The Album Review Club - Week #195 (page 1310) - A New World Record - ELO

mancity1 said:
Master of the keyboards threespires welcome aboard.

I can't think of too many for what he does that do it better.

Self taught and one of the most influential way beyond the piano.

At some stage every singer wanted him on the keyboards as they struck a chord or two (LOL).
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I've got to be honest, I'm having a very different reaction to this than those who have commented so far :(
 
mancity1 said:
Master of the keyboards threespires welcome aboard.

I can't think of too many for what he does that do it better.

Self taught and one of the most influential way beyond the piano.

At some stage every singer wanted him on the keyboards as they struck a chord or two (LOL).
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One of the many pleasures of this thread is that encourages you to make an effort to truly listen. Like most people on here I imagine, I can sing along to a few of Lewis's songs but that's very much in an unconscious way and it's not the same as listening. Whether I'll return to this album a lot remains to be seen but it has helped me move from a general understanding of Lewis's place in rock n roll history into a proper appreciation of why he has that place.
 
RobMCFC said:
I've got to be honest, I'm having a very different reaction to this than those who have commented so far :(
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That's the beauty of the thread isn't it, though I must admit sometimes there are artists who seem universally loved and I don't get them or can't see the fuss and it feels a bit like 'where's my invite to the party'.
 
It’s not for me I’m afraid. Can’t seem to get anything other than a madman playing the piano! I can appreciate he did it rather well though :) It was good to have a listen to a ‘legend’ perform live although given its age the quality is a bit naff.
4/10 for me. Back to the new Greta Van Fleet album :)
 
Gaudion M said:
On the plus side its a very good recording for a live gig. I always avoid live recordings as I just find the audio quality to suspect. I'm assuming this is pretty old and it sounds good.
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I'm the opposite - the recording sounds horribly muffled to me - and that's allowing for the fact that it was the 60s!
 
threespires said:
One of the many pleasures of this thread is that encourages you to make an effort to truly listen. Like most people on here I imagine, I can sing along to a few of Lewis's songs but that's very much in an unconscious way and it's not the same as listening. Whether I'll return to this album a lot remains to be seen but it has helped me move from a general understanding of Lewis's place in rock n roll history into a proper appreciation of why he has that place.
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My mother said to me at an early age you will grow to appreciate his real talent and the hype will take care of itself as you get older.

She was pretty decent on the ivories but preferred classical and found his work difficult to do some justice to and its easy to see why.

I am now what most would regard as elderly at best and I am glad that I hung around long enough to fully appreciate the talent that goes beyond the Killer's facade.

I suspect he didn't realise himself how good a song writer and piano player he was beyond his life on the road and the performer he thought he had to be.

I am still going through his catalogue with more surprises to come for sure and certain both good and bad and I started 20 years ago.

Mummy knows best.
 
Live at the Star Club – Jerry Lee Lewis

Another week, another live album. I’m sure you lot are doing this to me on purpose! Maybe I should say that I hate Bruce Springsteen, INXS and Tom Petty?

Anyway, that fact that this is a live album is not the issue for me – there’s plenty more that I don’t like about it.

First off – I respect that Jerry Lee Lewis is one of the founding fathers of Rock and Roll. “Great Balls of Fire” is one of the all-time greats of the genre, and I’ve no doubt that had I been at one of his concerts in the 50s and 60s, I too would have lost my mind just dancing away to hit after hit.

However, on this recording, he has managed to make every song, with the exception of “Your Cheating Heart”, sound pretty much the same. Actually, on my second listen, “Money” is a bit different too.

Talking about sound, even allowing for the fact that this was recorded in the 60s, it sounds horribly muffled to me.

Whilst I think that the above criticisms are objective, I do have another issue, which is perhaps more personal to me. Somebody banging away on a piano – and let’s face it, this is pretty much what is happening here for the entire 22 minutes – quickly loses its appeal. A single performance of “Great Balls of Fire” – great, but not on song after song.

I much prefer guitar rock and roll (e.g. Chuck Berry) to piano-based rock and roll. When the piano’s involved, I prefer a bit of variation, a bit of blues and jazz, not just plinky, plonky piano stabbing. I also like to hear the pianist stretch out with some long solos and rolls.

It's funny because I often say on here (mostly tongue-in-cheek) that music has to be close to “the source” to be truly great. That mean no twiddly electronics, no gimmicks, just performers singing their hearts out and keeping it simple. On these terms, Jerry lee Lewis’ music is pretty close to “the source”, but maybe that just goes to show that actually,I do need a bit of low-level gimmickry to appreciate music (a few different stringed instruments, a variation in tempo, some solos, some decent lyrics etc.)

I’m going to give this 5/10 to reflect that whilst it’s not my cup of tea, I respect him as a performer, and I’ll be interested to see how it resonates with others.
 
After JLL, Spotify's auto-play has led me to a Steve Miller Band track called "My Dark Hour" from 1969.
Great track - never heard it before and it's got the riff from "Fly Like an Eagle", one of my favourite 70s songs.
 
This one is 'not my thing', in the sense that it is not something I would consciously choose to listen to or put an album on.

However, it had the same effect on me as some things I would very much choose to listen to. And that is - It made me want to uncontrollably randomly start moving parts of my body, clench my jaw and grimmace in expression, heart race or slow down, and then want to repeat that feeling. It has an incredible energy to it, and the intensity that I like in some of my favourite punk or post-punk bands, or more fierce jazz or folk artists.

Yes, the sound is a bit muffled at times, yes there is sometimes an imbalance of vocals/piano etc, yes you could analyse all sorts into tempo, skill, showmanship etc.

At the end of the day, who cares. For me the overall effect trumps it all. And for me it transcends genre, era, style and all that.

I always said I didn't really have a metric for what a '10' is, but if I were ever to give anything a 10, I would just know. With this one, as unexpected as I find it, that's just what I feel. So it is a solid 10 from me.
 
Thought I'd dip my toe in here.
I listened to the remastered version on you tube and it didn't sound muffled at all.
What I heard was full throttle Rock and Roll. Played by a master of the genre, a showman who sent the crowd wild.
Loved his version of Money and Matchbox and What'd I say.
Every track a 12 bar but tight, aggressive music that gets into your gut and makes you move.
To say this recorded in 1964 and sounds so fresh is amazing. Great that it survived so well.
Jerry Lee a master of his craft.
Only one score from me 10/10
 
Bill Walker said:
Thought I'd dip my toe in here.
I listened to the remastered version on you tube and it didn't sound muffled at all.
What I heard was full throttle Rock and Roll. Played by a master of the genre, a showman who sent the crowd wild.
Loved his version of Money and Matchbox and What'd I say.
Every track a 12 bar but tight, aggressive music that gets into your gut and makes you move.
To say this recorded in 1964 and sounds so fresh is amazing. Great that it survived so well.
Jerry Lee a master of his craft.
Only one score from me 10/10
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Welcome back.
 
LIVE AT THE STAR CLUB



when I saw this nomination I thought I’m not going to like this ,as old time rock n roll has never been my bag.How wrong was I , Jerry Lee puts it in a great performance which sounds fresh and vibrant, yes it’s not the best recording but not that bad as it’s 1964 and live.

Listening to it makes me wish i was there, it sounds great night.

A surprisingly very good pick.

8/10
 
Think most posters have already said what I wanted to say. As per my previous posts after a couple of listens, I think this was a great nomination because rather than just take as given Lewis's role in the history of rock and roll it's made me properly listen to how he ended up with that role.

I know there's been some discussion about sound quality but to me this stuff is timeless and transcends the tech, the juxtaposition of the apparent abandon when in reality the attack is never really out of control or wayward.

Don't have time to write at length but I think the first 30 seconds or so of Money epitomise why I like this album. There's absolutely nothing fancy in that opening few bars but he just gets it right and it's utterly convincing.

Sometimes you appreciate something historical but it doesn't move you (or get you to move), other times you're lucky enough that it does both.

9/10.
 
Going against the flow here. Nothing wrong with the sound quality for me and I can accept that this may well have been quite something if you were there, at the time and that Jerry Lee Lewis is a high energy performer. What I can't do though is differentiate these versions of rock'n'roll standards from any other version that I might hear or have heard. Probably a bit reductive of me but there you go, this is just music that does nothing in particular for me and at one point despite it being relatively short I was bored and wanting it to be over. That wasn't as bad as the pint where he spoke and his vocal inflections reminded me of Donald Trump though (OK, I might have been the only person who heard that, you were all concentrating on how much you liked the music).

Seems a bit churlish but for me it's a 5.
 
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