Favorite songs (cont.)

[DennisN]

Hi, I'm starting a brand new thread for our favorite songs...
(the last one disappeared some time ago, and we have to have a new one, I think )

..a thread for any genre, any style of music, as Cole Porter once wrote, anything goes...

Anything Goes by Cole Porter


I start with a song I heard a couple days ago while I was in a shop, and even though I knew the song I was struck by how cool the guitar is in it... it's a classic song with great guitars, drums and vocals, well, pretty much everything in it is great :

Rush - Tom Sawyer

 

[pinball1970]

Hi, I'm starting a brand new thread for our favorite songs...
(the last one disappeared some time ago, and we have to have a new one, I think )

..a thread for any genre, any style of music, as Cole Porter once wrote, anything goes...

Anything Goes by Cole Porter


I start with a song I heard a couple days ago while I was in a shop, and even though I knew the song I was struck by how cool the guitar is in it... it's a classic song with great guitars, drums and vocals, well, pretty much everything in it is great :

Rush - Tom Sawyer

Anything goes and Tom Sawyer? Ha ha brilliant.

 

[pinball1970]

 

[pinball1970]

 

[Hornbein]

It's 100% song. The power of simplicity.

 

[Hornbein]

As far as songwriting Bob Dyllan was IT. There's a reason he got a Nobel Prize. I don't like his singing but so what? Let someone else do it.

I'd say the Perfect Song would be either The Chimes of Freedom or Mr. Tambourine Man. Everything fits together just right.



His gift evaporated long ago but so what? He has already done what he has done.

 

[DennisN]

The guitar riff in that song is just great.
But hey, don't they sound a bit like Oasis?
They sound like they copied everything from the Gallagher brothers...

But we have to give Oasis some credit, this is a terrific song without a doubt:
("I'm sure you've heard it all before, but you never really had a doubt" )

 

[pinball1970]

1976 was probably one of my most memorable years musically.

 

[Hornbein]

I was playing ebass in the Roxbury ghetto in 1973. Seals and Crofts' Summer Breeze was one of the biggest hits down there. Falsetto singing was all the rage. Marvin Gaye, Eddie Kendricks, The Stylistics. James Brown was also very popular (The Payback) but not taken seriously like Summer Breeze was.

 

[pinball1970]

Part of the Wings over America tour that was played on the radio a lot.

 

[pinball1970]

This was so different when it came out, it still sounds cool today.
Not the best lip sync though!

 

[pinball1970]

 

[pinball1970]

 

[Hornbein]

That's great.

Today they always use Autotune. It's sort of like refined sugar. I liked it until one day I'd had enough for one lifetime.

 

[Hornbein]

My fave song these days is Black Rock Shooter. (Black Rock is a launch pad in Nevada.)

This song is about how life has turned awful and a supplication to the heroine to reappear to presumably subdue evil. As you can hear, TV show theme songs are a lot more energetic in the land of J, frantic even.



Much more complex too. I have a hobby of looking for rock songs with the highest number of major and minor chords. Black Rock Shooter has 14, smashing the previous record of 9 held by Black Hole Sun. If you count seventh and sus 4 and so forth as distinct then it has 32. But you didn't notice that, yes? It sounds smooth and natural, not complicated.

It's sung by a computer program named Hatsune Miku, who must have the most recorded voice in history (though Jerry Garcia might give her a run for her money.) Her release sparked an explosion of musical creativity that lasted a few years. Bedroom composers suddenly had a low cost singer devoid of artistic temperament and available 24/7. All sorts of exciting stuff came out. Then one day it was suddenly over. Everything after that was disco. It's the sort of thing that makes you reconsider astrology -- a certain planetary alignment ended and the gate closed, boom. I'd been through that before. My time of puberty was the classic rock era. A great album came out every month or two. I didn't know this was unusual. Then bang! it was over. The door slammed shut and never opened again. Those records have real staying power. They sell even more today than they did back then.

There are numberless covers of Black Rock Shooter. Here's my fave, I guess because of the harmony singing. In Spanish.

 

[morrobay]

Good news for new music

 

[pinball1970]

 

[pinball1970]

Intro - crunchy chords yeah!

Ebm7 Ab7sus4 Dbmaj9 Gbmaj11 Cm7b5 Bmaj7 Bb7#5

 

[pinball1970]

Part of the Wings over America tour that was played on the radio a lot.

That's weird, I selected Maybe I'm Amazed 1976 version from the Wings over America tour and got Penny Lane 2003 Back in the world Tour! Anyway the below is from the album.

 

[Hornbein]

These home-recorded Joni Mitchell demos for The Hissing Of Summer Lawns are all about as good as songs ever get. You can find the others if you try.



They're better than the versions recorded with the top LA session guys. So she never recorded with them again, taking up with Jaco Pastorius instead. It hurt her popularity but what care she? She already had enough.

As a teenage unwed mother Joni had a daughter whom she gave up for adoption. They reunited maybe 50 years later.

 

[DennisN]

One of my favorite songs with one of my favorite bands:

(such a lovely song, even though there are no singing lead vocals;
the lead vocals are plain talking, but the backing vocals are singing)

R.E.M. - Belong (live)


Studio version: here

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bonus, two excellent recent interviews with R.E.M. (even though they don't play together anymore);
the videos are interesting if:

1. you are interested in song writing/composing/lyrics writing in general
   
   and/or
   
   
2. you are a R.E.M. fan

Extended interview: R.E.M. on songwriting, breaking up and their lifelong friendship (CBS)


Mike Mills: The Story Of R.E.M. (at the producer Rick Beatos channel)


I'm such a big fan of this band that it is ridiculous.

 

[morrobay]

 

[Astronuc]

1976 was probably one of my most memorable years musically.

The Isley Brothers were a favorite band growing up. That Lady was made famous in 1973 (popular radio), but the song had been around since 1964.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That_Lady_(song)

 

[Astronuc]

This one is for @pinball1970

Emerson Lake & Palmer - Story of Brain Salad Surgery Documentary​

Some commentary on Carl Palmer's drum & percussion kit.


Also, see. Classical Composer Reacts to Karn Evil 9 (ELP) | The Daily Doug (Episode 273)

 

[Hornbein]

This was a hit when I was a kid. Cowritten by Paul Simon.



I like this era of pop music. It comes over the sound systems of Japan's Aeon department stores. Harmony and chords and lyrics. Now it's 90% about looks. Radio has its advantages.

I somehow remember the vocal as being very squeaky. It isn't.

Maybe I'll record a fusion version of this. Fast loud and odd time. If I ever have that much time on my hands.

 

[DennisN]

This was so different when it came out, it still sounds cool today.
Not the best lip sync though!

I had never heard it before, it sounds very interesting, thanks!

 

[difalcojr]

There were 2 albums I wanted to buy in 1967 with the ca. $2.50 that I had saved. I made a hard choice between the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Moby Grape, both new, very hot bands in San Francisco. Chose Moby Grape. One album got famous, the other is mostly unknown. Both still sound good, though. 3 lead guitars, good voices and harmony. Listen to "8:05" at the 6:29 mark. Or "Changes" at 21:46. Their one hit song was "Omaha". Original album cover shown here. It was quickly pulled back from production when it was noticed that drummer Don Stevenson was giving the middle finger salute. When I bought it, it had the airbrushed new cover sans salute. Band only all together a few years.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby_Grape

 

[robphy]

These are two of my favorite songs from Alcatrazz (Graham Bonnet / Yngwie Malmsteen).

Kree Nakoorie and Bigfoot are from the 1983 album No Parole from Rock 'n' Roll .

Yngwie is about 21 in this video. After Steeler, he joined Bonnet to form Alcatrazz.
Mid-tour, Yngwie was fired for fighting with Bonnet .
Yngwie was replaced by Steve Vai, who [according to the WIkipedia article on Malmsteen] had a day to learn the songs.

Kree Nakoorie | Alcatrazz 1984


https://genius.com/Alcatrazz-kree-nakoorie-lyrics

Big Foot | Alcatrazz (studio version)

(I like the studio version better than the live version from the Japan 1984 tour: Big Foot | Alcatrazz 1984 .)

(Other good tracks from this album: Hiroshima Mon Amour and, their hit, Island in the Sun.)

 

[difalcojr]

Found a better one. Very 60's sounding.

 

[DennisN]

One of my favorite Swedish songs, a great composition and probably not very well known outside my country:

Ted Gärdestad - Blue Virgin Isles


There is a version in Swedish, where the lyrics are actually better in my opinion:

Ted Gärdestad - Himlen är oskyldigt blå
("Himlen är oskyldigt blå" means "the sky is innocently blue")