This Best David Bowie Albums listicle is probably one of the best ways we could think of to celebrate Bowie’s 75th birthday. We wanted to share personal reflections on these albums and thus limited the selection to five stone cold classics. in our humble opinion. Also, we bit the bullet and ordered this list according to merit. Here goes nothing….
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The Best Queen Songs of All Time functions – as usual – as our introduction to the music of legendary pop-rock band, Queen. Queen rose out of the ashes of Smile – which Brian May (guitar) and Roger Taylor (drums) formed in university – with Freddie Mercury (vocals, piano) and John Deacon (bass) joining the line-up in 1970 and 1971 respectively.
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The Best ELO Songs of All Time is our concise introduction to the music of the Electric Light Orchestra (aka ELO). The Electric Light Orchestra was formed in 1970 by songwriters-multi-instrumentalists Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood with drummer Bev Bevan. The band was effectively spun out from the final incarnation of the 1960s psych-rock band The Move.
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McCartney 3 2 1 is a music documentary series streaming on Hulu, featuring musician Paul McCartney and producer Rick Rubin. Consisting of six 30-minute instalments, the premise of McCartney 3 2 1 is simple – the duo are ensconced in a darkened room shot in black and white, whereupon Rubin will play selections from McCartney’s storied career for the latter to react and respond to.
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1971 : The Year That Music Changed Everything is a music documentary based on Never a Dull Moment, a book written by David Hepworth. The documentary’s premise is that 1971 was a watershed year where rock and pop music exerted great influence on culture in the USA, the UK and the rest of the world.
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Best Genesis songs (with Phil Collins) is a listicle idea that has been stuck in my head for a while now. There is a common misconception amongst progressive rock fans that when Peter Gabriel left Genesis in 1975, it was all downhill from that point. This perception has hardened against the band especially in the 1980s when Genesis (Collins, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford) become a genuine commercial success.
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When I opined that Classic Rock had lost its relevance and significance in the contemporary music industry, it does not mean that Classic Rock is no longer important. In fact, Classic Rock is a critical asset to film and TV producers as directors utilise Classic Rock to create a vibe in film and TV series that contemporary pop music just cannot replicate. Which brings me to The Best Classic Rock Film and TV Scenes.
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It has been more than 25 years since the death of Kurt Cobain, the last rock iconoclast that had a major impact on popular music before the rise of hip-hop. That is a generation ago and since then, Classic Rock as we understood the genre in the last forty years has declined to insignificance as a cultural force.
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Station to Station is the opening track on David Bowie’s classic 1976 album of the same name. Clocking in at over 10 minutes, Station to Station is Bowie’s longest studio recording and is seen as a pivotal landmark in Bowie’s musical development in the 1970s. That decade was a seminal epoch for many influential rock genres and Bowie had his finger on the pulse of most of them!
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The Bee Gees : How Can You Mend A Broken Heart is a music documentary directed by Frank Marshall about the Gibb Brothers viz. Barry, Robin and Maurice. The documentary basically focuses on the two main eras in which the trio were at their most successful i.e. the late 1960s and a decade later in the late 1970s. There are also cursory examinations of their fallow periods in between and after these phenomenal heights but nothing much in depth.
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All Right Now is the ultimate British expression of the blues-rock explosion of the late 1960s and the hard rock movement of the early 1970s. Arguably, All Right Now is also the signature tune of Free, consisting of Paul Rodgers (vocals), Paul Kossoff (guitar), Simon Kirke (drums) and Andy Fraser (bass).
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Neil Young has turned 75! So it’s probably the best day to present to you the click baiting listicle I call The Best Neil Young Songs Of All Time! AND… I have given myself the nigh impossible task of just naming TEN songs! But I think I am well satisfied with this list, keeping my selections to the less obvious and focusing on deep cuts. Without further ado, The Best Neil Young Songs Of All Time (in alphabetical order, natch!)
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It’s hard to imagine classic rock – the music genre that defined the seventies and birthed punk and metal – even existing without the significant contributions of the Rolling Stones. Thus, it’s appropriate to look at the best Rolling Stones songs of all time!
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The Best Beach Boys Songs of All Time : I have shared my Beach Boys story before but it bears repeating. Prior to the 90s, I was not a fan. Like many rock fans who started listening to music seriously in the mid-70s, the Beach Boys were a joke, an oldies band singing outdated surf-rock. Sure, in my time coming across best albums list, I did hear of Pet Sounds but never took time to explore.
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An introduction to the best XTC songs of all time!
XTC is one of the best bands of all time. That’s an opinion I expressed in an earlier post. The Swindon band originally consisted of Andy Partridge (vocals, guitar), Colin Moulding (vocals, bass), Terry Chambers (drums) and Barry Andrews (keyboards). Andrews departed in 1978 to be replaced by Dave Gregory (guitars) while Chambers left the band in 1982 when he emigrated to Australia. The band was reduced to a duo for its final two albums, when Gregory parted ways with XTC in 1998.
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An introduction to the best Beatles songs of all time.
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Are you ready for THE BEST SONGS OF THE NINETIES??!!!?
1991 was the year punk broke. Or so we thought. While the alternative rock genre became mainstream in the early part of the 1990s, it really signalled the end of rock’s dominance over the music industry. The mic had been passed to hip-hop and its influence over pop culture remains unrivalled to this day.
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Next up, THE BEST SONGS OF THE EIGHTIES!
To make these Best Songs lists work for me, even as I progress along the decades, I have made a conscious effort not to repeat artists from previous lists and to limit my selections to artists and/or songs that in my view, are strongly representative of the decade in question.
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Yes, I know it’s a corny cliché but with this National Day weekend comes an opportunity to share my own thoughts about the best Singapore rock songs of all time! Hopefully, these selections will inspire you, kind reader, to discover more Singapore rock music. If so, then the effort would have been worth it!
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After the success of last year’s Sgt Pepper remix reissue, this 50th anniversary edition of my favourite Beatles album was the one to look out for!
Prog!
Mention Styx online and chances are you are going to be trolled. But for a time, the pop-rock quintet were one of the biggest bands on the planet.
If you’ve missed it, I’ve covered the primary colours of Power Pop, Pop and Pop-Rock thus far. Last but not least of course, I want to talk briefly about Rock N Roll.
It’s been a while since we talked about the key components of Power Pop Rock N Roll. You can catch up on previous instalments concerning Power Pop and Pop. This time – finally – we discuss Pop-Rock!
1971 – Never a Dull Moment: Rock’s Golden Year by David Hepworth
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The story of the ascent of rock music is lovingly told by the author, who turned 21 that year. The context behind many of the classic rock artists and albums is vividly described. Well researched with detailed accounts, the reading enjoyment is enhanced by a Spotify playlist of course!
… still there’s more …
