She’s Taking Chances

Mark Knopfler is an incredible storyteller and gifted poet with a bagful of masterpieces, but his absolute best song is Skateaway.

 

If Bruce Springsteen had done this song it would have been a number one hit and would have entered the ranks of timeless, beloved anthems.  Because it tells you about how the best songs merge with your life – just like The Boss’s most memorable songs do.

 

The music makes you want to be the story, and the story is whatever is the song.

Strumming With The Rhythm …

My favourite rock and roll songs are:

1) Johnny B Goode 

2) Roll over Beethoven 

3) The last (rock and roll) song I heard by:

• The Beatles 
• Led Zeppelin 
• Tom Petty 
• AC/DC
• The Who 
• The Kinks 
• The Police 
• The Rolling Stones 
• Queen 
• U2
• Chuck Berry, obviously 

Oh, or Elvis, CCR, Buddy Holly, Springsteen, Dire Straits or ...

The First Cut Is The Deepest

When you’re huge, you’re huge, and after you’ve been around a while, your entire body of work tends to morph into one, uh, huge, thing.

So it begs the question, who would we still view – years later - as huge if they had stopped after only one album?  Hendrix, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, The Cars, Buddy Holly  …

After that, I dunno.  Adele?  The Band?  The Byrds?  Crosby Stills and Nash?  Dire Straits?  Eagles?  Elvis?  Jeff Beck?  Steely Dan?  Maybe.

There are a lot of names from the rock pantheon missing, a lot of acts that took a couple or three albums to really establish a place in music history.  The Beatles, The Stones, The Who, U2, Pink Floyd, Chuck Berry, AC/DC …

Maybe we’d remember them all, but more as flashes in the pan than big influencers.  But not many artists nailed it the first time out.

In His Blood And In His Bones

How many genres can you pack into one song?  I dunno, but Mark Knopfler managed to jam quite a few into In The Gallery.

Blues, rock, country, R&B, a bit of psychedelic maybe?  What do you hear?

A good song should sound like an old friend on first hearing.  The more genres the songwriting – and arranger -  can draw on, the deeper the listener can mine for familiar sounds.  It can’t be a sloppy pastiche, of course.  Everything has to fit together.  And when it does, as with In The Gallery, what you get is one rich song.

Pretty tasty guitar work by Knopfler, too.

Pick Up My Guitar And Play

You could disagree with the albums, but it’s hard to debate the artists who made Guitar World’s 10 Essential Classic Rock Guitar Albums: Van Halen, Aerosmith, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Hendrix, The Who, The Stones, The Beatles.

Personally, I would swap Are You Experienced? for Electric Ladyland and Wish You Were Here for Dark Side of the Moon, and I do not count myself among those who believe Exile On Main Street is The Stones’ masterpiece, but let’s not quibble.

Except: The Doors?  Really?  The Doors debut album is absolutely an essential part of the Classic Rock catalogue, but who considers them a guitar band?  And - with all due respect - who puts a ton of effort into learning how to play like Robby Krieger?  I didn’t even remember his name.

Not to take anything away from The Doors well-deserved legendary status, but on a list of essential guitar albums, I think we’d be better served by the likes of AC/DC, Dire Straits, Clapton or Petty.  Little bit more distinguished guitar playing came from those cats.

Come On Baby The Laugh’s On Me

Dunno ‘bout you, but I always find a song with a bit of humour in it refreshing.  Not comedy.  Just songs that have a humourous line or two, maybe a bit of self-deprecation, something that says, ”Hey! Don’t take this too seriously.”

The Kinks were pretty good that way.  Ditto Steve Miller, Dire Straits, Ian Thomas and Joe Walsh (The Eagles, not so much).  Tom Petty excels at it.  George Harrison was a master.

Then there are the Stones doing country.  They seem to be screaming, “This is a joke!” to the point where it borders on comedy.  But they’re so darn good at it you’re not sure whether the joke is on you.

Anyway, even though rock ‘n’ roll itself – as Mark Shipper says – is a joke, it can cover some pretty heavy ground, so a little comic relief here and there is welcome.

Whole Lotta Riffs

The beat: definitely.  The energy: probably.  The simplicity: most of the time.  The lyrics: often.  The audacity: goes without saying.  But what really sets a great rock song apart is the riff.  The hook that buries itself into your DNA, where it forevermore acts as a switch, a trigger, a hypnotist’s command.

BBC Radio’s Greatest Guitar Riffs have most of the ones you’d expect: Whole Lotta Love, Sweet Child O’ Mine, Back In Black, Smoke On The Water and Layla landing in the top 5.  Can’t really argue with those.

And as you scan down the list, you realize – joyfully, I’ll bet – just how much great music we’ve been blessed with.  Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Rush, Free, Fleetwood Mac, Cream … on and on it goes.  I can’t think of one riff on this list that doesn’t deserve to be here.

However, it is nothing short of shocking that the Stones and Beatles have only one entry each.  Nice of the BBC to spread the joy, but I can think of another dozen or so riffs from those two groups that are more than worthy.  Nevermind.  I’ll get over it.

Sad, though, that there’s nothing current.  Rock riffs seem to have gone the way of the dodo, and that is not a good thing.

Undercover Agent For The Blues …

… and Rock!  Take a look at the influence John Mayall has had.  The connections.  The influences. The great music that came out of his influence.

It’s almost unbelievable.  The diagram just depicts the most obvious connections.  The ones that could fit on a page.  It’s missing the Yardbirds-Page-Zeppelin link.  It obscenely abridges Clapton’s reach.  It skips the whole Dylan universe outside the Willburys.  It doesn’t even try to show who Phil Collins has touched, which is, like, everybody.

Was John Mayall as influential as Lennon, Dylan, Jagger, Hendrix or Page?  Maybe not, but when you think about who he’s played with – and who they played with, he’s touched just about everything.  Mayall is one important cat.

The Millennial Barrier

Some albums transcend their eras, says Rolling Stone – and some don’t.  The 40 Albums Baby Boomers Loved But Millennials Don’t Know (whew! What a long Title!) list includes some great music that somehow hasn’t made it across the generational divide.

Some of the albums listed are shocking.  I mean, how can Cocaine or Money For Nothing be played to death on the radio and not be known?  Ditto entries by ZZ Top, Steve Miller or Bob Seger.  Yeah, I know we’re talking albums not singles, but sheesh!

Many albums listed did not surprise me, though.  I know they were very popular, but nothing about Roberta Flack or The Commodores sounds very transcendent to me.  And Rick Wakeman’s Journey To The Centre of the Earth is described by RS as bombastic and overwrought, so I’m guessing they’re not really recommending it?

Alice’s Restaurant was a joy in 1967-8-9, but simply not relevant by, say, 1972, so no surprise there.  The Concert for Bangladesh?  Listen, RS, everyone bought it because it was George and because of the all-star lineup.  But nobody played it more than once.

A lot of the stuff listed I’d be hard pressed to say I miss – Moody Blues, Supertramp, Phil Collins … they just didn’t age very well.

Nice to see Johnny Winter and Humble Pie listed, though.  I never understood why they don’t get more coverage on the classic rock radio playlists.  And as Jack White, Joe Bonamassa, Gary Clarke Jr. and The Black Keys have proven, blues rock just won’t go away, so they should be heard.

Forgotten Years

Let’s face it: we were all rather tired of it by the time the 80’s ended.  And ever since, it’s been fashionable to look back on that decade with disdain.

But there was some great music in the 80’s.  Not the Euro-pop synth stuff.  Not the disco with no soul stuff.  But great guitar-based rock.  We got:

• The rebirth of rock ‘n’ roll from New Wavers such as U2, The Pretenders, The Police, Elvis Costello, and The Cars;
• A continuation of what came to be known as Classic Rock by the likes of Tom Petty, Midnight Oil, Dire Straits, Deff Leppard, and The Cult;
• Some great reminders by Classic Rockers like Eric Clapton, Linda Ronstadt, Peter Gabriel, The Stones, ZZ Top, Pete Townshend and George Harrison that they were far from ready to hang up their guns.
• Oh, and guys like Colin James and Stevie Ray Vaughan came along to carry the flag for ball busting blues guitar.  Oh ya, and AC/DC also had their best decade.

You reflect on the music noted above and it’s pretty easy to forget about all that spandex and those strap-on keyboards.  We were handed a lot of music that didn’t age well, but we were also given some brass in pocket.

Decades

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I got to thinking about how your perceptions and loyalties change over time, and decided to fill in this matrix of who my favourite artists were decade by decade.  It came out like this:

 

Some time bending was required to jam things into the decade pigeonhole, and some revisionism is at work here.  Looking back as each decade turned over, I definitely would not have listed the Stones as my second favourite band of the preceding ten years.  The third place band would have been #2, and the likes of Deep Purple, Pink Floyd and The Cars – or maybe The Police – and Bonnie Raitt would have shown up.  Oh, and John Lee Hooker, just a few decades late.

But this is a pretty accurate reflection of how I would rank the music as I listen to it now.

A coupla “Ya I knows”:

1. The Stones have not really done anything since Voodoo Lounge, or arguably Tattoo You.  But somehow they remain cool and the concert DVD’s are fun.

2. Not a lot of newness in the past 20 years.  Yep.  I’m getting’ old.  What can I say?

Riffs Across the Water

New Musical Expresses 50 Greatest Guitar Riffs of All Time is another reminder for me that my culture is more rooted on this side of the Atlantic.

Lots of the expected suspects:  Back in Black, Smoke on the Water, Sunshine of Your Love, Voodoo Child, You Really Got Me, Satisfaction, Cinnamon Girl, Johnny B. Goode, and so on.

Glad to see Rebel Rebel made the cut.  Ditto Song2, Get It On, and Seventh Nation Army.

Speaking of The White Stripes, the list serves up a reminder (to me, anyway) that lots of great guitar-based music continued to be made after 1990.  Not enough, but lots.

That said, and with no disrespect to some of the newer bands listed, but no Springsteen?  No Creedence?  No Dire Straits?  No Tull?  No Zeppelin?  At all?  No Beatles?  Really?   Shouldn’t they have, like 6 or 7 on this list?  Hello?

Also, I get the feeling that the list is trying too hard to spread the joy; one for the Stones, one for the Kinks, one for him, one for her, one for them, one for you, one for me …   Fine, but I’m not sure I Can’t Explain is the Who’s best riff, or The Streets Have No Name the best from U2.  And yes, Free Fallin’ gets the audience singing, but is it really Tom Petty’s best riff?

Maybe these tunes just went better with the pictures.  The NME articles seem to be more about the pictures.

Under the Apex

That earlier post about U2 being the last great rock band got me thinking about who gets on the list, relative positioning, etc..

So if we stick with “larger than life” as one category, what’s below that?  I’d have to say “huge and influential.”  Really good.  Not quite larger than life.  As good or better than the “larger than life” folks, but never quite got there.  Maybe broke up or died too soon.

Below that?  Well, important.  Maybe not as big in our consciousness as those in the “huge” category, but very influential.  Just ask the folks on the “huge” list.

Below that would be the legions of acts you really like but …

Throw this all into a graphic and you get something like this:

 

The Beatles, of course, are larger than larger than life.  This is about perception more than taste, but I assume few would argue with the top two tiers.  Notice my indecision on The Police.  Almost got there, but not quite in my book anyway.

Notice my cop-outs on Dylan and Michael Jackson.  I know many would place them along with The Beatles.  Solid arguments could be made for any of the categories, so maybe this is more about taste than perception.

I didn’t get lazy in the “important” category; I just ran out of real estate.  There are simply too many influential blues greats, Motown artists and early rockers to list.  And maybe that’s the point of the graphic; it’s less about ranking and more about connecting.

Your taste – or perception – will differ from mine, so you may have different names, or different positions.  That’s cool.  Go build your own pyramid,

Time Changes Everything

If nothing changed we’d all be stuck in a sort of groundhog day and life would get pretty boring.  Things change, we change, what we like and don’t like changes.

Dunno about you, but my musical tastes have changed a lot over the years, and it’s not just about getting mellower as I get older.  I hope.

For example:

Extreme changes, from “Hate it” to “Love it” – Van Morrison, The Band

Major changes, from “Don’t like it but respect it” to “Love it” – CCR, Motown, Blues, (some) Country

Minor changes, from “Like it” to “Love it” – Stones, AC/DC, Bob Marley

Minor changes from “Adore it” to “Love it” – Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Jethro Tull

Minor changes from “Love it” to “Like it” – Hendrix, The Who

Major changes from “Love it” to “Ya it was OK then but don’t care now” – The Byrds, The Cult, Humble Pie

Extreme changes from “Love it” to “Let’s pretend it didn’t happen” – Wang Chung (I don’t know; I really don’t know), Genesis, a lot of prog rock

Some things just wear thin over time.  Others seem to get better as I discover more and learn to appreciate what I’m hearing.

And some things don’t change.  In the “Can’t imagine ever not loving it” category – Clapton, Dire Straits, Bonnie Raitt, The Cars, The Police, Cat Stevens, James Taylor, Tom Petty.

And in a category of their own, the “this is perfect” category – The Beatles.  Sheer joy, any time at all.

Good News For Denver

I started playing with my U.S. music map, plotting where I thought some British artists would land. It looks like this:
 

I've already described how I thought The Beatles belonged in Ohio to reflect their

twin influences of Nashville and Motown, and how Cat Stevens sounds to me like a blend between Memphis and Motown.

The Stones? Chicago and Memphis, so they're neighbours of the Cat.

Eric Clapton's ancestors came from The Delta, Chicago and Texas, placing him somewhere on the Arkansas/Oklahoma border.

U2 and The Kinks split that Motown pop sensibility with a NY punk attitude, putting the somewhere in Penn state (OK, let's give U2 to Buffalo).

Bands like ELO and Queen blend that Motown pop gift with the Hollywood production thing (and jazz complexity), placing them squarely in the middle of the country.

Cream and The Animals blended their love of Chicago blues with a touch of California weirdness, making them natives of Colorado (there you go Denver). Zeppelin: about the same but with a pull from The Delta.

Deep Purple and Pink Floyd have lots of the Hollywood production and complexity, with a bit of pull from the eastern styles, which I guess lands them in the southwestern desert.

Neil Young lands in West Virgina (sorry Winnipeg), given an equal pull from Nashville and NY. And yes, I know he's Canadian.

Elvis Costello? A bit more NY punk.

Dire Straits? Nashville, Memphis, Delta.

Van Morrison: Memphis, Delta (maybe a bit of Motown?)

David Bowie was tough. NY punk and Motown pop pulling hard against California - landing him in Nashville of all places.

Hmmm ... there's a whole new twist on the idea of "Music City."

Best of the Spandex and Mullet Era

A while back, Gibson published a Greatest Songs From The 80's list.

Good for them for challenging the Classic Rock radio playlists, which feature almost nothing from the entire decade, except for a handful of tunes they like to call "80's music that doesn't suck."

Double good for Gibson since guitars don't feature too mightily. Here's the Top 10:
1. The Clash, London Calling (1980)
2. Guns N' Roses, Sweet Child o' Mine (1988)
3. Michael Jackson, Billie Jean (1983)
4. Guns N' Roses, Welcome to the Jungle (1987)
5. Public Enemy, Fight the Power (1989)
6. AC/DC, You Shook Me All Night Long (1980)
7. Prince, When Doves Cry (1984)
8. Def Leppard, Pour Some Sugar on Me (1987)
9. Van Halen, Jump (1984)
10. Duran Duran, Hungry Like The Wolf (1982)

Me, I do like guitars, and didn't ever fully embrace the strap on keyboards, silly hair and 18th century costumes, but the dancing wasn't so bad back then.

So I won't criticize the Euro-synth pop inclusions. I'll just say:
- I wish AC/DC was higher
- I would have put Under Pressure (Queen/David Bowie) higher than #11
- I'm pleased to see The Clash @#1
- I'm disappointed not to see Dire Straits, U2, The Stones, The Talking Heads or Springsteen in the top 10

Interesting not to see any Eurythmics on the list (of 50 songs). They did a pretty good job of melding the synth-pop sound with a hint (threat?) of angry guitar. For me, that was better than the bands who seemed to turn their backs on guitars altogether. Sweeter dreams are made of that.

With Or Without You

Between radio, restaurants, bars, sports venues, shopping malls and our friend's MP3 players we tend to get subjected to the same songs over and over and over and over and ...

I don't know about you, but some of the songs have worn out.  And some can't.  It's a personal thing, of course, but some songs grab me every time I hear them.

Some songs I tend to enjoy sometimes, and sometimes not so much.  It depends on the mood, I guess.

Some songs, well, they've just plain overstayed their welcome.  Played too many times.  You know, the first million times or so were OK, but after that  ...  So they've slipped from "love 'em" (or at least "like 'em") to "can't stand 'em".  Familiarity breeds, and all that.

So here's a sampling of my three lists:

Grabs Me Every Time
While My Guitar Gently Weeps, The Beatles
Running On Empty, Jackson Browne
Woodstock, CSNY
Black Dog, Led Zeppelin
With or Without You, U2

Depends
Sultans of Swing, Dire Straits
Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin
Smoke on the Water, Deep Purple
Won't Get Fooled Again, The Who
No Time, the Guess Who

No More, Please
American Woman, The Guess Who
Life In The Fast Lane, The Eagles
Light My Fire, The Doors
We Are The Champions, Queen
pretty much everything by April Wine

So, hey all you people voting for - and compiling - the long weekend "best ever" list, do us a favour and mix it up a bit next time.

Sad Songs (Part 2 ... or 3)

OK, so a few songs I overlooked the first time out, and so here's a more complete list:

I Can't Make You Love Me and Matters of the Heart, by Bonnie Raitt

Romeo and Juliet, by Dire Straits

You're Missing, by Bruce Springsteen

Love In Vain, and St. James Infirmary – anyone’s version

Walk Away Rene, by The Left Bank (or Temptations)

Accidently Like a Martyr, by Warren Zevon

Humble Me, either Harry Manx's or Norah Jones's version.

Love Hurts and Crying, by Roy Orbison

Don't Fade On Me, by Tom Petty


No particular order.  They all get to me every time.  And, in terms of tear induction, Here Today by Paul McCartney is the hands-down winner.  Don't know how I forgot that one.

Great songs, all of 'em.  They just hurt so good.

Take A Sad Song And Make It Better

Listening to a good sad song can be cleansing, cathartic experience.

I got to thinking the other day about sad songs and started wondering which ones are the saddest ever.

It all depends on your individual experience, of course, which will influence how you react to any given song, but here’s my partial list:

I Can’t Make You Love Me, by Bonnie Raitt is right up there, maybe #1.  It just aches.

Sticking with Bonnie, Matters Of The Heart, should also be on the short list.

Romeo And Juliet, by Dire Straits is either a close second, or maybe even #1.  Whenever I see Knopfler perform it live, my reaction is "I hope I’m never unhappy enough to be able to write a song like that."

You’re Missing, by Springsteen gets me every time.  So does Father and Son by Cat Stevens.  Not sure why, but so does Hysteria by Def Leppard.

Two Blues classics, Love in Vain and St. James Infirmary, deserve consideration.  Anyone’s version.

After that, I’m not sure.  Yesterday?  Yes It Is?  For No One?  No.  The Beatles could do melancholy, but they were masters of juxtaposition, and so even their sad songs feel upbeat.  Springsteen’s pretty good at that too.

Maybe John Mayer’s Gravity.  Nah.  Too pretty.

Fast Car?  No.  That’s depressing, not sad.
 

Lots of emotional songs, lots of downer songs, but not many sad ones come to mind.  Hmmm  ...  maybe we could use more.  The catharsis might be good for us, and then maybe we wouldn't need so many pissed off songs.

Favourite Albums - Part 1

I stumbled across a Beatles forum a while ago,and the burning question under discussion was, "What's your favourite Beatles album?"  Like it's possible to decide, or consensus could be achieved.  So I typed "the last one I heard" and moved on.

But like a bad TV commercial, the idea wouldn't go out of my head.  So, against my better judgement, here is my list of favourite albums (excluding the Greatest Hits, since that would be cheating).

AC/DC - Back In Black.  Easy.

The Band - Music From Big Pink.  They could have stopped there.

The Beatles - yes.

Bonnie Raitt - Luck of the Draw.  Tough call.

B.B. King - Deuces Wild.  I know it's cheating, but you get his greatest hits repackaged with some great guest artists.

The Cars - A tie.  The Cars and Candy O.

Cat Stevens - Another tie.  Tea for the Tillerman and Teaser and the Firecat.

Colin James - National Steel.  More acoustic and less big band, please.

Cream - Wheels of Fire.  'cause it has two discs.

The Cult - Electric.  In case you care.

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here.  Maybe it's the cover.

Deep Purple - Another tie.  Shades of ...  and Fireball.  Not Machine Head, not that I don't like that.

Dire Straits - yes.

Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True.  It was.

Eric Clapton - Crossroads.  OK, that's cheating.  So From the Cradle.  No wait!  Me and Mr. Johnson.  Wait!  ...

The Guess Who - Share the Land.  Just to be contrary.

James Taylor - Sweet Baby James.  Unsurpassable.

Jeff Beck - nope

Jethro Tull - Mood dependent, but let's say Stand Up.

More later.