November 2020 Anniversaries

Released 8th November 1965

BEACH BOYS PARTY
The Beach Boys

Presented as if it really has been recorded at a party with lots of inane chit chat going on in the background while they run through acoustic cover versions. It does come across as quite organic, although the atmosphere was added later and early (pre-Pepper) albums can sometimes seem to be rather gimmicky. They cover 3 Beatles songs, 'Tell Me Why', "I Should Have Known Better' and 'You've Got To Hide Your Love Away', do a ramshackle medley of 'I Get Around' and 'Little Deuce Coupe', have a bash at 'The Times They Are A-Changin'' and they finish on 'Barbara Ann'.

Hully Gully
I Should Have Known Better
Tell Me Why
Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow
Mountain of Love
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
Devoted to You
Alley Oop
There's No Other (Like My Baby)
Medley
The Times They Are a-Changin'
Barbara Ann

Released 15th November 1965
HAVING A RAVE UP WITH THE YARDBIRDS
The Yardbirds

A title which sounds curiously old fashioned these days, something your ageing Aunt Mabel might say: "Ooh you young 'uns, always ready for a rave up!". There's a lot of energy here, especially in the Beckless live tracks - they thrash away like Metallica on 'Respectable' and 'Here 'Tis' 

You're a Better Man Than I
Evil Hearted You
I'm a Man
Still I'm Sad
Heart Full of Soul
The Train Kept A-Rollin'
Smokestack Lightning
Respectable
I'm a Man
Here 'Tis

Released 26th November 1965
THE KINK KONTROVERSY
The Kinks

They don't seem to have quite found their unique voice yet on their third album. They could be one of many sixties groups, or even Dylan on 'Have All The Good Times Gone'. 'Dedicated Follower Of Fashion' was included on the CD reissue, which seems to embrace a particularly swinging sixties London-centric feel that characterises them

Milk Cow Blues
Ring the Bells
Gotta Get the First Plane Home
When I See That Girl of Mine
I Am Free
Till the End of the Day
The World Keeps Going Round
I'm on an Island
Where Have All the Good Times Gone
It's Too Late
What's in Store for Me
You Can't Win

Released 4th November 1970
THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD
David Bowie

I've listened to this through a few times now. Trying to get a grip on it. Let's start with the cover. He's really hit his stride now. He IS wearing a dress and has long blonde tresses. Fair play he looks pretty good. The opening 'The Width of a Circle' is long old piece of jazz-rock. He strays perilously close to progressive rock as well. 'All the Madmen' has a spoken bit in the middle where he talks about "a cell-ah, dark and grim". The rest of it is moderately bonkers too.

Next up, what I assume is a tribute to Black Sabbath and Slade 'Black Country Rock'. He actually seems to be singing about Makka-Pakka, but that can't be right, there's nothing about the Ninky-nonk after all. 'After All' is a real treat. Every line is followed by "Oh By Jingo!" There's a bit of circus side show pump organ too. 'Saviour Machine' is pronounced Seayviur Masheeeeen in Bowie's world. It's almost Heavy Metal. In fact, all jokes aside about midlands rock bands, it IS all quite heavy. 'She Shook Me Cold' starts with a Hendrix-style riff. The best known track is the title. It starts with a sitar-y intro and makes use of that scrapey thing that Ben E. King used on 'Stand By Me' and was given to every tone deaf kid at school in music lessons (or was that just me?). 'The Supermen' comes last. It's hard to accuse Bowie of singing in a silly voice cos he does it so much, but this one is a little worse than most.
https://andysrockodysseys.blogspot.com/2014/08/david-bowie-eponymous-to-next-day.html

The Width of a Circle
All the Madmen
Black Country Rock
After All
Running Gun Blues
Saviour Machine
She Shook Me Cold
The Man Who Sold the World
The Supermen

Released 9th November 1970
LAYLA AND OTHER ASSORTED LOVE SONGS
Derek And The Dominos

It's all rather overshadowed by the elephantine title track isn't it? And would you admit to being a little disappointed when they ruined even that with all that boring piano bit at the end? Still, the riff must be up there in the top three of all time. The rest of it is good quality blues, but I do find the whole obsession of these late sixties English guys with the blues leaves me cold. They must have had something missing from their lives, or possibly not enough. 

I Looked Away
Bell Bottom Blues
Keep on Growing
Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
I Am Yours
Anyday
Key to the Highway
Tell the Truth
Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?
Have You Ever Loved a Woman
Little Wing
It's Too Late
Layla
Thorn Tree in the Garden

Released 14th November 1970
BARRETT
Syd Barrett

Didn't do very well apparently, which is quite hard to understand. It sounds like it should appeal to the Floyd core. It's not in any way unpleasant or difficult - well maybe 'Maisie' pushes the envelope a little. Gilmour and Wright on production and so doing their best to keep him going.

https://andysrockodysseys.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-pink-floyd-by-way-which-ones-pink.html

Baby Lemonade
Love Song
Dominoes
It Is Obvious
Rats
Maisie
Gigolo Aunt
Waving My Arms in the Air/I Never Lied to You
Wined and Dined
Wolfpack
Effervescing Elephant

Released 15th November 1970
LOADED
The Velvet Underground

Slightly disappointed to find this is not quite as outré as I expected. It's supposedly an attempt to be more commercial and led to Lou Reed's departure. 'Sweet Jane' is a highlight nonetheless. 

Who Loves the Sun
Sweet Jane
Rock & Roll
Cool It Down
New Age
Head Held High
Lonesome Cowboy Bill
I Found a Reason
Train Round the Bend
Oh! Sweet Nuthin'

Released 20th November 1970
EMERSON LAKE AND PALMER
Emerson Lake And Palmer

Oh 'elp. It's certainly a mixed bag, and I found the central 'The Three Fates' a little too much to take, but some of it, like 'Lucky Man'  is pleasant enough.

Wikipedia states that ELP's origin is in my hometown of Croydon, but the accompanying entry only seems to indicate that Lake and Emerson met when The Nice and King Crimson played at the Fairfield Halls. It seems a tenuous basis for giving Croydon the credit for inflicting them on us.

The Barbarian
Take a Pebble
Knife-Edge
The Three Fates
    Clotho
    Lachesis
    Atropos
Tank
Lucky Man

Released 23rd November 1970
TEA FOR THE TILLERMAN
Cat Stevens

He's just done a sequel, in which he just does the album over again. Quite a nice idea really, and good luck to  him, with songs like 'Wild World', 'Sad Lisa' and 'Father And Son' there's not much point in trying to come up with something better is there?

Where Do the Children Play?
Hard Headed Woman
Wild World
Sad Lisa
Miles from Nowhere
But I Might Die Tonight
Longer Boats
Into White
On the Road to Find Out
Father and Son
Tea for the Tillerman

Released: 27th November 1970
ALL THINGS MUST PASS
George Harrison

Well it's a masterpiece isn't it? Which may be a problem in itself. If you were sitting pondering the future of the fragmented fabs in late 1970 and this suddenly came along, you'd be thinking that George was the one with the bright future ahead of him and John and Paul had missed the boat. But this is SO good that in hindsight he probably spent the rest of his career trying to live up to it. 

It's not really a surprise that this is so accomplished. When I ran through the Beatles back catalogue, it was often the George song that stood out as having the most craft and interest on any album. McCartney could, and reputedly did, do tunes in his sleep and Lennon had the turn of phrase, but George produced often gentle but complex songs. The theory goes that he always looked good as a songwriter because only his very best got on the album. But this is that rare thing, an album with not only not one bad track, but one where every song is incredibly good. When Oasis swaggered onto the scene in the mid-nineties, the accusation was that they were trying to ape Lennon/McCartney at every turn, but this sounds like the album that the Gallagher brothers were really trying to emulate. Pink Floyd owe it a lot too, listen to 'Help Me Lord' at the end of Side 4. Gilmour and Waters did. In fact it sounds so timeless that it could have been recorded last week. The Spector treatment helps. The sound is full and either like a crashing wave on 'Wah Wah' and or orchestral on the slow build of 'Isn't It A Pity (v.1)'. Tambourines galore. 

Of course we have to mention the fly in Harrison's herbal ointment, the copyright infringement case around 'My Sweet Lord'. These things pivot around chord progressions and whatnot, and no-one can deny the similarity to 'He's So Fine', even a US district court judge could hear it. Harrison was judged to have subconsciously nicked it. I seem to recall a similar accusation being bunged years later at Phil Collins over 'Sussudio' and Prince's '1999'. He certainly wouldn't have consciously done it, the original was too well known in the first place. 

There's the all-out joy of 'What Is Life'  and the subtle melding of Indian sitar influences and pedal steel guitar on Dylan's 'If Not For You' and 'Behind That Locked Door'. He makes the whimsy credible with 'Apple Scruffs' and manages to get plenty of his beloved spiritualism into the mix without compromising on the commerciality of the music. 'Awaiting On You All' is the acceptable face of happy-clappyness. There's the dizzying swirl of  'Art Of Dying' which moves into the sudden step change of Isn't It A Pity (v.2)'. A stripped down version of the song before anyone talked about stripped down versions of anything, and putting two versions of the same song on an album, even if it is a triple, is a brave move at any time. 

The jams on sides 5 and 6 are energetic and accomplished, but probably unnecessary, they don't add to the rest in any significant way, There's some interesting electronic experimentation on 'I Remember Jeep', at least it's significantly more acceptable that 'Electronic Music'. 

Post breakup Beatles album artwork must be picked over for hidden meaning. It was the law in 1970. Here George is pictured with four garden gnomes, which is a bit obvious really, but why isn't it only 3? Is the fourth Harrison or the current holder of the official position of Fifth Beatle. In which case it's either Yoko or George Martin or Billy Preston. He just didn't think it through.
https://andysrockodysseys.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-solo-beatles.html

I'd Have You Anytime
My Sweet Lord
Wah-Wah
Isn't It A Pity (v.1)
What Is Life
If Not For You
Behind That Locked Door
Let It Down
Run Of The Mill
I Live For You
Beware Of Darkness
Apple Scruffs
Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)
Awaiting On You All
All Things Must Pass
I Dig Love
Art Of Dying
Isn't It A Pity (v.2)
Hear Me Lord
Out Of The Blue
It's Johnny's Birthday
Plug Me In
I Remember Jeep
Thanks For The Pepperoni

Released November 1970
KRAFTWERK
Kraftwerk

Synth technology was not all that well developed in 1970 and Kraftwerk are not quite recognizable as the boiler-suited perfectionists on  this debut that they were to become. In places this is almost folky, but in truth it's quite a tough listen. More of an interesting curoisity than a classic.

Ruckzuck
Stratovarius
Megaherz
Vom Himmel hoch

Released 1st November 1975
NORTHERN LIGHTS - SOUTHERN CROSS
The Band

A good start to November 2020. Robbie Robertson takes all the songwriting duties and the album as a whole is pretty much what you need when the weather is getting colder and the nights are drawing in. Even the artwork will warm you up, although it does look like they've just discovered a crashed meteor. 

Forbidden Fruit
Hobo Jungle
Ophelia
Acadian Driftwood
Ring Your Bell
It Makes No Difference
Jupiter Hollow
Rags and Bones

Released 7th November 1975
FISH OUT OF WATER
Chris Squire

Do you fancy listening to a classic era Yes album that you've never heard before? Then this might be for you. Squire has taken singing lessons from Jon Anderson and not stayed too far from what he produces in his day job (or maybe he wasn't in Yes at this point in time. It's hard to keep track.

https://andysrockodysseys.blogspot.com/2015/11/yes-silly-human-race.html. 

(Goodness knows how many albums I'd have to cover if I decided to do Yes members' solo projects.)

Hold Out Your Hand
You by My Side
Silently Falling
Lucky Seven
Safe (Canon Song)

Released 10th November 1975
ZUMA
Neil Young

A recent rundown of 45 Neil Young albums in the Guardian newspaper placed this at number 6. Rust Never Sleeps took the top spot. It's fairly typical early to mid seventies Young, meaning it's truly great. 

Don't Cry No Tears
Danger Bird
Pardon My Heart
Lookin' for a Love
Barstool Blues
Stupid Girl
Drive Back
Cortez the Killer
Through My Sails

Released: 21st November 1975
A NIGHT AT THE OPERA
Queen

I've heard this before, so really shouldn't be surprised, but for an album that contains a cornerstone song of rock music, it isn't really much of a 'rock' album. There's plenty of drums, screaming guitars and general over-blown-ness, but the variety of what is on here still takes you by surprise.

Track 1 doesn't give you any warning about the forthcoming music hall, opera nor country-folk that lies further down the vinyl groove. 'Death On Two Legs' finds Fred rather extremely pissed off at their ex-manager. Out of court settlements ensued apparently. It's a good memorable song and contains musical ideas that would come through again in 'Bicycle Race'.

I've been eagerly anticipating the Taylor-penned 'I'm In Love With My Car'. A running single entendre in which Taylor throttles rhymes out of 'grease-gun' and 'disease, son' and 'forget her' with 'carburettor'. Possibly the most astonishing thing about this plate of steaming tripe right in the middle of Queen's seminal album, is that Taylor managed to get it on the B-Side of 'Bohemian Rhapsody', a nice little nest-egg of publishing rights.

'You're My Best Friend' is a treat. That warm, electric piano that just starts up and Mercury's more restrained swooping vocal is really satisfying.
The first real curveball for me was '39' (I had remembered and was therefore expecting 'Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon' earlier on in the album). I had no recollection of Queen ever sounding like Lindisfarne, but here they are in their full folky-skiffle glory. May sings it, and I'm reliably informed that it's got a sci-fi theme. It's fine, but pretty forgettable (well I forgot about it, which is my benchmark).

Freddie also indulges in the theatrics with 'Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon' and 'Seaside Rendezvous'. It's interesting how much he embraced Englishness in his music, considering his background. Both of these tracks are fascinating for that reason, and memorable too. I'll stick Brian May and his ukelele on 'Good Company' in with these two as well. 
Queen were probably regarded as prog rock practitioners in the early days, all that fantasy and mythology in the early songs is a good fit for the whole scene, but the opening track of Side 2, 'The Prophet's Song' really starts to tick the boxes. The only thing I remember from it from the past was that whole "now I know" section, where Fred sounds constipated and which eventually outstays its welcome.

There's 'Love Of My Life'. Queen's 'Angels', in that it's a song that Freddie could take the time off and let the audience get on with the singing when performing it live. I find it rather insipid.
Before the whole show closes with 'God Save The Queen', we get 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. Is there anything to say about it? Maybe that Mercury has managed to get all of us shouting Isalmic exclamations whilst probably not realizing it? Bismillah! I do remember it being HUGE when I was at junior school. We sang it in the playground in late '75 as we played British Bulldog. So it certainly did enough to capture the imagination of the average middle-England 8 year-old. It was, and remains unique really. Like nothing else that ever hit the charts and it's fairly bulletproof.

I've always liked the artwork, not least because it was echoed in the next album. That kind of corporate branding was strangely appealing. It was slightly embossed too I think, giving that extra hint of quality.

https://andysrockodysseys.blogspot.com/2019/07/queen.html

Death On Two Legs
Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon
I'm In Love With My Car
You're My Best Friend
39
Sweet Lady
Seaside Rendezvous
The Prophet Song
Love Of My Life
Good Company
Bohemian Rhapsody
God Save The Queen

Released 3rd November 1980
THE BLACK ALBUM
The Damned

Stick 'The Black Album' into Wikipedia and then follow the disambiguation link and you get 17 alternative records with the same name - or at least popularly referred to by it - ranging from Planxty to Weezer. If you Google it you get offered Jay-Z's entry into the canon as first choice, which is surprising to me, I would place Prince's, with all the attendant kerfuffle over it's release as the go-to B.A.

The Damned are like The Stranglers in my mind, and not just because of the preferred clothing choices. They both get lumped into the 'punk' category, mainly by virtue of when they came to prominence and a reputation for an aggressive musical stance, but neither seemed very happy with rapidly snarling through two and a half minute songs with a basic rock and roll structure. So on this double album there is the 17 minute Curtain Call on Side 3, of which any lank-haired prog band would be proud. However side 4 is live tracks and does suggest that they wouldn't necessarily risk deviating too far from loud thrashy material in front of their fans.

Wait for the Blackout
Lively Arts
Silly Kids Games
Drinking About My Baby
Twisted Nerve
Hit or Miss
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Sick of This and That
The History of the World (Part 1)
13th Floor Vendetta
Therapy
Curtain Call
Love Song
Second Time Around
Smash It Up (Parts 1 & 2)
New Rose
I Just Can't Be Happy Today
Plan 9 Channel 7

Released: 3rd November 1980
SUPER TROUPER
ABBA

It starts strong. The title track is as good a piece of disco-pop as you'll ever hear and it's lyrically interesting enough to distract you. "I was sick and tired of everything, when I called you last night from Glasgow" is worthy of Morrissey. The B's backing vocals are best considered at face value, otherwise you start hearing "Sue Pooper, True Pooper". It's followed by 'The Winner Takes It All' which is probably considered the epitome of the stable of ABBA songs which are all about bitter breakups. Never been sure about the line "the loser standing small". It's not one side of an idiomatic coin is it? You'd say "the winner is standing tall", but you don't really say "the loser is standing small". Anyway, it's probably just something that got a little lost in translation. 

However, once we get past these two behemoths of pop it begins to get a little patchy. There is probably no song that has lived up to it's title like "On And On And On", which really does just push forward like a force of nature and the words are almost stream-of-consciousness ("He said, "Who am I and who are you and who are we?; What's our situation, do we have some time for us?"; I said I was not exactly waiting for the bus"). 'Andante Andante' is something and nothing and then 'Me And I' starts and convinces very early on that it is another bid for a Jean-Michel Jarre-ish instrumental TV theme tune - probably for a sports or travel show - before they take you completely by surprise by providing vocals and lyrics which reference Freud and split personalities and you realize that this is ABBA's meditation on schizophrenia! 

But then they go a little darker still when they trot out 'Happy New Year' which sounds like they aren't looking forward to the next 365 days at all. In fact they project their thoughts over the coming decade. The closing shot is "May we all have have our hopes, our will to try; If we don't we might as well lie down and die". 'Our Last Summer' recalls what sounds like quite a nice stay in Paris, but yet again they bring it all down by revealing that the male half of the relationship is now football-obsessed and working in a bank. It's also noted that his name is Harry - surely she knew this before - but that she still holds a candle for him. 

At this point in the song there's a rather incongruous guitar crunch, reminiscent of Radiohead's 'Creep'. I can't decide if 'The Piper' is just insanely annoying or a work of genius that combines about 4 or 5 different musical cliches in one song. There's the nursery rhyme aspect of the chorus, the piccolo led breaks that remind you of the dancing of the little children of Stone'enge, the Gregorian chants and the general epic silliness of the whole thing. The album is redeemed at the end again by 'Lay All Your Love On Me' and they also tack on a live performance of 'The Way Old Friends Do', which is rather like 'Wild Mountain Thyme (Will Ye Go Lassie Go)' and only really makes you want to listen to The Corries doing that instead. But, it is by no means awful, whatever impression I've given above, just rather odd when you start to pay attention to what is actually going on.

One more thing, I alluded to the Not The Nine O'Clock News 'Super Duper' sketch earlier when discussing ABBA The Album. Here it is. It's mostly funny because the regular cast of the show pull off the ABBA look quite so well. Mel Smith in particular is a perfect Benny. 

https://andysrockodysseys.blogspot.com/2018/05/abba-ring-ring-visitors-are-at-door.html

Super Trouper
The Winner Takes It All
On And On And On
Andante Andante
Me And I
Happy New Year
Our Last Summer
The Piper
Lay All Your Love On Me
The Way Old Friends Do

Released 3rd November 1980
KINGS OF THE WILD FRONTIER
Adam And The Ants

This is what the 12 year-olds of 1980 wanted, I should know, I was one. We were all impressed by his jacket and wished we could have one. There's lots of tribal drums and a lot of style. That's what it was all about after all. 

Adam Ant is unique in the annals of rock and roll in that he managed to destroy his career at Live Aid.

Dog Eat Dog
Antmusic
Feed Me to the Lions
Los Rancheros
Ants Invasion
Killer in the Home
Kings of the Wild Frontier
The Magnificent Five
Don't Be Square (Be There)
Jolly Roger
Making History
The Human Beings

Released 8th November 1980
ACE OF SPADES
Motörhead

The Wikipedia article accompanying this goes on at length about how Lemmy insisted that Motörhead were not a heavy metal band and certainly not part of the NWOBHM, but a Rock and Roll band, pure and simple. Which begs the question of why the album is described as heavy metal, speed metal and hard rock in the summary panel of the same article. Maybe Mr Kilmister was being a little obtuse, he had a reputation for it after all, because it's certainly fast, loud and industrial strength.
Who knows what Lemmy requires when he asks 'Love Me Like A Reptile'? And of course in the all-conquering title track he asserts that he doesn't want to live forever. Perhaps not surprisingly, his whole vocal style was a death rattle, his wish came true in 2015 after he'd unexpectedly reached his threescore years and 10. 
Ace of Spades
Love Me Like a Reptile
Shoot You in the Back
Live to Win
Fast and Loose
(We Are) The Road Crew
Fire, Fire
Jailbait
Dance
Bite the Bullet
The Chase Is Better Than the Catch
The Hammer

Released 4th November 1980
CUT THE CRAP
The Clash

Not available on Spotify, so I'm having to do the modern equivalent of borrowing it from your mate and recording it onto a TDK C60, that is, finding it on YouTube. Unfortunately we have to pretend that side 1 of my mate's copy is scratched to buggery and I can only properly listen from 'Cool Under Heat' onward. Jones is gone (musical differences) and so is Headon (heroin addiction), so a lot of the musicianship and inventiveness have gone with them. Let's assume it's effectively a Strummer solo album. I assume that the title intentionally reflects Strummer's attitude as he gets back to Clash basics. 'This Is England' is the standout, but it's little more than a terrace chant. The artwork is beginner level punk graphics. It's a sorry end to a band that can lay claim to have set tone for the first half of the decade. Of course Jones developed his ideas in Big Audio Dynamite and he recently collaborated with Simonon on the last two Gorillaz albums (see companion blog Talking About My Generation). Strummer had a brief sojourn in the Pogues as a replacement for Shane MacGowan but all that hard living took it's toll when he died at 50.

https://andysrockodysseys.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-clash.html

Dictator
Dirty Punk
We Are The Clash
Are You Red...Y
Cool Under Heat
Movers and Shakers
This Is England
Three Card Trick
Play To Win
Fingerpoppin'
North And South
Life Is Wild

Released 17th November 1980
DOUBLE FANTASY
John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Double Fantasy. It immediately made me think of Beyonce and 'Are you a sweet dream or a beautiful nightmare?'. Well it's both, and it surprised me as an album that is accomplished and enjoyable, something that I have not come to associate with Lennon's output, especially when Yoko gets a significant oar in. In fact the Yoko songs are a positive asset here, as, firstly, they aren't awful, and secondly they do set off the John songs. And that's not to say that Yoko is merely a garnish, in a way her songs are just as much enhanced by John's contribution. It's interesting to hear some of Lennon's most familiar songs framed in this way. So we get the familiar '(Just Like) Starting Over', 'Beautiful Boy', 'Watching The Wheels' and 'Woman' interspersed with stuff like Yoko's 'Kiss, Kiss Kiss', which even Bowie might have shown an interest in. She also sings quite well on this, tuneful but still with an accented edge. 'Give Me Something' achieves a level of Siouxie-ish punkiness. 'Yes, I'm Your Angel' pitches her somewhere between Marilyn Monroe and Snow White and is quite funny. Intentionally, I'm sure. 'Watching The Wheels' is the song that 'Imagine' should have been "People say I'm crazy" replacing "You may say I'm a dreamer". The songs are similar but the latter is so much more self-aware. 'Starting Over' could possibly be Lennon's high point for me. You would swear it's a cover of a sixties classic. He did learn his rock and roll lessons well in those sweaty German clubs after all. 

Lennon was killed three weeks after this was released but I don't think I'm being generous out of any kind of sentimentality to say that this is about his best solo effort - although Rock n Roll was also worthwhile. As I recall, at the age of 13 and on hearing of his death, I was kind of nonplussed. I guess I must have been aware of him, but he didn't seem a significant figure to me. He hadn't put anything out for over 5 years, while McCartney had been pretty ubiquitous. In the 1970's an artist who wasn't keeping the handle turning and ploughing out an album at least once every two years counted as some kind of weird recluse (and John and Yoko do fit that category to some extent), but he appears to have been sorting out his priorities, and you can hear it in the songs on this album, from them both. 'I'm Moving On' by Yoko and 'Watching The Wheels' show them both to be in a fairly sane, settled place. There is also a lot of love pouring out of this record too, in a way that in the past might have manifested itself as neediness on John's part and control on Yoko's. 'Woman' is heartfelt, Yoko clearly adores the two men in her life on 'Beautiful Boys' and the only problem with the gentle and sweet 'Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)' is what the hell must Julian have thought? Also, to have such an explicit document of the state of her relationship with the man she loved from the exact time she lost him must be a mixed blessing for Yoko.

Would the Beatles have ever shared a stage or a recording studio if the events of December 8th 1980 had not occurred? I would think it is fairly certain, Live Aid at least might have done the trick, although it's likely that George would have proved a bigger sticking point - he allegedly rather grumpily turned down the chance to do Let It Be with Paul for the finale. But there was a willingness to revisit the Beatles at the time of the Anthology releases, so I think we would have seen them together again at some point.

https://andysrockodysseys.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-solo-beatles.html

(Just Like) Starting Over
Kiss Kiss Kiss
Cleanup Time
Give Me Something
I'm Losing You
I'm Moving On
Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)
Watching The Wheels
Yes, I'm Your Angel
Woman
Beautiful Boys
Dear Yoko
Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Him
Hard Times Are Over

Released 21st November 1980
GAUCHO
Steely Dan

Hope you weren't expecting a significant departure from every other Steely Dan album you've ever heard? Nor something that they reputedly spun out in a couple of weeks with a few rough edges left on for added interest? It's great, of course.

Babylon Sisters
Hey Nineteen
Glamour Profession
Gaucho
Time Out of Mind
My Rival
Third World Man

Released 11th November 1985
CHRONICLES OF THE BLACK SWORD
Hawkwind

When I was a teenager I spent quite a lot of time playing Dungeons and Dragons with my mates and so Michael Moorcock's endless array of novels about the Eternal Champion operating across the multiverse was like catnip to me. So when Hawkwind based a whol album on the stories of Elric of Melnibone I was an early adopter. Dave Brock's estuary English delivery does somewhat undermine the epicness which was being aimed for, but it syill brings back some good memories.

Song of the Swords
Shade Gate
The Sea King
The Pulsing Cavern
Elric the Enchanter
Needle Gun
Zarozinia
The Demise
Sleep of a Thousand Tears
Chaos Army
Horn of Destiny

Released 18th November 1985
SO RED THE ROSE
Arcadia

Well you could've knocked me down with Nick Rhodes' feathercut. This is actually something that I would rate as Quite Good. It defnitely tends toward the David Sylvian and Japan end of things, but this time they make a decent job of it. I have a theory, which is that Le Bon isn't competing with hefty guitar sounds here, so he's not squwaking at the top of his voice like he usually does. The opening track is the most familiar, the single 'Election Day'. SleB sings in a languid, moany fashion, which actually quite suits him. My main gripe is that the lyric is actually RE-Election Day. The unmistakeable Grace Jones comes in to speak some nonsense halfway through.  'Keep Me In The Dark' is bland and of its time.There's a touch of Bowie's 'It's No Game' from Scary Monsters about 'The Flame' as it starts with a spoken oriental language part over a similar musical arrangement. However, while I criticized Blur for doing a straight rip-off I'm willing to believe Arcadia are paying homage. 'Missing' is sparse, dripping-cave music, then 'Rose Arcana' is a short piece of much the same sort of thing before segueing into 'The Promise', which you could almost describe as 'epic', possibly in the Toto sense. 

Our old friend Sting hoves into vew as well and complements Le Bon quite well - their voices are not a million miles from each other.This and the remaining two tracks each weigh in at 6-8 minutes, so they are clearly aiming for a bit of heft. 'El Diablo' has very pleasing pan pipes. No doubt the sound of a Peruvian alpaca farmer was really produced by several thousand pounds-worth of keyboard technology. There's nice Spanish guitar in it too. It has a messy ending though. More minimalism with 'Lady Ice' to finish and a full on attempt to capture the Japan sound (I don't know much about Sylvian if I'm honest - he always seemed a bit too studied). 

One last note of interest (almost) is that searching for Arcadia on Spotify leads you to a whole lot of Sonic the Hedgehog music before you find the Duran splinter. If they were inclined to listen to me at the time, my advice to each half of Duran Duran would have been, stick with this guys. But alas the DD juggernaut stops for no-one and they will soon be back together with No-No-Notorious!.

https://andysrockodysseys.blogspot.com/2014/11/duran-duran-as-easy-as-nuclear-war.html

Election Day
Keep Me in the Dark
Goodbye Is Forever
The Flame
Missing
Rose Arcana
The Promise
El Diablo
Lady Ice

Released 18th November 1985
PSYCHOCANDY
The Jesus And Mary Chain

The JAMC, which no-one called them, were too determinedly disdainful of the whole business of being pop stars for my liking, so I had them well and truly shoved to the back of the miserable noise merchants cupboard. It's obvious in listening to their debut now how influential they must have been, providing the template for pretty much all of the alternative rock scene from the late eighties onward. You could even trace the lineage all the way through to current mainstream acts like Keane and Snow Patrol. Still, it does sound like it's being sung in a cave while being attcked by a very angry swarm of bees. 

Just Like Honey
The Living End
Taste the Floor
The Hardest Walk
Cut Dead
In a Hole
Taste of Cindy
Never Understand
Inside Me
Sowing Seeds
My Little Underground
You Trip Me Up
Something's Wrong
It's So Hard

Released 22nd November 1985
EASY PIECES
Lloyd Cole And The Commotions

Lloyd Cole's trembly, wangy vocal style could easily be annoying, but he gets around it by having some top tunes which means he's just adding a bit of quirk to it all. This is pretty superb really and includes 'Brand New Friend' and 'Lost Weekend', both of which are clearly modern pop classics. 

Rich
Why I Love Country Music
Pretty Gone
Grace
Cut Me Down
Brand New Friend
Lost Weekend
James
Minor Character
Perfect Blue
Her Last Fling
Big World
Nevers End

Released November 1985
RIPTIDE
Robert Palmer

'Addicted To Love' was the video that launched a thousand pastiches, including Bob's own follow up single, 'I Didn't Mean To Turn You On'. Even then the general view was that he'd really gone too far in objectifying women in the clip, but somehow, somehow, he got away with it. Maybe it was the suits, but probably it was just that his album and all his output from it at the time was so good that we could ignore any apparent misdemeanours. I choose to believe that his tongue was firmly in his cheek anyway.

The other thing I recall about this album is that the BBC used the melody from the title track as a bed for when they did their round-ups of the day's achievements in the Seoul Olympics. At the end of the event, Des Lynam admitted they'd had loads of enquiries about what it was and so they played it in full. 

Riptide
Hyperactive
Addicted to Love
Trick Bag
Get It Through Your Heart
I Didn't Mean to Turn You On
Flesh Wound
Discipline of Love
Riptide

Released: 6th November 1995
MADE IN HEAVEN
Queen
The posthumous new studio album is a proposition fraught with peril. Usually it means cobbling together bits and pieces of the departed's work and trying to turn it into something worthwhile. The problem being, that material might have been lying on the editing studio floor for the very good reason that it wasn't really up to scratch. The new songs that the Beatles put out for the Anthology have never really entered their canon after all have they? However, it seems at least that this is more a product of a lost race against time rather than an afterthought. It clearly does however have some  gaps in the songs that the remaining three members had to paper over. Funnily enough in some places that leads to some surprises. For example, who knew that if Roger Taylor ever needed to scrape in a few more quid, he could make a healthy living as a Rod Stewart impersonator. I nearly thought it was His Rodness on 'Let Me Live'. 

Of course you don't come to a Queen album expecting subtlety or understatement, so everything from the album title, through 'Let Me Live', 'My Life Has Been Saved' and 'Heaven For Everyone' to 'Too Much Love Will Kill You' is there to remind you that Freddie is no longer with us, but is presumably strutting about the pearly gates with halo on head and fist clenched in the air. There's snatches of old songs scattered about and a reprise of his rather irritating crowd-baiting dee-dah-do thing which wound me up so much when I listened to the Live at Wembley '86 album. 
They scored a decent number of hits of this, but I seem to recall the Brian May sung-version of 'Too Much Love Will Kill You' made more of an impact than the one on here. I have this memory of Brian, backlit and with perm aloft in the breeze singing it in an agonized voice as the camera slowly zoomed in on his grief. There's also 'This Could Be Heaven', which ends with the constipated grunt of the final "for everyone". 

'You Don't Fool Me' seems the best candidate for the song that they struggled to make worthwhile with what Mercury had left them, Essentially an extended chorus, with a fairly substantial guitar break in the middle, even then it's far too long at nearly 5½ minutes. 
Rather pointlessly there is also a 4 second song on here, 'Yeah', in which the lyrics comprise 100% of the title and is lifted from 'Action This Day' from Hot Space. So Wikipedia says anyway. If we're going to define anything less than 10 seconds long as a song, I'll take Napalm Death's 'You Suffer' every time, it has much more nuance and sheer commitment. 

There's a 22 minute piece of synth soundscape at the end. At least I assume that's what it is, I didn't listen to it through. It's the 13th track, hence the name, although Spotify rather belligerently insists that it's simply 'Untitled'

So you'd think that was that, but Queen are nothing if not persistent. Despite being almost completely defined by their frontman, they've continued to try and keep the crank handle turning. Adam Lambert and Paul Rodgers have filled in on occasions since. I also recall a rumor that George Michael might get drafted in. But anyway, they have one more album in the list, The Cosmos Rocks which is officially by Queen and Paul Rodgers, I expect it to be on a par with the last Genesis album with that geezer from Stiltskin, but we'll see shall we?

https://andysrockodysseys.blogspot.com/2019/07/queen.html

It's A Beautiful Day
Made In Heaven
Let Me Live
Mother Love
My Life Has Been Saved
I Was Born To Love You
Heaven For Everyone
Too Much Love Will Kill You
You Don't Fool Me
A Winter's Tale
It's A Beautiful Day (reprise)
Yeah
Untitled/13

Released 21st November 1995
THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD 
Bruce Springsteen

Whassat Bruce? Speak up sunshine, we can't hear what you're saying. I have problems with Tom Joad. It's Bruce trying to out-Guthrie Woody. The only songs that have really ever shown any live traction for me are 'Tom Joad' itself and 'Youngstown', and that's mainly because Bruce beefs them up beyond recognition. And lo and behold, when he does so they are revealed as great songs. Maybe the mumbly delivery is partly due to a reliance on sophisticated production techniques that he didn't use for the similar, but superior, Nebraska. The theme is strong, without doubt, but does it amount to anything more than Nebraska II? Alienation, the temptations of a life of crime, bad choices. 

This possibly has a broader sweep than its predecessor. Nebraska's songs are intimate and the protagonists are trapped by their location whereas these are possibly a little more cinematic and rely on circumstance to bind up their subjects. Once again a Springsteen song seems to catch the zeitgeist decades ahead of it's time. 'Sinaloa Cowboys' combines Mexican immigrant labour and cooking up crystal meth in a single song, but as a song it's never engaged me enough to realise that until I actually made the effort to read the lyrics. And therein lies much of the problem, Bruce has good ideas here, but the execution is lacking. At least I think so.The next track, The Line, is equally thoughtful and on a similar theme, from a Californian border patrol officer's perspective, but ultimately just comes across as a dirge. Then he repeats the trick again with 'Balboa Park'. 'The New Timer' is too musically close to 'Nebraska' (the song) for comfort. 'Across The Border' is interesting in that it has a touch of 'In The Ghetto' about it. In the end, the last track 'My Best Was Never Good Enough', sounds like a Loudon Wainwright III song. Not necessarily a bad thing, but not what I bought the album for.

https://andysrockodysseys.blogspot.com/2017/02/bruce-springsteen-revisited.html

The Ghost Of Tom Joad
Straight Time
Highway 29
Youngstown
Sinaloa Cowboys
The Line
Balboa Park
Dry Lightning
The New Timer
Across The Border
Galveston Bay
My Best Was Never Good Enough    

Released 7th November 2005
AERIAL
Kate Bush

12 Years! God knows how many acts Cowell launched and ditched in the same period. Kate went forth and multiplied and eventually came back with this. Gone are the histrionics that characterized at least parts of all of her previous albums. This is a much more muted and personal album which has clearly been put together with loving care. As noted previously this is similar in some ways to Hounds of Love. 

It's a 2-CD release divided into 'A Sea of Honey' and 'A Sky of Honey'. 'Sea' is more of a collection of songs whereas 'Sky' is intended as more of a single piece. 'King of the Mountain' was the first single release. About Elvis we're told and there is a slight King-like quality in her vocal to back this up. 'Pi' is about a man obsessed by the value of the mathematical constant. I'm sure I've heard that her recitation of pi goes wrong somewhere, but who cares, you'd only know if you weren't captivated by the song (and a complete spod to boot). 

'Bertie' is a love song to her son (in the purest sense) and her joy at being a mother comes through loud and clear in the lyrics and the delivery. Now, 'Mrs Bartolozzi' is a song to a washing machine, and is pleasantly unhinged with some great expressive lyrics "wishy-washy, wishy-washy, get that dirty shirty clean". There is certainly a more sexual undertone at the same time though. In 'How to be Invisible' she claims to have found a book on the eponymous subject, and you know what? I think she probably did. It draws a bit on MacBeth-y witches brew imagery. 'Joanni' and 'A Coral Room' round it all off and it's all very pleasant without being bland.

https://andysrockodysseys.blogspot.com/2014/02/kate-bushfrom-kick-to-snow.html

King of the Mountain
π
Bertie
Mrs. Bartolozzi
How to Be Invisible
Joanni
A Coral Room
Prelude
Prologue
An Architect's Dream
The Painter's Link
Sunset
Aerial Tal
Somewhere in Between
Nocturn
Aerial

Released 9th November 2005
CONFESSIONS ON A DANCEFLOOR
Madonna

Madonna discovers the power of a catchy looped sample and a thumping beat. All cards are laid on the table at the outset with 'Hung Up' where she takes the easy route of sampling from Abba's 'Gimme, Gimme, Gimme' and therefore simply cannot go wrong. It is a masterpiece of modern dance-pop, although the video does seem to be an exercise in showing how freakishly fit she has managed to keep herself. Seems to have been at least partially filmed in South London too. That's the most likely location of clubs of that level of skankiness. I really do like the guys dancing in the Chinese takeaway. 

She involved the Pet Shop Boys on the other most recognizable track here 'Sorry' and you certainly hear something of them in it. I thought it was a straight sample, but maybe not. Elsewhere 'Future Lovers' is Moroderish and there's more Daft Punky flavours on 'Let It Will Be'. The only real change of pace is 'Isaac' which features the Yemenite Hebrew poem 'Im Nin Alu',which was also, incidentally, recorded back in the 80's when World music was taking hold by Ofra Haza and was featured on MARRS' 'Pump UP The Volume'. Clearly an out and out disco album and the packaging lives up to it

https://andysrockodysseys.blogspot.com/2016/12/madonna-i-wanna-boogie-woogie.html

Hung Up
Get Together
Sorry
Future Lovers
I Love New York
Let It Will Be
Forbidden Love
Jump
How High
Isaac
Push
Like It Or Not

Released 12th November 2010
A CHRISTMAS CORNUCOPIA
Annie Lennox

Yes, it's coming, and not even a global pandemic can stop it. I don't need to listen to this today. I listen to it every year as we put up the tree. It's the perfect Christmas album including all those hymns and songs that they taught you in school but don't usually make it onto the either the standard hymn nor the Xmas pop classics list. Beside all that, it has THE BEST Christmas song of all, 'In The Bleak Midwinter'.

Angels from the Realms of Glory
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
See Amid the Winter's Snow
Il est né le divin Enfant
The First Noel
Lullay Lullay (The Coventry Carol)
The Holly and the Ivy
In the Bleak Midwinter
As Joseph was a Walking (The Cherry Tree Carol)
O Little Town of Bethlehem
Silent Night
Universal Child

Released 13th November 2015
ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE
Jeff Lynne's ELO

Now it is 'Jeff Lynne's ELO'. Like it wasn't before. I have paid scant attention to the likes of Bev Bevan, Richard Tandy and Kelly Groucott since ELO has clearly been Lynne's project all along. Anyway, this is essentially a solo album. The only other musicians listed on the Wikipedia page are daughter Laura as backing singer and Engineer Steve Jay who shows his mastery of shaker and tambourine,  It starts with the inevitably a-bit-like-the-Beatles, 'When I Was A Boy' which was released as a single and got a lot of airplay on BBC Radio 2, at least partly because Chris Evans was pretty instrumental in digging Jeff out of the where-are-they-now file. 

Lynne does seem comfortable with what he is doing. The songs seem quite effortless and it would be easy to accuse him of a repeat of the blandness of Zoom, but these do seem more heartfelt than on that album. There's a return to an Orbison-influenced sound on 'I'm Leaving You' and 'One Step At A Time' comes close to some of his best classic ELO hits. It's also short, 10 songs and only 32 minutes, but no-one should complain about that, an ability to rein oneself in is an asset in a rock star. There are a couple of bonus tracks on Spotify, the rather good 'Fault Line' a C&W effort with nice Hawaiian guitar and the waltz-time'Blue'. Let's hope that now he has his mojo back he sticks at it for a few more years.

https://andysrockodysseys.blogspot.com/2016/03/electric-light-orchestra.html

When I Was A Boy
Love And Rain
Dirty To The Bone
When The Night Comes
The Sun Will Shine On You
Ain't It A Drag
All My Life
I'm Leaving You
One Step At A Time
Alone In The Universe

Released 20th November 2015
25
Adele

I jokingly said at the start of the month that I'd include this just so I could get annoyed. Up till now I haven't rated her and find her vocal tics and the general tenor of her material really quite tedious. Well, I'm pleased to report that my opinion has not changed one jot. Her whole career screams some kind of 'project' from the start, with the age-named albums and the aspiration to some kind of classic soul/torch singer vibe. The spell began to break with this one I think. She needed to move on from titles like 'Send My Love (To Your New Love)', 'I Miss You', 'Water Under The Bridge' (or is that "breach"?) and 'All I Ask'. You can only get so far with a career built on "you left me and I'm really upset". She's 32 now and presumably realises she needs to come up with some new ideas before she can release the next one.

Hello
Send My Love (To Your New Lover)
I Miss You
When We Were Young
Remedy
Water Under the Bridge
River Lea
Love in the Dark
Million Years Ago
All I Ask
Sweetest Devotion