The Syndicate

Anthony Boy was quite interesting to me. But I'll get to a proper review.

And then I want to relisten to Arthur Brown and do a proper review of that too.

nutella wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote:I absolutely recognize what Chuck Berry did for music, and the man was a complete legend. I therefore feel a bit terrible saying this, but...

Spoiler: show

...in terms of enjoyment this release was barely a 3.0-star ("marginally enjoyable") affair for me. If not for "Johnny B. Goode" and "Maybellene", it would be a 2.5 ("epitome of unimpressive").

There's no denying the quality and influence, but it's just not really my thing at all, and I honestly wish it was. I just was never much of a Rock & Roll, R&B, and blues rock guy, and that's perhaps the one constant that's remained in my musical taste over its entire development (save a few exceptions that would be lucky to be considered for a 3.5 or 4.0 rating).

The aforementioned two cuts are classics, but other than that I found myself just really bored more than anything. I don't think this would normally be anything I would ever play of my own freewill pretty much ever again.

Now with all of that said, especially given its length, I'll be listening to it a handful of times or so I'm sure before the week is up.

I agree with 100% of this post. It's really not my thing/is pretty uninteresting to me, but I appreciate it for what it is and his/the genre's place in music history.

I might. It'll be a while before I'm caught up though.

Golden wrote:

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:I think the album is very enjoyable independent of historical context. I'd wager that I'd be bored by most formative era rock and roll, but this is an exception. It is a bit formulaic, but I can forgive that as it is establishing a formula of such significant influence.

I feel the same way. I've found that I'm listening to it specifically for two things - the instrumentation, and the lyrics - rather than the vibe/general sound which is something we are all very familiar with given how formative it was to a generation of music and how pervasive it was culturally.

I'll see how I feel about it again today.

What strikes me about this album is just how much inspiration it takes from country/western music. "Maybellene" wouldn't be out of place in a modern rockabilly set, and obviously "Johnny B. Goode" describes a country boy. The guitar tone, because of the lack of effects, also sounds similar to the clean electric guitar of a lot of country. This crucible of fusion between music traditions is pretty neat.

Boomslang wrote:What strikes me about this album is just how much inspiration it takes from country/western music. "Maybellene" wouldn't be out of place in a modern rockabilly set, and obviously "Johnny B. Goode" describes a country boy. The guitar tone, because of the lack of effects, also sounds similar to the clean electric guitar of a lot of country. This crucible of fusion between music traditions is pretty neat.

That's an insightful observation.

When I listen for a second time later today I'll try to pay closer attention to each song's arrangements.

I'm currently writing a memorial tribute to Chuck Berry for work while listening to the album, so I feel the need to step in here and defend poor Chuck from all his detractors. Does his music sound slow, clichéd and quaint today? A little bit, but if you're interested in the roots of music (and I am), I think this is astounding stuff. Before Chuck Berry, nobody really recognized the potential of the electric guitar as an instrument distinct from the acoustic version. The benefit of amplification was to be heard over big bands. Chuck developed a vocabulary for the instrument that remains largely in use today.

To understand how far ahead of his contemporaries, you need only listen to the Million Dollar Quartet sessions, where Elvis, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis marvel at Chuck's talent before stumbling through Brown Eyed Handsome Man with obvious difficulty. When you manage to impress Elvis, you manage to impress me.

As far as the music itsself is concerned, I think Johnny B Goode, Roll Over Beethoven, Maybelline, an Little Queenie still sound exciting and fun.

I'm grateful for this submission. ALong with early Buddy Holly, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash, we can really get a sense for where all the rock music of the last 60 years has come from. I love it!

I really like the song Around and Around

I found Arthur Brown to be much more dated than Chuck Berry here. The sound of AB did not age as well as Chuck did.

4 stars to Chuck Berry on a scale of 1-5.
2.5 to Arthur Brown

Artie Babes was not my cup of tea.

Great review, Rico! You make a very good point about how the album itself wasn't groundbreaking though the music was. I don't think any of Chuck Berry's LP albums changed the game because his first three were all released well after his singles were tearing up the charts. I've found that the hardest thing to put into context when listening to early RaRHoF inductees albums is that most of their early albums were just collections. Rock and roll began in 1954/1955 but singles were still the main ticket for those artists.

I understand what you said about being exposed to a bubble and only breaking in one direction. It's hard to branch out from what is familiar sometimes. My dad was a punk rocker that appreciated a little flair when he was a kid, so I grew up on a healthy dose of Ramones and Queen. I happened to start listening to the radio when grunge broke and put the nail in the coffin of 80s hair band music. As a teen/college student, my love for post-grunge led me to explore more of my dad's punk roots, which led me back to oldies, which a number of 70s punk bands cite as inspiration for their simpler, wild jam sounds. That and a girl I had a major crush on in high school was big into oldies. There are pockets of each decade and some genres that I still haven't fully explored yet but I'm willing to check those out as time permits.

Hit That Dislike IF You Dislike is a quality YouTube catchphrase. I enjoyed Quin getting yelled at in the review. I think my feelings about the album largely reflect Rico's. It's difficult to approach an album from the earliest era of rock after having spent a lifetime so far focused on the late '60s and forward. It's educational though and also genuinely enjoyable. Good pick, G-Man.

I got behind in my ratings there. Bish Bosh drained my enthusiasm. If I had to pick a favorite track, it would be "Epizootics!," but other than that, I don't get how this experience can appeal to anyone, but it does, and that's cool. 1/5 and moving on.

I think I listened to The Crazy World of Arthur Brown out of order, so I had go back and hear it properly. The caterwauling vocals occasionally distract from the overall presentation rather than contribute to it. Sometimes I am reminded of the more psychedelic side of Grand Funk Railroad ("Mean Mistreater" springs to mind). "Fire" is one of the grooviest songs I've ever heard. Love that organ riff. "Rest Cure" was too out there for my tastes, and I didn't care much for the James Brown cover. Overall pretty good stuff. 3/5

I dig Chuck Berry (RIP), but I agree with the consensus that growing up in the wake of what it inspired (and what that inspired), I regard it as something primitive and well...not as interesting. But that's okay. Early rock and roll is ridiculously simplistic but probably sounded revolutionary at the time. Of course, it doesn't help being a musician who has played in many cover bands that played some Chuck Berry. Try asking me what I think about "Sweet Home Alabama." 3/5

I'm torn between obediance and defiance to watch bttf just so I can hear more of Rico's beautiful voice.

Quin wrote:I'm torn between obediance and defiance to watch bttf just so I can hear more of Rico's beautiful voice.

Why do you think watching bttf will give you the opportunity to hear Rico some more (also, I haven't seen it either)?

juliets wrote:

Quin wrote:I'm torn between obediance and defiance to watch bttf just so I can hear more of Rico's beautiful voice.

Why do you think watching bttf will give you the opportunity to hear Rico some more (also, I haven't seen it either)?

i want him to yell at me more

I'm giving Chuck Berry Is On Top a solid 3,5 stars, and it probably slots in above Beneath the Brine on my 3.5ometer. I admit part of it is giving myself to historical context - Chuck Berry's music was important. But I also found plenty of interest that I didn't expect when listening to the music.

Take songs such as Anthony Boy and Jo Jo Gunne - songs that were infused with deliberate humour (I did not expect to hear 'Mary Has a Little Lamb' as an instrumental solo). I also think that, given the album was essentially defining a single style of music, it did well to push the genre to both edges - country and blues - so that I could get a genuine sense of how the influences were combined, which is something I'd never really thought about before. This enabled me to enjoy the album on an analytical level that went beyond what I expected from Chuck Berry.

But, putting aside my snob hat, I genuinely enjoy this brand of music, outdated though it is - simply listening to the drummer or the pianist riffing within the scope of a rock and roll song is a pleasure for me (in fact, I might consider this the height of the use of piano in popular music).

It couldn't elevate further because ultimately the bulk of the tracks are essentially the 12 bar blues with different melodies.

I'm enjoying the wide variety of responses to my pick. Maybe I'll have to throw some more oldies at you with future picks.

juliets wrote:

Quin wrote:I'm torn between obediance and defiance to watch bttf just so I can hear more of Rico's beautiful voice.

Why do you think watching bttf will give you the opportunity to hear Rico some more (also, I haven't seen it either)?

Maybe Back to the Future is an early option for Movie of the Week [Week 1].

Listened to Chuck Berry a few more times last night and once again this morning. My opinion is still pretty much the same, but I think my appreciation increased for a couple of other tracks just a bit after taking into consideration what you all had to say. I am really glad you shared it too, G-Man, because being honest with myself despite discovering tons of music I'm not sure how much longer it would have been for me to sit down and listen to this. So I'm thankful that I've heard it now.

Also, Back to the Future is one of the few classic movies I have actually seen, and it's totally awesome.

G-Man wrote:I'm enjoying the wide variety of responses to my pick. Maybe I'll have to throw some more oldies at you with future picks.

Wait till you see my next pick. I predict divisiveness.

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:Maybe Back to the Future is an early option for Movie of the Week [Week 1].

Let's do it.

nutella wrote:

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:Maybe Back to the Future is an early option for Movie of the Week [Week 1].

Let's do it.

This is a music thread, not a movie thread. Why don't you make like a tree and get outta here.

G-Man wrote:I'm enjoying the wide variety of responses to my pick. Maybe I'll have to throw some more oldies at you with future picks.

Speaking of oldies, I know what I said about Chuck Berry, but I absolutely need to nominate this.

If you go your life without hearing this, you'll never know what you're missing, and you'll be missing what I would say is literally the root of modern music as we know it. And it's absolutely splendid in every way. Those songs put such a huge smile on my face every time I listen unlike nearly anything else.

That said, I'm not sure what I'll nominate next time around. So many good possible choices.

MovingPictures07 wrote:

G-Man wrote:I'm enjoying the wide variety of responses to my pick. Maybe I'll have to throw some more oldies at you with future picks.

Speaking of oldies, I know what I said about Chuck Berry, but I absolutely need to nominate this.

If you go your life without hearing this, you'll never know what you're missing, and you'll be missing what I would say is literally the root of modern music as we know it. And it's absolutely splendid in every way. Those songs put such a huge smile on my face every time I listen unlike nearly anything else.

I thought the root of modern music was The Rite of Spring

Ricochet wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote:

G-Man wrote:I'm enjoying the wide variety of responses to my pick. Maybe I'll have to throw some more oldies at you with future picks.

Speaking of oldies, I know what I said about Chuck Berry, but I absolutely need to nominate this.

If you go your life without hearing this, you'll never know what you're missing, and you'll be missing what I would say is literally the root of modern music as we know it. And it's absolutely splendid in every way. Those songs put such a huge smile on my face every time I listen unlike nearly anything else.

I thought the root of modern music was The Rite of Spring

A worthy contender.

Also, LOL at the new avatar, Rico. Love it.

MovingPictures07 wrote:

G-Man wrote:I'm enjoying the wide variety of responses to my pick. Maybe I'll have to throw some more oldies at you with future picks.

Speaking of oldies, I know what I said about Chuck Berry, but I absolutely need to nominate this.

If you go your life without hearing this, you'll never know what you're missing, and you'll be missing what I would say is literally the root of modern music as we know it. And it's absolutely splendid in every way. Those songs put such a huge smile on my face every time I listen unlike nearly anything else.

I prefer Jelly Roll Morton's "Red Hot Peppers" sessions.

nutella wrote:

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:Maybe Back to the Future is an early option for Movie of the Week [Week 1].

Let's do it.

Rico's never going to let me go

thellama73 wrote:

MovingPictures07 wrote:

G-Man wrote:I'm enjoying the wide variety of responses to my pick. Maybe I'll have to throw some more oldies at you with future picks.

Speaking of oldies, I know what I said about Chuck Berry, but I absolutely need to nominate this.

If you go your life without hearing this, you'll never know what you're missing, and you'll be missing what I would say is literally the root of modern music as we know it. And it's absolutely splendid in every way. Those songs put such a huge smile on my face every time I listen unlike nearly anything else.

I prefer Jelly Roll Morton's "Red Hot Peppers" sessions.

Those are awesome too.

Rankings so far

1) Chuck Berry is on Top - Chuck Berry - 7/10
2) Beneath the Brine - the Family Crest - 7/10
3) The Crazy World of Arthur Brown - Arthur Brown - 7/10
4) 98.12.28 Otokotachi no Wakare - Fishmans - 5/10
5) World Music - Goat - 4/10
6) Bish Bosch - Scott Walker - 1/10

Time to share my take on Chuck Berry is on Top.

I try to rid my mind of as much information as I can when I go back in time with books, music, and movies. It's not always possible to appreciate the context of things from even 50 years ago but I try. It's hardest for me with books and easiest for me with movies. Music falls into the middle ground somewhere. Sometimes I miss out with music but I think going back to the beginning of rock and roll makes it easy to capture the right mindset.

Chuck Berry did not invent rock and roll. It was a gradual process that began with electronic amplification of guitars, progression in blues, R&B, and country music that all built up to his song "Maybellene." I'm sure if you go back far enough, you'll hear something that makes you say- "I hear Chuck Berry in that." I haven't had that a-ha moment yet in my musical wanderings but in listening to Chuck Berry's early music, I hear the future. Not the future from now but the future of back then.

That 50's rock and roll sound that we're all acquainted with is due to the popularity of Chuck Berry and other artists circa 1955-1957. Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and others still emphasized the piano. Chuck Berry made the guitar the instrument of choice for frontmen for generations. Heck, when the Beatles were famously told in a rejection notice that "guitar groups are on their way out." Listening to Berry's opening riffs on "Carol," "Maybellene," "Sweet Little Rock 'N' Roller," "Johnny B. Goode," "Little Queenie," and "Roll Over Beethoven" makes me want to learn how to play guitar. Since I am largely musically-challenged, I'll settle for flailing around the house shredding the air guitar with wild abandon. That is the potency on display here.

Simplistic? Maybe. But it strikes a nerve all the same. It's not music that beckons to be listened to intently or evaluated structurally. It doesn't care about form, difficulty, effects, or being arty. The early rock and roll that Chuck Berry belongs to has but two simple purposes: get you moving and make you smile. Why are these songs remembered so fondly? Nostalgia is largely about emotion- what made us happy or what we think we remember making us happy. This music is fun. Plain and simple, fun music is good music. Chuck Berry is on Top, being a collection of previously-released tracks, is fun to listen to. You can tell that Chuck Berry is having fun playing this music. He's having fun singing and playing. You can almost envision the wide smile on his face as he rattles off lyrics at what had to be a blistering pace back in the day and it's obvious he's smiling when lets his guitar do the talking.

The showmanship factor is missing from an audio recording but we all know what people do when they play these songs. Chuck showed us how to be playful when he did some of this stuff first. For that joy and playfulness to transcend the limitations of an audio recording is priceless. I'll take that simplistic joy over mastery and effects any day.

I mentioned hearing the future. Is there anyone who doesn't hear the Beach Boys in Chuck Berry? After all, one of their biggest hits, "Surfin' USA" is a note-for-note, beat-for-beat rip-off of Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen." The 50's rock sound morphed into Surf Rock, which the Beach Boys owned. I can even hear early Beatles in Berry's music. Not a bad gig, inspiring two of the most famous recording acts on two sides of the Atlantic.

Half of these tracks are timeless and perfect to my ears. The rest of them are still entertaining to listen to. I know I am a fan of Chuck Berry, but I know it's infectious because my 5-year-old daughter can't stop smiling when she hears his music. I think the one song I struggle with is "Hey Pedro," because you couldn't write that song now. Is it racist? Possibly. If a white performer (and probably even a black performer) came up with the tune now, the PC Police would be all over it. That's the only song on here that hasn't aged well. Everything else still sounds fresh because it is so potent and pure.

Hail! Hail! Rock and roll. Hail! Hail! Chuck Berry.

G-Man Scale: 4.33 out of 5
Rico Scale: 4.5 out of 5


Rankings So Far:
1. Chuck Berry is on Top- Chuck Berry- 4.33/5
2. World Music- Goat- 4.17/5
3. The Crazy World of Arthur Brown- The Crazy World of Arthur Brown- 4.09/5
4. Beneath the Brine- The Family Crest- 3.33/5
5. 98.12.28 Otokotachi no Wakare- Fishmans- 3.14/5
6. Bish Bosch- Scott Walker- 2.85/5

My rankings would be (on a 5.0-star scale):

1) 98.12.28 Otokotachi no Wakare (Fishmans) - 5.0

2) The Crazy World of Arthur Brown (Arthur Brown) - 3.5
3) Beneath the Brine (The Family Crest) - 3.5

4) World Music (Goat) - 3.0
5) Bish Bosch (Scott Walker) - 3.0
6) Chuck Berry is on Top (Chuck Berry) - 3.0

Differences across ratings are pretty solid. Differences within ratings are more nuanced, but I still ranked them all somehow; the exact order could change depending on my mood though.

I realize I forgot to do my usual first-three-tracks breakdown and which tracks I would take.

"Almost Grown" is a good song but it lacks punch. It's far from the best opening tracks I've ever heard but it's still a good song. "Carol" takes things up a notch. "Maybellene" kicks it up yet another gear. So there's a very nice progression to the album, as tracks get stronger. There's an opposite progression at the end. Coming off of "Roll Over Beethoven," it eases up the tempo with "Around and Around," dips a little more with "Hey Pedro," and comes to a nice, easy finish with "Blues for Hawaiians."

I can't pick three tracks on this album. I just can't. Instead, with albums this good, I can only try to pinpoint which songs I would drop to make it better. That would be "Hey Pedro," "Jo Jo Gunne," and maybe "Anthony Boy." Not easy choices and I really like the closing track even though it is the slowest.

Interesting that your drops are exactly the tracks I enjoyed/thought were most interesting.

Interesting that I use the word interesting so much.

What can I say? I'm a rocker. I have my moments of liking intricate stuff but I'm pretty straightforward. I want my rock and roll to rock.

Thanks for the submission G-Man. It was educational and entertaining all at once.

It's time to proceed to the next album.

YouTube:
NOTE: for some reason this link wants to start the album on track 2 ("It's Only Natural"). When you begin, ensure you're back at track 1 ("Chocolate Cake"). I can't figure out how to fix that.

It's also on Spotify in full.

This is going to be an interesting experience for me. I can't say that I'm at least aware of having ever listened to a Crowded Face album. Nevertheless, several of these songs are a major part of New Zealand national consciousness ("Weather With You" in particular) and the Finn brothers are essentially NZ music royalty, in whatever form (Split Enz has just as many famous tracks as Crowded House).

So, I guess this experience is going to be significantly different for me as it will be for most of you.

[More than] a few words about why Woodface is important to me:

I spent a couple years entrenched in the world of progressive rock. I viewed music through a lens of complexity -- generally speaking, the more complex the music, the more it warranted respect. My favorites all tended to fall within the genre, and I became almost snobbish about other music designed around what I perceived to be "simpler" concepts. I look back on myself with annoyance. This is not to disparage prog rock or its fans, but to reflect on my own silly mindset. I eventually found myself diverting hard and fast from prog, and Crowded House was the most significant reason why.

For Americans, this band is largely forgotten, or at best they're remembered as a one-or-two hit wonder. They hit it big in the late '80s with 'Don't Dream It's Over' and to a much lesser degree 'Something So Strong' but were otherwise not significant players in North America. In the UK they were a bit more successful, but even there their popularity was limited to a choice selection of hits, and their following in the present is limited.

This is the opposite of the reality known to people in New Zealand and Australia. The group's frontman, lead singer, and lead songwriter Neil Finn is from New Zealand. He and his brother Tim are household names there both for Crowded House (with which Tim had a limited role) and their spiritual predecessors Split Enz. In that part of the world, Crowded House may as well be The Beatles; they are legends and everyone is thoroughly familiar with their work. I tend to think of Finn brothers music as a cohesive "empire" encompassing all relevant acts: Split Enz, Crowded House, each brother's solo work, their releases as a duo, et cetera.

Crowded House, and more specifically the songwriting of Neil Finn, completely redefined my perception of what makes music good and interesting. To me, they filled the role that The Beatles seem to fill for so many other people but never quite managed with me: the seminal pop act in rock built upon obvious songwriting brilliance which [should] define an era. Woodface is not my favorite Crowded House album, but it was my introduction to them -- I think it's the perfect fit for that purpose. This album, almost on its own, made prog feel stale and emotionless to me. I lost interest quickly and totally, and my tastes began to re-shape around the template established by this band and this album. I don't mean to suggest that this is necessarily a "good" thing or that it should influence everyone that way. There's nothing wrong with prog; it's just the experience I had.

Where some bands boast virtuoso talent on guitar, or on vocals, or on whatever -- Crowded House offers virtuosity in pop songwriting. Paul McCartney is rumored to have said once something along the lines of "Don't Dream It's Over is the song I've been trying to write for 40 years" and even "I wish I could write music like Neil Finn". This man commands immense respect among his peers and I think it's obvious why.

I am in love with this music. I understand that no music is for everyone though. I look forward to hearing what you all think whether it's positive or negative. My musical interests gravitate to this center.

Thinking of the Finn brothers collective body of work is the best way to understand it as New Zealanders do. In some ways there is no Split Enz or Crowded House - just the Finn brothers. So, jay, I think you are approaching the music exactly the right way to understand it like a Kiwi.

Well here's something odd....

Jays YouTube link is geoblocked lol.

Yay, Woodface!!!

I've heard this album a lot already, but I always look forward to hearing it again.

Fuck, I can't wait. I have to hear this now.

Not everyone in New York would pay to see Andrew Lloyd Webber...

Pretty sure I can play this album in my head.

Golden wrote:Well here's something odd....

Jays YouTube link is geoblocked lol.

I remember reading somewhere Neil Finn expressing regret re: "Chocolate Cake" as this album's opener, and I think even as a song in general.

But despite the fact that I firmly believe Crowded House is better at ballads than rockers (most of the time), I couldn't imagine this album opening any other way.

But maybe that's why it starts that way on Youtube, Jay.

"Fall at Your Feet". Damn. This gets me every time.

I'm actually going to make an exception for this album and do song rankings.

1. "Four Seasons in One Day"
2. "Fall at Your Feet"
3. "She Goes On"
4. "Weather With You"
5. "Italian Plastic"
6. "It's Only Natural"
7. "Chocolate Cake"
8. "Whispers and Moans"
9. "How Will You Go"
10. "There Goes God"
11. "All I Ask"
12. "As Sure As I Am"
13. "Fame Is"
14. "Tall Trees"