1,001 songs to listen to before you die...

[METALMAN]

Unfortunately what I actually think of when I think of Whiter Shade of Pale is the ending of the Boat that Rocked. It’s a not so great Bill Nighy film that is basically Love Actually on a boat in the 60s. Good tunes though.

[Liam]

250.      

‘The Snake’, Al Wilson (1968)

A narrative about a woman who took in a snake, only to be bitten as the reptile reverted to type, this is fun from the opening notes. This was a cover, but apparently turned this into more of a stomper than the original bossa nova stylings. The horns dart around excitedly, Wilson hisses his way through the narrative-cum-warning, whilst the drumming rolls incorporated a full octave kit of five drums rather than the usual five. The book speaks of how popular this was on dance floors and it isn’t hard to understand why. A complete tune.

251.      

‘Oh Happy Day’, The Edwin Hawkins Singers (1968)

The Northern California State Youth Choir needed money, so commissioned Century Record Productions to record a live performance that only saw five hundred pressings. This song was one of the outcomes as another underground radio sensation was picked up, leading to this being released as a single and the choir name changed to be named after the choir leader. The singles sold millions worldwide and earned Hawkins a Grammy. I’m giving the background to this more than talking about the song as it speaks for itself. Very few things sound better than a choir in full flow, and that is what ‘Oh Happy Day’ offered.

252.      

‘Israelites’, Desmond Dekker and the Aces (1968)

Going back to the very first song on this list, this is a song I primarily know due to its bastardisation and use for an advert. However, this does this ground breaking song a complete disservice. Going to No. 1 in the charts in the UK and No.9 in the Billboard charts, it was one of the first examples of ska/reggae crossing over into other countries as well as it charted No. 1 in West Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands as well. It spoke to the power of an engaging vocal delivery and melody – the lyrics themselves were (and still are) fairly impenetrable for non-Jamaican speakers. However, that didn’t stop the success of the song one bit.

[METALMAN]

I've never heard of the first two songs. Which is quite surprising - I expected I'd know most things on the list by this stage. They both sound good though.

I really like Israelites.

[Liam]

253.      

‘Wichita Lineman’, Glen Campbell (1968)

There is something about place that often creates a great song – Route 66, Waterloo Sunset, and many more. There is an old souled nature to this song that was surprisingly written by Jimmy Webb when he was just twenty-one. Campbell had been a guitar for hire for a while, yet this hit just as his solo career really took off. It hits feelings of longing and nostalgia all at once, whilst being eternally singable.

254.      

‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’, Marvin Gaye (1968)

Speaking of songs that are ‘singable’, Gaye’s ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’ is another member of the club. Naturally, it’d be hard to do Gaye’s work justice, but it is definitely fun to try. The fourth take on this song (not all were released), this found success after a faster version by Gladys Knight and the Pips was No. 2 in the US charts. More passionate than the Pips with a more urgent feeling, the Gaye version went to the top of the charts both sides of the Atlantic and remains a classic.

 

255.      

‘America’, Simon and Garfunkel (1968)

The second song of the three that focuses on place as its real focus, though perhaps a song with a more negative take overall. Layered instrumentation, incorporating guitar, pipe organ and jazz fills, accompany a narrative of a road trip from Saginaw to New York, one that leaves the persona ‘empty and aching’ by the end. However, the lushness of the melody throughout represents the hope of youth in a fashion that helps to create a beautiful song overall. I’ve never heard this song, but am glad I have through this project.

[GoGo Yubari]

That's an unbelievable collection of songs, there. I listened to a lot of Simon and Garfunkel a couple summers ago when I was moving through 1001 Albums at a much faster pace than I am now, and I think I've developed a better appreciation of them even if I'm not a passionate fan. "America" is definitely one of my favorites of theirs. Can't say enough about "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," just a perfect song.

"Wichita Lineman," man. I loved it the first time I heard it and now that I've worked a job that bears some similarities -- long hours in the outdoors for months, all by yourself, just you and the work and the people driving past you as you do it -- it holds a certain weight for me. Probably in my top twenty songs of all-time if I really had to sit down and nail down what those are.

[METALMAN]

Yeah those are three really good ones. America is a particular favourite for me. There's something quite timeless about it. I think it's my favourite of Paul Simon's songs, and he's written a lot of good ones.

Paul Desmond did a lovely smooth cover of it (with Herbie Hancock on e piano) that I like a lot too

 

Edited April 14, 2020 by metalman

[Skummy]

Wichita Lineman is amazing for being able to invoke everything it does, while having surprisingly few actual lyrics. It really has two verses and a variation on a chorus, and that's it. It feels like there's so much more to it than that.

America is a wonderful song, made all the more astonishing by the fact that it doesn't rhyme, at all, but loses no sense of musicality for it. 

[MalaCloudy Black]

We stan Glen Campbell. Native boy and all. 

That album (Wichita Lineman) also has a cover of "Sittin' On The Dock of the Bay" on it. I'm going to have to check that out.

[Liam]

256.      

‘Ain’t Got No; I Got Life’, Nina Simone (1968)

Influenced by: I Got a Woman • Ray Charles (1954)   

Influence on: You Remind Me • Mary J. Blige (1991)   

Covered by: Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & Trinity (1970) • Red Box (1986) • Jim Guthrie (2004) • Le Volume Courbe (2005) • Mika (2008)

A song that I always thought was greatly affirmational without really knowing the story behind it. Two songs from ‘Hair’, a musical about peace, love and freedom, smashed together during turbulent times for black people in America (Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated this year as well). What might have otherwise have been throwaway songs on the musical (having listened, they lack the punchiness of Simone’s treatment) were turned into a song that acted as somewhat more of a call to arms than the original might have been intended as. Simplistic, yet catchy.

257.      

‘Piece of my Heart’, Big Brother and the Holding Company (1968)

Influenced by: Strange Brew • Cream (1967)   

Influence on: You Had Me • Joss Stone (2004)   

Covered by: Marmalade (1968) • Dusty Springfield (1968) • Bryan Ferry (1973) • Bonnie Tyler (1977) • Etta James (1978) • Sammy Hagar (1981) • Faith Hill (1994) • Beverley Knight (2006)

A song that has been covered by everyone and their mother, meaning I’d never actually heard the this version. I can see why this one is held in such high regard (a cover itself). A standard soul version by Emma Franklin was transformed with heart wrenching delivery by Janis Joplin (a take really sung from the heart, or at least it felt so) alongside the screaming guitar sounds. This is a much more raw version of this song than I’ve ever heard before, yet it needs that to make it truly work. You should be able to feel the pain of the persona singing the song, and Joplin delivered.

258.      

‘Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud’, James Brown (1968)

During the aforementioned turbulent time for black people in America, I was not aware that the choices of James Brown hadn’t always painted him in the best light. He was criticised for performing for the U.S. Army in Vietnam for one example of his ‘transgressions’ in the eyes of some. This was a redemption song for him as much as anything; a chance to use his platform as an entertainer to show solidarity with his people. It’s James Brown – it is always going to be funky; it wasn’t always going to come with such an overt political stance.

[METALMAN]

Oh this is a bit more of an iffy set!

I should like the Nina Simone song. I should. She does a good job with it. But I just can't get that Muller Light advert from 15 or so years ago out of my head whenever I hear it and all I can think about when I listen to it is yoghurt. It really was everywhere.

Speaking of things that were big 15 years ago, there's the Beverley Knight cover of Piece of My Heart! And I've got to admit I prefer that to J Joplin's version. I just don't like her voice. It's that kind of constipated yelling at the "come on" part. I just don't enjoy that sort of thing.

The James Brown song delivers a punchy message at an important time, and that's cool. It has an excellent groove - maybe one of the best - but it's not much of a song. I still like it though: nice breakdown, with some cool guitar lacks, and I always like a call and response vocal. It's my favourite of the three here.

Edited April 15, 2020 by metalman

[MalaCloudy Black]

When we went to Florida for vacation when I was 16, my dad bought a James Brown best-of CD at the Virgin Records store. It really surprised me considering how virulently racist he was (still is) at the time. Here's this guy who only refers to ethnicities with slurs and he's listening to James Brown?!

[Liam]

259.      

‘Hard To Handle’, Otis Redding (1968)

One of the last songs recorded by Redding before his premature death (indeed, this was released after the plane crash that killed him), this ended up coming from the same album that included ‘Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay’. This song seems to have been chosen due to it being proof that he was still able to put out a banging R&B tune even at a point where people were querying as to whether that was going to be his direction going forward. An up tempo song that was very openly about getting his freak on, it is one that didn’t leave much of an impression with me outside of it being a decent song. It came, it existed, it went.

260.      

‘A Minha Menina’, Os Mutantes (1968)

One of the more eye opening pieces of music in the 60s selections so far, primarily because it is a song from a band I’ve never heard of and sounds unlike anything I’ve ever heard before. A mix of psychedelia, bossa nova and samba, all mixed up with a desire to write pop songs, led to Os Mutantes, brothers Arnaldo and Sérgio Dias Baptista and singer Rita Lee. From the moment the fuzzy electric guitar comes in, this gripped me, and the whole upbeat tone and just overall liveliness of it all is wild. A band who went on to inspire David Byrne and Beck, so influential as well as catchy.

261.      

‘Sympathy for the Devil’, The Rolling Stones (1968)

I’ve never been a huge Rolling Stones fan, but I feel like I know a decent song when I hear one. This is good, irrelevant of my apathy to a lot of the group’s output. Such open references to the Devil were always going to cause an uproar at this point in time and it all just added to this creation of the bad boy image that became the norm in heavy rock over the decades to come. Underneath all of this shock and awe though is a really catchy song. Originally a ballad, the dark samba rhythm (so the book calls it) was suggested by Keith Richards and just drives the song forward in a hypnotic fashion.

[MalaCloudy Black]

I'm more familiar with the Black Crowes cover of "Hard To Handle" but that original by Redding is sooo good.

[Skummy]

I love A Minha Menina, and never thought it would end up on this list!

I first became aware of it when The Bees covered it in the early '00s, and incredibly it used to get fairly regular Radio 1 airplay at the time. It's pretty clear the band don't speak Portuguese, and just covered the lyrics by sound. I enjoyed it whenever it came on, but never knew the title, or ever really looked further into it.

Fast-forward a few years, and it shows up on a jukebox in the first pub I'd consider my local. I would put it on every single time I was in there, and just loved it. I discovered it was an Os Mutantes cover, and downloaded a few more of their tracks, though with no real understanding of context, what album they were form, where they fit in any kind of sequence or whatever. I liked some, disliked others, and didn't think much about them beyond that. 

A year or two later, turns out my then-girlfriend was a huge Os Mutantes fan, and we actually ended up seeing them live in 2008, and meeting Sergio Dias. Phenomenal live act, and a discography well worth looking into - though A Minha Menina will always remain my favourite.

[Malenko]

The Slackers also cover A Minha menina. Vic Ruggiero said he didn't know a word of Portuguese when he heard the song for the first time but that was still the first album he really loved in his life. 

[METALMAN]

Otis Redding had a lot of good songs. Hard to Handle is good but I don't think it's anything special.

my Brazilian flatmate is always listening to Os Mutantes. She likes that sort of thing, has showed me a few contemporary bands that do the same thing. Good tunes though, that one's probably their best.

Sympathy for the Devil is good but I think I prefer various live versions. The Keith Richards guitar solo on the original is a bit shit.

Edited April 17, 2020 by metalman

[Liam]

262.      

‘Pressure Drop’, Toots and the Maytals (1968)

Frederick ‘Toots’ Hibbert left prison after eighteen months for alleged marijuana possession and entered the studio to record the biggest album of his career. One that saw success on an international scale, the mix of Hibberts’ strong, uplifting vocals and a danceable ‘skank’ underneath it all make it a song that is hard not to groove along to in some capacity. Honestly, try not to move about listening to this song – it is almost impossible.

263.      

 

‘Cyprus Avenue’, Van Morrison (1968)

Another song that aims to evoke feelings associated with a specific place (though the road in Belfast was actually ‘Cypress Avenue’), there is something elegiac in the way this song sounds. Somewhat stream of consciousness in nature, it drifts along as Morrison talks about railroads, beauties in carriages and lonely train drivers. Morrison’s impassioned vocal delivery I think is one upon which your mileage may vary, but I personally like it. Apparently, this became a fixture of his live shows, though it involved the song shifting genres as it spiralled to a longer running time than the original.

264.      

‘Hey Jude’, The Beatles (1968)

Influenced by: Somewhere to Lay My Head • The Sensational Nightingales (1954)   

Influence on: Do You Realize?? • The Flaming Lips (2002)   

Covered by: Wilson Pickett (1968) • Ella Fitzgerald (1969) • Grateful Dead (1969)

A song conceived by Paul McCartney as a balm to support Julian Lennon as his parents were getting a divorce, it is hard to dislike ‘Hey Jude’. Yes, it is long, and yes, the last bit goes on for a ridiculous amount of time, but it is another slice of pop that just feels timeless from the Beatles. It is also another song by them that I just didn’t realise how much went into making – a thirty six piece orchestra worked on the recording, with Lennon trying his best to get them to join in on the clapping and singing on the almost four minute long coda.

Edited April 18, 2020 by Liam

[Bobfoc]

You've got the same video twice there.

Hey Jude is a song that shouldn't work, but it does. It's one of the most popular singalong songs ever. I couldn't listen to it multiple times back-to-back, but it's a pleasant thing to hear every now and then.

[Malenko]

I understand it's not for everyone but I love toots and the maytals. A rare event in the 60s for me!

[METALMAN]

These are all good. Astral Weeks is a nice album and I like Cyprus Avenue as part of that.

Hey Jude is a bit of a cliche with the way McCartney wheels it out whenever there's a big event, but they aren't many songs that work better for the massive crowd interaction thing.