1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: The 50's part 1

It begins! Yes friends, the latest and greatest listening project by yours truly! It took me a year and a half to get through the Rolling Stone Top 500 albums, who knows how long it will be for me to get through the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. I developed a bit of a hatred for Rolling Stone and their picks during the last one. Seeing how this new list skips greatest hits compilations and should cut down on repeats, I'm excited! Also, this list goes by decade and year of release as opposed to titles arranged in a debatable order. So there's none of the "Should Sgt. Pepper beat Pet Sounds since it wouldn't exist without Pet Sounds?" nerd arguing. Instead, it's going to be a history of popular music, and a study of recording techniques since it should get more sophisticated as it moves to modern times.

Truly, this will be fun! PLEASE LET IT BE FUN!

I'm going to follow my RS500 format of doing these in chunks of 10 titles. The exception is "The 50's" though since it only contains 20 odd items, so I'm doing it in two parts. I'm using the original 2005 edition list, if I can find the 25 albums from the updated "2010" I'll probably do them to. I currently have the first 675 albums, so that should keep me busy for a bit!


0001 Sinatra, Frank – In the Wee Small Hours
It's fitting that the list starts here, at the first concept album. The orchestration is lush, Sinatras' voice is smooth and velvety. My memories of Sinatra are from the later years when he was pretty much talking the songs as much as singing them, it was weird to hear this at first. The perfection in voice and music is completely counter to the subject matter of the songs. Song so full of love lost and despair, they seem better suited to a Tom Waits album. It all works wonderfully though, it's the type of album you want to curl up with at midnight and destroy a whiskey bottle and pack of smokes to. And I don't even smoke!


0002 Presley, Elvis – Elvis Presley (1956)
Elvis' first album is a cobbled together one of newly recorded tracks for RCA mixed with some of his Sun records work. It all fits together surprisingly well though. He's already showing the brazen commercial sense (forced by management, no doubt) that will drive his career into parody, but what's refreshing about this and makes it so fun to listen to is this. You can tell he's a dumb hillbilly with no musical direction other then a gut feeling of what he likes and an innocent desire to sing the shit out of every song he decides to have a crack at. So instead of insipid covers of Little Richard, you get balls out covers from a white kid with a shockingly thin voice, especially when compared to the later years, backed by a rather base band. It's pretty good alchemy, an image to be sold to the masses, who actually believes and loves what he is doing. This music is alive, beautifully alive, and the teener hit makers of today still have a lot to learn from the King.


0003 Louvin Brothers – Tragic Songs of Life
Man, did I ever fall in love with this record. It starts of with some fine bluegrass mandolin and the brothers voices are exactly what hillbilly harmony should be. A big echo guitar blends in perfectly to plant this old timey style music into the modern fifty's and it creates a timeless sound that blew me away. The songs are a mix of ballads and jaunty sounding hill tunes. All of them dealing with missing home, losing at love and other life hardships and the brothers absolutely nail them with heartfelt vocals and an interplay that surpasses most hillbilly style country and western. Amazing stuff, and I'm already tracking down some more Louvin Brothers work. A record that shows off all that Country music can and should be. Highly recommended!


0004 Prima, Louis – The Wildest!
Wild is right! Prima is probably best known as "King Louie" in Disney's Jungle Book. Ends up he was always a wild man. These tracks were recorded with his Vegas band at a time when Prima was to Vegas that Elvis was in the 70's. Not a bad track on here, the band is jumping and rocking, Louie's horn is great. Most impressive though is Louie's vocals. He sings like he plays the trumpet, loud, brash, holding notes most vocalists would pass, it's breathtaking stuff. Especially when he interplays with the female vocalist who's name I forget. A fantastic record that is sadly too short, I could listen to this stuff all day. And forget about David Lee Roth, you haven't heard "I'm Just A Gigolo" until you've heard Prima and his crack band belt it out. Highly Recommended.


0005 Domino, Fats – This is Fats
A good collection of pre-fame tracks can be found here. Before hitting it big with a series of rock singles, Fats was a fantastic R&B man who was embraced by Rock & Roll. All of these tracks would be great in a juke joint, and they are great here. It's the type of music that leaves a big smile on your face, much like what Fats probably had on his when he recorded it.


0006 Ellington, Duke – At Newport 1956)
When it comes to Jazz, there's probably no one more classy then Duke. This is a great one to listen to, a live recording of a historic concert for the band. My problem though is that this big band stuff is so polite that it makes me think of dinner music. It doesn't really stick with me despite the top notch playing.


0007 Sinatra, Frank – Songs for Swingin’ Lovers!
Sinatra follows up one of the saddest albums ever recorded with one of the most joyous. The music contained in this is exactly as advertised, and Sinatra sounds better then ever. Well worth your time.


0008 Holly, Buddy - The "Chirping" Crickets
Buddy's first album, and it's a good one. He's already mastered melody, and the original found on here are still top notch rock cuts. It's raw and sounds like it was recorded in a garage, you can here the spaces between the mics on some tracks, and it makes for greatness. Recommended


0009 Basie, Count – Atomic Mr. Basie
The Count is like a bluesier Elington, which I prefer. It's still big band though, so it all washes over me and sounds the same.


0010 Monk, Thelonious – Brilliant Corners
More jazz, this is closer to the Be-Bop style I prefer. It's peppy, but ultimately there is too much stuff on here that sounds out of tune and it loses me.


0011 Sabú [Martínez] – Palo Congo
This is Latin jazz. And that's all you need to since if you click that link you'll learn that not even wikipedea has any idea about what this is all about. All you need to know is that it's more latin drum then jazz, and it kicks some ass. That's factoring in my xenophobia of hating music sung in languages other then English.