[Okay, I originally posted a version of this back in 2010 which kind of amazes me. In any case, I have re-written it and swapped in several different songs, just to keep you from dismissing me as the slacker I obviously am. --SS.]
Hello, fun seekers.
Here's a hopefully enjoyable little project for us all:
Best or Worst Post-Elvis Pop/Rock Song/Record About Growing Up And Its Attendant Issues!!!
No arbitrary rules at all for this one, and if I've done something similar in the past I crave your forgiveness.
In any case, my totally top of my head Top Eight is:
8. The Pussycat Dolls -- When I Grow Up
Say what you will about this piece of crap, but it's actually so bad it makes me kind of appreciate the total garbage I've been seeing on Saturday Night Live for the last year or two.
7. Big Star -- 13
It doesn't get any more sad and beautiful than this, I'll tell you that for free.
6. John Hiatt -- Your Dad Did
Screamingly funny and oh so true. It also doesn't hurt that the backing band is the greatest ever.
5. 7. Gary Puckett and the Union Gap -- Young Girl
I don't know what's creepier -- the nudge-wink sleaze the song is selling or Puckett's sub-Michael McDonald baritone.
4. Mad "Twists" Rock 'n' Roll -- When My Pimples Turned to Dimples
From 1962, the ultimate Clearasil classic, and I don't care that it's a genre parody -- it works taken straight as well. By the way, there are a lot of surprisingly great songs on that album; I've always been particularly fond of "Nose Job."
3. The Byrds -- Going Back
Perhaps the loveliest Goffin-King song of them all.
2. The Beach Boys -- When I Grow Up
THE masterpiece from what may just be my favorite album of all time. And no more profound pop tune has ever snuck into the Top 10.
And the number one song about what we all have in store, it's not even a contest, obviously is...
1. The Godfathers -- Birth School Work Death
Thoroughly depressing and yet it totally rocks. Quite an accomplishment, now that I think of it; one of these days, I really should check out the rest of these guys oeuvre.
Alrighty, then -- what would your choices be?
Have a great weekend, everybody.
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10 comments:
ah the Godfathers - awesome live, but stick to the first three albums, the first of which ("Hit by Hit") is a comp of their first three smoking 12-inchers.
The Animals - When I Was Young
Gil Scott-Heron - On Coming from a Broken Home
Lulu - To Sir with Love
Number one is essentially it.
“Not Yet Three” — Jonathan Richman https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VXbKkno7Z5k
“Come On Come On” — Mary Chaplin Carpenter https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gllASLTa1a0
Dave F.
Well, Jeez, we could do a whole list just based on "Young Girl", but I'll just throw in:
Sweet Young Thing - The Monkees
Superlungs Supergirl - Donovan
Younger Girl - The Lovin' Spoonful
Little Queen -Chuck Berry
Yeah, you probably just have to do a jailbait list someday;>
Oy gevalt.😀
I'm surprised you didn't include the recently mentioned "I'm An Adult Now" by The Pursuit of Happiness.
In the same slightly creepy vein as the Gary Puckett, there's Neil Diamond's "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon."
Springsteen-- Growing Up.
Bobby Charles-- Before I Grow Too Old
Various creepy-in-retrospect Chuck Berry songs...
The Who - Pictures of Lily, Glow Girl, most of Quadrophenia
Fairport Convention - Meet On The Ledge (Saw RT at a solo acoustic show in the ‘90s, and he played this as an audience shoutout request, although he protested that he didn’t believe its message anymore; just marvelous)
John Hiatt - Seven Little Indians (Hiatt is a national treasure)
The Kinks - Lola (not that there’s anything wrong with that)
Big Star - Back of a Car
Tommy Tutone - Cheap Date (“won’t cost you a cent...so whaddaya say June”)
Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells a Story, Maggie May
R.E.M. - Superman (much prefer this cover to the original; saw them play this in concert in 1989, fantastic)
White Stripes - Black Math
Raconteurs - Old Enough (this is just a terrific power pop song)
Fastball - Fire Escape (ditto)
Ah, The Godfathers, indeed. The first time I saw them I was amazed by how they played all those hooks as if they wrote them. But then it occurred to me that some songwriters just have that knack for catchy tunes that sound like they've always been there. Hank Williams, Boyce & Hart, Dwight Twilley... Hooks that are instantly familiar.
Love the Godfathers
Jailbait - Wishbone Ash
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