What’s the ‘Coolest’ Song Ever?

 

A cool song needs a groove. Check. The singer needs to sound cool and the musicianship effortless. The lyrics tell a story with no judgement and we are encouraged to see it as we wish. This is the kind of song that works perfectly as background for a party. Not too serious, grandiose, or complicated.

Sultans of Swing

You get a shiver in the dark
It’s raining in the park, but meantime
South of the river you stop and you hold everything
A band is blowin’ dixie double-four time
You feel alright when you hear that music ring

Setting the time and the mood, and the theme “you feel alright”

And now you step inside, but you don’t see too many faces  (good music but small audience?)
Comin’ in out of the rain, you hear the jazz go down
Competition in other places (question or answer?) 
Oh, but the horns, they blowin that sound (but it’s good stuff..)
Way on down south, way on down south, London town

A joke, because we are expecting New Orleans. But the fact that it’s south London makes it more interesting. Of course, a hot Creole band plays in London whether they hail from NOLA or are indigenous Brits.

The narrator is a fan of music. We can tell he’s got his own band (which is playing the song) He is reporting his observations.

You check out guitar, George
He knows all the chords
Mind he’s strictly rhythm
He doesn’t wanna make it cry or sing
Yes, and an old guitar is all he can afford
When he gets up under the lights to play his thing

The lyrics make a fine use of the second person. “You” are experiencing these things as they happen. You can see it and feel it. ‘You’ become the narrator with the cool voice. Okay, I’m there…

And Harry doesn’t mind if he doesn’t make the scene
He’s got a daytime job, he’s doin’ alright
He can play the “Honk Tonk” like anything
Savin’ it up for friday night
With the “Sultans”
With the “Sultans of Swing”

Filling out the scene there are some who are underwhelmed…

And a crowd of young boys, they’re fooling around in the corner
Drunk and dressed in their best brown baggies and their platform soles
They don’t give a damn about any trumpet playing band
It ain’t what they call rock and roll
And the “Sultans”
Yeah, the ‘Sultans’ played Creole, Creole

This is a perennial problem with playing live music. Genre. If people don’t like or accept the genre, they will not be taken with musicianship. This is even worse if the genre is considered “uncool”.

And then the man, he steps right up to the microphone
And says, “At last”, just as the time bell rings
“Goodnight, now it’s time to go home”
And he makes it fast with one more thing
We are the “Sultans”, we are the “Sultans of Swing”

The players know they are making good music, but it’s hard to remember when you’re playing in front of a small audience, some of whom are ignoring you.

Regardless, he’s saying we are proud of our music and playing, in the humility that musicians are relentlessly guided into with public performance. The ‘man’, the singer and bandleader, is acknowledging his bandmates just by announcing the name and allowing the musicianship to play out.

Every professional musician has encountered these types: ‘Guitar George’ who’s adept at finding tasty chords (we here a couple right after that line) and he’s uninterested in being a wailing lead-player, Harry who’s got a day-job, “doin’ alright”, playing out for fun. Almost every band in the world has these types, and any seasoned musician can recognize the band dynamics instantly.

This song is timeless.

What are your “cool songs” and why?

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  1. Django Member
    Django
    @Django

    Anyone here remember Little Feat’s Waiting for Columbus? Always liked Time Loves a Hero and Mercenary Territory. 

     

     

    • #181
  2. MWD B612 "Dawg" Member
    MWD B612 "Dawg"
    @danok1

    Sisyphus (View Comment):

    MWD B612 "Dawg" (View Comment):

    Sisyphus (View Comment):

    The Girl from Ipanema.

    I associate this song with elevator music (*). And elevator music is never cool.

    (*: This is probably because of the movie The Blues Brothers, specifically the scene where they’re taking the elevator to the Cook County Assessor’s office. The music is the elevator is a Muzak version of “The Girl From Ipanema.”)

    By this standard, Dylan’s “Too Much of Nothing”, which I have always viewed as a condemnation of empty, banal culture, is rendered meaningless because some hack produced a Muzak version. I stopped in at the College Park, MD, Jerry’s Subs (before Jerry sold out and corporations substituted cardboard and paste for fresh ingredients) and there was “Too Much of Nothing” on the Muzak. People thought I had completely lost it, I was laughing so hard.

    Hey, I didn’t say I was right. I merely said that for me, this is associated with elevator music because of the Blues Brothers. Which it is true. It’s not necessarily fair, but it is what it is (for me).

    • #182
  3. Lawst N. Thawt Inactive
    Lawst N. Thawt
    @LawstNThawt

    Django (View Comment):

    Anyone here remember Little Feat’s Waiting for Columbus? Always liked Time Loves a Hero and Mercenary Territory.

    The weird thing is the name and titles ring no bells, but the album cover does.   The sound is familiar.  I’ll need to listen to it.

    • #183
  4. Sisyphus Member
    Sisyphus
    @Sisyphus

    MWD B612 "Dawg" (View Comment):

    Sisyphus (View Comment):

    MWD B612 "Dawg" (View Comment):

    Sisyphus (View Comment):

    The Girl from Ipanema.

    I associate this song with elevator music (*). And elevator music is never cool.

    (*: This is probably because of the movie The Blues Brothers, specifically the scene where they’re taking the elevator to the Cook County Assessor’s office. The music is the elevator is a Muzak version of “The Girl From Ipanema.”)

    By this standard, Dylan’s “Too Much of Nothing”, which I have always viewed as a condemnation of empty, banal culture, is rendered meaningless because some hack produced a Muzak version. I stopped in at the College Park, MD, Jerry’s Subs (before Jerry sold out and corporations substituted cardboard and paste for fresh ingredients) and there was “Too Much of Nothing” on the Muzak. People thought I had completely lost it, I was laughing so hard.

    Hey, I didn’t say I was right. I merely said that for me, this is associated with elevator music because of the Blues Brothers. Which it is true. It’s not necessarily fair, but it is what it is (for me).

    And so invoked once more is my code of never debating a post-post modernist. Solipsistate away.

    • #184
  5. Django Member
    Django
    @Django

    Lawst N. Thawt (View Comment):

    Django (View Comment):

    Anyone here remember Little Feat’s Waiting for Columbus? Always liked Time Loves a Hero and Mercenary Territory.

    The weird thing is the name and titles ring no bells, but the album cover does. The sound is familiar. I’ll need to listen to it.

    Tower of Power horn section was outstanding on a couple tracks. 

    • #185
  6. Lawst N. Thawt Inactive
    Lawst N. Thawt
    @LawstNThawt

    Django (View Comment):

    Lawst N. Thawt (View Comment):

    Django (View Comment):

    Anyone here remember Little Feat’s Waiting for Columbus? Always liked Time Loves a Hero and Mercenary Territory.

    The weird thing is the name and titles ring no bells, but the album cover does. The sound is familiar. I’ll need to listen to it.

    Tower of Power horn section was outstanding on a couple tracks.

    Not sure about the album cover familiarity, but the sound I hear was the Doobie Brothers, and doing a little checking Bill Payne of Little Feat worked with The Doobie Brothers in the ’70s.  I had to have heard some of Little Feat’s music, so I either never heard the DJ or I forgot, which is entirely possible since I’m not really sure what day it is. 

    • #186
  7. Lawst N. Thawt Inactive
    Lawst N. Thawt
    @LawstNThawt

    So this song has been stuck in my head for days without any adverse effects, so I figured I’d share a longer version in case anyone needed it.  

     

    • #187
  8. DMak Member
    DMak
    @DMak

    Another cool Dire Straits song 

    • #188
  9. Dotorimuk Coolidge
    Dotorimuk
    @Dotorimuk

    Lawst N. Thawt (View Comment):

    So this song has been stuck in my head for days without any adverse effects, so I figured I’d share a longer version in case anyone needed it.

    He’s a guitar hero without being an obnoxious one. Dig!

     

    • #189
  10. Dotorimuk Coolidge
    Dotorimuk
    @Dotorimuk

    DMak (View Comment):

    Another cool Dire Straits song

    Love that Making Movies album.

    • #190
  11. Lawst N. Thawt Inactive
    Lawst N. Thawt
    @LawstNThawt

    I happened to be at a party/gathering of minds (okay, there was only one mind) and there was random music playing in the background (a. k. a. YouTube mix that started with the Allman Brothers Soulshine from my comment #134) and randomly this song started to play.  I did not immediately recognize it, but it caught my ear just like I imagined in comment #134 that a cool song oughta do, so I figured I was obligated to hunt down this post (even though it’s painful to find stuff on this forsaken platform) and apprise anyone that may need such.  

     

    • #191
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