#1 - Natalie Merchant

It Fits Together

We each have a musician or group that we feel fanatic about--some of us have more than one; the automatic buy when new music is released.  For me, that's Natalie Merchant.

To get a feel for what I mean by this, listen to "It's a-Coming" off Merchant's latest, an album that she wanted to name "The Hunger Banquet", but because of a book/movie blockbuster with a similar title, called..., well, Natalie Merchant.

Her most famous work, 1995's "Tigerlily" contained the commercial hits "Carnival", "Wonder" and "Jealousy", which are still in fairly heavy rotation on many Classic Rock radio stations.

From "Wonder":

"I believe

fate smiled and destiny

laughed as she came to my cradle

"know this child will be able"

laughed as my body she lifted

"know this child will be gifted

with love, with patience

and with faith

she'll make her way"

Honestly, these words, alone, are cause for astonishment; the self-regard that evaporates upon closer inspection, for one thing.  The music, too, is sweepingly majestic; the perfect fit.

To step even further back in time, is to hear Natalie when she was lead singer and wordsmith with 10,000 Maniacs.  As she has said in many interviews, her composing during this period (the early 1980s to the early 1990's) is difficult to isolate from the other members of the band (all male).  On the other hand, some of her first lyrics evoke her trademark effect: astonishment; plus, they are carefree, seemingly stepping on toes (for those who don't understand), and, like a first drink when thirsty, intense.  From her lyrics for "Hey, Jack Keroac":

"You chose your words from mouths of

babes got lost in the wood.

Hip flask slinging madmen,

steamin' cafe flirts,

they all spoke through you."

At first, the music accentuates the second, third and fourth beats, so "...chose your words...", from then on, it pares this back to the first, second and third "Hip flask slinging...".  This minimizing suggests poetry, which is what Keroac and the other Beat Poets were writing.  Another 'it fits'.

And the words themselves?  I'll close with a casual observation:  The movie "Amadeus" appeared in late 1984; the album containing "Hey, Jack Keroac" appeared in mid 1987, and was likely written a year or so earlier.  If I were a songwriter who had happened to view that movie, it might occur to me to consider my own era and whether genius had flowered as it had in Mozart's time.  The title of the album containing "Hey, Jack Keroac" is, after all, "In Our Tribe".

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Each band or performer is graded on four things:
  1.  Innovation
  2.  Influence in my life--as a typical American
  3.  Integrity: the band's approach to music (just making a buck or honing a craft?)  
  4.  Immortality--am I, a typical American--still eager to hear their music

8/7/10/10 = 35 out of a perfect 40

...................................

Maybe:  If I were sitting next to someone special, I can't imagine something more fun than attending a Natalie Merchant concert.

#2 -- The Greatest Rock 'N Roll Band

How To Be The Greatest Rock 'N Roll Band

Personnel: Settle within a year or so on your group's members.

Sound: Play cover songs, initially, then gradually create your own sound based on the current scene around you, honing your craft over time.

Venues: The smaller the better to start.  Become a sensation before moving on to a wider audience.

Narrative: Tackle serious subjects in your songs, things that make you focused and passionate.  Be good friends with other bands and work together on important causes to the point where you, as a band, are ambassadors for good deeds.

Hierarchy: if all members have an equal voice, leadership is muted, but natural.

Musical Direction: Hire musical geniuses to "direct" your work.  Explore genres and styles in this way, making a splash when you release a new collection of recordings.

Internationalize: Incorporate elements of world music and travel broadly.

Energize: Don't be afraid to sound a bit bolder, emotionally, than your musical peers.  Not the over-the-line yelling, screeching and achingly loud music that passes for vibrant; instead, let emotion flow forcefully, when you feel it.

And who's followed this exact path, adding their own native brilliance in developing what is now a recognizable sound--when we hear it, we know that's ??  

....................................

Each band or performer is graded on four things:
  1.  Innovation
  2.  Influence in my life--as a typical American
  3.  Integrity: the band's approach to music (just making a buck or honing a craft?)  
  4.  Immortality--am I, a typical American--still eager to hear their music

8/8/9/10 = 35 out of a perfect 40

...................................

My favorite U2 song?  "She Wore Lemon".

#3 -- Bob Marley and the Wailers

The lion: reggae; pop music, its prey.  

The optimistic view of Bob Marley's career sees a re-imagining of the very basics of rhythm and intonation; a new, old African style that revolutionized popular music.  Heading into the 1980s, the likes of "Punky Reggae Party" with its embrace of punk and rap placed Marley at the very center of innovation, shortly before his untimely death from cancer.

The pessimistic view is that the original 'Wailers' (Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Waller), once they'd gone their separate ways in the early '70s, never regained their original genius as individual acts, probably due to an over-indulgence in ganga.

Rastafari creed, the belief in a living god that can be known through assisted meditation, likewise, falls somewhere in-between; between an optimistic and a pessimistic reading: endearing myth or first step toward yon crackpot.  

If we know anything, however, we know that Marley's music feels like a clear-eyed wake up following something momentous the night before.  On first hearing, its virtues were self-evident to our amazed ears.  Little has changed.

TIME magazine famously named Marley and the Wailers the greatest act of the 20th Century.  Maybe.

....................................

Each band or performer is graded on four things:
  1.  Innovation
  2.  Influence in my life--as a typical American
  3.  Integrity: the band's approach to music (just making a buck or honing a craft?)  
  4.  Immortality--am I, a typical American--still eager to hear their music

10/8/7/10 = 35 out of a perfect 40

...................................

Hocus Pocus Quote:  "This is for all those out there with a residual hand over one eye--and for those who've never tried seeing the world, in focus, with just one eye."

# 4 -- Surprise

Come Back Step

That's right, #4 is a surprise.  In their own words:

"I'm Uncle Sam, 

that's who I am.

Been hiding out 

in a rock 'n roll band."

In combining the following attributes, they became literally great:

* The most concert-goers, ever: 25 million over 30 years

* Lyricists to compose the words that some--myself included--consider the best in Rock

* A cult following that developed by word-of-mouth to become one of Rock's most famous

* The broadest playlist: approximately 500 songs played, 100 of those often, and probably Rock's greatest variety of genres:

Songs and their genres: 

40. One More Saturday Night -- Party

39. Mexicali Blues -- Cantina

38. Box of Rain -- Folk

37. Loose Lucy -- Soul

36. Picasso Moon -- Arthouse

35. Dark Star – Space 

34. Estimated Prophet -- Reggae

33. Cumberland Blues -- Bluegrass

32. Victim or the Crime - Avant Garde

31. Not Fade Away -- Rock Standard

30. To Lay Me Down – Prayer

29. Me and My Uncle -- Ballad

28. Big River – Swing

27. Playing In The Band -- Self-referential

26. Brown-Eyed Women -- Historical

25. Promised Land – Early Rock
24. US Blues - Patriotic

23. Wharf Rat – Christian

22. Iko Iko – Cajun
21. St. Stephen – Medieval
20. Peggy-O – Traditional
19. New Speedway Boogie – Rap
18. Sampson & Delilah – Spiritual
17. El Paso – Tex-Mex

16. Turn On Your Love Light – R&B
15. Shakedown Street – Disco

14. Blues For Allah – Arabist

13. Sugar Magnolia / Sunshine Daydream - Nature

12. Feel Like A Stranger – Punk

11. Casey Jones - Railroad

10. Jack Straw – Cowboy
9. Fire On The Mountain – Pacific Island
8. Mississippi Half-step Uptown Toodleloo – Ragtime
7. Sugaree -- Waltz

6. China Cat Sunflower – Asian
5. Eyes of the World – Jazz
4. Terrapin Station – Scottish

3. Alabama Getaway - Boogie-woogie

2. Stella Blue – Blues

1. Tennesse Jed – Country

(Included in that 500 songs were 82 covers of others’ work; in the above list:  #16: Deadric Malone & Joseph Scott, #17: Marty Robbins, #18: traditional, #22: Dr. John, #25: Chuck Berry,  #28: Johnny Cash, #29: John Phillips, and #31: Buddy Holly).

The reason they're a surprise is that they intentionally avoided the limelight.  This meant that the hit-maker machinery was turned off for the most part (they had minor hits with "Ripple", "Truckin'" and "Touch of Grey"), and the focus was instead on the improvisation and group-mind fusion that is live performance. Rather than a set play-list, practiced over-and-over, they emphasized timeliness, choosing appropriate songs as the mood struck.  But that’s life at its best--and when you think about it, true creative freedom.

And the critical recognition will come, eventually.  Songs that, when recorded, deserved to be heard by a wider audience, like "Bertha", "Scarlet Begonias", and "Ramble On Rose", to name a few, will, at an adequate historical distance, shine brightly. When all is said and done, the un-hyped public demeanor, as well as the excess paraphernalia of the times--shocking to some and cautionary to be sure--will sink into irrelevancy, as did lack of self-promotion and the personal foibles of past musical greats, from our country’s jazz pioneers back through Beethoven.

....................................

Each band or performer is graded on four things:
  1.  Innovation
  2.  Influence in my life--as a typical American
  3.  Integrity: the band's approach to music (just making a buck or honing a craft?)  
  4.  Immortality--am I, a typical American--still eager to hear their music

10/7/9/9 = 35 out of a perfect 40

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Behind the Curtain: And who is this band that on September 16, 1978 performed at the Egyptian pyramids–the only rock act to have ever done so? The Grateful Dead.

#5 - The Rolling Stones

Knowing What You Like

The 55 Stones tunes I know well enough to rank--presented in chronological order--with #1 their best ever:

Rank    Title               Year

(bonus #56--songs written by others): It's All Over Now, and Carol - 1964

#36.  Heart of Stone - 1964

#27.  Play with Fire - 1965 

#48.  The Last Time

#50.  Satisfaction

#54.  Get Off of My Cloud

#47.  As Tears Go By

#13.  19th Nervous Breakdown

#43.  Paint it Black - 1966

#29.  Mother's Little Helper

#31.  Lady Jane

#24.  * Under My Thumb***

#12.  Have you Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow

#22.  Let's Spend the Night Together - 1967

#26.  Ruby Tuesday

#44.  Dandelion

#21.  She's a Rainbow

#15.  2000 Light Years from Home

#49.  Jumpin' Jack Flash - 1968

#23.  Street Fighting Man

#42.  Sympathy for the Devil - 1969

#33.  Midnight Rambler***

#18.  * Monkey Man

#37.  * Honky Tonk Women

#52.  You Can't Always Get What You Want

#38.  Brown Sugar*** - 1971

#55.  Wild Horses

#6.  Can't You Hear Me Knocking

#4.  Bitch

#32.  Sister Morphine

#30.  Dead Flowers

#2.  * Moonlight Mile

#19.  Gimme Shelter

#10.  Rip This Joint  - 1972

#11.  Tumbling Dice 

#53.  Sweet Virginia***

#35.  Sweet Black Angel

#28.  Happy

#45.  Rocks Off 

#41.  Dancing with Mr. D - '1973

#14.  Angie

#3.  Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)

#9.  It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It) - 1974

#8.  Time Waits for No One

#16.  Fool to Cry - 1976

#5.  Miss You - 1978

#46.  When the Whip Comes Down

#34.  Some Girls

#7.  Beast of Burden

#39.  Shattered

#17.  Emotional Rescue - 1980

#40.  She's So Cold

#20.  Start Me Up - 1981

#1.  Waiting On A Friend

#25.  Hang Fire - '82

#51.  Rock and a Hard Place - 1989

* notable intro.s

*** lyrics that detract

....................................

Each band or performer is graded on four things:
  1.  Innovation
  2.  Influence in my life--as a typical American
  3.  Integrity: the band's approach to music (just making a buck or honing a craft?)  
  4.  Immortality--am I, a typical American--still eager to hear their music

9/9/8/9 = 35 out of a perfect 40

...................................

Overall: Judged solely by how long they've lasted, maybe 'the greatest' title is appropriate.  

#6 -- The Beatles

Come Together (fantasy)

A day in the life of a typical American, nearly 50 years after The Beatles' disbanding, still involves a good chance of hearing or reading about them; which is all one need consider when judging their greatness.  

There's a place for a fresh face in our pantheon of 14 immortals, but this isn't it (that space will open up soon, however, as we approach #1).

Something about the Beatles is so adorable ("I Want To Hold Your Hand") and yet so revolutionary ("Yellow Submarine") that there's been a tendency to date the decline of civilization to 1970 and their breakup.  Why the strong feeling?

Because they knew when to quit; even though the follow-up question is still 'why'?  Why'd it happen that way?

Help  in deciphering The Beatles journey from wise-cracking band-of-brothers to estranged break-up is found, I'd suggest, in what happened between '65 and '69.  What had been their slightly longish hair became decidedly uncut.  What had been their attempt at being 'pop' became absolute cutting edge.  What had been songs about love and loss became "I Am The Walrus".  So what makes people inward-looking, slightly at a loss socially, detached from prescribed behavior?  One Majestic Jest on a magical mystery tour, indeed.

I will merely say that if The Beatles were their 1965 selves in '69 they might have seen a way forward.  They might have taken a good many years off to pursue their own projects and relationships, remained friends who occasionally joked over the phone, gotten together for special charity fundraisers, and told the world they'd make one more record, but didn't know just when.  My guess is that the prospect of a future reunion, code-named, perhaps, "One After 909", might have kept them all alive until something like the turn of the century, when they could've put everything into that one more recording.   But then, I've always liked the line "...tomorrow may rain, so I'll follow the sun".  Exit left.  So, perhaps this press release could simply never have been:

"Let-It-Be Studios, London, April 9th, 1999, The Beatles' entered the studio today, three decades after their last recording session, to begin work on what will be their final studio album with an expected release date of new year's day 2001"

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Each band or performer is graded on four things:
  1.  Innovation
  2.  Influence in my life--as a typical American
  3.  Integrity: the band's approach to music (just making a buck or honing a craft?)  
  4.  Immortality--am I, a typical American--still eager to hear their music

10/8/9/8 = 35 out of a perfect 40

...................................

Lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds --> 12-year-old birthday boy:  The very first rock 'n roll record I ever owned was Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. 

#7 -- The Band

Word Of Mouth

These days we call it 'buzz'.  In the late 1960s an unpublished, buzzworthy recording of songs, taped by Bob Dylan and The Band in their Woodstock-area basement, "went viral", as we would say today.  Fellow musicians, upon listening to these Basement Tapes, were so enthralled that they passed the music along to other musicians, influencing many of Rock's most popular acts, years before a public release.

The music was eerily familiar, but like little else being recorded at the time.  Its familiarity was due to it being 'roots' music: a songbook that Americans of a hundred years before might have felt comfortable with...except for the rock 'n roll adaptation.

Eventually, the backing ensemble behind the basement tapes, The Band, were recognized as headliners in their own right, recording musical Americana well into the mid-'70s.  Their highlighting of strong suits within pop music's historical record is what makes The Band not only one of our immortal top-14 stars, but ushers in the redemption of popular itself.  As with all great art, if one honors, with thorough study, those who have gone before, and if one adds something new to that foundation, it's hard to go wrong, and indeed, quite easy for 'buzz' to eventually find you.

Getting down to their songs, here's the first number of theirs I ever heard--as a high schooler listening in on AM radio: "Up On Cripple Creek"  

"Now me and my mate were back at the shack, 

we had Spike Jones on the box;

She said 'I can't take the way he sings, 

but I love to hear him talk'.

Well that just gave my heart a throb

to the bottom of my feet,

and I swore as I took another pull

my Bessie can't be beat!"

The song is carefree, light-hearted and whimsical.  The lyrics paint vivid scenes.  There's great fun being had.  There're even hidden levels of understanding one can sink one's teeth into on subsequent hearings.  For example, it's quite natural for someone to say "I can't take the way he sings, but I love to hear him talk" and actually be referring to a companion who is present.  That the music is Spike Jones obscures this second story delightfully.  It's these multiple layers and overall solidity, that make the musical styling itself--what might be 'rock 'n roll' as tipsy stumble--many times more powerful than the artless power chord and high-decible summons to recklessness that often passes for 'real' rock 'n roll.

....................................

Each band or performer is graded on four things:
  1.  Innovation
  2.  Influence in my life--as a typical American
  3.  Integrity: the band's approach to music (just making a buck or honing a craft?)  
  4.  Immortality--am I, a typical American--still eager to hear their music

8/9/10/8 = 35 out of a perfect 40

...................................

A second take:  As with the second story in the Spike Jones example, the iconic "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" seems to be lamenting the fall of the South in the civil war, until one considers the chorus:  "and all the bells were ringing."  Which, I would suggest, would be nigh impossible, or at least unlikely, for a bombed city in defeat, but all but certain in every major city of that era in the North, as word of war's end spread via church bells and of course ...the buzz that is word of mouth.