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Song of the Day #572: ‘Baseball and Beatles’ – Mark Elliott

Note: Today’s SOTD comes courtesy of guest blogger Amy, who recently took a family trip to Music City:

When we recently went to Nashville, we knew the one definite stop on our agenda was to visit the Bluebird Café. We didn’t know any of the artists playing the only night we would be able to attend, but that was okay. The point of our visit was to be in a place that housed some great singer/songwriters before they were “discovered” (such as Taylor Swift), as well as the working musician who plied his trade from town to town, in venues just like this one.

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Song of the Day #571: ‘Glass, Concrete & Stone’ – David Byrne

Took a little break over the weekend (hope you’re enjoying the Dylan series) but I have one loose end to tie up on the David Byrne front.

Three years after Look Into the Eyeball, Byrne returned with one of his strongest albums, 2004’s Grown Backwards. The album is ambitious and yet mostly low-key, favoring acoustic guitars and soft rhythm sections to the wild experimentation of previous albums.

Not that he doesn’t experiment… Byrne tackles two straight up arias, one in French and one in Italian, the former a duet with Rufus Wainwright. Hearing Byrne’s quirky whine wrapping around those melodies is both shocking and moving.

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Song of the Day #570: ‘The Times They Are A’Changin” – Bob Dylan

First, let me say Happy Valentine’s Day to those of you who celebrate the holiday (my wife and I don’t, because every day is Valentine’s Day in our house, baby!). And more important, happy birthday to my daughter Fiona, who turned four today.

I dedicated a song to her last year so I don’t feel guilty about sticking with the Dylan theme this go-around. And if there was a song about hilarious, adorable, sweet, maddening little girls on The Times They Are A’Changin’, you can bet I’d pick it.

But there isn’t. So I’m going instead with a song that reminds me of my own childhood. Or my own adolescence, anyway.

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Song of the Day #569: ‘Boots of Spanish Leather’ – Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan’s third album, and his first to contain only original material, was 1964’s The Times They Are A-Changin’. It’s fascinating to consider that Dylan’s reputation as a protest singer and the artistic face of the civil rights era is based almost entirely on the songs he cut for this album.

Yes, ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ and ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’ appeared on The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, but the rest of that album was a more good-humored and intimate affair. The Times They Are A-Changin’, by contrast, was folk singer medicine. Aside from the title track, which memorably warned of the coming revolution, declaring that “your sons and your daughters are beyond your command,” you have protest songs about specific injustices done to Medgar Evers, Hattie Carroll and others.

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Song of the Day #568: ‘Everyone’s In Love With You’ – David Byrne

In 2001, David Byrne released his fifth solo record, Look Into the Eyeball. It was a bit of a letdown following the heights of Feelings but it’s a solid collection nonetheless.

If Byrne tries something new on every album, on this one it was his liberal use of a string section on most of the tracks. Today’s SOTD is one of the few exceptions. But although it isn’t representative of the album as a whole, I chose it because it marks a departure for Byrne in another way… it’s a song about a recognizably human couple.

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