Big Trucks - Pedro the Lion

Big Trucks - Pedro the Lion

2:34

It's Hard To Find a Friend, 1998

Written by David Bazan

This is a conversation song between a son and a father.  The boy, perhaps an impulsive teenager, asks his father why he took some unspecified insult calmly rather than getting physical, suggesting the father should have "beat him down to the ground."  Rather than lecture, the father, like Jesus, uses a simple metaphor to try to explain to the callous youth that other people have feelings and are trying their best as they can in this crazy old world: "There's real people in the big, big trucks / That you flip off when they get in your way."  They may not be able to go as fast as a Tran Am, but they're doing their best.  As in the parable of the sower, the father's words fall on the stony ground of his impetuous boy's ears.  Musically, it's lo-fi folk-rock, reminiscent of Yo La Tengo or Crooked Fingers.

Baltimore - Prince

Baltimore - Prince

4:34

Hit n Run Phase Two, 2015

Written by Prince

This song was inspired by the police murder of Michael Brown in St. Louis, Missouri, and the depraved-heart manslaughter of Freddy Gray in Baltimore while in a police van.  The song, with handclaps, group-chanted choruses, gospel-inspired vocals, funky guitar lines, and bright horns and strings, sounds much more positive and upbeat than the lyrical content would indicate.  "Are we gonna see another bloody day? / We're tired of the cryin' and people dyin' / Let's take all the guns away."  It's a song of hope, an exhausted plea for justice and love, not a fiery song of rage and despair.

Big City Cat - Steve Forbert

Big City Cat - Steve Forbert

2:51

Alive On Arrival, 1978

Written by Steve Forbert

I only know Forbert from the fantastic "Romeo's Tune."  When he arrived on the scene in 1978, his record company tried to market him as the new Dylan.  This was a common habit of PR guys at the time whenever a songwriter had literary lyrics and a slightly offbeat voice. The comparison never made much sense. Forbert has his own folk-rock style, and his observational songwriting has more in common with Randy Newman or Loudon Wainwright III than Dylan.  This jazzy number, featuring David Sanborn on some sweet sax breaks, describes the life of a hungry artist in the unpolished Big Apple.  Tongue firmly in cheek, Forbert describes being an anonymous cog amidst the grime and filth, the oddballs and criminals with a mix of journalist's eye and poet's dark humor: "There's some kinda lunatic followin' me / He's down by the john so I can't take a pee / I'm supposed to be happy, I'm here where it's at / I'm a face in the crowd; I'm a big city cat."

Boat Drinks - Jimmy Buffett

Boat Drinks - Jimmy Buffett

2:37

Volcano, 1979

Written by Jimmy Buffett

One of Buffett's funnier songs, this one depicts a man going stir crazy, yearning for warmer climates, as his band orders tropical cocktails and watches hockey.  "Lately, newspaper mentioned cheap air fare / I gotta to fly to Saint Somewhere / I'm close to bodily harm."  It was inspired by real events — Buffett was stuck in Boston in the winter, and stole a taxi he found idling in the street rather than stay cooped up one minute longer.  Beneath the breezy melody is an all-too-real portrait of a man whose surroundings and yearning for something better drive him to desperation, making the song both one of Buffett's catchiest singalongs and one of his sharpest comic character sketches.

Baby We're Really In Love - Hank Williams

Baby We're Really In Love - Hank Williams

single, 1951

Written by Hank Williams

With lyrics evoking the goofy talk of the doe-eyed fallen hard into puppy love ("I run around in circles / And turn in fire alarms / I'm nutty as a fruitcake / When you're not in my arms"), I doubt that Hank wrote a song as cheerful as this one.  Its brisk honky-tonk energy could even be said to hint at rock 'n' roll tempo, and in the message there's even a winking hint at sex — in country music, circle 1951, gasp!

Bourama - Kora Jazz Trio

Bourama - Kora Jazz Trio

4:40

Part IV, 2018

Written by Kora Jazz Trio

The Trio is made up of members from Senegal and Guinea who blend the rhythmic language of West Africa with the harmonic sophistication of American jazz.  This song is heavy on the balafon, an instrument akin to a xylophone.  The shimmering kora, a stringed instrument, converses with Western piano lines.  The name Bourama is linked to the Mandinka language family (found in Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, and the Gambia), where it can be interpreted as "the noble one" or "the respected one."

Sh-Boom - The Chords

Sh-Boom - The Chords

2:25

single, 1954

Written by James Keyes, Claude & Carl Feaster, Floyd F. McRae, and William Edwards

A rocking doo-wop declaration of love: "If only all my precious plans would come true / If you would let me spend my whole life lovin' you."  Sure, that's all well and good, but luckily they had the presence of mind to include the immortal words "Bom ba / Hey nonny ling long, alang alang alanga / Oh oh a dip, a bibba do a dip."  The Chords begin with a cappella harmonies before the band eases in, giving the song the feeling of a neighborhood street-corner performance that suddenly blossoms into a full production. The lead vocal has an easy, conversational warmth, while the full vocals brim with an irresistible excitement.  A sultry bass bridge takes center stage, the calm before the whole band takes over again .  Later in 1954, a palatably white version was recorded by the Crew-Cuts, but history has favored the original.

Speedoo - The Cadillacs

Speedoo - The Cadillacs

2:18

The Fabulous Cadillacs, 1955

Written by Esther Navarro

If you've ever heard the Paul Simon line "She called him Speedoo / But his Christian name / Was Mr. Earl" in the terrific song "Was a Sunny Day," and wondered what that was all about, this uptempo doo-wop is the inspiration.  Very commonly but always incorrectly listed as "Speedo," it's sung by Earl Carroll and tells of a lothario who moves fast, taking other people's girls: "Well now, they often call me Speedoo / 'Cause I don't believe in wastin' time."  Its got one of the catchiest choruses in doo-wop.

Traveling Mood - Dr. John

Traveling Mood - Dr. John

2:52

In the Right Place, 1973

Written by James Waynes, 1961

This song was written by James Waynes, who recorded under a few variations of his name.  He succumbed to alcoholism and mental issues, and died at 58.  Dr. John makes it a funky, laid-back number with whistling and lots of boogie-woogie piano fills.  It's a typical blues plaint, about how his baby gone done and left him, and he's looking all over the world to find her, but Waynes' playful lyrics make it stand out: "Said that she'd never leave me / Now she's gone away to grieve me / I was fast asleep / When she begun her midnight creep."

Silver Moon - Michael Nesmith and the First National Band

Silver Moon - Michael Nesmith and the First National Band

3:14

Loose Salute, 1970

Written by Michael Nesmith

Over pedal steel and piano, Nesmith croons a country-flavored soft pop tune of leave-taking that subtly evokes "Everybody's Talkin'," at least until that uptempo chorus kicks in.  "See the dust around my feet go churning / Moving with the winds down the highways of goodbye."  It's a bittersweet tearjerker in the old tradition, with Nesmith in a clear strong voice with a crack band behind him.  Not bad for a Monkee.

Jump Through the Hoops - Mighty Mighty Bosstones

Jump Through the Hoops - Mighty Mighty Bosstones

4:11

Question the Answers, 1994

Written by Dicky Barrett and Joe Gittleman

Starting off with a blast of horns, this is the cri de coeur of a working man who hits the daily grind from nine to five (though one verse implies he's a bartender, a job that doesn't typically have those hours).  He's got his pride.  He'd rather lay down and die than sit up and beg, even though he doesn't have a minute's rest.  As is typical with the 'Tones, the lyrics are full of the internal rhyme and assonance that Barrett loves to spit out in his rapid-fire growl: "It's up and out, rise and shine, on the double / No time to slack, attack, and tackle the trouble / Shake myself out of bed again."

Fight Fire - The Golliwogs

Fight Fire - The Golliwogs
2:32

single, 1965

Written by John Fogerty and Tom Fogerty

Perhaps more than any other band, the Golliwog story shows how the name of a band can be a deciding factor in its success.  The group toiled in obscurity for years before achieving multiple hits almost immediately after changing their name to Creedence Clearwater Revival.  Calling themselves the Blue Velvets, they originally played blues and New Orleans jazz-influenced rock.  At that point, Tommy Fogerty was more of the leader than John.  When they signed with Fantasy, they wanted to change their name to the Visions, but the label made the decision for them: they'd be credited as the Golliwogs.  This song has much more in common with British Invasion psychedelia than the sharp guitar lines and churning swamp rock they'd be known for once John's genius took the reins; indeed, it was later featured on the box set Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968.

Delta Dawn - Tanya Tucker

Delta Dawn - Tanya Tucker

2:58

Delta Dawn, 1972

Written by Alex Harvey and Larry Collins

Between 1972 and 1973, three talented divas had hits with this song: Bette Midler, Helen Reddy, and Tucker.  The song has a grim history. Alex Harvey said he wrote the song about his mother, who was an alcoholic and lived "as if she had a suitcase in her hand but nowhere to put it down."  Ten years before Harvey wrote the song, he was performing but told his mother not to come, fearing she'd get drunk and embarrass him. That night she died in a car crash (some sources say suicide).  For years Harvey suffered from guilt over the incident, until a cathartic incident the night he wrote the song.  The title character is a faded former Southern belle who remains obsessed with the long-ago memory of a suitor who jilted her: "She's forty-one, and her daddy still calls her baby / All the folks around Brownsville say she's crazy."  Tucker begins with the chorus, unaccompanied except by gospel-style backing vocals, giving the song an eerie, Southern Gothic feel right from the start.

California Cottonfields - Merle Haggard and the Strangers

California Cottonfields - Merle Haggard and the Strangers

2:46

Someday We'll Look Back, 1971

Written by Dallas Frazier and Earl Montgomery

In this story-song, the narrator recalls his childhood in Oklahoma, when his father moved the family for greener pastures: "California was his dream, a paradise, for he had seen / Pictures in magazines that told him so."  The second verse tells of the preparations and the neighbors gathering to say farewell.  There is no third verse that depicts their life in California, but aside from a line about his father's hair turning grey, the chorus says it all: "California cottonfields / Where labor camps were filled with weary men with broken dreams."

Big Boys - Chuck Berry

Big Boys - Chuck Berry

3:06

Chuck, 2017

Written by Chuck Berry

Released posthumously just after Berry's 90th birthday, this song features Tom Morello providing some thunderous guitar riffs.  Lyrically, it's familiar Berry territory, with very youthful attitudes tinged with subtle innuendo.  The narrator recalls being a little kid and wondering what those older boys are up to.  Are they drinking?  Getting their drivers' licenses?  Registering for the draft?  No, of course!  It's at a high school dance that he realizes it's girls that make the world go around: "Till the school dance when I first met you / And I learned to party like the big boys do."

Autumn Almanac - The Kinks

Autumn Almanac - The Kinks
3:13
single, 1967

Written by Ray Davies

Ray Davies said of this song that the words were inspired by a man who swept up the leaves for his family, and he wrote it in autumn.  An ornate, orchestral, subdued pop gem, it's a song of mundane British life.  "Friday evenings, people get together / Hiding from the weather / Tea and toasted buttered currant buns / Can't compensate for lack of sun."  As hinted at in that last line, there's an ambiguity in the attitude toward the quaint existence depicted in the song.  The narrator was born and will die on this street, everyone he knows is from the neighborhood, and though the scenes evoked are pleasant, there's a hint at longing: "And I can't get away / Because it's calling me."  A charming bit of prosaic paradise, or a suburban trap, crushing an adventurous spirit?  Maybe both.

Feel a Thing - Meet Me @ the Altar

Feel a Thing - Meet Me @ the Altar

3:26

Model Citizen, 2021

Written by Edith Victoria and Téa Campell

For my money, Meet Me is the best power-punk trio going.  This song, among their best, is as raucous as it is catchy.  I love the muscular chant-chorus in the break: "Am I stuck? Can I defeat this? / With my luck, would I be complete then?"  The tempo never flags, especially that machine-gun drumming.  I read a review that called this "Nintendo-core;" my teenaged daughter said it sounded like a rock band you might hear in a Disney movie.  That's fair; it is pretty polished.

France - Grateful Dead

France - Grateful Dead

4:03

Shakedown Street, 1978W

Written by Mickey Hart, Bob Weir, and Robert Hunter

To commemorate, even if obliquely, Bastille Day, today we have this overlooked gem from the Dead.  Built around a steel drum line and handclaps and sung by Donna Jean Godchaux and Bob Weir, this is one of the few Grateful Dead songs the band never performed live. Fans have long regarded it as a low point, and apparently so did the band.  According to Robert Hunter, it started out as a Latin jam, but was changed and abbreviated for the album.  Mickey Hart later wrote of this song, "We were trying to sell out."  I get the objections, but I don't care for all this gatekeeping of the jam vibe, man.  It might be poppy, for a certain 1970s definition of "pop," but I dig it, myself.  

Five Minutes More - Frank Sinatra

Five Minutes More - Frank Sinatra

2:37

Come Swing With Me!, 1961

written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne, 1946

Sinatra originally recorded this song in 1946, but re-recorded it for his last swing album for Capitol.  It's written from the point of view of a suitor who begs his inamorata for just a few more moments together, unwilling for the evening to end: "All week long I dreamed about our Saturday date / Don't you know that Sunday morning you can sleep late?"  Sinatra remains in strong vocal form, and Billy May's orchestra wisely gives him the spotlight, while still turning that classic big band sound, with full brass stabs, all the way up.

Fernande - Georges Brassens

Fernande - Georges Brassens

3:40

Georges Brassens, 1972

Written by Georges Brassens

Cette chanson franchement grivoise traite, disons, des érections. La Fernande du titre est une femme que le narrateur trouve attirante, comme bien d'autres : « Quand je pense à Fernande / Je bande, je bande / Quand je pense à Félicie / Je bande aussi / Quand je pense à Léonore / Mon Dieu, je bande encore. » Une femme nommée Lulu, pour des raisons qui demeurent mystérieuses, ne produit pas cet effet sur lui. Qui peut dire pourquoi ? Brassens prétend qu'il s'agit du refrain de tous les vieux célibataires, qu'ils soient gardien de phare, gardien de prison ou séminariste ; même le Soldat inconnu finit par s'en faire l'écho.

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.

My Little Blue Window - Elvis Costello

My Little Blue Window - Elvis Costello

3:10

When I Was Cruel, 2002

Written by Elvis Costello

Although I consider the first half of Elvis Costello's musical output to rival that of any singer-songwriter, easily the equal of Paul Simon, Tom Waits, or Leonard Cohen at his peak, I have been sadly remiss in giving his oeuvre my serious attention since, oh, about Spike.  Featuring two of the Attractions, this song is a plea to someone addressed as "my lovely hooligan" to help the narrator see the world in a more positive light.  "Well, I was a gloomy soul, never thought I see a brighter day / The dark interior blows those silver clouds away."  If it isn't exactly a return to the jittery ferocity of his New Wave, Angry Young Man earliest material (and why would it be?), Costello sounds as energetic and inspired as he did on the sublime King of America, and that's a great thing.