Week 2

At the rate I got through albums in these first two weeks this project might not take the entire year. I’m skipping all the compilations and as my library continually grows I’ll surely have to back track. Prime example during Week 1 I went to my favorite music store (Offbeat Music in Brightleaf Square) to pick up Abraxas. The song Black Magic Woman might have been made popular by Santana, but it was written and recorded by Peter Green. Peter started this band called Fleetwood Mac, but this was before the days of Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. Mick Fleetwood is actually the only original member of the band. I digressed from the point that Abraxas should have been covered during Week 1. Since I am skipping over compilations (aka – Greatest Hits, Live Albums,) I’ll be covering them once I finish listening to all my full-length albums and EPs.

This week’s set (1/11-1/17):

Eric Clapton - Back Home
AC/DC - Back In Black
Kathleen Edwards - Back To Me
Bad Company - Bad Company
The Black Crowes - Band
Jimi Hendrix - Band Of Gypsys
Santana - Abraxas
The Band - Band, The
Lenny Kravitz - Baptism
Bob Dylan & The Band - Basement Tapes, The
Meat Loaf - Bat Out Of Hell
Meat Loaf - Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell
Rage Against The Machine - Battle Of Los Angeles, The
Oasis - Be Here Now
Beachwood Sparks - Beachwood Sparks
Kings Of Leon - Because Of The Times
The Black Crowes - Before The Fost…Until The Freeze (double disc)
The Rolling Stones - Beggar's Banquet
Eric Clapton - Behind The Sun
Jellyfish - Bellybutton

The week basically began with Back In Black, which I listened to after pounding a sub to get me through my Monday blues. From the first ring on Hells Bells to the closing Rock And Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution this album is pure adrenaline. The album is sort of a tribute to lost lead singer, Bon Scott. It’s hard to imagine a band losing a voice as unique as Bon’s and being able to continue. Back In Black proved that Angus and Malcolm were determined to carry on the fallen front-man’s legacy and produce arguably the hardest rocking, most power-chord driven, double-entandra laced albums EVER!! Not to be overlooked they had Steven Tyler induct them into the RN’R HOF (which I will get to another time what I think of the HOF) and he stated, "AC/DC became the litmus test of what rock does. Does it make you clench your fist when you sing along? Does it scare your parents to hell and piss off the neighbors? Does it make you dance so close to the fire that you burn your feet -- and still don't give a rat's ass? If it doesn't, then it ain't AC/DC!" My child-hood friend, Jeff Gilliam, exposed me to this album in like 3rd grade and it did everything Steven said. I hid that album (tape) from my parents because, at the time, all the news about AC/DC was that it was the devil’s music. I thought they would kill me for having it. I still think of Jeff and me sitting in my tiny bedroom on 3202 Cole Mill Rd listening to this album on my tiny “box” and thinking how cool we were. Jeff passed away recently. He and I were as close as friends as just about anyone in my entire life (maybe the most), but he and I drifted apart after high school. While listening to this album, memories of riding Jeff’s motorcycle, going on hunting adventures through the woods for hours, and many many many more things which I won’t discuss here went through my head. “We're just listening to the rock that's giving too much noise/are you deaf you wanna hear some more/we're just talkin' about the future/forget about the past/It'll always be with us/It's never gonna die, never gonna die”, so RIP Bon and Jeff!!

Anyone that doesn’t like The Black Crowes should just skip this paragraph and re-evaluate your musical tastes. I got through 2 of their albums this week. Well technically 1.5 since Band was an album that was totally scrapped and re-released nearly a decade later on the Lost Crowes album. This was when the brothers Robinson fired Marc Ford for the first time in 1997. The album that ultimately came out was By Your Side with reworking of songs like If It Ever Stops Raining into By Your Side with Horsehead and Only A Fool making it to By Your Side. While the Band album carries fan favorites like Paint An 8, Wyoming & Me, and Another Roadside Tragedy the result of revisiting the studio produced one of my favorite Crowes’ tunes – Virtue & Vice, but The Black Crowes recorded their weakest album of their career with By Your Side in my opinion. This album deviates farthest from their true sound, but a bad album from them was still better than…ok let me stop myself again! In February of 2009, my friend Jon and I made our pilgrimage up to Woodstock to see The Black Crowes record new material for release. Recording took place at Levon Helm’s (drummer/singer for The Band) studio/house in Woodstock over the last two weekends in February and the first weekend in March. The result of those recording sessions yielded the double-disc release Before The Frost…Until The Freeze. While in Woodstock we went out to visit Big Pink with snow falling the day we were to see the Crowes record. Big Pink is a big pink house (in case anyone thought this referred to someone’s swollen privates) up in Woodstock, NY where members of The Band resided over the course of the late 60’s. Bob Dylan was recovering from a motorcycle crash, suffered in 1966, and spent a lot of time at Big Pink with The Band. They recorded a lot of music there which resulted in The Basement Tapes as well as The Band’s album Music From Big Pink. All of these albums contain American music in its purist form and to have stood in the presence of Big Pink on the day we watched The Black Crowes record is an experience I will NEVER forget. Before The Frost…Until The Freeze proves The Black Crowes are not ever going to reduce themselves to making crappy music for the sake of selling albums. They make music that matters and lasts without regard for producing chart topping….well you get the point!!! And as for why I chose to listen to them together instead of separate, well that’s because it is one studio release despite having catchy separate titles for each disc.

Despite having raved about Jimi last week, this week I will go overboard. Band Of Gypsys is a release of live performances from December 31, 1969 and January 1, 1970 at The Fillmore in London with Billy Cox and Buddy Miles. People familiar with Hendrix will tell you that Band Of Gypsys was Jimi at his absolute best. Many regard Machine Gun and Power Of Soul as the BEST pieces of guitar work ever (self-included). One of my favorite bands, Rose Hill Drive, saw fit to pay this album tribute by covering in one of their own NYE performances. Many other bands I follow (Jive Mother Mary and Medusa Stone) frequently cover songs from this album, because they are scorching tunes that blow the roof off any venue. To hear the two- night show in more detail, pick up Live At The Fillmore East to hear all the tracks from Band Of Gypsys including other great songs like Stone Free and Stepping Stone. Jimi died in 1970 and this is the only live music released under his authorization not to mention it is a MUST LISTEN!!

And speaking of must listens, do NOT allow your ears to be denied Beggars Banquet, which began the greatest 4 album run of music ever made (Beggars Banquet (1968), Let It Bleed (1969), Sticky Fingers (1971), and Exile On Main St. (1972)). My favorite Stones tune is on this album – Prodigal Son. This album contains one of the Stone’s most famous tunes Sympathy For The Devil, along with other hidden gems like Dear Doctor and Salt Of The Earth. I was very ignorant of The Stones for so many years and it took a NJ rib-cooking yankee to edumicate me. Thanks for opening my ears and showing me the light of understanding the intricacies of Keef.

Sprinkled in with all of these great albums and musical giants are bands like Beachwood Sparks, Kings Of Leon, and Jellyfish. With the exception of Kings Of Leon these bands have not experienced much commercial success. The thing they all have in common is that they are very uncommon bands. Their sound doesn’t conform to standards and corporate musical formulas for charting, but that only means that those of us willing to explore music for ourselves instead of listening to what gets force-fed via the airwaves can share in owning something unique.