The pop era, as we know it, really begins with Frank
Sinatra. Bing Crosby was more likely the first pop superstar, but Sinatra
was the first hint of music by
young people, for young people, (the rock mantra). In
the 1950s, Sinatra's throne wasn't overturned by Elvis, but the state of pop
was put on notice; the rock era was born. When the Beatles arrived, all
the planets were aligned - enter the age of pop superstardom This Golden
Age of Rock would last a dozen years with 1966 being the first in which rock
crossed the boundaries into art, when music became more than just a corporate construct.
AM relished in the ether
that was 1966 throughout the past year. But it was 1967 that proves rock's most vital year, ushering in the rock decade.
The list is endless: The Doors, Between The
Buttons, Are You Experienced?, Velvet Underground And Nico, Sergeant
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Surrealistic Pillow, The Piper At
The Gates Of Dawn, Ten Years After, Disraeli Gears, Magical
Mystery Tour, Buffalo Springfield Again, Axis: Bold As Love, Days of
Future Passed, Forever Changes; even The Monkees scored with their first
soiree into producing (Headquarters), emerging as real boys, a real band. 1967 was like
Mozart, Beethoven and Bach all releasing their best LPs in the same year.
It's nearly impossible to fathom that the Laurel Canyon scene (which AM embraces
so readily) occurred simultaneously to the garage/art rock of NYC or the
early metal of the 13th Floor Elevators and Black Sabbath. '67 saw the first
LPs from future seminal bands like the BeeGees, the Grateful Dead, even
Tangerine Dream, while the soul charts gave us James Brown, Aretha, and Otis and
Carla (Otis Redding and Carla Thomas). Janis and the Holding Co. gave us
the greatest of raw blues. The failure of The Beach Boys' Smile, the most famous train wreck in
rock history, lead to lesser volumes in Smiley's
Smile and the 24 minute joy from
the Carl Wilson produced and overlooked Wild
Honey.
Great music abounds in 2017, from Steven Wilson to Porter
Robinson, but 50 years ago remains the AM focus throughout the year as rock's
finest moment (all you 1971 fans will get your turn).
The masthead graphic for today's post is one of the most
overlooked albums of this great era. Cream was like a meteor that flashed
across the musical sky, bright enough for the naked eye, but indescribable after
the fact, and ultimately forgotten. They were one of the first jam bands and
were arguably the pioneers of heavy metal. Their music was particularly
interesting because Clapton, Bruce, and Baker were non-rock musicians bringing
their skills to rock and roll. The band lasted for only 2 years because of the
extreme tension between Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker; the latter a great
musician though a horrible human being prone to outbursts of invective
accompanied by violence.
Disraeli Gears was
recorded in New York City under the watchful eye of Atlantic Records
honcho Ahmet Ertegun. It was Cream’s commercial breakthrough as well as
an artistic triumph. Said
Ginger Baker of the title: "Mick Turner was one of the roadies who’d been with me a long time,
and he was driving along and Eric (Clapton) was talking about getting a racing
bicycle. Mick, driving, went ‘Oh yeah – Disraeli gears!’ meaning derailleur
gears. We all just fell over. We said that’s got to be the album title."
Disraeli Gears is the seminal sixties psychedelic LPs (sorry Piper). Cream's "Strange Brew" set the standard
for the band and has remained their most popular and beloved sample from a
brief but legendary catalog. Classic hits of course include "Sunshine of Your
Love" and "Tales of Brave Ulysses," with its haunting lyrics and wah-wah
guitar effects. "Strange Brew", "SWLABR" and "Outside
Woman Blues" round out the LP as the perfect answer to Are You
Experienced?. Both records are must haves for the
true rock fan and anyone feigning interested in the origins of hard rock/heavy metal
needs to know (as in truly study) this record. Get busy. 1967 is an exhausting year for the true aficionado.
Back in the day of FM
radio, my favorite segments were the perfect album sides on KMET in Los
Angeles. At 11 or 13, you probably didn't realize just how good these LPs were until
somebody else pointed it out. There were those albums that you figured out on
your own yet there were those that needed a little coaxing. Maybe you
overlooked it; maybe you weren’t listening in the right capacity. When the CD
came about in the later part of the last millennium, sides were a thing of the
past; we changed our ideology to the perfect album. It's a greater task today,
of course, with the waning popularity of the record album and the return to the
50s/60s single format; we don't really get to think about albums as a whole or
as a concept as much as we used to. Sad.
AM is dedicated to that
perfect album, the LP that succeeds in all five catergories of the AM matrix. Over
the past year, AM has shifted its focus a bit and some readers may not even
realize that AM stands for Absolute Magnitude - that idea that a star’s
brightness isn’t based on how close it is. We contend that the brightest star
in the sky is our sun, and of course, that's not so. Absolute Magnitude
measures things on a level playing field.
Several artists have more than one AM10: The Beatles,
Joni Mitchell, Pink Floyd, while some only have one, may have but an AM10
single. And, just like anything, there are those albums that even exceed the AM
10 matrix: albums like Sgt. Pepper, Joni
Mitchell's Blue and Dark Side of the Moon. This summer, as we celebrate the
Summer of Love, AM will dedicate itself to the plethora of AM10s, more than any
other year.
