Songs You Should Hear 6/19

Ain't It A Shame- Nirvana



A great cover by Nirvana.

Songs You Should Hear 6/17- Simply Beautiful by Al Green

Al Green- Simply Beautiful



One of Al's best songs. He had one of the greatest producers of all time in Willie Mitchell and this song is a good example of that. Soft and close is sometimes hard to do and there's no song that's ever been done half as soft or closer.

Songs You Should Hear 6/15- Jesus of Suburbia

Green Day- Jesus of Suburbia



My favorite Green Day song. Clearly influenced by the Who.

Songs You Should Hear 6/14- Careful by the Wu Tang Clan

Careful- Wu Tang Clan



I love the first lyrics in this song.

"Wait, hold up, chill, what's that son?
Damn.. nigga got fucked, shit, huh?!"

Songs You Should Hear 6/13- Too Many People by Paul McCartney

Too Many People- Paul McCartney



This song has been interpreted as Paul attacking John and Yoko, and Paul has admited that at least some of the lines were written about them. John would respond with "How Do You Sleep At Night".

Too Many People Going Underground
Too Many Reaching For A Piece Of Cake
Too Many People Pulled And Pushed Around
Too Many Waiting For That Lucky Break
That Was Your First Mistake
You Took Your Lucky Break And Broke It In Two
Now What Can Be Done For You
You Broke It In Two

Too Many People Sharing Party Lines
Too Many People Never Sleeping Late
Too Many People Paying Parking Fines
Too Many Hungry People Losing Weight

That Was Your First Mistake
You Took Your Lucky Break And Broke It In Two
Now What Can Be Done For You
You Broke It In Two

Too Many People Preaching Practices
Don't Let Them Tell You What You Wanna Be
Too Many People Holding Back, This Is
Crazy And Maybe It's Not Like Me

That Was Your Last Mistake
I Find My Love Awake And Waiting To Be
Now What Can Be Done For You
She's Waiting For Me

Songs You Should Hear 6/12- There Ain't No Good Chain Gang- Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash

There Ain't No Good Chain Gang- Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash



It's an awesome song from a 1978 Johnny Cash album. It went to number two on the charts.

"There ain't no good in an evil-hearted woman
And I ain't cut out to be no Jesse James
And you don't go writing hot cheques down in Mississippi
And there ain't no good chain gang"

Songs You Should Hear 6/11- Wrote a Song For Everyone by Creedence Clearwater

Wrote a Song For Everyone by Creedence Clearwater



Aside from being one of the most consistent bands ever, Creedence Clearwater (and therefore John Fogerty) wrote some of the best lyrics of the 60's. This is a track off their 1969 album Green River. Although the large majority of their records don't really have a "contemporary", visions of the sixties, psychedelic, far out feel to them, Creedence's records WERE actually more locked into what was going on in the world at the time than almost any of their contemporaries. Vietnam is everywhere in their songs. It's the jungle in "Run Through the Jungle", it's obviously front and center in "Fortunate Son", and it's the war that the singer sees himself going to in this song.



Met myself a comin' county welfare line.
I was feelin' strung out, Hung out on the line.
Saw myself a goin', down to war in June.
All I want, All I want is to write myself a tune.


Wrote A Song For Ev'ryone,
Wrote a song for truth.
Wrote A Song For Ev'ryone
When I couldn't even talk to you.

Got myself arrested, Wound me up in jail.
Richmond 'bout to blow up, Communication failed.
If you see the answer, now's the time to say.
All I want, All I want is to get you down to pray.

Wrote A Song For Ev'ryone,
Wrote a song for truth.
Wrote A Song For Ev'ryone
When I couldn't even talk to you.

Saw the people standin' thousand years in chains.
Somebody said it's diff'rent now, look, it's just the same.
Pharoahs spin the message, round and round the truth.
They could have saved a million people, How can I tell you?

Wrote A Song For Ev'ryone,
Wrote a song for truth.
Wrote A Song For Ev'ryone
When I couldn't even talk to you.

Songs You Should Hear 6/10- From Boulder to Birmingham by Emmylou Harris

From Boulder to Birmingham by Emmylou Harris



A great, great song by Emmylou Harris about her overdosed and dead mentor Gram Parsons. It's from off her 1975 debut album Pieces of the Sky and it's written by her and songwriter Bill Danoff. (Danoff also wrote the songs Take Me Home Country Roads and Afternoon Delight). Emmylou has yet to write, or co-write, a song anywhere near as good as this one is. I don't know who was responsible for the lyrics in the verses but they're the most beautiful and sad evocation of survivor's guilt that I've ever heard.


I don't want to hear a love song
I got on this airplane just to fly
And I know there's life below
But all that it can show me
Is the prairie and the sky

And I don't want to hear a sad story
Full of heartbreak and desire
The last time I felt like this
It was in the wilderness and the canyon was on fire
And I stood on the mountain in the night and I watched it burn
I watched it burn, I watched it burn.

Well you really got me this time
And the hardest part is knowing I'll survive.
I have come to listen for the sound
Of the trucks as they move down
Out on ninety five
And pretend that it's the ocean
coming down to wash me clean, to wash me clean
Baby do you know what I mean

Songs You Should Hear 6/9- Beggin' by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons

Beggin'- Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons



An awesome 1967 song by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. The first time I heard it I thought it was something Kanye West produced.

Songs You Should Hear 6/8- Pig by Weezer

Weezer- Pig



This was a "bonus" track on Weezer's last album. It should have been an actual track. Their last album was the first one since their debut that had tracks not just written by Rivers Cuomo. They're one of the best bands of the last 15 years, Rivers should write all the songs though.

Songs You Should Hear 6/7- I Can't Go To Sleep by the Wu Tang Clan

I Can't Go To Sleep- Wu Tang



One of the best rap songs ever. It uses the music from Isaac Hayes's great cover of the Burt Bacharach song Walk On By, made famous by Dionne Warwick in 1964. The lyrics are awesome but some of them are hard to understand so here they are written out. (From the website azlyrics.com)

[Ghostface Killah]
Technique is ill son, watch how I spill one
Peace to Biggie Tupac Big L and Big Pun
Havoc on the streets of Staten, snitches
House niggaz children watch as they produce the same pattern
Somebody raped our women, murdered our babies
Hit us with the cracks and guns in the early 80's
FOR THOSE THAT MURDERED ME SHALL STAND BEFORE GOD
TO FALL AT THE HANDS OF FATE, THEN OUT COMES THE ROD
Bring it back, bring it back, bring it back,
bring it back, bring it back.. [*record run backwards*]

What the fuck is goin on? I can't go to sleep
Feds jumpin out they jeeps, I can't go to sleep
Babies with flies on the cheeks, it's hard to go to sleep
Ish bowled two sixes twice, I couldn't go to sleep
Aiyyo we deep in the stairs, we carry can guns
(?) got, hit up with the big shit, bam-bam
Stop at the cheeba spot, then pass the leak spot
So past y'all niggaz again, you took a cheap shot
Not knowin FUCKIN WITH ME, you get your meat chopped
YOU THOUGHT WE FELL ON OUR FACE? YOU NEED TO BE STOPPED
CALL ON THE CHARIOTS, CALL ON AN AMBULANCE
YOU BETTER SMILE MY NIGGA, YOU ON CANDID CAM
Gangsta broad, these be the laws, walk with big balls
Nigga motherfuckin eunuch, I even take which was yours
I'm the nigga that made you man
When your rap wasn't doin well, I'm the nigga that gave you a hand!

[Isaac Hayes]
Don't kill your brother, learn to love each other
Don't get mad.. cause it ain't that bad
Just be who you are.. you've come so far
It's in your hands, just be a man
Get the jelly out your spine!
Cobwebs, out of your mind

[RZA]
I can't go to sleep, I can't shut my eyes
They shot the father of his moms, killed him seven times
They shot Malcolm in the chest front of his little seeds
Jesse watched, as they shot King on the balcony
They spat at Marcus, Garvey cause he tried to spark us
with the knowledge of ourselves, and our forefathers
Ohh Jacqueline you heard the rifle shots cracklin
Her husband head in her hair, you tried to put it back in
AMERICA'S WATCHIN, BLOOD STAINED INK BLOTCHES
MEDGAR TOOK ONE TO THE SKULL FOR INTERGRATING COLLEGE
WHAT'S THE SCIENCE? SOMEBODY? THIS IS TRICK KNOWLEDGE
THEY TRY TO KEEP US ENSLAVED AND STILL SCRAPE FOR DOLLARS
Walkin through Park Hill, drunk as a +FUCK+
Lookin around like, these +DEVILS+, I'm ready to break this world down
They got me trapped up in a metal gate, just stressed out with hate
And just, give me no time to relax, and use my mind to meditate
What should I do? Grab a blunt or a brew?
Grab a two-two and run out there AND PUT THIS FUCKIN VIOLENCE IN YOU?
I can't go to sleep, I can't shut 'em son.. I..

[Isaac Hayes - overlapping RZA at the end]
Don't like the game, nigga use your head
You should be callin the shots instead
The power is in your hands..
Stop all this cryin, and be a man

Songs You Should Hear 6/6- Thru and Thru by the Rolling Stones

Thru and Thru- The Rolling Stones



Since 1972's Exile on Main Street all the best Rolling Stones songs have been sung by Keith. This is one of them, from off their 1994 Voodoo Lounge album. And that's the Sopranos making great use of it in one of their episodes.

Songs You Should Hear 6/5- You Haven't Done Nothing by Stevie Wonder

You Haven't Done Nothing- Stevie Wonder



This is Stevie Wonder's protest song about Richard Nixon. That's the Jackson 5 singing backup. It's off his awesome 1974 album Fulfillingness' First Finale and it went to number one on the billboard charts that same year.

Songs You Should Hear 6/4- Off He Goes by Pearl Jam

Off He Goes- Pearl Jam



I love this song, it's off their fourth album, "No Code". It always makes me think about Kurt Cobain.

"And now I rub my eyes... for he has returned
Seems my preconceptions are what should have been burned...
For he still smiles... and he's still strong"

Songs You Should Hear 6/3- The Birds of Saint Marks

The Birds of Saint Marks- Jackson Browne



Sometimes I don't think Jackson Browne gets the respect he deserves; he's one of the greatest songwriters ever. A lot of his songs sound the same, but so do a lot of Shakespeare's plays, so who gives a fuck. Here's one of his greatest songs ever.

Songs You Should Hear 6/2- Satisfied Mind by Jeff Buckley

Satisfied Mind- Jeff Buckley



Aside from his cover of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, this is the greatest record Jeff Buckley ever made. It was released on his posthumous album Sketches For My Sweetheart the Drunk in 1998, a year after he drowned in the Mississippi river. People sometimes describe a song as sounding like death and this is what they mean.

Songs You Should Hear 6/1- On the Evening Train by Johnny Cash

On the Evening Train- Johnny Cash



Johnny says goodbye to June in one of the saddest records ever made. The song is by Hank Williams.

Songs You Should Hear- 5/31 Ways To Be Wicked by Lone Justice

Lone Justice- Ways To Be Wicked



An awesome song from the band Lone Justice's 1985 self titled album. The band only made one more album, 1986's Shelter produced by E Street Band guitarist and Sopranos star Steve Van Zandt. That record, like their previous record, didn't sell well and they subsequently broke up. Ways To Be Wicked is an awesome single but Lone Justice didn't write it. It's by Tom Petty (and Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell) and it's one of the best songs he's ever written.

Songs You Should Hear 5/30- Dry Your Eyes by The Streets

Dry Your Eyes- The Streets



This is from British rapper Mike Skinner's 2004 album A Grand Don't Come For Free. It's a great song with the best acoustic guitar I've ever heard on a rap song.

Songs You Should Hear 5/29- Tea For the Tillerman. Cat Stevens

Tea for the Tillerman- Cat Stevens



It's less than a minute long and it's probably Cat Stevens' best song. It was also the theme song for that Ricky Gervais HBO show Extras.