Several hours of epic songs from my music library, classic tracks distinct either by length or by structure.
| Title | Artist | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| The Eve Of The War | Jeff Wayne & Justin Hayward | Jeff Wayne’s ‘The Eve of the War’ includes Richard Burton as narrator and Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues. Jeff Wayne’s The Musical Version of War of the Worlds, inspired by the 1953 film adaption, is a rock opera telling the H.G. Wells War of the Worlds story. The album features guest artists David Essex, Justin Hayward, Phil Lynott, Chris Thompson, and Julie Covington. Richard Burton performs the voice of George Herbert, the Journalist, who also narrates the story. |
| Child In Time | Deep Purple | “Child in Time” performed and written by British band Deep Purple was released in June 1970. Band members Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord and Ian Paice used the Cold War as the theme. |
| Time | Pink Floyd | “Time” performed and written by British band Pink Floyd was released as single in 1974 in the US. It is credited by all band members Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason. The lyrics deal with the passage of time. The clocks chiming and alarms ringing sounds were recorded in an antique store made as a quadrophonic test by engineer Alan Parsons, not specifically for the album. |
| Band On the Run | Paul McCartney & Wings | “Band On the Run” by Paul McCartney & Wings was released in 1974. Written by Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney, the song-wide theme is one of freedom and escape, about the oppression of rock musicians by cannabis-crazed bureaucrats. Inspired by George Harrison’s quote during one of the Beatles’ many business meetings saying that they were all prisoners in some way due to the ongoing problems with their company (Apple). |
| Why Can’t We Live Together? | Steve Winwood | “Why Can’t We Live Together” is a song written and recorded by Timmy Thomas in 1972, inspired by the radio reporting on the number of deaths in the Vietnam war. Steve Winwood made a 6 minutes cover of the song for his 2003 album ‘About Time’. |
| Kashmir | Led Zeppelin | “Kashmir” is a song by the English rock band Led Zeppelin included on their sixth album Physical Graffiti (1975) It was written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant with contributions from John Bonham over a period of three years. The lyrics were written by Plant in 1973 inspired during a drive through a desolate desert area of southern Morocco. None of the group members had visited Kashmir. |
| Aqualung | Jethro Tull | “Aqualung” by Jethro Tull was the title song of their 1971 album. Because of its length it was never released as single. Jethro Tull vocalist and flute player Ian Anderson wrote the song inspired by pictures and notes taken by his wife Jennie and called it “a guilt-ridden song of confusion about how you deal with beggars and the homeless.” This song deals with our reaction to the homeless population. An “Aqualung” is a portable breathing apparatus for divers. |
| As | Stevie Wonder | As” written and performed by Stevie Wonder was released in 1976 and features on his album ‘Songs In The Key Of Life’. It’s a statement of faith, knowing that love and nature are the works of God. Stevie Wonder and jazz great Herbie Hancock both play Fender Rhodes pianos. |
| Music | John Miles | “Music” is a 1976 single by John Miles, from his album Rebel, produced by Alan Parsons. From 1985, Miles participated almost every year in the Night of the Proms and “Music” is regarded as the anthem of the show. |
| Worn Down Piano | Mark & Clark Band | “Worn Down Piano” is a song by the American brothers Clark and Mark Seymour, The Mark & Clark Band, about an acoustic piano that is being bid for at an auction. Just when you think the song is over, it resumes … |
| Miracles | Anita Garbo | “Miracles” was initially written by UK band Oppo and recorded as Miracles (A Mini Epic) for a Mini advert in 1975 (shot in Amsterdam without any lyrics). The song for the advert, Miracles (A Mini Epic) was written by Jeff Boult (The Tapes), James Patrick Bradley, Fred Gardner (The Tapes), Donald Supner and Geoffrey Clive Tricker. This track was arranged by Tom Parker and their string arrangements were done by Louis Clark. Tom Parker founded the band Apollo 100 that had a hit with “Joy” in 1971. Anita Garbo was born in Birmingham from a Italian father and British mother as Anita Ferrari. The 2023 mini advertisement is set to the iconic beats of “Pump Up The Jam” by Technotronic. |
| Mr. Blue Sky | Electric Light Orchestra | “Mr. Blue Sky” is a song by the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), written and produced by frontman Jeff Lynne. The song’s arrangement has been called “Beatlesque”. |
| A Day In The Life | The Beatles | “A Day in the Life” is a song by the English rock band the Beatles that was released as the final track of their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Credited to Lennon–McCartney. Lennon’s lyrics were mainly inspired by contemporary newspaper articles, including a report on the death of Guinness heir Tara Browne. A reputed drug reference in the line “I’d love to turn you on” resulted in the song initially being banned from broadcast by the BBC. |
| African Reggae | Nina Hagen Band | Released in 1979, “African Reggae” by the German Nina Hagen Band can be seen as a combination of social criticism, drug-related references, cultural appreciation, and a call for revolution. It raises questions about societal double standards, while also expressing a desire to embrace black culture and fight for change. |
| Eloise | Barry Ryan | “Eloise” is a song first released in 1968, sung by Barry Ryan, and written by his twin brother Paul Ryan influenced by Richard Harris’s arrangement of “MacArthur Park”. The song was then recorded at IBC Studios at the end of a recording session with their mother Marion and they had only two takes to do it due to the length of the song. The session musicians included Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, both of whom went on to form Led Zeppelin. The record influenced Freddie Mercury of Queen, who liked the song and used it as an argument to release ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. |
| Bohemian Rhapsody | Queen | The final six-minute iconic mini rock opera was released on October 31, 1975. While writer Freddie Mercury put a lot of himself into that song, he recommended that people should just listen to it, think about it, and then make up their own minds as to what it says to them. “Galileo” into the lyrics are in honour of Brian May, who had a passionate interest in astronomy and would later go on to earn a Ph.D. in astrophysics. Scaramouche was a buffoonish character in 16th-century commedia dell’arte shows; “Bismillah”, which is taken from the Quran, means “in the name of Allah”; Beelzebub is an archaic name for the devil. |
| Private Investigation | Dire Straits | Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler was inspired by Philip Marlowe a private detective created by the American novelist Raymond Chandler when he wrote “Private Investigations”, released in 1982. |
| The Load-Out | Jackson Browne | “The Load-Out” by Jackson Browne, released in 1977 describes the daily practices of a band and its road crew on a concert tour, and the emotions evoked throughout such an endeavour Eventually “The Load-Out” segues into an interpretation of Maurice Williams’ 1960 hit “Stay” with Rosemary Butler and David Lindley singing the falsetto. |
Sources
The information sources of the song facts include, but are not limited to, Wikipedia, songfacts.com, discogs.com, secondhandsongs.com, YouTube and artists’ related websites.
