It's essentially a concert film, the third (following Heart of Gold and Trunk Show) in which director Jonathan Demme showcases Neil Young's blazing guitar and bruised wonder of a voice. Demme journeys with the Canadian icon back to his hometown, Omemee, where Young drives through the old neighborhood recalling tales of his youth. Then he moves on to Toronto's Massey Hall, where those tales and snatches of memory are burnished into lasting songs of love and loss. The classics ("Hey Hey, My My," "Ohio") mingle with new ones ("You Never Call," "Leia") until they yield fresh revelations of a remarkable life. As he did with Talking Heads in Stop Making Sense, Demme can aim a concert film solely at you. Soak it up. Journeys, shot on the last two nights of Young's 2011 solo world tour, is essential Neil Young.

Related
• Q&A: Jonathan Demme on the Making of 'Neil Young Journeys'
• Readers' Poll: The Best Neil Young Songs

“The A Team”

This debut track from the then-20-year-old British singer-songwriter has a dark story behind it. Sheeran says he culls songwriting inspiration from "viewing other people's situations," which, for the heroine in "The A Team," involves drug addiction and prostitution that began as a teen. Sheeran paints the woman's trials with haunting imagery such as "But lately her face seems/Slowly sinking, wasting/Crumbling like pastries." "I did a gig at a homeless shelter, [and the song] is about one of the women there. It's her story," he said.