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Led Zeppelin’s fourth record (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: (Untitled), aka IV, aka Zoso, aka Four Symbols
  • Group name: Led Zeppelin
  • Year: 1971
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Atlantic Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Distinguishing characteristics: “Brenner” written on record, indicating that my mother owned it (though I would have guessed that this was my father’s)
  • Buy it on Amazon: $23.16

Led Zeppelin's fourth record

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I did not grow up listening to Led Zeppelin, but started liking them as a teenager when I heard them on classic rock radio. I bought the CD box set of all their records in college, and have probably listened to this around 500 times.

The two previous Led Zeppelin records that I’ve reviewed were:

What I expected

Rock, blues rock, hard rock, Stairway to Heaven.

What it was actually like

I definitely would not say that I like Led Zeppelin’s fourth record as much as the first three, but it’s still a classic, and Rock and Roll is one of my favorite songs of all time (and one of my top two favorite Led Zeppelin songs, along with Kashmir).

On this listen, I was particularly impressed with the percussion throughout the record, and the droning effect on When the Levee Breaks.

I could listen to this every day and be very satisfied, but if I had to pick a least favorite song, it would be Misty Mountain Hop.

Also, I think Stairway to Heaven is a great song, but even after thirty years, I still am not able to listen to it without immediately thinking of the guitar shop scene from Wayne’s World.

Grade

5/5: love it

Games Guitars Play by Harvey Mandel (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Games Guitars Play
  • Artist name: Harvey Mandel
  • Year: 1969
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Philips
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: I think my father
  • Buy it on Amazon: $14.98

Games Guitars Play by Harvey Mandel

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I may have heard of Harvey Mandel before, but I don’t think I’m familiar with his work. I’m about 65% sure that he’s not the same person as Steve Mandell.

What I expected

It’s called Games Guitars Play and it’s from 1969, so rock?

What it was actually like

This was a very solid hard rock record, with lots of blues and psychedelic parts, and I thought it was excellent.

Probably my favorites were two very recognizable blues and R&B classics, Honky Tonk and I Don’t Need No Doctor. Both were interpreted really nicely as hard rock songs.

I also thought Games People Play, the Joe South song, was outstanding, especially since it was an instrumental – so I didn’t have to hear the obnoxious lyrics and was able to focus on the great melody.

Dry Your Eyes was pretty good musically, but the vocals sounded very processed, so I didn’t like it as much.

Capurange and Senor Blues were both fine, but a little boring, and too long at 6:40 and 5:30 respectively.

Ridin’ High was the only song that I did not like. A lot of it sounded it like it had been recorded backwards, which should have been perceived as gimmicky even in 1969.

Grade

4/5: would listen again

The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper
  • Group name: Mike Bloomfield & Al Kooper
  • Year: 1969
  • Number of discs: two
  • Label: Columbia Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: my father
  • Buy it on Amazon: $6.00

The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never heard of this record before, but I recalled Al Kooper’s name from when I reviewed his solo record I Stand Alone (1969) four months ago. I did not like it.

What I expected

This is a live double album, so I’m optimistic that it will not annoy me in the way that Kooper’s studio record did, with all the absurd sound effects and whatnot; it’s pretty difficult and generally perceived as a waste of time and money to recreate all of that crap at an actual concert.

The back of the album also states: “Also featuring Elvin Bishop, Carlos Santana”. Last summer, I reviewed Let It Flow by Elvin Bishop (1974) and thought it was excellent, as well as Abraxas by Santana (1970) and thought it was very good, so that’s promising.

What it was actually like

This was a really excellent hard rock and electric blues record. In general, most of the songs were pretty slow, with minimal or no vocals, multiple (and sometimes elaborate) electric guitar solos, riffs, bass lines, &c, &c.

Several of the songs were too long: I’m not sure, for example, that Her Holy Modal Highness needed to last for nine minutes and eight seconds, that No More Lonely Nights needed to be 12 minutes and 27 seconds, or that Don’t Throw Your Love on Me So Strong needed to be 10 minutes and 56 seconds. Besides being too long, the latter two were also too slow, though I was satisfied with the length of Dear Mr. Fantasy (eight minutes and four seconds), because apparently that was how long it needed to be to incorporate a great guitar solo and the weirdest, most psychedelic (and superior) version of Hey Jude that I’ve ever heard.

On that note, I listen to Green Onions pretty often, but the version on this record was the most rocking one that I’ve ever heard. I also really liked the Simon and Garfunkel song The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy), which I would have heard it when I listened to Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme by Simon and Garfunkel (1966) half a year ago, but I guess it didn’t make an impression on me then. It sure impressed me now, though (and just think of how lucky we all are that it was not “the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge song”).

The Band song The Weight was quite strong, but I wish that they had done it with vocals. I also really liked the outstanding electric blues version of the Elvis Presley song That’s All Right.

Another great one was Sonny Boy Williamson, and Finale-Refugee was pretty short, but it had the best guitar riff on the record.

Overall, despite the excessive length of some of these songs that easily could have been cut in half, I was very positively surprised by this.

Grade

5/5: love it

The Story of The Who (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: The Story of The Who
  • Group name: The Who
  • Year: 1976
  • Number of discs: two
  • Label: Polydor Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: I think I bought this one!
  • Buy it on Amazon: $8.99

The Story of The Who

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

My recollection is that I probably bought this record around 2000, probably at a used record store on East Gude Drive in Rockville, Maryland.

That, however, was exactly what I thought about Hooligans, when I reviewed it last summer.

Did I actually buy two double-album compilations by the Who at the same record store – which I do not believe that I visited more than once – which would hardly make any sense? Or could I have picked up one of these records at a different time and place? I have no idea, but I do think it’s unlikely that either of my parents would have bought either of these compilations.

At any rate, I know most of the songs on it, but I have no clear memory of ever listening to it, and may only have played it once or twice after buying it (and leaving it in my parents’ basement with their record collection, since I never owned a turntable until my parents gave me theirs).

What I expected

This is four sides of the Who, and I expect to love it because the songs are weighted much more heavily towards their better music: sides one and two are pre-Tommy, side three is material from Tommy and side four looks like Who’s Next and Live at Leeds.

What it was actually like

This was a phenomenally great compilation, because the Who were a phenomenally great band, and it would be difficult to make a bad compilation of their work, except by focusing on whatever they were doing in the mid 1970s and later. It was far better than Hooligans.

Live at Leeds, however, remains the greatest Who record, and the greatest live rock record, and one of the greatest records ever made, and anyone who wants to listen to the Who at their best should go straight to it – with the understanding that it unfortunately came before Who’s Next, so necessarily leaves out songs like Baba O’Riley (that would not have sounded good on a live record, anyway). It still includes lots of songs from Tommy, though.

As for this one, though, here is the order of excellence of the four sides: two, one, four, three.

And here is how I ranked each song by excellence, within each side:

Side one

  1. My Generation
  2. Heat Wave
  3. Substitute
  4. Magic Bus (this version did not sound familiar to me, but it was good)
  5. Boris The Spider
  6. I’m A Boy
  7. Run, Run, Run

Side two

  1. Pictures of Lily
  2. Squeeze Box (I have always loved the banjo in this song)
  3. I Can See For Miles
  4. Happy Jack
  5. Bargain
  6. The Seeker

Side three

  1. We’re Not Gonna Take It
  2. I’m Free
  3. Amazing Journey
  4. Pinball Wizard
  5. Do You Think It’s Alright?
  6. The Acid Queen
  7. Fiddle About
  8. Tommy’s Holiday Camp

Side four

  1. Summertime Blues (this was the version from Live at Leeds)
  2. Baba O’Riley
  3. Won’t Get Fooled Again
  4. Behind Blue Eyes
  5. Slip Kid

Grade

5/5: love it

Wings over America (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Wings over America
  • Group name: Wings
  • Year: 1976
  • Number of discs: three
  • Label: Capitol Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Buy it on Amazon: $49.96

Wings over America

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I am not familiar with this live Wings record, but it will be the eighth post-Beatles McCartney record that I’ve reviewed. The previous seven were:

What I expected

Because this is a live record and because it has some Beatles songs on it, I’m optimistic that it might be pretty good, and may break the streak of McCartney making ok (but not really good) records in the early 1970s, but not doing anything worthwhile after 1975.

What it was actually like

This was a really, really long record. Three LPs (six sides) was about three times the amount of material that would actually have been necessary to get their point across.

Despite that, I thought the concerts sounded fun, and that the harder rock sound on most of the songs was generally good (other songs had more of an acoustic sound, and they weren’t necessarily worse).

I liked the electric blues sound of parts of Spirits of Ancient Egypt, but did not like the awful chorus.

Medicine Jar was pretty good, and I enjoyed the strong bass line and loved the guitar.

Bluebird was not a particularly good song, but I would not have minded listening to it if the saxophone solo had been left out. I also hated the saxophone on Silly Love Songs.

You Gave Me the Answer was the most goofily Oompa Loompa song on the record, and My Love was unusually boring and slow, but neither of these was representative of the overall record.

I wrote recently about The Long and Winding Road that it was “certainly one of the worst Beatles songs,” and it was a low point of this record, too.

The up tempo version of Lady Madonna was quite strong, however.

I’ve Just Seen a Face was the record’s best song, but of course I would have loved a song from Help! (as long as it was not Yesterday; in fact, Yesterday on Wings over America was just as bad as every other version of it).

Blackbird, for that matter, was fine, but nothing special.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me