Big Brother and the Holding Company - "Cheap Thrills" (1968)

Just the cover designed by Robert Crumb makes this album worth buying. It was actually to be the back of the cover, with a portrait of Janis on the front, but she thought it was such a cool picture that it became the cover. From the start, the band had thought a photo of themselves naked in a bed would be the cover, but the label thought for some reason differently.

Janis, yes, this was her big break when she became Janis Joplin with the whole world. This was the band's second album together with her, and the last, as she later began her solo career. Already then most people felt that she was the big star, and that the band was merely a backing band for her. Many also complained that the band members' musical skills left some to be desired. In other words, everyone was only waiting for her to embark on her own adventures. But they were still a band when Cheap Thrills was released.

The album starts with Bill Graham introducing the band to an audience's noise. Sound from an audience is continued to be heard on the album, and many thought it was a live album. But it was not, it was only sound added to create a live atmosphere. The last song Ball and Chain is the only one recorded live. Rest of the album was recorded in a studio New York. This became one of 1968 year's best selling albums.

When I was younger I didn't like Janis. At that time I didn't know that she was actually a member of a band a time of her career, she was so dominant in the listening experience. I thought her voice was too hoarse. And I wasn't, and have never been, a blues man of rank. Today, I have changed my opinion on Janis. Today, I think her voice expresses so much emotion. A unique voice. But it's not always working for me. Sometimes her voice, together with the band, becomes too loud and noisy. My wife usually complains when the album is spinning on the stereo, since it is so loud, and she lets out a sigh of relief when it's over. The album is a full of (Janis') feelings, which requires some emotional involvement of the listener. To sing with the passion she does have to tear hard on the vocal cords and make you emotionally drained. At least it feels that way when you hear her. It's not as if she sings half committed.

The best songs I think are the covers, which are also the songs that became the biggest hits and therefore the most well known. Summertime, Piece of My Heart and Ball and Chain. It's good stuff, the other songs are OK, but not at the same level. The sound on the album is pretty unpolished and noisy, in general. Everyone probably don't like Janis' voice, and since it dominates the album one should probably like it to appreciate the record. I have, thanks to the maturity my age has given me, learned to like Janis. I saw a documentary about her a few weeks ago. A tragic life story of a girl who suffered a lot from the surroundings. She got to be 27 years old before she died in her hotel room in 1970.


Tracklist

Side A
1. Combination of the Two 5:47
2. I Need a Man to Love 4:54
3. Summer Time 4:01
4. Piece of My Heart 4:15

Side B
1. Turtle Blues 4:22
2. Oh, SweetMary 4:16
3. Ball and Chain 9:02

Leonard Cohen - "Death of a Ladies' Man" (1977)

Some matchings are stranger and more surprising than others. Leonard Cohen and Phil Spector, for example. The thoughtful poet, often minimalist musician with the crazy Wall-of-sound-guns-nut producer. A match made in heaven? I think not.

The stories go somewhat apart how these two found each other, but they had in common that both careers had been a little stalled and needed fresh air. So they sat down and wrote a bunch of songs together, Cohen the words, Spector the music. And then into the studio, or rather three different studios, with musicians who apparently were among the best in the industry.

The recording was like the legends say they were with Spector, guns everywhere in the studio, Spector once aimed one at Cohen and cocked the hammer etc. A generally crazy atmosphere. According to Cohen, Spector was quite normal when they were alone, but the more people that came into the studio, the more insane Spector got.

Phil Spector

One day Spector disappeared with everything they had recorded, to complete the final mix. Cohen was not at all prepared for this, the song he'd recorded was just to support the musicians, he had meant to do the final song later. But that didn't matter, Spector had made up his mind, and nothing could be done.

Personally, I'm not too fond of this album. Maybe it's because I have listened to more of Cohen's earlier works, with a more simple sound, and have difficulties fusing Spector's Wall of Sound with Cohen. And the songs are not that great anyway, not at the same level with what Cohen did, both earlier and later. And I don't know, a song like Don't Go Home With Your Hard-On becomes too different when it comes to my idea of Cohen (yes, I know he'd written a song with giving me head on the unmade bed. But that was a beautiful song.). Although that is the song that I, to my horror, sometimes go anround humming. But the chorus sticks in the head. Fingerprints sounds like Cohen joined the Salvation Army and sings Country & Western with the saviors. Sure, kind of fun.

Sometimes it sounds a little Lee Hazlewood, which could be a compliment, but sorry, I don't fall for this album. Probably an important root for my suspicion is that I have a pretty solid idea of ​​how Cohen should sound. If someone else had made this album, I might have been a little more positive.

I would instead recommend Cohen's last work, You Want It Darker. He left us a short time ago, and my new, and his old hometown of Montreal, has been in mourning. He lived in a house near us, and one evening we walked there, lit a candle that contributed to the sea of ​​candles, flowers and other things people had put outside his door. All weekend after his funeral, people made pilgrimage there. A man's death brought known and unknown together, and created a temporary feeling of community.


Tracklist

Side A
1. True Love Leaves No Traces 4:26
2. Iodine 5:03
3. Paperthin 5:42 Hotel
4. Memories 5:59

Side B
1. Left a Woman Waiting 3:28
2. Do not Go Home With Your Hard-On 5:36
3. Fingerprints 2:58
4. Death of a Ladies' Man 9:19

Grateful Dead - "Wake of the Flood" (1973)

I had to search for a long time before I finally found this album in one of Montreal's stores for used vinyl. Some wear and tear, but the asked price was still relatively high, and no bargaining could be done. Early releases of Grateful Dead albums seem to be attractive. This was the band's sixth studio album, ninth including live albums, and the first one they released on their own label. Since the last studio album American Beauty, released three years earlier, the keyboardist / vocalist / harmonica player Ron "Pigpen" McKernan had died as a result of his alcohol use. Keith Godchaux was now the keyboardist (he had already been the band's keyboardist a few years, while Pigpen played the bongos, harmonica and sang). It gave the music a clearer direction towards jazz rather than blues, as when Pigpen was still in the band.

All Grateful Dead connoisseurs claim that it was the concerts that were magic, and that the studio albums never reached these heights. I would have liked to see Grateful Dead live, but now I haven't, so I haven't much to compare with. What I've heard many talk about are the concerts' magic, long jam sessions, something that is difficult to recreate in the studio. Personally, I think long blues jams can get a little boring and unfocused, so maybe just as well I never saw them. I really like many of their studio albums. Especially Wake of the Flood.

The two opening songs, Mississppi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo and Let Me Sing Your Blues Away, are not something I fall for. I hear nothing unique about them, any band could have done those. But then the wind turns, and that it does significantly. In my world, Row Jimmy is amongst the finest Grateful Dead ever created. A beautiful, quiet and melancholy song, with a text you don' t understand anything of. On Youtube I've seen live versions of the song that are even better, especially Garcia's two guitar solo parts he plays differently in different time periods. Just this song makes the LP worth buying. Many regards the following Stella Blue as one of the band's finest songs, and it's beautiful, even if it gets in the shadow of Row Jimmy.

Side B is groovy right through. Here Comes Sunshine slides towards the psychedelic genre in the chorus, while Eyes of the World is more up tempo, danceable and energetic. The epic closer, Weather Report Suite, is the only one Garcia / Hunter didn't write, instead Weir is the creator. A really good song that apparently evolved to an even more epic tune in later concerts. It is divided into three suites. The band had played almost all the songs in concerts for about six months before the recording started. In other words, they've had time to develop and test them in different versions.

I still have a deep-rooted image of the Grateful Dead as an über psychedelic band. None of the (studio) albums I have offer this kind of music, though. My albums range from the 60s to the 80s, and it's a lot of blues, country & western, prog, rock 'n' roll, and not so much psychedelia. Either my mental image is completely wrong, or it originates from the eminent book Electric Cool Aid Acid Test, which describes their concerts at the Mery Pranksters LSD events, or it's a side of the band that were more present during concerts. In any case, Wake of the Flood is a really good album, which I think many can like. Not psychedelia, more laid back rock, jazz, blues and maybe some soul.


Tracklist

Side A
1. Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo 5:45
2. Let Me Sing Your Blues Away 3:17
3. Row Jimmy 7:14
4. Stella Blue 6:26

Side B
1. Here Comes Sunshine 4:40
2, Eyes of the World 5:19
3. Weather Report Suite 12:53

David Crosby - "If I Could Only Remember My Name" (1971)

The people who join Crosby on this LP are like an allstar teams when it comes the psychedelic era. Jerry Garcia, Grace Slick, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Graham Nash, Jorma Kaukonen, Paul Kantner and others The risk with such an accumulation of musicians, all stars in their own, is that it becomes unfocused, too many ideas to put down on one album. This is not the case with Crosby's solo debut, though. Overall, the music has a clear direction and Crosby seems to have held a firm hand over the production and kept the other musicians in reasonably reins.

I like this album a lot better than Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's Déjà Vu, the album Crosby appeared on before the solo debut. Side A is filled with laid-back songs with great vocal harmonies and airy guitar playing. It's a little west coast rock over it. And you get the pleasure of hearing Garcia play guitar / steel guitar on the songs. The only weak song, according to me, is the long Cowboy Movie, it sounds more like a standard rock number you've heard a hundred of different versions of, difficult to hear something unique with it. Otherwise, just sit back, relax and enjoy the beauty Crosby creates with his harmonies and fellow musicians.

The B-side opens with What Are Their Names that sounds like a Jefferson Airplane song, and indeed both Slick and Kantner participate on the song. This song is a little loud compared to most other songs on the album. The following songs offer a greater beauty as Crosby is back in a calmer area, with fine guitar playing and beautiful harmonies, although I may find Traction In the Rain a bit boring. The last two numbers, Orleans and I'd Swear There Was Somebody Here, teach the listener about more advanced harmonies with their acappella. A calm album, with some exceptions, which offers somewhat fragile, beautiful songs that should suit most people. Unfortunately, it would take until 1989 before Crosby releases an album again, due to advanced drug problems. Given the beauty of his debut album, the world probably missed out on something.


Tracklist

Side A
1. Music Is Love 3:16
2. Movie Cowboy 8:02
3. Tamalpais High (At About 3) 3:29
4. Laughing 5:20

Side B
1. What Are Their Names 4:09
2. Traction In The Rain 3:40
3. Song With No Words (Tree With No Leaves) 5:53
4. Orleans 1:56
5. I'd Swear There Was Somebody Here 1:19

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - "Déjà Vu" (1970)

Sometimes it becomes difficult when you don't really fall for an album that's hailed as a masterpiece, which have high rankings on lists on the theme "Best records ever," an album everyone seem to love. You get the feeling that something is wrong with you, that your musical taste is too primitive and / or you don't understand the music, and to express something critical will make the whole (musical) world turn against you. When it comes to Déjà Vu, I'm facing this dilemma.

Déjà Vu was Crosby, Stills & Nash's second album, and they had extended the trio to a quartet with the incorporation of Neil Young. They brotherly share the music input, on each side each member contributes with one song, and on side A we also get a Joni Mitchell cover in the song Woodstock, and the B-side closes with a Stills / Young song. "Brotherly" can probably be discussed since the band members were not particularly good friends at the time of the recording, and rarely spent time together in the studio. Instead, most of the songs were individually recoreded by each member.

The album opens up with a really good Stills song, Carry On. An energetic song, a breath of fresh air and beautiful vocal harmonies. If it would continue in the same way, I would have been a part of the mass that celebrates the album. But the only other song I like on side A is Young's Helpless, even if it sounds a lot like Knocking On Heaven's Door. The rest is pretty boring. Some Country & Western and some standard rock 'n' roll, nothing above the ordinary. It's a little fun that Jerry Garcia plays steel guitar on Teach Your Children, though, even if the song is so-so.

The B-side is more even, the only song I really don't like Nash's Our House, but that doesn't mean I love the rest. The other songs are OK, but not more. The title song is a little different in that it doesn't have the same verse, verse, chorus structure. A little more loose at the edges and airy, in a positive way. 4 + 20 is nice, but certainly not better than what Stills made on his following solo album. Likewise, Young's Country Girl is perfectly OK, but he has also done much better songs on his own albums. The record ends with the somewhat bombastic Everybody I Love You, again, not bad, but not a spot on the music's absolute top.

In summary, Déjà Vu is quite an average album. Personally, I would not rank it high on my "Best albums ever" list, or bring it to a deserted island for that matter. I suspect that if four completely unknown guys made this album, it had not been hailed in the same way. But with these four musical giants at the controls, the album will automatically be raised to the skies, regardless of the result (within certain limits, of course). Alternatively, it's me that there's something wrong with.


Tracklist

Side A
1. Carry On 4:26
2. Teach Your Children 2:53
3. Almost Cut My Hair 4:31
4. Helpless 3:33
5. Woodstock 3:54

Side B
1. Déjà Vu 4:12
2. Out House 2:59
3. 4 + 20 2:04
4. Country Girl 5:11
5. Everybody I Love You 2:21