I’ve long held to the concept of “the perfect song”, by which I mean a song where the writer/performer has gotten something so right that it cannot be improved upon. This includes music and lyrics. Here are my two favorite examples. It is perhaps wrong to use live versions, as the studio is what I know best, but these are what I could find.
http://www.ilike.com/artist/Terry+Anderson/track/Yesterday+Clyde+Virginia
No idea what people in general think of “the perfect song” concept, but maybe it’s something to throw out there.
MMJ is my favorite band of this decade – the fact that they covered one of my favorite songs ever…
http://www.last.fm/music/My+Morning+Jacket/+videos/+1-ztN42h9Bm-o
This is a band I need to see at somepoint.
http://www.ilike.com/artist/MMJ/track/Golden
I do not know of a better singer/front man this century. And this is 2006 evidence.
I don’t give Grammy-type awards, but if I did, “best vocalist” should be a done deal.
I am going to quit the internet soon…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQqQzE2-E9M
– Ron Swanson
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This is from Andrew Hamlin, who said:
“A few of my own perfect songs follow:”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ydSJKBbLt0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2FDTszGlQQ
.
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To which Ron Swanson duly responded, ” I like your links – I would add Paul K’s “History or Rain” if there was an instrumental category. That and Mick Ronson’s “Slaughter on 10th Ave” are about the only instrumentals I can stand.”
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I have to go on record as saying I never thought that the Band’s version of “It Makes No Difference” could be equaled, but My Morning Jacket have pretty much done that. What do you guys think of “Golden” and “Two Halves”? Mountain boys and all, but I like the sound. “People always told me that bars are dark and lonely”….
The vocal on “Two Halves” is Beatlesque in its beauty. I’m not a huge Beatles fan, but I don’t know what else to compare that one to,.
Check our sec Walkin’ if you’re a Boz Scaggs fan.
And here’s the best MMJ song of all – anyone who can work in the line Kumbaya My Lord….
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…and how could I forget this one:
…it came on the Mecca Cafe jukebox this morning…ahhhhhh…
– Andrew Hamlin
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Thanks Andy!
I’m equally fond of the That Dog and Replacements tracks, and even include both in my upcoming “600 Songs” piece, which I hope to have in final shape by next month sometime!
By the by, I consider the American version of RUBBER SOUL to be the one time U.S. Capitol ever “improved” one of The Beatles’ British albums, however marginally/inadvertently, and largely due to leading it off with “I’ve Just Seen a Face”, which they’d withheld from the slipshod American HELP! soundtrack, “butchers” that they were.
Also quite enjoyed the Magnetic Fields song, which is a lovely gloss on “Be My Baby”, right down to the drum pattern, though it may have been more directly inspired by “Taste of Cindy” by The Jesus and Mary Chain! And which of course foreshadowed their much later DISTORTION….
Pop Homage & Detournement, who can tell where it will lead?!
Tom
