Today all songs lead to... the roads!
1. Thunder Road – Bruce Springsteen
(Bruce Springsteen)
Springsteen was inspired for the title of the opening song of his third album, Born To Run, by the poster of the film Thunder Road starring Robert Mitchum. It is one of Boss's best songs and it definitely had a significant part in this album's huge success, which turned the until then obscure songwriter into a first class star.
2. Wide Open Road – The Triffids
(David McComb)
It is hard to find a song containing a more precise reflection of the immense areas of the Australian geography than this magical single from the album Born Sandy Devotional (1986) by The Triffids. Besides being their top moment, it is also a proof of their late frontman David McComb's capabilities.
3. Where The Streets Have No Name – U2
(Bono-The Edge-Adam Clayton-Larry Mullen, Jr.)
Here we have one of the extravagantly successful singles from The Joshua Tree (1987), the album that launched the career of the Irish U2 to the sky. The fact that it is still so frequently aired by radios all over the world, I think tells everything there is to know about it...
4. Stanley Road – Paul Weller
(Paul Weller)
With the album under the same name as this song, Paul Weller continued to broaden the success he had met with his previous one, Wild Wood, stabilizing the path of his solo career. This song is exceptional, with the banging piano and the guitars and string instruments spreading in space.
5. Any Road – George Harrison
(George Harrison)
“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there” sings Harrison in the opening song of his album Brainwashed, which was released after his death. If nothing else, this man knew how to play slide guitar.
6. Road To Nowhere – Talking Heads
(David Byrne)
A song from Little Creatures (1985) starting with a gospel choir just to speed up and acquire spurring drums, accordion and sax on the way.
7. Bright Side Of The Road – Van Morrison(Van Morrison)
Morrison wrote this uplifting soul song as a response to The Dark End Of The Street by Dan Penn and Chips Moman. It was included in his album Into The Music (1979) but was also released as a single. An ideal medicine against the blues...
8. Stories Of The Street – Leonard Cohen
(Leonard Cohen)
From the debut album of the Canadian, Songs Of Leonard Cohen (1967). Here, Cohen was clearly walking on the steps of Bob Dylan's first period, with a totally acoustic sound and complete lack of drums. Of course, lyrically he demonstrated even back then that he had an absolutely personal style.
9. Every House On Every Street – Puressence
(James Mudriczki-Tony Szuminski-Kevin Matthews-Neil McDonald)
When the Puressence released their debut, entitled after themselves, thay were compared to Radiohead and U2. Listening to this song from that album, it is not hard to spot the similarities, although I consider it unfair for thewm to be rejected as plain clones - after all they have been very much loved in our country.
10. Lonely Road – Paul McCartney
(Paul McCartney)
We close with an electric, powerful song from the album Driving Rain (2001) by Macca. A wonderful melody, autobiographical lyrics in some way, and a unique performance by the ex Beatle in one of his many good moments during the past decade. See you next Friday!
* Photos from http://sofia.usgs.gov/virtual_tour/images/photos/enp/enp_road.jpg and www.wikipedia.org.
Relevant article