My 500 All-Time Favorite Songs: #340-331

With today's ten songs, this list is now a third of the way through...so there's a lot more good music to come.  It's interesting that the digital era we are now enjoying in 2019 affords us the opportunity to deeply investigate different artists' collective output from decades past when such an undertaking during their time of stardom would have been daunting.  Here are my takes on the next ten songs on my all-time favorites list...

340 MUSIC...John Miles
John Miles is one of those accomplished musical artists who achieved much more success in Britain and Europe than in America.  This 1976 song got a lot of album-rock radio airplay then (I used to listen to Miami's "Zeta-4" on 94.9).  It has an epic sound to it, and the lyrics are limited but poignant: "To live without my music would be impossible to do, in this world of troubles my music pulls me through".  It also has some pretty cool orchestrated instrumental breaks in it.  I associate Music with that great year in my life, especially the summer...it's one of two songs with that title on this 500 favorites list: can you guess who did the other one?

339 NO TIME...the Guess Who
While I was living through the Guess Who's mass popularity from 1969-71, I caught on late to their high quality music, becoming a fan of this Canadian band in '71 and catching up on their earlier works, of which this is one.  The Guess Who could have been like their similarly-named British counterpart the Who and lasted longer, but alas, some groups simply do not have the inner chemistry that invites long-term collaboration...the Animals and Creedence Clearwater Revival were other examples of stupendous acts that broke up too early. No Time has a double meaning: the singer is fed up with whom he's singing to and is ready to move on...but also, it's a general complaint about simply not having enough time, period...

338 A MATTER OF TRUST...Billy Joel
I didn't care for Billy Joel's later music that he produced, starting with his An Innocent Man album in 1983...except for this one 1986 song, which has a strong rock element to it.  He's all relational as he coaxes his listener to hang in there, it's all gonna be okay: "The closer you get to the fire the more you get burned, but that won't happen to us cause it's always been a matter of trust"...

337 I'LL CRY INSTEAD...the Beatles
Appearing on both the Beatles' 1964 A Hard Day's Night and Something New albums, this song is extremely short at less than 1:50, but both musically and lyrically I've always liked it...and time seems to have aged it quite well.  I'll Cry Instead is a John Lennon song and hints at his increasing disillusionment about the band's fame and mounting pressures, as expressed in subsequent songs of his over the next two years...

336 NOT FADE AWAY...the Rolling Stones
One of the Rolling Stones' early singles, this is another very short song from 1964...written by Buddy Holly and using the renowned Bo Diddley beat.  You can clearly hear multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones' influence on this song as his harmonica and guitar virtuosity meshes well with Mick Jagger's rough-edged singing.  Jones had played a major role in bringing the Stones together and choosing their early successful cover hits. Unfortunately, he either couldn't or was unwilling to write his own songs and Jagger and Keith Richards...who did...eventually took over control of the band...

335 AUTOBAHN...Kraftwerk
Autobahn is the first of three "mega" songs revealed on this list of my all-time favorites, taking up an entire (vinyl) album side at 22+ minutes of duration.  The band and song's lyrics are both German and describe travelling down the German Autobahn, in one section even mimicking the Doppler Effect of traffic passing in the opposite direction.  The recurring melody with the lyrics "Wir fahren, fahren, fahren auf der Autobahn" reminded me of Mussorgsky's classical masterpiece Pictures at an Exhibition and how its Promenade theme would wind its way around the other elements of the piece.  Autobahn is probably the greatest product of the techno genre of music...I recently discovered it's also great to listen to while running...

334 BAKER STREET...Gerry Rafferty
Gerry Rafferty, the lead singer from his earlier band Stealers Wheel, exploded on the music scene in 1978 as a solo artist with his album City to City, from which Baker Street was released as a single.  Rafferty's mellow singing voice contrasted sharply with the heavy saxophone and guitar riffs on this big hit.  And that wild, weeping guitar ending...whew.  When I think of the summer of 1978, this great song inevitably comes to mind.  And more than forty years later I keep hearing it played on a number of radio stations. Rafferty himself was ambivalent about his musical stardom and eschewed performing in concerts...

333 BLACK MIRROR...Arcade Fire
Black Mirror is the opening track from the alternative rock band Arcade Fire's brilliant Neon Bible album from 2007.  It's also the first song I heard and identified with this band...and motivated me to check out some other of their songs, some of which I'll discuss later on this list of mine.  I heard it played on Gainesville's WHHZ/100.5 "The Buzz" just before they decided to steer their programming format to acts like (shudder) Nickelback, Offspring and Shinedown and away from the more indie-oriented music I had grown to follow...

332 YESTERDAY'S GONE...Chad and Jeremy
With a beat that bears similarity to the Beatles' I'll Cry Instead (#337), Yesterday's Gone predates that song by a couple of years.  It was released in the USA in June of 1964 but my Miami radio station WQAM wouldn't play it...later on it was recognized as a "golden oldie", and well-deserved at that.  The music and lyrics impart a feeling of wistfulness and a sense of closure about a relationship that had run its course.  I ended up buying the single in 1976...

331 YOU WERE ON MY MIND...We Five was a one-hit-wonder American band that produced this hit song in 1965...they broke up a couple of years later but eventually reunited, probably seeing the lucrativeness of trading off on their established name.  I think they're still together.  Lead singer Beverly Bivens sang this tune with such feeling that I had to take note...it's a song that I've only increased in appreciation over the years...

Next week: songs #330-321...