[Hulk01]

and jackettree got me thinking:

At least a decade ago, I asked my Facebook friends to identify their 20 favorite songs.

Surely, I thought, Satisfaction and Like A Rolling Stone would earn several mentions.  I mean, those are great songs, near or at the top of Rolling Stone magazine's regularly updated "500 Best Songs of All Time."

Satisfaction was the first song I distinctly remember hearing. In the back of my parents' Volkswagen bug, I was three years old. From the opening guitar riff, I was transfixed and my dad almost immediately changed the station.

Most transformational song for me was The Animals' cover of the Clarence Ashley song House of the Rising Sun. So popular, it was the first British invasion Billboard 100 #1 song not directly connected to the Beatles (yes, I know Peter & Gordon's A World Without Love reached #1 before House of the Rising Son but it was written by McCartney and Lennon). It was released 61 years ago today, and was an instant, massive hit.

Some say it was a turning point in music, the first true folk rock song, including music critic and author Dave Marsh) and Ralph McLean of the BBC. The Animals were on tour with Chuck Berry and were looking for a song not directly connected to Berry. They closed the show with it, people loved it. BOb Dylan loved it so much, he dropped the acoustic sound and took up the electric sound for his next album, Bringing it All Back Home.

For me, Burdon is the most underrated British lead singer. Great with The Animals, great with War. Tiny little singer, brobdingnagian voice. Brian Jones called him the best blues singer to ever come out of England. Minor trivia: Burdon was the Egg man in the Beatles' "I Am the Walrus."

---

Same feelings re Satisfaction.  Sitting shotgun in Rick Hanson's blue '56 Chevy,  driving into Manzanita, Oregon, July 1965.  This utterly new sound, that famous opening riff to Satisfaction.  WTF is this?

He pulled the car onto the gravel.

We just knew things were changing.  

I think of that moment and  instantly think of Brian Wilson, famously, driving in LA,  hearing the opening to The Ronettes' Be My Baby, and pulling over to try to figure out what the eff Phil Spector was doing there.  

Many years later, I met Ronnie in Minneapolis after a gig.  Her sing-and-dance duo with Eddie Money on that Take Me Home Tonight video is among my favorite musical memories.

And speaking of that: dancing with Grace Slick and The Jefferson Airplane on stage at Memorial Coliseum in Portland, 1967.  Somebody to love, indeed.

And waking up in Minneapolis and hearing that Prince had passed. That night, downtown was lit up purple in mourning and the rain came and came.  That entire day felt funereal; he was our Prince.

And,  later, writing and producing a 60 second tribute to music for Musicland ("A King, a Queen, and a Prince.  . ."this land. .  .. .is a music land.) And later, again, , writing a novel in which my thinly veiled alter ego is a singer-songwriter. Because, yeah, that was my wish, just not my talent. 

Love y'all's reminiscences.

[Hulk01]

and jackettree got me thinking:

At least a decade ago, I asked my Facebook friends to identify their 20 favorite songs.

Surely, I thought, Satisfaction and Like A Rolling Stone would earn several mentions.  I mean, those are great songs, near or at the top of Rolling Stone magazine's regularly updated "500 Best Songs of All Time."

Satisfaction was the first song I distinctly remember hearing. In the back of my parents' Volkswagen bug, I was three years old. From the opening guitar riff, I was transfixed and my dad almost immediately changed the station.

Most transformational song for me was The Animals' cover of the Clarence Ashley song House of the Rising Sun. So popular, it was the first British invasion Billboard 100 #1 song not directly connected to the Beatles (yes, I know Peter & Gordon's A World Without Love reached #1 before House of the Rising Son but it was written by McCartney and Lennon). It was released 61 years ago today, and was an instant, massive hit.

Some say it was a turning point in music, the first true folk rock song, including music critic and author Dave Marsh) and Ralph McLean of the BBC. The Animals were on tour with Chuck Berry and were looking for a song not directly connected to Berry. They closed the show with it, people loved it. BOb Dylan loved it so much, he dropped the acoustic sound and took up the electric sound for his next album, Bringing it All Back Home.

For me, Burdon is the most underrated British lead singer. Great with The Animals, great with War. Tiny little singer, brobdingnagian voice. Brian Jones called him the best blues singer to ever come out of England. Minor trivia: Burdon was the Egg man in the Beatles' "I Am the Walrus."

---

Same feelings re Satisfaction.  Sitting shotgun in Rick Hanson's blue '56 Chevy,  driving into Manzanita, Oregon, July 1965.  This utterly new sound, that famous opening riff to Satisfaction.  WTF is this?

He pulled the car onto the gravel.

We just knew things were changing.  

I think of that moment and  instantly think of Brian Wilson, famously, driving in LA,  hearing the opening to The Ronettes' Be My Baby, and pulling over to try to figure out what the eff Phil Spector was doing there.  

Many years later, I met Ronnie in Minneapolis after a gig.  Her sing-and-dance duo with Eddie Money on that Take Me Home Tonight video is among my favorite musical memories.

And speaking of that: dancing with Grace Slick and The Jefferson Airplane on stage at Memorial Coliseum in Portland, 1967.  Somebody to love, indeed.

And waking up in Minneapolis and hearing that Prince had passed. That night, downtown was lit up purple in mourning and the rain came and came.  That entire day felt funereal; he was our Prince.

And,  later, writing and producing a 60 second tribute to music for Musicland ("A King, a Queen, and a Prince.  . ."this land. .  .. .is a music land.) And later, again, , writing a novel in which my thinly veiled alter ego is a singer-songwriter. Because, yeah, that was my wish, just not my talent. 

Love y'all's reminiscences.