tom petty

Playlist #282

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It is still technically Monday, so happy Monday, folks. Here’s today’s playlist.

  1. Earth, Wind, and Fire, “September”: You are contractually obligated to put this song on a playlist on this date. I don’t make the rules.
  2. Tom Waits, “The Earth Died Screaming”: I told my brother to listen to this one earlier today. He…did not care for it, I don’t think. Which is weird to me, because it’s a great if rather odd song. Y’know, it’s a Tom Waits song.
  3. Elton John, “Come Down In Time”: So it turns out Tumbleweed Connection is just a fantastic album. It’s earthy and thoughtful in ways I don’t usually associate with Elton John, but damn does he pull it off.
  4. Steely Dan, “Deacon Blue”: I know the lyrics are acerbic and often bordering on the nasty, but the music feels far too well-mannered for my tastes. It sounds like what you’d hear at an upscale cocktail longue in the early ’80s.
  5. Matt Berninger, “Ask For Water”: The National lead singer put out an EP last week mostly filled with songs we’d already heard from him, but it included a couple of new ones. This was the better of the two new songs, in my opinion. Not that the other song is a slouch or anything, but this is just a better tune.
  6. Laser The Boy, “Don’t You Know Who I Am”: Just a beautiful song about identity and self-doubt and relationships and all that kind of stuff. Laser knows his stuff.
  7. Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians, “What I Am”: Anytime I reference this song (usually when someone makes a reference to philosophy, to which I reply, “Is just the talk on a cereal box”) I just get blank stares from my students. Maybe it’s time to update my pop culture references?
  8. Jason Isbell, “Super 8”: No one wants to die in a Super 8 Motel. It’s embarrassing. You’d die of embarrassment if you were caught dead in a Super 8 Motel. Don’t go to a Super 8, is what I’m saying. Nothing good comes of it.
  9. The Wallflowers, “After the Blackbird Sings”: A throwback to their debut album, the one that no one really listened to. You can really hear the debt he owes to Tom Petty in this album, especially this song. It just feels like a Tom Petty song to me. It also feels like the closest they got to sounding like what I think of as the Wallflowers on this album, but I digress.
  10. Tom Petty, “Wake Up Time”: I used to skip this song on Wildflowers. Didn’t care for it. As I’ve gotten older, though, I’ve come to appreciate it, understand its beauty and simplicity and know that it’s got a lot to tell me if I’ll just listen. It’s a damn good song, as it turns out, and it was the perfect way to end his best album.

Playlist #265

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Happy Tuesday, folks. I’ve got the first three days of this week off for various holidays and teacher work days, so I’ve spent the time relaxing and not thinking about what I have to do when I get back to work on Thursday. Here’s a playlist.

  1. The Gray Charlies, “Burnt Offering”: My brother released his full EP last Friday, and I think you should listen to the whole thing, but especially this song. And not just because this is the one that I wrote the words and music for. No, because the way the singer digs into it just hits right, and the strings are absolutely gorgeous.
  2. Rostam, “Like a Spark”: This is just Van Morrison’s “Astral Weeks,” right? Like, I’m not complaining, but this is just “Astral Weeks” with different words.
  3. The Pauls Band, “Penguin Parade”: A buddy of mine from work released a second single last week, and it’s pretty darn good.
  4. Shakey Graves, “Time Flies”: A lo-fi slab of acoustic-based alternative folk, which is a string of words that either immediately made you make a vomit emoji face or light up like a Christmas tree.
  5. The National, “The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness”: Aside from being the only National song I can think of with an actual guitar solo in it, the title is unnecessarily long and I kinda love it for that.
  6. Antony with Bryce Dessner, “I Was Young When I Left Home”: A Dylan cover? On one of my playlists? It’s more likely than you’d think!
  7. Hurray for the Riff Raff, “Pa’lante”: Apparently a word in Spanish that means “foward” or “keep going.” A nice little reminder that as hard as things get, as ridiculous as the world around us seems, we have to keep trying not to fuck it up too much and just move forward each time we do.
  8. Van Morrison, “Madame George”: Is it a song about a drag queen? Or about his own mother? Even Van doesn’t know. But it’s beautiful.
  9. Tom Petty. “The Apartment Song (Demo)”: I always preferred the demo version of this song, since the lyrics are a little different in the second chorus (instead of just repeating the chorus, he adds in some new words in the second run through and it just really fits and I’m sad it didn’t make it into the final version). Plus, I’m pretty sure that’s Stevie Nicks singing backing vocals on it.
  10. Daniel and the Lion, “No Ghost”: This slice of pop perfection is all Clyde’s fault. He’s the only reason I even know who this band is.

Playlist #237: Wrecks

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Happy Monday, folks. We’ve got a short week this week, what with Veterans Day happening tomorrow, but we’ve also got a historically-based playlist for you today. Starting with:

  1. Gordon Lightfoot, “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”: Fifty years ago today, the Edmund Fitzgerald went down in Lake Superior, taking twenty-nine men with it. Lightfoot apparently wrote and recorded the song just a month later, and it was released in August of 1976, giving him the biggest hit of his career.
  2. Tom Petty, “You Wreck Me”: Is there a better Tom Petty album than Wildflowers? If so, I haven’t heard it (and neither, I’d assume, has anyone else, ’cause this is clearly his best album). That chorus is so good to sing along to.
  3. Pearl Jam, “Wreckage”: Pearl Jam’s latest studio album included this gem, an acoustic-based song that stands as one of the best they’ve written in the past fifteen, twenty years.
  4. Bruce Springsteen, “Wrecking Ball”: It’s a song about Giants Stadium in New Jersey. They were about to tear it down, and the Boss had to write a song in ode to it. It’s one of his better latter-day songs.
  5. George Harrison, “Wreck of the Hesperus”: Based on a Wordsworth poem about a shipwreck? Or a Procol Harum song of the same name? I dunno. It’s mostly George Harrison lamenting getting older, but still being able to rock out. It’s chock-full o’ puns, which is one of my favorite forms of song lyrics.
  6. Loose Fur, “Wreckroom”: Look, Loose Fur is weird. Just…really weird. But also nifty. Mostly weird.
  7. They Might Be Giants, “Wreck My Car”: Please do not wreck someone else’s car, even if they ask you to. That’s probably insurance fraud, and you don’t wanna be involved in that.
  8. Mike Campbell & the Dirty Knobs, “Wreckless Abandon”: Mike Campbell’s solo work is more workmanlike than anything he did with the Heartbreakers, but c’mon, not everyone is a songwriting dynamo like Tom Petty was.
  9. Emmylou Harris, “Wrecking Ball”: A different “Wrecking Ball” than the Bruce Springsteen one. It’s a beautiful song, though.
  10. Wreckless Eric, “Whole Wide World”: Featured to great effect in the movie Stranger than Fiction, it’s one of those three-chord garage rock songs that you can learn in two minutes and play all by yourself forever. We recommend turning the amplifier way up for this one.

Playlist #236

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Happy Monday, folks! I spent the weekend hanging out with visiting family, strummin’ guitars and eating to much food. As one does. Here’s some songs to get you through the week.

  1. Gin Blossoms, “Hey Jealousy”: My dad had heard of the Gin Blossoms, he said, but couldn’t place a song by them. This is probably their best-known song. If he’s heard any of them, it’s probably this one.
  2. Snocaps, “Cherry Hard Candy”: It’s the lady from Waxahatchee! And her sister! And a couple of dudes she’s been performing with for a while! But it’s also a whole new and different band! But hey, more Waxahatchee by any name is good for me.
  3. Enigma, “Return to Innocence”: I heard this song (from the Pure Moods CD, natch) while I was in a Wawa last night. It’s the one with the faux-Native chanting/singing in it. You know the one. You heard it in all the commercials they ran for that collection in the ’90s.
  4. Tom Petty, “You Saw Me Comin'”: Finding Wallflowers is a fascinating document to me. I was talking with my dad about it this weekend, along with all the other archival releases legacy acts like Dylan, Springsteen, and Neil Young have been cranking out in the past few years. I’ve always enjoyed the iterative process of songwriting, and would have loved to hear where Tom took this particular song that just sorta…went away.
  5. Iggy Pop, “Passenger”: A classic Iggy four-chord rocker from Lust for Life.
  6. Wilco, “Handshake Drugs”: I love playing this song on the guitar. I have since I first figured out how to play it. Sometimes, Jeff Tweedy and Co. create some simple, very effective songs.
  7. Bruce Springsteen, “Reason To Believe (Electric Nebraska)”: One of my favorite songs from Nebraska. Is the electric version really all that different? No, not really. Again, it’s really obvious in hindsight why Bruce went with the solo demo versions of all of these songs.
  8. Hank Williams, “Move It On Over”: I always loved the George Thorogood version of this song, and the Hank original remains completely awesome as well.
  9. The Eagles, “Tequila Sunrise”: Always a fun guitar song.
  10. The Bee Gees, “To Love Somebody”: Learned this one playing guitar with my dad this weekend. Good song.

Playlist #227

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Happy Labor Day, folks! True to form, I came down sick over the long weekend, and still feel like ten miles ofd rough road. But the content mines wait for no man! So, here’s a playlist.

  1. Shocking Blue, “Venus”: Shocking no one (even the color blue), I prefer this version to the ’80s cover. I know, who could have guessed?
  2. Spoon, “Guess I’m Fallin In Love”: It’s a new Spoon song. At this point, you know what they sound like, you know what their songs are gonna do. You either dig it or you don’t. I dig it.
  3. Lord Huron, “La Belle Fleur Sauvage”: I need me some more atmospheric Americana. This hits that spot and scratches that itch.
  4. Anna Nalick, “Breathe (2 AM)”: It’s a very Lilith Faire circa 1998 sorta song, except it came out in 2004.
  5. The Narcissist Cookbook, “vs the Heat Death of the Universe!”: Strummy guitars, soft/loud dynamics, and shout-along choruses? This just ticks all the boxes, doesn’t it?
  6. Sabrina Carpenter, “Manchild”: It’s a good song. As good as the stuff off her last album? Maybe not. But she’s taking aim at dudes who need to be taken down a peg or two, so I’m here for it.
  7. Cross-Eyed Yeti, “I Don’t Need You”: We released the original Cross-Eyed Yeti tape last week! It’s…very rough, but has a certain homespun charm. This is one of our better early songs, played way slower than it would be in subsequent years.
  8. Cory Branan, “When In Rome, When In Memphis”: Conflating Rome, Memphis, and Asbury Park may be one of the ballsiest moves I’ve ever heard of, but damn if the guy doesn’t have at least a little bit of a point.
  9. Tom Petty, “Down South”: The tail end of August has been downright pleasant, temperature-wise, which is quite unusual for Virginia. I’m sure we’ll pay for it during the month of September. But hey, that’s the challenge of living in the South.
  10. Van Morrison, “Meet Me In The Indian Summer”: We are officially at the end of the summer season with Labor Day’s arrival, reaching what is often called “Indian Summer,” y’racists. We’ll accept it from Van this one time, ’cause that dude’s pretty fuckin’ irascible.

Playlist #209

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It’s Monday again, somehow. Time continues forward. SOL testing starts this week at my school, so we’re stuck in one class each day for two periods instead of one. I’m thinking the kids are gonna get real sick of my dad jokes before that time ends.

  1. Dire Straits, “Your Latest Trick”: It’s one of those classic ’80s songs with saxophone solos in it.
  2. Elvis Presley, “Run On”: I’d only ever heard the Johnny Cash (and, by extension, the Gaslight Anthem) version of this song, which is slower and more menacing. Elvis’s version sounds like a tent revival on speed.
  3. Kenny Rogers & the First Edition, “Just Dropping In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)”: Kentucky-Fried Kenny was apparently a bit…psychedelic back in the day? I somehow never realized he’d done this song, but it’s groovy.
  4. Drive-By Truckers, “Carl Perkins’ Cadillac”: I love story songs, and ones based on reality (Carl Perkins really did win a Cadillac from Sam Phillips) are just always pretty great. And no one really does them better these days than the Drive-By Truckers, who have such an eye (and ear) for detail.
  5. Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins, “Born Secular”: Such a sad, deep song, driven by that drum machine loop and the big chords on the piano. There really isn’t a bad song on that album.
  6. Nanci Griffith, “This Old Town”: Oklahoma is littered with towns like the ones this song is about: small, isolated communities that should have shut down years ago, shoud’ve become ghost towns a dozen times over, but still somehow cling to life and continued existence. Most of them are built around the local public school, actually.
  7. Tom Petty, “Crawling Back to You (Alternate Version)”: The original version of this song remains one of the absolute best on his best album, Wildflowers. This alternate take feels looser and somehow sadder.
  8. Bruce Springsteen, “O Mary Don’t You Weep”: The Seeger Sessions collection is such a strange aberration in Springsteen’s catalog. It’s loose and celebratory and fun, without the dozens of layers of post-production and overdubs and the agonizing over mixing and mastering that usually accompanies a Bruce production.
  9. Van Morrison, “Almost Independence Day”: While the guitar riff sounds almost like “Wish You Were Here,” the song’s other Pink Floyd connection is the length – it’s over ten minutes – if not the thematic content. Van sorta goes on a rambling, stream-of-consciousness sort of thing over the course of the song, but it sounds amazing. The low buzzsaw of that keyboard (or is it a cello or a double bass? I honestly don’t know) that cuts through occasionally gets me every time, and I wish I could figure out how he got that tone out of it and how I could duplicate it.
  10. Collective Soul, “Shine”: So apparently the entire album this song is off of was just the demos the lead singer did on his own, playing all the instruments himself. The little “yeah” before the chorus was sung through a toilet paper roll, which is a hilarious bit of trivia with which to impress your friends.

Playlist #204 – Birthday Edition!

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Happy Monday, folks! It’s my birthday this Thursday, if’n you didn’t know, and I’ll be turning 45. I do not feel like a 45 year old except when I stand up too fast or sit on the floor for too long. We’re gonna go sing karaoke this weekend to celebrate, so here’s my go-to songs for karaoke:

  1. B-52s, “Love Shack”: I’ll sing all the parts by myself, given half a chance.
  2. Tom Petty, “Won’t Back Down”: Really, any Tom Petty song works for me, but this one is fun if you can get everyone else to sing along on the chorus.
  3. The Darkness, “I Believe In A Thing Called Love”: The really fast part in the chorus? The absolute best.
  4. Barenaked Ladies, “One Week”: The whole damn thing is too fast for most folks, but I spent my college years perfecting it rather than going on dates.
  5. Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Who’ll Stop The Rain”: Really, any CCR song would work.
  6. Hank Williams, “Why Don’t You Love Me”: A country crier? A sob-story to pedal steel and fiddle? Sign me up!
  7. George Thorogood & the Destroyers, “Move It On Over”: Yeah, it’s technically also a Hank Williams song, but the George Thorogood version is probably more fun to sing. You gotta throw that growl in there.
  8. Phil Collins, “In The Air Tonight”: If you don’t air drum at that spot (you know what spot), you are dead inside.
  9. The Animals, “House Of The Rising Sun”: Is it easy to hit those high parts? Of course not. Does that actually matter when you are karaokeing? Not in the least.
  10. Louis Armstrong, “Mack The Knife”: Everyone needs a pop standard in their back pocket, and this is mine. I think I do it some justice.

Playlist #199

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Happy Tuesday, everyone! As is my wont, I took yesterday off ’cause it was a federal holiday. Anyway, here’s this week’s playlist. Enjoy!

  1. Kendrick Lamar, “Not Like Us”: Yeah, I’m several months behind the zeitgeist on this one, but in my defense I’m usually several years behind, so this is progress for me. It’s also a damn good song and a textbook case of how to destroy a rival’s image. I know everyone harps on the “and it’s prob’ly a minoooooooor” line, and rightly so, but the bit about Drake being a colonizer are just….*chef’s kiss*
  2. Jesse Welles, “That Can’t Be Right”: You’ve possibly seen this dude, standing in a clearing on a stump, singing songs about the South in a raspy drawl reminiscent of John Fohgerty if he’d gargled sand and glass for a few hours before singin’. There’s humor and heart in it, and I dig that.
  3. Gregory Alan Isakov, “Sweet Heat Lightning”: Blame Clyde for this one. He insisted I needed to listen to this guy over the weekend after he first sent me a text slagging the guy for always playing the same chords at the same pace. And, yeah, some of the songs do sound a bit samey, but there’s also some very clever songwriting in there and the guy’s clearly found his groove.
  4. The La’s, “There She Goes”: After watching a video about the disastrous efforts to create their first (and only!) album, I had to go give it a listen. Sure, I was already well-aware of this song, which is all chorus repeated ad-infinitum, but the rest of the record (which the lead singer and songwriter has disavowed as not part of his vision) feels like ramshackle ’60s British Invasion pop, with all the jangle and three-part harmonies that implies.
  5. Vaydra, “Learning to Love”: It’s always good news when Kelly and company put out new music. They’ve cut back on the psychedelic touches that tinged their first LP, but her voice remains the driving force it’s always been.
  6. The Cranberries, “Ode to My Family”: Listened to their debut, No Need to Argue, last week, and it sounds…exactly like what you’d expect a Cranberries album to sound like. If you’ve heard “Zombie” or “Linger,” you’re already pretty familiar with their sonic palette. This is by no means a criticism, more an observation that they’d found their niche pretty quick.
  7. Wilco, “Handshake Drugs (11/13/03 Sear Sound-NYC Version)”: A Ghost Is Born remains one of my all-time favorite albums by any band ever, and I’m also down as a guy who loves listening to the iterative process of how the musical sausage gets made. Getting to hear early versions of the songs from this album is a treat, and also the reason I’m seriously considering dropping $150 on the 9-disc version they just released.
  8. Neko Case & Her Boyfriends, “The Virginian”: Early Neko Case is a strange beast. Her voice is as powerful and emotive as you’d expect, but the songwriting polish just isn’t there quite yet (in another song off this album, she rhymes “away” with…”away”). It’s also much more honky-tonk country than the strange alternative singer-songwriter stuff of more recent vintage.
  9. Phil Collins, “I Don’t Care Anymore”: A stark, angry kiss-off song from one of the most unassuming guys in pop, the guy who usually sang stuff like “Sussudio.” Very strange way to start an album.
  10. Tom Petty, “You Saw Me Comin'”: An outtake from the Wildflowers sessions, still one of the best periods of songwriting in Petty’s career.

    Playlist #196

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    Happy Monday, folks! It’s the end of the 2nd quarter here in Northern Virginia, which means I’m officially halfway through my 20th school year. Yes, I’m surprised it’s taken me this long to get through high school, too. Here’s a playlist to get us through the week.

    1. David Gray, “Singing for the Pharaoh”: New David Gray always makes my heart happy. This time around, there’s an emphasis on electronic beats, swirling keyboards, and fingerpicked acoustic guitar, which is pretty classic David Gray circa White Ladder. Very fun.
    2. Bob Dylan, “Boots of Spanish Leather”: One of the absolute saddest songs Dylan ever penned. Just the narrator begging and pleading for his love not to leave, and the eventual resignation to it. Gorgeous and sad.
    3. Nanci Griffith, “Across the Great Divide”: A lovely cover of an old Kate Wolf tune that ditches the corny harmonica for fiddle.
    4. Tom Petty, “To Find a Friend (Live)”: Already one of my favorite songs on Wildflowers, this version (from the Wildflowers box set) is beautiful and heartfelt and bittersweet.
    5. The Rolling Stones, “Let It Bleed”: Classic-era Stones just hits different. You forget that they’re now barely-animated corpses trotting out retreads of their greatest tunes and styles.
    6. The Pretenders, “Don’t Get Me Wrong”: I love Chrissy Hinde and the Pretenders. They had such a hard edge to some of their stuff, and then there’s the vulnerable songs like this one that show they’re more than just punky rockers.
    7. Nouvelle Vague, “Ever Fallen In Love”: Who doesn’t love punk songs covered as though they were actually bossa nova songs?
    8. Dolly Parton, “Seven Bridges Road”: Dolly’s read on this old song is absolutely gorgeous and actually brought Jason Isbell to tears when he listened to her sing it live once.
    9. Cat Stevens, “Father and Son”: Okay, I have a soft spot for Cat Stevens songs. He’s a good sad sack songwriter, and I’m a sucker for that.
    10. America, “Ventura Highway”: If you’re listening to this song while driving, don’t be surprised when you look down at your speedometer and realize you’re doing at least twenty over the speed limit. It’s good cruising music.

    Playlist #189

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    Happy Monday! I survived being sick all last week (yesterday, I still didn’t have much of a voice, and every about fourth word was just a wheezy silence), missed going to what turned out to be a fun wedding up in New York, and actually caught up a bit on sleep? That last one can’t be right.

    1. Waxahatchee, “Crimes of the Heart”: Spent a good chunk of the weekend just listening to Waxahatchee’s Tigers Blood, and I really dig the almost primitive simplicity of the three chord structure she tends to use on her songs. Also, makes it really easy to play along!
    2. Hurray for the Riff Raff, “Buffalo”: I’m down for any song that seeks to examine, however tangentially, the Plains’ Indians’ hunting of the buffalo.
    3. Cassandra Jenkins, “Petco”: Can you find transcendence in the eyes of a lizard behind glass at a pet store? It’s more likely than you think thanks to drugsTM!
    4. Joel Adam Russell, “Knock the Boy Out of You”: A simple country song about toxic masculinity and calling out the asinine behavior of so-called “alpha males.”
    5. Tom Petty, “You Saw Me Comin'”: An unreleased Wildflowers outtake that is easily good enough to be on the album proper.
    6. Yo La Tengo, “Pass the Hatchett, I Think I’m Goodkind”: A mostly-instrumental tune with a great groove and a sinister vibe.
    7. Neko Case, “Dirty Knife”: Speaking of vibes, Neko Case remains brilliant at crafting them, and this song is a great example.
    8. Hank Williams III, “Atlantic City”: Trying real hard to outdo grandpa’s wild ways, Hank III takes a rip-roaring turn through Springsteen’s song about need and hunger.
    9. Linda Ronstadt, “Silver Threads and Golden Needles”: This woman takes a great song and turns it into a stone-cold classic.
    10. Lizzo, “About Damn Time”: I need this kind of jumped-up energy to get me through today.