It's always fun when the corporations try to co-opt what the cool kids are into for... well, for their uncool parents. So please enjoy these EZ Listening versions of folk and/or protest songs of the 60s. Don't worry, all the rebellion, social consciousness and grittiness has been completely removed from these versions.
First up are two excruciating selections from RCA's gloriously monophonic 1966 budget Camden imprint release Positively 4th Street by the Living Voices:
Like a Rolling Stone (5:58, 7mb) Dylan given the "Up With People" treatment.
Eve of Destruction (2:59, 3.5mb)
And now a cheerful, almost rockin' cut from Ronnie Aldritch and his Twin Pianos' It's Happening Now, London Records, undated but probably ca. 1969:
Both Sides Now (3:22, 3.97mb) Wouldn't you rather hear this than Judy Collins?
And, finally, an especially weepy track from Sounds of Our Times' Music of the Flower Children, Capitol Records, also undated and also ca. 1969:
Where Have All the Flowers Gone? (2:28, 2.9mb)
The chances of any of these getting re-released on CD is pretty slim, so right-click or control-click the selections to save to your hard drive and enjoy on the mp3 player of your choice. Click on the covers for fabulous larger versions, too! And, of course, please read the audioblog disclaimer.
5 comments:
Is that Anna Nicole Smith in the album cover at the bottom?
Bwahahaha!
incredible, the life that's been sucked out of these songs. i can't wait to hear rage against the machine all sterile and muzaked one day. one day when i'm 50 i'll be in the cereal aisle at the grocery store and hear a bland jazz-muzak version, someone crooning "f-ck you i won't do what you tell me". it'll be beautiful.
Very appropriate, especially now that Bob Dylan's original recording of "The Times They Are a-Changin'" now graces a Kaiser-Permanente commercial.
i used to play living strings etc unconscious 60s deconstuctions on my 60's early 70',s show in boston, much to the dismay of the dead heads who wanted to hear AAA type drivel that we're so familiar with here at WERU (www.weru.org). when i started out on on the wing, the complaints were so numerous that I was relegated to sunday at 11 so that i wouldn't scare the natives so. sparklepony is the most positive evidence of the existence of god peace n luv"
This is the stuff my parents listend to when they wanted to be "hip" and "cool" . Kind of like the'60's movie Casino Royale,which had all these 40 and 50 somethings like Peter Sellers tripping out in the mod discoteques.
BTW, I was really unnerved by a Montovani-like version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" I heard in the grocery store recently. I had to take another valium quick.
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