BEST EPISODE OF CLASSIC ALBUMS

The Hysteria one is hilarious. The straining for significance is just agonizing. The drummer seems determined to live down his past and show he's particularly thoughtful. The singer says "there was this lick floating around and I heard it and thought, yeah, I can add this other part over it" about 3 times.

"Hysteria" unplugged is something no one needs to hear, but the singer and guitarist provide it anyway on dual Hummingbirds

Pet Sounds! Tomorrow night on BBC2.

Okay, so the first season of Classic Albums started airing in 1997, and Rumours was a 20 year old record at that point... it's 2017 now, so where are the documentaries on OK Computer, or Urban Hymns, or Parklife, or Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, or...

I love you but you don't wannna know me
But I think you're great and I wanna see
I wanna see you
Smile into my face
Oh yeah

These could be the lyrics to the Black Keys' next single and no one would bat an eye

Elton one isn't earthshaking but there's one good knob-twiddle scene within the last ten mins, where they isolate the backing vocals from Candle in the Wind, and it sounds *damn* good in an "Eagles warming up with Seven Bridges Road at the start of the doc" kinda way.

Yes, it was really interesting to learn that Elton would just leave the studio and let the band arrange all the backing vox.

De-lurk to say Steely Dan is the correct answer. Purdie though like. 2 other threads to post on now.

The Stevie ep is better than the Steely ep, fuiud.

Many of these (all of these?) are on Amazon Prime, and I've caught up on some that I'd missed previously back in the days of dvd rental. I've long wondered, though... how in THEE EVERLOVING FUCK did Simply Red's Stars sneak into this series? Maybe it's renowned in the UK*, but Simply Red was dunzo in the US by that time.

*Wikipedia says yes, so I guess I've answered my own question.

cos money was too tight to mention

ha yeah that one threw me for a loop too

Mick Hucknell does not suffer from low self-esteem

watching Goodbye Yellow Brick Road episode now, really enjoying it

love the Elton ep

the rumours ep is really something, there’s not much that the band members weren’t willing to share. gotta reconvene and film a tusk episode haha

there have been a bunch of episodes made since the poll was created, a memorable one was about sabbath’s paranoid. no real earth-shaking revelations, but they make a fun recurring bit out of asking geezer what inspired his lyrics and geezer giving the most deflating, matter-of-fact answer possible.

Does Blowey Hole have one of these?

xp Re: Tusk; this is a similar thing, made for BBC radio in 2012.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01hxpxp

challop: Every album should have a Classic Albums episode.

Like, as soon as you finish an album, you would be contractually mandated to have the producer and the most charismatic band member sit at a mixing desk and solo different parts and talk about how groovy they sound on their own, etc. Etc.

Then you should interview a crack session musician about how his or her part just "came together" on the first take. Preferably Nile Rodgers, but Jim Keltner will do in a pinch.

This should be required even if they did not in fact play on the album.

Do we also need to have a close up of David Fricke's huge teeth?

It's interesting how the episodes reflect the personality of the band as well as the particular album. Upthread someone said that the Steely DAn episode was anal. Well so are Steely Dan. The Motorhead and Fleetwood Mac episodes also give a strong sense of what it would have been like to be in those bands.

last two posts both otm

Hah, yes, David Fricke is required

Also required - totally unexpected appearance from an unrelated musician. I'd forgotten that the Steely Dan episode has Ian Dury in it. Also bonus points if you can get Bono to say how your album has "really influenced" him.

Motorhead episode is such a pisser, i hate that they’re all gone now ;_;

David Fricke really, really looks like a Peter Bagge drawing.

The Dark Side of the Moon episode is worthwhile. Remarkable how well I remember all of the tunes though it's been decades since I listened to the album.

The Elton one had a lot of scenes of producers pulling sliders up and down on the boards, the great heart of any great Classic

There was a show I thought was in this series that covered Anthem of the Sun and possibly the first Grateful Dead lp.

oh right, thought it covered more than one lp its Anthem to Beauty not just American Beauty

This here's a write-in vote for Rio

also liked the catch a fire episode because it was a genuine revelation that the amazing organ and guitar parts of that album came courtesy of cornpone alabamans

Also required - totally unexpected appearance from an unrelated musician. I'd forgotten that the Steely Dan episode has Ian Dury in it. Also bonus points if you can get Bono to say how your album has "really influenced" him.

Which is the one that has the guy from Disturbed in it? Was he in the Songs from the Big Chair doc? (Was that Classic Albums canon or just some doc?) Anyway, I know Disturbed covered Tears for Fears, but no one cares what that guy has to say about it.

Some of the lesser ones, like the Judas Priest one, still have great stuff in it, like the revelation the album was recorded in Ringo's house and whichever song sounded like it had a marching army in it, that was just them rattling his silverware drawer.

Just watched Transformer, Key of Life, Catch a Fire, and So episodes recently. Transformer's highlight was of course the Herbie Flowers bassline, which I had seen years ago and didn't realize was from this show. Key of Life could have been twice as long- maddeningly, it spends more time showing the reassembled band standing around than playing. The behind the boards stuff was some of the best of any of the episodes I've seen so far.

whichever song sounded like it had a marching army in it, that was just them rattling his silverware drawer.

― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, November 29, 2020 3:34 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

one of my favorite details from classic albums! i think it was "metal gods"?

Transformer's highlight was of course the Herbie Flowers bassline, which I had seen years ago and didn't realize was from this show.

The parts where they get Lou to sing the songs with acoustic guitar are absolutely hilarious, Lou can't get anything right - the singing, the phrasing, the timing, the guitar playing, the words.

/pvmic

Look, how can you blame him? With all the time he no doubt spent practicing the Tai Chi he probably had next to nothing left to work on that other kind of thing.

The three that I've liked most are The Band (probably my favorite), Steely Dan's Aja and maybe John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band.

Plastic Ono Band has the obvious disadvantage of Lennon being gone, but there's a lot of little things they do very well, like Ringo's role in album (with Voorman emphasizing "Ringo has taste, that's why he's a great drummer" and even Ringo dropping his usual aw-shucks modesty to show that he knows exactly what he's doing behind the kit). The most priceless info IMHO is when Arthur Janov explains how Lennon came up with "God is a concept by which we measure our pain."

As much as I enjoy Aja, it's not among my very favorite Steely Dan albums but Fagen and Becker are hilarious (not a given - their liner notes' attempt at humor usually fell flat) and thanks to the way Aja was made, there's plenty of good material for a doc. The “Deacon Blues” exchange was probably the funniest moment for me of any Classic Albums episode: “Those were the days when I was singing like Jerry Lewis. Remember that?” “Yes, that was a very fertile period for you.”

Thought the Suede episode was amazing, especially seeing as I never liked Coming Up much after the giddy heights of the Bernard Butler era. Made me have a bit of a rethink all round.

I think I've only ever seen the one about Peter Gabriel's So (unless that wasn't actually this series?)

ok - it was.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_Albums

Which is the one that has the guy from Disturbed in it? Was he in the Songs from the Big Chair doc? (Was that Classic Albums canon or just some doc?) Anyway, I know Disturbed covered Tears for Fears, but no one cares what that guy has to say about it.

The Songs from the Big Chair episode was great, some interesting stories and in-studio breakdowns of the songs. Can't remember if the Disturbed guy was in it, but if he was, it would have been a small part

The other thing I took from the "Transforner" episode was that Lou himself did not consider it a classic album, so he was not exactly the most engaged of participants.

Because he thought it was more of a Bowie/Ronno thing that corrupted the purity of his vision?

And then later Ronno beat him out in the picker sweepstakes for The Rolling Thunder Revue.

It's possible he thought it was too much of a Bowie/Ronno thing, not about purity of vision tbh. I think his closing comments were, "It's just an album" *shrug*

Lou's attitude to any album being singled out for praise would probably be: "Why, what's wrong with [other Lou Reed album]?"

Ha, yes, exactly!

The Bat Out of Hell episode is so great. I could watch Meat Loaf, Steinman and Rundgren talk for hours.

love the opening with jim playing piano in a sick af cape