Monthly Archives March 2015

The 100 Greatest Songs of the Rock Era: #92: Won’t Get Fooled Again

By lousiteadmin

Lyrics

The Who from Who’s Next (1971)

 

“The CSI:Miami theme song made your top 100 list?” Peggy said.

I laughed. “You know, I’ll bet there are some people who think the song was recorded for that show. Those are the same people who think Kanye West gave a big break to an old musician named Paul-something.”

“So where does Who’s Next stand on your list of greatest albums.”

“Don’t get me started on albums. However, if I were to put such a list together – and I’m not saying that I’m going to – Who’s Next would be very high up there. It starts with ‘Baba O’Reilly’ and it ends with this song. If what came between was nothing but Keith Moon’s besotted mumblings, it would still be an unforgettable record.”

“Number twelve,” Peggy said after a pause.

“Wait, you have a list of top albums?”

“I didn’t, but I started one after we reconnected. I didn’t want to do a song list because I didn’t want you to accuse me of copying you.”

“What’s number one?”

“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”

“Nope, I can hold out. You know that patience is one of my few virtues.”

I was lying. As soon as Peggy mentioned that she’d put a list of best albums together, I wanted to know everything on it. That was of course why I’d bridged the distance between us to share my list with her. Peggy was the one person I’d ever been able to be an unabashed music nerd with.

Peggy cut into my thoughts. “Does Townsend get extra credit for making a synthesizer actually sound like a musical instrument here?”

“I think he does. Not many had done so before him. Mostly it was just a bunch of bleeps and blurps. Keith Emerson got it mostly right on ‘Lucky Man,’ but even that switches to noodling by the end.”

“And then there’s the whole next-generation protest song thing.”

“I think that’s what makes this song a classic. It’s a great track – big guitar, crushing bass, just-barely-under-control drums, that amazing wail from Daltrey toward the end – but Townsend’s post-sixties vision of where revolution gets us just keeps resonating.”

“It almost seems more relevant now, doesn’t it?”

That was a political discussion for another day, but it was awfully hard to disagree with Peggy.

It was so great to be speaking with her like this again.

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Mar 26, 2015
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The 100 Greatest Songs of the Rock Era: #93: Dear Mr. Fantasy

By lousiteadmin

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Traffic from Mr. Fantasy (1967)

 

“Steve Winwood: top-five rock voice ever?” Peggy said.

“Not counting R&B singers? Yeah, I wouldn’t argue against that.”

“Well, that was the thing. He had a voice made for R&B, but he was singing these trippy tunes. How many other people could have done that?”

“He definitely carved a distinctive place for himself with Traffic. But I really think he could have sung anything. After all, the biggest hit of his career was ‘Higher Love.’”

“‘Higher Love,’ yeah. Do you think Winwood ever thought while he was writing ‘Dear Mr. Fantasy’ that he would wind up with a slick haircut singing a dance tune?”

I remembered the complaints from the Traffic faithful when that song landed that the great Steve Winwood had sold out. “I never hated that song as much as others did,” I said. “Really, I was just happy that he had a big hit after all those years.”

“Promise me ‘Higher Love’ isn’t in your top hundred.”

I laughed. “No, definitely not. I don’t think I have any total-career-pivots like that on the list.”

“That’s good to hear. I was really worried that Springsteen’s ‘Dancing in the Dark’ was going to show up at some point. So what is it about ‘Dear Mr. Fantasy’ that makes it a song for the ages for you? The dreamy chord changes? The shredding guitar? The plaintive vocal?”

“D: all of the above. But you actually didn’t mention the thing I love the most. And this one has nothing to do with Winwood; it’s a Jim Capaldi thing. I just love the story he tells with only a handful of lines about a musician’s unique ability to make us feel more alive. That was both inspirational and aspirational.”

“Oh, right. Your rock star phase.”

“I’m not sure it qualifies as a phase.”

“Wasn’t it the only thing you wanted for your entire adolescence?”

“‘Only thing’ is overstating it. I also wanted good pizza.”

“And this was because of ‘Dear Mr. Fantasy.’”

“Not entirely, but that song gave voice to something I was feeling inside. I think it still does, except the stage has changed.”

“Yeah, one of these days we’ll talk about something other than music during these conversations and you can give me a hopes-and-dreams update.”

“Any time you want?”

“Really?”

“Any time.”

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Mar 24, 2015
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The 100 Greatest Songs of the Rock Era: #94: Smells Like Teen Spirit

By lousiteadmin

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Nirvana from Nevermind (1991)

“There’s a handful of before-and-after moments in rock history,” Peggy said. “This is one of them.”

“I don’t know,” I said, “nihilism was around long before Kurt Cobain.”

“Yeah, but it never sounded like this.”

Peggy was of course right, which was why “Smells Like Teen Spirit” made my top 100. So many other bands of this time captured some of what Nirvana was capturing – the dynamics, the raw anxiety, the alienation – but it seemed as though Nirvana was the only band to master all of it. Not only that, but they did it with a level of musicality that demanded listening and stood the test of time.

“So you think music changed from this point forward?” I said.

“Not permanently – it never changes permanently – but ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ was a pivot point.”

“It’s also the kind of song that a band can only do early in its career.”

Peggy hesitated on that for a few moments. “Hmm, I’d never considered that. So you can’t do a song like this on your fifth album?”

“I don’t think so. Not unless you recorded your first album when you were eight. It’s a combination of physical age and musical development. I think both need to be fairly young to make a statement with this much blunt force. Things start to become more nuanced after that.”

“Which leads to the eternal question of where Kurt Cobain might have gone if he’d lived.”

I think most of us who take rock music seriously have considered this, maybe as often as we’ve wondered where Hendrix would have gone. Many have conjectured that Cobain would have been the John Lennon of his time if he hadn’t taken his life.

“I’m not in the John Lennon camp,” I said.

“I’m with you there. Cobain wasn’t nearly as accomplished a songwriter at 27 as Lennon.”

“I do think he would have evolved and written a bunch of memorable songs, though. You can see from Nirvana’s Unplugged performance that he was already experimenting with new forms. Combine that with his innate understanding of structure, and I think it’s safe to assume that there were some great compositions down the road.”

“Too bad we never got to hear them. Do you think he got a decent deal?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, he only got to live 27 years, but he left behind a piece of work that people will be listening to for generations. Is that a good trade?”

“Well, Bruce Springsteen is in his sixties and he’s left behind lots o work that people will be listening to for generations.”

Peggy made the “tsk” sound she often made to indicate that I wasn’t getting it. “That’s not what I’m saying. I know there are people who’ve lived much longer and contributed much more. What I’m asking, though, is if you would consider 27 years and one immortal album to be enough of a life.”

I thought about that, but only briefly. “I don’t think so.”

“I do.”

“But then instead of the two of us having these conversations, I’d be putting on your record every now and then and thinking about how sorry I am that you were gone so soon.”

“So?”

That caught me up short. “I think we might have more to talk about than I thought we did.”

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Mar 17, 2015
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The 100 Greatest Songs of the Rock Era: #95: I Heard It Through The Grapevine

By lousiteadmin

Lyrics

Marvin Gaye from In the Groove (1968)

“So what’s worse,” Peggy said, “hearing it through the grapevine or getting a breakup text?”

“Since I have no experience with the latter, I’m going to have to go with the former. Also, I can’t imagine Marvin Gaye singing a song about receiving a breakup text.”

“If he had, though, he would have crushed your heart with it –while at the same time making you wish you were him.”

Peggy had nailed it. There were many remarkable things about Marvin Gaye as a singer, but maybe most notable was his ability to make you feel his pain in such a way that you wished you were him feeling this pain. The first time I heard this song, I knew that what he was describing was a lousy way for a relationship to end, but I had no doubt that Marvin Gaye (or the character he was playing in the song) was going to come out of this fine. The woman who had wronged him would probably regret her behavior for the rest of her life, but he would move on to someone better … someone who appreciated a man who felt like Marvin Gaye.

“Yeah, that was pretty true of everything he did,” I said. “There are so many other versions of this song – Gladys Knight had the first hit with it, remember – but for me no one nailed the sentiment of this song the way Gaye did.”

“Well, there were the California Raisins.”

“Close second.”

Peggy laughed. Then she was quiet for several seconds. Once she’d moved to Austin, I’d always sought to fill any empty spaces in our conversation instantly. I didn’t today, though. This was more like our college days when we could go a half-hour without saying a word and still feel that we were connecting.

“Wait,” she said, finally. “You’ve had experience hearing it through the grapevine?”

“You remember.”

“I really don’t.”

I was a little hurt. “You really don’t?”

She was silent for several seconds more. “You mean…?”

“It counts.”

Peggy’s voice came back strong. “She didn’t count. How many times did I tell you that?”

“It didn’t scar me for life. I just thought of it because we were talking about this song. Music, you know?”

 

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Mar 12, 2015
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The 100 Greatest Songs of the Rock Era: #96: Rolling in the Deep

By lousiteadmin

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Adele from 21 (2011)

“So I see your entire list isn’t going to be music made by guys a long time ago,” Peggy said.

“Not entirely, no.”

“It’s nice that you’ve stayed evolved. So what do you think? Is Adele the most important pop artist of the decade?”

“More important than Carly Rae Jepsen? Gee, I don’t know…”

Peggy chuckled. “She’s in the conversation, right?”

“No question. In fact, she’s central to the conversation. Just as 21 needs to be in the conversation for most important album of the decade. There’s so much good stuff on it. Ultimately, I felt that ‘Rolling in the Deep’ edged out songs like ‘Don’t You Remember’ and ‘Set Fire to the Rain’ because of the dynamics. I remember the first time I heard it I thought it was a nice tune with a great vocal – and then she got to the first chorus. I actually got goosebumps. That’s not a daily occurrence for me.”

“You’re just not living right. The thing that struck me was watching her sing this live for the first time. This is one tough song to sing and she looked like she was expending no effort at all. She probably could have gone up another three octaves without breaking a sweat.”

“One can only hope that she keeps her career moving forward, because there have been very few singers who can bring her combination of emotion and technical skill.”

“Let’s just hope she doesn’t need to experience an awful breakup to make music this good.”

“It really was the breakup heard ’round the world, wasn’t it?”

Peggy was quiet for a few seconds. “That’s the same thing you said about my split with Paul.”

I had completely forgotten about that. Paul was the guy Peggy dated for most of her junior year of college. I was never a huge fan, but I kept my opinions to myself. When they broke up that summer, Peggy spoke about nothing else for weeks…and weeks. About two months into this, I threw out the “breakup heard ’round the world” line to indicate that maybe this thing had been talked out. I mean, he really was kind of a jerk. Peggy didn’t speak to me for ten days afterward. It was the longest we ever went without talking until she moved to Austin.

“Sorry to bring up bad memories,” I said.

“Hey, we’re talking about music. Comes with the territory.”

I suddenly felt awkward, which was a feeling I rarely had with Peggy.

“Too bad you can’t sing like Adele, huh? You really could have cashed in.”

Peggy offered a little laugh. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I was thinking.”

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Mar 10, 2015
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The 100 Greatest Songs of the Rock Era: #97: Stairway to Heaven

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Led Zeppelin from Led Zeppelin IV (1971)

 

“Masses of teenage boys from the seventies are en route to picket your house because of this low ranking,” Peggy said.

“You know, the funny thing is that it probably wouldn’t have made my top hundred at all if not for the Kennedy Center performance,” I said, referring to the tribute by the Wilson sisters, Jason Bonham, and an all-star backup band when Led Zeppelin were given a Kennedy Honor. “I’d just heard it so many times that I couldn’t listen to it anymore. That performance reminded me how stirring the song can be. And it was kind of cool to see Robert Plant wiping his eyes while he watched it.”

“Yeah, that got to me, too. So this is an interesting thing to think about when considering a pop song’s greatness. It not only has to stand the test of time, but also the test of being played endlessly.”

“I think that’s a legitimate litmus test. You know, I tell my kids all the time that they need to factor what the world was like before a piece of work came out when you think about its greatness. The first Saturday Night Live looks creaky now, but it changed television forever. The Left Hand of Darkness might seem didactic at this point, but science fiction was never the same after it. But I think it’s also fair to factor in a fatigue effect. That’s probably exclusive to music. I mean, how many times are you ever going to watch Casablanca, right? But with songs, if you hear it thousands of times and get to the point where you hit “skip” after the first few bars, I think that says something.”

“And you got there with ‘Stairway?’”

“Most of the way there. I just needed some distance. Now, if it comes up on my phone, I’m glad to hear it.”

“It really is an amazing composition.”

“No argument. Gorgeous introduction.”

“Which Page didn’t write.”

“I know, ‘Taurus.’ Then the bridge into the final section is about as symphonic as rock music gets without a symphony.”

“And then the killer solo and Plant’s wailing.”

“And the fact that rock songs didn’t sound like this in 1971.”

“That too. Are you sure ninety-eight is the right spot for this one?”

I rolled my eyes, even though we were talking on the phone and Peggy couldn’t see me doing so. “If I told you how many times I went over this list and the personal criteria I put in place to compile it, you’d call the Nerd Police on me.”

“I’ve already reported you. I’m just saying that when I told Stevie about your list, one of the first things he said was, ‘Well, “Stairway” has to be in the top ten.’”

“Now you know why Stevie and I never got along.”

“There are different reasons why Stevie and you never got along.”

I let that rest between us for a few seconds.

“I think we should talk about Robert Plant’s hair instead,” I said.

“Yeah, probably.”

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Mar 05, 2015
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The 100 Greatest Songs of the Rock Era: #98: Yesterday

By lousiteadmin

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The Beatles (well, at least one of them and George Martin) from Help! (1965)

 

“How do you think Paul McCartney feels when he sings this song now?” Peggy said.

“Rich?”

“I think he probably always feels rich. What I mean is that he had just turned twenty-three years old when this song came out, which meant that he was no more than twenty-two when he wrote it. Yet there’s so much melancholy in the way he reflects here. Do you think, while he’s singing this song now, he ever imagines, ‘I can’t believe I thought things were that heavy back then?’”

“I think you just hit on what makes this a top 100 song. There are several songs on the list about which you could say the same thing.”

“I wouldn’t know, since I haven’t seen the rest of the list.”

“Nothing you say is going to tempt me to let you know what’s coming. My point here, though, is that the lyric works both in that naive way where everything seems so momentous when you’re in your early twenties and in the deeper way when you consider your truly life-changing events when you get older.”

“Probably why it’s been covered thousands of times. Wasn’t this one of the first songs by a rock band that Frank Sinatra ever recorded?”

“Yeah, he probably still considered McCartney a punk, but the message got through to him.”

“Universals.”

“I love universals.”

“It probably wouldn’t have resonated as much if it had been about scrambled eggs, huh?”

I chortled, which was something only Peggy was able to make me do. McCartney had used the title and a few lines as a placeholder until he came up with more suitable lyrics for the melody he’d created. He and Jimmy Fallon performed the “original” version together on Late Night.

“Could you imagine if he’d decided those lyrics were good enough?” I said.

“Not out of the realm of possibility considering some of the songs he released post-Beatles.”

I allowed myself a few seconds to imagine the alternate reality where perhaps our greatest songwriting genius got derailed putting out a song about breakfast.

Then I let the real song seep back into me, which led me to consider the time that had passed since Peggy and I had been in regular contact.

“What are your ‘Yesterday’ moments?” I said.

She chuckled, and I thought I caught a bit of nervousness in it. “Don’t get me started.”

“Why not? I’ve got some time.”

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Mar 03, 2015
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