Really want to see you, really want to be with you

George Harrison - All Things Must Pass - 1970

As years go by, I find myself increasingly fond of the "lesser" two Beatles, George and Ringo. Ringo I like because he seems like a cool chap, who enjoys life and can have fun. Also, he got Princess Leia on a video, and that's quite something. But I don't think I ever paid much attention to his music outside the occasional songs with The Beatles.
But I like George a lot too. Unlike Ringo, who seemed to be having fun no matter how much or how little he did, I always got the feeling that George was the one that sort of got left behind by that enormous song-writing machine that was Lennon/McCartney.
But in his extremely understated way, he might well be much more influential than we realise. After all, he was the first one to introduce the Eastern vibe to The Beatles' songs and, while I have never been a fan of those songs too much, the fact is that everybody else started doing that kind of thing soon enough, and the whole Eastern craze caught on like a house of fire and, pretty much, shaped the late 1960s.
And, as soon as The Beatles were no more, the calm and understated guy went and released a triple album, and I have to be honest and say that I had never really paid all that much attention to it. But listening to it now, there's two things that strike me: First, there are a lot of really awesome songs here.
The second is that this album, that seems less experimental, evolved, crazy than other contemporary releases, might have been quite influential in the "softer" varieties of rock. At its most obvious, I think that bands like ELO wouldn't have existed without this one. But a lot of the indie pop/rock of the 80s and 90s owes this one a lot of gratitude.
So glad I listened to this one again!

• The most famous song from this album, and probably from George's career is, of course, "My Sweet Lord". It's a beautiful song, and I always loved his idea of joining different religions in one awesome song.
• There's a song called "Apple Scruffs". It's actually dedicated to the fans that would hang around endlessly at Apple. For a moment there, I actually thought it was about apples, and considering he had written "Savoy Truffle" for The Beatles, and that there's a jam here called "Thanks for the Pepperoni", I was a bit amazed at how much he liked food!! 
• While the tone of many songs here can be spiritual to the point of self-righteousness, some are also filled with irony, which is a very good thing.
• Putting "My Sweet Lord" here would have been the obvious choice, but I'm going to put one of my recently discovered favourites. I can't believe I had never paid attention to this song. Here's "Beware of Darkness".

There's no room for anger, we're all very small

David Bowie - The Man who Sold the World - 1970

Out of all the early Bowie albums, this is probably the one I have listened to the least. Not too sure why. Probably the fact that it's quite different from what came before and after has something to do with it.
This album feels heavier than anything else he's ever released. It's no Black Sabbath, but it has a slower and lower vibe to it, that is a detour from the previous albums.
It is much more even than Space Oddity, as far as quality goes. I can't find any really bad tracks here, and after not listening to it in a long time, it's getting better every time I play it. 

But what strikes me the most, and what I had really not paid too much attention before, is the crazed, nightmarish, intense and extremely visual quality of the lyrics. Bowie was always a unique songwriter, and I love the way in which he tells stories through songs, and he always liked to deal with unusual topics in his songs. But this feels like a whole new level of strange. Just to mention some topics, we have madness, the persistent idea that we are an obstacle as a species, intelligent all-powerful machines getting bored with us, murderous joy in war, elder evil gods, and a bizarre sexual encounter with some devilish deity. 

Lovecraft would have been a fan. And Nietzsche too. 

• Of course, the title track is super famous and Nirvana made a cover, that made the song even more famous and all that. It's a great song, quite a bit overplayed after the cover. 
• Apart from sounding heavier and having really dark lyrics, this one was a big influence on some of 80s goth rock bands. There are a good few songs that it wouldn't surprise me to hear by Siouxsie & The Banshees, for example.
• One of the goth-like songs, and one of my favourites, is "All the Madmen", which portrays a nightmarish scenario in which, apparently, the sane are imprisoned and the crazy ones free. It has a spoken interlude that says:
  Where can the horizon lie
  When a nation hides
  Its organic minds in a cellar... dark and grim
  They must be very dim
• Another one that's brilliant, and also a bit goth in music and spirit is "After All", a beautiful and strange song that seems to take the children's world from "There is a Happy Land", and turn the happiness into a nightmare. The "oh by jingo" refrain gives me goosebumps for some reason.
• I was struggling on which of the two I just mentioned to put here. I'll just put both.

And also....

Jefferson Airplane - The Worst of - 1970

I will avoid compilations, unless I don't have enough from the band, or they are somehow important because they have a lot of unreleased material. In this case, I gave this one a listen because I only had Surrealistic Pillow.
Jefferson Airplane will from now on be one of the most disappointing bands I have ever heard (well, the Moody Blues are good at that too). I never liked their future incarnations, Jefferson Starship and Starship, and now I know I don't like this one much either.
"White Rabbit" is still one of the best songs ever, I'll give them that.