The Music Court

After letting the poll for Best Album Name of All Time sit for over a week, the winner was the aptly titled Woke Up This Morning and Found Myself Dead by Jimi Hendrix. I am not surprised this particular album title won, because, well, it’s a pretty awesome album title. But, it’s not my choice. There were a lot of albums to choose from; some complex and other’s remarkably simple. My favorite two albums of all time Dark Side of the Moon and In The Court of the Crimson King were potential choices. Yet, they could not beat one album title that has always struck a chord with me (and no, not because it is the predecessor of a movie where Mena Suvari does a provocative dance).

Do you want a few cool facts about American Beauty by the Grateful Dead? And, this is only about the album name (no music here). It has a working ambigram right on the cover. The title can also be read as “American Reality.” Also, apparently if you look at the album upside down and through a mirror it reads “Devils Kingdom .” So, yes, the Dead’s use of ambigrams is impressive, but it is just one reason why I think it is the best album name of all time.

I am a fan of simplicity; in music, in album names and in life. American Beauty is just that: simple. It does not attempt to do too much in its name. It may seem like a possibly overused album name, but, at the time it was quite original. The Dead are able to present a feeling of a contradictory America at the time of the album’s release. American Beauty can easily transform into American Reality. The Dead create a juxtaposition between an idealistic America with rolling fields and freedom and a real America right down to the bare bones of the drugged cities and fighting inhabitants. Are we America the Beautiful or The Devil’s Kingdom.

Let’s let the Dead decide that.

I anticipate many opinions on this particular poll. Out of the countless albums that have been released over the course of history – from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite released on 78-RPM phonograph disc record in 1909 to Plastic Beach the new Gorillaz album released on CD and Mp3 this past Tuesday – there have usually been creative names lining the album covers. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars by David Bowie is just one example of an awesome and absolutely abstruse album title. There are many. So, The Music Court is looking for the very best. Below is a list of the greatest (most creative, original, etc.) album titles of all time. If you have a different album title that you believe takes the cake, please choose other and write it in. My options are not set in stone at all (just based off of some research I have done this Friday morning). I am looking forward to a lot comments. And, keep in mind, the album does not have to be musically good. Heck, Chinese Democracy has a good ring to it and it is a pretty terrible album.

A rather obscure poll from The Music Court today. We have not run a poll in a long time, so, in order to bring the poll section back right, let’s do something out of the box. Blogcritics.org brought this topic up over the internet before and I will echo them in their hatred for bands who decide that it would be clever to spell their names wrong. I, as an English major, have the normal pet-peeve of disliking people who intentionally misspell words. There is no difference with bands. Spell your name right! Limp Bizkit it is NOT FUNNY! I wonder what all of you in the blogosphere think of this problem. I know that there are some exceptions. Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Byrds and, of course, The Beatles, but, the bad smothers the good. So, what is the worst band with an intentionally misspelt name. Have any others, please comment below. And yes class, spelling counts.

Final Tally:

“Comfortably Numb”: 4 Votes

“Eruption”: 1 Vote

“Maggot Brain”: 1 Vote

Winner: “Comfortably Numb”

My Winner: “Comfortably Numb”

Wow, I am quite surprised that no one voted for the pre-poll shoe-in “Free Bird.” I am actually very surprised that my pick “Comfortably Numb” won and I am also glad that “Maggot Brain” got a vote because that is a very underrated song and guitar solo (Edie Hazel is the best guitarist no one has ever heard of). Since there were no resounding “Free Bird” requests from the crowd we can move on to the winner of the poll: the solo from “Comfortably Numb.” On the page of the poll I posted a video of a mind-blowing live version of the “Comfortably Numb” solo. I will post it below so you can all take another listen to it.

Let me premise this defense by admitting a slight bias. Pink Floyd is my favorite band. But, since this is just about guitar solos I will admit that Jimi Hendrix is my favorite guitarists and I am not defending “All Along the Watchtower” which no one voted for. So, the aboveboard nature of the post is kept in check. Let’s get to the reasoning behind why the majority of people, including myself, believe “Comfortably Numb” is an out of this world solo.

I believe that the most important part of music is feeling. The emotion one struggles to find words with in a lyric. The emotion of a straining vocal, or a soft grainy one. In this case, we have the emotion of a solo. A solo on the instrument that was practically made for extended note crunching, the guitar. While a blues solo encompasses this feeling more than any other type of rock solo, “Comfortably Numb” takes all solos to a new level of artistic prowess and blissful spacyness (Yes, we are going to call that a new word meaning having to do a stupor one is put into by a musical solo…not drugs!) I do admit that Clapton or Hendrix or Hazel (for that matter) putting feeling into a blues of funk guitar solo is remarkable. Yet, David Gilmour just takes the level of soloing to a new height in the hit off of Pink Floyd’s rock-opera The Wall. This 1979 song blows all other songs from The Wall out of the water and like “Hey Jude” or “Let it Be” it proves that sometimes the best songs by the greatest bands are released late in the height of the band’s production.

Put on the video for a second. Listen to the crying of the guitar. The easy moaning of the other instruments keeping the rhythm in the back. The solo continues with skilled runs by Gilmour. He has no fear of exploring the fret board and demonstrating his control over his guitar. Close your eyes and let the guitar seep through you. The solo bedraggles your clothes and soaks you in the straining sound of the electric guitar. Gilmour after 3:00 into the video lets his guitar howl in a revolutionary bend, while the capsule above the stage opens up and the wall comes crumbling down. The solo crescendos and then falls into a distant echo, a soft lull. Show me any other solo that does that.

SO EPIC!

“It’s hard to describe, because on one hand you want your solo to be spontaneous. On the other hand, I feel a good guitar solo should be somewhat of a composition in itself. So, you sort of toggle back and forth between the concept of trying to initiate flow and composing. I think it’s a combination of both” – Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter – guitar – Steely Dan / Doobie Brothers

After Josh did a post last night on people destroying their guitars for fun it got me thinking about guitarists who enjoy playing their guitars more than concentrating on smashing them up. That brought me to the topic of guitar solos and a corresponding poll. Baxter explains the guitar solo well in his quotation above. A great guitar solo involves practice of the solo prior to recording. It needs to be a composition and cannot just be purely on the fly. Yet, what makes these amazing guitar solos ineffaceable and forever ingrained in the rock n’ roll music lover’s mind is the subtle spontaneity and feeling that a guitarist is able to put into the solo. They are able to put their trademark on it and add some bends, hammer-on’s and various other points of feeling to make it their own each time out. No great guitar solo should ever be the same, yet, there needs to be the recognizable root.

So, what makes a guitar solo great? Well, it helps if you are popular prior to the release but that matters very little. A resounding guitar solo has feeling, skill and recognizability all wrapped up in an effulgent guitar chef d’oeuvre. I know many people who can put feeling in the guitar but lack that skill and I know people who have the skill to go fast on the guitar and make it sound cool, but, lack the feeling. These soloists listed below have it all. I will limit the choices to five because, while I could put more, I believe that these solos go above and beyond.

“Free Bird”

“Comfortably Numb” Solo

“Eruption” solo

“Maggot Brain”

“All Along The Watchtower”