Many major artists throughout the years have tackled the challenge of a double album. Some have faltered in the attempt, leaving us listeners with a fair share of filler. But a few have risen to the occasion and delivered double-disc masterpieces.
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The artists that fall in that latter group generally understand the importance of starting off the second LP with a killer song. Here are four tracks that will make you want to hurry up and get that second album on the platter.
“Most Likely You Go Your Way And I’ll Go On Mine” by Bob Dylan from ‘Blonde On Blonde’ (1966)
Bob Dylan’s first half-decade of recording featured an incredibly consistent level of brilliance, peaking with Blonde On Blonde in 1966. (He’d largely step away from that ambitious level for a long stretch afterward.) Dylan simply had too much swirling inside him to contain Blonde On Blonde to just a single disc, especially when he had one epic song (“Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands”) that was so long it needed a side all to itself. “Most Likely You Go Your Way And I Go Mine” starts off Disc Two with a bushelful of sneering energy. Dylan, reigning verbal volleys amidst horns and harmonicas, anticipates the end of a relationship. And he doesn’t seem all that broken up about it.
“Happy” by The Rolling Stones from ‘Exile On Main St.’ (1972)
The Rolling Stones found a forceful, rootsy groove in the late 60s and carried it over to the start of the new decade via a quartet of brilliant LPs. Exile On Main St., the last of those four standout LPs, could have been a disaster. Recording in a French villa to escape tax issues, the band and their hangers-on squeezed in sessions in between all kinds of debauchery. In the case of “Happy”, Keith Richards came up with the idea one day when no one was around but producer Jimmy Miller and horn player Bobby Keys. The trio worked out the bare bones of a fantastic track that would go on to become one of Richards’ signature songs, one of the first where he handled lead vocals all the way through.
“Hey You” by Pink Floyd from ‘The Wall’ (1979)
After several albums tied together in theme and concept, Pink Floyd went one step further with The Wall. They added a storyline that ran through the entire two discs. That gave the album legs as a stage show and movie down the road. But it also meant that some of the songs needed the context of everything around them to be fully understood. Not so for “Hey You”. Roger Waters wrote it as a kind of universal plea for empathy, one that could be appreciated even if you have no idea about the album’s plot. Despite the brooding track, sung by both David Gilmour and Waters, finding a welcoming home at rock radio, it wasn’t included in the film version of The Wall in 1982.
“U Got The Look” by Prince from ‘Sign O’ The Times’ (1987)
Prince recorded at a more prolific pace than just about anyone in pop music history. As a result, double albums were sort of par for the course for him. He scored with 1999, a double-disc released in 1982 that established him as a crossover star. Sign O’ The Times, which emerged from about three different albums that he started but didn’t complete, established an impressive artistic beachhead. A wild mix of musical styles and varied lyrical vibes, it gets a boost of energy to start Side Three with “U Got The Look”. Prince engages in a pas de deux with Sheena Easton, the latter giving as good as she gets. The booming funk track became the album’s breakout hit.
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