"A Letter to Myself" by The Chi-Lites (1973)

NOTE: The vinyl version doesn't title the album on the cover, but it does say: "Featuring A Letter to Myself."

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Filed between: Cheap Trick and Eric Clapton.

Key Tracks:
A Letter to Myself.  It opens with harmonica, then harmonies, then silky spoken word.  Yeah, I'm there.  Sally.  [Jubilantly] "Sally's heart is dancing to another fella's tune."  (See my comments on Midnight Train to Georgia.)  We Need Order - see below.

Obvious Filler & Swings-and-Misses:
I am very protective of Too Late to Turn Back Now.  The Chi-Lites do a passable version, but it doesn't come close to the cool confidence and female backing vocals of the original Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose (who tie with The Chi-Lites for my favorite R&B act whose popularity was isolated exclusively to the early seventies).  Love Comes in All Sizes just doesn't work the way it should.  My Heart Just Keeps on Breakin' - see below.

My Overall Rating of the Tracks Separately:
Recommended Listening (3/4 stars).  Honestly though, whatever the rating I assign it, I can always have this kind and caliber of music playing and be happy.

The Chi-Lites do being alone as well as anybody.  They make it sound hurtful, heartfelt and hopeful all at the same time.  That's why I love this group.  They trade off lead vocals and swap right back into backing tracks as well as anybody too.  Their lyrics are usually solid and their arrangements are spot-on, even if they tend to be a bit reductive.  And it's all thanks to their fearless leader, Eugene Record.  That guy ought to be talked about the way Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye are talked about.  Well, almost.

Let me give you some examples.  A Letter to Myself and Sally are both lonesome and desperate, but catchy as hell.  And We Need Order sounds like the theme music from the best blaxploitation movie ever.  Even though the message is kind of muddled, the bassline is as surefooted as a mountain goat.  This song would have been awesome as a funky instrumental.

But then you get things like fiddles on My Heart Just Keeps on Breakin'!  It's country all the way, except for that bassline again.  And on this LP, My Heart Just Keeps on Breakin' is grossly out of place, despite being a great song.

So, is it an album?  No.  And on this LP, it doesn't even matter.  It still takes me to a place I love going.

Up next, a record I inherited from my mom.  I'll go ahead and tell you that this one doesn't really do it for me; it's "Rock Me" by David Cassidy.

"Madonna" by Madonna (1983)

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Filed between: Lynyrd Skynyrd and Manfred Mann

Key Tracks:
Borderline, Holiday, Physical Attraction

Obvious Filer & Swings-and-Misses:
I Know It (obvious filler), Everybody (Swing-and-a-Miss)

My Overall Rating of the Tracks Separately:
Average (2/4 stars)

The nostalgia filter strikes yet again.  I remember these songs seeming timeless.  Now, they're a lot of fun, but pretty disposable.  And thus we enter the "pop" discussion...

Along with Michael Jackson and Prince, Madonna defined pop icon for a generation.  Interestingly, on her first LP, that's not really apparent on her first effort.  Like MJ and the purple one, it would be her second release that would catapault her into the stratosphere.  In fact, "Madonna" is much more a dance record than a pop record.  A reflection of her club days, many of the tracks are about twice as long as a standard radio single.  But I think that's important.  This record serves as one of the bridges between disco and what came next.  What came next, it turns out, was Madonna.

I try not to talk too much about songs sounding dated, but in the "pop" discussion, you kinda have to.  It's one thing to have a song that's a hit in its own time; it's an altogether different thing for people to maintain affection for that song and for it to gain a new audience as time passess.  I have heard Brown Eyed Girl and Y.M.C.A. so many times that my ears bleed when they come on the radio now, but that happens for a reason.  They are both monumental tracks and when new listeners come across them, they immediately latch on.

Madonna has several songs like that, but not as many on "Madonna" as I thought.  These are more the kind of true "pop" song - those of us who heard them originally were so inundated with them, that we have developed something akin to Stockholm Syndrome when they crop back up.  We try to convince others of their merits, but the truth is - they're pop songs and will never have the same impact on those who weren't there for the zeitgeist.

Lucky Star is a prime example.  It's fair at best.  The lyrics are pretty dumb when you actually read them.  The melody is a throwaway.  And then there are the synths.  If the eighties taught us anything, it's that if you're going to rely on programmed sounds instead of musicians, you need to bring something interesting to the table lyrically or sonically.  That doesn't happen here.

In contrast, Borderline holds up pretty well.  It's got better lyrics and a richer sound which serve it well thirty years later.  It gets a good Motown-with-drum-machines vibe going.  Physical Attraction should be mentioned as well.  It's basically a precursor to the "Like a Virgin" LP and the sexuality that Madonna built her superstardom on.

So, is it an album?  No.  Holiday is the only track on the record that actually has a drummer.  It's also done by a totally different band and a totally different producer.  Consequently, it's also the only track on "Madonna" that sounds like a real song made by real people.

Up next, one of my favorite R&B groups of all time - The Chi-Lites with "A Letter to Myself."

"Slippery When Wet" by Bon Jovi (1986)

The cover that didn't get approved...




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Fun Fact:
The pic in the liner notes is awesome.  Eighties bikini car washes are cool.

Filed Between: Blondie and Boston

Obtained Via: Hasty Purchase at a Local Peddler's Mall

My Overall Rating of the Tracks Separately:
REQUIRED LISTENING.  Seriously, if you haven't heard every song on this record, you owe it to yourself to check them out.

And the award for best LP named after a stripper goes to...

We have reached an interesting point in the journey.  This is MY timeframe for music.  I remember these songs coming out.  These are the first in almost forty reviews that weren't part of some already-established canon when I came across them.  I played these songs on the jukebox.  I saw them when they first came out.  That's right, not heard them, but SAW them - we're talking MTV generation, baby.

And so, I give Bon Jovi a long leash.  They get tagged as balladmongers, but that really happened on releases after "Slippery When Wet."  For my money, I'll take this group of songs over "Hysteria," "Dr. Feelgood," "Open Up and Say... Ahh!," or pretty much any other hair rock LP you want to put it up against.  "Slippery When Wet" dominated the charts for the next two years and helped steer the course of popular music for the next four.  It may be the archetype of late eighties rock.

What I'm trying to say is, this is time capsule shit right here.  This is what they launch into deep space to represent our culture.  But I digress...

It kicks off with Let It Rock, which is everything you ever wanted in an uptempo hair metal song.  In case you haven't figured it out already, I don't consider "hair metal" at all a bad term.  There were just some really bad bands in that genre that got an awful lot of exposure.  But then you get tracks like this one and you can't help but dig it.

And You Give Love a Bad Name is even better.  This is another one of those songs that everybody knows.  This is another one of those songs my nine year old has on her iPod.  I still remember the first time I heard this song and how I wallowed in that awesome guitar break.

Livin' on a Prayer doesn't pop up until track three?  I would have never called that one.  I'm pretty sure Jon Bon Jovi kept a thesaurus hidden in all that hair.  When he wanted, he could be one of the best lyricists of the eighties (after Sting, of course).  And LOAP is one of the band's best lyrics ever.  It's also one of the best talk-box songs ever.  "Ooh wah ooh wah ooh!"  Am I right?

Wanted Dead or Alive.  As a Gen-Xer I can tell all you young'uns that it was something to behold indeed to see Jon and Richie do this one with just two acoustic guitars on live TV.  It gave me chills, man.  Chills.

I wish Raise Your Hands got more credit and airplay.  It would have been a hair rock standard if it hadn't been eclipsed by so many other songs on "Slippery."  God, I love Raise Your Hands.

I'd Die for You sounds like Runaway, only better.

And it closes with Wild in the Streets.  That track perfectly sums up the bridge between youthful senimentality and teenage angst - especially if (like me) you were a twelve year old boy when these songs came out.

So, is it an album?  Yes.  The Bon Jovi boys were clearly on a mission when they made this one.  This wasn't just one the many cash-ins that blemished the image of the genre.  This was the cash cow.  And the golden goose.

Up next, another selection from MY timeframe - Madonna's self-titled debut.

"Evolution" by Journey (1979)

View the Premise & Ground Rules for Revisiting Vinyl.

Fun Fact: I am always tempted to send a SASE to the fan club address listed on the sleeve on the remote chance I can actually still get the t-shirt AND poster for five dollars.

Filed Between: Janis Joplin and Judas Priest

Obtained Via: A Gift from a Good Friend

Absurd Liner Note Quote:
"Those of you who aspire to a career in music should know that Columbia Records stands alone in the field of developing new artists, and seeking out young and gifted talent."  It seems like Journey is almost pranking their label by asking kids everywhere to submit unsolicited demo tapes.

Key Tracks:
When You're Alone (It Ain't Easy) - Neal proves he's always been the heart of Journey with his simple, awesome guitar.  This also happens to be the most rockin' track on the LP. Sweet and Simple is one of many great Journey ballads.

Obvious Filler & Swings-and-Misses:
Daydream screams "Look how prog we are!" but it never delivers anything to back it up.  I think this song is why Journey landed on the "Heavy Metal" soundtrack (which contains VERY LITTLE heavy metal music).

My Overall Rating of the Tracks Separately:
Recommended Listening (3/4 stars)

"Evolution" is considered by some to be a lesser Journey recording.  But the fact is, it's still a classic-era Journey recording - it's got interesting cover art; it's got slick, bombastic production; it's basically one big power bllad from beginning to end.  Oh, and they are one ugly bunch of dudes.

But they make solid, catchy music.  Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin' cashes in on the seventies' fascination with the fifties.  It's a good enough song and made for a solid single for the band.  And it has that part where anybody can sing along, even if they've never heard the song before.  The infamous "nah nah, nah nah nah" is right up there with it's dubious cousin - the call and answer "hey!" - when it comes to instantaneous listener buy-in.

There are a lot of moments like that on "Evolution."  Yeah, it's obvious and it's a little hokey, but it's still just plain fun.  For example, I really like the quiet break that trickles into Lovin' You Is Easy.  The same goes for the vocalist change on Just the Same Way.  I have expressed my disdain for letting non-singers sing on LPs, but it works here for no real reason other than it's an interesting change of pace and it finds a really good classic rock groove.

So, is it an album?
Yes.  They say great minds think alike.  And (at least for a while) Neal Schon and Steve Perry were like minds.

Up next, get out your Aqua Net, for you are in the presence of hair rock royalty - it's "Slippery When Wet" by Bon Jovi.

"Moods" by Neil Diamond (1972)

NOTE: The vinyl album cover is a different picture (same outfit), in a sepia tone with no text.

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Filed Between: Derek & The Dominos and Dire Straits

Obtained Via: Purchase at a Goodwill

Key Tracks: Play Me and Walk on Water

Obvious Filler & Swings-and-Misses:
Porcupine Pie is a soft rock attempt at a raggae children's song.  Gitchy Goomy - gibberish songs are way harder to pull of than it seems.

My Overall Rating of the Tracks Separately:
Above Average (2.5/4 stars)

It turns out that Neil Diamond is the Rosetta Stone for the nostalgia filter.  After listening to "Moods," I have now unlocked it secrets and discovered its dark mysteries.  I would have sworn Song Sung Blue and Play Me were outstanding songs.  They're not.  They're good.  That seems to be primarily how the nostalgia filter works.  It takes good songs and elevates them a notch or two into greatness.  And now I know how it works.

The nostalgia filter is a lot like dating the archetypal popluar girl in high school (I assume).  You like the idea of it far more than the actual thing itself.  But it's fun and accessible and you can relate to it immediately.  The problem is, it doesn't have anything to keep you held to it - no real substance or depth or deeper thought process.  It only exists in the here-and-now.  And that's part of why you fixate on it so much in the short-term and hold such a fondness for it after it's gone.  Until you get it again.  And then, it's still kind of good, but it's not what you thought it was when you were just a lonely band geek.

And Neil Diamond is a master at crafting exactly that kind of song.  This is even true for his tracks I have always held in high esteem until recently revisiting.  This is even true for Sweet Caroline and Cracklin' Rosie; this is especially true for Sweet Caroline and Cracklin' Rosie.  My favorite song on "Moods" this go around was Walk on Water, primarily because it's hooky and has a great break and because I really wasn't familiar with it at all.  I really liked it a lot.  I suspect I'll like it less in ten years time...

So, is it an album?  No.  That's like asking if the cotton candy you just ate made for a filling meal.

Up next, we see if I have to swallow my words about Styx being the only real prog-pop band out there as we revisit "Evolution" by Journey.

"Bookends" by Simon & Garfunkel (1968)

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Fun Fact: The America record I was supposed to listen to was so grooveworn that the needle slipped straight to the end every time I put it down.

"If your hopes should pass away, simply pretend that you can build them again."

My Overall Rating of the Tracks Separately:
REQUIRED LISTENING (4/4 stars).  Seriously, if you haven't heard every song on this record, you owe it to yourself to check them out.  I'm not even gonna link to any songs on this one.  I truly believe you should go find a copy and listen to the whole thing front to back and then listen to it again.

Let's just cut to the chase here...

So, is it an album?  Yes.  I honestly think that whenever people mention "Pet Sounds" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" in the context of "an album," they should mention "Bookends" right along with them.

"Bookends" is NOT a concept album.  That phrase gets thrown around and overapplied waaaay too much in my estimation.  To me, a concept album is a linear narrative that tells a single, specific story.  Let me give an example that will probably cost me half my readership.  "The Wall" is a concept album.  It chronicles the rise and fall of an individual character.  However, [he cringes as he writes it] "Dark Side of the Moon" is NOT a concept album.  There, I've said it.  By the way, "Hotel California," and "Pet Sounds" are NOT concept albums either. 

They're all something I enjoy far more.  They're theme albums.  I love theme albums.  Theme albums are not locked into the rigid formula of a specific narrative.  Instead, they explore a few very specific ideas and roll and reinterpret those ideas in different ways on different songs.  Often, they repeat lyrics or musical phrases on several tracks to provide a thread throughout the record.  Theme albums are the most enjoyable kind of dissertation. 

My top-five, all-time favorite theme albums are:

5. "Hotel California" by The Eagles

4. "Dark Side of the Moon" by Pink Floyd

3. "American Recordings" by Johnny Cash

2. "Bookends" by Simon & Garfunkel

1. "Nebraska" by Bruce Springsteen

Despite its poppy sixties sound, "Bookends" is a desperate album.  It's all about isolation and death and the unspoken angst of suburban life and the growing displacement of the American dream.  "Kathy, I'm lost," I said, though I knew she was sleeping is one of the best individual lyrics ever.  Taken in the entire context of "Bookends," it's a spike straight to the heart.

Up next, "Moods by Neil Diamond.

"Skynyrd's First and... Last" by Lynyrd Skynyrd (1978)

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Filed between: Loretta Lynn and Madonna.

Key Tracks:
Preacher's Daughter, Was I Right or Wrong, Comin' Home

Obvious Filler & Swings-and-Misses:
Wino sounds like Black Sabbath doing a parody of Lynyrd Skynyrd.  The Seasons - unless you're Genesis, don't ever let your drummer sing lead vocal.

My Overall Rating of the Tracks Separately:
Recommended Listening (3/4 stars)

Lynyrd Skynyrd will never die.  At this point, they are just as much an American institution as Chevrolet, Lee Greenwood or breast implants.  However, I'm gonna call this a posthumous release.  It came on the heels of them losing their voice and their soul and was their "last" studio release before a decade-long hiatus.

And posthumous releases are tricky things for both fans and record companies.  Fans want to pay respects and mourn, but they also want to hear whatever's left in the archive - hoping to find one last secret gem, but that almost never happens.  Record companies want to cash in without blatently looking like they're cashing in or selling out.  And besides, what do you release: b-sides, half-finished studio tracks, live stuff?

Fans and MCA both got lucky with this one.  "Skynyrd's First and... Last" was actually an early studio album recorded by the band before they wisely scrapped it.  I find it odd that I'm saying it was wise to scrap a record I just called recommended listening.  But the truth is, it's nowhere near the juggernaut REQUIRED LISTENING of "Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd."  However, this version of Was I Right or Wrong gives me deeper chills than Tuesday's Gone.  On the flipside, Things Goin' On got greatly improved on "Pronounced" - not to mention Simple Man and Freebird.

Even so, as far as posthumous releases go, "Skynyrd's First and... Last" is about as close to a last secret gem as you can get, except for maybe Johnny Cash's "American VI" and that Nirvana record nobody will ever hear but Courtney Love.

So, is it an album?  Yes.  And it's pure Lynyrd Skynyrd to boot - uneven as it may be.

Up next, "Homecoming" by America.

"Donovan in Concert" by Donovan (1968)

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Fun Fact:
"Donovan in Concert" has given me a new catchphrase.  "Death to pennywhistles!"

Filed between: Doctor Hook & The Medicine Show and The Doors.

Key Tracks:
It REALLY depends on what you're in to.  For me, it was the dark, haunted stillness of Guinevere.

Obvious Filler & Swings-and-Misses:
Again, it's all a matter of opinion.  I thought it was all the overly long tracks with the whole band like Young Girl Blues and Preachin' Love.

My Overall Rating of the Tracks Separately:
Average (2/4 stars)

"First, there is a mountain.  Then there isn't.  Then there is."  That sums this thing up better than I could ever hope to.  A disc jockey introduces an elderly Scotsman, whose sole purpose is to introduce a younger Scotsman.  There is thunderous applause accompanied by canned big band musical interludes - which abruptly stop as a folk song begins to play.  There are references to butterflies disguised as cats.  Yeah, I'll say it again - there are references to butterflies disguised as cats.  There's this line: "In my crystal halls a feather falls being beautiful just for you."  And there's pennywhistle EVERYWHERE.  By the end of "Donovan in Concert," the pennywhistle has actually seeped into your pores and you realize you're going to smell like pied piper manlove for the next three days.

There are literally no two songs on this thing that sound at all alike.  I am not making this up.  I will now run down the genre (in order) of every track on the album:


SIDE I:

Pure folk

Sinatra-saturated swing

Folk pop

Celtic music (if Simon & Garfunkel did Celtic music)

Singer/songwriter

The "Donovan" sound with heavy tinges of The Velvet Underground

Middle-ages troubadour music


SIDE II:

Traditional Irish folk music

Beatnik jazz

Minstrel tune (sung in an incomprehensible Robert Burns brogue)

Waltz

Children's music

Bob-Dylan-Cockney-Vaudeville (You go listen to Rules and Regulations and come up with something better - I dare you)

Psychedelic rock with an old school rock 'n roll sax solo.


So, is it an album?  No.  To it's credit, "Donovan in Concert" is all taken from a single recorded show.  However, I can't imagine being at that show without heavy doses of LSD to fill in all the mind-warping gaps that exist between each and every song.

Up next, I continue to dodge the karma police and get to listen to another of my favorite bands.  It's the bittersweet demo tape/final release by the definitive southern rock band's original line-up: "Lynyrd Skynyrd's First and... Last."

"Damn the Torpedoes" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (1979)

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Filed between: Peter, Paul & Mary and Wilson Pickett.  (Of course it is.)

Key Tracks Track Listing:
Refugee
Here Comes My Girl
Even the Losers
Shadow of a Doubt (A Complex Kid)
Century City
Don't Do Me Like That
You Tell Me
What Are You Doin' in My Life?
Louisiana Rain

Even though he still plays it live some, Louisiana Rain is absolutely a deep cut on an LP that has four of the biggest songs in the classic rock canon.  And it's beautiful.  If you've never heard this song, do me a favor - do yourself a favor - go listen to it right now.

My Overall Rating of the Tracks Separately:
Duh.  REQUIRED LISTENING (4/4 stars).  Seriously, if you haven't heard every song on this record, you owe it to yourself to check them out.

If Revisiting Vinyl is my ongoing love letter to popular music, then this entry will be my long-distance marriage proposal.

Everybody loves Tom Petty.  My punk uncle - whose cassette collection included both The Dead Milkmen AND The Dead Kennedys - had "Full Moon Fever."  So, did my straight-laced, fundamentalist dad.  I have seen both of them tilt their head back and croon along to Yer So Bad.  And I have done so myself many, many times.

My friend Jonathon said once that you can listen to any Tom Petty song and think "I could've written that."  And he immediately followed it up with "but no, no you couldn't."  Petty is that perfect storm of Dylan and The Beatles that so many artists have gone insane trying to find.

Petty is unquestionably southern rock.  He's firmly new wave.  He's arena gold.  His songs are immediately sing-along-able.  He may be the most FM-radio savvy artist of all time.  And those genres aren't periods in his career; that's what he puts into every song.

"Even the losers get lucky sometimes."  That's how we all feel.  That's what we all want to believe.  And that's why we all love him - he's the underdog sports movie of the musical world.

So, is it an album?  Hell, yes.  Thank you, Mike Campbell.  Thank you, Benmont Tench.  Thank you, thank you, Thomas Earl Petty.

Up next, "Donovan in Concert" by Mahalia Jackson.  Just kidding, it's by Donovan.