First and 10

Recently while doing a "top ten albums of all time" list for someone I had a revelation.  You know the kind of things you have when you think too hard about something.  It was that record albums are collections of songs.  I know, huge insight.  When discussing rock albums you, almost without fail, refer to individual songs on that album.  When you like a certain album it is because you like most or all of the songs on that album.  Or maybe it's the cover.  In most cases the only thing that ties a rock/pop album together is that the songs were written around the same time.  Notable exceptions are so called "concept" albums and live records.

All this to say maybe I'd rather look at lists of songs rather than lists of albums.  I know it isn't the artistic approach but who cares.  It works in High Fidelity...

My Top Ten Seasonal Songs (Christmas and cold stuff- I understand many are overplayed)

1. Happy Xmas- Lennon
2. Skating- Vince Guaraldi Trio
3. Sleigh Ride- Ferrante and Teicher
4. Carol of the Bells- Arthur Fiedler and Boston Pops
5. Joy to the World- Ella Fitzgerald
6. Listen The Snow is Falling- Yoko Ono
7. Santa Claus is Back in Town- Elvis Presley
8. Baby It's Cold Outside- Dean Martin
9. Wonderful Christmastime- Paul McCartney
10. What Christmas Means To Me- Stevie Wonder

First Beatles "Album"

Beatles expert and friend John L and I were recently discussing what constituted the first Beatles "album."  Not the argument over "Please Please Me" vs "Introducing the Beatles", British vs American releases or other such trivialities.  No, this was much more trivial.  The question is on which LP did the Beatles actually set out to make a cohesive structure of songs that we may call an "album."

The concept album, in rock and roll circles, came along sometime in the mid 60's depending on who you ask.  Some say Beach Boys Pet Sounds and other hardcore critics may cite Pretty Things S.F. Sorrow.  Closest the Beatles came was Sgt Pepper but they distanced themselves from that definition.  The question of concept album comes down to defining a work that has a narrative versus a work that has thematic elements.  But that is another conversation for another blog because that is most certainly not what the first Beatles album discussion is about.

An album for our argument may better be compared to a picture book assembled from a collection of photos from a certain holiday.  Would you include photos from a different holiday in your picture book?  Would you include photos taken by someone else?  The point of the book when you sat down to make it was to invoke a specific feeling.

In the early rock era most artists recorded songs and released them as singles or 45's.  When LP's were assembled they were likely collections of songs or singles.  The Beatles "Please Please Me" is an example.  For their first record they essentially recorded their live show in Abbey Road studios.  "With the Beatles" then might be a contender for an album in which they consciously set out to make a picture book.  However, if covers of others songs disqualifies it then it is, of course, disqualified.  Same goes for Beatles For Sale but with that definition, A Hard Days Night does qualify.  Does that make A Hard Days Night the first Beatles album?  No.  Both Help! and A Hard Days Night were collections of songs written for a movie.  They weren't thematically tied to the movie, say like a Rodgers and Hammerstein song set.  In both cases, half the songs weren't even included in the film.  With the flimsy definition I have laid out none of the above qualify for a cohesive set of songs called an "album."

That brings up Rubber Soul.  All songs written by group, check.  All songs written for that LP, check.  Rubber Soul is then the first Beatles record to qualify as an "album" versus a long player of songs.  In that sense it is the first piece of "art" assembled by the Beatles and therefore most likely the first artwork of the rock and roll era.  Ah, first artwork of the rock era sounds like a topic for another blog.

GA