The Beatles’ landmark album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released 50 years ago last week, so not surprisingly there have been a number of articles about the anniversary in the news. I have already posted my own retrospective review of the album, so instead I want to talk about a more general question: what qualities make a great album? Obviously, there is a large degree of subjectivity involved, which is why everyone will have a different list of favorites. Nevertheless, certain albums appear with much greater frequency in such lists than others. Some of that may be just the weight of reputation (a conviction among some that that is the case with Sgt. Pepper, for example, is why, aside from often appearing at or near the top of “greatest albums of all time lists”, it has also appeared in “most overrated” lists). Nevertheless, it is clear that there are certain qualities that albums like Sgt. Pepper have that cause them to be highly rated by most music critics and fans. While everyone may have somewhat different views as to what those qualities are, I will explain what I personally find attractive in the albums that I like best.
The first and most essential quality, of course, is great songs. Of course, even on the greatest albums, not every song will be a work of genius that is likely to appear on a list of the greatest songs of all time. But on the best albums, all of the songs will generally be at least good, and most of them will be great. An example of this is the Beatles’ Revolver. Many of the songs on that album are absolute classics, and even the weakest of them are at least good. But Revolver is hardly the only example; one thing all the best albums have in common is a preponderance of excellent songs. Occasionally a great album may have a song or two that is mediocre or even bad, but on many good albums even a weak track may serve some purpose in context, even if it seems dispensable in and of itself.
This has to do with another important quality in most albums that I personally would rate as being among the best, namely variety. Even if the songs on an album are great individually, if they all sound too similar to each other the album will end up being monotonous. On most of my favorite albums, the songs have a wide range of arrangements and musical styles, and in quite a few cases the instrumentation varies as well. Revolver is again an excellent example of this – “Eleanor Rigby”, “Tomorrow Never Knows”, “For No One” and “Love You To” are all completely different along with all being brilliant songs. Likewise, Queen’s A Night at the Opera covers an incredible range musically. In fact, both these bands managed to be stylistically diverse through much of their careers, and this, along with the more basic capability of writing good songs, is one of the reasons why I like pretty much every album they released. Musical variety is also a strength of many other favorite artists of mine, including Genesis, Randy Newman, Sting, the Super Furry Animals, Taiwan’s Luo Dayou and Thailand’s Carabao, to name just a few examples, and this ability to write a wide variety of songs can be seen in all these artists’ best albums. In many of these cases, having more than one songwriter or even more than one lead vocalist helps, though a talented individual songwriter like Newman can cover quite a bit of ground on their own. While there are some albums with less stylistic diversity that I still consider excellent, it’s generally the ones with more variety that I prefer.
Adding variety can also help make the occasional weak track much more palatable in context. Take the Beatles’ eponymous double album (best known as the White Album). Some have suggested that they should have narrowed it down to a single album of consisting entirely of great songs. But aside from the fact that in my opinion there are more than a single album’s worth of great or at least very good songs, one of the White Album’s greatest virtues is its sprawling stylistic diversity. Songs like “Wild Honey Pie” and “Revolution No. 9” are not exactly great songs in and of themselves, to the extent that they are even songs at all. But they both (particularly “Revolution No. 9”) add even more variety to an already incredibly diverse group of songs. To take another example, “Who Dunnit?” from Abacab is many Genesis fans’ pick as the worst track the band ever released. While it is certainly not a great song by any means, it has a bizarre tongue in cheek element of humor that in the context of the rest of the album makes it listenable and even gives it a certain attraction (it helps that it, like “Wild Honey Pie”, is short; if it were any longer its rather limited charms would not be enough to save it). Of course, tracks such as these have to be balanced out by a large number of great songs, which is fortunately the case on both the White Album and Abacab. But context can be key even for tracks that most critics and fans enjoy. Radiohead’s “Fitter Happier”, for instance, isn’t exactly a song, so it would sound odd in isolation, but in the middle of OK Computer, it serves as a sort of interlude, if a somewhat usual one.
The flip side of variety is thematic unity, or at least a certain degree of musical consistency. From the examples I’ve cited above, it should be clear that I don’t think it is necessary for an album to be a full-fledged concept album to be great. I do like many albums that could be considered concept albums, and if an artist can pull off the difficult feat of assembling a group of songs that are great individually and musically diverse and yet are tied together by some overarching concept, that can make their album even better than it would be if it only possesses the first two qualities. This is very hard to do, however. On many concept albums, some of the lyrics ended up sounding a bit forced, which can negate any advantage gained by the thematic unity. Also, it can mean that individual songs taken out of context don’t make much sense. Perhaps this is why my very favorite albums are usually not full-fledged concept albums. The Who’s Tommy, Genesis’s The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, and Pink Floyd’s The Wall are all great albums that I like very much, but none of them are my favorite albums by those artists (though admittedly I don’t own a copy of Tommy, so it’s possible that if I get one and listen to it enough, I may decide it’s better than Who’s Next, my current favorite by the Who).
What often works better is a loose concept, where the overall theme is vague enough that all sorts of songs can fit it comfortably (such as on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon), or simply tying songs together musically, as was done on the Beatles’ Abbey Road, Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On or several of Queen’s early albums, as well as on Dark Side. Sometimes the concept will be so loose as to be virtually non-existent, as is arguably the case with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band itself. John Lennon was fond of pointing out that his songs on the album had nothing to do with Paul McCartney’s Lonely Hearts Club Band concept, and in truth even many of Paul’s own songs don’t have any obvious connection to it. But just by tying together the first two songs and reprising the title track near the end, just enough of a feeling of unity was created to make the album seem like a single unified work. Indeed, the trick of reprising an early track near or at the end often helps create a feeling of thematic unity, as when Queen ended A Day at the Races with the same Brian May guitar instrumental piece as they used to begin it, or when Genesis reprised elements of the opening tracks of Duke in the mostly instrumental ending to the album. In any case, while I personally tend to value variety more highly than thematic unity, it helps to make the album feel like something more than a random collection of songs.
Another issue is length. Revolver and Sail Away are quite short, but perhaps because they each still have a lot of songs they don’t seem as short as they are. However, anything shorter than Sail Away, which is barely over 30 minutes, would almost certainly feel unsatisfyingly brief – even Sail Away itself might be improved by adding another song or two. At the other end of the spectrum, there are quite a few excellent double albums; aside from the ones mentioned previously (the White Album, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, The Wall and Tommy), other examples include Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life and Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. However, even the best of artists have difficulty writing that much good material, so the best single albums are generally more consistently good than the best double albums.
A final consideration, but one that is largely independent of subjective personal taste, is how influential the album was. If I was making a list of my own picks as the greatest albums of all time, I would certainly take the albums’ impact into consideration, so that one that had a major influence on later music would rank higher than one that I personally enjoyed listen to as much but which didn't have as much impact on the course of music history. In other words, my list of the greatest albums would differ somewhat from my list of personal favorites, though of course there would still be a great deal of overlap, and I would not include albums I don’t particularly enjoy listening to on any but a very long list of “the greatest albums of all time”, no matter how influential they were.
I’ve mentioned just a small sampling of the albums I’d rate among the great ones, or as personal favorites. Others include several albums by Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix’s Are You Experienced and Electric Ladyland, The Velvet Underground and Nico, Fleetwood Mac’s eponymous album and Rumours, Radiohead’s The Bends, and more. But what about Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band itself? Yes, that one is definitely up there, even if it isn’t my absolute favorite. After all, it’s got great songs (if not quite the equal of Revolver), plenty of variety, and a loose concept tying it together. Part of its reputation is due to the last consideration I mentioned, namely that it was incredibly influential, indeed one of the most influential albums ever. But even considered independent of its impact, it certainly qualifies as a great album, if only one of many.
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Sunday, April 30, 2017
My Thai Popular Music Collection, Featuring Carabao and Asanee Wasan
Though I’ve written a lot about various British and American artists on this blog and have also posted a few pieces on Taiwanese popular music (though not that much relative to the time I’ve spent researching it), I have barely touched on the music of other countries in Asia. In part, that’s just because I know comparatively little about it; I’ve lived in Taiwan for many years, I speak one of the country’s languages, and I’ve met and even done album liner notes for a few of the artists, whereas I’ve only visited the other countries in the region, and (except in the cases of China and Singapore), I don’t speak their languages with any fluency. However, I have managed to collect a fair amount of music from these countries and, relying largely on things I’ve read by others with more knowledge, have learned a bit about several of the key artists in these countries.
Outside of Taiwan, the Asian country whose popular music I’m most familiar with is Thailand. I’ve spent more time in Thailand than in any Asian country other than Taiwan; aside from a dozen or so trips of various lengths, we even lived there for three months fifteen years ago. Another factor is that CDs of local music are unusually cheap in Thailand, generally less than US$5, so I could buy them a lot more freely than I could anywhere else. Of course there are still a lot of things making it harder for me to become as knowledgeable about Thai popular music as Taiwanese or English-language popular music. The biggest barrier is language. I speak a smattering of Thai, enough to bargain for things in a market or hold an extremely simple conversation with only a few exchanges. My Thai is about as good as my Hoklo/Minnan; though I don’t speak either well at all, they are the only Asian languages other than Mandarin where I know more than a few phrases. But my ability is still extremely limited, so to understand the lyrical content of songs I have to rely on translations or references in English by others. I am often able to figure out some basic information about the songs on CDs I own such as who wrote the music and lyrics; I know a few of the letters, but more importantly I’ve learned to recognize a few key words and name, or I’m able to deduce them by comparison (e.g., it’s easy enough to guess the words for “lyrics”, “music” and “arrangement”, as they appear next to or under the song titles and in front of the names of people), but this is still harder for Thai CDs than for CDs from Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines simply because the latter countries use the Latin alphabet. The language barrier also means that for historical background on the music I have to rely on the limited resources available in English, or use online translation programs to attempt to get the gist of what I can find in Thai.
In any case, I have several dozen Thai CDs, perhaps as many as a hundred. Most of them are rock, folk and urban pop, though I also have some CDs of luk thung, commonly referred to Thai country. I tried to acquire music by a fairly wide variety of artists, particularly those who seem to be regarded as particularly significant or representative, though I’m sure there are many important ones I’ve missed. So, for example, I have CDs by classic luk thung singers Surapol Sombatjalern (สุรพล สมบัติเจริญ) and Pompuang Duangjan (พุ่มพวง ดวงจันทร์), kantrum singer Darkie, and mor lam singer Jintara Poonlarp. I have CDs with songs by early urban pop groups like the Impossibles and Grand Ex and rock groups and pop singers from the 1980s and 1990s such as Micro, Billy Ogan, Bird, Itti and Mai, as well as later artists like Loso, Palmy, Beau, Paradox, Smile Buffalo and Silly Fools. In particular, I tried to acquire music by key artists from the genre known as pleng phua chewit (“songs for life”), a type of folk rock mixing Western folk and rock with some elements of more traditional Thai music, and emphasizing lyrics with more sociopolitical content. The first and most important (except for the band I’ll discuss momentarily) “songs for life” group was Caravan (คาราวาน), and I’ve bought a number of their CDs. I even met and exchanged greetings with their lead singer and key member Surachai Jantimatorn (aka Nga Caravan) when he visited Taiwan for the Migration Music Festival a few years ago. I also have CDs by Hammer, Pongsit Kamphee and Zuzu. But the two artists whose albums I have the most of are the brotherly pop rock duo Asanee Wasan and Thailand’s most famous band, the “songs for life” rock group Carabao.
Carabao was formed in the early 1980s and has been active in various forms pretty much ever since. The group’s mainstay is its chief vocalist and songwriter Yuenyong Ophakul, better known as Ad (or Aed) Carabao. Other key members include guitarists Lek and Thierry, multi-instrumentalist Keo (or Khiao) and bassist Od (or Ot). Carabao is not only very popular among Thais, it is also the one Thai band non-Thais who have a passing familiarity with Thailand are most likely to have heard of. Even today Carabao’s symbol, a long-horned buffalo skull (a carabao is a type of water buffalo native to the Phillipines, where Ad and cofounder Keo were students in the late 1970s), can be seen all over Thailand. Carabao’s sound combines elements of Western folk, country and rock (such as Lek’s Santana-style guitar playing) with rhythms reminiscent of Thai music forms such as luk thung and mor lam. The band’s lyrics frequently deal with social issues, and Ad in particular is outspoken on social justice and the environment.
The band hit its peak in the mid 1980s with what is generally considered its classic lineup. The series of albums Carabao released in the 1980s are pretty much all classics, particularly those from their third (Waniphok) to their ninth (Thap Lang),but the most famous was their fifth album, Made in Thailand, released in 1984. It sold four to five million copies and remains one of the most successful Thai albums ever. The title track is the band’s best known song, but several of the other tracks are also among their most popular recordings, and really everything on the album is good. This is definitely the one must-have Carabao album, though the other albums from this period are also highly recommended.
Ad Carabao wrote the majority of the band’s songs, at least in its early days, though Lek and Thierry in particular also wrote some songs, typically writing and singing one song each on most albums they participated in, and occasionally co-writing the music for other songs with Ad. Most of the band’s chief members have released solo albums, with Ad in particular having a number of solo successes – in fact, one of his best known songs, the ballad Thaleejai, was released on an album that he recorded with his brother Id, though it has since appeared on Carabao compilations as well. Speaking of which, Carabao has released a rather bewildering number of compilation albums, live albums, “special” albums (such as acoustic and remix albums) and collaborations with other artists, which can be a bit confusing for those who don’t read Thai (and possibly even for Thais as well). Anyone looking for a good compilation is advised to have a list of key songs to look for on the track listing (e.g., “Wanipok”, “Made in Thailand”, “Refugee”, etc.) in order to make sure it has the most important Carabao songs.
Since Carabao has released so many albums, I don’t have anything like a complete collection of their recordings, even though I easily have more than a dozen Carabao CDs. The Thai artist who I am closest to have a complete collection of is the duo Asanee Wasan. Asanee and Wasan Chotikul are two guitar playing brothers who got their start as members of the folk group Isn’t in the late 1970s. Asanee worked with several other artists in the early 1980s before the brothers released their first album as a duo in 1986. They became more popular with each subsequent release, and remain one of the country’s top selling artists and concert draws, though their output slowed considerably after the early 1990s. Perhaps their most notable album was their fourth, 1989’s Fak Thong. This contained “Yindii Mai Mii Panhaa”, a song which has been widely covered around Asia, including versions in Hoklo (by Taiwan’s Blacklist Workshop), Mandarin, English, and Cantonese, as well as one of the group’s most popular ballads, “Dai Yang Sia Yang”. It also contained “Krung Thep Mahanakhon”, which is a melodic chanting of the full name of Bangkok (which has the world’s longest official name) over rhythmic music composed by Asanee.
Musically, Asanee Wasan is more pop than Carabao, and the lyrical content of their songs only rarely strays into more serious subjects, though Yuenyong Ophakul (Ad Carabao) helped write a couple of their songs and together Ad and Asanee wrote “Chiwit Samphan”, an environmentally themed “Do They Know It’s Christmas” style song performed by the top “songs for life” artists of the late 1980s. Also unlike Carabao, Asanee Wasan frequently sings songs written for them by others. Asanee has generally written the music for several songs on each album (for instance, he wrote the music for all three songs mentioned above), and he often arranges songs written by others. Wasan only occasionally takes a hand in the writing. The brothers do produce all their albums, and even songs written by others have their distinctive sound. Asanee, who is the elder of the two brothers, usually seems to be the dominant of the pair. He is extroverted and flashy in his performance style, and he sings lead on the majority of the duo’s songs. As noted, he also frequently takes a hand in the songwriting or arranging. Wasan, who is on the chubby side, wears glass, and seems more introverted than his brother, generally sings around two songs on each album, and these are usually ballads (though several of them have been among the duo’s biggest hits). However, it is worth noting that on the first of the two solo albums that Wasan has released has a song called “Loey Dam Loey” which is reminiscent of the rock style more associated with Asanee but was written by Wasan. The duo does this song on a concert DVD I have, and Wasan plays the really fast guitar solo from the song himself, proving that he is capable of matching his brother for flashy guitar playing.
Outside of Taiwan, the Asian country whose popular music I’m most familiar with is Thailand. I’ve spent more time in Thailand than in any Asian country other than Taiwan; aside from a dozen or so trips of various lengths, we even lived there for three months fifteen years ago. Another factor is that CDs of local music are unusually cheap in Thailand, generally less than US$5, so I could buy them a lot more freely than I could anywhere else. Of course there are still a lot of things making it harder for me to become as knowledgeable about Thai popular music as Taiwanese or English-language popular music. The biggest barrier is language. I speak a smattering of Thai, enough to bargain for things in a market or hold an extremely simple conversation with only a few exchanges. My Thai is about as good as my Hoklo/Minnan; though I don’t speak either well at all, they are the only Asian languages other than Mandarin where I know more than a few phrases. But my ability is still extremely limited, so to understand the lyrical content of songs I have to rely on translations or references in English by others. I am often able to figure out some basic information about the songs on CDs I own such as who wrote the music and lyrics; I know a few of the letters, but more importantly I’ve learned to recognize a few key words and name, or I’m able to deduce them by comparison (e.g., it’s easy enough to guess the words for “lyrics”, “music” and “arrangement”, as they appear next to or under the song titles and in front of the names of people), but this is still harder for Thai CDs than for CDs from Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines simply because the latter countries use the Latin alphabet. The language barrier also means that for historical background on the music I have to rely on the limited resources available in English, or use online translation programs to attempt to get the gist of what I can find in Thai.
In any case, I have several dozen Thai CDs, perhaps as many as a hundred. Most of them are rock, folk and urban pop, though I also have some CDs of luk thung, commonly referred to Thai country. I tried to acquire music by a fairly wide variety of artists, particularly those who seem to be regarded as particularly significant or representative, though I’m sure there are many important ones I’ve missed. So, for example, I have CDs by classic luk thung singers Surapol Sombatjalern (สุรพล สมบัติเจริญ) and Pompuang Duangjan (พุ่มพวง ดวงจันทร์), kantrum singer Darkie, and mor lam singer Jintara Poonlarp. I have CDs with songs by early urban pop groups like the Impossibles and Grand Ex and rock groups and pop singers from the 1980s and 1990s such as Micro, Billy Ogan, Bird, Itti and Mai, as well as later artists like Loso, Palmy, Beau, Paradox, Smile Buffalo and Silly Fools. In particular, I tried to acquire music by key artists from the genre known as pleng phua chewit (“songs for life”), a type of folk rock mixing Western folk and rock with some elements of more traditional Thai music, and emphasizing lyrics with more sociopolitical content. The first and most important (except for the band I’ll discuss momentarily) “songs for life” group was Caravan (คาราวาน), and I’ve bought a number of their CDs. I even met and exchanged greetings with their lead singer and key member Surachai Jantimatorn (aka Nga Caravan) when he visited Taiwan for the Migration Music Festival a few years ago. I also have CDs by Hammer, Pongsit Kamphee and Zuzu. But the two artists whose albums I have the most of are the brotherly pop rock duo Asanee Wasan and Thailand’s most famous band, the “songs for life” rock group Carabao.
Carabao was formed in the early 1980s and has been active in various forms pretty much ever since. The group’s mainstay is its chief vocalist and songwriter Yuenyong Ophakul, better known as Ad (or Aed) Carabao. Other key members include guitarists Lek and Thierry, multi-instrumentalist Keo (or Khiao) and bassist Od (or Ot). Carabao is not only very popular among Thais, it is also the one Thai band non-Thais who have a passing familiarity with Thailand are most likely to have heard of. Even today Carabao’s symbol, a long-horned buffalo skull (a carabao is a type of water buffalo native to the Phillipines, where Ad and cofounder Keo were students in the late 1970s), can be seen all over Thailand. Carabao’s sound combines elements of Western folk, country and rock (such as Lek’s Santana-style guitar playing) with rhythms reminiscent of Thai music forms such as luk thung and mor lam. The band’s lyrics frequently deal with social issues, and Ad in particular is outspoken on social justice and the environment.
The band hit its peak in the mid 1980s with what is generally considered its classic lineup. The series of albums Carabao released in the 1980s are pretty much all classics, particularly those from their third (Waniphok) to their ninth (Thap Lang),but the most famous was their fifth album, Made in Thailand, released in 1984. It sold four to five million copies and remains one of the most successful Thai albums ever. The title track is the band’s best known song, but several of the other tracks are also among their most popular recordings, and really everything on the album is good. This is definitely the one must-have Carabao album, though the other albums from this period are also highly recommended.
Ad Carabao wrote the majority of the band’s songs, at least in its early days, though Lek and Thierry in particular also wrote some songs, typically writing and singing one song each on most albums they participated in, and occasionally co-writing the music for other songs with Ad. Most of the band’s chief members have released solo albums, with Ad in particular having a number of solo successes – in fact, one of his best known songs, the ballad Thaleejai, was released on an album that he recorded with his brother Id, though it has since appeared on Carabao compilations as well. Speaking of which, Carabao has released a rather bewildering number of compilation albums, live albums, “special” albums (such as acoustic and remix albums) and collaborations with other artists, which can be a bit confusing for those who don’t read Thai (and possibly even for Thais as well). Anyone looking for a good compilation is advised to have a list of key songs to look for on the track listing (e.g., “Wanipok”, “Made in Thailand”, “Refugee”, etc.) in order to make sure it has the most important Carabao songs.
Since Carabao has released so many albums, I don’t have anything like a complete collection of their recordings, even though I easily have more than a dozen Carabao CDs. The Thai artist who I am closest to have a complete collection of is the duo Asanee Wasan. Asanee and Wasan Chotikul are two guitar playing brothers who got their start as members of the folk group Isn’t in the late 1970s. Asanee worked with several other artists in the early 1980s before the brothers released their first album as a duo in 1986. They became more popular with each subsequent release, and remain one of the country’s top selling artists and concert draws, though their output slowed considerably after the early 1990s. Perhaps their most notable album was their fourth, 1989’s Fak Thong. This contained “Yindii Mai Mii Panhaa”, a song which has been widely covered around Asia, including versions in Hoklo (by Taiwan’s Blacklist Workshop), Mandarin, English, and Cantonese, as well as one of the group’s most popular ballads, “Dai Yang Sia Yang”. It also contained “Krung Thep Mahanakhon”, which is a melodic chanting of the full name of Bangkok (which has the world’s longest official name) over rhythmic music composed by Asanee.
Musically, Asanee Wasan is more pop than Carabao, and the lyrical content of their songs only rarely strays into more serious subjects, though Yuenyong Ophakul (Ad Carabao) helped write a couple of their songs and together Ad and Asanee wrote “Chiwit Samphan”, an environmentally themed “Do They Know It’s Christmas” style song performed by the top “songs for life” artists of the late 1980s. Also unlike Carabao, Asanee Wasan frequently sings songs written for them by others. Asanee has generally written the music for several songs on each album (for instance, he wrote the music for all three songs mentioned above), and he often arranges songs written by others. Wasan only occasionally takes a hand in the writing. The brothers do produce all their albums, and even songs written by others have their distinctive sound. Asanee, who is the elder of the two brothers, usually seems to be the dominant of the pair. He is extroverted and flashy in his performance style, and he sings lead on the majority of the duo’s songs. As noted, he also frequently takes a hand in the songwriting or arranging. Wasan, who is on the chubby side, wears glass, and seems more introverted than his brother, generally sings around two songs on each album, and these are usually ballads (though several of them have been among the duo’s biggest hits). However, it is worth noting that on the first of the two solo albums that Wasan has released has a song called “Loey Dam Loey” which is reminiscent of the rock style more associated with Asanee but was written by Wasan. The duo does this song on a concert DVD I have, and Wasan plays the really fast guitar solo from the song himself, proving that he is capable of matching his brother for flashy guitar playing.
Thursday, March 30, 2017
15 Essential Recordings by Chuck Berry, the Grand Old Man of Rock and Roll
Last year became notorious for the number of prominent people in music and other fields who died in the course of the year. While this year has not yet equaled the pace set early last year, earlier this month saw the death of another music great, Chuck Berry, one of the pioneers of rock & roll, indeed some would argue the greatest one of all. Berry’s longevity was impressive; he was 90 years old when he died, having outlived many of the rock musicians he influenced. This was even more surprising when you consider that he wasn’t even all that young at the birth of rock and roll, having turned 30 in 1956, just when the new genre was taking America by storm. By comparison, Elvis Presley was only 21 in 1956, when he was having his first major label hits, and the Beatles had already broken up by the time any of them reached 30. Indeed, even many years ago it amazed me to think that Chuck Berry was still around when so many of his successors were not.
Of the first generation of rock and rollers, including Presley, Little Richard, Carl Perkins, Buddy Holly and more, Berry was perhaps the most representative of the sound of the new genre as it was born from a fusion of rhythm and blues with elements of country, and he was one of the few who wrote (or perhaps co-wrote, as I discuss below) all of his songs. His influence on the next generation of rock musicians was profound. The Rolling Stones were practically founded on a love of Chuck Berry, and John Lennon was quoted as saying “If you were going to give rock & roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry’.” Songs like “Roll Over Beethoven” and “Johnny B. Goode” are all time classics that have been covered countless times, and Berry’s performing style was imitated by many later musicians. Berry himself was supposedly pretty difficult to work with and in later years his shows were apparently rather erratic in quality, but that doesn't negate his impressive accomplishments. Those of his admirers who dealt with him certainly felt that way; Keith Richards commented that while he found Berry difficult, he put up with the aggravation because of all he owed to Berry.
In a previous post, I talked about an album of Chuck Berry covers that I put together many years ago, including ELO’s masterful fusion of “Roll Over Beethoven” and Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and the Beach Boys rewrite of “Sweet Little Sixteen” as “Surfin’ USA”, alongside covers by the Beatles, the Stones, Elvis, Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, Emmylou Harris, Paul McCartney and more. This time I’m listing my choices as the fifteen most essential recordings by Chuck Berry himself. Aside from the obvious hits, I’ve included some of my favorites among his relatively obscure tracks. Berry’s one major downside as a songwriter was that a lot of his singles sounded quite similar; indeed he sometimes reused the same music (listen to “School Days” and “No Particular Place to Go” or “Johnny B. Goode” and “Let It Rock” for some examples). But he also did songs that sounded nothing like the hits, such as the ominous sounding “Downbound Train” and the tragicomic calypso song “Havana Moon”, both of which combine great lyrics with interesting music. He also did songs in the classic blues style, with “Wee Wee Hours” being the example I’ve included here. The later “You Never Can Tell”, best known today for its use in the film Pulp Fiction, also has a musical flavor that is distinct from his earlier hits. Perhaps Berry’s greatest strength in comparison with other early songwriters was his lyrics; only Jerry Leiber of the Leiber and Stoller songwriting team could match him in those days. Among my favorite Berry lyrics are “Brown Eyed Handsome Man” and “Memphis, Tennessee” with its surprise twist at the end.
But as far as the music is concerned, though Berry is credited as sole composer on all his songs, there are a number of songs where that credit should be taken with a grain of salt. His breakout track, “Maybellene”, was based on the upbeat Bob Wills arrangement of the traditional song “Ida Red”, and his sole number one hit, the risqué novelty song “My Ding-a-Ling”, was originally written and recorded by Dave Bartholomew, who in turn took the melody from the 19th century song “Little Brown Jug” (Berry did substantially alter the lyrics and arrangement, but at most that should have be good for a co-writing credit). Finally, it’s possible that pianist Johnnie Johnson helped write the music for many of Berry’s songs, most of which he played on (in fact Berry’s career got started when Johnson recruited him to join a trio he was leading). As I wrote in my post on the autobiography of one of Berry’s biggest fans, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, Richards “asked Johnson about how songs like ‘Sweet Little Sixteen’ and ‘Little Queenie’ were written. Johnson said Berry would come in with all the words and then Johnson and the band would play a blues format with Johnson laying out the sequence. Richards’ reaction was hey, that means you co-wrote the songs. He goes on to note that he and the drummer went back and looked at Berry’s songs and realized that they were all in piano keys.” Johnson, who died in 2005 a few months short of his 81st birthday, sued Berry over the credits for many of the songs (including “Roll Over Beethoven” and “Sweet Little Sixteen”) in 2000, but the case was dismissed because too much time had passed. Interestingly, one song Johnson himself said he didn’t even play on was “Johnny B. Goode”, which he said Berry had told him was a tribute to him (Johnnie Johnson), though it also had a lot of autobiographical elements about Berry himself. Regardless, Johnson’s role in the creation of Berry’s music should be remembered along with Berry himself.
Here, in order of release, is my list of essential Chuck Berry songs:
Maybellene (1955)
Wee Wee Hours (1955)
Downbound Train (1955)
Roll Over Beethoven (1956)
Brown Eyed Handsome Man (1956)
You Can’t Catch Me (1956)
Too Much Monkey Business (1956)
Havana Moon (1956)
School Days (1957)
Rock and Roll Music (1957)
Sweet Little Sixteen (1958)
Reelin’ and Rockin’ (1958)
Johnny B. Goode (1958)
Memphis, Tennessee (1959)
You Never Can Tell (1964)
Of the first generation of rock and rollers, including Presley, Little Richard, Carl Perkins, Buddy Holly and more, Berry was perhaps the most representative of the sound of the new genre as it was born from a fusion of rhythm and blues with elements of country, and he was one of the few who wrote (or perhaps co-wrote, as I discuss below) all of his songs. His influence on the next generation of rock musicians was profound. The Rolling Stones were practically founded on a love of Chuck Berry, and John Lennon was quoted as saying “If you were going to give rock & roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry’.” Songs like “Roll Over Beethoven” and “Johnny B. Goode” are all time classics that have been covered countless times, and Berry’s performing style was imitated by many later musicians. Berry himself was supposedly pretty difficult to work with and in later years his shows were apparently rather erratic in quality, but that doesn't negate his impressive accomplishments. Those of his admirers who dealt with him certainly felt that way; Keith Richards commented that while he found Berry difficult, he put up with the aggravation because of all he owed to Berry.
In a previous post, I talked about an album of Chuck Berry covers that I put together many years ago, including ELO’s masterful fusion of “Roll Over Beethoven” and Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and the Beach Boys rewrite of “Sweet Little Sixteen” as “Surfin’ USA”, alongside covers by the Beatles, the Stones, Elvis, Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, Emmylou Harris, Paul McCartney and more. This time I’m listing my choices as the fifteen most essential recordings by Chuck Berry himself. Aside from the obvious hits, I’ve included some of my favorites among his relatively obscure tracks. Berry’s one major downside as a songwriter was that a lot of his singles sounded quite similar; indeed he sometimes reused the same music (listen to “School Days” and “No Particular Place to Go” or “Johnny B. Goode” and “Let It Rock” for some examples). But he also did songs that sounded nothing like the hits, such as the ominous sounding “Downbound Train” and the tragicomic calypso song “Havana Moon”, both of which combine great lyrics with interesting music. He also did songs in the classic blues style, with “Wee Wee Hours” being the example I’ve included here. The later “You Never Can Tell”, best known today for its use in the film Pulp Fiction, also has a musical flavor that is distinct from his earlier hits. Perhaps Berry’s greatest strength in comparison with other early songwriters was his lyrics; only Jerry Leiber of the Leiber and Stoller songwriting team could match him in those days. Among my favorite Berry lyrics are “Brown Eyed Handsome Man” and “Memphis, Tennessee” with its surprise twist at the end.
But as far as the music is concerned, though Berry is credited as sole composer on all his songs, there are a number of songs where that credit should be taken with a grain of salt. His breakout track, “Maybellene”, was based on the upbeat Bob Wills arrangement of the traditional song “Ida Red”, and his sole number one hit, the risqué novelty song “My Ding-a-Ling”, was originally written and recorded by Dave Bartholomew, who in turn took the melody from the 19th century song “Little Brown Jug” (Berry did substantially alter the lyrics and arrangement, but at most that should have be good for a co-writing credit). Finally, it’s possible that pianist Johnnie Johnson helped write the music for many of Berry’s songs, most of which he played on (in fact Berry’s career got started when Johnson recruited him to join a trio he was leading). As I wrote in my post on the autobiography of one of Berry’s biggest fans, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, Richards “asked Johnson about how songs like ‘Sweet Little Sixteen’ and ‘Little Queenie’ were written. Johnson said Berry would come in with all the words and then Johnson and the band would play a blues format with Johnson laying out the sequence. Richards’ reaction was hey, that means you co-wrote the songs. He goes on to note that he and the drummer went back and looked at Berry’s songs and realized that they were all in piano keys.” Johnson, who died in 2005 a few months short of his 81st birthday, sued Berry over the credits for many of the songs (including “Roll Over Beethoven” and “Sweet Little Sixteen”) in 2000, but the case was dismissed because too much time had passed. Interestingly, one song Johnson himself said he didn’t even play on was “Johnny B. Goode”, which he said Berry had told him was a tribute to him (Johnnie Johnson), though it also had a lot of autobiographical elements about Berry himself. Regardless, Johnson’s role in the creation of Berry’s music should be remembered along with Berry himself.
Here, in order of release, is my list of essential Chuck Berry songs:
Maybellene (1955)
Wee Wee Hours (1955)
Downbound Train (1955)
Roll Over Beethoven (1956)
Brown Eyed Handsome Man (1956)
You Can’t Catch Me (1956)
Too Much Monkey Business (1956)
Havana Moon (1956)
School Days (1957)
Rock and Roll Music (1957)
Sweet Little Sixteen (1958)
Reelin’ and Rockin’ (1958)
Johnny B. Goode (1958)
Memphis, Tennessee (1959)
You Never Can Tell (1964)
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
A Selection of Superstar Beatles Covers
Cover songs are looked down upon in some circles. This is to some degree due to the immense success of artists like the Beatles and Bob Dylan, who wrote the vast majority of their own songs, including all their major hit singles, setting a standard followed by rock bands and singer-songwriters since. Though of course there were quite a few performers who wrote some or all their own material before the Beatles era (Chuck Berry, for instance) and many songwriters performed on occasion (including greats like Cole Porter and Hoagy Carmichael), in the past it was quite normal for most singers to get their material from others. While this sometimes meant songs written particularly for them to sing, it was also common to perform songs that had already been recorded by others. Of course artists have continued to do this since Dylan and the Beatles, but the expectation had been created that the best, most genuinely creative singers and bands would come up with their own material. I'll admit to sharing this prejudice to some extent, in the sense that I am most impressed by artists who can both write good songs and perform them well. In part this is an interest in the creative side of music, so that I'm more inclined to focus on the writers of songs, whether we're talking Porter and the Gershwins from the early to mid 20th century, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in the 1950s and 1960s, or Randy Newman in more recent decades, than their performers. However, not every great performer can be or even needs to be a great songwriter. Whether we're talking Ella Fitzgerald or Elvis Presley, there's no denying that many people who didn't write any songs are still among the most important artists in popular music. For that matter, many capable songwriters enjoy performing others' material from time to time. The Beatles themselves did a lot of covers, especially in their early years (their powerful cover of "Twist and Shout" is just one example), and the individual Beatles continued to perform cover songs throughout their solo careers. Dylan also did covers from time to time, and even artists that never did any on their studio albums, such as Queen and Genesis, played them in concert. Indeed, a good cover can be as much of a work of art as an original song. Some cover versions manage to surpass the originals, even by substantial margins, though this is of course a subjective judgment, partly influenced by how we're exposed to the song in the first place (for example, people often tend to be partial to the version they hear first, though that can change after repeated exposure to another version).
Sometime I may attempt to draw up my own comprehensive list of great covers, but for today I'm just going to introduce a CD of Beatles covers I put together many years ago. It includes both some very well known covers of Beatle songs and some that are fairly obscure, though the artists doing them are generally quite well known. This was actually only one of three I made at the time, and even after three I hadn't come close to including all the interesting Beatles covers out there (some years after I made these CDs, I picked up a book entirely dedicated to Beatles covers, and even that book, which mentions hundreds of covers, doesn't include all of those in existence). I originally sent the CDs without any track listings to several members of my family to challenge them to identify the performers. They did pretty well, considering that even though all (or nearly all) the artists are fairly famous, not all of them were people you'd necessarily expect to have covered the Beatles, and it's not always easy to identify performers by voice alone. In any case, one of my goals was to show the great diversity of artists who have covered the Beatles, and the wide variety in interpretations that exist. I may post the track lists for the other two CDs in the future, but just this one has a lot of great stuff.
Can't Buy Me Love Ella Fitzgerald
A Hard Day's Night Billy Joel
Yesterday Marvin Gaye
Help Tina Turner
In My Life Crosby/Stills/Nash
Taxman Stevie Ray Vaughan
Eleanor Rigby Ray Charles
Tomorrow Never Knows Phil Collins
Penny Lane Sting
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Jimi Hendrix
With a Little Help From My Friends Joe Cocker
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds Elton John
The Fool on The Hill The Four Tops
Hey Jude The Temptations
Revolution Mike+The Mechanics
Obladi, Oblada Sting & Youssou N'Dour
Come Together Aerosmith
Across The Universe David Bowie
Sometime I may attempt to draw up my own comprehensive list of great covers, but for today I'm just going to introduce a CD of Beatles covers I put together many years ago. It includes both some very well known covers of Beatle songs and some that are fairly obscure, though the artists doing them are generally quite well known. This was actually only one of three I made at the time, and even after three I hadn't come close to including all the interesting Beatles covers out there (some years after I made these CDs, I picked up a book entirely dedicated to Beatles covers, and even that book, which mentions hundreds of covers, doesn't include all of those in existence). I originally sent the CDs without any track listings to several members of my family to challenge them to identify the performers. They did pretty well, considering that even though all (or nearly all) the artists are fairly famous, not all of them were people you'd necessarily expect to have covered the Beatles, and it's not always easy to identify performers by voice alone. In any case, one of my goals was to show the great diversity of artists who have covered the Beatles, and the wide variety in interpretations that exist. I may post the track lists for the other two CDs in the future, but just this one has a lot of great stuff.
Can't Buy Me Love Ella Fitzgerald
A Hard Day's Night Billy Joel
Yesterday Marvin Gaye
Help Tina Turner
In My Life Crosby/Stills/Nash
Taxman Stevie Ray Vaughan
Eleanor Rigby Ray Charles
Tomorrow Never Knows Phil Collins
Penny Lane Sting
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Jimi Hendrix
With a Little Help From My Friends Joe Cocker
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds Elton John
The Fool on The Hill The Four Tops
Hey Jude The Temptations
Revolution Mike+The Mechanics
Obladi, Oblada Sting & Youssou N'Dour
Come Together Aerosmith
Across The Universe David Bowie
Thursday, January 19, 2017
Theme Songs for the Incoming Administration of Deplorables
Since Don tRump (aka Pumpkin Hitler) has had such trouble finding acts willing to perform at his inauguration, I thought I’d go through my music collection and come up with some suitable music for him and his proposed cabinet of deplorables. Unfortunately, even the most ironically exaggerated of these songs could turn out to be scarily accurate if the worst tendencies of the incoming administration are left unrestrained. If they are to remain in the realm of satire rather than prophesy, it will take the collective efforts of all people of conscience and good sense.
Theme Songs for the New Administration
Political Science (Randy Newman) – Randy Newman himself commented that this song is “never out of date, unfortunately.” But this sort of ignorant, nationalistic jingoism is especially reminiscent of the attitudes of tRump and a number of those around him.
Deportee (Woody Guthrie/Martin Hoffman) – It was hearing a version of this song that inspired me to put together this list. Though it’s more than half a century old, its lyrics (which Guthrie originally wrote as a poem, inspired by a news report about a plane crash that killed several Americans and more than two dozen Mexicans who were being sent back to Mexico and who were not listed by name but just referred to as “deportees”) attack the same kind of dehumanization of undocumented immigrants that characterizes tRump and his followers. Of course we should also remember that Guthrie also wrote a set of lyrics titled “Beach Haven Ain’t My Home (Old Man Trump)” about his greedy, racist landlord Fred Trump – Donnie’s father.
Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) (Marvin Gaye) – This Marvin Gaye classic will unfortunately be an even more accurate depiction of the way we’ve polluted our environment if people like Scott Pruitt, tRump’s nominee for EPA director, get their way.
Pollution (Tom Lehrer) – Another good description of what even a few years of Republican dominance of government is likely to do to our environment. The line about what comes out of the taps is eerily close to what the people of Flint have had to put up with already, and that sort of thing will just get more common in the next few years.
Send the Marines (Tom Lehrer) – This would work as a theme song for a Defense Department headed by "Mad Dog" Mattis.
Murder by Numbers (Sting/Andy Summers) – While this song is more broadly targeted at all political leaders and the ease by which many of them give orders that lead to others’ deaths, it also is a scary reminder of what such power can become if wielded by someone unrestrained by conscience or empathy (neither of which tRump or many of his top nominees seem to have much of).
It's Money That Matters (Randy Newman) – A perfect fit for tRump and his cabinet of greedy billionaires, especially people like Mnuchin, DeVos, Tillerson and Ross, not to mention all the "coddle the wealthy" Republicans in Congress.
Trigger Happy (“Weird” Al Yankovic) – While Weird Al Yankovic, unlike Tom Lehrer or Randy Newman, rarely does songs with a political slant, this original song (a “style parody” of the Beach Boys) is the perfect theme song for all the gun nuts who will run rampant if the “guns everywhere” policies supported by tRump and the Republicans actually become law.
Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) (Roger Waters) – This grim portrait of a twisted education system seems rather fitting as a theme for what we might expect of education under Betsy DeVos, with her hostility to public schools and promotion of unregulated charter schools that “advance God’s Kingdom”.
Which Way to America (Vernon Reid) – This Living Colour song contrasts the America of the wealthy (and usually white) population and that of the poor (and often minority) population, the sort of inequality that will only get worse under tRump. Their “Cult of Personality” from the same album in some ways fits tRump, though I think of him as belonging to a slightly different category than leaders like Hitler or Stalin, whose evil was more calculated.
Subcity (Tracy Chapman) – A lot of Chapman's songs are about America's neglected underclass, but this song, with its lines about not being able to get any government relief and of course "Please give the President my honest regards/For disregarding me", is particularly appropriate considering the cuts to food stamps and other programs that can be expected from the Republicans.
Hammer to Fall (Brian May) – This apocalyptic Queen song seems fitting as a description of the sword of Damocles we’ll all be living under with tRump in charge. Queen’s “White Man” (also by May) would also be appropriate in reference to Standing Rock and similar disputes.
American Idiot (Armstrong/Dirnt/Cool) – This one is an obvious one, fitting for both tRump and those who voted him into office.
Putin (Randy Newman) – I only discovered this new Newman song today, but it's the perfect theme song for the guy who helped put tRump into office.
We Will All Go Together When We Go (Tom Lehrer) – Let’s just hope this one doesn’t turn out to be prophetic.
Update:
I'm Dreaming (Randy Newman) - I just ran across this song today, and I just had to add it. As a Randy Newman fan, I'm a bit embarrassed to have missed hearing this, since it apparently dates back to 2012. He seemingly wrote it in character (as he often does), in this case the character being an Obama-hating tea party type. As such, it makes the perfect theme song for the tRump voter.
Theme Songs for the New Administration
Political Science (Randy Newman) – Randy Newman himself commented that this song is “never out of date, unfortunately.” But this sort of ignorant, nationalistic jingoism is especially reminiscent of the attitudes of tRump and a number of those around him.
Deportee (Woody Guthrie/Martin Hoffman) – It was hearing a version of this song that inspired me to put together this list. Though it’s more than half a century old, its lyrics (which Guthrie originally wrote as a poem, inspired by a news report about a plane crash that killed several Americans and more than two dozen Mexicans who were being sent back to Mexico and who were not listed by name but just referred to as “deportees”) attack the same kind of dehumanization of undocumented immigrants that characterizes tRump and his followers. Of course we should also remember that Guthrie also wrote a set of lyrics titled “Beach Haven Ain’t My Home (Old Man Trump)” about his greedy, racist landlord Fred Trump – Donnie’s father.
Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) (Marvin Gaye) – This Marvin Gaye classic will unfortunately be an even more accurate depiction of the way we’ve polluted our environment if people like Scott Pruitt, tRump’s nominee for EPA director, get their way.
Pollution (Tom Lehrer) – Another good description of what even a few years of Republican dominance of government is likely to do to our environment. The line about what comes out of the taps is eerily close to what the people of Flint have had to put up with already, and that sort of thing will just get more common in the next few years.
Send the Marines (Tom Lehrer) – This would work as a theme song for a Defense Department headed by "Mad Dog" Mattis.
Murder by Numbers (Sting/Andy Summers) – While this song is more broadly targeted at all political leaders and the ease by which many of them give orders that lead to others’ deaths, it also is a scary reminder of what such power can become if wielded by someone unrestrained by conscience or empathy (neither of which tRump or many of his top nominees seem to have much of).
It's Money That Matters (Randy Newman) – A perfect fit for tRump and his cabinet of greedy billionaires, especially people like Mnuchin, DeVos, Tillerson and Ross, not to mention all the "coddle the wealthy" Republicans in Congress.
Trigger Happy (“Weird” Al Yankovic) – While Weird Al Yankovic, unlike Tom Lehrer or Randy Newman, rarely does songs with a political slant, this original song (a “style parody” of the Beach Boys) is the perfect theme song for all the gun nuts who will run rampant if the “guns everywhere” policies supported by tRump and the Republicans actually become law.
Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) (Roger Waters) – This grim portrait of a twisted education system seems rather fitting as a theme for what we might expect of education under Betsy DeVos, with her hostility to public schools and promotion of unregulated charter schools that “advance God’s Kingdom”.
Which Way to America (Vernon Reid) – This Living Colour song contrasts the America of the wealthy (and usually white) population and that of the poor (and often minority) population, the sort of inequality that will only get worse under tRump. Their “Cult of Personality” from the same album in some ways fits tRump, though I think of him as belonging to a slightly different category than leaders like Hitler or Stalin, whose evil was more calculated.
Subcity (Tracy Chapman) – A lot of Chapman's songs are about America's neglected underclass, but this song, with its lines about not being able to get any government relief and of course "Please give the President my honest regards/For disregarding me", is particularly appropriate considering the cuts to food stamps and other programs that can be expected from the Republicans.
Hammer to Fall (Brian May) – This apocalyptic Queen song seems fitting as a description of the sword of Damocles we’ll all be living under with tRump in charge. Queen’s “White Man” (also by May) would also be appropriate in reference to Standing Rock and similar disputes.
American Idiot (Armstrong/Dirnt/Cool) – This one is an obvious one, fitting for both tRump and those who voted him into office.
Putin (Randy Newman) – I only discovered this new Newman song today, but it's the perfect theme song for the guy who helped put tRump into office.
We Will All Go Together When We Go (Tom Lehrer) – Let’s just hope this one doesn’t turn out to be prophetic.
Update:
I'm Dreaming (Randy Newman) - I just ran across this song today, and I just had to add it. As a Randy Newman fan, I'm a bit embarrassed to have missed hearing this, since it apparently dates back to 2012. He seemingly wrote it in character (as he often does), in this case the character being an Obama-hating tea party type. As such, it makes the perfect theme song for the tRump voter.
Saturday, December 31, 2016
The Best of George Michael (The Grim Reaper Strikes Yet Again)
In my previous post I remarked, as many others have done, on the number of major artists in popular music who had died this year, and in passing I mentioned the possibility that since the year wasn’t over, there was still a chance that one or more major artists might yet die. That turned out to be the case, as this past Christmas weekend, George Michael unexpectedly joined the list that already included David Bowie, Glenn Frey of the Eagles, Prince, Beatles producer George Martin, both Keith Emerson and Greg Lake (two thirds of Emerson, Lake and Palmer), Leonard Cohen and many more. Of course, despite the superstitious nonsense some people are spreading, these deaths are not due to a curse or anything silly like that. It is just an unfortunate coincidence, and given the ages of many famous artists who are still living, it is likely that some year in the near future will have at least nearly as many top artists dying, not to mention the fact that which artists qualify as major artists is necessarily subjective.
However, few people would dispute that George Michael (born Georgios Panayiotou) was a major artist, and his death was more of a surprise than, say, Leonard Cohen’s, as Michael was only 53, even younger than Prince. I didn’t have all of his albums, but I did have several of them, and I’d long considered him to have one of the best voices in pop. Interestingly, one of the few singers I’d rate above him, Freddie Mercury of Queen (whose mother Jer Bulsara also died recently), named Michael along with Aretha Franklin as one of his favorite singers, and Michael in turn did the best job taking Freddie’s place in performing Queen’s songs at the Freddie Mercury Memorial Concert. But aside from being a very good singer, Michael was also a capable songwriter. Not everything he wrote was great, but he did write a number of excellent songs. While since what he was writing was pop music, his melodies were generally what got the most attention, he also wrote some excellent lyrics from time to time. “Praying for Time”, for instance, is very well written, and “I Want Your Sex (Part 1)” has a lot of clever lines.
The following is a list of my favorite George Michael songs, basically the ones I’d put on my own “Best of George Michael”. I made one list of the ones I consider indispensable and a second of the songs I’d choose from to fill out a full CD. Since I don’t have his last album, Patience, I didn’t include anything from that, though eventually I’d like to check it out and possibly revise this list. I did listen to a few later songs over the last couple of days, though not enough to decide for certain which I’d want to include in a “best of”, though I did add 2006’s “An Easier Affair” to my secondary list. When Wham was popular I wasn’t really paying much attention to pop music, so I only heard a few of their songs at the time, though I heard more afterwards and I now have a copy of their compilation The Final. I probably could have included more songs from that era, but I decided to mainly concentrate on his solo songs, though I had to include my favorite Wham songs “Freedom” and “Everything She Wants”, and I added a few more into my second tier list. Faith is the album I was most familiar with, so inevitably there are quite a few songs from that, and really all of the singles from it are pretty good, as is the album track “Hand to Mouth”. “Kissing a Fool” is probably my favorite here, though “I Want Your Sex (Part 1)” and “Faith” are close. But there’s also some filler, while pretty much everything on his second solo album Listen without Prejudice Vol. 1 is good. “Praying for Time” is probably my favorite on this album, though “Heal the Pain” and “Waiting for That Day” are also great, and some of the others are close behind. The songs on his third album Older are generally also pretty good, though for some reason few of them really grabbed me the way the best ones on his previous albums did, and so most of them didn’t make the list here, though several would if I were to make it a double album. I did include his later, tongue-in-cheek single “Outside”, which was also pretty clever.
While for my main lists I stuck to original songs that Michael wrote himself, I made a separate list of some of my favorite covers he’s done (plus his song with Aretha Franklin, which while original he didn’t write). This is necessarily incomplete, as he’s done many covers I haven’t heard, including a whole album of them, but it would make a nice EP companion to the main set.
The Best of George Michael
Indispensable Tracks
Freedom
Everything She Wants
I Want Your Sex
Faith
Kissing a Fool
Praying for Time
Waiting for That Day
Heal the Pain
Other Top Tracks
I’m Your Man
A Different Corner
Careless Whisper
Hand to Mouth
Monkey
One More Try
Freedom ‘90
Mother’s Pride
Jesus to a Child
You Have Been Loved
Outside
An Easier Affair
Top Covers and Duets
I Knew You Were Waiting for Me (with Aretha Franklin)
Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me (with Elton John)
Somebody to Love (with Queen)
As (with Mary K. Blige)
I Can’t Make You Love Me
However, few people would dispute that George Michael (born Georgios Panayiotou) was a major artist, and his death was more of a surprise than, say, Leonard Cohen’s, as Michael was only 53, even younger than Prince. I didn’t have all of his albums, but I did have several of them, and I’d long considered him to have one of the best voices in pop. Interestingly, one of the few singers I’d rate above him, Freddie Mercury of Queen (whose mother Jer Bulsara also died recently), named Michael along with Aretha Franklin as one of his favorite singers, and Michael in turn did the best job taking Freddie’s place in performing Queen’s songs at the Freddie Mercury Memorial Concert. But aside from being a very good singer, Michael was also a capable songwriter. Not everything he wrote was great, but he did write a number of excellent songs. While since what he was writing was pop music, his melodies were generally what got the most attention, he also wrote some excellent lyrics from time to time. “Praying for Time”, for instance, is very well written, and “I Want Your Sex (Part 1)” has a lot of clever lines.
The following is a list of my favorite George Michael songs, basically the ones I’d put on my own “Best of George Michael”. I made one list of the ones I consider indispensable and a second of the songs I’d choose from to fill out a full CD. Since I don’t have his last album, Patience, I didn’t include anything from that, though eventually I’d like to check it out and possibly revise this list. I did listen to a few later songs over the last couple of days, though not enough to decide for certain which I’d want to include in a “best of”, though I did add 2006’s “An Easier Affair” to my secondary list. When Wham was popular I wasn’t really paying much attention to pop music, so I only heard a few of their songs at the time, though I heard more afterwards and I now have a copy of their compilation The Final. I probably could have included more songs from that era, but I decided to mainly concentrate on his solo songs, though I had to include my favorite Wham songs “Freedom” and “Everything She Wants”, and I added a few more into my second tier list. Faith is the album I was most familiar with, so inevitably there are quite a few songs from that, and really all of the singles from it are pretty good, as is the album track “Hand to Mouth”. “Kissing a Fool” is probably my favorite here, though “I Want Your Sex (Part 1)” and “Faith” are close. But there’s also some filler, while pretty much everything on his second solo album Listen without Prejudice Vol. 1 is good. “Praying for Time” is probably my favorite on this album, though “Heal the Pain” and “Waiting for That Day” are also great, and some of the others are close behind. The songs on his third album Older are generally also pretty good, though for some reason few of them really grabbed me the way the best ones on his previous albums did, and so most of them didn’t make the list here, though several would if I were to make it a double album. I did include his later, tongue-in-cheek single “Outside”, which was also pretty clever.
While for my main lists I stuck to original songs that Michael wrote himself, I made a separate list of some of my favorite covers he’s done (plus his song with Aretha Franklin, which while original he didn’t write). This is necessarily incomplete, as he’s done many covers I haven’t heard, including a whole album of them, but it would make a nice EP companion to the main set.
The Best of George Michael
Indispensable Tracks
Freedom
Everything She Wants
I Want Your Sex
Faith
Kissing a Fool
Praying for Time
Waiting for That Day
Heal the Pain
Other Top Tracks
I’m Your Man
A Different Corner
Careless Whisper
Hand to Mouth
Monkey
One More Try
Freedom ‘90
Mother’s Pride
Jesus to a Child
You Have Been Loved
Outside
An Easier Affair
Top Covers and Duets
I Knew You Were Waiting for Me (with Aretha Franklin)
Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me (with Elton John)
Somebody to Love (with Queen)
As (with Mary K. Blige)
I Can’t Make You Love Me
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
The Grim Reaper Strikes Again
As I and many others have noted, it hasn't been a particularly great year for music when it comes to deaths of important musical figures. I wrote about two of the biggest who have died this year, David Bowie and Prince, and in the latter post I listed many of the other major losses up to that point in time, from the Beatles producer George Martin to the keyboard wizard Keith Emerson. Recently a few other significant people have been added to the list. One was Leon Russell, who worked with artists such as Joe Cocker, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Elton John. His first album included guest musicians like George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Eric Clapton. Though I don't own any of his albums myself, I'm certainly aware of his impact.
That is even more true of another aritist who died recently, Leonard Cohen. I only have one Leonard Cohen compilation, an early "best of" album, so there's a lot his stuff I haven't heard. But he was definitely a very distinctive songwriter and wrote some great stuff. Bob Dylan is the obvious comparison, but Cohen had a style all his own. One of these days I need to get one or two more of his albums, either a more comprehensive compilation album, one of his top rated original albums, or both. For now, I have to be content with early classics like "Suzanne", "So Long, Marianne", "Bird on a Wire", "Famous Blue Raincoat" and "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye", as well as Jeff Buckley's version of "Hallelujah" and Billy Joel's cover of "Light as the Breeze".
There's only one month left in 2016, so we can hope there will be no more major deaths this year. But considering the ages of so many of the remaining greats who emerged in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, perhaps we should prepare ourselves for a few more years like 2016 in the near future.
That is even more true of another aritist who died recently, Leonard Cohen. I only have one Leonard Cohen compilation, an early "best of" album, so there's a lot his stuff I haven't heard. But he was definitely a very distinctive songwriter and wrote some great stuff. Bob Dylan is the obvious comparison, but Cohen had a style all his own. One of these days I need to get one or two more of his albums, either a more comprehensive compilation album, one of his top rated original albums, or both. For now, I have to be content with early classics like "Suzanne", "So Long, Marianne", "Bird on a Wire", "Famous Blue Raincoat" and "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye", as well as Jeff Buckley's version of "Hallelujah" and Billy Joel's cover of "Light as the Breeze".
There's only one month left in 2016, so we can hope there will be no more major deaths this year. But considering the ages of so many of the remaining greats who emerged in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, perhaps we should prepare ourselves for a few more years like 2016 in the near future.
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