George Jones
A defiant novelty-tinged honky-tonk anthem in which an aging performer refuses the trappings of old age, insisting his body may…
aging and mortality defiance of retirement identity tied to performance
Paul Simon
A gentle lullaby in which a father tries, with dwindling patience and self-deprecating humor, to coax his son to sleep. Beneath…
parental love domesticity sleep and childhood
Steely Dan
A liquidation sale becomes a metaphor for a business, a relationship, or an era ending, with the narrator determined to face…
failure and decline corporate dissolution as metaphor denial through humor
Danny Brown
Danny Brown turns his own addiction into dark comedy, stacking dense, cartoonish wordplay over a queasy hook that keeps asking…
addiction and dependency irony and dark humor wealth versus self-destruction
Richard Thompson
A soldier's-eye monologue from the Iraq War, delivered in the blunt, blackly funny voice of an American GI who narrates the…
war and mortality dehumanization of soldiers media spin and propaganda
Jimi Hendrix
A twelve-bar blues in the most traditional sense: a man walks to his lover's house only to find himself locked out, suspects…
romantic abandonment resilience through humor the blues tradition itself
Television
Television's "Glory" plays a lopsided, almost cartoonish romantic squabble against a chant that sounds like religious…
romantic confusion transcendence vs. absurdity surrender of anxiety
MF DOOM
A boozy, freewheeling posse-cut of a track built on the pun of "one beer" doubling as "one beer left" and a coded jab at fake…
intoxication as metaphor for scarcity/competition hip-hop authenticity vs. imitation supervillain persona
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
Bob Dylan
Dylan's version of the polka novelty song plays it almost entirely straight as a call-and-response Christmas romp, building…
holiday tradition Americana kitsch absurdist humor
The Kinks
A bitter breakup song that refuses reconciliation and instead perversely celebrates mutual loathing as the one stable thing left…
failed reconciliation toxic codependency cynicism about peace and progress
Ella Fitzgerald
A Gershwin standard delivered as a quiet meditation on romantic longing, framed through the image of a lost lamb searching for a…
romantic longing vulnerability self-deprecating humor
Harry Nilsson
A traditional-blues lament about the aftermath of a lovers' quarrel, delivered as a loose, almost improvisational vamp built…
heartbreak and regret isolation blues tradition
The Smiths
A restless plea to be driven anywhere but home turns into a swooning fantasy about dying alongside the person behind the wheel.…
homelessness and unbelonging romantic devotion as self-annihilation loneliness disguised as humor
Pixies
A hallucinatory apocalyptic chant built from disconnected images and a mysterious title figure, 'Mr. Grieves' plays like a…
apocalypse/deluge faith and belief without content death and mortality
Sam Cooke
A breezy, self-mocking complaint from a young man stuck in a new town with cash in his pocket and no date on a Saturday night.…
loneliness displacement romantic frustration
Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Vaughan's 1986 reading of the Gershwin standard treats the lyric as a meditation on wanting a specific kind of protection…
SZA
SZA turns a breakup confession into a deadpan murder fantasy, using the exaggerated violence of the title as a vehicle for…
obsessive love jealousy denial and self-deception
Warren Zevon
A junkie in a rundown corner of Los Angeles narrates his own decline in a strangely tender, almost comic voice, addressing an…
addiction and withdrawal romantic longing as survival strategy poverty and bureaucracy
Little Feat
This is a good-humored tall tale that dresses up dancing and music as medical treatment, casting a mysterious small-town figure…
music as healing Southern folklore/tall tale communal ritual
Phoebe Bridgers
A road-trip-slash-tour-diary song that uses the disorientation of foreign travel to circle around an unresolved relationship…
estrangement from a parent disillusionment with travel/escape ambivalence and self-contradiction
MF DOOM turns a satirical eye on rap's tough-guy posturing, mocking MCs whose lyrics function as confessions that could be used…
hip-hop authenticity and posturing self-incrimination and surveillance street credibility vs. performance