Monday, February 1, 2010

Sibling Revelry


Not many nights ago, on a patio of a bar that used to be my favorite, some friends and I were in full on music geek reverie, discussing our earliest musical memories, and what turned us on for the first time. Sure we were drunk, and we had smoked something someone snuck in from Afghanistan, but it was a good night. I haven't talked music in forever, and it was great to hear what other guys (and the one girl) remember as their first favorite tunes.

The first song I remember liking was a song called "Alley Cat", which I heard off of one of my dad's Chet Atkins records. I think Dad only had one Chet, tucked in there with the Nat King Coles and Erroll Garners. But that's the one I liked. And then came The Beatles, on Ed Sullivan. "Meet The Beatles", their 1964 Capitol Release, was the first Album I owned, purchased for me by Mom at White Front.

But a key part of our conversation, and one that made me think the most, was the role our siblings played in shaping our musical tastes. There's five years difference between my older brother Don and myself, and growing up, we were more pains in each others' asses than friends, but when he would leave the house, I'd have free reign over his collection. Here are ten albums I first heard via my brother's collection. I own copies of all of them now, and since I've dug them for going on fifty years, I don't think there will ever be a time when I don''t love these.

1) The Dave Clark Five "Glad All Over"


I think these cats were on Shindig! or Hullaballoo! or Hootenanny! or one of those other shows with exclamation points.

I loved those two drum kicks in the hit "Glad All Over" (the bit right after "And I'm feelin..." and right before "Glad all over!") and the song "Bits & Pieces". I have a multi-disc collection of the DC5, but it's overkill. This is the one I'd keep.

Dave Clark was the drummer. I wonder how many times the lead singer had to say "No, Dave Clark's the drummer."


2) Chad And Jeremy "Sing For You"

I loved these guys. They had an album before this, but this one was the best pre-psychedelic Chad and Jeremy release (Cabbages And Kings was their magnum psychedelic opus).

This one had a Lennon & McCartney song "From A Window" --the best Beatles song not recorded by the Beatles---and one of my all time favorite songs, "Four Strong Winds".

Also, a song called "Donna, Donna" which sounds pretty until you realise it's a bird taunting a calf on his way to market and slaughter. Even the winds get a laugh out of the poor guy's plight. Whatever.

Chad & Jeremy further cemented themselves into my young psyche when they appeared as "The Redcoats", a singing group booked on the Alan Brady Show and greeted with Beatlemania-style results, meaning they had to lam it out in New Rochelle at Rob and Laura's house, where only Millie Helper could bug them. Yes, it's The Dick Van Dyke show, the finest sitcom television has ever known.

3) The Byrds "Turn, Turn, Turn"

My first exposure to Dylan was through this album. It contained more palatable (to my young ears) versions of "Lay Down Your Weary Tune" and "The Times They Are A-Changing".

This album also sparked my love affair with The Jangle, which has stuck with me through my whole life. The Jangle is that sound that twelve strings or six strings make. Jangle-pop.

The hit (and hence the album title) was "Turn Turn Turn", a Pete Seeger version of a passage from Ecclesiastes. I remember contemporary press proclaiming the Byrds the "American Beatles", and that always ticked me off to where I held it against the Byrds on subsequent releases. As I grew up, I realized the Byrds were one of the best rock bands in their own right. Crosby's haircut on the cover of this one makes Paul Simon's on "Bookends" seem tame.

4) Simon & Garfunkel "Parsley Sage Rosemary & Thyme"



This was my introduction to Paul and Artie. It's their second album. Here, Paul Simon's writing talents were really starting to bloom. He was only 24 years old.

His best early song, "Homeward Bound" is on here. Also "The Dangling Conversation", which is a bit pretentious in the lyric department, but still one of my favorites. "As you read your Emily Dickenson, and I, my Robert Frost..." All that's missing is the pipe and tweed jacket with felt elbow patches.

The one that affected me most as a kid was "7 O'Clock News/Silent Night, which has Artie's clear voice singing the classic carol while a newsreader announces the disturbing headlines of the day. Listening to it today, it's still moving to me. This album also contains Artie's finest moment until 'Bridge Over Troubled Water", which is the song "For Emily Whenever I May Find Her". It is the perfect showcase for a pretty near perfect voice.

5) Simon & Garfunkel "Bookends"

Another S & G. My first reaction when I saw this album in my brother's collection was "Whoever told Paul that bangs was the way to go does not have his best interests at heart." Well, maybe I didn't, but it's a silly haircut. No matter, this album knocked me on my eleven year old ass.

Starting with the brief instrumental "Bookends Theme", on into "Save The Life Of My Child" all the way to "At The Zoo", I was hooked.

This was the first time that I really noticed production. Roy Hallee deserves a lot of credit. Strings, sound effects, just magical.

This one has "America", "Hazy Shade Of Winter", and is the second album in a row to feature "Mrs. Robinson" (the first was their previous album, the Graduate soundtrack). It is the only album I know of that contains a track recorded live at The Home For Aged Hebrews in New York. ("Voices Of Old People")

6) The Rolling Stones "Big Hits: High Tide And Green Grass"

This is where you learn my brother was not some no-ball havin' folkie. The first time I ever heard the Rolling Stones, one of my all time favorite rock bands, was through this album, their first "Greatest Hits" package. And hits they were. Twelve songs, all the big ones. "Satisfaction", "Get Off Of My Cloud", "Nineteenth Nervous Breakdown" and "The Last Time".

My favorites on the album were "Tell Me", which had some great vocals from Mick and Keith and beautiful guitar parts, and "Play With Fire", which was a slithering ballad that made me wonder about parts of London. In the pre-internet youth, it was hard to get information on Knightsbridge, Stepney, and Saint John's Wood. I was able to determine that St. John's Wood was where the money was. If there was ever any doubt about how bad-ass the Stones were, Brian Jones puts them to rest with his FUCKING RED CORDS. Red corduroy trousers took balls to wear.

7) The Kinks "Greatest Hits"

Of all the things I'm indebted to Brother Don for, this might be the biggest---he turned me on to the brothers Davies, and ruined my young mind forever. Thanks, Don. This was the first Greatest Hits package that Reprise put out. It came out in 1966, and was even stronger than The Stones one directly above.

I'd never heard these guys before, and I can remember my nine year old jaw turning slack, with bits of drool pooling on the coffee table as I first heard "You Really Got Me", "All Day And All Of The Night" and "Till The End Of The Day". The campy "Dedicated Follower Of Fashion" was on board, as was one of my enduring Kinks favorites, "Something Better Beginning". These guys meant business.


8) The Rolling Stones "Their Satanic Majesties Request"


Where to begin with this one? First, the cover. 3D image, and if you turned it a certain way, you could find all four heads of The Beatles. It was seen as their answer to Sgt Peppers, but I think that it was their answer to Acid, which was making the rounds I'm told.

Then the songs. Two stony masterpieces, "She's A Rainbow" and "2000 Light Years From Home" laid my pre-drug infested mind out. I would put this one on and listen for hours, trying to isolate vocal bits and figure out what the hell was going on. One song had snoring in it. (The Gomper). Another one had Bill Fucking Wyman singing lead. When did that happen on a Stones album? NEVER AGAIN. Not a bad song, really, "In Another Land". The vocal effect was a bit much, but it's still a good song. Surprisingly, this ranks very high in my Best Stones Album list. Not surprisingly, my best experiences listening to it have been when I was very high myself. (Thank you, I'll be here all week. Try the veal)

9) The Doors "The Doors"

1967. My favorite year in pop music. It gave us the record above this one, as well as Sgt. Peppers. The Bee Gees first album, Procol Harum's debut, The Who Sell Out, Hendrix...and this one, The Doors debut.

I was fascinated by this one. Prominent keyboards, non-existent bass player, and very obtuse lyrics. It's the first time I've ever been scared by a song---"The End", in which it is implied that a kid kills his parents and sister. At least that's where my drug-free mind went with it. Plus, it was eleven minutes long. I think I liked everything on this album except "Light My Fire", the big hit, and I even liked that one a little bit. Over time, I came to see the Doors as a vastly over-rated band, with pretentious lyrics and a pretentious lead singer, of whom it can be said that death was a very good career move. But this album still works for me, and although I like a few songs from later in their career, this is the only one I really care about. And it's a good one.

10) Creedence Clearwater Revivial "Bayou Country"

OK, this wasn't in Don's collection. By the time this one came out, Don had moved to San Jose for school and taken his records with him. But, I include it because I wanted an even ten, and because I'd never heard Creedence before Don bought me this album as my 12th birthday present. I didn't like it at first, but later that summer I remember laying in the grass in the back yard, the living room windows open and this album playing. "Born On The Bayou" led it off, and that had swampy guitars and those growly Fogerty vocals that were new to me. The other hits were "Good Golly Miss Molly" and "Proud Mary", but the one that I liked to play over and over was the spooky eight-minute song called "Graveyard Train", which was a simple bass riff, some guitar fills, and an old blues style 'bad train to hell' vocal. In retrospect, one of my best birthday presents.

I'd be nowhere without my love for music. In hard times like these, I sooth myself with it, and motivate myself with it, and cry to it and fuck to it and lose my mind to it. Thanks to my brother, these 10 records were launching pads to further explorations and discoveries and a rare gift even if the person who gave it to you doesn't even know he gave it to you.

I owe you big, Don. I love you.

1 comment:

undercover caterer said...

That's a pretty rad list. I remember finding the Kinks Greatest in my dad's stuff and stealing for evermore. It's still in my house and he can't have it back.