Two Of Us

Not that he hasn’t worked damned hard to overcome it, but Paul McCartney is forever destined to be remembered as John Lennon’s partner.  A little unfair maybe.  After all, he only spent 13 years with John.  And he’s given us a lot of great music and memories over the last 45 years as a solo artist.

Then again, maybe he’s never given up trying to replace John.  Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Elvis Costello, David Gilmour, Dave Grohl, Kanye West …  it’s a pretty impressive list of collaborations.

Or maybe Paul just digs music, is a fan like the rest of us, and understands that at bottom music is a shared experience.

Groundbreakers

Hey, Rolling Stone!  What’s with these lists delivered as advertisements?

You need to work at Rolling Stone’s 40 Most Groundbreaking Albums of All Time to get to the detail, but it’s more or less worth it.  Probably.

Well, Kanye West should pleased to be included on a list featuring Woody Guthrie and Frank Sinatra.

And Perrey and Kingsley – whoever they were - should be mighty proud to be on a list that includes Bob Dylan, Ray Charles and Dave Brubeck.

Are we surprised to see pioneers like Nirvana, The Ramones, The Allman Brothers, Paul Butterfield or James Brown on such a list?  Of course not.  Or masters such as Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye or Carole King?  Nope.

Nor, though I’ll never understand it, can we be surprised to see The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, The Velvet Underground’s Nico, The Mothers of Invention, or Sabbath.

This couldn’t have been an easy list to assemble.  It covers every major music genre over seven decades.  And I know I’m just a rabid fan, which in no way qualifies me as an expert, but I do wonder why there are so many entries on the list that I have never heard of.  I mean, I have been paying attention and all.  And while it’s nice to see The Beatles with two entries, how can such a list omit Elvis, Buddy Holly or Chuck Berry?  I’m just sayin’.

Let’s Go Crazy

I don’t know about pop’s greatest year (that honour would have to land somewhere around 1966 give or take a year or two), but Rolling Stone’s 100 Best Singles of 1984 definitely disproves the assertion that the 80’s were a musical wasteland.

Yes, you’ve got your abundance of Europop (some good, some bad; you decide which is which), like Dead or Alive, Wham!  Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, Culture Club, or The Eurythmics.

Or you’ve got your hair bands, some of which didn’t quite stand the test of time (again, you decide which ones), like Scorpion, Ratt, Bon Jovi or Def Leppard.

You’ve also got a healthy reminder that R&B was alive and well thank you very much, thanks to Hall & Oates, Huey Lewis, Sade and Tina Turner.

Then there’s folks who did a great job riding the punk/new wave pop rock thing, like The Cars, Billy Idol, Cyndi Lauper, or Mellencamp.

And of course there are the giants of the decade: Prince, Michael Jackson, Madonna, The Police and U2.

But, you also have blasts from the past, as it were, with entries from Springsteen, Genesis, Van Halen, ZZ Top, Elton John, and McCartney.  Heck, even John Lennon has a posthumous release on the list.

So, notwithstanding 99 Luftballons, there are a lot of fabulous tunes here.  And you know, I had almost as many of these records as I had for the Top 100 of 1966.

His Hair Was Perfect

Forget candy.  Forget schlocky horror flicks.

What you really need for Halloween is some kitsch, some funk, some pop, a couple of legendary riffs, and some butt-kicking rock.  Something like Billboard’s Top 10 Halloween Songs.  Go ahead and be thrilled.

Happy Halloween.

The Session Men

Gibson’s 10 Great Session Guitarists brings some well-deserved focus to some brilliant musicians who have delivered a heap of magic over the years.

Lukather, Cropper, Carlton, Tedesco, Atkins, Spedding … where would pop/rcok/blues/soul be without them?  Or, to put it another way, where would Rod Stewart, Michael Jackson, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Steely Dan, Billy Joel, Joni Mitchell, Elvis, Ricky Nelson, Sam Cooke, Bryan Ferry, Elton John and  Aretha Franklin be without them?

OK, some of them would probably have done OK, but you get the point.

And then there was this cat by the name of Jimmy Page.

Note to Gibson.  No one is going to dispute the importance of James Jamerson, but he was a bass player.  Is there really no other session guitarist out there that should have made the list?

Mayday! Mayday! We’re Listing!

Yes, I can take umbrage when I see a list that elevates someone I don’t respect/like or disrespects my idols.  Guilty as charged.

Seems I’m not alone, though.  The “puffed-up pontificators” at Entertainment Weekly appear to have deeply offended Joel Rubinoff with their list of Top 100 Albums, at least judging by his You Call This a List? rant in the Toronto Star.

Rubinoff’s Exhibit A is that the “whims of personality and ego” omitted Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.  Not just from the Top 10, but altogether.  He has many other issues, but that’s the big one.

By the way, here’s the Top 10:

 1. Beatles, Revolver

 2. Once-Again-Known-As-Prince, Purple Rain

 3. Stones, Exile

 4. MJ, Thriller

 5. The Clash, London Calling

 6. Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks

 7. Aretha, Lady Soul

 8. Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

 9. Beach Boys, Pet Sounds

10. Nirvana, Nevermind

I mean, chill out Joel.  It’s not that different from many other lists I’ve seen - and commented on.  Yes, I agree that leaving out Pepper’s is crazy.  But frankly, I don’t care whether Blood on the Tracks outranks Highway 61 Revisited.  Like, they’re both good, right?

Perhaps the folks at EW were “determined to stoke debate” by going “out of their way … to tick of readers.”  Fair enough.

As Mr. Rubinoff admits, it’s a classic marketing ploy, and it works, cause it’s got people talkin’.

Take it easy, Joel.  At least the Beatles hold down top spot on the list.  For now, anyway.  Tomorrow never knows.

We Got The Beat

The Rolling Stone Top 10 Dance Songs of All Time list should get your juices flowing and your feet bouncing.  Here’s the list:

 1. Daft Punk – One More Time

 2. New Order – Blue Monday

 3. The Beatles – Twist and Shout

 4. Justice – D.A.N.C.E.

 5. Madonna - Vogue

 6. The Isley Brothers - Shout

 7.  Michael Jackson - Thriller

 8.  Deee-Lite – Groove Is In The Heart

 9.  Chic – Le Freak

10. Bee Gees – Stayin’ Alive

Not a lot of surprises here, though I would have preferred more 60’s rock ‘n’ roll and R&B, but no matter.  We’d all be shocked if Madonna and MJ didn’t have at least one song each, right?

And good for the Isley Brothers for getting one of their songs and a cover of one of their covers on the list.  Actually, the endurance of Shout is more than curious; it wasn’t even that big a hit when it was first released.  I mean, it’s fun to dance to and DJ’s seem to love it, but …

Speaking of having the beat, spandex and mullets aside, the 80’s produced a lot of great dance numbers.  Surprised there wasn’t more New Wave and Europop on the list.  Life was good during wartime.

Riffer Madness

Gibson’s Top 10 Riffs of the 80's serves as a great reminder that the 80’s weren’t as grim as all that after all.

Here’s the list:

  1.  AC/DC – Back In Black

  2.  Rolling Stones – Start Me Up

  3.  Ozzy Osborne – Crazy Train

  4.  Scorpions – Rock You Like A Hurricane

  5.  Def Leppard - Photograph

  6.  Judas Priest  - Breaking The Law

  7.  Michael Jackson – Beat It

  8.  The Clash – Should I Stay Or Should I Go

  9.  Guns N’ Roses – Sweet Child o’ Mine

10.  Rush – Limelight

But …

The preamble talks about riffs really coming into prominence in the 60’s, thanks to the likes of Dave Davies, Pete Townshend and Keith Richards.  Sure, but why is John Lennon never mentioned?  Davies and Townshend had a handful each.  Only Lennon could rival Keef in both quantity and quality.

And why is Jimmy Page not mentioned?  Hello?

Some other tunes with killer riffs I might have nominated include:

She Sells Sanctuary – The Cult

Money For Nothing – Dire Straits

She’s Waiting - Clapton

Would I Lie To You? – The Eurythmics

Paper In Fire - Mellencamp

Every Breath You Take – The Police

Refugee  - Petty

Sunday Bloody Sunday – U2

Owner Of A Lonely Heart - Yes

Sharp Dressed Man – ZZ Top

Pretty good list, reinforcing the immortal songs are built on three chords, the truth, a backbeat, and a great riff.

Living in the Material World

Rolling Stone’s Best Albums of the 80's provided a lot less fodder for argument than I expected.

The 80’s began badly.  After a big tease by Elvis Costello, The Cars and other New Wave arrivals, John Lennon got shot, synth players began wearing strap-ons, the guitars disappeared, and everyone began wearing makeup and stuff.

Rolling Stone notes that there were no big musical revolutions like there had been in previous decades.  Nope, just a bizarre retreat into glam, disco, and Broadway silliness.  So I expected a rather moribund scan over a list filled with the likes of Culture Club, George Michael and The Human League.

To be sure, they are all there, but they don’t dominate as much as I had feared.  Here’s the Top 10:

The Clash – London Calling

What’s-his-name – Purple Rain

U2 – Joshua Tree

Talking Heads – Remain In Light

Paul Simon – Graceland

Springsteen – Born in the U.S.A.

Michael Jackson – Thriller

R.E.M. – Murmur

Richard & Linda Thompson – Shoot Out the Lights

Tracy Chapman – Tracy Chapman

Pretty good.  And the rest of the list didn’t give me too much of the creeps.  It’s got Midnight Oil, The Pretenders, more Bruce, Tom Petty (though not near high enough), AC/DC, Lennon, Peter Gabriel, Squeeze, Travelling Wilburys, and Pete Townshend.

Lots of artists get on more than once: Springsteen, Gabriel, U2, The Stones, R.E.M., Talking Heads.  Some should have: Petty, Def Leppard, Townshend.  But overall the synth, dance stuff does not dominate, and much of what was selected actually ages well.

As with most such lists, you get the feeling that there’s an arbitrary pick of some album or other just to include some of the big names.  Take Freedom by Neil Young (#85) for example.  Then as now, Neil put out an album every 9 months or so.  Why that one?  I mean, why not, but …

Biggest surprise: Captain Beefheart was still around in the 80’s?

Disappointing that neither August nor Behind the Sun from Clapton made the list.  Speaking of omissions, no Phil Collins, with or without Genesis?  I was lukewarm on him, but Collins was everywhere that decade.  He was inescapable.  Singing, playing, producing …  Not finding him on the list seems to be against all odds.

When I Paint My Masterpiece

Gibson’s list of 10 Iconic Album Covers reminds us of perhaps the best thing about vinyl. 

Here’s the list:

The Beatles, Abbey Road

The Clash, London Callling

Green Day, Dookie

Guns N’ Roses, Appetite for Destruction

Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin

Michael Jackson, Thriller

Nirvana, Nevermind

Pearl Jam, Ten

Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon

OK, I know CD’s ruled by the time Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Green Day came along, but you get my point.  Album art – and it was art – had such a bigger impact when the real estate was, well, bigger.

Great album covers don’t just inform or appeal, they make a statement.  So all of the ones on the list are deserving.  As the article says, whittling it down to a list of only 10 is a tall order.  Sgt. Pepper, Rubber Soul or With the Beatles were also super icons, and Zep 4 easily rivals Zep 1, but let’s not quibble.  Great album art made great albums even better, providing another way to enjoy, to savour, to immerse oneself.

I know we have videos and websites and tweets and all that, but it’s not the same as a 12-x12 piece of cardboard you can hold in your hands.  It’s not as personal.

Frankie Didn’t Come To Hollywood

I usually think of myself as more sympathetic to British than (North) American viewpoints, but New Musical Express's Top 100 Tracks of the Last 60 Years bit me in the backside.

Here’s the Top 20:

1. Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart
2. Pulp – Common People
3. David Bowie – Heroes
4. The Beach Boys – Good Vibratons
5. New Order – Blue Monday
6. The Stone Roses – She Bangs The Drums
7. The Smiths – There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
8. The Specials – Ghost Town
9. Dizzee Rascal – Fix Up, Look Sharp
10. Oasis – Wonderwall
11. The Rolling Stones – Sympathy For The Devil
12. The Ronettes – Be My Baby
13. Michael Jackson – Billie Jean
14. Sex Pistols – God Save The Queen
15. The Beatles – A Day In The Life
16. The Cure – Boys Don't Cry
17. Bob Dylan – Like A Rolling Stone
18. The Beach Boys – God Only Knows
19. Madonna – Like A Prayer
20. The Stone Roses – I Am The Resurrection

Wow.  A ton of 80’s Brit Pop, only one Beatles, only one Stones.  A thin and curious collection of American acts.  Wow.

I know Americana, Roots, Whatever is my home base, but I always preferred to have it delivered by the English.  I thought I got the English.  I thought they got America(na).

Differing perspectives is what makes the world go round, but at the moment it’s my head that’s spinning.

It Won’t Be Long

The thing that jumps out of the Rolling Stone Top 25 Teen Idol Breakout Moments is that not many of them lasted beyond the moment.

Fabian, The Monkees, The Cassidy’s, Bay City Rollers, New Kids On The Block … all gone.  Long gone.  Gone and forgotten.

The list has some noteworthy exceptions, of course: Elvis, The Beatles, The Jackson 5 (well, Michael anyway), and Frank Sinatra.

Frank Sinatra?  Well sure.  The whole idol, screaming girl thing started with him.  But RS does describe the list as “of the rock era,” and the hysteria over Frank started in 1942 – hardly part of the rock era.  OK, let’s not quibble.  Strangers In The Night was #1 midway through The Beatles run of hits – and played on the same radio stations.

But most of the names on the list are in the “oh-ya-I-forgot-all-about-him/her/them” category.  Not surprising, because most of the acts were manufactured.  They were not the real deal.  They were not artists who happened to make it big.  They were a product, created to capitalize on the teen idol impulse, exploiting the popular musical style of the day.

Popularity was intense but fleeting, there being no substance to the material.

The list is actually an interesting reflection of our culture, though, isn’t it?  A few timeless greats whose impact cannot be truly measured, and a bunch of fluff quickly consumed and more quickly forgotten.

The wolves are always hungry.

Attack Of The Killer Mirror Balls

In the 10 Songs That Prove Disco Didn't Suck article, posted a while back by Gibson, we are invited to entertain the notion that Disco didn’t almost kill contemporary pop music and culture.

To quote: “No genre in the history of contemporary music has been more thoroughly maligned than disco has. But the music – and its impact – shouldn’t be dismissed in one fell swoop. Many terrific artists dabbled in or even embraced the genre, and emerged with their musical integrity intact. Below are 10 songs that give credence to that assertion.”

Well, here’s the list: Good Times (Chic), Hot Stuff (Donna Summer), I Was Made For Lovin’ You (Kiss), Miss You (Rolling Stones), Heart Of Glass (Blondie), Tears Are Not Enough (ABC), Rock With You (Michael Jackson), Stay (David Bowie), Fire (Ohio Players), Goodnight Tonight (Wings).

Listen: I’m wary of generalizations, and I don’t like the phrase “such-and-such sucks.”  But disco was awful, and this list does not prove the article’s point.

For example:

1)    As much as I adore The Stones and Paul McCartney, and respect Messrs. Bowie and Jackson, these songs are hardly their best efforts.

2)    Yes, it got played in discos, and in hindsight sounds like disco, but Blondie was viewed as a New Wave act.  On second thought, was Blondie copying the disco that came before or presaging the resurrected 80’s synth pop rubbish that was to come afterwards?  Nevermind.

Don’t get me wrong.  Dancing is fun.  A great beat and an infectious, upbeat tune is the stuff of happiness.  But for rockers like me, disco was hard to take.  And the list just proves the point.

Twisted, Sister

How do people even come up with this stuff?  Rolling Stone did a reader’s poll on 10 Artists Who Should Return As Holograms.

The poll was taken after Snoop Dogg had a hologram of Tupac Shakur during a concert, or something.  So, the morbid question is “Hey kids!  What dead people do you want to see on stage?  Cool!  Fun!  Woot!” 

And the list is: Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, John Lennon, Freddie Mercury, Jim Morrison, Jerry Garcia, Janis Joplin, Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, Notorious B.I.G..

Hey kids!  Anybody not guess who would be on the list?  OK, I guessed Keith Moon instead of Notorious.  Drummers never did get enough respect.

More than a little sick, and absolutely pointless.

Oh, and apparently there is some ongoing tour out there featuring an Elvis hologram.  Talk about the heebie-jeebies!

I liked it better when they just sold those Elvis-on-black-velvet paintings at corner gas stations.  When it comes to cheese, I’ll take low tech.

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.