27 August 2013 (Day 239) – Some Of My Most Played Albums

The Spiritualized live album I played yesterday is one of the heavily played items in my entire collection.  My idea for today’s playlist was to play some of the other albums that I frequently play.

The term “frequently” needs to be defined and qualified here.  After all, anyone keeping track of this blog will realise that I’m not in the habit of playing the same album many times in a row.  Or twice even.  But there are albums that are guaranteed to get a minimum of one play each and every year and a select few that got a flogging for a considerable period of time after I first obtained them.  Some albums fit both definitions.  These are also some of the albums that I will invariably turn to on those rare days where I cannot settle on anything to play. 

On so on a day spent almost exclusively behind my desk, here is a selection of what are effectively some of my favourite albums.

(# 558) Camper Van Beethoven - Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart (1988)

This is a rare example of a fiercely indie band making the dreaded leap to a major record company …. and then releasing their very best album.  Incredibly the band did not shy away from shovelling all forms of musical influences into their wonderfully crazed songs; if anything they went out of their way to celebrate this with a batch of truly memorable and unique numbers.  It starts with the up tempo Eye Of Fatima (Part One) a wonderfully descriptive and hilarious romp about, I think, Government agents watching the effects of acid tests on unsuspecting cowboys holed up in hotel rooms. Part Two of the track that follows is an instrumental that I suspect tells the story from the victim’s addled point of view and is suitably deranged. O Death, a mournful version of the American traditional tune, seems as likely a choice as anything to follow that, leading into the absolutely inspired She Divines Water which undergoes a dizzying amount of time changes.  Turquoise Jewelry sees them using ska music to brilliant effect, Waka a demented instrumental based on Middle Eastern sounds and My Path Related is just about the most convincing up tempo rocker you’re likely to hear featuring a fiddle.  But the absolute highpoint is the closing trio of numbers; The Fool another instrumental that sounds like a theme for an evil clown, Tania, a love song to Patty Hearst (opening lyric: O my beloved Tania/How I love to see your face photographed at 15 second intervals/In a bank in San Leando) and the wonderful Life In Grand, a jaunty little number where the band scolds other bands for their dark takes on life.  

(# 559) Urge Overkill – Saturation (1993)

Saturation is a magnificent example of everything that was great about the American alternative scheme of the early 1990’s; simple catchy songs played with great intensity.  The slashing guitar dominated one-two punch of Sister Havana and Tequila Sundae started this album brilliantly.  Positive Bleeding and Crackbabies maintained this attack, Bottle Of Fur (complete with mid track vibes solo) provided pure melody and Nite And Day offered the last of a series of catchy hooks.  The slower numbers are all convincing and Heaven 90210 ended the bulk of the album (there’s a hidden track) on a memorable note incorporating, Love Is All Around, aka the theme to The Mary Tyler Moore Show.  It’s one of those albums that simply makes you want to replay it as soon as it finished and this has happened just about every single time I’ve played it (even today).

(# 560) Jo Jo Zep And The Falcons – Loud And Clear EP (1977)

(# 561) Jo Jo Zep And The Falcons – Screaming Targets untitled live disc (1979)

In the late 1970’s Jo Jo Zep And The Falcons ruled Melbourne’s pub scene with their absolutely heady mix of blues, soul and r&b.  Many people, myself included, felt the band never really got its sound down pat in the studio (the Screaming Targets album came close) but this was probably because they were such a potent live act more than anything else.  These release explain why.  Loud And Clear was their first live release and is sensational despite the basic live sound.  Side one comprises peerless covers of Joe Liggins’ The Honey Dripper, Don Covey’s Young Girl and the standard Aint Got No Money featuring some scorching guitar work.  Side two comprises band original, the infectious Girl Across The Street and Riding In The Moonliught.   The other item is a live disc that was released with the initial copies of Screaming Targets with tracks coming from a radio broadcast from a Melbourne pub venue before an absolutely rabid audience.  The band comes out spitting fire.  Opening cut is a raging version of Otis Redding’s Security which has barely ceased before the band charges into their best known number, So Young, a track recorded by Elvis Costello and The Attractions.  A fine Not A Woman Not A Man leads into a Creedence like makeover of Oh Mona.  Side two is devoted to a single track, the near 10 minute Cuthulu, an inspired blow out jam.  Neither of these releases has ever made it to CD but some of the tracks, including Cuthulu, are to be found on various compilations.  But I wanted the real things as originally intended.  To this date these two items are practically the only vinyl albums in my collection that I’ve had converted into digital form.  Can we have these, and the Let’s Drip Awhile album released this way?  Please!!

(# 562) Soundgarden - Superunknown  (1994)

This is Soundgarden’s masterpiece, one of the high water marks of the entire grunge movement and quite simply one of the finest hard rock albums ever released. My copy also spent the best part of its first 5 years in the six CD stack of my CD player.   70 minutes long and barely containing anything resembling filler, it contains an astonishing variety of material.  Let Me Drown and My Wave begin the album authoritatively.  Mailman, 4^th Of July and Like Suicide are fine homages to Black Sabbath.  Fell On Black Days and The Day I Tried To Live provided brilliant showcases for Chris Cornell’s never better vocals, Kickstand is an extremely short sharp rocker and Spoonman was an effective single.  As good as these tracks were, the album will forever be revered for its two spectacular set pieces.  The title track is an incredibly propulsive tune that maintains the momentum of a runaway train for its length but even that is topped by the magnificence of Black Hole Sun with its clear psychedelic influences and its wonderous climax of Cornell’s screaming and Kim Thayill’s epic soloing.  (We’ll just put its incomprehensible lyrics to one side.  OK?)

(# 563) Keith Richards – Talk Is Cheap (1988)

Superunknown may have lasted about 5 years in my CD player stack but this must have resided there for a decade.  Born due to his frustrations with getting Mick back to the Stones, he released this, the first of two solo albums.  Big Enough is a curve ball, a funky opener that no one could have possibly seen coming.  Take It So Hard follows, surely the greatest Stones number written by a Stone and not recorded by them.  I Could Have Stood You Up is the best Chuck Berry homage he’s ever committed to vinyl and Make No Mistake is a wonderfully tender ballad.  You Don’t Move Me proves why Mick should never mess with The Stones, or rather, Keith’s commitment to it.  Whip it Up is a grossly underrated rocker and the closing numbers of Locked Away and the seriously funky It Means A Lot wrap things up nicely.