I am reading an early draft of rock nyc Steve Crawford’s excellent upcoming album “1000 Essential Songs From The 1970s”. Read it with Spotify by your side and Steve’s insights are even more fun. It is sooooo good and I can’t wait for him to publish it. Meanwhile here is 10 songs culled solely from Rock Songs released in 1970
1 – Lookin’ Out My Back Door – Creedence Clearwater Revival – I’ll take this over “Fortunate Son” any day of the week, a jump folk rocker goes country. We forgive Fogerty so much because he wrote this – A+
2 – Whole Lotta Love – If this simply plagiarism, why do they sound like white English boys with tight pants? – A+
3 – Peace Frog – The Doors – The album is so overwhelmed by “Maggie McGill” it is easy to miss this – A
4 – Unle John’s Band – Grateful Dead – For two albums, the Dead were the greatest band in the world, and this is the best of them – A+
5 – Tulane – Chuck Berry – One of the great Berry lyric, the flying car song of your dreams – A+
6 – All Right Now – Free – Remind me to tell you my Paul Kossoff story one day – A+
7 – Instant Karma – John Lennon – Songs like this express exactly why Lennon was the greatest – A+
8 – Ohio – Neil Young – Perhaps the greatest protest song of the rock era. Dylan never got this newspaper ripped up directness – A+
9 – Spirit In The Sky – Norman Greenbaum – Wait till you hear the True Groove Allstars awesome version, coming soon – B+
10 – Woodstock – CSN&Y – Whenever you wonder why Joni was the greatest singer songwriter, remember this – A
