Volume 7, Track 6
“Morning Dew” by The Grateful Dead (1967) The Grateful Dead’s eponymous debut album, if you were to hear it now, would most likely sound very dated. It is very indicative, musically, of the 1966-67 San Francisco sound; so much so that it almost seems to have been stored in the same vacuum that Surrealistic Pillow [...]
Volume 7, Track 5
“I Know There’s An Answer” by The Beach Boys (1966) One of the primary reasons, I think, that Pet Sounds is such a beloved favorite of so many critics and casual rock listeners is that the music is, for the most part, so playful, bright, inviting, lush, and mesmerizing. (Full review can be found here.) [...]
Volume 7, Track 4
“Can’t Find My Way Home” by Blind Faith (1969) It seems like Eric Clapton has been a part of roughly thirty bands throughout his career and the most ironic thing about all of it is that the one band he was in that was one of the first to be billed as a “supergroup”—the one [...]
Volume 7, Track 3
“Yer Blues” by The Beatles (1968) Disc two of the “white album” has the best glimpses of what The Beatles would have sounded like if they had ever become a full-time rock band or power blues band. “Helter Skelter” is the most hardcore (and notorious) example[1] whereas “Yer Blues” is a more complete example of [...]
Volume 7, Track 2
“Safe European Home” by The Clash (1978) For whatever reason, when I was growing up, mainstream radio barely acknowledged “the only band that matters.” Oh sure, once in a blue moon you might hear “Train In Vain” or “I Fought The Law” but, at the end of the day, you were more likely to find [...]
Volume 7, Track 1
“Trenchtown Rock” by Bob Marley and The Wailers (1975) Live! is best known (and rightfully so) for having arguably one of the greatest live songs ever on it, “No Woman, No Cry.” “Trenchtown Rock,” which opens this 1975 London performance, is a powerhouse track in its own way. The song opens up with a great [...]
Volume 7 Introduction
The last volume was all about the final tracks of albums, and Volume 8 will be all about the opening tracks of albums but before I delve into that I will delve into a volume of songs by icons of the ’60′s and ’70′s. This volume could best be described as “Songs You May Not [...]
Volume 6, Track 14
“Fiery Yellow” by Stereolab (1994) Here’s what you do: 1) Download “Fiery Yellow” 2) When it’s dark outside, play this song really loud while driving or while going for a walk/run outside 3) While it’s playing and you are driving/walking/running try not to imagine youself in a movie or a movie trailer For whatever reason, [...]
Volume 6, Track 13
“I’m Lonely (But I Ain’t That Lonely Yet)” by The White Stripes (2005) The last track of the half outstanding, half semi-flawed Get Behind Me Satan falls into the “outstanding” portion of the album. It is a solo song featuring only Jack White playing the piano yet it dials up just enough subdued humor and [...]
Volume 6, Track 12
“Farewell And Goodnight” by The Smashing Pumpkins (1995) I have had this unshakable feeling that Billy Corgan betrayed me after Mellon Collie was released. When “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” was released I hated it because it was played on seemingly every radio station twice an hour. The oversaturation of that song caused me to temporarily [...]
Volume 6, Track 11
“Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” by Nirvana (1993) When Nirvana’s Unplugged performance first aired, there was a definite sense that something was changing in terms of the band’s legacy. Starting the show with “About A Girl,” a song that most professed Nirvana diehards may have had a difficult time recalling once it began? Doing [...]
Volume 6, Track 10
“Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails (1994) “Hurt” is a show-stopper. Totally unexpected—when compared musically to most everything else on The Downward Spiral—and yet stunningly powerful (“What have I become?/My sweetest friend/Everyone I know/Goes away in the end”), Trent Reznor produced a song that not only overshadowed “Closer” but would also become arguably one of the [...]
Volume 6, Track 9
“I Can See It (But I Can’t Feel It)” by My Bloody Valentine (1988) As I have already written Loveless is quite the sonic masterpiece and one of the best albums of the last twenty years. But before Kevin Sheilds went on a well-documented series of near-breakdowns and bankrupting a label in the process of [...]
Volume 6, Track 8
“The Private Psychedelic Reel” by The Chemical Brothers (1997) The Chemical Brothers are, in very specific and static terms, the Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin of mainstream electronic music. The comparison to Bob Dylan is warranted because their single “Life Is Sweet” (off of their 1995 debut album Exit Planet Dust) is basically the electronic [...]
Volume 6, Track 7
“Maggot Brain” by Funkadelic (1978) Okay, so this live version of “Maggot Brain” technically was not the last track on the original release of One Nation Under A Groove (it was a bonus track) but almost every CD incarnation of the album since has included it and it occupies the last track on all of [...]
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