Five Songs You Need To Hear (To Everything There Is a Season)

Goodness, October’s looming, and I’ve not offered one of my ongoing Five Songs You Need To Hear articles in September! Guess I should rectify that this morning, if only to satisfy my own obsessive tendencies. And, of course, to goose your curiosity on some music that you might never have heard before, but should. I’ve already written a few pieces this month about new things that are rocking my world, so rather than reiterating or re-culling cuts from those albums, the five songs below represent older things that have re-emerged into the active playlist hereabouts, with pleasing results. In each case, some external factor jogged my memory, so I also offer a little narrative before each song on why I’m playing and loving it now, in some cases after many years of not having heard it. As always, you can click here to get all of the previous “Five Songs” installments (scroll down after you click that link to move past this current article), which are now at 19 posts and counting. Your Head A Splode.

#1. “I Am The Walrus” by Spooky Tooth. (Why: It played over the end credits of the Watchmen mini-series, which we enjoyed. It’s a shockingly visceral take on a very cerebral Beatles cut).

#2. “Weakling” by Swans. (Why: We watched the outstanding Where Does A Body End documentary this week. Two hours and forty minutes of pummeling, along with some great, informative interviews. Perfect. Brutal. Sweet. Also, note the cover of the 1983 album from which this cut was culled, and compare/contrast to the mask I am wearing in my current profile photo).

#3. “Sweet And Dandy” by Toots and the Maytals. (Why: First, because we watched the film Yardie recently; it was partially set in the early ’70s Jamaican gang war era that framed the epic The Harder They Come film, the classic soundtrack of which featured this song. Second, because Toots Hibbert died this month, alas).