Songs from High School Graduation #1: 1972

[barondave]

What the heck. I'll do it, mostly because I can legitimately cheat. What follows is The Greatest Hits of 1972 as compiled by Pop Culture Madness. I'm in the Class of 1973, but graduated a semester early (to take college classes and play Duplicate Bridge in my father's Bridge Club). While there are some good songs from '73, I like the '72 list better, so will use it for this particular Useless Exercise. I'll bold the songs I liked then and strikethrough those I didn't like. For the most part, my tastes haven't changed much. For that matter, I rarely listened to the radio and I came to know most of these songs well after their major airplay. Comments in [brackets]. I'm too lazy to alter the format everyone's using, but for the record: I dislike not being able to mark songs I simply don't remember -- which is most of them. Oh well. I'm sure I've heard all these songs, but if they don't play in my ear as I'm going through the list, they're SOL.

1. Rock and Roll part II - Gary Glitter [I don't remember this song at all]
2. American Pie - Don McLean [a great song to hear every year or so]
3. Lean On Me - Bill Withers [One of the songs that saves the 70s]
4. Rock and Roll - Led Zeppelin
5. I'll Take You There - Staple Singers [don't remember this one either]
6. Precious and Few - Climax
7. Coconut - Nilsson [one of the great songs of all time]
8. Let's Stay Together - Al Green [Al Green songs all sound alike; good, but generically Al]
9. Schools Out - Alice Cooper [sure, what the heck]
10. Me and Mrs. Jones - Billy Paul [okay]
11. Layla - Derek and the Dominoes [one of the great songs of all time]
12. Goodbye To Love - Carpenters
13. Burning Love - Elvis Presley
14. The Candy Man - Sammy Davis, Jr. [I liked both movies, too]
15. Operator - Jim Croce
16. Horse With No Name - America
17. Nights In White Satin - Moody Blues
18. Anticipation - Carly Simon
19. Saturday In The Park - Chicago [hmm... mixed feelings about this one]
20. Get On The Good Foot - James Brown [don't remember this song at all]
21. Summer Breeze - Seals and Crofts
22. Rockin' Robin - Michael Jackson [I don't remember this version, but the original is good]
23. Listen To The Music - Doobie Brothers [okay]
24. Take It Easy - Eagles [don't really remember this one]
25. Brandy - Looking Glass
26. Diamonds Are Forever - Shirley Bassey
27. My Ding-A-Ling - Chuck Berry [I keep forgetting how long Chuck Berry's career was; it's too bad this was his only #1 hit (iirc)]
28. I'll Be Around - Spinners [don't remember this song]
29. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face - Roberta Flack [mixed feelings; it would be better in a shorter version. Apparently, Flack changed one word from the original that alters the meaning of a verse. Don't ask me to look up the Peggy Seeger liner notes...]
30. Morning Has Broken - Cat Stevens [college roommate Frank Balazs introduced me to Cat Stevens]
31. Everybody Plays The Fool - The Main Ingredient [bouncy pop; what the heck]
32. Popcorn - Hot Butter [one of the great songs of all time, and one of the few songs I do as karaoke]
33. Alone Again (Naturally) - Gilbert O'Sullivan [*sniff*]
34. Iron Man - Black Sabbath [sure, what the heck]
35. Jackie Wilson Said - Van Morrison [don't recall this one at all]
36. Tupelo Honey - Van Morrison [don't recall this one either]
37. If You Don't Know Me By Now - Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes [don't remember this one either]
38. You Wear It Well - Rod Stewart [why does anyone like Rod Stewart?]
39. I Am Woman - Helen Reddy [fun to laugh at]
40. I Can See Clearly Now - Johnny Nash [one of the great songs of all time]
41. Papa Was A Rolling Stone - Temptations
42. Changes - David Bowie [don't remember this one]
43. From The Beginning - Emerson, Lake and Palmer
44. Immigration Man - Graham Nash & David Crosby [don't remember this one]
45. Tiny Dancer - Elton John
46. Melissa - Allman Brothers Band [don't remember this one]
47. Honky Cat - Elton John [mediocre but listenable to every now and again]
48. Black Dog - Led Zeppelin
49. Heart Of Gold - Neil Young [sure, why not]
50. Taxi - Harry Chapin [yeah yeah, tugs on the heart strings. Works for me]
51. Feeling Alright - Joe Cocker [don't remember this one]
52. Down On Me - Janis Joplin [don't remember this one]
53. You Don't Mess Around With Jim - Jim Croce
54. City Of New Orleans - Arlo Guthrie [one of the great songs of all time]
55. Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress) - Hollies
56. Roundabout - Yes [one of the best Yes songs, but I'm still not a big fan]
57. Bang A Gong (Get It On) - T. Rex
58. Hold Your Head Up - Argent
59. America - Yes
60. Starman - David Bowie
61. Black and White - Three Dog Night [one of the great songs of all time]
62. Rock Me On The Water - Jackson Browne [don't remember this one]
63. Looking For A Love - J. Geils Band [nor this one]
64. The Jean Genie - David Bowie [nor this]
65. It Never Rains In Southern California - Albert Hammond
66. Easy Livin - Uriah Heap
67. Rocket Man - Elton John
68. Handbags and Gladrags - Rod Stewart [fortunately, don't remember this one]
69. Little Bitty Pretty One - Jackson Five [don't remember this]
70. Hot 'N' Nasty - Humble Pie [don't remember this]
71. All The Young Dudes - Mott The Hoople [don't remember this]
72. I Saw The Light - Todd Rundgren [don't remember; geeze, I really didn't listen to much radio]
73. I Just Want To make Love To You - Foghat [don't remember]
74. Witchy Woman - Eagles
75. Freddie's Dead (Theme from Superfly) - Curtis Mayfield
76. Rock and Roll Stew - Traffic [don't remember this one]
77. Delta Dawn - Tanya Tucker [I don't recall ever hearing this version, but I like the Bette Midler and at least one other]
78. America - Simon and Garfunkle
79. I Don't Need No Doctor - New Riders Of The Purple Sage [don't recall this one]
80. Ben - Michael Jackson [yeah yeah, tugs at the heart strings...]

Comments

[ericcoleman]

1. Rock and Roll part II - Gary Glitter [I don't remember this song at all]

Just imagine yourself at some sporting event (it could happen) and a big drum beat starts and people start yelling

HEY ... HEY ... Heya Heya

Cause that is all the lyrics ...

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I've been at sporting events where people were yelling to a drum beat, and I still don't have this in my ear. Just as well. Probably a good song to learn for karaoke, sort of like "Tequila".

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

That reminds me of the lyrics handed out at juliebata and holyoutlaw's wedding: DUM DUM duh-DUM, DUM DUM duh-DUM. (This was played on kazoos, of course.)

If I focus on the words (hey!) I don't know what you mean. But I just remembered a thing with lots of drums and maybe horns, with incidental HEYs. Is that it?

Oh, and the Cat Stevens? On the first LP I ever bought/owned.

[ericcoleman]

It's not horns ... it's heavily distorted guitar ... and a big drum beat

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

Ah, guitar! Thank you for solving that mystery.

Buh DA da DA da DUM (Hey) . . .

[calimac.livejournal.com]

There are two songs on this list that I not only like, but actually have: "City of New Orleans" (in both Guthrie's and Goodman's performances) and "Long Cool Woman" (a song I've listened to a hundred times and still cannot decipher the lyrics to: yes, I've googled them, but I don't trust the online transcriptions any more than my own guesses).

A friend of mine once lent me a tape of 90 minutes of his favorite Rod Stewart songs. I listened to the whole thing four or five times, which enabled me to state a definite conclusion: I Do Not Like Rod Stewart.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Interestingly enough (at least to me), I don't have either of those songs. I should really have at least one version of "City of New Orleans", but haven't filled in that part of the collection. I have at minimum a dozen of these songs; I would be more sure except I don't necessarily have the hit version and I probably have several of the songs I don't like tucked away on compilations or Greatest Hits of the 70s vol. xxx.

Trading mix tapes with people such as laurel has been good for sampling. She led me to Poi Dog Pondering and (I will eventually delve into) Michelle Shocked and warned me away from John Wesley Harding. YMMV, May Contain Peanuts.

Interesting list

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

I was looking to see if there's even one song that you remembered clearly, and wanted to praise and did praise, that I simply didn't remember. There wasn't. Toward the last 30 or 40 songs, though, there are a whole bunch that neither you nor I remember. I like some Rod Stewart -- not all, but "Maggie May" and at least one other much later one whose title I can't remember worked very well for me. I am not sure why one would want to laugh at "I Am Woman," though.

Nate

Re: Interesting list

[barondave.livejournal.com]

"I Am Woman" is a fine anthem and I hope it empowered otherwise dispirited women, etc. But it's such a silly song. The first line is linguistically strange: "I am woman hear me roar in numbers too big too ignore..." Good heavens lady, how many of you are singing? (Yeah yeah, "all of us". Nope, doesn't work.) Is a loud noise a requirement for noticeability? A poorly written song that indicated that Feminism had achieved it's goal: Mediocrity. No longer did a woman have to be twice as good as a man to be paid half as much.

Don't get me started on "Your So Vain", since I probably think the song is about me.

Re: Interesting list

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

I disagree with you strongly about both the degree of poetry in the first line (I think it works as poetry very well indeed) and I think it should be very obvious indeed that a movement with millions of active members is going to be far, far more noticeable than a movement with only a few dozen hard-working heroines. This country pulled itself out of the quagmire that was Vietnam, not even in small part because a few eloquent people protested, but because so many of us thought the war was a really, really bad idea that our numbers made us impossible to ignore. I think the song was very well written indeed (and this is something I do know something about). And yes, large numbers of people can *always* do a whole lot more than smaller numbers of equally eloquent people; quite simply, that is the way it works. I'm willing to defend the rest of those excellent lyrics on a verse-by-verse or line-by-line basis, if it comes to that.

Nate

Nate

Re: Interesting list

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Ha! I knew that if we talked about music long enough we'd find some disagreement.

I won't try to change your mind about "I Am Woman", and fully agree with you about strength in numbers and eloquent protests leading to political transformation. But I don't think you're going to change my mind either. It's been a song I've quietly derided for decades; quietly because I agree with the sentiments in the song, derision because it doesn't work for me (or for many of the women I talked to about it at the time).

Grrl Power! And Byy Power too!

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Take it easy, take it easy,
don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy.
Lighten up while you still can,
Don't even try to understand,
Just find a place to make your stand
and take it easy...

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

You don't remember: ch-ch-ch-changes - turn and face the strange
changes!

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I remember "Changes" now that you've prompted me, though I don't associate it with Bowie. I can't say I hate the song enough to have struck it through, but it's not very good. The "Take it easy" lyrics don't ring a bell. Is that the Eagles? I was never a big fan of theirs.

As I said, even in HS I almost never listened to the radio (except for news) and wasn't up on pop culture. Heck, next you'll be telling me Simon and Garfunkle broke up...

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Does this jog your memory?:

"I was runnin' down the road tryin' to loosen my load,
got seven women on my mind.
Four who wanna own me, two who wanna stone me,
one says she's a friend of mine..." into chorus (above)

(I like the Eagles)

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. A guy with a surfeit of of girls after him. I couldn't relate.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

I don't relate to that part, either, but I like it musically and I relate to the 'take it easy' message: when there's too much on your mind, don't let it drive you crazy. Lighten up.

[facilisfool.livejournal.com]

LOL...don't have time to go through the list right now, but was deeply amused to discover that I was familiar with more of the songs that were the big hits from the year I was born, that the list for the year I was supposed to have graduated from high school ;-)