Louis Armstrong - West End Blues
Listening for the first time. Found out this was recorded June 28, 1928 so 92 years ago. I feel like I should be drinking something sweet and ice cold on a veranda, in the shade. What a Wonderful World is more popular, but this speaks to me. I'm glad this is on the list. One youtube poster: Lou's as cool as the other side of the pillow. True dat.
Arrested Development - Tennessee
This was a jam when I was in college. I remember them winning all the Grammys, and they were going to be the next big thing. Then... nothing. IIRC, they were hip-hop activists. The lyrics to this song were devastating then, devastating 30 years later. It's a great song, and my God, haven't we as a society learned anything YET?! Absolutely deserves to be here.
B-52s - Rock Lobster
I do love me some B-52s. I have seen them twice, once in Las Vegas where they got pissed at the lame crowd and in Muskegon where we partied our asses off. I could argue with the fact there's only one B's record on this list. But if there's only one, why this one? I guess I understand this is the song that created an indie college party band genre, but they have so many fun songs. I guess you go with what started it all.
LaVern Baker - Jim Dandy
WHY am I only hearing this song for the first time in 2020? This was a hit in 1956! I need to learn more about LaVern Baker. Wiki glance, aw she's pretty. She worked in the music industry right up to 1995, and passed away in 1997. She toured with the USO, worked on soundtrack albums. She's cool.
Hank Ballard and the Midnighters - Work with me Annie
You had me at doo-wop. It's a fun song. Generationally, maybe I miss the ground-breaking part of it. I can't imagine what it would have sounded like in 1954. Fun fact: Hank's cousin is Florence Ballard, of the Supremes. Lots of musical star power here.
The Band - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down and The Weight
The Last Waltz is one of the ultimate "must see" rock documentaries out there. And the performance of Evangeline with Emmylou Harris is just beyond. The Weight? Yes. Dixie? Meh.
The Beach Boys - California Girls, Don't Worry Baby, and God Only Knows
You have to understand, by time I was aware of The Beach Boys, they were a nostalgia band doing the county fair circuit who happened upon a hit 20 years past their relevance by including a song about a sleepy town in Indiana that sounded like a beach resort on a shitty movie soundtrack.
That said, California Girls drips with sunshine, and we Northern girls wept just a little that while we kept the boys warm at night, we still weren't from the West coast. The harmonies in Don't Worry Baby are lush. And God Only Knows is a masterpiece.
The next post continues with the brilliance of Brian Wilson, and brings on the Fabs.
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