adriandenning.co.uk
Message Board
THE ROCK N ROLL ERACondensing the entire 6 decades of rock and pop into a handy twelve album buyers guide. Obviously, such a list is going to be slightly subjective, slightly based on historical importance. Slightly cause much head-wringing amongst you all at my strange and delightful choices. For example, the rock'n'roll era needs to be covered, yet who do I pick? Will country music be covered anywhere along the line? I can answer the latter, the answer is no. I won't be considering compilations, if I was, Hank Williams would be in here somewhere as the king of country. Elvis? An essential non Elvis compilation? There's many choices, but i'd like to stick to his pre 60s work, which narrows it down a little and also brings Buddy Holly into the fray. Buddy and his Chirping Crickets made an essential, hugely influential album. So, that's my first pick.1) Buddy Holly And The Chirping Crickets Hugely influential on songwriters coming out of the rock n roll idiom. Whilst The Beatles took a lot from other artists as well, most notably Chuck Berry and Little Richard, it can be argued the influence of Buddy Holly was paramount. Whilst Elvis made cool records, Paul and John suspected he wasn't really a very good guitar player, and of course, he didn't sing his own songs. Buddy wrote really simple to play, memorable tunes. He did a lot of 'boy/girl/love' songs. John particularly identified with him, Buddy of course wearing these fairly uncool glasses. Buddy was also prolific, yet in terms of his full length LPs, his debut stands the test of time and remains in print some fifty years later. EARLY TO MID SIXTIESTwo names immediately spring to my mind, Bob Dylan and The Byrds. Both are responsible for kick starting the folk-rock boom, a movement that influenced the entire decade, Beatles included. I suppose I could have stuck 'A Hard Days Night' in here, yet The Beatles were to make better records as the decade went on. The Byrds deserve to be here, fusing Dylan and The Beatles together so very well, effectively creating a new sound and even impressing the master Dylan himself. Dylan? Dylan is Dylan. He held court as the only artist/performer both The Rolling Stones and The Beatles looked upto.2) The Freewheelin - Bob Dylan In a catalogue of well over 40 LPs, 'The Freewheelin' still stands tall as one of the best Dylan releases. Perhaps this record isn't seen as being as important as the Dylan 'rock' releases of the mid-sixties, yet this was the LP that made everybody take notice of Dylan in the first place. It contains a bunch of his finest ever songs to this day. It's a very rounded release and showcases all facets of the early Dylan, and actually, it's not such a huge leap from this to 'Like A Rolling Stone' if you use a little imagination. Dylan always loved rock n roll in any case, it wasn't a sudden conversion. Indeed, a 'lost' Dylan single released prior to 'Freewheelin' ( it tanked ) was an early attempt at a rock/folk crossover sound by Dylan. An album of distinctive, quality material, 'The Freewheelin' is a landmark release. 3) Mr Tambourine Man - The Byrds Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, Chris Hillman and David Crosby. Michael Clarke on drums. McGuinn was the only notable musician in the group at the time, Crosby had a great grasp of harmonies and Gene Clark could knock off great Beatles influenced pop in his sleep. Chris Hillman was a mandolin player switched to bass guitar for The Byrds. Michael Clarke played cardboard boxes on an early Byrds demo of their breakthrough cover of Dylan's 'Mr Tambourine Man'. The chiming guitar sound of Roger McGuinn was taken from seeing The Beatles 'Hard Days Night' movie, then in the hands of McGuinn, taken someplace else altogether as a focus, along with the harmonies, for The Byrds sound. In Clark, they had an admired and talented songwriter and there's still no better place to hear the classic sound of The Byrds than the 'Mr Tambourine Man' LP. Sonny and Cher for example, odious as they are, started having hits by ripping off wholesale the styles pioneered by The Byrds. LATE SIXTIESFour albums from The Sixties in total, then? Well, yes. I make no bones about the fact I adore the sounds of the sixties. So much happened during that decade. I could have chosen four completely different albums, although hopefully i've given good enough reasons for the one's I have selected. There's no obviously psychedelic albums here, I could have picked 'Revolver' or 'Sgt Peppers' by The Beatles, but the concept of double-albums needs to be represented and besides, I like 'The White Album'!4) Pet Sounds - The Beach Boys Art-pop, a new concept although it wasn't seen as such at the time. Pop music was undergoing constant growth and Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys were perceived to be at the forefront of this growth circa 1966. They'd certainly contributed to the great cross pollination that existed during the early to mid sixties with all the major artists seemingly influencing each other. Thanks to 'Good Vibrations' and in particular 'Pet Sounds', The Beach Boys toppled the Beatles as best vocal group in the then very influential NME readers poll, 1966. Pretty impressive when you consider how much great music was released in that very one year. The Beach Boys of course never capitalised on this success, that story is well known. Pet Sounds, with its theme of love and longing is a timeless record often picked in best album ever polls. 5) White Album - The Beatles The differences between the four beatles wasn't just rumour by now, it was audible within the grooves of the double 'Beatles' album. Paul and John writing separately, their styles distinct, George still under-represented, Ringo singing a couple of tunes. There's a vast array of styles, a wealth of quality material. Possibly The Beatles most successful 'rock' LP is The White Album, the very early albums I'm discounting as they were still rooted in rock n roll rather than 'rock', if you understand what I mean? Although others had already turned their back on the more overt summer of love sounds, it was 'The White Album' that confirmed a new back to basics approach. It kind of fit The Beatles in with all the budding blues-rock bands that popped up during the late sixties and ensured The Beatles remained as relevant as ever. SEVENTIESThe often maligned progressive rock scene has to be presented somewhere as far as i'm concerned and the singer/songwriter boom of the early seventies, also. I could have picked from any number of singer/songwriter LPs, yet the Joni Mitchell effort laid down a template for numerous female singer/songwriters to come for decades after. The boys from Yes, including Rick Wakeman, produced arguably their masterpiece with 'Close To The Edge' and the side-long title track in particular. It was almost as if the back to basics of the blues boom had never happened and the searching outwards and onwards that characterised the mid-sixties scene had continued apace.6) Blue - Joni Mitchell 7) Close To The Edge - Yes PUNK/POST PUNKI'm of the opinion that year zero, 1976, produced actually very little lasting or influential LPs. The Sex Pistols album was basically rehashed rock n roll played fast, with added anger and venom. Bands in the years immediately afterwards took the template laid down, added other influences and produced far more interesting and worthy material. Joy Division produced two essential LPs, the debut 'Unknown Pleasures' being the only one at least rooted in punk. Such was their development in their brief lifetime, they'd changed radically between albums one and two and by the time of 'Closer' didn't really resemble punk at all. 'Hex Enducation Hour' by Manchester band 'The Fall' took the sounds of Captain Beefheart, mixed them into a punk/stooges brew, married them to lyrics quite unlike anything we'd heard before and produced one of the most uncompromising artistic statements ever. Part of one of the tunes, 'Hip Priest' later found its way into 'Silence Of The Lambs', which should give you an indication of what to expect. It really is an important release within the post-punk era, showcasing just how far certain bands had taken the old 'one, two, three four'….8) Unknown Pleasures - Joy Division 9) Hex Enducation Hour - The Fall INDIE/ALTERNATIVE10) Doolittle - The PixiesWell, did you think I was going to choose 'Nevermind'? Nirvana may have been the band that broke through, yet every single aspect of their sound could be heard elsewhere, from Sonic Youth to Mudhoney to The Pixies. Kurt Cobain himself credited The Pixies. The Pixies with their great grasp of not only dynamics but pop tunes as well… think about it. The link is there and arguably 'Doolittle' is the bands greatest release, if not necessarily the one always picked out as being the most historically important. Either way, The Pixies are utterly essential and influential and demand to be here on the list. NINETIES AND BEYOND11) Selected Ambient Works 85-92 - Aphex TwinHow could I possibly pick just two? Dance music needs to be mentioned, although Aphex Twin actually isn't dance, is he? He's electronic. He builds his own instruments, lives in Aphex Towers and drives a tank. A true eccentric, his music seemed to be beamed from another planet altogether. Any one of his albums could be recommended really, but 'Ambient Works' was the one that started it all. People can bandy around names like Brian Eno, yet Aphex Twin insists he never listened to Brian Eno. His music is a world removed anyway, his emergence lent credibility to a whole host of similar artists that were popping up independently around the same time. Without even attempting a rock crossover, Aphex Twin appealed to Rock fans and opened up a whole new world for them. 12) Ok Computer – Radiohead Dark Side Of The Moon for the nineties? Possibly. All I remember thinking at the time was the video for 'Paranoid Android' and why it wasn't a glossy, show off commercial video. It was a cartoon, it fitted the music but MTV would shun it until a few years later. American critics received preview copies of OK Computer glued into specially designed walkmans. They came round, the American public came round and whatever Radiohead ever do, people will always look back to 'OK Computer' as the moment Radiohead ceased being merely a nifty little impressive band, and became something far more important instead. 'OK Computer' is central to their career. SUMMARY / COMMENTSWell, that’s it really. Any disputes, debates, please send them in. If you’ve got your own list and reasons for your choices, send them in and it may well be printed here.Share Your Views? / Message Board |