#203) "Rainy Night in Georgia" by Brook Benton - I first heard this song when I was in high school, and I legitimately liked it, but I also went out of my way to tell everyone I liked it, in an effort to make myself look musically complex, or sophisticated, or something or other. I didn't know who the hell Brook Benton was, knew only that the song was unique, mood-creating, and thus mood-altering, and most importantly, wasn't just another hair-metal song.
Now, years later, I still really, really like it. It's a sensually beautiful song, painting a dimly-lit but still vivid picture of not just a rainy night in Georgia, but a rainy night in the soul wherever you are, a moment when, indeed, it does feel like it's raining all over the world. Oddly perfect road song, actually.
"A distant moaning of a train, seems to play a sad refrain to the night..."
#204) "Little Green Apples" by O.C. Smith - This song is just a simple dimple on the musical landscape. It doesn't go anywhere, doesn't say anything important, doesn't push any musical boundaries or expand any horizons...but it too succeeds in simply setting a potent mood, and it has one of the most beautiful lines I've ever heard in a song.
"And if that's not loving me, then all I gotta say / God didn't make little green apples, and it don't rain in Indianapolis, in the summertime..."
It don't rain in Indianapolis in the summertime... has probably ignited more wanderlust in my heart than all the blustery highway freedom songs ever recorded. Ironic, since the song is actually about there being no reason to want to be somewhere else other than right where you are. The guy in the song seems pretty damn content. Pretty in love. Good for him.
But anyway, about Indianapolis...
"God didn't make little green apples / And it don't snow in Minneapolis when the winter comes..."
Make sure to vote on Tuesday!
