For those who don’t care for Rap, I have one suggestion for which you may make an exception, and it is from a rather unlikely source: Lucinda Williams!
On her album West she has a 9:06 song entitled "Wrap My Head Around That". The song structure is just two alternating chords played on acoustic and electric guitars (both Bill Frisell and Doug Pettibone are listed in the album credits), with a simple boom/crack drum beat (played by Jim Keltner) and a mildly funky electric bass part (Tony Garnier, Dylan’s long-time bassist).
Like the entire album, the song’s lyrics are absolutely fantastic. Lucinda "sings" them is Rap style of a sort---almost every word in the same note, sung rather "matter-of-factly". For you Rockers, late in the song a stinging, kinetic electric guitar part erupts from out of nowhere, filling the space between the last verse and chorus. Quite thrilling!
Two songs later comes the last song on the album, and it is really something special. It is entitled "West", and once you hear it you will know why she chose the song as the album’s title, and as the album’s final track (it is the best ending to an album I have ever heard, and that includes "The End" on Abbey Road).
"West" is the most beautiful, deeply romantic song I have heard in a VERY long time, and brings me to tears every time I listen to it (almost every day for the past two years). It sort of reminds me of "Moon River" by Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer, as sung by Andy Williams. A masterpiece of a song imo.
The album also starts off strong with "Are You Alright?", in which Lucinda inquires as to a friend’s well being after suddenly disappearing from her life. Yes, Lucinda is a very romantic soul. I deeply love her, and often replay in my head my mid-80’s meeting of her in Club Lingerie on Sunset Blvd. We were both there to see her then-husband’s band The Long Ryders live (he was their drummer. For you musicians he was playing a set of 1940’s Radio King drums. Very cool!).
