Castle Rock - Johnny Hodges & His Orchestra

Castle Rock - Johnny Hodges & His Orchestra

2:49

Castle Rock, 1955

Written by Al Sears

Hodges was in Duke Ellington's band before he became a solo artist. This jazz number features dueling saxes — Hodges' alto and Al Sears' tenor — with interplay from trombone and trumpet.  It's light and buoyant, a cool, sophisticated swing instrumental, with '50s cool slides and bends from the sax.  A toe-tapping, swaying melody with nothing flashy or forced.

Country Honk - the Rolling Stones

Country Honk - the Rolling Stones

3:07

Let It Bleed, 1969

Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards

Fun fact: this is the original version of "Honky Tonk Women," the much more successful single.  This one features some steel guitar work and a fiddle, and Jagger sings in an affected country twang.  Ry Cooder claimed that he showed Richards a country riff he was working on, and a few days later the Glimmer Twins came out with this song, admittedly an outlier in their usual blues-rock repertoire.  Some people believe it, most Stones fans don't.  While it's a fun singalong, the whole thing comes off to me as a bit of a joke, and I can see why the later rock version is more popular.

Chilly Winds - Odetta

Chilly Winds - Odetta

2:41

Odetta Sings Ballads And Blues [2005 bonus tracks], 1956

traditional

Starting with some beautiful guitar lines, Odetta sings this folk ballad in a powerful contralto.  I'm reminded of Dylan's "Worried blues," which lifts the line "I'm going where the chilly winds don't blow," and also of "Kingsport Town," with its references to wind and rhetorical wondering who will take care of the girl when he's gone.  Anyhoo, Odetta brings strength and majesty to what is ultimately a rather slight folk blues about leaving for a warmer clime.  In the context of the civil rights movement its lyric hints at better times that may be coming.

Colorado - Manassas

Colorado - Manassas

2:52

Manassas, 1972

Written by Stephen Stills

What about that credit?  This song (and album) is credited to Manassas, the group, on Wikipedia, and it's true Stills and Co. did release another album under that name. Spotify and probably some other people seem to consider this a Stills album, but I'd rather be correct than go with the crowd.  So, the band is Manassas, a Stephen Still side project.  This song is country-folk-bluegrass in the vein of Gram Parsons, with CSNY-style harmonies.  The narrator is a proud mountain man, living alone and loving the mountains and the wind in the pines.  He may want a woman to share his life, or he may not.  That's up to her, he reckons. "Come a woman who wants to be near / Me and my mountains, we'll be right here."

Sex & Drugs - A Giant Dog

Sex & Drugs - A Giant Dog

2:16

Pile, 2016

Written by Sabrina Ellis and Andrew Cashen

"I can't even remember being young," Sabrina Ellis wails on this song.  It's a punk anthem about living fast and hoping you last.  "All the hearts that we broke / And all the liquor and coke / All the weed that we smoked / We were so hungry and broke."  Fun Kinks-style guitars, anthemic vocals, and a pulse-pounding, bouncing, almost vaudeville piano line over thumping bass.  It's short, swift, and energetic.

Sugar And Stress - The English Beat

Sugar And Stress - The English Beat

2:55

Special Beat Service, 1982

Written by Roger Charlery, Andy Cox, Everett Morton, David Steele, Dave Wakeling, and Wesley Magoogan

A jittery jolt of ska-pop mixed with a bit of post-punk paranoia. Built on a skanking rhythm guitar and a brisk, driving beat, the song churns with tension.  The melody is brisk and sweet, but the mood is teeth-gritting anxiety.  "This world is upside down / The rights and wrongs don't get much wronger / Mistakes found in the past turn into rules protecting power."  Dave Wakeling’s vocals are quick and clipped, shooting out lines like a man trying to stay cheerful while clearly coming unglued. Sax stabs and dub lines keep the energy unpredictable, and there's a nervous edge to everything, like the whole song's on the verge of a panic attack.

Sittin' and Thinkin' - The Spencer Davis Group

Sittin' and Thinkin' - The Spencer Davis Group

2:57

Their First LP, 1965

Written by Spencer Davis

I know so little about these British R&B-influenced rock groups of the '60s.  This group had Steve Winwood on guitar and vocals as well as the titular Davis, who I guess only played guitar?  Maybe he did some vocals.  It was said, perhaps tongue in cheek, that the group was named after Davis because he didn't mind doing the interviews.  This song is a typical blues, very harmonica-heavy, with some real train-sound chugging harmonica near the end.  The lyrics are likewise primitive, standard blues fare.  "Just want to know yeah the reason / You treated me so unkind."  It's a fine blues shuffle, but nothing special.  There's only one reason why these guys became famous and their black influences didn't, and it's not the former's exceptional talent.

The Song Of a Hundred Toads - The Handsome Family

The Song Of a Hundred Toads - The Handsome Family

2:24

Singing Bones, 2003

Written by Rennie Sparks and Brett Sparks

This is a story song of the Old West, of the kind Marty Robbins sang, except if Robbins had been brought up by Nick Cave and had a grim baritone rather than a jolly one.  In it, the narrator is making his way to a gold man with a cart and his dog, but the horse and cart tip over, his dog runs, and he wanders on foot, presumably dying of thirst days later.  "In handfuls of dust from between the dying weeds / I laid down in the dirt as the sun lost her glow."  It could have been a chapter in Lonesome Dove.  

Selling Out - Tom Lehrer

Selling Out - Tom Lehrer

2:18

The Remains Of Tom Lehrer, 2003 (recorded 1953)

Written by Tom Lehrer

I've been a big fan of the satirist Tom Lehrer for many decades now.  He was a math professor who could have been his era's "Weird" Al, but shunned the limelight.   He put all his songs in the public domain.  He was a political progressive way, way before it was cool and he wasn't afraid to point at our society's hypocrisies and errors, and even name names.  So I know most of his brief oeuvre — but not every single song.  For example I don't listen to the spelling songs he made for "Electric Company."  So, while "We Will All Go Together" is a more appropriate send-off, this jaded look at artistic ideals vis-a-vis commercialism is a new one to me.  "I've always found ideals / Don't take the place of meals."  Wise words.  RIP to a genius.

Forty Days - Ronnie Hawkins

Forty Days - Ronnie Hawkins

2:15

single, 1959

Written by Chuck Berry, 1955

This song is a cover of Berry's "Thirty Days," with the titular deadline changed for some reason.  Hawkins pus a rockabilly spin on it with some echoing backing vocals, and a jittery guitar and boogie-woogie piano.  The narrator of this song affirms that he's going to get the judge, the sheriff, a gypsy to put a "hoodoo" on his lady, even the FBI and the United Nations, to help him get his woman back.  Mister, she's just not that into you.