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Songs of Leonard Cohen (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Songs of Leonard Cohen
  • Artist name: Leonard Cohen
  • Year: 1967
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Columbia Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Buy it on Amazon: $28.23

Songs of Leonard Cohen

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve heard Leonard Cohen’s songs before, but never Songs of Leonard Cohen or any other Leonard Cohen record.

What I expected

Mumbly, morose folk rock.

What it was actually like

I assumed that I would eventually find myself reviewing a Leonard Cohen record, since my mother is a big fan, and it would be strange not to find at least one of his records in her collection. And I liked it more than I thought I would!

All of the songs sounded more or less the same, and it was sometimes hard to know when one ended and the next began – for example, Suzanne and Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye are clearly the same song, and I’m not sure why he felt the need to include one on each side of the record, but they were both good enough, so it didn’t bother me.

So Long, Marianne was by far the best song on the record, but the rest was fine and I wouldn’t mind listening to this again.

Grade

4/5: would listen again

Are You Experienced by the Jimi Hendrix Experience (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Are You Experienced
  • Group name: the Jimi Hendrix Experience
  • Year: 1967
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Reprise Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics: “GESSNER” written inside the album sleeve and on the record, indicating that my father owned this record
  • Buy it on Amazon: $22.49

Are You Experienced by the Jimi Hendrix Experience

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

My parents didn’t play Hendrix while I was growing up, but I first downloaded this on Napster, and have listened to it hundreds of times in the past couple of decades.

What I expected

Psychedelic rock.

What it was actually like

Though “Are You Experienced” was Hendrix’s first record, when I first listened to it, I thought it was a greatest hits collection, because every song on it is such a great hit, and I think that is why some consider it to be the greatest record ever made.

With not a single note of a single song that I dislike, I can’t come up with anything negative to write about it.

About his performance at Woodstock, however, I recently wrote that “Hendrix was greatest when he was playing actual songs, and weakest when he was inventing brilliant new ways to create cacophonous noise with his guitar,” and “Are You Experienced” is exactly what I meant.

I wish this record included All Along the Watchtower.

Grade

5/5: love it

The Doors by The Doors (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

The Doors by The Doors

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

Is anyone not a fan of the Doors? I’ve listened to this record quite a few times.

What I expected

Psychedelic rock.

What it was actually like

Certain things about this record bring back unavoidable memories, like eleven minutes and thirty-five seconds of The End forcing me to relive Apocalypse Now over and over. And of course, Apocalypse Now is one of the greatest movies ever made, but that doesn’t mean that I particularly feel like thinking about it today.

And then, of course, on the subject of movies, there’s “The Doors,” in which Kyle MacLachlan, playing Ray Manzarek, did an impression of Bob Dylan that rivals even Faul McCartney’s.

And finally, my father told a story about seeing the Doors at the infamous concert in New Haven, Connecticut, in December 1967 when Jim Morrison got arrested onstage for baiting and mocking the police, and said that he had been yelling back and forth with Morrison before it happened.

At any rate, this is a solid record that’s strong and enjoyable listening, though only Break On Through (To The Other Side) and Light My Fire could be considered great songs (and they are among the greatest of their era). The song I dislike the most is Twentieth Century Fox.

Grade

5/5: love it

Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits
  • Artist name: Bob Dylan
  • Year: 1967
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Columbia Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics: “G” written on top left of album, indicating that my father owned this record
  • Buy it on Amazon: $34.37

Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’m not sure that I’ve ever listened to this compilation record, but I’m a big fan of Bob Dylan’s mid 1960s corpus, so I know all the songs on it well.

What I expected

It’s pretty straightforward: ten of Bob Dylan’s hits from his first seven records, through “Blonde on Blonde.”

What it was actually like

Needless to say, Bob Dylan’s greatest song is It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry, but that one gets left out of every compilation or analysis of his accomplishments; this record focuses on his hits (until 1967). Here they are in order of how much I like them, from best to worst:

  1. Just Like a Woman
  2. Subterranean Homesick Blues
  3. Like a Rolling Stone
  4. I Want You
  5. It Ain’t Me Babe
  6. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
  7. The Times They Are A-Changin’
  8. Positively 4th Street
  9. Mr. Tambourine Man
  10. Blowin’ in the Wind

Grade

5/5: love it

Fresh Cream by Cream (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

Fresh Cream by Cream (Vinyl record album review)

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve been a Cream fan since high school and have listened to this record a lot.

What I expected

Cream’s debut record: rock and blues.

What it was actually like

While I think most people would agree that Disraeli Gears is Cream’s best record and one of the greatest records of all time, Fresh Cream, their debut record, is also outstanding. I Feel Free and I’m So Glad are the hits, and I think Toad is also well known (and my favorite on the record, despite being instrumental only).

It can be easy to forget the extent to which, when this was recorded in 1966, electric blues and blues rock were not really well defined concepts and had not known commercial success. Listening to this record, especially the most bluesy songs on it like Sleepy Time Time and Rollin’ And Tumblin’, it’s really fascinating to compare with, for example, what the Beatles were recording at the same time, and how much Fresh Cream made history.

Grade

5/5: love it