December 01, 2009

124: The Hank Scorpio Dictionary of Soul

  1. "These Days" R.E.M. Live at the Olympia. Have you ever continued to follow your favorite band long after their creative peak, then looked back in regret, wishing you hadn't bought their last four albums? I used to be a big fan of R.E.M. I have all their CDs up through Reveal (2001). Not long after that, I looked back at the previous decade, and wished I had given up the R.E.M. habit after Automatic for the People in 1992. If anyone is interested in buying used copies of Monster (1994), New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996), Up (1998), and Reveal, let me know...
  2. Soap on a Rope" Chickenfoot. A unabashedly retro hard rock supergroup: Joe Satriani, Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony, and Chad Smith. I got this single for free on Amazon.
  3. "I Hate My Generation" Cracker
  4. "Camera One" Josh Joplin Group sounds remarkably like R.E.M.
  5. "(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To" Weezer. I have never been a particular fan of Weezer, but this song is a lot of fun.
  6. "Big Yellow Taxi" by Joni Mitchell has very similar guitar rhythm to the Weezer song, above.
  7. "Carol Brown" by Flight of the Conchords turns "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover" back on the guy. I love Jemaine talking back to his ex-girlfriend backing chorus.
  8. "Already Gone" might be my favorite Eagles song.
  9. "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)" (Extended Club Mix) Hall & Oates. I am a collector of 12-inch dance remixes, specifically remixes of 1980s rock and pop songs (non-disco.) I have never heard of a group re-releasing their remixes as part of catalog reissues, but I found some Hall & Oates remixes re-released on Amazon.
  10. "Mississippi" Sheryl Crow. Thanks to RDM for including this song on a mix CD he gave me. Bob Dylan's original version is one of the first songs my son heard on our iPod the day after he was born.
  11. "I'm Looking Through You" The Beatles. I have liked singing to my son since Day One (literally.) I sang this song to him on Day One. I don't know how I chose this song, but there you go.
  12. "Rock Me On The Water" Jackson Browne
  13. "In Your Room" The Bangles. In November 2009, I saw one of my favorite musicians, Matthew Sweet, live onstage in Arlington MA (!!) as part of his "Under The Covers" side project with ex-Bangle Susannah Hoffs. One of the final performances of the night was an acoustic version of "In Your Room". NOTE: Susannah and I share a birthday!
  14. "Planet Claire" The B-52's. I saw a cheer group dance to this song in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2009.
  15. "Poker Face" Lady Gaga
  16. "We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)" Tina Turner. I also used to sing the chorus of this song to my newborn son. Who knows why.
  17. "Free Will" Rush
  18. "Maggie May" Susannah Hoffs & Matthew Sweet
  19. "Singalong Junk" Paul McCartney. Another singalong to my son.
LEFT: Me and my son, 2009.
RIGHT: Paul and Mary McCartney, 1970.

September 01, 2009

123 No Man Can Say

This mix is not particularly inspired- it's overloaded with random songs pulled from CDs and LPs I had recently bought at yard sales.
  1. "Mais Que Nada" Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66 • One of those instrumentals I have heard a thousand times and never knew the name. I heard it in the movie Joe Versus The Volcano, so I was able to find the title in the end credits and VOILA here we are. Also known as Music From A Baseball Pitching Change.
  2. "Too Many Dicks [On the Dancefloor]" Flight of the Conchords • I am glad to hear that FOTC is not going to continue for a third season on HBO. I loved season 1, but season 2 was nowhere near as good. This song was a highlight!
  3. "White Lines [Don't Do It]" Duran Duran feat. Grandmaster Flash • Craig Ferguson once lip-synched this song (with a puppet chorus) as the cold open of The Late Late Show, I shit you not.
  4. "We'll Be Together" • Sting
  5. "I DoWanna Know" REO Speedwagon • I had not heard this song in 20 years when I found the LP at Antiques USA in Arundel, ME, for $2. Not exactly a rock 'n' roll classic, I had seen the video for it as a teenager, on Boston's UHF video channel V-66. For some strange reason, this completely ordinary rock song's catchy chorus stuck with me into the 21st century. Listening to it again for the first time in two decades was like watching a video of a long lost dream. Very trippy.
  6. "Sonny Feeling" • Wilco
  7. "Bittersweet" • Hoodoo Gurus
  8. "Baby You're A Rich Man" [mono mix, 2009 remaster] • The Beatles
  9. "Sugar Magnolia" Matthew Sweet & Susannah Hoffs • A Grateful Dead cover from their second disc of classic rock cover songs, Under The Covers Vol 2. I went to see the dynamic duo play an acoustic set, with my friends George and Mandy, in November.
  10. "Las Vegas Turnaround (The Stewardess Song)" Hall & Oates • From Hall & Oates early seventies era.
  11. "It Hasn't Happened Yet" John Hiatt • From John Hiatt's pre-fame era.
  12. "Slowly [oh so slowly]" • Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band
  13. "Rock'n Me '76 Slow" Steve Miller Band • An outtake from the Fly Like An Eagle sessions, it's a slow acoustic version of the rock classic.
  14. "Across The River" • Bruce Hornsby & The Range
  15. "Don't Change" • INXS
  16. "Girl Of 100 Lists" The Go-Gos • I was inspired to include this song after reading a 1983 Rolling Stone cover story about the Go-Gos.
  17. "Time Stand Still" The Hooters • Only after I bought this song on iTunes did I realize why it sounded so good- it's a unintentional remake of their own song "Satellite". Oh well.
  18. "Rollin' And Tumblin'" Canned Heat • I first heard this blues standard covered on Eric Clapton Unplugged.
  19. "Hey Ya" Booker T. • The organist/leader of Booker T. & The MG's covers the Outkast song on the organ!

August 04, 2009

Fifty Bands

This post was inspired by a Facebook meme that's going around.
    "Test your memory and your love of live music by listing 50 artists or bands (or as many as you can remember) you've seen in concert. List the first 50 acts that come into your head. An act you saw at a festival and opening acts count, but only if you can't think of 50 other artists. Oh, and list the first concert you ever saw (you can remember that, can’t you)?"
I tried to leave out:
  • bands you've never heard of;
  • bands I saw at Lollapalooza;
  • bands I saw for free;
  • and bands whose concerts I have no memory of!
Here's what remains, in pure stream-of-consciousness order:
  1. Red Hot Chili Peppers, Mother's Milk tour, Orpheum 1988? Still the loudest concert ever.
  2. Peter Gabriel is the first concert I saw, at Great Woods in 1987, with Youssou N'Dour opening. My mom went with me. I saw PG again on the US tour, and again on the UP tour.
  3. ZZ Top, the Worcester Centrum...
  4. ...and The Black Crowes opened for ZZ Top on the Recycler tour in 1990!
  5. Paul McCartney 1989 and 2001
  6. The Dead Milkmen
  7. Violent Femmes, Orpheum, 1994? I thought the balcony was going to collapse during "Blister in the Sun".
  8. Billy Joel at the old Boston Garden, on the Storm Front tour; even in 1990 he could not sing the high parts in "An Innocent Man" anymore.
  9. AC/DC, I think it was the Blow Up Your Video tour, with Cinderella opening.
  10. Aerosmith: December 31, 1989, at the old Boston Garden, with Skid Row opening.
  11. Wilco 2002, 2003, 2009
  12. Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band
  13. Ben Folds, 2002- the cover photo of Ben Folds Live was taken at the show I went to.
  14. Letters to Cleo, Avalon
  15. Bob Dylan 1999, 2004?
  16. Natalie Merchant, twice in the 1990s
  17. Liz Phair 1998, 2003
  18. The Breeders
  19. Bob Mould
  20. John Hiatt
  21. Nick Lowe
  22. Sting 1987, 1988
  23. Sinead O'Connor
  24. Bruce Springsteen 1992, 1995, 2001
  25. Fountains of Wayne
  26. The Thorns
  27. The Jayhawks
  28. Chicago
  29. The Beach Boys
  30. Little Feat
  31. Steve Miller Band
  32. George Thorogood
  33. Spin Doctors
  34. The Lemonheads
  35. R.E.M.
  36. Barenaked Ladies twice
  37. Buffalo Tom
  38. New Pornographers
    At this point, I could not think of any more off the top of my head, so I read some old blog posts to jar my memory...
  39. Lucinda Williams
  40. Squeeze
  41. John Wesley Harding
  42. Pearl Jam at the Orpheum, on the Versus tour, maybe the best show I have ever seen.
  43. Ellis Paul
  44. Robert Plant at SXSW is the closest I have been to a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer- me, my wife, and our friends were all up against the barricades for this show.
  45. Prince
  46. Hall & Oates
  47. The Cranberries
  48. Alison Krauss & Union Station
  49. Indigo Girls
  50. Guster

  51. and many more...

June 19, 2009

They said you was going to put me on the shelf...

Have you ever been totally overexposed to your favorite band, TV show, or movie, that you never want to see them again? I saw the movie Pulp Fiction six times in the theater in 1994 and 1995, and in the 14 years since, I don't think I have seen it once. The same thing has happened to me with classic rock. There was a time about ten years ago when I was tired of classic rock. I had been listening to classic rock as a fan and as a DJ since I was a teenager. Ten years later, I was oversaturated. In 1999, creaky old bands from the 1970s were at the low ebb of coolness. Around that time, I sold a bunch of my CDs at a yard sale. Normally I never get rid of any CDs, but I was at a place in my life where I never thought I would want to listen to these bands again:
  • JOURNEY: Greatest Hits
  • CHICAGO's Greatest Hits
  • The EAGLES Their Greatest Hits 1971-75
  • The EAGLES Greatest Hits, Vol. 2
  • RUSH: Chronicles
Fast-forward to the 21st century. I have spent most of the 2000s NOT listening to classic rock, both on the radio and around the house. I have started to miss these bands. I want to invite "25 or 6 to 4", "Already Gone", and "Limelight" back into my life. Thankfully, I can reclaim these hits collections without giving Don Henley any more of my money. My mother-in-law gave me access to her old records, where I found Chicago's Greatest Hits, Volumes 1 AND 2; I have picked up copies of Journey's Evolution (1979) and Escape (1981); and I found The Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 at a yard sale last weekend. That particular collection has sold 42,000,000 copies worldwide, so I was glad to find a used copy lying around!

I have been reunited with my classic rock roots. Perhaps in a few years I will be ready for Pulp Fiction again too?

May 26, 2009

122: All The Music That Fits

While packing and preparing to move to a new apartment, I did a Thoreau-ian "simplify, simplify" purge of my possessions. Part of that project is recycling Rolling Stone back issues from the 1980s. Since I bought the complete Rolling Stone 1967-2007 on DVD-ROM, technically I don't need ANY of those back issues clogging up my bookcases anymore. Rather than unilaterally toss 'em all out, I only discarded the issues which were too tattered to keep, and/or the issues I had scissored to ribbons during my teenage collage-making days.

After placing those issues aside, but before dropping them in the recycling bin, I leafed through the stack: about a dozen issues, all from 1985-1989. This quick skim inspired some MP3 purchases from that era (see below).

Another side-effect of packing? A slew of new music discoveries. Since I hardly ever hear new music on the radio, I tend to find new music on the RCN Music Choice channel: Adult Alternative. And when do I listen to this channel? When packing boxes!

  1. "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" by Vampire Weekend is my wife's new ringtone.
  2. "All Around the World Or The Myth of Fingerprints" [demo], Paul Simon
  3. "On A Night Like This" Los Lobos (from the movie soundtrack Masked and Anonymous)
  4. "Take The Joker & Run" Steve Miller Band: I found a special re-release of Miller's Fly Like An Eagle, which includes several outtakes, including this one. It's a early version of "Take The Money & Run", but the arrangement is exactly like "The Joker". It's really funny and odd to hear it like that!
  5. "Waiting for a Miracle" Bruce Cockburn
  6. "Real Love" Lucinda Williams
  7. "Smoking Gun" Robert Cray Band
  8. "Mona Lisas & Mad Hatters" Elton John (I just bought his album Honky Chateau, and re-discovered this great song.)
  9. "People Got A Lotta Nerve" Neko Case
  10. "Satellite" The Hooters
  11. "Trashcan" Delta Spirit
  12. "Lips Like Sugar" Echo & The Bunnymen
  13. "The Big Bang Theory (Theme)" Live in Concert, Barenaked Ladies
  14. "Mykonos" Fleet Foxes
  15. "Hurt Feelings" Flight of the Conchords
  16. "Folsom Prison Blues" Merle Haggard & The Strangers: I like putting together the faux badasses of FotC next to the faux badass of this song.
  17. "I Know" [live] Pat McGee
  18. "I Want to Make The World Turn Around" I had completely forgotten this Steve Miller Band song until I read a review of the LP in my old Rolling Stone magazine...
  19. "Used To Be Bad" A completely ordinary blues duet between two old fogies: Paul McCartney & Steve Miller.
  20. "Absolutely Still" Better Than Ezra
  21. I liked "OK It's Alright With Me" the first few times I heard it, but Eric Hutchinson is starting to sound like a second rate Jamie Cullum or Maroon 5?
  22. "Phantom Limb" The Shins

May 15, 2009

Moving


A lovely mix CD from my wife!

1.       "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?" She & Him Volume One
2.       "I Got You (At the End of the Century)" Wilco Being There
3.       "Deep Red Bells" Neko Case Live from Austin
4.       "Los Angeles, I'm Yours" The Decemberists Her Majesty The Decembrists
5.       "Right Moves" Josh Ritter The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
6.       "Classic Cars" Bright Eyes Cassadaga
7.       "Cab" Train For Me, It's You
8.       "As Long As You Follow" Fleetwood Mac
9.       "One Sweet Duet" John Craigie A Picnic On the 405
10.   "Put Your Records On" Corinne Bailey Rae
11.   "The Way I Am" Ingrid Michaelson Girls and Boys
12.   "David" Nellie McKay  Get Away from Me
13.   "Viva la Vida" Coldplay Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
14.   "Campus" Vampire Weekend
15.   "The Underdog" Spoon Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
16.   "Keep the Car Running" Arcade Fire Neon Bible
17.   "Chocolate" Snow Patrol Final Straw
18.   "Come On Get Higher" (live)  Sugarland Love On the Inside
19.   "Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight" Amos Lee
20.   "Passing Afternoon" Iron & Wine Our Endless Numbered Days

March 19, 2009

Easy Rockers of the 1970s

In a prior life, I was a radio DJ at a series of radio stations in Maine and New Hampshire. The gig I'm talking about today was Portland's 93.1 WMGX. I was the overnight DJ at WMGX starting in 1996. When I joined WMGX, the music format was what we now jokingly call "Yacht Rock" or "Easy Rock". It was heavy on the early- to mid-seventies pop-rock. We played some contemporary music too, but the most memorable music we played was the Yacht Rock.

Back when I was a DJ, radio studios had special cassette decks which were wired to record only when the announcer's microphone was on. I could record all my "breaks" over a six-hour shift onto one side of a 60 minute tape. I have literally dozens of "aircheck" tapes of my nights on WMGX. I have listened to a few of these tapes recently, which has brought back a lot of memories of that line of work, and my life in the mid 1990s.

I had fun talking on the radio, and I actually liked the music we played. Deejaying can be a lot of fun, during the daytime, anyway, when the building is full of people. Overnights, however, is a lonely and boring shift. I basically played the music, read magazines, and killed time, between the spots where I actually talked. This was before there was free and easy Internet, so I couldn't sit and browse the Web, update my Facebook, and blog about how bored I was. If I have ever shared with you a mind-bendingly obscure bit of music trivia (did you know Melissa Etheridge is from Leavenworth, Kansas? Did you know Linda Rondstadt sings backup on "Heart of Gold"?), I know this stuff because I literally read every liner note, every music trivia book, and The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits cover to fucking cover.

I actually spent a lot of time making mix tapes in the studio down the hall- I would use my own CDs from home + CDs I borrowed from the enormous collection in the studio. I would start a song in the main studio, leave the studio doors ajar, and crank up the speakers. While working on a mix tape down the hall, I would half-listen to the music from the main studio. When a song I was playing over the air wound down, I would hustle back and press START on the next track, then back to the tape!

I also pilfered a ton of LPs from the station's old vinyl collection, which was literally packed away in a storage closet. I had zero guilt about taking home stacks of LPs that would never be used again, or, in a lot of cases, had never been used in the first place.

So working overnights paralyzed my social life, and crippled my weekends too- I never had a problem sleeping during the day, but on the weekends, I would attempt to switch back to a regular schedule, so I could spend time with my girlfriend, but I ended up staggering about in a zombie-like haze, trying to stay conscious during daylight hours.

Last but not least, all DJs are paid peanuts. If you don't like the pay, there's a dozen people happy to take less to do your job.

Here's a representative sampling of the "easy rockers" I played every night on WMGX, in no particular order.

NOTE: When in the following list I say we played "lots of" or "plenty of" an artist, that means we played the same few songs every day, NOT that we played a wide variety of their songs. I would guess we played no more than 6 or 7 songs by each of these artists, but we played all of these acts at least 4 or 6 times a day.

  • Lots of Van Morrison, including "Moondance" and "Brown-Eyed Girl" (of course), but also "Wavelength", a song I have never heard anywhere else.
  • I think the Program Director had a crush on Rod Stewart, because we played him constantly, including "Reason To Believe", "The First Cut is the Deepest", "Tonight's The Night", and "You're In My Heart".
  • Lots of Jackson Browne, including "The Pretender", "In The Shape Of A Heart", "You Love The Thunder" and "Running On Empty"
  • Lots of Crosby Stills Nash and Young, including "Southern Cross", "Carry On", and the ultimate bathroom break song, "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes".
  • Billy Joel: Lots of the Piano Man, including "It's Still Rock n Roll To Me", "You May Be Right", and "Movin Out"
  • Lots and lots of Elton John, mostly "Levon", "Tiny Dancer", "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me", and "Someone Saved My Life Tonight"
  • Plenty of James Taylor, but the least timeless of these songs has to be "Your Smiling Face".
  • All of The Eagles Greatest Hits Volume 1.
  • "Baker Street" and "Right Down The Line", by Gerry Rafferty
  • Classic one-hit wonder "Romeo's Tune", by Steve Forbert
  • "Crazy Love" by Poco
  • After voluntarily listening to Jimmy Buffett for the first time in a decade, I was struck how he is a mediocre singer, and his songs are all midtempo and dull. How is the Margaritaville myth so strong that "parrotheads" pay big bucks to see him every summer? We played lots of "Margaritaville", "Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes", "Cheeseburger In Paradise", and so on.
  • Pure Prairie League, "Amie"
  • "Dreamweaver" by Gary Wright
  • "Nights In White Satin" by The Moody Blues
  • The Doobie Brothers, "Black Water"
  • I think "Old Man" and "Heart of Gold" were the only two Neil Young songs we played. Trust me, I wanted to play "Cinnamon Girl", "Needle & The Damage Done", or "Rockin In The Free World" instead.
  • Plenty of Steely Dan, including "Do It Again" and "Reelin In The Years"
Coming soon: a sampler of the contemporary pop-rock I played back then.

March 07, 2009

121: More Records Than The KGB

Mix 121 is named for a lyric from the song "Paper Planes" by M.I.A., which I also just bought as my new default mobile ringtone!
  1. "A Venture", from The Yes Album, their debut LP. I bought this entire album on MP3 from the Amazon.com MP3 store for a dollar!
  2. Paul McCartney wrote "Wings of a Nightingale" for The Everly Brothers' "comeback" album EB'84. I had heard OF this song for 25 years before I finally acquired a used copy of the LP and heard it for the first time. It's quite nice, but unexciting.
  3. "The Frown Song" Ben Folds
  4. "Looking Over My Shoulder" is from 'til tuesday's debut album Voices Carry. When I was a teenager, I borrowed this LP from the Topsfield Public Library, and I have had a crush on Aimee Mann ever since. I still think she looks incredibly sexy (if a bit intense!) in this cover photo.
  5. I am a big fan of Squeeze. The only album of theirs which I hadn't listened to was 1985's Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti. A few months ago at a used record fair in Providence, R.I., I bought two 12-inch singles from that album: "King George Street" and "Last Time Forever". The 12-inch remixes were nothing special, but they inspired me to include the LP version of "King George Street" on this mix.
  6. I first heard "Paper Planes" by M.I.A. in the awesome trailer for Pineapple Express. Since I don't listen to music on the radio, I didn't hear it again until I saw the railroad montage in Slumdog Millionaire.
  7. "Crackin' Up" Bo Diddley
  8. "Slippery Hips" is from the debut album by actresses Shawnee Smith & Missi Pyle. Smith is best known for the TV show Becker, and the five Saw movies. Pyle was in Galaxy Quest, Bringing Down The House, and Charlie & The Chocolate Factory. I bought the album because I met Missi Pyle at the stage door of the Broadway show Boeing Boeing, and now I must do anything she tells me to!
  9. "Creature From The Black Lagoon" Dave Edmunds
  10. "Radiation Vibe" We just saw Fountains of Wayne at the Paradise Rock Club, on a all-acoustic, we're still working on the new album tour. They played ALL the songs we wanted to hear, including this one. We left that night 100% satisfied.
  11. "Flaming Pie" This silly two and a half minute Paul McCartney piano boogie is infectious. I listened to it in the car three times in a row the other day.
  12. "Function At The Junction" Shorty Long
  13. "The Makings Of You" Curtis Mayfield
  14. "Queen of the Supermarket" This might be the prettiest Bruce Springsteen song ever, and maybe the most romantic. Also, I can't recall another Springsteen song where he drops the F-bomb?
  15. "It's All My Fault" John Wesley Harding
  16. "Strange Overtones" David Byrne & Brian Eno
  17. "15 Step" Radiohead
  18. "Love Comes Tumbling" This is a b-side from U2's "Pride" 12-inch single. I put it on the mix because it reminds me of an old high school friend of mine who helped turn me into a diehard U2 fan. I already liked the song "Pride", and I had already seen the "Sunday Bloody Sunday" video, but she showed me why they were awesome! Meredith, this one's for YOU!

January 23, 2009

Ranking All 185 Beatles Songs

Writer "JBev" completed a Herculean and thankless task: he ranked and reviewed all 185 Beatles songs (written by the Fab Four), from 185st to 1st. (NOTE: I am sorry to report that his website has disappeared since I first found it in 2009.) Of course I don't agree with all of his choices, but that's not the point.
I think it's kind of arbitrary to be so precise in your rankings- after all, how do you choose which song is 112th as opposed to 113th? -- but I have attempted something a little less precise. I have ranked all 185 original Beatles songs from 1/10 stars, to 10/10 stars, with two additional special categories- a 11/10 Stars Best of the Best, and a 0/10 Stars Bottom Ten list. Enjoy and Discuss!
NOTE: Each list is in alphabetical order.
 0/10 Stars Bottom Ten
“Blue Jay Way”
“Don’t Bother Me”
“It’s All Too Much”
“Maggie Mae”
“Only A Northern Song”
“Revolution 9”
“Run For Your Life”
“Tell Me What You See”
“The Night Before”
“Wild Honey Pie”
1/10 Stars
“Dig It”
“I’ll Be Back”
“Julia”
“Little Child”
“The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill”
“Think For Yourself”
“Wait”
“When I Get Home”
2/10 Stars
“Ask Me Why”
“Doctor Robert”
“Hold Me Tight”
“I Wanna Be Your Man”
“I’ll Get You”
“I’m Happy Just To Dance With You”
“Love You To”
“Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds”
“Magical Mystery Tour”
“Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”
“One After 909”
“Sun King”
“Tell Me Why”
“The Inner Light”
“The Word”
“Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?”
“Within You Without You”
“You Like Me Too Much”
“Your Mother Should Know”
3/10 Stars
“Another Girl”
“Baby’s In Black”
“Dig A Pony”
“Every Little Thing”
“Fixing A Hole”
“For You Blue”
“Hello Goodbye”
“Honey Pie”
“I Me Mine”
“I Need You”
“Not A Second Time”
“P.S. I Love You”
“Piggies”
“Savoy Truffle”
“Sexy Sadie”
“Thank You Girl”
“The Fool On The Hill”
“What Goes On”
“What You’re Doing”

4/10 Stars
“All Together Now”
“Baby You’re A Rich Man”
“Because”
“Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite”
“Cry Baby Cry”
“Day Tripper”
“Flying”
“Good Night”
“I Call Your Name”
“I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party”
“I Feel Fine”
“I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”
“I’ll Follow The Sun”
“Long, Long, Long”
“Rocky Raccoon”
“She’s A Woman”
“There’s A Place”
“You Know My Name (Look Up My Number)”
5/10 Stars
“All I’ve Got To Do”
“For No One”
“Good Day Sunshine”
“Her Majesty”
“I Am The Walrus”
“I Want To Tell You”
“I’m So Tired”
“Love Me Do”
“Martha My Dear”
“Mean Mr. Mustard”
“No Reply”
“Octopus’s Garden”
“Old Brown Shoe”
“Polythene Pam”
“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)”
“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”
“You Never Give Me Your Money”
“You Won’t See Me”
6/10 Stars
“Ballad Of John And Yoko”
“Do You Want To Know A Secret”
“Don’t Pass Me By”
“Drive My Car”
“Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey”
“From Me To You”
“Get Back”
“Glass Onion”
“I Want To Hold Your Hand”
“I’ll Cry Instead”
“I’ve Got A Feeling”
“If I Needed Someone”
“It’s Only Love”
“She’s Leaving Home”
“Things We Said Today”
“This Boy”
“We Can Work It Out”
“Yes It Is”
“You Can’t Do That”

7/10 Stars
“All You Need Is Love”
“And I Love Her”
“And Your Bird Can Sing”
“Any Time At All”
“Come Together”
“Eight Days A Week”
“Good Morning Good Morning”
“Happiness Is A Warm Gun”
“Hey Bulldog”
“I’m A Loser”
“I’m Down”
“I’m Looking Through You”
“I’ve Just Seen A Face”
“Lovely Rita”
“Michelle”
“Oh! Darling”
“Revolution 1”
“She Came In Through The Bathroom Window”
“Yer Blues”

8/10 Stars
“All My Loving”
“Birthday”
“Can’t Buy Me Love”
“Don’t Let Me Down”
“Girl”
“Got To Get You Into My Life”
“Helter Skelter”
“I Will”
“If I Fell”
“Misery”
“Nowhere Man”
“Paperback Writer”
“Taxman”
“When I’m Sixty-Four”
“While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
“With A Little Help From My Friends”
“Yellow Submarine”
“You’re Going To Lose That Girl”
9/10 Stars
“A Hard Day’s Night”
“Back In The U.S.S.R.”
“Getting Better”
“Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End”
“Help!”
“Here Comes The Sun”
“I Should Have Known Better”
“I’m Only Sleeping”
“It Won’t Be Long”
“Lady Madonna”
“Mother Nature’s Son”
“Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”
“Penny Lane”
“Please Please Me”
“Revolution”
“She Said She Said”
“Ticket To Ride”
“Two Of Us”
“You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away”
10/10 Stars
“A Day in the Life”
“Blackbird”
“Eleanor Rigby”
“Here, There, And Everywhere”
“In My Life”
“Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)”
“Tomorrow Never Knows”
11/10 Stars Best of the Best
“Across The Universe”
“Dear Prudence”
“Hey Jude”
“I Saw Her Standing There”
“Let It Be”
“Rain”
“She Loves You”
“Something”
“Strawberry Fields Forever”
“The Long And Winding Road”
“Yesterday”

January 08, 2009

120: Everything In Its Right MIX

I have been listening to this mix in the car for a few days, and I think it's done. Now I just have to give it a title!
  1. "Cleanin' Up The Town" by The Busboys is from the movie Ghostbusters. The words tell the story of the movie!
  2. "Barbara Ann" from The Beach Boys Party, an album recorded to sound like a house party where the Beach Boys are sitting around the living room, jamming on their favorite songs unplugged.
  3. "Nutmeg" by John Legend, is a sexy and hilarious song about the ultimate eggnog condiment, from A Steven Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift Of All!
  4. "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" My mother listened to a lot of pop-country when I was growing up. One of my strongest, earliest memories of music is this Crystal Gayle song.
  5. The Replacements' "Skyway" is about those heated passageways between buildings in Minneapolis, to keep the public warm in the wintertime.
  6. I heard "Tulsa County" by Son Volt on my iPod Shuffle All Songs function.
  7. I first heard "Guitars, Cadillacs" by Dwight Yoakam in the background of the honky tonk scene in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, where the Terminator acquires his biker clothes at the beginning of the movie. At the same time I bought this song on iTunes, I also picked up his cover of "Suspicious Minds". The review of his Best Of CD said that Yoakam is the first choice of alt-rock hipsters who want to buy some legit contemporary country music.
  8. "Here Comes The Weekend" Dave Edmunds
  9. "Topaz" I really enjoy the entire B-52's album Cosmic Thing.
  10. "Carry On" Maybe my favorite song from Crosby Stills Nash, and Young.
  11. "She's My Baby" I have been listening to a lot of the Traveling Wilburys lately.
  12. "Love is For Lovers" The Db's were a one-hit wonder; lead singer Peter Holsapple might be more famous for his work with R.E.M. This song was a near-miss single, which I have on the POPTOPIA Power Pop collection from Rhino. Holsapple wrote an extended blog posting about the making of this song for the New York Times.
  13. I love the guitar hook on "Rumbleseat", from John Cougar Mellencamp.
  14. "Another Done Somebody Wrong Song", My mother listened to a lot of pop-country when I was growing up. One of my strongest, earliest memories of music is this B.J. Thomas song. Thomas's biggest hit was "Raindrops Keep Fallin On My Head".
  15. "Tighten Up" Archie Bell & The Drells
  16. "Everything In It's Right Place" Somehow, the structure of this Radiohead song reminds me of the following track...
  17. When you hear "Motown", people usually think of fun and good times. "You Keep Me Hangin On" by Diana Ross & The Supremes is as serious as a heart attack! Such drama in the words and the music.
  18. I love the super-1980s drum sound on the J. Geils Band's "Flamethrower".
  19. The Futureheads' song "Robot" is a leftover song from my mix The Future.
  20. "Hip-Hug Her" is an instrumental by Booker T. & The M.G.s, better known for their "pitching change at a ballgame" instrumental "Green Onions".