Rock – Page 24 – Rock Salted

Elvis – Today

Elvis – Today RCA Victor APL1-1039 (1975)

Today brought Elvis back into the recording studio for the first time in well over a year, since the sessions for Good Times (the follow-up Promised Land was compiled from outtakes of those sessions). It finds Elvis in something of an identity crisis. He dabbles in a little of this and a little of that, but never settles into any particular style. There is a little bit of countrypolitan flavor in everything, but the individual songs range from boogie rock (“T-R-O-U-B-L-E”), to soul/R&B (“Shake a Hand”), to easy listening (“And I Love You So”), to straight contemporary country (“Fairytale”). The problem is that little really clicks. Elvis is stuck in the realm of the mediocre, which is territory he hadn’t really found himself in since the days of recording movie soundtracks almost a decade earlier. Yet the mid-tempo country stomper “Susan When She Tried,” the ballad “Pieces of My Life” and the R&B torch song “Shake a Hand” are okay. Biographer Peter Guralnick noted that these sessions weren’t as fun as ones a few years earlier, and that this was a time when Elvis’ entourage was shifting around and he seemed to not know who to trust as his personal relationships became exceptionally shallow. Elvis perhaps could have stood to just pick a style and go with it, like a more extensive trip into boogie rock territory, doing a Little Feat cover (“Oh Atlanta” or “Two Trains,” for instance) or even just bringing Little Feat into the studio with him. But really, it wouldn’t matter which direction he took. Picking one would have given him a chance to focus and improve on a single sound. Yet committing to anything on a deeper level was probably the biggest overall problem facing Elvis in 1975. As it stands, Today is a middling effort with hardly any songs that stand out.

Why? – Oaklandazulasylum

Why? – Oaklandazulasylum Anticon abR0029 (2003)

If you thought, based on his collaborative works with Anticon labelmates, that he was a hip-hop artist, then Why?’s indie rock debut may be a surprise. To be entirely accurate, oaklandazulasylum never settles into one style. Why? invites all sorts of influences into the mix. The songs dart from one structure to another. The music is always refreshingly goofy. But too often oaklandazulasylum sounds more like tinkering than anything significant. Perhaps the album is most successful when hip-hop influences are prominent. And that takes Why? back to square one.

The Beach Boys – Wild Honey

The Beach Boys – Wild Honey Capitol ST-2859 (1967)

Wild Honey began a new phase for the Beach Boys. They were back to playing instruments in the studio and sounding more like a live band than a Brian Wilson experiment. Vocal harmonies were surprisingly at a minimum. Coming hot on the heels of Smiley Smile, Wild Honey further confounded fans expecting an unchanging band. The soulful turn proved somewhat influential. It also strengthens the spontaneity in the Beach Boys’ music.

The Beach Boys – The Beach Boys in Concert

The Beach Boys – The Beach Boys in Concert Brother Records 2RS 6484 (1973)

This one is a hidden gem of the Beach Boys’ catalog. Probably not the best entry point for the uninitiated, despite the good song selection. But this album is ripe for fans with at least a general familiarity with the Beach Boys’ previous recordings. It’s one of the rare opportunities to hear a lot of the group’s best songs performed live. And by best songs, I mean this set leans heavily on Brian Wilson penned numbers rather than the light pop and early 60s (s)hit parade that dominated their later years of touring and (*cringe*) recording. That is somewhat surprising given that Brian was on his way out of active involvement in the group at this point (apart from the fact that he hadn’t toured with them in years). Plus, Ricky Fataar and Blondie Chaplin were in the band here, and they were valuable members whose superb musicianship shouldn’t be overlooked. They help make the renditions here of “Marcella” and “Leaving This Town” the definitive ones. This might be my favorite of The Beach Boys’ 1970s albums.

Bob Dylan – Street-Legal

Bob Dylan – Street-Legal Columbia JC 35453 (1978)

I’ve mentioned that Planet Waves was a bad omen. I think, at the time, it could be passed off as just lazy, a fluke misfire on some fundamentally good songwriting material. Street-Legal was something else. Here, Dylan was confirming that he was a brat, someone just unwilling to look outside himself. It’s clear what he was going for here. The backing singers, saxophone. This was a show band. After struggling and failing to make The Rolling Thunder Revue a commercial success, he seemed to be aiming for an Elvis-style Vegas act (see also At Budokan). Or maybe even some kind of second-hand Van Morrison approach, by way of Bruce Springsteen‘s E-Street Band. But Dylan really wasn’t that kind of a performer. He insisted on a “raw” sound recorded in some old warehouse dubbed “Rundown Studio” with temporary recording equipment set up with wires running out the window (similar to what was done on Elvis’ recent From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee). In principle, that kind of an approach might work, but not with this material and this band. It’s as if Dylan just can’t commit himself to the commercial aspects of what his band proposes. This is one of those albums where he struggles to come to terms with the expectations laid upon him, and so he self-sabotages the product. A shame, too, because there are definitely some good new songs here, like “Señor (Tales of Yankee Power),” one of Dylan’s now rare attempts to do the kind of social and political commentary that he managed so adeptly back in his early folk days (“With God on Our Side,” etc.). So, Street-Legal was probably one intervention away from being a success. The committed will find things to like if they focus hard, but, at the same time, there is no excuse for the amount of effort necessary to appreciate this one.

Little Feat – Waiting for Columbus

Little Feat – Waiting for Columbus Warner Bros. 2BS 3140 (1978)

Perhaps the most overrated album in Little Feat’s discography is Waiting for Columbus. It is a decent live set, with most of their best songs accounted for. Still, this came at a time when Lowell George‘s influence was waning and things were drifting towards bland, shallow blues knock offs and limp groove rock. In all, not bad, but hardly anything that special. Then again, if all along you thought the problem with Little Feat was that they didn’t sound enough like The Doobie Brothers, well, this might be exactly what you were waiting for.

Little Feat – Sailin’ Shoes

Little Feat – Sailin’ Shoes Warner Bros. BS 2600 (1972)

Sailin’ Shoes may be the best Little Feat album. I like the eclecticism of their debut, and this one tones that down a bit. But the focus and polish here works for the band rather than against them. The songwriting is again superb, thanks to Lowell George. It embraces rather than fears the weirdness out there in the world. I wish all southern/classic rock held up this well.

John Lennon – Rock ‘n’ Roll

John Lennon – Rock ‘n’ Roll Apple SK-3419 (1975)

On paper, this didn’t look promising. Covers of 1950s rock ‘n roll songs are generally hard to pull off in more modern settings, and all-covers albums can be the product of laziness. But John Lennon does mange to pull it off fairly consistently for Rock ‘n’ Roll. The main fault of the album seems to be Lennon’s vocals. His voice — the urban tone and accent — isn’t particularly suited to rockabilly and soul, both of which combined heavy rural influences that Lennon didn’t inherently possess. And he doesn’t exactly go the extra mile to overcome that fact. But the results are good enough.

Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin III

Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin III Atlantic SD 7201 (1970)

“Hammer of the go-ods!” With lyrics like that, you know that Zeppelin had reached the peak of silliness. As usual, they have a few good and heavy riffs, but this seems so much like self-parody that it’s hard to take seriously. Then again, it’s hard to believe this was meant to be taken seriously.

Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin II

Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin II Atlantic SD 8236 (1969)

The deal with Led Zeppelin was that they were a bunch of grown men living the dreams of a whole lotta 15-year-old boys. Their music has its merits I guess, but it’s also dreadfully boring when you get down to it. I’d take Black Sabbath over this any day. Still, if you must have Zeppelin, this is one of their better full-length albums.