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Songs from a Room by Leonard Cohen (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Songs from a Room
  • Artist name: Leonard Cohen
  • Year: 1969
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Columbia Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: probably my mother
  • Buy it on Amazon: $48.00

Songs from a Room by Leonard Cohen

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I have heard of this record before, but I don’t know if I’ve ever listened to it. It’s the third Leonard Cohen record that I’ll have reviewed, and the previous two were:

What I expected

Mopey folk rock.

What it was actually like

I wanted to like this, but I found most of the songs depressing, which was annoying to me because I’m not in the mood to be depressed. They were also mostly extremely similar, and there was not a whole lot to them – largely just vocals and guitar, quite bare and lonesome.

Speaking of lonesome, A Bunch of Lonesome Heroes sounded like it might have included a didgeridoo, and possibly also a kazoo.

The two final songs on the second side, Lady Midnight and Tonight Will Be Fine, used the same instrumentation and vocal style, but were both relatively more upbeat than the rest, so I considered them to have been my favorites. The latter even included some whistling that made it sound happy.

Grade

2/5: weak, but I was able to listen to the whole thing

Yankee Doodle Mickey (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Yankee Doodle Mickey
  • Artist name: Various, including Molly Ringwald, Larry Groce and Paul Worley
  • Year: 1980
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Disneyland Records / Walt Disney Productions
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: I did not own this, but in the early 1980s, my parents and grandparents played it for me.
  • Buy it on Amazon: $25.46

Yankee Doodle Mickey

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

As I mentioned when reviewing Stars and Stripes Forever!, my grandparents were extremely enthusiastic about patriotic music. I remember them playing many of these songs on car rides, and singing along to them (and also just singing the songs without any need for musical accompaniment). I don’t have any memory of listening to this record specifically, but I must have heard it many times, perhaps hundreds or even thousands. Besides that, I do know many of the songs.

What I expected

Patriotic songs performed by Disney characters – Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy – along with an outfit calling itself “The Disneyland Children’s Sing-Along Chorus,” another group called the “Disneyland Glee Club,” two singers named Larry Groce and Paul Worley, and (who else?) Molly Ringwald (?).

What it was actually like

Molly Ringwald stole the show on this record (though if I’m being completely honest, there was not all that much of a show to steal). I would not normally think of her as a singer, but her Wikipedia page even credits her for participating in this project, which she would have done around age 12:

In 1980, Ringwald performed as a lead vocalist on two Disney albums. On the patriotic album Yankee Doodle Mickey, Ringwald sang “This Is My Country”, “The Star-Spangled Banner”, and “God Bless America”.

As I listened to God Bless America, it occurred to me that it must have been my grandmother’s favorite song in the world, but then when I got to This Land Is Your Land, I immediately knew that it was her other favorite.

I was also shocked at how many verses there actually were in America (ie, My Country ‘Tis of Thee).

America, The Beautiful was the only one of these songs that I strongly disliked, as it was in more of a choral style, but overall, I did feel weird and a tiny bit creepy listening to this as a 42 year old man.

And despite recognizing all of the songs as songs, there was no moment at all while listening that I could conjure up any memory of ever having heard them performed by these Disney characters. It was kind of like when I was 16 and started getting into ska music and I loved the Rico and Freetown version of Take Five (but not so much the Specials’ version), and my father heard me listening to it and said, “Well yeah, this is a Dave Brubeck song. I used to play it all the time.” There was nothing at all in my conscious memory of ever having heard Brubeck’s otherworldly original Take Five, but I’m sure that it must have been ingrained in my subconscious memory.

Similarly, I’ve been a big Lonnie Donegan fan for around 15 years, as I may have mentioned once or twice, and I’ve listened to his cover of The Battle of New Orleans hundreds of times, but if someone had asked me in 2008 if I had ever heard it before then, I would have said that I certainly had not. But here it was on Yankee Doodle Mickey, performed by Paul Worley with “Donald” and “Children’s Chorus.” So now I believe that I must have recognized it back then at some deep subconscious level, from having heard it many times, 40 years ago.

When I reviewed Leftover Wine by Melanie last month, I remarked:

The song Psychotherapy was … sung to the melody of Battle Hymn of the Republic (which itself is sung to the melody of John Brown’s Body), some of the creepiest and most disturbing music ever to become popular, and it immediately brought me back to that morning in March 2019 when I visited the largest electronics store in the world, Yodobashi in Akihabara, Tokyo, and realized that its theme song was sung to the very same melody (in that context, I described it as “both disorienting and highly charming”).

It really is a disturbing song.

Another weird thing: Minnie Mouse is pictured on the back of this album, but she’s not credited on any its songs, whereas Donald Duck is credited, but he doesn’t appear in the picture. Hmmm.

Grade

2/5: bad, but I was able to listen to the whole thing

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere by Neil Young with Crazy Horse (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
  • Artist name: Neil Young
  • Group name: Crazy Horse
  • Year: 1969
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Reprise Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics: each of my parents had a copy of this record. My father’s had a “G” on the upper left corner of the front of the album, and my mother’s had “Brenner” written on the inside of the album and on side one of the LP.
  • Buy it on Amazon: $20.85

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere by Neil Young with Crazy Horse

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve listened to this record at least a bunch of times, and recognize all or most of the songs on it, but I don’t remember ever hearing it when I was growing up, with the exception of Cinnamon Girl, which was played very occasionally on classic rock radio.

This is the ninth Neil Young record that I’m reviewing, and the previous eight were:

What I expected

Electric Neil Young.

What it was actually like

I think I remember now why I haven’t listened to this record as much as others by Neil Young: it has some of his best songs, but is also pretty uneven – but when it’s good, it’s so, so good.

I could probably listen to Cinnamon Girl, Down by the River and Cowgirl in the Sand a hundred times in a row on repeat. The very distorted electric guitar, and the long and virtuosic solos with the same note played over and over[1], are really powerful, all the more so in the context of much of his other work from the few years before and after, which was largely acoustic. He could be singing pure gibberish and it would make no difference, and parts reminded me of the Dead Man soundtrack.

Round & Round (It Won’t Be Long), which was more acoustic and boring, made me think that maybe it was why I haven’t listened very much – not to pick on it, though, because the rest of the songs were similar.

Grade

4/5: would listen again

References

References
↑1 How does this even work, musically?

Nashville Skyline by Bob Dylan (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Nashville Skyline
  • Artist name: Bob Dylan
  • Year: 1969
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Columbia Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: my father
  • Buy it on Amazon: $25.02

Nashville Skyline by Bob Dylan

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

As with John Wesley Harding, I’ve only listened to this record a handful of times in my life, because it wasn’t played a lot for me when I was growing up and because I mostly prefer Dylan’s earlier work. I know many of the songs on it, though. It will be the fifth of Dylan’s records that I’m reviewing, and the previous four were:

What I expected

It’s called Nashville Skyline because it’s a country record.

What it was actually like

The first thing I noticed about this record was that Dylan’s voice was very different in it: smoother, deeper, probably noticeably superior to people who are qualified to assess other people’s singing voices, but also far less distinctive. The second thing I noticed was that it had way less harmonica than John Wesley Harding had. I liked it.

I did not like this version of Girl From the North Country, though, and in fact I would say that I probably could not have hated it more. When reviewing The Freewheelin’, I wrote:

My favorite (at least for today) is Girl From the North Country. Every time I hear it, I think of Scarborough Fair…

Dylan’s original version of this song is really one of his most sublimely beautiful compositions and wonderful recordings, so evocative and so simple. This version, a duet with Johnny Cash, really trampled over my love for the original, though I do think it would be wonderful to have heard a Johnny Cash (solo) cover of it, and it reminded me of Eric Clapton’s horrific cover of Layla, inconveniently also named Layla. Interestingly, there do not seem to have been many great covers of Girl From the North Country, but this one is solid.

I Threw It All Away, Tell Me That It Isn’t True and Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You were all passable, but not very interesting, and they sounded like filler to me.

I really loved Nashville Skyline Rag, a non-bluegrass instrumental with a bluegrass style: wonderful pace, excellent steel guitar and harmonica.

One More Night was another favorite, with a great country sound and a bit Oompa Loompa, and Peggy Day was similarly Oompa Loompa and good, sounding at parts more like traditional country than “Nashville” style country of the 1960s.

To Be Alone with You was another solid country song with honky tonk piano that I thought was fine, and Country Pie was the record’s most cosmic American song. I thought it was danceable and had excellent guitar, but why did it end so suddenly?

When reviewing Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 2, I wrote:

Lay Lady Lay is another favorite that I almost never remember because it’s on “Nashville Skyline,” and therefore not in my regular routine.

My impression has been that this was one one of his most popular songs from this era, and hearing it now has made me want to listen to Nashville Skyline more frequently.

Grade

4/5: would listen again

At Fillmore East by the Allman Brothers Band (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: At Fillmore East
  • Group name: the Allman Brothers Band
  • Year: 1971
  • Number of discs: two
  • Label: Capricorn Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics: “G” written inside album cover, indicating that my father owned it
  • Buy it on Amazon: $43.89

At Fillmore East by the Allman Brothers Band

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I may have listened to this at some point, or to some later version of it, but I don’t remember specifically when that would have been. It will be the fourth Allman Brothers record that I’ve reviewed, and the previous three were:

What I expected

Blues, country, rock.

What it was actually like

This was entirely jam music, which was not difficult to figure out because it consisted of only seven songs across four sides, and jam music really is not my favorite. It also contained none of my favorite Allman Brothers songs. Despite that, I thought it was really good.

Side one was all electric blues classics with guitar solos. Statesboro Blues was intense enough to make me feel like I was eating in a barbecue restaurant, and Done Somebody Wrong was more danceable, but I did not like the slower and less fun Stormy Monday as much as the other two.

Side two was another cover, You Don’t Love Me, a great jam with excellent guitars and organ.

Side three was much more jazz, with two instrumental jams, Hot ‘Lanta and In Memory of Elizabeth Reed. I thought the latter was the best song on the record, with guitars that made me think at times of Santana.

Side four was Whipping Post, which was pretty good when it maintained its fast tempo, but not when it slowed down.

Grade

4/5: would listen again