Month: January 2008

Where it all began: The Bookmark Years : 1967 and 1971

I had some fun trying to pick my 50 best albums for 1971, and it looks like some of you enjoyed it as well. As my dad used to say, “repeat medicine until patient dies” (and no, he wasn’t a doctor, it was a phrase he used when executing squeeze plays in contract bridge; I took him to mean “more of the same, until it hurts”).

I arrived at 1971 almost randomly, influenced by what I was listening to at the time, which was Tull’s Aqualung. This time around, there’s nothing random about the year I’m choosing…. it’s the natural partner for 1971. If 1971 was a bookend, then surely the other bookend would be…. 1967.

So here goes: My top 50 albums for 1967, again in no particular order, but filtered on the basis they have Wikipedia entries. This time around, I’ve also found a faster route. Go to Wikipedia. Enter”1967″ and thereby get here. Then, using the sidebar on the right that says “1967 by topic”, hit “music” and thereby get here. Go to section 2, “Top Albums released in the US”, scan list and copy/paste those I have and like. Augment list from memory, eliding where I find no Wikipedia entry. And bingo.

[Incidentally, I have now found a page with albums released in 1971, which includes pretty much everything I’ve listed and quite a bit more. Worth a quick look.]

Here’s the list:

Mellow Yellow – Donovan

The Doors -The Doors

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – The Beatles

Buffalo Springfield -Buffalo Springfield

Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits -Bob Dylan

The Grateful Dead – The Grateful Dead

Surrealistic Pillow – Jefferson Airplane

The Velvet Underground and Nico – The Velvet Underground

Are You Experienced?  Jimi Hendrix

Absolutely Free  The Mothers of Invention

Magical Mystery Tour  The Beatles

Buffalo Springfield Again  Buffalo Springfield

Disraeli Gears  Cream

Strange Days  The Doors

John Wesley Harding  Bob Dylan


Alice’s Restaurant  Arlo Guthrie

After Bathing At Baxter’s  Jefferson Airplane

Days of Future Passed  The Moody Blues

Blowin’ Your Mind!  Van Morrison

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn Pink Floyd (with Syd)

Procol Harum  Procol Harum

Their Satanic Majesties Request  The Rolling Stones

The Who Sell Out  The Who

Axis: Bold as Love  The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Mr. Fantasy  Traffic

The Way I Feel – Gordon Lightfoot

A Hard Road John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers

Ten Years After  Ten Years After

Album 1700 Peter Paul and Mary

Big Brother and The Holding Company Big Brother and The Holding Company


I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Country Joe and the Fish

Just For You Neil Diamond

Matthew And Son Cat Stevens

Songs of Leonard Cohen Leonard Cohen

Sunshine Superman Donovan

Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out Timothy Leary

Universal Soldier Donovan

Something Else The Kinks

Forever Changes Love

Younger Than Yesterday The Byrds

Crusade John Mayall

Goodbye And Hello Tim Buckley

Smiley Smile The Beach Boys

Joan Joan Baez

Wildflowers Judy Collins

Evolution  The Hollies

Bee Gees 1st Bee Gees

 There’s a Kind of Hush All Over The World Herman’s Hermits

 I Was Made To Love Her Stevie Wonder

From The Beginning Small Faces

Sell a Band. Buy a Club. Bump a track. Do something

Sometimes I think we use terms like community and social network and collaborative filtering and mashing as if they were all going out of style; we pontificate about their pros and cons and pass judgment about all kinds of things. We’re in grave danger of believing our own propaganda, believing that all the value to be had is in our conversations.

Which is why we need to keep reminding ourselves of what’s really happening out there. People using the web to club together to buy a football club, Ebbsfleet United. People taking shares in emerging bands and helping them get to market, as in what Sellaband are doing. People changing the way you find emerging music, like what the sixty one are doing. People making it easier to share what you watch, like what vodpod are doing.  People coming together sharing comments on what music lyrics mean, as in what songmeaning are doing.

All these things have some key similarities, some characteristics that are worth understanding:

  • Low barriers to entry, anyone can come in; where there is a price, the price is affordable
  • Aggregation value: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, there is something being created that no person could create on his or her own
  • Democracy:  Each person has the same voting rights
  • High cohesion, loose coupling: The services offered are entire in themselves, yet can attach themselves to social networks quite easily; they aren’t trying to solve the world, just to do one thing well.
  • A belief in community and in sharing.

I have been quietly compiling a list of these sites, covering a whole variety of topics, subjects and areas. Maybe it’s time I packaged them for sharing here, any interest?

The power of TED

Right now there’s a lot of buzz about Davos, both pro- as well as anti. Part of the anti-buzz is generated by the “artificial scarcity” of the event, its inaccessibility.  And talking about inaccessible events, that brings me on to TED.

I love TED. Even though I’ve never been. [I have actually paid out of my personal pocket to go to TED, it was TED Africa last year, but a heart attack made sure I couldn’t do it].

So. My experience of TED has been restricted to watching the videos. Which I do, religiously. I would encourage everyone to take a walk around the videos, they’re excellent; easily accessible, appropriately short, superbly produced.

It will give you an idea as to why TED is such a hot ticket. Which might explain this: a TED main hall pass is available for purchase on eBay; the auction price is currently $32,100; with nine days to go, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it pass $100,000, somewhat too rich for my blood.

It’s for a good cause, Architecture for Humanity, so if you can afford it, go for it. If you’re not sure, sample the videos, available here. There are over 180 of them so far, I’ve personally watched over 170 of them; it’s easy to get them on to your iPod and to watch the videos while you travel.

Doing something different with Desert Island Discs

I guess I’m slightly fanatical about music made in the late 1960s and early 1970s. There was so much wonderful music made during those days. So I thought I’d try constraining things differently in a pretend Desert Island DIscs selection.

I decided to choose exactly 50 albums from my collection.
Too difficult.
Still too many.
So I decided to choose only those albums that had a Wikipedia entry.
Still too many.
So then I said to myself, how about if I restrict myself to albums released in 1971?

Which is what I did. And then stopped when I got to 50. I could probably do 50 more. But here’s the list below, in no particular order:

Four Way Street: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
Who’s Next: The Who
Aqualung: Jethro Tull
LA Woman: The Doors
The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys: Traffic

Blue: Joni Mitchell
Tupelo Honey: Van Morrison
At Fillmore East: Allman Brothers
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour: Moody Blues
Fog On The Tyne: Lindisfarne

New Riders of the Purple Sage: New Riders of the Purple Sage
Stones: Neil Diamond
Welcome to the Canteen: Traffic
The Yes Album: Yes
Weather Report: Weather Report

Teaser and the Firecat: Cat Stevens
Stephen Stills 2: Stephen Stills
Songs for Beginners: Graham Nash
Rainbow Bridge: Jimi Hendrix
Nilsson Schmilsson: Nilsson

Mud Slide Slim and The Blue Horizon: James Taylor
Pearl: Janis Joplin
Hunky Dory: David Bowie
Tumbleweed Connection: Elton John
Every Picture Tells A Story: Rod Stewart and the Faces
Led Zeppelin IV: Led Zeppelin
Songs Of Love and Hate: Leonard Cohen
Imagine: John Lennon
Santana (3): Santana
Surf’s Up: The Beach Boys

A Nod is as good as a Wink: Rod Stewart and The Faces
Cahoots: The Band
Little Feat: Little Feat
Tapestry: Carole King
American Pie: Don McLean

Sticky Fingers: The Rolling Stones
Meddle: Pink Floyd
The Doobie Brothers: The Doobie Brothers
Fragile: Yes
Emerson, Lake and Palmer: Emerson, Lake and Palmer

Poems, Prayers and Promises: John Denver
There’s A Riot Going On: Sly and the Family Stone
Wildlife: Mott the Hoople
What’s Going On: Marvin Gaye
The Concert for Bangla Desh: George Harrison and Friends

Madman Across The Water: Elton John
Electric Warrior: T.Rex
Chicago III: Chicago
Blessed Are… Joan Baez
Fireball: Deep Purple

There’s a lot I left out. 1971. What a year.

musing about spam and recession

Noticed a cartoon in today’s Wall Street Journal suggesting that with the credit crunch and the stock market slide, we weren’t going to be inundated with credit card applications in the post.

And it made me wonder. Is spam recession proof? Will it fragment? Will I continue to get Nigerian begging letters and pharmaceutical offers but no more loans and cards? Or shall I get even more credit repair offers?

I wonder.