Pink Floyd - one of my turns, 1979

"The song features some of Waters' most strenuous recorded vocal workouts, with him ending at a relatively high A above middle C. The composition's instrumental introduction makes use of the Phrygian mode, a musical mode rarely used in pop and rock music."

Pink Floyd - young lust, 1979

"a blues-inflected hard rock number in E minor, approximately 3 minutes, 25 seconds in length. The song was composed by David Gilmour, who also provided lead vocals with backing vocals from Roger Waters during the chorus, who wrote the lyrics."

Pink Floyd - goodbye blue sky, 1979

"When he was just two years old, his father brought him into the studio while they were recording The Wall to read the line “look mummy, there’s an aeroplane up in the sky,” which kicks off “Goodbye Blue Sky.” “I certainly remember sitting there with a microphone and being asked to say some things,” he says. “Whenever I hear it, I go, ‘Oh God, that’s me.’ It’s quite weird.”

Pink Floyd - the happiest days of our lives, 1979

"The song is approximately one minute, 46 seconds in length, beginning with 24 seconds of a helicopter sound effect, followed by the schoolmaster shouting, "You! Yes, you! Stand still, laddie!" performed by Roger Waters. Waters's lead vocal is treated with a reverse echo. The song features an electric guitar with an added delay effect and an electric bass guitar playing staccato punctuations of the chordal root notes."

Pink Floyd - another brick in the wall part one, 1979

"Young Pink begins building a mental wall between himself and the world, distancing himself from the pains of life, such as having to grow up without a father."

Pink Floyd - the thin ice, 1979

"The song, which is two minutes and 30 seconds in length, begins with the sound of an infant crying. The main body of the song is a '50s progression, with time signature in 6/8, commonly heard in doo-wop songs such as Ben E. King's "Stand by Me", progressing from C Major to A minor, then F Major to G Major, played softly on piano and synthesiser. The first half of the lyrics are sung by David Gilmour in a gentle tone, beginning with "Mama loves her baby", and a refrain of "Ooh babe, ooh, baby blue". A bass guitar creates a dissonant effect mid-song, when it plays an F♯ against an A minor, the major sixth of the chord, and the augmented fourth of the key. Then Roger Waters takes over the lead vocal. The piano becomes staccato, as the lyric takes on a warning tone, with Waters singing "If you should go skating/On the thin ice of modern life...."

Neil Young - hey hey my my into the black live rust, 1979

“I don’t have the passion anymore, and so remember, it’s better to burn out than to fade away. Peace, love, empathy. Kurt Cobain”

Neil Young - like a hurricane live rust, 1979

"Neil Young is considered the godfather of grunge, which is fair. He rocked hard. He still rocks hard. He loves distortion. He has a weird facial hair pattern. He checks all the boxes. But the thing that's always amazed me about Neil Young is that for all of the chaotic grunge energy that powers him, he's never sloppy. Even live. Like on Live Rust, his album with his on-again, off-again backing band, Crazy Horse. The performances are raw and electric, but also amazingly tight. The energy is palpable, but it's all under control. And you wouldn't think that would be the case, given it's a live album of a live album. It was filmed and recorded during the tour for Rust Never Sleeps, a studio album that was recorded live in front of an audience, much like a 1970s sitcom, but without the nitrous oxide-induced laughter."

Neil Young - powderfinger live rust, 1979

"I had subconsciously neglected this song for the past seven years because of my horror at learning an Australian band had stolen its identity – that’s not a reflection on the band in question (whom I’ve never listened to), but more a reflection of my stubbornness at the time. This song was my secret. How dare they publicise it to the world!"

Neil Young - my my hey hey out of the blue live rust, 1979

"Kurt Cobain quoted that exact line in his suicide note, which gave the song an even heavier cultural shadow. Neil himself later expressed mixed feelings about that—said he wished he could’ve talked to Kurt, told him there’s more to the story than just those two choices."

Pink Floyd - in the flesh, 1979

"In the Flesh?" and "In the Flesh" are two songs by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on their eleventh studio album, The Wall (1979). "In the Flesh?" is the opening track, and introduces the story concept of the album. "In the Flesh" is the twenty-first song of the album, and is a reprise of the first with a choir, different verses and more extended instrumentation. The title is a reference to the band's 1977 In the Flesh Tour, during which Roger Waters, in frustration, spat at a fan who was attempting to climb the fence separating the band from the crowd."

Neil Young And Crazy Horse - i am a child live, 1979

"Live Rust was the soundtrack to Young's concert film Rust Never Sleeps (he had wanted to give it that title, but Reprise vetoed the idea, fearing confusion with the earlier album), and likewise was recorded October 22, 1978, at the Cow Palace in San Francisco."

Neil Young - powderfinger, 1979

"Powderfinger" is the first song of the second, electric, side of Rust Never Sleeps. Allmusic critic Jason Ankeny describes the song, following the album's mellower, acoustic first side, as "a sudden, almost blindsiding metamorphosis, which is entirely the point — it's the shot you never saw coming." The lyrics are the posthumous narration of a young man who attempts to protect his family against an approaching gunboat. He realizes that all of the older men are unavailable, leaving him "to do the thinking". After initial indecision, he eventually takes action, and is ultimately killed. He describes his death with the gruesome line "my face splashed in the sky."

Neil Young - lotta love live, 1979

"Nicolette Larson had kept a tape of some of the material from when she and Neil first met and sang together at her friend Linda Ronstadt’s house. When the phone call came from Nashville, she was ready. Young barely had to show her the songs before they were singing the duets that appear on the album. The Gone with the Wind Orchestra, as the entire conglomeration of twenty-two musicians was called, lasted throughout the album and for one live performance, on Young’s thirty-second birthday, at an outdoor benefit for children’s hospitals in the Miami Beach area."

Mike Oldfield - incantations live, 1979

"Oldfield had been listening to a greater amount of religious music than before, which he credited to keep him "calm and sane" as he described himself as "very disturbed" during this time. He also examined the styles of music of his previous albums; rock with a classical music format on his debut Tubular Bells, Celtic music on Hergest Ridge, and "more African" styles on Ommadawn. For Incantations, Oldfield wanted to present "some magical things", which influenced his decision to use a string section and flute."

Neil Young - my my hey hey out of the blue, 1979

"My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)" is a song by Canadian musician Neil Young. An acoustic song, it was recorded live in early 1978 at the Boarding House in San Francisco, California. Combined with its hard rock counterpart "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)", it bookends Young's 1979 album Rust Never Sleeps. Inspired by electropunk group Devo, the rise of punk and what Young viewed as his own growing irrelevance, the song significantly revitalized Young's career. The line, "it's better to burn out than to fade away" was taken from one of the songs of Young's bandmate in the short-lived supergroup The Ducks, Jeff Blackburn. It became infamous after being quoted in Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain's suicide note. Young later said that he was so shaken that he dedicated his 1994 album Sleeps with Angels to Cobain."

Neil Young - thrasher, 1979

"Thrasher" was written while filming Human Highway in New Mexico with Dennis Hopper. Young remembers in a 2022 post to his website: "After leaving Taos with Carpio, a Native American friend I had met during the filming of Human Highway, sitting in the front seat of his car, I wrote this song, "Thrasher". Driving through the magnificent beauty of New Mexico, the words just kept coming to me. I saw the eagles circling, the deep canyons, the road ahead, reflecting on my journey through recent years, and thankful to be where I was." The song's music bears similarity to Young's previous song "Evening Coconut," which he wrote about his boat. In the song's lyrics, he uncharitably describes his CSNY bandmates as "dead weight." Young explains in a 1985 interview: "Well, at that point I felt like it was kind of dead weight for me. Not for them. For me. I could go somewhere and they couldn't go there. I wasn't going to pull them along, they were doing fine without me. It might have come off a little more harsh than I meant it, but once I write I can't say, 'Oh, I'm going to hurt someone's feelings.' Poetically and on feeling it made good sense to me and it came right out. I think I'd be doing a disservice to change it based on what I think a reaction would be. I try not to do that." Young chose not to perform the song for several years after its initial release, due to his reaction to a particularly harsh review of the song. He would tell a 2014 audience "This song, you know, I did it, I haven't done it that much in my life because at a very vulnerable moment I read something about it. Just like the worst fucking review I've ever read. So for all your reviewers, if you feel like your words don't mean anything, you're probably right, but in that case, in that case they were damaging. So, anyway, I think I got this, I think this it's the one here. I hope so."

Pink Floyd - waiting for the worms, 1979

"At this point in the album, protagonist Pink has lost hope ("You cannot reach me now") and his thinking has decayed ("no matter how you try"), telling his listeners to "walk on by" before the song takes a more aggressive turn. In his hallucination, he is a fascist dictator, fomenting racist outrage and violence"

Steve Hackett - spectral mornings, 1979

"The album finishes with the title track, which began life as a vocal piece. However, after Hackett played the vocal melody to his band on the guitar, Pete Hicks decided that the track sounded "great as it is", telling Hackett to "keep the piece as an instrumental", leading Hackett to joke later on that Hicks talked himself out of a job on the track. It has become his signature instrumental from his solo career. Many progressive rock guitarists, such as Steve Rothery (from Marillion), consider this track to be an inspiration."

Art Garfunkel - bright eyes, 1979

"Bright Eyes" is a song written by British songwriter Mike Batt and performed by Art Garfunkel. It was written for the soundtrack of the 1978 British animated adventure drama film Watership Down. The accompaniment was re-orchestrated for the film from its original form as a pop song. The original pop track appears on British and European versions of Garfunkel's 1979 Fate for Breakfast and on the US versions of his 1981 album Scissors Cut. "Bright Eyes" topped the UK Singles Chart for six weeks and became Britain's biggest-selling single of 1979, selling over a million copies. Richard Adams, author of the original novel, is reported to have hated the song."