1966, The Year in Review, P4

The Next 10 Albums, for My Top 30 Albums of 1966

Note: Some of this commentary is adapted from that in No Hype No Trends Music’s 200 Best Albums of the 1960s.

As always, you can jump to the playlist at the bottom of each post to listen while you read.

Within each tier (Top 6, Next 6, etc.), all albums are listed roughly chronologically (all release dates from Wikipedia, unless otherwise noted).

Them
Them Again [UK]

Released 1966/01/21

On sophomore release Them Again, Van Mossison and company crack out a selection of soulful British Invasion rock just about as great as on their debut.

Morrison’s distinctive, passionate voice can turn almost any song into auditory gold. Here, he gives it his all, whether on his own songs—as on album highlights “Could You, Would You,” “My Lonely Sad Eyes,” and “Bring ‘Em on In”—or on the work of others—such as the charged “I Can Only Give You Everything” and “Turn On Your Love Light.” He and the band even take on James Brown and come out the other side unharmed.

Listen to more Them.

Jacques Brel
Ces Gens-Là

Released 1966/06/23 (source:Wikipedia.fr)

I suppose you could say that Jacques Brel is the French cultural equivalent of Frank Sinatra. Both hail from a jazz-singing origin and were revered in their day by their public.

But the French traditions are a far cry from ours, it seems, because Brel sounds absolutely nothing like Sinatra to my ears—there’s nothing cool or smooth about the music on Ces Gens-Là. The eerie string arrangements juxtaposed with spritely, propulsive fanfares, along with Brel’s ever-dramatic delivery, create a macabre theatricality like nothing you’ve ever heard in English-language popular music.

I speak a little French (not much, mind you) but I don’t even bother trying to make out the lyrics here—I just ride the surging melodies and let the music transport me.

Brel has been covered by many American and British artists, most notably Scott Walker, whose sensibilities (at least during the ‘60s) were similar. My Scott Walker playlist contains eight Brel covers (of 23 songs), including three from this album; “Jackie” and “Funeral Tango” are two of my favorite of Walker’s performances, and both were culled from this album, as was “Mathilde.” The title track and “Jef” are other high points.  For the interested, Ces Gens-Là would be a fine place to start a Brel collection.

The Mothers of Invention
Freak Out!

Released 1966/06/27

It’s momentous for announcing the arrival of Frank Zappa, one of the most unique artists of his generation. And I love the title, and the cover itself. Brilliant.

But a good chunk of the Mothers of Invention’s debut album Freak Out! is more notable for its experimentation and/or irreverent social commentary than for the quality of the songs as an engaging listening experience. Zappa was still learning how to fuse his love of doo-wop, jazz, and avant-garde classical music, not to mention his outsider politics and scatological humor. The Mothers would get better than this, and soon.

But in at least two pieces, it all works for me: the tuneful silliness of “Wowie Zowie” and the “Help I’m a Rock: Suite in Three Movements,” which to me sounds like what you might get if Steve Reich tried to compose funk-rock, capped off by the bourgeois-mocking a cappella cacophony of the third movement “It Can’t Happen Here.” Both pieces are tons of fun, as well as insightful and unusual—and they captivate me. I could listen to them over and over again.

Other notable songs include “Hungry Freaks, Daddy,” “Trouble Every Day,” and “Who Are the Brain Police?” All are considered classics by the Zappa faithful. To me, these veer dangerously close to realm of the probably-more-fun-to-make-than-listen-to category. Sometimes the politics of them are more direct than they are resonant. (Politics in rock music are a tricky thing, I think, and I feel Zappa does them better when he’s satirizing, rather than directly critiquing.) But I still like listening to these songs, and I love their audacious irreverence and musical daring.

Listen to more Mothers of Invention (and Frank Zappa).

Notable Critical Mentions:

• Acclaimed Music top albums of the ’60s, No. 051
• 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (2005)
• SPIN: The Top 100 Alternative Albums of the 1960s, No. 020
• The Rolling Stone 200 Essential Record Collection (1997)
• Rolling Stone: 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2003), No. 243
• NME Writers All-Time 100 (1974), No. 068

The Troggs
Wild Thing
[U.S. release]

Released 1966/07/25

Wild Thing is the US version of the Troggs’ UK debut album, From Nowhere, the only of their albums that is really worthwhile.  The US release takes the best tracks from the UK album and replaces some filler (all covers) with far superior material, including album (and career) highlights “With a Girl Like You” and “Lost Girl.”

Not only does Wild Thing include the classic title cut, one of the iconic garage rockers of the era, but also a selection of album tracks that holds up to those on just about any other British Invasion debut LP of the day (other than the Beatles, of course). Throughout, the Troggs show themselves capable of a variety of styles, from the charging “Lost Girl” and “From Home” to the spritely, folksy “Hi Hi Hazel” and “Jingle Jangle,” the tuneful “With a Girl Like You” and the jazzy “Evil.” It even sounds like there’s a harpsichord adding a nice texture to several tracks, although Wikipedia doesn’t list one in the personnel. All in all, it’s a fine selection of compelling songs.

The sequencing on both versions feels a little off to me, though. “I Just Sing” and “Our Love Will Still Be There” both contain a vibe of optimism and perseverance in the face of disaster that deserves to be part of an album finale, rather than buried in the middle of an album side.

The Troggs wouldn’t create much more of note in their career—too many of their later hits are “love” songs with an obnoxious I-know-what-you-need, give-it-to-me-baby vibe that I find more aggressively machismo than Mick Jagger, with absolutely none of his charismatic swagger. It feels like they bought in too seriously to the “Wild Thing” sexual thrust and didn’t know where to take it.

But for one album, at least, the Troggs were pretty damned great.

Listen to more Troggs.

Read more in my top 200 of the decade.

Donovan
Sunshine Superman (U.S. release)

Released 1966/08/26

Donovan, with his trippy-hippie folkie image seems a figure destined for the mockery he would later receive from punk rockers and other cynics. He’s an easy target. Even in his folkie beginnings he was derided as a Dylan wannabe.

But with Sunshine Superman, he became a pioneer. His psychedelic pop-folk, silly as it may be, is surprisingly engaging when you ease into its flower-laden world.

The title track is an instantly recognizable ‘60s classic (although I didn’t recognize it by name), immensely likable. The terrific “Season of the Witch” sounds like the British counterpart to Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth”, a commentary on the radical changes in society at the time. And the sitar-graced “Three King Fishers” and “Fat Angel” (in which he name-drops Jefferson Airplane when they were relative unknowns) were ahead of their time in pop music for incorporating Eastern sounds. All are exquisite.

The original Sunshine Superman was released in the U.S. only, due to contract disputes—although a compilation album called Sunshine Superman was released in the UK a year later, culling tracks from the U.S. version and Mellow Yellow, also released only in the U.S. Both the original Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow are excellent albums, worthy additions to any ‘60s psychedelia collection.

Listen to more Donovan.

Notable Critical Mentions:

• Acclaimed Music top albums of the ’60s, No. 201
• 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (2005)

Ike and Tina Turner
River Deep – Mountain High
(UK 1966 original release)

Released 1966/09 (UK only); not released in U.S. until 1969

Ike and Tina Turner switched to Phil Spector’s Philles label for their sixth album, River Deep – Mountain High. Spector produced about half the songs here, and the thrilling rush and surge of “River Deep Mountain High” and the chiming lushness of “A Love Like Yours (Don’t Come Knocking Every Day” are some of his most powerful pieces.

But in fact, Tina Turner’s earthy voice is better suited to a more rough-and rowdy production. Despite the greatness of Spector’s songs, his Wall of Sound technique seems better suited to a prettier vocal style.

The rest of the album is produced by Ike Turner, and the contrast adds punch to both styles, as they play off one another throughout the album.

Sadly, the album wasn’t released in the US until 1969. An entire nation had to wait three years to hear Ike and Tina’s finest hour.

Notable Critical Mentions:

• Acclaimed Music top albums of the ’60s, No. 124

Merle Haggard
Swinging Doors and the Bottle Let Me Down

Released 1966/10/03

Smoky bars, empty bottles, and broken hearts—these are the main ingredients of Merle Haggard’s Swinging Doors and the Bottle Let Me Down, possibly his best album. It was one of the final cuts from my top 200 of the decade. (I really should have tried to make room for Haggard in my top 200.)

I find country music better at poking fun at heartbreak than at expressing love. Then again, I pretty much have an aversion to drippy ballads in any genre and truth be told, most love songs take the form of drippy ballads. My sap-o-meter has a pretty low threshold. But humor, on the other hand, I’m just a sucker for.

And there’s a subtle wit at play here at every turn, most notably in the two (!) title tracks. “Stop by and see me anytime you want to,” he tells a lost love, “’Cause I’m always here at home ‘til closing time.” Even his “one true friend” is unreliable: “Tonight the bottle let me down / And let your memory come around.”

The women in his songs seem to exist mostly to cause grief and give men a reason to drink—and drink a lot. The music is straightforward, unadorned by kitschy background singers, which plagued much country music of the time.

Many critics seem to prefer the tough-guy Haggard of “I’m a Lonesome Fugitive” and “Branded Man,” for good reason—many of his later songs deal compassionately with society’s neglected and downtrodden. But you’d be hard-pressed to find a more solid, engaging Haggard album than Swinging Doors. He comes across more convincing (and certainly more entertaining) to me when the politics are personal, when the narrators have been jilted by a lover rather than by society at large.

Listen to more Merle Haggard.

Notable Critical Mentions:

• Acclaimed Music, bubbling under the top 3000 albums of all time

The 13th Floor Elevators
The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators

Released 1966/11

It was San Francisco that would later form the seat of psychedelia in the U.S.—but who would’ve thought that a little band from Austin, Texas would coin the term “psychedelic rock” and pioneer the style?

Future acid-casualty Roky Erickson and his band the 13^th Floor Elevators pioneered a brand of trippy garage rock unlike any other seen before. Their debut, The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13^th Floor Elevators, has their best and most famous song, “I’m Gonna Miss You,” and a handful of other acid-rock classics. Past the best songs, the album gets a little spotty. They would figure out how to better explore the range of their psychedelic noise on their next album, Easter Everywhere.

It fact, what hurts the album most is the recording and production values. Both their albums sound as if they might have been recorded and mixed in someone’s tool shed. To fully appreciate their music, you almost have to imagine how great it would have sounded if it sounded better. (Listening to the same tracks on Spotify, in remastered form, makes me wonder if the problem I have is that my ‘90s issued CD had bad sound quality, as many first-issue CDs did. I don’t have an original vinyl copy to tell for sure. They sure do sound better remastered.)

Regardless, a healthy dose of 13^th Floor Elevators is essential for anyone interested in ‘60s sounds.

Listen to more 13^th Floor Elevators.

Notable Critical Mentions:

• Acclaimed Music top albums of the ’60s, No. 125
• 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (2005)
• SPIN: The Top 100 Alternative Albums of the 1960s, No. 012
• Paste 60 Best Albums of the 1960s, No. 058

? and the Mysterians
96 Tears

Released 1966/11 (source:45worlds)

The world of popular music is filled with one-hit-wonders—many of them deserving the role and some of course worthy of a broader appreciation. “96 Tears,” with its charged organ-driven sound, is justly considered a classic slab of ‘60s garage rock, but ? and the Mysterians had plenty of other worthwhile music.

The Mysterians took their name from a Japanese science fiction flick and were led by a singer known simply as “?,” who claimed to have been born dancing and have a time-and-space-traveling soul that originated from Mars. (In fact, all members of the band were sons of Mexican immigrants.)

When I was digging deeper with my retrospective listening project, I wasn’t planning on giving the album much consideration, honestly, but a quick listen revealed a quality bunch of punky, ragged, organ-driven garage-rock tunes, which grew even better with repeated listens. Tracks like “I Need Somebody,” “Up Side,” and “Don’t Tease Me” would be standout tracks on any Nuggets or similar garage rock compilation. No doubt, ? and the Mysterians deserve to be remembered for more than just one song.

(Incidentally, every once in while, a seeming one-hit-wonder becomes so much more. At the start of their careers, who would’ve thought that Radiohead’s “Creep” and Beck’s “Loser” were the starting points for two of the major artists of the ‘90s and beyond? Nobody. Don’t claim otherwise, please; you’ll just make yourself look ridiculous.)

Cream
Fresh Cream

Released 1966/12/09

There are some great blues-rock jams on Fresh Cream, but what is most striking about Cream’s debut is the vocal arrangements. At times, Jack Bruce seems to be pioneering his own brand of barbershop quartet, and the mélange of the styles on tracks like “I Feel Free” feels unique for its time. Elsewhere, on “Sleepy Time Time” the vocals slide deliciously over the blues beat.

Cream would peak soon with the more psychedelic Disraeli Gears, but Fresh Cream is as good as its title promises.

Listen to more Cream.

Notable Critical Mentions:

• Acclaimed Music top albums of the ’60s, No. 150
• Rolling Stone: 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2003), No. 101

UPDATE: BONUS! Two extra albums for my Top 30!

Life is filled with second-guessing and hindsight. After I thought I’d sealed the lid on my Top 30, of course I had to go and explore a few artists a bit—only to discover a couple albums that would easily rank among my Top 30 of 1966, or perhaps even higher.

Rather than going through the anguish of choosing two albums to boot off this list, I’m simply adding a two-album supplement. I am well aware that I can’t add two albums to my existing Top 30 after the fact and still have only a Top 30. (I’m actually reasonably good at math.) But that’s what I’m doing.

Think of this as one of those packages of whatever you’ve bought at the store that sell you a 30-ounce pack plus 10 bonus ounces, rather than simply packaging it as a 40-ounce pack in the first place.

The Seeds
The Seeds

Released 1966/04

The Seeds, more than any other moderately successful garage act, seemed to capture some of the bad boy image cultivated by British acts like the Rolling Stones and Pretty Things. Vocalist Sky Saxon could growl and sneer and plead with gusto, and Daryl Hooper’s distinctive keyboard tinkling brilliantly punctuated the band’s sound in strategic moments. There’s pulse and churn to their more propulsive songs, and a burning simmer to their slowest. I’ve chosen to represent them in the top 30 with their self-title debut album, although A Web of Sound, released the same year, is just about as good.

Listen to more Seeds.

Notable Critical Mentions:

• SPIN: The Top 100 Alternative Albums of the 1960s, No. 072

Paul Revere & The Raiders
Midnight Ride

Released 1966/05/06

Look beyond the ridiculous costumes and you’ll see one of the best garage-rock acts of their time, and nowhere are Paul Revere & the Raiders more convincing than on Midnight Ride. It’s a delightful slab of poppy garage-rock filled with hooks, catchy melodies, and touches of psychedelia here and there. The smash hit “Kicks” is an obvious high point. And although no one else seems to ever talk about “All I Really Need Is You,” with its delightfully galumphing beat and modal guitar embellishments, I’d rank it among their finest songs. Singer and co-writer Mark Lindsay never sounded more convincing.

Listen to more Paul Revere and the Raiders.

Notable Critical Mentions:

• 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (2005)

Here’s the complete 1966: The Year in Review playlist for you—three tracks per album. Enjoy!

More 1966, The Year in Review

More Years in Review of the 1960s…

Cover Art Citations:

• Them Again: By The cover art can be obtained from Deram Records., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12847116
• Ces Gens-La: Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8396884
• Freak Out!: By The cover art can be obtained from Verve., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11872634
• Wild Thing: Source, Discogs.com
• Sunshine Superman: By The cover art can be obtained from the record label., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3309511
• River Deep – Mountain High: Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12909413
• Swinging Doors and the Bottle Let Me Down: By The cover art can be obtained from Capitol., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20200630
• Psychedelic Sounds: By The cover art can be obtained from International Artists., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8048395
• 96 Tears: By Allmusic.com, rateyourmusic.com, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=13681891
• Fresh Cream: By The cover art can be obtained from Reaction Records., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5321168
• The Seeds: Source, Discogs.com
• Midnight Ride: By The cover art can be obtained from Columbia Records., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24311309