Top 40 at 40 #31

#31 Bob Dylan- You're a Big Girl Now 1975

Bob Dylan as an artist can truly divide people. I need to tell you I've met just as many people who hate his music as those who think he's a genius, an American treasure. My friends and family lay on either side of the fence as well. I will not get on a Seano soapbox here and expell the virtues and wonder of Bob Dylan, except to say there are many songs of his that are etched in my very being, and some I could listen to once and never need to hear again. His lyrical output and influence are unparallelled, unreachable even by any other artist.

I chose this song because it became a mini soundtrack for the times I thought about failed relationships, not just mine but for the people I know and love. I still think about this song whenever that sort of journey through the depths of my mind is required, or just happens.It still resonates. It is quite simply, perfect for reflection of those times right out of the gate with"our conversation was short and sweet, it nearly swept me off of my feet. And I'm back in the rain, Ohh and you are on dry land.....". I'm quite certain Bob was writing about the end of his relationship with his wife Sara(Jakob's Mom), as is the theme throughout the album from which this came, the magnificant Blood On the Tracks from '75.So many great songs came from that album including Shelter From the Storm, Tangled Up in Blue, Idiot Wind, Simple Twist of Fate.The album's theme is another example of pain being good for something.

But alas, Bob Dylan is not for everyone. let me just say this. If you were to start listening to the Dylan because you lost a bet or something, start with Blood on the Tracks, move over to Blonde on Blonde('66), Highway 61 Revisited('65), and Check out New Morning from 1970 which has my second favorite Dylan song, Time Passes Slowly. I once used Time Passes Slowly as the sountrack to a Super 8 film I made of my friend Ken Warner "passing time" at his cabin along with his dog, Pepsi. I wish I could find that. I got an A in my film class.

As for newer Bob Dylan like Time Out of Mind and Love and Theft, I really don't understand the fuss. He has smoked his voice away like Joni Mitchell, and just doesn't care. I saw him in Austin last year and it was unbearable. Like a bullfrog with emphesema. We left early. It hurts to say it, but I think he should give it a rest. His legacy is intact for eternity. He's constantly changing up the structures and meters of even his well known songs to the point where you don't even know what he's singing, because he's so bored. I was bored, too.! Long live Nostalgia!

This is not the version on Blood On The Tracks, but an earlier version from different sessions, slower and moodier...included on his Biograph box set.

Top 5 Bob Dylan Songs 1) You're a Big Girl Now 2) Time Passes Slowly 3)Just Like a Woman 4)Girl From The North Country 5) I'll Be Your Baby Tonight

2-10 You're a Big Girl Now.m4p 4151K Download

Top 40 at 40 #32

#32 Fleetwood Mac- Rhiannon 1975

"All your life, you've never seen a woman taken by the wind". Ohh Stevie.....you had me at "Rhiannon rings....". I was/am/was/am infatuated with Stevie Nicks. Mysterious gypsy nymph with the pipes from heaven. Put music before everything in her life..marriage, kids, family just so she could sit down day after day and crank out spooky medieval tinged songs by candle light on a baby grand draped with gossamer scarves and frilly things.....thats DEVOTION folks. STAYS in the band with the guy whose heart she broke and wrote most of her hit songs about...sells millions more. And boys and men from the 70s to now would give anything just to set up the mic stand she twirls around and sings "Edge of 17" from every night. AWESOME.

How come when I went into the back of Spencer's (the Hot Topic of my day) as a teen I could never find a poster of her? I got stuck with Heather Thomas or Ginger Lynn...OH WELL...(secret fleetwood mac reference). Janis and Joni were geniuses too but I wasn't closing my eyes and thinking R rated thoughts of them. I love this song for so many reasons, the white witch behind the lyrics, the 3 part harmonies on the chorus, Lindsey's signature fingerpicking guitar style and Stevie's voice. My favorite female voice in rock....
From the self titled Fleetwood Mac album in 1975, this song was actually most Mac fans introduction to Stevie Nicks. It was her first composition brought to the band being that this album was the first to feature her and her partner, the genius that is Lindsey Buckingham. It went to #11 on the charts and the song Landslide was later covered by the Smashing Pumpkins and the freakin' Dixie Chicks. Stevie and Lindsey changed the fortune of this band and changed the course of 70s pop rock as well. This album and the mammoth 19 million selling Rumours from'77 are must haves for anyone who loves well crafted warm 70s pop songs and second to none production.

I have been known to have a fairly good "Stevie" singing voice, as witnessed by a few people. I've won a few karaoke contests with my version of "Dreams" and my old band the Blue Coolies used to do "Gold Dust Woman" all the time. I do not wear platform boots and spin my velvet shawls around my head while performing though. I just love her voice.

Top 5 Fleetwood Mac Songs 1) Rhiannon 2) Dreams 3) Second Hand News 4) World Turning 5) Gypsy

Top 40 at 40 #33

#33 Derek and the Dominos- Bell Bottom Blues 1970

I had a long affair with the album that this track comes from, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. It was really my first introduction to Blues Rock Music. It was the first CD box set I ever bought in 1990. The third CD in the set is previously unreleased jams....LONNNNGGG Jams. But they kick ass because Erik had invited Duane Allman to the sessions after checking out the Allmans live in Florida near the Miami Studio where Layla was recorded, and most of the jams contain these two guitar gods trading licks. This album is Eric Clapton at his very best. In my opinion, everything after this album is Eric "phoning it in". We needed more drugged out desperate lovesick pain screaming out of his Strat but never saw it again after this album. He got clean, started wearing suits and nice watches and worked with Tina Turner and Babyface....basically stopped trying. He was in love with Patti Boyd, George Harrison's wife at the time and poured out his pain caused by not being able to have her with almost every song. But it is on this track where his predicament is most evident. The guy is crushed. Strung out and sobbing through his lyrics. The solo is simple, but nails his emotion perfectly.

I had a hard time choosing between this, the second track and I Looked Away, the brilliant album opener. I almost never listen to one without the other. You know back in the day when radio was good and you used to hear songs together from the same artist without explanation? Like Heartbreaker/Livin' Lovin' Maid by Led Zep or We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions by Queen? Thats how I hear these two tracks. A perfect pair. But I chose this one because it brings the pain....and some pain is good, useful, even. I also love the high background vocals by keyboardist Bobby Whitlock..

Most of you know the big hit Layla from this album, and maybe ,like me, never need to hear it again. There is a cool story behind it, though. The piano coda in it was written by the drummer for these sessions Jim Gordon and he received a co-writing credit on what turned out to be one of Claptons biggest hits. Jim Gordon went on to be one of the most successful session drummers of all time. The dude played with everyone! Alice Cooper? Check! Steely Dan? Check! Soundtrack from the Muppet Movie? Check! He must have overfilled his plate one too many times though because he complained of voices in his head starting in the late 70s and killed his own mom in 1983. The acoustic version of Layla won a huge Grammy in 1992 for best rock song. The song it beat out? Smells Like Teen Spirit. If thats not bad enough, Jim Gordon is now the only grammy winner in history serving a life sentence.

Top 5 Derek and the Dominos songs 1) Bell Bottom Blues 2) I Looked Away 3) I Am Yours 4)Anyday 5) Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad

Top 40 at 40 #34

#34 Brian Eno An Ending(Ascent) 1983

Have you ever sought out or discovered by accident a song or piece of music that fits your need perfectly? Whatever the need may be? This is one of those songs. I have had periods of depression throughout my life, sometimes accompanied by ANXIETY. I believe in the healing power of music and have used it many times over to get me out (or in) to some mental jam. I happen to be afraid of flying. It wasn't always that way. I was a fine flier until a flight to Oregon in 1997 that was severely turbulent throughout, and after I changed my underwear that day, I changed as a person as well. The lack of control over my own environment started to send my mind and body into its own orbit of disarray, misuse and misinterpretation.

Eventually I rediscovered Brian Eno. The "godfather" of ambient music....who has produced albums for David Bowie, Talking Heads and U2, been a keyboardist for Roxy Music and had a long career of his own as an instrumentalist. This research led me to his 1983 album Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks. This LP was originally a soundtrack for film documentary called For All Mankind, about the NASA Apollo Missions. And this song is to me, quite simply the most beautiful piece of instrumental music I have ever heard. As I listen, I picture myself floating safely down to earth, or among the chaos of a storm erupts beside me, invincible as debris from the war of argument , asteroid clouds or emotional wreckage deflects off of me. It is THE calming factor for me while in flight now along with several other of Mr. Eno's compositions. I am calm and safe within these notes. Please give it a try....it may do the same for you.

You may have heard this piece before and not have been able to place it. I have heard many bands use it as a warm up song before they come on stage in a large stadium. It has been used in TV shows, movies like 28 Days Later and Traffic, as well as in an Ad for Playstation 3.

Top 5 Brian Eno songs 1) Ending (an ascent) 2) 1/1 (From Music For Airports-'78) 3)Aragon (from Music For Films '76) 4)Sparrowfall(Music for Films) 5)Baby's On Fire(Here Come the Warm Jets)

Top 40 at 40 #35

#35 The Allman Brothers Band- Ain't Wastin' Time No More 1972

I had a fairly long jam band phase in the late 80s through the early 90s. I saw the Grateful Dead live 12 times, Phish twice, Widespread Panic, Blues Traveler. We used to go and see a Band called the Park Avenue Band do jam band cover songs every Wed. Night at a Bar in the Village Gate .Drove there in a bright orange VW Bus.... Lots of Labatt beer, groovy little granola girls and circle dancing. I will admit to owning one Tie dyed t-shirt with the Grateful Dead's Steal Your Face logo on it. And tripping my own face off more than several times.. And I can remember the mantra heard at every Dead Show parking lot affair as we walked around looking for contraband, bracelets and burritos......" Trips, Doses, Transparencies, Yin Yang...." All those dreadlocked white kids camped out behind their Jettas selling veggie sandwiches...in the summer heat Jerry's Kids could really pack a rotting fruity stank., lots of flowing bandana dresses, toe rings and plentiful pit hair......what a scene, man... But it was all about the music, really for me.

The one band that stayed with me all of these years is the Allman Brothers Band. I love Greg Allman's voice. Besides maybe Paul Rodgers from Bad Company...he has the best Blues Voice...raspy, tired, downtrodden...a thick drawl that oozes like moonshine dripping into a still from within his lyrics. His brother Duane was the premier slide guitar player of all time and the true band leader up until 1971 when he crashed his motorcycle at age 24 and left this mortal coil. This song is the first track from Eat a Peach , the best Allman Brothers Album and the first without Duane.(Duane did contribute to two of the studio tracks-and all of the live cuts). I love the message....and it rings true with me, because I feel sometimes that I've wasted alot of time...."still have two strong legs, two wings to fly." I love Greg's piano and Berry Oakley's bass line which tags along with the slide guitar. (Dicky Betts provides the slide-its nice, but it ain't Duane). I also like the song because its under 10 minutes long. Back then I had the patience for a 23 minute long version of Whipping Post.....now I'd rather have cinder blocks dropped on my toes or be trapped in a room with three gangster rappers........seano

Top 5 Allman Brothers songs 1) Ain't Wastin' Time No More 2)Black Hearted Woman 3) Melissa 4)Dreams 5) High Falls

01 Ain't Wastin' Time No More.m4a 3498K Download