Their Greatest Song - 1960's Classic British Rock Groups Edition

Listing to my 16,000 plus song collection on my iPod, I was intrigued by a thought. Would it be possible for me to select what I feel is the best song by classic artists. Listening to an artist's songs on shuffle mode can have an interesting effect. A song that sounded good in the context of the album may sound out of place by itself. And songs by artists you don't really care for can take you by surprise.

The best place to start is the dinosaurs of classic rock, the British bands of the 60's.

THE BEATLES

It is amazing what the Beatles accomplished in less than a decade. They went from potential teen idol fad to legend in a few short years. And in the process, they managed to create four viable solo artists in John, Paul, George, and Ringo. To represent all four, it is only fair that I pick a song from each, and then a winner for the whole group.

John Lennon -- Help!

John Lennon's early death insured his status as an icon and reinforced his image as the true leader of the Beatles, despite the reality that McCartney played more of a hand in their later classic albums. While Lennon had many classic songs, including A Day In The Life, Strawberry Fields Forever, and Revolution, none have the urgency of Help!

To me, Help! is the bridge between the Beatles as teen idols and the Beatles as serious artists. John Lennon, in his mid twenties, is genuinely pleading here. In his voice and lyrics you hear the sound of a guy who is already burned out on his success, pleading for someone to come to his aid. While Lennon said he would have preferred to slow the song down, it's hard to imagine it being better than the recorded version, in which the sweetness of the Beatles' echoed background vocals compete with the exasperation in Lennon's voice. It is a deeply personal song, and it's not hard to see a direct line from here to Lennon's later, more personal, solo work.

Paul McCartney -- Get Back

Paul McCartney wrote and performed some of my favorite songs, including Hey Jude, I Saw Her Standing There, The Long and Winding Road, Yesterday, Blackbird, and the group's fitting epitaph, The End. But the driving rhythms of Get Back, captured for all their glory in the movie Let It Be, are what keeps me listening to it even as I zip past the others on my iPod. Every offically released version of this song is a treat, including the flubbed rooftop version in which Paul McCartney admonishes "Loretta" for "playing on the roofs" as London Police arrive to shut down the Beatle's last public performance. Also check out the version on the Beatles' mash-up, Love. This version seemlessly marries the song with A Hard Days Night and The End.

George Harrison -- Something

George Harrison's output for the group was slim, and judging by his immediate solo output after the group broke up, this wasn't his idea. Fortunately, this meant that the vast majority of Harrison's songs are truly great ones. Good enough to forgive him for introducing the sitar to the West. While I debated putting Old Brown Shoe in this spot, just because I love the bass line, you have to go with Something as his best Beatles song. This timeless love song is unique in the Beatles catalog in that two other pop idols from previous eras, Elvis and Frank Sinatra, both put out credible covers of the song. Its lyrics are simple; perhaps trite, but the gentle drum line that opens the song, coupled with George's sweet singing combine to make a great love song.

Ringo Starr -- A Little Help From My Friends

Okay, this isn't a Ringo Starr song, but the song truly seems to be his. Ringo's always been the joker of the bunch, but also always seemed to be the most in need of a good hug. In a band full of giant talents, Ringo was often the butt of jokes for his deceptively simple drumming. It isn't hard to feel that the song is truly about his feelings that he couldn't stand on his own and he truly does "Get by with a little help from his friends."

ROLLING STONES

The Rolling Stones have been an active band since the 1960's, so rather than try to pick one song that bridges that entire span, I'll focus on one song from each decade.

The 60's -- Sympathy For the Devil

Picking a signature song for the Rolling Stones in the 1960's and early 1970's is nearly impossible. The band simply put out too many first rate singles and great albums. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction might be the logical choice if not for the fact that it has been so overplayed that it is almost impossible to enjoy anymore. So I'll go with Sympathy for the Devil. The iconic song's title almost seems quaint these days, but in the 1960's it helped sell the image of the Stones as the bad boys of rock, raising questions at the time about whether they were worshippers of Satan. But is Mick really a doppleganger for Satan, or is the song about man's inhumanity to man, with its historical walk-through of some of the worst violence in the history of the world? And it seems impossible to imagine a band recording a song that casually mentions the recent assassinations of two beloved public figures ("I shouted out who killed the Kennedys, when after all, it was you and me.") in today's world without having bloggers and talk show hosts calling for a public boycott of their albums. The song remains an exciting staple of their live show. When I saw them in September 2006, the band's use of fire to announce "Please to meet you!" set the crowd cheering. Although the time has long passed on Jagger being menacing, he is still an exciting performer, and Sympathy for the Devil shows that.

The 70's -- Brown Sugar

If a white artist today tried to make a hit out of a song about a slave owner enjoying the pleasures of his black slaves, he'd probably find himself out of a career. Somehow, the Stones have gotten away with it for years, playing this salacious song often during their extensive tours and getting probably thousands of spins daily at classic rock stations throughout the world. This song, the first released on the band's Rolling Stones Records, is timeless driving blues, with innuendo laden lyrics, wonderful guitar work by Keith and Mick Taylor, and driving horns, including a wonderful saxophone break by longtime Stones sideman, Bobby Keys. It's a testament to how hard the song rocks that you find yourself dancing and singing along without ever questioning what's coming out of your mouth.

The 80's -- Mixed Emotions

In the mid 1980's, the Rolling Stones looked on the verge of collapse. Mick was pursuing a solo career and sparring with Keith. Charlie Watts was suffering from addictions, and the band recorded Dirty Work, an album considered one of their worst. Flash forward to 1989, and Steel Wheels. The album, considered a late career highlight, contained the classic track Mixed Emotions. Mixed Emotions seems to be Mick and Keith's make-up song. Starting with a rapid fire drum riff from Charlie Watts, the song takes off like a jet plane. Mick sings the following:

Button your lip baby
Button your coat
Lets go out dancing
Go for the throat
Lets bury the hatchet
Wipe out the past
Make love together
Stay on the path

Youre not the only one
With mixed emotions
Youre not the only ship
Adrift on this ocean

Although the band has denied that the song's title is simply another way of saying "Mick's Demotion", it's not hard to hear the lyrics above and consider them a plea from Mick not to let the good thing the band has slip away. There are many worthy songs from the Stone's 80's output, but this one always makes me smile, because it means the band was back.

The 90's -- Dead Flowers (Live)

The Rolling Stones have released about 361 Live Albums in their history, most of which are completely average. In 1995 they released Stripped, a live and "live in the studio" album that was one of their most consistent works in ages. On the album, the band sounds loose and happy, performing some well known hits among classic Stones album tracks, like this song from 1971's Sticky Fingers. While the early 1970's Rolling Stones albums were noted for the muddy, sloppy sound, Stripped goes in the opposite direction, making the songs sound clear and crisp. Dead Flowers benefits for it. The song, a country tinged anthem from a decadent man to his pretender ex-lover is pure bliss here, with Ronnie Wood's steel guitar and Mick's somewhat put-on attempt to sing like a country singer.

The 2000's -- Rough Justice

It's far from a classic, but the Rolling Stones album A Bigger Bang was at least not the embarrassment that so many 1960's artists seem to be turning out these days. Rather than try to sound contemporary, Mick, Keith, and company simply continue with more of the same, including this song, a somewhat bawdy partial rewrite of Mixed Emotions, in which Mick comes out with the following "subtle as a flying hammer" innuendo:

One time you were my baby chicken
Now you've grown into a fox
Once upon a time I was your little rooster
But am I just one of your cocks

But even with lame lyrics, the song cooks, with Charlie Watts sounding like he's 40 years younger than his age and Keith ripping into it.

LED ZEPPELIN

Trampled Under Foot

I have to admit that I'm not a huge Led Zeppelin fan. Maybe years of hearing them overplayed on local classic rock stations burned me out on them. The mystical ridiculousness of songs like Kashmir and Stairway to Heaven and the blues noodlings of songs like Dazed and Confused did nothing for me. For me, Led Zeppelin is best when they're cranked up and quick, like in Trampled Under Foot from Physical Graffiti.Trampled Under Foot is a classic "car=sex" song, in the vein of Little Red Corvette, Pink Cadillac, and the song on which it is based, Robert Johnson's Terraplane Blues. The song flat out rocks like a race car, with John Bonham's powerhouse drumming, the driving guitar and clavinet, and some nice piano flourishes, while Robert Plant shouts out the lyrics describing the "car" he wants to "ride". Of all Zeppelin songs, this is the only one that never gets zapped forward on my iPod. It's a true gem.

THE WHO

Won't Get Fooled Again

It is tempting to look for something a LITTLE more obscure in The Who songbook than Won't Get Fooled Again, which is overplayed and, depressingly, a TV theme. But Won't Get Fooled Again is too damned good a song to not pick it. The song is the essence of the who in 8 minutes. Roger Daltrey's vocal gymnastics, Keith Moon's frenzied drumming, John Entwistle's massive bass melody, and Pete Townshend's guitar, early synth, and lyrics are at their pinnacle here. The best thing about the song is indeed those lyrics, which seem to mock the rebellion of the 60's as the song talks about revolution and fighting, but eventually the singer realizes the "new boss" is the same as "the old boss" and nothing has really changed. It's a very mature theme for the young Townshend. While the song got beaten to death on radio, and eventually became a climactic non-event in one of the twenty-seven Who farewell tours, Pete and the band managed to find a ferocious performance of the song within themselves on October 20, 2001. Their performance of the song at the Concert for New York, held in the wake of 9/11 is possibly the greatest moment in the history of the Who.