What are you listening to?

[Savonarola]

The Moody Blues - Days of Future Passed (1967)

If Knights wore white satin into combat wouldn't it get torn to shreds? 

This really seems to have come out of nowhere; prior to this the Moody Blues had been an R&B / Mersey Beat band.  Their lead singer and bassist left, and in the confusion, the band's second album was never completed; so they owed Decca a lot of money.  Decca agreed to forgive the debt if the Moodies recorded a rock and roll version of Dvorak's "New World" symphony.  This is what they came up with instead.

This is (mostly) a template for the next six "Classic" Moody Blues albums.  The themes of childhood and the cosmos are central to the album.  The songs alternate between radio friendly pop songs and more sophisticated experiments.  There's some Indian influenced songs and Graeme Edge gets in a goofy poem or two.  Every time they tried to tamper with this formula they had issues.

This is one of the best examples of how much popular music changed in 1967.  This album would have been unthinkable in 1966; yet doesn't seem at all revolutionary in the context of 1967.  The lyrics are certainly tied to the era (Take a look out there / Planets everywhere), still it seems to work.

Edit:  Childhood and space travel were also themes covered by the contemporary Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd.  Must have been something in the water .  (Actually the Moodies insist they didn't do LSD until later; even after they had written their paean to Timothy Leary, "Legend of a Mind.")

[garbon]

At least you're in Control.

I think I've recovered sort of..

Drake
Janet Jackson
Bryson Tiller
Frank Ocean
Kate Bush

[mongers]

At least you're in Control.

I think I've recovered sort of..

Drake
Janet Jackson
Bryson Tiller
Frank Ocean
Kate Bush

I've listened to the 'Hounds of Love' album three times in the last week. 

[Eddie Teach]

Did we establish if it was pink or not?

[mongers]

Did we establish if it was pink or not?

That was the vinyl, this was the cd that I picked up.

You're desperate for conversation aren't you, that why you're engaging with me. 

[Eddie Teach]

Harumph.

[Josephus]

The Moody Blues - Days of Future Passed (1967)

[Eddie Teach]

Dr Dre & Snoop Dogg- Nuthin But a G Thing
Warren G- Regulate

[Savonarola]

Buffalo Springfield - Again (1967)

This is kind of like the White Album, where Stephen Stills and Neil Young clearly had different visions but recorded it together as a Buffalo Springfield (for the most part; Neil Young quit and rejoined the band a couple times during the recording.)  Richie Furay also gets in a couple tracks; notably the early country-rock song "A Child's Claim to Fame."  You can sort of hear Crazy Horse and CSN emerging on this album (the latter especially on "Rock & Roll Woman" on which David Crosby sings); but you can also hear the psychedelia and experimentation of the age as well.  The one real surprise is "Broken Arrow"; which is a Neil Young song (with Neil's weird lyrics from the time) but musically is much more like something Stills would have come up with.

While a mess, this does have some of Buffalo Springfield's best songs.  In addition to A Child's Claim to Fame, Rock & Roll Woman and Broken Arrow; the album also has Mr. Soul, Expecting to Fly and Bluebird.

[The Minsky Moment]

a Neil Young song (with Neil's weird lyrics from the time)

Improper limitation.

[Savonarola]

a Neil Young song (with Neil's weird lyrics from the time)

Improper limitation.

Conceded.

[Savonarola]

Astrud Gilberto - Beach Samba (1967)

The legend is that Astrud had no musical training and was chosen to sing "Girl from Ipanema" simply because she was the only person in the room who could speak English.  If so she did manage to make quite a career out of it (I'm sure being married to João Gilberto helped too); she made Samba albums into the 90s.  This album is a series of poppy Bossa Nova numbers; some of them are really bad ideas (especially her hyper-cutesy version of "Didn't Have to be so Nice" sung with her six year old son.)  Most of it is good, though, her laid back scat singing is pretty cool.   

[Savonarola]

I saw this headline on CNN:

Could that Carter family tour really happen?

And thought: I don't think so, AP has been dead for over 50 years...

I see I'm a little behind the times once again.   

(Even June has been gone for 15 years now; I didn't realize it had been that long.)

[garbon]

Lana Del Rey - West Coast

[Savonarola]

The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour (1967)

The soundtrack to the television special was released as a double EP in the United Kingdom.  In the United States it was released as an LP with the 1967 singles on the B side.  The result is some amazing songs, but it doesn't have the unified sound of Sgt. Peppers.  Still that they could release so many great songs just six months after Sgt. Peppers is still incredible.

I'm not a big fan of "All You Need is Love," but the other John songs (I am the Walrus, Strawberry Fields Forever and Baby You're a Rich Man) are all excellent; some of the best in his career.  George's "Blue Jay Way" shows that he was finally starting to outgrow Indian music (although it is obviously Indian influenced, it is all done on western instruments.)  The Paul songs (Magical Mystery Tour, The Fool on the Hill, Your Mother Should Know, Hello Goodbye, and Penny Lane) are all good, but not as good as his work on Sgt. Peppers.  "Flying" (which they all worked on) is still cool.