Playlist #94: Love Is In The Air

Happy Monday and happy early Valentine’s Day! Let’s celebrate by being martyred to Christ, just for fun, and maybe listening to this list of songs while we do that.

  1. Aaron Neville, “Everybody Plays The Fool”: If this song doesn’t get your significant other in the mood for a little somethin’ somethin’, check their pulse. They might be dead.
  2. ABBA, “Take A Chance On Me”: So upbeat. How could you not take a chance on one of these Swedish sirens?
  3. ZZ Top, “Gimme All Your Lovin'”: The power of the beards compels you. And the blooze.
  4. Young Dubliners, “Last House On The Street”: I heard my uncle’s band, The Regular Joes, play this one throughout college and grad school. It’s still an endearing, sweet little song.
  5. Frank Turner, “The Way I Tend To Be”: True love takes you as you are and helps you want to be better.
  6. David Gray, “You’re The World To Me”: There’s something about the heavy-handed strumming at the end of the chorus on this one that just digs into my brain and won’t go away.
  7. The Magnetic Fields, “Epitaph For My Love”: I think this is probably my wife’s favorite song by the Magnetic Fields, who are one of her favorite bands. It’s a little dour.
  8. Ricky Nelson, “Hello Mary Lou (Goodbye Heart)”: CCR did a cover of this song
  9. Van Morrison, “I Wanna Roo You (Scottish Derivative)”:
  10. Old 97s, “Valentine”:

Playlist #24: Dance Dance Revolution

Happy Monday morning and Happy Indigenous Persons Day! Today, I feel like dancing.

  1. Elliott Smith, “XO (Waltz #2)”: “Here it is, the revenge to the tune/You’re no good” is just one of the best lines ever.
  2. Bruce Springsteen, “Dancing In The Dark”: Who doesn’t want to drag Courtney Cox up onto stage to dance with the Boss?
  3. ABBA, “Dancing Queen”: Oddly enough, not the first song I thought of when I came up with this theme.
  4. Frank Turner, “Four Simple Words”: This is the song that inspired the playlist. “I want to dance/I want to dance/I want lust and love and a smattering of romance/But I’m no good at dancing/But I have to do something.” C’mon, that’s a great chorus.
  5. Van Morrison, “Moondance”: Van has gotten progressively weirder and more irascible as he’s aged, but this song (and the whole album of the same name) remains solid gold.
  6. jeremy messersmith, “It’s Only Dancing”: Dude decided a couple of years ago to decenter his ego by no longer capitalizing his name, which…that’s not how proper nouns work, Jer. That’s not how they work at all. Still a good song, though.
  7. John Mellencamp, “Dance Naked”: Excellent advice, as long as nobody’s watching.
  8. Dire Straits, “Walk Of Life”: I’m pretty sure the walk of life is a dance. If it isn’t, it ought to be.
  9. Calexico, “Sunken Waltz”: Any excuse to include a Calexico song on a playlist is fine by me.
  10. Tom Waits, “Tom Traubert’s Blues”: Included due to the “Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda/You’ll go waltzing Matilda with me” in the chorus. It’s sad and sweet and touching and heartbreaking all at once.