason I've heard this song quite often. While a sweet love song, there are some creepy elements to it as well, in what feels like a weird dependence. The harmonies work really well and make a nice, smooth song - the Californian roots are there, while pushing it along as well to become its own thing.