TOP HUNDRED OR SO GREATEST POP SONGS

This is the KENSUSKINREPORT opinion of the 100 or so most popular songs. This list has nothing to do with record sales or popularity with the general public. For many of the artists I've listed, the song I liked was not their most popular or best seller. Also, I've tried not to include too many from any particular artist but rather to incorporate as many artists as possible.

As you can see, I have diverse tastes in popular music ranging from rock to sentimental songs, as well as instrumentals. Some go all the way back to the 1950's. These are the songs that when they come on the radio, I stop what I'm doing to listen. I'm sure you'll enjoy seeing the names of some of these artists who haven't been heard from in many years. The order listed is roughly alphabetical from my I-Tunes library.

1. Take a Chance on Me , Abba
2. You Won't See Me, Anne Murray
3. Could I Have This Dance, Anne Murray
4. My Maria, B.W. Stevenson
5. Be True to Your School, Beach Boys
6. Ticket to Ride, Beatles
7. I've Had It, Bell Notes
8. Lipstick Traces, Benny Spellman
9. Wind Beneath My Wings, Bette Midler
10. White Silver Sands, Bill Black Combo
11. I've Had the Time of My Life, Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes
12. With You I'm Born Again, Billy Preston & Syreeta
13. Crackin' Up, Bo Diddley
14. Sealed With a Kiss, Brian Hyland
15. Glory Days, Bruce Springsteen
16. Land of 1000 Dances, Cannibal & the Headhunters
17. My Heart Will Go On, Celine Dion
18. Mr. Sandman, Chordettes
19. Just Between You & Me, Chordettes
20. Beautiful, Christina Aguilera
21. Searchin', Coasters
22. Mr. Dyingly Sad, Critters
23. Memories Are Made of This, Dean Martin
24. Houston, Dean Martin
25. Atlantis, Donovan
26. Little Town Flirt, Del Shannon
27. Layla, Derek & the Dominoes Also the slow version of Layla by Eric Clapton.
28. I Wonder Why, Dion & the Belmonts
29. Where or When, Dion & the Belmonts
30. Cannonball, Duane Eddy
31. Hotel California, Eagles
32. Strange Magic, Electric Light Orchestra
33. Rocket Man, Elton John
34. Candle in the Wind, Elton John
35. Someone Saved My Life Tonight, Elton John
36. All Shook Up, Elvis Presley
37. I'll Wait for You, Frankie Avalon
38. Mule Skinner Blues, Fendermen
39. 100 Years, Five for Fighting
40. Never Going Gack Again, Fleetwood Mac
41. Moments to Remember, Four Lads
42. Theme from New York, NY, Frank Sinatra
43. It Was a Very Good Year, Frank Sinatra
44. Friends in Low Places, Garth Brooks
45. Eternal Flame, Bangles
46. New Orleans, U.S. Bonds
47. Taxi, Harry Chapin
48. Magic Man, Heart
49. L.A. Goodbye, Ides of March
50. The Lonely Surfer, Jack Nitzsche
51. Sidewalk Surfin', Jan & Dean
52. She Cried, Jay & the Americans
53. Whole Lotta Shakin', Jerry Lee Lewis
54. Who Will Save Your Soul, Jewel
55. Margaritaville, Jimmy Buffett
56. Fly Me to the Moon Bossa Nova, Joe Harnell
57. Don't Fall in Love with a Dreamer, Kenny Rogers
58. Lola, Kinks
59. Dear One, Larry Finnegan
60. Stairway to Heaven, Led Zepplin
61. God Bless the USA, Lee Greenwood
62. Darlin' Be Home Soon, Lovin' Spoonful
63. Sweet Home Alabama, Lynyrd Skynyrd
64. California Dreamin', Mamas & Papas
65. Walkin' in Memphis, Marc Cohn
66. Quiet Village, Martin Denny
67. El Paso, Marty Robbins
68. Angel of the Morning, Merilee Rush
69. Question, Moody Blues
70. Brooklyn Roads, Neil Diamond
71. Only Love Can Break Your Heart, Neil Young
72. Wedding Song, Noel Paul Stookey
73. Old Cape Cod, Patti Page
74. Like Long Hair, Paul Revere (The B side was I Ain't Sharin' Sharon, an awful song) .
75. Poetry Man, Phoebe Snow
76. Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen
77. Stand, R.E.M.
78. In Crowd, Ramsey Lewis
79. What'd I Say, Ray Charles
80. Susie Darlin' Robin Luke
81. Lady Jane, Rolling Stones
82. Love You So, Ron Holden
83. Jessie, Joshua Kadison
84. Soul Man, Sam & Dave
85. Chevy Van, Sammy Johns
86. Angel, Sarah McLachlan
87. Kiss from a Rose, Seal
88. I Can Never Go Home Anymore, Shangri Las
89. You're Still the One, Shania Twain
90. Solitare, Carpenters
91. The Joker, Steve Miller Band
92. Young Love, Tab Hunter
93. Stand by Your Man, Tammy Wynette
94. Green Green Grass of Home, Tom Jones
95. Tie a Yellow Ribbon, Tony Orlando
96. Love is All Around, Troggs
97. Concrete & Clay, Unit Four Plus Two
98. Hawaii Five-O, Ventures
99. YMCA, Village People
100. Get Together, Youngbloods

If you want to comment, but not try to sell me something, email me at sphinx711@aol.com

KENNETH SUSKIN
7/6/10

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY: THE HIDDEN MEANING, ONLY AVAILABLE IN FARSI

Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide
No escape from reality
Open your eyes
Look up to the skies and see
I'm just a poor boy (poor boy)
I need no sympathy
Because I'm easy come, easy go
Little high, little low
Any way the wind blows
Doesn't really matter to me, to me

Mama just killed a man
Put a gun against his head
Pulled my trigger, now he's dead
Mama, life has just begun
But now I've gone and thrown it all away
Mama, ooh
Didn't mean to make you cry
If I'm not back again this time tomorrow
Carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters

Too late, my time has come
Sends shivers down my spine
Body's aching all the time
Goodbye, everybody
I've got to go
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth
Mama, oooooh (Anyway the wind blows)
I don't want to die
Sometimes I wish I'd never been born at all

[guitar solo]

I see a little silhouette of a man
Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango
Thunderbolt and lightning, very very frightening me
(Galileo) Galileo (Galileo) Galileo, Galileo Figaro
Magnifico-o-o-o-o

I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
He's just a poor boy from a poor family
Spare him his life from this monstrosity

Easy come, easy go, will you let me go?
Bismillah! No we will not let you go.
Let him go
Bismillah! We will not let you go.
Let him go.
Bismillah! We will not let you go.
Let me go (will not let you go)
Let me go (will not let you go) (Never, never, never, never)
Let me go, o-o-o-o
No, no, no, no, no, no, no
(Oh mama mia, mama mia) Mama Mia let me go
Beelzebub has the devil put aside for me, for me, for me!

So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye
So you think you can love me and leave me to die
Oh baby, can't do this to me baby
Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here

[guitar solo]
(Oooh yeah, Oooh yeah)

Nothing really matters
Anyone can see
Nothing really matters
Nothing really matters to me

Any way the wind blows

I've been listening to this enigmatic song for the last 30 years or so, and it never made any sense to me. But then, I enjoy music all the time without paying attention to the words. Thanks to Wikipedia, I've acquired some new insight into this song although I don't know much more than I did to begin with. In any event, the beautiful melody and harmonies have made this song into one of the most popular in musical history.

Bohemian Rhapsody was written in 1975 by Freddie Mercury, lead singer of Queen, probably after he had too much to smoke or drink. He chose the name Queen despite the reservations of guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor (because of the gay connotations). Mercury, whose real name was Farrokh Bulsara, was born in Zanzibar, Tanzania to a Zoroastrian Indian family and spent much of his early life in Mumbai, India. He obviously had considerable musical talent from an early age, and much of his influence came from Bollywood, the Indian movie industry. He was the first major performer (in the West) of Asian ancestry. He was gay, and that influence is said to manifest itself in the lyrics of the song. "Too late, my time has come/Sends shivers down my spine/Body's aching all the time" is said to signify sexual guilt and desire.

Bohemian Rhapsody was a hard sell to music executives who panned it. "At 5 minutes and 55 seconds, it is too long and will never sell." they declared. Mercury's band believed in the song and bypassed the corporate suits by playing the song for British disc jockey Kenny Everett. In a classic marketing scheme, they gave him a copy if he would promise to not play it in its entirety on the air. He proceeded to play parts of the song, but the audience response was so great that he ultimately played the full song 14 times over a weekend.

The next Monday, fans stormed the record stores (they still had records in those days!) only to find that the record had not been released yet. Meanwhile Paul Drew, who ran the RKO stations in the U.S. heard the song on Everett's show in London and finagled a copy of the tape to play it in the States. The response in the U.S. was similar. So we basically had the hottest song on both sides of the Atlantic, and the record had not been released.

The embarrassed music executives finally released the single with something called "I'm in Love with My Car" on the flip side. It sold like hotcakes and reached number one in both Britain and the U.S.

Of course everyone liked the melody, but music scholars with differing opinions speculated on the meaning of the song. According to Sheila Whiteley, "the title draws strongly on contemporary rock ideology, the individualism of the bohemian artists' world, with rhapsody affirming the romantic ideals of art rock." Judith Peraino said that "Mercury intended...[this song] to be a 'mock opera', something outside the norm of rock songs, and it does follow a certain operatic logic: choruses of multi-tracked voices alternate with aria like solos, the emotions are excessive, the plot confusing." Plot confusing? You can say that again!

The critics' opinions remind me of the scene in the film Back to School, starring Rodney Dangerfield. Dangerfield's character is a retired entrepreneur, accustomed to delegating duties, who decides to attend college with his son. His English professor, played by Sally Kellerman, assigns an essay about the meaning of Kurt Vonnegut's works. Dangerfield's character hires Vonnegut himself to write the essay. The professor gives him a failing grade on the essay, essentially saying that he did not grasp the meaning of Vonnegut's work. Dangerfield angrily summons the author and refuses to pay him for the essay. In the ensuing argument they exchange f-bombs as Vonnegut stalks off.

Whatever the historians and critics say about it, we don't have Mr. Mercury around to resolve all the arguments. During his lifetime, Mercury refused to explain the meaning, other than it was about relationships. Mercury died of AIDS in 1991, and to this day, the band will not disclose the song's secret. In Mercury's own words, "It's one of those songs which has such a fantasy feel about it. I think people should just listen to it, think about it, and then make up their own minds as to what it says to them. Bohemian Rhapsody didn't just come out of thin air. I did a bit of research although it was tongue-in-cheek and mock opera. Why not?"

An analysis of the song shows 6 clearly identifiable sections. The first 48 seconds is the Intro which features an a capella introduction in B flat. Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality. Fifteen seconds into it, the grand piano solo is introduced and Mercury's voice alternates with the other vocals. He introduces himself as "just a poor boy", but "needs no sympathy" because he is "easy come, easy go", which, according to Ms. Whiteley, highlights the dream-like atmosphere.

The following section (0:48-2:35) is the ballad in which Mercury confesses to his mother that he "just killed a man", with "a gun against his head", and basically, life isn't worth living. Judith Peraino's work delves into the phallic nature of guns and suggests that the song is a "melodrama of homoeroticism". Now I'm not a psychiatrist, but I suppose that, depending on your point of view, you can project that on any song.

We move on to the guitar solo (2:36-3:03) which, as the intensity builds up, leads into the opera section. The crescendo stops abruptly at 3:03, as Mercury segues into the "queer world of Italian opera", as described by Peraino.

The opera section (3:03-4:07) is unique in popular music, and the widely accepted interpretation of this nonsense is the depiction of the narrator's descent into hell. Mercury references Scaramouche, the Fandango, Galileo, Figaro and Bismillah, the Arabic word for God. Maybe the best explanation for the song was written in Farsi. When the band released a Greatest Hits album in Iran, they wrote a leaflet to explain the song, "about a young man who has accidentally killed someone and, like Faust, sold his soul to the devil. On the night before his execution, he calls for God in Arabic, "bismillah", and with the help of angels, regains his soul from Satan" Let me go! (feminine voices), We will not let you go! (masculine voices)....Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me! As you can see, this is getting complicated.

For most of us who have no clue, Scaramouche is a roguish clown character which was invented by 17th Century Italian actor Tiberio Fiorelli. It is an iconic character in Punch & Judy puppet shows. The word means "skirmish" in Italian. It was also the name of a 1952 movie starring Stewart Granger. Bismillah is an Arabic acronym for an Islamic phrase which essentially means, "In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful". It is the first phrase in the preambles of the constitutions of many Islamic countries.

Now that is settled, we move on to the hard rock portion (4:07-4:55) in which Mercury blames his predicament on an unidentified "you". So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye/So you think you can love me and leave me to die... Whiteley believes this stems from Mercury's leaving the security of his erstwhile girl friend Mary Austin for the insecurity of living a gay lifestyle. Mercury and Austin remained friends, however.

The final portion, the Outro (4:55-5:55) returns to the tempo and form of the Introduction. As Whiteley describes it, "Mercury's line, 'Nothing really matters...' appears again, "cradled by light piano arpeggios suggesting both resignation (minor tonalities) and a new sense of freedom in the wide vocal span."
Peraino's take about the final section is that it adds "a level of complex resistance to the song's already charming subversion of macho rock and roll." This is achieved through the "bohemian stance toward identity, which involves a necessarily changeable self-definition" (Any way the wind blows). That final line is followed by the quiet sound of a large tam-tam that finally expels the tension built up throughout the song.

I must commend Ms. Whiteley and Ms. Peraino for devoting much time to analyzing the song, but the criticism lacks Mr. Mercury's input as to what was happening in his own mind. This falls within the realm of forensic psychiatry which is more commonly utilized in detective work to probe the criminal mind. To paraphrase the line in the song "Nothing really matters"--in the broad scheme of things, the analysis of the song won't solve anything anyway. the lesson here is: don't try to analyze it, just enjoy the music.

KENNETH SUSKIN

ONCE FAMOUS ROCK STAR

This article appeared in the GLMV Chamber of Commerce Action News for
April, 2007

Back in the late 1980's my wife Dianne and I were in Dallas, TX attending a real estate convention. We were on the hotel elevator one morning with several other conventioneers when Scott MacKenzie walked onto the elevator. If that name doesn't ring a bell, he's the artist who wrote and recorded the song, "When you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair," back in the late 1960's. That song was popular in the hippie community and still gets played on the radio today.

When he got on the elevator, I hailed him, "Hey Scott, Scott MacKenzie, how are ya?" How about signing an autograph for me? Mr. MacKenzie, surprised that anyone would recognize him, was very gracious, and after he got off, someone asked me, "How'd you know that was him?"

Actually, I had information that nobody else there had, and that's the point in business. If you do your homework and work harder than your competitors, you will do well in business. If you can uncover some information that has eluded your competitors and know how to use it, you'll be far ahead. Certainly, in the legal profession and probably most other businesses, information is the key commodity.

If you come to Chamber functions on a regular basis, you'll know what's happening in the community. At our luncheons, our speakers are usually people well connected in the community and we can learn much from them. If you participate, you may be able to obtain an edge on your competition. If you network with other Chamber members, you will certainly learn useful information. I always do.

So how did I recognize Scott MacKenzie? Well, we had attended a Mamas and Papas concert the previous night and Mr. MacKenzie was the musical arranger for them and he performed that song for the audience. Mr MacKenzie was related to John Phillips of the Mamas and Papas, and he toured with them.

Some other time, I'll relate how I got folksinger Pete Seeger's autograph on a Chicago Cubs scorecard.

KENNETH SUSKIN