Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid - Music and 50th Anniversary

For my last blog of 2019, I'm going back to the 1969 well to celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of my favorite movies of all-time, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, released October 24, 1969.

The film won four Academy Awards: Best Cinematography; Best Original Score for a Motion Picture (not a Musical); Best Music, Song (Burt Bacharach and Hal David for "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head"); and Best Original Screenplay. It was also nominated for Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Sound. Wikipedia

As kids in high school, my friends and I would reenact favorite scenes over and over as it instantly became our favorite western. The John Wayne torch of the Western had moved over to a new generation of movie fans that would champion new Westerns like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Little Big Man with Dustin Hoffman in 1970. 

I think what completes this perfect movie of script, cast and direction is Burt Bacharach's music. The score is a masterpiece that breathes so much life into the action and cinematography. For me the highlight of the soundtrack is the South American Getaway montage with Newman, Redford and Ross robbing banks and avoiding the Bolivian soldiers. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a quality video of the sequence but the audio track is classic Bacharach pop that should just take you back to the 1960's and start your Monday Monday with a little pep in your step. 

Here is the soundtrack on Amazon Music.

Here is the soundtrack on Spotify.

Here is the soundtrack on YouTube along with some selected clips from the movie that made us all want to play and be this trio on the big screen.

Note - The video for Come Touch The Sun is not part of the movie, but thought it added a nice visual touch to the audio soundtrack.

September & October 1969, 50 Years of Music

In the past several weeks I have highlighted The Beatles' Abbey Road and Laura Nyro's New York Tendaberry, both released in September of 1969. This week, I focus on other albums released in September and October of that year with an ear to AM Radio. Being fourteen and a white kid from a small farming town, my main exposure to music of the day came from AM stations.

Even though I never purchased a 45 single or album from Motown (until Stevie Wonder in the 70's), I constantly was exposed to pop, soul and R&B by black artists on AM Radio. I didn't realize it at the time, but those tunes sunk in deep in my soul, and as I got older, I began to appreciate them more and more, and don't you know they stand the test of time.

Three of my all-time Motown favorites are featured here with releases by the singing duo of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. Tammy died in 1970 at the age of  twenty-four from brain cancer. For me, this was Motown's best singing duo that was cut way too short and as the saying goes, "the good die young." Also got to give a shout out to The Temptations and The Supremes who made an album together in 1969. The Supremes are a very special group in the history of american music as their world wide fame reached across the races and opened up the door for many black artists to perform center stage in any city.

So here's my own TOP 40 (actually now 44) from that period that include some BIG hits and some songs you may have never heard before. Enjoy my friends.

Save The Country, 50 Years Later and the #WrongSideOfHistory

Graphic by Doug McIntosh

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the 50 year anniversary release of Abbey Road by The Beatles. On September 24th 1969, two days before Abbey Road hit the airwaves, Laura Nyro released New York Tendaberry.

Laura is a singer-songwriter best know as a composer much like her New York Brill Building contemporaries in that other people made monster hits from her songs.

Between 1968 and 1970, a number of artists had hits with her songs: The 5th Dimension with "Blowing Away", "Wedding Bell Blues", "Stoned Soul Picnic", "Sweet Blindness", and "Save the Country"; Blood, Sweat & Tears and Peter, Paul and Mary, with "And When I Die"; Three Dog Night with "Eli's Comin'"; and Barbra Streisand with "Stoney End", "Time and Love", and "Hands off the Man." Wikipedia.

During this past year, I've been exploring Laura Nyro and find her completely fascinating. As I got into New York Tendaberry, I discovered the song, Save The Country inspired by the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy and the times of the late sixties. 

After listening to Save The Country 50 years later, I couldn't help but link the lyrics with our current political times under one Donald Trump as history's loop-tape back to the civil rights movement and the policies and behavior of the Nixon administration. These lyrics are as relevant today as when Laura Nyro wrote them in 1968 expressing her fortitude with the continual efforts to preserve our democratic principles and the dreams they are built on.

Come on, people, come on, children

Come on down to the glory river

Gonna wash you up and wash you down

Gonna lay the devil down, gonna lay that devil down

Come on, people, come on, children

There's a king at the glory river

And the precious king, he loved the people to sing

Babes in the blinking sun sang "We Shall Overcome"

I got fury in my soul, fury's gonna take me to the glory goal

In my mind I can't study war no more

Save the people

Save the children

Save the country now

Come on, people, come on, children

Come on down to the glory river

Gonna wash you up and wash you down

Gonna lay the devil down, gonna lay that devil down

Come on, people, sons and mothers

Keep the dream of the two young brothers

Gotta take that dream and ride that dove

We can build the dream with love, I know

We can build the dream with love

We could build the dream with love, I know

We could build the dream with love

I got fury in my soul, fury's gonna take me to the glory goal

In my mind I can't study war no more

Save the people

Save the children

Save the country, save the country, save the country

Save the country

Here's four different versions of this patriotic call to save We the People from the #WrongSideOfHistory. Gotta take that dream and ride that dove, we can build the dream with love...

Laura Nyro, from New York Tendaberry, 1969
Complete album on Spotify | YouTube

The 5th Dimension, From Portrait, 1970



Rosanne Cash, From Time and Love - The Music of Laura Nyro, 1997
Complete album on Spotify | YouTube



Shawn Colvin, Chris Botti, and Billy Childs, Map to the Treasure:
Reimagining Laura Nyro, 2014
Complete album on Spotify | YouTube

The Beatles - Abbey Road 50th Anniversary

September 26th, 1969 marks the 50th anniversary The Beatles released Abbey Road. The album cover is one of the most recognized photos of the 20th century. I personally have it on the mouse pad I'm using to write this blog. I also have a framed 3D image of it (and this is for real), in my Yellow Submarine bathroom- painted completely school bus yellow with an assortment of Beatle photos on the walls and memorabilia scattered about.

My outstanding 1969 memory of the photo, is George Harrison's Clarks Desert Boots. Seeing that on the cover was just the coolest thing because all my friends and I had a pair, or at least a rip off version of the Clarks originals. In fact, I probably got mine at JC Penny after telling my mom I just had to have them. I believe in junior and senior high school I went through several pairs of both the low and high top versions. I can't speak for the rest of the world, but George had 1969 California chic down in that photo!

Now the desert boots got me thinking about the Schwinn Stingray. My stingray was in fact a rip off model from Montgomery Ward which we used to call, "The Monkey Ward." Speaking of monkey, the banana seat and monkey bars were great for my paper route. You could wrap the cloth bag holding the rubber-banded newspapers on the bars in a perfect position for grabbing and throwing.

Products are one thing to imitate, but The Beatles represented the music that launched the aspirations of thousands of bands across the globe. By 1965, The Beatles were the measure, the absolute standard of excellence in rock 'n' roll to emulate. And speaking of imitation, what about the countless graphics of Star Wars, Muppets, Simpsons, and other characters, or photos of people all in Beatle formation in the Abbey Road crosswalk.

In 1969,  who knew that this was going to be their last album as a band (not counting Let it Be, recorded earlier and released after Abbey Road). It's only shortly thereafter in 1970 that "the dream is over" sunk in as reality. There were not going to be anymore Beatles albums coming out of Abbey Road Studios. Abbey Road, as brilliant as it was when we all heard it in 1969, continues to blossom with time and gets better, better, better...

By the way, you're listening to music on the radio or let's say on a digital device in shuffle mode and a Beatles song comes on, do you ever change the station or hit skip? I can't answer for you, but I think you can for me.

It's 50 years later this past June, Mary Kit and I are at Paul McCartney's Freshen Up Tour in Phoenix. Paul (now 77) finishes his three-hour set with the famous side two Abbey Road medley of Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight, and The End. I had read the setlist in advance and knew I was going to cry, and I did.

For the 50th Anniversary, The Beatles on September 26th released a three CD or vinyl 40 song box set versions of Abbey Road. The box set includes- illustrated book, demos, outtakes, and several other songs recorded during the Abbey Road sessions not on the original album, all remixed by Giles Martin.

Here is the 2019 Abbey Road Super Deluxe Edition on Spotify.

Here is the 2019 Abbey Road Super Deluxe Edition on Amazon Music.

Here is the Audio CD's and Vinyl's of the  2019 Abbey Road Super Deluxe Edition sold on Amazon.

Here's the 2019 Abbey Road Super Deluxe Edition on YouTube embedded below.

So for your #MusicMonday, let's Come Together and give a listen to the best band that ever was. Long Live The Beatles!

Summer of '69 (August), 50 Years of Music

August of '69, I'm about to enter high school and be on the freshmen football team. The tradition was that every football player at Santa Maria High School had to buzz cut their hair in order to try-out.

Can you imagine, all my friends are growing long(er) hair and I have to look like I'm going into the military. In 1969, the military draft were taking boys just 4 years older than me, to Vietnam.

My new buzz cut was a serious blow to my wannabe hippy thing. Maybe listening to bands like Jethro Tull with my next door neighbor Ron would keep me at least at the counterculture back door, looking in.

Now listening to Jethro Tull's album, Stand Up 50 years later is like a lightning bolt flash back. Ron had purchased the album, and like I've said many times in my blogs, I'm sitting on his bed listening and looking at the album cover art. Our auditory music memory is like our sense of smell, you hear it and you're right back in a place long ago. Stand Up holds up!

Next up, Green River by Creedence Clearwater Revival. I loved this album with one of my top 100 songs of all-time, Bad Moon Rising.

Mary Kit and I saw John Fogerty in Las Vegas a couple of years ago and he really puts on a fantastic show. If you have not seen John Fogerty recently, I highly recommend you go to one of his shows, it will make everything in the world pause for a couple of hours. Mary Kit says he's back in Vegas this November with his 50 Year Trip.

John's music is so pure and I often link Booker T. and the MG's and CCR with both having a simple and authentic sound that has stood the test of time. Green River holds up!

I have most Donovan albums checked in my Amazon Music app and he randomly comes up on many a trail run, and I rarely skip a song. By 1969, Barabajagal was his seventh studio album and he kept his hits streak rolling with this album. I've included the song, I Love My Shirt which so reminds me of a song that the great children's songwriter, Raffi  could have written. Donovan always did his own thing and didn't try to imitate Bob Dylan. I like that Donovan usually did an anti-war song on his many albums and on this one penned, To Susan on the West Coast Waiting [From Andy in Vietnam Fighting].

Santana is Santana's debut album who were one of the unknown bands to the Woodstock audience a few weeks prior in August of '69. Talk about great timing! Santana took off like a roaring lion and Carlos has never stopped. I'm partial to this original lineup and had the pleasure of seeing the organ and lead singer for Santana, Gregg Rolie several years ago in Ringo Starr's All-Star Band. Greg sings Santana's early hits and is never recognized until he starts singing and Ringo's crowds love it!

Harry is Harry Nilsson's fourth studio album and like most people I didn't get back to this album until he became more famous in the 1970's. The big song from this album is I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City, the similar sounding song to Fred Neil's Everybody's Talkin', the smash hit from the 1969 film, Midnight Cowboy. Director John Schlesinger had been using Nilsson's cover of Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'" as an example of the kind of song he wanted on the final soundtrack but then decided not to replace it. If "I Guess the Lord ..." had been included, it would have been eligible for an Oscar, as it was an original song. Harry Nilsson did win a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Everybody's Talkin'" [in 1970]. Wikipedia.

The summer of '69 is a memorable  period for millions of Americans. We landed on the moon in July and then Woodstock in August. In September, The Beatles release Abbey Road and we begin to close out a decade with some of the most memorable music ever made.

At fourteen, I didn't realize the impact of living in 1969 until years later, but often reflect back here in this blog with the knowledge and experience of When I'm Sixty-Four.

Grandchildren on your knee...

Peace and Love 2019 my friends!

Here is the Spotify Playlist link this week- Summer of '69 (August), 50 Years of Music.
Youtube Playlist embedded here.

Woodstock- August 1969 and 2019, 50 Years of Music

Original Woodstock Poster

Update Monday August, 26, 2019 - Netflix has posted the PBS American Experience Film, Woodstock: Three Days that Defined a Generation. I watched it last night and highly recommend!

Woodstock was a music festival held August 15–18, 1969, which attracted an audience of more than 400,000. Billed as "an Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music", it was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in Bethel, New York, 43 miles (70 km) southwest of Woodstock. It was alternatively referred to as the Bethel Rock Festival or the Aquarian Music Festival. Thirty-two acts performed outdoors despite sporadic rain. It has become widely regarded as a pivotal moment in popular music history, as well as the definitive nexus for the larger counterculture generation. Wikipedia

My thoughts on Woodstock 50 years later are similar to the millions of people who wished they would have been there- it was one of the greatest "one-offs" in the history of mankind. Woodstock should have been a disaster, but in its totality was a wonderfully unique event in time.

The big 50th Anniversary concert promoted by original Woodstock co-founder, Michael Lang tried his best this round, but the big festival was recently cancelled, and in my thinking probably for the better. Like the disastrous, Woodstock '99, it just wasn't meant to be. 

Max Yasgur
1969 @ Woodstock/his farm

However, in the town of Bethel, New York, the original site at Max Yasgur's dairy farm something wonderful happened this past weekend. A Woodstock anniversary concert was held there and no national news organizations seemed to be reporting on it as of my Saturday 8/17 draft of this blog, other than the regional Poughkeepsie Journal. Considering our times, and with a much smaller crowd, nothing happened other than peace and music.

I'm just now learning and about the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts • Site of the 1969 Woodstock Festival. This past weekend, they quietly put on a great show! I guess it doesn't matter if I'm 14 or 64, I'm still a day late and dollar short finding about concerts after the fact.

Well here's a little playlist of Woodstock-
somethings old-

• Max Yasgur, the conservative Republican was the hero of Woodstock. Without Mr. Yasgur saving the day and allowing the Woodstock promoters to use his natural theater farm fields, Woodstock would not have happened, or happened as it turned out on Yasgur's Farm.
• So you didn't see Woodstock live August 15-18, 1969, but a lot of young people like me watched Dick Cavett on August 19, 1969. Guests included Joni Mitchell (who was not at Woodstock), Jefferson Airplane, Stephen Stills and David Crosby who were at Woodstock. I love when Stephen shows off his Woodstock mud from his jeans. Where was Graham Nash? (He was there but off camera because his visa wouldn't allow him to do TV in America at the time.)
• Joni Mitchell singing her song Woodstock, in 1970 on the BBC.
• Some Woodstock moments in time...

 and somethings new-

• The 2019 Woodstock lineup at Bethel Woods included- John Fogerty, Arlo Guthrie, Santana, Ringo Starr and His Allstar Band, Tedeschi Trucks Band, The Doobie Brothers, and Edgar Winter. It would have been fun to be there. From the Poughkeepsie Journal, I watched a couple on video who said they were 14 and in Junior High, living in the region, and their parents wouldn't dare let them go to the original at that age. They were there this time to soak it all in live, and with some perspective. I like to think they represented me...
• I could only find live video of Ringo... I have interviews with John Fogerty and Arlo.
• and, look what they have done with the place! If you get a chance, go to the Bethel Woods story link above and the Poughkeepsie Journal stories with videos.
• The 50th anniversary made me think of Max. Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio, and Max Yasgur?
  

  

  John Fogerty performs on the final day of the 50th anniversary of Woodstock
  at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in Bethel on Sunday, August 18, 2019. (Photo: John Meore/The Journal News)

  
  Enjoy my friends!

DIG DEEPER (Source- Poughkeepsie Journal)

Woodstock 50th Anniversary

Woodstock 2019: Generations soak in spirit at Bethel Woods together

Woodstock 2019: 'Reunion' at Max Yasgur's farm carries on 1969 legacy

Woodstock 2019: Mood at Bethel Woods relaxed as visitors seek to experience 1969 spirit

July 1969, 50 Years of Music

Photo source - The Year Men Walked on the Moon

I thought I couldn't let the month of July, 1969 go without a mention of the moon landing by Apollo 11. In a previous blog, I mentioned my father's Norelco reel to reel tape recorder which I used to record an audio tape of Walter Cronkite's broadcast of the moon landing. The tape and recorder have long disappeared, but sometime in my 20's I snagged the omnidirectional external microphone that I used to tape stuff off TV and albums. To this day, I keep the microphone in a glass cabinet of souvenirs, including my first 35mm Minolta camera Mary Kit gave me in 1974. 

This month, when I walked by the glass cabinet, I thought of the moon launch, landing and return to earth. That memory is very alive in my brain due in part to me knowing as a 14 year old how important this event was to mankind and the thought that I'd need to preserve an audio copy for history. Well, here's YouTube with "Uncle Walter" very much keeping what I had in my mind, back in the summer of '69.

As for the music of July of 1969, my outstanding memory is the song, Touch Me by The Doors. This song's got a bit of everything with the horns, the strings and Jim's vocals moving from gruff to smooth on the chorus, I loved this song!

Technically, the band's It's a Beautiful Day's by their self-titled first album was released in June, 1969 but wasn't on the Wikipedia list I was using and thus didn't make my June, 1969 playlist. Here I feature three songs from that album and didn't think you would mind...

I feature Delaney and Bonnie's second album The Original Delaney & Bonnie & Friends. The great musicians who passed through this band in the late 60's and early 70's is truly astonishing and a huge influence on why Eric Clapton quit Blind Faith to move towards Bonnie & Delaney's sound, not to mention co-opt much of their band when he formed Derek and the Dominoes in 1970.

I also love the Byrd's Preflyte album which was released in July, 1969 from their 1964 demo sessions when they were a little known band called the Jet Set.

Lastly, I have to mention my 8th grade home teacher, Mr. Richard Ziegler who got me hooked on collecting antique bottles and loved the band Canned Heat. I remember our last day of school in June, 1969 and Mr. Ziegler bringing in his record collection to play us his tunes.

Enjoy the Playlist my friends!

June 1969, 50 Years of Music

Here's a playlist of songs from albums released in June, 1969. 

Enjoy my friends!

May 1969, Wow! 50 Years of Music

Earlier this month, I began to work on my now monthly feature of albums released 50 years ago in the month I post the blog. When I first looked at the Wikipedia 1969 in Music #May list I just said, "Wow!"

Here is a representative group of 50 songs from this monster month of albums released in May, 1969. Enjoy my friends!

April, 1969 - 50 Years of Music

April, 1969 (Source: Wikipedia 1969 in Music)

Day	Album	Artist	Notes
1	Taste	Taste	-
7	Nazz Nazz	Nazz	-
	Songs from a Room	Leonard Cohen	-
8	Three Week Hero	P.J. Proby	-
9	Nashville Skyline	Bob Dylan	-
15	Green Is Blues	Al Green	-
21	Uncle Meat	The Mothers of Invention	Soundtrack
23	With a Little Help from My Friends	Joe Cocker	-
25	On the Threshold of a Dream	The Moody Blues	-
26	It's Our Thing	The Isley Brothers	-
28	The Chicago Transit Authority	Chicago	-
30	M.P.G.	Marvin Gaye	-
-	Blue Matter	Savoy Brown	-
	Hair	Various Artists	London cast
	Our Mother the Mountain	Townes Van Zandt	-
	Ramblin' Gamblin' Man	The Bob Seger System	-

My deep dive back to 1969 in music this year has been fun in the appreciation for all the songs I dismissed the first time around as a young and stupid 14 year old. Nashville Skyline is a perfect example. I liked Bob Dylan, but what was he doing changing his voice and making a Country album? Several years later, I did take notice when Lay Lady Lay came on the radio one day and my mom said, "I hate that song" and I said to myself, "Hey maybe Bobby's got something here."

In the 50 years since, I've expanded my thinking a bit as well as my taste for different genres of music. If this Monday finds you wanting a little retrospection, this music will take you there.

50 Years of Music, March 1969

In March, 1969 I turned a restless and inexperienced 14 years old. I lived in a small town looking at the peace and love counter-culture from the outside, wanting in.

The March entry for Wikipedia's 1969 in Music is a great panoramic snapshot of what would make popular AM radio to the new hip bands from America and England finding their way to the FM side.

From that counter-culture side, you have bands recording nine minute jams and I'm just dreaming myself into the live Fillmore West scene in San Francisco.

On the pop side, I was a big fan of Dusty Springfield, and her Dusty in Memphis is such a knock out classic that I've featured it here in the playlist as my personal favorite of this grouping of albums.

As always, I've tried to put together a little eclectic mix and hope you enjoy the ride of March '69.

50 Years of Music - February, 1969

It's February, 1969 and Cream is saying Goodbye in their last contractual record obligation with Polydor. As stated several times in my blogs over the years, the gem from that album is Badge written by Eric Clapton and George Harrison and included in the playlist this week.

Doing these blogs is always a blast to go back in time and listen to people like Mary Hopkin and hear her album Postcard, produced by Paul McCartney that includes several Donovan songs. It was also great to discover, Chicken Shack a British Blues band and Christine Perfect McVie's first band.

However, the pick of this grouping is an album that was not commercially successful at the time but later became a classic, The Gilded Palace of Sin by the Flying Burrito Brothers. I'm in the camp of people who see Gram Parsons as the "Godfather of Americana music" as a genre. Along with his other ex-Byrds bandmate Chris Hillman, they formed the perfect blending of country and rock that makes this album influential and legendary today.

From the driving Rock and Blues sounds of Cream, Ten Years After, Jefferson Airplane, MC5 and Vanilla Fudge, the soul of The Temptations and The Delfonics, to Michael Nesmith's country sound in The Monkees and the groundbreaking Flying Burrito Brothers debut album, there's still the sweet harmonies of The Beach Boys in early 1969. As Mary Hopkin sang,

Those were the days my friend

We thought they'd never end

We'd sing and dance forever and a day

We'd live the life we choose

We'd fight and never lose

For we were young and sure to have our way

50 Years of Music - January, 1969

In 2019, I will write a monthly feature of music released 50 years ago from that month in 1969.

I'm going to use 1969 in music from Wikipedia as my primary source as you can see by the January list here. If I (or Wikipedia) miss a big album, please feel free to write a comment, and I'm sure I will correct that in a re-edit from that blog.

I also plan to feature an entire album deemed 'great' (by me of course) from a month in 1969. Abbey Road and Crosby, Stills & Nash are just two albums that come to mind.

In January, 1969 I was in Mr. Richard Ziegler's 8th grade homeroom class. During that year, I became President of the Antique Bottle Club and certified nerd. Mr. Ziegler formed the club after his passion for finding and collecting old bottles in the creeks and old dump sites around the central coast of California. I did the same for a couple years and to this day still have boxes of antique bottles that I've carted to every apartment or house that I have ever lived in.

Looking back, I remember one Jr. High dance where a local cover band of high school students performed the song, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida while I watched from the sidelines as kids tried to dance to it. As a side note- the album also titled, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida released in 1968 was the biggest selling album of 1969.

If you follow Monday Monday Music, the real content is listening to the weekly YouTube playlists that I put together. And I thought it was my fantastic writing. No dummy, you just began the last sentence with, "And."

Ok, so one of the keys of life is making the time to do the things YOU want to do. If you've followed me this far, listening to music is one of those magical things of life.

So strike a match, light the incense and get back to a little 1969 in music.

1969, girls, cars and Badge (Updated)

This week's post is inspired by my daughter-in-law's Twitter post @kimzebor from Mashable's That '60s show: What American high school students dressed like in 1969, Oct. 1969 Hippie high school, When students (and teachers) turned on, tuned in, and dropped classes by Chris Wild, Retronaut. Once seeing these images, My own time machine started reeling in the years back when I started Santa Maria High School in September, 1969 as a freshman. In the fourth picture down, (shown here on the right) is an image which includes a MG (Model A) sports car in the background similar to my '57 MGA and first car, purchased when I was a junior. What a time!

So I got to thinking about 1969 and the songs that came out that year. I first thought about the Beatles White Album, but that was actually released in November, 1968 and then I remembered how my sister and I loaded in with my good friend Ron Zieman, his sister and parents into their family station wagon and drove to Santa Barbara for Christmas shopping. In a department store, Ron had found the new White Album and got it as a present. I can't remember if he had to wait until Christmas, but I imagine we went straight to his bedroom and immediately listened to it, like so many other albums of the day - CCR, Buffalo Springfield, The Rolling Stones and one of Ron's favorite bands, Cream.

Cream had broken up in 1968 and released Goodbye in the United States in February, 1969. The album as a whole is a bit forgettable in that there are three live tracks and three original tracks from the band. Badge is the definitive single from the album and is one of my all-time favorite songs. Badge has a very distinctive Abbey Road (released 9/26/69) guitar sound that is attributed to the master collaboration of Eric Clapton and George Harrison (who co wrote Badge and is listed as "L'Angelo Misterioso" – rhythm guitar on the original jacket back cover, click on below.) The guitar solo is so Beatlesque, your ears say it is George, but Eric would have to tell us, how it all came to be. So without further adieu, one of the best songs of 1969 and all time.