Each Friday I pick a song–new, old, borrowed, blue–that’s been on my mind and in my ears, and write a short post about it.

This is “Get it On” by T. Rex:

“Get it On” easily holds a position in my personal top ten pop songs of all time list (a list I’ve never actually made, by the way). It’s pretty close to the perfect thing: a crunchy riff, a dirty sax, lyrics that don’t quite make sense but are obviously about sex, a short and simple chorus that’s barely even a chorus. It’s a song you hear as a little kid and immediately love, even though you can’t really understand it. When I was the little kid who didn’t understand it, the phrase “bang a gong” really thrilled me when I heard it on the radio. The song is on my mind this week because I’ve been teaching the novel Diamond Star Halo by Tiffany Murray . Like the song, the novel, too, is dirty and sweet, oh yeah.