One of the great things that I love about the vinyl LP is the running order, or sequencing, of songs. Sequencing is one of the underappreciated components of an album; to me it’s as important as selecting the track to be featured as the single. With the vinyl LP you get the added bonus of essentially a second lead track on your record. We have lost this feature in the CD and now MP3 eras. I actually like getting up to flip the record. And there are some side-two lead tracks that are so great they inspire me to start with side two when I listen to those records.
Here are the first three:
“Here Comes the Sun” – The Beatles
from the album Abbey Road
George finally got the single (“Something”) and he also got the second lead track. This was the very first tune I learned to play on guitar, so I have a special affinity for it. Not long after the Beatles disbanded George released All Things Must Pass, arguably the best post-break-up release by any band member (with apologies to Ringo’s Ringo). So George obviously had a lot of great material that the Beatle machine was ignoring. His lone contribution to Sgt Pepper, “Within You Without You,” gets an honorable mention. It’s all right…
“Detox Mansion” – Warren Zevon
from the album Sentimental Hygiene
This was an inspired comeback record for Warren Zevon. Maybe not a comeback per se, because he never really went that far that he had to come back from (but it had been five years since The Envoy). Overshadowed a bit by the ballad “Reconsider Me” that closes side one, this track kicks off side two with a massive rock groove fueled by David Lindley’s unmistakable lap-steel guitar and punctuated by Bill Berry’s nect-cracking snare. Sends me to the volume knob to crank it every time. It’s hard to be somebody…
“Once in a Lifetime” – Talking Heads
from the album Remain in Light
Video may have killed the radio star, but it also propelled some artists to success they might not have enjoyed without videos. Talking Heads were a cult band that had managed to get in the AOR rotation, but the video for this track, featuring David Byrne’s “same as it ever was” forearm chops, opened the band up to a much broader audience. I love that people who bought this record for this song also got exposed to stellar Brian Eno-infused tracks like “Houses in Motion” and “Cross-Eyed and Painless.” You may ask yourself…
to be continued…
