#301) "Nightshift" by The Commodores - I was twelve when this song was released, and before I knew what it was about, before I knew anything about Marvin Gaye or Jackie Wilson, before I could wrap my head around what a truly touching ode to the two performers and their untimely deaths it really is, its quiet, contemplative mood appealed to me. I remember listening to it on the radio after I'd gone to bed, and associating it with the static glare of the streetlight outside, which would lay itself across the wall over my bed when I turned out the light, making it impossible to go to sleep. Not because it was keeping me awake, but because it was making me restless. More than three decades later, I think this interpretation is still very apt. For all its "quiet, contemplative mood", "Nightshift" is a very restless song. It's good restlessness. The kind that spurs anticipation, rather than longing.
"Gonna be a long night, it's gonna be all right, on the nightshirt..."
#302) "Drinking My Baby Goodbye" by Charlie Daniels - One thing that can be said about Charlie Daniels is that he and his band have always been, first and foremost, consummate musicians. Over the last 50 years, they've brought a sound to country music that is exceptionally airtight, sometimes downright innovative, and most notably, uniquely their own. (Daniels himself has said he never thought of himself as an "outlaw" country artist so much as an "outcast".) It's a sound that guarantees his status as a (living) legend will continue, and flourish, long after his passing.
"Drinking My Baby Goodbye" has all the elements for the quintessential Charlie Daniels song: rhythm meshing seamlessly with vocals and instruments, particularly (of course) the fiddle, an instrument which Daniels has at certain moments in his career managed to break the sound barrier with. It's all stitched up right nice into a song you simply cannot help tapping your foot to, and again, a song that couldn't be anyone else but Charlie Daniels.
"Pour me another one, I'm finished with the other one..."
