1000 Recordings Sampler Episode 2

Here's the second installment of my 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die sampler, where I get to mix in a few of my favorite songs from Tom Moon's list. In the first episode I did a tribute to the recent deaths in the music industry, which meant the playlist was heavy on the pop music. This sample is a bit more scattered: although I grew up on rock and pop, I have been introduced to so much great music through the book that I think it's important to help folks find a place to start (especially if, like me, you are not well-versed in jazz, classical, and world). Here's the playlist for this week, you may know a few of these, but hopefully some will be new:

Play here on Spotify

1. Paul Simon - "I Know What I Know" (classic rock/South African)
2. Tom T. Hall - "Who's Gonna Feed Them Hogs" (country)
3. Mahavishnu Orchestra with John McLaughlin - "The Inner Mounting Flame" (jazz)
4. Curtis Mayfield - "Billy Jack" (R & B, soul)
5. Philip Glass - "Knee 1" (opera/weird)
6. John Fahey - "Orinda-Moraga" (folk)
7. King Sunny Ade - "Sunny Ti De" (Nigerian/juju)

If you like the music, buy the tracks on Amazon: Simon, Hall, Mahavishnu, Mayfield, Glass, Fahey, Ade

Related posts:

• 1000 Recordings Sampler Episode 1
• Like Vanilla Ice Cream for Your Shave Ice
• Chicago Gets No Love From My Parents

1000 Recordings Sampler Episode 1

1000 albums (give or take a few) is a lot of music to get through. I've been working my way through the book for 3 years and I'm just past halfway - if you're a casual listener, it could be overwhelming. So today I am doing the first of a new installment: the Recording the Recordings Sampler. This is a way for me to feature some entries I enjoy without everyone having to sit through a whole album. If you don't like a track, you can skip to the next one; if you do enjoy it, you can pull up the full album on Spotify.

In the past month we've lost an astonishing amount of world-class musicians, many who are household names. This week's playlist is a tribute to those we lost. Stream the playlist here.

1. Isaac Hayes - "Theme from Shaft"
Charles Pitts, 65, guitarist for Hayes. The intro with the "wah" is played by Pitts on this track

2. Chuck Brown - "Midnight Sun"
Chuck Brown, 75, the "Godfather of Go-Go." If you want to hear more about Brown, the 1000 Recordings Podcast guys just reviewed his work last week

3. The Beastie Boys - "The Sounds of Science"
Adam Yauch, 47, aka MCA of the Beastie Boys. This is one of my favorite Beasties songs and I never noticed before that MCA says "Yeah, that's right, my name's Yauch."

4. Booker T. & the M.G.'s - "Melting Pot"
Donald "Duck" Dunn, 70, bassist for Booker T, and a member of the Blues Brothers.

5. The Band - "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"
Levon Helm, 71, drummer/singer for the Band, who also put out two great comeback albums after temporarily losing the ability to sing due to throat cancer.

6. Gram Parsons - "She"
Chris Ethridge, 65, bassist, co-wrote the above track with Gram Parsons

7. Donna Summer - "I Feel Love"
Donna Summer, 63, known for her disco-era hits, this is the only track that made it into the 1000 Recordings.

*Update*
8. Bee Gees - "You Should be Dancing"
After I wrote this last night Robin Gibb, founder of the Bee Gees, died of cancer at age 62. It's been a rough month for music.

If you like the music, buy the tracks on Amazon: Shaft, Brown, Beastie Boys, Booker T, the Band, GP, Summer, Bee Gees

Related Posts

• NEWS: Beastie Boys' MCA aka Adam Yauch Dead at 47
• NEWS: Levon Helm, Drummer for the Band, Dies at 71
• COVER: Counting Crows Rock Out on Gram Parsons

COVER: The Beatles' "If I Fell" Covered All Trippy by Greta Link

Anyone who knows all about the Beatles seems to think that everyone else knows all about the Beatles. By that I mean that if you are "into music" then folks assume you know every Beatles song ever done. I mentioned before that I hadn't heard the White Album until I started reading the 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die, and although I had heard a lot of the songs off A Hard Day's Night, watching the movie was something of a revelation for me. Most of the songs off that album have that old, happy sounding Beatles sound you're familiar with if you listened to the "oldies" station as a kid, but then some have this heaviness to them that are surprising. "If I Fell" is one that I remember specifically being amazed by, thinking "I can't believe I've never heard this."

So when I saw a Cover Me lede for Greta Link's version of the song I jumped at it. I think the song (and Link's video) speak for themselves, so check it out below and then click through to my Cover Me post to download the link (or go buy it for what you think it's worth at Link's Bandcamp page).

Check out more from Greta at her website.
Read Moon's entry here.

The White Album Gets No Love from Me

My son is now old enough to have some well-defined favorite songs, and today he discovered a new one. At Christmas, both Nana and Grandma's house have train sets, and my son is now obsessed with trains (he doesn't really understand what they are yet aside from toys), and so I thought it would be funny to play Quad City DJs' "C'Mon 'N Ride it (The Train)" and teach him a conga line dance. And I was right, it was funny... the first five times through. I lost count after that, and we could barely get through breakfast because everytime the song ended he would point at the computer and shout "TRAIN!"

So, I can now add that to his list of other favorites: "I Want to Be Your Driver" by Chuck Berry ( yes, 1000 Recording entry), "Barbara Ann" by the Beach Boys (no, not 1000 RTHBYD), "Here Comes the Sun" by the Beatles (yes), "Jump" by Kris Kross (surprisingly, no), and "Yellow Submarine" and "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" by The Beatles (yes and yes). The last one is from the Beatles' self-titled/"White" album, and that's what I'm going to talk about today.

Artist: The Beatles
Album: The Beatles (The White Album)
Recording #175ish


Stream this on Youtube

I said before that choosing a favorite Radiohead album opens one up to attacks; multiply that by 1000 when you're talking about a Beatles album. There are entire college courses dedicated to studying the Beatles and how influential their albums were. But here it goes: The White Album is my least favorite Beatles album. Maybe it's because it's the last one I heard, and maybe Abbey Road is my favorite because it was the first. Maybe it's because there are so few singles on it, so I was totally unfamiliar with it. Considering it's their best selling album, I am clearly in the minority. But the overall theme I get from the album (strange that I notice one, considering the band had basically broken up by this point and it's a double album) is a melancholy, sludgy one. The songs don't have a lot of oomph, aside from the singles, which are generally the most interesting.

My first experience with this album was actually hearing The Gray Album by Danger Mouse (another 1000 Recording), which is a mix of Jay-Z's Black Album and the Beatles. I remember thinking, "the backing music sounds nothing like the Beatles." Now, in part, that was Danger Mouse's genius, but it also stems from the fact that much of this album does not sound like what most would think of as the Beatles. I wonder how many people felt as confused by this when it was first released as I did the first time I heard it. After hearing the guys from the 1000 Recordings Podcast talk about this one, I understood it a little better, especially the nuances between the different members and how they were all exploring their own styles. When I went back and listened to it again, I realize it's a "grower," but I'm still not there. There are some great songs on here ("Yer Blues," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," - which I did not particularly like the first time, and "Blackbird"), but only one album's worth in my opinion (I could do without "Piggies," and "Revolution 9" for example). Let the skewering begin, but I can't honestly say I dig this one.

How many stars would you give this recording?

Buy this album here

Led Zeppelin - How the West was Won

Ah, it's good to be back. With all the time I'm spending at work plus the hectic job of having an 18-month old, it's hard to listen to much new music. I write for the covers site, so really the only new music I hear are covers; in fact, I'm introduced to a lot of new music by hearing the cover first. So lately I have been catching up on stuff I wanted to hear before the end of the year as I make my 2011 Best Albums list, which is obviously not optional. Plus, it's Christmas season, which meant that the week after Thanksgiving I had already gone through my 10 hour playlist of Christmas music. So until I listened to this album, it had been over a month since I heard an entry from the 1000 Recordings. I knew I left off on a good one, though, and was excited to get back to it.

Artist: Led Zeppelin

Album: How the West was Won

Recording #492

Everyone has heard of the Zep, but hearing a bunch of songs on the radio and being familiar with their music are two different things, and in the past couple of years I have gone back and listened to all of their albums. And holy crap, these guys are awesome! I mean, you probably already knew that, but I was shocked at the songs I didn't know and how good they were. Hit after hit after hit rolls off their records. So I was really looking forward to hearing more from them.

This one doesn't disappoint. In fact, by the time you get to the guitar solo on "Heartbreaker," the third track, you should be pretty well hooked for the rest of the 3 disc live recording. I heard Kyle Gass of Tenacious D play Bach and had no idea it was referencing Page's incredible solo work (maybe it goes even farther back than that, but I don't know). The whole band sounds great on this but Page plays guitar like a god! The most interesting fact to me is that this came out in 2003-- the recordings themselves are from two shows in 1972, but this was their first official release. It hit #1, but is one of the worst selling #1 albums of all time. I guess there is some sense to this; if you were a Led Zeppelin fan you obviously would have gone out and scooped this up right away, but the wider public wouldn't necessarily continue the buying trend.

My son's favorite track is "Moby Dick," which is mostly drum solo... for NINETEEN MINUTES! But you can't argue when an 18 month old is bobbing his head and drumming on stuff-- there is something primal in that. Anyways, if you are unfamiliar with Led Zeppelin's work, start with some of the self-titled albums (IV is probably your best bet), but if you are already a bit of a fan, I think this is going to be a must-have for you. Listen to the whole thing below, and let me know your thoughts.

Read Tom's entry
Buy it at Amazon

Don't Talk Back!

First of 2 summer hits to wrap up the summer.

Artist: The Coasters
Recording: Yakety Yak
Recording #1?



Is there a person reading this that doesn't know this song? I'm pretty sure I heard this song on Sesame Street or some other show as a very little kid. Is there any better song to represent the child's viewpoint of parenting? The Coasters nailed it, right down to the silly bass "Don't talk back" made to represent the authority figure. As demonstrated by my 2 year old nephew, who was recently heard having a conversation with himself in which he impersonated his mom by lowering his voice, you don't have to have much time as on this planet to get the reference. Now that I am a parent I wonder if I'll quote this song as much as my mom did when I was a kid. Although the song definitely sounds dated, coming from the very early days of rock, it still works in a different format: surprisingly good raggae reinventions here and here. But if the original doesn't take you back to your childhood, I feel bad for you. This one brings back all the best parts of the worst parts of being a kid, and I'm starting my son early-- he's sleeping in my arm as I type this, so maybe he'll have an even earlier memory attached to this classic.