While stoned on weed in the early aughties, I got the idea of learning a song from each year of the 20th century. I had many reasons: I wanted to get my hands on all those basic musical structures and incorporate the knowledge of how to construct them into my skill-set. I also wanted to show people of all ages what the century’s music was like. The hours it would take to listen to them all would be a kind of total immersion in the whole damn 20th century. I’d come out of it with greater historical insight, or maybe a headache. Or something.

My criteria for choosing the songs:

1. The song had to be catchy—indeed, had to repeat-in-your-ears-in-the-most-delightful-way catchy. You will find that a surprising number of these songs find their way into your head.

2. As much and as often as possible, the song had to resonate with the general feeling of the year it was written. It had to feel like that year. Sort of. You know? Look up your birthday year song!

3. I had to be able to play them and pull it off, which was a serious consideration. By 1980, playing new music was harder. I was 42 and would be doing the music of people younger than I was, and increasingly so as the 21st century approached. Few geezers sing the songs of youngsters as well as Johnny Cash did, and that was one of my touchstones in choosing the 100. I was shooting for that level.

4. Can’t be either too well known or too obscure.

Two factors made choosing songs of the 80s and 90s harder for me: So much more music was released than ever before, and I had been listening to the radio less. There was so much good stuff going on under my radar, stuff that I missed.

As the 21st century rolled on, Taylor Mac did a much more ambitious version of my idea—a 240-song history of the US. That’s 1776 to 2016. It culminated in a nonstop 24-hour show featuring every song. The ones he chose often emphasized general social history as it passed by. I saw 9 hours of it, and it’s the only show I’ve ever seen that hit me as hard as Hamilton. I pray recordings of the whole show will become available. I’ve been unable to find a list of all his song choices, but so far I’ve found four that we share: “Take Me Out To The Ball Game” (1908), “Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life” (1910), “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” (1922), and “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” (1973).

Behold! Da Hunnert!