seventies survival, update nine

Posted on September 8th, 2007 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Songs, 70s Survival.

I am listening to the top 1000 singles of the 1970s (as determined by Billboard) on shuffle play on my mp3 player, and gradually weeding out the songs I don't want to hear anymore.

Barbra Streisand, Evergreen
I admit that this is an impressively complex melody, a great tune for a great singer, and it's beautiful. I don't hate it. But it's too schmaltzy for me to enjoy much, especially since the lyrics don't move me. I love the coda, though. It makes me feel it's not a waste to sit through the song.

Keith Carradine, I'm Easy
I like this song, just not enough to keep hearing it. Very nice acoustic guitar playing, and a melody, lyrics, and mood that remind me of good James Taylor songs. I hadn't known that we have Robert Altman to thank for Carradine's brief music career: he heard Carradine's songs, cast him in Nashville, and put several of his songs on the soundtrack. Actors' hit songs are often dire, but this is a decent exception.

Ringo Starr, Oh My My
A pleasant, bouncy song. Wouldn't be out of place on a decent pub-rock album; odd to hear this as an American hit.

Bay City Rollers, Money Honey
True one-hit wonders are rare, notwithstanding VH1's generous definition. Bands we think of as one-hit wonders are usually like this: First, an awesome hit single that everybody remembers. Second, a not-terrible follow-up from the same album, which is a smaller hit because while everybody wants it to be great it's just okay. Third, a song from the second album, which does okay and signals the commercial end of the band's career. This is the second song.

Shaun Cassidy, Da Doo Ron Ron
Listened to all the way through out of duty.

Rick Dees & His Cast of Idiots, Disco Duck
Duty aided by a drink. If there's anything worse than a limp cover by a teen idol, it's a trend novelty song. Even by the standard of, say, Ray Stevens, this song is awful. I'd go into detail, but then I'd be a guy writing in depth about "Disco Duck".

7 comments.

Robert Legault

Comment on September 8th, 2007.

I'm not really fond of "I'm Easy." But in the context of Nashville, it is rather dramatic when Carradine sings it.

He may be psycho. but no one does Phil Spector better than Phil Spector.

ethan

Comment on September 9th, 2007.

Yeah, I kind of don't have the patience to ever listen to "I'm Easy" but I have been known to watch Nasvhille more than once in a single day.

Shaun Cassidy's "Da Doo Ron Ron" is amazing to me. It turns one of the best songs in all of history into one of the worst. I've never in my life managed to listen to it all the way through.

Gavin

Comment on September 9th, 2007.

I've always been interested by genuine two-hit wonders, like Golden Earring.

I loved Disco Duck when I was a kid, but I shudder to imagine just how awful it probably sounds now.

Love these updates--it'll be interesting to see when the tipping point comes where you're not just sifting out the utter dross.

Scraps

Comment on September 9th, 2007.

Another genuine two-hit wonder, I think: Sugarloaf.

I think I've already reached the point where I'm eliminating good songs, but that's due to the sloppy way my mp3 player handles shuffle play: several songs have come up three or four times while many, many songs have yet to play at all. So there are inevitably some perfectly decent songs that get eliminated because they've had the opportunity to outwear their welcome, while a lot of dross that would get eliminated on first play just hasn't come up. I suppose some of them might sneak into the last five hundred, though I hope not. This is going to take me a long time; there's still 860 songs left on the player (and I'm way behind on updates).

Gavin

Comment on September 11th, 2007.

>several songs have come up three or four times while many, many songs have yet to play at all

Off the top of my head, this seems like a perfectly reasonable outcome, statistically. I take it you'd prefer to have every song played once before repeats? (Which is what would happen on an iPod =if= you listened to it in one session, but it doesn't have any memory if, say, you listen to an album and then go back to shuffle-play.)

Scraps

Comment on September 11th, 2007.

Yeah, I wish it played every song before starting to repeat. It might, I suppose, if I didn't turn it off.

Robert Legault

Comment on September 11th, 2007.

Dunno about your mp3 player, but in iTunes you can set up a "Smart Playlist" with play count = 0 and play nothing but songs you haven't listened to before. I find that a very useful feature.

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