Fleet Foxes
A young narrator wrestles with the individualism he was raised on, wondering whether meaning comes from being special or from…
individualism vs. collectivism disillusionment with authority search for purpose
Black Sabbath
This is Black Sabbath's title track marking the arrival of Ronnie James Dio, trading the band's earlier horror-movie doom for…
moral ambiguity illusion versus reality corrupted power
The Rolling Stones
A song built from apocalyptic weather and violence, treating storm, fire, flood, war, and rape as a single continuous threat…
apocalypse and dread violence and its proximity the search for shelter/refuge
Bill Callahan
A restless, aphoristic meditation on identity and self-narration, borrowing its title's initials to nod toward the noir novelist…
self-mythology impermanence of mood the unreliability of narrative
Otis Redding
A drifter sits by the water in San Francisco, watching boats and tides pass while he takes stock of a life that has stalled out.…
displacement stasis and drift loneliness
Howlin’ Wolf
A stripped-down Delta blues travel song in which the narrator plans to hit the road at dawn to search for a lost woman,…
restless travel lost love self-medication through drink
Soundgarden
A hazy, dissonant piece of psychedelia dressed as a pop single, in which a decaying suburban landscape is invited to be…
apocalyptic longing decay and disguise escapism
Nina Simone
A traditional African-American spiritual reworked into a nearly ten-minute incantation, tracking a sinner's frantic search for…
judgment and reckoning futility of escape divine justice vs. mercy