Unfortified Castle

The tap-filled anthem is one of my 21st-century rock favorites, but its lyrical theming didn't register with me until very recently.

I'd been sitting on this song for a while, never imagining I'd write about it for this reason... but it painfully fits the moment.

Jim Croce's ballad is never an easy listen for me, especially now as I think of major life changes coming in the short term.

...but the meme's wide reach means that's how most think of the Blue Öyster Cult's classic tune.

Ed Sheeran's tale of one Angel grapples with connection, addiction, and its subject's all-too-likely fate.

As Don McLean captured, "The Day the Music Died" was only the beginning of a period of sweeping cultural change in the United States.

It's a powerful reminder of the wide-ranging consequences of not taking care of oneself.

A lyrical analysis displays why and then some.

TLC, fully immersed in the social world of the mid-90s, remind listeners they can find a way out of the darkness by being their own light.

Twenty-nine men and the ship with which they went down are memorialized each November 10, with this song serving as a backdrop.

Jakob Dylan and company paint the end of youthful innocence as a time for reaffirming oneself and continuing to move forward.

Alan Parsons and company tenderly embrace this fact in a song that can soundtrack the end of many things.