Search - Ventures :: Go With Ventures (24bt) (Mlps)

Quintessential Ventures, quintessential 60s instrumental roc

David Kenner | Fort Worth, Texas United States | 02/24/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It seems kind of weird that I love this album so much that I gush about it the way people do about PET SOUNDS, NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS..., THE BENDS or some album that defines them in some undefinable, tuneful way. The difference between GO WITH THE VENTURES and those other examples of albums that music fans cherish is that the others are critically acclaimed and were commercially successful. I love The Ventures and always have but of their 40,000 albums that they've released over the past 120 years, this is the only one that I could not possibly ever, ever, ever get tired of (and consequently would have a hard time living without.)

I can't say this is art on the level of any Beatles or Dylan album and could never pretend that my recommendation of it will result in filling some musical void in anyone else's CD collection. I will say that I really feel that GO WITH THE VENTURES is the absolute best album that these guys ever made. I know I haven't heard all of their albums but I'm pretty sure that I've heard every legitimate American Dolton and Liberty release they put out from the beginning of the 60s on through to the mid-70s. They have tons of other great songs and several other great albums but, to me, there's a strange magic that only surfaced for this one album in 1966. The album before this one (the self titled one with the "Batman Theme") and the album directly after this one (GUITAR FREAKOUT) don't sound like GO WITH THE VENTURES. The drums sound different, the production is different, the way the songs were mixed is unique. Why I don't know but this album will always be kind of supernaturally connected to my soul in a way I could never really explain.

On the surface though, this is the standard Ventures 60s blueprint. 8 covers of recent Top 40 hits and four Ventures originals. That's where the similarities go out the window though. The Ventures were really on fire for this album and 1966 is a year that saw a lot of different musical styles being stirred into the Top 40 radio melting pot. The Ventures seem to effortlessly succeed at every style that these cover songs represent. There's straight pop (Gary Lewis & The Playboys' "Green Grass") garage rock (a different feel than the Rascals were going for on their version of "Good Lovin" but it definitely works; the great originals "Escape" and "Ad-Venture"), L.A. folk rock (The Beach Boys recent hit cover of "Sloop John B"; the two Mamas & Papas classics), the go-go/discotheque sound (Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots..."; the Chuck Berry-like original "Go"; a swingin' take on the folk standard "Frankie And Johnny" that is miles away from the then-recent Elvis movie version) and even "venturing" into the soon to be popular psychedelic sound (The Byrds' "Eight Miles High"). In addition to those 11 tracks is another Ventures original that I think is the greatest track they ever laid down, and that's the immortal "Ginza Lights". Inspired by their travels to Japan, The Ventures paid tribute to the country that embraced them beyond any other. I've read that it was a big hit overseas and is considered to be one of the all-time most popular songs in Japan pop music history. I can't understand why it couldn't have been at least a minor pop hit in America too. It's two minutes of rock instrumental heaven.

Every version of this album I've owned has been in stereo and this release offers not only a new stereo remaster but also the first CD issue (that I know of) of the original mono mixes of these 12 tracks. Fans of 60s pop and rock know how dramatically different the sound can be on a favorite song when you go from stereo to mono (even if the mix is the same) and the mono versions of these tunes did not disappoint me. I found the escalated price of this import to be a bargain in retrospect, as it gave me different sounding versions of the songs from what has always been my all-time favorite album. I'm not usually one to justify paying twice the normal price when buying a CD, but I would have gladly paid much more to hear these mono versions that I had never heard before. As I said, the mixes are basically the same. The only noticeable difference that I detected was that the first verse of "California Dreamin" is missing the vocal background. It's interesting to hear it this way. Overall, the mono versions are a veritable wall of sound and I'm thrilled to have the album in mono after all these years.

So I now have the opportunity to talk about this album in a way that would only seem boring, confusing, or amusing to my fellow music loving friends.

This album has been my all time favorite album for pretty much my whole life (I was born the year it was originally released). I've owned it all my life and could never have imagined a day when I would hear another album that captivated me even more. It finally happened this past year, though. As I congratulate The Ventures on a long, long overdue induction in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in a couple of weeks, I have to admit that I have finally found an album that I like even more than GO WITH THE VENTURES. Time will tell if I'm jumping the gun, but I think The White Stripes' ICKY THUMP is the best album I have ever heard.

So if you love GO WITH THE VENTURES and have not heard ICKY THUMP maybe you should give it a listen. There could be a common denominator that's not obvious but adds to each album's immortal qualities."