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Dear listeners,
Lindsay is still out, which means you’ve got me (an editor who focuses on pop culture) on a day where you may need a bit of good fortune: Tax Day.
I don’t know what kind of anxiety April 15 provokes in you, but I’ve collected a playlist inspired by a bit of family lore. As the story goes, my newly married dad once griped to my grandfather about how quickly bills ate up a paycheck, down to the last dollar. Gramps’s response: “Be glad you had that dollar.”
So in the spirit of celebrating having just enough, I’m sharing my Tax Day jams. Savvy reader, you do not need me to point out all the root-of-all-evil bangers, scrapin’ and scrappin’ classics or TV ad earworms that mention money, money, money. I am also not here to question the tax code. Instead, I’ve assembled a set of songs that bop in the face of financial constraints, because getting down is, for now, still free.
I fly in any weather,
Elena
Listen along while you read.
1. Ray Charles: “Busted”
Harlan Howard’s lyrics are about as low as low gets (“my bills are all due and the baby needs shoes but I’m busted”) and suit the songwriter’s “three chords and the truth” approach to country classics. But under Ray Charles’s guidance, and with a blaring horn section, this 1963 single gains a “but who cares?” lilt that earned Charles the Grammy for best R&B recording.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
2. YoungBoy Never Broke Again: “Through the Storm”
The optimistically monikered Baton Rouge rapper builds this 2018 song around a bouncy pre-chorus on which he croons about clinging to hope during lean times (“Through the night when it be stormin’ / Hopin’ everything could clear up by the morning”), before segueing to a full-throated singalong chorus. “Through the Storm” was a bonus track from YoungBoy’s debut studio album, arriving after a mixtape run that established his brand of boisterous melancholy and just before a string of four No. 1 albums — a first taste of hater-silencing success.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
3. Willie Colón and Hector Lavoe: “El Día de Mi Suerte”
This classic of Nuyorican salsa clings to the promise that, despite some pretty dire circumstances, a change of luck pronto llegará — a faith that these two voices boldly embody. It’s also the start of the hook sung by Tony Sunshine on Big Pun’s triumphant warm-weather anthem “100%,” which brings the original lyric full circle: “And we won’t stop / We always knew we’d make it.”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
4. Dr. John: “(Everybody Wanna Get Rich) Rite Away”
I said we were gonna bop, didn’t I? Dr. John’s racka-tacka lyrics (read your 1040 in his voice for fun) provide a funky counterpoint to the groove set by the Meters on this 1974 track produced by Allen Toussaint, the gentleman genius of New Orleans R&B. The ad libs over the last minute of the track feel as good as hitting big on a scratch-off.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
5. Public Enemy: “Can’t Do Nuttin’ for Ya Man”
The rare solo spotlight for Flavor Flav was a childhood favorite for its easy-to-remember hook and danceability, with a bonus for the kooky 1990 video that featured Flav dancing on a turquoise Corvette while wearing a red devil costume. I still rap, “I can’t do nuttin’ for ya, man / you want six dollars for what?!?!” whenever I’m short on cash.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
6. Destiny’s Child: “Bills, Bills, Bills”
The way this 1999 single ramps up from a mere complaint about a complacent lover to a collective chant about a “trif-uh-lin’ good for nothin’ type of brother” is enough to drown out the excuses of any man trying to insufficiently answer the group’s only question: Can you pay my bills? A master class in “sing into your hairbrush” pop.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
7. Beyoncé: “Break My Soul (Terry Hunter Remix)”
Any version of the lead single from Beyoncé’s 2022 album, “Renaissance,” will get you stepping, but this Grammy-nominated remix unlocks another layer of joy from a dance track that already revels in release. After adding elements of Chicago house, the song bounds into church around the four-minute mark with a choir repeating “mot-i-va-tion” over an organ solo.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
8. Big Tymers: “Still Fly”
Birdman and Mannie Fresh undercut all of 2000s hip-hop excess with this number for anyone who made it to the club with “a quarter-tank of gas in my new E-class.” The verses still trade in the braggadocio and exhilarating capitalism that are Cash Money hallmarks, but a hook this infectious makes extending credit almost sound like a good idea.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
9. William DeVaughn: “Be Thankful for What You’ve Got”
Though it’s often erroneously credited to Curtis Mayfield (and to be fair, a listener could be forgiven for the mistake), this smoothed-out funk track that dreams up a “great big Cadillac / diamond in the back, sunroof top” was written by William DeVaughn, who was working as a draftsman for the U.S. government in 1972 when he recorded it. DeVaughn sweetly urges us not to let material lack get us down, while unironically performing the perfect soundtrack for driving such a car. We can be broke and still dream.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
The Amplifier Playlist
“A Tax Day Jam Session” track list
Track 1: Ray Charles, “Busted”
Track 2: YoungBoy Never Broke Again, “Through the Storm”
Track 3: Willie Colón and Hector Lavoe, “El Día de Mi Suerte”
Track 4: Dr. John, “(Everybody Wanna Get Rich) Rite Away”
Track 5: Public Enemy, “Can’t Do Nuttin’ for Ya Man”
Track 6: Destiny’s Child, “Bills, Bills, Bills”
Track 7: Beyoncé, “Break My Soul (Terry Hunter Remix)”
Track 8: Big Tymers, “Still Fly”
Track 9: William DeVaughn, “Be Thankful for What You’ve Got”
Elena Bergeron is an editor and writer in the Culture section of The Times.
The post A Tax Day Jam Session appeared first on New York Times.
