You tell me that you've heard every sound there is

A fitting finale for 1966



My new iTunes hobby is playing classic albums in alphabetical order. Revolver flows really well in alphabetical order, with this song leading off, four Paul songs ("Eleanor Rigby", "For No One", "Good Day Sunshine", "Got to Get You into My Life") and two George songs ("I Want To Tell You","Love You To") in a row, and "Yellow Submarine" relegated to a bonus track at the end, after "Tomorrow Never Knows". Who's Next also works well in alphabetical order, especially if you skip "My Wife" and "Love Ain't For Keeping", like I usually do.

While the sun is bright, or in the darkest night

Rain grey town, known for its sound

in places, small faces unbound

God only knows how many holes he's been in

"Everyone ought to know that this is a recurring candidate for most beautiful pop song ever. It will always be slightly weird to me that Brian Wilson didn't write the lyrics to these quintessentially Brian Wilson songs, yet they're still him—no doubt in about the same way that it's weird how Shakespeare never composed an original story line." - SM

Jewels and binoculars hang from the head of the mule

Another picture of a record from a vinyl rip



Blonde on Blonde sounds better in mono

You won't find my name in your book of who's who's

I'm highlighting these songs in order this month, but can't believe there's no video of "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone". Still picture of the record it is..



This sequence of Hendrix followed by the Monkees reminds me of that 1967 tour when Jimi opened for the Monkees. They probably blew him off the stage too. This song rocks!

To Cream With Love

My favorite Hendrix performance ever, from the Lulu show:
"we're going to stop playing this rubbish now, and dedicate a song to the Cream!"

Beatniks are out to make it rich

Must be the season of the witch

I don't know where but she sends me there

Always singing the same old song

I didn't learn about the Creation until they were covered by Ride in the early 90s, and now they're one of my favorite bands of the era.



The best part about being a music fan is discovering bands like the Creation, who were just as worthy as the Who or the Kinks, but didn't have the same luck.

Walk Away Renee

Stunning. One of my favorites in a playlist full of "favorite songs"

Shed those doubty feathers and fly

A little bit. Scott claims this is "a wholly critically dismissed song",
but I've never heard anyone dismiss it. This large crowd seems to like it.



This recent clip shows that Judith Dunham still hasn't lost her looks,
or her voice, all these years later.

And if I should change my mind and I do sometimes

Here's a song that Scott Miller rescued from obscurity on his most recent album with Anton Barbeau.



The original version was not a hit, but was featured in the movie "Bunny Lake Is Missing", which is well worth seeing (Sir Noel Coward and Sir Laurence Olivier in the same film), but remember to "come on time".

Hotter than a match head

Not really seasonally appropriate, but still great nonetheless.

Frosted fields of juniper and lamplight

One of the most beautiful songs ever (excuse the audio quality!)

Don't make them desert sand

Watch Jimmy Page invent heavy metal at the two minute mark.



Now listen to the studio version, where Jeff Beck invented psychedelia.

Sinking in the splinters of the ecstasy of sound

Here's a 1966 song I discovered late (via the Troubadours Of Folk comp), but now rate as one of the highlights of the year.



It's like all the best bits of Bob Dylan, where each line in the song could be a song of its own. "Eternal East-West hedge walker turn the Sunday joint","Pop-eyed rabbit medal sucker, whirlwind living drowned", "Polystyrene obelisk your man is on the ground". All lines that leave the listener wanting more.

XLV and all that

Interrupting my month of 1966 music to congratulate the World Champion Green Bay Packers, who also won the first Super Bowl after the 1966 season. This Super Bowl was better than that one, and probably one of the best Super Bowls ever.



I have ancestral ties to the state of Wisconsin and many relatives that still live there, and they're all lifelong Packer fans, so I'm happy for all of them. I'm finding that it's easier to cheer for Green Bay in the Aaron Rodgers era than it was in the Brett Favre era.

There's supposed to be an NFL lockout next season, so this might be the last football game we see for awhile. I stopped following baseball for four years after the 1994 players strike, and that's a much bigger part of my life than NFL football. Not following professional football would be easy for me, for the rest of my life if it takes that long. If this is the last NFL game I ever watch, at least it was a good one.

You make everything groovy

Like Mr. Miller says:
"Who ever gets tired of 'Wild Thing,' the first and best garage rock tune?"

I'll dispute the "first" part (half of the SeaTac metro area did garage rock tunes before "Wild Thing") but not the "best" part. Mas ocarina por favor!



Fun fact: The writer of "Wild Thing" (Chip Taylor)
is Jon Voight's brother and Angelina Jolie's uncle.

I'll be what I am

This was the song that changed my opinion of Neil Leslie Diamond



When I first heard "Solitary Man" (via the mid-80s cover by the Ups & Downs) I was astounded to find out it was a Neil Diamond song. I picked up Neil's Classics album, and was surprised that (a) Most of the songs were really great and (b) I knew many of them from other artists -- "Kentucky Woman" by Deep Purple, "I'm A Believer" by the Monkees, "Red Red Wine" by UB40, etc. And his original versions .. rocked!

Who knew Mr. "Love On The Rocks" used to be a real rocker?

Let me get right to the point

I'm not usually that big on showtunes, but this one fits nicely on this '66 comp.

Dear Sir or Madam

If I were pressed to name one, I'd probably name "Paperback Writer"
as my favorite single ever. It's certainly the one I've played the most.



This one and it's B-side "Rain" were the two of the first "music videos"..

When all the colors seemed transfixed

I'll be highlighting music from 1966 (one of my favorite musical years) this month. This was the first year that Scott Miller covered in "Music: What Happened?", and I was inspired enough to make a playlist of his selections on the late and lamented Muxtape.

That playlist was my favorite MWH entry. the complete collection of those songs in that order is like my entire musical aesthetic in 80 minutes. If I were making my own 1966 collection, I'd probably swap "Visions of Johana" for another (shorter) Dylan song to make way for something by the Kinks, and made a few different song selections, but this makes a nice musical time capsule from 1966.

I've copied the playlist to 8tracks.com, and it still sounds great three years after I originally made it, and 45 years after the songs were originally made.

Starting with Neal Hefti's "Batman" theme.