Tag Archives: Rock

Music

38: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Elton John)

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Album: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Artist: Elton John
Year: 1973

1. Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
2. Candle in the Wind
3. Bennie and the Jets
4. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
5. This Song Has No Title
6. Grey Seal
7. Jamaica Jerk-Off
8. I’ve Seen That Movie Too
9. Sweet Painted Lady
10. The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909-34)
11. Dirty Little Girl
12. All the Girls Love Alice
13. Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock ‘n’ Roll)
14. Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting
15. Roy Rogers
16. Social Disease
17. Harmony

Most double-albums contain a lot of filler and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is no exception. Thankfully, the filler is mostly okay and the rest is excellent, so Elton gets the only double-album for this countdown.

Funeral for a Friend is a risky way to begin the album, being an instrumental, but it segues into the appropriately titled Love Lies Bleeding, a classic rocker. They combine for an epic anthem that make you feel like you’ve played an entire album when it’s over, only there’s sixteen songs left. Things stay strong from there with the superior version of Candle in the Wind. I don’t really care about Marilyn Monroe, but it’s a touching tribute nonetheless. Bennie and the Jets has grown on me over the years, mostly thanks to the song’s unique rhythm. And then you have my favorite song by Elton, the title track. The melody is insanely gorgeous, and the lyric is a unique view of the city mouse/country mouse dichotomy. Only Elton can sing “horny back toad” in a ballad and get away with it.

It’s hard for the rest of the album to match the intensity of the first four songs, but it does its best. This Song Has No Title doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but it’s quite catchy. Grey Seal has a pleasant pop melody. And I don’t even mind Jamaica Jerk-Off, despite my general dislike of the classic Jamaican beat. It leaves be with a better taste, anyway, than I’ve Seen That Movie Too, which repeats the chorus way too many times and isn’t terribly interesting either.

The second album starts off with a song about a hooker who services sailors, and of course it has probably the album’s sweetest sounding melody. And if Goodbye Yellow Brick Road ended here, it would likely make my top 20. But it goes on, and on, and on. Danny Bailey is a generic gunfighter song. Your Sister Can’t Twist is a generic rocker. Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting sounds really good but isn’t terribly interesting. Roy Rogers is a generic cowboy song; it sounds nice, but the lyric doesn’t match that of Candle in the Wind. Social Disease and Harmony also sound good, but don’t do much to stand out. The two exceptions are Dirty Little Girl and All the Girls Love Alice. The former has incredibly misogynistic lyrics, and even though I’m sure Elton sang it ironically, it just sounds awful. And the latter is about a adultery and statutory rape and doesn’t paint a pretty picture of lesbians. If the melody wasn’t do damn catchy I’d probably color it blue as well.

Music

51: Glass Houses (Billy Joel)

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Album: Glass Houses
Artist: Billy Joel
Year: 1980

1. You May Be Right
2. Sometimes a Fantasy
3. Don’t Ask Me Why
4. It’s Still Rock & Roll to Me
5. All for Leyna
6. I Don’t Want to Be Alone
7. Sleeping With the Television On
8. C’etait Toi (You Were the One)
9. Close to the Borderline
10. Through the Long Night

The album cover has Billy Joel ready to throw a rock through a glass house, and appropriately, the first song starts with the sound of glass breaking. Makes sense after all these years!

Don’t Ask Me Why is my favorite BJ song. The rhyme scheme is delicious and I love singing along to it. I’m also fan of the stylings of You May Be Right (I mayyy be craaaaazy!) and Sleeping With the Television On. All for Leyna is a good rocker. C’etait Toi is pretty. There are no out and out duds on the album, though they’re not all strong.

I don’t mind it per se, but I’m pretty over It’s Still Rock & Roll to Me. Not only are the lyrics dated, but I just don’t care for the melody. I Don’t Want to Be Alone and Close to the Borderline don’t do much for me either, but they’re fine filler.

The final song, Through the Long Night sounds just like something Paul McCartney would have released around the white album years. It’s a departure from most of Joel’s ballads and it’s a great way to end my favorite BJ album.

Music

55: Eye of the Zombie (John Fogerty)

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Album: Eye of the Zombie
Artist: John Fogerty
Year: 1986

1. Goin’ Back Home
2. Eye of the Zombie
3. Headlines
4. Knockin’ on Your Door
5. Change in the Weather
6. Violence is Golden
7. Wasn’t That a Woman
8. Soda Pop
9. Sail Away

Is that a zombie on the album cover or a werewolf? Either way, most critics and fans felt confused by this album and it failed miserably. CCR’s frontman didn’t release another solo album for eleven years after this flop. I’m in the camp that not only enjoys it, but feel it’s better than his #1 album Centerfield, which had too much screaming for my taste.

Goin’ Back Home is a synthesized instrumental that really isn’t worth anyone’s time, and the album pretty much gets better in slow increments from there on out. Most of the songs are classic rockers that highlight John’s guitar work, with repeating beats and choruses. Violence is Golden is his one protest song on the album, but he tries to be funny with it. It’s worth it just to hear him rhyme TNT and enemy.

Soda Pop is a tounge-in-cheek song about advertising. I mostly love it for the chorus which is repeated at least 20 times. Sail Away is one of John’s prettiest ballads and has an almost angelic quality to it, which is bizarre if you know the rest of his work. Overall, this certainly isn’t the best from Fogerty, but if you like him and you like simple rockers, then you might want to give this a go.

Music

63: The Stranger (Billy Joel)

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Album: The Stranger
Artist: Billy Joel
Year: 1977

1. Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)
2. The Stranger
3. Just the Way You Are
4. Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
5. Vienna
6. Only the Good Die Young
7. She’s Always a Woman
8. Get It Right the First Time
9. Everybody Has a Dream

Earlier in his career, Joel wrote a song called The Entertainer, where he bemoans how the record industry stifles talent. One of his complaints is that artists get pressure to cut the length of their songs so it can be made to fit onto tight radio segments. One example of this is Scenes from an Italian Restaurant. It’s epic, seven and a half minutes long, a layered, lyrically interesting song. But it got left off the radio in favor of easy fluff like She’s Always A Woman.  

Thankfully, the album is laden with solid music. Movin’ Out is a great track-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack. The Stranger might be my second favorite on the album, less so for the lyrics than the eerie whistling at the beginning and end. Another pleasant surprise for me is Vienna. The album’s weakest song is the final one–a near-gospel–which is never a good idea, but at least it isn’t terrible.

I think Joel is a great songwriter, but he’s not that great at love songs. I think that might be because the women he sings about in his songs sound incredibly obnoxious, thus I can’t identify with his feelings for him. But his melodies are generally easy enough that I can muscle through them and enjoy his stronger offerings. The Stranger is certainly one of them.

Music

65: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (The Beatles)

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Album: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Artist: The Beatles
Year: 1967

1. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
2. With a Little Help from My Friends
3. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
4. Getting Better
5. Fixing a Hole
6. She’s Leaving Home
7. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
8. Within You Without You
9. When I’m Sixty-Four
10. Lovely Rita
11. Good Morning Good Morning
12. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
13. A Day in the Life

Considered the best album of all-time by more than one publication run by Baby Boomers, Sgt. Pepper is also one of the best-selling albums of all time. I hesitate to call it overrated because that only comes off as snobbish, but it’s not even my favorite Beatles album. Perhaps I’m not that big of a fan of psychedelic rock, but I think the album’s biggest problem is that despite having the appearance of a concept album, it is very disjointed.

Both Sgt. Pepper songs contribute nothing to the album, being essentially the same boring, uninspired song twice. Thankfully, the rest of the album makes up for it. While I don’t like it as much as Joe Cocker’s cover, With a Little Help from My Friends is a pretty sweet album opener. Lucy has a pretty boring melody, but then the album takes off with seven solid songs in a row. She’s Leaving Home has great harmony and a nifty little message about runaways. Harrison’s Within You Without You, an Indian song (complete with Indian instruments such as the dilruba, tabla, swarmandal. and sitar) has grown on me over the years.

But the reason Sgt. Pepper makes this countdown is A Day in the Life. Rolling Stone ranks it as the 28th greatest song of all time. In my top 100, which includes genres besides 60s and 70s rock, I have it as the 37th greatest song of all time. John and Paul are never more perfect together, and the orchestral glissandos and final sustained piano chord round out the lyrics–and the album–beautifully.

Music

71: Crash (Dave Matthews Band)

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Album: Crash
Artist: Dave Matthews Band
Year: 1996

1. So Much To Say
2. Two Step
3. Crash Into Me
4. Too Much
5. #41
6. Say Goodbye
7. Drive In, Drive Out
8. Let You Down
9. Lie in Our Graves
10. Cry Freedom
11. Tripping Billies
12. Proudest Monkey

Is it just me or is naming a band after the lead singer pretentious? It sounds like a one-man band and is a bit dismissive of all the talent around you. Especially since if it weren’t for his band, Dave Matthews would be nothing. Dave’s singing is passable at best, his only real talent is being able to hit those high notes. But his band is awesome. The best songs tend to have extended jams with the violin, saxophone, flute, and horns.

Crash (like most of their albums) was not laden with hits, mostly because there are few pop hooks and riffs to be heard. However, Crash Into Me is still their second biggest song to date and received a ton of radio play despite being blatantly about voyeurism. The rest of the album, with the exception of So Much To Say, is all about the jamming, even on the ballads. Drive In, Drive Out, despite some pretty banal lyrics and Dave’s attempt at guttural singing, has some seriously kick-ass rhythms and endangers me while driving as I keep wanting to pound on the steering wheel with the beat.

The album gets weaker as it moves along, especially lyrically, but the songs are generally saved by the band. But nothing can save Proudest Monkey. Dave’s singing is truly horrendous, and the last several minutes of this nine minute track consist of him singing “yeah yeah yeah” while the band plays some repetitive, uninspired music. So, like the entirety of Everyday.