Listen to Country Joe and the Fish's "I Feel Like I'm Fixing to Die" and Fred McDowell's "Shake 'Em On Down"

German-born roots-music fan Chris Strachwitz founded Arhoolie Records in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1960 — a blues and folk boomtown on the verge of psychedelia. This deluxe-hardback book with four CDs covers Arhoolie's first decade as Strachwitz records the action at local gigs and in studio and living-room sessions: stark blues by Lightnin' Hopkins, Fred McDowell and Skip James; the prophetic ferment in the Berkeley folk community, including rare tracks by guitarist Perry Lederman and singer Barbara Dane; and early rumblings of the Fillmore spirit by Country Joe and the Fish, guitarist Jerry Hahn and the Joy of Cooking. It is the sound of a scene — and a great label — being born.

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“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.