537 Essential Rock Albums – Pt. 1 The first 270: Amazon.co.uk: Goodwin, Opher: 9781502787408: Books
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143. Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin
Out of the ashes of the incredible Yardbirds Jimmy Page resurrected a new band. It was really an incarnation. The Yardbirds had been getting increasingly heavier with Page and Jeff Beck as scintillating dual lead attack yet they were floundering.
Jimmy put together a new band and took to the road as ‘The New Yardbirds’ and that mutated into Led Zeppelin.
The first album was made up of a number of songs that had been touted round by the Yardbirds and was quite heavy. Numbers like ‘Dazed and confused’, ‘Communication breakdown’ and ‘Good times bad times. Set a new tone. They borrowed heavily from the blues but were on their way to creating a completely new style. The band had the musicianship to break into the big time. The solid rhythm section with Bonham’s huge thumping drums and Jones’s bass created a firm bass for Page’s riffs and Plants soaring vocals. Even on this album they were not just a heavy unit and combined other styles such as on the track ‘Black mountain side’ a guitar instrumental very similar to Bert Jansch’s song. There was already controversy about them nicking blues songs and others without crediting the individuals.
The band started off with mixed press reviews but rapidly won everyone over with the strength of their live performances. Page’s guitar was such a strong feature such as on ‘You shook me’. The album was a success.
I saw them at the Toby Jug in Tolworth when they came over from the States and were looking to break in Britain. It was a room at the back of a pub where I used to go regularly to see bands like Captain Beefheart, John Mayall and Fleetwood Mac. They were very loud and impressive.
I’m not sure I would call them heavy metal. They were too varied and complex for that. It was no wonder they became one of the top bands in the world. The elements of their new style would be explored in later albums.
144. Crosby Stills Nash & Young – Four Way Street
‘Four Way Street’ was a double live album from Crosby, Still, Nash and Young. They’d come together through hanging out in Laurel Canyon in the Rock community in LA. They had discovered that their harmonies gelled brilliantly.
Their first two albums, with Crosby Stills and Nash, were excellent and set them up as a super-group. But by the time that this live album came about their feuding had become legendary. I saw them ten years ago in Manchester when they were touring together without Young and the results of the fall-out were still tangible. Their stage performance was brilliant. Afterwards I went backstage and only Graham Nash was there. The other two had split. On stage they each had their own square of carpet. Seemingly they had vowed never to appear on the same stage together. This was their way round it.
The tensions were not visible on this double live album though. It was superb. There were a lot of the old numbers with a smattering of new songs. It also had a hard political edge. This was the height of the anti-war riots with the students shot dead at Kent State University by the National Guard troopers. Neil wrote the angry song ‘Ohio’ in protest at the four dead young students. Other strong songs on the album included ‘Find the cost of freedom’, ‘Chicago’, ‘Southern man’, and ‘Carry on’.
The double album was packed with memorable songs and performances that made it the strongest of all their albums. I loved the power and anger of it. CSN&Y had become the foremost voice of protest and they did it with melody, beauty and musicianship.
145. Leon Rosselson – The world turned upside down
Leon Rosselson is not to be confused with Leon Russell. Leon Rosselson is an English left-wing song-writer who is much better than Leon Russell. Leon’s songs are much better than Leon Russell’s.
This choice of album is yet another cheat for it is none other than a four CD compilation but it has all his essential songs: – ‘Palaces of gold’, ‘World turned upside down’, ‘Ballad of spycatcher’, ‘It wasn’t me, I didn’t do it’, ‘I heard it on the radio’, ‘Who reaps the profits’, ‘Bringing the news from nowhere’, ‘Battle hymn of the new socialist party’ and ‘Jackboot democrats’ plus a whole load more. It was all top class observation served with plenty of wit. This is perfect social commentary released on the Fuse label.
Leon has often linked up with Roy Bailey. For a duo of caustic comment. Billy Bragg covered ‘The world turned upside down’ which was a powerful song about the Diggers. They set up a commune on waste ground at St Georges Hill. They were brutally destroyed.
I was brought up near St George’s Hill and so this song of social injustice speaks loudly to me.
We need people like Leon who shout out for justice and fairness in a world of selfishness and greed. This CD set is a must for anyone with intelligence and a conscience.
146. Quicksilver Messenger Service – Happy Trails
Quicksilver Messenger Service were another of those San Franciscan bands fro m the late sixties Acid Rock underground scene.
This album released in 1969 was their second album and recorded live at the Fillmore East and West.
The major part of the album was one long extended Acid version of the Bo Diddley number ‘Who do you love’ which was extended out into six different sections of improvised guitar-based instrumentals. The best of it featured John Cipolina who was one of the fore-most Acid Rock guitarists to come out of the era.
The second side followed a similar theme with the stand out track being another Bo Diddley track – ‘Mona’ – given the psychedelic treatment.
Incongruously the album concluded with a short version of Roy Rogers ‘Happy Trails’
147. Bo Diddley – Bo Diddley is a gunslinger
This was a typical Bo Diddley album with the opening bragging track in which as a gunslinger he cleans up the OK Corral and scares the life out of the whole town.
The stand out track is ‘Cadillac’ which was covered by the Kinks on their first album.
The album is suffused with Bo’s rhythm but has a lot more variety than most with slow numbers like ‘No more lovin’’ and ‘Somewhere’. There was also a Bo Diddlified version of sixteen tons the Tennessee Ernie Ford number.
‘Diddling’ was a great little Bo Diddley instrumental. I selected this because most of the best tracks on his first two albums were included on Bo’s Big twenty album I included early. This album is fairly typical of Bo’s output with a range of styles.
148. Arthur Brown – The crazy world of Arthur Brown
Fire was one of the first psychedelic albums of the 1968 London Underground scene. The album was released to great acclaim following both the huge success of ‘Fire’ as a single and the reputation Arthur quickly amassed for his theatrical live performances complete with burning head-dress.
I saw his stadium act at the Sunbury festival in 1968 when he was lowered onto the stage with his burning head-dress. Unfortunately the act was concluded early when there was the collapse of a lighting stanchion which fell onto other structures and caused some outbuildings to collapse resulting in a lot of injuries.
I later saw Arthur in Klooks Kleek. There were only about eight of us in the audience and he did his whole act complete with fire and costumes.
The album consisted of two distinct sides. Side 1 was the Fire suite with extended tracks around the Fire theme with Poem, suites and visions of Hell. The second side contained more traditional songs with covers of Screaming Jay Hawkins ‘I put a spell on you’ and James Brown’s ‘I’ve got money’ though they were all down in the same style which created a uniformity to the album.
The major features of the album were Arthur’s great anguished wailing vocals and the organ and keyboards of Vincent Crane.
Unfortunately the band fell apart with Vincent citing that Arthur was beginning to believe he really was the God of Hell-fire.
149. Them – Them
Them came out of Ireland with Van Morrison on vocals. They were the second band I ever saw live. They had come across for a tour of England and ‘Baby please don’t go’ went straight to the top of the charts. Fortunately they honoured their commitments and played in Walton at the Walton Hop. ‘Here comes the night’ had just been released and had gone straight into the charts. I remember being very impressed with the music and Van’s voice but disappointed that they didn’t leap about and put on an act. They stood there and played. The only other band I’d seen live was the British Birds and they’d put on a really wild and exciting act. At the end of the concert I went back-stage and got two postcards of the band signed by all the band members. I later gave one to a friend – Phil – who was nuts on Van Morrison and my mum threw the other away.
This album – ‘Them’ – was a very bluesy album with some storming R&B such as ‘Gloria’ and ‘Mystic Eyes’. There were great cover versions of ‘Bright lights big city’, ‘Just a little bit’, ‘Route 66’ and ‘I like it like that’ and some more unusual numbers ‘I’m gonna dress in black’ and ‘Don’t look back’.
The whole album was unique because of Van’s distinctive already mature voice with its Belfast twang.
150. Chuck Berry – After school session
This was Chuck’s debut album shrewdly aimed at the burgeoning white teenage market in 1957. Chuck was in his late twenties and knew exactly what he was doing.
The album was brilliant and came full of Chuck’s signature guitar riffs and distinctive Blues-based Rock ‘n’ Roll on numbers like the opening ‘School days’ and ‘Back in the USA’. It featured the classic tracks like ‘Too much monkey business’, ‘Brown eyed Handsome man’ and ‘Roll over Beethoven’. There were the songs about automobiles with ‘No money down’ and instrumentals like ‘Berry picking’.
Chuck was so much more than a distinctive guitar riff. Johnnie Johnson’s boogie piano added as much to the sound and the firm beat was definitely Chicago Blues based. The other incredible thing about Chuck was his poetic lyrics which were all carefully annunciated so that white audiences could pick up on them’
Chuck’s guitar prowess was accentuated on tracks like the bluesy instrumental ‘Deep Feeling’ with its almost Hawaiian guitar sound.
It was an incredible debut that introduced a new dimension and sound to Rock ‘n’ Roll.
151. Crosby Stills Nash & Young – Déjà vu
This was the second album by the group. After forming out of the three escapees from the Hollies, Buffalo Springfield and Byrds they decided that they needed Neil Young’s musical input to beef them up a bit. The result was this marvellous album. It had everything and the range of songs and styles added to the success of the album. They all contributed songs to the album
It started with the Stills’s electrifying ‘Carry on’, then on to Nash’s ‘Teach your children well’, Crosby’s ‘Almost cut my hair’, and Young’s ‘Helpless’ – then side one finished with Joni Mitchell’s ‘Woodstock’ that they had made famous at Woodstock.
Side two carried on in the same vein starting with Crosby’s ‘Déjà vu’, Nash’s ‘Our House’, Stills’s ‘4+ 20’, Young’s ‘Country girl’ and finishing with Neil and Stephen’s ‘Everybody I love you’.
It was a format that worked brilliantly.
As with their debut it featured the wonderful close harmonies crafted to delightful songs with strong melodies.
152. Joni Mitchell – Ladies of the canyon
The title refers to the close-knit community that existed within the musicians of Los Angeles in the late sixties in Laurel Canyon.
Joni’s first two albums were great but this one has a maturity about it. Her voice and song-writing had taken a step forward. The production was great with sympathetic instrumentation. There was a lot of interaction between all the members of this community so the musicianship was great and the inspiration was superb. They drove each other to greater heights.
The whole album was of a good quality but the second side was stronger for me. I loved the soft flow of ‘The Priest’ but ‘Big Yellow Taxi’, ‘Woodstock’ and ‘The Circle Game’ made the album special for me.
‘Big yellow taxi’ summed up all the stupidity of modern existence with its overpopulation, pollution and environmental destruction. We don’t know what we’ve got til it’s gone. This was a major green song such in a light lilting manner but with an incredibly important message.
Joni had come of age with this album.