I thought I'd take the opportunity on this slow, summer holiday week, to address a few things that have been on my mind. There really isn't much else happening, and I imagine many will be away from the computers and smartphones, enjoying the biblical weather and competitive eating. I guess if you are supposed to dance like no one is watching, I might as well write like no one is reading.
• I hang my head in shame, failing to mention Mitchell Parish as the writer of the beautiful lyrics to "Stardust," my favorite song of all time. I called it "Hoagy Carmichael's masterpiece," and it sure is, but it says "Mitchell Parish" right there on my "Hoagy Sings Carmichael" album. So, thanks Jake for pointing that out.
• I also said Aaron Neville's "Tell It Like It Is" was written by Naomi Neville, aka Allen Toussaint. It was not, but I really thought it was. It was written by George Davis & Lee Diamond.
• I used my iTunes library as reference for building the playlist that became the final 150 songs. That library has 87K songs, 733 of which are live versions of the Rolling Stones' "You Got Me Rocking." But, even with 87K, it still lacks. Of course it does! Some of you questioned how there could be no Led Zeppelin, or Jackson Browne, or Thin Lizzy, or John Prine, as well as a few dozen more. I am sure I can provide an answer for every one of the missing artists, and none of those answers would be "Because I don't like so and so."
• The 150 was a combo of songs/records, which I think is different from "songs and records" and "songs or records." Leonard Cohen is someone I respect, a lyrical genius whose records I never play. Never. Is there a song more painfully beautiful as Prine's "Hello In There," or as smart and joyful as "Please Don't Bury Me?" I can cite another dozen Prine songs highlighting his genius. I rarely listen to John Prine. Same with Townes Van Zandt. "Pancho & Lefty" made the list, but by Willie and Merle. I prefer TVZ by other people.
• I listen to Thin Lizzy all the time, for the package. The twin guitar solos. Lynott's heartbreak delivery. The fantastic drumming of Brian Downey. And I do believe Lynott is a true poet. But as much as I love that band and those records, Thin Lizzy is about the albums, not individual songs. Same with Led Zeppelin and about 500 other amazing artists.
• I had a brief discussion with Bill in the comments section over on the Now Playing blog, regarding Pete Townshend's "All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes." His comments resonated with me because I had a similar experience listening to the record the night before. Every one of those songs on "Chinese Eyes" hit home. I was so moved by "The Sea Refuses No River" that I said so on Instagram. As a matter of fact, when the record first came out, Dan Neer, a DJ on
WNEW-FM, read some of the lyrics from "Stop Hurting People" on the air,
and he was audibly moved. Many years later, when my shop was a supplier of CDs for Little Steven's Underground Garage, Dan Neer was
working at the show and he and I would talk every day. I mentioned that
incident to him and he knew immediately what I was talking about,
because at the time, it rubbed a few people at WNEW the wrong way. Still, I am always happy to hear when someone else gets as emotionally rattled by a record as I do. Yet, not one song from "Chinese Eyes" made the list. Go figure.
• One song that did slip by me is "Black Muddy River" by the Grateful Dead. I first realized this when Rick commented about missing artists, then again when having a discussion with a friend about the GD's studio tracks versus their live electric jams. I hated the Dead for years because I couldn't deal with 15, 20 and 30 minutes of live "Dark Star," which is a terrific 3 minute single. "Black Muddy River" somehow got lost in the shuffle. It is in my iPod, but no longer in my iTunes library. If I had seen it, it would have made the Top 100, maybe even Top 50.
The list isn't perfect, and my neurosis almost led me to redo the entire thing to include the Dead track and Prine's "Hello In There." But I was talked off the ledge by both Zippy and MGiltz.
As for the suggestions to tackle my Top 150 Albums, I already did "The Other 100," which you can find over here. The concept confused many, but once you figure it out, you'll see that many of those records would also be my main Top 150.
15 comments:
Back after a few weeks away...
I grew up in Dead country but have never been a fan, so it is no surprise that I hadn't heard the Dead's original of Black Muddy River until today. I am very familiar with the song, though, because of Norma Waterson's cover with Richard Thompson, Danny Thompson, and some of Norma's family. Based on the one listen, I'm less keen on the production on the original. That could change over time.
Try out Norma's: https://youtu.be/7GYF4b8t5VE
- Paul in DK
You did a magnificent job Sal. The list's only flaw being that it doesn't EXACTLY mirror what would be my list, if I had the guts and energy to make one ... and yours would still be better.
One complaint; Willie and Merle's version of Pancho & Lefty blows the final line, the punchline! Townes wrote... "they only let him go so WRONG out of kindness I suppose". Which is more of a gut-punch than lamely repeating the "so long" line. Always annoyed me. And, I LOVE Townes' singing with all its flaws.
I'm with you on TVZ. I especially love 'To Live is To Fly' by Cowboy Junkies. That would make my Top 150 if I ever did one.
For people who have spent most of their lives "living" music, any list, whether top 10 or top 150, will be static. My guess is for those not as obsessed with music, such a list would be constant.
It's your list. This coda is an excellent reflection and explanation.
The one note that resonated, was the Thin Lizzy being an album band. Very insightful (same could be said about Led Zeppelin),
You did a great job with an impossible assignment. While I was never a Thin Lizzy or Sniff 'n' the Tears fan, both Dancing In The Moonlight and Driver's Seat would make my 150.
Townshend's "All the Best Cowboy's. . . " is a favorite. I listened to "Slit Skirts" as a 24 year old and understood, sadly and completely, what the crisis of mid-life was before I had actually lived it! Also, the MTV video of the song is not a lip synced version of the album track. It's a filmed live performance, with Big Country acting as his rhythm section. Oh, and cool chick on bongos.
Good decision on not altering your list. In a year or two, when you do it again, it'll be totally different anyway, right??
Randy
"emotionally rattled by a record".....yup...that is why I listen. Nice turn of phrase.
As I said with my list -- I was surprised how many bands/artists did not have any entry on my list (or why more artists didn't have more songs on my list.)
I thought somewhat about it after I had compiled it and mostly written something brief about the songs I chose and (like you) I realized that a lot of groups I love I can't disassociate individual songs from the entire album. Do I love all the songs on "Destroyer"? "Abbey Road"? "Jesus Christ Superstar"? "English Settlement"? Of course I do and I play those albums all the time, but as I was putting this together, I couldn't pick one song from any of them that I liked more than what I landed on -- but I (probably) like those entire albums more than most of the albums that some of my 150 songs came from. (Though, if I were to pick one song that really should have made it -- it probably was "Something" after the "Tribute To George" version by McCartney/Clapton came by recently... I thought long and hard about slotting that in somewhere, but I couldn't...)
If anything, I would probably rearrange some of the songs on my list and bump a few of them higher than they what I originally landed on.
Come on readers -- post your own personal top 10 (if you can't do a top 150). I, for one, would love to see that.
I need to belatedly say Thank You for going through this exercise and sharing it with us. And to say that I completely agree on Hello in There. It boggles my mind that Prine wrote that at - what - age 24? At most 25. It's not that 24-year-olds can't write great songs (For No One being Exhibit A), but they don't usually write great songs from the perspective of someone 40 or 50 years older.
Marc
I think the necessary omissions are what makes it so hard to put together a list like this. All the choices are interesting and worthy, but so many had to be left off--the Pete Townshend conversation Sal and I had being just one of them. That's what keeps us coming back for more.
I had a couple of extra minutes over the past few days and made a Spotify playlist of the BW 150. As expected with Spotify, there are a couple of songs missing--no Joni Mitchell, for example, so I substituted a fellow Canadian's version of A Case for You. But close enough for government work, as an old colleague of mine used to say (probably still does; I haven't seen her for a while).
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1q60rJwFj7w4qCAFvd1YlG?si=QSoJbpfERwu4CaVFKE7BJA
Bill
I never for a second questioned what was, or wasn't included. I just enjoyed that you did it and shared with us. I like this post too. Unnecessary to explain, but still a bonus.
Sorry you felt you needed to explain ANYTHING! I think we all do that sometimes. You always do it in such a classy way, though! ;)
I am pretty sure I will continue not listening to the Dead, but "Black Muddy River" is actually a pretty great song!
I'm very moved by "The Sea Refuses No River" every time. Thx for the list! And Ha to Randy's comment you'll redo the list in a year or two and it will be completely different.
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