008. Vince Guaraldi Trio - A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)




My favorite Christmas album. My favorite jazz album. My favorite Vince Guaraldi album. My favorite Peanuts-related album. Probably one of my top ten albums period.

I was already a fan of the comic strip. I was already a fan of the few television specials I'd seen (most of the holiday ones). But every year, when we went to my aunt and uncle's for Christmas, my aunt would put on this album. At first, I just liked it because of 'Linus And Lucy'. That song is classic. Inevitably, I'd pay attention to that one and listen to the rest in the background. Once the album ended, I'd put on the only other album they owned that I liked listening to -- The Simpsons Sing The Blues.

But it continued. Every year A Charlie Brown Christmas would play at some point at my aunt and uncle's around Christmas. As I got older, I began to appreciate the rest of the album as much as L&L. I finally bought a copy for myself when I was fifteen or sixteen.

It made me enjoy the Peanuts television specials that much more, as I now absorbed the background music along with the dialogue and art. It led me to looking into more Vince Guaraldi stuff which led me into more jazz which led to my introduction to Dave Brubeck.

I am obsessed with Christmas. I am obsessed with music. I own maybe five or six other proper Christmas albums, on top of the three or four mixes I make each year. This one still towers over all the rest.

There's a couple of reasons for this. Up until around 1964-1965 it wasn't common at all for rock acts to write their own songs, a situation carried over from the pre-rock era. Even acts that did write some of their own music (Chuck Berry or Buddy Holly) didn't record only their own songs.

Also, singles were the important thing back then; albums were almost afterthoughts, a couple of singles plus filler. Three of the first four Beatle albums are almost half covers. But the success of the Beatles (and Dylan and some others), given their insistance on releasing only Lennon-McCartney originals as singles, not only showed the record companies and producers that artist originals could be hits, but it gave other bands the impetus to write their own stuff.

Most of the classic rock bands who started out in 1963 through 1965 have early albums that mix covers and originals--the Who, Kinks, Stones, etc. Even Dylan's and Simon & Garfunkel's first albums were almost all covers, the folk scene operating under it's own strictures on original songwriting in the early days.

By 1966 or so, you stopped seeing so many covers on debut albums; in the three years since the start of the British Invasion, the attitude had changed among bands and rock fans--artists who wrote their own material were more real, man.

009. The Rolling Stones - Aftermath (1966)




This album is a step in the right direction. Songs like 'Under My Thumb' are bonafide classics. However, still not even close to being one of my favorites by them. 'Lady Jane' sounds too much like the Beatles for me and the last track ('Going Home') just plain sucks.

010. The Rolling Stones - Between The Buttons (1967)




This is my favorite Stones record. It was one of the first I bought, based on the inclusion of some of my favorites by them -- Ruby Tuesday, She Smiled Sweetly, Miss Amanda Jones. But the album ended up creating even more favorites for me. I can't listen to this disc without walking around singing "Connection" for days to come.

This marks the high point of their career for me. Not as bluesy as their earlier stuff and not as country as the stuff to come. Just the rock.

Most amazingly awesomely geeky thing I have any heard of anyone doing.

yes!

What happens if you buy something new in this process?

Does that mean you can't listen to it until that year?
What if you already passed the year, does that mean you can't listen it until album 413?

Damn...I wish I had the time to do this...

Oh yeah, and Between the Buttons kicks ass.

Strange that you "can't stand" The Beatles, then. Have you heard much by The Kinks?

Ah, whatever. Carry on.

I'm not listening selectively to just this countdown. I've been listening to other albums here and there when I feel like it. I'm just tracking these ones.

And, if I do buy an album from the '60s once I'm already on the '80s, then it won't get a write-up until the whole thing's done. Then it'll get an entry as a post-script appendix to the list.

Yeah, I love what I've heard of the Kinks too.

Doesn't make sense? So be it, that's just how it is.

011. The Velvet Underground & Nico - The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967)




I'm disappointed that I don't have much of a story behind this one. You hear about all these people who hear it and it changes their life. Musicians especially, who completely change the way they were doing things after this. That never happened for me. I heard 'Heroin' on a compilation, liked it, and bought this album. Even today, it still doesn't blow me away and it doesn't seem very experimental or far-out or mind-blowing. It just feels like a good pop/rock album. But that's more than enough.

012. The Rolling Stones - Flowers (1967)




When I first decided to start buying the Stones SACD remasters, I had to make the decision as to whether to get the US or UK versions. Why they didn't just combine them and release some definitive versions of the early albums is beyond me. However, after some research, I discovered that I was better off getting the US versions. There were only a small handful of tracks I would miss out on then, as opposed to the UK versions where I'd miss a lot.

Flowers fills in some of the gaps as it's a US compilation compiling a lot of UK-only tracks. Considering it's a compilation, it's pretty good. I'd buy it simply so that I have a copy of 'Mother's Little Helper'.

This is still the period where I love almost everything they release. Even with a couple of repeates between this and Between The Buttons, this is still a pretty great compilation.

013. Nico - Chelsea Girl (1967)




I'll admit I hadn't hear any of Nico's solo stuff until The Royal Tenenbaums. But I loved the two tracks -- The Fairest Of The Seasons, These Days -- that Mark Mothersbaugh used in the film. And I had always loved her voice on the first VU record.

When I finally bought this album, I was quite thrilled. Aside from a couple of more frantic/out there songs, it's really solid. Songs like "I'll Keep It With Mine" still slay me every time.

Unfortunately, it's got a real wintery feel to it so I have trouble listening to it any time other than those five months.

move to northern MN. you could listen to it 9 months a year.

"It Was a Pleasure Then" is one of my favorite songs ever ever ever. But yeah, it's certainly out there compared to the rest of the album.

Incidentally, if you're considering looking into other Nico albums, be aware that none of it sounds like Chelsea Girl. It's more like Nico pawing seasickly at a harmonium over lopsided John Cale orchestrations. Which is meant as a compliment.

I have tried a few tracks off her second album and I can't say that I liked it much. In fact, I think I ended up deleting them.

014. The Rolling Stones - Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967)




I've heard this album takes a lot of flack. Maybe it's rightly so. They were just jumping on the bandwagon with this one, right? Still, this album isn't that bad. Okay, songs like the "Sing This All Together" reprise are head-scratchers. But "2000 Man" and "She's A Rainbow" are two of my favorite songs by them period.

You can probably do worse than this album. I know I can.

one of my all time favorite album covers.

015. The Who - Sell Out (1967)




If I had to pick one album out of my entire collection on a search for something that "rocked", this would be it. Nothing else rocks like this. Fuck anyone who thinks they do.

This album is everything at once -- loud, hard, soft, beautiful, clever, funny, imaginative, and unique. The album artwork ranks up there as some of my favorite ever. The music is stellar. The ads are great and, somehow, don't take away from the rest of the songs.

My only real complaint is with the remaster, re-release that I have. With the bonus tracks slapped onto the end, it ruins the flow and makes the album feel like it's dragging on. However that's a minor complaint at best.

Dread Zeppelin. Reggae covers of (mostly) Led Zeppelin tunes, with an Elvis impersonator lead singer. Awesome stuff (especially live).

016. The Free Design - Kites Are Fun (1967)




This album astonished me when I heard it. I bought it on the strength of the title track. I had heard that and thought it was so great. Lines like "'cause mom and dad and uncle bill don't realise, kites are fun" win me over every time.

But the rest of the album is just as amazing. "The Proper Ornaments" kills me. They way they rewrite "The 59th Street Bridge Song" surprises me. And the vocals on the whole thing are gorgeous.

Since hearing this, I've looked into a ton of other '60s sunshine pop but very little of it comes even close to this.

017. Van Morrison - Astral Weeks (1968)




Something about this reminds me of summers as a kid in Toronto, piling into the station wagon and driving down to Hyde Park. Walking around and going to the kids' haircutting place down there and walking by the lake going to the playground.

But we never had this album as a kid. My dad owned Moondance but not this one and he didn't listen to MD all that often. I think it's just Van's voice. I'm sure "Brown-Eyed Girl" played on the radio all the time then so maybe that's what it is.

This is a really good album but the memories are even better.

018. The Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet (1968)




This is the period where I really start to stop liking the Stones. The album opens with one of the few Stones songs I knew in my youth. "Sympathy For The Devil" It's one of those songs that they play over and over all the time on classic rock radio. It's one of the reasons I avoided actively listening to the band for a long time.

Many times I'll only know one song by an artist and it'll be enough for me not to want to delve any further. See also: The Smiths.

The rest of the album is pretty country. In a bad way. I enjoy about three songs off this entire album -- Street Fighting Man, Factory Girl, and Salt Of The Earth. The rest of it I could gladly avoid.

Parts of "Dear Doctor" actually make me laugh out loud. And maybe it's a sixties thing that I was born too late to "get", but the cover art is really bad.

019. Vince Guaraldi - Oh, Good Grief! (1968)




The third album of Vince Guaraldi-penned Peanuts music. This is kind of an odds and ends compilation of tunes from random Peanuts specials which differentiates it from the last two which were specific soundtracks to individual episodes.

This can't be expected to hold up as well as the other two then, obviously, and it doesn't really. The songs seem to have become less jazz songs on their own and more background music, which shouldn't really be a shot. That's what it was intended as. It's still a light, enjoyable album. It just feels like the age demographic is skewed a bit younger than in the past.

19 albums in 17 days. That's not that great. Could've been better if I didn't work more.

Regardless, this is a project that I will now carry through right through to the bitter end. Even if I don't get a single reply in the remainder of this thread, I have to see it out now just to spite the naysayers back on page one.