Essential Studio Albums

[McParadigm]

Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited

This is truly one of the great albums. I mean for one album to contain Like a Rolling Stone, Ballad of a Thin Man, Queen Jane Approximately, Desolation Row, and Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues is all I really need to say, but even the least powerful moments here are something beyond what anyone else was doing at the time or maybe ever.

Truly, one of rock ‘n’ roll‘s actual masterpieces.

Opens with a song about being ejected from your safe space and into the world. Named for a highway. Evokes a constant sense of travel and discovery across a disturbed American landscape. Ends when our hero reaches his destination, only to find them selling postcards of a hanging.

Just like they did back home in Duluth.

At no point in the journey are the people any better or safer to be around than they were back at the start. They worship the same macabre obsessions. They recognize no meaningful distinction between profound and disposable, need and want, or love and hate. Welcome to America. We’re all mad here.

Highway 61 Revisited is a surrealist painting of a nation. When you study the album cover, it studies you right back. A camera dangles in the background like a threat. Two can play at this game.

And as the last moment fades away, you’re left with the realization that the opening track’s beautiful caterwaul between mockery and elation foresaw the whole thing. There’s nothing for you out here, either. How does it feel to be without a home?

[liebzz]

Cream - Fresh Cream

This feels like the next logical step of everything kind of swirling around in this moment. Blues rock from a heavy supergroup, but with a freer more jazz like level of improvisation, and maybe the first guitar hero rock album I have covered here so far in earnest. There’s a lot to chew here, from the poppier I Feel Free to the epic loose jam of Spoonful. My favorite on here is Rollin’ and Tumblin’, a great example of how this band on this record felt most at home covering the blues greats.

The Essential Track: Rollin’ and Tumblin’

Up Next: Them - Them Again

[liebzz]

Them - Them Again

I don’t know necessarily whether the comparisons are made between Mick Jagger and Van Morrison, but they might need to happen more often, at least in the context of Them. At this point, Van Morrison was doing for soul music what Mick was doing for the blues, which is finding a space to meld it with contemporary rock music and manage to rub a little extra dirt on it. Granted, this was a bit more disparate, as Morrison tackles blues, souls, folk rock, and anything else he could get his hands on. The cover of It’s All Over Now Baby Blue is a genius reconfiguration, Turn on Your Love Light is amped up, even I Got A Woman has extra zip. Could You Would You is pretty great. I Can Only Give You Everything feels almost punk rock. He was on a roll, and I say that because apparently the lineup for this band at this point was pretty fluid but for Morrison, so this jumble of soul rock is on him, and it works pretty damn well.

The Essential Track: I Can Only Give You Everything

Up Next: The Animals - Animalism

[liebzz]

The Animals - Animalisms

This actually came before Animalization, the US version of basically the same album, but it features four different tracks and I just needed to go back to it. The album is still fantastic, and this is highlighted in particular by Outcast, Squeeze Her - Tease Her, That’s All I Am to You, and She’ll Return It, all songs that have that raw Animals feel to them like the Doors churned through the blues. I am surely seeing that this is one of those bands that didn’t get their due in the long run.

The Essential Track: She’ll Return You

Up Next: Otis Redding - Dictionary of Soul

[liebzz]

Otis Redding - Complete and Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul

Apparently Otis Redding can take any song and just re-envision it as a soul classic and then lean on his vocal delivery to make it happen and it’s as engaging as the original. I wouldn’t have pegged Day Tripper as that song, but here we are, and it’s fantastic. Try a Little Tenderness is another highlight but coming from a completely different place. My favorite though might have been the album closing Love Have Mercy. It’s really just hard to pick, in part because Otis Redding is so commanding of your attention that the music goes where he does. Incredible presence.

The Essential Track: Love Have Mercy

Up Next: The Rolling Stones - Aftermath

[liebzz]

The Rolling Stones - Aftermath

This is the first Stones album of all original material and yet another step up for them. We’re covering the US version, which is a bit different in that there’s a separate track list. On it, the bookends are probably the biggest deals here. Paint It Black is the Stones at their very finest, a pop song with a slight tug into new territory, while Going Home brings that overt sleeziness the Stones would dig deeper into on future albums well steeped in blues, rock, and country. There are more highlights, like the hit Under My Thumb, Dontcha Bother Me, Think, and the nicely weird Lady Jane. But it’s those bookends to me that make this thing in the end.

The Essential Track: Paint It Black

Up Next: Bob Dylan - Blonde On Blonde

[liebzz]

Bob Dylan - Blonde On Blonde

If you were to ask me to pick a ten year period and say it were the centerpiece of my music taste, maybe in my twenties I would have told you 1991-2001, but in my thirties and fourties, I can’t deny it’s that period from 1965-1975 where some albums that have come to define my music preferences really derive. We’ve hit really only a handful of those so far, and really much of this has been discovery for me. This is one of those foundational albums, where Dylan opens up so much musical space while never betraying his song. At this point, this is a level of mastery of this rock format that I would have a difficult time telling you anyone’s done it better. Inasmuch as Rainy Day Women exalts in its abrasiveness, Just Like a Woman is smoother yet is master storytelling. Visions of Johanna is a wonderful ballad while Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat is a blues stomp. Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I’ll Go Mine) rocks on the edge of folk rock cacophony, Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again is a nearly perfectly executed rock song. Obviously Five Believers might deliver on that promise of rock perfection. I am not even getting to all the songs here and there’s simply a lack of superlatives that can encapsulate the journey through this double album. What’s so inviting about this one is that it sneaks up on you almost, a realization at the end of it just how great these songs are all together. Highway 61 Revisited is one of the great rock albums, and this one has that element, but it also has an intimacy to it where it feels more like you are spending time with his music more than even listening. It would be a long internal debate to say which of these I prefer, but they are both near the top of this journey’s list, that’s for sure. Picking between those albums is as difficult as deciding which of the endless gems here is my favorite.

The Essential Track: Obviously Five Believers

Up Next: The Beatles - Revolver

[liebzz]

The Beatles - Revolver

As great as Rubber Soul is, Revolver is the moment in which the Beatles simply became mind blowing. This album has an incredible amount of range, yet has all the pop trappings of even the most accessible Beatles albums. It’s simply a masterpiece of taking the sound they established and moving it beyond anyone’s imagination. I am sure there were some Beatles fans who first heard this ans decried wtf was that?! - but they entered a space sonically that is transporting. Tomorrow Never Knows and Eleanor Rigby are born very different sonic adventures that each seem like the greatest thing ever recorded to that point. Here, There, and Everywhere, and Got to Get You Into My Life feel like natural progressions from Rubber Soul. Good Day Sunshine has pure pop potential. And Your Bird Can Sing and I Want To Tell You seem like what we can expect from them moving forward. There is not a single weak track on this. Even Yellow Submarine is the kaleidoscope of sound that is psychedelic rock in its infancy. Such a great great album!

The Essential Track: Tomorrow Never Knows

Up Next: The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds

[epilogue]

Nah, Rubber Soul is leagues better than Revolver.

But arguing Beatles record hierarchy is like arguing over which orgasm is best.

[epilogue]

Nina Simone - I Put A Spell On You

This was even better and more varied than I expected. Crossing between Jazz, soul, and blues, Nina Simone shows she can hold it together with a huge band or in more intimate settings with barely any instrumentation. Her voice is soulful and direct, a sense of confidence and power that’s individual yet relatable. The title track is good, but there’s better on this. Tomorrow Is My Turn, Marriage is for Old Folks, Gimme Some, and Take Care of Business are all highlights where she really shines, but the crown jewel on this one is Feeling Good. Damn. Also for a vocal artist to tack a solid jazz instrumental (Blues on Purpose) is pretty cool. Really enjoyed this.

The Essential Track: Feeling Good

Up Next: Skatalites - Ska-Boo-Da-Ba

Umm.... absolutely not.

Ne me quitte pas is the essential track.

[epilogue]

Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady

From a purely creative standpoint, this is the most mind blowing album I have ever heard. It is intense, jarring, stunning, maybe even playful in parts despite a tortured mind clearly directing this effort. The performances fit the mood perfectly. This is Mingus’s creativity with the dial turned all the way the hell up. If we’re gonna shift from here to greater emphasis on rock music, what a way to cap things off at the present moment. Granted, there are more jazz records to come, but this one captured every bit of my imagination and then exceeded anything I could have conjured for expectations. This was, in a word, insane.

The Essential Track: every goddamn second of this

Up Next: The Beatles - Please Please Me

Okay, I'd never heard this record before. But I listened after this thread.... fuck me.

[liebzz]

Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady

From a purely creative standpoint, this is the most mind blowing album I have ever heard. It is intense, jarring, stunning, maybe even playful in parts despite a tortured mind clearly directing this effort. The performances fit the mood perfectly. This is Mingus’s creativity with the dial turned all the way the hell up. If we’re gonna shift from here to greater emphasis on rock music, what a way to cap things off at the present moment. Granted, there are more jazz records to come, but this one captured every bit of my imagination and then exceeded anything I could have conjured for expectations. This was, in a word, insane.

The Essential Track: every goddamn second of this

Up Next: The Beatles - Please Please Me

Okay, I'd never heard this record before. But I listened after this thread.... fuck me.

Yeah. It’s crazy.

[liebzz]

Nah, Rubber Soul is leagues better than Revolver.

But arguing Beatles record hierarchy is like arguing over which orgasm is best.

I mean, we still got Sgt. Pepper, The White Album, Abbey Road, Let It Be, Magical Mystery Tour to go on this, and they each bring something special so…I don’t even know which I will choose as the top, but at least for right now, Revolver is my choice. Historically I have usually stated either Abbey Road or The White Album as my favorites. I got a lot more out of Revolver this time than I have in the past.

[epilogue]

Nah, Rubber Soul is leagues better than Revolver.

But arguing Beatles record hierarchy is like arguing over which orgasm is best.

I mean, we still got Sgt. Pepper, The White Album, Abbey Road, Let It Be, Magical Mystery Tour to go on this, and they each bring something special so…I don’t even know which I will choose as the top, but at least for right now, Revolver is my choice. Historically I have usually stated either Abbey Road or The White Album as my favorites. I got a lot more out of Revolver this time than I have in the past.

Revolver is great. There are literally no wrong answers when it comes to the Beatles.

But for me Rubber Soul is special.

[Farmer John]

Most days I probably say Revolver is the best Beatles album.

[oasisfan35]

Nah, Rubber Soul is leagues better than Revolver.

But arguing Beatles record hierarchy is like arguing over which orgasm is best.

I mean, we still got Sgt. Pepper, The White Album, Abbey Road, Let It Be, Magical Mystery Tour to go on this, and they each bring something special so…I don’t even know which I will choose as the top, but at least for right now, Revolver is my choice. Historically I have usually stated either Abbey Road or The White Album as my favorites. I got a lot more out of Revolver this time than I have in the past.

Revolver is great. There are literally no wrong answers when it comes to the Beatles.

But for me Rubber Soul is special.

You like playing it safe.

[liebzz]

A note on what’s to come. A run through 1967 that includes a lot of albums and will probably take a few weeks. Feel free to suggest additions to this largely classic rock run:

The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Grateful Dead
The Mothers of Invention - We’re Only In It for the Money
The Velvet Underground & Nico
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers - Crusade
The Rolling Stones - Between the Buttons
The Who - Sell Out
The Beach Boys - Wild Honey
The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour
Arlo Guthrie - Alice’s Restaurant
Albert King - Born Under a Bad Sign
B.B. King - Lucille
Aretha Franklin - I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
Leonard Cohen - The Songs of Leonard Cohen
Bob Dylan - John Wesley Harding
Buffalo Springfield - Again
John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers - A Hard Road
Cream - Disraeli Gears
Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced?
Grateful Dead - Anthem of the Sun
The Doors
The Beach Boys - Smiley Smile
The Rolling Stones - Their Satanic Majesty’s Request
Dr. John - Gris Gris
Miles Davis - Sorcerer
Pink Floyd - Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow

[epilogue]

Nah, Rubber Soul is leagues better than Revolver.

But arguing Beatles record hierarchy is like arguing over which orgasm is best.

I mean, we still got Sgt. Pepper, The White Album, Abbey Road, Let It Be, Magical Mystery Tour to go on this, and they each bring something special so…I don’t even know which I will choose as the top, but at least for right now, Revolver is my choice. Historically I have usually stated either Abbey Road or The White Album as my favorites. I got a lot more out of Revolver this time than I have in the past.

Revolver is great. There are literally no wrong answers when it comes to the Beatles.

But for me Rubber Soul is special.

You like playing it safe.

Seems to me the safe take is Revolver.

[doug rr]

for 1967 I suggest:

sam rivers Contours
don cherry Sympathy for Improvisors

[Anders]

Most days I probably say Revolver is the best Beatles album.

Excellent album. Top three for sure.