Let's revisit "The Best Herb Alpert Album Ever"

[toeknee4bz]

I had just found a used copy of Warm and I played it for this guy at school who said it was "old fart" music...then he played a song called Factory from an HA album called Beyond (I think...) he said THIS is Herb Alpert -- not that muzak from the 1960s!! I think he first discovered HA with Rise and liked that "urban" sort of thing. As for Factory -- other than some super-duper sounds effects I don't remember a thing as I was thoroughly under the spell of The Sea Is My Soil.

[I remember, thinking: man, if he can't get into Warm, I wouldn't dare try to play Tijuana Taxi -- he'd probably just laugh at it! I guess for him (and his ilk) innocent '60s pop was no match for the streetwise grooves of the '80s. Of course we all know he got it "brassackwards"!!]

-James

OK, James... I was just catching up in the archives when I read this post, and I couldn't help thinking "Ouch!"

This post makes me wonder... AM I THE ONLY PERSON ON EARTH WHO LIKES BOTH TJB and SOLO HERB ALPERT EQUALLY WELL???

I don't blame you, however, for being unimpressed with "The Factory". Thankfully this was the last track on the BEYOND LP, so I can just end the album 5:25 early! I know that Herb once was quoted as stating that "composition doesn't have to be a theoretical excercise", but this was probably the most boring motif he ever recorded!

In contrast, I also can enjoy WARM, but it's definitely a laid back relaxation album, and I can understand how the urban guy would call it "muzak" (as if this were a bad thing ). Truthfully, I rarely play it, but when I get in the mood, I play it at home, and I do enjoy it. And no, not all of us kids laugh at "Tijuana Taxi" or "Spanish Flea". After all, as Herb also once said, without songs like these, "there'd be no Dating Game!"

However, if I want to stay awake on the freeway, it'll probably be the last thing I put on, with the possible exception of an Earl Klugh CD! I play a lot of road music, and when you're behind the wheel, day or night, you need to be alert. You've gotta admit that there is a certain logic to this line of thought. When I'm cruising down the road with songs like "Latin Lady", "Garden Party", "Magic Man", "Cat Man Do", "Wild Romance", or "Rocket To The Moon", I'm pretty sure I won't fall asleep at the wheel! If you haven't explored some of Herb's later albums, you're really missing out.

In short, I'm just saying that there's room for both worlds, and "Hey, give that '80s urban guy a break!"

LOL,
Tony

 

[JOv2]

OK, James... I was just catching up in the archives when I read this post, and I couldn't help thinking "Ouch!"

This post makes me wonder... AM I THE ONLY PERSON ON EARTH WHO LIKES BOTH TJB and SOLO HERB ALPERT EQUALLY WELL???...In short, I'm just saying that there's room for both worlds, and "Hey, give that '80s urban guy a break!"

Heya, Tony --

Well, for me, I don't know the post '71 Herb -- just a couple of songs here and there. I did, however, just pick up the Lost Treasures CD, so now I've got a good intro to what I believe to be the '72-'74 era.

As for giving that guy a break. Nope. He was mostly about that Genesis/Yes/Rush guitargawd(awful) grandstanding, look-at-me-I'm-so-important, self-absorbed (did I leave anything out?) AOR rock of the '70s. You know, that technically-impressive whiz-bang stuff that Frank Zappa once astutely wrote off as little more than "intermediate-level technical studies". I'll take my Zombies, Loving Spoonful and TjB any day -- there's just much more music in their music.

Ha!

 

[toeknee4bz]

Ah, I see your point. I've met up with plenty of those "Mr. Attitudes" over the years myself. It's really kinda sad because some of them have been reasonably intelligent (book smart) people. They just have that intense need to criticize your tastes while they try to fit in with people whom they're trying to impress. Good for you!

Tony

"One day in 1969 I realized that it's not about how much dough you have in the bank, or who knows your name, but it's really about what you feel inside." - Herb Alpert

 

[JOv2]

You nailed it, Tony --

The guy was super intelligent...you know with a "book IQ" of about 40,000. (Of course his "social IQ" was about 37). For whatever reason unless music was overtly complex, espoused abstruse lyrics, and had a big fatass guitar solo in there, he (and others of that ilk) would just write it off as insignificant.

Silly me, and I always thought a good song was one that got stuck in your head -- something you'd end up whistling.

(Ever notice how today's kids don't whistle songs -- who ever heard of whistling a rap? Anyway, he got the last laugh...graduated 20 years ago with a computer-type degree and last I heard he was retired (and financially set for life) as a result of some kinda software patent thingie...)

 

[toeknee4bz]

I always thought a good song was one that got stuck in your head -- something you'd end up whistling.

(Ever notice how today's kids don't whistle songs -- who ever heard of whistling a rap?

Speaking of whistling (which my clarinet-playing brother and I do frequently), I think a lot of people who like "Whistlestar", from LOST TREASURES need to take another listen to "So What's New?", From WHAT NOW MY LOVE. This song, IMHO, is possibly Herb's best 'whistle track', which should stick in your head for hours if it's the last thing you play.

Getting back to the main subject of this thread, I could never come up with a "Best Herb Alpert Album Ever", but WHAT NOW MY LOVE would be at least in the Top 5, along with (4)LOST TREASURES, (3)WHIPPED CREAM & OTHER DELIGHTS, (2)SOUNDS LIKE, and (1, unless I change my mind)FANDANGO.
(Yeah, I know... 4 out of my Top 5 were TJB.)

Tony