MALLINation

The Stooges - one of 1969's best

For our latest flashback we take you on a trip back to 1969 – the year of Woodstock and Altamont when peace and love co-existed with the fallout of the turbulence of the previous year’s wave of assassinations, the election of Richard Nixon, and the continuing trauma of the Vietnam War.

It was a rich year for music with a number of major acts at their peak, a few hidden gems, and the roots of a few genres like funk, punk, and alternative beginning to emerge. So what albums make my favorites list? Here they are in no discernible order at all – my top 25 of 1969:

1. The Beatles – Abbey Road

Though 1970’s Let it Be would be the last album the Beatles would release, Abbey Road is the last one they recorded and it functions as their true swansong, closing the book on what could be the greatest career in rock. Their most lush album also features the best ever harmonies from all four Beatles – ironically their voices had never blended so sweetly across so many tracks. Paul McCartney’s bass playing is at a peak, nearly a lead instrument in its expressiveness and tonality.

In fact this is often described as McCartney’s album which is a bit unfair. Side 2’s extended suites are indeed the work of McCartney and George Martin in terms of sequencing though the encompass Lennon and George Harrison songs but Side 1 belongs to Lennon’s sequencing. More importantly Harrison’s songs are his two best to date (“Something” and “Here Comes the Sun”) and Lennon is no slouch with tracks like “Come Together” and “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”. That second side? Pure bliss and a knowing, fitting coda for 8 years of innovation and musical accomplishment that eclipsed all others.

2. The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed

Let it Bleed is the second of a set of classic albums that define the Stones at the peak of their powers (the others being Beggar’s Banquet (1968), Sticky Fingers (1971), and Exile on Main Street (1972)) . It’s similar in sequencing and feel to the previous record but builds on many of its strengths with a darker more chaotic vibe. “Gimme Shelter” and “Midnight Rambler” take the voodoo groove of “Sympathy For The Devil” and run with it. “Let it Bleed” is a country blues epic and the magnificent “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” with it’s angelic boy’s choir and killer buildup served as the basis for entire albums of material by the likes of Primal Scream and every inferior overblown Guns N Roses ballad.

3. The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground

After the lacerating feedback and experiments in sound that marked their previous record White Light/White Heat VU explored a quieter and just as compelling side, with some of Lou Reed’s strongest songs. Absent was John Cale, who had acted as a provocateur to Reed in much the same way as Brian Eno would for Bryan Ferry a few years later in early Roxy Music. As in Roxy though,  the Reed’s pop sensibility would win out though “The Murder Mystery” is as ear challenging as anything in their catalog. Despite such standout tunes as “Candy Says”, “Pale Blue Eyes” and “What Goes On” not to mention drummer Mo Tucker’s charming lead on “After Hours” the record was a flop – just like the first two Velvet’s albums.

4. Neil Young and Crazy Horse – Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

After the breakup of Buffalo Springfield Neil Young lit out for a solo career and promptly released two records in 1969. The first was a fine and eclectic effort aided by Jack Nitsche with grand orchestrations and overdubs throughout. The second Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, which came out a scant four moths later, was with a bar band called Crazy Horse and featured blazing guitar epics offset with yearning country rock. For the rest of his career he would use the sound of this album as a touchstone – from the intensity of “Cinnamon Girl” to the twang of the title track to the long workouts of “Cowgirl in the Sand” and “Down by the River”.

5. The Band – The Band

The first Band album Music From Big Pink signaled a shift away from the expansiveness of psychedelia into a more earnest and rich exploration of roots music, what today would be called Americana. As praised as that record is (and justly) the self-titled follow-up is even better, with seemingly timeless songs like “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” and “Rag Mama Rag” exploring a mythic America that Bob Dylan would similarly limb on his most recent records like Time Out of Mind.

6. Led Zeppelin -  Led Zeppelin II

Jimmy Page was a legendary guitar-slinger for hire throughout much of the 60s, rumored to have played on tracks like “You Really Got Me” by The Kinks amongst many others. His last big gig was in the Yarbirds, filling a guitar chair previously occupied by Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. Zepplelin was his own creation though as he proved by ditching the original moniker of The New Yardbirds and spewing out two great albums in their inaugural year. As great as the first record was though, as with the Band and Neil Young it’s LP number 2 that cemented the legend – “Whole Lotta Love”, “Heartbreaker”, “The Lemon Song”, all charge ahead with brutal efficiency while “Thank You” nods at the broader palette that would open up subsequently.

7. The Kinks -  Arthur or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire

A spat with the musicians union had all but killed The Kinks career stateside, which may or may not have spurred Ray Davies into his explorations of Britishness that would lay the groundwork for the Britpop bands of the 90s like Blur, Pulp and to a lesser extent Oasis. Arthur is named for Davies brother-in-law and taken in part from the story of his sister’s family and their emigration to Australia. It’s a tougher-edged record than Village Green Preservation Society with uptempo tunes like “Victoria”, “Driving” and “Arthur” setting the pace. The extended “Shangri-La” is one of the Kinks best and most ambitious songs, a multi-part extravaganza that would make the Decemberists green with envy.

8. Sly and the Family Stone -  Stand!

Sly Stone was a DJ and producer in San Francisco and was well-aware of the move away from singles to well-sequenced albums, yet the first few albums by his band were patchy affairs. With Stand! Stone would find his groove, with track after track of impeccably arranged ass-moving songs that spoke to the political and social changes that were happening. Where his earlier songs held out hope for reconciliation, on this record for every “Everyday People” there’s a “Somebody’s Watching You”, prefiguring the stoned-out dread of 1971’s There’s a Riot Going On .

9. The Flying Burrito Bros- The Gilded Palace of Sin

Gram Parson’s would prove to be a controversial figure in rock, a trust fund kid who would bring country grit to rock and lead The Byrd’s to singing about stuff like life in prison and deep religious belief which were far removed from his own experience. Still, whether covering others or writing his own stuff as on most of this record, Parson’s always felt 100% authentic – something that would entrance fellow hard-liver Keith Richards who would soon fall under his spell.

10 Fairport Convention – Liege & Lief

Just as Neil Young and Gram Parsons were bringing folk and country sounds to a rock audience in the States, Fairport Convention were doing much the same with traditional folk tropes in Blighty. They released a whopping three records of great material in 1969, but it’s here that vocalist Sandy Denny fully melds with their classic line-up which feature Richard Thompson on guitar.

11 Isaac Hayes -  Hot Buttered Soul

In its own way as psychedelic as anything to come out of San Francisco, Hayes like Sly Stone was pioneering album based soul – what would come to be known as funk. Hayes rich orchestrations and lengthy songs also prefigured disco only with a deeper, slower groove. The standouts are “Walk On By”, a remarkable reconfigurement of Burt Bacharach’s classic stretched like taffy past the 12 minute mark. Then there’s “By The Time I get to Pheonix”, a song that it’s hard to imagine original writer Jimmy Webb seeing as clocking in at nearly 20 minutes – including monologue.

12 Creedence Clearwater Revival – Willy and the Poor Boys

Creedence has a remarkably short peak – pretty much all of 1969 with some greatness at the tail end of 68 and the beginning of 1970. As their albums went, this was the peak of the peak- showing off some of John Fogerty’s best songs with very little filler. Creedence was knocked at the time as not being an important ambitious band but the songs come from the gut – short and aharp like the populist “Fortunate Son” or the cowbell nirvana that is “Down on the Corner”. It may be that their continued embrace of the individual song over the album and their love of straight-ahead rock forms (not unlike The Band) led long-haired rock critics to view them as the musical equivalent of the reactionaries who voted for Nixon in ‘68.

13 Caetano Veloso – Caetano Veloso

While American bands like the MC5 and Jefferson Airplane played at political subversion in Brazil artists like Veloso were living it – imprisoned by the military dictatorship for their songs. Veloso recorded his vocals from his prison cell which is a lot cooler as an act of defiance than a badge of street cred as it often is for modern rappers. It’s a sad, engrossing record that reflects a dark period that is not so far removed than the reality that artists face in many countries today.

14 The Stooges - The Stooges

Iggy Pop’s introduction to the world was at the hands of one of his heroes – ex Velvet Underground guy John Cale who produced this remarkable debut album. The Stooges were a much more aggressive and assualtive band than the Velvets, essentially birthing punk with their raw sound, stripped of most of the overt blues signifyers that had underpinned most rock. The most Velvet’s like track is the 10 munte “We Will Fall” which has Cale’s experimental fingerprints all over it, but it’s anthems like “I Wanna Be Your Dog” with it’s nagging keyboard riff, “No Fun”, and “1969″ which all declaimed Iggy Pop’s war against the hippy culture that defined music at the time.

15 The Who -  Tommy

Tommy may not be The Who’s best album, but it is their signature record – the work that brought them stardom and put them on nearly equal fotting with the best of rock royalty. As the first concept album recognized as such (if not in actuality), it bears all the fdrawbacks of the form – song fragments that exist only to adavance a barely coherent plot, bombast, overlength. Yet it mostly succeeds on the strength of the band’s talents and the core of great songs by Pete Townshend like “Pinball Wizard” and “I’m Free”.

16 Captain Beefheart  - Trout Mask Replica

Zappa compatriot Captain Beefheart had a similar taste for the avant-garde but where Zappa deigned to employ forms like doo-wop and garage rock, often with a wink or sneer, Beefheart simply put everything into a blender – free-jazz, improv, rock – and came out with something unique. Trout Mask Replica sounds like absolutely nothing else – even followers like no wave skronksters John Zorn or James Chance have to approach from another angle. Not often something I play, it’s still one I’m glad to have heard and own.

17 Gilberto Gil – Gilberto Gil

Like Caetano Veloso, Brazil’s military dictatorship would imprison Gilberto Gil, leading to the pair’s flight to safety in England. Before being locked away though he recorded this album which is another classic in the tropicalia genre, melding elements of traditional Brazilian pop, psychedlica and straight ahead rock into an appealing stew that would heavily influence later artists like Talking Heads and Beck.

18 Gal Costa - Cinema Olympia

Another entry in Brazil’s thriving music scene, Costa managed to avoid prison, perhaps because her musical groundbreaking managed to distract the authorities from her lyrical content. Throbbing bass and rhythm, noisy guitars and out-there vocal paroxysms all meld into a unique musical experience and one of the best albums of a fertile scene.

19 Bob Dylan Nashville Skyline

For the tea-leaf readers looking for political insight and guidance from Bob Dylan, Nashville Skyline was nothing short of dismaying. While John Wesley Harding’s biblical and outlaw imagery suggested a return to the land in order to foment revolution a la the Weather Underground, this album’s wholehearted embrace of country, the most conservative of musical forms, seemed like a capitulation. Dylan doesn’t even sing like himself , gently balladeering on “Lay Lady Lay” in a completely new tone. Yet it’s a remarkable and listenable album, from his duet with Johnny Cash on “Girl From the North Country” to “I Threw it All Away”.

20 Procol Harum – A Salty Dog

For most folks the Procol Harum story begins and ends with their 1967 smash “A Whiter Shade of Pale”, but they made several varied and excellent records into the early 1970s. A Salty Dog is one of their best, showing off the range of Brooker and Reid’s songwriting and the flashy guitar of then-member Robin Trower on songs like “The Devil Came From Kansas”, the title track, and “Wreck of the Hesperus”.

21 Love – Four Sail

Arthur Lee, Love’s main man, had pretty much replaced every original member by the time this one came out, perhaps in response to “Alone Again Or” becoming the band’s biggest hit to date without him singing or writing it. Four Sail is a more insular album than their previous work but Lee is an amazing songwriter serving up gems like the multi-hued “August” and the pensively gorgeous “Always See Your Face” with it’s breathtaking horn arrangement.

22 Shocking Blue – At Home

Shocking Blue is sometimes considered a bit of a joke, mostly known for their hit “Venus”, but no less than Kurt Cobain thought enough of the band to cover the fantastic “Love Buzz”. This album is full of similar crunchy, brightly arranged tunes set slightly askew by somewhat tortured English-as-a-second-language lyrics (they were Dutch after all) – which only make it more fascinating.

23 The Beach Boys 20/20

At this point one of the only folks to find the Beach Boys cool was Charles Manson, who hung around the group and even wrote the b-side “Look at Your Game Girl”. Everyone else had moved on to heavier things leaving the band to struggle along with material that was often as interesting as it was frustrating to record companies. 20/20 was a hodgepodge that showed that Capital records would prefer to put albums together the bad old way, singles surrounded by a grab bag of tracks from anywhere and time – in this case some Smile leftovers like “Cabinessence”. This still made for a highly listenable stew.

24 The Shaggs -  Philosophy of the World

Much has been written, by many better writers than I, about the three Wiggens  sisters and the album that was recorded for them at the behest of their biggest fan, their father. As primitivist as Captain Beefheart but coming from a genuinely naive, untrained place, it’s a record that surfaces all kinds of questions about teh nature of art, creativity, even melody and song form. “Who Are Parents” and “My Pal Foot-Foot” are the kind of things hipsters strain to emulate without the guilessness and geniune discovery of The Shaggs.

25  Nick Drake -  Five Leaves Left

Lush and inviting, Nick Drake’s debut took folk into some of the daring orchestrations Neil Young attempted on his debut but with more subtlety and success with songs like “Cello Song” and the gorgeous “River Man” leaving a haunting indelible impression.