Rumor has it that Lou Reed once wrote a happy song.
Lou Reed/Velvet Underground
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Rock
Los Lobos
I guy I knew in college once said that although “La Bamba” is a great song, it just “wasn’t right” for Los Lobos to cover it. So a white guy from the Midwest gets to tell a Mexican-American band that they shouldn’t cover a song that was made famous by a Mexican-American and that is based on a Mexican folk song. Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce “straight white male entitlement.”
Little Richard
“Wop bop a loo bop a lop bam boom!”
Why isn’t Little Richard considered the greatest, ever? Is it the lipstick?
Leonard Cohen
So apparently the rule is, if you’re a singer-songwriter born just south of the US/Canada border (say, Minnesota), you get to have a long career, huge critical acclaim, and tons of hits. If you’re born on the north side, you get the same long career and acclaim, but only a rabid cult audience (and a hit or two if you are lucky). And of all the culty Canadian singer-songwriters out there (Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, etc.), I would say that Leonard Cohen is probably the mostly rabidly culti-est.
Led Zeppelin
For a group labeled “thinking man’s hard rock,” these guys spent an awful lot of time trashing hotel rooms. And for the latest cred-drop: For all the glories of “Kashmir” and “Immigrant Song,” probably my favorite Zep tune is “Fool in the Rain.”
Laura Nyro
Do I know (and dislike) Blood, Sweat, and Tears’s version of “And When I Die”? Yep. The Fifth Dimension covers of both “Wedding Bell Blues” and “Stoned Soul Picnic”? Absolutely. Have I ever heard Laura Nyro singing any of her own songs? Not a note. Bonus points for making “Wedding Bell Blues” about a guy named Bill, which was the actual name of the man Fifth Dimension singer Marilyn McCoo did marry. Psychic.
Kraftwerk
Given my diatribes against synthesized music (if you haven’t heard one, you’re missing a rare treat), you’d think I would despise Kraftwerk. But, especially in their early stuff, their electronic beeps and farts are so over the top, it’s almost like they are parodying a sound that they themselves invented. That’s awesome in its own right.
Kinks
How awesome are the Kinks? a) Kept writing the same song over and over … and had a hit with it every time! b) First major group to have a hit with a song about a transvestite. c) Disco Superman.
That’s how awesome they are.
Joy Division/New Order
When my cool coworker Lori made me a “new wave” mixtape in the early 80s, my favorite song on it by far was “Love Will Tear Us Apart.” I guess it makes sense that years later I was rocking out in the clubs to “Bizarre Love Triangle.” (OK, gay boys don’t rock out … but you get the idea.)
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell is my all-time favorite, period. I can thank Pete (who is light years ahead of me musically, as well as in pretty much every way) for introducing me to her when we were in high school. While our peers were rockin’ out to REO Speedwagon, we would blast For the Roses out of the dining room windows into the backyard. And my mother was surprised when I came out?
Playlist of the Day 