Conor Oberst Brings New Songs, Paul Simon Cover To ACL

Somewhat lost amidst the madness that was Austin City Limits was the stirring set by Conor Oberst, who unleashed a pair of new tunes and covered a Paul Simon song. Oberst treated the crowd to a cover of Paul Simon's "Kodachrome," reportedly a popular singalong on Oberst's tour bus. As for the new ones, "I Got A Reason #2" is a Dylanesque rave-up that even name checks this magazine — Oberst sings "In the glass houses, in the pages of the Rolling Stone" at the top of the second verse. The other new song "10 Women" doesn't reference us, but it's still a pretty good tune. Oberst has been playing around with both songs on his "solo" tour, including the above rendition of "I Got a Reason #2" at an in-store performance at San Francisco's Amoeba Music.

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

More Song Stories entries »

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