Mort Shuman - "My Death" Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo, 1969 (Reprise Records)

I have met people who liked a Mort Shuman song or two but never met a hardcore fan of his overall work.   He had a remarkable career.  Wrote classic Brill Building songs with partner-in-crime Doc Pomus such as "Save The Last Dance For Me," and Elvis' "Surrender," "Little Sister" and "(Marie's the Name) His Latest Flame," among other iconic pop tunes.  Shuman then moved to France, where he became a songwriter there during the height of the Yé-Yé decade, but more importantly, he discovered the songs of Jacques Brel.   One can make a strong argument without Shuman's translations of Brel songs into English, there would be no Scott Walker recordings of Brel songs, nor obtaining the interest from David Bowie, regarding the world of Brel.  Along with Eric Blau, Shuman wrote the book for the musical "Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris" which is greatly responsible for the Brel presence in the English speaking world.  And on top of that, he co-wrote one of my all-time favorite songs - "Little Children" recorded by Billy  J. Kramer. 

In 1969, Shuman recorded a very odd solo album "My Death," which is a combination of old school pop songwriting, but with strong traces of Bertolt Brecht, Charles Baudelaire, and of course, Jacques Brel.   Perhaps a concept album about birth to death, but nevertheless, a very eccentric pop album, which of course makes it a masterpiece in my ears and brain. 

My favorite songs on the album are the title cut, which is a Brel classic, and was recorded by Bowie, Scott, and even Rod McKuen.  Shuman gives it a pop flair due to its arrangements, but it's a fantastic version of "My Death."  The other fave on the album is "She's Gonna Give Me a Baby" which is a six-minute epic that ends tragically, but a beautiful melody does remain in the listeners' consciousness. 

Popera Cosmic - "Les Esclaves" Vinyl, LP, Album, 1969/2018 (Finders Keepers)

Going into the world of Popera Cosmic is like going into a strange foreign neighborhood without a proper map.  I want to say Popera Cosmic is a band, but it feels more like a theatrical experience than a rock band.  What I do know is that the music is arranged by William Sheller, a noted musician/songwriter in France, but unknown outside of French-speaking countries.  The producer (or 'artistic direction') is Jean Eckian, and the rock band is the French progressive rock group, Alice.  Beyond that, it's still a mystery to me.  Still, there is something wonderful about French psychedelic rock, in that when it's trippy, it's really a trip. 

The opening track "Les Esclaves" sounds like a free-form version of The Doors' "Hello, I love You."  "Batman" is what you think it is, but again, approached in a trippy manner that's all nuances and of course, like every song or piece on this album, a groover in the ultimate groove sense of the word.  In such a manner, it reminds me of Gil Evans working with Miles Davis,  that there are two separates thinking patterns at work.  Alice is doing what they are doing, but working in a conceptual model.  I keep thinking that this is a musical like "Hair" but somehow failed to make it big. Still, if one is into French arrangement music, for instance, Jean-Claude Vannier, or admire the conceptual albums of Serge Gainsbourg, one is going to find "Les Esclaves" a fascinating album. 

"Philadelphie Story" is a remarkable and haunting ballad that comes out of nowhere on this album.  They don't make songs like this in the 21st-century.  It's lush but goes with this gorgeous orchestration with the lone female backup vocal that brings everything back to Earth.  "La Chanson du Liévre de Mars" is a mixture of Love era "Forever Changes" mixed with a slow build up of the chorus which is "Whee."   Recorded in 1969, this is very much an album of that era, but that's a great thing.  Listening to Popera Cosmic (they only made this one album) is to marvel the skills and visions of the arranger William Sheller.   It goes from camp to sweet melodies, and it's a bizarre mixture of what can be a soundtrack to a soft-porn film, or a big budgeted counter-cultural (French-style of course) musical.  My favorite album of the year. 

Scott Walker - "Scott Walker Sings Songs From His T.V. Series" Vinyl, Album, Stereo, 1969 (Philips)

A phenomenal, great album on many levels.  Scott Walker is one of the handful greats in contemporary music.  Which sounds like an overblown statement, but the fact is that he has the combination of intelligence, vocals, compositional skills, and vision that doesn't seem possible in a mere human being.  From his career in The Walker Brothers to the classic Scott solo albums, (from "Scott 1" to "Scott 4") to the artful albums of his later career, including his work with Sunn O))) is a remarkable musical (and perhaps) life journey.   "Scott Sing Songs From His T.V. Series, an album that Walker doesn't admire much, is in fact, at least in my opinion, just as important as his renowned masterpieces.  

The thought of Scott Walker having his own TV music series in the UK is mind-boggling in itself, but if he was following the steps of crooners like Jack Jones (a singer he admired) his selection of these songs on this album are by no means hack work.   The core Scott orchestration is in place with the production of John Franz (who did the classic early Scott solo albums) and the arrangements of Peter Knight.  Both men worked with Scott at his solo height in the 60s, and this is not a minor project for any of those involved.

The album is a selection of songs that are from stage shows and film themes.  I'm not familiar with a lot of the songs, but I do know "The Look of Love by Bacharach and David, "The Impossible Dream," and "Lost in the Stars."  None of the songs on this album is Scott phoning in his vocals. I sense he is front and center with the recordings.  I don't know if he was ordered by his management or record company to make such an album, but to my ears, this is an extraordinary artist tackling not exactly the Great American Songbook, but covering some old and contemporary songs at that moment and time in his career.  Frank Sinatra comes to mind, especially the first track on side one, "Well You Still Be Mine" but perhaps his role model on this particular cut was Jack Jones.  Jones I feel was an underrated singer and was often thought of as a middle-of-the-road artist, but I suspect he had more depth than that.  And Scott recognized his talent, but I feel he took that inspiration and moved it into another plane or landscape. 

His version of the great Kurt Weill/Maxwell Anderson song "Lost in the Stars" is exquisite.  For me, I think of Scott as making sound sculptures.   The melodies are important, and maybe even the words are even more essential, but the way he performs his songs I can see it being a visual interpretation of his sounds.   I think his later work is very much in the sculpture mode, but I think he had this idea ever since The Walker Brothers and it just became more profound in his early solo albums.  Although "Scott Sings Songs" seems to be a work that is not part of his overall big picture, I feel it is part of the bridge between his early and later years.  To remove this album from his catalog is like removing "Rubber Soul" and not seeing the jump from "Beatles for Sale" to "Revolver."  This is an essential album by a major artist. It swings hard (in that Jack Jones/Sinatra mode) but also the ballads are crooned so perfectly that he puts others of his generation to shame.  At this time, Scott Walker was very much a songwriter.  So, in the sense of Bowie's "Pin-Ups" or Bryan Ferry's "These Foolish Things" this is a work that is commenting on the nature of popular music, and re-thinking it as not as a business plan, but more as of an artist.  Scott Walker rules. 

Jackie Lomax - "Is This What You Want?" Vinyl, LP, Album, 1969 (Apple)

It seemed that a new world was opening up for The Beatles when they started their own record company Apple Records. One of the key releases from that label in 1969 is Jackie Lomax's "Is This What You Want?"  In the spirit of the times, like Leon Russell's first solo album, this is a record that had many big-named musicians playing along with Jackie, mostly due to its producer, George Harrison.   Who is also listed as arranger and wrote "Sour Milk Sea" for his old Liverpool pal.  Somewhere in the background, there's George, Paul, Ringo, Hal Blaine, Nicky Hopkins, Tony Newman, Klaus Voormann, Eric Clapton among others.  

Still, it's very much a Lomax album, due to his songwriting and voice.  He had a beautiful soulful voice, that's rich in quality and tailor-made for soul, but his work is very much crafted in the sense that it's a proper form of songwriting.  "Speak To Me," the opening cut, is very much Lomax pleading to a lover, and the Harrison production kicks in with the female backup vocals and almost a Spector like intensity.  The title song "Is This What You Want?" is my favorite piece here.  A perfect marriage of melody and Lomax's voice, which builds as the song becomes more intense.  

For an artist-run label, Apple was pretty good and had artists like Badfinger, James Taylor, Ronnie Spector, and of course Jackie Lomax.  It's a shame (or not) that Harrison didn't produce more artists.  His work with others I think are some of the strongest aspects of his talent. Lomax's album is a very solid work.  The famous names help, but in actuality, it's Jackie's presence that makes this album essential. 

Cream - "Goodbye" Vinyl, LP, Album, 1969 (ATCO Records)

Cream at its most magnificent and at its worse.  To get to the bad part of Cream, for me, it's their live recordings.  All on side one, "I'm So Glad" "Sitting on Top of The World" and "Politician."  Three fantastic songs, but overplayed and way too long.  When I hear recordings of Cream playing live, it seems like it's a miracle that they know when or how to end the song.  On the flip side, their studio recordings are tight, well-arranged, and always a trace of exotic touches, such as Jack Bruce's cello playing - and then there is his magnificent voice.  "Doing That Scrapyard Thing" is a brilliant Bruce and Peter Brown song.  A magnificent pop record.  The other surprise is Ginger Baker's song contributions.  "What A Bringdown" is also a snappy and great pop tune.  Clapton with the assistance of the mysterious George Harrison comes up with "Badge," of the better Eric songs. Still, it doesn't compare to the Bruce and Ginger contribution.  Eric is a technically great guitarist, but I always felt he was the one that could leave the band, and they can find someone better.  If they had Chris Spedding - now that would make the Cream engine go-go.   The studio sides also had the talent of  Felix Pappalardi, who had the light touch, but with the arrangements that were usually fantastic. 

King Crimson - "In The Court of the Crimson King" Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, 1969/2010 (Discipline Global Mobile)

By its reputation, I should be naturally hating this album.  If not ground zero for prog-rock aesthetics, it's at the very least very close to that dangerous neighborhood.  As a 1960s popster with touches of French avant-garde Musique Concrete, and a feel for a great torch song here and there, logic would tell you that I should remain far away from "In The Court of the Crimson King." In fact, I never wanted to be in any court of any sort, especially one attached to King Crimson.  But alas, I'm a prejudiced soul!

I have been curious about this album for decades now.  As mentioned in another commentary on King Crimson, I admired Robert Fripp as a guitarist and his work with David Bowie, Eno, among others.   Still, is it possible for me to ever love or like a song called "I Talk to the Wind?"  Or worse yet, "Moonchild?"  The odds were even against this ever ending up in my home or on my turntable.  But under a weak moment, and perhaps the effect of wine, I purchased this album, due to curiosity, but also the fact that it's almost impossible to hear this album in its entirety online.  That I find is admirable.   If I want to hear it properly, I'm going to have to get the credit card out, and deal with the fallout if that's the case may be.   I did, and I kind of love "In The Court of the Crimson King."

To be honest, at the height of the FM radio years I loved to hear the song "In the Court of the Crimson King."  I'm a total sucker for the grand over-the-top melody, and when one adds a mellotron to the mix, it's a guilty pleasure.  Still, listening to the entire album, and looking at the credits, I was shocked that Fripp didn't write or co-write the actual "In the Court..." song!  Also, the big ballad "I Talk to the Wind" was written by its' multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald and lyricist Peter Sinfield, who produced the first and great Roxy Music album.  It is actually through Roxy that I started to change my mind about Crimson, in that I realized that they shared similar roots and characters.  Still, the big masterpiece by King Crimson and Fripp had nothing to do with it, on a songwriting level is a shock to me. 

As an album, "In the Court..." is extremely well-paced, and the band knows something about avoiding excess, and still manage to bring out different sides of the band/work.  Side one starts off with the killer riff of "21st Century Schizoid Man" and leads perfectly to "I Talk to the Wind," and then the final cut on that side "Epitaph" (must they always have pretentious titles). This is a perfect example of economy, pace, and seducing the listener to their world.  Greg Lake is a good singer, and anyone who can sing those lyrics by Sinfield, alone, is a magnificent effort. 

Side two of the album, compared to the first, is more interesting. "Moonchild" is free-form playful music that leads up to the swelling and majestically structured "In the Court of the Crimson King."   The other surprising aspect of this album is that I always have the sound of the mellotron was attached to Fripp, but according to the credits on the record, it's McDonald who plays the instrument.  King Crimson is always a band that collaborates with all the musicians, in all forms of Crimson.  Fripp is the mainstay, but one can't underestimate the contributions from the other members of the band.  If there is another active music force on this group/album, it's for sure McDonald.  Lake comes through on his own, and the drumming of Michael Giles is solid. 

In conclusion, I'm now buying all the early King Crimson albums, for the purpose to explore whatever my taste is or was.  It is something that I can't imagine I would have done in the past, but still, there were signs of this to come. My best friend in the 1970s was very much into King Crimson and a mega-Eno fan.  He liked Fripp/Crimson first, which led him to Roxy/Eno world. That always stayed on my mind, even after all these years.

Led Zeppelin "Led Zeppelin" Vinyl, LP, Album, 1969 (Atlantic)

I bought the first Led Zeppelin I think very close to the day of its original release.   My educated guess, because I have no memory of the details, I must have heard "Good Times Bad Times"

 on the FM radio, and that's a type of record I have always liked.  Over time I learned to hate Led Zeppelin.  The funny thing is I 'm a huge fan of Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones' studio work of the 1960s.  I love what Jones did with Immediate recordings, as well as Herman's Hermits.  And Page's work on Dave Berry's "The Crying Game" (if that is him?) is superb.   He also played guitar on John Barry's "Goldfinger."  How great is that?  And to this day, I think his best work is when he was an overly busy studio musician.  Still, there is something about Led Zeppelin that I can't fully dismiss. 

There are a lot of practical reasons for disliking Led Zeppelin.  Their horrible behavior toward groupies and people who work in the theaters, as well as them ripping off songwriters left and right - including the great song "Dazed and Confused," which is an amazing record. Jake Holmes wrote it, and when you hear the original compared to the Zep's version, it's outrageous that Page took songwriting credit on that song.   The truth is, Led Zeppelin is more in the lines of The Cramps, with respect how they re-arrange other material to suit their aesthetic.  And Jimmy Page is a brilliant arranger.  I also suspect Jones did a lot of the arranging as well, but it seems he's pushed aside with respect to crediting his arrangement work.  Nevertheless, that's Led Zeppelin in a nutshell, and one shouldn't dwell on the negativity of the situation.

What I do like about this album is that Page and company arranged these songs in a very textural and sonically powerful presence, especially when one puts up the volume.  Led Zeppelin is not about originality, but the way they present their (or whoever wrote the damn) songs in a manner that is magical.  The band is basically a trio, plus singer, but the big sound is the drumming of John Bonham who is a great drummer, and the layers of Page's guitars.  It's a joy to closely listen to his multiple layering of guitar sounds.  Page is technically a fantastic guitar player, but his genius is that he can think and play his instrument as if it was the lead player in a Wagner or operatic piece.  There are the riffs, but his playing is very subtle as well as being over-the-top. He knows how to balance the two and make it spectacular for that song, or album.   

Robert Plant has a voice.  A really good voice, but I don't think he's a great singer. He knows how to bend the notes, and play his voice as a fellow instrument with Page's guitar, but his delivery is always flat to me.  I think now, he is a much better singer as he got older, but as a teenager, a powerful voice but with no taste.  Led Zeppelin is very much a teenager's aesthetic.  Re-listening to this album after 39 years doesn't take me back to my youth, but now, I can appreciate the way the puzzle was put together, and Jimmy Page and band were very good in making this album as a statement at the time. I like it when "You Shook Me"goes right into "Dazed and Confused" and the same goes of the blending of "You're Time is Gonna Come" into the instrumental "Black Mountain Side, " which he originally recorded for The Yardbirds.   To me, Led Zeppelin is not a great album, but a work that is very much suited to its original era.  Skillful music that is tasteful, yet never went far enough.

The Velvet Underground - "1969" 2 x Vinyl, LP, U.S., 2017 (Republic Records)

In the glory days of the music world, there would be releases from record companies that have nothing to do with time or space.  Just product.  I by chance found this album "1969" by The Velvet Underground, and I have to imagine that it's a combination of the 1980's release of "VU" and "Another View" which is basically putting everything out under the Velvet's recorded catalog of the time.   Now, Universal music has put together these two albums as a double-album set on vinyl.   Three-sides are the Velvets with Doug Yule in the line-up, and side four is when John Cale was in the band.  Probably somewhere between White Light/White Heat and the Third album.  There are no liner notes explaining the reason for this album, so it's very much of a rush-released piece of product. "1969" is also a great compilation of Velvet Underground tracks that never made it to the final works (albums).  

The truth is The Velvet Underground couldn't do anything wrong from the years 1966 to 1970.  Lou Reed was on the top of his songwriting powers, and even throwaway songs like "Foggy Notion" are magnificent.    When I listen to these set of songs decades later, it strikes me how original his approach to pop/rock songwriting was at the time of these recordings.  For one, (both line-ups) the band was fantastic, with Moe Tucker's dynamic primitive drumming, with the combination of Lou and Sterling Morrison's guitars going in and out of their arrangements.  Then you have someone like Yule with his backup vocals, or Cale's viola riding on the rhythm, and you have this tremendous noise that's The Velvet Underground. 

There are no weak cuts on this four-sided package. All of it is essential if you are a Lou or Velvets fan.   The cover/packaging is boring but the sounds inside the package are going to take one to other worlds. 

Serge Gainsbourg & Jean-Claude Vannier - "Les Chemins de Katmandou" Vinyl, LP, Album, OST, 1969/2017 (Finders Keepers)

It has been described as the lost soundtrack, due to the belief that the master tapes were burned in a fire, but alas, not the case. Just misplaced.   Finders Keepers, the great reissue label, have just put out this great gem of the Serge Gainsbourg world.  I suspect that the album is more Jean-Claude Vannier than Gainsbourg, but nevertheless, it has the traces of Serge's greatness and sleaziness as well since this is a soundtrack to a grade-Z film about French youth in Katmandou, and all the fun that goes with that journey.  

The album is very much in the same mode as the Gainsbourg/Vannier soundtracks of this period.  Funky workouts with traces of exotic percussion and of course, the sitar here and there.  The listener can hear the sounds that made up "Melody Nelson" as well as Vannier's great solo work "L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouches." The beauty of the album is very much under the arrangement skills of Vannier, who is superb.  One is never sure what is going to be around the corner with respect to his arrangements.   He and Gainsbourg were a fantastic team, and this lost (but now found) soundtrack is essential to both fans of Serge's soundtrack work as well as with those who love Vannier's experimentation and sense of aural adventure.   Vannier to me is the French Jack Nitzsche.  Both were in tuned to their subject matter, whatever it was a film soundtrack, or arranging the instrumentation behind a singer - it's a classic mode of music-making, and one that I personally miss in contemporary music in 2017.   

Donovan - "Barabajagal" Vinyl, LP, Album, 1969 (Epic)

A very good, but not classic Donovan album.  "Barabajagal" is Donovan at his most hippie twee, with songs like "Happiness Runs" and "I Love My Shirt."  And even "Atlantis," still, there is really no such thing as a bad Donovan song or performance.  There is the image of Donovan as the universal folkie turned flower child, which is true.  On the flip of the other side of the coin is that Donovan is a brilliant stylist/singer who brings jazzy overtures to his melodies and arrangements.  Mickie Most produced the classic Donovan sides (like this album), but I'm never sure what Most brings to the sonic table to a Donovan session.  Most is/was comfortable working with the Jeff Beck Group (who back Donovan on two songs on this album) and Terry Reid at the time who had a "heavy" sound.  

One of my favorite Donovan songs is on this album, and it's "To Susan Waiting on the West Coast."   A tune about a soldier in Vietnam writing to his girl back home.   Simple narrative but Donovan can bring out the pathos with his overly British twee-Jazz, that works brilliantly with this song.  I'm also a fan of "Superlungs My Supergirl."  Terry Reid also did a fantastic cover of this song around the same time this album was released - again, the Mickie Most connection.   Beck and gang back Donovan on the title cut, and clearly the Beck aesthetic on guitar is very prominent on "Barabajagal."  He's riffing like crazy under the mix of rhythm and the backup singers.   Although not individually credited, I imagine Nicky Hopkins is on the album.  The piano playing is superb throughout the disc, and the only song besides the Beck group (none of the musicians besides Beck is clearly credited) is the song "Where Is She," with session great Alan Hawkshaw on piano.  The rest I think is Hopkins.  

In real time, I bought the Donovan albums when they originally released. This was the last Donovan album for me.  Perhaps due to the marketing of that time, or me moving on to my teenage years, I gave up on Donovan.  It wasn't until recently that I started to pick up on Donovan's great Epic albums to provide them with that serious re-listen.  I'm now a bigger fan of his work, looking back on material that is of course, charming, but also has elements and textures that was very much present in the late 1960s - the acceptance of music from other cultures.  In that sense, Donovan was or is a great traveler. 

The Beatles - "Abbey Road" Vinyl, LP, Album, 1969 (Apple)

Under the illusion of the last work or even death, "Abbey Road" is a suitable end to one of the iconic bands of all time.   Not the final Beatles release ("Let it Be" I believe is the official last album, although recorded before "Abbey Road") this is the one where they held their breath to make sure they get everything down before departing to other adventures.  After their Sgt. Pepper/Magical Mystery Tour year, the Fab Four went out of their way to look minimal, not only with the White Album but also with the cover of "Abbey Road."   Four guys are walking across the street looking like they're going to work.  Not on a vacation, or a place of pleasure, but a sharp direction toward labor or work mode.  Or even coming back from lunch but now the lunch hour is over, and it's back to the mines of creating some new Beatle sounds.

The music within "Abbey Road" is very much the finalization of what they were working on at the time.  Side two is a suite of songs that are half-finished or short bursts of creativity.  Almost like a sketch book, but one made by sonic geniuses.  "Abbey Road" is very much the escape route after recording/filming their failure "Let It Be" (or "Get Back") and realizing that it will take a great amount of focus to do "Abbey Road."  It's an album of energy or focus, and it's an amazing document as well as a work of pop perfection.  

When I bought this album as a teenager, I thought nothing could be better than this.  I also didn't realize that it was the end of The Beatles as well.  The news came to a shock to me, but of course, the press at the time were reporting troubles in the Apple offices and homes of The Beatles.  Listening to it now, I'm impressed with how fresh some of the music is.  To me, it's John Lennon's last great umph in his songwriting talents (besides his early Plastic Ono singles and first solo album).  "Come Together," "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" on side one is a fantastic beginning and ending for that side of the disc.  The McCartney associated songs are not bad, but not dynamic as the opening and closing number on side A.   McCartney comes through the second side as parts of the suite/melody becomes an urgent sense of tension such as "She Came In Through the Bathroom Window" and "You Never Gave Your Money."  "Golden Slumbers" and "Carry That Weight" is also a sign of relief on the part of the band, or more accurately (at least musically) McCartney.   

Lennon also shins with "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam."   What is beautiful at this point in my life, I'm not sure which is the Paul or John songs.  I suspect I can tell, and I'm not cheating by reading the backup material.   Also noted is the strong presence of George Harrison's work on the album.  Still, it is a sound of people cleaning up their closet, or wiping the table clean before leaving the room for the last time.  

Love - "Four Sail" Album, Vinyl, LP, 1969 (Elektra)

The fourth and last album for Elektra Records, Love narrows down in the arrangements with all new members, except for Arthur Lee of course.   As a producer, I feel he needed someone else to expand on the sounds.  The album is very two guitars, bass, and drums.  What makes it unusual is Lee's brilliant singing as well as his superb songwriting.  I've been avoiding "Four Sail" (the punning title is bad enough) due that I loved the first three Love albums, and I can't imagine an album without the original band.   Now listening to it, I do miss the guys in Love Mark one.  Still, songs like "Always See Your Face" is a classic Arthur Lee song/performance.  His sense of rhythm with a remembrance of the samba or traces of jazz overtures, he's a writer to me that is very close to Burt Bachrach.  I don't think it was an accident that Love recorded his "My Little Red Book," and that there is an aesthetic connection between the two songwriters. 

Song wise not that different from the early Love.  Lee's songs are hard to pin down, and they're highly sophisticated works.  A unique artist, who sounds like no one else. "Four Sail" is not my favorite Love album, but then again, just because it's Arthur Lee, it is a fantastic album in parts.  If he had full orchestration on this album, and recorded by someone who is more into textures of sound, this could have been another masterpiece by Love.  

Jack Bruce - Songs for a Tailor" CD, Album, Reissue, 2003/1969 (Polydor)

Jack Bruce was my guy in Cream.  I never was a fan of Eric Clapton, even though as a teenager I fell for his "importance" due to my friends at the time.   Except for "Badge" and a few others, the Jack-Cream songs were it.  And as much as possible I tried to stay as far away from the Cream live recordings.  I hated them in 1968, and I still dislike them.  But Jack Bruce/Cream/Peter Brown part of Cream, almost perfect.   In 1969, I did buy the Jack Bruce song because I knew it had to be good.  And good it is, if not fantastic.  

Since Bruce is a bass player, the bass is way up high or part of the overall mix on this album, and I love that.  His playing embraces and holds the song as a frame, with the melody and the other stuff inside the frame.  An underrated songwriter, and the fact that he had an open mind with respect to different types of music - such as jazz and the experimental side of pop music making or unique collaborations.  Clapton never went there, and Ginger Baker, God bless him, also was an adventurer at heart.  Another artist that comes to mind is Mick Karn, who was the bass player for the band Japan. There is that jazzy, strong bass holding the material together.  Karn's first solo album is emotionally direct as well as his bass playing.  Perhaps a strange connection, but listening to the Bruce album, it brings memories of Karn as well. 

"Songs for a Tailor" is for me the next step after the studio side of Cream's "Wheels of Fire."  "Rope Ladder to the Moon" could have been part of the "Wheels of Fire" album.  It's cello/bass, and dynamic acoustic guitar playing (by Bruce) is dreamy but rhythmic.  One has to give notice to the poetic lyrics by Peter Brown, and it's interesting that Bruce worked with such a literary bent, then say "I love you do you love me" rhyme/sentiment.   Still, there is an emotional pull in their songs.  Brown's lyrics are baroque and visual, and Bruce treats them not only as a personal statement but also 'performs' these songs though his singing.   I can imagine Bruce being in a musical. 

The beauty of "Songs for a Tailor" is Bruce expanding his canvas or landscape and filling it with a strong essence of wonderful songs, but again, his voice and bass playing is essential here.  It's obvious to me that he needed to get out of the Cream framework because I think it became too confining.   It's a great album to revisit time-to-time.  "Songs For a Tailor" still sounds strong and mighty. 

Fleetwood Mac - "Then Play On" Vinyl, LP, Album, 1969 (Reprise)

I discovered this album late in my life.   Fleetwood Mac when under the control or influence of Peter Green was something magical.  The beauty of the lineup of Green, Kirwan, Spencer, and the dynamic rhythm section, Fleetwood and McVie made an impressive amount of noise.  This album is the perfect blend of blues, pop rock, a touch of surf, and impressive songwriting.  What's pleasing to me is to hear three separate guitars with their individual style, and all blending into the mix.  The dynamics of this particular line-up, when together, is bigger than any person in the band.  In other words, "Then Play On" is a work by a band.  

Kirwan I feel is an underrated songwriter at this time.  There is a sweetness but tinted with sadness that really gives his songs a real soul.  Green I feel was exploring the blues to find a new angle in approaching that category.   The combination of all gives this album a majestic sound.  To my ears, it reminds me a bit of Television -especially with the difference between Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd on their instruments.  This Fleetwood Mac album leaves a great aftertaste, but alas it was the last of this particular lineup.  By listening to this album, I would think for sure there would have been more.  Unfortunately, that wasn't meant to happen. 

Thunderclap Newman - "Something in the Air" b/w "Wilhemina" 45 rpm Vinyl Single, 1969 (Track Records)

The most interesting member of the trio band Thunderclap Newman is their piano/sax player Andy Newman.   The fact that they use his last name as part of the band's name means a lot to me.  "Something in the Air' we have talked about before, but, the b-side is one of my all time favorite b-sides as well as a great tune.  "Wilhemina" is the only song written by Andy Newman, the odd looking member of Thunderclap Newman. Well, the whole band reeks of eccentricities, due that their guitarist Jimmy McCulloch was something like fifteen-years-old at the time of these recordings.  And Speedy Keen (a pal of Pete Townshend, therefore the producer) wrote most of the material for the band.  Still, if "Wilhemina" were on their first album, it would have been my favorite cut out of that fantastic LP. 

Good-timey that goes back to a Munich beer hall sometime in the past (but not THAT past) is Newman singing the joys of a lass named Wilhemina while drinking good German beer.  A-side is about revolution, and the B-side is .... drinking beer and enjoying female company.  Your pick!