Those Were the Days - Cream

Those Were the Days - Cream

2:54

Wheels Of Fire, 1968

Written by Ginger Baker and Mike Taylor

Showcasing everything that made Cream more than just a blues-rock power trio, jazz, psychedelia, and hard rock all mingle here.  Each member has room to shine without showboating. The lyrics drift through a haze of psychedelic hippie mysticism ("Tie your painted shoes and dance, blue daylight in your hair / Overhead a noiseless eagle fans a flame / Wonder everywhere"), though the title and mood hint at nostalgia (for Atlantis?) beneath the acid-colored surface.  Clapton sings the verses in an unusually high, almost fragile register before exploding into one of his fiercest guitar solos, while Baker pummels out a series of restless fills that propel the song forward.  Despite the opaque lyrics, it's hard not to hear a trace of melancholy in its title, knowing the band would splinter only months later.

Travelin' Man - Ricky Nelson

Travelin' Man - Ricky Nelson

2:23

Rick Is 21, 1961

Written by Jerry Fuller

This song was originally intended for Sam Cooke, but he passed on it, according to some accounts literally throwing it in the trash where it was rescued by Nelson's manager.  It's a song about a fellow who has a girl in every port: "Oh, my sweet fräulein down in Berlin town / Makes my heart start to yearn / And my China doll down in old Hong Kong / Waits for my return," and so forth.  Melodically, it's fairly simple, using an extremely common Brill Building progression and a melody built largely from chord tones. It has that conversational, stepwise motion that several early-'60s hits share.

This Is It - Melba Moore

This Is It - Melba Moore

3:31

This Is It, 1976

Written by Van McCoy

A vibrant disco production that glides along on everything the genre does best: shimmering strings, bright horns, crisp rhythm guitar, and layers of backing vocals. T.  It's a love song, about finally finding a low that seems real.  The lyrics come out in choppy bursts of enthusiasm.  "You smile at me / And suddenly / The wheels of love begin to turn inside of me / You said hello / I felt a glow."  Moore's vocal is infectious and joyful, conveying a real sense of celebration.

Time Marches On - Tracy Lawrence

Time Marches On - Tracy Lawrence

3:05

Time Marches On, 1996

Written by Bobby Braddock

A country observing the coming and going of generations.  There's ghosts of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire," obviously, from its chronicling of the sweep of history, but also the Stones "Mother's Little Helper" in that it hints at the drug use, psychological problems, and idiosyncratic behavior that go on behind the closed doors of ostensibly proper blue-collar families: "Brother's wearin' beads and he smokes a lot of dope / Mama is depressed, barely makes a sound / Daddy's got a girlfriend in another town."  Lawrence wisely resists over-singing the material. His straightforward delivery allows the lyric to do the heavy lifting, while the restrained mid-'90s country arrangement keeps sentimentality at bay.

Wake Up Everybody - Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes

Wake Up Everybody - Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes
7:32
Wake Up Everybody, 1975
Written by John Whitehead, Gene McFadden and Victor Carstarphen

Let's celebrate Juneteenth

This is the longest song ever posted to the blog.  Its album is the last to include Teddy Pendergrass before he left the group for a solo career.  This soul anthem is uplifting and positive. Rather than preaching politics, it asks teachers, doctors, and leaders to do better, trusting that the next generation will respond in kind: "Wake up, all the teachers, time to teach a new way / Maybe then they'll listen to whatcha have to say / Cause they're the ones who's coming up, and the world is in their hands / When you teach the children, teach 'em the very best you can."  The arrangement is as uplifting as the message. Shimmering keyboards, lush strings, bright horns, and a gently insistent rhythm build into something both grand and graceful. As the song gathers momentum, Teddy Pendergrass' husky vocal takes command, starting quietly before building into a near-sermon.  It's one of the great soul vocals of the 1970s.

Freedom - Beyoncé featuring Kendrick Lamar

Freedom - Beyoncé featuring Kendrick Lamar

4:49

Lemonade, 2016

Written by Jonathan Coffer, Beyoncé, Carla Williams, Arrow Benjamin, Kendrick Lamar, Frank Tirado, Alan Lomax, John Lomax, Sr.

Let's celebrate Juneteenth

Hey, how did folklorist and ethno-musicologist Alan Lomax get in there?  Well, the song incorporates three samples, including elements of "Stewball," a traditional recording (performed by a prisoner) collected by the Lomaxes, though as usual I'm not sure this deserves writing credit,  Anyhoo, this song was used as Kamal Harris' official campaign song, and was an unofficial anthem of the George Floyd protests.  "I'ma riot through your borders / Call me bulletproof / Lord, forgive me, I've been runnin' / Runnin' blind in truth."  The song is one of the most powerful statements in Beyoncé's catalog, which I am admittedly not very familiar with. Built around pounding drums, distorted organ textures, and a relentless groove, it's a pounding anthem and a declaration, not a pop song.  The lyric is both a declaration of resilience and a refusal to accept limits imposed by others. Lamar's verse is an equally urgent protest. "Eight blocks left, death is around the corner / Seven misleadin' statements 'bout my persona" — a rejection of mainstream demonization of black victims of police violence.  Abolish ICE!

Never Too Much - Luther Vandross

Never Too Much - Luther Vandross

3:50

Never Too Much, 1981

Written by Luther Vandross

Let's celebrate Juneteenth

Can anyone pour on the over-the-top declarations of love like Luther Vandross?  This is a man who does not simply love his partner; he is completely consumed by her.  He skips work to be with her.  "You are my shining star, my guiding light, my love fantasy / There's not a minute, hour, day or night that I don't love you," he proclaims.  Subtelty is not the goal here, and that's part of the charm.  The song's bright, funky groove keeps all that devotion from becoming overwhelming. Vandross' voice is smooth but not passive, full of control, warmth, and effortless runs that make even the biggest romantic statements sound sincere.

Heartbreaker - Ray Charles

Heartbreaker - Ray Charles

2:54

single, 1953

Written by Ahmet Ertegün

Let's celebrate Juneteenth

This fast blues manages to include every single trope from early R&B songs about women.  The titular heartbreaker went and left him, but "mean, mistreated too."  Regrettably for modern sensibilities, she's "just a schoolgirl" and a "bobby-soxer," but "you sure know what to do."  She's wearing a red dress, she's running all around, she broke his heart, he's going to put her in the ground.  So lyrically it's not exactly top-tier poetry, but Charles' piano frills and his enthusiastic vocals give it a boost.

Way Over There - the Miracles

Way Over There - the Miracles

2:56

Hi... We're the Miracles, 1961

Written by Smokey Robinson and Berry Gordy

Let's celebrate Juneteenth

Although it never achieved the fame of the Miracles' later hits, this one of Smokey Robinson's finest early compositions.  Faster and more energetic than the group's singles, it finds Robinson singing with a yearning passion, backed by enthusiastic harmonies, handclaps, electric guitar, and a bright piano figure. The lyrics concern a determined narrator overcoming every obstacle to reunite with his distant love ("I've got a lover way over there / On the mountain side / And I know that's where I should be"), and the soaring chorus perfectly captures his optimism.

Highways - Jim Sullivan

Highways - Jim Sullivan

2:51

U.F.O., 1969

Written by Jim Sullivan

The album this song is on received very little attention at the time, but after Sullivan's 1975 disappearance, it was rediscovered and reappraised. Some felt that the lyrics pointed to a prediction of his fate (see: "Tickin time now / Said alive ain't my cup of tea"), but it's easy to read things into texts after the fact.  This song, a folk-rocker buoyed by muted drums and horns, is a reflection on staying put, not worrying about the frenetic world, subsuming into art and nature. "Tomorrow I'm going to hang my feet in a stream / Pretending my world is real, yours a dream."