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


Liam

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295.      

‘Layla’, Derek and the Dominoes (1970)

Influenced by: As the Years Go Passing By • Albert King (1967)   

Influence on: Motherless Children • Eric Clapton (1974)   

Covered by: Herbie Mann (1974) • John Fahey (1984) • Henri Salvador (1994) • Bobby Broom (2001)

I don’t really know too much about Eric Clapton himself, but Derek and the Dominoes was apparently a move to remove his name from prominence in order to take some of the pressure he had felt in other ‘supergroups’ off. Written for Pattie Boyd, George Harrison’s wife at the time, it was a song of unrequited love based off of a 12th Century Persian poem – yep, there is a lot going on here. The wail of the guitar is instantly recognisable and lodges itself into your head, as does the wailing vocals of a man who can’t have the woman he wants and is torn apart by it. Boyd did end up with Clapton, though their marriage, likes her to Harrison, ended in divorce. The four minute piano ending was added afterwards, which is pretty much why it does feel like a different song: because it was, though the guitar alongside does tie it in nicely and builds to a satisfactory conclusion.

296.      

‘War Pigs’, Black Sabbath (1970)

Perhaps I should be more ashamed of this – I really don’t know – but I knew this song firstly from the Faith No More cover, which isn’t horrific, but is nowhere near as good as the original. With toned down lyrics to try and avoid more links to demon worship, the song more fit an anti-Vietnam tone (though it was designed to just be anti-war in general). The air sirens set the tone for this, and the album as a whole, and it is the lurching nature of this that I love, as well as the groovy guitar bursts supporting Osbourne’s distinctive vocals. Room is left for some awesome soloing by Tony Iommi and every second of the seven minutes feels used to its fullest, especially the epic sounding closing couple of minutes.

297.      

‘When The Revolution Comes’, The Last Poets (1970)

This sounds powerful even four decades down the line. Three urban poets with links to the Blank Panther movement took aim at black people who were too apathetic to stand up and rail against the behaviour of those in power. The aggression that comes from just three voices and insistent percussion is impressive. This is an interesting take on ‘political’ music as it chooses to take a pop at those who aren’t willing to get involved. If you can excuse me putting on my English teacher’s hat, there is an element of Blake’s ‘London’, where the poet talks about the ‘mind-forg’d manacles’ that stopped people breaking out against the corruptness of the government. The Last Poets seem to feel similarly, perhaps realising that even if they can’t do much against those in power, they can at least mobilise more people in their daily fight.

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I recently got Spotify Premium again and have been on a Sabbath kick. There is a compilation album on there called something like "Black Sabbath ~ The Full Discography 1970 - [year I forget]" and it's been in heavy rotation. 

Also, their "The End" concert was pretty good. Kind of stinky that Bill Ward wasn't on drums, but..

Also, aren't the Last Poets considered a pretty big influence on hip-hop?

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Cream are a great band, Derek and the Dominoes are a pretty good band (although Duane Allman is obvs better than Clapton) and everything else Clapton did is dire and boring, really. Layla is a really good song, even if Clapton does sing a bit like he's on the toilet.

War Pigs is brilliant. Black Sabbath's best song. It's big and daft and so much fun.

Last Poets are one of those that I've been meaning to get round to listening to for a while.

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Probably 900% my favorite Sabbath song

EDIT: Also I can't remember if it's the video of "Paranoid" or "War Pigs" from The End, but there's a guy pointing and crying in the crowd and it's like, damn, tag yourself, I'm "guy crying because he's seeing Sabbath live at their last gig".

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39 minutes ago, How The Cloud Stole Christ said:

Also, aren't the Last Poets considered a pretty big influence on hip-hop?

They get mentioned a lot as precursors to hip-hop, and I think were namechecked a lot in the early '80s. How much of that was them actually being an influence on the musicians involved, rather than people creating connections after the fact, I don't really know. 

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I know they were something of an influence on Common. I remember on his 2005 album they were on one of his songs, alongside Kanye.

 

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Black Sabbath,  fuck yeah. I love them, everybody loves them. They and probably Motorhead are about the only hard rock band that punks, metal heads, grunge types, glam rockers, etc etc all agree are awesome (its something you can put on at a party and nobody is saying "ah fuck, Sabbath?). Sabbath is probably many of our first introduction to what rock and roll was all about. 

Great musicians as well.

Here's a great live version of War Pigs.

 

I like the song Layla also, cool song (probably many of us associate it with Goodfellas).

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This song is usually what I reply with when people ask for my favourite. It just gets more relevant the older I get. I once did vocals for a band and suggested doing this song - the drummer promptly quit the band.

And yes, it's 18 minutes long.





EDIT:

A new version! Interesting, but easy to drown out the orchestra.

 

Edited by The Kraig
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298.      

‘Band of Gold’, Freda Payne (1970)

Freda Payne had limited success with some jazz records in the 60s, but her turn to pop in the 70s brought her her biggest hits. An odd song lyrically as a married couple split on their honeymoon for no defined reason, yet Payne makes it sound very much like someone had done her wrong. The strings do a beautiful job of accompanying her voice, moving in harmony with it in a way that the relationship being sung about clearly didn’t. I can imagine that when this song was written, the team behind it felt they had a surefire hit if they picked the right person, and Payne makes it work.

299.      

‘Love The One You’re With’, Stephen Stills (1970)

There is something almost 80s/90s about this song – I dunno, something Mike and The Mechanics/late Billy Joel about it. Perhaps that is doing this cut from Stephen Stills a disservice, but it just has the vibe for me personally. This also makes good use of the wall of sound stylings, incorporating harmonising vocals in an effective fashion as the song builds towards the tail end, whilst the organ does most of the work throughout. It is a decent song, if one that doesn’t excite me the way some do on the list.

300.      

‘Fire and Rain’, James Taylor

Based on Taylor’s real life struggles with heroin and the suicide of a friend of his, Taylor’s song reached No.3 in the Billboard charts. In terms of my own critique, nothing works better than this quote from the book itself: “‘Fire and Rain’ is undoubtedly a great song,” mused the record’s producer, Peter Asher, twenty-eight years later, “but I’d be hard pressed to say what about it is unusual or which bit of the song is exceptional. The whole thing is.” It just is a really good song, without anything east to pinpoint. Perhaps it’s the simplicity of the instrumentation, Taylor’s clarity in his vocal delivery, or his open lyrics. Whatever it is, it worked.

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Band of Gold is really good.

I think I get what you mean about the Stephen Stills one. I really like the song, but the version I usually listen to is the one off Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young live album Four Way Street from 1971. It's way better. The original lacks a bit of energy.

Fire and Rain is an incredible song, James Taylor is a brilliant and extremely underrated songwriter. Sweet Baby James (the album it comes from) is one of the best.

Edited by metalman
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301.      

‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’, Diana Ross

Having been primed for stardom over the course of her tenure in the Supremes, this was Diana Ross’ second attempt to break out as a solo artist after her first single crashed and burned somewhat. Originally a song by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terell which had been a more straightforward take, the version with Ross at the helm added an introductory mix of harmony and instrumentation that meant the song came in at longer than six minutes. I can only assume there was a single version that trimmed off some of the flabbier bits though the build to the chorus is particularly effective. Ross’ voice is without reproach really and you can see why she was singled out for solo stardom, even this early in her career. It is all about the last minute and a half though, if I’m being completely honest.

302.      

‘Black Night’, Deep Purple (1970)

Influenced by: On the Road Again • Canned Heat (1968)

Influence on: Woman • Wolfmother (2005)   

Covered by: Bad Manners (1997) • Deicide (2006) • Pat Travers (2006) • Twilight Guardians (2007)   

Other key track: Smoke on the Water (1972)

I’m assuming the use of ‘Other Key Track’ in the book tells us that ‘Smoke on the Water’ may not even make the list, which is interesting. A song released as a single to promote an album that the song wasn’t even on makes this an interesting selection, as does the use of the organ in a manner that added a weightiness that the book claims was another stepping stone pushing heavy rock towards further…well, heaviness. The central guitar work by Ritchie Blackmore is the star of what is otherwise a pretty perfunctory song, driving everything along with gusto and swagger.

303.      

‘War’, Edwin Starr (1970)

Influenced by: Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World Is Today) • The Temptations (1970)   

Influence on: What’s Going On • Marvin Gaye (1971)   

Covered by: D.O.A. (1982) • Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band (1986) • Laibach (1994) • Joan Osborne (2002) • Gilbert Montagné (2006)

A song that pretty much everyone knows, yet also one that I’m not entirely sure I’ve ever heard the whole way through. Given to Starr when it was decided that it might hurt the career of the Temptations, who it was originally written for. Anti-war sentiment was understandably prevalent and Starr did his best James Brown impersonation over a catchy tune that provided a chantable chorus that made it timeless in its message. There are better songs on this list, but there are few that will be as well known, even if just for the main lyric.

Edited by Liam
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Diana Ross is one of my favourite vocalists ever. She doesn't have a huge voice, like Aretha Franklin or anything, but she is also never tempted to oversing. She's great in this one, I definitely prefer this to the Marvin Gaye & Tami Terrell version (although that's good too). Hopefully she'll be back in this book towards the end of the 70s when she went disco.

I forgot what a good song Black Night is. It lollops along, it's a lot of fun.

And yeah, apart from the chorus, War is...eh... it's okay. Cool fuzzy guitar I guess - sounds kind of like Funkadelic. Maybe I prefer the Temptations version. I'm not sure.

 

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53 minutes ago, metalman said:

I forgot what a good song Black Night is. It lollops along, it's a lot of fun.

It's also the second song so far that has overlooked Vic Reeves in the covers list.

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13 hours ago, How The Cloud Stole Christ said:

The fuck, LAIBACH covered War?

they did. They answer the question "War, what is it good for?" by listing industries and corporations that war is, indeed, good for.

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