The Beatles
A near-instrumental party track built on a riff and a handful of shouted phrases rather than a lyric in any conventional sense.…
celebration spontaneity collective abandon
Van Morrison
A buoyant, playful song built around a photo shoot, where the singer coaxes a model through poses while imagining the payday and…
playful eroticism work as flirtation material pleasure
Bruce Springsteen
A breezy, almost bubblegum-pop arrangement carries a pretty deflating story about a relationship that's cooled into…
romantic frustration mismatched desire emotional deflation
The Adverts
A fast, self-aware punk anthem about the band's own formation and the grind of making it, delivered with equal parts bravado and…
youth and its expiration date the mechanics of punk as a career ambivalence about performance
Pavement
A loose, semi-improvised jam that pokes fun at the mechanics of rock performance itself, name-checking bandmates and mocking the…
self-referential performance parody of rock cliché band camaraderie