My Three Songs #1

WXRT in Chicago does a quaint little thing called My Three Songs, where listeners write in with suggestions for groupings of three songs with a common thread or some type of clever connection. I thought it would be fun to do my own versions. After all, as compulsive as I am about music, I have playlists long and short always running through my head. Don’t we all? Of course, my songs will gravitate towards material that you probably won’t hear on FM radio. The images here are related, but as tempted as I was to include Green-Eyed Lady by Sugarloaf, it’s just too obvious.

#1 – Guinevere, by David Crosby and Graham Nash, recorded live on October 10, 1971. A beautiful version of this CSN track from their debut album, albeit missing the third voice of Stephen Stills. Taken from an informal acoustic performance, this song is an overlooked gem, with classic rock FM programming always going for the more well known songs from the debut album and Déjà Vu. Two voices that were meant to sing together.

#2 – Temptation by New Order. I was in college when Blue Monday took over the Earth. The song was simply inescapable. I always preferred the more guitar driven tracks on that album (Power, Corruption & Lies) like Age Of Consent. I really liked Temptation, an earlier work that owes more to the Joy Division sound they evolved from than the synth-pop they would become.

#3 – Green Is The Colour by Pink Floyd, recorded live, unknown date and venue, but probably from 1970. It’s refreshing to me that a fair number of teenage kids today seem to be listening to classic rock like Floyd, Zeppelin and the Who. They’re raised on what they’re fed by iTunes and FM though, and probably have never explored early Floyd music. This track comes from perhaps the most obscure Floyd album, a soundtrack to a film called More, a ‘French hippie film’, according to my sources. Released in 1969, the album hit the top ten in Britain, despite being a weird collection of acoustic songs and instrumental mood music. What’s fascinating about this early work is that you can hear little bits of musical ideas that would fully blossom in their 1970s masterpieces.

Enjoy.

Buy Crosby-Nash

Buy New Order

Buy Pink Floyd