Nov 132008
See if you can grab the belt from my champion’s delicate hands!
*By “lopsided,” in this context, I mean one album side is MUCH more listenable than the other. This Battle Royale, of course, rules out all albums released primarily as CDs.
The belt is mine!
What does “lopsided” mean in this context?
I’ve just provided clarification – I hope – in a footnote on the entry itself. Fair question, BigSteve. Thanks.
Gimme the belt!
Johnny Winter – Second Winter. Three sides, can’t get much more lopsided than that!
Document by REM
Original release of Yellow Submarine. You don’t even have to give me the belt as it just appeared around my waist as I typed this.
I know someone is going to now further define “lopsided” to make this entry ineligible but until then I’m smearing my finger prints all over the belt and sliding it thru my man-valley.
I don’t agree that this is true of Marquee Moon, since Elevation and Prove It are two of my favorite songs on the album. I’ll grant that side one is better and more consistent, but I think the drop in quality and consistency on side two is minimal.
Replacements’ Pleased To Meet Me is a worthwhile entry here, although I don’t think it takes the belt. Back in the days of albums, I used to play one side only of a lot of records, and if I can remember any of them at this distance of time and memory loss, I may have more.
I agree with BigSteve. I quite like “Guiding Light” as well.
The Whispers’ 1981 LP “Love Is Where You Find it”: Side A, subtitled “For Dancin’,” is great (it features the dancefloor smashes “Emergency” and “Turn me Out,” among other uptempo winners). Side B, subtitled “For Romancin’,” is awful, with bad smooth jazz ballads from one end to the other. I don’t expect you honkies to hand the belt over to my Urban Contemporary entry, but the Whispers deserve it nonetheless.
Gotta give mad props for “Second Winter,” though. And the three sides you can isten to are actually pretty dang good!
BigSteve, there’s not stripping Marquee Moon and I of the belt: it must be won outright, in the ring, by a more worth challenger. I contend that side 1 of Marquee Moon, despite the listenability of side 2 while sleeping, is the one album side that supports the entire legacy of Television and Tom Verlaine (Lloyd would have been worthy without side 1 for his future work on Matthew Sweet’s Girlfriend and his thoughtful Rock Town Hall interview). Without side 1 of that album, Verlaine is an afterthought that only the likes of pure rock nerds like us would seek out an overpriced, possibly unsatisfying album to try. WITH side 1, Television is worthy of a mainstream legacy in publications like Rolling Stone. What other album side that’s stepped in the ring so far can boast of that influence? THE BELT IS MINE!
The Whispers hurl themselves over the top rope at the appearance of “Yellow Submarine.” Everybody else should, too.
I read the description and furiously scrolled down to try to get Yellow Submarine in first.
Alas, Maudlin is the winner, and I will have his back on this against all comers. When is the last time anyone has listened to side two? And I don’t mean just us here, I mean the last time anyone, anywhere played side two of Yellow Submarine?
Mr. Mod, your footnote defines “lopsided” as being all about listenability, and now you’re saying, as per Marquee Moon that’s it to do with reputation, greatness, and Rolling Stone magazine. I call “cop out.”
Yellow Submarine is a good one in theory, but, “It’s All Too Much” and “Hey Bulldog” aside, just how listenable is side one?
How about All Things Must Pass. I doubt we’ll be able to agree on when the drop-off occurs, but it definitely happens by the time of “It’s Johnny’s Birthday.”
Draw the Line by Aerosmith.
Oats, who among us has listened to all of side 2 of Marquee Moon with full attention, Townsman dbuskirk excluded?
I cannot accept Yellow Submarine as a challenger. I won’t get into the details here.
I thought about All Things Must Pass, but it’s kind of problematic as Oats said, making the call where it actually loses it. Side 5 and 6 are the throwaways, but even if you go back to side 4, only “Art of Dying” is truly a keeper, with the other version of Isn’t It A Pity there.
The original CD release, though, that has to be the most lopsided release of the CD era, as it puts Sides 4-6 on Disc 2, meaning Art of Dying was the only real reason I ever swapped discs.
Girlfriend – Matthew Sweet
“Side 2” really goes downhill fast
Smthereens – Especially For You
Side Two is a near perfect album side.
Side One… meh
size 34 please
Andy,
Girlfriend is an excellent choice! I may evn lend you the belt for a special occasion sometime.
The problem with Girlfriend is that it’s essentially a CD-era release. We only know of the “sides” of that CD thanks to Sweet’s digital run-out groove and needle-placement pops, right?
cdm, the Smithereens album would be a good challenger IF EITHER SIDE WAS LISTENABLE!
Funny stuff, Mod.
I really like Side 2 but that’s beside the point. The sides are hugely lopsided, much more so than anything else I’ve seen so far.
Shall I send you my address or would it be more convenient for me to just pick the belt up next time I’m in town?
John Cougar had a strategy around UH-HUH and AMERICAN FOOL of loading side 1 with all the singles and AOR tracks side 2 with well, you might imagine what second-rate John Cougar was like.
Only A Northern Song? C’mon. And All You Need Is Love is favorite hippy, heart-on-sleeve of mine that if you deny it, you’re only making your world a little colder.
Face!
The Joshua Tree – U2
actually, i think the first 4 songs on are the only ones that deserve even some of the praise that album gets.
Later this evening I’ll put forth some statistical information to show you that I’m not COPPING OUT. It may be hard for some of you to follow, but stay tuned.
i just got my Don Felder book.
Thank You Rock Town Hall!!!
Yellow Submarine is a fake album.
Disqualified. Are we going to argue what tremendous artistic range the band showed on the Hey Jude album?
Graham Parker, Mona Lisa’s Sister side one songs sound as good to me as any of his other great stuff. Side two sounds like the rest of his crappy post-Rumor albums.
I’m throwing the audio equivalalent of an octopus into the ring: Robin Trower’s Bridge of Sighs. Not so much that side two is the suck, just more like NOBODY EVAH puts on side two first, and by the time ‘Too Rolling Stoned’ finishes, you’re toasted enough to drink the bong water…
Excellent rationale, Telewacker!
Scott Walker’s “Til the band comes in”. Side one is solid to very good. Side two it’s like he gave up. Much more pedestrian songs and weak cuts.
Hall and Oats “along the red ledge”. Each side a different feel was the concept. Side one is some of their best mid period, radio friendly sounding songs, period. Yeah, it’s accessable pop but done very well. On Side 2 they rock out but with much less success. The songs seem much less inspired and rather forced on side 2.
Steve “loves Marquee Moon” D.
What about intentional lopsidedness? Grin’s 1+1 has a ‘Rockin’ Side’ and a ‘Dreamy Side.’ I thought the rockin’ side (with White Lies and Moon Tears) worked much better than the softer stuff on the other side. Someone who likes softer rock might find that side more listenable.
If the second half of Village Green Preservation Society were as good as the first it would be one of the greatest albums ever, i think.
On their Walker-produced last album, Pulp have a song, “Bad Cover Version,” that mentions this fact.
I can’t agree with this (it is one of the greatest albums ever!), but it occurred to me this morning that if you combined side one of Sleepwalker and side two of Schoolboys in Disgrace, you’d have the greatest latter-day Kinks album ever.
I, too, don’t feel much of a dropoff on side 2 of Village Green… I often skip “Phenomenal Cat”, but even that’s better than side 1’s “Down By the Riverside”, or whatever that needle-lifter (for me) is called.
I’m glad BigSteve brought up the intentionally lopsided album, like that Grin one. I was wondering if any band’s made the mistake of having one side for one songwriter and the other side for a second songwriter.
From the CD era: Mod faves Outkast’s huge album was released in a quasi-double LP format: “The Love Below” by Andre 3000 and”Speakerboxx” by the other guy (Big Boi? I forget his name.)
HVB
Side two of Metal Machine Music really drags, but things pick up again on sides three and four.
I went back and took another listen to Village Green and I have to stand by my pick. There are maybe four classics on side one and none on side two. Also “All of my Friends were There”? In my version of hell this song is playing on a endless loop.
“All of My Friends Were There” is a great song, as well as its mates on Side 2 of VGPS, which kicks off in fine fashion w/”Animal Farm” and goes on through songs like “Village Green” (the very song that inspired the album), “Starstruck” (which was actually the single that was released in Europe) & “Monica”. No needle lifters or lopsideness here.
I wouldn’t change a single thing about VGPS. It’s perfect as it is.
Here’s a video of “Starstruck” w/the Kinks running around Hampstead Heath:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d8moA2Iksg
When I first saw it,I couldn’t believe that there was actually a video for a VGPS song. It was like seeing footage of ancient Egyptians walking around the Pyramids.
HVB, that Outkast album is a great example. Thanks!
BigSteve, now you funny too!
Northvancoveman, thanks for reaffirming your feelings on VGPS. We’ll agree to disagree. “All of My Friends” were there is a work of beauty in my book.
Diskojoe, thanks for pointing out “Starstruck,” my favorite from side 2. I’ve gotta go check out that video!
Hand over the belt:
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/de/0e/9c56820dd7a0805fad80e010.L.jpg
Hand over the belt: I give you The Pixies’ Doolittle.
I mean it. Game over.
Here’s something I just discovered, the Kinks doing “Last of the Steam-Powered Trains” & “Picture Book” on TV in ’69. In color & in excellent quality. Where did they find this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5cyIvVLqzg&feature=related
I gotta go with everybody on defending Side 2 of Village Green. Phenomenal Cat is the only dud on side 2, and the only one on the entire album. Animal Farm, Starstruck and All Of My Friends Were There are must-listens everytime I play the album, which is quite a lot. The bridge on Animal Farm (“girl, it’s a hard, hard world…”) is a sublime musical moment.
I also really love Wicked Annabella, particularly the way Dave sells the shit out of the “twisting my mind!” line, and the weird stuffy-nosed voice he does for the last verse.
Couple those with the first side – Do You Remember Walter? is probably my favorite Kinks song – and I think if they’d swapped out Phenomenal Cat for Days, Village Green would hit some mythical level of perfection for me.
Diskojoe, that clip is amazing, even better than my UK Jive findings. They’re singing live but miming playing to the backing track. I like Dave’s Telecaster. I never could find confirmation on what gear he was using in the VGPS era.
The same user has a great clip of “Have a Cuppa Tea” from ’72. Helluva beard on Dave on that one.
Re: Outkast and Speakerboxx/The Love Below, I recall at the time that Big Boi’s half actually often got the greater critical praise, partly because people were expecting more and/or didn’t know what to expect from Andre 3000. And Love Below could definitely use some editing and would benefit greatly from dumping all the ‘concept’ skits.
But if you take Speakerboxx on its own, that’s the one that actually falls apart on the back end. The first half or two/thirds is great, and gets a ton out of Big Boi’s Parliament and Computer Games-era Clinton tics when he uses them, but the last few songs don’t fit in at all to my ears and sound like he wasn’t expecting to have to put out a whole album’s worth of material himself. Which may have actually been the case.
OK, the computations may be over some of your heads, so before I lay out my statistical proof that Marquee Moon still clutches the belt, let me ask a few questions:
1. Is there anyone here beside E. Pluribus Gergely, who’s been inactive for too long, who does not like Marquee Moon?
2. Is there anyone here who likes that album BECAUSE OF side 2?
3. If you were to try to turn a friend onto that album, would anyone start with side 2?
4. If the answer to question 3 was “Yes,” wouldn’t you have to ask yourself what kind of friend it is you’re trying to turn onto Marquee Moon?
After you’ve answered these questions I’ll see if I can properly present the data that support this album’s lopsided Listenability Factor.
I have seen that clip of “Starstruck” before. Love that period of rock promo films!
Diskojoe, the color clips you linked to are very cool. That’s a first for me. I’ll have to seek out “Have a Cuppa Tea.” I love that song too.
Mod, I guess I gained no traction with my pick on this topic, nonetheless it was a really good idea to start this post.
I have an idea that might get as much interest. I haven’t looked into how to start a thread, but here it is if you want it: Name a band whose best song is/was their most popular song. Early vote: Don’t Fear the Reaper…[This question has been moved to The Main Stage!]Northvancoveman, AWESOME thread idea. I’m going to move it to The Main Stage now. I’ll write you offline later if you’d like to get “Back Office privileges,” which will allow you to begin threads under your byline.
“1. Is there anyone here beside E. Pluribus Gergely, who’s been inactive for too long, who does not like Marquee Moon?”
I think its a solid album, but definitly not the masterpeice people make it out to be. I think the songs i come back to most are the title track, See No Evil and Venus. The rest is pretty meh.
Another album that’s lopsided:
The Velvet Underground and Nico.
I still think I had the belt as I’m the only one with a three sided album. But apparently not, so I’ll take it now.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – You’re Gonna Get It! Has anyone even listened to to all of side one? No way. All the good stuff is on side two, and it’s a good lead in to Damn the Torpedoes.
What’s wrong with Doolittle? I like that album. But then again I like Marquee Moon, too.
Good to see a side 2-heavy album suggested. There are a couple of albums I like a lot better for side 2, but I’m blanking out on what they are right now. Oh, I know: I often like side 2 of Talking Heads albums better than side 1.
2K, if you wanna play that way, with your 3-sided album, how does it stack up against at least one Pere Ubu or David Thomas and the Pedestrians album that is 33 1/3 on one side and 45 on the other (Songs of the Bailing Man and/or that first Pedestrians album – I can’t remember if it’s one or both)?
Oh, and don’t think I didn’t notice that hissing fauna’s mild appreciation for Marquee Moon is the result of songs from side 1. It’s what we call the side’s Listenability Factor.
I love Marquee Moon, my favorite song on it is “Venus de Milo”, followed by “Prove it” -one from each side. That said, I think side one is better. By the way, how far away does that CBGB era seem? A dozen great bands with completely different sounds.
CDM, your copy of ESPECIALLY FOR YOU must be one of the rare misprinted copies that have sides 1 and 2 mislabled. That’s the only logical explanation for thinking that an album side that begins with “Strangers When We Meet” and ends with “Time and Time Again” — the two songs that make me forgive Pat DiWhatever for being a right-wing whackjob — is simply “meh.”
I think you don’t get a complete image of Television without those slower songs on side two in the mix. As Adventure proved, the band was not accurately represented by the fiery sound of side one of Marquee Moon. I’m afraid that people (maybe even me) wanted Television to be that band from side one, but the band had other ideas. Anyway I don’t think any of this makes side two unlistenable.
I sense that the strongly convincing air of my initial claim for Marquee Moon is fading. That’s cool. It’s not that I find side 2 “unlistenable,” but I think it pales in comparison to side 1. Factor in that side 1 IS the reason the band rates high among mainstream outlets like Rolling Stone and MTV, even though two thirds of their audiences probably haven’t heard Television; factor in that many listeners have fallen asleep while “enjoying” side 2 compared with the “active” listening afforded by side 1; factor in that Tom Verlaine himself would fall into a career-long “slumber” beginning on side 2 (with only occasional moments of wakefulness, such as the excellent Dreamtime solo album – a title no doubt inspired by MM’s side 2!); factor in that generations of rock nerds hold MM in high esteem compared with newer nominations, such as Doolittle, which I’ve been told some fogies in the Halls of Rock think is a pretty boring album beside the opening cut and the hit song, “Here Comes My Man”… Factor all this in and probably more and you may better understand why I continue to make this claim to the belt. Come on, we’re a talking MAJOR album in terms of legendary rock status with a side 2 that is dwarfed by side 1. Then we’re talking a side 1 that dwarfs the entire output of the band’s leader from that point forward. It’s as if Brian Eno released only a gripping side 1 of Here Come the Warm Jets then immediately released nothing but ambient albums.
All that said, it’s only right if you disagree with me and come up with an album even more deserving of this title.
The Ramones – Half Way to Sanity — true side one ain’t exactly their best, but at least it has I Wanna Live, Bop Till Yo Drop and Go Little Camaro….side two has NOTHING
I used to agree that Please To Meet Me has aweak side two, but the last two songs save it (skyway and Can’t Hardly Wait) so I think this actually has a weak middle
…and Doolittle is a great record start to finish
I don’t think Pleased to Meet Me even has a weak song on it, let alone a whole side.
Mod – when you put a three sided album against an album with four sides, even sides with different speeds, the three sided album is a fat guy and a baby on the Teeter Totter of Rock, and the different speed is Dave Thomas on both sides at the same time. Dave can’t make the teeter totter move up or down, but while he’s uncomfortable, he’s not lopsided. I think neither Dave’s feet quite touch the ground.
Mod said snip…factor in that Tom Verlaine himself would fall into a career-long “slumber” beginning on side 2 (with only occasional moments of wakefulness, such as the excellent Dreamtime solo album ..
Hmm, I get what your saying but gotta disagree. Curious, what did you think of his first album? That hardly fits the slumber type Verlaine you are talking about (IMO). Or do you think it just doesn’t measure up? I think it’s terrific. Same with a couple other solo albums (not all) by him. Sure, not MM side one but I don’t hear the level of drop off you do.
Also, side two has “elevation” and “prove it”. I think with “friction” they kind of have a similar vibe and all three are terrific. Do you think “friction” is heads above these two tracks? Just curious.
Underthefloat, beside “The Grip of Love,” which is pretty good, and “Breakin’ in My Heart,” which I love, I don’t know that I can recall how another song on that album goes – and I’ve owned it for over 25 years. Oh, there’s some (mostly) instrumental called “Yoki Time” or something like that. I like the music, but the goofy singing bugs me.
I do think that “Friction” is heads above “Elevation” and “Prove It.” The latter, in particular, is a pretty cool, tidy number, but by the time I get to it I’m often half asleep:)
I’ve got a half dozen or so Verlaine albums and I spin them fairly frequently and enjoy many things about them, but beside Dreamtime I’m always missing the ball’s-out dynamics of side 1 of Marquee Moon.
Gee, I love side two of MARQUEE MOON. “Guiding Light” is one of my favorite ballads ever, and the above posts act as if it doesn’t exist.
I always thought U2’s BOY was lopsided. Side one is brilliant and side two almost completely forgettable. In fact, when people ask me if I like U2, my usual response is that I like side one of their first album and from then on it was all downhill.