Weekend Listomania (Special Carpe Diem! Video Edition)

Well, it's Friday and you know what that means. Yes, my Oriental flunky Hop-Sing and I are off to Georgetown, Texas, for the third and final session of our Writer's Seminar with the great Allen Butler, the literary genius behind Why I Stopped Writing For Helium.com. Could be a hot one -- especially if a certain banned-at-Atrios Swiss nuclear phycisist/runway model shows up with her beard. (That's an actual beard, BTW, not an escort).

In any case, as a result, posting by moi will necessarily be somewhat fitful for a few days.

But until then, as always, here's a fun project for you all to contemplate:

BEST POST-ELVIS POP/ROCK SONG OR RECORD WHOSE TITLE REFERENCES TIME -- THE 4th DIMENSION!!!!

Completely arbitrary rule: The word "season" is allowed. Also days of the week.

Okay, that said, here's my totally top of my head Top Ten.

10. Six O'Clock (The Lovin' Spoonful)



For my money, their best record -- a great song, stunning production, and the crack in Sebastian's voice is almost a metaphor for their good time vibe running headlong into the heart of darkness of the late 60s.

9. Time of the Season (The Zombies)



I know, I know, I've never posted this song before.

8. Quarter to Three (Gary US Bonds)



Some of our younger readers (by which I mean those born between the invention of the blowdryer and the premiere of the television series Manimal) may not believe this, but back in the day, my buddies and I killed hours playing the opening few seconds of this over and over again in a fruitless quest to discern the rumored dirty words. Think of that as a sort of hormonal adolescent version of the myth of Sisyphus.

7. Twelve-Thirty (The Mamas and Papas)



A great song, I think, but mostly because I'm just sick to death of the more obvious "Monday, Monday."

6. A tie:

Yesterday (The Beatles)



IIRC this is the world's most covered song. Incidentally -- anybody ever seen that clip before? I haven't, and I'm wondering where the string section was. Off-stage? Or maybe on tape? (Although synching Paul live to a taped backing would have been a fairly complex technical feat back in 1966).

and

Yesterday's Gone (Chad and Jeremy)



I only found out recently that Chad actually played the cool acoustic guitar stuff on their records. Hey -- it was a big deal for me!

5. Yesterday's Papers (The Rolling Stones)



From "Between the Buttons," still the Stones least understood great album.

4. Another tie:

In The Midnight Hour (Wilson Pickett)



Sheesh, I'll bet this has been covered only slightly fewer times than "Yesterday."

and

After Midnight (Eric Clapton)



That's the song's auteur, the wonderful J. J. Cale, trading licks with EC, in case you were wondering.

3. Time Has Come Today (Chambers Brothers)



More cowbell!!! True sad story: My skinny tie band had a sort of year-long residency at a club in the Village in the 80s. It was several weeks before I realized that the maître d' was the guy singing this song.

2. Business Time (Flight of the Conchords)



For NYMary, obviously, but also because I wanted something recorded in this decade. Plus it's a great song.

And the absolute coolest 4th dimensional ditty, it's so obvious why the frick are we even arguing about it, is --

1. She Don't Care About Time (The Byrds)



Genius songwriting by Gene Clark and Roger (nee Jim) McGuinn playing "Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring" on the break. It doesn't get any better.

Awrighty then -- what would your choices be?

Shameless Blogwhore: My companion movie Listomania is now up over at Box Office. As always, every time you leave a comment over there, an angel gets its wings.

[h/t Brooklyn Girl]