JDIZZY's 365 # 22: After The Goldrush

After The Goldrush - Neil Young (1970)

Few lines in song have captured my imagination as well as "Look at mother nature on the run in the 1970's". Written for an abandoned screenplay by Dean Stockwell, Shakey presents us with a dichotomy of visual stimulus in this lyrical masterpiece. I've never quite grasped what the song is about, but I've always pictured a spiritual awakening brought on by extra-terrestrial visitors, who allow the lucky to go "flying mother nature's silver seed to a new home in the sun". Not bad for a song intended for a western. CSN were never better than when Neil was with them, and his solo work is a vast catalog of excellence. Peruse it at will.

JDIZZY's 365 # 21: Donald and Lydia

Donald and Lydia - John Prine (1971)

O' Henry enters the popular song. Presented here is the fully formed story of two outcasts who love each other one night "from ten miles away". The twist ending still grabs you after repeated listenings, as do some of the finest similes in the English language. John Prine would never reach the heights of perfection that he scaled on his first album, but then again, who could? He places a career's worth of classics onto one 44-minute platter, and anyone who loves a good yarn should get to know each and every character that stalks those grooves.

God bless YouTube, they are giving us two classics for the price of one here, as well as an informative interview!!!

JDIZZY's 365 # 20: In The Heat Of The Morning

In The Heat Of The Morning - David Bowie (1967)

Before he became Ziggy Stardust, The Thin White Duke was a struggling singer/songwriter trying to figure out his sound. Of course, later on he would realize that a sound was irrelevant and change his with every consecutive album. However, deep within a period of laughing gnomes, Oedipal uncles and silly boy blues, the former Mr. Jones wold pen a song that would be introduced to many of his younger fans via the 2000 BBC compilation Bowie at the Beeb. It is a luxury not afforded to any of his other '67 gems. Maybe it's my long-standing love of the Toytown movement of Psychedelia, but this material has always been my favorite of his career. It is the sound of a truly unique artist in popular culture testing out the waters for the first time.



Then in 2008, The Last Shadow Puppets brought it back with a brilliant cover!

JDIZZY's 365 # 19 : Jeremy Bender

Jeremy Bender - Emerson, Lake and Palmer (1971)

They have been soft and they have been hard. They have been epically subtle and they have been obviously epic. They have been reviled and they have been given a reappraisal. They are ELP, and they are the reason I love Progressive Rock. Discovering Tarkus in my father's record collection years before I even knew Peter Gabriel was in Genesis, they entranced me with their cover art. After dropping the needle on this Cotillion Records release I was taken to a strange land, with strange creatures called Tarkus and Manticore. And oh, those synthesizers!!! This story of Jeremy, a cross-dressing "man of leisure" was a happy-go-lucky respite after the previous earth-shaking mythology (even if I had no idea how one "spends his pleasure in the evening sun"). Clocking in at just under two minutes, I regard no end-of-a -side mixtape filler higher(except maybe Terrance & Phillip singing "Uncle F**kah").

JDIZZY's 365 # 18 : Grocer Jack

Grocer Jack (Excerpt From A Teenage Opera) - Keith West (1967)

1967 was a year for many musical milestones, including Sgt. Pepper, The Smile Sessions, Their Satanic Majesties Request and Piper at the Gates of Dawn. However, a simple tale of a dying grocer sparked the British imagination as well, catapulting the song to #2 on the Pop Charts. It is similar in a way to songs from Brian Wilson's masterpiece, not just because they both come from unfinished albums, but they were both trying to take teeny-bopper pop to a more sophisticated level. They were reaching for the heights set by the Beatles on Rubber Soul and Revolver. Of course, '67 was to be the Beatles' year for groundbreaking material but the pop experiments of lesser-known artists, like this diamond-in-the rough from producer Mark Wirtz and singer Keith West, are ripe for rediscovery, especially in the psuedo-psychedelic scene indie rock has found itself mutating towards.

JDIZZY's 365 # 17 : Waterloo Sunset

Waterloo Sunset - The Kinks (1967)

Ray Davies embraces his English heritage on this song, no longer worrying himself with American blues derivatives. Actors and lovers Terrance Stamp and Julie Christie are name-checked as they meet in the Waterloo Station, but even celebrity sightings cannot bring our narrator out of his house. There is no need for him to bother with such trivial details when he can gaze at the sunset from the comfort of his window. Isolation has never sounded so poetic, beautiful and anglophilic through and through. Ray Davies would become the king of the British Narrative in popular song, inspiring Jarvis Cocker, Damon Albarn and many others along the way. And it all began with a #2 hit in England that didn't even chart here.



Even Prog Rockers love this song!

JDIZZY's 365 # 16 : Uncle Albert/ Admiral Halsey

Uncle Albert/ Admiral Halsey - Paul & Linda McCartney (1971)

Paul McCartney made a valid case for medleys in rock and roll with Side 2 of Abbey Road. With this ditty off of his second solo album, he encapsulated that idea into a single song in just under five minutes. Memories of my father screaming, "But We Haven't Done A Bloody Thing All Day!" while listening to this on a portable cd player at our summer lake trailer always brings a smile to my face. Along with Let Him In and C Moon, I believe this is McCartney at his most mischievous, satirical and fun. His solo and Wings work have been overlooked for far too long. It's time for a re-evaluation. Thankfully, they are starting to be reissued this year. The ball's in your court, Rolling Stone!



And here's an easy-listening version from Paul's craziest project Thrillington!