A perfect song? What are your choices?
Can there be such a thing as a perfect song? I have a suggestion, what are yours? Here is a thought...
Here are three tunes that I can't seem to hear often enough, thus making them close to perfect for me. On the Pipe by the Steve Morse Band, off the album The Introduction Turnaround by Neal Schon & Jan Hammer, off the album Here to Stay Wasted Years by Iron Maiden, off the album Somewhere in Time |
Once again, thanks for posting. I particularly found 'Kalinka' the most moving. We are all just children deep down and we all need love to survive.
As for whether humanity is 'flying into the abyss' or whether we're simply going to become surplus to requirements in the coming age of AI, I don't know. Nevertheless, let's not despair too much. Most people, I find, are just trying to keep their heads above water whilst they chase the next dollar, pound, rouble etc. This includes artists too. It's those few that are pulling the strings who should be worried as more and more people begin to wake up. |
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- "God Only Knows", music by Brian Wilson, lyrics by Tony Asher. - "What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted", written by William Weatherspoon, Paul Riser, and James Dean. - "Waterloo Sunset" by Ray Davies. - "When You Walk In The Room" by Jackie DeShannon. - "The Weight" and "It Makes No Difference" by J.R. Robertson. - "No Time To Cry" by Iris Dement. - "Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands" (and a few dozen more) by Bob Dylan. - "U Don't Know How Much I Hate U" by Rodney Crowell. - "Nowhere Man" and "And Your Bird Can Sing" by John Lennon. - "Paperback Writer" by Paul McCartney. - "Have A Little Faith In Me" by John Hiatt. - "Love Hurts" by Boudleaux Bryant. |
I see Comrade Serjio is posting his picks. If any of you remember, I had a thread up with Tammy's permission to raise awareness of the horrors suffered by the refugees of the war in Ukraine, and where one could donate to help them. I made it quite plain that this was not a geopolitical debate, simply a thread to help people in need. Serjio trolled it with his Soviet propaganda so prolifically that she was forced to shut it down. Great guy. Stalin would be proud. |
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@thecarpathian + 1 |
@mitchagain - 'I'm On Fire' by Dwight Twilley Band? Great choice - what a wonderful power-pop song that was! |
@larsman - Thanks, that is indeed a great song. Over the years I've been surprised by friends of mine who grew up in a different region(s) of the country who had never heard that song. Maybe that's why it wasn't a bigger hit, as it surely deserved to be bigger than it was. |
Oh yeah, a bid 3rd on Twilley’s "I’m On Fire"! His "Tryin’ To Find My Baby" is another Power Pop classic. And how could I have not included "A Whiter Shade Of Pale" by Gary Brooker and Keith Reid? As I write I’m listening to Dave Edmund’s great recording of John Fogerty’s "Almost Saturday Night". And if you haven’t heard it, give a listen to Dave’s recording of Mickey Jupp’s "You’ll Never Get Me Up (In One Of Those)", a healthy dose of pure American Rock ’n’ Roll, written by an Englishman, played and sung by a Welshman. Both songs are included in Dave’s Twangin’ album.
Country & Western/Hillbilly music isn’t shown the respect it deserves ’round these here parts. Allow me to correct that situation. - "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton. - "Stand By Your Man" by Billy Sherrill & Tammy Wynette. - "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" by Bobby Braddock & Curly Putman. - "Long Black Veil" by Danny Dill & Marijohn Wilkin. - "Ring Of Fire" by June Carter & Merle Kilgore. - "She Thinks I Still Care" by Dickey Lee & Steve Duffy. - "The Bottle Let Me Down" and "Mama Tried" by Merle Haggard. |
I’m feeling romantic right now ;-).
- "Moon River" by Henry Mancini. - "Can’t Help Falling In Love With You" by Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore, and George Weiss. - "Young World" by Jerry Fuller. - "You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me" by Pino Donaggio and Vito Pallavicini. - "The Look Of Love" by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. - "Your Song" by Elton John and Bernie Taupin. - "A Salty Dog" by Gary Brooker and Keith Reid. - "Just Walk Away Renee" and "Pretty Ballerina" by Michael Brown.
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Excellent recommendation @mitchagain! Poptopia includes "Starry Eyes" by The Records, a song written by drummer Will Birch and John Wicks, the latter of whom I had the pleasure of working with live. Also included is "Rock ’n’ Roll Girl" by The Beat, a great live band whose debut album is fantastic Power Pop! Leader/singer/songwriter/rhythm guitarist Paul Collins had earlier been in The Nerves, a group whose other members were Peter Case and Jack Lee (writer of Blondie's hit "Hangin’ On The Telephone"). Their 7" 4-song EP is now worth a coupla hundred bucks. My copy is not for sale ;-) . Rhino also put out Best Of The Girl Groups Volumes 1 & 2 (on CD), which are chock full of great Pop songs. I’ve mentioned this one before, but it bears repeating: "I’m Sorry (But So Is Brenda Lee)", as perfect a song as I have heard. Written by Ben Vaughn, recorded by Marshall Crenshaw (himself an excellent songwriter). Speaking of Pop, there is the incredible "Fresh As A Daisy" by Emitt Rhodes, easily as good a song as anything McCartney has written. His first s/t record is a perfect album, imo better than McCartney’s solo debut. Both play and sing every part on those debut albums, but Emitt had the better songs, and was a much better drummer (his professional debut---while still in High School---was as the drummer in SoCal group The Palace Guard). Is it tacky of me to mention that I also worked with Emitt (live and in the studio)? ;- Sadly, both John Wicks and Emitt Rhodes are now singing in the Heavenly choir. :-( |
@bdp24 - I agree that Starry Eyes by The Records is a power pop classic. My best discovery from those Poptopia CD's both came from Volume 3 (90's): 1) Jessica Something - The Tearaways 2) Proto - Pretty - Wondermints The Wondermints have been part of Brian Wilson's touring band since 1999. |
@bdp24 - I remember that Emmitt Rhodes album - that kind of singer/songwriter stuff was very popular when I was in college in the early 70's, and it did come out around the same time as Macca's first. Also agree that 'Starry Eyes' is a classic. My fave power-pop band though was the Smithereens, out of Buffalo, NY.... |
That Is Why - Jellyfish (Jeez, how could I have forgotten this one?) I Wanted To Tell You - Matthew Sweet Tell Your Sister - Lloyd Cole In addition to appearing on each other's records in the early 90's, Lloyd and Matthew were also both using Fred Maher on drums and Richard Lloyd on guitar. No wonder they made some of their best records during this period! |
@larsman: The Smithereens’ songs had some great hooky riffs, didn’t they?! @mitchagain: Jellyfish were astounding, just as good live as on record. The Wondermints were very well known around L.A. before they hooked up with Brian Wilson, and their CD’s are now somewhat hard to find. Their original bassist Brian Kassan became frustrated by the group not recording more of his songs (he was their George Harrison in that regard), and left the group shortly before the Wilson hookup. Oops! ;-) Kassan then formed his own group, Chewy Marble, and switched to piano. Derrick Anderson---a fantastic musician who had his own group, The Andersons---was enlisted to play bass (he has more recently been playing bass with The Bangles on the road). Their 1997 s/t first album (on Permanent Press Records) contains lots of good Pop music, with one instant classic: "I Want You Only". Drummer Tammy Glover left the group after that album, and my were services were engaged (Kassan and I met when we were both recruited to back Emitt Rhodes for his first live show in a quarter century, at the 1997 Poptopia Festival) for the recording of the second---Bowl Of Surreal, an over-all better album. |
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