Song of the Day
Each day in 2022, I chose a song. Sometimes it chose me.
Oblivions
The National
Another gorgeous one from the perfectly titled I AM EASY TO FIND — which has become my most played National record and my second favorite behind BOXER.
I love this arrangement — how the song begins with piano and competing drums and tempos. The Brooklyn Youth Chorus adds an epic element to the intimate feel. Haunting guest vocals from Mina Tindle on this track that Berninger wrote with his wife Carin Besser. Their poetry articulates the joys of their commitment and the endurance it takes to keep it meaningful and fulfilling.
It's still always you every morning I think of no matter what
How I want you here
I know I am easy to find but you know, it's never me
I still got my fears
Sorrow
The National
I used to play HIGH VIOLET in our car back in 2010 and I’d watch Flannery in the rear view, strapped wide-eyed in her car seat, only 4 — and I’d wonder and worry about sorrow. Specifically — if, when and how it would eventually find her.
Love the tempo of those guitar strums and those big drums. Just a beautiful song and arrangment. And these Berlinger lyrics are thoughtful and poetic as they help reveal the enticing side of sorrow.
Sorrow found me when I was young
Sorrow waited, sorrow won
Sorrow, they put me on the pill
It's in my honey, it's in my milk
Green Gloves
The National
Like a little drop of ink in a glass of water…
The lyric popped in my head today and I had to remember where it came from. This song. My favorite from BOXER — a record with a slew of great songs. Not sure why this one’s the track I always stick a pin in. There’s something really mysterious and beautiful about it. A compassionate love song to lost friendships. I have some really good friends I haven’t spoken to in many years.
Hope we’re staying glued together
I have arms for them
But some nights I remember them. And I try to get inside their heads and feel them again — who they are. It could a prayer, a mediation, a memory.
Get inside their heads,
Love their loves… ❤️
About Today
The National
I heard this EP called CHERRY TREE back in 2005 when prepping to shoot our movie CALVIN MARSHALL. I remember playing it a lot at the time and this track became an anthem of sorts, marking this particular hurdle in my life and career.
This song also announced THE NATIONAL as a seriously terrific band working at a high level and making their own rules about genre and style. So love this guitar and drum vibe, with that cello and understated vocals. And these lyrics are so personal to me, because I saw our film slipping away from us — something our team had worked for years to get made.
How close am I to losing?
E=MC2
Big Audio Dynamite
Mick Jones came right out of that broken CLASH gate in 84 with this amazing track that somehow works so well — even as it mixes samples, genres and new 80’s sounds. I love these samples and those little random stories in this track. They could be bad dreams Mick had or maybe they’re based in reality. It doesn’t matter in the song, we feel the insanity either way.
E =mc2
Energy equals matter times the speed of light squared.
Jones uses this concept to describe a culture where things are moving too fast and veering out of control.
Train In Vain (Stand By Me)
The Clash
Excited to put two out there for Mick Jones before moving on from the Clash — he may not have had the swagger of Joe Strummer, but whenever he takes a lead vocal, you realize he could’ve done it a lot more often. This first one is the last track on their masterpiece LONDON CALLING — it’s a simple love song about loyalty, with a very inauspicious title. Another one of those heartbreaking songs about being let down in a relationship. But somehow the music still makes you feel good — it just sounds buoyant and fun. Sometimes calling someone out can be empowering and you really feel that energy here.
There’s only one thing I can say
Did you stand by me? No, not at all.
Janie Jones
The Clash
Imagine putting on the self-titled debut by THE CLASH back in ‘77, not knowing anything about this band. What a beautiful experience that would have been. It announced to the world who the Clash was. It’s all here in track one — melody, guitars and drums. Great vocals from Strummer and Jones. Already socially conscious — this little, touching portrait of a young blue collar worker hating his boring job and working conditions.
But he loves his evenings out with Janie. Lucky lady. He seems like a good dude who just hates his boss. No payola in his alphabetical file. 😂 But he needs to fill his Ford Cortina with gas so he and Janie can go out.
Absolutely love those No’s at the end and how our hero plans to let his boss and government man know exactly how he feels about his shitty job.
Know Your Rights
The Clash
A seminal band for me. Meaning — they were a gateway to punk rock, post-punk, new wave. So I’m going down this rabbit hole with intention. I don’t want to linger too long down here, but I also want to enjoy myself. The original lineup (the only lineup) was together 7 years — so I will try to spread out the wealth between 76 and 83.
This first single is from COMBAT ROCK — the Clash perhaps at their most socially conscious. KNOW YOUR RIGHTS really is a public service announcement 😂 as they give a voice to police brutality with a beautiful sneering vocal from Strummer.
This is a public service announcement
With guitar
Know your rights
All three of them
The Magnificent Seven
The Clash
One summer afternoon in my late teens, I was killing free time in a record store and they had SANDINISTA! spinning on vinyl — blasting from a great sound system. Almost on cue, they seemed to be spinning side one, track one for me. And this song — I’ll remember that moment forever — made me feel like I was hearing this band for the very first time. The only band that ever mattered.
SANDINISTA! is The Clash record I turn to most often. It’s funky, poppy and ambitious in equal parts — sprawling is an understatement, because these songs touch so many genres and influences.
It has an all-time killer bass line and beautiful Joe Strummer, rapper’s delight vocals. And that chorus?
You lot!
What?
Don’t stop, give it all you got
Meaningful, fresh, cool. Perfection. Another great time capsule video too — what a band.
The Sound of Sinners
The Clash
Originally I imagined this amazing gospel punk track from SANDINISTA! in our final tryout montage in CALVIN MARSHALL.
It felt like destiny! But the six figure price tag kept it out of the film. 😕 Our entire music budget was far less than this. But when you’re dreaming about filmmaking, sometimes you get these really strong ideas that are difficult to shake. Using the Clash felt like an all time great filmmaking call.
🎵 Judgement day.. Judgement day…Judgement day… 🎵
I could hear it and see it all in my mind’s eye. And it was a beautiful vision, but never meant to be.
So Lonely
The Police
So easy to forget Sting was once the front man of a truly great rock ‘n roll band and OUTLANDOS d’AMOUR is their masterful debut from ‘78. They had an interesting sound out of the gate — I’m sure it felt new at the time — because it isn’t really punk, and pop elements are lurking, percolating. The percussion and drumming are, of course, off the charts. But mostly I love how Sting’s voice is always sort of veering out of control — like they were settling for take ones in the studio. The polish would come later, but it’s not here.
The record gave us their #1 single ROXANNE and I love this album for its energy and melody. It’s a CLASH kind of energy that we hear in Next To You, Can’t Stand Losing You, Hole in My life and this beauty. Literally all desperate love songs for the rejected and heartbroken that will actually cheer you up instead of make you feel worse. 💔😄 Great video too — where Sting is already showing off his acting skills. And I’m also detecting a kind of Thom Yorke vibe which honestly really surprised me.
More Than Ever
Dan Fogelberg
From his stunning debut HOME FREE — still mind blowing because he recorded it when he was 19 and played just about every instrument. And it’s a complicated record with mature songs. This guy was a rare talent and it still sounds amazing. And he even painted the cover — a self portrait.
Fogelberg went on to sell millions of records with so many easy rock hits — too many to count in the 70’s & 80’s. But it’s THIS record from ‘72 that is by far my favorite. It’s original, loose, dark and surprising. All ten songs hold up so well — and this country rock track here is incredible — just listen to those vocals and guitars.
Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)
Marvin Gaye
Death has been hovering this past week — and with the election results trickling in today, I can’t help but meditate on this life we get to live in 2022. I’m not a big fan of mixing art and politics, but sometimes it works though, like in this incredible song from 1971. Such beautiful, melodic vocals from Marvin — a top 5 Marvin Gaye song for me. I love how his ideas are built on a kind of approachable humility. It’s not an angry song. He comes on his knees asking for mercy.
Woah, ah, mercy, mercy me
Ah, things ain't what they used to be (ain't what they used to be)
Where did all the blue skies go?
Poison is the wind that blows
From the north and south and east
Laser Beam
Low
Still thinking about Mimi Parker today and so I’ll pay tribute with a few more songs. This one is so simple and startling — from their masterful record THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE. So good. I love how her vocals and lyrics are front and center — so pure, beautiful, hypnotizing. No one wrote and sang quite like her. Man it kills me to write that last sentence in past tense. 💔
Over the Ocean
Low
The first Low song I loved from their early album THE CURTAIN HITS THE CAST (‘96) — a true slow-core record. This track is like a lullaby with a dreamy guitar and brushed drum soundscape.
For me, this song teed up the simple fact both Mimi and Alan would be trading off on vocals. And it showed so beautifully how both could co-exist in a great track and how they would lean into harmonizing together.
It was this record and song that made me pay attention to Low and each subsequent release thereafter. Because their music slowed me down and rendered a certain kind of emotion — equal parts melancholy and hope. My favorite kind of art does this, and it’s a reason I gravitated to slow-core so frequently — especially as a became an adult in the 90’s.
Fly
Fly
Nov 6
Low
😭 I was already writing my song of the day — FLY by Nick Drake — when I heard Mimi Parker of LOW passed away from ovarian cancer. For some reason this news just shook me up this morning. Unexpected emotion.
She has the voice of an angel and I’ve been a fan for so many years. I remember playing THE CURTAIN HITS THE CAST and THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE over and over again when I was still in my twenties. So many records and songs over the years I’m remembering now. Every holiday season their EP CHRISTMAS is played and replayed.
And this song right there is just almost unbearable to listen to this morning it’s so beautiful. Just listen to her voice. It doesn’t come in until 1:45 but Mark Pellington has made a searing little film about the transition from life to death. And these works of art — song and film — were released before her diagnosis in 2020.
RIP Mimi Parker.
‘Cello Song
Nick Drake
The guitar picking in this great tune might be more outstanding than the cello — and both fall second to his lyrics and vocals. To think this young man died in relative obscurity at 24? What a loss. His record deal came as a college student and he released his debut FIVE LEAVES LEFT in ‘69 — which produced this tune along with a brilliant batch of mature songs. Wise and talented beyond his years — unfortunately his depression and drug use increased until asocial tendencies peaked and he OD’d. Accidental or intentional — he was perhaps just too good for this world, because his music showcases such a wide, poetic range of ideas and emotion.
You would seem so frail
In the cold of the night
When the armies of emotion
Go out to fight
But while the earth sinks to its grave
You sail to the sky
On the crest of a wave
Intil
Menomena
Another Portland band that makes sublime, original music in the studio using loops and beats — pianos, guitars, melodies and sounds. I love the way this band makes music. You really feel their commitment because all the layers and tracks sound so good together. It sounds perfected. And this one’s also about a shattered relationship or friendship — but it’s much heavier than yesterday’s song. The wounds feel fresh.
We used to be close…
Somebody That I Used to Know
Elliott Smith
The beginning of this song sounds like Dear Prudence sped up…just wanted to point that out up front. The more you pour over his songs, little traces of the Beatles show up in subtle, amusing ways. Even in ways I’m sure Elliott never realized. The way he sings a word, or plays a chord — the way a song might briefly begin or end.
This song has simmering anger living inside it. An anger that’s relentless — it just moves along like a speeding train with no chorus.
One little guitar solo bridge follows three verses. Then one final verse and the guitar bridge again. Then, a little extra guitar picking for good measure and to close it out. An ending that for some reason reminds me of the Beatles again. 😂
Clementine
Elliott Smith
Another track from his self-titled LP — one of these stunners that you can’t believe exists. A million to one song that’s just perfect and emotional and exponential in meaning.
A cinematic beginning as our hero wakes up on a stool with the bar closing. It’s raining outside and the bartender’s singing the tragic folk song Oh My Darling, Clementine. And the song has such a beautiful melody, you just want to keep playing it. And it also has one of my favorite Elliott Smith couplets —
You drank yourself in slo mo
Made an angel in the snow
❤️