Fortunate Son – Creedence Clearwater Revival

If there is one band that I would have to say I grew up with, it would be CCR, and I have been in numerous rows because I keep standing up for this obviously cool band. I love Southern Rock, but these guys play everything with such effortless charm that you just can’t help loving it. No wonder Bad Moon Rising is just one of those overplayed drunken bar songs. People don’t even know who it is, but when they hear it, happiness abounds without fail. This has got to be one of my favourite songs of theirs, it just conveys that late 60s milieu in an instant. So cool. I won’t go into any of the political or war stuff about the song, I just love it because, thanks to Forrest Gump, I can’t listen to this song without seeing a Huey – and also, every time I see the Huey that flies past my house every day, I hear this tune in my head. Great partners.

your song today: Ghost Of Tom Joad – Bruce Springsteen

This song spoke to me so clearly when I was about 14 years old. I loved everything about it, and consequently listened it to death. I remember clearly how my dad and I spent an entire afternoon lying on the couches in the living room at the house on the beach in Bahrain listening to this album. It’s one of my best memories from that time.

I’m reading Steinbeck right now, so this song is kind of fitting for today. Years after getting to know the song, I was skipping channels and I landed on TCM, which was showing John Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath – right where Tom Joad makes his famous speech. And immediately I heard the song in my head. It was such a profound moment. And, of course, I also love the Rage Against The Machine version – to remind you of both of these songs, I include a live version where Tom Morello joins Springsteen on stage.

Enjoy!

this is the better live performance, but check Tom’s solo on the next video too – crazy stuff! Makes me want to listen to some Vai!

your song today: Hurricane – Bob Dylan

I love Dazed & Confuzed. It’s one of my favourite movies of all time. I must have seen it a million times and my high school years were spent reliving this movie every day in everything that we did. This song isn’t on the soundtrack, but (and as someone correctly pointed out in the Youtube clip) it makes for one of the best scenes ever. (And yes, if you haven’t seen D&C yet and you don’t know – that IS Matthew McConaughey, and look out for Ben Affleck in a role that really suits him.) I of course knew that it had to be Bob Dylan, but I really had to look for the song – in those days you had to get songs from someone that either had the CD or buy the CD yourself. So I went to Seedy’s in Hatfield (the best CD store in the world) and listened to every Bob album till I finally heard the song, fell in love with it even more, and now I still listen to it about once a week because I love it so much.

It’s a long song, so if you’d rather, watch the clip from Dazed & Confuzed.

If you don’t know the Carter story, read up about it.

Enjoy!