The best 500 songs from the 1970s. Meanings, lyrics and interpretations from your favorite seventies artists. Fleetwood, The Eagles, Cat Stevens, Joni Mitchell, Queen and all your favorite 70s artists ranked.
Van Halen’s “Eruption” is a guitar solo by Eddie Van Halen. This is the only song on this list that doesn’t have lyrics. I have never heard it referred to as a great rock n roll song before, however, if you have ever shopped in a Guitar Center you would think otherwise. This is one of the top songs that people love to show off with. No one comes close.
Van Halen
What makes this so great? Listen to all the crazy tones that come from the one guitar. Note the non-standard methods Van Halen uses to get sound out of the guitar: the tapping. That was simply not done before. Notice how the song sounds like a cello at times as he uses the volume knob; the non-standard use of harmonics. We feel that any sound that Eddie can imagine he can create.
Eddie Van Halen
“Eruption” sounds like it could have been made into three separate songs. One of the biggest problems with Van Halen was that Eddie was a huge talent but he wasn’t a lyrics guy and wasn’t a singer. And he was also a pain in the ass to deal with.
Perhaps a solo guitar piece where Eddie doesn’t have to rely on others is the best way to represent Van Halen’s enormous contribution to rock n roll. The only downside is that David Lee Roth is a huge talent too, but alas, none of his songs made the list.
I have never had a lover/ I am young but I am so alone.
“A Long Time Ago” is a beautiful deep track from Jim Croce. Croce is an extremely underrated performer who died at age 30 in a plane crash. Croce has a signature deep voice and guitar sound. Most of his songs are two guitars- usually he plays rhythm with another person playing lead: both acoustic. Some of his hits are on piano, but I don’t consider them as good as his songs on guitar.
Jim Croce
In “A Long Time Ago” Croce reminisces about the first meeting with a lover (his wife?). He was lost before her. He describes the first night that he met her where they stayed up all night talking and staying up to see the sunrise…(“which was nothing that I had not seen in your eyes”). Great line. She fell asleep during the night and he describes feeling nervous wanting to touch her but he remains respectful. During the middle of the night she wakes up and tells him she is cold and says she would feel warmer next to him. The picture he paints makes us feel like we are watching a movie.
He also uses an interesting vocal technique that I have only heard used in one other song (which is also on this list). He recites exact dialogue of the woman and when he uses her voice he changes his singing voice to a softer tone so that we know she is speaking. When he is speaking in the song, he uses his regular singing voice. The other song this appears on is Father and Son by Cat Stevens.
A Long Time Ago Lyrics
Seems like such a long time ago
I was walking on a lonely road
Getting tired of dreaming alone
Like all the lonely people I have known
Seems like such a long time ago
There was no one who would share my song
I was just a boy far from home
I became a man when you came along
We spent the whole night talking
You said you’d like to see the sunrise
But in the gold of morning
T’was nothing that I had not seen in your eyes
I was so afraid to touch you
Thought you were to young to know
So I just watched you sleeping
Then you woke and said to me
The night is cold it frightens me
I could sleep so easy next to you
Wasn’t very long ago
You said that you would like to share my road
Then you started singing my songs
Spent so many nights a waiting
Let’s not spend the moments wasting
Time for me has very far to go
I will go if you would take me
I have never had a lover
I am young but I am so alone
We spent the whole night talking
But in the gold of morning
Don’t it always seem to go/ That you don’t know what you’ve got til its gone. They paved paradise/ And put up a parking lot.
“Big Yellow Taxi” packs a lot of meaning into a seemingly sweet and innocent-sounding song. It is one of Joni Mitchell’s earlier songs and it might be her biggest hit. It hits on so many levels. Superficially, one of the things that makes it cool is the last verse when we hear her goofing around: singing in a low voice then cracking herself up. It is kind of like a peak into her personality before there was social media. But the song would be great without it.
Joni
Mitchell lament’s that we don’t know what we’ve got till it’s gone. She gives us three examples that seem to be similar in that they are all environmental related: We pave paradise put up a parking lot, we use DDT, we cut down trees. All of these things are things that are important to her and people who are fans of her.
That is what the song is about—but that is not the impetus that made her create this song. You see late last night, her boyfriend left her in a big yellow taxi, and now she is feeling remorseful. In the moment when she let him go, she didn’t really care, but today she regrets it. Will we feel the same way about nature when it is gone?
Big Yellow Taxi Lyrics
They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
‘Til it’s gone
They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot
Shoo, bop, bop, bop, bop
Shoo, bop, bop, bop, bop
They took all the trees
Put them in a tree museum
And they charged all the people
A dollar and a half to see ’em
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
‘Til it’s gone
They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot
Shoo, bop, bop, bop, bop
Shoo, bop, bop, bop, bop
Hey, farmer, farmer
Put away the DDT now
Give me spots on my apples
But leave me the birds and the bees
Please
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
‘Til it’s gone
They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot
Shoo, bop, bop, bop, bop
Shoo, bop, bop, bop, bop
Late last night
I heard the screen door slam
And a big yellow taxi
Took away my old man
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
‘Til it’s gone
They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot
Shoo, bop, bop, bop, bop
I said, don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
‘Til it’s gone
They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot
Shoo, bop, bop, bop, bop
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
Shoo, bop, bop, bop, bop
They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot
Songwriters: Joni Mitchell
The best pop, folk, punk & rock songs. Song Meanings, Lyrics, & Rankings.
