Ultimate Rock 'n Roll Song

Palomar · 2004-08-19 13:34:59

*In my opinion:

"Hurdy Gurdy Man" by Donovan.

I've heard it on the radio before (very occasionally), but (of course) not with the same level of clarity and awesome sound as on the DVD "Donovan, Troubador: The Definitive Collection (1964 - 1976)."

Song was written and recorded in 1968. I'm not a musician, so will try to explain as best as possible:

It begins with brief humming (male vocal) -- a definite "prelude" effect. Next the song takes a definite psychadelic quality. There is a wash of notes which sounds like a hurdy-gurdy -- later this is heard throughout the song at various points but seems more like electric guitar as the song progresses. There are 2 or 3 very distinct Indian/Hindu accents (edit: like a sitar), back-to-back, between the beginning and first half of the song. The chorus has a chanting quality.

However, this isn't a "regular" 60s psychadelic song. Drums and electric guitar (at least 1, maybe 2) start to overtake the song and it easily blends into hard rock . John Paul Jones (of Led Zeppelin fame) is a guitarist in "Hurdy Gurdy Man." It is peppered throughout with these intense riffs which want to catch you up with them and take you to flight.

I have never heard anything like this song. It is a real sound experience -- sensual, multifaceted, spiritual, empowering; it's incredibly complex and all the components within the song shouldn't fit together logically (it seems)...but it does, and fabulously. Donovan is a genius.

Check it out. If I listen to it one more time, I might have an out-of-body experience. :laugh: I've listened to lots of rock 'n roll in my life; this is song is the crown jewel of rock 'n roll.

What's your favorite rock song and why?

--Cindy

Gennaro · 2004-08-29 05:39:39

Favourite rock song, hmm... that's impossible! There are so many that have the perfect r&r quality, all in their own way.

Just take a (more or less) contemporary sample out of the heap, "Rocks" by Primal Scream. It always makes me think of the movie Vanishing Point (1971) which of course it has nothing to do with, but which includes a chunk of great music on its own.
However, it's testament to the time-spanning quality of this 1996 (or something) song.

Yes, Hurdy Gurdy Man is a wonderful little tune. It's strange but I have this weak, highly emotional spot for '60's Psychedelia music myself. I was born in 1970. :laugh:

Yet, if I have to choose one, which is the most rock'n'roll tune of all time, it must probably be "Mystery Train" by Mr Elvis Presley. It's very tense, straight from the deep Louisiana swamp tree roots, obviously totally unaware of self.

"Train arrive, sixteen coaches long..."

azstrummer · 2004-09-01 15:53:16

Not necessarily my favorite song of all time but something about "Story In Your Eyes" by the Moody Blues that just sends an audience wild when you perform it. Wonderful intro to it as well on the album version that gives a little history of man and music before that signature guitar sound of Justin Hayward rings out and the song starts to rock.

By the way, first time posting here. I'm impressed with the civility.

Palomar · 2004-09-01 20:36:57

It's strange but I have this weak, highly emotional spot for '60's Psychedelia music myself.

*Hi azstrummer: Welcome to New Mars!

---

Gennaro: Cream. Excellent stuff. I presume you like their music? Strange Brew; White Room; Tales of Brave Ulysses; Those Were the Days.

Crimson & Clover Another fav (Tommy James & The Shondells).

And Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds by the Beatles. Also their lesser well known (it seems) Tomorrow Never Knows.

And we've both mentioned in a different thread really liking 2000 Light Years from Home by the Rolling Stones.

I was born too late. :laugh:

--Cindy

azstrummer · 2004-09-02 15:05:55

Ah Cream had some wonderful hits. I pretty much liked any group that had Eric Clapton in it. My wife and I did a Tommy James song the other night at karaoke (Crystal Blue Persuasion).

Gennaro · 2004-09-05 22:48:14

Cream, indeed. I like Cream to almost anything. Wonder if "Sunshine of Your Love" might be one of the most covered rock songs of all time? The 5th Dimension made a pretty good version of it.

Cindy, if you like the more melodious 60's sound rather than the R&B influenced variety and you for instance have Soulseek, maybe you should check out The Zombies (if you haven't already)?

I could recommend "She's not There" and "Time of the Season". Great music.

The Zombies:
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=am … cm965o3epf

One of my favourite 60's songs which has a significant feel to it is also "Woodstock", but it should be the version by Matthews Southern Comfort, not the one by Joni Mitchell or Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

EDIT: "Tomorrow Never Knows", oh yes, I remember now. At the end of Revolver, right? Funny, that used to be my favourite from that album as well, number two would probably be "She Said, She Said". We seem to share a lot of musical taste.

"Tomorrow Never Knows" falls into a specific 'album end category' which I have established in my mind. Other examples of that would be "It's Alright Ma" from Dylan's Bringing it All Back Home or "The Black Angels's Death Song" on Andy Warhol by The Velvet Underground. (Of course, objectively speaking it makes absolutely no sense at all.)

Gennaro · 2004-09-06 00:06:08

Pleased to meet you, Strummer! You're right, I've never met such a civil board as New Mars to be honest. Maybe it's the general IQ level or something, don't know.

Downloaded that song "Story in Your Eyes". Never heard about it before, but than again I've never listened much to Moody Blues in the first place.
All of you, if you want a *real* rocker from the sixties (well 1970), I've got another one. What about "Mississippi Queen" by Mountain? :laugh:

Rxke · 2004-09-06 05:58:10

I'm impressed with the civility.

I haven't shaved in a week, though!

Welcome, azstrummer!

Yes, you're right, this is a great place, where people with oftentimes *totally* different views keep talking to and with eachother. Priceless.
I learned a lot, a big lot on these boards, and not only about Mars. Some people make you stop and think about your own 'thruths,' making you look at things in anothr way.

The mods have a really easy life here, compared to, say, SDC boards. Which is a great situation.

Have a nice stay.

Oh, BTW... My absolute R&Roller is 'Psycho' from The Sonics (1967)

Pretty wild Rawk 'n Roll, primitive, unpolished.

Though my musical taste ranges from Bach to Grindcore...

Palomar · 2004-09-06 12:36:54

Gennaro: Cream, indeed. I like Cream to almost anything. Wonder if "Sunshine of Your Love" might be one of the most covered rock songs of all time? The 5th Dimension made a pretty good version of it.

* :laugh: (...like Cream to almost anything...)

Yep, that song too. I'm not sure I knew the 5th Dimension had a version to it.

Cindy, if you like the more melodious 60's sound rather than the R&B influenced variety and you for instance have Soulseek, maybe you should check out The Zombies (if you haven't already)?
I could recommend "She's not There" and "Time of the Season". Great music.

*Yes, I'm familiar with those songs. They're good, but not favorites. It doesn't class as a psychadelic song (at least I'm pretty sure it doesn't), but another favorite is Just Like Me by Paul Revere & The Raiders.

Oh...and The Doors! The Crystal Ship is their best, IMO. If it's not classed as a psychadelic song, it sure seems very close to it. Of course I'm not a music professional.

EDIT: "Tomorrow Never Knows", oh yes, I remember now. At the end of Revolver, right? Funny, that used to be my favourite from that album as well, number two would probably be "She Said, She Said". We seem to share a lot of musical taste.

*Yes, on the Revolver album. Tomorrow Never Knows has a very distinctive Hindu/Eastern religion flare, which is fabulous; it always adds to the music. Of course, at least 3 of the Beatles were students of Hinduism (not sure Ringo ever was); George Harrison stayed with it for life, apparently. This song was the Beatles' first psychadelic song, according some some supposed authority on the matter.

A guy I dated in the mid-1980s, about 5 years older than I, had an album which was a collection of psychadelic or "acid" rock from the 1960s; his uncle had purchased it and given it to him. Can't recall the title or which artists precisely were on it...but how I wish I could get my hands on it again. :;):

--Cindy

P.S.: The Beatles' Strawberry Fields Forever is okay; I'm not sure why I don't favor it as well.

Mundaka · 2004-09-12 00:16:33

Gennaro · 2004-09-13 10:43:48

Rxke has got good musical taste. Funny thing is that The Sonics were a totally unknown band up to the late 80's, like it had neither entertained any popularity during the 60's.
I remember some friends of mine feeling mighty special for having dug them out around 1989 and immediately began imitating them in their garage band.

The world sometimes takes a long time to appreciate quality.

Shaun Barrett · 2004-09-13 20:03:44

Too many to choose from!
"Johnny B. Goode" (Chuck Berry) is a timeless classic I like.
"Great Balls of Fire" (Jerry Lee Lewis) ... ditto.
"Sympathy for the Devil" (Rolling Stones) is a raw haunting look at the worst aspects of human history through the eyes of the supernatural entity often blamed for the whole miserable business! A refreshing departure from 99% of popular music, written by people who "want to fill the world with silly love songs".
"Do it again" (Beach Boys). Don't know why but, every time it plays on the radio, I feel compelled to turn up the volume! I guess it's just one of the best portrayals of nostalgia for a lost youth that I can remember among popular songs. And those great harmonies .. !

Rxke · 2004-09-14 03:09:26

Aaaah, Shaun, at last a list I can fully agree with!

Rawk and Roll, people!

Gennaro, heehee...1989 Sonics... That must've been around the time I came to know them, too, through a friend. Of course, I wasn't around in the 60's, so...

I clearly remember the drums blowing me away, first time I heard it: so unpolished, so raw... So un-flower-power!

Palomar · 2004-09-14 07:00:20

"Sympathy for the Devil" (Rolling Stones) is a raw haunting look at the worst aspects of human history through the eyes of the supernatural entity often blamed for the whole miserable business! A refreshing departure from 99% of popular music, written by people who "want to fill the world with silly love songs".

*Yes, it's a Stones song. But you know who did that song better? Guns 'n Roses, on the 1994 soundtrack of "Interview with the Vampire." By comparison, the Stones suck in their original version of their song. Heresy, blasphemy...call that whatever you want. (It's like Elvis having done "Blue Suede Shoes" a whole lot better than Carl Perkins ever did).

Rik: I clearly remember the drums blowing me away, first time I heard it: so unpolished, so raw... So un-flower-power!

*Oh, have I gotten a reputation for only liking flower power music? AC/DC is a favorite of mine. Crank it up! Most of my CDs are heavy metal and hard rock.

--Cindy

Shaun Barrett · 2004-09-14 20:51:57

Oops! My rock-music-ignorance is showing. Is it shameful to admit I haven't heard the Guns and Roses version of "Sympathy for the Devil"? ??? :bars:
I'll keep an ear out for it.

I can only take so much in the way of heavy metal before the novelty wears off. Don't mind a bit of Status Quo now and then. I guess it's not so much a latent dislike of that genre, as a very eclectic taste in music. Depending on my mood, like most people I suppose, I can happily listen to reggae, country, rock 'n' roll (classic), blues, classical (to an extent), the crooners (Sinatra, Bennett etc.) and various other types of music.

Rxke · 2004-09-15 04:35:50

*Oh, have I gotten a reputation for only liking flower power music? AC/DC is a favorite of mine. Crank it up! Most of my CDs are heavy metal and hard rock.

Heehee, no I was only reflecting on the fact that the 60's also had some *very* impressive non-flower-power bands...

BTW... Everytime I hear Hurdy Gurdy Man... I think about the version done by the Butthole Surfers... Hilarious blasphemy. Too silly for words.

(They also have a record called Hairway to Steven )

heavy metal and hard rock.

Don't like too much. (Except, of course some 'big guys' like AC/DC, LedZep, ... More into the more extreme evolutionary errr... descendants of that genre: trash, grind, death (=NOT black! those are the Satan etc guys... ) metal...
Slayer, Extreme Noise Terror, Vader... Melvins...

(I like too much different styles, really...)

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