The songwriting was stellar and there wasn't one wasted note anywhere. They used dynamics, which back then was understood to be not only necessary for making music that was pleasant for your brain to listen to, as in being able to "take a breath" as it were, but was also actually a secret weapon.
They understood rhythm and singing rhythmically, and that was a huge bonus. Speaking of bonus, the lady on the right, Marilyn McCoo, was so utterly smoking fucking hot that she gave me spontaneous bonuses, if you catch my drift. She could sing like a bird. It almost hurt to look at her back when I was a kid. It almost didn't seem fair to look at her somehow, but I didn't understand why. I do now. I bet she's still pretty hot. When I was an impressionable lad I wanted to make beautiful music with Marilyn. Speaking of beautiful music, the harmonies on the outro of Puppet Man are breathtaking. It's like the heavens open up. Give it a spin. It'll give you a lift.
The 5th D was some of the first grownup music I was allowed to listen to, and my folks bought me every one of their albums. Listening to this song definitely takes me way back, but really it could've been written this morning. If you don't remember the band you've certainly heard their monster hit "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In." They still play that song everywhere. It's been covered a million times. Marching bands play it. It's ubiquitous as they say. The first version of Puppet Man is a remastered version from 2000, and any remastering before the year 2000 was done properly and not just cranked dogshit-loud just because they can. The second version is lip-synced from an episode of a 70s TV show that starred Robert Wagner. The sound is crappy and distorted and it has gaps, probably from the original VHS tape having to be spliced, but it's a little history lesson, if you want to see what they looked like in their prime. Marilyn McCoo was pretty prime; I can tell you that. Woof. Sorry. I mean, "What a looker." Yeah, I definitely had more than one spontaneous bonus for Marilyn. How could you not? "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" is the last link. You've heard it before.
I could go on talking about how great this tune is and how the vocals are so amazing and how the chord changes are very sophisticated and evocative and how damn tight it is and how it's infinitely listenable and how it's loaded with Funk and Swing but it still rocks and so on, but if I really wanted to say what I'd like to say about the lyrics to this song; in light of some things I've learned, except for a handful of people it would probably sound crazy. Ordinarily the lyrics would be describing some girl in love, and they may be, but in light of other connections, it's hard to say. If I talked about Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In, and how it was a major milestone for a movement that's growing exponentially today, and in fact how it directly relates to this very day and into the future, I'd sound even crazier. I'll just say that it's no accident that the song has remained current and is still being played today. In fact I just saw it covered on some awards show. It has that good-time, singalong feel, and people still react to it today the same as they did back when it first came out. It was a monster hit and it still is to this day. As far as monster hits are concerned, and 70s hits that were just written at the perfect instant that the stars aligned and made the artist several fortunes, it's no "American Pie," but it's close. The song is famous for the ad-lib vocals on the outro BTW. It's taking the class to school for that type of thing. You can't do much better.
Anyway, I won't mention what I'd really like to mention. Unless you have a working belief that just maybe there are forces we can't see but which influence the physical world, there's really no point in talking about it and I'd be called a nutcase. Granted I might be called that anyway. People though will automatically call someone crazy simply because their ideas don't gel with their own. They won't even consider considering ANY new information whatsoever, because it disagrees with their beliefs. Quite possibly it's also a major roadblock to these opinionated people ever learning anything new, but they'll never give that a chance to happen. Otherwise they're fairly intelligent people. Most of them seem to think so anyway. But I digress. WhereTF was I?
Oh, yeah...the jukebox thing. I was about to hop up on my freak-ass soapbox when I should stick to the jukebox and save that shit for another post, only the difference in listening to this song now, as opposed to back than, is remarkable, but maybe only to me. There's a couple of guys on Youtube I talk to here and there, and I'm going to tell them about it. They'll eat it up and I'd bet my kit one of them will do a video on it. Sometimes there's more than meets the eye. In any case it's a rockin' tune. True to 60s Pop form it's about 2:15 long. It's time well-spent. It's an example of great Pop music. Check it out. Enjoy. Have a groovy day.
Puppet Man, remastered 2000 version, with the drum intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lohkN5f3Yo0
lip-synced from TV show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeMqYz0SYWA
Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPK7ZF6jfJE
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