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Song of the Day #2,809: ‘Way Down in the Hole’ – The Neville Brothers

wire_season_threeSeason Three of The Wire returned to the network of cops and drug dealers who dominated the first season. Idris Elba’s drug kingpin Stringer Bell, one of the most charismatic villains ever, moved to center stage as he tried to get into legitimate business and ran into a buzz saw of truly villainous politicians and real estate moguls.

The dominant storyline in this season was a bold experiment by a soon-to-retire police major: the essential legalization of drugs in one small corner of the city, where the police force agreed to look the other way as long as the dealers steered clear of the rest of town.

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Song of the Day #2,808: ‘Way Down in the Hole’ – Tom Waits

wire_season_twoOne of the cool things about The Wire is how each season focused in on a particular subset of Baltimore citizens, even as the core cast remained largely the same.

Season One introduced on a special crime task force utilizing the titular wire to build a case against the city’s major drug runners. That group of cops and lawyers form the spine of the whole series. But the smaller universe of characters in that season were a group of “corner boys” caught between their criminal bosses and the police.

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Song of the Day #2,807: ‘Way Down in the Hole’ – The Blind Boys of Alabama

the_wire_season_oneA decade ago, B.J. Novak penned a MySpace post titled “I will watch The Wire when I watch The Wire!” aimed at all of the people — friends and strangers alike — who go on and on about how you can’t miss such an excellent show.

I’ve been on both sides of that equation, having blathered endlessly about the greatness of Breaking Bad, Friday Night Lights and many other shows, but also fatigued by the endless proselytizing by others about their own favorite — House of Cards, say, or The Sopranos and, yes, The Wire.

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Song of the Day #2,805: ‘Wrap Your Arms Around Me’ – Barenaked Ladies

gordonHere’s a very pretty song from Barenaked Ladies’ debut album, Gordon. The lovely acoustic guitar and impressive vocal harmonies mask the fact that it appears to be sung from the perspective of either a murderer, a perpetrator of domestic violence or both.

The opening line about tracing a likeness of the woman’s body suggests a chalk outline at a crime scene, supporting the murder interpretation. The line “I regret every time I raised my voice” in the final verse implies that these two are in a relationship. My take is that he finally went too far and his abuse resulted in her death.

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