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Pick a Pair/Half Decade Album Draft - Bonus Rounds Thu & Fri - Pick three if you want (2 Viewers)

I'm going to use my All Things Must Pass write-up and crib wikkid's work for the third time.  I have received his approval for all my postings of this, but I think he encapsulated the album perfectly way back in my first Beatles countdown thread.  Here's my prior post:

C’mon.  I can’t imagine I have anything to say about this record you guys don’t already know.

OK, here’s one:  did you know that when George put together the remastered 30th anniversary reissue, he colorized the cover art and on the inner sleeves included various items such as highways and nuclear towers to indicate his concern over the encroachment of the urban jungle?  He called it “a little dig at the way our planet has gone in the last 30 years – it’s just turning into a big concrete block.”

Oh, you knew that?  Well, did you know that All Things Must Pass was actually George’s third solo studio album?  His first, Wonderwall Music (1968), was a collection of Indian-influenced instrumentals, many of them under two minutes long.  His second, Electronic Sound (1969), consisted of two experimental tracks played on a Moog, with one being 18+ minutes long and the other 26+.  The experimental record isn’t something I could get into, but if you like that type of music, check it out.  I do enjoy several tracks on Wonderwall, though didn’t put any on my list.  “Love Scene” is my favorite.

Oh, you knew about those albums, too?  How about the fact that Phil Collins was brought in to play congas on one song for All Things Must Pass, which he did until his hands practically bled, but his version of the song didn’t make the record?  I find this story hilarious.

Well, that’s all I’ve got.  Instead of posting a bunch more garbage, I want to post the thoughts from someone we all respect and admire, who spoke of this album in my prior Beatles thread:

“I've heard ATMP a thousand times but have listened to it maybe thrice. As someone who always hated bliss, i usually gave it short shrift. During my runaway years, i encountered dozens of alternative communities filled w Blissies and all this city boy could think of was "we've spent 200 years fighting our way out of the yolks of altar & throne........for THIS?! Just trade it all in for yet another myth?!" And, unfortunately, Harrison was the unofficial captain of the "oh....yeah.....cool......peace" movement, so i gave his music much less attention & respect than it deserved. My loss.

I check out that side one more time and i hear everything i want to hear from a side - invention, melody, humor, wisdom and, most important, the ability to hold my sway for a while. That's one thing artists seldom understand any longer, the responsibility of being better than other people being to make other people better. The power to make them offer to put themselves in the palm of your hand that they may be comforted, enlightened, inspired, relieved of life's awful burdens for a short time and given a view from above it all.

He warned us. George Harrison was a product of what he saw, not what he knew, as most great artists are in their approach to their work. And, relieved of the onus of great inner fire, he was able to say, quite early on in counterculture terms, "It's all bull####, don't you know. Find peace in your heart and you will see that it's so. I don't have to be complicated and neither do you. Here are some songs about complicated people and how silly is all they do."

Beware of Maya. Beware of illusions which become delusions. Open your heart before you open your mind and it will go oh so much more easily. And now, almost 50 years on, almost everything is Maya. My gen did indeed cast the bliss aside and what for? Identity & individuality, liberty & license, consumption & concupiscence. Now all we look for is peace, take pills for peace, be mindful for peace. ####ed out, tensed up, pissed off, shut down are we. Oh....yeah.....cool......peace. Sounds pretty good all of a sudden. All things must pass.”

 
As you could probably have guessed, I would have paired ATMP with Cloud Nine, but Brainwashed is great too. 


Yes, that was the one I figured you had in mind.  I think that, other than Living in the Material World, which didn't qualify, it's generally considered his next best.

 
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I'm going to use my All Things Must Pass write-up and crib wikkid's work for the third time.  I have received his approval for all my postings of this, but I think he encapsulated the album perfectly way back in my first Beatles countdown thread.  Here's my prior post:
 I was gonna say "this sounds familiar" but you posted that you posted it in your first write-up.

See? Somebody reads this stuff!

 
4.23

Daft Punk - Homework (1997)

Da Funk

Phoenix

Around The World

Daft Punk – Random Access Memories (2013)

Giorgio by Moroder

Get Lucky

Contact

Sometimes it's less important to be heard and be known through words, logic, and ideas (I see you, Mr. Today!) and instead express one's self as innovative, creative, and intuit emotions through just ambient sounds and noises. Well-intentioned lyrical stylings can bring circumspection, criticism, or co-option. Worldviews can be questioned despite positive intent. When all else fails, moods and music can come to the fore and find a refuge in the non-lyrical, the purity of movement and feeling. There are musical categories and entire ways of being that specialize in this sort of thing. One of those is house/dance and the culture which it engenders. To be one with dance, in the moment -- to forget one’s connection to logic and reason for a moment -- is a thing to behold, and it’s the rare album that allows one the pure and sensational feeling of forgetting.

These two albums do just that. Daft Punk's Guy-Manuel De Homem Christo and Thomas Bangalter, or as we best know them, the Daft Punk robots, were at the forefront of dance in the nineties and beyond. On the vanguard of all things remotely popular in dance as a subgenre, yet such a pop institution that they wrapped up Grammy awards for their pop performances, Daft Punk managed to be a silent generation's love missive, one wrapped less in talking and more in doing. Their career, in my estimation, is underappreciated, as I believe most dance music is underappreciated by critics. The difficult task of making people move while being challenging and pleasing to the ear is something that is seemingly denied by our brooding thinkers and cultural critics. But the music lives on in hearts, and Daft Punk’s reach and scope, while played off as a nod to our nature’s robotic machinations by the duo, is undeniable and heartfelt -- almost everybody with an eye towards pop culture knows of (and loves) the robots, and will dance to them. If I ever get married, I'm making sure the DJ plays at least one Daft Punk song. For me, they commemorate every dance occasion. They can even commemorate noontime on a Wednesday. I’m listening to Alive 2007 and getting the chills.

I chose the two albums simply because Homework was my introduction to Daft Punk. “Da Funk,” “Phoenix,” and “Around The World” are the standouts here, and broke Daft Punk into the subculture’s consciousness, while Random Access Memories, which is quite possibly a touch uneven to me, has unparalleled highs and allowed them to breakthrough to the mainstream of almost everybody’s popular consciousness. The unparalleled highs I speak of are “Giorgio by Moroder,” with Giorgio Moroder giving a spoken word biography/intro, and “Doin’ It Right,” with Panda Bear of Animal Collective fame, as well as "Contact," their closer and their final song ever recorded as solely a duo. The popular consciousness I speak of is the Grammy-winning “Get Lucky,” with Pharrell Williams.

We’re up all night to get lucky
We’re up all night to get lucky


There are two other proper releases and a score that are just as worthy as these two albums, indeed, I almost went with one other, as I feel it to be emblematic of their ascension into complete cultural touchstones, but in making the choice I made, I made sure to leave more Daft on the table if anybody wants it. Peace and dance!

 
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Song selections for All Things Must Pass:

Beware of DarknessMy #1 solo song from any of the Beatles.  A snippet of what I said before:  "Every time that vocal starts, I’m breathless until the song ends.  I’m not going to try to tie it to anything – this little vocal trill here, this guitar pattern there.  It’s simply the only song that, when it comes up in the mix, I stop anything I’m doing and listen every time.  And every time I’m fascinated by it and can’t quite understand it.  I’m going to keep trying.  In the meantime, there’s no song I’d rather hear."  I'm linking the take 1, stripped down version, which is my preferred one.  

Isn't It A PityMy #6 George solo song; I figured I'd pair the "naked" Beware of Darkness with something grand and fully Spectorized.  Here's what I had to say before:  

"There’s a bit of disagreement over how many times, but this song was undoubtedly rejected by the Beatles more than once before their breakup.  Some have said it was presented as early as the Revolver sessions (when supposedly George intended to offer it to Frank Sinatra after it was rebuffed), while others have said it first arrived during Sgt. Pepper’s or Let It Be.  The rejection during the Let It Be sessions is well documented and impossibly sad, when George plays it and says, “It can be any speed you want, really,” while the others generally ignore him.  I think we can all agree that John and Paul were insane to reject it whenever it was, right?  The lyrics are among George’s best, simultaneously grieving the loss of friendship while heralding the beauty and love of mankind in general.  While he is mourning a universal experience, George doesn’t couch this in any third-person mask – this is George grieving, deeply and openly, but bringing the listener in to the shared experience by use of “we” instead of “I.”  His rueful vocal is hypnotic and gives the sense of genuine loss and sorrow.

On the music side, this is one of the more grandiose pieces on ATMP, featuring the largest slate of musicians of any song on the record, but somehow it never sounds overdone to me.  The strings provide a compelling counterpoint to the guitar part, rising as it falls, just as the chorus and the harmonies counterbalance each other as well, lifting in joy while anchoring in sorrow.  All of this interplay makes each of the layered bits of instrumentation seem necessary to the story and deliberate in their placement, building slowly and by design to the grandeur of the song’s culmination.  Both lyrically and musically, the argument could be made that this song forms the heart and soul of the album – full, rich, and majestic, with a simple plea at its base yet grand in its hopes and vision."

 
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Yes, that was the one I figured you had in mind.  I think that, other than Living in the Material World, which didn't qualify, it's generally considered his next best.
Yep. And as we discussed, I had a "cultural moment" when Cloud Nine came out and you didn't, because you weren't into the Beatles yet. 

 
My prior write-up of Brainwashed:

"Brainwashed was released a year after George’s 2001 death, having been completed by Jeff Lynne and Dhani based on specific instructions left by George for its completion.  George’s first solo studio album in 15 years was warmly received by critics and the public alike, reaching #18 on the US charts and being nominated for three Grammy awards (and winning one).  One critic deemed it the best album by a Beatle since Paul’s Flowers In The Dirt in 1989.

As I mentioned in prior write-ups, the writing and recording of these songs reached back many years, with some beginning as early as 1988, but when George found that his condition was terminal, he sped up his work on this album.  In addition to completing as much as he personally could, he left Lynne and Dhani a guide to everything he planned for the recordings should he not complete them, including a timetable of recordings and all the sessions that were booked, how he wanted each of the instruments to be employed and sound, and even instructions on the album artwork and packaging.  Lynne and Dhani kept to the timetable already planned by George and followed the instructions closely.  Lynne said, “His life was in those final songs. … We gradually just filled them in. It was just about mixing them and making them sound like George would like them. You just had to go with your gut feeling." 

George’s meticulous work in cataloging what he wanted, and the equally meticulous work of Lynne and Dhani to realize George’s vision, shine through on this album.  These songs not only sound full and complete, but they sound like the songs you’d expect had George completed them, eschewing some of Lynne’s tendency toward grand production in favor of a more subtle style.  The only primary musicians on this record are George, Dhani, Lynne, and…sigh…Jim Keltner.  Reflecting the long period over which they were written and recorded, the songs on this record vary broadly in style and in lyrical content, balancing the light and humorous with the more serious and profound, but they still sound cohesive in their warmth and focus.  The result is my second favorite George album, with seven of the 12 songs making my countdown.  If only John and Yoko had been able to follow the same path for Milk and Honey…but John had the “disadvantage” of not knowing his time was going to be cut short.

I don't know the story behind the cover art on this one, nor do I like it much.  I assume some reference to TV, etc. brainwashing the masses."

 
1986 - I was in 6th grade. My best friend Steven and I had gotten knee deep into Columbia House and BMG CD music clubs. We were getting CDs shipped to neighbors houses and keeping an eye out and snagging the boxes before the old ladies knew.

Anyway - he got me way into all sorts of different music. Up until I met him, I was listening to pretty generic stuff, or perhaps not even into music - hard to remember.

Steven and his parents took me to my first ever concert at the Wang Theater in Boston. We went and saw Depeche Mode and it was awesome andI have been a huge fan of theirs until this day

In 7th and 8th grade the rumors of Steven being gay started surfacing. We spent a lot of time together listening to music, and unfortunately, peer pressure got the best of me and I stopped hanging out with him. I have always felt bad about that. All through high school we remained friendly, but he got #### on for being gay and dweeby and odd by all the meathead jocks in our school. I never joined in the mockery, but I also never stood up for him. We lost touch over the years, but with some internet sleuthing I found out that he is living in northern CA, is jacked and a very good looking dude, and is a doctor. So good for you friend. And thanks for the music.

4.24 Depeche Mode

Violator (1990) 

Enjoy the Silence

Personal Jesus

Music for the Masses (1987)

Never Let Me Down Again

Strangelove

 
Brainwashed song selections:

Any Road - My #13 George song could be mistaken for a Traveling Wilburys song.  It’s like a redo of “Heading For the Light” with more wisdom and sparkling guitars.  Delightful.

Pisces Fish - My #11 George song and favorite from this album.

In a record full of beautifully introspective lyrics and gorgeous melodies, this is my favorite as George paints impressionistic scenes of the world around him and ties them to his spiritual journey as he nears the end of his life.  Sure, the lyric about geese crapping might slightly detract from the bucolic scene, but I think George, as he describes himself as a “pisces fish” with two sides to his personality, is also portraying a realistic view of the world as also having both good and bad to it.

The sole line of the chorus, “I’m a Pisces fish and the river runs through my soul,” roots the song not only the notion of the dual aspects of George’s personality but in the feel of water flowing as George travels along the river of life and spiritual awakening.  This sense of water running down is enhanced by the tumbling of the notes of this line down a full octave from beginning to end.  Throughout this song, I feel the water flowing down the mountain into the river, down the river into the sea.  Altogether it’s a serene, intimate portrayal of George’s life journey.

Rowers gliding on the river
Canadian geese crap along the bank
Back wheel of my bike begins to quiver
The chain is wrapped around the crank
Old ladies, who must be doggie training
Walking, throwing balls, chasing all the sheep
While the farmer stands around and he's complaining
His mad cows are being put to sleep

I'm a Pisces fish and the river runs through my soul

Smoke signals from the brewery
Like someone in there found the latest Pope
In a vat of beer that keeps pumping out with fury
While the church bell ringer's tangled in his rope
But there's a temple on an island
I think of all the Gods and what they feel
You can only find them in the deepest silence
I've got to get off of this big wheel

I'm a Pisces fish and the river runs through my soul

And I'll be swimming until I can find those waters
That's the one unbounded ocean of bliss
That's flowing through your parents, sons and daughters
But still an easy thing for us to miss

Blades go skimming through the water
I hear the coxswain shouting his instructions about
With this crew oh, it could be a tall order
Have we time to sort all these things out?
Sometimes my life it feels like fiction
Some of the days it's really quite serene
I'm a living proof of all life's contradictions
One half's going where the other half's just been

I'm a Pisces fish and the river runs through my soul


&

 
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I'll probably be out of pocket for much of tonight and tomorrow, so if it makes it back to me, skip me at the turn and I'll make them up. 

 
4.23

Daft Punk - Homework (1997)

Da Funk

Phoenix

Around The World

Daft Punk – Random Access Memories (2013)

Giorgio by Moroder

Get Lucky

Contact

Sometimes it's less important to be heard and be known through words, logic, and ideas (I see you, Mr. Today!) and instead express one's self as innovative, creative, and intuit emotions through just ambient sounds and noises. Well-intentioned lyrical stylings can bring circumspection, criticism, or co-option. Worldviews can be questioned despite positive intent. When all else fails, moods and music can come to the fore and find a refuge in the non-lyrical, the purity of movement and feeling. There are musical categories and entire ways of being that specialize in this sort of thing. One of those is house/dance and the culture which it engenders. To be one with dance, in the moment -- to forget one’s connection to logic and reason for a moment -- is a thing to behold, and it’s the rare album that allows one the pure and sensational feeling of forgetting.

These two albums do just that. Daft Punk's Guy-Manuel De Homem Christo and Thomas Bangalter, or as we best know them, the Daft Punk robots, were at the forefront of dance in the nineties and beyond. On the vanguard of all things remotely popular in dance as a subgenre, yet such a pop institution that they wrapped up Grammy awards for their pop performances, Daft Punk managed to be a silent generation's love missive, one wrapped less in talking and more in doing. Their career, in my estimation, is underappreciated, as I believe most dance music is underappreciated by critics. The difficult task of making people move while being challenging and pleasing to the ear is something that is seemingly denied by our brooding thinkers and cultural critics. But the music lives on in hearts, and Daft Punk’s reach and scope, while played off as a nod to our nature’s robotic machinations by the duo, is undeniable and heartfelt -- almost everybody with an eye towards pop culture knows of (and loves) the robots, and will dance to them. If I ever get married, I'm making sure the DJ plays at least one Daft Punk song. For me, they commemorate every dance occasion. They can even commemorate noontime on a Wednesday. I’m listening to Alive 2007 and getting the chills.

I chose the two albums simply because Homework was my introduction to Daft Punk. “Da Funk,” “Phoenix,” and “Around The World” are the standouts here, and broke Daft Punk into the subculture’s consciousness, while Random Access Memories, which is quite possibly a touch uneven to me, has unparalleled highs and allowed them to breakthrough to the mainstream of almost everybody’s popular consciousness. The unparalleled highs I speak of are “Giorgio by Moroder” with Giorgio Moroder giving a spoken word biography/intro and “Doin’ It Right” with Panda Bear of Animal Collective fame as well as "Contact," their closer and their final song ever recorded as solely a duo. The popular consciousness I speak of is the Grammy-winning “Get Lucky,” with Pharrell Williams.

We’re up all night to get lucky
We’re up all night to get lucky


There are two other proper releases and a score that are just as worthy as these two albums, indeed, I almost went with one other, as I feel it to be emblematic of their ascension into complete cultural touchstones, but in making the choice I made, I made sure to leave more Daft on the table if anybody wants it. Peace and dance!
@#$&%$$!!

Nice picks again.

 
@rockaction tremendous picks with Daft Punk. They were on my radar but I’m glad you got them 
Yes, loved the picks, loved the write-up... and he left my favorite DP album on the table. I like how a couple edm choices fill in my 1/2s puzzle, but I doubt I'll get to them. Nice to see rock go there. Thanks rock. I found my vape. I think I'll give it and your picks a go while I clean house dancing. :)

 
@rockaction tremendous picks with Daft Punk. They were on my radar but I’m glad you got them 
Thanks, man. I couldn't resist and was really hoping that you, Tasker, and PIK, and Chaos left them on the table this time around. I don't know why I singled you guys out, but...

@#$&%$$!!

Nice picks again.


Yes, loved the picks, loved the write-up... and he left my favorite DP album on the table. I like how a couple edm choices fill in my 1/2s puzzle, but I doubt I'll get to them. Nice to see rock go there. Thanks rock. I found my vape. I think I'll give it and your picks a go while I clean house dancing. :)
...this sort of lets me know that I wasn't mistaken.

I'd ask what your favorite DP album is, CC, and it's actually probably mine, but it is still indeed out there. I had absolutely no problem picking the group, but the most difficult time picking the album.

Thanks for the compliments, by the way, I've got interesting stuff coming on the turn, I hope.

 
4.2: Chicago

Chicago Transit Authority (1969)

Chicago II (1970)


For my (re)discovery project, I listened to Chicago Transit Authority on my noontime walk with Lou. I've heard the hits hundreds of times but I don't recall ever listening to the album in its entirety.

It was a lot more rockin' than I expected from the band.  The guitar player has some serious chops and I really liked the organic sound with brass, organ and percussion (COWBELL) instead of synths. I never cared for the singer and the hippy dippy lyrics haven't aged.  But overall it was an enjoyable listen.

 
For my (re)discovery project, I listened to Chicago Transit Authority on my noontime walk with Lou. I've heard the hits hundreds of times but I don't recall ever listening to the album in its entirety.

It was a lot more rockin' than I expected from the band.  The guitar player has some serious chops and I really liked the organic sound with brass, organ and percussion (COWBELL) instead of synths. I never cared for the singer and the hippy dippy lyrics haven't aged.  But overall it was an enjoyable listen.
Terry Kath, founding member, moment of silence guitar player. Died in 78. :(

 
I'm at soccer games tonight.  Text me if I ever come up.  I'll try and keep up.
Hospital day for me tomorrow. BiL going home intact. He's been complaining about the food, of course. So I told him he could have anything he wanted within reach. Howlin' Rays it is. If you like your chicken spicy hot and are ever north of DT LA, it is just the best. 2 hour lines attest to that, but I'll get it delivered to us in a nearby parking lot, thank you pandemic.

 
For my (re)discovery project, I listened to Chicago Transit Authority on my noontime walk with Lou. I've heard the hits hundreds of times but I don't recall ever listening to the album in its entirety.

It was a lot more rockin' than I expected from the band.  The guitar player has some serious chops and I really liked the organic sound with brass, organ and percussion (COWBELL) instead of synths. I never cared for the singer and the hippy dippy lyrics haven't aged.  But overall it was an enjoyable listen.
so you're saying you had a Wednesday...in the park. think it was the 15th of September

eta... :bag: .   oof

 
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OH accepted a job today as a Journeyman Fishmonger.  Tell me you've ever heard a better title than that.  Coincidentally, it's also the name of my Steve Perry/Tom Waits tribute act.

 
Just got my copy of Random Access Memories, fresh off of reprint, in the email from Acoustic Sounds today. Love the sound, love the packaging. Just a delight. Miraculously not warped in this Inland Empire heat, though today is a temperate day.

Today is a pretty good day.

 
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Sorry just got in . Been working 5 to 7ish , the ship be sinking. Skip and if I come up during the day tomorrow, hopefully things are a bit better tomorrow 

 
First 3 concerts: 

1. Anthony Newley/Burt Bacharach at the Greek Theatre  (with my parents)- 1975

2. Neil Diamond at the Aladdin Hotel (with my parents)- 1976

3. Queen at the Forum (1980) 

 

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