Even if you don’t know you do, you know who Burl Ives is. It may be only from his role as the sunglasses-wearing snowman in the claymation Christmas movies, but you know who he is. And even when he isn’t singing about the colors of reindeers’ noses, Mr. Ives brings the same timeless gentility to everything he does, as opposed to Bing Crosby, whose charm was lost as soon as he strayed from the fireplace-glow that made his Christmas songs so unforgettable. Burl Ives, on the other hand, is aware of the magic he conjures, and he casts his spell upon every song on this record.
Author: Nathaniel FitzGerald
Record #249: Bruce Springsteen – Greetings From Asbury Park N.J. (1973)
I’m a late comer to the Bruce Springsteen fandom. Just two years ago, I largely dismissed the Boss, until Born to Run (the single) caught my attention, followed by the album it led. Since, I’ve been getting into his catalog one album at a time, which usually followed me dismissing that album before conceding that it is, in fact great (see: Born in the USA). That trend has, to date, only moved forward. But I recently found his debut for four dollars, and took a gamble. And if there’s one thing you can count on, it’s that a bet on the Boss is a good bet.
Record 248: Blondie – Parallel Lines (1978)
The mid-to-late seventies were a great time for punk. An unvoiced rebellion finally found its eloquence wearing ripped denim and filling CBGB & OMFUG (Joey Ramone having convinced the owner to let punk bands play there instead of just country, bluegrass, and blues acts).
Punk was fresh, it was real, and most importantly, no one knew what punk was supposed to sound like yet. Whenever I hear Heart of Glass between Brothers and Allman on the oldies station (my town’s radio stations are weird), I shake my head incredulously muttering, “these guys used to play with the Ramones.” And Television too, but Television isn’t exactly what you think of when you think of punk either.
Record #247: Bing Crosby – My Golden Favorites (1961)
I realized two things listening to this record. Number one: there are two tiers to my record collection. There are the records I pay more than four dollars for because I want to listen to them, and the records I get on the cheap and keep because they aren’t terrible. And number two: I’ve never heard anything Bing has sung besides Christmas songs.
Record #246: The Bee Gees – Here at Last…Bee Gees…Live (1977)
Admittedly, I’ve never intentionally listened to the Bee Gees in my life (my brother-in-law gave this to me for Christmas), so when the lady-filled crowd screams wildly, I have to wonder what the big deal is.
But for the most part, the Bee Gees show what the big deal is.
Record #245: The Beatles – “Yesterday” and Today (1966)
It took a while for Capitol to figure out the Beatles. While they were initially keen for their LPs to be a mish mash of whatever tracks they were recording at the time, the Beatles were the among the first acts to look at the twenty-four inches of wax (both sides, keep up) as an opportunity to make a singular artistic statement.
But Capitol was a little slow on the uptake, continuing to grab recordings from different recording sessions and piecing them together to cash in on Beatle-mania. While they stopped releasing different North American versions once Sgt. Pepper arrived, the Beatles had been recording complete albums as early as Beatles for Sale in late 1964.
“Yesterday” and Today, largely culled from Rubber Soul and Revolver, with a few tracks from Help!, was the culmination of Capitol’s misguided practice.
Record #244: The Beach Boys – Smiley Smile (1967)
You’ve probably heard the story before: Brian Wilson hears the Beatles’ Rubber Soul, decides to make the greatest album of all time. He succeeds with an album called Pet Sounds, which Paul showed John, and they started working on Sgt. Pepper’s. Paul shows some of it to Brian, who is already trying to top Pet Sounds with an album called SMiLE (which everyone is rabid with anticipation for), and Brian collapses under the pressure, succumbing to drugs and mental illness. The project is abandoned. The world wouldn’t see SMiLE until he recorded a new version in the late twenty aughts, then pieced together the original tapes in 2011.
But the Beach Boys were under a contract–they had to release something. That release, called Smiley Smile, was a compilation of the most completed songs from the SMiLE sessions (a majority of which wouldn’t appear on the finished project). Continue reading
Record #243: Jefferson Airplane – Surrealistic Pillow (1967)
1967 was a banner year for the psychedelic movement. The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s AND Magical Mystery Tour, the Stones released Their Satanic Majesty’s Request, the Who Sold Out, the Jimi Hendrix Experience debuted, and the hippies all moved into Haight-Ashbury.
And out of Haight-Ashbury came Jefferson Airplane, the soundtrack to the Summer of Love, and one of the hardest rocking bands in the world at that point–let alone the hardest rocking rock band with a female vocalist (in a world without Jefferson Airplane, there is no Heart, no Joan Jett, no Raveonnettes).
Record #242: Further Seems Forever – Hide Nothing (2004)
Hide Nothing gets a lot of crap. And true, I only bought it as a packaged deal with the other two Further Seems Forever. But listening to it again has reminded me of when I was a senior in high school trying to convince my friends that this album actually was worth the time.
Record #241: Further Seems Forever – How to Start a Fire (2003)
Hipster punk that I am, I have long been of the opinion that the first album is always best (Radiohead cured me of that). My view of Further Seems Forever back in my emo days was that Chris and FSF put together one perfect record, parted ways, and limped on without the other. And while it’s true that the first incarnation of the group was a wonderful, singular thing, it is far from the only worthwhile version. Further Seems Forever, mark II is a harsher beast, making its loudest statements during hard hitting rockers, like the title track opener, Against My Better Judgment, Pride War, etc.