New week, new Springsteen song: "Wrecking Ball"

We're back with a daily new Springsteen song in anticipation of the album Wrecking Ball to be released this Friday. Here's the title track, folks!

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Bob Dylan - Sweetheart Like You

"Sweetheart Like You" off Bob Dylan's 1983 album Infidels is actually a bit disputed as some claim it to be sexist, citing the lyric "A woman like you should be at home, that's where you belong...". I'm not so sure about this though, and however way you choose to interpret the lyrics, it's still such a beautiful song.

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Janis Ian - Between The Lines

Janis Ian's 1975 album Between The Lines is just one of those perfect compilations of songs that are absolutely faultless. You wouldn't trade any of the songs here for the world, and although the big hit - deservedly so - was "At Seventeen", most songwriters would probably sacrifice an arm and a leg to write a song such as the title track. Or any other song off the album for that matter. Fantastic stuff!

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Madeleine Peyroux - The Things I've Seen Today

Madeleine Peyroux deserves more recognition than she's got. She's an excellent singer, and a more than average sonwriter. Although she's famous for doing excellent versions of other people's songs, her last two albums have showcased her own songs more and more. "The Things I've Seen Today" is a fabulous song, co-written with the violinist Jenny Scheinman who also happens to a decent songwriter. The song appears on last year's Standing On The Rooftop album.

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Prefab Sprout - One Of The Broken

Take a random song off any Prefab Sprout album and chances are it's pretty good. Or rather, excellent. "One Of The Broken", one amongst 19 tracks off the brilliant Jordan: The Comeback (1990), is a very good example. A sweet and intoxicatingly beautiful song, one of singer/songwriter Paddy McAloon's many forays into religious topics, but most of all a clever little, highly melodic tune. Great songwriting craft is something we shouldn't take for granted, but Paddy can do almost nothing wrong it seems to me.

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Alicia Keys - Tell You Something (Nana's Reprise)

"Tell Me Something (Nana's Reprise)" is a beautiful piano ballad from Alicia Keys' third album, 2007's As I Am. It's about the elusiveness of time and about not waiting until tomorrow to do what you should rather do today, simple and pretty poignant.

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Johnny Cash Top 10 - The Man In Black would have been 80 today

Today would have been country music's finest, Johnny Cash', 80th birthday. Sadly he died in 2003, but his legend and his music lives on. You know the name of a man who can write the line "I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die" will endure. Here are ten stone cold classics that I hope you'll enjoy. Here's for one of the greatest performers ever to enter a stage. R.I.P. Johnny!



"Folsom Prison Blues"

"I Walk The Line"

"Man In Black"

"Hurt"

"I Still Miss Someone"

"Highway Patrolman"

"A Boy Named Sue"

"Oney"

"Ring Of Fire"

"Tennessee Flat-Top Box"

Prefab Sprout - The Sound Of Crying

"The Sound Of Crying" was a new song recorded for Prefab Sprout's first compilation album, 1992's The Best Of - A Life Of Surprises. Worth the price alone, if you ask me, although the album does include other classics such as "Faron Young" and "When Love Breaks Down" to name a few. That's the thing with Paddy McAloon's songwriting, almost every song he's written is a jewel in its own right.

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Pink Floyd - Another Brick In The Wall Part 2

Yesterday I dished out 1000 Norwegian kroner to buy the Immersion box set of Pink Floyd's classic album The Wall, their - or rather Roger Waters' - 1979 masterpiece. Although expensive I hope to find it worthwhile as it includes a total of seven discs, six of them CD's and one DVD featuring the documentary Behind The Wall. "Another Brick In The Wall Part 2" was the album's first single and Pink Floyd's biggest hit by far. The clip you'll see here is from the actual movie Pink Floyd's The Wall directed by Alan Parker and released in 1982, coupled with "The Happiest Days Of Our Lives" as that is the short track leading up to "Another Brick..." on the album and of course also in the film.

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James McMurtry - Candyland

James McMurtry, son of famous novelist Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove, Terms Of Endearment, etc.), is a fabulous singer/songwriter. He's released eight studio albums so far, and "Candyland" is the title track off the second of these, released in 1992. Apart from being a great song in itself, this one is special because of guitarist David Grissom's frenetic playing. Grissom has also worked with John Mellencamp, Joe Ely, The Allman Brothers and Dixie Chicks among others.

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