Entertainment For Lively Minds
Forty today.........
Posted by Otis J Watermelon on 31 January 2009 - 1:11am.
Word Massive I need your help.
I am 40 today and would like your suggestions for an album from 1969 that I should listen to that will remind me what a stellar year that was.
Any suggestions?
- More from Otis J Watermelon.
- Login or register to post comments
-
Cynical...
...me?
a day late
but put on 'Let it Be' by the Beatles. 40 Years today since the rooftop gig
*edit* d'oh - 1970. posting @ 3.44 am, rather refreshed not always a good idea!
I shall pre-empt Mr V Vulpes...
...I'd recommend Led Zeppelin I
The Band....
... by The Band.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Band_(album)
Happy birthday. I propose
Happy birthday.
I propose Liege And Lief, by Fairport Convention. It's got Richard Thompson on it.
never heard of it
Is it any good ? Didn't Richard Thompson play for Barnsley ?
I thought he narrated
the magic roundabout?
Just who is this Thompson fellow?
I hear a lot about him on this site. Is he like Charles Aznavour?
Fairport
Wasn't Unhalfbricking (to my mind the better album) 1969 too?
'Twas Indeed
As was 'What We Did On Our Holidays'. Three outstanding albums in one year. Quite an achievement.
Incidentally, 'What we Did..' is Paul Weller's favourite Fairport album, i believe. (Pointless piece of information I know, but there you go!)
Elvis In Memphis
was being recorded as we speak, er type. I know this, because I'm exactly two weeks younger than you.
Happy birthday!
Seconded
From Elvis In Memphis, recorded in Jan-Feb 1969, is the greatest album the man ever made and will seemingly always be criminally underrated. I have to say, though, with 1969 you're spoilt for choice. Abbey Road, Let It Bleed, Nashville Skyline, The Band...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_in_music#Albums_released
Happy birthday.
Oh yes it's a good un
Long Black Limousine should be heard by everyone and anyone. Such a song and what a performance.
Meanwhile my other personal favourites from that year are Scott 3 and 4, The Stooges debut (even a song called 1969!) and The Impressions The Young Mods' Forgotten Story.
Fast and bulbous
A non-ironic vote for Trout Mask Replica from someone who entered his fifth decade three weeks ago. Welcome to the 40s!
Abbey Road
is, and will probably always be, the greatest popular music album ever made. By anyone.
Blimey, that was an easy one.
?
are you joking? I mean it's good, but to paraphrase, it's not even the best album in The Beatles.
Oh
but it is.
Yes, Eddie gets it right...
Abbey Road is their best record and the only one that I still play regularly.
Another vote...
for Abbey Road, and a mention for Crosby, Stills & Nash which was released in 1969. I'm also turning 40 this year, and I'm already sick of people asking me 'what am I doing for it'?! Am I being too grumpy?!
Abbey Road
As pointed out by the late Ian MacDonald, Abbey Road, whilst being pretty good, is also a triumph of sequencing. Try listening to the songs in a different order - it's shocking how inessential many of them sound. After many years and much deliberation, the best album by The Beatles is clearly Rubber Soul.
Abbey Road...
..is definitely 'an album' rather than just a 40-minute collection of songs, something that describes both Revolver and Rubber Soul
Seconded!
Couldn't have put it better.
Ian MacDonald
sometimes wrote bollocks.
MacDonald
He, quite accurately in my view, said that Abbey Road, although being a very good album, is sequenced to make it sound better than it actually is. Rubber Soul, as a mere "collection of songs", is far less fallible to my ears. It's so good and packed with such good material that, every time I listen to it, I forget that If I Needed Someone is on it. I think we're making the same point, albeit backed up by opposing opinions.
There is nothing
'inessential' about Abbey Road. Indeed, at times the album has a peculiar profundity and an elegiac quality to it which, to my ears at any rate, is not in evidence to such a degree on any other Beatles album. It almost sounds like the end of the sixties and the end of a dream. Whenever I listen to the 'Golden Slumbers' sequence...or the 'You Never Give Me Your Money' section I'm always amazed that these are the same four guys who- six and a half years earlier- were singing 'Love Me Do'. I would argue that Abbey Road is the crowning achievement of the band's career- all the more incredible when we recall how disintegrated the group were when they recorded it. I would argue that the album stands head and shoulders above any other the Beatles- or anyone else- ever recorded. ( Hell, I even like the one about the hammer ).
Hey
Don't get me wrong. I love Abbey Road. I just don't think it's their best.
Once there was a way, to get back homeward ...
Indeed, for me it's all there in the catch in McCartney's voice as he sings that line.
Was interested that this was one of the 3 or 4 pieces that Dan Levitin (http://www.psych.mcgill.ca/levitin/) chose as his favourites, another was the Pastoral.
Will nobody think of...
the Revolver...? (I realise that doesn't quite work)
The Kinks
Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) is pretty damn good too.
In
deed.
Maybe 1974 would have been more of a challenge?
( Surprised no-one's mentioned The Archies debut yet. )
No problem
Almost certainly an age thing because having looked at all the suggestions in this thread I came to the conclusion that 1969 must have been a very dull year! I don't think I own a single album suggested and none of them are on my "Hmmm I really should have that one" list. Fast forward to 1974 and I could give you a list of what I consider classics (Sparks, Big Star, Gram Parsons, Mott The Hoople..).
edit: On reflection, perhaps I ought to have "Dusty In Memphis"
Dusty in Memphis
...
'Let It Bleed' by The Rolling Stones...
need I say more?
1969
I think I'd also have said this, Abbbey Road ... or maybe some tracks by P Greeen's F Mac on top of their game, when I gather they were outselling Beatles and Stones, at least according to a doc I saw recently.
I tend to think the intro of "Gimme Shelter" is one of the summits of rock music-though I fear they created an intro so great that the rest of song can't quite live up to.
Others will differ of course, and fair enough.
Oliver Stone clearly likes GS so much that he used it *twice* in Wild Palms-both to brilliant effect. One of many reasons I chased down the DVDs.
Didn't I read that Stone has used GS...
...in all of his films?
wouldn't surprise me but
I don't remember it in Platoon
not heard of an Oliver Stone
connection, but Martin Scorcese has used it plenty. Goodfellas and Casino and twice, i think, in The Departed.
The irony, as Mick J pointed out, is that Scorcese went on to direct the 'Shine a Light' concert movie a while back and guess which song wasn't on the setlist!
D'oh!
I was of course thinking of Scorcese.
Wild Palms
There's a very good piece about the use of music in WP here:
http://rockcriticsarchives.com/features/wildpalms/wildpalms.html
Glad it is still on the web as it seemed to have disappeared at on point
Five Leaves Left
Nick Drake
What a cracking year....
1969 turns out to be. Thanks for the suggestions.
However now I'm 40 I find the Homeys slippers at the top of the page strangely appealing.
Always thought 1969 was the best year for music
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/what039s-best-calendar-year-039cla...
"Far out! Far down! Far up!"
To celebrate 1969 I'd watch Woodstock.
Every year...
... is a cracking year as long as you can find the essential music of that year. For 1969, that is relatively easy as years have passed and great albums which perhaps didn't do well commercially or weren't recognised at the time have had 40 years to be discussed/re-reviewed etc etc. For recent years this is not possible and the plethora of recorded music makes things even more complicated.
I guarantee that people in 2048 will be talking about what a great year 2008 was.
2 for 1
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
The Gilded Palace of Sin
must haves nuff said
Green River
Creedence at their finest
Do yourself a favour
Pentangle - Basket Of Light.
I just listened to it for the first time ever this week after a few mentions on the podcast and seeing them on BBC4 recently, it sounds great...
Six to ponder for the big 40
If we are looking at exceptional albums then - with the benefit of a 1952 birthday and being very much into music at the time - I submit these for consideration:
Hot Rats: Established Zappa - already a consumate inconoclast- as a composer/guitarist to be reckoned with. Take Peaches en Regalia for spin...
Blood Sweat & Tears: Jazz meets West Coast rock to generally good effect. Like Zappa (above) a truly original sound and very strong vocals from David Clayton Thomas.
Goodbye Cream - sod Clapton and may he never be forgiven for bad mouthing those whose music he recycles - but worth it for Jack Bruce in his prime. (Ginger weren't bad niver.)
Santana: Not their best album (Abraxus since you ask) but ignoring the eponymous old egotist (what is it with lead guitar players?) this introduced a whole generation to Hispanic rhythms; conga, timbales and Greg Rolie's underrated keyboard. Superb ensemble playing and a feeling of enthusiasm and excitement that still sounds fresh and vibrant today. In many ways the roots of 'world music' from an incredibly young, hungry and ethnically diverse band before industrial quantities of the devil's marching powder took its toll.
The Bonzos: Keynsham saw these new Vaudevillians at the height of their surreal powers; Mrs Slaters Parrot; Look at Me, I'm Wonderful; You Done my Brain In. The English Music Hall updated, British to the core but not in the least parochial and part of a lyrical tradition embracing the Small Faces and Ian Drury.
Demond Dekker: Israelites (the album - the single was in 1968): Already established with 007, Shanty Town, a pirate radio favourite, Dekker's Jamaician ska was popular with the sons and daughters of the Windrush generation and a lot of white soul boys. (Contrary to lazy journalist's retrospectives very few of us were into beads and flowers, Ben Sherman and brogues more like).
At the same time young Mr Marley was establishing his brand of reggae and virtually any Atlantic, Tamla or Philly soul album you choose will be a goody.
Yes, I have been snowed in all day...
A tracklisting...
...from the CD I put together for my 40th birthday bash last Saturday night - in a Goodie Bag with a Sherbet Fountain, Walnut Whip and a Curly Whirly, amongst others. Classy, eh?
It was a good year, waasn't it? Not much music featuring guitars not anticipated by this lot...
Aquarius (Let The Sunshine In) - Fifth Dimension
Here Comes The Sun - The Beatles
It's Getting Better - Mama Cass
Dizzy - Tommy Roe
Sweet Caroline - Neil Diamond
Everyday People - Sly & the Family Stone
Cold Sweat - James Brown (the version on 1969's Gettin' Down To It)
Everybody's Talkin' - Harry Nilsson
Lay Lady Lay - Bob Dylan
We Have All The Time In The World - Louis Armstrong
Space Oddity - David Bowie
The Boxer - Simon & Garfunkel
Chelsea Morning - Joni Mitchell
What Goes On - The Velvet Underground
Cinnamon Girl - Neil Young
Whole Lotta Love - Led Zeppelin
I Wanna Be Your Dog - The Stooges
You Can't Always Get What You - The Rolling Stones
The Star Spangled Banner (Live at Woodstock) - Jimi Hendrix
For a friend's birthday
A few years ago, everyone had to come up with their favourite albums from the last 40 years, 1 album per year per person. Here are the ones for 1969
The Band - The Band
Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed
Dusty Springfield - Dusty In Memphis
King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King
MC5 - Kick Out The Jams
Elvis Presley - From Elvis In Memphis
Flying Burrito Brothers - The Gilded Palace Of Sin
Beatles - Abbey Road
Scott Walker - Scott 4
Best Album Of 1969?
Was without doubt "Definately Maybe". Not worn well has it?
Also...
Fire And Water....Now THAT has stood the test of time!