Greatest Song Evah 6/13/25

Jun 13, 2025

Encore

Encore came from Jay-Z’s The Black Album, otherwise known as his “retirement” album. At the time of its release he announced his intention to step away from the rap game to focus on his business holdings. The hype machine culminated with a splashy all-star concert at Madison Square Garden along with Fade To Black, a fantastic documentary of the event. Quick show of hands, who actually believed that he was going to go through with that retirement? Yeah, I thought so.

For now, let’s keep up the facade and pretend that this truly was his farewell to performing. Not only was The Black Album a banger from start to finish, but this particular song well conveys the idea of closing a chapter in his career. “For one last time, I need y’all to roar.” Throughout the song he summarizes his career and in the final verse he references a victory lap. He also gives the game away when he says “When I come back like Jordan wearing the 4-5,” so there’s that as well.

Now comes the uncomfortable truth, Kanye (ugh) is all over the record. He produced it, co-wrote it, and provides backing vocals. As repulsive as he is, there is a reason why he was such a major name before he made himself into a detestable villain. He was a magician in the studio, and he included several stylistic flourishes that made it really sizzle. The trumpet hook sucks you in immediately; it was sampled from a cover version of I Will, which is how Lennon & McCartney wound up with a songwriting credit here. And the “Hova! Hova!” chant in the bridge provides the ideal “wave your hands in the air on the dance floor” interlude.

OK, so the retirement claims didn’t take. In the very first line he asked us if we want more. We certainly did.

He Just Wasn’t Made For These Times

Man, what a brutal week this has been. Days after we lost Sly Stone, Brian Wilson has died. It is eerie that they died within a few days of each other. Both were 82. Both were absolute musical geniuses, visionaries in fact. Both epitomized the term “tortured artist.” Both left behind musical catalogues so deep and rich that it’s hard to conceive that they were created by mere mortals. One key difference between the two is that whereas Stone was largely a recluse in the last half of his life, Wilson remained in the spotlight. In doing so he gave a prominent public face to mental health issues.

There has long been a sharp contradiction when it comes to public perception of The Beach Boys. Many people, especially those in my generation and older millennials, think of them as the middle aged guys in Hawaiian shirts touring the nostalgia circuit signing songs about girls, cars, the sun, and girls riding in cars in the sun. Others recognize them as one of the major creative forces in the 1960’s, right up there with The Beatles, The Stones, and Bob Dylan, constantly raising the bar and challenging each other with each new release. Brian Wilson was the creative force in The Beach Boys who made their part in the friendly rivalry happen. Remember, without Pet Sounds there would have been no Sgt. Pepper, or if it had it would have sounded vastly different.

Wilson famously retreated from performing on stage with his band fairly early on so that he could fully focus on studio experimentation. It is so striking that he created such complex productions while often using a simple 4-track recorder. Moreover, he did this within the confines of the 3 or 4 minute single. Good Vibrations is the most obvious example, but just take a listen to California Girls. On the surface it’s a prototypical pop single, but it is much more than that. The intro feels like an overture, the harmonies travel in different directions, and it all ties together magnificently. And Heroes & Villains? My gosh, with all of the separate movements, tempo changes, and vocal complexity it’s practically a symphony.

It’s impossible to discuss Wilson without exploring the tragedy behind his genius. He spent his youth under the thumb of an abusive father, and a large chunk of his adulthood under the thumb of an unethical and exploitative therapist. The very first SNL episode that I ever stayed up late enough to watch was a 1976 episode in which Wilson was the musical guest. If my memory serves correctly, I was somewhat aware at the time that he had mental health issues - or at least as aware as a 9 year old could comprehend that concept - and it was clear that he was not in a good place at the team. He even had a line in a sketch, which in retrospect feels cruel.

Once he was finally liberated from the therapist whom I shall not name, he spent much of his later years reclaiming his musical legacy. (Side note - I know that Walk Hard has ruined the tropes that are found in biographical movies about great musicians, but Love & Mercy was a good one. It moved back and forth between 2 key points in his life: when a young Wilson (Paul Dano) was creating Pet Sounds, and when the woman who would become his second wife (Elizabeth Banks) rescued an older Wilson (John Cusack) from that therapist.) It was at this point when he finally re-recorded and released his legendary Smile album, an event that many fans believed would never happen. It could sometimes be difficult to watch him perform; his voice could be shaky at times and in interviews he often struggled to articulate his thoughts. What was important was that he came out from the other side of his considerable struggles, not necessarily unscathed, but willing and able to present himself to the public.

As I said, a simply brutal week. Sly Stone and Brian Wilson were not just two musical greats, they were two of the best to ever done it, and two singular talents. We are all the richer for having lived at the same time that they did. Their music will outlive us all.

Thanks for reading Tending The Herd! This post is public so feel free to share it.

50 Years Ago - Red Headed Stranger

Willie Nelson is a prime example of what happens when you stay true to yourself and refuse to listen to other people telling you what to do. He initially followed the standard path for a country singer; set up roots in Nashville and establish yourself within the city’s musical infrastructure. While he did write famous standards such as Crazy and Funny How Time Slips Away, his own performing career failed to take off. Rather than continue to act as a square peg in the Nashville round hole, he moved back to his Texas home and established his base of operations there.

That was just the move that he needed. He had little interest in molding his sound to the countrypolitan style that was in vogue. He followed his own muse, and several projects established him as the Willie Nelson that we all know and love. The Red Headed Stranger album was the first of those. Country was largely a singles driven format; with few exceptions albums tended to follow the classic hits + filler formula. Not so here. It was a concept album, largely a foreign idea in country music.

The album tells the tale of a man on the run from the law after he has killed his wife and her lover. The songs drive the story forward; almost half of them are shorter than 2 minutes long. They last just long enough to do the job and then move on to the next development in the narrative. It is notable that Nelson wrote fewer than half of the songs on the record; several cover songs are included here, yet they fit in seamlessly and he toys with the arrangements to mold the project into a cohesive whole. The biggest hit on the record would be one of those covers; Willie’s version of Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain.

The album was too raw and pure country to have received pop radio airplay, so it did not produce any Top 40 hits, but it would become his biggest hit up to that date on the Billboard albums chart. It is also arguably the most identifiable moment of Willie Nelson’s career, ever since its release The Red Headed Stranger has been one of his nicknames. And this got the ball rolling on the career highlights which would quickly follow in the next several years. The Outlaws compilation. Stardust. The Waylon & Willie album. And then eventually his budding acting career and his crossover stardom. All because in his own manner he essentially went with the attitude that Rage Against the Machine would express later as “f*** you, I won’t do what you tell me.”

What’s the lesson to be learned? Authenticity will always win out in the end. He had little desire to play the Nashville game, so he created his own game and wrote his own rules. The results speak for themselves. Willie is an institution and one of the most beloved figures in our nation. Hey, maybe if more Democrats would tread that same path and trust their instincts rather than follow the advice of consultants who haven’t won an election in decades then we wouldn’t be in our current predicament. But I’m not bitter.

One final note: the cover photo is a great fit for the whole ethos of both Willie and this record as a whole. He has always felt timeless because he looked old even when he was young. Or younger; he was in his early forties when this record came out. The cover image looks like it came out the pages of an old Time/Life book filled with daguerreotypes from the Civil War. Amazingly, he has barely slowed down. Sure, he has made some concessions to age; now he sits down while performing. Still, the dude is 92 years old and he continues to tour and he continues to knock out new albums on a regular basis. Who would have thought that massive weed consumption is the secret to longevity?

Tending The Herd

Greatest Song Evah 6/13/25

Discussion about this post