Lola - The Kinks
- Album: Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneyground, Part One (originally released as a single)
- Information: In 1969, Kinks manager Robert Wace went into a nightclub where he spent the night dancing with a black woman...except he was too drunk to realize that she was actually a transvestite until he told him the next morning! Taking this incident, the Davies brothers crafted one of the most memorable tunes in rock, just as notable for the "surprise" as it is for whether or not it was "Coca-Cola" or "cherry cola"...it's the former but the BBC doesn't sell stuff so they changed it to the latter for them.
- Personal Thoughts: Let me start saying this: whenever I hear the opening cords on classic rock radio, I just can't help but turn it off. It's just one of the most overplayed songs by the Kinks, regardless of it's infamy for...that. As for the topic, well...we live in such a confusing period of gender confusion, where men can be women and women can be men and anything is possible (except me getting a girlfriend), you could almost think that somehow Lola could have been a real female...a manly female, but still, a female. Yeah, it's a transvestite and that's what he/she/it is supposed to be but it's just something to think about in this "mixed-up, mumbled-up, shook-up world". As for the song, it does have good production values, and not just in the guitarworks. I notice what sounds like bongos at one point, pianos and a strange crashing sound near the end...it took me a bit to make it out as a guitar but it could have been just ripping your hands against some thin metal wires of any kind. I just do not feel excited for the song probably just because...as beloved as it is, it just never was even one of my favorite Kinks songs. You have to admire their adventurous natures but this song is so played out and just doesn't sound as cool as some of their other songs that I just can't write home about it.
Express Yourself - Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band
- Album: Express Yourself
- Information: One of the most notable and famous song by Charles and his band, it became just as notable due to it's sampling and usage by rap group N.W.A. in 1989.
- Personal Thoughts: Now this is...a strange song. It's very funky in it's guitarwork with a memorable riff, it has great horns, but...somehow it just feels strange from how it's sung. Wright just seems like he's "talking" when it's supposed to be "singing" or just simply expressing himself. It's got a positive feel and it is rather notable, but I just sort of feel weird with Wright's presentation, thus probably always making me feel distant towards it. (though I like his scatting towards the end) BTW: Just the feel of him saying they're "doin' it on the moon"...strange that they were actually on the moon then considering we haven't been back in my lifetime. Shows how much more adventurous we were back then.
Everything's Tuesday - Chairman of the Board
- Album: In Session
- Information: Though not as notable as their major 1970 hit "Give Me Just a Little More Time", this song by the soul act did reach top 40 status and the album this came off of did have a higher rank in Billboard than the one with the more famous hit by the band, though possibly influenced by the former and another song to come later. The B-side to the song was the original version of "Patches", which had been covered with great success by Clarence Carter.
- Personal Thoughts: Who would have thought Tuesday would be a day of such joy and sound...sure the Moody Blues have their own say of the day, but the way this song just gives off a Phil Spector feel that took me off guard considering what I knew of the group made me find a nice surprise with this song. (well OK, it's a name of a girl but it could also be tied to the day itself) The presentation is just so cheerful and celebratory and the lead singer just seems to roll off his tongue with every time he says "everything". It's just a good feel-good song...though it's somewhat a shame it was lost to time.
Out in the Country - Three Dog Night
- Album: It Ain't Easy
- Information: Continuing their success in covering songs by other songwriters (having just scored major success with Randy Newman's "Mama Told Me Not to Come"), this top 20 hit was one of the first successes for up-and-coming songwriter Paul Williams, who collaborated with Roger Nichols on this work as well as another song that would shoot them into the stratosphere.
- Personal Thoughts: Ah, Paul Williams...what can I say about you. Well there is a lot...but this is the first song we've encountered by you so I can't say much yet. (and, taking your advice from your Muppet Show appearance, I'll skip the short jokes...but I do say you were cool in "Smokey and the Bandit") With that said, this song just feels like a later Three Dog Night/Williams collaboration with the way it is presented, right down to the chorus being this similar style of harmony that I hear in that song too. But somehow this feels much more soothing of a song compared to a lot of Three Dog Night songs, complete with what sounds like electric piano sounds that just seems to ease and give off the feel of the county than something strange like "Mama Told Me..." I know that the group does have a way of doing harmony, but somehow the harmony seems to go from song to song...and the way Williams arranges them is different from, say, Randy Newman...or Hoyt Axton...or Leo Sayer.
Long Long Time - Linda Ronstadt
- Album: Silk Purse
- Information: Still trying to find her voice on her own with her second album after departing the Stone Poneys, Rondstadt took the advice of Janis Joplin in bringing in producer Elliot Mazer who assisted her on this country-tinged album. This single, while not charting as high as expected, was her major solo breakthrough and even got Ronstadt nominated for "best solo female vocal performance", which she lost to Dionne Warwick.
- Personal Thoughts: Linda has such a pretty voice...sure she would end up using it in all sorts of other endeavors later in the decade (becoming essentially "the cover artist"), but I just like how she approaches this simple love song. The arrangement is very simple, with the guitar playing alongside her and the violins sort of matching up with her occasionally in a solemn country style (and even a nice musical bridge later on with the strange electronic-sounding sounds sort of binging in but not overwhelming but sort of adding to the violins and the guitar...they wouldn't do that later on in music, I guarantee that). But the centerpiece is Rondstadt and she really does shine in her innocent style with this song.
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