Looks like the enthusiasm this thread did manage to generate amongst those who posted – and I was so glad to see that for a time it really did to be fair - has all but petered out. Clearly not as many folks that bothered as I thought there would be.
Sadly it’s ground to bit of a halt before there’s been enough folks partaking in order to draw any sort of conclusion as to an overall RAWK fave song pantheon of any real credibility. Relatively speaking there’s just too tiny an overlap in taste. Or should I say more aptly there’s too wide ranging a staggering individual and divergent taste and preference to justify any in depth analysis. To date I think there’s Gimme Shelter, Dreaming of You, Do You Realize with three picks and Debaser with four.
Nevertheless a huge thank you from myself to all those who have contributed. I say that for three reasons. First, thanks anyway for the trouble. Second, because I’ve sat here pretty much immobilised these past few months with my broken heel bone and thumbs, the vast range of nominations have enabled me to home into some terrific wide ranging musical selections via the incredible You Tube facility most of which I’d never previously heard. Indeed, I’ve discovered some fantastic stuff, some from artists hitherto unknown to me and some from artists whom prior to exploring all the nominations on here, I’d never considered to be worth exploring. How wrong can an alleged huge music lover be?!
So yeah folks a big thank you from me. It’s made me realise that I’m far from the only person on earth with the most fucking amazing musical taste!!! LOL. I do have one small whinge, however. I just wish more of you had provided the linked You Tube video or even internet link [thank you Hazell!!] to make accessing your choices a bit easier. Maybe some of you can still do so since as I’ve found to my own benefit so many of your choices certainly deserve it and it makes the thread that much more accessible and enjoyable. I’ve certainly done it with my own listings below. A few explanations of choice a la Sam, Hazel, Zep and Red Mist would be nice too! I just love reading the reasoning behind the selections.
So then, I guess seeing as how I instigated this bloody thing it’s only right I should get round to posting something that at least tries to do some justice to what I was originally enthusing about. Thing is whilst many on here have whinged about doing this shit, I’ve always loved making these sort of ‘fave’ lists. Whether it be music, films, books, tell, footy or sport generally.
Sure, in any pure objective sense it’s merely self indulgent navel gazing and utterly meaningless for obvious reasons, but the way I see it in simple terms is that if you can’t enthuse about the cultural and sporting things that excite and inspire you then what the fuck!
Anyroad, no more weasel attempts for the time being at least to try and justify starting this particular thread. Thing is I was weaned from an early age by music daft aunties, uncles and cousins on an incessant diet of two/three minute long late ‘50’s/early ‘60’s 45rpm pop and early rock ‘n’ roll magic. Not surprisingly then, music has always been central to me and when it comes to my own faves, it is the 45rpm pop gem which has always figured most prominently in any list of mine down the years.
Moreover, many of those pop gems have stood the test of time too. As it is, albums in the non pure pop sense did not seriously enter my horizon until my late teens when 1968 at last found me in a job and with a modicum of hard earned money in my pocket. And so, via the soon duly purchased Music From Big Pink, Salty Dog, Threshold of a Dream, Astral Weeks and a belated purchase of Blonde on Blonde, I was finally introduced to a rich musical world beyond pop, Atlantic, Motown and The Beatles.
And so it was for so many of my own age and hitherto limited means. A gradual awakening to the new and revolutionary musical world of the formulated album, one which had already been brewing with many other older and more affluent souls for the previous two or three years and up to then largely untapped by the likes of myself.
So onto my own list. I seem to find myself in a minority of one here in that of all the untold number of songs and album tracks I’ve come across in all those years, relative to the huge amount of stuff I’ve liked and loved there really aren’t that many songs that make it onto what I’d class as my all time favourite list. Maybe 40 or 50 tops.
Now I’m not sure exactly why that is but I just seem to have some sort of innate inner desire for a strict grading system which seems to compel me to make and from time to time update such a rating process. So clearly with myself this is a natural and instinctive process and one which seems to be far from the case with so many on here who’ve emphasised the completely opposite mindset, namely that such an enterprise is impossible. Maybe it hinges on the respective definition of the term ‘all time favourite’. Or more likely most just aren’t stricken or enlivened or arsed as the case may be by any urge to create an ‘elite’ listing of the music they love and to which they always return.
That said, what my own process certainly doesn’t restrict is my own list selections evolving over the years. Clearly for anybody who purports like myself – and all on here for that matter – to love music and have an eclectic approach to such love, there has always got to be a process of evolution. After all, so much new music continually bombards us from every which way. Although I must be honest here and admit in my own case – and certainly prior to my recent reawakening with all your amazing selections these past few months - such a bombardment has actually reduced to a tiny trickle in recent years so fuck knows what gems I’ve missed in that time. Or, I guess, before for that matter.
By the same token occasionally I look back on a song – or album as the case may be – which I once believed would always remain a particular favourite to find re-listening to it sadly sees it largely fading into the background of my taste and I no longer derive that same tumultuous ‘soaring of spirits’ from it. A few basic examples of this can be found in my earlier mentioned very first album purchases. With exception of its title track, Procul Harum’s ‘Salty Dog’ album and, with the exception of the track ‘Never Comes The Day, the Moody Blues’s ‘Threshold of a Dream’ album’, both huge favourites of mine in my early days form great examples where such weaning off has taken place.
So I guess it follows from that weaning off that one of the unwritten yet pivotal yardsticks for a song or album being in such lists as these – and certainly my own - is that no matter how many times you hear the particular piece of music, in order for it to remain at that ‘elite’ level it should never fail to stir the joyous and/or emotional connection you felt when you first ‘dug’ it and you just knew it had made it into your faves list.
As regards the innate process itself, I’d say the Rolling Stones pantheon is a quite simple way to illustrate the sort of grading that goes on in my own wayward bonce in respect of my listings.
I’m sure most of us could list 20 or 30 or more Stones classics any of which would merit a place in anybody’s faves list. Indeed, it’s happened in the selections within this thread bar Gimme shelter. And to be fair I would agree without hesitation. And yet as it stands my all time 50 list has just two Stones classics – Tumbling Dice and Gimme Shelter – because for all that I love so much of their other stuff both singles and albums, I’ve found over time that it’s those two alone that take me into that ‘special’ zone which compels me to elevate them above all the rest. And I speak as someone for whom the opening riffs of the likes of ‘Brown Sugar’ would have me tear arsing towards the dance floor like some demented loon not to mention cavorting around the kitchen if it happens to come on the radio. Not currently of course as me crutches get in the way.
Weird huh? Anyroad, that’s how it all works with me. And, finally, humble apologies to any poor fucker who happens to still be reading all this for boring you senseless.
Anyroad, onto the songs in the list and the reasons they’re on it:-
Incident on 57th Street [album version] – Bruce Springsteen
The Promise [18 Tracks solo piano version] – Bruce Springsteen
https://youtube.com/v/xtPEZX6wAzg https://youtube.com/v/58GKdqkKF8AWhilst there’s no doubt at least a few dozen clunkers which inhabit Bruce Springsteen’s 400 officially released song pantheon, it’s fair to say most of his output falls comfortably within the ‘decent’ to ‘great’ category topped off with a fair sprinkling of songs which are truly outstanding by any considered yardstick. Of this select group, ‘Incident on 57th Street’ and ‘The Promise’ are for me Springsteen’s high water mark. If ever pop/rock can justify claiming such status I’d label both songs, both created remarkably when he was a young man in his twenties, as his personal masterpieces.
‘Incident’ is a virtual art house movie in song. Set amidst the Hell’s Kitchen underworld, its delicately blended cloak of soft piano, organ, percussion and guitar around Springsteen’s part pleading, part defiant, part whispered vocals, we are told the story of small time street hood Spanish Johnny and street hooker Puerto Rican Jane who fall in love but in true Romeo/Juliet fashion face the inevitable dead end street their blighted lifestyles dictate. In terms of Bruce Springsteen’s musical legacy ‘Incident’ is right at the top and was and remains an artistic triumph.
Springsteen’s solo piano version of ‘The Promise’ meanwhile is a fable in life’s reality that leaves you sad and reflective. Whilst it could be said to be altogether more typical Springsteen fare, it transcends that ‘norm’ virtue of a melody that is so sad and beautiful with an equally beautifully mournful piano accompaniment which together perfectly complement the theme of his lyrics exposing his own and our own human failings and weaknesses as he relays the litany of broken promises that litter all our lives, whether intended or not, whether major or trivial.
By the end of his fable, Springsteen attempts some sort of perspective. “The promise was broken. You go on living. But it steals something from down in your soul”. Like when the truth is spoken but it don’t make no difference, something in your heart runs cold.” He’s not making harsh judgement but rather telling it like it is; namely that it’s just what happens. Whilst we are not enriched by our failures to honour our resolutions by the same token we should not feel besmirched by doing so. We are merely living up or down to our own humanity. In the ultimate analysis most of us fall inevitably short of our goals as our lives become littered with those broken promises.
Every Little Thing – The Beatles
Baby You’re A Rich man – The Beatleshttps://youtube.com/v/jrDikOz8YSUhttps://youtube.com/v/i5m-sgtwFckTucked away on the album Beatles For Sale and largely ignored by all and sundry including it seemed the Fab Four themselves, the couple of joyous pop magic minutes of ‘Every Little Thing’ have always been such a favourite of mine. A simple love song, strangely as it turns out written by Paul despite John being the dominant vocal, it has always seemed to me as the most archetypal Beatle song of all from that era prior to all the endless studio experimentation that began with smatterings of Rubber Soul and full steam ahead on Revolver. Clearly it’s not rated anywhere close to the finest Beatle song but I just love it and never tire of its fresh Beatle tone as it always takes me back to that time just after their initial manic Please Please me/She Loves You breakthrough had settled down and they seemed for a few years to develop what I regard as their definitive and unique ‘Beatle’ sound which seamed throughout the Hard Days Night, Beatles For Sale and Help albums and some of Rubber Soul too.
Meanwhile, ‘Baby You’re a Rich man’ will similarly always take me back to the start of that ‘Summer of Love’ period and specifically to the Great Tree holiday camp in Looe with my boyhood mates in 1967. ‘Rich man’ was the flip side of ‘All You need is Love’. It was played on virtual loop on the campsite club’s jukey. Mainly by us but by others too. Don’t think the A side was played at all. That few weeks the futuristic jogging magic of ‘Rich man’ was embedded into my brain and has remained there ever since. The ultimate flip side genius.
Mockingbird – Charlie and Inez Fox
https://youtube.com/v/g47_NI1CWNQNot heard anything remotely like it before nor since. Completely insane nonsense contrasting vocals set to the most basic backbeat serve up yet another two minutes of pure pop magic. Absolutely loved it back in the ‘60’s and love it even more now.
I Can’t let Go – Evie Sandshttps://youtube.com/v/WvfnUEKdv5sSome might say ‘He Ain’t Heavy’ or ‘The Air That I Breathe’ or even ‘Long Cool Woman’ rank as the Hollies finest but for me it was always their amazing ‘I Can’t Let Go’ with Allan Clarke’s fantastic vocal and Tony Hicks stellar guitar. And then out of nowhere after40 years or so surfaces the Evie Sands original version to rewrite the script with her 2 minutes of sheer blue eyed soul pop perfection. Incidentally, she also did the original versions of ‘Angel in the Morning’ and the Troggs ‘Anyway You Want It’.
Viva Las Vegas – Shawn Colvinhttps://youtube.com/v/UdszDlp7GE4The end of the Big Lebowski signalled a scramble from yours truly to find out what and who the fuck was that incredible song and singer which played out as the credits rolled. Transpired it really was Elvis’s ‘Viva Las Vegas’ turned inside out and upside down and sung by a certain Shawn Colvin. Turned out it was available only on import on an album entitled ‘Til The Night is Gone’, a tribute to the legendary songwriter Doc Pomus by various artists. In the shipping order duly went.
So the original Elvis interpretation had been fast, quirky and upbeat for the film of the same name, sprinkled with Hollywood-style pep and glitz. More than thirty other artists went on to record the song after Elvis, each including Springsteen and ZZ Top amongst others, adhering fairly faithfully to the Elvis interpretation. Mercifully, and thank the lord for the love of music, Shawn Colvin somehow, some way came up with a wholly different version; a spellbindingly refreshing and compelling exception.
In Colvin's take the protagonist becomes as reckless and mysterious as the original was cheery and predictable. Beguiling us to accompany her into those darker ruinous corners of addiction and obsessiveness that seam through Las Vegas, Colvin manages somehow to re-invent the song, bringing out hitherto concealed beauty and starkness of melody and lyric. Her vocal innovation redefines the parameters of what Pomus and Mort Shuman had written, giving us something completely distinctive; five dark smouldering minutes to savour.
Into my Arms – Nick Cavehttps://youtube.com/v/LnHoqHscTKEIs this simply about a deeply loving relationship or is it about loss and the ensuing desperation for a re-uniting. Who can be sure but Mr Cave himself? No matter in a way as the entire ambience of the song evokes a sense of sadness and melancholy that only few songs can; simple melodic beauty and words of longing. Also a quick nod to a few good folks on RAWK who long ago insisted I give this great artist a listen.
Kathleen – Gene Clark
https://youtube.com/v/V9_12eSBME8On the same theme of melancholy and beauty in a song brings me conveniently to the late, great and still criminally underrated Gene Clark and my all time favourite song of his amongst a veritable litany of truly great songs. This particular one is from the posthumously released Gypsy Angel album of demos of songs written not long before his death. Due to dental issues his vocals sound slightly different from their usual crystal purity but perfectly fit the song’s theme of longing and loneliness. The song’s melody is amongst the most beautiful I’ve ever heard set amidst the most haunting mouth organ and exquisite acoustic guitar. The song’s opening lines still get me every time – ‘Hair of flame and eyes of green. But the loneliest you have seen’.
Levitate Me – The Pixies
Life and How to Live It – REM
I Don’t Know Why I Love You – Stevie Wonder
Gimme Some Lovin’ – Spencer Davishttps://youtube.com/v/cx8wchVLH3Ahttps://youtube.com/v/DJJwjE2TG6Qhttps://youtube.com/v/c4F1XSZz38Ehttps://youtube.com/v/I5cTP8BHhvsGrouped together since for one reason or another they all share a common theme summed up in one word – ‘Frenetic’. Not quite sure why but the crazed desperation and mayhem within each vocal just makes them essential to me. Also a special nod to the quite unreal vocals of the 17 year old Stevie Winwood on the final song of that quartet.
Walk Away Renee – Four Topshttps://youtube.com/v/xu5ynjOlnOgDespite all the outrageous competition from the rest of their song pantheon, ‘Renee’ soon became my favourite Four Tops song and Levi vocal. Surprisingly and very rarely for Motown the song is not a Motown original but was penned – amazingly - by a 16 year old lad named Michael Brown who was a member of a group called Left Banke. It tells the tale of young Michael’s unbeknown stalking and unrequited love of the girlfriend of one of his fellow group members. Left Banke’s version is lovely too but it ain’t the Tops. However, what a gift young Mikey bequeathed us all.
Everyday People – Sly and Family Stone https://youtube.com/v/YUUhDoCx8zcBy no stretch am I a fan of most of what is termed modern day R&B and Hip Hop but even with my limited appreciation I have gathered that the genres would likely have been up shit creek without a paddle without the incredible spade work, invention and legacy of Sly Stone and his family. This is the track I still seek out the most and not simply because of its pleadings for the sort of equality we’ll likely never see.
Come See About Me – The Supremeshttps://youtube.com/v/szVmzBzznDEAmazingly, even in the very midst of their ‘60’s chart success ‘Come See About Me’ failed to chart in the UK due to limited airplay which meant many of us only came upon it when it was included on the Motown Gold compilations. Thank god then for compilations. My favourite few minutes of the incredible Diana and her Supremes.
All The Labor – The Gourdshttps://youtube.com/v/Fop1K9a4Er8A guy on the Guestbook forum for The Band introduced me to The Gourds around 20 years ago. He raved about them and I duly purchased their debut album. Since then I’ve got all their stuff which is a mix of the great, the mediocre, the exceedingly mediocre and the weird avant garde particularly from the zany Jimmy Smith. This track is one of Jimmy’s and I think it’s their best. It’s about the working classes that built modern USA.
I Heard It Through The Grapevine – Creedencehttps://youtube.com/v/ixqofv-Oi74I daresay it constitutes a sacrilege to select any version of this fantastic song over Marvin’s classic. Maybe so, but for me it’s always been Creedence’s eleven minute long bass overdrive take. Hypnotic. Sorry Marvin purists.
Peggy Sue Got Married – John Doehttps://youtube.com/v/FZrizi52kqgTies with Shawn Colvin’s Vegas for my favourite ever cover. Buddy’s original was nice enough. Obviously. But John Doe takes the song into dramatic new territory where the singer’s despair and regret at finding out that the love of his life has married someone else is tangible. A remarkable piece of pop reinterpretation.
What Can I Say – Boz Scaggshttps://youtube.com/v/FUg315xTNtkWhat can anyone say. It’s the amazing Boz. Has to be in there.
Island – Gerry Raffertyhttps://youtube.com/v/Gk7urRmUEqQDown in London for that 1978 League Cup against that bastard Clough’s lot and all you could hear from every shop doorway was the saxophone strains of the great Gerry Rafferty’s ‘Baker Street’. But it was the alto sax on the track ‘Island’ from the same ‘City to City’ album which stood out for me back then and still does.
King Harvest has Surely Come – The Band
It Makes No Difference – The Band
https://youtube.com/v/TaKD1Vdarnwhttps://youtube.com/v/fPEdguVxzZsFor me to select just two songs by the band that was for so many years the musical love of my life – and deep down likely always will be - is absurd. But there you go. ‘King Harvest’ is one of them. A masterclass in understated instrumental, lyrical and vocal perfection. To be watched in awe. The other is the spellbinding unbearably heartbreaking original version of ‘It Makes No Difference’ which found wider fame in the equally heartbreaking version in their ‘Last Waltz’ movie.
Tumbling Dice – The Stoneshttps://youtube.com/v/6U8JlcB_BzAYou don’t actually need to make out the lyrics to know from its dirty opening riff and vocal plunge into the forbidden territory it evokes that this is a song that is taking you into a world of excess and depravity. Just wondrous.
Love Hurts – Gram and Emmylouhttps://youtube.com/v/LUr9X3mic_UIt may well be the case that there are more beautiful harmonies than this. I just don’t think I’ve ever heard them. Very marginally I do just plump for the live version over the Grievous Angel album version but sadly it doesn’t seem to be available on You Tube so this is the equally beautiful studio version.
No Mules Fool – Family
https://youtube.com/v/dpyS36wrFS0To this day fifty odd years on I’ve still no idea at all what Roger Chapman is on about but perhaps that and its captivating ascending fiddle is why I still love it so much.
Comedy – Shack
John Kline – Shackhttps://youtube.com/v/PUzxds_XqQMhttps://youtube.com/v/fte4Ehr8iFkCould be Scouse bias on my part but I don’t think so. Just two fantastic songs from the streets of Kenny which I never get enough of. Special nod, too, to John Head’s counter harmonies which just add that extra something.
Wrapped in My Memory – Shawn Smithhttps://youtube.com/v/s2B-ZffN1yoApart from being arguably the greatest thing ever seen on the telly, the Sopranos also introduced us mere mortals to some amazing music that we might never otherwise have heard. This beautiful plaintiff song with its exquisite piano and gorgeous vocal is the pick for me. Again, available only on import on the album Shield of Thorns.
Shinin’ Brightly – Bob Seger and Silver Bullet Bandhttps://youtube.com/v/_TtDt4z2lJcDon’t think I’ve ever heard any artist wrap a vocal so effortlessly around the instrumental core of a song quite like Bob Seger so often does. The result is very often terrific. This contrasts starkly with so many of Seger’s fast rockers – not all I’d stress – which are clearly targeted at his Mid West core audience and which for me are pretty instantly forgettable. However, when Seger does slow it all down and hang those vocals the result as in this case can be delicious.
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues – Bob Dylan
Like A Rolling Stone – Bob Dylan
https://youtube.com/v/doIMYvZyo_khttps://youtube.com/v/IwOfCgkyEj0https://youtube.com/v/JolwUqCKn_4What an album ‘Highway 61 Revisited’ was. If there ever was such a thing as an overall peak for Dylan lyrically, poetically, musically and vocally then this one is it for me. And these two tracks are my particular picks. ‘Tom Thumb’ is just an amazing pop song. No ‘Blues’ to be seen bar the singer’s aches and pains and desire to get back to New York. Dylan at his most Dylan-like vocally with great lines but clearly taking the piss with that unique piss-taking tone of his. That rolling piano/guitar opening just grabs you by the balls and doesn’t let go. ‘Rolling Stone’ meanwhile is just ‘Rolling Stone’ and will be with us all and those to follow for all time. Also included is a great live version with The Band from 1971.
Your Cheatin’ Heart – Ray Charleshttps://youtube.com/v/G68gA72y6fUPicking Ray Charles’s version over Hank’s great original may seem unfair but really it’s like a different song altogether in Ray’s hands. The atmosphere his unique gospel blues vocal delivers brings out the melancholy of Hank’s lyrics in a way which Hank clearly must have felt but couldn’t quite convey in his lighter touch country take. Hear that aching Charles vocal and weep.
Ain’t That Enough – Teenage Fanclub
https://youtube.com/v/jdeqYx-9-AQThe amazing Fannies, chiming guitars and great tunes. Tremendous. I think this song is arguably them at their chiming tuneful best. My fave anyroad.
When You Walk in the Room - Jackie De Shannon https://youtube.com/v/IZf6YdPVwNYWhat a talent. Her desperation for love in this song gives me chills, albeit any such sense of despair is completely belied in this great video by her beautiful beaming gob as she makes a false start. Still, the song itself never fails me. For decades I always thought it was The Searchers very own song but no. She wrote it, sang it and clearly meant every word. Just wish I’d have been the guy she was writing about. Wonder if she ever was in the Seaforth/Waterloo area?
Up on the Roof – Carole King
https://youtube.com/v/3Yqp6cNOXo0https://youtube.com/v/msdJITEMzPohttps://youtube.com/v/oR-BmQMWcck100% with Sam on this one. Included his pick of the original demo with Rudy Lewis of the Drifters and her own solo live version at the Montreux jazz festival too. Also her own live version of her own ‘Oh No Not My Baby’. All three of them so pure, so simple, so great.