66. The Kinks - Face to Face (1966)

1. Party Line
2. Rosie Won't You Please Come Home
3. Dandy
4. Too Much on My Mind
5. Session Man
6. Rainy Day in June
7. House in the Country
8. Holiday in Waikiki
9. Most Exclusive Residence for Sale
10. Fancy
11. Little Miss Queen of Darkness
12. You're Lookin' Fine
13. Sunny Afternoon
14. I'll Remember

The Kinks: one of the few bands that actually truly mattered during the British Invasion. Unfortunately, by the time they began turning into a truly great band, most Americans had already stopped caring. That suited the Kinks just fine, though, because if there's one thing I've noticed about this album, it's actually British. I know, half the damn list is British, but since rock music came from the States, most of their music was trying to emulate the American sound. The Kinks decide 'Sod that!' and went off to write what is called one of the earliest concept albums in rock music. It's a pretty simplistic concept (character sketches of ordinary British people), but it does the trick.


The Kinks certainly have changed quite a bit from their power-chord abusing beginnings. These songs, while they aren't quite the ultra-constructed music of Pet Sounds, have stuff like random sound effects and a surprisingly large amount of harpsichord. Which, by the way, is played by Nicky Hopkins, who appears on quite a lot of these albums, and he even gets a song written about him called 'Session Man', which has to be the first rock song on this list to satirize an aspect of the music industry.


There's a lot of good and witty material on here, as you would expect from a record with song titles like 'Most Exclusive Residence For Sale'. 'Sunny Afternoon', the big hit here, is a wonderful satirical barb at the upper crust of British society (they get brought up a lot on this album. I guess Ray Davies wasn't making as much money as he'd have liked) that totally turns Taxman on its head. 'Dandy' was rather interesting because for years I only knew the Herman's Hermits version, but here we have the original in all its rough-around-the-edges glory.


Basically, the Kinks invented Britpop. Years and years before it actually became popular. While the songs aren't quite as fully realized as they would be within a year or so, this album is a bold step in an exciting new direction. 8/10

65. The Monks - Black Monk Time (1966)

1. Monk Time
2. Shut Up
3. Boys Are Boys And Girls Are Choice
4. Higgle-Dy-Piggle-Dy
5. I Hate You
6. Oh How To Do Now
7. Complication
8. We Do Wie Du
9. Drunken Maria
10. Love Came Tumblin' Down
11. Blast Off
12. That's My Girl

 IT'S MONK TIME!!!!

This album is something else right here. It's another one of those lost classics of the time that would only become influential years and years later, when weirdos like The Fall listened to it. As worn out as this cliche is, this album sounded like nothing else at the time. It's intensely rhythmic, loud, and bizarre in a way that most people besides the Fugs and Frank Zappa couldn't even think of in 1966.

These guys were a group of American army folks stationed in Germany in the mid-60s who decided to form a band. At first they were your stand,ard '60s garage band with the simplistic music and the endless Louie Louie covers, but then they turned into something far, far different. I suppose they figured that since they obviously weren't going to become a massive success in the English-speaking world by playing to Germans, they could experiment as much as they wanted to. The Germans just wanted loud beat music, they weren't going to care about the lyrical content! As a result we get lyrics like 'Why do you kill all those kids in Vietnam!? Mad Viet Cong! My brother died in Vietnam! James Bond, who was he?' screamed in an absolutely manic voice.

The band also chose to experiment musically as well. These guys  have the loudness and the rhythmic attack of the Sonics, but much more proficient in their musicianship. There's a lot of great organ solos on here. Oh, did I mention that one of the members plays a banjo? And every instrument is fuzzed up to maximum potential. The Sonics brought the loud and simplistic playing to punk, but these guys gave it something far more important: an attitude. 9/10

64.Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde (1966)

 

1. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
2. Pledging My Time
3. Visions Of Johanna
4. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later)
5. I Want You
6. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
7. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
8. Just Like A Woman
9. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)
10. Temporary Like Achilles
11. Absolutely Sweet Marie
12. Fourth Time Around
13. Obviously Five Believers
14. Sad-Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands

In which Bob Dylan goes beyond the impossible and records an album even better than Highway 61 Revisited. You know, the one I already gave a ten? It's like he shat out great songs during this period. This album represents the ultimate flourishing of his rock period, and was far too great to fit onto one album, so we have here the very first double album in rock history. It's characteristically filled with surreal imagery and historical characters swordfighting or whatever Dylan feels like going on about.

The album begins with 'Rainy Day Women #12 and 35', a booze-and-weed fueled party that happens to contain a song. It's such a joyously discordant track that I'm amazed that it managed to become a hit. From there, the album leaps from strength to strength in an astonishing 70 minutes. There's all sorts of moods and emotions conjured up by the bizarre imagery, as well as the skilled performances by the players on this album. Who woulda thought that a bunch of country session musicians could help make one of the all time great rock albums?

The more quiet tunes on the album, like 'Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands' and 'Visions of Johanna' have this sort of atmosphere that I can't really put a finger on, but I'm pretty sure it's magic.You know, the stuff that makes magnets and rainbows work? Yeah, it works on Dylan songs too. And the lyrics are so great that I will not shut up about them for the entire review. Even 'I Want You', with its incredibly lazy chorus and catchy melody that's probably the closest this record comes to a pop song, drops shit like 'The guilty undertaker sighs, the lonely organ grinder cries, the silver saxophones say I should refuse you' in the first friggin' line. We've come a long way from 'I Want To Hold Your Hand'.


I could meticulously describe each of these songs in detail and really get into what makes them all masterpieces, but this album doesn't really need that. It's one of those masterpieces that doesn't really grip you as a masterpiece at first listen, but then eventually it creeps up on you and all of a sudden you've got more Dylan albums than you know what to do with. 10/10

63. The Byrds - Fifth Dimension (1966)

1. 5D (Fifth Dimension)
2. Wild Mountain Thyme
3. Mr Spaceman
4. I See You
5. What's Happening?!?!
6. I Come And Stand At Every Door
7. Eight Miles High
8. Hey Joe (Where You Gonna Go)
9. Captain Soul
10. John Riley
11. 242 Foxtrot (The Lear Jet Song)

In which the Byrds finally enter the exciting world of psychedelia. Except only slightly, really. It's more like they're dipping their feet in. Fortunately, this resulted in one of the true psych classics, 'Eight Miles High'. With its weirdo-12 string guitar solos (apparently an attempt to emulate Ravi Shankar, as well as John Coltrane), fuzzed up bass and ethereal harmonies, this song was nothing short of a sensation. Except it didn't make quite as big a splash as it should've, mostly due to the fact that everyone thought it was about drugs.


Unfortunately, after the recording of that song, Gene Clark, the band's main songwriter up to that point, left the group. The other Byrds then had to record the rest of this album without him, and the result is an album with 4 covers and an instrumental. It's not as bad as you might think, though! 


The general Byrds sound is still around, with the harmonies and the endless jangling, particularly on the almost-hits '5D (Fifth Dimension)' and the quirky 'Mr. Spaceman', which sounds like a precursor to their later country-rock direction. However, they change up their sound a bit on this record, adding strings to a couple of songs, and even the sound of a jet plane on '2-4-2 Foxtrot', which is the weird awkward cousin amongst the dysfunctional family of this album.

Not all of the songs are successful, though. Their version of 'Hey Joe' isn't exactly gonna make people stop listening to the Jimi Hendrix version, and 'Captain Soul' is nothing to write home about.


Overall, this album is good, but flawed. A bold step forward for the Byrds, but not a step fully made. 7.5/10

62. Fred Neil - Fred Neil (1966)

1. Dolphins
2. I've Got a Secret (Didn't We Shake Sugaree)
3. That's the Bag I'm In
4. Badi-Da
5. Faretheewell (Fred's Tune)
6. Everybody's Talkin'
7. Everything Happens
8. Sweet Cocaine
9. Green Rocky Road
10. Cynicrustpetefredjohn Raga

After 2 mindblowing game changing albums in a row, the list decides to throw me a curveball and give me an album with no pretensions towards fame and glory. There's no intricate studio wizardry here, just a collection of pleasant folk-rock tunes. 

Pleasant is the perfect word for this album, really. It's almost dreamy in the way it moves along at such a peaceful, easygoing pace. This is definitely not the Bob Dylan sort of folk rock. It's a lot more Byrds-y, but without all the harmonies and popular appeal. The only thing on this album that approaches popularity is 'Everybody's Talkin'', which would gain far more fame when it was covered by Harry Nilsson for the soundtrack of the film Midnight Cowboy.


My favorite song on here would have to be 'The Dolphins', a nice laid-back cut with shimmering guitars and a good opportunity to show off Fred's resonating deep voice. It's a nice change from the not exactly tuneful vocal stylings of one Mr. Dylan, that's for sure!


The sore thumb on this album would have to be the rather enjoyably titled 'Cynicrustpetefredjohn Raga', a jam session mixing folk and Indian music. The result is not quite like anything you've heard before. It's not bad, but it definitely doesn't fit in with all the blissed out folk rock.


Unlike the grand titans of Revolver and Pet Sounds, this album was not a success and remains largely obscure. It did influence a number of artists though, including Tim Buckley, who'll be showing up sooner or later. This may have seemed a bit disappointing after all the critically acclaimed masterpieces, but I'd take this over Ella Fitzgerald any day. 8/10

61. The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds (1966)

1. Wouldn't It Be Nice
2. You Still Believe
3. That's Not Me
4. Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)
5. I'm Waiting for the Day
6. Let's Go Away for Awhile
7. Sloop John B.
8. God Only Knows
9. I Know There's an Answer
10. Here Today
11. I Just Wasn't Made For These Times
12. Pet Sounds
13. Caroline, No

First Revolver and now this? This list is trying to spoil me or something!

This album is fairly intimidating to review, actually. Over half the Western world are convinced that this album is the greatest album to ever album. If you take a glance at acclaimedmusic.net (a very handy site if you're a list obsessed freak like me) it is number one with a bullet. What does one say to such unrelenting praise? One joins in enthusiastically, I suppose, because this really is a good album.

Pet Sounds is the crowning achievement of Brian Wilson's break from touring. Each song is ornately crafted to the point where you're hearing new things practically every time you play this album. I gave the Beatles credit for their increased usage of studio musicians to expand their sound on Revolver, but this album tops that easily. There's nothing but studio musicians, the Beach Boys barely play their instruments at all, and if they do you can't hear them under the 50 studio musicians playing on each track (seriously, look at the credits for this thing!).

The end result is one weird-sounding motha. While the Beach Boys have always been a pop-oriented band, you're never quite too sure who they're trying to appeal to here. While there's catchy radio hits sprinkled in here, most of the songs sound far too...spiritual or elaborate or whatever it is to get much popularity. There's some weird sounds thrown into the mix as well, such as the bicycle horn in 'You Still Believe In Me' or that wonderful bass harmonica/banjo interlude in 'I Know There's an Answer'. No matter how weird the instruments get, they always have this ethereal beauty to them that you're constantly left wondering "How the hell did he do that?"

The vocal harmonies are, as always, top notch. One need only listen to 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' to be convinced of that. The nifty thing about this album is while it prominently features harmonies (what Beach Boys record wouldn't?) but it doesn't rely on them. Three of the most beautiful tracks on here-'God Only Knows', 'Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)' and 'Caroline, No' have little to no harmony singing at all. Sometimes just a simple vocal melody is all you need.

While I certainly don't think it's the greatest thing in music ever, it is definitely a very well-crafted album. Some of these songs are so beautiful that I don't even feel like hating Mike Love! 10/10
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60. The Beatles - Revolver (1966)

1. Taxman
2. Eleanor Rigby
3. I'm Only Sleeping
4. Love You To
5. Here There and Everywhere
6. Yellow Submarine
7. She Said She Said
8. Good Day Sunshine
9. And Your Bird Can Sing
10. For No One
11. Dr Robert
12. I Want To Tell You
13. Got To Get You Into My Life
14. Tomorrow Never Knows

Wow, another year already? Stuff starts moving at a lightning pace once you hit the mid Sixties!
And so are the Beatles, for that matter. After the artistic triumph of Rubber Soul, this album was released a mere 9 months later and proved to be an even greater triumph. This album, from beginning to end, is a serious work of art that covers almost all of the sounds that pop/rock consisted of at the time in its breadth. It's the first album on the list to dabble with that grand old '60s cliche, psychedelic rock. An extraordinarily ambitious work, Revolver marked the fruition of a new direction for the Beatles. By writing songs with more complex arrangements that made heavy use of studio musicians, they would essentially guarantee their future success as a studio band. In fact, most of these songs were totally impossible for the Beatles to play live in those days, so it's no surprise that this year was the last they would tour.

All 3 of the songwriters grow in leaps and bounds here, including (much to John and Paul's surprise, I imagine) George Harrison, who actually gets the first track on the album with 'Taxman', a sneering critique of taxes in the UK. Hooray for welfare states!

'I Want to Tell You' is an interesting enough song with its more personal lyrics, but by far the biggest break from tradition is 'Love You To', an Indian-influenced pop song with sitars and tablas a-plenty with lyrics that sound like stereotypical trippy '60s sentiments nowadays (Make love all day long! Make love singing songs!). Makes me want to break out the beads and dashikis. Perhaps the first rock song to break from traditional Western songwriting structure. Good on it!

Lennon, by my estimate, had spent much of the latter part of 1965 and '66 on LSD, and it shows in his songs. Whether lazing the day way in 'I'm Only Sleeping' which has some really neat reversed guitar, or questioning the need for material possessions in 'And Your Bird Can Sing', you can get a glimpse of his drugged-out state of mind at the time. However, none of these songs can prepare you for the acid trip that is 'Tomorrow Never Knows'. With walls of manic distorted tape loops bouncing all over the place, the constant droning melody, the constant frenzied drumbeat, and the lyrics inspired by LSD guru Timothy Leary, this song sounded like nothing else at the time. As much of a cliche as this is, this song really was quite ahead of its time by a considerable amount of years. Popular music wouldn't catch up to this until the Chemical Brothers came close to ripping it off 30 years later.

And after that mindblowing track (well, there's a reason it's the last one!), it's up to McCartney to keep conventional. This album is quite the step up for him, actually. He was more and more influenced by classical music, as best shown in the rather depressing couplet of 'Eleanor Rigby' and 'For No One', both featuring classical instruments heavily in their arrangements. The sharp, dramatic strings on the former and the mournful French horn solo on the latter enhance the desolate tone of the words to both songs, whether illustrating the tragedy of loneliness or that of lost love.

As usual, Ringo gets the worst song. 'Yellow Submarine' is probably the best he's gotten so far, with its whimsical children's song feel and its innovative use of sound effects. Don't worry, Ringo, at least you have all that acting talent to fall back on!

I'd just like to invite you to go back and listen to With The Beatles again so that you can realize that it was recorded less than 3 years before this album. Say what you want about these guys, but they probably had the most fascinating and dramatic examples of musical evolution within such a small span of years. Gone would be the frantic touring and constant use of filler to make up hastily-released records at a rate of 2 (or more!) per year. From now on, the Beatles would do whatever the hell they felt like, and influenced bands all across the world to do the same.

Shit just got real. 10/10

59. The Who - My Generation (1965)

1. Out In The Street
2. I Don't Mind
3. The Good's Gone
4. La La La Lies
5. Much Too Much
6. My Generation
7. The Kids Are Alright
8. Please, Please, Please
9. It's Not True
10. I'm A Man
11. A Legal Matter
12. The Ox

Enter the third great titan of the British Invasion. The Who changed so much throughout their career that it's funny to listen to their debut album and marvel at how unambitious it is compared to the legendary classics they would soon be recording. That's only with the benefit of hindsight, though. By the standards of this year, this album was fairly ambitious, with its completely wild sound (just listen to those drums!) and the fact that a mere 3 songs were covers-quite a feat in those days. Pete Townshend wastes no time in establishing his lyrical voice, and you can already hear evidence of the trademark wit that he would develop over the years.

The covers tend to drag the album down a bit though, particularly the James Brown songs. I said this before on the Rolling Stones debut, I'll say it again here: Do not try to emulate soul legends on your first album if you are white. It won't really end well.

The originals are really something, though. Most everyone knows the title track by now, with its famous stuttering delivery, the bass solo, and the fact that "Hope I die before I get old" sounds that much funnier 45 years on. Keith Moon's drumming at the end of the track is enough to make you run for cover. It's even worse on 'The Ox', a furious instrumental that has everyone playing on overdrive and Pete Townshend doing God knows what to that poor guitar of his. Sometimes it feels like there's more protesting howls of feedback than actual guitar solos on this album!

Amidst all this sound and fury, there's actually a good number of cheerful pop songs. 'The Kids Are Alright' is Beatlesque in its upbeat, carefree catchiness. My personal favorite is 'A Legal Matter', a charming song about divorcing your pregnant wife 'cause you're bored (I told you Pete had a sense of humor!) . The harmonies aren't quite as full as the Beatles', but the music has a bite that the Beatles wouldn't be able to match until 'Helter Skelter'.

This album set the terms for what a proper debut album should be: Unique, proud, laying down a distinct sound, yet showing a glimpse at the glories to come. 8/10

58. Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited (1965)

1. Like A Rolling Stone
2. Tombstone Blues
3. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
4. From A Buick 6
5. Ballad Of A Thin Man
6. Queen Jane Approximately
7. Highway 61 Revisited
8. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
9. Desolation Row

Perhaps rock music's first masterpiece? Quite possibly. I suppose it'd be more fun if I defied expectations and trashed albums like this in the name of slaughtering the sacred cows of rock, but this is a cow I'm quite happy to continue feeding grass until it belches the ozone away for all I care. This is by far the most literate album of the decade, namedropping all sorts of historical figures and authors into the most bizarre situations. But what makes this album truly amazing is how, for the first time on a Dylan album, the music becomes just as important as the lyrics. He's got a great band here, who take the blues-rock songs from Dylan's last album and expand on them. And I do mean expand, there's got to be at least 3 keyboard tracks on most of these songs.

Quite a lot of words have been written about 'Like A Rolling Stone'. It's a testament to the spirit of the '60s that this 6 minute vicious diatribe of a song hit #2 on the charts, by far the longest single released at the time. It's a vehicle for Dylan's acidic bitterness, and I like to imagine it came as quite a shock to all those well dressed teenagers listening to their Dave Clark 5 and Herman's Hermits. How's the real world taste?

'Tombstone Blues' is another frantic blues-rock tune with magnificent playing from the band, especially guitarist Mike Bloomfield. His raw soloing only highlights the bizarre lyrics, with such winners like 'The sun's not yellow, it's CHICKEN!' If that isn't lyrical skill, I don't know what is.

For me, none of the lyrics can match the sheer fury and scorn of 'Ballad of a Thin Man'. This song is nothing short of intense. From the dramatic crashing piano chords at the beginning to the swirling organ part that seems to match the lyrics for emotional weight, this song is relentless. The Mr. Jones referred to throughout the song may or may not be a real person, but here he takes the place of every conventional square that's ever existed, and he's sent through a nightmare cavalcade of freaks and oddities while being absolutely skewered by Dylan. A lot of people don't really like Bob Dylan due to his voice, but it's a testament to his singing that he makes lines like "You're a cow, give me some milk or else go home!" sound positively menacing.

'Highway 61 Revisited' is a nice jolly tune that relates the story of Abraham and Isaac (Charming fellow, that God chap) and then just gets weirder and weirder. "I got forty red white and blue shoe strings, and a thousand telephones that don't ring" is a problem that I hope never to experience. He even manages to sneak in social commentary in between all the Dadaism.

'Desolation Row' is notable for being what might be the first rock song to exceed 10 minutes, during which we're taken through a circus of historical figures and god knows what else. It's not every song that has Cinderella, T.S. Elliot and Ezra Pound sharing a stage, after all. The bizarre onslaught of imagery makes me feel like I'm reading Naked Lunch or something.

Listening to the masterful lyrics and the spirited musicianship on this album nowadays makes me wonder how all those folk purists back in '65 could've possibly hated this album. Those poor, deluded fools. 10/10

57. The Byrds - Mr. Tambourine Man (1965)

1. Mr Tambourine Man
2. I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better
3. Spanish Harlem Incident
4. You Won't Have To Cry
5. Here Without You
6. Bells Of Rhymney
7. All I Really Want To Do
8. I Knew I'd Want You
9. It's No Use
10. Don't Doubt Yourself Babe
11. Chimes Of Freedom
12. We'll Meet Again

While Bob Dylan was out there blowing everyone's minds by setting intelligent folk lyrics to a rockin' beat, the Byrds were doing the same thing, but with far more pop appeal. They're hardly sterling originals, though. The title of the record alone should warn you that Dylan's presence looms heavy over this record, and the band definitely don't distance themselves from this notion, because they stick in three more Dylan covers. Actually, over half of this album is cover songs, and some of them are just plain weird. 'Don't Doubt Yourself, Babe' has a distinct Bo Diddley beat and even his trademark tremolo-y guitar sound at the end, even though it's a Jackie DeShannon song. The old Pete Seeger song 'The Bells of Rhymney' is given a folk-rock update, giving us an insight into what the bells of Welsh churches think about when they're bored. It's got a guitar riff so apparently catchy that George Harrison would rip it off for 'If I Needed Someone'.

Oh, and they cover 'We'll Meet Again' by Vera Lynn for some weird reason. They must've just watched Dr. Strangelove and then run out of song ideas or something.

The Dylan covers are all fairly good work. You wouldn't expect something as lyrically obtuse as Bob Dylan's late '64-onwards period would make good pop song fodder, but the Byrds do a pretty good job with their harmonies and the ever constant jangling sound of the Rickenbacker 12 string guitar. Interestingly enough, the word 'jangling' is so widely accepted as a good term to describe the sound of a 12 string guitar that if I used any other word, I'd be swamped in hate mail. It's a tough lot, blogging.

'Mr. Tambourine Man' gets all the attention, as you would expect from a trans-Atlantic #1 hit title track. It's definitely a good deal catchier than the Dylan version, but not necessarily better. For one, it leaves only one verse of the original song intact, and doing that to any Dylan song is only gonna hurt you in the long run. The other three Dylan songs, all taken from Another Side of Bob Dylan, interestingly enough, suffer from a bit of sameness. They have a very distinctive sound, but it's not very diverse.

The originals, thankfully, sound a bit different from the rest. They're easy enough to identify because the lyrics, rather than relying on the surrealist imagery of Bob Dylan, cover the tried-and-true topic of the love song. They also all sound like Beatles songs, though I guess that's a given for any newly-formed rock band in 1965. The best original here would have to be 'I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better', which is a crackin' pop song.

A solid debut, all around. Sure, 4 Dylan covers is a bit much, but the idea that deep and intelligent lyrics could work equally well in a pop context as well as in a folk context is perhaps more important than any of the songs on here. 8/10

56. Bert Jansch - Bert Jansch (1965)

1. Strolling Down The Highway
2. Smokey River
3. Oh How Your Love Is Strong
4. I Have No Time
5. Finches
6. Veronica
7. Needle Of Death
8. Do You Hear Me Now
9. Rambling's Gonna Be The Death Of Me
10. Alice's Wonderland
11. Running From Home
12. Courting Blues
13. Casbah
14. Dreams Of Love
15. Angie

Time to quiet things down a bit with this album. With this we can finally get a glance at the English folk scene in all its glory. It's just Bert and his guitar here, because he's not a filthy sellout like Bob Dylan. Despite this minor setback, this is still a pretty interesting album, mainly because the guitar's the most interesting part of it.

Since I've heard so many albums that sound quite similar to this, particularly by Nick Drake, I wasn't exactly bowled over. It's the Seinfeld is Unfunny dilemma, I'm sure of it. The vocal songs are all pleasant enough, but they didn't really catch my ear save for Needle of Death, the first in what I'm sure is a long line of cautionary tales about heroin. You think it's bad now, Bert, but just wait until the rock set discovers it in 4 years!

There's a lot of instrumental tracks on here, but since the guitar playing is so intricate and ornately arranged they end being great songs than relegated to the filler pile. 'Angie' is particularly good, which is a nice change. The last song on the record is very rarely the best song.

Before this, the only thing I knew about this guy was that Jimmy Page totally ripped him off in 'Black Mountain Side' off Led Zeppelin's debut and got away with it partly because of Bert Jansch's lack of money and partly because the melody might count as traditional anyways. I suppose if Jimmy Page rips off your tune, you must be doing something right, at least. 7.5/10

55. The Beatles - Rubber Soul (1965)

1. Drive My Car
2. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
3. You Won't See Me
4. Nowhere Man
5. Think For Yourself
6. Word
7. Michelle
8. What Goes On
9. Girl
10. I'm Looking Through You
11. In My Life
12. Wait
13. If I Needed Someone
14. Run For Your Life

When we last saw the Beatles, they were still a generally happy-go-lucky foursome, ready to churn out boy-meets-girl hits for as long as they could get away with it. By the time this album came out, the Beatles had smoked weed with Dylan and even tried acid (though that won't come up in a big way 'til their next album). I mean, just look at that cover! What a buncha potheads.

This album is quite a big change for the Fab Four. It's widely acknowledged as the album where the Early Beatles end and the Later Beatles begin. Gone forever are the cover songs and the songs seemingly entirely made of pronouns. Here come the sitars and the eclecticism! The love songs aren't gone, of course, but they are handled in more mature and thought provoking ways that songs like 'She Love You' and 'From Me To You' just couldn't handle.

It's also the most musically diverse album the Beatles recorded so far. I can actually HEAR the bass, for one, a feat that had previously escaped the Beatles. And there's riffs everywhere! Where'd all the happy chords go?

And boy have there been improvements in the songwriting. George Harrison in particular has emerged from the shadows of John and Paul to write distinctive songs with personality. Hell, 'Think For Yourself' is positively bitchy, complete with an edgy fuzz bass part. And 'If I Needed Someone' has a guitar part totally lifted from 'The Bells of Rhymney' by the Byrds, but we'll get to that in a couple days.

Ringo keeps up the noble Beatles tradition of being given the worst song on the album to sing. Let's face it, 'What Goes On' is a pretty bland pseudo-country rock song that doesn't quite fit with all these other songs of growing complexity. Even this song is indicative of the future in some small way, as Ringo somehow managed to get some writing credit! We all know how that'd come in handy for his solo career, certainly...

So, it seems every Beatles album we've had so far has had John Lennon totally kicking ass and taking names in terms of songwriting, and Paul getting sort of overshadowed. It's not like his songs are bad, just not quite as good. 'Michelle', the obligatory sappy McCartney song that must be placed on every album, is one of his best. It manages to be cheesy and romantic without giving you diabetes.

'Drive My Car', on the other hand, is his best song on the album, with witty lyrics and an actual bass groove (inspired by Otis Redding's 'Respect', don't you know. It's always fun when the albums in this list start referring to each other).

John, as I mentioned earlier, has by far the most development here as a songwriter. 'Norwegian Wood' is not only John's first song attempting to tell a story, it's also the first rock song to feature that great psychedelic trope, the sitar. It's not played the way sitars are meant to be played, serving more as a peculiar sounding guitar to double the main riff of the song, but these auspicious beginnings would go a very long way in bringing non-Western musical influences into the ever-expanding language of rock.

'Girl' is Lennon at his most world-weary, and how. The deep intakes of breath during the chorus always makes me think of John smoking a joint while recording the song, which lends the track that certain hazy atmosphere. This song is a piece of work lyrically, with lines like 'Was she told when she was young that pain would lead to pleasure' serving as a veiled diatribe against the Catholic church. Pretty heavy shit for 1965.

'Nowhere Man' is mainly notable for completely doing away with the ever familiar love song. It's got this ethereal, dreamlike quality that John was so good at during his Beatles period, and killer harmonies. And to top it off, that 'ping!' noise at the end of the guitar solo is sublime. 'In My Life' tackles nostalgia, and does it quite effectively. The sped-up classical piano solo only serves to drive home the fact that the Beatles are growing up. Things will never be the same! 9/10

54. B.B. King - Live at the Regal (1965)

1. Everyday I Have The Blues
2. Sweet Little Angel
3. It's My Own Fault
4. How Blue Can You Get
5. Please Love Me
6. You Upset Me Baby
7. Worry Worry
8. Woke Up This Mornin'
9. You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now
10. Help The Poor

There sure are a lot more live albums in the early part of this list than I was expecting. And here I thought that the live album was invented by Peter Frampton in 1976 in a laboratory setting! Boy, is my face red!

Anyhow, here we get a live album of the blues caliber. We haven't heard from the blues since Muddy Waters' Newport concert back in 1960, and it seems even the blues has been hit by the changing spirit of the times. While Muddy's band stuck to traditional arrangements, B. B. King and his band change it up a bit, adding a horn section and playing anything from traditional slow blues to jumpin' juke joint blues to even some tracks that sound vaguely like a rumba or something. It's all very recognizably blues of course, the lyrics make that clear enough (A pleasant reminder to today's emo kids that you could whine about your problems musically for an entire set and STILL be thought of as a badass. Isn't the blues fun?), but it is not the blues you've heard over and over again, at least.

B. B. King is most assuredly a skilled performer as well as an entertainer. He talks a lot more than you'd expect from a live album this early, whether to lead into the next song or to reveal to the audience his secrets of love. It lends the record a more personal atmosphere, if only because most live albums tend to edit out most of the stage banter.

Oh, did I mention he's quite the guitar player? He really makes Lucille sing here, playing clean expressive solos with a hell of a tone. It's guitar playing more in the vein of Clapton or Stevie Ray Vaughan than the cruder, more earthy styles of Muddy Waters or Bo Diddley. Wow, that sure sounds racist! But all I'm trying to say is that B. B. is quite the innovative soloist. The first two minutes of 'Worry, Worry' are doubtlessly the finest on the record.

This live album is apparently so well regarded among blues fans that there's even a bit of backlash against it, by no less than B. B. King himself, who didn't really get all the fuss over it. But hell, albums don't get critically acclaimed by sucking, after all! A very fine piece of work. 8/10

53. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme (1965)

1. Acknowledgement
2. Resolution
3. Pursuance
4. Psalm

Whoa, it's been a while. There's been so many innovative rock albums lately that I almost forgot about jazz. It certainly hasn't been a slouch these last few years, that's for sure! This is probably the most accessible of the more avant garde jazz albums that have shown up so far on this list. It has plenty of melodic sense with a healthy dab of experimental sense so you'll go "By Jove! Music doesn't do that!" and adjust your derby hat.

I could talk to you about the magnificent innovations of this LP but to be honest I know bugger all about jazz music, which I'm sure has been painfully obvious to all those jazz experts who read my blog and scoff loudly at it. I do know that it was wildly successful, most likely because of the reasons I stated earlier. Has it really been a paragraph since then? My, how time flies.

Anyhow, I always feel a bit limited when writing these jazz reviews, since my lack of familiarity means it's that much harder for me to determine which is a true 'classic' or not, since more or less every jazz album I've heard so far is deemed a classic somewhere. I can say that the 'Trane's sax playing is very good and emotional, and that the drums are mixed really well, a nice crisp sound that really makes those extra fills and solos stand out. For the most part, however, I am at a loss. It's beautiful enough that I suppose one of those clove-smoking poets should be reviewing it instead of me. 9/10

52. The Beach Boys - Today! (1965)

1. Do You Wanna Dance
2. Good To My Baby
3. Don't Hurt My Little Sister
4. When I Grow Up (To Be A Man)
5. Help Me Ronda
6. Dance Dance Dance
7. Please Let Me Wonder
8. I'm So Young
9. Kiss Me Baby
10. She Knows Me Too Well
11. In The Back Of My Mind
12. Bull Session With Big Daddy

It's the tendency of people to write the Beach Boys off as a band that only sang about cars and surfing. In their early days, this was more or less true, with the addition of godawful filler tracks to boot. But once the band hit 1965, things began to change. The band's lyrics shifted towards more serious songs about teenage relationships and what have you, for one. They weren't exactly staggering works of pure poetry and maturity, but compared to 'Be True To Your School' and that song on their first album about chugging root beer, this shit was like Nietzsche.

Perhaps most importantly, at the end of 1964, Brian Wilson had an anxiety attack. The last year had seen the band release an astonishing 4 albums, not to mention all of the singles. Wilson knew that they had to keep up with the Beatles somehow or risk foundering like so many American acts were doing at the time, but another year like that could kill him. The solution was to stop touring. The band would tour without him, of course, since voices and musicians were expendable. Now Brian, with all of this sudden free time he had on his hands, could finally focus on writing stronger material and song arrangements. As a result, this album was by far the best Beach Boys album yet.

The album is split into two sides: one filled with happy pop/rock tunes, the other with melancholy ballads. It works surprisingly well actually, like the passing of a day in summer. It's a bit harder this time to decide which side I prefer, since they both compliment each other so well. I may have to give the edge to the A side, because it's so damn catchy that it's hard to resist. The tracks have a lot of neat production because Brian was trying to be the next Phil Spector, so as a result we've got some cool timpanis in 'Do You Wanna Dance?' and even a harpsichord in 'When I Grow Up'. 'Dance Dance Dance' is so upbeat and thrilling that you'll forget that it's pretty much a new version of 'I Get Around'. In fact, the only real downside is 'Help Me Ronda', which is a different version of the song (that's missing an h for some strange reason) that's nowhere near as good as the hit single version we know that was recorded a few months later. For one thing, there's no guitar solo even in the spot where there clearly should be an instrumental break of some kind, and the weird thing about this track is that it's got some weird volume shifts on the chorus at the end of the song, so it sounds like they're singing 'help me Rhonda help help me Rhonda HELP ME RHONDA HELP HELP ME RHONDA'. I thought it was a mistake on my copy of the album or something but further research has told me that this was intentional. Of all the neat production tricks that were emerging in that time, this is one that doesn't quite hold up as well over the years.

The ballad side points the Beach Boys in the direction of their future material in Pet Sounds, though it hasn't quite got that far yet. Instead of dancing, these songs are all about relationship problems, self doubt, all that fun stuff! This whole section almost seems like an excuse for Brian to show off how awesome his falsetto is. You certainly couldn't have Mike Love singing these emotional songs, could you? (Fuck Mike Love, just sayin')

There's only one big problem on this side as well, and it is 'Bull Session with Big Daddy'. The Beach Boys had a bit of a problem sticking extraordinarily shitty tracks to fill space on their early albums, but why they thought this recording of non-witty banter should suffice as an album track eludes me. They even had the nerve to make it the last track on this album, so you get by far the most fully realized and mature Beach Boys album yet, and then you get this. I'm not sure if it's his fault, but I'm gonna blame Mike Love anyway. Fuck Mike Love. 8/10

51. Otis Redding - Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul (1965)

1. Ol' Man Trouble
2. Respect
3. Change Is Gonna Come
4. Down In The Alley
5. I've Been Loving You Too Long
6. Shake
7. My Girl
8. Wonderful World
9. Rock Me Baby
10. Satisfaction
11. You Don't Miss Your Water

In what appears to be turning into quite an awesome run of albums, here we have Otis Redding. This album is the torch being passed from Sam Cooke to Otis, who would then take up the mantle as the greatest soul singer. Otis wasn't quite as smooth as Sam Cooke, and true crossover success wouldn't come until after his tragic death in a plane crash, but he made up for it in sheer emotional and vocal range. In the 11 songs on this album (appropriately including 3 covers of Sam Cooke) Otis is sorrowful, tender, joyous, and above all, soulful and in full command of his powers.

The great thing about the cover songs is how he can make old familiar classics sound fresh: in 'My Girl', he makes up for the lack of backing vocals by trying to fill in their spots with random vocal asides, as well as twisting the vocal phrasing and melody around. It's even worse on his version of 'Satisfaction' where he pays absolutely no attention the the lyrics outside of the first verse, and even invents some of his own. And you know what? It's still awesome. Otis Redding don't give a fuck.

He improves on his idol Sam Cooke as well. 'Shake' is by far the most exciting song on the album, and if you watch him perform it live it's even better. 'A Change is Gonna Come' is so emotional and moving that it should've been Obama's campaign song. Except then all the birther maniacs would ask if that river he was born by was in the United States or not.

However, Otis also has some songs of his own to give us, and they are really something. You'll be surprised to see 'Respect' here, because the later Aretha Franklin cover was so successful and so associated with her that most people forgot that Redding wrote it in the first place. That's not to say his version is bad, but compared to Aretha pretty much any rendition is going to pale in comparison. However, it is in slower, more troubled songs such as 'Ol' Man Trouble' and 'I've Been Loving You Too Long' where Redding truly shines as a songwriter and performer.

The most astonishing thing about this album is that it was recorded (except for 'I've Been Loving You Too Long') in one day. Like, you stick Otis Redding and Booker T. and the MG's in a room for a day and this is what comes out. You can't argue with results like that. 9/10

50. Bob Dylan - Bringing it All Back Home

1. Subterranean Homesick Blues
2. She Belongs To Me
3. Maggie's Farm
4. Love Minus Zero/No Limit
5. Outlaw Blues
6. On The Road Again
7. Bob Dylan's 115th Dream
8. Mr. Tambourine Man
9. Gates Of Eden
10. It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
11. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

The sound you hear at the beginning of this record is the sound of millions of hardcore folk music fans shitting their pants with abject fury over what Bob Dylan has just done. After growing increasingly disillusioned with the folk scene, writing protest songs, and being labeled as the "spokesman for a generation", Dylan went electric. In this post-Bowie world, an artist changing their image and/or sound isn't exactly the most shocking thing in the world, but it was a hell of a surprise to people back then. Dylan had to deal with fans booing at concerts and deriding him for "selling out". Fortunately historical hindsight has shown us that those people are stupid.

This album wasn't a complete genre-change, though. While side A contained rock songs, side B kept the more familiar acoustic material. And is it just me, or is the acoustic side of this album better? I know that there's some groundbreaking stuff on side A, but the music itself is mostly pretty simplistic blues-rock stuff, whereas the second side has perhaps the most brilliantly written and poetic songs that have shown up on the list so far.

The electric side is some electrifyin' (shocking, I know? Okay, I'll stop.) stuff, though. 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' is so lyrically dense that it's hard to believe it's only 2 minutes long. The song sounds like the entire story of the '60s radical movement, and the music is equally radical, sounding like it's going to break your speakers.

The next song 'She Belongs To Me', is, along with 'Love Minus Zero/No Limit' are love songs like none before, with lyrics that went beyond the boy-meets-girl surface to plunge the as-yet unexplored depths of poetic expression in rock music. His increasingly abstract lyrics have nothing to do with the problems of society, but they possess a stream of consciousness mode that is quite beautiful. It just goes to show that sometimes you need to follow your own artistic vision, no matter what fans might think.

There's nothing beautiful about 'Maggie's Farm', though. I've always liked this song in particular, because it's essentially a protest song against the people who want him to keep writing protest songs. He even finds time to justify his new direction: 'I try my best/To be just like I am/But everybody wants you/To be just like them/They say "Sing while you slave," and I just get bored.' Bob Dylan doesn't take any shit.

'Bob Dylan's 115th Dream' is one of those bizarre dream narratives that he used to do before his sense of humor was forcibly sucked out of him, and it's totally hilarious. He leaps from one surreal image to the next without giving you any time to rest in between. I wish my dreams were half as interesting.

The acoustic side is where Dylan's newfound appreciation for surrealism truly shines. 'Mr. Tambourine Man' is practically an acid trip set to music! What's not to like? And 'It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding' is the best song on the record, a fully realized grim indictment against American society. Finally, after defying listeners' expectations for an entire record, he says his goodbye to the folk music scene in 'It's All Over Now, Baby Blue'.

This is one of those albums that totally rewrites the rules of what you can do in rock music that seemed so frequent back then. Dylan's lyrical freedom on this album would go on to inspire countless musicians to follow. Finally, we can escape the Spectre of Filler at last. 9.5/10

49. The Sonics - Here Are The Sonics (1965)

1. Witch
2. Do You Love Me
3. Roll Over Beethoven
4. Boss Hoss
5. Dirty Robber
6. Have Love, Will Travel
7. Psycho
8. Money
9. Walkin' the Dog
10. Night Time Is the Right Time
11. Strychnine
12. Good Golly Miss Molly

After listening to this album, all the stuff they said about that Jerry Lee Lewis album seems a tad more ridiculous. These guys make it sound weak and unenthusiastic. In fact, the comparisons made to the Stooges and Sex Pistols would be far more apt if they described these guys, for it is here we delve into the magical world of proto-punk.

'Protopunk' isn't really a genre name, of course, but it serves as a useful retroactive term to refer to a whole bunch of bands in the '60s and early '70s that had a large influence on the punk sound. It most definitely applies here. These guys take the same tried and true rock 'n' roll classics that every other garage band in the world was playing, and play them as loud and as wild as they can. Complete with some awesome screaming. I mean, we've had screams in rock since Little Richard, but in this context they sound absolutely psychotic.

Pretty much all the touchstones of punk are here-simplistic playing, amps turned up to 11, everything louder than everything else...it's all here! They may take their cues from Little Richard rather than the Ramones, but the sound and feel are still there, practically 10 years early. What makes this even more interesting are the original songs, with bizarre lyrics concerning topics ranging from witches to insanity to getting hammered from drinking strychnine. You don't have to stretch too far to see the influence those songs would have on countless bands later on.

The only problem I had with this album was the same bloody covers that were inescapable in those days, but the Sonics are demented enough to make boring old songs sound alive and kicking (Ever been kicked in the eardrums? It's not fun). This album's got what has to be the hardest hitting drum sound that was possible back then, and hopefully gave square parents splitting headaches. It's like a half-hour maelstrom of the early '60s, though this band's influence stretches far longer. 9/10

48. Jerry Lee Lewis - Live at the Star Club (1965)

1. Mean Woman Blues
2. High School Confidential
3. Money
4. Matchbox
5. What'd I Say
6. Great Balls Of Fire
7. Good Golly Miss Molly
8. Lewis Boogie
9. Your Cheatin' Heart
10. Hound Dog
11. Long Tall Sally
12. Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On


I know what you're thinking. What could this old dinosaur be doing with an album right in the middle of 1965? This list works in mysterious ways! This live album is from the lowest point in his career, after he hadn't had a hit for years and years. You see, when you marry your 13 year old cousin, it's not exactly the best thing to have the public find out about it. It can get kind of awkward.

He seems to have channeled his bitterness into his piano playing, if this album is any indication. Dude plays like a man possessed. Sure, he always played like that, but this is even more so. Without the constraints of studio recording, Jerry Lee breaks out with a truly frantic performance. In fact, it actually sounds like he's playing too fast for the band in a couple spots. This must've been a special night, because I'd be surprised if he performed like that at all his concerts back then.

Though it certainly has an impressive amount of energy, this album definitely isn't the greatest live album ever, as I've seen it called. Since this album isn't really well known in comparison to more legendary live albums like At Fillmore East or Made in Japan or whatever, people use it as an excuse to drown the poor thing in a sea of superlatives. I mean, check out this review from Allmusic: 'Compared to this, thrash metal sounds tame, the Stooges sound constrained, hardcore punk seems neutered, and the Sex Pistols sound like wimps. Rock & roll is about the fire in the performance, and nothing sounds as fiery as this; nothing hits as hard or sounds as loud, either.'

I mean, Jesus. This album is incredibly exciting and loud, but to say that it outstrips things like hardcore punk seems a bit much. It's not like Jerry Lee was out to make the audience feel the anguish of his failing career by wearing safety pins on his clothing, burning a picture of Elvis screaming 'KILL YOUR IDOLS' and kicking Glenn Danzig in the balls. It's not that intense! Sure, it would've felt that way if you were actually there, but in this modern era where we have things like hardcore punk and thrash metal, calling this the most furious thing ever recorded seems really excessive. The songs themselves aren't that amazing, either! They're the same ol' bunch of early rock covers that every fucking rock band was doing at that point (well, except for that Hank Williams cover that was nice enough to slow things down a bit). These songs have similar enough structures that they would all sound the same if you didn't know the original songs, and even if you do it's kind of touchy. I didn't really need to hear yet another version of 'Money'.

This is truly a wild live album, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's that good. The way I see it, this album shows the extremes that pre-'65 rock could go to, before new sounds and new scenes turned rock into something more than a bunch of hopped-up blues progressions. 7/10

47. Buck Owens - I've Got a Tiger by the Tail (1965)

1. I've Got a Tiger by the Tail
2. Trouble and Me
3. Let the Sad Times Roll On
4. Wham Bam
5. If You Fall Out of Love With Me
6. Fallin' for You
7. We're Gonna Let the Good Times Roll
8. Band Keeps Playin' On
9. Streets of Laredo
10. Cryin' Time
11. Maiden's Prayer
12. Memphis

Oh boy, it's 1965! I've been waiting for this year for ages! It's the year that rock music finally began to shake off the evil Spectre of Filler and produce truly classic albums that stand on their own as artistic works. From this point onward, the list starts really shaping up. Although each year has only had a smattering of albums so far, from now on we'll be getting a lot of albums for every one. It's going to be ever so fantastic!

So after all that hype, it's a bit of a disappointment to kick off this landmark year for the album with a mediocre country album. Although Ray Price had me frothing at the mouth and caused me to avoid country like the plague, this was actually listenable. The songs sounded different, for one. Not nearly as much polish, too. This album wouldn't make any friends on the overproduced Nashville scene.

I'm going to come right out and say that 'I've Got A Tiger By The Tail' is the best song on here. I know what you're thinking: "But Clay, how could a song that the album is named after, and which is carefully placed at the very beginning of the record so it would be the first thing we'd hear and thus color our opinion of the album as a whole with a favorable first impression be the best song?" I know it sounds a little crazy, but work with me here.

There's other neat material on the album, though! 'Streets of Laredo' is a song about dying cowboys that could've come right out of Marty Robbins' songbook, with vocals that appear to be sung by someone in Buck's band. I guess democracy is always nice on a record billed to one person!

Oh, and there's a Chuck Berry cover. On a country album, no less, though it sounds more rockabilly than anything. Also, I would like to note the rather high amount of Chuck Berry covers showing up on these albums. Why the fuck doesn't he get his own album?! You'd think it would've been a given! Bastards.

But anyway, the songs that Owns wrote are also pretty good. The lyrics are that style of humorous storytelling that country music does so well. Thankfully, it's not preachy. This is supposed to be a classic of country music, but since the grand total of true country albums I've heard totals to 'whatever's been on this list so far', it's harder for me to tell. Generally classic albums have more standout songs, don't they?

Well, it's not the greatest album ever, but it at least showed me that Buck Owens is more than that guy who wrote that song that Ringo sang once. And truly, that is its own reward. 6.5/10

46. The Rolling Stones - Rolling Stones (1964)

1. Not Fade Away
2. Route 66
3. I Just Want To Make Love To You
4. Honest I Do
5. Now I’ve Got A Witness
6. Little By Little
7. I’m A King Bee
8. Carol
9. Tell Me
10. Can I Get A Witness
11. You Can Make It If You Try
12. Walking The Dog

In the 21st century, the Rolling Stones are more or less synonymous with "over-the-hill rock band". We've all been horrified by Mick Jagger's continued prancing around the stage despite appearing in imminent danger of breaking a hip, and we've all marveled at how Keith Richards can still be alive when he looks like that. Considering all this, it's weird hearing these guys sound so young and innocent (compared to their later records, certainly).

The Stones were billed basically from the beginning as the anti-Beatles, and it's immediately apparent. The songs are much more rough around the edges, and their attempts at harmonies are rather ramshackle (and kind of funny!). One thing they had in contrast with the Beatles is they hadn't quite figured out the whole songwriting thing yet. All of these songs are either covers or instrumentals, with only 'Tell Me' written by the group. It's kind of weird that a band so blatantly steeped in the blues would write such an obvious pop song, but I suppose you've got to sell records somehow.

The rest of these songs are a mixed bag of blues and early rock covers, and for the most part they are pretty rockin'. 'I'm A King Bee' has got quite a bit of swagger for a bunch of white boys, not to mention a nifty bassline. In fact, Bill Wyman's bass playing on this album is by far the most interesting bass I've heard outside of Motown for the early '60s. Considering how on most early Beatles records you can't even hear the bass made this a rather nice change.

Also, the stinging slide guitar solo while Mick Jagger desperately tries to sound black is awesome. Kudos to Brian Jones, you insane, dead bastard, you.

On the faster-paced songs, the band blows the Beatles away with their fury and speed. While the fab four would have made very catchy versions of songs like 'Carol' and 'Not Fade Away', the Stones turn them into loud raucous celebrations. Even the blues classic 'I Just Want To Make Love To You' is given a furious rock makeover, complete with howling harmonica and a break that sounds like the band are about ready to explode. Exciting stuff!

It's not all fun and games, though. The Rolling Stones stick a couple of soul covers on the album ('Can I Get A Witness' and 'You Can Make It If You Try') and frankly neither of them sound very good. The band sounds a bit forced, especially Mick Jagger, who just wasn't a good enough singer yet to try to tackle Marvin Gaye.

Although there's definitely a fair share of filler, this album is a pretty solid debut, especially for 1964. Instrumentally they are already very good, but it's not until the songwriting began in earnest before they could really stake a claim for the greatest rock band of all time, or whatever it is they call themselves. 8/10

45. Dusty Springfield - A Girl Called Dusty (1964)

1. Mama Said
2. You Don't Own Me
3. Do Re Mi
4. When The Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes
5. My Colouring Book
6. Mockingbird
7. Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa
8. Nothing
9. Anyone Who Had A Heart
10. Will You Love Me Tomorrow
11. Wishin' And Hopin'
12. Don't You Know

Bisexual white Britons make the best soul singers. Just sayin'.

Anyhow, the Soul Train continues on its merry little way, with probably the best-produced soul studio album so far. Dusty Springfield apparently had a great ear for choosing material, because these are all great songs (Except for 'My Coloring Book' because it still has the stench of Barbara Streisand on it). She's a fantastic singer too, coloring each song with Pep and Zazz. No wonder the Pet Shop Boys like her.

Although Dusty (and all the musicians, I assume) are British, you certainly couldn't tell just listening to the album. They're trying their hardest to sound as American as possible. While you'd think this would enrage the Anglophile in me, but when I'm listening to soul I sure as hell don't want it to sound British, let's face it. In fact, it's fairly impressive how they get the sound down.

This is probably the closest we'll get to an early-period Motown album, which is a shame, but I'll take this! The big production ballads here-'Twenty-Four Hours From Tulsa' and 'Anyone Who Had A Heart'- are stellar and will surely take their place in the hall of Songs That Sound Like Phil Spector Produced Them. Big swooping arrangements, thundering timpanis, Dusty belting out the choruses with wild abandon...what's not to like? Also, 'You Don't Own Me', a Lesley Gore (of 'It's My Party' fame) song of all things, is a really neat song because it's about as close to feminism as pop music could get in this time, when demanding sandwiches wasn't just a shitty ironic "joke". Empowering as HELL.

Dusty Springfield's apparent perfectionism in the studio means that the evil Spectre of Filler does not haunt this album quite as badly, for which I am tremendously pleased. This is an album for all of you who still mourn the passing of the beehive hairdo, or those who like Amy Winehouse except without the tragic downward spiral (not in THIS decade, at least!). 8/10

44. Solomon Burke - Rock 'n' Soul (1964)

1. Goodbye Baby (Baby Goodbye)
2. Cry to Me
3. Won't You Give Him (One More Chance)
4. If You Need Me
5. Hard, Ain't It Hard
6. Can't Nobody Love You
7. Just Out of Reach
8. You're Good for Me
9. You Can't Love 'Em All
10. Someone to Love Me
11. Beautiful Brown Eyes
12. He'll Have to Go


The march of soul continues, with a lesser known singer this time. Solomon Burke never quite got the crossover success that Sam Cooke or Otis Redding had, though he did come by the title of 'King of Rock 'n' Soul' somehow. Recognition was largely limited to black listeners and other musicians like the Rolling Stones, who covered his songs a few times in their earlier days. And although there are great songs on this album, I didn't really find myself feeling too strongly about most of it. It looks like I've been sent back to the cruel world of 2 hits and 10 afterthoughts once again. It's like purgatory.

I will say that this album is diverse in its own way, though. Some songs have a pronounced Latin beat that you wouldn't really expect from that period. Burke also takes a page out of Ray Charles' book and covers a country ballad, as well as a Woody Guthrie song, of all things! There's even a fiddle!

This album is surprisingly stripped down for early '60s soul. I mean, the live albums are too, but since obviously you can't afford to pay a 40 piece orchestra to tour across the country with you, so they don't really count. But generally you had to have brass and strings all over the place, and this doesn't!

Having said that, this album is still nothing to rave about. Perhaps it's because the last 2 soul albums I reviewed were such fiery and energetic pieces of work that this seems sort of tame by comparison. Also, the backing vocalists needed to cool it sometimes. Just because you can sing doesn't mean you should. 7/10