Recommendation Thread: 1966

[Live in Phoenix]

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Welcome to 1966, home of Revolver, the #1 AM album of all-time; Pet Sounds, the other #1 AM album when Revolver isn't; and Blonde on Blonde, AM’s original #1 album of all-time (these last two albums being released on the very same day, May 16). For that matter, the #1 AM album in our album poll, The Velvet Underground & Nico, was recorded entirely this year, all of it in the first half of the year except for “Sunday Morning” -- which was released as a single this year. The Album Age is not fully upon us, with only the top 6 albums of ’66 within the all-time top 500 (compared with the top 18 albums of ‘67); but there is a lot to choose from, including the beginning of the Kinks’ new direction, and the beginning of Neil Young beyond his Archive years.

Even amidst all the worship this year gets, it does feel pretty special to me. The Beach Boys click for me in a way that they don't nearly as much any other year. I remember thinking Revolver was my favorite Beatles album when I first began listening to it, and even now it's just one slot down. Blonde on Blonde is my favorite Dylan album -- and my favorite album, period, of the '60s. And all of this was back when walking out on a limb in terms of subject matter, sonics, album length, etc., was not exactly expected. (Speaking of going out on a limb -- The Beatles stop touring this year, after their Candlestick Park concert in San Francisco. No film commitments, even. Whatever are they going to do next?)


Some favorites:
The Beach Boys - Wouldn't It Be Nice video promo

The Beatles - Yellow Submarine (clips from movie)

Buffalo Springfield - Out of My Mind

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Hey Joe

The Kinks - Rosie Won't You Please Come Home

The Kinks - Sunny Afternoon video promo

The Seeds - Pushin' Too Hard, on Casey Kasem's Shebang!
(Rolling Stone once joked, "Two great chords - five great albums!")

Frank Sinatra - Strangers in the Night

Percy Sledge - When a Man Loves a Woman

The Velvet Underground - All Tomorrow's Parties (single edit)


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[DaveC]

No doubt Honorio will have eloquent things to say about this*. I can only encourage you to listen to it: Violeta Parra - Las últimas composiciones de Violeta Parra

I expect the opening track ‘Gracias A La Vida’ to get strong support in our songs poll. Despite a sparse production and limited instrumentation, the album is extraordinarily varied and repays multiple listens.

*And thank you Honorio for your great non-English recommendations.

[Andre]

1966, what a year!

3 baroque pop songs that are not listed in AM:

Vashti - Train Song


Vashti - Love Song


Los Pekenikes - Hilo De Seda


And 3 garage rock gems that are also not listed in AM:

The Human Expression - Love At Psychedelic Velocity

The Squires - Going All The Way


The Savages - You're On My Mind

[Honorio]

This time "only" 6 non-English recommendations from 1966 (with 10 more as a bonus):



a) Spanish:
Yes, DaveC, you guessed it perfectly, the best non-English album of 1966 in my opinion is "Las últimas composiciones de Violeta Parra" ("The Last Compositions of Violeta Parra," Spotify link). The album title ended being sadly prophetic, initially it only alluded to a collection of her most recent songs but after Violeta Parra committed suicide in February of 1967 (only four months after the album release) the title changed its meaning completely. Violeta suffered a loving disappointment when her lover left her (she was 50 years old and he was half her age, a public scandal in Chile-during-the-sixties terms).
Sadly for the ones who don't understand Spanish, this is one of those albums that you need to understand the lyrics to fully enjoy it. The music backing was extremely spare (most of the songs only feature voice and charango or guitar) but the lyrical content was extremely rich. The most renowed songs were chants to the joy of life, not devoid of some pain ("Gracias a la vida," "Thanks to Life," the recommended song) or longing ("Volver a los 17," "Back to seventeen"). But there were songs that showed vividly the extreme pain and the internal turmoil of the singer-songwriter, songs like "Run run se fue pa'l Norte" ("Run Run He Went to North") or especially "Maldigo del alto cielo" ("Curse from the High Heavens," with lyrics like "I curse the word love / with all its junk / how much is my pain"). And there were also songs that showed her social and political commitment, like "Cantores que reflexionan" ("Singers Who Think") or "Mazúrquica modérnica" ("Modernic Mazurkic"), in fact it is significant that the last album by Violeta Parra was released in 1966, the same year that saw the debut of Víctor Jara and Quilapayún, marking the generational replacement for Chilean political folk scene.

Two excellent covers from this album:
- Joan Baez Gracias a la vida
- Mercedes Sosa, Milton Nascimento, Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa and Chico Buarque Volver a los 17




b) Italian:
The third soundtrack for a Sergio Leone movie by Ennio Morricone is probably the pinnacle of the Spaghetti Western soundtracks, "Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo" ("The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," Spotify link), although someone can argue given the fact of the greatness of the next soundtrack, "C'era una volta il West." The recommended song? Obviously, the tittle track (You Tube link). Legendary.




c) Zulu/Swahili:
Not sure if the language is Zulu (Dan, please) but my African album of the year (even if Mulatu Astatke released two very good albums in 1966) is Grrr by South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela (Spotify link). An exciting mix of Jazz, Blues and Mbaqanga, the recommended track is "Umaningi Bona" ("Many of Them,". You Tube link).




d) Portuguese:
Baden Powell & Vinícius de Moraes teamed up to release a very original album, "Os afro-sambas de Baden e Vinícius" ("The Afro-Sambas of Baden and Vinícius," Spotify link) featuring only male-female vocals, guitar, sax, flute and percussions. The call-and-response vocals and the percussions gave a distinct African ambiance even if the basis was neatly Brazilian (or was it the other way around?). Many good songs but my favourite is the opener "Canto de Ossanha" ("Ossanha's Chant," being Ossanha one of the deities of the Yoruba religion, You Tube link).




e) Hindi:
The first studio collaboration between Yehudi Menuhin and Ravi Shankar rendered an historical album, "West Meets East" (Spotify link), where the Classical violin interacts fluidly with the Indian sitar. Recommended song: the beautiful and mysterious "Prabahti" ("Morning Song," You Tube link).




f) French:
Michel Polnareff's debut album, "Michel Polnareff" (Spotify link), is a fantastic album with US Folk Rock influences, brilliant Pop melodies, imaginative arrangements and a personal French touch. The most well-known song is "Love Me, Please Love Me," a piece of sublime balladry that can rival with Johnnie Ray or the Righteous Brothers, but my recommended song is "Sous quelle étoile suis-je né?" ("Under Which Star Was I Born?" You Tube link), more representative of the sound of the album.


Other recommended albums:


Boudewijn de Groot - Voor de overlevenden (Dutch)


Elis Regina - Elis (Portuguese)


Los Brincos - Los Brincos (Spanish)


Hildegard Knef - Ich seh die Welt durch deine Augen (German)


Jacques Dutronc - Jacques Dutronc (French)


Mulatu Astatke - Afro-Latin Soul (Amharic/Spanish/English)


Mikis Theodorakis & Maria Farantouri - The Ballad of Mauthausen / Six Songs (Greek)


Om Kalthoum - Al Atlal (Arabic)


Hana Hegerová - Šansony (Czech)


Cal Tjader & Eddie Palmieri - El sonido nuevo (Spanish)

[Dan]

Not sure if the language is Zulu (Dan, please) but my African album of the year (even if Mulatu Astatke released two very good albums in 1966) is Grrr by South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela

Had to ask my dad, who has more knowledge of South African languages than me. He recognised most of the words in the song titles as Zulu but is fairly certain that "Kwa-Blaney" (track 8) is Swahili, which is spoken by many people in South Africa but is not one of the country's 11 official languages. So yeah, I guess it's primarily a Zulu album (love that album cover).

Looking forward to listening to your recommendations over the next few days, Honorio.

[nicolas]

Thanks Honorio for this recommendations !! Many things to listen to (and not enough time).

One (very little) correction : Mulatu Astatke's language is not Arabic but Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia. Its is a semitic language so that's why it sounds a little like Arabic.

[Honorio]

Many thanks my friends (and many thanks DaveC for your kind words). Updated including the language corrections and the link for the Violeta Parra album (I forgot to include it)