Here is another segment of my top 500 favorite songs list that spans quite a long period of time: 1964 to 2016, 52 years. And the musical selections' tempos and styles vary widely as well...there should be something here you like. If you haven't heard some of the listed songs, why not give them a listen...I especially recommend Regina Spektor. Anyway, here's what I have to say about #420-411...
420 I AM MINE...Pearl Jam
I am Mine, written and sung by Eddie Vedder and released in 2002, is one of those special songs celebrating individuality and the importance of meeting life on one's own terms...like Frank Sinatra's I Did It My Way and Sammy Davis, Jr.'s I Gotta Be Me, but for the 21st century. Pearl Jam is one of those musical acts that had a breakthrough album establishing their fame and fortune but, after the first few years...although their product remained high-quality...didn't get the airplay they deserved for their newer songs and had to rely on their name and older hits on the concert trail...I am Mine should have been a much bigger hit...
419 ABRAHAM, MARTIN AND JOHN...Dion
This song was composed soon after the devastating assassination in early June, 1968 of Robert F. Kennedy while he was passing through the back of a hotel after his victory speech for winning the California presidential primary earlier that day. I didn't hear about it until the next morning at school (Nova Blanche Forman Elementary in Davie, 6th Grade, Wednesday, June 5th sitting on the south side of Room 18 in Suite D). Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Bobby's brother, John F. Kennedy, were also victims to assassins' bullets...what a different country we would be had they not fallen. An appropriately very sad and unforgettable song...
418 STAY AWAY...Nirvana
A deep track from this Seattle grunge band's 1991 Nevermind album, it is full of their late frontman Kurt Cobain's rage at the outside world trying to typecast and crowd in on him...so why did he set out to achieve celebrity and fame, then? I can never get why some people struggle and struggle to attain something after which they act like such big victims for being successful. I like this song for a different reason: the words "stay away" as he screams them speak to my feelings during the times I feel overwhelmed in the middle of noisy crowds (like what is currently going on in this Starbucks), and hey, sometimes it's just fun to haul off and scream along with the half-crazed singer...
417 INFATUATION...Rod Stewart
Once I turned off the exploitative and asisine music video and considered this 1984 singles release by Rod Stewart on its own merits, I quickly grew to like and appreciate it, one of this British artist's best songs in my estimation. It's a good rock song full of strong guitar riffs and keyboard support...Stewart's gruff, scratchy voice fits in perfectly here. My only problem was the drawn-out ending, but I can always switch it off at that point anyway...
416 IT KEEPS YOU RUNNIN'...the Doobie Brothers
When Michael McDonald joined the Doobie Brothers, his deep, soulful singing and keyboards added a different dimension to this band, as exemplified by this slow and relentless 1976 classic from their Taking It to the Streets album. Not that I don't appreciate original lead singer Tom Johnston, who is back with the band and touring with them...they're performing in St. Augustine next month. I didn't get around to noticing It Keeps You Runnin' until 1980, when for some reason it seemed to be resurgent on the radio...
415 LET IT BE ME...Betty Everett and Jerry Butler
When I was a little kid back in 1964 I had first thought that the Everett/Butler version I had grown to like so much, even back then, was the original and that the Everly Brothers copied them. But not only did I have that backwards, but also the original song was a French hit (in French by somebody else) from 1955. No matter, I still greatly prefer the beautiful heart-rending performance by Betty Everett and Jerry Butler...although the Everly Brothers did a pretty bang-up job with it as well...
414 THE VISIT...Regina Spektor
To me Regina Spektor is the greatest popular musical artist of this era...if anything I should have included more of her songs on this list. The Visit is from her 2016 Remember Us to Life album. The lyrics are about a visit to an old friend from the past: "And somewhere on the hill inside the past we hear the bells catching only parts of thoughts and fragments of ourselves". Regina is a classically-trained pianist who records her own compositions and has already released several albums...
413 THE BIG TIME...Neil Young
Back in 1996 I became a member of one of those CD music clubs that offered a certain number of free CDs along with a minimum of purchases...had I not I might never have heard this wonderful opening song of Neil Young's Broken Arrow album, which he recorded and released that year with the backup band Crazy Horse and I picked as one of my CDs from the list. A long piece, The Big Time refers in what seems to be an autobiographical sense to a long life well lived...and it's still not over, he's not finished yet. I like both Neil's endearing lyrics and the instrumental breaks, not a single weak moment in this long track...
412 TIGHTROPE...Electric Light Orchestra
Tightrope is the opening track from ELO's 1976 album A New World Record, in my opinion (as well as many others) their best album...I remember going down to Peaches in Fort Lauderdale next to the library to buy it...every track is worth listening to, and this song is one of the best with a brooding opening leading into electric guitar riff-laden rock n' roll punctuated by sudden, dissonant strings...nothing like it...
411 PIGS (THREE DIFFERENT ONES)...Pink Floyd
In their succession of four blockbuster hit albums, released every two years from 1973 to 1979, Pink Floyd's 1977 Animals is the one generally least liked and most ignored. The main reason I think for this are the abnormally long tracks dominating it, and Pigs (Three Different Ones) is a prime example, going on for more than 11 minutes with an exceedingly long mid-song instrumental break. It's one that you probably have to develop a taste for, but the music is so well-crafted and produced and Roger Waters' flair for cynicism-in-song is on full display here, although some of the references appear to be England-based and not readily apparent to American listeners...especially that part about Mary Whitehouse. A really spooky song that you need to set aside time for...
Next week: #410-401...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment