In David Marsh and James Bernard's The New Book of Rock Lists (Simon & Schuster 1994), there is a list of the 100 Best Songwriters. The rankings are divided up by decade. Here's the top 12 for the 1960s.
12. Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson
11. Brian Wilson
10. Pete Townsend
9. Gerry Goffin and Carole King
8. Isaac Hayes and David Porter
7. Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich
6. Curtis Mayfield
5. Smokey Robinson
4. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards
3. John Lennon and Paul McCartney
2. Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland
1. Bob Dylan
Lower down on the list, we can find Sly Stone (#14). Paul Simon (#16), Ray Davies (#22), and James Brown (#25).
It's interesting how many collaborators there are on the list. Neither the 50s list nor the 70s list has so many collaborations, though the 50s has 2 in the top 5 (Lieber & Stoller and Pomus & Shuman). The 70s list has no collaborations in the top 5 and the 80s/90s list has one (RUN DMC).
Was there something special about the 60s that fostered great collaborations? Alternatively, were collaborations part of what made the 60s arguably the best decade for music in the 20th century? Should all of the lists be ignored in their entirety because Sir Mix-a-lot is at #15 on the 80s/90s list? Did Boy George and Jon Moss benefit from a pro-collaboration bias to make the list (#23 for the 80s/90s)? Does the list have a bias against bands for whom the main songwriters chose not to list themselves as collaborators (e.g. Bob Mould and Grant Hart aren't on the list)?
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Top 10 Rolling Stones Song of All Time
I previously commented on a list of the top 10 Beatles songs of all time. I thought I'd search out some Stones lists. Here's one that puts two of their 70s hits in the top spots. This list, which is based on what fans wanted them to play live, also puts Angie on top. This one is a static list which may change as more votes come in, but as of April 2012 it's an appropriately 60s-centric list. Angie is the first song from the 70s, at #5. Finally, from the blogosphere, an Angie-free list.
When I made my list of the 500 best songs of the 70s (all songs, not just Stones songs), I included 6 Stones songs and I was mildly surprised, checking just now, that Angie ranked the highest at #92. Miss You (#105) and Tumbling Dice (#130) weren't too far behind, but if I redid the list today I think they might leapfrog "Angie". It really is a great song, but seeing it ahead of the Stones 60s classics on some of these lists is pushing me towards a personal backlash.
I'm still not up to the task of making a list of the best songs of the 1960s, but I might as well try making a Stones list, as a trial heat of sorts.
10) Time Is On My Side
9) You Can't Always Get What You Want
8) 19th Nervous Breakdown
7) Ruby Tuesday
6) Play With Fire
5) Get Off Of My Could
4) Dandelion
3) Sittin' on a Fence
2) Sympathy for the Devil
1) Satisfaction
Honorable mentions go to Paint It Black, As Tears Go By, Under My Thumb, Mother's Little Helper, Have You Seen Your Mother, Let's Spend the Night Together, Jumpin' Jack Flash, The Last Time, Citadel, We Love You, and You Better Move On.
I like all 10 of these songs and a number of the honorable mentions better than anything they did after the 60s, but if I were making myself a Stones mix, my preference for variety could lead to the inclusion of at least a couple of the following post-60s songs: Miss You, Tumbling Dice, Angie, Emotional Rescue, and Start Me Up.
Because they're the obviously idiosyncratic picks, I've provided links to the YouTube videos for Dandelion and Sittin' on a Fence. Who knows if I'd like these songs more than Jumpin' Jack Flash if I'd hear them as many times, or if Whoopi Goldberg had starred in a movie with one of those names. Speaking of Jumpin' Jack Flash, it was really close to making my list based on the first 15 seconds of the song alone, but I think it deteriorates after that.
Maybe I haven't spent enough time pondering this (cue derisive laughter), but I find myself very unsettled on the ordering of this list after the first 2. The rankings could change considerably as I begin to think about the rest of the 60s, which I plan to do some time before the 2020s. Whew. I've got a deadline now. I needed that. Keep your eyes out for that 60s list sometime in the next 7 years or so.
When I made my list of the 500 best songs of the 70s (all songs, not just Stones songs), I included 6 Stones songs and I was mildly surprised, checking just now, that Angie ranked the highest at #92. Miss You (#105) and Tumbling Dice (#130) weren't too far behind, but if I redid the list today I think they might leapfrog "Angie". It really is a great song, but seeing it ahead of the Stones 60s classics on some of these lists is pushing me towards a personal backlash.
I'm still not up to the task of making a list of the best songs of the 1960s, but I might as well try making a Stones list, as a trial heat of sorts.
10) Time Is On My Side
9) You Can't Always Get What You Want
8) 19th Nervous Breakdown
7) Ruby Tuesday
6) Play With Fire
5) Get Off Of My Could
4) Dandelion
3) Sittin' on a Fence
2) Sympathy for the Devil
1) Satisfaction
Honorable mentions go to Paint It Black, As Tears Go By, Under My Thumb, Mother's Little Helper, Have You Seen Your Mother, Let's Spend the Night Together, Jumpin' Jack Flash, The Last Time, Citadel, We Love You, and You Better Move On.
I like all 10 of these songs and a number of the honorable mentions better than anything they did after the 60s, but if I were making myself a Stones mix, my preference for variety could lead to the inclusion of at least a couple of the following post-60s songs: Miss You, Tumbling Dice, Angie, Emotional Rescue, and Start Me Up.
Because they're the obviously idiosyncratic picks, I've provided links to the YouTube videos for Dandelion and Sittin' on a Fence. Who knows if I'd like these songs more than Jumpin' Jack Flash if I'd hear them as many times, or if Whoopi Goldberg had starred in a movie with one of those names. Speaking of Jumpin' Jack Flash, it was really close to making my list based on the first 15 seconds of the song alone, but I think it deteriorates after that.
Maybe I haven't spent enough time pondering this (cue derisive laughter), but I find myself very unsettled on the ordering of this list after the first 2. The rankings could change considerably as I begin to think about the rest of the 60s, which I plan to do some time before the 2020s. Whew. I've got a deadline now. I needed that. Keep your eyes out for that 60s list sometime in the next 7 years or so.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Top 10 Most Revered or Reviled Artists
There are artists that almost everyone loves, or at least greatly respects, and there are popular artists that are widely loathed by the music intelligentsia. There are also lots of bands that lots of people think are pretty good, while others think are just OK, or visa versa.
When I was posting my top 500 songs of the 1970s list for the first time, I got to thinking about the most contentious artists. These are artists that almost nobody thinks are kind of OK. Most people think these artists are absolutely wonderful or absolute rubbish (or at least grossly overrated).
I don't have a very good metric for these rankings. I tried to think of one. Loosely, I was imagining equally vociferous arguments in favor or against these artists' greatness. In some cases, the vociferousness of the feelings pushed artists up the ranking more than the balance of the opinions.
10. Grateful Dead
9. Wings
8. Coldplay
7. Fleetwood Mac
6. Barbara Streisand
5. Rush
4. Oasis
3. The Cure
2. Bob Dylan
1. Billy Joel
I've failed to make the case for any of these 10. I think it's a good list if it's self-evident that a lot of people love or hate all of these artists. If it's not self-evident, I should have made better choices.
When I was posting my top 500 songs of the 1970s list for the first time, I got to thinking about the most contentious artists. These are artists that almost nobody thinks are kind of OK. Most people think these artists are absolutely wonderful or absolute rubbish (or at least grossly overrated).
I don't have a very good metric for these rankings. I tried to think of one. Loosely, I was imagining equally vociferous arguments in favor or against these artists' greatness. In some cases, the vociferousness of the feelings pushed artists up the ranking more than the balance of the opinions.
10. Grateful Dead
9. Wings
8. Coldplay
7. Fleetwood Mac
6. Barbara Streisand
5. Rush
4. Oasis
3. The Cure
2. Bob Dylan
1. Billy Joel
I've failed to make the case for any of these 10. I think it's a good list if it's self-evident that a lot of people love or hate all of these artists. If it's not self-evident, I should have made better choices.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
1976 - A Lowpoint for the Mojo Collection
The Mojo Collection is a book with a page devoted to each of 700+ records that the Mojo hive mind thinks you ought to own. I decided to use it to test my theory that 1976 was a low point in music. In the 3rd Edition (Canongate 2003), which is the one on my book shelf, here are the number of records, not counting compilations, for each year of the 70s.
Year - Records in Mojo Collection
1970 - 36
1971 - 34
1972 - 35
1973 - 25
1974 - 18
1975 - 18
1976 - 13
1977 - 25
1978 - 19
1979 - 20
The 13 records from 1970 were records by June Tabor, Thin Lizzy, Kiss, Steve Miller Band, Ramones, Aerosmith, Parliament, Rush, Boz Scaggs, Stevie Wonder, Abba, The Eagles, and Johnny 'Guitar' Watson. It's a list that may illustrate the point I was trying to make a few posts ago a little better than the list I chose for that post.
I think it's quite proper that the count bounced back strongly in 1977, but I was surprised 1978 and 1979 didn't compete more successfully with the early 70s. I suppose almost all rock critics have a bias towards the 60s and early 70s, but it may also be an appropriate indication that the golden age of the album had come and gone by the mid 70s and never really came back strong. There were definitely good punk albums, good new wave albums, and to a lesser extent good disco albums, but all three genres were stronger singles genres than album genres.
2002, the last year covered in full by the 3rd edition of the Mojo Collection contributes 24 records (i.e. CDs). I find it hard to believe that 2002 was really a better year than 1978, particularly when they left off Neko Case's Blacklisted, which I think was the best record of 2002. They do include Calexico, who played with Neko on that record, in the short partial list for 2003. Whether the format is records, CDs, or digital downloads, I guess we've bounced back from 1976. I feel like last year (2011) was something of a lull as well, and I expect we'll bounce back from that too.
Year - Records in Mojo Collection
1970 - 36
1971 - 34
1972 - 35
1973 - 25
1974 - 18
1975 - 18
1976 - 13
1977 - 25
1978 - 19
1979 - 20
The 13 records from 1970 were records by June Tabor, Thin Lizzy, Kiss, Steve Miller Band, Ramones, Aerosmith, Parliament, Rush, Boz Scaggs, Stevie Wonder, Abba, The Eagles, and Johnny 'Guitar' Watson. It's a list that may illustrate the point I was trying to make a few posts ago a little better than the list I chose for that post.
I think it's quite proper that the count bounced back strongly in 1977, but I was surprised 1978 and 1979 didn't compete more successfully with the early 70s. I suppose almost all rock critics have a bias towards the 60s and early 70s, but it may also be an appropriate indication that the golden age of the album had come and gone by the mid 70s and never really came back strong. There were definitely good punk albums, good new wave albums, and to a lesser extent good disco albums, but all three genres were stronger singles genres than album genres.
2002, the last year covered in full by the 3rd edition of the Mojo Collection contributes 24 records (i.e. CDs). I find it hard to believe that 2002 was really a better year than 1978, particularly when they left off Neko Case's Blacklisted, which I think was the best record of 2002. They do include Calexico, who played with Neko on that record, in the short partial list for 2003. Whether the format is records, CDs, or digital downloads, I guess we've bounced back from 1976. I feel like last year (2011) was something of a lull as well, and I expect we'll bounce back from that too.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Pitchfork's 5-10-15-20
Pitchfork has a cool feature that's been going for a while now, but I just learned about it today. Artists share their favorite songs from when they were 5, 10, 15, 20, etc. The lists are shorter or longer depending on the age of the artist. Like Scott Miller's new book, which I've also commented upon recently, it provides a list of great songs as well as some personal perspective on what made them great at that point in their lives. Sometimes they go on a bit longer than I'd prefer about each song, but it's still quite interesting. It's definitely better than the non-contextual artist top 10s in the Rolling Stones best 500 songs issue.
For example, TV On The Radio's Dave Sitek liked Free to Be You and Me when he was 5, Blondie when he was 10, Bad Brains when he was 15, Pharoah Sanders at 20, and Aphex Twins at 25. TV On The Radio makes a lot more sense now, doesn't it?
For example, TV On The Radio's Dave Sitek liked Free to Be You and Me when he was 5, Blondie when he was 10, Bad Brains when he was 15, Pharoah Sanders at 20, and Aphex Twins at 25. TV On The Radio makes a lot more sense now, doesn't it?
Sunday, February 12, 2012
1976 - A Musical Lowpoint and Turning Point
When I made my best songs of the 70s list, the mid-70s ('74 to '76) contributed the fewest tracks, so I was especially interested in Scott Miller's picks for those years in his book Music: What Happened. Here's his countdown for 1976.
The Damned - Neat Neat Neat
Flamin' Groovies - You Tore Me Down
Bob Dylan - Sara
The Rolling Stones - Hand of Fate
David Bowie - Station to Station (edit)
Abba - Knowing Me, Knowing You
Electric Light Orchestra - Tightrope
Todd Rundgren - Cliche
Sex Pistols - Anarchy in the UK
Joni Mitchell - Song for Sharon
The Modern Lovers - Roadrunner
Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop
Sneakers - Condition Red
Pere Ubu - Final Solution
Blue Oyster Cult - Don't Fear the Reaper
Murray Head - Say It Ain't So, Joe
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - American Girl
You need to buy the book yourself to read his insightful comments about these tracks, and I do recommend that. For now, though, you'll have to settle for my free commentary.
1) He lists about 20 tracks for most years. I don't know how much I can read into the fact that 1976 only has 17 tracks listed, but I don't think it was accidental.
2) What makes this a turning point year is that it's the first year with real punk songs (I say real punk songs to distinguish from the proto-punk of The New York Dolls, The Stooges, etc). As the year that punk hit the US and UK with the Ramones and Sex Pistols respectively, it's a turning point, but it's also easy to detect the bloated excess that rock and roll had become making punk rock necessary as a response.
3) I'm pleased to see Final Solution near the top of the list. Pere Ubu appeared on vinyl before 1976 and I think their 70s incarnation could be called real punk rock in spite of their avant-garde proclivities, but they didn't generate the press or sales of The Ramones or Sex Pistols, so that's why I say 1976 was the first year of real punk rock.
4) The Ramones and Sex Pistols don't make the top 5 in spite of their obvious importance. Important is different from good. The first Ramones record was really good, particularly for 1976, but for regular listening I prefer later punk rock. Same goes for the Sex Pistols who haven't aged as well as the Ramones in my opinion. Good for you if you got to see one of their shows - I'm talking about their recorded music here.
5) Murray Head, huh? I guess I'll need to track down that song and hear it. This is one of those little oddities Scott Miller throws in that make the book more interesting to me.
6) Yes Abba! More importantly, yes Knowing Me Knowing You! Rolling Stone Magazine includes "Dancing Queen" from the same record in their top 500 songs of all time, but it really wasn't the best song on that album.
7) No Eagles, no Thin Lizzy, and no Peter Frampton. I think if you're going to let Blue Oyster Cult join the party at #3 and if you're going to let in any mid-70s Stones whatsoever, you have to consider giving a nod to the rest of what the arena brought us in 1976. I won't try to make the case for Kansas's "Carry On My Wayward Son". Parts of that song hold up great, but other parts not as much.
8) Soul and R&B was similarly in transition in 1976 and that doesn't show up on this list at all. I can see how the Ohio Players "Love Rollercoaster", Heatwave's "Boogie Nights", and Lou Rawls "Love Rollercoaster" wouldn't make any sense of Scott Miller's list, but they made sense to me on mine.
The Damned - Neat Neat Neat
Flamin' Groovies - You Tore Me Down
Bob Dylan - Sara
The Rolling Stones - Hand of Fate
David Bowie - Station to Station (edit)
Abba - Knowing Me, Knowing You
Electric Light Orchestra - Tightrope
Todd Rundgren - Cliche
Sex Pistols - Anarchy in the UK
Joni Mitchell - Song for Sharon
The Modern Lovers - Roadrunner
Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop
Sneakers - Condition Red
Pere Ubu - Final Solution
Blue Oyster Cult - Don't Fear the Reaper
Murray Head - Say It Ain't So, Joe
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - American Girl
You need to buy the book yourself to read his insightful comments about these tracks, and I do recommend that. For now, though, you'll have to settle for my free commentary.
1) He lists about 20 tracks for most years. I don't know how much I can read into the fact that 1976 only has 17 tracks listed, but I don't think it was accidental.
2) What makes this a turning point year is that it's the first year with real punk songs (I say real punk songs to distinguish from the proto-punk of The New York Dolls, The Stooges, etc). As the year that punk hit the US and UK with the Ramones and Sex Pistols respectively, it's a turning point, but it's also easy to detect the bloated excess that rock and roll had become making punk rock necessary as a response.
3) I'm pleased to see Final Solution near the top of the list. Pere Ubu appeared on vinyl before 1976 and I think their 70s incarnation could be called real punk rock in spite of their avant-garde proclivities, but they didn't generate the press or sales of The Ramones or Sex Pistols, so that's why I say 1976 was the first year of real punk rock.
4) The Ramones and Sex Pistols don't make the top 5 in spite of their obvious importance. Important is different from good. The first Ramones record was really good, particularly for 1976, but for regular listening I prefer later punk rock. Same goes for the Sex Pistols who haven't aged as well as the Ramones in my opinion. Good for you if you got to see one of their shows - I'm talking about their recorded music here.
5) Murray Head, huh? I guess I'll need to track down that song and hear it. This is one of those little oddities Scott Miller throws in that make the book more interesting to me.
6) Yes Abba! More importantly, yes Knowing Me Knowing You! Rolling Stone Magazine includes "Dancing Queen" from the same record in their top 500 songs of all time, but it really wasn't the best song on that album.
7) No Eagles, no Thin Lizzy, and no Peter Frampton. I think if you're going to let Blue Oyster Cult join the party at #3 and if you're going to let in any mid-70s Stones whatsoever, you have to consider giving a nod to the rest of what the arena brought us in 1976. I won't try to make the case for Kansas's "Carry On My Wayward Son". Parts of that song hold up great, but other parts not as much.
8) Soul and R&B was similarly in transition in 1976 and that doesn't show up on this list at all. I can see how the Ohio Players "Love Rollercoaster", Heatwave's "Boogie Nights", and Lou Rawls "Love Rollercoaster" wouldn't make any sense of Scott Miller's list, but they made sense to me on mine.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Best Songs of 1967
Scott Miller, of Game Theory and the Loud Family, has a new book with a short blurb on each of his favorite 20-or-so songs from each year from 1957 to 2010. I highly recommend the book, which I bought at bn.com, where I'm able to take advantage of the internet while still paying state taxes that support my schools and road and firefighters and so many other things that Amazon apparently thinks are unimportant.
The 1967 countdown is:
The Marmalade - I See The Rain
The Beatles - Penny Lane
Lulu - To Sir With Love
Cream - Sunshine of Your Love
The Kaleidoscope - If The Night
Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade of Pale
Scott McKenzie - San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)
The Beach Boys - Wonderful
The Hollies - Carrie Anne
The Rolling Stones - Citadel
The Association - Windy
Love - Alone Again Or
The Doors - The Crystal Ship
Aretha Franklin - I Never Loved a Man the Way I Loved You
Nico - Fairest of the Seasons
The Kinks - Waterloo Sunset
Jefferson Airplane - Somebody to Love
The Monkees - Daydream Believer
The Velvet Underground - Venus in Furs
Pink Floyd - Lucifer Sam
Jimi Hendrix Experience - Manic Depression
The Beatles - A Day in the Life
There's just a whole lot to love about this book. Obviously, there's the selection of the best songs of each year, which is why I'm writing about it here, but, as Aimee Mann sarcastically writes on the back cover in reference to the web site that preceded the book, "you're thinking: it's not everyday that someone writes about music on the internet" She goes on... "especially to pick favorite pop music; we can all thank Scott for troweling that wide cultural gap. But really - this is a new and lively style of music writing that you just keep wanting to read more of."
The blurb describing each song has more of an essay feel than a review feel, but they're all just one paragraph long, so they never drag the way I find actual essays on music drag. They never drift into talking-about-music-is-like-dancing-about architecture irrelevance. For instance, as much as I like Nick Hornby's fiction, his book "31 songs" was a complete snore for me.
Scott Miller (no relation, by the way) mostly, and very intentionally, follows my own rules about limiting repetition of artists. The Beatles show up twice in 1967, but it's hard to make too much of a fuss about that. There's a very nice mix of stuff you've almost definitely heard and stuff you almost definitely haven't, and the descriptions are good enough for you to make an informed decision about whether or not to search out the stuff you haven't heard.
His 2010 list unexpectedly included the Taio Cruz hit "Dynamite" and I was pleased to learn he has a kid about the same age as mine who apparently loves that current pop hit as much as my kids do. That song is almost completely uncharacteristic of the rest of the songs on the lists, but what is not uncharacteristic is the way he explains how the song fits into his life and what's happening in popular culture in that year. That's part of what makes the book actually readable as a whole, but it's also fun to leaf through in no particular order. And forget Aimee Mann's snide comments - lists for lists' sake are great too.
The 1967 countdown is:
The Marmalade - I See The Rain
The Beatles - Penny Lane
Lulu - To Sir With Love
Cream - Sunshine of Your Love
The Kaleidoscope - If The Night
Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade of Pale
Scott McKenzie - San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)
The Beach Boys - Wonderful
The Hollies - Carrie Anne
The Rolling Stones - Citadel
The Association - Windy
Love - Alone Again Or
The Doors - The Crystal Ship
Aretha Franklin - I Never Loved a Man the Way I Loved You
Nico - Fairest of the Seasons
The Kinks - Waterloo Sunset
Jefferson Airplane - Somebody to Love
The Monkees - Daydream Believer
The Velvet Underground - Venus in Furs
Pink Floyd - Lucifer Sam
Jimi Hendrix Experience - Manic Depression
The Beatles - A Day in the Life
There's just a whole lot to love about this book. Obviously, there's the selection of the best songs of each year, which is why I'm writing about it here, but, as Aimee Mann sarcastically writes on the back cover in reference to the web site that preceded the book, "you're thinking: it's not everyday that someone writes about music on the internet" She goes on... "especially to pick favorite pop music; we can all thank Scott for troweling that wide cultural gap. But really - this is a new and lively style of music writing that you just keep wanting to read more of."
The blurb describing each song has more of an essay feel than a review feel, but they're all just one paragraph long, so they never drag the way I find actual essays on music drag. They never drift into talking-about-music-is-like-dancing-about architecture irrelevance. For instance, as much as I like Nick Hornby's fiction, his book "31 songs" was a complete snore for me.
Scott Miller (no relation, by the way) mostly, and very intentionally, follows my own rules about limiting repetition of artists. The Beatles show up twice in 1967, but it's hard to make too much of a fuss about that. There's a very nice mix of stuff you've almost definitely heard and stuff you almost definitely haven't, and the descriptions are good enough for you to make an informed decision about whether or not to search out the stuff you haven't heard.
His 2010 list unexpectedly included the Taio Cruz hit "Dynamite" and I was pleased to learn he has a kid about the same age as mine who apparently loves that current pop hit as much as my kids do. That song is almost completely uncharacteristic of the rest of the songs on the lists, but what is not uncharacteristic is the way he explains how the song fits into his life and what's happening in popular culture in that year. That's part of what makes the book actually readable as a whole, but it's also fun to leaf through in no particular order. And forget Aimee Mann's snide comments - lists for lists' sake are great too.
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