It’s Friday night and my old ass is on the couch. It’s been a busy work week. In addition to that, my Knicks have advanced to the second round of the playoffs—wreaking havoc with my anxiety levels. Me and some new friends also watched the movie Kids last night. It was an interesting experience seeing the movie after nearly two decades, marveling at how different New York City is, and marveling at my relationship to that movie at 20 vs. my relationship to it at 47 is so markedly different. There were a lot of deja vu moments, but there were just as many, if not more, cringe moments. 30 years doesn’t feel like a super long time to me, but it’s amazing how much things have changed.
One thing that will never change? My love for music. So let’s move on with the list.
“And So It Goes” by Billy Joel (1989)
I don’t know if “vulnerable” is the first word I’d use if someone asked me to describe Billy Joel’s music. Maybe that’s part of the reason why “And So It Goes” hits me so hard. Can you imagine being so much of a sad-sack that you can envision the end of a relationship before it even really starts? I can. I’ve been there. I’ve not seen or read what motivated Billy to write “And So It Goes”, but it feels like it came from a really raw, personal place. It resonated with me quite a bit in my early, fumbling attempts to try building connections with others, and those opening piano notes take me right back to those feelings of insecurity and the mix of hopefulness and hopelessness at the heart of this composition.
“And The Beat Goes On” by The Whispers (1980)
By the time “And The Beat Goes On” hit in the early part of 1980, The Whispers had been tooling around the soul music scene for well over a decade. These days, it’s hard to imagine an artist being around that long before scoring their first major hit. But The Whispers took the momentum thrust upon by the success of “And The Beat Goes On” (which spent over a month at the top of the R&B charts and snuck into the top 20 on the pop list) and carved out a place in the upper echelon of soulful vocal groups that held strong until the early ‘90s.
While The Whispers were a sonically delightful group, their success was largely due to three factors—relentless touring, a very unique visual element (the quintet was fronted by identical twins Walter & Scotty Scott), and the pristine production of Leon Sylvers III. Sylvers is still somewhat of an unsung hero in the history of pop music, but he was the bridge between disco and synth-heavy funk. As the house producer for Solar Records, he provided many of the hits for The Whispers and Shalamar, and went on to work with everyone from Gladys Knight & The Pips to Janet Jackson and New Kids on the Block.
“And The Beat Goes On” is a dance floor demon, featuring pristine harmonies, a candy-coated hook (multiple hooks, actually) and a groove that dared you not to move. It’s feel-good party music that also, somehow, feels like grown-folks music (maybe because it was sung by folks who were a bit older than the average disco/pop artists of the time). It retains its freshness, although there’s probably a generation of folks who hear its unique synthesizer arrangement and can only recall Will Smith’s ode to South Florida, “Miami”.
“Angel” by Aretha Franklin (1973)
Three songs with the same title, and I literally just noticed that the performers of all three “Angel”s have Detroit roots. How ‘bout that? Let’s go through them in chronological order:
The Queen of Soul wasn’t the only talent among the Franklin siblings. Carolyn, as mentioned in the blurb I wrote for “Ain’t No Way”, was a hell of a songwriter. Aretha acknowledges her in the song’s spoken opening passage. The lyrics speak to anyone who’s searched for love, and Aretha’s voice is capable of inhabiting any emotion in existence. Her piano playing is particularly noteworthy, also. It was certainly the best song to come out of Ree-Ree’s album-length dalliance with Quincy Jones, Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky).
Auntie Anita blew up on the scene shortly after Aretha made her big pop comeback with Who’s Zoomin’ Who? Along with Detroit roots, Aretha and Anita share a reputation as being, shall we say, difficult. Luther Vandross had some level of beef with both divas (although Mr. Vandross was also apparently no slouch in the difficulty department). “Angel” came three years before Anita blew up with Rapture, and it feels less mannered, more loose than her subsequent work. The jazz flavor is pretty strong here, thanks in part to those tasty George Benson-esque guitar licks in the chorus.
Speaking of guitar licks, Madonna’s “Angel” begins auspiciously, with a few choppy notes played by Chic legend Nile Rodgers (who produced the entire Like a Virgin album). Madge is at her most lighthearted and girlish on this track, giving it an irresistible innocence that’s amplified by her giggling and a few notes that quiver just enough to border on pitchy. Too bad it’s kinda lost amidst the gaggle of hits that Madonna has amassed over the years. Hell, it was even lost during its initial release at the relatively early stages of Madonna’s reign, bested by its own B-side, the eternal “Into The Groove”.
“Another Day” by James Taylor (1997)
“Another Grey Morning” by James Taylor (1976)
So, I love James Taylor. His music (and voice) have such a calming, soothing quality. It took me many years before I realized how juxtaposed the gentle nature of his music was when compared with a) the relative darkness of many of his lyrics and b) the fact that he was apparently a major junkie for much of his imperial phase.
Neither of the songs included here was a single, but they are certainly hits in my head. “Another Grey Morning” paints a picture of sadness and frustration and bears more than a passing resemblance to Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine”. Withers and JT are somewhat linked in my head for various reasons: I mean, two dudes who were fairly reliant on the acoustic guitar and wrote songs that were often tinged with melancholy. Hell, they were even label mates for a few years until Withers retired in the mid ‘80s.
Because of that retirement, Bill never took the opportunity to get a late-career Oprah-assisted resurgence the way JT did with 1997’s Hourglass. You wouldn’t expect a 21 year old dude from Brooklyn to be rocking a James Taylor tape in his Walkman, but Hourglass’s songs got plenty of time in rotation when my contemporaries (and me too) were listening to Biggie’s Life After Death. “Another Day” is the flip side of “Another Grey Morning”. It’s a short, sweet tune asking a loved one to be by his side for life. It’s a glimmer of hope delivered by a voice that’s always spoken comfort to me. As with Kids, it’s interesting to observe how the passage of time has affected my relation to this particular piece of art. After all, I’m much closer to the age James Taylor was when he recorded “Another Day” (actually, I’m only about a year off) than I was when I originally became familiar with the song. Time is some weird shit.
Running tally-type shit because I like stats:
Total songs: 64
4 songs from the 1960s
14 songs from the 1970s
29 songs from the 1980s
11 songs from the 1990s
2 song from the aughts
4 songs from the 2010s
19 songs by male solo artists (including Prince’s songs featuring band names), 27 songs by duos/groups/bands, 15 songs by female solo artists, 2 collaborative performance by two (or more) solo artists, 1 collaborative performance between two groups (although what did Cult Jam actually do?)
Michael Jackson appears on five songs on this list as it stands (one as a solo artist, three as a member of the Jackson Five, one as a background vocalist.) There are three Prince songs listed so far. Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell (as a duo) and Stevie Wonder appear twice so far.
Next up: A connection I should have made four decades ago, but didn’t. Also, another Christmas song!