Rocks In The Attic #152: Bob Dylan - ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’’ (1964)

Of Dylan’s early albums, this is probably the one most representative of him as a protest singer. Each of the albums that would follow would slowly take him away folk music in general, and towards the pop charts.

There are three things I love about this album. Firstly, The Times They Are A-Changin’ is a fantastic single, and one of my favourites before he went electric. Blowin’ In The Wind always gets selected as the ‘song of a generation’ - mainly because of its resonance (read: vagueness), but in my eyes The Times They Are A-Changin’ is far superior in its relevance to the 1960s.

Secondly, I like the cover. In extreme close-up, Dylan looks almost like he comes from another planet. The vinyl copy I have has a slightly corrugated front cover, which makes it feel nice too.

Finally, I love Boots Of Spanish Leather. I don’t love it as much as Girl From The North Country from the previous album - it’s the same chord progression and finger-picking style - but it’s almost as good. I guess folk music lends itself a little better to being able to mix and match lyrics to chord progressions - at least more than traditional pop music does - and at least if he’s stealing from somebody, he’s only stealing from himself.

Hit: The Times They Are A-Changin’

Hidden Gem: Boots Of Spanish Leather

Rocks In The Attic #122: The Beatles - ‘Please Please Me’ (1963)

When I first listened to this, the debut album by The Beatles, I used to think it would have sounded pretty revolutionary at the time. In hindsight, you can hear that it’s still got one foot firmly planted in the 1950s. Dylan followed Please Please Me two months later with The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, and that’s like a futuristic text compared to the childlike nature of this album.

This album is notable for a few things. Firstly, the original compositions are attributed to ‘McCartney-Lennon’, not long before the decision was made to reverse the surnames. I heard a few years ago that McCartney was lobbying Yoko Ono to get the rest of their back catalogue changed back to this original song-writing credit. Thankfully it didn’t happen, and anyway, you never know if things like that are even true. I wouldn’t put it past McCartney to try something like this - he obviously waited until George Harrison died to release Let It Be...Naked - but you’d get the impression that after 40 or so years, he’d be content that his name comes last in 99% of their song-writing credits.

Secondly, the album was famously recorded in one day. I don’t really see that as being anything special though. This happens for a lot of bands - especially on their debut albums - and perhaps this should be a rite of passage for bands recording their first batch of songs.

In terms of their song choices though, I do think that there are a few mistakes. Their original songs really sound very good alongside some very odd covers, but maybe that was the intention. There were better covers recorded during the New Years Day 1962 Decca audition (available on Anthology 1), that would have fit better than some of the covers here, and are closer to the standard of covers they recorded on their second album.

Thirdly, Ringo Starr isn’t the only drummer on the album. He’d later be replaced by McCartney on the occasional track later in their career, but here he is replaced by session man Andy White on their prior single, Love Me Do / P.S. I Love You - both sides of which open the second side of the album. George Martin had expected them to turn up to the session with Pete Best (who had played on their first Parlophone session), had told Brian Epstein that he wouldn’t allow Best to play on another session and that he would supply the drummer next time. When The Beatles then arrived with their newly appointed drummer in tow, Ringo was relegated to tambourine. If nothing else, this story confirms that the band was right to fire Pete Best.

All in all, a very simple album that’s very hard not to like. Sometimes that simplicity turns me off, but I also think that’s where most of its charm comes from. The Beatles would produce works of much greater value and innovation, and it wouldn’t take them long.

Hit: Twist And Shout

Hidden Gem: Baby It’s You

Rocks In The Attic #116: Bob Dylan - ‘Bob Dylan’ (1962)

I’m guessing this isn’t one of Dylan’s favourites. Although - and maybe because - there’s only a few Dylan compositions on here, most of the album doesn’t really fit with his later albums. It’s almost as though he hadn’t worked out to be the enigmatic, mysterious folk singer that everybody knows now.

There’s a whole lot more fun on this album than on later ones - he spends a few moments whooping and hollering on some of the songs (especially Freight Train Blues), which sounds out of character with the serious personality he would become. The liner notes explain that one of his strongest influences is Charlie Chaplin, and that he would borrow some of the actor’s gestures on stage. That sounds pretty terrible - but I guess this influence manifests itself in something like the ‘music video’ that accompanied Subterranean Homesick Blues.

There’s not really a ‘hit’ on this album - but plenty of songs that are familiar in retrospect. Probably the most famous song on here - his cover of House Of The Risin’ Sun was made world-famous by The Animals two or three years later. Similarly, In My Time Of Dyin’ was popularised by Led Zeppelin on Physical Graffiti, and the song Highway 51 suggests that Dylan was listening to the same vein of blues that Jimmy Page would later base his supergroup around.

Hit: House Of The Risin’ Sun

Hidden Gem: In My Time Of Dyin’

Rocks In The Attic #67: The Beatles - ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ (1967)

...and the winner of the most overrated album in the history of pop music goes to...

When I first started listening to music exhaustively in the early 90s, it was widely agreed that Sgt. Pepper’s was the best Beatles album. It wasn’t even questionable. Then, as Britpop came along and prompted a revival of the Beatles and sixties music in general, Revolver quite rightly started to overtake its successor. Nowadays, every music magazine you pick up, or best album polls will proudly place Revolver at the top, with the same single-mindedness that was reserved for Sgt. Pepper’s a couple of decades ago. If this continues, perhaps in 100 years we’ll be seeing Please Please Me as the pinnacle of pop music achievement.

That’s not to say that Sgt. Pepper’s is a bad album, it’s just nowhere near the best of their work. Even the outtakes from these sessions - available on Anthology 2 - show that the band was essentially directionless at this point, and they were given all the time in the world to come up with a new album. Taking lyrics from a newspaper, or a fairground poster is not a stroke of genius, it’s a stroke of laziness. They may have conquered pop music, but I think this album suggests that perhaps they were not the best people to decide where music would turn next.

Also, for a lot of non-musos, this album may be the only Beatles album in their collection. This was true of a friend of mine I went to school and college with. So as far as he was aware, this is what all Beatles albums sounded like - a collection of mid-tempo songs with vaguely abstract lyrics and no real thematic cohesion. He’s probably a Coldplay fan these days...

Hit: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Hidden Gem: Lovely Rita

Rocks In The Attic #19: The Band - ‘The Band’ (1969)

Who can’t love this album? Surely it’s impossible. To me, this and its predecessor Music From Big Pink (1968) are like Rubber Soul and Revolver - two back-to-back classics with mostly interchangeable songs. Or Toys In The Attic and Rocks for Aerosmith fans.

I think I prefer Music From Big Pink as it sounds ever so slightly rougher around the edges. That album sounds like a bunch of guys who had a great idea of making an album, this one sounds much more like they’re hitting their stride.

Levon Helm, the band’s drummer, died not too long ago and it was nice to see a wealth of respect paid to him from the music world. There was a documentary about him playing at the Auckland film festival last year which I couldn’t get to see, but I’ll hopefully get to see it one day.

Hit: Rag Mama Rag

Hidden Gem: Jawbone