Showing posts with label 1960's. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1960's. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Leaves: Simon and Garfunkel: Leaves That Are Green









purchase [ Leaves ]

As the theme generator, I fuss with the Blogger tools to check previously-used themes. I keep my own Excel file of used/unused themes which I try to keep up to date. [It's hard after 20 years]

That means decisions about <fall> or <autumn> or, this time, <leaves> as a substitute to fall, since that is the season.

That said, the first song that came to mind for the <Leaves> theme (considering my age and time-frame) was: Leaves That Are Green, a classic <folk> hit from the 60s that almost qualifies for "pop", but not rock.

The Simon and Garfunkel duo made millions (I trust) from their 60s albums that blurred the boundaries between "[pop] songs your Mom approved of" and the simultaneous raucous rock that was brewing underneath. Theirs was a kind of acceptable pathway to the inevitable cacophany of the latter half of the 70s: "Pop is not so bad/probably OK. If moderated."

I don't mean to take away from their later forays: Garkunkle's <My Home Town> has its high points and verges away from their <folk> format, to some extent.

Simon has done some very positive expositions of alternative [African] vibes - to everyone's benefit. But they [individually and combined] are generally relegated to a status less than they really deserve for what they have given/left us.

I cannot re-create the atmosphere of the mid-60s for you, a time filled with Motown, emerging Stones and Beatles, short-lived acts like Manfred Man, the Monekeys and more.
 
However, Simon and Garfunkel kept it up - both through the psychedelia (without going down that path) and then for at least another generation ... well a decade or two ..., each in their own way.

Leaves That Are Green .. somewhere between rock and the future ....

Simon & Garfunkel go back far enough that there are visual/video records of their first appearances, and there is one of their earliest <Leaves That Are Green> shows available online.


And .. summer moving into fall - we've got green going to brown.

Enjoy ...

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Days Of The Week: Country Joe and the Fish - Thursday



Country Joe and the Fish: Thursday

[purchase]

One of the moodier tracks from "I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die," the Fish's followup to universally acclaimed "Electric Music for the Mind and Body," Thursday is prefixed with a freak folk LSD commercial.

Submitted by Brendan of The Rising Storm.

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Days Of The Week: Sunday Morning



Margo Guryan: Sunday Morning

[purchase]

The first theme for Star Maker Machine will be Days Of The Week.*

Please submit a favorite song of yours that includes the name of a day of the week in its title.

I've started with a favorite called "Sunday Morning" by Margo Guryan from 1968's Take A Picture. What do you think? If you like it, the whole album is pretty good. She kind of reminds me of a 1960's style Lilly Allen (but a bit more refined).

Looking forward to your submissions...

(*This theme is a tip of the hat to the old version of this blog, called Six Songs.)