van morrison

Playlist #203: The Wearin’ o’ the Green

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Wear some green, run some snakes outta your island, and listen to this Irish-themed playlist all while doing so!

  1. Van Morrison, “(Straight To Your Heart) Like a Cannonball”: Is there any more Irish singer than Van? The guy oozes Irishness. Or maybe just surliness. He’s a pretty surly dude.
  2. U2, “Hawkmoon 269”: This song is always fun to sing and play on the guitar. I also apparently made up a whole outro thing that the backing vocalists are in no way actually singing in the song, but that fits with the song and that I love and that I may have to actually end up putting in a song of my own someday.
  3. Sinead O’Connor, “Nothing Compares 2 U”: Yes, it’s cliche and the obvious choice, but it’s the obvious choice for a reason: it’s a damn good song.
  4. The Cranberries, “Zombie”: Again, an obvious choice, but it was this or “Linger,” and I prefer this song.
  5. Hozier, “Take Me To Church”: Okay, yeah, I know, take me task for going the easy route on so many of these. But there are songs that we like to think of as standards, and they are the standard for a reason: their approach to the song or to the concept is so perfect that it’s hard to imagine topping it, and those songs become rather iconic.
  6. Christy Moore, “Beeswing”: A Richard Thompson cover. I do love me Richard Thompson covers and wish there were more of them out there. Christy Moore is also apparently one of the most beloved singers in all of Ireland? I dunno, but I dig him.
  7. Thin Lizzy, “The Boys Are Back in Town”: I wasn’t really aware these guys were Irish, but they do kick a considerable amount of ass for a ’70s rock band.
  8. The Dubliners, “Raglan Road”: We ate at an Irish restaurant in Disney Village this summer called Raglan Road. That’s how famous this song (and, I guess, the actual road) are. It’s a beautiful song, to be sure.
  9. The Chieftains, “The Long Black Veil”: I’m more familiar with the Johnny Cash version of this song, but this version (with Mick Jagger providing vocals) is suitably gloomy and dark.
  10. Dropkick Murphys, “I’m Shipping Up to Boston”: Is it Irish? About as much so as the green river in Chicago. Does it still feel Irish? Hell, yes.

Playlist #202

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Mondays just keep happening, don’t they? And on the heels of Daylight Saving Time starting up again, so I got to drive to work while it was still nighttime today. Woo. Here’s some songs.

  1. Jason Isbell, “Foxes in the Snow”: I knew that a solo acoustic album could be powerful and beautiful and heartbreaking, but Jason Isbell just keeps showing me how far you can take such a simple conceit. The title track here is bouncy and thoughtful and just absolutely perfect.
  2. The Goo Goo Dolls, “Sympathy”: I’m a sucker for strummy acoustic numbers, especially when they also feature a mandolin. Who knew the Goo Goo Dolls could deliver?
  3. The Flaming Lips, “Do You Realize??”: This song always makes me cry.
  4. Drive-By Truckers, “Carl Perkins’ Cadillac”: Carl Perkins didn’t need no Grammy, he just needed that Caddy.
  5. Phosphorescent, “Revelator”: I have finally discovered what I want my own musical sound to be, and it’s basically this.
  6. The Temptations, “Papa Was a Rolling Stone”: Watched a long-form video essay this weekend on “Progressive Soul,” which is classic Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Isaac Hayes, and – I’d argue – at least this particular track from The Temptations. It has the same emphasis on the groove and the rhythm section that those other Progressive Soul musicians had, and it’s a damn-good song.
  7. Hurray for the Riff Raff, “Pyramid Scheme”: Why do I feel like this could just be about MLM?
  8. Chris Smither, “Visions of Johanna”: You know me, I love a Dylan cover, and this one’s pretty solid.
  9. Van Morrison, “Once In a Blue Moon”: Late-period Van can still deliver when he wants to.
  10. Fleetwood Mac, “Seven Wonders”: I do have a soft spot for ’80s Mac. Is it as good as anything from Rumors or even Tusk? No. Is it still good, well-crafted pop-rock? Oh my, yes.

Playlist #197

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Happy Monday, folks! We finally made it through that nigh-unending January, sanity (mostly) intact. Here’s some songs to get us through the week.

  1. David Gray, “As I’m Leaving”: David Gray’s earlier stuff is much more striped down and folky. I kinda dig a lot of it, especially this piano ballad off the Lost Songs collection.
  2. You+Me, “From a Closet in Norway”: Maybe I’m just a sucker for acoustic-based folk-pop?
  3. Van Morrison, “Madame Joy”: This song is just so full of joy, it’s hard not to love. Van could rave it up sometimes.
  4. Wilco, “You Are My Face”: I love the breakdown in this song, where it totally changes tone and rhythm and becomes a completely different song for a couple of minutes. Great.
  5. Jackson Browne, “Downhill From Everywhere”: An actual environmental protest song, this time about the sea and how we’re all connected to it.
  6. Beck, “Lost Cause”: I know Sea Change is Beck’s big breakup album/Bob Dylan reference, and it’s good, and it sounds like he’s just being backed by the Flaming Lips the whole time (to the point that he took them out on tour as his opener and his backing band for the subsequent tour), but it does occasionally make me miss the whimsical, clearly-stoned-out-of-his-gourd Beck.
  7. Richard Thompson, “Beeswing”: Back on my folky acoustic bullshit, but it’s a damn good story song.
  8. George Harrison, “Not Guilty”: Solo George is the best George.
  9. The Gaslight Anthem, “Blue Jeans & White T-Shirts”: Early Gaslight Anthem, with the band showing they have a softer, more sensitive side.
  10. Aimee Mann, “Stranger Into Starman”: A subdued ender for this particular playlist, but a perpetual favorite. Aimee Mann somehow became one of my favorite artists over the past few years, and I’m not sad about that at all.

Playlist #190

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Happy Monday, folks. It’s the last week of school for the calendar year before we’re off until after the start of the new year. I, for one, am ready for that break. In the meantime, these are the songs that are keeping me going.

  1. Rilo Kiley, “More Adventurous”: Was just thinking about this song last night, and suddenly I’m in a Rilo Kiley mood and want to go back and re-listen to their entire catalog. There are worse problems to have.
  2. Lucinda Williams, “Rebels”: Lucinda Williams released a Tom Petty covers album a few years ago, and it sounds…well, exactly like what you think a Lucinda Williams covering Tom Petty album would sound like. Which is not a bad thing.
  3. Elvis Costello, “Less Than Zero”: Why is this man so spiky all the time? What is he trying to prove? That he feels stuff just as much as the punk rockers, even though he looks more like Buddy Holly? Man, I dunno, but he writes damn good songs.
  4. Van Morrison, “Steal My Heart Away”: Down the Road continues to be a banger of an album, even 22 years later.
  5. 10,000 Maniacs, “Trouble Me”: Can Natalie Merchant do anything wrong, musically? I’m not sure she can.
  6. Cake, “Never There”: I still admire their effort to bring back the donkey call in every song. I may do that on my next album.
  7. Doc Watson, “Beaumont Rag”: Just some pickin’ an’ grinnin’.
  8. Peter Gabriel, “I Have the Touch”: Just the nervous energy of this song has me thinking he smoked two packs of cigarettes and drank about a gallon of coffee before he sat down to write and record it.
  9. Pearl Jam, “Given to Fly”: I dunno why, but I kinda appreciate Pearl Jam’s chiller, more subdued moments now that I’m older. Is this what it means to age gracefully? Do you stop wanting to kick out the jams?
  10. MC5, “Kick Out the Jams”: No, I can still kick them out. It’s all good. Haven’t aged too much yet.

Playlist #188: Name Dropper

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Happy Monday! It’s December, and the weather over the weekend turned decisively cold. I’m down with it, or would be if our thermostat was working and we could actually turn the heat on. Here’s a list of songs that reference other musicians in the lyrics.

  1. Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Sweet Home Alabama”: “Well I heard Mr. Young sing about her/And I heard ol’ Neil put her down/Well I hope Neil Young will remember/A southern man don’t need him around anyhow.” Obvious digs at Neil Young’s songs “Alabama” and “Southern Man” aside, Young apparently agrees that “Southern Man” in particular maybe took things a little too far.
  2. The National, “So Far Around the Bend”: “You’ve been humming in a daze forever/praying for Pavement to get back together.” Leave it to a band like the National to name check Pavement in a song.
  3. The Replacements, “Alex Chilton”: It’s a whole song about Box Tops and Big Star singer Alex Chilton! And it’s awesome.
  4. The Animals, “Story of Bo Diddley”: Not just about Bo Diddley, but also a brief history of rock and roll and the British Invasion, complete with Beatles and Rolling Stones references. I could do without Eric Burden’s impressions of Bo Diddley and his entourage at the end, though.
  5. Elliott Smith, “Baby Britain”: “The light was on but it was dim/Revolver’s been turned over/And now it’s ready once again/The radio is playing ‘Crimson and Clover.'”
  6. Van Morrison, “Whatever Happened to PJ Proby?”: This one’s a three-for-one: the reference to American songwriter PJ Proby in the title, and further references to “Scott Walker” and “Screaming Lord Sutch”, all bizarre niche musicians from the 1960s.
  7. Counting Crows, “Monkey”: “Got nowhere but home to go/Got Ben Folds on my radio right now,” and now we know how I came to find out about Ben Folds.
  8. Taylor Swift, “The Tortured Poets Department”: While “You’re not Dylan Thomas, I’m not Patti Smith” only references one musician (Dylan Thomas is a poet, not a songwriter, rage against the dying of the light), the song also references Charlie Puth later (“We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist”), and I have it on good authority from my students that Charlie Puth is, indeed, a musician.
  9. Bob Dylan, “I Feel a Change Comin’ On”: “I’m listening to Billy Joe Shaver/And I’m reading James Joyce/Some people tell me/I’ve got the blood of the Lamb in my voice” is just such a perfect Dylan line.
  10. Semisonic, “Gone to the Movies”: “And it covers up the cars/And the Wallflowers CD ended half an hour ago.” This is just such a sad song, largely about the a guy who wants to go out looking for his lady but he can’t or won’t because it’s snowing like crazy out there and his car probably won’t start.

Playlist #187: The Longs

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Happy Monday, folks. It’s Thanksgiving Week! There ought to be more Thanksgiving Carols, right? Anyway, this week’s playlist is all songs that are well over the ten minute mark, because why the hell not? And no, they’re not all Pink Floyd songs. I just put one on here.

  1. Arlo Guthrie, “Alice’s Restaurant Massacre”: I love this song without qualifications or justifications necessary. It’s rambling, barely coherent, and funny as hell.
  2. Pink Floyd, “Echoes”: A band known for going over the top with long, drawn-out compositions like this one or “Shine On You Crazy Diamond.” But they’re usually interesting and very dynamic, so they get a prog pass from me.
  3. Bob Dylan, “Highlands”: Dylan’s no stranger to long songs with fifteen thousand verses in them, going back to at least “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands.” This one, though, from Time Out of Mind, is my favorite, if only because he keeps cracking jokes. It’s also where I got the title of my comic, Sketches from Memory.
  4. Creedence Clearwater Revival, “I Heard it Through the Grapevine”: Who would’ve thought an R&B groove could go on for that long? But damn if it doesn’t.
  5. The Decemberists, “The Crane Wife 1 & 2”: Really a bit of a cheat, since technically they’re two songs mashed together on the same track, but I’m gonna count it anyway ’cause the band seems to.
  6. Dire Straits, “Telegraph Road”: Mark Knopfler liked to stretch things out once in a while, as it turns out. There weren’t many bands who could get away with releasing a five-song album in 1982, but they could.
  7. Genesis, “Driving the Last Spike”: Yeah, early Genesis tended toward the long, esoterically pastoral fantasies, but this is late-period, early 1990s Genesis, flexing a bit, writing a song about railroad workers in industrial England. It feels different.
  8. Neil Young, “Cowgirl in the Sand”: Still not sure how Neil Young was just…recording grunge-style songs back in the early ’70s like he’s some sort of time traveler or something.
  9. Traffic, “The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys”: What the hell is this song even about? I have no idea. But it’s kinda jazzy and kinda rock’n’roll and it’s a lot of Steve Winwood.
  10. Van Morrison, “Almost Independence Day”: It almost sounds like Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here,” but not quite. Not quite. And Van does a bit of that weird humming/scatting thing in it. Which is, as I said, kinda weird. But also kinda works? I dunno, it’s early and I haven’t had enough caffeine yet this morning.

Playlist #182

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Happy Monday, folks. We begin this week as we have so many others, with a playlist of tracks chosen by yours truly. This week, those songs are:

  1. Fleetwood Mac, “Silver Springs (Live)”: The one from The Dance, the 1997 live album, where Stevie Nicks gives such a performance directly at Lindsey Buckingham that I’m surprised he didn’t just sink through the floor and into oblivion. I’ve been obsessed with this song for the past week, and it doesn’t show any signs of letting me go anytime soon.
  2. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, “Straight Into Darkness”: They just released a deluxe version of this 1982 album, complete with a bonus disk of outtakes and rarities. Good stuff. Now gimme one for Damn the Torpedoes!
  3. Cunningham Bird, “Don’t Let Me Down Again”: So Andrew Bird and Madison Cunningham did a track-for-track remake of Buckingham Nicks. It still sounds very Andrew Bird-y, so lots of beautiful violin and virtuoso whistling.
  4. Live, “Pain Lies on the Riverside”: Did you know they wrote and recorded and performed songs other than “Lightning Crashes”? Well, they did! And a lot of them are a damn-sight better than that song.
  5. Van Morrison, “Everyone”: My brother called me up Friday and asked me, “What Van Morrison song has a lot of flutes and sounds like it’s straight out of the Middle Ages? And there’s something about mulberry bushes in there, too, I think?” He meant “Everyone,” which, while it does indeed feature flutes in a rather prominent role, does not ever mention mulberry bushes.
  6. The Offspring, “Staring at the Sun”: Sometimes, you just wanna rock out to a song that aint’ that deep. The Offspring are there for you.
  7. Michigander, “Better (Acoustic)”: Is this better than the electric version? I’m not convinced.
  8. Melissa Ethridge, “Come to my Window”: Man, when is Lilith Fair gonna get revived?
  9. Josh Ritter, “The Curse”: The best song about a mummy accidentally cursing the woman he loves who found him and slowly sucking all of the life out of her until she’s just a desiccated husk of a person like he was when she first found him that I have ever heard. It is, admittedly, a rather niche genre of song.
  10. John Mellencamp, “No One Cares About Me”: Poor John Mellencamp. It sure ain’t his mid-80s heyday anymore, which is too bad, since he’s become a much more interesting songwriter since then and mellowed out in a number of ways. Not in his voice, mind you, which sounds like he gargles glass, sand, whiskey, and an ashtray before every vocal take.

Playlist #177

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Happy Monday, folks! Did you know that you can join my Patreon and hear a new song every single week? It’s true! Come join me, I’m lonely. Here’s songs by other people:

  1. Gary Wright, “Two Faced Man”: Pre-“Dream Weaver,” Gary Wright had a mustache and a more Americana approach to music. This one features George Harrison on slide guitar!
  2. Lucero, “Downtown/On My Way Downtown”: I unabashedly love this song. The horns that feature throughout this whole album (called Women and Work, if you’re curious) is top-notch and adds a great layer of novelty to the songs.
  3. Deer Tick, “Easy”: This song sounds so damn angry every time I listen to it, and I love it. Very loud and brash and upset and unhappy and so damn angry.
  4. Van Morrison, “Give Me a Kiss”: This song is so lighthearted and bouncy, like the musical equivalent of a kiss from your significant other.
  5. Bruce Springsteen, “One Step Up”: Getting back to sadness, apparently, with the Boss’s cheating song. At least, that’s how I always think of it.
  6. Days of the New, “Touch, Peel and Stand”: An acoustic-based grunge song? It’s more likely than you think!
  7. The Flying Burrito Brothers, “Sin City”: Sometimes, you just want some good ol’ fashioned country rock, and the FBBs are here for you in that moment.
  8. Neil Young, “Harvest”: Speaking of country rock, here’s another classic of the genre. I spent a good chunk of the end of last week learning how to play a number of songs off this album, so I’m pretty stuck in on this one.
  9. Garbage, “Only Happy When It Rains”: Sharp songwriting, incisive lyrics, and a snarl on the lead singer’s lips make this one a classic.
  10. Frank Turner, “We Shall Not Overcome”: Sometimes, it’s best to just say “fuck it” and accept the inevitable.

Playlist #176

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It’s Tuesday, because I spent all Sunday night vomiting and most of yesterday sleeping it off. So here’s this week’s playlist today.

  1. John Prine, “All The Best”: John Prine remains the songwriter’s songwriter. I caught a performance he did for NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert of this song, and it’s simple and beautiful and deadpan. Love it.
  2. Van Morrison, “Almost Independence Day”: I can’t be the only person who heard this song and thought it sounded like Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here.”
  3. Pearl Jam, “Corduroy”: Was Vitalogy the last great Pearl Jam album? Probably not. But it was the last one I bought on CD until grad school, when I picked up Riot Act on a whim. I’d definitely chalk it up as their strangest album, with more weirdness than you usually expect from a mainstream rock act.
  4. Tom Petty, “Down South”: Okay, I’ll admit, I’ve come around on Highway Companion in recent years. Like any Tom Petty album, it features a good selection of classic tunes, including this one. Bonus, it’s fun to play on the guitar.
  5. Billy Bragg & Wilco, “Jesus Christ for President”: The first debate between Trump and Kamala Harris is tonight, and while I’ll watch it, I won’t be excited to watch it. Debates mostly just enrage me. But hey, maybe JC will make a sudden reappearance and run for office. Despite being an immigrant. And unemployed.
  6. Lee Isaacs, “Born Outta This Time”: I’m still not quite sure how I feel about this song. He rushes too much through some of the lyrics in the chorus, but it’s otherwise a pretty solid tune with good instrumentation and a catchy hook.
  7. The Flaming Lips, “Spider Bite”: The Soft Bulletin remains one of my favorite albums of all times, and this is a fun, weird little song from that one. A precursor to Spider-Man? Maybe.
  8. Roy Orbison, “Help”: Roy Orbison’s voice just sends chills up your spine, and his solo acoustic take on “Help” from documentary Everyman: John Lennon, “Journey in the Life” is just breathtaking. Wish a full version of it was available somewhere.
  9. Peter Gabriel, “Steam”: Is it just a slight rewrite of “Sledgehammer”? Yeah, sure. But is it still pretty awesome? Heck yeah. Even a rehashed “Sledgehammer” still hits a sweet spot in my brain.
  10. Sean Watkins and Glen Phillips, “Let It Fall”: Just one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard, with gorgeous mandolin and guitar runs throughout.

Playlist #173 – Back to School Edition!

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Happy Monday, folks! Once more, a new school year has rolled around, and once more I woke up having not won the lottery, so I’m back in the classroom for my twentieth year of teaching. Which is more than a little horrifying. How can I be old enough to have done anything for twenty years? Except make playlists, of course. I’ve been doing that since I was born, essentially.

  1. The Call, “Let the Day Begin”: As I said last year when I featured this song on my start of the year playlist, this song always played on the classic rock station we listened to in my hometown first thing in the morning, usually around the time I was on my way to school. So I kind of associate it with the school day staring.
  2. Matchbox 20, “Stop”: Are these guys the most middle-of-the-road pop rock from the last twenty-some years? I think they might be.
  3. John Bonamasa, “Driving Towards the Daylight”: I had certain preconceived notions about what a John Bonamasa song would sound like and who he was as an artist, and boy was I wrong. It’s pretty good stuff.
  4. Billy Idol, “Bitter Taste”: Speaking of songs from artists I didn’t expect, this latter-day Billy Idol song is actually pretty damn good.
  5. Post Malone, “Have the Heart (feat. Dolly Parton)”: I didn’t have “Post Malone releases an actual country album” on my 2024 bingo card, let alone a duet with Dolly Parton that features the classic country like “I didn’t have the heart to break yours,” but here we are.
  6. Rufus Wainwright, “Going to a Town”: Melancholy and downbeat, but a lovely and beautiful song.
  7. Bruce Springsteen, “Stolen Car”: Speaking of downbeat, this is probably the most subtle song Springsteen has ever recorded, and I’m including Nebraska in that tally. I’m sure it was totally by accident.
  8. Young Dubliners, “Last House on the Street”: A simple love song, but the best love songs are simple.
  9. Van Morrison, “Into the Mystic”: “It’s too late to stop now.”
  10. Bob Dylan, “Born in Time”: Every so often, latter-day Dylan pops up with an absolute gem that he, for reasons I can’t explain, he relegates to the Bootleg Series rather than releasing on an album proper. This is one of ’em.