john hartford

Playlist #125

/ xeyeti / Leave a comment

Happy Monday! It’s a gorgeous day here in Northern Virginia, and it sounds like the weather will continue to be beautiful for the whole week. Too bad I have to spend it all inside teaching.

  1. Better Than Ezra, “Desperately Wanting”: I’ve been on a Better Than Ezra kick this past week for reasons I cannot even begin to explain. I think it’s because most of their songs are so easy to play on the guitar, which my cowboy chord heart really appreciates.
  2. The Record Company, “Control My Heart Blues”: I like these guys, though they suffer from the most generic band name I think I’ve ever heard. I mean, short of “The Band.”
  3. The National, “Laugh Track (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)”: Oh, look, the National surprise dropped a brand new album today. It’s very good, though this might be my favorite song on it.
  4. James Gang, “Funk No. 49”: I feel like, if you’re having to number the funks, you might have too much funk.
  5. John Hartford, “In Tall Buildings”: I refuse to live anywhere above the first floor from now on.
  6. John Prine, “Spanish Pipedream”: Comical stories of topless dancers telling you to go find Jesus aside, this song has always and will always be awesome. The Avett Brothers do a good cover of it, too.
  7. Kaiser Chiefs, “I Predict a Riot”: That’s right, I’m gonna riot if I don’t get what I want! Okay, maybe not riot, per se. Maybe just grumble and complain under my breath for a while.
  8. Langhorne Slim & The Law, “Put It Together”: I will never tire of this song. It just hits something primal in my soul and gets it all hyped up.
  9. Mark Knopfler, “Donegan’s Gone”: A skiffle-esque tribute to the guy who brought the musical form to the shores of Merry Ol’ England.
  10. Mike Doughty, “Fort Hood”: Best song that features the coda from the 5th Dimension’s “Age of Aquarius” as a chorus? Yes.

Playlist #99: Elvis Has Left the Building…

/ xeyeti / Leave a comment

No, don’t worry, I haven’t lost my mind and finally made an all-Elvis playlist. No, this is a playlist all about rooms and buildings. It goes rather like this:

  1. John Hartford, “In Tall Buildings”: A rumination on giving up the wild, carefree days of youth to go work in tall buildings downtown. It’s sad and thoughtful and a little bit rueful.
  2. Counting Crows, “Perfect Blue Buildings”: “I wanna get me a little oblivion,” Adam Duritz sings. I think we could all use a bit of oblivion. Or at least a nice nap in a perfect blue building.
  3. Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young, “Our House”: Why are the two cats out in the yard? They’ll decimate the bird population! Is that what you want, guys? Huh?
  4. The Wallflowers, “I Am A Building”: Being the son of Bob Dylan must be hard. I’m pretty sure that’s why Jakob Dylan tried being a building for a while in the early ’00s.
  5. The Commodores, “Brick House”: She is mighty mighty.
  6. XTC, “No Thugs In Our House”: This seems like a reasonable thing to expect. Little Graham better be on his best damn behavior, that’s all I’m saying.
  7. The White Stripes, “Hotel Yorba”: Did you know you can still write a song that’s just G, C, and D? Jack White knows!
  8. Traveling Wilburys, “Poor House”: If there’s a song that’s more fun to play in a pickin’ circle, I don’t know it.
  9. Tom Petty, “The Apartment Song”: I, too, used to live in a two-room apartment where the neighbors were knocking on my walls. Tom Petty is the Everyman.
  10. Bruce Springsteen, “Mansion On A Hill”: However, I never lived in a mansion, hill-based or otherwise. So much for this man of the people!

Tune in next week, when I’ll do something completely different for Playlist #100!