1. True Dreams of Wichita - Soul Coughing
We’ll start with a modern vision by one of my favorite song writers, Mike Doughty, and his former band. The lyrics have a hipster beat poet quality to them with some loose associative images. The vision is an imaginary portrayal of an idyllic country life as seen through the filter of modern technology. The speaker in the song, as one who has seen “the rains in the real world,” becomes a prophet to those trapped in the “asphalt stalks” of the city. The poetry of the song is magnificent, the images meaningful. I wish I could write songs like this.

2. Paint It Black - Rolling Stones
Bleaker and bleaker. Paint It Black is one of the most depressing lyrics of all time, but the song rocks so hard. The sitar riff and the driving beat have become iconic tropes of rock and roll. But those lyrics: “I see a red door and I want it painted black. No colors any more, I want them to turn black.” And, “I wanna see the sun blotted out from the sky.” The speaker in the song is in some real trouble.

Side note: one of my favorite shows when I was younger was Tour of Duty, which used Paint It Black as its theme song.

3. 7 - Prince
This one’s for you, Big P! One of my favorite Prince songs, and I have no idea what it’s talking about. Well, that’s not entirely true. The lyrics seem to refer to an apocalypse of some kind with the number seven probably referring to the seven seals of the Book of Revelation. But, because seven is such an important symbolic number, the seven in the song could be a reference to a bunch of different things.

The song’s melody is so catchy, and the instrumentation (chimes, sitar, bells) enhances the mystical feel of the lyrics. When I saw Prince live a few years ago, he did a solo acoustic version of this song that ended with the full band coming in. It was amazing. The man can rock.

4. I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine - Bob Dylan
Mr. Dylan had some rough times toward the end of the ’60s. He suffered an extremely bad motorcycle wreck in 1966 which actually broke his neck. He used his recovery time to escape the limelight and get back to the basics of writing and recording music. I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine is a meditation on martyrdom. Some think that Dylan had a martyr complex regarding how he was treated when he went started using the electric guitar, and maybe, in his convalescence he came to view himself to some extent as a victim of that crowd. Whatever the reasons for writing it, this song represents a poet at the height of his powers struggling with some pretty heavy stuff.

5. The Man Comes Around - Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash was nearing the end of his life, and I think he could feel it. A lot of his later songs focused on the subject of death, and this one is no exception. In a lot of ways, The Man Comes Around is a pretty direct retelling of the Book of Revelation. And “the Man” in question is Jesus returning for the final judgment. But the phrase “when the man comes around” sounds to me like someone describing a prison guard. And maybe that’s how Cash intended it: Christ returns to let his people out of the prison of life. It’s an effective lyric, especially when you consider the context of the songwriter’s life.

Centerfield - John Fogarty
Besides baseball’s folk tradition of songs (Take Me Out to the Ballgame, etc.), Centerfield is probably the best known baseball song. And there’s a reason for that: it’s catchy (no pun!) and fun and everything you want in a song about America’s past time. The song gets bonus points for it’s use in Bull Durham, my favorite baseball movie.

Glory Days - Bruce Springsteen
If Centerfield is full of hope and joy, Glory Days is its counterpoint. I imagine the wide-eyed player starting out in the first song found himself a bit jaded and nostalgic at the end of his career in this one.

Point of fact: despite the Boss’s infallibility, there is no pitch named the “Speedball.” Although, if Dice-K can invent the Gyroball, I suppose anything is possible.

Piazza, New York Catcher - Belle & Sebastian
This is definitely not a typical baseball song. The lyrics are more of a meditation on the problems of leading a public life. Mike Piazza, then catching for the New York Mets, is just a vehicle for this exploration. I love the line, “The statue’s crying too, and well he may.” “Well he may” sounds just like “Willie Mays,” the subject of a real statue outside the Giants ballpark.

Interesting fact: Cory Branan, whose typical wheelhouse is country/folk/rock, does an amazing live cover of this song.

Baseball - Ozma
A lot of folks call Ozma a Weezer copycat act. And while that may be true, it doesn’t make their songs any less catchy (still no pun!). That said, Baseball could be a Weezer song. The verses are sparsely accompanied (a la The Sweater Song) and build to crescendo later in the song. Still, it’s a good song dealing with the end of a relationship and the recognition of time passing. The line, “Every time I think I’m finished being young, I catch myself having fun” is particularly evocative.

Baseball here is a metaphor for life (heard that one before?), and the speaker and his former lover were the “best team in baseball” when they were together. It’s a solid effort from Weez… er… I mean Ozma.

Tessie - Dropkick Murphys
Here’s the story: in 1903, a bunch of hooligan Boston fans buoyed their team to an improbable victory in the first World Series by taunting the Pittsburgh Pirates with a song called Tessie (You Are the Only, Only, Only). Fast forward 100 years to 2004: the Dropkick Murphys, in an effort to break the Red Sox 86-year World Series drought, recorded Tessie, a song detailing those events. Somehow it worked, and this song has been a staple at Fenway Park ever since.

In the interest of full disclosure, I’m a die hard Red Sox fan, and the night they won the series in ‘04 was one of the best nights of my life. Let’s just say the room got a little dusty when that game was over. So this song has a special place in my heart.

1. To Be Young - Ryan Adams
When Heartbreaker came out, it was a revelation for me. I have always been a fan of traditional country music, and of course I like rock and roll. So this record, as my first exposure to Ryan Adams, was an almost perfect mixture of the genres. Poppy enough to be completely accessible, while taking enough musical and lyrical chances to be interesting, Heartbreaker is one of my favorite records.

To Be Young is the first song on the album, and it sets the tone right away: this isn’t your daddy’s country music. The song is structured lyrically like a blues song, but the accompaniment is a modified Western swing with syncopated brushes on the snare and a tambourine driving the beat. It’s a great springtime song because of that dichotomy between the lyrical content and musical sound.

2. Today is the Day - Apollo Sunshine
If To Be Young has a mixed message, Today is the Day is nothing but positive vibes and happiness. I first discovered Apollo Sunshine as a free download over at Amazon. It was this track and another, and since then, this one has been a staple of my mixed CDs and iTunes playlists.

Not much more to say than “If that grass looks fun to roll in, then roll in that fun grass.”

3. Another Travelin’ Song - Bright Eyes
Typically a pretty depressing outfit, Conner Oberst and company manage to crank out a jolly number every once in a while. And even though Another Travelin’ Song is another case of melancholy lyrics accompanied by joyful music, I think the net feeling at the end is positive.

Musically, we’ve got another Texas two step situation. And lyrically, the loose associations seem to be a metaphor for the singer’s writer’s block. But I have to say, I love the opening line, “Well, I’m changing all my strings, I’m gonna write another travelin’ song.” It’s a great message for Spring.

4. Mushaboom - Feist
When I lived in the apartment with my old roommate, we used to set the DVR to record Subterranean on MTV2. That’s when I saw the video for Mushaboom and realized what an amazing song it is. Then tonight, when I was putting together this mix, I looked up the lyrics and realized what an appropriate song for Spring this is.

Besides the airy feeling to the instrumentation and the breathy quality of Leslie Feist’s voice, the lyrics are all about moving forward in your life (a subject I’ve been dealing with a lot recently). I can’t tell you how spot on this line is: “It may be years until the day my dreams will match up with my pay.”

5. Tall Green Grass - Cory Branan
If you haven’t been able to tell from my Friday lists, I listen to a lot of singer/songwriters (when did that become a genre??). But I’ve only got five songwriters who can do no wrong in my eyes: Bob Dylan, Mike Doughty, Sarah Harmer, Tom Waits, and Cory Branan.

Cory Branan gets compared to Conner Oberst and Ryan Adams a lot, but for my money he is beyond both of them. He has an economy of style that both of those guys can’t match. Branan’s words serve his music serves his songs better than just about anybody I’ve ever heard writing, and it’s a crime he’s not better known.

I first heard Tall Green Grass as a live recording with just Cory and an acoustic guitar (as most of his live performances are) before his album 12 Songs came out. In that recording, he tells this great story about the day he wrote the song: eating fried chicken with some friends and playing basketball in his cowboy boots against some eight year olds. So he writes this song about being in love and up to no good in an idyllic country setting. It’s one of the best lyrics I’ve ever heard at capturing such a specific mood. The man can write.

1. The World’s Gone Mad - Handsome Boy Modeling School
Handsome Boy Modeling School is a collaboration between Dan the Automator and Prince Paul. This track is off their second album, White People, and it features Del The Funky Homosapien, Barrington Levy, and Alex Kapranos (of Franz Ferdinand). It’s a really interesting mixture of genres: reggae, hip hop, rock.

2. I’m Going Slightly Mad - Queen
This was one of Queen’s last singles before Freddie Mercury passed away. According to Wikipedia, the song, though sounding jaunty and tongue-in-cheek, was written about spells of AIDS-induced dementia that Mercury was suffering from at the time. The video for this track is one of Queen’s best known.

3. Madman Across the Water - Elton John
Off his album of the same name, Madman Across the Water is one of Elton John’s heaviest rock tunes. From the off-kilter lyrics to the amazing instrumental break(down?) in the middle to Sir Elton’s creepy vocal, this track is among the best of his early work (which is the best of all his work).

4. Mad Tom of Bedlam - Jolie Holland
This track is one of those songs that I can listen to over and over again. When I hear this song with it’s haunting melody and it’s sparse instrumentation (just a drum kit!), I picture scenes from the 19th century. Jack the Ripper, maybe, stopping at the pub for a drink before he goes on his hunt. It’s a testament to the talent of Jolie Holland that she can rock a song like this with just her voice and a drum kit. One of my favorite songs of all time.

5. Our House - Madness
Know what isn’t one of my favorite songs? This one. But I couldn’t let a mix of songs about madness go without having a song by Madness. Seemed too apropos. That’s about all I have for this one. I’ll let the ’80s cheesiness speak for itself.