Boy, am I elderly. If you’re looking for anything new and exciting (TM, A Stranger Among Us), you won’t find it here; perusing my year-end stats on iTunes, I see among my most-played songs of 2023 nothing too recent — across the top 10 entries, shared below, the newest came out almost nine years ago. If we expand the search to my top 50, you’ll find two from 2022: Florence + the Machine’s “Free” and “King,” the latter of which will probably inspire its own post here eventually since it basically describes the last five years of my life (with Crankenstein in the role of Florence).
“Born to Run” (Bruce Springsteen)
Several times a week I lift weights and perform other tedious chores to a Springsteen concert playlist that begins with the rollicking “Born to Run” from Live/1974-85 that everyone knows and loves, and ends with this mournful live acoustic version from 1988. Gone is the youthful bravado of its chorus, replaced by the weary concessions (“Together we can live with the sadness”) adults make upon realizing that it’s always dark somewhere and that we can’t outrun ourselves.
“Crescent City” (Lucinda Williams)
A standout track from a self-titled album where every song’s a classic; the fiddle sends it over the top, straight into alt-country heaven.
“Everyday I Write the Book” (Elvis Costello and the Attractions)
Elvis Costello is a man with a mission in two or three editions in this sly classic, distinguished by playful writing and brilliant backing vocals by Claudia Fontaine and Caron Wheeler. As a connoisseur of anger, I’m naturally a Costello admirer — My Aim is True and Painted from Memory are among my favorite albums — but here he doesn’t seethe, he charms.
“Take the Night Off” (Labelle)
When Patti LaBelle beseeches you to discard your clothing and hop into bed, you should probably just do as you’re told. You can’t listen to “Take the Night Off” without stopping whatever you’re doing to belt every part — and if your dog’s anything like Muriel, they won’t appreciate your efforts.
Its lyrics are as insipid as anything Bryan Ferry ever wrote, but the music itself is close to perfect; I’ve loved “Same Old Scene” for decades and still lose track of time while listening to it on repeat.
“I’m Comin’ Over” (Chris Young)
If an oak tree could sing, it would sound like Chris Young. Ignore the video, in which he strains to act (perhaps his Spanx shapewear was too tight), and enjoy his vocals on a sort of one-sided update of Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris’s “We’ll Sweep Out the Ashes in the Morning.”
“(There’s) No Gettin’ Over Me” (Ronnie Milsap)
I, too, would be brimming with self-confidence if I were as smooth as Milsap, who performed what he called his final Nashville concert in October.
There’s nothing you can write about “Which Will” that will do it justice; there’s an ephemeral beauty to Nick Drake songs that’s easier to experience than describe. If you’re ever lonely late at night, or early in the morning, pull this up and let him keep you company. Amazingly, Lucinda Williams’s cover is just as gorgeous.
“The Very Thought of You” (Ella Fitzgerald)
One of my favorite standards, and — as was usually the case — few did it better than Ella.
“Be Anything (but Be Mine)” (Sarah Vaughan)
A masterful interpretation of a love song as funny as it is elegant. Sample lyric: “Be the angel of my prayers/Be the devil, who cares?/Be anything, but, darling, please be mine.”