Top 50 Songs of the Decade, #41 - "Grand Paradise," Foxing

"Foxing is an American indie rock band from St. Louis, Missouri."  So begins the band's Wikipedia page, but that description hardly seems to do them justice.  Mind you, I'm not quite sure how I'd characterize them either - is "American indie art rock band" a valid category?  And even that isn't entirely accurate.  Maybe when you can't pigeonhole an artist, that's a good thing.



The first time I heard this song - on the video you see above - I knew it was right up my alley.  I immediately texted the link to two friends - one of whom shared my enthusiasm, the other who responded, "I gave up after two minutes.  I don't get it."  And I understand that.  It's not exactly mainstream.

The Thanksgiving holiday weekend isn't over yet, so I want to close this post by acknowledging and extending thanks to Michele Catalano for introducing me to Foxing.  We've never met, but she's one of the handful of people that I've read/connected with on social media since beginning this blog 13 years ago.  She's an excellent writer - you can read her essays at Medium (https://medium.com/@inthefade), or follow her on Twitter @inthefade.  Her music tastes don't always merge with my own, but I've bought (and really liked) several records based on her recommendations.  So...thank you, Michele.

Top 50 Songs of the Decade, #41 - "Grand Paradise," Foxing.

Top 50 Songs of the Decade, #42 - "Bloodbuzz, Ohio," The National

Without a doubt, The National would be on my short list of Artists of the Decade.  Since 2010, they've released four albums that range from very good to outstanding: High Violet, Trouble Will Find Me, Sleep Well Beast and I Am Easy to Find.  If this list went to #100, there would be at least two more of their songs making the cut.  But even though this song is from what is my least favorite album of theirs in the decade, it is the single best song they've recorded during the period.



"Bloodbuzz, Ohio," The National, clocking in at #42.

Top 50 Songs of the Decade, #43 - "The Point of It," Yo La Tengo

The first Yo La Tengo album I bought was on vinyl, and I don't mean the recent return of vinyl as a dominant musical format.  I mean vinyl back when it was in its initial death throes, and those of a certain age became nostalgic because now we were going to have to buy our music on these CD things, which weren't even close to being as aesthetically pleasing.

In other words, it was a long time ago.



"Fade" is a great album, probably my favorite of theirs.  This is my favorite song on it.

Top 50 Songs of the Decade, #43 - "The Point of It."

The 2019 Big Game - The Axe is Back!

It had been so long since Cal had won The Big Game that I'd almost forgotten what it felt like.  To lend perspective, Barack Obama had been President for less than a year.  My, how much has changed since then.

Jeff Tedford was Cal's coach, and their 2009 victory on the Farm was the Bears' seventh Big Game triumph in eight years.  It seemed at the time that the good times would never end.  Except when they did, the following year.

A 9-year losing streak was bad enough, but making it even worse was the fact that very few of those games even approached being competitive.  No, the Cardinal pretty much kicked our ass for a decade.

With yesterday's thrilling 24-20 win - the Bears never held the lead until Garbers' touchdown scramble with 1:19 left in the game - Cal is bowl-eligible for a second straight year.  This year had the potential to be much more, but key injuries brought the team down a peg.  But no question, Justin Wilcox has the team on the right track.  If you're a Cal fan, you can't really complain about a season where you went to a bowl game and beat Stanford.

And it's been a long time since we've been able to say that.

Top 50 Songs of the Decade, #44 - "Things Have Changed," Bettye Lavette

The best Bob Dylan album of the decade was recorded by a 72-year old African American woman.  Well, of course it was.  

A few years back I was lucky enough to be invited to participate in Jack Gallagher and Tommy Dunbar's podcast, "5 Songs."  At some point during our conversation, I commented that my approach to music was that the best song ever written "was somewhere out there, but I just haven't heard it yet."  It's not a perfect comparison, but Bettye Lavette is a good example of that.  She's been out there forever, and it wasn't until I saw her 2018 album included in Greil Marcus' "Real Life Rock Top Ten" column that she was introduced to me.  That's to my discredit.  

The great thing about her song choices on the album is that, with one notable exception, she didn't go for the obvious songs.  To be fair, Dylan did win an Oscar for this song, but if you picked out 100 music fans and asked them to write down their Top Ten Dylan songs, I'd hazard a guess that this one wouldn't be on too many lists.

It's also a classic example of an artist, in a cover version, making the song their own.  My guess is that Dylan himself prefers this version.

Top 50 Songs of the Decade, #44 - "Things Have Changed," Bettye Lavette.

Top 50 Songs of the Decade, #45 - "The Devil Named Music," Chris Stapleton

Chris Stapleton had been around forever, and outside of the country music world, very few people had heard of him.  Then he sang with Justin Timberlake at the Country Music Awards in 2016, and all of a sudden he was everywhere.  It's an old story, and one of the best - the songwriter toiling behind the scenes, who all of a sudden becomes a superstar himself.  Think Willie Nelson.

This is a big claim, but I really think that "The Devil Named Music" is the best road song since Bob Seger's "Turn the Page."  The themes are similar.  Seger's great song starts like this:

On a long and lonesome highway

East of Omaha

You can listen to the engine

moanin' out his one note song

Stapleton leads with this:

We drove all night to Billings, Montana

Flew into Utah, slept there all day

I can't remember stopping in Denver

Yeah, I live my illusion that somebody needs to me play

And then, compare the key verse from Seger:

Here I am, on the road again

There I am, up on the stage

Here I go, playin' star again

There I go, turn the page

With the key verse from Stapleton:

And sometimes I'm drunk

And sometimes I'm stoned

And yes, I get tired of being alone

I miss my daughter

And I miss my wife

But the devil named music is taking my life.

Like Seger before him, Stapleton toiled for a long time in relative obscurity, and we are blessed to have songs depicting that life from both of them.

#45, Top 50 Songs of the Decade: "The Devil Named Music," Chris Stapleton.

Top 50 Songs of the Decade, #46 - "I Can't Give Everything Away," David Bowie

I've said before that David Bowie never quite had a direct line to my heart like he did for so many others.  But there's no questioning his greatness; if you want to use the word "genius" I won't complain and I won't argue.

This is the last song on the last album that Bowie recorded.  "Blackstar," much like Warren Zevon's "The Wind," was incredible as much for its circumstances as for its songs.  Like Zevon, Bowie knew he was dying when he recorded it.  That one can argue that it was his best album - which I think you can - is a miracle.

"I Can't Give Everything Away" isn't just the album's last song - it's the album's best song.  It is an example of everything that David Bowie did well during his remarkable and historic career.

Top 50 Songs of the Decade, #47: "This Is the World of the Theatre"

It's time to pick up the pace on this little project.

Today, let's talk about The New Pornographers.  How about that band name?  It never fails to get a reaction when I include one of their songs on one of my compilations, and one has to wonder how many potential fans have quickly walked away in the record store when they see it.

In a perfect world, they'd be a gosh darn hit machine.  There may not be another band in the last twenty years that's created songs with such great hooks.  The musicianship is terrific, and the vocal interplay among the band's members is downright awe-inspiring.  When it comes to bands from Canada, they just might be the very best.  They've never recorded an album quite as good as "Neon Bible" or "The Suburbs" by Arcade Fire, but "Challengers" (2008) came close, and overall their output has been more consistent.  Call it a draw.

And for a bonus, here's the recorded version.



"This Is the World of the Theatre," The New Pornographers.  The #47 song of the decade.

Oakland Raiders vs. San Diego Chargers

Sports have always had a way of breaking your heart.  A disappointing season; a painful loss; a favorite player being traded or moving away via free agency.  There are myriad ways it can happen.  And, perhaps because of the way we are wired as humans, we remember those moments far more than we remember the good times.  As a fan of Bay Area teams for most of my life, I've got nothing to complain about - five Super Bowl championships for the 49ers, three World Series championships for the Giants, a similar number for the Athletics and Raiders back when I was a kid and rooted for all the Bay Area teams equally.

And while those were great moments, none of it completely washed out the memory of the 2002 World Series (dear Lord, please don't let him face another batter), the 1983 NFC Championship Game (that was NOT pass interference!), or the 1990 NFC Championship Game (Jeez, Roger Craig, just hold on to the ball, and we win - is that really too much to ask?).  It's not logical, it's not rational - but it is what it is.

But the worst way to break the heart of a sports fan is for an entire team to leave.  Just ask fans of the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Seattle Supersonics, the Los Angeles Rams, the St. Louis Rams, the St. Louis Football Cardinals, the Montreal Expos...

And the Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers.



Back in 1980, the Raiders and the Chargers were the two best teams in football.  They played an AFC Championship game that year which was much more memorable than the Super Bowl that was played two weeks later.  There were nine future Hall of Famers on the field that day: Gene Upshaw, Art Shell, Ted Hendricks, Dave Casper, Ray Guy, Dan Fouts, Kellen Winslow, Charlie Joiner, and Fred Dean.  Also on the field that day were two players that won the Heisman Trophy: Jim Plunkett and John Cappaletti.  Pro Bowl players on the field that day included Mark Van Eeghen, Cliff Branch, Bob Chandler, Raymond Chester, John Matuszak, Matt Millen, Lester Hayes, John Jefferson, Louie Kelcher, and Gary Johnson.  The coaches were Tom Flores and Don Coryell.

Two landmark teams.  Two landmark franchises.  And soon, both to be gone, perhaps forever.

The Raiders and the Chargers played a game last night.  The Chargers now play in Los Angeles, but Troy Aikman called them "San Diego" at least once.  And that's only right - because for those who believe in fairness and justice, they will always be the San Diego Chargers.  It may have been the best game of the season, so far.  It was far from perfect.  But it had the atmosphere of the greatest games - an atmosphere that you rarely see in the regular season.  It was glorious.



And, barring a postseason appearance, it was the last prime time game that will ever be played at the Oakland - Alameda County Coliseum.  And that is a shame.  And there is plenty of shame to go around: the families that own the teams, the greed-based mindset that guides the NFL in the 21st Century.  Since there is no fan base for the Chargers in Los Angeles, I doubt that I'm offending anyone by suggesting that L.A. does not deserve this team. And while I'm sure there are many fine, dedicated football fans in Las Vegas, they do not deserve the Raiders.

For me, they will always be the OAKLAND Raiders and the SAN DIEGO Chargers.  Perhaps in my lifetime, they will be again.  After all, it happened once before.  This time, I'm not holding my breath.

Top 50 Songs of the Decade, #48: "Poison & Wine," The Civil Wars

How much does one need to know about a song to enjoy and appreciate it?  Is it better to have all the background, all the facts?  Or should you just let the mystery and the music envelop you?

John Paul White on the song:

"That song probably does sum us up - The Civil Wars, the name of the band - as well as any song that we've written.  We're all married, and we were all talking about the good, the bad and the ugly, and just felt like: What would you say to someone if you were actually brutally honest - the things that you could never say because it would turn them away or let the cat of the bag or reveal yourself to be weaker?  What would you actually say if you had this invisible curtain around you and could just scream it in somebody's face and they'd actually never hear it?  We were all being very painful honest, because we're very comfortable around each other and know that things like that never leave the room, except in a song.  I'm pretty proud of that song, to be honest."

In the case of "Poison & Wine," there may have been a little foreshadowing involved as well.  The duo stuck together for one album after "Barton Hollow" (on which this song appeared), and then called it a quits right in the middle of a tour. 

It's not a word I'd often use to describe a song, but this one is exquisite.  And even if you set the lyrics and the meaning aside, you can indeed just let the music wash over you.

#48 - "Poison & Wine," The Civil Wars.

Top 50 Songs of the Decade, #49 - "Your Dog," Soccer Mommy

From time to time, people ask me where I find the music in my collection.  Back in the old days, it was different - there were several Tower Records stores in town, and after that Dimple Records.  Browsing through the stacks of records (CDs later, but that was never as much fun) is one of the best memories of my lifetime.  Sometimes, I'd buy an album based solely on the album cover - The Pretenders' debut album comes to mind.  When you looked at that cover, how could you not think "this is going to be good?" 

Well, those days are over, and in this town (Sacramento) there's no longer a store that stocks enough records or CDs to make browsing worth one's time (or even possible, for that matter).  Today, I rely on several different online publications - Pitchfork, American Songwriter, No Depression, even Rolling Stone at times (especially when Rob Sheffield is writing) - for recommendations on new artists, or artists I'm not familiar with.  And then there are the old reliables, and in this case I do mean old - Greil Marcus and Robert Christgau.  Marcus doesn't write album reviews much any more, but his Real Life Rock Top Ten - wherever it may be residing at any given moment - has always been an indispensable source of what I'd call "fringe music."  And Christgau, nearing 80 now, is still plugging away with a new version of his Consumer Guide, which he is now publishing using a subscription model.

What does any of this have to do with Soccer Mommy?  Think of it as a roadmap - in order to discover an artist like Soccer Mommy (real name: Sophie Allison), you've got to put in the work.  And in this case, it was well worth the effort.  The album "Clean" took a few listens to sink in for me, but "Your Dog" made an impression right away.  It's the kind of song where you catch a fragment of a lyric on first listen, and then you're almost afraid to find out what it's all about.  As this piece on NPR notes, "It's a song reclaiming agency and identity taken by another person's condescension, control and abuse."  That tells you what you need to know.

Think of it as the link between Liz Phair and Taylor Swift.  

Top 50 Songs of the Decade, #49 - "Your Dog," Soccer Mommy.

The Top 50 Songs of the Decade

First of all, before anyone decides to give me a hard time with the "the decade of the 2010s didn't start until 2011" argument, I'm using the definition of "decade" which  simply states, "a period of ten years."

It took a little longer than expected to winnow the list down to 50 (there were some really painful cuts involved; I'm very sorry, Cardi B), but it's ready to go, so this little series will carry the blog through the end of the year.  Counting down, Casey Kasem style, my Top 50 Songs of the Decade.  If you don't see and hear something you enjoy, then you need to work on your musical tastes.

We begin the countdown with a living legend:



My parents and aunts took me to see Willie Nelson for my 21st birthday, which for those keeping track, was 38 years ago.  He was a grizzled veteran then, so I'm not even sure what to call him now.  But he's still writing great songs, still singing great songs, and by all appearances, still smoking only the best weed.

"Me and You," Willie Nelson (2018).   The old man clearly has an astute observation or two left up his sleeve.

More on The Highwomen

One sign of a great album is that you keep changing your mind about which song is the best.

Right now, "My Only Child" fits that bill for me on "The Highwomen."  And shame on me for not even mentioning it in my previous post.

Co-written by Natalie Hemby, Amanda Shires, and Miranda Lambert, it's the only song on the album that features a lead vocal by Hemby.

It's a magnificent song.  And the more I listen to and think about the album, the more it becomes a contender for my favorite album of 2019.

The Highwomen: Setting a Crowded Table

We are the highwomen, we sing stories still untold
We carry the sons you can only hold
We are the daughters of the silent generations
You sent our hearts to die alone in foreign nations
It may return to us as tiny drops of rain
But we will still remain

The Highwomen are one of the year's best music stories.  From left to right on the album cover, the group is comprised of Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris, Natalie Hemby and Amanda Shires.  If not exactly household words, all four have been very successful artists in their own right - Hemby primarily as a songwriter, the other three as singers and songwriters.  Carlile, Shires and Morris have all recorded excellent albums in the past year.  But over time, this album may come to be viewed as their legacy.

I want a house with a crowded table
And a place by the fire for everyone
Let us take on the world while we're young and able
And bring us back together when the day is done

It's not news that the country radio establishment has been shutting out the best women artists for a long time.  You could call "The Highwomen" a concept album in response to that unfortunate situation, but it's less a direct response than an alternative.  As Shires put it recently in an interview, the four came together with the desire to be inclusive.  When you listen to songs like "Crowded Table" (lyrics above) and "Redesigning Women," that theme is readily apparent.  Again proving the point, guests like Sheryl Crow and Yola show up on a couple of the album's tracks, and the video for "Redesigning Women" (see below) features a number of their fellow artists, including Tanya Tucker and Wynonna Judd.



But as strong as the concept is, having a strong concept wouldn't mean anything unless it was accompanied by a strong set of songs.  On that score, the album is a complete success.  Each artist brings their own style to the table, but the best songs are those that meld their strengths, and even more importantly, their voices.  In addition to the songs above, highlights include "Highwomen," which revisits (with his blessing)  the Jimmy Webb tune that provided The Highwaymen (Cash, Nelson, Jennings and Kristofferson) with their moniker; "Old Soul," which just might be the best song that Maren Morris has recorded to date; and "Wheels of Laredo," the album closer.  But every song is good, and there's plenty of humor (much of it self-deprecating) to go around.

Without a doubt, one of the notable albums of the year.

#SaveSI

Deep down, my guess is that the effort to save Sports Illustrated is doomed to fail.  On the one hand, it's not that difficult to understand - the magazine has been a shadow of its former self for a while now, which has been the case for many formerly great weekly periodicals.  It's now a biweekly publication, and the days are long past when the stories have the same kind of immediacy they did back in the pre-Internet era. 

But on the other hand, the thinking that goes into this kind of decision on the part of TheMaven makes no sense to me.  My son has now worked for two companies in the past year that were acquired by a larger company, with the only apparent purpose seeming to be to run the business into the ground and then sell the spare parts for profit.  Someone must be making a lot of money from these types of business strategies, but there doesn't seem to be much point to the exercise, aside from that.

If we are near the end of Sports Illustrated, that is something worth mourning.  For more than 60 years, the magazine was a source of incredible writing, and incredible photography.  There are a dozen or so boxes sitting out in my garage, and inside of them are old copies of Sports Illustrated, going all the way back to 1969.  Sports Illustrated has been an important part - a formative part - of my life.  Its legacy will live on through the former writers who go on to work in other venues, but even if that happens (and it has already happened in some instances), it just won't be the same.

Farewell, Bruce Bochy

Confession time - when Bruce Bochy was manager of the San Diego Padres, I couldn't stand the man.  My ire was directed more at the narrative that was constructed around him at the time.  He was a "genius!" And when you watched a baseball game during that era - and in this instance, I'm thinking more of the national telecasts than the local broadcasts with Kruk & Kuip, or Jon Miller - you could not go more than an inning or two without some commentary about whatever managerial move Bochy was making, and how that particular move manifested some type of rare genius.

It was annoying, and it got bad enough that when the Padres faced the best Yankees team in decades during the 1998 World Series, I actually rooted for the Yankees - which went against every fiber of my sports fan being, which has always been attracted to the underdog, unless one of the combatants is my team (or a team that I can't stand).  And when a managerial blunder (defined by Bill James as an out of the ordinary move that doesn't work) cost the Padres a game...well, let's just say I didn't feel too bad about it.

So when the Giants announced in October 2006 that they were bringing Bochy on board to succeed Felipe Alou, you didn't see me jumping for joy.  And after two seasons of more than 90 losses, it seemed just a matter of time before the Giants would be looking for Bochy's successor.  But things turned in a positive direction the following year, thanks in large part to the skinny kid in the above photo, a pitcher who looked like his arm might fall off every time he took the mound.  He's not going to make the Hall of Fame, but for a 3-4 year period, he was as good a pitcher as anyone has ever seen.  There's a bobblehead of him in my office, and he's holding his two Cy Young Awards.  Not too shabby.

And then the following year, a World Series Championship that seemed as if it would never come - at least not during my lifetime.  That was the year of torture, as the Giants found new ways to make things more dramatic than they needed to be.  Throughout it all, Bochy was the rock around which everyone would gather.  It was a glorious time.  And when it happened again in 2012 - the "never say die" year - and 2014, the year we were probably the 7th or 8th best team in baseball, we were well into territory that would have seemed corny even for a Hollywood movie.

The last few seasons haven't been that great, but so what?  How many baseball fans can say that they got to see their team bring home the trophy three times in five years?  And no matter important one believes a manager to be to a team's success, you can't argue with what Bruce Bochy has been able to accomplish.  You could call it luck, I suppose - but the way that he squeezed the best out of his players, including many that people had given up on, you have to give him credit.  He was able to do what few before him were able to do.  And he didn't need to be a genius - he just needed to be Bruce Bochy.

At the end of the day, Bochy's bust will be in Cooperstown, and that honor will be well deserved.