The Great HTF Music Challenge (1 Viewer)

[Bryan^H]

Kanye West - Stronger


This was the jam in 2007.
Great video too.

 

[John Dirk]

Doug E Fresh & Slick Rick "6 Minutes" The Show

This was released in 1985. At that time there were very few Rap groups [Grandmaster Flash was another notable example] that incorporated real showmanship into their productions. It's one of those "you had to be there" type things but this was a groundbreaking song.

Peaches - F@#$ The Pain Away
I was about to say the video made the overall song delightfully humorous aside from it's crudity but if that was made by a fan then I'm left with little to like here. Pretty generic beat and the lyrics were clearly not meant to be thought-provoking.

David Bowie - "Starman":
I like it well enough but, yea, it's certainly not the best of Bowie.

Metallica - Loverman
Again, this bands range is incredible and [IMO] sadly shadowed by classic genre definitions.

Sometimes - Y
Oh I like this one. Can't wait to blast it on my main system later. Strong tune!

Yelawolf & Shooter Jennings
This seems to be one of those songs that wants to make me work too hard to grasp it's meaning. The music is OK but I'll pass on the lyrics and definitely the video.

Hard 2 Know - Personal
The drumming and guitar work make this one worth a listen but, again, the lyrics leave me drowsy.

Take It Easy (Ever After Lasting Love)
Decent soft Rock tune. The lead singer does a great job, especially when he switches octaves.

Daigoro's Theme
This never really got started but, as a "theme" song I guess I understand why. Decent background music.

Harry Nilsson - "Take 54":
Had me with the opening sax riff. Kind of reminds me of some of Weird Al's material in that the music is surprisingly good for what amounts to more of a tongue-in-cheek song.

Alexander O'Neal - Fake
Aptly named as it sounds like a rip off of The Time to me. This shouldn't be a surprise as it's basically the same production crew. Don't get me wrong, I still love it, but it seems like Morris Day should be sing instead of Alexander O'Neal.

Alexander O'Neal - Never Knew Love Like This
This is where I think Alexander's talents are best displayed. He and Cherelle made an amazing team.

Metallica - 'If Darkness had a son'
Musically it's f*ckin awesome. I could do without the singing and "lyrics." This is a great group. I hate I missed them growing up but this thread is going a long way to help with that.

Harry Nilsson - Without You
Yea, @BobO'Link posted this one back in 2021 [post #264] and it's a great song. Mariah Carey did an amazing cover showcasing her signature vocal range which is also posted [#273] earlier in the thread.

 

[John Dirk]

Alice Cooper - You and Me
Definitely what I expected from Alice Cooper. Very much on the soft side but not at all bad.

Alice Cooper - "Only Women Bleed":
Same as above. I need my "bad boys" to remain in character.

Alice Cooper - "Ballad of Dwight Fry":
I feel like we're getting closer to what I'd expect. OK Rock track.

Alice Cooper - "I'm Eighteen":
This one's more soulful and heartfelt. I like it and could definitely relate at that time in my life.

Alice Cooper - "Is It My Body":
Now that's more like it. "That's a "Rocker" for sure.

Alice Cooper - "Elected":
Not my style at all but I get the sentiment.

 

[John Dirk]

Procol Harem - "Conquistador":
Catchy from the start. very talented vocalist.

Donovan - "Season of the Witch":
Not a bad tune but a little on the dull side. Seems like one of those highly personal joints.

Question Mark & The Mysterians - "96 Tears":
You have to think Mick Jagger must have been inspired by these guys, or more likely the reverse. Pretty cool retro track.

The Young Rascals - "Groovin'":
Simply sublime! I've heard this one and also the War cover. Both are excellent.



The Lemon Pipers - "Green Tambourine":
Love it for what it is. Not exactly danceable but I doubt it was meant to be. What a great era for music.


The Chambers Brothers - "Time Has Come Today"
Cool stuff. Not something I'd want to own but I like the nostalgic value.

 

[John Dirk]

GZA - Fourth Chamber
Lyrical prowess at it's finest. The intro sounded like Chevy Chase but, nah...

Procol Harum - Whiskey Train
This is a bad recording of a nice track. The sonic quality here is too lacking to do justice to the musical awesomeness on display.

Kanye West - Stronger
Kanye's a tough sell for me. Despite being completely insane, he has some great content out there but this one doesn't particularly grab me.

 

[sleroi]

Ive liked every Alice Cooper song posted, he's one of my favorites. And while his 70s output was easily his greatest period, his Nightmare 2 album is a fun listen.





Procol Harum - I really enjoyed Conquistador and Whiskey Train. I'd only ever heard whiter shade of pale and always thought they were just a one hit wonder.

Kanye West - This is the first Kanye song I've ever heard, and it didn't move me at all. Generic lyrics trying too hard to be inspiring on top of a generic beat. It sounds like a song am AI might have made.

War - A nice, if not pointless, cover of Groovin'. The original is a classic and while War's version is perfectly fine it doesn't provide me with any reason to play it over the original.

Metallica - If Darkness had a Son - I like the rat-a-tat drum/guitar intro, and there is some nice guitar throughout, but it sounds too derivative of their own, much better Cyanide off Death Magnetic.

GZA - 4th Chamber - I'm really trying, I love the Kung Fu intro and it has a really solid beat underneath, but the rapping starts it loses me.

 

[John Dirk]

Alice Cooper
I'm The Coolest
Different, which is meant as a compliment. Worthy of this initial listen but not worthy of ownership.

Disco Bloodbath
OK, perhaps I only thought the previous track was "different." This may actually just be what Alice Cooper is all about. As I sample all of these songs I'm realizing I know more about todays Alice Cooper than the one represented here. I like his evolution over the years but most of this early stuff doesn't work for me.

I Gotta Get Outta Here
I can tolerate this one lyrically and the music isn't all that bad either. Easily the best of the bunch.

 

[John Dirk]

War - A nice, if not pointless, cover of Groovin'. The original is a classic and while War's version is perfectly fine it doesn't provide me with any reason to play it over the original.

Good summation. I agree. War's version is a bit more melodic but certainly doesn't top the original, begging the question, "why."

GZA - 4th Chamber - I'm really trying, I love the Kung Fu intro and it has a really solid beat underneath, but the rapping starts it loses me.

LOL - Rap is all about lyrics and the ones presented here are complex. Like a good film, there are layers and sub texts throughout. That's what I love about better Rap songs but you definitely have to buy into the artform and be willing to decipher what is being said and, in some cases, merely intimated. It's not for everyone and when I was younger I disliked this style of Rap precisely because it was either too topical or complex. Back then I just wanted party songs. Good thing I can look back now on all sorts of stuff I missed or failed to appreciate. Music [and art in general] is just so awesome that way.

 

[BobO'Link]

Kayne West: "Stronger" - I've heard the name before. Don't care for this one though the backing track has the makings of a decent song.

War: "Groovin'" - I've never heard this one before (didn't even know it existed before seeing it here). Yes, it's nothing all that special but I like it anyway, much because I really like the band as well as the song. If I owned a copy it'd be added to a GH list and receive occasional play. And that track is *not* on CD, only vinyl which means only youtube (or a dl of the track, which I may do when I get home).

Alice Cooper: "I'm the Coolest" - This one doesn't work for me. It's decent enough but kind of bland and nondescript. Also feels much longer than its run time.

Alice Cooper: "Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever" - This sounds like a Weird Al track. Not my thing.

Alice Cooper: "I Gotta Get Outta Here" - The opening tolling bells don't fit. Country rock Cooper with a Weird Al vibe? This one doesn't work for me either. With Alice Cooper I pretty much signed off on him after the "Billion Dollar Babies" album. IIRC, that's also the last "band" album before he went solo.

 

[BobO'Link]

Here are a couple more hits from Procol Harum which are more mellow affairs...

Procol Harum - "Homburg":


Procol Harum - "A Salty Dog":

 

[jcroy]

more Cooper


- Lost in America






- Billion Dollar Babies

 

[BobO'Link]

Alice Cooper: "Live... anything" - not a fan of the majority of live recordings and these were no exception.

There are very, very few "Live" albums I own as I find them to generally be sub-par and mainly only of interest as a souvenir type recording.

 

[jcroy]

"Lost In America" is one of the few Cooper songs which I liked the live album version a lot more than the original studio verison (from the 1994 "The Last Temptation" album).

 

[JohnRice]

Forgive me for breaking the rules again, but I came across this fun cover of Disturbed by Violet Orlandi, who does a lot of metal covers.

Disturbed - Down With The Sickness (Violet Orlandi ft Ai Mori COVER)​

 

[BobO'Link]

What "rules" are you breaking @JohnRice?

Violet Orlandi ft Ai Mori COVER of Disturbed: "Down With The Sickness" - I enjoyed this one enough that I looked up the original to see/hear the differences. I much preferred the original. It has more energy and drive.

I listened to a few other covers by Violet Orlandi - she's... interesting but really likes disturbing/unusual/odd imagery in her videos, with those images rarely adding anything. Of those I watched I enjoyed her cover of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" best but none of them jumped out as anything other than somewhat interesting covers and in all cases I'd rather listen to the originals. Apparently her covers are her claim to fame.

 

[JohnRice]

I listened to a few other covers by Violet Orlandi - she's... interesting but really likes disturbing/unusual/odd imagery in her videos, with those images rarely adding anything. Of those I watched I enjoyed her cover of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" best but none of them jumped out as anything other than somewhat interesting covers and in all cases I'd rather listen to the originals. Apparently her covers are her claim to fame.

I've never seen her outside youtube. I just find her covers... interesting... as you said.

This is an especially difficult song to cover, since the vocals are certainly challenging.

 

[BobO'Link]

I've been watching my new BR of The King of Queens the past couple of months and last night came to an episode that played the first 4 bars or so of a song... A very, very familiar song. I run it through my head a few times and then come the lyrics... "Well, no one told me about her. The way she lied." and I'm thinking "Got it! The Zombies!" which makes me want to listen to the song again so I do. Only, the intro isn't the same... Hmmm... I *know* that intro and it's absolutely the intro for "She's Not There" but just a bit different, yet I also know the version they used... I'm now thinking it's a remake that I've just forgotten about so I do a bit of research to find it's the intro for "Walkin' on the Sun" from Smash Mouth... I've listened to both of these songs for a very long time and just now noticed that identical, yet updated/slightly modified, open on the Smash Mouth song.

The Zombies - "She's Not There":



Smash Mouth - "Walkin' On The Sun":

 

[Walter Kittel]

That is an interesting observation and comparison between She's Not There and Walking on The Sun. I've listened to both groups and these particular songs many times over the years and never noticed the similarities between the opening bars. Good ear.

I liked both of these songs and groups quite a bit. Thinking about Smash Mouth and Walking on The Sun, the use of the keyboards in this song sort of reminds me of The Doors (in terms of the prominence of keyboards to a group's musical aesthetic.)

- Walter.

 

[BobO'Link]

And I check the thread to find the *only* song posted from The Zombies is "She's Not There," which peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in December 1964. They only released a couple of albums and had a small handful of hits. Here are a couple of the other, more well known, ones.

First up, a song that reached #6 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in March 1965.

The Zombies - "Tell Her No":



And perhaps their most well known hit which made it to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in March 1969, a full year after the album which contained the song's release. It had a US release only because Al Kooper pushed for for it after hearing the material. By this time the group had broken up due to poor sales and moved on to other projects making this a post breakup hit.

The Zombies - "Time of the Season":



Interestingly, all 3 songs were written by The Zombies keyboardist Rod Argent, who formed a new group bearing his name. Argent released several albums, with their biggest hit, also written by Rod Argent, coming from 1972s "All Together Now."

Argent - "Hold Your Head Up" (this is the longer, album version):



In 1973, the band released the original version of this classic made famous by KISS (I prefer Argent's version), written by Argent's guitarist Russ Ballard.

Argent - "God Gave Rock and Roll To You":



They also created the original version of a classic Three Dog Night song, also written by Ballard, which is remarkably similar to the later Three Dog Night release. Argent's original 1970 release failed to chart while just one year later it hit #7 for Three Dog Night.

Argent - "Liar":

 

[JohnRice]

I've been watching my new BR of The King of Queens the past couple of months and last night came to an episode that played the first 4 bars or so of a song... A very, very familiar song. I run it through my head a few times and then come the lyrics... "Well, no one told me about her. The way she lied." and I'm thinking "Got it! The Zombies!" which makes me want to listen to the song again so I do. Only, the intro isn't the same... Hmmm... I *know* that intro and it's absolutely the intro for "She's Not There" but just a bit different, yet I also know the version they used... I'm now thinking it's a remake that I've just forgotten about so I do a bit of research to find it's the intro for "Walkin' on the Sun" from Smash Mouth... I've listened to both of these songs for a very long time and just now noticed that identical, yet updated/slightly modified, open on the Smash Mouth song.

The Zombies - "She's Not There":



Smash Mouth - "Walkin' On The Sun":

I had definitely heard the parallels between the intro of these two songs. I don't know music theory enough to explain exactly what it is. I know in jazz it's often the "same changes" but this isn't long enough for changes. It strikes me that the Smash Mouth is almost harmonizing the Zombies. I have an interesting one I stumbled across some time back I might post.