The First Cut Is the Deepest - P.P. Arnold

The First Cut Is the Deepest - P.P. Arnold

3:05

The First Lady Of Immediate, 1968

Written by Cat Stevens

Although Stevens recorded his own version of this song of a love gone wrong, Arnold beat him by a couple of months.  Steven's lyrics hit like an arrow to the heart, accurately capturing that peculiar mixture of loneliness and heartbreak in the wronged: "I still want you by my side / Just to help me dry the tears that I've cried." describing the feeling of heartbreak and Arnold's soulful vocal, full of pathos and regret, matches the helpless feeling of the lyric. The song was a hit single for six different artists: Arnold, Stevens, Keith Hampshire in 1973, Rod Stewart in 1977, Papa Dee in 1995, and Sheryl Crow in 2003.

Silver and Gold - Noah and the Whale

Silver and Gold - Noah and the Whale

3:24

Heart of Nowhere, 2013

Written by Charlie Fink

This is a song that wears its influences on its sleeve.  The very first line references Neil Young's classic albums: "Well, I was looking for harvest, but I only found silver and gold."  The song is structured around a repetitive simple percussion line, but when the chorus kicks in, the synth riff, vocal delivery, and even the lyric strongly evokes the Talking Heads' "This Must Be the Place."  It's a song that asks for faith in love in a time of confusion and uncertainty, but doesn't offer any promises.  "And you’re just hanging on to a glimmer of hope / Of the life you had before / But it's too late."

Something's Gotta Give - Frank Sinatra

Something's Gotta Give - Frank Sinatra

2:38

Come Dance With Me!, 1959

Written by Johnny Mercer, 1954

My favorite version of this song is from Ella Fitzgerald's phenomenal, powerful race through it on her Johnny Mercer Songbook album of five years later.  But Frank does an admirable job here; he's in fine voice and gives it that brash, youthful energy he had then, adding a "let's tear it up" ad-lib at the and.  But to me, the band takes center stage here, blaring nonstop brass flourishes throughout, and sharing about equal time with Frank.  Maybe this song could stand a few more verses.

Shake, Rattle and Roll - Sam Cooke

Shake, Rattle and Roll - Sam Cooke

3:24

Night Beat, 1963

Written by Charles Calhoun, 1954

Elvis made this song popular with the white kids, although Big Joe Turner recorded the sly, buzzy original.  Cooke's smooth vocal delivery makes the lyric less a sleazy come-on, so the words, when you discern them, come as rather a surprise.  There's a lascivious verse that the King eschewed: "Ah, you're wearing them dresses / The sun come shining through / I can't believe my eyes / All of that belongs to you."  And a later refernece to a "one-eyed cat / peeping in a seafood store" strikes me as a pretty sly innuendo.

Show Me the Man - The Fighting Men From Crossmaglen

Show Me the Man - The Fighting Men From Crossmaglen

2:50

single, 1997?

Written by Kathleen Largey

This song, about which there is very little information on the internet, is also known as "I love Old Ireland."  It's usually grouped with Irish rebel songs, a genre I grew up absorbing, but it's really more of an Irish patriotic anthem (it lacks both accounts of desperate rebel bravado and vituperation for the English).  The narrator boldly proclaims that he stands with country, even if friends and foes mock him for it.  Then comes the boast, "There's not an Irishman today would ever wish to roam / Into a foreign land to live, if he could live at home."  Maybe, but around 1900-1930 there were more than a few takers for ould Amerikay.

Straighten Up and Fly Right - Nat King Cole

Straighten Up and Fly Right - Nat King Cole

2:36

The Nat King Cole Story, 1961

Written by Nat King Cole and Irving Mills

Cole originally released this song in 1944; he re-recorded it for this album with a jaunty tune and cheery male backing vocals.  It's a humorous fable in which a monkey is being carried by a buzzard, who tries to throw him to the ground.  The monkey manages to get his tail around the bird's neck and, presumably, forces him to land.  It shares a similar plot and moral with Rudy Greene's "Buzzard Pie."  Cole's song was based on an African-American folk tale that his father had used as a theme for one of his sermons. 

SuperNatural Possession - Laura Jane Grace

SuperNatural Possession - Laura Jane Grace

2:05

Stay Alive, 2020

Written by Laura Jane Grace

The songs on this album were born of the COVID pandemic and the election it came just before.  Grace recorded them without embellishment, often only with acoustic guitar and maybe a drum machine.  This song is delivered with the usual vitriol and growl.  Is Grace talking about an ex-love or something bigger, maybe a zeitgeist of doom?  "I'm having a hard time having a fun time / I’m having a hard time finding faith in myself" were mantras on a great many people's minds as they remained unscathed but saw the destruction and dumb-fuck ignorance helping it right along.

Make America Great Again - Frank Turner

Make America Great Again - Frank Turner

3:28

Be More Kind, 2018

Written by Frank Turner

Our president is an obese, demented narcissistic kleptomaniac sex criminal.  Found guilty of rape, a serial cheater and all over the Epstein files, his lying and open, naked corruption is enough to make the sleaziest African warlord green with envy.  But while he's a danger, he's only a symptom; he's not even the real problem.  The real black mold all over America's beautiful surface is the millions of people who think this shitbag of a human, who embodies all seven deadly sins, is somehow comparable to Jesus and will follow him blindly into hell because he tells them they're better than people of color.  So happy birthday, America.  I'm sorry you're being strangled to death by power hungry sadists.  I'm hoping you're strong enough to survive if it ever lets up. "Let's make America great again / By making racists ashamed again."  Great song, one of Turner's best.

Mountain Music - Alabama

Mountain Music - Alabama
3:39

Mountain Music, 1982
Written by Randy Owen

A song of hillbilly nostalgia, referencing the lead singer's Tom Sawyer-like childhood.  "Climb a long tall hickory / Bend it over, skinnin' cats / Playin' baseball with chert rocks / Usin' sawmill slabs for bats."  In the middle section, the song pauses for some good old fashioned bluegrass picking.  With a catchy chorus, harmony and traded vocal lines, and the perfect blend of country and Southern rock, this is a ballad that gets airplay to this day even on classic rock stations, deservedly.

The Marriage - Billy Bragg

The Marriage - Billy Bragg

2:32

Talking with the Taxman About Poetry, 1986

Written by Billy Bragg

In this song, the narrator is trying to convince his girlfriend, and maybe himself, that he doesn't need to get married, that their relationship can stay as it is with no labels and legal commitments.  "How can it make that difference / If you and I are wearing / That bloody, bloody ring."  Near the end of the song, however, the narrator may be reconsidering his position.  Perhaps "marriage is when we admit / Our parents were probably right."  Unlike Bragg's very early works which feature his brash, heavily accented vocal and his electric guitar, here a trumpet and flugelhorn give the song a fuller and more serious, dare we say respectable, edge.