What are you listening to?

[Savonarola]

The Beatles - Rubber Soul (1965)

This is the Beatles first album after they had quit touring.  It's a big leap forward from "Help!" and a gigantic improvement over "Beatles for Sale."  The songs are more sophisticated, the lyrics darker (and occasionally don't deal with Boy/Girl relationships,) and there's a great deal more experimentation.

David Crosby said that he and his bandmates had no idea how to be rock stars; so they all went and watched "Hard Day's Night" together.  Given that, it's surprising to hear the obvious Byrd's influence on the album (especially on George Harrison's "If I needed Someone.")

[Savonarola]

Bert Jansch - Bert Jansch (1965)

Recorded in a kitchen on a borrowed guitar, the recording engineer sold it to Transatlantic records for £100, and they sold 150,000 copies. 

The album is supposed to be a big influence on Neil Young and Jimmy Page; it's much more obviously an influence on Nick Drake and Donovan.  The album contains one of Jansch's best known songs, The Needle of Death.

[The Minsky Moment]

Finished up Duke Ellington -1932-1940 Recordings

Everyone knows that the Beach Boys copied the music and basic structure for Surfin' USA from Chuck Berry's Sweet Little Sixteen.  But imagine my surprise when listening to an obscure Ellington recording of 1938 entitled Swingtime in Honolulu and right in the middle the tune is there.  So the Beach Boys were onto to something with the surf theme after all . . .

Ellington arguably is the most important figure in American music in the 20th century (and thus any century), these recordings are from the critical period where his compositions became more sophisticated and his band even more experienced and sure-footed.  A lot of this stuff is just 1930s era dance music played by a really good band.  Nothing wrong with that and there is novelty value and more in hearing a top rate band from the era play the likes of the Lambeth Walk  But this is a 11 CD collection . . . On the flip side there is about 3CDs worth of really incredible material, with "how the hell did he think of that" moments, music that truly is timeless.   The very first known recording "It Don't Mean a Thing (If it Ain't got the Swing)" starts with Ellingtonian growling and effects, and then suddenly Johnny Hodges leaps out with a wild rapid-fire solo like a proto-Charlie Parker; the first recorded version of Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue is on here also, with its unusual harmonics way ahead of its time.

All that said - the usual advice for novice Ellingtonians is to pass over all this and go directly to "Never no Lament"  - a smaller collection of the Ellington band right after this one from the early 1940s - it can be found on all the streaming services and on a budget priced CD box.  Pretty much agree with that, this earlier set is necessary just for obsessive completists.

[mongers]

Bert Jansch - Bert Jansch (1965)

Recorded in a kitchen on a borrowed guitar, the recording engineer sold it to Transatlantic records for £100, and they sold 150,000 copies. 

The album is supposed to be a big influence on Neil Young and Jimmy Page; it's much more obviously an influence on Nick Drake and Donovan.  The album contains one of Jansch's best known songs, The Needle of Death.

Didn't he go on to form the Pentangle ?

[Savonarola]

Bert Jansch - Bert Jansch (1965)

Recorded in a kitchen on a borrowed guitar, the recording engineer sold it to Transatlantic records for £100, and they sold 150,000 copies. 

The album is supposed to be a big influence on Neil Young and Jimmy Page; it's much more obviously an influence on Nick Drake and Donovan.  The album contains one of Jansch's best known songs, The Needle of Death.

Didn't he go on to form the Pentangle ?

Huh, yes he did, I've got some more listening to do...

[mongers]

Bert Jansch - Bert Jansch (1965)

Recorded in a kitchen on a borrowed guitar, the recording engineer sold it to Transatlantic records for £100, and they sold 150,000 copies. 

The album is supposed to be a big influence on Neil Young and Jimmy Page; it's much more obviously an influence on Nick Drake and Donovan.  The album contains one of Jansch's best known songs, The Needle of Death.

Didn't he go on to form the Pentangle ?

Huh, yes he did, I've got some more listening to do...

If you can watch some of the videos on youtube, very much of their time and the setting/clothes/show-formats add to the experience. 

[Savonarola]

Didn't he go on to form the Pentangle ?

Huh, yes he did, I've got some more listening to do...

If you can watch some of the videos on youtube, very much of their time and the setting/clothes/show-formats add to the experience. 

That it does 

British folk music was a big influence on Paul Simon (in fact one of the songs on "Bert Jansch," Davey Graham's "Angie," was also covered by Simon and Garfunkel.)  It's interesting to see the different direction the Pentangle took it.

[Eddie Teach]

Is that same as Stones "Angie"?

[Savonarola]

Is that same as Stones "Angie"?

No, it's an instrumental:

Davy Graham Angi

Paul Simon used that as the basis for "Somewhere They Can't Find Me" on "Sounds of Silence," but they also cover the instrumental (and spell it "Anji") on the same album.

[Savonarola]

The Byrds - Mr. Tambourine Man

GREATEST DYLAN COVER BAND EVER!!!



Seriously, though, four Dylan covers (Mr. Tambourine Man, Spanish Harlem Incident, All I Really Want to Do, Chimes of Freedom) out of 12 songs; there's no doubt at all who this group's biggest influence was.  (All I really Want to Do and Mr. Tambourine Man would be the only singles from the album.)

[Jacob]

Molodoï - Vent d'Est.

[merithyn]

Foreigner - Juke Box Hero

[Savonarola]

Of course why listen to a Dylan cover band when you can listen to the real thing?^1.

Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited (1965)

Released a few months before The Byrd's "Mr. Tambourine Man", and it made all their covers sound obsolete.  Rock, folk rock, garage rock and blues all come together with a surprisingly unified sound; complete with some of Dylan's most Dylanesque lyrics.

When my brother was in college he and a friend analyzed "Desolation Row" for a literature class.  They took TS Eliot to represent the straight laced British Man, while Ezra Pound was supposed to be the liberated American woman.  This was in the days before Wikipedia, and one of their friends had to tell them that, while this is insightful, it's probably not what the lyricist had intended.

1.)  Don't answer that, Frunk   

[Eddie Teach]

I want to hear Frunk's answer now.

[frunk]

Since it is requested.

The band might be worse.  The singer would almost certainly be better provided they weren't trying to imitate Dylan.

In this specific instance I like the Byrds although I haven't listened to the whole album.  I'll get back to you in an hour.