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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | Mark London <mrl@psfc.mit.edu> |
| Subject | Re: New R & R HoFers |
| Date | Wed, 15 Dec 2004 13:18:32 -0500 |
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>Does the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame ever bestow the honor upon songs?
>
>At any rate, there's no doubt that if The RRHOF did this, "Louie, Louie"
>would be a worthy honoree.
The song is worthy, but since the Kingsmen were covering a song that
was already was covered by many other bands before them, I would give
it a couple of demerit points. And especially because the other
Kingsmen songs really don't have the same spirit that that one song
has (at least the ones I've heard).
Btw, this leads into another topic of mine, which is what makes a
really great song, versus songs that are just average. Louie louie
has:
A) Cool and imaginative vocal style.
B) Cool sounding lyrics.
And especially missing is:
C) The song tells a story. It's not a song about what the singer's
opnion is of things, or what they are feeling. There's too much "I"
in most songs. Now, if you happen to think or feel like the singer,
then the song will mean something to you. Otherwise, not. However,
if you tell a story, that allows one to be able to add many more
dimensions to the song. I believe that the most memorable and long
last songs, are those that do tell a story.
One caveat though. If a song is very instrumentally creative and/or
has great production, that will offset deficiencies of some of the
other aspects. And in the the era of singles and top 40 format,
bands and producers often put everything they had into a single song,
and tried to come up with something special that would catch people's
ears. As an example, staying in the 1960s, I recently have been
listening to the Human Beinz's version of "Nobody But Me". Listen to
that, and catch all the cool percussion sounds they create, and the
different instruments, and the instrument changes that occur in
different parts of the music. Plus, the song has a really good bass
line. When's the last time you heard a song, where you could
alternate between listening to the lead guitar, the rhythm guitar,
the bass, and the percussion, without getting bored concentrating on
any of them? The more "stuff" going on in a song, the more likely
I'll never tire of listening to that song.
Mark
P.s. Roger Maris was the MVP the year before, so it's not like he
was a one hit wonder. And he might have had a better career, if not
for a number of injuries. He played one whole year with a broken
hand without knowing it. On the other hand, he might not have broken
the home run record, if not for the fact that Mantle was playing
behind him. I.e., he never got an intentional walk that year,
because who would walk him to bring up Mantle? If that order had
been reversed, and if Mantle had not had a hip injury late in that
year, it's very possible that Mantle would have set the record
instead. So, like music, sometimes there's luck involved, in being
in the right place in the right time.
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