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Neil Young (1968) (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Neil Young
  • Artist name: Neil Young
  • Year: 1968
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Reprise Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics: “Brenner” written on record, indicating that my mother owned it
  • Buy it on Ebay: $19.50

Neil Young (1968)

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

Though I’m a Neil Young fan, I don’t think I’ve listened to this record, his solo debut, very many times. I don’t recognize any of the songs on it by name, but I assume that a few of them will be familiar to me when I listen.

Here are the other Neil Young records that I’ve reviewed so far:

What I expected

I think this will be mostly acoustic, mostly folk rock and country rock.

What it was actually like

This record was mostly not acoustic at all, with the notable exception of The Last Trip to Tulsa, which was a rambling and somewhat pointless track that lasted almost nine and a half minutes.

Besides that one, a few of the songs were pretty boring, such as Here We Are in the Years; If I Could Have Her Tonight, which had really bad vocals that were over-produced; and The Old Laughing Lady, which had an orchestral backing that I did not like at all.

Other parts were more country than I expected, such as The Emperor of Wyoming – and also, Wyoming is the most underrated US state for physical beauty.

I did recognize one song, The Loner, which was more of an electric and psychedelic rock song than I expected, and I thought it was great. I also liked I’ve Been Waiting for You a lot, especially its guitar solo.

Grade

4/5: would listen again

Led Zeppelin’s fourth record (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: (Untitled), aka IV, aka Zoso, aka Four Symbols
  • Group name: Led Zeppelin
  • Year: 1971
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Atlantic Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics: “Brenner” written on record, indicating that my mother owned it (though I would have guessed that this was my father’s)
  • Buy it on Amazon: $23.16

Led Zeppelin's fourth record

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I did not grow up listening to Led Zeppelin, but started liking them as a teenager when I heard them on classic rock radio. I bought the CD box set of all their records in college, and have probably listened to this around 500 times.

The two previous Led Zeppelin records that I’ve reviewed were:

What I expected

Rock, blues rock, hard rock, Stairway to Heaven.

What it was actually like

I definitely would not say that I like Led Zeppelin’s fourth record as much as the first three, but it’s still a classic, and Rock and Roll is one of my favorite songs of all time (and one of my top two favorite Led Zeppelin songs, along with Kashmir).

On this listen, I was particularly impressed with the percussion throughout the record, and the droning effect on When the Levee Breaks.

I could listen to this every day and be very satisfied, but if I had to pick a least favorite song, it would be Misty Mountain Hop.

Also, I think Stairway to Heaven is a great song, but even after thirty years, I still am not able to listen to it without immediately thinking of the guitar shop scene from Wayne’s World.

Grade

5/5: love it

The Circle Game by Tom Rush (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: The Circle Game
  • Artist name: Tom Rush
  • Year: 1968
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Elektra Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: I think this could have belonged to either of my parents.
  • Buy it on Amazon: $11.75

The Circle Game by Tom Rush

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’m vaguely familiar with Tom Rush as a folk musician, and he made an appearance on The Bitter End Years (1974), but I don’t know much about him, and also might have mentally conflated him with Mark Rudd. Oops!

What I expected

Folk, maybe folk rock.

Also, the credits indicate that The Circle Game is the Joni Mitchell song from Ladies of the Canyon (1970) and Miles of Aisles (1974), and Something in the Way She Moves is the James Taylor song from James Taylor (1968).

What it was actually like

This was not really a folk record, and was mostly a collection of cover songs (with a bunch of originals, too) done in a country-influenced folk rock style.

The opening notes of Something in the Way She Moves sounded like a tribute to Bob Dylan, but it quickly turned into a fast, fun blues rock song with a great rhythm that was vastly better than James Taylor’s version, though still nothing at all like George Harrison’s song.

This version of Sunshine, Sunshine, another James Taylor song, was easy listening and totally forgettable.

I strongly disliked Rush’s version of the title track The Circle Game, which not only did not sound like the original (no great sin), but kind of reminded me of William Shatner’s version of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.

Rush’s version of Urge for Going, another Joni Mitchell song, sounded like a Gordon Lightfoot song because he used Lightfoot’s annoying vocal style.

The weirdest song on the record was probably The Glory of Love. It really was not bad, but was just a rather poor version of a Benny Goodman classic (here’s Peggy Lee, Benny Goodman & Ella Fitzgerald doing it, and here’s The Five Keys).

I did like his upbeat version of the Charlie Rich song So Long, however, especially its country rhythm guitar (here’s the original).

Rockport Sunday was a guitar instrumental that sounded like Neil Young a bit, or at least reminded me of him, and No Regrets also reminded me slightly of Neil Young – but from the era when he was not making good music, probably the late 1970s or 1980s.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

In Search of the Lost Chord by The Moody Blues (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: In Search of the Lost Chord
  • Group name: The Moody Blues
  • Year: 1968
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Deram Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics: “G” written on top left of album, indicating that my father owned it
  • Buy it on Amazon: $35.98

In Search of the Lost Chord by The Moody Blues

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never listened to this record before, but it will be my fifth by the Moody Blues. The previous four were:

What I expected

More progressive rock with Space Oddity vibes.

What it was actually like

The weird and completely unnecessary narrator did reappear on on In Search of the Lost Chord, and he was as annoying as he was on the other records, but fortunately the narration was limited to just two brief tracks, Departure and The Word.

The Best Way to Travel had some really irritating sound effects, but otherwise sounded more or less like the Beatles of 1968-9.

I thought that Legend of a Mind was the best song on the record, with a weird, psychedelic riff from what sounded like a keyboard and organ, and it also passed the flute test. A bunch of other songs failed the flute test, however, most notably Visions of Paradise. The flute test, by the way, comes from my review of Loggins and Messina (1972):

…I’m maybe slightly more forgiving of flute being used in rock music [than saxophone], if only because it’s so uncommon, but there’s a simple standard that I would apply: are you Jethro Tull? Are you better than Jethro Tull, or engaged in a serious attempt to do something that Jethro Tull hasn’t done or can’t do? If you answer no to all of those questions, then you probably should leave the flute out of your rock song.

Another song that I liked was Ride My See-Saw, which was basically a solid rock song with vocal harmonies, that reminded me of surf rock. House of Four Doors and House of Four Doors (Part 2) were similar, but slower.

A few songs on the record had a bit of Indian style instrumentation, but the most interesting was Om, which was heavily Hindustani with sitar (but still with unnecessary flute). I would not exactly say that it was a great song, but it did feel exploratory.

Dr. Livingstone, I Presume, an Oompa Loompa song that also would have qualified as Faul’s granny shit, was the worst.

Grade

4/5: would listen again

Late for the Sky by Jackson Browne (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Late for the Sky
  • Artist name: Jackson Browne
  • Year: 1974
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Asylum Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: probably my mother
  • Buy it on Amazon: $36.31

Late for the Sky by Jackson Browne

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never listened to this record before, but it will be my fourth by Jackson Browne. The previous three were:

What I expected

More folk rock, country and easy listening.

What it was actually like

Late for the Sky and Fountain of Sorrow were pretty boring soft rock.

Farther On, The Late Show, For a Dancer and Before the Deluge all had more of a country sound, but not good country. They were more modern country songs, like you would hear on country radio stations, if for some reason you were being punished in that way.

The Road and the Sky and Walking Slow were more blues rock songs, far better than the others, and the latter had an electric guitar solo that was good.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me