Tag: meme

An artist whose voice you love

I’m leaving off the Beatles and Motown…

Judy Collins.Wildflowers
Judy Collins.Wildflowers
I’ve come up to the prompt, “A song by an artist whose voice you love.” This is intriguing.

What makes the human singing voice appealing? There are plenty of vocals by artists whose sounds are not “pretty,” yet I like to hear them sing. Bob Dylan falls into that category.

Somewhere – Tom Waits. I heard this song for the first time near the end of the 1997 movie Afterglow with Julie Christie and Nick Nolte. I saw it on the February 2018 holiday weekend. In the context of the movie, I wept.
Lay Down (Candles in the Rain) – Melanie with the Edwin Hawkins Singers. I think it’s the juxtaposition of her rough sound with the majesty of the choir.

I had an office mate some years back, and there were only two artists she wouldn’t allow me to play because she absolutely HATED their voices. Naturally, I need to link to them here:

Old Man – Neil Young
Always on My Mind – Willie Nelson

There are countless rockers and soul shouters who’d be on the list:

Black Dog – Led Zeppelin (Robert Plant)
Star – David Bowie
Respect – Otis Redding
I Got You – James Brown

I’m leaving off the Beatles and Motown and the Beach Boys…

The first songs I thought of, though, were these:

Stand by Me – Ben E. King, a great song written by him, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.
Maybe – Alison Krauss. I’m a sucker for the harmony vocals.
Dimming of the Day – Bonnie Raitt. There are LOTS of versions of this song, and I love most of them.
A Case of You – Joni Mitchell. From the great Blue album.
A Ballata Of Francesco Landini (ca. 1335-1397) Lasso! Di Donna – Judy Collins. When I think of my favorite Judy Collins album, it bounces between Wildflowers, from which this song comes, and Who Knows Where the Time Goes
Rolling in the Deep – Adele. I’m old; she the only artist whose first release was in the 21st century whose whole body of work (that’s more than one album) I own.

Songs: fall in love, break your heart

The first QoS song I ever owned

Here are some songs of romance and heartbreak. Finding the latter is FAR easier for me.

Songs that make you want to fall in love

I Only Have Eyes For You – the Flamingoes

That’s about it. Everything else seems more wistful and uncertain, such as:

God Only Knows – the Beach Boys, from Pet Sounds

and especially

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow – Carole King, from the Tapestry album

Songs that break your heart

heartbreak
Whereas the “melancholy quartet” of songs were pretty much codified by 1980, played in this specific order:

Sweet Bitter Love – Aretha Franklin. The first QoS song I ever owned. It appeared on some Columbia Records compilation in 1965 or 1966, before she was signed to Atlantic. This was eventually covered by Roberta Flack.
My First Night Alone Without You – Jane Olivor. My old friend Pam gave me the First Night album in error for Christmas; she mixed up a couple presents. This song was also performed by Bonnie Raitt.
Gone Away – Roberta Flack. From my sister Leslie’s copy of Chapter Two, which I eventually had to buy for myself. This song destroys me more than almost any other. T.I. sampled this on What You Know in 2006.
Stay With Me – Lorraine Ellison . I heard this on a Warner Brothers Loss Leader and was immediately blown away. It’s been covered a few times.

Sometimes, I’d add other break your heart songs, such as:
Remove This Doubt – The Supremes. This is from The Supremes Sing Holland-Dozier-Holland. It was covered by Elvis Costello.
Down so Low – Linda Ronstadt. From Hasten Down the Wind, this Tracy Nelson/Mother Earth song was also covered by numerous other artists, including Etta James, Maria Muldaur, John Lee Hooker, and Cyndi Lauper.

Hmm, I suppose I need a song by a guy.
Can We Still Be Friends – Todd Rundgren. In an interview, Todd said, “It’s really a song about the best possible way to end a relationship.” Ha, I don’t believe that they CAN stay friends.

Songs that make me think about life

Gloria Gaynor has a new album

gloria gaynor testimonyWith the prompt, “A song that makes you think about life.” I think, “Yowza – LOTS of songs fit into that category.” Such as these:

Until I Die – Beach Boys. It’s such a lovely song about mortality. Someone once suggested my church choir ought to sing it. The song’s theology doesn’t quite mesh for that to happen.
“I’m a cork on the ocean
Floating over the raging sea
How deep is the ocean?
I lost my way”

Cancer – Joe Jackson. It’s such a CHEERY song for such a terrible disease that has claimed the lives of several people I have known.
“No caffeine, No protein
No booze or Nicotine”

Church – Lyle Lovett. A rebellious song about Sunday morning service. And the damn thing makes me hungry to boot.
“And the preacher he kept preaching
He said now I’ll remind you if I may
You all better pay attention
Or I might decide to preach all day”

How Cruel – Joan Armatrading. I’ve referred to this song more than once on this blog.
“I heard somebody say once I was way too black
And someone answers she’s not black enough for me”

The Ostrich – Steppenwolf. From that first album.
“But there’s nothing you and I can do
You and I are only two”

Logical Song – Supertramp – I saw someone slagging it on Facebook recently; reason enough to include it.
“I said, watch what you say or they’ll be calling you a radical
Liberal, oh fanatical, criminal.”

I Will Survive – Gloria Gaynor. Here’s a Rolling Stone article and a CBS News piece , both from June 2019, with her promoting her new gospel album, Testimony. She turns 70 on September 7, 2019.
“Weren’t you the one who tried to hurt me with goodbye
Do you think I’d crumble
Did you think I’d lay down and die?”

Fight the Power – Isley Brothers. Self-evident.
“Time is truly wastin’
There’s no guarantee
Smile’s in the makin’
You gotta fight the powers that be”

The Message – Grand Master Flash & the Furious Five
“It’s like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin’ under”

Some songs I like from the 1970s

I could link to the entire oeuvre of Stevie Wonder or Paul Simon from the decade.

Songs I like from the 1970sI’m going pick a few tunes from the 1970s, the decade far most represented in my record collection, the physical manifestation of which I still own.

The caveat is that I wrote nearly a dozen posts just about the music of 1971 not long ago. I’m trying to avoid folks I’ve written about relatively recently, such as Fleetwood Mac or David Bowie.

I could link to the entire oeuvre of Stevie Wonder or Paul Simon from the decade. It always makes me laugh to recall Paul thanking Stevie for not releasing an album that year in his Grammy acceptance speech for Still Crazy After All These Years.

Loves Me Like a Rock – Paul Simon (#2 in 1973). My favorite solo P Simon song.
As – Stevie Wonder (#36 pop AND soul, 1977). My favorite Stevie song
Tell Me Something Good – Rufus (#3 pop AND soul, 1974). Written by Stevie Wonder.
Staple Singers – Respect Yourself (#12 pop, #2 RB in 1972). “If you don’t respect yourself…”

Lucky Man – Emerson, Lake and Palmer (#48 in 1971 and #52 in 1973). When I was in college, I used to be able to do, just with my mouth, a fair representation of the synthesizer at the end of this song.
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway – Genesis (1974). I heard this song on WQBK-FM in Albany a lot, six or seven years after it was released.

Dirty Work – Steely Dan (1972). David Palmer, lead vocal.
More Than a Feeling – Boston (#5 in 1976). Yes, I did buy that eponymous album.

Gloria – Patti Smith (1975). Lead song from the Horses album.
Uncontrollable Urge – DEVO (1978). The first cut on “Q. Are We Not Men…”
A Message to You, Rudy – The Specials (1979, #10 in the UK)

The final song from the 1970s is The Jungle Line -Joni Mitchell (1975). It’d be easy to pick something (or EVERYTHING) from Blue or Court and Spark. I opted for this cut from The Hissing of Summer Lawns. It was an album a Joni fan I knew did not particularly enjoy. I told her, “Well, then give the album to me!” She did not.

Songs I never get tired of

“Some days are diamonds, some days are rocks.”

O Brother Where Art ThouThe songs I never get tired of is a very long list. Fortunately, I’m learning not to overthink this meme.

Taking It To the Streets – Doobie Brothers. The first Doobies hit I recall with Michael McDonald on lead vocal. It appears on the Cook Book Loss Leader, “focusing on Warners’ black acts.”

Man of Constant Sorrow – Soggy Bottom Boys, from O Brother Where Art Thou, my favorite soundtrack of a movie I have never seen.
My wife and I saw Alison Krauss and Union Station in 2003. Dan Tyminski told how much his wife loved watching her husband’s voice come out of George Clooney’s lips.

Sail On Sailor – Beach Boys. The most rocking BB song, from the 1972 Holland album.

Walls – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers from the She’s The One soundtrack. “Some days are diamonds, some days are rocks.”

Something in 4/4 Time – Daryl Hall. The Sacred Songs album, produced by Robert Fripp, was recorded the summer of 1977 but not released until 1980. I’d love to hear some college a Capella group take a shot at this, especially the off-kilter bridge.

Barabajagal – Donovan (With The Jeff Beck Group). Love IS hot. In my early blogging days, put this on a mixed CD exchange with a couple songs by other former Yardbirds guitarists, Page (some Zeppelin track) and Clapton (surely a Cream song).

I Can’t Get Next to You – the Temptations. The second of four #1 pop singles by the group that is STILL touring. But it’s the first one with the shared lead vocal in the era produced by Norman Whitfield. This was after David Ruffin left the group and Dennis Edwards had joined.

Tempted -Squeeze. Beyond the Paul Carrack growl, I also love the Sly Stone/Temps shared vocals in the second verse.

Fame – David Bowie. Bowie, John Lennon – that’s enough. Not incidentally, I know of know version of a song designated with a year that I like better than the original. Thus this, NOT Fame 1990.

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