Saturday, March 6, 2010

1965

Aretha Franklin:


The Staple Singers:


Miriam Makeba: 


Doc Watson:


The Kinks:


The Zombies:


The Byrds:


The Rolling Stones:


The Who:


The Sonics:


The Miracles:


Arthur Lee in the American Four:


The Animals:


The Beatles:


The Beach Boys:


The Mamas and the Papas:


The Crescendos: Silver Threads and Golden Needles


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11 comments:

David Cranmer said...

What a great year of music. My favorite here is UNDER ASSISTANT by the Stones.

mybillcrider said...

A great year in a lot of ways, at least for me.

Richard Robinson said...

Wow. I'd just gotten out of the Army and was headed off to college. You didn't pick my favorite songs from these albums, but they all brought back memories. Thanks, Todd!

Todd Mason said...

You're quite welcome, Rick, and `striving for the more obscure tracks (in all but the Sonics, Miracles and M&P's cases...the latter didn't release too much by 1965), and while it's essentially impossible to find an obscure Beatles track after 35 years of stations failing (yet others trying again) with All-Beatles formats, "Think for Yourself" was the first unfamiliar song I really cottoned to when I finally started listening to Beatles albums).

I cheated a bit with Watson...I'm not sure when this version of "Shady Grove" was recorded or released...and if one could actually hear a copy of Aretha Franklin's YEAH, one of the last of her CBS albums, without paying the Earth for the privilege (I'm sure a gray-at-best-market download is awaiting us), I might've taken another track from that fake-"concert" album (the fake effects being part of the reason Franklin was happy to leave CBS)...but I like all these.

Gee, and only 45 years ago...making singles a thing of resonance here, I suppose...a year in which I learned to eat things other than breast milk and to babble (still haven't stopped) and, family legend is quite firm in this, I redecorated a convenient wall with a certain handy product on one dull but creative afternoon in my wall-adjacent crib. I think nonetheless that I might've traded with you, Bill, or you, Rick, in retrospect...though not with Malcolm Shabazz.

David, as you might guess, I like 'em all, but the Stones' ripping off that elderly blues tune for the purposes of mocking A&R people is pretty bouncy.

Todd Mason said...

Somehow, I erased the part of the sentence in that comment where I continued to write, "Thanks for all of your comments, and I strove for..."

The Crescendos song can't be embedded, `I improvised...

Todd Mason said...

I see that since the last time I checked, a year or so back, Sony has finally either rerleased or OK'd someone else to rerelease Aretha Frankln's YEAH on CD...so I will be buying (at that point, you could pay forty bucks or more for the Japanese or European imports, or you were SOL).

C. Margery Kempe said...

One of those watershed years in pop music -- so many wonderful things happening, so many explosions occurring -- and while I might give the nod to '66 (and Revolver) as the best, who cares? Fan-damn-tastic. The Crescendos deserve a whole feature film with bonus documentary on the second disc. Yeah. Add that to the TBW pile...

C. Margery Kempe said...

I should add that I don't really have any memory of 1965 although certainly alive at the time. I was a tow-headed hedonist wild girl with fat cheeks. I was having fun and living in the moment. I remember the music though.

[word verification: 'tersily' -- HA HA HA!]

Todd Mason said...

1965 struck me as one to do because of a couple of these songs in particular, and because of the non-round (spiky? pentagonal?) number of 45 years ago...the 45rpm notion struck me consciously, at least, only later.

Yep, the Crescendos (of Singapore) have the tragedy, the swing, and even the interesting choices of covers with their occasional originals. Very version of "Silver Threads and Golden Needles" isn't quite up to the Springfields' (nor is any other Springfields song), but has its own charm.

TMason said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKofdthA9yg

for the Springfields' cover (the first top-30 US chart hit by a British pop/folk band, reportedly...though I would've guessed Lonnie Donegan if not a big band or two might've come ahead of them...

(Hit the link on my name.)

Todd Mason said...

As it happens, the Doc Watson is from his 1968 album GOOD DEAL! DOC WATSON IN NASHVILLE...finally bestirred myself to confirm. Since it could've been from his 1962 album as well, I indulged in an averaging scheme 7 years ago...