Today is the 71st birthday of the man born Robert Allen Zimmerman, but now universally known as Bob Dylan. While I don't listen to Dylan as much as I do a number of other artists, there is no question that he was the most important artist of the 1960s after the Beatles and possibly Jimi Hendrix, and he has had a tremendous influence on popular music.
I have around a half dozen Dylan albums, including most of those that are generally regarded as his best. These include his breakthrough second album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (featuring "Blowin' in the Wind"); the half acoustic, half electric Bringing It All Back Home; the classic Highway 61 Revisited (featuring "Like a Rolling Stone"); the double album Blonde on Blonde; and his mid 1970s masterpiece Blood on the Tracks. I also have several of his recent albums, including Time Out of Mind, "Love and Theft" and Modern Times, plus two Best of Bob Dylan CDs. While these CDs make up only a small portion of his total output, they do contain a large share of what most people consider his best work, and I like all of them, particularly the ones from the 1960s.
I don't want to attempt a comprehensive listing of my favorite Dylan songs, but a number of standout tracks come to mind. From The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, there's "Blowin' in the Wind", "Masters of War" and "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall". "The Times They Are a-Changin'" is another of my favorites from his folk/protest period. From his 1965-66 peak, I love "Subterranean Homesick Blues", "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)","Positively 4th Street", "Like a Rolling Stone", "Highway 61 Revisited", "Desolation Row" and "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat". Another favorite of mine is "Tangled Up in Blue" from Blood on the Tracks. I also like "All Along the Watchtower" (though of course the Hendrix version is as good or even better than Dylan's), "Forever Young", "Shelter From The Storm" (also from Blood on the Tracks), "Jokerman", and even the "born-again" track "Gotta Serve Somebody". Of course there are a lot of other great songs I haven't mentioned here, but a CD of these songs would certainly be a great introduction to Dylan for those few who are unfamiliar with him.
Of course Dylan's songs have been widely covered by other artists, and I once made a few compilations of various Dylan covers, including some of the most famous ones. Perhaps next year when Dylan's birthday rolls around again I'll do a post on them. But thinking of Dylan covers does recall the issue of his voice. There is no question that Dylan's voice is not exactly the most pleasant around, but as with Randy Newman, he still is often the best interpreter of his own material. Still, it's occasionally nice to hear his songs done by singers with greater range than him.
A year ago, I saw Dylan when he came to Taiwan to perform. It was an entertaining show, even given that our seats were practically the worst in the place (we were up at the very top of the arena, with our backs literally to the wall). Dylan's voice, it has to be said, has definitely deteriorated, though he was able to sing all the way through the concert. He also rearranged some of his classic songs drastically, such that, when sung in his barely intelligible voice, it took me a few verses to recognize them. Fortunately, I'd spent some time listening to his more recent material as well (which also includes some really good songs, though I didn't mention any examples above), so I was familiar with a lot of what he performed. In any case, it was a worthwhile experience, if only because one doesn't get a lot of opportunities to hear an artist of Dylan's stature play live when you live in Taiwan. Now if only Paul McCartney would come here on tour....
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
What Is Life: A Late 1970 Beatles Album
A number of years ago I started a project in which I put together "Beatles" albums for the period following the group's split using the best solo tracks by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. The Beatles are almost uniquely suited for this sort of thing for a number of reasons. For one thing, all four members of the group sang. Vocals are perhaps the single most identifiable feature of a band for many listeners, so having the same vocalists makes the songs sound like they are by the same band, even when they are not. When musicians like Tony Banks or Mike Rutherford of Genesis release solo albums featuring other singers, for most listeners the songs don't sound like Genesis songs, even if many of the musical elements are the same, simply because the vocalist is not Peter Gabriel or Phil Collins. Secondly, John, Paul and George wrote all of their solo songs, except for the occasional cover or collaboration with other musicians. Even Ringo wrote or co-wrote some of his better solo songs, and many others were written by his former bandmates. If one were to put together post-1970 Simon and Garfunkel albums by putting together solo tracks by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, not only would they be missing the harmonies that typified their work together, Garfunkel's songs would not sound so much like Simon and Garfunkel because Paul Simon didn't write them (for that matter, Simon's own solo songs didn't sound a lot like Simon and Garfunkel because he changed his writing style -- but that's another issue).
Another reason the Beatles are particularly appropriate for this is they had extensive solo careers, providing the compiler with lots of material to choose from (at least until John Lennon's death, when it becomes harder to maintain a balance in the material). All four members of Queen, for example, were very good songwriters and wrote hits for the group. While Freddie Mercury's voice was one of the band's biggest assets, both Brian May and Roger Taylor sang lead often enough that their voices are also closely associated with the band. But Freddie, the main vocalist, only had two solo albums and a few other solo tracks here and there, and Brian May has also only released two proper solo albums. This doesn't provide much material to choose from (in some ways, the final Queen album, Made In Heaven, was very much like what I am doing here with the Beatles, as many of the songs were originally from solo projects, but it would be difficult to squeeze many more "Queen" albums out of the remaining solo material). In addition, the Beatles had a strong band identity. David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash (not to mention Neil Young) all sang, wrote and released plenty of solo material. But given that Crosby, Stills and Nash as a group was constantly breaking up and reforming (with or without Young) and songs were put out in different permutations (Crosby and Nash, the Stills-Young band, etc.), the group never had the unity that the Beatles had when they were together. Finally, the Beatles are well suited because they are the Beatles, a group that has been, as Nick Hornby said, practically "deified". No other band excites as much interest. In fact, a few years after I started putting my post-breakup Beatles albums together, a book was released called Let's Put the Beatles Back Together Again, based on this very concept. I finally ordered a copy a few weeks ago, and so soon I'll be checking out the writer's own ideas about what songs should go on these Beatles albums. But for now, here's the first of my Beatles album, along with the write-up that I did at the time (and posted on LiveJournal for a restricted audience of family and friends).
What Is Life
01 Maybe I'm Amazed (McCartney) 3:50
02 What Is Life (Harrison) 4:22
03 Instant Karma (Lennon) 3:21
04 It Don't Come Easy (Starkey) 3:02
05 Cold Turkey (Lennon) 5:01
06 Art Of Dying (Harrison) 3:37
07 Every Night (McCartney) 2:32
08 My Sweet Lord (Harrison) 4:37
09 God (Lennon) 4:10
10 That Would Be Something (McCartney) 2:44
11 All Things Must Pass (Harrison) 3:44
12 Junk (McCartney) 1:54
13 Give Peace A Chance (Lennon) 4:51
Total Time - 47:18
Maybe I'm Amazed
Written and Performed by Paul McCartney
Recorded 1970/02/22; Released 1970/04/20
From McCartney
What Is Life
Written and Performed by George Harrison
Drums (on about half of the album, no details available): Ringo Starr
Recorded Mid 1970; Released 1970/11/27
From All Things Must Pass
Instant Karma
Written and Performed by John Lennon
Guitar: George Harrison
Recorded 1970/01/27; Released 1970/02/06
Single
It Don't Come Easy
Written and Performed by Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr)
Guitar and Production: George Harrison
Recorded 1970/03/08; Released 1971/04/09
Single
Cold Turkey
Written and Performed by John Lennon
Drums: Ringo Starr
Recorded 1969/09/25-28; Released 1969/10/24
Single
Art Of Dying
Written and Performed by George Harrison
Drums (on about half of the album, no details available): Ringo Starr
Recorded Mid 1970; Released 1970/11/27
From All Things Must Pass
Every Night
Written and Performed by Paul McCartney
Recorded 1970/02/22; Released 1970/04/20
From McCartney
My Sweet Lord
Written and Performed by George Harrison
Drums (on about half of the album, no details available): Ringo Starr
Recorded Mid 1970; Released 1970/11/27 (single release 1970/11/23[US])
From All Things Must Pass
God
Written and Performed by John Lennon
Drums: Ringo Starr
Recorded 1970/09-10; Released 1970/12/11
From Plastic Ono Band
That Would Be Something
Written and Performed by Paul McCartney
Recorded Early 1970; Released 1970/04/20
From McCartney
All Things Must Pass
Written and Performed by George Harrison
Drums (on about half of the album, no details available): Ringo Starr
Recorded Mid 1970; Released 1970/11/27
From All Things Must Pass
Junk
Written and Performed by Paul McCartney
Recorded Early 1970; Released 1970/04/20
From McCartney
Give Peace A Chance
Written and Performed by John Lennon
[Overdubbed Drums: Ringo Starr (uncertain; no documentation available)]
Recorded 1969/06/01; Released 1969/07/04
Single
Suppose the Beatles had not broken up in early 1970 but had remained together, what might their subsequent releases have been like? There is of course no way of truly answering that question, but it's possible to at least get an idea of what might have been from their solo releases. This is my attempt to put together a post-Abbey Road, post-Let It Be Beatles album. Of course I am not the only person such an idea has occurred to; the entry from The Mojo Collection: The Greatest Albums of All Time on George Harrison's All Things Must Pass contains the following passage: "Try playing Imagine The Beatles Had Stayed Together. Gather all the Beatles solo material released in the year after the split and see if you can compile what might have been the Beatles' album for 1971. You'll find that when it comes to selecting George's contributions you'll be spoilt for choice." Though the idea of putting together some post-break up Beatles albums had occurred to me before, this reference gave me some added encouragement.
Needless to say, it is highly unlikely that, even if the Beatles had stayed together, their albums would have been exactly like these. For example, several of John's songs on What Is Life were actually released as singles while the Beatles were still together, so they wouldn't have appeared on a Beatles album. But since these songs ("Cold Turkey", "Give Peace A Chance", and "Instant Karma") are among John's best solo work, I couldn't resist including them. Another factor which would certainly have been different had the Beatles stayed together is the arrangements and production; as it is, we have the simple arrangements of the tracks from McCartney (on which Paul plays all the instruments), the ragged choruses on "Give Peace A Chance" and "Instant Karma", and Phil Spector's Wall of Sound on the tracks from All Thing Must Pass. But on the other hand, perhaps we can think of it as a later equivalent to The Beatles (The White Album), which also lacked a unified sound but is nevertheless a great album. Having said all this, most of these songs fit together rather well, and I cut the space between tracks down to a minimum so they would almost (though not quite) directly segue into each other.
What Is Life is the first album I made, and it can be considered the Beatles' album for the end of 1970, as all of these tracks were released in 1970 or earlier except "It Don't Come Easy", and that was recorded in early 1970. I almost titled the album Maybe I'm Amazed, as that is an obvious standout track, but since overall this particular album has less material from Paul than the average Beatles album I felt I should use a song by one of the others as the title track, and it also seems likely that having had a Paul song as a title track on the previous release (Let It Be), the others would have been less inclined to give him two in a row. I decided to make a George song the title track, as he has more material on this album than on any genuine Beatles release (indeed as much as either John or Paul), and he had never had one of his songs as a title track.
When it came to making song selections, it wasn't difficult to find enough material, at least for the first couple of albums. George and John in particular both got off to strong starts on their solo careers. Mojo's observation above about George is absolutely correct, due to All Things Must Pass, which is widely regarded as one of the best, and perhaps even the best, solo Beatle release (though most people ignore the extended jams that made up the third record on the original triple album). I used songs from this record on both of these CDs, and there are still great songs which have been left unused (at least one more will appear on the third "70s Beatles" album when I get around to compiling it). On What Is Life, besides the song of the same name (a great pop song and a substantial hit), I included the biggest hit off All Things Must Pass, "My Sweet Lord"; the wonderful title track; and "Art Of Dying", one of the many good album tracks.
As for John, not only did he have the above mentioned solo singles, but his first two album releases, Plastic Ono Band and Imagine, are nowadays generally regarded as his best. Again there are plenty of good songs on both of these albums which I won't be able to fit into these "Beatles" albums (for that matter most of the best songs from Imagine aren't on either What Is Life or Working Class Heroes, my second Beatles album, as I'm saving them for the third album). On the first album, I included all three of John's earlier singles, plus "God" from Plastic Ono Band. It may be a bit odd to have a song which declares "I don't believe in Beatles" on a Beatles album, but it's a great song so I had to put it on anyway. Also it sounds great coming right after George's "My Sweet Lord", so you get George's spiritual outlook contrasted with John's cynical one.
Ringo didn't get off to quite as great a start as George and John, as his first two solo albums were a selection of oldies and a country album (with material composed by Nashville songwriters) respectively. But he did release a couple of great singles which showed that he could write good songs even if he wasn't exactly prolific. "It Don't Come Easy" in particular is one of what I'd say are his two best solo songs (the second one will be appearing on a later album).
Paul, on the other hand, got off to a relatively slow start, as his first album was not very well regarded, for the most part. But the thing about Paul is that he was by far the most prolific of the Beatles after the break-up, and while most of his albums tended to be inconsistent, he usually managed to have at least a couple of good songs on each of them. His first album is a case in point. "Maybe I'm Amazed" is a universal favorite; some consider it one of his best songs ever. "Every Night" or "That Must Be Something" or both are often mentioned as other standout tracks (George, for instance, said "‘That Must Be Something’ and ‘Maybe I'm Amazed’ I think are great and everything else I think is fair..."). "Junk" meanwhile is a short, simple little tune that also has quite a few fans and dates back to the White Album period (Paul did a demo of it in May 1968 at George's house in Esher), though it was never recorded by the Beatles.
I would have been tempted to put more songs on the album to take advantage of the space on the CD, but I decided to make it as close as I could to a genuine Beatles album released in the early 70s, which meant it could only be as long as the LPs of the day (What Is Life is almost exactly the same length as Abbey Road). While the result might not be exactly what the Beatles would have released had they stayed together, it does show one thing -- there was no obvious decline in the individual Beatles' songwriting abilities, at least in the first few years after the split (I'd say the songs on this album are on average as good as those on many real Beatles albums, and better than on some -- e.g. Let It Be). The problem was that they each had to write entire albums' worth of material, and they didn't have each other to criticize their songs and force them to choose only the best. As to which ones really are the best, no doubt others would make different choices (and I still recommend listening to most of the ex-Beatles' solo albums in their entirety), but hopefully you'll get sufficient listening pleasure out of my own attempt at reuniting the Beatles, if only on CD.
Another reason the Beatles are particularly appropriate for this is they had extensive solo careers, providing the compiler with lots of material to choose from (at least until John Lennon's death, when it becomes harder to maintain a balance in the material). All four members of Queen, for example, were very good songwriters and wrote hits for the group. While Freddie Mercury's voice was one of the band's biggest assets, both Brian May and Roger Taylor sang lead often enough that their voices are also closely associated with the band. But Freddie, the main vocalist, only had two solo albums and a few other solo tracks here and there, and Brian May has also only released two proper solo albums. This doesn't provide much material to choose from (in some ways, the final Queen album, Made In Heaven, was very much like what I am doing here with the Beatles, as many of the songs were originally from solo projects, but it would be difficult to squeeze many more "Queen" albums out of the remaining solo material). In addition, the Beatles had a strong band identity. David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash (not to mention Neil Young) all sang, wrote and released plenty of solo material. But given that Crosby, Stills and Nash as a group was constantly breaking up and reforming (with or without Young) and songs were put out in different permutations (Crosby and Nash, the Stills-Young band, etc.), the group never had the unity that the Beatles had when they were together. Finally, the Beatles are well suited because they are the Beatles, a group that has been, as Nick Hornby said, practically "deified". No other band excites as much interest. In fact, a few years after I started putting my post-breakup Beatles albums together, a book was released called Let's Put the Beatles Back Together Again, based on this very concept. I finally ordered a copy a few weeks ago, and so soon I'll be checking out the writer's own ideas about what songs should go on these Beatles albums. But for now, here's the first of my Beatles album, along with the write-up that I did at the time (and posted on LiveJournal for a restricted audience of family and friends).
What Is Life
01 Maybe I'm Amazed (McCartney) 3:50
02 What Is Life (Harrison) 4:22
03 Instant Karma (Lennon) 3:21
04 It Don't Come Easy (Starkey) 3:02
05 Cold Turkey (Lennon) 5:01
06 Art Of Dying (Harrison) 3:37
07 Every Night (McCartney) 2:32
08 My Sweet Lord (Harrison) 4:37
09 God (Lennon) 4:10
10 That Would Be Something (McCartney) 2:44
11 All Things Must Pass (Harrison) 3:44
12 Junk (McCartney) 1:54
13 Give Peace A Chance (Lennon) 4:51
Total Time - 47:18
Maybe I'm Amazed
Written and Performed by Paul McCartney
Recorded 1970/02/22; Released 1970/04/20
From McCartney
What Is Life
Written and Performed by George Harrison
Drums (on about half of the album, no details available): Ringo Starr
Recorded Mid 1970; Released 1970/11/27
From All Things Must Pass
Instant Karma
Written and Performed by John Lennon
Guitar: George Harrison
Recorded 1970/01/27; Released 1970/02/06
Single
It Don't Come Easy
Written and Performed by Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr)
Guitar and Production: George Harrison
Recorded 1970/03/08; Released 1971/04/09
Single
Cold Turkey
Written and Performed by John Lennon
Drums: Ringo Starr
Recorded 1969/09/25-28; Released 1969/10/24
Single
Art Of Dying
Written and Performed by George Harrison
Drums (on about half of the album, no details available): Ringo Starr
Recorded Mid 1970; Released 1970/11/27
From All Things Must Pass
Every Night
Written and Performed by Paul McCartney
Recorded 1970/02/22; Released 1970/04/20
From McCartney
My Sweet Lord
Written and Performed by George Harrison
Drums (on about half of the album, no details available): Ringo Starr
Recorded Mid 1970; Released 1970/11/27 (single release 1970/11/23[US])
From All Things Must Pass
God
Written and Performed by John Lennon
Drums: Ringo Starr
Recorded 1970/09-10; Released 1970/12/11
From Plastic Ono Band
That Would Be Something
Written and Performed by Paul McCartney
Recorded Early 1970; Released 1970/04/20
From McCartney
All Things Must Pass
Written and Performed by George Harrison
Drums (on about half of the album, no details available): Ringo Starr
Recorded Mid 1970; Released 1970/11/27
From All Things Must Pass
Junk
Written and Performed by Paul McCartney
Recorded Early 1970; Released 1970/04/20
From McCartney
Give Peace A Chance
Written and Performed by John Lennon
[Overdubbed Drums: Ringo Starr (uncertain; no documentation available)]
Recorded 1969/06/01; Released 1969/07/04
Single
Suppose the Beatles had not broken up in early 1970 but had remained together, what might their subsequent releases have been like? There is of course no way of truly answering that question, but it's possible to at least get an idea of what might have been from their solo releases. This is my attempt to put together a post-Abbey Road, post-Let It Be Beatles album. Of course I am not the only person such an idea has occurred to; the entry from The Mojo Collection: The Greatest Albums of All Time on George Harrison's All Things Must Pass contains the following passage: "Try playing Imagine The Beatles Had Stayed Together. Gather all the Beatles solo material released in the year after the split and see if you can compile what might have been the Beatles' album for 1971. You'll find that when it comes to selecting George's contributions you'll be spoilt for choice." Though the idea of putting together some post-break up Beatles albums had occurred to me before, this reference gave me some added encouragement.
Needless to say, it is highly unlikely that, even if the Beatles had stayed together, their albums would have been exactly like these. For example, several of John's songs on What Is Life were actually released as singles while the Beatles were still together, so they wouldn't have appeared on a Beatles album. But since these songs ("Cold Turkey", "Give Peace A Chance", and "Instant Karma") are among John's best solo work, I couldn't resist including them. Another factor which would certainly have been different had the Beatles stayed together is the arrangements and production; as it is, we have the simple arrangements of the tracks from McCartney (on which Paul plays all the instruments), the ragged choruses on "Give Peace A Chance" and "Instant Karma", and Phil Spector's Wall of Sound on the tracks from All Thing Must Pass. But on the other hand, perhaps we can think of it as a later equivalent to The Beatles (The White Album), which also lacked a unified sound but is nevertheless a great album. Having said all this, most of these songs fit together rather well, and I cut the space between tracks down to a minimum so they would almost (though not quite) directly segue into each other.
What Is Life is the first album I made, and it can be considered the Beatles' album for the end of 1970, as all of these tracks were released in 1970 or earlier except "It Don't Come Easy", and that was recorded in early 1970. I almost titled the album Maybe I'm Amazed, as that is an obvious standout track, but since overall this particular album has less material from Paul than the average Beatles album I felt I should use a song by one of the others as the title track, and it also seems likely that having had a Paul song as a title track on the previous release (Let It Be), the others would have been less inclined to give him two in a row. I decided to make a George song the title track, as he has more material on this album than on any genuine Beatles release (indeed as much as either John or Paul), and he had never had one of his songs as a title track.
When it came to making song selections, it wasn't difficult to find enough material, at least for the first couple of albums. George and John in particular both got off to strong starts on their solo careers. Mojo's observation above about George is absolutely correct, due to All Things Must Pass, which is widely regarded as one of the best, and perhaps even the best, solo Beatle release (though most people ignore the extended jams that made up the third record on the original triple album). I used songs from this record on both of these CDs, and there are still great songs which have been left unused (at least one more will appear on the third "70s Beatles" album when I get around to compiling it). On What Is Life, besides the song of the same name (a great pop song and a substantial hit), I included the biggest hit off All Things Must Pass, "My Sweet Lord"; the wonderful title track; and "Art Of Dying", one of the many good album tracks.
As for John, not only did he have the above mentioned solo singles, but his first two album releases, Plastic Ono Band and Imagine, are nowadays generally regarded as his best. Again there are plenty of good songs on both of these albums which I won't be able to fit into these "Beatles" albums (for that matter most of the best songs from Imagine aren't on either What Is Life or Working Class Heroes, my second Beatles album, as I'm saving them for the third album). On the first album, I included all three of John's earlier singles, plus "God" from Plastic Ono Band. It may be a bit odd to have a song which declares "I don't believe in Beatles" on a Beatles album, but it's a great song so I had to put it on anyway. Also it sounds great coming right after George's "My Sweet Lord", so you get George's spiritual outlook contrasted with John's cynical one.
Ringo didn't get off to quite as great a start as George and John, as his first two solo albums were a selection of oldies and a country album (with material composed by Nashville songwriters) respectively. But he did release a couple of great singles which showed that he could write good songs even if he wasn't exactly prolific. "It Don't Come Easy" in particular is one of what I'd say are his two best solo songs (the second one will be appearing on a later album).
Paul, on the other hand, got off to a relatively slow start, as his first album was not very well regarded, for the most part. But the thing about Paul is that he was by far the most prolific of the Beatles after the break-up, and while most of his albums tended to be inconsistent, he usually managed to have at least a couple of good songs on each of them. His first album is a case in point. "Maybe I'm Amazed" is a universal favorite; some consider it one of his best songs ever. "Every Night" or "That Must Be Something" or both are often mentioned as other standout tracks (George, for instance, said "‘That Must Be Something’ and ‘Maybe I'm Amazed’ I think are great and everything else I think is fair..."). "Junk" meanwhile is a short, simple little tune that also has quite a few fans and dates back to the White Album period (Paul did a demo of it in May 1968 at George's house in Esher), though it was never recorded by the Beatles.
I would have been tempted to put more songs on the album to take advantage of the space on the CD, but I decided to make it as close as I could to a genuine Beatles album released in the early 70s, which meant it could only be as long as the LPs of the day (What Is Life is almost exactly the same length as Abbey Road). While the result might not be exactly what the Beatles would have released had they stayed together, it does show one thing -- there was no obvious decline in the individual Beatles' songwriting abilities, at least in the first few years after the split (I'd say the songs on this album are on average as good as those on many real Beatles albums, and better than on some -- e.g. Let It Be). The problem was that they each had to write entire albums' worth of material, and they didn't have each other to criticize their songs and force them to choose only the best. As to which ones really are the best, no doubt others would make different choices (and I still recommend listening to most of the ex-Beatles' solo albums in their entirety), but hopefully you'll get sufficient listening pleasure out of my own attempt at reuniting the Beatles, if only on CD.
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