music friday: 1967

The Beatles, "A Day in the Life." Greil Marcus once wrote, "[A]t the time it was obvious that Revolver, released in 1966, was better than Rubber Soul, just as it was obvious Sgt. Pepper was better than both put together. The times carried the imperative of such a choice—though it was not really a choice at all, but rather a sort of faceless necessity. The only road, after all, was onward." And "A Day in the Life" was the exemplar of Onward. He added, "Such a choice does not seem so obvious now, and of course the necessity has faded."

Aretha Franklin, "Respect." The Acclaimed Music site lists this as the #11 track of all time. That seems off ... of the top ten, only "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Johnny B. Goode" strike me as the equal of Aretha's greatest hit.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience, "Purple Haze." Perhaps lost in the greatness of Hendrix's guitar work is the fact that he was also a great vocalist and songwriter.

The Kinks, "Waterloo Sunset." Christgau called this "the most beautiful song in the English language". I admit I preferred the raunchy Kinks of songs like "Who'll Be the Next in Line".

The Doors, "Light My Fire." I remember once, in the early FM years of Tom Donahue, he said he didn't want to play this song because they played it all the time on the AM dial. Listeners pointed out to him that they didn't listen to AM any more, so they never heard it.

Jefferson Airplane, "White Rabbit." I wouldn't have said it at the time, but this is just about a perfect record. One reason is Grace Slick (see below).

The Velvet Underground, "I'm Waiting for the Man." Many of these songs elicit memories of the 60s. This is the only one that personifies those times as standing around waiting for your dealer to bring you heroin.

Nico, "These Days." With Jackson Browne on guitar. He also wrote the song. He was 17 when this was recorded. He loved Nico. She was older than 17.

Love, "Alone Again Or." Arguably the most famous song by Love, the band led by Arthur Lee. But Lee didn't write it ... that was Bryan MacLean. (As with The Kinks, I preferred the raunchier Love of their first two albums.)

McCoy Tyner, "Four by Five." Tyner, Joe Henderson, Ron Carter, and Elvin Jones.

[edited to add Spotify playlist]

Comments

[Tomás]

What a year. Grace Slick is crazy good. Amazing how today's technology would obliterate the strength of her vocals by making them "perfect."

[Steven Rubio]

Yes, it would be interesting to know if someone like The Airplane would resist that trend in technology if they started nowadays. They did some goofy stuff in their earlier years (After Bathing at Baxter's), but the Starship version would have gone straight to the autotune, is my guess. To be fair, Grace's vocals in the above version are drenched in echo.

Meanwhile, I can't resist this ... could barely stop myself from including it in the post ... but there is at least one current pop star who can sing all by herself (although her records are certainly highly "produced"):

https://youtu.be/ya8HXx2VxFU

[Tomás]

Pink's got chops. She's probably stronger than Grace Slick.

[Steven Rubio]

Grace has said she loved Pink's version. Not sure who's strongest, but I've always thought of Pink as a top singer, while Grace as Cultural Icon in the 60s may have mattered more to me than her singing, meaning I sometimes missed the power of her voice.

Of course, if there's any contemporary singer I obsess over more than Pink, it's Corin Tucker, and I saw Sleater-Kinney sing "White Rabbit" once at the Fillmore. Since Jack Casady was my idol when I was a teen, it sounded a bit odd hearing a band without a bass player performing that song, but it was OK. Eva Gardner, Pink's bass player, took care of business in Pink's version.

I actually saw Pink once at the Fillmore, and she's always worn her 60s fixation on her sleeve. That night she did "Mercedes Benz" ... she often covered Janis early in her career, and was once rumored to be in line to play Joplin in a biopic.

[Steven Rubio]

Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/user/masoo/playlist/0bZQ08cJILIbz4rDbb2quO?si=MBy5zgYKTcKruASz-exYDw