Post a song you heard for decades before you were struck by its genius

Turtles-"You Showed Me"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANPGyzmgvk4

Heard it sporadically on oldies all my life. But about a year ago I heard it car on radio and have been enamored ever since. A pop song in slo-mo (and not just this video).


Share yours, too, if you please.

but i couldn't truly appreciate how amazing it is until revisiting it as a teenager.

Via your parents?

but i never forgot it.
back in the day, the local classic rock station played all kinds of awesome shit...now, not so much. they play modern stuff now, too. it sucks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBH2iOTGAB4

Every once in a while, I call my local oldies station and request it as a dedication. The lyrics are brilliant.

And that tambourine kicking in.

Nice one!!!

:hi:

Immortal lyric.

that Paul SImon wrote that song? :)

with a killer bass line.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-J1fA-EJdU

And you're right...the bass is cool...it bubbles along doesn't it? And the piano is crazy under the sitar break. Cool.

Thanks!!!

:hi:

a less than successful 60s fad--attempting to play the sitar as if it were a guitar. :hippie:

http://www.amazon.com/Preflyte-Sessions-Byrds/dp/B00005UCG5

Roger McGuinn and Gene Clark were magnificent songwriters.

I couldn't stand the stuff as a kid, and my dad would always play it on long car rides. Man, I hated it - it was the most boring, irksome old person music in the world. Somewhere along the line, as an adult, I realized that it's fantastic stuff.

a music person...more of a TV baby ( music just never did much for me )

He can really turn a wistful melodic phrase with a good lyrical match, I think, but I don't know his work all that well.

:hi:

Big screen Willie sound, "My heroes have always been cowboys"

http://youtube.com/watch?v=OMko5LelBdA

and a personal favorite: "Angel flying too close to the ground"

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8jfBxfltYD0

Willie Nelson is incredible.

To think he wrote Patsy Cline's "Crazy". :applause:

Had to do some living and get my heart broken a little before I appreciated him.

I don't think I knew who he was until I was old enough to appreciate it though - my dad isn't a Johnny Cash fan. Now, like all old(er?) people, he loves Norah Jones, which I can't really stand. I think his constant playing of that has now made me dislike it as well.

I'm not much into country, but he's good.

And Stardust is one of the best albums ever....

Khash.

For a long time, I didn't get the "Imagine there's no countries" line. It took me longer than others, but I finally got it.

I think I've heard that song too many times, too consistently across the years. I don't dislike it, by any means. More like I've heard it so frequently, I can't have a renewed appreciation for it, you know?

I'm actually going through a McCartney re-appreciation phase, though, on stuff that just keeps popping up lately, i.e., Someones Knocking at the Door, Helen Wheels, Jet....

:hi:

Yep, the Alfafa sang. But it's a standard, recorded by hundreds of artists.

Music: Jimmy McHugh
Lyrics: Dorothy Fields

Such a well known line (and chorus) by itself. But I'm not sure I recall the rest.

Here we go. Doris Day version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_Ltk2-If0g&feature=related

It is a great song, eh? I love songs with that inexorable melodic sense like this. I like this minimal version too.

Thanks for sending me off to find it.

:hi:

Eric Carmen and the Raspberries....

When I hear it now, it's like losing
my virginity ALL OVER AGAIN!

L-O-V-E this song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fiy-q9jVYE&feature=related

(Crappy recording)

I used to dismiss it as teeny-bopper crap, I guess, but what a great melody and arrangement of backing vocals. And those power pop chords that open and close the song. Killer!!

:hi:

THAT'S how powerful that song is...

should be used intermittently!

:blush:

of most of my contemporaries (I was born in '64), my parents got into the Beatles, the Who, CCR, the Band, and a few other popular bands in about 68 or 69 so I heard all that music from the time I was 5 or so. I could never understand why the departure of the girl who was driving him mad would make him unhappy. We used to go camping and if there was a bathroom need on the road, my dad pulled over and we used the bushes ... so I thought "Why don't we do it in the road" meant go to the bathroom. I could go on and on. It was not until years later that I appreciated both the lyrics and the music I had grown up with.

"the departure of the girl who was driving him mad would make him unhappy"

:hi:

that I remained clueless about well into adulthood because the lyrics had become so much almost just part of the background of the song (even though I'd sing along, I didn't really 'hear' what I was singing). I was quite embarrassed that I figured it out so late.

Don McLean was another one who was more sophisticated than my 10 year old mind could grasp (I haven't heard it for a long time but I wonder if I finally know what all the words in "On the Amazon" mean).

in Junior High when Born In The USA came out, I had no idea the album was pure genius, just that it sounded good. I got the album for free, I was broke after spending my summer money on "Like A Virgin" and something else, but as luck would have it, I won a boardwalk game in Wildwood, New Jersey and scored this LP (I still got it, well, the LP at least). How appropriate to win a Springsteen album at the boardwalk on the Jersey Shore!

This particular song, apparently is about Bruce's struggle to write a "hit" song for the album which was demanded by his producer, who wanted the album to make Bruce a superstar --it did. Ironically, Bruce had 70 songs already written for Born In The USA, and this was the last one written for the album.

Take a listen:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Pk8VZgJkpeg



Lyrics for: Dancing In The Dark

I get up in the evening
and I ain't got nothing to say
I come home in the morning
I go to bed feeling the same way
I ain't nothing but tired
Man I'm just tired and bored with myself
Hey there baby, I could use just a little help

You can't start a fire
You can't start a fire without a spark
This gun's for hire
even if we're just dancing in the dark

Message keeps getting clearer
radio's on and I'm moving 'round the place
I check my look in the mirror
I wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face
Man I ain't getting nowhere
I'm just living in a dump like this
There's something happening somewhere
baby I just know that there is

You can't start a fire
you can't start a fire without a spark
This gun's for hire
even if we're just dancing in the dark

You sit around getting older
there's a joke here somewhere and it's on me
I'll shake this world off my shoulders
come on baby this laugh's on me

Stay on the streets of this town
and they'll be carving you up alright
They say you gotta stay hungry
hey baby I'm just about starving tonight
I'm dying for some action
I'm sick of sitting 'round here trying to write this book
I need a love reaction
come on now baby gimme just one look

You can't start a fire sitting 'round crying over a broken heart
This gun's for hire
Even if we're just dancing in the dark
You can't start a fire worrying about your little world falling apart
This gun's for hire
Even if we're just dancing in the dark
Even if we're just dancing in the dark
Even if we're just dancing in the dark
Even if we're just dancing in the dark
Hey baby

Acoustically. He may have written it. "You Showed Me".

Strong song in either setting, I think.

:hi:

really didn't grab my attention the first few years it was out. Then all of a sudden one day, it struck me. Now, I love that song. I don't know why I didn't get it at first. Now, I do, and couldn't love it more.

Most Springsteen actually. Even as a Jersey guy I didn't care for him despite (or perhaps because) of hearing his songs all the time. I was in my teens when Born In The USA came out and thought that entire record and all of the singles were cheesy.

A few years back I got a really good listen to Born to Run and the lyrics, the music, the structure, the chords, everything are just really great and top notch. So many different layers to his work.

I'm still not a superfan but I can really appreciate what he does, particularly in that song.

I liked the song forever, and one day listening to it on the radio, stuck in traffic, 25 years later, I could actually understand what Jagger was singing.

The Stones actually have some very good lyrics.

it's not all just songs about fucking and gratuitous drug references

I had heard the song for years and always thought that Dolly Parton was an OK singer but I gained new respect for her when the American Idol contestants totally butchered it. It seemed an unsingable song when they were done with it but when I listen to her version, it appears almost effortless.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpKAA2VxWY8

and it can be easy to overlook that because of the wigs, boob jokes, and general showbiz razmatazz.
She is truly an artist.

The Turtles song is excellent. Is that really the band in the video?



I always thought it was a bit mellow, but listening now I realize
what a excellent song it is.
It has a timeless quality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BUgQaFv7K4

Reminds me of Prefab Sprout, another 80s that I heard back then, but was busy playing American jangle pop in bands and it stayed on my perimeter. Dove in hard a year or so ago with this one hooking me first. Beautiful production and melodic ache.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7oJAR4iYuw&feature=related

:hi:

I forgot all about them. Steve McQueen is good.

It'd take me all month.

Not sure if he wrote it, but I was was recently struck by how incredible this song is.

I always liked it, but in the last few years, I've come to believe it's one of the most powerful songs of the last 50 years.

Let me disclaim outright that I'm not a big fan of the guy.

However, I hadn't heard the song much in six or seven years, and then one day it popped up one of the year's 52 "All 80's" radio weekends.

I finally "got it" this time around, and it struck me as far more poignant than I'd ever realized when it was in heavy rotation on air.


Still not a Billy Joel fan, though.

decades...and I already know it's genius.

and last time I played it, I cried...
I guess his music touched me more than I knew...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agWDREDG3Zs
....What I say
you cannot hear it
so, you intrude upon my dreams
and hate my appearance,

Who gave you the right
to give out the rights?
and to intrude upon My Dreams
and sell out my eyes,

You can't take My Dreams
You can't take My Dreams
You can't take and steal from this body...



Tikki

n/t

I never really understood what the song was talking about (I was a very small child when it was popular). Now I understand it better. I especially appreciate the part about being called "liberal, radical..":)

they played it so much on the radio that I didn't even really hear it at the time.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=GTgLQgpwRvQ

but eventually realized those lyrics are actually very good.

It's not necessarily "genius" but I never really appreciated the fact that Ozzy and the boys were very anti-war.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRhZISswW_k

Children of the Grave

Revolution in their minds - the children start to march
Against the world they have to live in
Oh! the hate that's in their hearts
They're tired of being pushed around
and told just what to do
They'll fight the world until they've won
and love comes flowing through

Children of tomorrow live in the tears that fall today
Will the sunrise of tomorrow bring in peace in any way
Must the world live in the shadow of atomic fear
Can they win the fight for peace or will they disappear?

So you children of the world listen to what say
If you want a better place to live in spread
the word today
Show the world that love is still alive you must be brave
Or you children of today are children of the grave

Gene Clark wrote that tune (when he was in the Byrds)- and if you like that one, I highly suggest you check out his "Echos" CD which is filled w/ similar material from that era...

Also, you should check out the Turtles LP "Battle of the Bands" which includes "You Showed Me" and also happens to be their best, most solid record...

Happy listening!!!!

It is a song about a German fighter plane by Blue Oyster Cult. It is from the their 2nd album, Secret Treaties and it contains some very clever lyrics such as describing the bombers as hanging "dependent from the skies like some heavy metal fruit" and "my great silver slugs are eager to feed". I think it qualifies as a true work of genius!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI-z64G3tvU

ME 262-Blue Oyster Cult

Goering's on the phone from Freiburg
Says Willie's done quite a job
Hitler's on the phone from Berlin
Says I'm gonna make you a star

My Captain Von Ondine is your next patrol
A flight of English bombers across the canal
After twelve they'll all be here
I think you know the job

They hung there dependant from the sky
Like some heavy metal fruit
These bombers are ripe and ready to tilt
Must these Englishmen live that I might die
Must they live that I might die

In a G-load disaster from the rate of climb
Sometimes I'd faint and be lost to our side
But there's no reward for failure - but death
So watch me in mirrors keep in the glidepath

Get me through these radars, no, I cannot fail
While my great silver slugs are eager to feed
I can't fail - No, not now
When twenty five bombers wait ripe

They hung there dependant from the sky
Like some heavy metal fruit
These bombers are ripe and ready to tilt
Must these Englishmen live that I might die
Must they live that I might die

Me-262 prince of turbojet
Junker's Jumo 004
Blasts from clustered R4M quartets in my snout
And see these English planes go burn

Well, you be my witness, how red were the skies
When the fortresses flew for the very last time
It was dark over Westphalia
In April of '45

They hung there dependant from the sky
Like some heavy metal fruit
These bombers are ripe and ready to tilt
Must these Englishmen live that I might die
Must they live that I might die

Must these Englishmen live that I might die...Junker's jommo 004

Bombers at 12 o'clock high

...they are closely associated with a band I like a lot- The Dictators.

Also-one of my earlier memories is being spooked out by "Dont Fear the Reaper" on the radio when I was a little kid in the 70's...

Mostly from their 1st three albums. They lost me at "Cultosaurus Erectus"!

:toast:

2 songs that really rock-there is genius in their simplicity and economy...

I've always loved mid-sixties tunes but I never realized how great these tunes were until a couple of years ago....I wrote off both songs as novelty tunes but they are much more than that to me now...

by Johnny Rivers.

My Funny Valentine- One of the most poignant, simple love songs ever. And it's short melody is brilliant.

They Can't Take That Away From Me--Ira Gershwin's lyrics are a bit clunky, but wonderful. And there just aren't enough love songs that express gratitude.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROyoPwIa_0E&feature=related

Most of Rogers and Hammerstein--sure they wrote some schmaltz, but so much of what they wrote is gorgeous.

That is one from my parents' generation that I've really grown to appreciate...

"Is your figure less than Greek / Is your mouth a little weak..." Wow.

I like this version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNAxnwYDrAM&feature=related

:hi:

Never seen it, as I am not an "Idol" watcher. Thanks!

I would need to think about that:)

First thing i thought of was Robert Johnson. I am the youngest of six, and we all play instruments in some form. I always thought(be gentle)that the old Delta Blues was a bit dry, or got that way after a few minutes of listening.

I've changed, my brothers were right. Hopefully for the better:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd60nI4sa9A

non-New Orleans radio generally plays only the Dixie Cups version. Thus, it was decades before I heard Dr. John's more authentic take on it.

I heard the Dead cover it too, live, at least once.