Dave's Side One

Can you change an album without changing a single note?

In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave makes Musical Argument #6: album sequencing is part of the music.

Using Yes’s Tormato as the experiment, Dave physically rearranges tracks and asks what happens when an opener moves, a closer loses its final position, or a Side One ending becomes something else.

Tormato was released in 1978, and its original eight-track sequence runs from “Future Times / Rejoice” through “On the Silent Wings of Freedom.”

The argument is not that the album needs fixing.

The argument is that changing the sequence changes how the same songs interact.

The Side One Test:

Does Track One open the right door?

Do neighboring songs help one another?

And does the last track feel like an ending?

Side One Spin: What album has a running order you would never change?

Full Spotify Description

More music does not automatically make a better album.

In today's episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave makes Musical Argument #5: sometimes 35 minutes is better than 70.

Using KISS’s compact Dressed to Kill as the main example, Dave explores the creative value of limitation.

Vinyl could only hold so much music comfortably, which forced artists and producers to make choices about which songs belonged, which ones did not, how long a side should run, and when the record was finished.

Today's Side One Test:

Take an album you genuinely like.

Remove two songs.

Does it get worse?

Or does it suddenly become tighter?

The point is not that short is automatically good or long is automatically bad.

The point is that every minute should earn its place.

Side One Spin: What album would you shorten—and what are you cutting?

Can you know every hit and still not really know the band?

In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave makes Musical Argument #4: greatest-hits albums can distort a band’s legacy.

Using Chicago’s Chicago IX as the primary example, Dave explores what disappears when songs are removed from their original albums: deep cuts, longer arrangements, instrumentals, transitions, sequencing and context.

That does not make compilations bad.

In fact, they can be some of the best entry points into a catalog.

The key is not to stop there.

Dave also introduces The Greatest Hits Test:

What does this compilation tell me about the artist?

And what does it hide?

Side One Spin: What greatest-hits album introduced you to a band—and did it make you go deeper?

What makes a great Side One?

In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave makes Musical Argument #3: great albums need great Side Ones.

Using Genesis’s Duke, Dave follows the original first-side sequence from “Behind the Lines” through “Heathaze” and looks at how a vinyl side can function as more than the first half of a track list.

The expanded Side One Test asks three questions:

Did the side establish the album?

Did it go somewhere?

And when the needle reached the runout, did you want to flip the record?

The first side doesn’t have to be better than Side Two.

It simply has to matter.

Side One Spin: What is the greatest Side One ever pressed?

Does knowing an artist's biggest hit mean you really know the artist?

In Episode 40 of Dave's Side One, Dave makes Musical Argument #2: the deep cut may tell you more about a band than the hit.

Using Styx's Styx II and the familiar landmark of “Lady,” Dave asks what happens when we temporarily remove the famous song and pay attention to everything around it.

The episode also introduces The Deep Cut Test: remove your favorite band's three biggest songs and then choose the track you'd play to explain why that band matters to you.

The hit may provide the introduction.

The deep cut starts the conversation.

Side One Spin: What deep cut would you play to explain your favorite band?

Dave’s favorite song on Steve Miller Band’s Book of Dreams is “Jungle Love.”

But he still would not move it to Track One.

In Episode 39 of Dave’s Side One, Dave begins Seven Musical Arguments by asking what an opening track is actually supposed to accomplish.

The album begins with “Threshold” leading into “Jet Airliner,” an opening sequence that Dave sees as a doorway into the record.

The episode also includes a personal memory: in the summer of 1978, Dave loaned his first copy of Book of Dreams to a friend who left it in his car, where the heat warped the record beyond use.

Dave also introduces The Side One Test—listen to the entire first side without skipping or shuffling and ask whether those songs belong together in exactly that order.

Today’s Side One Spin: What album contains your favorite song somewhere other than Track One—and would moving it improve or damage the experience?

Blue Öyster Cult’s Mirrors arrived in 1979 with a new producer and a noticeably different sound. Tom Werman replaced longtime producer Sandy Pearlman, bringing sharper production, larger backing vocals and a more accessible presentation.

Some longtime fans heard the album as an attempt to move away from the band’s darker identity. Dave hears a varied nine-song record that retains Blue Öyster Cult’s guitars, literary imagination, multiple voices and willingness to move between hard rock, pop, fantasy and science fiction.

The episode explores “Dr. Music,” “The Great Sun Jester,” “In Thee,” “Mirrors,” “Moon Crazy,” “The Vigil,” “I Am the Storm,” “You’re Not the One (I Was Looking For)” and “Lonely Teardrops.”

Today’s Side One Spin: Does Mirrors deserve more credit, and which song makes the strongest case?

America’s Harbor arrived in 1977 after a run of albums associated with major songs such as “Ventura Highway,” “Tin Man,” “Sister Golden Hair” and “Today’s the Day.” Unlike those records, Harbor did not produce another enduring radio standard.

In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave remembers finding the album at a kiosk outside a shopping plaza and revisits its 12-song sequence, beginning with Gerry Beckley’s atmospheric “God of the Sun.”

Produced by George Martin, Harbor features songs written by Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell and Dan Peek and became the final studio album recorded by America’s original trio.

Today’s Side One Spin: What is the best song on Harbor, and is it America’s most overlooked album?

Monolith entered the world after Leftoverture and Point of Know Return, two records that had created an extraordinary standard for Kansas.

In today's Dave’s Side One, Dave remembers buying the album during release week at Raspberry Records near Cottonwood Mall in Salt Lake City and explores why it has continued growing in importance over time.

The episode revisits the album’s striking Bruce Wolfe artwork, its more reflective mood and songs including “On the Other Side,” “People of the South Wind,” “Angels Have Fallen,” “A Glimpse of Home” and “Reason to Be.” Kansas’ official discography dates the album to May 1979.

Today’s Side One Spin: What is the best song on Monolith, and does the album belong inside Kansas’ classic run?

Did Boston ever make a truly bad studio album?

In Episode 200 of Dave’s Side One, Dave examines the six albums in Boston’s official studio catalog: Boston, Don’t Look Back, Third Stage, Walk On, Corporate America and Life, Love & Hope.

The debut remains the band’s defining achievement, but that extraordinary beginning may have created an impossible standard for everything that followed.

This episode revisits the classic first three albums, Fran Cosmo’s role on Walk On, the expanded direction of Corporate America and the multiple voices heard on Life, Love & Hope.

Today’s Side One Spin: What is Boston’s weakest studio album, and what is the best song on it?