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It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll by the Rolling Stones (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll
  • Group name: the Rolling Stones
  • Year: 1974
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Rolling Stones Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Buy it on Amazon: $28.33

It's Only Rock 'n Roll by the Rolling Stones

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’m not familiar with It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll, but I’ve reviewed these Rolling Stones records in the past few months:

What I expected

Blues rock.

What it was actually like

Ain’t Too Proud to Beg is an awesome song and I love that the Stones covered it and made it into a rock song. Did it actually need to be a rock song? I’m not sure, but it’s great as a rock song. I also loved It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (But I Like It), a hard rock song that’s hard rock in the perfect way, which is true to the blues roots of rock and hard rock; Time Waits for No One was also very strong.

Luxury was kind of interesting, with a reggae style rhythm.

Short and Curlies was the bluesiest song on the record.

Fingerprint File is more funk influenced and I thought they did an ok job with it, but it wasn’t actually a very interesting or enjoyable song.

Till the Next Goodbye was boring and slow.

Grade

4/5: would listen again

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
  • Artist name: Elton John
  • Year: 1973
  • Number of discs: two
  • Label: MCA Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics:
    • Something crossed out in black magic marker at the top center of the front of the album
    • “1.99” sticker at the top right of the front of the album
  • Buy it on Amazon: $30.99

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never listened to this record before, but I recognize a few of the songs on it by name, and guess this is supposed to be a big and important record in Elton John’s career.

Previous Elton John records that I’ve reviewed:

What I expected

I want to believe that, because I’ve heard some of these songs, I’ll enjoy hearing them again, but if I’m being realistic, just the thought of Candle in the Wind makes me dread this.

What it was actually like

Weirdly, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road opened like a Moody Blues record and I thought I might have put the wrong thing on, but no, this was definitely Elton John, and I didn’t like it, but parts of it were definitely all right.

Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock ‘n Roll), for example, was probably the closest to being a good song. I thought it just needed a little work to be at Sha Na Na level. Social disease was also all right.

Overall, I was impressed at the level of rock-style electric guitar throughout the record, such as on Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting – one doesn’t usually think of Elton John songs as being particularly guitar-heavy – but distressed at the amount of piano. I really think Elton John could have created much better music by focusing on a rock style and minimizing non-rock instrumentation.

Probably the strangest song was Jamaica Jerk-Off, which was very reggae, almost to an embarrassing degree (and I actually love reggae). I wish he had done it more like how Led Zeppelin did D’yer Mak’er.

Grade

3/5: interesting, but not for me

Sounds of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Sounds of Silence
  • Group name: Simon & Garfunkel
  • Year: 1966
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: Columbia Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics: “PROMOTION RECORD – NOT FOR SALE” stamped in red on back of album
  • Buy it on Amazon: $32.72

Sounds of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’m not sure if I’ve ever listened to this record specifically, but I do know and love some of the songs on it, and in the past few months I’ve listened to:

What I expected

Folk, folk rock, vocal harmonies.

What it was actually like

It seems like the name of the song and/or record goes back and forth between Sound of Silence and Sounds of Silence, but I suppose record-keeping wasn’t as advanced back in the XX century as it is for us moderns. This was a different version of the song, though, that had a bit more of a rock sound. I liked it, but didn’t think the change was necessary.

Generally, Sounds of Silence was much more of a rock, pop rock and folk rock record than their others, and it kind of reminded me of British Invasion groups like the Hollies, which is weird because, as I may have mentioned in the past, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel are two Ashkenazi boys from Queens.

And on that note, I’ve definitely mentioned in the past how creepy it is that these two Ashkenazi boys from Queens keep doing very overtly Christian music on their folk music records (without bothering to, you know, actually profess belief in Christianity, unlike Bob Dylan). That song on Sounds of Silence was Blessed, and it was weird!

And speaking of Bob Dylan, though Simon and Garfunkel might have anticipated Dylan’s obsession with Christianity, they definitely channeled his topical interests in Richard Cory.

Anyway, most of the record had that British Invasion sound and I quite enjoyed it – actually, now that it’s finished, I’m listening to the Hollies as I write – with the exception of Kathy’s Song, which sounded like it belonged on an earlier record, and April Come She Will, one of my favorites that I haven’t heard it since the last time I watched The Graduate.

And I Am a Rock has always seemed to me like Simon came up with a chorus but was never able to write verses for it. Shame!

Grade

5/5: love it

On Stage by Loggins and Messina (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: On Stage
  • Group name: Loggins and Messina
  • Year: 1974
  • Number of discs: two
  • Label: Columbia records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Distinguishing characteristics: “PROMOTION RECORD NOT FOR SALE” stamped in red on back of album
  • Buy it on Amazon: $2.50

On Stage by Loggins and Messina

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I don’t know very much about Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina, but I listened to Loggins and Messina a few months ago, and wasn’t that into it.

What I expected

On Stage is clearly a live record, so I hope it won’t have some of the things that I disliked about Loggins and Messina.

What it was actually like

On Stage got off to a bit of a slow start, but I definitely recognized Danny’s Song, though I had no idea that it was a Loggins and Messina song. I always thought of it as a kind of campfire type song, without ever stopping to wonder who had written it. The version on this record wasn’t the best, but I was happy to hear it.

The aptly titled Listen to a Country Song was great – very lively and catchy, and I loved the fiddle in it, and though there was at least a bit of country sound throughout the whole record, that track kicked off a stretch that consisted of country songs, through Holiday Hotel and to the next side, where Just Before the News was more of a bluegrass song that was also excellent.

Similarly, Your Mama Don’t Dance was another song that I loved – kind of a rockabilly thing, and the saxophone didn’t even bother me, though I still think that part should have been a guitar part.

On the other hand, several parts of On Stage were rather boring, and those parts tended to be where they used the horns section the most, such as Golden Ribbons and Back to Georgia, as well as parts of Trilogy. It wasn’t as corny on this record as when some other musicians have done it, however.

Angry Eyes was a really excellent rock jam that was a high point on the record.

Vahevala, which was 21 minutes long and took up the entire third side, had a lot going on: rock, country, a strong and prominent bass line, guitar solos, great percussion, flute. Parts of it were pretty dancey and I could definitely imagine this being a hit with concert audiences. Towards the end it tapered off, slowed down and got very tiresome, with seagull noises and other sound effects. Then it picked back up, but there was way too much horns at the very end.

Overall, I was extremely pleasantly surprised by On Stage!

Grade

4/5: would listen again

Madman Across the Water by Elton John (Vinyl record album review)

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Record basics

  • Album name: Madman Across the Water
  • Artist name: Elton John
  • Year: 1971
  • Number of discs: one
  • Label: MCA Records
  • Collection: Selman
  • Buy it on Amazon: $24.98

Madman Across the Water by Elton John

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’m not an Elton John fan, but I’ve previously listened to:

What I expected

I guess more easy listening / soft rock / singer songwriter type vocals with piano.

What it was actually like

No part of Madman Across the Water was any good.

I guess that Tiny Dancer is probably Elton John’s most famous song, and while I don’t think it’s an enjoyable song by any standard, one thing I do appreciate is how weird it is, both musically and lyrically. For someone like Elton John, who makes bland and forgettable music to be played on commercial radio stations like “Mix 107.3,” which is where I must have heard Tiny Dancer while being driven around in my parents’ and friends’ parents’ cars as a child, weirder is better.

I recognized Levon as well, probably also from that period of my life when I was old enough to be sentient but not really yet old enough to have defined musical tastes of my own, and definitely nowhere near old enough to be allowed control over the music selections in the car.

I didn’t listen exceedingly closely to much of the rest of the record, though I did note that All The Nasties had a pretty annoying choral vocal backing group, and that Razor Face had more of a rock sound, though the keyboard was a distraction.

Grade

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