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Title: Pronounced "Leh-nerd Skin-nerd" Artiste: Lynyrd Skynyrd Year: 1973 Chronological position: Debut album Previous experience of this artiste?: "Freebird", "Sweet home Alabama", "Wishing well" and "Last of a dyin' breed" Why is this considered a classic? If I leave ya tamarra, would you still remember me? My thoughts One minute (or thereabouts in) ---- Good, great, bad, meh, still waiting or other? Good One track in --- Good Halfway through --- Great Finished --- Great Comments: Yep. Another classic band of whom I have to hear a full album, other than the latest one, which I loved. Of course I know Freebird, but after that everything here is new to me. Not terribly impressed with the opener but then we get Tuesday's gone, a big blues ballad and everything just gets so much better. Great organ work and of course smouldering guitar solo. Always sad to hear Ronnie and think of such a talent snatched away far too soon. Gimme three steps is hilarious boogie fun, while Simple man is a hard-edged ballad with real teeth. There's mandolin, harmonica AND slide guitar on Mississippi Kid, real acoustic sort of thing that Rory Gallagher would later make popular on his solo albums and of course we close on the famous classic which everyone knows. Could there be a better final track on a debut album? I doubt it. Favourite track(s): Tuesday's gone, Gimme three steps, Simple man ... everything after the opener. Oh, and Freebird, but I didn't need to tell you that, did I? Least favourite track(s): I ain't the one Final impression --- A great album, and I need to listen to more Skynyrd. Do I feel, at the end, A) I wish I had listened to this sooner B) I'm sorry I bothered C) I might end up liking this D) Have to wait and see E) Bit underwhelmed; was ok but a classic? F) Definitely enjoyed it, but again would I consider it a classic? A, boy! A! |
Gimme three steps, gimme three steps, mister
Gimme three steps toward the door? :D So, you're saying I should buy this? I'm kinda interested. |
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I have been going through your thread and read the Beefheart review. Try some of his very early stuff like the cover of "Diddy Wah Diddy" and the Safe as Milk album. I'm sure you will at least find something to hear and kind of like - more Blues involved. I liked the "Garage" era before all of the free form stuff.
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Lynyrd Skynyrd's first two albums were rock and roll masterpieces. They began showing signs of wear on their third album. The players in Skynyrd lacked the musical skills to play imaginative jazzy improvisational jams, like the Allman Brothers or the Grateful Dead. The three guitarists in Skynyrd mostly played standard 12 bar blues jams which began to sound repetitive after about 5 minutes. The Dead could jam for 30 minutes on the theme of Dark Star and every live performance of Dark Star was a completely unique version of the song. The Allman Brothers did a similar transformation of Mountain Jam, every time they played it live. By contrast, every live performance of Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd was an exact replica of the 5 minute triple guitar "jam" on the original studio album, which led me to believe that Synyrd's guitar players weren't improvising but playing the guitar parts on Free Bird by rote memorization. The biggest strength of Skynyrd was the songwriting of vocalist Ronnie Van Zandt, who died in 1977. Without Van Zandt, Lynyrd Skynyrd became just another redneck band playing generic southern rock. |
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Title: Introducing the hardline according to Terence Trent D'Arby Artiste: Terence Trent D'Arby Year: 1987 Chronological position: Debut album Previous experience of this artiste?: Singles off this album Why is this considered a classic? I really don't know. TTD appeared out of nowhere and suddenly had hit single after hit single, then after this launched to massive fanfare and did really well, his next album bombed and he disappeared from sight. I heard he changed his name. My thoughts One minute (or thereabouts in) ---- Good, great, bad, meh, still waiting or other? Good One track in --- Good Halfway through --- Great Finished --- Great Comments: I do know some of these tracks: the singles of course, but I now remember my boss bought this when it came out and I got a loan of it, though I only gave it one listen and that was twenty-six years ago so remember little about it, though the opener rekindles a memory. I remember I liked this. A lot. I still do. Pretty much like everything here. So much better than some of the generic soul/disco-that-transfigured-itself- into-what-now-passes-for-r&B-these-days rubbish. The acapella "As yet untitled" is superlative. The only thing that could possibly follow that is his cover of Smokey Robinson's "Who's loving you"? Class. Favourite track(s): If you all get to Heaven, Sign your name, Seven more days, As yet untitled but I like everything here really. Least favourite track(s): None. Final impression --- A very special album. Perhaps not a true classic, but something that stands out among the dross that made up so much of this troubled year. Do I feel, at the end, A) I wish I had listened to this sooner B) I'm sorry I bothered C) I might end up liking this D) Have to wait and see E) Bit underwhelmed; was ok but a classic? F) Definitely enjoyed it, but again would I consider it a classic? A, for shoo-war! |
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Title: Songs in the key of life Artiste: Stevie Wonder Year: 1976 Chronological position: Eighteenth album (Note: how amazing to think that a man still going today had 18 albums in the can by the mid-seventies, when many bands and artistes were just releasing their debuts!) Previous experience of this artiste?: No albums, just the hit singles (who doesn't know "I just called to say I love you", "Superstitous" or "Isn't she lovely?") Why is this considered a classic? Well from what I read, Stevie Wonder was thinking of quitting the music biz and this is the album he came back with, deciding to work against the injustices he saw in the world through the medium of his music. It's also one of only three albums to ever debut at number one in the Billboard charts, and kept both Zep's "The song remains the same" and Rod Stewart's "A night on the town" off the top spot, only finally being toppled by another classic, "Hotel California" by the Eagles. My thoughts One minute (or thereabouts in) ---- Good, great, bad, meh, still waiting or other? Great One track in --- Great Halfway through --- Great Finished --- Great Comments: For a so-called classic I'm rather surprised to see there's only one hit single on this, but it is a blockbuster. Even so, the album starts off like smooth soul silk on glass and I must say I'm hooked as I did not expect to be, not this soon. It's a double album though, and I wonder will this high quality remain throughout? Like the orchestration in "Village ghetto land", and he pulls no punches with the lyric. Hmm, not crazy about the funky instrumental "Contusion" though. Ah wait a minute! I know "Sir Duke", but I thought it was called "You can feel it all over". Silly me. Well, so much for my opening comment: I see "Isn't she lovely" was never released as a single. D'oh! And I realise I also know "I wish", and here comes the original of Coolio's "Gangsta paradise"! Man, how much of this album do I know without realising it? I must admit I'm finding it hard to find anything I don't like on this album, as the favourite tracks list expands. And as soon as I say that I come across "Ordinary pain", which is a great song BUT I don't like the way it ends then starts up again almost as another track, and "Isn't she lovely" has always made me puke so I skipped it and hit "Joy inside my tears", a beautiful ballad. Ah yes, back on track now! Meh though, it does drag on for far longer than it should. as does "Black man", to the point it really gets on my nerves. I see pluses and minuses with this album, though considerably more of the former than the latter to be fair. Favourite track(s): Love's in need of love today, Village ghetto land, Sir Duke, I wish, Pastime Paradise and a whole bunch more. Least favourite track(s): Contusion, Isn't she lovely? (shut up! I just always hated that song!), Black man Final impression --- Not the sort of album I would have envisaged ever listening to, never mind enjoying, but despite a few flaws it was pretty excellent. (If I end up saying that about Slayer make peace with your gods, cos it'll be the end of the world!) I found I knew a lot more of the tracks on it than I thought, even if I didn't know their titles before listening to this. Education and entertainment? Can't beat it. Do I feel, at the end, A) I wish I had listened to this sooner B) I'm sorry I bothered C) I might end up liking this D) Have to wait and see E) Bit underwhelmed; was ok but a classic? F) Definitely enjoyed it, but again would I consider it a classic? I'd certainly have to say A. |
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Title: The lexicon of love Artiste: ABC Year: 1982 Chronological position: Debut album Previous experience of this artiste?: Just the singles off this album Why is this considered a classic? I think it just had so many hit singles, introduced the band to the world and also was produced by Trevor Horn, who would later work with Yes, The Buggles and the Art of Noise. My thoughts One minute (or thereabouts in) ---- Good, great, bad, meh, still waiting or other? Good One track in --- Good Halfway through --- Meh Finished --- Meh Comments: Of course I know the singles, so it's the other tracks I'm concentrating on here. ABC to me in my youth always seemed the epitome of what I despised in music: suave, suited guys singing suave, suited music. No soul, y'see? Which is kind of ironic as ABC did purvey a kind of watered-down soul to those who had unbiased ears to hear. Not me: oh no; these guys were boring pop and I didn't like them. Safe. Clinical. Sanitised. Yeah, you know the deal. So what about now, as Bon Jovi would say? I suppose if you listen to the opener you'd have to almost put them in the progressive pop stable, with a nice orchestral intro but then it's more Duran Duran than Dream Theater as the album gets going. The colossus that bestrides this album is the sweet soul vocal of Martin Fry, and considering he was originally a synth player he really has discovered his talent here. That said, there's nothing that's really impressing me overly here. I know the quality of ABC's work but it has never managed to move me, or make me take a step back. So far, that attitude is not changing. There's really nothing on this album that's blowing my skirt up .... oh hold on a mo! "4 ever 2 gether" is almost Simple Minds and breaks out of the generic pop into a nearly-rock track. I like this. Finally, something to get excited about. Yeah, but that's about where it ends for me. Favourite track(s): (Other than the singles I know) 4 ever 2 gether Least favourite track(s): Nothing I hated, but as above, very little I really liked. Final impression --- I often thought with ABC that I liked their singles, but never quite wondered what their album might be like. Now that I've heard it, I think I was better off with the singles, as without them this album is, almost completely, generic and empty with little to recommend it. Do I feel, at the end, A) I wish I had listened to this sooner B) I'm sorry I bothered C) I might end up liking this D) Have to wait and see E) Bit underwhelmed; was ok but a classic? F) Definitely enjoyed it, but again would I consider it a classic? Gonna have to go for a B here. |
I don't really get all the hype over The Lexicon Of Love, like you said the singles are great but there's not much else on there.
Pelican West by Haircut 100 was released around the same time & I think it's a much better album but it doesn't get anywhere near the attention Lexicon gets. |
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