Top Ten Albums: 1969

Over the life of this blog I'd like to break down and analyze each year of the album era, to give readers a more complete view of music history and at least some sense of context.  So here we begin, for no particular reason, with 1969.  

1969 has quite a reputation in the music world.  The Woodstock Music and Arts Festival became the defining event of the 60s counterculture movement, and thus you would think that '69 would be a great year for 60s albums.

However, most of the great rock bands that passed through '69 were either past their peak and entering a state of decline, or just getting started.  The Beatles were breaking up, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison were nearing their tragic deaths, the Velvet Underground were searching for a new identity without John Cale, and Sly Stone was beginning to feel the effects of the mountain of cocaine on his back.

Meanwhile, a band once humbly known as The New Yardbirds was just beginning to find its way as Led Zeppelin, a mercurial young songwriter named Nick Drake was learning how best to manipulate the recording studio, and The Rolling Stones were on the verge of breaking out of the Beatles shadow and learning how to have a dynamic, adaptive career without such brilliant guiding lights.

No, the artists that truly peaked in 1969 were not truly rock artists.  Journeyman country genius Gram Parsons was launching The Flying Burrito Brothers even higher than the Byrds, while a british songbird and a few Hawks from Canada were digging into the American soul and country experiences.  

So without further ado:

#10

The Velvet Underground by The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground's early sound was shaped by two things: Lou Reed's lyrics, and John Cale's avant garde musical sensibilities.  But without Cale's bass (or more importantly, his screeching viola), the VU were clever enough that they did not try to continue down the same road of distortion and noise without their navigator.  Instead, the album oscillates between early 60s-style guitar pop and slower tracks with the mellow, hazy back-room ambience implied by the cover. And in so doing, they laid yet another stone on the path that indie rock would drunkenly stumble along through the 1990s.

#9

Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band

When rock commentators like myself talk about "difficult" albums, we're talking about this. Seeming to capture the chaos of a bunch of amped-up druggies stumbling on instruments for the first time, this largely arhythmic, atonal double album was actually meticulously planned. But the reason that this album is so respected is because amidst the firestorm, there are solid rock songs like "Ella Guru" and "Moonlight on Vermont".  Moreover, Captain Beefheart (nee Don Van Vliet) has a twisted, psychedelic lyrical muse that is constantly amusing, at the very least.  Tracks like the spoken word "The Dust Blows Forward 'n The Dust Blows Back" and the absurd hysterics of "Pena" are hilarious, whether you think them the works of a brilliant visionary or a mad hobo.

#8

Dusty in Memphis by Dusty Springfield

Looking at the album cover, you do not expect to find the last great soul album of the 60s. Sure, it does say "Memphis", but from the beehive hair to the frilly lace dress, Dusty Springfield looks almost perfectly antithetical to the gritty, frankly emotional ethos of American Soul Music.  But there's one other thing on the cover that tells you this will be a great record: the imprint of Atlantic Records.  Atlantic A&R man Jerry Wexler had a great ear for talent and impeccable taste.  Having successfully transformed Aretha Franklin from an also-ran pop singer to the Queen of Soul, he went to work on Dusty.  With a strong batch of songs from legendary writers like Randy Newman and Carole King, Wexler let Dusty loose with one of Memphis' strongest backing bands and some lush orchestral arrangements, a sound that would be closer to Motown than Memphis if it weren't so sultry and seductive.

#7

Stand! by Sly and the Family Stone

If 60s music was largely about a utopian vision of a new "Love" age, then Sly and the Family Stone was perhaps the era's defining band. Comprised of blacks and whites, men and women, the band made uplifting music that echoed the ideas of the time.  But they were also the proud parents (along with James Brown) of a new genre called "Funk". There's a moment at the end of the title track where the song goes into a breakdown completely different from the rest of the song.  George Clinton would spin this breakdown out into a career with Parliament and Funkadelic throughout the 70s and 80s. But Stand! has other classic moments, from the explosive "I Want to Take You Higher" to the new gospel of "Everyday People". Still, tedious jams like "Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey" and "Sex Machine" keep this album a step below Sly's great unraveling, 1971's There's a Riot Going On, the final (and perhaps most painful) drug addled nail in the coffin of 60s idealism.

#6

Let It Bleed by The Rolling Stones

For the first time in the album era, the new Stones album could not be construed as their version of the latest Beatles album. Except perhaps in the sense that both bands went back to their core strengths to close out the decade that they had shaped together. For the Stones, this means gritty, bluesy, apocalyptic rock.  From the harrowing opener "Gimme Shelter", the band possesses the swagger that is perhaps their greatest legacy. Of course, the Stones had developed a good sense of pacing, so the album is also sprinkled with slower, country flavored tracks. The best of these is the last: the slow build of "You Got the Silver" is surprisingly powerful, and it makes you wonder why Keith Richards doesn't sing more often.  Finally, the band indulge their proclivity for closing with an epic pop statement, and deliver perhaps their best such song with "You Can't Always Get What You Want".  The way that the arrangement begins with the unflinching pomposity of a choir that fades to a humble acoustic guitar with a lonely French Horn, then rebuilds to a towering chorus, is magical.  

#5

Led Zeppelin II by Led Zeppelin

From the first moments, when that freight train bass starts chugging along with the guitar on "Whole Lotta Love", you know that this record is something special.  Especially amazing since Led Zeppelin I was less than a year old when this hit the shelves.  But these guys spat in the face of the "sophomore slump", presenting what would be their defining record until 1971, when they would blow everything else out of the water.  While their first record showcased a topnotch blues-rock band, Led Zeppelin II finds the band stretching their boundaries, from the psychedelic freak-out midway through "Whole Lotta Love", to their first experiment with a folkier, more elven sound on "Ramble On".  The fact that some of the lyrics, and arguably a monster riff or two, were stolen from old blues masters can be forgiven because of the fire of the performances and the way that Zeppelin puts the ideas in a new context and gives them the grandeur that they deserve.  

#4

The Gilded Palace of Sin by The Flying Burrito Brothers

I would say that if I had to pick, country music is the genre that has had to fight hardest for artistic respect.  When the billboard charts were founded, the country chart was designed to reflect the tastes of poor, white people.  Not exactly the cultural elite.  

But country-rock fusions like this landmark record show that the genre is more than broken down pickups and broken hearts.  The searing distorted slide guitar turns opener "Christine's Tune" from a standard country song into a fascinating merger of sensibilities.  Elsewhere, the band rework classic soul tunes into country ballads, showing that a great song can work in any context.  In the reverse, "Hot Burrito #2" was later covered by noise-rock icons Dinosaur Jr, and was paid tribute in a song title by indie soundscape artists Yo La Tengo.

But what makes this album a masterpiece is the lyrical depth.  If this album has a theme, it's revealed in the final track.  "Hippie Boy" talks about a chance encounter with a young hippie and concludes that the narrator and the boy are not as different as they appear.  But Parsons puts his money where his mouth is by illustrating these similarities throughout the album. "My Uncle" is a celebration of the decidedly hippie pursuit of draft dodging, and it features some great mandolin runs by former Byrds bassist Chris Hillman.  

But the true masterpiece here is "Sin City".  Borrowing more hippie ideology by condemning corporate pollution, it also frames its argument in religious rhetoric, creating a perfect fusion of the two sensibilities.  In the original novel that inspired the film High Fidelity, the main character includes this as one of his top 5 songs of all time.  Such praise may not be as outrageous as you think.

#3

Abbey Road by The Beatles

Frank Sinatra once sang "Something" in concert.  When he did, he thanked Lennon and McCartney for writing what he thought was one of the greatest love songs of all time.  George Harrison, the song's author, was furious.  This is why Abbey Road is such a fitting farewell for this great band.  For perhaps the first time in their discography, all four members seem on nearly equal footing as songwriters.  OK, only three of them are equal here, but credit should be given to Ringo for contributing his best composition to date (or possibly his career) with "Octopus's Garden".  The point is, the band's development had reached its peak.  Having thoroughly owned the 1960s, they were ready to explore the 70s as self-sufficient individuals rather than a unified whole.  

But music, not merely biography, is what makes this album so outstanding.  While McCartney and Lennon are both overindulgent in their way, each is redeemed in due course.   The silly kitsch of "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" is augmented by some of the band's first synthesizer experiments, creating an interesting blend of old-school music-hall and futuristic, electronic textures.  John, on the other hand, takes the length and weight of proto-metal ala Iron Butterly and mixes it with the compositional minimalism of punk.  While conceptually intriguing, the 8-minute "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" is a tiring listen, as the last couple minutes feature nothing but looping riffs and filtered noise.  But then the leaden, portentous cycle abruptly stops, in mid-riff.

And the opening chords of "Here Comes the Sun" ring out of the emptiness, in one of the most perfect moments in their entire catalog.  Of course, on the original release, that's where you flipped the record over.  But the sequencing was still clever then, as this was clearly a record meant to be played in full.  The rest of Side 2 (after the harmony-rich palette cleanser "Because") is of one piece, a patchwork of half-finished character sketches stitched together so naturally, you'd think it was the plan from the start.  In their final act, The Beatles achieved the kind of cohesion that made them such a great band, even as they prepared to splinter off into the sunset.

#2

Tommy by The Who

But for the first time in the album era, The Beatles did not produce the year's biggest Grand Statement.  You see, while The Beatles were compiling a collection of loosely affiliated short stories, The Who were writing a novel.

A story about a boy who shuts down his sensory perception because of early trauma, Tommy is an amazingly rich story for a rock band, even if some elements (like the pinball obsession that produced the album's best known and most enduring track) seem forced.  The story addresses a number of weighty themes, from sexual abuse to false prophets.

It's also impressive that such a thematically unified group of songs is not simply "The Pete Townshend Show".  One of the tracks is actually a cover of an old blues tune, and both bass player John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon contributed compositions.  

And the musical presentation fuses the high art ambition of the "rock opera" concept with the egalitarian ethos of rock and roll, striving for bigger arrangements not by bringing in full symphonies and church choirs, but by highlighting the secret talents of their own membership (mostly Entwistle's french horn playing) and building vocal harmonies with the four voices of the band.  This keeps the record grounded, but it also meant that it could easily be reproduced live without having to pay extra musicians.  This undoubtedly helped the band turn their Grand Statement, a Rock Opera about a deaf, dumb, and blind boy, into the biggest commercial windfall of their career, saving themselves from financial ruin.  Such a staggering achievement, it could only leave the rest of the world to wonder about The Who's Next.

#1

The Band by The Band

Along with The Gilded Palace of Sin, The Band helped to elevate country music within the rock sphere.  If you indulge me for a small mental excursion back to the SAT prep days, The Band:Sgt. Pepper as Yankee Hotel Foxtrot:OK Computer.  The Band takes the exploratory spirit, if not at the same intensity, as Sgt. Pepper and applies it to the more rigid, traditionalist genre of country music.

To call The Band psychedelic may be misleading, but the diversity of sound is impressive.  "Up on Cripple Creek" moves between a more traditional chorus with a soaring organ line and funky verses with a heavily filtered bass line.  "Rag Mama Rag" is a party with a bold fiddle line played by a full violin section, with an energetic tuba filling in the low end.  

But The Band were always best when delving into the rural American experience, even though five of the six members are Canadian.  The album closer is a perfect example, the tale of a poor farmer dealing with the trials and tribulations of unionization after a horrendous year that has left him at wit's end.  Musically, the track has a solid R&B groove that jumps to a passionate gallop as the protagonists desperation spikes at the end of each verse.

But the finest track is the album's big hit single, "The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down". A Civil War tale from the perspective of a hard-luck southerner, the song achieves an amazing feat by getting you to truly feel for this man on the wrong side of such an important war.  Perhaps it takes a Canadian to remind us that the confederates were not just backward, bigoted trolls, but real people who were watching their entire world crumble before their eyes.