Having been listening to popular music for decades, it gets more difficult each year to find music that sounds fresh or interesting—especially music from the early decades of the rock era. I would guess that is true for other people as well. So I am going to suggest five somewhat obscure songs from the 1960s that I like quite a bit. Enjoy!5. “It’s Over” by Glen Campbell
This is not the Roy Orbison hit (that Glen Campbell also recorded), but a song written by Jimmie Rodgers. The song has the middle of the road (MOR) sound that is appealing to me with just the right amount of bittersweet emotion. It was also recorded by Elvis Presley and Dusty Springfield.
4. “A Poem on the Underground Wall” by Simon and Garfunkel
Placed as the second to last song on side 2 of Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, this song clocks in at a quick 1:52. It tells the story of a young man (“restless in anticipation”) who goes to the subway just before the last train comes in. He scrawls a word on some advertising before running back out of the station. Simon does not tell us what the word is, but it has four letters. Is it an obscenity? The word love, hope, or perhaps hate? Maybe it is a girl’s name like Jane, Mary, or Anne. We don’t know, but when I listen to the song, I kind of like the third option.
3. “We Have All the Time in the World” by Louis Armstrong
Less well known in the popular culture than “What a Wonderful World,” “We Have All the Time in the World” was one of Louis Armstrong’s last singles. It was the theme song for the 1969 James Bond file, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. It failed to chart at the time, and it is one of the few Bond theme songs that doesn’t include the title of the film in the song title. I find this song to be deeply moving because of the lyric and the singer. Armstrong was not a well man by 1969 (he would die of a heart attack in 1971), and when he sings about “having all the time in the world,” we know that it is just the opposite for Armstrong.
2. “Seven Curses” by Bob Dylan
This is a 1960s song, even though it was released in The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 in 1991. It is listed there as a 1963 outtake from The Times They Are A-Changin album, but there are other versions of the song on YouTube that date from 1961. Either way, this is one of my favorite Bob Dylan songs. In a very compact and economical way, it tells the story of old Reilly, condemned to be hanged for stealing a stallion. His daughter tries to save him by sleeping with a corrupt judge, but the judge allows Reilly to hang in the end. The finger-picked guitar accompaniment is pretty, and Dylan’s storytelling is in top form.
1. “The Bomber” by The James Gang
Before The Eagles and before he was solo, Joe Walsh led the power trio called the James Gang. Their big hit was “Funk #49,” but off of the same album was a seven-minute rocker called “The Bomber.” Like a lot of “show off” songs of the same time, this song begins with typical rock verses and refrain, but then it switches to include a long middle section to show the versatility and musicality of the band. Here the band detours through parts of “Bolero” and “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” before finishing by returning to the melody that started the song.
