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Middle Aged Dummies!! Artists #1's have been posted!! (16 Viewers)

7

Song: Highway Patrolman
Artist: Ryan Adams
Released: 2023
Album: Nebraska


I feel I may have over-ranked this song, as it was an earworm to me at the time I put this list together. I mentioned in my Bad Blood write up how Adams started the trend of artists covering other artists' albums cover to cover.
In 2023 Adams released three such albums covering Springteen's Nebraska, Dylan's Blood on the Tracks and Oasis' What's The Story.

My issue with ranking this so highly is that it's really Springsteen that deserves the credit here since the lyrics are what makes this song so amazing. On his Nebraska album, unlike 1989, Ryan covers the songs faithfully, changing really nothing. So it's the same album with arguably better vocals. The song deals with the narrator, a Highway Patrolman trying to walk the line between doing his job, and dealing with his brother Frankie, and "Frankie ain't no good". To me this is the best "story" song and the lyrics are so compelling and deep.

My name is Joe Roberts, I work for the state
I'm a sergeant out of Perrineville, barracks number eight
I always done an honest job, as honest as I could
I got a brother named Franky, and Franky ain't no good
Now ever since we was young kids, it's been the same come down
I get a call on the shortwave, Franky's in trouble downtown
Well if it was any other man, I'd put him straight away
But when it's your brother sometimes you look the other way

Yeah, me and Franky laughin' and drinkin', nothin' feels better than blood on blood
Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"
I catch him when he's strayin', like any brother would
Man turns his back on his family, well, he just ain't no good

Well, Franky went in the army back in nineteen sixty-five
I got a farm deferment, settled down, took Maria for my wife
But them wheat prices kept on droppin' 'til it was like we were gettin' robbed
Franky came home in sixty-eight and me I took this job

Yeah, we're laughin' and drinkin', nothin' feels better than blood on blood
Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"
I catch him when he's strayin', teach him how to walk that line
Man turns his back on his family, he ain't no friend of mine

Well, the night was like any other, I got a call 'bout quarter to nine
There was trouble in a roadhouse out on the Michigan line
There was a kid lyin' on the floor lookin' bad, bleedin' hard from his head
Was a girl cryin' at a table and it was Frank, they said
Well, I went out and I jumped in my car and I hit the lights
Well, I musta done a hundred and ten through Michigan County that night
It was out at the crossroads, down 'round Willow bank
Seen a Buick with Ohio plates, behind the wheel was Frank
Well I chased him through them county roads
'Til a sign said "Canadian border five miles from here"
I pulled over the side of the highway and watched his taillights disappear

Me and Franky laughin' and drinkin', nothin' feels better than blood on blood
Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"
I catch him when he's strayin' like any brother would
Man turns his back on his family, he just ain't no good
 
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Ooh. That's a tough one.

eta* just occurred to me that the cop is only doing his job because he gets paid. Now that's not justice!
 
Doug B said:
simey said:
#7 - Ray Charles - America The Beautiful

Brother Ray recorded this song back in 1972, and it was released on his 1972 album A Message From the People. His soulful gospel infused version will always be my favorite.
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Could have sworn Charles sang this on an episode of Who’s The Boss? in the 80s. Tried to track it down to no avail. Did I just hallucinate that?
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You hallucinated. He was on an episode of Who's The Boss?, so maybe it was a partial hallucination. He sang "Always A Friend" and "Hallelujah I Love Her So" on the show.
 
#7 Jailbreak (’74 Jailbreak)

Per wiki:
'74 Jailbreak is an EP, released in 1984. It is composed of five tracks that had previously been released only in Australia. Despite the EP's title, the song "Jailbreak" was actually recorded in 1976 and was originally released that year on the Australian version of the Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap album. The EP's four other tracks were originally released on the Australian version of the band's debut album, High Voltage, recorded in 1974 and released early the following year.

You can definitely hear the Blues influence in the other four songs on this album.

Jailbreak has a great rhythm, a couple of good drum fills (for a change), and some fun lyrics. I enjoy the changeup at the 3:00 mark.

The Youtube video is all kinds of awesome, too.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

Based on the video you might think drummer Phil is the most important member of the band. :)

Also found a different version that I had not seen before
www.youtube.com

AC DC Jailbreak

AC DC JailbreakThere was a friend of mine on murderAnd the judge's gavel fell, yeahJury found him guiltyGave him sixteen years in hellHe said, "I ain't spe...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

One more. Actual live performance from the early days. You can really feel the bass in this live one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNJS7HzLaV8

I now have at least 1 song from every album featuring Bon Scott on vocals. The same can't be said for the Brian Johnson era.

Album breakdown
1 74 Jailbreak
5 High Voltage
2 Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
3 Let There Be Rock
3 PowerAge
3 Highway To Hell
3 Back in Black
1 For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)
1 Flick of the Switch
0 Fly On The Wall
1 Who Made Who
1 Blow Up Your Video
0 The Razor’s Edge
0 BallBreaker
1 Stiff Upper Lip
0 Black Ice
0 Rock or Bust
0 Power Up
 
#7 Contact - Daft Punk (Random Access Memories)

This one is the concluding track off of 2013's Random Access Memories, Daft Punk's final album. The song is based around a sample taken from and provided by NASA, which features Apollo 17 mission taker Eugene Cernan, who is exclaiming about seeing something out in space that he can't recognize. He thinks it's something awe-inspiring or life in space, but unbeknownst to him, it happened to be the discarded rocket stage from Apollo 17. It's a clever play on the digital/analogue "is there anybody out there?" existentialism that Daft Punk would come to embody through their often vocal-less and digitized music. The song starts out with a mellow synth intro, spoken words, and then transitions from an ominous organ sound into a dance club/synth track. The end of the song originally resulted in blown speakers like you'd expect to find at the end of a rock concert, according to witnesses.

I dunno. It's really just pretty much "a banger" as ilov80s would say. It slaps, as ditkaburgers would say. It incorporates house, drum and bass, and other disparate elements to make a dance track whole. It's got a lot more elements of post-rock to it than dance, now that I listen again. I just know I love the crescendo of the track, which digitally whirs into insanity by its end.
 
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Galileo said:
#7 Days (1968 - European version of The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society)
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I have the exact box set pictured in the icon. (It's blue with tan writing, unlike the original album cover, which is a photo of the band against a sort of black backdrop). It came damaged and I took a discount instead of returning it, which was stupid. It's a really nice set otherwise.

The song? Sublime. One of their greats. Such a hopeful song in the face of loss. What to say? The Kinks are capable of pathos most other bands aren't. "Come Dancing," which you also just did, is quite an example of that same empathy/pathos/loss triad that Davies did so well.
 
falguy said:
The Youtube video is all kinds of awesome, too.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
Based on the video you might think drummer Phil is the most important member of the band. :)
Click to expand...
WTF is Angus wearing? I can't even make sense of that outfit :lol:
 
Adams cover album did make me revisit Springsteen's Nebraska album with a different perspective - it may also have to do with age (I was a teen when it came out so found it a bit dull so never gave it a chance really). It's now probably my third favorite Springsteen album - and my guess is his and Adams version of Highway Patrolman will be in my year end Top 10 songs most listened to on Spotify.
 
Uruk-Hai said:
falguy said:
The Youtube video is all kinds of awesome, too.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
Based on the video you might think drummer Phil is the most important member of the band. :)
Click to expand...
WTF is Angus wearing? I can't even make sense of that outfit :lol:
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I guess we know now what he is wearing underneath those schoolboy outfits.
 
A few random thoughts:

1. Funeral for a Friend is obviously one of the great epic rock songs of all time and I can’t fault anyone for ranking it as Elton’s #1. For me there’s just a few songs I like even more (6 of them to be exact.)

2. Let me echo a few others and say that Ray Charles “America the Beautiful” is by far the greatest recording of a “patriotic” song of all time. He is at the top of that list; and Lee Greenwood is at the bottom of it.

3. Love Taylor Swift’s “Question”. I hope new people are listening to some of her work as a result of this thread and realizing what an extraordinary artist she has become.
 
Uruk-Hai said:
falguy said:
The Youtube video is all kinds of awesome, too.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
Based on the video you might think drummer Phil is the most important member of the band. :)
Click to expand...
WTF is Angus wearing? I can't even make sense of that outfit :lol:
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The whole video is a :tfp:
It jumps around constantly. Almost dizzying. Bon and his missing tooth in all his glory.
 
Random thoughts on some known-to-me (in some cases, VERY well known-to-me) songs from #7:

Hello It's Me is my #1 Todd song. I ranked it #8 in the US countdown. What I said there:

Something/Anything is pretty much a perfect album (and it's a double!) and this is its high point. It's a reworking of a song Rundgren wrote for Nazz, the band he was in in the late '60s, but this version is far superior to that one. It's a triumph of songcraft, production, arrangement, performance and emotion, every bit the equal of the best pop and soul songs from its era.

It appears on side 4 of Something/Anything, which featured six songs that Rundgren taught to the session musicians and then recorded live in one take. (He would later do an entire album, 1989's Nearly Human, this way.) The hilarious liner notes claim they comprise a "pop operetta" called "Baby Needs a New Pair of Snakeskin Boots."
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I took A Minha Menina for one of the international playlists in GP4. (And then Krista tried to take it because she doesn't read my posts. :laugh:) Thought at the time I don't think I was aware of JBJ's involvement with Os Mutantes' version. Does this mean it's my #1 JBJ? No idea. But its fusion of samba and psychedelia is irresistible.
Broken Horses is my #1 Brandi Carlile. The first time I heard it on WXPN I was :eek:. It has a killer melody and a killer vocal and rocks forthrightly, with amazing interplay between piano and guitar.
Invisible Sun is my #1 Police song. I ranked it #10 in the worldwide countdown. What I said there:
Another one I discovered when I was glued to MTV as a tween in the early '80s. (As an American, I could watch the video, which was banned by the BBC in the UK because it had footage from The Troubles in Northern Ireland.) It's absolutely haunting, both musically and lyrically, but (unlike some of Sting's later work) it never forgets it's a song first and a message second. It's also got one of Andy Summers' best guitar solos, which perfectly complements the anguish of the people described in the lyrics.
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Supper's Ready is not my #1 Genesis but it's up there. It is rightly considered by Genesis die-hards to be the crown jewel of the Gabriel years. All of the band's strengths and quirks are weaved into an extended multi-part suite that wobbles a bit in the middle but offers great pleasures throughout. I even hear Paul McCartney's early '70s work with suites rearing their influence. As Yo Mama said, the last two segments may be the best work the band ever did. At my 1987 show, the Apocalypse in 9/8 section was included in a medley of older songs.
Life is another one of the epics from So Divided that shows off what made TOD unique.
Days is one of Ray Davies' best ballads and really should have gotten more attention on this side of the pond.
Xanadu is not my #1 Rush but it's up there. The intro is one of the best in rock and the music hits unbelievable high points.
Babylon Sisters is one of the apices of the smooth-jazz-inflected pop that Fagen and Becker heard in their heads.
Do I Do is a rollicking, funky trip. Glad to see the playlist has the extended version with Dizzy Gillespie.
Free is not my #1 Phish but it's up there. It was the lead single from Billy Breathes, Phish's most accessible album, and thus may have the most play on commercial radio of any of their songs. I love how the guitar and harmonies soar.
Got Me Wrong is a tour de force of shadows and light.
'39 answers the question of how do you adapt the Queen sound to a folk song?
Ray's version of America the Beautiful is the definitive one.
My Hero is not my #1 Foos but it's up there. I love the way the guitars wind.
Straight On is a great rocker that finds plenty of room to breathe.
Funeral for a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding is my #1 Elton. I ranked it #7 in the British Isles countdown. What I said there:
Back to long songs! But three other people drafted this too, so you can't give me all the grief on this one.

This suite combines pop, rock and prog into a triumphant achievement. Elton isn't thought of as a "magnum opus" kind of artist, but here he produces something that holds its own with the Stairway to Heavens and Freebirds of the world while retaining the melody and tunefulness of his best work. And it KICKS OFF his "magnum opus" album, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.
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Speaking of AC/DC, I had no idea that the source of who actually wrote the lyrics to most of Back In Black was in controversy. Steve Hoffman forums had a lengthy, lengthy discussion with mad back-and-forth with some supporting the hypothesis that before Bon Scott died, he'd penned the lyrics to a lot of the songs and that they're in a missing notebook that the Young brothers absconded with from his apartment after Scott's death.

Scott is credited nowhere on the album, and Brian Johnson is said to have written the lyrics to Back. The problem? Brian Johnson is a terrible writer of lyrics, Back In Black features some of AC/DC's best, and Johnson himself was stripped of writing vocals around the time that The Razor's Edge came out. There's a lot of nefarious **** and finger-pointing in these stories, but it sure was an interesting read.
 
Galileo said:
shuke said:
Zegras11 said:
Five songs over 7 minutes....
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Not Phish this time!
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And 4 of them are over 10 minutes! Although I wouldn't mind it if your #7 Phish song lasted for 30 minutes. I love Free. I have it in a couple of my playlists that I shuffle through and when it comes on, I usually play it over 3 or 4 times in a row anyway.
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In concert it can get quite a bit longer than it does on record, but I dunno if they've ever done a 30-minute version.

I once saw them do 30-minute songs on back-to-back nights (Runaway Jim on 7/3/00 and Gotta Jibboo on 7/4/00).
 
rockaction said:
Speaking of AC/DC, I had no idea that the source of who actually wrote the lyrics to most of Back In Black was in controversy. Steve Hoffman forums had a lengthy, lengthy discussion with mad back-and-forth with some supporting the hypothesis that before Bon Scott died, he'd penned the lyrics to a lot of the songs and that they're in a missing notebook that the Young brothers absconded with from his apartment after Scott's death.

Scott is credited nowhere on the album, and Brian Johnson is said to have written the lyrics to Back. The problem? Brian Johnson is a terrible writer of lyrics, Back In Black features some of AC/DC's best, and Johnson himself was stripped of writing vocals around the time that The Razor's Edge came out. There's a lot of nefarious **** and finger-pointing in these stories, but it sure was an interesting read.
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I have heard those rumours previously as well. It is definitely questionable that Brian just happened to write great lyrics on one album and then mostly average and even poor for the others.
 
Zegras11 said:
Missed The Boat

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
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I didn't think you were doing any off of this album, Marco. Now that you have, allow me to intone that this is probably my second-favorite album of theirs, second only to Lonesome Crowded West. Building Nothing Out of Something is probably my favorite, actually, but it's a collection IIRC.

I'm not sure I would have picked this song, but different tastes are different. Perhaps this will be the only song you select off of it, and our judgment of the album is as different as I originally thought. Songs like "Parting Of The Sensory" and "Little Motel" are two of my favorite MM songs overall. I thought it was a perfect epic album to follow the success of Good News For People Who Love Bad News. Even songs that most people find grating, like "March Into The Sea," I find really strong and well-done. I love the elements of the countrified strings on this album. It gives it a vibe that I absolutely dug at the time for some reason. The lush disco of "Dashboard" is a remarkable accomplishment. The album won me over easily. Good stuff.
 
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Pip's Invitation said:
Invisible Sun is my #1 Police song. I ranked it #10 in the worldwide countdown. What I said there:
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Mine also. I would have ranked it in one of the dummies countdowns - but I think of them as British, despite having an American drummer so had a bit of a difficult time with throwing it into the international pool (even though per our rules that's where it should be).
 
Dr. Octopus said:
Pip's Invitation said:
Invisible Sun is my #1 Police song. I ranked it #10 in the worldwide countdown. What I said there:
Click to expand...
Mine also. I would have ranked it in one of the dummies countdowns - but I think of them as British, despite having an American drummer so had a bit of a difficult time with throwing it into the international pool (even though per our rules that's where it should be).
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I suggested we go by "where was the band based?" but y'all wanted to do the musical version of birtherism. :shrug:
 
We're gonna talk about nothing... 'til nothing's enough

#7 - Tragically Hip - The Dark Canuck

Probably the least known in my top ten but some days it's #1 for me. This is probably too low, maybe it should have been #1. It's maybe not objectively their best song but man it's pretty close.

A sprawling build and release song with some of my favourite Hip lyrics of all time. It transitions about half way through and becomes something completely different. From 2002's In Violet Light, it would be my go to song for introducing someone to later period Hip, which gets a little weirded (even by Gord Downie's status) a little less mainstream/more indie rock vibe but remains just as powerful as the older, better known classics. There's an anti-war message buried in here and the film referenced here entitled The Dark Canuck doesn't exist (though a few years later Julian goes to see it in Trailer Park Boys).
 
falguy said:
I have heard those rumours previously as well. It is definitely questionable that Brian just happened to write great lyrics on one album and then mostly average and even poor for the others.
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Circumstantial evidence is not the friend of the official word of AC/DC regarding that issue.
 
rockaction said:
falguy said:
I have heard those rumours previously as well. It is definitely questionable that Brian just happened to write great lyrics on one album and then mostly average and even poor for the others.
Click to expand...

Circumstantial evidence is not the friend of the official word of AC/DC regarding that issue.
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I'm shocked that people think Back in Black has great (even good) lyrics. AC/DC isn't a band I think about, when I think good lyrics. Seems their songs are about drinking and women.

I'd put their lyrics a few pegs above KISS. At least they're mature about it.
 
Dr. Octopus said:
I'm shocked that people think Back in Black has good lyrics. AC/DC isn't a band I think about, when I think good lyrics. Seems their songs are about drinking and women.

I'd put their lyrics a few pegs above KISS. At least they're mature about it.
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I agree with you. I'm not saying they're great lyrics. I'm saying they're a lot better than what Brian Johnson was doing later. The forums were parsing the lyrics and making some convincing arguments why Bon Scott's style and humor were all over them rather than Johnson's.

I dunno. Just for the sake of discussion, really. I'm not dying on a hill for

She was a fast machine
She kept her motor clean
She was the best damn woman that I ever seen
 
rockaction said:
Pip's Invitation said:
I suggested we go by "where was the band based?" but y'all wanted to do the musical version of birtherism. :shrug:
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LOL. Oh wow. Man, I don't know. I think the hard-and-fast absolute rule saved us a whole lot kvetching. I don't think I could have made it.

Can you imagine us defining what "based" consisted of?

:scream:
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There were only a handful of bands that were based in more than one country during their career. It wouldn't have come up that much.
 
rockaction said:
Wow, I didn't look closely enough at the list to note some real quality tracks, like "Baby Driver" being #7 overall for Simon and Garfunkel or "The Underdog" by Spoon having the same honor. Both tracks get their due here, I see.
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Listening again to Baby Driver, I could have easily put that at #1 had I done this again. That midsection ‘50s brass and killer Joe Osborn bass. #chefskiss
 
Dr. Octopus said:
rockaction said:
falguy said:
I have heard those rumours previously as well. It is definitely questionable that Brian just happened to write great lyrics on one album and then mostly average and even poor for the others.
Click to expand...

Circumstantial evidence is not the friend of the official word of AC/DC regarding that issue.
Click to expand...

I'm shocked that people think Back in Black has great (even good) lyrics. AC/DC isn't a band I think about, when I think good lyrics. Seems their songs are about drinking and women.

I'd put their lyrics a few pegs above KISS. At least they're mature about it.
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Maybe great was the wrong word. In a relative sense, compared to most of his later stuff, is probably better. I think Bon has some pretty awesome lyrics in his songs but maybe that's just me. My #6 song, coming tomorrow, does have great lyrics tho, damn it !
 
A few 7s to comment on now (besides Hello It's Me or Got Me Wrong) that I already know or new that I have listened to so far...

Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? Reminds me of my sister learning it on the piano back in the 70s.
'39 - Another favorite off of ANATO.
Invisible Sun - My favorite off of the GITM album.
Jailbreak - ⚡
Straight On - I've always liked the groove in this one.
Funeral For a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding - One of my favorites from Elton.
Days - One of the many songs I love by them.
Antonio Carlos Jobim - Heatmiser sorta reminds me of a charged up Elliott Smith. 🙂
Broken Horses - Sing it girl.
Missed the Boat - Dig it.
Grace Cathedral Hill - 🕯️
A Slight Discomfort - I like how the song starts slow and then builds. I also like his voice in this one. It sounds not echoed, but not right up at the mic. I don't know how to explain it.
Third Uncle - They went from a haunting howl at the moon song to a thrashing, smashing dance 'til you drop tune. 💃
Chip Away Boy - 🤠
Something Better Change - Sounds like a raw punkish angst anthem. It's good.
Baby Driver - Good toe tappin hippy dippy S&G tune. :drive: <----Baby behind the wheel. ⚠️

Out of time for now.
 
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