Davey Moore

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

__________________
The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.

Bulldog

Ha! I literally posted something like this in my journal just before I saw this. How odd.

Looking forward to seeing how this pans out...

Davey Moore

Five Great Songs, or My Five Favorite:

1. Debaser by the Pixies(1989)

It's funny, if this entire album had done to me what its opening song did, I would call it the greatest album of all time. Instead, I'm calling it the greatest song I've ever heard. It rockets forward at one hundred feet per second, throwing ideas and melodies at you in trademark Pixies style. The chorus is simply genius, with an inspired lyrical emphasis. This song takes single words and little phrases and proceeds to drill them into your skull. The part that really embeds itself into my brain is the oft repeated line “I-am-UN. CHIEN. ANDALUSIA-I-am-UN.” It's ingenious, combining Spanish and English with such a unique lyrical emphasis, with zero pauses between words that should have pauses, and pauses where they shouldn't be. That is the key thing here. Emphasis and cadence. This song simply defines it. Listen to Frank's voice on the album version and you'll hear what I'm saying.

Another aspect is the impeccable intertwining of the vocals and the guitar. Listen as he screams 'debaser!' and the guitar slows down, descending, carefully plotting where to go next, then exploding again. In my mind you wont find a song filled with more energy and explosiveness. It's one of those songs that puts the Pixies in cahoots with legendary experimentalists such as Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali, the creators of the film 'Un Chien Andalou', a short surrealist and experimental film made in 1929, that famously opens with a shot of a woman's eyeball being sliced. Like Bunuel, the greatest filmmaker ever to come from Spain, The Pixies broke down musical vocabulary and rebuilt it in their own image. Like Dali and Bunuel, they were debasers.

I personally would love to be a debaser. In a way, it's a tribute to all the underground and outcast artists out there.

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

2. 4+20 by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young(1970)

A song drenched in utter depression and desperation. The saddest song I've ever heard. A song that instantly evokes memory. I first heard this song while on acid, and I nearly wept. It resonated so perfectly with the complex and way-too-deep-to-get-into-at-this-moment things that were happening around me. I felt like the eye of a hurricane that night. I realized that relationships and people were collapsing and being pulled apart all around me, and this is a song I cling to in dark time. Stephen Stills wrote two monster relationship songs, this and Suite Judy Blue Eyes. CSNY don't have the consistency that The Beatles had, but at their best, they're hard to beat. And this is them at their best: a soft-spoken anthem devoted to regret, short, with an acoustic guitar and Stephen Stills singing sadly, and poetic lyrics. An absolute killer of a song.

YouTube - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - 4 + 20

3. A Day in the Life by The Beatles(1967)

A song that is somehow mundane and touching, it guides us along with a distant vocal by Lennon, as if there were barriers between him and the listener(there always were). This song is the most distinctly co-written song by The Beatles as well, with John's narco-prophetics, waxing poetic about the inanity all around him, turning it into tragedy, perhaps due to his lack of feeling, lack of connection? And Paul's interlude, creating a distinct counter-point, a personal anecdote instead of reciting news items and small observations, yet very personal. But each portion of the song is connected by their inane surface lyrics, with deep emotional resonance beneath. This is their most successful experiment. There never was a song like this in the Western pop lexicon. It's surreal, the sounds are carried away by dream, by memory and flights of fancy. The long building up of the orchestra is juxtaposed with the free floating, tension-free rest of the song, and it ends with a definitive piano chord that lasts and lasts and lasts.

It's a perfect day.

YouTube - The Beatles- A day In The Life

4. Motion Picture Soundtrack by Radiohead(2000)

I tend to be affected most by songs that cut into me and immediately convey desperation, sadness and longing. This song does all three with the first chord. It's really the only ending that Kid A could have had. The lyrics are blunt and effective, sung in such as way as to MAKE them poetic. Thom Yorke uses lyrics as a canvas sometimes, an empty space to convey emotion by tone, rather than the merits of the words themselves: “Red wine/And sleeping pills/Help me get back to your arms/Cheap sex/And sad films/Help me get where I belong/I think you're crazy/Maybe/I think you're crazy.” It's a dirge, penetrating the air and injecting it with a heaviness of the soul. The kind of song I could envision being played at my funeral. Strangely, a faint glimmer of hope shimmers behind the heaviness, courtesy of the harps. Is it fake, a false hope? If I know Kid A, probably.

YouTube - Radiohead ~ Motion Picture Soundtrack

5. Snow Song Pt. 1(Live) by Neutral Milk Hotel(1998)

A left field choice, a lot of people haven't heard this I suspect, but it's a must-listen and see for anyone who likes Neutral Milk Hotel. It's a cruel sort of cosmic happening that the best thing this band ever did was a one time live song, a reinterpretation of a so-so song from their catalog off the Everything Is EP. It slithers forward like a psychedelic march and dirge all in one. The lyrics and the way they're sang is haunting, watch the video and see the look in Mangum's eyes as he sings: “Cindy smiles in overcoats. She says 'Please stay a while like ice-cream floats and dreams, and I will fill your heart with boats and bells and beams and candy-apple ev...erythings. Bells and beams and candy-apple eve...erythingsss.' Cindy skips my trampoline. With horns and bells and bouncing things. Even the most silent...must sing a song of love. Even the silent they must sing a song...of loveee”

Listen to the initial guitar chords, they sound so unreal, it's like they're dancing. The way the horns inch their way into your consciousness is superb. The slight cry of the singing saw, then the conflagration of the last section of the song. It's Neutral Milk Hotel at their best in terms of a cohesive band(this is live remember), with a killer rhythm and a performance saturated with heart and emotion. For a band that came and went in the blink of an eye, leaving an indelible impression on the indie music scene, this is their best work, and my favorite. It just goes to show that many of their best things weren't ever on an album.

YouTube - Neutral Milk Hotel - Snow Song Pt. 1

__________________
The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.

Davey Moore

Five Great Drug Songs, or Five Songs to Listen to While High:

1. Heroin by The Velvet Underground(1967)

An act of hypnotism, plain and simple, with no deeper or loftier ways to describe it. A sonic trance. Complete pleasure inside dank rat infested rooms. That's the image conjured by the drug, at least. For me it was a college dorm room. This really is the best song to listen to on heroin, by the way. The few times I've done it are enough for me, though. Heroin works too well. It's the perfect drug, and you really can fall in love with it after one use. Addicted even. Maybe not once, but it's awfully f*cking enticing. Nobody writes drug songs quite like Lou Reed, who in his best works can be classified as the coolest f*cking guy in music behind Bob Dylan circa 66 all hopped up on uppers. A hipness flows from him that is unbelievable from a white guy. The Velvet Underground from the start were the kind of band that writers and artists love. Everything is perfect, from their name, their attitude and their dress. The Velvet Underground are the pinnacle of the darker, New York focused, anti-hippie, counter-culture art scene in the 60s. Which was an infinitely cooler scene than the hippies, by the way. After the Velvet Underground, I feel like rock was allowed to be serious, edgy and artistic in ways unimaginable. Many bands owe a debt to them.

YouTube - The Velvet Underground - Heroin (song only)

2. Vitamin C by Can(1972)

Hey you! A song with amazing rhythm, it sounds like nothing I've heard, and I doubt I'll hear anything like it again, from anybody. Can were that sort of band. Shockingly original and experimental, with a funky beat that simmers and crawls, and shoots in unexpected directions. This might be a German band, and lyric sites claim this is in English, and I'll trust that, but the words are barely comprehensible, yet Damo's singing during the verses, sounds like his voice is half-mumbling, half-prancing along with the rhythm. He sounds like a man possessed, not with any emotional fervor, but with an overwhelming coolness. His shouts are desperate somehow, and what can I say, you can dance to the thing too, which says a lot for such an original song.

YouTube - CAN - Vitamin C

3. Ramble on Rose by The Grateful Dead(Live 70s Versions)

This is me and my friends' favorite drinking song. Something about it is so groovy, so hip, it's really quite irresistible. It could even make a K-holed man dance. Okay, probably not. There was a time where I wouldn't listen to anything by the Dead, even though I hadn't heard a single thing by them, and I really don't know why, but in college that changed. This wasn't the song that converted me, but it's a song that'll make me stay on their side. A toast, to the Dead.

YouTube - Grateful Dead - Ramble On Rose

4. Catch the Wind(alternate version) by Donovan(1969)

Oh, what a different song this is from the original. What's so deceptive and brilliant about this song is it's ultimately about futility, which is something every druggie knows. It's never as great as it seems to be. There's always something out there, something that if you just had it, everything would be amazing. Look at these lyrics from the perspective of an addict or a scorned lover, which are very similar things in my eyes, and you'll see what a sad song this is. And this version builds to an amazing, emotional climax. To try and explain how great this version is... ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind.

YouTube - Donovan - Catch The Wind (mellow version)

5. The State I Am In by Belle and Sebastian(1996)

There's something to be said for a song where it's greatest strength is how amazingly the beat and music contrast with the vocals, which stay static and constant in tone and mood. Simply put, this song has an amazing flow. The vocals couldn't be bothered to change, and they become an island of calm as the band becomes more and more frantic. It's paced like a trip, an immaculate sense of coming up, and trying to stay calm because you know you're coming up and you don't want to freak out, the vocals are the anchors, like an inner monologue, and music is the madman, freaking out and spiraling and constantly building tension. And it comes and goes pretty quickly as well. Many were the times when I listened to this, in the dead of night, with a friend as we toked.

YouTube - The State That I Am In - Belle & Sebastian

__________________
The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.

debaserr

nice effort and i like the idea of singling out songs. hopefully this heightens the chances that all that you write about will be heard.

__________________
Last.FM

Davey Moore

Five Great Songs from Five Different Decades

1. These Days(written by Jackson Browne) by Nico(1967)

There's something haunting about Nico and her voice, which makes amazing songs transcend into heavenly bliss. It's not like she's the greatest singer. But something about her, the longing, the sense of infinite womanly knowledge, like she's the incarnation of the modern lonely woman. Warhol made Nico into a beautiful image, an ideal, and as such there's something ethereal and unreachable about her. Jackson Browne wrote this when he was sixteen. That's awfully impressive. The lyrics are poetic, yet simple and brutally honest. The guitars are sublime. It's one of those immaculately conceived and executed ideas of a song. Every touch, every sound inside the track is perfect. The whole of this song is greater than the sum of its parts. One of my favorite songs from the 60s.

YouTube - These Days - Nico


2. Let It Loose by The Rolling Stones(1972)

Structurally, it's not very Rolling Stones, rambling, quietly building to an irrepressible climax, a patient song that yields deep rewards. The layers peel back. This is Mick Jagger with his best vocals. It's their stab at a gospel hymn, part of the downswing in Exile, a keystone in a group of songs of a radically different tone than their preceding tracks. It's so much more than a gospel song though. For me, it's a song of immense emotional power. Notice that I say emotional power, because it can make me feel any sort of emotion, depending on the mood, and make it powerful. The wailing of the choir in the background can be either great triumph, or a deep sorrow. It's the beautiful chameleon in my mind. I have no doubt that this is the best Rolling Stones song. Usually I'm more open minded, but I will not be swayed from the fact that 'Let It Loose' is the king of the Stones' catalog. The guitar, particularly, has some weird, drowned effect on it. The brass, the piano, the choir, the drums, it's all perfect. It's the song of a scorned lover and a song of seemingly effortless heart wrench, and that's special.

YouTube - The Rolling Stones - Let It Loose


3. Redemption Song by Bob Marley(1980)

It really makes me want to cry. He should be in the pantheon, but not like this. Not like this. Dug by d*uchebag frat boys clearing bongs, beer and bikini posters on their walls, thinking they're hot sh*t, and soon they'll be investment bankers, taking a trip once in a while to some isle in the Caribbean, perhaps Jamaica, and they'll be served their Pina Colada by the oppressed. I shouldn't be approached by some girl in the supermarket who I know for a fact gets Oxycontin in the mail and I know for a fact she lives in a trailer and will f*ck anything that moves, I shouldn't be approached when I have a quote from this song on my back(my T-shirt), “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds”, and I shouldn't be asked “Hey I just got the 80s in the mail, you want a few? Oh, awesome shirt by the way, I'm totally into Bob.”

I hate all of that, and in many more ways than just this, I hate myself too, because I'm one of those cliches, the self-righteous, radical leftist suburban white boy who thinks he's cool and hip and 'down' and totally f*cking Twenty First century, right? But I'm a hypocrite, and so are most of you, that's what makes us human, we have flaws and we contradict ourselves, and I really wonder why hypocrite is such a bad word if most of us are one. Hypocrisy? Marley was a fool who bought into the naïve sentiments of universal peace, and I'm a fool too for thinking I know better than to buy into that dream, but he was a poet and I'm not, so that's where we're at.

Redemption Song is the epitaph.

YouTube - Bob Marley - Redemption song

4. In the Garage by Weezer(1994)

I thought I'd shift moods, with a sunnier song, a classic off the Blue Album. An amazingly nostalgic song about the delights of being a secluded nerd, because if there weren't any upsides, why would anyone be one? Light yet heavy, it's a happy sing along that makes you sigh and remember high school, even if you weren't a nerd, but hits home for some of us, with your dungeon master's guide and your KISS poster on the wall. I don't worry about the specifics, I never did those things, but I did other equally nerdy things. Speaking of nerdiness, doesn't the beginning remind you of Ocarina of Time? I can see Link standing there in Hyrule Field, playing that little ditty at the beginning. The Blue Album was an amazing happening in 90s music, and it's something Weezer will never be able to replicate, I think, but that's okay, because few other bands have ever perfectly captured the zeitgeist of their time. The Blue Album is a time capsule of sorts, for the decade of my childhood, the 90s. It totally rocks and is totally nerdy, self-conscious, never self-indulgent and not caring if anyone doesn't dislikes it, but still knowing very few will dislike it.

YouTube - Weezer - In the Garage [Lyrics]

5. Peacebone by Animal Collective(2007)

It may not be their most popular or acclaimed song, but to me, it's everything that makes Animal Collective light years ahead of everything else these days. Each and every one of them are sorcerers. I will never know how they make electronic music sound so natural and organic. It isn't electronic music really, it's the mad sounds I heard in my head when the first couple of times I got stoned, it taps into some hidden vein in the subconscious and brings it out in a frantic and manic fashion. It's an interesting mix of comprehensible and incomprehensible. The words seem to have no basis in sense or logic, but they're still understandable. The song really says it all: 'Its not my words that you should follow, it's your insides.' The chorus and verses are equally catchy, and I absolutely adore the vocals. That's another standout with this band, something I can't quantify or put into proper words, but I really like the sound of their voices. I like the jumping of octaves and the unorthodox things that happen, they might break out into a shriek or start harmonizing beautifully. It's a song of unexplainable joy, and I simply adore it.

YouTube - Animal Collective - Peacebone

__________________
The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.

Davey Moore

Five Great and Bitter Songs

1. Intervention by Arcade Fire(2007)

A lot of interpretations pin this as a political piece, an anti-war song. They're probably right. But to me, it's intensely personal. There are different types of wars, including interpersonal. I'd like to think of this song as the chronicling of the black sheep of the family. It's a stretch, but I see symbolism in the lyrics many people take as literal('The King's taken back the throne'), and take literally many might take as symbolic. 'When they say they're cuttin' off the phone, I'll tell 'em you're not home.'

Some of my favorite lyrical turns are in this song ('Oh, who's gonna reset the bone?'), not because they're poetic, but because they're sung with such feeling. 'I know no matter what you say, there are some debts you'll never pay' is a great line, something so obvious, and so true. In our Western culture, redemption is a large theme, especially in the Abrahamic religions, but I think this song is anti-redemption. And that's an interesting stance. Sometimes, there's nothing you CAN do to make up for a situation. Bridges will forever be burned.

Maybe I like to see this song as personal rather than political because it fits with why Arcade Fire are so powerful to me, their songs are universal, communal, and powerful because they sound so personal. They deal with family and the relationships that people really care about. I mean, I care more about people in my family and friends and the struggles and little battles they go through, than some war in a foreign land. Unless a family member was involved. If Funeral was an uplifting album, a catharsis, than Neon Bible is an album of indictment and bitterness. And Intervention is it's thematic foundation. It's an amazing song from my favorite band of the 21st century.

YouTube - Arcade Fire - Intervention


2. No Children by The Mountain Goats(2002)

And the winner for most bitter and angry song goes to The Mountain Goats, in a song that's really surprising the first time you hear it. The lyrics are brutal, said from a place of pain, the singer is lashing out and instead of turning pain into sadness, turning it into anger, into 'f*ck you, I can't leave you but I hate you.' It's fast and concise. There are no mysteries in these lyrics, just bile.

The fact that it's so honest and so to the point, make it extremely poetic. The poetry of angry, bitter pain has never been done so well and has never been so easy to understand and relate to. It's rare that a song can be the angriest thing I've ever heard simply by the words themselves, not the delivery, not the pacing or the melody of the song, but the lyrics on their own terms. I mean, I can't think of a metal or punk song that's more brutal than what is said here. The content isn't graphic, but it's so hateful, so full of despair. And that's a rare feat.

YouTube - The Mountain Goats - No Children


3. Train in Vain by The Clash(1979)

Another song in the spirit of a scorned lover. The Clash didn't do a lot of songs like this, but they pull it off with flying colors. The song is bitter yet apologetic at the same time. This is a lover on the losing end of a break-up speech, feeling wronged but still holding onto the faint hope of getting the other person back. It's an interesting dynamic, because it goes from, 'without your love, I won't make it through', to the pissed off sounding 'You didn't stand by me. No not at all. You didn't stand be me. No way.' It switches from bitterness to 'I'm so sorry, please love me', which is so much more realistic. There's anger, but also sadness, confusion and pleading.

YouTube - train in vain the clash


4. These Boots are Made for Walkin' by Nancy Sinatra(1966)

Hell hath no fury. But this is a cold, dormant anger that lies beneath the surface of this song, with it's descending bass and guitar that sounds like it's taking a little stroll down the street. It's almost more of a warning, that whoever this guy is, he's messing around where he shouldn't be messing, and that sh*t won't fly around Nancy, and unless this guy shapes up, he better be prepared for the pointed toes of her leather boots to be acquainted with his face(also, c'mon Nancy, you're too good for this guy! Look at this picture of her back in the day. Gorgeous and talented.)



YouTube - These Boots Are Made For Walking


5. Common People by Pulp(1995)

So, you wanna live like common people, do you? You stuck up bitch(even if you are pretty much offering to have sex with me in the most obvious possible fashion) It's not something you can pretend to be. You either are, or you aren't. Have or have not. This songs seethes with justifiable rage, and it sort of is infuriating when rich people complain about the boredom and doldrums they encounter, and wish they could have the same lust for life that the 'common' people have, who seem to be enjoying life so fully. They may be, but only because their opportunities are so much more limited, yadda yadda. Listen to the song. Pulp explains it pretty well. I mean, you just gotta dance and drink and screw, because what else is there to do? They can't ride horses, go to college, travel, and all that. You'll never live like common people. Bitch.

YouTube - Pulp -- Common People

__________________
The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.

Exeggcute :3

Redemption Song is an amazing song. So umm nice speal about it, it's not really my kind of way of looking at it though. I'm more of a "**** it, it's a good song" kind of guy. I don't think I'd suggest I'm "totally into Bob" though.

__________________
Hi :)

Davey Moore

Five Great Bob Dylan Performances from the Newport Folk Festival That My Grandmother Saw Live

Note: I recommend you watch these videos ASAP, they might get pulled off Youtube. Dylan videos have been hard to find there, lately.

Note 2: I'd really appreciate some more feedback too. Is this a good idea for a thread? How's my writing like these days? Am I too pretentious or is it tolerable

The Newport Folk Festival in the early to mid sixties, were the only cultural happenings of any note to happen in my tiny state of Rhode Island. And, in the early to mid-sixties, my grandmother was a music devotee who went to Newport every festival, from when it started in 59 to about 67. And in that time span she saw, confirmed by her, Dylan the entire time he was on stage at a particular moment, because she was(and still is) a really big fan.

And I'm of the opinion that Dylan's initial performances at Newport were electrifying, and flipped folk on it's head. And everyone there realized it, felt ecstatic and went along into the depths of his brilliant songs.

1. Talkin' World War Three Blues

If Bob Dylan wasn't a gripping live performer in his early days, I don't think he would have became so popular so quickly if he was just a brilliant song writer. See, without having a great voice, he resorted to other tools to reel the audience in. His voice projected brilliantly, with utter clarity, voice filled with a determination, an authenticity present that was missing from the vast majority of singers. The media weren't exaggerating when they called him the voice of a generation. In the early days, with that acoustic guitar, he sounded like the perfect representative of everything young people stood for. He bounced up and down, he would laugh, he had great banter with his audience. Allen Ginsberg commented on his excellent use of breath, and compared it to a shaman chanting their incantations. This song and performance are a perfect example of the whole 'Voice of a Generation' claim. He's joking, enticing in his movement and expressions, poetic, and utterly profound at the end of the song, and then chuckles. Basically, he's a master angler, reeling the audience in, making it seem effortless.

YouTube - Bob Dylan Newport part 3

2. Like a Rolling Stone

Nobody has ever done a better 'f*ck you' to a reactionary crowd of stuck up folkies who would be extremely slow to realize that the electric stuff Dylan was writing was absolutely changing Rock and Roll, shattering it and remaking it in his own image. What they never realized was that Dylan was larger than genre, and that folk was too small to hold him. His songwriting was bigger, more ambitious, exploring territories uncharted in terms of subject matter. They didn't realize that Dylan wasn't a political mouth piece whose job it was to spout leftist anthems they could rally behind. After all, in Dylan's words, those are finger pointing songs, and he's only got ten fingers. I love it when he yells 'How does it feeeeel? How does it feeeel? To be on your own' at the crowd, and for a while they stop their booing, as they realize that Dylan is essentially telling them to kiss his ass. They would've booed louder, but the song was pretty groovy, though they'd never admit that, rock and roll was juvenile and shallow! Only buffoons saw real value in it! So they'd boo after. They're polite like that.

YouTube - LikeaRollinstone(newport.mp4


3. Blowing in the Wind

In the video, skip ahead to 3:55 past Only a Pawn in Their Game,(actually that's a pretty good version too, if you wanna watch both) for the best rendition of Blowin' In The Wind. The background singers, a legendary cast really, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Peter Paul and Mary, The Freedom Singers, all of them the biggest names in folk music at the time, their voices swelling and receding like the tide, all rallying behind this young singer-songwriter who was setting the world ablaze. He was Woody Guthrie reborn, the savior that folk needed. With this song, expectations were shoveled onto his shoulders, Voice of a Generation, and being trapped as a political song writer. It was just that good of a song.

YouTube - Bob Dylan Newport part 4

4. Chimes of Freedom

This version is so different, and so much better than the studio version of this song. It really brings out the poetry of the song, and the words fly by at a pretty quick pace, giving you just enough time to think about what he just sang before he moves on. These are one of the top or four or five lyrics he's ever written(Visions of Johanna, It's Alright Ma(I'm Only Bleeding), Gates of Eden, Chimes of Freedom, Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands, is how I'd order them) This is a great example of the tendency he'd have to bounce, his body moving up and down, as if there was so much energy bundled within he couldn't help but do these charming little fidgets while on stage.

YouTube - Bob Dylan -- Chimes Of Freedom (Live at Newport 1964)

5. Mr. Tambourine Man

I like the beginning interaction with the audience. 'I think you have the wrong man' he says to a man in the audience who's yelling to him. The wrong man, indeed. They ALL pinned him as the wrong man. As I've said many times, they all thought of him as something he wasn't. Mr Tambourine Man is one of the first instances of Dylan branching out and not being political or love oriented in the least, or writing/performing a song reminiscent of some old folk song, like House of the Rising Sun. I love the lyrics, they're poetic but he hasn't become extremely opaque or cryptic. Also, the ending of the video is great, with Johnny Cash talking about how he thinks Bob Dylan is the best songwriter of the age. OR Joan Baez doing an imitation of Dylan, singing a song of his(it's a pretty good nasally impression.)

YouTube - Bob Dylan Newport part 5

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I actually like this list, a lot of older stuff, and there is a mix of genres. Well Done.