Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Jan 15, 2005 9:45:38 GMT
1. "Roll Over Beethoven" - Chuck Berry
The first great rock & roll lyric - and it had that infectious Berry beat.
2. "Tutti-Frutti" - Little Richard
The great nonsense song of the Fifties.
3. "Mystery Train" - Elvis Presley
Dark, brooding, mysterioso. I first heard it on a blues station in Chicago. Only later did I find out Elvis was white.
4. "Hoochie Coochie Man" - Muddy Waters
The greatest electric-blues song of all time. He taught all of us how to play.
5. "Smoke Stack Lightning" - Howlin' Wolf
This is voodoo. This is Africa brought to the New World. This is the music of 10,000 years. Feel it!
6. "Light My Fire" - The Doors
Those California mystics lay down the Latin and then rock it. Is that a John Coltrane homage in the solo section?
7. "Blue Suede Shoes" - Carl Perkins
The Fifties in a three-minute capsule. And then Elvis does it! I actually owned box-toe blue suede shoes.
8. "Who Do You Love?" - Bo Diddley
Danger. Snakeskin. Skulls. Arlene. How sweet she must have been ...
9. "With A Little Help From My Friends" - The Beatles English tunesmiths reveal they are actually stoners. And it's all love, with your friends to support you. Do we need anything else?
10. "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" - The Rolling
Stones
It was now, mod, rock, birds, pot, stovepipe legs, Pucci, Biba. What a time of freedom and discovery. If only we could see it again.
Rolling Stone Magazine December 9, 2004