1964 was a bit more difficult than I first thought. It turned out I had five solid options and the final cut was painful. It came down to The Beatles and Getz / Gilberto. Most of you probably don't consider that a hard decision, but it was for me. Stan Getz will probably be on my Mt. Rushmore of saxophonists and Getz / Gilberto has "The Girl From Ipanema" and "Desifinado", which are jazz classics. The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night was the second album, all-time, to feature all originals by a group or artist. In the end, I decided a Mt. Rushmore for 1964 has to have The Beatles on it.
My number one may, or may not, be a surprise. It's Buck Owens and His Buckaroos I've Got a Tiger By the Tail. Where do I start? The Buckaroos were named by Merle Haggard when he was in Buck's band for a hot minute. I consider Buck and his Buckaroos to be the country music equivalent of Miles Davis' Second Quintet. Buck on vocals and guitar, Don Rich playing lead guitar on a Fender Telecaster, Doyle Holly on bass, Tom Brumley on pedal steel guitar and Willie Cantu on drums. Buck was also a hell of a guitarist. He learned in the Grapes of Wrath era work camps as a kid as his family moved west to Bakersfield, California. He started out as a session player, but eventually came to create The Bakersfield Sound; which went up against the Nashville machine. That's why he was always written off by mainstream country music, until Dwight Yoakam became a champion for his legacy. Buck had an affinity for songs that start with the chorus, like the title track of I've Got a Tiger By the Tail and "Fallin' For You". He was an influence on The Beatles and they covered "Act Naturally", which is another song that begins with the chorus made popular by Buck Owens. Other great Beatles songs that lead with the chorus are "HELP" and "You're Gonna Lose That Girl". Someday, after I reread "Buck 'Em", I will do a post on Buck Owens. He was a one of a kind entertainer. And this album was released two days before I was born, on December 28th.
Number two and three are by two more heads on my saxophone Mt. Rushmore; John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter. Just to end the suspense, Sonny Rollins would be the fourth. Anyhow, Coltrane released Crescent in 1964 with his clasic quartet of McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones. Tyner and Jones also played on Wayne Shorter's 1964 release, Juju. These are both tremendous, overlooked classic jazz records. If you are only passingly familiar with Kind of Blue or Time Out or A Love Supreme, I would recommmend really digging into these albums. They are top shelf hard bop.
So, number four is A Hard Day's Night. It's a movie soundtrack, but it's all originals written at the time. Of course, it begins with that iconic chord being struck at the beginning of "A Hard Day's Night". Then there's that classic "music video" during the film where they play "Can't Buy Me Love" while they are frolicking around in a park. Truthfully, it's not high in my ranking of Beatles records, but the movie is fantastic. It was an important album in the band's development and a critical landmark in the history of rock music. Therefore, Mt. Rushmore worthy.
Tomorrow is the Sixties recap. Since there were only six years covered, I will pick a few wildcards to round it out to a top ten. This exercise has been fun and it made me post everyday, so win-win. Peace.
No comments:
Post a Comment