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Using the Rate-A-Record Prompt to Fix an Earlier Error
Brought to you by the letter W
Because I can never resist a music prompt, earlier this week I published a story inspired by the great Pierce McIntyre listing 26 songs from the 1970s, A to Z. I purposely limited myself to one song per artist, and was completely at peace with the fact that using “Born to Run” for the letter “B” meant that I could not use “Thunder Road” for the letter “T.” Life often requires sacrifices, and I am fine with that. I was also fine with the inevitability that other favorites would get left off; I love Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain,” but it was never going to take the “C” slot from Heart’s “Crazy On You.”
However, I have found myself with a severe case of writer’s remorse for one letter in particular: “W.” I chose The Who’s 1978 scorcher “Who Are You,” which was also from the late, great Keith Moon’s final album. It’s a decent pick, but I was several hours into the exercise at that point and was admittedly ready to be done with the thing. Looking back, there were at least two songs that should have been there instead. Those two songs make up this week’s Rate-A-Record.
As we do every week, after listening to each song, rate them both in the comments using the Terry Barr/American Bandstand scale of 35 to 98. Yeah, it’s a weird range.
