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Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde by the Byrds (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde
  • Group name: the Byrds
  • Year: 1969
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Columbia Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics: “G” written on inside of album sleeve, indicating that my father owned it
  • Buy it on Amazon: $33.28

Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde by the Byrds

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never listened to this record before, but I’ve previously reviewed (Untitled) (1970) and Farther Along (1971) and liked them both.

What I expected

Country rock with blues rock and folk rock influences. My father was excited to hear that I would be listening to this record and said that it would have some great songs.

What it was actually like

What stands out the most to me about Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde is its consistency: the musical style was country rock across the board, with some hard rock elements throughout like distorted electric guitar solos, a lot of rhythm guitar richness and some vocal harmonizing, noticeable drumming and no showy vocals. There wasn’t a single song that I disliked, but none of them stood out as particularly excellent, either.

Old Blue, an outstanding country rock take on a folk song, might have been the best on the record (but there really wasn’t a worst).

Nashville West was also on (Untitled), though I can’t recall if it was the same version. I liked it a lot, but it’s hard to make sense of the ending.

Drug Store Truck Drivin’ Man was also on the Woodstock soundtrack and I stand by my assertion that it was an asinine song, but that’s really just the lyrics. Musically, it could hardly have been better.

Overall, this is the rare LP whose parts are so consistently good that the whole ends up being great.

Grade

5/5: love it

Bette Midler (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Bette Midler
  • Artist name: Bette Midler
  • Year: 1973
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Atlantic Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: my mother
  • Buy it on Amazon: $4.77

Bette Midler (Vinyl record album review)

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I don’t really know much about Bette Midler, except that my father thinks she’s not good, while my mother professes to be a big fan.

What I expected

Maybe show tunes? I’m not really sure, but I Shall Be Released is on this record (I’ve previously reviewed cover versions of that song by Joan Baez and Pearls Before Swine).

What it was actually like

Midler’s version of I Shall Be Released started out pretty lame, but I definitely think it got better as it progressed.

Higher & Higher (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me), her version of the R&B song (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher, had more of a gospel or soul sound, which was an interesting choice.

In the Mood was another cover, that I recognized as a swing song that gets used in movies set in the 1940s, and Midler’s version of it was totally acceptable, but it’s not a song to which I’d ever listen normally.

Breaking Up Somebody’s Home was a pretty good funk song.

I also loved her version of “Da Doo Run Run,” but that may be largely because the original (spelled Da Doo Ron Ron) is absolutely a high point of American musical culture. It certainly crushed the Rolling Stones’ shamefully bad version.

Optimistic Voices and Lullaby of Broadway, two songs from The Wizard of Oz, were a low point on the record.

Overall, this sort of reminded me of the famously and unbearably funny “We’re Sausalito” scene in Lost In Translation, though on further thought, I now have to wonder if that scene actually was a joke about Bette Midler.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

Between the Buttons by the Rolling Stones (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Between the Buttons
  • Group name: the Rolling Stones
  • Year: 1967
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Decca Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: I think my father
  • Buy it on Amazon: $29.99

Between the Buttons by the Rolling Stones

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’m pretty sure that I’ve never heard of Between the Buttons, which is weird, because it seems to have a couple of the best and most recognizable Rolling Stones songs of their entire career.

Here are other Rolling Stones records that I’ve reviewed recently:

What I expected

1960s blues-influenced pop rock.

What it was actually like

One of my big questions when I put this record on was whether it was going to be a case of two world class singles (that both weren’t even on the UK album release) and a bunch of filler crap, or whether Let’s Spend the Night Together and Ruby Tuesday would be representative of the whole record.

Unfortunately, they weren’t, and my hunch was right.

To address those two first, I think Let’s Spend the Night Together is a very good song, but Ruby Tuesday has to be one of my all time favorites. Here is the famous performance on the Ed Sullivan show, when he made them change the lyric to “let’s spend some time together” and they lolled so hard – Ed Sullivan was such a square!

Also, how did Mick Jagger get to be such a bad dancer? Drugs alone couldn’t do that, right?

And let’s not forget that Melanie covered Ruby Tuesday on Candles in the Rain, but it wasn’t spectacular.

Anyway, those were the only strong tracks on Between the Buttons and now I can understand why I hadn’t heard of it.

Connection was a bit anachronistic, sounding much more like early 1960s music, and it was ok. She Smiled Sweetly reminded me of listening to a Velvet Underground demo tape from 1964.

Cool, Calm & Collected definitely stood out as a ragtime song with a kazoo on a Stones record – that decision was a fascinating mix of corny and courageous.

My Obsession sounded like just the outline of a song, as if they were jamming and came up with it, but never actually worked on it. Complicated, on the other hand, was more fully formed and coherent, but still more on the boring side.

Miss Amanda Jones was a blues rock song that had more of an electric sound that most of the others, and I thought it was decent.

Something Happened to Me Yesterday had a strong Oompa Loompa influence, but also it sounded kind of like a joke, and at times like Bob Dylan might have been the joke’s punchline.

The others – Yesterday’s Papers, All Sold Out, Who’s Been Sleeping Here? – were just forgettable.

With the exception of the two hit songs, my impression of Between the Buttons was that it may have been thrown together over a long weekend to have an LP to release in support of their singles.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

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

Dvořák: “New World” Symphony by Bruno Walter and the Columbia Symphony Orchestra (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Dvořák: “New World” Symphony
  • Conductor: Bruno Walter
  • Orchestra: Columbia Symphony Orchestra
  • Year: 1974
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Columbia
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics: “G” written on top left of album, indicating that my father owned it
  • Buy it on Ebay: $17.00

Dvořák: "New World" Symphony by Bruno Walter and the Columbia Symphony Orchestra

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve definitely heard of Dvořák and of this symphony before, and I assume that I’ll recognize it once I hear it, but there’s no way that I’d be able to say, “That’s Dvořák’s ninth!” or anything like that.

What I expected

Classical music?

What it was actually like

As expected, listening to the “New World” Symphony was as if I’d heard it every day of my life, which actually isn’t all that much of a stretch; this is some of the most widely played and frequently heard classical-style music in existence. And it’s enjoyable, with a lot of memorable and distinctive parts.

I don’t particularly recall my father ever playing it around the house, and I’m not quite sure why he owned it. I had speculated that he may have gotten it for a music theory course that he took in college, but I’m not actually sure that he ever took music theory, and also, the release date is one year after he graduated.

Grade

4/5: would listen again