On That Note: To the 9’s (part 1) 1969 (and ’59)

[cyclones500]

Welcome back to On That Note, CF’s go-to source for music listening, discussion and obsession, hosted by @MeanDean, @CycloneRulzzz and cyclones500.

This week, we launch our annual series highlighting top albums from the past, focused on high-impact LPs beginning 50 years ago, then advancing by decade ('79, '89 and '99).

We begin with albums released in 1969. For this segment, we also allow LPs from 1959.

Basic format: Include artist name, album title, and no more than 4 song samples (3 is ideal). Elaboration encouraged, such as qualities you admire about the album and why it endures for you.

My first choice is coming shortly, in a separate post.

• Last year’s album series, part 1: Gr8s From the 8s

 

[MeanDean]

Pretty much everyone's top album of 1969

And with good reason.

First off there's the Side Two Medley. Probably my favorite 'bit' is McCartney's Golden Slumbers. I wish he'd actually flushed it out to a complete song rather than compromising and including it in the Medley. But it exists so maybe that's enough.



In addition there is the Double A side single Something/Come Together, which I remember purchasing as a youngster, largely because I like Come Together.



Then there's arguably McCartney's most passionate vocal performance on Oh! Darling.



Add in Harrison's wonderful acoustic/electric mix of Here Comes the Sun and wow, you've got some great stuff.



Even Ringo's Octopus's Garden is pretty great - so what would normally be the weak point of a typical Beatles album is above average.



Weak points are quibbles but I'll point them out. McCartney's Maxwell's Silver Hammer is often lambasted. Lennon hated it (of course by this time he 'hated' pretty much anything McCartney did.) Harrison also grew to dislike it immensely as McCartney called for take after take looking for perfection.
I personally don't mind it so much.

The other is I Want You She's So Heavy. I actually don't mind the song so much. It's just too long. Or maybe it's not that it is long. I like many long songs. It's that it is both long and repetitive. Seven minutes and forty-seven seconds. Should have been about 2:33.

The influence of the album is/was so immense that what was 'EMI Studios London, located at on Abbey Road in London' had its name changed, officially, to Abbey Road Studios.

 

[cyclones500]

I'll start here.

The Velvet Underground (3rd album)
Released March 1969

This LP’s most-common identity is how much of a sonic shift it was compared to VU’s first two albums. I’ll let you explore the details of that on your own time.

Among the band’s 4 official studio albums, this is my favorite.

I’ve probably posted this song 8 times in CF music threads, OTN or otherwise. Here’s to the 9th.




“Wine in the morning / and some breakfast at night”

 

[MeanDean]

Let me throw in a 1959. It's a compilation but so what?

Dying in the famous Day the Music Died plane crash after playing at the Surf in Clear Lake and flying out of Mason City it was only later that month this compilation was released.

 

[cyclones500]

Creedence Clearwater Revival
“Green River”
Released: Aug. 3, 1969

CCR released three albums in 1969: “Bayou Country,” “Willy and the Poor Boys” and “Green River.” Combined, they contained five top 5 singles. That might be the most productive 12-month stretch of studio LPs by a group in rock n’ roll history.

I give the nod to Green River. Even the “weak” tracks are good.











---> Storyline is framed as a tale about a traveling entertainer, but it could apply to a general life-journey.

 

[MeanDean]

Dusty in Memphis

Doing Goffin/King and Bacharach/David and Mann/Weil. With that voice? How could this go wrong? It didn't.

But the big hit wasn't either of those composing teams. Or Randy Newman who also contributed a couple songs. It was this one, that Aretha Franklin 'passed' on.

 

[matclone]

I joined the Columbia Record Club in 1969. I think I had enough money from paper routes to send in the $2.98 or $3.98 they required to join. As I recall, you had to actively decline (by mail) their selection of the month (in a matter of a few weeks) to prevent them from sending you their "selection" along with a bill (probably $6.98 + shipping)--which was kind of rich for me at the time, being of tender years. Anyway, I whiffed on this requirement and a record, Let it Bleed, by the Rolling Stones, showed up in the mail. There was a poster that made its way on the wall, and a bill, but I didn't I didn't particularly take to the record--at the time. Well, my first impression was wrong. I think, still, it is the best record they've done. Better than Exile or Sticky Fingers (which are fine records). One of the lesser know songs is this one. Keith Richards on bass, and you wonder why Charlie Watts is renowned as a drummer?

 

[cyclones500]

Sly and the Family Stone
"Stand!"
May 3, 1969

Coincidence: Two of my first three choices for this topic were based in the Bay Area.

Two songs on this LP were released as singles in ’68. A common practice at the time.

Here's the highest-charting track from the album, arguably the most recognized song from the group's '60s catalog.




Opening track/title cut
The coda (final third) takes in even higher




Speaking of “taking it higher”

 

[arobb]

The Band

Levon Helm was a national treasure.

 

[cyclones500]

This is cheating, but I’m gonna piggy-back on the @MeanDean “Abbey Road” song list.

 

[matclone]

And I'm going to piggyback on Arobb's playing of The Band, and select one of the three or four songs of theirs that aren't played all the time, with Richard Manuel on lead vocal. If anyone started or inspired the concept of Americana music, this band was the one. They had three primary vocalists: Richard Manuel, Rick Danko, and Levon Helm.

 

[matclone]

1969

 

[matclone]

1969

Miles Davis group that included Joe Zawinul (later of Weather Report) and John McLaughlin (later of Mahavishnu Orchestra) and Wayne Shorter (giant jazz composer).

 

[CtownCyclone]

No time right now to get my song selections in, but I'm claiming the album...

 

[Angie]

My biological dad introduced me to music through this album when I was about 3, starting a lifelong love of The Who - coming back to flesh out this post, but claiming now:



---------------------------------------------

Some highlights/odds and sods:

"Acid Queen" - I know this isn't the version from the album, but Tina just scorches it. It does okay as a standalone song, rather than being so closely tied to the story of the rock opera. This portion of the movie scared the **** out of me when I was a toddler.



"Sally Simpson" - probably the best song of the rock opera, even though it's not from Tommy's point of view or directly about him. It's around this point that Tommy mania starts to have a little bit of a dark edge, and tells a cautionary tale of what happens when rockers/club kids age:



"Smash the Mirror" - I love the angst in the album version, it's well done. But the performance from the movie is so damn hilarious that I have to include it. It's so 70s cheese.



"I'm Free" - So much of The Who is their big, brash, all-instruments-firing sound (one of which Roger Daltrey's voice should be included). This song is always interesting to me because it doesn't really do that. It's certainly dated, but it's always a little bit different than their usual style to me.



"Tommy's Holiday Camp" - Not even an apology about including the movie clip from this; I just love Keith Moon:

 

[jbhtexas]

The Guess Who - Canned Wheat

This was their second album of 1969. Wheatfield Soul was the first one and it contained their breakthrough hit These Eyes. Canned Wheat had their hits Undun and Laughing, and also contained the first version of No Time, which was later released on the American Woman album with slightly different lyrics and the short but strange intro removed.

 

[Cyclones_R_GR8]

While not a big seller at all Elton John's first album Empty Sky was released in the UK in 1969 (Not released in US until 1975)
It was a very raw album but it was obviously the first of many by John and Taupin. The song Skyline Pigeon was one that made people sit up and take notice of this young songwriting duo.

Empty Sky


Skyline Pigeon

 

[CtownCyclone]

OK, now that I've gotten to work and have my coffee in hand...

Led Zeppelin's debut album.

Good Times, Bad Times:


Your Time is Gonna Come/Black Mountainside (should count as 1, since the first leads into the second):



Communication Breakdown

 

[CtownCyclone]

Since they were beasts, they went ahead and released Led Zeppelin II in 1969 as well.

Whole Lotta Love:


Heartbreaker:


Bring it on Home:

 

[jbhtexas]

Blood Sweat & Tears: Blood Sweat & Tears

The album was released in December 1968, but the singles were all released in 1969, and it won a grammy for Album of the Year in 1970. So, hopefully it doesn't violate the "9"s too badly. One of my favorite albums of all time...