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Red Headed Stranger by Willie Nelson (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Red Headed Stranger
  • Artist name: Willie Nelson
  • Year: 1975
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Columbia Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: my father
  • Buy it on Amazon: $23.99

Red Headed Stranger by Willie Nelson

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I may have heard of this record before, but I don’t think I’ve ever listened to it. It will be my third Willie Nelson record, and the previous two were:

What I expected

Country.

What it was actually like

First of all, it’s not lost on me that I’m reviewing a Willie Nelson record on 4/20[1].

Anyway, I was pretty excited to listen to this one because I had two great experiences with Willie Nelson last year, but it was surprisingly and disappointingly boring. Most of the songs were really slow and sparse, just Nelson singing laconically as he played guitar, with minimal other instrumentation. The songs weren’t engaging, but they definitely conveyed a mood: solitary, desperate, discontented, weary, wary. I guess that’s “outlaw” country, right there.

Since it seemed like the songs themselves were beside the point (which was the overarching narrative) it kind of reminded me of musical theater, when they’ve got some story to tell, but it’s still a musical, so a character has to “sing” it, even though it’s kind of half-singing, half-speaking.

The title track Red Headed Stranger was definitely an exception, and I liked it the most as it was pretty lively. Remember Me was similar, and Hands on the Wheel had more of a prominent melody than the rest.

Down Yonder, an Oompa Loompa instrumental with just piano and bass, was the most different from all the others.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

References

References
↑1 As a reminder, I put all the records on shelves when I got them, and with some minor exceptions (eg. rearranging to avoid listening to a bunch of very similar things in a row) I just take each one off the shelf in order.

Nashville Skyline by Bob Dylan (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Nashville Skyline
  • Artist name: Bob Dylan
  • Year: 1969
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Columbia Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: my father
  • Buy it on Amazon: $25.02

Nashville Skyline by Bob Dylan

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

As with John Wesley Harding, I’ve only listened to this record a handful of times in my life, because it wasn’t played a lot for me when I was growing up and because I mostly prefer Dylan’s earlier work. I know many of the songs on it, though. It will be the fifth of Dylan’s records that I’m reviewing, and the previous four were:

What I expected

It’s called Nashville Skyline because it’s a country record.

What it was actually like

The first thing I noticed about this record was that Dylan’s voice was very different in it: smoother, deeper, probably noticeably superior to people who are qualified to assess other people’s singing voices, but also far less distinctive. The second thing I noticed was that it had way less harmonica than John Wesley Harding had. I liked it.

I did not like this version of Girl From the North Country, though, and in fact I would say that I probably could not have hated it more. When reviewing The Freewheelin’, I wrote:

My favorite (at least for today) is Girl From the North Country. Every time I hear it, I think of Scarborough Fair…

Dylan’s original version of this song is really one of his most sublimely beautiful compositions and wonderful recordings, so evocative and so simple. This version, a duet with Johnny Cash, really trampled over my love for the original, though I do think it would be wonderful to have heard a Johnny Cash (solo) cover of it, and it reminded me of Eric Clapton’s horrific cover of Layla, inconveniently also named Layla. Interestingly, there do not seem to have been many great covers of Girl From the North Country, but this one is solid.

I Threw It All Away, Tell Me That It Isn’t True and Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You were all passable, but not very interesting, and they sounded like filler to me.

I really loved Nashville Skyline Rag, a non-bluegrass instrumental with a bluegrass style: wonderful pace, excellent steel guitar and harmonica.

One More Night was another favorite, with a great country sound and a bit Oompa Loompa, and Peggy Day was similarly Oompa Loompa and good, sounding at parts more like traditional country than “Nashville” style country of the 1960s.

To Be Alone with You was another solid country song with honky tonk piano that I thought was fine, and Country Pie was the record’s most cosmic American song. I thought it was danceable and had excellent guitar, but why did it end so suddenly?

When reviewing Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 2, I wrote:

Lay Lady Lay is another favorite that I almost never remember because it’s on “Nashville Skyline,” and therefore not in my regular routine.

My impression has been that this was one one of his most popular songs from this era, and hearing it now has made me want to listen to Nashville Skyline more frequently.

Grade

4/5: would listen again

Fairytale by Donovan (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Fairytale
  • Artist name: Donovan
  • Year: 1965
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Hickory Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: my father
  • Buy it on Amazon: $24.00

Fairytale by Donovan

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I have never listened to this record, but it will be the third by Donovan that I’ll have reviewed. The previous two were:

What I expected

Folk rock.

What it was actually like

To Try for the Sun was a nice folk style song, simple but pleasant, and might have benefited from a little bit of harmony, but then it might have been a different song. It also included the Dylan-style harmonica-chord-blow technique that I wrote about on The Real Donovan:

And do you know how Dylan would sometimes sing a verse and then blow out a long chord on the harmonica? I don’t know that I had ever heard anyone else doing that until Donovan. Maybe Donovan did it first, though?

Candy Man and The Ballad of a Crystal Man were quite similar in style. Summer Day Reflection Song, The Ballad of Geraldine and Belated Forgiveness Plea were also similar, but without the harmonica. Jersey Thursday was similar, without the harmonica, and also with some more creative and interesting guitar. The Little Tin Soldier was similar, except faster paced and more intense.

Circus of Sour sounded a bit half-assed to me, and a bit Oompa Loompa. Sunny Goodge Street was an unlikely jazz song that found its way onto this folk rock record, with flute and upright bass and a totally un-rock- and un-folk-like sound.

There was nothing particular wrong with Donovan’s version of Universal Soldier, the really obnoxious Buffy Sainte-Marie song, but I did not care for it and generally find “protest music” distasteful.

Colours stole the show, which maybe was not surprising because it’s such a great and classic song, certainly the best on the record. I loved the banjo in it, and loved being reminded that it existed, and then reminded that Donovan and Joan Baez performed it as a wonderful duet, and then reminded that it was not Baez, but Donovan, who wrote it. His manager or producer should have insisted that he only do songs like that. Also, here is a strong cover. And it got me thinking that Morning, Morning by the Fugs was the yin to its yang.

Grade

4/5: would listen again

Graham Nash David Crosby by David Crosby and Graham Nash (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Graham Nash David Crosby
  • Artist names: David Crosby and Graham Nash
  • Year: 1972
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Atlantic Records
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: I’m not sure who owned this, but I think I would guess that it was my mother’s.
  • Buy it on Amazon: $13.79

Graham Nash David Crosby by David Crosby and Graham Nash

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I don’t think I’ve ever heard this record before and don’t recognize any songs on it by name, but it’s the third that I’ll be reviewing specifically from the David Crosby and Graham Nash partnership. The previous two were:

It’s also the thirteenth that I’ll be reviewing that is by either Crosby or Nash, or Crosby and Nash, including groups in which they participated. The previous twelve were:

What I expected

Folk rock.

What it was actually like

Southbound Train was the most CSN-like song, especially in its vocal style, and the harmonica was pretty good and sounded like a Bob Dylan song.

Immigration Man in a was similar style, with hilariously goofy lyrics that could only have been written by Graham Nash[1]:

There I was at the immigration scene
Shining and feeling clean
Could it be a sin?
I got stopped by the immigration man
He says he doesn’t know if he can
Let me in-let me in-immigration man
…
There he was with his immigration face
Giving me a paper chase
…
Here I am with my immigration form
It’s big enough to keep me warm

Most of the rest of these songs were easy listening and I disliked a lot of them. Two of the worst were Page 43 and Games.

Frozen Smiles was slightly Oompa Loompa and relatively lively, complex and interesting. I considered it the best on the record.

Also, while I was listening, this news appeared in my RSS feed: Graham Nash Says David Crosby Died After Contracting COVID-19. So sad.

Grade

2/5: bad, but I was able to listen to the whole thing

References

References
↑1 Recall, for example, Be Yourself from Songs for Beginners.

Song for Juli by Jesse Colin Young (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Song for Juli
  • Artist name: Jesse Colin Young
  • Year: 1973
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Warner Records Inc.
  • Collection: Brenner / Gessner
  • Who owned it: my mother
  • Buy it on Amazon: $6.75

Song for Juli by Jesse Colin Young

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

When I saw this record next on the shelf, my first thought was that I had no clue who Jesse Colin Young was, but then I was looking through my old reviews for something else, and accidentally discovered that I reviewed Light Shine by Jesse Colin Young (1974) late last year. I didn’t think it was good.

What I expected

My mother vocally claimed this record as belonging to her collection, told me that it would be folk rock, and that I may recognize some of the songs, but that she didn’t think I would like them.

What it was actually like

Several of them – Mornin’ Sun, Evenin’, Country Home – were folk rock style with a strong country rock sound, and not bad at all, but the auto-harmonized vocals were crap. He should have just recorded himself singing into a microphone instead of messing around with fancy techniques that messed things up.

The title track Song for Juli was pretty bad, with a long instrumental beginning, turning into jazzy elevator music with a terrible flute part.

I also disliked Ridgetop, which at 7:02 minutes, was over twice as long as it needed to be. It had an awful saxophone part that easily could have been replaced by another guitar (preferably electric, and with distortion). I did like the tempo, though.

Miss Hesitation was basically three songs in one, with two (the first a country song with harmonica, and the second elevator music) alternating back and forth, and the third (like the first, but Oompa Loompa) appearing at the end.

On the second side, there was a stretch of three great songs in a row, all covers. The first was a great and fun version of the blues classic T-Bone Shuffle with harmonica and piano (and here is the original). The other two, Clifton Chenier’s Lafayette Waltz and Hank Williams’ Jambalaya (which was the only song that I recognized), ran together as one song and were outstanding, but maybe that’s just because I think Zydeco (or maybe Creole, or Cajun) music is great. Here are originals of the former and the latter, and here are some covers of the former and the latter too. If I were Jesse Colin Young 50 years ago, I would record an entire record of covers like these.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me