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Playlist #215

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Happy Monday! We’ve finally made it: the last week of school. And not even really a whole week. Just three days with the students and two teacher work days, and it’s all over and done until August, when we start this whole bag of nonsense all over again. Here’s a playlist to count down the hours:

  1. REM, “Everybody Hurts”: I should probably be joyous at the end of the school year, but I mostly find myself exhausted. And thinking about this song a lot. Sometimes all we see are the things and the people we’ve lost. All we see is the loss. But there’s far more to life than that. Remember the good, forget the bad, and always choose love.
  2. Van Morrison, “Only A Dream”: I still tend to think of 2002’s Down the Road as a recent or even new Van Morrison album, even though it’s old enough to drink. But the military march of this song and that beautiful sax solo get me every time.
  3. Stereo MCs, “Connected”: Connection is important. If you stumble, you might fall.
  4. Townes Van Zandt, “If I Needed You”: I’d only ever heard the Andrew Bird cover of this one. Townes’ version is a little rougher, a little simpler, but just as heartfelt.
  5. Counting Crows, “Up All Night (Frankie Miller Goes To Hollywood)”: Wait, am I just going through a depressive episode here? I think I might be. Also, I’ve struggled the past few weeks with getting to bed and sleeping at a reasonable hour. Summer tends to screw up the sleep schedule even further. This could be a problem.
  6. David Gray, “Please Forgive Me”: Okay, we’re just leaning into this now.
  7. Rilo Kiley, “A Better Son/Daughter”: “Sometimes when you’re on/You’re really fuckin’ on” is one of the best lines in music.
  8. Jackson Browne, “Fountain Of Sorrow”: It’s a good story song. I like a good story song.
  9. Jay Farrar, “Feel Free”: I like Jay Farrar’s songwriting, I really do. He’s made some great songs, some great albums, both with Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt and all by his lonesome. What are those songs about? Damned if I know. He’s great, but his writing is rather…elliptical, let’s call it.
  10. The National, “Lemonworld”: If we’re going to put together what is, essentially, a playlist of sad bastard songs, we can’t leave the National off the list. I also like the fact that the little guitar sting – that two chord strum they do in this song – gets used as interstitial music on NPR all the time.

Playlist #178 – Jangly Electric 12 String

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Happy Monday and happy Autumn, folks! Last week, Clyde challenged me to come up with a whole playlist of songs that feature an electric 12-string. At first, I just thought I’d post a link to the Byrds’ greatest hits and leave it at that, but I decided that might be too much of a cop-out even for me. So instead, I sat down and came up with ten songs that feature electric 12!

  1. The Byrds, “Turn! Turn! Turn!”: Honestly, any Byrds song could fill this spot. All of their best stuff features an electric 12 played by Roger McGuinn. This is the single most obvious song on this entire list.
  2. The Beatles, “A Hard Day’s Night”: George Harrison occasionally rocked an electric 12 on some Beatles songs, including this one and the always-awesome “And Your Bird Can Sing.” It was a close call between those two songs, but I went ahead and put this one on the list because of the electric 12 guitar solo.
  3. Led Zeppelin, “The Song Remains the Same”: For a dude who carried around a double-necked Gibson an awful lot, I don’t feel like Jimmy Page played much electric 12. He does on this track, though, and it’s great.
  4. Tom Petty, “I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better”: Tom Petty is often associated with twelve string guitars, though I feel like he mostly stuck to acoustics for that. Not for this one, though. Also, the “12 string” part of “American Girl?” Not actually a 12 string, but two six-string guitars played by Petty and Mike Campbell in such sync that it just sounds like a 12 string. Kinda amazing.
  5. XTC, “Mayor of Simpleton”: Just a fantastic song from a fantastic band with a fantastic electric 12-string guitar part in it.
  6. Pink Floyd, “Fearless”: Apparently David Gilmour occasionally deigns to use an electric 12 on some songs, including this Floyd number from Meddle. Such a damn good album.
  7. The Hollies, “Bus Stop”: Another band that frequently used an electric 12. “Bus Stop” is possibly the greatest love story song from the British Invasion era.
  8. The Decemberists, “Yankee Bayonet”: Apparently Chris Funk, guitarist for the Decemberists, frequently uses the electric 12 for his stuff. Very cool.
  9. REM, “So. Central Rain”: That 12-string riff that starts the song off? So damn good.
  10. Gin Blossoms, “Til I Hear It From You”: When I think of ’90s jangle-pop, the Gin Blossoms are what I’m thinking of. This song is a perfect example of why.

Playlist #157

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Happy Monday, folks! I hope everyone is doing well, and that folks out in Oklahoma weren’t hit too hard by all that weather over the weekend. It looks like the city of Sulphur got beaten up pretty badly, though.

  1. Uncle Tupelo, “Steal the Crumbs”: Went through an Uncle Tupelo kick late last week, especially their final record, Anodyne. Such a good album, and Jeff Tweedy really starts to find his voice as a songwriter. But Jay Farrar is still the frontman of this band, and this song is a good example of why.
  2. Simon & Garfunkel, “Kathy’s Song”: I’m constantly amazed by what these two could do with just their voices and a single acoustic guitar.
  3. Bob Dylan, “Seven Curses”: A simple tale of a horse thief condemned to death and his daughter, whose only path to freeing him is to sleep with the crooked, sleezy judge. Who, of course, does not free her father, but has him hanged instead. She puts one hell of a curse on him for it, too: “That one doctor cannot save him/That two healers cannot heal him/And that three eyes cannot see him/That four ears cannot hear him/That five walls cannot hide him/That six diggers cannot bury him/And that seven deaths shall never kill him.”
  4. Glen Phillips, “Train Wreck”: Glen Phillips sometimes comes across as a master of songs that are depressing as all hell and very, very bittersweet.
  5. The Head and the Heart, “Rivers and Roads”: The harmonies on this one are pretty nice.
  6. Jackson Browne, “Fountains of Sorrow”: Another one of those bittersweet songs about loss of love and innocence that just feels like a nostalgic gut punch.
  7. Moxy Fruvous, “My Poor Generation”: I always wish these guys had gotten just a little bigger, had stayed together just a little bit longer, and maybe released another album or two. It was awful, coming in right at the end of their time together, getting to hear all the cool stuff they’d done and slowly realizing that, hey, that’s it, there will be no more.
  8. REM, “Sweetness Follows”: I could not for the life of me tell you what this song is about, though it always feels like an elegy to me.
  9. The National, “Lucky You”: Probably the first great song written by these guys. It’s perfect, no notes.
  10. John Prine, “The Late John Garfield Blues”: Damn, but this man wrote simple songs about complicated things. Or maybe complicated songs about simple things? A little of both?

Playlist #143

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Happy Monday on this rather chilly morning! We’re back at work for a relatively short week (though not nearly as short as last week, y’know?), and I’ve got a bunch of jumped-up raves to get you motivated to face that work week.

  1. Green Day, “Panic Song”: If this song doesn’t get you pumped up and jumping out of bed, ready to face the day, then you might wanna check your pulse because you might just be dead.
  2. Sleater-Kinney, “Turn It On”: Hey, these awesome ladies just released a new album last Friday! No, this song isn’t off that album; it’s off the seminal Dig Me Out.
  3. The Record Company, “Turn Me Loose”: This one’s a slow burner, with some excellent build-up.
  4. Old 97s, “Champagne, Illinois”: If you’re going to borrow a melody from someone, why not borrow from Bob Dylan? And why not borrow the melody from “Desolation Row,” if you’re going to borrow from Bob Dylan? And why not make the lyrics a travelogue of the Midwest?
  5. The New Pornographers, “Sing Me Spanish Techno”: Is Spanish techno well-respected in the techno community? Are there lots of people out there searching for that particular sub-genre? I just don’t know.
  6. The Pretenders, “Middle of the Road”: Chrissy Hinde rarely sounds so gnarly as she does in this song. There’s real menace here. I dig it.
  7. REM, “So. Central Rain”: Okay, so REM don’t generally go hard as a rule of thumb, and this song doesn’t, but it’s still very good.
  8. Lucero, “Downtown (Intro)” and “On My Way Downtown”: Okay, so I paired these two because “Downtown (Intro)” is, as it so clearly states, an intro to the full song “On My Way Downtown,” and I just really dig the way they feed into each other.
  9. Bob Dylan, “32-20 Blues”: It’s just Dylan and an acoustic guitar, and it still has more energy and forward momentum than most other songs you’ll hear.
  10. Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, “Friends”: Okay, so we gotta cool it down for the end of the playlist here. This is one of the best songs Ryan Adams ever wrote, on the best album he ever released.

Playlist #95

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Happy Monday Tuesday, everyone! I didn’t post yesterday because I was celebrating our President the way God intended: looking at mattress sales! Here’s a playlist for y’all.

  1. The Rolling Stones, “Flip The Switch”: Even on their latter-day albums (this one’s from back in 97, but that still feels very latter-day for the Stones), they could still be relied on to rip the doors off the joint on at least one song.
  2. Sigur Rós, “Untitled #3 (Samskeyti)”: I’d never listened to these guys before this weekend. They’re Icelandic, sing in a made-up language to avoid creating a single interpretation of the songs, and everything is very cosmic, very ethereal, rather ambient. I kinda dig it.
  3. Laser The Boy, “Overthrow Your Masters”: A song about being yourself and kicking ass in D&D. I can dig it.
  4. Echosmith, “Cool Kids”: I heard it while I was in a store the other day and I dug it.
  5. Talking Heads, “And She Was”: If you can’t start your work week with the Talking Heads, then what is the point of anything?
  6. Steve Earle, “The Saint Of Lost Causes”: Steve Earle covering one of his late son’s songs. Very excellent, and brings a tear to one’s eye.
  7. Rhiannon Giddens & Iron & Wine, “Forever Young”: A Bob Dylan cover? On a playlist put together by me? Who would’ve thought such a thing could happen?!
  8. REM, “Sweetness Follows”: Probably one of my absolute favorite REM songs. It’s just so damn good.
  9. Old Crow Medicine Show, “O Cumberland River”: Did you know they did songs other than “Wagon Wheel?” Well, now you do!
  10. Nirvana, “All Apologies (Home Demo)”: When they talk about “raw” recordings, this is the sort of thing they’re talking about. Messily played, terrible audio quality, but that vocal is already perfect. Just perfect.

Playlist #65 – Stranger Things

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Monday was the Wife’s birthday! In her honor, you could contribute to her GoFundMe. Covid hit her hard and our finances harder, so every little bit helps. And I’m doing my usual thing over at Patreon, where a new song will drop this Friday! This week’s playlist is inspired by my Wife, who – when hearing the Tom Waits song on last week’s playlist – said, “Why not do a whole playlist of weird songs?” To which I replied, “You mean a Tom Waits playlist?”

  1. Tom Waits, “The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)”: I dunno, Tom. Your words are more than a little slurred here. I have my doubts about the veracity of your claim.
  2. The Magnetic Fields, “Epitaph For My Heart”: The Wife’s favorite Magnetic Fields song. It starts with a recitation of a warning on a door that threatens electrocution if you open it and gets weirder from there.
  3. Marcy Playground, “Sex & Candy”: Every time I hear this song, I think of that time I was working at the YMCA the summer after my first year of college, and when this song came on the bus, all the little children (like, 10 year olds) sang the first three words of the chorus – “I like sex” – and nothing else.
  4. Melanie, “Brand New Key”: Do roller skates even need keys anymore? It’s been so long since I wore a pair, but I’m pretty sure they don’t. Kids these days will never understand this song (not that I necessarily understand it myself, mind you).
  5. The Mountain Goats, “Cadaver Sniffing Dog”: Now, this playlist could have also just been a Mountain Goats playlist, and this song is a good example of why.
  6. REM, “Swan Swan H”: Does anyone ever know what Michael Stipe is singing about, including Michael Stipe? I’d wager the answer is “no.”
  7. Tom Lehrer, “Poisoning Pigeons In The Park”: This man takes a certain glee from killing pigeons in the park. He might be a serial killer.
  8. America, “A Horse With No Name”: Hint: you can give the horse a name, dude. You can call it whatever you want. It’s a horse, it don’t care.
  9. The Presidents of the United States of America, “Peaches”: Again, another band where I could have made a playlist just out of their songs and it would have fit right in.
  10. Carl Douglas, “Kung Fu Fighting”: As the t-shirt says, surely not everyone was kung fu fighting.

Playlist #53

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If I were a more clever person than I am, I’d have made this playlist all songs from the second album by bands. But alas, it’s a Monday morning, and cleverness can only take one so far. In other news, I did just drop the April song over on Patreon, which you should sign up for and follow me on for a song a month!

  1. Bill Small, “This Old House”: Where did I first hear this song? I think was at the Mansion on O Street, back when I was still playing there on Sundays. It’s a simple song with a nice gimmick (a house reminding the singer of all the times he had there but now the only reason to stay is gone).
  2. The Black Keys, “Unknown Brother”: I like the Black Keys. I know it’s kinda popular amongst certain music aficionados to pooh pooh them, but I always kinda liked their energy and songwriting.
  3. Radiohead, “Ill Wind”: I’m not as familiar with this song as I am with most of the songs I put on my playlists. And latter-day Radiohead is always kinda hit and miss for me anyway. But it’s an interesting song.
  4. Roy Orbison, “You Got It”: Roy Orbison + Jeff Lynne = stuff I will listen to on repeat.
  5. Elliott Smith, “Christian Brothers”: Did I originally put the Heatmiser version of this song on a playlist? Or was it this version? And why am I too lazy to comb through 52 other playlists to find the answer?
  6. Queen, “Fat Bottomed Girls”: They do indeed make the rockin’ world go ’round. More to the point, though, the first Queen CD I ever owned (an import from Hong Kong), a greatest hits collection, had the edited version of this song on it. The only difference between the two versions is there’s less Brian May guitar solo on the edited version. I ask you, dear reader, who in their right mind would want less Brian May guitar on a song? Not I. Not I.
  7. REM, “Nightswimming”: It’s just a beautiful song. Love the piano.
  8. David Gray, “What Am I Doing Wrong”: I’ve been listening to David Gray a lot this week, and digging through his older albums reveals a treasure trove of excellent songwriting (if not always excellent or interesting execution).
  9. Don Henley, “I Will Not Go Quietly”: Yeah, it’s another artist that it’s popular to shit on. I still like a lot of Henley’s stuff. He can be overbearing and preachy at times, but when he’s firing on all cylinders, he’s pretty great.
  10. Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors, “Ain’t Nobody Got It Easy”: My Grandma Betty has a saying: “Nothing’s Easy.” The way she says it, you can hear the capital letters in each word. This song kinda reminds me of that.

I’m currently almost 40,000 words into Book 7. It’s coming along and I’ve found my groove again! Maybe it’ll be finished by this summer? Fingers crossed!