That rare 2nd. album...

[drummergirlamie]

that sometimes proves better than the first. I phrase it, “proves better” so as to include not only the quality, but the commercial success facet on the matter, as well. I love when this happens though cause it’s so seldom seen. I’m sure this is due in most cases to record company pressure which often results in shortage of time for writing and composition the band sees following the first album. I’ve heard several bands complain about this. Its great when one of your favorites pulls this off though cause it makes yu feel their gonna be around for a while. Please submit your references. I’ll start: “Diary of a Madman”…Ozzy Osbourne’s follow-up to, “Blizzard of Ozz.”

[Art Rock]

Radiohead - The bends

[sunwaiter]

lenny kravitz - mama said

[sunwaiter]

nirvana - nevermind (if you don't count other tracks form drawers' bottom).

[White Knight]

Emerson Lake and Palmer's second album Tarkus, done after their eponymously named first effort. In many ways, I always regarded this as being at least as good--if not better in some ways--than the first, mainly because of the " Tarkus Suite" which comprised the entire Side One {oh, the good old days of vinyl!} of the record {remember lps, anyone?}. What ELP did by devoting a whole side to one song was very radical and innovative for its time. I'm not sure if they were actually the first prog rock group to do this--but whether they were or not--the effect and impression were awesome indeed! How it fared commercially as opposed to their first album I don't know.

[Art Rock]

What ELP did by devoting a whole side to one song was very radical and innovative for its time. I'm not sure if they were actually the first prog rock group to do this--but whether they were or not--the effect and impression were awesome indeed!

Three years earlier, in 1968, Procol Harum did it with the 17 min track In Held Twas in I on the B-side of Shine on Brightly. In 1971 (the year ELP-Tarkus was released) we also had Earth and Fire's Song of the marching children with the 18 min title track covering the B-side.

EDIT: Of course, there was also Pink Floyd with Atom Heart Mother in 1970 and Meddle (Echoes) in 1971.

[White Knight]

Three years earlier, in 1968, Procol Harum did it with the 17 min track In Held Twas in I on the B-side of Shine on Brightly. In 1971 (the year ELP-Tarkus was released) we also had Earth and Fire's Song of the marching children with the 18 min title track covering the B-side.

EDIT: Of course, there was also Pink Floyd with Atom Heart Mother in 1970 and Meddle (Echoes) in 1971.

Art Rock, I stand--and sit corrected--in light of the examples you cited. You are absolutely right. Peace and out--wk

[John Watt]

Hey hey hey! I just gotta say! You guys got it wrong... go back longer for album sides.
Jimi Hendrix! Electric Ladyland!

"Rainy day, dream away"... becomes
"1983.. A merman I would be... moon turn the tides, gently, gently away"...
the first album side... that becomes...
"Still raining, still dreaming" on the second side, one whole side overlapping another.
... and it doesn't really stop, it didn't have to, it just keeps on going,
and so Jimi slips into what we see... eventually...

In, uh, sheet music terms, there's a lot of concensus that Beethovens' Fifth Symphony,
a long piece of transcription, has an outdoor theme including a thunderstorm with rain.
Jus'predelictin'.

[White Knight]

Hi John. You make a great point indeed. I still remember being literally blown away by that song on vinyl, especially when I would listen to it with headphones on! Now, I have to get the cd. Thanks so much for reminding me about this classic by Hendrix.

[Art Rock]

Electric ladyland is also from 1968. And although the songs flow from one to another, there is no overlying title to it as far as I know.

[John Watt]

white knight! I... uh... I have to type, I can't recommend buying Hendrix on C.D.
I'm still using cassettes, double cassette decks, to tape off the radio and make set lists and copies.
When everyone else went disc and couldn't get the tech to burn their own,
maybe almost six years, I was still happy "downloading" with my tape deck.
But this last one I got from a friend, who said he didn't use the cassettes at all,
of course, came with a C.D. player, a three disc rotater.

So I bought Jimi's three albums on C.D. and waited to listen one night,
laying there in the dark, with my new Sony studio headphones.

I wasn't expecting to be disappointed like I was going to Toronto with a friend to buy the first Robert Johnson C.D.,
all his tunes from the two albums I owned. This was mastered from wax cylinders to albums to disc,
and you couldn't hear the bottom E string at all. It bummed out my friend so much, this $82 disc,
that I had to grab his guitar and start playing the part that wasn't there. And Robert Johnson liked his open, bass E string.

Jimi sounds different on disc, not just transferred, but remixed a little.
You can hear the dubs starting and stopping, something I never caught before.
And his singing, some of his words have been altered, changed and removed.
It's just not the same.
And the tone, what massaged your brain on headphones, is now thin, almost shrill at times.
And the bass is coming on strong like a bass line, not like Jimi's overdub use of bass.

I still hear Jimi Hendrix as having the most extensive and artistic use of stereo,
the most overdubs, the most stereo movement, quadraphonic at times,
and the most variety of tones from a single instrument.

May I become as self-effacing and humble as Jimi Hendrix,
someone who saw himself living in a world that's alive, the ocean as alive,
writing his songs to talk about the totality of the human condition,
risking a long career by experimenting with electronics and guitar effects,
while sticking with a reverse-strung, right-handed Stratocaster upside-down.
He must have liked the challenge.

[White Knight]

John, thank you so much for your beautiful and descriptive warning; I have Electric Ladyland on vinyl, packed away with about 250 other albums in cardboard boxes which haven't been opened since we moved here some 7 years ago. I just hope it hasn't been warped or ruined by all that "down time''. I'm going to get my old turntable and speakers out of the "mothballs" one of these days and give it a listen. One point of clarification, though: are you saying that none of Hendrix sounds good on cds as opposed to cassettes or records, or is this applicable only to Electric Ladyland? Peace--wk