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Song of the Day #4,507: ‘Decoration Day’ – Drive-By Truckers

I’ve wanted to give Drive-By Truckers a listen ever since I discovered Jason Isbell a few years back. I knew he spent time in the Athens-based Southern rock band before he went solo and released some of the best albums I’ve heard in a long time.

2003’s Decoration Day, the Truckers’ fourth studio album, was Isbell’s first with the band. He replaced a departing guitarist and eventually became one of the principal songwriters. His tenure was short, however, because his drug and alcohol abuse made him impossible, and forced the band to boot him a few years later. Fortunately, he got clean and embarked on an extraordinary solo career.

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Song of the Day #4,506: ‘Slow’ – Kylie Minogue

I like when the Decades posts give me a chance to listen to an artist I’ve never heard before, and frankly will likely never hear again. Kylie Minogue is such an artist.

The 52-year-old dance-pop star is the all-time top-selling Australian artist, with more than 70 million albums sold worldwide. I don’t think I’d ever heard a note of hers until this week.

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Song of the Day #4,505: ‘Keep Me in Your Heart’ – Warren Zevon

My awareness of Warren Zevon begins and ends with his classic ‘Werewolves of London,’ released on the 1978 album Excitable Boy. That song got a lot of airplay when I was young, and really got a boost when Martin Scorsese had Tom Cruise peacock around a pool table to it in 1986’s The Color of Money.

That was Zevon’s third of 12 studio albums, in a career that spanned 24 years and saw him collaborate with the likes of Linda Ronstadt, David Letterman and R.E.M.

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Song of the Day #4,504: ‘Bust’ – Outkast feat. Killer Mike

I’m continuing my Decades series over the next two weeks, writing about some of the 2003 albums that didn’t crack my top ten. Most of these records are completely new to me. A few are in my music library but neglected enough that I’m treating them as new.

Outkast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below falls into the latter category. I know the big songs from this album very well (‘Hey Ya,’ ‘The Rooster,’ ‘The Way You Move‘) but the rest haven’t stuck with me. And listening to it again this week, that didn’t really change.

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Song of the Day #4,503: ‘The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy) [Live in Central Park]’ – Simon & Garfunkel

I write these posts about a week or so in advance, and when preparing this one, it hit me that I’m about to get to the stretch of posts spanning Election Day and its aftermath. Gulp.

Four years ago, I spent the lead-up to the election posting songs from the 30 Days, 30 Songs project, in which artists took musical shots at Donald Trump in the name of raising money and turning out the vote.

It didn’t work, obviously.

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