Showing posts with label The Weight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Weight. Show all posts

Friday, November 21, 2025

20th Century Americana: Top 100 Songs

20th Century Americana:

Top 100 Songs

Americana music is a celebration of roots-oriented musical forms that are heavily associated with the United States. It reaches back hundreds of years to traditional music, gospel, Negro spirituals, folk, blues, and country for its influence although it is framed in a more modern context. It really surfaced in the late ‘60s as an outgrown of the folk rock movement with artists like The Band and The Grateful Dead becoming some of the best known groups to incorporate it into their music.

To create this list, 27 lists focused on Americana songs were aggregated alongside lists about folk, folk rock, country, and country rock. Added into the mix were other songs from artists featured on those lists. Those songs appearing on the most lists were then ranked based on their overall status in Dave’s Music Database. This list is focused on Americana music in the 20th century. A separate list has been created that focuses on Americana music in the 21st century.

Click here to see other genre-specific song lists.

1. The Band “The Weight” (1968)
2. The Band (1969), Joan Baez (1971) “The Night They Drove Ol’ Dixie Down”
3. The Band “Up on Cripple Creek” (1969)
4. The Grateful Dead “Truckin’” (1970)
5. The Black Crowes “Hard to Handle” (1990)
6. Bonnie Raitt “Something to Talk About” (1991)
7. The Grateful Dead “Uncle John’s Band” (1970)
8. Neil Young “Harvest Moon” (1992)
9. Steve Earle “Copperhead Road” (1988)
10. Jerry Jeff Walker (1968), The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (1970) “Mr. Bojangles”

11. The Grateful Dead (1970), Lyle Lovett (1991) “Friend of the Devil”
12. The Grateful Dead “A Touch of Grey” (1987)
13. Bonnie Raitt “I Can’t Make You Love Me” (1991)
14. Steve Goodman (1971), Arlo Guthrie (1972), Willie Nelson (1984) “City of New Orleans”
15. Stray Cats “Rock This Town” (1981)
16. Bruce Springsteen “Atlantic City” (1982)
17. John Stewart “Gold” (1979)
18. Lyle Lovett & Randy Newman “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” (1995)
19. Townes Van Zandt (1972), Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard (1983) “Pancho and Lefty”
20. Bonnie Raitt “Love Sneakin’ Up on You” (1994)

21. Bonnie Raitt “Nick of Time” (1989)
22. The Grateful Dead “Sugar Magnolia” (1970)
23. The Black Crowes “Remedy” (1992)
24. The Byrds “Hickory Wind” (1968)
25. Traveling Wilburys “Handle with Care” (1988)
26. Tom Petty “You Don’t Know How It Feels” (1994)
27. Gram Parsons “Return of the Grievous Angel” (1974)
28. Lyle Lovett “If I Had a Boat” (1988)
29. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band “An American Dream” (1979)
30. The Grateful Dead “Dark Star” (1968)

31. The Flying Burrito Brothers (1969), Emmylou Harris (1975) “Sin City”
32. The Traveling Wilbuys “End of the Line” (1988)
33. The Byrds “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” (1968)
34. Bruce Cockburn “If I Had a Rocket Launcher” (1984)
35. The Black Crowes “Jealous Again” (1990)
36. Bruce Springsteen “The Ghost of Tom Joad” (1995)
37. The Band “Rag Mama Rag” (1969)
38. John Prine (1971), Bonnie Raitt (1971) “Angel from Montgomery”
39. The Black Crowes “She Talks to Angels” (1990)
40. The Grateful Dead “Casey Jones” (1970)

41. Bob Dylan “Mississippi” (1997)
42. Lyle Lovett “She’s No Lady” (1988)
43. Lyle Lovett “Nobody Knows Me” (1989)
44. Lucinda Williams “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road” (1998)
45. The Flying Burrito Brothers “Christine’s Tune (Devil in Disguise)” (1969)
46. Gram Parsons “She” (1973)
47. The Byrds “Ballad of Easy Rider” (1969)
48. Robbie Robertson “Somewhere Down the Crazy River” (1987)
49. The Jayhawks “Blue” (1995)
50. The Byrds “One Hundred Years from Now” (1968)

51. John Hiatt “Have a Little Faith in Me” (1987)
52. Stray Cats “Stray Cat Strut” (1981)
53. Bruce Cockburn “Lovers in a Dangerous Time” (1984)
54. Lyle Lovett “Private Conversation” (1996)
55. The Grateful Dead “Ripple” (1970)
56. The Flying Burito Brothers “Hot Burrito #1” (1969)
57. The Grateful Dead “Box of Rain” (1970)
58. Bruce Springsteen “We Shall Overcome” (1998)
59. Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris “Love Hurts” (1974)
60. The Band “I Shall Be Released” (1968)

61. Emmylou Harris “Boulder to Birmingham” (1975)
62. Cracker “Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now)” (1992)
63. The Flying Burrito Brothers “Wild Horses” (1970)
64. Dillard & Clark “Train Leaves Here This Morning” (1968)
65. Lyle Lovett “Pontiac” (1988)
66. Bruce Springsteen “Johnny 99” (1982)
67. Billy Bragg & Wilco “California Stars” (1998)
68. Son Volt “Drown” (1996)
69. Little Feat “Willin’” (1978)
70. Lyle Lovett “Step Inside This House” (1998)

71. Lyle Lovett “Give Back My Heart” (1987)
72. The Jayhawks “Waiting for the Sun” (1992)
73. Lyle Lovett “L.A. County” (1988)
74. Lyle Lovett “Cowboy Man” (1986)
75. Lyle Lovett “Here I Am” (1989)
76. Bob Dylan “Everything Is Broken” (1989)
77. The Grateful Dead “Alabama Getaway” (1980)
78. John Hiatt “Memphis in the Meantime” (1987)
79. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band “Make a Little Magic” (1980)
80. Steve Earle “Guitar Town” (1986)

81. John Prine “Hello in There” (1971)
82. John Hiatt “Drive South” (1988)
83. Stray Cats “She’s Sexy + 17” (1983)
84. The Black Crowes “Thorn in My Pride” (1992)
85. The Byrds “Chestnut Mare” (1970)
86. The Traveling Wilburys “She’s My Baby” (1990)
87. Bonnie Raitt “Love Letter” (1989)
88. John Hiatt “Child of the Wild Blue Yonder” (1990)
89. John Hiatt “Slow Turning” (1988)
90. Gram Parsons “Brass Buttons” (1974)

91. Bonnie Raitt “Thing Called Love” (1989)
92. John Hiatt “Tennessee Plates” (1988)
93. Lyle Lovett “Church” (1992)
94. Robbie Robertson & BoDeans “Showdown at Big Sky” (1987)
95. Lyle Lovett & Keb’ Mo’ “Till It Shines” (1999)
96. Neil Young “Philadelphia” (1994)
97. The Grateful Dead “Dire Wolf” (1970)
98. Bob Dylan “Dignity” (1989)
99. John Stewart “Midnight Wind” (1979)
100. Lyle Lovett “You Can’t Resist It” (1986)

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First posted 11/20/2025; last updated 11/21/2025.

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Tuesday, November 7, 2023

Jeff Tweedy's book World Within a Song

Jeff Tweedy:

World Within a Song

Here’s the description on Amazon of this book by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, full title World Within a Song: Music That Changed My Life and Life That Changed My Music: “An exciting and heartening mix of memories, music, and inspiration from Wilco front man and New York Times bestselling author Jeff Tweedy, sharing fifty songs that changed his life, the real-life experiences behind each one, as well as what he’s learned about how music and life intertwine and enhance each other.”

“What makes us fall in love with a song? What makes us want to write our own songs? Do songs help? Do songs help us live better lives? And do the lives we live help us write better songs?”

I’ve provided the list here of the 50 songs Tweedy writes about. They are not ranked or listed in chronological order. They are simply listed in the order in which they appear in the book. It should also be noted that these are not necessarily songs Tweedy loves. For example, he despites “I Will Always Love You” and “Wanted Dead or Alive.”

Click here to see other lists from critics and individuals and here to see other lists from publications and/or organizations.

Spotify Playlist:

You can listen to all these songs via the Spotify playlist World Within a Song.

  1. Deep Purple “Smoke on the Water” (1973)
  2. Leo Sayer “Long Tall Glasses (I Can Dance)” (1974)
  3. Bachman-Turner Overdrive “Takin’ Care of Business” (1974)
  4. Bob Dylan “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” (1963)
  5. Paul McCartney & Wings “Mull of Kintyre” (1977)
  6. Aphrodite’s Child “Loud, Loud, Loud” (1972)
  7. Joni Mitchell “Both Sides Now” (1968)
  8. Lene Lovich “Lucky Number” (1978)
  9. Patti Smith “Gloria (In Excelsis Deo)” (1976)
  10. Slovenly “As if It Always Happens” (1987)

  11. Over the Rainbow” (1939)
  12. The Clash “Death or Glory” (1979)
  13. The Knack “My Sharona” (1979)
  14. Randy Newman “In Germany Before the War” (1977)
  15. Abba “Dancing Queen” (1976)
  16. Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five “The Message” (1982)
  17. Volcano Suns “Balancing Act” (1985)
  18. Suicide “Frankie Tearrdrop” (1977)
  19. 10cc “I’m Not in Love” (1975)
  20. The Rolling Stones “Connection” (1967)

  21. The Undertones “Forever Paradise” (1981)
  22. Uncle Tupelo “Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down” (1975)
  23. The Replacements “God Damn Job”
  24. The Allman Brothers Band “Ramblin’ Man” (1973)
  25. The Minutemen “History Lesson Part 2” (1984)
  26. Television “Little Johnny Jewel” (1975)
  27. John Cage “4:33” (1952)
  28. Michelle Shocked “Anchorage” (1988)
  29. Otis Redding “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay” (1968)
  30. Jimmie Davis “You Are My Sunshine” (1940)

  31. Dolly Parton “I Will Always Love You” (1974)
  32. Bon Jovi “Wanted Dead or Alive” (1986)
  33. Souled American “Before Tonight” (1996)
  34. Junior Walker & the All Stars “Shotgun” (1965)
  35. The Band “The Weight” (1968)
  36. The Shirelles “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” (1960)
  37. Lynyrd Skynrd “Free Bird” (1973)
  38. Francis Scott Key (words), John Stafford Smith (music) “The Star-Spangled Banner” (1814)
  39. R.E.M. “Radio Free Europe” (1981)
  40. Ramones “I’m Against It” (1978)

  41. Rosalía “Bizcochito” (2022)
  42. The Beatles (no particular song noted)
  43. Arthur Russell “Close My Eyes” (2008)
  44. Patty S. Hill & Mildred J. Hill (songwriters) “Happy Birthday to You” (1893)
  45. Diane Izzo “Love Like a Wire” (2014?)
  46. Billie Eilish “I Love You” (2019)
  47. Velvet Underground “Who Loves the Sun” (1970)
  48. Herman’s Hermits “I’m into Something Good” (1964)
  49. Duke Ellington “I’m Beginning to See the Light” (1944)
  50. The Staple Singers “I’ll Take You There” (1972)

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First posted 1/22/2024.

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Wednesday, August 8, 2018

50 years ago: The Band released “The Weight”

The Weight

The Band

Writer(s): Robbie Robertson (see lyrics here)

Released: August 8, 1968

First Charted: August 18, 1968

Peak: 63 US, 59 CB, 46 HR, 2 CL, 21 UK, 36 CN, 2 DF (Click for codes to charts.)

Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US + UK)

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 74.62 video, -- streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

The Band started out as the backing band for Ronnie Hawkins before forming as their own entity in 1967. Comprised of four Canadians and the Arkansas-born Levon Helm, they came to exemplify the form of folk-rock which became known as Americana. Their debut album, Music from Big Pink, included the single “The Weight.” While the song peaked at a meager #63 on the Billboard Hot 100, it gained considerable airplay over the years on album-rock stations and has become their “best-known and most enduring recording.” AMG

“The Weight” is a true showcase for The Band’s collective talents. As the band’s chief songwriter, Robbie Robertson weighs in with his “acutely studied Dylanisms.” DM The song opens “with stately guitar and drum beats that lock in with the dead certainty of a firing squad, adding elegiac honky-tonk paino chords from [Richard] Manuel, crowned by Helm’s singing on the verse, [Rick] Danko’s vocal on the bridge, and harmonies tossed around like a live grenade.” DM The song “is as fine an example of rock and roll record-making as existed in the year of its birth and it has dated not a whit.” DM

The “winding, impressionistic story song [is] cut from the rural traditions of roots music – folk, country, and gospel – but re-imagined from a distinctly postmodern vantage point.” AMG It “significantly influenced American popular music,” WK something apparent as early as 1969 thanks to three covers by Aretha Franklin, Jackie DeShannon, and the Supremes with the Temptations which charted higher than the original. The song has since been covered by numerous artists including the Allman Brothers Band, the Black Crowes, Garth Brooks, the Zac Brown Band, Eric Church, Joe Cocker, John Denver, Grateful Dead, Hanson, Waylon Jennings, Mumford & Sons, Panic! At the Disco, Bruce Springsteen, Chris Stapleton, Dionne Warwick, and Weezer.

Robbie Robertson wrote “the laid back country-gospel parable” SS from the first-person perspective of a Bible Belt American Southerner visiting the town of Nazareth, Pennyslvania, and checking in with some of his friend Fanny’s strange friends there. SF Levon Helm, who sang lead on the song, said, “The song was full of our favorite characters.” DT Robertson said the song was inspired by Luis Buñuel, a Spanish filmmaker, known for surreal imagery and criticism of organized religion. WK

PBS described it as “a masterpiece of Biblical allusions, enigmatic lines and iconic characters” and called it “an essential part of the American songbook.” WK “The literal meaning of the song is elusive, however.” TC The song’s title “appears to concern the mounting burdens and demands of society which no one individual can reasonably shoulder.” AMG

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First posted 2/5/2021; last updated 4/1/2023.

 
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Sunday, July 1, 2018

Today in Music (1968): The Band released Music from Big Pink

Music from Big Pink

The Band

Released: July 1, 1968

Peak: 30 US, -- UK, 18 CN, -- AU

Sales (in millions): 0.5 US

Genre: folk rock/Americana

Tracks:

Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts.

  1. Tears of Rage (37 CL)
  2. To Kingdom Come
  3. In a Station
  4. Caledonia Mission
  5. The Weight (8/8/68, 63 BB, 59 CB, 28 GR, 46 HR, 2 CL, 21 UK, 36 CN, 2 DF)
  6. We Can Talk
  7. Long Black Veil (39 CL)
  8. Chest Fever (13 CL)
  9. Lonesome Suzie
  10. This Wheel’s on Fire (25 CL)
  11. I Shall Be Released (32 CL, 20 DF)

Total Running Time: 42:22

The Players:

  • Rick Danko (bass, vocals)
  • Levon Helm (drums, vocals)
  • Garth Hudson (organ)
  • Richard Manuel (piano, vocals)
  • Robbie Robertson (guitar)

Rating:

4.450 out of 5.00 (average of 26 ratings)

Awards:

(Click on award to learn more).

Before Their Debut

The musicians who comprised The Band originally came together in 1958 as the Hawks, the backing band for Canadian rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins. By the mid-‘60s, they gained an even higher profile image supporting Bob Dylan in the mid-‘60s when he went electric. “Their collaborations with the folk king made the Hawks more adaptable during their live sets and gave them something of a jam-band feel.” CS

When Dylan was laid up after a motorcycle accident, the Band joined him at his retreat in Woodstock, New York – what became known as “Big Pink.” They recorded what became known as The Basement Tapes in 1967, although they weren’t publicly released until after The Band became a known entity. Their efforts also resulted in The Band’s debut album, Music from Big Pink.

The Sound of the First Album

They were rumoured to have recorded Big Pink live in the studio in just a couple of weeks. The music “certainly sounds as organic as that.” PM The music sounded like “a loose jam session, the arrangements giving alternating emphases to different instruments, while the lead and harmony vocals passed back and forth as if the singers were making up their blend on the spot.” AM “There are no stage hogs; everyone stands out.” PM

They “delved deeply into he American soil for their sound and themes, using organ, fiddles, and mandolins in place of effects-laden electric guitars.” RD Their sound was a merging of “their varying interests in folk, R&B, jazz, country and soul.” PM They didn’t “fit in with the ‘60s and ‘70s rock scenes…The Band remained firmly rooted in tradition” CQ singing about “family, faith, and rural life” AM “through a lens of mountainous, archaic Americana, spinning yarns about courageous settlers and the Civil War.” CQ

It “detonated in the middle of the psychedelic era,” RD coming off “as a shockingly divergent musical statement only a year after Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, when rock had moved toward ornate productions.” AM The album “still sounds bacingly fresh more than three decades after it was recorded.” RD

The Members

“With their passionate, free-flowing delivery and vocal harmonies that were as powerful and ragged as Crosby, Stills and Nash’s…the Band redfined how a rock group worked together – neither as a single, melodious unit nor as a backup band supporting a single frontman, but as five talented individuals bouncing musical ideas off each other like a heavily amplified porch quintet.” CS

Richard Manuel's “aching pipes drench the entire album in earnest, alcoholic tears, especially on closer ‘I Shall Be Released.’” CQ His “haunting, lonely voice” AM infuses the album with “much of its frightening aspect, even when he wasn't singing lead (especially his moans in ‘The Weight’).” AM

“Rick Danko’s and Levon Helm’s rough-hewn styles reinforced the songs’ rustic fervor. The dominant instrument was Garth Hudson's organ, which could be icy and majestic, his other keyboards introducing novel sounds.” AM “Robbie Robertson's unusual guitar work further destabilized the sound” AM and got him “recognized as one of the most soulful guitarists of his day.” CS

The Influence

The Band spearheaded “a movement more toward roots styles and country elements in rock. Over time, Music from Big Pink came to be regarded as a watershed work in the history of rock, one that introduced new tones and approaches to the constantly evolving genre.” AM There’s a certain irony that the form of music now referred to as Americana owes a debt to a “four Canadians and a an Arkansas farm boy.” RD It has been suggested, though, that “as outsiders, the group’s members were in a unique position to appreciate American folklore and mythology.” CS

“Following their lead were folks like George Harrison and Eric Clapton, envious that this Canadian-American group were as authentic as it gets and trying desperately to ride their collective coattails toward a rootsier sound. But as Big Pink lays out, these boys had this sound in their bloodstream, in their bones, in their muscle memory. It all came natural and sounded as perfect and lived-in as could be.” PM

The Songs

Here are thoughts on some of the individual songs from the album.

The album’s best-known song was The Weight, a song which “considered various acts of kindness that went wrong” AM and featured “the stacked harmonies and traded leads of Levon Helm and Rick Danko.” PM

“Dylan features prominently, penning the classic plea I Shall Be Released, a song which “expressed the hopeless hope of a prisoner who determined his salvation by viewing the world in reverse (‘I see my light coming shining from the west unto the east,’ he sang, as if the earth were spinning in the opposite direction from its usual course).” AM

Dylan also collaborated with Manuel on “the wrenching opening track, Tears of Rage,” RD “a lament by parents about a rebellious child.” AM Bassist Rick Danko and Dylan worked together on “the vengeful This Wheel’s on Fire.” RD

Chest Fever featured “Garth Hudson’s Captain Nemo organ solo.” PM “Robertson’s genius [is] already fully evident on Caledonia Mission.” RD

Notes:

The 2000 CD reissue “included nine bonus tracks…Among the new material, there were alternate takes of ‘Tears of Rage’ and ‘Lonesome Suzie’ (the former only marginally different, the latter a completely different approach to the song); versions of four songs previously released on the 1975 album The Basement Tapes (‘Yazoo Street Scandal,’ ‘Katie’s Been Gone,’ ‘Long Distance Operator,’ and ‘Orange Juice Blues [Blues for Breakfast]’); covers of country and blues material (‘If I Lose,’ ‘Key to the Highway’); and one original song probably from the group's initial demo session (‘Ferdinand the Imposter’).” AM

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First posted 3/28/2010; last updated 7/17/2025.

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