The Doors - Morrison Hotel - 1970
That's definitely more like it!Their previous album, The Soft Parade, had been a bit underwhelming, to say the least. Riddled with orchestrations, strings, brasses and a Jim Morrison that sounded monotone and slightly indifferent, it was a low point in the career of the band.
This one, on the other hand, is not just a return to form for the band, but the most energetic album they had released up to that point. There are classic "atmospheric" pieces, like "Waiting for the Sun", but there's a lot of blues and rock here, and when the album starts and you hear the first chords of "Roadhouse Blues", you can't but think that you're in for a treat. And this one doesn't disappoint.
Well, maybe it does, a bit.The album was divided into 2 parts, the first side called Hard Rock Cafe, the second, Morrison Hotel, the first side being more blues/rock oriented, the second, moodier. Which is not a problem, per se, but the energy of the opening track dissipates fairly quickly, I think.
Still, it's a great album, a lot of fun to listen to, and a move in the right direction, foreshadowing what would be their last release, L.A.Woman.
- According to Alice Cooper, the line from "Roadhouse Blues" that I chose for the title of this entry was inspired by him. I chose it because, well, what better line to choose for a Doors song. But I wasn't aware of Alice having anything to do with it. Since he's in this post, it seems even more adequate.
- For some reason the base at the start of "Peace Frog" reminds me a lot of Elvis's "A little less conversation".
- I'm so glad "Waiting for the Sun" ended up in this album and not in the eponymous one. That one wasn't as bad as The Soft Parade, but certainly not as good as this one.
- The opening lines of "Roadhouse Blues" are "Keep your eyes on the road, your hand upon the wheel". It was a contender for title of this entry. Probably one of the best driving songs ever.
Nanana Nananana Nananana
The Beatles - Hey Jude - 1970
I will not usually post (or listen to) compilations here, except when they give something that I couldn't listen to otherwise.
And this is a perfect example of that: With the 60s habit of not including singles in the albums, there are tons of songs by The Beatles that never made it into an album and are great tunes.
And this is a perfect example of that: With the 60s habit of not including singles in the albums, there are tons of songs by The Beatles that never made it into an album and are great tunes.
The album was released mainly for commercial reasons, and as a means to gather songs that had been big single hits, especially in the later years.
It is an album I like quite a lot, with some big favourite tunes of mine, like the title track, "Lady Madonna", "The Ballad of John & Yoko", "Paperback Writer", and the rockier version of "Revolution".
- "The Ballad..." was removed from the original released in Spain because the lyrics say, referring to John & Yoko's wedding that it was in "Gibraltar near Spain".
- "Hey Jude" is one of my favourite Beatles's songs ever. There are some songs that would be just OK except for some moment that makes them great. I think the coda of the song is one of those moments.
- The "Hey Jude" video is pretty crazy. Somewhere in the YouTube page there's a comment i can relate to. It goes like this:
Me: I like songs with deep lyrics.
Beatles: nanananananana
Me: omg I'm crying
Who put all this in motion
Alice Cooper - Easy Action - 1970
Another rather crazy Alice album here.
I think I actually like this one more than his previous one, but he was still figuring things out, for the most part.
Hard to categorise, definitely, There's a lot of strange sounds, that sometimes remind of Zappa, sometimes of Bowie, and sometimes it seems to go full Captain Beefheart crazy. There's the occasional catchy tune, like "Mr. and Misdemeanor", or "Beautiful Flyaway", and some others, like "Return of the Spiders" are almost punk in their attitude.
Definitely one I will return, but not sure if it's an album for everyone.
- "Laughing at me" reminds me a lot of some Bowie song. "Man who Sold the World", perhaps?
- The title of the album, apparently, was inspired by "West Side Story", the romantic musical tragedy film. It seems like the band members were big fans. Go figure.
- One of the tracks is called "Refrigerator Heaven". At some point I read a short story with that name. I'm gonna try and find the book because I think the story was pretty good.
- As far as titles go, I think "Mr and Misdemeanor" is a very cool one!
- The video is not one of my favourite ones in the album, but it's the only one I could find.
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