NPR's 50 Favorite Songs Of 1971
Today, NPR celebrates the 50-year anniversary of our first on-air original show. For five decades, NPR and our member stations have shared the responsibility — and privilege — to serve the individual listener and promote their personal growth. To honor our time spent together, we turned back the clock and reflected on the impeccable sounds of our genesis year. From the timeless expression of social unrest in Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" to the transportive, community building experience of John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads," 1971's wide-spanning sonic achievements are featured below.
These are NPR's 50 favorite songs of 1971, as selected by our member stations.
All of our station picks are available to stream on the NPR50 Spotify and Apple Music playlists. And you can discover fantastic music programming happening across the country by clicking the links to each member station's website.
Joan Baez, "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"
"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," written by Robbie Robertson, became a gold hit for Joan Baez. Its narrative about a poor white Southerner whose brother died in the Civil War doesn't feel so progressive from a contemporary view. Taken at face value, it seems to be hailing sympathy for the enslavers. But, sung by one of folk music's most persistent advocates for desegregation and peace, it strikes a different tone. Perhaps what has stood up over time is the lyric's challenges: to recognize humanity on both sides of any conflict and to acknowledge that oppression and war don't make anyone free. —Kim Ruel, Folk Alley
The Band (with Bob Dylan), "When I Paint My Masterpiece"
Cahoots was not one of The Band's greatest albums and "When I Paint My Masterpiece" may not be one of Dylan's best songs — I'm no critic — but it hit me hard when I first heard it, and it still does. The European cabaret atmosphere of Garth Hudson's accordion, Levon Helm's genuine American roots voice and the suggestive, evocative lyrics appealed to a young man who had grown up in Texas in a family not steeped in the fine art of Western Civilization. But I had recently spent several months in Europe culminated by performing in the streets and tiny clubs of Rome and Athens. As life changing as that was, I was still glad to "get back to the land of Coca-Cola." Testimony to the song's power can be found in the spectrum of those who have covered it: The Grateful Dead, Emmylou Harris, Elliot Smith, Tim O'Brien and Blake Mills. —Larry Groce, Mountain Stage
Black Sabbath, "Sweet Leaf"
"Sweet Leaf" ranks pretty high on the roster of Black Sabbath songs that make us wonder, "is this satire or just a journal entry set to lyrics?" Whatever the case, this particular chemical-dependent character piece has topped its companions as a radio favorite across generations. Between the song's delayed-cough intro, whoa-inducing lyrics and less-than-steady tempo control, "Sweet Leaf" and its sativa-scented sludge laid the seeds of the grunge and stoner metal to come two decades later. This beloved pothead anthem boasts a simple but saturated bass and guitar riff, whose heaviness negates its repetitiveness (at least the first fifty times) and whose basic power chord structure has made it a go-to for amateur rock guitarists. —Jack Anderson, KUTX
David Bowie, "Changes"
One more year and a beguiling persona shift would catapult David Bowie to global rockstar status, but 1971's Hunky Dory is where he broke new ground. "Changes," the album's lead track and unlikely first single, would become the bellwether of Bowie's enigmatic career — one where he declared his identity as a shapeshifting artist and a provocateur of pop culture. What started as "a kind of throwaway" nightclub song parody, according to Bowie, was a precocious work that merged cabaret, beat poetry, folk and mod rock in one fell swoop. It gave him the ear of all the exuberant and defiant misfits, outsiders and aliens who would join him over the following five decades. In fact, "Changes'' would be the final song Bowie ever performed live, in a 2006 duet with Alicia Keys. —Michelle Bacon, 90.9 The Bridge
