Song of the Year

Earlier this month I posted a bit about the Dixie Chicks' single "Not Ready to Make Nice." Today, Living in Stereo writes about it, and about their album Taking the Long Way. You'll want to read the post for two reasons: First, to find out what the album has in common with Public Enemy's 1994 recording Fear of a Black Planet; and second, to hear "I Hope."

There are two versions of "I Hope" posted--a new version that appears on Taking the Long Way and the original, which appeared on a Hurricane Katrina benefit record last winter. I second the motion that the remake "is like trading in the Roman Candle you bought to celebrate our nation’s independence with a pack of those goofy charcoal snake pellets." Accept no substitutes. The original "I Hope" will take your breath away, especially the steel guitar solo for the ages that makes it not only better than "Not Ready to Make Nice," but better than maybe 95 percent of the records you've heard this year.

That the anti-Chicks crowd will never hear something so fine is just another way in which their politics is blighting their lives. And not a small way, either.