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





This album started really well then became a bit stop, start, for me.

It didn't really flow very well, it bobbed from a track I really liked to one I really didn't care for, back and forth all through the album.

In saying that, what was good, was really good imho

Unfortunately, it was borderline whether I purchased this one or not, so had a look online and the cheapest (vinyl) I could find was £34:99, which is a bit rich for an album that I probably only like half of, so this one wont be going in.

Tried to get info on this lot , but kept on getting  Paul Revere the American Patriot in the American Revolution.
So, normal rules if I can't find much, hit the obituaries.

Paul Revere
January 7, 1938 - October 4, 2014
Paul Revere, the founder and leader of Paul Revere and the Raiders and an Idaho icon, died October 4, 2014, at his home in Garden Valley following a long battle with cancer with his wife of 34 years, Sydney, and his son, Jamie, at his side. Paul performed with his band almost until the end. While his illness may have limited his mobility, it could never dampen his desire to do what he loved most: Entertain!


Revere was born in Harvard, Nebraska, January 7, 1938, but moved with his family to Idaho as a small child. The son of Lena and August Dick, he grew up in Caldwell, where he made a name for himself at a young age.
He became a barber and realized in the 1950s that the way to bring in customers was to cut hair in the most popular style for teenagers: the ducktail. Bring in customers it did, and by the age of 19 he owned three barber shops and a drive-in restaurant.


Continuing to sharpen his skills as an entrepreneur, he started a rock and roll band to promote his drive-in, little suspecting that the drive-in would be a fleeting experience and the band would become a national phenomenon and a lifelong passion.
Starting at small local venues, first The Downbeats and then Paul Revere and the Raiders went on to become one of the top bands in the Northwest, known for classic rock and roll and acrobatic stage performances. They had their first hit in 1961, with the instrumental "Like Long Hair", with Paul on keyboard.

Their version of "Louie Louie" was a regional hit that inspired a then little-known group called the Kingsmen to record what became the national hit. Never one to be without a cogent comment, Revere recalled that, "I got the ball and went 99 yards and the Kingsmen scored the touchdown." Greater success and national fame soon followed.


The band became popular around the time of rock and roll's British Invasion, and Paul Revere and the Raiders (in their iconic Revolutionary War costumes) became America's response. In the mid-1960s, Paul Revere and the Raiders had a string of hit records, starred in three nationwide television shows; "Where the Action Is", "Happening '68", and "Happening '69", all produced by Paul's good friend Dick Clark - and appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and other well-known programs. Carson called them "America's number one band". Notable hits include, "Kicks", "Hungry", "Good Thing" and "Indian Reservation".


Revere took a time out from performing in the 1970s, working as a real estate developer in Boise, but response to a People Magazine "Where are they now?" article encouraged him to start a new Raiders band. He and the group performed for decades at venues around the nation and the world. But his home was always Boise, where spent most of his life and was revered by his local fans.


In addition to playing their hits, the Raiders were known and loved for Revere's trademark sense of humor, which was front and center at every performance. "The Last Madman of Rock and Roll" played a keyboard attached to the front of an Edsel that hid a seemingly endless array of props, masterfully orchestrated his fellow band mates in comedic interplay woven with their incredible musical talents, and kept audiences laughing throughout every show. Although he held up his own "Applause" sign as part of his schtick, no one ever needed to be prompted to applaud: the pure joy and fun that every one of his concerts brought had audiences smiling, clapping, and cheering throughout. He tirelessly greeted fans after his shows, signing autographs and albums, and having his photo taken with them; Vietnam veterans had a special affinity for him and he honored their service at his concerts.


Aside from his music, the great passion of his life was his wife Sydney, whom he married on Valentine's Day, 1980. When a friend recently observed that there was no such thing as a perfect marriage, he replied without hesitation, "Mine is."

 

The MoI are a sort of musically talented comedy band, to me. Zappa is one of the greatest guitarists of all time, in my view, although not much of that is evident on this album. I wasn't actually aware this debut was a double album either!

Who are the Brain Police? is a classic, a really scary tune at the time of release I'd imagine.

Not my favourite Zappa/Mothers album, but I'd rather listen to this than some disks rated as classics from the States.

DAY 70.
The Rolling Stones...............Aftermath   (1966)



By the time of this fourth album, the Stones were a self-sufficient creative unit, still frequently quoting their blues and soul roots but now free to be what they want(ed), any old time. So here you get the cockiness of 'Under My Thumb' and frenetic upmarket pop of 'Paint It Black' alongside the almost classical 'Lady Jane'. Then it’s another gear-shift for 'Dontcha Bother Me', with some great slide guitar and Jagger’s bluesy harmonica. The album was their third UK chart-topper, and a few weeks later 'Paint It Black' became their sixth No.1 single at home. Some of their writing, as on 'Think' and 'It’s Not Easy', has yet to reach its full compositional height, but the album fascinatingly captures a legend in development. And as a precursor of the rule-smashing to come, they dared to end it with an 11-minute track that turned into a jam, 'Going Home'.

DAY 70.
The Rolling Stones...............Aftermath   (1966)



This one for me was great from start to finish, gotta come clean and say I really do like The Stones so may be a tad biased.

Even the tracks that the reviews tend to slag off, when you place them in The Stones timeline they dont look to shabby, "Going Home" was no big turn off for me, I really enjoyed it.

So summing up, some really cracking tracks, some not so cracking, as the cracking tracks but still decent, and historically the first Stone's album featuring all their own music, makes this a cert to be added at some point to my collection.

Aftermath was a move in a different direction for The Rolling Stones, the kind of movement that other bands were also embracing. The Beatles' Rubber Soul had signalled something of a change and Revolver, released in August 1966 was an even more significant shift. In America The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds had been recorded and it came out shortly after the UK version of Aftermath and just before the album’s release in the US.Aftermath entered the Billboard chart on 9 July at No.117, the highest new entry of the week, and 4 places ahead of The Beatles, Yesterday and Today. Six weeks later Aftermath had climbed to No.2 on the charts, one place behind The Beatles.



The Rolling Stones’ 7th US album release on London Records was different to the UK album released by Decca in the UK back in April of 1966. But like it’s UK counterpart of the same name the Aftermath (US) was a milestone for the band in that Mick and Keith wrote ever song. It was also the culmination of the adrenalin rush that had been their first three years as a professional band: Mick and Keith’s song writing with attitude, an attitude that has carried them through their entire career.The US version differs from the UK LP in one major way, it only has 11 tracks whereas its transatlantic counterpart had 14. It was reduced in length at the insistence of the band’s American label to conform to the normal standards of the day – eleven tracks was enough for any fan in the view of London Records.It also has one very significant track difference as it opens with ‘Paint It Black’ that had topped the Billboard Hot 100 in June 1966 for two weeks, and it was this that provided the perfect springboard to launch the LP into the best seller list.The cohesion and overall sound and feel of the album was made so much better by the inclusion of the band’s third American No.1 in less than a year. ‘Paint It Black’ was recorded at the same March 1966 session in Hollywood as much of the rest of the album. Bill Wyman plays the bass pedals of a Hammond B3 organ by pummelling them with his fists and Brian plays sitar, both of which add to the unique sound of this standout track. As Keith said at the time, “What made Paint It Black was Bill Wyman on the organ, because it didn’t sound anything like the finished record until Bill said ‘You go like this.’”It is one of those albums that pushed pop in the direction of rock, and no more so than the closing track of side 2, ‘Goin’ Home’, which at over 11 minutes was signalling what was to come. As the band’s manager Andrew Loog Oldham said, “Goin’ Home' was praised by fans, critics and peers alike as a standout event on the recording. In 1965 only Dylan and the Stones had defied the three-minute law—and kicked open the doors to the future.” It was also a blues inspired track, so for the Stones and rock this was a back to the future moment.


According to Keith, “No one sat down to make an 11-minute track. I mean 'Goin' Home', the song was written just the first 2 and a half minutes. We just happened to keep the tape rolling, me on guitar, Brian on harp, Bill, Charlie and Mick. If there's a piano, it's Stu.

”Other standout cuts are ‘Lady Jane’ one of the band’s greatest ballads and b-side of their follow-up to 'Paint It Black', 'Mother's Little Helper' (on the UK version of Aftermath, but not in the US), the clever, ‘Under My Thumb’ that has remained one of the band’s most popular songs from the era, despite never being released as a single in either the US or UK. There’s also the original version of ‘Out of Time’ with Brian playing Marimbas, that was shortly after covered by Chris Farlowe and taken to No,1 on the UK singles chart

.As Loog Oldham told a British music paper in April 1966, “Mick and Keith write about things that are happening. Everyday things. Their songs reflect the world about them. I think it's better than anything they've done before.” And it was impossible to disagree.

Never liked S&G, I'm thinking I should just comment from now on if I enjoy(ed) the album.

If you have nothing good to say, say nothing!

DAY 71.
Simon and Garfunkel.........Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme     (1966)






This was played quite often in my house, my brother, not the Beatles fan was well into Simon and Garfunkel.

I'm pretty sure he started liking them in the 70s because of the "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" album, and bought the other albums working back, this must have been the case as I can't remember hearing any of their tunes in the 60s.

Listening to the album again, I recall it as easy listening then and just the same today, great vocal harmonizing and very well produced, some really good tracks, but just no' got that something that would make me want to buy it (anyway been on the phone to my brother and he says I can have the LP if I want, as he's got it on CD,) so might put it in ,but only because it's gratis.

• Simon and Garfunkel met in grade school when they both appeared in a production of Alice in Wonderland. Paul was the White Rabbit and Art was the Cheshire Cat
•  
•  
• When they were in the sixth grade together in Forest Hills, Queens, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel discovered they could harmonize. What they may not have realized at the time was just how far their angelic voices would carry them. Throughout the latter half of the 1960s and early 1970s the duo's literary lyrics, sculpted melodies, and, above all, exquisite harmonies combined for a folk-pop sound that propelled them to the top of the charts and left a mark on thousands of future singer-songwriters.

•  The first songs Simon and Garfunkel sang together were doo-wop hits, but soon they were singing their own songs. One of those was "Hey, Schoolgirl," which the duo recorded in 1957. An agent of Big Records present at the session signed them on the spot. Calling themselves Tom and Jerry ("Tom Graph" and "Jerry Landis"), they had a Top Fifty hit with "Hey, Schoolgirl" and appeared on American Bandstand. (In a 1984 Playboy interview Simon asserted that the record company agent used payola to get the record played.) Garfunkel estimates the record sold 150,000 copies. When a few follow-ups flopped, Tom and Jerry split up.
•  
• When they met again in 1962, Garfunkel was studying architecture after trying to record as Arty Garr, and Simon was studying English literature but devoting most of his time to writing and selling his songs. In 1964 Simon, who had just dropped out of law school and quit his job as a song peddler for a music publishing company, took one of his originals to Columbia Records producer Tom Wilson. Wilson bought the song and signed the Everly Brothers –influenced duo.
•  
 In 1966 they placed four singles and three albums in the Top Thirty (the revived Wednesday Morning, Sounds of Silence, and Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme). "Homeward Bound" (Number Five), "I Am a Rock" (Number Three), and "Sounds of Silence" (Number One) reached the Top Five. Simon was not a prolific writer — most of the material on the first three Simon and Garfunkel albums had been composed between 1962 and 1965 — and once Parsley, Sage was completed, the duo's output slowed considerably. They released only two singles in 1967: "At the Zoo" (Number 16) and "Fakin' It" (Number 23). Simon was developing the more colloquial, less literary style he would bring to his later solo work; the first sign of it was the elliptical "Mrs. Robinson," composed for the soundtrack of The Graduate. The film and the soundtrack album were followed within two months by Bookends; "Mrs. Robinson" hit Number One in June 1968, Bookends soon afterward.

•  

 Simon and Garfunkel produced Bookends with engineer Roy Halee, who had worked on every Simon and Garfunkel session. (With Parsley, Sage, Halee had taken a major role in the arranging; it was Columbia's first album recorded on eight tracks.) "The Boxer" (Number Seven), Simon and Garfunkel's only release in 1969, was Columbia's first song recorded on 16 tracks.


In the late 50’s and early 60’s, after abandoning Tom and Jerry, Simon briefly reached the charts in the group Tico and the Triumphs with the song “Motorcycle”, and again with “The Long Teen Ranger” under the name Jerry Landis.

PatReilly wrote:

OK, I'll explain my ambivalence towards S&G best I can.

I'd always seen their music as for reflective, thoughtful folk, which I wasn't when they were about: the world was black and white, no shades of grey. However, in later years I've changed (a bit), but still never caught on to their music. Liked the Lemonheads doing Mrs Robinson (and Suggs doing Cecelia!!!), so maybe Paul Simon was a good songwriter but I didn't like the duo's delivery....... a bit like the Dylan stuff, but obviously not as good songs.

 

You're a good man, Pat  
 

Jings, surprised to see The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators in this elite group.

To me, it's a great album, the cover should tell you it's a bit of a hippy trip, very influential to the British Freakbeat scene which arrived shortly afterwards.

It's also unusual in that it utilises the 'electric jug': that sound will begin to annoy anyone who already is turned off by the music. It's just a big bottle with a microphone, played like a didgeridoo. 

PatReilly wrote:

Jings, surprised to see The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators in this elite group.

To me, it's a great album, the cover should tell you it's a bit of a hippy trip, very influential to the British Freakbeat scene which arrived shortly afterwards.

It's also unusual in that it utilises the 'electric jug': that sound will begin to annoy anyone who already is turned off by the music. It's just a big bottle with a microphone, played like a didgeridoo. 

"Everyday's a schoolday" Pat, had never heard of an electric jug but after looking it up and hearing it, it does stand out on the album.

I think the albums in the book are not just classic albums, but also what the writers deem to be important, ie they think that this one was the first acid rock album, that's my reading of it anyway.

This clip shows the boy playing the electric jug.




 

DAY 73.
John Mayall's Blues Breakers...........John Mayall's Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton   (1966)




Around the time John Mayall's Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton was released, graffiti appeared around London which stated simply "Clapton is God,"

Anyone who doubts Clapton's credentials as a bluesman should listen to this scorching 1966 recording, which ignited the British scene like a tinderbox,

The Thames Estuary may have been a thousand miles from the Delta, but this album brought it a whole lot nearer,

21 years old at the time, but never to old for the Beano!

DAY 73.
John Mayall's Blues Breakers...........John Mayall's Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton   (1966)







Another night bedded early, no' in any fit state to post, thanks United on the plus side I had a choice o' rooms to crash out in, as the other half and the bairns are at the outlaws, and don't come back 'til Wednesday. 


Anyway this album wasn't really up my street, If extended guitar solos are your thing Clapton duly obliges, there is no doubting the man can make a guitar sing, but on this album the majority of tracks has his guitar hogging the singing.


There were a few tracks that I genuinely liked, "What I say" was one, but why the endless drum solo?
can't see what that brought to the track?


So as you have probably gathered, this wont be going into my collection.
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers were a pioneering English blues band, led by singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist John Mayall, OBE. Mayall used the band name between 1963 and '67 then dropped it for some fifteen years, but in 1982 a 'Return of the Bluesbreakers' was announced and the name began to be re-used. The name became generic without a clear distinction which recordings could be credited just to the leader or to leader and his band. The Bluesbreakers have included luminaries such as:
 * Eric Clapton (April–August 1965, November 1965–July 1966) and Jack Bruce, who both left to form Cream,

 * Peter Green, who had replaced Clapton, played until August 1967, when he departed with Mick Fleetwood and then also enticed Bluesbreaker John McVie, a few weeks later to form Fleetwood Mac

 * Mick Taylor (August 1967–July 1969) who later joined The Rolling Stones, and reunion tours in 1982–83 and 2004,

 * Harvey Mandel, Walter Trout, Larry Taylor (later in Canned Heat),

 * Don "sugarcane" Harris, Randy Resnick, Aynsley Dunbar, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Andy Fraser, Chris Merther, Henry Lowther, Johny Almond and Jon Mark (later of Mark-Almond).

 The Bluesbreakers were formed in January 1963 and became an ever-evolving lineup of more than 100 different combinations of musicians performing under that name. Eric Clapton joined in 1965 just a few months after the release of their first album. Clapton brought the blues influences to the forefront of the group, as he had left The Yardbirds in order to play the blues.

 The group lost their record contract with Decca that year, which also saw the release of a single called "I'm Your Witchdoctor" (produced by Jimmy Page), followed by a return to Decca in 1966. The album Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton (also known as The Beano Album because Clapton is shown on the cover photo reading a copy of the comic) was released later that year; it reached the Top Ten in the UK.

 Clapton and Jack Bruce left the group that year to form Cream. Clapton was replaced by Peter Green for A Hard Road, after which he left to form Fleetwood Mac. Finally, in 1969, the third Bluesbreaker-guitarist departed when Mick Taylor joined the Rolling Stones.

 By the time the 1960s were over, the Bluesbreakers had finally achieved some success in the United States.

 With some interruptions, the Bluesbreakers have continued to tour and release albums (over 50 to date), though they never achieved the critical or popular acclaim of their earlier material. In 2003, Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor and Chris Barber reunited with the band for John Mayall's 70th Birthday Concert in Liverpool — the concert was later released on CD and DVD. In 2004, their line up included Buddy Whittington, Joe Yuele, Hank Van Sickle and Tom Canning, and the band toured the UK with Mick Taylor as a guest musician.

 In November 2008 Mayall announced on his website he was disbanding the Bluesbreakers to cut back on his heavy workload and give himself freedom to work with other musicians.

DAY74.
The Yardbirds...........The Yardbirds  (AKA  Roger The Engineer)   (1966)



Similar to to yesterdays album in that, a bit too guitar solo/feedback and nonsense chanting for my liking.

Now if that's your bag, The Yardbirds definately deliver, but not my thing personally.

As I didn't particulary like any of the tracks, this wont be getting added to my collection.


A bit about them,

Formed in the summer of 1963 in the South West London suburbs by Keith Relf and Paul Samwell-Smith, who had together played in the Metropolitan Blues Quartet, they were joined by Anthony ‘Top’ Topham, Chris Dreja and Jim McCarty and called themselves Blue-Sounds, with their first gig at Eel Pie Island.In September they switched to The Yardbirds, a mix of tribute to Charlie ‘Yardbird’ Parker the jazz saxophonist and the image of ‘hobos around the rail yards waiting to hitch a train ride’.

They built an R&B reputation on the club circuit, using material from Chicago Blues artists such as Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Elmore James, Sonny Boy Williamson and Howlin’ Wolf. It was when Topham left in October 1963 that Eric Clapton joined as lead guitarist and impressario Giorgio Gomelsky became their manager and signed them to EMI, that they really started to take off.Crossing into the commercial pop-rock market during the 1960s, yet keeping a repertoire of traditional raw American blues, they were a great influence on other British bands of that era and beyond.


During the brief period when Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page overlapped in their Yardbirds’ membership, they played Stroll On in the classic 1966 film Blow Up, with an equipment-smashing sequence that was a take off of The Who’s modus operandi at that time.

By 1966 the outfit created Shapes of Things and You’re a Better Man Than I, which reached number three in the UK charts. Shapes is sometimes regarded as one of the first truly psychedelic guitar-solo songs (Jeff Beck on his Fender Esquire; Jimmy Page on the 1968 live version) and was written by Samwell-Smith, Relf and McCarty.Over Under Sideways Down (1966) was a thinly disguised Bill Haley and The Comets’ Rock Around the Clock (with Beck on lead and bass), and the B side was Jeff’s Boogie, which owed more than a little to Chuck Berry’s Guitar Boogie.

In October that year they released Happenings Ten Years Time Ago, their first single featuring Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck. John Paul Jones played session bass on the recording.There were other releases, but none did brilliantly well. Ha Ha Said the Clown by Manfred Mann did better chartwise, and it’s interesting that The Yardbirds chose to cover the same tune as the Manfreds, as there are many similarities of pop/rock/blues/R&B crossover in both bands.


1967’s Ten Little Indians, the Harry Nilsson classic about The Ten Commandments reached only 96 on the Billboard 100, but is most interesting as being the track on which Jimmy Page claimed to have ‘invented the reverse echo audio effect’.


1965’s For Your Love was the first for the US market, timed for their first tour there. It featured three songs from Jeff Beck’s first recording session with them, My Girl Sloppy (which later becameHang On Sloopy), I Ain’t Done Wrong and I’m Not Talking.Having A Rave Up (1965) was the US follow up, and featured four by Clapton (who had left eight months previously). Rolling Stone magazine called the LP, "the bridge between beat groups and psychedelia.

"Yardbirds (1966) became known as Roger The Engineer (in France it was Over Under Sideways Down) from the LP cover cartoon by Chris Dreja, and was called a precursor to heavy metal through Jeff Beck’s guitar distortion experimentations and was their only offering with all original material.


"With his induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame as a solo artist on 6 March 2000, he became the first musician to have been inducted three times. He was first honored as a member of The Yardbirds in 1992, then with Cream in 1993, and finally as a solo artist in 2000.

• Relf was 32 years old when he was electrocuted in 1976. His electric guitar was not properly grounded, and he died while playing it in his home studio.



• They opened for The Beatles in 1964.



• They popularized the "Rave-up," which is an unstructured jam session where the musicians don't solo, but play in tandem, often for up to 30 minutes, before climaxing and returning to the song.



• In 1963 they became the house band at the Crawdaddy Club in London, replacing The Rolling Stones.



• They recorded "You're a Better Man than I" with 'Sun'-founder Sam Phillips in Memphis.

• Jimmy Page worked on eponymous albums for the Kinks, the Rolling Stones, the Pretty Things and Them.

• Page was asked to join after Clapton left - but instead recommended Beck. It was only after Samwell-Smith left that he eventually joined.

• The Yardbirds met Lou Reed on a number of occasions whilst in New York.

• David Bowie covered Yardbirds-original "Shapes of Things", plus "I Wish You Would" with a Yardbirds-style arrangement, on his Pinups album.

• Jimmy Page wasn't the only member of Led Zeppelin to appear on Yardbirds recordings - John Paul Jones played on "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago", among others.

DAY 75.
Nina Simone.............Wild Is The Wind    (1966)






Although culled from studio and live recordings from 1964 to '65, Wild Is The Wind is nonetheless the best example of how Simone's eclecticism  could gel into a cohesive musical statement.

The album shows a staggering range, the 11 hitherto unreleased tracks taking the listener on a zigzagging, yet always convincing, ride through styles and emotions.