It's simple really. I tried to make a list of my favorite songs. I was going to divide them into a series of posts and make a journal thread containing the list, so it would all be written and thought out before the thing even went online. But I realized that long, ambitious lists really aren't my thing. I'm better if I don't have to sit for a long time and plan something out. Quick, short bursts, about random things that catch my eye, and in this case, ear. So, I'll do what I do best and pick a few songs, and write about them. No pressure with ordering, just five random and great songs(except for this post, with 10)
Lets get started, shall we?
Ten Great Songs, or The Advent of the Underground
1. Like A Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan(1965)
From the first snap of that drum, rock and roll was thrust onto a different track, new doors revealed, with a tantalizing taste of what was to come. The mocking, bitter tone. How does it feel? To be on your own? This song is a representation of that streak in the mid-Sixties(Bringing it All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde) where Bob Dylan went electric, and more importantly, when he started making music that sounded like nothing else at the time. An electric blues combined with an attitude that can be retrospectively described as art-rock. Bob Dylan's most important contribution to music is that after him, the subject matter of a song was no longer restricted, and that it was okay for a number one song to be a six minute, rambling indictment of an unnamed character, full of spite and contempt, with love not even a factor. And, almost as important, you didn't have to be a great singer to be in a band and be famous. That's what makes Bob Dylan's stuff in the mid-sixties the vanguard, the seeds of a movement altogether different from the 'mainstream'
Dailymotion - Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone (live 1966) - une vidéo Musique
2. Monk Time by The Monks(1966)
Such an exciting, thrilling rallying cry of a song. The singer is crazed, possessed by a mad energy, and for the first part of the song he isn't even singing, just yelling. The beat is unstoppable, the guitar riff at the beginning is as ominous as they get, and the message was controversial for the time, when it was 1966 and there was no such thing as the Tet Offensive or Walter Cronkite in Vietnam:
You know we don't like the army, what army, who cares what army? Why do you kill all those kids over there in Vietnam? Mad Viet Cong! My brother died in Vietnam! James Bond, who is he? Stop it, stop it, I don't like it! It's too loud for my ears. Pussy Galore's coming down and we LIKE it. We DONT like the atomic bomb!
YouTube - the monks - monk time
3. Venus in Furs by The Velvet Underground(1967)
Completely unprecedented and utterly beautiful. This entire album is the 'out of nowhere' gem of the 60s, and this song even more so, and in my mind is the most radical 'rock' song put onto wax up until 1967. The true innovation wasn't coming from the hippies and Beatles followers(
most of the true innovation, anyway), but from the fringe scenes centered in two cities, Detroit and New York, the most prominent being New York. Warhol, Reed and his crowd WERE NOT hippies, and it was amazing, they were grimy artists, and in a Beat-esque fashion, glorified the lifestyle of the perverse, the dirty and the drug addled. And they lived that lifestyle, too. This song is a beautiful hypnosis.
YouTube - velvet underground - venus in furs
4. Astronomy Domine by Pink Floyd(1967)
Before they conquered the world and the 70s, Pink Floyd were a weird British band led by an acid-head who became one of the many yanked under by the lysergic tide, they were psychedelic and progressive, and one of the early foundations of the latter. And this is the signature song from that time in Pink Floyd's history. The songs starts out weird, and at 1:50, the guitars become sublime, sliding up and down, signaling the start of the breakdown jam, which keeps you moving and guessing. An absolutely essential and weird song from 1967.
YouTube - Pink Floyd - Astronomy Domine
5. Revolution #9 by The Beatles(1968)
There are plenty of unorthodox gems from this band that influenced plenty of indie and underground artists(Tomorrow Never Knows, Strawberry Fields Forever, A Day in the Life, Eleanor Rigby, Happiness is a Warm Gun), but nothing in their catalog comes close to being as radical as Revolution #9. How many other popular bands(or for that matter, unpopular bands) even dared to put an EIGHT MINUTE sound-collage on one of their albums? Especially if it is the same band that started out with expertly crafted pop love songs and spawned an army of rabid teenage girls as fans? Despite being a collection containing mostly dialogue coupled with distorted or backwards instrumentals and strange sound effects, it manages to maintain a rhythm, with bits of sound disappearing and reappearing later in the track, and for long sections, a subtle mash of voices chatting in the background, providing an unsettling ambiance. And it's the brain-child of that most radical of Beatles, Yoko-Influenced-John.
YouTube - The Beatles - Revolution 9
6. Caledonia by Cromagnon(1969)
Another one of those completely unprecedented songs. The spiritual origin of death metal and noise rock. Someone on Youtube was unusually insightful, saying “It's like Quorthon went back in time and jacked off in the primordial ooze”, and I don't know who Quorthen is, but it still makes sense. This song is insanely primordial, and sounds as if there was no composition or creative process involved, instead it's the demented voice of creation, a primal eruption of sound at the beginning of everything as life crawls out of the slime.
YouTube - Cromagnon - Caledonia (1968 Orgasm Album)
7. 21st Century Schizoid Man by King Crimson(1969)
An insanely grabbing opening track by this early progressive band. It's pure bliss; when the music explodes and is so catchy, with a furious and before it's time heaviness, pulsating and distorted vocals driven by a mechanical rhythm. Then it devolves into frantic jazz madness, going through the rabbit hole and walking right to the edge, before finding its way back and regaining form. And the entire trip is an absolute pleasure. This band, and album, deserve the heaps of praise they receive.
YouTube - king crimson - 21st century schizoid man
8. Frownland by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band(1969)
This is the easiest to digest song on Trout Mask Replica which is still representative of what the whole album is like. Easily the most radical album ever made, even by today's standards(although a certain album by Lou Reed might be able to argue this point). This album contains absolutely zero grounding in musical theory. Rhythms change suddenly and for no reason, melody and harmony make no sense, and it sounds like it was made up on a whim by someone who doesn't know how music is SUPPOSED to sound, with periods of seemingly improvised renditions of what should be poetry(The dust blows forward and the dust blows back... and the wind blows black...when am I gonna die...a white flake riverboat just blew by...bubbles pop BIG!) But that's the entire point of Trout Mask Replica, isn't it? To shatter perception and in the end leaving you confounded, yet feeling like you've just heard something important. And that's the most anti-mainstream music can ever aspire to be: Trout Mask Replica. And it probably helped kill the 60s, too.
YouTube - Captain Beefheart And His Magical Band Frownland
9. I Wanna Be Your Dog by The Stooges(1969)
The true fathers of punk are The Stooges. They have heaviness, a dismissive irreverence(what kind of sacrilege is it to claim that 1969 was boring, with nothing to do?) and of course, the pure maelstrom of personality that is Iggy. Even today, the Stooges sound ominous and raw, teeming with power(raw power, perhaps? Oh, ho, ho!) that's bubbling just under the surface. This song is the perfect example of the genius of The Stooges. With the help of John Cale from the Velvet Underground as a producer(whose influence you can definitely hear in the constantly repeating piano in the background), this band perfected a sound that gets under your skin, and has the claws to burrow really deep in there, and stay. And then they were dropped by their record label. So it goes.
YouTube - The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog
10. Yoo Doo Right by Can(1969)
In the 20th century, at least, Germany's never had better, more amazing music than the sounds of Can(although Kraftwerk fans can put up a fair argument), these guys are the kings of Krautrock, experimental to the core, but also groovy. They're experimental in a way that makes sense. Their songs don't assault you like Beefheart, instead, their music is more akin to a revelation. These guys are the forefathers of groups like Radiohead. And this song is a twenty-minute epic on their first album, and is a great example of the sound and mood of an average Can song. This isn't Can at their best, but average Can will pretty much blow regular music out of the water.
YouTube - Can-Yoo Doo Right Part 1.avi