Coulda Bin a Contender...

[rayge]

Jan 9, 2023 12:27:57 GMT loveless said:

For my tastes, a HUGE year. I wince at the choices I couldn't nominate.

You know...as a matter of fucking fact - we don't need to get in to dicking around with this sort of thing now until the CANON is well and truly over with, but...a few of these years (including some in which I've had to fiddle around with my nominations a few times in order to really stick the landing) have had me wondering if someday in the future we MIGHT really dig into certain years and DO personal lists of ten or a dozen.

Well I reckon why wait (especially with me and G running the show, we may never get to the end .

So here we go. You can list the ones you thought ought to have made it, or just make a case for one or two. Others can argue, or whatever. At least we'll be talking about music.

Here, for instance, is my problem with picking for 1966, the year I turned 18
Lorraine Ellison - Stay With Me Baby - unquestionably the greatest soul single of all time
Byrds - Eight Miles High - absolute milestone in the development of rock guitar
Butterfield Blues Band - East West - my nomination for the first truly psychedelic record/non-blues jam
The Misunderstood - I Can Take You to the Sun - another slice of early non-blues-based psychedelia featuring two great, and very different guitar solos
Cream - I Feel Free - hands down the best record by a British band/artist until the Sex Pistols arrived on the scene
Association - Along Comes Mary - a druggy burst of sunshine pop (I should point out that at this point in my life I had never taken a recreational drug nor had an alcoholic drink
Mamas & Papas - Monday Monday Celestial harmonies a gogo by the most drug-addled sleazy band of the 60s
Lovon' Spoonful - Summer in the City - landmark single by a great singles band with brilliant production

something like that, anyway

[fearlessfreap]

1959

Bell Notes I've Had It
1962

She Thinks I Still Care - George Jones

Nathaniel Mayer - Village Of Love
1963

Barbara Lewis - Hello Stranger
1964

George Jones - The Race Is On
1965

Evie Sands - I can't Let Go
1966

Lovin Spoonful - Pow

[loveless]

Oh, shit - I'm shocked you did this with 66 still open and active!

That said, "Summer..." was a contender for me.

[oh oooh]

I love pretty much everything that's critically lauded from 1966. Most chart entries too, and nearly every garage/psych thing I've heard. Choosing just ten would be only a representative selection

[rayge]

Jan 10, 2023 19:30:14 GMT loveless said:

Oh, shit - I'm shocked you did this with 66 still open and active!

That said, "Summer..." was a contender for me.

Every year is still open and active

[loveless]

Jan 10, 2023 19:36:14 GMT rayge said:

Jan 10, 2023 19:30:14 GMT loveless said:

Oh, shit - I'm shocked you did this with 66 still open and active!

That said, "Summer..." was a contender for me.

Every year is still open and active

Yeah, you're absolutely right.

And...what kind of potato is gonna NOT nominate a magical song just because one of us mentioned and praised it?

[loveless]

I feel like I can edit and come back to this as frequently as I like.

So, to start...

Regarding 1962:

TWICE it killed me to leave the Crystals out in the cold (He's a Rebel and Uptown are both about as fantastic as it gets)

1963:

Another huge year for Philles, and now we're seeing some major gains from the Beach Boys, and Beatles - but my biggest hurt was not being able to nominate "Ring of Fire" (it seemed like such a "gimme", that I strategically hoped someone else would jump on it)

As it is, my nominee for that year, "You Don't Own Me" has not shown up in any of the compiled lists as of yet.

1965

"Lies" by the Knickerbockers is a serious personal favorite, as is "Here Without You" by the Byrds. Dare I say, HWY captures the magic of Gene Clark's Byrds rather fulsomely (so much so that - minus some of the instrumental hooks and abandon, the melody and vocal arrangement of "Eight Miles High" sounds not unlike a sequel).

1966

So many. So many.

But...the one for which I still ache, the one that got away, the one I may STILL swap out for my impressionistic pick is "Pretty Ballerina" by the Left Banke.

[davey]

Isn’t Pretty Ballerina technically 1967?

I came very close to naming Walk Away Renee (had a post written and everything), then I checked further and it appeared that Ballerina (which I like even more) was 67, and It convinced me to go with River Deep, Mountain High.

Regardless, it seems like we’ll exit 1966 without God Only Knows…so what can you say?

[davey]

Jan 10, 2023 19:19:24 GMT fearlessfreap said:

Evie Sands - I can't Let Go

One of the world’s nicest people. I literally just saw her two nights ago. Love to see her work get some love.

[loveless]

Jan 10, 2023 20:06:31 GMT davey said:

Isn’t Pretty Ballerina technically 1967?

I came very close to naming Walk Away Renee (had a post written and everything), then I checked further and it appeared that Ballerina (which I like even more) was 67, and It convinced me to go with River Deep, Mountain High.

Regardless, it seems like we’ll exit 1966 without God Only Knows…so what can you say?

Well, I guess it's like that. In terms of hoping that - between you and your neighbors - all the gems will get in there. My own Beatles/Beach Boys avoidance thus far has largely been on the premise that SOMEONE will nominate them in each relevant year (whether they'll nominate my favorite is another matter altogether - "Vibrations" is my 66 BBs jam, but...that doesn't mean that "God Only Knows" or - maybe even moreso - "Wouldn't It Be Nice" is insufficiently monumental and crucial. "Like a Rolling Stone" might be Bob's big bang, but...it's no shame to prefer and have stronger feelings for "Positively Fourth Street").

Maybe we just don't have enough active voters to manage the demands of some of these years. 

Re: Left Banke, WAR and PB are both 1966 (July and December, respectively...though, naturally, PB's chart peak would happen the following year...I'm sure we've come up against this sort of thing in the CANON several times..."I Feel Fine" is another one of these, right? Not even sure how one arbitrates this - individual discretion seems inevitable, unless I'm blanking on some ancient canon bylaw).

[toomanyhatz]

Practically anything from Pet Sounds. Several other tracks on Revolver. Any song written by Gene Clark in any of the years we've reached so far.

[rayge]

Jan 10, 2023 19:56:08 GMT loveless said:

TWICE it killed me to leave the Crystals out in the cold (He's a Rebel and Uptown are both about as fantastic as it gets)

Bless You for that. In my view of course virtually everything released on Philles would be a contender at least. What a Nice Way to Turn Seventeen was the same year as those two. But The Crystals track that gets less love than it should it I Wonder the following year

Jan 10, 2023 19:56:08 GMT loveless said:

As it is, my nominee for that year, "You Don't Own Me" has not shown up in any of the compiled lists as of yet.

An oversight that I will blame on G as he's not here to defend himself. It's sorted now.

[loveless]

66, continued - "Paperback Writer" would be my personal Beatles nomination.

And, this (along with Ballerina) is also edging "Happenings" pretty fiercely:

[davey]

Here’s my pick for the most obvious omission (so far) from each year:


1955
Sixteen Tons - Tennessee Ernie Ford
1956
My Prayer - The Platters
1957
Stardust- Nat “King” Cole
1958
Maybe - The Chantels
1959
Lonesome Town - Rick Nelson
1960
Save the Last Dance for Me - The Drifters
1961
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow - The Shirelles
1962
Crying in the Rain - The Everly Brothers
1963
Blowin in the Wind - Bob Dylan
1964
The Girl from Ipanema - Getz/Gilberto
1965
Ticket to Ride - The Beatles
1966
God Only Knows - The Beach Boys

I could take another pass and do a ‘dark horse’ pick from each year too. Probably be more interesting.

[loveless]

Yeah, you did what you had to do, but I was so sad to see Ipanema go.