Asymmetric Music

He could have any woman in the world and marries somebody beautiful. She, any man and marries somebody rich. Each followed the natural inclination of his and her respective sex, which gives their marriage an advantage, I think. I'm sure that their child, Valentina, will appreciate their commitment to tradition. Al Green and I wish them a lifetime of "love and happiness."

The Love Songs Collection

Here's one you don't necessarily want at a high bitrate. Somehow, it's not the same without the video.

The trash doesn't get picked up because of executive pay, or something like that. Green buses. Obama philosophy in song?

The Best of the Stylistics

Ladies' turn. For the Bros, go here.

Same rules apply. Pro-love, no pain. Holding off on Motown and Doo Wop.

"You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman," by Aretha Franklin.

Unlike the debate over the best male Soul singer, there's a consensus choice for distaff Soul, Aretha Franklin. Her best slow song is "You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman." I appreciate the reference to natural law and Christian theology on the matter of sexual relations. It also reminds me of a joke from my favorite comedy show, Bienvenidos. The girl asks the guy to "make me a woman." The guy replies with, "OK, iron these shirts." Podcast, above.

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Ella (above)

Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Rodgers And Hart Songbook

Frank:

Romance: Songs From The Heart

Miles:

The Essential Miles Davis

Methodology:

"Soul" is not a synonym for "black music." It's a specific style of music, the characteristics of which are a melismatic and emotional vocal style derivative of the black churches and a conventional R&B backbeat- not funk or disco. You'll notice that I stretched the category a little while excepting Motown and Doo Wop, which I'll reserve for other posts.

Originally, my wife was to choose the songs for this post, but the process derailed halfway when I noticed the potential for disaster. There's no doubt in my mind that had I continued to let her choose, this post would have turned into a mushy, sticky mess. Sorry, baby, I couldn't let that happen.

The songs couldn't be about break up or cheating- they had to represent the sunny side of love. "Let's Get it On," for all of its romantic utility, is more sexual than romantic.

I could have delved deep into my collection and dazzled you with some rarities, but that would have been childish.

I'll separate the sexes. Guy's first only because I already started it.

Here they are:

Wilson Pickett passed away recently so I'll put him up first. Forget intellectual coherence, "I Found a Love" is 100% emotion. The guy's so happy about his find that he just has to yell. It's the podcast.

Wilson Pickett's Greatest Hits

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Songs to leave off your playlist on Valentine's day:

1. All Right Now, Free. The most unromantic song on earth. Co** rock at its most base. Summary: Veni, vidi, vici.

More, and videos below

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Eric Olsen of MSNBC chose these bands as the greatest of all time:

1. The Beatles
2. The Rolling Stones
3. U2
4. The Grateful Dead
5. Velvet Underground
6. Led Zeppelin
7. Ramones
8. Pink Floyd
9. Bob Marley and the Wailers
10. Sly and the Family Stone

Any list is bound to upset some Rock fans- count me as one of the upset ones.

If we limit Rock to sixties-and-later FM-style Classic, mostly White, Rock, then the first three, 6, maybe 8 and perhaps 10 make sense. But The Grateful Dead? They're a cover band! What are their top three songs? Hummable, mind numbing nothings, that's what. TGD only make sense if you use, as a criteria, sheer volume of unheard-by-anybody-but-stoners guitar doodlings.

The Velvet Underground? Two albums filled with the musical equivalent of the ugly, childish paintings you find at hip art museums.

Marley and Sly are defensible picks if one excludes non-Classic acts like James Brown. Over the Who and Hendrix, however?

The Ramones have more than one song?

When one reads the reasons Eric Olsen gives for his picks, one realizes that he's not at all being "subjective," as he claims. Instead, Olsen quite objectively uses extra-musical criteria such as social and political impact, later influence, and the inclusion of various sub (to Classic) Rock genres.

For example:

The Vietnam War was the perfect polarizer between youth and adult culture: it had no clear objective, it was far away, it cost many lives, and it was involuntary — the old made the decisions, the young died. After the war was mercifully killed in the mid-'70s, the nation came to realize that it had hated the internal confusion more than it had hated the external enemy — blood is thicker than ideology.

As a result, both sides of the internal conflict embraced the perceived highlights of the other’s culture: adults lightened up — Johnny Carson grew his hair long and joked with the band about smoking pot — and the youth embraced the acquisitive materialism of their parents with the shamelessness of Midas.

The Dead became the symbol of this blending of ideologies until Jerry Garcia’s death in 1995: a well-oiled money making machine ($50 million a year in concert revenue) that sold peace, love and understanding to a legion of internally divided admirers. The Dead sold out every show because a Dead show was a socially acceptable place to temporarily take a break from the rat race and try on '60s hippie values without having to live them. People who didn’t do drugs any other time indulged and danced around like pixies to the Dead and their light, rhythmic, pleasant, sometimes inspired, extended musical journeys.

Ahem.

My list of best Classic Rock, non-Soul, acts:

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Don McLean's "American Pie" refers to the crash, in 1959, of a plane carrying Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper. In American Spectator, Daniel J. Flynn writes (bottom, below the fold) that the crash and unrelated but contemporary events irrevocably harmed Rock and Roll and led to a Rock dark age. I don't completely agree.

First, I happen to like the music immediately preceding the Beatles. Motown was getting in gear, Soul music blossomed. Frankie Valli bridged some gaps. Girl groups, while frothy, produced some of my favorite music. As for his list of clunkers, who couldn't name a few from any era?

Cry, Cry, Cry from Bobby "Blue" Bland is from 1961. It doesn't count?

Second, I doubt that the artists mentioned in Flynn's article, except for Holly, would have had a tremendous impact on popular music.

Richie Valens has three great songs. "La Bamba" is a reworking of a Mexican song. "Come on, Let's Go" is nice, but is it exceptionally groundbreaking? "Oh Donna" is a conventional ballad. He would have had other hits, but there's no reason to believe that he would have done anything better than Phil Spector or Smokey Robinson. Really, was he better than Dion?

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The musical starts at Obama's birth:

But, fast-forwards to the 2004 Democratic convention. The song above, "Could it be I'm Falling in Love" by the Spinners (below), contemplates those still-not-fully-developed feelings.

A One of a Kind Love Affair: The Anthology

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