Talk about the Passion: Wrapping up the First Year

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So, there’s been a definite lag on me writing my conclusions from the past year.  I wasn’t fuzzy on what they were, I’ve been compiling them since about March or so.  Honestly, I just wasn’t feeling it.  And I am so glad I waited.  Something happened this morning that put it all into perspective.

 

I walked into my cubicle at work and literally gasped out loud.  A friend had dropped off an unexpected early birthday present for me.  It’s an LP by a band I really, really love and one I have never seen on vinyl.  I spent the next twenty minutes just holding it and checking it out, spellbound like a shaman in a fever dream.

 

Let’s start with the title.  The layout does nothing at all to help you figure out if it’s supposed to be called “Fables of the Reconstruction” or “Reconstruction of the Fables” or “Reconstruction of the Fables of the Reconstruction of the...”  (Keep in mind, you couldn’t just google it to find out back in 1985.)  To further confuse the issue, the packaging is all laid out so that it can be read either way.

 

Speaking of packaging, both sides of the jacket look like cover art, and neither is oriented normally in regard to the spine.  A small barcode is really the only thing that distinguishes which one should be the back cover.  And it’s not a square package.  It’s slightly rectangular, so the insert will only go in sideways from the way that would seem to make sense – and again, not in any clear orientation to the sleeve.

 

And then there’s the LP itself.  One side is labeled the A Side (it is titled “Fables of the Reconstruction).  There is no B Side.  Instead, there is Another Side (it is titled “Reconstruction of the Fables”).

 

Not to mention all the cryptic word games and bizarre marginalia in the liner notes.  The whole thing feels like some sort of weird puzzle box.  It is totally awesome.

 

R.E.M. isn’t alone when it comes to creative packaging.  Led Zeppelin wins that category hands down.  I can’t really describe it or even post an image because most of their covers were interactive in some way.  And Steve Harris still brags that people bought early Iron Maiden records not because they had heard the music, but because they were intrigued by the artwork. 

 

So even though I’ve had the clearly titled “Fables of the Reconstruction” on CD for almost twenty years now, I was utterly excited about my gift this morning.  Vinyl is a very different beast.  There is absolutely a sense of discovery and a feeling of something when you hold an LP in your hands.  Very little of that ever translates to CDs, and none of it to thumbnail images on an MP3 player.

 

And that’s what I think some of us feel like we’re missing when we lament the passing of the album and the onrush of the digital age.  It’s taken me a hundred records and over a year to realize that my original notion of what constitutes “an album” didn’t include the full picture.  It’s not just about a cohesive sound.  It’s about a listener’s commitment to a time and a place; it’s about involvement of four senses rather than just one.  To me, it’s about wonder.  And wonder, it seems, is a decidedly analog quality.

"Abracadabra" by Steve Miller Band (1982)

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"Bet our love until you lose, then give back what you've been stealing."

Key Tracks: Abracadbra, Give It Up

Surprise Gem: Young Girl's Heart

Obvious Filler & Swings-and-Misses: While I'm Waiting

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

Growing up without cable or a decent radio station, some of my earliest exposure to new music came at our local skating rink.  (It also provided my exposure to forgotten video game gold - Kangaroo.)  That's where I was first creeped out by the video to Rockwell's Somebody's Watching Me as it was projected onto a wall in the corner of the rink.  That's where I developed PTSD from a seemingly endless loop of Chubby Checker's Limbo Rock as scores of children careened onto their butts.  That's where I first heard Prince and Madonna.  That's where I learned to hate the hokey pokey.  Seriously, who ever thought the hokey pokey on rollerskates was a good idea?!

And that's my strongest memory of Steve Miller's Abracadbra.  Turns out, it's a really good song to skate to.  I guess it's that little chorus of "round and round."  Funny thing though, Ratt never caught on there.  Abracadbra played every weekend I was there for at least two years.  And it never got old.  It's just a fun song, even if never mentioned black panties... which it totally does.

Long story short, I really liked the song.  But, popular music being just that, it dropped out of circulation and out of my mind.

Until...

Stupid Sugar Ray.  I don't even have anything against Sugar Ray in particular.  I mean, they weren't great or even pretty good, they were just kind of there.  But they had to go and do something that I didn't understand at all so I will call it stupid.  They made an almost note-for-note remake of Abracdabra.  There was nothing new, no interpretation, nothing.  Just a "hey kids, this is a song from when we were kids and you may not have heard it and we didn't feel like writing another track, so here ya go!"  Total cop out.

To contrast, their version came out right after one of the most left-turn, devisive covers of the time.  I am speaking of course of Alien Ant Farm's post-punk rendition of Smooth Criminal.  Whether you loved that song or hated it (I was in both camps), you took notice when it came out.

So, my question is: why Sugar Ray?  You certainly didn't make any money off of it, and Steve Miller didn't need the money.  Why couldn't you just have like worn a Steve Miller shirt onstage or dropped his name in some interview?  Ugh.  But anyway, I really liked the song... the first go around.  And Mark McGrath is still paying pennance on Extra.

So, is it an album?  Yes.  Even though Steve Miller only wrote two songs on "Abracadbra," and they stand head and shoulders above almost everything else, everything still sounds distinctly Steve Miller.

Up next... whoa.  This was the hundredth LP.  My yearlong experiment is over.  So, up next we have the results and conclusions.  And after that... remains to be seen.

"Natural High" by The Commodores (1978)

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"The memories are all in my mind."

My Favorite Tracks:
X-Rated Movie and Such a Woman

Disco Wedding Mega-Anthem:
Three Times a Lady

Obvious Filler & Swings-and-Misses:
Flying High and Visions

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

The Commodores are a walking contradiction - or maybe they were just trying to corner all the R&B markets of the late seventies.  The same band that wrote Brick House also wrote Easy... and on the same LP no less.  While neither of those tracks are on "Natural High," the dichotomy is gratingly apparent here.

The Rosetta Stone to this mystery is, unsurprisingly, Lionel Richie.  He writes music to make sweet love by.  The rest of the guys in The Commodores write songs for gettin' your swerve on.  Granted they're both genres dedicated to making nookie.  However, they are lightyears apart.  It's kind of like comparing Tony Bennett to Motley Crue.

Motley Crue wins that cage match in my book.  Similarly, I gravitate to The Commodores' funk much more than their ballads.  Unfortunately for me, Lionel writes or cowrites over half of the songs on "Natural High," bringing the whole thing down to slow groove level about one and a half gold-plated-medallions-swimming-in-a-sea-of-chest-hair away from creepy.  When they do slip in a funk tune, it's downright jolting.

One last completely tangential note: the bridge and chorus on Flying High sound eerily like they belong in a song by Yes.

So, is it an album?  No.  It's six different guys coming up with their own ideas and then meeting in the studio to try and fit it all together.

Up next, Steve Miller works his magic with "Abracadabra."  I wanna reach out and grab ya...

"Aerosmith" by Aerosmith (1973)

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"Nobody knows where it comes and where it goes."

My Favorite Tracks:
One Way Street, Mama Kin, Movin' Out

Classic Rock Mega-Anthem:
Dream On

Obvious Filler & Swings-and-Misses:
Write Me a Letter

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

I came of age in the eighties, and so my understanding of Aerosmith is filtered throught that.  The first time I heard Walk This Way was as a duet with Run DMC.  The first time I heard Sweet Emotion, it had a video with James Spader in it.  And the first time I heard Dream On, it was done in an over the top live performance along with a full orchestra conducted by Michael Kamen.

Dream On seemed like a really odd song to me at the time; it didn't feel at all like the same band who had done Love in an Elevator and Janie's Got a Gun.  At the time, I chalked it up to a sound they must have had back in the seventies that I didn't know about.

But since I have gotten into their earlier catalogue, I realize that Dream On really doesn't sound like ANY other Aerosmith song.  It's piano heavy.  Steven Tyler has stated that he intentionally changed the sound of his voice when he recorded this song.  He wrote the lyrics when he was seventeen.  And it's absent the swagger and bravado of pretty much everything else they do.  AND IT'S NOT BLUESY!  I don't mean to try and pigeonhole a band this signficant, but everything they have ever done has drawn a direct reference to the blues - whether as obvious as a twelve-bar shuffle or as subtle as an attitude.  Dream On exists in it's own little universe.  Basically, it's a Led Zeppelin song that got written by the wrong band.

Personally, I've never been a huge fan of the song - at least not the first three minutes.  The words sound like bad high school poetry (because they are), the guitar part is uninspired and the rhythm section sounds plain bored.  But then it starts building for the last 90 seconds, and what a 90 seconds it is.  Dream On is one of the all-time great crescendo songs.  Much like the 1812 Overture, it's a whole lot of something that's just sort of there - not really bad but not really great - until those few final moments of sheer carthatic explosion.  And that's what I love about Dream On.

So, is it an album?  No.  Dream On isn't the only song where it's clear that the band is still finding their footing on this debut.  But I do think that if they had done a few simple things like replacing one or two tracks and changing the play order, it could have been an album.  Seriously, why would you kick off your introduction to the musical world with anything other than Mama Kin?!

Up next, we put on our platform shoes and slink into the world of R&B and funk with "Natural High" by The Commodores.

"The Cry of Love" by Jimi Hendrix (1971)

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"Bourbon-and-Coke-possessed words and 'Haven't I seen you somewhere in Hell?'"

My Favorite Tracks:
Freedom, Night Bird Flying, Angel, Belly Button Window

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

What could I possibly say about Jimi Hendrix that hasn't been said already?  Absolutely nothing, that's what.  Along with Chuck Berry, he's the most influential electric guitarist of all time.  We all agree he's awesome - except for one friend of mine who shall remain nameless.  This friend makes the following statement about Jimi's music: "I really dig his voice, I just don't care for his guitar playing."  It should be noted that said friend also says the EXACT OPPOSITE thing about Led Zeppelin.  To each his own I guess...

So, instead of trying to write something new about Jimi Hendrix, I'm gonna tell you how I happened to pick up "Cry of Love" on vinyl.

Every year, I check out my town's tiny section of the multi-state "world's largest yardsale."  I have always found titles that just don't pop up on the cheap at our local peddler's malls and used record stores, and I am always faced with some impossible decision like do I get "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" by Joan Jett or do I get "Forever Your Girl" by Paul Abdul.  Seriously, that was a really hard decision.  (I ended up choosing JJ and now have a good degree of buyer's remorse.)

Point is, there's always good music to be found.  Last year started slow.  The first area we hit was full over vendors who were overpriced and understocked.  But then when we popped into the next shanty town of folks selling the crap they didn't want anymore, I hit paydirt.  I noticed a small stack of about twenty LPs on a table.  The small stacks are the best.  You can flip through them quickly and move on if there's nothing to be found. 

I asked the guy how much his records were.  I always base whether it's worth my time on the price point, not the which artists I see on top.  It's been my experience that EVERYBODY who bought records always had that one left-field LP that was not like anything else in their collection.  So, even if it's 95% Andy Williams and Sha-Na-Na, a small stack is always worth checking out if the price is right.  Sometimes it doesn't pan out; sometimes it's Pink Floyd's "Meddle."

So, I asked the guy how much his records were.  "A buck each."  A dollar is my sweet spot (I have literally spent hours at a time flipping through piles of dollar records) so I dove in.  Within the first three I found the Beatles' double LP collection of later singels.  JACKPOT!  At this point, the day is already a success.  But I kept digging.

I found Lynyrd Skynyrd and Kiss LPs that I didn't already have.  I'm a passive Kiss fan, but I pick up pretty much anything of theirs at the right price.  I don't know what it is about Kiss, but they trigger something deep in the lizard brain of the dirt mall population.  I swear, I have heard this statement at least three times.  "My records all cost (x), except for the Kiss records.  They're all (some multiple of x)."

I was a happy lad.  And then I came across a loose record in the pile.  I'm not usually big on sleeveless vinyl, but this one was Jimi.  "Would you take fifty cents for this one without a jacket?" I asked.

"Depends.  Who is it?"

My brain sighed.  "Um... Jimi Hendrix?"

There was a long pause.  "Sure."

Me out loud: "Cool."  Me inside my head: "AWESOME!!!!"

I gave the guy a five and got a buck fifty back.  I used the buck at the next place I stopped to pick up "Purple Rain" still in the shrinkwrap.  They also had "Hotter than Hell," which is one Kiss record I do really want.  Unfortunately, the lady told me that everything was a dollar except for the Kiss records.  They were all ten.

Up next, we keep rockin' the early seventies with Aerosmith's self-titled debut.

"Just a Game" by Triumph (1978)

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Filed Between: Randy Travis and The Troggs

"We wait and watch and wonder just which puppet they'll select... It's just a game and all I can do is play."

Key Tracks:
Movin' On, Just a Game, Hold On

My Overall Rating of the Tracks Separately:
HIGHLY Recommended (3.5/4 stars)

Every time I find music I haven't heard by Triumph, I really enjoy.  It's always big and ballsy and a good bit smarter than most of its peers.  They are a lost jewel in the crown of classic rock.

So, why didn't they make it into the canon?  I think it comes down to four letters: R - U - S - H.  Let me describe a band to you - they're a Canadian power trio who sometimes use keyboards and sometimes address philosophical and/or political subject matter.  They also happen to have a great song about the music business.  Sound familiar?  Just so you know, I was actually talking about Triumph.  On paper, they look like long lost man-in-the-iron-mask twin brothers, but they're really not all that close at all.  Triumph is more like... well, nobody.  They are always their own band.

I happened across them when a late night DJ on our local Clear Channel classic rock station went on a tirade about how good and underappreciated they are and then he spun one of their songs (which I assume resulted in a flailing because it wasn't The Black Crowes).  I had to check them out. So when I got into vinyl they were high on my radar. I was not disappointed.

Do yourself a favor, go check out Triumph.

So, is it an album?  Yes.  There's a clear vision and definitely a hand guiding everything here.

Up next, sweeeeeeeeeeet!  We get to check out my vote for the best guitarist of all time!

"Two for the Show" by Kansas (1978)

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Filed between: Judas Priest and KC & The Sunshine Band

This one's a double-live LP, so...

SIDE I
Rating: Above Average (2.5/4 stars)
Best Track: Icarus - Borne on Wings of SteelKicks of with: a heavy dose of instrumental superprog
Sounds like: a collection of the band's most proggy tunes.  It even has their proggiest hit - Point of Know Return.  This side highlights Kansas' weakness on tracks like Song for America, but also their strengths when they can balance the synths with raging guitars, as heard on Icarus.

SIDE II
Rating: Above Average (2.5/4 stars)
Best Track: Carry on Wayward SonKicks off with: a crashing drum beat
Sounds like: straightforward hard rock.  The guitars lead the charge here and the synths are just used for accents and flourishes.  They even crank the preachy Portrait (He Knew) up to a fun level by playing it heavy and fast.

SIDE III
Rating: Above Average (2.5/4 stars)
Best Track: Mysteries and MayhemKicks off with: the famous riff from Dust in the WindSounds like: a bunch of fingering exercises.  It's all about showing off technique here.  There's an extended acoustic guitar solo AND an extended piano solo.  And they're back to back.

SIDE IV
Rating: Average (2/4 stars)
Best Track: [not available]
Kicks of with: organs fading in
Sounds like: two excruciatingly long songs.

So, is it an album?  Yes.  "Two for the Show" isn't great, but it's consistent.  Honestly, Kansas seems to function better when they're not trying (and often failing) to weave a thick, thematic web with a studio album.

Up next, we continue in our exploration of late-seventies power rock with a band that should have been more popular.  It's "Just a Game" by Triumph.