sting

Playlist #206

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Happy dreary, rainy Monday, folks. Next week is Spring Break! And then we don’t get another break until Memorial Day, so we better make it count.

  1. Wilco, “You Never Know”: Did you know Jeff Tweedy and Co. wrote the best song George Harrison and Jeff Lynne never recorded? It’s true! It’s this song.
  2. Linda Ronstadt, “Tumblin’ Dice”: Brother Clyde’s distaste for this Rolling Stones classic notwithstanding, Ronstadt’s cover blows it out of the water, hands down.
  3. The New Pornographers, “Ballad Of The Last Payphone”: There are stranger things to write an ode to, but few as heartbreaking as an outdated, outmoded piece of technology.
  4. Alison Krauss & Union Station, “Richmond On The James”: It’s a song about Richmond, VA. It’s off their first album in well over a decade, and it’s just as good as anything else they’ve ever released.
  5. Jeremy Messersmith, “Billionaires”: As I sit here, watching my retirement savings disappear because someone decided they wanted to start a trade war with the entire rest of the world (including some islands that don’t have any human inhabitants), I listen to this song and I think…maybe the French had the right idea during the Reign of Terror.
  6. Sting, “All This Time”: One of my favorite songs of all time, featuring one of my favorite lines of all time: “Men go crazy in congregations/They only get better one by one.”
  7. The Black Crowes, “Hard To Handle”: I love me an old R&B cover. I remember that my dad had this album on cassette when we were kids; it was the last new music I think he’s bought.
  8. Townes Van Zandt, “Pancho And Lefty”: If there’s a better version of this song out there, I haven’t heard it.
  9. The Hollies, “The Air That I Breathe”: Just such a simple, beautiful love song. Gotta give it to the Hollies.
  10. Jim James, “Long, Long, Long”: And we close with another cover, this one of the George Harrison classic “Long, Long, Long” from the White Album. It’s slow and languid and sad, and I could listen to it all day long (long, long).

Playlist #163

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Haaaaappy last Monday of the school year! School officially ends here in Fairfax County on Wednesday, and I for one am more than ready for Summer Break. Here are some songs to get us there.

  1. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Waiting For Tonight”: Heard this one late last week on Tom Petty Radio, and had forgotten the song even existed. Features one of the best lines ever sung, “And I’m wrestling with my overcoat/And I’m fighting with my thoughts.”
  2. Primal Scream, “Rocks”: Hadn’t really listened to these guys before, and while this song is pretty good, it wasn’t enough to get me interested in listening to any of their other stuff.
  3. Van Morrison, “Tupelo Honey”: It’s also Clyde’s birthday this week! Let’s listen to classic Van Morrison in his honor.
  4. Hank Williams, “Kaw-Liga”: My grandfather continues to kick around, though he’s currently in the hospital with pneumonia. But his spirits seem good, and he’s alert and responsive, so I’ll take those as good signs. This is one of his favorite Hank Williams songs, and one he used to sing to us when we were little.
  5. Wilco, “The Late Greats”: What is the greatest song most folks have never heard?
  6. Paul McCartney, “Brown-Eyed Handsome Man”: Great McCartney cover. Run Devil Run was such a good album.
  7. Linda Ronstadt, “When Will I Be Loved?”: Things don’t get much better than Linda Ronstadt singing this song.
  8. Sting, “We’ll Be Together”: The most 1980s song I could imagine, from the processed drum machine to the synth horns.
  9. Pink Floyd, “Fearless”: I’m weird in that I really dig the Pink Floyd album Meddle (it might even be my favorite of theirs). This song, right in the middle of things, is a good example of why it’s such a great collection of tunes.
  10. Alice Cooper, “School’s Out”: Of course it is. And good riddance until next school year, ya filthy animals!

Playlist #140

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Happy New Year, folks! It’s now 2024, which means…well, not a whole lot, on the blog side of things. The playlists will continue until morale improves. That said, here’s this week’s.

  1. Andrew Bird, “Auld Lang Syne”: How this went from a song sung when folks were being generally lauded to a song about the end of one year and the beginning of a new one is beyond me. Maybe someone should research that.
  2. Brian Fallon, “Forget Me Not”: I know I just featured this one a couple of weeks ago, but I really like this song and it’s basically been playing on repeat in my brain for those two weeks.
  3. Frank Turner, “The Gathering”: I always enjoy a Frank Turner rave-up, and one that features Jason Isbell? That’s just icing on the cake.
  4. The Horrible Crowes, “Mary Ann”: Maybe I just really like songs where Brian Fallon shouts someone’s name, okay?
  5. Huey Lewis & the News, “It’s All Right”: Even these guys, the whitest of white guys, know you clap on the two and the four. Get it together, white folks.
  6. Ingrid Michaelson, “Be OK”: I think we can all admit that 2023 was lousy for a whole lot of us. Here’s hoping we’ll all be okay in 2024.
  7. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Climb That Hill”: But it’s not enough to just be okay, is it? No, we want to reach the summit, achieve new heights, do great things. And we will. We just have to go out there and do it.
  8. Tom Waits, “Cold Cold Ground”: Read a thing last week that rated all of Tom Waits’ albums, and this one (Franks Wild Years, without an apostrophe because Tom Waits) was ranked mid-tier. Which is crazy to me, because any album that features this song is automatically top-tier if you ask me.
  9. Wilco, “Quiet Amplifier”: I find it hard to believe Jeff Tweedy has a quiet amplifier. I’ve seen Wilco in concert. He gets loud just like everyone else.
  10. Sting, “Brand New Day”: It is a brand new day, at the start of a brand new year. Make the best of it, folks.

Playlist #136

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Happy Monday, folks! It’s time for a brand-spankin’-new playlist for your ears’ enjoyment!

  1. Silverchair, “Tomorrow”: I never really listened to these guys back in the day. They were still in high school when they got signed. High school! Back in high school, I was worried about pimples and whether or not my girlfriend would leave me, not signing record contracts and going out on tour.
  2. Peter Gabriel, “Olive Tree”: When an artist takes twenty years to record an album, then releases it with at leas three different mixes, it’s usually a bad sign. This album is an exception to that sort of thinking. Gabriel has put together a beautiful, thoughtful, and touching set of songs. “Olive Tree” is a standout, but honestly I could have put virtually any song from this album in this spot and said the same thing. It’s just so damn good.
  3. Gorillaz, “Tomorrow Comes Today”: Heard it as an interstitial on NPR this morning, and now it won’t stop playing in my head. So you get to hear it, too.
  4. Drive-By Truckers, “Used To Be A Cop”: These folks are such good storytellers. You almost manage to feel sorry for an ex-cop who got kicked off the force for…reasons.
  5. XTC, “The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead”: I have an unabashed, non-ironic love for XTC. They just made such fun, joyful music. It’s fantastic. This song is fantastic. Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding deserve better.
  6. Michael Penn, “No Myth”: This dude just always amazes me with his way with a melody or a lyric. He’s great. This song is peak ’80s but also great.
  7. Sting, “All This Time”: One of my favorite lines of all time came from this song: “Men go crazy in congregations/They only get better one by one.”
  8. Norah Jones, “The Long Way Home”: Who doesn’t love a Tom Waits cover? No one. No one doesn’t love a Tom Waits cover.
  9. Mark Knopfler, “We Can Get Wild”: This man just struggles to write a bad song, y’know? Yeah, they’re out there, but they’re few and far between. He just crafts with such a high level of skill and thought that even his bad songs have something interesting going on in them.
  10. James McMurtry, “Just Us Kids”: This guy tells fun stories about losers and folks who think they’re winning, even if only in their surface thoughts.

Playlist #117 – More Three-Song Runs

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Yeah, it’s Tuesday, but I forgot to post yesterday. Here are four more three-song runs that are all killer, no filler.

Run 1: The Beatles, “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Any Time At All,” and “I’ll Cry Instead” (from A Hard Day’s Night): The Beatles are obviously one of those bands where you could throw a dart at a board with all their albums listed on it and pick a random three song run and it’d be full of bangers. This is still one of my favorite Beatles albums, and these songs really hold up.

Run 2: Bob Dylan, “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” “She Belongs To Me,” and “Maggie’s Farm” (from Bringing It All Back Home): Again, much like the Beatles, many of Dylan’s albums are front-to-back amazing (we’ll ignore those born again albums in the late 70s/early 80s and most of what he did in the late 80s). These songs were a sonic manifesto in 1964, with Dylan going electric and tearing the roof off the place.

Run 3: Sting, “La Belle Dame Sans Regrets,” “Valparaiso,” and “Lithium Sunset” (from Mercury Falling): I’ll admit, I have a soft spot for the work of Sting, both solo and with the Police. Mercury Falling may be one of my favorite albums he’s released, and these three songs – the French “La Belle Dame Sans Regrets,” the sailor’s voyage of “Valparaiso,” and the country twang and pedal steel guitar of “Lithium Sunset” – are the closing three tracks on the album, and they serve as an excellent summation of what he was doing here.

Run 4: Wilco, “Muzzle Of Bees,” “Hummingbird,” and “Handshake Drugs” (from A Ghost Is Born): Possibly my favorite Wilco album, possibly tied with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. These songs are mellow and odd and a perfect summation of where Wilco was at this point in their career.

Playlist #108

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What, it’s Tuesday? I accidentally forgot to post a playlist yesterday because I took the day off from work and forgot that the rest of the world keeps spinning while I sit and play Persona 5? Inconceivable!

  1. Sting, “We Work The Black Seam”: I’ve been working on notes and slideshows for next year, when I’ll be team-teaching a World History II class (my favorite class content!). This week, it’s the Industrial Revolution, so terrible conditions and black lung for everyone! Hurray!
  2. Taylor Swift, “Betty”: Am I including it because it’s a sweet song possibly about a same-sex crush she had as a teenager, or because my grandmother’s name is Betty? Who knows! And I’m not willing to examine that question any further.
  3. Pink Floyd, “Lost For Words”: Included for no other reason than to hear David Gilmour sing, “And they tell me to please go fuck myself/You know, you just can’t win.”
  4. Glen Phillips, “The Next Day”: Love this song, though I frequently got it confused with a David Bowie song of the same name.
  5. David Bowie, “The Next Day”: Love this song, though I frequently got it confused with a Glen Phillips song of the same name.
  6. Wilco, “The Late Greats”: “The best life never leaves your lungs.” Damn, ain’t that true. Or is it? I dunno. It’s a great line, though.
  7. Jars Of Clay, “Much Afraid”: Could this be a theme song for our time? It feels like it could be. It feels like there’s so much out there to be afraid of.
  8. Billy Bragg, “A New England”: I’ve loved this song since I first heard it many years ago. Grad school, maybe? There’s a simple charm to it, a searching quality that’s tricky to pull of and not sound like an asshole. Bragg manages it.
  9. Bob Dylan, “Where Are You Tonight? (Journey Through Dark Heat)”: The way this song builds and builds until it finally explodes in that blistering, cathartic guitar solo at the end? *chef’s kiss*
  10. Rodney Crowell, “Oh Miss Claudia”: I’ve only started listening to this guy last week, but I already like his style and his songwriting. It’s just superb. I could have picked any song off the recent The Chicago Sessions and it would’ve been a good example of what he does, but I like the shuffley tempo and slightly off-kilter tone of this one.

Playlist #106: Crime of the Century

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Good morning, playlist people. We’re well into May now, and the end of the school year is in sight! Apparently my wife’s school got robbed over the weekend, which is exciting and frustrating and led me to create this week’s playlist (though I criminally left off Supertramp’s “Crime of the Century,” which I hadn’t realized until I gave this playlist that title just now).

  1. The Decemberists, “The Perfect Crime #2”: “A heist? A heist! No one will ever suspect us, the goofy band that sings about Victorian women swooning on the moors, of being bank robbers.” That’s how I imagined the conversation went.
  2. Genesis, “Home By The Sea”: A song about a dude trying to sneak into a house and getting trapped there by some supernatural entity for all of eternity. As one does.
  3. Sting, “After The Rain Has Fallen”: I only came here to steal your jewelry, not you, m’lady.
  4. Hem, “The Fire Thief”: Ah, the theft of fire, the prototypical thief with a heart of gold story. And the song’s by Hem, which means it sounds beautiful and wistful and ever so slightly sad.
  5. Iron & Wine, “Arms Of A Thief”: I dunno, Sam, maybe the arms of a thief aren’t as safe as you’d have us beleive.
  6. Uncle Tupelo, “Steal The Crumbs”: I feel like my cat does this, only she doesn’t just go for crumbs. She’d take the whole sandwich, given half a chance.
  7. Van Morrison, “Steal My Heart Away”: I always like to imagine that every thief is really just there to steal your love more than anything else. All the jewels and cash are just a bonus.
  8. The Beastie Boys, “Rhymin & Stealin”: Just rockin’ it old school, or Old Skool, if you will.
  9. LEN, “Steal My Sunshine”: I am not sorry.
  10. Ben Harper, “Steal My Kisses”: Poor Ben. Maybe it’s time to find a new ladyfriend who is more giving with her smooches.

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 #42: Love Stinks!

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Happy Valentine’s Day, folks! Here’s some songs about love that anyone can enjoy, whether you’re single AF this year or happily married or anything in between.

  1. The Beatles, “I’m A Loser”: Back when I was in college, I put together anti-love playlists every Valentine’s Day. This one was a recurring feature.
  2. Sting, “She’s Too Good For Me”: It was true 15 years ago when I married the Wife, and it’s true today.
  3. Jesse Malin, “She Don’t Love Me Now”: I think it’s the guitars on this one that really do it for me.
  4. The Hold Steady, “You Can Make Him Like You”: “You don’t have to go to the right kind of schools/Let your boyfriend come from the right kind of schools/You can wear his old sweatshirt/You can cover yourself like a bruise.”
  5. The Grass Roots, “Things I Should Have Said”: Is there ever a bad time for a Grass Roots song? No. No, there is not.
  6. Placebo, “You Don’t Care About Us”: I swear, I had at least three friends who listened almost exclusively to this album during high school/college. If you didn’t do that, you probably also have at least one or two of those friends as well.
  7. Beck, “Loser”: When you can’t just say it in English, say it in Spanish as well: “Soy un perdador.”
  8. Barenaked Ladies, “One Week”: When you fight, you should always make up afterwards. Maybe don’t wait a whole week for it, though.
  9. Hank Williams, Sr., “You Win Again”: The resignation in his voice is just…damn, Hank.
  10. The White Stripes, “The Denial Twist”: “If you think that a kiss is all in the lips/C’mon, you got it all wrong, man.”

Playlist #32

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New week, new playlist!

  1. Pearl Jam, “Black”: I learned to play this song last week, only 20-some years too late for it to be relevant.
  2. Jonathan Edwards, “Sunshine (Go Away Today)”: Also learned this one last week. It’s fun and folky.
  3. Sting, “Shape Of My Heart”: I just really like the guitar figure in this one.
  4. The Decemberists, “Sucker’s Prayer”: I mentioned this one the other week, and then just put a different Decemberists song on the playlist instead. Here’s this one now.
  5. Big Red Machine, “Renegade (featuring Taylor Swift)”: Am I sucker for recent Taylor Swift? Yes. Is this song really gorgeous? Also yes.
  6. The Beatles, “For You Blue”: I dig George Harrison songs, and this one is just so much fun. John’s slide playing is gleeful and too much fun.
  7. The Avett Brothers, “Ain’t No Man”: I dig these guys, and this song is tub-thumpin’ good times.
  8. Wilco, “Everyone Hides”: I like how Wilco has eased into their dad rock years and are just hummin’ along, making laidback music and having a good time.
  9. Yael Naim, “New Soul”: Pretty sure this was a song featured in an iTunes commercial back in the day? I don’t remember. But it’s cute and lovely.
  10. The Horrible Crowes, “Mary Ann”: Sometimes, you just need Brian Fallon shouting someone’s name in the chorus.