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One Nation Underground by Pearls Before Swine (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: One Nation Underground
  • Group name: Pearls Before Swine
  • Year: 1967
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: ESP-Disk
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: my father
  • Buy it on Amazon: $39.00

One Nation Underground by Pearls Before Swine

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’m not specifically familiar with this Pearls Before Swine record, but it is the third that I will have reviewed from my father’s collection. The previous two were:

What I expected

Psychedelic folk.

What it was actually like

This did remind me a lot of the other Pearls Before Swine records, though I’m not sure if it’s the voice or the unusual meeting of folk style and psychedelia, but Another Time was a representative example of a pretty simple melody that felt trippy and still stripped down.

A bunch of songs on this record also evoked Bob Dylan, and I was sure it was intentional, but it was subtle enough not to be obtrusive. Playmate had some very Dylan-sounding vocals and an organ, and it was pretty lively and I thought it was outstanding.

Uncle John was more of a rock song, also with an organ, and also reminded me of Dylan, and I thought it could have been an outtake from Bringing It All Back Home. Drop Out! was the closest to rock on the record.

Ballad to an Amber Lady was more wistful sounding, like many of the songs on These Things Too, and I Shall Not Care started out that way, and then turned into psychedelic rock.

Morning Song had a droning psychedelic sound, which I think was the autoharp, with banjo, which was pretty interesting, and The Surrealist Waltz was sort of dirge-like, with marching drums and the weirdest vocals.

Regions of May seemed the most like something I would listen to when trying to fall asleep, and was the only song that I did not really enjoy.

(Oh Dear) Miss Morse was an ode to Morse code, of course, and was the most self consciously weird song. Frankly, if I were going to recommend a Morse code song, I would definitely go with The Rhythm of the Code.

Grade

4/5: interesting, but not for me

Of Love and War by Randy Burns (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Of Love and War
  • Artist name: Randy Burns
  • Year: 1966
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: ESP-Disk
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: my father
  • Buy it on Amazon: $45.95

Of Love and War by Randy Burns

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I don’t think that I’ve ever listened to this Randy Burns record, but I have previously reviewed two of his:

What I expected

Folk.

What it was actually like

This was folk music at its very mid 1960s essence, not unlike Dylan’s music of a couple of years earlier, but Burns was certainly a better singer than Dylan.

There was not a lot of complexity or originality to his songs, though: when one line ended with the word “sorrow,” for example, it was not exactly a challenge to predict that the next line would end with “tomorrow.”

Parts of this record definitely reminded me of this classic scene from Animal House (and I also reviewed the Animal House soundtrack).

The songs were all extremely consistent in style, and very minimal, with guitars and vocals, but for some reason the producers put all the vocal track into one channel and split the guitar track between both channels, so it kind of sounded like Burns was singing directly into my right ear, and I had to move all the way to the left side of my living room to listen without going insane.

If I had to pick a favorite, I would go with Sour Grapes, while Thoughts of Spring was slower than most of the other songs, and Coming of the Roads and Mr. War were the most boring.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

The Beatles’ Story (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: The Beatles’ Story
  • Group name: the Beatles
  • Narrator name: John Babcock, Al Wiman, Roger Christian
  • Year: 1964
  • Number of discs: two
  • Label: Capitol Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics: hole drilled through top right corner of album
  • Buy it on Amazon: $34.98

The Beatles' Story

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I have definitely never heard of this compilation before, but here are the eleven Beatles records that I’ve previously reviewed:

What I expected

A mix of Beatles music with some interviews and narration.

What it was actually like

I had mixed feelings about this compilation. On the one hand, it was incredibly corny, but on the other hand, it was extremely obnoxious.

Much of the record consisted of some very heavy-handed narration about the Beatles’ history and the members’ personalities.

John, for example, was described as “the chief Beatle,” while Paul was “the baby faced Beatle,” George was sarcastic and wry, and Ringo was “the quiet one.” Also, “he’s called Ringo because of his passion for wearing lots of rings.”

But it was not just their personalities: I also got to know about their physical attributes, like heights and hair colors, ages, educational backgrounds, &c. In short, this record, which conspicuously was released 32 days before Xmas, was intended for 12 year old girls[1].

As far as actual music, there was not much of it (after all, “The group’s most distinguishing characteristic [was] the haircut”). Though there were lots of short clips of real Beatles songs, lasting around 15-30 seconds apiece, much of the “music” was Muzak-style versions of Beatles songs, played in the background during the narration, to signal to the audience what emotions we were meant to feel about, for example, Paul’s mother dying when he was a teenager, or Ringo earning enough money to let his mother retire.

Ultimately, this was a record not so much of the Beatles, and certainly not by the Beatles, and less about them, than about Beatlemania, which in retrospect – both as a man in my 40s and also as a person born in the 1980s – was absolutely fucking hilarious; a girl fan being interviewed after a Beatles concert, who screamed and shrieked, was a high point.

A low point may have been when a reporter asked a woman, “You look like a housewife. Are you out here to see the Beatles?” And she said no.

Grade

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

References

References
↑1 And it was not lost on me that my own mother was a 12 year old girl in November 1964, but this did not come from her collection, and she expressed no recognition when I told her about it.

Wings over America (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Wings over America
  • Group name: Wings
  • Year: 1976
  • Number of discs: three
  • Label: Capitol Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Buy it on Amazon: $49.96

Wings over America

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I am not familiar with this live Wings record, but it will be the eighth post-Beatles McCartney record that I’ve reviewed. The previous seven were:

What I expected

Because this is a live record and because it has some Beatles songs on it, I’m optimistic that it might be pretty good, and may break the streak of McCartney making ok (but not really good) records in the early 1970s, but not doing anything worthwhile after 1975.

What it was actually like

This was a really, really long record. Three LPs (six sides) was about three times the amount of material that would actually have been necessary to get their point across.

Despite that, I thought the concerts sounded fun, and that the harder rock sound on most of the songs was generally good (other songs had more of an acoustic sound, and they weren’t necessarily worse).

I liked the electric blues sound of parts of Spirits of Ancient Egypt, but did not like the awful chorus.

Medicine Jar was pretty good, and I enjoyed the strong bass line and loved the guitar.

Bluebird was not a particularly good song, but I would not have minded listening to it if the saxophone solo had been left out. I also hated the saxophone on Silly Love Songs.

You Gave Me the Answer was the most goofily Oompa Loompa song on the record, and My Love was unusually boring and slow, but neither of these was representative of the overall record.

I wrote recently about The Long and Winding Road that it was “certainly one of the worst Beatles songs,” and it was a low point of this record, too.

The up tempo version of Lady Madonna was quite strong, however.

I’ve Just Seen a Face was the record’s best song, but of course I would have loved a song from Help! (as long as it was not Yesterday; in fact, Yesterday on Wings over America was just as bad as every other version of it).

Blackbird, for that matter, was fine, but nothing special.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

The Hollies’ Greatest Hits (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: The Hollies’ Greatest Hits
  • Group name: the Hollies
  • Year: 1973
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Epic Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics: “DEMONSTRATION / NOT FOR SALE” stamped on back of album
  • Buy it on Amazon: $83.00

The Hollies' Greatest Hits

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I am familiar with the Hollies as Graham Nash’s band, and know the song Carrie-Anne. I assume that I will probably recognize other songs, too.

What I expected

British invasion style pop and rock, with vocal harmonies.

What it was actually like

I did end up recognizing five of these 12 songs, including the first track, Bus Stop, which was great (and here is a wonderful and goofy cover)!

Carrie-Anne was also great, and I had no memory of its incongruous steel drum solo, but I really think that they were able to make it work. Another thing I noticed was that it sounded really… innocent for a song that was recorded almost exactly when the Beatles were releasing songs like Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. A similarly innocent-sounding song from the same time period (which I did not recognize) was On a Carousel, and I thought it had an excellent rhythm guitar part. Pay You Back with Interest also reminded me of Carrie-Anne due to its similar harmony, but was not as good a song overall.

Stop Stop Stop sounded familiar to me, and I was not quite sure if I recognized it or not, but I did love its banjo. And because you can never have too much banjo, here is the weirdest cover I could find of it.

Another that I recognized was Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress, from its extremely distinctive guitar riff. It was an awesome song and I had no idea that it was by the Hollies – it was from a much later era (1972), and I did not even realize that they were still making music then. Its style was also totally different, much more country rock. Long Dark Road was also from that era, and also had a different sound, with organ backing making a wall of sound at parts.

He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother was one that thought I might recognize because its name sounded familiar, but I think I just recalled the expression. It was also in a different style, still rock but not fun at all, and much slower than the other songs. I thought it was the worst on the record.

Look Through Any Window; Dear Eloise, which had excellent percussion; and Just One Look, another that I recognized, all had that mid 1960s style and were all great.

King Midas in Reverse was the record’s weirdest song, with a horns section, sound effects and more of an orchestral sound than the others.

Grade

5/5: love it