Songs We Love John & Gabe Adams

Born out of a midlife crisis involving a painful divorce, "Graceland" reignited Simon's career and reinvented his sound for a new generation. Simon has called the title track, which fuses the sounds of 1950s country with the sounds of South Africa, his favorite of all the songs he's written. The song begins with the idea of pilgrimage to seminal influences from Simon's childhood (Graceland is the name of Elvis Presley's home, and Simon was a Sun Records fan growing up). Over the course of the song, however, "Graceland" becomes a metaphor for the hope of a better future, both in this life and the next.

Released in 1997, Radiohead's "OK Computer" was a landmark moment in the history of alternative rock. The album's dark, dystopian lyrics explore a future in which human beings have dehumanized themselves using their own technology. On "Subterranean Homesick Alien," however, the band opens itself up to the possibility that there is more to this universe than what we can see. They also ask how someone who received a revelation from the outside would be treated by the rest of humanity. We explore what makes the song work musically and ask why "OK Computer" is resonating with a younger generation of fans.

Released in 1970, James Taylor's deeply personal ode to a friend's suicide and his struggles with mental illness and drug addiction struck a nerve with a nation exhausted by the political turbulence of the 1960s. The song transformed Taylor into a superstar overnight and marked a cultural turn toward a more personal, introspective sound. Fifty years later, the song still feels relevant. We talk about what makes the song work lyrically and musically and where "Fire & Rain" would fall on the Enneagram if it was a person.