“The Hellion/Electric Eye” by Judas Priest (1982)

It was pointed out to me, correctly, that I don’t have enough hard rock on my blog.

Heavy Metal. Hard rock. “Cock” rock. Speed metal. Norwegian death metal. How the hell do I recommend this shite to my daughter?

Let’s start by acknowledging how much this music meant to me. Yeah, it’s aggressive, and masculine, and oriented almost entirely toward the Y chromosome. Yeah, it might work up some frat boys into a scary lather (and watch out for that!).

But it shook things up, turned things upside down, got your heart racing. And it pissed off your parents!

“The Hellion/Electric Eye” is the opening track to Judas Priest’s album, “Screaming for Vengeance.” It was released (and bought by your old man as a high school junior) in 1982. That cassette was never far from the the stereo in my VW Bug. It was my travellin’ music, a tonic, in a sense. And a part of who I am now.

Okay, follow me on this: I don’t trust the government to do the right thing with its power. Not without serious input and oversight from its citizens.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” Thomas Jefferson said that. But he meant citizens’ vigilance. Not the government’s.

In a rock and roll way, this Priest track really prepared me to recognize this danger.

“You think you’ve private lives
Think nothing of the kind
There is no true escape
I’m watching all the time”

“The Real Me” by The Who (1973)

This track is from the album “Quadrophenia,” which is one of my all-time favorite records. If I could only pick 10 albums to carry me through the rest of my life, “Quadrophenia” would be one of them.

To me, this represents The Who at their finest, and this is a band that has made more than a few superb albums. The songs are great, the musicianship is terrific, Roger Daltrey’s vocals are as powerful and engaging as ever, and Pete Townshend rips on guitar, while also creating sonic magic in the studio. This album captivated me when I first heard it at the age of 14, and it’s never lost its power or appeal.

On top of the great music, “Quadrophenia” explores issues of social identity and expectations. The story is set in England around a group of “mods,” but it could be about anyone who doesn’t quite fit into the mainstream. Or maybe it’s about questioning whether one WANTS to fit in. Or maybe just trying to find out who you are and where you fit inside the social machine. It was all of that to me, and it came to me at a time when those issues were important. And now that I’m an old man, the issues are still there.

I love every song on “Quadrophenia,” so if you ever want to know a little bit more about some of the stuff that hangs in your Daddy’s head, listen to the album. They even made a pretty good movie out of it in 1979, which I highly recommend.

“I ended up with the preacher
Full of lies and hate
I seemed to scare him a little
So he showed me to the golden gate”

“Foreplay/Long Time” by Boston (1976)

Don’t ever let anyone convince you that all rock music from the 1970’s is the same. We like to do that with our obsessions over categories and eras. Like any “era,” there was pap, and there was quality. Boston was definitely of the latter.

A great group of musicians with a terrific (and criminally underrated) vocalist named Brad Delp, Boston made some epic records. As something of a nerd when this record came out, I liked their guitarist, Tom Scholz. Not only did he get a Ph.D. from one of the best schools in the country, but he also tinkered with his instruments and with electronics to get his signature sound. He has patents and a company that sells his inventions. AND he made some awesome music with his mates in Boston.

This track is split up into two parts. The first part, “Foreplay,” is what you might call progressive rock, and I understand it’s not to everyone’s taste. But give it a chance to set up and build to the second part. At about the two minute mark, the track settles into a quiet, pensive moment, with a lone organ playing among some ambient sounds. Then it builds, marvelously and explosively, into the second part, “Long Time.”

I’ve just always thought that was a high point in modern music. It gets me every time.

“Everybody’s Gotta Live” by Love (1975)

Love was a fantastic and unique band that played a terrific mix of folk, rock, blues, psychedelia, and pop. They started in the 1960’s and were led by the great Arthur Lee (who is really the only remaining original member of Love by the time they recorded this track in 1975).

I just really dig the vibe of Arthur Lee’s music. It’s great on lonely days, and it’s great to play at parties. And I just wanted you to know about this band.

“I had a dream the other night, baby
I dreamt that I was all alone
But when I woke up I took another look around myself
And I was surrounded by fifty million songs”

(thanks to rsensorat3 for the images and upload to YouTube)

“Isn’t She Lovely” by Stevie Wonder (1976)

Just because it’s time for more Stevie.

He wrote this song when his daughter was born. I’m wondering if every parent who has ever heard this song has, at one point, sang the words or hummed the melody to his/her new daughter.

I remember singing it to you, quietly, when you were tiny and bundled in a blanket that seemed to outweigh you.

Does the melody sound awfully familiar to you? It should.

“Deacon Blues” by Steely Dan (1977)

It wasn’t until I got older that I started really appreciating Steely Dan.  I knew who they were from their radio hits (“Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” “Do It Again,” “Reelin’ in the Years,” etc.), but I didn’t really appreciate the smooth, smart sophistication of their music.  Steely Dan is led by Walter Becker and Donald Fagan, two wildly inventive musicians who assembled some fantastic groups of session musicians to create great albums, including my favorite, “Aja,” from which this track comes.

I’ve always loved the gorgeous sax arrangement, including the loose but intense solo, and it wasn’t until a few days ago that found out who played that part:  Pete Christlieb.

Now here’s the thing that knocked me down about that discovery (other than feeling like a fool for not knowing the musicians on these great recordings):  When I was in my high school jazz band, Mr. Christlieb visited my school to talk to us and to sit in with our band for a couple of tunes.  I had no idea that he was the man who laid down that great solo, mostly because I wasn’t really aware of the song at the time.  But for the next 20 years or so, I’ve really enjoyed the track and its horn “section”— never realizing that I once played alongside the very artist who did it!

I was lucky to have a pretty good music program in my public school, but that’s not the case for most schools, especially with the massive cuts our schools have had to endure.  Yes, our kids need to learn the basic subjects like math and English and science, but they also need exposure to other things like art and music.  They also need to know about different avenues they can travel in life.  Some kids are just not that great at academic subjects, but they may find their calling elsewhere.

We need to make sure our schools have everything they need to educate and provide opportunity for our kids.

So here’s Steely Dan, featuring the blazing tenor sax of Pete Christlieb, a supporter of public schools.  And former bandmate of your daddy.  Um, sorta.

(Thanks to Melegorm for the video upload to YouTube)

“Born in the U.S.A.” by Bruce Springsteen (1984)

Happy April Fool’s Day!  I’m posting this track on this day for a reason, so bear with me.

Bruce Springsteen is a national treasure.  You will find some really hardcore Springsteen fans out there, a testament to his ability to reach people through his music.  He tells it like it is, what it’s like to live in this country, both good and bad.  He’s not afraid to point out problems, to identify issues we all need to talk about.

This track is about a kid our country sent to Vietnam to fight a war.  America didn’t really know what to do about its veterans from Vietnam.  We were used to treating our soldiers as returning heroes, but the Vietnam War was an ugly mess.  An ugly mess that destroyed many lives, including those “lucky” veterans who survived.

Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man

And more:

I had a brother at Khe Sahn fighting off the Viet Cong
They’re still there, he’s all gone

It’s a pretty stark picture of the lingering effects of war.  A war that many people (including me) think was entirely unnecessary, to say the least.

So here’s the April Fool’s connection:  This song has been adopted as a patriotic anthem by people who never bothered to understand the lyrics.  All they heard was “Born in the U.S.A.” and assumed it was some updated version of “God Bless America.”  Certain right-wing politicians even tried (and still try!) to use the song in their campaigns, campaigns that include pretty militaristic policies.

To me that’s just indicative of an absurd, jingoistic mindset, the “my country right or wrong” idea.  An idea that is so ingrained in some folks’ minds that they can’t even hear the words in the songs they use to prop up their paper-thin patriotism.  April Fools!

“You’ll never have a quiet world ’til you knock the patriotism out of the human race.” — George Bernard Shaw

“God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys (1966)

Many people identify The Beach Boys with the “California sound” of the 1960’s.  But to many musicians and fans, The Beach Boys, helmed by the great Brian Wilson, were much more than that.  Brian Wilson wrote extraordinary songs and used really inventive and cutting edge techniques in the recording studio to get his vision down.  The album “Pet Sounds,” from which this track comes, is considered one of the first “concept albums,” inspiring bands like The Who and The Beatles to do their own such records.

But even if one cannot recognize the genius of Brian Wilson, almost everyone can enjoy and appreciate the beautiful songs The Beach Boys gave to us.  This song is a perfect example.  The melody soars, the performance is earnest and pure, and you just can’t help humming along by the second verse.

“God only knows what I’d be without you.”

“Both Sides Now” by Joni Mitchell (1968)

Today would have been your grandmother’s 68th birthday.  I wanted to post a song that I identify strongly with her memory, and this is one of the first ones I thought of.  It wasn’t actually easy, as your grandmother really liked music and always had a small but impressive record collection.  Whenever I hear this song, whether performed by Joni Mitchell, who wrote it, or performed by Judy Collins, who had a big hit covering it in the late 1960’s, I think of your grandma.

This song is a perfect gem, a classic.  And the meaning of the song evolves with you as you mature, as you gain more of life’s wonderful (and not-so-wonderful) experience.   If you ever decide to write some of your own songs, you would do well to study Joni Mitchell’s records.

“But now old friends are acting strange
They shake their heads, they say I’ve changed
Well something’s lost, but something’s gained
In living every day.”

Your grandma instilled in me a love for music.  Maybe I can pass that on to you, as something of a legacy.  From her to you.

“Waterloo Sunset” by The Kinks (1967)

The Kinks went through many phases of music, but what is near-constant are the wonderful, observational stories that unfold in their songs, thanks to the fine words of Mr. Ray Davies, who also sings most of them.  Many of their songs are like little novels, witty travelogues about people and places.  It’s a lot of fun to sit down with a Kinks album and follow along with the lyrics.  And it doesn’t hurt that they wrote great music, too, with many tracks instantly recognizable by people around the world.

I’m sure I’ll post more Kinks tracks in the future, but since I have to start somewhere, here’s one of their early hits, a very sweet song about longing and desire.