Thank you for the music: Favourite Popular Songs
Who'll Stop The Rain
(John Fogerty/1970) Creedence Clearwater Revival
If, as many contend, Creedence Clearwater Revival was the foremost singles rock band of its time, Cosmo's Factory is the ultimate end-of-the-'60s singles album. John Fogerty wrote some of his best songs for it and it became a best seller which produced no fewer than six top-5 hit singles - "Who'll Stop The Rain", "Up Around The Bend", "I Heard It Through The Grapevine", "Long As I Can See The Light' and "Travellin' Band". A wonderfully uncomplicated folk-rock song with thoughtful lyrics and a great melody, "Who'll Stop The Rain" became almost transcendental as 1970 saw one of the most terrible and traumatic periods of the Vietnam War.
The song makes a debatable political statement that still sends shivers down my spine. My favourite part of the song musically is the delicate tap on the cymbals by Doug 'Cosmo' Clifford in between the fading a-capella vocals of the last verse and the instrumental outro. Drummers take note - the gentlest tap can be the most effective note you play. The similarly titled and themed "Have You Ever Seen The Rain" is another great Creedence classic, which also uses the spaying of the chemical defoliant Agent Orange as its subject. "Have You Ever Seen The Rain" features an organ being pumped through a Leslie speaker, an effect that was very popular in the late 60s/early 70s when the organ was the most used keyboard instrument among rock musicians. The Leslie effect was used by many artists, including Simon & Garfunkel on their hit, "America".
Country Lanes
(Barry, Maurice & Robin Gibb/ 1975) The Bee Gees; The Seekers 1975
The brothers Gibb have written some absolutely wonderful songs over the years in a variety of styles and on a myriad subjects and it is not easy to have to pick out one or two for a list like this. "Country Lanes" was chosen in part because it is my favourite song on Main Course (1975), which is the Bee Gees album I have played the most and that has given me the most listening enjoyment. The album features "Nights On Broadway" and "Jive Taking" that heralded the Bee Gees' move into their disco era and the decade when I stopped listening to them. I stayed away until they returned to making music with substance again. Another reason for "Country Lanes" being among my favourites is because it was recorded by The Seekers when Louisa Wesseling was the group's female singer.
Until "I Am Australian" came along, this song was to me the best thing they'd ever recorded, except perhaps for "A Part Of You", which was also featured on the Giving And Taking album (released June 1976) with "Country Lanes". Louisa has a beautiful voice, every bit as good as Judith Durham's though distinctively different, and she runs rings around Judith when it comes to diction. It's a shame that the two albums she recorded with the boys weren't more successful. I am sure they would have sold much better had she not walking in Judith's shadow.
Our Last Song Together
(Neil Sedaka - Howard Greenfield/1972) Neil Sedaka
This touching ballad was written by Neil Sedaka as a salute to his songwriting partner of over 20 years, Howard Greenfield, when they went their separate ways in 1972. The pair were neighbours as children, Greenfield 's mother heard the thirteen year old Neil Sedaka playing Chopin and sent the then sixteen year old Howard to say, "My mother heard you play and thought we could write a song together". They went on to write many songs which were hits for Sedaka and many other artists in the 1960s. The lyrics of "Our Last Song Together" recall the subjects of many of their collaborations, including little Devils, Sweet Sixteens, Calendar Girls, Cathy's Clown and that "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do", a reference to their biggest hit. This song has a special place in my heart as it recalls a special lady I used to sing with in my younger days and the last song we sang together. Like Neil, I, too, found breaking up was hard to do.
America
(Paul Simon/1968) Simon & Garfunkel
In this song, Paul Simon and his long time girlfriend Kathy Chitty (about whom "Kathy's song" was written) are pictured as touring America. Simon had split from Art Garfunkel after recording two albums; only one had been released and it had flopped. Simon had moved to England but had then received a call to return to the States and re-form the duo as their second album had been re-worked and released and was selling well. Kathy was reluctant to go with him - she eventually stayed in England - because she knew that their relationship would be destroyed if Simon and his singing partner had finally hit the big time. The song was written after Simon's return to the US during such a journey as the one told in the song, but minus Kathy. The lyric contains Simon's thoughts on what that journey would have been like had Kathy joined him, yet he is struggling to come to terms with the empty, aching feeling that came with the fame and success, and the price he had to pay (losing Kathy) to achieve it.
This song displays perfectly Simon's talent for fitting dialogue into song - it takes a talented writer to write an unrhyming poem such as this while maintaining such perfect rhythm, a skill he deonstrated on more than one occasion. The conversation is natural, yet rhythmic, flowing with the music. The song as a whole captures the mood of the time - the late sixties, the hippies and other countercultures trying to find their place in the world. The musical arrangement is superb, with exquisite interplay between bass guitar, organ (through a Leslie speaker), clarinet, drums and acoustic guitar. First released on the Simon & Garfunkel album, Bookends, it stands as one of the finest works of one of America's most intellectual songwriters.
White Flag
(Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O'Malley Armstrong/2002) Dido
Dido wrote her early hit song "Thank You" for her boyfriend Bob Page. The pair were engaged at the time, but by 2002 they had split up. This song, which is full of finely articulated emotion, is about their split and its effect on her. It won the award for Best Single at the 2004 Brit Awards. The video clip features actor David Boreneaz, best known for playing the title role in the TV series Angel, a spin-off from Buffy The Vampire Slayer. "White Flag" is the biggest hit of Dido's career. It is considered one of her signature songs, and helped the album Life for Rent sell over ten million copies worldwide. Dido's lyrics have been described as "not having been written in a poetic way, with a view to the art of songwriting, where you use metaphor, analogy and poetic turns of phrase. You write them down, they're exactly like a conversation."
Dido is a leading player in a musical trend some call "soft girls singing sad songs". Among them are the likes of Delta Goodrem, Norah Jones, Missy Higgins and Katie Melau. Unlike Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, there's no rampant sexuality in this new breed, nor is there the anger and aggression that accompanied the biggest female star of the '90s, Alanis Morissette. These ladies share a mellowness of tone, often will be found at a piano or strumming an acoustic guitar and tend not to be all that successful at either finding or keeping a man.
The Ballad of Lucy Jordan
(Shel Silverstein/1972) Marianne Faithfull; Dr Hook
Ms Faithfull burst onto the pop music scene as the darling of 1960s swinging London with a top hit, a famous boyfriend (Mick Jagger), and extreme beauty and style. But when the sixties came crashing down so did Marianne as she succumbed to heroin addiction that left her living on the streets, with nowhere to turn. Luckily, she came out of her drug-induced haze, pulled her life and career back together and is today one of popular music's true survivors. This songs tells the story of a suburban housewife who is literally is driven crazy by the boredom of her life. Having been to hell and back herself, she knows her subject matter well and gives a compelling, stark rendition of a very powerful and thought provoking song about a place she has been.
The song is one of the more serious compositions of author and magazine writer Shel Silverstein, who contributed songs like 'Cover of Rolling Stone', Sylvia's Mother' and 'I Got Stones And I Missed It' to the country-rock group Dr Hook's repertoire. It was not written for Faithfull as is often thought to be the case - hers is in fact a cover, the original being by Dr Hook on their self-titled second album; they make unusual musical befellows.