Episode 036 - Top 10 Songs of Gratitude

This week, we take a moment to say thank you to all of you as our channel surpassed 1,000 subscribers. With Thanksgiving coming up, it was the perfect time to explore songs that give thanks, so please join us for our run through the list of our favorite songs about gratitude, this week on the Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast!

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Transcript

Alex Gadd: 0:03

Welcome to The Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast. I'm your host, Alex Gadd, and this week I've got yet another top 10 list for you. This is a list of my favorite songs about gratitude. With my YouTube channel just passing 1000 subscribers this past weekend and Thanksgiving in the U.S happening this week, this is the perfect confluence of events to give me a chance to say thank you to you, all of my YouTube subscribers, followers on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, and all of you who have tuned into my podcasts over this past year, I am so fortunate that when I was unceremoniously laid off from my job last winter, I was able to start this podcast and have something to pour myself into. The fact that you've been willing to join me and listen to my thoughts and opinions and share your thoughts and opinions with me in the comments and via direct messages is a real gift you've given me. So this week, I'm going to give thanks to all of you by sharing some of my favorite songs about gratitude for you to enjoy, and maybe even share with your friends and family as you get together for the holidays. So stick around for the list of my top 10 favorite songs of gratitude coming up right now. Before we get to the list, I wanted to share a few more. Thank yous first to my parents who always had music on in the house and, or in the car, which allowed me and my sister to get exposed to all kinds of music very early on. That went from folk music, including Bob Dylan and the Weavers to the singer songwriters, like James Taylor and Carole King to Motown from the Supremes and the Temptations through the Jackson Five to the easy listening rock that became yacht rock, that was on AM radios all the time when we were in the car to what was becoming mainstream rock, including Elton John, Steely Dan, the remnants of the British invasion, mostly the end of the Beatles era and the Stones that combination was a potent one and led us in all kinds of directions as the'70's progressed. So thank you, mom and dad. My mom's sister became a prominent music journalist in the 1970s. And through her, we got a ton of albums and starting in 1979, we also got concert tickets. That was the year when both of my aunts on my mom's side took me and my then seven year old sister to see the Village People at Madison Square Garden, which was something, and then started turning me on to punk and disco music, which were the two new music forms that emerged in the late seventies. And then through the first half of the eighties, I got to see a ton of incredible concerts, thanks to my two aunts, which crystallized my love of live music of which this show is a direct result. So thank you so much, Lisa and Deane. Also to my friends along the way who've explored and shared music with me as friends should do. I remember Todd Hart back in elementary school, singing along to Kiss records with me, Sean Barry in middle school, uh, in the back of the bus, listening to Rush and Lunatic Fringe and all the early eighties rock songs. Then at high school, Chris Abel and Dave Schultz, who was on episode 28 of the show and many more friends. And then in college, my roommate Steve, who was on episode 13 of the podcast, my buddy, Rod, who was on episode eight. And then my old pal, Chad Hollister, along with many, many others since then. Thank you all for sharing your love of music with me and for allowing me to share my love of music with each of you over these past 45 years or so. Finally, thanks again to all of you for listening to me this past year. I hope to hear from more of you and to be sharing this podcast with you for years to come. So with that taken care of, let's get to my favorite 10 songs about gratitude. Starting off with number 10 on the list. It's the Beastie Boys with the song Gratitude. This is a track from their third record, 1992's Check Your Head and its heavy rock sound was at the time certainly a departure from the band's hip hop vibe, but one that hinted at what was going to happen on their next album, Ill Communication, with the lead single"Sabotage." The song"Gratitude" isn't all flowers and smiles. It seems to be directed at people who get angry and hateful when they encounter challenges or hard times in their lives, which is when the Beasties think you should try a different approach. The second verse says it all.

4:35

It's the end of the video. See you next time.

Alex Gadd: 4:57

This approach to life is a far cry from their initial message, which was all about partying and chasing good times, and the evolution of their message maybe it was influenced by MCA's developing interest in Buddhism? Ad-Rock was quoted as saying that the song was about"being thankful for the simple things, love, friendships, and life." And that makes it a perfect song to kick off our list. Song nine is Thankful, an unexpected collaboration between guitar slinger, Johnny Lang and yacht rock torchbearer, Michael McDonald. Johnny Lang was a child star signing with A& M records in 1997 at the age of 15 and releasing his first album for the label the next year. That album's title track was"Lie to Me," which was a minor hit for him. It is a really great sounding song. I love that song. Michael McDonald, you know as the blue eyed soul singer from the mid career Steely Dan albums, as well as his breakout performances as the new lead singer for the Doobie Brothers on songs like"Takin' It to the Streets" and"What a Fool Believes." Paul Rudd's character in the 40 Year Old Virgin certainly had a strong feeling for Michael's work,

6:00

Uh, for the first time today, I woke up, I came to the store, and I feel confident to say to you that if you don't take this Michael McDonald DVD that you've been playing for two years straight off, I'm going to kill everyone in the store and put a bullet in my brain.

Alex Gadd: 6:15

His collaboration with Johnny Lang was called"Thankful," and it was recorded for Lang's 2006 album Turn Around. I find it a bit strange as a song because the lyrics reference other people's misfortunes as a reminder that the singer needs to be thankful, which maybe isn't the best way to come around to that conclusion, but every verse and the choruses end with a small choir joining Johnny to sing"thankful" twice. It's beautiful. And it's a nice touch. And the conclusion that Lang comes to is that

6:48

It's roller coaster ride. Round I've seen the up and down side. And I'm here to tell you that the secret of life is being thankful, thankful, thankful. I've got to take the time to say, I'm so sorry. Thankful, thankful.

Alex Gadd: 7:16

while the song was reportedly influenced by Lang's conversion to Christianity a few years earlier, the lyrics for this song are universal and hit the mark for everyone. So I am thankful also. The eighth song on our list is Thank You for Letting Me Be Myself Again by Sly and the Family Stone. Recorded at the end of 1969 to be part of the band's next album, that album never materialized and so this was released as a double A side single with"Everybody is a Star." It went on to hit the top of the singles chart two months later in February of 1970. The song is showing gratitude for something that's less than universal. As far as I can tell, it's about Sly and the band being grateful that they can express themselves in whatever way they want to, which for a predominantly African American band in the late sixties, playing funky rock-n-roll music was a major step forward in our country, especially after the challenging decade they had come up in. The song is super funky and is one of the songs, if not the song, credited with introducing the slap bass technique to the masses. Those stand up bassists have been slapping the bass for years. Larry Graham was the first electric bass player to really feature it as part of his playing, and Thank You(Fallettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) was the song that hit number one with the slap bass track for the first time. Paul Rudd owed Sly and Larry a huge debt of gratitude too as he showed in I Love You Man,

8:37

Slappin the bass, momma. Slappin the bass, momma. Slappin that bass, momma. Slappin that bass!

Alex Gadd: 8:45

Song of Gratitude number seven is John Hiatt's Thank You Girl. This is a simple love song in which the singer acknowledges that falling in love with his partner was the reason he was able to save himself, and that her love gave him the motivation to get his act together. At least that's how I interpret it. And that's good too. A song about thanking one person for loving them is a universal feeling that we all either have felt before or are hoping to feel one day. The song itself is from Hiatt's eighth studio album, 1987's Bring the Family, which was the first of his albums to crack the Billboard 200 album chart. And with a studio band that included Ry Cooder on guitar, Nick Lowe on bass, Jim Keltner on drums, along with John Hiatt's excellent songwriting, it was destined to become a hit. The album includes two of Hiatt's best songs,"Thing Called Love," which you might be familiar with because it became a big hit for Bonnie Raitt two years later when she recorded it as the single for her Nick of Time album, and perhaps John Hiatt's best song overall,"Have a Little Faith in Me." So while the song, Thank You Girl" can easily get overlooked on this album, it's worth remembering that it's important to make time to acknowledge your partner for supporting you and helping to bring out the best in you. It's a message that should always be top of mind.

10:01

Cause when you're out of your store, Come somewhere back in time. In the dawn or in the morning, We need the focus we'd like to shine.

Alex Gadd: 10:33

The sixth song on my list is Sam and Dave's I Thank You. While I first heard this song when ZZ Top covered it for their 1979 album De Guello, the original is pretty fantastic. The song was written by David Porter and Isaac Hayes, who were the in house writing team at Stax Records at that time. They wrote most of Sam and Dave's songs and released this song as the first single and title track to Sam and Dave's 1968 album called I Thank You. It was the first single they released after their monster hit song"Soul Man" from the previous year. And"I Thank You" went to number nine on the pop charts as well as number four on the R& B singles charts. The song is similar to the John Hiatt song we just talked about, and others. It's about thanking the singer's partner for supporting them as they become the best version of the person that they could be. It's got a classic Stax/Volt groove provided by the Stax in house band, Booker T and the MGs, with the Mar-Keys horns. The band lays down a great groove that ZZ Top built their own version directly from, and both Sam and Dave deliver the goods on the track. It's great singing performances. So thank you guys.

11:56

I feel like fucking so good, I've got no time to die.

Alex Gadd: 12:03

At number five, I put"Thank You Friends" by Big Star. Alex Chilton's lyrics are so pure in their intent. He's blatantly acknowledging the people in his life without whom he would not be where he was, which ironically at the time was recording his band's third album, that was then rejected by basically every record label they brought it to as being not commercial enough to release. And so that album, which was entitled Third, wasn't released, and the band broke up. Then four years later, Big Star's first two records had a big resurgence in the UK, which finally got Third a release both here and in the UK, giving us this brilliant song. And Big Star went on to be known as the most influential band you've never heard of, who along with the Raspberries picked up the mantle of power pop from Badfinger and served as the bridge between the Byrds in the 60s and the 1980s jangle pop new wavy bands, most notably REM. Getting back to the song itself, it's very clear that it's about gratitude right from the start when he sings"thank you, friends wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you. I'm so grateful for all the things you helped me do." The music's upbeat and matches the lyrics' vibe with a nice backing vocal track that brings a bit of uplift to the song. Now it is important to point out that Alex Chilton may have been being ironic or playfully cynical. He was known to do that, but I've taken this song at face value for years now, and so I say it's pure of heart. It's a good one that may not be as familiar to the average music fan as it should be, so please check out Big Star and the song"Thank You, Friends."

13:35

friends. Wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you. I'm so grateful for all the things you helped me do.

Alex Gadd: 13:54

Song number four is Dido's"Thank You." This song was on her debut album, No Angel, which came out in 1999, but it didn't really burst into the public's consciousness until 18 months later when it was heavily sampled in Eminem's track about obsessive fans, the song"Stan," which started with the entire first verse of Dido's vocal track, played twice before Em even utters his first words, and then is repeated between each verse that Eminem raps as the title character, Stan. She even performed the song live with him a number of times on his tour and stars as Stan's pregnant girlfriend in the very dark video for the song. Dark. All of that pushed the original song back into the charts, where it reached number three on the singles charts a full two years after the album was released. The lyrics of the verses in her song are fairly downbeat, listing what's going wrong in her immediate day to day life, but each verse ends with her looking at her lover's picture and realizing that, hey, it's not so bad. Then the chorus kicks up the energy and changes in tone to be more positive, an appreciation that she has for the way her relationship with this guy improved her life. She says,"And even if my house falls down now, I wouldn't have a clue because you're near me." So similar to the John Hiatt and Sam Dave tunes, it's about how love makes one's life better and is worthy of celebration and acknowledgement, but this time from the woman's point of view. The third song on our list is Louis Armstrong's"What a Wonderful World." Everyone has hopefully heard this beautiful song before. It was written by George David Weiss and Robert Thiel. I hope I'm saying that right. And is about taking the time to recognize and appreciate the beauty of the world around us. While the whole song is performed in such a peaceful, wonderful way by Louis Armstrong, it's the final verse that really captures the essence of gratitude in my eyes. He sings,"I hear babies cry. I watch them grow. They'll learn much more than I'll ever know. And I think to myself, what a wonderful world." The song is a very strange story of how it came to be, however. The songwriters wrote the song for Louis Armstrong specifically as his record label was looking to capitalize on Louie's late career resurgence thanks to his 1964 recording of"Hello Dolly," which was the song that dislodged the Beatles'"Can't Buy Me Love" from the number one spot on the Billboard hot 100 singles chart in May of 1964, after the Beatles had been at number one with three different songs from February 1st through May 8th. More than three months straight. The song Weiss and Theile came up with was"What a Wonderful World" and immediately believed they had a hit on their hands, as did Satchmo himself, but the record label reportedly hated it. They thought it was too slow and sappy, so they tried to stop him from recording it. The songwriters went to Vegas to record it with Louis anyway, and the record label president then refused to promote it. It sold a tiny number of copies in the U. S. when it was released in late 1967, but then went to number one in the U. K. the following spring. And so the label released an album that included it in the U. S., but it still wouldn't promote it. So the song languished for years until it was included in the 1988 movie Good Morning Vietnam, which is an anachronism because the film took place two years before the song was even released. But"What a Wonderful World" was released again as the single for that movie's soundtrack and the song went to number 32 on the hot 100 singles chart. Since then it's sold more than 5 million copies and is one of the most beloved songs of all time. Perfect for a song of gratitude. Song number two on our list is"Thank You" by Led Zeppelin. Yes, the hard rock pioneers produced a number of beautiful ballads throughout their career, the first of which was this track from the band's 1969 second album, Led Zeppelin II. Written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, the song shares a message of true love and appreciation for the singer's partner. It's a common theme that we've heard in this list. The guitar and Hammond organ intro builds to a crescendo with John Bonham's drums kicking in. And then one last time, towards the end of the song, they up the intensity for the final bridge, where interestingly, Robert Plant does reference the title of the song for the only time, when he sings,"Thanks to you. It will be done for you to me are the only one." The song then mellows again at the end as Plant reiterates the song's opening verse.

18:18

So if the sun refused to shine Oh, I'd still be loving you If mountains crumbled to the sea, baby, baby, from It'd still be you and me

Alex Gadd: 18:47

And then there's that great false ending as the organ line fades almost completely away before coming back up one more time. This is a really powerful way to say thank you without actually saying thank you. Before we get to the top song on our list, I wanted to give recognition to some other songs that I considered. The Kinks' song"Days" from their 1968 album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society is a really good song that I hadn't heard more than a few times and hadn't thought of in many years until I was thinking about compiling this list. You should definitely listen to that song. It's a beautiful song. Earth, Wind Fire produced a song called"Gratitude" for their live 1975 album of the same name, which was in the end a little too repetitive for me to include on this list, but it has a great groove. Those were my songs 11 and 12. Song 13 was the Redwalls song"Thank You." Now you might not know the Redwalls, a band out of the Chicago suburbs that released three really good albums in the mid two thousands before they broke up. But I highly encourage you to check them out. Especially their first two albums, Universal Blues and DeNova. And apparently they're coming back and recording a fourth new record right now, so hopefully in 2025 we'll have more Redwalls music for you. Alanis Morissette released the song"Thank U" as her first single from her follow up record to her monster hit album Jagged Little Pill, and it had a memorable video where Alanis kind of floats naked through different scenes, but I find the song was a little too inward looking to fit on this list is she's really thanking herself for evolving as a person and putting some of her worst personality traits behind her, which certainly has a value, but it's not about gratitude for others The Beatles had an early song called"Thank You Girl" that was supposedly a tip of their cap to the band's early female fans. It was notable because it was one of the few songs that was credited to McCartney-Lennon, as opposed to the standard Lennon-McCartney songwriting duo. Springsteen's"Bobby Jean" is a great song that acknowledges the value of friendship only after it's ended, choosing to look back on that friendship with appreciation rather than sadness or anger. It's really one of his greatest underappreciated tracks, in my opinion. In a similar but heavier vein. U2's"One Tree Hill" is about mourning and celebrating a friend who's passed away too soon. With Bono singing,"I'll see you again when the stars fall from the sky and the moon is turned red over One Tree Hill." That's a great song. Talking Heads put out the song"Thank You for Sending Me an Angel" as the lead track to 1978's More Songs About Buildings and Food, but I don't think that's really a song about gratitude despite the title. And then there's the classic Thanksgiving song, Alice's Restaurant Massacree by Arlo Guthrie that also isn't about gratitude at all, but it's still played every Thanksgiving on many classic rock stations around the country and shouldn't be forgotten at this time of year. So those are the other songs that were on my list, but not in the top 10. And also a note here. I'm including fewer video clips this week as YouTube has been making it really difficult to share video clips of copyrighted music, even for critical shows like this one that are only using short clips as a way of making a point, which I assume is driven by the record and publishing companies decisions, even though more exposure for these songs should mean more streams and downloads, but the world is weird these days. So I'm doing what I can to share the actual music with you whenever possible and describe it when I can't Now coming in at number one on our list of songs of gratitude is"In My Life" by The Beatles. This song was released on the band's seminal 1965 album, Rubber Soul, when the Beatles really took a leap forward in songwriting and production style and quality. This is a love song that John Lennon wrote as a way to acknowledge the people in places in his life who impacted him, some who were dead and some were living. In his life, he loved them all. Towards the end of the song, the lyrics turn the focus on someone new who he claims he loves more. Was that Cynthia? Not sure. It's a great song though. One of the best in all of rock music. It was ranked 23rd on the 2004 Rolling Stone list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. Mojo magazine in the UK listed it as the number one song of all time in their year 2000 poll. While those rankings are, of course, totally arbitrary, they do serve to establish a general sense of how any song is perceived and"In My Life" is one of the great ones about looking backwards and forwards with gratitude. And that's what I wish for all of you on this Thanksgiving. Find the people in places in your life or in your past for whom you'll never lose affection. Stop and think about them and love them all. Well, that's the list of my favorite songs of gratitude. Which ones did I miss? Which are your favorites? There's plenty of room for other opinions here at The Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast, so please let me know what you think in the comments. And that's it for this week's episode. Once more, let me thank you for joining us. We'll be back next Tuesday. And if you like what you heard today, we'd appreciate it if you would like and subscribe or follow to make sure you get notified about every new episode and please tell your friends. Also a reminder that we release a playlist for every episode. So look for The Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast Playlist on Spotify every week, this week, featuring the songs that I mentioned here. So check that out. Additionally, as I said, we want to know what you think. So please leave us a comment. We'll try to respond to every one of them and we love hearing from you. Thank you. The Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast is a World Highway Media production. I'm your host, Alex Gadd, and until next time, remember that life is short. So tell the people you love that you appreciate them and get those concert tickets.