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Classic Album Discussion Thread: The Kinks-Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Pt. 1 (1 Viewer)

Jackson Browne is more of a "hits" guy for me than one I would buy albums by, but he certainly has some songs I really like. 

I didn't comment on the Dire Straits. I liked some of those songs, but never really got into them as a band.  Always thought Money for Nothing wasn't as great as others did.  

 
Ghost Rider said:
Jackson Browne is more of a "hits" guy for me than one I would buy albums by, but he certainly has some songs I really like. 

I didn't comment on the Dire Straits. I liked some of those songs, but never really got into them as a band.  Always thought Money for Nothing wasn't as great as others did.  




 
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I'm here.  "Doctor My Eyes" would likely be in a top 200 list of all-time singles for me.  

 
zamboni said:
Have always respected his songwriting chops, but never was a big fan of him as a performer
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He is in that category of artists who are revered by fellow musicians on a level that is not matched by their commercial success.

In the Eagles documentary, Glenn Frey states that he learned how to write songs by listening to Browne practice. Bob Seger, Springsteen, Linda Ronstadt, Natalie Merchant, John Denver--they all had high praise for him.  

 
Saw him at Red Rocks on the I'm Alive tour. It was utterly dull. I liked that record at the time and a couple prior tunes, but was primarily there to see John Hiatt. We left early.

Bonnie Raitt's version of My Opening Farewell from her live album is excellent. As is Nico's These Days. Both I prefer to his versions.

 
I like all of the songs on Running on Empty. It reminds me of college. A friend of mine used to play this album a lot during the wee hours of the morning. "Running on  Empty" is my favorite song on the album.

 
simey said:
I like all of the songs on Running on Empty. It reminds me of college. A friend of mine used to play this album a lot during the wee hours of the morning. "Running on  Empty" is my favorite song on the album.
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He played at our college when he toured for that album - you couldn't escape it.  

 
Dr. Octopus said:
Jackson Browne is a guy that should be in my wheelhouse but I just never really got into him. 
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I'm the exact opposite. I typically cannot stomach the "lite-FM, sitting in a dentist's waiting room" type of rock that Browne and the Eagles (gawd I hate the Eagles) play. And yet I love Jackson Browne. This is an excellent record. 

The title track, while grossly overplayed, is one of my favorite songs ever. The melancholy, yet hopeful and nostalgic vibe hits just the right spot for me. Late on a temperate summer night, sitting on my deck after everyone has gone to bed, a bottle of wine and a couple tokes in my system, I'll play this tune and just travel away with it. Bliss.

 
Alanis Morissette- Jagged Little Pill (1995)

All I Really Want

You Oughta Know

Perfect

Hand In My Pocket

Right Through You

Forgiven

You Learn

Head Over Feet

Mary Jane

Ironic

Not the Doctor

Wake Up 

One of the most polarizing albums I can remember. Among my friends and family, people either loved this record or they absolutely hated it. My own reaction, which is that I liked some of the songs but otherwise had no strong feelings one way or the other, was less popular. 

The ones who loved this album won out; it sold millions of copies and won all sorts of awards, it was called the “Tapestry of the 90s”. 

 
Count me among the "absolutely hated it" folk. 

Chili Peppers were heavily involved, which I find disappointing and hold against them in terms of songwriting. 

Just an annoying album with annoying vocals and terrible use of vocabulary, given that she doesn't understand the meaning of "irony," as has been pointed out a million times and then rebutted a million times. This was not the tapestry of the '90s. The tapestry of the '90s happened in hip hop and punk. This might be the pop music of the nineties, which leads me to question the pop sensibilities of the nineties. Argh.  

 
timschochet said:
My own reaction, which is that I liked some of the songs but otherwise had no strong feelings one way or the other, was less popular. 
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Same.  The acoustic version of you outta know is the only one on my play list, looking over the rest of the songs I have no real desire to consider adding any of the others.  So I'll forget about her again for (probably) years by the time you add a new album tomorrow.

 
Jagged Little Pill was more necessary and important than enduring. I had worked with mostly female artists during the previous great female wave (Janis, Joni, Aretha, Nyro, Raitt, Ronstadt) in rock/pop music and one of the reasons it didn't sustain is that, after Joplin died (and her big record came out posthumously), there wasn't an album that kicked ### and took names. I loved that 2nd female wave (Bjork, Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, Badu, Sinead, McLachlan, womany more) more than i loved grunge and was excited that there was one record that went right down the gullet of the American consciousness. JLP was brash enough, catchy enough, hot enough, cool enough, special enough, accessible enough to announce "we're here" for the other female artists and made a lot of careers possible. 

 
Didn't hate it, but as a young man, pretty hard for me to identify with most of the lyrics.  

Certainly deserving of the praise it received...I don't know many women from that era that didn't love it.

 
rockaction said:
Count me among the "absolutely hated it" folk. 

Chili Peppers were heavily involved, which I find disappointing and hold against them in terms of songwriting. 

Just an annoying album with annoying vocals and terrible use of vocabulary, given that she doesn't understand the meaning of "irony," as has been pointed out a million times and then rebutted a million times. This was not the tapestry of the '90s. The tapestry of the '90s happened in hip hop and punk. This might be the pop music of the nineties, which leads me to question the pop sensibilities of the nineties. Argh.  
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The quote was comparing Jagged Little Pill to "Tapestry" a 1971 release by Carole King in terms of the impact it had on the music industry by a female solo artist.

 
northern exposure said:
The quote was comparing Jagged Little Pill to "Tapestry" a 1971 release by Carole King in terms of the impact it had on the music industry by a female solo artist.
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Ahhh, I see. That makes sense. It would explain a lot, though King was much more accomplished as a songwriter and performer.  

Thanks. 

 
She definitely made an impact. I never bought this album or any of her others, but I also wouldn’t change the station when they came on the radio. I saw her at a music festival last year, and while there were many bands there that I liked more, her set included the most songs that I had heard before.

 
I was also in the "hated it" camp at the time. I could not stand the way she sang, as it reminded me of Dave Matthews (whom I was a not of till a few years later), only in a much more offensive way.  Those falsetto jumps, or whatever you want to call that style, grated on me.  I came around to tolerating her voice and can say I like a couple of her songs now, but I would not call myself a fan. 

 
I think it’s a very good album, but probably gets more credit than it deserves.

Calling it the Tapestry of the 1990s is minimizing  Carole King IMO. I’d be willing to accept it as the Horses of the 1990s.

 
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wikkidpissah said:
JLP was brash enough, catchy enough, hot enough, cool enough, special enough, accessible enough to announce "we're here" for the other female artists and made a lot of careers possible. 
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I agree with this assessment.  When I first heard it, I thought it was pretty powerful stuff.  That effect has waned over time, but I still enjoy it.  I own it and will still play it on occasion.   I was only 3 or 4 years old when King's Tapestry came out, so I can't really speak to its impact at the time of release, but it had a hell of a run on the charts.  The songs from Tapestry have endured the test of time.  I do not see from Morissette's album following in those footsteps.    

 
Galileo said:
I agree with this assessment.  When I first heard it, I thought it was pretty powerful stuff.  That effect has waned over time, but I still enjoy it.  I own it and will still play it on occasion.   I was only 3 or 4 years old when King's Tapestry came out, so I can't really speak to its impact at the time of release, but it had a hell of a run on the charts.  The songs from Tapestry have endured the test of time.  I do not see from Morissette's album following in those footsteps.    
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I mean, how long does it take to endure the test of time?

 
Shrugs said:
I mean, how long does it take to endure the test of time?
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I agree. That album has nearly half a dozen singles that still get airplay. It has endured.

From a commercial standpoint, an apt comparison is the first Boston album. It came out of nowhere, and kept going and going and going. 

 
John Mellencamp- American Fool (1982)

Hurts So Good

Jack & Diane

Hand to Hold On To

Danger List

Can You Take It

Thundering Hearts

China Girl

Close Enough

Weakest Moments

American Fool 

Little album ‘bout Jack and Diane...sold a zillion copies, made me a fan. 

Actually this record is credited to the artist “John Cougar”, but once it made him famous, he quickly ditched the silly stage name. Mellencamp had gotten some radio play with a couple of pretty good songs before this album: “I Need a Lover” and “Ain’t Even Done With the Night”, but American Fool and especially the first 3 songs made him a legend and he never looked back. The music is pretty good too. 

 
I put Cougar in the camp of OK for greatest hits, but that's about it.

I do think that "Hand To Hold On To" was a good song as a follow up to the played out "Hurts So Good" and "Jack and Diane".

ETA: had to look up "China Girl" as I've never heard it. Not the Iggy Pop/David Bowie tune, as I suspected.

 
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Cougar Mellancamp is a greatest hits guy for me as well, although I did like Mr. Happy Go Lucky from 1996; that had some cool deep cuts. 

Of the songs I will turn on by him, none are from American Fool.  

 
My friends used to regale every cover band that ever played a bar with requests for "Jack and Diane." Kind of a funny in-joke, even if people always looked at us with bewilderment and amusement. Or annoyance. Take your pick. 

And I'd like to echo that he's really a greatest hits guy for me also.  

 
Good calls on JCM beign a Greatest Hits guy -- doesn't take away from his skills, his impact, his unique voice and songwriting skills -- just a wide variance in both his songs' success as well as their quality (IMHO) -- ranging from forever iconic to instantly forgettable.

American Fool brought us JCM's most iconic song which stands the test of time and holds the entire album up. 

I think Uh-Huh is actually more well-rounded and has a slightly greater number of recognizable/commercial hits and is thus arguably a better album overall.

"Crumblin' Down"

"Pink Houses"

"Authority Song"

"Warmer Place to Sleep"

"Jackie O"

"Play Guitar"

"Serious Business" 

"Lovin' Mother Fo Ya"

"Golden Gates" 

 
Paul McCartney & Wings- Band On the Run (1973) 

Band On the Run

Jet

Bluebird 

Mrs. Vanderbilt

Let Me Roll It

Manumia 

No Words

Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me)

Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five

With Krista towards the end of her countdown, I thought it might be fun to a review a few more post Beatles efforts besides All Things Must Pass, which we already covered. 

So let’s start with this one which is pretty clearly Paul’s best effort as a solo artist (“Wings” was essentially a changing group of side musicians, including his wife Linda and the Moody Blues’ Kenny Laine). Recorded in Nigeria, it’s not exactly a theme album but a great collection of songs, including the classic title song, “Jet”, and “Let Me Roll It”. “Bluebird” is typical McCartney: nice relaxing jazz melody and the sappiest lyrics imaginable. Actually there’s not a dark moment on the entire record; even Picasso’s death is treated with cheery aplomb. But the music is magical. 

 
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I always thought this album was pretty inconsistent, but the title track is great, Let Me Roll It is good fun, and Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five is a top 5 post-Beatles McCartney song in my book. 

 
Great Album. My favorite tune on the album is Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five. Bit of a new-wave vibe a few years early.

 
I have been following along in the thread, but are we allowed to make suggestions? I would like to see Sweet - Desolation Boulevard, The Kinks - Low Budget and Bob Seger - Stranger In Town discussed.

How about The Pixies - Surfer Rosa or Doolittle? The Replacements - Tim or Don't Tell A Soul?

 
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