The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion

[Zeeba Neighba]

Apropos of almost nothing...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1533509606495793152

Saw it - agreed! What barful of 25 year old kids can break out in a chorus of that song.

(Of course, as Tom Cruise turns 60 next month (yikes) one has to wonder whether the navy would still let him up in a plane going to Mach 10...and wouldn't the Impossible Missions Force have retired him and given him a gold watch by now.)

 

[axolotl]

Saw it - agreed! What barful of 25 year old kids can break out in a chorus of that song.

(Of course, as Tom Cruise turns 60 next month (yikes) one has to wonder whether the navy would still let him up in a plane going to Mach 10...and wouldn't the Impossible Missions Force have retired him and given him a gold watch by now.)

I concur, in whole and in fart. I retired from rollercoasters almost 20 years ago. The geez made me sick.

 

[axolotl]

Them - The "Angry" Young Them (1965)

Them do look unhappy. Don't them?

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Jackson C. Frank - Jackson C. Frank (1965)

A sublime folk album - Paul Simon saw the potential in Frank and produced this album after spending time on the folk scene in London. Sadly, Frank's life would be plagued by mental health issues and this was his only album.
I still remember this as my 1965 pick when we all did the year-by-year album picks at the old MG

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

B.B. King - Live at the Regal (1965)

 

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Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited (1965)

 

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Otis Redding - Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul (1965)

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass - Going Places (1965)

An interesting choice choosing this over Whipped Cream and Other Delights but, if you like Albert's stuff, a really good album -enjoy their take on the Ventures "Walk Don't Run"
Couple of thoughts:
1) I spent a bit of time today searching unsuccessfully on a funny bit that sticks in my mind from a sitcom in 1990s (Suddenly Susan? Just Shoot Me?) where a running gag was "Tijuana Taxi" playing over and over on an answering machine. Did not find whatever example I was thinking about, but it's incredible how many 1980s-1990s sitcoms had answering machine gags.

2) Where do I know "A Walk in the Black Forest" - I guess it's just a standard of soft contemporary of the era (Floyd Cramer did a version). But it seems more familiar to me - and unlike several Alpert/Tijuana Brass songs, don't think it was used in The Dating Game

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Vernon Haddock's Jubilee Lovelies (1965)

Mojo has had some interesting choices - sure some I might not agree with, some maybe even barely heard of - still, I wish I had the book here at work today (instead of on my nighttable) to make sure I didn't hallucinate this one. Would a "core collection album" not have a Wikipedia page...or have only two listens on Rate Your Music.

It's an unusual choice indeed - apparently the producers of Donovan had some friends who were playing as an old-timey folk band - it's all here jug, washboard, banjo, kazoo in a very old music hall style. Discogs noted (and who knows if this is correct) the album sold 400 copies all at gigs. And like the old phrase about The Velvet Underground, everyone who bought an album went out and formed a bad...NOT! Thank God! Imagine the music of the late 1960s sounding like this stuff. All right, it's not THAT bad...but gotta believe there was like one editor for this Mojo book that pushed really hard to include this album until the others relented ("Fine, let's let Bruce have this one. Let the baby have his bottle").

As a bluegrass fan (and I'm not saying this fits neatly in that genre at all) wondering if @Ojai Sam has heard this one (mind you I'm not recommending it ).

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Sun Ra - The Magic City (1966)

Intriguing choice as one of the few avant garde jazz inclusions. Impressive in its scope, though personally I'd probably choose 3-4 of Sun Ra's works above this. Happy to see his work here though.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Various Artists - Hitsville USA: The Motown Singles Collection 1959-1971

As good as place as any to spin this essential set which straddles 1965 which I just finished
Between this and the next selection, I will be in soul heaven the today/tomorrow

 

[axolotl]

I will be in soul heaven the today/tomorrow

Please don't leave us. I'll do (almost) anything.

 

[axolotl]

Where do I know "A Walk in the Black Forest" - I guess it's just a standard of soft contemporary of the era (Floyd Cramer did a version). But it seems more familiar to me - and unlike several Alpert/Tijuana Brass songs, don't think it was used in The Dating Game

If you are a veteran of those prolonged childhood trips down South or along the Gulf Coast, while seated in the backseat of a family station wagon, this was a staple of our parents' easy listening stations. Horst Jankowski was the composer.

I thought there were lyrics that went something like, "Daddy, please pull over! I gotta pee, now!"

 

[axolotl]

Here's another thought about how these old songs insinuate themselves into our brain matter seem so familiar to us.

Remember shopping mall organ shops?

Nostalgia - What happened to mall organ stores?

No, not places selling kidneys and livers. When I was a kid in the 1970s, every shopping mall in my hometown had a store that sold nothing but electronic organs. One mall we sometimes visited had two organ stores! Fast forward to the present, where mall organ stores are nonexistent. What...

www.cyburbia.org

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Here's another thought about how these old songs insinuate themselves into our brain matter seem so familiar to us.

Remember shopping mall organ shops?

Nostalgia - What happened to mall organ stores?

No, not places selling kidneys and livers. When I was a kid in the 1970s, every shopping mall in my hometown had a store that sold nothing but electronic organs. One mall we sometimes visited had two organ stores! Fast forward to the present, where mall organ stores are nonexistent. What...

www.cyburbia.org

Nice post @axolotl
Brought me back to my days at the mall. Indeed remember when I was a kid in the 70s and every house you seemed to go to had an electric piano or organ gathering dust.
Is it a good thing that kids today have never heard of easy listening instrumentalists like Floyd Cramer, Roger Williams, Al Hirt, and Herb Alpert - probably it is. And yet still I find myself strangely nostalgic for the instrumental strains of AM radio.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Beg Scream & Shout: The Big Ol' Box of 60's Soul

Not sure how I missed this Rhino box set in the 1990s when I was buying all my many box sets, but it's freakin' awesome. It tries to encompass the wonderful range of 60s soul artists, a difficult task. Does it succeed? One could quibble but why bother - just enjoy. Aside from Sam Cooke and Sly (couldn't get rights apparently) almost every artist you could think of is here from biggies like Aretha, JB, Otis, Ray Charles to artists like Mitty Collier and Tyrone Davis.
Motown, Stax, and Atlantic artists are all represented (though not always their biggest hits) but smaller soul labels too - makes sense why this is on the list. Besides being fantastic, lesser known soul tracks has such a role on the Northern Soul movement in the UK
144 tracks in all - whew, what a listen (especially after 100 tracks of Motown)!

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

The Hollies - Greatest Hits

 

[axolotl]

^ I could recall most of those songs just from the titles. There are only two or three that elude me.

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

Various Artists - Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the Fist Psychedelic Era 1965-1968

My weekend listen

 

[Zeeba Neighba]

The Mama's & The Papa's - If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears (1966)