The good old ’69

And I thought ’67 was a transitional year, but ’69 is all over the map. Samba, Psychedelia, Country and Reggae all nail it in ’69!

Songs

1. Forget All About It (Nazz) – A really innovative psychedelic sound and songcraft, like the Byrds if Bob Dylan had never existed, and they were all on amphetamines.
2. The Old Man’s Back Again (Scott Walker) – Amid the lavish string-arrangements and french death ballads Walker delves into some more conventional songs – this is among the best. A rare opportunity to hear him play bass too – and what a bass-line! Some nice latin guitar chops too.
3. Nine Times Blue (The Monkees) – well actually just Mike Nesmith. In my opinion one of the best country artists of all time, and this is his masterpiece. Here he is doing it live  with Davy and Mickey on the Johnny Cash show.
4. Pais Tropical (Jorge Ben) – this is where Brazilian music starts getting fun~! ’69 also sees the rest of the world adopt the grooves of Brazil – one of my faves is from Swedish super-hottie Sylvia Vrethammar.
5. Please No More Sad Songs (Idle Race) – Before The Travelling Wilburys, ELO, The Move and a billion other projects and masterworks of production, Jeff Lynne was in this obscure British psychedelic band. The album has some good stuff on it – and some very experimental production!
6. Sic ‘Em Pigs (Canned Heat) – I feel like this song is one of the greatest expressions of life in the late 60s, especially if you’re a big fat pot-smoking blues-hippy. Fuck the police, incidentally.
7. Barricades (The Koobas) – coming from Liverpool, via the Hamburg circuit, managed by Brian Epstein and opening for The Beatles on their last tour, you’d think The Koobas would’ve made a bigger impact. Their one and only album is fantastic. They certainly took great influence from Syd Barrett on this song.
8. Whispering Pines (The Band) – I get that The Band are important, but I don’t dig their songwriting that much. This song is a stunning exception.
9. Noitasinagro (Organisation) – fledgling Krautrock – lovely tonal noise.
10. Hco 97658 (Kak) – How could a band called ‘Kak’, with an album called ‘Kak-Ola’ not succeed? A really nicely produced song (and album) – but sadly one of the casualties of the SF psychedlic overflow.

Notable omissions: Hawaii 5-0 (The Ventures), Je T’aime Moi Non Plus (Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin), and the bizarre In the Year 2525 (Zager & Evans).

Albums

1. Tighten Up Volume 2 (Various Artists) – along with ‘The Harder They Come Soundtrack’ this is the most essential roots-reggae album of all time. Equally mellow, rough and tough, and full of fun, sun and sex! Check the lyrics of ‘Wreck A Buddy’ – “…and if he’s ugly I don’t mind, him have a dick and I wanna grind…”
2. Philosophy Of The World (The Shaggs) – if you haven’t heard this album, you’re in for a mindfuck my fine friends. The ultimate ‘outsider’ art project. A lot has been written about this album so I won’t waffle about it, but if you’re new to it, yes it is real, yes they are teenage sisters, and yes they have accidentally invented an entirely new way of writing and playing music. The thing that got me hooked was the title track (track 1) in which they are playing totally out of time with each other and then impossibly re-synchronize for each chorus, then instantly fall apart again. When I first heard it, I thought this was very clever post-rock, but it’s not – its genuinely naive teenage sister-telepathy. Its a wonderful world where this sort of music becomes popular.
3. Cérebro Eletrônico (Gilberto Gil) – funky Brazilian electronic psychedelia of the highest order. This album is incredible.
4. Joy Of A Toy (Kevin Ayers) – there’s something so charming about this gentle psychedelia, even if it is a little trite. Track 2 is my fave.
5. The Velvet Underground (The Velvet Underground) – in my view the perfect album in terms of structure and content. Its got it all – great writing, amazing pop songs, punk ethic, country vibe and a nice dose of humour to round it all off. I feel there’s a direct lineage between this album and those of Bowie et al in 70s.
6. The Gilded Palace Of Sin (The Flying Burrito Brothers) – This album is rightly considered the seminal country-rock album, but its also one full of winning tunes. As far as I’m concerned country music could happily have ended right after this album (well – maybe after Sweetheart of the Rodeo)!
7. The Soft Parade (The Doors) – by far my favourite Doors album, though it’s whimsy makes it a guilty pleasure! I really feel like they were super-focused and into this project. The production is also amazing, some of Morrison’s best vocals and lyrics – mature but not too fucked up by booze. The addition of soul-horns and bass guitar really takes the band to a new level, and Touch Me is a brilliant (though weird!) pop single. Runnin’ Blue is one of my faves due to it’s great drumming and horn arrangements (especially in the bridge) – even Kruger’s absurd blue-grass sections have grown on me. But its the title track that really does it for me, from it’s impassioned intro to the bizarre easy-listening verses, whimsical interlude and finally the main groove – “the best part of the trip” as Jim describes it. I dig where he says “yeah…proud to be a part of this number” – a public salute to his beloved band-mates.
8. Scott 3 (Scott Walker) – This album has some beautiful ethereal songs like ‘It’s Raining Today’ or ‘If You Go Away’ along side unique and disquieting songs like 30 Century Man. Stunning album.
9. Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town (Kenny Rogers & The First Edition) – long before Kenny was a Disney-eyed TV Santa with a chicken franchise he was leader of a psychedelic country band – they even had a girl in the group. The title track really started the craze for those awful morose country songs about terrible things happening to the protagonist, but it’s got a wry humour to it, not to mention some wonderful songcraft. Even more brilliant is the song Reuben James – Kenny is totally overlooked in country music history, but I feel this hit was a really important transitional track in the genre. It would make perfect sense if you played it to hillbillies in the 1920s just as it would to fans of those modern-day country guys, you know, the millionaire ones called Cleetus or Dingus or whatever. Interestingly Kenny’s quality plummets the second he disbands The First Edition – but I’d highly recommend everything preceding this to country lovers.
10. The Monkees Present (The Monkees) – though Mike Nesmith’s best song was released on ’69’s Instant Replay, he has a bunch of great ones on this album, notably knocking it out of the park with the psych-country hit Listen To The Band. Check this raw, live (if staged) version. On a roll, Mike also kicks out some fashionable Samba with ‘Calico Girlfriend‘, and yet more country-honk funk-rock with ‘Little Red Rider‘.