Okay, FJM was good live. But still I tried to get into his latest album and I couldn't. It is just so so so so so cynical and unpleasant and I just don't react well with his worldview on that album. With I Love You Honeybear he at least is measured and balanced, and its more of a critique of his cynical outlook and how he is sort of lost. And yet there's romance and rage and self doubt and its all mixed up beautifully. As of now I don't get thet from Pure Comedy.
But I have been obsessed with a niche of sorts lately. And that is singer-songwriters from about 1966-1974. I thought I had a good idea of how many legends came out in that time on the heals of Dylan and started yearly releasing masterpieces of personal expression. But now I've been listening to cats like Mickey Newbury and Fred Neill, and Laura Nyro, and more Joni, and Guy Clark, Willie Nelson, Lee Hazlewood, Buffy Sainte-marie, Phil Ochs, etc along with the ones who I already considered amazing, people like Dylan, TVZ, Neil Young, Nick Drake, Joni, Paul Simon, Bert Jansch etc.
So Now I am going through each year's top songwriter albums from 67 to 75ish, and its awesome! So much variety of personal expression through relatively similar musical avenues. But the beauty of this moment in music history is that so many peeps came along and threw there hat in and gave all they had to express their worldview and their style and their voice in a way which had been recently liberated and made financially viable and the result is every year there were 6-12 classic singer-songwriter albums with revealing lyrics, crazy narrative twists, weird experimental musical detours, interesting variations on familiar stories and so forth. Arguably this all crescendoed with 1971... or 1970 or 1969 or even 1974... But I will know more surely after listening a lot to lots of voices from that era. Not sure how i'll go about making this fun. But I will figure out a way.
Anyway, that's my update at this time. _________________ -Ryan
Cool! Should start listing the top five from each year going back to 66 with brief synopses and explanations for your rankings. Def go up to '74 at least. Will e following along with interest, brother. Peace!
How r your Packers looking?
MercuryTurn your back on the pay-you-back last callProfile St. Louis
Cool! Should start listing the top five from each year going back to 66 with brief synopses and explanations for your rankings. Def go up to '74 at least. Will e following along with interest, brother. Peace!
How r your Packers looking?
I swear you and me are one mind! That was Linda what I as thinking a maaay do and now it’s sealed.
As for my packers, looked bad most of the day the Rodgers rodgersed. So we have that going for us, which is nice. As for my other team the raiders. Last night suffice it to say, was unfun. _________________ -Ryan
well, going way back it shouldn't be overlooked how cool the singing and songwriting of this legend was super influential and also is still really stunning...
I may be including this as a stand in for many great songwriters in early blues because of Dylan. Dylan talks about in his autobiography about sitting and listening to this album and writing down the lyrics painstakingly, trying to work outn exactly why the words were so great and succinct and pure and yet visually stunning, etc. And I see what he means with lyrics like:
"When the train, it left the station
With two lights on behind
When the train, it left the station
With two lights on behind
Well, the blue light was my blues
And the red light was my mind
All my love's in vain" - Love In Vain
.... I get it. Its amazing, simple, and just perfect.
Both were fabulous and both had huge influences on the GOAT. With Woody its most notable. He just had a way with very very plain spoken words about ramblers and hobos and the problems of the common man. He has had a huge influence on lots of these people, right? right.
And as for Hank Williams, he was a genius. He just could write a line and a song that is so surprisingly brilliant right in the middle of his classic, old school country tunes. I adore a lot of his songs. I think think this gem is my fave...
"I was just a lad, nearly 22
Neither good nor bad, just a kid like you
And now I'm lost, too late to pray
Lord I take a cost, oh the lost highway" -Lost Highway
Okay, and I'm gonna skip a m,assive amount of people who shoudln't be and next highlight my top 10 fave singer songwriter albums pre 67. Lots of Dylan. _________________ -Ryan
My Top 10 Favorite "Singer-Songwriter" albums pre-1967:
well, first off a couple things should be noted. 1 this is very much an english language list. I will have no album in any language outside of english. Because the whole crux of my enjoyment of these albums by in large is the poetry of the language along with mood of the music and vocals that accompany it. I don't understand any language other than english, so, there ya go.
Second thing, Pre 67 was chosen as the cut off as before 67 Dylan sorta dominated this genre in my mind from 63-67, with a whopping 6 albums I adore in that time. So I'll just make note that the ranking here may more honestly be my number 7-16 favorite albums pre 1967. So I may do That actually. Problem solved.
#1 Highway 61 Revisited by Bob Dylan (1965)
#2 Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964)
#3 Bringin' It All Back Home by Bob Dylan (1965)
#4 Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963)
#5 Blonde on Blonde by Bob Dylan (1966)
#6 The Times They Are A-Changin' by Bob Dylan (1964)
And my full thoughts on all those albums I'm sure are somewhere. I was gonna refer you to my Dylan chart, but that's private and undone for 4 years, so there is that as a travesty. The point is the #1 is top 5 album all time, and the 6th above is one of my favorite albums ever too. I don't know what to say or do: I just love everything Dylan did from about 62 to 76. He is the greatest.
Okay.... so...now I'll post my #10 thru #1 fave singer songwriter albums in the coming posts. Its hard cuz I'm relistening to stuff and listening to stuff for the first time and these opinions aren't remotely set. So I will count down. With 3 or 4 each post until all the non-Dylan Top 10 are finished. _________________ -Ryan
I maybe move this higher. Its a really solid album through and through. It just sounds much much more assured and beautiful than his debut a year before. The songs are consistently gorgeous and topical yet timeless. In songs like "That's What I Want To Hear" its amazing cuz the concerns aren't dated at all. And his tribute to John F Kennedy - "That Was A President" is truly beautiful, if a bit too hero-worshippy for my taste. And songs like "Draft Dodger Rag" is hilarious and incredibly catchy. Some of this album is ridiculously preachy, but that goes with the territory and I found myself growing used to it halfway through on this listen and then tired of it by the end. Still, a solid album throughout. It's no "The Times They Are A-Changin'" but then again I don't think that is what he was going for. Phil brought his own balance and message forward and as a result this is one of the best protest albums of the era.
This album used to confuse me. I didn't get it. I thought it was a compilation of early solo recordings of Simon whilst he was a member of Simon & Garfunkel. Then I finally stopped my nonsense and researched it. Turns out this was made when Simon was taking a bit of a hiatus from his burgeoning at the time duo with Art. He went to England, became of sensation of sorts and was rushed into the studio to record some of his solo recordings with just himself with an acoustic. The production and renditions in genral sound a bit rushed and unadorned in a bad way., But the beautiful songs, and the excellent vocals shine through despite all the BS.
Songs like "Leaves That Are Green", "April Come She Will" "Kathy's Song", "A Most Peculiar Man", "The Side of The Hill"and "A Church Is Burning" all sound gorgeous and plain and very nice here. And I just enjoy hearing Simon on his own just a bit before his duo became very successful. I put this for sure a tier below S&G albums such as "The Sound of Silence" "Bookends" and "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme", but it still shimmers at times with an young, bright-eyed, and very talented songwriter named Paul Simon.
Here's a strange albums, such a quick turn around from his previous work! He went from just very straight-forward folkie songs on his first couple records to this...this psychedelic, strange, sort of kaleidoscopic album. It's considered a classic now, but I imagine it blew people's mind back in '66.
I really enjoy this, the opener is a classic and very nicely dated to those early attempts at psychedelic music. and the strange experimentation doesn't stop there. The second track "Legend of a Girl Child Linda" is another trippy, off kilter track about strange fantasy-laced images of the main protagonist, the strings come in beautifully, Donovan's vocal delivery is excellent slow and stretched and mesmerizing. The whole song is a 7 minute experimental epic, which totally re-imagines the folk sound mixing in elements of chamber-folk and pop and psychedelic aspects, etc. It's really quite awesome and unique.
Other standouts are the very cool indeed blues jam "Season of The Witch" (interesting that Donovan actually does sound cool as hell here. His persona has always been one of anti-coolness for me...probably because of Dont Look Back film...), and the cool reference to Mr. Bert Jansch "Bert's Blues". "Bert's Blues" is just a groovy low key track with its loping feel and all that cool stuff. And apparently per Donovan its about a romantic triangle he was in the middle of with his good friend Bert Jansch and Beverly Marten).
This album is fire! There is just such an overwhelming conviction and passion and commitment in the vocals and the acoustic guitar playing throughout this classic. Outside of Dylan's early 60s albums, this may be the best protest folk album of the era. And its all so down and dirty and ugly. Compare the sheer intensity of masterpieces on this album like "Universal Soldier", "Codine" and "Now That The Buffalo's Gone" to the angellic sounds of Joan Baez in songs with similar protest messages, and I think you'll see Buffy was on a different level, sheer intensity wise.
And the whole atmosphere of this album is engaging and tight, her vocal performances are all top notch, and some of the songs, again, are all time classics. I consider "Universal Soldier" to be one of the best songs of the decade. And other unabashed masterpieces like "The Incest Song" and "Ananias" and the quirky and fun "Cripple Creek", aren't too far down that list either. The whole album may not live up to those intense highs, buit they don't utterly destroy the momentum of force of the album either.
Right from the jump on this album its clear this is a different, a completely unique take, on the folk singer/songwriter movement which was flourishing in '65. Neil had a strangely beautiful, deep, sonorous voice, which he never uses (here) to overtly emote. He always sounds detached, mildly amused even by the most deeply blues-soaked, depressed songs lyrically.
On songs like the absolutely superb "Blues On The Ceiling" every single aspect of the song just sounds sublime, cool, and yet very off-puttingly dark. The audio indicates the message in the most subtle and gorgeous way, but the lyrics really get to the root and the real existential insanity of deep deep blues. (reminds me a lot of another classic from '65 by Jackson C. Frank...the difference is that musically Frank's "Blues Run The Game" is all on a vector to express the depression just as much as the lyrical content. Its the strange dichotomy of this song which makes it better in my opinion....anyway, way way overlong parenthetical aside ends..... now).
The album is consistently beautiful and nuanced and varied and unique. Songs like "Candy Man", "Other Side to This Life", the title track, etc, are rightfully now regarded as classics of the genre.
Grade: 8.4/10
------------------------------------------------
#5
Trouble Is A Lonesome Town by Lee Hazlewood (1963)
This album is just amazing! Allmusic reviewer Stanton Swihart described it best when he said "Trouble is like a cross between a novel full of idiosyncratic character studies (à la Faulkner) and a John Wayne Western, with Hazlewood". It really is a fascinating album, and probably will rise higher on this list, so take this #6 rank with that in mind. It's got this low down, collage feel of all these interesting little studies of low down people. Its got Train songs, Prison Songs, all kinds of little love story songs, etc. And throughout there are these little spoken word intros by Lee which just make the whole album feel like a camp fire story session with an old cowboy you met along the way in your travels. The guitar is plain and beautiful acoustic glory, the harmonicas cries out sadly throughout. Which brings me to a random aside: I love harmonica in almost all settings. Harmonica played right on a record just is a clincher for me loving a song or sound. Like, I love "Nebraska" but if Springsteen messed up the harmonica on that album (he doesn't) I'd probably feel pretty meh about it. The harminica on "Papa Rollin' Stone" on Johnny Thunders' classic album "So Alone" instantly makes that my fave or second fave track on that masterpiece, oh and one of the great things (amongst many great great things ... you'll see how much I love the records later on in this diary methinks) about those classic Mickey Newbury albums is the occasional Harmonica atmospherics he dredges up. I mean Dylan strangely enough never quite used the harmonica well at all. I don't like the harmonica playing on his albums. If he had played harmonica with that mournful, tuneful, style, I would love his early albums even more (kind of a scary thought... I would never have even listened to any other music to this day if he'd nailed that aspect lol).
Okay, and so in closing, this album is just a hour or so long travel story or concept album or something about a little deadend town called Trouble. If you love country, folk, or just excellent songwriting I think you'll love this. Check it out.
Edit: I moved this from 7 to 6 to 5. Its a winner! And an excellent debut to boot.
"Trouble's little and it's lonesome.
You won't find it on any map.
But you can take three steps in any direction, and you're there.
It's a place to be born.
And it's a place to live.
And it's a place to die and be forgotten.
It's a town called Trouble.
And Trouble is a lonesome town" 👏👏👏
Grade: 8.7/10
------------------------------
Okay I'll be back with 4-1 tomorrow sometime. Peace. _________________ -Ryan
Here's a strange albums, such a quick turn around from his previous work! He went from just very straight-forward folkie songs on his first couple records to this...this psychedelic, strange, sort of kaleidoscopic album. It's considered a classic now, but I imagine it blew people's mind back in '66.
I really enjoy this, the opener is a classic and very nicely dated to those early attempts at psychedelic music. and the strange experimentation doesn't stop there. The second track "Legend of a Girl Child Linda" is another trippy, off kilter track about strange fantasy-laced images of the main protagonist, the strings come in beautifully, Donovan's vocal delivery is excellent slow and stretched and mesmerizing. The whole song is a 7 minute experimental epic, which totally re-imagines the folk sound mixing in elements of chamber-folk and pop and psychedelic aspects, etc. It's really quite awesome and unique.
Other standouts are the very cool indeed blues jam "Season of The Witch" (interesting that Donovan actually does sound cool as hell here. His persona has always been one of anti-coolness for me...probably because of Dont Look Back film...), and the cool reference to Mr. Bert Jansch "Bert's Blues". "Bert's Blues" is just a groovy low key track with its loping feel and all that cool stuff. And apparently per Donovan its about a romantic triangle he was in the middle of with his good friend Bert Jansch and Beverly Marten).
Grade: 7.9/10
Okay, 7-5 coming later.
🥰
You know I LOVE this album. And his best was yet to come! 😲
This album is just amazing! Allmusic reviewer Stanton Swihart described it best when he said "Trouble is like a cross between a novel full of idiosyncratic character studies (à la Faulkner) and a John Wayne Western, with Hazlewood". It really is a fascinating album, and probably will rise higher on this list, so take this #6 rank with that in mind. It's got this low down, collage feel of all these interesting little studies of low down people. Its got Train songs, Prison Songs, all kinds of little love story songs, etc. And throughout there are these little spoken word intros by Lee which just make the whole album feel like a camp fire story session with an old cowboy you met along the way in your travels. The guitar is plain and beautiful acoustic glory, the harmonicas cries out sadly throughout. Which brings me to a random aside: I love harmonica in almost all settings. Harmonica played right on a record just is a clincher for me loving a song or sound. Like, I love "Nebraska" but if Springsteen messed up the harmonica on that album (he doesn't) I'd probably feel pretty meh about it. The harminica on "Papa Rollin' Stone" on Johnny Thunders' classic album "So Alone" instantly makes that my fave or second fave track on that masterpiece, oh and one of the great things (amongst many great great things ... you'll see how much I love the records later on in this diary methinks) about those classic Mickey Newbury albums is the occasional Harmonica atmospherics he dredges up. I mean Dylan strangely enough never quite used the harmonica well at all. I don't like the harmonica playing on his albums. If he had played harmonica with that mournful, tuneful, style, I would love his early albums even more (kind of a scary thought... I would never have even listened to any other music to this day if he'd nailed that aspect lol).
Okay, and so in closing, this album is just a hour or so long travel story or concept album or something about a little deadend town called Trouble. If you love country, folk, or just excellent songwriting I think you'll love this. Check it out.
Edit: I moved this from 7 to 6 to 5. Its a winner! And an excellent debut to boot.
"Trouble's little and it's lonesome.
You won't find it on any map.
But you can take three steps in any direction, and you're there.
It's a place to be born.
And it's a place to live.
And it's a place to die and be forgotten.
It's a town called Trouble.
And Trouble is a lonesome town" 👏👏👏
Grade: 8.7/10
------------------------------
Okay I'll be back with 4-1 tomorrow sometime. Peace.
Love, Love, Love this album as well. Time to re add it to the old queue which keeps getting long & longer & longer lol.
MercuryTurn your back on the pay-you-back last callProfile St. Louis
You know I LOVE this album. And his best was yet to come! :shock:
Yeah, I am happy I made 1966 my arbitrary cut off cuz as I've gone through these albums I have seen so many albums coming up right off the bat in '67 (including Donovan's best per you) which I want to dive into or re listen to and I will try to get to all of them for the '67 rank. Dylan, Cohen's debut, Donovan's classic, widely considered best Ochs album, Tim Hardin 2, the first classic by Tim Buckley, etc etc... there's just a lot and I just scratched the surface in terms of widely considered great songwriter albums.
Tilly wrote:
Mercury wrote:
#5
Trouble Is A Lonesome Town by Lee Hazlewood (1963)
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