Wheels On Fire

The past day or so has been like a ’60s soundtrack, here’s what I listened to:

93. The Doors – “The Doors”

105. The Jimi Hendrix Experience – “Axis: Bold As Love”

120. Big Brother & the Holding Company – “Cheap Thrills”

85. The Monkees – “Headquarters”

77. Nico – “Chelsea Girl”

83. Love – “Da Capo”

82. Moby Grape – “Moby Grape”

107. The Rolling Stones – “Beggars Banquet”

138. Creedence Clearwater Revival – “Bayou Country”

127. The Band – “Music from Big Pink”

78. The Beatles – “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”

Yeah, a lot isn’t it.

I think that if you were going to set a movie in the ’60s, this would be exactly what you would put on the soundtrack, I mean you’ve got the Doors, Jimi, the Band, the Stones, Janis Joplin, and the Beatles doing the whole trippy flower-child thing.

“Beggars Banquet” was a tamer sound for the Stones. I mean, yeah, it started with “Sympathy for the Devil,” but the whole album sounded less young and angry and a bit more calmed down, still showing off their mass amounts of talent.

I really liked the Monkee’s album. I grew up watching repeats of their on UPN 9 (remember when that existed?), and so I was sort of predisposed to liking them even though the only music I can remember by them is the nauseatingly catchy theme song (“Hey hey hey we’re the monkees/people say we monkey around…”). They had a sound comparable to the Beatles, and definitely fit into the pop scene at the time with the Beatles and the Beach Boys, even if they didn’t actually write any of their own music.

And then there was Creedence Clearwater Revival. This was the first CCR album on the list (there are a few more coming), and I was looking forward to this. I think John Fogerty’s voice is so uniquely American rock, and the Southern rock sound that CCR captured is a national treasure. I think everyone likes songs like “Proud Mary” and other later CCR songs, and if you don’t, you should probably be deported. I watched in horror as someone on American Idol wrongly called “Proud Mary” “Rollin’ on the River” and then credited it originally to Tina Turner, but that just shows how broad CCR’s influence was.