Small Faces – ”Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake” (1968)

This album is a little gem. A psychedelic creation that’s fun and enjoyable to listen to, even if it’s a little too funny and whimsical at times. Most people believe that Ogden's Nut Gone Flake was Small Faces’ best creation.

The A-side is of the traditional kind in that it is a set of individual songs, while the B-side consists of a cohesive theme where we hear the story of Happiness Stan, who embarks on the search for the answer to where half the moon has gone. As an additional plus, he also gets the answer to the meaning of life after an encounter with Mad John. The spoken story is interspersed with groovy music.

Personally, I like the A-side best, which consists of a row of fantastic songs. It opens up with the somewhat bombastic and instrumental title track and then continues towards even greater heights. At the moment the A-side belongs to one of my absolute favourites when it comes to music from the psychedelic era. Really great creations.

The B-side is also good, the songs are nice but I think the story of Happiness Stan is a little bit too whimsical. I probably would have liked it better if they had told the story with music only. The spoken narrative takes up a little too much time, also. But as I said, the songs are good when you finally get to hear them.

From the start, the cover of the LP was round as the tobacco tins it parodies. But it was too expensive, so after a while it was changed to an ordinary, quadratic, cover. I have of course a quadratic cover, when a LP with the original cover for once shows up it usually costs around 200 USD (here in Sweden), a vinyl record trader told me.

 

Small Faces could never play the whole Ogden's Nut Gone Flake live as the music was a bit too complex, especially the B-side with a lot of studio work and additions. 1969 Steve Marriott left the band and was later replaced with Ron Wood and Rod Stewart. The band then shortened its name to Faces.

Odgen's Nut Gone Flake is a record that can be recommended, especially if you like music from the 60s later half with a psychedelic touch. That it becomes a little too whimsical at times, one can survive. I had to look for quite a while before I finally found it in a vinyl record store in Uppsala, but surely it's quicker through the internet if you’re interested.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake 2:26
2. Afterglow Of Your Love 3:31
3. Long Agos And  Worlds Apart 2:35
4. Rene 4:29
5. Song Of A Baker 3:15
6. Lazy Sunday 3:05

Side B

1. Happiness Stan 2:35
2. Rollin’ Over 2:50
3. The Hungry Intruder 2:15
4. The Journey 4:12
5. Mad John 2:48
6. Happy Days Toy Town 4:17

Pink Floyd – “Animals” (1977)
 



Compared with their previous album Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd has spiced Animals with large does of bitterness and bleakness. Both in therms of the theme - we humans are likened to pigs, dogs and sheep - and the sound. It's not the big sweeping soundscapes created on their earlier 70s albums, that dope smoking and acid eating people had (and still have) as their favourite soundtrack. Instead, it's a non-druggy, guitar driven sound. The keyboardist Richard Wright is heard more in the background, even though he has a prominent role in some shorter passages. The songs are a bit trickier, there are long songs without the usual verse-chorus-verse structure (which in no way is unusual when it comes to Pink Flyd). But it's not a single radio friendly track, therefore Animals can be a bit of a challenge, even for a Pink Floyd fan.

 

But it's a good album, no doubt.

 

 

Of course you can discuss whether it's a Pink Floyd album or a Roger Waters album. Opinions differ. Waters wrote all the songs except Dogs on side A, in which Gilmour helped out. On the other hand, Dogs fills up the whole A-side (more or less), which means the song is half the record. Gilmour claims that he wrote 90% of Dogs, so he doesn’t feel he was pushed out from Animals in any way.

 

However, there is no doubt that Waters at this time became increasingly dominant of Pink Floyd and considered himself to be its leader and main composer. Especially Wright and Waters had many conflicts, which some years later ended with Wright getting fired (but was rehired to The Wall tour). Animals is the first album where Wright hasn’t contributed with any songs which is sad. Wright is a bit like George Harrison in the Beatles, he doesn’t write that many songs, but the ones he does are really good.

 

The album was recorded in a new studio Pink Floyd had built in an old church, Britannia Row. The story about the cover has also become a legend, with the inflatable pig that broke loose and flew away. In fact, the final cover is a montage of two photos - the sky was more dramatic first photo shoot and then the pig was copied in. It was Waters who had the idea for the cover.

 

The pig in concert

The songs are long and branches off in different directions, all with their own character. And no doubt they are very qualitative and fascinating - beautiful guitar solos, sheep bleating, dogs barking and the sometimes quite up-tempo music breaks off into more quiet instrumental passages. It’s an album that can be recommended, but if one expects something like the earlier, more druggy, albums, it might be a disappointment. Here, Waters bitterness against humanity has taken over and seems to be the main inspiration. It's more English, bleak, social realism than drug-friendly musical journeys. It's not an album one gets particularly happy to listen to, maybe that’s the reason I haven’t played it as much as many of Pink Floyd’s other 70's creations.

 

OK, I'm writing bleak, English social realism, but it's still Pink Floyd - the qualitative dope music’s godfathers and pioneers. And this can also be heard on Animals. A perhaps more accurate expression might be bitter and bleak dope music with a very pessimistic view on people and society. In fact, sometimes Waters seems even contemptuous. Contemptuous dope music?

 

 

Tracklist

Side A

1. Pigs On The Wing (Part 1) 1:25
2. Dogs 17:03

Side B

1. Pigs (Three Different Ones) 11:25
2. Sheep 10:25
3. Pigs On The Wing (Part II) 1:23

Beatles - "Let It Be" (1970)

Purchased at age of 16 when the Beatles was still a relatively unexplored concept, and their music was new to yours truly. This is not one of my favorite records with the Beatles, on the contrary, I think it's pretty boring.

The debate has long been running in the music world on how to look at this Beatles album. Is this their last album or not? And is it really a "real" Beatles album? Opinions differ since it was recorded early in 1969, before Abbey Road. But it was released in 1970, after Abbey Road. At the same time some last studio recordings were made to Let It Be in 1970. Hmmmm... Also, many people believe that Let It Be is to be regarded more as a soundtrack to the documentary film that was made in connection with the recordings, and not a "real" album.

 

To make it simple, I think Let It Be is a real Beatles album and that it was their last, although Abbey Road would have been a much more beautiful goodbye.

The recordings were made during a time when the Beatles members’ relations were strained. It went so far that George Harrison left the band after fights with Lennon and McCartney, but was persuaded to come back after a week. During his absence, Lennon suggested that Eric Clapton could take over from Harrison, but Ringo and McCartney said no. Lennon had a lot of other stuff going on at the time and was generally uninterested in the band and the recordings, while McCartney was trying to find the band’s old energy. He thought that a more "back to basics" approach, and more playing live, would bring them to this goal. But it didn’t work out so well.

 

The result on the record is considered to be affected by the dodgy relationships within the band, and the final blow, many people think, was Lennon's idea to submit some songs to Phil Spector for a final touch.

The recording started in the film studio Twickerham and continued in a studio in the basement of the Apple offices (Apple as in the Beatles' record label, not the computer company). It was on this building’s roof they had their famous concert which the police stopped after a while. The songs Dig A Pony, I've Got A Feeling and One After 909 is from this gig.

 

Beatles rehearsed a lot of songs during the recording of Let It Be of which some are heard on Abbey Road, but also on the members’ later solo albums. Apparently there are many bootlegs around since everything was filmed and taped. I haven’t seen the documentary, but apparently the band's internal conflicts are to be seen clearly, and many believe that it’s a film about a band in disintegration rather than a band in a creative process.

As mentioned, I have never liked Let It Be. Not only is it a different sound on many songs, more of McCartney's a bit rough "back to basics" without exciting studio effects of psychedelic and experimental kind. And many songs are not that good, basically. There are many, including the Beatles members themselves, that don’t like Phil Spector's Wall of Sound treatment on selected songs, especially Across The Universe and The Long And Winding Road. Personally I have always liked Across The Universe in Spector's version, the most druggy and psychedelic song on the record. However, I hate the cheesy The Long And Winding Road. As always Harrison contributes with nice stuff in the form of I Me Mine and For Your Blue. A previous favorite was Dig A Pony, but today I think less of it. However, I have come to like the opening track Two Of Us better, where Lennon and McCartney sing in harmony.

 

Well, if it's one of the Beatles albums you can skip I guess it’s Let It Be. The title song is a classic, but I think it's a little too cheesy. But it’s still an album of the Beatles, music history's most legendary and probably most important band, so it still feels like a must-have in the collection.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Two Of Us 3:37
2. Dig A Pony 3:55
3. Across The Universe 3:48
4. I Me Mine 2:26
5. Dig It 0:50
6. Let It Be 4:03
7. Maggie Mae 0:40

Side B

1. I’ve Got A Feeling 3:38
2. One After 909 2:54
3. The Long And Winding Road 3:38
4. For Your Blue 2:32
5.Get Back 3:09

 

Joe Walsh – ”But Seriously Folks…” (1978)

When I lived in the US 1989-90 I listened quite a lot to radio stations with classic rock as their niche. Now and then a song called Life's Been Good was played, and I thought it was pretty good. Although I wasn’t familiar with the lyrics I experienced the chorus line Life's been good to me so far as very positive and uplifting, it always had me create some distance from my confused teenage life and realize that life was actually pretty good. And I suddenly became happy and euphoric.

But I had no idea who the artist was and thought on my return to Sweden that I would never hear the song again (remember, these were the days before internet and Google). Then one day I found a cheap LP with someone called Joe Walsh of whom I had no knowledge. But it was such a cool cover I couldn’t resist buying it. It was laying around at home for quite some time before I played it the first time. What I heard I thought was so-so, it wasn’t really my kind of music. At the time I always searched for druggy, mysterious and obscure music, and what I heard on But Seriously Folks ... was quite far from it. To say the least. I thought it was boring standard rockn’roll without anything special. Actually a real B-album. If I remember correctly, I didn’t even listen to the entire album, but let B-side remain unplayed for a long time. In my world, Joe Walsh was a nobody who probably got to make one record that no one bought, and then nothing more.

So imagine my surprise when I finally played the B-side, you still have to play through all your LPs, and the last song was Life's Been Good! A coincidence of cosmic proportions, I thought.

Somehow I thought that this was a lesson - that I had an album at home, laying around unplayed for a long time, which turned out to contain one of my favourite songs and my musical alternative to antidepressant medication. I don’t really know what this lesson consisted of, today I surely have 100 LPs at home which I haven’t had time to listen to yet, and I’m in no hurry, either. Who knows what’s hidden in them.

 

Joe Walsh had a relatively successful solo career alongside his commitment as a guitarist in Eagles, and before that James Gang and Barnstorm. Far from being a nobody. But Seriously Folks ... contains his biggest hit - Life's Been Good. The music on the album is closer to Eagles than Pink Floyd, you can surely say. I suppose, anyway. I haven’t heard much with Eagles, honestly. But all other four Eagle members participate on the album.

It's pretty straightforward, easygoing rockn’roll, mostly with a feel-good vibe. Today, I like it better than I did at the time of purchase. First, I know what to expect from the album, and my need for mystical and obscure music not as big anymore. There are good songs and a nice production. The songs are generally guitar based, with song. But you also get the instrumentals Inner Tube and Theme From Boat Weirdos. Quite a nice album, which may not affect me deeply, but still is OK. The opening track Over And Over is a favourite today together with Second Hand Store and Theme From Boat Weirdos.

 

The hit Life's Been Good is a rather humorous and unpretentious description of Walsh’s life as a rockn’roll star. Walsh ran his own presidential campaign in 1980 and one of his issues was making this song to the new national anthem. One of his campaign promises was Free Gas For Everyone. Joe Walsh seems to be a pretty fun guy, but he didn’t become president.

The music on But Seriously Folks ... is still not really my kind of music, but I like the album better the older I get. So today I must say it’s a pretty good album.

 

 

Tracklist

Side A

1. Over And Over 4:52
2. Second Hand Store 3:36
3. Indian Summer 3:03
4. At The Station 5:09

Side B

1. Tomorrow 3:38
2. Inner Tube 1:25
3. Theme From Boat Weirdos 4:44
4. Life’s Been Good 8:04

Jerry Harrison – “The Red And The Black” (1981)
 

 

As an old Talking Heads fan I couldn’t resist when I found this album cheap somewhere in Uppsala. The time of this purchase was during my late teens when I was in high school. At the time, a record purchase was a major life event.

For those who don’t know Jerry Harrison, he was the keyboardist in Talking Heads, at times also their guitarist. Prior to his involvement in Talking Heads, he was in the band The Modern Lovers. The Red And The Black was his first solo album and was recorded between the Talking Heads albums Remain In Light and Speaking In Tounges. And yes, we hear a lot of Talking Heads in the music, or is it that we hear a lot of Jerry Harrison in Talking Heads’ music? David Byrne has always been credited as the creator of Talking Heads’ music and sound, but many believe that Jerry Harrison has been sadly overlooked when it comes to this.

 

Jerry Harrison's voice differs from Byrne's which gives the songs on The Red And The Black his own personal touch, but would you replace his voice with Byrne’s, many of the songs could have been taken from Speaking In Tounges or Remain In Light. A similar sound, in other words. It's funky, rhythmic and neurotic.

Personally, I’ve always had a hard time with this album. I find it difficult to really get into the music, it's like a compact wall I can’t pass, I haven’t found the door. So I’m left standing outside wondering what’s going inside. I know a lot of people appreciate The Red And The Black, and it gets good reviews online. But the funky sound mangling makes me tired, and the sound is exactly the same in all songs. So after a while I feel a bit bored, more variety would have made life easier for yours truly. Worlds In Collision is the track I like best, where Harrison has created a song that sounds more like the music on his album Casual Gods which was released later during the 80’s.

The album took just two weeks to record, and Nona Hendryx contributes with choir and on guitar Andrew Belew is heard.

 

Tracklist

Side A

1. Things Fall Apart 4:58
2. Slink 4:17
3. The New Adventure 5:05
4. Magic Hymie 4:48

Side B

1. Fast Karma/No Questions 3:55
2. Worlds In Collision 5:03
3. The Red Nights 4:03
4. No More Reruns 4:23
5. No Warning, No Alarm 3:35

Kate Bush - "Sensual World" (1989)

It was through this album I discovered Kate Bush, an artist who then became one of my favourites. I was 17 years old and lived for a year as an exchange student in Ohio, 1989-90. The song Love And Anger was played regularly on MTV and I found it quite good, but since a lot of other stuff also was played on MTV I moved on. Back home in Sweden I found the album for sale, and the memory of Love And Anger made me buy it, a bit of a chance. I had no idea who Kate Bush was, really.

At this time you could go to the Uppsala City Library and visit their music room. There were thousands of albums to choose from and listen to, sitting in nice sofas with comfy earphones. A lot of great music has entered yours truly’s ears in this room.

Since I found Sensual World pretty good, I checked out some of Kate Bush's earlier works in this music room and liked what I heard. Fairly quickly, I had all of her records at home and since then she has followed me through life. All thanks Sensual World.

Sensual World was Kate Bush's sixth album and it feels like it was recorded quite late in her career, but she was actually just 31 years old when it was released. Many haven’t even started a career then. Looking at the opening song, the title track, Kate was inspired by James Joyce's book Ulysses. I can’t recall reading it, which I suspect is a major gap in my literary education based on how important everyone seems to think it is, so I have no idea of its plot. But the song is good.

As usual with Kate, Sensual World contains a lot of good songs, and some a bit boring. Love And Anger has always been a favourite of mine, danceable, happy and energetic. On guitar we hear David Gilmour, the man who helped Kate in the beginning of her career, and who has since then been by her side at times. Love And Anger is followed by one of Kate’s most suggestive, mystic and evocative songs, The Fog. It's a song that sucks you right in to a… fog?

 

 

The B-side opens up with Deeper Understanding which is about a person's relationship with his/her computer, a relationship that seems to be more important than the relationship to people. Maybe Kate saw the future and what awaited with Internet, Facebook and vinyl blogs. A good song although I'm not really fond of the chorus’ electronic voice.

On the album’s most bombastic number, Rocket's Tail, the Bulgarian ensemble Trio Bulgarka is given a lot of room, which is positive. They can also be heard on two other songs on the record. The album ends with the beautiful and calm This Woman's Work, which gets even the most hard-hearted tears in their eyes. As usual, Kate manages the piano.

 

Compared to Kate's earlier albums Sensual World does pretty good. It’s more accessible than her previous records, for better or worse. In many of the songs Kate sings with a much softer voice than usual, yes, one might even call it sensual. The sound is in general quite soft and it is a well produced album, Kate herself is the producer. I have a little bit harder to feel a wholeness when it comes to Sensual World compared to Kate’s earlier records. Instead there are a list of individual songs, of which each one is good, but the album itself looses some concerning the overall experience. In any way, it’s a good album and might be a good starting point to check out Kate Bush and her work. Sensual World lays one step closer to the commercial music on the charts than her previous records, but not too close. A little less art rock and a bit more pop.

 

Tracklist

Side A

1. The Sensual World 3:53
2. Love And Anger 4:42
3. The Fog 5:01
4. Reaching Out 3:11
5. Heads We’re Dancing 5:15

Side B

1. Deeper Understanding 4:40
2. Between A Man And A Woman 3:29
3. Never Be Mine 3:42
4. Rocket’s Tail 4:03
5. This Woman’s Work 3:31

Rolling Stones – “Let It Bleed” (1969)
 

The theme for the day is probably the LP in the collection I paid the most for, but since I don’t have the habit of paying excessive prices for my records we’re not talking astronomical sums. If you have children at home who want to have nutrition on the table it's hard to justify purchases of LPs that cost a week's food... But only the opening track Gimmie Shelter is worth the 40 USD I had to pay.

I came across the album when it had just arrived in the store, but I hesitated. As it was still in the store a few weeks later, I saw it as a sign that I must buy it. You've got to find signs in the reality when you need them. My copy is an early pressing from -69 in a very good condition, it has the poster and flyer for the Stones fanclub left, both absolutely flawless. The content in the form of the music is also good, this is a classic with some of Stones' most famous songs.

The poster from inside the cover

Let It Bleed was the last album where Brian Jones played, he died a few months before it was released and you hear him on two songs. The album is also the first in which his replacement Mick Taylor plays, he’s also on two songs.

The album opens up, as mentioned, with Gimmie Shelter which in my world is Stone's best creation and one of the best songs the 60s managed to produce. Although I've heard it a lot, and it often pops up in different contexts, I don’t get tired of it. A pretty dark song with a restrained energy. Mick Jagger's vocals are topped by Merry Clayton's amazing vocal performance and she gives the song an extra dimension, without her the song had probably not been the same. Apparently Clayton had a miscarriage when she came home from the studio, which some claim was due to the effort required of the high notes she sang.

The back side of the cover

But there are more goodies on the album. The B-side opens up with the dark and hypnotic Midnight Rambler and it ends with another classic in the form of You Can’t Always Get What You Want, a song I’ve never been overfond of. The title track, side A’s last number, must also be defined as a classic. It has been speculated that Let It Bleed was aimed at the Beatles song/album Let It Be, but the answer to this knows probably just Jagger & Co. themselves.

In addition to the more well known songs there are also some other nice tracks on the album, and some less good. On You Got The Silver Keith Richards sings for the first time an entire song himself, and it’s good song, sounds a lot like Dylan. Country Honk is a version of Honky Tonk Woman and is less good. They also do a cover, Love In Vain by Robert Johnson, a pretty good, calm, number. Monkey Man I think is quite OK while Live With Me is not a favorite, kind of boring. And so I think I've mentioned all the songs. I've never been a big fan of Rolling Stones but can’t help thinking that Let It Bleed is a really good album. A somewhat dark record from a somewhat dark time (most people think of the Vietnam war when you say that). The colourful cover (also a classic) almost gives the impression of a bubble gum pop album, which is a contrast to the music.

Can be mentioned that it’s the last Stones album that was released in a mono version, although in a very small number. If you find that version in a good condition you don’t pay 40 USD, you probably have to ad a zero to that number.

Yeah, if someone wonders, Gimmie Shelter is spelled that way on the album. Nowadays it’s called Gimme Shelter in most contexts.

 

 

Tracklist

Side A

1. Gimmie Shelter 4:30
2. Love In Vain 4:19
3. Country Honk 3:07
4. Live With Me 3:33
5. Let It Bleed 3:33

Side B

1. Midnight Rambler 6:52
2. You Got The Silver 2:50
3. Monkey Man 4:11
4. You Can’t Always  Get What You Want 7:28

T. Rex - "Electric Warrior" (1971)

A glam rock classic that has just managed to come to my home. I've been looking for a while but it has been difficult to find in Uppsala's vinyl record stores. So while visiting friends in Quebec this summer, I of course visited the city's record dealers, and in a shelf named "Rare vinyl" I found it! Imagine I would have to go all the way to Canada to find this album.

I have no greater knowledge of Marc Bolan's and T. Rex earlier (or later) works. In my CD collection there is a greatest hits album which I haven't listened a lot to, so I find it hard to compare Electric Warrior to other albums they did. But I understand from what I've read online that this was the band's final step into the glam rock world, from a more hippie folk rock world. It was their sixth album (the second under the name of T. Rex, they called themselves Tyrannosarius Rex the first four albums). Many think that Electric Warrior is T. Rex best album and that it largely laid the foundation for, and started, the whole genre of glam rock. A true classic that also made the band famous in the United States, which is usually all artists big dream. At least in the 60's and 70's.

I think it's a good album. I have never listened to much glam rock and honestly don't really know what the genre sounds like, but I guess it sounds like Electric Warrior. The songs are of high quality and are fun to listen to - kind of half druggy, semi whimsical creations that Bolan sometimes seems to sing with a little smile on his lips. You never know if he's serious or joking. It's a lot of guitar, mostly electrical ones, but the acoustic version can also be heard. For example the beautiful song Girl has a more acoustic sound.

I should I complain about something I think the production, the sound, is a little dark and drab, almost a bit lo-fi. Besides the aforementioned Girl the sound is quite the same in all songs, Bolans voice contributes to this since it's easily recognizable and sets a clear stamp on the songs. The last number Rip Off is a bit odd at the album where Bolan and T. Rex approaches punk long before the birth of punk.
 

The album contains T. Rex's biggest hit Get It On. On my Canadian edition the song has the title Bang A Gong (Get It On) to distinguish it from Chase's song Get It On which was released at the same time. Jeepster was also a hit from the album. That's definitely two good songs, but according to me there are even better ones on the record. One of my favorites is Planet Queen. Electric Warrior reached number one on the UK charts and became 1971's best-selling album in England.

There's really no weak tracks on Electric Warrior (OK, I'm not so fond of Lean Woman Blues) so I can definitely recommend this album. But T. Rex has a sound that is easily recognizable and which one can not hide from, so if you don't like the sound you'll probably not like the album. I have a soft spot for the 70's music, one thing that was better compared to today's music was that even commercial music, as T. Rex must be deemed to have been, wasn't always so commodified. I get the feeling that Bolan did music mainly based on what he thought was groovy and the way he wanted it, and didn't let his songs go through a mass producing filter that would make it more accessible to people. There was greater room for individuality.

Yes, I know this may just be a romantic illusion I have, but I let it be a truth in my life. That makes music from the 60's and 70's more interesting than today's commercial music.


Tracklist

Side A
1. Mambo Sun 3:38
2. Cosmic Dancer 4:26
3. Jeepster 4:10
4. Monolith 3:45
5. Lean Woman Blues 3:01

Side B
1. Bang A Gong (Get It On) 4:24
2. Planet Queen 3:11
3. Girl 2:29
4. The Motivator 3:57
5. Life's A Gas 2:23
6. Rip Off 3:38