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by Julian Spivey  50. "I Shot the Sheriff" by Bob Marley & the Wailers I’ll be honest upfront – I’m not much of a reggae person. But some artists are just impossible to turn a blind eye to and Bob Marley is one of those artists. So, while “I Shot the Sheriff,” may not actually be one of my 50 favorite songs from 1973, I wouldn’t feel right leaving it off this list. Off Bob Marley and the Wailers’ 1973 album Burnin’, “I Shot the Sheriff” tells of sticking it to the man who’s tried to stick it to him first. Eric Clapton would cover the song the next year and take it all the way to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart – which is saying something maybe not so great about the history of pop music (white guys taking the music of black guys to the top), but it probably introduced more folks to Marley’s music. 49. "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" by Bob Dylan Sometimes it feels like Bob Dylan’s original version of “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” is the least known and least played version on the radio with Eric Clapton’s smoothed down, reggae-infused 1975 cover and the screeching of Axl Rose on the 1992 Guns N’ Roses cover getting more airplay. I’ll stick with the simplicity of Dylan’s countrified version he did for the soundtrack to director Sam Peckinpah’s 1973 Western “Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid.” Dylan actually played a character in the film, which starred fellow legendary singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson as the doomed Billy the Kid. 48. "Gettin' By" by Jerry Jeff Walker Jerry Jeff Walker always had a wry sense of humor and “Gettin’ By,” off his 1973 live album Viva Terlingua (his career highlight in my opinion), might be my favorite original song of the great Texas sing-songwriter who brought a bit of Hunter S. Thompson’s “gonzo” lifestyle into country music. The line: “just gettin’ by on gettin’ by’s my stock ‘n trade” was essentially Walker’s credo and the verse about promising new material to the record label is pure hilarity. 47. "You've Never Been This Far Before" by Conway Twitty Conway Twitty was known for his sexy country songs that could make the ladies swoon and helped him skyrocket to the most No. 1 singles in country music history until surpassed in the last 25 years by George Strait. One of his sexiest – or perhaps dirtiest depending on your opinion – is 1973’s chart-topper “You’ve Never Been This Far Before,” which tells frankly of taking a young woman’s virginity. Despite being a No. 1 hit it was banned by some radio stations for its lyrics considered a bit too sexual, even by Twitty’s standards. 46. "Killing Me Softly with His Song" by Roberta Flack Some folks these days may be more familiar with the hit cover the Fugees did in the ‘90s, but when Roberta Flack took on “Killing Me Softly with His Song,” composed by Charles Fox with lyrics by Norman Gimbel and an uncredited Lori Lieberman (who initially recorded it), in 1973 it stopped the world in its tracks and spent five weeks (non-consecutively) atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the early months of the year. The song truly gets the idea that we all feel often when listening to music in a performer who sings exactly what we’re feeling. The song would go on to win Fox and Gimbel the Grammy Award for Song of the Year and Flack the Grammy Award for Record of the Year. 45. "Right Place, Wrong Time" by Dr. John Dr. John was New Orleans through and through and by combining the Big Easy styles of blues, jazz, funk and R&B he created a unique style of music that culminated in his biggest hit “Right Place, Wrong Time,” which went all the way to No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1973. It’s groovy. It makes you want to move and dance and immediately buy a ticket to get down to Bourbon Street ASAP. 44. "We're Gonna Hold On" by George Jones & Tammy Wynette George Jones and Tammy Wynette's high-profile, highly-volatile relationship produced many of the finest duets in country music history. While 1973’s “We’re Gonna Hold On,” probably wasn’t their finest – that’s likely “Golden Ring” from 1976 – nor did it prove to be true, but it’s still a country classic about a relationship attempting to make it through rocky times. It would be the couple’s first of three No. 1 duets together. 43. "Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man" by Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn were undoubtedly one of the greatest duet partners in the history of country music and my favorite collaboration between the icons was their 1973 country No. 1 hit “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man,” from their album of the same name. It’s just such a fun, up-tempo blast of a performance from the two performers, who despite not being lovers in real life – a la George Jones and Tammy Wynette – have such incredible chemistry together. 42. "These Days" by Jackson Browne Jackson Browne’s “These Days” is potentially the most introspective song on this entire list, especially when it comes to the themes and topics of loss and regret … and he wrote it when he was 16 years old! The song had already been cut a couple of times, most notably by Nico in 1967 as this baroque, folk-pop version, before Browne would update some of the lyrics and release his own version on his album For Everyman in October of 1973. That very same month, Gregg Allman released a version on his album Laid Back. Both Browne and Allman’s versions are more countrified, as was the way of doing things during this era. Maybe I’m just biased toward the writer of the art, but I believe Browne’s version in both recording and vocal is the best of these versions. 41. "Can't You See" by The Marshall Tucker Band I think when a lot of people think about Southern Rock they think about multiple guitars thrashing at once like in many of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s greatest hits but The Marshall Tucker Band showed that you could put a beautiful flute solo on Southern Rock too thanks to the incredible Jerry Eubanks, who opens and closes “Can’t You See” off the band’s 1973 self-titled debut album. The song, which might be the band’s most popular, sees the narrator reflecting on the heartache his woman has caused him and his attempt to run away from it. The band would re-release the song again in 1977 after they and Southern Rock in general had become a bit more popular – though it didn’t crack the top-40 either time it was released. It has become a classic rock radio format staple though. 40. "Blinded by the Light" by Bruce Springsteen If you were to pop on the vinyl of Bruce Springsteen’s debut Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ on January 5, 1973 (which based on sales at the time not a whole lot of people did) the very first song you would’ve heard was “Blinded by the Light,” a wordy, Dylan-esque folk-rock number that sounds like it was written by going through a rhyming dictionary (and it actually was!). “Blinded by the Light,” was one of two songs (the other being “Spirit in the Night”) specifically written after the rest of the album when Columbia Records president Clive Davis felt the album lacked a potential single. Springsteen’s single wouldn’t do much, but it would become his first and only No. 1 single as a songwriter when Manfred Mann’s Earth Band spiced it up a bit with a more progressive rock sound in 1976. Even though it’s likely the wordiest song Springsteen ever wrote it’s still a helluva lot of fun to sing. 39. "Ramblin' Man" by The Allman Brothers Band “Ramblin’ Man,” written and sung by Allman Brothers Band guitarist Dickey Betts, on the band’s 1973 album Brothers and Sisters, would become the band’s only Billboard Hot 100 Top-10 single when it went all the way to No. 2. To this day it’s still a staple on both classic rock and oldies format radio stations. Inspired by a Hank Williams song of the same name, “Ramblin’ Man” was actually written sometime before it was cut, but the rest of the band thought it was a bit too country music sounding for their albums. Coming out around the time that the Eagles, The Marshall Tucker Band and other country-rock acts were having a moment, it hit at the right time with American listeners. 38. "You Ask Me To" by Waylon Jennings Waylon Jennings heard Billy Joe Shaver, a mostly unknown Texan songwriter at the time, perform his song “Willy the Wandering Gypsy and Me” at a concert both were performing at in 1972 and invited him to Nashville to write songs for the album that would become Honky Tonk Heroes, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in June. Nine of the 10 tracks on the album were either written or co-written by Shaver, including my favorite on the album – the beautiful love song about a man willing to do whatever the woman he loves asks of him (which was a co-write with Jennings). Jennings was known for his gruff outlaw image but could do a sweet love song with the best of them and “You Ask Me To” is about as sweet as they come. 37. "Old Dogs, Children & Watermelon Wine" by Tom T. Hall Tom T. Hall was simply known as “The Storyteller” around country music circles for his short story-like songs and 1973’s “Old Dogs, Children & Watermelon Wine” is one of his absolute best. Hall was almost like a reporter in that he could take true events that happened to him or those surrounding him and craft them into these storyline songs and this song came from a real encounter the songwriter had with an old janitor at a Miami Beach hotel while in town for the 1972 Democratic National Convention. It’s such a lovely song and spoken-sung performance by Hall. In 2014, Rolling Stone magazine named “Old Dogs, Children & Watermelon Wine” as one of the 100 greatest country songs of all time. 36. "Midnight Rider" by Gregg Allman “Midnight Rider” had appeared on The Allman Brothers Band’s 1970 album Idlewild South (with the amazing “Whipping Post” as its B-side) but it never charted when released as a single. When Gregg Allman, who had written it with Robert Kim Payne, released a re-imagined version of it on his solo album Laid Back in 1973, it suddenly became a smash, cracking the top 20 on Billboard. “Midnight Rider,” a folk-blues mixture filled with the desperation of an outlaw loner trying just to survive, was always a perfect mix for Allman’s gruff, bluesy voice no matter which version you prefer. 35. "Lost in the Flood" by Bruce Springsteen “Lost in the Flood,” might be the most Springsteen-esque song on his debut album, meaning it’s the song that most resembles what The Boss’s music would come to sound like on later records. It’s Springsteen’s first foray into writing about veterans returning from the war in Vietnam and the toll it’s taken on them. The sparse basic piano-only (likely Springsteen himself) performance works terrifically for the track’s first verse and a half until the epic entrance by the E Street Band on the second verse about the stock car racer “Jimmy the Saint.” In one of Springsteen’s most cinematic tracks, the song comes to a full-on violent finale in the final verse when a New York City gang gunfight involves the cops. You’d see this Springsteen more beginning with 1975’s Born to Run. 34. "Higher Ground" by Stevie Wonder Few things sound funkier than Stevie Wonder on the clavinet run through a Mu-Tron III filter pedal on his 1973 No. 4 Billboard hit “Higher Ground,” off Innervisions, one of his Grammy Album of the Year winners of the ‘70s. That sound, along with the bass line provided by a Moog synthesizer lays down this amazing groove while Wonder lays down one of his most socially conscious lyrics about all the bad shit going down here on earth but a higher calling waiting for one in the afterlife. 33. "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple Deep Purple’s “Smoke On the Water,” which was on the band’s 1972 album Machine Head and released as a single in May of 1973, is one of the most epic guitar songs of all time and truly helped bridge the gap between rock and roll to hard rock and even heavy metal. The opening riff that would appear throughout the song, played by Ritchie Blackmore, was ranked as the No. 4 greatest guitar riff of all time by Total Guitar magazine in 2004. The lyrics of “Smoke on the Water” tell of a true story the band witnessed on December 4, 1971, when they were in Montreux, Switzerland to record Machine Head. Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention were playing a show at a nearby casino when someone in the audience set off a flare gun that caught the venue on fire and destroyed the entire casino complex. Bassist Roger Glover came up with the title after watching the smoke billowing across Lake Geneva from the inferno. 32. "She's Gone" by Hall & Oates I was watching the new ABC criminal drama “Will Trent” earlier this year and was in the fifth episode of the season and I hadn’t completely started jiving with it yet and then in that episode came a scene between two detective partners, one of them the titular character, and Hall & Oates’ “She’s Gone” was playing in the background – Will Trent calls it “one of the greatest breakup songs of all time” – and these characters, who had been a bit icy toward each other, really begin to gel with each other to the great breakdown at the end where vocalist Daryl Hall really lets go on the chorus. I had been a bit icy toward “Hall & Oates,” and honestly there’s good reason to be with some of their biggest hits being on the lame side, but a killer groove and vocal like “She’s Gone” was enough to win me over – much like those characters on “Will Trent” – toward this being a killer track. 31. "Bennie & the Jets" by Elton John “Bennie & the Jets” must’ve been Bernie Taupin’s idea of what if David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust was a woman when he created the song about a “sort of proto-sci-fi punk band, fronted by an androgynous woman,” as he told Rolling Stone magazine in 2014. This fictional band is so kickass sounding that I kind of would’ve liked to have seen what may have happened if Taupin and Elton John created an entire concept album around the character of Bennie and her band. The song would become a huge hit in North America marking Elton John’s second career No. 1 hit (after “Crocodile Rock” had topped the Billboard chart in 1972). 30. "Midnight Train to Georgia" by Gladys Knight & the Pips In an oddity of an artist becoming more successful after leaving Motown Records, Gladys Knight & the Pips had the biggest hit of their career in 1973 with the group’s first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single in the R&B/soul classic “Midnight Train to Georgia.” The song, written by Jim Weatherly, was just the group’s second release after leaving Motown for Buddah Records and would instantaneously make Knight and the Pips one of the biggest acts in R&B and soul music. The song is told from the perspective of the narrator whose lover has failed to make it big in Hollywood and is leaving L.A. on the midnight train back to his home in Georgia and how she’s going to be right there standing by his side. It’s a powerhouse vocal by Knight on what would become her signature hit. 29. "Brain Damage/Eclipse" by Pink Floyd “Brain Damage” and “Eclipse” are actually two different songs and tracks on Pink Floyd’s epic 1973 release The Dark Side of the Moon but the two were so often played together by DJs that they kind of became one – kind of like Queen’s “We Will Rock You”/”We Are the Champions.” “Brain Damage” flows so effortlessly into “Eclipse” that it just seems like one and it makes for an absolutely perfect ending to the album – the high point of the entire thing, in my opinion. The insanity-themed lyrics of the song were based on original band member Syd Barrett’s mental instability and eventual breakdown. The song has an interesting dichotomy for me as it’s haunting while at the same time making lunacy seem cool. 28. "For You" by Bruce Springsteen Bruce Springsteen was often compared to Bob Dylan with his debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. in early 1973 with its wordy, rambling tracks like “For You.” “For You” is high on imagery, and a little bit less on proper storytelling but I get the gist that it’s about a young woman with troubles in her life who’s considering or attempted suicide and the man, who probably is in love with her, doing whatever he can to save her. The 100 MPH rapid-fire lyrics and Springsteen performance match the music's intensity and what’s going on with the general vibe, making it a rush of adrenaline from start to finish. 27. "Death of an Unpopular Poet" by Jimmy Buffett I had an incredibly hard time paring Jimmy Buffett’s excellent 1973 release A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean down to just the few tracks that made this list, and the list was finalized before Buffett’s death in September. That’s how much his music, especially his ‘70s output meant to me. “Death of an Unpopular Poet,” the final track on that album, is probably one of Buffett’s most underrated and most “who is this about?” songs as it spins a tale about an unsuccessful while living poet who dies and leaves all his royalties to his loyal dog and then in death becomes a hit. In reality, the inspiration wasn’t just one poet, but a combination of two: Kenneth Patchen and Richard Farina and Buffett essentially created a fictionalized one from aspects of them. It’s a lovely song that Bob Dylan hailed as one of his favorites. 26. "The Ballroom Blitz" by Sweet “Ballroom Blitz” has somehow always seemed out of its time to me. It doesn’t feel like a song that should be half a century old. A mixture of David Bowie glam rock with what would become The Ramones punk rock later in the decade, it also feels like something that would fit perfectly in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” The song, which has always felt like an all-out rave to me, was inspired by a real incident that happened while the band was performing at Grand Hall in Kilmarnock, Scotland on January 27, 1973, when they were run offstage by audience members tossing bottles and other items at them. Whatever is happening in the song sounds much more fun than that. The song would become a No. 5 Billboard hit for the band. 25. "La Grange" by ZZ Top “La Grange” is simply one of the greatest guitar songs of all time. A-haw, haw, haw, haw. Likely the greatest track ZZ Top ever put to record, off ‘73’s Tres Hombres, it tells of a brothel – the one that inspired the Broadway play and later film “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” - down on the outskirts of La Grange, Texas. It’s mostly a shining example of what happens when boogie rock and blues meld down in the Lone Star state. 24. "I Have Found Me a Home" by Jimmy Buffett Found homes can oftentimes be more important or special in the lives of people than the ones they grew up in. That’s the feeling I get from Jimmy Buffett’s beautiful “I Have Found Me a Home,” off A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean. I don’t know this for a fact, but I have a feeling Buffett is singing about Key West, which became a transformative place for him and his career. I absolutely love the verse: “And the ladies aren’t demanding here/They never ask too much/And when you’re coming off a cold love/That’s sure a nice warm touch.” It’s one of my favorite Buffett verses – but there are literally dozens of those. 23. "Drift Away" by Dobie Gray Dobie Gray’s 1973 version of “Drift Away” is certainly the most known and popular version (if you’re thinking Uncle Kracker right now please go away), but it wasn’t the original version. The song was originally released the year before by swamp rocker John Henry Kurtz (I’d never heard of him before either). But Gray’s soulful take on the song, written by Mentor Williams, is the definitive take and became the biggest hit of his career going to No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. Sometimes you just want to forget the hardships of life, kick back, relax and listen to your favorite records. “Drift Away” knows this and wound up becoming one of those favorite records you can get lost in. 21. "Christmas in Prison" by John Prine I love “Christmas in Prison” so much because it’s exactly what you would expect from a Christmas song – though it’s one that’s perfect year-round – written by John Prine. Off his third studio album Sweet Revenge, “Christmas in Prison” sees the narrator spending the holidays in prison and waxing nostalgic about a lover – either active or former – back home. Prine had a knack for finding beauty where many others wouldn’t and this is a perfect example of that. 20. "Growin' Up" by Bruce Springsteen “Growin’ Up,” the second track on Bruce Springsteen’s debut Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ, is a sign of things to come later for Springsteen, in my opinion, in its adolescent rebelliousness. Springsteen was 22 when he wrote the song in 1971 and it has all the gusto and bravado of one ready to break out of his own little world into something bigger with a bang. David Sancious, who was only 18 at the time, gives the album its first great E Street Band flourish with his piano solo. 19. "Tuesday's Gone" by Lynyrd Skynyrd Lynyrd Skynyrd certainly had bigger hits – “Tuesday’s Gone” wasn’t even a single – but the second track off the band’s 1973 debut album (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd) might be the prettiest song the Southern Rock group out of Jacksonville, Fla. ever produced. The song has the theme of moving on, much as the band’s big hit of the debut “Free Bird,” but comes packaged in this incredibly beautiful musical packaging with Billy Powell on the terrific piano solo and the lead guitar by Gary Rossington, who passed away this year. 18. "I Got a Name" by Jim Croce I’m not sure there’s been a singer-songwriter with as high of highs and as tragic of lows as Jim Croce in 1973. His 1972 breakthrough album You Don’t Mess Around with Jim had top 20 hits with the title track and “Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels).” The hits kept coming with Life and Times coming out in July of ’73 with Croce’s first No. 1 “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown.” The prolific songwriter just kept the songs and albums coming and the title track of his next album I Got a Name was to be released on September 21, 1973. However, tragedy struck on September 20 when Croce and five others died in a plane crash in Louisiana. The album, which would become his final, would be released in December. “I Got a Name,” which would posthumously go to No. 10, was a rare song not written by Croce (but by Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel) is such an uplifting song of someone being confident in who they are no matter what life throws at them and is one that never fails to perk me up when I need it most. 17. "Gimme Three Steps" by Lynyrd Skynyrd “Gimme Three Steps” is one of my favorite Lynyrd Skynyrd songs overall because I love how it brings this juxtaposition of honest sincerity when it comes to confrontation and mixes it with music and a band that’s oftentimes seen as complete masculinity, at least that’s the idea much of the fan base likes to give off. The song about a narrator dancing with another man’s girl and that man ready to end his life over it is infiltrated with this unique bit of humorous cowardice on the narrator’s part that you rarely see in rock music in general, especially from a tough-looking Southern Rock band. 16. "American Tune" by Paul Simon I can’t listen to Paul Simon’s “American Tune,” off his 1973 album There Goes Rhymin’ Simon, without getting at least a little bit emotional and depending on what’s going on with my life and in this country at any given time potentially a lot emotional. The song is a mediation on the American experience, both the positive and the negative but with the more mournful melody you can tell things were a bit worse than good at the time. Cash Box called the track, “gorgeous, haunting and highly lyrical,” which I couldn’t come up with a better way to describe the song. Simon’s gentle vocal really fits the lyrics perfectly. 15. "Dream On" by Aerosmith Aerosmith started out of the gate in 1973 with their greatest song “Dream On” being the single off the group’s self-titled debut album, though it would take a couple of years for one of classic rock’s most iconic tracks to become the hit it is. When initially released in June of ’73, it failed to make much of an impact outside of the band’s home city of Boston – where it was the single of the year on the local WBZ-FM – but word would get out about the band and the song and when it was re-released as a single in late-1975 it wouldn’t take too long for it to go all the way to No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Dream On” is the band at its most introspective, which is interesting since it was them at their youngest, and kind of a sign of the stuff Steven Tyler might have written if the band hadn’t become more interested in the sex and drugs of rock & roll. 14. "Incident on 57th Street" by Bruce Springsteen 13. "Spirit in the Night" by Bruce Springsteen “Spirit in the Night,” from Bruce Springsteen’s debut Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., is the quintessential early E Street Band sound for me – the more R&B, soulful, even jazz-tinged performing with Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez on drums, David Sancious on organ and piano (although it’s apparently Harold Wheeler credited on piano on this track) to go along with guys who would last past the first two albums in saxophonist Clarence Clemons and bassist Garry Tallent. The song, one of two written and tacked onto the album late in the recording process when Columbia Records president Clive Davis didn’t hear single material, is so infectiously fun and loose. The song tells the tale of a wild band of teenagers who drive out to a nearby lake and just screw around and there’s so much young, dumb, rebellious awesomeness in the whole performance. I wish I could bottle up the “Spirit in the Night” sound and wear it as cologne. 12. "He Went to Paris" by Jimmy Buffett “He Went to Paris,” off Jimmy Buffett’s 1973 album A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean, is maybe the finest song from start-to-finish the singer-songwriter ever penned. If you think Buffett was just about party beach songs I challenge you to listen to this ballad about a man’s life from early adulthood until his elderly years and not be completely taken in and likely even feel like shedding a tear. “He Went to Paris” is both beautiful and crushing in its story of one’s life from the highs to the tragedies. On his 1978 live album, You Had to Be There, Buffett mentioned that “He Went to Paris” was his favorite song he wrote. 11. "Tequila Sunrise" by Eagles “Tequila Sunrise,” the lead single off the Eagles’ 1973 sophomore release Desperado, was not really a hit when it was released, it didn’t crack the top 50, but it has stood the test of time as a frequent play on classic rock format radio stations and I think it’s one of the band’s five greatest songs. The country-rock tune, co-written by Glenn Frey and Don Henley, sees Frey taking lead vocals about a lonely man and the girl of his dreams running around with other men. The whining of Bernie Leadon’s B-Bender electric guitar, which has a steel guitar sound, and the longing in Frey’s vocal truly make this a classic country ballad. 10. "Time in a Bottle" by Jim Croce When I was young I used to think Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle” was pure cheese. I think it had something to do with the old-timey harpsichord and the crooner-ish vocals. When I grew up, and now as a mid-thirtysomething, I think it’s among the loveliest songs ever recorded – both in vocal, arrangement and, especially, lyrically. Find yourself someone who makes you want to live the chorus: “There never seems to be enough time/to do the things you want to do, once you find them/I’ve looked around enough to know/that you’re the one I want to go through time with.” If you do that, you’ll completely understand and cherish this song. The song had appeared on Croce’s breakthrough 1972 album You Don’t Mess Around with Jim but was not released as a single until after Croce’s death in a plane crash in September of ’73 when DJs began playing it and demand rose for it to be released. It would become a No. 1 posthumously for Croce, only the third time an artist (Otis Redding and Janis Joplin) ever topped the Billboard chart after their death at that time. 9. "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" by Elton John “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” the title track off Elton John’s massive 1973 double album, is the perfect song about getting out of an upper-class relationship and going back to one’s roots. It’s among the greatest lyrics ever penned by Elton John’s songwriting collaborator and lyricist Bernie Taupin and Elton’s vocal performance mixed with his piano and the arrangement, including wonderful strings during the chorus make it one of the finest pieces in Elton John’s vast discography. The lyrics kind of represent what Taupin’s goal in life was, as well, Oz was for the superstar Elton John, but Taupin belonged out with the howling owl in the woods. 8. "Jolene" by Dolly Parton No doubt one of the most recognizable and greatest country songs of all time, Dolly Parton’s 1973 country charting No. 1 hit “Jolene” is the tale of a woman confronting another stunningly beautiful woman who is trying to steal her lover or husband away. According to Parton many years later, there absolutely was a “Jolene” figure in her life – possibly a local bank teller if the rumor is correct. But have y’all seen a photo of Dolly Parton circa 1973 – what must this “Jolene” have looked like to easily be able to take her man away? Don’t worry, Parton and her husband Carl Dean have been married for nearly 60 years, but at least this flirt in their lives at one point gave us an all-timer of a country classic. 7. "Fourth of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" by Bruce Springsteen “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” has always been one of my favorite Springsteen story songs and one of the most vivid of his career, as you can see the entire thing play out like a movie in your mind’s eye. It’s a love song – but what is Springsteen really in love with: Sandy or the Asbury Park boardwalk scene? The nostalgia and romanticism of it all, complete with real-life characters of the time like the fortune teller Madame Marie, makes me feel I need to see Asbury Park in my lifetime, though I’m not sure if it could ever compare or even look the same a half-century later - or if it ever really felt that way in general: E Street Band drummer at the time Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez told Rolling Stone: “No one would ever go under the boardwalk. There were rats under the boardwalk!” Springsteen has called the song a “love note and a goodbye song” to his adopted home of Asbury Park and the song hits both of those feelings perfectly. 6. "Turn the Page" by Bob Seger Bob Seger released “Turn the Page,” which I believe to be his all-time greatest song, in 1973 on his album Back in ’72 to little fanfare. It wasn’t until the song was released as a single on 1976’s live album Live Bullet that it truly became the classic rock staple that it is. It’s almost always that version you’ll hear and you could argue it should actually be on the 1976 list of this article we’ll probably do in a few years – but I’ll stick with the year of its original release (even though you can’t even find that version on Spotify). “Turn the Page” is the story of life on the road – something Seger would know more than most having truly created a successful career as a touring musician more than a recording artist. It’s real, it’s hard and it includes one of the greatest saxophone solos ever put on record by the great Alto Reed, who was told by road manager Tom Weschler to: “Think about it like this: You’re in New York City, on the Bowery. It’s 3 a.m. You’re under a streetlamp. There’s a light mist coming down. You’re all by yourself. Show me what that sounds like.” Reed freakin’ nailed it. 5. "If We Make It Through December" by Merle Haggard The great thing about Merle Haggard’s “If We Make It Through December,” from his Christmas album Merle Haggard’s Christmas Present, is it’s not only one of the greatest Christmas songs ever written (for my money it is No. 1) but it’s also a song that works for the entirety of the year in its theme of a man down on his luck trying to provide for his family. The toughest time of year for folks suffering financially is around the holidays, especially if they have little children they hope to cheer up via Christmas presents. Haggard was known as the “poet of the common man,” and this is one I fear too many common men both at the time it was written and even now have felt too closely. Haggard is one of my all-time favorite songwriters and “If We Make It Through December” is easily in his top-10. 4. "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd What started out as a tribute to fellow Southern Rocker Duane Allman, the Allman Brothers Band guitar virtuoso who died in a motorcycle accident in 1971 at just 24 years old, would become something of a tribute to the band and its leader (and one of the song’s co-writers) themselves when a plane crash ended the band and killed Ronnie Van Zant just over four years after the release of the band’s debut album it appears on. “Free Bird” would go on to be such an iconic rock song, with its introspective lyrics that culminate in a guitar hero breakdown, that it’s become something of a cliché with fans at random concerts throughout the country and probably the world shouting “Free Bird” at bands to be a nuisance. But we shouldn’t let what the song has become in the pop culture lexicon take away from its greatness. 3. "Desperado" by Eagles “Desperado,” the softly sung country-rock ballad title track off the Eagles’ sophomore studio album, would become a classic rock staple despite never actually being released as a single by the band. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group has had a number of stellar tracks during its tenure, but “Desperado” is, for my money, their best. The track, written by Don Henley and Glenn Frey with Henley on lead vocals, was written in the style of old 1800 songs by Stephen Foster and helped to create the sound of the album overall based on themes of the Old West. 2. "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" by Bruce Springsteen “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” is my favorite jam on Bruce Springsteen’s sophomore album (his second album of 1973) The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, in its tale of a young rock and roller ready to set the world on fire but needing to steal away his girl from his hometown to truly have it all. In his book, Bruce Springsteen: The Stories Behind the Songs, Brian Hiatt called it: “his first great rock song.” It’s a fever dream of a seven-minute rocker with rapid-fire lyrics that Springsteen wrote in his early 20s and having seen him perform it in Kansas City this past February in his early 70s one he still knocks out of the park. The track includes some of the greatest saxophone work from beginning to end of legend Clarence Clemons’s career. ‘Rosalita’ will have you wanting to dance your ass off with the biggest smile on your face every time you hear it. 1. "Piano Man" by Billy Joel “Piano Man” was Billy Joel’s first bit of success as the first single on his 1973 album of the same name. The song had come from Joel’s, a natural New Yorker, experiences as a fish out of water lounge musician in Los Angeles from 1972-73 while escaping a bad contract situation with a record company back home. Reportedly, all the characters in Joel’s song were based on real people or real experiences he witnessed as this lounge pianist/singer. “Piano Man” would not just become Joel’s signature song in his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame career, but also one of the all-time greatest story songs and sing-alongs.
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