The 10th album from slide-guitar master and jam-band darling Ben Harper is his most searingly personal album, an expression, no doubt, of the recent implosion of his marriage to actress Laura Dern. Even the quietest moments on Give Till It's Gone, like "Pray That Our Love Sees the Dawn," on which Jackson Browne sings harmony, mingle desperation with defiant strength. Elsewhere (notably "Rock N' Roll Is Free," inspired by Neil Young, and "Do It for You, Do It for Us"), Harper roars on guitar, achieving a hard-won redemption through lacerating noise. Ringo Starr drums on two songs that bring psychedelic deliverance. But Harper usually drips blood, his pain an inspiration and the source of our pleasure.

Listen to "Rock N' Roll is Free." 

“Everyday People”

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.