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The Best of Jerry Lee Lewis (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: The Best of Jerry Lee Lewis
  • Artist name: Jerry Lee Lewis
  • Year: 1970?
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Smash (Mercury)
  • Collection: Essex
  • Distinguishing characteristics:
    • “Elaine” written on the upper right corner of the album cover
    • $6.99 price sticker on the lower right of the back of the album cover
  • Buy it on Amazon: $3.00

The Best of Jerry Lee Lewis

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I have never listened to this record before and am not especially well versed on Jerry Lee Lewis. The only time his music has come up was when I reviewed The Rockin’ Originals last year.

What I expected

I don’t recognize any of these songs by name, but I expect to recognize a bunch of them when I listen, and I know that rockabilly was Lewis’ primary genre, so that should be great.

What it was actually like

This record’s two rockabilly songs, Louisiana Man and Let’s Talk About Us, were both excellent: really fun, up tempo, with that distinctly percussive piano. I also thought that the latter’s background vocals added a lot, though I didn’t like them very much on She Still Comes Around (To Love What’s Left of Me), since they made it sound too choral.

Besides those, this was really a country record, which surprised me, and I didn’t recognize any of its songs.

They were mostly pretty good, if unremarkable, with What’s Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made a Loser Out of Me) and One Has My Name (The Other Has My Heart) both standing out as being great, and on each I thought that the fiddle worked really well, going counter to the singing.

All the Good is Gone was more boring than the others.

Grade

4/5: would listen again

The Walls of a Prison by Johnny Cash (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: The Walls of a Prison
  • Artist name: Johnny Cash
  • Year: 1970
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Harmony
  • Collection: Friedman
  • Buy it on Amazon: $3.99

The Walls of a Prison by Johnny Cash

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never listened to this Johnny Cash compilation, but it will be the third that I’ve reviewed in the past month. The previous two were:

What I expected

Country.

What it was actually like

This differed from the previous two Johnny Cash compilations in that many of the songs on it had choral-style vocal backing, which did not impress me.

The Shifting, Whispering Sands had a chorus that sounded like the Xmas music that used to be played in suburban shopping malls every December, back when I used to go to them (and before I obtained noise canceling headphones).

Clementine was another example of a song with a choral backing, and was also the most Oompa Loompa, from what sounded like an upright bass.

Going to Memphis was the most relatively corny, and Guess Things Happen That Way had a slightly doo wop sound.

Not recognizing any of these songs, I couldn’t help but wonder whether the people putting together Johnny Cash compilations in the early 1970s dumped all of the reject material onto this one.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

John Barleycorn Must Die by Traffic (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: John Barleycorn Must Die
  • Group name: Traffic
  • Year: 1970
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: United Artists
  • Collection: Friedman
  • Buy it on Amazon: $22.49

John Barleycorn Must Die by Traffic

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I am unfamiliar with this Traffic record, but I previously reviewed The low spark of high-heeled boys (1971) and did not like it. I also am familiar with the John Barleycorn folk song.

What I expected

Folk.

What it was actually like

I would not say that this was a folk record at all, but I did enjoy the folk style version of John Barleycorn. It made extensive use of the flute, which made sense in the context of a traditional English folk song, and I wasn’t bothered by it at all.

I did not, however, approve of some of the instrument choices in a couple of the other songs: Glad, a jazz instrumental with strong funk and soft rock elements and a horrendous saxophone solo; and Freedom Rider, more of a rock song with harder drumming but even more saxophone and a really atrocious saxophone part.

The rock songs Empty Pages, Stranger to Himself and Every Mothers Son were all better. I enjoyed the organ solo on the first of those. The latter two were both hard rock with more electric guitar, and the second was my favorite for its guitar solo.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

I Am the Blues by Willie Dixon (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: I Am the Blues
  • Artist name: Willie Dixon
  • Year: 1970
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Columbia Records
  • Collection: Friedman
  • Buy it on Amazon: $71.17

I Am the Blues by Willie Dixon

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

Willie Dixon has come up a few times recently, so I have some familiarity with him, as well as a bunch of these songs, but I have never listened to this record before.

What I expected

Blues musicians are not exactly known for their collective modesty, but “I Am the Blues” is really bringing some “L’État, c’est moi” vibes, so now I’m afraid that if this doesn’t blow me away, I’m going to be disappointed.

What it was actually like

I’m not sure that I would consider this to have been “I Am the Blues” level good, but it was still quite good. There were no bad songs – and no acoustic songs, and they all had much more prominent percussion than I would have expected.

Some highlights included: the guitar on Back Door Man that sounded a bit like a revving car engine, and its strong piano part too; the guitar solo on The Seventh Son; the piano part on I Ain’t Superstitious[1]; and the extremely distinctive riff on I’m Your Hoochie Cooche Man.

The Little Red Rooster was the record’s most barbecue restaurant song.

I Can’t Quit You, Baby was still good, but in the context of most of the rest of the record that was pretty upbeat, I guess I would consider it my least favorite. You Shook Me had a fine harmonica part, but a similar tempo, and I think it loses out to the Led Zeppelin version because of the latter’s organ part.

Grade

5/5: love it

References

References
↑1 And how much better would it have been if Dixon had added that he was a little stitious?

The Best of John Hammond (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: The Best of John Hammond
  • Artist name: John Hammond
  • Year: 1970
  • Number of discs: two
  • Label: Vanguard Recording Society
  • Collection: Friedman
  • Buy it on Amazon: $10.49

The Best of John Hammond

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I don’t think I’ve ever heard of John Hammond before today.

What I expected

This double album appears to consist mostly or entirely of covers of blues classics.

What it was actually like

This was quite good.

I especially liked the electric songs that tended more towards a fast rock or rockabilly style, such as the Willie Dixon song My Babe on side one, which reminded me of This Train; and the Bo Diddley song Who Do You Love on side four, which was my favorite song on the whole record. I also mentioned this song when reviewing Happy Trails by Quicksilver Messenger Service, and hearing it again now makes me realize that someone needs to assemble a compilation of all the best songs with a Bo Diddley beat (and if that happens, I expect this song to be on it).

Others that I liked were in an electric blues or blues rock style, such as I Wish You Would Come Back, Baby, which also had excellent harmonica, and the Chuck Berry song No Money Down, both on side one; Big Boss Man, which sounded a lot like some Kinks songs and had wonderful rhythm and a great harmonica solo, on side two; Baby, Please Don’t Go, one of the best on the whole record, I’m A Man, which had the wildest harmonica part, the Chuck Berry song Backdoor Man, which was slow but outstanding, and Statesbourough Blues, electric but not rock-adjacent, all on side three; and the fast and awesome Robert Johnson song Traveling Riverside Blues, on side four.

There were also a bunch that I enjoyed in a more traditional, acoustic style, often with just one guitar and one singer (and occasionally with some foot tapping), such as the Muddy Waters song Still a Fool (Two Trains Running) and the Robert Johnson song Milk Cow Calf’s Blues on side one; the Blind Lemon Jefferson song See That My Grave Is Kept Clean on side two (I listen to Bob Dylan’s cover all the time, and it’s fine, but I would trade it for Hammond’s any day of the week); the very fast Get Right Church on side three, which was the best of the the just-guitar-and-vocals songs, and had an impossible amount of rhythm pulled out of that guitar; and Drop Down Mama, which also had a great harmonica solo, on side four.

I was highly amused to hear Barbecue Blues, since I’ve been joking for a whole that certain blues songs are “barbecue restaurant music,” but this one was not about barbecue at all, and it was in fact less blues and more rockabilly and I would not have considered it barbecue restaurant music – but it was not bad.

The worst song, however, was Going Back to Florida, since there was just very little to it, with hardly any vocals or guitar. It also reminded me of two other things: first, that I had not been to Florida in a really long time, perhaps 15 years, and second, REM’s Don’t Go Back to Rockville, which was always ironic to me because I grew up there, but which now loses all its irony because, as Gertrude Stein put it so aptly, there is no there there.

Grade

5/5: love it