ALBUM: Legend (1984)
MVC Rating: 5.0/$$$
The five key shapers of my love of music are all men. I say that only because I just noticed it as I began writing this. The father of three daughters I don’t feel sexist in this regard, but maybe I am.
My five key shapers are The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Wilson Picket/Otis Redding, Prince and Bob Marley.
Hank Williams Sr. barely missed the cut.
I cheated I know with Redding Pickett, but they were big soul belters that startled this skinny kid in Georgia when I first heard them and fell in love with their songs. (Don’t Let the Green Grass Fool You by Pickett hooked me from the radio.)
Prince was my James Brown, Little Richard altogether as those guys were before my time. And Prince channeled these guys (Sly Stone and MJ as well) into some of the most dynamic music of the 80s and 90s.)
British invaders, The Rolling Stones, some might say is too much like the Beatles but that’s not true. They are very different. At first it was the Beatles creating everything a rock band would be, good vocals, good songwriting, good musicians, genius production and engineering. The Stones came along and deconstructed all of that. Raw, simpler, looser. Black music for white kids who wanted the guitars turned up on blues-based rock. A lot of my friends were one or another: Beatles or Stones.
Then came Marley. Jammin’ with an aromatic cloud overhead. I didn’t expect to like him, but grew to love his music which could be rebellious, politically aware and sweet and kind.
Songs like ‘No Woman No Cry’ and ‘Redemption Song’ and ‘Is This Love’ and ‘Stir It Up.’ If you haven’t tried Marley start with this one, a compilation of ‘hits’ called ‘Legend.’ Another favorite I used to have on vinyl but is MIA was ‘Natty Dread.’
‘Babylon by Bus’ is a good two-record live album.
From Natty Dread’s No Woman no Cry
No, woman no cry
No, woman no cry
No, woman no cry
Said, said, said I remember when we used to sit
In the government yard in Trenchtown
Ob-observing the hypocrites
As they would mingle with the good people we meet (meet)
Good friends we have, oh, good friends we’ve lost
Along the way (way)
In this great future, you can’t forget your past
So dry your tears, I say
And no, woman, no cry.
Speaking of women. I swear I have lots of women, on record that is. My beloved Catherine introduced to me to Carole King and Carly Simon.
I have Heart, Janis Joplin, the Bangles, Diana Ross, the Marvelettes, Emmylou Harris, Joni Mitchell, Madonna, Stevie Nicks, an all-female hard rock group called Fanny, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynettte, Aretha Franklin, Bonnie Raitt, Nancy Griffith, Indigo Girls, the Shirelles, Melanie, Joan Baez, and many other ‘mixed’ groups like B-52’s, the Crams, Mamas and Papas, Sly and Family Stone, the Staple Singers, a Group called Smith, Eurythmics and so on.
While I enjoy much of those none were pivotal to me in transforming or greatly expanding my musical tastes. Janis and Aretha were close. But by then I was softened up to listen to them. Mavis Staples of the Staple Singers BTW has one of my favorite soulful voices.
NOTE: After I published this I realized I did not mention Dolly Parton. I watched her show with Porter Wagoner on black and white TV, probably in the late 1960s, early 70s. Sunday mornings. Been a fan ever since.