The 500 = #289 - Something Else - The Kinks

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #289

Album Title: Something Else

Artist: The Kinks

Genre: Baroque Pop, Music Hall, R&B

Recorded: Pye Studios, London, UK

Released: September, 1967

My age at release: 2

How familiar was I with it before this week: One Song

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, dropping to #478 (since 2012)

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Waterloo Sunset

For me, my friends and, I suspect, many people of my age bracket, our first exposure to The Kinks was by way of Van Halen’s version of You Really Got Me.

I was also familiar with the cheeky 1970 hit, Lola, by The Kinks –a somewhat controversial song which chronicled a romantic encounter in Soho, London, between a man and a trans-woman. Over the years, I have heard a handful of Kinks songs, with A Dedicated Follower of Fashion being my favourite. However, I never purchased a Kinks record and, until recently, had never listened to a Kinks album in its entirety.

The English band was founded by brothers Ray and Dave Davies while still in high school. Ray was 18 and Dave was only 15 when they began performing at school dances under the names The Ray Davis Quintet, The Bo-Weevils, The Ramrods and The Ravens.

The Davies line-up temporarily featured a 17-year-old Rod Stewart on vocals before he went on to form his own group, Rod Stewart and The Moonrakers, who became a local rival for pub gigs in the North London region. By 1964, the group comprised the Davies brothers (guitars and vocals), Peter Quaife (bass) and Mick Avory (drums). They also settled on the name The Kinks which was intended to garner them attention because of its slightly naughty connotation.

The Kinks (1965) (l-r) Quaife, D. Davies, R. Davies, Avory

The group gained international fame with the release of You Really Got Me in 1964 when they began heavy touring. The schedule was grueling and tempers soon flared. The most notable incident was an on-stage fight between Dave Davies and Avory at the Capitol Theatre in Cardiff, Wales. Frustrated by his bandmate's playing, Davies insulted Avory and kicked over his drum set. Avory responded by hitting Davies in the head with a cymbal stand, knocking him unconscious. Thinking he had killed the guitarist, Avory fled. Davies was taken to the hospital for 16 stitches. When the police became involved, Avory managed to avoid charges by telling them that it was "part of the show" and had just gotten a little out of hand.

Something Else By The Kinks (often shortened to Something Else) was the group’s fifth studio record. It became  the first of their three records to make The 500 list. It was a departure from their earlier releases which were more rock oriented. Something Else is considered baroque pop, a genre best described as a fusion of ornate and majestic styles from classical music, with rock and roll rhythms. Often, the harpsichord is included to create the classical effect. Legendary studio musician Nicky Hopkins was recruited to play this complex instrument on two of the tracks, Two Sisters and Love Me Till The Sun Shines. 

Hopkins (1974)

Something Else also features many of Ray Davies' introspective lyrics, including the only track from the album with which I was familiar, Waterloo Sunset. In the song, a solitary narrator is watching two lovers, Terry and Julie, passing over a bridge at sundown. The song is often studied in university arts courses and purportedly the lovers were inspired by Terence Stamp and Julie Christie who starred in the contemporaneously released film, Far From The Madding Crowd. Davies has dismissed the assertion, saying  the couple was inspired by one of his sisters and her boyfriend.

Music journalist Robert Christgau has called Waterloo Sunset "the most beautiful song in the English language" and Pete Townshend of The Who declared it a "divine masterpiece". Consequently, it was an easy pick for my 500 Spotify playlist. We'll be back with The Kinks in about eight months with album #258, The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society.

The 500 - #290 - Call Me - Al Green

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #290

Album Title: Call Me

Artist: Al Green

Genre: Soul

Recorded: Royal Recording Studios, Memphis, Tennessee, USA

Released: April, 1973

My age at release: 7

How familiar was I with it before this week: One Song - but it was the UB40 version.

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, dropping to #427 (since 2012)

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Here I Am (Come And Take Me)

A recent report indicates that the current average tuition in Ontario for a full-time, undergraduate student (not including books or other fees) is about $8,000 a year. Therefore, at minimum wage, a student would need to work full-time for about 15 weeks to afford it. With no spending money left over.

By way of comparison, the cost of my tuition and books at Western University in 1985 was about $1000. I worked full-time during the summer leading up to university as a lifeguard at a city-run pool. I was making $7.50 an hour and, with careful planning, I had enough for university by the last week of July. In fact, my lifeguard chums threw a "Tuition Party" on the long weekend in early August to celebrate having saved enough for the upcoming year's schooling. That gave us most of a month to "live it up" before studies.

Thames Pool - London, Ontario - where I worked for three summers

Granted, I was a stay-at-home baccalaureate student without the cost of paying for rental accommodation. Attending an institution outside my home town would have tripled my cost. My parents gave up the basement, allowing me to fashion my own "bachelor-pad". I'll admit, I took some inspiration from The Brady Bunch episode in which the eldest son, Greg, moved to the attic. I even considered a beaded curtain.

Greg Brady (Barry Williams) entering his groovy 60s attic pad
in Season 4 of The Brady Bunch

“Graduating” to a much larger space than my bedroom, brought a new sense of liberty and independence. I had a place to entertain friends and, on occasion, bring home a date. I could provide a place to sit that wasn't my bed, offer cold or hot beverages and even light a few candles. In retrospect, the transition to “below stairs” seems comical. However, at the time, I was earnest in my efforts to be suave and sophisticated.

It was around this time that my friends and I started adding "mood music" to our record and CD collections. My friend Paul taunted me, in jest, by saying: "What are you going to do, Hodgy, play prog-rock when she comes over? You do know that Rush is like a female-repellant, right? You've got to get some Barry White or maybe some Al Green."

Albert Leornes Greene (spelled with an “e” until his music career took off) was born in 1946 in Arkansas. The sixth of ten children, he began performing gospel music with his sister at the age of ten. He was kicked out of the house as a teenager by his devoutly religious father because Al was listening to rhythm and blues artists, including Jackie Wilson, Elvis Presley and Wilson Pickett. He continued to pursue music with high school friends under the name Al Greene & The Creations and later, Al Greene & The Soul Mates. In 1967, they released the single Back Up Train, using only Al Greene's name in the title.

A move to Memphis and an introduction to musician and producer Willie Mitchell proved a game-changer. Mitchell coached the 23-year-old Greene to find his own voice instead of trying to imitate contemporary singers, such as Pickett, Wilson and James Brown. At Mitchell’s suggestion, Greene dropped the final "e" from his name.

Memphis Soul Pioneer Willie Mitchell (1970)

Green's moderately successful sophomore effort, Green Is Blues, (1969) was followed by three records in a two-year span that solidified his place as a top tier soul singer. All of his albums became certified gold (500,000 copies sold) by 1972. The romance crooner released eight Top 10 singles, including Let's Stay Together, his biggest hit to date.

Green's fourth release, Let's Stay Together (1972)

Call Me, this week's record on my 500 journey, is Green's sixth and is considered by many to be his masterpiece. Music writer Peter Buckley called it "the greatest soul record ever made" in the 2003 music compendium The Rough Guide To Rock.

I agree. This record is eminently listenable and wonderfully smooth. My friend Paul was correct, Al Green knows how to set a romantic mood. Despite Paul's humourous cajoling, I didn't purchase any Al Green back in the mid-eighties -- despite the extra pocket change that came with a $1000 tuition built into my budget.

In hindsight, I'm not sure that music was the deal-breaker for any of my romantic endeavors. It was probably more about that scarcely private, hastily cobbled-together, bachelor pad in the basement of my parents’ house --  despite the candlelight. (Maybe I did need that beaded curtain?)

The 500 - #291 - Talking Heads: 77 - Talking Heads

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #291

Album Title: Talking Heads: 77

Artist: Talking Heads

Genre: New Wave, Art Rock

Recorded: Sundragon Studios, New York

Released: September, 1977

My age at release: 12

How familiar was I with it before this week: Somewhat

Is it on the 2020 list? No

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Uh-Oh, Love Comes To Town

The debut record by Talking Heads, Talking Heads 77, is the third of four records by the New York-based, new wave group on The 500 list. In February, 2021, I wrote about their sophomore release, More Songs About Buildings And Food, and provided a brief history of the band. In November of the same year, my pal, Steve Sullivan, wrote about their live release, Stop Making Sense, from their film of the same name.

Although it was recorded and released in the summer of 1977 (hence its name, Talking Heads: 77), the group had been working on the material for more than two years. The former art school students had been perfecting their sound and honing their chops at clubs in the Lower East Side area of New York City. They were frequently on stage at the now legendary club CBGB, a dive bar on Bowery Street in the East Village. The club's full name was CBGB & OMFUG, the initials for Country, Blue Grass, Blues & Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers. A gormandizer is an individual who has a gluttonous appetite, in this case for music. It is borrowed from the 15th Century French noun "gormant", a person with a hearty appetite for good food, drink and celebration.

CBGB Club in the mid-seventies

Opened in 1973 by musician Hillel (Hilly) Kristal, the original vision for the former biker club was rather sedate. Kristal hoped to provide a venue for folk, country and blues acts as well as a space for poetry readings. However over time, Kristal began to book more conventional rock bands as well as more experimental performers who dabbled in art-rock and a stripped down, garage band sound that evolved into the New York punk rock scene.

Kristal outside CBGB in the mid-seventies

Talking Heads played their first gig as the opening act for the Ramones on June 5, 1975. Among the six songs played at that inaugural gig was the song Psycho Killer, a track that became the group's first single, just cracking the Billboard Top 100 at position #92 in December, 1977. Psycho Killer remains one of the group's best known songs. Currently, it tops their Spotify list with more than 326 million plays, and it was added to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll in 2015.

It remains one of my favourite Talking Head songs, particularly the acoustic version that opens the film Stop Making Sense, featuring singer and guitarist David Byrne on a bare stage accompanied by a drum loop played on a portable cassette player.

Byrne playing Psycho Killer in the film Stop Making Sense

The lyrics seem to represent the thoughts of a serial killer. The song and its subject matter created some controversy because it coincided with the notorious Son of Sam murders that terrorized New York City residents between late 1975 and the summer of 1977 when the perpetrator, David Berkowitz, was arrested.

Berkowitz (Son of Sam Killer) shortly after his arrest

The band has maintained that the song had no inspiration from the horrific killings. In his book, Talking Heads: Once In A Lifetime, The Story Behind Every Song, writer Ian Gittens said the release of the single was simply a case of "macabre synchronicity". This makes sense; the group was performing the song on stage before Berkowitz's first murder, the Christmas Eve stabbing of an unidentified Hispanic woman and 15-year-old high school sophomore Michelle Forman.

While looking up the history of Talking Heads, the story I found most humorous took place during the formative years at the CBGB club. Searching for advice, they visited the apartment of Lou Reed, the legendary singer, songwriter and guitarist for Velvet Underground. Among the suggestions Reed offered was for Byrne to wear long-sleeved shirts on stage because "his arms were too hairy for the audience to look at".

Lou Reed (left) with Talking Head members Tina Weymouth 
and Chris Frantz, backstage at CBGBs

Reed's suggestion struck me as incongruent with the mid-seventies New York music scene. Imagine, at a time when experimental art rock and the DIY punk rock aesthetic were on the rise, the avant-garde, gender-bending, glam rocker Reed felt the need to tell Byrne his hirsute forearms were a commercial deal breaker.

Regardless, the advice seems to have been taken to heart. A Google Image search of David Byrne generates hundreds of photographs of the lanky singer performing in long-sleeved shirts and suits.

A long-sleeved Byrne on stage with Talking Heads

CBGBs closed after a final celebratory concert, featuring Patti Smith, in October, 2006. I was fortunate to visit the original location in the summer of 2004 on my first trip to New York City. I only took one photo (below) but I did get a CBGB t-shirt that I wore until it was a threadbare rag at the bottom of my hockey bag.

CBGB - August, 2004

The 500 - #292 - The Basement Tapes - Bob Dylan and The Band

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #292

Album Title: The Basement Tapes

Artist: Bob Dylan

Genre: Folk Rock, Roots Rock, Americana

Recorded: The "Big Pink" house, West Saugerties, New York

Released: June, 1975

My age at release: 9

How familiar was I with it before this week: One song

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, at #335 (dropping 43 spots, since 2012)

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Orange Juice Blues

Recently, my students and I were discussing identity – the qualities, beliefs, personal traits and appearance that we use to characterize ourselves. We were talking about it during a media literacy lesson on demographics and "target markets" for an advertiser. However, as is often the case with the delightfully precocious and garrulous crew I work with, we got off-track and started discussing the distinctions we relate to given our heritage and nationality, and the reasons we take pride in the accomplishments of people who share an identity with us.

A diagram showing the various aspects
of identity with which we connect

For example, I am a British-Canadian who considers himself more Canadian than British. However, I do feel a peculiar sense of pride when a Brit or Canuck does something remarkable. This pride-by-proxy emotion is amplified if they are from the region in each country where I lived, Greater Manchester and London, Ontario, respectively.

Such is the case with The Band, a quintet of highly regarded, multi-instrumentalists who, with the exception of one member, hail from my region of Southwestern Ontario. They are an example of the human tendency to form a quick connection with a stranger who happens to have something in common with you, like meeting someone from your hometown while on vacation.


Likewise, when a group is mentioned as one of the greatest ensembles of all time by Rolling Stone magazine, which puts two records by The Band in the top 50 on The 500 list, there is part of me that quietly rejoices: "They're from the same place as me."

The Band (l-r) Manuel, Hudson, Helm, Robertson, Danko

The Band comprised Richard Manuel (Stratford, Ontario); Garth Hudson (Windson, Ontario); Levon Helm (Elaine, Arkansas); Robbie Robertson (Toronto, Ontario); and Rick Danko (Simcoe, Ontario). Originally, the group was known as The Hawks, the backing band for rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins. In 1965, they were hired by Bob Dylan to serve as his back-up band on an upcoming tour. That tour was abruptly cancelled in 1966 when Dylan was injured in a motorcycle accident.

Dylan on his ill-fated Triumph motorcycle in 1965

Dylan recuperated in Woodstock, New York, not far from where the accident took place. By 1967, several members of The Band moved to the now famous "Big Pink" house in West Saugerties, about 10 kilometres away.

"Big Pink" - named because of its distinctive pink siding

Danko rented the property and moved in with Manuel and Hudson, who set up a recording studio in the basement. Robertson lived nearby with his girlfriend. Helm, who had left Dylan's tour in 1965, returned later that year and moved in to Big Pink. It was there that The Band developed a  distinctive sound, culminating with the release of their debut record, Music From The Big Pink in 1968 (#34 on The 500).

Album cover for Songs From The Big Pink

It was also here that Dylan and The Band recorded more than 100 tracks, including 16 that became part of The Basement Tapes. An additional eight songs, recorded by The Band without Dylan in the ensuing seven years, completed the two-record collection.

Dylan, center, performing with The Band (1968)

Fans of Dylan and The Band were already familiar with these recordings because they had appeared on many unofficial "bootleg" releases. The term bootleg has its roots in the days of prohibition in the U.S. when illicit items (mainly alcohol) were smuggled in the sides of tall boots. 

One of the earliest uses of the term "boot legger" from 
The New North-West Newspaper, Montana, 1888

The album had its critics. Diehard Dylan fans were not pleased with the inclusion of songs recorded by The Band without Dylan. Furthermore, they clamoured for an official release of tracks that were recorded during those sessions, many of which were available on sub-par bootleg versions. In November, 2014, nearly 40 years later, they got their wish. A six-disc box set called The Bootleg Series - Volume 11: The Basement Tapes Complete, was released by Legacy Records (A division of Sony Music).

Of the four Dylan records on The 500 list that I have reviewed so far, this is absolutely my favourite. Interestingly, I enjoy this record for the same reason diehard Dylan fans dislike it -- it is also a record by The Band featuring Danko, Manuel and Helm on lead vocals on eight tracks placed sporadically through the other sixteen.

It also seems as if the sextet of musicians is having fun. While some of the songs focused on more serious themes (betrayal, nihilism, disasters and salvation), there are many moments of jaunty levity and bawdy hilarity (Million Dollar Bash, Please Mrs. Henry or Don't Ya Tell Henry).

Plus, it just seems as if the entire adventure would have been a heck of a good time. This is evident in the group's choice for a photo-shoot for the record cover. Taken in the basement of a Los Angeles YMCA, it features Dylan and the members of The Band posed alongside characters suggested by the songs, including a circus strongman, a fire-eater and a ballerina.

Full album cover when opened

I would love to have been a fly-on-the-wall in the summer of 1967 when four musically gifted Ontarians and two equally talented Americans found themselves in a Big Pink house in Upstate New York.