Classic album

February 22: David Crosby released If I Could Only Remember My Name in 1971

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

f-i-could-only-remember-my-name

“My girlfriend had been killed in a car crash and  the only place I could exist was in the studio, Garcia would come every night. The Airplane and the Dead were recording in the same complex… They were all buddies of mine…”
– David Crosby about the recording of his masterpiece (Mojo)

Rolling Stone Magazine put it at number 37 of the “Greatest Stoner Albums” and said:
“Like a super-stoned campfire jam with an A-list of Cali hippie-rockers – including Joni Mitchell and most of the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and CSNY – this hazy solo project by the altered-consciousness overachiever sounds like it was pretty much made up on the spot. See the toasted strum-fest “Music Is Love” (with Neil Young on congas!) and “Tamalpais High,” with Jerry Garcia and Jorma Kaukonen noodling around wordless Crosby-Nash harmonies. By the time it’s over, you may not remember your name, either.”

I believe a couple of Santana and Quicksilver Messenger Service members also visited.

Photo: BBC/Tricia Yourkevich
Photo: BBC/Tricia Yourkevich

David Crosby – Cowboy Movie (Live, Jan 31, 2014) a very fine version! :

It is an album that grows on you, it feels like a mess at first, but it soon starts to make sense. This is a coherent album with wonderful melodies and harmonies. For me it is the quintessential “Laurel Canyon” album, a true classic.
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Full Dylan album covered – Oh Mercy

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

“Oh Mercy (1989) is a collection of 10 songs, best listened to at night, if you’re inclined to take that gypsy caravan down into a mythic Louisiana bayou, a world conjured up by Bob Dylan and producer Daniel Lanois. Virtually every song is a highlight, from “Political World” (which sounds just as immediate today) to the bittersweet “Shooting Star.” It’s quite an ethereal voyage from beginning to end and should withstand the test of time.”
– Josh Downham (user review, Amazon)

It is a great collection of songs and there are many artists that have tried their luck in singing them, none as good as Dylan’s original versions (as usual) but there are some good ones out there. I have tried to collect some of the best.

My favourites are Ron Sexsmith, Gordon Lightfoot, Tom Jones and Willie Nelson.

Check Out more Full Dylan albums covered:

 

Nashville Skyline

Street Legal

Modern Times

Slow Train Coming

Infidels

and now Oh Mercy:

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January 2: Elvis Presley released Elvis Country in 1971

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

“Elvis has come out with a record which gives us some of the very finest and most affecting music since he first recorded for Sun almost 17 years ago”- Peter Guralnick (Rolling Stone Magazine 1971)

“…Elvis was at his peak when he cut Elvis Country. Actually, Elvis Presley was positively on a roll at the time. A decade after the end of what were thought to be his prime years, he was singing an ever-widening repertory of songs with more passion and involvement than he’d shown since the end of the 1950s…”
~Bruce Eder (allmusic.com)

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December 11: John Lennon’s John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band was released in 1970

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

… Lennon presents everything on the surface, and the song titles — “Mother,” “I Found Out,” “Working Class Hero,” “Isolation,” “God,” “My Mummy’s Dead” — illustrate what each song is about, and charts his loss of faith in his parents, country, friends, fans, and idols. It’s an unflinching document of bare-bones despair and pain, but for all its nihilism, it is ultimately life-affirming; it is unique not only in Lennon’s catalog, but in all of popular music. Few albums are ever as harrowing, difficult, and rewarding as John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic.com)

I don’t believe in Beatles
~John Lennon (“God”)

Mother:

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October 2: Let it Be by The Replacements was released in 1984

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

“If ever an indie-rock album felt like freedom, like an adventure, or like the heartache, joy, ridiculousness, angst and celebration of life itself, it was Let It Be.”
– Jim McGuinn (The Current)

Let It Be is the third studio album by American rock band The Replacements. It was released on October 2, 1984 by Twin/Tone Records. A post-punk album with coming-of-age themes, Let It Be was recorded by the band after they had grown tired of playing loud and fast exclusively as on their 1983 Hootenanny album; the group decided to write songs that were, according to vocalist Paul Westerberg, “a little more sincere.”

“Playing that kind of noisy, fake hardcore rock was getting us nowhere, and it wasn’t a lot of fun. This was the first time I had songs that we arranged, rather than just banging out riffs and giving them titles.”
– Paul Westerberg

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April 23: The Rolling Stones released Sticky Fingers 1971

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

Sticky Fingers was never meant to be the title. It’s just what we called it while we were working on it. Usually though, the working titles stick.
~Keith Richards 1971

While many hold their next album, Exile On Main St., as their zenith, Sticky Fingers, balancing on the knife edge between the 60s and 70s, remains their most coherent statement.
~Chris Jones (bbc.co.uk)

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