158. The MC5 - Kick Out the Jams (February 1969)

1. Ramblin' Rose

2. Kick Out the Jams*

3. Come Together*

4. Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa)

5. Borderline

6. Motor City Is Burning*

7. I Want You Right Now

8. Starship

***

I'm really of two minds with this album. On the one hand, this is the birth really of overdriven riff rock of the sort that would lead to punk music in a few years. You can see it as a point of origin for everything from stoned out noise jams to the Saints' debut. Unfortunately, on the other hand the lyrics are moronic and the songs all kind of sound the same. And don't give me that crap about the mystique of the band, and how they were violent revolutionaries or what have you. Violent revolutionaries can eat my shorts. This is a stupid, stupid album of stupid, stupid music, made by a bunch of drug addicts who seemed to think that the best solution to the world's myriad problems was to burn everything down and start again.

Musically, though, this album is pretty great. There's a bigness to the sound that more than compensates for bullshit like stealing the riff from "I Can See for Miles" for "Come Together". There are also moments of technical virtuosity which show that the band were playing dumb more as a stylistic choice than because of technical limitations. And if you want a big, dangerous album of overblown garage rock nonsense then this is definitely the album for you. Personally, I don't think the MC5 do anything here that wasn't done much better later on. Yes, they were first, but they seem kind of quaint in retrospect. And frankly, their politics are a bunch of confused, hedonistic bullshit. If you want the same experience, only done really well, I suggest checking out Raw Power by the Stooges or the Saints' debut. 

I could probably write a bunch about the socio-political stance of the band or their impact on future musicians but honestly I will just say this - they opened the door for a lot of great shit, but they themselves were a bunch of pretentious idiots. "I Want You Right Now" features grotesque sucking noises that are less sexy than troubling. And "Starship" is eight minutes of my life that I will never get back.

Also make sure if you're listening on Spotify to choose the Japanese release of the album - the other version doesn't have the rude bits included.

157. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II (October 1969)

1. Whole Lotta Love

2. What Is and What Should Never Be*

3. The Lemon Song

4. Thank You*

5. Heartbreaker

6. Living Loving Maid (She's Just A Woman)

7. Ramble On*

8. Moby Dick

9. Bring It On Home

****1/2

I can't imagine what it must have been like for rock fans in 1969. They were probably still reeling from the first Zeppelin album when along comes "Whole Lotta Love" and blows a hole through their heads. What's really impressive is that "Whole Lotta Love" isn't even the best song on the album. Yes, it's totally awesome, and that riff is the wellspring of so much metal and hard rock - a brilliantly simple loping arpeggio that distils the hardest, most primal elements of the blues into pure rock. But I don't really think the weird psychedelic freak-out that comprises the middle of the song has aged that well.

Most of the songs on this album are firmly rooted in the blues, even if it's Zeppelin's trademark overblown, expanded, thunderous version of the blues. Sometimes this works extremely well ("Whole Lotta Love", "Heartbreaker") and sometimes it doesn't ("The Lemon Song", which I don't much care for even though it has a cool riff). What's really interesting, though, is the move into, I guess I'll say "softer" territory, although even the ballads on this album rock pretty hard. "What Is and What Should Never Be" features a delicate flanged vocal and jazzy elements which contrast beautifully with the heavy chorus. "Thank You" is the pretty, stoned-out power ballad that every pretty, stoned-out power ballad wants to be when it grows up. And "Ramble On" is not only great musically, but introduces Tolkien into the classic rock lexicon. At first it just sounds like a cool song about someone looking for love, but then Plant starts warbling about Gollum and it starts to seem like this is actually a song from the perspective of a Ranger of Middle Earth. 

The lyrics are interesting on this album. Plant stills wails the blues, but he also shows a move towards the quasi-mystical High Fantasy prettiness that makes up a lot more of Zeppelin's catalogue than most people seem to remember. So you have something as simple and beautiful as "Thank You" contrasting with "The Lemon Song", in which Plant asks a woman to squeeze his lemon till the juice runs down his leg. Then there's "Whole Lotta Love", in which Plant promises to give the listener every inch of his love. Pretty risqué. 

I suppose I should mention the rhythm section. John Bonham cements himself here as probably the best drummer in the history of rock, while at the same time wasting everyone's time with the rather unimpressive solo that makes-up the bulk of "Moby Dick". John Paul Jones is an extremely nifty bass player, and his keyboard contribution on "Thank You" is just beautiful. Put them together and you have a rock solid foundation for Plant's vocal wanderings and Page's restless guitar work. It's kind of amazing that four people could meet and click so well musically. They haven't quite reached their peak on II, but there are several career highlights here, and the bulk of the record more than makes up for duds like "Living Loving Maid". Sometimes their experimentalism gets the better of them, for example on the largely pointless "Moby Dick", which is not the awesome song about Moby Dick which I really wish Zeppelin had written, but instead a drum solo bookended by a kind of cool riff. And it seems kind of silly to me to bury the totally rocking bulk of "Bring It On Home" between two muddy patches of faux-blues nonsense. But really, I'm not complaining about an album that features songs like "Heartbreaker" and "Ramble On". This is an incredibly fun album, and I've listened to it half a dozen times in the last few days. It's not perfect, but the risks taken here more often than not pay off in spades. 

The Band - The Band (September 1969)

1. Across the Great Divide

2. Rag Mama Rag

3. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down*

4. When You Awake

5. Up on Cripple Creek*

6. Whispering Pines*

7. Jemima Surrender

8. Look Out Cleveland

9. Jawbone

10. The Unfaithful Servant

11. King Harvest (Has Surely Come)

*****

I found Music from Big Pink to be both beautiful and frustrating. It was unique for its time, but the lyrics were a bit confused and vague and some of the experiments didn't really work. Still, it was a brilliant album and I doubted the Band would be able to top it. As it turns out, I was wrong. The Band does everything Music from Big Pink did, but better; and it has quite a few new tricks to surprise the listener.

Normally, I find listening to these albums multiple times a bit of a chore. I think I'm on my fourth or fifth listen of The Band, and I still haven't tired of it. The sound and approach of this album is so complex, deep and layered that there's something new to like every time you listen to it. The music is deeply experimental and retains the debut's woozy charm, but there's also a much more commercial sound to it - there are genuine pop songs here, even if they're pretty odd by 1969 standards. More than anything, this is what I term one of those "Aha!" albums. When I first heard Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' Greatest Hits, I suddenly realised their music was the origin of so much stuff that I love. I won't say that I love all the music that The Band inspired, but it's pretty clearly the source from which so much 70s rock flows. I mean, I can't imagine Pretzel Logic or the Eagles existing without it, for example. 

The sound is hard to describe, really. The band are continuing their fusion of classic country and rock with soul, and even throw a bit of funk in. A good example is "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)", which is a soul-funk song about the unionisation of farmers. At the other end of the spectrum you have the utterly brilliant "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", a heart-breaking folk rock song about a poor Southern farmer at the tail end of the American Civil War, trying to make sense of his life and the the loss of his brother in combat. It's not really the sort of song that would get much traction these days, because it's actually complicated thematically and requires you to think a bit to realise it's not glorifying the Old South. But it is a beautiful song, the sort of thing that sounds like a genuine artefact of the Civil War despite being written in the 60s by a Canadian. It also shows how far The Band had come as lyricists - the metaphysical balderdash that hurt Big Pink so much is replaced by intelligent lyrics about real issues, full of wit, compassion and warmth. 

I haven't heard the Band's later work, but I have little doubt this is their peak. Unfortunately after this album tensions would begin to mount in the group, and several of the members would slide into heroin addiction. I still intend to look into their music, though. Not being able to match the brilliance of The Band is hardly surprising. It really is a great album - by turns funny, sad, wistful and rocking. The mixture of soul and country is brilliant, and there are so many odd little moments to love - the fiddle intro to "Rag Mama Rag", the sudden fade out on "When You Awake", the funky keyboards on "King Harvest". You can put it on in the background, or sit and listen to it carefully on headphones, and either way it's a rewarding experience. I'm really glad I heard it, as discoveries like this make doing this project worthwhile. 

155. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin (January 1969)

1. Good Times Bad Times*

2. Babe I'm Gonna Leave You

3. You Shook Me

4. Dazed and Confused*

5. Your Time Is Gonna Come

6. Black Mountain Side

7. Communication Breakdown*

8. I Can't Quit You Baby

9. How Many More Times

****

Homer Simpson once quipped that Jimmy Page was "the greatest thief of Black American music of all time". This is kind of true, but it's worth noting that back in the late 60s British bands engaging in borderline copyright-infringing reworkings of old blues songs was a pretty common thing. And Page didn't just rip off Black people - he ripped off Jeff Beck's version of "You Shook Me" and straight-up stole the foundations of "Dazed and Confused". In any case, I don't know that that line of reasoning is especially productive. Whatever his sources, Page's approach was ground-breaking and unique. I can't imagine anyone preferring Beck's version of "You Shook Me" (though, to be honest, I don't much care for either version). And "Dazed and Confused" is one of those songs that pretty much rewrote the rules of popular music. Without it there'd simply be no heavy metal. Or at the very least no Black Sabbath. 

65 years later, the idea of skull-crushingly heavy riff-based stadium rock is pretty old hat. The genre's been celebrated, buried and resurrected any number of times over the years. But Zeppelin endure through it all, for the simple fact that they rock so fucking hard. Yes, Robert Plant's lyrics are, at this early point, not overly complex and frankly rather misogynistic. And he hasn't really learned to control his voice yet. But putting that aside, you have three of the finest instrumentalists in the history of popular music backing him up. And best of all, these guys can all play brilliantly, but they're not too proud to play dumb when it's called for. So you have immediate, ultra-rocking riffs backed up by a pounding rhythm section, but you also have blistering, technically dazzling solos and forays into gentle, complex folk and psychedelia. 

This is not my favourite Led Zeppelin album, mind. Of course that's IV. And truth be told, I find it difficult to sit through any of their albums except for IV and Houses of the Holy. But Led Zeppelin is a pretty kickass album. The eclecticism for which the band are famous is already present, and so you get a good mix of heavy rock with folk and even Indian influences. But there's also a simplicity and rawness to the album - probably attributable to the brief time and low budget of the recording, as well as the fact that most of these songs were worked-out live before hand and so tend to reflect one of their sets. "Dazed and Confused" is, I think, the only song here that can really stand alongside their later classics, but it's one hell of a brilliant song and worth the price of admission alone. The "so dumb it's brilliant" riff on "Communication Breakdown" is another highlight, and "How Many More Times" is a ferocious workout that highlights all the band's strengths (and gets pretty funky, too).

What really sets this album apart from its peers is the approach. Plenty of bands had rocked really damned hard before Led Zeppelin, but none in quite this way. The incorporation of so many different forms of music into a cohesive sound, rather than diluting the impact of the music, resulted in something incredibly immediate and thrilling. I'm actually looking forward to revisiting the first few Led Zeppelin albums, as I suspect I may find myself enjoying them a lot more than I did previously - especially coming to them from behind, as it were, with a better knowledge of just what preceded them and how they fit into the history of rock. It's fun to discover new music, but it's also fun to rediscover bands and albums you never gave a fair shake in the first place.

154. Quicksilver Messenger Service - Happy Trails (March 1969)

1. Who Do You Love Suite -

I. Who Do You Love (Part One)

II. When Do You Love

III. Where Do You Love

IV. How Do You Love

V. Which Do You Love

VI. Who Do You Love (Part 2)

2. Mona

3. Maiden of the Cancer Moon

4. Calvary

5. Happy Trails

**1/2

Does a twenty minute long exploratory jazz-acid reworking of the Bo Diddley classic "Who Do You Love" sound like a good time to you? If so, I strongly recommend Happy Trails. Personally, though, I kind of think this album is a waste of time.

I think I would have enjoyed the "Who Do You Love" suite a bit more if I wasn't intimately familiar with the original. As it was, I couldn't help thinking of how much I liked Diddley's version and how much the Quicksilver Messenger Service got wrong with their interpretation of it. The original is spooky, fun, sexy, concise and a rhythmic monster. The suite is a long, jammy exercise in so-so guitar heroics, anchored by some extremely unimpressive drum work. I mean, Bo Diddley is considered one of the fathers of punk rock. The Quicksilver Messenger Service are a freeform acid-jazz-rock combo built around twenty minute guitar solos and feedback experiments.

After a few listens, I was able to shed most of my preconceptions and appreciate Happy Trails for what it is, instead of what I wish it would be. And I have to admit - there are a few moments of real beauty here, and the musicians have some pretty impressive chops. But this really just isn't my cup of tea. And it's not just the Diddley covers. The two originals that close out the album are sort of pointless. I've bemoaned the fact several times, but I think you really need to be stoned to appreciate this music, and I'm not about to risk another psychotic break just so that I can properly appreciate "Maiden of the Cancer Moon".

I can see why people like this stuff. I think the problem is I sit and listen to these sorts of albums through, when they're really intended as party soundtracks. As background music to a swinging party, Happy Trails would be excellent. I tried listening to it drunk once while on the computer dicking around, and I didn't mind it. But my last listen was twenty minutes ago, at 11 in the morning, stone cold sober and preparing to go to work in a few hours. Not really an environment conducive to getting all groovy, to use the parlance of the time. 

Happy Trails is a solid album, and its approach points the way forward for a lot of jammy, exploratory music. I can definitely see why people liked it at the time - it manages to go to to some very strange places while remaining pretty accessible, and we haven't really had much like it in the Book at this point. Doing this project, I've found that I'm no great fan of the San Francisco sound, but for a lot of people in the 60s and onward this album must have been a window into a world, and a legendary scene, which a lot of people idolised and still mythologise and pine for to this day. Then there's the fact that this album's approach - taking classic songs and reworking them into long, unrecognisable forms - would be pretty popular through the early 70s until punk came along and remind everyone how to rock. Happy Trails manages to strike a solid balance between direct rock and proggy excess, and I kind of admire the Quicksilver Messenger Service for that. I just really doubt I'll be listening to this album again any time soon.

153. The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground (March 1969)

 

1. Candy Says*

2. What Goes On

3. Some Kinda Love

4. Pale Blue Eyes*

5. Jesus

6. Beginning to See the Light

7. I'm Set Free

8. That's the Story of My Life

9. The Murder Mystery

10. After Hours*

****1/2

If you're the sort of person who believes in "bests" then this probably isn't the best Velvet Underground album. The mix of in-your-face experimentalism with classic pop on ...& Nico, and the pure aural insanity of White Light/White Heat, tend to attract a lot more attention. Loaded, on the other hand, is just so damned accessible - I mean, it has "Rock & Roll" and "Sweet Jane" on it! But the older I get, the more I like The Velvet Underground best. Reed and co knuckled down and tried to write an album of commercial pop rock while still retaining the experimentalism of their earlier work. The result is an album of mostly clean guitars, containing mellow rockers and gentle ballads, where the sonic freak outs of the first two albums are twisted into more conventional song structures. It's an astonishing and truly ground-breaking album, but in a very understated and amiable way. The odd rhythms are still there, but slowed down and used to anchor beautiful melodies. The guitars are still weird and innovative, but they twist and wind around one another rather than bludgeoning you with white noise. And the lyrics are some of the best Reed ever wrote. "Candy Says" is a heart-breaking song from the perspective of a transitioning transsexual, and I kind of agree with Reed that it's probably the best song he ever wrote. "Pale Blue Eyes", another of my very favourites, is an incredibly mature love song about adultery and learning to accept that you can't always hold on to the one you love. And "After Hours", featuring the fragile, childlike vocals of drummer Moe Tucker, is the perfect closer - a 1920s-tinged number about turning away from the world and finding solace in isolation, even as you come to terms with the fact that it's really not what you want.

The only real misstep on the album is "The Murder Mystery". Reed claimed that it was positioned there as a cold rebuff to the story of personal growth told by the preceding eight songs. Personally, though, it just kind of sounds like an attempt to out-weird John Cale, who had left the group acrimoniously prior to the album. I mean, this song has a cool riff, and at first it's kind of fun in a "what the hell am I listening to?" kind of way, but it goes on far too long and getting to the end is something of a chore. Unsurprisingly, Reed himself apparently considered it kind of a failure. It serves its purpose on the album thematically, I suppose, and makes the appearance of "After Hours" twice as welcome, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. 

So yeah. Maybe they released "better" albums, but if I could only keep one it would probably be this. 

152. Elvis Presley - From Elvis in Memphis (June 1969)

1. Wearin' That Loved On Look

2. Only the Strong Survive

3. I'll Hold You in My Heart (Till I Can Hold You in My Arms)

4. Long Black Limousine

5. It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin'

6. I'm Movin' On

7. Power of My Love*

8. Gentle on My Mind

9. After Loving You

10. True Love Travels on a Gravel Road

11. Any Day Now*

12. In the Ghetto*

***1/2

I've never been a member of the cult of Elvis. I like some of his songs fine, and I've more or less enjoyed the Elvis albums I've had to listen to for this book, but I pretty much never listen to his music (the only real exceptions being that I have "Heartbreak Hotel" in my liked songs on Spotify, and his Christmas album gets dusted off once a year). From Elvis in Memphis is a very good album, and I can certainly see why so many people hold it in such high regard. But the gushing reviews kind of baffle me. I guess Elvis and I just don't click. 

Possibly this is because this is big, bold Sixties soul music. It's an excellent example of the genre, but as I've said on numerous occasions that's not really a genre I much care for. All of which makes it sound like I'm ragging on this album, but I'm really not. It's a perfectly nice listen, and for Elvis fans it must have been a real treat after watching him spend the 60s releasing dreadful film after dreadful film and mostly recording pop schmaltz. I'd say this is, of the three Elvis albums in the Book, easily the best one; and if Elvis had recorded more material of this calibre he might actually deserve to be called "King of Rock & Roll".

Still, this is in many ways a standard pop album - a bunch of pretty good songs, mostly covers, with one or two truly brilliant songs thrown in. And really, "The Power of My Love" is pretty awesome - a funky, down and dirty behemoth of a song that gives Elvis a chance to be genuinely sexy for the first time in years. Then there's the pretty ballad "Any Day Now", and the touching "After Loving You" - I know a lot of people would disagree with me, but I'll always maintain Elvis' real strength lay in pretty ballads.

This is something I think is proved by the final song on the album. Really, "In the Ghetto" had to be a closer. It's very much the odd song out. For the rest of its running time this is a fun album of well-played R&B, soul and country. "In the Ghetto", on the other hand, is a very pretty and very bleak number chronicling the short, sad life of a child born into poverty, who grows up to be a car thief and winds-up getting shot by the police. Now, I love this song, and I always have. When I was a kid in the late 90s, I lived in a podunk town in the country. Our mum used to take us to the pub (kids were allowed in the general area, but not the main bar), and my little sister and I would drink fire engines, play darts and pool, and hassle mum into giving us money to play songs on the jukebox. I remember our three favourites were "Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog", "We've Gotta Get Outta This Place", and "In the Ghetto". I was captivated by the sadness of the song, and the way it managed to tell a story in such a moving and well-constructed way. I guess I've always been kind of morbid. 

Anyway, this was a fun listen, and a must for Elvis fans. Even an unbeliever like me really enjoyed it. I can't imagine how much someone who genuinely loves the King's mush-mouthed warbling would like it. I guess in many ways Elvis' story is a bit of a sad one - a story of wasted potential and unmet expectations. He had it in him to be truly brilliant, but ended up being forced to grind out a load of crap. From Elvis in Memphis offers a glimpse of what might have been, even if it wound up being too little too late.