All Time Top 1100 Albums (Aerosmith - Big Ones) P265

FogBlueInSanFran said:
Very little can ruin a holiday in Hawaii on the first day. This came uncomfortably close.

So they do a whatever-minute long song, the only one with a real hook, the only one that ever made anyone ever hear of the band, so that the keyboardist can do a version of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman”? And so the drummer can do a solo that sounds like a true solo because he’s playing one drum with one hand? And so the guitarist can do that screechy industrial bit that was very cool but should have been done in another song with a different band maybe 20 years later?

I can see why these guys tried to reunite about a dozen times since 1972 because playing this shit today would give them a chance to sop up of of those acid-gobbling fans left stranded by the demise of the Dead at hippie festivals in America. That they were time and time again unsuccessful gives you a sense of how motivated people who grow up in lolling about in the San Diego sunshine tend to be.

The most fun this pointless exercise offered me was the chance to hear the story about how they fucked up appearing at Woodstock (read the Wikipedia entry — it’s hilarious).

Anyhow, forebears of hard rock and metal, yada yada yada. The 60s cliches are lathered thickly all over this — cheesy organ (dig the Manzarek rip from Light My Fire out a year before this LOL), lots of stuff about you, girl, and you, babe, production which sounds like a poor boom guy running around stage sticking the mike in front of whichever instrument is soloing at the moment, a song called Flowers And Beads.

Yet another band whose song title provides the summation of my review: “Termination.” 2/10

Now time for a Mai-tai.
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Enjoy Hawaii - I'm off to find the Woodstock story............
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
Very little can ruin a holiday in Hawaii on the first day. This came uncomfortably close.

So they do a whatever-minute long song, the only one with a real hook, the only one that ever made anyone ever hear of the band, so that the keyboardist can do a version of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman”? And so the drummer can do a solo that sounds like a true solo because he’s playing one drum with one hand? And so the guitarist can do that screechy industrial bit that was very cool but should have been done in another song with a different band maybe 20 years later?

I can see why these guys tried to reunite about a dozen times since 1972 because playing this shit today would give them a chance to sop up of of those acid-gobbling fans left stranded by the demise of the Dead at hippie festivals in America. That they were time and time again unsuccessful gives you a sense of how motivated people who grow up in lolling about in the San Diego sunshine tend to be.

The most fun this pointless exercise offered me was the chance to hear the story about how they fucked up appearing at Woodstock (read the Wikipedia entry — it’s hilarious).

Anyhow, forebears of hard rock and metal, yada yada yada. The 60s cliches are lathered thickly all over this — cheesy organ (dig the Manzarek rip from Light My Fire out a year before this LOL), lots of stuff about you, girl, and you, babe, production which sounds like a poor boom guy running around stage sticking the mike in front of whichever instrument is soloing at the moment, a song called Flowers And Beads.

Yet another band whose song title provides the summation of my review: “Termination.” 2/10

Now time for a Mai-tai.
Click to expand...
Just read about the Woodstock debacle. That is indeed very funny.

Have fun in Hawaii.
 
GoatersLeftShin said:
Had a listen to this today and I'm filing it under "another album on the list that shows the list is too long".

It's obviously psychedelic rock, but all it reminded me of was how much better the other bands were who did psychedelic material. The Beatles, The Doors, Pink Floyd, Byrds etc all did it far better. It's not aged well at all and as much as I like In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, it stands out a mile on this album. Well the first few minutes do before it drifts away.

The songs on the album are fairly "meh" and part of me wonders if they had them as pop songs before discovering LSD by the bucketload. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida starts with an amazing heavy rock riff and, scandalously, they allow it to disappear. That riff was the best part of the album.

The production is lacking as the sound was very 'mushy' too. It sounded like the producer had a few microphones in the room and did a take. When you listen to this say In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida and then - say - A Day in the Life or Good Vibrations, the production is 60 years apart.

I have a real soft spot for psychedelic rock as it acted as a catalyst for making modern music. Without it, pop music would be very, very different. To go from simple 2 minute songs to songs like In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, Good Vibrations, Eight Miles High, Astronomy Domine, not to mention Tomorrow Never Knows and Lucy In the Sky etc with a few years is astonishing. I thank all these bands for the creative explosion that revolutionised music and I'm certain that Iron Butterfly would've influenced every heavy metal or hard rock band who followed them a few years after.

However, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida just hasn't aged well. The title track will continue to be played in it's shortened version for years to come, but the author of the book should look at this album and wonder if he book would've been far better if he'd made it (say) 200 albums :)

4/10.
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99.99999% of the people that bought this bought it for one song. And the 0.00001% of those that didn’t was the lead singer’s mom.
 
journolud said:
Only had time for the first few tracks, will finish it later and give it another run through but currently have the same enthusiasm for it as I reserve for cleaning the chip pan.
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In fact I no longer have a chip pan, I chucked it out a few weeks ago and replaced it with a deep fat fryer when my university educated but slightly dozy son decided he wanted to start deep fat frying his chicken, trying to replicate cheeky chicken of Nottingham or wherever it was he used to go. Anyway, no way I'm letting him leave fat unattended on the hob on a device not protected by a thermostat.

The deep fat fryer is just as hard and laborious to clean though so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and clean it out while listening to the Iron Butterfly. It's probably all been said and much more eloquently than I can about this album. First impression was how dated it sounded in the way that when I play for example the Beatles the exact opposite applies. The Beatles sound fresh every time. The second song was OK but not OK enough to make any playlist of mine and most of the rest was forgettable. I'm familiar with the single version of the title track and that to be fair is good and again as others have said that is where it should have ended. The drum solo is absolutely pointless and the extended bit after that just drags without excitement.

It's the sort of stuff that might have sounded clever at the time and no doubt accompanied many a stoned session from the music fans of the time but it hasn't aged well. Like chip pans it belongs in another era. My initial score was going to be a 4, reading back what I've just written that seems generous but I will stick with my instinct on it. 4 it is. Or if you want the pointless extended version; four, quattro, 4,4,4! (the end)
 
journolud said:
In fact I no longer have a chip pan, I chucked it out a few weeks ago and replaced it with a deep fat fryer when my university educated but slightly dozy son decided he wanted to start deep fat frying his chicken, trying to replicate cheeky chicken of Nottingham or wherever it was he used to go. Anyway, no way I'm letting him leave fat unattended on the hob on a device not protected by a thermostat.

The deep fat fryer is just as hard and laborious to clean though so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and clean it out while listening to the Iron Butterfly. It's probably all been said and much more eloquently than I can about this album. First impression was how dated it sounded in the way that when I play for example the Beatles the exact opposite applies. The Beatles sound fresh every time. The second song was OK but not OK enough to make any playlist of mine and most of the rest was forgettable. I'm familiar with the single version of the title track and that to be fair is good and again as others have said that is where it should have ended. The drum solo is absolutely pointless and the extended bit after that just drags without excitement.

It's the sort of stuff that might have sounded clever at the time and no doubt accompanied many a stoned session from the music fans of the time but it hasn't aged well. Like chip pans it belongs in another era. My initial score was going to be a 4, reading back what I've just written that seems generous but I will stick with my instinct on it. 4 it is. Or if you want the pointless extended version; four, quattro, 4,4,4! (the end)
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Ha ha I wish I could write with your humour. Fantastic.
Bravo sir
 
Random thoughts as i listen:
I'm surprised i've never come across Iron butterfly before now. Slightly embarrassed even. Even though they were obviously a few years ahead of their time, it all sounds a bit too dated for me now. The 2nd song is a bit...poppy? West coast trippy pop. It's ok. I think the organ sound is starting to grate on me now. I bet Clint Boon was a big fan of these. Great riff on Termination... I like it. Nice ending too. I can hear all the bands that were influenced by this in the title track. Good song too...and yeah, it would be even better stoned. Incidentally, I can play Rasputin on my acoustic guitar along to the drum solo bit in the title track...just found that out. "Hey, hey, hey, hey".
I quite like the songs...great bass, guitar and drums..I'm just getting a bit tired of the organ sound.
It's a big, fat, fence sitting 5/10 from me.
 
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