In a recent Word Podcast, David and Mark discuss that recent Rolling Stone best 500 Albums list, in which Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On is Number One. DH refers to it as a “hammock album” – one great track to start (the title track), one to end (Inner City Blues), but a bit saggy in the middle. I must say I kind of agree, although I do love those two tracks.
But I can’t off the top of my head think of another hammock album…over to youse…
http://wordpodcast.co.uk/2020/09/29/podcast-350-do-we-still-need-these-greatest-album-lists/
Mousey says
H.P. Saucecraft says
… a hammock album should have a hook at each end, right?
Kaisfatdad says
And there I was, thinking this was a thread about smooth, sunny sounds that would be a soundtrack for a snooze!!
Martin Hairnet says
DH does enjoy his labels. I like saggy. It’s often the best bit, the place where you have the time and the room to stretch out. It’s like a long simmer. Too many hooks spoil the broth.
Moose the Mooche says
He thinks “Right On” is a saggy bit in the middle. Respectfully, he can fuck off. Peace and love.
Junior Wells says
Heppers enthusiasm for blues, funk and soul is pretty shallow.
Moose the Mooche says
I refuse to believe he’s played it more than a couple of times. What he means is that he likes the singles he already knows from the radio, which is a bit pathetic.
Tiggerlion says
Sgt Pepper?
Moose the Mooche says
You are John Lennon and I claim my ten bob note. Sanitise it first please.
Black Celebration says
A variation on the hammock concept could be a storming opening track – other songs – and then a reprise of the opening track at the end.
I therefore bring your attention to Trans Europe Express by Kraftwerk – which opens with Europe Endless and er, ends with Endless Endless.
As with all hammocks, the decline is steepest at the head end – and so we plunge into a Teutonic abyss with Hall of Mirrors and Showroom Dummies. Once we get to the middle, we plateau at the bum area and then a pleasingly consistent gentle gradient upwards with TEE/Metal on Metal/Franz Schubert/Abzug.
Just like a hammock then.
Rigid Digit says
Who’s Next is another example
Opening with Baba O’Riley and closing with Won’t Get Fooled Again, the bits in the middle never really stood a chance.
Very fine saggy though.
TRMagicWords says
I think you’d have to allow for Bargain, which comes straight after Baba O’Riley, and Behind Blue Eyes, which immediately precedes Won’t Get Fooled Again.
Granted, the remainder is less distinguished, but the best bits lift the whole. Also, what they could have included could have eliminated the saggy middle: Pure And Easy, Let’s See Action, Naked Eye etc.
Moose the Mooche says
Tsvimbodze Moto by The Bhundu Boys is not a hammock album. I was in a hammock on afternoon in the summer of 1995, somebody put that album on and a few minutes later I was jigging about so much that I fell out.
salwarpe says
Were you alone in the hammock?
Moose the Mooche says
What do you bloody think?
salwarpe says
…so they all rolled over and one fell out.
Moose the Mooche says
Why the knot in the pyjamas? Always puzzled me.
moseleymoles says
I was thinking this about the new Phoebe Bridgers album Punisher.
At the start which is great.
moseleymoles says
At the end…which is stupendous and there’s some nice but not particularly amazing songs between.
Black Celebration says
Getting out of a hammock needs careful thought. Trying to dismount from the side risks an undignified calamity. You become a helpless Jack Douglas character flubbering around like a twitching fish on the deck of a Grimsby trawler. You were hoping to relax…but now look at you.
So you’re lying on the hammock and you’re ready to get off. First thing to do is part your legs as far as they will go – and then allow both feet to be flat on the ground. Stand up in one fluid movement without grunting. You are now A number One, top of the heap., king of the hill.
Moose the Mooche says
Falling out of one is not quite as undignified as leaping “into” one and missing.
Black Celebration says
Getting into a hammock with dignity involves the reversal of my dismount technique.
If the hammock is too high off the ground, you’re on your own.