Today’s random selection is the third track from Al Green’s 1973 album Call Me. I’ll get around to 1973 in my Decades series pretty soon, and this album will definitely make an appearance.
One interesting aspect of this soul classic is that two of its nine tracks started as country tunes: Hank Williams’ ‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry’ and Willie Nelson’s ‘Funny How Time Slips Away.’
Funny how opinions change over time. I’ve written about R.E.M.’s Out of Time a few times before but never in a very positive light. In posts eight and nine years ago I described it as one of the band’s weakest efforts.
Yet here I am in 2019, naming it as my #1 album of 1991. And it wasn’t even a tough decision.
1991 was the year before I met my future wife, but my #2 album of that year earned its spot on this list mostly because of her.
Both Alexandra and I were fans of Toad the Wet Sprocket’s album Fear when we met, and it became a bonding element for us. It’s funny that she and I have very little musical overlap in general but managed to find a few artists who meant a whole lot to both of us. Although I probably would have faked liking these guys if it meant spending more time with her.
My #3 album of 1991 is admittedly a bit of a cheat, as most of its songs were recorded decades earlier. But Bob Dylan’s The Bootleg Series, Vol 1-3: Rare & Unreleased 1961-1991 marked the first time most of these outtakes and demos were officially released.
This three-disc set covered Dylan’s earliest years up through his spotty 80s output, and found hidden gems throughout. Incredible songs inexplicably left off of mediocre albums, alternate takes of all-time classics, demos recorded before anybody knew the name Bob Dylan.
My #4 album of 1991 is the mostly mediocre Elvis Costello release, Mighty Like a Rose.
Ranking this one was tough. I had to balance the warm bath of nostalgia with the sobering effects of time, then sprinkle in a dash of ‘one amazing song lifting up a whole album.’ Given all that, fourth place feels about right.
Meet Me In Montauk 