Eutrapelian LandMinds: Front Porch Republic: Symposium of Songs: Songs About Crime and Songs About Angels; An Essay about the Need for Belonging

 

Eutrapelian LandMinds

What I Need Is a Good Defense: Songs About Crime

With Michial Farmer

We’re listening to songs about crime this week, although I am saving songs about murder for a future episode. Along the way we’ll try to figure out why people commit crimes, though I wouldn’t hold out much hope that we’ll solve that particular mystery. Send your song recommendations to symposiumofsongs@gmail.com!

• 0:00

  Mickey Calin, “Jet Song” (West Side Story OBCR, 1957)

• 8:20

  Coolio featuring L.V., “Gangsta’s Paradise” (Gangsta’s Paradise, 1995)

• 12:37

  Reading: Plato, Republic

• 16:56

  Bruce Springsteen, “Atlantic City” (Nebraska, 1982)

• 20:49

  Josh Ritter, “Henrietta, Indiana” (Sermon on the Rocks, 2015)

• 24:50

  Reading: Plutarch, “Life of Lycurgus”

• 28:55

  Fiona Apple, “Criminal” (Tidal, 1996)

• 34:37

  The Clash, “I Fought the Law” (The Cost of Living, 1979)

• 37:14

  M.I.A., “Paper Planes” (Kala, 2007)

• 41:38

  Reading: Don DeLillo, “Hammer and Sickle”

• 43:36

  Junior Murvin, “Police and Thieves” (single, 1976)

• 47:35

  Carla Thomas, “Stop Thief” (The Queen Alone, 1967)

• 50:10

  Grateful Dead, “Friend of the Devil” (American Beauty, 1970)

• 53:30

  Fugazi, “Repeater” (Repeater, 1990)

• 57:28

  Johnny Cash, “One Piece at a Time” (One Piece at a Time, 1976)

https://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2026/01/what-i-need-is-a-good-defense-songs-about-crime/

The Summons Our Blood Knows

By

Mark Botts

January 28, 2026

FRONT PORCH REPUBLIC

She cares for the Kid until he mends. And what does the Kid do to her in return? “He has no money to pay her and he leaves in the night.” The…

And high

Up the birds rose into sights against the darkening

Clouds. They tossed themselves among the fading

Landscapes of the sky like rags, as in

Abandonment to the summons their blood knew.

Like the birds in Wendell Berry’s poem, “September 2,” we hear a summons our blood knows. It is a summons to belonging. Aristotle tells us we are political animals, and scripture says “it is not good for man to be alone.” We reject the summons at our peril. Fortunately, something inside us strongly inclines us to respond. We want to belong. And yet this desire is as dangerous as it is necessary. Sometimes, we accept the summons even when it means walking into the Devil’s arms and letting him violate our body and soul....

https://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2026/01/the-summons-our-blood-knows/

A Train to the Astral Plain: Songs About Angels

With Michial Farmer

We’re listening to songs about angels today on A Symposium of Popular Songs, and trying to get to the bottom of how they became such sentimentalized beings. Completely accidentally, there are a lot of songs from 1998 on today’s show. I wonder if the popularity of Touched by an Angel had a lot of people thinking about angels. Send your song suggestions to symposiumofsongs@gmail.com!

• 0:00

  Pep Squad, “Angel” (No Doy!, 1998)

• 5:51

  Alice Coltrane and Carlos Santana, “Angel of Air” (Illuminations, 1974)

• 10:22

  Reading: Genesis 3

• 11:32

  Reading: Ezekiel 10

• 15:51

  Terry Scott Taylor, “Too Many Angels” (John Wayne, 1998)

• 19:34

  Champion Leader, “Angel Wings: Cue the Strings” (4st, 2014)

• 24:20

  Reading: Genesis 19

• 28:09

  Hank Williams, “Angel of Death” (single, 1954)

• 29:54

  Sunny Day Real Estate, “Killed by an Angel” (The Rising Tide, 2000)

• 35:07

  Reading: Luke 1

• 36:47

  Reading: Daniel 9

• 38:44

  Helen Reddy, “Blow, Gabriel, Blow” (Center Stage, 1998)

• 41:44

  Benny Goodman with Martha Tilton, “And the Angels Sing” (single, 1939)

• 45:07

  Reading: Hebrews 13

• 45:47

  Newsboys, “Entertaining Angels” (Step Up to the Microphone, 1998)

• 49:55

  Common Children, “Entertaining Angels” (The In Between Time, 2001)

• 53:47

  Bob Dylan, “Three Angels” (New Morning, 1970)

• 57:04

  Judee Sill, “Crayon Angels” (Judee Sill, 1971)

https://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2026/02/a-train-to-the-astral-plain-songs-about-angels/?fbclid=IwY2xjawP3QsBleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFsRFY2S1dFdHVGOXViZnhyc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHp0PWOrqKMHN7QEth4lW8-yM-AZ8-NtiivkW7KT6i3eLeXRIGoXr8rZ0aNrh_aem_9Ns3HbUE2uEmbatNQpdn_Q