Stepping Back - Are You Ready?
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Artist:
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Album:People Get Ready
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Track:Best of Beck
I think if I were asked to pick the best song ever written, this one would be in the top 3, if not the winner. Lots of music is grand, majestic, complex, and awe inspiring. Of those pieces that travel to your soul and make you one with itself, though, this is my favorite.
The song was written after hearing the Rev. Martin Luther King deliver his "I Have a Dream" speech in August, 1963. The crowd of 250,000 sang "We Shall Overcome." In 1965, another gospel song emerged -- "People Get Ready" by Mayfield and the Impressions.
Rolling Stone called it the 24th greatest song of all time. I'm pretty close to calling it #1.
Comments (4)
Hmmm . . . don't know if I could ever make a "Best song ever" choice. There are so many different things to think about, I don't know if I could ever find one song that I think is tops in all areas. Music? Musicianship? (not the same thing), Lyrics? Originality? Influence? Overall Sound? Personal effect on me?
Maybe, though, I can try and work on those for each thing listed above in future posts.
Depends on the mindset you're working with when asked I guess. For me, if I was asked, I'd probably take the knee jerk reaction and go right for the song that I simply "like" the best. "Music," "Musicianship," "lyrics," "originality," and "influence" are all in the category of critical analysis.
"Overall sound" and "personal effect on me" is where I try and stay when listening, and are the criterium that kick in when determining if I like the song.THe music itself, if you like, makes that determination for me.
That doesn't mean I never take on the critique's approach, but when I do it's more as a hobbyist or professional, than a listener. What I find is that if I don't like a song when listening, that usually will cause me to do more analysis as to why.
If I want to bother, that is.
Whether the song is number 1 or not..Curtis Mayfield was THE MAN, as a songwriter and guitarist. Well perhaps not THE (WO)MAN, but a giant nonetheless. Ever see the video (from Bandstand or an equivelent show) of People Get Ready where The Impressions are driving around a lake in boats with captains hats on lip synching the song? It's scary how the pop machine attempts to suck the power out of the song...but fails. Curtis had to put up with a lot of shit like that, but he did it to make sure the music reached the maximum number of folks.
all else being said, a nice, thought provoking post!
Thanks!