Well, Mom died this afternoon. A little quicker than expected but expected nonetheless.
Well, I already wrote this up so here goes...
1964
Event of the year: Elvis Presley does Ann Margaret
Fad: Really bad Beatle wigs
Babe of the Year: Josephine the Comet Plumber
Scandal of the Year: Barry Goldwater blows up the daisy girl. (according to LBJ anyway)
Movie or TV show to barf to: Gilligan’s Island
What we could have done without: The Beatles vs. the Four Seasons album
Pet of the year: Sonny Liston
Other Tidbits: The Beatles invade America and Britain gets her colonies back, Goldfinger wants James Bond to die, Ringo Starr knocks out Muhammad Ali for the Heavyweight Boxing Title, Things go better with Coke, The Warren Commission concludes John Wilkes Booth acted alone in Lincoln assassination, The Battleship Maine is sunk in the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, the Rough Riders are sent to Vietnam, Liz marries Dick, Liz divorces Dick, Liz marries Dick again, Bob Dylan discovers pot, Martin Luther King wins the Academy Award, scientists discover that panthers are pink.
And with that, here is my top twenty-five for 1964…
1) The Beatles- A Hard Day’s Night
2) The Rolling Stones- The Rolling Stones
3) Johnny Cash- Bitter Tears
4) Bob Dylan- Another Side of Bob Dylan
5) Phil Ochs- All the News That’s Fit To Sing
6) The Beatles- Beatles For Sale
7) Bob Dylan- The Times They Are a Changin
8) Eric Dolphy- Out To Lunch
9) Joan Baez- Joan Baez/5
10) Judy Henske- High Flyin’ Bird
11) The Holy Modal Rounders- The Holy Modal Rounders
12) The Beach Boys- Shut Down Vol. 2
13) Charles Mingus- Mingus, Mingus, Mingus
14) The Kinks- Kinks
15) The Ronettes- The Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica.
16) The Animals- The Animals
17) The Yardbirds- Five Live Yardbirds
18) Muddy Waters- Folk Singer
19) Lesley Gore- Girl Talk
20) Ian and Sylvia- Northern Journey
21) Dave Van Ronk- Inside Dave Van Ronk
22) Sam Cooke- Ain’t That Good News
23) The Supremes- Where Did Our Love Go
24) The Hollies- In the Hollies Style
25) Manfred Mann- The Five Faces of Manfred Mann
The British Invasion is now full blown as the Beatles again hold the top spot. I actually would rate With the Beatles higher than A Hard Day’s Night, but no matter; it’s all semantics when you get right down to it. The Rolling Stones debut (UK version) comes in at number two. This is followed by Johnny Cash’s best album, Bitter Tears. Here he sings about the plight of the Native American. Cash is always best when he sings about the issues of the day as he will later with Man in Black for example. Dylan scores two in the top ten again and Phil Ochs’ debut scores big with me too. In terms of pure Folk, Phil Ochs tops my list though I would take Dylan’s electric period overall if it came down to brass tacks. Jazz is now fading from my top twenty five but Out To Lunch is everything it’s said to be; a jazz classic. Mingus also scores here for one last time. Out of the Top Ten, highlights include the wacky Holy Modal Rounders and a surprising effort by Lesley Gore who proves she isn’t just a singles’ artist to the chagrin of her handlers no doubt.
Biggest Surprise- Judy Henske- High Flying Bird.
I think I’ve established that I’m a pretty big fan of sixties folk but even I was taken aback by the blues-folk songstress. The arrangements were ahead of its time as folk in 1964 was still basically a singer with his/her guitar. Henske, though, would use percussion and other instrumentation that was still to become common with future folk albums. Phil Ochs didn’t get into going beyond an acoustic guitar until 1967 for example. Anyway, this was a pleasant surprise.
Biggest Disappointment- Downliner’s Sect- The Sect.
Now these guys are a great blues rock band in the vein of the Pretty Things, but this album to me, is basically a bunch of covers. They’re not bad mind you; it’s just an album that I would have thought would fare better with me.
Honorable Mention- Ian and Sylvia- Four Strong Winds, Simon and Garfunkel- Wednesday Morning, 3 AM, Tom Paxton- Ramblin’ Boy, The Everly Brothers- Gone, Gone, Gone, The Temptations- Meet the Temptations
Stinker of the Year- The Chipmunks- The Chipmunks Sing the Beatles
And the girls went screaming- all the way to the mental institution. Boy those Chipmunks knew how to cash on a music trend (wait till you hear Chipmunk Punk). They didn’t even grow their hair; that mean David Seville made them wear Beatle wigs. I think after this album, I’ll go listen to something more swinging, like Lawrence Welk.
And so ends a rather exciting year. Next up will be 1965. See you then.
