Urban75 Album of the Year 1963

[Knotted]

Well I recon this is a good un. We have that rare Dylan period after he got good and before he went bad . First two Beatles albums which... well OK. Something extraordinary from Charles Mingus and various bluegrass, folk, bossa nova, wall of sound soul-pop and lots and lots of hard/post bop. Rate your music says. Oh and Roy Orbison being magnificent.

Send me a list. With the format Artist - Album (or if necessary Performer [Composer] - Album). Any length of list is fine. Best at the top. No compilations, no EP's. Live albums are fine. Archival albums are also fine but it's release date not recording date that counts. You have the rest of June to get it together.

 

[andysays]

Some of these threads I've been struggling to find 10 albums to vote for, TBH, but just looking at the first page of the RYM chart I think I will struggle to limit myself to 20...

 

[Indeliblelink]

What's the deal with Raymond Scott's Soothing Sounds for Baby trilogy? Wikipedia has it as 1962, RYM as '63 and Discogs says '64.

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Obviously I'm going to ignore Wikipedia as we've done '62.

 

[Knotted]

What's the deal with Raymond Scott's Soothing Sounds for Baby trilogy? Wikipedia has it as 1962, RYM as '63 and Discogs says '64.

​

Obviously I'm going to ignore Wikipedia as we've done '62.

I'll look into it. Fantastic stuff though.

 

[Knotted]

Sandy Bull's Fantasias for Guitar and Banjo is my pick. Very difficult to pin point his style and technique as a guitar/banjo/oud player. All solo all acoustic, no frippery. Sort of obliquely Americana but not steeped in it like John Fahey, but steeped in all sorts of eastern and classical styles. He covers bleedin' Carmina Burana ferpityssake but it's transformed and it makes a peculiar sense.

 

[Knotted]

I'm going to rule Soothing Sounds for Baby as a 1964 release if probably recorded in 1963 (Wikipedia has a citation saying that it was recorded in 1963 contradicting it's own 1962 release claim so I think we can rule that out as a mistake). There's an MA thesis here on Raymond Scott that sites it as a 1964 release and I guess that's been well researched. Looking at images of the back covers there are no dates on them so difficult to tell.

I'm not 100% clear if all three volumes were released separately but if you want to vote for them next year you can put them together as one release.

 

[Spandex]

No compilations

Bah humbug. There goes the best Xmas album of them all...

 

[Knotted]

Sorry Spandex

 

[Indeliblelink]

I'm going to rule Soothing Sounds for Baby as a 1964 release if probably recorded in 1963 (Wikipedia has a citation saying that it was recorded in 1963 contradicting it's own 1962 release claim so I think we can rule that out as a mistake). There's an MA thesis here on Raymond Scott that sites it as a 1964 release and I guess that's been well researched. Looking at images of the back covers there are no dates on them so difficult to tell.

I'm not 100% clear if all three volumes were released separately but if you want to vote for them next year you can put them together as one release.

OK will save till next year. The details in that youtube clip I posted above have it as a very precise release date of 1964-06-01

 

[andysays]

Bah humbug. There goes the best Xmas album of them all...

The "no compilations" rule we've operated before is that compilations of previously released material aren't allowed, but albums of stuff by various artists which haven't been released before and which were recorded specifically to be part of a compilation* are allowed.

I don't know the recording and release history of this album, but it might come into this category...

ETA from reading the wiki entry, it looks like it was recorded as one album, rather than being a collection of previously released material

* one example I remember is No New York, which included material by four different artists

 

[Spandex]

Peak surf!

Three Beach Boys albums

The Surfaris

The Ventures

The Chantays

The Lively Ones

Dick Dale & his Del-Tones

and, of course, everybody knows about the bird...

 

[Spandex]

The "no compilations" rule we've operated before is that compilations of previously released material aren't allowed, but albums of stuff by various artists which haven't been released before and which were recorded specifically to be part of a compilation* are allowed.

I don't know the recording and release history of this album, but it might come into this category...

ETA from reading the wiki entry, it looks like it was recorded as one album, rather than being a collection of previously released material

* one example I remember is No New York, which included material by four different artists

It's a moveable rule, but if I can't vote for the Phil Spector Christmas album (I still hear these tunes every Xmas; they've become as traditional as a tree or tinsel), there's plenty more albums to vote for this year

 

[Knotted]

The "no compilations" rule we've operated before is that compilations of previously released material aren't allowed, but albums of stuff by various artists which haven't been released before and which were recorded specifically to be part of a compilation* are allowsed.

I don't know the recording and release history of this album, but it might come into this category...

ETA from reading the wiki entry, it looks like it was recorded as one album, rather than being a collection of previously released material

* one example I remember is No New York, which included material by four different artists

Yes I actually had the impression that it was all material released for that album. Basically various artists knocking together some christmas tunes for the christmas album. If so then it's not a compilation under the compilation rule.

 

[The39thStep]

Peruvian surf , rock n roll outfit Los Incas Modernos

 

[The39thStep]

The Viceroys - The Viceroys At Granny's Pad

There's a great comment below the video "When I was a kid my folks would have "Come as You Are " parties and mix up a pitcher of Martinis . They played this album a lot"

 

[Spandex]

Ye Ye was taking off in France. The sound - French language pop, often covers of rock'n'roll songs - developed from the late 50s, but the term was first used in 1962 to describe Françoise Hardy singing "yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah" on La fille avec toi and popularised in July 1963 in an article by Edgar Morin in Le Monde.

It ranges from the sublime:

Françoise Hardy from her second self titled album


to the ridiculous:

Sheila - Le Sifflet des Copains

(one for the Songs with Whistling thread)

Special mention to Sylvie Vartan for demonstrating on her Twiste Et Chante album what every French person knows in their heart: that French is the true lingua franca of pop music:

 

[Spandex]

Live albums are fine.

 

[Spandex]

Thanks to Decca record's West African Series we have some African albums for '63. Some of these tracks found their way onto the playlists in early mod clubs in the UK, before 'mod' came the mean The Who and Paul Weller. African music was there in the UK in the early 60s - Fela Kuti was studying in London before returning to Nigeria in 1963, playing with his Koola Lobitos band (who didn't record anything in this incarnation of the band).

The Melody Aces' Favourite Melodies is excellent. Their mix of cha cha, highlife and merengue sounding quite like early ska. Though the best thing on the album is Asaw Fofor:


E.T. Mensah And His Tempos Band released King Of The High Lifes*. Good luck finding the whole album to listen to, but this is on it, proper pure highlife music:


Globemasters Dance Band released The Magnificent Highlifes*


There were also albums by Solomon Ilori And His Afro-Drum Ensemble (African High Life) and Olatunji And His Drums Of Passion (High Life!), released on US labels. These both westernised the music for the jazz market. The Solomon Ilori album is on Blue Note and has that Blue Note jazz sound going on with the highlife. The Olatunji album features latin jazz/soul/salsa legend Ray Barretto.

* both these albums are on 10" format. I noticed in the 1953 thread that there seemed to be a lot of 10" albums. It seems that during the shift from 78rpm shellac records to 45 and 33 (and 16rpm for a bit, though that never took off) vinyl records there was some concern amongst record labels that people would find 12" records too big, so there were a lot of 10" albums released, the same size as the familiar 78s - obviously history shows that people were fine with 12"s and the 10" album died out, except for the occasional EP/mini-album.

 

[Spandex]

Drop the hammer, wind up the stuffer and run for tin! It's the Del-fi Hot Rod Trilogy! Three albums of twangy guitar, driving drums, some squawking sax and revving car engine sound effects.

All three bands are a simlar line up of members of 60s session musicians The Wrecking Crew, sax courtesy of Plas Johnson who more famously played The Pink Panther Theme in '63.

It's basically more surf rock, only hot rod themed. Hotrodders' Choice is probably best, but they're all great.

 

[The39thStep]

Sort of band that should be on Happy Days

The Legends - Let Loose album

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[ska invita]

this is from 1962 unfortunately but deserves a hearing - the most Tear Down Babylon bit of jazz from this era Ive ever heard
Mingus going punk on the bass

 

[zahir]

 

[Spandex]

In 1962 Herbie Hancock recorded Watermelon Man. Good track, but it could've stayed a little known jazz classic had Hancock not filled in for Chick Coera when he left Mongo Santamaria's band. Hancock played Santamaria the tune who recorded a shorter latinised version, which became a huge hit in 1963, causing the original to do some business too. The royalties payed Hancock's bills for the next four or five years.



The mix of jazz, soul and Latin sounds was, along with Ray Barretto's El Watusi (another big hit in '63), the inspiration for boogaloo, which was big later in the 60s. The Mongo Santamaria album that followed, also called Watermelon Man, is well worth checking.

 

[Spandex]

La Lupe was a well known singer in turn of the decade Cuba. Her lively performances - in which she would laugh wildly, cry, swear at the audience, bite and scratch herself, hit people with her shoes, lift her skirts, sit on people in the audience and moan and groan orgasmically - were controversial at the time. In 1962 her act was declared anti-revolutionary by the authorities and she was exiled to Mexico. She relocated to New York where well known Cuban singer Celia Cruz introduced her to Mongo Santamaria. He recorded an album, Mongo Introduces La Lupe, with her and she became a star. In 1964 Susan Sontag cited La Lupe as one of the 17 entries that defined "camp" in her landmark essay, Notes on Camp.



Good album, doesn't reach the heights of her later career and she only sings on 5 of the 9 tracks. Unfortunately, the album doesn't include her 1963 version of Fever, which is as good an introduction to La Lupe as you could hope for:

 

[zahir]

 

[zahir]

 

[zahir]

 

[Sasaferrato]

Johnny Cash - Blood Sweat and Tears.

 

[zahir]

 

[Spandex]

Lee Hazelwood's debut album

An accidental concept album about the fictional town of Trouble. "Trouble is little and it’s lonesome, you won’t find it on any map, but you can take three steps in any direction and you’re there. Trouble, like most all little towns, has some people who are bad all the time... and it has some people who are good all the time. But most of the people are good and bad most of the time." (read that quote in Hazelwood's deep Texan drawl for full effect).

In August 1968 there was serious talk of a television show based on the album. Hazelwood wrote a script for a proposed weekly half- hour series called Trouble Is a Lonesome Town that, sadly, never made it to air.