By Mark Pukalo
I spent a lot of time listening to the radio when I was a teenager, and as time went on my hand started to turn the dial toward rock stations.
Sometimes WPLR from New Haven was on, but most days and nights it was WAAF out of Boston - "The Rock and Roll Air Force."
WAAF was apparently sold in 2020 after 50 years of rocking New England. It's been a long time since then, but I can remember the station's album countdowns where you would hear many of the non singles.
Before then, I would listen to the pop surveys on local radio or Casey Kasem's "American Top 40." Oh, those long distance dedications often made me tear up.
Aerosmith's "Toys in the Attic" was probably the first rock album I owned before my collection grew in those wooden crates. Over the years, I have appreciated the albums from the 70s and 80s even more. I wish I kept them.
Nothing against some of today's popular music, but I don't really pay attention to the singles charts anymore. When I listen to my multiple mixed tapes, there are so many great songs that were not released as singles. For years, I have thought about putting together a list of the best "deep tracks."
It's not an easy project. There are several songs that were never singles, but are iconic just the same. Jungleland from Bruce Springsteen is a perfect example. I tried to keep those types of songs off this list while going a little deeper and off the board.
No doubt, you have heard many of these songs. I just find them under-appreciated in some ways. I will probably dip in here and add more to the honorable mention list. However, this is what I have now along with 21-30. The top 20 will be added every couple days afterward. Send me potential additions if you have ideas.
Put the needle down.
Honorable mentions
Such a Good Girl - Cheap Trick (EP Found All the Parts); After the Thrill is Gone (One of These Nights), Saturday Night (Desperado) and Pretty Maids (Hotel California) - The Eagles; My Thanksgiving - Don Henley (Inside Job); Disco Apocalypse - Jackson Browne (Hold Out); Cologne and Kylie from Connecticut - Ben Folds (Way to Normal); Goodnight California - Kathleen Edwards (Asking for Flowers); Black Cow - Steely Dan (Aja), Little Paradise - Pat Benatar (Crimes of Passion); How It Is - Rush (Vapor Trails), Driven to Tears - The Police (Zenyatta Mondatta); Let Me Roll It - Paul McCartney & Wings (Band on the Run); Transformer Man - Neil Young (Trans); Winding Road - Bonnie Somerville (Garden State soundtrack), Edge of Desire - John Mayer (Battle Studies), 4th of July - Aimee Mann (Whatever).
30. Let Me Take You Home Tonight - Boston (Boston) ... This different kind of song from the wall of sound band ends their debut album with a little softer edge. The "pickup" tune was written by the original Boston lead vocalist Bradley Delp.
"You must understand this, I've watched you for so long
That I feel I've known you, I know it can't be wrong
If we just get together, I wanna make you see
I'm dreaming of your sweet love tonight, so mama let it be
Let me take you home tonight."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6inZCMnpVo
29. Shoot to Thrill - AC/DC (Back in Black) ... This one got some good album-rock station play while others like the title track, Hell's Bells and You Shook Me All Night Long reached the singles charts. It is about a local drug pusher for bored housewives.
"All you women who want a man of the street
But don't know which way you wanna turn
Just keep a-comin', and put your hand out to me
'Cause I'm the one who's gonna make you burn."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRQnJyP77tY
28. Slit Skirts - Pete Townshend (All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes) ... Pete didn't have any hit singles on this second solo album like he did on the debut (Empty Glass), but this song about a painful breakup and the perils of middle age is the best and last on the LP.
"Slit Skirts
Jeanie never wears those slit skirts.
I don't ever wear no ripped shirts
Can't pretend that growing older never hurts
Knee pants. Jeanie never wears no knee pants
Have to be so drunk to try a new dance
So afraid of every new romance."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAL7RYHKrlA
27. Spaced - Aerosmith (Get Your Wings) ... Terrific tune on my favorite album from Steven Tyler, Joe Perry and the band. It has a science fiction edge and rocks when it needs to.
"Spaced in time, child of nine, Doin' twenty years on the way
Fire and steel earth unreal, find another planet to stay
Papa died, Ma survived, tellin' me about her ordeal
And the Soul she could not feel.
'Cause they made her so unreal."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w-pF_LJx3o
26. Child of Vision - Supertramp (Breakfast in America) ... Roger Hodgson wrote this to be critical of materialism and it ends one of the greatest albums of all time. It was made for rock radio at 7 1/2 minutes long with some beautiful piano/organ/synthesizer sections. The leadoff song on the album "Gone Hollywood" would be another option here, but we like the latter.
"I've heard it all before, you're saying nothing new
I thought I saw a rainbow, but I guess it wasn't true
You cannot make me listen, and I cannot make you hear
So you'll find your way to heaven and I'll meet you when you're there."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wohgwABTpa8
25. Another Horsedreamer’s Blues - Counting Crows (Recovering the Satellites) ... Haunting song about a woman going through depression and addiction while trying to keep her head above water in life and please the people she needs to please.
"So she takes her pills, careful and round.
One of these days she’s gonna throw the whole bottle down.
But she’s trying to be a good girl and give’em what they want
Margery's dreaming of horses."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU3tWL79bgE
24. She Can't Let Go - Glen Frey (No Fun Aloud) ... A beautiful melodic tune co-written by Jack Tempchin and Frey for his debut solo LP. It's an old-style song about a man waiting for his girlfriend to forget her previous lost love.
"I've tried everything, but know there's only waiting
For the last dying embers to fade
Oh, she wants to be free, but when she's holding me
That's when I know, she can't let go.
I love her so
But she can't let go."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjm3lFPvCLY&list=RDkjm3lFPvCLY&start_radio=1
23. Help Me Mary - Liz Phair (Exile in Guyville) ... There are many other songs that come up first when talking about the New Haven-born, Chicago girl's edgy and brilliant debut album. However, this one has some really neat lyrics about young woman whose house is taken over by some thieving dudes.
"I'm asking you, Mary, please
Temper my hatred with peace
Weave my disgust into fame
And watch how fast they run to the flame."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHRvYsXvS8M&list=RDxHRvYsXvS8M&start_radio=1
22. Shed a Little Light - James Taylor (New Moon Shine) ... Tough choice between this one and the slower "Another Day" on Hourglass. This song is a bit more moving, though, as a tribute to Martin Luther King and a push for racial equality.
"There is a feeling like the clenching of a fist
There is a hunger in the center of the chest
There is a passage through the darkness and the mist
And though the body sleeps the heart will never rest."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBetQvXS4a4
21. Even the Losers - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers (Damn the Torpedoes) ... The epic album that I bought in a NYC record store in 1980 started with hits "Refugee" and "Here Comes my Girl," but this under-rated piece of music does not let the LP lose its momentum.
"Two cars parked on the overpass
Rocks hit the water like broken glass
I shoulda known right then it was too good to last
God, it's such a drag when you live in the past
Baby, even the losers get lucky sometimes."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0el_8ZKw7w
