Category: Episodes

610. Dusty Springfield

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(November 2024) Episode 610 is DUSTY SPRINGFIELD. With her beehive hair and thick eyeliner, she was the quintessential 60s pop diva, perfecting a UK version of the girl ground sound. Most distinctive and special was her voice, soulful and close to the edge of husky, helping create the style called blue-eyed soul. Those who portrayed Adele as a new-generation Dusty were not wrong. This talent is best expressed through her most popular (and excellent) song, “Son of a Preacher Man,” originally written for Aretha Franklin. She recorded sporadically after her 60s peak but none of it is memorable.

Favourite album: Stay Awhile/I Only Want To Be With You

Favourite song: Son of a Preacher Man

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: A collection of her 60s hits will be nice.

609. The Fifth Dimension

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(October 2024) Episode 609 is THE FIFTH DIMENSION. I knew them from “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” but not much else. From their origin (Los Angeles) and sound it’s proper to call them a sunshine pop band. Their early albums rely heavily on Jimmy Webb (composer of the greatest song of all time). With a flower power vibe (as evidenced by their most famous song), it’s very evocative of the late 60s. Rich harmonies are their key feature. But there’s a fine line between sunshine pop and easy listening/soft adult contemporary which is where the recordings end up in the 1970s, to little distinction.

Favorite album: The Magic Garden

Favorite song: Carpet Man

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: The first four albums (1967-69) offer a groovy 60s sound.

608. Sergio Mendes

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Episode 608 is SERGIO MENDES, begun after his recent passing. Mendes did much to popularize the Brazilian sound around the world, especially in the United States. He wasn’t a pioneer in the same way as Jobim (whom he considered a mentor) and Gilberto were. But with “Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66” he hit upon a magic formula with two female singers over bossa nova players. I love this music as so evocative of a certain 1960s scene. It’s digestible and acceptable easy-listening. Mendes covered a lot of rock/pop songs in the bossa nova style, which works for a while until it doesn’t. Frankly, much of his output from the mid-1970s on is trying to fit into music trends, from disco to hip hop, or just going straight pop, like the adult contemporary hit “Never Gonna Let You Go.” An exception would be the 1992 album Brasileiro and its return to Brazilian rhythms.  

Favorite album: Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66

Favorite song: Mas Que Nada

Favorite later album: Brasileiro

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: The early 60s albums if you like it more jazzy, or the late 60s Brasil ’66 recordings for his classic sound. The rest you need not explore.

607. Bathory

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Episode 607 is BATHORY. A pioneer of Scandinavian black metal and Viking metal, this Swedish outfit’s first four albums laid the groundwork for these genres. However, the recording quality was poor, and it’s like listening to them through several thick curtains. But I sense that this audio inscrutability, combined with the frontman’s anonymity and the Satan-heavy lyrics, succeeded in giving the band the appeal of mystery. The quality did improve, and they moved into a thrash phase before coming back to Viking. I do like understanding bands cited as influences by others. But as a listening experience, I found it wanting.

Favorite album: Blood Fire Death

Favorite song: A Fine Day to Die

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: Blood Fire Death is the best of their “black” era, but you can also seek out Requiem which has some good thrash

606. Suede and Elastica

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(October 2024) Episode 606 is SUEDE (sometimes known in the U.S. as LONDON SUEDE) and ELASTICA. Suede is listed among the “Big Four” of Britpop, and are credited with being the first, but I never knew them. And I learned there’s a reason for that; they took their sound in a different direction and lacked the hooks, snarl, melodicism or cheekiness of Oasis, Blur and Pulp. I find Brett Anderson’s singing pretentious and their music boring. But the real reason I did this episode was to have an excuse to review Elastica (not enough albums to qualify on their own). The connection* is that Justine Frischmann was Suede’s first guitarist. I love “Connection” (hand claps!) and the rest of their stuff is hooky and catchy.

* You see what I did there.

Favourite Suede album: Suede

Favourite Elastica album: Elastica

Favourite Suede song: We Are the Pigs

Favourite Elastica song: Connection

Compared to expectations: Suede ↓, Elastica same

Recommendation: Skip Suede, listen to Elastica’s first album

605. Lesley Gore

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(October 2024) Episode 605 of the “opus project” is LESLEY GORE. A girl group sound in the girl group era even though she only performed solo. She had a number of popular hits in the mid-60s like the classic “It’s My Party,” the proto-feminist “You Don’t Own Me,” and the saccharine yet endearing “Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows,” which to me was immortalized in a Simpsons scene. Her fame tapered off, and her occasional recordings after the early 1970s were heavy on covers and re-recordings, although she did compose some songs for movies. But I still like those 60s hits.

Favorite album: Sings of Mixed-Up Hearts

Favorite song: You Don’t Own Me

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: A hits compilation will suffice.

604. Charles Mingus

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(September 2024) Episode 604 is CHARLES MINGUS. I feel sheepish in my jazz artist write-ups because I have such a weak foundation in the genre. Thus my reviews are mostly experiential and ill-informed by history or context. I really liked listening to Charles Mingus. There’s a wide range here from bebop to post-bop, avant-garde and big band. He is known as an iconoclast and that comes through, especially in the group improvisation dynamic which treads into the land of free jazz that I like. Centering most things (he played piano too) is Mingus’ phenomenal bass playing.

Favorite album: Pithecanthropus Erectus

Favorite song: Hobo Ho

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: I checked off the albums I liked as I went, and they turned out to be what critics rate highly, so I felt I was on the right track.  They are Pithecanthropus Erectus, Tijuana Moods, Mingus Ah Um, and Let the Children Hear Music.

603. Taj Mahal

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Episode 603 is TAJ MAHAL. You can label him a blues artist but that’s rather inadequate. That’s where his music is grounded, but he has spread widely over a 55+ year recording career, fusing with or featuring calypso, reggae, trad jazz, Great American Songbook, etc. His early recordings are a throwback to a simpler country blues style, and it’s interesting to note that his first albums came out in 1968, the year that famous rock bands pivoted back to basics (Taj Mahal hung out with the Rolling Stones). He played in fingerpick style, so the recordings in that mode, mostly early on but he returned to them, are my favorite.

Favorite album: Giant Step/De Ole Folks at Home

Favorite song: Leaving Trunk

Favorite album (later): Labor of Love

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: There’s so much diversity it’s hard to direct someone. But I think any of the first five albums (1968-72) are fine country blues offerings.

602. Harry Nilsson

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(September 2024) Episode 602 is HARRY NILSSON. He is an enigma. An immeasurably talented songwriter for whom many of his best-known recordings are covers. Fame despite rarely touring. A Beatle buddy. Having two rock stars die in his apartment. His first albums are first-rate baroque pop (no wonder Paul and John sought him out) but his style (and signing voice) shifted back and forth over the years, from Great American Songbook to childrens, soft rock, Caribbean, piano troubadour and back. “Jump into the Fire” was his only true rocker (he never did anything else like it) but its baseline* is as indelible as that scene in Goodfellas that it helped make famous. Most of all it is his amazing songwriting skills I would keep coming back to.

Favorite album: Nilsson Schmilsson

Favorite song (original): Jump into the Fire

Favorite song (cover): Without You**

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: There’s a lot here depending on your taste. Nilsson Schmilsson is his most well-rounded. The early Pandemonium Shadow Show and Aerial Ballet are peak baroque pop. Some may prefer the troubadour stuff on Nilsson Sings Newman and Little Touch but not me.

* RIP Herbie Flowers

** by Pete Ham and Tony Evans of the perennially underrated Badfinger

601. Agent Orange

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(September 2024) Episode 601 is AGENT ORANGE. They are written up as pioneers of surf-punk so I thought they’d be what The Cramps are to rockabilly-punk. And my college roommate had a big poster of them on his dorm wall. Both these things made me expect something more than I found. The surf thing seems limited to (decent) covers of “Pipeline” and “Miserlou,” and beyond first two EPs the rest bored me. Mushy pop-punk, like the Blink 182 of the 1980s, but with even less kick.

Favorite album: Living in Darkness

Favorite song: Bloodstains

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: The Bloodstains and Bitchin’ Summer