1. Songs that are very good, verging on all-time greats, but that have not received the appropriate attention from the media or fans in relation to how good the particular song is. A song can fall into this category regardless of whether the artist is bigger than Jesus or an anonymous schlub toiling away in dimly lit bars.
2. A genre song that is so well-made and engaging that it should be popular with fans outside of its predefined fan-base. Usually very poignant or very danceable. Prince may have pioneered this category.
3. Songs and artists that are so under the radar, that while they may not be on any greatest-of-all-time lists, they are good enough that one could imagine casual listeners of any genre appreciating the song and wanting to hear more.
A Venn diagram of any or all would probably overlap a lot. And I'm sure more than fifty-percent of my choices fall outside of these parameters.
Clarification/Obfuscation. I did well on the SAT verbal section, but not well enough to avoid contradicting myself all day long.
Bruce Springsteen - "Seaside Bar Song," 18 Tracks, Tracks(multi-disc set) How could anything Bruce has done be underrated you ask, you throngs of readers? I know it sounds absurd. On most fronts he is the single most overrated artist still recording today. Not because he isn't one of the best songwriters and performers of all-time, because he is. He is overrated because there is a certain segment of the population (I myself am on the fringe of this group) who are so vociferous about Bruce's greatness and so goddamned intolerable at his concerts (Could you please not sing along with the piano solo, NJBossFann76? Thanks) that it makes people who might enjoy Bruce otherwise, want to punch him in his tight jeans."Seaside Bar Song" is the exception to all this annoyingness. It was never on an official album, but on a set of demos and B-Sides that got released as "Tracks". This tune has all the standard Springsteen fare: muscle cars, boys with leather jackets, girls who are staying out too late, saxamaphones...you know the drill. But it is just so gosh darned fun and totally without pretense or melodrama, you can't help but wanna swing your hips, rev the engine, grab your lady and roll, roll, roll. You might stop hating people from the Jersey Shore as a result of this song, it's that good. Almost.
Built to Spill - "Sidewalk," Keep It Like a Secret
I won't try to write comprehensively about Doug Martsch, the singer/songwriter for Built to Spill, because I don't know enough about him to do it well. I know most fans prefer Perfect From Now On to Keep It Like a Secret, but I do not. Several songs on Keep It... are great, well-crafted pop tunes, several are the meandering guitar-heavy ruminations that endear Built to Spill to metalheads and indie-rockers alike.
"Sidewalk" is one of the few BTS songs that leaves me feeling happy at the end of it. Not that all of Martsch's songs are sad or depressing, but "Sidewalk" makes me look at the future in front of me, full of thousands of daunting choices, and realize that the first step is the most important one. Getting out onto the sidewalk is the first step to being happy and doing things you enjoy.
It is simple as hell, the musical equivalent of someone reminding you that we all put our pants on one leg at a time. But it works. And it almost makes you want to dance. And this song is underrated.
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