Posted on 11/14/2024 8:55:33 AM PST by Alberta's Child
Day #51 of the Top 50 songs on my iTunes playlist -- ranked in reverse order by play frequency from #50 to #1 and presented here on a series of FR threads. I've been posting them here on a new thread that compiles the growing list one day at a time over the last couple of months. We are down to the last two days, folks! There are two "extra" days at the end because we had a tie at #50 and an Honorable Mention collection a few days ago.
To show my gratitude to the FR management for giving us all a forum to post vanity threads like this, I'll be making contributions for both the 3rd and 4th quarter fundraisers. I would encourage everyone on these threads to do the same! :-)
Come back tomorrow for the #1 song on the list!
#2 -- "Layla" by Derek & The Dominos ... Click Here (YouTube 2010 remastered version)
Another song that I can’t hear the same, thanks to Martin Scorcese.
#50T -- "Solsbury Hill" by Peter Gabriel
#50T -- "Fly Over States" by Jason Aldean
#49 -- "Sara" by Fleetwood Mac
#48 -- Bagpipe Medley by the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band (2009 World Pipe Band Championships)
#47 -- "How I'll Always Be" by Tim McGraw
#46 -- "Midnight On The Interstate" by Trampled By Turtles
#45 -- "Your Love" by The Outfield
#44 -- "Ventura Highway" by America
#43 -- "Like A Rock" by Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
#42 -- "The World I Know" by Collective Soul
#41 -- "Dance the Night Away" by Van Halen
#40 -- "The Gael" from The Last of the Mohicans
#39 -- "Stand Or Fall" by The Fixx
#38 -- "Sultans of Swing" by Dire Straits
#37 -- "Midnight Rider" by The Allman Brothers Band
#36 -- "A Whiter Shade Of Pale" by Procul Harum
#35 -- "Gathering Crowds" from This Week in Baseball
#34 -- "Copperhead Road" by Steve Earle
#33 -- "Suddenly Last Summer" by The Motels
#32 -- "Time Stand Still" by Rush
#31 -- "Nothing Left To Lose" by Mat Kearney
#30 -- "In a Big Country" by Big Country
#29 -- "New York City Serenade" by Bruce Springsteen
#28 -- "Who'll Stop the Rain?" by Creedence Clearwater Revival
#27 -- "Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First)" by John Mellencamp
#26 -- "It's All I Can Do" by The Cars
#25 -- "Talk Of The Town" by The Pretenders
#24 -- "Going To California" by Led Zeppelin
#23 -- "Into The Mystic" by Van Morrison
#22 -- "The Fire Inside" by Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
#21 -- "Heard It In A Love Song" by The Marshall Tucker Band
#20 -- "Find Your Way Back" by Jefferson Starship
#19 -- "I'm Your Captain (Closer to Home)" by Grand Funk Railroad
#18 -- "Take It Back" by Pink Floyd
#17 -- "Mandolin Rain" by Bruce Hornsby & The Range
#16 -- "More Than A Feeling" by Boston
#15 -- "Tuesday's Gone" by Lynyrd Skynyrd
#14 -- "Sullivan Street" by the Counting Crows
#13 -- "Take It To The Limit" by The Eagles
#12 -- "Waiting On A Friend" by the Rolling Stones
#11 -- "A Pirate Looks At Forty" by Jimmy Buffett
#10 -- "Never Surrender" by Corey Hart
#9 -- "Eighteen Wheels And A Dozen Roses" by Kathy Mattea
#8 -- "Hysteria" by Def Leppard
#7 -- "The Boys of Summer" by Don Henley
#6 -- "Blue Sky" by The Allman Brothers Band
#5 -- "Fifty Years Ago" by Ian Tyson
#4 -- "Night Moves" by Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
#3 -- "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" by Crosby, Stills & Nash
#2 -- "Layla" by Derek & The Dominos
One of the unique aspects of the song is the high-pitched notes that Duane Allman could play on the slide guitar, by placing his slide past the end of the fret board on his guitar. This gives a distinctive sound that Ton Dowd, the recording engineer who mixed the song, described as "notes that don't even exist on a guitar."
It has been established that the song was about Clapton's hidden love for George Harrison's wife Pattie Boyd, but what may not be well known is that the title and inspiration came from a was inspired by a 12-century Persian poem, The Story of Layla and Majnun.
I'll post the final song tomorrow, along with hyperlinks to all of the previous ones (thanks to SunkenCiv!).
Clapton’s obsession with Patti was creepy as hell. But, I like his music.
Fascinating story. I didn’t know that until I had done a recent search on the song to prepare this list.
A really great song! I never saw Derek and the Dominos, but Eric Clapton played it when I saw him at Lakeland (FL) Civic Center during his tour for the “Slowhand” album. Open seating. I ditched my friends who were always late. Got there a little early and sat right up front at the right corner of the stage which turned out to be the side of the stage EC played on.
Layla is also my second favorite song. It’s two songs in one with the second part being one of the best piano riffs ever. If you don’t know the backstory about this song, then you’re really missing out on the details. It involves Eric Clapton, George Harrison and Harrison‘s former wife who is now Clapton‘s lover.
Layla used to be my most favorite song, but it was replaced by Bittersweet Symphony.
https://youtu.be/JnRw8bXVbPI?si=Y-Ira_inQtLNpapt
I like the John Fahey instrumental cover of Layla, btw. :^)
I really like the acoustic version. It’s almost a totally different song.
Never knew it originally, but Duane Allman came up with the opening riff which effectively became infamous.
I never liked that son all that much.
Imagine a girl dumping a Beatle for Eric Clapton!
Anyway, my #2 song goes in a completely different direction:
Donald Fagen is 1/2 of Steely Dan, who never made a bad song. This "I.G.Y." track (subtitled "What A Beautiful World") seems lifted right off a Steely Dan album. In fact, it would have fit perfectly on "Aja" or "Gaucho".
When this song became popular in the later part of 1982, I was in the Marine Corps and was sent to a three-week radio class at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Now Cedar Rapids might be the most "nowhere" place in the world during the late fall/early winter. Endless gray skies spitting out snow just about every day (but never adding up to much). During those three weeks, I stayed at the Best Western Longbranch and was basically left to fend for myself outside of school, because I was still just a corporal and under the age of 21, so I could not go to the bars with the other Marines who were in the class with me.
I mostly hung out at the shopping mall nearby after class and they must have played this song every hour on the hour during that time (along with songs like "Jack And Diane" by John Cougar and "Somebody's Baby" by Jackson Browne).
It ended up being a pretty nice period in my life and this song always brings me back to those days in Cedar Rapids, where I had a nice "civilian" break from the usual military life.
Here are the rest of my most-played tracks and can't wait to find out what your #1 is and reveal mine as well, which is going to be "Christmasy".
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