Well, it's Friday, and we're all still losing sleep over the innocent cats and dogs Donald Trump (aka Donny Demento) has informed us are being devoured au poivre in the wilds of Ohio.
That being the case, here's a fun little project to take our minds off the looming Pet Holocaust -- to wit:
Post-Elvis Singles or Individual Album Tracks That Changed Your Life!!!
Self-explanatory, I think, so no arbitrary rules this time. Except that we're specifically talking here about ONLY singles or album cuts, NOT whole albums (a topic for another time). Also, I'm disqualifying anything by The Beatles on the grounds that there are just too damned many tunes by the Fabs to choose from and that they're a little too obvious choices in any case.
Okay, and my totally Top of My Head Top Ten, in no particular order, is...
10. The Replacements -- I Will Dare
The lead off track from Let It Be. I had never heard a note by these guys before it came out, and the only reason I bothered to listen is that a colleague wrote a rave about it in the Village Voice. Needless to say, my head exploded when I heard it. Really, I couldn't believe people were still making music like that.
9. The Rolling Stones -- It's All Over Now
The Valentinos original of this (featuring Bobby Womack) is superficially similar -- two guitars, bass and drums, and a singer up front -- but if you've ever heard it, you know that it's actually kind of jolly. The Stones rethink keeps the basic arrangement model intact, but the guitars are stripped down to ominous Travis-picking meets scrubbed metal Chuck Berry, and the whole thing is invested with a palpable sense of menace completely unprecedented in pop music at the time. Plus: the concluding fade-out, with those circular guitar riffs altered just slightly each time as the echo creeps in, marks (no doubt about it) the birth of the style and esthetic we'd later call Minimalism. Alas, in the 70s, that moron Phillip Glass went on to adopt it for four-hour operas, thus totally missing the point, but this is what it's supposed to sound like.
Bottom line: Hearing this under a pillow via transistor radio over WMCA-AM is when I decided that Andrew Oldham's liner note claim -- that the Stones weren't just a band, they were a way of life -- wasn't as asinine as it seemed at first.
8. The Byrds -- The Bells of Rhymney
As I have said here on numerous occasions, if there's a more beautiful sound in all of nature than that of a Rickenbacker 12-string guitar well played, I have yet to hear it. In any case, this song -- even more than "Mr. Tambourine Man" -- is where the Church of the Rickenbacker opened. Nearly six decades later, I'm still dropping by for services, if you'll pardon the perhaps inelegant mixed metaphor.
7. The Beach Boys -- When I Grow Up
Obviously, it's melodically gorgeous and the harmonies exquisite. But it's also the first rock song (for me anyway) that combines adolescent angst and something like mature wisdom; when people say that Brian Wilson invented the whole confessional California songwriting school that people usually associate with Joni Mitchell or Jackson Browne, this is the song they have in mind, I think. Although "In My Room" or "Don't Worry Baby" are contenders as well.
6. The Miracles -- The Tracks of My Tears
This wasn't the first r&b record I loved, but it's the first one I bought and played as obsessively as I did any Beatles 45. Everything about it just killed me; the oddly sinister yet lovely sound of the guitars at the beginning, the way the rhythm section falls effortlessly into place, the sensual longing in Smokey's voice contrasted with the almost churchy background vocals...I still can't listen to it without thinking there's some detail I've missed, one that if I could only hear at last then some tremendous secret would be revealed. I suspect I'm not the only person who feels that way, BTW.
5. Jimmy Cliff -- The Harder They Come
A great song and a great voice, to be sure, and recognizably rock-and-roll, but at the same time it was indisputably...well, something else. If Sly Stone hadn't already titled an album A Whole New Thing, the movie soundtrack this astounding song derives from could easily have copped it.
4. Bruce Springsteen -- Spirit in the Night
The first time I heard this, the snare drum and near-mythic sax wail that open it hit me so hard that I thought I'd been wacked upside the head with a 2X4. Then I noticed the lyrics and had the absolutely eerie sensation that Springsteen had been reading my mail. Want to know what it felt like to be a a 20-something with no direction home in the early 70s? All you have to do is listen....
3. R.E.M. -- Radio Free Europe
Some records just have a vibe about them. Here's one (and the same can be said of Murmur as a whole) that has it in spades, a certain indefinable something that simply grabs you (or at least me) and won't let go. First time I heard it, I remember thinking it sounded simultaneously space age modern and as old as the hills. Still an apt description, actually.
2. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers -- King's Highway
From Into the Great Wide Open, and co-produced by Jeff Lynne, which I'd forgotten. In any event, after I first heard this I couldn't be bothered with the rest of the album, estimable as it is; I lost track of how many times I played the song. I should add that I hadn't heard it in a while, but I stumbled on the live version above last week and when Petty sang "I don't wanna end up in a room all alone/ Don't wanna end up someone that I don't even know" I just completely lost it.
And the Numero Uno mind blower, it's not even a contest, so don't give me any shit about this is ---
1. The La's -- There She Goes
Like "Tracks of My Tears" years before, when this first came out I played it over and over and over again in the hope of finally being able to hear into the sheer sonic density of it. I still do, from time to time, and to this day I haven't quite figured out what that twelve-string riff means. Or why Lee Mavers' voice sounds so simultaneously familiar and eerie. Or, finally, who she is and where the hell she's going.
Awrighty then -- what would your choices be?
And have a great weekend, everybody!!!
31 comments:
Testing...testing...123...😎
Healing parts 1-3 Todd Rundgren - from album of same name
I have listened to it literally hundreds of times - it seemed to make a difference
I get fascinated by certain songs and play them repeatedly for weeks - When Winter Comes Around, Loving Cup, World Where You Live, Birdhouse In Your Soul, Trader, King Horse all come to mind - but that's not the topic.
In a 1 hour period on a Sunday night in college (1985 or 86) MTV played Tempted from.Squeeze, and I was stunned by it About the time I recovered enough to hear something else, In Between Days from The Cure came on, and the rhythmic acoustic guitar floored me. A few minutes later Senses Working Overtime from XTC finished me off.
I went down a whole new path of musical exploration and enjoyment that I'm still on, broadening out from The Who/Rush/Yes/Beatles etc. to the 3 bands that night, along with Elvis Costello, REM, The Smiths, Robyn Hitchcock, Joe Jackson, Split Enz (and later, much deeper, Crowded House), The Clash, The Church, Replacements, and so on.
Dave in Atlanta
Kate Bush -- "Sat In Your Lap". I had heard of Kate, but hadn't heard anything by her and then I think I saw the video with it's weirdly screetchy vocals -- and that's all it took.
Sufjan Stevens -- "Chicago". Another artist I'd heard of, but when I put this track on -- I was sold.
And too many novelty songs on the Dr. Demento show when I was about 12 to note: "Fishheads", "Dead Puppies", "Pencil Neck Geek" -- musical comedy from the late 70s was influentual beyond words
I can't dive in for a full 10 tracks right now but I think my all-time favorite would be" I've Been Loving You To Long" the Monterey Pop performance by Otis Redding. The most magical musical dagger to my heart ever! I just melt and explode at the same time, every time I hear it.
Captain Al
Vagabond Moon - Willie Nile
Always the Last to Know - Del Amitri
Jai Guru Dave
Ooh — Vagabond Moon. YES!
Visions of Johanna from Blonde on Blonde, not so much for the lyrics' Bohemian travelogue as the sheer toughness of the singing. It taught me how to survive.
Oh god, there were a whole bunch of outtakes on Dylan bootlegs that destroyed me. I should have included "She's Your Lover Now" on the list.
This is SO dumb but true. It's March of 1977 and I step into the basement at La Mere Vipere in Chicago. The people are jumping up and down under a strobe light to Chris Spedding + the Vibrators' "Pogo Dancing,' and I am instantly hooked. Punk Rock was the adrenaline shot I had been thirsting for.
Life changing songs -
Riding my Royce Union around the streets
of New Haven with my Japanese Pocket Transistor Radio circa the 60's -
Leader of the pack, Walk like a man, When I grow up to be a man.
Early 70's - I want to hold your hand.
My world turned upside down - I did what 13 year old did and started a band.
Neil Young - Cinnamon Girl. A profound moment because I sat 3' from him on stage - He's a major part of my record collection. In addition - Mother's Little Helper, You Really Got Me, Over Under Sideways Down. As the decade progressed - Coming Home, D/B and Friends, Sunshine Of Your Love, Won't Get Fooled Again, Statesboro Blues.
Later my first wife introduced me to Joni and Tom Rush and James Taylor.
Circle Game, Urge For Going, Sweet Baby James.
That brings me to later musical collections, Pistols, etc. It was the 60's/70's which served as the bedrock of my taste.
Don't get me started about Jazz and the Mozart's, that's a whole different direction.
rob
All right, one more story about a life changing song that changed mine and your life forever Steve!
"I Want to Hold You Hand" - The Beatles.. In the NYC area the song was released during Christmas vacation 1963 and was in high rotation on all three NY top 40 stations: WMCA, WABC & WINS.
I was staying at your house that week visiting with your brother Drew and of course you were there with your buddies, most likely Hawxwell and Weissman and other of your hoodlum friends.
My one and only memory of that week is we had the AM radio in your home constantly on and each time "I Want To Hold Your Hand" came on we rushed to the radio turning it as loud as possible and laughing with glee that a song could be so cool and exciting.
This is the absolute truth! It left an impression on me that I remember and treasure to this day.
To sum up: A song can shake us to the roots of our souls and leave a lasting impression through out our lives.
Captain Al
Al, I guess you have to be of a certain age to understand what a world shaking, cosmic upheaval was about to happen that Sunday night when we watched the Ed Sullivan show
rob
Yes! Those three Ed Sullivan Sunday nights were off the charts amazing!!! Those first few months of The Beatles in America (record releases, TV appearances, their interviews, live performances and then "A Hard Day's Night" hitting the movie theaters over the summer of 1964) permanently caused a shift in the attitudes of most American teens and kids.
Basically The Beatles helped kick start what we consider The 1960s' and changed our lives forever!
Captain Al
Don't discount the idea that the Fabs were the cure for the JFK hangover. They were just what we needed at the right time.
Alzo:
Yes!!! You are so spot on.
The Beatles arriving one month after the JFK assassination help bring the baby boomers out of their (our) grief like almost nothing else could have. The Beatles magic and the timing of its arrival were magical!
Captain Al
Steve:
By the way why must Alzo and I have to cover for you when you forget to mention The Beatles?
;-) !
Captain Al
Some people just have no respect for rules.🥸
I have every one of those ten songs in my iTunes library. (And have been listening to most of them for years on LP/cassette/CD/radio.) I would say Heart of Glass changed my life, because at age 13 I was already resigning myself to the idea that my generation would never have anything as cool as the Beatles and Stones, and I was really happy to hear something new that I loved. And shortly thereafter I discovered the Ramones, and Elvis Costello, and Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds, and of course power pop!
Let me just say that even at the ripe old age of 73 I am still exploring new and old individual songs that I am still discovering.
Don't ever lose that inquisitive gift.
This site, thanks to Steve, has broadened my musical encyclopedia .
rob
"can't hurry love" by the supremes. that subtle but terrifically intricate rhythm guitar part in the background just blew my mind. still does...
rs
I follow the rules. :-)
So, for me, the mindblower was "Train Kept A Rollin'" on the Yardbirds' "Having a Rave-up" ... I never listened to music quite the same way again.
The first time I heard “Love Reign O’er Me”, especially the bridge and “oh GOD I need a drink…of cool cool rain”; Townshend was speaking directly to my soul, and the incredible performance from the band was hammering it home.
I'm gonna narrow the scope down to my formative years from three to thirty. Those seem to be the years of greatest impact. That's when I was soaking it in like a sponge.
Preamble:
My parents married at 18. Mom was knocked up with me. The first music I can consciously remember hearing is Don’t Be Cruel. My mom had the single and played the fuck out of it. The first songs I remember singing along with were Ricky Nelson’s Stood Up and Connie Francis’s Stupid Cupid. The Ricky Nelson B-Side, Waitin’ In School, was pretty cool too. I was just a toddler, but I remember laughing, dancing and singing along with my mom while she played the singles on her record grinder. My mom said I was born to dance. She had no idea how correct she was. There was also Sheb Wooley’s Purple People Eater which was fun to goof with as a toddler.
My parents were cool. My mom was sort of a beatnik and my dad was a tough, but tender, sort of guy. My mom was a real looker. She wore her brown hair long and straight. She looked very similar to the way Natalie Wood did in the late Sixties, but in the late Fifties. When she was in high school guys would literally fight over her. My dad told me that my mom was the most desirable girl in the entire high school. He got unjustly thrown in jail for fending off her ex-boyfriend in my grandparents’ front yard. He couldn’t help it that the guy broke his arm. He got bailed out. The dude he was defending himself from was a city councilman’s entitled asshole son. They got after my dad and in the kangaroo trial they gave him ten days. This was when my mom was barely pregnant with me
Rock and Roll Music – Chuck Berry – My dad worked in steel construction, building high rises, factories and the like. His crew was interracial and got along great with each other, at work and socially. A couple of weekends a month he’d go to one of his black co-worker’s place and shoot pool. If my mom needed a break, my dad would take me with him. Well, that co-worker, Calvin, had a shitload of Chess 45’s. My dad’s friends would spin records, drink beer, shoot pool and smoke funny cigarettes. They were tight and there was nothing politically correct about their camaraderie. The first time I went along, Rock and Roll Music was the initial single to get played. That’s the first time I ever consciously remember hearing Chuck Berry. So, even though it wasn’t my favorite Berry single (I wildly prefer the Beatles' cover), it was life changing in that it was the first of several played that day. Also heard Muddy Waters’ Mannish Boy, Mojo Working and I Just Want to Make Love to You that same day. So you can chalk those up as well.
Rumble – Link Wray – at three-years-old, it awoke me to badass-ness. Danced to it in later years at the Wildcat.
Summertime Blues – Eddie Cochran - timeless – used to frolic in the back seat of my dad’s ’57 Chevy goofing to this when we cruised around on E Street. A protest song with a sense humor that rocks.
Apache - The Shadows – my dad bought this in Australia when he had a three-month build in Melbourne. Holy Moly! I fell in love with it. The texture and depth of the sound had me freeform dancing to its cinematic perfection. You could swim through the notes. Much better than Jorgen Ingmann’s cover.
Walk Don’t Run – Ventures – so cool – so proto-surf – so inspirational – IMO they never topped this
Miserlou – Dick Dale – reverbing music for the mind and body – High-T guitar hero of the surf set – my first concert
Surfin’ Sadari – Beach Boys – my dad and beloved uncle both were really good surfers. Something I aspired to be. All the cool kids at school dug the Beach Boys already. Even though San Bernardino was about an hour from the beach, and maybe because of it, the area’s surfers were the most dedicated and far out. Calling out Huntington, Rincon, Malibu, Laguna and Doheny bound our hearts with them. Pretty nifty Strat solo by Carl too.
VR
Pipeline – Chantays – Number One in San Bernardino before it ever got played in L.A. Tasty, Tasty, Tasty. Yes, keyboards could be integrated into surf music. I did acid dances swimming through its depths before I even knew what acid was. It kicked in my interest in interpretative dance, practicing in the full-length mirror on my mom’s bedroom closet door. I so wanted to be sexy like the older girls.
Wipe Out – Surfaris – classic surf drum solo – who didn’t try to beat this one out – my parents used to have nighttime beach parties at Huntington Beach with bonfires - roasting weenies, toasting marshmallows, blasting the GE portable radio tuned to KRLA dancing to Surf City, Shake a Tail Feather, Da Doo Ron Ron, Just One Look, Six Days On the Road, Lonnie Mack’s Memphis, Marvin Gaye’s Pride and Joy, Easier Said Than Done, Ring of Fire, Hello Stranger, Killer Joe, Fingertips, Manuel & the Renegades’ Surf Walk and, yes, the Beatles’ From Me to You. Summer 1963 fare. The Beatles cracked the Top 40 on KRLA in 1963, but in Berdoo it made the Top Ten (#7). This is at least six months before I Want to Hold Your Hand. Additionally, The “Beattles” Please Please Me cracked the Top 20 in San Francisco and Top 40 in Berdoo in the Spring of 1963. It wasn’t just WLS that played it contemporaneously.
Penetration – Pyramids – Again, Number One in Berdoo before ever being played in L.A. Interracial eggheads. More mirror dancing. Another one I later took to the Wildcat.
You Don’t Own Me – Lesley Gore – OK. Her best. Forget all the feminist jive. This is a defiant expression of independence. A guy could just as well be singing it to a controlling girl. It’s basically laying down the ground rules for a relationship. And if you don’t respect those rules, fuck off. Not me baby, I’m too precious.
VR
I Just Wanna Make Love To You – Rolling Stones – The Beatles wanted to hold your hand but the Rolling Stones wanted to fuck you. And even at nine, I understood that. Mr. Kicks, a radio personality in Berdoo, loved the Stones and secured an import copy of the Stones’ debut LP. He played every track on it. The audience reaction was so tremendous that he called Andrew Oldham and suggested the Stones play San Bernardino. The station would sponsor it if they wanted to do it. Turned out the Swing Auditorium in Berdoo was the first gig on their maiden tour. 3500 turned out to see a band the local newspaper dubbed as “even uglier than the Beatles.” Not bad attendance for a band that only had one single out which only made it to #48 nationally (though in the Top Twenty in San Bernardino). And everybody knew the songs. They went wild when the Stones did Route 66 ans called out San Bernardino.
VR personal rule: no more Stones songs from here onward. Too many life changers.
You Really Got Me – Kinks – Got my attention the very first time I heard it. That opening guitar riff was as ingrained in our consciousness as Sunshine of Your Love and Smoke On the Water were laterr. Provided the keys to pleasures of the Kinkdom.
She Belongs to Me – Bob Dylan - She's got everything she needs, she's an artist, she don't look back. She can take the dark out of the nighttime and paint the daytime black. As a budding ten-year-old woman, those words were everything I aspired to be.
Gloria – Them – Double sided Number One in Southern California with Baby Please Don’t go being the flip. Nationally BPDG didn’t even make the Hot 100. Them were my favorite British R&B influenced band. They had very few songs that I would call filler on their albums. Not only was it a path to Van Morrison, but it also was playing the first time Sandy and I kissed and merged.
Treat Her Right – Roy Head – Used to love to dance with this one and tore it up. I ended up taking this one to the Wildcat when I performed there a few years later.
Like a Rolling Stone – Bob Dylan – Gigantic for everyone. Folk Rock was raging but Dylan showed them who was boss by being two steps ahead of the wannabes. I knew every word and got their drift. Summer 1965 was badass. Saw Dylan and the Beatles at the Bowl about a week apart. Highway 61 was my second Dylam album after Bringing It All Back Home.
Evil Hearted You – Yardbirds – Besides being a great Graham Gouldman song with the Yardbirds cutting edge treatment, this one told me a lot about human nature and relationships. I have been the girl in this song. Some guys seem to want you more when you tease. denyl and degrade them.
Do You Believe In Magic – Lovin’ Spoonful – Becoming a woman in 1965 was magical. I was a believer. The music freed me. The music was the magic amd the music was in me.
VR
Caroline No – Brian Wilson – the most beautiful song about lost innocence ever. Moving.
Over Under Sideways Down – Yardbirds – Revolutionary. Summer 1966. Never heard anything like it before. Blew my mind. Saw the Yardbirds on Catalina Island and at Ventura High that summer. Sandy and I went to Catalina with my mom, who was a mere 29. It was a cool trip. Round trip tickets on the boat were ten bucks each and they included admission to the show. I read an article in Rolling Stone which said the first time Jimmy Page played lead guitar with the band was at the Carousel Ballroom in San Franciso. The article said Jeff was ill and couldn’t make the show. I call bullshit on it all. Jeff wasn’t sick, he was in SoCal with Mary Hughes. Also, when I saw them at the Avalon Casino on Catalina they were playing dual leads on some songs, Chris Dreja was on bass. This was a few days prior to the SF gig. I’m not sure what the first time that Page switched to guitar from bass was, but he was playing a Les Paul in Catalina. I’ve got snaps to prove it. About a week later we saw ‘em in back-to-back shows on the same day in Ventura and Santa Barbara. The two shows were sold as a package deal. Arcade Records in Ventura was sponsoring the Ventura High School concert and the Santa Barbara dance. We got backstage at the latter thanks to my mom. Jim McCarty made a play for my mom. Jimmy seemed more interested in me and Sandy’s nubility. I wonder what would have happened without the mother-child dynamic.
God Only Knows – After nearly 60 years …. The beauty makes me cry. Always has. Always will.
Shit. I only got to 1966. Later
VR
VR. - Thank you for making my Sunday diversion - Your posts have so much content, I enjoy your almost diary entries.
Purple Peter Eaters, Ha !
It appears that we grew up on opposite coasts however the songs that factored into our lives is eerily similar
Take care where ever you are.
rob
What a great story, kiddo Thanks.
Take Me to the River--Talking Heads
It would be several years before I started catching up on their albums, but looking back, being a big fan of this at age 14 when it played on American Top 40 helps me understand that I would one day veer off the beaten pop path on my musical journey.
What's the Matter Here?--10000 Maniacs
I was already dabbling in the female singer-songwriter scene but hearing In My Tribe in the campustown record store in Champaign in '87 likely pushed me past a point of no return.
Kid - Pretenders
I was an uninformed, naive high schooler when the debut album was released. For some reason, I subscribed to TMFKASR (I think because it was $5 a year through one of those mag sub offers). I was building a component stereo, but my musical taste was sorely lacking. So I read the mag cover to cover, and especially enjoyed Steve's reviews. The April 1980 issue had this as a "Best of the Month", and Steve's raves about it lead me to investigate further. It wasn't an instantaneous life-changer, but it definitely provided the impetus to delve further. Being exposed to broader musical tastes on my college dorm floor that fall nudged things along. Of course, when the video hit MTV the next year, I was hooked.
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