Decade: Ours

Don't Say I Didn't Warn You: 

Anyone searching for the Ultimate Truth in Music by looking at the many Best Albums of the Year, Decade, Century, etc., lists out there is probably wasting their time.

But here are some of them anyway. Have at it. There's plenty more:
Pitchfork
Billboard
Stereogum
Rolling Stone
New Musical Express
VICE
Consequence of Sound
Variety

There is a remarkable consistency to these lists, but if you check the music itself out you may or may not be impressed.

Not only are Best of Anything lists (mine included) subjective, they’re personal. Meaning that my favorites moved me in a way that they may never move you. So there’s a risk you’ll be baffled by what I love. Who would blame you for thinking There I go, trying to learn about good music but end up only learning about Jaybee. I should sell t-shirts that say “I Went to Jaybee’s Blog and All I Got Was a Lousy CD”.

Also, after perusing a couple of dozen best of the decade lists, I see that my personal favorites rarely appear at the top. I was much more likely to find them somewhere in the middle. This is not because I’m especially unique but rather because I’m somewhat unique. Just like you. All together now, “We are all individuals!”

Polls are compiled by people whose job is to listen to as much pop music as possible. I couldn’t possibly have heard as much music as they did, but they couldn't possibly have heard some music as much as me.

To put it another way, while the pollsters, having heard more music than me, can judge it all in a wider context that enables them to do so in a more intellectual way, I’m judging mine in a narrower one, and have the opportunity to be more emotionally moved by it than they have the time to be.

So, here’s some guidance to my lists and to all those other ones you’re bound to see:

• “Great” records are somewhat overrated: You'll hear a lot of hype or enthusiasm directed at some records. If you decide to check them out, don't be shocked if they leave you a little cold. There's a million reason for this, not the least of which is that rush one feels when we think we're seeing an emperor not fully clothed.  Don't get too mad, though. I might be you. Give it some time and you may eventually deem it "good".
• “Good” records are somewhat underrated: These are the ones in the middle of the list. They tend to make the list after all the other more famous artists get (more than) their due and it's kind of where I live. I'm not saying you'll love the same ones I do but the ones you would love are hidden here.

And finally, there are all those records that consistently topped those polls that I’d not gotten around to hearing yet. Normally, I'd be excited to get to those records asap, but, sadly, this time around I have no illusions about how much I’ll end up liking them once I do hear them. This is because they’re not in my go-to genres, like pop or rock 'n roll.

That’s okay. I will get to them, and give them the time to sink in. And when something does click it’s the sound of a new door opening. And that, people, is why I do this.

My attitude is the exact opposite of that tired old “Music Sucks These Days” attitude geezers like me are prone to.

No, music doesn't suck these days. But maybe we do. Oh, not you or me. Some other guy.


This Decade:

The good news is that there were plenty of albums to love, if not to be completely obsessed by. Ask me tomorrow and the order will be completely different:

1. Car Seat Headrest: Teens of Denial (2016) 🌶 Yes, it's a little too long, a little too sloppy. Yes, the songs end a little too abruptly. Yes, Will Toledo's nasally voice isn't...welcoming. But damn if this isn't the most bracing rock n' roll I've heard in maybe decades.
2. tUnE-yArDs: W H O K I L L (2010) 🌶
3. Tame Impala: Lonerism (2012)    🌶
4. Courtney Barnett: Sometimes I Just Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit (2015)  
5. Robbie Fulks: Upland Stories (2016)
6. Arcade Fire: The Suburbs (2010) 
7. Courtney Barnett: The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas (2013) 
8. Sufjan Stevens: Carrie and Lowell (2015)
9. Beach House: Bloom (2012) 
10. Jon Hopkins: Immunity  (2013)
11. Beach House: Teen Dream (2010) 
12. Deerhunter: Halcyon Digest (2010) 🌶
13. Max Richter: Infra (2010) 🌶
14. Angel Olsen: My Woman (2016) 🌶
15. King Creosote/John Hopkins: Diamond Mine  (2011)
16. Snail Mail: Lush (2018)  
17. Beck: Morning Phase  (2014)
18. Grimes: Art Angels  (2015)
19. The New Pornographers: Whiteout Conditions  (2017)
20. Kacey Musgraves: Golden Hour (2018)  
21. The Roots: How I Got Over  (2010)
22. Superchunk: Majesty Shredding (2010)  
23. Janelle Monae: Dirty Computer  (2018)
24. Alvvays: Anti-Socialites (2017)
25. Kacey Musgraves: Same Trailer, Different Park (2013)
26. Mike Burns: Mountain Mover EP (2015)
27. Tallest Man on Earth: The Wild Hunt (2010) 
28. Loudon Wainwright III: Older Thank My Old Man Now  (2012) 
29. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit: The Nashville Sound (2017) 
30. Waxahatchee: Out from the Storm (2017)
31. Leonard Cohen: You Want it Darker (2018)  
32. Best Coast: Crazy for You   (2010)
33. Jens Lekman: Life Will See You Now (2017) 
34. Robyn: Body Talk  (2010)
35. Cloud Nothings: Attack On Memory  (2012)
36. Lori McKenna: The Bird and the Rifle (2016)
37. Kanye West: My Dark Beautiful Twisted Fantasy  (2010)
38. Yo La Tengo: Stuff Like That There (2015)  
39. Paul Simon: So Beautiful or So What? (2011)   
40. Withered Hand: New Gods (2014)
41. Forlorne: The Old and Weathered Glass  (2017)
42. Arca: Arca  (2017)
43. Soccer Mommy: Clean (2018)  
44. Father John Misty: I Love You, Honeybear  (2010)
45. Mbongwana Star: From Kinshasa (2015)
46. Parquet Courts: Light Up Gold/Tally Up the Things You Broke (2013)
47. Japandroids: Celebration Rock (2012)  
48. Destroyer: Kaputt (2011)
49. Fiona Apple: The Idler Wheel (2012) 
50. Todd Snyder: Agnostic Hymns and Stoner Fables (2012)

Okay, I'll stop here. Yes, it was THAT good a decade.

Here's a Spotify list of my favorite songs from the 2010s, which, by the way, I'm constantly adding to. Like most of my lists, it starts out quiet and gets louder and faster, but then gets quiet again. (Hey, that sounds like when I get drunk...)

It might help you figure out which of the above are worth checking out. 

Decade: Mine

We’re closing in on the end of the decade, and I’ve been busy trying to catch up on the music I’d missed, and revisit what I’d already gotten, with the ultimate aim of - what else? - compiling a "Best Albums of the Decade" list.

But when I buy albums I don’t confine myself to music from the current decade. So a lot of the music I heard during this decade actually came from a prior one. And thus, a large part of my experience of music during this decade includes that older music What to do?

Compiling a list that combines all of this music isn't a good idea because the current decade would almost certainly get short shrift.

So I compile two lists: one comprised of the best music released this decade, but also another one with the best music from prior ones. The first list is the Best of THE Decade, which I'll deal with next time.

The second is the best of MY Decade, which I have below.

But first, some observations:


Meh Decade: 

Throughout the decade I’d repeatedly experienced fatigue from trying to absorb more music than my little brain could handle. The good news is that this catching up has finally allowed me to “hear” records that I’d previously only been scratching my head about.

One great example of Disappointments That Didn’t Last was Radiohead: The Bends. At first, I felt suffocated by this, but I eventually caught up to it one. The guitars are simply undeniable and Thom York sings pretty. A-

But sometimes it went the other way. There were albums I kind of liked when I first got them, but that I’m not too keen on now. Two of those Albums That Didn’t Stand the Test of Time were Animal Collective's Merriwether Post Pavillion and Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians: Fegmania!

Then there were those Records Whose Bad First Impression Lasted, like:

• Pixies: Bossanova 
• Portishead: Dummy 
• Wild Flag: Wild Flag  
• Young Marble Giants: Colossal Youth
• Elliott Smith: Either /Or  
• Speedy Ortiz: Foil Deer  
• Ex Hex: Rips
• The Smiths: The Queen is Dead
• The Clean: Anthology
• Superchunk: What a Time to Be Alive 

And sorry to say, David Bowie just didn’t bring it. Blackstar is pretty good but I was expecting more. And Lodger didn’t measure up to its two Berlin Trilogy predecessors.

And speaking of dead heroes, my nominee for Worst Record of MY Decade is Phil Ochs' Pleasures of the Harbor  Phil, I love you man, but Jeez!


My Decade:

Anyway, here's a list of my favorite records from prior decades that I finally got to hear this decade in very rough order:

1. Bright Eyes: I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning (2005) 🌶 If I really give it a lot of thought I could probably rank a dozen or so records higher, but we’ve got a President to impeach, so...
2. Sufjan Stevens: Greetings from Michigan (2003) 
3. Beck: Sea Change (2002) 
4. Andrew Bird: And the Mysterious Production of Eggs (2005)  
5. Grandaddy: The Sophtware Slump (2000) 🌶  
6. Small Faces: Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake (Extended Version) (1967) 🌶 
7. The Dandy Warhols: Thirteen Tales of Urban Bohemia (2000)  
8. Sufjan Stevens: Seven Swans (2004)  
9. Imperial Teen: On (2002) 
10. Clean: Vehicle (1990) 
11. The Innocence Mission: Glow (1995)
12. Yo La Tengo: And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out (2000) 🌶
13. The Grateful Dead: Anthem of the Sun (1968)  
14. Fairport Convention: Leige and Lief  (1969)  
15. Belle and Sebastian: The Boy With the Arab Strap (1998) 
16. Procol Harum: A Salty Dog (1969)  
17. Imperial Teen: Seasick (1996)
18. Brian Eno: Music for Airports (1978) 🌶
19. Willie Nelson: Stardust  (1978)
20. Brian Eno/John Cale: Wrong Way Up? (1990)  
21. The Go! Team: Thunder, Lightning, Strike (2004)
22. Errol Garner: The Complete Concert by the Sea 
23. The Go-Betweens: The Friends of Rachel Worth  (2000)
24. The Apples in Stereo: New Magnetic Wonder (2007)  
25. Amadou and Miriam: Welcome to Mali (2008)
26. John Prine: In Spite of Ourselves (1999)
27. Bob Marley and the Wailers: Catch a Fire (1973)
28. Death Cab for Cutie: The Open Door (EP) (2009)
29. Philip Glass: Glassworks (1982)
30. Jimmie Dale Gilmore: Spinning Around the Sun (1993) 
31. Bright Eyes: Lifted (2002) 
32. Radiohead: The Bends (1995) 
33. Yo La Tengo: Fakebook (1990) 
34. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It’s Blitz (2009) 
35. Liz Phair: Whitechocolatespacegg (1998) 
36. Roxy Music: Country Life (1974) 
37. Spoon: Kill the Moonlight (2002) 
38. Pink Floyd: Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967) 
39. Brian Eno: Apollo (1983) 
40. Nick Drake: Bryter Layter (1970)

Next Time: Our Decade

Decade: More Fun in the Old World

Last time out I gave you some lame post about the decade in genres. It was really just my way of putting off compiling my Actual Best of the Decade List(s).

Well, I’m doing it again. I will persist in my procrastination by now providing you with a couple of lists that almost by definition are about music from prior decades, but the point is that they happened to me in this decade.


Best Throwbacks:

These are albums I’m somewhat familiar with but never got around to actually owning until now. I don’t like judging them against records that I’m hearing for the first time because, on the one hand, they’re somewhat better for having been around this long. But, weirdly, they sometimes contain filler - the parts you didn’t hear on the radio, and the good parts are a bit played out - and that makes them mortal. I don’t want to overreact to those flaws.

Because of these ad/disadvantages, I’d rather just judge them now by how much fun they provided me this time around:

1. Rolling Stones - Singles Collection  This could easily have ended up on top of the list below, but I’m familiar with so much of it already, that wouldn’t have been fair. This is great for long car trips.
2. Joni Mitchell: Court And Spark  (1974) A fantastic album. The songs I hadn’t gotten into before are almost all great.
3. The Who - Live at Leeds (Expanded Edition)  This expanded edition gives a fuller picture of the Who than the original. They were a POP band, people!
4. Harry Nilsson: Nilsson Schmilsson (1971) Harry comes through big time on his less well-known songs.
5. The Kinks: Lola  (1970) Ray does, too. And Dave.
6. The Monkees: The Best of  What can I say? Of course the version in my head is better, but so is yours.
7. Brian Eno: Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (1974)  The sound on the CD isn’t much better than the original vinyl but that’s okay. Time may have finally caught up to this deeply weird record.  🌶🌶 
8. Tom Verlaine: Tom Verlaine (1979)  It’s not Television but it’s very good.
9. Jefferson Airplane: The Worst of  I really needed to hear this, even after having chipped away at it with Volunteers and Baxters. A very consistent record from a very good, but I’m not convinced, great band.
10. And tied for 10th: 
• Aretha Franklin: I Never Loved a Man Like You, Or Lady Soul, or Aretha Now. The experience is much the same. Some filler but mostly galvanic.
• Yes: Fragile/Close to the Edge  My first 8 Track tape, and just so much fun.
• Traffic: John Barleycorn Must Die (Expanded) (1970)  Great album, lousy live songs on the extended version.
• Graham Nash: Songs for Beginners (1971) As lovely a record as I remember. Joni must have run over him like a truck. His loss. Our gain. Thanks, Joni!
• David Crosby: If I Could Only Remember My Name (1971) A lot of people hated this record when it first came out. I liked it then. I like it now. What’s NOT to like, I wonder. He didn’t even have a gun then.

Compilations:

1. Belle and Sebastian: Push Barman to Open Old Wounds So fragile, so beautiful.
2. Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians: Greatest Hits The album that proves this alleged weirdo should have been an FM staple.
3. The Chills: Kaleidoscope World  Ah, if only the internet was around then, these super melodic, chiming songs would have gone viral. 
4. James Brown: Star Time This is daunting for an old white guy but worth the effort. If you think it all sounds the same why do you like the Ramones?? 
5. Brian Jonestown Massacre: Tepid Peppermint Wonderland  If you can forget what a narcissistic junkie asshole the guy leads the band is you can really enjoy this late sixties-style psychedelic rock 'n roll.
6. Various Artists: Ocean of Sound Yeah, weird as hell. I love it but know what you’re getting into!  🌶🌶🌶 
7. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Lovely Creatures Another purported British weirdo who does some pretty straightforward, passionate rock 'n roll.
8. Leonard Cohen: Essential   A lot to take in one sitting but great for studying.
9. Various Artists: American Epic  Basically another version of An Anthology of American Folk Music, but with better liner notes and sound.
10. And tied for 10th: 
• Taj Mahal: The Best of 
• Blur: Best of 
• Robert Forster: Intermission 
• The Chantels: The Best of 
• Grin: The Best of 
• King Sunny Ade: The Best of the Classic Years  🌶
• Franco and Le Tpok Jazz: Francophonic  🌶

Okay, so much for genres, compilations and throwbacks. Next time it gets real(er).

Decade: Genre-osity

Embarrassments:

Late 1990s:
“You like P.M. Dawn?” said the young Hispanic maintenance worker at the office.
“Yes, I do!” said the middle-aged white guy behind the desk.
The young maintenance man’s expression was a mix of puzzlement and slight disappointment.
The middle-aged guy still likes PM Dawn, though.

Late 2000s:
“You like De la Soul?” asked the scoffing, Tupac-loving young man.
“Well,” muttered the aging white guy whose daughter was dating the young man, “it was a Father's Day present…”
“But Dad, you asked for it,” said the daughter.
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean I like it yet.” The old guy comes back with.
“Do you always ask for music that you don’t even know if you’ll like?” Tupac-lover again.
“Well...”
“Yes,” chimed in the wife.
De La Soul, by the way, is growing on the old guy.

Which is a long way to tell you that I’m no expert on hip-hop. I’m a dilettante in the very worst sense. I catch up to trends long after they’ve been designated uncool. Forever out of time, I’m trying to enjoy music made for a very specific time that is definitely not Now.

Looking a bit foolish is the price of admission.


The Decade in Genres:

But it comes in handy when your perusal of Best of the Decade lists tells you that your favorite genres are changing out from under you and that they’re well, not that popular anymore anyway.

Now I could play the There’s No Good Music Anymore card, or dig in my heels on the records that are in my comfort zone, but I practically invented FOMO so I’m going to use it to keep up with things.

But genres can be tough. At best I’m behind the times - a good year for pop and rock - with these genres I’m lucky if I’m in the same decade (or century).


The Decade in Decades:

The decade - as I experience it - comprises music released this decade (let’s call it Our Decade) as well as music from prior decades that I happened to get this decade. (Let's call it My Decade.) And why not? It’s what I’m experiencing, isn’t it?

It’s my way of making the best of the fact that we’re no longer listening to music together. We’re all in our own little worlds, so welcome to mine.

When I get around to reviewing the Pop/Rock-ish Decade, I'll make two lists. One for Our Decade and one for Mine.


The Genres Spanning Decades:

But I’m not going to bother with that now. The genres below rarely get to rise to the top of my lists because they’re swimming upstream against all that pop music I like.

So now’s not the time to make the My/Our Distinction. Below are records from all decades but I'll highlight the ones that were actually released this decade. Some may even show up on my Pop Decade lists next time.


The Unfriendliness Factor:

I’ll also use an indicator to show the “un-friendliness” of a record. Why? Well, just because Jaybee likes it doesn’t mean you will, too. As a matter of fact, it’s almost a given.

Therefore, like an Asian restaurant that puts a little pepper next to the spicy dishes on the menu, I’ll put some it next to the weirder, more daunting records. The more peppers, the weirder the record.

That way you can’t say you weren’t warned.


Punk:

Extreme genres, like hardcore punk, can only warm my heart so much. So I am no further into
Black Flag, Bikini Kill, Minor Threat or the Libertines.

1. Against Me: New Wave 
2. Idles: Joy As an Act of Resistance  🌶🌶

Hip Hop:

The Beastie Boys and MIA can be irritating if played when other things are going on. But when I can give them undivided attention, it pays off. The Notorious BIG is just too damn depressing, and Wu-Tang is too scary. The idea of getting entertainment from other people’s pain was just too much for me.

1. The Roots: How I Got Over 
2. Pusha T: Daytona  🌶🌶
3. Noname: Room 25 
4. Kanye West: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy 🌶
5. Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp a Butterfly  🌶

Classical:

Modern composers like Terry Riley are pretty cool but I’d be lying if I said I loved his stuff.
The World History Project has brought me more Vivaldi, Handel, Haydn and Mozart - very little of which I've gotten to the root of yet.

1. Max Richter: Intra  
2. Beethoven: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D, Op.61 
3. Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue/An American in Paris 
4. Philip Glass: Glassworks  
5. Beethoven: 9 Symphonies  
6. Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier 
7. Monteverdi: Madrigals  
8. Gavin Bryars: Jesus’s Blood Never Failed Me Yet  🌶🌶
9. Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians  🌶

World Music:

Franco and Sunny Ade provided pleasure but not epiphany.

1. Amadou and Miriam: Welcome to Mali  
2. Bob Marley and the Wailer: Catch a Fire 
3. Mbongwana Star: From Kinsasha 🌶
4. Ravi Shankar: Three Ragas  🌶
5. Konono No 1: Congotronics  🌶

Christmas:

1. Sufjan Stevens: It’s Christmas  🌶
2. Paul Nelson: Christmas Cello
3. Medieval Christmas 🌶

Country: 

This decade is also the story of me slowly warming up to Country music again. It sure didn’t get off to a good start. I didn’t like Miranda Lambert or Brad Paisley enough at first. They did wear me down though, and some great country albums would follow:

1. Robbie Fulks: Upland Stories  
2. Kacey Musgraves: Golden Hour 
3. John Prine: In Spite of Ourselves  
4. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit: The Nashville Sound 
5. Kacey Musgraves: Same Trailer, Different Park  
6. Lori McKenna: The Bird and the Rifle  
7. Jimmie Dale Gilmore: Spinning Around the Sun 

Best Jazz:

1. Errol Garner: The Complete Concert by the Sea  
2. Dave Brubeck: Time Out  
3. John Coltrane: Afro Blue Impressions 🌶
4. Thelonious Monk: In Action 🌶
5. Thelonious Monk: At Town Hall  🌶
6. Wes Montgomery: Smokin at the Half Note  
7. Charlie Parker: Complete 1949 Concert  
8. Miles Davis: Panthalassa  🌶

Electronica/Ambient:

1. Jon Hopkins: Immunity 🌶
2. Brian Eno: Music for Airports 
3. Brian Eno/Harold Budd: The Pearl
4. Oneohtrix Point Never: Replica  🌶
5. Arca: Arca  🌶
6. Brian Eno: Apollo 
7. Flying Lotus: Cosmogramma  🌶

Soundtracks:

1. Various Artists: Music from Shutter Island  🌶🌶🌶
2. Music From As You Like It 

Blues:

1. Howlin' Wolf: Howlin' Wolf
2. Howlin' Wolf: Moanin’ At Midnight  
3. Muddy Waters: The Plantation Recordings  🌶

Dance Music:

1. Grimes: Art Angels 🌶
2. Robyn: Body Talk 

So there you have it. 

But I have a question for you: Do you like spicy food?

There Are (Almost) No Words

I so wanted to approach the end of the musical decade prepared. (I tend to ignore the things I should prepare for, like, oh, global warming, terrorist attacks, and the zombie apocalypse.)

And despite the distractions (WHP, this year's records, James' Bag of CDs, etc.), I was doing a good job of re-listening to records from the last ten years, but as is usually the case I couldn’t maintain the pace. Something always gets in the way.

So I’m now in a mode I’m all too used to - muddling through. Things have been so all over the place that I’ve been tempted to start posting decade related lists. Alas, neither I nor the decade are quite ready yet.

That hasn’t stopped others from posting their “Best of the Decade” lists. Looking them over I see that I’ve gotten a good number of the rock and roll related albums, which means I’m ahead (or rather, less behind than usual) when it comes to my musical safe-zone.

Where I’m woefully behind - as usual - is in that vast majority of the musical universe known as music made by African Americans. The polls are telling me I’ve got Frank Ocean, Solange and, yes, Beyonce in my near future. This, of course, will elicit those strange looks from Mrs. Jaybee and the Jaybee kids that roughly translate into “What the hell are you listening to?” Accent on “you”.

In the meantime, I still find odd gems here and there. The fact that they are nearly wordless this time around makes them easier to grasp.




Arca: Arca (2017)

But not that easy.

Sounding deliberately formless for a while, its structures eventually reveal themselves, even if they’re unique for each track.

There is singing, and words I don’t understand - this young man is from Caracas. And it’s usually a falsetto that makes the gender seem pretty formless, too.  The video below confirms that. Beware, it’s NSFR (Not Suitable for Republicans).

It’s classified, among other things, as hip-hip. If it is, it does as much for that genre as Immunity before it did for dance music.

A-

“Anoche”




Flying Lotus: Cosmogramma (2010)

Yet another ebb and flow texture album with very little vocalizing as they say. And you’d think after Immunity, Replica, and even Entroducing…, I’d tire of it. But I don’t.

This one’s still sinking in and not quite on the level of the above records, but still very entertaining.

And yet another semi-risque video below. I’d say it was an accident but it’s probably some male gene that - in the old days - would help us find the skin mags at the back of the candy store. It has now mutated for the digital age.

A-

“Table Tennis”

Late Thoughts On Woodstock

Not Going Back:

I'm not goin' back to Woodstock for a while,
Though I long to hear that lonesome hippie smile.
I'm a million miles away from that helicopter day
No, I don't believe I'll be goin' back that way.

The quote above is from Neil Young's “Roll Another Number”, from Tonight’s the Night, and it pretty much sums up the mood of the entire album. It was 1973 and it was already clear to Neil that the sixties were never coming back. Always ahead of the times, he was already facing down the dark side of the seventies.

And that was over forty-five years ago.

Does anyone listen to Woodstock anymore? Aside from the odd cut played on Classic Rock Radio, probably not. I doubt that anyone pulls out the vinyl to play a side or two. Did anyone buy it on CD? Has anyone played it more than once since 1971?

It’s not an album that one is “in the mood for”.  What would that mood be? I feel like hearing a live album - one with lots of crowd sounds - and a lot of different bands because I happen to like them all, so a sustained mood is not what I want.  There is no such mood.  Not anymore, anyway.

You might put it on if you’re feeling nostalgic. Now there’s a feeling I’m not comfortable with. Neither was Neil, at least until he made Harvest Moon.

Woodstock came out in the Spring of 1970. I remember seeing it in the window of the local record store, right next to Let it Be. If the latter was telling us the sixties were officially over, we’d use the former to squeeze out whatever we still could from the decade.

As was usual, I didn’t own Woodstock, and so had to rely on friends to play it. And we’d never play it all the way through. We barely played one side all the way through. But we all loved it and listened to it incessantly that summer. But not after that.

For those reasons, it looked like it would turn into yet another of those records - my memory of which was incomplete to begin with - that would fade over the years. And, really, who wants to buy a triple album you’ve already heard before? But amazon $5 mp3s saved the day.  So I downloaded it and for the first time listened to it all the way through.





After all these years it’s more or less what I expected it to be. A long-ago favorite replayed to ever so slight disappointment now. That's okay. It still brought a tear to my eye at certain points.

But even the most nostalgic among us don’t want to spend too much time dwelling on the event, which we remember with a mixture of embarrassment and wonder. We’re too jaded to embrace it wholeheartedly. Plus it was a goddamn mess and who - except those who were actually there - can imagine themselves in that environment? (My hat’s off to you if you can.)

But it was an ideal momentarily realized. For all their faults, those hippies were a lot less destructive than the supposedly better-behaved yuppies.

I’m not sure how the baby boomers who experienced it - even second hand - square it with their current politics. By revising history, I guess. It must be slightly embarrassing to those who want to remember the fun part then and say, deny climate change now. We were so much younger then, we’re older than that now.

Maybe it’s best for all concerned to limit our attention to the actual music. So let’s take a look at this big sloppy mess of an album, documenting something that couldn’t possibly have happened.


Choosing Sides:

Side One doesn’t really quite kick off until Richie Havens provides a Defining Woodstock Moment with "Freedom", which pretty much overshadows everything else here. But song for song, it’s pretty good. Just all over the place. Which, I guess, is kind of the point.

I think the theme is the Pursuit of Freedom via Drugs. What a bad idea, right? We’ve since wised up and now escape reality via prescription meds.

Side Two starts off with another DWM: "The FISH Song", of course. In 1970, I was shocked that a record would actually have that word on it.

We listened to it a lot on a friend’s stoop over the summer.  One night, we had it on when someone noticed my dad approaching. He was on his way home from the corner bar and stopped to say hello - something he never did. We frantically tried to turn it off before he got to us and Country Joe got to f*ck. But in the confusion, we only succeeded in turning up the volume. He got there just as Country Joe was asking WHAT'S THAT SPELL?!?!  and the crowd answered F*CK!!!. It was probably the last thing he expected to hear, and so, he didn’t.

I’m trying to imagine/remember what we were thinking at the time. We were all pretty conservative, and if pressed on our opinion of the war we would have been strongly in favor of it. And yet we could still enjoy the song without getting offended, either because of the sheer gusto of the performance or the novelty of the cuss word. Then we’d go on our conservative way. I listen to this now and get chills.

And in walks Joan Baez, who is usually a major buzzkill. But I have to hand it to her. She brought the first tear to my eye with “Joe Hill” but that may just have been because it made me think of Phil Ochs.

Neil Young contributes the weird (for CSNY, and for Neil) “Sea of Madness”. It's generally regarded as a terrible song but I've always loved it. It's probably as funky and poppy as Neil ever got, and it gives CSN a little kick in the ass. (Y was haunting CSN even then, their second gig.) It's really the only CSN song that is "new" and not a waste of space.

The theme? The War. Oh and pushing that new supergroup. Things are so different now.

Side Three starts off with “Wooden Ships” which while offering nothing new musically that the studio version didn’t already, reinforces a theme of post-apocalyptic brotherhood. And Joe Cocker re-inforces the theme.

Theme: Fellowship? What the hell is that, anyway?

Side Four consists of Santana and Ten Years After who keep the energy level high.  I did have to put up with hearing how great a guitar player Alvin Lee was. Aside from Hendrix, the best one at Woodstock, people said. I wasn’t even sure he was the best guitar player on this side.

The Theme: Guitars, of course. Which are great, but politics-free, and thus the most likely to be played now.

Although Side Five kicks off with Jefferson Airplane, everyone knows it really belongs to Sly. And listening to it now, I could almost succumb to that dreaded nostalgia, it’s that powerful, Sly was able to rock a bunch of conservative white teenagers on that Brooklyn stoop.  It’s truly the high point of the record. This is the side that almost gets played all the way through. What the hell is John Sebastien doing after it?

Theme: Transcendence. How silly!

Half of Side Six is given over to a badly dated and mostly forgotten “Love March” by Paul Butterfield. And even though Hendrix saves it, we were really just listening to the “Star-Spangled Banner”. A shame, since he’s on fire throughout. But Hendrix is facing up to the war, which, despite every attendee’s wish, continued after the show.

Is the theme Resignation? Or acceptance of  Reality, such as it was?


For the Record:

Playing a three-record set all the way through is kind of exhausting to begin with, especially since I’ve heard it all before. If I owned it then, I could see myself doing it then, while everyone else got bored and started playing stickball, leaving me alone on that stoop. I’d be bored too, but that’s how I roll.

Once you wipe away the nostalgic haze of the sixties and the aura of the event, this holds okay as an album, albeit one with many different artists and thus one without a consistent musical identity. There’s some music that doesn’t age well, and the crowd noise and announcements, while not helping to make a tight record, certainly help make an expansive document of an event.

And Woodstock was always about more than music. Which is why we don’t listen to it now.

B+

Summer?

Fathers Day:

For me, it's the beginning of the musical summer. It's when I force Mrs. Jaybee and the kids to get me music that is freakishly odd and completely inappropriate to the season. This is not a bad thing, but it is, well, bad timing.

Leonard Cohen: You Want It Darker (2016)

Is there a better way to kick off the summer than to listen to a sick old man embrace death? Of course not!

And Lenny faces death quite courageously. 

This is right up there with his best latter-day stuff. In fact, the second half of Essential comes off rather bloated (am I ungrateful for that embarrassment of riches, or what???) compared to this. The pairing of the words (as good as any he’s ever put down) and music is perfect. Not. Beach. Music.

A-

“You Want It Darker”

Lykke Li: Youth Novels (2008)

And of course when you're packing your beach bag and putting on your bathing suit, what country immediately comes to mind? That’s right, Sweden.

And it you can find a strange young woman singing lonely songs, all the better.

Mrs. Jaybee hates this one, though.  “It’s the girly voice,” she says.  

I kind of like it, though. I kept telling myself I was going to hear dance music but instead it’s got a pretty bare-bones sound, with nary a synthesizer. Sort of the Anti-Robyn. 

Luckily, the songwriting holds up almost all the way through.

B+

"Dance, Dance, Dance"

Lykke Li: Wounded Rhymes (2011)

This one explores rougher territory, sometimes going back as far as the 50s for style and execution. It’s startlingly different from Youth Novels but the songwriting is better and it has more variety. 

It earns its drama and pain and doesn’t overplay its hand. When she sings “my love is unrequited” It’s just thrilling.

And with, after only three short years, the girly voice gone, Mrs. Jaybee hums along to almost every one of them.

A-

"Sadness is a Blessing"

Academy Records:

I also try to fit in a trip to the used record store. Now I should already have learned my lesson about matching the music to the time of year (The "No Christmas Music in June" rule.), but Academy Records, like Other Music before that doesn't work that way. They have what they have. Or to put it another way, they have what someone else hated.)

So you take what you can get. And, this time, let's just say they hadn't exactly stocked up for the Fourth of July rush.

The Mothers of Invention: Freak Out! (1966)

Ah, what great summer memories of the Watts riots!

It’s always risky going back to those legendary records from the 60s and 70s. The 60s because the albums are just not as consistent as they should be, and the 70s because of an odd stench I pick up, either originating from a paucity of production or songwriting that prevents the record from withstanding the test of time.

This is Frank’s first record. Although I’m familiar with a few others they’re all very different from one another, so it’s hard to know what to expect.  

Not Surprising:

The contempt. Frank is right, of course, but it prevents him from displaying any warmth. So you end up with music to admire instead of enjoy. And Frank’s also as sexist as any of the “daddy”s he complains about.

His parodies of 50s rock n roll make me wonder if we’re meant to enjoy it or not. That’s okay, I do. 

Surprising

It’s more song-oriented than I expected. Frank can sure write a pop tune when he wants to! Which is almost never unless he’s smirking.

Frank’s guitar playing is bitchin’ from the git-go.

So for a Zappa skeptic like me, somewhat of a pleasant surprise.

B+

“Trouble Every Day”

Tom Waits: Bad as Me (2011)

I guess we should all be grateful that we haven't seen old Tom in a bathing suit.

Crazy as ever but rocking harder. Every song has either great instrumentation, vocals or lyrics. This may be my favorite by him.

A-

“Last Leaf on the Tree”

Summer!:

But I eventually (in this case, late July) learn.

Best Coast: Crazy for You (2010)

Finally! An actual summer record.

I can easily imagine hearing this at a barbecue in the 1960s or on a passing transistor radio as I play on the sidewalk. This is as much due to the lo-fi sound as to the perfect pairing of female vocals and loud guitars.

For that alone, it’s the record of the summer, such as it is.

I could see getting tired of it due to the similarity of attack throughout - all the songs sounding the same and all - but Bethany Consentino keeps coming up with the tunes, so I’m okay with it. And Mrs. Burns hums to it, even the songs on the second half. Now THAT’s a recommendation!

A-

Sponges

Ah, the 62-year old brain!

It just doesn’t process music the way a 15-year old one does. The latter hears a tune and it instantly experiences ecstasy. And maybe that 15-year old’s life is transformed. And then it happens again the next day.

This is because - as we say - their brains are like sponges. Brand new, right out of the package ones, mind you. But they’re always ready to soak it all up.

The 62-year old brain, however, is that sponge over there by your kitchen sink which you've been meaning to replace because it's been there for months and has those stains and hard brown edges. It’ll work, but you’ve got to run it under the tap for a minute or two to loosen it up.

Which is my way of saying I don’t know what I think of some records until I’ve listened to them for weeks, or even months. I guess it’s my version of running the tap.


Take this record:


Soccer Mommy: Clean (2018)

I was struggling with it because here is yet another example of the female indie rock singer-guitarist with less than upbeat songs.

At first, I didn’t care for it. It resembled Snail Mail, which I liked a lot because it was sad but sweet. This one is simultaneously more commercial and yet stranger and darker (people eating each other, or treating them like dogs, etc.)

But now, after these few months, I can say it’s also more subtle and varied than SN.  And my official verdict is Almost Just Not Quite But Really Almost Just As Good.

And Snail Mail - for all her heart - doesn’t come up with a winner like “Last Girl”.

A-

“Last Girl”


Or this one: 


Father John Misty: I Love You Honeybear (2010)

I held off a long time before getting anything by FJM.  I felt I’d given the guys enough opportunities over the years. And the chances of another young man having enough talent and wisdom without ruining it with some bullshit seemed kind of low.

But I saw it for a good price at Barnes and Noble and said what the hell.

First impressions:

• Not-lame tunes
• Not overwrought
• Not (too) nasty. 

Notice that these are not good qualities but merely the absence of bad ones. So it became an issue of whether or not he brought something to the table.

Well, there’s that lovely tenor, which could easily be misused, but isn’t here. So putting the record on was a not-unpleasant experience. (At this point, one could reasonably ask, Jaybee, do you even like music? Do you hate men? The answers are yes, but not as much as when I was 15, and all too many.

Now, after a couple of months of putting it on regularly, I put it on again. And every single song has something to offer. And sometimes more than one thing.

I think it may have moved into the Active Pleasure phase. How rare!

A-

Christ, when did music get to be so much work?

James ATGBOCDs, Part Two, or, Academy Records

I noticed that a lot of the CDs in James’s bag came from Academy Records - a used record store I’d never visited before. Other Music, which closed a couple of years ago, had been my go-to place.

The prices looked really good, and not being content to simply listen to the CDs James brought me, so I decided to go.

So on top of all my other projects, I’ve now got the "Great Academy Records Scouring" to do.

THANKS, James!!

One of the things that happens at a store like this is you see a lot of records you’d been meaning to get to (or get back to)  but didn’t want to spend the bucks on, so you’re dealing with nostalgia and risk-taking but not breaking the bank.


Nostalgia:



Joni Mitchell: Hejira (1976)

For a while, this sounded different every time I put it on. I eventually caught up and noticed I’ve got nothing unique to say about it. It’s your basic second tier JM record. Some cuts are too long and the sameness of tone takes away from it a bit.

So not GREAT Joni - no “Free Man in Paris” here, she’s already past that - but very very good.
And in its quiet way, some great moments

A-

“Song for Sharon”



Rolling Stones: Her Satanic Majesties Request (1967)

Another “not their best”. I have it in the basement on 8-track and got to listen to it one or two times before the player broke. But it’s the Stones so I had to find out how it was. (The sixties Stones, mind you. I could give a rat’s ass about the 80s, 90s, 00s and teens versions.)

So the verdict is: actually pretty good. And it would have been considered an excellent album if done by another band, but it is the Stones, after all.

B+
“The Lantern”



Jefferson Airplane: The Worst of... (1970)

Speaking of “not the best”! I’d gotten this blast from the past for Brother Pat for Christmas 1970. He told me the hardcore JA fans said it was aptly named. But as one who was a bit disappointed by After Bathing at Baxter’s and Volunteers, (let's not even talk about Bark or Long John Silver) I think I’ll take this one.

A-

"Good Shepherd"



Risk Taking:


Terry Riley: A Rainbow in Curved Air (1969)
Spacey, when spacey was brand new. Not as pretty as In a Silent Way. Not as cool as the Dead. It’s on the classical/Sci-fi side. Which is much weirder than either.

B+
“A Rainbow in Curved Air”



Nellie McKay: Get Away From Me (2004)

How did someone so young create a record in a style that I usually hate and make it so enjoyable? Is it the oh so sharp lyrics? The instrumental backing? Her confident delivery?

All of the above and more.

A-

“It’s a Pose”


And Sonic Youth's Washing Machine (1995) which I'm just gonna have to get back to you on later because that's what it's like for me and Sonic Youth. I need time...

I've since gone back to Academy (maybe I should say I went back to the Academy. I'd get more respect that way.) but that is for another time.

Someday I even hope to tell you what I found in Jame's bag!