15. Tito Punete - Dance Mania Vol.1 [1958]
Only another 5 years and 20 albums to go until I get the the beginning of the British Invasion.
While I'm doing this blog I'm finding myself listening to more Afro/Cuban jazz than at any point previously in my entire life, and there's probably a good reason for that other than not being from the generation or the place that spawned this stuff, but that's not to say it isn't enjoyable.
The biggest problem for me anyway is all of this stuff sounds the same. Granted there are differences in the songs on offer here, there are some with vocals, some without and ... well that's about it really.
It's all very jolly & bouncy like you'd expect with mambos & cha chas in abundance. It's just that I'm hearing this stuff long after it's day so I have seen this stuff parodied beyond belief to the point where I almost expect Morcambe & Wise to come out and do a comedy dance routine to this stuff.
The best thing about this kind of stuff is that before you've heard a note you know exactly the type of thing you're going to get so you can prepare yourself to listen to it, that however is also it's biggest downfall because after a while the songs kind of merge into one another and the whole things comes kind of predictable.
This is a fun album but then these kind of albums are, it's a bit like a kind of enforced fun. You would have fun listening to it, but why would you want to listen to it when you could listen to something much more contemporary and less dated ?
Everything about this album screams 1950s at you, at first it's novel but doesn't really hold your interest over time because there's nothing really substantial here.
Rating 1.5 / 5
14. Little Richard - Here's Little Richard [1957]
Now this is what I'm talking about.
After a glut of chin stroking jazz it's great to get back to some dirty primal Rock n Roll. And it doesn't get more dirty or primal than this.
I don't think there's an album anywhere that grabs you by the balls right from it's opening line in a way that 'Tutti Frutti' does. Having heard this song my whole life it's kind of hard to imagine just what people thought when they heard this song for the first time back in the mid 50s and how they reacted to it.
The man himself is just a ball of energy screaming and hollering out the lyrics like his life depended on it.
And being a make up wearing, gender bendering black guy singing about screwing white women as well as being from the south you can bet that his life did depend on it a few times. If there's one thing this guy has it's balls.
Obviously the 3 big songs on this are 'Tutti Frutti', 'Slippin' and Slidin' and 'Long Tall Sally', they're tried and tested rock n roll staples, but as well as those there's plenty of great stuff on this album. The pace of the album slows down a little in songs like 'Baby' and 'Oh Why' but you'd be hard pressed to call them ballads, it would be more accurate to call them rest periods between the more frantic moments.
The slowest song on the album is 'Can't Believe You Wanna Leave' which clocks in at a massive 2 minutes and 25 seconds (The albums longest track) and even that is kind of the same pace as a mid tempo blues song.
The album finishes on a real high with 'Rip It Up', 'Jenny Jenny' and 'She's Got It', three blistering songs that finish off the album with the frantic pace at which it begun. At 27 minutes long this album is the perfect length. As the last song fades out it leaves you with a sense of whiplash and wondering just what in the hell just hit you.
If you want to sum up what Rock n Roll was about in less than half an hour I don't think you're going to find anything better to do it with than this.
Simple magnificent.
Rating 5 / 5
