the ink spots

Playlist #250

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Happy Monday! I’m sure a lot of you are still celebrating the victory/mourning the defeat of your favorite sportsball team from last night, but since I don’t give two figs about football I’m up and ready to face the day with a new playlist.

  1. Carbon Leaf, “Life Less Ordinary”: Can I tell you, I’ve been searching for this song for the past, oh, ten, fifteen years? All I had to go on was one line from the chorus – “you shook the bones of me” – and it wasn’t until this weekend that I finally just typed that into Apple Music and it spit out the artist and song title for me. I probably could’ve done this with a Google search anytime in those ten to fifteen years, but that’s not nearly as much fun as searching for it yourself. I feel like searching up the lyrics in my Music app was a sign of defeat.
  2. Gin Blossoms, “Mrs. Rita”: There’s just something about the jangly ’90s sound that I will always love.
  3. Winnetka Bowling League, “My Own Summer (Shove It)”: I was never really into the Deftones, so I am quite confident in stating I never want to hear a different version of this song.
  4. Burt Bacharach & Elvis Costello, “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again”: Man, ’90s soundtracks just managed to get the best damn songs, didn’t they? Like, I cannot think of a a song off a soundtrack from anything in the past almost 25 years that has been half as good as anything off a ’90s soundtrack. This came from the freakin’ Austin Powers movie. Austin Powers, you guys.
  5. Toad the Wet Sprocket, “Something’s Always Wrong (Acoustic)”: Toad recently did an all-acoustic album of old songs, some off of their first couple of releases even (never thought I’d hear a new version of “Scenes From A Vinyl Recliner,” but there it is), though many of them lack the original versions’ energy and some have been changed up considerably (I’m looking your way, “Jam”). This is a good read on this one from a group of veteran performers.
  6. Bad Bunny, “BAILE INoLVIDABLE”: Did I pay for a subscription to Peacock last night just to watch this guy turn in a killer halftime show? Yes, yes, I did. And I’d do it again just to spite the MAGAts.
  7. Jenny Scheinman, “I Was Young When I Left Home”: I love this song and every version I’ve heard of it. This particular version is led by lap steel (and apparently doesn’t exist on Spotify, more’s the pity).
  8. The Ink Spots, “Java Jive”: It’s amazing the number of songs I’ve been introduced to thanks to the Little Lulu cartoons. Okay, it’s only two (this one and Bing Crosby’s “Swingin’ On A Star,” but that’s two more than I’d’ve guessed).
  9. The Black Crowes, “She Talks To Angels”: The big ballad off their first album. It’s good, I’ll grant you, as with so many of the songs off that debut. I’m sure part of that is the age at which I first heard the song.
  10. The Horrible Crowes, “Sugar”: What’s it with bands spelling “crowes” with an e? Why is that a thing? This song slaps.

Playlist #160

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Happy Monday, folks. If you’re like me, you spent the weekend thinking about music, coughing, and playing video games. You also came up with this playlist. You are very talented and quite handsome, I must say.

  1. Seven Mary Three, “Water’s Edge”: This is just the grunge version of Richard Marx’s “Hazard,” isn’t it? I’m pretty sure it is.
  2. Onnu Jonu Son, “True Love Will Find You In the End”: Icelandic dude who has one of those great raspy, lower-register voices that feel folky and lived-in. So do his songs, including this lovely cover.
  3. Rhiannon Giddens, “Yet To Be (feat. Jason Isbell)”: I am a sucker for a good duet, and these two knock it out of the park.
  4. Adeem the Artist, “Nancy”: I like his new album, though I liked White Trash Revelry more. This one strikes me as “Laid” by James only ’90s country styles.
  5. Pearl Jam, “Wreckage”: Dark Matter was a surprisingly good album. It feels like classic Pearl Jam without really sounding anything like classic Pearl Jam. This one is a predominantly acoustic number, a strange thing on any Pearl Jam album but a welcome departure from their riffy electric assault.
  6. Hurray for the Riff Raff, “The Body Electric”: They just really get the folky country style, like they’ve lived it and it’s written in their bones.
  7. John Prine, “Souvenirs”: Is that really how you spell the word “souvenirs?” Why did I think it had more vowels in it, especially in the back half? I am just left confused.
  8. The Strumbrellas, “Spirits”: It’s one of those 2000s-era, over-produced pop-alternative bands with strummy acoustics and shouted team-style vocals, and I can’t get enough of it, apparently.
  9. Willie Nelson, “Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain”: You can’t go wrong with the Red Headed Stranger, either the singer (Willie) or the album.
  10. The Ink Spots, “Java Jive”: I am 90% sure most of my jazz and classical music knowledge came from watching cartoons as a child. Loony Tunes, Little Lulu, Tom & Jerry…everything I know about some genres of music came from these shows, including this song. “I like coffee, I like tea/I like the java jive and it likes me.” Yes indeed.

Playlist #51

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Happy Tax Day, America! Happy regular ol’ Monday after Easter! Happy, um, April 18th, everyone else? Don’t forget to join my Patreon, where I’m making new music every month for your listening enjoyment (actual amount of enjoyment may vary. Please see your doctor if you receive too much enjoyment from listening to my music)! Anyway, here’s this week’s playlist.

  1. The Beatles, “Taxman”: Like I wasn’t gonna do this today. “My advice to those who die/Declare the pennies on your eyes.”
  2. Bruce Cockburn, “Lovers In A Dangerous Time”: Only started listening to him this morning, but the line, “Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight/You gotta kick in the darkness till it bleeds daylight” is just one of the all-time best.
  3. The Ink Spots, “Java Jive”: Like most music from the first half of the 20th century, my exposure to this song was through a cartoon when I was a small child. Little Lulu, I think?
  4. Lizzo, “About Damn Time”: Here comes Lizzo with another summer jam. God, where did she find that bass player? That bassline slaps.
  5. Ten Years After, “I’d Love To Change The World”: With a chorus that literally says, “I’d love to change the world/But I don’t know what to do/So I’ll leave it up to you,” this is the quintessential Boomer song. “Eh, I’d love to do something about it, but I’m not gonna. Tough luck, future!”
  6. XTC, “Across This Antheap”: Another song with so many good lines just tossed off all casual-like. And that trumpet? So good.
  7. The Wallflowers, “Bleeders”: Included simply because of the way that organ sounds at the very beginning of the song.
  8. Ben E. King, “Stand By Me”: You know what always aggravates me about the John Lennon cover of this song? It adds absolutely nothing to it. You might as well just go back and listen to the Ben E. King version instead. Which is why this version is on the playlist.
  9. Otis Redding, “That’s How Strong My Love Is”: Listening to this song, I’m reminded of how very much in-touch with that ’60s R&B Stax sound CCR (or really, John Fogerty) was. This coulda been a CCR song. Or any CCR song coulda been an Otis Redding song.
  10. Josh Ritter, “Old Black Magic”: This song just chugs along and gets downright fiery towards the end.