Songs from my deep, dark past...

Ok, so every now and then I write a post that has NO socially redeeming value.  I get it - I LOVE rock and roll - especially tunes from the garage band era - and find myself floating back to them from time to time.  All last week, for example, I couldn't get this song outta my head...


Now I've been loving me this song since I first heard the Stones do it on the "December's Children" album back in 1965.  That's 46 freakin' years of just LOVING this song that has NO lasting value except it is a GAS to dance to!  Only recently did I learn that it was originally written by Larry William who penned ANOTHER of my nasty favorites:  "Bad Boy" as covered by the Beatles. OMG what a hot tune... I love it as much as the Dovell's, "I Can't Sit Down!"

During the middle 60s I got into a funny groove of LOVING the covers British bands did of American blues tunes:  I listened to the Animals doing "Smoke Stack Lighting" over and over as well as their soulful rendering of Bert Jansch's "Hey Gyp" and their own "Don't Bring Me Down."

Same with the Stones:  their first album turned me on to "I'm A King Bee" along with "Carol," Route 66" and "Mona."  Their next outing - 12X5 - opened me up to "Around and Around" - while "The Rolling Stones NOW" jacked me up over "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" and "Little Red Rooster."  I STILL love me these songs - in the Stones' version - as well as the original and think they rank right up their with "Gimme Shelter" even after all these years.

Then there is that category of proto-punk like the Seeds' "Pushin' Too Hard" - the weird "Liar, Liar" by the Castaways - and I can NEVER get enough of Jeff Beck's reworking of "Shape of Things," Ain't Superstitious" and his over the top "Rock My Plimpsoul."  Throw in "Sally Go Round the Roses" and "You Really Got Me" by the Kinks - maybe a little of the Kingsmen doing "Louie, Louie" and the Standells' "Dirty Water" - and I am on overload.

Life would be a whole lot harder without these three minute blessings... and I am glad to keep going back to the well of their soul even as I head towards geezer-hood. Thank GOD for rock and roll!