Favorite Songs: #24 to #22

You may notice that my top favorite songs tend to go back a few years. That doesn't mean that I don't like the latest music, but rather that I don't feel that much of it has been tested through time. Maybe someday I'll devote some space to the music of the 2000's.

#24 I Won't Back Down by Tom Petty (from Full Moon Fever, 1989)

Much is made in Gainesville about Tom Petty growing up here before he made it big out in California with his band the Heartbreakers. Still, although Petty is usually identified with Los Angeles, every few years he comes back to Gainesville for a visit, where he is always given the royal welcome that celebrities usually get when they return to their home town. I'm not really a Tom Petty fan, but starting in 1987, he came out for a while with hits I liked such as Stop Jammin' Me, Running Down a Dream, and Learning to Fly. His 1989 breakthrough "solo" album, produced by former ELO superstar Jeff Lynne, contained my favorite. I Won't Back Down is on my list because of the message more than the music (which is pretty good,too): stick to your guns and don't let adversity sway or weaken you.

#23 Pressure by Billy Joel (from Nylon Curtain, 1982)

The first Billy Joel song I heard was Piano Man in the spring of 1974. From then through 1982 he turned out a string of great songs like Captain Jack, Summer Highland Falls, Angry Young Man, Scenes From an Italian Restaurant, and Allentown. I thought his best album was The Stranger, but my favorite song came two albums later from Nylon Curtain. Pressure perfectly captures the feeling of someone on the spot with everything at stake. The song's video was also terrific and funny. The following album he did, An Innocent Man, was a throwback to the (in my opinion, horrible) doo-wop period of rock and roll, although he had a lot of hits from it. Despite that, Billy Joel was America's troubadour for that 1974-1982 period when he was at his greatest.

#22 The Wasp (Texas Radio and the Big Beat) by the Doors (from LA Woman, 1971)

Back around 1995, a local AM radio station on 1390 khz (which is now Disney Radio) decided to play entire Doors albums, one right after another. Before that, I had only heard their top singles over the years. After hearing entire albums, I became a true believer in this band's greatness. Although their biggest hits Light My Fire and Touch Me were written by guitarist Robbie Krieger, it was Jim Morrison's deep voice and bizarre poetry, along with Ray Manzarek's maniacal keyboard work that gave the Doors their characteristic sound. The Wasp is the next-to-last track from their sixth and last studio album L.A. Woman. A little after the album's release, Morrison died and was buried under mysterious circumstances in France. Rumors began to circulate that he had dropped out of sight and changed his identity to avoid prison time in the U.S. from a public indecency charge in Miami in 1969. The Wasp fed those rumors with the words "We are building pyramids in honor of our escaping". But that's not what I like about this song. I like the way Jim's "rap" interacted with the rest of the band: guitar, drum, and organ. And my favorite part was the short instrumental jam near the end.

Next on favorite songs: #21 to #19.