Red Mosquito

Posted: **Thu January 09, 2025 4:50 am**

LooseGroove927 wrote:
liebzz wrote:

Manfred Mann - Mann Made

So these guys have some disparate interests. From soul, rock, and jazz, this album jumps around a lot, and the arrangements seem to completely change from song to song. Hearing a bit of Miles Davis in Bare Hugg, and a bit of the blues (One Way Out?) in LSD. Stormy Monday Blues is great. I also really liked Since I Don’t Have You, Look Away, and You’re For Me. Abominable Snowman was the left turn at the right moment. So this thing was quite good.

The Essential Track: Stormy Monday Blues

Up Next: Wayne Shorter - Speak No Evil
This is very good, but the Manfred Mann Album, with Do Wah Diddy as the opening track, is even better. I enjoy it more than some of the early Stones records.

I missed it because the thing is not on Spotify for some reason. The album before and after it is. Makes no sense.

Posted: **Sat January 11, 2025 6:23 pm**

The Byrds - Mr. Tambourine Man

It’s possible this album gets the short end of the stick being stuck in between two of the all time great Dylan albums in this listening journey, but I found myself less connected to this one than other recent albums. It’s all fine and good, and the one-two punch of It’s No Use and Don’t Doubt Yourself Babe is pretty wonderful - but beyond that this is material that is mostly good enough. They have nice harmonies and the songs are solid, but if Dylan’s blowing minds even on repeat listens, this one just can’t quite hold up.

The Essential Track: It’s No Use

Up Next: Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited

Posted: **Sat January 11, 2025 8:43 pm**

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. This album straight rocks, and yet it’s also full of authentic expressions that demand further listens. Nothing is a toss away, it’s all relevant even today, 60 years later. This is also the era of Bob Dylan I more adore.

The Essential Track: Like a Rolling Stone (but Ballad of a Thin Man and Desolation Row are my favorites)

Up Next: The Beatles - Rubber Soul

Posted: **Sun January 12, 2025 3:43 pm**

The Beatles - Rubber Soul

Despite all the wonderful things I said, and will always say, about Help!, Rubber Soul is miles ahead of really anything they had done to this point. They may have started down the road of more mature themes and musicality, but it seems for the first time that it’s truly realized here. There’s the obvious use of new instruments and rhythms on songs like Norwegian Wood, Michele, and Girl. There’s the more universal sense of love on The Word, and In My Life, the sonic expansion of Think For Yourself, the Beatles as the bad guys on Run For Your Life. From a pure song perspective, this album is nearly perfect - not a single moment where they cash it in. Inventive, yet still at its roots a pop album. The first in a series of masterpieces from this band.

The Essential Track: Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) (this is an impossible choice and all 14 tracks could be here)

Up Next: The Animals - Animalization

Posted: **Sun January 12, 2025 9:42 pm**

The Animals - Animalization

This is one of the bands I really wanted to hear a bit of on this journey because they were one of those 60s bands that always eluded my attention. This one is a bit of a mix, but some real sense of British blues beginning to cycle around this time. Don’t Bring Me Down, Cheating, She’ll Return It, See See Rider, Maudie, and I Put a Spell On You all go there, and it sounds really great in their hands, be it original or cover. The winner here though is a killer Inside - Looking Out, which boasts a killer groove. Better band than I really ever knew.

The Essential Track: Inside - Looking Out

Up Next: The Who - A Quick One

Posted: **Mon January 13, 2025 12:13 pm**

The Who - A Quick One

The Who’s second album trades on much of the chaos of the first, with Keith Moon really bringing it on this one, a sort of preview of The Who of the future. The “filler” on this thing is a series of bizarre tongue-in-cheek covers - perhaps a dig at the extensive covers found on albums of their contemporaries? They are at the least fun and ridiculous. The songs that feature on this are pretty spectacular - So Sad About Us, Whiskey Man, Don’t Look Away, I’ve Been Away, and In the City are all top shelf Who - but the most important and exciting song on this has to be A Quick One While He’s Away, Townsend’s first foray into rock opera that foreshadows some of their great albums.

The Essential Track: A Quick One While He’s Away

Up Next: Buffalo Springfield

Posted: **Mon January 13, 2025 12:19 pm**

Buffalo Springfield

This Laurel Canyon band is often mentioned among more influential rock groups, and while they share some DNA with The Byrds, there’s more of a sense of purpose to this, at least to my ears. Granted, some of these songs in the front half share too much DNA with The Byrds, but there’s so much to unpack from the handful of great songs on here that reach a little more into a heavier blues sound. For What It’s Worth is the big classic, covering their more of their harmonies, but the songs to watch out for here are Burned and Leave, which show more of what they were capable of.

The Essential Track: Leave

Up Next: Simon & Garfunkel - Sounds of Silence

Posted: **Mon January 13, 2025 1:04 pm**

Simon & Garfunkel - Sounds of Silence

There’s the big hits here, The Sound of Silence and I Am a Rock, and then there’s the songs I really connected with, Somewhere They Can’t Find Me, Richard Cory, and We’ve Got a Groovy Thing Goin’. In any event, maybe because of their more famous songs, these guys bring much more range than I ever recall. This is one of those bands I have on CD their greatest hits and I don’t know that I ever considered going beyond that. Yet here I am finding the album cuts sitting with me better than even those hits.

The Essential Track: We’ve Got a Groovy Thing Goin’

Up Next: Simon & Garfunkel - Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme

Posted: **Mon January 13, 2025 1:29 pm**

Simon & Garfunkel - Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme

This one is a big step up for these guys, as much as I enjoyed the last one. Songs like Patterns, Cloudy, The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine, and the Dylan-esque parody A Simple Desultory Philippic are really disparate yet highly provocative moments on this album that similarly outshine the hits here. The haunting closer Silent Night juxtaposed against the 7 O’Clock News is a moment that was bold and needed in those times, reminiscent of maybe what we need now. This one is pretty brilliant and I am glad the suggestion came in because I otherwise would have missed this.

The Essential Track: Patterns

Up Next: Nina Simone - Wild Is the Wind

Posted: **Mon January 13, 2025 10:45 pm**

Nina Simone - Wild is the Wind

There’s a lot of range hanging around this album, which is apparently leftovers from her prior albums. My preference is for a bit more of a live jazz feel than pure vocal ballads, so I have a stronger preference for Break Down and Let It All Out, Why Keep On Breaking My Heart, Wild Is The Wind, and Either Way I Lose (a ballad interrupted by a fun vocal pacing). Four Wonen is a brilliant piece of music though, so there’s that.

The Essential Track: Break Down and Let It All Out

Up Next: John Lee Hooker - The Real Folk Blues

Posted: **Tue January 14, 2025 12:00 am**

John Lee Hooker - The Real Folk Blues

John Lee Hooker has one of those voices with so much depth and gravitas that you just believe him, whatever he’s talking about. That includes women, alcohol, drugs, blues, and whatever else is on his mind at that moment. This varied and easy album features some uptempo electric blues in Let’s Go Out Tonight, the introspective The Waterfront, and just about everything else in between in just under 35 minutes. The winner, without hesitation or question, is the all time blues classic One Bourbon One Scotch One Beer.

The Essential Track: One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer

Up Next: Mississippi John Hurt - Today

Posted: **Tue January 14, 2025 12:14 am**

tragabigzanda wrote:
tragabigzanda wrote:Top 10 maybe?
Hello Morning
Close Captioned
The Kill
Place/Position
Do You Like Me?
Latest Disgrace
Recap Modotti
Nightshop
Break
Life & Limb
I'd maybe bump Life & Limb for Epic Problem

Posted: **Tue January 14, 2025 12:21 am**

tragabigzanda wrote:
liebzz wrote:

The Who - A Quick One

The Who’s second album trades on much of the chaos of the first, with Keith Moon really bringing it on this one, a sort of preview of The Who of the future. The “filler” on this thing is a series of bizarre tongue-in-cheek covers - perhaps a dig at the extensive covers found on albums of their contemporaries? They are at the least fun and ridiculous. The songs that feature on this are pretty spectacular - So Sad About Us, Whiskey Man, Don’t Look Away, I’ve Been Away, and In the City are all top shelf Who - but the most important and exciting song on this has to be A Quick One While He’s Away, Townsend’s first foray into rock opera that foreshadows some of their great albums.
No no no no no. Early Who is the best Who. It's all downhill after Sell Out.

I see that if your primary interest is Keith Moon and John Entwhistle, but I much prefer the era where Daltrey’s found his voice and Townsend is a bit more ambitious.

Posted: **Tue January 14, 2025 12:49 am**

liebzz wrote:

The Who - A Quick One

The Who’s second album trades on much of the chaos of the first, with Keith Moon really bringing it on this one, a sort of preview of The Who of the future. The “filler” on this thing is a series of bizarre tongue-in-cheek covers - perhaps a dig at the extensive covers found on albums of their contemporaries? They are at the least fun and ridiculous. The songs that feature on this are pretty spectacular - So Sad About Us, Whiskey Man, Don’t Look Away, I’ve Been Away, and In the City are all top shelf Who - but the most important and exciting song on this has to be A Quick One While He’s Away, Townsend’s first foray into rock opera that foreshadows some of their great albums.

The Essential Track: A Quick One While He’s Away

Up Next: Buffalo Springfield

Some of the songs you mentioned are bonus tracks.
And the digital versions and reissues all sound like total shit anyway because their vault/audio guy is a charlatan and can't make heads or tails of the tapes.

But yeah.

Posted: **Tue January 14, 2025 1:08 am**

I did listen to the extended version. A Quick One is one of those albums I have listened to many times. I have probably gone through at least a dozen Who phases since discovering them with a host of other classic rock bands when I turned 15, which is now more than 30 years ago. This was one I listened to a lot, maybe the most outside of Quadrophenia.

Posted: **Tue January 14, 2025 1:20 am**

liebzz wrote:I did listen to the extended version. A Quick One is one of those albums I have listened to many times. I have probably gone through at least a dozen Who phases since discovering them with a host of other classic rock bands when I turned 15, which is now more than 30 years ago. This was one I listened to a lot, maybe the most outside of Quadrophenia.

They'll never get it right so the fans did it instead.

THE WHO
"A Quick One" Deluxe Edition
(Audiophile Fan Release)
========================

DISC ONE: STEREO
----------------
101 Run Run Run
102 Boris The Spider
103 I Need You
104 Whiskey Man
105 Heatwave
106 Cobwebs & Strange
107 Don't Look Away
108 See My Way
109 So Sad About Us
110 A Quick One, While He's Away
111 Substitute
112 Circles
113 Disguises
114 Batman
115 Bucket T
116 Barbara Ann
117 I'm A Boy
118 In The City
119 Happy Jack
120 I've Been Away
121 Man With Money
122 My Generation/Land Of Hope And Glory
123 I'm A Boy (Alternate Version)

DISC TWO: MONO
--------------
201 Run Run Run
202 Boris The Spider
203 I Need You
204 Whiskey Man
205 Heatwave
206 Cobwebs & Strange
207 Don't Look Away
208 See My Way
209 So Sad About Us
210 A Quick One, While He's Away
211 Substitute
212 Circles
213 Disguises
214 Batman
215 Bucket T
216 Barbara Ann
217 I'm A Boy
218 In The City
219 Happy Jack
220 I've Been Away
221 I'm A Boy (Alternate Version)
222 Happy Jack (Alternate Version)
223 Waltz For A Pig (by Graham Bond Organization)

DISC THREE: DEMOS & ALTERNATE MIXES
-----------------------------------
301 Run Run Run (Demo #1, Mono)
302 I'm A Boy (Demo, Mono)
303 King Rabbit (Demo, Mono)
304 Substitute (Demo, Stereo)
305 Circles (Demo, Stereo)
306 Lazy Fat People (Demo, Mono)
307 Don't Look Away (Demo, Mono)
308 To Kill My Appetite (Demo, Mono)
309 Disguises (Demo, Mono)
310 Do The Strip (Demo, Mono)
311 Happy Jack (Demo, Stereo)
312 Politician (Demo, Stereo)
313 Magic Bus (Demo, Stereo)
314 Run Run Run (Demo #2, Mono)
315 Substitute (US Mono Single Mix)
316 I'm A Boy (US Mono Single Mix)
317 Happy Jack ("The Singles" Mono Mix)
318 Batman (Mono Instrumental Mix)
319 I'm A Boy ("Direct Hits" Mono Mix)
320 Happy Jack (Alternate Version, Alternate Mono Mix)

Posted: **Tue January 14, 2025 12:47 pm**

Yeah, I mean that looks much better.

Posted: **Wed January 15, 2025 2:35 am**

liebzz wrote:Yeah, I mean that looks much better.

The "A Quick One" album was originally released in mono only.
Stereo mixes of the songs were made but were dispersed around the world randomly.
Fans know which mixes are on which tapes and where to find all of them in the lowest generation. And all of these tapes are in the Who vault.
But to this day they keep releasing different combinations of remixes, mono, stereo and fake re-processed stereo from random tapes and vinyl transfers.
Their audio guy has been given all the info needed more than once, acknowledges it, and then claims he has no recollection after releasing the next crappy frankenstein.
Hence the need for the above fan-made deluxe set.

Posted: **Wed January 15, 2025 12:13 pm**

Mississippi John Hurt - Today!

This is the delta blues that contemporary bands like The Black Keys have been trying for decades to configure into a more boogie rock sound. Hurt is another great blues communicator whose voice and signature transcends the genre. At this point he had been at it for a real long time so the experienced and weathered sound just fits even more. I’m Satisfied jumps out as my favorite here, but this is all solid delta blues.

The Essential Track: I’m Satisfied

Up Next: John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers - Blues Breakers

Posted: **Wed January 15, 2025 12:21 pm**

John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers - Blues Breakers

As if the British Invasion wasn’t enough, building up was the British blues movement, a heavier version of electric Chicago blues, that this band seems to be at the forefront of. Doesn’t hurt to play with Eric Clapton. All Your Love is a great start with that exact blues sound that is highly influenced by the stateside electric blues. Little Girl, It Ain’t Right, and Steppin’ Out are all big highlights here from this one.

The Essential Track: Steppin’ Out

Up Next: Cream - Fresh Cream

Red Mosquito

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