My Top 1000 Songs #996: Run Dusty Run

[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.]

Returning again to that wonderful debut long-player from The Long Ryders, 1984's Native Sons, which so delightfully paired jangly, Byrdsy psych-pop of the Paisley Underground scene with a more rollicking pre-Americana cowpunk vibe. Leaning towards the latter, "Run Dusty Run" has always felt almost too casually carefree, more a twangy bar song than a track reaching for the record's grander ambitions--yet for some reason it's a song I still find myself absent-mindedly humming to myself all the time for no apparent reason. Sometimes a killer hook is all you really need. (Plus, it's one of the most affectionate horse-themed tracks since the afore-referenced Byrds expressed their love for that "Chestnut Mare.")

Live 1986: