Velvet Underground>I'm Set Free

The Velvet Underground are one of those bands that have a very distinctive sound - even if you've never heard the song before you know it's them almost immediately. Personally I prefer their more mellow songs (although they do some cracking upbeat ones, too) and the album The Velvet Underground (1969) has plenty of them - 'Pale Blue Eyes', 'Jesus' and 'I'm Set Free'.

'I'm Set Free' is a very good song. It's probably about drugs as are so many of The Velvet's songs ('Heroin' in my opinion is the best song about drugs ever written). However, like 'Jesus' there is plenty of spirituality about this song. Who for example is the 'prince of stories'? And there's biblical imagery throughout.

So why did it make my Lent playlist? Well, traditionally Lent is associated with the rigours of fasting and discipline. These things whilst associated with keeping particular rules are endured to bring freedom for the soul. In my own experience freedom rarely comes without a cost. And if we can only perservere through the pain barrier there is a prize worth it all at the end.

Bruce Springsteen>Thunder Road

Sometimes it's the spirit of a song rather than the lyrics that sets my spiritual pulse racing. The Boss' 'Thunder Road' (1975), from the album Born to Run, is in this mould (not that the lyrics aren't fantastic, because they clearly are). It was my friend Pete who reminded me recently of what a great song this is. There are other songs that have the same effect if I'm in the right mood: Doves 'Pounding' is another good example (and is surely modelled on 'Thunder Road'), and pretty much anything by The Strokes.

Bruce Springsteen has travelled with me for years. I remember being gathered around the record player with my Dad and Brother for a first listen of Tunnel of Love (1987). The brilliant Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978) formed the soundtrack to my paper-round in the school holidays. And as for 'Streets of Philadelphia' - can there be a more perfect 3 minute pop song?

'Thunder Road', though, like much of Springsteen's work, just screams out the desire to go somewhere else, to do something more, to break free. This is hope for the ordinary person on the street. The track builds, until Clarence Clemons' saxophone solo just lifts you to a higher plain. This in my opinion would make a great funeral song!