I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Any More; or, A Couple of Old Farts Sitting Around Commenting
It all started innocently enough over at my place when I put up this charming clip.
One of the two or three regular readers of my blog, who chooses, perhaps out of laziness, to go by the moniker Anonymous, left this comment:
Great 60’s Male Vocalists in No Particular Order:
John Lennon Elvis Presley
Paul Jones Paul McCartney
Roy Orbison Van Morrison
John Fogerty Bob Dylan
David Ruffin James Brown
Arthur Alexander Sam Cooke
Jackie Wilson Brian and Carl Wilson
Robin Gibb Gene Pitney
Solomon Burke Brook Benton
Aaron Neville Wilson Pickett
I quickly responded with:
Anon, dig it, love them all. I’m so glad you mentioned Robin Gibb, because I love the early BeeGees. So many great singers and this is only the dudes. Just off the top of my head I’m tossing in Jackie Wilson, Otis Redding, Eric Burdon, Mitch Ryder, Dyke of Dyke and the Blazers, Tommy James, Colin Blunstone of the Zombies, Steve Marriott of the Small Faces and Humble Pie, Gary Brooker of Procol Harum, and, yes, a couple of obscure r&b shouters named Mick Jagger and Rod Stewart. Oh, and just squeezing into the 60s with that first Stooges album, Iggy Pop. And I think we’re still leaving out fifty or sixty.
Anon soon came back with:
Jackie Wilson is worth mentioning twice, he was so amazing. Also:
Marvin Gaye / Roy Hamilton / Dee Clark / Rudy Lewis, Johnny Moore,and Charlie Thomas of the Drifters (various lead singers) / Alex Chilton / Roger McGuinn / Joe Cocker / Eddie Cochran / The Everlys / Tommy Hunt / Jimmy Hughes / Jerry Butler / Major Lance / Gene Chandler / Robert Plant / Leonard Cohen / Lee Dorsey / Fats Domino / Little Richard / Mark Lindsay /
Ray Charles / Steve Winwood / Tom Jones / Lou Reed / Jesse Colin Young
Ball in my court:
Wait, did we mention Smokey Robinson, or Curtis Mayfield, or Clarence Carter? Ray Davies or Scott Walker?
And we haven’t even gotten into the blues, or country.
So now we know why I’m still living in the 60s…
Oh, yeah, and Jackie Wilson three times!
Anonymous, fa fa fa, your turn:
Percy Sledge, Sam and Dave, both Rightous Brothers, Dion, Eddie Kendricks, Tim Buckley, Harry Nilsson, Paul Rodgers...this is making me really depressed.
Back to me:
Aw, damn, and we forgot Felix and Eddy from the Rascals!
Hey, but don’t worry, there’s lots of great singers out there today, like, uh, um, oh, I know, like this dude.
Ah well. And we still left out about seventy-five. Sorry, Jim Morrison, I still love you.
And as for the girl singers from the 60s?
Don’t get me started.
Ah, hell, just dig this.
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Those with video phones (of which I'm not) can send in clips of their dancing, lip-syncing selves; the rest of us can Boo or Swoon or describe in ecstatic detail what the singers and the songs do to us.
Then, too, newcritics houses some terrific contemporary singers complete with their own bands. Someone like you might give 'em a push.
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Dion
Levon Helm
Roger Daltrey
James Brown
Cat Stevens
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