WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SONG FROM THE SECOND HALF of THE...
Again, the 1970s were so prolific and interesting for music it is always challenging just to pick one song. Not to mention the amazing number of important acts that had first albums in the second half of the 70s:
Elvis Costello, Tom Petty, Prince, The Ramones, Warren Zevon, The Police, The B-52s, The Cars, The Clash, The Cure, Grandmasteer Flash, Sugarhill Gang, Cheap Trick, Van Halen, Jaco Pastorius, John Mellencamp, Talking Heads, B-52s, Devo, Heart, Blondie, Adam and the Ants, Kate Bush, Nick Lowe, Japan, Squeeze, The Tubes, Rick James, Boston, The Commodores, Peter Gabriel (solo), The Boomtown Rats, Dire Straits, Toto, George Thorogood, Steve Forbert, Little River Band, Air Supply, Joe Jackson, The sSex Pistols, Foreigner, U2, The Tourists/The Eurythmics, The Damned, Christopher Cross, Chic (Nile Rodgers), and so on and so on...
As I thought about it, I started with Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" in my mind. Such a unique song and holds some airplay records for radio! Then I thought of one of my all-time favorites, "Desperados Under the Eaves" by Warren Zevon. Just PLEASE LISTEN TO THAT SONG. Powerful and personal. Especially if you live in LA. But because of the recent loss of Tom Petty, the 70s Petty material was on my mind. And I thought of all the songs I loved from his first 3 albums and came to "Even the Losers."
"Even the Losers" is a song about one of those moments with a girl that you will never get back again, but it was magic while it happened. Yet, the chorus is that everyman feeling that damn it, "even the losers, get lucky sometimes." Anyone can relate to it, male or female. I mean come on, what a powerfully understated song about the human condition and a universal feeling that each of us is somehow an outsider.
And I seem to have the bridge run through my head at least once a week, simply because it takes such concrete imagery and turns it into a bigger message:
Two cars parked on the overpass
Rocks hit the water like broken glass
I should've known right then it was too good to last
God it's such a drag when you live in the past
Baby, even the losers!
Get lucky sometime!
It's tender, happy, angry and sad all at the same time. Quite an accomplishment. Mr. Petty was one hell of a songwriter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E30XxSYgmqo
Replies
Francisco Cardona
www.youtube.com/watch
6 years ago
The Doors - Hello, I Love You
Band: The Doors Album: The Very Best of The Doors Release date: 2001 Track number: 4 Genre: Psychedelic Rock Lyrics: Hello, I love you Won't you tell me your...
Francisco Cardona
www.youtube.com/watch
6 years ago
The Doors - The End (original)
Doors song The End full and uncensored Subscribe for more great music. Click here to be shuffled: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqFRtJtu2io&list=PLkf6sA3Nq...
Francisco Cardona
www.youtube.com/watch
6 years ago
Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen
Sex Pistols ( http://www.agoravox.tv/tribune-libre/article/god-save-the-queen-her-fascist-30057 : " God Save The Queen, Her Fascist Regime ! ") - God Save Th...
Francisco Cardona
www.youtube.com/watch
6 years ago
Crass- Punk Is Dead
Yes that's right, punk is dead It's just another cheap product for the consumers head Bubblegum rock on plastic transistors Schoolboy sedition backed by big...
Francisco Cardona
www.youtube.com/watch
6 years ago
ESKORBUTO - Anti Todo 1985 [FULL ALBUM]
Artista: Eskorbuto Álbum: Anti-Todo Año: 1985 https://www.facebook.com/eskorbutooficial/ Tracklist: 01. Historia Triste 00:00 02. De Ti Depende 03:06 03. Es...
Eric Watkins
"Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis" - Tom Waits
Tom Waits is the undisputed master of finding beautiful melancholy in the mundane. His songs are filled with simple, devastating scenes that are both instantly recognizable and inexplicably sad. His exposition is told through details, not explanation. Waits is a genius at establishing a clear narrator in his songs effortlessly and almost invisibly. His songs don't dwell in some defining tragedy, but in the unrealized emptiness of day to day life.
“Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis” is a perfect example of Tom Waits' songwriting, maybe THE perfect example. The title alone sets up so much: who, what, where and when. The “why”... well, that comes later. The song (or card) describes a modestly happy life, but details keep slipping in that reveal a hard life and this is just the bravest face that she could manage to put on it. At the end of the song we get the why - an O. Henry type twist that serves as both gut-punch and punchline. And we realize that the sad story the card told was actually just a fantasy.
The story is expertly revealed, making the song hit like a ton of bricks.
www.youtube.com/watch 6 years ago
Tom Waits is the undisputed master of finding beautiful melancholy in the mundane. His songs are filled with simple, devastating scenes that are both instantly recognizable and inexplicably sad. His exposition is told through details, not explanation. Waits is a genius at establishing a clear narrator in his songs effortlessly and almost invisibly. His songs don't dwell in some defining tragedy, but in the unrealized emptiness of day to day life.
“Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis” is a perfect example of Tom Waits' songwriting, maybe THE perfect example. The title alone sets up so much: who, what, where and when. The “why”... well, that comes later. The song (or card) describes a modestly happy life, but details keep slipping in that reveal a hard life and this is just the bravest face that she could manage to put on it. At the end of the song we get the why - an O. Henry type twist that serves as both gut-punch and punchline. And we realize that the sad story the card told was actually just a fantasy.
The story is expertly revealed, making the song hit like a ton of bricks.
www.youtube.com/watch 6 years ago
Rick Carnes
Ahhhhh... the late 70's! One of the worst times in American music. The Disco error (Mispelling intentional) was peaking as the record labels were looking for ways to make records without those pesky songwriters and their newly instiuted pay raise--thanks to the 76 copyright act (spearheaded by the SGA I hasten to add).But I digress... let's talk about songs. There were still great songs being written
but by and large only a handful were making it to mainstream radio because MTV hadn't
blown the hinges off the gates of radio yet. But during this time one of the great
country rock songwriters gave us a song that I consider to be one of the finest of
a genre of songs that is little talked about in polite society... I call it the
'F**k You' song.
Yes, that's right... the anti-love song for those who have been dumped onto the trash
heap of romance but refuse to go quietly into that dark night of the soul where you
sit on the couch in a pose I call 'still life with a phone' waiting for her to change
her mind.
Let's all admit it, we are still harboring some hard feelings for Brenda in the fifth
grade who you caught sharing her Girl Scout cookies with your best friend Seth. So
you look for THAT song that says what you could never find the right words to say.
Let me suggest the perfect song for just such an occasion. "If You Don't Want My Love"
by J.D. Souther.
I know, I know.. you have never heard of it. But then anti-love songs are not ever going
to be wildly popular with the masses. They are 'special occasion' songs tailored for that moment when you are FINALLY ready to hit delete.
Mr. Souther begins the song in a low vocal register with a very sparse accompaniment speaking, as it were, as calmly as possible to the woman who shoved a shiv thru his heart.
"If you don't want my love then the road goes on without you
Leave me just enough and I'll make a little song about you"
How very stoic of him I must say... but do you detect a tinge of bile-laced bitterness?
Me too....
"I could be standing in the rain but my heart won't break in two Not over you
If you don't my love then there's nothing I can do"
I point to the phrase 'not over YOU'.... Ahhhhhh now we are getting to the real meat
of the song. She ain't worth a tear! What a guilty pleasure it is to regain some of your
lost dignity with a well turned tune. You can just see her indignation and doubt when
she hears that line. Even though you know she is probably in Aruba on her honeymoon
and won't be hearing it anytime soon.
"If you don't my love I'll be packing up my suitcase
And no matter what you say I'm gonna find myself a new place"
Can I get an old fashion 70's "Right on Bro!" Our hero's indomitable spirit will
repel all the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
"I could be gone without as trace
But I still my love you too I'm a fool for you
If you don't my love then there's nothing I can do"
Now we hear the vocal begin to rise to a moderate wale as the stabbing pain cracks his
thin shell of hope. We knew it was too good to last didn't we? Brace yourself friend,
the bridge is coming and the waters below are choppy.
"You know my heart be slowly breaking
That old feeling comes and goes
I'd rather die than to live without you right now
But things can change you know"
Here the vocal soars up to the place where you can feel his searing pain directly... the band
kicks into overdrive and his former calm resolve turns to agonizing revelation. It is
in this moment where he bares his soul most completely that he let's her know that
although she has won the first 14 rounds on every judge's card he is STILL FREAKING STANDING.
"Things could CHANGE you know"
Your damned right they could. God I love this song!
The song tags out with this final denouement
"I use to love you like a million bucks
I guess I'll always be a fool in love
If you don't want my love well bye bye"
A final admission that he will always be a fool in love... That is what we all are
eventually if we keep our hearts open properly.
That is why that last defiant 'bye bye' is the such a perfect closer.
Bye bye to her... but not to love.
www.youtube.com/watch />
6 years ago
but by and large only a handful were making it to mainstream radio because MTV hadn't
blown the hinges off the gates of radio yet. But during this time one of the great
country rock songwriters gave us a song that I consider to be one of the finest of
a genre of songs that is little talked about in polite society... I call it the
'F**k You' song.
Yes, that's right... the anti-love song for those who have been dumped onto the trash
heap of romance but refuse to go quietly into that dark night of the soul where you
sit on the couch in a pose I call 'still life with a phone' waiting for her to change
her mind.
Let's all admit it, we are still harboring some hard feelings for Brenda in the fifth
grade who you caught sharing her Girl Scout cookies with your best friend Seth. So
you look for THAT song that says what you could never find the right words to say.
Let me suggest the perfect song for just such an occasion. "If You Don't Want My Love"
by J.D. Souther.
I know, I know.. you have never heard of it. But then anti-love songs are not ever going
to be wildly popular with the masses. They are 'special occasion' songs tailored for that moment when you are FINALLY ready to hit delete.
Mr. Souther begins the song in a low vocal register with a very sparse accompaniment speaking, as it were, as calmly as possible to the woman who shoved a shiv thru his heart.
"If you don't want my love then the road goes on without you
Leave me just enough and I'll make a little song about you"
How very stoic of him I must say... but do you detect a tinge of bile-laced bitterness?
Me too....
"I could be standing in the rain but my heart won't break in two Not over you
If you don't my love then there's nothing I can do"
I point to the phrase 'not over YOU'.... Ahhhhhh now we are getting to the real meat
of the song. She ain't worth a tear! What a guilty pleasure it is to regain some of your
lost dignity with a well turned tune. You can just see her indignation and doubt when
she hears that line. Even though you know she is probably in Aruba on her honeymoon
and won't be hearing it anytime soon.
"If you don't my love I'll be packing up my suitcase
And no matter what you say I'm gonna find myself a new place"
Can I get an old fashion 70's "Right on Bro!" Our hero's indomitable spirit will
repel all the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
"I could be gone without as trace
But I still my love you too I'm a fool for you
If you don't my love then there's nothing I can do"
Now we hear the vocal begin to rise to a moderate wale as the stabbing pain cracks his
thin shell of hope. We knew it was too good to last didn't we? Brace yourself friend,
the bridge is coming and the waters below are choppy.
"You know my heart be slowly breaking
That old feeling comes and goes
I'd rather die than to live without you right now
But things can change you know"
Here the vocal soars up to the place where you can feel his searing pain directly... the band
kicks into overdrive and his former calm resolve turns to agonizing revelation. It is
in this moment where he bares his soul most completely that he let's her know that
although she has won the first 14 rounds on every judge's card he is STILL FREAKING STANDING.
"Things could CHANGE you know"
Your damned right they could. God I love this song!
The song tags out with this final denouement
"I use to love you like a million bucks
I guess I'll always be a fool in love
If you don't want my love well bye bye"
A final admission that he will always be a fool in love... That is what we all are
eventually if we keep our hearts open properly.
That is why that last defiant 'bye bye' is the such a perfect closer.
Bye bye to her... but not to love.
www.youtube.com/watch />
John David Souther - If You Don't Want My Love
Album : You're Only Lonely (1979) -Video Upload powered by https://www.TunesToTube.com
James C. Taylor
Too, much Blondie, who cares? She's sexy. Add in the rest: the best of the 70's +
6 years ago