73. Ecstasy by Rusted Root

"Ecstasy" by Rusted Root

Music by Rusted Root (Michael Glabicki, Liz Berlin, Jim Donovan, Patrick Norman, John Buynak, Jenn Wertz, Daniel James "Jim" DiSpirito)
Lyrics by Michael Glabicki
Produced by Bill Bottrell
Released on When I Woke (August 23, 1994)
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In 1996, TriStar released a film directed by Danny DeVito called Matilda, which was based on a novel of the same name by Roald Dahl.

Roald Dahl changed my life. For most of my childhood, I avoided reading. It was not fun for me, and I did not understand why all books were not illustrated. My brother, on the other hand, would do everything he could to read. He began reading novels when he was four and never stopped.

In 1990, my family moved to Greenwich, Connecticut so that my older brother could attend a prep school where my father was taking over as food service director. I began my 5th grade year at the local public elementary.

My teacher that year loved reading and poetry. I can still recite "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost after being required to memorize it that year, and someone in that classroom suggested I check out a book by Roald Dahl. The first book of his that I picked out was Danny, the Champion of the World, and something connected for me. That year, I read almost every Dahl novel. I tried other books as well, and found quite a few that I enjoyed, but Dahl will always be first. (A close second goes to Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain series.)

The reason I bring this up is that the Matilda film adaptation featured Rusted Root's best known song, "Send Me Away." When the film came out, I remember being unsure whether I should see it because I was at that funny age when I thought I might be too old for a children's movie like Matilda. Luckily, a mentor of mine nudged me in the right direction and I saw the movie. It was fantastic. It took me back to that time when I fell in love with reading. Dahl is so important, and he's one of the few authors whose books have not been ruined by terrible film adaptations (Johnny Depp's Wonka not withstanding). Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory are pure magic.

While the song I chose for my list is not "Send Me Away," just about any Rusted Root song has that loose association with my love for reading. And ultimately, "Ecstasy" is the better song.

Listening to "Ecstasy" now, it feels like I should have had a guilty pleasure type relationship with Rusted Root's music, but I don't think I ever felt ashamed of liking them. I think it helped that there never seemed to be a sense of pretense to their music. They simply wrote and performed music that they loved, and they clearly loved performing it too. It never felt like they were trying to pose or feel cool. They played what they wanted to play, and they played it well.

Last year, someone on Twitter wrote a thread revisiting the Woodstock '99 concert videos. It's a fun thread, and the author clearly had a good time poking fun at the bands, their sets, and their fans. When he got to Rusted Root, he had fun at the expense of their vibe and weird instruments, but then he came to the only fair conclusion that could be made about their set, they rocked it. I actually went back and watched most of their set, and can confirm that they were great. They rocked, their fans had fun, and the set is fantastic. When a band is that good and that genuine, you have to show them some respect.

Right now, "Ecstasy" by Rusted Root is (probably) by 73rd favorite song of all time.

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.

77. Say It Ain't So by Weezer

"Say It Ain't So" by Weezer

Written by Rivers Cuomo
Produced by Ric Ocasek
Released on Weezer (Blue Album) (May 10, 1994)
Released as single on July 13, 1995
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If you don't know anything about the band Weezer (or even if you do), here's what you need to know:

1. Their first album, Weezer (aka the Blue album) is their best album.
2. A vocal subset of Weezer fans and music critics will try to convince you that Pinkerton is Weezer's best album. They are just trying to sound cool, and they are not very convincing.
3. Others will try to say that Weezer (aka the Green album) is Weezer's best self-titled album and therefore their best album. This serves as a reminder that some opinions are simply wrong.
4. Weezer has produced six self-titled albums. (They are differentiated by the colors of their covers.)
5. Yes, Weezer is a pretentious band. Weezer fans can also be pretentious, especially when they want to share their incorrect opinions about Weezer's music.
6. People's opinions about Weezer can never be taken at face value. There's a very good chance that anyone sharing any kind of opinion about Weezer, whether positive or negative, is just trying to seem cool.

During my freshman year in high school Weezer was everywhere. I should be more specific. They were on the radio and they were on MTV, which for a freshman in high school in the fall of 1994 might as well as been everywhere.

Their first single, "Undone - The Sweater Song," was catchy enough and gimmicky enough to fit right into the burgeoning alternative music scene. They produced a campy and nostalgic video for the song "Buddy Holly" that was a super fun. I unashamedly loved that music video. I'm not sure that was true of everyone who liked it though. There were probably people who only liked it ironically. I was probably still too young to really be aware of how liking something ironically worked, but there's a lot about the 90's alternative music scene that was all about irony. Ironically this did not include Alanis Morrissette's song "Ironic." There was really nothing ironic about that song.

This, of course, speaks to the real problem about Weezer (and alternative music in general). At some point some of my friends made it very clear to me that liking Weezer was not cool. Now looking back, it's obvious that my friends who said this were definitely not cool, but I thought they had cool taste in music. The only real reason to listen to music in high school was to seem cool, right? I desperately wanted to be cool in high school. I knew I wasn't cool, but I was looking for any kind of incremental advantage that could help me become cooler. Maybe having cool taste in music could fool a couple of people into thinking I was cool.

So when I was told that Weezer wasn't cool, I didn't try to protest or disagree. I was like, "Duh, of course they aren't cool."

Man, I was an idiot.

I love music. That's the reason I started writing this blog. That being said, I still listen to music and write about music because I am trying to seem cool, but now instead of trying to make sure I'm listening to music only because other people think it's cool, I'm trying to seem cool by not caring about what people think of my taste in music. For example, I used to have a handful of "guilty pleasure" songs that I liked, but wouldn't openly admit to liking. I don't anymore. I like what I like, and I choose not to hide it or feel guilty about it. That's apparently what cool people do: they don't care about whether or not they are cool. They certainly don't care about whether their taste in music is cool.

Of course, I'm still not cool because I'm still trying too hard. The mere existence of this blog is clear evidence of my continued efforts to seem cool. Despite my efforts, I am still very much obsessed with coolness. It's becoming the theme of this entire blog.

I'm hopeless, aren't I?

"Say It Ain't So" is a great song, and I don't care what you think about that.

Did you believe me?

Right now, "Say It Ain't So" by Weezer is (probably) my 77th favorite song of all time.

78. Samba Pa Ti by Santana

"Samba Pa Ti" by Santana

Written by Carlos Santana
Produced by Fred Catero, Carlos Santana
Released on Abraxas (September 23, 1970)
Released as single in 1973
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Saying that Carlos Santana plays the guitar seems inadequate. Carlos Santana speaks through his guitar; he emotes through six strings and an amp; he coaxes peace, love, and fire out of his pickups. The sound he creates is unique, golden, and emotive. The reason I love "Samba Pa Ti" is simple: During the nearly five minutes that make up this ode to life and everything beautiful, Carlos Santana makes his guitar cry. There is no other way to describe the way his guitar sounds during the first section of "Samba Pa Ti." It is beautiful and glorious and sad.

I sometimes like to read about how musicians create and produce their music. I'll read articles and books describing of equipment that artists use on particular recordings. It's an interesting exercise for me: Seeing how different artists put the puzzle pieces together to generate a sound, and it is a puzzle. Do you go Fender or Gibson? Standard or custom pickups? What kind of amp? What kind of cable? Which pedals do you use?

Even with all of that, there is still the guitarist themselves to consider. It's fascinating how others can try to replicate a guitar god's setup only to generate a sound that's not quite right. It's a reminder that creating great music, even rock music, is an art more than a science. It takes skill and patience and practice. The sound is as much in the fingers of the artist as it is in their setup.

Santana apparently uses a PRS guitar. When I was trying to explain to a friend of mine how much I loved the tone of Santana's guitar on "Samba Pa Ti," he in turn mentioned to me how much he disliked PRS guitars. He felt like instead of creating a unique sound, PRS tried to split the difference between a Gibson sound and a Fender sound. I felt like he wasn't listening to the song, he was just thinking about how much he disliked PRS guitars. He got so lost in the science of the music, that he wasn't hearing the art.

Ultimately, however Carlos Santana created the sound he did doesn't matter. Whatever the magic is, and whatever equipment he used, the only thing that really matters is that he made his freaking guitar cry! How do you do that? That is what separates the guitar gods from the imitators and pretenders. Only Santana can actually coax literal tears from the strings on his guitar. And that is why I love this song (the first of two Santana instrumentals on my top 100 list).

Right now, "Samba Pa Ti" by Santana is (probably) my 78th favorite song of all time.

79. Maggot Brain by Funkadelic

"Maggot Brain" by Funkadelic

Written by Eddie Hazel, George Clinton
Produced by George Clinton
Released on Maggot Brain (July 12, 1971)
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Warning: Explicit Lyrics

I'm not sure what it says about me that out of everything in George Clinton's extensive P-Funk catalog, I decided to put his least funky song on my top 100 list. It certainly can't be anything good, but I'm a sucker for good guitar instrumentals, and funky or not, "Maggot Brain" is a great guitar instrumental. There's something about a true master of the guitar putting it all out there, and letting their guitar do the talking for them. Eddie Hazel's guitar is certainly speaking here, and I can't claim to know what it's saying, but what it is saying is powerful and beautiful.

Apparently the version of "Maggot Brain" that made it on to the album of the same name, was recorded as one brilliant 10 minute take of guitar god magic. It's not perfect, and an argument could be made that they would have been better off splicing tape together or running through more takes or rehearsals. What is here, though, is full of magic and moments of sheer genius. Whatever it could have been or should have been or would have been doesn't matter. This guitar solo has enough moments of spine tingling euphoria to make up for its less blissful and less perfect sections.

"Maggot Brain" is by the George Clinton led band Funkadelic, one of a small collection of bands he led. All his bands seemed to record and play together, and their personnel and album releases overlapped. They all sound different in some ways and the same in others, and I'm not sure I totally understand their differences or their similarities. The best I can tell is that Funkadelic is the cool band, Parliament is the fun band, P-Funk All-Stars is the touring band, and Bootsy's Rubber Band is the awesomely weird side-project. (Bootsy's Rubber Band actually shows up later on in the list, and of course, I chose another not-so-funky song by one of the greatest funk artists of all time. What is wrong with me?)

"Maggot Brain" is a fascinating song to come out of George Clinton's catalog. It's a deadly serious song. It eschews any of the typical themes that permeated George Clinton's more iconic and commercially successful work. Unlike much of his music, it's not fun and bouncy, but instead is somewhat contemplative and spiritual.

While thinking about what I love about "Maggot Brain," I was reminded of the Sunday Schools I attended as a youth where I first fell in love with music. The hymns we sang were serious, powerful, and sincere. I think a lot of my musical sensibilities are still rooted in that time and in those hymns. The songs I enjoy the most and would rate as "best" are usually more serious in nature and more emotive in execution. This is not the last time a "serious" song from a "fun" band will find its way onto my top 100. Even outside of a church setting, listening to music has always been, at least in part, a religious experience for me. (I do like fun music, and fun songs are included in my heavy listening rotation and are sprinkled throughout my top 100, but ultimately when I rate the songs in my arbitrarily subjective way, serious usually beats fun unless some serious nostalgia is involved.)

"Maggot Brain" is by no means a religious song, but the way that Eddie Hazel spoke and emoted through his guitar on this track speaks to a religious experience. Great music, even when it's not explicitly religious, is inherently spiritual. Frankly, some of the least moving and least spiritual music I hear is the "Christian Rock" that is spewed forth from more and more churches around the country. I genuinely feel closer to God listening to Eddie Hazel's plaintive guitar solo than I would listening to something on a Christian radio station.

Church, religion, and music have always been comforting to me, sometimes individually, and sometimes together. Many of the hymns I sang as a six year old in Sunday School still move me when I sing them in church as an adult. Those hymns will often come to mind when I am searching for answers to life's many great questions. I don't think it is a coincidence that Eddie Hazel's guitar speaks to me in a similar way.

Right now, "Maggot Brain" by Funkadelic is (probably) my 79th favorite song of all time.