My G-g-g-g-g-g-g....OK, Roger, spit it out now. Talkin bout my generation. The famous 'hope I die before I get old' line. I wonder how many times Pete Townsend had to answer questions about that, particularly as he aged. This song charges out of the speakers, drums and handclaps, Entwistle's de dooga de doo bass, Moon all over the place at the triumphant finish. Everyone! D-d-d-d-estroy your instruments! Rock n roll!
This is a catchy piece of minimalist dancehall reggae, with saxophone, bass, and chicka chicka guitar. Sister Nancy sings in a thick Jamaican patois, and her vocals are heavily treated, so I have included a link to the lyrics. Sister Nancy celebrates her success as a talented female DJ in a male-dominated environment. I first heard this song 15 years ago, and it definitely got my immediate attention. Like, I probably stopped what I was doing and just sat there transfixed.
Here's a big slab of fuzz for you. Whoa, check out that guitar solo! It is insane! I am not sure what the song is about, since it is Cambodian. But it totally rocks. Pan Ron was a popular singer who, like many Cambodian artists and intellectuals, died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. But her songs survived and are available on any number of excellent Cambodian music compilations.
For a song about being out in the woods while under the threat of a wolf attack, it sure has a bouncy carefree feel to it. Jerry Garcia's pedal steel guitar sounds even happier than it did on CSNY's Teach Your Children. This is yet another Dead tune that mentions card games; eg, Loser, Deal, Doin That Rag, and drinking; eg, Brown eyed Women, Mexicali Blues, Jack Straw. The Dire Wolf is scary and menacing, and he will probably murder the narrator. Oh well, c'est la vie. My favorite lines: "I sat down to my supper, 'twas a bottle of red whiskey" and "I cut my deck to the queen of spades but the cards were all the same."
"Somewhere in that ancient mystic trinity....you'll get three." A magic number. For a song aimed at elementary school kids, it has quite the psychedelic edge to it. But then, so did Sesame Street. It sure was fun to be a kid in the 70s. Schoolhouse Rock had a song for all the single digit integers, and this is my favorite. Four and five were good ones too. Groovy and memorable educational tunes. Plus, the animation was fun. I love when the football player wearing number 30 smashes through the too-small opening. Too bad the poor professor guy gets crushed. I also hated that the Giants were leading my Bears 18-0. Blind Melon did a nice version for the Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks album in 1996.
The maudlin horns during the intro are almost too much for me, but the guitar and maracas, then tambourine, rescue it from being too schmaltzy. Then it becomes this blue-eyed soul, wall of sound production, lead by the amazing baritone of Scott Walker. Angelic choir comes in at chorus, and the music soars. It is all so earnest, I should really not like it so much. However, I simply cannot resist those Scott Walker vocals. Like a clear cool stream rolling down the mountain.
It approaches Righteous Brothers territory, but fortunately it is way better than any of their songs. Lovin Feeling, Unchained Melody...yuck, no
thanks.
This is one of the two Doors songs my Dad was able to tolerate when I would play their records in the basement. I remember he said something about liking Jim Morrison's baritone. He may have also said it reminded him of a classic western balladeer. Being a trumpet player, he liked the orchestration as well. Mostly, I think my Dad thought the Doors were commie pinko trash, especially on songs like The End and When the Music's Over, but I am glad he liked this one.
Touch Me is a great song, it is breezy 60s orchestral pop that is unlike any other song they did. It begins with short staccato notes played in unison on the guitar, bass and organ, with John Densmore's swinging drums powering up chords that lead into the opening Come on come on come on....the horns come in, great arrangements. And of course, a fantastic outro blown into orbit by the outstanding saxophone solo from Curtis Amy, who was married to Merry Clayton, who sang on the Stones' Gimme Shelter and Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama. How many of you knew that? I sure didn't!
I have always imagined that being stuck in Lodi would be like being stuck with the Lotus Eaters in the Odyssey. Or like some sort of vortex, or the Twilight Zone. If you were going to be stuck anywhere in northern California, it is most likely going to be Lodi. The narrator ends up there after riding in on a greyhound to do a gig, then his friends go missing, his promise of fame vanishes, and he ends up singing the same songs over and over, trying to save up enough money to buy a train ticket out of there. I have never been to Lodi, but it is apparently the ''Zinfandel Capital of the World." You end up sipping some wine and before you know it you are a resident. I don't think the narrator thinks it's such a bad place, but it must be frustrating since he has been stuck there before. Like you are in a dream and you can't figure out how to wake up.
This song has non-stop energy, it powers along on some intense drums from Dennis Davis, and masterful guitar by Carlos Alomar. It has an aggressive European spy film chase scene quality to it. Bowie's theatrical baritone vocals are on great display throughout.
Where the loud intensity of 'Runnin with the Devil' and 'Eruption' bombarded my little junior high ears, 'Dance the Night Away' was a total opposite. It is a fun party song, with great harmonies on the chorus. I love the part when David Lee Roth cracks up at his own screechiness on 'across the room'. Of course this song was a hit. It opens with some hi hat and cowbell, then a happy guitar riff comes in and adds some bite to the chords as the drums propel it into the first verse. Eddie Van Halen taps out some harmonics instead of a blazing guitar solo, a little break in the action that nicely complements the fun atmosphere. Naturally, the guys ended up scaring me later with 'And the Cradle will Rock.'
'Strange days have found us...' Jim Morrison sings, his voice processed through a moog to create a submerged and hazy quality. I believe the song is about a party where people have taken LSD for the first time and the trip is not a pleasant one. The 'strange days' are like some sort of unfriendly spirits that have invaded the lives of regular people who used to experience 'casual joy' without any truly insidious effects, other than maybe a hangover. The hostess of the party seems to be enjoying the state that her guests are in, but the guests are really freaked out. Eventually, they cannot take it anymore and burst out of the house into the night, only to find that everything is motionless, like stone. That will teach you!
Musically, I love the organ and the bass lines, especially after the second verse. These do sound like strange days, indeed! (most peculiar, mama - JL)
Proud Mary is an American classic, occupying the same territory as a Mark Twain novel: Life on the Mississippi, Huck Finn, big paddle wheels on the riverboats, watching the towns and landscapes go by, meeting people up and down the river. My friend Dave once quoted a lyric as 'people on the river just know how to live.' That fits too. Rollin on the river....
I love Bob Dylan's songs, but like many fans I also enjoy imitating Dylan, and it doesn't get much more fun than I Want You. Bob's nasally off-beat vocals, the feeling that he's just stringing together words that rhyme...it's great.
'Because he took you for a ride, and because time was on his side, and the pied piper pied, and the people reapplied, and then I got stuck inside, and my hair was blown dried...' etc etc.
This is a very fun little bouncy pop tune.
This song always makes me think of being a kid in 1976 and riding in the back seat of the family station wagon at night, after a swim meet. My Mom would have the radio on and I would lay down and watch as the various neon lights of fast food chains were reflected on the window. We might head to McDonalds for some 'food' or a 'milkshake'. There is a down to earth late night quality to this song, the reverb on the vocals and music, the simple jangly guitar chords, the drum fills. I always liked the name-checking of the various cities in the US - Phoenix, Tacoma, Philadelphia, Atlanta, LA. When I got older I often wondered why Tacoma was included, since it's way smaller than the other ones. I thought it might have been a nod to the Tacoma Dome, but that wasn't constructed until 1983. It must be that it sort of rhymes with Arizona. Arizona - Tacoma - Oklahoma - Bologna. Catchy stuff, Steve Miller. He includes all of northern California in his lyrics. Why limit himself to one city when 'the girls are warm' in an entire area? There were probably a lot of girls in northern Cali who heard this song and thought, "Hey, I live in northern California and I'm warm. He's singing about me!"
With its memorable guitar hook and offbeat drum pattern, this catchy tune from the Help! album went to number 1 in the US, the UK, and...Norway, among a few other countries. Yet another perfectly crafted song from the Beatles and George Martin, I especially like the up-tempo outro...'my baby don't care'. One of my favorite groups, Trip Shakespeare, used the main guitar riff on their tribute song 'Beatle'.
The first time I knew about Heart of Gold was when my junior high music teacher had the class play it on the recorder. We also learned to play the theme from MASH and the theme from Ice Castles (yuck). I don't know how my poor teacher handled those high recorder note on 'i wanna live', must have produced a bunch of screeches throughout the room.
When I got a little older I started to hear the song on the radio. I liked it, and my music teacher earned some cool points for liking it and teaching it to us. During the harmonica and pedal steel passages, listen for the quieter strumming and picking of acoustic guitars hanging in their shadows, they are really sweet, especially out of the left speaker. And of course, enjoy the appearances of James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt near the end, a brilliant idea to do that.
Love love love this song. My favorite song by the Kinks. It tells the story of a young guy trying to find work, waiting with bored frustration all day to see if he will be picked to work by the Union Man, one who holds such control over his fate in life. All these thoughts and emotions go through his head, his hopes to make some money and bring home some wine to his family, his mamma being all negative and telling him to give up, and the amazing chorus, where he feels like maybe this time he will be chosen, and the sun shines and all is glorious.....
The music is lovely. Guitars pick out sad forlorn scales as the story begins. G-G/F#-Em-G/F#-G-Am-G-D/F#. Then second time around replace that D/F# with a basic F into the second half of the verse where the protagonist starts to wonder if today will be the day.
The chorus comes in slowly, like a rollercoaster about to peak a hill and then start down. A flourish of cymbals and the imperious Union man arrives on the scene. The stretched out line of 'he's the man who decides if I live or I die, if I starve or I eat' is not only a great lyrical and musical hook, riding that D chord out so far, it also reinforces the crazy might of the antagonist by providing two reasons why he is The Man. The music jumps up hopefully as the Union man gets closer and closer....but then, oh no, he walks right by. The drums break down to pull the poor guy out of his fantasy and he goes to get back in line.
I first heard Skylarking in 1994, on the excellent two-disc compilation Respect to Studio One. The song has to do with Jamaican teens driving around in their Buick Skylarks...just kidding. It is Horace Andy's observation of Jamaican teens begging for money on street corners, instead of working hard to find an honest way to be self-sufficient. The song has a great saxophone hook and cool double-tracked vocals.
Time for a psychedelic psmash from those Birmingham Beatsters, the Move. The main hook is that cool little descending riff. The chorus is really poppy. Catches the mood of the times, 1967 and all the trippy experimental ways to explore dense ontological subject matter and have fun at the same time.
drum roll, please...Stand! is a message of freedom and harmony from the amazing Sly Stone to the Woodstock generation and beyond. Stand up for what you believe in, stand up for others, don't let the pissers bring you down. Very catchy song, excellent guitar throughout from Freddie Stone, great backing vocals from Little Sister, and a really fun funky outro with horn blasts.
There is some fast gibberish in the opening second of this song. I slowed it down and I think the words are "what do you think I've got in my tummy". This is a fun singalong with John Lennon and Elton John.
'Hold me darlin come on listen to me, I won't do you no harm.'
'Don't need a watch to waste your time, oh no oh no.'
'Don't need a gun to blow your mind, oh no oh no.'
It sounds like a party atmosphere in the studio, probably was pretty crazy. John, Elton on piano, and Bobby Keys tremendous on the sax, Klaus Voormann on bass, Jim Keltner on drums, fun group of great musicians.
A lovely tune from Beck's Mutations album. I just like the overall mood, kind of lost and searching, with nice harpsichord variations, low bass notes, dreamy chord changes. It feels a bit like a psychedelic downer lullaby. The song might be about the creative process, the alchemy of turning words and music into gold. Or love. Or something entirely different. Whatever, Beck is a complex artiste.
Fotheringay is the first track from Fairport Convention's second album What We Did On Our Holidays. It is a gentle piece of British folk music that sounds old, from medieval times or the baroque era. It tells the haunting story of a woman being held captive in a castle, her days filled with loneliness. You can picture the castle out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by forest, shrouded in mist, moss-covered stones scattered about on the rugged terrain, with no one else around for miles. Sandy Denny sings with such amazing pathos and beauty, I cannot imagine anyone else singing this song. The gently picked guitars and sotto voce harmonies really capture this lonely scene. 'Tommorrow...she will be far away...' I always hope this is because she will be rescued, but I believe she will be dead, either by her own hand or by execution.
Some toe-tappin music from Can. I don't really have a strong desire to know the actual lyrics, but I am way into the vocals. Damo Suzuki has a soft sleepy delivery, it adds mellow cool to the swinging groove. The drums of Jaki Leibezeit are excellent. Michael Karoli and Holger Czukay keep the rhythm tight. The middle part has lots of fun noise events, maybe this is the part where the moon is shaking. This song occupies the same realm of cool as Green Onions.
This is my favorite song by The Animals. It is a cover, the song was originally done by American soul duo Eddie and Ernie. Nice two chord pattern during the verses. Guitar and piano and fuzzy bass. I love the guitar's tone, reverbed and deep. As always, Eric Burdon's husky vocals lead the way. He came to the Portland Blues Fest some years back and was simply amazing.
Hey, Syd's back! It has been a few months since we had a solo recording from him. There have been a couple of early Pink Floyd tunes, but now we get a great tune from his album, The Madcap Laughs. Here we venture into a sort of musical no man's land. It is often unclear which way a Syd song is going, which beat a line ends on, what chord it's time to play. The guitar solo comes in around 1:28, all raw and fuzzed out. The music starts to lose its way after 1:55, the musicians are probably like, 'Hey Syd, where are we going?' He just mumbles along, 'tell me tell me,' like he has no idea. A glorious mess.
I can't remember who wrote this, but someone, I think from Rolling Stone magazine, said Imagine was John's gift to the world. That is totally right on. Such a beautiful song. It is a message of hope and peace, easier said than done, but worth aiming for. Only one world for all of us, let's share it and be good to each other. It shouldn't be so hard to live a simple, kind-hearted life and to be happy. Lovely piano chords, and that little turn to the E chord after 'you may say I'm a dreamer' is the magic moment, the golden hour.
The music is sprightly and dreamy. Nice little guitar passage opens, bouncy bass,
then cool descending waves of synthesizer. The music goes on like this
for almost 1:30 before the first lyrics "Don't you wonder sometimes, 'bout sound and vision." This song is about waiting for creativity and inspiration. Bowie calmly waits in his blue room for the gift to appear. He never had to wait very long, creativity oozed out of his pores.
A delicate guitar intro and then the drums come in and the song is off and running. Do do do do. The sad post-break-up-please-let's-get-back-together song. Smokey sounds so disconcerted and helpless, admitting to his now ex-gf that, although he looks content on the outside, he is really messed up and lost without her. The Funk Brothers lay down the groove. I love that scene in Platoon when the cool party guys are in their bunker singing along.
April is going to be a great month...we start off with the wild bunch, Iggy and the Stooges. The main guitar riff reminds me somewhat of the Beatles' 'Day Tripper' riff, but sped up and shortened. This is classic Stooges, a basic riff, stick a crazy guitar solo in it, and let Iggy moan and shriek himself silly.
