peter gabriel

Playlist #83

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Happy post-Thanksgiving Monday, folks. I know we’re all still waking up from the Turkey Coma and preparing to buy all the things (it is Cyber Monday, after all), but in the meantime I whipped up a new playlist for your aural enjoyment.

  1. Neil Young, “Rockin’ in the Free World”: The anti-consumerism, anti-capitalism of the song – especially the video – just hits the exact right spot for late-80s Neil.
  2. Arlo Guthrie, “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree”: Is there a more famous song about an event that sorta, kinda, maybe sorta actually happened? It’s one of the best shaggy dog stories ever.
  3. Stephen Stills, “Wooden Ships”: I love this solo acoustic version of the song. It’s just gorgeous.
  4. Tom Waits, “I’ll Be Gone”: “Tonight I’ll shave the mountain,” Tom begins, and it just gets weirder from there. But it’s a Tom Waits song, what did you expect?
  5. The Gaslight Anthem, “Boxer”: “You’ve got your pride and your prose/Tucked just like a Tommy gun,” the song begins, and I have a little point of contention to raise with Brian Fallon: who, exactly, tucks a Tommy gun under their arm or their jacket or wherever? Are Tommy guns really that common anymore? I wouldn’t think they are.
  6. Soul Coughing, “True Dreams of Wichita”: One of my favorite songs ever. Can’t really explain why.
  7. Jackson Browne, “Fountain of Sorrow”: No one writes a sad, bittersweet song like Jackson Browne. No one.
  8. The National, “Lucky You”: In my mind, this is the song where the National became the National. It’s the final track on their second record, Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers, and it perfectly encapsulates what (especially early) the National was all about.
  9. Peter Gabriel, “San Jacinto”: I can’t explain what it is about this song that appeals to me. It’s probably the build to the end and the refrain of “I hold the line.”
  10. Pink Floyd, “Wish You Were Here”: Early last week, we sat and watched a series of videos on the Polyphonic Youtube page about most of the songs off the Wish You Were Here album. They’re the reason we listened to the album on our way to Ohio Wednesday. It still reigns as one of the best albums ever, and this song is the keystone to the whole thing. Everything else revolves around this one track, either building to it or coming back down from its height.

Playlist #75

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It’s a dreary, rainy Monday, but that does not stop the rock! Here’s this week’s playlist, hot off the presses.

  1. John Fullbright, “Paranoid Heart”: Okie singer/songwriter who just released a new album last Friday. It’s pretty damn good. The man knows how to write a song, and his backing band is strong.
  2. Wilco, “Remember To Remember Me”: Speaking of new albums, Wilco released a 20th anniversary edition of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot that contains loads of previously-unreleased stuff, including this early version of what later became “Hummingbird.”
  3. Jonathan Coulton, “Je Suis Rick Springfield”: Aren’t we all, just a little bit, Rick Springfield?
  4. David Gray, “Nemesis”: One of the more subdued songs from Draw the Line, but still a good one.
  5. Bon Iver, “Blood Bank”: Years ago, one of my coworkers asked me to help him record a little demo EP. We did it in my classroom at school. This was one of the songs we recorded (along with a Wilco tune and one by Trampled by Turtles. It was . . . eclectic).
  6. Modest Mouse, “Fire It Up”: Gotta get the blood pumping somehow.
  7. Moby, “Extreme Ways”: “Then it fell apart like it always does.”
  8. The Gaslight Anthem, “Placeholder”: This song is very evocative of the Anthem’s sound and style circa The ’59 Sound, and I am here for it.
  9. The Rolling Stones, “Play With Fire”: Maybe crotch fire. God only knows what venereal diseases Mick Jagger and the boys had back then.
  10. Peter Gabriel, “Intruder”: Hey, we hear you like gated reverb. Have a lot of it.