As I hinted at in the introduction to a previous post, the link to my article "Taiwanese Popular Music from the End of World War II through the 1960s" on the Taiwan Culture Portal seems to be dead (indeed, the Taiwan Culture Portal doesn't seem to exist anymore, at least not in its original format - the original web address now appears to be that of the main website for the Ministry of Culture, though I didn't explore it in any depth). Since I was far to busy to write anything new for November (in fact this post was backdated a few days to ensure I had something online for that month, as I didn't really post it until a few days into December), this seemed like a good time to post the original article here, though with the caveat that it is now over ten years old, and could use some serious updating in light of things I've learned since. I did make a few minor changes, but not as many as I would have if I had more time.
Sixty years ago, Taiwan's music scene was dramatically different from what it is today. In the years immediately after World War II, the music industry hit a commercial low point beside which today's moribund industry seems prosperous. Of course, the reasons for the industry's problems in the late 1940s and early 1950s were completely different from those of today. The primary problem was simply that Taiwan, its infrastructure damaged and its economy severly disrupted by the war, was very poor. The few records that were produced were of much lower quality than those that had been released in the 1930s, due to material shortages and the need to keep costs down. Since there were few records and relatively few could afford stereo equipment anyway, live performances were a major source of music for many people. The chief venues for music were what were known as geting (歌廳), which translates as music hall. In the first few years after the war, there were open-air geting along the riverside in Taipei, though soon these were replaced by cabaret-style venues, which remained popular into the 1970s. Larger scale performances were occasionally held in the large hall which had recently been renamed Zhongshan Hall (中山堂). Performances here or in the more expensive music halls were by big bands, of which there were several prominent in the 1950s. On the opposite end of the scale, in the streets there were itinerant musicians of all sorts. Another source of music was radio broadcasts. Many of the prominent musicians, composers and performers of the time did shows on the radio or worked full time for radio stations. Another opportunity for performing was at shows put on by the military for entertaining soldiers.
Though relatively few records were produced in the first decade or so after the war, quite a few songs that are now considered classics were released in this period. A few of them were recorded in this era, though others seem not to have been released record until some years later. One of the most prominent composers of the late 1940s and 1950s was Yang Sanlang (楊三郎), who was also founder and leader of the Black Cat Big Band (黑貓歌舞團). Working with lyricists like Nakano (那卡諾), who also played drums in the Black Cat Big Band, and Zhou Tianweng (周添旺), who had written lyrics for many classics of the Japanese era, Yang wrote "Hoping You Come Home Soon" (望你早歸), "Song of Bitter Romance" (苦戀歌), "Love's Lonely Flower" (孤戀花), "A Rainy Night at the Port" (港都夜雨), "Autumn Wind on a Rainy Night" (秋風夜雨) and many more. Another composer and bandleader in this era was Xu Shi (許石), who also established one of the first postwar record companies. His best-known songs included "Anping Nostalgic Melody [Remembering Anping]" (安平追想曲) and "When the Gong Is Sounded" (鑼聲若響). Other classics from the first decade or so after the war included two songs by Zhang Qiu Dongsong (張邱冬松), "Old Glass Bottles" (收酒矸) and "Hot Rice Dumplings" (燒肉粽); "Mending a Broken Net" (補破網), written by lyricist Li Linqiu (李臨秋) and composer Wang Yunfeng (王雲峰), both of whom were prominent songwriters in the Japanese era; and "You Can't Raise Goldfish In a Wineglass (Bottoms Up)" (杯底不可飼金魚) by classical-trained composer Lu Quansheng (呂泉生). These songs vividly reflected the times in which they were written, as did songs like "Miss Lottery Ticket" (獎券小姐), which referred to a very popular government lottery of the 1950s.
All of the abovementioned songs were in Hoklo (also called Minnan or Taiwanese), the language of Taiwan's largest ethnic group. Though Mandarin speakers began coming to Taiwan after 1945 and there was a huge influx of them in 1949 when China fell to the Communists and the KMT moved its government and what remained of its army to Taiwan, performance catering to this group consisted almost entirely of older Mandarin songs from Shanghai like "Night Blossom [Tuberose]" (夜來香) or new Mandarin hits produced in Hong Kong (where most of the Shanghai entertainment industry moved after 1949). Performances and records of such songs were popular throughout the 1950s and 1960s (and even in more recent decades). Many singers who made a name for themselves performing in music halls in Taiwan did so singing oldies from Shanghai and even English songs. Some of these early singers included Gao Manli (高曼麗), the sisters Shuanghua (霜華) and Xuehua (雪華), Ziwei (紫薇), and Painana (派娜娜) [Note: Painana was a Taiwanese aborigine from the Alishan area, the daughter of Gao Yisheng (高一生), an intellectual, composer, local leader and victim of the White Terror, in which many intellectuals and dissidents were arrested and executed by the KMT government]. While cover songs predominated, however, there were two Mandarin songs of note which came out of Taiwan in the first decade after the war. The first of these was the aboriginal-flavored "High Green Mountain" (高山青) from the first movie produced in Taiwan after the war, The Transformation of Alishan (阿里山風雲). The second was "Green Island Serenade" (綠島小夜曲), which will be discussed below.
By the late 1950s, records were becoming more common, as were Taiwanese films, which often included new songs in their soundtracks or were inspired by and named after classic songs or recent hits. On the negative side, however, many record companies prefered to keep costs down by copying foreign songs (international copyrights were not an issue in those days) and having Hoklo lyrics added to them, thus avoiding having to pay local songwriters to write original melodies (in many cases, even the arrangements were copied). The vast majority of the foreign songs copied in Taiwan in this period were from Japan, since, having grown up under the Japanese, many Taiwanese had a taste for Japanese melodies, particularly for the melancholy Japanese song form called enka. These Japanese songs with Hoklo lyrics were known as "mixed-blood" or "translated" songs. One of the most popular singers of the late 1950s and 1960s was Wen Xia (文夏), the vocalist on well-known songs such as "Hometown At Dusk" (黃昏的故鄉), "Mama, Please Take Care of Yourself" (媽媽請你也保重), and "The Stars Understand My Heart" (星星知我心), which were songs which he directly translated from Japanese. Among the many other popular songs of this type were "Dusk on the Mountain Range" (黃昏嶺), sung by Ji Luxia (紀露霞), one of the most popular singers of the era; "The Orphan's Wish" (孤女的願望) and "Happily Going Sailing" (快樂的出帆), sung by Chen Fenlan (陳芬蘭), a child star who continued her singing career into adulthood; "Handsome Guy on the Mountain Top" (山頂的黑狗兄) and "Pitiful Flower, Goodbye" (可憐戀花!再會吧), sung by Hong Yifeng (洪一峰); "Village Boy" (田庄兄哥), sung by Huang Xitain (黃西田); and "Sulan's Getting Married" (素蘭小姐要出嫁), sung by Huang Sanyuan (黃三元). The lyricist on many of these songs was Ye Junlin (葉俊麟), who wrote thousands of lyrics for Japanese melodies in this period.
Songs adapted from Japanese did not completely dominate the Hoklo music scene. The aforementioned Hong Yifeng, one of the most popular singers of the era, composed a number of very popular songs with lyrics by Ye Junlin, including "Memories of an Old Love" (舊情綿綿), "Twilight in Danshui" (淡水暮色), "The One I Miss" (思慕的人) and "Formosa Mambo" (寶島曼波), all of which were released in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Another successful singer-songwriter was Wu Jinhuai (吳晉淮), who had spent many years performing in Japan before returning to Taiwan. His biggest hits were "Gloomy Moon" (暗淡的月) and "Guan-a-nia Romance" (關仔嶺之戀). Guo Dacheng (郭大誠) was a singer-songwriter who emerged a few years after Hong and Wu. Many of his songs, some of which had original melodies and others of which were adaptations of Japanese songs, were humourous, with titles like "The Muddled Tailor" (糊塗裁縫師), "The Wandering Medicine Man" (流浪拳頭師), and "Pitiful Wino" (可憐燒酒仙). He also wrote the lyrics for "Going to the Graveyard" (墓仔埔也敢去), a song originally popularized by Ye Qitian (葉啟田) and more recently by rocker Wu Bai, as well as "The Oyster Picker's Wife" (青蚵仔嫂), which has also been covered by many artists (the melodies for these songs were originally Japanese and a folk song from Hengchun in south Taiwan, respectively).
Despite the efforts of people like Hong Yifeng, Wu Jinhuai, Guo Dacheng and others, Hoklo songs saw a steep decline in the 1960s. One reason for this was the previously mentioned preference among record companies for using Japanese songs, which eventually forced many local songwriters to turn to other jobs to make a living. But another reason was government policy and changes in the society. In the 1960s, the government began heavily promoting the use of Mandarin over local languages like Hoklo. Among the steps they took was severely restricting the number of "dialect" (i.e., non-Mandarin) songs that could be played on the radio. Also, in 1962, Taiwan's first television station, Taiwan Television (TTV), began broadcasting. This soon became one of the main vehicles for promoting new songs, as more and more Taiwanese watched the numerous variety shows which were shown. But, as with radio, the broadcast of Hoklo songs on television was heavily restricted. So by the mid-1960s, the main way in which Hoklo songs could be promoted was through movies. Even these began to decline in number, and by the end of the 1960s, Mandarin songs completely dominated the popular music scene.
As mentioned above, there were very few original Mandarin songs written in Taiwan in the decade after the war. The man most responsible for changing that was composer and arranger Zhou Lanping (周藍萍). Zhou, originally from Hunan in China, came to Taiwan in the late 1940s (he worked on the film The Transformation of Alishan as music director and may have helped write "High Green Mountain", though the film's director is usually credited with the melody for the song). In the early 1950s, he composed the music for "Green Island Serenade", which was recorded by Ziwei, the first truly popular singer of Mandarin songs in Taiwan. Actually, "Green Island Serenade" was not popular when it was first released. However, it slowly spread among the Chinese communities in Southeast Asia, gradually growing in popularity, and after several years became a hit back in Taiwan itself, where it is now considered a classic. Zhou composed music for a number of other original Mandarin songs which appeared in movie soundtracks in the late 1950s, often working with the lyricist Zhuang Nu (莊奴), who would go on to write lyrics for many hit songs. However, it was "Recalling the Past" (回想曲), recorded in 1961 by Ziwei (紫薇) with both music and lyrics by Zhou, that many consider the first really big Mandarin hit in Taiwan (even "Green Island Serenade" supposedly only peaked in popularity in its wake). Zhou also wrote a number of other well-known songs such as "Beautiful Formosa" (美麗的寶島) and "Bilan Village Girl" (碧蘭村的姑娘); even more successfully, he composed the music for the huangmei opera film The Love Eterne (梁山伯與祝英台), which shattered box office records in Taiwan in 1963.
Unfortunately, Zhou moved to Hong Kong to work on movies, depriving Taiwan of its premier composer of Mandarin songs. So instead, record companies producing Mandarin records did the same thing that those producing Hoklo records did -- they used songs from Japan and other foreign countries. "Unforgettable Memory" (意難忘), recorded in 1963 by Meidai (美黛), was a massively popular Mandarin hit, perhaps the first to successfully outsell the Hoklo songs of the time. This song was a Japanese melody to which lyricist Shenzhi (慎芝) added Mandarin lyrics, as was "I'm Beside You" (我在你左右), another hit for Meidai, and "Heartless Person" (負心的人), a big hit for Yao Surong (姚蘇蓉) which was later banned because it was onsidered "unhealthy". Shenzhi also wrote lyrics to an old Taiwanese song for "A Glass Full of Bitter Brew" (苦酒滿杯), popularized by Xie Lei (謝雷), and to a Korean song for "Crying Flower" (淚的小花), popularized by Qing Shan (青山). However, new composers of Mandarin songs did finally begin to emerge in the late 1960s. The most successful of these was Zuo Hongyuan (左宏元), who worked frequently with Zhuang Nu. Together they wrote a number of hits for Yao Surong and others. Zuo also wrote the music for Yao's huge hit "I'm Not Going Home Today" (今天不回家), another song that was later banned (in fact many of Yao's hits were banned), and for "Jingjing" (晶晶), a theme song which was an early hit for Deng Lijun (鄧麗君; also known as Teresa Teng).
Though first Hoklo and then Mandarin songs dominated Taiwan's mainstream popular music scene in the 1950s and 1960s, Taiwan's other ethnic groups, the Hakka and the various aboriginal peoples, still had their own music in this period. Hakka music was still mostly traditional music such as "mountain songs", but singers like Lai Bixia (賴碧霞) and Lu Jinshou (呂金守), who recorded under the name Minglang (明朗), did record some popular songs in Hakka. However, these were primarily adaptations of songs that had been hits in other languages. As for aboriginal songs, Puyuma songwriters Baliwakes (陸森寶; Lu Senbao) and PangTer (陳實; Chen Shi) wrote a number of original songs in this period, including Lu's "Beautiful Rice Grains" (美麗的稻穗) and "Praising The Ancestors" (頌祭祖先) and Chen's "Ocean" (海洋). Many records of aboriginal songs were released in the 1960s, mostly by Ring Ring Records (鈴鈴唱片; pinyin: Lingling), which also released numerous Hakka records as well as Mandarin and Hoklo ones. It was also in the 1960s that Amis singer Lu Jingzi (盧靜子), the first aboriginal star, emerged. Though she wasn't well known among Han Chinese listeners, she was popular in all the aboriginal communities and even performed overseas in Japan and Southeast Asia. She performed many songs that were extremely popular among aboriginal audiences; her versions of the songs are still often the ones aboriginal people are most familiar with, even when she wasn't the original vocalist. Most of these songs were however virtually unknown among non-aboriginal audiences, one exception being "Malan Romance" (馬蘭之戀), which was turned into a hit song in Mandarin and Hoklo and was covered by many popular singers, with Lai Bixia even doing a Hakka version.
Still, for most music listeners in Taiwan, by the end of the 1960s, Taiwan's music scene was dominated by Mandarin songs popularized on television (a second station, China Television [CTV] began broadcasting in 1969). Some of these songs were composed by local songwriters, but many were still adaptations of foreign hits. Lyrically, many were overly sentimental and shallow love songs which had limited appeal for the educated youth of the time, who turned instead to Western music (see box). It was this background which set the scene for the transformation of Taiwan's music scene in the 1970s.
Thursday, November 30, 2017
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
Reflections on Fats Domino, Tom Petty and the Traveling Wilburys
While 2017 has not matched 2016 in terms of unexpected deaths of major rock artists, it has already seen a few significant ones, including Chuck Berry. This past month two more big names were added to the list, Tom Petty and Fats Domino. Fats Domino's death, like Chuck Berry's, can't be considered untimely like so many from last year, as he was 89 years old, but it is still a
major loss, and Petty's death has to be considered somewhat premature, as he was only in his sixties. In both cases, I only own a "best of" compliation, so I can't really do a comprehensive overview of their careers. Instead, I'll briefly note some of my favorites among their hits, and a few less well known tracks or side projects from each that I also like.
I started off my 3 CD rock and roll compilation from many years back with a Fats Domino song, "The Fat Man". This is considered one of the foundational tracks for rock and roll, with good reason (though the song it was based on, "Junker's Blues", is great too, and has arguably even more entertaining lyrics). Other tracks I included were "Goin' Home", "Ain't That A Shame", "I'm In Love Again", "Blueberry Hill", "Blue Monday", "I'm Ready", and "Walking to New Orleans". In fact, only Chuck Berry had more songs on that set. I'd probably pick "Ain't That A Shame" as the greatest of his original songs, though "I'm In Love Again", "Blue Monday", "I'm Ready" and "Walking to New Orleans" (largely the work of Robert Charles Guidry aka Bobby Charles) are all strong contenders ("Blueberry Hill", a favorite of many fans, is actually a cover of a song dating to 1940, though Domino's version is now pretty universally considered definitive). Most of his original songs were collaborations, mostly with his producer Dave Bartholomew, but he was given sole credit for a few songs, including the early hits "Every Night About This Time" and "Please Don't Leave Me", as well as the later "I Want to Walk You Home", all excellent pieces of work. Domino also played a vital role in the Lloyd Price classic "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", on which he played piano (the song itself was based on "Junker's Blues" via Domino's "The Fat Man"). As for Domino's later career, I don't know much from it, but I am a big fan of his covers of two songs by favorite artists of mine. One is the Beatles' "Lady Madonna", which Domino covered not long after it first came out (it was his last chart hit). Paul McCartney wrote the song largely as a tribute to Domino, so it's not surprising that his version sounds great. The other is Randy Newman's "Have You Seen My Baby", a song which is also very well suited to Domino and his rollicking piano. His version of the song is great, possibly even better than Ringo Starr's somewhat later but perhaps better known version, though I'd have trouble choosing between them. Of course Domino's influence on the music that came after him is also reflected in all the covers of his classic songs that have been performed since, though few of them can match the originals.
Among the Tom Petty songs (most released with his band the Heartbreakers, though a few were in his name alone) that I'm particularly fond of are "Breakdown", "I Need to Know", "Refugee", "Don't Do Me Like That", "Don't Come Around Here No More", "I Won't Back Down", "Runnin' Down a Dream", "Free Fallin'", "Learning to Fly", "Into the Great Wide Open" and "Mary Jane's Last Dance". His duet with Stevie Nicks, "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around", is pretty good too. A highlight of Petty's career was his participation in the Traveling Wilburys, a supergroup that originally came together to record a George Harrison B-side; the record company, in this case quite wisely, decided that the resulting "Handle with Care" was much to good to waste as a mere B-side, so a whole album was recorded. Petty's most notable contribution was "Last Night", which he sang lead on and probably was the main writer of. Another track he seems to have been the main writer for was "Margarita", which he and Bob Dylan sang lead on. If I were to put together my own Tom Petty compilation, I'd probably put these two songs, or at least "Last Night", on it.
It's amazing to think that of the five Wilburys, only Bob Dylan and Jeff Lynne are still alive now; Roy Orbison of course being the first to die, just after the release of the first Wilburys album (his guitar stood in for him in the video for the second single, "End of the Line"). After Petty died, I thought it might be interesting to put together some sort of Wilburys compilation
or list. Unfortunately, since I don't have the second Wilburys album, I would have trouble doing it properly. But it occurred to me that a comprehensive retrospective on the Traveling Wilburys could be expanded beyond the two albums released by the supergroup to include Wilbury related tracks that weren't released under the group name. Of course each individual Wilbury had a huge catalog of classic songs, so it would be hardly be practical to include all of their solo careers. But in the years around the time the group was in existence, there were many songs written or recorded by two or more members of the group that appeared on their solo albums from that period. Petty in particular had quite a few such tracks, because Lynne co-produced two albums of his, playing on all the tracks and co-writing a bunch of the songs, including the aforementioned "I Won't Back Down", "Runnin' Down a Dream", "Free Fallin'", "Learning to Fly" and "Into the Great Wide Open". "I Won't Back Down" in particular was practically a Wilbury song, as George Harrison played guitar and sang backing vocals on it. Other Wilbury crossovers include the George Harrison album Cloud Nine, which Lynne co-produced and played on; two singles from the album, "This Is Love" (the song that "Handle With Care" was originally intended as a B-side to) and the brilliant "When We Was Fab", were co-written by Harrison and Lynne. Another Harrison track which involved multiple Wilburys was "Cheer Down". Lynne co-produced and played on the track, and Petty helped Harrison write the lyrics, though he didn't play on it. Several tracks from Roy Orbison's posthumous album Mystery Girl also involved two or more Wilburys. Lynne produced three songs on the album; one was co-written by Orbison and Lynne, and two ("You Got It" and "California Blue") by Orbison, Lynne and Petty, with all three playing on them. While I haven't heard "California Blue", "You Got It" was a hit and there's a video (apparently from a special on the Wilburys) with narration from Tom Petty showing clips from the recording of the song. Depending on how broadly you define a Traveling Wilbury related track - for instance
whether it's enough for two of the group to have written and recorded the song together, or whether there should be three of them involved - you could have either several great bonus tracks or an entire extra album of Traveling Wilbury music to go alongside the recordings they released as a group.
major loss, and Petty's death has to be considered somewhat premature, as he was only in his sixties. In both cases, I only own a "best of" compliation, so I can't really do a comprehensive overview of their careers. Instead, I'll briefly note some of my favorites among their hits, and a few less well known tracks or side projects from each that I also like.
I started off my 3 CD rock and roll compilation from many years back with a Fats Domino song, "The Fat Man". This is considered one of the foundational tracks for rock and roll, with good reason (though the song it was based on, "Junker's Blues", is great too, and has arguably even more entertaining lyrics). Other tracks I included were "Goin' Home", "Ain't That A Shame", "I'm In Love Again", "Blueberry Hill", "Blue Monday", "I'm Ready", and "Walking to New Orleans". In fact, only Chuck Berry had more songs on that set. I'd probably pick "Ain't That A Shame" as the greatest of his original songs, though "I'm In Love Again", "Blue Monday", "I'm Ready" and "Walking to New Orleans" (largely the work of Robert Charles Guidry aka Bobby Charles) are all strong contenders ("Blueberry Hill", a favorite of many fans, is actually a cover of a song dating to 1940, though Domino's version is now pretty universally considered definitive). Most of his original songs were collaborations, mostly with his producer Dave Bartholomew, but he was given sole credit for a few songs, including the early hits "Every Night About This Time" and "Please Don't Leave Me", as well as the later "I Want to Walk You Home", all excellent pieces of work. Domino also played a vital role in the Lloyd Price classic "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", on which he played piano (the song itself was based on "Junker's Blues" via Domino's "The Fat Man"). As for Domino's later career, I don't know much from it, but I am a big fan of his covers of two songs by favorite artists of mine. One is the Beatles' "Lady Madonna", which Domino covered not long after it first came out (it was his last chart hit). Paul McCartney wrote the song largely as a tribute to Domino, so it's not surprising that his version sounds great. The other is Randy Newman's "Have You Seen My Baby", a song which is also very well suited to Domino and his rollicking piano. His version of the song is great, possibly even better than Ringo Starr's somewhat later but perhaps better known version, though I'd have trouble choosing between them. Of course Domino's influence on the music that came after him is also reflected in all the covers of his classic songs that have been performed since, though few of them can match the originals.
Among the Tom Petty songs (most released with his band the Heartbreakers, though a few were in his name alone) that I'm particularly fond of are "Breakdown", "I Need to Know", "Refugee", "Don't Do Me Like That", "Don't Come Around Here No More", "I Won't Back Down", "Runnin' Down a Dream", "Free Fallin'", "Learning to Fly", "Into the Great Wide Open" and "Mary Jane's Last Dance". His duet with Stevie Nicks, "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around", is pretty good too. A highlight of Petty's career was his participation in the Traveling Wilburys, a supergroup that originally came together to record a George Harrison B-side; the record company, in this case quite wisely, decided that the resulting "Handle with Care" was much to good to waste as a mere B-side, so a whole album was recorded. Petty's most notable contribution was "Last Night", which he sang lead on and probably was the main writer of. Another track he seems to have been the main writer for was "Margarita", which he and Bob Dylan sang lead on. If I were to put together my own Tom Petty compilation, I'd probably put these two songs, or at least "Last Night", on it.
It's amazing to think that of the five Wilburys, only Bob Dylan and Jeff Lynne are still alive now; Roy Orbison of course being the first to die, just after the release of the first Wilburys album (his guitar stood in for him in the video for the second single, "End of the Line"). After Petty died, I thought it might be interesting to put together some sort of Wilburys compilation
or list. Unfortunately, since I don't have the second Wilburys album, I would have trouble doing it properly. But it occurred to me that a comprehensive retrospective on the Traveling Wilburys could be expanded beyond the two albums released by the supergroup to include Wilbury related tracks that weren't released under the group name. Of course each individual Wilbury had a huge catalog of classic songs, so it would be hardly be practical to include all of their solo careers. But in the years around the time the group was in existence, there were many songs written or recorded by two or more members of the group that appeared on their solo albums from that period. Petty in particular had quite a few such tracks, because Lynne co-produced two albums of his, playing on all the tracks and co-writing a bunch of the songs, including the aforementioned "I Won't Back Down", "Runnin' Down a Dream", "Free Fallin'", "Learning to Fly" and "Into the Great Wide Open". "I Won't Back Down" in particular was practically a Wilbury song, as George Harrison played guitar and sang backing vocals on it. Other Wilbury crossovers include the George Harrison album Cloud Nine, which Lynne co-produced and played on; two singles from the album, "This Is Love" (the song that "Handle With Care" was originally intended as a B-side to) and the brilliant "When We Was Fab", were co-written by Harrison and Lynne. Another Harrison track which involved multiple Wilburys was "Cheer Down". Lynne co-produced and played on the track, and Petty helped Harrison write the lyrics, though he didn't play on it. Several tracks from Roy Orbison's posthumous album Mystery Girl also involved two or more Wilburys. Lynne produced three songs on the album; one was co-written by Orbison and Lynne, and two ("You Got It" and "California Blue") by Orbison, Lynne and Petty, with all three playing on them. While I haven't heard "California Blue", "You Got It" was a hit and there's a video (apparently from a special on the Wilburys) with narration from Tom Petty showing clips from the recording of the song. Depending on how broadly you define a Traveling Wilbury related track - for instance
whether it's enough for two of the group to have written and recorded the song together, or whether there should be three of them involved - you could have either several great bonus tracks or an entire extra album of Traveling Wilbury music to go alongside the recordings they released as a group.
Saturday, September 30, 2017
Old Article: "Hit Music" (熱門音樂) - Taiwanese cover bands in the 1960s
The following is a brief article I wrote for the December 2007 issue of Fountain, a magazine on Taiwan culture published by a government agency. That issue focused on Taiwanese popular music, and I wrote several articles for it, including one on Taiwanese aboriginal pop and one on Taiwanese popular music from WWII to the end of the 1960s (I'm not sure if the latter article is still online, so I may repost it here in the future). I've done a fair amount of research on these Taiwanese cover bands, a very few of which did make records (one even made a record of original songs in Mandarin) and someday I hope to publish a much more lengthy and up-to-date article on the subject. I have added a very brief list of a few key bands from the period in question, though a comprehensive list would be many times longer. Note: In Fountain, the article was titled "Rock and Roll Cover Bands".
Though mainstream Taiwanese popular music in the 1960s was worlds away from the rock and roll sounds of Elvis and the Beatles which dominated the West at the time, the latter did not go unheard among Taiwan's youth. As early as the late 1950s, several groups were formed by young people in Taiwan to perform Western songs. In Chinese, these Western pop songs were called "remen yinyue" (熱門音樂, literally "trendy music" or "hot music"), here translated as "hit music", and the whole scene became known by that name. In terms of hit records or immediate impact on Chinese-language pop in Taiwan, "hit music" had little obvious influence. Though many young Taiwanese formed groups in the sixties and early seventies and performed in hotels, nightclubs and other live venues, few of them made records, and most performed covers of English songs exclusively. But "hit music" was actually quite influential in the long run, for two reasons. The first was that the interest of young people in Western pop during this period was a direct precursor of the "modern folk song movement" of the seventies. The second was that many of the songwriters, musicians, and performers who dominated Taiwan pop in the seventies and eighties got their start in "hit music".
One major factor in the growth of the "hit music" scene was the presence of American soldiers in Taiwan. The clubs and nightspots frequented by American soldiers and the hotels used by American visitors provided venues for "hit music" singers and groups. Of course Americans were by no means the only audience for "hit music"; its fans were predominantly Taiwanese youth, especially in Taipei but also in the central and southern parts of Taiwan, and frequent concerts aimed entirely at Taiwanese young people were held involving multiple artists. But the foreign presence played an important role financially, and the chief goal for most groups was to get a position as the resident band at some international hotel.
The "hit music" scene peaked in popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s, after which "campus folk songs" surpassed it in popularity among Taiwan's youth. But it left behind a legacy in the folk song movement itself, which started largely as a reaction to "hit music", and in singers and musicians like Huang Yingying (黃鶯鶯), Su Rui (蘇芮), Chen Zhiyuan (陳志遠), Weng Xiaoliang (翁孝良), Wu Shengzhi (吳盛智) and Luo Dayou (羅大佑), all of whom began their music careers performing "hit music".
Some key "hit music" groups from the late 1960s and early 1970s:
雷蒙合唱團 The Ritmos Combo
電星樂隊 The Telstars Combo
陽光合唱團 The Sunshine
石器時代的人類合唱團 Stone Agers
愛克遜合唱團 Action
雷鳥合唱團 Thunderbird
Though mainstream Taiwanese popular music in the 1960s was worlds away from the rock and roll sounds of Elvis and the Beatles which dominated the West at the time, the latter did not go unheard among Taiwan's youth. As early as the late 1950s, several groups were formed by young people in Taiwan to perform Western songs. In Chinese, these Western pop songs were called "remen yinyue" (熱門音樂, literally "trendy music" or "hot music"), here translated as "hit music", and the whole scene became known by that name. In terms of hit records or immediate impact on Chinese-language pop in Taiwan, "hit music" had little obvious influence. Though many young Taiwanese formed groups in the sixties and early seventies and performed in hotels, nightclubs and other live venues, few of them made records, and most performed covers of English songs exclusively. But "hit music" was actually quite influential in the long run, for two reasons. The first was that the interest of young people in Western pop during this period was a direct precursor of the "modern folk song movement" of the seventies. The second was that many of the songwriters, musicians, and performers who dominated Taiwan pop in the seventies and eighties got their start in "hit music".
One major factor in the growth of the "hit music" scene was the presence of American soldiers in Taiwan. The clubs and nightspots frequented by American soldiers and the hotels used by American visitors provided venues for "hit music" singers and groups. Of course Americans were by no means the only audience for "hit music"; its fans were predominantly Taiwanese youth, especially in Taipei but also in the central and southern parts of Taiwan, and frequent concerts aimed entirely at Taiwanese young people were held involving multiple artists. But the foreign presence played an important role financially, and the chief goal for most groups was to get a position as the resident band at some international hotel.
The "hit music" scene peaked in popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s, after which "campus folk songs" surpassed it in popularity among Taiwan's youth. But it left behind a legacy in the folk song movement itself, which started largely as a reaction to "hit music", and in singers and musicians like Huang Yingying (黃鶯鶯), Su Rui (蘇芮), Chen Zhiyuan (陳志遠), Weng Xiaoliang (翁孝良), Wu Shengzhi (吳盛智) and Luo Dayou (羅大佑), all of whom began their music careers performing "hit music".
Some key "hit music" groups from the late 1960s and early 1970s:
雷蒙合唱團 The Ritmos Combo
電星樂隊 The Telstars Combo
陽光合唱團 The Sunshine
石器時代的人類合唱團 Stone Agers
愛克遜合唱團 Action
雷鳥合唱團 Thunderbird
Thursday, August 31, 2017
The Robert Johnson Legacy: A Compilation
This month, as with many other months lately, I haven't had time to do any substantial new music writing. One excuse I have this month is my new radio show. Since it's weekly and I have to do at least some of the recording myself (basically for the last few shows I've been recording my spoken parts and the songs, but someone else is taking care of the final editing and mixing), it's been taking up a fair amount of time, and of course I still have my regular parttime job and have had many other things going on, including giving a talk on censorship of Taiwanese popular music in the past century at a coffee shop and going to Taidong (Taitung) on the east coast to do more research on the popular music of the Taiwanese aboriginal people. I thought about posting lists of the songs I played on my radio show over the past month, but I'm more inclined to set up a separate avenue for doing that, as this is mostly an English-language blog and most of the songs I play are in one of the various Chinese languages (mostly Mandarin, sometimes Hoklo/Minnan, and occasionally Hakka) and even the songs in aboriginal languages, which make up a large proportion, often have only Chinese titles, since tradtionally aboriginal songs didn't have set names and the record companies would just give them titles in Chinese. I could theoretically translate the titles, but I don't have time to do that. So instead I'm doing what I've done more than once before and pulling out an old compilation that I did many years ago and just posting its tracklist here. This one is at least fairly appropriate, because as it happens in my radio show for this week and next (the latter has already been recorded), I played covers of classic Taiwanese songs, mostly aboriginal but also some non-aboriginal, by contemporary artists, then played original or early versions of the same songs from decades earlier for comparison. This particular composition of songs by legendary bluesman Robert Johnson is organized similarly, in this case with his version coming first, followed by a much later recording of the same song by a well known artist.
Of course some of Johnson's most famous admirers are present here, such as Eric Clapton (on his own and with Cream and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers) and the Rolling Stones, along with later blues artists like Muddy Waters and B.B. King (the later doing a song that was reworked and popularized by fellow bluesman Elmore James), but also more suprising artists like the Red Hot Chili Peppers (doing the atypical Johnson song "They're Red Hot"). While Cream's version of "Crossroads" is the best known cover here, there are a lot of other interesting ones, and each artist has a completely different take on Johnson's songs. The compilation also included a couple of Johnson songs without corresponding cover versions (the final one, "Terraplane Blues", is said to be the one regional hit song Johnson had in his brief lifetime), plus three extra tracks by Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe and Lead Belly, all three also being songs that have well known versions by other artists. The Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe song of course was covered by Led Zeppelin. The Lead Belly songs were not original to him, having been around since at least the beginning of the 20th century. The first, also known as "In the Pines", was most prominently covered by Nirvana, who was apparently largely following Lead Belly's version. The second is best known as "The House of the Rising Sun" and has been covered by numerous artists under that title and others.
I've included the orginial track details (and a brief list of additional Johnson covers) that I wrote back when I put this together, with a few edits. I wrote them under the assumption that the readers actually had the CD to listen to, and recognized the songs. While I can't make that assumption here, I imagine most of these tracks can be heard on YouTube (my apologies for not having time to provide links).
The Robert Johnson Legacy
1 Cross Road Blues Robert Johnson 2:40
2 Crossroads Cream 4:15
3 Kind Hearted Woman Blues Robert Johnson 2:51
4 Kind Hearted Woman Muddy Waters 2:37
5 Ramblin' On My Mind Robert Johnson 2:52
6 Ramblin' On My Mind John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers 3:08
7 I Believe I'll Dust My Broom Robert Johnson 2:59
8 Dust My Broom B.B. King 3:21
9 Traveling Riverside Blues Robert Johnson 2:46
10 Travelling Riverside Blues Led Zeppelin 5:12
11 Walkin' Blues Robert Johnson 2:30
12 Walkin' Blues Eric Clapton 3:37
13 Love In Vain Robert Johnson 2:25
14 Love In Vain The Rolling Stones 4:22
15 Last Fair Deal Gone Down Robert Johnson 2:37
16 Last Fair Deal Gone Down Taj Mahal 2:39
17 Malted Milk Robert Johnson 2:22
18 Malted Milk Eric Clapton 3:36
19 They're Red Hot Robert Johnson 2:58
20 They're Red Hot Red Hot Chili Peppers 1:11
21 Preachin' Blues (Up Jumped The Devil) Robert Johnson 2:51
22 Terraplane Blues Robert Johnson 3:00
Bonus Tracks:
23 When The Levee Breaks Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe 3:11
24 Where Did You Sleep Last Night Lead Belly 3:02
25 New Orleans Lead Belly 3:17
Cross Road Blues
Recorded November 27, 1936, San Antonio, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
Also covered by the Allman Brothers Band
Crossroads
From Wheels of Fire (1968)
Also contains lines from "Traveling Riverside Blues"
Kind Hearted Woman Blues
Recorded November 23, 1936, San Antonio, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
Also covered by Johnny Winter and Eric Clapton
Kind Hearted Woman
Recorded in the late 1940s
From More Real Folk Blues (1967)
Ramblin' On My Mind
Recorded November 23, 1936, San Antonio, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
Note the train sound effect
Ramblin' On My Mind
From Blues Breakers John Mayall with Eric Clapton (1966)
This is Eric Clapton's first lead vocal on record
I Believe I'll Dust My Broom
Recorded November 23, 1936, San Antonio, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
Also covered by Elmore James, Howlin' Wolf, ZZ Top and many other bluesmen
Dust My Broom
Arranged by Elmore James
From B.B. King The Collection
Traveling Riverside Blues
Recorded June 20, 1937, Dallas, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
Travelling Riverside Blues
Recorded June 24, 1969
From BBC Sessions
A studio version is available on the Led Zeppelin Boxed Set
This version contains several lines from "Kind Hearted Woman Blues"
This song was clearly the inspiration for Zeppelin's "The Lemon Song"
Walkin' Blues
Recorded November 27, 1936, San Antonio, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
Also covered by Bonnie Raitt on her eponymous 1971 album
Walkin' Blues
From Unplugged (1992)
Love In Vain
Recorded June 20, 1937, Dallas, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
Love In Vain
From Let It Bleed (1969)
Last Fair Deal Gone Down
Recorded November 27, 1936, San Antonio, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
Last Fair Deal Gone Down
Recorded December 3, 1965
From Mojo Workin' - Blues for the Next Genenration
Malted Milk
Recorded June 20, 1937, Dallas, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
Malted Milk
From Unplugged (1992)
They're Red Hot
Recorded November 27, 1936, San Antonio, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
They're Red Hot
From Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991)
Preachin' Blues (Up Jumped The Devil)
Recorded November 27, 1936, San Antonio, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
This song has some of Johnson's fanciest guitar playing
Terraplane Blues
Recorded November 27, 1936, San Antonio, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
This was Johnson's most successful record in his lifetime,
selling several thousand copies
All songs written by Robert Johnson
Other covers of Robert Johnson songs:
Sweet Home Chicago (as "Baby Don't You Want to Go?") Tommy McClennan
(this was aupposedly the first Johnson cover, recorded in 1939)
When You've Got A Good Friend Johnny Winter
From Four Until Late Cream (from Fresh Cream)
Stop Breaking Down The Rolling Stones (from Exile on Main Street)
Come On In My Kitchen Allman Brothers Band
I'm A Steady Rolling Man Eric Clapton (from 461 Ocean Boulevard)
Bonus Tracks:
When The Levee Breaks (J. McCoy[Kansas Joe]/M. McCoy [Memphis Minnie])
Recorded June 29, 1929
From Mojo Workin' - Blues for the Next Genenration
Covered by a certain famous hard rock band
(though they did alter it a great deal)
Where Did You Sleep Last Night (Huddie Ledbetter [Actual authorship unknown, though it certainly predates Lead Belly])
Recorded February 17, 1944
From Goodnight, Irene
Covered by Nirvana and Kyle
New Orleans (J. Lomax/A. Lomax/G. Turner [Actual authorship unknown, though it definitely wasn't written by
John Lomax and his son Alan, who somehow got credited on Lead Belly's version])
From Goodnight, Irene
Covered by lots of people (mostly under another name, of course)
Of course some of Johnson's most famous admirers are present here, such as Eric Clapton (on his own and with Cream and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers) and the Rolling Stones, along with later blues artists like Muddy Waters and B.B. King (the later doing a song that was reworked and popularized by fellow bluesman Elmore James), but also more suprising artists like the Red Hot Chili Peppers (doing the atypical Johnson song "They're Red Hot"). While Cream's version of "Crossroads" is the best known cover here, there are a lot of other interesting ones, and each artist has a completely different take on Johnson's songs. The compilation also included a couple of Johnson songs without corresponding cover versions (the final one, "Terraplane Blues", is said to be the one regional hit song Johnson had in his brief lifetime), plus three extra tracks by Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe and Lead Belly, all three also being songs that have well known versions by other artists. The Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe song of course was covered by Led Zeppelin. The Lead Belly songs were not original to him, having been around since at least the beginning of the 20th century. The first, also known as "In the Pines", was most prominently covered by Nirvana, who was apparently largely following Lead Belly's version. The second is best known as "The House of the Rising Sun" and has been covered by numerous artists under that title and others.
I've included the orginial track details (and a brief list of additional Johnson covers) that I wrote back when I put this together, with a few edits. I wrote them under the assumption that the readers actually had the CD to listen to, and recognized the songs. While I can't make that assumption here, I imagine most of these tracks can be heard on YouTube (my apologies for not having time to provide links).
The Robert Johnson Legacy
1 Cross Road Blues Robert Johnson 2:40
2 Crossroads Cream 4:15
3 Kind Hearted Woman Blues Robert Johnson 2:51
4 Kind Hearted Woman Muddy Waters 2:37
5 Ramblin' On My Mind Robert Johnson 2:52
6 Ramblin' On My Mind John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers 3:08
7 I Believe I'll Dust My Broom Robert Johnson 2:59
8 Dust My Broom B.B. King 3:21
9 Traveling Riverside Blues Robert Johnson 2:46
10 Travelling Riverside Blues Led Zeppelin 5:12
11 Walkin' Blues Robert Johnson 2:30
12 Walkin' Blues Eric Clapton 3:37
13 Love In Vain Robert Johnson 2:25
14 Love In Vain The Rolling Stones 4:22
15 Last Fair Deal Gone Down Robert Johnson 2:37
16 Last Fair Deal Gone Down Taj Mahal 2:39
17 Malted Milk Robert Johnson 2:22
18 Malted Milk Eric Clapton 3:36
19 They're Red Hot Robert Johnson 2:58
20 They're Red Hot Red Hot Chili Peppers 1:11
21 Preachin' Blues (Up Jumped The Devil) Robert Johnson 2:51
22 Terraplane Blues Robert Johnson 3:00
Bonus Tracks:
23 When The Levee Breaks Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe 3:11
24 Where Did You Sleep Last Night Lead Belly 3:02
25 New Orleans Lead Belly 3:17
Cross Road Blues
Recorded November 27, 1936, San Antonio, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
Also covered by the Allman Brothers Band
Crossroads
From Wheels of Fire (1968)
Also contains lines from "Traveling Riverside Blues"
Kind Hearted Woman Blues
Recorded November 23, 1936, San Antonio, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
Also covered by Johnny Winter and Eric Clapton
Kind Hearted Woman
Recorded in the late 1940s
From More Real Folk Blues (1967)
Ramblin' On My Mind
Recorded November 23, 1936, San Antonio, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
Note the train sound effect
Ramblin' On My Mind
From Blues Breakers John Mayall with Eric Clapton (1966)
This is Eric Clapton's first lead vocal on record
I Believe I'll Dust My Broom
Recorded November 23, 1936, San Antonio, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
Also covered by Elmore James, Howlin' Wolf, ZZ Top and many other bluesmen
Dust My Broom
Arranged by Elmore James
From B.B. King The Collection
Traveling Riverside Blues
Recorded June 20, 1937, Dallas, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
Travelling Riverside Blues
Recorded June 24, 1969
From BBC Sessions
A studio version is available on the Led Zeppelin Boxed Set
This version contains several lines from "Kind Hearted Woman Blues"
This song was clearly the inspiration for Zeppelin's "The Lemon Song"
Walkin' Blues
Recorded November 27, 1936, San Antonio, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
Also covered by Bonnie Raitt on her eponymous 1971 album
Walkin' Blues
From Unplugged (1992)
Love In Vain
Recorded June 20, 1937, Dallas, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
Love In Vain
From Let It Bleed (1969)
Last Fair Deal Gone Down
Recorded November 27, 1936, San Antonio, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
Last Fair Deal Gone Down
Recorded December 3, 1965
From Mojo Workin' - Blues for the Next Genenration
Malted Milk
Recorded June 20, 1937, Dallas, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
Malted Milk
From Unplugged (1992)
They're Red Hot
Recorded November 27, 1936, San Antonio, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
They're Red Hot
From Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991)
Preachin' Blues (Up Jumped The Devil)
Recorded November 27, 1936, San Antonio, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
This song has some of Johnson's fanciest guitar playing
Terraplane Blues
Recorded November 27, 1936, San Antonio, TX
From King of the Delta Blues
This was Johnson's most successful record in his lifetime,
selling several thousand copies
All songs written by Robert Johnson
Other covers of Robert Johnson songs:
Sweet Home Chicago (as "Baby Don't You Want to Go?") Tommy McClennan
(this was aupposedly the first Johnson cover, recorded in 1939)
When You've Got A Good Friend Johnny Winter
From Four Until Late Cream (from Fresh Cream)
Stop Breaking Down The Rolling Stones (from Exile on Main Street)
Come On In My Kitchen Allman Brothers Band
I'm A Steady Rolling Man Eric Clapton (from 461 Ocean Boulevard)
Bonus Tracks:
When The Levee Breaks (J. McCoy[Kansas Joe]/M. McCoy [Memphis Minnie])
Recorded June 29, 1929
From Mojo Workin' - Blues for the Next Genenration
Covered by a certain famous hard rock band
(though they did alter it a great deal)
Where Did You Sleep Last Night (Huddie Ledbetter [Actual authorship unknown, though it certainly predates Lead Belly])
Recorded February 17, 1944
From Goodnight, Irene
Covered by Nirvana and Kyle
New Orleans (J. Lomax/A. Lomax/G. Turner [Actual authorship unknown, though it definitely wasn't written by
John Lomax and his son Alan, who somehow got credited on Lead Belly's version])
From Goodnight, Irene
Covered by lots of people (mostly under another name, of course)
Monday, July 31, 2017
原聲探索-My New Radio Show on Alian 96.3
Previously on this blog I mentioned that I was doing a bimonthly radio show on Taiwanese music on the Taipei radio station News 98. Regrettably, that show ended a few months ago, but the good news is starting next month I will have a new show on Alian 96.3原住民族廣播電臺 (the Chinese part of the name translates to Indigenous Radio Station). My wife and I came up with the name 原聲探索 for the show, which roughly translates to “Original Sound Exploration” or “Aboriginal Sound Exploration”, depending on how you interpret the first character. This show will be weekly and will be broadcast every Wednesday from 6 to 8 pm. The station itself is new and was originally scheduled to start broadcasting on August 1, but this has been pushed back, though I’ve been told they should start broadcasting no later than August 9. As the focus is on Taiwanese indigenous people, at least half of each of my shows will focus on aboriginal artists and songs, though I will also play some non-aboriginal Taiwanese popular songs and even occasionally songs from elsewhere, such as Southeast Asia, Japan, Hong Kong, and the West. When the manager originally proposed the show to me, he suggested that I do an hour of non-aboriginal music and an hour of aboriginal music, but while I may do some shows where each half is completely independent of the other, in most cases I’ll try to have an overall theme, and I’ll often alternate between the two types of music. I’ve already recorded my first show, in which I’ll introduce myself and talk about how my interest in Taiwanese popular music and in particular aboriginal music developed, in the process introducing some of the different types of music I expect to play on the program.
Here's a list of the tracks played on the first show:
風雨無阻〈詞曲：李子恆〉 周華健 (1994)
我是誰〈詞曲：黃舒駿〉 黃舒駿 5:00 (1994)
小姐免驚〈詞曲：吳俊霖[伍佰]〉 伍佰 & China Blue (1995)
戀曲1980〈詞曲：羅大佑〉 羅大佑 (1982)
向前走〈詞曲：林強〉 林強 (1990)
走在雨中〈詞曲：李泰祥〉 齊豫 (1979)
美麗島〈詞：陳秀喜，梁景峰改寫 曲：李雙澤〉 胡德夫、楊祖珺 (1977)
望你早歸〈詞：那卡諾[黃仲鑫] 曲：楊三郎〉 紀露霞 (1946/約1957)
濃膠膠〈詞：呂金守 曲：吳盛智〉 吳盛智 (1981)
Anak (Words & Music: Freddie Aguilar) Freddie Aguilar (1978)
最最遙遠的路〈詞：泰戈爾、胡德夫 曲：胡德夫〉 胡德夫 (1997)
可憐的落魄人〈詞曲：高飛龍[高子洋]〉 陳明仁 (1981)
怎麼會這樣〈詞曲：Panai 巴奈〉 Panai〈巴奈〉 (2000)
乾杯〈詞曲：魏榮貴〉 林慶雄（阿碰） (1995)
白米酒!我愛你〈詞曲：原住民歌謠〉 高平山 (1980年代)
念故鄉〈詞曲：陸森寶〉 吳花枝／南王民生康樂隊 (約1961)
馬蘭網魚歌〈詞曲：阿美族歌謠〉 盧靜子 (1967)
紅頭崎之夜〈詞曲：原住民歌謠〉 石寶[李石良] (約1961)
Mahalateng 我心所屬〈詞曲：Suming舒米恩〉 Suming Rupi 舒米恩•魯碧 (2010)
Here's a list of the tracks played on the first show:
風雨無阻〈詞曲：李子恆〉 周華健 (1994)
我是誰〈詞曲：黃舒駿〉 黃舒駿 5:00 (1994)
小姐免驚〈詞曲：吳俊霖[伍佰]〉 伍佰 & China Blue (1995)
戀曲1980〈詞曲：羅大佑〉 羅大佑 (1982)
向前走〈詞曲：林強〉 林強 (1990)
走在雨中〈詞曲：李泰祥〉 齊豫 (1979)
美麗島〈詞：陳秀喜，梁景峰改寫 曲：李雙澤〉 胡德夫、楊祖珺 (1977)
望你早歸〈詞：那卡諾[黃仲鑫] 曲：楊三郎〉 紀露霞 (1946/約1957)
濃膠膠〈詞：呂金守 曲：吳盛智〉 吳盛智 (1981)
Anak (Words & Music: Freddie Aguilar) Freddie Aguilar (1978)
最最遙遠的路〈詞：泰戈爾、胡德夫 曲：胡德夫〉 胡德夫 (1997)
可憐的落魄人〈詞曲：高飛龍[高子洋]〉 陳明仁 (1981)
怎麼會這樣〈詞曲：Panai 巴奈〉 Panai〈巴奈〉 (2000)
乾杯〈詞曲：魏榮貴〉 林慶雄（阿碰） (1995)
白米酒!我愛你〈詞曲：原住民歌謠〉 高平山 (1980年代)
念故鄉〈詞曲：陸森寶〉 吳花枝／南王民生康樂隊 (約1961)
馬蘭網魚歌〈詞曲：阿美族歌謠〉 盧靜子 (1967)
紅頭崎之夜〈詞曲：原住民歌謠〉 石寶[李石良] (約1961)
Mahalateng 我心所屬〈詞曲：Suming舒米恩〉 Suming Rupi 舒米恩•魯碧 (2010)
Friday, June 30, 2017
Album Review - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan by Bob Dylan
Album Title: The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Artist: Bob Dylan
Release Date: May 27, 1963
Side One
Blowin' in the Wind
Girl from the North Country
Masters of War
Down the Highway
Bob Dylan's Blues
A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall
Side Two
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
Bob Dylan's Dream
Oxford Town
Talkin' World War III Blues
Corrina, Corrina (Traditional, Adapted and Arranged by Bob Dylan)
Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance (Henry Thomas, Bob Dylan)
I Shall Be Free
All songs credited to Bob Dylan except where otherwise noted (but see below)
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan is not Bob Dylan’s most representative album and it is arguably not his best, given contenders for that spot such as Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde, Bringing It All Back Home and Blood on the Tracks. But it is certainly one of his most important and best known, and I’d certainly rank it as one of his top five. It is the album that made him famous, catapulting him to the top rank of contemporary artists and causing him to be dubbed the spokesperson for his generation by the media, much to his dismay.
Some of Dylan’s most famous songs are included on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. The opening track, “Blowin’ In the Wind”, is still perhaps his best-known song of all, with numerous covers beginning with the hit version by Peter, Paul and Mary; it is certainly the one best known here in Taiwan. “Masters of War”, “A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall”, and “Don't Think Twice, It's All Right” are also among his most popular recordings. Among the less widely played songs, a favorite of mine is “Oxford Town”, a song about the civil rights movement, but really I enjoy all of the album, from the English folk of “Girl from the North Country” to the humor of songs like “I Shall Be Free”. Songs like the latter, or “Talking World War III Blues” provide a contrast with the intensity of songs such as “Masters of War” or “Hard Rain”. It’s this variety in styles and lyrical content that makes the album more exciting to listen to than many other folk albums. The album represented a big leap forward for Dylan as an artist, showing progress far beyond his more run-of-the-mill first album (which only had two originals on it, and nothing with nearly the dramatic impact of the best songs on this album). Indeed, it represented a leap forward for contemporary folk music in general, as no one was doing anything quite like what Dylan was doing.
Dylan justly gained fame for his brilliant lyrics, particularly on songs like “A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall”, “Blowin’ In the Wind”, and “Masters of War”, but his skill as a writer (recognized last year with a Nobel Prize in Literature) is also evident on songs like “Oxford Town”. The music that accompanied these lyrics was also excellent, but despite what the album credits say, it wasn’t entirely original. Nearly all his melodies were based on older folk tunes, though in some cases he adapted them to the point that they were quite different from his source materials. Still, at most he properly speaking should only be considered a co-writer of the music on these songs, and in some cases only the lyrics are his. Even with the latter he often retained lines and themes from the original songs, though generally the lyrics were at least 80% original, and essentially constituted a new creative work. From today’s perspective, claiming credit for melodies and words that are not your own is considered dishonest, but for what it’s worth it should be remembered that Dylan came out of a folk tradition where such practices were widespread. His hero Woody Guthrie also took his many of his melodies from older songs but then copyrighted them under his own name, as did Pete Seeger (though the latter took pains in the liner notes to later compilations to talk about his sources). The same practice was widespread in the blues as well, with performers like Robert Johnson taking bits and pieces from older songs to make their own. For that matter, while he hasn’t been as meticulous about explaining the origins of his songs as Seeger, Dylan himself has been open about the origins of at least some of these tunes. In any case, it is beyond debate that while perhaps “Blowin’ In the Wind” couldn’t exist without “No More Auction Block” and “A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall” couldn’t exist without “Lord Randall”, these songs are still highly original creations that go far beyond their source material, and no one but Dylan could have created them.
It is actually an interesting exercise to compare the folk songs Dylan used as the basis for his songs on this album to his final product. In many of the song descriptions below I've included references to the older songs to make it easier to do this. While the relationships are pretty obvious in most cases, it's also clear that Dylan's songs still ended up sounding quite different, particularly in terms of lyrics, but often in arrangement and even melody. At all events, while Dylan was clearly building on what went before, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan remains a highly original album, and also Dylan's definitive statement as a folk singer (along with his excellent follow-up single "The Times They Are A-Changin'"), as it was not long afterwards that his style evolved dramatically, with his lyrics become more abstract and less direct and his music incorporating more rock elements, as on albums like Highway 61 Revisited. Along with several of those later albums, it is an essential part of any substantial music collection.
Note 1: Unfortunately, the studio recordings of most of these songs are rather hard to find on YouTube. One person seems to have posted most of the album, though whether those will remain available for long is hard to tell. There is an "official" posting of the audio of the album version of "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" and there's one video accompanied by what sounds like the album version of "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right". The links in the album track listing above are all to these album versions. Some of the links in the song descriptions below, however, are to various live versions from around the same time as the album; for instance, the versions of "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" and "Girl from the North Country" are from a 1964 TV.
Note 2: A few early copies of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan were pressed with a different track listing, including four tracks that were dropped from the later version: "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues", "Let Me Die In My Footsteps", "Rambling Gambling Willie", and "Rocks and Gravel". These songs were replaced by "Girl from the North Country", "Masters of War", "Talkin' World War III Blues", and "Bob Dylan's Dream". While the later version is generally considered a big improvement, the dropped songs are interesting in their own right. "Let Me Die In My Footsteps" is even mentioned in the liner notes for the original album (written for the final version), where it is compared to "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall", and "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues" gained notoriety when Dylan was told he couldn't sing it on the Ed Sullivan Show, leading him to refuse to appear.
Blowin' in the Wind: The song that first gained Dylan nationwide recognition, and still one of his best known songs. It is both a civil rights anthem and an anti-war anthem, and this wide applicability no doubt helped make it so widely sung. Though it was Peter, Paul and Mary who had a big hit with it, Dylan's own version has always been widely played as well, and remains definitive. Dylan himself acknowledged that he based the melody on the African American spiritual "No More Auction Block" (which was also a major influence on the anthem "We Shall Overcome"), but "Blowin' in the Wind" still manages to sound quite different from the original spiritual (though the similarities between the two are fairly obvious).
Girl from the North Country: As most fans of 1960s pop will immediately recognize, this song is based on the old English folk ballad "Scarborough Faire", which Simon and Garfunkel famously covered a few years after this album came out. Dylan even retains several lines from the original: "Remember me to one who lives there/She once was a true love of mine". But Dylan altered the melody and wrote new lyrics for most of the song, updating the ballad to tell the tale of a modern romance rather than a medieval one.
Masters of War: The most lyrically vicious song on the album and one of its highlights, this song attacks those who profit off of war. The words are entirely original, but the music is based fairly closely on Jean Ritchie's arrangement of the folk song "Nottamun Town" (he apparently had to pay her a few thousand dollars to settle a suit over the matter). Though the relationship between the two songs is instantly obvious, Dylan's song has an additional edge to it, in part due to the lyrics but also due to the way he performs it.
Down the Highway: A 12-bar blues lamenting the absence of a departed lover, this song doesn't have the impact of the songs that came before it, but it makes a nice change of pace.
Bob Dylan's Blues: Another blues-based tune, this one a more humorous one. Nothing really exceptional, but a decent album track.
A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall: If I had to pick a single song as the best on this album, it would probably be this one. It's a lyrical tour de force and Dylan's performance is also excellent. Musically it's based on the Anglo-Scottish folk song "Lord Randall" (or "Lord Randal"), but Dylan altered the original tune and his delivery is quite different from what went before. The result is one of his most powerful songs.
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right: This song also became a hit when covered by Peter, Paul and Mary in the same year Dylan's own version was released. A rather vitriolic song sung to a lover the narrator is about to abandon, it represents another facet of Dylan's writing, one further developed on songs like "It Ain't Me Babe", "Like A Rolling Stone", "Positively 4th Street" and "Idiot Wind". The melody ultimately derives from the traditional song "Who's Gonna Buy Your Chickens When I'm Gone", but Dylan's immediate source was fellow folk singer Paul Clayton's "Who's Gonna Buy You Ribbons When I'm Gone?", from which Dylan also borrowed a few lines.
Bob Dylan's Dream: An evocative song based on the traditional song "Lady Franklin's Lament". Dylan reworks the original fairly drastically, turning it into something new while retaining the feeling of the original folk song. Another solid album track.
Oxford Town: As noted above, this is one of my favorite songs on the album. The lyrics are very cleverly written, and the jaunty tune is very enjoyable and yet still doesn't seem like a mismatch for the rather serious subject matter. Where the tune comes from I am uncertain; I seem to recall reading it somewhere, but I can't track it down now. In any case, even if it's not an original, it's a good choice and quite different from the other tunes on the album.
Talkin' World War III Blues: The talking blues is a style Dylan picked up from his idol Woody Guthrie. Here he uses it to good effect in the humorous take on the threat of nuclear annihilation.
Corrina, Corrina: This is the one song that is officially credited as being a traditional song, perhaps because Dylan didn't alter it much, though he threw in a few lines from songs by bluesman Robert Johnson, another performer Dylan admired. Not as interesting as the songs for which Dylan wrote original lyrics, perhaps, but a decent nod to his various roots.
Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance: This and "Corrina, Corrina" were the only tracks not solely credited to Dylan. He based it roughly on "Honey, Won't You Allow Me One More Chance?", a song popularized by Texas bluesman Henry Thomas, who recorded it in 1928 (though he didn't actually write it either). In fact Dylan changed the song considerably, such that it only vaguely resembles Thomas's version, though it retains almost the same title phrase. Another humorous song, it's a good album track.
I Shall Be Free: This song was based roughly on Lead Belly's "We Shall Be Free", originally performed by Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Cisco Houston and Sonny Terry, though Dylan altered it quite a bit. This is perhaps my favorite of the humorous tracks on the album, and makes a good closer. Some listeners would perhaps have preferred Dylan to end with another major statement like "Blowin’ In the Wind", "Masters of War" or "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall", but Dylan decided to close on a lighthearted note, and I think it works just fine.
Artist: Bob Dylan
Release Date: May 27, 1963
Side One
Blowin' in the Wind
Girl from the North Country
Masters of War
Down the Highway
Bob Dylan's Blues
A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall
Side Two
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
Bob Dylan's Dream
Oxford Town
Talkin' World War III Blues
Corrina, Corrina (Traditional, Adapted and Arranged by Bob Dylan)
Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance (Henry Thomas, Bob Dylan)
I Shall Be Free
All songs credited to Bob Dylan except where otherwise noted (but see below)
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan is not Bob Dylan’s most representative album and it is arguably not his best, given contenders for that spot such as Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde, Bringing It All Back Home and Blood on the Tracks. But it is certainly one of his most important and best known, and I’d certainly rank it as one of his top five. It is the album that made him famous, catapulting him to the top rank of contemporary artists and causing him to be dubbed the spokesperson for his generation by the media, much to his dismay.
Some of Dylan’s most famous songs are included on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. The opening track, “Blowin’ In the Wind”, is still perhaps his best-known song of all, with numerous covers beginning with the hit version by Peter, Paul and Mary; it is certainly the one best known here in Taiwan. “Masters of War”, “A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall”, and “Don't Think Twice, It's All Right” are also among his most popular recordings. Among the less widely played songs, a favorite of mine is “Oxford Town”, a song about the civil rights movement, but really I enjoy all of the album, from the English folk of “Girl from the North Country” to the humor of songs like “I Shall Be Free”. Songs like the latter, or “Talking World War III Blues” provide a contrast with the intensity of songs such as “Masters of War” or “Hard Rain”. It’s this variety in styles and lyrical content that makes the album more exciting to listen to than many other folk albums. The album represented a big leap forward for Dylan as an artist, showing progress far beyond his more run-of-the-mill first album (which only had two originals on it, and nothing with nearly the dramatic impact of the best songs on this album). Indeed, it represented a leap forward for contemporary folk music in general, as no one was doing anything quite like what Dylan was doing.
Dylan justly gained fame for his brilliant lyrics, particularly on songs like “A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall”, “Blowin’ In the Wind”, and “Masters of War”, but his skill as a writer (recognized last year with a Nobel Prize in Literature) is also evident on songs like “Oxford Town”. The music that accompanied these lyrics was also excellent, but despite what the album credits say, it wasn’t entirely original. Nearly all his melodies were based on older folk tunes, though in some cases he adapted them to the point that they were quite different from his source materials. Still, at most he properly speaking should only be considered a co-writer of the music on these songs, and in some cases only the lyrics are his. Even with the latter he often retained lines and themes from the original songs, though generally the lyrics were at least 80% original, and essentially constituted a new creative work. From today’s perspective, claiming credit for melodies and words that are not your own is considered dishonest, but for what it’s worth it should be remembered that Dylan came out of a folk tradition where such practices were widespread. His hero Woody Guthrie also took his many of his melodies from older songs but then copyrighted them under his own name, as did Pete Seeger (though the latter took pains in the liner notes to later compilations to talk about his sources). The same practice was widespread in the blues as well, with performers like Robert Johnson taking bits and pieces from older songs to make their own. For that matter, while he hasn’t been as meticulous about explaining the origins of his songs as Seeger, Dylan himself has been open about the origins of at least some of these tunes. In any case, it is beyond debate that while perhaps “Blowin’ In the Wind” couldn’t exist without “No More Auction Block” and “A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall” couldn’t exist without “Lord Randall”, these songs are still highly original creations that go far beyond their source material, and no one but Dylan could have created them.
It is actually an interesting exercise to compare the folk songs Dylan used as the basis for his songs on this album to his final product. In many of the song descriptions below I've included references to the older songs to make it easier to do this. While the relationships are pretty obvious in most cases, it's also clear that Dylan's songs still ended up sounding quite different, particularly in terms of lyrics, but often in arrangement and even melody. At all events, while Dylan was clearly building on what went before, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan remains a highly original album, and also Dylan's definitive statement as a folk singer (along with his excellent follow-up single "The Times They Are A-Changin'"), as it was not long afterwards that his style evolved dramatically, with his lyrics become more abstract and less direct and his music incorporating more rock elements, as on albums like Highway 61 Revisited. Along with several of those later albums, it is an essential part of any substantial music collection.
Note 1: Unfortunately, the studio recordings of most of these songs are rather hard to find on YouTube. One person seems to have posted most of the album, though whether those will remain available for long is hard to tell. There is an "official" posting of the audio of the album version of "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" and there's one video accompanied by what sounds like the album version of "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right". The links in the album track listing above are all to these album versions. Some of the links in the song descriptions below, however, are to various live versions from around the same time as the album; for instance, the versions of "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" and "Girl from the North Country" are from a 1964 TV.
Note 2: A few early copies of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan were pressed with a different track listing, including four tracks that were dropped from the later version: "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues", "Let Me Die In My Footsteps", "Rambling Gambling Willie", and "Rocks and Gravel". These songs were replaced by "Girl from the North Country", "Masters of War", "Talkin' World War III Blues", and "Bob Dylan's Dream". While the later version is generally considered a big improvement, the dropped songs are interesting in their own right. "Let Me Die In My Footsteps" is even mentioned in the liner notes for the original album (written for the final version), where it is compared to "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall", and "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues" gained notoriety when Dylan was told he couldn't sing it on the Ed Sullivan Show, leading him to refuse to appear.
Blowin' in the Wind: The song that first gained Dylan nationwide recognition, and still one of his best known songs. It is both a civil rights anthem and an anti-war anthem, and this wide applicability no doubt helped make it so widely sung. Though it was Peter, Paul and Mary who had a big hit with it, Dylan's own version has always been widely played as well, and remains definitive. Dylan himself acknowledged that he based the melody on the African American spiritual "No More Auction Block" (which was also a major influence on the anthem "We Shall Overcome"), but "Blowin' in the Wind" still manages to sound quite different from the original spiritual (though the similarities between the two are fairly obvious).
Girl from the North Country: As most fans of 1960s pop will immediately recognize, this song is based on the old English folk ballad "Scarborough Faire", which Simon and Garfunkel famously covered a few years after this album came out. Dylan even retains several lines from the original: "Remember me to one who lives there/She once was a true love of mine". But Dylan altered the melody and wrote new lyrics for most of the song, updating the ballad to tell the tale of a modern romance rather than a medieval one.
Masters of War: The most lyrically vicious song on the album and one of its highlights, this song attacks those who profit off of war. The words are entirely original, but the music is based fairly closely on Jean Ritchie's arrangement of the folk song "Nottamun Town" (he apparently had to pay her a few thousand dollars to settle a suit over the matter). Though the relationship between the two songs is instantly obvious, Dylan's song has an additional edge to it, in part due to the lyrics but also due to the way he performs it.
Down the Highway: A 12-bar blues lamenting the absence of a departed lover, this song doesn't have the impact of the songs that came before it, but it makes a nice change of pace.
Bob Dylan's Blues: Another blues-based tune, this one a more humorous one. Nothing really exceptional, but a decent album track.
A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall: If I had to pick a single song as the best on this album, it would probably be this one. It's a lyrical tour de force and Dylan's performance is also excellent. Musically it's based on the Anglo-Scottish folk song "Lord Randall" (or "Lord Randal"), but Dylan altered the original tune and his delivery is quite different from what went before. The result is one of his most powerful songs.
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right: This song also became a hit when covered by Peter, Paul and Mary in the same year Dylan's own version was released. A rather vitriolic song sung to a lover the narrator is about to abandon, it represents another facet of Dylan's writing, one further developed on songs like "It Ain't Me Babe", "Like A Rolling Stone", "Positively 4th Street" and "Idiot Wind". The melody ultimately derives from the traditional song "Who's Gonna Buy Your Chickens When I'm Gone", but Dylan's immediate source was fellow folk singer Paul Clayton's "Who's Gonna Buy You Ribbons When I'm Gone?", from which Dylan also borrowed a few lines.
Bob Dylan's Dream: An evocative song based on the traditional song "Lady Franklin's Lament". Dylan reworks the original fairly drastically, turning it into something new while retaining the feeling of the original folk song. Another solid album track.
Oxford Town: As noted above, this is one of my favorite songs on the album. The lyrics are very cleverly written, and the jaunty tune is very enjoyable and yet still doesn't seem like a mismatch for the rather serious subject matter. Where the tune comes from I am uncertain; I seem to recall reading it somewhere, but I can't track it down now. In any case, even if it's not an original, it's a good choice and quite different from the other tunes on the album.
Talkin' World War III Blues: The talking blues is a style Dylan picked up from his idol Woody Guthrie. Here he uses it to good effect in the humorous take on the threat of nuclear annihilation.
Corrina, Corrina: This is the one song that is officially credited as being a traditional song, perhaps because Dylan didn't alter it much, though he threw in a few lines from songs by bluesman Robert Johnson, another performer Dylan admired. Not as interesting as the songs for which Dylan wrote original lyrics, perhaps, but a decent nod to his various roots.
Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance: This and "Corrina, Corrina" were the only tracks not solely credited to Dylan. He based it roughly on "Honey, Won't You Allow Me One More Chance?", a song popularized by Texas bluesman Henry Thomas, who recorded it in 1928 (though he didn't actually write it either). In fact Dylan changed the song considerably, such that it only vaguely resembles Thomas's version, though it retains almost the same title phrase. Another humorous song, it's a good album track.
I Shall Be Free: This song was based roughly on Lead Belly's "We Shall Be Free", originally performed by Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Cisco Houston and Sonny Terry, though Dylan altered it quite a bit. This is perhaps my favorite of the humorous tracks on the album, and makes a good closer. Some listeners would perhaps have preferred Dylan to end with another major statement like "Blowin’ In the Wind", "Masters of War" or "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall", but Dylan decided to close on a lighthearted note, and I think it works just fine.
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band at 50: What Makes a Great Album?
The Beatles’ landmark album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released 50 years ago last week, so not surprisingly there have been a number of articles about the anniversary in the news. I have already posted my own retrospective review of the album, so instead I want to talk about a more general question: what qualities make a great album? Obviously, there is a large degree of subjectivity involved, which is why everyone will have a different list of favorites. Nevertheless, certain albums appear with much greater frequency in such lists than others. Some of that may be just the weight of reputation (a conviction among some that that is the case with Sgt. Pepper, for example, is why, aside from often appearing at or near the top of “greatest albums of all time lists”, it has also appeared in “most overrated” lists). Nevertheless, it is clear that there are certain qualities that albums like Sgt. Pepper have that cause them to be highly rated by most music critics and fans. While everyone may have somewhat different views as to what those qualities are, I will explain what I personally find attractive in the albums that I like best.
The first and most essential quality, of course, is great songs. Of course, even on the greatest albums, not every song will be a work of genius that is likely to appear on a list of the greatest songs of all time. But on the best albums, all of the songs will generally be at least good, and most of them will be great. An example of this is the Beatles’ Revolver. Many of the songs on that album are absolute classics, and even the weakest of them are at least good. But Revolver is hardly the only example; one thing all the best albums have in common is a preponderance of excellent songs. Occasionally a great album may have a song or two that is mediocre or even bad, but on many good albums even a weak track may serve some purpose in context, even if it seems dispensable in and of itself.
This has to do with another important quality in most albums that I personally would rate as being among the best, namely variety. Even if the songs on an album are great individually, if they all sound too similar to each other the album will end up being monotonous. On most of my favorite albums, the songs have a wide range of arrangements and musical styles, and in quite a few cases the instrumentation varies as well. Revolver is again an excellent example of this – “Eleanor Rigby”, “Tomorrow Never Knows”, “For No One” and “Love You To” are all completely different along with all being brilliant songs. Likewise, Queen’s A Night at the Opera covers an incredible range musically. In fact, both these bands managed to be stylistically diverse through much of their careers, and this, along with the more basic capability of writing good songs, is one of the reasons why I like pretty much every album they released. Musical variety is also a strength of many other favorite artists of mine, including Genesis, Randy Newman, Sting, the Super Furry Animals, Taiwan’s Luo Dayou and Thailand’s Carabao, to name just a few examples, and this ability to write a wide variety of songs can be seen in all these artists’ best albums. In many of these cases, having more than one songwriter or even more than one lead vocalist helps, though a talented individual songwriter like Newman can cover quite a bit of ground on their own. While there are some albums with less stylistic diversity that I still consider excellent, it’s generally the ones with more variety that I prefer.
Adding variety can also help make the occasional weak track much more palatable in context. Take the Beatles’ eponymous double album (best known as the White Album). Some have suggested that they should have narrowed it down to a single album of consisting entirely of great songs. But aside from the fact that in my opinion there are more than a single album’s worth of great or at least very good songs, one of the White Album’s greatest virtues is its sprawling stylistic diversity. Songs like “Wild Honey Pie” and “Revolution No. 9” are not exactly great songs in and of themselves, to the extent that they are even songs at all. But they both (particularly “Revolution No. 9”) add even more variety to an already incredibly diverse group of songs. To take another example, “Who Dunnit?” from Abacab is many Genesis fans’ pick as the worst track the band ever released. While it is certainly not a great song by any means, it has a bizarre tongue in cheek element of humor that in the context of the rest of the album makes it listenable and even gives it a certain attraction (it helps that it, like “Wild Honey Pie”, is short; if it were any longer its rather limited charms would not be enough to save it). Of course, tracks such as these have to be balanced out by a large number of great songs, which is fortunately the case on both the White Album and Abacab. But context can be key even for tracks that most critics and fans enjoy. Radiohead’s “Fitter Happier”, for instance, isn’t exactly a song, so it would sound odd in isolation, but in the middle of OK Computer, it serves as a sort of interlude, if a somewhat usual one.
The flip side of variety is thematic unity, or at least a certain degree of musical consistency. From the examples I’ve cited above, it should be clear that I don’t think it is necessary for an album to be a full-fledged concept album to be great. I do like many albums that could be considered concept albums, and if an artist can pull off the difficult feat of assembling a group of songs that are great individually and musically diverse and yet are tied together by some overarching concept, that can make their album even better than it would be if it only possesses the first two qualities. This is very hard to do, however. On many concept albums, some of the lyrics ended up sounding a bit forced, which can negate any advantage gained by the thematic unity. Also, it can mean that individual songs taken out of context don’t make much sense. Perhaps this is why my very favorite albums are usually not full-fledged concept albums. The Who’s Tommy, Genesis’s The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, and Pink Floyd’s The Wall are all great albums that I like very much, but none of them are my favorite albums by those artists (though admittedly I don’t own a copy of Tommy, so it’s possible that if I get one and listen to it enough, I may decide it’s better than Who’s Next, my current favorite by the Who).
What often works better is a loose concept, where the overall theme is vague enough that all sorts of songs can fit it comfortably (such as on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon), or simply tying songs together musically, as was done on the Beatles’ Abbey Road, Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On or several of Queen’s early albums, as well as on Dark Side. Sometimes the concept will be so loose as to be virtually non-existent, as is arguably the case with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band itself. John Lennon was fond of pointing out that his songs on the album had nothing to do with Paul McCartney’s Lonely Hearts Club Band concept, and in truth even many of Paul’s own songs don’t have any obvious connection to it. But just by tying together the first two songs and reprising the title track near the end, just enough of a feeling of unity was created to make the album seem like a single unified work. Indeed, the trick of reprising an early track near or at the end often helps create a feeling of thematic unity, as when Queen ended A Day at the Races with the same Brian May guitar instrumental piece as they used to begin it, or when Genesis reprised elements of the opening tracks of Duke in the mostly instrumental ending to the album. In any case, while I personally tend to value variety more highly than thematic unity, it helps to make the album feel like something more than a random collection of songs.
Another issue is length. Revolver and Sail Away are quite short, but perhaps because they each still have a lot of songs they don’t seem as short as they are. However, anything shorter than Sail Away, which is barely over 30 minutes, would almost certainly feel unsatisfyingly brief – even Sail Away itself might be improved by adding another song or two. At the other end of the spectrum, there are quite a few excellent double albums; aside from the ones mentioned previously (the White Album, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, The Wall and Tommy), other examples include Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life and Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. However, even the best of artists have difficulty writing that much good material, so the best single albums are generally more consistently good than the best double albums.
A final consideration, but one that is largely independent of subjective personal taste, is how influential the album was. If I was making a list of my own picks as the greatest albums of all time, I would certainly take the albums’ impact into consideration, so that one that had a major influence on later music would rank higher than one that I personally enjoyed listen to as much but which didn't have as much impact on the course of music history. In other words, my list of the greatest albums would differ somewhat from my list of personal favorites, though of course there would still be a great deal of overlap, and I would not include albums I don’t particularly enjoy listening to on any but a very long list of “the greatest albums of all time”, no matter how influential they were.
I’ve mentioned just a small sampling of the albums I’d rate among the great ones, or as personal favorites. Others include several albums by Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix’s Are You Experienced and Electric Ladyland, The Velvet Underground and Nico, Fleetwood Mac’s eponymous album and Rumours, Radiohead’s The Bends, and more. But what about Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band itself? Yes, that one is definitely up there, even if it isn’t my absolute favorite. After all, it’s got great songs (if not quite the equal of Revolver), plenty of variety, and a loose concept tying it together. Part of its reputation is due to the last consideration I mentioned, namely that it was incredibly influential, indeed one of the most influential albums ever. But even considered independent of its impact, it certainly qualifies as a great album, if only one of many.
The first and most essential quality, of course, is great songs. Of course, even on the greatest albums, not every song will be a work of genius that is likely to appear on a list of the greatest songs of all time. But on the best albums, all of the songs will generally be at least good, and most of them will be great. An example of this is the Beatles’ Revolver. Many of the songs on that album are absolute classics, and even the weakest of them are at least good. But Revolver is hardly the only example; one thing all the best albums have in common is a preponderance of excellent songs. Occasionally a great album may have a song or two that is mediocre or even bad, but on many good albums even a weak track may serve some purpose in context, even if it seems dispensable in and of itself.
This has to do with another important quality in most albums that I personally would rate as being among the best, namely variety. Even if the songs on an album are great individually, if they all sound too similar to each other the album will end up being monotonous. On most of my favorite albums, the songs have a wide range of arrangements and musical styles, and in quite a few cases the instrumentation varies as well. Revolver is again an excellent example of this – “Eleanor Rigby”, “Tomorrow Never Knows”, “For No One” and “Love You To” are all completely different along with all being brilliant songs. Likewise, Queen’s A Night at the Opera covers an incredible range musically. In fact, both these bands managed to be stylistically diverse through much of their careers, and this, along with the more basic capability of writing good songs, is one of the reasons why I like pretty much every album they released. Musical variety is also a strength of many other favorite artists of mine, including Genesis, Randy Newman, Sting, the Super Furry Animals, Taiwan’s Luo Dayou and Thailand’s Carabao, to name just a few examples, and this ability to write a wide variety of songs can be seen in all these artists’ best albums. In many of these cases, having more than one songwriter or even more than one lead vocalist helps, though a talented individual songwriter like Newman can cover quite a bit of ground on their own. While there are some albums with less stylistic diversity that I still consider excellent, it’s generally the ones with more variety that I prefer.
Adding variety can also help make the occasional weak track much more palatable in context. Take the Beatles’ eponymous double album (best known as the White Album). Some have suggested that they should have narrowed it down to a single album of consisting entirely of great songs. But aside from the fact that in my opinion there are more than a single album’s worth of great or at least very good songs, one of the White Album’s greatest virtues is its sprawling stylistic diversity. Songs like “Wild Honey Pie” and “Revolution No. 9” are not exactly great songs in and of themselves, to the extent that they are even songs at all. But they both (particularly “Revolution No. 9”) add even more variety to an already incredibly diverse group of songs. To take another example, “Who Dunnit?” from Abacab is many Genesis fans’ pick as the worst track the band ever released. While it is certainly not a great song by any means, it has a bizarre tongue in cheek element of humor that in the context of the rest of the album makes it listenable and even gives it a certain attraction (it helps that it, like “Wild Honey Pie”, is short; if it were any longer its rather limited charms would not be enough to save it). Of course, tracks such as these have to be balanced out by a large number of great songs, which is fortunately the case on both the White Album and Abacab. But context can be key even for tracks that most critics and fans enjoy. Radiohead’s “Fitter Happier”, for instance, isn’t exactly a song, so it would sound odd in isolation, but in the middle of OK Computer, it serves as a sort of interlude, if a somewhat usual one.
The flip side of variety is thematic unity, or at least a certain degree of musical consistency. From the examples I’ve cited above, it should be clear that I don’t think it is necessary for an album to be a full-fledged concept album to be great. I do like many albums that could be considered concept albums, and if an artist can pull off the difficult feat of assembling a group of songs that are great individually and musically diverse and yet are tied together by some overarching concept, that can make their album even better than it would be if it only possesses the first two qualities. This is very hard to do, however. On many concept albums, some of the lyrics ended up sounding a bit forced, which can negate any advantage gained by the thematic unity. Also, it can mean that individual songs taken out of context don’t make much sense. Perhaps this is why my very favorite albums are usually not full-fledged concept albums. The Who’s Tommy, Genesis’s The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, and Pink Floyd’s The Wall are all great albums that I like very much, but none of them are my favorite albums by those artists (though admittedly I don’t own a copy of Tommy, so it’s possible that if I get one and listen to it enough, I may decide it’s better than Who’s Next, my current favorite by the Who).
What often works better is a loose concept, where the overall theme is vague enough that all sorts of songs can fit it comfortably (such as on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon), or simply tying songs together musically, as was done on the Beatles’ Abbey Road, Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On or several of Queen’s early albums, as well as on Dark Side. Sometimes the concept will be so loose as to be virtually non-existent, as is arguably the case with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band itself. John Lennon was fond of pointing out that his songs on the album had nothing to do with Paul McCartney’s Lonely Hearts Club Band concept, and in truth even many of Paul’s own songs don’t have any obvious connection to it. But just by tying together the first two songs and reprising the title track near the end, just enough of a feeling of unity was created to make the album seem like a single unified work. Indeed, the trick of reprising an early track near or at the end often helps create a feeling of thematic unity, as when Queen ended A Day at the Races with the same Brian May guitar instrumental piece as they used to begin it, or when Genesis reprised elements of the opening tracks of Duke in the mostly instrumental ending to the album. In any case, while I personally tend to value variety more highly than thematic unity, it helps to make the album feel like something more than a random collection of songs.
Another issue is length. Revolver and Sail Away are quite short, but perhaps because they each still have a lot of songs they don’t seem as short as they are. However, anything shorter than Sail Away, which is barely over 30 minutes, would almost certainly feel unsatisfyingly brief – even Sail Away itself might be improved by adding another song or two. At the other end of the spectrum, there are quite a few excellent double albums; aside from the ones mentioned previously (the White Album, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, The Wall and Tommy), other examples include Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life and Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. However, even the best of artists have difficulty writing that much good material, so the best single albums are generally more consistently good than the best double albums.
A final consideration, but one that is largely independent of subjective personal taste, is how influential the album was. If I was making a list of my own picks as the greatest albums of all time, I would certainly take the albums’ impact into consideration, so that one that had a major influence on later music would rank higher than one that I personally enjoyed listen to as much but which didn't have as much impact on the course of music history. In other words, my list of the greatest albums would differ somewhat from my list of personal favorites, though of course there would still be a great deal of overlap, and I would not include albums I don’t particularly enjoy listening to on any but a very long list of “the greatest albums of all time”, no matter how influential they were.
I’ve mentioned just a small sampling of the albums I’d rate among the great ones, or as personal favorites. Others include several albums by Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix’s Are You Experienced and Electric Ladyland, The Velvet Underground and Nico, Fleetwood Mac’s eponymous album and Rumours, Radiohead’s The Bends, and more. But what about Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band itself? Yes, that one is definitely up there, even if it isn’t my absolute favorite. After all, it’s got great songs (if not quite the equal of Revolver), plenty of variety, and a loose concept tying it together. Part of its reputation is due to the last consideration I mentioned, namely that it was incredibly influential, indeed one of the most influential albums ever. But even considered independent of its impact, it certainly qualifies as a great album, if only one of many.
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