74. Jamming by Bob Marley and the Wailers

"Jamming" by Bob Marley and the Wailers

Written by Bob Marley
Produced by Bob Marley and the Wailers
Released on Exodus (June 3, 1977)
Released as single in 1977
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Imagine for a moment that you are at a party at someone's house or apartment. It's chill. Everyone is just chatting and laughing and vibing. Maybe someone's grilling on the deck and you can smell the charcoal. Someone just said something funny, and everyone laughs and as the laughter dies, you become aware of the music that's been playing. What song do you hear?

It may be unfair asking that question in a blog post titled "Jamming" by Bob Marley and the Wailers, but the music playing is and always has been Bob Marley. His music is perfect for chilling, laughing, and having a good time.

Anyone who claims to not like Bob Marley is lying. There's no other valid explanation. Bob Marley's musical legacy is unrivaled. If his music isn't universally loved by all, it should be. While most music is divisive and tribal, the music of Bob Marley has always been able to bridge cultural, racial, and geographic divides. I find it hard to imagine any spot on earth where "Jamming" or "No Woman, No Cry" or "Stir it Up" or "Three Little Birds" or "One Drop" wouldn't inspire nods of the head, sweet smiles, and good vibes all around.

I know there are a handful of people who choose to ignore Bob Marley's music because of how much of his image and legacy are tied to cannabis, but if we let moral indignation decide our musical tastes for us, there won't be much to listen to because the Amish don't allow their music to be recorded.

Bob Marley created reggae. He raised it, defined it, and wrote and recorded a transcendent collection of music. My first exposure to reggae came through a friend of mine, Ben, who had lived in the Bahamas for a year in middle school. He returned to the US having fully embraced Caribbean culture and reggae music. While I'm sure I would have bought Legend at some point even without knowing Ben (like almost everyone else I went to high school with), he made sure that I was aware of the Marley that existed beyond those 14 amazing tracks on Legend. I never dove too deep into his catalog and never took the time to listen much to other reggae artists, but I do have a few, perhaps, lesser known Marley tracks on my Spotify playlists because of Ben's influence and suggestions.

Bob Marley's musical legacy, for most Americans, is primarily defined by that single compilation album, Legend. Those songs are pure magic. I picked "Jamming" as my favorite Marley song somewhat arbitrarily. I considered "No Woman, No Cry," "Redemption Song," "Stir It Up," and a few others. Ultimately, "Jamming" is perfect Marley. It's fun, it's chill, it plays. It's a party song and a religious song; it's reggae. It also, oddly enough, often makes me think of The Simpsons. There's an episode that uses it for the closing credits, and I never kicked that association. That's often the case for songs that ended up on this list, not only are they great, but they stuck with me because of being attached to a memory. Sometimes it's something innocuous like a TV show using the song, and sometimes it's something more meaningful. Whatever the reason, "Jamming" is certainly one of my favorite songs and for now takes its place on this list as my favorite Marley song.

I love Bob Marley, and his music will always be a big part of the soundtrack to that perfect party. So just lay back, chill, and let's all hope this jam is gonna last.

Right now, "Jamming" by Bob Marley is (probably) my 74th favorite song of all time.

75. Hey Ya! by OutKast

"Hey Ya!" by OutKast

Written by Andre Benjamin
Produced by Andre 3000
Released on Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (September 23, 2003)
Released as single on September 9, 2003
Peaked at #1 on Billboard Hot 100
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This is the only OutKast song on my list. True OutKast fans should probably be offended by this. Heck, I'm a little mad at myself over this. They're an incredible duo. They were fun, introspective, and made some unbelievably great music. So many of their songs are probably on many people's imagined top 100 lists.

While OutKast will always be synonymous with Southern Rap, "Hey Ya!," and The Love Below half of the Speakerboxxx/The Love Below double album, didn't really fit into that categorization. "Hey Ya!" is a pop song. (It might just be a perfect pop song.)

"Hey Ya!" was literally everywhere in 2003-2004. It was played on almost every radio station. It was the #1 song on Billboard's Hot 100 for 9 straight weeks. Maybe it wasn't quite as big as "Old Town Road," but to help put it and OutKast into perspective, its reign at #1 was halted by another OutKast song: "I Like the Way You Move." That was the winter of OutKast. Speakerboxxx/The Love Below even managed to become the first hip hop album to win the Grammy for album of the year. Not that the Grammys mean anything. If you look back at the history of that award sometime, you'll find that they missed hard on that award throughout the 90s and 00s, but in 2004, the voters probably got it right. Speakerboxxx/The Love Below is a cultural touchstone, and "Hey Ya!" plays a huge role in its enduring legacy.

"Hey Ya!" is still a great song, but now it's also a time machine. It will always take me back to that time in my life, just out of college, having fun, and trying to figure out life, the universe, and everything. I'm not sure any particular song defines a time so clearly for me. It was so present and tangible then, that I can't help but feel those years in its rhythms and hear those memories in its lyrics.

That time was right around when I did something that just about every man tries to do at least once in their life: try to learn the guitar. In 2003, I bought a guitar, learned a few chords, downloaded tabs, and put in a minimal effort into becoming a guitar player for about 3 years. I still have that guitar, but it mostly gathers dust now.

So of course it made sense to learn the chords for "Hey Ya!" It was a surprisingly simple song to learn. Apparently Andre 3000 was learning to play the guitar as they were producing Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, and he wrote "Hey Ya!" based on the first 4 chords he learned to play. It's a little tricky to play and sing because of the 2/4 bar that's inserted towards the end of the verse and some of the vocal rhythms in the second verse, but the chords and the lyrics were pretty easy. And ultimately it didn't matter if you screwed up the rhythm a little bit because the song was fun.

One of the best weddings I ever attended was right around this time. It was for one of my best friends from high school on the beach in beautiful northern Michigan. The groom was a musician, so the music at the reception was basically a jam session with a bunch of his musician friends from college. At one point I was prodded into grabbing the acoustic guitar and playing "Hey Ya!" for everyone. It was awesome. Everyone danced and sang along.

Afterwards, my friend's step-mom told me how much she enjoyed the song and how everyone seemed to be into it, even though she had never heard it before. What? How had she not heard "Hey Ya!?" Who could have possibly been alive at that point and not heard it somewhere? That was when I started to really see just how fractious and specialized tastes in music have become. Even a song that had turned into a seemingly unavoidable cultural phenomenon could be completely foreign to some not insignificant percentage of the population. (Also, for those wondering, I did play it at that wedding reception before the Scrubs episode existed, and I played it as a fun song, not as a sappy ballad like they did on the show.)

As I said, "Hey Ya!" is a time machine. I have so many memories tied up in those four minutes of pure pop brilliance. I'm grateful they're good memories and that it's a good song.

Right now, "Hey Ya!" by OutKast is (probably) my 75th favorite song of all time.

76. Sober by Tool

"Sober" by Tool

Music by Adam Jones, Dana Carey, Paul D'Amour
Lyrics by Maynard James Keenan
Released on Undertow (April 6, 1993)
Released as single in May 1993
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Warning: Explicit Lyrics

I have a funny story about this song. I used to live and work at a camp in Michigan. In between seasons, I had to live in a little room upstairs in the camp's farmhouse (which also served as the camp office). To say that this was an awkward living situation would be an understatement. See, they forced me to live there during the parts of the year when I had essentially no work responsibilities, and this was not a large office. The offices were all downstairs, but I'm sure it wasn't hard for my colleagues to figure out when I got up each day. I enjoyed my time off between seasons and sleeping in is something I have always enjoyed doing during time off. But it was a job I loved, the rent was cheap, so I made it work. Living where others are working is simply not an ideal situation.

One Sunday morning, I got up and took a shower as I got ready for church. Because it was Sunday, I assumed no one was in the office. When people ask me if I sing, I usually tell them that I do, but only in the shower, the car, and at church. So I was in the shower singing. For some reason "Sober" was in my head, so I was singing the chorus (the only part of the song I know the words to). I was really going for it. When I want, I can sing LOUD. I'm not entirely sure where or how I developed this skill, but I can really project my voice when I want to. My sister used to be an opera singer. I don't know whether I could have trained my ear and my voice to sing nearly as well as her, but I'm pretty darn sure that I could sing as loud as her, if I really wanted to.

So there I was, in the upstairs shower in an empty office, singing like a madman.

After church, I was talking with a couple people from the camp. My boss mentioned that he had stopped by the office on his way to church and heard some singing. This was getting awkward, and not just because he had heard me singing at full volume. What really made it awkward was when he asked me what I had been singing. Because of my boss's age and what I knew about him, I couldn't really figure out how to explain who Tool was. So when he asked what I was singing, I lied and said that I didn't know.

I don't sing as much in the shower anymore.

Tool is great. They rock hard. "Sober" was their first song that got played anywhere, and it was accompanied by a fantastically strange and cool claymation music video. I have enjoyed other Tool songs, but none as much as this "Sober." Tool is a cool band because in addition to rocking hard, they also do cool things like mess with time signatures and song structures. In the end though, as interesting as their music is, sometimes I just want to rock, and "Sober" isn't particularly interesting or complicated; it just rocks. Interesting music is interesting, but sometimes it's OK to just want to rock, hard.

Right now, "Sober" by Tool is (probably) my 76th favorite song of all time.