#353: The Yardbirds' Having a Rave Up with the Yardbirds

I've never been all that into the early British Invasion stuff, and I could never quite wrap my mind around the appeal of Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton (heresy, yes, I know), but it's always fun to go back and listen to what scared the shit out of parents in the mid-sixties... Honestly, I'm a bit surprised at how impressed I am with this one. Who can deny the perfection of "Heart Full of Soul," with its textbook opening riff? Or the dirty blues stomp of "Smokestack Lightning"? And of course, it must be said that a range of bands as diverse as Aerosmith and The Dirtbombs owe their meal ticket to "The Train Kept A-Rollin"... Of course, none of these songs were penned by any of the Yardbirds themselves, but their contribution to rock as, at the very least, curators of the blues is no less the diminished.

#352, Billy Joel's 52nd Street: An appropriately eclectic follow up to what I would consider Joel's best work, The Stranger. Producer Phil Ramone brought a jazz flavor to much of this record, most notably on the Becker/Fagen-esque "Zanzibar." "Honesty" and "Until the Night" showcase Joel's balladeering skills, while "Big Shot" chronicles the cocaine-fueled zeitgeist of the era. "Stiletto" infuses a curiously intriguing mix of funk and boogie-woogie into Joel's pop vernacular, and for my money is the best track on the record. Like its predecessor, 52nd Street won Joel two Grammys.

#354, Randy Newman's 12 Songs: Everybody covers Randy Newman's songs, but nobody seems to listen to them, and that's a shame. Newman is an American treasure. Do yourself a favor and give this one a spin, that's all I'm gonna say...