The Setting: Forgotten. Jilted. The Everly Brothers could have been singing about their career on this set of country standards back in 1963. Once the steady of American teenage girls everywhere in the late 50s, they were completely forgotten in the wake of Beatlemania & the rising tide of Mersey Beat by the time this album rolled out in 1963. But was it fair?
The Listen: Not even close. If you ever need proof positive that life is not fair, well son, this is it. Perhaps the Everly's best album yet, this album is first class and first rate through and through. AND one of the best country albums of the entire sixties! <I tell NO lies!>
The Verdict: This will easily slide into my TOP TEN albums of 1963. Every song is immaculately played and a keeper. Once of those albums that stokes the fires of love more & more with each spin. A truly lost classic!!!
This was a difficult watch. The pain of emptiness is everywhere. A neglected boy. A sick, uncared for aunt. A mother too self absorbed in her own loneliness and emptiness to be capable of mothering either her son or her sick sister.
A beautifully shot film featuring a voluptuous Gunnel Lindbloom. It's a great look at sibling rivalry and the different ways - cerebral vs. sensual - the two have tried to fill their emptiness. Neither succeeding. A family that's not really a family. The only real empathy coming from an old porter at the grand hotel they're staying at.
Highly recommended. I liked this even more than the fantastical 8 1/2 which is high praise.
1963 Movie Rankings <so far>
1. The Silence
2. 8 1/2
3. Pink Panther
4. The Haunting
5. The Sword & The Stone
I was so impressed with Ingmar Bergman's The Silence, that I decided to watch Though A Glass Darkly (1961) next. And I'm positively floored. The shots, the conversations, the setting. BUT, especially that play in the beginning. Everything is pretty much fantastic. His ability to capture ALL the ways we're flawed as humans. ALL the unique ways that we cannot connect to one another. We're either too soft or too hard. Too selfish or too unselfish. That no one really understands another.
So cue up The Cure's masterful "How Beautiful You Are" for a bit because I got to see The cUre at Riot Fest this weekend. And they were fucking gods, obvs!
Ride, Viagra Boys, Death Grips, Code Orange & Quicksand all CRUSHED it as well. Death Cab were also great in the open field as I tried not to trip on too many blankets. lol.
Can anyone think of anything HEAVIER than this in 1964 (or even prior)?!
That's actually a really good question. The Yardbirds' first album came out late that year, and it was a live album so you'd expect it to sound a little rougher than Five Faces of MM, but I don't think it does, personally. (There's a version of "Smokestack Lightning" on both albums though, and the Yardbirds' version is at least faster, FWIW.) I don't think either of them are as rockin' as the first Kinks album, but that's just me.
The main difference between the two LPs, production-wise at least, is that Manfred Mann had a keyboard player and the Yardbirds didn't, they just had a harmonica. On a live recording, the harmonica has to be mic'd up for people to hear it in the room, but when you record the show off your soundboard the vocals (and the harmonica, in this case) end up louder than everything else because everything else doesn't have to be mic'd up so high. So, the Yardbirds album basically sounds like a harmonica show with a nearly-inaudible backing band, whereas Manfred Mann were in a studio, so their album just sounds better.
As for the technology of the era, the first Marshall JTM and Vox AC30 amps were already available and in use by the beginning of 1964, but the first Tone Bender fuzzboxes didn't become available until late that year, and I doubt they're in use on either of these two albums. Keith Richards used an earlier fuzzbox (a Gibson Maestro) on some of the Stones' early stuff, but I think I read somewhere that he switched too, after the Tone Benders came out... Anyway, the Kinks (famously) got their trademark early guitar sound after Dave Davies cut up the speaker cone of his cheap little Elpico amp in a fit of rage with with a razorblade, and then tried playing through it anyway ("You Really Got Me" was recorded in March 1964, I believe). But that was obviously unsustainable and didn't work well in a live setting, so after 1964 most of those guys were playing through Tone Benders, at least until 1966 when the FuzzFace pedals came out (the ones with the distinctive round hockey-puck shape). Hendrix popularized the FuzzFace in a big way, so after that, everybody was making/buying/using distortion boxes and they were all off to the races, heaviness-wise.
So I guess what I'm ultimately trying to say here is "I can't, so I'm just going to type a bunch of words to make it seem like I vaguely know what I'm talking about despite my being about three years old at the time."
That's actually a really good question. The Yardbirds' first album came out late that year, and it was a live album so you'd expect it to sound a little rougher than Five Faces of MM, but I don't think it does, personally. (There's a version of "Smokestack Lightning" on both albums though, and the Yardbirds' version is at least faster, FWIW.) I don't think either of them are as rockin' as the first Kinks album, but that's just me.
The main difference between the two LPs, production-wise at least, is that Manfred Mann had a keyboard player and the Yardbirds didn't, they just had a harmonica. On a live recording, the harmonica has to be mic'd up for people to hear it in the room, but when you record the show off your soundboard the vocals (and the harmonica, in this case) end up louder than everything else because everything else doesn't have to be mic'd up so high. So, the Yardbirds album basically sounds like a harmonica show with a nearly-inaudible backing band, whereas Manfred Mann were in a studio, so their album just sounds better.
As for the technology of the era, the first Marshall JTM and Vox AC30 amps were already available and in use by the beginning of 1964, but the first Tone Bender fuzzboxes didn't become available until late that year, and I doubt they're in use on either of these two albums. Keith Richards used an earlier fuzzbox (a Gibson Maestro) on some of the Stones' early stuff, but I think I read somewhere that he switched too, after the Tone Benders came out... Anyway, the Kinks (famously) got their trademark early guitar sound after Dave Davies cut up the speaker cone of his cheap little Elpico amp in a fit of rage with with a razorblade, and then tried playing through it anyway ("You Really Got Me" was recorded in March 1964, I believe). But that was obviously unsustainable and didn't work well in a live setting, so after 1964 most of those guys were playing through Tone Benders, at least until 1966 when the FuzzFace pedals came out (the ones with the distinctive round hockey-puck shape). Hendrix popularized the FuzzFace in a big way, so after that, everybody was making/buying/using distortion boxes and they were all off to the races, heaviness-wise.
So I guess what I'm ultimately trying to say here is "I can't, so I'm just going to type a bunch of words to make it seem like I vaguely know what I'm talking about despite my being about three years old at the time."
Feel free to "type a bunch of words..." any old time is this thread! GREAT fucking intel, my friend!!! Your explanation about the technology at the time and the live circumstances of that Yardbirds LP explains A LOT! I LOVE that The Kinks cut their trademark sound from rage & razorblades!!!
I'll check out Five Live Yardbirds later tonight while drinking a cold beverage and report back. Kind of cool that this Manfred Mann is one of the albums that kicks off that whole Heavy Blues sound. Awesome music trivia!
Wow! This is some raw as fuck and in your face Garage Rock. Just fantastic energy. I agree that the Manfred Mann debut is more "heavy", but this Yardbirds album definitely rocks out with some proto-punk fury.
So I think what I'll try to do next is Rank the HEAVIEST & ROCKINGEST albums from '64.
Anyone have any recs beyond what we've already discussed so far?!
The Contenders for the <Heavy Shit!> crown
Kinks
Rolling Stones
Manfred Mann
The Yardbirds
... entire album rips! Instrumental albums like this where every song has a similar sound are hard for me to listen to from beginning to end, BIUHard to listen to from beginning to end, BUT any of these songs would be GREAT on mix tape!
AND I should also do a Top Ten HEAVY SHIT! Songs list from '64 while I'm at it! I suspect The Sonics' "The Witch" will be way up there!
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Feel free to "type a bunch of words..." any old time is this thread! GREAT fucking intel, my friend!!! Your explanation about the technology at the time and the live circumstances of that 
I LOVE that 
