My 500 All-Time Favorite Songs: #60-56

The five songs on this segment of my list of 500 all-time favorite songs are all pretty old, the most recent one from 28 years ago.  Four of them you probably have heard before, the other being the first one listed below.  After thinking about each of them, it occurred to me that they're all pretty introspective, thoughtful pieces with memorable melodies and compelling instrumental arrangements: I think you'll like them, too...

60 LAZY DAY...the Moody Blues
One of my all-time favorite album sides...when they used to exist before the advent of the compact disc...is Side Two of the Moody Blues' 1969 On the Threshold of a Dream.  Lazy Day is the second track, but all the songs are wonderful...and they smoothly transition one into the next.  There is something very "English" about this song, and something subtly sinister about it as well, although the lyrics seem perfectly innocent describing life in a small town.  It was one of the many great compositions and performances I love by bandmember Ray Thomas...he's got a couple of higher-ranked songs on this list of mine...

59 NOT ENOUGH TIME...INXS
Not Enough Time, from 1992, to me was the final great song from the wildly talented and creative Australian band INXS.  It is one of their slower pieces, with the lyrics very romantic and passionate and the music dreamy.  I thought INXS would be around for a long time, but their popularity and music began to decline as the 1990s wore on, and then the tragic death of singer Michael Hutchence was devastating.  But I still have their backlog of great works to listen to...

58 LONELY PEOPLE...America
This is a real inspirational, uplifting song designed to help anyone listening who is suffering from discouragement and despondency.  It came out in early 1975, during a time in which I was having a lot of conflicting thoughts about society and my future place in it.  Great lyrics..."This is for all the lonely people thinking that life has passed them by, don't give up until you drink from the silver cup and ride that highway in the sky".  During their popularity in the seventies I had something of a love-hate relationship with this band: most of their stuff I could do without but then they'd come up with a song like this treasure...

57 BLACKBIRD...the Beatles
Originally I didn't even know the Beatles had written and originally recorded Blackbird...my first exposure to this song was through a cover version from a Latin band with a female lead singer...I think it was Bossa Rio.  But Paul McCartney's recording is easily superior and I've always considered it to be one of the best songs from their 1968 self-titled "White Album".  It's a great acoustic guitar piece...with a lot of little chirpy bird sounds: I'll have to compile a list someday of songs with birds and other animals in the background...

56 CHANGES...David Bowie
Changes was initially a popular singles hit in the U.S. in 1971...in South Florida where I was a 15-year old at the time, though, only WSRF/1580 in Fort Lauderdale would play it.  Fast forward four years to March of '75...now WQAM/560 for some reason had it in their regular rotation and I associate it with that time as well, including a 14.5 mile run I did one afternoon while humming this song to myself.  But regardless when it was popular or what I associate it with, Changes stands well on its own and contains some good, poetic wisdom about life and the passage from one generation to the next...

Next week: #55-51...