STAND ALONE TO START
1. Castles Made of Sand - Jimi Hendrix I even like his acid-dipped live stuff, though it can resemble the sounds of an entire petshop being electrocuted. He is a musician among musicians—no one can play the guitar like Jimi, no one, though he is also a great lyricist and vocalist—every performance is a unique performance, a deluge of creativity. I imagine Mozart was much the same. "Wind Cries Mary" is my favorite song, but "Castles Made of Sand" is probably his best one.


2. Enjoy the Silence - Depeche Mode This is the greatest 80s song. Colleen laughed at me when I said that a few months ago, and she knows better since I don't actually remember the 80s, but I still think it is, moreso because it stands out from the tacky egotism of the decade. It is a perfect... nonexpression of when you fuck yourself over (one swears because one has nothing to say): Feelings are intense/ Words are trivial. It strikes home. I depend on words too much.


3. Cello Suite No. 1 - Bach I harbor an intense affinity for Bach. He is a bit uptight, a technician to the core, you can sense him thinking throughout the progression of phrases, endlessly laboring for that seamless perfection. He isn't a showman like Mozart or even Beethoven, but he is a great artisan.


4. Parallel Universe - Red Hot Chili Peppers RHCP was my favorite band in high school, so there are a lot of favorites, but I rate this most highly. That thrumming bass line (Flea is perhaps the greatest bassist alive)!

LOVE, SONGS ON, ORDERED BY EVOLUTION

5. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel The sweetest lyric you could possibly imagine, the magic of first love, before you learn to be careful.


6. Shadowboxer - Fiona Apple From someone who really, really knows boy trouble.


7. Cry Me a River - Justin Timberlake I'd like to meet Justin Timberlake just to punch him in the face—honestly, if you're so damn sexy, you hardly need to tell people—but this is a great song (the breakup song in this series, of course) and he is a superlative performer.


8. Lay Lady Lay - Bob Dylan


9. To Zion - Lauryn Hill I wanted to post this long ago but a video was never available. There are millions of songs about love, but this is the only one I know of, except for "Tears in Heaven", about the love for a child.

THE VICES

10. Nowhere Man - The Beatles Limbo ; ). My favorite Beatles song.


11. Ring of Fire - Johnny Cash


12. Commissioning a Symphony in C - Cake A fairly clever, sardonic take on greed.


13. Summertime - Sublime People sneer at Sublime. Why!? This song is such a an amazing take on the classic: "O take this veil from off my eyes/ My burning sun will someday rise/ And what am I gonna be doing for a wife/ I said I'm gonna play with myself."


14. Paint It, Black - The Rolling Stones Relentless madness, Lady Macbeth chafing her hands into oblivion.


15. The Doors - The Crystal Ship Anthem for the dissipated.

SOCIAL COMMENTARY

16. Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand If Red Hot Chili Peppers were a British punk rock band, they'd sound like Franz Ferdinand. "We only work when we need the money!"


17. No Surprises - Radiohead Behind every cliché—people in pop music are vapid and successful, people in indie circles are pretentious and self-pitying—there is a potent reality. Radiohead is very much of the latter school, but they are the absolute best, a latter day Grateful Dead. They will be remembered as one of the greatest artists of our time, I think. This particular song is about, er, the deadening suffocation of suburban life. OK Computer is a superb album.

TO CLOSE

18. Spill the Wine - Eric Burdon & WAR The Animals may be more commercial, lacking the philosophy of Lennon of The Grateful Dead (I did really want to put "China Doll" from Reckoning) or the virtuosity of Hendrix or Clapton, or the pre-punk rock of Led Zeppelin, but... Well, I love this song.


19. Secret - Maroon 5


20. All Blues - Miles Davis: Words fail me. Beautiful. Summer in the city.

Labels: culture notes, music