My dad could've been a rock-n-roll star! In his teenage years, a friend asked if he could fill in for an ailing guitar player at a gig, but my grandfather forbade him to play in an establishment that sold liquor drinks. So, my dad hung up his rock star dreams, went to college, made a gosh darn success of himself, married my mother, and was instrumental in creating and raising the man writing this paragraph today. I loved listening to my father play his old Washburn--a guitar that eventually became my own--when I was a kid. The set was always the same. He'd open with a little Chet Atkins, then a few times through "Smoke on the Water"'s opening riff, and he'd wrap up with his own rousing take on "Wild Thing," a little number he is still famous for in some circles. What does any of this have to do with "96 Tears," you ask? Well, my dad loved "96 Tears," and he used to tell me about a friend of his who could play the crap out of the organ part of the song. "96 Tears" is a garage rock classic and I, for one, like to imagine my dad rocking out to it with his friends, if not in some seedy Baltimore bar, then in a hot, cramped rehearsal space.
56. "Cathy's Clown" (The Everly Brothers)
A rousing anthem for the pussy whipped loser who's finally grown a pair a decided to leave his coldhearted girlfriend in the proverbial dust. We've all been there, fellas. We've all felt like some evil chick's "clown." Just hearing the Everly Brothers harmonize about it, putting the whole situation in perspective, always made me feel a little better about things. Oh, but now I've gone and said too much.
57. "Take Good Care of My Baby" (Bobby Vee)
I've said it probably a million times, on this blog and in private conversations that are absolutely none of your business, sir, but I love a well-crafted pop song, and "Take Good Care of My Baby" is about as well-crafted as pop songs come. In this song, instead of being a wimpy cuckold like the dork in the Everly Brother's number, Bobby Vee is a jerk who has become pussified after the fact. It's his cheating ways and tendency to paint rainbows all over the place, that has driven the titular "baby" into the arms of another man. I do find it a little strange that girl in this song seems to have very little say in who she ends up with. The lines "and if you should discover that you don't really love, just send my baby back home to me" take the girl's feelings right out of the equation. If I were her I'd be all like, "Look here, fellas, if one of you is going to be a cheating creep who develops enough of an obsession with me after we break up to you write a vaguely threatening song for my new boyfriend, and the other one thinks he can just send me back into the arms of the weird guy I obviously can't stand when he gets sick of me, I'm going to have to bid you both a good day and take myself to a place where the dudes are normal. I hear good things about this internet dating. No, really. There isn't a stigma anymore."
58. "Stuck in the Middle with You" (Stealers Wheel)
A lot of you probably first heard this Stealers Wheel classic (Are there any other "classic" Stealers Wheel songs? Are there any other Stealers Wheel songs period?) via Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs. My first exposure to it is far nerdier. I used to be obsessed with tape recording myself putting on what were essentially old timey radio dramas. I didn't do anything like The Creaking Door or the The Long Ranger, but I would stretch out on the floor in front of my tape player/radio, gather together whatever action figures I had hanging out on my bookshelves--they were the players in these dramas--and record myself yammering away for hours, coming up with elaborate stories on the fly. My most epic recording involved Will Vinton's California Raisins. I don't remember the exact plot, but I think it was sort of an origin story of the Raisins forming their musical group, the one that shot to superstardom thanks to their commercials and the Christmas special. I would record about five minutes of story, set up that a certain character was about to impart some kind of widsom or dispense some advice through song, pause the tape, and then turn my radio to the local Oldies station and wait for the next song to start. Didn't matter what the song was. I'd try to make the song make sense with the overarching story after the fact. This is how I heard "Stuck in the Middle with You" for the first time, as well as, "Take Good Care of My Baby" and the next song on my list.
59. "Runaway" (Del Shannon)
I think one of the California Raisins was running away from home to join the band.
Also: I love this song. "Runaway" is one of the songs I've always wanted to play at some kind of open mic night somewhere. I don't know how I would do with all the falsetto parts though. I'd probably do all right.
60. "Midnight Confessions" (The Grass Roots)
It was Tarantino this time. "Midnight Confessions" was track 13 on the Jackie Brown soundtrack. It was also my favorite track. Still is. Pure pop joy. Dig it.
