Have you ever heard the song “Let’s Have A War” by Fear? (I wish it didn’t fit as part of a soundtrack of our time’s news cycle, but it does.)
Well then, you probably aren’t a giant fan of the cult classic movie “Repo Man” in the mid 1980s.
If you had asked me in 1999 who was new and going to be a big star, I might have said Taja Seville. She’s had a good music career but I don’t think she’d claim she was a big star.
I lived in Sacramento in the late 1980s and I don’t ever remember hearing of Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers back then. In 1991 we moved to Pennsylvania and all of a sudden they were on the radio. I know they were from Pennsylvania but they deserved better exposure than that.
Elvis Presley is not a performer from my generation. Sure, I was alive during some of his hits, but I have always considered him to be of my parents’ generation. As such, most of his recordings don’t really capture my attention.
Suspicious Minds is the exception.
How can you not love Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) by Sly & The Family Stone? Funk riffs, plenty of horns delicately placed in the background, and that fantastic slap of the bass.
I know this is a simple country pop song from the 1970s, but the vocals work well. I’ve always liked the first album by The Bellamy Brothers (and I will admit, I have no others). It’s where their biggest hit, Let Your Love Flow, came from as well.
This isn’t the first solo Beatles’ song to be listed and it won’t be the last, but it is likely to be the only Ringo Starr song. It feels like this song primarily came from the mind of George Harrison, and Starr admitted that Harrison co-wrote it, but nevertheless it is well performed by Starr.
The older I get, the more fitting and relieving the song “Nature’s Way” by Spirit becomes to me.
Somewhere in my basement are a few old 45s that I have had since the 1960s. Two of them are recordings of the Lemon Pipers, including “Green Tambourine”. The term “psychedelic pop” was invented for bands like the Lemon Pipers.
Yes, it’s pretty obvious, Alanis Morissette is underrated as a recording artist. She was a dominant voice in the late 1990s, and I enjoy several of her albums, but I really do like how she put together “Thank U” as a slow but uplifting call for personal enlightenment.