Rep's Top Fifty Albums Of All-Time

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Re: Rep's Top Fifty Albums Of All-Time

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Scott-if you EVER want to put together a show for our station (for free, of course :lol: ), please let me know! I am in awe of your knowledge-or anyone else's.
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Re: Rep's Top Fifty Albums Of All-Time

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28. Elvis Presley / “Elvis’ Gold Records Volume 5”
Year Of Release: 1984
Top Tracks: “Burning Love”, “Suspicious Minds”, “Way Down”, “For The Heart”, “If I Can Dream”, “In The Ghetto”

For a lot of Elvis fans, this assemblage documents what many consider to be the man’s wheelhouse. Sure, he put rock and roll on the map. But aside from “For LP Fans Only” there is not a great album that came out of those first four to five years of the career of “The King”. And then came the movies. How many solid albums came out of THAT six year stretch? “Girl Happy”? Maybe, but that was about it. As I said: this documents the man’s hits after he returned from the movies, beginning with the “’68 Comeback” TV special for NBC. And that is where this album’s biggest highlight comes from: Elvis did not want to close the show with another Christmas song because he had already done one and everybody else that was having a TV special that season would be doing a bunch of Christmas songs and he really didn’t care for “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”. So Earl Brown tells him, “give me ten minutes”. Ten minutes later, “If I Can Dream” was slotted to close the show. Featuring lines from Martin Luther King, a big chorale and Elvis’ gutsiest vocal performance ever, “If I Can Dream” made the Billboard Top 20 and was featured on a “Double A-Side” (remember them?) with “Edge Of Reality”...which is also included here and was the last of Elvis’ “movie hits”. Aside from that, you have got all the big “Post-Comeback” hits (“Suspicious Minds”, “Kentucky Rain”, “In The Ghetto”) and of course there are the “rockers”. Yes, the songs that show what Elvis could have done probably every time out had he wanted to, was allowed to or could have done had he been able to stand up and sing without drooling. "Clean Up Your Own Backyard", “Burning Love”, “For The Heart” and “Way Down” are all testaments to the fact that he may not have been “The King” that he once was, but these “last days hits” were just as good as anything he had cut in the previous 10-12 years and were better than a lot of the dreck that was filling the airwaves at the time of their initial release from other artists.

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Re: Rep's Top Fifty Albums Of All-Time

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I'm still waiting to see if one of my all time favorites makes the list............ Live at the Fillmore East, by the Allman Brothers....after 40 years, this recording still ranks at the top of my list. :D
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Re: Rep's Top Fifty Albums Of All-Time

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A). You are correct in your assertion about that recording: definitely one of the top 3-5 live albums ever.

B). I told myself going into this thing that it would have to be albums that I have actually owned a copy of. Sorry to say, I have never owned a copy of "Fillmore East". Conrad keeps telling me there should be some Humble Pie on here. Yes, they made two terrific albums that are worthy of the list, but I never actually owned copies of them. I think "All Things Must Pass" by George Harrison should be on here...but guess what? Never owned it...
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Re: Rep's Top Fifty Albums Of All-Time

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27. The Rolling Stones / “Flowers”
Year Of Release: 1967
Top Tracks: “Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby?”, “Ride On, Baby”, “Out Of Time”, “Ruby Tuesday”, “Backstreet Girl”

Like many American albums from British artists in the early to mid 1960’s, The Rolling Stones’ “Flowers” is a patchwork affair, mainly due to London Records’ desire to “not let any unreleased Stones track go unissued”. Even being birthed out of that initial conception, the album, in the words of allmusic.com’s Richie Unterberger, “is rather great”...“judged solely by the music”. Jeez, what else do we judge records by? If you’re looking for hits, this thing features “Let’s Spend The Night Together”, “Ruby Tuesday” and “Mother’s Little Helper”. As for key Stones compositions, there are the two original versions of songs that Chris Farlowe took to the top of the British charts (“Out Of Time” and “Ride On, Baby”) along with “Sittin’ On A Fence”, “Backstreet Girl”, “Lady Jane” and “Please Go Home”...which sounds like Bo Diddley on acid. The highlight, though, is “Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby?” which is two minutes and thirty five seconds of sound that stylistically represents a bit of EVERYTHING The Rolling Stones had recorded up to that point and were to record in the next nine years. You like “Satisfaction”? It’s in there. You like “Sympathy For The Devil”? It’s in there. You like “It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll”? It’s in there. Keith Richards once stated that had they been given more time to work on it, it could have been the greatest rock song ever recorded up to that point in time, "certainly would have been our best", he said. My only question is why the heck today’s radio programmers of Classic Rock and Oldies do not play “Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby?”? It was a Top Ten single that gets no airplay today and...due to years of underexposure...if it were thrown on the air today in a regular rotation would instantly attract the ears of anyone who has never heard it. What I say about any album released in 1967 certainly applies to this one: “It blows ‘Sergeant Pepper’s” away...
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Re: Rep's Top Fifty Albums Of All-Time

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26b. Giorgio / “Son Of My Father”
Year Of Release: 1972
Top Tracks: “Underdog”, “Son Of My Father”, “Lord, Release Me”, “That’s How I See Her”, “Pauline”, “London Traffic”, "Automation", "Watch Your Step"

Sure Buck Owens, Walter Carlos and The Monkees owned the first three Moog synthesizers ever built, but it was Giorgio Moroder who first ventured into the Billboard Top 40 with one. The event was heralded when “Son Of My Father” became his first hit in the U.S. in 1972. Prior to that, he had had numerous hits in various other countries from as early as 1966...all featuring unique and even experimental production techniques that sometimes overshadowed the music. For a glimpse into this era (“Moody Trudy”, “Looky Looky”, “Stop!”, “Arizona Man”) you need to go to the “Best Of The Early Years” CD, should you ever be able to find one. This however is the first proper LP from the man who would later become known as “Donna Summer’s Producer” and soundtrack composer extraordinaire (“Midnight Express”, “American Gigolo”, “Cat People”, “Flashdance”, “Metropolis”). I remember running out and buying the 45 the day after I heard the song for the first time (Bob Hank, WMMN. He thought it sounded like The Monkees.). After the 10th play or so, I discovered “Underdog” on the flip side and have always preferred it over “Son Of My Father” since that day. “Underdog” is one of the rare examples where the single version is longer than the original album version (“Lady” by The Little River Band comes to mind as another). It was rare in 1972 to hear a combination of strings, synthesizer, a Gospel chorus and Pete Townsend-ish guitar all backing a singer that sounds like Cheech Marin...but that’s what all 4:55 of “Underdog” included. As for the rest of the album, “Automation” is the “experimental” piece, “That’s How I See Her” and “Pauline” are the poppy love songs, “London Traffic” is a reggae/disco fusion, and “Lord, Release Me” is an unabashed Gospel anthem with a band and street choir. I also still remember getting my first copy of this for .99 at Grove's Market on US Route 19 South in Weston back in late '72. Always the sign of a great album: release date in January...cut-out bin by the end of the year! Sure, he’ll probably be in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame one day for all of his production and writing work for Donna Summer and all the movies, but THIS is Giorgio Moroder the artist before disco and commerciality set in. And he DOES sound like Cheech Marin...
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Re: Rep's Top Fifty Albums Of All-Time

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26a. New York Dolls / “New York Dolls”
Year Of Release: 1973
Top Tracks: “Personality Crisis”, “Lonely Planet Boy”, “Pills”, “Jet Boy”, “Trash”, “Subway Train”, “Looking For A Kiss”

Oh, how I wish this was coupled somewhere with their second LP (“In Too Much, Too Soon”) so I could review them both at the same time because they do go hand in hand. I remember picking up my copy from Pete down at the old Lafayette Electronics store at the corner of Locust Avenue and Field Street in Fairmont right after it came out. My usual Saturday afternoon “routine” included walking down to CV News, doing about four pepperoni rolls with their sauce (definitely a love it or hate it thing), buying five or so packs of baseball cards and walking over to Lafayette and spending the rest of my allowance on an eight track tape. And the week that I picked up the first New York Dolls album was truly a stellar musical occurrence in my life. At first I was hooked on “Personality Crisis” (“You’re a prima ballerina on a spring afternoon, change on into the Wolfman howling at the moon”). Then it was the 50’s rock meets Glam anthems “Trash” and “Subway Train”. Then came “Pills”, an actual fifties cover version of a mid-career Bo Diddley tune. After all was said and done, the song on the eight track that I would fast forward through tracks to hear again would be “Lonely Planet Boy”, the “quiet moment” of the album or, if you prefer, the “love song” of the group. This made fantastic listening back in ’73, and of course the cover of the project itself would draw curious stares alone without anyone ever hearing the music. If you had not been familiar with Alice Cooper or David Bowie up until this time, David Johansen (Buster Poindexter to some of you younger folks) and band dressed in women’s clothing and makeup seemed just a tad much for that day and age when “Happy Days” was just becoming the hottest show on television. This was the musical equivalent of seeing Fonzie in a bra...
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Re: Rep's Top Fifty Albums Of All-Time

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25. Wreckless Eric / “Big Smash!”
Year Of Release: 1980
Top Tracks: “Semaphore Signals”, “Reconnez Cherie”, “(I’d Go The) Whole Wide World”, “Veronica”, “The Final Taxi”

The highlights of my year or so on Facebook are: being Chris Lawrence’s friend, playing Farkle!, and communicating with Eric Goulden. You see, Mr. Goulden is Wreckless Eric...the second greatest pop music songwriter right behind Paul McCartney. When I have to relate an artist to an unknowing person, I always try to go for the “lowest common denominator” right off the bat. In other words, the only place most people have ever heard a Wreckless Eric song is in the Will Ferrell movie “Stranger Than Fiction”, where he picks up the acoustic guitar and begins strumming and singing “(I’d Go The) Whole Wide World”...with the actual Eric version coming in after the second verse. The only time I ever heard a Wreckless Eric song on the radio was “Broken Doll” (the single from this double-LP set) on WOMP back in ’80. Of course, we played a LOT of W.E. on TCS...mainly “Semaphore Signals” and “Whole Wide World”...which was covered later by The Monkees, by the way. The biggest problem that occurred with “Big Smash!” was that Stiff/Epic gathered up six hit U.K. singles and paired them with a full album to make his DEBUT U.S. album a double! Aside from not picking one of the established hits as a U.S. single complicated things even more for Eric on the road to achieving any success here in the States. Which is sad, because there are words and phrases in Wreckless Eric songs that no other songwriter could write: “I live up here on this hill / She lives down there in the grain belt”, “On a convenient seat by the lavatory in the sodium glare” and his most famous verse of “When I was a young boy, my Momma said to me / ‘There’s only one girl in the world in the world for you and she probably lives in Tahiti’”). Having listened to rock and roll since 12/63, I have never heard as much passion in a singer’s voice than Eric asking “Do you remember when I sold the painting in the gallery?” in “Reconnez Cherie”. And that’s what Eric has that a lot more successful artists don’t: passion...especially for the three minute pop song (“Big Smash!” features his U.K. single “A Pop Song”). Could he sing? Heck, he couldn’t even TALK (here’s his radio show: http://wrecklessericofficial.blogspot.com/). Did he have stage presence? Heck, he couldn’t even stand up (watch from 4:20 to the end here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8nmtZ_Bqi4 ). But that is what endears one such as Wreckless Eric to the ones that understand him: HE IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE DOING THIS AT ALL AND YET HE HAS BECOME A RENOWNED SUCCESS AT IT. Kinda like The Monkees. After his Stiff success, he went on to form The Len Bright Trio which released the very desirable to own “The Len Bright Trio Presents The Len Bright Trio By The Len Bright Trio”, along with the band Captains Of Industry. After that he married Amy Rigby and tours with her doing small clubs and releasing albums, the most recent being an album of covers called "Family Favorites". God bless ya, Eric. God bless ya...
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Re: Rep's Top Fifty Albums Of All-Time

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24. The Bee Gees / “The Best Of The Bee Gees, Vol. 1”
Year Of Release: 1969
Top Tracks: “First Of May”, “New York Mining Disaster 1941”, “I Can’t See Nobody”, “Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You”, “Massachusetts”

I know I wasn’t going to get too heavy into including “greatest hits”-type packages in this project, but this is one that just can’t be denied. Never has a group had such a solid line of demarcation in their career than the brothers Gibb. Looking backwards, there are the post-’74 Bee Gees (beginning with “Main Course” delivering the first of the “mainstream” disco hits “Jive Talkin’” and “Nights On Broadway”), the two years of not a single hit single or album at all (1973-1974) and then there was the beginning...which this LP captures so beautifully. First off, the two songs closest to “clunkers” are “Holiday” and “Tomorrow, Tomorrow”. The rest are stellar pop songs that defined the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. Sure you get the expected hits (“To Love Somebody”, “I Gotta Get A Message To You”, “Words”, and “I Started A Joke”), but the real winners here are the lesser hits and album tracks. My introduction to the Bee Gees came via hearing “New York Mining Disaster 1941” while spinning on a stool at the Village Dairy in Fairmont after having had an order of fries and cole slaw. From that point on I paid attention to whenever they would release a new single...and, as they say, “the hits just kept on a comin’”. Aside from the big hits listed above, there is also “Massachusetts”...a song that should be an Oldies radio staple but sadly isn’t. “Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You” begins with a Gregorian chant and ends up as something that would have been the standout track on “Sergeant Pepper’s”. What I love about music is the fact that you can discover songs from forty years ago for the first time and sound excitingly fresh...just like I did with “I Can’t See Nobody” a couple of years ago...a great overlooked Bee Gees song that was a big hit in a lot of countries other than the U.S.. And then there is the highlight of highlights: “First Of May”. Possibly the most beautiful song in the history of rock and roll and the best song that John Conrad ever turned me on to...
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Re: Rep's Top Fifty Albums Of All-Time

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23. Alice Cooper / “Killer”
Year Of Release: 1971
Top Tracks: “Under My Wheels”, “Be My Lover”, “Yeah Yeah Yeah”, “Desperado”, “Halo Of Flies”, “You Drive Me Nervous”

I love 1971. My favorite year. And this is definitely my favorite album from my favorite year. I consulted Conrad on this one because Alice (the group) made a string of great albums from 1969-1974 and I needed some external input to gauge just how accurate my feelings were. John said he would go “Love It To Death”, “Killer” and “Muscle Of Love”. I had the same three chosen, but would have gone “Killer”, “Muscle” and “Love It”. No matter how you slice it, this is a great early 70’s hard rock album. You could tell that the greatness of Alice Cooper as a group was there from the beginning (“Levity Ball” on “Pretties For You”)...it only needed refining. “Easy Action”, while containing some great songs (“Shoe Salesman”, “Beautiful Flyaway”) was still a little ramshackle...but it started coming together in the form of greatness during “Love It To Death” in 1970. “Killer” was a big step up on the ladder of that greatness by coming out and whomping you on the head as soon as the needle hit the grooves. “Under My Wheels”, “Be My Lover” and “Halo Of Flies” right off the bat. We could stop there and call it a great album, but then comes “Desperado”, “Yeah Yeah Yeah” and “Dead Babies”. Even the filler cuts (“You Drive Me Nervous”, “Killer”) are not unlistenable. The most evenly paced Cooper album, there is no low point at all...which cannot be said for the immediate two follow-ups (“School’s Out” and “Billion Dollar Babies”). Plus, the original came with the neat 1972 calendar on the inside of the album jacket. Bonus points for that...
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Re: Rep's Top Fifty Albums Of All-Time

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Awesome pick. First time I saw Alice was on the tour for this album.
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Re: Rep's Top Fifty Albums Of All-Time

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22. The Hardy Boys / Here Come The Hardys
Year Of Release: 1969
Top Tracks: "My Little Sweetpea", "Namby Pamby", "Sink Or Swim", "Here Come The Hardys", "That's That"

Side Two: "Sink Or Swim" into "Namby Pamby" into "My Little Sweetpea" into "Sha La La". Pure bubblegum gold. They were best known for their 58 books by Franklin W. Dixon and their Parker Stevenson/Shaun Cassidy TV series. But for two years in-between those well-known "career peaks" came the cartoon version of Frank, Joe and their friends. There were four voice actors doing ALL of the regular characters ALONG with all of the "villains" on the cartoon (ABC, Saturday mornings 11:00am, 1969-1970)...and that was truly hard to listen to. Chubby Morton's voice has been known to bring forth sometimes unrepairable damage to any device attempting to relay it. The show did, however, feature the FIRST BLACK SATURDAY MORNING CARTOON CHARACTER in the person (?) of Pete Jones. As for the music, however, they produced what most critics call "the greatest bubblegum album of all time". Reed Kailing was the lead vocalist and went on to The Grass Roots and Beatlemania!, Bob Crowder was the drummer and played drums on a lot of The Bee Gees disco-era stuff, and Devon English was just flat out stared at wherever she went. Plus, you’ve got a multi-instrumentalist named Nibs Soltysiak...and ANY band that includes someone named Nibs Soltysiak HAS to be great! I do not have the album jacket directly in front of me as I type this, but I do remember that Spencer Proffer had a hand in the album somewhere, and he of course later went on to work with Quiet Riot. The “real live” Hardy Boys did appear in the opening of the cartoon show and did two tours to support their two LP's. The albums used to be found in Dairy Mart stores everywhere for .99...always the sign of a great album! Sample the show and music here:



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Re: Rep's Top Fifty Albums Of All-Time

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21. The Velvet Underground / “1969 Live”
Year Of Release: 1974
Top Tracks: “What Goes On?”, “Ocean”, “New Age”, “Sweet Bonnie Brown”, “Heroin”, “Sweet Jane”, “Rock And Roll”

It has been said that during their five years of existence that The Velvet Underground only played live in front of approximately 3000 different people. But the greatest compliment to any band in the history of rock and roll is attached to the end of that statement when the part is added that “everyone that ever saw them live immediately went home and started their own band”. You truly did not listen to The Velvet Underground...you EXPERIENCED them. They influenced others by who they were, what they had done and especially by the way that they had done it...instead of just by the music that they had made. The band was put together by and for Andy Warhol to play at The Factory in 1966 with Nico sharing lead vocals with Lou Reed. Within the next four years they would release their four studio albums, be thrown off of their label and signed to another, play at Max’s almost every night, and take the occasional foray outside of New York City to places like Dallas and San Francisco...where this double set was recorded. Oh, I failed to mention that they changed the face of rock and roll in the meantime...and many of those songs that they did to become members of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame (inducted: 1998) are included here. You get the “non-standard” version of “Sweet Jane” (the one that Crash Test Dummies covered), an alternate lyrical version of “New Age”, some material not found elsewhere (“Sweet Bonnie Btown”, “It’s Just Too Much”) and the songs that made the band famous (“Heroin”, “Rock And Roll”, “White Light, White Heat”, “I’m Waiting For The Man”). But the real standouts are the two songs where they got to go to a place where 99% of rock bands performing live never get to go. “What Goes On?” is a typical three minute song that gets expanded into a swirling, churning experience lasting almost three times the length of the third album original. “Ocean” is also expanded beyond anything any recording studio could contain. How many songs can you think of where you are actually saying to yourself that the cymbals make the song? I’ve said it many times: if I could get to be any rock star that I wanted to be, it would probably be Maureen Tucker. Don’t let me go on about this album which, by the way, is only one of two live albums on the Top 50, let musician Elliott Murphy go on about it. Here are what have been referred to by many as “the greatest liner notes ever written”, included inside the cover to the original LP as it was issued in 1974 on Mercury:

“It’s a hundred years from today and everyone who’s reading this is dead. I’m dead. You’re dead. And some kid is taking a music course in junior high and maybe he’s listening to The Velvet Underground ‘cause he’s gotta write a report on classical rock and roll and I wonder what that kid’s thinking? I wish they would invent a machine that told everyone’s biggest secret...yours and mine and Lou Reed’s. The difference between movies and rock and roll is that rock and roll never tells a lie. Rock and roll never promises a happy ending. I’d love to say The Velvet Underground played sad music...when I listen to it I think about people I won’t ever see again. But isn’t that the world of art? Van Gogh cuts off his ear and then some art class takes a field trip to some museum and someone’s getting in trouble for smoking on the bus. I think The Velvet Underground was a scary group. What goes through a mother’s mind when she asks her fifteen year old daughter about the name of that song you’re listening to and she says it’s called ‘Heroin’ and it’s by this group called The Velvet Underground and they have something to do with Andy Warhol? I wish I was writing this a hundred years from today, then I’d be writing about music made by dead people. Then there’d be a beginning and an end. As it stands, I don’t know where this album fits in. I think all of the people on this album are alive today. I know that at least one of them is still at it. Where does this album fit in? If it was a hundred years from now I’d know for sure...now I can only guess. I think it’s great rock and roll. I think Alexander The Great, Lord Byron, Jack The Ripper, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Dean and other rock and roll stars would agree with me.

And maybe it’s 1969. And some kid is borrowing his parents’ car and coming into the city and doing things he’s never done before and getting home later than he’s supposed to and getting in trouble. But it’s all right, ‘cause he knows he’ll never be the same again. THAT’S what this album is about. Rock and roll people tend to live on the edge. THAT’S what this album is about. Rock and roll is all we have left. THAT’S what this album is about.

Anyway, I could analyze every song...but that’s what took all the fun out of chemistry.

I hope someday they’ll teach rock and roll in history classes. I hope that the music on this is among the more important elements of that class.

I hope parents will still be scared when they find their daughter listening to this music.

I wish it was a hundred years from today. I can’t stand the suspense.”
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Re: Rep's Top Fifty Albums Of All-Time

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20. The Monkees / “Headquarters”
Year Of Release: 1967
Top Tracks: “No Time”, “Shades Of Gray”, “Randy Scouse Git”, “You Just May Be The One", Sunny Girlfriend”, “Forget That Girl”, “Mr. Webster”

Trivia questions time: (1). What album did “Sergeant Pepper’s” knock out of the Number 1 spot back in 1967? (2). What is “Alternate Title”?

“Headquarters” followed the first two Monkees albums (“The Monkees” and “More Of The Monkees”) which were more collaborative efforts between Don Kirshner, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart than they were REAL Monkees albums. However this LP...along with the “The Girl That I Knew Somewhere” flip side...was as REAL as The Monkees ever were to be. This is where they actually played their instruments, sang the songs and basically told “Donnie Music” where to go. The result was the album that was only knocked out of the Billboard #1 position by “Sergeant Pepper’s”. As for the music, there was nothing deemed worthy of release as a single (hence the “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You” single left over from the DK days)...in other words, The Monkees had shed their image as “just voices”. Instead of containing one hit single, it contained around a dozen of their best songs. Another key to them shedding their image to the dismay of the promotional powers that be was the fact that the original album cover...showing Micky Dolenz with a full beard...was quickly withdrawn.

Image

THIS needs to be seen...



Getting back to the music, if there was a “hit” off of “Headquarters” it would have been Peter Tork’s “For Pete’s Sake”...which millions came to know and love as the closing theme for the second season of the TV show. Aside from that there were gems like the Mike Nesmith compositions “Sunny Girlfriend”, “You Told Me” and the fantastic “You Just May Be The One”. Davy’s contributions included possibly his best vocal effort ever (“Forget That Girl”) and one of side two’s highlights (“Early Morning Blues And Greens”). The show is stolen, though, by Dolenz who contributes “No Time” (with opening lyrics inspired by Bill Cosby) and “Randy Scouse Git” which...known as “Alternate Title”...was their biggest hit in many foreign countries (especially big in Australia). It was never released as a single in the U.S. due to the fact that Colgems thought “no one will understand this”, whereas it was a hit overseas because it was a chronicle of their British/Australian tour...including their much publicized meeting with The Beatles (“the four kings of EMI”). John Lennon had stated that he never missed an episode of the TV series, too. Their next album would be their masterpiece, but for their THIRD album within EIGHT MONTHS, this was nothing to sneeze at. As a matter of fact, The Monkees placed three albums in the Top 20...a feat that was usually reserved for the likes of The Beatles. Whether there was a hit single or not is not the point: the point is THE MONKEES ANSWERED THE CRITICS THAT SAID THEY WERE “NOT REALLY A BAND” WITH A NUMBER ONE, MILLION SELLING ALBUM...ALL ON THEIR OWN. And besides, it can set you off saying one of the four phrases for DAYS at a time: “Mr. Dobolina, Mr. Bob Dobolina”, “It is of my opinion that the people are intending”, “China Clipper calling Alameda”, or “Never mind it furthermore, the plea is self defense”...
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Re: Rep's Top Fifty Albums Of All-Time

Post by amayo »

I wore this record out--twice. The Nesmith stuff is always my favorite, but Dolenz was spectacular this time out.
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Re: Rep's Top Fifty Albums Of All-Time

Post by Scott Reppert »

19. Lou Reed / “Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal”
Year Of Release: 1973
Top Tracks: “Heroin”, “Sweet Jane”, “Rock And Roll”, “White Light/White Heat”, “Lady Day”

1974. A summer’s day. Murphy’s. Weston, WV. I, Scott Reppert, with sweaty five dollar bill in pocket and staring at Lou Reed’s “Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal” held firmly in hands, was faced with a question. “Am I going to have drool running out my mouth and a needle hanging in my arm by midnight tonight if I buy this album?” Well, the answer ended up being “no” and I ended up being awake at midnight listening to this AMAZING live album for the fifteenth time. One of the albums that I neglected to put on this list was Dire Straits “Making Movies”. Why? Because I felt I would be judging it just from the contents of one side of the disc (“Tunnel Of Love”, “Romeo And Juliet”, “Skateaway”)...so I did not include it. Well, the same could be said of “Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal”. Coming in at a scant five songs total, the two on side one are so great that they basically are what garnered this album the #19 position. Oh, sure “White Light/White Heat” and “Rock And Roll” on side two are superfine on their own and “Lady Day” is a “Berlin” leftover that could have been replaced by something else (there was more available from this show since “Lou Reed Live” came out within a year or so after this)...but side one is the winner. Guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner open up the set with an “Intro” that can only be described as gorgeous and bombastic. And you know if you’re playing and recording something live that is gorgeous and bombastic...you’re on to something special. And then it hits you...one of the finest performances of the first song learned by EVERY garage band formed from 1971 to 1980: “Sweet Jane”. How such a simple song both lyrically and musically can be so powerful is beyond me. “Standin’ on a corner / suitcase in my hand / Jack is in his corset, Jane is in her vest / Me? I’m in a rock and roll band”. It’s a song with a message for all of us...and this is it’s superior live recording. And as the applause dies down, you get “Heroin”. Making it’s second appearance on an album in this Top 50 (with one more to come), this is what I would call the “definitive” version. It’s a shame that there is not video from this tour with Lou shooting up on stage and the band cooking behind him, but it was not the stuff that “Rock Concert” was prone to showing on a late Saturday night. Granted the original version pushed the envelope to the point of being banned by the FCC back in ’66-’67...but this is the version you actually EXPERIENCE. As a matter of fact, this album may be coming in at Number19 on the merits of the live version of “Heroin” alone...
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Re: Rep's Top Fifty Albums Of All-Time

Post by CoolBreeze »

What the hell is this, a Blog?
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Re: Rep's Top Fifty Albums Of All-Time

Post by Bob Campbell »

Rock n Roll Animal may be the greatest live album of all time. Dick Hunter's guitar work on Intro/Sweet Jane alone may make it that. I'm not saying I worship Lou like the god he is, but at my first wedding, the mix tape I made for the reception ( couldn't afford a band) started with the Velvet Underground version of Sweet Jane and ended with the Rock N Roll Animal version. 28 years later, I still have the cassettes. Sweet Jane may be the single greatest rock song ever ( okay, so I collected versions of it by the Jim Carroll Band, Cowboy Junkies and Brownsville Station and played it in bands), Heroin is terrifying in its power and authenticity. What an album.
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Re: Rep's Top Fifty Albums Of All-Time

Post by Hoosier Daddy »

CoolBreeze wrote:What the hell is this, a Blog?
I like it. Carry on, Mr. Reppert.

8)
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Re: Rep's Top Fifty Albums Of All-Time

Post by Scott Reppert »

Next year: MOVIES!
Scott Reppert
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WTCS/WFGM/WMQC/WAIJ/WLIC/WRIJ/WKJL/WRWJ/WPCL/WWPN
Operations Manager: Hope Radio, T8WH, Palau
Production/Editor: "Believe Right" and "MFC WorldWide"
"For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation"--Luke 2:30
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