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Songs for Beginners by Graham Nash (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Songs for Beginners
  • Artist name: Graham Nash
  • Year: 1971
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Atlantic Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics:
    • “Jean Edelen” written on both sides of LP
    • “G” written on top left of album, indicating that my father owned it (my mother’s copy is missing)
  • Buy it on Amazon: $15.89

Songs for Beginners by Graham Nash

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve heard of Songs for Beginners, but don’t think I’ve ever listened to it. Other Nash records that I’ve reviewed are:

I believe there will also be at least one Hollies record coming up in the next several months, and possibly more than one.

What I expected

Folk rock.

What it was actually like

I was a little worried that Songs for Beginners was going to be similar to, if not quite as bad as, Stephen Stills 2, but it wasn’t, and in fact I thought it was pretty decent!

There were some boring songs on it – Wounded Bird and Simple Man, for example – and Sleep Song sounded like its name. Those were easily offset, however, by Man in the Mirror and Chicago, either or both of which would have sounded right at home on a CSN record of the same era.

There’s Only One weirdly reminded me of the Netflix documentary Searching for Sugar Man about the American musician named Sixto Rodriguez who became famous in South Africa without his knowledge (and I mean that as a compliment).

Several of Nash’s songs sounded a bit more musically edgy than I might have expected, like Military Madness, which had somewhat adventurous vocals and a wah-wah pedal that I liked; and Better Days, which had an interesting, moody sound, with lots going on, and which at different points felt maybe like a Beatles song (that probably would not have made the cut for inclusion on a Beatles record); and I Used to Be a King, which had a tiny bit of a country sound, and which was less boring by the end than I thought it would be at the beginning.

The only truly bad song on this record was Be Yourself. I thought at first that it would be a Bob Dylan parody, but actually it was a parody of itself whose chorus consisted of a group of people singing:

Be yourself
Be yourself
Be yourself

And then at the end of the song, it was repeated with variations, including:

Free yourself

and:

See yourself

So lame.

We Can Change the World also was subpar, making me think of We Are The World, which I’ll probably be skewering some time around late November or early December, assuming I stick to one record per day until then[1].

Overall, Songs for Beginnings was really well put together, and while I’m confident saying now that Nash’s work was far better than Stills’, it was hardly on par with Neil Young’s at the same time (and I don’t think I’ve listened to David Crosby’s).

Grade

4/5: would listen again

References

Ace by Bob Weir (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

Ace by Bob Weir

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

It was surprisingly difficult to figure out what this even was. Neither of my parents had any memory of a record called “Ace,” and since that’s the only word on the front of the album, I started by trying to locate a band with that name, which does exist and was recording records in the appropriate time period – but no amount of search engining could identify this specific Ace record.

Finally I started reading the fine print on the back, and saw references to “Robert ‘Ace’ Weir,” ie. Bob Weir, from the Grateful Dead.

Needless to say, I’m more or less familiar with Bob Weir, but not with “Ace,” his nickname and solo project.

What I expected

Cosmic American music.

What it was actually like

This was basically a Grateful Dead record, though I only recognized one song, Playing in the Band, which I mentioned that I loved when I listened to Skull Fuck a few months ago. This was a version I’d never heard before that was pretty similar to what I had heard in the past for the most part, with just some slightly different instrumentation and vocals, until a pretty good extended jam towards the end.

Greatest Story Ever Told was also great, while Walk in the Sunshine, which was very bluesy, could have been good, but was lacking some energy. Similarly, I liked the blues style piano and the guitar solo on One More Saturday Night, but the vocals were very 1980s sounding.

Mexicali Blues immediately made me think of someone that I once knew from Mexicali (and/or its sister city Calexico) and was more of a country song that had maybe a slight Oompa Loompa music sound to it, but it was entertaining and I liked the tempo and the excellent guitar.

Grade

4/5: would listen again

Stage Fright by the Band (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Stage Fright
  • Group name: the Band
  • Year: 1970
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Capitol Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics:
    • “Brenner” written on record, indicating that my mother owned it
    • “Brenner” written on back of album cover, indicating that my mother owned it
  • Buy it on Amazon: $24.98

Stage Fright by the Band

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I mainly know of the Band as Bob Dylan’s band, from a different era.

My parents both say that this is a great record (and my mother says that my father probably also had a copy of it, but only her copy is in their collection), and apparently there are famous songs on it that I’m likely to recognize when I hear them, but I don’t recognize them at all by name.

What I expected

Rock, maybe some folk rock.

What it was actually like

I was surprised not to recognize any of these songs, which I guess means that my parents never played this record while I was growing up and that it wasn’t a staple of classic rock radio in the late 1990s.

The dominant style was blues rock and they were all musically complex and interesting.

There definitely weren’t any bad songs on the record, but none stood out as particularly good, either.

Sleeping, which was slower and jazzier than the rest, and which made more use of piano, might have been the least good.

The best stretch was on the second side, from the anxiety-inducing The Shape I’m In to the very bluesy The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show to Daniel and the Sacred Harp, which had more of a country style, and Stage Fright, which kind of reminded me of Bruce Springsteen’s lyrical and vocal styles.

Grade

4/5: would listen again

Four Strong Winds by Ian & Sylvia (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Four Strong Winds
  • Group name: Ian & Sylvia
  • Year: 1963
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Vanguard
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: my mother
  • Buy it on Amazon: $149.95

Four Strong Winds by Ian & Sylvia

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I had never heard of Ian & Sylvia before discovering this record in my parents’ collection.

What I expected

Folk.

What it was actually like

It was folk, with some country parts and other parts that were more jazzy. Mostly these were modern 1960s-style folk interpretations of older songs from a variety of musical traditions, with the exception of the title song Four Strong Winds, which was the only Ian & Sylvia original song on the record, and that song sounded like music that my grandparents could have enjoyed (and probably did).

Some other notes:

J*sus Met The Woman At The Well, their version of a gospel song, very strongly channeled Peter, Paul & Mary.

Tomorrow Is A Long Time – was also on Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 2, but I didn’t make any note of it then because it was boring, and it still is.

I liked their country style version of Katy Dear.

Their folk version of the gospel song Every Time I Feel The Spirit reminded me so much of the famous Joan Baez and Bob Gibson version of We Are Crossing The Jordan River that I love, even sharing a lyric about the Jordan River being deep and wide, or chilly and cold, all of which are factually inaccurate. But why aren’t there more folk versions of gospel songs?

I hoped that I’d like The Greenwood Sidie (The Cruel Mother), a traditional English song, because I live near Green-Wood Cemetery, but I strongly disliked their a capella approach.

Grade

4/5: would listen again

Marrying Maiden by It’s a Beautiful Day (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Marrying Maiden
  • Group name: It’s a Beautiful Day
  • Year: 1970
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Columbia Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics: “G” written on top left of album, indicating that my father owned it
  • Buy it on Amazon: $10.00

Marrying Maiden by It's a Beautiful Day

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I have no idea what this is, and actually originally had this as a record called “It’s a Beautiful Day” by the band “Marrying Maiden,” until realizing that I’d gotten confused.

What I expected

Maybe folk rock?

What it was actually like

This wasn’t folk rock. What was it? It was a little bit of everything, and a lot of strange combinations of things:

  • Don And Dewey was sort of like psychedelic classical swing, an instrumental song that was jazzy, with electric guitar, organ, violin and harmonica. It definitely was not like anything I’ve ever heard before, and was definitely fun.
  • The Dolphins was more of a conventional country rock or folk rock style song with country style violin solo and lead vocals, and choral style backing vocals.
  • Essence Of Now sounded like a Cream song.
  • Hoedown was… like a hoedown: instrumental and very bluegrassy, with banjo that sounded like Scruggs style, electric guitar instead of Dobro, and harmonica.
  • Soapstone Mountain started out like a Who song, but continued like a Cream song.
  • Waiting For The Song started with an Indian-like drone, but with monotonal chanting like church music. It may just have been a prelude to the next song, Let A Woman Flow, which was more easy listening style, almost elevator music, with some Spanish lyrics.
  • It Comes Right Down To You was old timey, with sort of a swing sound, but also sounded a lot like New Riders of the Purple Sage (I’ve previously reviewed three of their records: Home, Home on the Road, Powerglide and Gypsy Cowboy), which would make sense because I know that Jerry Garcia was involved NRPS and it seems that he participated in It’s A Beautiful Day as well.
  • Good Lovin’ was a blues rock song driven by electric guitar, with harmonica.
  • Galileo started out as a mumbly spoken word song, then turned into a kind of march, and then transformed back into more mumbly spoken word.
  • Do You Remember The Sun? was more orchestral, with an organ and choral style vocals, and could have been a Beatles outtake.

What can I possibly make of all this? Parts of it were great, and other parts of it were weird and interesting. Somehow it all did seem to fit together, even if I can’t entirely figure out why or how.

Grade

4/5: would listen again