The Year 2023 in Music

Continuing with our year in review, Matt Lynn Digital invites you to look back at the last year in reviews of books, movies, music and television. We look at these with individual categories, one per day through Sunday. Today we share music reviews offered by Matt Lynn Digital in 2023.

(Cover art for the Weathervanes album by Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit).

Beginning with our most recent review with a guest review of the Weathervanes album by Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, as reviewed by friend of the blog Cobra. The 2023 album presented alternative country-rock that mixed in with roots rock and southern rock to entertain their fans. Our review of the Rick Rubin book The Creative Act: A Way of Being also represented 2023 with a top notch look into how creativity works in music production and other fields as well.

(Cover art for the 2011 Tedeschi Trucks Band album Revelator).

The 2011 release of the album Revelator by the Tedeschi Trucks Band offers the first of two albums from the 2010s in our annual review. Offering a taste of American traditional rock, blues rock and roots rock from a guitar virtuoso opens an album that I can and do listen to over and over again. The 2010 A Christmas Cornucopia album by Annie Lennox also presented a more contemporary music mix.

(The biopic Walk the Line depicted aspects of the lives of Johnny Cash and June Carter).

The movie Walk the Line (2005) provided a mostly autobiographical portrayal of the musical life of country musician Johnny Cash and his second wife, June Carter. Music from both performers were featured throughout the movie, which offered a compelling movie experience of the respective lives of the couple up to the point of their marriage.

(Cover art for the R.L. Burnside album Mr. Wizard).

A modern sound for the delta blues comes to us with the 1997 album Mr. Wizard by R.L. Burnside. The music tends to more of a jam format than some of Burnside‘s earlier work with influences on musicians making music into the current day.

(Cover art for the Van Halen album OU812).

The 1988 album OU812 (Oh, you ate one too!) by Van Halen incorporates the most hard rock or pop metal sound for the three albums we reviewed for the 1980s. Both the 1986 album The Way It Is by Bruce Hornsby and the Range and the 1985 No Jacket Required album by Phil Collins delve more into the so-called adult contemporary genre with a focus on message and sound this still hit for a somewhat different audience.

(Cover art for the Christopher Cross album Christopher Cross).

We’ve taken the 1970s decade seriously with a review of nine separate albums. The self-titled 1979 album Christopher Cross by Christopher Cross continues the adult contemporary appeal before the 1974 soft rock appeal of the Jackson Browne album Late for the Sky. Second Helping by Lynyrd Skynyrd gave 1974 a more southern rock or boogie rock sound with their second album.

(Cover art for the Dr. John album In the Right Place).

The 1973 Dr. John funk and piano blues album In the Right Place gives way to the more progressive rock sounds of Pink Floyd‘s 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon and Yes‘ 1972 album Fragile.

(Cover art for the Chuck Mangione Quartet album Alive!).

The contemporary jazz and easy listening album Alive! by Chuck Mangione Quartet from 1972 introduces the final three albums with a largely instrumental sound. The soft rock album Teaser and the Firecat by Cat Stevens stands next to the blues rock, hard rock and heavy metal sound of Led Zeppelin IV by Led Zeppelin for the music of 1971.

(Cover art for the Miles Davis album Sketches of Spain).

Jazz and rock and roll provide our 2023 soundtrack for the 1960s. Holiday music for 1968 leads us to Christmas Album by Herb Alpert & Tijuana Brass. The seventh album for The Beatles gave us the rock and roll in the form of 1966’s Revolver. The John Coltrane album Giant Steps and the album Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis round out 1960 with jazz performances that warm our heart.

Matt Lynn Digital appreciates your continued interest in the content we offer. Should you have albums that you’d like us to review, please be sure to let us know.

Matt – Friday, December 29, 2023

Led Zeppelin and the album commonly called ‘Led Zeppelin IV’

The fourth studio album by Led Zeppelin never received a proper name. The eight song album commonly called Led Zeppelin IV was released November 8th, 1971 with style labels including pop/rock, blues, album rock, arena rock, blues-rock, British blues, British metal, hard rock, heavy metal and regional blues. The core band for the album, as one would expect, included singer and harmonica player Robert Plant, electric guitar, acoustic guitar and mandolin player Jimmy Page, drummer John Bonham and bass, electric piano, mandolin, recorder and synthesizer player John Paul Jones.

(Cover art for Led Zeppelin‘s fourth studio album. The album, commonly called Led Zeppelin IV, was released November 8th, 1971).

Black Dog is named for a Labrador retriever that wandered the grounds where the song was recorded, per Songfacts as referenced here. The opening idea for the song came from John Paul Jones having “wanted to try “electric blues with a rolling bass part,” and “a riff that would be like a linear journey.”” The 1968 Muddy Waters album Electric Mud proved an inspiration for Black Dog, which charted as high as fifteenth in the United States.

(Black Dog was released as a single and charted in several countries with Misty Mountain Hop as the B-side, though the songs were not released as a single in the United Kingdom).

Ian Stewart contributed piano playing to Rock and Roll, the second song on Led Zeppelin IV. Having charted as high as forty-seventh in the United States, the drum work for this reportedly was inspired by the Little Richard song Keep a Knockin’. John Bonham had become frustrated with “a pretty much unplayable drum pattern” for the recording of Four Sticks, per this background. The inspiration from Keep a Knockin’ became part of the signature sound for Rock and Roll, whose lyrics were written by Robert Plant.

(Rock and Roll by Led Zeppelin was released as a single with Four Sticks as the B-side in February 1972).

Sandy Denny contributed duet vocals on The Battle of Evermore, the third song on the Led Zeppelin IV album. Robert Plant wrote the song’s lyrics, per information found here, “after reading a book on Scottish history. The lyrics are about the everlasting battle between night and day, which can also be interpreted as the battle between good and evil.”

Per this feedback from Songfacts, “[t]he most famous rock song of all time, “Stairway To Heaven” wasn’t a chart hit because it was never released as a single to the general public. Radio stations received promotional singles which quickly became collector’s items.” To the best of my reckoning, the lyrics themselves are rather opaque. Two message are clear. The first is that material wealth makes getting to heaven challenging. The second message is that a wealthy woman got everything she wanted without giving anything back.

Misty Mountain Hop references the Misty Mountains that reportedly exist in Wales. The location itself is referenced in The Return of the King, the third book in The Lord of the Rings series of books by J.R.R. Tolkien; Robert Plant is reportedly a fan of the books. As mentioned here, the song itself “is about a “love-in” near London that was broken up by the police.” Jimmy Page wrote the song.

Four Sticks reportedly “was named because drummer John Bonham played it with four drumsticks – two in each hand.” Bonham reportedly had difficulty physically playing this song. The song “contains elements of Indian music.”

Jimmy Page and Robert Plant wrote Going to California, reportedly “drawing inspiration from Joni Mitchell, specifically her song “California.” In the Led Zeppelin song, “the guy in the song is looking for a girl just like [Mitchell], one with “love in her eyes and flowers in her hair” who “plays guitar and cries and sings.”

Based on a 1927 Memphis Minnie song about The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 in Mound Landing, Mississippi, the Led Zeppelin song When the Levee Breaks offers a distinctively different sound to Memphis Minnie‘s When the Levee Breaks. As reported here, the Led Zeppelin song was “[h]eavily produced in the studio.” “All this studio wizardry made the song very difficult to perform live, which Led Zeppelin did only twice: once in a “warm up” gig in Denmark before their 1975 US tour, and again on their second night in Chicago.”

Matt – Wednesday, November 8, 2023

Beastie Boys and the 1986 album ‘Licensed to Ill’

The debut album for Beastie Boys released on Saturday, November 15th, 1986. Mixing a hip hop and hard rock fusion that appealed to many, the album Licensed to Ill turned 35-years young this week. The muscular mixing of sounds landing the band a top selling album and the beginning of a career that landed the band in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2012. Today we look at the Licensed to Ill album itself.

(A close-up look at the Licensed to Ill album cover of the Beastie Boys. Licensed to Ill was released on November 15th, 1986).

Rhymin & Stealin opens Licensed to Ill with a sample of John Bonham‘s drum introduction from Led Zeppelin‘s song When The Levee Breaks. Adding samples of Black Sabbath‘s Sweet Leaf and I Fought the Law by The Clash, a definitive announcement for the band’s sound with a direct statement for the band’s approach announced a hello with authority and clarity.

The New Style flips the script in being sampled generously, including a dozen years later about 2.5-minutes into the song Intergalactic. The song uses parts of five songs with irreverent, provocative and quick lyrics while stamping their musical style onto the hearts of many fans.

(The third single released in support of Licensed to Ill by Beastie Boys was The New Style).

She’s Crafty follows The New Style on Licensed to Ill, sampling the song The Ocean by Led Zeppelin. The craftiness refers to Lucy’s misrepresentations of her background coupled with the fact that there is a definite intimacy interest underlying the continuing momentum for the song.

Posse in Effect sampled a rhythm and blues sound with its biggest audience connecting being in the way that it encouraged people to dance.

Slow Ride samples the songs Low Rider by War and Take the Money and Run by Steve Miller Band while sharing a song title with a song by Foghat.

(Girls was the seventh and final single released in support of the Licensed to Ill album by Beastie Boys).

Girls by Beastie Boys started out as a song whose sound was inspired by The Isley Brothers‘ song Shout. We learn from Song Facts that Girls “is so outrageous in its misogyny that it is clearly satire.” The song was the seventh and final single released from Licensed to Ill.

I distinctly remember singing (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party) with my friends while growing up. The song starts with the elongated chord of a guitar followed by the lyrics “Kick it!” Back when the network played music, this song received frequent exposure on MTV (Music Television) for the band.

(The sixth single released in support of the Beastie Boys‘ album Licensed to Ill was No Sleep Till Brooklyn).

No Sleep Till Brooklyn offered a much strong traditional rock sound, landing as the sixth single released for Licensed to Ill. The song title plays on the Motörhead live album titled No Sleep ’til Hammersmith. The song itself charted better in the United Kingdom than in the United States, per Songfacts.

The song Paul Revere pokes fun at the notion of Paul Revere‘s ride in offering a fictional account for how the members of Beastie Boys met. I immediately thought of the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem Paul Revere’s Ride when first seeing the song title way back when. Learning that the song title came not from the poem, the historical figure Paul Revere nor the midnight ride of Paul Revere made this song a bit comical for me. The song title came from a horse ridden by band member Adam Horovitz (also known as Ad-Rock).

(The first single from Beastie Boys to be released in support of Licensed to Ill was Hold It Now, Hit It).

The first single released in support of Licensed to Ill by Beastie Boys was Hold It Now, Hit It, including samples of Take Me to Mardi Gras by Bob James, Funky Stuff by Kool & The Gang, The Return of Leroy Pt. 1 by The Jimmy Castor Bunch and others.

Brass Monkey references an alcoholic drink including rum, vodka and orange juice mixed over ice. The song samples the song Bring It Here by Wild Sugar. The term ‘brass monkey’ is thought to come from an explicit figure of speech that you can reference by clicking here.

(From left to right are Beastie Boy members Mike Diamond, Adam Yauch and Adam Horovitz (also known as Ad-Rock).

Slow and Low samples Flick of the Switch by AC/DC and 8th Wonder by The Sugarhill Gang. Like with the full scope of Licensed to Ill, the mixing and production were key to creating something new, which really cements part of the new style within the hip hop and hard rock tradition that Beastie Boys were making with this album. The accomplishment here is clear.

Time to Get Ill samples I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby by Barry White, Down on the Corner by Creedence Clearwater Revival and Gucci Time by Schoolly D. The song references actress and comedian Phyllis Diller along with the television show Mister Ed (1958-1966). That the song is a bit tongue in cheek brings us back to the rhymes, the attitude and the licensing that informs the album title Licensed to Ill.

Matt – Wednesday, November 17, 2021