(Editors Note: Can there be a bigger sign that the 1960s were over than the emergence of post-modernist David Bowie? Jon Pennington takes us to the end of the decade)
91. The Winstons
Color Him Father / Amen, Brother (1969) [Single]
The A-side is an upbeat gospel soul number in praise of a stepfather who stepped up to the plate after their biological father died, but its the B-side that comes closer to having world-historical importance. The B-side is an instrumental jam based on the age-old gospel singalong "Ay-ay-ay-men, ay-ay-ay-men, ay-men, ay-men" that probably would have slipped into inevitable B-side obscurity if it weren't for an absolutely sweet percussion break at 1 minutes 28 seconds that totally gives the drummer some. Since the A-side was a Top Ten soul hit, this meant that the drum break on the B-side could be considered reasonably obscure (because the B-side was never a hit), but the hit status of the A side ensured it's not so rare that aspiring DJs short on time and cash couldn't track it down. As a result, the song is all over hundreds of hip hop records, earning #3 on whosampled.com's list of the most sampled records of all time.
What's even more amazing is that the Amen drum break has been stretched, compressed, chopped up, and looped so often as a primordial Ur-beat that multiple dance subgenres such as jungle and drum & bass owe their very existence to Amen Brother. The Amen Break has been recycled so much on drum 'n' bass records that even whosampled.com concedes that it's probably the most sampled drum break of all time, but they don't have enough drum 'n' bass contributors to their web site to be sure.
Chart Position: US #7, Did not chart in UK
92. David BowieSpace Oddity / Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud (1969) [Single]
On his earlier singles like The Rubber Band or The Gnome, Bowie does a twee version of the psychedelia in vogue at the time, but you can tell his heart's not in it. It's only with Space Oddity that the theatrical, glam, shape-shifting, chameleonic Bowie emerges that we know today. On the surface, Space Oddity has the same obsession with space travel that psychedelic "space rock" like the Byrds, Eight Miles High shared, but Bowie is more interested in using the song for emotionally evocative storytelling than with psychedelic mood-setting. In addition, the song is obsessed with establishing a persona in a fresh way that completely went against the grain of the rootsy authenticity obsessions of the back-to-the-basics movement embodied by Dylan's John Wesley Harding or the Rolling Stones after Beggars Banquet.
And then there's the undeniable fact that you just can't kill off the constants revivals of the A-side, because successive generations keep seeming to find something new in it. Aside from inspiring affectionate parodies by everybody from Jimmy Fallon to the Flight of the Conchords to the Venture Brothers, Space Oddity has been so perennially popular that it's almost like you can't convene a new Parliament without getting this song back on the charts again.
Chart Position: US #15, UK #1 (1975 re-release)
93. FunkadelicI'll Bet You / Qualify and Satisfy (1969) [Single]
I already put the Parliaments, I Wanna Testify on this list, but in order to account for the influence of the whole George Clinton Parliamentfunkadelicthang on 1970s funk and dance music, I knew had to choose at least one Parliament or Funkadelic 45 that came out before 1970. Fortunately, once you hear the opening drum break on Funkadelic's, I'll Bet You, the choice is clear. The drum break has a crisp boom-bap sound that you'll definitely recognize all over 1990s hip hop, but if you listen to the single as a whole, you can also hear George Clinton emerging with a grungier funk sound that completely distances itself from Motown without sounding imitative of Sly & the Family Stone either. Norman Whitfield and the soul-psych records he did with the Temptations in the wake of Cloud Nine had certainly raised the bar, but after Clinton laid this down on wax, Motown lost the claim to be the most forward-thinking African-American music even in its own metropolitan area.
Chart Position: US #63, Did not chart in UK
94. Creedence Clearwater RevivalFortunate Son / Down on the Corner (1969) [Single]
The B-side, Down on the Corner, is not only an embodiment of the back to basics trend associated with Bob Dylan's John Wesley Harding, the Beatles' White Album, the Byrds' country rock phase, and the Rolling Stones' post-psychedelic return to the blues, but also a good-timey evocation of the jug band ethos with a swamp boogie undercurrent that kicks the ass of the Lovin' Spoonful's Do You Believe in Magic?
The B-side certainly signaled where a lot of roots rock would go in the 1970s, but the long-term musical influence of Creedence Clearwater Revival comes from the A-side, a tightly wound, snarly protest anthem clocking in under 3 minutes that even punk rockers appreciate for both its succinctness and its uncompromising hatred for unearned privilege. The B-side had some influence in its day, but the A-side is probably the only song in its rootsy style to have enough punk rock cred to be covered by bands ranging from Pearl Jam to Sleater Kinney to the Dropkick Murphys.
Down on the Corner Chart Position: US #3, UK #31
Fortunate Son Chart Position: US #14, Did not chart in the UK
95. Jackson 5I Want You Back / Who's Lovin You (1969) [Single]
This is the record that unleashed Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, on the world when he was still a child prodigy, but the record was also undeniably influential in the short term because of all the African-American stage parents who tried turn their own kids into singing and dancing bubblegum soul moneymaking machines. (See Home Schooled: The ABC's of Kid School on the Numero label if you want a compilation of the Jackson 5 aspirants who came out of the woodwork in the wake of I Want You Back's smash success, although the 1970s hits of the Osmonds could also be viewed as a white extension of the same phenomenon.)
When I listen to the A-side with fresh ears again, what strikes me again is that the lyrics are based on at a fairly standard theme among soul songs, about how the singer is sorry that he didn't truly appreciate the love of wonderful woman he had. The lead singer has the conviction to carry across this song about regretting the one you loved and lost, yet as you listen, you're so carried along that you don't even recognize the incongruity that the singer hasn't even entered puberty yet. The B-side is a remake of Motown back catalog material by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, yet the incongruity of a prepubescent soul shouter mastering the art of singing a love song remains.
Chart Position: US #1, UK #2
96. John Lennon & Yoko OnoCold Turkey / Don't Worry Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for a Hand in the Snow) (1969) [Single]
I can think of no two singles that sum up the breakup of the Beatles than the juxtaposition of James Taylor, Carolina on My Mind with John Lennon & Yoko Ono's Cold Turkey/Don't Worry Kyoko 45. Carolina on My Mind is a harbinger of all the bands that broke up into navel-gazing solo acts, whereas Cold Turkey is the barbaric yawp of a man who does not want to be a Beatle any more. The Captain Beefheart-esque guitars perfectly match the anguished wail of Lennon's lyrics about heroin addiction, the first ever to appear on a commercially successful single. (Love's Signed D.C. and the Velvet Underground's Heroin were earlier songs that both dealt with the drug, but they were never released as singles.) Yoko's Don't Worry Kyoko continues in the same Captain Beefheart-meets-primal scream mode as the A-side, but differentiated by its relentlessly sproingy slide guitars. When John Lennon returned his MBE to Queen Elizabeth II in protest against Great Britain's role in Vietnam and the Nigeria-Biafra civil war, he also cited the poor chart performance of Cold Turkey as a tongue-in-cheek third reason for returning the medal.
Chart Position: US #30, UK #14
97. The StoogesI Wanna Be Your Dog / 1969 (1969) [Single]
The guitar noise on I Wanna Be Your Dog has a skronky, three-dimensional quality that prefigures Sonic Youth, while John Cale serves up a relentless piano pulse noise in the background (probably borrowed from the Velvet Underground's All Tomorrow's Parties) that makes the instrumentals unignorable. The lyrics are similarly groundbreaking, which are on the surface like most boy/girl songs, but are so focused on self-abasement that punks are still trying to catch up to the example set here.
When Iggy Pop was still James "Iggy" Osterburg, he originally tried to make himself into a blues guitarist, learning the craft from aging African-American bluesmen, but he eventually concluded that forcing himself, a scrawny Jewish kid from suburban Detroit, to sound like some authentic relic of the Jim Crow South was a sucker's game anyway. Instead, he decided to create his own style of blues, cribbing things he overheard from white Detroit area teenagers, thus inspiring classics like I Wanna Be Your Dog.
The B-side, 1969, lies in a similarly rich vein of inarticulate pseudoteenagerdom. Years before Kurt Cobain talked about all the kids being overbored and self-assured, Iggy Pop cared less about the world-historical importance of 1969 than about how the year wasn't sufficiently providing him with enough entertainment. As for the music on 1969, its sheets of electric guitar skronk couldn't overshadow the great Bo Diddley beat, while the guitar riffage was probably inspired by The Strangeloves. Before the release of the Nuggets compilation that made it cool to like 1960s garage punk again, the quasi-Strangeloves riff is exactly the kind of thing that would earn the disdain of rock critic dudes like the Dave Marshes and the Jon Landaus of the world, which of course is exactly what makes it punk as fuck.
Chart Position: Did not chart in the US or UK
98. King CrimsonIn the Court of the Crimson King (Parts 1 & 2) (1969) [Single]
Pseudomystical churchy organ? Check. Nonstandard time signatures? Check. Songs with multiple parts and suites? Check. English choirboy vocals? Check. Classical music aspirations that make Procol Harum and the Moody Blues sound like Louie Louie? You bet your ass. If you want a single from before 1970 that lays down the groundwork for all the progressive rock excess to come, then look no further than this. 21st Century Schizoid Man might have more hipster cred these days ever since Kanye sampled it, but this is the true prog rock Alpha & Omega point.
Chart Position: US #80, Did not chart in the UK
99. Led ZeppelinWhole Lotta Love / Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman) (1969) [Single]
Before Led Zeppelin came along, the British rock scene was trapped in this pointless debate about "Can white men sing the blues?" (satirized by the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band in "Can Blue Men Sing the Whites?") that Led Zeppelin made completely moot. Whole Lotta Love uses the basic Led Zeppelin M.O. of plagiarizing a blues song (in this case, the Muddy Waters version of "You Need Love"), but in the process, the original is pummeled, vulgarized, shrieked, and stomped on so hard that you're more impressed by the brass balls on these guys in Led Zep than about the niceties of copyright law. Sure, I suppose I could have picked other early Led Zeppelin singles that predated 1970, but the heavy metal blues splooge and the OhmigodI'mgonnacome vocals from Robert Plant put this ahead of all other pre-1970 Zep work. The B-side is a macho blues come-on similar to what you could hear in the British heavy blues revival that predated Zeppelin, but Zep rocks so salaciously and so hard that it renders all questions of rootsiness or racial authenticity completely irrelevant.
A-side Chart Position: US #4, UK #21 (1997 re-release)
B-side Chart Position: US #65, Did not chart in UK
100. The ShaggsMy Pal Foot Foot / Things I Wonder (1969) [Single]
This record is so rare that people used to doubt that this single existed, but the legend of the Shaggs would just not die. Before people wrote books about "outsider music" and "incredibly strange music," there were a scattered bunch of record collectors and zine writers who latched on to this work of bizarrely naive folk art that sounds so weird it's been compared to everything from free jazz to Cajun zydeco to Chinese court music. In reality, the Shaggs were a band composed of three sisters of the Wiggin family (Betty, Helen, and Dorothy) who were browbeaten by their father Austin Wiggin into forming a rock band, yet in conditions where the girls were so culturally isolated from rock music that they had access to little beyond Tommy Sands and some Herman's Hermits records. What some describe as free jazz is actually what resulted from the girls playing exercises on rock instruments by themselves, but without the girls ever really cohering as a band.
The result, as shown on My Pal Foot Foot, is a glorious mess with naive childlike lyrics about a lost dog that were so beloved by members of the Patti Smith Group that I once heard a rumor that Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye used to call each other Foot Foot. When jazz musician Carla Bley was asked what she thought of the group after reissues came out in the 1970s, she said, "They blew my mind completely." The Shaggs pulled off a completely oblivious naive musical ineptitude that rockers like, say, Beat Happening or Half Japanese have been trying to pull off for years, yet cannot learn how to do un-self-consciously. The Shaggs may have been in complete cultural isolation, but in their ignorance of what rock or pop music was supposed to sound like, they embodied the same spirit of "rip it up and start again" that Simon Reynolds viewed as central to postpunk.
Chart Position: Are you kidding me?