Redemption Song
Bob Marley
Unlike most of Bob Marley's tracks, this is a solo acoustic recording of Marley's singing and acoustic guitar, without accompaniment. The song also urges listeners to Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery , because None but ourselves can free our minds . Marley had been diagnosed with cancer that later was to take his life. According to Rita Marley, “he was already in a lot of pain and dealt with his own mortality”, a feature that is clearly apparent in the song which many consider his seminal work.
Across the Universe
The Beatles
One night in 1967, the phrase words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup came to Lennon after hearing his then-wife Cynthia, according to Lennon, “going on and on about something”. Later, after “she'd gone to sleep —and I kept hearing these words over and over, flowing like an endless stream”, Lennon turned it into a song. The lyrics are highly image-based, with abstract concepts reified with phrases like thoughts “meandering”, words “slithering”, and undying love “shining”. The title phrase across the universe appears at intervals to finish lines, although it never cadences, always appearing as a rising figure, melodically unresolved. In his 1970 interview with Rolling Stone , Lennon referred to the song as perhaps the best, most poetic lyric he ever wrote.
The Show Must Go On
The Queen
The Show Must Go On by English rock band Queen, chronicles Freddie Mercury's effort to perform despite approaching the end of his life. Much of the lyrics and imagery of the song can also be construed to be a reflection on life and imminent death. It is regarded as one of Queen's most emotive, powerful songs by many fans.
Us and Them
Pink Floyd
Us and Them is from Pink Floyd's 1973 album, The Dark Side of the Moon . Us and Them is rather quiet in tone and dynamics. It has two saxophone solos in it, one at the beginning and another towards the end of the song. Though Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon is a concept album concerned with the pressures of modern society, its only song of social consciousness is Us and Them, the lyrics for which address such issues as war and poverty in the stark terms of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Riders on the Storm
The Doors
Riders on the Storm is a song by The Doors from their 1971 album; L.A. Woman . It incorporates real sound effects of thunder and rain, along with Ray Manzarek's electric piano playing. Jim Morrison recorded his main vocals and then whispered the lyrics over them to create the haunting effect. This song was also the last song recorded by the members of The Doors.
Those that almost made it
Horse with no name: America
Deacon Blue: Steely Dan
Logical Song: Supertramp
Whiter Shade of Pale: Procol Harum
Epitaph: King Crimson
(Dr. Deepu Leander is an orthodontist from Trivandrum.)
