Monday 3 March 2014

Jefferson Airplane "Surrealistic Pillow" (1967) (Album Review)



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Jefferson Airplane "Surrealistic Pillow" (1967)

She Has Funny Cars/Somebody To Love/My Best Friend/Today/Comin' Back To Me//3/5ths Of A Mile In Ten Seconds/DCBA-25/How Do You Feel?/Embryonic Journey/White Rabbit/Plastic Fantastic Lover


Well, that was a bit of a sudden change wasn't it?! If debut album 'Jefferson Airplane Takes Off' is a case of getting the Airplane off the launch-pad then 'Surrealistic Pillow' is where the navigation system kicks in for the first-time and all the layers and sounds that will come to personify the band begin to fall into place. A much-loved album containing two top ten singles (the only top ten singles the Airplane will ever score, incidentally), 'Surrealistic Pillow' was released just as the Summer of Love was about to shine. In fact, with a release date of March 1967 and a folky sound at times that makes it more like an album from 1965, you could argue that 'Surrealistic Pillow' is a 'Spring of Love' album, the start of a musical spirit and blossoming that was about to take the world by storm. Listening to it now it's a curious hybrid of the 'old' and the 'new' : most psychedelia albums from 1967 would have sounded like they came from a different planet to purchasers of records in 1964 or 1965 but this one psychedelic record that, like a recently died haircut, leaves its (folky) roots showing, gentler and more acoustic than most recordings made by the band's peers but with searing electronic Jorma Kaukanen guitar on top. The other surprise is the band's confidence: less than a year ago (in both 'their' time and 'our' time) we were praising the band for being the first San Franciscan band to set out their home turf's new, freer sound and take the first troubled steps to introduce to the world a whole new musical scene. 'Takes Off' is a record that, understandably given its history, plays things as safe as it can for as long as it can, with forays into folk, blues and pop as well as the band's signature sound. There's only one such concession on 'Pillow' and that song - 'My Best Friend', a song left over from that first album and written by the band's first drummer Skip Spence before he took up with Moby Grape - sounds a century older than the rest, not just a year. Far from being the new kids at school, Jefferson Airplane now sound like the coolest kids in the playground and the only people who know where it's 'at'.

A major piece in the missing puzzle is new vocalist Grace Slick. Grace has so come to dominate the public' image of the band that people can't imagine the band without her, but in actual fact she officially joined the band just three weeks before starting the recordings for this album. The band were actually told not to bother hiring her when it was discovered that it would cost $750 to buy her out of her contract with her former band - as it turned out its was probably the best bargain in the history of the music business. Grace's voice was quite unlike anything heard in the music world - even Janis Joplin hadn't hit her stride yet when this album came out - and her take-no-prisoners style took the band to a whole new level Having heard 'Takes Off!' it's clear that the rest of the band hired here because she sounded just like their first singer Signe Andersen without the blues trappings (who left the band in late 1966 to have a baby; in a sign of how quickly times changed Grace will have a baby with Airplane guitarist Paul Kantner and it doesn't slow down her role in the group one iota). Signe was a gifted singer and perfect for the Airplane back when it was a folk-rock band, but the addition of a female singer who wasn't just there for the harmonies but was every bit the equal of the male singers around her was somehow very sexy and very 1967The fact that Grace brought with her two songs that were obvious hits and are still the Airplane's best known songs today ('Somebody To Love', written by ex husband Darby Slick, the guitarist in 'The Great Society' and her own 'White Rabbit' , which seems to have been written during the magic month off 'between' bands) probably helped both her confidence at taking on the hard task of stepping into another singer's shoes and allowing the band to think they'd made the right choice. It's nothing short of incredible that she picks up what to do so quickly - but then she had spent a long time in San Franciscan's third best band 'The Great Society', an Airplane soundalike who could have been every bit as great as the Airplane and the Dead (it's a tie which is San Francisco's 'first' best band by the way) had they rehearsed a bit more and squabbled less. What the Society missed most was a 'foil' for Grace to bounce off that was her equal - and she and Marty work brilliantly here for two people who'd only just met (this chemistry inevitably led to rumours about her closeness to Marty, but according to Grace's autobiography Balin was the only member of the Airplane she didn't 'seduce' during the band's five years). Marty and Signe were old friends and could 'read' each other as well as any other singing duo of the 1960s, but Balin and Slick together sound telepathically linked at times, a much under-valued aspect of the Airplane sound.

The other, less talked about but still majorly important change is new drummer Spencer Dryden. The band's first drummer Skip Spence had been the most eccentric member in an eccentric band, chosen by Marty and Paul for the band because he 'looked like a drummer' even though he tried to audition as the Airplane's guitarist. Eccentricity was clearly an Airplane hallmark (Skip's lone solo album post-Moby Grape, 'Oar', is one of those albums that defies description and re-writes every law about music that's ever been written, recorded just before the drummer was sectioned under the mental health act). Spencer was pretty eccentric too - enough to fit in with the rest of the band - but being that little bit older and a little bit more experienced than everyone else means he's almost always the band member most in control, able to flick a song this way or that depending on what everyone else in the room is playing. Interestingly Spencer's own songs will be the battiest and most rule-breaking things the Airplane ever do ('A Small Package Of Value...' 'Chusingura'), but as a member of the band he's the one most 'with it' and best able to cope with the four different bands playing around him (Marty, Grace, Paul and Jorma-Jack all have such different writing styles that in comparison with other period bands it's often hard to tell what the default Jefferson Airplane sound actually is).

Another key player on this album who doesn't get enough credit is Jerry Garcia. The Grateful Dead haven't even released their first album yet but Garcia especially is already being treated as a 'daddy' figure by fans of West Coast music (he's already been nicknamed 'Captain Trips' too, a title he hated). The Airplane's experience recording their first album wasn't a terribly happy one, mainly due to censorship issues; when RCA Records tried to give the band an even stricter producer the band retaliated by asking for a 'mediator' they could trust, picking Garcia as a friend they knew would back them up and could speak (or at least bluff his way through) all the technical know-how necessary. Garcia's credit of 'musical and spiritual supervisor' is the first of many dozen times Garcia will 'help out' on another band's records and he may well have done a lot more than simply 'oversee' the album (tracks like 'Today' and the wonderfully-titled outtake 'JPP McStep B Blues' especially sound like his work rather than Jorma's or Paul's and the band are adamant he plays guitar across the album; however producer Rick Jarrard and the paperwork made for the sessions claim Garcia was nowhere near the making of this LP).

One thing we know for certain about Garcia's involvement, however: it was him who came up with the album's quotable, happily hippily daft title, which meant as much or as little as the listener wanted it to be (the Grateful Dead don't get an album title this good until 'Wake Of The Flood' in 1973). The album is certainly at one with the psychedelics of the era, but without much of the darkness and aggression that is usually associated with American psychedelia, 'Baxters' included ('Pillow' did particularly well in Britain because ots much more in keeping with 'English' psychedelia, which is charming rather than frightening - unless it's played by the Rolling Stones or The Who). As a result it manages to be both dreamlike and comforting (like a pillow), making Garcia's name 'sound' right while simultaneously laughing at the ridiculous names a lot of the San Franciscan scene was coming up with (after debut albums by the Peanut Butter Conspiracy, The Chocolate Watch Band, Moby Grape and Quicksilver Messenger Service in quick succession , the Airplane moniker suddenly made them look like the 'sensible' kids on the psychedelic rock scene).

However there's one star over and above Grace, Spencer and Jerry on this album and that's Marty Balin. In early 1967 the Airplane are still seen as very much the lead singer's backing group and just as with 'Takes Off', Marty is writing all the best stuff on the album in the years before the Airplane become the Paul-and-Grace show. Marty had already mastered how to write (and sing) the heavy rockers on the first album and adds a couple more good ones here, but what really impresses are the ballads: it took guts for a band as full of bravado and as known for their power and guts on-stage to record songs as slow as 'Today' and 'Comin' Back To Me'. Considering the pair had never sung together before there's already a spooky chemistry between Marty and Grace that's spookily telepathic: on the duets with Signe the pair tended to challenge each other and compete but Slick and Balin are already goading each other on rather than treading on each other's toes. Marty even gets time to design the album's classic packaging, from the classically-trained-musicians spoof on the front (where the band's name is significantly inscribed onto that most folky of instruments, the banjo) and slightly surreal collage on the back (look out for the negative of Jorma inserted upside-down quietly in the top middle - it's fairly hidden so you might not notice it straight away but even at a glance your brain is telling you that there's something...different about this picture before you spot what it is, which is very Airplane). What's so sad about this is that, for a variety of reasons, Marty will never be so dominant in the band again: he gets a single co-credit on the next band record 'After Bathing At Baxters' (compared to the five he gets here) and nothing like the 'air-time' his golden voice gets here until the Jefferson Starship years (when, what do you know? The album he dominated the most - 1974's 'Red Octopus' - becomes by far the Starship's biggest seller).

If there's a theme on this album it's longing - peace and love hasn't really arrived yet and for all their hippie spirit the Airplane were always more confrontational than their peers (as we said in our review of 'Baxters' they don't ask for peace and love, they demand it - by war, if necessary). Like the 'Takes Off' record but more so, these are a group of people looking for change in society, in love and in themselves. Both sides of the record start with two of the angriest songs the Airplane ever recorded; 'She Has Funny Cars' contains the petulant chorus 'what do you want from me?' and asks it of everyone the narrator knows - the girl he never really understands, the society that expects him to settle for less and the people in charge trying to control whose in power 'wearing a disguise' while those like the narrator 'try to revolutionise tomorrow'. '3/5ths of a Mile in Ten Seconds' goes even further, starting the album's second side with the words 'do away with people...' wasting the narrator's time, laughing at him in the street and forcing him to live in a capitalist society at odds with his values. Both songs charge out of the blocks spitting venom. But there are other songs of 'longing' for things to change here too: people miss it due to the funky backbeat and Grace's bravado performance but 'Somebody To Love' is a lonely, unhappy song about a life only being complete if you have someone to share it with. 'Today' is a love song about the future, with the narrator wishing that he could make all his girls' 'dreams come true'. 'Coming Back To Me' is a love song about the past, when in a (drug-fuelled?) haze the narrators thinks he spies an ex-lover walking back into his life. The narrator of Paul Kantner's 'DCBA-25' finds he has the ability to 'read' people and see what they would be happy doing if only they'd let themselves become that person - and dreams of meeting a new soulmate rather than the partner he's with (named after the song's chord structure and the 'type' of LSD Paul was on when he wrote it, it's clearly a song about drugs opening up people's horizons). Cover song 'How Do You Feel?' is about a love affair carried out at a distance, with the girl probably unaware how much she means to the narrator who walks by at a certain time each day just to see her. Finally the narrator of 'Plastic Fantastic Lover' has long been portrayed as being in love with a television set - but actually reading between the lines he's simply waiting for something better to come along, dreaming of a time when censorship and bureaucracy governing what people watch is a thing of the past (or 'TV programme rape' as the song puts it). From the name on down, most things to do with Jefferson Airplane are about going on a 'journey' - at times 'Surrealistic Pillow' sounds like a sat-nav giving directions on where they want the planet to go and grow to.

As ever with the Airplane - who left more outtakes in the 'can' than most during their recording sessions - a lot of songs were left to collect dust until first the 'Early Flight' compilation of 1972 and then the CD re-issue of 'Pillow' in 2003. Some of them probably should have stayed in the vaults: 'In The Morning' was Jorma's major contribution to the album, but it's a shade too 'him' and not enough 'Airplane' to fit on this album (although it's bluesy tones would have fitted 'Takes Off' and are something of a sneak preview towards what the guitarist will do in his next band 'Hot Tuna'). 'Come Back Baby' is another Jorma cover of a traditional blues song that features a tighter band performance but isn't quite up to the album's high level. However the other songs would have made a great record even greater: 'JPP McStep B Blues' is another Skip Spence song recorded after the drummer left the band and is far better than 'My Best Friend', with a quirky love-struck lyric and melody that really suit Balin's voice. Interestingly the song was recorded on the last day of sessions for the album, suggesting the band might have been having second-thoughts about forgoing their 'folk' roots. 'Go To Her', a troubled Kantner song we covered on our review of 'Takes Off'. was revived for this album and again left in the vaults despite being evidence of how much tighter and better the Airplane have grown in the few months since release. Marty's vocal is even wilder, Grace outshines Signe during her cameo and the guitar-bass interplay from Jorma and Jack is breathtakingly exciting, even if the lyrics are still a little basic by 1967 standards. Finally, sadly it was cut from the CD re-issue, but the second, Grace Slick version of 'High Flying Bird' would have been one of the best things on the album: a live favourite that wasn't released until 'Early Flight' the folk standard is completely regenerated into a song where the stakes between life and death are higher and escape is the only solution to a hard life. Perhaps this song inspired the 'writers' in the band to make this album, as the themes of longing and heartbreak are all over this album - of all the outtakes from this album's sessions it would have been a pretty much perfect fit!

In all, then, 'Surrealistic Pillow' is one of those magical records that somehow manages to be both perfect for its times and timeless, full of concepts discussed by every generation (just psychedelic enough, but not 'trapped' by the genre like 'Baxters' or even 'Sgt Peppers'). The two hit singles undoubtedly helped, but 'Pillow' was always going to be a successful record, sounding both like the best of what's gone before and the start of something bold and daring. 'Somebody to Love' and 'White Rabbit' rightly became classics, but it's actually Balin's songs that give this album it's heart and spirit: the two noisy angry rockers - as pioneering as anything released in the first half of 1967 - and the two glorious ballads that show how well the Airplane really could play. The album isn't perfect however - 'My Best Friend' is one of the most toe-curling things the band ever did, Jorma is badly under-used (he gets just two credits on this album and no lead vocals) and some of the performances are a little scrappy here and there (which is no surprise really, given that this line-up of the band was together mere weeks when the sessions started). For my money the follow-up 'After Bathing At Baxters' is an even stronger, certainly more 'complete' record and leaves even 'Pillow' a couple of light years behind, booting out the 'folky' influences on this album and accelerating the power and the weirdness levels. That said, though, there's a reason that 'Surrealistic Pillow' became such a best-seller and 'Baxters' became a cult: there's more intelligence on this album than a lot of what will come, a lot less self-indulgence and being pioneering for pioneering's sake, while 'Pillow' remains easily the prettiest of all the band's albums thanks to Balin's cool head and warm heart. 'Baxters' has more fun and breaks a lot more rules, but 'Pillow' is the effortlessly cool album that gets more girls (or boys). The album certainly did what it needed to do though: for a time shortly after this album Jefferson Airplane were the biggest-selling artists on the pretty huge RCA roster and eagerly celebrated the fact by taking matters into their own hands and refusing to release anything quite so commercial ever again.

'She Has Funny Cars' is arguably the most 'progressive' sounding cut on the record so it makes some kind of sense that the Airplaners would put it first on the record - and that it would be the first song recorded for the album (and therefore the first recording with Grace on vocals). In the context of March 1967 this a weird song from the title on down (what does the phrase 'She Has Funny Cars' mean and where did it come from?!) , not to mention the aggressive spiky guitar-work, the fuzz-bass that's drenched in so much feedback it sounds as if it's about to explode and lyrics that are spelling out how awful life is as a hippie outsider before the vast majority of people had even heard the term yet. The song makes a lot more sense once the summer of love comes in and these sort of songs are suddenly everywhere (albeit the aggressiveness of this track is more like something from 1968) but at the time 'Cars' is as big a stylistic leap into the unknown as contemporary releases like 'Strawberry Fields Forever' 'Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby?' and 'Nights In White Satin'. Jorma's music manages to be both unusually angular and melodic; yes the guitar and bass are deliberately recorded to sound harsh and bitter but the actual melody is a very tuneful one (in another setting and with different lyrics a crooner could have a hit with this song). Marty's clever words are a neat foil for the strangeness of Jorma's music (interestingly the pair only wrote two songs together and the other was 'And I Like It', the forward-looking last track on 'Takes Off' which sounds more like this record than that one), all about how you can never truly know another person. Marty throws in a few hippie-pleasing moments like 'the world is waiting to be seized' and 'revolutionise tomorrow' marking the first time the Airplane have come up with what will become their trademark 'sloganeering' anthemic sound, but this track is darker than most. You may well miss at first (I missed it for 20 odd years) but the first verse is actually about loss and the fact that the narrator is shacked up with someone he realises he doesn't know or want to be with. The 'what do you want with me?' chorus comes out of frustration at being tied to someone who won't communicate - and yet in the narrator's suddenly awakened (via drugs?) head his soul-mate will be able to speak to him without talking. Marty's lyrics manage to mix both lyricism and emotion but he excels himself on the second verse when he speaks about the world and it's many injustices in a wider sense. Marty sings 'some have it nice' before Grace chimes in with '...fat and round' (a theme Grace will develop into a full song, 'Fat' for her and Paul's third album 'Baron Von Tollbooth' in 1973) and then they both explode into 'Flash!...Paradise!' A neat summary of everything wrong with the world then and now, it's a very clever and memorable moment on a song (and album) full of them. 'Cars' truly gets 'Surrealistic Pillow' started with a bang.

'Somebody To Love' is quite a firework too, a near-perfect three minute pop single turned to maximum. Unless you were a very committed fan of the psychedelic scene pre-1967 you probably had no idea who Grace or even the Airplane were before the song first came on the radio - but you sure would know by the end. Grace gives such a barnstorming committed performance that naturally many fans assume she wrote the song, but actually it's by her ex Derby Slick (Grace kept the name even after she marries Paul Kantner; her maiden name is actually 'Wing') and originally one of the cornerstones of the Great Society's short setlist (Derby was their lead guitarist). The pair had already split long before Grace was poached by the Airplane (and therefore dumping her husband a second time) which might account for why Grace sings what's actually quite a sad song about heartbreak with such venom (it's not unlike the way Agentha sings husband Bjorn's songs about the collapse of their relationship at the end of ABBA ten times better than anything else). The differences between the two versions are day and night: the Society version is a delightful shambles, a rough-hewn song with a stuttering backbeat that sounds more like Peter Paul and Mary than psychedelia, whereas the Airplane arrangement (re-arranged by the whole band and given their already characteristic powerhouse performance) is confrontational and direct, anything but sweet. The song is cleverly written however it's played though, picking up on the sad irony that when you get dumped is the time you need somebody the most and that a rebound romance is a natural result of falling out of love. The song cleverly distances itself from the action, being sung in the third-person for most of the lyric, but Grace's emotional delivery hints that the narrator is singing about their own loss and is simply unable to deal with it head on (in this reading 'Somebody To Love?' sounds like coming up with an excuse to do something stupid). Throw in a catchy powerful chorus that's simple and universal enough to appeal to 'straights' and you can see why this song became such a hit, even with what must surely be one of the laziest, laidback guitar solos ever recorded (and kept for the very end of the song). Hiring Grace Slick for the band - who turns in one of her career best vocals as well as turning up with a ready made hit - was turning out to be a truly great idea for the Airplane...

'My Best Friend' sounds all the more icky coming after all that heartfelt passion. A Skip Spence leftover from the first album, it seems an odd choice to revive: very much a folky 1965-era song about a rather artificial and twee relationship by psychedelia standards, it may well have been added to the album more as a 'thankyou' to Spence during his difficult first year with Moby Grape and give him some royalties (a natural guitarist, Skip really struggled with drumming but ploughed on as the Airplane already had three guitarists and got rather good by the end considering as the 'Takes Off' album proves). That said, though, including this song sounds more like sabotage to the career of a band member who left them in the lurch, it sounds so out of place here (it's not a patch on Skip's other writes and co-writes for the band 'Blues From An Airplane' 'Don't Slip Away' and this album's outtake 'JPP McStep B Blues'). It's not that the band play it badly (Grace and Paul particularly sound unusually good on this song actually, quite unlike any they'll ever sing on again) so much as they sound like they don't quite know why they are playing it. The lyrics are odd too: 'You're my best friend and I love you so well' goes the opening line before adding '...Till the end of time you won't see me'. Admittedly this kind of skewed logic makes more sense when you've heard Spence's lone solo album 'Oar' (in as much as anything on the record makes sense...) but the rest of the song seems to have been deliberately underwritten, full of period pleasing references to the girl's vicinity as her 'love stream' and a pre-Oasis moment of hippie solidarity in 'D'yer know what I mean?' On any earlier album by any band - even 'Takes Off' - the listener would probably have given this song the benefit of the doubt: its sentiments are quite sweet after all, the sudden double-speed up during the song's 'middle' is genuinely exciting and on its own terms it's not that bad a song (even if Jorma's corny ';that's all folks!' ending suggests that he, at least, doesn't think much of the song either). It's just that the game-plan has changed, revolution is in the air and the rest of 'Surrealistic Pillow' sounds like it belongs from another century, not just a few months after this was written. Easily the worst song on the album.

'Today', however, is a moment of pure genius - arguably the best song on the album alongside the two singles. Marty's set of lyrics might well be every bit as cloying and sentimental as 'My Best Friend', but when set to Paul Kantner's articulate, mournful music they sound almost too heartbreakingly real for comfort. In actual fact this was about as close to a 'hack' song as the band ever came to writing; hearing that Tony Bennett was in the nearby studios when the Airplane were working on 'Takes Off' Marty actually wrote this song for the crooner to sing, but never got up the courage to offer it to him (it was covered by American Soprano Renee Fleming in 2010, mind, but hers is an awful version where she seems to be ignoring her years of training and is trying to sing like a folk-singer). Paul's mournful guitar riff (especially the inversion of it which ends the song like a final sob) is one of the best he ever wrote, full of sadness and longing. Marty's words, too, sound like a sequel to the Beartles classic 'Yesterday' vowing to 'please' his loved one 'more than before' despite the fact that he's 'changed' compared to how he was yesterday (another of this album's reference to analtered understanding of the world). The chorus, promising that all her dreams will 'come true' should sound hackneyed, but this is a likeable narrator whose made it very clear that he's putting his heart on the line and the opening verses make it clear how much courage he's plucked up to reveal his inner feelings and his frightened thoughts that she might not think the same as him. On paper it looks thin, but with the music it's a revelation - and as the song says 'I can't use words, they don't say enough'. The band performance on this song is truly great: Marty gets so into the song you believe him when he claims to be 'so full of love I could burst apart and start to cry'; the criss-crossing guitars - with Jerry Garcia playing the lead to Jorma's deeper riff - are featherlight and delicate and the background choir of Grace and Paul, mixed very low until the final verse, perfectly judge their parts too. A real delight and proof that the Airplane could play as softly and subtlety as anyone else.

Talking of which few non-fans would guess in a million years that 'Comin' Back To Me' was by the same band as 'White Rabbit' and 'Somebody To Love', never mind from the same album. In many ways it isn't: Marty, Paul, Jack and Jerry Garcia all play acoustic guitars while Grace plays a sensitive and ear-catching improvised recorder part (sadly she'll only play the recorder once more on record - had she recorded more songs like this then the recorder classes I used to have at school might have been a lot more interesting!) Marty revealed even more of his inner self here (his mind, apparently, 'opened' by a particularly good batch of marijuana he had that night)and in his haze imagines he sees an old flame walking back into his life. Even before Balin admitted how he wrote the song you kind of know that the figure in the song is a hallucination and you sense the narrator knows it too (she still hasn't arrived by the end of the song), but somehow that still doesn't matter - he takes comfort from the image even if it isn't true and simply 'made up for fun'. This song features many of Balin's most poetic lyrics ('The summer had inhaled and left its breath too long') and occasionally oversteps the mark ('The shape of sleepy music and suddenly you're hooked') but the song rings very true and cleverly manages to get away with only a one-line chorus repeated at the end of every verse instead of the usual verse-chorus structure. The emptiness of the backing gives Marty a real chance to shine and he excels himself here, keeping the song interesting for all of the five minutes despite the fact that nothing much is physically going on at all. This song was apparently written very quickly and recorded very soon after (on November 1st 1966, the second day of the album sessions a few hours before 'How Do You Feel?') and it sounds like it: the performance successfully conjures up the hazy, delicate fog the narrator is lost in and proves once again that the Airplane had a real Grateful Dead-like telepathic interplay with each other even when the full band wasn't there. Full kudos to Grace for getting her recorder out on only her second recording day with the band too - her part is exactly the 'foil' Marty's narrator needs, calling siren-like to him during the course of the song.

Sometimes I long for the days of vinyl when you used to have to get up and turn the record over. Back then you could stay in that warm haze as long as you wanted, but now 'Comin' Back To Me' is barely over before it gets shattered by the punk-like aggression of '3/5ths of a Mile In Ten Seconds'. Another nonsense title (taken from the headlines for two separate stories on the same page of a newspaper the band were reading during the sessions), '3/5ths' is anything but a nonsense song. The rattle and fizz of the main riff is a great hook on which to hang a second troubled song about everything wrong with society in 1967 (and just as true today, sadly) and a reminder that the summer of love wasn't as perfect as it's often painted to be. The blow gets softened with a typical pop chorus of 'you know I love you baby, yes I do!' but elsewhere this is quite an aggressive song for the period, full of bullies 'laughing at my hair' and the bummer of being in a capitalist society where you have to pay through the nose to open your mind and get high (at least I think that's what the last verse is all about - the word 'nicotine' is probably a smokescreen to avoid another Airplane airplay ban!) It's the bit in the middle that's the most 'Airplane' -like, dreaming of a future where hippies live in a low-rent 'circus tent', an idea that Small Face Ronnie Lane will be trying out for real in five or so years. Jorma turns in one of his best guitar solos on this track, which tries hard to be above it all but can't quite the emotion running through the song and to my ears at least that sounds like Garcia playing the other, lighter guitar part with him at the start of the song. In fact the recording features one of the best of the band performances, although this song sounded even better live. A little too 1967 to have the longevity of some of the other album songs perhaps (words like 'freaks' and the price of the cigarettes at $65 date '3/5ths' more than the other songs here), this is nevertheless another album highlight.

'DCBA-25' is one of the more forgotten songs from the album, but I'm not sure why - in it's own humble way it's as major a step forward as the other better known songs on the album. Of all the Airplane's songs its this one (and 'White Rabbit') that are most obviously about drugs, from the title onwards (connoisseurs of LSD by now, its named partly after the song's unusual guitar tuning and Albert Hoffmann's original chemical batch 25, the band's favourite 'mix' of acid, which no doubt writer Paul Kantner was taking that day). I can also hear a bit of 'Got To Get You Into My Life' in the chord structure on this song, as if Paul had just 'learnt' that Paul McCartney's 1966 song was a 'hidden' ode to drugs like this one (though in Macca's case it's pot, not LSD). The drug honeymoon is in full swing here, Kantner's narrator really enjoying seeing the world afresh and sighing over 'too many days left unstoned', wasted by living a straight life in a straight world. The first verse is the darkest, hinting that a promising relationship has been snuffled out by his drug use (or at least the drugs awakening the narrator to the fact that he doesn't know who his intended life-partner is any more). If the first verse is sad about the past, the second verse is about the glorious present where the drugs allow the narrator to feel he's 'running home' and enjoying true happiness for the first time in his life. There's even a hint that someone important has just come into the narrator's life thanks to the drugs (well, what do you know? Grace Slick's just joined the band and the pair do become a couple circa 1970, though not yet - Grace is too busy hooking up with Jack Casady and Spencer Dryden right now by most accounts. It may not be a coincidence that Grace's first of many duets with Paul comes on this song - Marty has gone missing for this recording session - and their voices already sound great together). The final verse then imagines a better future, when everyone's mind has been opened by drugs and the narrator can 'see the people of the world, who they are and what they could be'. You couldn't write a song like this now of course, not know it's well known how many drug horror stories are waiting for musicians around the corner in the 1970s, but back in the context of 1967 this lovely low-key track fits the album perfectly, caught exactly at the midway point between folk and psychedelia. 'DCBA-25' might not be the best song on the album, but it's the best song you might not know before buying the album and really points towards the future, especially 'Baxters' which is dominated by Kantner's songs and odes to drugs like this one.

'How Do You Feel?' continues the same folky vibe and features blissful three-part Airplane harmonies for pretty much the first time in the Grace Slick era. Grace's second and last use of recorder kicks off a sweet song about falling in love from a distance and walking past a certain place at the same time every day simply to see a beautiful girl. However the twist is the narrator is too shy to actually tell her and so they keep on meeting without knowing it, over and over (believe it or not shyness was 'in' in 1967, with quietness relating to mysteriousness and the 'inner mind' now opened on drugs; sadly forgotten band Kippington Lodge released a gorgeous song the month after 'Pillow' titled 'Shy Boy' which to my ears is one of the two or three greatest pyshcedelic singles not written by the 'big boys' covered elsewhere on this site). Unfortunately, though, the sound of the song is a little too square and a little too Four Freshman for the recording to quite take off. Paul takes the lead again here on this Tom Mastin cover song, suggesting that the group's biggest folkie chose it to cover (Mastin was a well-loved but poor-selling folk writer who also co-wrote 'Bound To Fall', covered by Stephen Stills' Manassas band on their first LP in 1972) and sadly it sounds as 'wrong' as 'The banjo-based 'The Baby Tree' will on Kantner's freak-out classic 'Blows Against The Empire' CD. The song would have fitted in snugly on 'Takes Off', but here it just sounds anachronistic - or at least it does until the surprising a capella ending when Grace and Marty start a lifetime of singing in unison and the whole song sounds gorgeous. Still, though, cover songs in 1967 were a no-no and this song should really have stayed on the cutting room floor.

'Embryonic Journey' is Jorma's big moment and is an acoustic instrumental played by him alone. While this extremely folky song (which sounds to me as if the guitarist started off by trying to re-create Davy Graham's famous 'Anji' before stumbling on a new riff) doesn't really 'fit' this album any more than the last track, it's a welcome opportunity to hear one of the 1960's greatest guitarists at full-stretch without any other distractions. The song was recorded a long time after the other songs on the album (well, by 1967 standards - on November 22nd 1966 when most of the songs had been recorded by November 4th) suggesting that Jorma might have been struggling to come up with 'his' contribution to the album after having such a hand in the making of 'Takes Off' ('In The Morning' was taped the day before and 'Come Back Baby' even after this track). Indeed, he's meant to have been 'persuaded' to record the song by the rest of the band, who'd remembered him playing it years ago (Jorma wrote it in 1962 while in his teens at a 'guitar workshop'). Note the fact that the song's title is about a 'journey' once again - the Airplane were all about 'trips'. Kaukanen later issued an etnire album of 'sessions' for a 1993 re-recording of this song he made with Dead keyboardist Tom Constanten released as 'Embryonic Journey' in 1994; while lovely in parts, it's a shame the 1967-era sessions weren't included too as a 'bonus' for fans. I've noticed that this song has grown in reputation down the years - at the time it was 'overwhelmed' by the noisier, more immediate songs on the album but the 'modern' Jefferson Starship have revived this song (even without Jorma in the band!), several fans seem to mention it and 'Journey' has even turned up on TV and film soundtracks (generally those by 'hipper' directors who know their psychedelia!) A worthy ending for a song (and a guitarist) that always deserved better recognition, although of course those 'hip' directors may have simply mis-dialled their CD players and were actually after...

'White Rabbit', the second of 'Pillow's biggest songs and a Grace Slick tour de force designed to thrill the youngsters and make the grown-ups go running for the hills. Sounding musically like a bullfight, this is lyrically a 'red rag' to a bull: surely everyone knows the score behind this song by now but I'll spell it out anyway: this is a drug song almost screaming out to get banned. However, at the same time, it's also screaming out the hypocrisy if it is banned: the lyrics are lifted from Lewis Carroll's book 'Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, which back then had just celebrated it's 100th birthday (and the superior sequel 'Through The Looking Glass') which not only sound as if they were written on drugs but actually mention them inside the text (the caterpillar really is smoking a hookah - as memorably re-created in the 1950s Walt Disney version when most youngsters wouldn't have known what it was - mushrooms are eaten and perceptions changed and Alice really is encouraged to 'alter' her mindset and her place in the universe thanks to a pill that says 'eat me'). Perhaps the 'biggest' drug-line of the book though and one very much at one with most of the lyrics on 'Pillow' is the one in chapter two where Alice asks 'why does everything seem so different today? and then ponders whether she's changed identities as a way of seeing thw qworld diffe3rently (Paul Kantner, wqho generally wrote about AA Milne as opposed to Lewis Carroll clearly identified with these lyrics given 'DCBA-25'. Incidentally all this love of childhood books suddenly makes the Airplane's psychedelia seem much more in line with the American's cousins across the pond, where childhood is the key theme of many an English psychedelic song from 'Strwaberry Fields' and 'Penny Lane' through Syd Barrett. Grace's point in writing the song was to say 'why are you surprised at our generation's hang-up with drugs when you read stuff like this to us in the nursery every night?' (Grace did indeed have the song read to her in her childhood, as she mentions in her autobiography). Once again, this is a song that started off life in the Great Society and once again the Society's version couldn't be more different: Grace's lyrics are saved for the grand finale of a long rambling instrumental that brings out even more of the song's 'Bolero' feel and builds up slowly note by note Grateful Dead style. The Airplane's re-arrangement is another powerhouse performance, with the three 'boys at the back' excelling: Spencer's military style drumming, Jack's gloomy bass and Jorma's fiery lead are the perfect backing for the song (Marty and Paul probably don't appear). It's Grace Slicks' stunning soaring vocal that you remember most however; seductive, sexy, scary and scintillating it's no wonder so many 'squares' felt 'threatened' by this record. Amazingly it's maybe the third or fourth song she ever sang with the band, taped the same day as 'Plastic Fantastic Lover' and 'Somebody To Love' on November 3rd 1966 (What a productive session that was! As far as I know this is the only time two top ten singles were recorded at the same session!) Building up to a great climax, the song memorably concludes 'feed your head!', a call to arms that the 'grown-ups' missed but was an un-missable invitation to the youth of the day. 'White Rabbit' is so differently structured compared to every other song around (there's no chorus, the title is never mentioned in the lyrics and Grace barely takes a breath or moves off the song's strutting peacock riff throughout the song) that it really shouldn't work at all; however by virtue of a fine band and vocal performance 'White Rabbit' is still a short-cut for summing up an era for many, recycled in everything from 'The Simpsons' to 'The Sopranos' to tell everyone immediately that they are in 1967. A glorious song, quite unlike any other and arguably one that inspired another Lewis Carroll-type psychedelia song 'I Am The Walrus' whatever John Lennon said about how he came to write it.

The album then ends with 'Plastic Fantastic Lover', the first song in five tracks to feature Marty back on lead vocal and a final storming rocker to go out with. Rattled off at speed, this song is a kind of psychedelic Gilbert and Sullivan patter-song, which like many of WS GIlbert's songs is meant to sound rude but is actually something more mundane (a TV, something Gilbert would no doubt had written about had he born a century later). Balin's quick-snapping lyrics are clever, reckoning that the TV is a much more interesting and reliable companion than any girl could be and comparing the two in a series of hilarious lines (wearing 'Chrome-coloured clothes' with a 'rattling cough that never shuts off'). Too late, however, Balin's narrator realises that even this lover is 'unfaithful' by showing him things he doesn't want to see and 'drains' him instead of filling him with awe like she used to (while 24 hour news stations won't become common until the 1980s this is the first time anyone could put on a television and see some graphic account of real horror and suffering on some channel somewhere, a point often missed at the time - except in the Monkees' 'Head' movie - but often used now in retrospect, in films set in the period such as the Beatles-soundtrack filled 'Across The Universe'). A clever, funny little song, sadly 'Plastic Fantastic Lover' suffers from a rather nonchalant band performance (the live versions - such as the one on 'Bless It's Little Pointed Head' in 1969 - easily beat this studio version hands-down) and being placed at the end of the album, where it sounds a little too lightweight. Ultimately, then this song ends up being both 'remote' and out of 'control' although it got a good 'reception' at the time (boom! boom!)

Overall, though, 'Surrealistic Pillow' manages to be not only clever but moving and pioneering too. The Airplane have come on leaps and bounds since making their first LP and that was a pretty strong effort anyway. A combination of stronger songs, Marty's growing confidence, the arrival of Grace and Spencer and some cracking band performances mean that 'Surrealistic Pillow' is heralded by many as the Airplane's masterpiece and one of the greatest of the psychedelic era in albums. While not quite as enamoured with it as other fans are (for me 'Pillow' is a great 'entry' album for casual outsiders to learn what the Airplane are all about before diving through the 'rabbit hole' and discovering the later, even more unique albums) I can see why 'Pillow' has such love and respect both then and now. It's easy on the ear but heavy on the brain (which is a good and under-rated combination to have), with an air of revolution that's exciting rather than off-putting (as it got for many later) and enough links to the 'old' sound of the mid 1960s so that listeners are taken out of their comfort zones but know they'll get back home again safely. This album is a 'trip'. It might not be the biggest trip. It might not be the strangest trip. It might not be the best trip. But for many people at the time - and those now looking to get into psychedelia retrospectively - it makes for a great first trip to a place that's both familiar and unknown, sweet and scary, musical and unique. Overall rating - 8/10

Other Jefferson Airplane reviews from this site you might be interested in reading:


A NOW COMPLETE LIST OF JEFFERSON ARTICLES TO READ AT ALAN’S ALBUM ARCHIVES:

'Takes Off!' (1966) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/news-views-and-music-issue-116.html

'Surrealistic Pillow' (1967) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/03/jefferson-airplane-surrealistic-pillow.html

'After Bathing At Baxters' (1967) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-15-jefferson-airplane-after.html

'Crown Of Creation' (1968) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/jefferson-airplane-crown-of-creation.html

'Volunteers' (1969) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/jefferson-airplane-volunteers-1969.html

'Bark' (1971) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/news-views-and-music-issue-91-jefferson.html

'Blows Against The Empire' (Kantner)  (1971) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-44-paul-kantner-and-jefferson.html

‘Sunfighter’ (Kantner/Slick) (1972) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/paul-knatnewrgrace-slick-jefferson.html?utm_source=BP_recent

'Long John Silver' (1972) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2017/02/jefferson-airplane-long-john-silver-1972.html

'Baron Von Tollbooth and the Chrome Nun' (Kantner/Slick/Freiberg) (1973) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/paul-kantner-grace-slick-and-david.html

'Dragonfly' (1974) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/news-views-and-music-issue-51-jefferson.html

'Red Octopus' (1975) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/jefferson-starship-red-octopus-1975.html

'Spitfire' (1976) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/jefferson-starship-spitfire-1976-album.html

‘Earth’ (1978) https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/jefferson-starship-earth-1978.html

'Modern Times' (1981) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/jefferson-starship-modern-times-1981.html

'Winds Of Change' (1982) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2016/07/jefferson-starship-winds-of-change-1982.html

'The Empire Blows Back'# aka 'The Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra (Paul Kantner/Jefferson Starship) (1983) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2016/10/paul-kantnerjefferson-starship-planet.html

'Nuclear Furniture' (1983) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/07/review-87-jefferson-starship-nuclear.html

'Jefferson Airplane' (1989) http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/jefferson-airplane-1989.html

Non-Album Songs 1966-1984 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/jefferson-airplanestarship-non-album.html

The Best Unreleased Recordings 1966-1974 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/jefferson-airplane-best-unreleased.html

Surviving TV Footage 1966-1989 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/jefferson-airplane-surviving-tv-footage.html

Tribute Special: Paul Kantner and Signe Anderson http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/tribute-special-paul-kantner-and-signe.html
Live/Solo/Compilation/Hot Tuna Albums Part One 1966: 1978  http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/jefferson-airplanestarship.html

Live/Solo/Compilation/Hot Tuna Albums Part Two 1979-2013 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/jefferson-airplanestarship_16.html

Essay: Why Flying In Formation Was So Special For The Jeffersons https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/jefferson-airplane-essay-why-flying-in.html




Top Ten AAA Drummers (News, Views and Music Issue 235)




Keeping the beat, grooving and moving the sound, shaking and quaking behind the other musicians or overshadowing everybody else with something explosive: drummers can make or break a band. Everyone has a story about what hgappened when they gained a drummer: Both Keith and Mick to some extent claim the Rolling Stones only got going when they managed to fund enough for Charlie Watts to join them full-time; The Byrds started off with a drummer who was hired mainly as a fashion icon for his long blonde hair before later getting to grips with his percussion duties and The Monkees chose Micky Dolenz more by default than anything else (I still don't know why they did - Davy Jones had a great sense of rhythm and could have fulfilled the druming role easily while Micky was a fine guitarist). So here is our tribute to who we consider the top ten best AAA drummers, in as close to an order as we could come up with. If you're interested in this article you might also want to read our top ten greatest drum solos (http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/the-greatest-aaa-drum-solos-or-near.html%20%0D161) and our top twenty greatest AAA guitarists (http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/news-views-and-music-issue-129-top-ten.html and http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_01_15_archive.html ) So who come out on top?! A drum roll please...

10) Spencer Dryden (Jefferson Airplane 1967-70)

Jefferson Airplane were, famously, 'four bands in one'. Marty Balin added pop and folk crooning, Grace Slick added dark and crazy, Paul Kantner thought up big thoughts and guitarist and bassist Jorma Kaukanen and Jack Casidy played psychedelic jazz with a hint of blues. The only musician linking this disparate band was their drummer in their peak years, Spencer Dryden who managed to sound both conventional when he needed to be and out-there and wild when the band were improvising at a hundred miles an hour. Revealed after his death to be the nephew of Charlie Chaplin (no kidding - he kept it quiet because he didn't want to 'succeed' only through the family name), Spencer may have only been the band's second of four drummers during their brief six years together but it's no coincidence he played on just about every famous Airplane song there is. Much under-rated. Our nomination for best performance: The instrumental 'Spare Chaynge' is your best bet for hearing what he's doing in the context of the band minus singers, 'Two Heads' shows what a hard-hitting rock and roller Spence could be and 'Crown Of Creation' evidence of how he could roll with any song, however uniquely structured.

9) Kenney Jones (Small Faces 1966-68)

One of the great things about the Small Faces was how much noise they made, despite looking, well, small and fragile. A lot of that was down to Kenney Jones' sterling work on the drum stool and like many of the 1960's best musicians he managed to adapt from brutal, simple no frills rock and roll in the middle of the decade to complex psychedelia at the end. To my ears Kenney had the best control of cymbals of any drummer and his constant, relentless rattle is a key part of the Faces' sound from beginning to end. Slightly lost in the poppier sound of the Faces (where he sounds a little 'busy') and heavily criticised for his work with The Who as Keith Moon's replacement (where he isn't 'busy' enough, being too regular and metronomic a drummer to keep up with the Loon), he was nevertheless the perfect foil for Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane and like the pair of chief songwriters managed to stay both earthy and soar into the skies. Another much under-rated drummer. Our nomination for best performance: 'Hey Girl', an early single low on subtlety but big on fire and power.

8) Chris Curtis (The Searchers 1963-66)

Some people dismiss the Searchers for sounding too 'pretty' compared to their peers like the Stones, The Kinks, The Who or even The Beatles. In the harmonies, maybe (although there's nothing wrong with sounding 'pretty' in my book), but the Searchers' rhythm section in both line-ups was one of the most raucous, riotous sounds of the 60s. Chris Curtis didn't play the drums, he dominated them, hurling himself at the kit and finding himself breathless at the end of nearly every song (although this never stopped him providing some weary-sounding harmonies during live shows). On record he was sufficiently clever and skilled to throw in something different on every record: his super little drum rolls just make songs like 'Don't Throw Your Love Away' the special little crafted masterpieces they are. But live his drumming takes on another gear, making the Searchers sound both primal and scary. Nomination for best performance: the 'Swedish Broadcast version of 'What'd I say?' in which call-and-answer is turned into an art form. That's Curtis singing the lead vocal at the same time as out-Mooning Keith on the drums by the way...

7) Mick Avory (The Kinks 1964-85)

With any other group Mick Avory might have sounded ordinary (he should have been the Stones' drummer and played a few gigs with them, although they only had eyes for Charlie). With the other equally shambolic players in The Kinks however, he was capable of magic, night after night. Even turning up to the band's audition in his scout's uniform - the only clean clothes he had - couldn't obscure the fact that he was a drummer clearly built for the band. Meeting him was their lucky break, especially as until the 1980s Mick was the only drummer to play with The Kinks (they'd been getting by as two guitarists and a bass player). An emotional drummer who - like Ringo - is at his best when he's 'moved' by a song he feels a connection to, it's just as well he ended up in a band with as emotional a writer as Ray Davies. The Kinks' sound changed one heck of a lot down the years, from R and B to music hall to concept albums to AOR rock and Avory judged things perfectly, becoming slowly more detailed and then gradually more basic with every throw of the Kinks' Kareer dice. For my money, though, his greatest work is on 'Arthur', Ray's concept work where the Davies' uncle is a metaphor for all the ordinary working men who got hurt by WW2 and what came afterwards. Mick turns in a searing performance which might well be the best set of drumming across a single album, sounding like the WW2 sirens, stretching out into drum solos that simply thrash all hope away and finding just the right 'empty' touches on the ballads. Mick Avory is often overlooked but he was integral part of a great band. Our nomination for greatest performance: 'Shangri-La', as five minute song with more mood swings than most 45 minute records and going from feather-light hope to battle-hardened fury in the flick of a drumstick.

6) Alan White (Oasis 1995-2003)

I always feel sorry for original Oasis drummer Tony McCarroll who certainly wasn't the worst player in the band by any means. But there's no denying that Oasis' sound stepped up a hundred gears when the band brought in his replacement Alan White. McCaroll's drumming tended to come in adrenalin rushes perfect for the band's early sound but White managed to make everything sound big and important, even (especially?) the ballads, a neat musical match for the band's 'wall of noise' guitar sound. Starting with the 'Morning Glory' album, White survived a longer stint with the Gallagher brothers than any other band member before finally calling it a day after the 'Heathen Chemistry' sessions. Loud and proud but precise and meticulous enough for the subtlety in Noel's songs, White was a very under-rated part of making Oasis' music the sound of the late 1990s, with several bands trying to copy his drumming style and all of them failing. Trivia for you here: Beatles fans might have noticed that White shares his name with the session drummer who replaced Ringo on The Beatles' album version of 'Love Me Do' and later worked with Lennon's Plastic Ono Band. The two aren't related, but Alan is the brother of Paul Weller/The Style Council's drummer Steve White. Our nomination for greatest performance: 'Headshrinker', a lowly B-side and one of White's first performances with the band but perhaps the ultimate example of Oasis working as a no-overdubs live-in-the-studio group who can play as intensely and noisily as anyone.

5) Nick Mason (Pink Floyd 1967-1994)

An architect student, like fellow Floyd Roger Waters, Mason's drumming manages the amazing double-feat of sounding meticulously detailed and pre-planned and gorgeously spontaneous. It's just as well, really, given the many different directions the Floyd took over the years, from the unorthodox Syd Barrett years to the more lyrical Roger Waters days to the poppier Gilmour pair of records. Mason is, in fact, the only member of the band to have played on every single Pink Floyd record. Nick has an unusual role to play within the Floyd, a band who pride themselves on the theme of 'absence' and who arguably spend more time on ideas and lyrics than on band performances (recording by means of overdub is quite useful for singers but a lousy deal for drummers who need to 'react' to everyone else in the room and invariably record their bits 'first' with nothing to go on). He's a very empathetic, natural player who blends into the background unless he's given a starring role to play, despite recording arguably more drum solos than any other AAA drummer (on 'Ummagumma' and across the three Floyd film soundtracks). Our nomination for greatest performance: perhaps it's the sheer unhinged noise of it all, perhaps it's the Ancient Rome backdrop or perhaps it's because the film crew 'lost' several cans of film showing the other three Floydians performing the song but the near-solo performance of 'One Of These Days' from the 'Live at Pompeii' DVD is a tour de force, with the camera riveted to Nick's drum-stool in shock and awe.

4) Charlie Watts (Rolling Stones 1962-present)

Charlie (and Bill Wyman come to that) are the Stones' safe pair of hands. Keith might be feeling messed up, Mick might be playing around with what new prop the band have on-stage this tour and Brian Jones/Ronnie Wood are busy chatting up the front row but Charlie knows exactly how to control a song, spin it out to its maximum and get the group home in time for tea. Perhaps it's his natural character, perhaps a disdain for the press or maybe even a dislike for rock and roll (Charlie is a bigger fan of jazz, despite being one of rock's steadier drummers) but Charlie doesn't do much talking within the Stones and even less outside it, so that few except the true Stones fans even acknowledge he's there. To be honest Charlie is doing enough talking in the music, deferred to by everyone - even Keith - on stage and with enough kudos amongst the world's drummers to know how good he is (he reportedly punched a drunken Jagger for calling him 'my drummer' in the mid 1970s and told him in no uncertain terms 'no - you're my singer'). Recent Stones producers have kind of latched onto Watts' role in the band, mixing him up louder and louder in the mix of each successive album, but rather miss the point: the drums should never be the biggest or most important sounding thing on a Stones record, but they should be at the centre of things the point where the music has organically spread out and grown from. Our nomination for best performance: 'Paint It Black', where West meets East, singalong meets depth and detail and the drums sound like the musical equivalent of poking the narrator with a big stick.

3) Billy Kreutzmann (Grateful Dead 1965-95)

To be fair the two Dead drummers should be treated together: after all, their distinctive sound of 'chasing their own tail' is an equal partnership. But I for one have always marvelled at how, for the short time before Mickey Hart joined the group (and again when Hart leaves briefly the group between 1970 and 1975) the drum sound of the band doesn't really change. Like most of the Dead, Billy is much happier on the road than in the studio and has played some absolutely blistering sets over the years (especially in 1971 and 1972), inventing new ways of keeping a single song fresh long past the point when a majority of drummers have run out of licks and gone back to the dressing room. Always ready to explore and search out new ground, Billy's drumming can change in a milli-second, pouncing on a phrase that one of the others (more often than not Jerry Garcia) has just thrown out to the band and running with it as fast and as brilliantly as any drummer. Even in the studio Kreutzmann is one of life's less-is-more drummers, correctly balancing the weight of percussion against the Dead's slower, quieter, gentler songs. The only band member to retire when Garcia died, we'll never fully know where his playing could have gone after a slightly dodgy 1980s, but the band's last rehearsals (in 1993) may well be the greatest revelation in his playing. Our nomination for greatest performance. here's a reason most bands don't improvise on stage: most drummers can't hack sudden, unexpected changes and keep the band on track the way that Billy (and Spencer Dryden) can. 'That's It For The Other One' (in pretty much any version), where the drums build up from nowhere and embark on a scary, hallucinatory but enlightening journey that breaks away for junctions, side-roads and shunting but still ends up exactly where it needs to go.

2) Keith Moon (The Who 1965-78)

Moon the Loon never believed that drummers were there to be heard and not seen. For him, there were no reason the drums couldn't be the lead instrument and he didn't so much play his drumkit as go several rounds in a boxing match with them. Reports of what Keith did to his drums are legendary: filled with water to 'spray' his bandmates with, throwing a stick into the air every thirty seconds and grabbing a new one mid-song, blowing his kit up with high explosives; there wasn't anything that could be done to a drumkit that Keith didn't do. Most non-Who fans think that Keith's showmanship was to cover up the fact that he couldn't play and the band continually faced accusations of 'sloppy' playing that centred on Moon's role in the band. Complete and utter nonsense - if that was true the Who would never have got past the first verse of any of their songs. What Keith did so magnificently was to play every single note that was needed - he just didn't stop there and played every other note he could think of as well. But just as in life where Moony's jokey persona did his best to disguise it, Keith knew exactly what he was doing and never played a note wrong - well not until drugs, booze and old age began to catch up with him in the mid-1970s anyway. The Who didn't just play music in their concerts in their heyday, they exploded. The fact that even an ailing Keith at the end of his life could play better than the almost as equally wonderful drummer Kenney Jones says much about how the rest of the band relied on Moon to fill up the 'holes' in their playing and what a loss he was to music when he died. Our nomination for greatest moment: '5:15'. There are very few cover versions of one of The Who's most famous songs, simply because to anyone else it's unplayable: Keith has to charge like one of rock's primal drummers, sounding like the album narrator Jimmy at his most confused and enraged, but in a tricky time signature that calls for great precision and has to 'sound' like a train coming off the rails at the end. No other drummer could have done it.

1) Bobby Elliott (The Hollies 1963-present)

Most drummers can be divided into flashy, spectacular showmen and the steady drummers who get everything spot-on every time. Bobby Elliott is a rare example of a drummer who can do both. Another musician steeped in jazz rather than rock and roll, Bobby didn't join the Hollies till their third single ('Stay') and at the time the replacement seemed an odd decision (original drummer Don Rathbone was more than adequate by 1963 standards). But it made perfect sense when you heard the energy Bobby brought to the band, the musical equivalent of Clarke, Nash and Hick's enthusiastic peeling harmonies. Even The Beatles tried to poach him when it seemed like Ringo wasn't working out (had Bobby been born anywhere except Manchester - the big rivals for a band from Mersyside - he probably would have joined). No other drummer - even Keith Moon - ever fitted in quite so many drum fills as Bobby did almost nonchalantly and yet no one would ever claim that he ever got in the way of the band's main selling point (those harmonies). You can telly Elliott is a clever drummer whose thought long and hard about what to play and is eclectic enough to handle the many changes of genre the Hollies dabbled in across their first 20 busy years and yet Elliott doesn't sound as slick and polsihed as other drummers can either, sounding spontaneous and high on energy and adrenaline. Our nomination for greatest moment: we can't decide between three great ones: 'Nitty Gritty' (in which Bobby is the band for the second half of the song) 'Survival Of The Fittest' (where Bobby's drum solo is a spectacular tour de force and one of the most exciting AAA moments of them all) and 'Soldier's Song' (where the drums singlehandedly sound like an army at battle).

Did we drum up support for your favourite entry? Or do you think our selections should have been relegated to tea, sympathy and tambourine? Let us know - and be sure to join us next week for more news, views and music

A NOW COMPLETE List Of Top Five/Top Ten/TOP TWENTY  Entries 2008-2019
1) Chronic Fatigue songs http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/news-views-and-music-issue-1-top-five.html

2) Songs For The Face Of Bo
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/news-views-and-music-issue-2-top-five.html

3) Credit Crunch Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/news-views-and-music-issue-3-top-five.html

4) Songs For The Autumn
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/news-views-and-music-issue-4-top-five.html

5) National Wombat Week
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/news-views-and-music-top-five-national.html

6) AAA Box Sets
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/news-views-and-music-issue-6-top-five.html

7) Virus Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/10/news-views-and-music-issue-7-top-five.html

8) Worst AAA-Related DVDs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/10/news-views-and-music-issu-8-top-five.html

9) Self-Punctuating Superstar Classics
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/10/news-views-and-music-issue-9-top-five.html

10) Ways To Know You Have Turned Into A Collector
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/10/news-views-and-music-issue-9-top-five.html

11) Political Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/news-views-and-music-issue-11-top-five.html

12) Totally Bonkers Concept Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/11/news-views-and-music-top-five-totally.html

13) Celebrating 40 Years Of The Beatles' White Album
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/top-five-issue-13-40-years-of-beatles.html

14) Still Celebrating 40 Years Of The Beatles' White Album
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/news-views-and-music-issue-14-top-five.html

15) AAA Existential Questions
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/news-views-and-music-issue-15-top-five.html

16) Releases Of The Year 2008
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/news-views-and-music-issue-16-top-five.html

17) Top AAA Xmas Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/news-views-and-music-issue-17-top-five.html

18) Notable AAA Gigs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/01/news-views-and-music-issue-19-top-five.html

19) All things '20' related for our 20th issue
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/news-views-and-music-issue-20-aaa-songs.html

20) Romantic odes for Valentine's Day
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/news-views-and-music-issue-22-top-five.html

21) Hollies B sides
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/news-views-and-music-issue-23-top-five.html

22) 'Other' BBC Session Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/news-views-and-music-issue-24-top-five.html

23) Beach Boys Rarities Still Not Available On CD
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/news-views-and-music-issue-25-top-five.html

24) Songs John, Paul and George wrote for Ringo's solo albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/news-views-and-music-issue-26-top-five.html

25) 5 of the Best Rock 'n' Roll Tracks From The Pre-Beatles Era
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/news-views-and-music-issue-27-top-five.html

26) AAA Autobiographies
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/news-views-and-music-issue-28-top-five.html

27) Rolling Stones B-sides
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/04/news-views-and-music-issue-29-top-five.html

28) Beatles B-Sides
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/news-views-and-music-issue-30-top-five.html

29) The lllloooonnngggeesssttt AAA songs of all time
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/news-views-and-music-issue-31-top-five.html

30) Kinks B-Sides
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/news-views-and-music-issue-32-top-five.html

31) Abandoned CSNY projects 'wasted on the way'
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/news-views-and-music-issue-33-top-five.html

32) Best AAA Rarities and Outtakes Sets
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/06/news-views-and-music-issue-34-top-five.html

33) News We've Missed While We've Been Away
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/news-views-and-music-issue-35-top-five.html

34) Birthday Songs for our 1st Anniversary
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/news-views-and-music-issue-37-top-five.html

35) Brightest Album Covers
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/news-views-and-music-issue-37-top-five.html

36) Biggest Recorded Arguments
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/news-views-and-music-issue-38-top-five.html

37) Songs About Superheroes
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/news-views-and-music-issue-39-top-five.html

38) AAA TV Networks That Should Exist
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/news-views-and-music-issue-40-top-five.html

39) AAA Woodtsock Moments
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/news-views-and-music-issue-41-top-five.html

40) Top Moments Of The Past Year As Voted For By Readers
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/news-views-and-music-issue-42-top-five.html

41) Music Segues
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/09/news-views-and-music-issue-43-top-five.html

42) AAA Foreign Language Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/09/news-views-and-music-issue-44-top-five.html

43) 'Other' Groups In Need Of Re-Mastering
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/news-views-and-music-issue-45-top-five.html

44) The Kinks Preservation Rock Opera - Was It Really About The Forthcoming UK General Election?
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/news-views-and-music-issue-46-top-five.html

45) Mono and Stereo Mixes - Biggest Differences
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/news-views-and-music-issue-47-top-five.html

46) Weirdest Things To Do When A Band Member Leaves
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/nerws-views-and-music-issue-48-top-five.html

47) Video Clips Exclusive To Youtube (#1)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/news-views-and-music-issue-49-top-five.html

48) Top AAA Releases Of 2009
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/news-views-and-music-issue-50-top-five.html

49) Songs About Trains
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/news-views-and-music-issue-51-top-five.html

50) Songs about Winter
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/news-views-and-music-issue-52-top-five.html

51) Songs about astrology plus horoscopes for selected AAA members
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/news-views-and-music-issue-53-top-five.html

52) The Worst Five Groups Ever!
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/news-views-and-music-issue-54-top-five.html

53) The Most Over-Rated AAA Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/news-views-and-music-issue-56-top-five.html

54) Top AAA Rarities Exclusive To EPs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/news-views-and-music-issue-57-top-five.html

55) Random Recent Purchases (#1)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/news-views-and-music-issue-58-top-five.html

56) AAA Party Political Slogans
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/news-views-and-music-issue-60-top-five.html

57) Songs To Celebrate 'Rock Sunday'
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/news-views-and-music-issue-61-top-five_21.html

58) Strange But True (?) AAA Ghost Stories
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/news-views-and-music-issue-61-top-five.html

59) AAA Artists In Song
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/news-views-and-music-issue-63-top-five.html

60) Songs About Dogs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/06/news-views-and-music-issue-65-top-five.html

61) Sunshiney Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/news-views-and-music-issue-67-top-five.html

62) The AAA Staff Play Their Own Version Of Monoploy/Mornington Crescent!
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/news-views-and-music-issue-68-top-forty.html

63) What 'Other' British Invasion DVDs We'd Like To See
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/news-views-and-music-issue-69-top-five.html

64) What We Want To Place In Our AAA Time Capsule
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/news-views-and-music-issue-70-top-five.html

65) AAA Conspiracy Theroies
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/news-views-and-music-issue-72-top-ten.html

66) Weirdest Things To Do Before - And After - Becoming A Star
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/news-views-and-music-top-ten-aaa-stars.html

67) Songs To Tweet To
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/news-views-and-music-issue-74-top-five.html

68) Greatest Ever AAA Solos
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/news-views-and-music-issue-75-top-ten.html

69) John Lennon Musical Tributes
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/news-views-and-music-issue-77-top-five.html

70) Songs For Halloween
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/news-views-and-music-issue-78-top-five.html

71) Earliest Examples Of Psychedelia
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/news-views-and-music-issue-79-top-five.html

72) Purely Instrumental Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/news-views-and-music-issue-81-top-five.html

73) AAA Utopias

74) AAA Imaginary Bands
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/news-views-and-music-issue-82-top-five.html

75) Unexpected AAA Cover Versions
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/news-views-and-music-issue-83-top-five.html

76) Top Releases of 2010
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/news-views-and-music-issue-84-top-five.html

77) Songs About Snow
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/news-views-and-music-issue-85-top-five.html

78) Predictions For 2011
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011_01_02_archive.html

79) AAA Fugitives

80) AAA Home Towns
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/news-views-and-music-issue-88-home.html

81) The Biggest Non-Musical Influences On The 1960s
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/news-views-and-music-issue-89-top-five.html

82) AAA Groups Covering Other AAA Groups
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/news-views-and-music-issue-90-top.html

83) Strange Censorship Decisions
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/news-views-and-music-issue-91-top-ten.html

84) AAA Albums Still Unreleased on CD
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/news-views-and-music-issue-92-top-five.html

85) Random Recent Purchases (#2)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/news-views-and-music-issue-93-top-ten.html

86) Top AAA Music Videos
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/news-views-and-music-issue-94-top-ten.html

87) 30 Day Facebook Music Challenge
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/news-views-and-music-issue-95-top.html

88) AAA Documentaries
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/news-views-and-music-top-five-aaa.html

89) Unfinished and 'Lost' AAA Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/news-views-and-music-issue-97-top-ten.html

90) Strangest AAA Album Covers
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/newsa-views-and-music-issue-98-top-ten.html

91) AAA Performers Live From Mars (!)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/news-views-and-music-issue-99-top-ten.html

92) Songs Including The Number '100' for our 100th Issue
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/news-views-and-music-issue-100-top-five.html

93) Most Songs Recorded In A Single Day
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/news-views-and-music-issue-101-top-five.html

94) Most Revealing AAA Interviews
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/news-views-and-music-issue-102-top-five.html

95) Top 10 Pre-Fame Recordings
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/news-views-and-music-issue-103-top-ten.html

96) The Shortest And Longest AAA Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/news-views-and-music-issue-104-top-ten.html


97) The AAA Allstars Ultimate Band Line-Up
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/news-views-and-music-issue-105-top.html

98) Top Songs About Sports
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/news-views-and-music-issue-106-top-ten.html

99) AAA Conversations With God
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/news-views-and-music-issue-107-top-ten.html

100) AAA Managers: The Good, The Bad and the Financially Ugly
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/news-views-and-music-issue-108-top-ten.html

101) Unexpected AAA Cameos
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/news-views-and-music-issue-109-top-ten.html

102) AAA Words You can Type Into A Caluclator
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/news-views-and-music-issue-110-top-five.html

103) AAA Court Cases
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/news-views-and-music-issue-111-top-five.html

104) Postmodern Songs About Songwriting
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/news-views-and-music-issue-112-top-five.html

105) Biggest Stylistic Leaps Between Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/news-views-and-music-issue-113-top-ten.html

106) 20 Reasons Why Cameron Should Go!
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/news-views-and-music-issue-114-top.html

107) The AAA Pun-Filled Cookbook
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/news-views-and-music-issue-115-top-five.html

108) Classic Debut Releases
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/news-views-and-music-issue-116-top-five.html

109) Five Uses Of Bird Sound Effects
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/news-views-and-music-issue-118-top-five.html

110) AAA Classic Youtube Clips Part #1
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/news-views-and-music-issue-119-top.html

111) Part #2
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/news-views-and-music-issue-120-top.html

112) Part #3
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/news-views-and-music-issue-121-top.html

113) AAA Facts You Might Not Know
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/news-views-and-music-issue-122-top-ten.html

114) The 20 Rarest AAA Records
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/news-views-and-music-issue-123-top.html

115) AAA Instrumental Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011_12_04_archive.html

116) Musical Tarot
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/news-views-and-music-issue-125-top-23-i.html

117) Christmas Carols
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011_12_18_archive.html

118) Top AAA Releases Of 2011
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2011_12_25_archive.html

119) AAA Bands In The Beano/The Dandy
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/news-views-and-music-issue-128-top-five.html

120) Top 20 Guitarists #1
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/news-views-and-music-issue-129-top-ten.html

121) #2
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_01_15_archive.html

122) 'Shorty' Nomination Award Questionairre
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_01_22_archive.html

123) Top Best-Selling AAA Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_01_29_archive.html

124) AAA Songs Featuring Bagpipes

125) A (Hopefully) Complete List Of AAA Musicians On Twitter
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_02_19_archive.html

126) Beatles Albums That Might Have Been 1970-74 and 1980
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_02_26_archive.html

127) DVD/Computer Games We've Just Invented
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_03_11_archive.html

128) The AAA Albums With The Most Weeks At #1 in the UK
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_03_18_archive.html

129) The AAA Singles With The Most Weeks At #1 in the UK
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_03_25_archive.html

130) Lyric Competition (Questions)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_04_15_archive.html

131) Top Crooning Classics
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012_04_22_archive.html

132) Funeral Songs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/news-views-and-music-issue-142-top-five.html

133) AAA Songs For When Your Phone Is On Hold
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/news-views-and-music-issue-143-top-five.html

134) Random Recent Purchases (#3)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/news-views-and-music-issue-144-top-five.html

135) Lyric Competition (Answers)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/news-views-and-music-issue-146-top.html http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/news-views-and-music-issue-145-top-five.html

136) Bee Gees Songs/AAA Goes Disco!
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/news-views-and-music-issue-147-top-five.html

137) The Best AAA Sleevenotes (And Worst)
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/news-views-and-music-issue-148-top-ten.html

138) A Short Precise Of The Years 1962-70
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/news-views-and-music-149-top-eight.html

139) More Wacky AAA-Related Films And Their Soundtracks
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/top-five-for-news-views-and-music-150.html

140) AAA Appearances On Desert Island Discs
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/top-eight-aaa-desert-island-discs.html

141) Songs Exclusive To Live Albums
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/news-views-and-music-issue-153-top-10.html

142) More AAA Songs About Armageddon
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/aaa-armageddon-songsalbums-top-5-for.html

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Following on from last issue’s study of the American Billboard charts, here’s a look at which AAA albums spent the most weeks on the chart. The...

There are many dying arts in our modern world: incorruptible politicians, faith that things are going to get better and the ability to make decent...

This week we’ve decided to dedicate our top ten to those unsung heroes of music, the session musicians, whose playing often brings AAA artists (and...

Naturally we hold our AAA bands in high esteem in these articles: after all, without their good taste, intelligence and humanity we’d have nothing to...

What do you do when you’ve left a multi-million selling band and yet you still feel the pull of the road and the tours and the playing to audiences...

‘The ATOS Song’ (You’re Not Fit To Live)’ (Mini-Review) Dear readers, we don’t often feature reviews of singles over albums or musicians who aren’t...

In honour of this week’s review of an album released to cash in on a movie soundtrack (only one of these songs actually appears in ‘Easy Rider’...and...

Hic! Everyone raise a glass to the rock stars of the past and to this week’s feature...songs about alcolholic beverages! Yes that’s right, everything...

154) The human singing voice carries with it a vast array of emotions, thoughts that cannot be expressed in any other way except opening the lungs and...

Everyone has a spiritual home, even if they don’t actually live there. Mine is in a windy, rainy city where the weather is always awful but the...

Having a family does funny things to some musicians, as we’ve already seen in this week’s review (surely the only AAA album actually written around...

Some artists just have no idea what their best work really is. One thing that amazes me as a collector is how consistently excellent many of the...

159) A (Not That) Short Guide To The 15 Best Non-AAA Bands http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/a-not-that-short-guide-to-15-of-best.html%20%0d160

160) The Greatest AAA Drum Solos (Or Near Solos!) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/the-greatest-aaa-drum-solos-or-near.html%20%0d161

161) AAA Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall Of Fame Acceptance Speeches http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/aaa-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame.html%20%0d162

162) AAA Re-Recordings Of Past Songs http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/aaa-re-recordings-of-past-songs-news.html%20%0d163

163) A Coalition Christmas (A Fairy Tale) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/a-coalition-christmas-news-views-and.html%20%0d164

164) AAA Songs About Islands http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/aaa-songs-about-islands-news-views-and.html%20%0d165

165) The AAA Review Of The Year 2012 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/the-aaa-review-of-year-2012-news-views.html



166) The Best AAA Concerts I Attended
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/the-best-aaa-concerts-i-attended-news.html

167) Tributes To The 10 AAA Stars Who Died The Youngest http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/tributes-to-10-aaa-stars-who-died.html



168) The First 10 AAA Songs Listed Alphabetically
http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/the-first-10-aaa-songs-if-listed.html


171) The 10 Best Songs From The Psychedelia Box-Sets ‘Nuggets’ and ‘Nuggets Two’ http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/the-best-of-two-nuggets-psychedelia.html%20%0d172

172) The 20 Most Common Girl’s Names In AAA Song Titles (With Definitions) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/girls-names-in-aaa-song-titles-from.html 








180) First Recordings By Future AAA Stars http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/first-





185) A Tribute To Storm Thorgerson Via The Five AAA Bands He Worked With http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/a-tribute-to-hipgnosis-via-five-aaa.html



188) Surprise! Celebrating 300 Album Reviews With The Biggest 'Surprises' Of The Past Five Years Of Alan's Album Archives! http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/celebrating-300-album-reviews-10.html


190) Comparatively Obscure First Compositions By AAA Stars http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/comparatively-obscure-debut.html



193) Evolution Of A Band: Comparing First Lyric With Last Lyric: http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/evolution-of-band-comparing-1st-lyric.html







200) The Monkees In Relation To Postmodernism (University Dissertation) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/university-dissertation-monkees-in.html


202) Carly Simon's 'You're So Vain': Was It About One Of The AAA Crew? http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/carly-simons-youre-so-vain-was-it-about.html















217) AAA 'Christmas Presents' we'd most like to have next year http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/aaa-christmas-presents-wed-most-like-to.html




221) Dr Who and the AAA (Five Musical Links) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/01/dr-who-and-five-musical-links-to-alans.html

222) Five Random Recent Purchases http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/01/five-random-recent-purchases-news-views.html

223) AAA Grammy Nominees http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/02/aaa-grammy-nominees-top-twelve-news.html

224) Ten AAA songs that are better heard unedited and in full http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/02/ten-aaa-songs-that-are-better-unedited.html

225) The shortest gaps between AAA albums http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-shortest-gaps-between-aaa-albums.html

226) The longest gaps between AAA albums http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-longest-gaps-between-aaa-albums.html

227) Top ten AAA drummers http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/03/top-ten-aaa-drummers-news-views-and.html

228) Top Ten AAA Singles (In Terms of 'A' and 'B' Sides) http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/top-ten-aaa-singles-and-b-sides-news.html

229) The Stories Behind Six AAA Logos http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/the-stories-behind-six-aaa-logos.html

230) AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!! The Best Ten AAA Screams http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/the-best-aaa-screams-top-ten-news-views.html

231) An AAA Pack Of Horses http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/aaa-songs-about-horses-top-ten-news.html

232) AAA Granamas - Sorry, Anagrams! http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/aaa-anagrams-news-views-and-music-issue.html

233) AAA Surnames and Their Meanings http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/aaa-surnames-and-their-meanings-news.html

234) 20 Erroneous AAA Album Titles http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/twenty-erroneous-aaa-album-titles-news.html

235) The Best AAA Orchestral Arrangements http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/fifteen-great-aaa-string-parts-news.html

236) Top 30 Hilariously Misheard Album Titles/Lyrics http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/top-thirty-hilariously-misheard-aaa.html

237) Ten controversial AAA sackings - and whether they were right http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/ten-controversial-aaa-sackings-news.html

238) A Critique On Critiquing - In Response To Brian Wilson http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/a-critique-on-critiquing-in-response-to.html

239) The Ten MusicianS Who've Played On The Most AAA Albums http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/the-ten-musicians-whove-played-on-most.html

240) Thoughts on #CameronMustGo http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/thoughts-on-cameronmustgo.html

241) Random Recent Purchases (Kinks/Grateful Dead/Nils Lofgren/Rolling Stones/Hollies) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/six-random-recent-purchases-kinksg.html 

242) AAA Christmas Number Ones http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/aaa-christmas-number-ones.html 

243) AAA Review Of The Year 2014 (Top Releases/Re-issues/Documentaries/DVDs/Books/Songs/ Articles  plus worst releases of the year) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/aaa-review-of-year-2014.html

244) Me/CFS Awareness Week 2015 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/mecfs-awareness-week-at-alans-album.html

245) Why The Tory 2015 Victory Seems A Little...Suspicious http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/why-tory-victory-seems-deeply.html

246) A Plea For Peace and Tolerance After The Attacks on Paris - and Syria http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/a-plea-for-peace-and-toleration.html

247) AAA Review Of The Year 2015 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/the-aaa-review-of-year-2015.html

248) The Fifty Most Read AAA Articles (as of December 31st 2015) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-fifty-most-read-aaa-posts-2008-2015.html

249) The Revised AAA Crossword! http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2016_07_10_archive.html


251) Half-A-Dozen Berries Plus One (An AAA Tribute To Chuck Berry) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/an-aaa-covers-tribute-to-chuck-berry.html

252) Guest Post: ‘The Skids – Joy’ (1981) by Kenny Brown  https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/guest-post-skids-joy-1981.html


254) Guest Post: ‘Supertramp – Some Things Never Change’ by Kenny Brown https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2018/06/guest-review-supertramp-some-things.html

255) AAA Review Of The Year 2018 https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-aaa-review-of-year-2018.html

256) AAA Review Of The Year 2019 plus Review Of The Decade 2010-2019 https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-alans-album-archives-review-of-year.html



257) Tiermaker https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2019/06/alans-album-archives-on-tiermaker.html

258) #Coronastock https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2020/04/coronastock.html

259) #Coronadocstock https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2020/05/coronadocstock.html