Randy Newman: Sail Away (1972)

Release Date: May 1972
Produced by Lenny Waronker and Russ Titelman (Reprise)

Side One: Sail Away; Lonely At the Top; He Gives Us All His Love; Last Night I Had A Dream; Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear; Old Man

Side Two: Political Science; Burn On; Memo To My Son; Dayton, Ohio -1903; You Can Leave Your Hat On; God's Song (that's why I love mankind)

Randy Newman's at times comical, at times heartbreaking, 1972 album Sail Away updates the American songbook with a post-1960s sensibility. Majestic and satiric, the record ricochets between romanticism and cynicism.

"Sail Away" encapsulates the promise of America as a bountiful land of promise, only it's from the perspective of a slave trader beckoning Africans to cross the ocean into bondage. The striking arrangement itself is deceptive, wrapped inside inside the melodies are suffering and shame. 

"Political Science" serves a companion song to "Sail Away," a prophetic song imagining MAGA movement. 

"Lonely At the Top" is a Sinatra parody, the narrator has everything an entertainer could ever want and yet feels unhappy. While "Simon Smith" looks at the bottom side of fame in a playful manner. Both songs aspire to a God like perspective, a recurring theme throughout Sail Away. 

"He Gives All His Love" imagines a compassionate God kindly looking down on everyone from above, an erstwhile hymn on the surface. On the closing track, "God's Song", Newman imagines a sadistic deity amazed at humans still worship him after all the loss and destruction he's wrought.

The melancholy "Old Man" imagines a life lived, "Memo to My Son" a playful song about fatherhood. 

"Last Night I Had A Dream" and "You Can Leave Your Hat On" are fanciful love songs that lighten up the mood of the record. 

Two songs are about Ohio. "Burn On" makes light of the Cuyahoga river catching on fire set to a pastoral melody. "Dayton, Ohio 1903" imagines an idyllic America, full of industry, kindness, and confidence in direct contrast to the Rustbelt of the 1970s. 

In 30 minutes of music, Randy Newman takes an ironic and emphatic view of the American experience, each track could be a novel.

The Albums of 1996: Wilco: Being There

Release Date: October 29, 1996
Produced by Wilco
Active Members: Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Jay Bennett, Ken Coomer, Max Johnston, Bob Egan

Side One: Misunderstood; Far, Far Away; Monday; Outtasight (outtmind); Forget the Flowers
Side Two: Red Eyed and Blue; I Got You (at the end of the century); What's the World Got in Store; Hotel Arizona: Say You Miss Me
Side Three: Sunken Treasure; Someday Soon; Outta Mind (outtasight); Someone Else's Song; Kingpin
Side Four: (Was I) In Your Dreams; Why Would You Wanna Live; The Lonely 1; Dreamer in My Dreams

The sophomore Wilco LP Being There was a double album recorded in an era when the concept was borderline obsolete. Featuring 19 tracks that recalled the power pop simplicity of A.M. and the Midwest punch of Uncle Tupelo, yet at the same engaged on a deeper level with the past and present of rock.

"Misunderstood" unabashedly goes for the big time, an epic rocker that quotes Ohio cult hero Peter Laughner, as if Tweedy is putting the entire experience of a disaffected young men in the Midwest into one song. "Far, Far Away" is smooth country western rock song about longing. "Monday" channels Exile on Main Street Era Rolling Stones. "Outtasite (outta mind) and then "Forget the Flowers," very much in the twangy Uncle Tupelo style.

"Red-Eyed and Blue" opens side two, a melancholy state of mind song about writer's block and trying to hold a fledgling band together. "I Got You (at the end of the century)" defines slacker rock, feelings of dwindling expectations in the Rustbelt but the records are still on the shelf. "What's the World Got in Store" mediates on uncertainty and malaise, "Hotel Arizona" deals with the life of a band at a crossroads. "Say You Miss Me" Tweedy goes a soulful lyric on another song about the road.

Disc 2 opens with "Sunken Treasure", a continuation of the themes of introduced on "Misunderstood" albeit a more mature approach. "Someday Soon" is another alt-country rocker, "Outta Mind (outta sight)" is a reprise at a slightly slower tempo and a wearier vocal. On the acoustic ballad "Someone Else's Song" Tweedy confesses, "I keep on singing, your eyes, they just roll" speaks to how his music might be derivative of many others, but he'll keep singing anyway. "Kingpin" is a swamp rocker worthy of CCR. 

Side four begins with "(Was I) In Your Dreams" another country western ballad with a Gen X edge. "Why Would You Wanna Live" returns to the world weariness motif, backed by excellent strings and banjos. "The Lonely 1" may be one of the tenderest ballads ever written by Tweedy, while "Dreamer In My Dreams" serves as a coda to the entire record.

Critic Robert Christgau called Being There a triumph, but an insular one. While it's bigger and more ambitious than A.M., it also lacks some of the sly sense of humor. The incarnation of Wilco on Being There would transition to modern folk rock by collaborating with Billy Bragg. Tweedy would write more abstract lyrics more informed by his reading of modernist literature. Jay Bennett would also change the sound of the band and add a sonic dimension to the sound. Being There got the attention of critics (and fans) and cemented Wilco as a distinct voice in the rock landscape. 

The Replacements: Let it Be (1984)

Release Date: October 2, 1984

Active Members: Paul Westerberg, Bob Stinson, Tommy Stinson, Chris Mars

Produced by Steve Fjeistad, Peter Jesperson, Paul Westerberg

Side 1: I Will Dare; Favorite Thing; We're Comin' Out"; Tommy Got His Tonsils Out; Androgynous; Black Diamond

Side 2: Unsatisfied; Seen Your Video; Gary's Got A Boner; Sixteen Blue; Answering Machine

For their third LP the quartet from Minneapolis copped a Beatles album title for the hell of it. Nevertheless, they recorded a selection of songs worthy of the title, one of the best rock albums of the 1980s in fact. The album cover says all one needs to know about The Replacements: Bluish gray, Midwest, sitting on a roof and no doubt plotting some fatal strategies to beat back the boredom.

"I Will Dare" is a come on song that begins the record on a playful note, "How young are you/ How old Am I/ Let me count the rings around my eyes," with some great guitar work. "Favorite Thing" speaks to a low rent rock and roll lifestyle that's preferable to most others, a pure Replacements song with a post-punk sensibility. "We're Comin' Out" may allude to the chaos of their live shows, notorious for being alcohol fueled wildly erratic. "Tommy Got His Tonsils Out" is a novelty song about doctor trying to cram in an operation so he get a round of golf in, based on Tommy actually getting his tonsils removed. 

Paul Westerberg wrote "Androgynous" for Frank Sinatra, that's no joke. The tune sounds like a drunken ballad played at a dive bar around 4am. It's also one of the more progressive songs of the decade when classical gender norms were being enforced by mass culture. The song imagines Dick and Jane, a couple with ambiguous genders who love each other. If anyone's got a problem with it they should take a hike. A cover of "Black DIamond", a classic Kiss song, ends side one on a heavier, darker tone.

The masterful "Unsatisfied" opens side two, an epic statement on dashed expectations, being young, bored, and melancholy. A sentiment expressed eloquently by Westerberg's vocal. "Seen Your Video" takes aim at MTV and what passed for mainstream music in the 80s. The "Mats" were always caught between their we don't give a shit punk attitude and striving for big time success in the form of record sales and mass airplay. When they opened for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on a 1989 stadium tour their style never took with the MTV/FM rock crowd. The throwaway "Gary's Got A Boner" is there just because, Gary being a recurring figure of ridicule in the Mats universe.

"Sixteen Blue" was written for Tommy, Westerberg sympathized with his youth and how strange and confusing the world looks when you're 16. The song builds and builds, culminating with mournful, beautiful guitar solo by Bob Stinson. "Answering Machine" appropriately ends the record on a note of angst and frustration abetted by technology.

Let it Be ironically plays like a Beatles album with its jarring shifts in tone and youthful spirit with a chip on their shoulder. They're charming, but also abrasive. And that's fine. "Unsatisfied" or "Sixteen Blue" could've been hits, but they were too real for 1984. 

Wilco A.M. (1995)

Release Date: March 28, 1995

Active Members: Jeff Tweedy, John Stirratt, Ken Coomer, Max Johnston


Produced by Brian Paulson

Wilco's 1995 debut album A.M. appeared inauspicious at the time. Led by Jeff Tweedy, Wilco was formed after Uncle Tupelo disbanded. Tweedy's former bandmate Jay Farrar went off to convene Son Volt (they are also still active). Wilco continued in the vein of the final Uncle Tupelo record Anodyne, roots rock from the middle of the Midwest.

Brian Henneman of the Bottle Rockets played guitar on some of the tracks for A.M. His liner notes recount the laid back atmosphere of the sessions:

The music just kinda fell from the sky. I vaguely remember Jeff asking if I wanted to join the band, I vaguely remember respectfully declining. It all seemed so haphazard, so unfocused. I wasn't sure this band "Wilco" was gonna make it.

A.M. is a collection of rockers and country rock. No big statements. Nothing flashy. The opener is the zippy guitar driven "I Must Be High" that acknowledges to the uncertainty of the enterprise and bids farewell to Uncle Tupelo:

You
Always Wanted More Time
To do
What you always wanted to do
Now you got it
And I, I must be high
To say goodbye
Bye bye bye

The lyrics on A.M. are restrained, almost self-conscious. "Casino Queen" takes place in a riverboat casino with a desperate narrator with one of my favorite Wilco scenes:

I hit the second deck 
And I spent my paycheck
And my wife that i just met
She's looking like a wreck

From the Tom Waits ambiance of the casino there's a poignant break up song, "Box Full of Letters." "Shouldn't Be Ashamed" hints at the epic rock convention and adds a layer of soul. Side one ends with three country tinged tracks with prominent banjos: "Pick Up the Change," "I Thought I Held You," and "That's Not the Issue." 

Longtime bassist of Wilco John Stirratt opens side two with the country ballad "It's Just That Simple." The song is Stirratt's only lead vocal in his long history with the band. "Should've Been In Love" deals with small town ennui, while "Passenger Side" remains a favorite in the Wilco catalog. The guy carries a suspended license and he must bum rides off others until his court date in June. Remember when five dollars could fill up the tank?

"Dash 7" deals with the fear of flying and "Blue Eyed Soul" is a total deep cut. The record closes with the playful and cathartic "Too Far Apart."

A.M. received positive critical notice, but was unfavorably compared to the Son Volt record Trace. Wilco kept on going and recorded a double album the following year, Being There. While there sound would go way beyond A.M., the first Wilco record still sounds fresh. The lack of pretension works in its favor. 

Arcade Fire: The Suburbs

Release Date: August 2, 2010

Active Members: Win Butler, Regina Chassagne, Will Butler, Jeremy Gara, Tim Kingsbury, Sarah Neufeld, Richard Reed Parry


Produced by Arcade Fire and Markus Dravs

Arcade Fire's third album from 2010 The Suburbs, the second year of the Obama administration, compresses history and childhood into a flickering romanticism. Wasted time morphs into sacred time. A sober and triumphant album, The Suburbs features Arcade Fire's familiar blend of Apocalyptic angst and Utopian longing.

The album begins with the "The Suburbs", featuring a driving piano in a song that imagines the suburbs as a mythical place, but hardly a lost Eden. The opening stanza blends together a maze of conflicting memories:

In the suburbs
I learned to drive
And you told me we'd never survive
Grab your mother's key we're leavin'

Alienation, entrapment, domestic turmoil, disparate connections, and a dizzying sense of doom are ever present. And boredom.  As the narrator reflects on his childhood he contemplates the future for his children, or whether there will any future for them:

So you can understand
Why I Want A Daughter While I'm still young
I wanna hold her hand
And show her some beauty
Before all this damage is done

Trapped inside the miasma of the past and future the opening track sets the tone of the album, the feeling of coming awake after an intense dream. 

The high octane "Ready to Start" is about pursuing art and "businessmen drinking the blood" of artists. "Modern Man" looks at adulthood with weariness. 

"Rococo" is usually interpreted as a hipster take down, specifically the vapidity of 21st Century hipsterdom with its old timey beards and its conspicuous consumerism under the guise of creativity. Rococo art was an 18th Century style that celebrated aristocratic life in the French countryside, America's fascination with Kardashians and the British Royals sets a direct parallel. The art of being cool and feckless.

"Empty Room" sounds similar to "No Cars Go" from Neon Bible with Regina Chassagne taking the lead on the lyrics in a hymn to solitude. "City With No Children" paints another dystopian landscape as the title describes, possibly in reference to the Alfonso Cuaron film Children of Men from 2006. "Half Light I" imagines a future where life carries on underground after a world war told from a child's point of view, a bleak lullaby:

Our heads are just houses
Without enough windows
You say you hear human voices
But they're only echoes

The companion song "Half Light II (no celebration)" begins with a John Carpenter style synthesizer and reverts back to the present with references to the market crashes of 2008 and natural disasters wiping out cities. The Springsteen sentiments of Nebraska and the Cardigans style pop rhythms are vintage Arcade Fire. 

"Suburban War" addresses lost connections and broken relationships. The song laments music acting as a divisive force. Verses from the "The Suburbs" appear again in a much different context, detailing the fall of a once close friend.

"Month of May" is a rocker about the days before the uprising, but nothing actually happens, "the kids are still standing with their arms folded tight." 

"Wasted Hours" is another highlight, a tender, sensitive song about boredom and being young. Boredom was a primary occupation of punk, the idea of living in an age of dashed expectations - that certain politicians would use to their advantage. Rivers were catching fire and cities were turning into wastelands, the song imagines the fires making their way towards the suburbs. "Wasted Hours" transforms the stifled feelings of the past into a reflective melancholy.

"We Used To Wait" could justifiably be accused of overwrought nostalgia, maybe Arcade Fire at their sincere worst, yet it builds up to a soaring crescendo that moves into something transcendent. Lost connections in the modern world appear paradoxical when communication is ever faster - the transition from Gen X to Gen Y. 

"Sprawl 1 (Flatland)" is a somber song about a return to the old neighborhood where everything and nothing has changed. "Sprawl 2 (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" is the best song on the album, Regina's vocal brings some hope to the hopeless landscapes described on the record. The Suburbs ends with a reprise of the title track, the narrator admitting if he could go back he'd waste it all over again.

The Suburbs conjures a collage of feelings and images amidst all the emotional wreckage of the past and present. The angst of Arcade Fire is on full display - from their aching sentimentality and potent imagery. Not a rock opera in the vein of Tommy or Ziggy Stardust, but a central concept is there: the emotional toll of time moving in all directions at once. Challenging to get through in one sitting, yet The Suburbs yields much in meaning and texture through multiple listens.

The Albums of 1967: The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Are You Experienced?

Release Date: May 12, 1967
The Jimi Hendrix Experience Were: Jimi Hendrix, Noel Redding, Mitch Mitchell
Produced by Chas Chandler

Side One

Purple Haze
Manic Depression
Hey Joe
Love or Confusion
May This Be Love
I Don't Live Today

Side 2

The Wind Cries Mary
Fire 
Third Stone From the Sun
Foxy Lady
Are You Experienced?

Two different versions of Are You Experienced were released, one for the European market and one for the North American. I listened to the North American release.

On vinyl, the Jimi Hendrix Experience sounds more raucous and psychedelic than they do on FM radio. In stereo the record sounds more . . . revolutionary. Hendrix took the London scene of the mid-60s and brought a new sonic dimension that was driven by soul. Using the blues as a foundation point, Are You Experienced delves into many genres - folk, jazz, and rock. The record is a genre onto itself.

"Purple Haze" opened the American version, a song for the Vietnam War that was raging at the time. In the film Apocalypse Now as Willard's crew are traveling down the Mekong River they get deluged with purple smoke at one point and the surfer soldier Lance revels in the psychedelic journey of the war, "purple haze in my brain/lately things don't seem the same." Like Revolver and Highway 61 Revisited, Are You Experienced takes you on a metaphysical journey.

"Manic Depression" used distorted guitar, while Hendrix's bluesy vocal channeled a state of mind that broke new ground for a rock record in terms of content. "Hey Joe" took a classic folk/blues trope of the avenging lover into a three minute epic of heavy guitar, upstaging Led Zeppelin by a few years. "Love or Confusion" is another head trip with a more melodic guitar, a Beatles song from an alternate universe. "May This Be Love" could be a Motown song with its catchy melodies, prodded along by Mitch Mitchel's drumming.The rambling "I Don't Live Today" ends side one on what sounds like an impromptu jam session.

"The Wind Cries Mary" became one of Jimi's most memorable hits, a melodic and haunting love song with some seductive guitar playing. "Fire" became another hit, a commercial jingle in its brilliant simplicity. "3rd Stone From the Sun" is an extended psychedelic jam with some Sci-Fi overtones. The unforgettable riffs of "Foxy Lady" speaks to pure desire. The title track "Are You Experienced?" calls on the listener to expand their mind with its looping guitars, a call from the cosmic mountain top.

Are You Experienced introduced Hendrix to the world and we are the better for it. The year 1967 featured an abundance of riches that would be spearheaded by the June release of Sgt. Pepper by the Beatles to which Hendrix would acknowledge in his live shows. As history has proven: Hendrix could not only emulate his contemporaries, but also expand their music. No one could imitate Hendrix. 

Albums of the Imagination: Beatles 70/71

I know what you're thinking, another blog post about an imaginary Beatles album. Hey, we live in troubled times, so why not write about the Fab Four? 

The Beatles recording career unofficially ended over the summer of 1969 as the four of them completed work on Abbey Road. As the latter stage Beatles albums indicate they were all becoming separate individuals with different styles and artistic interests. Their output in 1970 and 1971 highlighted their diverging paths in dramatic ways. They had a lot to say. What if the era could be condensed into a Beatles album?

John's Plastic Ono Band burned all bridges with the past with its spare minimal tracks of stunning anger, sadness, guilt, and faint hope. The follow up Imagine in 1971 was more optimistic in outlook, featuring some of the most beautiful songs of the 20th century.

Paul's eponymous solo debut McCartney featured him on all the instruments. Like John's Plastic Ono Band Paul took a minimal approach, sounding homemade and joyously nonsensical. McCartney's 1971 follow up Ram was more muscular and ambitious in scope, setting the foundations of 70s arena rock.

Yet George had the most to say with All Things Must Pass, a triple record magnum opus. "My Sweet Lord" and "What is Life" would become massive hits.

Ringo's underrated two releases of 1970 Sentimental Journey and Beaucoups of Blues are full of stellar arrangements, ideal comedown records after navigating the heady material of his old band mates. Sentimental Journey could be titled "Ringo Goes Sinatra", while Beaucoups of Blues was compared to Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline with its country influences (ironically, future Dylan would spend almost a full decade doing Sinatra).

My idea was not to put together a compilation of the familiar hits, but to highlight the Beatles speaking to each other, sometimes past each other. The four of them stayed with and developed ideas as solo artists that preoccupied them as Beatles. The songs were sequenced with that in mind.

Side One

Valentine Day (Paul)
Wah Wah (George)
I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier Mama (John)
Run of the Mill (George)
Well Well Well (John)
Long Haired Lady (Paul)
Without Her (Ringo)

Side Two

What is Life? (George)
Imagine (John)
Too Many People (Paul)
Awaiting on You All (George)
Love (John)
The Backseat of My Car (Paul)
Stardust (Ringo)

So, what if the Beatles had put aside their differences and decided to pool their resources for at least one more album? Titled simply 70/71, the record was an attempt to address the past, present, and future of the band. 

Opening with "Valentine Day" an instrumental from McCartney that begins the record with a low key, but suggestive fragment, a mock overture recalling the subterranean Quarrymen days. "Wah Wah" was written by Harrison on the day he walked out of the Let it Be sessions out of frustration. George needles John and Paul with lyrics like "You made me such a big star/Being there at the right time/Cheaper than a dime." The high spirited production drowns out the cynical vibe of the lyrics.

Lennon's "I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier Mama"  is a tripped out jam that speaks to his anger at the roles society assigns to people. A parallel to "Working Class Hero"" and the agitprop of his 1972 record Sometime in New York City, the track taps into Lennon's growing activism. George's "Run of the Mill" is one of saddest tracks on All Things Must Pass dealing with the fallout of the Beatles break up, produced with unforgettable horns and piano. John's "Well Well Well" from Plastic Ono Band was another primal scream into the abyss, a screed on the counterculture and establishment's inability to effect change. A fade into Paul's "Long Haired Lady" makes for a nice segue way, with Paul crafting a basic pop song into a theatrical extravaganza. Ringo's "Without Her" is a melancholy country tune that brings side one to a subdued conclusion. 

Harrison's "What is Life" opens side two on a high note. The song was a top ten hit in America and the United Kingdom where it was the top selling single of 1971. "Imagine" is Lennon's most important statement as an artist, extending the idea of the Beatles into a post-Beatles world. Paul's borderline menacing song "Too Many People" from Ram is the type of song Lennon would aim at other people, here Paul appears to question Lennon's self righteousness. "Awaiting on You All" speaks directly to the listener, spiritual, yet grounded in reality. The mantra of the song, "If you open up your heart, you will know what I mean" is pan-spiritual in sentiment.

"Love" is connected to many other Lennon songs, "The Word" and "All You Need Is Love" come to mind. On Plastic Ono Band the song provides a respite from the emotional turmoil on the record and speaks to John's maturity as a songwriter. Paul's "The Backseat of My Car" is an elevated rocker reminiscent of Abbey Road that captures the romance and exhilaration of the road. Ringo's jaunty version of "Stardust" ends the album on a lightly comic note, a call back to "Goodnight" on the White Album, an appropriate Hollywood ending.