Rage Programming Meme

With thanks to Go Away Please, who has tagged me for the Rage Programming Meme.

A bit of wish fulfillment involved in this because I quite often turn Rage off after a few clips when so many of them consist entirely of total visual gibberish. And music that doesn’t grab me either. Don’t start me on those old Countdown episodes…I might have a go at entering my faves via this link , where you can have a go yourself.

This list is about music I like, and me getting to see that music performed by those artists. There might be many clips that are better visually, but this is what I’d like to see if I happened to flick over to Rage, and would stop me from pissing off elsewhere, which I usually do. Song title links are to You Tube.

Jumpin’ Jack Flash
Rolling Stones
This clip is sort of live (probably miming to an earlier live recording) and shows them as they were in 1968. In black & white, it features the open-tuned guitar arrangements that Keith & Brian specialized in and is more faithful to the original studio recording than many subsequent live renderings of this classic track.

Mr Tambourine Man
Byrds
From the Ed Sullivan Show, so it’s bright, colourful, clear and you get a good look at all of them, not just the lead singer, as so much TV pop would later be guilty of. Kind of live, but only Roger McGuinn's guitar and voice. Not available on You Tube.

You’re Gonna Lose That Girl
Beatles
From the movie Help! Couldn’t leave the Fab Four off the list, and this is one of their best ever album tracks. Could so easily have been a hit single. The lads mimed to the studio recording.

High Flying Bird
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane were not well-known beyond the San Fancisco Bay area before they performed at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. This little-known song is a cracker, with all of their signature soaring vocals. From the film Monterey Pop.

For Your Love
Yardbirds
A band who featured Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page but were great in their own right, not just as a starting point for guitar players who would achieve greater fame afterwards. From the American TV show Shindig.

My Generation
Who
The Who’s film The Kids Are Alright opens with this clip of them playing live on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and it’s everything you ever hoped the Who would be, complete with a chaotic, smash ‘em up ending.

Light My Fire
Doors
Another Ed Sullivan Show live clip and interesting in comparison with the Oliver Stone film The Doors, where Val Kilmer leans close and leers at the camera as he sings the forbidden “higher”. See how Jim Morrison did no such thing. Not available on You Tube.

Crossroads
Cream
Live at the Albert Hall for their 1968 farewell concert, Eric, Jack & Ginger show why they are still regarded as the ultimate power trio in rock. Not available on You Tube.

Subterranean Homesick Blues
Bob Dylan
Just a great clip, part of Dylan’s controversial post-folk period doco Don’t Look Back. Filmmaker DA Pennebaker would later direct Monterey Pop.

Like A Rolling Stone
Jimi Hendrix
Available on The Complete Monterey Pop festival disk which features all of Hendrix’s performance at that seminal pop-folk-blues-rock gathering. The fluid nature of the guitar playing, weaving around chords and melody, underlines why Hendrix was such an innovator. And why I don’t think the label Hendrix-imitator should be a criticism.

Okay, I’m a bit hung up on the music of a particular decade. Guilty as charged, Your Honour, but I would plead that these are great on three counts: great clips; great songs; great artists.