shoudl have been a rock star - top 5 rock wails

The greatest wails in pop music.

I know this is a tough category, but everyone has his or her favorites. I do too. I am a compulsive list maker…. either listing the top 10 LPs ever made to the best guitarists. My list of lists is awesome and of course, one sided. The top 5 actresses or top 10 songs I would perform if I had a band…. It goes on and on.
My list making went so far hat I finally decided to put my list in a physical form and make a CD collection of my favorite tunes, that I labeled “OM.” “Om” is the Hindu word for that musical note that permeates the universe tying all things together. Now, if that doesn’t explain music’s impact… what can? Even my IPOD is names “AUM” which the correct Sanskrit spelling of the westernized word “Om.” It ties the world together. Even Pete Townshend, a Hindu convert long, long ago, and dedicated follower to Baba tried to capture that moment in his song “Pure and Easy.”
“Pure and Easy” tells of the note that can create or destroy. It is everywhere.

“There once was a note, pure and easy
Playing so free, like a breath rippling by
The note is eternal, I hear it, it sees me
Forever we blend and forever we die”

And, in the song, as it winds into the final chorus, the music pauses and Pete plucks a single note…soft and resonant… the sound of “Om.” That is what these great wails are… they connect to that “Om” in each of us.

As far as wails, I am thinking about the moment in a song when the singer lets go of this wail from way down deep and it causes your whole body to shudder. And, yes, I know there are some amazing wails to choose from. Obviously there are a lot of great contenders, but these 5 are my personal favs.

5. Wilson Picket – Mustang Sally
Picket’s style shows up in a lot of Rand B music and even shows an influence in the music of others on this list like Joe Cocker. His frequent screams and wails throughout the song are at their best when at 2:35 into the song he sings…
“You been runnin all over town
Ooooowwwwww!
I got to put your flat feet on the ground”
A screech that can’t be written in English words that amply describe the sound. No way!

4. Al Green – So Tired of Being Alone
Al Green’s wail is like Mark Knoppler’s guitar (Dire Straits). Sometimes his great guitar playing was so smooth and understated, without a wasted note to take away from the perfection that his songs, like “Sultans of Swing” were based on, that they could easily be lost.
When Al, half way through the song, wails “Yaaaaaaaaa….Baaaabeeeee….” a person can’t help but feel the intense loneliness of the man in the lyrics. Smooth, subtle and chilling.
“Ya baby,
tired of being alone here by myself,
I tell ya, I'm tired baby,
I'm tired of being all wrapt up late at night,
in my dreams, nobody but you, baby”

3. Janis Joplin- Cry Baby
What can you say about this wail? The songs starts with the simple bomp bomp bomp of guitar and then ….
“Cryyyyy…eiiii…eiii… Baby!” the wail building higher and higher as she begins the blues tune with a fiery blast of Texas summer heat! You can feel sadness and desperation in that few moments of cry that speak of loneliness and long nights of whiskey and cigarettes. Janis sings in her rat-a-tat style of conversation, trying to convince her desired lover. No better blues wail than Janis. Gone far, far too soon.

2. Joe Cocker _ A Little Help From My Friends
The film of Cocker singing this song at Woodstock in 1969 is captivating. The happy-go-lucky Ringo tune from “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” becomes a bluesy and black gospel-sounding anthem.
Joe writhes and twist, contorted as he is completely absorbed by the song, much of the lyrics almost obscured by his growling delivery.
Many people, when they first heard the song by Cocker were surprised that it was a white English man singing instead of an American Black man.
At about 3:45 into the song, the guitar builds, and the back ground chorus sings “Do You Need Anybody?” In the Beatles version, the answer from Ringo is “I Ned somebody to love,” but ti is at that point that Cocker, leans back, and from the deep dark recesses of his souls simply answers with :Waaahhhhh-ahhhhh ahhhhh-ahhhhhhh… yeah! Yeah! yeah!” Beyond words, how much he needs someone to love.
I saw Cocker live a couple years ago, and even though his stage movements have seemed a bit more muted, man, can that guy still wail!

1. The Who- Won’t Get Fooled Again
Roger Daltrey hs always been a master of the rock scream. “My Generation,” “Pin Ball Wizard,” or “Baba O’Reilly,” Roger’s powerful voice defined the sound of the Who as an integral fourth. Twonshend’s windmill guitars, Enthwistle’s thundering bass, Moon’s energetic drums blended with Roger in a true “Om” experience.
In 1971, Townsehnd penned a rock opera called “Lifehouse.” It, as a total work, would not see the light of day until a solo Townshend rerecorded it in the 1990’s as a continuing work. It had the idea of “Om” as it’s basis, and many of the tunes he penned for it came out on his first solo LP (Who Came First) and on the Who’s great 1971 LP “Who’s Next.”
Perhaps the most seminal of those cuts is “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” The 8 ½ minute song on politics that announces, “Meet the new boss, Same as the old boss” begins with a crashing windmill guitar, and then followed by synthesized computer sounds. The bass and drums join in as Roger screams …
“I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again”

The song builds and builds, as Pete dances, bounces across the stage wind milling through chorus after chorus. Finally, a long musical interlude dies away to leave only the computer sounds playing. In the 2 times I have been lucky enough to see them play this song live, the band left the stage, and smoke rolled across the stage as light played across the darkened stage. It seems almost a good place form the song to wind down into fadeout, but it ignites back to life.
In Kansas City Arrowhead stadium, on their 25th anniversary tour, the drums broke the sound of the computer with a couple of disconnected rolls. Then as the drums rose to a pitch, Pete Townshend came flying through the air in a windmill power slide! The crunching guitar and Roger’s “:yyyoooooooowwwwwwwww!” split the air and the band finished the song in a pounding sledgehammer finish.
That song, every time it plays, still sends shivers up my spine. I still see Pete sliding across the stage in mid guitar riff and Roger stepping through the smoke, hand held high , blond fleece of hair as he roared across the late night Midwestern night.


Whew….



Following the events of 9/11, the Who played the Concert for New York (Oct. 2001). It was amazing. They played 4 songs, three of which were from “Who’s Next.” They followed several great performances, but it was that song, “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” that seemed to ignite the crowd in a sort of “We are of one accord” attitude.
The bass thundered. Roger screamed out his lyrics and Pete, like a kid without his Ritilin, bounced around the stage still powering the song with his signature windmill.


“We Won’t Be Fooled Again!”