WNEW | Where Rock Lives

Video Classics: 'Jungleland' - Bruce Springsteen

To honor WNEW's legendary Firecracker 500, every day we are highlighting the music that populated the 1991 and 1996 lists, with classic videos, live performances and little-known facts about the songs and how they came to be...

So many of Bruce Springsteen's  songs seem to be about love, be it young, tragic, doomed, or all three, set against the backdrop of a difficult setting. In a way, think of The Boss as a tougher, grittier working-man's Shakespeare offering up a half-dozen different versions of blue-collar Romeos and Jersey Juliets. Nowhere are these songs more prevalent than on Springsteen's 1975 album, Born to Run, whose principal theme seems to be desperate hope just before it slides into defeat. Jungleland, a tale of love set amidst gang violence, is one of these.

Wikipedia does a good job of summarizing the story behind the lyrics:

The song opens with the "Rat" "driving his sleek machine/over the Jersey state line" and meeting up with the "Barefoot Girl," with whom he "takes a stab at romance and disappears down Flamingo Lane." The song then begins to portray some of the scenes of the city and gang life in which the "Rat" is involved, with occasional references to the gang's conflict with the police. The last two stanzas, coming after Clemons' extended solo, describe the final fall of the "Rat" and the death of both his dreams, which "gun him down" in the "tunnels uptown," and the love between him and the "Barefoot Girl."

Video Classics: 'Like a Rolling Stone' - Bob Dylan

To honor WNEW's legendary Firecracker 500, every day we are highlighting the music that populated the 1991 and 1996 lists, with classic videos, live performances and little-known facts about the songs and how they came to be...

One of Bob Dylan's best-known, best-loved, and most influential songs in a long and prolific career, Like a Rolling Stone originally had its origins in a 20-page story Dylan had written. It was an angry story, as Dylan himself admits... a '20-page piece of vomit' that was 'just a rhythm thing I had on paper all about my steady hatred.' The song is, perhaps, the centerpiece of Dylan's 'angry' period, and one can certainly feel the manic energy at this 1966 concert in Newcastle.

Like a Rolling Stone, despite its immense popularity, only went to #2 on the charts. But even though it didn't reach #1, it was still a tremendous accomplishment given that, at over six minutes long, it only received tentative airplay on many radio stations. Still, not everyone loved the song, even some Dylan fans disliked it. It epitomized Dylan's new, electric sound, decidedly more rock in flavor, and many of his devotees mourned the fact that he seemed to be leaving his roots as a folk artist behind.

Video Classics: 'Golden Slumbers Medley' - The Beatles

To honor WNEW's legendary Firecracker 500, every day we are highlighting the music that populated the 1991 and 1996 lists, with classic videos, live performances and little-known facts about the songs and how they came to be...

By 1969, the musical phenomenon known as the Beatles was barely working as a functioning unit. Their album, The Beatles ('The White Album') had been a success, but the sessions that had created it were contentious, often angry affairs that had made the rifts between the band members nearly impossible to bridge. When the 'Let It Be'/'Get Back' sessions turned out to be even worse, most everyone involved in the production knew the handwriting was on the wall ... the Beatles, as an ensemble act, at least, were finished.

Still, for all that, or perhaps because of it, the other three members of the group accepted Paul McCartney's suggestion that they record an album 'the way they used to', free of all the strife. Knowing that it would likely be their last, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr committed fully to the project, wanting the band to 'go out on a high note'. Thus it came to pass that their album, Abbey Road, was born. Though Let It Be would be their last album released together, Abbey Road was the final one to be recorded.

Video Classics: 'L.A. Woman' - The Doors

To honor WNEW's legendary Firecracker 500, every day we are highlighting the music that populated the 1991 and 1996 lists, with classic videos, live performances and little-known facts about the songs and how they came to be...

Once or twice a week, Video Classics comes across a song from WNEW's Firecracker 500 for which an official music video does not exist. In these cases, we fall back on a live performance. Once or twice a month, we come across a song with neither a video OR acceptable performance footage, and we seek out a fan-made video recorded to a clear live audio track.

Then, once or twice a year, we hit a song without an available video, live performance footage, OR clear live audio. Fortunately, in this instance, we found a recording with historical significance in the music world, however muddled the audio may be ...

The audio above is from the Doors' performance of L.A. Woman live from the Dallas Music Fair on December 11th 1970, the last time Jim Morrison would complete a performance in public. The next night, in New Orleans, he would suffer a breakdown on stage and be unable to finish that concert. By the following July, he would be dead.

Video Classics: 'Misty Mountain Hop' - Led Zeppelin

To honor WNEW's legendary Firecracker 500, every day we are highlighting the music that populated the 1991 and 1996 lists, with classic videos, live performances and little-known facts about the songs and how they came to be...

Back in 1971, when Led Zeppelin first released Misty Mountain Hop, the cool kids were smoking marijuana and the nerds were reading The Hobbit. Today, the cool kids are (supposedly) saying 'no' to drugs and going to watch Peter Jackson's big-screen interpretations of Tolkein classics. Times have certainly changed, even since the band recorded this 1979 version of Misty Mountain Hop live from Knebworth, but both drugs and epic fantasy factor into the lyrics.

The song's lyrics appear to describe an encounter with police after engaging in a little illicit drug use in the park. The narrator then talks about escaping to The Misty Mountains 'where spirits fly'. The connection to a Tolkein locale of the same name might be a little tenuous, if not for the fact that Led Zeppelin included references to the British author and language scholar's work in several of the other songs, most notably Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, The Battle of Evermore, and Ramble On. 

Video Classics: 'Badlands' - Bruce Springsteen

To honor WNEW's legendary Firecracker 500, every day we are highlighting the music that populated the 1991 and 1996 lists, with classic videos, live performances and little-known facts about the songs and how they came to be...

Bruce Springsteen is undoubtedly a talented and vastly-popular musician, and you would be hard-pressed to find someone who categorically dislikes his work as a whole. That doesn't mean, however, that all of his songs have universal appeal. Badlands is one that seems to divide people (though the crowd seen below in a live performance from Barcelona seem nothing if not enthusiastic).

So with such a great-sounding song, how can there be any division? Well, numbers don't lie, and Badlands only came in at #42 on the Billboard Hot 100, even worse than the previous single from The Boss' album Darkness on the Edge of Town, Prove It All Night. Nonetheless, Springsteen's fans love the song, as does Springsteen himself. Still, the same dichotomy can be seen in the two WNEW Firecracker 500 lists, with Badlands not even making the original 1991 list, but coming in at a near-Top-100 #109 for 1996.

Video Classics: 'On the Turning Away' - Pink Floyd

To honor WNEW's legendary Firecracker 500, every day we are highlighting the music that populated the 1991 and 1996 lists, with classic videos, live performances and little-known facts about the songs and how they came to be...

From the potentially 'trip-related' Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds featured yesterday, Video Classics now moves to the definitely trippy 'Delicate Sound of Thunder' concert video for Pink Floyd's On the Turning Away ...

One of the most-popular and well-known tracks from Pink Floyd's later days, On the Turning Away was released in 1987 on the album A Momentary Lapse of Reason. As a single in 1988, the song went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (though it managed only 55 in the U.K.)  On the Turning Away comes in at spot #291 on the 1996 version of WNEW's Firecracker 500.

Video Classics: 'Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds'

To honor WNEW's legendary Firecracker 500, every day we are highlighting the music that populated the 1991 and 1996 lists, with classic videos, live performances and little-known facts about the songs and how they came to be...

For those who insist that the Beatles' Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds ISN'T about LSD, there will be an argument in your favor after the jump. For those who insist that it is, enjoy this video from Yellow Submarine, which bolsters your point-of-view considerably.

More than any other song (with the possible exception of Peter, Paul and Mary's Puff the Magic DragonI), Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds inspires spirited debate as to whether it contains veiled (or not-so-veiled) references to drug use. Certainly the song's strange time signature, key changes, trippy instrumentation and ambiguous lyrics add fuel to the fire that the song celebrates an altered state of mind. Then, of course, there are the initials spelled out by the key words in the title.

Video Classics: 'Heroes' - David Bowie

To honor WNEW's legendary Firecracker 500, every day we are highlighting the music that populated the 1991 and 1996 lists, with classic videos, live performances and little-known facts about the songs and how they came to be...

"Heroes", by David Bowie, is one of those songs that wasn't very popular when it was released, but has gone on to become one of his staples, and his 2nd-most-covered song after Rebel Rebel. 

The video, shot in stark lighting in what appears to be a single take, is unlikely to win any awards (unless someone, somewhere is handing out prizes for 'most minimalist direction', but the song itself made Rolling Stone's list of 500 greatest songs of all time (at #46), and comes in on WNEW's own Firecracker 500 at spot #346 on the 1996 version of the list.

Video Classics: 'Under My Thumb' - Rolling Stones

To honor WNEW's legendary Firecracker 500, every day we are highlighting the music that populated the 1991 and 1996 lists, with classic videos, live performances and little-known facts about the songs and how they came to be...

Despite the fact that it was never released as a single, the Rolling Stones' Under My Thumb (appearing on their 1966 album, Aftermath) has become one of their more popular songs from their earlier career, and has been featured frequently on compilation albums and sporadically in concert. It comes in at a remarkably-consistent #321 on the 1991 Firecracker 500 and #322 on the 1996 list.

The song's lyrics tell of a relationship struggle between the male narrator and a pushy, domineering woman. The song is the narrator's celebration of having finally gained some leverage over the woman. Predictably, feminists objected to the song's lyrics (though they were notably silent on the matter of the woman being domineering to begin with), objections which gained enough ground for the song to be poorly-received in some circles. In 1995, Jagger game some insight as to where he and Keith Richards were coming from when they penned Under My Thumb, calling it a 'jokey number' and a 'bit of a caricature', though he did reveal that it was written in response to a very pushy and domineering woman that they knew.

Video Classics: 'Pink Houses' - John Cougar Mellencamp

To honor WNEW's legendary Firecracker 500, every day we are highlighting the music that populated the 1991 and 1996 lists, with classic videos, live performances and little-known facts about the songs and how they came to be...

Really, how hard is it to make a rock song that is unabashedly positive about America? Pretty hard, apparently, with everyone from Bob Dylan to the Rolling Stones taking time to offer up cynical, downbeat takes on what they see as this country's shortcomings. Even Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA isn't a very positive piece, despite many peoples' misinterpretations over the years.

Even John Cougar Mellencamp's song Pink Houses has its points to make about income disparities and the different experiences different people face in America each day.  Still, it is less critical than some, and with Independence Day falling on a Saturday, this year, Video Classics takes today to present a song that almost goes someplace where many rock performers seem uncomfortable going (though many country performers practically live there) ... the land of Good Things About the USA:

Video Classics: 'Highway 61 Revisited' - Bob Dylan

To honor WNEW's legendary Firecracker 500, every day we are highlighting the music that populated the 1991 and 1996 lists, with classic videos, live performances and little-known facts about the songs and how they came to be...

Lest we list humility amongst Bob Dylan's virtues, let's listen to what he had to say about his album Highway 61 Revisited before listening to the title track ...

"I'm not gonna be able to make a record better than that one... Highway 61 is just too good. There's a lot of stuff on there that I would listen to."

Certainly, many critics and fans agreed with Dylan's assessment, and Highway 61 Revisited remains one of his most popular and influential albums, and the source of many of his concert favorites. It was the first album to be entirely recorded with a full rock band backing him, after he had experimented with the sound earlier on Bringing It All Back Home.

Ironically, Highway 61 Revisited, for all that it is often considered quintessential Dylan, is a bit of an anomaly, stylistically, as it encapsulates only the singer/songwriter's 'angry young period'. His work both prior to the album and following it were definitely more playful, or at least wistful in tone.