Listomania! - 1971

“You know, a long time ago being crazy meant something. Nowadays everybody's crazy.”

Charles Manson

Good old brainwashing, murdering, three-bricks-short-of-a-load Chuckie - now there was a scary dude. He was all over the TV in 1971 as his trial was covered in a way that we had never seen before. I was 10 and glued to Walter Cronkite every evening at 6:30 to get the latest on the goings on that day. But, the biggest event that year was the birth of my baby sister, Shannon, on July 26th. I loved having a new baby sister and quickly took her under my wing. I'd rock her to sleep a lot, and play her the latest tunes. I gave her the nickname Mack because my friend Cliff Cornell came over to see the new baby and proclaimed, "She looks like she's been kissing Mack trucks on the 401." That seemed really funny at the time, so Mack it was. I remember when my parents brought her home. My sister Jondah (nickname Imp-A-Chimp, Imp for short) and I were so excited! Well, all these years later, she is still my baby sister, and has grown up to be wonderful, opinionated (where did that come from?) and one of my best and most trusted friends. Shannon, you heard the great majority of these songs back then, and, much like you, some things really do age well.

Top 10 Of 1971

10. What's Going On? - Marvin Gaye

This was the first record that Marvin made without the Motown production team at the helm. He feuded with label boss Berry Gordy over this song and the album by the same name. Gordy thought it too jazzy and political to sell to the masses, but the public was certainly in the mood for this message and bought it in droves. Self-produced and backed by the fab Funk Brothers, this rebuke of the Vietnam War, ghetto life, the drug epidemic, and poverty gave me chills the first time I heard it. I've heard lots of white boys, myself included, try to do the "right on" backing vocals and sounding ridiculous, but it sounds like Gaye and his pals, among them Lem Barney and Mel Farr of the Detroit Lions, are really laying it down and having a blast doing so. Legend has it that the great Motown bassist James Jamerson was pulled quite inebriated from a bar by Marvin and taken to the studio to record the bass part. Being quite plastered, Jamerson kept falling off his stool in the studio, so he finally just lied down on the floor and played his part - probably with his hands tied behind his back! "Picket lines and picket signs, don't punish me with brutality. Talk to me, so you can see, what's going on?" Right on brother!

9. Misty Mountain Hop - Led Zeppelin

Apparently, Robert Plant was a big Tolkien guy, so his lyrics in some songs, like this and Ramble On, were filled with references to The Hobbit and all that hokum. Personally, in songs like this, he could have been singing about that morning's bowel movement for all I care. Not that the vocals aren't fantastic, for they surely are, but this is Bonzo's tune. His roll at the 3:56 mark is about as good as drumming ever gets folks. The sound of his sledge hammer foot pedal has never been replicated. Jimmy Page is his usual ace guitar -hero self and John Paul Jones' bass blasts out that familiar riff, but it is JPJ's stellar work on the electric piano that is the real glue in this song. This still makes me stomp around the house like a caveman, so be careful not to play it in my company unless you like the sight of a fat, middle-aged dude stomping around your living room. "If you go down in the streets today, baby, you better, you better open your eyes." Crash, boom, bang!

8. I've Seen All Good People: Your Move / All Good People - Yes

Believe it or not, a severely edited version of this song was an AM radio hit! Yes, that is true. I remember my Dad turning it off anytime it came on the car radio, with his usual line about it being a "bunch of noise." It sure was different! Steve Howe sublimely playing a 12-string acoustic through the Your Move section, the amazing vocal harmonies of Jon Anderson, the church organ turn by Tony Kaye, the brilliant bass playing of Chris Squire: this song has it all. I love the allusion to Lennon's Give Peace A Chance and Instant Karma in the lyrics too. The chess references are quite clever as well. " Make the white queen run so fast, she hasn't got time to make you a wife." I wonder if Bobby Fischer listened to this song?

7. Walk Away - The James Gang

Ah, that funky, dirty guitar! I have a confession to make: I really like Joe Walsh. I know, maybe a guilty pleasure, but I would argue that his guitar playing and song writing are first rate. Look. diss me if you will, but he wrote some great tunes and this is one of them. The James Gang were from Cleveland, Ohio, another in a long line of great acts to hail from there. This was the first song by Mr. Walsh that I ever heard and I was hooked by it on the first listen. These guys were a power trio, so the bass and drums do the work that is required of them in that setup. This was Walsh's last album with the Gang. He moved on to a very successful solo career, then decided he needed to make some big money and joined The Eagles. I love that air-raid Luftwaffe guitar part at the end too! " Seems to me, you just turn your pretty head and walk away." # 4,785 in a long line of "girl why you treat me so bad" songs.

6. If You Really Love Me - Stevie Wonder

This was written by Stevie and his then-wife, Syreeta Wright. They wrote a few great tunes together like this and Signed, Sealed, Delivered and their songwriting partnership was much more successful than their life one. She gives a great performance on the backing vocals on this one too. I love the way it moves from poppy groove to piano bar and back. This is a song that will make you sing and shake it every time. This was also the last song that Stevie would use the Motown backing band on, as he would move to New York and get together a band of his own on subsequent records, but they are smokin' hot on this tune, especially the horns. " And if you really love me won't you tell me, then I won't have to be playing around." Succinct and to the point!

5. I'd Love To Change The World - Ten Years After

I loved this song as a kid in '71, but I think of my friend Scott Coupland when I hear this now. Couper and I worked together at the Loeb grocery warehouse in London from 1990 to 1997 and he was a fantastic guitar player. One night, we took our lunch break in the truck driver's lunch room as it was empty. We may have partaken in some herbal sacrament first, he said knowingly. He brought his guitar and another buddy, Niall Corey, brought his bongos. We played this with me singing (cue the insults!) and got so into it that we didn't notice a very surprised and appreciative group of our co-workers standing outside the door listening. Ahh, such a great memory! This was the only hit single for Alvin Lee's band. He was so anti-single that he refused to play it live, other than a few rare instances. Hey Alvin, I know you're a guitar wizard and all, but if I came to see you and you didn't play this, I would be very disappointed. The acoustic playing on this song might well be my favourite of them all. "Tax the rich, feed the poor, till there are no rich no more." Stick it to the man, man!

4. Life On Mars - David Bowie

Rick Wakeman, later of Yes, plays the gorgeous piano on this. Absolutely stunning! Bowie guitarist Mick Ronson arranged the swirling, beautiful strings. Brilliant! Some say that this is Bowie's Frank Sinatra tune, but I always though it was much more a Liza Minnelli-cabaret kind of thing. I mean, Barbra Streisand covered it ferchissakes! This is the young Bowie voice, kind of quavering and British, before he got all suave and debonair in the '80s. It also continued a musical fascination with the subject of outer space that would culminate on the Ziggy Stardust record. What a great song this is, from the superb Hunky Dory album. I am a huge Bowie fan, so this will likely be the first of several appearances by him on these lists. "But the film is a saddening bore, 'cause she's lived it ten times or more." Was she watching 2001?

3. Flying - The Faces

I love this band. They were sloppy, bluesy, and oh-so-ballsy. They could rock or they could play a country-tinged ballad. This is a young, vital Rod Stewart on vocals, before he started to believe his own press clippings and went all Hollywood and became a boring old shadow of his former self. It is definitely one of my all time fave vocal performances. But, wait! There's more! Ronnie Wood soloing his ass off, Ian McLagan on keys, the outstanding Ronnie Lane on bass, and Kenny "I never should have sat in for Keith Moon and lost my reputation, even though it wasn't as bad as the critics said it was" Jones on drums. Out of the ashes of the Small Faces, these guys drank and brawled and screwed their way around the world. God. I do love this song! "Can ya’ blame me for feeling homesick, ’cause I’ve been away such a very long long time. I served a while in the county jail, five years for being hungry tired and poor." Rod had the blues kids!

2. Won't Get Fooled Again - The Who

I love the echoing organ that leads this one in. Then, Townshend comes roaring in with his trademark flying power chord, and away we go! Of course, this has Mr. Moon and his spastic drumming, and maybe the most famous scream in music history, but the star of this show for me is John Entwhistle and his unbelievable bass guitar. I have the DVD of the Kids Are Alright movie and one of the special features on it allows you to isolate just the bass part from a live performance of this song. Anybody who has seen this is left with their mouth agape( although this is a family trait that happens quite often, mouth-breathing neanderthals that we are) and sitting stunned afterward. If you don't believe me, I'm sure it's on Youtube somewhere. " Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." Did you work in a factory too Pete?

1. Brown Sugar - The Rolling Stones

I feel that I'm misleading you, fair readers, into thinking I must be some kind of Stones fanatic. Nothing could be more untrue. It's just that when they get it right, they get it sooooo right! Thus, I have another confession to make: This is the song that caused me to sell my soul to the devil and worship at the rock music altar for the rest of my days. I can't really explain why, but once I heard this song, all of 10 years old, my life changed irreversibly. There would just be no going back. From the opening guitar chords on, they just hit that perfect dirty, boogie groove. Jagger is all testosterone swagger here and Charlie Watts, a quite overrated drummer in my opinion, puts in his finest performance. I love the way he pounds the floor tom in the verses and his crispy hi-hat playing in the chorus of the song. Bobby Keys' sax just threatens and hums along and then he's off on the solo- magnifique! I bought the 45 and thought the new lips and tongue logo was so cool! This was the first release to have that distinctive label on the record. Shannon, this was very overplayed when you were just wee, but I think you forgive me. "I bet your mama was a tent show queen, and all her boyfriends were sweet sixteen. I ain't no schoolboy but I know what I like. You should have heard me just around midnight." Mick, you were a very naughty boy!