The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll, 321-330

It's sad to think of the grunge era, Eddie Vedder one of the few voices still standing.

Les Paul and Mary Ford, How High is the Moon
First time listening. Reminds me of the big band offerings of the Andrews Sisters, but an eclectic mix of bluegrass and rough guitar solos that you'd expect of 60s rock. It's cool and charming.

Pearl Jam, Jeremy
Another instance of living it in real time. The Seattle Sound put alternative rock at the forefront of Gen X generation. We've seen them at Lollapalooza, on tour protesting, not on tour protesting the price gouging of the consumer by Ticketmaster, and of course playing arenas after getting policies to change.

The album Ten was everywhere and I have purchased it more than once. I really should have learned not to put cassettes on my dashboard when my windows are open, as I had a tendency to see my music fly out the window making a left-handed turn. Queen's The Works and The Black Crowes’ Shake Your Moneymaker met similar fates.

The Penguins, Earth Angel
Yes, definitely one of the songs that shaped rock and roll.  A mainstay on any 50s compilation.

Carl Perkins, Blue Suede Shoes, Matchbox
Ringo Starr sang lead on a paltry 11 Beatles songs, yet his version of Matchbox is AWESOME. We visited Memphis in 2002 over the MLK holiday, and toured Sun Records studio and was allowed to hold Carl's microphone.

Pinetop Perkins, Pinetop's Boogie Woogie
Talk about a man who saw it all. This man was born in 1913, and passed in 2011. At the time of his death, he had a 20 performances booked! He knew Robert Johnson, taught countless musicians how to play, made cameos in movies such as The Blues Brothers (naturally), and he won a Grammy in 2008 at the tender age of (doing math) 95. 95!

Peter and Gordon, A World Without Love
Is this entry in tribute to the musical genius of Lennon and McCartney? It feels a little tepid an entry. You can hear all of the early genius but this is just kind of meh.

Peter, Paul, and Mary, If I Had a Hammer
One of my first professors at Ferris was an artistic child prodigy who achieved a masters degree from the School of Visual Arts at 21. She left New York City to teach art to a bunch of smartasses in a tiny lumber town in central northern Michigan, bringing with her all of her Peter, Paul, and Mary tapes. She would play said tapes during our drawing classes, in which we were to render the naked JCPenney's shoe salesman at the center of our circle on newsprint sketchbooks, his appendage dripping with what we hoped was nervous sweat.

In order to distract our brains from the wet penis in front of us, our mumbled conversation was to debate if Puff the Magic Dragon was about drugs. I insisted it was a child's nursery story, while Jeff of my lost weekend, insisted it was about drugs. "C'mon, Little Jacky Paper?!" he crowed, breaking the tension as the entire class burst out laughing.

In my eventful college career, it is the only time I was ever called into my professor's office, as she demanded an apology or else I get kicked out of the program. Amazed she had the stones to threaten such a thing, I countered that there was no lecture at the time, and we were doing our work and the model was more distracting than our conversation. I apologized for my role in the distraction, but contended we were doing our work and there was no mandate for silence as she was playing P, P, & M at the time, and we were engaged in an artistic discussion.

She accepted the weak apology from me. Jeff was not as gracious and told her to blow it out her ass. He remained in the program as well, at least until the end of the year. This rendered her authority useless in her classes, and the rest of our unit ran roughshod over her as a result. The thing about prodigies is they are brilliant, having magic spring from their fingertips. That usually means that magic isn't easy to translate into a lesson plan for instructing those less blessed. She lasted only the year, and the Original Girl from New York returned to Manhattan. I wish you only the best Lori. 

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, American Girl
I grew up on Tom Petty. I remember his first fight with his record company, learning the story from my weekly listening of American Top 40. He found out the record company was going to raise prices of superstar albums a dollar, retailing for $9.98. He threatened to name it "The $8.98 Album" if the company didn't back down. They did. 

He's been Lucky on King of the Hill, a Wilbury, and Stanky in the film Made in Heaven. We've seen them in concert three times, the best at the Van Andel arena where they dragged the song Gloria out for about a half hour. I think I referenced this in a blog post many moons ago. RIP Tom.

Wilson Pickett, In the Midnight Hour
An American standard. I'm not a huge fan of the song but I can't argue with its inclusion.