Music - First Top Ten List

I am really comfortable writing this particular Top Ten List, since it is something I do know a great deal about - rock music. This will probably end up being closer to a Top Twenty List, so be patient with me here. Also, I am writing the songs in no particular order of priority, since I like all of them. Except for the first song, which is my all-time favourite, by a very long margin.

Here goes -

1. Won't Get Fooled Again (The Who) - 1971: For me, this is simply the greatest song of all time. At 8 minutes long, there is not a single wasted note or lyric. The lyrics are profound and ring true, the guitar playing, synthesizers, drums and bass playing is flawless, the production values are ahead of their time, and the overall sound is lean, muscular and immediate. Rock music did not change the world, as Pete Townshend may have hoped. But it sure as hell changed me forever, for the better. This song rails against hypocrisy, prejudice, blind faith and the false gods of revolution. After all, "Meet the New Boss, Same As the Old Boss" depicts most people's reality much more accurately than peace, love and flowers or sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. There is a refusal to view the world through rose-coloured glasses here, and a refusal to settle for anything less than the complete truth, which as we all know, can sometimes be uncomfortable. When Roger roars at the end of the final instrumental break, it is the mother of all roars. There is blood on the floor here, as well as love and a deep compassion for all humanity - he understands your suffering because he has been there himself. When Pete's mighty power chords strike up for the final time, riding alongside Keith Moon's thundering drum rolls, the hair on the back of my neck still stands. And I have heard this song only about a couple of thousand times in my life. I could write a 100 page book on this song, but I won't.

2. Gimme Some Truth (John Lennon) - 1971: In the aftermath of the break-up of the Beatles in 1970, John Lennon released an album simply titled "The John Lennon Plastic Ono Band" in 1970. This was not a happy album. The themes were dark, and reflected the traumas being faced by the singer at the time (Paul McCartney' betrayal, his own heroin addiction, etc). This was not going to please the "Peace and Love" crowd. The album reached only # 6 on the Billboard charts, which disappointed Lennon. Soon after, he released a happier album ("Imagine"). This song was one of the left-overs from the earlier album. John's angry lyrics about fawning groupies, lying politicians and his demand for the truth ("All I want is the truth"), combined with George Harrison's stinging, supple electric slide guitar make this a classic. After all, everybody wants to hear the truth. But beware what you wish for - it may come true.

3. I'm One (The Who) -1973: Most of Pete Townshend's songs focus on the personal quest and the search for identity (Who am I? Why am I here? When will I find out?). This sensitive ballad is the best. It is a song of an outsider looking in, wondering why he doesn't fit in.

"Every year is the same, and I feel it again, I'm a loser, No chance to win,
Leaves start falling, comedown is calling, loneliness starts sinking in"

Later in the song, Pete wonders why he is not handsome and popular like his idol at the time, Mick Jagger, who gets all the women,



And finally,

"....I can't get that even-tanned look on my face,
Ill-fitting clothes, and I blend in the crowd,
Fingers so clumsy, voice too loud"

For anyone who has ever felt lonely or unpopular or plain-looking or just been treated like they were invisible and didn't matter, you are not alone. Pete knows how you feel.

4. Born on the Bayou (Creedence Clearwater Revival) - 1970: I don't like just sad songs, you know. This one evokes a bygone era. It is about the quest for freedom and a wariness of authority and conventional wisdom, and it rocks. It evokes memories of Mark Twain's books and Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer rollin' down the mighty Mississippi on a wooden raft on a warm, sunny afternoon, smoking cigars and eating corn-cobs. Don't let anybody take away your freedom. I don't dance well at all, but this song definitely makes me want to.

"When I was just a little boy,
Standin' to my daddy's knee,
My papa said - Son, don't let the Man get you,
Do what he's done to me"

5. Me and Bobby McGee - (Janis Joplin) - 1970: This song was originally written and performed by Kris Kristofferson, but Janis Joplin made it her own. Hers is the definitive version of the song. There is a flip-side to freedom, because in the end when it is carried to its logical conclusion - "Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose". Again, this is the clash of reality versus illusion, but then, do any of us really want to be free of all our attachments? I do not think so. Neither did hell-raiser Janis - the first of the female rock superstars. Her heart-rending version of this song will move you. Ultimately, inspite of all everything, she wanted love, security, someone to share her life with. Don't we all?

6. Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) - (Jimi Hendrix) - 1968: This is mighty, intergalactic blues music. This is Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf raised to the power 100. This song put the "heavy" into hard rock - cosmic stuff. Inspite of all this, it is not self-indulgent or drugged out at all. This is the kind of music Led Zeppelin tried to make for 10 years, but never quite succeeded. If you want to know why Hendrix is the leading musical revolutionary of the last 100 years, listen to this song. Nobody before or since plays guitar like this. Nobody before or since could even conceive of writing music like this. Hendrix was a huge meteor that smote the music world, before he died at the age of 27 in 1970. What a waste of life. The repercussions of that meteor are still being felt today.

7. Stay With Me - (The Faces) - 1971: These guys were certainly the hardest drinking band in show business. This song is about a drunken loser who picks up an even drunker woman in a bar. On the face of it, the song sounds sexist ("You didn't need too much persuadin', I don't mean to sound degradin', But with a face like that, you got nothin' to laugh about"). Listen closely and you will realise that the protagonist is not sure who he loathes more - the woman he has picked up, or himself. Musically, the bump-and-grind of this song is great. This sounds more like the early 1970s Stones than the Stones themselves.

8. Black - (Pearl Jam) - 1992: This is a song about unrequited love, sung in Eddie Vedder's compelling, scalded-dog howl. This guy can emote. I know exactly what he means when he sings:

"I know someday you'll have a beautiful life
I know you'll be a sun
In somebody else's sky.
But why, why, why,
Can't it be mine"

9. My City Was Gone - The Pretenders - 1984: Chrissie Hynde is my favourite female singer. She is tough but tender, volatile but calm, dreamy but pragmatic, flinty yet compassionate, irreverent yet loyal. This song is about how the country of her youth is changing. Fields being replaced by shopping malls and the death of inner cities and rising crime and unemployment in America. She mourns for the small town she grew up in. Her memories of youth are just that - memories. She realises that childhod and youth never come back. It is an important realisation.

10. Moonlight Mile - (The Rolling Stones) - 1971: For once, Mick Jagger takes a break from playing prime stud and writes a truly beautiful ballad, mourning the death of fellow bandmate Brian Jones and his breakup from the love of his life, Marianne Faithfull. The lyrics in typical Jagger fashion, are opaque and mysterious. The instrumentation is magnificent. For once, Jagger sounds like he means what he is singing. There is real emotion in his voice.

Have a good weekend.