1963 in music. • Page 2

I should probably find an album of theirs to check out, because "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying", "Ferry Cross the Mersey" and "You'll Never Walk Alone" all rule.

 

liverpool - and really all the ESL teams - are dead to me

 

“If You Wanna Be Happy” is an absolute fever dream of a song. We listened to it growing up a lot because it was on My Best Friend’s Wedding’s soundtrack. I always thought it was some hidden gem a music supervisor tracked down, had no clue it charted

 

I’ve always really enjoyed Night Beat. “Fool’s Paradise” is a perfect late night song.

 

I wish I could get involved more in these early 60s thread. Outside of talking about jazz that is. I just can't get into a lot of the rock and pop from that time period. I have a feeling i'll be getting involved more from 65 onwards, though.

 

Is there gonna be a cut off year when these threads stop? I reckon it should continue until 89 maybe? A lot of stuff from 1990 onwards tends to be talked about on here already to some extent, but stuff prior to that is always minimal compared to everything else.

 

i figured we’d just keep going haha. even if stuff of a certain era is discussed a lot here, who cares? there’s always room for more discussion

 

Definitely have to keep this going until even 2020.

 

I'm down for posts about future years. I want to guess the best albums of 2023.

 

Yeah honestly even into the early 00s only a sorta narrow sliver of stuff gets a lot of active discussion on here, so keep it going as long as people stay interested

 

Listened to Goin’ Away by Lightnin’ Hopkins and was really into it, just him and a rhythm section and it’s very live so you can hear the bassist and the drummer adapting to his very unique sense of rhythm and cadence. Adds an extra thrilling layer to some already great acoustic blues playing

 

the documentary on him that’s on criterion is so good

 

Decided to go really left field and listen to “the world’s foremost composer of tango music” Astor Piazzolla’s Tango Para Una Ciudad and boy I don’t know shit about tango but it’s an awesome listen. I’ve seen his name come up a ton and rightly so. It’s somewhere between classical, Latin and jazz but really unique and a great listen

Also listened to Come and Get These Memories by Martha and the Vandellas and shit it’s exceptional. Heat Wave was kind of a hit and some eh filler to me, well-sung but, was it necessary? This one still has a lot of vestigial girl-group sound which really suits them and the production is a little raw for Motown, which gives it some real guts. And the lack of polish and bells and whistles really lets you hear what made Martha Reeves so exceptional. Huge winner

 

Heard this one and then had to listen to "Big Girls Don't Cry", which I guess was '62. Don't expect to not have that one in your head for an entire day after hearing it. Lol

 

Jesus “Telstar” is a fucking masterpiece. How had I never heard this song before?

 

When i was 12 i saw dick dale play (and had to call the venue and ask for permission since it was 21+) and after i told him i started playing guitar cuz of him and he showed me how to pick so it’s like youre drumming on the guitar

 

Wow it sure as hell is ..... fascinating stories on Wikipedia too about Joe Meek the producer who pioneered that sound.

And, I say this as a Muse fan - but holy shit George Bellamy could almost sue his son for copping his style! "Knights of Cydonia" is SO similar in style and sound to this.

 

I listened to Dionne Warwick's debut from this year, Presenting Dionne Warwick, which was my first of her albums in general. Her voice is excellent, has a lot of character to add to her obvious technical proficiency. This is going to sound like a weird thing to say, but she sounds like she's singing with a cold permanently, the way she enunciates and delivers lines, but it's full of charm and I enjoyed it.

The instrumentation and arrangements are fairly middle of the road, nothing remarkable, and I imagine she probably has better albums coming up, with a bit more oomph to them. However, this was an enjoyable debut, and will hopefully get to check out some more of her stuff as we go through the years.

 

This year is like a 10 way tie for first but i guess

1. Bob Dylan - Freewheelin Blob
2. John Coltrane & Duke Ellington
3. John Coltrane - Ballads

 

Make Way for Dionne Warwick is a winner when we get there.

 

Listened to Duke Ellington’s Money Jungle, and I was very excited to see that Mingus and Roach make up the trio in this album, which is quite a formidable group.

This is a dense and intense listen, the bass in particular here is aggressive and pounding. The little group make a huge sound, playing off and what feels like competing with each, in their own kind of discordant harmonies.

I was really really impressed by this, will certainly be back to this soon.

 

lmao for real. i listened to it for the first time when I got really into muse in high school and it blew my hair back.

 

Surfin’ USA doesn’t have Dick Dale’s muscle or attitude, it’s true, but it’s enjoyable and consistent in that surf lane and there’s some good, self-contained playing on it.

Rufus Thomas was agonizing whether to give it a yes or no. Good, gritty vocals. The Stax band sounds amazing. The single is a good one. But even by early ‘60s standards the songs are paper thin. A couple songs that were just transparent attempts to start a dance were particularly flimsy

 

Top three is a tough one for this year. Some real gems. I think I'd have to go:

1. Sam Cooke - Night Beat
2. Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
3. James Brown - Live at the Apollo

With apologies to those two Beatles records (dynamite singles, but I rarely listen to either of them in full) and Cooke's incredible Harlem Square Club concert album (which I could probably slot in for a third-place tie with James, but which I'll keep in the Honorable Mention category since Sam already has my top vote).

 

Oh hey, same ballot.