Yet ANOTHER Top 100 (or so) Songs I Absolutely Must Have With Me on 1/48/50

#256) "And So It Goes" by Billy Joel - Most ballads travel toward a certain emotional pitch, rising to a climax as they progress. In "And So It Goes", Billy Joel does things differently, achieving the improbable by getting the song where it needs to go without it ever really sounding like it's going to....or even has the stuff to.

From the first few introspective chords it stays quiet, just artist and piano, slowly filling the room with tension, right up to the rafters. It releases that tension just as quietly with five slightly less introspective/slightly more emotional piano chords, leading the listener to a calm internal catharsis that flashes up and flickers out a second later.

This is not easy to do without becoming overwrought. The result is a song that can, in my opinion, take its place among the loveliest ballads ever recorded.

Whatever you may think of his style or image through the years, Billy Joel is a superb songwriter, songcrafter...

"And so it goes, and so it goes, and you're the only one who knows..."

#257) "Where's the Orchestra?" by Billy Joel - Less emotional in this one, more stunningly philosophical. Listen closely to the lyrics and try to argue that it's not, word for word, a seamless metaphor for life itself. It might be the most appropriate "road song" I've put on this list. At least for the road trip I will take, at the time in life when I will take it.

"Here I am in the balcony / How the hell could I have missed the overture?"

AS SUMMER WINDS DOWN: Whole Albums to Travel By

Those rare musical treasures that require no song-to-song cherry picking, no fast forwarding (for those 35-plus who know what that is...), no selective exclusion from playlists. They are their OWN playlists...each a greatest hits package of brand new material, still fresh even decades on from their release. You know...desert island albums. 

In the case of 1/48/50, whole urban areas, entire counties, fully one half of any state even, may be traversed on the power of a single inspired album playing all the way through.

So good, in fact, they require no two cents thrown in by the likes of me.  Just listen.  ;-)

"Beautiful Loser" by Bob Seger

"'Live' Bullet" by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band

AS SUMMER WINDS DOWN: Whole Albums to Travel By

Those rare musical treasures that require no song-to-song cherry picking, no fast forwarding (for those 35-plus who know what that is...), no selective exclusion from playlists. They are their OWN playlists...each a greatest hits package of brand new material, still fresh even decades on from their release. You know...desert island albums. 

In the case of 1/48/50, whole urban areas, entire counties, fully one half of any state even, may be traversed on the power of a single inspired album playing all the way through.

So good, in fact, they require no two cents thrown in by the likes of me.  Just listen.  ;-)

"Plastic Ono Band" / John Lennon

"Blue" by Joni Mitchell

AS SUMMER WINDS DOWN: Whole Albums to Travel By

Those rare musical treasures that require no song-to-song cherry picking, no fast forwarding (for those 35-plus who know what that is...), no selective exclusion from playlists. They are their OWN playlists...each a greatest hits package of brand new material, still fresh even decades on from their release. You know...desert island albums. 

In the case of 1/48/50, whole urban areas, entire counties, fully one half of any state even, may be traversed on the power of a single inspired album playing all the way through.

So good, in fact, they require no two cents thrown in by the likes of me.  Just listen.  ;-)

"Million Mile Reflections" by The Charlie Daniels Band

"The Rutles" by The Rutles

Conceived by Monty Python collaborator Neil Innes and Python's own Eric Idle, "The Rutles: All You Need is Cash" was a pretty brilliant 1978 "mockumentary" about the pre-Fab Four, Dirk, Stig, Nasty and Barry. The soundtrack, music written by Innes, digs even deeper into that brilliance. Fantastic parody. And honestly, 40 years on, each song still could stand on its own, be considered derivative (in a good way) rather than parody.

AS SUMMER WINDS DOWN: Whole Albums To Travel By

Those rare musical treasures that require no song-to-song cherry picking, no fast forwarding (for those 35-plus who know what that is...), no selective exclusion from playlists. They are their OWN playlists...each a greatest hits package of brand new material, still fresh even decades on from their release. You know...desert island albums. 

In the case of 1/48/50, whole urban areas, entire counties, fully one half of any state even, may be traversed on the power of a single inspired album playing all the way through.

So good, in fact, they require no two cents thrown in by the likes of me.  Just listen.  ;-)

"The Joshua Tree" by U2

"Revolver" by The Beatles