Early Roman Kings - Bob Dylan

Early Roman Kings - Bob Dylan

5:14

Tempest, 2012

Written by Bob Dylan

Melodically, this is one of the most stripped-down songs Dylan ever recorded. The band locks into a simple, repetitive blues groove and barely budges. Dylan's vocal is even more extreme: rather than singing a conventional melody, he mostly declaims the lyrics like a street preacher. As is nearly always the case in his later material, Dylan's lyrics meander, contain non sequiturs, quote snippets of this and that, toss out lines both surreal and profane, evoke a dark world of gangsters, power brokers, and conflict: "I was up on black mountain the day Detroit fell / They killed them all off and they sent them to hell / Ding Dong Daddy, you’re coming up short / Gonna put you on trial in a Sicilian court." Whether Dylan is talking about ancient Rome, modern street gangs, or power itself hardly matters. The song is about people who believe their authority is permanent, who assume the world will always work in their favor. The relentless groove reinforces the idea that this is how things are, this is how they've always been, and this is how they'll always be. However, the lyric tells us that empires do crumble and fall.

Exactly Like You - Sam Cooke

Exactly Like You - Sam Cooke

2:11

My Kind Of Blues, 1961

Written by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields, 1930

A triumphant love song, in which the narrator declares he's been waiting all his life for someone who is a perfect fit.  "Now I know why mother taught me to be true / She meant me for someone, baby / Exactly like you."  The singing is superb, of course, and the tempo is energetic, especially when it gets to the inner rhymes that often were used in songs of the era: "You seem to understand / Each foolish little dream I'm dreaming / And the schemes I'm scheming." Pace the album title, musically this isn't blues, but big-band swing.

Ever Fallen In Love - Nouvelle Vague

Ever Fallen In Love - Nouvelle Vague

3:29

Athol Brose, 2016

Written by Pete Shelley, 1978

The album title refers to a Scottish drink made by mixing porridge, honey, whisky, and sometimes cream.  That's all well and good, although this laid-back, cool '60s Euro-bossanova cover of the Buzzcocks is maybe more of a mojito or Old Fashioned vibe.  The clave percussion and high, tinny strings offer up views of a beach side bar.  This song was also covered ten years earlier on the band's album Bande à Part, sung by Mélanie Pain; this version is sung by Cuban-French singer Liset Alea, whose vocal delivery is, to my ear, delivered with more of a come-hither smirk.

Everything's On TV - The Hellacopters

Everything's On TV - The Hellacopters

3:15

Rock & Roll Is Dead, 2005

Written by Nicke Andersson

This is a '70s-style revival rock track, with a guitar solo in the middle that could have come straight out of the Allman Brothers.  The Hellacopters are a Swedish rock band with enough swagger and glam to make you look past the serviceable, but hardly novel, attack on television culture.  There are a couple of witty lines here ("The world's in a hurry but I don't have to worry / I got my virtue and I got my vice / I got bedsores, aching ligaments galore / Now that's a tiny sacrifice"), but mostly it's taking potshots at an easy target.  Not that rock songs have to have syllogistic arguments.  Fist-pumping is sometimes enough.

Engine Joe - Slobberbone

Engine Joe - Slobberbone

2:26

Barrel Chested, 1997

Written by Brent Best

This is a story song, somewhat in the vein of Chuck Berry, about a guy who runs a barbecue stand, but he used to be a mechanic until he hurt his hand somehow.  "Why ya gotta talk about Engine Joe / Like he's some guy in a fairy tale book? / Everybody knows that he just cooks / Baked beans and brisket in a BBQ stand."  He meets a funny little lady who is also a rodeo clown, and they settle down together.  Best's terrific acoustic guitar work gives his tossed-off growling vocal a nice platform.  The band's name, by the way, is ostensibly from a dog toy, but every woman I have ever mentioned this band to reacted with disgust, immediately assuming the more vulgar meaning.  

Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye - Sonny Rollins

Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye - Sonny Rollins

3:23

The Sound Of Sonny, 1957

Written by Cole Porter

Sonny Rollins died yesterday at the ripe old age of 95.  What better send-off for the great tenor saxophonist than this terrific Cole Porter song?  Legendary drummer Roy Haynes, nicknamed "Snap Crackle," provides a terrific high metallic counterpoint to Rollins' fluid and conversational sax lines.  I like it when jazz artists don't play too many ideas and let the melody speak up.  Rollins gives Porter's beautiful melody some respectful space.

Lawdy, Miss Clawdy - Lloyd Price

Lawdy, Miss Clawdy - Lloyd Price

1:51

single, 1952

Written by Lloyd Price

I didn't think all that much of Price's "Where You At?", but this song, which features Fats Domino on piano, is an R&B classic that popularized the New Orleans sound and helped shape rock and roll.  It was hugely influential.  Elvis covered it a few years later; Larry Williams' "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" is said to be a reworking of it.  Price's vocals are impassioned, and Domino's rolling piano lines give it a solid groove.  Legendary drummer Earl Palmer provides the backbone, and there's a smooth sax solo at the midpoint. 

Lo And Behold! [take 1] - Bob Dylan & the Band

Lo And Behold! [take 1] - Bob Dylan & the Band

2:53

The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete, 2014 (recorded 1967)

Written by Bob Dylan

This take is fairly similar to the second, the one that ended up on the 1975 Basement Tapes, except for a few very minor alterations in the lyric, some (presumably stoned) laughing by Dylan, and fancier organ trills by Garth Hudson.  What makes these takes fascinating is not radical reinvention but the glimpse they offer into Dylan's process.  It's raw music, songs discovering themselves, a blend of old-timey Americana, parody, and folk archeology.   Even the laughter (as on the false start on "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream") becomes part of the music’s charm.

Locomotion - Carole King

Locomotion - Carole King

2:30

Pearls: Songs Of Goffin & King, 1980

Written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King

This is the same song titled "The Loco-Motion," released first by Little Eva.  King's not the brash vocalist that Little Eva is (although, to my astonishment, I read that a couple of people allege that King is the actual singer of Eva's 1962 track, and I guess they do sound a little similar).  This is a more muted version, built on piano lines, with a cool '70s-style sax solo in the middle.  As everyone knows, the lyrics describe a dance ("Now that you can do it, let's make a chain, now / A chugga-chugga motion like a railroad train, now"), but contrary to popular opinion, the dance was inspired by the song, not the other way around.

Lord, Send Me An Angel - Blind Willie McTell

Lord, Send Me An Angel - Blind Willie McTell

2:55

single, 1933

Written by Blind Willie McTell

I really don't think there's anyone quite like Blind Willie McTell; there's no overstating his songwriting and influence.  In addition to being a great 12-string player with a unique voice, he wrote songs that mixed the profane, the lecherous, and the surreal in a brew sampled often in the later works of Bob Dylan.  This song begins with the narrator asking God for an angel; the best God can send him is a "teasin' brown."  Some verses boasting of his attractiveness to women follow, and then, in a whiplash-causing change of topic, some advice about not eating black hens' eggs, and: "My baby studyin' evil, and I'm studyin' evil too / I'm gonna hang round here to see what my babe gon' do."  He has three women after him!  "One is Atlanta yellow, another one Macon brown / But the Statesboro darkskin will turn your damper down."  So... now you're forewarned.

Luck Be a Lady - Willie Nelson

Luck Be a Lady - Willie Nelson

3:05

That's Life, 2021

Written by Dean Kay and Kelly Gordon

I think it's fair to say that Frank Sinatra owns this song.  Willie doesn't exactly make it his own, but he has the skill of effortlessly inhabiting any song of any genre and making it fit.  As always, his vocal is impeccable, but I'm not sure I care for the arrangement.  It's brash and melodramatic, which is fine by itself, but juxtaposed with Willie's laid-pack singing style, it feels odd.  It's all Rat Pack-style big brass stabs and '60s-era orchestral stings, and the result is less intimate and authentic than I would have wished.

When I Write the Book - Rockpile

When I Write the Book - Rockpile

3:16

Seconds Of Pleasure, 1980

Written by Dave Edmunds, Billy Bremner, Nick Lowe, and Terry Williams

You can hear the Elvis Costello influence in this catchy Britpop song about a broken heart, or maybe you can hear Nick Lowe's influence in Declan's music?  I think they influenced and supported each other; why didn't they ever form a songwriting tea?  They would have given Lennon/McCartney and Difford/Tilbrook a run for their money.  Over a muscular drum backbone and towering organ lines, Lowe sings his literate lines of love: "And when I write the book about my love / It will be about a man who's torn in half / About his hopes and ambitions wasted through the years / The pain will be written on every page in tears."

Wherefore Art Thou, Elvis? - The Gaslight Anthem

Wherefore Art Thou, Elvis? - The Gaslight Anthem

3:02

Señor And the Queen, 2008

Written by Brian Fallon, Alex Rosamilia, Alex Levine, and Benny Horowitz

Fallon's Springsteen fixation is on full display on this song, which is no bad thing.  If you're going to follow in the footsteps of others, you might as well pick one of rock's great storytellers. Like Springsteen, Fallon writes in vivid, cinematic fragments of highways, prayers, summer nights, desperate hopes, all charged with the yearning of a young man trapped between romance and economic frustration: "I need a Cadillac ride, I need a soft summer night / Say a prayer for my soul, Señorita." Fallon has always worn his influences on his sleeve, and other master songwriters he admires pop up too: "Between the minor chord fall and the fourth and the fifth / It's a broken Hallelujah and a pain in my fist" gives the song a Cohen-like scriptural gravitas.  Fallon provides his own backing vocals here, double-tracking "ba ba ba" on his main song, giving his urgent, gritty bellow even more power.

We're Breaking Up - Against Me!

We're Breaking Up - Against Me!

3:57

White Crosses, 2010

Written by Laura Jane Grace

This is a raw, powerful song of the end of a relationship.  There's no finger-pointing, no dredging up the past, no wishful thinking or even regret.  Just a bleak assessment of a relationship dead in the water.  "It's the same way that it's always been /  The dynamic to the relationship never changes / You can't get what you want from me, and I can't get what I need from you."  The narrator laments the paucity of language: "This is the only way I know how to say we're not in love anymore." Despite the grim picture painted at the end of Grace's throat-shredding, impassioned delivery, the real emotional punch ends it: "I'm not giving up on us."

Wendy - The Beach Boys

Wendy - The Beach Boys

2:22
All Summer Long, 1964

Written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love

Despite being a casual fan of the Beach Boys all my life, more or less, I've never heard this one, which hit #44 on the Billboard Charts.  It's one of those songs in which the guy mopes because his girl left him.  "I never thought a guy could cry / 'Til you made it with another guy."  In the fine tradition of dumped dudes of any era, the narrator casts aspersions on Wendy's new beau: he's a liar, his future looks dim.  But as I've said before, there's never any accountability in these songs.  It's a decent early Boys track, though I find the high organ notes a little jarring.

When I Come Around - Water Tower

When I Come Around - Water Tower

2:40

single, 2026

Written by Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tré Cool

I had high hopes for this bluegrass version of the Green Day classic. The original already runs on wiry momentum and melodic directness, and Water Tower have the right ingredients on paper to transform it into something ragged and exuberant. Instead, the performance feels oddly restrained.  The fiddle brings some welcome bounce, but the banjo and acoustic guitar settle into a lower-energy groove that never quite catches fire.  Above all, the vocalist seems fairly sedated.  Nothing is incompetent; the band is decent, the arrangement pleasant, but overall it conveys the impression that the band had to be cajoled into doing this cover rather than excited by the prospect.  

I've Got Gratitude! - Jake Minton

I've Got Gratitude! - Jake Minton

2:59

What Is Joy?, 2026

Written by Jake Minton?

This is a children's song, very informed by Weird Al Yankovic, especially in the elastic vocal delivery, but with a thunderous rock track behind it.  As the title says, this song encourages kids (and adults) to stop wallowing and poisoning everyone else's mood.  It's corny but sweet, especially when the silly voices and children's chorus come in, and anyway, it's well-intentioned and the songwriting is top-notch.  Check out these genuinely clever lines: "I got power to make it better / But I’m never gonna do it while I’m whining ’bout the weather / If I rain on your parade / It's only gonna make me wetter." That's the sort of solid, memorable wordplay that makes good children's music.

First, You've Got to Recognize God - The Burnadettes

First, You've Got to Recognize God - The Burnadettes

single, 1963

Written by George Fowler

The Burnadettes are an obscure female group on Divinity, Motown's gospel label.  This is a fiery, vocal-heavy gospel of the thundering denunciation variety.  There's not much melody beyond a few organ lines behind the voices, but I do enjoy the way the song points an accusing finger at book-learned nerdlingers: "Biologists, neurologists, psychologists, geologists / Out of all of the knowledge that you learned in college / First you've got to recognize God."  The whole point of the song is to say that you can't take credit for anything, even your innate intelligence, as it too came from God.

I've Got the World On a String - Frank Sinatra

I've Got the World On a String - Frank Sinatra

2:08

single, 1953

Written by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler, 1932

Backed by Nelson Riddle's buoyant arrangement, Sinatra's vocal on this love song glides with conversational ease, stretching and clipping phrases so naturally that the performance feels almost improvised.  It's the song of a guy who's happy with everything because he's in love: "Life is a beautiful thing / As long as I hold the string / I'd be a silly so-and-so / If I should ever let it go."  The orchestra swings without heaviness: crisp brass punches, dancing strings, and a subtle rhythmic bounce that gives the song its forward momentum. Sinatra doesn't over-emote, but he builds up over the course of the song, showing of his remarkable lungs at the final chorus. 

She's Got Something - Jimmy Ballard

She's Got Something - Jimmy Ballard

2:49

single, 1952

Written by Jimmy Ballard and Charles Kanter

This is a laid-back honky-tonk, the dim shores of rockabilly just barely visible during the fiddle and guitar solos.  It's a winking double-entendre song lyrically, risqué-for-the-time in the same way as "I'm Going To Give It To Mary With Love."  As in that droll ditty, this one hints at some sexual mystery ("Oh, she's got something I've always wanted / And I have tried so hard to get / But every time I ask her for it / All she can say is 'Please not yet"'"), only to reveal the quotidian punchline at the end: it's her telephone number.

I've Got Dreams To Remember - Otis Redding

I've Got Dreams To Remember - Otis Redding

3:15

single, 1968

Written by Zelma Redding, Otis Redding, Joe Rock

A deeply soulful R&B about that most common of subjects: the jilted lover.  "I know you said he was just a friend / But I saw him kiss you again and again."  What elevates this song beyond heartbreak cliché is the sheer emotional authority of the performance. Released after Redding's death, the song showcases his incredible vocal power, his voice moving from wounded restraint to ragged pleading without ever losing control.  I believe that Steve Cropper is playing electric guitar with Booker T. on the keyboards.  The horns and backing vocals maintain the dignity of Memphis soul, but Redding increasingly sounds as if he's barely holding himself together, especially when he mutters "rough dreams" and "bad dreams" beneath the refrain.  It's the sound of a man trying to sing himself through betrayal.

Pistol Packin' Mama - Al Dexter & His Troopers

Pistol Packin' Mama - Al Dexter & His Troopers

2"48

single, 1943

Written by Al Dexter

This hillbilly honky-tonk was later covered by artists as diverse as Gene Vincent, the Flamin' Groovies, Bing Crosby, and John Prine.  It's a sort of novelty song, or at least a humorous one.  The narrator is out drinking beer and having fun with ladies when his old lady (the "mama" is an epithet for paramour, not the woman who birthed him) comes in with a gun.  Out go the lights and out go the ladies.  He promises that he'll woo her every day and put away his old ways, but, it seems, to no avail: "Now there was old Al Dexter, he always had his fun / But with some lead, she shot him dead; his honkin' days are done."  Sad!

Jamaica Farewell - Harry Belafonte

Jamaica Farewell - Harry Belafonte

3:05

Calypso, 1956

Written by Irving Burgie, a.k.a. Lord Burgess

This is a gentle mento folk song about someone, presumably a sailor, who is leaving Kingston and a lovely girl the narrator met there.  The lyrics evoke detailed memories of a cherished place ("Down at the market you can hear / Ladies cry out while on their heads they bear / Ackee rice, salt fish are nice / And the rum is fine any time of year"), sung in Belfonte's delicate, precisely enunciated baritone.  It's an emotional declaration of nostalgia wrapped in a beautiful melody.

Just Walkin' In the Rain - Johnnie Ray

Just Walkin' In the Rain - Johnnie Ray

2:37

single, 1956

Written by Johnny Bragg and Robert Riley, 1952

This song has an interesting origin.  It was written by two convicts in Tennessee State Prison, or, more precisely, composed by one convict, Bragg, who gave Riley songwriting credit for writing the lyrics down for him.  Bragg recorded the song in 1953 with his band, the Prisonaires.  Lyrically, the song is a plaint of a man walking around missing his lost love: "Just walkin' in the rain / Gettin' soakin' wet / Torturin' my heart / By tryin' to forget."  Ray's version has a crisp vocal over Ray Conniff's strings, a catchy whistle, and a male chorus that echoes his lines.  I guess it's not Ray's fault that he would become one of the first of many white artists to get rich and famous popularizing black music while the original artists stayed obscure.

Jamaica Say You Will - Jackson Browne

Jamaica Say You Will - Jackson Browne

3:26

Jackson Browne, 1972

Written by Jackson Browne

This bittersweet maritime folk tale of a song is the story of a girl, Jamaica, whom the narrator loves and stays a time with ("Jamaica was the lovely one, I played her well / As we lay in the tall grass where the shadows fell"), but as the daughter of a sea captain, she belongs to the ocean and her native shores.  The narrator helps her load the ship for home on the docks one dark sad night, and must decide to accompany with or lose her.  Browne sketches the relationship in soft, impressionistic strokes, with their romance feeling temporary from the beginning due to lines about hiding from others. Musically, the song drifts with a gentle, melancholy grace, Browne's piano and voice carrying the emotional weight without overstatement. 

Juliet As Epithet - Hamish Hawk

Juliet As Epithet - Hamish Hawk

2:39

A Firmer Hand, 2024

Written by Hamish Hawk, Andrew Pearson, Stefan Maurice and Alex Duthie

This song is more direct and much less florid lyrically than most of the other Hamish songs I've heard and loved.  That's both a good and bad thing, depending on your interest.  Personally, what I fell in love with immediately upon hearing him was the double-barrel blast of his gorgeous voice and his kaleidoscopic, enigmatic explosion of words.  Here, the song is clearly about a love affair that fizzled out.  "So goddamn handsome he makes me anxious / He holds my hand through the sad advances / Why wouldn't he though / I'm just the open secret no-one's ever gonna blow."  It's at a stately tempo, the vocals dignified and subdued, over synths, another change from his typical baroque sound.

Weightless Again - The Handsome Family

Weightless Again - The Handsome Family

3:37

Through the Trees, 1998

Written by Brett Sparks and Rennie Sparks

This song, like the rest of its album, was written after Brett Sparks was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and hospitalized.  The song's lyrics reflect this grim and probably frightening time.  Disjointed images of an Indian tribe who must carry burning sticks, having forgotten how to start a fire, dying of TB after contact with the white man, are interspersed with memories of a first kiss, sitting in a motel room reading, and suicide by overdose and leaps from the Golden Gate Bridge.  These eerie lines land like punches to the brain, powerful despite being delivered in an offhand, almost lazy baritone.

Kiss Me When You're Through - WIllie Nelson

Kiss Me When You're Through - Willie Nelson

2:45

The Border, 2024

Written by Willie Nelson and Buddy Cannon

A love letter that twists the genre on its head by playing down the power of pretty words, this gentle ballad cedes that there may be dark times in love.  You may say you hate the other person.  You may not show up for them.  You may not complete their dreams.  "And you tell me that you wish / That you never heard of me / When you close your eyes / I'm not the one you see."  Sometimes love inspires strong feelings of a different kind.  But once that's all out of your system, the narrator says to his paramour, "kiss me when you're through."  Sometimes you don't need words.

Mississippi Train - Fred Neil

Mississippi Train - Fred Neil

2:15

Bleeker & McDougal, 1965

Written by Fred Neil

Neil is best known as the writer of "Everybody's Talkin," made famous by Harry Nilsson, but he has some serious folk-blues chops.  This song starts with a Beatles-like harmonica into (by John Sebastian!), then moves into a shuffling blues with electric guitar.  Neil's low register makes the song seem straight out of the Delta swamp (deliberately: "She's going to the bayou / The bayou where the river flows"), when really he was a talented white guy from Cleveland.

Ferry Cross the Mersey - Gerry & the Pacemakers

Ferry Cross the Mersey - Gerry & the Pacemakers

2:24

Ferry Cross the Mersey, 1964

Written by Gerry Marsden

This song was produced by George Martin.  It's a soft, slow ballad and a love letter to the loves shores of England, where people are accepting and smiling.  Huh.  I guess maybe it was different back then?  "So ferry 'cross the Mersey / Cause this land's the place I love / And here I'll stay."  It's more than a bit corny, but the shimmering strings and woodwinds, no doubt arranged by Martin, give it a sweet and tender vibe.

Sunglasses After Dark - Dwight Pullen

Sunglasses After Dark - Dwight Pullen

2:08

single, 1958

Written by Jimmy Noble and Dwight Pullen

This is a terrific rockabilly single from Pullen, a guitarist for Gene Vincent who previously recorded under the name Whitey Pullen.  He changed it because he thought Dwight would sound better to the teenagers buying records.  The song, the spiritual grandfather to both "Sunglasses at Night" and "Cheap Sunglasses," extols the virtues of looking sharp when wearing sunglasses after dark.  It's tongue-in-cheek, describing a fight in which no one comes out on top because all the participants, in their cool shades, could barely see.