Personal Nuggets From the Audio Attic
Over Labor Day I was digging out vinyl (I still have a turntable), cassettes (Lots of demos, airchecks and strange stuff there), CD's, and my favorite streaming services. The following are a few thoughts from my formulative years, trying to avoid too many obvious choices ….
THERE'D PROBABLY BE NO EDDIE VAN HALEN'S WITHOUT: The Ventures. Surf purists may prefer Dick Dale, but the Ventures were simple enough to learn from, original enough to create a "sound" and totally cool. The best era is the early and mid 60'd before they started doing Top 40 cover songs. Walk Don't Run and Slaughter on Tenth Avenue demonstrate mastery of the early Surf guitar.
ROCKERS COULD LEARN A FEW THINGS FROM THIS GUY: Chet Atkins. A lot of people think Country...and then you see he does songs like "Mr. Sandman"...then you listen and he plays so effortlessly...but DAMN this guy is amazing, partially because he DOES make everything sound so effortless.
THE PERFECT SINGLE: From the USA---Good Vibrations. Immaculate construction. Commercial perfection that was so damn original, if not revolutionary. . No wonder it sounds as fresh today as the second it was released. From the UK, Video killed the radio star. Immaculate.
MOST EXPERIMENTAL SINGLE: Telstar. The fist UK record to be #1 in the USA. Written and produced by madman Joe Meeks. Sped up pianos, slowed down toilets flushing and so much more sonic insanity... became an otherworldly smash. There had never been anything that sounded like this before on the charts.
SIMPLEST SINGLE: Johnny Cash. I Walk The Line. Budget musta been ten bucks. I hear that the drums were actually brushes played on a phone book. Bare brilliance. Innocent. Spontaneous.
REALLY CLEVER ALBUMS NOT MADE BY THE BEATLES OR PINK FLOYD: The Who Sell Out. One of the most under appreciated early classic rock era albums. A concept album celebrating "Big L" aka Radio London, one of the Pirate stations off the coast of England. I guess it came out before the Who broke big...they were still a little culty back then in the pre Tommy days. But it was a joy to listen to, it was so...clever. The Yes Album. Critics hated them, they kinda got way off course, but in the Autumn of 1970 they recorded this epic that if a Yes hater would strap on headphones and actually listen to, would likely be converted. Cinematic production, exceptional musicianship and telepathic arrangements make this more of a journey than an album.
UNDER-RATED SINGER: Gene Pitney. For a white guy, he had some soul going on. Plus he wrote and arranged his material, but that voice is so emotion packed...yet honest. In an age where Male pop stars tended to be all about cuteness, Gene was the real deal.
WEIRDNESS AT IT'S BEST: Freak Out by the Mothers of Invention. By today's standards, it’s not that weird, but back in '67, it was so incredibly sick and out there. Completely experimental but melodic (mostly), funny and mildly offensive for all the right reasons. Rumor has it that this album was recorded without drugs. Hard to believe.
MY FAVORITE FOLK ALBUM NOT BY BOB DYLAN: Gibson & Camp at the Gate of Horn. Funny, energetic, socially relevant in a 1962 way. A ton of fun to listen to...
THERE'D PROBABLY BE NO LED ZEPPELIN WITHOUT: Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters, etc....the genuine Blues giants.
At the time, I thought the original Blues versions were too loose, too organic and guys like Led Zeppelin made the songs palatable to the masses by infusing the electric British sound. In recent years, I’ve gained a whole new appreciation for the pure emotion transmitted in those early original recordings.
THERE'D PROBABLY BE NO ROCK N ROLL WITHOUT: The Crows and those early R&B artists. Kinda like the Blues thing where there was a generation of artists emerging that took that sound, ”cleaned it up" for the mainstream. Take that early R&B mix it with Country and even some Pat Boone and the cocktail became Rock n Roll. Yes---highly simplified, but the point is how absolutely critical to the mix the R&B bands were. Without them, The Beatles may have been cutting their teeth on the McGuire Sisters.
TWO GUITAR SOUNDS THAT OPENED THE EYES OF THE MAINSTREAM. Jeff Beck's scorcher in Shapes of things and the oddball 12 string in Eight Miles High. We'd never heard anything quite like those, at least not on pop radio. It opened doors.
BEST USE OF AN ORCHESTRA IN A POP SONG. The Beatles of course, with seamless grace that elevated. And the Moody Blues, especially if you consider mellotrons
BACK WHEN PROGRAMMERS WERE OPEN ENOUGH TO PLAY A FOREIGN LANGUAGE SONG. Sukiyaki by Kyu Sakamoto and Dominique by the Singing Nun both soared to #1. Both had great melodies and proved that the strength of a melody performed right could overcome the language barrier. I think that STILL exists, but most pop programmers and the label machinery is so hooked into the system that it'll probably never happen. Too bad, I’ll bet there are quite a few big hits from overseas that would make some noise here. Discovery knows no borders.
And yours?