100 Great Songs, Pt. 2, by B. Clay Moore

#98: Sweet Thing by Van Morrison

Why is it great? Because it's the best track on the greatest album of the rock and roll era. You could make arguments for The Way Young Lovers Do, Madame George, Cypress Avenue, or even the title track, but for me the song that kicks the Astral Weeks album into orbit is Sweet Thing, which sounds like the aural manifestation of a drive down an ex-lover's rainswept street at midnight. It may be my favorite song of all time.

#97: The Whole of the Moon by the Waterboys

Emerging from the morass of dreck lobbed at listeners by eighties radio, The Whole of the Moon is a soaring, joyful ode to experiencing life, rather than just living life, and it actually made it onto the radio here and there. Music and lyrics work together to create something beautiful. It's the rare artifact from the era that doesn't sound dated by bad production or synthetic instrumentation. It's nearly perfect.

You climbed on the ladder

With the wind in your sails

You came like a comet

Blazing your trail

Too high

Too far

Too soon

You saw the whole of the moon!