OccultHawk

Sorry to hear that

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Plankton

Hoping for the best, RS. But, as you said... That's tough to have to go through.

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rubber soul

Yeah. Right now it's like she could die tonight, next month, or somehow make a miracle recovery (though the third one seems very doubtful). Anyway, I'll try to sneak in as much as possible. Thanks, guys.

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rubber soul

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.

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rubber soul

Still have some completed top twenty fives in reserves though it may be a while before I can totally complete them. Meanwhile we move on, shall we?...


1965





Event of the year: The Beatles are given medals at a Mets game by Elvis.
Fad: Wrecking Ford Mustangs
Babes of the Year: Ginger and Mary Ann
Scandal of the Year: Frankie and Annette shack up
Movie or TV show to barf to: My Mother the Car
What we could have done without: The Vietnam War
Pet of the year: Ilya Kuryakin

Other Tidbits: The night the lights went out in New York City, Malcolm X joins JFK in Australia, A cookout goes awry in Watts, LBJ declares blacks equal by sending them to Vietnam, an unmanned spaceship crashes into a telephone pole and starts the Apollo program, Bob Dylan electrocutes himself at Newport, Hugh Hefner invents the mini-skirt, Gomez Addams defeats Herman Munster for the Welterweight title, Frankie and Annette fall in love in Beach Blanket Bingo at Hamburger Hill.

The quality of the top twenty is getting better with each year and I really like this batch. So here we go…





1) The Beatles- Rubber Soul
2) Bob Dylan- Highway 61 Revisited
3) Bob Dylan- Bringing It All Back Home
4) Phil Ochs- I Ain’t Marchin Anymore
5) John Coltrane- A Love Supreme
6) The Rolling Stones- No. 2
7) The Who- My Generation
8) The Beatles- Help!
9) Otis Redding- Otis Blue
10) Them- The Angry Young Them
11) The Byrds- Mr. Tambourine Man
12) The Zombies- Begin Here
13) The Kinks- Kontroversey
14) The Beach Boys- Summer Days and Summer Nights
15) The Pretty Things- Get the Picture
16) Joan Baez- Farewell, Angelina
17) The Kinks- Kinda Kinks
18) Richard and Mimi Farina- Celebrations For a Grey Day
19) The Pretty Things- The Pretty Things
20) The Beau Brummels- Introducing the Beau Brummels
21) The Yardbirds- Having a Rave Up With the Yardbirds
22) Jackson C.Frank- Jackson C.Frank
23) John Fahey- The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death
24) The Fugs- The Fugs Sing Ballds of Contemporary Protest, Points of View, and General Dissatisfaction
25) The Sonics- Here Are the Sonics

Now things are getting going. The fact that my biggest surprise only comes in at number 24 should give you an idea of what I think of this year. For starters, Dylan’s Highway 61 is truly one of my favorite albums ever. In fact all-time it comes in at number four. Unfortunately for him, it was the same year that my number two all time album was released. Well, my name is Rubber Soul, isn’t it? .

Dylan also comes in at number three with his second best album. Yes, Dylan had one hell of a year, Phil Ochs scores big again, and Coltrane keeps jazz alive with his brilliant A Love Supreme. There are all sorts of gems on this year’s chart, but I’ll especially point to the Who, the Zombies, the Pretty Things two entries, and the Sonics who just sneak into an amazing top twenty-five. Even in the Honorable Mentions you have the Moodies' first entry. They were quite impressive with the Denny Laine fronted piano blues band.

Biggest Surprise- The Fugs.

Of course I’ve heard snippets from these guys (notably, CIA man which they recorded a little later), but this album bounces between nutty acoustic goofballishness that would make Zappa proud and some straightforward folk rock. It proved to be an enjoyable listen. Also note that the album still comes in at 24 which gives you an idea on how the quality of albums is improving.

Biggest Disappointment- The Rolling Stones- Out of Our Heads (US version)

This was the first Stones album I ever bought and, outside of the hit singles, the album is pretty boring. If you took away Satisfaction, the Last Time (one of my favorite Stones songs btw), and Play With Fire, the album would even stink. Needless to say, the aforementioned three songs saved the album from complete disaster (it did make my honorable mentions).


Honorable Mention- The Byrds- Turn, Turn, Turn, Donovan- Fairytale, The Moody Blues- The Magnificent Moodies, The Rolling Stones- Out of Our Heads, The Beach Boys- The Beach Boys Today.


Stinker of the Year- The Addicts- The Addicts Sing

A friend of mine had this album (he liked to buy odd albums for the covers mostly). The story is these guys were taken from the streets and put together as a gospel choir. They’re not the worst singers, but come on; do you really want to advertise a band as a bunch of ‘former’ drug addicts? They sing acappella on You Are the Finger of God (so don’t pick God’s nose) and it sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard. Well, hopefully, they were cleaned up and remained that way.

Well, that’s it for 1965. See you later on for 1966.

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Frownland

Lol Beatles need to drop down a good 20 at least my man.

You missed Juju, Wayne Shorter's best album. That would be number three for me beneath A Love Supreme and Ayler's Spiritual Unity (I get why you didn't put the latter on though, it's not for everyone).

One that also might not have made it on your radar

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OccultHawk

I think every year, we’ll be able to pick it apart but he’s still doing a good job.

For both of us Ayler -I think it’s the same for you- he continues to run through the core of so much great music. His sound was meant to echo and it keeps reverberating. It’s going to continue haunting our musical consciousness long after we’re dead and gone. I get that Ayler is harder than Dolphy but he included Out to Lunch. So that invites the discussion. Don’t play with fire if you don’t wanna get burned. If free jazz is in play there’s no excusing the absence of Spiritual Unity.

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Frownland

While they're both free jazz it's pretty disingenuous to lump Dolphy and Ayler together, very different animals.

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rubber soul

Hey, everyone has their own favorites

I didn't play a lot of Hurley, but I will when I have more time. The first track sounded pretty good. I don't know if he would have made my list but that's only because 1965 was such a monster year. We're into the meat of my favorite era now.

And don't diss the Beatles, Frownie, it's not like I pick on Captain Beefheart, much

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Frownland

The Beatles never released the best album of it's respective year =/= The Beatles are shit.

If you have qualms about Beefheart, bring it up. Discussing music is always more interesting than patting people on the back when you like the same things.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.