Lance's Tunes Listening

Week #2 of listening to the 1001 Albums “1001 albums before you die” was completed a couple of days ago, but I didn’t have time to write this week’s blog until today. I hope you had a wonderful week of listening to some great tunes.

I never got to the end of the list until a friend told me that the list contained more than 1001 albums. Well, he was right. There are 1089 albums. This increased my time of completing the list another 29 – 30 days.

WHAT I LISTENED TO

Week #2 for me started with #22 Marty Robbins’ Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs and ended with Stan Getz & & João Gilberto album at #41. The albums came from the years 1959 to 1963. There was a variety of genres from Country and Western, Jazz, early Rock/Pop, and even some Christmas music.

WHAT I LIKED

Of course. I liked The Dave Brubeck Quartet’s Time Out at #23. I got into a jazz, big band, and swing phase back in the early 2000s and would listen to some of the great musicians from the 1940s to the 1960s, like Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, and many more.

However, The Dave Brubeck Quartet had a whole different sound of jazz that I really got into. One of the reasons why I like them was they were always instrumental. I could load up computer at school with mp3s of their albums music and listen to them after school while grading assignments.

They also had a progressive sound from other types of jazz that I was listening to at that time. They had something different in their music that wasn’t annoying.

At #35, With the Beatles was a good listen. It had several of the hits with “It Won’t Be Long” and “I Wanna Be Your Man” being 2 of them. You can’t go wrong listening to the Beatles.

However, I enjoyed listening to my parents’ Meet the Beatles album better. With the Beatles contains several of the songs from Meet the Beatles, but also includes Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven” and “Money (That’s What I Want).”

WHAT SURPRIZED ME

Jimmy Smith surprised me. Looking at his 1963 album Back at the Chicken Shack, I was expecting to a country album. I was greatly wrong. Jimmy Smith is another Jazz musician with a great sound.

Jimmy Smith is a jazz organist. His music had a different sound with a Hammond organ. It did not sound like campy 70s lounge music. I wish I had time to listen to more of his music.

Marty Robbins’ Gunfighter Ballads and Trial Songs also surprised me. As I was with Jimmy Smith, I was expecting a country song. It gave me country, but Marty’s songs were written more like stories than songs and sung by a person with a great voice.

Marty Robbins’ only non-country #1 hit “El Paso” is on this album. It’s a great song with a great story. Reminds me Barry Manilow’s Copacabana (At the Copa). Robbins does a great job of singing some great stories on this album.

WHAT TO LOOK FORWARD TO

Well, I’m already 2 days into Week #3 and I already listened to Dusty Springfield’s A Girl Called Dusty, The Rolling Stones’ first album, and Bob Dylan’s Bringing It All Back Home. But from #51 – #64, the list is filled with many great albums: Rubber Soul at #55, Highway 61 Revisited at #59, and Pet Sounds at #61, just to name 3 of them.

WHAT ARE THE STATS

In the first 2 weeks of this endeavor ending on Feb. 7th 2024, I have listened to 41 albums.

This week only Jimmy Smith’s album and The Dave Brubeck Quartet’s Albums were given an 8 (I would like to listen to again.). Most that I have listen this week to were rated between 5-7 (I really don’t need to listen to them again.). There were a couple that are rated below a 5 (I only listened to them just to get through the list).

I’m up to listening 2.73 albums per day. At this rate I should finish on March 10, 2025.

Of course, I would like to know your experiences with these albums if you are completing this epic endeavor.