What, in your opinion, makes a good song?

[KONGO]

No.

[METALMAN]

I'm gonna put this here because I don't really know where else to put it: I don't really like too much electrics in jazz/blues. Electric guitar is generally fine because you can play it clean, but when jazz/blues guys start adding tons of distortion and rocking it up it's generally terrible. All of R.L. Burnside's albums that are like that I dislike.

Yes! I mean, I like Jack Johnson and that sort of thing, but that's as far as I'll take it.

[Matticus]

Cowbell.

[Sousa]

A guest verse in which Nelly raps about shearing sheep. In Yiddish.

[thatshortguy]

I'm gonna put this here because I don't really know where else to put it: I don't really like too much electrics in jazz/blues. Electric guitar is generally fine because you can play it clean, but when jazz/blues guys start adding tons of distortion and rocking it up it's generally terrible. All of R.L. Burnside's albums that are like that I dislike.

Seconded. I understand the love of hollow-body electric with a nice, cleaner tone, but will never grasp why people want to bring distortion into a jazz setting. Jazz is an ensemble thing and distortion just puts the guitar too predominantly in front.

There are few -- and I mean few -- guitarists that really understand how to play the blues. In a modern mainstream view, only Clapton comes to mind, though I'm sure there are millions bubbling beneath the surface. Early blues were about the stories being told through verse. The electric guitar caused a lot of people to shift away from that. Basically, people should go watch the episode of Metalocalypse where they learn the history of the blues. Thematically, it's not too far off That's why I am starting to dig the Ben Harper/Charlie Musselwhite album more and more. It just feels more like what I think modern blues should be like.

As far as the actual topic at hand here, I've become a huge fan of backing harmonies. Not in a Beach Boys, multi-layered manner. More like the far-back-in-the-mix harmonies. Imagine Dragons' "Radioactive" and the damn fine "Sea of Love" from The National are good modern examples from the top of my head.

I remember reading a quote from Questlove from an NPR interview concerning his book. He talked about a Supremes song where the hook for him wasn't the vocal melody, but a tenor sax part that played in the background. It made me start listening again for those little flourishes and details, which I greatly appreciate. A good song doesn't have to be dense in any sense of the word, it just has to be interesting. Those little fills only done on one instance of the riff or those faint harmonies are the kinds of things that make it fun for me to listen to.