I’ve read the book and am ready to deliver the result. The album he gives a good kicking to is What’s Goin’ On. At one point, he suggests Rock critics often choose it as a great only because they feel guilty about favouring white acts. Other than that, he seems to like everything he mentions. @Rigid-Digit nominated four albums, The Faces A Nod Is As Good As A Wink, Cat Stevens Teaser, Black Sabbath Masters Of Reality & Rod’s Every Picture. He loves them all. In fact, my impression is that the Rod album is his second favourite of 1971 after Who’s Next. The biggest surprise, to me, is that he rates The Carpenters (the album), scuppering @Didley-Farquar ‘s chances.
In the absence of someone selecting the criminally under-rated What’s Goin’ On, I’m having to go with the ignored. The following nominations, neither act nor album, are mentioned:
@retropath2 – Commander Cody’s Lost in The Ozone
@ernietothecentreoftheearth – Shirley Collins & The Albion Country Band’s No Roses
@The-Actual-North – Mogul Thrash
@Hawkfall – Flower Travelin’ Band
@H-P-Saucecraft – Byrdmaniax
@Kaisfatdad – Carla Bley Escalator Over The Hill
@JQW – Alice Coltrane Universal Consciousness
@Alias – Pharoah Sanders Black Unity
@ip33 – Bedknobs & Broomsticks Soundtrack
@retropath20 – The Best Of Top Of The Pops ’71
Hard lines everyone else but thank you for participating.
I’m disqualifying the Jazz albums as the book is about Rock music, although the ones nominated are of extremely high quality. I’m disqualifying Country type music because I don’t like it. What do you mean? I don’t make the rules, I just have to apply them. Hepworth is quite right to overlook Byrdmaniax because it’s rubbish. I’m in no position to judge Mogul Thrash, having never heard of them and I have no desire to find out.
That means, the winner is….*drumroll*….*more drumroll*….*even more drumroll*….BigJimBob!! Those compilations were a big feature of 1971, consisting of quaint cover versions, pre K-Tel and Now. Lots of people bought them. Someone made a lot of money. He should have had a section in the book dedicated to their charms.
If Jim could send me his bank details, including passwords, I’ll send him the money tout suite. If anyone feels aggrieved, they simply have to send their bank details, including passwords, and I’ll recompense them.
Well done Jim! And well-played, tigs.
Am only up to June in the book at the moment, due to a massive noggin-ache yesterday which ruled out a planned day of blissful reading.
(I can’t bite my lip any longer: it’s Master of Reality, not Masters. Phew, that’s better.)
Dolly’s album got two mentions, albeit very brief ones.
‘Masters Of Reality’ scans better but what can you do with boys from the Black Country?
Still haven’t even opened the book yet (it’s sitting there staring at me, but I can’t find the time to devote to it at the moment).
Maybe he’s not the total contrarian I thought he was – Rod, Black Sabbath and Cat Stevens all getting a mention.
I’v heard a similar version of the What’s Going On story before (I think it was on Danny Bakers Album thingy last year), and I sort of agree with him on that point.
(This in no way is meant as a criticism of the album – I do own it, and have played more than the regulation 6 times before passing opinion. It’s just not in my Top 50 (unless I was a rock journo, and then I might revise it just to show more cosmopolitan tastes))
They don’t just get a mention, Rigid. They get ten thumbs up!
Sorry I missed the contest. Does Gentle Giant’s, (Visconti produced) “Acquiring The Taste” get a mention?
A fave of mine.
Gentle Giant are mentioned (not the album) but only in the context of their name lacking the definitive article. Their music is ignored.
Who is thinking, like I’m thinking, that Tiggs thinks No Roses is country (as in western) music? I think we should put him right. (I’m actually more shocked that Heppo ignored it, feeling it up there with Liege and Lief in the electric folk canonography of this country.)
Now Mr Gloves, 6x before bedtime!!
I’ll be testing you, mind. What distinctive percussion adds to the atmosphere in the last verse?
Is it finger cymbals?
(I’m guessing. I’m never going to listen to it, obvs.)
Country? Folk? What’s the difference?
I’d guess the triangle but What’s Goin’ On is peak triangle.
Tubular Bells?
I recognise the importance of No Roses and acknowledge the heavyweight all-star line-up, but can’t listen to it very often because of dear Shirley’s voice. To my ears she sings ever-so-slightly flat and I’m constantly aware of it, which quashes any enjoyment I might otherwise gain from the album.
I feel the same way about all her work, up to and even including the ground-breaking and otherwise essential Folk Roots, New Routes with Davy Graham.
I have a similar problem with Maddy Prior. To my ears, she’s often not quite on the note.
Don’t get me started on Frank.
You know you want to. Especially as it’s almost a trick question. Resist and you have only yourself to blame.
I wuz robbed !
We’ll see.
Send me your bank details, including passwords, and I’ll recompense you.
The ‘Thrash wuz robbed….
If it’s any compensation, they came second just ahead of Bedknobs & Broomsticks.
Whither The Osmonds, then, eh? Rock snobbery of the worst kind if you ask me!
He did talk about The Osmonds, not as album artists but as brazen Jackson 5 copyists.
I note that this is No1 in the tax dodgers best seller chart in the genre ‘World History 1901-1913
It certainly reads better as a historical tome than a book enthusiastic about Rock music.
If I’d spotted this I’d have nominated Stormcock by Roy Harper on the grounds that The Hep loathes Harper (bar An Old Cricketer).
Anyway I’ll hear more tonight as I’m going to the Word In Your Ear event.
No opinion of Stormcock is expressed. It is merely stated that it sold less than Sticky Fingers.
Anyone who believes that the acclaim for What’s Going On is some form of inverse racism is an overt bellend.
Overt Bellend – TMFTL
No Escalator?
That blog off the Then Play Long blog will blow his bloody stack.
Seriously, it’s a major piece of work and right on the money in terms of encapsulating the shameless ambitiousness of yer actual seventy-one.
That bloke, not that blog. Fookin’ ‘ell.
Ambitiousness? Yes, good point Moose. And that’s one hell of a blog.
http://nobilliards.blogspot.se/2012/12/various-artists-last-dance_6128.html
I’m not at all surprised that those three jazz albums weren’t mentioned. But maybe it would have been an even better book if he had chosen t cast his net more widely.
And erm…..I seem to owe Tigger some money.
One Jazz album is featured in the best of year list but is nowhere in the text of the book. Which artist do Rock critics turn to first for a Jazz representative? Why! It’s our old friend, Miles Davis. Let’s not be too picky, though. A Tribute To Jack Johnson is probably Jazz’s most Rock album.
As for the cash, just send me your bank details, KFD, and I’ll electronically extract what you owe.
I missed the comp and will avoid the book but did he mention Gene Clark’s White Light? Probably not ….
Indeed it does. Gene Clark gets a few mentions and White Light enjoys a whole sentence of glowing praise.
How much coverage does Zappa get, Tigger?
A decent chunk, especially in the December chapter when disaster befell him.
Oh, good for him!