Some Words from the Bird

  Listening to this album, I have a sense that I am quite familiar with these songs. It is not just listening to songs by the same artist over and over again, this is essentially the same album as the one reviewed in the last post, "With The Beatles." So, as promised, I am going to explain why I thought that album's ranking of number 420 was a little bit low.  Here is why. The track listings are exactly the same with the exception of the differences. Duh. "Meet The Beatles" includes only three tracks that were not on "With The Beatles".  Two of these tunes are "I Want To Hold Your Hand", and "I Saw Her Standing There" (borrowed from the first album). In my opinion, this trumps all five of the cover tunes on the other album. Throw in "This Boy", which isn't bad, but after the energy of the aforementioned tracks, it seems like a bit of a downer, and there is an excellent argument that "Meet The Beatles" is ...

  We are back with the Fab Four again. Get used to it, it is a recurring theme. This is their second album released in the UK. It has well known originals and several covers, and was certainly instrumental in building this little band from Liverpool into the rock and roll icons they are today. I was listening to Howard Stern interview Paul McCartney a little while back and he described the progression of the songwriting of the Beatles, claiming that at first they were singing simple songs directly to the listener and then realized that they could broaden the scope and depth of the songs by encompassing a variety of topics. This album falls into the early stages, but damn, those songs are well written. Here is a link to that interview. I found it fascinating.  When I was beginning to play the guitar, I found a book of my father's, that contained the chords to several Beatles songs. Many of the tracks on this album were my favourites, as they were  not so comp...

 Here we go again. Take two. The actual album included in the original Rolling Stone list is "Go Bo Diddley". But if you read the entry on the RS website, it includes his eponymous first album. There was a reissue in 1990 of these two albums, and that is what Rolling Stone included at number 214 on the  500 Greatest Albums of All Time . I think. The matter is further confused with Rolling Stone using the cover art only from "Go Bo Diddley", as opposed to the repackaged 1990 set that was included on the list. Since it really doesn't matter anyway, I have bought the reissue and will now proceed to post about it.  Having just listened to the two albums for the fifth or sixth time, I have to say that I am not as enamored with these albums as the one that I previously posted about. I think these albums are more what I was expecting; mostly blues with a little rock and roll thrown in. There isn't the genre bending to the extent that appeared on the later album. ...

 This album caught me unawares. I was expecting more blues that would be a nice listen, but didn't feel that I was going to be getting excited about it. I knew "Hey Bo Diddley" and figured it was going to be a half hour of similar music. Well, I wasn't completely wrong, that is exactly what this album is, but a lot more so. Mr. Diddley has far more depth than I expected. What a pleasant surprise!  He starts with a three minute throwing down of the gauntlet to Nikita Khrushchev, suggesting that Americans needed to stand up to their Soviet rivals. He'd like a few minutes of the Soviet leaders' time, mano-a-mano, to discuss the Cold War. Ostensibly to deliver a South Side Chicago style ass-whooping. I'm sure the sentiment held more water in the days before the winds of change brought down the Iron Curtain back in the nineties. (Scorpions reference intended).  Next up is a track that catches my attention. Called simply "Diddling" it is a groovy r...