Open/Close: A selection of great albums that start as well as they finish

Purchase: Goat's Head Soup, Highway to Hell, Purple Rain, Who's Next

It's been a while since I've posted on SMM. No excuses--just the unpredictable rhythms of life that sometimes stir a current that takes you in strange directions. Riding the waves hasn't gotten me too far, a few thousand words deep into other projects, but not closer to anyplace special. Missing having a place to talk music with like minded obsessives, and with the permission of the venerable KKafa, who answered the door when I knocked, I'm back. 

SMM is a place I always find the kind of unique connection that good writing and great music can make in a life. And I really missed that.

So, hello. Again.

Our theme is “Open/Close.” I looked through my library for songs about openings and closings, and when I came across the 1998 hit, "Closing Time", by Seminsonic, and felt the familiar, shuddery revulsion that ubiquitous, somehow pseudo-anthem always brings up, and used that as impetus to get a little creative on the theme.

I decided to look at great opening and closing tracks from albums. How important is the first introductory burst of sound from the opening of an album, the signal of what is to come? If it's weak, a song you really don't like, the album as a whole might be doomed. It's a great song, an epic introduction, you'll never forget that perfect sensation of hearing it for the first time. Example: REM's "Radio Song", from 1991's Out of Time, was such a grave sonic let down for me that it kind of ruined the band, once my near beatific favorite, for me permanently. Whereas, "Up The Beach", from Jane's Addiction's explosive Nothing's Shocking, was akin to perhaps seeing the Red Sea part under the hand of Moses. Or something similarly miraculous. Oddly, both albums, while wildly different in so many ways it seems silly to compare them, could have been vastly different, even better, had they been tracked differently. Out of Time really should have opened with "Losing My Religion", that strident, minor key pop mediation on anger, played on a very non-top 40 mandolin; Nothing's Shocking would have been even more epic had it opened with "Coming Down the Mountain", an pure avalanche of a song.

The opening, then, is of the utmost importance. As is the ending. And how many albums end as memorably as they started? It's surprisingly few. But, then, that is my opinion and comes from my lament at the seemingly lost art of the full length album, and the collection of songs as a celebration, not just the single. Growing up, the 45, then the cassingle, was always secondary to the whole LP. The best bands put out the single, and the B-side was the 'unreleased' material. Kind of essential to the rest of the album, a completion of the experience as a whole.  But, B sides that are better than the A is another topic entirely. 

I scrolled through my Spotify feed (Sadly, I don't have a single CD, LP, or cassette in my possession right now), and found what I thought might be a good start to, and by no means exhaustive or exclusive, list of a handful of the greatest pairings of opening and closing tracks to feature on an album.

In no specific order, I posit the following opening and closing tracks to be the GOAT

The Rolling Stones, Goat's Head Soup: Side A, track 1: "Dancing With Mr. D"; Side B, Track 5: "Star, Star".  Wicked, naughty, steeped in dark arts,  these two songs provide the caps to my favorite Stone’s album ever. 1973's Goat's Head Soup, is a druggy, boogie down trip. There’s a strangely sinister vibe to the whole collection. "Mr. D" concerns death, and possibly meeting the devil  to discuss matters related to how the narrator might exit this world for another. "Star, Star" is...well, if you haven't heard it, you've heard about it.  It's classic Jagger bravado, and might be the response to Carly Simon's mysterious "You're So Vain."  It doesn't really ever make itself clear on that, but it is a celebration of the activity that culminates in the ‘little death’...to draw a connection. If there's a reason people thought rock n roll might be the devil's music, Goat's Head Soup makes for pretty compelling evidence.

AC/DC, Highway to Hell: Side A, track 1: "Highway to Hell:; Side B, Track 5: "Night Prowler" This classic opens with one of rock’s greatest travelogues, an invitation to travel straight to rock n roll hell, set to an instantly iconic guitar riff. The whole album is amazing, but starting with such a striding opening salvo, you are along for the ride, no matter where it takes you--I said it was hell, right? AC/DC proceeds to walk you along the same dark, dirty path as the Stones did, and they distinguish themselves as the only band that makes the Devil seem like a cool guy you want to hang out...The album closes out with the dark, blues dirge  "Night Prowler", a sinister soliloquy of a serial killer, delivered by Bon Scott in his signature howl. The song generated a lot of controversy, so it's best just to dig it as AC/DC's unique take on the blues.  On a strange note, the last words ever recorded by Bon Scott, as the song and the album fade out are "Shazbot nanu nanu", the famous catchphrase of one Mork, from a place called Ork...it was meant to be funny, but it is perfectly sinister here.

Prince and the Revolution, Purple Rain: Side A, Track 1: "Let's Go Crazy" is about as close to church as one can get. The man in the pulpit is calling the faithful to the ceremony, and it's impossible not to heed the call. Side B, track 4, "Purple Rain" is epically beautiful, achingly sad, and elegiac.  And it was somehow transcendent when it was new, a gospel tune over a rock orchestra, and a searing guitar solo to end. The song has never lost that sense of mournful beauty. It's poignant now, more than ever, as Prince's going home hymn. When I get to heaven, I too, hope to hear "Purple Rain" playing me in.  

The Who, Who's Next--not a question so much as dare to step up to a fight. Side A, track 1: "Baba O'Riley" is arguably the greatest, most imitated, most triumphant rock anthem. Ever. If you like rock n roll, have ever been moved by the power of simple chords, pumped at high volumes, chances are, "Baba O'Riley" set you down the road to glorious ruin and riot. The name is still a misnomer, even to people who love the song. The lyrics are strange and a bit more like a medieval pastoral than a stadium sing along. But, when Townshend sets the windmill going, and you're invited to scream the words that so aptly sum up so much of our collective youthful glory ("Teenage wasteland!"), you have to believe in the power of three chords and the truth. Side B, Track 4 is "Won't Get Fooled Again", which contains so much legendary greatness it is hard to call it just a song. It's a call to arms and poetic in its anger. The song gives eloquence voice to rail against  your frustrations and limits, and is a license to break the rules that keep you tied down. It crescendos with the greatest scream ever recorded in modern music. It's the song Whitman might have recorded, had he been born 100 years later. And, in the end it's the greatest 'eff you' ever recorded.

Who's Next, one of rock's great albums, starting and ending with two of the most powerful songs ever recorded , is one the greatest rides you can ever take in the grooves of a vinyl record, and the greatest fulfillment of rock music's transformative promise. And, my obvious vote for greatest opening/closing set in rock history.

Trick/Treat: Why You Want To Treat Me So Bad

UPDATED TO INCLUDE TV DEBUT

purchase [Why You Want To Treat Me So Bad ]

Prince's <Why You Want To Treat Me So Bad> appears to have marked a turning point in his career. See the detailed review at diffuser.fm here - lots of back-stage notes that relate to both the song and his career trajectory.

It's been a couple of years since we lost the man, but me-thinks we don't ever want to lose the talent. He was rightfully a "one-and-only" musician, and this song helps to solidify that claim.

I ask you to keep in mind the year. A rather early 1980 (for his career) was populated with hits from the likes of Pink Floyd, Blondie, The Cars, Bette Middler, K.C. and the Sunshine Band, Styx ...
Which only goes to put Prince's music further on the fringes. He hadn't yet published 1999 at this time.

It's kind of too bad that he's a little out of tune on the vocals at several places in this clip, but it doesn't detract all that much - both because he's on key most of the time and because the energy level/show presence is way up there. [Check out the jump at 2:44 !] And is he really doing the solo that follows? In the air? Whew!

July: Walking The Dog

Rufus Thomas: Walking The Dog
[purchase]

At this point, Rufus Thomas is probably best remembered for this fun, nursery rhyme influenced song, but it was only one of his hits, mostly novelty dance songs, often about dogs or other animals, in a long musical career that started as a child tap dancer on the streets of Memphis in the 1920s, and included stints in minstrel shows in the 1930s, as a vaudeville performer in the 1940s, as a songwriter, performer and DJ in the 1950s, as a popular recording artist in the 1960s, and he continued to perform and record thereafter, often billed as “The World’s Oldest Teenager” and “The Funkiest Man Alive,” until not long before he died in 2001 at the age of 84.

Thomas recorded for Sun and for Stax, the minister at his wedding was Aretha Franklin’s father C.L. Franklin, he worked for 20 years in a textile factory, he acted in Jim Jarmusch and Robert Altman movies, and he performed with Prince, at the 1996 Olympics, and with the Blues Brothers Band. And his daughter Carla Thomas is considered the Queen of Memphis Soul (and who I missed when I wrote this.)

Pretty much everyone has covered “Walking The Dog,” from the Stones, to the Everly Brothers, to the Flamin’ Groovies, as well as Aerosmith, Roger Daltrey, Bruce Springsteen (in an epic 14 minute plus version), Ratt, The Grateful Dead, and John Cale. And many, many more.  Even in Finnish! But Thomas’ version, with its New Orleans influenced style, and the joy that he brings to the silly lyrics, is still remembered because it is just that good.

And yes, it mentions July.

As I was writing this piece, I thought back to walking our family dog, Strummer, who died back in 2014. In July. You can read more about him, and our relationship, here.

songs from movies about musicians: Purple Rain

purchase [Purple Rain]

I  started out on the wrong foot for this theme and it has taken me a few days to get back on track: Musicians in Movies. My belated choice: Purple Rain)
YouTube actually appears to have a copy of the full film:

Purple Rain dates back to the days when I didn't have much in the way of Internet access. More or less nobody did. (Actually, I had X.25 if you want to go down that path.) WWW was invented in 90 or so, but there were direct dial connections to Bulletin Boards such as AOL/Compuserve.  Neither did I have main-stream TV access, being outside the USA. And by this time, MTV had become main-stream for many (USA) people. So .. my access to music videos was limited to what people sent me (USPS VHS packages) or what I could grab on a once a year visit to the US.

Back at about that time, I was teaching a class called "Film & Lit" - as the name implies, a study of film and literature. At that time (while still developing the course) our topics included historical films (Great Train Robbery, Citizen Kane, etc) and only near the end of the course moved on to more modern examples. I never braved Purple Rain - but I wish I had.

My resource(s) for film reviews were limited to the Compuserve film review "channel". No small hassle considering the state of the Internet. On my ocassional visits to the US, I would video-tape anything I could get my hands on. And at some point in the 80's, that included nabbing a copy of Purple Rain.

Vaguely aware that there are autobiographical aspects to the film and newly aware of the phenomena of the artist called Prince (at that time), I/we watched Purple Rain many, many times - this was clearly a different kind of film. Not like Singing in the Rain or even Clockwork Orange - something much more visceral here. But-  keep the '84 date in mind - tech levels on all fronts were pretty limited. Certainly no such option as personal computer video editing, and anything else for video editing on the market cost 10s or 100s of thousands - check out I Want My MTV with a critical eye if you want to see state of the art video editing.

Purple Rain has its flaws. Several. It is supposedly semi-autobiographical, but hopefully not in terms of the male<>female attitudes/roles.(We may never know.) And it's probably not a thematic model to espouse -it's male brutal in many places. But most critics seem to agree that it was seminal - opening up a genre that hadn't been explored before. And the music is [now] classic.

Beautiful Ones from the same fılm/album strikes me as even more seminal/powerful than those songs that became popular. (Sorry, this copy appears to have built-in jitters, but it is still worth your time)

The Number 9: Prince - 1999

 

purchase [1999]

I have little faith in numerology and the likes: numbers appear at random , and trying to assign meaning to them (or to dreams etc) seems like ... well ... pipe dreams.

Well, no, that said ... there might be a "plan" behind it all when it seems to be more than coincindence... you know ... when the phone rings and you were thinking about the caller just a minute ago.

I'm going with 1999 for several reasons. (1) Prince is gone, (2) 1999 is gone, but 9's are not. (3) 9 times out of ten your first choice is the right one, (4) September is month 9.

But 1999 is history. Back in 1999 I had a one-of-a-kind VCR and TV that could handle NTSC 3.54 - The pair cost me an arm and a leg. In the process I learned about NTSC, PAL, SECAM and more. You live overseas, you learn these things.

Back in the early 1990s, when the Internet was a text-based afterthought, I purchased an NTSC "portable" VCR from a friend visiting from the US. This meant tht I also had to purchase an NTSC compatible TV: US formatted media shows up as squiggles on the screen without it - about the same as regional DVDs. For a number of years, we would aquire US recorded media that couldnt be viewed otherwise. During that time, MTV came on line. We had hours -long recordings of US TV that included the "latest" MTV clips, all recorded at SLP mode (6 hours to a single tape) among which was Prince : 1999, and the entirety of Purple Rain.

　

Royal: Prince

Prince et al: While My Guitar ...

I lived in a place where MTV did not shine for many of its early years. Of course, you can undoubtedly get it now even in Shabaab/Somalia. But,  as a result, we used to videotape hours’ worth on slow speed VHS and watch it over and over. We had the full Purple Rain film, and of course 1999. At about that time Prince seemed to me to be musical royalty personified.

Like many of you, I kind of lost track of Prince  over the years – probably about the time he changed his name to a symbol/the artist formerly known as Prince. I do guess I last bought Emancipation. And he appeared to be trying to defy the major labels by marketing his music online. For a while.

 

I still have a lot of respect for the man. While I wonder about his direction (not so sure about whether I really like this Charlotte live stuff, even if the stage show aint bad at all), I gotta admit that his rather flamboyant performance in the clip I am featuring re-establishes his credit in my books. You’ll have to wait till about minute 3.30 to see him do his thing, but you can look out for the man with the red fedora a bit earlier. If you ever wanted proof of his royalty, this has got to be it.

Joni Covers: A Case of You

A Case of Joni:

Diana Krall [purchase] (although this version of the song is from the All-Star Tribute mentioned in my Carey post)

Sloan [I can't find this compilation CD, Back to the Garden: A Tribute to Joni Mitchell, for purchase anymore, but here's the tracklist...]

Karen Mal & Laurie McClain [purchase] - then click on the Music link

Prince [purchase]

It is a week of harmonic convergence... as a Joni song was my first post (and a guest one, at that!) to Star Maker Machine a year and a half ago... and Darius commented then that we should one day present a theme of Joni covers - I even reference this song there: "the Christmas I gave my daughter the soundtrack to Practical Magic and later heard the strains of A Case of You (on repeat play) coming through the door of her bedroom was when I finally realized they had not switched babies on me in the hospital 16 years before"...

From Wikipedia:

"Mitchell wrote and recorded A Case of You in 1971, during her early folk period. The song was first released on the 1971 album Blue. Mitchell later re-recorded it on her live album Miles of Aisles (1974). The song is found on Mitchell's Misses (1996), and Both Sides Now (2000) in an orchestral version featuring a new vocal by Mitchell. The recent release of the live album Amchitka - the 1970 concert that launched Greenpeace shows that the song was written earlier than 1971 as Mitchell performs a live version of "A Case of You" at the concert. The song is found on many bootleg recordings from her 1983 tour... The song appears in the films Truly, Madly, Deeply, Practical Magic, and Waking the Dead."

In doing some research to find proof that A Case of You is about Leonard Cohen (speculation runs rampant), I found a wonderful article about the relationship between Joni and Leonard - I will allow it to speak for itself...

These four versions provide a wide spectrum of interpretations:

~ Diana Krall's stunning rendition is a jazzy, piano-driven showcase...

~ Sloan's is straight up rock and roll...

~ Karen and Laurie's is "so bitter and so sweet", just as in the song... and yes, I am the Susan in Karen's dedication - they were on a tour of Florida and I presented them in a house concert in my living room. Karen and Laurie were using my house as home base and, during one free night, we decided to watch the PBS biography DVD, Woman of Heart and Mind (highly recommended!) - we drank wine (how fitting), wept through almost the entire film and they surprised me with this cover at their next gig (which ended up being recorded) a few days later at the Main Street Cafe...

~ Prince nails a bass-laden R&B gospel take, although I remain annoyed that he left out verses 1 and 2... the first of which is, in my opinion, one of the best beginnings *ever* in song:

Just before our love got lost you said
"I am as constant as a northern star"
And I said "Constantly in the darkness
Where's that at?
If you want me I'll be in the bar"

This and That: Starfish and Coffee

Prince: Starfish and Coffee

[purchase]

A great combination, especially when accompanied by maple syrup, jam, butterscotch clouds, a tangerine, and don´t forget that side order of ham. A song that represents the most poppy and whimsical side of Prince, which is a side he should showcase more often methinks. If you set your mind free, baby, maybe you´ll understand...

Clothes: Raspberry Beret

Prince: Raspberry Beret - 12"

[purchase]


Quite simply put - Raspberry Beret is one of my all-time favorite Pop songs. While the Paisley Underground was exploding in Los Angeles, Prince pulled yet another abrupt style change and delved into Psychedelia with more romance than his typical carnality. It's truly a lovely tune.

Advice: The Cross

Prince: The Cross

[purchase]

I don't know Prince's music all that well. I don't even own Purple Rain. But I love the Sign O' The Times album. It's an amazing double-album mix of funk, rock, folk, and other styles of music. The performances are passionate, and the production is sparse (for the most part). From Wikipedia:

In 1989, Time Out Magazine ranked it as the greatest album of all time. It was 16th in the New Musical Express list All Time Top 100 Albums and 3rd in Hot Press Magazine's list The 100 Best Albums of All Time. Rolling Stone ranked it number #93 on their list of greatest albums of all time. The album placed 8th on Nieuwe Revu's Top 100 Albums of All Time. Time Magazine placed Sign O' The Times as the greatest album of '80s, and 29th greatest album of all time.

So, apparently I'm not alone. The featured track is an overt song of lament for an evil world, praise for the coming Lord, and ultimately admonition to us to find Jesus. Prince's advice to us: "Don't die without knowing The Cross".

If you decide to give this track a spin, be sure to listen to the whole thing because the second half is really where it gets good. The Doors-esq lead electric guitar and the intense, almost frenzied, vocals really push it over the edge.

1984: Baby I'm A Star

Prince: Baby I'm A Star

[purchase]

1984 was the year Prince broke it open and assured himself icon status in American Pop culture. From the vantage point of 2008, it's hard to believe there was a time when Prince was considered verboten by mainstream audiences, so much so that in 1981, he was booed offstage while opening for the Rolling Stones. It was a much different Pop landscape in those days. Arena Rock was flourishing, fueled by a rotisserie of the same twenty songs shoved down a dulled-down public's ears by AOR Radio. That meant hearing a non-stop drone of Toto, Boston, REO Speedwagon, Kansas, Bon Jovi, Foreigner, Van Halen, etc. for ad infinitum. In 1981, Prince was touring to promote Controversy, an album that had songs like Jack U Off and the title cut, where Prince ponders whether he's "straight or gay". That didn't go over well with the suburban, testosterone-driven, lighter-waving, twenty-something crowd that made up the audience. On October 11th of that year, he opened for The Rolling Stones at the Los Angeles Coliseum. While onstage, wearing his underwear and a trench coat, he was pelted with garbage and booed off to an early ending.

"Don’t say that was because of me, that was the audience doing that. I’m sure wearing underwear and a trench coat didn't help matters - but if you throw trash at anybody, it’s because you weren't trained right at home." - Prince

"It was Mark Brown's second show with us. Here's this 18-year-old kid who looks like a deer in the headlights, in front of 110,000 people at the L.A. Coliseum. Prince was in his full 'Dirty Mind' regalia with the bikini and trench coat. Halfway through the set, those natives got restless. They started taking their Coke cups and throwing them onstage. I look around, and Prince is gone. So I signaled to the rest of the guys: Let's do likewise. Then more stuff got thrown. That audience brought stuff to throw. Someone threw a fifth of Jack Daniels that barely missed Prince's head during the first measure of the first song. A gallon jug of orange juice exploded on Mark's bass. I'd point at people and smile and wave. When all was said and done, we got through the set. Going through that added to Prince's bravado." - Dez Dickerson

"I talked to Prince on the phone once after he got two cans thrown at him in L.A. He said he didn't want to do any more shows. God, I got thousands of bottles and cans thrown at me. Every kind of debris. I told him, if you get to be a really big headliner, you have to be prepared for people to throw bottles at you in the night. Prepared to die!"- Mick Jagger

He was booed right after Jack U Off, you can hear it for yourself. Here's the five-song October 11th show in a zip file.

Then came 1982, the year Michael Jackson released the landmark Thriller, which had the single Beat It. In an attempt to crossover into AOR playlists, Eddie Van Halen was brought in to play one of his patented edgy tapping guitar solos. Jackson's people were going public with charges of racism, so AOR stations added Beat It to their playlists and the song rose up Billboard's Rock Tracks chart. The other big event of that year - Prince came back with a vengeance and released the masterful 1999, his breakthrough album. But he wasn't done and in 1984, topped himself with Purple Rain, which was also tied-in with a film that nearly earned $100 million USD at the box office. He ran the stylistic floor, melding genres such as Funk, R&B, Pop, Rock and Heavy Metal.

1984 marked the time Prince went from barrier-busting artist to the Pop icon status he still claims to this day. Find a copy of Purple Rain, sit down for a good listen and be transported back to a much simpler time when Yakov Smirnoff was considered funny and cable only had 32 channels. It was also the year when Charlie Murphy was schooled by His Royal Badness in B-Ball.

City Songs: Minneapolis

Tom Waits: Post Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis

[purchase]

I'm sure all you informed-musically folk are familiar with that lead-off song. I'd feel comfortable betting that you know the follow up, too... (so, many less downloads for these tunes, right? ha! I bet not... I'm plaqued with massive bandwidth usage over songs posted on this site. Are you? And how can it be stymied?) But, I digress...

I moved to Minneapolis four years after Tom Waits was talking about things... and the doughnuts still had names that sounded like prostitues. For about four more months.

Things started getting shut down, in seedy downtown Minneapolis, about when I got here.

But, it was still true what the Replacements sung... "Better TV and a whole lot to see," when you are hanging downtown. (I'm time-traveling to the past, mind you. Downtown Minneapolis sucks donkeys, nowadays. At least when it's not busy sucking off professional sports team owners).

But at least they (The Replacements) would tell you how to get out of it...

...and into Prince-Uptown. (Which, as far as I've been ever able to acertain, was never as cool as Prince made it to be. Still ain't, fer my money. But it's where I live, so... pride!!!) There may be whites, blacks, and Puerto Ricans, but... no body is freaking. Promise.

And after you've had enough of Uptown, and want to grab a bus out? Catch a #4 which will deposit you at 66th and 35W... Southtown! There is a bowling alley, fabric store, and whatever-else I forgot to mention that The Hold Steady remembered.

Oh, and if it's Wintertime? Make sure you get to Buck Hill!