2008年 09月 6日 土曜日 15:32
On this, my 38th birthday (birthday wishes to Roger Waters here), I thought it would be fun to revisit that great year of 1970 that brought us not only a whole bunch of great people :D but more importantly for the SotD Journal, so much great music!
Credit where it's due: This list of my favorite songs of 1970 was originally sparked by a timely entry earlier this week from the same guy that posted up that idea of using album market statistics and awards to compute a list of Top 20 Albums (a favorite of Grant's!) No worries, Grant, that one is totally subjective!
Below is my own submission to his call for our own favorite songs of 1970, slightly edited and with some additional commentary.
But I don't want to stop there¹! One day for 1970 isn't enough, so I thought it would be good to have a full week celebration of 1970: starting tomorrow and for each of the next 7 days, I will choose seven² of my Top 10 of 1970 as a SotD, and then cap it off with the first of what I have been talking about publishing for, well, a looong time: sablespecter's Album of the Year awards. If you've been a careful, longtime reader of SotD, I think I've actually said what my Album of the Year for 1970 is, and it shouldn't be hard to guess once you've reviewed the list below and consider my favorite artists. But I'll post it officially, and the rest of the AotY awards will follow.
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Ah, 1970! A lot of spectacular things entered the world that year. (I did, too!)
The "Best of 1970" and my personal favorites may not be (and likely aren't) the same thing. This list is the best of 1970 in my own opinion. A couple of notes:
• This takes into account global release dates. Not everything was released everywhere at the same time. Readers of SotD know that I have always used the date that an album was first released anywhere as the date of reference.
• Be flexible with release dates, especially since we're considering songs as opposed to albums. Led Zeppelin provides a prime example: yes, Led Zeppelin II was released in October 1969, and "Whole Lotta Love" was released as a single twice that fall (uncut in October, edited in November), but it was one of the biggest singles of 1970. It didn't enter the U.S. charts until December and actually spent more weeks on the chart in 1970 than in 1969. And if you think globally, it was one of the biggest singles around the world in 1970, hitting #1 in at least three countries in that year.
• I have listed alternate arrangements/covers separately.
• I have generally tried to select no more than one song from an album, though in a few instances I just can't!
Favorites of 1970 (alphabetically, *denotes Top 10 selection):
• The Allman Brothers Band: In Memory of Elizabeth Reed
• Badfinger: Come and Get It (technically released before the album as a B-side to Rock of All Ages in Dec 1969…but be flexible)
• The Beatles: Let It Be
[Can I also include Don't Let Me Down? Damn Phil Spector for cutting it from Let It Be! (Although I do like what he did with the title track, which IMHO is superior than the "intended version" released on Let It Be...Naked.) "Don't Let Me Down" was released on the Hey Jude compilation a couple of months in advance of Let It Be anyway, but regardless, including it is probably being a little TOO flexible, since it was actually first released as the B-side to Get Back in April 1969.]
• Black Sabbath: Wicked World (only available on North America releases in 1970), *Planet Caravan (released in the UK in 1970, US 1971)
• Creedence Clearwater Revival: Run Through the Jungle
• Miles Davis: Bitches Brew
• Deep Purple: *Child In Time
• Derek & the Dominoes: Layla
• The Doors: Peace Frog
• Funkadelic: Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow
• Grand Funk Railroad: Sin's a Good Man's Brother
• George Harrison: *Art of Dying
• Jimi Hendrix: *Ezy Ryder
• Led Zeppelin: Whole Lotta Love, Immigrant Song (and it's single B-side Hey Hey What Can I Do), *Since I've Been Loving You
• John Lennon (with Plastic Ono Band): *God and *Working Class Hero
• Dave Mason: Sad and Deep as You and Look at You, Look at Me
• Paul McCartney: Maybe I'm Amazed
• Randy Newman: Mama Told Me Not To Come (or Three Dog Night - take your pick, though I prefer Newman's over 3DN's bigger hit version)
• Pink Floyd: Atom Heart Mother
• Santana: Hope You're Feeling Better
• Wishbone Ash: *Errors of My Way and *Phoenix
• Neil Young: Southern Man
Favorite Alternate Arrangements/Covers (original):
• Black Sabbath: *Warning (Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation, 1967)
If you're listening on vinyl, best served paired with the preceding track Sleeping Village, which is how they're tracked together on the CD releases anyway.
• Creedence Clearwater Revival: I Heard It Through the Grapevine (Gladys Knight & The Pips, 1967; Marvin Gaye, 1968)
• Santana: Black Magic Woman (single version, or Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen from Abraxas) (Fleetwood Mac, 1968)
There's a reason Santana's version is the definitive IMHO: the added conga, timbales and other percussion, and Gregg Rolie's organ and piano, provide that awesome "voodoo" element, but in truth I actually prefer Peter Green's original. Especially done live, such as captured on Live at the Boston Tea Party…recorded in early February 1970!
\m/ (ò_ó) \m/
¹I've had a hard time staying timely and on track this past summer, whether because of an awesome-busy First Life summer, changes to the site & server problems here on Last, my own PC problems, whatever…sheesh. Now, I'm hoping the problems have been sorted out, and we're back to a bit more of a normal routine - though there is one crazy twist about to come (stay tuned Tuesday for the announcement of another of my "what-was-I-thinking?" ideas…).
I've been busy this week again, but using the offline time plotting & scheming. As we enter this, my favorite time of year, I am today bringing SotD out of Minimal Mode (hopefully for awhile), and have lined up what I hope proves to be quite an interesting editorial calendar for the fall & early winter blogging season!
²Of my Top 10 of 1970, one has been chosen previously as a SotD (just last month, in fact). Three artists contribute two songs, so I will choose just one from two of those, and one of them is a remake, so I will honor it specially.