In 1966 [reminisces Steve Shark - Ed.], not content with releasing a record album, or LP as they quaintly called them back then, record company execs decided more was better. So, welcome to the double album.
The first double album of the rock era was Dylan's Blond on Blond, closely followed by the Mothers of Invention with Freak Out! Many more followed - some good, some bad, and some, rather like a 70s porn star's bush, that might benefit from a light pruning.There were even triple albums - remember Yes' Yessongs? I've seen it, but never knowingly heard it - a situation I'm perfectly happy with [tsk! - Ed.].
So; 2 sides, 4 sides, 6 sides of music - but here's a thing, what about albums with 3 sides?
Here's three of the best three-sided albums that originally appeared that way in vinyl form, and weren't rejigged to have three vinyl sides in later reissues.
A mere 11 tracks spread over three sides. to ensure that all the music was cut to be as loud as possible - the closer the grooves are, the quieter the album, and also with more chance of the stylus jumping. No fourth side, because there wasn't enough material recorded. It's considered to be the first 3 sided rock album and it's very good, with everything from rock and roll to extended guitar wig-outs, taking in straight blues and a Dylan cover along the way. JW even plays electric mandolin on one track.
Also his first release on CD, Joe was determined that the vinyl and CD versions would be exactly the same, so the music just takes up 3 sides of vinyl. It was recorded in a theatre n front of an audience which was asked to applaud only when the music had properly finished, so it comes across as a studio album. It's my favourite JJ album, with the snotty voiced Joe on top form fronting a very tight band, in which the guitar playing of Vinnie Zummo really shines. Highlights include the stop/start anthemic Wild West, the jangly Home Town and the merciless ridiculing of tourists in Jet Set.
Technically a 4 sided release, although I'm discounting side 4 (track 12 on the CD version here) as it's just 12 minutes of silence interspersed with infrequent and random snatches of conversation and other cruft. It's an odd album with some very straight forward jazz, as well as some very Milesish grooves. Every so often there are explosions, the sound of horses galloping, and Kirk rambling. It was panned when it was released in 1975 - "indulgent" quoth one critic - but if you can get past the inconsistency of the whole concept, it has some real gems in there.
Why the Beau Brummels' Triangle didn't make the cut is a conundrum, but here's th' Sharkster's linquage du jour:
ReplyDeleteShort back and three sides.
I had a Monty Python vinyl record with three sides. It was one disc, three sides, with two of the sides being grooved right next to each other. You determined which of the concentric sides to play by how close you started the needle to the edge.
ReplyDeleteI used to bet people it had three sides, & I never lost, because it did! lol
re: Yessongs is my favorite Yes album. he he
Come on Yes, put out a 7 sided album, that'll show all the naysayers who's 'boss prog'!
DeleteI wasn't "high" when I first listened to "The Monty Python Matching Tie And Handkerchief", but I've long mused on how I would have reacted had I been....
DeleteThe only threesided lp that I was aware of was The Parkerilla by Graham Parker, but as befits the qualification for being on False Memory Isle, it did have a 4th side, akbeit only one track, so no prize there then.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Parkerilla
Second Winter. Thanks for the memory and apologies in advance...
ReplyDeleteY'all, I had, by any reasonable definition, a fairly amazing high school girlfriend (ages 16-18) who was impossibly cool, insanely hip, a long tall drink of water who had been bounced out of a boarding school in Florida for transgressions my 16 year old self had not yet even imagined. She taught me to play the guitar, drove an MG (I shared an ancient light blue "semi-automatic" VW "Bug" whose battery stayed in courtesy of a frisbee) with her knees holding a cigarette in one hand and a go cup in the other and talking non-stop, and was willing to sneak in and out of my bedroom window at night ...I kinda thought I had died and gone to heaven. She was _WAY_ outta my league in most every way you can imagine, somewhat batshit crazy, and we are friends to this day. She has been through a coupla husbands and now has herself a plantation with a name in Virginia. She also carried an enormous purse (as in she could toss clothes in it for a weekend) which on occasion she generously used to steal me albums from record stores.
If you're still with me, on one such occasion, for reasons I no longer remember, it was "Second Winter" and damned if we didn't figure out most of side 2 of that weird three sided set, which if memory serves (this part I think I've got), was "Slippin' and Slidin'," "Miss Annie," "Johnny B Goode," and "Highway 61 Revisited." On a Yamaha concert size acoustic, lol.
Thank you for making me think about all this...off to text her now.
ps she insisted on teaching me "'Roundabout," so she was not perfect...
It's comments like these that make the sand on the beaches of False Memory Foam Island© so supremely fine. Ask her if she'd like to write a piece. The remuneration - barely into six figures* - is negligible, but the cachet is life-changing.
Delete(*all to the right of the decimal point)
She sounds fantastic Eric, I enjoyed reading about your memories.
DeleteThat comment made me think of the Band's "Cripple Creek".
DeleteShe sounds amazing.
Nice story, Eric.
DeleteShe's gonna pass, though after making fun of me for telling y'all she allowed as how one of her kids is after her to write a memoir, so I may be keep trying. She has led an interesting life to say the least. And as I said in the acknowledgements to one of my sad geeky academic books, believed in me long before I did. One more: when I brought the women to whom I am married (almost 40 years now) home to meet my family of origin, the day after we got there she walked into the house --I have no idea how she knew we were there--having driven about 300 miles and whisked her away for about 6 hours. When they returned she pronounced her acceptable, told me not to fuck it up, hopped back in her car, and drove off. Seriously. It was like a movie.
DeleteEric, what is the subject of your "geeky academic books"?
DeleteI have nothing to add to the three-sided conversation (since Konrad beat me to the Monty Python mention), but Eric's sweet story reminded me...
ReplyDeleteWas it here on the IoF that someone mentioned a hip girlfriend who was into the Japanese psych rock band Angel'in Heavy Syrup? Someone who asked for any records by said band? I found an active link on another blog (other posts on the blog include disturbing content, just FYI):
https://selfishfew.blogspot.com/2022/01/angelin-heavy-syrup-i-iv-discography.html
Now that I think about it, I had a Devo live album with three sides. The 4th was autographs that would wreck your stylus.
ReplyDeleteThe 3, 5, and 7 sided LPs show up on syndicated radio broadcasts every so often, too.
ReplyDeleteFine albums Steve Shark. I've got to suggest if you like Joe Jackson, the OST Mikes Murder is a wonderful yet not very well known JJ album (only 2 sided).
ReplyDeleteThe other 3 sided album I have is Julian Cope - Jehovakill, the 4th side is an etched illustration of the 5000 year old megalithic stone structure of Callanish, Outer Hebrides.
When I first got hold of MM by JJ, someone told me it was for a non-existent film - a spoof OST, as it were. I guess the confusion was that little of Joe's music actually made it to the final movie cut.
DeleteNot seen the film, but really liked the album.
Deletehttps://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/three-sided-rock-vinyl-double-albums.331365/
ReplyDeleteNo need to be pissy about "Yessongs". It has all Yes's best tracks played magnificently tightly, and the band are at the top of their game. No "Wonderous Stories", no sodding "Circus of Heaven", and the epic here is the laudable "Close to the Edge", and not "The Ancient".
ReplyDeleteNot being pissy - just never managed to get into the band. It's just not to my taste. I don't like Jon Anderson's voice or Steve Howe's guitar playing.
DeleteI quite liked the albums they did with Peter Banks.
I have Yessongs and Fragile, never play them though.
DeleteAnderson's voice is a bit shrill, but as a 15 year old I loved Yessongs, all the great songs and fabulous Roger Dean cover art. However Mr Grimsdale I must say I've grown to enjoy Topographic Tales a lot over recent years. I also dig out ELP occasionally, although Tarkus is mostly awful IMO.
DeleteBabs give Fragile a go again one day, that's a nicely recorded album.
They're a phase band for me. Every few years, I ignore that weird voice up-front and enjoy the musicality, the ambition, and the capacity to deliver an epic.
DeleteInteresting idea for screed, Steve.
ReplyDeleteMy parents had a few three-sided Opera records. Once, at the age of 8, I tried to play one of the side 4s, and inadvertently invented Hip-Hop in 1954.
Three sided records I have, that have not been mentioned:
Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Americana
Donald Fagen - Sunken Condos (on clear vinyl)
Robert Plant - Band of Joy
Slightly off-topic: A friend of mine has the Led Zeppelin 45 rpm Box Set, which is 48 single sided 12" records. They sound amazing.
I've just remembered a vinyl oddity. Moby Grape album Wow, last track on side one plays at 78rpm. I've just checked, the newish double reissue of the album still has this rather annoying yet unique quirk.
ReplyDeleteAll the young people reading this (!) must be laughing at us talking about 3 sided albums, clear vinyl and 48 single sided Zeppelin 12" records. Still youngsters it's your loss.
I have my finger on the pulse of the youth market (and have several restraining orders to prove it), and vinyl is the only way to go for The Young People Of Today. Cassettes, even, but never CDs. That's if they bother with the tangible form at all - the ones I know all stream playlists, and don't have the attention span for one album side, leave alone three.
DeleteThere are young people here???
ReplyDeleteI'd better put some trousers on!
I may be wrong but I'm probably the young 'un around here at a sprightly 44...so, uh, yeah, no youngsters. I mean, you mention a freakin' DVD nowadays, and the streaming crowd looks at you weirdly and with mild pity ("DVD, gramps? Really?").
ReplyDeleteI've had no tangible music or movies or books for almost fifteen years now. I miss my books - jeez, I had a collection - but MP3 is such a revolution - free! flexible! fun! Anything that checks those boxes is jake with me.
DeleteWhat I find DVDs are good for are the commentaries. They don't always add anything, but some of them are too good to just lose.
DeleteThanks for these. I was at some of those Joe Jackson shows, I have both the LP and CD, but hadn't listened to Big World in a long while. It really is a great (and great sounding) album of superbly written songs performed by a top-notch combo. I remember speaking to Vinny Zummo after a show at either Radio City or the Beacon Theater, when he came down onto the floor. I told him I liked his playing and he replied (in Brooklynese) "Why don't you tell Guitar Player to do an article on me."
ReplyDeleteA couple of albums - not exactly what one might expect. Interesting, though.
Deletehttps://workupload.com/file/6znS3y4eSus
Thank you, Steve. I'll give a listen.
DeleteI have some VZ solo stuff. I'll load up an upload when I can access my music. Essential power outage here for another few hours.
ReplyDeleteThanks Steve! Somehow this Joe Jackson album escaped my notice before now so that one is a new one for me. Interesting piece as always!
ReplyDelete