A Symposium of Popular Songs 26
When You Win, Everyone Wants In: Songs About Success
This week on A Symposium of Popular Songs, we’re listening to songs about success—its joys, its sorrows, and its dangers. Send your song recommendations to symposiumofsongs@gmail.com!
Calling All in Transit: Alternative Rock Songs
A friend of mine recently asked me for a Spotify playlist of alternative rock—but I don’t use Spotify, so I decided to make the playlist here. This week on A…
Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon: Songs of Laurel Canyon
In honor of my wife’s birthday, we’re listening to songs from her favorite musical scene: Laurel Canyon. Send your song suggestions to symposiumofsongs@gmail.com!
A Short Time Is Better Than No Time: Songs About Ephemerality
Continuing our examination of time from last week, this week we’re listening to songs about ephemerality and trying to figure out if transient things can have eternal value. Send your…
Slow Trigger, Starting Line: Songs About Waiting
This week, we’re listening to songs about waiting, and I’ll tell you a story you might not know about Tom Petty and plagiarism. Send your song recommendations to symposiumofsongs@gmail.com!
I Didn’t Sleep at All Last Night: Songs About Insomnia
I promised it in our very first episode, and now I’m finally delivering: here are some songs all about not being able to get to sleep. Send your song recommendations…
This Trash Can Dream Come True: Songs About New York City
We’re listening to songs about America’s “city of record,” New York. I like it a lot more than Los Angeles! Send your song recommendations to symposiumofsongs@gmail.com.
This Moment to Arise: Songs About Birds
We’re listening to songs about my favorite animal today, so maybe you’ll forgive me for getting a little self-indulgent. Send your song recommendations to symposiumofsongs@gmail.com!
What I Need Is a Good Defense: Songs About Crime
We’re listening to songs about crime this week, although I am saving songs about murder for a future episode. Along the way we’ll try to figure out why people commit…
Winter Companions: Songs About Friendship
We’re starting the new year by talking about friendship, that most human of institutions. Send your song recommendations to symposiumofsongs@gmail.com!
Do You Hear What I Hear?: Songs That Feel Like Christmas
In conjunction with my recent FPR article “What Does Christmas Feel Like?” A Symposium of Popular Songs is listening to songs that recall my halcyon Christmases—let’s say 1987-1994, though few…
Put a Candle in the Window: Songs About the Light
Just as the light becomes a little more precious and scarce this year, we’re going to listen to songs about it. Send me your song recommendations at symposiumofsongs@gmail.com!
An Echo of a World I Knew So Long Ago: Songs About Memory
We’re talking about memory this week on A Symposium of Popular Songs. How much do we need to remember in order to think, and how much do we need to…
Not Roaring but Weeping: Songs About Crying
We’re listening to songs about crying this week on A Symposium of Popular Songs, and there are so many of them that I’m only playing artists I’ve never played on…
Don’t the Last Time Come Too Soon?: Break-Up Songs
Inspired by absolutely nothing in my personal life, we’re listening to break-up songs this week on A Symposium of Popular Songs. I’ll try not to make it too depressing! Send…
A Hammer Needs a Nail: Songs About Work
In conjunction with the most recent issue of Local Culture and with FPR’s fall conference, we’re listening to songs about work on this week’s Symposium of Popular Songs.
The Gin Is Cold, but the Piano’s Hot: Songs About Bars
Bars, saloons, taverns, whoopie spots—we talk about them all this week on A Symposium of Popular Songs, and I get to give one of my hackneyed theories about Cheers, too.…
Some Needles Find a Groove: Songs About Music
We’re listening to music about music on this week’s Symposium of Popular Songs. I’ve got fewer literary readings for you than usual, but more personal stories, including my all-time favorite…
A Little Time in Quiet: Songs About the Morning
We’re listening to songs about my favorite time of day, morning, this week on A Symposium of Popular Songs. Accordingly, it’s a pretty mellow episode. Send recommendations my way at…
Burning Warm and Bright: Songs About Fire
We’re talking about fire in all its forms this week on A Symposium of Popular Songs, and I managed to get all the way through the episode without referencing Beavis…
Can We Dance on the Tables Again?: Songs About Parties
It’s party time at A Symposium of Popular Songs, though we’re going to oscillate wildly between the kind of party you go home from in an ambulance and the kind…
No Kings and No Landlords: Songs About Freedom
We’re talking about freedom this week on A Symposium of Popular Songs, and I demonstrate my freedom by going all the way from “guy with guitar” folk to overcranked contemporary…
You Don’t Have to Go Blind: Songs About Fame
Inspired by some recent criminal activity in the Christian rock world, this week on A Symposium of Popular Songs, we’re listening to songs about fame—mostly its negative aspects.
Time for Leaving: Songs About Restlessness
This week on A Symposium of Popular Songs, we’re listening to songs about restlessness—or, as the scholar Frederick R. Karl calls it, spatiality. I managed to do this whole episode…