Let's Compile Our Own "The Decade's 50 Most Important Recordings"--Kool Breeze Has Offered to Put These Listed Songs On Radio
Although I had hinted at this in another post, NPR has compiled a list of 50 of what they feel are the most influential songs of the past decade. Not one Blues song made the list. Go figure.
Many of the songs, and many of the groups that made their list, I didn't recognize. Even more so, many of the songs and many of the artists suggested by the people who wrote in, I didn't recognize, ie. how about their first ten listings (they arranged things diplomatically alphabetically.) Go figure. (I follow the Blues.)
Here's their list:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/2009/11/the_decades_50_most_impor...
As we must surely have recorded and released something this past decade that you would consider important, why not suggest it. Include song, artist and why you feel it was important. Put your thinking caps on.
If we can come up with fifty songs that we feel are most important, I will submit this list to NPR.
Many of the songs, and many of the groups that made their list, I didn't recognize. Even more so, many of the songs and many of the artists suggested by the people who wrote in, I didn't recognize, ie. how about their first ten listings (they arranged things diplomatically alphabetically.) Go figure. (I follow the Blues.)
Here's their list:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/2009/11/the_decades_50_most_impor...
As we must surely have recorded and released something this past decade that you would consider important, why not suggest it. Include song, artist and why you feel it was important. Put your thinking caps on.
If we can come up with fifty songs that we feel are most important, I will submit this list to NPR.
Views: 1
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Chad Nordhoff on -
While it appears the blues has born little fruit in the 2000s, I've witnessed the planting of many seeds. With events such as the Deep Blues Festival, there is a movement very much like the folk revival of the 60s erupting all over the world. The trouble is, there's not yet much of an audience or awareness of this in the U.S.. Our music is dominated by glittery pop divas and these wretched, whiny little emo pukes. Jake and Elwood, as well as the Stevie Ray phenomenon, if for no other reason than timing, were characteristic of the "me generation". The blues was pretty much lost all together on "generation-X".
While the children of the 50s became the teens and college students of the 60s they began to question all the prosperity of their parents generation. Was it necessary? Was it worth it? Thus the appeal of the bluesman who never experienced or seemed to need the prosperity. In some ways we're there again or at least we will be soon.
These little pop princesses and whining perpetual toddlers whose laments bombard our culture simply can not stand forever. As their excrutiating comfort subsides, a new sound will emerge. There are many "blues infected" bands out there on the road today. They are standing on a rock solid foundation and will remain there as the plates shift.
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Permalink Reply by CHC Network on -
The problem that you are apparently having (and you are not alone) is that you are looking at 0 as preceding 1, when it is a place holder for ten.
(I know every four years we pick up another day, giving us a leap year, but...) If we were to look at each year, for simplicity sake, as having 365 days from January 1 through December 31, January 1st would be the first day of that year and December 31st would be the last day of the year.
We would count the first 365 days as year 1, then number sequentially from there up to ten. In other words:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
So the last day of this decade would be December 31st, 2010. Given this, as today is December 1st, we would have another 30 days until the end of this year, before starting over again to count the last 365 days of the final year of this decade.
Do you understand?
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Permalink Reply by mark cloutier on
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1 Alpine valley-- Jimmy vaughn about stevie--classic was it within 10 years ago??
2 going home -sean costello an amazing talent-- sad he passed
http://www.lala.com/#album/1657606138215661688/Sean_Costello/We_Can...
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Permalink Reply by CHC Network on
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KB,
Are you paying attention? We have some very good suggestions here already, thanks guys.
Add to these the following which I have received in the past several days.
From Ted TDroz,
Well, I don't know about the overall cultural impact of these over the past decade, but these are albums that really hit home with me as being innovative, inventive, beautiful, passionate, opinionated and soulful, with roots in tradition and tendrils reaching toward the future. Pretty much in order:
• R.L. Burnside, Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down
• Otis Taylor, White African
• Solomon Burke, Don't Give Up On Me
• Buddy Guy, Sweet Tea
• Watermelon Slim & the Workers, Watermelon Slim & the Workers
• Bettye LaVette, I've Got My Own Hell to Raise
• James Blood Ulmer, Bad Blood in the City
• Willie King and the LIberators, Living in the New World
• Charlie Musselwhite, Delta Hardwar
• Mavis Staples, We'll Never Turn Back
• Jason Ricci & New Blood, Rocket Number 9
Has anybody who listens to the Artic Monkeys heard even one of these albums? (Besides us?)
His explanation, with more suggestions offered:
That list actually leads to a list of albums, yes? And I laughed the instant I laid eyes on John Adams as the first entry. Of course, there is an elite cult of music intellectuals to whom Adams in important, and he is a superb composer, but I'd venture that Trace Adkins's mind abusing "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" is having a heartbreakingly wider cultural impact than all of Adams' works combined. Sigh…
The NPR list seems fairly limited and elitist, but do we want to go for albums as well? Blues is more an albums than singles genre these recent decades, I think. Of course, then we get into the definition of "importance." And blues is not exactly at the apex of popularity today. Is there a blues song from the last decade important enough to make a list like this? A conundrum. There are plenty of songs I love by blues artists from this period that I think have important things to say, from a clutch of Otis Taylor's tunes about racism, sexual relations, etc., to Buddy Guy's beautiful "Skin Deep." But can we consider any of them truly influential within the broad definition of the cultural mainstream of the past decade. Maybe as influential as Adams, true, but that's slight grounds for inclusion. Generally lists are published by people with their own agendas and perspectives, like Rolling Stone's crappy list of the 100 greatest guitarists. They usually leave me scratching my head and evaluating the listers more than the albums they include. As much as I like Otis Taylor and Watermelon Slim, and find them two of the most refreshing and inventive new voices in blues, along with jazzman turned bluesman Blood Ulmer, how influential — outside of blues fans and musicians — can we legitimately say they are? I wish I could say Otis, for example, is having a profound effect on songwriting, racial dialog, production technique, and the general public's listening habits, but I think even he would agree that's not the case. R.L. Burnside has spawned a slowly growing but extremely exciting "Deep Blues" movement that crosses all kinds of genre and demographic lines, and that's wonderful, but unknown even by many in the blues world. And B.B., as much as I love the guy for his music and generous soul and signature style and could listen to him all day, is pretty much dipped in amber at this point.
Guess that doesn't help get answers here… But that's what this email raised with me.
Other thoughts?
- ted d
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Permalink Reply by CHC Network on
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TDroz,
You were correct on so many points. It seems that Blues Revue and the Rev. at About.com had the same ideas and many suggestions that they had easily intersect your list of top albums of the past decade.
Here is the list that the Rev. came up with:
http://blues.about.com/od/bestoftheblues/tp/BestBlues2000s.htm
B. B. King, One Kind Favor (Geffen 2008)
Buddy Guy, Sweet Tea (Silvertone Records, 2001)
Charlie Musselwhite, Delta Hardware (Real World Records, 2006)
Nick Moss and the Flattops, Play it til Tomorrow, (Blue Bella, 2007)
Otis Taylor, Respect the Dead (Northern Blues, 2002)
R. L. Burnside, I Wish I Was In Heaven (Fat Possum, 2000)
Shemaka Copeland, Never Going Back (Telarc, 2009)
Tommy Castro, Painkiller (Blind Pig Records, 2007)
Watermelon Slim, The Wheelman (Northern Blues, 2007)
Willie King and the Liberators, Freedom Creek (Rooster Blues, 2000)
Blues Revue list can be found in their January/February 2010 issue. Now all we have to do is drill down into the meat of these albums and decide the best songs.
Maybe we can still come up with 50 songs.
Incidentally, Ted, were you one of the journalist that Blues Revue consulted for their list?
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Permalink Reply by Sheila Cain on -
I got in a little late on this, but hopefully BB King's "The Thrill Is Gone"
is on the list somewhere. That tune crossed over and won the hearts
of so many who didn't listen to blues and they Fell In Love with it.
Just MHO but it's great.
They had Britney Spears on there list?!? That sorta scares me.
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Permalink Reply by CHC Network on
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While "Thrill is Gone" is certainly a classic, and the one that brought King international acclaim, I'm afraid that it doesn't qualify for consideration. It first appeared on King's Best album in 1960. According to my computations, that was almost 50 long years ago.
We are looking for songs that have been released in the past decade. And to this end, it must have been written and released in the past ten years. No covers, of anything that was written before 2000--regardless of how tasty.
All Music says about The Thrill is Gone
B.B. King's biggest chart success in the pop arena, "The Thrill Is Gone," provided him with a long overdue crossover hit in 1970. Using a blues-rock basis for the main melody, King casts the entire song in a very heavy jazz feel and flavor, attacking each verse with a world-weary vocal and some radical and sinewy guitar arpeggios. The feeling of breaking free from a possessive lover is the main basis for the lyrics, and King's use of blues imagery is perfect for the song, which indeed provided real release. But its the song's overall groove that is the star here, giving the overall piece a definitive atmosphere. This is, in fact, the lesson that he had been teaching all of his students from Michael Bloomfield to Eric Clapton in the '60s, and although many of their records preceded his on the charts, it was this exquisite piece at the dawn of the '70s that defined the blues movement. The single version is a necessity, but the extended live version on Live at San Quentin is extremely potent, and gives the listener the same feel in a bigger, more grandiose package
Notice how this description talks of it having a heavy jazz feel? Could that be the answer? Hmmm
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Permalink Reply by Blue Plate Special on -
Don't take this the wrong way, but some thought Blue Plate Special's last album- "Can You Dig It!" was important enough to be nominated album of the year 2007 -2009. Midnight Special Blues Radio,Just Plain Folks dot com, ElectricBlues Radio,
Real Blues Magazine ( more stations and results listed at the fansite www.myspace.com/blueplatespecialband or thru website at www.bpsblues.com ).
Top song over all- Working On Love
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Permalink Reply by CHC Network on
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I don't know how to take that the "wrong way." I thought it was a solid effort and it was recorded within the past decade.
When are you guys goings to release another? Circling Chicago some time ago, listening to the radio, I heard the disc jockey comment that he was now going to play something "old school." He was going to go back to 2007.
This would make this release of yours practically a "classic." Can You Dig It?
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