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George Harrison — 437

ALBUM: Thirty-Three & 1//3  (1976)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$$ (NOTE: I bought several months ago the latest reissue of George Harrison’s classic ‘All Things Must Pass,’ which I mention in another post.

Here the man who was one-quarter of the Beatles seems in good spirits.

He even lets off a little steam with a critique of the court case which found Harrison guilty of plagiarizing. His song, My Sweet Lord, sounded too much like the Chiffon’s ‘He’s so fine.’

And. It did.

But George is going to be passionate in a song defending his side. And George’s ordeal with the legal battle highlights the fine line between borrowing and plagiarism. (See Led Zeppelin.)

Harrison is so easy to listen to. Great, underrated voice and some good solid guitar playing and songs that, while not quite Beatles, you can easily hear at least one-quarter of the  Beatles.

With “This Song’ he  delivers a scathing (for him) rebuke of the plagiarism controversy. Of course George lost that dispute and  the songs do sound very much alike. But I don’t think he did it on purpose.

This Song l

This song has nothing tricky about it 

This song ain’t black or white and as far as I know 
Don’t infringe on anyone’s copyright

When the Beatles broke up I was just becoming aware of who the Beatles were at about 10 years old.  My mother dropped me in downtown Athens at the Georgia Theater – yes that used to be a movie theater before becoming a music venue — where I went in to see ‘Let it Be,’ the bittersweet documentary of the Beatles recording one last time before breaking up. I was alone. Yes that’s kind of weird, but I’d often go see movies by myself as young’un. Saw ‘Vanishing  Point’ my favorite B-movie when I was 12. But I digress.

Billy Preston played on Thirty-three and 1/3.

Beatles became my favorite band and probably shaped  my future view of rock and roll.

When they broke up, it was hit or miss for me in getting their solo material.

My brother had ‘Venus and Mars’ and ‘Band on the Run from McCartney and listened to those sometimes inane — but rockin’ — albums. I never bought a Ringo record, bless his heart. I’ve had several John Lennon albums including his classic, but dark, first solo album.

The one thing I regret is not having picked some more Harrison, especially All Things Must Pass. I am  going to pledge that I will use a coveted bucket list item to listen to  All Things Must Pass all 3  records in the box from start to finish.

On this album, 331/3, ‘Dear One’ is a personal favorite.

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Crack the Sky — 568, 567

ALBUMS: Safety in Numbers:  (1978); Animal Notes (1976)

MVC Rating  Safety 4.0/$$$; Animal 4.0/$$$

What is progressive rock?

I’m having this discussion with myself as I listen to my Crack the Sky albums, which have elements of prog-rock but also  traditional rock (without the roll).

Some might even say progressive rock is an oxymoron.

Rock n’ roll was music that boiled up in the 1950s as white musicians appropriated black rhythm and blues.

Mega bands like the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin made gadzillions by stealing the music, giving it a makeover (turning up the guitar and winking as they over emoted vocals to great effect). I’m being a little flip here but not untrue. Groups like the Beatles and Stones took the songs to another place; they weren’t just note-by-note renditions.  But by using the old R&B as a base, they moved forward with their own sound. Besides Stones and Zep, think ZZ Top, Allman Brothers, Cream and Eric Clapton as examples.

But what about groups like King Crimson, Emerson Lake, and Palmer and the Moody Blues? Or, Queen, Soft Machine, Yes, and Electric Light Orchestra. And Pink Floyd, and Crack the Sky? These were groups that used jazz and classical concepts such as orchestral interludes, odd time signatures,  and virtuoso musicianship. Some pushed  it into avant-garde Dadaist music  like Frank Zappa and Beefheart.

These bands either were influenced more by jazz and classical or had moved so far away from an R&B base, that it was not heard in the songs.

Of course, lots of these bands crossed over. Led Zeppelin with its fantasy themes, multi-layered guitars and psychedelia, might be deemed progressive in some contexts, like ‘Stairway to Heaven’ for example.

But I’m leaving out some key influencers: the Who with their rock operas ‘Tommy’ and ‘Quadrophenia;’ the Beach Boys’ ‘Good Vibrations’ and the Beatles who were pioneers on all of it.

From their Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry chops out of the chute in early early 1960 to ‘A Day in the Life’ in 1967 which I would consider the classic example of a progressive rock song. It’s not only complex, lyrically and musically but it also is cohesive, despite many shifting parts.

So this may be a long way of saying, it’s those Beatles again. Yet they didn’t ignore their early American influenced rock n’ roll either, or ever.  In their last apearance on the top of a building in London they plaed ‘Get Back’ which is about as rock’n roll as you can get.

Crack the Sky is no Beatles. But the band’s song Safety in Numbers works well with it’s  opening guitar strum and catchy chorus even if that chorus is two cliche’ s bound together: “Cause there’s safety in numbers and numbers don’t lie.’

I like it.

Animal Notes is a little meatier. Invaders from Mars  sounds like a 10cc or Squeeze song. Strong progressive rock instrumentation.

There’s an interesting  song about Canadian Mounties, not kidding, which apparently at one point was supposed to be worked up into a concept album. Probably good decision to abandon that idea..

Counting down my 678 records before I die of brain disease.

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The Beatles Mystery– 644, 643

ALBUMS: Beatles Alpha Omega (1972), The Beatles/1967-1970 (Blue Album 1973)

MVC Rating:  Alpha 4.5/$$$$$/Blue 5.0/$$$$$

I want to write about the Beatles. I really do.

But I find I don’t have the words right now to describe what they did and what they mean. They were in my opinion the greatest rock band ever and possibly in the top 5 of greatest musical artists in terms of breaking new ground and influence.

But I gotta back that up, and right now I’m going to think about it a bit more as I go through my 678 vinyl records that I am reviewing for www.myvinylcountdown.com.

Meanwhile …., I’m going to offer up a little look at the two Beatles albums I have  — again not a review of the music but a little story behind the origins of these two albums.

Two you say? Doesn’t sound like the Beatles collection of someone who thinks they are all that.

Well my two ‘albums’ are two anthologies totaling six vinyl discs in all. (Plus I have a lot, probably most of the Beatles catalog digitalized.)

One of the collections is a box The other collection I have is commonly referred to as the Blue Album which covers Beatles from 1967 to 1970. My brother had the Red Album which covered 1962 to 1966. If you have the red and blue albums, 2 records in each set, you have the essence of the group’s great work, but I would recommend the separate albums as well, especially Revolver, Sgt. Pepper and the White Album.

Now funny thing about the 4-record Alpha and Omega. It’s a bootleg. They call it a needle-drop bootleg because the bootlegger recorded these records right off the original records. Dropped the needle on a record on a turntable turned on a microphone and pressed the results in vinyl.

The sound quality is not supposed to be as good but I can’t really tell. The discs themselves contain songs in a peculiar order, sometimes alphabetical sometimes not. The only address on the albums is a P.O. Box from Asbury Park, N.J.

There’s also mixed  in with the Beatles songs some solo songs such as McCartney’s Uncle Albert and Lennon’s Imagine.

Odd.

I’m not exactly sure where I got this. My wife, Catherine, says she thinks it could have been her sisters or her brothers’. It’s possible I found it at a flea market.

I know I got my ‘blue’ album as a Christmas present from my parents at about age 12 or 13.

The Alpha Omega album was actually sold on late night TV in the US. Apparently copyright laws varied from the UK to USA and gave someone the audacity to just steal these off of Beatles records.There are several versions of this bootleg.

Apple Records apparently chose to come out with the red and blue albums shortly after the bootlegs to counter with an ‘authorized’ compilation. In fact a paper sheet included in my blue album says, “These are the only authorized collections of The Beatles. On Apple Records.”

At www.discogs.com where they sell and buy records, I found these notes on one of their web pages.

In January 1973, two pirated Beatles box sets appeared in the United States, Alpha Omega Volumes I & II: The Story Of The Beatles (Audio Tape Inc. ATRBH 3583). These four-LP collections were advertised on TV and radio stations in the Midwest and were sold by mail order. Instead of taking legal action, Capitol Records countered by putting out two official Beatles anthologies, The Beatles 1962-1966 (US: Apple SKBO 3403) and The Beatles 1967-1970 (US: Apple SKBO 3404). However, in March, a $15 million lawsuit was filed by manager Allen Klein on behalf of George Harrison, along with Capitol and Apple Records, against the manufacturers and distributors of the bootleg package, and against American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., who had been advertising it. 
http://www.rarebeatles.com/boxsets/boxset.htm

Counting down my vinyl records before I die of brain disease.

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Beau Brummels — 651

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ALBUM: Best of Beau Brummels (1981)

MVC Rating: 3.5-$$$

I was a sucker for these Rhino Records compilations of obscure and semi-obscure music.

The company put out ‘best of’ compilations of records by one or two-hit wonders like the Left Banke and Beau Brummels. I will review BB here but wait for the ‘L’s” for Left Banke. Rhino also picked up obscure but good original albums – not just anthologies and greatest hits. One of those was the Beat Farmers, which I earlier reviewed.

‘Laugh Laugh’ is Beau Brummels’ biggest hit and arguably, their best song. It has a sweet little melody driving along bittersweet lyrics:

Don’t say you can get any boy to call
Don’t be so smug or else
You’ll find you can’t get any boy at all
You’ll wind up an old lady sitting on the shelf
Laugh, laugh, I thought I’d die

 Funny laugh laugh, right? No not really, but they’re working on that irony thing.

This was a big hit and deservedly so, I suppose. They get compared to the Beatles a lot but I’d put them more in leagues with the Kinks, in their early British Invasion stage. They seem like they could have done one of my favorite Kinks’ songs, ‘Nothing in this World Can Stop Me Worrying ‘Bout That Girl.’

But surprise! The Brummels were from San Francisco. And their later stuff starts turning toward a little psychedelia-tinged country.

Their songs are from a different time and place. ‘Laugh Laugh’ and ‘Just a Little’ and ‘You Tell Me Why,’ are songs you probably say you don’t know. Then  you hear them.

Then  you say: ‘Well, yes.’

Then …”well maybe.”

Counting down my 678  vinyl records  before I die of  brain disease.

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The Beatles Live At the Hollywood Bowl — 652

ALBUM: Live at the Hollywood Bowl (first released 1977)

MVC Rating:  3.5/$$$

This is a live album from a group called the  Beatles. Seems like a decent enough band, kind of a cross between the Dave Clark Five and the Flaming Groovies.

Too much screaming by fans to tell if these Beetles are the real deal, though. NOTE: There’s aparently another  re-mixed version from 2016

Counting down my 678  vinyl records  before I die of  brain disease.