Falling And Laughing - Orange Juice

Falling And Laughing - Orange Juice
3:51
You Can't Hide Your Love Forever, 1982
Written by Edwyn Collins

The only thing I know about this Scottish post-punk band is that Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian considers them one of the greats.  With a droning, jangle-pop sound reminiscent of the Smiths and R.E.M., this song, their debut single, combines hesitant, vulnerable vocals with bright guitars and keyboard lines.  The lyrics tell of a love denied the narrator: "You say that there's a thousand like you / Well, maybe that's true / I fell for you and nobody else / So I'm standing here so lonesome."

Listening To the Rain - Doc & Merle Watson

Listening To the Rain - Doc & Merle Watson
3:14
Home Sweet Home, 1998 (recorded 1967)

Written by Don DeVaney, 1967?

This bluegrass number, like the entire album it's on, is a blend of old and new recordings.  The label took thirty-year-old tapes and digitally added the fine instrumentation of Marty Stuart, mandolinist Sam Bush, and others to fill out the duo's sound.  Merle's skill at the banjo is evident on the recording: his lightning-fast picking adds a jauntiness to the otherwise quite bleak lyric ("The beating on the window can't compare with the beating that I'm taking / The window's gonna hold, but look at me, I'm already breaking").  Note: This song was first officially released by the Osborne Brothers in 1970, but since every source I found insists these Watson tapes are from 1967, I can only assume DeVaney wrote the song earlier than the Osborne released it.

Dancing Barefoot - U2

Dancing Barefoot - U2

4:45

single, 1989

Written by Patti Smith and Ivan Král, 1979

I didn't know until I wrote this up that this was a Patti Smith song.  The Edge's driving guitar riff on this track is a great complement to Bono's hissing, murmuring, crooning vocals.  The lyrics are impressionistic, depicting a state of confusion, falling, wholly subsumed in some mysterious woman who has the singer in thrall. The homophone at the end of the chorus — "I'm dancing barefoot / Heading for a spin / Some strange music drives me on / Makes me come up like some heroine" leaves the interpretation open that the narrator may be talking about a very real addiction to a drug.

Pissing In a Wishing Well - Dusk

Pissing In a Wishing Well - Dusk
3:51

Glass Pastures, 2023

Written by Dusk?

The previous Dusk song I covered, “Too Sweet,” featured Julia Blair on vocals; this one leans more toward country-rock, with drummer Amos Pitsch taking a turn behind the mic. It comes in with a slow drumbeat driving a breezy, laid-back melody, before the lyrics give the song a little jolt of energy. The whole thing has a relaxed, groovy feel, but the playing is tight and polished enough that the band's ease and camaraderie shows though; this is a group that gels live, you can tell. It's an easy rocker with strong Jayhawks influences, Ryley Crowe’s pedal steel whining over trilling '70s rock'n' roll licks while the rhythm section lays down a solid bed for Pitsch's pleasant vocals.

Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love) - The Swingin' Medallions

Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love) - The Swingin' Medallions

2:21

single, 1966

Written by Don Smith and Cyril Vetter, 1963

The Medallions are a septet of clean-cut nerds who play beach pop, yet have the stones to drop the G in "swinging" to show their hepness and add screaming party noises to this song.  But the real audacity is singing the song itself (originally recorded by Dick Holler and the Holidays), which is as risqué a tale as you'll find outside of prewar blues.  "She loved me so long and she loved me so hard / I finally passed out in her front yard."

California (All the Way) - Luna

California (All the Way) - Luna

4:15

Bewitched, 1994

Written by Dean Wareham

I don't usually care for shoegaze or this type of dreamy pop, but the laid-back Velvet Underground by way of Yo La Tengo sensibilities in this song hit me where it feels right.  It's a wistful, beautiful song of love not so much going wrong as simple fading away.  "Why can't we smile just like we used to? / Why don't you figure anymore? / Why has my sympathy now turned to malice? / It doesn't matter anymore."  It's restrained and atmospheric, riding on a gentle groove; even the guitar solo is relaxed, at least until the final moments, when jagged freeform riffs fade us out.

Pulling Mussels (From the Shell) - Squeeze

Pulling Mussels (From the Shell) - Squeeze

3:58

Argybargy, 1980

Written by Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook

With a one-note guitar solo followed by an intricate piano solo, this catchy, bright number isn't the typical pop song.  But then, Squeeze isn't the typical pop band.  The lyrics limn a vivid picture of typical British beach scenes: topless ladies, surfers, people reading books on the sand; meanwhile the narrator apparently is giving his girlfriend a standing manual orgasm: "But behind the chalet, my holiday's complete / And I feel like William Tell / Maid Marian on her tiptoed feet / Pulling mussels from a shell."  His aim is accurate, he's pulling her up towards him, the mussel a Georgia O'Keefe representation.  It's an extraordinarily graphic idea to hide inside such a cheerful, radio-friendly pop song, made even funnier by the song's breezy, almost innocent delivery. More evidence that most people doesn't listen to lyrics.

Hurtin' (On the Bottle) - Margo Price

Hurtin' (On the Bottle) - Margo Price

4:12

Midwest Farmer's Daughter, 2016

Written by Margo Price, Mark Fredson, Jeremy Ivey, Caitlin Rose

Despite being something of a young'un (well, when she started), this is a classic country tonk song with steel guitar and lyrical sensibility that could come straight out of the pen of Hank Williams: "I put a hurtin' on the bottle / Baby now I'm blind enough to see / I've been drinking whiskey like it's water / But that don't touch the pain you put on me."  The delivery, though, is pure vintage Dolly, with a bright twang and an easy-going pace, as if she wasn't running from demons so much as chilling with them.

That's Right (You're Not From Texas) - Lyle Lovett

That's Right (You're Not From Texas) - Lyle Lovett

4:55

The Road To Ensenada, 1996

Written by Lyle Lovett, Willis Alan Ramsey, and Alison Rogers

The Texas Tourism Board used this light-hearted song in ads for Texas.  With rollicking boogie-woogie piano and steel guitar, this is a catchy, tongue-in-cheek celebration of Texas pride and a gentle jab at outsiders playing cowboy. Lovett also tips his hat in the lyrics to Uncle Walt's Band, a South Carolina group that Lovett was a fan of and became part of Austin's musical scene: "Those boys from Carolina / They sure enough could sing / But when they came on down to Texas / We all showed them how to swing." It's funny, affectionate, and quintessentially Lovett, and despite the Texas Tourism Board, more amused than boastful about Texas exceptionalism.

Simple Song - The Shins

Simple Song - The Shins

4:15

Port Of Morrow, 2012

Written by James Mercer

This melodic slice of power-pop was inspired by Mercer's wife, and is thus a love song of sorts ("Remember walking a mile to your house, a glow in the dark / I made a fumbling play for your heart and the act struck a spark"), but I read that it was also inspired by the departure of some Shins band members, which the chorus hints at: "I know that things can really get rough when you go it alone / Don't go thinking you gotta be tough, to play like a stone / Could be there’s nothing else in our lives so critical / As this little home!"  Since the Shins is basically a one-man show at this point, maybe their place in that particular home wasn't all that critical after all.