"Yummy Yummy Yummy" (my first punk record
― dorsalstop, Sunday, 14 April 2019 22:27 (five years ago) link
OMG dude, that cover totally belongs in the Vampire Weekend “Global Coffeehouse Aesthetic” thread
― get your hand outta my pocket universe (morrisp), Sunday, 14 April 2019 22:50 (five years ago) link
I'm a sucker for anything Dionne did in the 60s, so San Jose wins, but Cloud Nine is a close 2nd. Unlike the later,preachier Norman Whitfield numbers (looking at you, Ball of Confusion), this one actually allows the listener to infer the critique of drug use, while also sketching out exactly *why* someone stuck in a dire situation would turn to them for escape. And the bit where Eddie Kendricks sings "I wanna say I love the life I live /and I'm gonna live the life I love" feels to me like a precursor to the "When you're high/you never wanna come down" part in Welcome to the Jungle in offering the teensiest bit of nirvana in what is otherwise a hellscape (but a rockin' one in both songs!)
As for some of the rest: I swear I've seen Yummyx3 referred to without irony as a punk song in other places, and I can't disagree. Always thought the Canned Heat song was 2 years later. Stormy has a nice vibe to it, as do all the Classics IV hits. Midnight Confessions has a genuine aura of desperation that peeks through the programmatic music - I never thought to check if anyone's done a cover of it with more feeling than the GRs were capable of displaying. Young Girl was aptly described once (on here? by the AV Club?) as "unctuous" but I'll always associate it with an old Ralph Snart comic where he sings it in a punk band, but changes every use of 'girl' to 'maggot' before going into a guitar-smashing frenzy. A great bit of cognitive dissonance.
― gjoon1, Monday, 15 April 2019 11:51 (five years ago) link
hey, don't blame norman whitfield. he didn't start the fire.
― Jaki Liebowitz (rushomancy), Monday, 15 April 2019 12:50 (five years ago) link
It was always burning Since the world's been turning
― willem, Monday, 15 April 2019 13:20 (five years ago) link
do it again. it does not sound like from 1968. it is more adventurous. like a roxy music song it is comprised of a couple of quite different parts. there is also some pretty hard blues riffing in there, quite uncommon for the beach boys.
― je est un autre, l'enfer c'est les autres (alex in mainhattan), Monday, 15 April 2019 14:03 (five years ago) link
Crimson and Clover, Do You Know the Way to San Jose, Love Is All Around, Yummy Yummy Yummy, Going Up The Country, lots of other cool tunes
― timellison, Monday, 15 April 2019 18:40 (five years ago) link
Was 'Hurdy Gurdy Man' all the way until I saw the Temps.
― Totally different head. Totally. (Austin), Monday, 15 April 2019 18:48 (five years ago) link
crimson & clover vs cloud nine, probably crimson & clover
― to halve and half not (voodoo chili), Monday, 15 April 2019 18:56 (five years ago) link
is it the original recordings, recordings by the original artists, or the cub foods house band renditions?
― andrew m., Monday, 15 April 2019 18:56 (five years ago) link
Source of "Going up the Country" if anyone's never heard it (and, yes, that is a pan flute):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1yhaBsD8Vw
― timellison, Monday, 15 April 2019 19:09 (five years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Saturday, 27 April 2019 00:01 (four years ago) link
I love Crimson and Clover and Going Up the Country but it's Hurdy Gurdy Man in the end
― Dan S, Saturday, 27 April 2019 00:13 (four years ago) link
"Do You Know The Way To San Jose?" Several years ago, a good friend from Frisco volunteered that he did not know, not at all. Back in the day heard it as a nice, good-hearted older lady (late-20s) from the 50s, sandbagged by the 60s. She's hopeful though.
― dow, Saturday, 27 April 2019 01:38 (four years ago) link
lol
― Dan S, Saturday, 27 April 2019 01:44 (four years ago) link
― je est un autre, l'enfer c'est les autres (alex in mainhattan), Monday, April 15, 2019 9:03 AM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
not voting for the song but i think this is pretty otm. those guitars at the beginning are something else
― budo jeru, Saturday, 27 April 2019 03:21 (four years ago) link
going to offer my thoughts on all the songs before the poll closes but for now i’ll just say i’m surprised that nobody has spoken up about “stoned soul picnic” — a really special song imo
― budo jeru, Saturday, 27 April 2019 03:23 (four years ago) link
Midnight Confessions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
― buttigieg play the blues (crüt), Saturday, 27 April 2019 03:24 (four years ago) link
:Stoned Soul Picnic" is really great
― Dan S, Saturday, 27 April 2019 06:00 (four years ago) link
There aren't any guitars at the start of "Do It Again"?
― Freddie Starr (Hitler in shorts) (Tom D.), Saturday, 27 April 2019 10:51 (four years ago) link
Well, he did say they are “something else”
― breastcrawl, Saturday, 27 April 2019 10:55 (four years ago) link
Listened to all of these as an experiment in memory, would've picked Ohio Express before but now it's undoubtedly 'Hurdy Gurdy Man.'
― blue light or electric light (the table is the table), Saturday, 27 April 2019 16:45 (four years ago) link
― Freddie Starr (Hitler in shorts) (Tom D.), Saturday, April 27, 2019 5:51 AM (seven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
yeah i was going off memory, it's been a while, for some reason i thought as a kid that those sound were super metallic chunky guitars, i guess it's just drums and a synth ? whatever it is, it sounds cool
― budo jeru, Saturday, 27 April 2019 18:21 (four years ago) link
perfect songs:
Crimson and Clover - Tommy James & The ShondellsLove Is All Around - The TroggsHurdy Gurdy Man - DonovanDo It Again - The Beach BoysStoned Soul Picnic - The 5th DimensionCloud Nine - The TemptationsStormy - The Classics IV
very very good songs:
Do You Know the Way to San Jose - Dionne WarwickYummy, Yummy, Yummy - Ohio ExpressThis Magic Moment - Jay & The AmericansMidnight Confessions - The Grass RootsGoing Up the Country - Canned HeatYoung Girl - Gary Puckett & The Union Gap
i think it has to be "crimson and clover" -- just an incredibly beautiful piece of pop music
a close runner-up is "stoned soul picnic" -- i love this song. as a kid it just evoked this rich, magical world of sounds and images. what does it mean to surry down ? what do you do at a stoned soul picnic ? "red yellow honey sassafras and moonshine" ?? yes please !! and just the effortless groove with the wandering electric keyboard figure and the piano chirps. i never get sick of hearing it.
― budo jeru, Saturday, 27 April 2019 18:32 (four years ago) link
― andrew m., Monday, April 15, 2019 1:56 PM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
sorry i forgot to answer that this is the original recordings and that "crimson and clover" is the singles edit.
― budo jeru, Saturday, 27 April 2019 18:36 (four years ago) link
I was a little kid in 1968 and I thought "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy" was terrible then and I still do
"Cloud Nine" gets my vote but "Crimson and Clover" would also be a worthy winner
― Brad C., Saturday, 27 April 2019 19:15 (four years ago) link
It's just drums, but run through a very short delay which gives them a kind of metallic sound - easy to do with digital delay, not so easy to accomplish in 1968 though!
― Freddie Starr (Hitler in shorts) (Tom D.), Saturday, 27 April 2019 19:21 (four years ago) link
Just now came back and noticed that my magnificent maiden post, in praise of "Crimson and Clover," is not here. Something like "Voted for 'Crimson and Clover'; it is thee psych-pop fold-in-flowering" of the whole list's appeal, incl. cool sensuous commercial mastery etc., can even/especially see the lost lady from the 50s finally getting out of her Falcon and wandering around this image of innocence---but also dig Joan Jett's version, bringing the hidden garage raunch out, "Yeahhhhhhh," though not disturbing the ritual vibe. Canned Heat's Al Wilson could have found more shades too.
― dow, Saturday, 27 April 2019 19:38 (four years ago) link
from the 50s and San José (or is she from there? Maybe it's something new for her---prob beats Woodstock.)
― dow, Saturday, 27 April 2019 19:42 (four years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Sunday, 28 April 2019 00:01 (four years ago) link
now available as a playlist on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/287jzwucFKrDcTN8QDzWk4?si=2fa0dfa871d14f99
― budo jeru, Sunday, 1 May 2022 21:41 (one year ago) link
No love for "Stormy"? Top shelf EZ listening IMHO. Pretty strong competition admittedly.
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Sunday, 1 May 2022 23:59 (one year ago) link
Missing "Green Tambourine" by the Lemon Pipers.
― Halfway there but for you, Monday, 2 May 2022 00:11 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyhMwNU-3ao
― in walked airbud (unregistered), Monday, 2 May 2022 00:52 (one year ago) link