Ten great genre songs about songs and genres
By Jonathan Eig
SWING – “SULTANS OF SWING” by Dire Straits (1978)
OK, you can definitely argue that this isn’t a swing song. But it’s not really a rock & roll song either. So what are you going to call it? To me, it is jazzy and bluesy, and yes, has got some definite swing to it. It has horns. It has some cool chord progressions, though I don’t believe it has any impossible-to-play chords. So, if you would rather classify this as jazz-rock, go ahead.
I specifically omitted a jazz number on this list so “Sultans” could stand in for either genre. But, I mean, they are called the Sultans of Swing. Mark Knopfler creates a detailed world in this little dive club and he serves up two sensational guitar solos along the way, but this song is rooted in its brilliant conception. Plenty of musicians wrote songs about life on the road. Road songs are a genre unto themselves. Knopfler flipped it.
This is a song about a house band that isn’t skilled enough or ambitious enough to go anywhere else, and they don’t give a damn because they are playing for the love of it. He brings us into their space on a cold, rainy night and lets the swing of the music seep deep into our bones.
GRUNGE – “TALKIN’ SEATTLE BLUES” by Todd Snider (1994)
It’s an acoustic song sung by a folkie from Nashville with a harmonica, and he calls it “blues.” But this is a song all about the grunge phenomenon. It is all done with Snider’s incisive wit.
The story is about a band that wasn’t finding success until they moved to Seattle and refused to actually play any music. They became the biggest act in the land. The chorus “Hey hey, my, my – Rock and roll will never die – Hang your hair down in your eye – Make a million dollars” is pretty catchy.
But Snider really shines on his live recording of the song on 2003’s New Truths and Hotel Rooms (with the title now augmented to “Talking Seattle Grunge Rock Blues.”) He amends the end of one verse in which a record exec says “he loved our work, but he wasn’t sure he could sell a record that didn’t have any music on it. I said – ‘Man, you’ve been doing that all year.” Genius. Snider’s mythical grunge band is eventually overtaken by a band that “wasn’t even together – Guns n Roses.”