I’m in Florida for building code hearings, and sometimes you just need a moment to think about something else. So, let’s take a moment to start a massive project that I’ll never finish! Recently, I was thinking about my favorite song/album from each year of my life, but then thought “why stop there?” So naturally, the only reasonable length is 100 years.
1924! Long time ago. Calvin Coolidge! Red Grange! But what did they listen to? Thankfully, the answer for my favorite song of 1924 is easy.
Song: Rhapsody in Blue, George Gershwin
This is probably going to lead to inconsistencies when I later list other songs performed by artists that that were composed by others, and in different years. But it’s 1924, so cut me some slack. Anyway, Rhapsody in Blue is a great song. It has been repeatedly called a musical portrait of 1920s New York City (or some such metaphor), and it clearly is that. It is a timeless piece that transports you to a place that you’ll never actually be able to physically visit, which is both exhilarating and heartbreaking. Many of the songs on this list will draw out the sorrow that I feel for having missed out on times in history that seem like they would have been in some way preferable.
There isn’t much else I could say about Rhapsody in Blue that hasn’t been said better already by someone else. It’s a sprawling epic piece that you should listen to now.
Greatness Courts Failure 