sam cooke

Playlist #249 – Black History Month Edition

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Happy Tuesday, everyone. Finally back in the school today, though of course with a two-hour delay. Not that I’m complaining. Anyway, February is Black History Month, and the 100th Anniversary of said month, so here’s a playlist to celebrate that!

  1. Louis Armstrong, “Mack the Knife”: I don’t think any discussion of the impact of African Americans on American music can be considered complete without mention of Louis Armstrong. From his distinctive voice to that great trumpet playing, Satch left an indelible mark on popular music of the 20th century. Oh, and his version of “Mack the Knife” is far superior to the Bobby Darrin version, regardless of what my wife argues.
  2. Tracy Chapman, “Talkin’ ‘Bout a Revolution”: Look, we all love “Fast Car.” Everyone knows and loves “Fast Car” because it’s a cold banger, alright? But Tracy Chapman is more than just “Fast Car.” I feel like this song gets at what she was always talking about in her music even better than “Fast Car” does. She’s about that revolutionary change, that paradigm shift, that emphasis on the people who go unnamed and unnoticed. And she will not sit quietly.
  3. Mon Rovia, “Heavy Foot”: I was thinking of putting together a Contemporary Protest Songs list for today instead of this playlist, but I can always do that later. This song would belong on both playlists regardless. Though the melody and instrumentation feel light and airy, folky even, the lyrical contents are heavy and weighty. The government’s on the heavy foot, and that foot was made for stepping on the necks of the people.
  4. Aretha Franklin, “Chain Of Fools”: Beyonce can call herself Queen B all she wants, but I know who my queen is.
  5. Sam Cooke, “A Change Is Gonna Come”: That voice, man. The longing, the depth, the yearning for a better life for everyone. It doesn’t get any better than this.
  6. Ray Charles, “(Night Time Is) The Right Time”: I haven’t been able to listen to this song the same way since I saw the Ray Charles biopic and saw the way he got those backing vocals from the female singer. I mean, damn, That was pretty brutal.
  7. Robert Randolph & The Family Band, “I Need More Love”: Blues rock combined with sacred steel (a pedal steel guitar style) equals a banger of a song. Give it a listen and you’ll understand what I mean.
  8. Rhiannon Giddens, “The Angels Laid Him Away”: American folk from someone who understands who the originally folk musicians really were.
  9. Robert Johnson, “Stop Breakin’ Down Blues”: The OG Delta Bluesman, the guy who went down to the crossroads to meet with the Devil and forever had hellhounds on his tail afterwards. This guy innovated (or at least popularized) much of what we think of as blues music today.
  10. Blind Willie McTell, “Dark Night Blues”: Twelve-string twelve-bar blues. The man makes the twelve-string guitar sound like an effortless instrument to play (which is no easy feat).

Playlist #58: End of the School Year

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It’s the last week of school finally. It’s been a difficult year, to say the least. But I keep posting new stuff on Patreon and I keep coming up with new playlists here.

  1. Alice Cooper, “School’s Out”: Yeah, of course this song was gonna be on here.
  2. The Mountain Goats, “Fall of the Star High School Running Back”: Who hasn’t gone from being the star player on the football team to selling acid to cops?
  3. Paul Simon, “Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard”: Ever have one of those troublemaker friends that your parents just couldn’t stand? Yeah, I did, too.
  4. Pearl Jam, “Education”: “I’m questioning my education.” Me too, Eddie. Me too.
  5. Sting, “History Will Teach Us Nothing”: I mean, maybe you just didn’t learn from your history class, Sting. Ever think it was you, not history?
  6. Sam Cooke, “(What A) Wonderful World”: I think I teach several Sam Cookes. “Don’t know much about history,” he sings. Yeah, my kids could sing that, too.
  7. Chuck Berry, “Schooldays”: “RIng, ring, goes the bell.”
  8. Nirvana, “School”: Kurt Cobain recognizes the need for recess and laments the lack of it in the modern educational schema.
  9. Belle & Sebastian, “We Rule The School”: The number of students in Belle & Sebastian who probably got beat up in high school on a daily basis is a nonzero number.
  10. Pink Floyd, “Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2”: The use of the double negative in the chorus indicates you do, in fact, need education, Mr. Floyd.

Playlist #52

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This marks the one-year anniversary of me starting this playlist project. It’s kept me writing here for the whole year, which I like. I’ve even gotten back into working on Novel #7 (I’m well-past the halfway point, I think).

For this playlist, I thought about doing a retrospective, selecting my favorite songs from other playlists. But I decided against that. I’ll do another post later this week where I examine the playlists as a whole, looking at who got played the most and how many songs I repeated (I think just one? I’m not sure, but I’ll find out!).

Anyway, remember there’s the Patreon. I’m about to post April’s song. I’m pretty proud of it. Anyway, without further ado, here’s this week’s playlist:

  1. Dr. Dog, “Lonesome”: I love the guitar in this one. Pretty sure it’s a dobro or resonator.
  2. Andrew Bird, “Atomized”: Andrew Bird has a new album coming out this summer. I’m stoked. If this song is any indication, it’ll be a great one.
  3. Jorge Orozco, “Gran Vals”: Orignally composed by Francisco Tarrega, this is the song that Nokia got its ringtone from. It’s a very pretty song.
  4. Langhorne Slim & the Law, “Put It Together”: I’m a sucker for a shout-along chorus.
  5. The Doubleclicks, “This Is My Jam”: I like jam. Who doesn’t like jam? Commies, that’s who.
  6. Dolly Parton, “Jolene”: This is the slowed down version, the one from the 45 played at 33 1/3 RPM. It’s haunting.
  7. Aimee Mann, “Phoenix”: What is it about the way Aimme Mann writes and plays songs that just captivates me? I just love everything about her sound.
  8. Sam Cooke, “A Change Is Gonna Come”: Some days, you just need to let Sam take you home.
  9. Santana, “Evil Ways”: The way they add the, “baby,” to the end of certain lines in this song amuses me to no end.
  10. Bob Dylan, “Paths Of Victory”: My love for Dylan is no secret at this point. Someday, I’ll figure out an arrangement of this song for the guitar (rather than the piano he plays in this version). Until then, I’ll just have to sit and marvel at how well that man puts words together.