Can I ask if you still have the three-times-listening rule for these important albums? Because the next album in your list is Loveless by My Bloody Valentine, and I had to listen to that album like ten times before I could form any sort of judgment on it, and that's with being in some ways acquainted with their earlier music. Since you're not doing a chronological approach you'll also be less familiar with their sound and so on. To be honest, reviewing that album is something that would frighten me. :o
And I'm going to be amused when George gets to Wu-Tang Clan in about half a year... That's provided he won't consider his task complete long before that precious moment.
This is the way I remember it. In 1965-66 everyone was buying 45's mostly. It was more affordable. If anybody bought albums it was collections. Greatest hits albums were a bargain. High Tide and Green Grass, Byrds greatest Hits. Kinks, Lovin Spoonful. We would stack up 45's on the player. The Beatles were different. You had to buy the albums. Capitol Records made Three records out of Rubber Soul and Revolver. I never saw the original versions until the seventies. I am still more familiar with Rubber Soul Yesterday and Today and Revolver. Sgt. Pepper changed all that forever. To me that is the single most important thing the Beatles ever did. I found a lot of good songs that weren't on greatest hits albums and I thank you for that Mr. Starostin
"Sometimes I can't help but wonder how in the world a guy who, by all accounts, has generally had a comfortable life and was never known much as a loner or sociopath could have such a brilliant knack for picturing desperate loneliness." I'm surprised by that as well, considering he is certainly the most amiable, or at least the most polished and well-mannered one. But I think his melancholy was earned. He lost his mum as a youth, which informed everything from "I'll Follow the Sun" to "Let it Be." At the time of this record his relationship with Jane Asher ended, and that had to make him feel vulnerable. Also, the first book I read about the Beatles was one of those cheap Scholastic Book Club bio-books with very little primary source material and a lot of crappy photos. It portrayed Paul as the big druggie of the group, which is a bit odd, considering John's open experimentation, but I know She's A Woman is a pot ode, Got to Get You... is directed to acid, and I have always suspected Here There is written if not TO the weed, it was WITH it in mind, because the love that is expressed is not human (I love my wife, but I don't want her EVERYWHERE, always beside me, making me never care). The whole "change my life with a wave of her hand" is too precious even for Macca's standards. The point being, drugs make horrible muses. They may affect your mood or your state of mind, which speaks to the heart of this review and kind of explains the magic of this record, but to personify them as a mate or lover (a device that is troublingly common in pop music, especially these guys) is truly a sad place to be in.
Can I ask if you still have the three-times-listening rule for these important albums? Because the next album in your list is Loveless by My Bloody Valentine, and I had to listen to that album like ten times before I could form any sort of judgment on it, and that's with being in some ways acquainted with their earlier music. Since you're not doing a chronological approach you'll also be less familiar with their sound and so on. To be honest, reviewing that album is something that would frighten me. :o
ReplyDeleteWhere can we see George's complete list of important albums? I'd like to listen to them before the reviews go up as well.
Delete>Where can we see George's complete list of important albums?
Deletehttp://rateyourmusic.com/charts/top/album/all-time
And I'm going to be amused when George gets to Wu-Tang Clan in about half a year... That's provided he won't consider his task complete long before that precious moment.
DeleteGeorge is following the list from the site Rate Your Music, rateyourmusic.com , then click on Charts.
ReplyDeleteit's RYM's Top 100
ReplyDeleteThis is the way I remember it. In 1965-66 everyone was buying 45's mostly. It was more affordable. If anybody bought albums it was collections. Greatest hits albums were a bargain. High Tide and Green Grass, Byrds greatest Hits. Kinks, Lovin Spoonful. We would stack up 45's on the player. The Beatles were different. You had to buy the albums. Capitol Records made Three records out of Rubber Soul and Revolver. I never saw the original versions until the seventies. I am still more familiar with Rubber Soul Yesterday and Today and Revolver. Sgt. Pepper changed all that forever. To me that is the single most important thing the Beatles ever did. I found a lot of good songs that weren't on greatest hits albums and I thank you for that Mr. Starostin
ReplyDelete"immediately get back in touch with that inner child, or all is losta."
ReplyDeleteAll is lost and more. Already as a child I thought the song stupid.
"Sometimes I can't help but wonder how in the world a guy who, by all accounts, has generally had a comfortable life and was never known much as a loner or sociopath could have such a brilliant knack for picturing desperate loneliness." I'm surprised by that as well, considering he is certainly the most amiable, or at least the most polished and well-mannered one. But I think his melancholy was earned. He lost his mum as a youth, which informed everything from "I'll Follow the Sun" to "Let it Be." At the time of this record his relationship with Jane Asher ended, and that had to make him feel vulnerable. Also, the first book I read about the Beatles was one of those cheap Scholastic Book Club bio-books with very little primary source material and a lot of crappy photos. It portrayed Paul as the big druggie of the group, which is a bit odd, considering John's open experimentation, but I know She's A Woman is a pot ode, Got to Get You... is directed to acid, and I have always suspected Here There is written if not TO the weed, it was WITH it in mind, because the love that is expressed is not human (I love my wife, but I don't want her EVERYWHERE, always beside me, making me never care). The whole "change my life with a wave of her hand" is too precious even for Macca's standards. The point being, drugs make horrible muses. They may affect your mood or your state of mind, which speaks to the heart of this review and kind of explains the magic of this record, but to personify them as a mate or lover (a device that is troublingly common in pop music, especially these guys) is truly a sad place to be in.
ReplyDelete