- "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!
- 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.
- "The Frown Song" Ben Folds
- "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.
- 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.
- 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.
- "Crackin' Up" Bo Diddley
- "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!
- "Creature From The Black Lagoon" Dave Edmunds
- "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.
- "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.
- "Function At The Junction" Shorty Long
- "The Makings Of You" Curtis Mayfield
- "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?
- "It's All My Fault" John Wesley Harding
- "Strange Overtones" David Byrne & Brian Eno
- "15 Step" Radiohead
- "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!
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!
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”
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.
“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”
“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”
“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)”
“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”
“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”
“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!
- "Cleanin' Up The Town" by The Busboys is from the movie Ghostbusters. The words tell the story of the movie!
- "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.
- "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!
- "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.
- The Replacements' "Skyway" is about those heated passageways between buildings in Minneapolis, to keep the public warm in the wintertime.
- I heard "Tulsa County" by Son Volt on my iPod Shuffle All Songs function.
- 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.
- "Here Comes The Weekend" Dave Edmunds
- "Topaz" I really enjoy the entire B-52's album Cosmic Thing.
- "Carry On" Maybe my favorite song from Crosby Stills Nash, and Young.
- "She's My Baby" I have been listening to a lot of the Traveling Wilburys lately.
- "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.
- I love the guitar hook on "Rumbleseat", from John Cougar Mellencamp.
- "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".
- "Tighten Up" Archie Bell & The Drells
- "Everything In It's Right Place" Somehow, the structure of this Radiohead song reminds me of the following track...
- 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.
- I love the super-1980s drum sound on the J. Geils Band's "Flamethrower".
- The Futureheads' song "Robot" is a leftover song from my mix The Future.
- "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".
December 12, 2008
Yankee Swap 2008: "The Future"
The theme of this year's Yankee Swap was THE FUTURE. I was very pleased when a CD-R of my mix got "swapped" several times around the party!
When I first thought of this idea, all I had in mind was "In The Year 2525" by Zager & Evans, "Mr Roboto" by Styx, and "The Body Electric" by Rush. I had an OK first draft done when I asked my lovely wife for her perspective. She thought it was too focused on robots and spaceships, and she started suggesting songs about "things that will happen someday" which are NOT sci-fi oriented. Her ideas vastly improved the mix, as you will see...
- Battlestar Galactica Theme: My brother used this song (from the classic 1970s TV show) as his wedding ceremony recessional theme. I kid you not.
- "1999" Prince: A 26-year-old song, about partying 9 years ago, IS about the future.
- "Fly Like An Eagle" Steve Miller Band, aka "Time keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin... into the future!"
- "Until The End of the World": My wife thought of this one.
- "Robots [live]" From the Flight of the Conchords CD THE DISTANT FUTURE: 'It is the distant future. The year 2000.'
- "The Body Electric" Rush
- "Someday I Suppose" I found this Mighty Mighty Bosstones song because it's next to "Someday, Someway" in my iTunes.
- "My Science Fiction Twin" Elvis Costello: Another suggestion from my wife.
- "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades" Timbuk 3
- I found the Leonard Cohen song "The Future", from the Natural Born Killers soundtrack, by searching for FUTURE in iTunes.
- I bought the Flaming Lips song "One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21" especially for this mix,
- "Robot Chicken Theme" The show Robot Chicken isn't actually about the future per se, but this Les Claypool instrumental is short and fun.
- "Pets" by Porno for Pyros song is perfect for this mix. I first heard this song as Beavis & Butthead were watching the video for it on MTV!
- "In The Year 2525" The words to this Zager & Evans hit are kinda weird!
- "Robot Parade" There were many They Might Be Giants songs to choose from.
- "Mr. Roboto" Styx
- The Jetsons Theme: I could not find the original theme song on iTunes, so I settled for this barely-better-than Casio keyboard recording.
- "Attack El Robot! Attack!" Calexico
- "When I'm Sixty Three and a Half" After the Beatles recorded "When I'm Sixty-Four" in late 1966, Paul McCartney, intending to make his voice sound "younger", asked producer George Martin to speed up the master tape, just enough to shift the key of the song a half-step sharp. To undo this change, I have pitch-shifted the song a half-step down (flat), to match the key in which McCartney originally sang it. The tempo has not been changed.)
- "Someday We'll Know" New Radicals
- "Someday, Someway" Marshall Crenshaw
- "My Flying Saucer" Billy Bragg & Wilco
- Star Trek Theme
- "Tomorrow Never Knows" The Beatles
December 08, 2008
Two Minutes, 42 seconds
As I write this, I am listening to a mix of songs which only have one thing in common- they're all 2 minutes, 42 seconds long. There's this internet "meme" going around which says that 2:42 is a "magic number" for great songs, so I'm putting it to the test. I sorted my entire iTunes library by length (13,000 songs). Then I selected ALL the songs which clock in at 2:42. Then I weeded it down to about 30 songs, down to a small group of songs or bands I especially like. I haven't sequenced this group at all. Here's the result:
- "Under The Boardwalk" The Drifters
- "Streets of Fire" New Pornographers
- "Lighten Up" Beastie Boys
- "Oceans" Pearl Jam
- "September Gurls" The Bangles
- "The Way You Do The Things You Do" The Temptations
- "In My Room" Grant Lee Buffalo
- "Divine Hammer" The Breeders
- "Sheila Take a Bow" The Smiths
- "Revolving Dora" Fountains of Wayne
- "Leggy Blonde" Flight of the Conchords
- "Lovely Rita" The Beatles
- "Poison Ivy" The Coasters
- "May Queen" Liz Phair
- "Come See About Me" Supremes
- "Rome Wasn't Built In A Day" Nick Lowe
- "Don't Worry Baby" Beach Boys
- "From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)" Bruce Springsteen
- "Pictures of Lily" The Who
- "I Second That Emotion" Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
- "You Never Can Tell" Chuck Berry
- "Go Home" Barenaked Ladies
- "California Dreamin'" The Mamas & Papas
- "Teen Beat" Fleetwood Mac
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