great songs

Just listen to the lyrics! This song is sick and wrong (and fascinating). The fact that its being performed by The Louvin Brothers, a gospel/country duo comprised of real-life brother Charlie and Ira, makes it even creepier. It’s a true snapshot of the hard-fought lessons from ages ago. Released in 1956 on their debut record […]

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With The Great Songs series, my aim is simple: To offer up a different set of tunes as classic canon. Sometimes, the listmania that I suffer from is capitalized on by big mainstream outlets–everyone from Rolling Stone and Spin to VH1 and any number of cool British mags. Critical consensus is a dangerous thing, so […]

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Just for fun, before writing about this week’s Great Song, I Wiki’ed the band: The Replacements. What I got first was a general Wiki link asking me whether I was looking for the movie, an episode of “Band of Brothers,” a short story, a TV series, or the “American alternative rock group.” The fact that […]

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Elvis Costello already had six great albums in five years under his belt by the time he took a complete left turn into baroque pop territory with 1982’s “Imperial Bedroom.” “Beyond Belief” is the first song from that record—his best—and right away, the listener can tell something is different. The production, handled by Beatles engineer […]

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Marvin Gaye‘s 1971 album “What’s Going On” is generally regarded as one of the best soul albums ever made. (In 2003, the album was ranked number 6 on Rolling Stone‘s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.) The title track is known the world over as a classic (The magazine ranked it the […]

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You knew it was bound to happen. Hell, I’m wondering why it took me 10 weeks to get to this band. Here it is. Let the debate begin. My 10th choice (not ranked, just the 10th “Great Song” I’ve chosen for this series) for a classic, timeless rock n’ roll song is by a band […]

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