Monday 4 January 2016

"Complete and Unbelievable - The Otis Redding Dictionary Of Soul!" (1966)



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Otis Redding "Complete and Unbelievable - The Otis Redding Dictionary Of Soul!" (1966)

Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)/I'm Sick Y'all/Tennessee Waltz/Sweet lorene/Try A Little Tenderness/Day Tripper//My Lover's Prayer/She Put The Hurt On Me/Ton Of Joy/You're Still My Baby/Hawg For You/Love Has Mercy

"It's what's in your heart that puts you in the groove and when you sing this song it will make your whole body move"

Hello and welcome to the Otis 'n' Alan's Album Archives Dictionary of Soul, the updated version of everyone's favourite soul glossary! Yes that's right, for the complete and unbelievable price of an internet connection, we can present you with a guide to everything we intended to say with words but which came out in a sort of harrumphing noise or a jumbled collection of consonants. As a bonus You, errr gotta-getta this set a leetle leetle leetle because it gets ou we ni even though it was written in a bit of a ni (translation for the chronically un-hip who don't own Otis' fourth album with the helpful translations on the back sleeve: 'You're not able to do without this, so get just enough to make one want another three copies because we're getting, umm, 'gooder by the minute' however much of a hurry we've written this rubbish in). For the record, though, Otis' dictionary doesn't go far enough to cover all the grunts he uses on the record so here are a few more interpretations for you, several of which have become quite useful for the present day:

'Oo-woooah my!' (Û-wéeo-uh-mï) :      Blimey what a record!

'Awo-u-uououou-w!' (ĄwŵŌōŏŐ):     I'm a hawg for you baby, oink!

'Happahappamamymy' (Ħappamimi): Have mercy on my soul!

'Y'all' (Yê-allllllllllllllllllllllll):              Each and every one of you happening dudes and dogs!

'Got-Got-Got-Got-Got!' (GÕT!!!):      I think our Otis-bot has got stuck again! Give it a push!

'Ah-Y'allUhuh yeah!' (ahuluhuye-æh): I do indubitably agree with you my dear sir

'Uwwwwoaaaawwww!' (ὓwoooooaὦ): What do you mean side one's finished already? I've only just sat down and the record player is way over there and I've just got really comfy and how come records were so short back then? Unbelievable!

'Eggggggggggh!' (Ɇɰɿʬʩʦ):                Oh no! My internet connection's down just as I was enjoying the erudite and slightly fabulous writing over at Alan's Album Archives!

'Aggggggggggh!' (žſƀƐƌƇ):                   Oh no! Another Conservative fake election victory!

'Uggggggggggh!' (ðﻱﻔɏɟɚɄɃɁȱȡɆ):     Oh no! The Spice Girls!

There is, however, a depth of feeling across this record that even these latest terms and conditional words can't possibly hope to express. Amazingly, completely and unbelievably Otis' fourth record and the follow-up to his masterpiece 'Otis Blue' (his most successful record by far to date) is one of the saddest albums in the self-proclaimed Mr Pitiful's canon. The last album told, nay ordered us in varying degrees to 'shake', to have 'respect' and that 'a change is gonna come'. 'Otis Blue' is many things but it's also Redding's most upbeat album, charged with a certain inner confidence and pizzazz. 'The Dictionary Of Soul', despite the title, can come across as a little one-note with ten deeply melancholy blueses at different speeds enlivened only by the story of betrayal 'Day Tripper' (turned from cute Beatles hit into relationship Armageddon) and 'I'm A Hawg For You' (an excuse to do some American Indian whistling). Otis has always been good at sadness, a sound that come naturally to him as a vocalist with its chance for long drawn out notes and big space for characterisation and emotion. Where other soul singers use their vocals as a chance to impress or sing really fast, Otis (at least two thirds of the time) really is using his voice to make some deeper connection, trying desperately to find a connection in his audience so that both he and we don't feel quite so alone or abandoned after seeing him open his soul to us. Of all the soul vocalists who've ever lived Otis is the most 'soul' : other flash singers (though not many) might sing better or faster or harder, but none can make a song feel as if it's being lived and experienced as much as our own gentle giant. Of all the original five albums (duet record 'King and Queen' being a special case) 'Dictionary Of Soul' is perhaps the best example of this, with Otis struck dumb by the melancholy of life as much as the rockin' pneumonia and about as melancholy as the boogie-woogie flu. It is, alas, rather a sad place to find our hero on the last completed solo album and a mere calendar year before his untimely death and a seemingly odd place to find him 18 months into his career and after the twin biggest breakthroughs of his career (the 'Otis Blue' album's sales and acclaim and a four night stand at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go later released as a live album; even Bob Dylan raved about it and he rarely raved about anything back then!)

However, while professionally the long hard work of the last few years was falling into place at last, personally things were looking a little shaky. Otis had married young - he was nineteen, his wife Zelda was sixteen and the bigger Redding became the more in demand he was and the more time he had to spend away from home. Throw in the usual rock/soulstar groupie shenanigans and .suddenly all those songs of guilt and pleas for forgiveness - which reach a peak on this album - don't sound quite so much like acting anymore. Many performers would have shrugged and ended the marriage then: managers liked it best when you were 'unattached' anyway back then, even though one of the big differences between fans in the 1950s and 1960s were that people back home loved their singers as people, realised they were never likely to meet and just wanted them to be happy (though that didn't stop a few marriage proposals in the post just in case). But neither Otis nor Zelma were the quitting kind. Besides, unlike some relationships where a rock star's girlfriend/wife/boyfriend/husband/significant other stops becoming their muse the minute the wedding bells start to ring, you can tell that Otis was still besotted. Covers aside (many of which were selected for their emotional resonance anyway), all of Otis' material very nearly is about his wife somewhere: their love, the support, the hopes for a future that sadly never happened. Other Redding records, especially the early ones, can be quite playful on this score despite Otis' often gloomy image: 'Come To Me' 'Your One and Only Man'. But 'Dictionary' feels like a very different prospect, with every index and every entry turned inward: Otis is either depressed, or guilty, or desperate to make amends, or tired of living his life like this. He knows that a crunch time is coming in his marriage when he'll have to choose either his family or his music. Again, most 'stars' wouldn't have looked back - pre-fame marriages were something to be discarded along with the slums and estates you were brought up with. But Otis has always been a deeper writer than that. As early as his first album he's singing about the importance of 'security' to him, of having a home to come back to however mad his life gets up to on the road. In retrospect the next year or so of Otis' career sound like one long delaying tactic while Otis tries to get his head straight so he can be true to himself and his marriage, his last year on earth all but wasted until near the sudden explosion of creativity in the last month or so, his one and only finished album after this one a slightly wonky duets album (as if Otis is living out all the things in his relationship from two sides, but with a slightly clunky jovial side) and his next solo album is never finished (though he had about three times the material compared to normal to choose from) but points at him choosing family at least partly over affairs. If the 'Dictionary Of Soul' really was real and available in shops (Id' buy it, if only to find out why 'fa fa fa fa fa fa' means a 'sad song') the entry next to this album would feature a soggy wet heap, the most pitiful or Mr Pitiful's albums.

Which is not to say it's bad. On the contrary, 'Dictionary Of Soul' is much like second album 'Sings Soul Ballads' and fourth record 'The Soul Album' in that it's about halfway to being a classic - a shame about the other half. A deep thinker in one of the deepest thinking periods of his life, 'Dictionary' has several great moments. 'Try A Little Tenderness' wowed the crowds at Monterey six months later (the only song in the set not taken from 'Otis Blue') for a good reason: it's Otis near his best as he tries to offer both himself and us advice while taking a melancholy horn part and simultaneously making it sound big and powerful and hopeful by the end. Most Redding covers tend to stick rigidly in either sad or happy territory, but Otis is often at his best when he's straddling the two, taking a sad song and making it feel all better. This is perhaps the greatest example of his all too brief catalogue. That terack is closely matched by the album single 'Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa Fa (Sad Song)', which apart from driving me mad every time I have to write it out and count the 'Fa's in full all over again is a clever twist on the 'Mr Pitiful' idea, a sad song that isn't really no matter how many times Otis tells us it is. Of the album's lesser known songs 'I'm Sick Y'all' virtually created the whole funk genre with Otis moaning to a hard-as-rock riff that's just too inflexible to care, 'I'm A Hawg For You' is one of Otis' best 'novelty' songs, best heard once but at least quite funny the once you hear it, 'Love Have Mercy' features one of the better soul-performances-of-a-rock-groove the equal of any other 'riff' song in the riff heavy year of 1966 and the slow aching minor key sadness of 'My Lover's Prayer' is exquisite, one of Otis' greatest originals and perhaps the most honest of all his songs, caught between pity, guilt, anger and a deep deep sadness that breaks the heart. No wonder the back sleeve of this record lists the definition 'ou-ni', to 'hurt so good', it's a phrase that sums this half of the album up well.

Of course then there's the other half which sounds oddly distracted and weak for an artist who'd finally discovered his true calling on record just a year before. Otis sounds drained, run down by the pressures of coming up with his fifth album in three years and almost constant touring and though the seven originals on the album (the most of his published career, though his unfinished 'last' album would most likely have had more) point to a rush of creativity, to be honest a lot of them just sound like re-treads of where Otis had been before. 'She Put The Hurt On Me' and 'Ton Of Joy' are a step backwards to the early years while even their own writer seems to be uncharacteristically struggling how to sing them. The worst moment on the record though - perhaps on all the records before Carla Thomas gets involved - is the oft-covered 'Tennessee Waltz' which really doesn't fit soul or Otis and sounds like one big moan, uncomfortably in the wrong key for the singer throughout. Ah well, 'Try A Little Tenderness'  and 'My Lover's Prayer' alone more than make up for the album's lesser moments. How much better this album would have been, though, with the better tracks from the album sessions released on it too: the exquisite 'Remember Me' (which would have fitted the confessional mood well), the sweet 'You Left The Water Running' (ditto), maybe even the 'Lover's Prayer' flipside 'Don't Mess With Cupid' (which is daft but less so than 'Ton Of Joy'). For a time this record was even set to feature Otis' interpretation of the freshly minted Bob Dylan song 'Just Like A Woman' which the Bobmeister had offered to Otis first backstage at the 'Whiskey-A-Go-Go' gig. Though many have since complained that Otis turned down the 'perfect' song, the only bit that's really Otis is the sudden surge of power in the middle eight - everything else is the usual Dylan wordplay and metaphor, not to mention 'fog, amphetamines and pearls', which isn't really Otis' forte. Fun as a version would have been, chances are Redding simply didn't understand the song.

One other reason this album doesn't quite match 'Otis Blue' especially is the lack of input from Booker T and the MGs. Now, as per every other Otis album they're very much here as a second element and guitarist Steve Cropper received a co-credit for 'Fa-I'm-not-writing-all-that-out-again-Fa (Sad Song)'. But compared to the olden days this is very much an Otis-with-horns record - actually it's a great showcase for the Mar-Keys trumpet section who sound utterly gorgeous on 'Tenderness' and 'Prayer', saying everything that cannot be said. Usually, though, that would be the Mgs role too, but the driving 'Day Tripper' aside (not exactly the most confessional moment here) the band have relatively little to add to the music. There are, for instance, no organ solos (in fact Booker T sticks mainly to simple minor key piano licks) and Cropper, astonishingly doesn't play a guitar solo either (after Otis' vocals themselves the most 'signature' sound of any Redding album). Donald 'Duck' Dunn and Al Jackson feel slightly wasted here, again on really getting their groove on for 'Day Tripper'. This may have simply been a matter of circumstances: by now the MGs are more in demand than ever, with their third and fourth albums (the slightly disappointing 'And Now!' and the deeply odd festive record 'In The Christmas Spirit', which features strangely soul-less soul covers of carols) out in the shops a mere month after 'Dictionary'. Redding had been on tour with his substitute band The Bar-Keys while the MGs had been criss-crossing the country on their own tour - chances are, unlike the olden days, they barely got time to send each other postcards never mind ideas for the albums. However given the personal nature of many of the songs, could it be that Otis was just reluctant about opening up about what was on his mind, while simultaneously being afflicted with the need to be authentic, to write songs from the heart or not at all. Either way, sadly the lack of MGs input is the biggest obstacle that prevents this album from being as great as 'Otis Blue', along with two songs too many of filler material.

Oddly, though, reviewers at the time and a few since have always liked this album more than the fans, usually praised for its eclectic tastes and soulful interpretative singing. Which sounds odd to me - Otis has been playing styles as early as his first record 'Pain In My Heart' (which is what a Little Richard album made by Sam Cooke would sound like) and in those terms 'Dictionary' is actually a backwards step, with several 'pure' soul ballads that sound like before with only three and a half (the half being the second half of 'Tenderness') of the twelve songs possessing anything above a walking pace tempo. The reviewers seem to have missed the point on the 'interpretative singing' too - Otis sounds uncharacteristically awful the few times he's not singing from the heart ('Ton Of Joy' is a struggle to sit through, while 'You're Still My Baby' might well be the worst Redding vocal in the slow yearning aching ballad style he made his own, all over the shop across the song). However what 'Dictionary' does have over other Redding albums, even 'Otis Blue', is realism and honesty with the best tracks on this album songs where Otis clearly isn't 'interpreting' anything but singing right from his soul. The performances on 'Tenderness' and 'My Lover's Prayer' especially rank alongside his best, but calling them interpretative singing is like calling 'The Wall' Pink Floyd's greatest interpretative album, praising John Lennon for getting so far into the part of a songwriter who had a tough life that mirrored his own in great detail during his primal scream years  or praising the Spice Girls video for 'Wannabe' full of kung-fu kicks aimed at tramps interpretative dance.

It's one of the great tragedies of this site not only that Otis died so young but that he died just when he died, at the height of his fame and after all the places had just fallen into place. The Otis of the last two months of 1967 is so different to the Otis of this album: now confident, calm, assured and able to make sense of a heartbreaking year with renewed vigour at keeping both his marriage and his career alive ('Dock Of The Bay' is the tip of the iceberg of this sea change, which is easily the oddest metaphor I've used today - no wonder the ships are 'rolling'!) 'Dictionary', for all its impersonal title and hilarious mock-learned cover (in real life Otis left school at fifteen, examless, to keep his family afloat after his father's death) is too close to the eye of the storm to be any of these things, Redding so stricken with grief and doubt and worry that he can't think or in some cases write or sing straight. The sheer speed of this album, almost six months to the day after 'The Soul Album', probably didn't help much either. But where this album wins out is the sheer intensity of 'Tenderness' and 'Prayer', two songs every bit the equal of any other tracks in the Redding canon, matched in self-deprecating terms by 'Fa x Six (Sad Song)', a glorious sequel to 'Mr Pitiful' that manages to be even funnier. 'Dictionary' is an album without as many pages worth reading as some other Otis records, but the pages that are good are miraculous. Not complete then by any means (this may well be Otis' most 'incomplete' and inconsistent record since his first) and by Redding terms not all that unbelievable, but 'Dictionary' is another very strong Redding album that leaves you saying more than a few 'my my mys' along the way.

'Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)' would not doubt have been mentioned in our Otis reviews a lot earlier had it been easier to write out. It is, you see, a very important track in Redding's canon that doesn't always get the due it deserves (perhaps because no fan in casual conversation is going to casually drop the name 'Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa' into conversation the same way they do 'Dock Of The Bay'). Apart from 'Try A Little Tenderness' it was the last big hit of Otis' lifetime and 'feels' like a career ending song, a tale of frustration at how so many things have changed in the singer's life and yet some things always stay the same. 'I keep singing these sad songs, because sad songs is all I know' Otis sighs in his best 'Mr Pitiful' voice, even though we know this time that patently isn't true, that songs like 'Respect' 'Shake' and 'Satisfaction' have proved that there's more to Otis than this. But those songs are passing fancies - sadness is an intrinsic part of Otis' character and something he's utterly unable to shake off. Otis kind of admires the 'sad song' though - it has universal reach and appeal the way his happy go lucky and socially aware songs don't because even the happiest person gets sad sometimes. Otis adds that he's been singing these type of songs 'my whole life' because that's where he feels his greatest message lies, pointedly turning to someone in the audience (whose almost certainly Zelda) and pleading that these songs are all messages to her. The irony of this all is that, by Redding standards, the Steve Cropper tune this track is set to isn't that sad at all. It's not exactly fast but it's certainly not slow, with an urgent riff and a catchy chorus that makes Otis sound more giddy than depressed (legend has it that Cropper based it on the theme tune for the American game show 'The $64,000 Question'!) One of the pair's last songs together, with 'Dock Of The Bay' about the only one to come, it's one of the cleverest and proof that the pair know each other very well by now. Always musically curious, both men would have wanted to go somewhere new while staying 'faithful' to the Redding persona - with 'Dock Of The Bay' still over the horizon this sort of self-deprecating joke makes perfect sense, with 'Mr Pitiful' so into his own sadness that he hasn't even noticed when the song he's singing is no longer sad, because everything is. In case you were wondering the 'fa fa fa fa fa fa' line was Otis simply singing where he intended the horn part to go later on, but the band liked the effect so much they kept that [part in and had the Mar-Keys horn parts 'answering' instead. It's a very lovely horn part, actually, which makes the song and adds just enough sadness without approaching depression. The song gets an added twist too from Otis' turn to the audience (or the band if you watch Otis' first music video), singing 'your turn!' as if turning the blues - the most personal sound in the world - into a mass communal singalong. One of Otis' most overlooked singles.

The hard driving 'I'm Sick Y'all' is another of Otis' groove songs, written in the same style as 'Can't Turn  You Loose' and 'Hard To Handle'. The vocal seems deliberately set low in the mix as if the actual words matter less than the overall feeling of claustrophobia, as a heavy organ 'n' horns beat locks Otis so far inside his head that we can't even hear him, the singer too lost in his own thoughts and his 'terrible state' to communicate. You have to be careful with songs like this one that feature a lot of repetition, especially as it's closer in 'feel' to something James Brown or Sam Cooke would tackle than Otis who usually wears his emotions on his sleeve, not hidden by production techniques. But luckily the groove is a good one the whole band get behind and there's just enough sense of hope in the middle with a raised eyebrow of a major key before the minor key depression weighs the song down all over again. The lyrics, probably set by Otis to Cropper's tune, are interesting in their own right if you can hear them though: we've heard 'Sad' Otis many times but rarely 'mad' Otis and Redding is now so angry/guilty he can't get his words straight. 'Been put out y'all got nowhere to go children!' he pleads to us in shock that the 'Security' of his second published original now seems to be over and he's had a huge physical re-action with headaches and shakes all from a 'pain in the heart' (a very telling reference back to Otis' first hit, now sung from a bit more experience of heartbreak). By the end of the song a dejected Otis has been walking the streets all night and is standing outside his own house in a pitiful state, Redding exaggerating his condition with OTT tales of being caught in a thunderstorm and having had nothing to eat for '12 days'. Though this event never actually happened, Otis is clearly 'in bad shape' emotionally if not physically and perhaps ducks the vocals in the song because this lyric cuts so very close to the 'truth', Redding's worry over being kicked out the family house for good.

So far the record has been going toe-to-toe with the heights of 'Otis Blue' but alas things take a tumble for the worse with 'Tennessee Waltz'. An over obvious choice of cover song, this 1946 song was covered by everybody but comes across as terribly false in most versions - the sort of song you write on auto-pilot to appeal to the lowest common denominator. The 1960s was about throwing out such tin pan alley garbage, so it seems odd to hear a performer as 'real' as Otis giving it a go. Even he's stumped trying to maker this song swing, though, and turns in what might well be his worst performance, full of stutters and fake dramatic pauses that give away how little is heart is in the song. The MGs get visibly fed up of this song before the end too, Al Jackson sticking in a thunderous drum roll that's completely out of place, as if to release his building frustrations. Only another lovely Mar-Keys horn part overcomes what would otherwise be the single worst performance on an Otis album, sighing and swing their way through the song with all the 'real' emotion even Redding himself can't inject into the song. One of the hardest going three minutes Otis ever gave us - why was this song released over so many better songs in the vaults? Bizarrely the original version, the all American affair by Patti Page (which you can hear on the Pink Floyd/Jerry Garcia dominated soundtrack for the 'Zabriskie Point' film in 1972) is the best-selling single ever in...Japan! Go figure!

'Sweet Lorene' is about as closest as Otis the songwriter ever got to filler too, a re-make of 'In The Midnight Hour' with as-near-it the same groove and tune and some daft lyrics about a runaway girl who won't do what she's told. Co-written with long standing friend Isaac Hayes, it's one of the few examples of Otis writing 'fiction' rather than feeling and using characters in his stories. The song concerns a man whose been abandoned for real, rather than in the imagination like so many Otis songs, and leaves him sadly walking through places they used to go to together 'starin' at me now'. Though his vocal is sharper than on 'Tennessee Waltz', it's still not the Otis we know and love - Otis is a more natural confessional singer than a narrator and gets by through sheer force of personality rather than doing anything that amazing. The MGs cope better with a funky beat and Booker T back on the organ at last, but even they sound a little under-used and under-stretched. The lyrics about how Otis is 'going to kiss you from head to toe if you walk back through my door' don't exactly stretch him as a writer either.

After all, you only need to hear the opening lick of 'Try A Little Tenderness' to know what a 'real' song from the heart sounds like. The most famous Redding song that Otis didn't write, the fact this is a cover song always comes as a shock given how note-perfect Otis' vocal is here. First written in the 1930s, it became more popular in the 1960s thanks to a cover by Aretha Franklin - Otis' choice of it himself might be 'revenge' for her covering 'Respect' a few months earlier! The song is perfectly suited to Otis' style, Redding choosing to add a typically mournful horn lick to the start that perfectly sets up the song. He also slightly tweaks the arrangement of the song so that it starts slow and humble and sad before slowly turning bit by bit into another communal singalong and celebration. Booker T's opening organ licks takes the song straight into gospel and this is about the closest Otis ever comes to 'preaching' on one of his records, offering advice to the world and perhaps himself about how to cope with fraying relationships; all it takes is some 'tenderness'. There's a hint in the first verse that the growing problems between the couple are money-related, that she's 'weary' from 'wearing the same old dress'. But when treated as a Queen she feels like a Queen, Otis urging his audience to 'anticipate' whatever she might be 'waiting for'. By the end the song has lost any sense of difficulty because Otis is so sure in his technique that it can't possibly go wrong and is open to all irrespective of race or class. Sadly the studio original cuts off short when Otis has just begun to get into gear, but the period live versions of this song are a revelation, Redding extending the finale into a track full of such verve and joy and manic improvisations that the blues of the opening seem a million light years away (it works particularly well as the finale to Otis' Monterey Pop setlist, where the lyrics are changed to a 'mini-skirt dress'). This original is still mighty fine, though, given Otis the chance to show off all sides of his musical nature off in one single song.

Following the success of the soul-drenched cover of the Stones' 'Satisfaction' on 'Otis Blue', Redding went off looking for another rock song to work his magic on. His first choice was The Beatles' 'A Hard Day's Night', which was performed in concert across 1966 and a shoe-in for this record, but in the meantime the fab four themselves had got into soul and Otis in particular, releasing a number of Stax-inspired songs in the summer ('Got To Get You Into My Life' was the most obvious but the signs are also there in 'Drive My Car' and 'Paperback Writer'). 'Day Tripper' was a particularly worthy choice, though, and it's tale of the 'girl' being in command and only in it for the short-term while her man gets besotted is right up this album's street. The MGs have fun on a song that urges them to be big and heavy (Jackson utterly destroys Ringo's simplistic part on the original), while Otis is having fun improvising his way round lyrics that are, by Lennon-McCartney standards, fairly light anyway with lots of 'y'alls' and whoops and hollers. He even adds a verse at the end: 'Mean thing that told me girl, you're best halfway aren't you honey, better go all the way with me honey, you better love me pretty mama, you gotta squeeze me pretty baby...'  However the guitar riff doesn't quite as strong switched to horns as the similar part on 'Satisfaction' did and 'Day Tripper' has less peaks and valleys along the way, running out of steam by the halfway stage. The song isn't quite as powerful a statement then - and 'A Hard Day's Night' may still have been the better or at least more suitable choice - but the track is still a brave statement, taking on the rock world at their own game and proving that there isn't actually that big a difference between the two. I've often wondered, by the way, what other 60s rock classics Otis might have made his own had he stayed with his pattern of at least rehearsing one for every album. The Who's 'My Generation' perhaps (with the stutters and repeats already in?) The Kinks' You Really Gotta Gotta Gotta Me'? The Animals' ''We Gotta Gotta Gotta Get Out Of This Place'? The Beatles' 'All Y'all Need Is Love'? It would have been fascinating to see...

Over on side two 'My Lover's Prayer' is, finally, Otis doing what he was born to do rather than playing around and having fun with his reputation. A surprise flop as a single, it's one of the most brilliant things he ever did, clearly written from the heart for Zelda as a mixture of forgiveness, playfulness and guilt. It's easy to trace the heartbroken balladeer of 'These Arms Of Mine' and 'Pain In My Heart' to here, with a similar sense of inner desperation, but everything's a little more up market than before. Booker T and co know exactly how to do this sort of thing by now and are magnificent here, with Booker's slowly circling piano licks, going round and round the same old ground over and over, while the Mar-Keys horn riff is one of the most heartbreaking of any Redding song. The lilting phrase tries to lift itself up, gets up a head of steam and then falls pathetically on a sighing minor key line that instead gazing back at its shoes, it's spirit crushed. Otis is utterly brilliant, as he refuses to believe 'that it's all over' after a love affair that's 'gone round in so many circles', but you know that despite his hope that this relationship is over. The lyrics manage to combine so many things at once: 'My life is such a weary thing' Otis sighs as if looking for pity, 'Deep down I know I'm not to blame' Otis snarls angrily, 'What you going to do tonight when you need my voice to tell you goodnight?' Otis asks hopefully, looking for a chink in his loved one's armour, 'It can't be too serious to talk it over' tries to be reasonable, while 'Yeah, I won't be missing you' is clearly an out and out lie. Otis' narrator has thrown everything at this relationship without an answer but still utterly refuses that it's 'all over', reduced to relying on nothing more than faith, turning this lyric into a 'lover's prayer' that Otis hopes will 'reach you' and the sheer strength of power and feeling will be enough where his words have fallen short. Together with the funeral air of the music it's a powerful combination and Redding turns in one of the greatest performances of his career to match it, with perhaps the ultimate 'sad song' of his career. Much overlooked and under-rated, this was the first single released from the album - always a sign of what Otis considered his most 'important' work - and deserved better than to stall at #61 in the US charts (though you could argue it's not exactly singles material - what song, even back in 1966, could possibly follow this on top 40 radio without sounding empty and forced by comparison?)

The noisy 'She Put The Hurt On Me' is a second straight solo Redding original that tries to make him out to be the victim. However it's lighter in every sense, another of those 'groove' songs that's more about the riff than the development. For once, an Otis groove song is 'happy' rather than mad or sad, with a chirpy Mar-Keys horn part on a singalong riff that could easily have become a strong catchy single. However there's nothing else really happening in this song which just keeps going round the houses for three minutes. The song quickly turns into Otis proving he can tell the time with a tongue-in-cheek risqué commentary about an illicit meeting that paints him fully as the hapless seduced victim ('She gave me 22 minutes - I had to think about it, she gave me 40 - I  had to talk about it, she gave me 60 - I can't do without it, she knocked me down to the floor!') You have to wonder at the mischievousness of putting such a silly and frivolous song about a one-night stand (well, three night stand technically) straight after a guilty confessional like 'My Lover's Prayer' though: Otis is clearly still in two minds about his future conduct across 1966. A shame that a better song couldn't be found for those contradictions though: this is two choruses stapled together without an actual song to go between them.

Otis' third straight solo song 'Ton Of Joy' slips somewhere between the two, a heartfelt tribute to the security of family life treated in a similar throwaway light-hearted style to 'Hurt On Me'. The biggest development here is in the performance, with Booker T's organ work given a spacey psychedelic feel with a few effects (the MGs will do a lot  more with this style on their fourth album, the under-rated 'Hip-Hug-Her' the following year) that hint at the heartfelt arrangement between the lovers taking both of them to an other-worldly plane. 'The way she loves me makes me feel like a man' Otis grins over a slow blissful groove that's as close as he ever came to feeling smug. He's got everything he ever wanted and adds that 'she's got what all men are trying to find' - so why does this song still feel slightly dark and troubled? The hint, largely unspoken in the song, is that a love that's powerful enough to bring a 'ton of joy' is powerful enough to feel mighty claustrophobic whenever it goes wrong - Otis' talk of being 'set on fire' and 'feeling the weight' shows that he's well out of his comfort zone here. Otis hints also that he's learned his lessons, that she's such a powerful force of nature 'she makes me want to learn' how to treat here right (hence perhaps the cover of 'Try A Little Tenderness', which sounds like lesson number one). Of course, he still has the audacity to plead with her not to betray him or 'break my heart!'

'You're Still My Baby' is a Chuck Willis cover firmly in the usual Redding mode: he's waving 'bye bye baby' while wishing his outgoing girl 'a lotta luck darling' and secretly hoping for a reconciliation that never comes. You can see why this song would have appealed to Otis in the context of the darkness and guilt of this game-playing album as he tries to play the innocent victim ('What did I do honey? Why? Why?!?') However, there's nothing in this song he hadn't already written better himself, with a slightly sloppy backing track that doesn't seem quite sure where it's going. Cropper tries hard to launch himself into a solo over the fade, but Otis crashes his lines by going off on one of the longest extended improvs of the record (always a sign of the 'real' Otis: 'No matter what you do, no matter how big you get, no matter what road you take, no matter what in the world you do, you're still my baby!') The horns too sweep in from nowhere, only to be themselves swept aside by a rather twee Booker T organ lick that sounds like the sort of things Wurlitzers used to play over adverts at the cinema before Al Jackson dismisses them both with a rattle of the drums. There are too many sounds competing for our attention here on a cluttered arrangement that's unusual for the directness of the MGs and the result is another slightly forgettable song from this album's second side.

'Hawg For You' is, at last, some belated fun with Redding spoofing pre-war blues songs with a simple earnest 12 bar groove undercut by silly lyrics about Otis being a 'hog'. Fitting in the sense that it's another Redding song about obsession, the narrator simply refusing to leave his girl's front door after an argument, comparing a pig 'rooting' in the mud for truffles for his own obsession with her home, it's also by far the funniest song in the Redding catalogue, played straight except for the American Indian whistles and war whoops that turn the serious business of love into a childish game of cowboys and indians. The last verse has Otis as the jetsetter, the rich star with everything at his fingertips and able to go anywhere at a moment's notice - but he's still as obsessed with his girl's front door as ever. This is clearly another message for Zelda, then, but performed more playfully than on the rest of the record. The MGs, who by now are relative specialists at this sort of thing, come up with a creditable backing track, with Cropper's laidback guitar hitting Booker T's urgency head on, while Jackson Jnr plays cat and mouse throughout, letting a bit of slack into the song onto to immediately pound away like he's hammering on the door. Inconsequential, but fun.

After largely coasting across the second half of the album, the album finally gets back into gear for the finale 'Love Have Mercy', a collaboration between two of Otis' close friends Isaac Hayes and David Porter. That's Hayes himself playing the rockabilly piano while Booker T plays the simpler organ lines, behind a lyric so close to the traditional Otis style it seems likely the two friends wrote it with him in mind. Otis is feeling crushed by the weight of love, asking God for 'mercy' as girls gang up to tear his heart in two. Otis shyly tells us about all 'the kisses I stole' and worries over having to 'reap what I sow' and overall sounds as if he's beginning to regret his behaviour, this song's improvised fadeout tellingly ending 'Sorry about that!' over and over as if Otis is doing penance. By the end of the song he's no longer even a hawg but a 'duck', so unfeeling that all these new experiences and 'broken hearts' aren't even noticed anymore, like water off his back. However the chirpy backing keeps breaking out into new exciting places: sunny riffs that come out of nowhere, a funky instrumental groove, a pinging guitar riff that comes and goes, a driving horn part and a slower more reflective section. The musical equivalent of a box full of compartments, this  song is so full of goodies that Otis' curiosity keeps getting the better of him as he tries hard to put the brakes on but ends up exploring them all, pleading the whole time for 'mercy' for his predicament to stop. A clever song that could have only been written by people who knew him well, it doesn't quite have the class of 'Lover's 'Prayer' or 'Try A Little Tenderness', but it's a good summary of the album's themes with Otis as both hapless victim and curious explorer, both desperate to see and desperate not to see everything that life has to offer him. Otis struggles a little on a track that demands him to set up various bit of the songs and then back away - he's better when he can build from layer to layer rather than passing between them as here - but it's another strong meeting between singer, band and writers, with everyone on the same page.


Overall, then, 'Dictionary Of Soul' is a funny old album. All the filler - two tracks from the first side, a whopping four from the second side - makes it a less immediately likeable album than most of its predecessors and the overall effect is of a performer whose reached a bit of a dead-end, tried of what he's been in the past but not sure confident about what he should be instead. However the record also has several clear peaks matched only by 'Otis Blue' and the best of the material recorded in the final few weeks of his life and released posthumously, tracks like 'Sad Song' 'Lover's Prayer' Tenderness' and to some extent 'I'm Sick Y'all' and 'Love Have Mercy' where Redding sounds so utterly in control and up for anything that it seems hard to equate him with the same writer/performer. There's also an impressive consistency of mood if not quality across this album, with the debates about the security of married life and the fun of bachelorhood spread out across pretty much every track on this album which makes 'Dictionary', neatly, the Otis album that probably hangs together best, with every 'entry'  part of the same 'book'. The result is a mixed album, great in some ways and ghastly in others that may well be the most inconsistent of Otis' career but with so many great moments you can still overlook the lesser moments. More pocket dictionary than epic encyclopaedia in the context of Otis' career, then, but 'ou-ni', this record hurts so good and 'ou we ni', the more you play it the more it's getting gooder by the minute. Come to it with a little tenderness and mercy for its flaws and there's enough here in the 'Dictionary' to keep you looking things up for a long time to come. 


A Now Complete List Of Otis Redding Articles To Read At Alan’s Album Archives:

'The Soul Album' (1966) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015_04_12_archive.html

'Complete and Unbelievable - The Otis Redding Dictionary Of Soul!' (1966) http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/complete-and-unbelievable-otis-redding.html

‘King and Queen’ (1967, with Carla Thomas) https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/otis-redding-and-carla-thomas-king-and.html

Surviving TV Footage 1965-1967 plus The Best Unreleased Recordings  http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2016/11/otis-redding-surviving-tv-footage-1965.html



Live/Compilation/Rarities Albums 1963-2014 http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/otis-redding-livecompilationrarities.html


Otis Redding Essay: It Takes Two – The Art Of Melancholy In Soul Music https://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2018/05/otis-redding-essay-it-takes-two-art-of.html


The Fifty Most Read AAA Posts 2008-2015



Dear all, we're taking the briefest of breaks from our cycle of non album recordings/live solo and compilation albums/tv clips/unreleased songs/weird spinoff articles about obscure albums you never see in the shops and can't afford even if you do. Originally this space was left in our schedule to give you a special edition article dedicated to AAA bands and their Myers-Briggs types that I've tried to research a few times while in middle-of-the-night-can't-sleep mode, but it doesn't seem to be working (mainly because all our bands  or at least the main individuals in them, all turn out to be the ISFP, ISFJ or INFJ types: so much for rock music being full of extroverts!) So instead here's a sort of belated celebration of Alan's Album Archives reaching the end of another year and the writing of our 1000th post - which technically happened 15 posts ago but never mind (what's a few Otis Redding compilations between friends?)  So as a little exercise in self-indulgence with a slightly wonky eye on posterity we present 'the 50 most viewed AAA articles over our first eight years as of November 2015', a list we've separated into our actual main 'reviews' and our extra top ten/twenty/everything else column for ease of reading.

What's interesting is how varied the list is: to make sure it was accurate I've noted every article that made over 100 hits and every single act we've ever covered is in the top 100. The dating seems to vary too: some of our highest hitters came right back in the early days in the 2008-2009 period, while some of our articles from the past six months have matched those statistics already, with some from every year in between. Using this as a bit of research as to what to cover in our final full year of articles in 2016 I've come to the conclusion that what you want most is a review of a Wings album stuffed with Who Sell Out adverts in the middle, wrapped around a political rant and infused with some catchy guitar riffs! Not sure I can manage that, but everything seems to have been more or less equally 'popular' with someone out there (using the term loosely) so we'll most likely carry on doing the same (before I get too big headed, though, it is worth pointing out that there's a couple of news items from our early years that haven't had any views at all yet!) Who knows, in time maybe this post will become our most read of all time? Or maybe I've scared you all off and this post won't get any hits either?! Anyway here's a quick run-down of the top 25 most read AAA reviews, taken from the core 500 (well, 428 at the time of writing) that are the back bone of our site:
1.    Paul McCartney and Wings "Venus and Mars" (1975): 47964 hits
Well, this was a surprise. 'Venus and Mars' is kind of a middlingly successful Wings record from their middle years which got middling reviews and is usually rated by fans somewhere around the middle (though I've always had a soft spot for it, hence its inclusion in our original 'core 101 under-rated albums list')! Or have a lot of our hits come from our intergalactic readers on Alpha 2 1 Z 8 A 9?

2.    The Who "Sell Out" (1967):12390 hits
The Who tend to do relatively poorly stats wise on our site for some reason - does everyone have such a personal opinion of 'Tommy' and 'Quadrophenia' et al that they don't want to read someone else's views or are we just bad at writing them?! The band's third album rather bucks the trend though and is another of our original 'core 101 albums'. Best read while eating Heinz Baked Beans!


3.    Denny Laine "Reborn" (1996): 8121 hits
This article suddenly took off last year for some reason, which cheered me up greatly - not just for the extra hits it gave our website but because it surely means that somebody else out there actually owns this great and forgotten album by the former Wings and Moody Blues founder. I'm willing to bet, though, that there are very few other reviews of this obscure but great album out there and certainly none as long as ours! Has popularity in this album been re-born?!

4.    The Kinks "Everybody's In Showbiz, Everybody's A Star" (1972): 3978 hits
(Reviewed January 2013: http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/the-kinks-everybodys-in-showbiz-1972.htm)
This one is less of a surprise: our Kinks articles always tend to get a boost thanks to our friends at Kindakinks.net who have a much bigger following than us, although it is a surprise that it's one of the band's more obscure 1970s LPs that's winning our hit-rate rather than a 60s classic. You seem to have gone for 'Maximum Consumption' on a rarity that isn't often reviewed though so good for you, dear readers!
5.    "Grateful Dead" (1967): 2707 hits
I hadn't even noticed our review for the Dead's debut was doing so well as it's been racking up the hits steadily and quietly - in deep contrast to the rather manic nature of the album! Chances are it's doing well because of a 'double boost', having returned to and completely modified the album earlier this year, but then that's true of around 100 of our posts. Ah well, whatever the cause it's great that 'I got a friend somewhere' - 2707 of them to be exact!

6.    Stephen Stills "Stills" (1975):1142 hits
Discounting novelties like the surprisingly high one-off scores for McCartney, Lulu, Nils Lofgren and Denny Laine, our CSN reviews have always tended to do the best as a lump sum, which is just as well because there are an awful lot of them. In a very general sense the CSN community has been the most friendly and supportive to our site, with lots of lovely feedback and two really close friendships made with fellow fans through this site who mean the world to me. Stills' relatively obscure 1975 album is a surprise victor though even so, perhaps because there aren't any other flipping reviews of this great album out there?! Though another of our initial 101 'core' reviews this one seems to have done particularly well again after being slightly modified earlier this year. Some of my 'favourite changes' you could say!

7.    Jefferson Starship "Nuclear Furniture" (1984): 1114 hits
One of the very first reviews to be written for Alan's Album Archives, I safely assumed that no one else would ever read this one: it is, after all, the Starship's last and most obscure album long after their music had stopped selling and I'm pretty sure that mine is the only positive review of it I've ever read. Which just goes to show how wrong you can be sometimes! The stats rate is, erm, 'chair raising' in fact and brings us back from the expected 'Armageddon' nicely!

8.    Lindisfarne "Dingly Dell" (1972): 1077 hits
To be fair we do seem get quite a bit of attention for our Lindisfarne posts so this shouldn't be a surprise - sadly we don't really have much competition in terms of Lindisfarne reviewers though goodness knows why, they're a great band! This post, though, dates from the days before the Lindisfarne Facebook site started giving us the occasional plug so I'm not quite sure why Lindisfarne's difficult third 'cardboard' album is the one to have done so well. Again, perhaps it's because I'm one of the few people who actually likes it?! Or maybe it's down to the 'magic in the air'? (It is everywhere, after all).

9.    Pink Floyd: 'Immersion' Box Sets: Dark Side Of The Moon/Wish You Were Here/The Wall' (2011/2012): 992 hits
At last, a statistic I kind of understand: all three of these albums are within the top ten selling AAA albums of all time after all, while for once our site was relatively quickly off the mark when these releases were new. I'm still surprised they've done quite that well though: usually our big hit rates mean people keep coming back to read them again (they are best read in bits given the length of some of them!) and this is just one list of rarities and differences really. Ah well, there is no dark side of the stat counter really you know - matter of fact it's all dark. I'm going to hide behind my firewall now...

10. 10cc "Sheet Music" (1974): 941 hits
10cc are another of our bands who tend to clog up the bottom end of our stats counter with this being the big exception for some odd reason. 10cc's second album has always been a favourite with the band's quirky humour at a demented peak -something that fits our site well with our tales of talking cows and boozy dogs. In truth, though, I've never liked my review for this album much (I'll be re-reviewing it round about February judging by our current schedule) so I don't know why this one's taken off more than the others. Come on Mac and do the stat counter sacro-iliac!
11. The Kinks "State Of Confusion" (1983): 939 hits
(Reviewed February 2014: http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-kinks-state-of-confusion-1983.html)
The start of a run of Kinks reviews all no doubt helped stats-wise by the extra boost from Kindakinks.net The very similar hit rates for this and the next two entries suggests that near enough the exact same people read all three, in which case 'hello!' This really set our stat counter 'dancing' I can tell you!

12. "Kinda Kinks" (1964): 914 hits
(Reviewed August 2012: http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/the-kinks-kinda-kinks-1965.html)
And here's the second Kinks album, with a similar story to tell. This was for a time our third highest viewed article of all time before the others all overtook it - just as well because we were 'so tired, tired of waiting, tired of waiting for views'.

13. The Kinks "Preservation" (1973/1974): 914 hits
A bit of a cheat this one, given that we effectively wrote it twice, once for each of the last of the UK general elections! (Darn it, 'Cameron Flash' won again - illegally!) Money and corruption win again then - but not on our site where we're just stat-counting in the mid-day sun.
14. Paul McCartney and Wings "Red Rose Speedway" (1973): 908 hits
Alas most of this review's high placing seems to be the high troll-rate this article seemed to get; who'd have guessed that Wings' so-so second LP, full of some brilliant and some not so brilliant stuff, would prove to be so controversial?  Ah well, stats are stats I suppose, but dear readers 'Get On The Right Thing!'

15. Nils Lofgren and Grin "1+1" (1972): 821 hits
This review was accompanied by the sad announcement that we'd been looking into turning these articles into books and some of our groups were so behind/so obscure that we would never be able to catch up. I wish now, looking at the rise and rise of this obscure but loveable album, that I'd been able to start a bit quicker and given the great Nils Lofgren the website time he deserved. This is his second best LP after 'Damaged Goods' in my opinion, cute and inventive with its side split between orchestral ballads and full on rockers, while also occasionally being deadly. I'm thrilled to see it doing so well, though I never felt I reviewed this album particularly well. Umm, post book series re-writes circa 2020? After all, I'd give my heart my soft fun, I'm newsing, reviewing and musicing for you...

16. Paul McCartney and Wings  "Wildlife" (1972): 755 hits
Oddly enough, my review of Wings' first and equally troubled album has had nothing but praise from readers so far, with many (well, three) thanking me for promoting my unfashionable view that, though flawed, 'Wildlife' is a hell of a lot better than fans ever give it credit for being. There's nothing a new opening two songs and an extra week of rehearsals couldn't have fixed for instance and - dare I say it - I actually prefer this album to the all-singing 'Band On The Run' which everyone seems to love (I still like it by the way before you think I've lost all my marbles). Glad to see this one doing so well after a difficult forty-five year period! 'Bip Bop, stats nearly top, wip wam the AAA pot' or 'You are my stats and you are my reader'.

17. The Kinks "Low Budget" (1979): 751 hits
(Reviewed in July 2014: http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/the-kinks-low-budget-1979.html)
More Kinks in the system - in both meanings of the word probably - with a fifth entry for the Davies brothers. Though not exactly a high profile album either 'Low Budget' has done very respectably in cyberspace, as allocated to me by the human race. 'My stats used to match the stars but now I suck polo mints!'

18. "Stephen stills" (1970): 731 hits
Good to know that the Stephen Stills fanbase out there is so strong! This album, his debut, is traditionally seen as his best so I'm not surprised it's done so well in our list relative to the others, although it's never quite been my favourite of the Stills LPs (which are all comparing genius to genius, at least till 1975, but never mind). But if you can't promote the album you really love then you still get stats for the album you're with!
19 = The Hollies "Radio Fun" (2012): 686 hits
There's a whole great run of Hollies reviews that just miss this list, being placed roughly somewhere between 35-75 numbers down. The highest, a set of BBC radio sessions, probably did so well because we were pretty quick off the mark on that one (having had the album on pre-order for months!) and stirred a new interest in The Hollies with the first 'new' material in ever such a long time. It's certainly the highest viewed of our half-dozen AAA BBC set reviews. 'Our stats are so high that they touch the sky!'(well, nearly!)
 19 = Graham Nash "Wild Tales" (1973): 686 hits
Our first tie! Actually I'm surprised this album isn't higher, given that it seems to appear regularly in our stats counter hits for the month, adding steadily trickle by trickle down the years. Most people finding the review are searching for the murder of Amy Gossage, Graham Nash's girlfriend, which has led to some interesting debates over the timing of this record: officially the murder was announced to the press after its release, but if Graham himself says that's what this album is 'about' then who am I to argue with him?

21. The Kinks "Something Else" (1967): 682 hits
More Kinky fun, with the band's fifth album coming under the spotlight this time. Despite being the only Kinks album to ever contain two top ten hits, this album never sold as well as it should have done - and neither have its stats quite reached The Kinks' best in our lists. No matter: this placing of Waterloo Sunset's parent album is fine.

22. George Harrison "Dark Horse" (1974): 639 hits
Once more, I'm tempted to think that our review of George's third post-Beatles album has done so well because it's more or less the only review out there of George's third post-Beatles album and almost certainly the only one that actually liked it (well, give or take the instrumentals and songs about new year). Very aptly it's also the 'dark horse' of our stats counter you might say, doing very badly on first publication I seem to remember but gaining real ground since then. It wouldn't surprise me to see it go top ten by the time we finish our site.
23. The Who "Face Dances" (1981): 604 hits
There's a whopping gap between our highest and second highest Who reviews - and a similar gap back to the third. I have no idea why. Perhaps it's because compared to most fans I don't think this 'Oo album is that 'Orrible? Anyway should this album feature in our list? You better, you bet!
24. The Kinks "Are The Village Green Preservation Society" (1968): 600 hits
(Reviewed in June 2015: http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/the-kinks-are-village-green.html)
We are the AAA stat counter society, collating facts and figures about albums that all seem to have notoriety, we are the obscure albums appreciation consortium, giving the most viewed articles a hug and to all those who awarded 'em, we are the most seen albums celebration affinity, telling you the 25 albums that have been the most 'winnity', Village Green is the 24th most seen: God save the Village Green!
25. Paul Kantner/Grace Slick "Sunfighter" (1972): 597 hits
(Reviewed in October 2012: http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/paul-knatnewrgrace-slick-jefferson.html?utm_source=BP_recent)
'Nuclear Furniture' aside, our Jefferson reviews seem to have really suffered. Oddly enough, though, the solo albums haven't done too badly: there's a run of albums just after this one including the two Kantner/Slick albums released either side of this one and Grace's solo 'Dreams', which suggests that Jefferson fans have got bored of always reading about 'Surrealistic Pillow' and 'Volunteers' and want to know more about the rarer albums. A good job too: there's some fab things on these four albums and 'Sunfighter' is a real 'grower', a bit like out stats counter figures for it (when I was a boy I watched the stats counter!)
Next up, a quick whizz through the 25 'other' most read articles, taking into account everything from our entries on every AAA artists' unreleased songs (traditionally the highest scoring of our 'extra' articles) to special editions devoted to books and DVDs, not to mention our April Fool's Day column and a run of political rants...

1.    The 20 Reasons David Cameron Has To Go! 34634 hits
This little rant seems to do well whenever the twitter hashtag 'Cameronhastogo' starts trending - which is about every other week these days. By September 2011 The Coatlition had been in power 18 months and the country was already brought to its knees (a little like Cameron whenever a pig was around, not that we knew that back then or it would have been 21 reasons...) Who says music and politics doesn't mix then? Really,. though, the whole point of this site was drawing people's attention to the 'truth' of the world the way the best music always does, and offering it to music readers rather than just preaching to the politically converted. All our political commentary seems to have done rather well actually - our '20 more reasons Cameron should go' update and the '25 rather iffy general election results that suggest electoral fraud' columns just missed out on a placing too. There is, by the way, little doubt now that Cameron has to go after six years now of constant lying and manipulation and cheating.
2.    The best AAA riffs 34403 hits
Is dur-ner-ner-dur-ner better than Oo-we-oo? Well that's what we set to find out with our run down of the twenty catchiest AAA riffs, one of the last entries on our regular top ten/twenty column.

3.    AAA Album Covers Re-Created In Lego: 27203 hits
Back in 2011 another intended article collapsed - noticing a pattern here? Actually I think there's only ever been two which isn't bad in 1000 post but anyway - leaving us to scrabble about short notice to fill in the 'gap'. And this is what we found: a run of album covers re-created in lego featuring everything from a distinctly bricky looking Yellow Submarine to Belle and Sebastian's 'Push Bricks To heal Old Wounds'. Alas our third highest entry on this list probably had less involvement from me than any other as it was just a list of links! Most of them have been taken down from the net now too which is a great shame, so we don't bother to list the link anymore.

4.    The AAA Review Of The Year 2008: 16277 hits
Our first review of the year was only our 16th ever top ten entry and was very minor compared to the ones that came later, with only a very basic run through of the best five yearly releases. Sure that I was on to something great I put my all into the list for 2009, with a list of the top five new albums, re-issues, DVDs, books, documentaries, songs and the worst releases of the year, sure that I would get a similar hit rate. Not even close. The same has been true every year for our gradually expanding column too - none of the others even make the top hundred! So why did this year's ridiculously short article do so well? Was 2008 really that great and I just didn't notice?!

5.    The Ten Best 'Other' Dave Davies Songs: 16084 hits
At least I know why this one did so well: to my eternal pride Dave Davies himself re-tweeted this from his twitter account (@davedavieskinks - well worth a follow!) which got us lots of extra hits! I've been sorely tempted to keep returning to this site with a top 20/50/100 Dave Davies songs in the hope of getting more hits but have so far refrained (aren't you impressed?!) This marked the best ever week we ever had at the AAA to date, thanks to this article appearing alongside our 'Something Else' review and both articles getting an extra boost from www.kindakinks.net Happy days!


6.    The AAA DVDs special: 5200  hits
Still the longest AAA article ever published to date and a fortnight in the making, I'm rather pleased this one did so well, although much of it is out of date now, with most of the reviews revised and re-assembled for our planned book series. In case you hadn't guessed, it was our attempt to briefly review each and every AAA DVD officially on sale: The Beatles section alone goes on for hours!

7.    The AAA Books Special: 4740 hits
That article was actually a sequel to this, a similarly expansive article dedicated to every AAA related book we'd ever read - which made for quite a lot I can tell you, again the Beatles section alone runs to several pages! Perhaps we can include our own AAA books in these sections one day?

8.    AAA Bands On Colour Me Pop: 3031 hits
(Written in May 2013:
It seemed like destiny: five AAA bands appeared on the little known music programme that ran in the late 1960s and occasionally turns up on 'Sounds Of The Sixties' style compilations. Only four have been kept out of the series of sixty total - all AAA entries - while the audio exists for the Hollies gig. This article pretty much wrote itself!
9.    The 'Other' Best AAA BBC Sets: 2771 hits
A quickie to go with a rather extended review of the Beatles' own BBC sets, I keep meaning to come back to this article to properly expand it - not least because we've had The Hollies' own set and a second Kinks edition since writing this article.

10. The AAA bands as artists: 1818 hits
The AAA crew are a talented bunch who seem to be able to turn their hand at everything. This article celebrated the paintings that have been exhibited by various members: specifically Stuart Sutlcliffe, John and Yoko, Paul McCartney, Jerry Garcia and Grace Slick.
11. AAA Inductions Into The Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame: 593 hits
The AAA bands seem to have done rather well with the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame inductions, with most of them in by now - although I'm shocked that Lindisfarne, The Monkees and The Moody Blues still haven't been inducted yet (Or Oasis come to that, although this is only their second eligible year so I'm sure it will come). Anyway this was a run down of every single AAA appearance that had taken place up to 2012 (Cat Stevens was inducted in 2014 so missed the cut I'm afraid), including the controversies of the Beatles, Hollies and especially Beach Boys performances/speeches.
12. A series of AAA Outcast Characters Who Knew More Than They Let On: 530 hits
Mad John, Mad Professor Blyth, Old John Robertson, St Charles and Old Mr Time - they all told me to write this article because it would be one of our most read entries. And it was. Cheers gang!

13. Songs Celebrating The Face Of Bo: 463 Hits
Hmm, well, this is where an in-joke comes back to haunt me. Our second ever top ten was written to celebrate the nickname of our IT specialist and all round great guy Mike 'Face Of Bo' Fitzpatrick, with a series of AAA song titles slightly warped to mention the word 'Bo' (the big head in Dr Who who hasn't even been in the flipping series since 2007!) We've missed this malarkey out of all our official postings and yet it still continues to do really well over the years - we're not quite sure why!

14. AAA Songs Exclusive To AAA Live Albums: 460 hits
At least I know why this one did so well: unbeknownst to me Kindakinks.net had published a link to this article because of the inclusion of The Kinks' 'It (I Want It). Irony of ironies, it's one of only a small handful of Kinks songs I don't actually like that much so my first meeting with many of my Kink-minded brethren was something of a rant. Actually the 'rant' bit probably isn't quite so unlikely now I think about it...
15. The Grateful Dead CD Bonus Tracks: 339 hits
(Written in July 2015: http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/grateful-dead-guide-to-cd-bonus-tracks.html)
By far the highest of our 'new look' top ten/whatever series, dealing in all the extra articles needed to complete all the AAA books, I was never terribly happy with this column either, which features a run down of all the 'archive' live/studio material included of each of the CD re-issues of the Dead albums. There are quite a lot of them after all and writing this post seemed to go on for hours. Thankfully it's not something I've had to do with any other AAA band so far who tend to either not release anything or simply include a manageable number of studio outtakes and alternate versions.

16. The Best Kinks B-Sides: 319 hits
This one dates back to near the beginning with the highest of a semi-regular column discussing the best AAA flipsides. I always liked the B-sides series which, while largely rewritten on our site elsewhere, was exactly what the AAA is all about: yes the famous hits are great but have you heard how gorgeous the unknown songs that accompanied most of these hits were? And quite right too: 'I'm Not Like Everybody Else' 'Big Black Smoke' 'Where Have All The Good Times Gone?'...this was a mighty fine catalogue of B-sides, one of the best.

17. Chronic Fatigue Songs: 267 hits
Our first ever top ten column has presumably done so well because it's had so many extra weeks to collect statistics. Both my posts on my illness (also known as m.e.) seem to have done rather well on this site, even though neither of them strictly have anything to do with music. This article, by the way, features the best musical summaries of the illness: Graham Nash's 'Another Sleep Song' The Beatles' 'I'm So Tired'...however I'm proudest of the re-write of Byrds insomnia song 'Fido'!

18. April Fool's Day Column 2013: The AAA Museum: 266 hits
(Written in April 2013: http://www.alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/news-views-and-music-issue-7114-maxs.html)
The highest of our seven April Fool's Day columns, this one was set in the future in a run-down space museum dedicated to the AAA where all the exhibits have stopped working. Very us! Other entries include another rant against the Conservatives, a time experiment going wrong that makes all time happen at once, a scrapbook of future highs and lows in picture form and a parallel universe where several famous authors write for the AAA!)

19. AAA Horoscopes Part Two: Chinese New Year: 260 hits
Part one was 'Western' astrology if you hadn't guess and another article that did well, placing at #29 on the list. This article proved that most of our AAA brethren (with a peak birth year of 1942) tended to be horses and that the summer of love took place in the traditionally artistic 'year of the goat'.

20. Nominate This Site For A Shorty Award: 257 hits
In case you don't know, the 'Shorty Awards' are a social media celebration, rewarding those whose profiled have grown the most in a particular year, although in reality it mainly means people nominating their friends and insulting them with a legitimate hash tag (thankyou to the twitter follower who nominated the AAA for 'curing their insomnia'!) You could also fill out a questionnaire to promote your site which, erm, went well which is where this post came in. So far out of the 257 of you who visited this page only two of you actually nominated me for an award. It's not too late though: they run every year and the 2016 awards should be open soon!

21. The Best Unreleased Hollies Recordings: 252 hits
(Written in June 2014: http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/the-hollies-rarities-ii-best-unreleased.html)
The biggest mover of recent weeks is our run down of unreleased Hollies recordings, the tenth out of what now runs to a twenty-two issue series (though there's a bit of a backlog of posts I'm afraid so you won't have had them all quite yet). The Hollies are a great band with so much left to release even after multiple archive sets down the years.
22.  The First Ten AAA Songs Listed Alphabetically: 240 hits
Seriously?! You lot skip over my expanded erudite 10,000 page synopsis of masterful Beatles creations and triple albums for what was only ever written as a bit of 'filler' when I got desperate for ideas and had already written way over the word-count that week. In case you're wondering the winner is The Hollies' 'A Better Place'. Needless to say, not many of you tuned in for 'the last AAA songs listed alphabetically' the week after, which made The Monkees' 'Zilch' and 'Zor and Zam' very sad!

23. Martin Kitcher's Atos Song: 239 hits
(Written in September 2012: http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/martin-kitcher-atos-song-youre-not-fit.html?utm_source=BP_recent)
I first met my dear and much-missed musician friend Martin when I stumbled across his all-too-perfect protest song against the disability work capability assessment. My friend was as worried about the Coalition Government changes than me and turned it into a typically great and gritty song about how in the eyes of the bureaucrats saving money we were 'not fit to live' (ATOS were, at the time, in charge of the fitness to work assessment tests - Capita do an infinitesimally better job of it nowadays). Noting that I had a blog, Martin asked if I would plug the song and I was only too happy to oblige: though not strictly one of our AAA members I'm always on the lookout for brave and moving music that has a point to make and tells the tale well. 'The Atos Song' remains very dear to my heart as does the very talented composer behind it, who sadly died earlier this year. He is very much missed.
24.  AAA Stars In Further Education: 238 hits
Next up, an article that always seems to get an extra 'boost' come exam results time! Traditionally rock stars are meant to be a thick lot who couldn't fgo anything else, but that's certainly not true in these ten selected cases of college and university graduates. Indeed, some bands like Pink Floyd might not even have met were it not for the courses they took.
226  Hidden Harrison: 225 hits
(Written in July 2015: http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/george-harrison-hidden-harrison-best.html)
Just making the list is the most recent of all the entries, the ninth in our series studying the best unreleased recordings. Rather fittingly for the end of this article most of this article centres around the many outtakes for 'All Things Must Pass!'

What will be the biggest shakers and movers in our top fifty in another five/ten/whatever years? Perhaps with a boost when our AAA books are out at last in another eighteen months or so. It will be fascinating to see! (Well, to me anyway!)  Thankyou for being a reader into 2015 - we hope to see you back again in 2016 and beyond! 

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

What difference does a name make? Arguably not much if you’re already a collector of a certain group, for whom the names on the album sleeves just...

This week’s top ten honours the humble motor car. The death trap on wheels, the metaphor for freedom, the put-down of capitalism, a source of...

This week we’re going to have a look at the 10 AAA singles that spent the most weeks at number on the American chart ‘Billboard’ – and it makes for...

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