Entertainment For Lively Minds
A History of Rock in Nine Singles
Posted by eddie g on 27 January 2011 - 9:44pm.
I think we’ve established that it’s impossible to sum up the significant developments in rock and roll in just ten albums so I thought it might be fun to try to up the ante and try to sum up the whale-like wobbly bastard in just nine singles. Ten would’ve been nice and neat but I couldn’t think of any more. Anyway....here goes....
That’s All Right Mama
Heartbreak Hotel
I Wanna Hold Your Hand
Like A Rolling Stone
Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane
Gimme Shelter
Starman
Anarchy in the UK
Hand In Glove
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I chose 10
Jailhouse Rock
Peggy Sue
She Loves You
Like A Rolling Stone
Jumping Jack Flash
Hot Love
God Save The Queen
Pride (In The Name of Love)
Smells Like Teen Spirit
Wonderwall
Same
but would add one more (making 11, possibly showing that 9 can't be done)
After 'Hot Love', 'Cum On Feel The Noize' should be inserted
Suggested Amendment: 'Pride (In The Name Of Love)' changed to 'Beat Surrender'
I never liked Nirvana, but 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' definitely changed things in 1992 - so I'd (begrudgingly) include it on my offering
If you plot those singles as a graph
it looks like a plane crash
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........................................(R.I.P. rock n roll)
Crikey
1. Tutti Frutti
2. She Loves You
3. Blowin' In The Wind
4. All Along The Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix
5. Respect - Aretha Franklin
6. Sex Machine
7. All The Young Dudes - Mott The Hoople
8. White Lines (Don't Do It)
9. Where The Streets Have No Name
10. Last Night - The Strokes
The History Of Rock
Ask any of the artists listed above if they consider them to be purveyors of the genre we call "rock".
Shall we start again?
Asking artists..
..what genre of music they feel they belong to has to be the worst question you can ask anyone about anything. None of them claim to be any genre at all, they're all unique, man. Apart from those that are just desperate to be part of something.
A controversial 10
That'll be the Day
That's All Right Mama
Johnny B Goode
She Loves You
Like a Rolling Stone
Satisfaction
Dancing in the Street
Starman
God Save the Queen
Thriller
Smells Like Teen Spirit
Everything else, hugely successful, bears an uncanny resemblance to either these songs, the artists, or labels that produced them.
Is the controversial part..
the fact that there are 11 songs?
I am a ballix
Simply for using the word controversial in the first place.
And, then, not changing the title having feckin' counted them before posting.
Ta la
Rocket 88
Heartbreak Hotel
I Can't Stop Loving You
I Want To Hold Your Hand
Papa's Got a Brand New Bag
Mr Tambourine Man
Autobahn
Billie Jean
Rebel Without A Pause
bubbling under:
I Feel Love
The first in the list
I can get behind. I would swap Billie Jean & I Feel Love around though.
I picked Billie Jean for three reasons:
1) Because for the first time it made a black singer, backed by white musicians, the biggest pop star in the world.
2) Because it broke the MTV colour bar in the same way that Ray Charles did by covering a C&W song that was massive all over the world in the middle of the civil rights movement.
3) Because it's bloody brilliant.
I didn't pick any record because it was significant alone; they're all damn fine singles that sold loads.
In some ways I actually think you could be right about "I Feel Love", though, but I'd dump "Autobahn".
If you look at music over the last 33 years, it's clear that it was IFL and not Anarchy in the UK that's the real "Year Zero" record of the post-punk/disco era.
And if you're looking for significance over innovation, you could also plump for "Walk This Way" over "Rebel..."
"For the first time.. a black singer, backed by white musicians"
Wasn't that the case with a lot of the Motown and Phil Spector stuff?
9 eh?
My nine.. but probably not yours..
1. Bill Haley: Rock around the clock
2. Beatles: Please Please Me
3. Beach Boys: Good Vibrations
4. Beatles: Can't decide: Revolution or Helter Skelter
5. Bob Marley: Sun Is Shining
6. U2: Gloria
7. Grand Master Flash & the Furious Five: The Message
8. Marrs: Pump up the volume
9. Nirvana: Smells like teen spirit
Not a big fan of alt.country.rock.. nor 2000's tosh.
Interesting...
...but neither 'Revolution' nor 'Helter Skelter' were issued as singles.
It's tricky with the Fabs but I plumped for 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' simply because it was the one which broke them in the US and which changed the game because of that very fact.
hmmn..
Well Revolution was other side to Hey Jude - sort of a double A side if you will.
This bit.. well.. yes.. it's cheating => http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Got_to_Get_You_into_My_Life
1. Heartbreak Hotel 2. I
1. Heartbreak Hotel
2. I Want To Hold Your Hand
3. Like A Rolling Stone
4. Starman
5. Bohemian Rhapsody
6. Thriller
7. Smells Like Teen Spirit
8. Live Forever
9. I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor.
Just a thought...
If this is a history of "rock" (as in popular music, encompassing rock, pop, soul etc etc) shouldn't any list start with Rocket 88 and finish with some awful pap single by a faceless boy-band or X-Factor winner?
Tough......9....
1. Moon River
2. Johnny B Goode
3. The Times They Are A-Changing
4. My Generation (proto-metal)
5. Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane
6. Starman
7. Anarchy in the UK
8. Billie Jean
9. Ride on Time