1965 in music. • Page 2

Baby Blue > Desolation Row > Rolling Stone > Subterranean

 

Help! is such a fascinating document to me. Just an absolute bridge record.

Some of the best songs they (or anyone) would ever write ("Help!", "Ticket to Ride", "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away", "Yesterday", "I've Just Seen a Face")

Some songs perfecting their old pop formula ("The Night Before", "You're Gonna Lose That Girl", "Another Girl")

And then what the hell are "You Like Me Too Much" or "Tell Me What You See" doing there?

 

it isn’t my favorite of theirs or even my favorite of theirs from that year but it’s quite good

 

Agreed on your whole post - and interesting point here. I said to my Dad yesterday, that repeated viewings of the movie "Help!" as a child have given this record more sentimental value to me, and made me kind of assume that I am rating it higher in my mind than the album really deserves.

"You Like Me Too Much" I'll give a pass on, because it was super early Harrison songwriting. I particularly think the pre-chorus transition 'and its nice when you believe me, if you leave me... I will follow you and bring you back where you belong' is a great section in an otherwise average song.

"Tell Me What You See" is like McCartney mentioned, 'not awfully memorable', but I like the instrumentation quite a bit.

Another album cut that came on last night was "It's Only Love", which has some kinda lame sad-sack Lennon lyrics. Why sing "it's only love, and that is all" in '65 and then sing "all you need is love, love is all you need" 2 years later?

 

Subterranean Homesick Blues is by far the best Bob Dylan song for singing along to in a big exaggerated Bob Dylan accent.

 

1. The Beatles - Rubber Soul
2. Vince Guaraldi Trio - A Charlie Brown Christmas
3. The Beatles - Help!

It is actually quite possible that I have heard A Charlie Brown Christmas more than any other album released pre-1991.

Honorable Mention (alphabetical):
The Beach Boys - The Beach Boys Today!
The Beach Boys - Summer Days (And Summer Nights)
Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home
Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited
The Byrds - Mr. Tambourine Man
The Byrds - Turn! Turn! Turn!
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
The Kinks - Kinda Kinks
Paul Simon - The Paul Simon Songbook
The Rolling Stones - December's Children (And Everybody's)
The Rolling Stones - Out Of Our Heads
The Sonics - Here Are The Sonics
The Who - My Generation
The Yardbirds - For Your Love
The Yardbirds - Having A Rave Up With The Yardbirds
The Zombies - Begin Here

Listening for this week:
The Animals - Animal Tracks
The Beach Boys - Beach Boys Party!
Donovan - Fairytale
Donovan - What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid
Four Tops - Four Tops' Second Album
Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass - !!Going Places!!
Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass - Whipped Cream & Other Delights
Herbie Hancock - Maiden Voyage
The Hollies - Hollies
The Kinks - The Kink Kontroversy
The Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones, Now! / The Rolling Stones No. 2 (Although - this is where it gets a bit weird with US vs UK releases and tracklistings - most of these songs we already heard in '64 it seems)
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - Going To A Go-Go
The Temptations - The Temptations Sing Smokey
Them - The "Angry" Young Them

Singles - I don't have a list yet but arguably the greatest double A side of all-time:
The Beatles - "We Can Work It Out" & "Day Tripper"

The Hollies - "I'm Alive"
The Hollies - "Look Through Any Window"
James Brown - "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag"

 

It's also funny, I've listened to a bunch of this Donovan stuff and only knew his later '60s work that was more psychedelic sounding. I didn't realize he started out as a sort of Bob Dylan wannabe.

 

You ever see the documentary Don't Look Back? It has a lot of Dylvan vs. Donovan material. Apparently it was a rivalry thing in the press for a bit in the mid-1960s.

 

donovan rules, honestly, though i’d say he’s closer to acoustic/beatles-lite than dylan

 

I have not , but will definitely check it out.

oh and @phaynes12 - totally didn’t mean it as if I don’t like Donovan. Just didn’t know this early stuff. Hurdy Gurdy Man, Mellow Yellow, Wear your love like Heaven, Sunshine Superman were all staples my Dad would play constantly when I was a kid.

 

That clip in Don't Look Back where Donovan plays everyone a new song and then Dylan just BODIES him by premiering "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" is the stuff of legend.

 

This song is absolutely one of my favorite non-Beatles songs from the 60s. I’m also pretty certain this is a legit live take too, based on the nuances I can hear, as opposed to a lot of the lip-syncing that was done on those tv shows back in the day.

Tony Hicks with the Vox Phantom XII 12-string guitar, so unique. AND nailing those harmonies on top of it. Just wonderful stuff.

 

i will bang the graham nash drum every day until I die

 

I listened to The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra , which if nothing else, is an excellently evocative album title.

The music though... I was pretty unprepared for this! Completely atonal free jazz, with almost nothing to grasp onto. There are (very) occasional moments where it starts to get a bit more tuneful, but they don't last long, and we're back into what sounds like a completely unsynchronised band. Bit out of my depth here, even with my limited exposure to free jazz, this was proper out there.

Great album title though.

 

I listened to Herb Alpert's Whipped Cream album, which is basically the exact opposite of the Sun Ra album. Probably just about a jazz album, it's an absolute breeze to listen to. Upbeat and catchy, with great brass sounds and little short songs that come and go and leave a smile on your face. Had a great time with this one.

 

I listen to the Supremes every time I think of it~

 

So apparently Sun Ra is not someone I need to rush to hear. Good to know

 

Sun Ra is def worth listening to!

 

Here are the Sonics is such a fun listen. A shame that they didn't have to have a whole lot of output, creatively, because damn that band had CHOPS.

 

their 2010s album sounds exactly the same haha. super fun listen.

 

Which is a lot more than you can say for The Stooges.

 

The Yardbirds' Having a Rave-Up with The Yardbirds is one that benefits hugely from this format of listening. I always thought they kind of lacked distinctiveness (vocally, stylistically, etc.) that would make them stand out from the pack, but in the proper context of '65 they really sound like a live wire. The live tracks on the second side were a bit of a question mark for me going in, but they really bring it. And "Heart Full of Soul" is a phenomenal single. Excited to get to For Your Love eventually, though given Pat's love of it, maybe I'll save it for a special occasion.

Bert Jansch is very cool. I can absolutely see how it was a huge influence on a lot of folk singers and guitarists. You can pick up its DNA in Nick Drake and Neil Young. Wonderful picking, but honestly the vocals really did it for me, too.

 

to be fair, nothing has or ever will sound like raw power

 

the story of the yardbirds is truly fucking insane

 

Their catalog is fucking nonsense.

Start with a UK-only live album that never comes here (but 4 songs make up the B side of Rave-Up).

Two US-only records.

Finally an album that at least came out on both sides of the Atlantic in different versions.

Then ANOTHER record only released in the US.

How the fuck are they a UK band and their whole discography there was a live record and one goddamn studio album?