Night Nurse - Gregory Isaacs

Night Nurse - Gregory Isaacs

4:10

Night Nurse, 1982

Written by Gregory Isaacs, and Sylvester Weise

This is a prime example of lovers rock, the easy reggae style introduced to white people by the Clash in their song of the same name.  Over a slow-burning synth beat, Isaacs delivers his delicate, smooth vocals, calling for the only one who can heal the pain of a broken heart.  "I don't want to see no doc / I need attendance from my nurse around the clock."  I love the pleading croon in his voice even as he gets self-referential: "Tell her it's a case of emergency / There's a patient by the name of Gregory."  Hilarious!

Wasted Days And Wasted Nights - Freddy Fender

Wasted Days And Wasted Nights - Freddy Fender

2:52

Before the Next Teardrop Falls, 1975

Written by Wayne Duncan and Freddy Fender, 1959

Many people know this song from the Sir Douglas Quintet version, or the live versions by singer Doug Sahm.  The Quintet released it in 1971, four years prior to this recording, but it's actually a Fender original from 1959.  On this re-recorded version, Fender dedicates the song to Sahm in appreciation for his prior recording: "Wherever you are, brother!"  With his wavering falsetto, Fender sings like New Orleans version of the Ink Spots' Bill Kenny.  His voice soars over some polished pedal steel lines and a tinkling country piano.  The lyrics, about a lost love, feature a first line with some interestingly mangled Spanish-influenced grammar: "Wasted days and wasted nights / I have left for you behind / For you don't belong to me / Your heart belongs to someone else."

Night Spots - The Cars

Night Spots - The Cars

3:13

Candy-O, 1979

Written by Ric Ocasek

Featuring Ocasek's yelping, tense lead vocal, this jumpy, jittery song is all synth-driven, New Wave rhythm.  With a pulsing bass line, it evokes the chaotic, strobe-like atmosphere of the titular club: "You go dancing in the dim lit club / Some pressure cooker crawls up on his knees / Flashing sensation like a one on one / Stomping around in the jitterbug breeze."  This didn't end up being one of the big hits from this album, but it was a crowd and band favorite, being played in many live shows.

The Gardener - The Tallest Man On Earth

The Gardener - The Tallest Man On Earth

3:57

Shallow Grave, 2009

Written by Kristian Matsson

This neo-Americana love song disguised as murder ballad is an extended metaphor: the gardener is the first-person narrator, slaying a series of rivals (a spy, a runner) who might reveal to his love that he isn't quite the man he makes himself out to be.  "I know the runner's going to tell you / There ain't no cowboy in my hat / So now he's buried by the daisies / So I could stay the tallest man in your eyes, babe."  Matsson's high vocal yelp, what you might call a twang if he wasn't Swedish, brings to mind the backwoods bluegrass and ballad singers of the "old, weird America."

Gold Past Life - Fruit Bats

Gold Past Life - Fruit Bats
3:29

Gold Past Life, 2019

Written by Eric D. Johnson

Sounding like a fusion of Supertramp and the Bee Gees, this piano-based song with wavering falsetto vocals is a throwback of disco-inspired soft rock.  The lyrics are somber, contrasting with the bright poppy music, but mimicking the sonic blast from the past, the message is entirely about looking back at lost time and lost love: "You used to dance in the night / With a girl you loved so much / You used to look her in the eyes as the nightbirds sang."

Get Up Offa That Thing - James Brown

Get Up Offa That Thing - James Brown

4:10

single, 1976

Written by Deanna Brown, Deidre Brown, Yamma Brown

This song's credit is, of course, a boondoggle; James gave credit to his wife and daughters for tax reasons.  The story goes that Brown was inspired by an audience that remained seated during a funk performance.  Thus, this half-chanted, hand-clapping exhortation to "Get up offa that thing / And dance till you feel better."  A big bold brass section with saxes, horns, and trombones accompanies bass and drums, and the whole thing was recorded live in studio.  Sometimes I look back at this era and wonder at the sheet talent that today's artists can only dream of.

Greaze Mode - Skepta

Greaze Mode - Skepta

2:48

Ignorance Is Bliss, 2019

Written by Joseph Adenuga, Nathan Adams, Clayton Gavin, Andrew Mair, and Vonkeli Williams

A duet with some rapper named Nafe Smallz, this is the typical rap puffery, all boasting about ganja, being rich, and having girls.  The Nigerian-British Skepta does touch on his heritage in a couple of lines ("I'm gonna need some palm wine / I'm gonna need some pepper soup") but mostly this is about smoking, flexing, grinding, and partying.  It's a fun song with a catchy beat, but nothing essential.

Grand Salami Time! - The Baseball Project

Grand Salami Time! - The Baseball Project

3:21

Grand Salami Time!, 2023

Written by Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey

The title of this song is titled after a line that Seattle Mariners announcer Dave Niehaus would say when a grand slam was hit.  I like how the first line of the song is "Dying quails and frozen ropes," the title of the supergroup's first album.  This whole song is a statement of purpose, crammed as it is full of baseball terms of art, such as "Open the window, Aunt Minnie, here it comes!"  That's Pittsburgh Pirates radio sportscaster Rosey Rowswell's trademark salutation for a home run by a Pirate.  This would be followed by a sound effect of shattering glass.  The gays (and gal) in this band are so talented and exuberant, even a non-fan like myself can't help loving their sports-infused pop rock.

Hope - R.E.M.

Hope - R.E.M.

5:01
Up, 1998

Written by Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe, and Leonard Cohen

This song is not a collaboration between Athens' finest and the Greatest Canadian Songwriter, but, as becomes obvious as soon as you hear it, a credit was given to Cohen due to the song's similarity both lyrically and sonically to his "Suzanne."  Lyrically, the song is addressed to someone facing a medical scare: "You want to trust the doctors / Their procedure is the best / But the last try was a failure / And the intern was a mess."  The addressee looks to science and religion and salvation anywhere, any kind of deliverance, no matter how foolish the hope seems.  "You want to cross your DNA with something reptile."  I read this as having insane hopes, like wanting aliens to come save you with their advanced technology, to undergo a science experiment no matter how far-fetched, like the Lizard in Marvel Comics who wanted to regrow his arm with reptile DNA.  It's grim and terribly touching.

Hot For You - The Blades

Hot For You - The Blades

2:18

single, 1980

Written by Paul Cleary

This slice of crazily catchy New Wave power pop has a sound ahead of its time.  Sure, it evokes the jittery pop of the Buggles and even Elvis Costello, but it's also got the jangle power riffs of the Rembrants.  Lyrically, the song expresses rock's timeless theme of trying to get with the opposite sex, especially as the dreary winter months wane.  "The rain is gone, the sun is stronger now / So cast aside your inhibitions / And your raincoats too / The pretty gals are lying on the sand / They're trying their best to get their bodies tanned." They straddle the line effortlessly between tongue-in-cheek and earnest with that syllepsis and the corny rhyme.