elton john

Playlist #284

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Happy Monday, folks! It’s a dreary one here in Northern Virginia, but that won’t stop the rock!

  1. The Beatles, “Little Girl”: A song cut from Rubber Soul, and if I’m being honest, there was good reason. There’s just not much to the song, lyrically or musically. I mean, even John Lennon can stumble once in a while.
  2. Elvis Costello, “Miracle Man”: Aside from listening to the super deluxe version of Rubber Soul (which features three different versions of the album. Three!), I’ve also started listening to the 49th Anniversary edition of Costello’s My Aim Is True, and it’s still a great record. The acerbic wit just does not let up with this man.
  3. Gin Blossoms, “Idiot Summer”: Classic Gin Blossoms. Only downloaded the album because I assumed it was rerecorded versions of old songs, but this did not turn out to be the case. It’s the original versions, all of which I already have on other albums and did not need a second time. This is still a good song, though.
  4. Arlo Guthrie, “East Texas Red”: Who doesn’t love a song about a murderer who rides the rails in East Texas getting what’s coming to him?
  5. Elton John, “I Want Love”: Does anyone else remember the video for this song that featured Robert Downey, Jr.? The song itself reminds me of the Beatles Anthology new songs.
  6. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, “Too Much Ain’t Enough”: Early Petty has a loose energy that later, more-refined songs simply lacked. I enjoy such loose energy.
  7. Huey Lewis & the News, “If This Is It”: To this day, I am constantly amused by the fact that these guys named an album Sports, a pun that my team teacher only just got today when I explained it to her.
  8. The Band, “The Weight”: Is this the best song about taking your Martin to Nazareth, PA, to get it fixed that exists? Is that too narrow a genre? It might be because they nailed it in one.
  9. Ben Folds, “Rockin’ The Suburbs”: It’s a Ben Folds song that features guitar! But he famously plays piano! How wacky.
  10. The New Pornographers, “Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk”: If AC Newman and Neko Case could work together forever cranking out amazing pop rock songs like this, I’d be okay with that.

Playlist #282

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It is still technically Monday, so happy Monday, folks. Here’s today’s playlist.

  1. Earth, Wind, and Fire, “September”: You are contractually obligated to put this song on a playlist on this date. I don’t make the rules.
  2. Tom Waits, “The Earth Died Screaming”: I told my brother to listen to this one earlier today. He…did not care for it, I don’t think. Which is weird to me, because it’s a great if rather odd song. Y’know, it’s a Tom Waits song.
  3. Elton John, “Come Down In Time”: So it turns out Tumbleweed Connection is just a fantastic album. It’s earthy and thoughtful in ways I don’t usually associate with Elton John, but damn does he pull it off.
  4. Steely Dan, “Deacon Blue”: I know the lyrics are acerbic and often bordering on the nasty, but the music feels far too well-mannered for my tastes. It sounds like what you’d hear at an upscale cocktail longue in the early ’80s.
  5. Matt Berninger, “Ask For Water”: The National lead singer put out an EP last week mostly filled with songs we’d already heard from him, but it included a couple of new ones. This was the better of the two new songs, in my opinion. Not that the other song is a slouch or anything, but this is just a better tune.
  6. Laser The Boy, “Don’t You Know Who I Am”: Just a beautiful song about identity and self-doubt and relationships and all that kind of stuff. Laser knows his stuff.
  7. Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians, “What I Am”: Anytime I reference this song (usually when someone makes a reference to philosophy, to which I reply, “Is just the talk on a cereal box”) I just get blank stares from my students. Maybe it’s time to update my pop culture references?
  8. Jason Isbell, “Super 8”: No one wants to die in a Super 8 Motel. It’s embarrassing. You’d die of embarrassment if you were caught dead in a Super 8 Motel. Don’t go to a Super 8, is what I’m saying. Nothing good comes of it.
  9. The Wallflowers, “After the Blackbird Sings”: A throwback to their debut album, the one that no one really listened to. You can really hear the debt he owes to Tom Petty in this album, especially this song. It just feels like a Tom Petty song to me. It also feels like the closest they got to sounding like what I think of as the Wallflowers on this album, but I digress.
  10. Tom Petty, “Wake Up Time”: I used to skip this song on Wildflowers. Didn’t care for it. As I’ve gotten older, though, I’ve come to appreciate it, understand its beauty and simplicity and know that it’s got a lot to tell me if I’ll just listen. It’s a damn good song, as it turns out, and it was the perfect way to end his best album.

Playlist #262

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Happy Monday, and May the 4th be with you! And all my Lutheran friends say, “And also with you.” Here’s a playlist.

  1. Pat McGee Band, “Bookends”: A student introduced me to this band last week. Pretty solid singer-songwriter stuff.
  2. Nocturnne, “Proximity”: A DIY singer-songwriter (I have a thing for that style) writing exactly what you think a 20-something singer-songwriter would write. It’s not bad, but I’m not sure it’s really speaking to me.
  3. Old 97s, “Timebomb”: A ripsnorter of a song, it explodes out of the gate and blew little grad school Charlie’s mind back in the early 2000s. It remains awesome.
  4. Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes, “Man On Fire”: Let us cast our minds back to the far-flung year 2012, when Stomp-Clap-Hey! ruled the airwaves and a band with such an unwieldy name could come to prominence. And then let’s never speak of it again.
  5. The Elected, “It Was Love”: This song (and this band more in general) gives me hope that there’s an audience out there for someone whose voice is weak like mine.
  6. Elton John, “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me”: Elton John just makes you feel things sometimes, y’know?
  7. Ram Jam, “Black Betty”: Bam-ba-lam.
  8. Molly Hatchet, “Flirtin’ With Disaster”: Somehow this turned into a Southern Rock playlist without me even trying. But if you don’t find yourself doing 90 down the highway with this song blasting out the windows, there’s something wrong with you and you might be clinically dead.
  9. Marshall Tucker Band, “Can’t You See”: If there is a sadder Southern Rock song out there, I don’t know it, because most rock songs don’t encourage you to “crawl inside and die” in a hole in the wall or jump off the tallest mountain in Georgia (a state totally known for its tall mountains).
  10. The Dandy Warhols, “Minnesoter”: My favorite song about being someone from Minnesota? I’m not sure that’s actually what it’s about. I’m not sure the guy who wrote it is entirely sure what it’s about.

Playlist #137: Weather, Frightful, Etc.

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Happy Monday, folks! It’s the last week before Winter Break, so it’s time for a Holiday-themed playlist! I promise there’s no Wham! on here. I’m not a monster.

  1. Paul McCartney, “Wonderful Christmastime”: Okay, I’m a little bit of a monster.
  2. Darlene Love, “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”: Simply the best Christmas song ever written. I will hear no arguments.
  3. The Beach Boys, “Little Saint Nick”: Beach Boys harmonies just sound better when they’re telling reindeer to run.
  4. Bing Crosby, “Winter Wonderland”: I’m not against old-fashioned Christmas songs. I like a lot of ’em. Bing Crosby’s stuff is always a swingin’ good time, for instance.
  5. Elton John, “Step Into Christmas”: I’ve never fully understood the premise of this song. Is Christmas a physical location into which one can step? What are the boundaries of Christmas? Enquiring minds want to know.
  6. Robert Earl Keen, “Merry Christmas From the Family”: REK takes a slightly more cynical approach to the holidays than a lot of these others, but it’s still a good time to get together with family members and drink lots of spiked eggnog.
  7. Gayla Peevey, “I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas”: Who doesn’t, honestly? They’re way cooler than a puppy and they can eat a watermelon whole.
  8. Ringo Starr, “Come On Christmas, Christmas Come On”: If there’s one Beatle who seems well-suited to singing Christmas songs, which are inherently kinda cheesy and goofy, it’s the dude who sang “Yellow Submarine” and “Octopus’s Garden.”
  9. Frank Sinatra, “Mistletoe and Holly”: Another holiday classic, I think we can all agree.
  10. Chuck Berry, “Run Rudolph Run”: You need more Chuck Berry in your life, admit it.

Playlist #97: Songs About Songs

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For years, I’ve wanted to gather enough songs to put together a playlist of songs about writing/creating/singing songs. And finally, here we are.

  1. Wilco, “Someone Else’s Song”: Sometimes we sing covers. Sometimes our own songs. Who knows.
  2. Elton John, “Your Song”: “But the sun’s been quite nice while I wrote this song” is just a nice sentiment and one that I, at least, could do with more of.
  3. Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Wrote A Song For Everyone”: The song this whole list was built around! I have long loved this particular song and I especially appreciate the sentiment of it.
  4. Ben Folds, “One Down”: He was apparently once a professional songwriter, and they expected you to write 3.6 songs per week.
  5. Jason Isbell, “Songs That she Sang In The Shower”: Don’t we all sing in the shower? Aren’t the acoustics in there great?
  6. John Fullbright, “Write A Song”: It’s good advice. You should write a song. All of you. Like, right now.
  7. Dan Auerbach, “Waiting On A Song”: Sometimes songs just sorta come to you, fully formed and ready to go. Other times, you have to sit around and wait for them to arrive. And damn, do they take their sweet time.
  8. Jackson Browne, “Sing My Songs To Me”: Is it possibly the greatest display of ego to want to hear other people sing your own songs? Maybe, but I also have to imagine it’s the greatest honor you can receive as a songwriter: hearing someone else give their interpretation of your words and music.
  9. Paul McCartney, “The Song We Were Singing”: “And it always came back to the song we were singing/At any particular time,” is just one of the best lines you could ever hope to write. It’s so simple, but so evocative.
  10. Panic! At The Disco, “I Write Sins Not Tragedies”: Do I know much of anything about PATD? No. No, I do not. Do I care when the song title fits into the playlist theme this well? Again, no. No, I do not.

Playlist #86 – Merry Christmas!

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Happy Monday before Christmas, everyone. I have a brand-new playlist for your enjoyment.

  1. Shirley Temple, “I’m Gettin’ Nuttin’ For Christmas”: This song tells me that Shirley Temple knows that old adage: snitches get stitches. Don’t mess with Shirley T.
  2. Gayla Peevey, “I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas”: And only a hippopotamus will do, you know.
  3. Frank Sinatra, “Mistletoe And Holly”: It’s a classic for a reason.
  4. Darlene Love, “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”: The best Christmas song ever recorded. I will be taking no questions at this time.
  5. She & Him, “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree”: I have a soft spot for Zoey Deschanel and M. Ward’s warm ‘n’ fuzzy pop.
  6. Jeremy Messersmith, “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”: Apparently about a nuclear apocalypse? Who knew?
  7. Jackson Browne, “The Rebel Jesus”: It’s always interesting to hear a non-Christian’s point of view on Christianity, even if what he points out is way less comfortable and far more accurate than you’d care to admit.
  8. Run-DMC, “Christmas In Hollis”: Tell Argyle to bring the car around, we’re goin’ clubbin’.
  9. Elton John, “Step Into Christmas”: Figured out how to play this one on the guitar just last week. Loads of fun.
  10. The Both, “Nothing Left To Do (Let’s Make This Christmas Blue)”: I’m a sucker for Aimee Mann. And Ted Leo. Together, they can do no wrong, as far as I’m concerned.