The following is self-indulgent of me — for this isn’t my forte as it is Tyler’s — but Cafe patron Jeanne e-mailed me today to ask my “five favorite songs.” I take the request to refer to modern vocal recordings. Five is too few, so I’ll list my ten favorites — and even ten is quite a small number. But, what the heck, here goes (in no particular order, save the first three):
1. Frank Sinatra, “The Way You Look Tonight”
2. The Beatles, “Please Please Me”
3. Ray Charles, “I Can’t Stop Loving You”
4. Patsy Cline, “I Fall to Pieces”
5. Hank Williams, Sr. “Mind Your Own Business”
6. Van Morrison, “Brown Eyed Girl”
7. Bruce Springsteen, “Thunder Road”
8. Dire Straits, “Walk of Life”
9. Queen, “Fat Bottom Girls”
10. 10,000 Maniacs, “Gun Shy”
And I’ll throw the following in gratis: the song that I’m most embarrassed to admit to liking is Sweet, “Little Willy” (but it’s nowhere close to being in my top ten, or even top 100).
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You shouldn't be embarassed about liking anything by The Sweet. Well, nothing recorded before 1980 at any rate.
There's seems to be a common thread to you selections — let me see if I'm right … do you also like "Dog and Butterfly" by Heart?
Whitney Houston's rendition of Greatest Love of All: stunning beautiful, uplifting, thought provoking. That's as good as it gets.
In the very early 80's, fresh out of high school I was driving a Toyota Corolla. It was by far the smallest, lowest horse powered car of the people I hung out with. Yet, it had guts, and would give anything a run for its money stop-light to stop-light.
I bring that up because some how, Little Willy became its theme song! LOL!
"Little Willy, Willie won't, go home"
"But ya can't push Willie 'round, Willy won't go"
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Ah yes! Youth!
I do have one question for you. I don't mean to suggest that you have to justify what you enjoy listening to but why so stuck in the past? There isn't anything wrong with any of the songs you listed (love most of 'em myself), but there really is a lot of great music out there today.
Kind of like people's standard of living, music just keeps getting better and better simply because it is so accessible today.
If you can't find something today you really love to listen to, then you're just not looking.
If you are looking for contemporary acts (which judging by your list, you should be) may I suggest "The National".
http://www.myspace.com/thenational
All of my professors that I suggest this band to love, seem to fall in love with them.
Start with the song Fake Empires if you are feeling adventurous.
That being said, I greatly enjoy the blog.
There is / was a Prof at Clemson who specialised in finding songs with good economics in them…. I recall "Take it to the Limit" (Eagles) and "You Can't Always Get What You Want" (Stones)…. so the challenge is…. get the list up to 10
1. Beatles "In My Life"
2. Derek & The Dominoes "Have You Ever Loved A Woman"
3. Stones "Under My Thumb"
4. Dylan "TangledUp In Blue"
5. Hendrix "Hey Joe"
Favorite songs?
How do you rank them?
Lately, I've been listening to Supertramp (Breakfast in America) and Pink Floyd (Echos, Best of). Not sure why.
Yeah! I was very gratified to someone else loves Queen!
#1 – #6 get an A. There could be some substitutes, but the artists are right (real Patsy fans like "Fall" better than "Crazy.")
#7 – #10 A-.
Queen is way 80s cool.
I'll have to consult my kids on 10,000 Maniacs, not on my radar.
contemparary arts arent really my thing but i would be willing to hear it out and watch something about it, i am open to anything artistic