Weekend Listomania (Special Changes We All Go Through Audio/Video Edition)

Well, it's Friday and you know what that means. Yes, my Oriental gastroenterologist/social affairs director Fah Lo Suee and I will be off to waterlogged Nashville, Tennessee where she'll be hooking up (as the kids say) with country singer Chely Wright. Ms. Wright recently made a big splash in the news when she revealed that she was a thespian, and Fah Lo Suee assures me she'll be spending a couple of days at Wright's apartment for some private acting lessons.

I'm sure I'll find something to do in town while she's occupied, but in any case, as a result, posting by moi will be sporadic for a while.

But in the meantime, here's a fun little project for us all:

Best or Worst Post-Beatles Pop/Rock Song or Record With the Words "Change" or "Changes" in the Title or Lyrics!!!

Self-explanatory, I think, and as a result no arbitrary rules of any kind here, you're welcome very much.

That said, you'll notice that conspicuously absent from the list is the song that would probably be most folk's most obvious choice. You know, that stuttering number from that album...damn, what's that thing called?

Oh yeah -- Zally McMuffin and the Gay Guys From Outer Space, or whatever.

In any case, feel free to choose Bowie's "Changes" as a Best nominee if you must, but be warned I will make merciless fun of you if you choose to do so.

And that said, my totally top of my head Top Ten is:

10. The Zombies -- Changes




From the gorgeous Odessey and Oracle album, obviously. One of my favorite tracks from said album, not so obviously.

9. John Mayer -- Waiting On the World to Change



Rory Gallagher dies, yet this embarrassing poser gets to play his crappy song in a party scene on CSI. I don't get it.

8. The Hollies -- Signs That Will Never Change




The B-side of Carrie Anne, and its own poignant way, almost as good. The Clarke-Hicks-Nash songwriting cartel was really at the peak of its game at this point.

7. Sugar -- If I Can't Change Your Mind




Husker Du's great Bob Mould, at his most ecstatically Byrdsian.

6. The Poor -- She's Got the Time (She's Got the Changes)




Randy Meisner's pre-Eagles psych garage band; the song is by either Brewer or Shipley (of "One Toke Over the Line" fame). This was actually a minor hit, at least in NYC.

5. Jim and Jean -- Changes




The Phil Ochs song, obviously, which was cloying enough on its own, but here given one of the lamest folk-rock arrangements of the 60s. Any similarity between this duo and Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara, as Mitch and Mickey, in A Mighty Wind is purely coincidental, I'm sure.

4. Spider -- Change




God, this is awful. That too-cheesy-to-be-cute organ, the over-stated drumming, the abysmal mannered vocals -- you can hardly tell there's an actually pretty good song lurking in there somewhere.

3. John Waite -- Change


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And here's the song done the way it always needed to be done. Have I mentioned that Waite's version of the Spider track is one of my top five New Wave guilty pleasures?

2. Sam Cooke -- A Change is Gonna Come

	Sam Cooke - A Change Is Gonna Come .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Sublime on every level.

And the Numero Uno track delineating how life differs from the rocks is, no question about it, the one and only....

1. Godfrey Daniel -- Them Changes




The often-covered Buddy Miles annoyance of the early 70s, performed (rather drolly) here in the manner of some late 40s blues shouter or...well, actually I'm no quite sure who this is a pastiche of. Cab Calloway, maybe. In any case, clearly the definitive reading of the song.

Alrighty, then -- what would your choices be?

[Shamless Blogwhore: My parallel Cinema Listomania -- theme: breakthrough performances by an actor or actress -- is now up over at here. As always, if you could see your way to going over there and posting a comment, it would get me in good with the capitalist bastards who run the place.]