Trying To Reason With Hurricane Season - Jimmy Buffett

Trying To Reason With Hurricane Season - Jimmy Buffett

4:23

A1A, 1974

Written by Jimmy Buffett

This song, like so many songs by Jimmy Buffett, is written from the perspective of Jimmy Buffett.  Strolling along Florida State Road A1A, he takes a critical look at a grey sky and choppy water.  He's hungover, overslept, and hitting the hair of the dog.  No need to worry overmuch, though; he can always go on a tour if things get hairy.  "It's time to close the shutters / It's time to go inside / In a week I'll be in gay Paris / That's a mighty long airplane ride."  The laid-back, almost resigned, vibe of the song belies the need implied in the lyric for Buffett to maintain a frenetic pace to keep himself going.

Let It Rock - Jerry Garcia

Let It Rock - Jerry Garcia

3:14

Garcia, 1974

Written by Chuck Berry

This is the Garcia I tend to enjoy — rocking and singing, not noodling out some extended space-jams.  Garcia doesn't reinvent this Berry classic or add anything special to it, but his take sounds like he's having fun.  His raspy vocal is one of the weaker voices in classic rock, but he struggles along manfully here, giving the song a relaxed, tossed-off feel.  Obviously, his guitar skills far outstrip Berry's primitive chords, but Garcia lets the piano and guitar work together, not feeling the need to show off with any fireworks.

People's Parties - Joni Mitchell

People's Parties - Joni Mitchell

2:15

Court And Spark, 1974

Written by Joni Mitchell

In this song, parties and laughing mask loneliness and estrangement.  "I'm just living on nerves and feelings, with a weak and a lazy mind / And coming to people's parties, fumbling, deaf, dumb, and blind."  With a beautiful piano melody, and lush atmospheric arrangement, the song uses vivid, specific details to create a universal portrait of unease and detachment at lavish social gatherings, capturing the hollowness of LA parties specifically ("I told you when I met you I was crazy / Cry for us all, Beauty / Cry for Eddie in the corner, thinking he's nobody") and the emotional disconnect between people in general. 

Needles In the Camel's Eye - Brian Eno

Needles in the Camel's Eye - Brian Eno

3:11

Here Come the Warm Jets, 1974

Written by Brian Eno and Phil Manzanera

I wouldn't call this experimental, which is what you think of when you think of Eno.  I'd call it maybe glam pop.  Over a repeated and simple but effective major guitar riff, Eno's voice and synths blend into a hypnotic melody.  The lyrics are, as often with his collaborator David Byrne, apparently secondary and without much surface meaning.  "Why ask why? / For by the by and by / All mysteries are just more / Needles in the camel's eye."  Indeed, Wikipedia tells us, Eno has attempted to dissuade fans from reading too much into his words; he claims that the song "Needles in the Camel's Eye" was "written in less time than it takes to sing ... I regard [the song] as an instrumental with singing on it."  

Saxophones - Jimmy Buffett

Saxophones - Jimmy Buffett

3:22

Living And Dying in 3/4 Time, 1974

Written by Jimmy Buffett

One of the many self-referential songs about songwriters and playing music, this charming boogie-woogie sees Buffett talking about how he grew up on New Orleans jazzy rock, Dr. John and Clarence "Frogman" Henry.  He's got a band, he's got a guitar, and they rock, but he can't get his record on the radio and the patrons at the local dive bar don't seem to care much.  Then he has an epiphany, one I myself had not very far off in the past as a musical listener: brass always improves rock.  "If we had saxophones / Big baritone cleaning up the muddy breaks / If we had saxophones / I could make that joint shimmy like a big California earthquake."

Thank God I'm a Country Boy - John Denver

Thank God I'm a Country Boy - John Denver

3:13

Back Home Again, 1974

Written by John Martin Sommers

Guitar, banjo, fiddle, guitar in 2/2 time, like a country dance.  This is definitely old timey, bluegrass-folk country song.  Denver rattles out the lyrics in his high, nasal tenor in a rapid tempo, giving the song an overall cheerful feel.  The lyrics extol the narrator's hard-working, but simple and pleasant life, oppsong it in one verse to a hectic, sad city life. "When the work's all done and the sun's settin' low / I pull out my fiddle and I rosin up the bow."  It's a toe-tapper!  Pass that jug, ma.

Be Thankful for What You Got - William DeVaughn

Be Thankful for What You Got - William DeVaughn

3:26

Be Thankful for What You Got, 1974

Written by William DeVaughn

A classic soul bop in the style of What's Going On-era Marvin Gaye.   It's a straightforward message ong, with its falsetto addressed to the listener, saying that they don't need a car in order to feel gratitude.   "Remember, brothers and sisters / You can still stand tall."  Its groovy fadeout call, "Diamond in the back, sunroof top / Diggin' the scene with a gangsta lean," has been sampled by many a gangsta rapper.  The album version is actually seven and a half minutes long; I don't think we need that, but it is a terrific slice of '70s soul.

Honey, Honey - ABBA

Honey, Honey - ABBA

2:55

Waterloo, 1975

Written by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, & Stig Anderson

A typically catchy bubblegum hit from the Swedish singles machine.  Lyrically, this song is very much of its time: the ladies prostrating themselves before a well-known "love machine" who warns them to stay grounded or he'll hurt them.  Musically, though, it's perfect pop, with the women's vocals managing to sound amped up and sex-kitten at the same time.  On another note, why did ABBA record so many songs with repeated-word titles?