11. "Aeroplane" by The Red Hot Chili Peppers

This may be controversial - but I think the Chili Peppers' Dave Navarro era is super underrated. He made the One Hot Minute album much heavier but also gave them deeper range, contributing interesting, moody interludes webbed with strains of echoing, ambient guitar. "Aeroplane" is a perfect demonstration.

Even with a rock guitarist in their band, I defy you to find another song in the Chili Peppers repertoire as funky and fun as this. Flea works out the entire song - slapping through the verses, sliding up and down the choruses, and hitting a nice upper register in the moody bridge. They finally just hand him a full bass solo to close it out.

But then what? Halfway through Flea's rad solo, Navarro whines in with a co-solo of his own, and the two freeform perfectly together to the finish line. I think it was a really cool, if brief, partnership in rock music history.

Lyrics in most rock/pop songs are like fixings in a fast-food burrito: you would never enjoy them on their own, but in a mix with other ingredients they are fine. Some lyrics rise above this standard, and I'll point it out when I think they do. For instance, when I actually know and remember lyrics without effort, something is being done right. 

The Chili Peppers are not in this class. "Music is my aeroplane" is a cool refrain though. Little else in the lyrics make sense, but what a sweet moment of music love that is.

10. "Across the Universe" by the Beatles

Let me tell you a bit about the life of John Lennon. He was married twice, and everyone knows who his second wife was. You can be forgiven if you know nothing about his first wife Cynthia, because even John tried to hide her existence early in his fame. They met in art school, and they had one son together, Julian, just as the Beatles took off and took John with them into Beatlemania. 

John was physically abusive and a drug addict. His fame enabled him to an unlimited degree. One night in 1967, his wife powerlessly argued with him, and she inspired the opening line of this song: "Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup."

They divorced a year later. 

Even as his marriage was ending, John Lennon appeared to be trying to take ownership of his abusive behavior. He had already written in songs like "Getting Better" about how he had beaten his wife but wanted to change.

So maybe as "Across the Universe" repeatedly intones a meditative mantra (Jai Guru Deva. Om.), the idea is that Lennon is learning to cope with an argument in a way other than violence. The alternative is that he turns to the mantra (and the drugs that contribute to the cosmic feel of the song) to drown out his wife's criticisms.

Want to know what's really frustrating? The song is so catchy that I will probably singing it in my head for the next 24 hours. It doesn't matter how potentially dismissive and belittling his lyrics are toward his wife as he looks above her to the cosmos. This is one of my favorite songs on the Let It Be album.

The melodies are undeniable. You can sing along and pick out 10 different harmonies for yourself.

Melody was John Lennon's gift. It took him far. It also took him here.

9. "Achilles Last Stand" by Led Zeppelin

The last great Led Zeppelin epic, recorded four years before the band's sudden end. It came out the same year as Taxi Driver and Rocky.

It centers around a palm-muted guitar pattern that clearly comes out of Zeppelin's funk improv repertoire but becomes almost a pure metal riff, showing how strange musical evolution (and all evolution) is. Thank the savage drumming, I suppose. Bonzo is retromutagen ooze. 

Note: Heart absolutely stole this song and repackaged it as the more radio-friendly "Barracuda."

The title suggests mythic themes, similar to Robert Plant's references to Lord of the Rings in older songs. I don't really see much in the lyrics, but I always like how naturally Plant sings them - it seems like his goal was always to give himself good sounds to sing. It's really, really hard to be as consistently good at that as he was.

The solo is one of my favorite Page solos, floating above the disciplined timing of the other instruments.

Anyway, just an awesome heavy-weight hard rock song.

8. "A.M. 180" by Grandaddy

Dumb little keyboard part. Guitars that sound like A.M. radio signal. Poorly mic'd drums. Lyrics too wispy and low in the mix to be intelligible. But when it all kicks in together, it is ugly beauty.

This is one of the best songs on a great album by Grandaddy, Under the Western Freeway, a noise and disarray masterpiece. This song epitomizes the concept - everything held together by absolutely undeniable tunesmithing. Some people write such great melody with such insidious rhythm that they can challenge you with intentionally destitute production. They have the audacity to sound haphazard.

If you don't like it, that's fine. Grandaddy broke up long ago anyway. You won't hurt their feelings, but you wouldn't have anyway.

7. "A Quick One (While He's Away)" by The Who

...specifically this Rock N Roll Circus version

I'm sorry, is there anything else in this song other than Keith Moon drumming? Anything else in life, really?