Never grow old

I was tooling around the other day with the top down, wind whipping and the stereo blasting away, when one of my indelible songs came on. The endorphins were rockin' along and suddenly I found myself listing (I still think of Whisky's "I'm Listing!" category when I find myself mentally composing a listing post).

My indelible songs are the ones that when they cycle up in a playlist or on the radio, I never turn them off. Even if I'm not in the mood, they get me in the mood - and the sad ones like "Most of the Time" don't bring me down. This list skews to older songs because only after time do you find out if a song "wears out" or is mood dependent.

What about my beloved U2 (which only got one song on the list), or Yoshimi, or Dwight Yoakam? And, gosh, there's not one Paul Simon song on here, even though the whole of Hearts and Bones is one of my all-time faves. Those are usually ones I have to be in the mood to listen to. Or, I still think they're great, and will even listen to them on occasion, but I may not play them for well over a year or more.

In compiling this, I decided to go with full versions of the song when I could (and was able to, for most of them), so I went with videos where I could. My bias was to always go with the better audio, no matter how goofy the video is (a lot of them are home-made), except where I point out a better audio version. I also went for the exact mix or version that I like, and have indicated when my favored version wasn't available. I didn't embed them because you'd have to scroll for minutes to get to the bottom of the post, and I thought that'd be outrageous. I have made them so they'll pop in a new tab/window, though, so you don't have to keep surfing back to hear the next one.

Finally, just a reminder that if you like some of these, and need a copy before you can buy one, this old post explains how to do that.

In alphabetical order:

• A Life of Illusion - Joe Walsh


• All Apologies - Nirvana (Oooo, bonus live version.)


• Amazing - Josh Kelley


• And I Love Her - The Beatles


• Another World - Joe Jackson (The vid is a live version. My preference is the studio version.)


• Any Major Dude - Steely Dan (Bonus Joe Jackson cover.)


• Baker Street - Gerry Rafferty


• Be My Number Two - Joe Jackson


• Bennie and the Jets - Elton John (Trivia: it's not really a live track like it sounds. They did that in the studio because they thought the straight version sounded too bland. The audience noises are from a Pink Floyd concert. Wikipedia claims the crowd noise is from other Elton John concerts, but this documentary says it's from a Floyd show.)


• Boys of Summer - Don Henley


• Captain Kirk - Bob Schneider


• Coming Up Close - 'Til Tuesday


• Crash - The Primitives (The first link is the Dumb & Dumber version I prefer. This is the original version, if you want to compare the mixes. I the the D&D one is much punchier.)


• Danny's All Star Joint - Rickie Lee Jones (Sorry that's just a sample. Found this, too - a video for her song "The Real End". It amazes me that they asked her to hop across all those cars.)


• Do It Again - Steely Dan


• Do You Know What I Mean - Lee Michaels


• Don't Panic - Coldplay


• Don't Stay Home - 311


• Dust in the Wind - Kansas (The audio's better on this one.)


• Emotion - Samantha Sang (Better audio. This is one of my top favorite songs of all time, and I don't know why. It's schamltzy. It's precious. But, dammit, I love it.)


• Every Kinda People (live) - Robert Palmer (Here is the specific version I prefer. The bass performance is beyond amazing.)


• Fidelity (Morgan Page remix) - Regina Spektor (Right-click to save the MP3.)


• Get Off My Cloud - The Rolling Stones (Here's a live version.)


• Helen Says - Hank (Sorry it's only a sample.)


• Hurricane - David Wilcox (Here's the studio version, which is the one to have.)


• I Melt with You - Modern English


• If I Can't Have You - Yvonne Elliman


• In Between Days - The Cure (This video was also one of the best ever.)


• Jeopardy - Greg Kihn Band (This song has a groove that can't be denied.)


• Late Great Golden State - Dwight Yoakam (Sample only, sorry.)


• Looking for Clues - Robert Palmer


• Lotta Love - Nicolette Larson


• Louisiana Bayou - Dave Matthews Band (Get the album version, though.)


• Memo to My Son - Randy Newman (Don't know why the ambient sound of the kids goofing is included...)


• Midnight At The Oasis - Maria Muldaur (I've warned you before about the breadth and depravity of my taste in music. Here's your proof. But this song just cracks me up.)


• Mississippi Delta City Blues - Chicago (This one's hard to find - it's on Chicago XI.)


• Most of the Time - Bob Dylan (Like Dylan does, he captures that exact searing pain of the loss of a relationship and how it feels over time.)


• My Head's in Mississippi - ZZ Top ("Stumbling through a parking lot of an invisible 7-11." That speaks to me. Been there. Got the t-shirt.)


• My Maria - B.W. Stevenson (Right-click to save MP3. Source page.)


• Nightshift - The Commodores


• Once in a Lifetime - Talking Heads (Both the live (main link) and studio versions. They both have their charms, and I generally prefer the live version as it just freakin' slams, but the studio version has an ambiance of its very own.)


• One Thing Leads to Another - The Fixx


• Peach - Prince (This link is gonna be a pain to listen to, but Rhapsody does give you 25 free listens to a whole song. Prince is diligent about keeping his songs off the web.)


• Play that Funky Music, White Boy - Wild Cherry (If you don't like this song, there's something wrong with you, and I don't want to know what it is.)


• Question - The Moody Blues


• Race for the Prize - The Flaming Lips (The drums on this just blow me away.)


• Rainy Season - Aztec Camera


• Rocket Man - Elton John


• Say Goodbye to Hollywood (live) - Billy Joel (But here's the definitive version. The whole <i>Songs in the Attic</i> album is stellar. I'd almost maintain it's his best, but then it's kind of a back-handed greatest hits, and if we're gonna be purists, we should stick with <i>The Stranger</i> as his opus.)


• Security Joan - Don Fagen


• Seether - Veruca Salt


• She Came On - Super Deluxe (Sample only.)


• Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana (Hell yeah! Trivia: the song is accidentally named after a deodorant marketed to teen girls - which Cobain didn't know about - he just liked the phrase)


• Spirit in the Sky - Norman Greenbaum


• Steppin Out - Joe Jackson


• Supernova - Liz Phair (If you're wonding while watchig the vid, yeah, she's braless, and she seems intent on bouncing her boob, too. You just have to wonder exactly how much of a nympho she is, with this and songs like H.W.C. )


• Take a Letter, Maria - R.B. Greaves


• Take the Money and Run - Steve Miller Band


• The Fez - Steely Dan


• Things Change - Dwight Yoakam (This is one of those classic country songs where the chorus has a whole different meaning after each verse.)


• This Boy - The Beatles


• Tiny Explosions - The Presidents of the United States of America (Or "Presidents" these days. This song makes me pogo, even when I'm in my car.)


• Try and Love Again - The Eagles (The harmonies on this are nearly the best ever, with only the Beatle's "This Boy" taking that honor just ahead of this song.)


• Waiting on a Friend - The Rolling Stones


• Westward Wind - England Dan and John Ford Coley


• When I Look at the World - U2 (Listen to the guitar solo that starts at the 2:37 mark. Doesn't it sound like fireworks look when they arc to the sky and then shimmer down?)


• When I'm Gone (Sadie) - No Address (Lah doddy doddy doddy doddy doddy dim dim dim, indeed. Perhaps one of the biggest hooks ever.)


• Will the Wolf Survive - Los Lobos


• Year of the Cat - Al Stewart (This is probably one of the most sonically perfect songs ever laid on audio tape. Put a remastered version of this on a hot stereo, and it's almost palpable.)


• You and I Both - Jason Mraz (It'd be nice if the video were just a little less gay. But, what a great song. It hits a great altitude and just keeps climbing. I also like the joke at the end, "...finally out of words."


• And every song on Electric Light Orchestra's A New World Record. (I can't seem to wear this one out. Still spin the whole thing about 7 times a year.)