This Year: 2010

"This Year" is a series of weekly posts, each about one song from one year of my life. See the introduction for more.

I'm trying to be personal in this series, but not confessional. I may have said too much, some weeks - that's always the danger. And this one has that potential as well. Let's see if I can navigate that stormy sea.

Josh Ritter is one of my favorite artists: full stop. I initially thought the song I'd pick for him in this series would be To the Dogs or Whoever, an absolute barn-burner from 2007 that encapsulates everything he does well and was the first song of his I heard. From the same year, there's also The Temptation of Adam, a wonderful, deep, twisty story-song that I memorized without trying and own a T-shirt with the first line. To be hipster-y, there was also A Country Song, the early version of Golden Age of Radio, title song of his first big-label record.

But this one eventually won out. Partially because of how powerful, how loud it is live; partially because of the emotion in it. And partially because my wife and I both really like a song that is, well, about a deeply unhappy relationship on the verge of breaking up. (And that is understating the case in several ways.) I think we both love the power and the intensity and the emotion of it, especially that tat-tat-tat-tat-tat drumstick sound, over and over and over and over again [1] - but, still, it is weird for a couple to both love a song so much about a breakup.

So my song for 2010 is Rattling Locks, another song about love gone bad, frustration, and that feeling that the world doesn't fit, at all.

All along I thought I was giving you my love
But you were just stealin' it, now I want it back
Every single thing you took

I always like metaphors in songs, and times singers can sneak something by the audience, so this bit was particularly fun - and I wonder how many people don't get both ways it can be taken?

But something has changed, it's all wrong
I'm out here in the cold with a wet face
A-rattling your locks

But, again, this song is mostly about that relentless beat: unchanging, demanding, loud, pounding. Like the blood in your head as you have a not-quite-argument with the person you realize isn't special anymore. It's better live - so many of the greatest songs are, of course - but the studio version is loud and demanding enough for most purposes. And I like a spot of nihilism in my songs....

I had a dream where I was dyin'
But it wasn't no nightmare
I was peaceful as I fell

[1] In concert, several other members of the band would have drumsticks and hammer out that beat, as the actual drummer hit the more complicated bits. It was all beat, all staccato, all relentless. Here's a performance from Jimmy Kimmel that has some of that energy, but it hit much stronger at about the hour-twenty mark of a headliner set in a theatre.