What are you listening to?

[garbon]

In happy news; I've made it all the way to Christmas Eve and still haven't heard "Last Christmas" by Wham! this year.  While I may be jinxing myself, I'm just going to go ahead and declare that I've won Christmas.   

My fave Christmas pop song bar maybe Christmas Wrapping.

[Syt]

I was under the impression that Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas" had overtaken "Last Christmas" in the public's opinion as "most obnoxious Christmas song"?

[Savonarola]

I was under the impression that Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas" had overtaken "Last Christmas" in the public's opinion as "most obnoxious Christmas song"?

That could be, it certainly is over-played.  I wouldn't put that in my top five most hated Christmas songs, though.  (Let's see: Dogs Barking "Jingle Bells", "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas", "Last Christmas", Madonna's version of "Santa Baby", Paul McCartney's "Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time," and "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" so not even in the bottom six.) 

[Admiral Yi]

The McCartney song is like fingernails on a blackboard.

[The Minsky Moment]

Since I don't have Sav's patience - my favorite albums from 1973 in one go:

McCoy Tyner, Enlightenment: Tyner put out a series of great albums in the early and mid 70s; this live date is one of his best.  Lacks the supporting cast of Extensions, also released in the same year, but Tyner stands out all the more because of it.

Elvin Jones - Live at the Lighthouse: live double album from Tyner's former bandmate and Coltrane alumnus. Master class from drumming GOAT.

Mahavishnu Orchestra - Birds of Fire: Five decades out, it's clear that jazz-rock fusion was a dead-end, and rock-and-roll itself is declining into senility.  Still the very best fusion albums stand the test of time; Mahavishnu' Inner Mounting Flame was among the very best, and Birds of Fire is the annex to it.

Dave Holland, Conference of the Birds: If you are a white 20 something from the Midlands trying to get street cred as a bass player, you can do worse than get picked by Miles Davis to feature on Bitches Brew and In a Silent Way.  Holland parlayed that cred into a long successful career as a leader, starting with this one.  Taking on two leading avant garde saxophone players, he provides six original pieces that regular humans can listen to.

Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Prepare Thyself to deal with a Miracle: To the extent Kirk is remembered today, it is for playing 3 reeds at once and his late career gags with Jay Leno.  The fact that he was the equal of the great sax players of his day got lost. This album is top notch late Kirk, full of joy, fun, a little weirdness, and Grade A blowing.
 
Donald Byrd - Blackbyrd: jazz-funk classic and last commercial success for the original Blue Note Records; now best known for inspiring Nas' NY State of Mind on Illmatic.

Charles Brackeen – Rhythm X: An Ornette Coleman album, featuring Ornette's supporting cast, but with Brackeen as leader instead of Ornette. Brackeen is no Ornette Coleman, but he can play, and more importantly, he can give his sidemen room to work, resulting in one the finest performances in Charlie Haden's long and distinguished career on the bass.

Herbie Hancock - Sextant: Hancock released two albums in 1973.  One of them, Head Hunters, became first jazz album to ever go platinum.  The other was Sextent, a commercial flop.  For my 2 cents, Sextent is the better record but YMMV.  Either way, tolerance for early 70s synth effects is required.

Pharoah Sanders Izipho Zam: like Sextent, this is easily identifiable as a product of its time, from the Swahili title to Leon Thomas' yodeling vocals, and Sanders' transitions from trancelike drones to wild honking. Billy Hart holds it together on drums.

[Savonarola]

Since I don't have Sav's patience - my favorite albums from 1973 in one go:

McCoy Tyner, Enlightenment: Tyner put out a series of great albums in the early and mid 70s; this live date is one of his best.  Lacks the supporting cast of Extensions, also released in the same year, but Tyner stands out all the more because of it.

Elvin Jones - Live at the Lighthouse: live double album from Tyner's former bandmate and Coltrane alumnus. Master class from drumming GOAT.

Mahavishnu Orchestra - Birds of Fire: Five decades out, it's clear that jazz-rock fusion was a dead-end, and rock-and-roll itself is declining into senility.  Still the very best fusion albums stand the test of time; Mahavishnu' Inner Mounting Flame was among the very best, and Birds of Fire is the annex to it.

Dave Holland, Conference of the Birds: If you are a white 20 something from the Midlands trying to get street cred as a bass player, you can do worse than get picked by Miles Davis to feature on Bitches Brew and In a Silent Way.  Holland parlayed that cred into a long successful career as a leader, starting with this one.  Taking on two leading avant garde saxophone players, he provides six original pieces that regular humans can listen to.

Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Prepare Thyself to deal with a Miracle: To the extent Kirk is remembered today, it is for playing 3 reeds at once and his late career gags with Jay Leno.  The fact that he was the equal of the great sax players of his day got lost. This album is top notch late Kirk, full of joy, fun, a little weirdness, and Grade A blowing.
 
Donald Byrd - Blackbyrd: jazz-funk classic and last commercial success for the original Blue Note Records; now best known for inspiring Nas' NY State of Mind on Illmatic.

Charles Brackeen – Rhythm X: An Ornette Coleman album, featuring Ornette's supporting cast, but with Brackeen as leader instead of Ornette. Brackeen is no Ornette Coleman, but he can play, and more importantly, he can give his sidemen room to work, resulting in one the finest performances in Charlie Haden's long and distinguished career on the bass.

Herbie Hancock - Sextant: Hancock released two albums in 1973.  One of them, Head Hunters, became first jazz album to ever go platinum.  The other was Sextent, a commercial flop.  For my 2 cents, Sextent is the better record but YMMV.  Either way, tolerance for early 70s synth effects is required.

Pharoah Sanders Izipho Zam: like Sextent, this is easily identifiable as a product of its time, from the Swahili title to Leon Thomas' yodeling vocals, and Sanders' transitions from trancelike drones to wild honking. Billy Hart holds it together on drums.

Are you a fan of Gato Barbieri?  I'm just curious because I think his two best albums are from 1973 "Bolivia" and "Part 1, Latin America."

(Latin America has some of the best liner notes that I've seen.  They describe how he made the album with a band in some remote corner of Peru; they'd have to do things like stop production if they broke a drum head to slaughter a goat to make a new head.  One of the players said that he was an 800 year old magician; but the next day admitted he was lying and was really only 500 years old.  "Latin America" is the perfect title for that album.)

I haven't heard any of the albums on your list, I'll have to give them a go.

[The Minsky Moment]

I'd heard an album he did called Caliente, but not the two you mentioned.  Not sure how I ever missed Bolivia, given that it has Lonnie Smith on it and Stanley Clarke and John Abercrombie. AND Airto - is there anything from the 70s he didn't get on?  Great line up.

[Savonarola]

Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure (1973)

A brilliant, disturbing art-rock cacophony; this is the group's second album and the last one with Brian Eno.  The love song to a blow up doll "In Every Dream Home a Heartache" is one of a kind.  I was surprised at how much "The Bogus Man" sounded like Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk" (though this was well before even the Landslide had brought down Fleetwood Mac.)  Brian Ferry credited Cole Porter as an influence to "Do the Strand," with its discordant sax solos that's quite an interpretation of Porter.  In any event I loved it; but I realize this one isn't for everybody.

[Josephus]

Supertramp...Crime of the Century

[Savonarola]

Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy (1973)

When I was a teenager I remember Dragon Magazine () used to have an April Fool's edition which included some of the odder letters they had received.  There was one that I remember which was really rambly and ended with "Also, why do you think there are naked babies on the cover of Led Zep Album?"  Why I don't know why Dragon Magazine would be an authority on the subject (other than they both ripped off Tolkien), I still think it's a fair question.

 

More musically diverse than their previous work: sometimes that works the reggae influenced "D'yer Mak'er is a lot of fun; other times not so much their attempts to be James Brown and the JB's in "The Crunge" leave something to be desired.  Robert Plant's lyrics are sometimes a stretch ("This is the mystery of the quotient/Upon us all a little rain must fall"), but at least no one had a bustle in his hedgerow this time through.  Other than "The Crunge" the music is fantastic; some of Page's best work to date and the rest of the band is solid as ever.

On the subject of Robert Plant's lyrics; I once heard an interview with Ian Anderson where he addressed the feud between Jethro Tull and Led Zeppelin.  He said it was his fault because, in an interview, he said something along the lines of "If you took my lyrics and Zeppelin's guitars you'd have a tight little band; thus earning Plant's enmity.  (I imagine the rest of Jethro Tull knew who they were dealing with by that point.)

[Josephus]

i never knew there was a feud between Zep and Tull.

[Savonarola]

i never knew there was a feud between Zep and Tull.

I hadn't heard of it before listening to the interview; so I'm not sure how long it lasted or how significant it was.  You might be interested in the interview; it's on the 1996 Special Edition of "Aqualung."  I found it on Amazon Prime Music (it's probably the other services as well.)

[Syt]

Trivia: what was the first (and I believe only?) a cappella song to reach #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100?

[Barrister]

Trivia: what was the first (and I believe only?) a cappella song to reach #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100?

Don't Worry be Happy by Bobby McFerrin?

[Syt]

Correct