Improving Timeless Masterpieces Dept. - Simon And Garfunkel

I wasn't playing Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme as much as it warrants. It is very much the first in their Pop Masterpiece Trilogy, but it looks like it belongs with the first two albums - folksy, generic, and underproduced, rather than with Bookends and Bridge, and I'm guessing it's played less and underappreciated simply because of this. 

The original presentation [left - Ed.] looks, well, sappy. Whatever they were, Paul n' Art were too testy and angsty, too New York, to be flower children, and this to-camera pose - pleading rather than introspective - does them no favors. Although it's a beautifully balanced composition, the solid black background works against the gentle, summery vibe of the photography. The font is is fussy, lifted from a Hallmark card, and the title?

It's waaay too long, and it's, well, sappy. Like a scented soap gift pack. And it's not the title of a song, either, but a line from Scarborough Fair/Canticle. Hard to say why they chose it, other than it being as sappy as the photograph, and while sap is embedded in S&G's DNA, it's by no means what they were selling on this album. This is where they - mostly - left Greenwich Village behind, and with Roy Halee's genius for startlingly original arrangements and crystalline sound, set out their stall as superlative musicians who just happened to be making pop music.

They didn't get hip to what impact a great cover can have until the next album. There are an infinite number of ways they could have gone for this one - my attempt [above top, just under heading - Ed.] uses a stretched and tinted Michael Ochs portrait. Rubber Soul had pioneered this kind of distortion, and it seems a more appropriate zeitgeit motif than a bunch of goddamn flowers. Canticle carries a liturgical sense, and I hope I've picked up the monkish vibe in the font. It is at least a suitably serious and reflective look, and Ochs' defining shot catches them separate and together, as they always were.

You likely have this already, but maybe you could give it another spin while staring blankly at the new look. Or not - I'm not your Mom.

My first attempt [left - Ed.]. Better/worse/the same, I have no idea. This would have been a groovy gatefold, with a die-cut frame. Click for bigly.

Other improved S&G albums here.

WIN!! Steamy Love Romp With Moviedom's KEIRA KNIGHTLEY* In Our Grand Xmas Competition!!! - Dept.

 

Foam-O-Graph© - Serving Suggestions For The Visually Impaired

Curvy Keira Knightley [above - Ed.] awaits your bidding at luxury love nest Offramp Motel And Poultry Rinse, Buttway, ND! What better way to celebrate eons-old pagan ceremony of Yuletide than steamy love romp with sultry star of TV's Gal Pals?

Simply enter our swell Yuletide Competition and YOUR FLUIDS could be draining down into an array of pink orifices in a nite of savage romance to remember! Should our luscious lady be not to your tastes, simply write in your celeb of choice! Oboy!

How to play? Why, it's as easy as AB3! Using your own words, simply state the connection between these well-known best-selling albums!

Grand Consolation Prize of loaddown deliverable of above albums to first loser who comments!





*should Ms. Knightley, or your celebrity of choice, be unavailable a substitute will be provided at small extra cost. Participation in contest is agreement to rules and conditions.

So Much More Not Less Dept. - Blue Ash

What a fantastic group! Don't stuff them in the power pop pigeonhole - this is pop/rock. Tough, melodic, an American spin on British influences that include the Stones and the Who as much as, if not more than, the Beatles. This is music made when psychedelic rock had whiplashed into rootsy country rock [see our Pulitzer prize-winning Curse Of The Kaftan series - Ed.] of which these guys none were having. Of. They wanted rock on the radio, not rocking on the porch, and they had chops and energy and songs out th' ass. But they were both anachronistic and ahead of their time, rather than of their time, and under-appreciated then and now. 

The blisteringly good debut [above - Ed.] shows they had deep catalog tastes - an unknown Dylan song, and a surprising Beatles cover, both of which they make their own. Second album, which should have broken them nationally, was issued on the already broken Playboy label.

The band formed in '69, naming themselves after their Ohio home town (it says here). Why the town called itself that is a mystery. Maybe it was after the band. A massive cache of unheard and good songs [left - Ed.] appeared in 2004.

This post funded thru endowments from The Potrzebie Foundation and the Peggy Guggenheim Estate.

Surf's Up! Dept.

A surprise find down on the beach today! From out of nowhere, a "reworked and remastered" edition of the first Beach Boys album. It is unofficial, anonymous, "true" stereo, and fantastic. It may not be quite perfect, but it's by some way the best version I've heard (and I've heard a few). I made a new cover [above - Ed.] which you can slide like a decal onto your files, or use the one that comes with the loaddown. I don't care.

The recent big block Beach Boys reissues have been like a one-way ticket to Shrugsville. This is the kind of thing "they" should and could be doing. It gives me hope that as the technology advances and becomes more widely available, we'll be hearing more unofficial , and revelatory, remixes of familiar albums without having to wait for the record companies to come up with the usual tame and disappointing rehashes.

Pete was a fan, even when the album was a whopping four years old. And there's Paul Revere and the Raiders' Just Like Us. Extra points for identifying other albums in the shot.

Perfection Dept. - Christine McVie

By request, Mystery Penguin and Future House.