the english beat

Playlist #276

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Happy Monday, folks! The AC is out at the Wife’s school, which has sent them scrambling home and us to the local library for the day. But playlists don’t care about the temperature!

  1. The Allman Brothers Band, “Midnight Rider”: All these years later, this song still kicks a serious amount of ass. Those harmonies in the chorus? They send chills down my spine.
  2. Badfinger, “Day After Day”: It’s always a bit of a tragedy, this band. They had so much potential, and it ended up being (mostly) wasted by managerial incompetence (or, y’know, malfeasance).
  3. Bruce Cockburn, “Lovers In A Dangerous Time”: I heard a Barenaked Ladies cover of this song the other week, and it just…lacked any kind of oomph. The line “You gotta kick at the darkness ’til it bleeds daylight” is still stone-cold badass, though.
  4. Tom Waits, “Get Behind The Mule”: The title for this song apparently came from famous bluesman Robert Johnson’s father, who famously said, “the only thing wrong with Robert Johnson is that he doesn’t want to get behind the mule in the morning and plow.” And that thought now resides rent-free in my head.
  5. Tom Petty, “You And Me”: I’ve softened considerably on latter-day Tom Petty as I’ve grown older, especially The Last DJ and Highway Companion. This one comes from the former, though I think I can be forgiven for originally thinking it came from the latter. It just has that solo style, that easy-going, laid-back tone that so much of his best work possessed.
  6. Queen, “’39”: A folky little slice of…I dunno, colonialism? It’s less endearing than I originally thought now that I give it more thought. Hmm.
  7. Monsters of Folk, “Say Please”: Speaking of a group that’s supposed to be folky, there’s these guys. I wonder if any of them ever went on to make anything else?
  8. The English Beat, “Save It For Later”: A stone-cold classic. I feel like the horn section is what really holds the song together and gives it that certain something that sets it above many of the English Beat’s peers.
  9. Billy Preston, “Nothing From Nothing”: That Billy Preston could release songs with such emotion and energy and feel as…trapped as he apparently felt still resonates with me.
  10. Jefferson Airplane, “Somebody To Love”: How did the band that released songs like this, “White Rabbit,” and “Volunteers” eventually morph into the band that released “We Built This City?” It’s one of life’s great mysteries.

Playlist #272

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Happy Monday! I’m currently at the beach, and genius that I am I left my laptop at home. So, this is all being done on my phone. Please forgive any glaring spelling or punctuation errors in this week’s playlist.

  1. Toby Keith and Willie Nelson, “Beer for my Horses”: It’s a tale as old as time: we’re gonna be out there fighting the good fight, so my men need whiskey and my horses apparently need beer.
  2. The Ides of March, “Vehicle”: A nice little slice of soul that I learned of courtesy of a band my dad’s cousin plays in. It’s a damn fine song.
  3. The SteelDrivers, “Heaven Sent”: Another song learned of courtesy of Cousin David. Apparently written (at least in part) by Chris Stapleton? You learn something new every day.
  4. The National, “Lucky You”: A beautiful and melancholy song that just reminds me that life is short and you should tell folks you love them. I’m not sure that’s even subtext to the song, more just what it makes me feel.
  5. Blues Traveler, “Hook”: I’m someday going to put together a playlist of songs about writing songs, and this one will go on there.
  6. The Georgia Satellites, “Keep Your Hands to Yourself”: Yeah, the old saying goes why buy the cow when you get the milk for free, but these guys really belabor the point. This song is the classic rock equivalent to Beyoncé’s “All the Single Ladies.”
  7. The English Beat, “Save it for Later”: I’m not generally a fan of the 80s or their bands, but these guys are pretty damn good. Production values feel very much of their time, but the song itself is timeless.
  8. The Breeders, “Cannonball”: A stone-cold 90s classic. If you don’t like that bass line, check to make sure you still have a pulse.
  9. The Both, “Milwaukee”: There are few things in the world that cannot be made better with the combination of Ted Leo and Aimee Mann.
  10. Johnny Rivers, “Seventh Son”: Still absolutely adore the live version of this song. It just kicks a tremendous amount of ass and doesn’t let up for a second.

Playlist #88

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Happy New Year! In addition to the playlist this week, I have CD’s for sale! That’s right, I put together the EP that I released last January and the two singles I released over the course of the year. For $10, you can have a copy of it all for yourself! Email me at crookedhalo42 [at] gmail dot com and we can set it all up.

And now, on with the playlist!

  1. The English Beat, “Save It For Later”: Who doesn’t love some second-wave ska? I know I do.
  2. Loreena McKennitt, “The Mummer’s Dance”: Celtic electronica? In this economy?
  3. Jason Isbell & Elizabeth Cook, “Pancho & Lefty”: Gotta love a Jason Isbell cover of a Townes Van Zandt song.
  4. Fleetwood Mac, “Little Lies”: Only recently discovered that this song was a Fleetwood Mac song.
  5. America, “Ventura Highway”: I just want to drive along the coast with this song cranked way up.
  6. XTC, “Dear God”: A song that demands God explain why bad things happen to good people.
  7. Wilco, “Say You Miss Me”: The yearning and pleading in this song get me every time.
  8. Van Morrison, “I Love You”: I’ve had a difficult time listening to Van Morrison the past few years. His weird anti-vaccine views and his persecution complex have kinda gotten on my nerves. But this song is still tremendously sweet.
  9. Tom Waits, “Jockey Full Of Bourbon”: I’m not really sure what good a jockey full of bourbon would do, unless this is really a song about peeing ’cause you had too much bourbon.
  10. Semisonic, “Never You Mind”: I love this song for nothing else if not the reference to Spock’s brain.