This Music Monday has a late ’60s, mid-’70s theme. I don’t know how that happened – I didn’t plan it I assure you. Whatever the cause, enjoy.
The Eagles – Life In The Fast Lane (1977)
The quintessential song of excess and indulgence. Listening to the the song now it is interesting to note how you find yourself imitating the couple described in the lyrics. As a listener you’re swept along by the he central riff (originally an improvisation by David Walsh) much like the “brutally handsome” and “terminally pretty” woman are in their glamorous way of living. At face value you might think the song an appraisal. However, the song is shot through with lines about failure to connect: “He was too tired to make it, she was too tired to fight about it”. Not to mention the ending where both are: “just dyin’ to get off”. And as if that weren’t enough, you can dance to it too.
Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band – Tent (1969)
Dealing in a strange mix of genres, which would be pointless to list now, Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band are as strange now as they ever were. Indeed, I’d hesitate to assert much more than that. Their songs have words that get paired up in odd marriages that can be met only with amused smiles. And if you think this song’s weird listen to Shirts (bear in mind, this was on a music record…).
Roxy Music – Love Is The Drug (1975)
A record pinched straight from my father’s record collection (he’s got the LP too I think …). It’s tracks like this that make me smile. A lot of the time you hear, overhear, partake in conversations that deal with ‘pornographied culture’. It’s true that freedoms of representation, artistic or not, are greater than before. The trouble is that many of the folks having these conversations, asserting that modern music is the cause of moral degeneracy, had their youth in the ’60s and ’70s, when this song was released. Granted, this song is not as explicit as some examples modern music, but it is the more erotic for being so. It has a sex appeal beyond contention.
Stevie Wonder – Living For The City (1973)
This song tells of the hard life of the black, working poor across the United States. I have known this song a long time; it’s one of those numbers that a knew all the words to before I knew what they meant. Of course, race as an issue has never decreased in urgency. Still, as the news stories of racially motivated police brutality persist from across the Atlantic, “Living For The City” cannot help but sound with renewed pertinence.
Earth, Wind & Fire – Boogie Wonderland (1979)
They call this “a feel good song”. I say they, I’m not sure I would – seems a bit presumptuous. Don’t like disco you won’t like this. Still, that’s their problem. Or is it yours? I like it. And the cover version in Happy Feet was good too.
Marvin Gaye – I Heard It Through The Grapevine (1968)
Who else? This is that song everyone has heard but upon hearing it some can’t fathom why they don’t listen to it more often. I could go on about this, but enough ink has been spilled over this song and this singer without me trotting out something someone else has doubtless said better. In any case, we know what you’re talking about Marvin.
Doobie Brothers – What A Fool Believes (1978)
Ordinarily I avoid live recordings in Music Monday. However, this performance from 2003 is worthwhile. At the center we have Michael McDonald’s vocals, who range is evidenced by his cover of the last song. Covers don’t always live up to the original, yet McDonald holds his own, in the studio and onstage. “What A Fool Believes” tells of a couple’s separation and the frustrated hope’s of reconciliation. Being both very measured and intimate, the mood it hits is unlike any other song I can think of.
What did you make of this week’s line up? Did the selection make any gross omissions from the period? Let us know in the comments.
