When I was in Liverpool earlier this spring as you might guess it piqued my interest a bit in The Beatles. So after having the trip cut short in Mid-March and returning to nothing to do I read a couple of books about them, including one written by the guy who engineered most of their albums. As it was very much an "audio" thing I started following along with the albums and ended up listening to them front to back (the UK versions). I then read a book about EJ (not the autobiography, which I have read and is excellent) but another about his time in the 70s. That led me to listen to his stuff from Empty Sky up to he mid-80s or so.
I then realized that as much as I had heard from the Stones I had never really listented to a lot of their stuff so I started at the beginning and went to the end with the exception of the live albums.
I just finished Zep and have now started on The Who.
I've always been big EJ fan so no real surprises there other than paying a bit more attention. Same with The Beatles, but with them if you go front to back you can barely believe that in four short years they went from "She Loves You" to "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" or "A Day In the Life." The progression is amazing.
I had never really listened to much of the Stones pre-Beggers Banquet. The first 6 or 7 are really great. A wonderful rock n' roll band trying to find something in the blues that is theirs. The seem to lose the thread a bit in the late 60s (Their Satanic Majesties Request is really bad) but pick it up with Beggars Banquet that leads to three of the best albums ever made in a row - Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, and Exile on Main Street. What I was surprised about was how well the more recent albums hold up. No doubt they get more slickly produced and unfortunately Keith takes more of a backseat to Mick's desire to update their sound (his solo stuff is putrid), but they remain a very good band.
Zep is Zep. I was never a *huge* fan and listening to their stuff didn't change my mind much.
I'm now on The Who. Not sure where I will go next. Would love to do the Kinks, but their output was so up and down. Bowie would be good as well.
Anyway, something to pass the time!!
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