Speaking of collecting... Old school tunes

So I've starting downloading songs from iTunes again. I've been meaning to start downloading old tunes from the 60's and 70's for a while, but now I've actually started getting them. Some of the facts I found were at a website linked in the title called songfacts.com. Pretty cool site.

For the most part I tend to call them somewhat obscure, but that's just because either 1) the artist is obscure or 2) the artist had other songs that overshadowed these tunes. And I'm quickly realizing that most of these songs are on the list because they are obscure to your average 28 year-old like myself.

The first song I downloaded was "I Was Made To Love Her" by Stevie Wonder. He recorded it in the mid-'60s and it's just a great song and probably my most favorite. Really awesome bass work. In fact, the bass is practically featured and whoever was playing it probably made it all up as he went.

Now is where we get really obscure. "Lay Down (Candles in the rain)" by Melanie recorded in 1970 following Woodstock. She played Woodstock when the rains came and the fans lit candles and if you listen to the lyrics (which I found on the net) you'll see it in the song. It's great because she got the Edwin Hawkins Singers to back her up. Like I told Piccu, she belts it out and that means a lot. They also recorded the lead vocals at near break neck levels. Loud and ragged which adds feeling. At least in this song Melanie strikes me as a female version of Joe Cocker (who is next on the list) except with a little more control, like Stevie Nicks on acid. Cocker just goes nuts.

Speaking of Joe, "The Letter (LIVE)" is the next song. It was originally written by The Box Tops and was the last song under 2 minutes to reach number one, allegedly. This version is well over twice that long. The reason I put the live version on there is because it's the absolute best. I doubt that Cocker did anything in the studio that he didn't top every night on the road. The version I got was from Joe Cocker's "Definite 1964-1986--His Greatest Songs" CD. All I gotta say is that, while Joe Cocker doesn't have a lot of great songs in my opinion, his best songs are great because he gives it all he's got. At any moment it always seems like Cocker could explode and that would be the end of it. In this live version the horns and background singers ice the proverbial cake.

My last song for my currently small collection is "Ain't No Sunshine" by Bill Withers. It won a Grammy for best R&B song in 1972 and this is the studio version from Withers' album Just As I Am. Honestly what makes this song really great is that it's 2 minutes and 10 seconds long and when it's over you wish it was 10 times as long. Just a slow ballad with all acoustical instruments and strings which I dig. You can even hear him tapping his foot in the beginning before the strings build into the guitar and bass.

That's my collection so far. My next download could be "Use Me" by Bill Withers as heard in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. I intend to use my XM radio to help me find out more songs because we all have a song or two that we love, but have no idea who sings it or maybe what the title is. XM solves that by telling you all of that. I'm also flirting with "Across 110th Street" by Bobby Womack. Although Piccu has the Jackie Brown soundtrack somewhere I think.

Got any old tunes I need to check out? List them in the comments.