I actually have some spins this month! I’m embarking on three discography runs among classical. These are the first two releases of the artists and are very much embryonic; the fully developed albums are next to come so I thought I’d stop it here.

Gong - Haunted Chateau (1969): I don’t know whether this live recording or Magick Brother came first. In any event, it’s early, early Gong and bears little resemblance to the whimsical prog/fusion they would become. Didier Malherbe and Gilli Smyth are here, but it’s mostly psych-rock freakout jamming. It was rough the first time through (I was expecting more Pothead Pixies) but it’s okay in its own way. Songwriting was not their strong suit early on but they could carry a heady groove. A few of the tracks here turned up in later albums in much, much more polished form. A curiosity; I would have been disappointed if I had paid anything for it.?si=iq1zO0Q3801zWSYx

Gong - Magick Brother (1970): I guess Haunted Chateau came first; I thought this was a 1969 album but the Internet says 1970. It’s a huge step forward, not only in fidelity, but also it’s more conventional, song-based psych and it introduces the Pothead Pixies and Planet Gong, if only on one track. Still, the whole mythos started here. This is still psych without any prog or jazz influences, or even winds at all, even though there was a “Bloomdido” (Didier Malherbe) in the band the year before. Straight circa-1970 psych isn’t my favorite genre, especially when it’s not jamming or freakout, and this is as good a representative of that style as any when I don’t seek it out. All in all a decent album that’s far from the whimsical fusion Gong we know and love.?si=3qmaJN5ejq3DqPTN

Jimmy Buffett - Down to Earth: His 1970 debut, sounding nothing like Buffett other than his voice. It’s 11 tracks of acoustic-guitar-and-drums singer-songwriter stuff, which has never been remotely my favorite kind of music, but this is more tolerable than someone like James Taylor: Taylor is a better songwriter but he makes such a big deal of it. Jimmy Buffett, on the other hand, is skiff-deep and unpretentious, and all the songs fall easy on the ear. He has a better voice, too. It’s not a Jimmy Buffett enough album to appeal to parrotheads – no beaches, but some honest-to-God protest and drug songs – and it’s not a good or substantial enough album to appeal to singer-songwriter fans, which is probably why he changed direction pretty soon. A curious debut.?si=BvVrLalPxxumD6aa

Jimmy Buffett - High Cumberland Jubilee (1971): My copy is missing track 6, but I don’t think it would change my thoughts any. The first thing you notice is that the production is a lot more forward and a few songs have strings, piano, banjo, or brass compared to Down to Earth’s strict guitar, bass, and drums. It’s also a lot more country than the Jackson Browne or Gordon Lightfoot vibes of the debut – the punchier production is part of this, but also the songwriting – and it’s more enjoyable: I would be fine just having this on in the background. The songs are perfectly fine, with nothing that would stand out as a single (this is a problem for a pop singer, but that was still a couple of years away). It’s an enjoyable album, which is more than the debut, though it’s not bad, can say.?si=SheKBvnbAGPsSXD1

Taylor Swift - s/t (2006): Her debut, when she was 17 years old. She’s a little bit country here, actually a lotta but country, leaning into the accent. But she had solid pop songwriting chops from the get-go: I normally wouldn’t choose to listen to an album like this, but it’s seriously five out of five for listenability with a good number of legit bangers. I guess she’s disowned this album as juvenilia or something? because she never did a Taylor’s Version of it. Fans- or discography-runners only, but there’s a bit of the teenage Mendelssohn in it.?si=1XjVYRespSjLwvVs

Taylor Swift - Fearless (2008): When 1989 came out there was a big to-do about how she went pop and shed the last vestiges of country, but this isn’t at all a country album: there’s a tinge, and her voice still has an edge, but it’s nothing that wouldn’t be out of place in a ’90s post-grunge alternative song by the Gin Blossoms or Goo Goo Dolls. Also, the album has “You Belong With Me”, her first hit, which I guess checks out with when it was inescapable. I’ve always been creeped out by that song, which is probably a common reaction among people who have been stalked, especially by obsessed former high-school associates. The songs are actually a step back from the debut: with the gains in professionalism comes a melodic degradation (the verses of “You’re Not Sorry” are a bunch of nothing, and the chorus is memorable more for the harmony and vocal rhythm than for the melody).?si=iKosSPylBhFfWQeg

ON DECK
Gong - Camembert Electrique
Gong - Continental Circus
Gong - Flying Teapot
Jimmy Buffett - A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean
Jimmy Buffett - Life and Death in 3/4 Time
Jimmy Buffett - A1A
Taylor Swift - Speak Now
Taylor Swift - Red
Taylor Swift - 1989