QUESTION OF THE WEEK, TIED INTO THIS RACHEL BOLAN STORY, NAME A SONG YOU THINK IS PERFECTLY CRAFTED?

In a new interview with “Mistress Carrie” Sarao of The Mistress Carrie Podcast, Skid Row bassist Rachel Bolan was asked to name a song from any other artist that he thinks is “perfectly crafted”.

He responded (as transcribed by blabbermouth.net), “There’s a couple. Lido Shuffle [by] Boz Scaggs. There’s nothing that isn’t amazing about that song as a body of work. Every time I listen to it, I’m, like, ‘Wow, where did this come from?’ I don’t know if I would be able to create something like that. And then the other is Breakdown by Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers. That’s just one of those songs, even though it has that false start which kind of makes it even more amazing and beautiful — the structure of that song is so bizarre. It’s almost like it’s unfinished. But it’s such an incredible song ’cause from the minute it starts, it’s like, ‘Yep, breakdown. Cool.’ And then, before you know it, it’s gone. But that’s one of those songs that I wish I wrote. Simplicity.”

After Mistress Carrie noted that the hardest songs to write are usually the simplest ones, Bolan concurred. “I agree,” he said. “I write simple. And I guess that’s just the stuff I listen to. Most of the stuff I listened to was three-chord rock: KISS, AC/DC, Ramones, Sex Pistols, for the most part. And so that is kind of in my wiring to write like that, I guess. And that’s the only thing I know…”

[Dana’s comment: I will have to think about this, since there are so many great songs, but as of my typing this, The Beatles were the kings of writing catchy, simple songs.]