Sunday , June 13, 2010
nogoodforme ix: Our Favorite Albums of the 1960s
The Nice, Ars Longa Vita Brevis (1968)
"America"-
Dudes. This album is "dudes." Dudes dudes dudes dude duderson dude dude dudes. Listening to Ars Vita Longa Brevis by the Nice is the closest a girl can ever come to watching a dude jerk off (alone, I mean). At first I thought maybe I love this album because I have some unaddressed penis envy issues that maybe the Nice can help me come to terms with. But then I thought, "Gross! The last thing I'd ever want to be is a dude." Then I cracked down, and stopped lying to myself. I love masturbatory dudefests of records such as this one because: I LOVE DUDES! I only make fun of dudes for jerking off because I'm jealous of them. But maybe it's just time for me to be happy for dudes. Yayyyyy! Jerk the shit out of some proto-prog electric pianner, Keith Emerson! (Laura Jane. Obviously.)
The Rolling Stones, Beggars Banquet (1968)
"Jigsaw Puzzle"-
One reason I'm happy I'm not 25 anymore is I no longer go around saying "If I die anytime soon, please make sure they play 'Jigsaw Puzzle' by The Rolling Stones at my funeral" in this weirdly serious kind of pleading tone. That was bad. I think the idea was that the song "killed me" so much it might actually kill me - which is so fucking melodramatic, but I still kind of get it. I'm a nervous girl, and the guitar on "Jigsaw Puzzle" is the sonic equivalent of a raw nerve being jabbed at over and over, and I GET IT. Another thing I get is the Rolling Stones: I don't always understand what The Beatles are up to, but I'm onto the Stones and they're onto me too. Sometimes they're just boring assholes, but on Beggars Banquet they're the most magnificent assholes in all the world: I get so lumpy-throated on "No Expectations," and goosebump-skinned when Mick sings the bass line at the end of "Stray Cat Blues," and just swoon at his stupid royal feet whenever he throws his rose petals all over the place at the start of "Street Fighting Man." Getting metaphorically murdered by "Jigsaw Puzzle" will always be the best part, though. Please promise me you'll make them play it at my funeral! (Liz)
Count Five, Psychotic Reaction (1965, or 1966, or something)
"Pretty Big Mouth"-
The messed up thing about this one is that I got into Psychotic Reaction by Count Five before I read Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung by Lester Bangs. I was into Psychotic Reaction by Count Five before I even knew Lester Bangs was a person that existed. Aren't I cool? I was listening to Kraftwerk when I was, like, two. But the real point of the story is that everything cool about me can be traced back to meeting Elizabeth Barker during my "formative years." Black Eyes put "Psychotic Reaction" on a mixtape for me at some point during my mid-teens; I fell in love with it, because it's punk-rollicking, and Barker always knows what Laura Jane wants. Then I went to New York City and bought a reissue of the Psychotic Reaction LP at Generation Records on Sullivan Street; later that week, I tried to get addicted to cigarettes, and succeeded. A year later, I read Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung by Lester Bangs, and marveled at how a teenage girl from Oakville, Ontario was somehow able to out-Lester Bangs Lester Bangs, without even taking one sip of generic-brand cough syrup. (LJ)
Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Everybody Knows This is Nowhere (1969)
"Cinnamon Girl"-
In truth, this is really the only 60s-era record I care about on a deeply personal level; anything else for me is just part of a perpetual music education and doesn't re-align the very structure of my DNA in any lasting or soul-altering way. Yeah, Beggar's Banquet is great, and Five Leaves Left and Silver Apples and Kick Out the Jams; so are a million and one records from the 60s, but I don't think I ever felt invested in them. I tried, but I'm over trying and I'm moving on with life in the 21st century. But this record, man...this record just hits me in a way that I'll eternally love. You get all kinds of Neilers on this record: you get sweet, poetic, tender Neilers, but you also get the defiant, irascible one, too. If a boyfriend could be incarnated from a record, I'd want it to be this one, that's how much love and affection I have for Everybody Knows This is Nowhere. I love how it encapsulates the idealism and passion of the late 60s, but there's a sort of darkness, rage and shambolic punkness that's the perfect bridge out of the most disillusion-producing, total-epic-fail decade ever. Leave it to Neil to toss you a lifeboat of a record; he's such a man. (Kat)
The Monkees, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. (1967)
"Star Collector"-
Which Monkee do you think is the foxiest? I'm into Micky Dolenz, the Pisces. A fun Astro-Monkees fact: Davy Jones and Michael Nesmith are both December 30th-born Capricorns, which means that this record could just as easily have been titled "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Nesmith Ltd." I wish it was, I guess. Nesmith is by far and away my second-favorite Monkee. This album is so boppy and fun. What sunny lifely moments it has given me! So many days of tripping down the street to "Salesman" and "She Hangs Out" (which is about me, obviously, since I hang out). My taste in food and my taste in fake 60s psych are one in the same: I like it sweet. When I chew gum, I chew bubblegum. This album sounds like a squeaky carnival. Had I lived in the 1960s, I'm sure I would have found this record trite, pointless and for retarded teenagers, if I'd even gotten around to listening to it at all, which I wouldn't have. I would have resented it for "trying too hard", for being "inauthentic." I would have been a grump and a bore. The best track on this album is "Star Collector," which may as well be Revolver's finest moment. (LJ)
Jan & Dean, Drag City (1963)
"Schlock Rod, Pt. I"-
Drag City by Jan & Dean is my #1 favourite album of all-time. Really! I swear it! I am predictable only in my unpredictability. I am also predictable in that you can always predict, that, no matter what I'm doing, I'm not taking it very seriously. Which is because: life isn't serious. In real life, life is a hilarious romp through laughable madness, and the best parts of it are jokes. Drag City is the funniest album I've ever heard, which means it is tens of thousands of times more relevant than non-funny Beatles albums. Even the best parts of Beatles albums are the jokes! "Schlock Rod, Pt. I" is the most authentically "somebody's got the giggles!"-inducing pop song of all time. If jokes are the best of it, then "Schlock Rod, Pt. I" is about fifty trillion x better than "Hey Jude."
The funniest parts of "Schlock Rod" are "Mickey Mooouuuuse/Squeak! Squeak!" (0:58), "Goodness Gracious, We're travelling fast!" (1:54), and when he calls "antennae" "antennies" (1:35). Not to mention the phrase "Schlock Rod" itself, which is the best alternative to "boner" two Californian teenagers have ever given me. Plus, isn't the entire vocal just so proto- Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz?!? (LJ)
(I crossed out my Lennon/McCartney tattoos and wrote Jan/Dean. I don't know if you can see it, but the sentiment is important to me)
Bob Dylan, Blonde on Blonde (1966)
"Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again":
I first "got" Blonde on Blonde when I was 24, walking down a dead-leafy street in Boston in late October, wearing a long-sleeved tungsten-and-rust-striped button-down shirt, carrying a letter in my pocket. I thought I had shit all figured out but I mostly didn't but probably that's why everything was perfect: If ever there was a record made for walking down the street all hotheaded and genius-like at age 24, it's Blonde on Blonde by Bob Dylan, possibly. And then you get a little older, and some boy puts on Blonde on Blonde in his bedroom one night in the middle of a California winter, and when "One Of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)" comes on you kind of sigh and turn your head away a little and reach for the wine bottle and you're sooooo mysterious! So those are two ways to use Blonde on Blonde. Another is to just play "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" whenever you need to feel hotheaded and genius-like at any age, or whenever you need life to be more good in general. It works, it works, it works. (Liz)
The Beatles, Abbey Road (1969)
"You Never Give Me Your Money"-
And I first "got" Abbey Road driving through a North Carolina snowstorm with my exboyfriend, some lovely night a thousand years ago. He laughed at this one part of "You Never Give Me Your Money" and then I jumped out the window, in a way. Because the thing about "You Never Give Me Your Money" is that 2:49 to 3:24 sounds exactly like what I'm pretty sure being in heaven feels like. And I'm not just thinking about "heaven" because The Beatles are singing the word "heaven": I'm not that impressionable, and the guitar riff that starts at 2:49 makes my head come off and makes my soul shine a beautifully blinding golden light. All of Abbey Road has that golden light kind of feeling, actually, but the spiritual decapitation is what really gets me the most. (Liz)
The Kinks, The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society (1968)
"The Village Green Preservation Society"-
I may have a Muswell Hillbillies-themed foot tattoo, but Village Green is their objective best, and besides, MH is from 1972, so why am I even talking about it? I love the Kinks because I love Ray Davies; I love Ray Davies because he is the only person in the world who understands me. Getting to write about five count-'em five ultimately irrelevant sixties psych and/or fake-psych and/or prog-psych and/or surf-rock records has been one of the most decadent treats of my writing career to date. The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society is all about how 1967 Ray Davies wanted more than anything to preserve a sweet, simple life he feared would be lost, which gave him anxiety: Ray- I GET IT. Listening to Village Green mostly makes me reflect upon how "Laura Jane Is The 1960s Popular Culture Preservation Society"; I really am, you know? Who else would even think to say that sentence? And so, in the grandest and most over-the-top tradition of my #1 favourite front-tooth-gapped sexy genius dude behind the magic/muse/hero: I will use my art, to do my part. (Laura "God Save The Kinks" Jane Faulds)
Tags: 60s psych, Better Than The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Count Five, dudes, funerals, heaven, hotheads, Jan & Dean, Laura loves the Kinks, Mick Jagger, Micky Dolenz, Neil Young, Ray Davies is a genius, Rolling Stones, spiritual decapitation, The Beatles, the most magnificent assholes in all the world, The Nice
Share | 
| 
| 
|
|
Posted by Laura in nogoodforme IX |
Permalink |
Leave a comment |
Comments (7)
+ Contact Us
+ HOME
7 Comments!!
Say something so insightful and witty, it will blow us away. (No pressure.)
Got something to say? We'd love to hear it! Name, email and "type in the weirdo drunken text" thingie are all required to comment; don't worry, we won't email you or anything, we just want to make sure you're not an evil spambot. Keeping in mind the good-times mentality we like to keep going here, we've worked hard to keep NOGOODFORME.COM as fun as possible. We welcome all kinds of comments, but insults/abuse/general bitchery are not tolerated. In other words, we put the smackdown on evil troll posts. If you want to be a hater, please go elsewhere. Now, as Salt 'N Pepa say, "Only the sexy people..."
This post is my baby
By Laura
on August 20, 2009 3:28 PM
i guess that makes it my grandniece, then.
By Liz
on August 20, 2009 4:03 PM
p.s. i'm sooooooo excited that my favorite boyfriend wool hat was born in the week of the ruler, just like me and brother lenny kaye. they're each two days apart from me, on either side...so perfect! i feel such psychic protection all around me now.
By Liz
on August 20, 2009 4:15 PM
i had an epiphany regarding "You Never Give Me Your Money" a few years ago. It may have been residually influenced by seeing Tenacious D incorporate it into a Beatles medley, which was punctuated by Jack Black doing one of his trademark jaunty dances while singing Paul's "out of college/money spent/see no future/pay no rent" part. although that's surely an odd way to gain a fresh appreciation for a song i had known forever, it somehow provided me with the perspective to re-examine it which ultimately lead to a year-long obsession with it. there's a lot going on there, and all of it is awesome.
By Rob on August 20, 2009 5:56 PM
How does one meet people as cool as Elizabeth Barker during one's formative years? Teach me, Laura Jane.
By Clara the annoying fifteen-year-old on August 20, 2009 7:29 PM
rob: that's the part my exboyfriend made fun of! i can kind of see jack black pulling it off though.
clara: awwww, thanks!! lj (and kat) and i know each other through zines and stuff. we heart zines.
By Liz
on August 21, 2009 10:33 AM
Clara: Continuing to read nogoodforme.com is definitely your best bet!
By Laura
on August 21, 2009 2:13 PM