Max Picks …songs from 1969

1969

I will be in a meeting today…so I’ll be late in commenting.

I’m so sad that we are leaving the 60s. I do love the 70s but the 60s I think were rock/pop’s best decade.

Great year… Led Zeppelin had arrived the year before and The Beatles released Abbey Road, which was the year of George. I could have flipped a coin on Something or Here Comes The Sun. This is the last year I’ll be able to include the Holy Trinity of Rock…The Beatles, The Who, and The Rolling Stones while they were all still together.

Something was written about his then-wife Pattie Boyd. This one moved his songwriting abilities up in the eyes of his bandmates Lennon and McCartney and the world. George had written some good songs before like Taxman, If I Needed Someone, and While My Guitar Gently Weeps but this one…this one placed him in another league. George had two of the highlights on Abbey Road with Something and Here Comes The Sun. Something tells me we will be seeing Mr. Harrison next year…just a hunch!

So many Led Zeppelin songs I could have had here off the second album…or the Brown Bomber. I picked Ramble On over Whole Lotta Love because it has that light-heavy feel.

Creedence Clearwater Revival was rising in 1969. They ended up being one of the best American bands ever. They only had a short window but they took advantage of it. If you want proof that life isn’t fair… Green River was kept from #1 because of the bubblegum song “Sugar, Sugar” by The Archies.

The song was written by John Fogerty.

I always thought The Who was the best pure rock band out there…and I still do. They released Tommy in 1969 and although I never thought it was their best…it was and is still iconic.

It has many classic rock songs that we know and this one included…this is the Who playing We’re Not Going To Take It. It was written by Pete Townshend.

Blind Faith was a Supergroup made up of Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Ginger Baker, and Ric Grech. They released just one album. Winwood wrote Can’t Find My Way Home and sang lead. Many critics thought that Blind Faith sounded a lot more like Traffic than Clapton’s Cream, which is what Clapton was going for.

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

65 thoughts on “Max Picks …songs from 1969”

  3. Oh boy, you’re gonna get a lot of comments from angry Archies fans – no ‘sugar, Sugar’? LOL! Great picks. I agree on ‘Ramble On’, for the most part I really didn’t care for much of LZ’s first 3 albums but that one always appealed to me. And ‘Something’ , wow, I’ve said before not only might be the best Beatles song (which is quite an accolade) but one of pop’s best ever tunes. It was like the musical equivalent of a pinch hitter coming up and hitting a grand slam, walkoff homer in game 7 of the World Series.

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    1. Yes it was…Something is a great song…I was going to do Here Comes The Sun….I think that is the most requested Beatles song…or streamed more like it.

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      2. Yea plus…I love the video lol…they didn’t make one of Here Comes The Sun. It is a great song…you could see his songwriting going up with While My Guitar Gently Weeps…that was brushing with greatness…but Something put a exclamation point on it.

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      1. It most certainly was!

        On my blog I wrote this about it –

        “Then, of course, there is Sugar Sugar. This is a song that is inextricably linked with my childhood. It was number one in the late summer to early autumn of 1969, before my final, and most enjoyable, year of primary school. It was, of course, an ideal song for kids and we all absolutely loved it and why the hell not. It was a true bubblegum classic. Nobody, but nobody, is allowed to slag it off in my company. It was a truly glorious piece of frothy, pre-teen summertime pop. The Rubinoos made this sort of material cool in the power pop/new wave era of 1978-1980 and often ended their live shows with the song. Laugh at me, if you like, for reviewing this. Do I care? Hell no. Once an Archie, always an Archie.”

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    2. I can take it in small doses…we actually covered it before and made a harder version of out it…but blocking Green River? No…I can’t put it over Green River.

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    4. Sugar Sugar represents the first summer after my parents divorced and we moved to a brand new neighborhood and that neighborhood was full of kids my and my siblings’ ages. And my first big crush on a boy, Doug Tenbrock 🙂

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  7. 1969 is a pretty epic year – I’d probably be stuffing my list with non-radio friendly deep cuts from artists like Fairport Convention, Neil Young’s ‘Down by the River’, Miles Davis, Frank Zappa’s ‘Peaches en Regalia’.

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  9. Grumpy Pete was already cranking those Hi-Watts back in ’69. No wonder he went deaf lol… Some solid picks Max. I personally would go with Ramble On and Something. Give it up for George!

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    1. Deke…I almost bought a Hi-Watt one time but…the guy told me…they are great but if they break…you almost have to send them back to England to get fixed…at that time.
      George deserves a big hand.

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  10. I don’t know how you managed to pare ’69 down to 5 songs. Nice job. I love the live Who in there. I’m always surprised to be reminded Tommy is that old. To me it’s mid-70s music, but that’s the movie. They were ahead of their time in 1969.

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    1. Thank you! I’m sad to see the sixties go. This will be the last Beatles entry until 1976 when they recharted Got To Get You Back In My Life.

      Coming up by the way… in the early seventies you will see your band…I’ve already got to 1972 and a couple of their songs in two different years.

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      1. I’ll look forward to the early 70s. I forget that ‘my’ band did some of their best or most popular work then. I think of them as a 60s band. It is sad to see the Beatles’ run end, and the LZ juggernaut taking off.

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      2. I do like Days of Future Passed and maybe I’m in the minority but those early 70s songs…something about them I could relate to more…of course that doesn’t mean I don’t like Nights in White Satin and Tuesday Afternoon.

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      4. Yes I totally agree. The guitar on Ride My See Saw….that tone was in the late sixties as well. Now Days of Future Passed I think only could have been done in the 60s…

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      8. I’ll leave you with that. It’s nice talking to you….I know you are busy so when I talk to you I make it count lol.

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  12. Zep, CCR, The Who and BF all do it for me bigtime. The “Traffic” quote is a good one. I didnt mention it on your Spencer Davis take but Traffic’s (Winwood), the Who, CCRs music is to me what the Stones and the Fab 4 are to others. I am still listening to it after all these years and continue to be rewarded with music that moves me. Those two tunes from Traffic and CCR are bricks in my love of music. Dont know how you made those decisions Max but they hit home with me.

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    1. Blind Faith… the more I listen to them the more I like what they were getting across. They had the Cream shadow over them and they were easy to miss for me until around the 90s I believe. Traffic and Blind Faith… I’ve come to appreciate both of them a hell of a lot.
      Of course you know how I feel about the Who and CCR .

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      1. I was bombed with some very cool music when I was just a kid. Cream and BF were a couple of them. This music (plus a lot more) just struck a note and sent me on my album listening ways. So many treasures on that Blind Faith album. All of it. An all time favorite.

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      2. Yea you started earlier. I did know Can’t Find My Way Home…earlier but when I heard…Presence of the Lord I was wow’d. That is the song that just took me.
        I just listened to the cover Well All Right…great song. I would throw the Band in that group of bands also….

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      3. “Lord’ is a great tune withn a killer EC solo. ‘Alight’ is a fantastic cover of Mr Holly. Who would have thought huh? Yeah the Band of course but I tried to stay on topic with your choices. When I say that about this music it’s no slight against other music, it’s just that this stuff resonated more with me and when I like something I’m a hog.

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      4. Oh I know there is no slight… I totally get it.
        Yea you are right about topic…I was the one going off track with The Band…it’s that ping pong I.T. mind of mine.
        I was just telling some one that when I think of CCR…the Band is close behind.

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  14. Hard choices, as usual. I can forgive leaving Marvin Gaye off (“I heard it through the Grapevine”) only if “What’s Goin’ On?” makes the 1971 list. Sly and the Family Stone are a harder one, as I think this was their year, since the album “Stand” included the title track, “I Want to Take You Higher”, and “Everyday People” just for the hits. They were a band like no other. 1969 also saw the release of “Live/Dead” – an album that, while not recorded all in one night, can be played straight through due to creative editing, and sounds like a non-stop set. (Thank god you left out The Archies – The Monkees are at least sort of real, as in not animated.)

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    1. It’s already on there! I’ve made that year. Thats what I do usually…if I leave one off I’ll make up for it later like with Janis…
      I have the Dead also coming up…The Monkees I actually had in 1967…Pleasant Valley Sunday but I couldn’t pull the trigger… Aretha Franklin HAD to be there so they got skipped. They made me want to play a guitar so I hated doing that.
      I love Sly and the Family Stone as well…

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  15. I love every song you’ve chosen here. Geo tops it for me. Just mentioned Ramble On on fb a day or so ago; one of my favorite Zep songs on LZII. Green River has taken on National Anthem level for me. It is Bar Band essential. Blind Faith, hell yeah! They burn so brightly and beautifully. The Who tune, it’s been a LONG TIME since hearing any Tommy.

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  20. Well, once again, I’m super late to commenting. I’m also sure you will be shocked Max that I 100% love your picks. “Something” is definitely one of George Harrison’s absolute gems and also features one of Macca’s best basslines ever. I could ramble on about my love of the Zep, CCR, Who and Blind Faith tunes but will spare you! 🙂

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  23. My taste and the pop charts never ran hand in hand. One of my favorite albums from this year is not mentioned, and I honestly didn’t expect it to be mentioned here. 1969 is the year California Bloodlines by John Stewart was released. A landmark album, and so incredibly good. One of the forerunners of Americana. John Stewart was a whole lot more than the guy who joined the Kingston Trio or the guy working with Lindsey Buckingham on “Gold.” I highly recommend.

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  24. Another record that I loved from 1969 was Turning Point by John Mayall. Gone was the lead electric guitar. Instead Jon Mark on acoustic guitar and Johnny Almond on sax. Very different instrumentation for Mayall. Unfortunately, I don’t think this stood the test of time as I haven’t played it in years. This is also where Mark and Almond got together, from there they created their own band that had got some airplay.

    Top 5? Probably not, but it got a lot of my ears in 69 and 70.

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