Tracks
- Singing Winds, Crying Beasts
- Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen
- Oye Como Va
- Incident at Neshabur
- Se a Cabo
- Mother's Daughter
- Samba Pa Ti
- Hope You're Feeling Better
- El Nicoya
Abraxas is an energetic album. The music is a Latin-influenced rock. Three of the songs are instrumentals and there are quite a few extended sections on the remainder of the songs. Suffice it to say, it's a guitar-oriented album and the band likes to jam. Carlos Santana seems like a good guitarist, but he doesn't seem to be doing anything that hasn't been heard before; he just sounds different.
While I think the music is good and I enjoy listening to the band jam, the album doesn't excite me very much. I think the songs lack cohesion. The Latin style is an effective bond at first, but it's not enough after listening to the album several times.
I like this album; rather I like the songs on it, and it's because of the songs that I think it's worth listening to. The album should be on the 1001 Albums list, though, because it does a pretty good job incorporating a Latin style into rock music which is something new.
The songs are quite good. The following are the ones I really enjoyed: Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen, Oye Como Va, Se a Cabo, Mother's Daughter, Samba Pa Ti and Hope You're Feeling Better.
★★★★★★★★☆☆
Tracks
- Glad
- Freedom Rider
- Empty Pages
- Stranger To Himself
- John Barleycorn
- Every Mother's Son
John Barleycorn Must Die is a vigorous album. The music is a mix of jazz fusion and progressive folk rock.
For most of the songs, the music is driven by a funky groove with the rest of the band jamming on top of it. The jams are interesting enough, but they lack a destination; Glad just ends where Freedom Rider begins. The album itself is directionless, too.
Although, I like this album, I'm not impressed by it and I don't really see its significance. Miles Davis and Soft Machine have done similar things, but more definitively. While there are some good grooves and melodies, a great album they do not make.
All the songs are enjoyable. The real stand outs are: Freedom Rider and John Barleycorn.
★★★★★★★★☆☆
Tracks
- Facelift
- Slightly All the Time
- Moon in June
- Out-Bloody-Rageous
Third is a schizophrenic album. The music is combination of jazz fusion and progressive rock. It's a double album with each track spanning one side of an LP. The first two songs sound a lot like In the Court of the Crimson King, Bitches' Brew and A Love Supreme. I would almost say they are rock's answer to Miles Davis' Bitches' Brew. The last two tracks are pure and unique progressive rock songs.
This album is a real challenge to get through. With each song just under twenty minutes long, it's a test of endurance to stay focused for the entirety of each one, let alone for the whole album. Also, each song has many parts. Some parts are more structured than others. Some parts are more melodic, others are more dissonant.
I think, after having listened to this album five times, I find it interesting. But is it necessary to be patient and wait for something to become interesting? I think so, but I suspect there are a lot more people who would disagree.
I do think this album is worth listening to and I think it deserves to be on the 1001 Albums list. It demonstrates clearly a shift in rock music. Psychedelic rock is on the way out and progressive rock is on its way in. This album is not the first harbinger of that, but the last two songs are really fine example of what prog rock will become.
I think all four songs are good and I don't think any of the four songs stand out from the other three. They are all unique in their own way.
★★★★★★★★★☆
Tracks
- Pharaoh's Dance
- Bitches Brew
- Spanish Key
- John McLaughlin
- Miles Runs the Voodoo Down
- Sanctuary
Bitches Brew is a complex album. The music is mix of jazz and rock. At least that's what I'm told. I know that part of the fusion was adding electric instruments to the performance. However, I really can't pick out any particular kind of rock music in any of the pieces. It's entirely possible that there are rock features in the music and that I'm just not knowledgable enough to pick them out.
It's things like that which make this album complex. There are other things which are harder to figure out than trying to locate the rock influences in the music. At first, it seems the songs lack any real structure and that there is an absence of melody.
I've listened to this album many times and I have only just begun to discover the structure of these pieces. Melody is sparse, but it's there from time to time. The more musically inclined will have this all figured out in no time, but for more casual listeners, it will take patience.
That it takes many repeated listens for the causal listener to penetrate this album is large problem. Most people are not going to invest the time to do and so they won't even be able to appreciate this album for what it is. But is that the listeners fault? Should popular music be more accessible to listeners? Should Bitches Brew be considered popular music in the sense that it really is being marketed to the public-at-large?
I have spent the time to better appreciate this album and I do enjoy it very much. I actually bought this album because I was looking for music that had a rock and roll sound, but jammed the way jazz musicians jam rather than how rock musicians jam. I don't think that's the album that I bought and I was completely overwhelmed by this album when I first started listening to it. I always enjoyed it, but I never felt like I knew what i was listening to; I always felt at the mercy of the music. That's not the case anymore; however, that doesn't mean I understand in a detailed, sophisticated way what this album is about. Perhaps, I don't understand it all, but rather, I've become accustomed to it. That's completely possible.
Nevertheless, I think this album is worth listening to; owning it is another matter, entirely. This album does require effort and patience to be appreciated, though. I do think this album belongs on the 1001 Albums list. I don't think there's been an album or a musician more daring than Bitches Brew or Miles Davis.
Well, casual listeners will either love or hate this album in its entirety. I can't imagine a casual listener being specific at all. For me, every piece is amazing now that I have a better understanding.
★★★★★★★★★★
Tracks
- Peaches en Regalia
- Willie the Pimp
- Son of Mr. Green Genes
- Little Umbrellas
- The Gumbo Variations
- It Must Be a Camel
Hot Rats is an entertaining album. It's jazz and rock fused together. It's mainly an instrumental album, but Captain Beefheart does provide do some singing on Willie the Pimp. Other than that short side trek, this album jams from beginning to end.
I won't even pretend to critique the music or even describe it. However, I liked his style of jazz and I thought it went really well to his kind of rock and roll. Anyway, it sounds good and there's some good melodies.
This is an outstanding album. Frank Zappa's music is often to far out for people to get into, but this is a real accessible album. It's definitely a must to listen to and it's certainly would make a good addition to any serious album collection.
Although there are clear boundaries between songs, it's hard to notice once you've listened to it a few times. So really all the songs are stand outs. However, for me, Willie the Pimp and The Gumbo Variations were simply awesome.
★★★★★★★★★★
Tracks
- Introduction
- Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?
- Beginnings
- Questions 67 and 68
- Listen
- Poem 58
- Free Form Guitar
- South California Purples
- I'm a Man
- Prologue (August 29, 1968)
- Someday (August 29, 1968)
- Liberation
The Chicago Transit Authority is a lively album. The songs are catchy and full of horns. Despite the horns, there are some heavy songs and some wild, extended guitar solos.
Having horns in a band is always tricky. Jazz horn players are talented and serious musicians and it reflects in the music. The problem is that jazz isn't always accessible to the mainstream listener. So it's a danger to include horns in more accessible music like rock and roll. To people who know real horn playing, it may sound inauthentic or amateurish. This album doesn't suffer from that problem, but it's a bad influence on future bands and musicians who want to do the horn thing.
I usually associate Peter Cetera's cheesy pop music career with Chicago. With this album it's unfair. This is a solid hard rocking album. There's nothing cheesy or mainstream about the music. In fact, it was a ballsy move to release a debut album as a double. It's only problem is being a double. The album is too long because the songs are too long. They should have stuck with the jazz and hard rock labels and abandoned the progressive label.
All the songs are quite good, but Liberation becomes tiresome being that it's the last song on a double album and it's the longest song, running to almost fifteen minutes in length. The stand outs are Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?, Beginnings, Listen, Poem 58, South California Purples and I'm a Man.
★★★★★★★★☆☆
Tracks
- Variations on a Theme By Erik Satie
- Smiling Phases
- Sometimes in Winter
- More and More
- And When I Die
- God Bless the Child
- Spinning Wheel
- You've Made Me So Very Happy
- Blues - Part II
- Variations on a Theme By Erik Satie
Blood, Sweat and Tears is an exciting album. The songs are a mix of rock and jazz. Thus, the songs are also described as jazz fusion. The music is well done and singer, David Clayton-Thomas, has one of the best voices I have ever heard. His voice is deep and powerful. On And When I Die, I think he sounds like Ray Charles.
I like this album and I seem to like it more and more; however, I think it's uneven. It's a mix of stunning songs and not-so-interesting songs. I also find Variations on a Theme By Erik Satie awkward and unnecessary to the album, even though it sounds really good. I think the great songs are worth making an effort to listen to, but I don't think the album belongs on a list of must hear albums.
The stand out songs are: Smiling Phases, More and More, Spinning Wheel and You've Made Me So Very Happy.
★★★★★★★★☆☆
Tracks
- You Can All Join In
- Pearly Queen
- Don't Be Sad
- Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring
- Feelin' Alright
- Vagabond Virgin
- (Roamin' Thru the Gloamin' with) 40,000 Headmen
- Cryin' to Be Heard
- No Time to Live
- Means to an End
Traffic is a mature album. It's also dynamic and smart. The songs are rock and roll, but there's a more subtle and intricate structure to them. Traffic isn't the first rock and roll band to come up with this type of album. Certainly, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Pet Sounds come to mind, but I don't they achieved what this album has.
I believe this album signals a new and positive development in rock and roll. Channeling pure rock and roll energy is great, but controlling it and giving it more structure is about time. ('Structure' may not even be the right term. The right word might be 'polish'. It certainly isn't 'restraint'.) Of course, knowing the course of rock and roll, it's clear this direction rock and roll took led down some undesirable paths, too.
I've heard this album once or twice before and I thought it was good. Certainly, You Can All Join In and Pearly Queen are instantly likable. But the rest of the album took me by surprise this time. I do think the songs works well together musically, but I'm not sure about the lyrics. They seem to be all over the map. (Roamin' Thru the Gloamin' with) 40,000 Headmen is a good example. No matter, this album is definitely worth a listen and might even be worth owning.
All the songs are enjoyable, but the real stand outs are You Can All Join In, Pearly Queen, Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring, Vagabond Virgin, (Roamin' Thru the Gloamin' with) 40,000 Headmen and Cryin' to Be Heard.
★★★★★★★★★☆
