A YouTube page loaded with Blossom Dearie videos had one video of the Grateful Dead playing some song I like from a 1978 concert. That video’s page was loaded with Dead performances from the late ’70s. It was good to watch a few of their performances from a period before they get really bloated and bad, as I feel they are whenever I watch clips from the ’80s.
Anyhow, I started clicking on videos of well-known Dead song titles that I wasn’t sure I actually could match a tune with. For instance, I am as adept as anyone around here at dropping a sarcastic “Scarlet Begonias” reference, but truth be told I never really know what tune goes with that song title. I just listened to it about 15 minutes ago, and I’ve already forgotten the tune, although it’s one I will recognize next time I hear it.
Then I saw a clip promising a song called “Franklin’s Tower.” I knew this was another famous Dead song title, but I had NO idea how the tune went with that song title…or did I?
Hell, I thought to myself as soon as Jerry kicked into the opening chords, I know this song! You mean to tell me it’s not called “Roll Away the Dew”?!?!
What’s a tune you knew well for many years before finally piecing it together with its actual song title?
…and I’m finally getting to check out that Anthem of the Sun record:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9by0Yhlrns
I always knew there was a song called “Metal Guru” by T.Rex, because I’d seen it referenced so many times. I used to think, for such a famous song, it’s weird that I’ve never heard it.
Then the other day, when I heard that classic, inoffensive ditty “Mary Lou, Is it You” by those same glamsters, I paid attention just a tiny bit closer and noticed a slight stutter when Bolan sang Mary Lou. Holy shit!, said I. THAT’s Metal Guru???
This is more of a misheard lyrics deal, but it also seems to fit this thread.
Yes, that’s a good example.
For years I could never put together the title and the tune of Led Zeppelin’s “Four Sticks.” The day I finally did I thought I’d retain that connection. Today I have once again lost it. Zeppelin was the master at non-obvious song titles.
I think Communication Breakdown is about the only Led Zep title I can remember.
One of the good things about being able to carry a tune is that you don’t have to remember the name of anything. Now if it can’t be hummed or air-guitarred, I’m probably not going to like it anyway.
I’d hate to be pinned down to naming my favorite Chopin nocturne. What the hell number would it be?
New Order is a band that I can never put the title to songs I know — it wasn’t until somebody covered it that I got it that Love Vigilantes is that anti-war song they do.
RIGHT ON! I have been tempted to download the one New Order song I wouldn’t mind having on my iPod, but I have no idea what the title is. They go into some stuff about blue eyes and green eyes or what not. And is that the same song that has a part that goes, “I’m not the kind of guy to tell you just what you’re supposed to do…”? Perhaps New Order falls under the category of Bands Whose Entire Catalog Could Have Been Reduced to One Long Song Covering All Their Best Tricks (see Grateful Dead, although that documentary I watched late last night on their progression from some experimental album to American Beauty put the band in a new, more understandable light for me).
The “blue eyes, green eyes” New Order song is “Temptation,” one of my favorite songs of ever.
The “I’m not the guy” song is “Age of Consent.”
Thank you. Maybe I need to get them both.
The Clash: Train in Vain. For years I knew that only as the other Stand By Me song.
Right! Odd title plus a hidden track on original pressings of London Calling — I remember trying to find it after I heard it on the radio. Best hidden track ever?
Probably is, funoka. I can’t recall if we ever did a Once and For All on the subject.
I can’t remember “Temptation” for the life of me. New Order is the band that confuses me the most with songs.
I know Black Sabbath isn’t particularly cool around here, but I’m from the midwest and they’re just perfect sometimes. But I can never remember which song N.I.B. is. I know it’s one of their monster riffs that brings the house down in concert, but I can never remember what it is. It’s the “My name is Lucifer, please take my hand” one, and I’ll forget that by morning.
I always liked Anthem of the Sun, but never quite realized how bizarrely ambitious it was until I saw that documentary. Wasn’t there a discussion about how they wanted the sound of “Heavy Air” during a silent moment on the recording. Funny thing, when you hear the record, you’ll recognize that moment right away. I’m not thinking you’ll really like it, but you may appreciate the first side, which is an absurdly ambitious suite with overlapping live performances included almost like a sonic collage element. The second half meanders and ends with a long feedback section.
Yeah, what they played during the doc didn’t knock my socks off, but I liked the fact that they consciously tried to do stuff that was out there. I liked and could relate to their odd ways of trying to describe what they were hearing in their heads. As the doc progressed and they “grew up,” or however Phil and Bob put it, I also appreciated and related to what their music meant to them as a band of brothers. Lesh said something about how they aspired to each be a finger on the same hand. I dig those kinds of group aspirations. That’s a big part of how I relate to music. Hearing them talk about that stuff – and I could see people calling that stuff “shit” – made me feel something about what I was hearing. I felt an empathy for their efforts, even if I still only liked the same couple of songs. Watching it was very cool from a human standpoint, and I also thought of my Deadhead friends through the years and how well the band stands for a big part of who they are. I don’t think it’s any more a pose than the pose I take based on the musicians I identify with.
I’m currently reading a Garcia bio and am at the part where they recorded Anthem of the Sun. It’s pretty interesting. They had no idea what they were doing in the studio and were just figuring out how to write songs so they were just trying anything that popped into their heads. For all of my time spent listening to the Dead in a previous life, I had never heard Anthem until yesterday when I listened to it on youtube. What a train wreck. Today, I’m going to listen to Aoxomoxoa or the first time. My expectations are set very low, but at least this one seems to have actual songs on it.
This is a rally innarresting item: the cover of the Anthem album that was released hadn’t yet been completed when the record was pressed. Here’s the backstory and the completed totem:
http://www.billzart.net/showcase.php?gallery=anthem