#103 "Hotel Columbia" by Jesse Malin

Jesse Malin's debut "The Fine Art of Self Destruction" was a great find back in 2002. When he released a follow-up two years later, it was unfortunately a bit of a disappointment for me. "The Heat" was just missing some of that spark that hit me with the first record.

I guess when his first album came out, it was frequently mentioned that Malin was Ryan Adams' protege or something, even though Malin is a few years older. Adams produced his debut and played on a number of the songs. And even though they are great friends and Malin appreciated his help, apparently he didn't want to spend the rest of his career being known as "Ryan Adams' boy" so he severed some of those ties for "The Heat." I thought Ryan Adams' contributions to the first record were great. I don't know that that's what is missing from "The Heat" though. I just don't think the songs are as good.

That being said, there are plenty of likeable tunes on Jesse Malin's sophomore effort. My favorite is probably "Hotel Columbia." Its lyrics seem to be about that struggle growing up and growing old. How do you still be cool when your "friends are all dads and moms"? A number of my buddies from college seemed to have a hard time adjusting to life in the real world of wives, jobs, mortgages, etc. Many people in their mid-twenties and early thirties can identify with Malin's lyrics here. Words aside, the music in this song is great too. It's got a great guitar hook that starts it all off and pops up throughout. The whole thing is good and fast... a great rocker with Malin's heart-on-his-sleeve lyrics holding it all up from below.

"Hotel Columbia" is from the album "The Heat." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#102 "Hot Patootie" by Brian May

Brian May is the freakishly intelligent and talented guitarist of Queen. He's got one of the more recognizable guitar sounds in all of music and I've enjoyed his work for a long time. Like I said before... my mom LOVES Queen. We heard a lot of Brian May growing up.

I've also mentioned before that I don't always believe that it's necessary to get the spin-off releases from a band's individual members. In the case of Brian May, however, he did a lot of solo songs on Queen's albums that most people never heard because they weren't included on any of the Greatest Hits collections. He had a singing contribution on nearly every album, I think, and was responsible for writing a lot of their biggest hits that he let Freddie Mercury sing. So when he put out his first solo record, "Back to the Light" in 1992, I was curious to hear it.

When I first heard "Back to the Light," I was pretty stunned. It's a GREAT album. It has all of the elements that made Queen great, like the multi-tracked choral voices, the big loud guitars, the soaring ballads, etc. I remember thinking, "Wow... I guess it was Brian May who was really the secret behind Queen." I think I read a similar comment in Rolling Stone as well. So if you ever get the chance, check it out.

"Hot Patootie" is a bonus track from May's second album "Another World." Actually, it was only available on Japanese imports of the record but got this via a free mail-in offer from the album. There was a little post-card offer for a free "Retro Rock Special" inside the cd case. You know what? There's not too much that's free in the world these days, so I took advantage of the opportunity. The whole cd is a bunch of 50's rock-n-roll covers. May appears in this silly crooner's outfit and has liner notes that claim that the whole thing was recorded by his alter-ego T.E. Conway. It's a lot of fun. "Hot Patootie" begins with this revving motorcycle and then a screaming laugh. May comes on with a boisterous, "HEEEEY, Pussy-cat! What's going down?" My boys love it. I was about to write that the whole thing reminds me of the song Meatloaf sings in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," but a little research told me that "Hot Patootie" IS the song Meatloaf sang in that movie. Duh!!! Oh well... enjoy!

"Hot Patootie" is from the "Retro Rock Special EP." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#101 "Hot Coals" by Evan Dando

I'm always a sucker for a good love song.

"Hot Coals" is one of those tunes I wish I could've written. Actually, it's mostly just the chorus that makes me think that. It's simple. It's built on a popular cliche, but every time Evan Dando sings "I 'd walk over hot coals just to win your love," I can just feel every word he's saying. As much as I can admire someone like Conor Oberst's use of clever word-play and metaphors in his lyrics, the simple and direct approach is often the most effective. And in the case of "Hot Coals," it's the most affective too.

Evan Dando made his career in The Lemonheads. He churned out poppy catchy alternative songs that earned him a big following, lots of magazine covers, celebrity girlfriends, and ultimately more fame than he seemed to be able to handle. After 1996, he kind of disappeared for a while. Whenever he resurfaced for the occasional tribute album or soundtrack, the music he was playing was pretty different... a lot more country than alternative. You could hear him covering lots of songs by his idol Graham Parsons, or tunes by Hank Williams and other Americana legends. This might've confused some of the fans who missed his bubblegum rock, but I loved it. Dando's voice is so rich and his acoustic guitar playing is also warm and tuneful. His talents are perfectly suited for this kind of music. "Hot Coals," a song written by Jeff Rymes of the alt-country California band The Lonesome Strangers, is a great showcase for this.

"Hot Coals" is from the original soundtrack to the film "Heavy." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#100 "Horrorshow" by The Libertines

It's the 100th song! I'm a third of the way through The 300!!! Hallelujah!

It's interesting to see how these songs line up alphabetically. Sometimes there are some selections that make for a really bizarre combo once they're next to each other. At other times you get these really cool runs, like the "Can't" and "Don't" songs that are just fabulous. This song, "Horrorshow," is great right next to "Holidays in the Sun." You have two legendary English punk bands snarling it out for world domination!

"Horrorshow" was one of the first songs by The Libertines that really hooked me. I still don't remember how I came upon their music... and they probably don't remember recording half of it either! But I digress... so anyhow I heard this song that was wild and fast and seemed dangerously close to imploding before it was able to finish. I thought, "This one is great." There was so much energy in it. Granted, I had no idea what the song was about. Pete Doherty's vocals are regularly a mix of screams, yelps, slurs, and breathy exhales that are difficult to decipher. And the music is so rockin' that I often got lost in it, but I have managed to hear the heroin references in lines like "horse is brown," one of several "brown" comments that work their way into a number of The Libertines songs. I LOVE the second half of the chorus when, after Pete sings "Pin me up or put me.... uh uh uh uh oh!" The great stoppage of the music at that part is fantastic. There are a few places where the tempo shifts down for a while, only to explode again. Great great stuff. This is a really fun song to listen to.

"Horrorshow" is from the album "Up the Bracket." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#99 "Holidays in the Sun" by The Sex Pistols

I tried to make a sort of policy for myself with this list and not include multiple tracks from the same album. I have SO many records. The point was to stretch this profile out to cover most everything I owned. Occasionally there are some albums that were just too good to get a single selection though. Or in the case of The Sex Pistols, they only have one album, and that one album is so great that you just have to give it some extra attention.

"Holidays in the Sun" literally comes marching right out of the first side of "Never Mind The Bollocks," the landmark album the Pistols made in 1977. When this song comes on, my boys hear the military intro and start marching in place. When Steve Jones' killer guitar comes in, they just lose their minds. I totally encourage this kind of madness too. What's better than watching a six and an eight year old jumping all over the house to the tune of The Sex Pistols? Then when I show them how Johnny Rotten used to look when he "sang," they get all demented with some bizarre combo of punk rock meets the elementary school playground. "Kidz Bop" would never garner such a reaction!

"Holidays In The Sun" is from the album "Never Mind the Bollocks." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#98 "Holiday" by Vampire Weekend

Right now, I'm TOTALLY obsessed with Vampire Weekend. You must've heard of them. In the beginning of 2010, it's been all about Vampire Weekend. They're on magazine covers everywhere, and if they're not, they're certainly featured in some article about their newest album Contra. As a music fan, I had heard of them, but I had never actually listened their music until recently. It was my luck that in the midst of all the media attention a student bounced into my room a few weeks ago and said, "Look at what I just got, Mr. G!" She was holding a copy of Contra. I borrowed it, burned it to my laptop, and listened to it that afternoon. I've been hooked ever since.

What's funny about my interest in VW is that they really don't fit into many of the categories that I like. They're a bunch of preppy Columbia-grads whose music, an eclectic combo of Paul Simon meets JD Salinger... like the remnants of some prep school field trip to the islands or something, just didn't seem like it would appeal to me. When I popped their cd in, however, I liked it, though I couldn't tell you why. It was simply like-able. I always find that to be such an interesting part of being human. Can anyone explain why they enjoy something? I can't really tell you why I love ice cream or why I enjoy asparagus but not peas. It's weird. But with Vampire Weekend, I just kept listening. It's been one of those happy little discoveries... AND their first album is even better than their second!

"Holiday" is one of VW's new songs. Contra is a lot slicker than their debut. Whereas their first record sounds like some college kids recording stuff in their dorm rooms, the new one employs more electronics, more production, and most likely more money. It's still good, but it's a little harder to identify with the rich kids when the sound rich with their auto-tune software and keyboard symphonies. "Holiday," however, is one of the simpler more rockin' songs. It's got the great island-influenced drums and the sort of ska guitars and bass. It's good and fast too. I especially like when, in the second half of the chorus, the electric guitar really kicks in. It's some fun stuff. The drums on all of Vampire Weekend's songs are always great too. Chris Tomson did some time as a dj in college and has cited this great African music hour that he used to get to listen to as a big influence. It's not easy stuff to play, but it really helps to define VW's music. What I especially like about the drumming here is how Tomson keeps the percussion time not on the high-hat, but instead on the rim of the snare drum. That's pretty cool, and certainly not something you hear very often in conventional rock songs.

"Holiday" is from the album "Contra." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#97 "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC

My high school swim team had this time-honored practice of kidnapping new recruits. The older kids would call the parents of some new member, make the arrangements, and then pounce on their unknowing prey in the early hours of some weekend morning. I can still remember when they came for my brother. My own kidnapping got messed up because my mom forgot to leave the door unlocked. I ended up letting my assailants in myself!?! When it was my turn to nab some young kid, I had a great time doing it.

Me and my buddies picked this really sweet kid to get. He was the goofiest boy you could ever come across... the definition of a freshmen. He even had these big Coke-bottle glasses. He couldn't see a damn thing without them. I honestly have no idea how he was able to navigate the pool in that condition. He might've been a heck of a lot faster had he been able to actually see the walls. He was the nicest kid though... but damn was he goofy!

So me and my senior pals show up at his house one early Saturday. His mom let us in. She had a big smile on her face and was happy to be a part of the joke. She didn't even budge when we put panty hose on our heads. She just drank her coffee and led us up to her son's room. The kid was dead asleep... sawing some serious logs in his bed. We stood over him menacingly and just laid into him. We pinned him face down to his bed, talked in deep "scary" voices, duck-taped his hands behind his back, and told him to shut the hell up. And because the kid couldn't see a damn thing and was being violently awoken by three strangers, he was freaking out. I think his mom helped to calm him down when she said aloud, "Be sure to grab his glasses." The fear probably wore off, but the confusion certainly couldn't have... especially for this goofball. We blind-folded this blind kid anyway, walked him out of his house, and threw him (literally) into the back of my buddy's car. We drove around super-fast, swerving all over the place in order to bang this kid all over the back of the car. Because he was all tied up, he couldn't steady himself at all. He must've smashed his face against the walls so many times. It was nearly impossible not to laugh. Later we took him to someone's house, duck-taped him to a chair, and beat him up a bit. Ok... we weren't hurting the kid, but we definitely gave him the once-over. Looking back on it now, it's pretty demented, but it was all for fun. We never would've seriously hurt anyone. Shoot... our coach endorsed it, though I doubt she knew what was actually happening. We ended the morning back at her house where all of the new faces were given breakfast and then laughed about the whole thing. It was pretty fun.

So what does "Highway to Hell" have to do with any of this? My buddy thought it would be a great idea to have that song playing as we drove the kidnapped prisoner around. "It'll be awesome mood music," he said.

"Highway to Hell" is from the album of the same name. To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#96 "Hey You" by Tommy Stinson

"Hey You" is from former Replacements' bassist and Paul Westerberg partner-in-crime Tommy Stinson's first solo record, "Village Gorilla Head." Now I love PW and The Replacements. Anyone reading this blog knows that, but I'm not the guy who thinks that all of the separate recordings from the individual members of a band are worth buying. What's the old saying: The whole is greater than the sum of its parts"? In a lot of cases, the spin-off records just don't work out. In this case, however, it was pretty good.

I wasn't too interested when I heard that Tommy Stinson had a solo album. Well, after I read that Paul Westerberg had nothing to do with it, I wasn't. Tommy is apparently on some kind of million dollar retainer to play with Axl Rose and the newest incarnation of Guns-n-Roses whenever he comes a-calling, so I just kind of thought this album wouldn't be much. I mean... did you hear Chinese Democracy? I kept reading good review after good review for VGH, however, so I decided to check it out. It's got some really good stuff on it.

"Hey You" is definitely my favorite song on "Village Gorilla Head." The whole album is sort of this collage of sounds. You've got some punk stuff, some electronic stuff, some acoustic stuff... a little of everything Tommy's been around in his career. "Hey You" starts with some simple acoustic strumming. I like how the basic melody comes out on one side, and a slightly different one accompanies it on the other end. I've never been able to do that in my own music. It always ends up sounding off-beat. I need to listen to more of The Rolling Stones to figure that one out. Then another guitar lead melody comes in and then this kind of electronic drum beat shows up. I just think it's kind of cool. The whole song is like that. You can kind of listen to the layers of tracks all built up around the basic tune. It's great. I can't say I entirely understand the words. They seem to be about the world kind of being a bunch of crap, but that the speaker isn't willing to wait around for anyone to fix it. On that notion, I like the sense of defiance there. I like the drums in the chorus a lot too, but my favorite lines come in the bridge when Tommy sings "I ain't waitin' for proof. I ain't waitin' for the future. I've seen too many signs now and every one was wrong." That part always really strikes me. He sings it wonderfully with a lot of passion and aching in his voice. You can identify with the "tired of these false prophets... false fix-alls that we're always being sold on" idea.

In the end, this is one of those songs on my blog that I doubt anyone has ever heard, but I hope they'll give a chance.

*** The wonderful picture of Tommy at the top of this post was taken from the website of photographer Michael Wilson. To see more of his gorgeous photos, go to
www.michaelwilsonphotographer.com.

"Hey You" is from the album "Village Gorilla Head." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#95 "Hey Hey What Can I Do" by Led Zeppelin

In the days before you could download just about anything you wanted, be it single songs, whole albums, live recordings, b-sides, Japanese releases, demos, or bootlegs, some things were really hard to come by. One of those rare gems was Led Zeppelin's "Hey Hey What Can I Do."

Recorded at the time of their third album, HHWCID was released as a b-side to the legendary "Immigrant Song" but was the one Zeppelin cut that was unavailable on any of their albums, including the posthumous CODA record which compiled many rare tracks from throughout their career. The first time I heard it was on a local radio station's nightly "Getting the Led Out" segment that came on at 10:00. Since HHWCID was so hard to come by, it was frequently on DC-101's Zeppelin playlist. I ended up coming across the 45 of "The Immigrant Song" in a record store one day and saw the Holy Grail on the back of it. I was psyched and immediately recorded it onto a cassette tape to listen to in my car. Man... those were the days! Years later, when Zeppelin first remastered selections from their catalogue in a four disc box set, HHWCID was a big highlight.

I've always loved the style of HHWCID. It showcases the more mellow, acoustic side of Zeppelin, a band more famous for their pounding drums and overall heaviness. This little number is replete with acoustic guitars and mandolins. Even the thunderous throat of Robert Plant is held in check most of the time. The song is one sad fella's lament about his girl who just won't be true to him. Unfortunately, if you listen closely, the poor sucker is in love with a prostitute it seems, "a street corner girl" who wants to "ball all day" and do "the midnight shift... in the bars with the men who play guitars." Sorry, bro... you picked the wrong lady. It's a fun song and a humorous little narrative with a great sing-a-long chorus.

"Hey Hey What Can I Do" can be found on the four disc box set "Led Zeppelin." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#94 "Hesitating Beauty" by Wilco and Billy Bragg

A great delight from the past ten years or so has been my discovery of the work of Woody Guthrie. Sure, everyone knows "This Land Is Your Land," but beyond that famous folk ballad Guthrie was a talented illustrator, painter, poet, and writer. It took Wilco and Billy Bragg's wondrous collaboration "Mermaid Avenue" in 1998 to get me going, but since then I've enjoyed a lot of material from the incredibly prolific Dust Bowl artist.

"Mermaid Avenue" apparently originated when one of Woody's daughter's approached English protest singer Billy Bragg with some of her father's unpublished lyrics. Bragg then asked Wilco to join in. The idea was to put a modern spin on Guthrie's work and try to reach a new generation with contemporary musicians interpretting his words. The album ended up being a huge hit, garnered a Grammy nomination, and even spawned a sequel a few years later. If you've never heard either one, they're a real treat.

What surprised me about the songs were the beauty of the lyrics. I'd always known Guthrie as the husky box-car balladeer who sang about politics and human rights. "This Land is Your Land" has some nice imagery in it, but it never made me guess that its author was a talented poet. "Mermaid Ave" showcases that side of Woody's writings. There are so many beautiful love songs on the two records. I can't begin to tell you how many lines made me think, "Man... I wish I could write something like that."

"Hesitating Beauty" is definitely my favorite track from the first record. It's a lover's plea to a woman who can't seem to make up her mind. Curiously enough, though it could've been written to Woody's wife, the woman named in the song is Nora Lee, Woody's daughter... the very woman who brought the lyrics to this song and the others to the light of day. There are many great lines in it, but I've always admired the last verse where it says "We can ramble hand in hand across the grasses of our land and I'll kiss you for each leaf on every tree." That's gorgeous. It's not only full of beautifully-vivid imagery, it's also about a wonderful sentiment.

On a related note, to see some other great Woody Guthrie work, check out the book Art Works: Journals, Drawings, and Sketchbooks of an American Original.

"Hesitating Beauty" is from the album "Mermaid Avenue: Volume I." TO hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#93 "Forever In Blue Jeans" by Neil Diamond

Elvis, ABBA, Queen, KISS, and now Neil Diamond? Yes, people, there's always room for some cheese in The 300's heart.

Something made me think of the big Neil the other day and I thought, "Wait a minute... I've yet to talk about him on the list! What's going on?" When I did some investigating, I realized that I'd never burned my Neil Diamond's Greatest Hits cd into ITunes. Somehow it eluded the massive conversion from cd's to mp3's that I did a year or so ago. Hence we have #93 on the list, which should actually be somewhere closer to #76. Sorry, folks.

I don't know when I first discovered Neil Diamond. I swear I saw him in some cowboy movie a long time ago, but it may have been some sort of western video send-up for one of his classic 70's tunes like "Cracklin' Rosie" or something. I remember my mother HATING Neil Diamond. I don't really know why. I'm pretty sure she's still not a big fan. I certainly remember his "Turn on Your Heartlight" song from the biggest movie of the 80's "ET." He disappeared for a while I guess, but came back as a sort of cultural icon in movies like "Saving Silverman" or in Saturday Night Live skits with Will Ferrell. And yeah... he IS cheesy. The haircut. The sequins. The whole package is a little much, but there's no denying his ability as a songwriter. The guy has hammered out a zillion memorable songs, and not just for himself. Maybe it was humming his "I'm a Believer" from when I watched The Monkees as a kid that first got me in tune with my inner Diamond. Regardless... I like the guy and if you ask my wife, I also do a pretty sweet impression of him.

"Forever in Blue Jeans" is always the first Neil Diamond song I think of. It may not be as big as a few of his others, but it's one that I always liked. I still can't believe I overlooked it for so long here, but without further ado...

"Forever In Blue Jeans" can be found on a number of Neil Diamond compilations, like "The Essential" or "The Neil Diamond Collection." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#92 "Here Comes the Sun" by The Beatles

I always have a few Beatles posters on the walls of my classroom, which I much prefer to the dorky educational Parts-of-Speech ads a lot of my colleagues display. I take great pride when people occasionally say, "This looks nothing like a classroom. It looks more like... a college dorm!" I have nothing around me but music posters, movie posters, and pictures of artwork that I admire. I figure if this is going to be the place where I have to spend a lot of my time, I might as well make it a place I like being. As a result, my love of The Beatles is no secret.

When George Harrison died a few years ago, there were tons of students who came by to talk to me about it. I remember this one kid who showed up the morning after to see if I'd heard the news and how I was doing. We talked for a while and I tried to explain to him what it felt like. I was sad because George Harrison seemed like a pretty good guy. He wasn't some jackass gangsta rapper shooting his mouth off all the time who ended up getting gunned down in the street. He wasn't some angry screamer spewing hate and violence in his lyrics. From all accounts, George Harrison was a good person. He sang a lot about love, peace, and a transcendental state of mind. He stood up for causes too, and is credited with staging the first all-star benefit concert when he put together the Concert for Bangladesh in 1971. That was one of the main reasons I was sad. It's not that I knew George Harrison. It's just a bummer when the world loses one of the good ones.

I also tried to explain to this kid that I felt like I'd lost one of the giants of my childhood, and that was a hard thing to put my head around. The Beatles were such big figures in my memories of growing up. I can't tell you how many times we listened to their songs, looked at their pictures, and pretended to be them. I wouldn't say they were necessarily my heroes, but they were these sort of larger-than-life figures that I admired, along with other entertainers, athletes, and public figures of that time. I'll feel the same way when Gil Gerard dies. He was Buck Rogers on Thursday nights, the one night a week I was allowed to stay up until 9:00 to watch his show. I'll feel the same when Dexter Manley dies, the Redskins' defensive end who was almost a living cartoon character. When you're a kid and you see these people on tv or in the newspaper, they almost don't seem real. And then one day, they end up getting old and dieing just like everybody else. It's a sobering reality and when I've experienced it a few times over the years, it's like discovering that Houdini really couldn't escape from all of those ropes and chains. He just hid the keys in his mouth and resorted to other slight-of-hand maneuvers. The world seems a little less magical.

I know when The Beatles broke up there were people weeping in the streets, but if there's anything great that came out of it it's that George Harrison came into his own. For years he'd been the little brother of the band... the guy who nobody really listened to. He was the guy who seemed to hate being a Beatle more than any of the others and the one who blossomed the most when they were done with. "Here Comes the Sun" was apparently written when George was tiring of the business end of being a rock star. He was weary of the "long, cold, lonely winter" and looking forward to "spring" coming. It has always been one of my favorite Beatles' songs. It's a real toss up between this and "Don't Let Me Down" for my #1.

One curious little fact about this song: In 1977, Carl Sagan spear-headed a movement to put the sounds of Earth into space. A collection of recordings from all over the world was included in a Voyager satellite and was supposed to represent the history of humanity for any extra-terrestrial lifeforms who came upon it. Many things made it onto this record, from many different forms of "hello" to the sounds of a variety of earth animals. Also included were quintessential musical compositions, from the work of Mozart to Bach to Stravinsky to even Chuck Berry's "Johnny B Goode." Apparently there was a movement to include "Here Comes the Sun" as well, but contractual issues with EMI prevented its inclusion.

"Here Comes the Sun" is from the album "Abbey Road." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#91 "Headache" by Frank Black

This post is definitely not the first in a series of "Frank Black is God" entries. I never really got into The Pixies. To me, there were two under-rated but incredibly-influential bands of the mid-eighties and early nineties... them and The Replacements. Kurt Cobain and many of his peers frequently cited The Pixies in interviews and showed an obvious influence from Black Francis and his "quiet/loud" approach to music. As illustrated throughout this blog, however, I have always been more of a Replacements guy. The Pixies were just a little out there for me.

That being said, it doesn't mean that I can't find something by Frank Black that I like. When The Pixies split and Black Francis became Frank Black and released "Teenager of the Year," I loved the first single from it "Headache." It's really nothing more than your basic rock song, but I like the edge that Black can bring to his voice. And who hasn't had a horrific headache where it felt like your "heart was crammed in your cranium and it still knew how to pound"? What I really like about the song are the great backing vocals that Black does to his own leads. I love the little "credits" and "headaches" and my favorite "got me down." Cool stuff.

"Headache" is from the album "Teenager of the Year." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#90 "Hard Way to Fall" by Ryan Adams

Ryan Adams has been on this list a number of times already. He's such a big favorite of mine and such a prolific artist that he might just end up with more entries than anyone else. And though Adams has dabbled in a number of genres and musical styles, it seems that I can find something to like in almost anything he does.

"Hard Way to Fall" is just a crushing love song. It's a breakup number where the singer remembers all of these idiosyncratic details about his girl... how she reads from the back to the front of magazines, the Scotch that she drinks, how she loses her keys, etc. You realize it's a lost love song when he sings "how I miss those things." None of this is groundbreaking or anything, but it's simple and sad and direct and everything I like about music. The ending is the best. He's got the verse:

"See her smiling at him?
That used to be me...

And we used to be something,
but something happened to me."

I love that. It kills me. It kills me every time I hear it. It's so honest and sad. Best of all, I find it to be very self-critical, which most people struggle with. Something I admire most about writers is when they put themselves out there, emotionally-naked for the world to see. This is a song that says, "Guess what... I lost. She didn't choose me." It's not something you're proud of or want to share with anyone and possibly something that opens you up to criticism, and yet the most courageous artists do it any way. AND they do it in a massive public forum, with hundreds of thousands of fans and critics listening to their work. That kind of courage is nothing less than impressive.

"Hard Way to Fall" is from the album "Jacksonville City Nights." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#89 "Hard to Explain" by The Strokes

Was anyone cooler than The Strokes in the beginning of the millennium? They were everywhere after the fall of 2001... the biggest story out of New York in a post-9/11 America. They brought back a stripped-down street style to music back then. Suddenly there were tons of leather-jacketed chain smokin' hoodlums in their wake, but no one put out anything quite as good as The Strokes' debut "Is this It?"

It always makes me laugh that the guys in the band look like they worked in some Queens pizza parlor in their off time. They come off like the blue-collar sons of a bunch of Italian immigrants and even have surnames like Casablancas, Valensi, and Moretti. What's funny is the actual pedigree The Strokes brought to the table. Julian Casablancas was the son of mega-successful fashion icon John Casablancas, the founder of Elite Modeling Agency. Guitarist Albert Hammond Jr's father is an extremely successful musician and recording artist. The Strokes were no joke when it came to connections.

"Hard to Explain" is my favorite song of that first record. It showcases some of the signature elements of The Strokes' music: the simple frenetic rhythm guitar inter-played off the melody of the lead, Casablancas vocals which sound like they're sung through a paper cup, and drumming that seems just a little bit electronic. The best part of the song is without a doubt the chorus. I love the great beat of the melody of "I missed the last bus, I'll take the next train. I try but you see, it's hard to explain." I often tell my young poetry students that the best way to keep a beat is to use single-syllable words. Casablancas does that all over this song to wonderful effect. I also love when everything comes to a dead-stop in the middle of the tune, right after the line "You're right, it's true." As I've noted several times, that's always something I like in a song.

"Hard to Explain" is from the album "Is This It?" To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#88 "Hard Luck Woman" by KISS

I kind of feel like KISS just might be the cheesiest of the cheese. It's not that they're not talented or don't have good songs, but all of the hair, make-up, sequins, platform shoes, hairy chests, and exposed tongues just add up to a lot of kitschy silliness if you ask me. But you know what... KISS knows that the performance can be as important, if not more important than the songs themselves. After all, isn't the old saying, "It's not the story, but he who tells it"? KISS had that figured out a long time ago.

I first remember KISS when I was just a kid. I didn't know any of their songs. Their albums certainly never got any rotation in our conservative little house, but since the band was so cartoonish in their image a lot of people knew who they were even if they weren't familiar with any of their work. As a matter of fact, I remember my brother and I getting a KISS Destroyer puzzle for Christmas one year, and being totally psyched about it! And even though I thought Gene Simmons and his dragon boots were totally cool, when I heard that one of my cousins was going to a KISS concert, all I could envision was a very dark, loud place with a lot of scary long-haired people in attendance. And I remember the old legend that Gene supposedly, in between bouts of spitting fire and spewing blood out of his mouth, had occasionally stomped baby chicks in those fanged boots!?! Was my uncle insane or something?!? Letting his boy go to a KISS concert?!? In the end they were harmless. Shoot... for all I know, KISS put the baby chick story out there themselves. Like most rock stars, they knew that any press was good press.

"Hard Luck Woman" is one of a few songs sung by original drummer Peter Criss. I first heard it when my brother, years after our innocent youth, came home with the KISS Double Platinum record. Amidst all the party all night songs and the sleezy innuendo-filled songs and the god-of-thunder songs was this cool kind of country number. If I'd had a thousand choices, my last guess for who sang this would've been KISS, but sure enough it was. I found out that this little 1976 number was originally penned by Paul Stanley for Rod Stewart, who ultimately passed on it. Knowing that now, when you hear the beginning of it and Criss' raspy delivery, it's not a far cry from "Maggie May" and could easily have fit in with Stewart's early solo work. Regardless, this is a big favorite of mine. I get excited whenever I hear it.

On a related note, in 1994 country super-star Garth Brooks covered this song for a KISS tribute album. Now I think that Brooks is one of the cornier country stars around, but I have to give him some street-cred for picking such a cool song to sing, getting the original KISS line-up to back him on the track, and showing the world that there's more to him that big hats and ugly shirts.

"Hard Luck Woman" is from the album "Rock and Roll" over. To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#87 "Happy" by The Rolling Stones

"Happy" is one of those great Stones' songs that you won't hear if you're only familiar with their big hits. A lot of people are content to listen to "Brown Sugar" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash," but I was excited to hear the Stones' other songs when someone loaned me some of their old albums. For me, deep cuts are where it's at.

"Happy" is from the Stones' legendary album "Exile On Main Street." It's one of Keith Richards' vocal contributions. A lot of people HATE Keith's voice. It's certainly not of the best quality, but what I always like is the way that people sing, not so much their ability to do so. The boozy crackling of Keith's ramblings have always appealed to me, so "Happy" was a pleasant surprise when I started my journey deep into the Rolling Stones' catalogue.

"Happy" is from the album "Exile on Main Street." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.

#86 "Hannah and Gabi" by The Lemonheads

I can't believe that I've nearly gone through a third of this list and I've yet to talk about Evan Dando. He's been a favorite of mine for a long time.

Like most people, my introduction to The Lemonheads came via their rockin' cover of "Mrs. Robinson" from their 1992 breakthrough album "It's a Shame About Ray." I thought it was pretty cool and loved how they sped up the original Simon and Garfunkel classic. It seemed like just a little while later I couldn't turn on MTV without seeing "Into Your Arms" every five minutes and hearing about what an alt-hunk Dando was. That song was good and certainly catchy, but I hadn't heard enough to make me want to go out and buy their cd. Remember... this was way before Itunes and Napster. You were taking a financial risk commiting $12 to a full album when you'd only heard a single song from it, especially if it wasn't a proven band that you'd liked for a while. But somewhere along the way I finally broke down and grabbed one of their albums. I think it was 1996's "Car Button Cloth," after loving "If I Could Talk I'd Tell You" and "Outdoor Type." Yeah... I'm cheap. It takes me a while to invest. Humorously enough, that ended up being their last album!?! At that point, I'd waited long enough that there was plenty of back material to listen to though.

Sometimes I think that if I could sing like anyone, I might choose to sound like Evan Dando. It's not that he's got some spectacular voice or anything. He doesn't have the range of Jeff Buckley or recognizability of some other famous singers, but there's this great warmth to his vocals. I once read a review that said he had a syrupy baritone. I don't know about that, but over the years the quality of his voice has endured and even after all of the touring, the drugs, the cigarettes, and everything else Dando has sadly subjected himself to, he can still conjure up something wonderful every time he opens his mouth.

"Hannah and Gabi" has long been one of my favorite Lemonhead tunes. When I finally got the chance to see Dando in concert a few years ago, it was on my list of hopefuls to hear. I was so excited when I heard those opening notes. Among Dando's other gifts is his ability to play guitar. Actually, I think he's one of the more underrated acoustic strummers around, and those chops are on display in this song. What you also get is Dando's HUGE Graham Parsons' admiration, whose alt-country influence is usually on display in the best of The Lemonheads' catalogue.

"Hannah and Gabi" is from the album "It's a Shame About Ray." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.