'The Pretenders'

To me, The Pretenders have a series of unrelated pop culture touchstones that have nothing to do with this or any other record. 

If you remember, in the film adaptation of High Fidelity, Catharine Zeta-Jones’ character puts on a Pretenders T-shirt while the hero, Rob, talks about being an imposter while in a relationship with her because she was so much more smarter and beautiful than the quality of female he should be able to attract. Sure enough, she cheats on him. 

Two, "My City Was Gone"Learning to Crawl was adopted by radio host Rush Limbaugh as his “bumper” music (tuneage used coming in and out of commercial breaks) in 1984. Limbaugh might have liked the bass line. Knowing that Chrissie Hynde is a strict environmentalist and animal activist admittedly gives him a little pleasure; although, Hynde doesn’t care either allowing him to keep using it and using part of the royalties received as a donation to PETA. 

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Finally, Hynde has always been a standard bearer for the female rock and roll crush. Not that she’s heinous or deformed, but a beauty queen she is not. I think guys – especially in the late 1970s and ‘80s – loved Hynde because she and Stevie Nicks were the only real females in the genre. Also, I think we all sorta have a fetish or sleeping with a songwriter and being “that guy” standing on the side of the stage high on cocaine.

'Jack Takes The Floor'

Ramblin’ Jack Elliott was an interesting kid. Although throughout his career, he posed as a train-car hoppin’ roustabout cowboy, he was the son of a Jewish doctor in Brooklyn. At 15, he ran away from home and joined a touring rodeo. His parents eventually hunted him down. 

In the rodeo, he came upon a storytelling, guitar- and banjo-playing rodeo clown. Upon his return to home, he picked up the guitar. He befriended Woody Guthrie – who appears on this record for “New York Town” – and eventually found initial success in England, where he was signed and recorded his first three albums, including Jack Takes The Floor. It was not released in the United States for another 10 years. 

Elliott played influence to Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan although they were largely contemporaries. He got his nickname for talking too much. He also was some sort of influence to Eric Clapton, who also covered “San Francisco Bay Blues” from this album.

'Tragic Songs of Life'

Few artists are best known for an album. Particularly because it wasn’t even the album cover of their best album. 

The Louvin Brothers’ Satan is Real album cover featuring them standing on a rock quarry with a 12-foot tall plywood Satan grinning maliciously behind them is the everlasting legacy of the brothers named Loudermilk.

The pair changed their birth name to Louvin in the 1940s when their gospel careers began to take off. They eventually went mainstream including this album, Tragic Songs of Life. 

In terms of their gospel music, it was incredibly hell fire and brimstone warning against the evils of Earthly pleasures and the snares of Satan as God’s children. 

The irony – or hypocrisy – was that the elder Ira Louvin was a notorious drinker, womanizer with a terrible temper. He’d often smash his mandolin on stage. He was married four times and shot six times by wife No. 3 after he allegedly beat her. He died at age 41 after a drunk driver hit he and his wife head on, killing them instantly. The irony was that a warrant had just been issued for Ira’s arrest for a DUI charge. 

Despite the immense drama and album cover, what shouldn’t be lost is that the Louvin Brothers wove some beautiful harmonies and arrangements of Americana and gospel. It’s really beautiful and important music. But it’s understandable to ignore the personal stuff to appreciate them the most.

'Trainspotting'

Irvine Welsh's books are some of my favorites to read. No one writes with the ferocity and energy quite like him in this extraordinary style.

Each chapter is told from a first-person point of view of one of the characters, most notably the novels main protagonists Mark Renton, Simon Williamson, Spud and Franco Begbie. Not unlike Shakespeare having characters of royalty or title speak in verse whilst plebians speak in prose, Welsh's characters speak in the exact tongue that they would actually use. The writing is purely phonetic. Particularly, Begbie, Renton's and Spud's narratives are muddled Scots.

Meanwhile, other characters, like Davie are in more Scottish English.

Generally, though, the characters carry the load and the load is nothing more than debauchery: Drugs and sex. Some violence. It's a set of ticking timebombs. Just waiting for one to explode (OD, getting beat to death by Begbie or winding up in prison). It's a dark novel set in a city that seemingly has zero hope with characters simply waiting for death to pass by.

'Basket of Light'

They say nothing’s original anymore. Doesn’t make things bad, but it’s hard to find the root to modern art. Listen to Pentangle’s Basket of Light and you hear the influence of a lot of modern bands like Fleet Foxes and The Decemberists. 

 

Pentangle straddles a series of genre lines from British folk and early music, classical baroque and jazz. It’s none of those things but, instead, all of them. Although the beginning of Light Flight sounds like The Beatles’ “I Feel Fine.”

The began to disintegrate in the early 1970s once their record company basically quit paying them royalties citing that the company paid for the cost of recording. Which is sorta how things work out. Otherwise, what would be the point of a record company? Then the band had a clause in their contract disallowing them from suing the record company.

Remember youngsters: Always have a lawyer.

'Five Leaves Left'

It’s safe to say that Nick Drake is the only artist to have his entire catalog included in the 1,001 Albums list. Granted, he recorded only three albums before killing himself in 1974. But that’s a remarkable feat nonetheless. Basically, it’s generally agreed upon that you should listen to everything Drake recorded before you die. Everything is essential. 

You can’t say the same for Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin or Kurt Cobain, other musicians with a small catalog of albums or songs. 

Five Leaves Left is a beautiful album just like his other two albums. Between this and Bryter Layter and Pink Moon, it’s a concise and consistent collection of really good acoustic somberness and British folk maxims. The backing group for Five Leaves Left included Richard Thompson from Fairport Convention, whose studio time Drake was piggybacking off of. 

Recording the album was a headache, with Drake often butting heads with American producer Joe Boyd, who had launched the careers of Fairport Convention and The Incredible String Band. The recordings were a secret as supposedly even Drake’s sister was unaware of the proceedings and didn’t find out until Drake tossed the LP onto her bed. 

It is essential.