All Right Now - Free
- Album: Fire and Water
- Information: The best known single by the band headed by Paul Rodgers, the writing of the song has been rather disputed: bassist Andy Fraser and Rodgers were stated to have collaborated on it according to Free drummer Simon Kirke, while Rodgers himself claimed he wrote them on his own. An engineer on this song, Roy Thomas Baker, ultimately became an engineer for many of Queen's greatest hits, of which Rodgers has headed for a period since the death of Freddie Mercury.
- Personal Thoughts: This song really needs no introduction: you pretty much know what it is from that introductory guitar riff and Rodger's "woah woah woah"! But one thing that I find more subtle about it is that slight percussion in the background you can hear if you listen closely, particularly when Rodgers isn't singing, sounding like the clink of metal but not really a cowbell. Sure the drumming on the song is prominent, but that clink just gives off more a percussion feel than that. (it really becomes rather notable once you get past the second stanza) One feeling I always felt about this song is it's one of those that has to be heard fully as opposed to cut off like a lot of classic rock radio does with it, including the rerun of the introductory guitar riff and the slight adjustment of the way the song is said by the lead, that weird "Love!?" that Rodgers does towards the end and the drumroll-esque ending. Without that, it doesn't feel like the full version of the song, almost like I'm expecting it!
Neanderthal Man - Hotlegs
- Album: Thinks: School Stinks (originally released as a single)
- Information: Born from the ashes of The Mindbenders, Hotlegs consiseted of former member Eric Stewart as well as his friends Kevin Godley and Lol Creme and named after a girl who, literallly, had hot legs with her hot pants. This song was originally made to test drum sounds on recording equipment, but the strange sounds released from the song lead to the song's release and major success in Britain with minor success in the US. The band would ultimately evolve with the full-time joining of Grahamn Gouldman allowing it to become it's next incarnation: 10cc.
- Personal Thoughts: Let's start with this: these lyrics are...weird. Who the heck would sing about neanderthals anyway...let alone Neanderthal sex? (trust me, I doubt any female would look anything like what you'd see on The Flintstones) With that, there is a really simple beat with the song, but the drumming does seem rather prominent...at least in the version I heard. The thump of the beat just thrusts right out directly and, after a while, it just gets all weird with strange electronic sounds with the chorus, the build-up of a crashing cymbal along with the flute and what sounds like a clock near the end...it's tough to say it really is something I think of when I think of 10cc I admit but that's because it's..just weird. (though tough to say if it's intentional like say the Beatles or Zappa)
Peace Will Come (According to Plan) - Melanie
- Album: Leftover Wine
Information: Strangely this single, the only notable one of this album and a minor top 40 success, was the only studio-recorded song on the album: this was a live Melanie album that was recorded at Carnagie Hall outside this single.
Personal Thoughts: Ironic: I couldn't find a studio recording for this song but found a live one...and yet this was the studio song of the album! With that said, it is a rather contemplative song, very much of the time and very much Melanie for the period sort of like "Candle in the Wind", only way less bombastic. Though...I get things having reasons for why they happen but to say it all is "according to plan" is strange, especially with peace...and all the social and economic and societal matter that just make peace sometimes way harder than just saying "I want it". Yeah, I want world peace too but that can feel impossible when it's tough for even people in the same place to agree on something. One can hope though.
Joanne - Michael Nesmith & The First National Band
- Album: Magnetic South
- Information: The first and most notable solo single by the former member of the Monkees, the song and the album is off of is considered by many to be a definitive work in the early days of the country-rock movement. Nesmith would parody this song as "Rodan" on a compilation known as "Elephant Parts", which won the first award for "best music video".
- Personal Thoughts: From the twang and the almost yodeling sound of the lead, you can really not tell this was a former member of the Monkees. I'm not saying we're listening to Johnny Cash or Waylon Jennings, but it is a rather soothing song from it's tone and it's twangingness. I really do like Nesmith stepping out and doing something like this to separate himself away from his former musical life. Though listening to the lyrics does shows a bit of tender heartbreak with what feels a bit like a forbidden love...it is a song I would want to listen to again to try and figure it out, I think.
I'm Your Captain (Closer to Home) - Grand Funk Railroad
- Album: Closer to Home
- Information: The longest ever recording by the Flint, Michigan band, the song was cmposed in the compound binary form and started with an electric riff that switched to an acoustic guitar for the first movement, speaking of a mutiny by the crew of a ship towards their captain before the more hopeful second half of the captain's approach towards home, some of whom state is a metaphor for the American involvement in the Vietnam War or closer to Homer's Odyssey.
- Personal Thoughts: It's really tough for me to say that the introductory guitar is metal...sure it's electric in sound but the background music tied to it just feels so soothing as if it is leading to the meat of the song that you're not really thinking of it as a metal song...or maybe it's just misinterpretation of the information for the song. With that said, I've always liked this song, both from the sound of desperation as echoed by lead singer Mark Farner and the guitar work. The bass and drums really do a good job in working together with the song as do the strange reverberations of guitar.But somehow like many long epics (akin to a "Stairway to Heaven"), this song just has a really well-built structure to it, starting with the initial pleas, then moving to a movement regarding the bargaining of the captain and back to the pleas until the second-half where he is finally going on, with his vocals reflected back and forth with a flute almost inviting him to reach back to where he is safe, away from the madness of sea. (even with the briney deep washing and waving through your ears with the pleas going on at the same time) I even like the nice touch of it speeding up and what sounds more like the broader sounds of a pan pipe towards the conclusion of the song joined by strings. Admittedly, this song never seems to get the respect it deserves...then again it's probably because of Grand Funk Railroad's later works but let's not go there yet.
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