55. Gone (feat. Consequence and Cam'ron) by Kanye West

"Gone" (feat. Consequence and Cam'ron) by Kanye West

Written by Kanye West, Dexter Mills, Cameron Giles, Chuck Willis
Produced by Kanye West
Released on Late Registration (August 30, 2005)
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Warning: Explicit Lyrics

Kanye West is a genius. That is clear. It should also be clear that just because someone is a genius does not mean that they are also likable. Many words have been written and spoken about Kanye West, and many of them have not been kind. He's clearly not a perfect person, but he also has made some of the best music of the past 20 years. Many people have thrown around words like crazy or unstable in reference to Mr. West. In recent years, I have become less comfortable using those words, especially as his wife has become more open and clear about her husband's personal struggles with his mental health. 

Kanye West broke new ground producing tracks for Jay-Z and for his own debut album. His practice of using sped up soul samples as the basis for his tracks sounded so cool. Around the time when he released his first two albums, I was hovering on the outskirts of St. Louis' underground hip hop scene. Through some of those connections I learned a few things about sampling beats and making digital tracks. I never took the time to really do much more than fiddle around and try a few things, but I did learn that it's not easy. While I don't always think that Kanye is that great of a rapper (despite what he says about himself), it is clear to anyone who listens that he is a master producer. He creates innovative, fun, and dynamic backing tracks, on top of which he adds his fun and interesting rhymes.

So with some of that background, I was blown away the first time I played "Gone" after buying the Late Registration album. One of Kanye's gifts is his ability to find and use samples from songs that others have overlooked. At this time I owned the Otis Redding box set Otis!, and had listened to it extensively. Despite that, I had never heard the Otis Redding song "It's Too Late" that Kanye had sampled for "Gone." One reason is that it's actually not that great of a song. It's a subpar cover of a mediocre song. (Even the great ones make mistakes.) Kanye managed to take a small sample from it and create greatness from mediocrity.

What makes this song more amazing is how the track develops. Many rap songs take a sample, add a beat, and repeat. They'll usually change the beat a bit for the hook, but sometimes not. "Gone" is different. The beat changes throughout the song. Once Kanye comes back to rap his final verse, his voice full of spit and venom, that Otis Redding sample has completely disappeared. It is still very much the same song, but it's evolved. This wasn't something radical from a musical sense, but it was certainly something I had not heard in a rap song before.

Kanye was so far beyond the simple tracks I had seen and heard to a whole new level of prowess and genius. This track is the culmination of all the work he had put in before he became a meme or a caricature of himself. On his first album he claimed that he made "five beats a day for three summers." All that work paid off in this masterpiece from his second album.

It could be argued that he had already created at least one masterpiece with "Jesus Walks." (Kanye certainly feels that way.) That was never a personal favorite of mine, but I certainly understood why Kanye and others thought it was great. So I may have been a little late to the party in recognizing Mr. West's genius because it wasn't until I heard this song that I really got it.

Around the time of its release, Kanye West said in an interview that he felt like Late Registration was the best produced album of all time. Kanye has gotten himself into trouble for making comments like this. It sounds like he's bragging; it's just more evidence to say that his ego is out of control. For me, after hearing "Gone," it didn't feel like bragging, it was inarguable fact.

Right now "Gone" (feat. Consequence and Cam'ron) by Kanye West is (probably) my 55th favorite song of all time.

56. The General by Dispatch

"The General" by Dispatch

Lyrics by Chad Urmston
Music by Dispatch (Brad Corrigan, Pete Francis Heimbold, Chad Urmston)
Released on Bang Bang (September 1, 1997)
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This is one of those bands that I can say I knew about before they were cool. (Not that I would say that because that would make me sound pretentious and uncool). One summer during college, my friend Don came to camp with a CD by a band who he had seen up at Middlebury. It was a fine CD for summer camp, no curse words, acoustic arrangements, and a general vibe that no one could really complain about. "Bats in the Belfry" got stuck in my head a bit, but I've had worse songs stuck there.

When I asked about the band, he explained that even though they were called One Fell Swoop on his CD, they had changed their name to Dispatch after they signed to a record deal. For some reason after that summer, the only thing that stuck in my head was One Fell Swoop. For the longest time I could not remember their new name.

I saw the band Guster on a late night show, and although they had a similar set up, I knew it wasn't the same band. I checked just in case, but the internet was not nearly as useful at that time, so I wasn't 100% sure that they hadn't changed their name again.

I had another run in with Dispatch's music after college when I worked at a camp up in Michigan. We used to go to Whisker's Pub to hear Andre Villoch (who has a song further up this list) play. He was a once and future camp counselor, and he played a mean guitar, wrote great songs, and could sing (among many other talents). One of the cover songs in his repertoire was "Out Loud" by Dispatch. Apparently one of his musician friends used to shout "Andre!" when he would get to the chorus. I asked him once if he had ever tried to learn "The General." He admitted that he could never quite get the quick rhythms of the verses down. It's possible he didn't want to play it because its antiwar lyrics might be perceived as a political statement.

This is one of my favorite antiwar songs and not the last antiwar song in my top 100. For most of my life I have been more dove than hawk. While it could be argued that certain wars in the past were justified, it's also clear that too many humans have been killed by other humans. Great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. have demonstrated that non-violent protest can be an effective way to usher in revolution and change.

When I was younger, I used to think that the scariest thing about going to war would be the thought of killing another human. I now have come to terms with how naive I once was. While I have never been sure about whether I could actually take another person's life, even in self-defense, I am very sure that I do not want to lose my own. I now believe that, even when I was younger, if I were to ever be thrust into a warlike situation, I would almost certainly end up crying, hiding in a corner with soiled underwear. Maybe an esprit de corps (or a shot of adrenaline from a simple a fear of letting down those around me) would save me from that embarrassment, but I really can't know for sure. I'm just grateful that all this has remained hypothetical for me.

What I am certain of is that we still have over 8,000 US troops in Afghanistan, fighting a war that has lasted for nearly 20 years; a war that has killed over 2,000 American servicemen, wounded many others, and left still more with lasting physical and psychological scars; a war that has killed over 110,000 Afghans; a war that has cost the United States at least $1.5 trillion; a war that needs to end.

My hope is that all men and women fighting anywhere in the world can someday soon follow the final orders of the general to:

Take a shower. Shine your shoes.

You got no time to lose.

You are young men. You must be living.

Go now you are forgiven.

Right now "The General" by Dispatch is my 56th favorite song of all time.

57. Murder in the City by the Avett Brothers

"Murder in the City" by The Avett Brothers

Written by Scott Avett and Seth Avett
Produced by The Avett Brothers and Doug Williams
Released on The Second Gleam (July 22, 2008)
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This is a perfect song. It's simple and sweet and amazing. I knew nothing about the Avett Brothers when I found it, and I don't know much more now. I discovered this song shortly after it was released, inside the pages of either GQ or Esquire magazine: One of their pop culture blurbs mentioned it, so I had a listen. At the time, I thought these types of men's magazines might teach me something about manhood or help me figure out who I am. While I did learn about fashion, and there were occasionally some well written articles, ultimately most of it didn't amount to much. Much like the fashions they were helping to peddle, it was mostly fluff wrapped up in a pretty package.

The reason I was drawn to men's magazines is that I spent most of my early adult life trying to find my place in the world and figure out what it means to be me. I'm still not sure how a fashion magazine was supposed to help with that, but at the time it seemed to make sense.

While I still find myself questioning who I am and why I'm here, I'm taking more opportunities to look inward for those answers. It would be so much easier if we could find the answers outside ourselves. I often looked to parents, siblings, friends, colleagues, celebrities, articles, Christian Science practitioners, books, movies, albums, and anything else to give me some kind of clear concise message to just lay it all out plainly. Sure there were hints and allegations, but what I ultimately learned was that the only one responsible for myself was me.

So who am I? While the simple response is to say that I am a teacher, no one can be defined solely by their vocation. The answer is never simple. There are too many variables. I can't give a real or even satisfactory answer to that short question. What I have gotten better at is not letting the way others perceive or define me get in the way of my journey. Sure, I still wonder what other people think about me, but I don't worry about it as much anymore.

So, while I couldn't find the answers to life's great questions inside these magazines, every once in a while, among the fantastically expensive clothes and vapid celebrity profiles, a decent pop culture recommendation would appear in those pages. I'm not sure that I would even know this song existed, had I not read about it in a magazine. A year or two later, a student of mine mentioned The Avett Brothers to me as being a favorite of his. Had I not read about them, I may have asked him who they were, but I'm not sure I would have actually given their music a try.

That's often the great question regarding music: What great music have I missed simply because I live in the wrong place, or listen to the wrong radio stations, or hang out with the wrong friends, or ignore the wrong suggestions? I think I just have to be grateful that I have found this one beautiful song that I otherwise would have ignored. There are many more hidden gems out there, many of which I will never hear. My hope is that I find as many as I can while I can.

Right now "Murder in the City" by Avett Brothers is (probably) my 57th favorite song of all time.