Glory glory - The Byrds

Also known as When I Lay My Burden Down, Since I Laid My Burden Down, Glory, Glory, Hallelujah and other titles, this American spiritual goes back at least to 1928 and has been recorded by many artists down the years in a variety of genres, including folk, country, blues, rock and gospel. It is a very simple song lyrically and musically and appears to reflect the joy of a Christian who knows that by trusting in Jesus Christ he has laid his burden down. In 1971, The Byrds included it as the opening track on their tenth studio album Byrdmaniax. It was suggested by drummer Gene Parsons who knew it from the repertoire of The Art Reynolds Singers, as was the case with the earlier Jesus Is Just Alright (on Ballad of Easy Rider). Art Reynolds is often credited as the composer of the song but it appears to be older than his heyday in the sixties. The Byrds version features a striking piano part and strong gospel backing vocals but was felt to lack the immediacy of the previous Jesus track. Producer Terry Melcher said in a 1977 interview: "We were aiming to cut another Jesus Is Just Alright but we didn't make it. Larry Knechtel [Session musician, part of the wrecking crew] played piano on this cut but it was too fast. The whole thing was a mess." This is a little harsh.

Over my head (Cable car) - The Fray

Over My Head (Cable Car) originally just Cable Car was a very successful hit single and album track for Denver band The Fray in 2005, 2006. Originally recorded as a demo early in the band's life, that version had a lot of local radio airplay. The Fray song sounds at first like a traditional break up song but is apparently about lead singer and pianist Slade's relationship with younger brother Caleb (nicknamed "Cable Car"). Isaac wrote the song because the two were allegedly not speaking. "It is about a fight I got in with my brother, Caleb" Slade said. "After he graduated high school, we drifted apart and really hadn't spoken in a long time. One day we both realised that we needed to fight it out. We'd been friends for 20 years. That's a long time when you're only 23 years old. We fought it out, and he's one of my best friends today." Behind this slightly bland explanation lies the fact that Caleb was bassist with the Fray but was sacked in 2002. Now the she (She's on your mind) is presumably the boys' mother, which transforms the song. Being in over my head is not entirely clear but it may be that we are seeing it through Caleb's eyes not Isaac's. Either way, the opening verse begins to make sense (I never knew that everything was falling through That everyone I knew was waiting on a cue, etc, etc). Presumably eight seconds left in overtime is a picture drawn from basketball describing the need to act. It's late in the game but Let's rearrange. If this was a stranger, disengagement would be easy but this is a brother. As you lose the argument in a cable car Hanging above as the canyon comes between is both evocative and a clever reference to the nickname. The alternative is to drift apart which cannot be good. The line I'm losing you and it's effortless is powerful. How easy relationships are lost and Without a sound we lose sight of the ground In the throw around. He Never thought that his brother wanted to bring it down but he is determined not to let it go down till we torch it ourselves. The Chainsmokers' Closer was adjudged in 2016 to be derivative so Isaac Slade and Joe King of The Fray's names received co-credits.

There she goes - The La's

I must have first heard this song in 1990 when the single charted and was often on the radio. I either bought the single myself or received it as a Christmas gift. There was apparently a prior version, produced by Bob Andrews, released in 1988 and 1989 but it is Steve Lillywhite's remix for the debut album that is best known. It was the biggest success Liverpool band The La's ever enjoyed. The song's structure is simple, having only a chorus repeated four times and a bridge. It has been placed in what some call the Jangle Pop genre, one often associated with the 12 string Rickenbacker guitar, and pioneered by The Beatles and The Byrds especially Mr Tambourine Man. This is a fine example of the genre. The song is often said to refer to heroin ("There she goes again ... racing through my brain ... pulsing through my vein ... no one else can heal my pain") which is unlikely. It is associated in my mind with Mrs Thatcher whose reign as prime minister came to an end just after the song charted. I probably got the idea in my head from hearing it used for the opening montage of the first episode of Channel 4's drama series This Is England '90 which also featured Mrs Thatcher's resignation speech. It is actually about the usual staple, love for (or should we say infatuation with?) a girl. The song has featured on the soundtrack of The Parent Trap; Fever Pitch; Girl, Interrupted; Cold Case, and So I Married an Axe Murderer. It has been covered by Sixpence none the richer, The Boo Radleys and Robbie Williams, among others.

Run for home - Lindisfarne

Run for home is a single from Lindisfarne's 1978 album Back and fourth. Not really a folk song or even a folk-rock song, it is a full production number featuring a beautiful cor anglais element that reflects the whistfulness of the lyrics. At the time, it was hailed as "Alan Hull's best song to date". Not their highest charting song, it sold more than any other. It fits broadly into the on the road genre of rock song but is more definitely a song that reiterates an idea at least as old as the 1823 song Home sweet home! For Lindisfarne home was the north east but there is nothing that ties this number to any particular place - it can be your home or mine (Wales - where I happen to be writing this). One wonders if the confessions (I've made some mistakes ... I've looned with them screamed at the moon Behaved like a buffoon) points to a Prodigal returning home theme but there are so few lyrics it would be hard to sustain the argument. It is best listened to as an assertion that when you've seen all that this world has to offer, you'll probably find that your heart feels warmest for the earliest scenes of your life, back at home. Or to go further, it encapsulates Proverbs 2:8 Like a bird that flees its nest is anyone who flees from home. I can certainly identify with the song's way of thinking, having spent most of my life outside Wales, in London. There's nowhere quite like home.

One day at a time - Lena Martell

A very popular Country and Western-style Gospel song, recorded by over 200 artists, it has reached No.1 many times. Chief writer, Marijohn Wilkin, had a conventional Baptist upbringing in the States and became a schoolteacher. Three years into her marriage her husband, a pilot, died in South Africa, in the war. She remarried and when she was 37 and moved to Nashville where she became a successful writer of country songs. Amid the acclaim, money and success she stopped attending church and eventually became addicted to alcohol. More than once she attempted suicide. When she was 53 she wrote this her most famous song. It came at a time when she was totally frustrated by what seemed to her an inability to write Gospel songs. She stopped by a small church and asked a young minister for counsel. She was the first person he had counselled, she discovered later. When he asked her what was wrong she confessed she did not know. “At that point in our conversation" she has said "he said a funny thing, but it was okay, because it worked. He asked, ‘Did you ever think about thanking God for your problems?’" She returned home, sat at the piano and wrote the song's chorus. Her ‘Nashville mind’ told her it was a hit. She wrote some verses but did not complete the song until she had help from Kris Kristofferson the next day. It was first a hit for American country singer Marilyn Sellars in 1974. I particularly remember the version by Scots singer Lena Martell recorded for the UK market in 1979. A big success, it stayed at No. 1 for three weeks. I remember it because as an evangelical Christian and knowing Lena Martell was a favourite of my unconverted dad's, I hoped it would have a good influence on him. It did not appear to. How come? Apart from the fact people often do not take in song lyrics, the song, despite an apparent dependence on Jesus, is pretty man-centred and more an exercise in positive thinking. Yes, there is Just give me the strength To do every day what I have to do  but then there is also Help me believe in what I could be And all that I am Show me the stairway I have to climb Lord for my sake, help me ... The If you're lookin' below betrays a very tentative sort of faith. So when Joe Walsh recovered from heavy alcohol and cocaine addictions in the early 90s this is the song he went to. "I wanted to put that song on the album for anybody that comes across my music and might be in trouble too. It feels like the 'phone weighs 80 pounds when you pick it up, but you gotta pick it up and ask for help." The message then is not trust in Jesus for forgiveness but admit your weakness and ask for help, an important message but not the gospel.

Sylvia - Focus

Sylvia, which was recorded and released in 1972 on the album Focus III, has the distinction of being one of those relatively few hits that are instrumental. The single came out at the beginning of 1973 and reached No 4 in the UK (it only reached the bottom half of the Top One Hundred in the USA). It was originally written as a vocal track near the end of the sixties in honour of a Dutch actress and singer called Sylvia Alberts. The lyrics have apparently long been lost. The track begins with Jan Akkerman's distinctive jazz guitar riffs (evidently written by Thijs van Leer's older brother, Frank). Ambience is enhanced by heavy reverb from the other speaker acting as a sort of drone against the chopped chords. The organ and bass join in next, then the drums too for the opening section. Next the guitar leads the band on the lead theme until the chopped chords return to be followed once again by the guitar-led theme. Just over a minute in there is a brief bridge that features again under a minute later when it is repeated three times accompanied by van Leer's vibrato voice. We visit the main theme once again at the two minute mark (note the distinctive variation 20 seconds in). This leads to a false ritartando ending when the chopped chords break in for the last time as we approach the three minute mark, before fading to a close. When I first heard it I thought it rather old fashioned but have grown to love it. It is unlike any other song I know.

Luka - Suzanne Vega

This self-penned song by Suzanne Vega was on her second album and came out as a single in 1987. An accompanying video helped promote the song. Luca with a C is likely to be a Latin name, with a K it is more East European. The song, written in the first person of the child is intimate and haunting. The song was a widely acknowledged popular and critical success. Vega has said that it was inspired by a real life Luka who she would see with other children playing in front of the building where she once lived in New York. She felt he seemed set apart from the other children. She has no reason to believe he was being abused, as the child in the song clearly is. By only hinting at the problems and having the child denying what is going on, the listener is drawn in and the song bears many listenings. It may be that the widespread incidence of child abuse in the twentieh century (something we grow ever more familiar with) has subtly helped make the song popular. There are very few songs that even attempt to go here. What is basically a folk tune is enhanced by some excellent pop guitar playing. The tune is quite jolly even though the subject matter is dark. I wonder if the way you find yourself enjoying the song but then thinking "but it's about child abuse" replicates the disturbing nature of this fearful subject. Prince is said to have written a fan letter to Vega declaring the song to be "the most compelling piece of music I've heard in a long time" which is about right.