April 20, 2016 - The Doors - Strange Days (1967)

'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)

April 19, 2016 - Creedence Clearwater Revival - Proud Mary (1969)

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....

April 18, 2016 - Bob Dylan - I Want You (1966)

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.

April 17, 2016 - Steve Miller Band - Rock'n Me (1976)

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!"

April 16, 2016 - The Beatles - Ticket to Ride (1965)

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'.

April 15, 2016 - Neil Young - Heart of Gold (1971)

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.

April 14, 2016 - The Kinks - Get Back In Line (1970)

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.

April 13, 2016 - Horace Andy - Skylarking (1972)

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.

April 12, 2016 - The Move - I Can Hear the Grass Grow (1967)

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.

April 11, 2016 - Sly & the Family Stone - Stand! (1969)

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.