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	The Beatles - Revolver [UK]
	"Cornucopia"	2008-08-29
Released in August, 1966, at roughly the same time the Beatles stopped touring for good, "Revolver" remains amazing in its sheer variety. The songs are all over the map: Paul McCartney pays tribute to Motown with the horn-driven "Got To Get You Into My Life"; Ringo sings about the joys of living in a "Yellow Submarine" (later the basis for their delightful third motion picture); George Harrison expresses his Indian interests in "Love You To" (and delivers a jab to the Inland Revenue with "Taxman"); and John Lennon explores his own head with "She Said She Said" and the astonishing "Tomorrow Never Knows", in which his voice, filtered through a revolving Leslie speaker, is combined with backward-masking to create an eerie masterpiece, unlike anything heard from a pop group before, even the Fab Four themselves. This new, far more complex music could not have been successfully duplicated onstage, and the group thereafter left live performing behind. Now, the recording studio was their painter's canvas, and would remain so for the remainder of the group's existence.
	The Beatles - Rubber Soul [UK]
	"Leaving Beatlemania behind"	2008-08-26
Though they continued to tour until 1966, by late 1965 the Fab Four considered themselves primarily studio musicians, and the two great mid-period albums "Rubber Soul" and "Revolver", even in their abbreviated Capitol versions, reflect this. Gone are the simpler, crowd-pleasing rave-ups that had driven teenaged girls crazy just a short time earlier, replaced by meticulous studio craftsmanship. In its original Parlophone form (the CD reviewed here), "Rubber Soul", from December, 1965, contains fourteen originals, ranging from Paul McCartney's cheery "Drive My Car", to John Lennon's much more complex "Norwegian Wood" (about a brief tryst, a landmark song in the Beatle canon, as it deals with much more adult subject matter than the group had ever addressed before), to George Harrison's rather sour "Think For Yourself"; again, far removed from Beatlemania. Best known is McCartney's oft-covered "Michelle", a signature love song. The four lads from Liverpool had been the best-known pop group in the world for quite awhile. Now they settled down to crafting music.
	Beatles - Let It Be
	"Document of a divorce"	2008-08-10
Having been informed that they still owed United Artists a third motion picture (the cartoon "Yellow Submarine" didn't count), the Beatles assembled on a cold Twickenham Studios soundstage on the day after New Years', 1969, to begin work on "Get Back", a documentary of recording sessions, to be directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. They were expected to summon up magic on cue; it didn't happen. The Fab Four had grown far apart, both personally and professionally. The film well illustrates this: George Harrison bristles at Paul McCartney's lectures on how to perform; Yoko Ono sits in on the sessions, her presence unwanted; and the list goes on. Musically, John and Paul reach deep into their songbag for sparks of inspiration; they perform "One After 909", one of the earliest songs they wrote together, and the old Liverpool singalong "Maggie Mae". Paul gets poignant on "The Long And Winding Road" (an interestingly different version is available on "Let It Be...Naked") and the hymnlike "Let It Be", which eventually became the title for the project. John Lennon redid his "Across the Universe", an earlier version of which had been given to the World Wildlife Fund; this marks what is probably his strongest contribution to the project. John and Paul team up for "Two Of Us", and trade leads on "I've Got A Feeling". But the forced camaraderie ultimately proved less than successful. To jump-start its creative engine, the group went up onto the roof of their Apple headquarters building in Savile Row, where they had moved the sessions, and started jamming in an impromptu lunchtime concert featuring "Get Back", which was promptly ended by the police. Thoroughly disappointed with the results of "Let It Be", and having moved on to other things, the group, for the first time, deemed an entire project unworthy of release; the tapes were given to legendary producer Phil Spector to see if he could improve them. Spector, if his overdubbing is compared to the original material available on "Let It Be...Naked", actually did not alter the sessions all that much, though Paul McCartney in particular expressed much dissatisfaction with what he had done (e.g., the female chorus on "The Long And Winding Road"). Later in 1969 the Fab Four got back together to make a final proper album without the intrusion of motion-picture cameras--"Abbey Road". By the time "Let It Be" was finally released in the spring of 1970, the fatal litigation had begun; the Beatles were no more.
	Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed
	"Goodbye to the love crowd"	2008-08-07
Released just before the infamous Altamont debacle of December, 1969, "Let It Bleed" signals farewell to the peace-and-love Sixties in no uncertain terms. Once again, following "Beggars Banquet", an entire year went by until the release of the next Rolling Stones album. That year was 1969, and it had seen the death of Brian Jones, under suspicious circumstances, earlier that summer. Jones is present, posthumously, on "Bleed", participating in both the vicious "Midnight Rambler" (percussion), and "You Got The Silver" (autoharp), the latter track featuring Keith Richards' first solo lead vocal. Jones' replacement, the young Mick Taylor, was firmly in place, playing on "Live With Me" and "Country Honk"; though his relatively-unsullied image did not fit in with the rest of the group, he was probably the best guitarist the band ever had. In Jimmy Miller, who would work with them through 1973, the group also found its finest producer, a man who knew how to get the most out of their once-again-blues-based material. (With a cover of Robert Johnson's "Love In Vain", featuring Ry Cooder on mandolin, the band went straight to the motherlode.) "You Can't Always Get What You Want" is NOT blues, but, recorded with the London Bach Choir, it resonates, mournfully, as an end-of-an-era anthem. The Seventies lay ahead; the Stones, always bad boys and outlaws, were ready.
	The Rolling Stones - Aftermath [US]
	"Menacing"	2008-08-07
Even in its truncated U.S. version with its blurry cover shot, 1966's "Aftermath," the first Stones album of all-original material, is indispensible. The record is the dividing line between the group as scruffy young Brit blues-and-R&B cover artists, and what would eventually become the most powerful and significant rock band in the world. A large portion of the credit for this is due to Brian Jones, who is at his artistic peak here. Jones' strength was his uncanny skill on all sorts of instruments besides guitar, and his marimba on "Under My Thumb," and sitar on "Paint It, Black" give those two signature Stones tunes, in their original versions, their unique flavor. The material ("Flight 505," "Stupid Girl") was getting dark and misogynistic; it would get much, much darker in the next few years. The U.K. version (which this isn't, by the way) puts good songs like "Out of Time," "What To Do," and the single "Mother's Little Helper" (an anti-drug message from a band which later became synonymous with drug excess) in their proper context as far as the group's history is concerned.
	Beatles - The Beatles (The White Album)
	"Too much padding"	2008-08-06
The Fab Four always respected their record-buying public, and adhered to their own standards as the flagship pop group of the era. Their quality control was tight. They never released a live album, for example, because neither the quality of the performance nor the sound would have been up to snuff. The "Let It Be" tapes sat on the shelf for months because the group weren't happy with them. Parlophone, their U.K. label, didn't put out an entire album of material that had already been previously released until "A Collection of Beatles Oldies" came out in 1966, and the title of that record clearly indicated to buyers what they were getting. Nevertheless, "The Beatles," released in late 1968, clearly reveals a slip in quality from the top rung of the ladder. Many listeners give this the usual 5-star Beatle album rating, but I don't. Though high points abound ("Julia," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Blackbird," "Helter Skelter," et. al.), as the only double album the band released, it contains far too much half-baked screwing around in the studio. Paul McCartney's "Rocky Raccoon" (complete with bogus hillbilly accent) is one of his most overrated tunes, and no one can seriously argue that his "Why Don't We Do It In The Road" is anything approaching a decent song. For his part, John Lennon doesn't escape criticism, either; much of the record is taken up by his tape-recording experimentation ("Revolution 9"), which isn't songwriting, and really isn't that interesting, either, forty years later. The White Album reflects the growing fragmentation of the group; by this time, the individual Beatles were writing and recording separately from the others. Thus, the band's days were already numbered by the time this album came out.
	Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet
	"Return to basics"	2008-08-06
Following the bad year of 1967, which saw drug busts and the unsuccessful attempt to one-up the Beatles with "Their Satanic Majesties Request", the Rolling Stones needed to regroup. They did, spectacularly. The group made its fans wait an entire year for its next album, but when "Beggars Banquet" was finally released in December, 1968, it was evident from the very first track, the instantly-unforgettable samba "Sympathy For The Devil", that the wait was worthwhile. The material is strong, and utterly without the psychedelic affectations which had weakened the previous LP. As if to offset the references to the diabolic, "Banquet" includes a cover of the Reverend Robert Wilkins' Gospel parable "Prodigal Son". "Street Fighting Man" (though it backs off from advocating any type of actual revolution) is an anthem of the times, and "Jigsaw Puzzle" a cryptic little portrait of the late Sixties. "Parachute Woman" and "Stray Cat Blues" reflect the group's return to its bedrock blues base. In Jimmy Miller, who would work with them through 1973, the band found the best producer it would ever have. "Beggars Banquet", in short, marks the beginning of the roughly four-year period when the Stones were, both live and in the studio, the finest, most powerful rockers in the world.
	The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
	"Landmark"	2008-08-05
From its elaborate cover (the most expensive in LP history), to its printed inner-sleeve lyrics, to its (in the original LP issue, anyway) toy insignia cutouts, to its complete lack of 45-r.p.m. singles, "Sgt. Pepper", from the summer of 1967, was groundbreaking in many ways. The Beatles, already the most famous musical entity in the world, had retreated from touring the previous year and devoted themselves to the recording studio full-time. This was the result. The idea of an alter-ego to the group was originally Paul McCartney's; the other Beatles joined in the concept, creating a loose framework for a wide variety of material. Paul indulged his penchant for music hall ditties with "When I'm Sixty-Four"; John Lennon got both ethereal, with "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds", and earthy, in "Good Morning, Good Morning"; George Harrison's Indian absorption is reflected in "Within You, Without You"; and Ringo, who always got at least one song to sing, sallies forth bravely as Billy Shears with a little help from his friends. It should be noted that "Pepper" was produced with the aid of hallucinogens, so the record, given its brilliance, can't really be used as an anti-drug argument. The rock album was born.
	Beatles - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
	"Landmark"	2008-08-05
From its elaborate cover (the most expensive in LP history), to its printed inner-sleeve lyrics, to its (in the original LP issue, anyway) toy insignia cutouts, to its complete lack of 45-r.p.m. singles, "Sgt. Pepper", from the summer of 1967, was groundbreaking in many ways. The Beatles, already the most famous musical entity in the world, had retreated from touring the previous year and devoted themselves to the recording studio full-time. This was the result. The idea of an alter-ego to the group was originally Paul McCartney's; the other Beatles joined in the concept, creating a loose framework for a wide variety of material. Paul indulged his penchant for music hall ditties with "When I'm Sixty-Four"; John Lennon got both ethereal, with "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds", and earthy, in "Good Morning, Good Morning"; George Harrison's Indian absorption is reflected in "Within You Without You"; and Ringo, who always got at least one song to sing, sallies forth bravely as Billy Shears with a little help from his friends. It should be noted that "Pepper" was produced with the aid of hallucinogens, so the record, given its brilliance, can't really be used as an anti-drug argument. The rock album was born.
	The Yardbirds - Roger the Engineer
	"The birth of hard rock"	2008-07-31
Hard rock, as it began in the late Sixties, basically emanates from the Brits--having thoroughly absorbed our Yank blues, R&B, and early rock and roll over the previous few years, and then combining it with psychedelia, young white English blokes (as well as a black American expatriate by the name of Hendrix) began upping the wattage and experimenting at earsplitting levels. The Yardbirds, featuring at various times Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page, were perhaps the most important band in rock history, in guitarist terms, and their back catalogue is, thankfully, back in print. 1966's "Roger The Engineer" (formal title: "The Yardbirds"), named for recording engineer Roger Cameron, is mid-period for the band and features Jeff Beck, though future lead guitarist-bandleader Jimmy Page is also on the record ("Happenings Ten Years Time Ago", a signature early-psychedelic track featuring studio wizardry which must have been state-of-the art for the time). "Happenings" and "Over, Under, Sideways, Down" are psychedelic rock, not blues--the band had changed a great deal from the group which had recorded with Sonny Boy Williamson just a few years earlier. There are no cover versions here. This is where hard rock started.
	The Beatles - Abbey Road
	"Swan song"	2008-07-30
Following the relative failure of the "Let It Be" project, John, Paul, George, and Ringo were able to get back together to make music one last time, and named their final record, released in the fall of 1969, for the studios in which they had done all their recording--somehow, an appropriate gesture. The late George Harrison's songwriting was peaking just as the Fab Four were disintegrating as a group--he contributed the album's two best songs, and, with "Something," finally got the A-side of a single. The second side's medley is a masterful interweaving of varied song fragments, none really strong enough to stand on its own, into a rich musical tapestry--like master chefs creating a gourmet meal out of leftovers in the refrigerator. "Her Majesty" is a brief anticlimax; the group, knowing it was dying, didn't want anyone crying at the end. Down came the curtain.
	Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
	"Difficult to overrate"	2008-07-29
It's really difficult to overrate 1966's "Pet Sounds". Aside from its influence on other musicians ("God Only Knows" spurred on Paul McCartney, for example, in the game of one-upmanship between the Beatles and the Beach Boys during the late '60s), it remains, quite simply, one of the most enjoyable pop albums ever released--like your favorite cold beverage on a very hot day. Even the two instrumentals, "Let's Go Away For Awhile" and "Pet Sounds", fit into the sequencing perfectly. The other Boys may not have grasped exactly where Brian Wilson's head was at (there's not a single car or surfing song on the entire record), but they deliver vocally--listen to Carl Wilson's lead on "God Only Knows", and Mike Love's backing on "Wouldn't It Be Nice." (If you want to spend a few more bucks, buy the "Pet Sounds Sessions" box, which contains outtakes demonstrating Brian's total control in the studio.) Not only the best album by this vital group, but, quite simply, one of the very best pop albums ever made.
	Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
	"As good as they got"	2008-07-28
For my money, the Stones never put out a better album than 1971's "Sticky Fingers". I know, I know, 1968's "Beggar's Banquet" and 1972's "Exile On Main Street" have their devotees, but "Sticky Fingers" is the World's Greatest Rock And Roll Band at its absolute zenith in the studio, with no padding. Though he didn't really fit the group's aesthetic, Mick Taylor was, technically, the best guitarist the band ever had, and helped return them to their blues base after Brian Jones' experimentation. And, in my opinion, Jimmy Miller was the best producer to ever work with them. The record kicks off with the filthy "Brown Sugar," the groups best Seventies single, and continues from strength to strength. "Moonlight Mile" is ravaged and lovely, as is "Wild Horses," probably the best ballad Jagger and Richards ever wrote. The Stones were at their nastiest on "Bitch" and "Can't You Hear Me Knocking," and don't forget "Tumbling Dice." You need this one. Absolutely.
	The Beatles - The Beatles (The White Album)
	"Too much padding"	2008-07-26
The Fab Four always respected their record-buying public, and adhered to their own standards as the flagship pop group of the era. Their quality control was tight. They never released a live album, for example, because neither the quality of the performance nor the sound would have been up to snuff. The "Let It Be" tapes sat on the shelf for months because the group weren't happy with them. Parlophone, their U.K. label, didn't put out an entire album of material that had been previously released until "A Collection of Beatles Oldies" came out in 1966, and the title of that record clearly indicated to buyers what they were getting. Nevertheless, "The Beatles," released in late 1968, clearly reveals a slip in quality from the top rung of the ladder. Many listeners give this the usual 5-star Beatle album rating, but I don't. Though high points abound ("Julia," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Blackbird," "Helter Skelter," et. al.), as the only double album the band released, it contains far too much half-baked screwing around in the studio. Paul McCartney's "Rocky Raccoon" is one of his most overrated tunes, and no one can seriously argue that his "Why Don't We Do It In The Road" is anything approaching a decent song. For his part, John Lennon doesn't escape criticism, either; much of the record is taken up by his tape-recording experimentation ("Revolution 9"), which isn't songwriting, and really isn't that interesting, either, forty years later. The White Album reflects the growing fragmentation of the group; by this time, the individual Beatles were writing and recording separately from the others. Thus, the band's days were already numbered by the time this album came out.
	MC5 - Kick Out the Jams
	"Legendary"	2008-07-26
This is the '90s CD reissue of this iconic band's 1969 debut on Elektra, with liner notes by the late Rob Tyner, the group's vocalist. Nobody, but nobody, rocked harder than the Five in the late '60s, and this album, recorded live on Halloween, 1968, at Detroit's Grande Ballroom, proves it. The group was actually politically active, too, which set them apart from, say, the West Coast psychedelic bands of the same period. "Come Together" is indescribably chaotic. These guys make fellow Detroiter Ted Nugent sound like Lawrence Welk. The group is long gone, having succumbed to the usual, but its name is still invoked with a certain amount of awe all these years later. This record demonstrates why.
	Beatles - White Album
	"Too much padding"	2008-07-26
The Fab Four always respected their record-buying public, and adhered to their own standards as the flagship pop group of the era. Their quality control was tight. They never released a live album, for example, because neither the quality of the performance nor the sound would have been up to snuff. The "Let It Be" tapes sat on the shelf for months because the group weren't happy with them. Parlophone, their U.K. label, didn't put out an entire album of material that had already been previously released until "A Collection of Beatles Oldies" came out in 1966, and the title of that record clearly indicated to buyers what they were getting. Nevertheless, "The Beatles," released in late 1968, clearly reveals a slip in quality from the top rung of the ladder. Many listeners give this the usual 5-star Beatle album rating, but I don't. Though high points abound ("Julia," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Blackbird," "Helter Skelter," et. al.), as the only double album the band released, it contains far too much half-baked screwing around in the studio. Paul McCartney's "Rocky Raccoon" (complete with bogus hillbilly accent) is one of his most overrated tunes, and no one can seriously argue that his "Why Don't We Do It In The Road" is anything approaching a decent song. For his part, John Lennon doesn't escape criticism, either; much of the record is taken up by his tape-recording experimentation ("Revolution 9"), which isn't songwriting, and really isn't that interesting, either, forty years later. The White Album reflects the growing fragmentation of the group; by this time, the individual Beatles were writing and recording separately from the others. Thus, the band's days were already numbered by the time this album came out.
	Rolling Stones - Aftermath
	"Menacing"	2008-07-26
Even in its truncated U.S. version with its blurry cover shot, 1966's "Aftermath," the first Stones album of all-original material, is indispensible. The record is the dividing line between the group as scruffy young Brit blues-and-R&B cover artists, and what would eventually become the most powerful and significant rock band in the world. A large portion of the credit for this is due to Brian Jones, who is at his artistic peak here. Jones' strength was his uncanny skill on all sorts of instruments besides guitar, and his marimba on "Under My Thumb," and sitar on "Paint It, Black" give those two signature Stones tunes, in their original versions, their unique flavor. The material ("Flight 505," "Stupid Girl") was getting dark and misogynistic; it would get much, much darker in the next few years. The U.K. version (which this isn't, by the way) puts good songs like "Out of Time," "What To Do," and the single "Mother's Little Helper" (an anti-drug message from a band which later became synonymous with drug excess) in their proper context as far as the group's history is concerned.
	The Time Tunnel Vol. 1
	"TV memories"	2008-05-24
I remember this fondly. It ran on Friday nights on ABC, for a single season, in 1966-67. I was in second grade, and there was no school the next day, so I could stay up and watch. (Interesting side note--the night before the first episode aired on September 9, 1966, another science-fiction show debuted on NBC--Star Trek.) The show itself was pretty corny, and full of inconsistencies--Doug and Tony had no qualms about changing history with their actions in the past, which would have screwed up everything for the future. The pilot episode sports an electric-bulb chandelier aboard the Titanic in 1912! Still, to a seven-year-old, great stuff.