The Piper Came Today - Willie Nelson

The Piper Came Today - Willie Nelson

3:23

Born For Trouble, 1990

Written by Willie Nelson

A decent enough country ballad of regret, slow, spare, and laced with pedal steel.  It's not entirely clear what the cost is that the narrator had to pay the piper, whether it's a love who walked out the door or something deeper, but it hit hard, whatever it was.  "And the sweeter played his music / The more is added to the bitter price."  Nelson's vocal is sharp and clear, the highlight of the sparse production.  It's not one of Nelson's greatest efforts, but when you're as great and as prolific as he is, even the throwaways have something to offer.

Things We Said Today - Bob Dylan

Things We Said Today - Bob Dylan

3:01

The Art Of McCartney, 2014

Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, 1964

Dylan gives this Beatles song the Time Out Of Mind-era Dylan treatment, growling through the verses with apparent gusto.  What to make of it?  Classic modern Dylan, all ominous echoey blues riffs and smoky atmosphere, but with Dylan sounding like he cares instead of being detached.  McCartney's songwriting will do that to even a giant of the industry.

I Thought I Saw Your Face Today - She & Him

I Thought I Saw Your Face Today - She & Him

2:50

Volume One, 2008

Written by Zooey Deschanel

Boy, Zooey Deschanel sure can sing.  There's some whistling in this frothy, twee, starry-eyed lost-love song, too.  The narrator catches a glimpse of a former paramour and finds herself dreaming and loving all over again.  It's dreamy, charming and wistful, the kind of fragile pop whose beauty can mask banality.  Luckily, here, at least, Deschanel's songwriting is engaging and profound, not banal. "I somehow see what's beautiful / In things that are ephemeral / I'm my only friend of mine / Love is just a piece of time."

(Today I Met) The Boy I'm Gonna Marry - Darlene Love

(Today I Met) The Boy I'm Gonna Marry - Darlene Love

2:46

single, 1963

Written by Phil Spector, Ellie Greenwich, and Tony Powers

This is one of the sweetest love songs in the R&B catalog.  The narrator is hit by love — not unlike the narrator of Nat King Cole's "Orange-Colored Sky" — with no real rhyme or reason.  As in the Cole track, here we don't hear what the boy's looks or mannerisms are that strike the singer so, but sometimes you can't explain attraction.  "The boy whose life and dreams and love I wanna share / For on my hand a band of gold appeared before me."  Starry-eyed bagatelles, of course, but what are we without them?  Brutalists, probably.  As a side note, I never knew the lines "I just stood there whistling / 'There goes the bride' as she walked out the door," from They Might Be Giants' "Lucky Ball and Chain" was inspired by this song's lines, "He smiled at me and then the music started playing / 'Here comes the bride' when he walked through the door."

No Mail Today - Gene Terry and His Down Beats

No Mail Today - Gene Terry and His Down Beats

2:36

single, 1958

Written by Eddie Shuler and Terry DeRouen

I read that this song took Terry (real name Terry De Rouen) five minutes to write.  Terry was known as the king of Swamp Pop.  And what is Swamp Pop?  According to Terry himself, it's "white boys playing black music damned good." This one is a rockabilly number with saxophone and an obvious New Orleans boogie influence to it.  In it, Terry uses the common disappointment of having no mail to build a "come back to me, baby" song.

It's a Beautiful Day Today - Moby Grape

It's a Beautiful Day Today - Moby Grape

3:06

Moby Grape '69, 1969

Written by Bob Mosley

Despite my lifetime of listening to classic rock, I know next to nothing about this band.  I expected ornate, psychedelic rock, but this song is quiet, optimistic, and understated.  Sung by bassist Bob Mosley, it's a low-key, almost droning, folk-rock number, drenched in hippie serenity.  "From dawn to dawn a lifetime / The birds sing and day's begun / The heavens shine from dawn to dusk / With golden rays of sun."  Like, we're all one, man.

Louisiana 1927 - Randy Newman

Louisiana 1927 - Randy Newman

2:56

The Randy Newman Songbook Vol. 1, 2003

Written by Randy Newman, 1974

This is the stripped-down, piano only version of Newman's 1974 song, originally on his album Good Old Boys.  The original is nice, but it features a string section that I feel isn't necessary to carry the emotional eight of the song.  The lyric tells the story of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and the government response to it.  "President say, "Little fat man, isn't it a shame / What the river has done to this poor cracker's land?'"  But of course it's just as resonant in the Katrina era.  Except, you know, replace the epithet "cracker."

Let the Four Winds Blow - Fats Domino

Let the Four Winds Blow - Fats Domino

2:05
Let the Four Winds Blow, 1961

Written by Dave Bartholomew and Fats Domino

I'm not clear why this song has the writing credit it does, because Dave Bartholomew wrote and released it as "Four Winds" in 1955.  But maybe Fats added enough, besides his genial charisma, to get his own credit.  It was a time when songwriting credit didn't necessarily mean that anyone wrote anything.  Anyway, this is a a nice, light New Orleans shuffle that doesn't break any ground not heavily trod by the Fat Man.  It's a little lyrically clichéd ("From the east to the west / I love you the best"), but it has plenty of that Fats charm.

Lazy - They Might Be Giants

Lazy - They Might Be Giants

3:12

single, 2024

Written by Irving Berlin, 1924

The Giants treat this hundred-year-old song with respect, letting the fantastic rhyme scheme ("I want to peep / Through the deep / Tangled wildwood / Counting sheep / 'Til I sleep / Like a child would") speak for itself.  I love the interior rhyme and multi-word rhymes that the old masters of the era, like Berlin and Cole Porter, used.  I'm not sure, because I'm not very familiar with the Crosby or Monroe versions, but I believe that the Johns have cheekily added some lyrics about Mr. Dickens and Omar Khayyam.  Their lyrics ("I hate to hurry through life and worry...") fit in wonderfully to the existing lyrics, so either they're using a full lyric that didn't get recorded, or they're masters of the craft themselves.

Let Me Sleep Beside You - David Bowie

Let Me Sleep Beside You - David Bowie

3:25

The World Of David Bowie, 1970 (recorded 1967)

Written by David Bowie

A slow-burning rock song with a cello arrangement, this song was shelved due to its "risqué" title and Bowie's refusal to change it.  The lyric is a smoldering come-on to a young woman: "Lock away your childhood and throw away the key / Now the streets and city sights will burn your eyes as coals / We shall drink the oldest wine and velvet skies will linger / Child, you're a woman now, your heart and soul are free."  It's a little creepy, frankly, with its reference to putting away dolls and toys and the calling her child and so on.  But if anyone can sell this mystical pale rock-god seduction act, I guess it's Bowie.