Andy's Chest - Lou Reed - Transformer - 1972

Really, as a rock snob I should love Lou Reed...and I try, I honestly try...but short of a few Velvet Underground songs, my reaction is mostly "Admire, but don't enjoy".

All The Young Dudes - Mott The Hoople - All The Young Dudes - 1972

I have little patience with Boomer nostalgia (unless we're talking about the former Cincinnati Bengels Quarterback, but that's another story). I've spent my entire life being beaten over the head with the fact that nothing I ever do will be as revolutionary as what they did in the 60's, no movement in film will be as groundbreaking as the French New Wave and their American acolytes in the 1970's, and no music will ever be as revelatory as The Beatles, Stones, etc (and I like both the Beatles and the Stones)...

Given that fact I have some trepidation claiming anything is "The Greatest xxx Ever!"...but I must say that this Bowie penned gem does contain one of the best opening lines ever with "Well, Billy rapped all night about his suicide/how he'd kick it in the head when he's 25" With it's mournful guitar intro and Ian Hunter's too-many-cigarettes vocals it immediately grabs your attention. Its pitch perfect harmonies keep the vibe going, and like with so many things with Bowie, the lyrics seem to prescient, prefiguring the resentment later generations would have with Boomers and their "Revolution Stuff".

Honestly just a great song.

And on final word on Boomer nostalgia...Hilary can bite me!

All Down The Line - The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street - 1972

What the hell was up with the 1970's fascination with truck drivers? BJ and The Bear, Smokey and the Bandit, Sam Peckinpah's Convoy, Sorcerer, and this little nugget from The Stones. It's actually a pretty good song (there isn't a bad song on Exile) if you can get past the inheriently ridiculous notion of Mick Jagger as a hard driving truck driver trying to get back to his baby.

Alabama - Neil Young - Harvest - 1972

Ok, so here is a moral delima. On one hand we have a pretty good song by Neil Young during his heyday...on the other hand, this is the song that prompted the Lynard Skynard douchebags to write Sweet Home Alabama to defend their home land. So, should I hold the results of this song against it. I mean it's well meaning "the South has an ugly history of racism" stuff from a Canadian...and it has a decent guitar line and the great harmonies Young had on Harvest...but again, fucking Sweet Home Alabama...

You know what, I side with the Canandian. Fuck Bama...fuck it hard.