I open part 17 of my youtube countdown with a very serious question, what the hell was going on in England in the 1960s?  The ratio of incredible music and cool bands to the rest of universal history makes one wonder about the nature of quarks, quasar radiation, and folded cosmic fabrics.  What the heck am I talking about?  All I’m saying is that it was an anomaly.  A freak of the space time continuum that allowed for the likes of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, and yes, the Who to flourish all at once.  “I Can’t Explain,” the first single released by the Who, using the name the Who, (previously the High Numbers, also a cool name), utterly owns.  Its an epic surging pulse of proto-power punk pop.  That’s right,5 P’s!  Its one of those perfect anthems of teen angst, and that’s it, and I can’t explain it any further.  And this video?  An incredible mishmash of early Who performances in all their mod glory.  English rock at its finest, enjoy.

Welcome to part 16 of my youtube favorites countdown.  In this edition we’ll be bringing down the house with the Godfather of Soul, James Brown.  Helped out by his Famous Flames, this performance of Please Please Please, is from the TAMI rock show, a 1964 concert movie.  This performance, considered by Prince to be the greatest in rock and roll history, was the second to last act of the evening.  According to legend, the Rolling Stones had the option to appear before or after James, and they chose to close it out.  Keith Richards said it was the worst decision they ever made as Brown blew the roof off the joint, and the Stones, while playing well, couldn’t hope to match the energy JB created.  This video is worth watching from beginning to end.  James is in full control of his voice and body.  Every grimace, yelp, and shake is one of utter perfection, the true work of a master.  So, here you go, bow down to James Brown.

Part 15 of my youtube favorites continues with Motorhead covering Chuck Berry’s Let it Rock on the old David Letterman show.  Now, you’ve probably never heard of Let it Rock.  It’s one of Chuck’s lesser known tunes.  It’s basically Johnny B Goode with different lyrics and no choruses.  But the lyrics are amazing, featuring an incredible intro, “In the heat of the day, down in Mobile, Alabama, working on the railroad with a steel driving hammer…”  AMAZING, and Motorhead knew this.  I love this hard thrashing performance that basically proves the Marty McFly maxim; play any Chuck Berry song hard, and thou shalt rule the universe.  Also great to see Paul Shaffer as a temporary member of Motorhead, just legendary.

Part 14 of my youtube favorites countdown clicks off another rung, this time with Bill Haley and the Comet’s Rock Around the Clock!  This live clip, from 1956, features Bill and his band absolutely shredding their iconic classic with total disregard for the world they were changing.  Considered one of the first true songs of rock and roll, to me, Rock Around the Clock seems like one of those songs you sell your to the devil to come up with.  Its the type of song they put on space probes in case aliens find it and want to know what our culture is all about.  Its just a perfect rock and roll song.  The song trucks along at a blazing rock and roll and pace, features lyrics that suggest a timeless repetition of fun, all performed by a man criminally underrated in the history of rock.  Bill Haley rules,  the Comets rule, and if humanity’s salvation is ever in question, this song serves as proof that it might be worth keeping the whole shebang.

Part 13 of my youtube favorites countdown continues with the hard-blues psyche fest, John Lennon’s Cold Turkey.  Just around the time the Beatles broke up, John Lennon set loose a blistering array of personal/emotional/political singles; Instant Karma, Give Peace a Chance, and this immortal classic, Cold Turkey.  John wrote the song about his experience in conquering heroin with his wife Yoko Ono in late 1969.  He offered it to the Beatles, but Paul said no, so John said fuck it, and recorded and released it with the Plastic Ono Band.  The lineup is legendary.  Ringo on drums, Eric Clapton on lead guitar, and his old German pal Klaus Voormann (designer of the Revolver cover) on bass.  The song features one of John’s hardest riffs and possibly his most bone chilling vocal delivery.  The song was not that big of a hit, prompting John to return his MBE (Member of the British Empire badge) in protest writing, “I am returning this MBE in protest against Britain’s involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam, and against Cold Turkey slipping down the charts. With love, John Lennon of Bag.”

Christopher Walken once claimed that he speaks the way he does because he constantly keeps waltz time in his head.  It explains a lot.  But perhaps nothing can explain this incredible sketch from SNL, which is also part 12 of my youtube countdown.  Written in SNL’s golden age, this sketch is what happens when you turn Calvin Klein’s “Eternity,” into a game show.  I really don’t have much to say about this video other then watch it, watch it hard.