That's All Right - Jimmy Rogers

That's All Right - Jimmy Rogers

2:50

single, 1950

Written by Jimmy Rogers

Well, "Written" by Jimmy Rogers.  Muddy Waters said it was Robert Lockwood's song; others say that Othum Brown wrote basically the same song in 1947.  But it's usually credited to Rogers, and has become a standard.  This, by the way, is entirely different than the Arthur Crudup song often given the same title.  Little Walter plays harmonica on this recording.  It's a lost love blues song, with the title meant ironically: "Please tell me baby, what's getting wrong with you? / You don't treat me halfway right baby, nothing like you used to do / But that's alright."

Tungs - The Frights

Tungs - The Frights

2:50

You Are Going To Hate This, 2016

Written by the Frights?

The Frights are categorized as surf rock or dirty doo wop, but on this song they slow things down to a sort of low-fi garage pop, with a hint of surf guitar.  Lyrically, the song extols the virtues of being young and uncertain and getting hickies.  The lyrics, while unfortunately repeated ad nauseam as is usual in this genre, are arch and self-deprecating: "Do you like my style? Have you seen my shoes? / 'Cause they've been ripped to shit from walking the world for you."  Now that's a declaration of love.  Cole Porter, eat your heart out.

Too Late (band version) - Bob Dylan

Too Late (band version) - Bob Dylan

6:17

Springtime in New York: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 16 (1980-1985), 2021 (recorded 1983)

Written by Bob Dylan

This meandering, measured Infidels outtake is basically an early draft of what would become "Foot Of Pride," but contains several original lines, and musically, it's a wholly different piece.  It's a relaxed recording — you can practically hear Dylan composing it on the fly, rewriting mentally as he goes along — stream of consciousness in the best Dylan way.  I love the offhand nature of the lyrics that would later be sharpened and hissed out with venom: "How to enter the gates of paradise? / Nah, not really, more like how to go crazy from carrying a burden that's never meant to be yours."  As a worshiper in the church of the Unblemished Bob, I adore this living rough draft.  

Teach Me Tonight - Dinah Washington

Teach Me Tonight - Dinah Washington

2:47

single, 1954

Written by Gene De Paul and Sammy Cahn, 1953

A jazzy torch song that's entirely a come-on.  The narrator coyly asks someone to play the teacher and demonstrate a few lessons in love.  The lyrics approach uncomfortable territory at times from the point of view of the woke 2020s ("One thing isn't very clear, my love / Should the teacher stand so near, my love? / Graduation's almost here, my love"), but Washington's voice is such a brilliant, alluring instrument that if you're getting hung up on the outdated metaphor, you aren't using your ears.

2-Tone Army - The Toasters

2-Tone Army - The Toasters

3:20

Hard Band For Dead, 1996

Written by the Toasters

This new wave ska song is meta, a commentary on the scene and music itself: "With a nineties beat on a fifties sound / They're wearing bomber flights / Combat boots, skater pants and sixties suits."  From the perspective of a music listener in 2024 bloated with Jamaican reggae, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Rancid, this is a decent, toe-tapping ska number, but a bit lacking in energy.  In the "120 Minutes" MTV era, it was a blast.

Timebomb - Beck

Timebomb - Beck

2:49

single, 2007

Written by Beck and the Dust Brothers

This Grammy-nominated single sounds like a celebration with an apocalypse lurking underneath. Its playful, ominous duality is embodied in the mocking vocals.  Beck's desire to be Prince is prety palpable here as the song is propulsed by dumb party energy, synths, and shifting textures.  It's dynamic and throbs with motion and potential energy,  However, the key there is the potential.  It's all unresolved tension.  There's no climax when the countdown reaches its conclusion, only unanswered questions and the repeated "We got a time bomb / Na na na na / We got a warning light."  The repetition definitely burrows its way into your ear, but the bomb never explodes, the red alert fading away.

She Hangs Out - the Monkees

She Hangs Out - the Monkees

2:56

Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.

Written by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller

Written by a murder's row of top songwriting talent, and with a nod to the Crystals' "Da Do Ron Ron" (itself co-written by Greenwich), this is a peppy pop song very much in the vein of the 1950s and early 1960s vocal groups.  Lyrically, it's a warning about a nice young girl, someone's sister, who, rumor has it, "hangs out" (read: may be getting around).  "I know you taught your sister the boogaloo / I heard you taught your sister the shigaling too / Well she can teach you a thing or two."  On this song, the Monkees were finally playing the instruments, though of course they were joined by a cast of literally dozens of other musicians to fill out their sound.

Streets Of Bakersfield - Dwight Yoakam and Buck Owens

Streets Of Bakersfield - Dwight Yoakam

2:48

Buenas Noches From a Lonely Room, 1988

Written by Homer Joy, 1973

Yoakam got Buck Owens, who originally released this song, to do it with him as a duet.  It prominently features a Mexican accordion, giving it a bouncing, jaunty rhythm, belying the lyric which tells of a restless drifter looking for a brighter road, only to end up in jail.  "I've spent a thousand miles of thumbin' / Yes, I've worn blisters on my heels / Trying to find me something better." The song is an example of the Bakersfield sound, a country genre marked by rock and roll and honky-tonk influences, and its heavy use of electric instrumentation and backbeats. 

Soul No. 5 - Caroline Rose

Soul No. 5 - Caroline Rose

3:09

Loner, 2018

Written by Caroline Rose

This song is a delightful blend of hip-hop sensibilities, dance, synth-pop, and surf rock.  The lyrics tread the familiar ground of materialism and partying, but I have a feeling Rose delivers them tongue firmly in cheek.  "I got the goochi goochi gooey oozy icky oozy style / I do a hair flip, I strut my stuff / You whispering at me / I can't hear you, I say, What?"  I read that Rose's first two albums were serious, political Americana, but on this one she felt more free to explore her full spectrum of influences and whole personality.  Based on this catchy, playful track, this was a good move.

Samuraï - Shurik'n

Samuraï - Shurik'n

3:51

Où je vis, 1998

Written by Shurikn

Shurik'n rappe avec une gravité presque magistrale. Sa voix mûre et légèrement éraillée donne du poids à ses réflexions sur la rue, la violence et le passage à l'âge adulte. Il dépeint un monde où il faut apprendre très jeune comment à survivre, tout en gardant la tête froide: « Tiens bon, regard froid, ne fais pas le guignol / Œil au beurre noir : mieux vaut en mettre un qu'en prendre un ». Comme le suggère le titre, Shurik'n est un accro de culture japonaise, un cousin français du Wu-Tang Clan.  Donc, il se présente comme un guerrier prêt à « mourir en samouraï ». L'instrumentale, empruntée au compositeur moderne Bruno Coulais, avec sa pulsation régulière et accrocheuse, s'accorde parfaitement avec ce rap sombre et réfléchi.

Salt Peanuts - Dizzy Gillespie

Salt Peanuts - Dizzy Gillespie

3:17

single, 1945

Written by Dizzy Gillespie and Kenny Clarke, 1941

This bebop tune, also called "Salted Peanuts," was featured on the 1955 compilation album Groovin' High, but from what I can find, this is probably a 1945 recording with Charlie Parker on alto sax.  Al Haig also contributes an understated, virtuosic piano.  The song is a contrafact of the Gershwins' "I Got Rhythm."  As was common with jazz and blues of the time, the only lyric is a repetition of the title, here in a mischievously sotto voice, as a counterpoint to the melody.

Ray Charles - Old 97's

Ray Charles - Old 97's

3:15

Early Tracks, 2000 (recorded 1995)

Written by Rhett Miller, Murry Hammond, Ken Bethea, and Phillip Peeples

Over a familiar Johnny Cash shuffling train-track beat, Miller lays out a broken-heart sob story: he's broken up with his girl, and he wants her back, or maybe some other girl.  It's a solid alt-country rocker, covering ground that the Old 97's have well travelled, so why it wasn't included on Wreck Your Life remains a mystery.  I particularly like the situation that many music lovers find themselves in of associating certain songs with pivotal moments, including heartbreak: "We put on Ray Charles and broke up / You were packed and gone when I woke up / Ray just kept on singing / He had Georgia on his mind."

Red Vines - Aimee Mann

Red Vines - Aimee Mann

3:44

Bachelor No. 2 or, the Last Remains of the Dodo, 2000

Written by Aimee Mann

This song is a cautionary tale about fame and its fleeting nature, something that Mann was grappling with at the time of the recording.  "Everyone loves you, why should they not? / And I'm the only one who knows / That Disneyland's about to close."  In a just world, Mann would be even more critically lauded.  This song features her terrific, wry vocals, an understated guitar, and beautiful piano lines that evoke Burt Bacharach.

Riot Radio - The Dead 60s

Riot Radio - The Dead 60s

2:25

The Dead 60s, 2005

Written by the Dead 60s

This is a decent ska-punk song.  It's got a Franz Ferdinand guitar riff, and while the title recalls Rancid, it doesn't have anywhere near Tim Armstrong's energy.  The band was definitely influenced by the Clash, and this song is derivative of their later stuff, but nothing original.  The attitude is sneering, but to me it sounds like these Liverpool lads are just phoning it in.

Range Life - Pavement

Range Life - Pavement

4:55

Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, 1994

Written by Stephen Malkmus

This placid drone-folk song's lyrics were alleged to mock contemporary alternative rock superstars the Smashing Pumpkins and the Stone Temple Pilots; they refer to the former as "nature kids" with "no function" and while ceding that the Pilots "look foxy to me," conclude "I will agree they deserve absolutely nothing / Nothing more than me."  As a result, Billy Corgan refused to play Lollapalooza if Pavement was on the bill, and Pavement was kicked off.  Wow, what a sensitive fragile little baby.  

The Rubberband Man - The Spinners

The Rubberband Man - The Spinners

3:33

Happiness Is Being with the Spinners, 1976

Written by Thom Bell and Linda Creed

My first exposure to this song was watching Lynda Carter perform it, wearing a stunning blue dress, with a band made of sentient rubber bands on "The Muppet Show."  I won't say it broke my brain, but it definitely made an impression.  Anyhoo, the song came about when songwriter Thom Bell's son Mark was being teased by his classmates for being overweight. It was written to improve his son's self-image: "I was so surprised, I was hypnotized / By the sound these cats put down / When I saw this short, fat guy / Stretch a band between his toes."  Is that... is that body-positive and affirming?  The backing singers "do-do-do-do" chorus reminds me of "Love the One You're With."  I like how the bass line of the song recalls the sound of a rubber band. Bassist Bob Babbitt reportedly ran his bass through a device he called a "funk box," whatever that is.

Queen Of Memphis - Confederate Railroad

Queen Of Memphis - Confederate Railroad

3:20

Confederate Railroad, 1992

Written by Dave Gibson and Kathy Louvin

I've never heard of this hit-making country band, but they served as the backing band for David Allen Coe and Johnny Paycheck.  That make this tidbit from Wikipedia all the more hilarious: "Lead vocalist Danny Shirley was the only band member to record any parts for the album. Shirley only performed lead vocals on the album. Session musicians played all the instruments on the album and performed all background vocals on the album."  They're a fake band!  Anyway, this song is a hummable number about a lost love, appealing to down-home nostalgia ("I saw stars dancing on the water / I heard Elvis singing 'Blue Suede Shoes'").  Bright piano lines and steel guitar keep your head bopping.

Queen Of the Hop - Bobby Darin

Queen Of the Hop - Bobby Darin

2:14

single, 1958

Written by Woody Harris

Listening to this early rocker with its Fats Domino horns and rattling percussion, it's hard to imagine that Darin would develop into a velvet-voiced Sinatra-lite singer of great expression and range.  It's a very era-typical paean to a sweet little sixteen, with short shorts, dancing in the bandstand, lollipops, and so forth.  Like many songs of the era, it references other hits and dance crazes of the time: "Well you can talk about your Julie and your Peggy Sue / You can keep your Miss Molly and your Mary Lou / When it comes to the chicken or to doing the hop / I've got a girl they call the queen of the hop."  The name "Julie" might reference a 1958 hit by the Crescendos, "Oh Julie."

(Quicksilver Daydreams Of) Maria - Townes Van Zant

(Quicksilver Daydreams Of) Maria - Townes Van Zant

4:45

Townes Van Zant, 1969

Written by Townes Van Zant

Originally recorded for Townes' 1968 debut album, For the Sake of the Song, this song was later rerecorded for his third, self-titled album. The original is considerably faster and has different accompaniment; this version slows the song, injecting it with a warm pathos and regret.  It's an achingly beautiful love song, a portrait of an idealized muse rendered with romantic Spanish guitar and violin, both played by Van Zandt.  It features some of his most deeply moving, almost Shakespearean lyrics: "Well, the diamond fades quickly when matched to the face of Maria / All the harps, they sound empty when she lifts her lips to the sky."

Quick! - Magnetic Fields

Quick! - Magnetic Fields

2:28

Love at the Bottom of the Sea, 2012

Written by Stephen Merritt

In this tongue-in-cheek song, a woman gives her lover a final chance to salvage a doomed relationship.  Can the other person say or do something to stop her walking out the door?  Merritt's the supreme songwriter of snark and broken love, and his wit is on full display in the lyric.  "Get me a drink of something quick / Between your outrageous remarks / Like the mating calls of sarcastic sharks / Quick, before you can't take that back / Just before it all goes black."  Shirley Simms handles the vocals here; he picked her for half the vocals on the album, and her everyday, expressive voice is a great fit.  

Quincentuple Your Money - The Lawrence Arms

Quincentuple Your Money - The Lawrence Arms

3:02

Present Day Memories, 2001

Written by Brendan Kelly, Chris McCaughan, and Neil Hennessy

This fiery punk song gives me Rancid vibes, in a good way.  It starts with a melodic opening on the bass against a guitar onslaught, before Brendan Kelly's ragged vocals kick in with the first verse.  Lyrically, it's impressionistic, suggesting images of soldiers killed in action, forgotten towns, kids with no community, and people mindlessly watching TV while empty inside.  "There's a girl in this town who doesn't know I exist / There's a wounded sense of pride and a pain in my fist / There's twelve empty bottles on this table tonight / There's four lungs on fire and four burning eyes."

Pickle Song - Jordan Smart

Pickle Song - Jordan Smart

3:01

single, 2023

Written by Jordan Smart

In vocal delivery, guitar and percussion arrangement, organ, and pacing, there is no avoiding this song's remarkably close similarity to "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream"-era Dylan.  The resemblance is so strong, I can't help but wonder if it's a deliberate parody.  In the song,  pickles are an allegory for immigrants or any other minority group oppressed by right wing jingoists:  "I don't ask no one for nothin', work hard as I can / It seems to me that pickles got it easier than man / I say we go on down to the local grocery store / Round up all them pickle jars and smash em on the floor."  It's not heavy-handed, and sung with the jovial acerbity of an Arlo Guthrie, and there's a groaner of a pun in the final line that makes me forgive everything else:  "But you can keep them Kalamatas, because we all know olives matter."

Paris Is Burning - Ladyhawke

Paris Is Burning - Ladyhawke

3:49

Ladyhawke, 2008

Written by Philippa Brown, Roy Kerr, and Anu Pillai

This '80s throwback track is an unabashedly retro blend of synth-pop, electro beats, and huge, infectious choruses, yet clever production and Brown's fiery, vulnerable vocals keep it sounding surprisingly fresh rather than merely nostalgic.  Lyrically, it flashes impressions of a drunken, besotted night in Paris: "All of the boys and the girls here, in Paris / Sing to the night without sight, but with madness / I can't keep up, I'm a wreck, but I want it / Tell me the truth, is it love or just Paris?"  It's a catchy track, but (as I find with most dance music), repeats the chorus ad nauseam and grows wearisome to those listening with ears and not hips.

Peace Train - 10,000 Maniacs

Peace Train - 10,000 Maniacs

3:28

In My Tribe, 1987

Written by Cat Stevens

Natalie Merchant's voice is as always a wonderful instrument, but this cover, while pleasant enough, is inessential.  The band doesn't radically transform the song or give it a new energy, though they do a fine job echoing it.  More interesting is the controversy: while it was initially included on the band's third album, it was removed from all future pressings after Stevens' less than full-blown disavowal of the fatwa against Salman Rushdie.  It was, however, included on their set of rarities.

Proletariat Blues - Blue Scholars

Proletariat Blues - Blue Scholars

3:56

The Long March EP, 2005

Written by George Quibuyen

The Blue Scholars sound like a less bombastic Disposable Heroes, a Public Enemy who don't need the sirens or military imagery to talk straight about class warfare.  The song critiques the dead-end job options of uninterested teenagers, the underemployed college educated who can't get jobs better than telemarketer, and middle management watching the C-suite grow rich.  "It seems that we never get paid for what our labor is worth / It's why we often in a daze on our way to our work / And when we get there, we can't wait to be out."  The beat is minimalist, the enunciation precise and clipped; the urgency of the message is the focus.

Preservation - Aesop Rock and Del the Funky Homosapien

Preservation - Wu-Tang Clan

2:27

Wu-Tang Meets the Indie Culture, 2005

Written by Del the Funky Homosapien & Aesop Rock

Spotify and many other sites list the Wu-Tang Clan as the contributing artist of this track, but I'm pretty sure that's only because they put their name on the compilation album it's on.  As far as I can tell, the Wu-Tang Clan had nothing to do with it.  An irresistibly catchy piano line over sharp percussion provides the beat, and the lyric is the usual chainsaw-through-a-dictionary braggadocio common to indie hip-hop artists: "Sprout tryna out the older alligator fade away / Make his day, please, I chisel the missile gently / Blast when the waggin' little finger condescends me."  All right then!

Ophelia - The Band

Ophelia - The Band

3:32

Northern Lights - Southern Cross, 1975

Written by Robbie Robertson

This is a funky throwback Dixieland shuffle, with New Orleans style sax lines and Levon Helm on lead vocal. sounding regretful but undeterred.  The lyrics tell of the narrator's attempt to find the titular Ophelia, who has left town, apparently in a hurry ("Boards on the window, mail by the door / What would anybody leave so quickly for?").  Some critics see Ophelia as a black woman in a Southern town, forced to flee because of Southern attitudes towards interracial relationships with the white singer: "Honey, you know we broke the rule / Was somebody up against the law?"  The line "Please darken my door" seems to further support this interpretation.  

Oh Death - Dock Boggs

Oh Death - Dock Boggs

3:23

single, 1963
Attributed to Lloyd Chandler

With stark guitar work and a deep, croaking voice that seems to come from the depths of the grave itself, Boggs engages in a peroration with death personified, in which he begs for a reprieve: "Oh, death, please consider my age / Please don't take me at this stage / My wealth is all at your command / If you will move your icy hand."  The song has an ancient, almost medieval tone.  Boggs was in the 60s (having been "rediscovered" by white people) when he recorded this, and his sometimes tremulous voice adds a gravity and realism to this tête-à-tête with mortality.  

Overtime - Zach Bryan

Overtime - Zach Bryan

3:10

Zach Bryan, 2023

Written by Zach Bryan

This is a down-home country banger with rock sensibilities.  It's a declaration of being a loner, a maverick, a working man who didn't listen to the naysayers.  "But I been scrapin' by my whole damn life / And granddaddy worked a double 'til the day he died / Said, Never let this world's earthly pride get you down."  It's got a singalong groove, and Bryan is a fine lyricist, but to me the delivery lacks the fireball energy that the words inhabit.  Maybe he's been working so hard, he's too tired to give the take the oomph it deserves.  

One Less Set Of Footsteps - Jim Croce

One Less Set Of Footsteps - Jim Croce

2:47

Life And Times, 1973

Written by Jim Croce

This breezy folk-rock song describes a failing relationship, and the narrator's realization that it's time to leave: "And we've been hidin' from somethin' that should have never gone this far / But after all it's what we've done that makes us what we are / And you've been talkin' in silence, well, if it's silence you adore / Oh, there'll be one less set of footprints on your floor in the morning." The "one less" phrasing implies that the lover may have had a series of footsteps on the floor, jeans on the door, "one less man to walk in."  The arrangement, leaning on piano and guitar, features terrific harmonies emphasizing the ends of the lines.  It makes an interesting juxtaposition, the brightness of the delivery contrasting with the sad situation; perhaps the narrator has been looking forward to leaving for a while.

Old And Only in the Way - Charlie Poole

Old And Only in the Way - Charlie Poole

3:29

single, 1928

Written by Charlie Poole and Norman Woodlieff

Poole's rudimentary banjo fingerpicking is supplemented by a plaintive violin in this old-timey tearjerker, whose lyric is so maudlin that it veers into satire: "And sure for death ofttimes they do pray / For himself and faithful wife been toiling all their lives / To find they're old and only in the way."  It's genuinely bleak, but there's something almost darkly comic about just how thoroughly the song wallows in the misery of growing old and unwanted.