The Heart of Rock and Soul Poll Part 40 #1-25

Fwiw, the three vote-getters I've never particularly cared to sit through are "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling," "You Make Me Feel (Like A Natural Woman)," and "Only the Lonely," which are probably three of the more obviously emotion-soaked songs up there. Don't dislike them, and I can totally understand why people think they're great. Their emotion just doesn't reach me. And though I like "Reach Out I'll Be There" more, Stubbs's over-the-topness in it has always struck me as kinda ridiculous, in a way. Make of all this what you will. (Definitely prefer the four '50s songs Phil just named to any of these, no contest.)

Also, seems odd to me that "Everyday People" -- which has always struck me as at least a little bit too corny, like say the OJays' "Love Train" only not as much -- is the highest Sly song. Appreciate the sentiments; maybe I'm just too cynical to love them. And Sly had way better hits.

The only one near the top that I don't really like is "Reach Out I'll Be There". Christgau's Four Over-the-Tops sums it up.

Yes, all of these songs are amazing. I just can't listen to them anymore.

I've always found 'I heard it through the grapevine' sorta boring

also I heard '(Sittin' on) The dock of the bay' in a grocery store today and thought of this thread

the story seems to increasingly begin with the Beatles as we move forward in time. Which is too bad.

i think that was actually true 20 years ago. i think out in the real world today, the beatles are largely considered quaint and maybe even antediluvian, and the story increasingly begins with led zeppelin. (unless everybody moved pass zeppelin when i wasn't looking and now maybe we're up to the clash or something.)

Well, indie rock for the past few years at least goes back to Pet Sounds, right? (Way more than the Clash or Zeppelin, at least.)

yeah, hard to argue with pet sounds. maybe the late '60s in general (bleeding into the early '70s, probably) is the new root of everything: pet sounds; white album and abbey road but certainly not with the beatles; zeppelin; sabbath; the doors; stevie wonder; yadda yadda yadda.

i was being rash when i said the clash. but in a lot of ways i don't think it's that far off.

I have no idea how anyone could consider led zeppelin the root of anything outside of hard rock.

the root of all evil?

As someone who grew up in the '70s and '80s, it took me a long time to appreciate '50s rock - in fact, I've only really started to enjoy it in the past couple of years. I never had any trouble appreciating the Beatles though - I liked them a lot in high school, whereas something like Elvis just sounded corny. There does seem to be some kind of divide in music history right around the Beatles - stuff before that is kind of antediluvian - whereas the Beatles still sound kind of contemporary. I'm not sure exactly why that is - I guess it's lots of things - the production, arrangements, more overt blues and country influence, the vocal styles, a kind of unironic innocence and enthusiasm. However, I think it's really worth trying to get through that mental block, because lots of '50s rock is actually a blast. I think I actually developed a taste for things like Chicago blues, Frank Sinatra, and Hank Williams first, but once I'd gotten into that stuff, it wasn't too hard to find lots to appreciate in Elvis, Ricky Nelson, the Everly Brothers, Carl Perkins, Little Richard, etc.

Well, Jack White's definitely listened to his share of Zeppelin (who had their big nostalgia moment in the late '80s: Cult, Beasties, Whitesnake, Kingdom Come, Soundgarden, Golden Palominos, etc). But I'd say White Stripes are an anomaly in the indie and even commercial hard rock world now (Drive By Truckers and Hold Steady too, plus probably a couple stray stoner metal bands, and all of Nashville if that counts) inasmuch as still acknowledging blues-based hard rock at all.

some hip-hoppers have listened to their share of zeppelin too. as has fergie to take one random pop example, of which i'm sure there are many others.

xp And okay, there's hack bands like Jet and Wolfmother and Buckcherry (as far as blues-based hard rock if not necessarily Zep goes), plus AC/DC and Black Crowes and Slash and Axl are still around. And I'm sure even Nickelback type bands have listened to lots of Zeppelin, even if they've never absorbed it successfully into their sound. Just saying the numbers are dwindling, and the sound may still be on its way out.

(but right, iatee said "outside of hard rock." Those are all hard rock obv.)

I hear tons of Zep in contemporary indie stuff - freak folk stuff can be pretty easily tied back to Zep III for ex.

but yeah, the 50s are disappearing. the 20s and 30s are already gone from contemporary memories, by and large.

that being said it was only this year that I really started to dig Little Richard. haha part of which grew out of noticing that Zep quotes the drum intro to "Keep a Knockin'" on "Rock n Roll"

xp Yeah, freak folk makes sense, I guess, as far as Zep's Celtic side. And early Chicago house music producers actually used to cite Zep's wide-screen expansive and epic approach to space, noise, and rhythm as an influence pretty often, but that was in the mid/late '80s again; not sure whether dance music has retained the influence since. (Well, big beat maybe -- I could see it in, say, Prodigy. Beyond that, who knows.)