20 pop classics from the 1970s that should not be called soft-rock

“Accidentally Like a Martyr” by Warren Zevon (1978)

I’m choosing this song in part as a favor to Zevon. Amazing as it now seems, he has been gone for more than 20 years, so I don’t suppose he cares at this point. His Excitable Boy album proved to be his major breakthrough, largely on the strength of its monster (literally) hit “Werewolves of London.”

That earworm is a bit of novelty and though he eventually claimed to have come to terms with it, Zevon definitely resented the way that song’s success overshadowed everything else he ever did. It’s kind of the same way that Thom Yorke grew to resent “Creep.”

I love “Werewolves of London” but Excitable Boy is jam-packed with other great tunes. (There’s one exception, but I won’t mention it here – just be advised that if you have the vinyl, you can skip the first song on side 2.) It has good rockers like the title track and “Lawyers, Guns, and Money.” It has almost painfully beautiful songs like “Veracruz” and “Tenderness on the Block.” It has the cinematic epic “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner.” And it has “Accidentally Like a Martyr,” among the most beautifully wistful heartbreak songs of the decade.

“Goodbye Girl” by Squeeze (1978)

At the other end of the “heartbreak song” spectrum comes the sublime pop of Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford. Early on, their label attempted to mark them as the next Lennon and McCartney. That was a bit of an exaggeration. But they still managed to produce a lot of excellent singles that flirted with the prevailing disco dominance without ever becoming wholly imbibed.

To be sure, “Goodbye Girl” wears its synths on its sleeve, but it is in service of a catchy, upbeat tune from Tilbrook. Difford’s lyrics, on the other hand, tell of a tragic encounter with a married man with a one-night stand with a shady character, which ends up ruining his life. And yet he can’t summon the energy to get angry. He’s more bemused by the whole affair. That was Squeeze’s specialty – romantic bemusement set to an inescapable melody.