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 November 15, 2006 A Few Favorites I’ve been collecting recordings since I was 12, and can probably tell you where and when I bought nearly every album I own. I have about 3000 LPs and the same number of CDs. Serious vinyl collectors would scoff at how little vinyl I have (10,000 discs seems to be the minimum for the truly devoted), but there are times when I feel there’s something unusual, and perhaps a little materialistic, about having so much music. Occasionally I’ll play an LP or CD and realize that it’s been years since I last listened to it. Add to that the fact that every few years I have to make or buy additional shelves, and move things around to find space for the new shelves, and you have the ingredients for an anxiety attack. But then I’ll have a weekend as I did a few months back, when, after a bad week, I turned to music to lift my spirits. That particular weekend, it was all the Wes Montgomery LPs on Riverside -- his best music, aside from one or two things on Verve. I often play The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery and Full House, but I hadn’t played some of those records in a while. I bought them in the 1970s, when Fantasy Records issued a series of twofer sets containing two titles each. Hearing them again reminded me that Montgomery was a truly astonishing guitarist, and that music can help cure the effects of a few bad days. A lot of my records can do that for me. They hit my turntable at least once a year because I can count on them to reassure me that good music will always outlast whatever has made me sad or anxious -- or because they remind me that beauty is its own reward, and that my definition of beauty changes according to my need. There are times when Captain Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica is indescribably glorious. Other times, it’s puzzling -- which means only that at those times I’m not ready to receive its wonders. As a friend once said to me, "You know, I don’t listen to those Archie Shepp records on Impulse! very often, but they’re waiting for me when I need them." What follows is a list of just a few of my favorite recordings. I hope to return with other recommendations every few months. This time around, I’ll limit myself to records that are pretty accessible, so you’ll have to wait for me to convince you that Trout Mask Replica is a record you should own. If I can. One more thing: Many of these records come from a time in my life when I might have owned only a couple of hundred LPs and knew every note on each of them. When I play them, I can anticipate what’s coming in every song. Yet I still hear new things in these recordings, and they still fill me with hope. Boz Scaggs: Boz Scaggs & Band (1971)
The two standouts are "Running Blue" and "Why Why." The first is a big-band blues track with a horn chart Neil Hefti would have been happy to present to Count Basie. Scaggs is smooth and urbane, more Jimmy Witherspoon than Muddy Waters, and Doug Simril’s guitar solo avoids clichés. "Why Why" is also blues-based, with a simple structure that fills in as the song develops. A subtle horn arrangement supports Scaggs’ understated vocals, and blends beautifully with Jymm Joachim Young’s swirling Hammond organ. Doug Simril turns in another beautifully constructed solo. Whatever happened to this guy? I Googled his name and couldn’t come up with anything. He plays everything from blues to jazz to country with ease. Although it’s these two tunes that still cause me to pull Boz Scaggs & Band from the shelf, I end up listening to and enjoying every track. Even in the ’70s, Scaggs was unusual in not forcing an emotion when he sang. In 2003 he recorded an album of standards, and he sounds more natural singing such songs as "What’s New?" or "Sophisticated Lady" than anyone of his generation. Listen to Boz Scaggs & Band and you’ll hear why. Ian Matthews: If You Saw Thro’ My Eyes (1971)
Matthews wrote most of the songs on If You Saw Thro’ My Eyes and enlisted the help of a number of great English folk-rockers, including Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson, both of whom had played with him in Fairport. Matthews sings in an emotive, delicate tenor, and his songs are more acoustic-based pop than traditional folk. Had he been promoted well, he could have been as popular as, say, Cat Stevens. Every track has something -- a bass line, a drum part, a guitar solo -- that pulls you in, but the high points are two songs by Richard Farina, "Reno Nevada" and "Morgan the Pirate." Farina, a singer-songwriter and novelist, was a close friend of Bob Dylan’s who recorded three albums with his wife, Mimi (Joan Baez’s sister). In the original versions, Farina’s songs are somewhat spare; Matthews fleshes them out and gives them more punch. Richard Thompson and Tim Renwick, another great British guitarist, are featured on both tunes in brilliant solos. Matthews has recorded many records, but none with the chemistry of If You Saw Thro’ My Eyes, on which every moment feels exactly right. Nils Lofgren: Nils Lofgren (1975)
The songs are about youth, romance, hope, and swagger. Lofgren had already done more than most 23-year-olds, but he remembered what it was like to be young, confident, and in love -- and to have his heart broken. On "I Don’t Want to Know," he sings, "I don’t want to know your boyfriend’s name / I don’t want to know all the men you claim / I don’t want to know where you slept last . . . " Lofgren’s voice can be tender and tough, sometimes in the same song. Nils Lofgren is an indispensable rock’n’roll record. Todd Rundgren: Runt: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren (1971)
On Ballad Rundgren sings, plays guitars, keyboards, and a few other things (he leaves the drums and bass to studio players). He also mixed and produced the album. He’s a guitar hero on "Bleeding" and "Parole" (his guitar playing has always been underrated), a shameless romantic on "A Long Time, A Long Way to Go" and "Hope I’m Around." The recording is multitracked, with details, especially Rundgren’s complex vocal harmonies, as impressive and beautiful as Brian Wilson’s best. Rundgren is a deeply soulful singer who carries that feeling over to his harmony arrangements, particularly in "Hope I’m Around," where they have an orchestral fullness. He would soon use technology, especially the possibilities offered by electronic keyboards, to make increasingly intricate records, but his singing always ensured that they would retain the human touch. None of these albums is easy to find on CD in the US, so here are more reasons to buy a turntable. Or you can keep an eye out on eBay and try to grab an affordable copy on disc. As I wrote near the beginning, I hope to come back to this topic every once in a while. Some records I tell you about may be well known, others more obscure. In most cases, the music I recommend might not be considered an artist’s best, even by me. But it’s music that touches me in ways I can’t always describe, ways that some more popular or critically acclaimed recordings don’t. That’s the magic of music. …Joseph Taylor
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Boz Scaggs’ second album, and
his only one for Atlantic, Boz Scaggs, is a minor classic. His
version of Fenton Robinson’s "Loan Me a Dime" on that disc features some
blistering guitar work from Duane Allman, and for that reason alone it should be in
everyone’s collection. Boz Scaggs & Band was his fourth release, and his
second for Columbia Records. His first Columbia disc, Moments, mixed
enjoyable MOR rock with blues, country, and jazz, and this follow-up is similar. But
it’s a tighter record, and avoids the sappiness that sometimes creeps into Moments.
"Here to Stay" and "Nothing Will Ever Take Your Place" are romantic,
mid-tempo rock tunes that Frank Sinatra or Tony Bennett could have covered without
embarrassment.
Ian Matthews, a founding member of
Fairport Convention, left that band to form Matthews Southern Comfort, which had a minor
hit in the US with its version of Joni Mitchell’s "Woodstock." Matthews (he
sometimes spells his first name Iain) made three albums in quick succession with Southern
Comfort, then went solo to produce If You Saw Thro’ My Eyes and a slew of
other albums over the next 35 years. He’s been a journeyman, recording for a variety
of labels and sometimes working for them as an executive.
Nils Lofgren was 17 when he played on
Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush in 1970, and two years later he had a
minor hit, "White Lies," with his band Grin. He’s now best known as Bruce
Springsteen’s guitarist (one of them, anyway), but he recorded a few solo albums in
the mid-’70s, of which Nils Lofgren is by far the best. There’s guitar
flash aplenty here, especially on Lofgren’s tribute to Keith Richards, "Keith
Don’t Go (Ode to the Glimmer Twin)," but Lofgren also knew how to write a great
pop tune, and almost every track on this record could have been a hit. Lofgren plays and
sings everything here except drums, which are played with drive and enthusiasm by
Aynsley Dunbar; and bass, handled with great aplomb and funk by Wornell Jones. All three
musicians play full out, but they blend rather than get in each other’s way.
Todd Rundgren’s fans have stayed
with him through nearly 40 years of recordings that have varied in style and quality.
Committed fans can argue the merits of Initiation (1975) or Nearly Human (1989),
but most would agree that Runt: The Ballad of Todd Rundgren and Something/Anything?
(1972) are the two we return to most often. Rundgren had already enjoyed a small measure
of success with the Nazz, and his first solo album, Runt, placed a single,
"We Gotta Get You a Woman," in the top 40. He was also, by 1971, something of a
recording-studio whiz, having produced or engineered recordings for Jesse Winchester and
the Band, among others. With Ballad, he pulled all his songwriting talents
and studio mastery together to make a perfect pop LP.