(137) Los Lobos – By The
Light Of The Moon
With their potent mix of rock, rockabilly, Mexican and many
other sounds, Los Lobos are one of America’s true living musical treasures. They’ve been together in one form or another
since 1973 and their line up has not changed other than to absob Steve
Berlin. In that time they’ve released a
string of incredible albums with nary a duff one in the lot. Even the albums released by their side
projects – Los Super Seven and The Latin Playboys – make for compelling
listening as was Soul Disguise the solo album by guitarist Cesar Rosas. They’re frequently sought after for
soundtrack appearances – they hit number 1 with their version of La Bamba a
couple of decades ago – and for their collaborative abilities, their work with
Paul Simon on a track on his Graceland album the best known.
By The Light Of The Moon is my favourite Los Lobos album
over other worthy candidates such as How Will The Wolf Survive?, The
Neighbourhood, Kiko and The Ride. It is bookended
by the wonderful One Time Last Night and the sublime Tears Of God. It’s got the joyous Set Me Free (Rosa Lee),
the rocking Shakin’ Shakin’ Shakes and pointed Is This All There Is? Try as I might to make a case for some of
their other albums what I can’t escape is that this is album they toured behind
the one and only time I’ve managed to see them. Each time I play this I’m immediately
transported to that night at The Palace and it seems like yesterday. 26
years later I’m still waiting, but each time they’ve subsequently played here,
I’ve purchased tickets only to fall ill. Perhaps this curse is really a fate
designed to preserve a perfect memory of both gig and album.
(138) Frank Zappa –
Hot Rats
I am a Frank Zappa fan and have almost every one of the
albums released during his life time to prove it. A Zappa fan has to put up with a lot. There’s the wilful changes of musical direction,
some dodgy albums (I defy anyone to sit through Thing Fish) or tracks (ditto
The Adventures Of Gregory Pecory), some classical music albums (although The
Yellow Shark is absolutely brilliant), bouts of misogyny and other lyrics so
juvenile that 10 year olds would blush.
Yet I’m willing to wade through all of that because Zappa at his best is
better than just about anyone.
Hot Rats was my introduction to the weird and wonderful
world of everything Zappa. A largely
instrumental album except for a Captain Beefheart vocal cameo on Willie The
Pimp, it is an awesome showcase for his mastery of the electric guitar. This contains some of his best known
instrumental work outs and concert mainstays notably Willie, Peaches En Regalia
and The Gumbo Variations. It is also the
best entry point into the Zappa catalogue….if you dare.
(139) R.E.M –
Reckoning
The first time I heard of R.E.M was when Rolling Stone
magazine hailed Murmur as the best album released in 1983. Somehow I managed to miss hearing it and so
its follow up Reckoning was the first album of theirs I heard. I was hooked straight away by the sound of
Peter Buck’s guitars, Michael Stipe’s mysterious vocals and the unbelievably catchy
songs, not particularly caring what they actually meant. I was happy enough to sing for example, “She’s
got pretty persuasions” to myself and make up lyrics for the remainder. (Even
today I believe this was Stipe’s intention.)
I took the same approach (and obviously different lyrics) to songs such
as So. Central Rain, Harborcoat, (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville and Little
America.
Put another way, R.E.M were able to infuse a sense of wonder
in the listener about their songs and were able to sustain that sense for a very
long time and an extraordinary run of albums.
They also had the grace and common sense to call it a day when the realised
this had finally worn away. This
started the process for me and for that I’m eternally grateful.
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