1964 in music. • Page 2

For sure! For context - my 1964 playlist had I think 210 songs on Monday morning, and after reading the first few posts of suggestions, it's now nearly up to 400 songs.

 

I laughed and explained this "project/diversion" to my wife late last week because multiple times we would get in the car and when the Bluetooth would connect it would start playing whatever I last had on the headphones, which last week was usually Sam Cooke or Coltrane or Beach Boys, etc. She looked at me weird like "this is not what you are usually listening to".

 

Did some listening:

Barbra Streisand - People
Not quite as holy-shit-exceptional as her debut, but close. She has a knack for finding obscure Tin Pan Alley songs that she can bring a definitive stamp to and finding surprising ways to approach standards. And her voice is absolutely skyscraping. If you're not sure why she's such a household name, this and the debut are a good way to understand.

The Hollies - In the Hollies Style
I've heard and liked their stuff intermittently (they have two VERY underrated '70s albums) but never heard any early Invasion-era stuff and was surprised how good a band they are. Some of the songs have some real muscle, and they all have great energy and harmonies. Really pleasantly surprised.

Solomon Burke - Rock 'N Soul
Good record from a great talent. A random country song and some other little detours, but also a lot of wonderful straight ahead soul music from one of the great voices of the era. It's stacked with hit singles (that I admittedly wasn't familiar with), the best of which is "Can't Nobody Love You" which really grabbed me by the throat

The Beatles - Meet the Beatles!
I obviously know every song, since I have the whole British discography, but I've never really considered this one as an album. I get the opposition to a lot of the cannibalized American releases, but this one has significant historical and cultural importance as its own thing. And to be honest, it's better than either of the first two British records. Take With the Beatles, cut the covers, add both sides of one of the most consequential singles of all time and throw in the best song on Please Please Me for good measure. It actually presents an even better picture of the Beatles as songwriters with a signature sound than the British counterparts. Plus the sequencing REALLY works, especially on Side 1, which moves "All My Loving" to being a side closer, which is awesome.

 

graham nash rules imho

 

Number 1 is Out To Lunch! by Eric Dolphy and it's not even close. Nothing else released that year comes close to being half as good. Maybe Empyrean Isles by Herbie Hancock, but not much else. Oh and Getz/Gilberto of course. But Out To Lunch! is probably just behind A Love Supreme as one of my favourite jazz albums of all time.

 

I'm gonna join in the 70s, I haven't deep dove into the 60s yet

 

Actually I really like I Walk The Line too. Only started to get into Cash last year, so he's not as fresh in the memory as some other artists from this era.

 

Listening to Getz/Gilberto just makes me wish I was on a beach with a Mai tai somewhere. Great album.

 

so we can just assume your number 1 is whatever beatles album dropped that year, i’m guessing

 

oh yeah, 100%. Except maybe Beatles For Sale, but still...

I posted in the main years thread, but I've been going backwards year by year over the last few years and am in 1971 now. Listening to a ton from each year, making favorite lists, and a 20-song mix from each year. So... I have plenty to discuss from 1971 to now, but not quite the 60s yet. Maybe I'll be in the late 60s when you guys get there

 

Listened to the Jerry Lewis’ Live At The Star Club album. Not sure why but the Apple Music version is 8 tracks and 22 minutes, when wiki says it should have been more, which is unfortunate to not get the full thing!

Didn’t realise that till after, but that’s odd and a shame, because this was brilliant, he runs through these songs at such a breakneck and relentless pace, just absolutely tears and barks through them, mashing his piano keys along the way.

Bit disappointed I didn’t hear the full thing for whatever reason, but I’ll look into getting a download of it , because this was great high octane stuff.

 

1. The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night
2. The Beatles - Beatles For Sale
3. The Beach Boys - All Summer Long

Honorable Mention (alphabetical)
The Animals - The Animals
The Beach Boys - Shut Down, Vol 2.
Bob Dylan - Another Side Of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-Changin'
The Hollies - In The Hollies Style
Johnny Cash - I Walk The Line
The Kinks - Kinks
The Rolling Stones - 12x5
The Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones / England's Newest Hitmakers
Simon & Garfunkel - Wednesday Morning, 3AM

Listening to This week:
Muddy Waters - The Folk Singer
Otis Redding - Pain In My Heart
Sam Cooke - Ain't The Good News
John Coltrane - Crescent
Stan Getz / Joao Gilberto - Getz/Gilberto
The Supremes - Where Did Our Love Go
The Yardbirds - Five Live Yardbirds

Singles:
The Beatles - "I Feel Fine"
"Long Tall Sally"
"I Call Your Name"
"Slow Down"
"Matchbox"
"She's A Woman"
The Kinks - "All Day And All of the Night"
Getz/Gilberto - "The Girl From Ipanema"
Roy Orbison - "Oh, Pretty Woman"
The Supremes - "Baby Love"

Will add more/edit as I listen throughout the week.

 

Agreed. Have you heard his solo debut? “Simple Man” is plain and simple one of the greatest songs of all time

 

I have to laugh at this at least a little bit, because I have been thinking about that already too... but again to the point that you and CShadows both made, not much is going to change albums you have known since you were old enough to know what music was.

I started making my own Beatles mixtapes recording them off of my Dad's CDs when I was like 8 or 9 years old lol.

 

Hell yes! Will be great to talk about when we get to the early 70s. I wouldn't have known much about Nash's solo stuff had a friend in high school not been obsessed with this record along with Wild Tales.

 

I’ll definitely say this again in the appropriate year but the way the 4 of them came out of Deja Vu (Stephen Stills, Songs for Beginners, If I Could Only Remember My Name, After the Gold Rush) is absolutely fucking insane. The creative hot streak literally every single one of them was on is pretty much unmatched

 

Listening to The Supremes Where Did Our Love Go, I know a good chunk of songs here already, but hadn’t heard the album, and not surprisingly I think this is great, basically a sure thing that I’d enjoy this.

Wonderful production and arrangements, giving The Supremes the perfect backdrop for their harmonies and vocals. Hit after hit here, it’s as excellent as I expected it to be. Will hopefully get to their other record from this year, A Bit of Liverpool, later.

 

yes and yes

 

1. Sam Cooke - Ain't That Good News
2. The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night
3. Muddy Waters - Folk Singer

It's probably cliche to single out "A Change Is Gonna Come" from the Cooke album, but damn, what a song. Listening to this album just makes me sad, because it gets me thinking about the music he might have made if he'd lived longer. I'd have listened to him sing anything, but he was really coming into his own as a songwriter and as an album maker. The masterpieces he would have created...

A Hard Day's Night is probably the first Beatles album I love start to finish. Please Please Me is close, but the highs are so high that you can't help but feel the filler. This one if just a big ol' burst of fun from first note to last.

Folk Singer is just riveting. With little more than his voice and his guitar, Muddy Waters makes an album with more tension, excitement, and unpredictability than most bands can ever conjure up. Remarkable stuff.

 

A Hard Day’s Night also doesn’t always get sufficient credit as a John Lennon album. Other than “And I Love Her” and “Can’t Buy Me Love”, he just dominates the thing and every song is a winner

 

I had forgotten how Lennon heavy it is, especially the second half.

 

Also, I should shout out The Times They Are A-Changin'. Not my favorite Dylan album, but maybe my favorite 1-2 punch ("Boots of Spanish Leather" and "When the Ship Comes In" in his catalog.

 

I've always felt like he needed to perfect straight pop on that album to then allow himself to become Sad Genius John (my favorite John) on "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party", "I'm a Loser", "Help!", "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away", "Ticket to Ride" and "Norwegian Wood".

 

Not to mention he teased it with “I’ll Be Back” as a perfect perfect closer for this album.

Dabbling in major/minor key changes within the song, and has two unique bridges. Definitely showcases the songwriting maturation happening QUICKLY.

placeholder to rant more about this record tomorrow.

 

That could help explain their quantum leap in 1965! But we can talk more about that next week.