Oklahoma Underground Music

Here are some worthy pop ballads which scores of people have never heard, either because they were never released as singles or they never get played on the radio or performed.  People drawn to ballads (and who isn’t?) will like them as much as any McCartney or Jim Webb softie.

A steel guitar introduces “Joanne” (1971) by Mike Nesmith & The First National Band.  Nesmith’s voice is melancholy, the music is achingly enticing, and the lyrics are smart and curious.  What else can you say about “Joanne and the man and the time that made them both wrong”?  (Both words and music by Nesmith.)

Well, Neil Young wrote “Already One” (1978) so Neil Young gets to sing it, despite his inadequate voice.  The show’s sort of turned over to backup singer Nicolette Larson, anyway, in this breezy track from the dandy Comes a Time album.  It, too, features a steel guitar and deals with a couple no longer together but made “already one” through the birth of a child.

Then there’s “Something So Right” by Mr. Insecure himself–Paul Simon.  Check out the lyrics.  A pretty guitar gives way to a lovely orchestra, and something agreeably sensitive (that’s right, agreeably sensitive) pops up.  To further demonstrate that I’m writing about Seventies material, Gilbert O’Sullivan’s “Why Oh Why Oh Why” has one “why” too many in its title, but is another notable ballad.  A harp precedes O’Sullivan’s blunt, recognizable singing, and the words–about a marriage, it seems–are certainly sadder than those in the Simon song.  They’re essentially pessimistic.  But what beauty!

The Kelly Clarkson hit, “My Life Would Suck Without You,” was criticized for being a reworking of the song, “Since U Been Gone,” also by Clarkson.

Okay, but unless it’s Nerina Pallot’s “Real Late Starter,” you won’t be getting anything better.  ‘Life” is more tuneful and gripping than the other Top 40 stuff we hear, albeit, granted, it didn’t take a genius to write it.  It’s practically a commercial tour de force, though.

The album it’s from–All I Ever Wanted (2009)–I found enjoyable.  Critics tried to use “My Life Would Suck” to score points against the album, but . . . to me, no sale.  Sure, “Already Gone” is a piece of junk, but Clarkson didn’t want it on the finished product.  The record company did.

Anyone who’s a music lover should check out the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major. 

It’s an outstanding composition whose first movement gets feverish as well as lightheartedly lovely, whose second movement is strikingly jaunty, and whose third movement is poignant and highly melodic.  It may be the best thing Prokofiev ever wrote.

For pared-down strings, I recommend Leos Janacek’s String Quartet No. 1 (inspired by the Tolstoy story, “The Kreutzer Sonata”)–just as accessible as the Prokofiev piece.

It was on You Tube that I first heard the Strokes song, “Last Nite,” a rocker that proves songwriter Julian Casablancas is disinclined to ignore the venerable truth about Life (yep, even girlfriends don’t understand).  It’s a great tune with a rich intro and no-nonsense singing.

Even better, I believe, is the 1998 Sheryl Crow song, “My Favorite Mistake”:  it too is on You Tube.  Was this an artistic breakthrough for the woman who bored me with “All I Wanna Do” and “Everyday is a Winding Road”?  The song is a jewel, gritty and moving.  Speaking of . . . jewel–I mean Jewel–her “artistic breakthrough” might have been “Foolish Games,” which is lyrically no great shakes but is musically superb, much better than “You Were Meant for Me.”

Back to contemporary Christian:  Petra’s early-90s “Love” is a forceful, quite pretty rock ‘n’ roll bonbon.  “God of Wonders”, by City on a Hill, is also pretty, and delightfully crafted.

I have found You Tube to be a palatable source for pop songs I never hear anymore–not on the radio, not anywhere (example: Gilbert O’Sullivan’s “Clair”).  I care nothing about the music videos, only the music.

Indeed, included in this fare are Christian pop songs, many of them excellent, from the ’80s.  And You Tube being what it is, they’re beautifully free of charge.  Phillip Sandifer’s “Just Because You Are” is a lovely, heartfelt ballad about the believer’s duty to love & worship God simply because HE IS.  Michael Card’s “The Final Word” would have been a good (recorded) song had the strings it uses not gotten syrupy and a bit overdone.  Better is the Billy Sprague number, “Heart Like Mine”–delicate and exquisite.

I also like “The Name Above All Names,” a bit of a powerhouse by Debbie Boone, but the singing in Newsong’s “Arise, My Love” (a resurrection song) doesn’t sound as agreeable to me as it once did.  Steve Green’s stirring “Find Us Faithful”, however, is still a winner, still majestic.  Also good is the mid-tempo rock song, “Forever Yours,” by Rick Cua, puny lyrics notwithstanding.  It makes me want to hear more of Cua’s stuff.

The ’80s were a dandy decade for contemporary Christian music.

By the way, it is only studio cuts I’m listening to, not live performances.

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