Gary Lucas
was named by «New Yorker» magazine «the thinking man's guitar hero». Rightly so, since he's been a member of Captain Beefheart's Magic Band, won several Grammys and formed his own band Gods & Monsters along the way. The guitar god also worked with Jeff Buckley for his epic «Grace» album and collaborates with DJ Cosmo on the Wild Rumpus project.
Also «Reelin' in the Years». I really got into Steely Dan while I was at Yale, and both these songs reference going to university («The weekend in the college didn't turn out like you planned»). A line from the second song for instance, which can be a bummer. So these lyrics are both kind of scornful of the experience, especially «My Old School», which speaks about an actual drug bust at Steely Dan's alma mater Bard College conducted by G. Gordon Liddy of Watergate infamy («Daddy Gee»).
This was my first taste of feedback in the intro, from George Harrison, who then coaxes his guitar into an amazing, catchy, bluesy, hypnotic guitar riff with infectious ecstatic harmony chorus. Pure bliss in a perfectly constructed song!
The Nazi party anthem, banned in Germany to this day.
Still haven't found it, darnit! A cheery pop single with a great vocal and brass hook from the late 60's about three fellows (apparently) trapped in a mine, with a lyric that implies eventual cannibalism by the song's singer and and his friend «Joe» of their friend «Timothy»! The picture sleeve showed a mule on the cover, which implied that the singer and his friend «Joe» didn't actually eat a person, but their pack animal, to soften the shock to the listener... but still!
Terrible painful memeories here. I don't care to elaborate on this one!
I heard this in 1959 on the Top 40 radio while riding in the back seat of my mother's car to the grocery store. The joyous, worldless almost gospel singing of the chorus is infectious and makes you want to sing along and groove. And burned itself into my brain... «Woahh Ohhhh, Huh Huh HuhHuh!»
Sid Vicious - My Way. Just kidding... I'm not really a fan, but prefer his version to Frank's actually, Would prefer that they play Fred Wesley & the J.B.'s «Doin' It to Death Part One And Two», as I think a funeral should leave people feeling joyful, uplifted, not sad. And this song may be my #1 goodtime single (a close rival to «Ballroom Blitz»). James Brown shouts his heart out exhorting commanding everyone «We're gonna have a funky time!» and conducts the band over a groove that just won't quit. Great solos from Maceo and Fred Thomas until Fred Wesley brings it all back home with a great trombone solo... yeahhhhh!
Was this the summer of '64? Or '65? The sun is shining and eating a popsicle and I'm out of school for a few months and this song comes over the radio and I'm glad to be alive...and it's just like the song says!
No specific breakup recalled here, just the sound of surf, sobs, and teenage girl-group angst replete with seagull sound effects, crashing waves and Phil Spectorish Wall of Sound tympani and wailing voices. All here in the perfect 3 minute soap opera deftly masterminded by producer Shadow Morton.
Self-explanatory. Just listen to the lyrics. Lou is an old friend of mine and this is him at his best.
A tribal stomp, campy hysterical vocals, fantastic drums and guitar raveup, lyrics about a teenage riot in a dance hall. This track's got everything to get a party started!
Written by the late great Lee Hazlewood and Duane. That twangy guitar line just kills me, those deep bending notes, that chirpy chorus. When I heard this I knew that's what I wanted to be, a guitar man.
Ernie Brooks (Ex-Modern Lovers) who plays bass in Gods & Monsters is the friend who thinks this. Because the songs I write for the group evoke far away places and mystical sounds and feelings, I guess.
Pink Floyd's ethereal, doomy space hymn that still functions as catchy art-rock. Some dissonance, electronic echoplex noise, avant-garde but not forbidding or unlistenable noise, swooning chorus glissandos. I love this song, and I think I did it proud covering it with Rolo McGinty. Just re-released on my new Gods & Monsters album «Coming Clean» on Productions Speciales in France.
