https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF2gA6NfyGQ

The Load Out/Stay--Jackson Browne

It's the great progression and the lyrics for me primarily. I also love the way it builds and (to me at least) can loop back onto itself, making multiple listens work. Two or three times is normal, but that's only because I'm crying by the end. Weird, I know. I've never been a working musician, but besides that little fantasy a lot of his audience might harbor, I take the lyrics in as symbolic of many things about my own life's history which were likely never intended but nevertheless are true for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-hnVeq9FTg

Thick as a Brick--Jethro Tull.

Ian Anderson's lyrics are about at the top end of my tolerance, sometimes, for deep poeticism. I prefer simpler songs that can be heard and felt deeper than they read (see above). But your wise men don't know how it feels to be thick as a brick. Maybe that refers to lyric-writers too, at times. So Ian's attitude and world-weariness hits me in the gut. Musically, it is like a symphony. From the simple guitar and voice, it goes through many changes, each one of a vastly different feel and power. And, again, it loops back onto itself very nicely to make another spin seem natural. I never hear it the same way twice.

If forced to pick a third, you've already named Sultans of Swing. It's ot just the guitar, but the whole story/arc of the song.

Good question. Seems like I've just been waiting for someone to ask it.

BIAB 2021 Audiophile. Windows 10 64bit. Songwriter, lyricist, composer(?) loving all styles. Some pre-BIAB music from Farfetched Tangmo Band's first CD. https://alonetone.com/tangmo/playlists/close-to-the-ground