bruce springsteen

Playlist #209

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It’s Monday again, somehow. Time continues forward. SOL testing starts this week at my school, so we’re stuck in one class each day for two periods instead of one. I’m thinking the kids are gonna get real sick of my dad jokes before that time ends.

  1. Dire Straits, “Your Latest Trick”: It’s one of those classic ’80s songs with saxophone solos in it.
  2. Elvis Presley, “Run On”: I’d only ever heard the Johnny Cash (and, by extension, the Gaslight Anthem) version of this song, which is slower and more menacing. Elvis’s version sounds like a tent revival on speed.
  3. Kenny Rogers & the First Edition, “Just Dropping In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)”: Kentucky-Fried Kenny was apparently a bit…psychedelic back in the day? I somehow never realized he’d done this song, but it’s groovy.
  4. Drive-By Truckers, “Carl Perkins’ Cadillac”: I love story songs, and ones based on reality (Carl Perkins really did win a Cadillac from Sam Phillips) are just always pretty great. And no one really does them better these days than the Drive-By Truckers, who have such an eye (and ear) for detail.
  5. Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins, “Born Secular”: Such a sad, deep song, driven by that drum machine loop and the big chords on the piano. There really isn’t a bad song on that album.
  6. Nanci Griffith, “This Old Town”: Oklahoma is littered with towns like the ones this song is about: small, isolated communities that should have shut down years ago, shoud’ve become ghost towns a dozen times over, but still somehow cling to life and continued existence. Most of them are built around the local public school, actually.
  7. Tom Petty, “Crawling Back to You (Alternate Version)”: The original version of this song remains one of the absolute best on his best album, Wildflowers. This alternate take feels looser and somehow sadder.
  8. Bruce Springsteen, “O Mary Don’t You Weep”: The Seeger Sessions collection is such a strange aberration in Springsteen’s catalog. It’s loose and celebratory and fun, without the dozens of layers of post-production and overdubs and the agonizing over mixing and mastering that usually accompanies a Bruce production.
  9. Van Morrison, “Almost Independence Day”: While the guitar riff sounds almost like “Wish You Were Here,” the song’s other Pink Floyd connection is the length – it’s over ten minutes – if not the thematic content. Van sorta goes on a rambling, stream-of-consciousness sort of thing over the course of the song, but it sounds amazing. The low buzzsaw of that keyboard (or is it a cello or a double bass? I honestly don’t know) that cuts through occasionally gets me every time, and I wish I could figure out how he got that tone out of it and how I could duplicate it.
  10. Collective Soul, “Shine”: So apparently the entire album this song is off of was just the demos the lead singer did on his own, playing all the instruments himself. The little “yeah” before the chorus was sung through a toilet paper roll, which is a hilarious bit of trivia with which to impress your friends.

Playlist #201

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Happy Monday, everybody. We’re in plague mode in the Casa Brancottrell; everyone has been sick all weekend, with high temperatures and body aches and all that goodness. But hey, even having a fever over 102 all weekend won’t stop me from giving you a new playlist!

  1. Bruce Springsteen, “O Mary Don’t You Weep”: I often wish Bruce would do more stuff like this. It’s so loose and he’s clearly having a blast playing these songs all off the cuff. Music can be fun, Brucey.
  2. Phil Collins, “The Roof Is Leaking”: I love that this song is made up entirely of banjo, piano, and slide guitar. It’s so strange, and yet it works.
  3. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Spike (Live)”: The live version is far superior to the album version, as it includes the story of who Spike is (a dude in a leather jacket and a dog collar) and how he found himself being castigated by some dude sitting at a bar.
  4. Bob Dylan, “Born In Time”: It still surprises me that Dylan writes and records songs this good that just…don’t make it onto an album proper. It’s why I keep getting the Bootleg Series collections whenever they come out, because there are always hidden gems like this.
  5. Marc Sibilia, “More To This”: Heard this guy playing this song on Instagram months ago, downloaded the official version of it, and it remains pretty darn good.
  6. Waxahatchee, “War”: I like how simple all of Waxahatchee’s songs seem at first. But then, you start digging into the songs, and you discover a whole world of amazing bits that come together to create a perfect song.
  7. Linda Ronstadt, “Silver Threads and Golden Needles”: Beautiful song. Ronstadt knocks it out of the park.
  8. Dolly Parton, “Shine”: Dolly Parton, covering a Collective Soul song? It’s more likely (and more bluegrassy) than you think!
  9. Josh Ritter, “Golden Age Of Radio”: There’s never a bad time to listen to this song. It’s just always great.
  10. Lizzo, “Love In Real Life”: Lizzo does a pretty damn convincing version of The Strokes on this new single. I kinda dig it.

Playlist #192 and #193: M’Shelby Mix Edition

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Happy…Monday? Wait, that can’t be right. Monday? Well, stranger things have happened other than me posting a playlist on time. For instance, today also happens to be my 18th Wedding Anniversary. Yay, our relationship is old enough to vote! Here’s a double playlist of some songs that I think my wife would love. I’ve been curating a playlist for her on my phone for years called M’Shelby Mix, and here’s the latest iteration.

  1. The Pixies, “Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf Mix)”: Probably the definitive version of this particular tune. Slowed down from the original, given a slight air of menace, and just a killer drum beat.
  2. Arcade Fire, “Intervention”: Gotta love the church organ.
  3. AC Newman, “Take On Me”: Newman doesn’t aim for quite the same glass-shattering falsetto in the chorus, but the slowed down, acoustic-driven version he turns in sounds just as good as anything a-ha ever did.
  4. Elliott Smith, “Baby Britain”: Favorite line is a toss-up between “We knocked another couple back/Dead soldiers lined up on the table/Still prepared for an attack/They didn’t know they’d been disabled” and “The light was on but it was dim/Revolver’s been turned over/And now it’s ready once again/The radio was playing “Crimson and Clover.”
  5. The Flaming Lips, “Free Radicals (A Hallucination of the Christmas Skeleton Pleading with a Suicide Bomber)”: A sneering indictment of Bush-era foreign policy.
  6. Rilo Kiley, “Does He Love You?”: A sordid tale of love triangles and whether or not he’d ever really leave his wife for you. Why would he, though?
  7. Phil Collins, “In the Air Tonight”: If there’s a better drum fill in existence, I don’t know about it. Oh, to be able to go back and hear this song for the first time.
  8. The National, “Slow Show”: Probably Michelle’s favorite song by the National. And it’s a banger. I love that guitar chord progression. Wish I could get my voice low enough to actually sing it.
  9. Josh Ritter, “Golden Age of Radio”: We both sing along at the top of our lungs when this song comes on. It might as well be part of our marriage vows.
  10. Iron & Wine, “Such Great Heights”: Postal Service cover done with such delicate heartache and beauty that you forget there’s another version of this song out there.
  11. The Four Tops, “Bernadette”: Shouted backing vocals are always fun.
  12. The Cure, “Just Like Heaven”: Given her adoration of stuff from the ’80s, it should come as no surprise that Michelle loves the Cure. I’ve grown to tolerate most of their stuff, though this song I really do actually enjoy.
  13. Tom Waits, “Hoist That Rag”: What can I say? Michelle likes pirates and pirate songs.
  14. They Might Be Giants, “She’s An Angel”: This song always makes me think of Michelle. I know she digs TMBG, and likes this song, but she said it couldn’t be our song because it’s too one-sided and doesn’t reflect her feelings for me. And, y’know, I get it. But it’s still a song that makes me think of her.
  15. Better Than Ezra, “Rosealia”: Michelle also really digs the ’90s, and especially Better Than Ezra. This one is another sing-along song.
  16. Pearl Jam, “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town”: Acoustic Pearl Jam? More entertaining and worthwhile than you might think!
  17. David Bowie, “Life On Mars”: Did you know he wrote this after Frank Sinatra didn’t accept some lyrics he wrote for “I Did It My Way”? It’s true! It’s why the two songs have such similar chord progressions.
  18. Weezer, “Say It Ain’t So”: Far better than that song about him hitting on a lesbian.
  19. Bruce Springsteen, “Candy’s Room”: Probably Michelle’s favorite Springsteen song. It’s got amazing drums and a beautiful piano line, so I get it.
  20. The Magnetic Fields, “Nothing Matters When We’re Dancing”: This is our song. We eloped and didn’t have a wedding reception, much to our chagrin, but if we did have one, this would’ve been the first song we danced to. We have a poster with the lyrics of it hanging up in our living room.

Playlist #181

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Wednesdays are the new Mondays, baby!

  1. Redbone, “Wevoka”: Monday was Indigenous People’s Day, after all, so what better way to kick off our playlist for this week than a song from the Native American rock band Redbone?
  2. Stevie Nicks, “The Lighthouse”: If you told me that, in her late 70s, Stevie Nicks would release a maximalist pop song supporting women’s rights just weeks before the 2024 presidential election, I’d have said that…sounds about right, actually.
  3. Juan Luis Guerra, “Ojala Que Lluave Cafe”: A Dominican Republic singer-songwriter writes about only being able to move home if it starts raining rice and coffee. It’s a beautiful, heartbreaking song that includes a children’s choir.
  4. Teddy Swims, “Lose Control”: This man’s got some pipes. There’s something about the big white guy with face tattoos who can really belt that I kinda dig.
  5. Tom Petty, “Won’t Back Down”: I’ve been immersing myself in Tom Petty again lately. This song will still remain long after America is a distant dream in some ancient textbook.
  6. Adele, “Rolling in the Deep”: Is it a four-chord pop song? Yes. Does Adele just whip ass at singing the hell out of it anyway? Oh my, yes.
  7. Soundgarden, “Black Hole Sun”: My favorite part of this song is the guy who does the backing vocals singing, “Black hole sun, black hole sun!” in the background towards the end of the song. I don’t know why, but the guy’s tone just cracks me up every single time.
  8. Bruce Springsteen, “Atlantic City”: Nebraska remains my undisputed favorite Springsteen album. Sure, it’s very spare and stark, but I kinda like that about it, and the way he plays the guitar on some of them – like “Atlantic City,” for instance – fills in the corners of the song in a way that make a full band treatment absolutely unnecessary.
  9. Paul McCartney, “My Brave Face”: No idea why McCartney wrote a song about trying to get back on the horse after a divorce while he was still married to and deeply in love with Linda, but it’s a decent one.
  10. The Wallflowers, “Sleepwalker”: Did they ever write a better song than this? I don’t think they did.

Playlist #179

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It’s another rainy, gray Monday here in Northern Virginia. But we’ve got some tunes and we’ve got a bit of caffeine in our systems, so let’s go!

  1. Kris Kristofferson, “The Best of All Possible Worlds”: I know four things about Kris Kristofferson, who passed away over the weekend. (1) He was pretty badass in the Blade movies. (2) He stood beside Sinead O’Connor at the Concert for Dylan’s 30th Anniversary in solidarity with the singer while the crowd booed her (she’d just torn up a picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live, like, a week earlier). (3) He once threatened to beat Toby Keith’s jingoist ass into the ground at a 9/11 benefit concert. (4) He was a damn good songwriter, and he’ll be missed.
  2. Jimmy Eat World, “The Middle”: Uplifting and danceable.
  3. Sabrina Carpenter, “Please Please Please”: Maybe I’m just showing my age here. Maybe this music isn’t for me, no matter how ELO-inflected the instrumentation may seem. But when did pop singers get so horny on main? I’m no prude, and I definitely don’t want to yuck someone else’s yum (especially since I think she’s pretty talented and a decent-enough songwriter), but I just don’t think I’m the target audience for this, and that’s okay.
  4. Chappell Roan, “Red Wine Supernova”: Speaking of pop singers I’m not the target audience for…
  5. Bruce Springsteen, “She Don’t Love Me Now”: A Springsteen cover of a Jesse Malin song? Yes, please! The sax solo fits perfectly.
  6. Billy Idol, “Bitter Taste”: A 21st century Billy Idol song that’s actually pretty good? It’s more likely than you’d think!
  7. The Gaslight Anthem, “Stay Lucky”: If ever there was a song that got the blood pumping while you speed down the highway doing way too many miles per hour over the speed limit, it was probably this one.
  8. Pearl Jam, “Hail Hail”: Maybe I’m just in a mood this morning and need to be pepped up, I dunno.
  9. Toad the Wet Sprocket, “Nightingale Song”: I love the harmonies on this song.
  10. JD McPherson, “The Phantom of New Rochelle”: A surfy rock instrumental from the Okie guitarist. Fun and reverby.

Playlist #177

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Happy Monday, folks! Did you know that you can join my Patreon and hear a new song every single week? It’s true! Come join me, I’m lonely. Here’s songs by other people:

  1. Gary Wright, “Two Faced Man”: Pre-“Dream Weaver,” Gary Wright had a mustache and a more Americana approach to music. This one features George Harrison on slide guitar!
  2. Lucero, “Downtown/On My Way Downtown”: I unabashedly love this song. The horns that feature throughout this whole album (called Women and Work, if you’re curious) is top-notch and adds a great layer of novelty to the songs.
  3. Deer Tick, “Easy”: This song sounds so damn angry every time I listen to it, and I love it. Very loud and brash and upset and unhappy and so damn angry.
  4. Van Morrison, “Give Me a Kiss”: This song is so lighthearted and bouncy, like the musical equivalent of a kiss from your significant other.
  5. Bruce Springsteen, “One Step Up”: Getting back to sadness, apparently, with the Boss’s cheating song. At least, that’s how I always think of it.
  6. Days of the New, “Touch, Peel and Stand”: An acoustic-based grunge song? It’s more likely than you think!
  7. The Flying Burrito Brothers, “Sin City”: Sometimes, you just want some good ol’ fashioned country rock, and the FBBs are here for you in that moment.
  8. Neil Young, “Harvest”: Speaking of country rock, here’s another classic of the genre. I spent a good chunk of the end of last week learning how to play a number of songs off this album, so I’m pretty stuck in on this one.
  9. Garbage, “Only Happy When It Rains”: Sharp songwriting, incisive lyrics, and a snarl on the lead singer’s lips make this one a classic.
  10. Frank Turner, “We Shall Not Overcome”: Sometimes, it’s best to just say “fuck it” and accept the inevitable.

Playlist #173 – Back to School Edition!

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Happy Monday, folks! Once more, a new school year has rolled around, and once more I woke up having not won the lottery, so I’m back in the classroom for my twentieth year of teaching. Which is more than a little horrifying. How can I be old enough to have done anything for twenty years? Except make playlists, of course. I’ve been doing that since I was born, essentially.

  1. The Call, “Let the Day Begin”: As I said last year when I featured this song on my start of the year playlist, this song always played on the classic rock station we listened to in my hometown first thing in the morning, usually around the time I was on my way to school. So I kind of associate it with the school day staring.
  2. Matchbox 20, “Stop”: Are these guys the most middle-of-the-road pop rock from the last twenty-some years? I think they might be.
  3. John Bonamasa, “Driving Towards the Daylight”: I had certain preconceived notions about what a John Bonamasa song would sound like and who he was as an artist, and boy was I wrong. It’s pretty good stuff.
  4. Billy Idol, “Bitter Taste”: Speaking of songs from artists I didn’t expect, this latter-day Billy Idol song is actually pretty damn good.
  5. Post Malone, “Have the Heart (feat. Dolly Parton)”: I didn’t have “Post Malone releases an actual country album” on my 2024 bingo card, let alone a duet with Dolly Parton that features the classic country like “I didn’t have the heart to break yours,” but here we are.
  6. Rufus Wainwright, “Going to a Town”: Melancholy and downbeat, but a lovely and beautiful song.
  7. Bruce Springsteen, “Stolen Car”: Speaking of downbeat, this is probably the most subtle song Springsteen has ever recorded, and I’m including Nebraska in that tally. I’m sure it was totally by accident.
  8. Young Dubliners, “Last House on the Street”: A simple love song, but the best love songs are simple.
  9. Van Morrison, “Into the Mystic”: “It’s too late to stop now.”
  10. Bob Dylan, “Born in Time”: Every so often, latter-day Dylan pops up with an absolute gem that he, for reasons I can’t explain, he relegates to the Bootleg Series rather than releasing on an album proper. This is one of ’em.

Playlist #158: More Tales from the Revolution

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Happy Monday, folks. It’s a wet and weary Monday, especially for me. I got sick over the weekend and have not fully recovered. But time and playlists (and AP Test proctoring) stop for no one!

  1. Gil Scott-Heron, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”: Gawd damn, how had I never heard this song until this weekend? It is so angry (justifiably so) and righteous (also justifiably so) and that groove is undeniable.
  2. John Lennon, “Working Class Hero”: Over the weekend, the Wife convinced me to activate Sirus XM on our car, as she was tired of “just listening to your curated playlists all the time.” Apparently she wants unpredictability in the music she listens to? That just sounds horrible to me, but that may be my weird little quirk. Anyway, I heard this song this weekend, too, probably on the same radio show as the Gil Scott-Heron track.
  3. Bruce Springsteen, “We Shall Overcome”: The looseness of the Seeger Sessions always struck me as very out of character for Springsteen, but it’s also a big part of why I love these songs so much.
  4. Adeem the Artist, “Books & Records”: The revolution will not be televised, and a lot of folks couldn’t afford to watch it even if they wanted to. While not a revolution per se, it is indicative of the folks down at the bottom of society for whom scraping by just doesn’t cut it.
  5. Bob Dylan, “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”: Who writes more bitterly, more eloquently, about the revolution than Bob?
  6. Bob Marley & the Wailers,” Redemption Song”: You get the feeling – just from listening to this song, if nothing else – that Bob Marley understood the human spirit and the drive for freedom far better than many ever will. And maybe that’s a good thing: maybe we don’t want more folks having to think long and hard about how difficult freedom is to obtain, how challenging it is to fight just to exist. But Marley knew.
  7. Buffalo Springfield, “For What It’s Worth”: I’ll take “Songs I didn’t see becoming quite so relevant again” for $500, Alex.
  8. Leadbelly, “Midnight Special”: While I absolutely love the CCR version of this one, Leadbelly gives it a little something John Fogerty never could. There’s some authenticity to Leadbelly’s version – this is a man who literally sang his way out of prison at least once – and a lived-in experience that just isn’t present in the CCR version, no matter how awesome it is.
  9. Moxy Fruvous, “Stuck in the 90s”: While we may look back through nostalgic, rose-tinted glasses at that decade of decadence and – dare I say? – hedonism, not everyone sees the 90s as the golden age we think of it as being.
  10. Tracy Chapman, “If Not Now…”: Then when?

Playlist #156 – School Daze

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Happy Monday, folks! As we near the end of April, students’ minds start turning to thoughts of summer and freedom from the tyranny of…um…*checks notes*…learning. Here’s an appropriate playlist, all because I listened to the new Taylor Swift album this weekend and it features a song called “So High School.”

  1. Taylor Swift, “So High School”: I mean, I told you right up there why I put together this particular playlist, didn’t I? This song was mentioned right there. It’s not about high school per se, but it is about people being petty and small-minded and acting very high school, so we count it.
  2. The Angels, “My Boyfriend’s Back”: There’s nothing in this song to particularly attach it to high school students, but it feels very high schoolish to me. “My boyfriend’s back, and you’re gonna be in trouble,” they sing, and it’s very taunting and playground-esque.
  3. Bruce Springsteen, “Glory Days”: Ah, who doesn’t look back on high school as the time when your life was at its absolute peak? I mean, I don’t, but I also didn’t plateau at that point in my life and went on to do other, better things.
  4. Chuck Berry, “Schooldays”: Hail, hail, rock and roll.
  5. Old 97s, “Friends Forever”: You know how some folks go from nerds to kickass musicians in a rock band? The Old 97s know.
  6. The Mountain Goats, “Fall of the Star High School Running Back”: We’ve talked about this song. Don’t go from being the star running back on the high school football team to a drug dealer. You will get caught and you will receive an adult sentence for it, especially in Texas.
  7. Loudon Wainwright III, “School Days”: Loudon Wainwright III has this wonderful way to approach nostalgia and the yearning for the past that I’ve always loved.
  8. Pearl Jam, “Education”: In case you need a little Pearl Jam in your day. I know I do. Their new album is also actually pretty solid.
  9. Pink Floyd, “The Happiest Days of Our Lives/Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2”: Like I wasn’t going to put this song on this list. And yeah, it’s technically two songs, but they are always played as a single song, so I’m only counting it as one.
  10. The Ramones, “Teenage Lobotomy”: C’mon, we all think they’ve had ’em. It’s the only explanation for the slack-jawed looks I get every day.

Playlist #154 – Eclipse Music

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Happy Monday and happy eclipse day, folks. The moon is gonna pass in front of the sun today, freak a buncha people out, and maybe signal mankind’s final doom and destruction? At least the weather is nice here for it, where we’ll only get 80% occlusion instead of the totality that they’ll see in, say, Cleveland. Of course, you’d have to be in Cleveland for that, so…tossup?

  1. Bonnie Tyler, “Total Eclipse of the Heart”: Let’s go ahead and get the most obvious one out of the way first. Yes, this is gonna be on everyone’s eclipse playlist. Yes, it is very, very obvious. It’s still a good song, though.
  2. Pink Floyd, “Brain Damage/Eclipse”: The other most obvious choice. Well, half of it is, anyway. But I feel like you can’t really play “Eclipse” without first playing “Brain Damage.” It’s like playing “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2” without playing “The Happiest Days of Our Lives.” Y’know, I’m starting to think this is a specific Pink Floyd issue…
  3. Bruce Springsteen, “Darkness on the Edge of Town”: Now, we get into some less obvious tracks. Yes, it’s more of a sunset, metaphorical darkness in the Springsteen song, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t have also applied to a total solar eclipse. Springsteen’s songs are multifaceted, I tell ya!
  4. David Gray, “Red Moon”: While the occluded sun is the obvious star of the day (pun definitely intended), let’s not forget the one who’s making it all possible: the moon!
  5. U2, “Staring at the Sun”: Let us say a quick prayer for all the optometrists who will be seeing folks over the next few weeks who are complaining about not being able to see a damn thing ’cause they literally stared at the sun without any protection or forethought.
  6. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Straight Into Darkness”: Again, a more metaphorical darkness than what we’re really dealing with during the eclipse, but do you know how rarely eclipses are the subject of songwriting? There’s not a lot out there, is what I’m saying, so you take what you can get, especially if it’s a kickass Tom Petty song.
  7. The Police, “Invisible Sun”: Replaced a previous Police song on the list, “Darkness,” because I think this song is way funnier to have on the list.
  8. The National, “The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness”: Well, get ready, system, ’cause in certain parts of North America this afternoon for about three minutes, you’ll be able to dream!
  9. George Harrison, “Beware of Darkness”: Some folks do think the eclipse is an ominous omen (is that just saying an omen-like omen? I feel like it might be. I don’t care. I’m leaving it in) of ill things to come. I think George Harrison just wanted a nightlight left on so he could find his way to the bathroom.
  10. Bob Seger, “Sunspot Baby”: I think Bob Seger is a criminally-underrated songwriter who’s built like the Platonic ideal of “Dad Bod” and just put together the best bar band you’ve ever heard. And did you know that sunspots are cool enough that water vapor can exist in them? Isn’t that wild?