Assorted Ravings and Rantings on Music #7

Assorted Ravings and Rantings on Music

Entry #7

Gonna be trying out a format where I number a collection of observations.

I Ain't Gonna Be Worried No More 1929-1941 - Sleepy John Estes

1. I think I can judge the difference between a great bluesman and a good bluesman if I see there is more than strumming with a main chorus. On this front, even if Sleepy John Estes ain’t no Blind Blake or Robert Johnson in terms of playing power, he does try to add enough musical depth beyond just his crying vocals, which are plenty enjoyable on their own (making him a very distinctive singer). The smart thing about this guy is that he always teams up with the right people like his trio with James "Yank" Rachell and Jab Jones or his later stuff with Hammie Nixon. Forget the vocals and his lyrical skills, the feel of each one of these songs is so unique and beautiful. Songs like "Milk Cow Blues", "Girl I Love", "Floating Bridge", "Street Car Blues", "Whatcha Doin'" are some of the best recordings of the whole pre-war era in my book just because they have such a strong understanding of how to make a song sonically beautiful, and even if a song of his threatens to be boring, either his vocals or one of his sidemen will come to pick up the slack. Of the 23 songs on here, barely any of these seem boring and uninteresting just because there is care to make sure there is enough musically going on to accompany his vocals. No wonder he ended up being remembered well enough to influence Dylan, the Beatles, and Led Zeppelin. 
2. When they call the earliest session of Sleepy John Estes a "session of masterpieces", they are really not exaggerating. Seriously, the trio of Jones, Estes, and Rachell was an incredible combination, where the combination of Rachell's mandolin and Estes's crying tone would stitch a gritty but gorgeous web of sound held down by Estes's and Jones's rhythms. I'll be damned if "Girl I Love" isn't one of the best versions of "Rollin' and Tumblin'" I've ever heard with those beautiful mandolin runs, and "Whatcha Doin'?" is one of the most untrivial, upbeat songs I've heard from the era as Jones and Rachell sync their rhythms together. "Street Car Blues" is even more mind-boggling in how it literally paints a picture in your mind of a street car in a bustling down with his mandolin work. The true magic of the sound really comes, in my opinion, with "Milk Cow Blues" and "Black Mattie Blues", gorgeous songs that almost sound locked away in their own little beautiful, intimate paradise that feels real and lush even with their minimalism. I wouldn't say every single song is distinctive from this session, but together, they do form one of the most wonderful sounds to come out of this whole pre-war scene.
3. Can I talk a bit about how nice Nixon's harmonica work is? The guy is clearly one of the most influential harmonica players because this is really one of the earliest examples of the regular style of playing harmonica as rhythm and accompaniment, and he would also teach Sonny Boy I his skills, which means pretty much the roots of most harmonica players contains at least some of Nixon's style. He has a warm, friendly tone that loops, swirls, and curves adding itty bitty hooks to many of his songs that would otherwise not be nearly as interesting. He even takes the time to weave his lines around Estes's voice, especially in songs like "Floating Bridge". The story is distinct and interesting and Estes's voice is plenty memorable, but what pushes it to classic state is really all of the cute, playful lines that Nixon plays around him that make it distinctive.
4. If there is a flaw to this material, I feel Sleepy just isn't a great guitar player himself. When he doesn't have Nixon or his trio backing him up, he verges closer to just being "good" like many other players of the era. His voice is really the main thing that prevents any of these songs from getting boring or unlistenable, which is one of the most powerful voices of the era that can pierce very deeply. Yet, it isn't always enough to push his material to the top level, which is I wouldn't say he was like a titan of his era. But that doesn't mean he wasn't great when at his best, and his classic material from 1929 to 1937 is unquestionably essential listening for people interested in pre-war music.

Smiley Smile - Beach Boys

1. Honestly, I used to be too harsh on this album. Much of the reason I used to despise the record was that it was the second album I heard after Pet Sounds very early on in my listening journey, and it freaked me out! Seriously, the drugged-up sound of "Goin' Bald", the weirdness of the takes of "Vegetables" and "Wonderful", and the eerie confusion in songs like "Gettin' Hungry" and "Wind Chimes" all shocked me to the bone, and from there, I almost stopped exploring the Beach Boys' discography as a whole. Thankfully, Today! and the Smile Sessions tracks I heard made me continue on with his discography, but I pretty much avoided hearing this album again until recently. Hearing this album again after being a much more experienced listener, this album isn't all that scary, and at the end of the day, good melodic songwriting is good melodic songwriting: most of these songs are listenable and rarely such because many of them either are great songs at their core or have some nice fragmented ideas.
2. Still, don't listen to people who are going out of their way to praise this as some masterpiece. There is no way the Beach Boys could be great in a format like this, where Brian's melodies work well with intricate polish and care and the vocals are great when harmonized. You can argue there is a charm to the unfinished ideas, but I don't see how these fragments can be as enjoyable compared to the polished perfection of Today! and Pet Sounds or have the scenic melodic ambiance of the non-song-oriented songs of Smile Sessions. And frankly, there is way too much dissonance between the cheerful soul of some of these songs and the tired, weary way they are performed. That dissonance is not artistic, it is a defect of the band falling apart at the time, which is why the songs make you feel uneasy, but they cause mild unease rather than actually using such dissonance as an artistic tool, which is why most of these are just not all that great.
3. I fully support Brian adding in a longer bridge on the Smile Sessions. What makes "Heroes and Villians" such a masterpiece is how it feels like the life of a person rolling by before your eyes, and with that bridge, it is almost like you are watching the climax of the story as the protagonist bares his soul to his audience. The "dance Margarita" lyric is so unbelievably beautiful, it wrings out a tear every time I hear that section, and that's why ultimately when the "children were raised" section begins, it feels like a proper epilogue to the story. That's why I have even less use for an album with now the inferior version of the song, as great as the single version is even without the bridge.