My friend Ken and I decided to listen to an album every day this year. Each week is themed. At the end of each week, we rank what we listened to. To be clear, we aren’t ranking every album that fits the theme. We are only ranking what we chose to listen to during the last seven days.
This week’s theme is “artists with honorifics,” meaning albums by artists whose name is preceded some prefix of courtesy or esteem, like Doctor or Mister. Lots of artists fit the bill here, but we tried to get creative with our selections.
#7 Welcome to the Real World by Mr. Mister (1985)
For a brief moment in 1985, Mr. Mister was arguably the most popular rock band in the world. Their “Broken Wings” and “Kyrie” both got to the top of the Hot 100 in a couple months. Those songs were both featured on Welcome to the Real World, the group’s album from the same year.
Welcome to the Real World is as 1980s as an album comes. You’ve got the big choruses powered by warm synths. You’ve got the sinewy melodies sung by stacked vocals. As John Davidson of Louder Sound noted in 2024, “This [album] is so mid-eighties I can see Molly Ringwald and the rest of the brat pack dancing in a bedroom in my mind’s eye.” If you’re into that, then Welcome to the Real World is for you. If not, then it will sound like a million other albums from this era. We fell into the latter camp.
#6 Need You Now by Lady A (2009)
When Lady Antebellum kicked off their career in 2006, their name’s Confederate imagery was liable to turn some heads, but it didn’t stir much controversy. That changed in 2020.
After George Floyd was killed, as scores of artists came under fire for anything that might be perceived as racist, Lady Antebellum’s name started causing problems. The trio quickly took to social media to make an announcement. They were shortening their name to Lady A:
We did not take into account the associations that weigh down this word [Antebellum] referring to the period of history before the Civil War, which includes slavery. We are deeply sorry for the hurt this has caused and for anyone who has felt unsafe, unseen or unvalued.
We’ve watched and listened more than ever over these last few weeks, and our hearts have been stirred with conviction, our eyes opened wide to the injustices, inequality and biases black women and men have always faced and continue to face every day. Now, blindspots we didn’t even know existed have been revealed.
Problem averted, right? Not exactly. Conservatives were angry at the group capitulating. “Gonna need you to take ‘lady’ out of your name too,” right-wing provocateur Dr. Sydney Watson replied to their post. “As a woman, I feel attacked and vilified … Please be more considerate, bigots.”
Liberals also found the change pointless. “Given that the world knows what that A stands for,” Paul Zollo began in American Songwriter, “to many this change does little more than add extra insult to this ongoing injury.” Things were only going to get worse.
An African-American singer named Lady A quickly came forward to note that she had been using that designation for decades. She told Rolling Stone, “It shouldn’t have taken George Floyd to die for them to realize that their name had a slave reference to it. It’s an opportunity for them to pretend they’re not racist or pretend this means something to them.”
After discussions came to a standstill, she said they had to either change their name or pay her $5 million. The band did not like those options. They soon filed a lawsuit because, as a longstanding nickname for the group, they owned the trademark for “Lady A.” Two years later, the parties finally reached an undisclosed settlement.
What does this have to do with Lady A[ntebellum]’s second album, Need You Now? Very little. But it is more interesting than this serviceable country record. Frankly, I can’t see myself returning to this record for anything other than the title track. I’m a sucker for male-female duet.
#5 Doctor Hook by Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show (1972)
When I was two tracks into Dr. Hook’s self-titled record, I had one thought: This is zany. Part of that zaniness is due to the vocals. First, you’ve got Dennis Locorriere, the more standard vocalist heard on tracks like “Sylvia’s Mother.” Then you’ve got Ray Sawyer, heard on tracks like “Marie Laveau,” that sounds more like a carnival barker.
The zaniness of that vocal interplay is only ratcheted up by the songs themselves. They were largely written by the author and songwriter Shel Silverstein. As is made clear by his most famous composition, “A Boy Named Sue,” Silverstein knew how to spin a wild yarn. Those yarns could come off as the rantings of a madman if interpreted by the wrong person. But Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show really sell the part though, bringing Silverstein’s characters to life as vividly as his books do.
#4 2001 by Dr. Dre (1999)
First, I’ll tell you what I liked about 2001, Dr. Dre’s album confusingly released in 1999. Given that it’s Dre, the beats are all compelling. “The Watcher” and “What’s the Difference” are interesting enough to back a 1960s pop song as they are a G-funk classic. Additionally, many of Dre’s collaborators are at the height of the powers. Snoop Dogg sounds menacing on “The Next Episode” Eminem is running circles around most of his contemporaries on “Forgot about Dre.” Nate Dogg, Kurupt, and Xzibit also all make compelling appearances.
Despite that, I didn’t love everything about this record. As I’ve complained with many other hip-hop records—even those that are classics—2001 is too long. Cut off five tracks (and all the skits) and you’d have a much leaner, more effective record. That runtime feels extra long because so many of these songs are just Dre and his cronies rapping about Dre still being the best. I get it. He’s “Still D.R.E.”, but some other topics would make the record more dynamic.
#3 Harlem Street Singer by Rev. Gary Davis (1963)
When I took singing lessons around the corner from my Cambridge, Massachusetts, apartment, my teacher told me a funny story. Years before, he woke up one day to a powerful voice singing in the distance. He put on his clothes to follow the song. A short walk brought him to a street fair where a gospel choir was performing. He soon approached the leader asking how he could join. He wanted to learn how to sing like those folks. The choirmaster had one question: “Have you found Christ yet?”
My teacher had not found Christ. But that question highlighted the necessity of honest belief required to pull off certain styles of music. You could not, for example, pull off “Death Don’t Have No Mercy” if you did not have the convictions of Rev. Gary Davis.
Davis was a preacher and musician who spent decades before even being able to afford a place to live. By the time audiences and artists began to take notice, Davis was in his 60s. But we are lucky that people did take notice. And we are lucky that David felt convictions deep enough to continue despite the scant success. The small body of recordings that he left us are some of the most powerful you will ever hear. And to generate that power, he doesn’t need more than a guitar, his voice, and a whole lot of belief.
Luckily, the Rev. Gary Davis story ended up being a happy one. Even as the folk revival—the 1960s movement that brought Davis some notoriety—began to fade, Davis was making enough money to afford two houses. Much of that money came from Peter, Paul and Mary’s renamed rendition of “Samson and Delilah.” Though technically in the public domain, they listed Davis as the songwriter. No, he did not die rich. But Davis was more comfortable than he’d been in decades. The only reason that was possible was the conviction he sang with across Harlem Street Singer.
#2 In the Right Place by Dr. John (1973)
A friend of mine once told me that when she listened to Jimi Hendrix, she often didn’t even think of him as playing the guitar. The music flowed so freely from his instrument that it sounded like an extension of his body, something that he could naturally emote from. Dr. John kind of makes me feel the same way.
No, Dr. John is not Art Tatum. He is not as virtuosic on the piano as Hendrix is on the guitar. But Dr. John is a natural. On songs, like “Qualified” the music flows from his fingertips like they always knew what to do. And when his instrument is not taking centerstage, his voice is just as compelling. On “Right Place, Wrong Time” and “Same Old Same Old,” Dr. John’s raspy Louisiana howl is more than enough to hold your attention.
#1 Money Jungle by Duke Ellington (1963)
Most jazz classics that I listen to are consistent sonically and thematically. Like when you listen to Kind of Blue, the first song dictates much of what you are going to get for the rest of the record. The same goes for A Love Supreme. I don’t mean that as a criticism. I love those albums. But they are record-length explorations of an idea or a mood.
Duke Ellington’s Money Jungle is not like that. You’ve got low key melodies like “Solitude.” You’ve got bebop influenced moments, like the title track. You’ve also got internationally-inspired rhythms, like “Caravan” and “A Little Max (Parfait)”. Frankly, the album is a bit all over the place.
And I loved that. I loved how Ellington was able to cover so much sonic ground on this record. Part of the reason he was able to do this was because of who he was working with: double bassist Charles Mingus and the drummer Max Roach. Mingus and Roach were over two decades younger than Ellington. Having come up in a different musical world, they were able to make a record more dynamic than if the Duke had just gotten the old big band back together.
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"If you’re into that, then Welcome to the Real World is for you."
🙋🏻♂️
Chris, thanks!