Find out which albums I think are the best – and why!
537 Essential Rock Albums – Pt. 1 The first 270: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781502787408: Books
153. James Taylor – Sweet Baby James
James Taylor came to prominence with his mellow voice and beautiful crafted songs. He first came to the attention of the Beatles who signed him to their new Apple label. This was his second album released on Warner Brothers and produced by Peter Asher.
It was filled with delightful songs such as ‘Sweet Baby James’, ‘Suzannah’ and ‘Steamroller’ but the absolute stand out track was ‘Fire and Rain’.
Sweet Baby James set the tone for his later albums. It made James one of the biggest names about.
He was fortunate to have associations with many of the fine lady singers of his day such as Carly Simon whom he married but there were musical inputs from Joni Mitchell and Carol King. James had problems with depression and drug use which hampered his career.
154. Cliff Richard & Drifters – Cliff
Cliff has got himself a bad name as the sugar Pop singer but it wasn’t always like that. He started as an authentic British Rocker and produced a series of excellent Rock ‘n’ roll singles that were among the very best of British efforts. They included the excellent ‘Move it’ which was up there with Johnny Kidd and the Pirates ‘Shakin’ all over’ as the best British Rock ‘n’ Roll single. The problem was that all those fine efforts of Cliff’s such as ‘Dynamite’, ‘Livin’ Lovin’ Doll’, ‘Mean streak’ and ‘Apron string’ were all overshadowed by his saccharine Pop songs.
Fortunately this album showed Cliff at his best as a raw Rock ‘n’ Roll singer. It was recorded in 1959 live in the abbey Road studios in front of a crowd of enthusiastic girls who screamed appropriately at all the right moments. It was like Beatle mania before Beatle-mania was invented. Cliff rocked and the Shadows (called the Drifters at this point in time) were raw and rocking. They were better than their later incarnation.
The result was the best album of British Rock ‘n’ roll ever produced. It is superior to all the others including ‘The sound of Fury’ and Johnny Kidd and the Pirates. The album never stops; it storms through high energy Rock ‘n’ Roll with a series of great covers such as ‘You’re so square (baby I don’t care)’, ‘Ready Teddy’, ‘Too much’, ‘Don’t bug me baby’, ‘Apron Strings’, ‘Down the line’ and ‘That’ll be the day’ as well as the brilliant ‘Move it’. The Drifters did a couple of their early instrumentals.
Cliff’s voice was spot on and he rivalled Elvis!
This was an brilliant album quite unlike anything else he ever did!
155. Little Richard – Little Richard No.2
After the brilliance of his first album it was always going to be difficult following up with something of the same standard and he did not quite manage it. This is still pretty good though. When it comes to raw Rock ‘n’ Roll you can’t get better that Richard Penniman.
This second album was not quite so raw and seemed to have a couple of tracks that were a little forced. None the less there were enough dynamite tracks to make this a special album. As far as Rock ‘n’ Roll goes it was spectacular.
It starts off with ‘Keep a knockin’’ which was a tidied up version of the old blues number ‘Busy Bootin’’ recorded by Kokomo Arnold. With it’s great crashing drum intro it was as good as anything he’d done before. Also on the album were classics like ‘Good Golly Miss Molly’, ‘Send me some lovin’’, ‘Lucille’, ‘The girl can’t help it’ and ‘Heeby Jeebies’.
It was the last great album that Richard would produce. Shortly after this he had a fright on a flight to Australia when an engine failed and supposedly chucked his rings off the Sydney Harbour Bridge and dedicated himself to religion as thanks to God.
However the pull of the excitement of Rock Music coupled with his love of orgies pulled him back to the limelight in the early sixties. His ambiguous sexuality came to the fore and he developed a camp act which was almost a parody of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
I saw him perform in the early 2000s and it was the strangest act ever. His voice was still good but he seemed a bit frail on his feet but the odd thing was that it was a mixture of good Rock ‘n’ Roll, camped up over-the top gayness and preaching about Jesus. Afterwards his ‘mafia’ extracted hefty sums of money for an audience with the man in which he signed a poster for you and you were told to make no other requests under fear of broken limbs. A strange evening.
After this album Richard only made sporadic works of genius such as ‘Bama Lama’ and never recaptured the sound or rawness of those Specialty sessions.
156. Meters – Cissy Strut
The Meters were a late sixties Funk band from New Orleans featuring Art Neville. They, along with James Brown, were pioneers of the Funk sound and were used as the house band for the Sansu label where they were largely responsible for the New Orleans sound. They were the Louisiana equivalent of Booker T & the MGs.
They recorded a number of mainly instrumentals in their own right. These were really tight with great rhythms and bass runs. The most successful of these was called ‘Cissy Strut’ and launch a series of other ‘Struts’.
This album is right up there with ‘Green Onions’ by Booker T.
157. Beatles – Rubber Soul
This was a bit of a transition album for the Beatles. They were moving out of their more Pop orientated self-penned songs into a more complex and mature style that was going to lead on to the more experimental and complex music of their later albums.
Rubber Soul was a bit of a halfway house. It featured songs like ‘The word’, ‘Drive my car’, ‘Nowhere man’, ‘Norwegian Wood’, ‘In my life’ and ‘Run for your life’ which had a different sound to their previous songs.
At the time in London this was the start of ‘Swinging England’ with all the ‘Beautiful people’ and the Beatles epitomised this hip style. They were extremely Mod and fashionable in the best Carnaby Street fashion.
158. Johnny Kidd & the Pirates – Memorial album
Johnny Kidd and the pirates had one of the best stage acts in British Rock ‘n’ Roll. They dressed up in pirate gear complete with eye-patches, cutlasses and the works. The idea had come about when Johnny had got whacked in the eye from a snapped guitar string and had to wear an eye-patch. It set the ball rolling.
The band created some of the greatest British Rock singles ever including ‘Restless’, ‘Please don’t touch’, and the infamous ‘Shaking all over’.
Where the Larry Parnes school with Billy Fury, Cliff Richard, Vince Eager, Marty Wilde and Adam Faith all suffered from poor British studio production (British studios did not have a clue how to record authentic Rock ‘n’ Roll) and/or management guidance into becoming more commercial all-round entertainers and Pop Stars, Johnny Kidd and the guys managed to keep it real.
At their best their sound was on a par with the American studios.
When Mersey hit they changed their sound to fit in and became more poppy.
Johnny was killed in a car crash in 1966. The Pirates went on as a much admired live band, hardened up their sound and had a new lease of life during the Punk era as a hard edged R&B band. They had hits with ‘I can tell’ and ‘Casting my spell’.
All the best tracks are on this memorial album (along with some that might have been best left off!).
159. Jerry Lee Lewis – Great balls of fire
Jerry Lee Lewis was one of the original great Rock ‘n’ Rollers from Sun Studio in Memphis. He was not only a great star in his own right but house pianist for everyone else.
His wild act, where he pounded the piano with his hands, feet and backside before kicking his stool across the stage and climbing up on the thing, was as good as his songs. He had a running battle with Little Richard over who was the greatest. It culminated one night when he was performing earlier that Richard in his dousing the piano with petrol and setting fire to it – saying ‘Follow that!’.
His first smash was a rocked up cover of Big Maybelle’s ‘Whole lot of shakin’’. He followed that up with a string of great classic Rockers such as ‘Great balls of fire’, ‘Breathless’, ‘Jerry Lewis Boogie’, ‘Milk-shake mademoiselle’, ‘High School Confidential’, ‘It’ll be me’, and ‘Pink pedal pushers’.
It all came to a jarring halt on his English tour when the Press discovered he’d brought his thirteen year old wife who was also his cousin. It caused a slight bit of controversy.
This album is a compilation with all his greatest Sun hits and selected tracks.
160. Fats Domino – Fat man sings
Fats Domino can lay claim to having released one of the earliest Rock ‘n’ Roll records of all time with ‘The Fat Man’ in 1950. He was an R&B singer song-writer out of New Orleans who developed a rolling piano style and lazy vocal that slipped straight into Rock ‘n’ Roll because of its great backbeat.
He had huge hits with ‘Blueberry Hill’, ‘Ain’t that a shame’, ‘Walking to New Orleans’, ‘I’m walking’, and ‘I Hear you knocking’ and is one of the great early Rockers.
All of those hits were gathered on this EMI album.
161. Bob Marley – Rebel Music
This is a Marley album with political teeth. While it is a compilation it does feature some rare tracks as well. It pulls together a whole album of Bob’s tougher political songs and there are some immaculate versions. Some of them are live and others are off albums or B-sides of singles. There is not a poor track among them. My favourites are ‘War – No more trouble’ off the Babylon by bus album, ‘Crazy baldhead’, ‘Them belly full (but we hungry)’, ‘So much trouble in the world’, ‘Get up Stand up’ and ‘Slave driver’.
If you like your Marley angry and messianic then this is the album for you. Every track is perfectly executed and has a hard edge.
This is just how I like him.
162. Elvis Costello – This year’s model
This is Elvis Costello and the Attractions at their snarling Punk best. This was when Elvis was at the peak of his angry song-writing abilities. It was his second album and his first with the Attractions. The energy they produced was obvious to all. ‘Pump it up’ was one of the best tracks of the Punk/New Wave era.
The hit single was ‘(I don’t want to go to) Chelsea’ but the album was packed with memorable songs such as ‘Little triggers’, ‘This year’s girl’, ‘The Beat’, ‘You belong to me’, ‘Lip service’, ‘Radio radio’, and ‘Lipstick Vogue’.
Elvis had a reputation as an angry young man who liked to play with words. He was a clever songwriter with a shrewd observational eye and dislike of the media.