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This is my little page where I get to talk about records that I love and think are important. I'm not a professional reviewer. Nobody is paying me or even asking me to do this, and for all I know nobody ever reads this page. Some people may disagree with my opinions, and that's totally cool. Some readers may get mad at me because I don't have a certain important artist listed here. That's cool too. Some may think my taste in music is really odd. That's fine. Here are a couple of things you should know about me before reading any further: 1) I totally do not care whether or not any of the music I like is "trendy."
Of course, since I originally wrote this little blurb, Brian Wilson (with a little help from his friends - wink-wink) finished and released a whole new recording of the project. It may not have the Boys' vocals on it, but it is a damn fine album on its own. Too bad it took 30 years! I also want to note that the artwork you see here is the original one made by artist Frank Holmes, who happens to be one of the nicest gentlemen I've ever had the pleasure of speaking with. Unfortunately his original art was not used on the Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE album, although another very cool guy, Mark London, did a great job with the new art. Pet Sounds - The Beach Boys. This album (like SMiLE above) is really Brian Wilson's baby. So much has already been written and said about this record that I doubt I can add anything to it. It's gorgeous, the songwriting is excellent and it manages to communicate emotionally without getting all corny, and that's hard to achieve. SF Sorrow - The Pretty Things. I personally believe this album to be the first actual Rock Opera. It predates The Who's Tommy by around a year and Pete Townshend readily acknowledges it's influence on his writing. Either way, I don't think anybody ever expected a rowdy bunch of British punk-bluesers to pop up with a Rock Opera in 1968. The album is basically the life story of SF Sorrow, the lonliest man in the world, and while the production (which I actually love) may seem dated to some (it has all of the psychadelic late sixties things you'd expect), the songs themselves are excellent. The vocals are outstanding as well. Produced by former Beatles engineer and Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (Pink Floyd's debut for you young-uns) Norman Smith and recorded at Abbey Road. While I'm on this Pretty Things kick, I also have to give a shout to a couple of their other projects, namely the album they recorded after this one (Parachute) and another called Phillip DeBarge, the making of which is a very interesting story. Both of those albums are great lost gems. Love - Forever Changes. What do you get when you combine a slightly disturbed but healthily cynical man who at 22 years of age is convinced he is about to die with 1967's so-called "Summer of Love," (which to those in LA at the time was obviously a promotion-man's dream)? You get one of the greatest albums of the decade. This guy Arthur Lee was a bit nutty, but he definately had a way of seeing the truth behind the glitter. His band was also good. Very good, and this is their definitive work. One of the many things I find interesting about this record is that Lee and the other writer in the band, Bryan McLean, were able to so perfectly relate feelings of alienation, dread and resignation without ever sounding whiney about it. (There's alot to be learned here, guys.) Of course, it's not all doom and gloom. Some of it is fairly uplifting. Either way, it's great songwriting, great performance and excellent production by Bruce Botnik of The Doors fame. It lived in my car cd-player for nearly a year, and that ain't easy. Kind of Blue - Miles Davis. Yet another life-changer for me. This is the favorite jazz album of many rock musicians, and it's the biggest-selling jazz album of all time. With good reason, too. For this record, Miles sketched out basic progressions and structures for himself and his band to improvise on. Basically it's a jam session, but not the meandering mess that jams often are. It's a masterpiece of modern music. Period. The band is one of the best collections of jazz musicians ever assembled (Davis, John Coltrane, Canonball Adderly, Paul Chambers, Bill Evans and Jimmy Cobb). Though improvised, the melodies are some of the most beautiful ever committed to plastic. This is proof positive that the right musician can communicate directly with the audience without the kind of second-guessing, pre-planning and slick producing that most records go through. No self-respecting musician should miss this record, nor should any listener who looks to music to move him or her. "But I don't like jazz!" you say. I don't care. Buy it and absorb it. Between The Bridges - Sloan. This here is a band that deserves a helluva-lot more attention than it's getting. (Of course, they did just open for The Strokes, for whatever that's worth.) Most of their albums are excellent, and this one is my favorite. The first time I heard it was at Toms Tracks, a record store in Providence. It was cranking in the store and didn't leave the store until the whole thing was done playing. These guys had a deal with Geffen, but the "company" wanted them to try to sound more like Nirvana. They refused, made the kind of record they wanted and were promptly dropped from the label. So they started their own label in their native Canada and continued making great records that never seem to catch on in the US. It's a shame. They prove that its still possible to make great, original music in the Beatlesque power-pop style without sounding too derivative. Bellybutton - Jellyfish. This, to me, is one of the best albums to come out of the '90s. It's got everything: killer musicianship, great songs, great vocals, an excellent production and perfect engineering thanks to Jack Joseph Puig (probably my favorite engineer on the current scene). This is a perfect album, another example, like Sloan, of how it is possible to create great power pop without turning into Britney. Frank Sinatra Sings For Only The Lonely. Yes I'm serious. This is such a beautiful album, wonderfully arranged by Nelson Riddle, magnificently produced by Voyle Gilmore and beautifully recorded at the old Capitol Studio A in Hollywood. It's a complete album of torch songs (or suicide songs, as Frank would call them), and it really is pretty dark and full of emotion. Frank had just gotten divorced from Ava Gardner and at the time was looking like a shmuck in the media. Nelson Riddle was mourning the deaths of his mother and daughter. Both of these creative men channeled their pain into this project, and it really shows. To me, the best album Frank ever made and possibly the best album of the 1950's. If you get a chance, try and find either Mobile Fidelity's gold-cd of the mono mix of this album or an old mono vinyl. The mono is SO much better than the stereo on this one! First Rays Of The New Rising Sun - Jimi Hendrix. I gotta get a couple of things off my chest about this one. First of all, I love all of Hendrix's stuff. He is a huge influence on me as a musician. BUT, I am appalled at the way his musical estate has been mishandled since his death. After his death, his recorded legacy came under the control of a man he openly distrusted in his lifetime. This man bastardized his recordings by replacing original musician's tracks with new ones played by men who had never even met Hendrix. We all breathed a sigh of relief when the Hendrix family won control of the recordings, but in reality they have handled it with just a little more regard for truth and integrity than the last regime. Despite the fact that the artwork they used is greeting-card crap, the music on it is some of the best he ever recorded. I love his earlier stuff, but "Freedom," "Ezy Ryder," "Nightbird Flying," and "Drifting," show he was heading in a fantastic new direction. Why the hell did he have to go and die? Who's Next - The Who. Rock 'n Roll albums don't get much better than this. Excellent song writing, fine musicianship, great production, innovative instrumentation. It's all here. This, to me, is just about the best Who album, though I love most of them. In a side note, though I hate to bash anyone, the "producers" who put together the newly "remastered" version of this and all the other Who cds, as well as a bunch of "newly remastered" titles by other artists ought to be hung by his earlobes for the way he has mangled the sound of these important recordings. I'd love to explain why I say that but it would take two whole pages. Suffice to say there is a trend in cd mastering these days that is quite literally destroying the music, and I think its a crime. If you ever meet me, ask about it but prepare for a rant. Quadraphenia - The Who. This is the album everybody hated when the Who first put it out. Despite the fact that it is a masterpiece, arguably a better "rock-opera" than Tommy, the band had a real hard time putting this one over. I think the main reason for this was that Townshend's story is a bit personal, and because of that the band didn't really believe in it. I mean, I have a bootleg of one of their "Quadraphenia" concerts where they stop between every song and Daltrey tries to "explain" the meaning of the next tune. Not cool. There are a lot of artistic lessons to be learned from this, about committing yourself to your art, about the power of your convictions over your audience. Django Reinhardt - Jazz Masters 38. This is just a compilation, and one of probably 200 different Django comps. It's a nice overview of his career. There is no doubt, this man was the greatest guitarist of the 20th century. Many modern musicians who attempt to listen to him have a hard time getting past the time-period of the music. Much of it is very 1930's, almost ragtime. No matter. What this man did with three fingers (yes, just three) and an acoustic guitar I have never heard anyone do with a full set of digits and all the effects money can buy. He made the guitar speak. Period. Any guitarist who doesn't check him out is incomplete. "Les guitar avec vox humana." Buffalo Springfield Again. It's kind of hard for me to pick a favorite album by these guys. I highly recommend their box set, because some of the stuff they didn't release is better than some of the stuff they did. Their first album is full of good songs, but marred by a terrible production. Shows you what happens when a couple of wanna-be managers think they can run the board. This is the album where the band took over themselves. It's a bit like the White Album, since it's really a bunch of solo tunes by the individual members, but every song is a winner. Steve Stills really comes into his own here big time. The Monkees - Headquarters. I figure that if I'm going to get any "WTF?" comments about this page, this will be the reason. Yes, even these guys made a couple of great albums. They were hired to be actors playing the part of musicians, and when they did that the press crucified them for not being real musicians. Except that a couple of them were real musicians, and they were pissed all along that they weren't allowed to make their own records. Catch 22 all the way. So a brawl ensued, and they won the right to make their own records as a real band. This is the first one they made themselves, and it is a really good album. Nesmith chalks up a bunch of great tunes here, and even with it's Monkees-silly moments, it's a really good album of '60s pop music. Only a couple of embarrasing, run to hit the skip button moments. Oddesey and Oracle - The Zombies. Probably the most underrated band in the history of rock music. They had only two hits before they made this album (She's Not There and Tell Her No), and those were three years earlier. During that three years they released a truck-load of singles, and just about every one was great, perfectly written and impeccably performed. It's a crime they didn't get more recognition, but the promotion just wasn't there. Hearing those songs, its really hard to believe they didn't rack up at least 6 more big hits. So in 1967 they decided to make one last album, and then call it quits. They broke from their producer and their label, and paid for the recording sessions mostly out of their own pockets to make this record themselves, their way. Two years after it's release, one of the tunes (Time of The Season) goes number one. The irony. The Ventures - In Space. Everything I said about the album above goes for this one times a hundred. Nobody was making sounds like this in 1963. Nobody. It's just about the wierdest, coolest album from that period in rock. It's also a very early incarnation of what later came to be known as a "concept album." Blow By Blow - Jeff Beck. Jeff Beck is pretty much the ultimate guitarist. The man never allows himself to get too comfortable, and reinvents his style all the time without ever losing any of what went before. Most people classify him as a rock guitarist, but he can play jazz, blues, rock-a-billy and anything else he wants. This album is the ultimate head album, produced by Beatles producer George Martin and engineered by Geoff Emerick. Great musicianship, excellent songs, fantastic production. It walks the fence between jazz-fusion and rock without ever sounding pretentious. A tape of this CD was in my car cassette deck for three years. Lush Life - John Coltrane. John Coltrane made alot of great records. This one is probably not one that most people would chose as a "best." Maybe it isn't, but it's a half hour of excellent jazz, phenomenal improvisation and beautiful mood music. The title track (written by Billy Strayhorn, Ellington's co-writer) is one of the greatest melodies of the last century, and Coltrane's thirteen-minute reading is one of the only recordings the does it justice. It's a stunning meditation, hypnotic and heartbreaking. I sound like some pompous record reviewer, I know, but it's true. This is one of the three albums that introduced me to jazz, and I love it dearly. Blue Train - John Coltrane. Another milestone in jazz. This one is 'Trane's first really significant outing as a band leader. He was a known and respected sideman for a long time, but he had a rocket in his pocket, and no one could really see how he would later change the face of jazz, and even pop music. A great jamming jazz record, the newest CD release is a CD rom. Stick it in your car CD player and dig the tunes. Then throw it in your computer and listen to interviews with the surviving principals, see live footage of the master, and a whole lot of other goodies. Straight Up - Badfinger. Badfinger is definitely the most tragic story ever in rock and roll; a great little band of English and Welch-men works its ass off, finally gets signed by the Beatles record label, works it's ass even harder, gets classified as a "Beatles Clone Band" even though they are miles apart, gets completely screwed by it's management, and the two primary songwriters commit suicide. And that's the short version. Did you know that these two guys wrote the song "Without You," which has been in the top ten four times by four other artists, and that to this day the surviving family of those two guys receive NO ROYALTIES? Their band mates and ex-managers do, though... And, to add insult to injury, despite the overwhelming evidence and the fact that Badfinger was one of many acts he screwed, manager Stan Polley has never been convicted. Simply the biggest outrage in pop music history. They were a great band with great musicianship, great vocals and most importantly, great song writing. This album is pretty much their best, although all of their albums are great. Pete Ham was a genius songwriter who never got the credit he deserved. You can hear him dying inside over the situation he was trapped in, and yet trying to keep his hope alive. This is music you can feel, white blues much like Pet Sounds, only more rocking. A very cool gentleman named Dan Matovina has written a book called Without You: The Tragic Story Of Badfinger, which is more than worth reading, even if you're not a fan of the band if only because it's an excellent "what not to do in the music business" guide, and I am deadly serious about this. Click Here to learn more. The Beatles. Every one of their records. Every single one has value, like them or not. Their progress as songwriters and recording artists was immediate, continuous and without equal. You can hear it right away, just compare their first two albums. The maturity is already there. No musicians besides Elvis and possibly Bob Dylan ever had this much influence on the world. It's impossible to single out one album for particular praise. Usually people will single out Pepper, but I just can't. I mean, it's a phenomenal record, but Revolver is better in my opinion, as is Rubber Soul. Those two are certainly less dated. Lady In Satin - Billie Holiday. If you can listen to this album without at least feeling something, my friend, you are dead. One of her last albums, it catches her on the way down, drinking heavily, hurting and lonely, and pouring every ounce of that pain into every word on this record. Her voice had diminished by this time, her lifestyle was catching up with her, but she didn't lose a single bit of her ability to channel her emotions into her singing. What she lacks in clarity and range she makes up for in soul. Ray Ellis' orchestrations are pure perfection. Time Out - The Dave Brubeck Quartet. One would have to be a complete moron not to mention this album as a true milestone in music. Frankly though, I don't give a damn whether it's a milestone or not. There are alot of albums considered "masterpieces," and "milestones," that I can't bloody stand. What matters is what the music makes you feel and think. This album was at the time the summation of pianist Brubeck's interests in strange time signatures. He had travelled the world both as a soldier and musician, and had been exposed to music from all over the planet. One incident he recalls is hearing street musicians in Turkey improvising in 9/8, the pattern being "1-2, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2-3." This blew his mind, because frankly in the US and most of the western world, no one was using these rhythms. So he did. The songs on this album are all experiments in time. But here's the most remarkable thing about it: This music is beautiful. An experiment like this could have easily turned into a giant music theory lesson, a record full of technical stuff with no spirit. In any other band's hands, it probably would have. But Brubeck just has a built in sense of the beautiful, the organic, and his love shines through whatever he does. On top of that, his band at this time was the absolute best; Paul Desmond's potent soprano sax playing, and a great rhythm section of bassist Eugene Wright and drummer Joe Morello. This was also one of the first integrated bands in jazz. Something Anything - Todd Rundgren. Wow, what a great album. I bought this the same week I bought Pet Sounds. The combined effect was incalculable. Rundgren is easily one of the most talented men in popular music, even if he's had few hits. This was his third solo record. He made three albums with Nazz in the late sixties (all of which are great, by the way), and then quit the band in the midst of a kind of mutiny against his leadership. His first two albums were made with other musicians. For this one he decided to make a two-record set, and wound up playing all of the instruments and doing all the vocals himself for the first three sides. Side Four is a jam with a bunch of other musicians, the session which yielded his biggest hit "Hello, It's Me." This a perfect album for anyone who wants to learn about song writing, because his is truly excellent. Supersession - Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper and Steve Stills. What do you get when you put three awesome musicians who's bands have just broken up, in the studio together for two days? If they are also creative powerhouses and lovers of the blues you get this. The first "side" (hey, it came out in '69) is a studio jam with Bloomfield (one of the best and least-appreciated blues guitarists of all time, newly ejected from Electric Flag) and Kooper (who had just been railroaded out of Blood Sweat and Tears, and later would discover Lynyrd Skynyrd), with bassist Harvey Brooks and drummer Eddie Hoh. They improvised on blues and jazz progressions, did a couple of numbers and agreed to do it again tomorrow. But, as fate would have it, Bloomfield was hospitalized with debilitating insomnia that night. Kooper called Stills, and they jammed for the next night or so. Sound like it would be boring? It's not. It's the "Kind Of Blue" of rock 'n roll, with some of the best blues guitar you will ever hear. Ever. Kooper ain't much of a singer, but he's as real as it gets, and the version of Donovan's Season Of The Witch (with Stills on guitar), is a truly great moment in music. Later Kooper and co. would release a live album called "The Live Adventures of Bloomfield & Kooper," and more recently, Columbia issued a CD of one of their concerts, which also features the public debut of Johnny Winter. Both live collections are well worth the $$. Fragile - Yes. Now, I know a lot of people who would rather go window-shopping for diarrhea than listen to any so-called "progressive rock," and I don't care. This is the ultimate album of the genre, precisely because it's still grounded in rock 'n roll. There are no 25-minute symphonies here. Yes, many of the songs are long and complex, but there are still great melodies and hooks. And on this record you will find some of the best musicianship rock has ever seen. I'll admit, I love many of their albums. Close To The Edge, Going For The One, and The Yes Album come to mind quickly. But for better or worse, this is the record that threw down the gauntlet for prog-rock. Unfortunately, a fiar amount of what followed was less intelligent and more pretentious. But that is not Yes' fault. Brothers In Arms - Dire Straits. One of the first all digital recordings, and while in my opinion it suffers a little from this (digital in those days was sort of brittle-sounding) its a great album. Knopfler's guitar playing is lyrical and superb, and he tells the story perfectly. The only way this album could be better is if "Walk Of Life" was cut off, and maybe "Money For Nothing." The best songs (as is often the case) are the ones nobody knows. Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan. Yes, I like Bob Dylan. His voice, which we all crack jokes about sometimes, is often perfect for the song he's trying to get across. This album rocks, with a great band featuring Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield, and a bunch of his best tunes. Another fave of of his for me is Bringing It All Back Home, for many of the same reasons. Pentangle - Self Titled. I was actually surprised by how much I enjoy this album. I haven't been known to listen to a ton of celtic-ish music. Probably that's because I completely loathe the modern version of so-called "celtic" music with it's ridiculous synthesizers... did the druids actually have DX7's? "Dig that crazy pan-flute patch, Maddigh!" (Maddigh...it's a bloody Celt name! Didn't you study philology in college??) (Philology...it's the study of words...nevermind.) But I digress. But really, Pentangle is only somewhat celtic; I guess a more accurate description would be "acoustic-world-music-folk-blues-jazz..." They're pretty eclectic. The musicianship is awesome, Jaqui MacShee's vocals are so beautiful and if you want to know where Jimmy Page got his entire acoustic guitar style you need to check out Bert Jansch. Honestly, all their albums are more than worth checking out. Elvis Presley - Self Titled Debut. Alright..alright. Forget the sequins, the jumpsuit and the pizza jokes and listen to his first full-length. It's more or less a comp of material he recorded for Sun and his early RCA stuff, but you gotta admit it was probably the first rock and roll album that really mattered. It's raw, real and it rocks. Rock bands used to record live in the studio you know! Others:Jimi Hendrix - AXIS: Bold As Love Great Music Movies & Documentaries:Les Paul - Chasing Sound - This is one hell of a documentary about the single most important person in the history of modern music and it's related technology. Recently I've discovered that an awful lot of people don't realize that Les Paul is a person; they just know the name from the guitar. So let's straighten things out a little right here:
And on a personal note he really was one of the nicest, most down-to-earth, funny and honest men you could ever meet in this crazy business. He had no reason to be as kind, open and friendly as he always was to his fans, being the single most important person in the music world of the last century. Yet the last time I met up with him, despite being 93 years old and sick as a dog with a cold, he played two great sets with his band at the Iridium, spent a few minutes with a student of mine and myself backstage, and then sat for three hours signing autographs and chatting with his fans. We can all learn an awful lot from Les Paul, and not all of this has to do with music. Tom Dowd - The Language of Music - You just have to respect the producer / engineer who was one of the first to record in multitrack, one of the first to mix in stereo, and along the way made records by Aretha Franklin, Eric Clapton, The Allman Brothers, The Drifters, Ray Charles, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman and about 1000 of the world's other most important artists. This is an excellent documentary told by the man himself just a few months before his passing. Personally, I owe my entire career to Tom Dowd and Les Paul. Standing In The Shadows Of Motown - Just about the best music documentary ever made. Seriously. Its about time that the session musicians, who were the life-blood of the music industry in the 50's, 60's and early 70's get their due, and the Funk Brothers get it here. And just to prove they deserve the accolades, they do a reunion concert and, even though their all in their 60's, they rock the house. Brian Wilson - Beautiful Dreamer - A documentary about Brian Wilson, and especially his long road towards completing the legendary Smile album, put together by one of the few managers in pop music that an artist can really trust, David Leaf. Great music, great true story. Bob Dylan - No Direction Home - Usually I think Marty Scorcese is a pompous little ass. But he's made an excellent documentary about the tambourine man here. It's well put together, and Dylan's interviews are priceless. My only complaint is that the music is SO MUCH LOUDER than the dialog. The Monkees - Head - Incredible, no kidding. It's not a 90-minute version of their TV show. It's actually quite a cynical and dark deconstruction of the whole Monkee myth, a satirical expose on the Hollywood machine, and Jack Nicholson's big break. The Who - The Kids Are Alright - Probably the best rock film ever, though it's only a documentary in a loose sense. Lots of awesome footage, great interviews, and the new DVD sounds fantastic to boot. The Who - 30 Years Of Maximum R&B - A more straight-forward anthology of live who footage from their whole career. Full of great moments. The Beach Boys - Endless Harmony - Easily the best documentary about the Beach Boys out there. Great direction, great sound, great footage, and the dvd bonus extras are great. The Beatles - A Hard Days Night - I don't buy for a minute that the Beatles or the Monkees "invented" the music video. Music "videos" have been around since the 1930's. They were called "musies" and were short films of popular bands performing live. But I will say that the Beatles made the first rock 'n roll movie that wasn't a major turd. Maybe a minor turd. (Little musical joke there.) Led Zeppelin (the new DVD set) - Im not a big Zep fan, but this shows them at their best. Ken Burns' Jazz Documentary - The only defect is that they hardly ever mention any of the great jazz guitarists. Shame. Spinal Tap - I mean, come on! If you're a musician and you haven't seen this, get off your tukas and rent it. Now. Easy Rider - It may not be about music but the music is the star of the show, not Peter Fonda. His part would have been better if acted by a large flat stone. "Don't bogart that joint, my friend..." The Rutles - Monty Python guys Idle and Innes along with the vintage SNL crew send up the Beatles. Classic. Books:Without You, The Tragic Story of Badfinger - Dan Matovina |
SMiLE - Brian Wilson & Van Dyke Parks. This was major life-changer for me. A buddy of mine gave me my first SMiLE bootleg in 1991, and I haven't gotten over it yet. Sure, the album wasn't completed or released, but it exists in it's beautifully fragmented state. The individual songs are otherworldly and completely timeless. Listening to them, it's impossible to comprehend how anyone could have cut tracks like "Surfs Up," and "Cabin Essence" in 1966, considering what everyone else was doing and the general state of the recording arts at the time. |
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All material within is (c)2010. George Dussault is a member of ASCAP.