A Lifetime-Plus of Music

    When I first realized the next album on my list was going to be a live gospel album from Aretha Franklin, I knew it was going to be good, but even my own expectations were exceeded on this powerful album.  Rated as album #154 on Rolling Stone’s Top 500 Albums of All Time, this showcase, named after the one and only “Amazing Grace”, literally blew me away.  Recorded as a live performance at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, Aretha and her accompanying musicians, including another appearance by legendary drummer Bernard Purdie, are backed by the Southern California Community Choir in a full-on live, in-church performance.

     Take all of the ingredients of a vibrant black American Baptist church, with the emotional, passionate and powerful sermons, and add on top of it, probably the greatest soul singer in American music history, and it’s going to be a blockbuster.  Among the many treats of Aretha Franklin is her gift on the piano to compliment her overwhelmingly powerful vocals.  The first song starts with the building rhythm and chords of “Mary, Don’t You Weep”, and as the choir comes in on the beat, followed by Aretha, it really is spine-tingling.  As good as that is, it gets even better on the next performance, when Aretha goes back to the catalog of Carole King to borrow “You’ve Got A Friend” and blend it in with “Precious Lord, Take My Hand”.  Once I realized what was happening here, I just had to shake my head.

     Next comes a rousing up-tempo version of “Old Landmark”, followed by the slower “Give Yourself to Jesus”.  When my son was learning to sing in a vocal group many years ago, the director told the kids when they really wanted to take a song to its soulful next level, it was time to “go to church” with their singing.  Gospel music has been a part of American music for hundreds of years, and this album has to be one of the high points ever realized.  If you want to make it even better, watch some of the video footage, as the show was ultimately released in a documentary performance of the show.

     The whole congregation is a part of the show when Aretha and the choir blow the doors off with “How I Got Over”.  As one would expect, the title track also delivers a complete wallop.  I think I still rate Aaron Neville’s version of Amazing Grace as my all-time favorite, but like many songs on this album, “Amazing Grace” turns into a ten-minute cleansing of the soul and lifting of the spirt.  It really is spectacular.

     Another unexpected surprise was the Liverpool football classic, “You’ll Never Walk Alone”.  Originally written for the Rodgers and Hammerstein show “Carousel”, the song was passionately adopted by the Liverpool Football Club after the song was recorded in 1963 by Gerry and the Pacemakers.  It is truly a remarkable scene to see a stadium full of football fans belt it out in unison, and Aretha’s poignant piano-only performance, solo with no choir until the second half of the song, captures a similar magical feeling.  To take this album a step further, even her father, a musically-centered minister also makes an appearance, sharing in the spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ with Aretha and the rest of the choir, musicians, and congregation.

      I have said before, I am not a religious person, nor do I consider myself deeply rooted in any spiritual sentiment.  That being said, it is still remarkably moving to see a common passion, a common movement, and a common force centered around the love of their faith and their music, presented for all of us to take in and celebrate in kind.  There have been only a handful of moments I have truly had to catch my breath through all of these albums, and this is the second or perhaps even the third time it has happened to me with an Aretha album.  What a treasure she was, and will always be.

    Today we have the first Elton John album I include, even though it is actually his fifth studio release.  “Honky Chateau” was rated as the #251 album by Rolling Stone on their Top 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and it certainly is a consistently strong album, reflective of the songwriting expertise and consistent musical talent of Elton and his lyricist Bernie Taupin.  This was also the first album to include his primary traveling band on the studio tracks, to include Davey Johnstone, Dee Murray and Nigel Olsson.

     The album naturally opens with “Honky Cat”, which is a funky, ragtime song reminiscent of the many New Orleans piano-singers from that era.  If you have never paid attention closely, Elton is a phenomenal piano talent in addition to his highly capable singing.  Followed up by the bluesy ballad “Mellow”, this is Elton at his prime, avoiding some of the overtly pop sounds of his later career.  Not surprisingly, the other highlight on side one is the space ode “Rocket Man”, which I have always enjoyed pairing up with “Space Oddity” by David Bowie.

     Side two opens with another ballad, “Salvation”, another really strong piece with beautiful backing vocals as a song that gains momentum throughout its performance.  I honestly never realized Elton had a song named “Amy”.  Anybody who really knows me well will see the irony in that fact.  And true to form, it is not one of my favorite songs on the album, it just doesn’t have the same impact as most of the other tracks and lays a bit flat.  However, what follows is the best song on the album, Elton’s ode to New York City life, “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters”, which he emotionally performed at “The Concert for New York” following 9/11. 

     Elton John is an artist I have had the good fortune to see many times in concert.  He is a true titan in the world of singer-songwriters, and his career in that genre is essentially without parallel.  It was great to go back into his catalog, listening to his work at his most authentic and highest quality.

    The Rolling Stones just continue to hit high marks in their run of albums from the late 1960s, heading into the early 1970s.  The era of Mick Taylor replacing Brian Jones continues to fuel some of their best guitar rock work, with today’s album possibly their most consistently strong album, “Exile on Main Street”.  Despite a limited number of legendary Stones classic hits, this album is their highest regarded album by many, and is the highest rated album they have on the Rolling Stone Top 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, coming in at #14.

     This double album is rocking from the get-go, opening with “Rocks Off” and “Rip This Joint”, two in-your-face guitar rockers that are just the beginning of the signature sound of this album.  Next comes the old blues track “Shake Your Hips”, credited to Slim Harpo but dating even further back to John Lee Hooker, and the similarity of the riff on this song to “LaGrange” by ZZ Top, which would not come out for another year, is striking.  Clearly, tracing the origins of almost any blues song is a complicated journey.  Two songs later we have “Tumbling Dice”, probably the most successful, and surely, one of the best Stones songs on this or any album.  The mix of vocals and guitars is just perfect on this track.

     Other standout songs include the country-based “Sweet Virginia”, “Torn and Frayed”, “Loving Cup”, and the Keith Richards lead-vocal “Happy” which just extends the excellence of this album into side 3.  Even a song named “Turd On the Run” works here, and the Stones go way, way back in the blues machine with Robert Johnson’s “Stop Breaking Down”.  If I had to pick one song from the entire album I don’t love as much, it might be “I Just Want to See His Face”, an unusual blues jam that reminds me a bit of “Hats Off to Roy Harper” from Led Zeppelin III.  I also don’t love the next track, “Let It Loose”, but out of 18 overall songs, that is a great ratio.

      “Exile on Main Street” is a true example of the Stones at their best.  As always, the lineup is rich with session musicians, with a fantastic deployment of horns and additional vocals on many tracks.  While the band starts with Mick & Keith and their rhythm section, it takes a village to make a great Stones album, and this one is no exception.  This is a phenomenal album.

    From my perspective, one of the most entertaining singer-songwriters of the early 1970s was Jim Croce.  For some inexplicable reason, his work is ignored and left off the Rolling Stone Top 500 list, which is ridiculous, but I made sure to include him in my journey.  Perhaps his deepest collection of songs was his third studio album, “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim”.  Of course, for those who may not recall, Croce was tragically killed in a plane crash just 16 months after this album was released.

     The title track is one of his two most entertaining bad-guy story-songs, along with “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” which is not on this album.  “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” gave us the iconic lyric, “You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind, you don’t pull the mask off the ol’ Lone Ranger and you don’t mess around with Jim”

     Much of the rest of the album is more sentimental and reflective in its songs.  Two of my new favorites from this album are “New York’s Not My Home” and “Photographs and Memories”, along with big hits “Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels)” and the beautiful ballad “Time in a Bottle”. 

     Jim Croce was a master story-teller and a real talent as a performer.  Like so many, I would have loved to see what else he could have given all of us had his life not ended so prematurely.  His songs are timeless, hilarious, and touching all at once.  What more of a legacy could anyone ask to leave?

    Today I was able to deploy my extremely limited musical knowledge and consult with my much more well-trained son on a discussion surrounding “Music of My Mind”, by Stevie Wonder.  The album is rated #350 on Rolling Stone’s Top 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and is an unusual, but very well produced listen to my minimally trained ears.

     It was Stevie Wonder’s 14^th studio album, but the first true “adult” record where he fully transitioned from being child Motown prodigy hit machine “Little Stevie” Wonder to fully empowered songwriter and performer.  He performed almost every instrument on this song, an impressive feat most certainly.  The songs on this album are very well produced, and a noticeable step above the simple production approach of 60s Motown, but I noticed as I listened to it I realized that most of them had a bit of an odd, non-commercial feel to the melody that was not a simple or quick hook.  I remember in times past, when I have made this observation about a song, my son has informed me that the song is record in a minor key, a less frequently used musical scale.  I asked him if this was frequently applied on this album.  He listened, and shared with me that A), much of the album had a jazz-based arrangement as part of the mix, and that yes, at least three songs, “Love Having You Around”, “Girl Blue”, and “Keep On Running” were in fact minor key compositions.

      Like the rest of the album, the songs are interesting, a bit unique, but not super-catchy.  This probably explains the moderate commercial success this album realized in relation to subsequent recordings.  “Keep On Running” was probably my favorite of the tracks on the album, it is also the last.  Even more so, I enjoyed the real-time music theory tutorial from one much smarter than myself, and I hope I will continue to learn and understand more as this music journey continues. By the way, for the record, the more well-trained ear in this conversation ended up listening to the entire album again and loving it, reinforcing the appreciation for the advanced musical talents and gifts of Stevie Wonder.

    The first album we look at from 1972 also happens to be the best selling album of 1972, the country rock classic “Harvest” by Neil Young.  I have always considered Neil Young’s music to be so rich with Americana, probably due to all of his work with Farm Aid, when in fact, as many of you know, Mr. Young was raised in Canada.  For what it is worth, he has lived most of his adult life in California, and last year officially became a dual citizen.  Anyhow, “Harvest” is a great album with known and unknown classics, and is rated as the #72 rated album on Rolling Stone’s Top 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

     Two of my favorite Neil Young songs of all are the centerpieces of this album.  “Heart of Gold” and “Old Man” are true classics and the side of Neil Young I appreciate the most.  While we all know Neil is fully capable of rocking with the free world (not on this album, to be clear), I most favor the ballads, and those two are probably his very best.  I always enjoy the additional research and insight that comes as I read up on each album prior to writing my blog, and today I learned that the beautiful banjo on “Old Man” is played by none other than James Taylor.  The female backing vocals on “Old Man” and “Heart of Gold”?  The one and only Linda Rondstadt.  Not surprisingly, David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash all find their way on to the album as well. 

     Another eye-opener for me was the song “Alabama”.  I knew about the first shot fired with the song “Southern Man”, but I realized that Neil actually took another aggressive hit at the Deep South with this song, doubly motivating Lynyrd Skynyrd to respond.  This was one is equally as harsh, and one that Young ultimately regretted for its stereotyping and generalizations.  If nothing else, it made for a great lyrical comeback, one he felt was fairly deserved.

     The extremely chill “Out On the Weekend” opens the album, followed by the serenade of the title track “Harvest”.  Again, both of these are Neil at his melancholy best, as is “The Needle and the Damage Done”, a sad but accurate testament to the number of great musicians lost or missing in part due to heroin addiction.  Mixed with social sentiment and happy country warmth, it is easy to see why this album was a big success and a favorite of many, as it is for me.

    I saw a picture of David Bowie with Iggy Pop and Lou Reed, labeled as the “Unholy Trinity of Punk”.  I don’t know about that, but there are similarities in style, and each had a remarkable impact on the evolution of music in the 1970s.  Of the three, none reached greater heights than David Bowie, and his album “Hunky Dory”, today’s selection, was an important step in that movement.  Rated as the #88 album on Rolling Stone’s Top 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, there is a lot to like here.

     The album opens with one of his most famous songs, “Changes”, immortalized by multiple generations in their respective struggles against authority.  I also really love the next song “Oh! You Pretty Things”, a beautiful ragtime-sound that echoes with Bowie’s unique voice.  “Life on Mars?” is another gorgeous ballad, and the next song, the quirky tune “Kooks” just continues the greatness of this album.  Paying homage to Andy Warhol and Bob Dylan, among others, Bowie’s unique songwriting and creative instincts really shine on this album.  And since I mentioned Mr. Reed, I do think “Queen Bitch”, another of my favorites on this album, has a very Reed-esque sound to it, both in guitar and vocal.

     David Bowie always surrounded himself with great musicians, with guitarist Mick Ronson his primary accomplice on this album.  On a strange continuation from yesterday’s blog, I did see that Rick Wakeman, who had joined Yes for “Fragile”, also played keyboards on this album.    The musical styles of punk/alternative couldn’t have been more different than the world of classic rock, but the social circles they kept were much tighter, sharing musicians, ideas, and girlfriends along the way.  Just listen to the beginning of “Song for Bob Dylan”, it could have just as easily appeared on “Sticky Fingers” by the Rolling Stones.

     Good music is good music, regardless of style, fashion, or some forced categorization, and “Hunky Dory” is a great album, one that I’m glad I listened to multiple times in its entirety.

  In a genre that has become known as “progressive rock”, or “prog rock”, one of the true pioneers of this sound is the British band Yes.   The band has gone through many lineup changes and evolutions in style, with the mainstays being elven vocalist Jon Anderson and their legendary bass player Chris Squire.  Known for their elaborate, fantastical album covers and long-running instrumental runs, they hit their peak in this era with the 1971 album, “Fragile”.

     The album opens with the instantly recognizable song “Roundabout”, the upbeat extended track that showcases the running bass lines of Squire wrapped within Steve Howe’s intricate acoustic and electric guitar.  As an extension of their experimentation, they created four songs in unison, and then had each of the five band members contribute a solo composition.  Regardless of the source, the music has a very renaissance feel to it, as if we were set in an English countryside or castle several hundred years ago.  It may be a bit over the top for some, but I appreciate it for what it is, and definitely applaud the musical talent within the band.

     “Long Distance Runaround” is the other major success of this album, once again featuring Anderson on lead vocals, with impressive contributions from Squire and Howe.  These major set pieces are the lead components, as shorter individual tracks like Anderson’s “We Have Heaven” and Squire’s “The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus) serving as the transition tracks.  All in all, a quirky and unusual album I enjoyed over multiple listens as I laid in bed fighting off fever and sickness.  Somehow, it all just worked.

    Of all of the albums on my list, there is probably not a single album I would be more capable of fully writing about completely from memory than today’s choice, the 4^th album from Led Zeppelin.  This was the first Led Zeppelin album I owned on vinyl, and as a single project, their creative and performing high point as a rock band.  It is no secret that the editorial forces at Rolling Stone have never been big fans of Led Zeppelin.  This album reaches #58 on their list of Top 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.  Not surprisingly, I would probably move this one up many spots higher.

     This record is eight songs of Led Zeppelin at their finest.  Each song is different and unique.  We have Robert Plant’s sexual swagger, an ode to their past, both in rock and roll and the blues, folk ballads, mystic mythology, and light and shade at its most remarkable and impactful.  The album opens with “Black Dog”, a well-known rocker based on a riff from John Paul Jones.  It took me many years to realize this song actually has a story to it, as Plant goes from desire to heartbreak to searching once again, all in a single song.  Next comes “Rock and Roll”, featuring the blistering drums of John Bonham and a guest piano appearance from Rolling Stones piano player Ian Stewart.  A clear tribute to “Keep A Knockin’” by Little Richard, this song often serves as the first or last song they play in a concert.  The opener to their show in “The Song Remains the Same”, and the last song they played together in their final reunion show in 2007, you just can’t overstate how good both Bonham and Plant are on this song.

     The third song on side one is the “The Battle of Evermore”, the only Led Zeppelin song to feature a guest vocalist, Sandy Denny from the Fairport Convention.  Jimmy Page does great work on this song borrowing Jones’ mandolin, furthering the mythological connection for the band.  Side one closes with the epic light and shade build of “Stairway to Heaven”.  One of the most played songs in rock music history, many to include Plant himself, have grown weary of this really big song.  For years, I was in that category as well.  However, in recent years, I have gone back to the roots of this song, and remain wholly impressed by the powerful build and blend of instruments as the track gains power and speed.  When John Bonham crashes in with the fifth verse, you realize this song is about to really take off, and that it does.  Overhyped and overplayed? Perhaps.  That being said, it is a triumphant piece and one of the greatest guitar rock songs of all time.

     Side two opens with another raw rocker, “Misty Mountain Hop”, with Plant reliving his days of peaceful protests and marijuana pursuits in the country parks.  Once again, the song is dominated by another iconic Jimmy Page riff and John Bonham’s unmatched drum fills.  The next song, “Four Sticks”, is named for Bonham’s unique drum technique with four drumsticks on the song.  This song has historically been my least favorite on the album, and may still be, but it has gained new appreciation for me after I heard Page and Plant perform it with an Egyptian orchestra and drum entourage.

     The third song on side two is more proof of the band at their very best.  They have recorded acoustic tracks on each of their previous albums, but none reach the balance of beauty and melody as this song, “Going to California”.  Earlier this year, we looked at Joni Mitchell and her triumphant album, “Blue”.  This song is their ode to Joni, as they sing, “Someone told me there’s a girl out there, with love in her eyes and flowers in her hair”.  The mix of Plant’s voice, Page’s guitar, and Jones’ timeless mandolin makes for perfect music.  If you need more proof, listen to the “deluxe” version of this album for the “Mandolin/Guitar” mix version of this song, which is the instrumental component only.  It really is a stunning track, and I took great comfort listening to this song walking in the warm sun as I fight to overcome a rare summer cold.

     Led Zeppelin began as a blues rock band, and they revisit that legacy one more time with the explosive “When the Levee Breaks”.  It is not heavy metal, and it is not hard rock, but it is heavier and harder hitting than anything else out there.  The intensity of Bonham’s opening drum beat is without comparison.  Page and Jones pound the rhythm track in perfect sync and tone, and Plant’s wailing vocals and harmonica fills raise this song to unreached heights.  It may be taken from roots and a world that was not theirs, but no band ever was able to more completely translate and elevate this music to a higher form than Led Zeppelin.

     The unnamed fourth album will always be a high-water mark for the band, and is simply, one of the greatest albums of my life.  I look forward to many more years listening to this record again and again.

    Earlier in 1971, Marvin Gaye asked all of us, “What’s Going On?”  In response, speaking for many in the black community, Sly and the Family Stone answered with “There’s a Riot Goin’ On”.  Highly praised by many, this album is rated as the #82 album on Rolling Stone’s Top 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.  It also rated as the #2 funk album of all time by digitaldreamdoors.com.

     During this exercise, two of my major comparatives have been the music of the time, as well as the evolution of each artist.  As such, I’m naturally inclined to look back at 1969’s “Stand!”, which wasn’t quite as highly praised.  In total, I think “Stand!” is an album I enjoy more, as I think the final product is a bit more polished and structured.  Here is my overarching take on “There’s a Riot Goin’ On”.  It is a great collection of funk grooves and beats, but it feels more like a collection of backing tracks to some nonexistent movie.  The songs groove and roll on, but for me, there isn’t as much of a hook to most of these tracks.  Don’t get me wrong, if this were the soundtrack to a movie, it would be one bad-ass movie, but on it’s own, I like it, but don’t love it.

     The album opens with the super funky “Luv N’ Haight”, which is one of my preferred tracks on the album.  Next comes “Just Like a Baby”, which like many songs, has a killer rhythm but never takes that next step forward to pull you all the way in.  The exact same description applies to “Poet”.  “A Family Affair” is the most successful single track from the album, but again, I think it is a good but not great lead track.

     One other great example is the song “Spaced Cowboy”.   The funk groove to open this song is deadly, but several minutes of melodic yodeling, I assume as a representation of this “Spaced Cowboy”, just doesn’t do it for me.  The album ends with another bad-ass groove that drifts and looks for that elusive hook.  “Thank You for Talkin’ to Me, Africa”, which was the working title for the album before they switched to “There’s a Riot Goin’ On”, hits hard with the collective groove of bass, guitar and drums, but never takes me as high as I was hoping Sly could deliver.

     Even if it is a little too experimental and less focused than I would prefer, it serves as another outstanding timestamp of early 1970s funk, a high tide mark for the genre in many ways.