Welcome to the AlbaNerds podcast with your hosts Andy, Don and Dude.
Oh yeah, here we are. It's the AlbaNerds podcast. We're back once again. I'm Dude, I got Andy
and Don with me. Well, gentlemen, it's just so good to see you today. So how you guys
doing?
Good to see you too, buddy. Yeah. So 200th episode for all those who are been with us
this many years even doing the show.
200th.
Yeah. Congratulations, fellas.
Yeah.
Podcasts are funny. Like you do a bunch of episodes, but then you go back to the beginning
and it's cringy. Like, you know, you learn, you learn as you go, like with anything. So
it's just, it's a little weird to have that many out there when what our show is now is
what I feel like our show is. Yeah. It's still a little cringy though. So yeah.
That's true. That's true. I can listen to a show from a month ago and be embarrassed
at what I said. We've got a great show for you today. We're going to talk about three
albums, going to answer a question. We're going to circle back and then talk about what
we learned. And then we're going to spin the wheel of musical destiny to find out what
kind of albums we'll talk about next time. But this week we're celebrating 200 albums.
That's what I'm talking about.
In 2016, two friends decided the best way to connect with other passionate fans of music
and specifically the album format was to produce a podcast. They called that podcast album
nerds. Since then, Andy and dude have released 199 episodes along the way in 2022 beginning
with episode 143. They asked a listener and fellow album nerd Don to join the show. This
is the 200th episode of album nerds to celebrate the occasion. We're taking a look at Rolling
Stone's top 500 albums of all time. This list was originally published in 2003 was
updated in 2013 and again in 2020 to make that list. Rolling Stone tabulated top 50
album lists for more than 300 artists, producers, critics and music industry figures today on
our 200th episode. We are each picking an album from Rolling Stone's top 200, but it
has to be from an artist who has not been reviewed on an episode of the album nerds
podcast.
Clever, huh? That tail you just spun. Yeah, man. I mean, this was harder than I thought
because we've done 200 freaking episodes, many of which we've talked about a multitude
of albums and a lot of them are on this list. Yeah. Yeah. I might say we have pretty good
records. Or you might say that we're trend chasers and Dr. Original at all. But yeah,
some of the stuff that I would have liked to have looked at was Beach Boys Pet Sounds,
but I couldn't. Prince, Purple Rain, which for me may be the number one. Can't, we talked
about Prince. But some of the stuff that I considered was Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation
of Millions to Hold Us Back. I just felt like that discussion for that album needs the right
context, maybe on a hip hop episode or something. I feel like it needs more than just like top
200. There's more to it than that. The Clashland and Calling, we haven't talked about them,
but I'm satisfied with what I came up with. How'd you guys do?
Lot to pick from, lot of interesting stuff. There were a handful of records I hadn't heard
before, which is kind of what I ended up focusing on. But I'll mention a few that I had that
I was considering. I listened to the B-52's self-titled album probably like four or five
times now for different shows and just haven't picked it yet.
Get some surf rock on here eventually. Jay-Z has like three albums in the top 200. Almost
picked, I think the Black Album is my favorite of his, but he has a lot of good stuff. Lauryn
Hill, we got to get her on the show eventually. If I'm listening to Miseducation of Lauryn
Hill, probably like five or six times too. Thought that was going to be the one, man.
Yeah. I really love that record. We'll get to it. And Nine Channels, The Diamond Spiral,
pretty highly ranked on that list as well. Almost picked that. Lots of great stuff. I
mean, it's hard to pick between some of your favorite records and some of the all-time
greats.
Yeah. It was kind of a, it was a frustrating experience for me, you know, that I'd be like,
oh yeah, I love that album and ooh, Neil Young Harvest. So I search it on the website and
it's like, ah, you guys talked about Neil Young record for 20 seconds. But yeah, so
I seriously considered doing the Dusty Springfield record, Dusty in Memphis. I mean, she's somebody
that people cite all the time as being a tremendous talent. So I almost did that record and I'll
probably revisit it in the future. I also spent time with that B-52's record and The
Public Enemy, but yeah, I'm actually quite satisfied with my pick.
All right. Well, let's get to it then.
Can you choo choo choos me?
So, let's welcome the stage of the great big fan of ours, the star of the show, the one
and only Vogue recording star, Otis Redding!
Dude, that's how we should do the intros for our freaking show, man. Get the crowd hyped
a little bit.
Yes, the crowd.
All right. So for my Rolling Stone Top 200 album selection, and we are talking about
Otis Redding and his 1965 album, Otis Blue. Let's play a little bit from the second single.
It says a little bit of, I've been loving you too long.
All right. So this is the third studio album for the singer-songwriter from Dawson, Georgia.
I was hoping it was Dawson's Creek. That would have been really cool.
The record is known for solidifying Mr. Redding as a commercial success. It had a lot of crossover
appeal as it featured a bunch of covers from contemporary artists, including Sam Cooke.
The track we just played is one of the three original Redding pen songs on the record.
So a couple of interesting tidbits. It was largely recorded over a 24-hour period in
1965.
Wow.
Yeah. It was like from like Saturday night to like through Sunday afternoon or something
like that. Crazy.
That's how we should do this. Just recorded the whole year's worth of shows in 24 hours.
Oh, man. That sounds fun. Yeah. So it garnered three singles, which became top 40 hits. We
are going to get to those shortly. Yeah. The three words I used to describe this record
are, can I live inside the record? I just love the feeling of this record. It's just
such a warm, inviting sound. Not only his voice, but just the production and the band.
Everybody just sounds so inviting. I was immediately taken by it. I hadn't heard this before this
week of listening. And I was just immediately struck by how just good it felt to listen
to.
His voice is like, I don't know how to describe it, but so he's being sung by the song as
much as he's singing the song. You can tell that the inspiration is coming as he's going.
I think that's part of what's cool about this era in recorded music, where sometimes you
just go with the flow instead of it being so meticulous.
Yeah. Right. It feels a little more spontaneous, a little more alive.
Yeah. Yeah.
All right. Why don't we play another cut from the record? This is a little bit of, you don't
miss your water.
You Don't Miss Your Water was written and recorded by William Bell in 1961. Like everything
he does, Otis made it his own. I just, I really like that lyric a lot. You know, of course
it's such a cliche to sing about crying, but sing about it in that way. Like you don't
miss your water till your well runs dry. I just think that's, I think that's really cool.
It mostly just made me thirsty. Excuse me.
Okay, buddy. What have you got here? Well, water.
The three words I chose to describe the album are ducky did testify. Right. And so this
is a, that's just a stupid reference to, to the, the 1986 film, Pretty in Pink by John
Hughes in that film, the character ducky is like lip syncing and dancing in the record
store to Otis Redding singing, try a little tenderness, which is not on this album, but
you know, he's like really into it. And you know, that might even be like my first exposure
to Otis Redding. So yeah. So thanks ducky for the, for the reference. Yeah. I mean,
you guys already talked about the vocal talent and I guess, you know, as you said, it's,
it's hard to describe and maybe that's, that's how you know, somebody really is special,
you know, because you can't describe it. He doesn't sound like anybody else. I mean,
it can be somewhat crass or harsh at times, but like in a good way and like under control,
but he also can do the, you know, soft, beautiful sounds. Yeah. I was struck by that too. Like
on the edges, it feels like his voice is very rough and ragged at times. And he's almost
sounds like he's straining, but other times he'll hit a note and just sounds so effortless
and just so pure and beautiful and just perfectly soft and round. And it's a cool, it's a cool
combination man. The voice really is an instrument, you know, I mean you can do, do so much with
it. Plus I think, you know, the, this is almost certainly one or two takes at the most, you
know, for these songs, which like I said earlier, I think is what makes this interesting, especially
when it's a bunch of covers, besides the three originals, the reinterpretation I think comes
easier if you just let it fly. You know, you're not trying to do it a special arrangement
and la la la, you just do the song sometimes without even knowing all the words. Yeah.
Does he mess up some lyrics here or what do you mean? Oh yeah. Yeah. We can get into that
in a minute though. Okay. So yeah. So as you said, there's only three originals on this
album. I do wish there were more cause you know, he obviously is a very talented song
writer, but you know, I'm reminded of people like Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin and Johnny
Cash who, you know, just turn songs into their, into their own. And so he does just a great
job of that. Well, I just think it's funny you mentioned Aretha Franklin who took a song
from this album, Respect, that's his, and she made it her own in the context of it completely
changes and her delivery of showed me some respect when I get home. So just that's really
cool. It was wild hearing like the male side of it. Like all I want is when I come home,
I just want you to treat me well. And yeah, and Aretha like totally flipped on its head,
which is, it's cool. Yeah. I got a make me dinner vibe from his version and make your
own damn dinner vibe from her version. Yeah, exactly. You can kind of see why her version
became the, you know, the one. Okay. Why don't we play a little bit from one of those cover
tracks. This is a little bit of I can't get no satisfaction. Yeah. I mean, so this album
was 1965, right Andy? Yeah. I had to double check that too. When did that song come out?
1965, June 5th, 1965, the Rolling Stones released their recorded version that they wrote Keith
Richards and Mick Jagger. And what I was talking about earlier with the words, I mean, there's
some missing lyrics. There's a bunch of made up, I got the guitar and all that kind of
stuff that apparently according to sources, Wikipedia, Otis Redding claimed that he didn't
know the original lyrics of the song and he made them up as he went. Steve Cropper, who
worked on the session had to write the lyrics down from listening to the Rolling Stones
version because that stuff just wasn't easily available on your interweb. So I think some
of the words were a little wrong. He knew the vibe of the song and just kind of went
with it. And I love it. I mean, I love this version. Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones
said that later live performances by the Rolling Stones have been influenced by his interpretation,
by Redding's interpretation. Interesting. Yeah, it gets the feeling of it for sure. I
think the band sounds good. It's a little more desperate. The Rolling Stones version
is a little more like sneering and sort of lewd. And Otis is a little more like, I got
it. I got to have you. There's more urgency and a little more passion.
True. Really does demonstrate the similarities between those two genres, rock and roll and
R&B, or really come from the same place and have the same history. Yeah. Great performances
on here from Booker T and the MGs. I never realized they were kind of his backing band.
Yeah. So yeah, I mean, every time I listened to it, I looked forward to that interpretation
of a super well-known song that no one dare reinterpret now, but he did it like a week
later and it's awesome. Devo did a good job too. I doubt it. So quickly, I'll just, the
three words I used to describe this album were the man can sing. I mean, I already touched
on that point throughout our discussion. Holy crap. I don't know that I've listened to Otis
writing whole albums before and he's awesome. And that's all I have to say about that.
The other thing I'll just mention about this record specifically and part of why I picked
it is it's right in that sweet spot in the mid sixties where record companies started
thinking about selling albums as entire entities and not just singles. And this, along with
a couple of the records from 65 are kind of considered like that first crop of like really
great albums that it came into being and were like marketed as such. So it's a nice place,
nice place to start this episode. And also I'm glad that Rolling Stone saw fit to honor
it by putting on its list. I got to say in the original list, it started at number 73
or 78, I want to say. And now it's, it's fallen all the way back to 178, which feels a little
bit crazy to me, but regardless, still in top 200.
Well, a couple of, you know, decades go by, you've got to add new artists in there too.
You know, music continues, albums keep getting made. So the future is now.
Thanks for holding that pose.
All right. So once again, the record is called Otis Blue by Otis Redding. It's available
on all the usual streaming platforms. Check it out if you haven't heard it. It's an excellent
lesson.
I'm good enough. I'm smart enough and doggone it. People like me.
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Maybe we made you throw your phone across the room or you discovered an album you enjoy.
Leaving a review keeps the show going and helps other music fans find us.
200.
Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Okay. So the album I chose is from a band called T-Rex.
That's short for Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Yes. And we'll get into that in a second. The album is called Electric Warrior, released
in September of 1971. It was number 188 on the 2020 Rolling Stone top 500 list. Let's
hear the song that it's most known for. This is Bang A Gong. Get it on.
I've never understood why this guy wants people to have sex with gongs. It's just totally
weird to me.
Okay. Don't hit till you try, buddy.
I just got to say, so, you know, last week, I was listening to this on headphones while
I was doing some weed whacking and some grass clipping blowing.
And I just could not stop myself from like strutting to this song. Kind of like the Mick
Jagger strut.
I think I actually saw that on YouTube. It said crazy neighbor dancing in yard. Someone
caught you.
So anyway, so that song was originally just known as Get it on. But there's another band
called Chase who had a song called Get it on. So now it's officially Bang A Gong, parentheses
Get it on. Mark Bolan, who's basically the main guy from T-Rex, claimed to have written
the song out of his desire to record Chuck Berry's Little Queenie and said that the riff
was basically taken from that Berry tune.
Song actually features piano from Rick Wakeman, who you might know from the band Yes. Also
saxophone from Ian McDonald of King Crimson. So yeah, T-Rex is an English band formed in
1967 by singer, songwriter and guitarist Mark Bolan. The band was originally called Tyrannosaurus
Rex and had a kind of like a psychedelic folk sound. Kind of reminded me of like Donovan.
So you know, over time, Bolan embraced more like electric sounds. And in 1970, he officially
changed the band's name to T-Rex. Electric Warrior is the second album since the name
changed and there's six overall. So you know, Bolan is basically T-Rex with a rotating cast
of characters.
The three players on the album are Mickey Finn, you know, who did like congos and bongos
and does a lot of the backing vocals you hear. Steve Curry on bass and Bill Legend on drums.
The three words I chose to describe the album, I just said Godfather of Glam. It's always
hard to pinpoint, you know, where things began or who did it first. You know, this album
at least, you know, predates, you know, Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The
Spiders from Mars. It predates the Roxy Music self-titled debut. You know, this is really
the beginning of glam and probably the first true glam record.
Okay, well, let's hear another track. This is a song called Planet Queen.
So Planet Queen, cool song. Kind of reminds me actually of Donovan's Hurdy Gurdy Man,
which the psychedelic stuff here is definitely on display in that particular track. The lyrics
are poetic and surreal, fantasy. Maybe he's abducted by aliens. He's gonna, I don't know,
make love to the Planet Queen's daughter. I didn't, it was just weird. He just, it's
nonsense for the most part.
Yeah, lyrically I think he's just goofing around a lot.
Yeah, like he's, he's, he's soosing.
He does get pretty clever. You know, like you're built like a car. You've got a hubcap
diamond star halo. I just, I love that line, you know.
Yeah, there's, there's great lines.
It's interesting, but it feels kind of throwaway.
Yeah, I think it's just going with, you know, it's sort of lyrically a concept of space
and then let's go. And then very rhymey. It's very rhymey, which I do like. The three words
I used to describe this album might be what a weirdo, but instead I'm going with Wham
Bam Glam, which is in the same category as what Don said. You know, I think about Bowie
and Wham Bam, Thank You Ma'am and what came after, which I think ultimately was more interesting
because they were more than, those other artists were more than one flavor. T-Rex is kind of
what T-Rex is, but I hear T-Rex in a lot of music today, including King Gizzard and the
Lizard Wizard. Like absolutely this is an influence. There's no doubt. Especially some
of the space stuff they talk about and the way that they do it. I didn't realize it until
I experienced this album over and over again. And I started having little flashes of King
Gizzard. So yeah, fun listen.
Glam rock really dominated the UK charts from like 1972 to 1975. And it didn't really happen
in the United States. There were American glam rock artists, you know, like Lou Reed
and the New York Dolls, the Stooges and stuff like that. But it didn't really have the commercial
success that it did in Britain. Let's hear the opening cut. This is Mambo Sang.
Yeah, I really liked that track in particular. I really, I came to like the whole record.
I like the sound quite a bit. It's sort of strange sounding. I guess that's a little
weird.
It's spacey.
Yeah, spacey. But it feels exciting. It does feel like they're kind of creating something
new as they go, which I love. My three words are a bit wheezy, kind of cheesy, but goes
down plenty easy.
So wheezy, cheesy, easy are your three words if we boil it down.
Yeah, if you want to get specific. So you know, I was saying like he loves the rhymes
in his lyrics here. So to try to incorporate a little inspiration from him here.
Yeah, you nailed it, man.
Yeah, I liked his kind of, I would call his lyrics kind of goofy, a little campy perhaps,
but I think kind of falls in line with where glam rock was headed. But he delivers them
in such like a cool kind of breathy tone that I found like really interesting. And yeah,
I totally agree with the dude. Like, wow, I hear so many bands doing like this style
nowadays. King Gehzard for sure, that band or that artist called King Tough, we've talked
about in the show. Like they sound almost exactly like him at times. Sonically, I think
the record maybe get this little same-sy as it goes on. I didn't feel like there was a
lot of new stuff happening as it played on. The tracks are all short and tight though.
They don't really give a lot of room for exploration, which I watched some of their live performances
from the seventies and they jammed out hard and it was mostly drum and guitar soloing.
So I found that really cool. You don't get that on the record, but it's nice to know
they have that capability. But yeah, I guess you got to talk about his guitars a little
bit. Like he seems like a pretty excellent guitar player. You don't get a lot of soloing
on this record, but it seems like he was pretty adept player, not so much about showing off.
But yeah, I know this was way more bluesy than I expected it to be. I appreciated that.
A couple more thoughts just sonically. I do think there's some tasteful use of strings
in a lot of the tracks, particularly like Cosmic Dancer. Also, the backing vocals, there's
a lot of that ah, just weird sort of goofy stuff that Bowie ended up using a lot. And
then just one final thought, Cosmic Dancer is a song that I was familiar with in the
past. Morrissey actually does a cover of it, but I always liked the line, is it wrong to
understand the fear that dwells inside a man? And it's just in the middle of this weird
song where he's talking about dancing since he was 12, but there's that weird line in
it. That's the line that makes it worth listening to because when it's like, dancing from the
womb, I'm in my tomb. Like, okay.
Yeah, that one nugget of truth in there and makes it all worthwhile.
Yeah.
Okay. Well, it's only 188 on the Rolling Stone list, but I think it belongs in the Album
Nerds Hall of Fame, so I am going to nominate. Yeah, so I think this is a definitive glam
rock album. I think it's an important genre in the history of music. It kind of influenced
punk and metal that came later. All that hair metal we talked about, there's glam in that.
It's produced by Tony Visconti, who is a key figure in this glam rock movement.
Hey.
Yeah, so what do you guys think?
I'm going to say yes. I agree with everything you said. It's a 200th episode. I don't want
to make anyone sad by saying no, but yeah, it's a landmark album. It did pave the way
for a lot of the stuff that's awesome today, and it's a great listen.
Indeed.
Well, as much of a fan of dinosaurs as I am, I like this record. I don't think it's definitive
glam rock record though. I mean, I'm not the most knowledgeable person on glam rock, but
I feel like it's a cool idea, but I don't think the execution is maybe as exciting as
I thought it would be.
You know how many times you've shot us down?
200.
Are you going to triceratop my T-Rex?
Yeah. Stick my horns into your belly.
Stop. Stop.
Yeah, I don't know if it's a definitive record for me. Obviously, a very influential.
That really bangs my gong, Andy.
I don't doubt the influence it's had, but I don't know if it would be the one that I
would pick to represent the genre necessarily.
No one asked you.
Actually. I'm going to say no, but we'll leave it up to the listening audience and see what
they think. Go to our website or our discordalbummates.com to cast your vote. Sorry, John.
Okay. Well, apologies to T-Rex, the electric warrior. Not an Einhoff inductee yet, but
listeners, please save it.
Excuse me. I'd like to ask you a few questions.
Well, it's that fun time on the show where we ask each other a question. At least you
guys have produced 200 of these podcast episodes so far, and we hope people are taking things
away from them. What have you learned or discovered or been turned on to from another podcast?
Yeah, there's so much stuff I've learned from podcasts, man. It feels like it's the new
public education to some degree. I guess all this good information is freely available.
It's your Wikipedia.
Essentially.
Eir-ca-pedia.
Eir-ca-pedia. I'm sure that'll catch on.
Oh man, someone's going to steal that.
Trademark.
Is that all you have to do to say trademark?
I think so.
Yep.
No.
TM. TM. Just say TM and you're good.
Yeah. I've listened to a lot of great podcasts over the year, but I'm actually wearing a
t-shirt for a podcast that I enjoy called The Truth, and I thought I'd give that a shout
out. It is immersive storytelling in the way that like, if you remember like old-timey
radio programs used to be where they would have like the footprints on, you know, walking
to the door and then like this creak of the door. They do all the cool effects and like
really great voice acting and amazing original stories that will just blow your mind and
have you like sitting in the car after you park somewhere just to hear how the story
wraps up. It's freely available. I think it's better than most crap on Netflix. So I would
highly recommend The Truth podcast. It's available in all the usual places. And yeah, I mean,
if storytelling is your thing, I think it's one of the better ones I've heard. So yeah,
that'd be my recommendation.
In that case, I want to give you a recommendation, Andy. It's called The Weird Place. It's a
Dana Carvey production, and it's basically like six episodes, five episodes of like Twilight
Zone type stories with Dana Carvey doing all the voices and they have the footprint sound
effects and all that stuff telling, you know, kind of funny versions of Twilight Zone type
stories.
The Weird Place. I'll check it out.
The Weird Place. All right. So for me, it's all about fantasy football. I mean, I've played
fantasy football since 1999, but when I started listening to fantasy football podcasts, one
in particular, the Fantasy Footballers, it took my interest to another level. Hearing
these guys, three guys so passionate about it and having so much fun with it. It also
inspired me to want to do a podcast because they were having so much fun talking about
this thing they love. So part of the reason we're here is because I was listening to those
three dudes on the Fantasy Footballers and winning championships with the information.
Now everybody knows about them, but at the time in 2015, they were brand new. They were
recording out of someone's bedroom in one of their houses and now they, you know, they
have a studio and they go on tour. And so, yeah, I learned not only about football, but
podcasting from those guys.
Yeah. Well, I mean, I've, I've listened to so many, so many podcasts and I, you know,
a lot of them are educational, but I'll just focus on one. There's one called Grammar
Girl, Quick and Dirty Tips. Yeah. Yeah. The podcast, it's, it's pretty short, but you
know, every week she's talking about, you know, sort of grammatical mistakes people
make or, you know, there'll be explanations for why things are a certain way and explanations
of like the, the Oxford comma and stuff like that. And I don't know why it interests me,
maybe because I like to be that guy that, you know, criticizes people for their, for
their grammar.
And they love you for it, I'm sure.
But yeah, so it's, it's Grammar Girl, Quick and Dirty Tips. What have you guys learned
from, from other podcasts? Hit up the socials, go on our Discord and let us know.
Albinerds.com slash Discord.
200
I prefer the purity of the human voice really. Let me, let me, let me just, let me just demonstrate,
all right?
So we're going with Paul Simon today and the album Graceland. We won't be going with his
version of Gin and Juice, but I thought it was pretty interesting that he, that he did
it. It was a joke.
You gotta like the guy who, who will do something like that. It's funny.
So Graceland, the album released August, 1986 by Paul Simon, number 46 on the Rolling Stone
Top 200 that we worked from. It's a seven studio album, solo studio album. And it's
a blend of sounds. It's Paul Simon mixing things up with some influences from South
African music. And it's quite the sensation. Why don't we get going with the title track
Graceland.
I was like a young teenager, I think when this came out and I, my dad had the record,
you know, everyone had the record. It was a sold like 7 million copies. It was a comeback
for Paul Simon after a failed album before it. And that line, my traveling companion
is nine years old. He's the child of my first marriage. I just like, that's when I started
to understand Paul Simon's style that using short describers to set a scene and then kind
of going on to the next thing, but just that crisp, clear delivery of his. Three words
I used to describe this album are Ryman Simon's rhythms. Ryman Simon's rhythms. So he had
an album called Ryman Simon, but it's a blend of his style, you know, his vocal style, that
crisp clean delivery, the lyrical style, little storytelling elements, and then the poetic
that comes from it. And then this rhythm driven South African music that inspired him. Apparently
he was inspired by a bootleg cassette of a South African street music called God.
We've talked about it before, but-
Mba-gong, it's M-B-A-Q-A-N-G-A. He traveled to Johannesburg in 84 to collaborate with
local musicians and then additional recordings took place in the United States. There were
some controversies because there were embargoes on things in South Africa. We weren't supposed
to mix with them because of the apartheid. So there was a lot of controversy about whether
he should or shouldn't have done that, if any rules were broken. But, well, we get to
another song and see where the conversation takes us. This is Diamonds on the Soles of
His Shoes.
It was hard for me to pick one track off this record, but I think that one nicely encapsulates
the sound that he achieves on Graceland, which I think is awesome and a real achievement
to Paul Simon and what he was open to exploring in his career. I think he still explores even
to this day in his career. My three words are, it's better together. This is like one
of those rare cases where the idea for the record itself, I think sounded terrible on
paper, but it worked out beautifully. He really did create something unique and new and exciting.
I don't know if it's really been replicated since then. It's this amalgamation of all
these different sounds. Part of it is South African influence, but there's also things
from the US too, like Zydeco is pretty prevalent on the record. There's still pop and folk
influences here as well. It all just comes together. I think what makes this so cool
is it doesn't try to sound like it's saying something specific about South Africa or apartheid.
It's just like its own thing existing naturally in the world and it works really well.
It's celebrating the sounds. That rhythm in that music is unique and then finding a way
to blend that with good old Paul Simon with some of the same kind of affectations he would
have done in an acoustic album. It is unbelievable that it worked.
Yes, it's a small miracle.
Some people freaking loved it. The artists included, like South African male choral group,
Ladysmith, Black Mambazo came to be known because of this. They ended up having a lot
of success in the US after this album. They toured with him, other artists that played
on this got writing credits on the songs. It wasn't Paul Simon just taking a sound and
stealing it and making it all about him. I would have liked to have seen the Paul Simon
and blah, blah, blah on the album cover.
Yeah, I don't know. I had read a little bit about the background of it and I got the impression
on those. He paid the artists very well for their time on the recordings and they got,
like you said, a lot of notoriety from the record.
All right, so big time album. Why don't we listen to the big time single, You Can Call
Me Out.
Time making a little bass face.
Yep. That bass there, that was a guy named, I'm not butchers, Baghiti Kumalo, who's a
South African bass player. That bass solo there is palindromic or palindromic. Basically,
they were the first half of it they recorded and then they just played it backwards.
Interesting.
Yeah, I thought it was pretty cool. Yeah, I mean everybody knows that song so I just
wanted to focus on that little instrumental part there. One thing I really like on that
song is that the muted string guitar there, which I think actually is a six string electric
bass which is an instrument I'm kind of obsessed with because that's what Robert Smith plays
on disintegration. So yeah, I think that's Paul Simon playing that part.
So the lyrics to You Can Call Me Out basically to me seems like a midlife crisis kind of
thing. And the origin of the title is supposedly a French composer and conductor named Pierre
Boulet was attending this party with Paul Simon and his wife Peggy Harper. This Boulet
guy basically called him Al and he called his wife Betty. So yeah, that's where it came
from.
Another interesting fact about that song, that saxophone hook there, the da-da-da-da-da.
I mean that's several layered saxophones but also in there is a synthesized guitar that
kind of sounds like a saxophone that was done by the guitarist Adrian Bello. So the three
words I chose to describe the album, never stands still. So Paul Simon, even going back
to Simon and Garfunkel, I mean he's just an artist that's constantly reinventing himself.
He never gets comfortable doing just one thing. He's always challenging himself. And I mean
he just does an amazing job here borrowing from Zulu sounds and stuff like that and Zydeco.
But I think people can get the wrong impression if they don't listen to this album that it's
just Paul Simon doing Zulu music or Paul Simon doing Zydeco. And it's not. It's a Paul Simon
record that's just using these influences. So it's like he's, if you follow his career,
he's always done that. He's like a sponge just absorbing all these things and he integrates
it into his unique songwriting.
His songwriting is a bit different. I think on this album it's more of like a groove-based
songwriting. Whereas I think in the early days it was more about like a melodic hook.
Although there are plenty of those on this album. There are some really pretty parts
and some nice melody.
I feel like lyrically on this record I have a hard time following what he's talking about.
It feels like a lot of in-jokes like you were describing there about the dinner party. Whereas
past records I feel like I can understand why he's getting that more. I don't mind
it in this context because the music's so interesting, but do you find like you can
follow these songs?
I think at this point in his career and life, I think he was on his second divorce. This
was with Carrie Fisher. And like even Graceland was started about that, about his divorce
and this place in his life that he's at. The Graceland part came from the sound of the
song. It reminded him of old Sun recordings, the groove of it. And so the Graceland word
was stuck in his head and then he decided to take a trip to Graceland to fill in the
song. And so that's kind of what listening to it throughout my life I've always kind
of felt like he had looked left and wrote about it. He looked right, he wrote about
it. He woke up from a dream, remembered something, wrote about it. That's what it felt like.
Doesn't the album sonically, doesn't it feel sort of spacious? I feel like it's like a
big open field or something.
Feels like a road trip, like you're on a drive.
To me it feels more like an island beach setting, just like where things are open and vast and
you can see far.
Maybe because as a youth I never saw an island or a beach.
In the Midwest.
Part of the Midwest I was living in. So yeah, it was about flat planes and long drives.
Well, same idea, that far horizon idea.
All right, so this is a highly acclaimed album, considered one of the best of all time. And
he did some amazing stuff here and captured me as a teenager when this kind of, this was
old people music, but there was still something special about it and I've loved it throughout
my life. So I'm going to nominate this for the album Nudes Hell and Fame.
And a yes from me.
Yeah, I think I will go yes on this one as well.
Face, Don.
I've always really liked this record and it holds up. It still sounds really cool. And
I still stand by like there's really no other record that I've ever heard that sounds this
blend of genres. It's cool.
Just because Andy likes it, I'm kind of like, I'm feeling like I don't want to say yes.
Don't punish me, man.
This is why I don't nominate records anymore. I don't want to. It's anxiety.
We're out for blood.
This is definitely, you know, this is a great album.
All right, welcome Paul Simon. Yet another notch on the bedpost. Another accolade. That
was Paul Simon's Graceland newly inducted Album Nerds Hall of Fame member.
Okay. So we took a journey through the top 200 of Rolling Stone's list of greatest albums
of all time. What did we learn?
You know, there's a reason we don't see a lot of lists on this podcast. I think lists
are just right for problems and critiques. Obviously they've edited things a lot over
the years. I know people were pretty upset when this list first came out and people are
always going to be upset. But I think they did a pretty good job. Like there weren't
a lot of like glaring admissions. I mean, the one, probably the biggest thing you could
say is like, these are all ours from like the Western part of the world generally. And
you really ignore more than half of the globe.
And largely mainstream hit making for the most part. There's not a lot of deep dive
unknowns on here.
Totally. I did appreciate the amount of hip hop that is represented, especially in the
top 100. There's quite a bit, though it's mostly like 90s hip hop.
One thing I struggled with is some of the more recent artists that are in there. Some
of them are quite high on the list. People like Taylor Swift and Beyonce and like nothing
against those artists or modern music. But I feel like we're not removed enough from
this era to really know where those records stand. It's easy to point to a Beatles record
and recognize its influence, but I'm not sure what Taylor Swift's legacy is or Beyonce's.
I think that leans into what I learned, which was this isn't static. So today this is the
truth and that's why they redo it. And it's based on people's opinions. Stuff changes.
And that's what I learned is that these lists move with the time and I'd like moving with
them.
And that's one Negron.
I'm your density. I mean your destiny.
All right, boys and girls gather around. It's time once again to get out that wheel of musical
destiny and see what Wadbot has in store for us next week. Give it a spin.
Whispering rain on the window. Album spin in the haze. The music you play cuts through
the gray. Your musical destiny is to contemplate rainy day albums.
Rainy day albums.
It's very subjective.
I like that.
It could be fun.
It doesn't have to necessarily be about rain, but something you'd want to put on whether
it was right or not.
What's your favorite rainy day album? What else are you listening to? Let us know. Join
fellow Album Nerds on Discord at AlbumNerds.com slash Discord. You can email us at podcast
at AlbumNerds.com. You can follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Album Nerds. And please subscribe,
rate and review on your favorite podcast app. If you'd like to support the show, you can
do so via PayPal at AlbumNerds.com slash support.
Thank you once again for joining us on the Album Nerds podcast. Maybe this is your 200th
time. Maybe it's your first. Either way, come back next week. We'll be talking about rainy
day albums.
What up? Thanks for listening, everybody. Catch you on 201.
Happy 200.
A man walks down my street says, why am I recording a podcast? Why am I recording a
podcast when everything I have to say is dumb, dumb?
Something B-side's a great slam, right?
I just wrote that in the middle of the show.
200.