RSSConsumer Guide by Review Date: 2017-09-19
2017-09-19
Bee Gees: Bee Gees' 1st (Atco, 1967) In August 1967, into a pop world totally besotted by Sgt. Pepper, was born a pop album mostly indebted to Revolver riding a rather literary hit called "New York Mining Disaster 1941" and addressed to a "Mr. Jones" who couldn't have been Bob Dylan's, right? The perpetrators were Manchester-born Australians returned to a U.K. where Robert Stigwood would eventually transform them into world-historic disco pop-up dolls and stars of the 1978 cinematic megaflop Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. But here they gave the world, among other sweetmeats, the soul standard "To Love Somebody" and an opener set in a 1900 equipped with a town crier and Robin Gibb's quaver. A tuneful hoot.
B.B. King: Blues Is King (BluesWay, 1967) B.B. King wasn't yet a legend in the rock world in 1967. But props from Eric Clapton and others meant he was getting there. His canonical LP was 1965's Live at the Regal, which showcased his songbook at Chicago's version of the Apollo. But this live album, cut at the same town's International Club, is so raw vocally and untrammeled instrumentally it cuts even that classic in retrospect. "Gambler's Blues," which King never recorded again, tears and saws rather than stings before it vows not to "crap out twice." Willie Nelson's not-yet-standard "Night Life" is all riled up. Bobby Forte's tenor sax adds a sour-mash kick throughout.
B.B. King: The Jungle (Ace, 2009) Although five of its dozen selections had attained the lower reaches of the R&B chart twixt '65 and '67, few noticed this slapdash piece of product when the Bihari brothers' L.A.-based indie put it on the market. But as rereleased by Ace in 2009, it exemplifies how great artists' lesser work comes to feel more precious when they're gone. Otherwise unavailable highlights include the poverty-fighting title track, a short and sweet "Ain't Nobody's Business," and a "Beautician's Blues" that sics said blues on said beautician. A guy his ma called Riley plays guitar on every track.
Wilson Pickett: The Best of Wilson Pickett (Atlantic, 1967) Not just for the half-rhyme's sake was this repurposed gospel up-and-comer called the wicked Pickett. If there were a genre dubbed hard soul, he'd exemplify it, and the reason there isn't is that none of his rivals commanded a voice so tough or an attack so unyielding. By his standards a love song is something suitable for a phone booth wall at the midnight hour--"634-5789," perfect. That's one reason dance records that don't quit such as "Funky Broadway" and "Mustang Sally" were his wheelhouse. "Man and a Half" would come later. So on this nonstop collection, make the theme statement a mere "Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won't Do)."
The Supremes: Diana Ross and the Supremes Greatest Hits (Motown, 1967) In August 1964, "Where Did Our Love Go" began the Supremes' run of chart-topping singles. By the end of 1967, they'd scored 10 of them. In the same timespan, so had the Beatles. Nobody else came close. All 10 are arrayed on this chart-topping 20-track double-LP along with well-remembered also-rans like "Nothing but Heartaches" and "Love Is Like an Itching in My Heart" and filler sure to grow on you as you down yet another round of upbeat erotic longing. Forlorn more often than fulfilled, Ross' sexy love is an up either way thanks to the irresistible Motown rhythm section and a soprano so sweet and lucid that half a century on it still gives the gift of optimism against all odds.