Top 10 Lists: Letterman made them famous, the Internet made them commonplace, but WNEW makes them rock! Fusion45 brings you a classic rock Top 10 every week for WNEW's List-o-Mania ...
10.Eddie Holman - Hey There Lonely Girl
Now a Baptist minister, Norfolk-born and New York-raised Eddie Holman capitalized on the sweet soul craze of 1970 with this falsetto-drenched tune, a revision of Hey There Lonely Boy by Ruby and the Romantics.
9.The Assembled Multitude - Overture From Tommy
A group of studio musicians brought together by Philadelphia producer Tom Sellers, the Assembled Multitude did instrumental interpretations of what are now rock classics, including this one which went to #16 on the Billboard charts.
As a staff writer for Motown, Taylor was responsible for writing multiple hits for the Temptations, Diana Ross and the Supremes and Marvin Gaye. On his own, he created this classic pop nugget about life on the run.
Top 10 Lists: Letterman made them famous, the Internet made them commonplace, but WNEW makes them rock, and brings you a classic rock Top 10 every week for WNEW's List-o-Mania ...
The road has been a bit bumpy the last few months for Aerosmith. They tour like teenagers but seem to wear like the near-60-year old men they are. Brad Whitford's had to sit out a portion of their Guitar Hero tour because of recent surgery and some upcoming dates in the south have been postponed due to a leg injury suffered by Steven Tyler.
Even so, we still love 'em, and aim to show it with this arbitrary list of the Top 10 Aerosmith songs. Disagree? Of course you do...
Top 10 Lists: Letterman made them famous, the Internet made them commonplace, but WNEW makes them rock! Each week, Fusion45 brings you a classic rock Top 10 every week for WNEW's List-o-Mania ...
Happy Independence Day!
10) Freedom for the Stallion: Though nice versions have been done by Three Dog Night and Elvis Costello, we're partial to Boz Scaggs' rendering of Allan Toussaint's classic piece of rock and roll gospel.
9) Broken Freedom Song: We'll listen to anything Kris Kristofferson's written. When he sings, we're sold.
8) Calypso Freedom: An ever rotating sextet of gospel singers, Sweet Honey in The Rock is long considered an American treasure. They sing gloriously of sweet freedom.
7) Chimes of Freedom: We dig the Byrds' version of this Dylan classic.
6) Fifty States of Freedom: Though it's paid their bills for a long, long time, One Toke Over The Line wasn't their only contribution to music. In fact, Brewer & Shipley were a highly underrated folk duo, worthy of being revisited.
5) Freedom Hangs Like Heaven: Our man Sam Beam, aka Iron & Wine, gets major spins around the Fusion 45 record pool.
4) Freedom: One of many songs by the simplest of names, this is the Isley Brothers funky, gospel track.
As yesterday's news of Michael Jackson's death circulated around the small bullpen of disc jockeys and sales people who live near my office cubicle, I was surprised to hear such a wide variety of commentary. Though no one was offensively trite or emotionally devastated, there certainly was a diversity of opinions, some a little callous, some a little thoughtful.
It was a microcosm of what we can expect to hear for many, many years to come. There will be patently offensive comedians making light of his story and passionately sad fans paying homage. In a way, this isn't a whole lot different than how it's been for the past 20 years: we'll just hear more of it.
The one comment that struck me most what this: maybe now that he's gone and people aren't talking about his plastic surgery or his skin color, people will once again pay attention to his music. For someone who was so blazingly talented, who lit up the firmament with his ability to entertain his fans and speak for their joys and sorrows, his decline over the years is one of pop music's saddest stories. It truly did overshadow what he added to the world musically.
Today, to honor that we offer an arbitrary (but what we think is accurate) assessment of the Top 10 songs that involved Michael Jackson, given without comment:
Top 10 Lists: Letterman made them famous, the Internet made them commonplace, but WNEW makes them rock! Each week, Fusion45 brings you a classic rock Top 10 every week for WNEW's List-o-Mania ...
Yeah, we could have done a Top 10 list of songs about dogs but once you get past Me & You & A Dog Named Boo, where else is there to go? Even the classic Walkin' The Dog ain't about, well, walking the dog (if you know what we mean).
10. Bedouin Soundclash - Trinco Dog: We're not entirely sure what a Trinco Dog is -- perhaps one of those chotchkes you find hanging from the ceiling of a junk shop in Chinatown -- but we love these reggae boys from north of the border.
9. Big Joe Turner - Low Down Dog: The world may think Elvis or Jerry Lee or Chuck B. were the fathers of rock and roll, but it was really Big Joe's brand of "jump blues" that started it all.
8. Bobby "Blue" Bland - I Wouldn't Treat a Dog (The Way You Treated Me): Dogs are popular topics in the blues and R&B and Bobby "Blue" Bland nailed this one (much more readily that Cher did, if you can picture that in your mind's ear).
7. Cat Stevens - Was Dog a Doughnut?: The title typically metaphysical, the music weirdly, well, un-Cat-like. Maybe it's the dog barking...
6. Pere Ubu - Use of a Dog: So entirely weird it's hard to believe they're from Ohio. Makes the aforementioned Cat Stevens cut sound like Natalie Cole. A classic slack dancer tune from college radio.
5. The Faces - You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything (Even Take the Dog for a Walk, Mend a Fuse, Fold Away tThe Ironing Board, or Any Other Domestic Short Comings): We can't find a place where you can hear this one but, hey, with a title like that, who can resist?
4. Sly & The Family Stone - Underdog: More than a great cartoon, this one (with Frere Jacques quoted in the opener) is the truly funkiest version of the Sly band.
2. Big Mama Thornton - Hound Dog: Big Mama died penniless so we could have Elvis: give her propers.
1. Aerosmith - Walkin' The Dog - There are some great versions of this tune, including Rufus Thomas' original, but this is Aerosmith at their grittiest.
How does this list stack up against your Top 10? Let us know in a post or browse past List-o-Mania Top 10s.
Top 10 Lists: Letterman made them famous, the Internet made them commonplace, but WNEW makes them rock! Resident music pseudo-savant David Thomas brings you a classic rock Top 10 every week for WNEW's List-o-Mania ...
You’d think that there wouldn’t be all that many songs about vehicles or transport. But there are loads of ‘em. Here are ten.
10. Chris Spedding:Motor Bikin’ It’s hard to find roads straight or uncongested enough to top 40 mph on in the UK, but we like to dream about it. Here Mr. Spedding lays down a throbbing paen to crotch rockets to kick off our list.
9. Blue Öyster Cult:ME 262 Just in case you’ve ever wanted to hear someone sing the technical specifications for the world’s first operational jet fighter, here you go. I honestly don’t know what BÖC’s intentions were, but I doubt it’s an endorsement of the Luftwaffe. I suspect satire – the cheerful choruses are the big clue.
8. Chris de Burgh:Don’t Pay the Ferryman De Burgh recorded The Lady in Red, the worst song ever (thus, no link), so there’s an argument that he has no place on a list of rocking anthems, but this one, with an instruction that emphatically does not get you a ticket on the Dover-Boulogne hovercraft, is a guilty pleasure. Great chorus, fabulous melody, nice power chords and damn, that guy can sing. Ok, so the bridge is a bit long …
The only song on the list featuring an imaginary conveyance, Silver Machine honked Hawkwind off so badly with Lemmy (who sang lead vocals on the single – and, so far as I know, on no other number –and became erroneously regarded as the face of the band) that he left and formed Motörhead. Or so I read somewhere. This is Hawkwind’s most-accessible number and well worth putting on if you want a party to pick up a bit.
6. Queen: I’m in Love With My Car I try to avoid listing Queen – they did play Sun City, after all – but this is from long before they sank so low, and it’s a rare lead vocal from Roger Taylor, rather than Freddie Mercury. Also, I’ve admired the scansion and sublime rhyme of “got a feel for my automobile” for decades now.
5. The Motors:Airport I understand why the Motors were never huge; too clean-cut to be punks, too guitar-based to be pop, but kind of fun. They mostly played pubs and colleges, which is how I came to see them live. Hard-working, tuneful, not at all bad; this one’s a single of theirs that charted, and it’s pretty catchy. Also, not many people are that comfortable referencing the Beatles in their stage act.
Top 10 Lists: Letterman made them famous, the Internet made them commonplace, but WNEW makes them rock! Resident music pseudo-savant David Thomas brings you a classic rock Top 10 every week for WNEW's List-o-Mania ...
Where My Heart Will Take Me – the Enterprise song – may have been attached to a not-bad-at-all SF show, but it wasn’t really about space. These ten numbers are. Sort of, anyway; some of them might be about drugs. The selections might be more than usually eccentric – in an attempt to avoid slow-moving targets, I’m trying to keep it Hawkwind-free.
10. The Carpenters:Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft This song, despite its professional arrangement and clean sound, scores low because it overuses the word extraordinary. I don’t make the rules. It is relatively optimistic, though, and I half expected it to appear ironically on the soundtrack to Mars Attacks.
9. Sarah Brightman:I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper
I’ve always liked this naff (that’s not an adjective that MS Word knows; it means something having the qualities of this late 1970s song) number; it’s got a camp charm and an eye-popping yet dumb video featuring Hot Gossip, the dance troupe who stroked themselves while scowling.
Top 10 Lists: Letterman made them famous, the Internet made them commonplace, but WNEW makes them rock! Resident music pseudo-savant David Thomas brings you a classic rock Top 10 every week for WNEW's List-o-Mania ...
Not all rock songs are about groupies, drugs or motorbikes. Sometimes the lads let their fondness of Tolkien get the better of them. At others, it’s Michael Moorcock, or some better writer altogether, or perhaps something they’ve made up themselves. Yep, many acts, including some very good ones, have shared their love of sword and sorcery. Here’s ten numbers that celebrate fantasy. You should probably read some of the books too. I particularly recommend Stormbringer, The Wizard of Oz (unexpurgated version), and The Last Unicorn.
10.Deep Purple:Stormbringer David Coverdale claimed that the Stormbringer in this song wasn’t the throbbing, black, soul-sucking zweihander swung by Elric of Melniboné; rather it’s an obscure Scottish folklore thingy of some kind. Regardless, Richie Blackmore left the band around this time, reportedly because of its change in direction.
9.Hawkwind:Song of the Swords Hawkwind – the band from whom Motörhead budded – had a long relationship with Michael Moorcock, the anti-Tolkien, if you will, and celebrated much of his oeuvre in music, as they do here with our second entry about the thirsty runesword.
Hawkwind also had a statuesque dancer called Stacia on stage with them in the earlier part of their career. She’d gone by the time I saw them play, but they had this great lighting rig called Atomhenge, and an energetic frontman named Robert Calvert who wore what looked like a First World War-era flying helmet. There’s no point in commenting on a specific Hawkwind song, though; they’re sort of proto-speed-metal trance stuff, so all sound much the same.
8. The Seekers:Emerald City The Australian folk-tinged popsters are a regular fixture on ‘60s movie soundtracks. They also seem to have picked up L. Frank Baum’s 1900 masterpiece and fantasized about visiting the wizard’s home. People who have only seen one of the adaptations (doesn’t matter which) should read the book – it has far better flying monkeys, ceramic people, and a very important message: you’d regret upsetting the Tin Man.
7. Thin Lizzy:Emerald I’m not entirely sure whether Phil and the boys are singing about a fictitious armed struggle in fantasy land, or are alluding to the fight to liberate Ireland, but I’m going for the former, on the grounds that by the time the rebellion and ensuing civil war took place, they had guns and bombs, rather than shields and swords. This song is actually pretty good – Lynott really could sing and the guitar work is top notch.
6. Rainbow:Kill the King If Richie Blackmore really did leave Deep Purple because of the content of Stormbringer, he got over it pretty fast. This treasonous epic is one of several fantasy-themed pieces by Rainbow and I’ve picked it because it shows Ronnie James Dio at his finest. He clearly adored singing this number.
Top 10 Lists: Letterman made them famous, the Internet made them commonplace, but WNEW makes them rock! Resident music pseudo-savant David Thomas brings you a classic rock Top 10 every week for WNEW's List-o-Mania ...
Sometimes, rockers are bad. Sometimes, they get caught. At others, they just sing about it. Here are ten tunes about being on the wrong side of the law.
10. Sonny Curtis and the Crickets:I Fought the Law There are many, many covers of this song, including the Clash’s punked-up interpretation, a revisionist version by the Dead Kennedys, and for me, quite bizarrely, a straight rendition by Bryan Adams. Sonny Curtis wrote the piece and recorded it with the post-Buddy HollyCrickets in 1959.
9. Poison:Face the Hangman Poison often irritate me: they can do this, so why on earth would they churn out bilge like Your Mama Don’t Dance? This really is them at their best – a standard they seldom bothered to reach – really tight arrangement, lusty vocals “come on, boys let me swing!” and a brisk tempo.
8.Aerosmith:Hangman Jury Permanent Vacation, part of Aerosmith’s '80s comeback, had some fabulous tracks, including my all-time favorite Rag Doll. This one’s not too shabby either, and allows Steven Tyler to indulge his taste for jazzy warbling.
7. Bob Marley and the Wailers:I Shot the Sheriff You might be more familiar with Eric Clapton’s cover version, but this one has a much more personal feel to it. Also, despite my high regard for Mr. Slowhand, sorry, but why cover perfection? If you’re going for reggae, you should go straight for the source, right?
6.Iron Maiden:Hallowed By Thy Name Maiden, at their most morbid, speculate about what it’s like to await the execution of a sentence of death by hanging. Increasingly unsettling, it seems, but there are mitigating factors – Steve Harris really thrashes that guitar of his, and Bruce Dickinson belts out the overblown lyrics with gusto. Sadly, I spoilt the mood when I first heard this number. It reminded me of that joke: a man’s being led to the gallows in a freezing storm. He breaks out laughing. "Why so cheerful?", asks the hangman, "We’re stringing you up." "I know," says the condemned, "but at least I don’t have to walk back in this." They made me leave the room.
5. Jane’s Addiction:Been Caught Stealing A combined how-to guide and political manifesto for kleptomaniac anarchists, this catchy little funk-rock number was a decent-sized hit and has been on several TV show and movie soundtracks, partly for expositional purposes.
4. Skid Row:18 and Life Like I Shot the Sheriff, this song is more contemplative than most of the entries on this list – it’s about an 18-year old who accidentally kills a friend and gets a life sentence. The video was a big hit on MTV.
3. Judas Priest:Breaking the Law I suspect that the message of this classic isn’t all that wholesome – get bored, get jobless, get disillusioned, get out there and break the law – but the song’s catchy and the video is hilarious.
Top 10 Lists: Letterman made them famous, the Internet made them commonplace, but WNEW makes them rock! Resident music pseudo-savant David Thomas brings you a classic rock Top 10 every week for WNEW's List-o-Mania ...
Every cowboy, as Poison observed, sings a sad, sad song. Similarly, the cowboy, that chap-wrapped, bean-slurping, gun-slinging he-man, catches many a rocker’s imagination. Whether it’s the romance, the endless traveling, the self reliance, the fast, precise discharging of an inexpensive handgun at close quarters, or even his work with animals, he’s been the inspiration for many a recording artist. Here are ten of them ...
10. Pansy Division:Cowboys are Frequently, Secretly Fond of Each Other If you’ve seen Brokeback Mountain, you’ve heard Willie Nelson’s version, this is another one, by the out ‘Frisco band with the clever name. The original’s by Ned Sabette, who wrote it around the time he saw Midnight Cowboy, which is how the lyrics might seem a little dated. Pansy Division are usually punkier than this, incidentally.
9.Tesla:Modern Day Cowboy This is kind of fun, with some neat guitar breaks, and an insistent beat – it’s a longer version of what a Spinal Tap cowboy song would sound like – and argues that a touring rock band is a cowboy’s spiritual successor. Like many people who think that, Tesla downplay the moving of livestock to railheads, in favor of coming to town for a fight.
8. Blues Brothers:Theme from Rawhide Ok, so it’s a fake rhythm and blues revue doing a song from a TV show, but it’s funny beyond belief, particularly Joliet Jake Blues’ laconic harmonies. The film also contains one of the all-time great lines “we’ve got both kinds [of music]; country and western.”
7. Bon Jovi:Wanted Dead or Alive Bon Jovi have done several cowboy-themed numbers – which reminds me that Bronco Billy, of the 1980 Clint Eastwood comedy, was a shoe salesman from their home state who pretended to be a Wild West hero – and the toss up was this, from Slippery When Wet or the very short Ride Cowboy Ride, from New Jersey. This is the more pompous song, with some truly absurd imagery, so wins out. It’s closer to being about cowboys, too …
6. Pain:The Song of the Seven Inch Cowboy This is a late entry – I only discovered it today – but it’s appealing in a daft sort of way and spares you Kid Rock. Think of it as a sorbet, cleaning the palate before the second course from the Garden State.
Top 10 Lists: Letterman made them famous, the Internet made them commonplace, but WNEW makes them rock! Resident music pseudo-savant David Thomas brings you a classic rock Top 10 every week for WNEW's List-o-Mania ...
We’ve just spent a long weekend in New York. Suffice it to say that here are ten songs about the metropolis that I now think is up there with London as a strong contender for best densely populated place on earth.
10.Emigrate: New York City
This song has much the same effect as being spat into Manhattan from the Penn Station exit – there’s a lot to take in and you do it very fast. While it’s obvious that English isn’t Emigrate’s native tongue (and they write and sing in it better than I do), the lyrics are affecting and catchy, and the playing – that’s great beat and chorus they’ve got there.
I’m not usually that keen on U2, but sometimes they’re very good indeed. This is particularly true when they don’t sound much like themselves, which is the case here – this band really should use horn sections more. The song itself is about Billie Holiday and music scene she came from. If you don’t know who Miss Holiday was, the movie Lady Sings the Blues will sort you out. It’s also a fine opportunity to hear an Oscar-nominated Diana Ross cover Holiday’s best known material. The originals are better, of course …
8.The Cult:New York City Hell’s Kitchen may no longer be a DMZ protected by a blind superhero, but this song, from the Sonic Temple album, still rocks.
7. Iggy Pop:Avenue B It’s a bit of a departure from his earlier, rockier stuff, but Avenue B, from the eponymous album, has Mr. Pop skirting perilously close to Leonard Cohen territory as he reflects on his alienation, while making some acute observations on big city life. Whatever your general position on the Pop oeuvre, you’ll be surprised by how much you like this.
6. Suzanne Vega:Tom’s Diner A famous slice-of-life a capella number that describes people wandering about in the rain while a watching man drinks coffee, this is packed full of concise observations and is annoyingly catchy. There are many remixes and instrumental versions, and also a tall tale of it being important to MP3 compression algorithms.
Top 10 Lists: Letterman made them famous, the Internet made them commonplace, but WNEW makes them rock! Resident music pseudo-savant David Thomas brings you a classic rock Top 10 every week for WNEW's List-o-Mania ...
I must have been working the night before, because builders woke me one morning. They were on the scaffolding somewhere out back, listening to the radio and dropping food wrappers into people’s back yards. That’s a great Guns n’ Roses song” one of them said of Knocking on Heaven’s Door. “You mean Bob Dylan, eejit!” “No, Guns n’Roses. The Dylan version’s crap.”
That exchange has stuck with me for more than a decade. The dismissal of Mr. Dylan as “crap” is a bit much – I’d only go as far as saying that he’s somewhat tuneless for a singer – but they were right, both of them – Knocking on Heaven's Door is by Bob Dylan, and the LA homeboys certainly did it better than its writer. That’s so often the case with Dylan’s work that I can actually provide a top ten of tunes that other people did better than Bob. Come to think about it, that's a compliment – the source material is so solid that it can survive being transplanted to rock, rap, soul, even pop while keeping its message intact. So, here goes. We start with what I hope is gleeful perversity and end with solid gold.
10.Blackmore’s Night:The Times they are a a-Changin’ Just in case you were wondering what a post-Rainbow and Deep Purple reunion Richie Blackmore was up to, he’s on the road with Candice Night. Although this rendition of a much-loved classic scores on prettiness and tunefulness, it beats its opposition for the sheer oddness of performing a song about change in such an olde worlde style.
9.Rage Against the Machine:Maggie’s Farm There are several covers of this song, including a grumpy ska version by the Specials, but this one, with its insistent bass riff and disciplined rap-esque delivery, is a keeper.
8.Julie Driscoll with Brian Auger and the Trinity:This Wheel’s on Fire It’s hard to hear this rendition without thinking “1960s psychedelia.” That’s probably more to do with the TV show Absolutely Fabulous than current exposure to this song or the black and white promotional film (what they had before they did videos) but you’ll see what I mean. Also, La Driscoll does have a Cabaret-era Berlin nightclub thing going on …
7.Avril Lavigne:Knocking on Heaven’s Door Lots of people, including musical giants like Bob Marley or Eric Clapton, and mid-rankers like Bryan Ferry, did this better than its author, but I’ve gone for this version. It’s shorter than many covers (almost the same length as Dylan’s original), and the better for it.
6.Sam CookBlowing in the Wind: There are scores – perhaps hundreds – of versions of this song. I’ve gone for Sam Cook’s over some very stiff competition (including Mr. Stevie Wonder) because it isn’t so well-known, and should be.
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