Old Songs.....I actually liked!

For our third paper, we had to review NPR’s-The 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century and pick 3 songs to analyze. Myself, being a very musical naive girl, whose favorite song is referred to in this class as "bubblegum pop" had oh so much to learn.  I enjoyed this project and paper and learning more about musical legends and discovering a world beyond the bubblegum...
This video isn't the best quality, but I have to admit, it would have been pretty amazing to be at this concert...

“Blowin’ in the Wind”-Bob Dylan

            I have definitely heard of Bob Dylan before, I had heard the name, probably everyone has but to be honest I had no idea what one of his songs was.  I didn’t know if he was pop, rock, folk or jazz but as soon as I started listening to this song, I knew somewhere I had heard it before.

“Blowin’ in the Wind” by Bob Dylan is described as an anthem to the civil rights movement, this song literally inspired people, it even still is inspiring when you listen to it and is used today at many protests.  This song to me is like what I think of when I think of hippies and flower power but after listening to the background and description of that song I can see that it is so much more

            This song, the fastest selling single in Warner Brothers history was written in a café and took Dylan 10 minutes, that alone being incredible, when people heard this song, they marched, they sang, and they really wanted to make a difference.  Now when I hear it, I picture this group of thousands marching through a field belting it out and it giving them so much energy.  I think of Peter, Paul and Mary singing it just minutes before Martin Luther King Jr. gave his world famous speech. 

            A member of the group, Peter Paul and Mary who first made it famous said that the ambivalence to the lyrics adds meaning to it and you can’t take the lyrics too literally.  Each person hears in it what they want to hear.  To me, I hear hope and possibility and that is what made it so famous.  I think NPR presented this song perfectly and that they gave it the significance it deserved.  I now wonder, after hearing that Dylan wrote in ten minutes if he really knew what he was writing, if he really knew the significance these words would have on people and that white doves and cannon balls he mentions would become actual symbols for a whole movement of people.

“Light my Fire”-The Doors

            I have never heard this song before, but I liked the name of it so I chose to listen to it.  After hearing the song, it was hard to believe that this song was actually homage to the song “My Favorite Things” by Coltrane, heard famously in the musical “The Sound of Music”.  To me, they didn’t really go together, but after listening to the background beat broken down in pieces, I realized they were a lot alike.

            When the doors first got together they said they wanted to take the freedom they hear and feel in jazz and bring it into rock and roll, this song was the first of its kind.  I can picture these four guys on Venice beach, and as Ray Manzarek said, as the sun is setting into the Pacific Ocean, western civilizations ends, and we invented psychedelics.

Loving the hair 

            When I hear this song, it is not really a song that would be a hit today, but back then it shattered acceptable boundaries of content, length, and was a combination of so many different styles that people loved it.  It never sounded sad to me until I heard they lyrics discussed and realized it was not an average love song, but a song that ended love in ashes and spoke of funeral fire.  I like to think of this band, who they themselves didn’t think would make it, make it big with this song and even set a new standard for a different type of rock and roll. 

“Good Vibrations”-Brian Wilson-made famous by The Beach Boys

            This song was sadly was one of the only song titles I recognized on the whole list and everybody knows this song, it’s a classic, although I did not know everything that went into this hit song.  When I hear this song, I hear a road trip to California, surfing on the beach, convertible top down, an 80’s dance.  I learned after listening to the clip that this song was a symphony, a piecing together of hundreds of studio hours and Brian Wilson’s greatest work.

            Brian Wilson was obsessed with this song, he knew exactly what he wanted and he made it happen over a course of many years, not letting it be released until it was absolutely perfect.  Wilson wrote the song for The Beach Boys and when they heard it they loved it.  I definitely have a new appreciation for the music now that I learned that he pieced this song together from a pile of different recording tapes that was 3 ½ feet high.  He also used a harmonica and a break our instrument called the Theremin which is what inspired today’s synthesizer. The Theremin sounds like a voice in the background and the song has many different moods, the chorus to me is really upbeat and fast and then it slows down so much for the verses and it is a lot lower pitch.  I had never really listened to the verses before, I just knew the chorus and the lyrics are actually very loving and shows how much this boy loves this girl he is watching and her every move and curve and smell.

            Although this song makes everyone want to dance, I now have a more introspective view of the song and everything that it meant, it was not just about a boy picking up vibes from a girl, but an extremely detailed musical piece, that experimented with instruments, sounds and production of a song.  This song was a huge hit and Brian Wilson’s last big hit and now when I hear it, although I will still picture a Californian adventure, I will also see Brian Wilson in the studio working musicians to the bone to make every single note perfect.  I can appreciate his obsession with this song, because it was very worth it.