Even though my daughter seems to have outgrown Yertle the Turtle, I most assuredly have not.
As a huge fan of Dr. Seuss, I was rather interested in this blog post by Chuck Miller: Don’t cry because you thought he said it. Smile because he didn’t. It dispels the myth that Dr. Seuss had uttered some trite thing, for which he had been attributed, just like pictures of late Andy Rooney and Ronald Reagan are posted all over Facebook with pithy quotes that they did not say.
There are plenty of things he DID say that are worthwhile. So much so that, even though my daughter seems to have outgrown Yertle the Turtle, I most assuredly have not. While we let her cull her book collection, the Wife and I have reclaimed some of the books that she’s given a pass on. Maybe she’ll rediscover them; maybe not. Oh, and that copy of Bartholomew and the Oobleck was MINE in the first place!
Still remember my father walking by and hearing, “We forsake you, gonna rape you, let’s forget you better still,” and surmised that he was thinking, “What IS that boy listening to?”
Also used for Round 15 of ABC Wednesday, W is for The Who.
The Who’s lead singer hits the big seven-oh. The first album I had of the group was Tommy, which is why it dominates my personal chart. While I heard them on the radio, I didn’t own the earlier hits until the collection Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy (MBBB).
The Top 10 are pretty solidly on the list, but some of the second 10 could probably be replaced by others. No live versions with one, probably predictable, exception.
I just ODed on Stairway to Heaven, I’m afraid. Still leaving it off the list would be an injustice.
Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page
Noticed that, of the 18 folks inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame more than once, the list includes Crosby, Stills, Nash AND Young; three Beatles; and three guitarists for the Yardbirds: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page.
Since I never bought a Yardbirds album until after the group broke up, I wasn’t really familiar with Page until the group that evolved from the Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, came out with its first album in 1969.
Here’s an interesting, and applicable, quote of Jimmy Page about what “he wanted Led Zeppelin to be, from the very beginning: “‘I had a lot of ideas from my days with The Yardbirds. The Yardbirds allowed me to improvise a lot in live performance and I started building a textbook of ideas that I eventually used in Zeppelin. In addition to those ideas, I wanted to add acoustic textures. Ultimately, I wanted Zeppelin to be a marriage of blues, hard rock, and acoustic music topped with heavy choruses – a combination that had never been done before. Lots of light and shade in the music.”
And so it was.
I’ve already discussed my affection for, and irritation with, Zeppelin, especially Page and vocalist Robert Plant, so I guessed I’d list my 20 favorite songs by the group, not the best ones necessarily. Except…
Strange that my affection for songs by Led Zeppelin usually depends on what I’ve listened to most recently. Except for the #20 song, the ranking here is fairly arbitrary.
Links are to all songs, which WERE working at the time of compilation. Citations are to the albums I, II, III, IV, Physical Graffiti (PG), and Houses of the Holy (HotH)
20. Stairway to Heaven (IV) – yeah, I know that it has that building energy, a great Page guitar intro, it’s technically impressive. But I just ODed on it, I’m afraid. Still leaving it off the list would be an injustice. You would think it was released as a single, but oddly, only as a promo.
19. Houses of the Holy (PG). Strangely left off the Houses of the Holy album, it shows up on the next album. I find the beat seems to change on me. Something about the groove is infectious.
18. Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You (I) – starts off as a sweet song, actually, that reportedly is a paean to Joan Baez, who had recorded a version. Then moves to the more plaintive, driving sections. Back and forth – think I like the schizoid nature of the performance.
17. Celebration Day (III) – bluesy in an off-balanced manner.
16. Trampled Under Foot (PG) – lives on the funky bottom. This was released as a single and actually got to #38 in 1975.
15. Immigrant Song (III) – a slab of unrelenting metal that starts a generally more quiet and reflective album. Notably, it has no guitar solo, which allowed it to be released as a single and get up to #16 in early 1971.
14. Gallows Pole (III) – I knew this song first as performed by Leadbelly. Love the guitar, and the musical interlude.
13. Rock and Roll (IV) – actually a loud blues number, and often used as the band’s concert opener. Only got to #47 as a single in 1972.
12. The Ocean (HotH)- a great outlet for the bass/drum combo of John Paul Jones and John Bonham.
11. Black Dog (IV) – “Hey hey, mama, said the way you move, gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove.” Went to #15 in early 1972.
10. In My Time of Dying (PG) – rather like putting church through the heavy metal grinder. At 11 minutes, their longest song
9. Whole Lotta Love (II) – a great hook, great vocals. Nicked a Willie Dixon song, which wasn’t uncommon for them. Tom Skulan of FantaCo used to describe the pronunciation of his last name from the second line of this song, “I’m gonna send ya back to schoolin'”. Their biggest single, it went to #4 in the beginning of 1970.
7. The Battle of Evermore (IV) – a softer side of the group, with a mandolin (I think), which would have fit on the third album.
6. How Many More Times (I) – it’s a fascinating pastiche of rocking blues, which segues into some psychedelic thing. I remember my copy of the original LP listed the running time as 3:30, reportedly so that radio DJs would play it before realizing it was five minutes longer.
5. Kashmir (PG) – it has this exotic sound, peculiar meter, awash with strings and horns. I’ve seen this song on lists of the best LZ song, and it may well be.
3. Good Times, Bad Times (I) – the first song from the first album hooked me instantly. As a single in 1969, before the album was released, it got only to #80 on the charts.
2. Friends (III) – this is the second song on the album after Immigrant Song suggested that the group was going to have another album rather like the first two. Instead, they went into a more melodic direction which led to the album being their worst seller. But I always liked it a lot.
1. Four Sticks (IV) – the song drives about in hypnotic fashion, changing time signatures frequently, from 5/4 to 6/8 to who knows what. The lyrics are banal, but it’s the beat that hooked me.
For someone once best known for the misunderstood song Short People, Randy Newman has had a not bad career.
Did I ever tell my “I sorta met Randy Newman” story? Probably.
I was at the Poughkeepsie, NY train station in mid-May 2000, returning from a conference. There was a guy at the station, with a woman and two children, and he looked very much like Randy Newman. So I walked over to him, and said, “Excuse me.” And he said, “Randy Newman.”
This is what I wanted to say: “Wow, I’ve loved your music ever since [the #1 song, below.] I sure hope you get that Oscar you deserve [he has since gotten two, in twenty nominations]. You know, that damn song on Toy Story 2[When Somebody Loved Me [LISTEN], written by Newman, sung by Sarah McLaughlin] made me cry! I even like you in those Band-Aid commercials [he was appearing in at the time].”
But I was so thrown off by his response that all I said was, “Oh, OK.” Ah, a treppenwitz moment.
For someone once best known for the misunderstood song Short People [LISTEN], not a bad career.
Here are 10 songs:
10. You Can Leave Your Hat On [LISTEN]– Sail Away (1972). It is a song that sounds sexy when performed by someone like Joe Cocker but seems somewhat sordid when Newman does it.
9. Feels Like Home [LISTEN] -Harps and Angels (2008). This was originally performed by Bonnie Raitt on his 1995 Faust album, but I’m glad he decided to perform it himself. He’s ambivalent about the tune becoming a wedding favorite.
8. Potholes[LISTEN] – Harps and Angels (2008). The song is based on an embarrassing true story told about Newman by one of his loved ones to another.
7. I’m Dreaming[LISTEN] -free download (2012). “With lyrics from the viewpoint of a voter who casts his ballot solely based on skin color, the song draws attention to something Newman has noticed and written about for 40 years: racism in America.”
6. Rednecks[LISTEN] -Good Old Boys (1974). Wikipedia describes this as “a simultaneous satire on institutional racism in the Deep South and the hypocrisy of the northern states in response.”
5. It’s Money I Love[LISTEN] – Born Again (1979). Bluesy tune that may have been the best song on that album.
4. I Love LA [LISTEN] – Trouble in Paradise (1983): Is this Newman’s affection for Los Angeles, or sarcasm? Maybe both.
3. Louisiana 1927[LISTEN] – Good Old Boys (1974). After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, this became an unofficial hymn of the disaster, covered by several artists.
2. Dixie Flyer[LISTEN] – Land of Dreams (1988). A look at his childhood, one of his early attempts at autobiography.
1. Political Science [LISTEN]– Sail Away (1972). 40 years after it was released, still a stinging indictment of American xenophobia, all in two minutes.
My sister Marcia has been posting a number of photos on Facebook. Most of them were pictures I remember but hadn’t viewed in many years. Then there is this one; I’d never seen it before, as far as I can recall.
My mom married my dad when she was 23, and I suspect this shot predates that, but I have no idea of the provenance of the photo. Who took it? What was the occasion? I may never know. She does look lovely.
Gertrude (Trudy) Elizabeth Green, nee Williams, would have been 86 today.
As a huge fan of Dr. Seuss, I was rather interested in this blog post by Chuck Miller: Don’t cry because you thought he said it. Smile because he didn’t. It dispels the myth that Dr. Seuss had uttered some trite thing, for which he had been attributed, just like pictures of late Andy Rooney and Ronald Reagan are posted all over Facebook with pithy quotes that they did not say. 
