As a fan of a wide variety of popular (and not-so-popular) music from the 1950s (and sometimes even earlier) up through the present, one of my bucket list projects for years has been to put together a list of my 100 favorite songs of all time. At some point I decided that, once I got around to figuring that out, I could put it out on a blog, for the infinitesimally small proportion of the Internet world that might be interested. So, here we are. While the Top 100 will be a major focus, I also plan to post on a variety of other musical (and occasionally non-musical) topics, in which you may or may not be interested. (If a particular posting doesn’t ring your bell, you’re only a few clicks away from a dancing cat video on YouTube.)

Friday, January 29, 2016

Paul Kantner


 
Here we go again. The Grammy Awards show next month may need to add another half hour to get to all of the memorials.
 
I’ve always had a hard time picking my favorite version of “Wooden Ships,” which Kantner co-wrote with David Crosby and Stephen Stills. I heard the Crosby, Stills and Nash recording first and always liked it, but I finally decided on the Jefferson Airplane’s version. The CSN harmony vocals are top-notch as usual, but somehow the Airplane’s version seems a little rawer and more immediate.
 
Kantner deserves props not only for co-founding the band, but also for getting out in 1984 after the members at that time wanted to go in a strictly commercial direction. He gets bonus points for forcing the remaining members to give up the word “Jefferson”, leaving them as simply “Starship”. And rest assured that he had nothing to do with “We Built This City,” which WXPN listeners voted the worst song of all time a little over a year ago.
 
Favorite songs:
Ride The Tiger
Pretty As You Feel
Somebody To Love
Crown Of Creation
White Rabbit
Miracles
Volunteers
Greasy Heart
Lather

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