Tek wrote:

"Revolver" and Pet Sounds" are two of the best Albums ever written/recorded in popular music in my humble opinion.

Would give both albums 9/10

Did you take to it straight away?
Just wondering, as I said earlier a lot of people have said it was a slow burner, and took a few plays to appreciate.
Maybe an acquired taste?


 

I'm out the area the now but in summary,  don't like Pet Sounds or Fred Neil too much.

DAY 62
Fred Neil...........Fred Neil   (1966)




A bit different but not in a bad way, had never heard of the man let alone listened to him singing.

I quite enjoyed most of it, but certainly not the last track, an instrumental that made me turn it off half way through.

Fred Neil had a very distictive baritone singing voice which I particularly liked, but not enough to buy.

So sorry Fred, you won't be part of my collection.

Found it hard to find much about the man, but if it's not too morbid here's his obituary which covers most things.

He wrote one of the most famous songs of the late 20th century, but Fred Neil, who has died aged 64 of cancer, remains one of the most mysterious cult heroes of folk music.

Famously reclusive, he was an influential figure on the 1960s New York folk scene, and was occasionally backed by the young Bob Dylan on harmonica at the all-night Cafe Wha? in Greenwich Village.

He took flight almost from the day Harry Nilsson turned his song, Everybody's Talkin' into a global hit in 1970, following its use as the theme of the Dustin Hoffman-Jon Voight movie Midnight Cowboy (1969).Neil rarely gave interviews, could not stomach fame, and appeared repulsed at the success of his song, a disdainful commentary on human alienation in public life. In fact, it had already appeared on Neil's 1966 solo album, alongside another song, The Dolphins, which reflected his fascination with mammals.

Unimpressed by the trappings of fame, and with no interest in exploiting the opportunities offered by his hit, Neil had withdrawn by 1971 to set up a dolphin rescue project in Florida with marine biologist Richard O'Barry, who trained the dolphins for the television series Flipper. He refused all attempts to persuade him into a comeback, and devoted the rest of his life to protecting dolphins.

Even in the 1960s, he was a fiercely private character. Born in St Petersburg, Florida, he first came to attention in 1956 playing guitar with Buddy Holly, for whom he wrote the single, Modern Don Juan, before Holly cracked the charts. He also wrote Candy Man, the B-side of Roy Orbison's 1961 hit, Crying.

On the back of this success, Neil moved to New York. Dylan later nominated him as one of his primary inspirations: "He had a powerful bass voice and a powerful sense of rhythm. I'd play harmonica for him, and once in a while get to sing a song."
Tim Hardin, Tim Buckley and David Crosby were strongly influenced by Neil, and his songs were also covered by Richie Havens, HP Lovecraft and Casey Anderson.

In the early days, Neil performed in a duo with Vince Taylor, with whom he recorded the album, Tear Down The Walls. His first solo album, Bleecker & Mac Dougal (1965), named after streets in Greenwich Village, became a benchmark for many emergent young singer-songwriters, with one of the songs on the album, The Other Side Of This Life subsequently covered by Lovin' Spoonful, Jefferson Airplane and the Youngbloods. It was also the title of a live album recorded in Los Angeles, with the country-rock pioneer Gram Parsons among the backing musicians.•

Fred Neil, singer and songwriter, born January 1 1937; died July 7 2001

DAY 63.
The Byrds.........Fifth Dimension   (1966)




The American Beatles ? Your having a laugh, where anyone gets this idea from i'll never know.

Started off pretty so-so, then the second track, a God awful cover of "Wild Mountain Thyme," then more so-so.
The second side opens up with "Eight Miles High" and I'm thinking this is no' bad, then there's this guitar solo that seems to go on forever, which for me holds no relevance whatsoever to the song.

I have to 'fess up, i'm not a great lover of guitar solos, at a concert I can live with, but in both cases strikes me as a bit self indulgent and in the case of concerts, time for a piss.

The rest of the album is more of the same, so-so, until the last track  "2-4-2 (The Lear Jet Song)" that's a belter, it sounds like a jet engine reving up all the way through, with a nauseating repetitive chant thrown in for good measure.

Seems to me they thought we've got a couple of no' bad songs, pad it out with some fillers, chuck in a few guitar solos and call it "our psychedelic period" and the American press will lap it up, and label us the "American Beatles."

This really does put me in mind of  "The Emporers New Clothes"
I'm sure you can tell, this will not be going into my collection, and I hope that's the last I'll be hearing of The Byrds, but I think this book weighs quite heavily in favour of American artists so far, so not holding out much hope.

I was trying to find out some more bits about The Byrds, when I stumbled upon this.

"Eight Miles High" seemed to come out of nowhere — as did so much great 1960s music — but in retrospect there’s a clear lineage:The cluttered, borderline dissonant instrumental sections were unprecedented in rock & roll, but not in jazz, where artists such as John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman shunned traditional harmonic structure in favor of free-form heroics.The Byrds made much of “Eight Miles High’s” primary inspiration, the song "India" from Coltrane’s “Impressions” album. Group guitarist Jim (Roger) McGuinn, gobsmacked by Coltrane’s “forceful, rebellious attitude,” imitated the saxophone visionary’s solos via a distorted 12-string Rickenbacker. Coltrane’s playing “felt like a white-hot poker was searing through my chest,” McGuinn said years later.

And with that, the defence rests it's case.

Tek wrote:

arabchanter wrote:

Tek wrote:

"Revolver" and Pet Sounds" are two of the best Albums ever written/recorded in popular music in my humble opinion.

Would give both albums 9/10

Did you take to it straight away?
Just wondering, as I said earlier a lot of people have said it was a slow burner, and took a few plays to appreciate.
Maybe an acquired taste?


 

​"Pet Sounds" on initial listen (at 19) I thought was 'ok' but I must confess didn't see what the fuss was quite about from the critics (or my old Man).

​Years, experience and life etc have subsequently made me consider a magnificent album .Not just in terms of songwriting (melodies,vocals and harmonies just different class) but also in terms of production.

Tracks like " God Only Knows", "Caroline No", and "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" were only really deciphered by me and truly appreciated by me over 20 years.
 

That's pretty much the same as me.  I remember buying Pet Sounds on CD when I was about 18 and I thought it was shit, but now I love it.
 

DAY 64.
Bob Dylan.........Blonde On Blonde   (1966)




Blonde On Blonde's wild blues establishes a sense of late-night rants, reflections, and desperation. The direct rock 'n' roll such as " I Want You" switch in a heartbeat into heartbreaking ballads such as "Visions Of Johanna" or the touching melancholy of " Just Like A Woman" while closer "Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands" is a manifesto for the lovelorn.

This was rocks first double album, and being surreal yet perceptive, Dylans poetic observations suggest that the "voice of a generation" tag is more deserved for charting an age's inner feelings rather than protesting it's political beliefs.

DAY 64.
Bob Dylan.........Blonde On Blonde   (1966)




To be honest i'm a great believer in the shuffle mode when listening to music, there aren't very many artists that I can listen to for a whole album.

Unfortunately  Mr Bob comes into this category, but this double  album for some unknown reason didn't have me racing to hit the F/F button.

Whether it's because it has many different genres, or I just like all the tracks who knows?
The bottom line is I really liked this double album, especially
"Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues again"

So this one shall be added to my collection.

Rock’s first double album.
The ’60s produced a string of iconic doubles, including, "Electric Wonderland" and
the "White Album"and Freak Out"

Yet it’s Blonde on Blonde that has the distinction of being first.*Amphetamines fueled Dylan’s composing — or did they? *Rock critics often cite Dylan’s all-night recording sessions as proof of his heavy use on speed in late 1965 and ’66. The man himself has wavered on the subject.

In a 1969 interview  for *Rolling Stone *he admitted, “I was on the road for almost five years. It wore me down. I was on drugs, a lot of things. A lot of things just to keep going.” However, in 1984 he walked backthose words, saying, “I never got hooked on any drug.”

Dylan ditches New York City for Nashville.
He isn’t the first rocker to record in the Country Musical Capitol,  Elvis, The Everly Brothers and Roy Orbison all beat him to the punch. Yet he certainly is the first counterculture musician to make use of the city’s outstanding studios, as well as ace session musicians like Charlie McCoy, Joe South and Kenny Buttrey, all of whom appear on the album.
High praise from Dylan himself.
The rock legend famously described the record as, “The closest I ever got to the sound I hear in my mind… that wild mercury sound.”
“Like Bob Dylan impersonating John Lennon impersonating Bob Dylan.
” That’s how Princeton University professor Sean Wilentz described album highlight “4th Time Around” in 2010’s

It has been speculated the tune is a playful homage to The Beatles’ similarly sounding “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown),” which itself was inspired by Dylan.

What’s up with that blurry photograph on the cover?
According to photographer Jerry Schatzberg, it certainly wasn’t intentional. “I know all the critics think, ‘They were trying to do a drug shot,’” he said in 2015. “It’s not true. It was February. It was really cold. And to his credit, he chose that photograph.”
Keep an eye on the janitor.
Dylan recorded the bulk of the tracks at Music Row’s Columbia Studio B, where the guy mopping the floors and taking out the trash every night was a young songwriter-in-the-making by the name of Kris Kristofferson.
“Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” goes bluegrass.
The world has coughed up far too many Dylan covers to keep track. One of the most idiosyncratic has to be Flatt & Scruggs’ rendition of the album’s iconic hippie drug anthem. “Everybody must get stoned!”*Edie Sedgewick… Dylan’s muse. *Though his exact relationship with the Andy Warhol superstar is shrouded in rumor, it’s widely believed that two of Blonde on Blonde’s greatest cuts, “Just Like a Woman” and “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat,” are about Sedgewick.
“Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” is rock’s first side-long track.
Recorded in a single take shortly before dawn, the 11-plus minute meditation on his then-wife, Sara Dylan, takes up the entirety of side four. 1966 was a pioneering year for rock opuses. In addition to The Stones’ “Goin' Home.
(11:13), there was Love’s “Revalation” (18:57) and the Paul Butterfield Blues band’s “East West” (13:10). 
Dylan knew he was hitting a once-in-a-lifetime peak.
According to Sherrel Tippens author of Inside the Dream Palace: The Life and Times of New York’s Legendary Chelsea Hotel, the young Dylan sensed he would never again create something as singular as Blonde on Blonde: “He would continue making records, he told a friend after recording ‘Visions of Johanna,’ but ‘they’re not gonna be any better from now on’.”

Last edited by arabchanter (13/10/2017 10:03 am)

DAY 65.
The Monks.......Black Monk Time   (1966)







The Monk's "Black Monk Time" is one hell of a contender for "the first punk album," and as hollow and silly as such a title might be, the group certainly do sound much more normal today than they possibly could have in their milieu.

 

Last edited by arabchanter (03/6/2018 6:57 pm)

DAY 65.
The Monks.......Black Monk Time   (1966)






Well, that after hearing The Byrds, The Beach Boys and Bob Dylan in the last few days, this couldn't be more of a contrast.

Although I liked the afore mentioned albums in varying degrees, I have to be honest this type of album is what gets me going most. This album is full of fun,energy and taking into account it's over 50 years old unbridled devilment !

As for being the first punk album, that's for more knowledgable people than I, but what I can say is, if you have a spare 30 minutes give it a listen and make your own mind up, I certainly liked it and will be making a space for it in my collection.

While looking for stuff about The Monks I came across this, obviously no' the same Monks,

• The Monks were Richard Hudson and John Ford who formed Hudson-Ford after leaving The Strawbs in 1973. The duo scored two UK Top 20 hits, "Pick Up The Pieces" and "Burn Baby Burn" in 1973-74.


• This song was a demo, not intended for release, which the duo recorded under the name The Mugs, as it was different to their usual material. However, French label Carrere misread their name, hence The Monks. Ford, who was working on a new project at the time told Mojo magazine April 2009 that the song's success came as a surprise. He explained: "We forgot all about Nice Legs… It was a bit of a problem when it was a hit."



• Ford explained the story behind the song's title to Mojo: "It was my first wife's saying. I'd drive around and be wearing dark glasses, and she would say that if she thought I was eyeing up a woman."

Mind o' seeing them as Hudson Ford at The Caird Hall back in the 70's, they were pretty good imho.

•  
•  
• 1966. London was swinging, the Byrds soared on the wings of their most innovative single, "Eight Miles High," Brian Wilson labored in the studio on a legendary lost masterpiece and the Yardbirds fronted the mightiest lineup in rock n roll, with Messrs. Beck and Page on dual lead guitars. Pop Art and its bastard stepchild, Psychedelia, were about to rule the airwaves.
•  
• But from Germany there came dark rumblings that hadn’t been heard since the Nuremberg Rallies of the 1930s. Guitar and organ howled in orgiastic competition as a thunderous tribal beat bludgeoned song structures into strange forms. Rhythmic cadences echoed the slap of jackboots goose-stepping down Berlin’s boulevards. There were also strained and shrill vocals, eerily reminiscent of a sputtering orator disposed of only 20 years before in the ruins of the Reich Chancellery’s garden.All that was missing were the chorus of hoarse "Sieg Heil"s. Even then, there were aural equivalents in a song called "Complication." The lead singer chanted :"complication, complication" as the backing vocalists intoned "people cry for you, people die for you" over and over. The effect is mesmerizing, as is the rest of the Monks’ 1966 debut album, "Black Monk Time" strangely enough, there wasn’t a war criminal in sight, just five decent, clean-cut  American boys playing rock n roll. It’s taken over thirty years for music to catch up with the ground work laid by the Monks on their one and only album.

 Formed in 1964 by five American GIs stationed in Germany, the Monks started off as a very traditional rock n roll outfit. Initially called the Torquays, the band played the standard beat music of the day. The musicians (Gary Burger, lead guitar/vocals; Larry Clark, organ/vocals; Dave Day, rhythm guitar/vocals; Roger Johnston, drums/vocals and Eddie Shaw, bass/vocals) covered Chuck Berry tunes, surf music and various songs by British Invasion artists.Fortunately, the band was comprised of highly imaginative musicians. They soon tired of the expected format and began experimenting with their sound, focusing almost solely on rhythm."We got rid of melody. We substituted dissonance and clashing harmonics," bassist Eddie Shaw said. "Everything was rhythmically oriented. Bam, bam, bam. We concentrated on over-beat."The music did not come out of the blue, however. The lead guitar player, Gary Burger, elaborated on the process. "It probably took us a year to get the sound right," he recalled. "We experimented all the time. A lot of the experiments were total failures and some of the songs we worked on were terrible. But the ones we kept felt like they had something special to them. And they became more defined over time


 One of the components in this alchemy of sound was feedback. Burger discovered feedback independently of the many English players who have all been heralded at one time or another as the inventor of said effect."We were practicing and I had to take a leak," Burger said. "I laid the guitar against the amp and walked off the stage. I forgot to turn it off and the thing began to make this god-awful racket. It started off humming and then it increased in volume. Roger started hitting his drums and it sounded so right together."


Also a nominee for the greatest rock n roll singer ever, Gary Burger’s vocals often crack, confirming the confusion and fury of a young man frightened of Vietnam and nuclear bombs. Spitting and strangling on the lyrics, Burger conveys rage in a way no punk vocalist has ever matched.


Out of this voodoo stew, twisted songs with dadaist titles began to coagulate; "Oh, How To Do Now," "Shut Up" and "Higgle-dy-Piggle-dy" to name just a few.


 After being discharged from the Army, their image evolved. They dropped the first name, exchanging it for a new moniker, the Monks. Momentous changes were ensuing in their style, both musically and sartorially."We went into a barbershop on the spur of the moment and either me or Dave Day got our head shaved in a tonsure like a monk’s," the drummer, Roger Johnston recalled. "Then the rest of the guys did. I really don’t know why, but we did it."


 Drugs, in the form of speed, entered the Monks’ world during their tenure in Hamburg."I’d be tired, playing all night and drinking late to unwind when we got off," Roger Johnston reminisced. "Oma would give me a pill to pep me up, so I could play a show the next night."Oma was an elderly German woman, who had also introduced the Beatles to speed a few years earlier. Johnston began to rely on the pills to help him get through the long grinding sets. Some of the Monks, barring Larry Clark, also took speed on occasion.

•  

 One must keep in mind, too, this was an era when rock groups were beginning to overindulge themselves in the studio. Mono was giving way to stereo and four track recordings were considered a hindrance. Lush production and strings were the name of the game, with Love’s "Forever Changes" and the Pretty Things’ "Emotions" being representative works of the era.

•  
• The Monks’ spartan sound stuck out like, well, a tonsure at a long haired love-in.The album’s cover reflected the music’s stripped down minimalism. The word "monks" appeared on an all black cover, anticipating the Beatles’ famed "White Album" by over two full years. Most remarkable, perhaps, is the fact that every song on the record is an original. What other group debuted with an album comprised wholly of originals in early 1966? Besides the bastardized "We Do Wie Du," there wasn't a cover in sight.
•  
• By mid-67, Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd and the Jimi Hendrix Experience debuted with records made up totally of original compositions, but the Monks seem have been the first rock n roll unit to do so.It was the music's uncompromising nature, though, that set it apart from its contemporaries. Whereas the Yardbirds graphic blues were mutating into psychedelia, the Monks music had no shadings. It was like an Orson Welles' movie set in post-war Europe i.e. stark and grim, shot in black-and-white. In 1966, the Yardbirds were referring to their music as "images in sound." If that holds true, then the Monks were producing music in black-and-white.

 At one show, they played with the Kinks, a band that at one time had been particular favorites of the ex-GIs. Larry Clark even used to sing the Kinks’ second hit, "All Day and All of the Night" at gigs. Unfortunately, the Americans’ admiration for the Brits was soon to sour slightly. Tempers flared backstage between Dave Day and the English group’s lead guitar player, Dave Davies. A fan had fought her way through security, hoping to secure a signature from her idols. The Kinks’ Davies abused her verbally and she broke into tears. The Monks’ Day consoled the fan, giving her an autographed photo of his band. She brightened and bustled away. Then, Day turned on the Kink."I told him he should treat his fans better. After all, they’re the ones responsible for making a band successful" Dave Day recalled.Dave Davies told the Yank to piss off. It’s quite telling that in his autobiography, "Kink," Davies makes short shrift of the Monks. He quickly mentions their stage persona, dismissing them as "silly." He never mentions the Monks’ music or his altercation with Day.Roger Johnston was nowhere near as diplomatic as his bandmate."The Kinks’ drummer (Mick Avory) and bass player (Peter Quaife) were nice guys," Johnston recalled. "But the Davies brothers (Ray and Dave) were arrogant pricks."


 Whatever the future holds, the Monks’ legacy is secure. They left an incredible document in the form of "Black Monk Time." In retrospect, 1966 was rock n roll music’s zenith, a watershed of experimentation, the promise of which has never been fulfilled. The Yardbirds’ "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago," a nuclear meltdown and aural firestorm posing as a pop song, has yet to be equaled. The Who’s early potential soon dissolved into Pete Townshend’s ego-tripping in an attempt to give rock n roll "meaning" when it already meant more than it ever would again.The Monks didn’t break up until 1967, but they were at their innovative peak the previous year. Modern music’s just now catching up. Bands like the Beastie Boys and the Fall claim them as an influence.      

Last edited by arabchanter (03/6/2018 6:59 pm)

Great album, I have the vinyl still: but didn't get it when it came out, as we didn't have a record player until 1970. Grundig tape recorder before.

Unsure how I came about the disk, but folk used to buy records then  tape them and sell the vinyl. Maybe that's how.

However, for all the plaudits I'll give the record, if you aren't a Kinks fan, I'd understand you dismissing some tracks as fillers.

DAY 67.
The Mamas And The Papas..............If You Can Believe Your Eyes And Ears   (1966)




After forming in the Virgin Islands, fron the remnants of folk-rock groups, The Journeymen and The Mugwumps, the quartet of Denny Doherty, Cas Elliott, Michelle Gilliam and her husband singer/songwriter/guitarist John Phillips moved to LA in 1965, where their sublime vocal harmonies secured them work with Barry (Eve Of Destruction) McGuire and his manager , Lou Adler.

The group's first hit was the million-selling "California Dreamin'," a wistful paean to the West Coast that highlighted their sumptuous vocals and stellar harmony work, followed by the gold U.S. chart-topping "Monday Monday."

Last edited by arabchanter (15/10/2017 3:00 pm)

DAY 68.
Paul Revere And The Raiders.........Midnight Ride    (1966)



In 1966,the trademark snarl of lead vocalist Mark Lindsay on "Louie Go Home," sounded every bit as fierce as The Animals' Eric Burdon or  Them's Van Morrison, and was a significant influence on The Who's Roger Daltry.

And musically everything came together perfectly on Midnight Ride, on which nine of the tracks are band compositions.

The remaining tunes are arguably two of the greatest singles of the 1960s. Barry Mann and Cynthia Well's "Kicks" is a pounding antidrugs warning that nevertheless treats your brain as if it has been reduced to mush already.

Garage classic "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone" (by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart) would later be covered by The Monkees, but this version is the one that inspired The Sex Pistols' cover.

Haven't heard  any of their stuff but I think I'm going to like this one, what about you Pat?

Last edited by arabchanter (16/10/2017 12:38 pm)

PatReilly wrote:

Variety of quality for me on the album: don’t enjoy the slower stuff, and the country type songs. Generally, the songs Paul Revere himself wrote I didn’t really like, excepting Louie, Go Home and Take a Look at Yourself.
 
Best tracks are Kicks, and Stepping Stone.
 
Generally, I don’t reckon this is a great album.

Yeah a bit up and down, no' great but no' bad

I liked " Ballad Of A Useless Man" as well as the two mentioned above.