Sam Cooke
A deceptively simple reassurance song built almost entirely on a single repeated phrase, in which the narrator talks himself…
romantic insecurity self-persuasion trust versus doubt
Gillian Welch
Gillian Welch strings together a series of small-town obituaries and rumors — an overdose, a runaway, a breakdown, a possible…
mortality and fatalism small-town gossip and rumor addiction and ruin
Lorde
A breakup song built around the gap between wanting to move on and actually being able to. The verses sketch the disorientation…
emotional limbo self-deception vs. clarity urban restlessness
Mississippi John Hurt
A rollicking Piedmont blues built entirely on a single, transparent sexual double entendre. Mississippi John Hurt uses the…
sexual innuendo folk humor itinerant male desirability
Hank Williams
This is a live radio performance of Hank Williams' comic novelty song, framed by an announcer's folksy introduction before…
privacy versus gossip marital independence rural community friction
Townes Van Zandt
A ballad about a legendary Mexican bandit and the friend widely suspected of betraying him, told with the flattened affect of a…
betrayal and complicity myth-making versus truth exile and displacement