We’ll kick this off with an easy one. Nick Lowe’s “Cruel to Be Kind” is the most perfect pop song ever written.
Excellent tune, no doubt, and Berube offers an admirable defense of his choice and explanation of his methodology. Go check it out. Myself, off the top of my head, I'm feeling these four tunes immediately:
Ain't Too Proud to Beg- The Temptations. Three chords, simple lyrics about a man who wants his woman back, one of the Funk Brothers' leanest, meanest backing performances, and a lead vocal from David Ruffin which transcends pop music itself, taking its place among the great novels, paintings, sculpture, and architecure of the world.
Don't Dream It's Over- Crowded House. The jagged sus2 chord which opens this tune is probably the single most evocative moment in pop music for me. Okay, there's a glimmer of social content in the lyrics, but I think the uber-singable chorus and organ-into-guitar solo more than make up for it.
ABC- Jackson 5. No explanation needed.
Don't Get Me Wrong- The Pretenders. She worked the line "I split like light refracted" into a song. That's awesome.
No comments:
Post a Comment