What are you listening to?

[Savonarola]

The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground (1969)

This sounds like the morning after the drug fueled binge of "White Light/White Heat."  In part that's because the VU had their amps stolen so they had to adopt a more subdued sound; but I don't think even they could have topped their previous album for energy.  This has some of Lou's best lyrics on it with "Candy Says" and "Pale Blue Eyes;" and it has their usual weirdness with "Murder Mystery."  Unusually it has a number of forgettable tracks; so I think it's the weakest of the Velvet Underground's albums.

[Savonarola]

Dusty Springfield - Dusty in Memphis (1969)

Even though Stax and Sun had fallen on hard times by then; 1969 was quite a year for Tennessee with "Dusty in Memphis", Dionne Warwick's "Soulful," Elvis's "From Elvis in Memphis", Al Kooper's "I Stand Alone" and Bob Dylan's "Nashville Skyline."

This album was a flop when it was released failing to crack the top 40 in either the US or UK.  That's surprising since every track on it is excellent; Dusty gives it her all and she has the best recording engineers at Atlantic behind her.  She recorded an enormous number of songs at the time; and though they picked the right eleven to be on the album, the bonus tracks are surprisingly good throughout.

[Tonitrus]

Ron Bloom - Freedom Again (from Braddock: Missing in Action 3...crappy film overall, but I think the Fall of Saigon opening segment is damned good)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xev6tAxc7w&t=127s

Feels topical the last few days. 

[The Minsky Moment]

Joe Henderson, In N Out (1964)

Henderson was a Where's Waldo of Blue Notes mid-60s releases - just before releasing this album he appeared on Lee Morgan's Sidewinder, Grant Green's Idle Moments, Bobby Hutcherson's the Kicker and Andrew Hill's Point of Depature, displaying an impressive ability to provide support to other leaders with very different styles.  Enough to convince McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones to take a brief sabbatical from their work with John Coltrane to join with Henderson on this session (*very* brief sabbatical as it turns out - they would record the sessions that became Crescent with Coltrane over 2 weeks later).  Most of this album is more conventional than Impulse era Coltrane, but Tyner and Jones push Henderson on the title track, and he proves more than up to the task.

[mongers]

Rush 'Permanent Waves'

Found myself spontaneously singing out-load to 'Spirit of the Radio'. 

[Josephus]

Rush 'Permanent Waves'

Found myself spontaneously singing out-load to 'Spirit of the Radio'. 

[PDH]

Rush 'Permanent Waves'

Found myself spontaneously singing out-load to 'Spirit of the Radio'. 

It's when you sing along to "Cygnus X-1 Book II" that you are a true addict.

[Josephus]

Rush 'Permanent Waves'

Found myself spontaneously singing out-load to 'Spirit of the Radio'. 

It's when you sing along to "Cygnus X-1 Book II" that you are a true addict.

"All who dare to cross her course
Are swallowed by a fearsome force"

[Admiral Yi]

Similarly to Sweet Home Alabama, what do youse guys think about the lyrics of The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down by The Band?

[Savonarola]

Similarly to Sweet Home Alabama, what do youse guys think about the lyrics of The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down by The Band?

The single most offensive song ever written by a Mohawk Indian and recorded by a civil rights activist/social justice warrior/woman of color.

[The Minsky Moment]

Similarly to Sweet Home Alabama, what do youse guys think about the lyrics of The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down by The Band?

In the context of the time, I think of it as an anti-war song written in the shadow of Vietnam, making the point that is always ordinary folk that suffer for the vainglory of others.  In the context of our own present time, it doesn't look as good.   Ta-Neishi Coates had a brutal takedown in the Atlantic, calling it the "blues of Pharaoh"
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2009/08/virginia/23415/
That's a good line but not entirely fair - it's more like the blues of the Egyptian peasants for the lost of their firstborn.  Maybe not the song we sing on Passover, but a song that can be sung.

[Syt]

There's a German version of the song by singer-songwriter Juliane Werding from 1973. In it, the lyrics are changed to a lament of the drug death of a young man. It was a #1 hit and helped bring drug problems of the time to public attention.

[The Minsky Moment]

Joe Henderson, Inner Urge (1964)

Tenor saxophonist's follow up with Tyner and Jones, who 9 days later would record Coltrane's Love Supreme sessions.
Overall this is a stronger effort across all tracks, with Henderson showing his mastery of all styles, shifting seamless between conventional bebop, blues, modal, Latin and free playing.

[Savonarola]

James Brown - I'm Black and I'm Proud (1969)

I think every reviewer needs to say that the children who chant "I'm black and I'm proud" on the title track were, in fact, not black (no word on whether they were proud or not.)  I think it's more remarkable that James Brown realized what his song needed was a funky children's chorus.  He was right, of course, there's only one James Brown.

"Lickin' Stick" is the other big hit on the album; he does a number of soulful ballads as well.  He has better albums, but this one is good throughout.

[garbon]

Donna Summer - MacArthur Park