the rix mix

that made big impressions on me:

• The Beach Boys: The Beach Boys Today (1965)
• Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
• The Animals: Animalization (1966)
• Mothers of Invention: Freak Out! (1966)
• The Rolling Stones: Between the Buttons (Jan 1967)
• The Doors: The Doors (Jan 1967)
• Love: Forever Changes (1967)
• Nazz: Nazz (1968)
• Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969)
• The Stooges: The Stooges (1969)

Sure, all these are considered major or minor classics now, but none of them came to me on the recommendation of rock critics. I bought a lot of LPs on the basis of hits, buzz, suggestions from friends, chance, or because I was already a fan. I had a higher opinion of The Beach Boys & The Stones records than the devotees of those groups; the former had no megahit & the latter was another step away from raw R&B. Nobody else I knew enjoyed or cared about The Mothers except my girlfriend, the album was hilarious & very daring, & a bunch of Zappa's lines entered our private code. I didn't even like The Stooges, but the overall tone of the album ("I Wanna Be Your Dog") fascinated me at a time when rock was headed in entirely different directions, I'd hardly have considered them influential, given that the record went into cutout bins only months after its release.

I did love Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys, it was recognized immediately as a special record. While I admired the achievement of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band , nothing on that record gave me as much pleasure as "Rain" & "Paperback Writer." Highway 61 was my Pepper, the watershed record that changed how I listened to rock. No that's not true; "Like A Rolling Stone" did.

We all listened to & liked crap. Crappy bands often made great singles - still do, & sometimes you had to hear the album with the hit on it to know the band was crappy. Sometimes an album revealed the opposite, an under-rated band. It was a fun time also because we weren't overwhelmed with new music; no regional "indie" records made it into New York area stores without a major label distribution deal. There were whole other music scenes going on in England & Europe that didn't get here all. Although choices were fewer, & we missed out on many wonderful records that had to wait until the 80s & later for rediscovery, Sixties music was less complicated & easier to share & compare.

The All Music Guide reviews say pretty much what I would about the albums.

Labels: growing up, music