Time In A Bottle, by Jim Croce.
This song is of course super sweet Love 94™ material, but was also a request that took me a couple months to brave. I figured out one of the little riffs, but didn’t try the other part. If you know the song, you’ll know what I mean.
Tears of Rage, by The Band.
Look, things get pretty fuzzy where The Band and Bob Dylan intersect, as noted more than once in this project. This song, as far as I’m concerned, is The Band’s song, and the canonical version is the one on Music From Big Pink. Even if Dylan wrote the lyrics and they recorded it with him first on the Basement Tapes, but didn’t release that one until years later. So I’m not tagging this as cover-of-a-cover. Conveniently, I’m the only one making rules around here.
Misunderstood, by Wilco.
This song took more tries than expected, playing in open G, as instructed by the most interesting transcription I found online, which was based on a solo live performance, and not the live performance we listened to in the car earlier tonight, where Jeff sings “nothin’” 36 times. (Honestly checking back to the 6+ minute original album version, I really don’t think I’ve ever heard it? Or not in years? I’ve only heard live versions for a long time.)
John Allyn Smith Sails, by Okkervil River.
cw: suicide
Ugh, I know I’ve done some dark songs (er, there have been some drug references, folks), but this song is about a real-life poet whose father kills himself, and then he kills himself, and I’m fine, thanks for asking, honest! But also it’s just a great song that plays directly off the Sloop John B, which was such an incredibly dumb and basic and harmless song when I was a kid, and an easy way to say “I wanna go home.”
Rebellion (Lies), by Arcade Fire.
Needed to get some feelings out, and this song is a great vehicle for that sort of thing. We’ve seen Arcade Fire live now three times, and Lies is a feature every time, with Will Butler careening around the stage smashing a drum, and an arena’s worth of people singing along to the hard and easy parts.
//
As demonstrated here, my voice is better at the easy parts than the hard parts, but this was a fun one. Left both the phone track and the microphone track in this time, because it sounded a little richer, and added, uh, more vocals. Plus the MIDI bass synth and imitation Will Butler drum thing.
Achin’ To Be, by the Replacements.
This song was alphabetically first on my phone for a long time, which means every time it connects to our 2013 Prius via bluetooth, it starts playing. And that’s a real emotional song to casually drop onto the car stereo, with the kids, in any situation.
On the way to soccer practice? Achin’ To Be.
Coming home from the grocery store? Achin’ To Be.
Carpooling neighbors to school on a rainy day? Achin’ To Be.
Driving to the gym after the kids are asleep and need to get psyched up to lift weights or swim or whatever? Achin’ To Be.
You get the idea.
Gravity, by Freakwater.
This song is a sweet little ditty about getting old.
It’s the third Freakwater song in this project, which says something about their ability to get in my head over the course of 25 years and stay there.
//
Had to move this up a full step to sing along passably, and that’s probably giving me too much credit.
Atlantic City, by Bruce Springsteen.
As noted previously, Nebraska is my favorite Springsteen record, and most everything on it is sacred to me in one way or another. This song probably made me weep when it came up after Superstorm Sandy (the dumbest and most Springsteenesque possible name for a thing that was a hurricane but also not a hurricane?) about the boardwalk getting all washed out and whatnot. Maudlin! Springsteen? Never! Always. Glorious.
//
OK, the funniest part about the online chords for this is the 50+ deep comment thread arguing about what fret to put the capo on, because Bruce recorded Nebraska on like the 1970s equivalent of a voice memo, and it’s all just a little out of tune. And I don’t think these are quite the right chords, anyway. The online chords are easier to edit than Wikipedia, tbqh, but you have to log in to do it, and I think, just, no one does, but they do comment, so maybe? A fork of Mediawiki would probably do a much better job at negotiating this sort of thing, except you’d need the whole community and bots and all that dressing.
1000 Dollar Wedding, by Gram Parsons.
OK, it took a few days, but the good news is that I did a Gram Parsons song. The bad news is that now I’m listening to a podcast from the same series… about Insane Clown Posse.
There’s not much I could say about this song that hasn’t already been said, written, or speculated, but I’ll just add that I thought I had heard it in a movie soundtrack? But I don’t think I have. Does it come up in Kill Bill, maybe? Which would be kinda sensible but also a little on the nose?
I don’t think I’d ever heard the rather straight ahead Willie version, but maybe the Evan & Juliana cover from that tribute record?
//
After a long tungsten run, I switched the overhead lights in my office back to daylight bulbs. It’s summer outside today, but fall is coming. Winter, too, from what I hear. Eventually. Today is day two hundred and fifty-five, so please update your databases accordingly.
El Paso, by Marty Robbins.
The country adjacent theme is still because I’m listening to the Gram Parsons Bandsplain podcast (these things tend to last a few hours), even if some of us know this song better from the Grateful Dead’s version. I listened to Robbins, and frankly, I’m probably hearing Bob Weir’s cadence in my head for the most part, but still, let’s credit this story song to the original author this time.
Somehow, I feel like I heard this on the radio growing up, maybe on the oldies station? But I also think it’s mashed up in my head with Come A Little Bit Closer (I guess they played a lot of Jay and the Americans?) and maybe even Gimme Three Steps? Basically, there are a lot of songs that involve two dummies shooting it out in or near a bar over a girl. They are dummies!