#1 Big Yellow Taxi – Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell is a Canadian singer-songwriter who creates music based on her social and philosophical ideals. Big Yellow Taxi is 1970s’ folk-rock music, featured on her album Ladies of the Canyon. I love the way the snare drums are played on a downbeat rhythm in this song. The song is about people taking all things for granted and missing them when they disappear into life. Notably, Joni Mitchell uses the relationship between Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and the farmer in the song to reference how agricultural hazards affect things around us. I’d also like to recommend Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, which was published in 1962. Rachel Carson was a marine biologist and nature writer. I pick this book because she described the environmental impact of DDT in a greatly gentle way.
#2 Old Time Rock n Roll – Bob Seger, The Silver Bullet Band
When we come to talk about classic rock songs, Old Time Rock n Roll has to be on the playlist. This song is a classic rock song by Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band from 1978, and it is featured on Bob Seger’s tenth album Stranger in Town. Bob Seger is loved by people for his rough and powerful voice, and he was heavily influenced by Little Richard and Elvis Presley. I like this song because the lyrics express nostalgia for the old times. Sometimes it feels good to think about many great moments in the past, especially when we can’t go back to the past anymore. However, it never goes away deep in people’s hearts. It touches me strongly when this song starts to play from “Just take those old records off the shelf”.
#3 Walk on the Wild Side – Lou Reed
Lou Reed had a deep voice with a soft but firm voice for transgender issues of the era. Walk on the Wild Side was released in 1972 on his album Transformer. This song was controversial at the time, but it provides a place to relax when I feel tired out. Also, I love the musical presentation of the dual bass lines and the combination of rhythm and saxophone, very smooth and beautiful.
#4 I Am Woman- Helen Reddy
This soft rock music by Helen Reddy is on the album I Don’t Know How to Love Him, released in May 1971. Soft rock was popular in the 70s. I Am Woman is a representative song of feminism and female empowerment. Helen Reddy sings about the strength of women through the Great Depression and the World Wars at the height of the women’s liberation movement; furthermore, another band I love that interprets soft rock in that era is The Carpenters.
#5 Have You Ever Seen The Rain – Creedence Clearwater Revival
Have You Ever Seen The Rain is roots-rock music by Creedence Clearwater Revival. They were good at doing music about politics and social awareness. What the song wants to express is the idealism of the 1960s, and the lyricist wants to express that the problems of the 1960s didn’t go away in the 1970s, but people stopped standing up for those issues. Others thought the song was talking about the Vietnam War. “I want to know, have you ever seen the rain?” left an impression on people in December 1970.