Most of the songs on this week's list are distinguished not only for the great music in them, but also for their lyrics, some of which I've indicated. Here's the next ten selections and my reactions...
380 TURN IT ON AGAIN...Genesis
The first Genesis song I ever liked, Turn It On Again first came out in 1980 but I only first heard it two years later when Gainesville's Rock-104 played it a lot. A great collaborative effort between Phil Collins doing lead singing and drums, Mike Rutherford as guitarist/lyricist, and Tony Banks doing his magic on the keyboards. I loved the instrumental buildup at the song's beginning...
379 INSTANT KARMA...John Lennon
In early 1970 when it was a hit, I didn't like this clashing, angry song by John Lennon but in subsequent years grew to greatly appreciate it...Instant Karma, looking back on it, might just well be the musical ancestor of the Grunge movement in later years. Paul McCartney reportedly was very impressed with it as well...here's one of my favorite lines: "Instant Karma's gonna get you, gonna look you right in the face, better get yourself together darlin', join the human race"...
378 DREAMER...Supertramp
Dreamer was originally a 1974 British singles hit that became popular years later in the U.S. following the band's wildly successful Breakfast in America album...I recall it getting a lot of radio play in 1980. Supertramp was a quality collaborative musical act...sadly one of many...that eventually broke up because its lead singer came to believe that he was bigger than the rest of the band. Too bad, I thought their work was top-notch when they were all together: you'll be seeing them again on this list...
377 APPLE SCRUFFS...George Harrison
In 1971 I bought the George Harrison single What is Life, one of my favorite songs from that year. The flip side is Apple Scruffs, a paean for the fans who hung around the Beatles when they were at their Apple recording studios...the harmonica reigns supreme in this underappreciated, sweet song. Sometimes the B-side on those old singles turns out to be as good as the more promoted song on the other...
376 CECELIA...Simon and Garfunkel
In the spring of 1970 while my personal life as an angst-ridden thirteen-year-old was in turmoil, this singular track from the duo's final album Bridge Over Troubled Waters was released as a single. It has very strange beat and what seemed to me a Caribbean flavor combined with some racy lyrics to present a standout, unforgettable tune...I was crazy about it back in '70...
375 MARTHA MY DEAR...the Beatles
This was one of Paul McCartney's songs off the band's White Album with extensive background arrangement by producer George Martin. I first heard it in 1972...four years after the album's initial release. It's one of this double album's best tracks in spite of the fact that the "Martha" old Paul seemed to be singing so romantically about turned out to be his own pet sheepdog...
374 THE RUNNER...Manfred Mann's Earth Band
With all the songs on this list that I associate with running, it's ironic that Manfred Mann's Earth Band's early 1980s song The Runner didn't appeal to me for that reason...I wasn't running then and hadn't been for years. No, the lyrics had a broader meaning to me of striving hard for any worthwhile, challenging goal no matter what obstacles or opposition from others may arise...pretty inspiring...
373 NEW FRONTIER...Donald Fagen
This song should have been a monster hit in 1982...such a classy mix of nostalgic lyrics and jazzy rock. Fagen's Steely Dan had split for a while back then and the band's lead singer scored big with this single...and the video is hilarious and romantic, one of the best I've seen. The setting is the early years of the Kennedy administration in the early '60s when nuclear Armageddon at the height of the Cold War between America and the USSR hung menacingly over everyone but people still went about their lives without freaking out over the threat. Still, a lot of folks had built family bomb shelters out back...
372 STUPIFY...Disturbed
This 2000 hard rock song is a mood piece, expressing the singer's abject frustration at every turn of his situation until the point where he's "stupefied". It's marked by a sharp, regular barking out of words, some of them unprintable. My favorite part is the solemnity of the music and singer David Draiman slowly chanting in a Middle Eastern-style break toward the song's end the Hebrew "tefached", meaning "you will be afraid". I also loved his spoken introductory words: "Yeah, bringing you another disturbing creation from the mind of one sick animal who can't tell the difference and gets stupefied"...
371 MOVIN' OUT (ANTHONY'S SONG)...Billy Joel
I've written before about a couple of songs that put down the rat race, claiming that spending that much time and energy for marginal material gain just isn't worth it...Movin' Out is the undisputed king of such songs. Joel bluntly and sardonically lays it out on the line about a policeman moonlighting as a bartender: "Yeah, and he's tradin' in his Chevy for a Cadillac, you oughta know by now, and if he can't drive with a broken back, at least he can polish the fenders". This was the opening track in Billy Joel's stupendous The Stranger album from 1977...the pinnacle of his creative output, in my opinion. I'm totally in sync with his message on Movin' Out, although in real life Joel himself seemed totally immersed in the rat race...
Next week: #370-361...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment