My Top 1000 Songs #810: Changed The Locks

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

I first heard Americana singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams maybe a decade or so into her long career, when she was opening for Neil Young. Really loved the range of her music, from passionate love songs to twangy country to scrappy country-rock; but the song that made the biggest impression was the unhinged break-up rager "Changed The Locks," off her self=titled 1988 album. It was a funny and scathing diatribe from a woman covering her tracks, delivered with enough energy to get Crazy Horse on their heels. It sounds like I imagine country music would sound without commercial pop filters, just a bad-ass bitch on a tear Still singes today. (Later found out Tom Petty did a terrific cover, which is pretty cool in and of itself.)

Live 2001:

Tom Petty version: