Bob Marley & The Wailers "Redemption Song" Single / B-side: "Redemption Song" (band version), "I Shot The Sheriff" (live) Released: October 1980 Album: Uprising (Released: 0 June 1980) Writer: Bob Marley Label: Island / Tuff Gong
"Redemption Song" is a song by Bob Marley. It is the final track on Bob Marley & the Wailers' ninth album, Uprising, produced by Chris Blackwell and released by Island Records. The song is considered one of Marley's greatest works. Some key lyrics derived from a speech given by the Pan-Africanistorator Marcus Garvey.
Bob Marley & The Wailers, single 7" 1980
Bob Marley - "Redemption Song" (lyrics)
At the time he wrote the song, circa 1979, Bob Marley had been diagnosed with the cancer in his toe that later took his life. According to Rita Marley, "he was already secretly in a lot of pain and dealt with his own mortality, a feature that is clearly apparent in the album, particularly in this song". This was the last song Marley performed. He sang it from a stool at a show in Pittsburgh on September 23, 1980. Unlike most of Bob Marley's tracks, it is strictly a solo acoustic recording, consisting of Marley singing and playing an acoustic guitar, without accompaniment.
"Redemption Song" was released as a single in the UK and France in October 1980, and included a full band rendering of the song. This version has since been included as a bonus track on the 2001 reissue of Uprising, as well as on the 2001 compilationOne Love: The Very Best of Bob Marley & The Wailers. Although in live performances the full band was used for the song the solo recorded performance remains the take most familiar to listeners.
Bob Marley And The Wailers' single: "Redemption Song"
Bob Marley And The Wailers - "Redemption Song" (band version)
The song urges listeners to "Emancipate yourself from mental slavery," because "None but ourselves can free our minds". These lines were taken from a speech given by Marcus Garvey in Nova Scotia during October 1937 and published in his Black Man magazine.
With Bob accompanying himself on Guitar, "Redemption Song" was unlike anything he had ever recorded: an acoustic ballad, without any hint of reggae rhythm. In message and sound it recalled Bob Dylan. Biographer Timothy White called it an 'acoustic spiritual' and another biographer, Stephen Davis, pointed out the song was a 'total departure', a deeply personal verse sung to the bright-sounding acoustic strumming of Bob's Ovation Adamas guitar.
Bob Marley - "Redemption Song" (in studio with the Wailers)
Bob Marley
Bono is quoted in the James Henke book Marley Legend: An Illustrated History Of Bob Marley as saying, “I carried Bob Marley’s ‘Redemption Song’ to every meeting I had with a politician, prime minister, or president. It was for me a prophetic utterance, or as Bob would say, ‘the small ax that could fell the big tree.’”
"Black" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. The song is the fifth track on the band's debut album, Ten (1991). Featuring lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music written by guitarist Stone Gossard, "Black" is a soliloquy by a broken-hearted man, who is remembering his absent lover.
Pearl Jam's album: Ten
Pearl Jam - "Black" (original album version)
After Ten became a commercial success in 1992, Pearl Jam's record label Epic Records urged the group to release the song as a single. The band refused, citing the song's personal nature. Despite the lack of a commercial single release, the song managed to reach number three on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. Remixed versions of the song were included on Pearl Jam's 2004 greatest hits album, Rearviewmirror, and the 2009 Ten reissue.
The song originated as an instrumental demo under the name "E Ballad" that was written by guitarist Stone Gossard in 1990. It was one of five songs compiled onto a tape called Stone Gossard Demos '91 that was circulated in the hopes of finding a singer and drummer for Pearl Jam.The tape made its way into the hands of vocalist Eddie Vedder, who was working as a San Diegogas station attendant at the time. Vedder recorded vocals for three of the songs on the demo tape ("Alive", "Once", and "Footsteps"), and mailed the tape back to Seattle. Upon hearing the tape, the band invited Vedder to come to Seattle. On his way to Seattle, Vedder wrote lyrics for "E Ballad", which he called "Black".
"Black" - art design
Pearl Jam - "Black" (lyrics)
"Black" became one of Pearl Jam's best known songs and is a central emotional piece on the album Ten. Despite pressure from Epic Records, the band refused to make it into a single, feeling that it was too personal and the feeling of it would be lost by a video or a single release. Vedder stated that "fragile songs get crushed by the business. I don't want to be a part of it. I don't think the band wants to be part of it." Vedder personally called radio station managers to make sure Epic had not released the song as a single against his wishes. In spite of this, the song charted at number three on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and number 20 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in 1993. The popularity of "Black" gained it everlasting rotation, putting it amongst Pearl Jam's most enduring songs.
Eddie Vedder
Pearl Jam - "Black" (Pink Pop Festival, 1992)
Stephen M. Deusner of Pitchfork Media said, "On songs like...'Black,' with strangely dramatic vocalizations, there's a hardscrabble dynamic that the band would be unable to capture on subsequent releases."
The Mamas & The Papas "California Dreamin'" Single / B-side: "Somebody Groovy" Released: 8 December 1965 Album: If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears (Released: March 1966) Writers: John Phillips, Michelle Phillips Label: Dunhill Records
"California Dreamin'" is a song written by John Phillips and Michelle Phillips and was first recorded by Barry McGuire.However, the best known version is by The Mamas & the Papas, who sang backup on the original version and released as a single in 1965. The song is #89 in Rolling Stone 's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The lyrics of the song express the narrator's longing for the warmth of Los Angeles during a cold winter. The song became a signpost of the arrival of the nascent counterculture era. "California Dreamin' " was certified as a Gold Record (single) by the RIAA in June 1966 and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001.
The Mamas & The Papas' single: "California Dreamin'"
The Mamas & The Papas- - "California Deaming"
The song was written in 1963 while John Phillips and Michelle Phillips were living in New York. He dreamed about the song and woke her up to help him write it. Michelle Phillips enjoyed visiting churches, and she and John Phillips visited St. Patrick's Cathedral, which inspired the second verse of California Dreamin’ ("Stopped into a church..."). John hated the verse, as he was turned off to churches by unpleasant memories of parochial school, but he couldn't think of anything better so he left it in. At the time, John and Michelle Phillips were members of the folk group "The New Journeymen", which evolved into The Mamas & the Papas. They earned their first record contract after being introduced to Lou Adler, the head of Dunhill Records, by Barry McGuire. In thanks to Adler, they sang the backing vocals to "California Dreamin'" with members of the session band The Wrecking Crew on McGuire's album This Precious Time. The Mamas and the Papas then recorded their own version using the same instrumental and backing vocal tracks to which they added new vocals and an alto flute solo by Bud Shank. P. F. Sloan did the guitar introduction. McGuire's original vocal can be briefly heard on the left channel at the beginning of the record, having not been completely wiped.
The Mamas & The Papas, RCA Victor single's "Caifornia Dreamin'"
The Mamas & Papas - "California Dreamin'" (Monterey 1967)
The single was released in late 1965 but was not an immediate breakthrough. After gaining little attention in Los Angeles upon its release, Michelle Phillips remembers that it took a radio station in Boston to break the song nationwide. After making its chart debut in January 1966, the song peaked at #4 in March on both the Hot 100, lasting 17 weeks, and Cashbox, lasting 20 weeks. Sharply dividing the popular music market that month, rivals "California Dreamin'" and "Ballad of the Green Berets" eventually tied for the #1 record of 1966, according to Cashbox. "California Dreamin'" also reached #23 on the UK charts.
The Mama's and The Papa's single: "California Dreamin;:
The Mamas & The Papas - "California Dreamin'" (official live video)
Love "Alone Again Or" Single / B-side: "A House Is Not A Motel" (USA), "Bummer In The Summer" (UK) Released: January 1968 Album: Forever Changes (Released: November 1967) Writer: Bryan MacLean Label: Elektra
"Alone Again Or" is a song originally recorded in 1967 by the rock group Love and written by band member Bryan MacLean. It appears on the album Forever Changes, and was released as a single in the USA, UK, Australia, France and The Netherlands.
MacLean originally wrote the song, then called "Alone Again", in 1965 for Love's debut album. He wrote this as a tribute to his mother, who was a Flamenco dancer. However, he did not complete it until the recording of "Forever Changes" in the summer of 1967. The song was inspired by his memory of waiting for a girlfriend, and the melody drew loosely on Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kije Suite.The essence of the song is the contrast between the positivity of the tune and the bleakness of the lyrics, with the chorus "And I will be alone again tonight, my dear" finishing with a lone acoustic guitar, closing the song with the opening melody that sounds anything but ecstatic,ending with an E-minor plus 2 chord.
Love's single, French: "Alone Again Or" (1968)
Love - "Alone Again Or"
For the recording session, arranger David Angel worked with MacLean, adding a string section and a horn part for a mariachi band whom co-producer Bruce Botnick had recently used on a Tijuana Brass album. MacLean later said "That was the happiest I ever was with anything we ever did as a band - the orchestral arrangement of that song."However, Botnick, with co-producer and band leader Arthur Lee, remixed the track to bring Lee's own unison vocal to the forefront of the song, at least partly on the grounds that MacLean's own vocal lead was too weak.Lee also added to the mystery of the song by changing the title to "Alone Again Or".
With Lee now on co-lead vocals, "Alone Again Or" became the opening track of "Forever Changes." It was the sole single released from the album to reach the Billboard singles chart. (Its 1968 B-side was Lee's "A House Is Not A Motel," although the 1970 reissue of the single featured "Good Times" from the 1968 Four Sail album as the B-side.
Love's "Alone Again Or" (Vinyl Single)
Love - "Alone Again Or" (lyrics)
Critic Billy Altman, wrote the following of “Forever Changes” for Amazon.com: "One of rock's most overlooked masterpieces, this third album by the L.A. folk-rock outfit led by inscrutable singer-songwriter Arthur Lee sounds as fresh and innovative today as it did upon its original release in 1968. … (it features) songs that are as sonically subtle and lilting as they are lyrically blunt and harrowing. Add two gems by Love's secret weapon, second guitarist Bryan MacLean ('Alone Again Or' and 'Old Man'), and you've got one of the truly perfect albums in rock history." "...the aforementioned weird mix of gossamer psych folk and itchy LSD musing. MacLean's Alone Again Or with its Southern Californian mariachi frills is a disarmingly pretty opener. But Lee’s lyrics are exactly on the cusp between blessed out surreality and bad trip paranoia..." (BBC music review by Chris Jones) Line-up / Musicians:
Arthur Lee: lead vocals, guitar
Bryan MacLean: rhythm guitar, co-lead vocals
Johnny Echols: lead guitar
Ken Forssi: bass guitar
Michael Stuart: drums, percussion
With
David Angel: arranger, orchestrations
Strings: Robert Barene, Arnold Belnick, James Getzoff, Marshall Sosson, Darrel Terwilliger (violins); Norman Botnick (viola); Jesse Ehrlich (cello); Chuck Berghofer (string bass)
Horns: Bud Brisbois, Roy Caton, Ollie Mitchell (trumpets); Richard Leith (trombone) Link / Review:
The Byrds "Turn! Turn! Turn!" Single / B-side: "She Don't Care About Time" Released: 1 October 1965 Album: Turn! Turn! Turn! (Released: 6 December 1965) Writers: Book of Eclessiastes, Pete Seeger Label: Columbia
"Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)" — often abbreviated to "Turn! Turn! Turn!" — is a song written by Pete Seeger in the late 1950s. The lyrics, except for the title which is repeated throughout the song, and the final verse of the song, are adapted word-for-word from Chapter 3 of the Book of Ecclesiastes, set to music and recorded in 1962. The song was originally released as "To Everything There Is a Season" on The Limeliters' album Folk Matinee and then some months later on Seeger's own The Bitter and the Sweet.
The Byrds single: "Turn! Turn! Turn!", 1965
The Byrds - "Turn! Turn! Turn!"
The song became an international hit in late 1965 when it was covered by the American folk rock band The Byrds, bowing at #80 on October 23, 1965, before reaching #1 on the Hot 100 chart on December 4, 1965, #3 in Canada (Nov. 29, 1965), and also peaking at #26 on the UK Singles Chart.
The song was first released by the folk group The Limeliters on their 1962 album Folk Matinee, under the title "To Everything There Is a Season".The Limeliters' version predated the release of Seeger's own version by several months. One of The Limeliter's backing musicians at this time was Jim McGuinn (aka Roger McGuinn), who would later work with folk singerJudy Collins, rearranging the song for her 1963 album, Judy Collins 3.Collins' recording of the song was retitled as "Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There Is a Season)", a title that would be used intermittently by McGuinn's later band The Byrds, when they released a cover of the song in 1965.
"Turn! Turn! Turn!" was the third single by the American folk rock band The Byrds. The song was also included on the band's second album, Turn! Turn! Turn!, which was released on December 6, 1965. The Byrds' single (b/w "She Don't Care About Time") is the most successful recorded version of the song. This was the second #1 hit for the Byrds, their first was "Mr. Tambourine Man".
The Byrds single: "Turn! Turn! Turn!", 1965
The Byrds - "Turn! Turn! Turn!" (from the album Turn! Turn! Turn!, 1965)
The song's plea for peace and tolerance struck a nerve with the American record buying public as the Vietnam War continued to escalate.The single also solidified folk rock as a chart trend and, like the band's previous hits, continued The Byrds' successful mix of vocal harmony and jangly twelve-stringRickenbacker guitar playing.Pete Seeger expressed his approval of the Byrd's rendering of the song.
During 1965 and 1966, the band performed the song on the television programsHollywood A Go-Go, Shindig!, The Ed Sullivan Show, and Where the Action Is, as well as in the concert film, The Big T.N.T. Show.Additionally, the song would go on to become a staple of The Byrds' live concert repertoire, until their final disbandment in 1973. The song was also performed live by a reformed line-up of The Byrds featuring Roger McGuinn, David Crosby and Chris Hillman in January 1989.
The recording has been featured in numerous movies and TV shows, including 1983's Heart Like a Wheel, 1994's Forrest Gump,and 2002's In America.Following Joe Cocker's cover of "With a Little Help from My Friends", the song was the first to play on the first episode of the television series The Wonder Years.It was also used in a Wonder Years parody, during The Simpsons episode, "Three Men and a Comic Book".In 2003, it was used in the closing sequence of the Cold Case episode "A Time to Hate" (Season One, episode 7).
The Byrds - "Turn! Turn! Turn!" (live, stereo edit)
The Byrds' TV performance 1965
Allmusic: "..."Turn! Turn! Turn!" remains a familiar song, it is closely linked with McGuinn's masterful arrangement and the Byrds' unforgettable." (Review by William Ruhlmann)
Bob Dylan "Like a Rolling Stone" Single / B-side: "Gates of Eden" Released: 20 July 1965 Album: Highway 61 Revisited (Released 30 August 1965) Writer: Bob Dylan Label: Columbia
"Like a Rolling Stone" is a 1965 song by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Its confrontational lyrics originated in an extended piece of verse Dylan wrote in June 1965, when he returned exhausted from a grueling tour of England. Dylan distilled this draft into four verses and a chorus. "Like a Rolling Stone" was recorded a few weeks later as part of the sessions for the forthcoming album Highway 61 Revisited.
Bob Dylan's single: "Like a Rolling Stone"
Bob Dylan - "Like a Rolling Stone" (interactive music video)
The title is not a reference to The Rolling Stones. It is taken from the phrase "A rolling stone gathers no moss." Dylan got the idea from the Hank Williams song "Lost Highway," which contains the line, "I'm a rolling stone, I'm alone and lost." Dylan based the lyrics on a short story he had written about a debutante who becomes a loner when she falls out of high society. The lyrics that made it into the song are only a small part of what was in the story. During a difficult two-day preproduction, Dylan struggled to find the essence of the song, which was demoed without success in 3/4 time. A breakthrough was made when it was tried in a rock music format, and rookie session musician Al Kooper improvised the organ riff for which the track is known. However, Columbia Records was unhappy with both the song's length at over six minutes and its heavy electric sound, and was hesitant to release it. It was only when a month later a copy was leaked to a new popular music club and heard by influential DJs that the song was put out as a single. Although radio stations were reluctant to play such a long track, "Like a Rolling Stone" reached number two in the US Billboard charts (number one in Cashbox) and became a worldwide hit. Critics have described the track as revolutionary in its combination of different musical elements, the youthful, cynical sound of Dylan's voice, and the directness of the question "How does it feel?" "Like a Rolling Stone" transformed Dylan's image from folk singer to rock star, and is considered one of the most influential compositions in postwar popular music. The song has been covered by numerous artists, from The Jimi Hendrix Experience and The Rolling Stones to The Wailers and Green Day. More than 40 years since its release, "Like a Rolling Stone" remains highly regarded, as measured by polls of reviewers and fellow songwriters. A 2002 ranking by Uncut and a 2005 poll in Mojo both rated it as Dylan's number one song.As for his personal views on such polls, Dylan told Ed Bradley in a 2004 interview on 60 Minutes that he never pays attention to them, because they change frequently.Dylan's point was illustrated in the "100 Greatest Songs of All Time poll" by Mojo in 2000, which included two Dylan singles, but not "Like a Rolling Stone". Five years later, the magazine named it his number one song.Rolling Stone picked "Like a Rolling Stone" as the number two single of the past 25 years in 1989,and then in 2004 placed the song at number one on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". In 2011, Rolling Stone again placed "Like a Rolling Stone" at the top of their list of "500 Greatest Songs Of All Time". In 2006, Pitchfork Media placed it at number 4 on their list of "The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s".
According to Shaun Considine, release coordinator for Columbia Records in 1965, "Like a Rolling Stone" was first relegated to the "graveyard of canceled releases" because of concerns from the sales and marketing departments over its unprecedented six-minute length and "raucous" rock sound. In the days following the rejection, Considine took a discarded acetate of the song to the New York club Arthur—a newly opened disco popular with celebrities and the media—and asked a DJ to play it. At the crowd's insistence, the demo was played repeatedly, until finally it wore out. The next morning, a disc jockey and a programming director from the city's leading top 40 stations called Columbia and demanded copies. Shortly afterward, on July 20, 1965, "Like a Rolling Stone" was released as a single with "Gates of Eden" as its B-side.
Despite its length, the song became Dylan's most commercially successful release to date, remaining in the US charts for 12 weeks, where it reached number 2 behind The Beatles' "Help!".The promotional copies released to disc jockeys on July 15 had the first two verses and two refrains on one side of the disk, and the remainder of the song on the other. DJs wishing to play the entire song would simply flip the vinyl over. While many radio stations were reluctant to play "Like a Rolling Stone" in its entirety, public demand eventually forced them to air it in full.This helped the single reach its number 2 peak, several weeks after its release.It was a Top 10 hit in other countries, including Canada, Ireland, Netherland and United Kingdom.
Bob Dylan's single: "Like a Rolling Stone"
Bob Dylan - "Like a Rolling Stone" (live version)
Dylan performed the song live for the first time within days of its release, when he appeared at the Newport Folk Festival on July 25, 1965 in Newport, Rhode Island.Many of the audience's folk enthusiasts objected to Dylan's use of electric guitars, looking down on rock 'n roll, as Bloomfield put it, as popular amongst "greasers, heads, dancers, people who got drunk and boogied."
Highway 61 Revisited was issued at the end of August 1965. When Dylan went on tour that fall he asked the future members of The Band to accompany him in performing the electric half of the concerts. "Like a Rolling Stone" took the closing slot on his setlist and held it, with rare exceptions, through the end of his 1966 "world tour." On May 17, 1966, during the last leg of the tour, Dylan and his band performed at Free Trade Hall in Manchester, England. Just before they started to play the track, an audience member yelled "Judas!", apparently referring to Dylan's supposed "betrayal" of folk music. Dylan responded, "I don't believe you. You're a liar!" With that, he turned to the band, ordering them to "play it fucking loud."'
Since then, "Like a Rolling Stone" has remained a staple in Dylan's concerts, often with revised arrangements.It was included in his 1969 Isle of Wight show and in both his reunion tour with The Band in 1974 and the Rolling Thunder Revue tour in 1975–76. The song continued to be featured in other tours throughout the 1970s and 1980s.On the Never Ending Tour, which began in 1988, "Like a Rolling Stone" has been the second most performed song, with 1901 performances registered through November 2014.
Live performances of the song are included on Self Portrait (recorded August 31, 1969), Before the Flood (recorded February 13, 1974), Bob Dylan at Budokan (recorded March 1, 1978), MTV Unplugged (recorded November 18, 1994), The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert (recorded May 17, 1966; same recording also available on The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack), and The Band's 2001 reissue of Rock of Ages (recorded 1 January 1972).The July 1965 Newport performance of the song is included in Murray Lerner's film The Other Side of the Mirror, while a May 21, 1966 performance in Newcastle, England is featured in Martin Scorsese's documentary No Direction Home, along with footage of the above-mentioned May 17 heckling incident.
Besides appearing on Highway 61 Revisited, the song's standard release can be found on the compilations Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Biograph, The Best of Bob Dylan (1997),The Essential Bob Dylan, The Best of Bob Dylan (2005), and Dylan. The mono version appears on The Original Mono Recordings. In addition, the early, incomplete studio recording in 3/4 time appears on The Bootleg Series Vol. 2.
Bob Dylan's album: Highway 61 Revisited
Bob Dylan at Newport Folk Festival, 1965
Music Video:
In November 2013, 48 years after the release of the song, Dylan's website released an official music video for "Like a Rolling Stone".Created by digital agency Interlude, the video is interactive, allowing viewers to use their keyboards to flip through 16 channels that imitate TV formats, including game shows, shopping networks and reality series. People on each channel appear to lip-sync the song's lyrics. Video director Vania Heymann stated, "I'm using the medium of television to look back right at us — you're flipping yourself to death with switching channels [in real life]."The video contains an hour and 15 minutes worth of content in all and features appearances from comedian Marc Maron, rapper Danny Brown, The Price Is Right host Drew Carey, SportsCenter anchor Steve Levy, Jonathan and Drew Scott of Property Brothers, and Pawn Stars cast members Rick Harrison and Austin "Chumlee" Russell.The video was released to publicize the release of a 35 album box set, Bob Dylan: Complete Album Collection: Vol. One, containing Dylan's 35 official studio albums and 11 live albums.The Guinness Book of World Records recorded it as the longest wait for an official music video.
The Rolling Stones - "Like a Rolling Stone" (music video)
In May 2014,Sotheby'sannounced that they would auction Dylan's original hand-written lyrics of "Like a Rolling Stone" in a New York auction devoted to rock memorabilia.On June 24, 2014, the lyrics were sold for $2 million, a record price for a popular music manuscript.
