1969 Archives - Vinyl From The Vault

The Stooges “The Stooges”

sfilzen — Mon, 05 Aug 2019 16:36:43 +0000

The Stooges “The Stooges” released 50 years ago today, August 5th, 1969. The Stooges’ debut album is, in retrospect, one of the best and most important records released during its era. At the time of its release it was criticized as dumb (well, yes, it is: the lyrics to “No Fun” and “Real Cool Time” should wipe away any doubt about that), musically simple (“stripped-down” is the polite term I think), brutally loud (nothing wrong with that) but it helped usher in punk a few years later as a widespread musical and cultural movement. The Stooges sold moderately well, hitting #106 on the US charts, with two released singles: “1969” and “I Wanna Be Your Dog.” I don’t think either charted but the former has been recognized as one of the greatest guitar songs ever and the latter is one of my personal all-time favorite tracks and many mainstream music publications agree, listing it as one of the best rock songs ever made – it is certainly the best non-holiday song to feature sleigh bells (played by John Cale, who also plays viola on the epic dirge “We Will Fall” and mixed the first iteration of the album but Elektra rejected his mix and Iggy Pop and Elektra exec Jac Holzman mixed the final release).

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Sly and the Family Stone “Stand!”

sfilzen — Fri, 15 Mar 2019 16:20:30 +0000

Sly and the Family Stone “Stand!” 1969. Today, March 15th, is Family Stone frontman Sly Stone’s birthday (b. Sylvester Stewart, 1943). Stand! was their fourth album and the group’s most successful, hitting #13 on the Billboard pop chart and #3 on the R&B chart; the Library of Congress selected it for inclusion into the National Recording Registry in 2015. It also had significant impact on future R&B, soul and hip-hop artists, pretty much setting the standard for uplifting, socially critical, hook-laden funk and psychedelic soul. My favorite tracks are the ones I’m most familiar with – the hit singles “Everyday People” (which hit #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B charts and is also notable for the lyric “different strokes for different folks”) and its b-side “Sing a Simple Song” (#89 on the pop chart, #28 R&B) which ended up becoming one of the band’s signature songs (and was covered by, like, a million other artists including Prince, Diana Ross and The Jackson 5 and sampled by a million more: Public Enemy, De La Soul, Arrested Development…the freakin’ Spice Girls). Also released as a single was the hit title track “Stand!” which hit #13 on the Hot 100 chart and #14 on the Hot Soul chart in ‘69. Its b-side “I Want to Take You Higher” also became a top 40 hit in 1970 (#34, #24 on the R&B chart), likely propelled by the Family Stone’s inclusion of the song onto its Woodstock setlist in the summer of ‘69. (Ike & Tina Turner’s cover was even bigger hit, going to #25, also in 1970.) From Allmusic: “Stand! winds up infectious and informative, invigorating and thought-provoking – stimulating in every sense of the word.”

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The Stooges “1969″

sfilzen — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 21:42:52 +0000

The Stooges “1969″ 1969/2009 reissue for Record Store Day, b/w “Real Cool Time.” The Stooges released the original proto-punk single in ‘69, the lead song on the band’s debut album The Stooges. (They also released “I Wanna Be Your Dog” as a single from the LP, one of my favorite Stooges songs ever.) The album, and “1969,” was produced by John Cale (though the final mix of the album was not Cale’s but Iggy Pop’s and Jac Holzman’s). The song is brutal, frustrated and distorted…and timeless 50 years later. It’s been covered by many others over the years including Sisters of Mercy, Pretenders, Joey Ramone, The Mission and U.K. Subs. The B-side, “Real Cool Time,” was kind of an album afterthought; The Stooges originally only had five tracks for The Stooges when they entered the studio to record. Told that wasn’t enough, they whipped out three more (”Real Cool Time,” “Not Right” and “Little Doll”) and played them for the very first time at the studio. Like “1969,” “Real Cool time” is snarling and distorted with not overly complicated lyrics (“Can I come over tonight? I say we will have a real cool time tonight” and that’s about it).

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