"Paranoid" by Black Sabbath (September, 1970)

Dad's Take:

If somebody told me I could have only one metal album in my collection, this is very likely the one I'd pick.

"Iron Man" could well be the greatest metal song, containing the One Riff to Rule Them All. I used to play it when I played Risk, as my national anthem. "Iron Man." I want to keep writing that title. If this album contained no other great songs besides "Iron Man," I'd have to have it in my collection. It's a cinematic rock suite, as close to perfection as rock has ever come.When I put this album on, it's hard to wait until the fourth song to hear this brilliant song.

As great as that classic song is, some others on this album aren't far behind, so you can't just skip ahead.. The opener, "War Pigs," for example. The song is epic in the classical sense. It's a head-banging message song from the Viet Nam era. Need I say more. And that wild ending. It's like they weren't sure where to go to end the thing, so they went crazy.

"Paranoid" is another amazing song, with a great Ozzy vocal that sounds as much like a riff as anything happening on the guitar. That guitar riff, though, is possibly the most influential riff in hard rock.

If "Iron Man" were song three instead of four, this album would open with one of the best 1-2-3 punches ever. But Sabbath takes a psychedelic break with song three, "Planet Caravan." It reminds me of some of the best work from Vanilla Fudge. I'd probably like it more if it didn't sound out of place between "Paranoid" and "Iron Man."

You'd expect me to feel let down by whatever follows "Iron Man," but "Electric Funeral" is psych metal at its best. It's a lot like "Iron Man" in its structure and even it's electrical themes, but it doesn't sound like a copycat song. And it's almost as good.

It doesn't really matter what comes next. Four of the first five songs are absolutely brilliant, and the other one is no slouch. They could stop now and have one of the greatest rock albums ever released.

But no, they give us three more songs. By this point, the best is over, but don't get me wrong. I like the Vanilla-Fudge-meets-Alice-Cooper-done-as-only-Ozzy-can-do-it feel of "Hand of Doom.""Rat Salad" is a great instrumental with the drum solo that was required at the time. I could see it going on for another five or six minutes. And "Fairies Wear Boots" is a great way to close the record, with its killer-riffs-and-drums attack on skinheads.

One of the things that makes this such a great album besides the fantastic songs and unforgettable riffs is that the album holds together. Even as great as most of the songs are, they don't kill the cohesive feel of the entire album. Brilliant stuff. Absolutely brilliant.

Ozzy, Geezer, and Tony managed what many consider the greatest metal album ever recorded, and I won't argue with anybody who makes that claim.

Brad's Take:

Black Sabbath is definitely one of those bands that has become a household name over the years. Even when I was younger, I remember my dad playing "Iron Man" in the car. And around Christmas time, he loves playing the Christmas themed "Iron Man" parody called "I Am Santa Claus" by Bob Rivers.

My favorite songs on this are probably the ones I already knew well. "War Pigs" and "Iron Man."

The majority of the album has great writing, and it's impossible to oversee that. Every member in this band rules at what they're doing. This is a band that consists of guys who are lucky to have all found each other because they compliment each other extremely well. Even Ozzy sounds great.

However, growing up in the digital age where audio recording is much more crisp, full, clean, and other adjectives for basically "perfect," I can't help but notice the aged production and tape-recorded quality, and I think that holds the album back for me. My ears have been (arguably) blessed with hearing modern hard rock albums that don't just have quality writing, but quality recording that helps compliment everything. If Paranoid was recorded today with modern equipment, this album would sound massive. The production quality dates this so much, and unfortunately that affects my opinion of the record as a whole.

The album also suffers from some of the same panning issues that I've complained about in a few past reviews. In these early days of stereo mixing, people seemed to think they should put random stuff into one speaker and other stuff in the other. On this album specifically, they put the bass guitar in only the right speaker, which I find very odd. But maybe I'm the only one that really notices that kind of thing so don't let that affect your decision to listen to this album (as if you haven't already at some point in your life.)

Overall, I didn't love the album, but the good songs are really good, and the not-as-good songs are definitely skip-able. Fortunately though, there's only 8 tracks so there's not a lot of filler at all.

"John Barleycorn Must Die" by Traffic (July 1970)

Dad's Take:

Although I prefer my Traffic to include Dave Mason, who had left the group prior to this record, "John Barleycorn Must Die" is a worthy entrant in our list.

Full of good, solid, jazz-infused, blues-based British rock, this was a big hit on both sides of the pond, doing somewhat better in America than Britain. It's not one of my favorites on our list, but it is very good, very listenable, with a definite classic rock feel.

This album started out as a solo project for Steve Winwood, but when he asked most of his former Traffic mates to join him, a Traffic reunion album was born. At times, I hear later seventies albums in this music. For example, parts of "Freedom Rider" remind me of Steely Dan. The song "John Barleycorn" really stands out on this album. It has a cool, folksy, almost Cat-Stevens-meets-Jethro-Tull-like treatment that is not like anything else on the record. Of the more typical songs, I think I like the closer, "Every Mother's Son," best.

"John Barleycorn Must Die" brings together rock, blues, jazz, and even British folk influences to create an intriguing sound and an interesting set of songs. The record is full of great jams, punctuated by Winwood's expressive voice. I have to admit that I'm not a huge fan of Winwood's voice, probably because of overexposure in the eighties, but it works with this kind of music. But then, Rolling Stone lists him as #33 in its list of the 100 greatest singers, so what do I know?

Over the years, this album has received reviews that are kind of all over the place. My final impression? Great musicianship, very good performances, and songs that are good enough. There are albums I like better on our list, but this one is worth pulling out once in a while. There's nothing I consider bad here, but also nothing that I find running through my head at unexpected times. I don't feel disappointed when it ends, either because of what I heard or because it's over. Like it. Don't love it. It needs Dave Mason.

Brad's Take:

It's pretty obvious that the book we're pulling all of these albums from is from the UK. There's a lot of UK artists making the list that I've never heard of, including this band called Traffic. Were they big here in the US? Beats me.

I really only liked half of the songs on this album. Namely, "Empty Pages", "Stranger To Himself", and "Every Mother's Son." Those were some cool, upbeat blues rock jams that I was really into. The other songs though, I just wasn't feeling them. It's an enjoyable record, but just doesn't really feel memorable or special to me.

It's a little confusing to me why this album made our list because I don't really feel like it's up to par with a lot of the other albums we've listened to. On the other hand though, it's much more enjoyable to listen to than a few of our past reviewed albums. I'll definitely go back to "Empty Pages" but I doubt I'll listen to much more again.

"All Things Must Pass" by George Harrison (June, 1970)

Dad's Take:

I once heard a Beatles bootleg where George Harrison talks about his idea that maybe the Beatles should be able to work on solo albums while still recording as the Beatles. More than any other Beatle, George must have felt limited within a band that only let his songs trickle out one or two at a time.

When "All Things Must Pass" came out, people must have wondered where this guy had been hiding. Sure, there were hints at his songsmithing skills in the songs the Beatles released. But how could anybody have anticipated this creative explosion?

Three records of mostly excellent songs show what the Beatles were holding back by burying George's skills. If I wanted to list highlights, I'd have to provide the complete track list. There's so much excellence here. It's not only the number of songs, but the range of the material, that shows what the Beatles' "third wheel" was capable of. Who knew?

A track-by-track exploration of a triple album would make for a monster blog post, so for the sake of brevity I won't go there. It's probably enough to say that anybody who thinks Paul and John were the only major talents in the Beatles really needs to listen to this album. Helped by an all-star cast, Harrison truly shines on this record. From quiet spirituals to rowdy rockers, we finally get to see what George is capable of producing.

And he produced a ton. In addition to these six sides, there are reportedly enough jams and outtakes to fill at least two more records. Freed from the constraints of a band dominated by two other songwriters, Harrison almost went crazy, like a dog that gets out of the yard and runs like a bat out of hell with its new-found freedom. And not only is there a lot of material, but it's also really, really good.

It loses a little steam, perhaps, on the third disc, a set of Harrison studio jams, which I really enjoy (considering the all-star cast, it's hard not to like them) but have to admit that they do have a tacked-on feel, like bonus tracks. It hardly matters, though. The entire effect of the album, the jams included, is the revealing of a major talent that had been "hidden in plain sight," as author Robert Rodriguez put it.

So don't be scared off by the size of this set or the number of titles you might not recognize. If you are a rock fan and don't know this album, you really need to remedy that situation. Like, right now. So stop reading this and experience it for yourself.

Brad's Take:

This is my first time really diving into George Harrison's solo music. I'm sure I've heard a song or two before on the radio or something, but I never sought out more from him. Unfairly, I always just saw him as "the invisible Beatle" before this. So I kind of looked forward to squeeze this big ol' triple-LP album into my schedule so I could give it a solid listen and give George my full attention. 

The album starts out with "I'd Have You Anytime" which is a mellow, Beatles-esque song that was co-written with Bob Dylan. I can definitely hear Dylan's influence in the song. I wish the album had kicked off a little more up-beat though because there are some seriously amazing songs on here, come to find out!

"What Is Life" was a song that immediately caught my ear. I started tapping my foot to the bouncy rhythm right away. I also really loved the catchy vocal melodies and tambourines that helped carry the song. During this song, I did a quick Google search and discovered the reason this song in particular really piqued my interest. The song was co-produced by one of my favorite producers, Phil Spector (The Ronettes, The Crystals, etc.). Despite his homicidal tendencies and whacky hair-dos, Spector has been in my top 3 all-time favorite pop music producers, and this song is no exception. Another fun fact about "What Is Life": Eric Clapton played on the track as well!

Side note: After my Google search, I discovered that Phil Spector actually co-produced this entire album. My mind was blown!

A couple songs later, there's a track called "Let It Down." WOW! The gigantic, powerful, rocking introduction to that song certainly does not let me down! It's a huge, heavy wall of sound crushing into my ears. I absolutely loved how heavy that introduction was! The horns were a very nice touch too. Then the song pulls way, way back and gets very minor and moody sounding, but builds back up to the point of huge rockin'-ness again, but then quickly turns its head away and goes back to being mellow again, only to come back into full on rock gloriousness again! I can't say enough good things about this song. I had to go back and listen to it a couple more times before I could move on with the rest of the album.

"Awaiting On You All" is another song where you can really hear that Spector production. The heavy amount of reverb, tambourines, bouncy rhythms, etc. It just oozes with that signature Phil Spector production that I really love.

There's a few songs on here that I didn't immediately love. The 7-minute long "Isn't It A Pity" which chants "Hare Krishna!" a bunch of times was kind of an eye-roller for me. The eye-rolly moments were very few and far between though because there was a lot of songs I fell in love with. I'm excited to go back and revisit this album again soon. It now makes perfect sense why George Harrison was in the Beatles, and I no longer see him as "the invisible Beatle." In fact, he might be my favorite Beatle now.

Now, go listen to "Let It Down" immediately!

"Fire and Water" by Free (July 1970)

Dad's Take:

When your band features Paul Rodgers (Free, Bad Company, Queen), Simon Kirke (Free, Bad Company), and Andy Fraser (Free, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers), it has to be good. Add some brilliant guitar from the late Paul Kossoff and you have a great band.

This is one of those albums that probably shows that the list we're working from comes from England. "Fire and Water" cracked the top 20 in the US, but in England it soared to #2. The album contains solid songs, but most people will probably recognize only the monster hit "All Right Now." But then, that's not a bad song to anchor your record.

"Fire and Water" is loaded with well-performed British blues rock, with solid bass, drums, and guitar, but what makes it for me are Rodgers' vocals. It can easily be argued that he belongs in the top ranks of any lists of best rock and roll vocalists. He was the voice of both Free and Bad Company, and, most recently, Queen.

For me, the highlights of this album are "All Right Now" (of course) and the blues ballad "Heavy Load."

Today, this album sounds very 1970, but that's not a bad thing. As we've seen on this blog, it was a good year. If I were to compile my own best of 1970, I'd probably include this record, but it wouldn't top my list. Still, it's good, solid rock with a blues base and one of rock's premier singers. An enjoyable listen, to be sure.

Brad's Take:

The name Free didn't initially ring a bell, but when I discovered they were the band that did "All Right Now," I realized that I guess I'd known of them (well, that song) so I was pretty interested in hearing some more stuff by them, especially after I found out that Paul Rodgers fronted the band.

The title track, "Fire and Water" is a great song to kick off the record. Its upbeat blues-rock sound makes you want to play along on air guitar. "Mr. Big" is another awesome jam that people should check out. No wonder the band Mr. Big named themselves after that song.

Obviously, "All Right Now" is the hit from this record. It deserved to be a hit, as it's probably the most single-friendly song on here. It's a fun song and you can't help but feel the positive vibes it exudes. It'll cheer you right up and keep you singing along long after the song is over.

This wasn't a bad album by any means, but it definitely is one of those albums that's only book-ended with great songs, has one or two goodies in the middle, and then the rest are pretty forgettable. This seems like a pretty typical trend I'm starting to notice for albums around this era.

"Workingman's Dead" by The Grateful Dead (June, 1970)

Dad's Take:

"Workingman's Dead" is my second favorite Grateful Dead album, and one that I'd consider essential to music collectors. Later in the year, they released "American Beauty," one of my desert island records, but this album is equally strong and was one of many left turns the band took as their sound evolved and changed.

Starting with the iconic "Uncle John's Band" and ending with the brilliant "Casey Jones," the album is, as Jerry Garcia said, influenced by the sound of their friends Crosby, Stills, and Nash, which explains the vocal harmonies heard on several songs, a new element of the Dead's sound. Not what the uninitiated expect from a legendary jam band.

One of the things I really like about this record is its folksy feel and mellow harmonies. I guess that's two things. Whatever. I was never good at math. Listen, for example, to the bluegrass-rock of  "Cumberland Blues." Banjos, harmonies, and an upbeat mood despite dark, sad lyrics. Great song. Much of the album is like that. Gentle, friendly tunes with a dark underbelly. This is not simple stuff.

Some of my favorite Dead songs are on this record, including "Uncle John's Band," "Dire Wolf," "Black Peter," and "Casey Jones." Throughout, the record has a good, unified, gentle stoner feel that I find pleasant and entertaining. Much of it is acoustic and intimate. Electric jams like "New Speedway Boogie" still carry the positive mood of the album, which was recording during kind of a rough time for the band, between drug busts and the manager (also band member Mickey Hart's father) running off with much of the band's money. They could have recorded an angry response to their hard times, but instead gave us a record that feels good. Listen closely, though, and you'll hear clues about the band's troubles.

It's an excellent album with a cohesive feel that's just plain fun to listen to. If you don't know the Dead, that last sentence might not match your preconceptions of what their music was about. So, if that sentence surprised you, you need to pick up this record. And maybe some others. This is a band that constantly broke people's preconceptions of who they were.

Brad's Take:

Like my dad said, The Grateful Dead were good at throwing people off from their general preconceptions they had about the band, which includes even myself. I've only ever heard their hippie jam stuff, and never the mellow folk-influenced music that this album is all about.

You can most definitely hear the CSN influences, and that's in no way a bad thing. The Grateful Dead has some awesome vocal harmonies on this album. My favorite example of it is probably "Uncle John's Band." There's a moment in the song where all the instruments stop playing, which gives the vocals to soar openly on their own. That's one of my favorite parts on the whole album.

Some other highlights are "Easy Wind" and "Casey Jones." Those two songs are more upbeat and show the band's blues-rock influences.

Workingman's Dead was pretty cool. I liked hearing the obvious CSN influence that they incorporated into a few songs. A couple songs in the middle dragged a little bit to me. Maybe just because they were super mellow songs that would be perfect to listen to if you were trying to sleep underneath a tree on a sunny afternoon.

If the Grateful Dead have other albums like this, I might need to check out a bit more of their stuff.

"Woodstock," Various Artists (May, 1970)

Dad's Take:

What do you say about one of the most analyzed music events in history? Everything has been said already.

As I've said before in this blog, I'm not a big fan of most live albums. But how do you possibly leave "Woodstock" off a list of classic albums? You can't of course. I'm not going to discuss the phenomenon of the music festival. I will recommend that music fans see the movie and read organizer Michael Lang's book, "The Road to Woodstock." I'd also recommend going for one of the CD box sets that contain more of the music, which is what I'm actually listening to right now. The original soundtrack is great, but I want to hear more.

There's a lot of great music here. Pretty much the whole album is legendary, although some performances are definitely better than others. Some of the bands have released their complete performances. I'd highly suggest digging out the complete Woodstock performances by showstoppers Santana (at the time, an unknown group from the San Francisco Bay Area who were chosen to perform by winning a coin toss, and by virtue of their performance burst onto the music scene as a legendary band), Sly & the Family Stone, and Jimi Hendrix. Whether on record or in the movie, those are my three favorite Woodstock performers. But they are certainly not the only great performances from all four days of the "Three days of peace and music."

Much of the list of performers could be a list of my favorite bands. Several performers, including the Grateful Dead and CCR, are not represented on either the soundtrack or the movie, for various reasons. But those that are here include many of the major bands and singers you'd think of from the period. Some are at the top of their game, and others are not, as you'd expect from any festival.

The sound quality of the soundtrack is surprisingly good for a live album, especially one recorded under the circumstances of this one. The festival was a mess and, at times, the soundtrack reflects that. But Woodstock pretty much summarizes the second half of the sixties, both musically and culturally. I can't imagine not having this album somewhere in my collection.

Brad's Take:

We've reviewed some compilation albums and soundtracks already, and I've found that it's kind of hard for me to fully get into some of them because they aren't as cohesive as an actual album by one particular band. This Woodstock compilation is kind of a different monster though. Technically, it's a compilation just featuring a bunch of bands that played the festival, but with it all being recorded in the same place, it has a certain cohesiveness to it that makes it not feel jumbled like a typical soundtrack usually is.

Like my dad said, there isn't really much to say about Woodstock because it's all been said before. It was a legendary concert that will be talked about forever. Everyone's seen or heard the notable performances, like Jimi Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner" which is arguably the best performance of the entire festival.

My only real gripe with this is its length. Obviously, I understand why the people who put this comp together made it this long (in fact, it easily could have been longer) but my attention span was barely hanging on near the end.

"Bitches Brew" by Miles Davis (April, 1970)

Dad's Take:

Once again, I'm faced with the problem of not having the vocabulary to really discuss jazz.

However, what I can say about this Miles Davis record is that it surprised me. I really like "Kind of Blue" and expected more of the same, but this album has a wilder, sometimes almost uncontrolled feel to it. The sounds are deep and strong. In technical terms, this record is "freaking awesome."

This dream music. It runs all over the place, and just when it's starting to make sense, it takes an unexpected turn. As such, it holds my attention and captures my imagination. It seems to become most interesting when it becomes harder to understand.

Case in point, the title track. At times, it feels like it's trying to figure out where it wants to go, sometimes crawling to a near stop, like it does at around the midpoint, but then it gets big and loud and carries the listener to an exciting place, maybe a dangerous place. And at times it creeps along slowly, almost confusedly, with sounds that don't quite make sense, like a vivid dream.

"Miles Runs the Voodoo Down" starts out sounding like it could be the Doors, but then Miles jumps in and there's no doubt who it is. It begins with almost a noirish feel, then grows into cool jazz, then becomes bigger and wilder as it goes, like a walk into an exciting city. The rhythm becomes hypnotic, and the stuff in the foreground is vivid and varied, taking the listener on a wild ride. I want to see where it takes me, but it turns out there's no real destination, just an interesting trip.

The final piece, "Sanctuary," starts soft and quiet, a welcome cool down from the exhausting wildness that comes before it. It gets bigger, then almost falls asleep at about the midpoint, leading gently to a big, brassy ending.

The version I have includes a bonus track, "Feio," which works well as a gentle coda to the dream. It doesn't feel out of place with the rest of the album, as bonus tracks sometimes do.

The album is long, and the music is big and noisy and often feels out of control. But sometimes it's little and quiet and, well, still feels kind of out of control. But one thing it's not, and that's dull. I listen, amazed that this came from a human mind, presumably while awake and coherent. It's often intense, sometimes almost violent, like a welcome attack on the senses.

I've never heard anything like it, at least not on this scale. It's challenging and sometimes difficult and exhausting. Like a dream, it sometimes feels like it's going to go somewhere but then it never gets there. I mean that in a good way. I'm not really sure what else to say, besides I like it. And it wears me out. But that's a good thing.

Brad's Take:

When I think of Miles Davis, the first thing that comes to mind is how much I love Kind of Blue. I still listen to that record often and that's how I picture Miles Davis now.

And then Bitches Brew came up on our list...

I attempted to listen to and review this album a couple of weeks ago, but it's so completely different than the Miles Davis I am used to so it really threw me for a loop that I wasn't ready for. I decided to hold off and listen to it at another time. I thought maybe I was just not in the mood for experimental jazz music that particular day or something.

So now here I am, giving the album a solid listen, and although I still wish it was like the classic jazz style that's featured on Kind of Blue, I tip my hat to the guy for stepping outside of the box and creating some really wild and interesting free-style jazz music. To me, it sounds like Miles had a lot of energy built up and just wanted to let it all out uncontrollably.

While I commend him for doing his thing, this just isn't for me. I like nice smooth jazz to have on while it's raining outside, or as background music while I'm listening to podcasts or working. This stuff just confuses my ears and actually kind of stresses me out. Maybe that's what is supposed to happen when you listen to this album for the first few times. Maybe it was intentional. Maybe it's an album that gets better over multiple listens. Whatever it is, this review is just based on my first solid listen of it. I may try to listen to it again eventually, but for now, I think I will continue with sticking to Kind of Blue when I want to listen to Miles Davis.