After nearly a year of sporadic posting, I have reached the top ten of my music countdown. I'll probably write full posts about some of the top songs, as there are larger themes I want to write about. However, for now I'll combine three songs into one entry. If I had to pick three songs from my list that were the least like each other both stylistically and thematically, then these would probably be the three.
#10: Dogs - Pink Floyd
During the summer between freshman and sophomore year of college, I spent 4 or 5 nights a week working at what was then a brand new Wild Oats. Other than learning a lot about meat and seafood*, I didn't take a whole lot of usable skills away from the experience. The people I worked with were nice enough and we even hung out outside of work a couple of times, but all in all it was just a regular summer job.
*Underrated: ribeye, trout, and high-quality chicken. Overrated: NY Strip and Mahi Mahi. Personal hatred developed for: scallops
Since all of that is clearly of little importance to my life now, I can confidently conclude that the most important takeaway from that experience was my acquisition of Pink Floyd's Animals. There was plenty of time to talk during the downtime, so one of my co-workers and I would often chat about music.* His ex-wife had sold his old cd/record collection, so he had slowly been building it back up. One of the first CDs he re-bought was Animals. As talkative as he was, even he couldn't muster the words to be able to describe it properly, so he brought it in one day for me to borrow. It took a while for me to get into the ten minute-plus long songs and references to British conservative activists, but once I listened to it a few times, I was hooked. I've gone on to buy a few other Pink Floyd albums and dabble in their entire catalogue on YouTube, but nothing has ever resonated with me as well as "Dogs."
*We would talk about other things as well, most notably his history. He was an ex-con (he was caught selling drugs) who used to work in food service at hotels. He had a great story about meeting Ozzy Osborne, but I can't remember it for the life of me. I guess that makes this a bad story.
The lyrical content of "Dogs" seems to be about the tolls that a life in business takes on the other aspects of living. Since I am young and don't have much world weariness in me, I have never made much of a connection with the words. However, as Ad and I have been going through The Sopranos, I've noticed how well the song fits with the overarching themes of the show. Much like the subject of "Dogs," Tony Soprano and those around him learned how to live by a different set of rules where they took what they wanted without a second thought, and as a result weren't able to function in "normal" situations. Lines such as "It's too late to lost the weight you used to need to throw around" apply to the story on multiple levels. Tony expresses occasional regret over the decisions he's made and how he is unable to change his behavior, but he also literally couldn't lose weight over the course of the series as Gandolfini grew his character larger and larger. Making this connection not only helped me to appreciate the narrative of The Sopranos, but it also helped me grow to understand "Dogs" even more.
Runners-up:
I could list several songs here, but I'll reserve this space for the only song that rivals "Dogs" in its epicness: The audacious nine-part "Shine on You Crazy Diamond." The piece manages to feature a metric ton of instrumentation (such as the organ and the saxophone) without ever sounding too complicated or overstuffed. "Shine on..." doesn't quite pack the power of "Dogs," but as an exquisite study in mellowness, it doesn't really need to.
#9: Hey Ya! - Outkast
"Hey Ya!" earned its spot on this list in part because it is one of the most catchy songs of all time.* Its popularity in late 2003 transcended the normally boundaries of popular music, as it was played as much on The River (Omaha's closest thing to an indie rock station) as it was on the more typical stations.** For an outfit that has produced a number of hits, Outkast has never quite topped "Hey Ya!" in either scope or accomplishment.
*As proof, I posted the video on here a couple of days ago, and the song is still in my head.
**If you want an indication of just how popular this song is regardless of demographic, inspect the variety of people dancing to it when it comes on during a wedding reception. In my experience, the diversity is usually only topped by "Shout," which has the inherent advantage of invoking everyone's favorite exercise: the squat.
Of course, a song isn't going to reach such lofty status as being in my top ten by merely being catchy. What separates "Hey Ya!" from your everyday breakout hit is how purposefully weird it is. Consider the following:
- It is a hip hop song that prominently features the acoustic guitar.
- The song eschews your typical 4/4 for a blend of 4/4 and 2/4 that comes off sounding like 11/8. In theory this should make it "undanceable," but the happy atmosphere of the song combined with people's willingness to dance terribly solidly refutes this premise.
- It tries to deal with complex themes like love and relationships, but then happily throws that out the window and starts coining catchphrases instead.
- It's called "Hey Ya!"
All these oddities aren't without a greater purpose. In this song, Outkast is able to accomplish nothing less than the complete nullification of pop music, which they ironically do by creating the perfect pop hit. The song attempts to deal with real issues in a clever way, but is swept away by its own breezy tone (this is clear when Andre 3000 says "y'all don't hear me, y'all just wanna dance" in the second chorus). This forfeiture of meaning can be seen as an indictment of the ability of such music to accomplish what its weightier brethren are able to. Outkast was able to pull off a nifty trick with "Hey Ya!," and as a result it is a solid ensconced in my top ten.
Runners-up:
If you want someone to discuss deep tracks from the Outkast catalogue, then I am not your man. However, I will say that I've enjoyed almost all of their hit songs, with the notable exception of the dull "The Way You Move."
#8: Two Headed Boy Pt. Two - Neutral Milk Hotel
One of the most tricky propositions in music is using an album-long metaphor to communicate one's message. However, when it is executed properly, it can be extremely rewarding. In the case of Jeff Mangum's seminal work In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, it would appear that the story of Anne Frank is used to express his feelings about desiring someone who is out of reach. While I think this metaphor works well taken at face value, what makes it truly stand out from its peers is that the story is so detailed and the emotions are so raw that it doesn't feel like a simple poetic device. Rather, the listener feels that Mangum is actually singing his heart out over the long-dead diarist. This possibility set against such well realized and emotional songwriting creates one of the most powerful albums ever created.
"Two Headed Boy Pt. Two" is the most powerful track on the album because it rides this line between metaphor and reality so well. Previous songs discuss the details of Anne Frank/mystery girl in more depth. "...Pt. Two" cashes in on this buildup by approaching the story more from the point of view of the narrator. When Mangum sings "in my dreams, you're alive and you're crying," he finds a beautiful way to express how the suffering of another is internalized in his own life. When he addresses the title boy in the final passages of the song, it almost seems as if he is defeatedly consoling himself. People are often disappointed that Mangum has yet to follow up on In the Aeroplane..., but I'm really not surprised that nothing has come about yet. I can't imagine how he would ever be able to muster the necessary emotional resonance needed to top or even approach this level of work.
Runners-up:
The entirety of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is terrific (but don't take my word for it). That said, Mangum is generally at his finest when the instrumentation is as minimal as possible. "The King of Carrot Flowers Pt. One," "Two Headed Boy," and "Oh Comely" are three of his finest tracks. All of these songs live up to my #8 song in terms of emotional impact, but they all go about their business in slightly different ways. "The King..." shows a youthful exuberance through it's overstrummed guitar, "Two Headed Boy" keeps the agressive guitar while Mangum adds more force to his voice, and "Oh Comely" is just a beautiful single take that shows off the full range of his songwriting abilities.
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