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Any Day Now by Joan Baez (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Any Day Now
  • Artist name: Joan Baez
  • Year: 1968
  • Number of discs: two
  • Label: Vanguard
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics: “G” written inside album sleeve, indicating that my father owned it
  • Buy it on Amazon: $13.85

Any Day Now by Joan Baez

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’m familiar with Joan Baez, and I’m familiar with the songs of Bob Dylan (and I’m aware that Baez and Dylan dated for a while in the early 1960s), but I have never heard this record and never knew that Joan Baez was so into Bob Dylan that she would be motivated to record a double album of his songs, years after they had broken up.

What I expected

Like it says on the back of the album: “This is a collection of Bob Dylan’s songs sung by Joan Baez.”

What it was actually like

I actually think it’s a fascinating and stimulating idea to take Dylan’s corpus of great songs and let them be interpreted in a recording studio by some who is, you know, actually good at singing. On this, not only did Baez not disappoint, but I kept finding myself wondering what it would have been like if she and Dylan had recorded a lot of these songs together in the first place, like as a duet. I do think he might have had to get some vocal training for his voice to work with hers, but there’s no shame at all (as someone who can not sing) in someone who can’t sing learning how to sing.

At various other times while listening, I kept having the unnerving experience of letting my mind wander and just enjoying the music for a bit, and then my ears would perk up and alert me that the music was familiar, but not exactly something I had heard before: “Hey! I know this song! This is a Bob Dyl-… oh, wait. Yeah.”

Also, this was a lot more country than I expected! For example, Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word (which it seems that Dylan himself never recorded) and Walkin’ Down The Line had much more of a country sound than I might have guessed before listening.

Baez’s version of I Shall Be Released was very good, and I thought her Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands was excellent. Her Boots of Spanish Leather was also great. In fact, overall I’d say that Dylan’s work as a whole stands up quite well to being recorded by Baez.

It does make me wonder, though, to what extent his songs really make sense when performed by someone else.

Grade

4/5: would listen again

The Rockin’ Originals by Various Artists (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: The Rockin’ Originals
  • Group name: Various Artists (including The Dixie Cups, The Jelly Beans, Carl Perkins, The Shangri-Las, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bill Justis, The Ad Libs)
  • Year: 1972
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Pickwick
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Buy it on Amazon: $4.95

The Rockin' Originals by Various Artists

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I know almost all of these songs, and I’m a big Shangri-Las fan.

What I expected

Oldies (and some not-quite-as-oldies)!

What it was actually like

I completely understand what it is about Leader of the Pack that makes people consider it the Shangri-Las’ best song and why it gets included in every compilation, but it’s not really one of my favorites! I love Remember (Walking in the Sand), though – it’s like two songs in one, and some years ago, the “Oh, no, no, no, no, no” line from it must have gotten sampled in a pop song, because I suddenly started hearing it all the time in office lobbies and public transportation. If I were going to include that and another song by the Shangri-Las, I’d probably make it Give Him a Great Big Kiss (“When I say I’m in love, you best believe I’m in love, L-U-V”).

Every part of this record was wonderful and it reminds me so much of when I was young and my father used to listen to the oldies station on the car radio. I wonder what that station was, and whether it still even exists, with such a diminished population of oldies fans. And what is the thematic connection between the nine songs that got included here? And perhaps even more importantly, what exactly is “raunchy” about Raunchy, the instrumental eighth track by Bill Justis, which is the only one that I didn’t recognize? It didn’t strike me as particularly raunchy, but who am I to say?

Finally, though Lightnin’ Strikes by Lou Christie and It’s My Party by Lesley Gore are really his favorites, I can definitely envision my father blasting Chapel of Love and singing along to it, so that makes it the best song on the record for me.

Grade

5/5: love it

Red Octopus by Jefferson Starship (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

Red Octopus by Jefferson Starship

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’m aware that “Jefferson Starship” was a latter incarnation of Jefferson Airplane, but I’ve never listened to this record or any of their records and don’t think I know any of their songs.

What I expected

Hard to say. The image on the album cover reminds me of the Symbionese Liberation Army, which was active in approximately the same place and time that Jefferson Starship was making this record (San Francisco, mid 1970s):

Symbionese Liberation Army

Coincidence? I’m guessing a hybrid of stadium rock and disco-inspired rock.

What it was actually like

Git Fiddler was an outstanding song, kind of what happens when bluegrass meets funk meets jazz. I definitely recommend it, and I enjoyed Sandalphon as well – it’s more difficult to describe, but it sounded like it could have been on an Allman Brothers record.

Sweeter Than Honey was everything I dislike about anti-melodic stadium rock that became popular in the late 1970s and stayed popular through the mid 1990s. It was like someone heard John Cale’s droning sound technique and decided to imitate it, except without having any talent or vision. Miracles was a hit song, but I thought it was terrible.

The rest of the record was boring and unmemorable.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

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

Crosby, Stills & Nash (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Crosby, Stills & Nash
  • Group name: Crosby, Stills & Nash
  • Year: 1969
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Atlantic Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics: my parents had two copies of this album. My father’s has a “G” in the upper left corner of the album, and “GESSNER” written on the inside of the sleeve, and my mother’s has a sticker that says “GOLD RECORD AWARD: AUDITED AND CERTIFIED BY RIAA,” as well as “Brenner” written on the face of the record.
  • Buy it on Amazon: $24.98

Crosby, Stills & Nash

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

This is definitely one that I grew up hearing. I don’t listen to it a lot, but I know it well.

What I expected

Folk rock and vocal harmonies.

What it was actually like

Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, of course, stands above all the other songs on this record; I’ve mentioned multiple times (1, 2, 3) how wonderful and special it is. Even if CSN had never recorded it, or if they had left it off this record, however, the rest still would have been grand: Marrakesh Express, Wooden Ships, Long Time Gone and Helplessly Hoping are all outstanding, and I love the contrasts between the electric guitars on Wooden Ships and the vocal harmonies on Helplessly Hoping.

I’m not a big fan of Guinnevere, but it’s really the only song on the record that I consider boring and uninteresting.

Grade

5/5: love it