iPod Shuffle

Busy times, man. Struggling for balance with all of it. Thank goodness for my white board. Gigs, new and old, things coming in, things I need to follow up on. It’s all good! Here’s the music that was blasting into my ears over the last 5 days as I trekked around the city doing my thing.

“Tennessee Flat-Top Box” – Johnny Cash. I’m hearing the “rhythm of the tracks” here.

“Not Alone” – Patty Griffin, from her album Living With Ghosts, one of my favorite albums of the last 30 years.

“Your Time Hasn’t Come Yet Baby” – Elvis Presley, from Speedway, giving it his best shot at this smarmy and slightly creepy pep-talk. He’s actually beautiful here, soft and easy and kind.

“Everlovin'” – Ricky Nelson. You just want to hit the dance floor with a boy you’re into when you hear this. Nothing too fast, but a chance to circle around, staring at each other, getting hot and heavy. It’s sweet and insistent. Great guitar solo too. Is that James Burton?

“Me Against the Music” – Britney Spears. Crazy Deliverance banjo going on. Great workout song.

“Say Yeah” – Pat McCurdy. I have a lot of memories and associations wrapped up with this song. I mean, honestly.

“We Are Young” – Fun. I have no idea who these people are but I do know that this was playing on the radio as I drove to Tupelo, Mississippi from Memphis and it felt like an anthem. It IS an anthem. I bought the single as quickly as I could. So I always think of the beauty of Mississippi on that frosty morning when I hear this song.

“Ain’t It the Life” – Foo Fighters. I’m just so glad that Dave Grohl took the path he did. So glad this band exists. They’ve given me so much happiness and food-for-thought and pleasure. So glad it didn’t all stop with Nirvana.

“Underground” – Eminem, from Relapse. This song is IN-SANE. That sort of slo-mo herky-jerky chorus of voices (with Marshall included “Here comes the rain … “) that drives the song along. It sounds like the apocalypse is coming. Eminem is in full offensive mold, trying to insult everyone, his most childish side – “He can’t say that!” “Yes, I can!” Yes, we know, Marshall, you cherish free speech! Regardless, this song has a great and dark dark drive. The strings going on underneath, the drums, the singing/harmonies … it’s crazy.

“I Got a Woman” – Elvis, live on the Louisiana Hayride, his last show with that racket, December 16, 1956. It was time for Elvis to move on. This was a solo show. It was absolute mayhem. The screams are out of control. And so is Elvis. He is on fire.

“Meathook” – Tracy Bonham. I love her. I’ve loved her since I first heard “Mother Mother” screaming out of the speakers at a Tower Records in Chicago and went to a salesperson and said, “Who is that singing??” I’m not as crazy about her latest stuff, but I’m in for the long haul. “Meathook” is great, rockin’, grinding electric guitar. I like her best when she’s pissed.

“Delilah” – Queen. From Innuendo. Freddie is such a natural showman.

“Walking in the Rain” – The Ronettes. I’ve been obsessing on them lately. I love how BIG the orchestration is for them, with this huge echo on it, making it seem like they’re singing surrounded by a vast space. There’s such a sweetness in their songs, in their sound.

“Standing Outside the Fire” – Garth Brooks. I went to his concert in Central Park, the one filmed for HBO. It was awesome. Don freakin’ McLean came onstage and they sang “American Pie” together and I thought my head would explode.

“The Fool on the Hill” – The Beatles. Betsy and I would put on Magical Mystery Tour in 5th grade during recess, sitting beside the turntable, singing along. Sometimes we would discuss what the lyrics meant.

“What a Woman Wants” – from Kinky Boots, Cyndi Lauper’s excellent musical. I haven’t seen it yet but I am in love with the music. This Billy Porter is a star. And what about Stark Sands? He’s also awesome, and of course he is unforgettable in Inside Llewyn Davis.

“Kind of Love You Never Recover From” – Christine Lavin. One of those songs I can never listen to. Including now.

“Thunder On the Mountain” – the great Wanda Jackson, from her Jack White-produced album The Party Ain’t Over. This has a giant sound, both burlesque and Bayou juke-joint. Thrilling!

“Til the Well Runs Dry” – Wynona Carr. I love the rough-ness of her voice, its grit, its authenticity.

“Drink You Away” – Justin Timberlake. This song is smokin’ hot, bluesy, aching, my favorite (as of now) on his latest, The 20/20 Experience.

“Heebie Jeebies” – the charming and fun Puppini Sisters.

“Ain’t No Way” – Beth Hart. God, she’s amazing. I first got into her years ago, and I can’t remember where I first heard about her. She’s clearly been through a lot. Her voice is a powerhouse. She’s a true Tough Chick.

“Polk Salad Annie” – Elvis, live, August 13, 1970. Elvis introduces this with, “Gonna get dirty.” You do that, country boy. Rowr.

“If I Fell” – The Beatles. This is one of the “Mono” tracks that my cousin Liam sent to me. “You haven’t heard these songs until you’ve heard them in mono.” He was right. Speaking of cousin Liam, buy his album! The harmonies here. How many times have I heard this song? 500? Probably more. And the harmonies never stop pleasing, especially that sudden chord change. Thrilling.

“An American Trilogy” – good old Elvis, during the afternoon show, June 10, 1972, at Madison Square Garden. This is from the phenomenal Prince From Another Planet box set that just came out. If you had to boil Elvis’ philosophy down, you could find the seeds of it in this “trilogy”. It’s how he felt about America, about God, about peace and understanding between men – redemption, healing, coming together as opposed to standing divided. It’s all there. He performs the hell out of it.

“Get It Right” – Lea Michele, from Glee. Big ballad, written for the show, as opposed to a cover. It’s a bit stock. She, of course, performs it beautifully. But I could not hum a bar, the melody doesn’t stick.

“Mercy Mistery Percy” – Varetta Dillard. I love the crazy squeak on the periphery of her voice, how she squeaks on down to the notes she wants. She’s raw.

“Tobacco Road” – the fantastic Lou Rawls. I love when he monologues at the start of a song. He’s so easy with it, slow and easy. Some of the monologues go longer than the songs themselves! Here, he raps about his hometown Chicago. He talks for three minutes before the song starts. And every second is riveting.

“My My” – Liz Phair from her completely bizarre last album. Nobody seemed to know what to do with it. It’s a mix of disco and flat-out FUNK, plus a huge Bollywood sound. Liz? What’s happening? I LOVE it, though. I want her to do whatever the hell she wants, I want her to please only herself, because the results are always interesting.

“Lola” – Robbie Williams. Oh, Robbie. I love you almost too much.

“Love Has Brought Me Around” – James Taylor. Happy for you, but stop bragging.

“Tutti Frutti” – MC5. So much fun. It’s a straight-up cover.

“Live and Let Die” – Wings. Sure, it’s an exciting song, kind of ominous, with a huge build, starting slow and ballady and becoming huge. My favorite part of the entire song though is that small piano riff right before the song gets going for real. The piano that comes right after “makes you give in and cry …” It’s that piano that launches everything.

“I’ve Been Deceived” – Charlie Feathers, recording at Sun Records. He was a session musician there, and he (like all of those boys) came from a background of country & western and gospel, which then morphed into rockabilly and flat-out rock ‘n’ roll. This is a country tune, with a fiddle. Beautiful and mournful.

“Seven Seas of Rhye” – Queen, live at Wembley Stadium. Exhilarating. Almost scary: the power from the band meeting the power of that crowd.

“Enter Sandman” – Metallica, playing with the San Francisco Symphony, from their great double album S&M. It’s such an exciting arrangement, with all of those STRINGS. In the liner notes, the conductor wrote that the string section actually had to change their shirts during intermission, they were all drenched. This was a new experience for them. It’s awesome.

“Powder Your Face With Sunshine” – Doris Day. And this is why I love iPod Shuffle. It forces me to go from Metallica to Doris Day and I am a better person for it.

“In the Bleak Mid-Winter” – Shawn Colvin. From her suicidal holiday album.

“Go Let It Out!” – Oasis. I never really got on board with Oasis, although this is obviously a very good song with a great and iconic sound. He’s got a GREAT rock voice, but the songs don’t really do it for me. This one is good though.

“The Twistinside” – Everclear. A band that has helped me through some pretty rough times. Not this particular song, though. It’s a bit stock.

“Secretly Dainty” – Pat McCurdy. Oh God, the sheer silliness of what is going on here.

“Hey Baby” – No Doubt. Hey, member them?

“Mambo, Italiano” – Dean Martin. Only he could turn a song of sheer borderline-offensive SCHTICK into something glorious and funny and informed. You can hear him smiling as he sings, one of his gifts.

“Bella Notte” – a beautiful ballad from Lady and the Tramp, sung by four Glee cast members, sometimes in 4-part harmony. It’s gorgeous.

“I Saw Her Standing There” – The Beatles, live. It still leaps out of the speakers like a freakin’ assault.

“1956 Budapest is Rising” – from Chess in Concert, with Adam Pascal & Idina Menzel. I am so curious as to why Chess shows up in every shuffle. It’s almost a joke. I have over 10,000 songs on my iPod, whatever shows up here is shuffling through 10,000+ songs and it ALWAYS lands on a Chess song. Stop it. I love Chess, don’t get me wrong.

“Now and Then There’s a Fool Such As I” – Elvis, from his fundraising concert in 1961 for the USS Arizona memorial. The recording is very rough, and it’s too bad because this is the last time Elvis would perform live for almost an entire decade. He is totally in charge, and that’s no small order because the vibe is absolutely nuts. The crowd is out of control, and he has to manage them. He does. Plays them like a violin. The Jordannaires are with him, he has a big band, there’s a lot going on. He’s magnificent.

“I’ll Know It When I See It” – the great Bleu, from his album Four. I’ve written a lot about him. His latest album continues to thrill me.

“Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 “Choral”: III. Adagio Molto e Cantabile” – London Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven. I’ve been reading a book where Beethoven makes many cameo appearances. I don’t know that much about him, I love his music, and I am loving learning more about him.

“Never Alone” – the gospel number from Fame, the movie, of all things. What the hell.

“My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy” – Dolly Parton. I am so glad she exists.

“Doncha’ Think It’s Time” (take 40) – Elvis. Take 40. The number of takes shows what a perfectionist Elvis was, and also how difficult it was to put these songs together. Elvis preferred working with the band and the backup singers together in the studio, so that what you are hearing is always a live take. Of course that means if the drummer messes up, or Elvis messes up, everyone has to stop and start again. This is from the session done in 1958 before Elvis disappeared into the Army. They had to get a lot done. They did.

“It’s Over” – Elvis, live, the Feb. 17, 1972 dinner show in Vegas. Major drama. Aching with drama. Elvis loved drama, he could show off his voice’s range. One of those self-pitying ballads that he was into in the 70s, for obvious reasons. “I turn my collar to the wind”, and etc. Oh, buck up, kid.

“White Blank Page” – Mumford & Sons. I don’t get it. I also don’t get why I bought this.

“Irish Blues” – the awesome Maura O’Connell. Look out, Irish boys, this lady is onto you.

“Suddenly Seymour” – Rick Moranis and Ellen Greene. I cannot listen to the final moments of this song without nearly bursting into tears. I just need to point it out: LISTEN to her in the final moments. LISTEN to what she is doing. This is a great and iconic performance. Here she is performing it on the Tonight Show.

“Step By Step” – Whitney Houston, from The Preacher’s Wife (one of her best albums, I think). Miss her.

“Father Lucifer” – Tori Amos. Calm down, Tori. And enunciate.

“Fat Cat Keeps Getting Fatter” – Squirrel Nut Zippers. I was so into them for a hot second. I still like them.

“So Sad To Watch Good Love Go Bad” – The Everly Brothers. Perfection.

“Little Pretty Thing” – the macho sexually confident “we’ll give each other a good time” The Troggs. But Lester Bangs says it best.

“Kite” – U2. You know, I love them. Nothing can make me not love U2. But sometimes I want to tell them to lighten up. Or maybe it’s just Bono.

“Pour Some Sugar On Me” – Def Leppard. Yes, SIR. If you want to see the O’Malley/Sullivan cousins lose their collective minds, put this on at a wedding reception where we all are present. All hell fucking breaks loose. Anyone who gets married on either side, where the reception involves a DJ, will inform said DJ that “Pour Some Sugar On Me” MUST be played at some point during the night. We know every word. We scream them. We MEAN them. The older generation stands around on the outskirts of the mayhem on the dance floor, watching their adult children go apeshit, and they both laugh and wince with embarrassment for us. And when the wedding pictures come back, you can always tell “the ones where ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’ came on”, because we all look like lunatics.

“Just Like a Pill” – Pink. What a perfect rock voice. One of the best voices out there right now.

“Radar” – Britney Spears. Recorded during her darkest hour thus far. She basically had to be propped up in order to complete this album. I have great compassion for her. I also love her music. I recognize her cray-cray, but I’m cray-cray too, got me a diagnosis and everything, and I don’t think cray-cray is funny or worthy of pointing and laughing and mocking. As a matter of fact, I think those who indulge in such behavior are despicable. I’m a big Brit-Brit supporter.

“When I Get You Alone” – Robin Thicke. The line “You can keep your toys in the drawer tonight” makes my toes curl.

“Banks of Sicily” – The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. I was wondering when the lads would show up!

“Between Us” – Brendan Benson. I have Apple to thank for introducing me to him. They used his “What I’m Looking For” in a commercial which got so much play that it almost got boring but that song called to me. I bought it. But then delved deeper into his albums, and found that he is a songwriter who seems literally incapable of writing a boring or stock song. You can hear the influences, lots of Beatles in his sound, but boy, is he good. What a lucky find.

“You Hurt Me So” – Link Wray. While I am in love with Link Wray (his “Good Rockin’ Tonight blows Elvis’ out of the water, and that’s really saying something), I need to point to Kim Morgan’s gorgeous piece about him. She says it all better.

“Oh, It Is Love” – Hellogoodbye. My friend Emily sent me a cassette tape of their stuff. They’re a wonderful band, and they even came out with a small LP of ukelele numbers. I love weirdos. This song, for whatever reason, wormed its way into my emotions and consciousness during a pretty manic time, and I found I couldn’t stop listening to it. This happens sometimes. It happened recently.. It’s usually a sign that something is off, some pressure is building, something bad is coming. And so my heart/brain/spirit latches onto a song, almost fearfully, because the song helps me tap into something, softness, hope, belief, that will help ward off the bad. This all may sound crazy. I’m fine with that. “Oh It Is Love” became a symbol to me during some dark days. A symbol that Love still exists out there and maybe I can get a piece of it too. I ache when I hear this song, and its sweet little banjo. I remember that latching onto this song was a breather before plunging into some terrible years. Good times.

“The Metal” – Tenacious D. “You can’t kill the metal. Metal will live on,” intones Jack Black. I love how everything turns into an apocalyptic battle with them, and I love how Jack Black cackles with maniacal glee. He is one of my favorite actors working today.

“Bye Bye Baby” – Marilyn Monroe. She doesn’t get near enough credit for her singing, her understanding of phrasing, of swing. This is from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

“Good Times, Bad Times” – Led Zeppelin. That opening hook. Those repeated chords. I mean, come on. It’s insistent, it demands your attention.

“Chain Gang” – Sam Cooke. I read Peter Guralnick’s biography of Sam Cooke last year, and the story of how this classic song came to be is great, and really sheds light on Sam Cooke’s process as a songwriter. If you listen to his most famous songs, he starts with something totally specific. Cha Cha, for example, but it’s in all of them. He was an observant guy, always tuned into the world around him, scanning the landscape for “ways in” to songs. And the arrangement of “Chain Gang” is so innovative, those guys grunting and chanting “Huh” “Hah” behind the beautiful melody. We’re moving into a political realm here, a social-justice realm. And you may be lulled into a sense of safety because the melody is so pretty, and Sam is such a beautiful performer. But that anger is there.

“Not Afraid” – Eminem. A recovery anthem. A statement of purpose and return. A message to those who also struggle. “You’re not alone …”

“Run Through the Jungle” – Creedence Clearwater Revival. So it’s nasty and bluesy and catchy, but it’s that guitar beneath the voice that makes it for me. Gives it its drive, its “rhythm of the tracks”.

“Power of My Love” – Elvis. Almost the sexiest track in his entire career, and that’s saying something. It’s a macho brag. “I’m the best lay you’ll ever have. You won’t regret it. You’ll be shaking from the mighty power of my love.” Also: “baby, you can lick it” – Elvis!! I’m blushing! I love it when he roughs up his voice.

“Little Girl Blue” – Nina Simone. It’s almost too intense. The arrangement is brilliant, starting with a simple piano plonking out the melody to “Good King Wenceslas”, of all things. When her voice comes in, you are startled by her pain, it’s almost too much. She’s unbelievable.

“Talk To Me of Mendocino” – Kate & Anna McGarrigle. Talk about almost too intense. Bah. So painful and nostalgic and bittersweet. Please seek out Lian Lunson’s amazing concert film Sing Me the Songs That Say I Love You, a tribute to Kate McGarrigle held at Town Hall here in New York City.

“Trapped Under Ice” – Metallica. What a cheery title. My brother said once that Metallica was “metal for math nerds”, which always makes me laugh. He means it as a compliment. They do have a complex algebraic structure to their songs, moving from theme to theme, with Lars Ulrich boxing everyone in (which, ultimately, sets everyone free through the rhythm he sets). This was on Ride the Lightning and doesn’t get much play anymore, live or otherwise.

“Endgame #3” – Chess in Concert. See what I mean?

“I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” – the awe-inspiring Django Reinhardt.

“Like a Virgin” – Madonna. This song came out when I was still a virgin and I didn’t get it. I thought I was being made fun of. I was sensitive, but that’ll be the case if you’re the last virgin in your age group on the Eastern Seaboard.

“If You Want It” – Lenny Kravitz. He’s a real happy place for me. I love him, I’ve been a fan since the beginning. And he was great in The Butler. I love his idealism, his hippie-dippie belief in Love. I don’t quite share it, but I love that he feels it and he means it. But I also love his hard rock-star awesomeness. He’s soft and hard. He’s his own man.

“Toxic” – Britney Spears. Brit-Brit at her absolute pinnacle.

“It’s My Party” – Lesley Gore. I love that her songs are subversive feminist statements, and sometimes not so subversive with “You Don’t Own Me”. Here she’s saying, “This is my party. Let me have my feelings, dammit. Stop telling me to not feel shit, DAMMIT.” But she’s saying it in this catchy hand-clapping tune so you might miss it because you’re too busy grooving out. She’s great.

“My Baby Left Me” – Elvis Presley. If I HAD to pick a favorite Elvis track, it would be this one.

“(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher & Higher” – Jackie Wilson. What a showman. A huge influence on Elvis, if you’ve listened to the “Million Dollar Quartet” recordings in full. Elvis can’t stop talking about Jackie Wilson (he doesn’t even know his name) and his performance of “Don’t Be Cruel” in Vegas, and how Wilson took it to another level. Elvis was inspired, and basically imitated Wilson in performances of the song thereafter. Elvis knew he hadn’t gone far enough, and Wilson showed him where else he could go.

“Rap God” – Eminem. From his latest. OUT. OF. CONTROL. I mean … my mind goes blank. Really??

“Tears Dry On Their Own” – Amy Winehouse. Dammit, girl, we miss you.

“Good Golly Miss Molly” – Jerry Lee Lewis. That saxophone is sexy as hell. The whole song vibrates with sex, the desire for it, the unleashing of it.

“Needle In the Hay” – Elliott Smith. Ouch. His end haunts me, and it is eerie that the song would be used for the suicide attempt in Royal Tenenbaums, but you can feel that death-drive in the song, in a lot of his songs.

“Johnny B. Goode” – Chuck Berry. The song is covered so much it almost becomes old hat. But nothing is old hat with Chuck Berry.

“Whyyawannabringmedown” – Kelly Clarkson. I love how her best songs are all “Fuck you and the horse you rode in on” songs.

“Yes It Is” – The Beatles. Achingly gorgeous, those harmonies. Pleasing. After all these years, still so pleasing.

“La-Do-Dada” – the awesome and dirty Dale Hawkins, a rockabilly god.

“Fine Brown Frame” – Lou Rawls and Dianne Reeves. So sexy, so friendly. They’re both just loving on each other so much. And I love how the song holds her back. She doesn’t show up at first, so when her voice comes swooping in, it’s thrilling.

“Do Wah Diddy Diddy” – Manfred Mann. How often has this song been used in soundtracks? Countless? Hey, it still works.

“I Know Him So Well” – Idina Menzel & Kerry Ellis, from, you guessed it, Chess in Concert. For God’s SAKE.

“Empty Sky” – Bruce Springsteen, from The Rising. That’s how it felt. The sky was empty. Something else should be there. I am still not used to our new skyline, although I am glad it is there, and I am glad it is TALL. Fuck, yeah, build that thing HIGH.

“1816, the Year Without a Summer” – Rasputina. I love these ladies so much.

“Maids When You’re Young Never Wed an Old Man” – The Dubliners. Hello, lads! I’ve missed the Irish contingent in this shuffle.

“Oro Se Do Bheatha Bhaile” – The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem. I spoke too soon. Yay! This is from their “live at Carnegie Hall” album, which is part of the warp and weft of my childhood. Most awesome in this track is hearing the entire audience singing along in Irish. Too much.

“Negative Creep” – Nirvana. So ferocious.

“Pity the Child #1” – Adam Pascal, from Chess in Concert. Anger.

“Shit on the Radio” – Robbie Williams, one of the greatest and most appealing stars today, who has somehow not “crossed over” across the Atlantic. Baffling to me. He’s IT, as far as I’m concerned, placing himself in a grand tradition of swingers and entertainers.

“Lonely Is the Night” – Billy Squier. Pretty great song. Have you read this Grantland piece? It brought back so many memories. I love Billy Squier. There was also that moment in 1981 when he and the entire staff of MTV sang “Christmas is the Time to Say I Love You”, which also brings back so many memories of a more innocent time. The Grantland piece, which references Squier’s “career-killing music video”, is pretty awesome.

“Radio and TV” – The Everly Brothers. As I’ve mentioned, this is my current favorite of theirs.

“Let’s Have a Party” – Wanda Jackson. That rasp in her voice! I’m so psyched I saw her live. If you get a chance, don’t think twice. The broad still tours. She’s a legend.

“At Last” – Etta James. Oh, sing it, sister. She’s the best.

“Road Runner” – Bo Diddley. This shuffle rocks.

“Twilight Time” – The Platters. See above comment.

“I Like College Girls” – Pat McCurdy. Dude, you nuts.

“Millennium” – Robbie Williams. When I was in Ireland with my sisters in 1998 (I think) this song was everywhere. It was coming out of every car radio, it was playing in every shop. Finally, I asked Siobhan, “Who the hell is this guy?” She filled me in. I bought the CD at a record store in Dublin, and I’ve never looked back. No one-hit wonder he.

“Temptation” – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. My brother gave me a double-album of his stuff for Christmas and he is so super fun. Draaaaaaama!

“Rock’n Me” – the good old Steve Miller Band.

“Prologue” – Chess on Broadway. Do you see what I’m dealing with here?

“Hurry Hurry” – Air Traffic Controller. They are so much fun! Bleu produced their latest album, and they opened for him when I saw him at Rockwood Music Hall. They’re awesome.

“Is It So Strange” – Elvis. He recorded this song in early 1957. His love of this song has an interesting history. In the summer of 1956 he dated a girl from Biloxi named June Juanico. (Her book is great, unlike a lot of those “I knew Elvis” books). It was a serious relationship, and also fascinating because she dated him when his national fame hit. She was there right at that moment. And it all quickly got too big, too hot, too fast and he just had to go where he needed to go, leaving her behind. He never forgot her. (Well, he never forgot anyone. But June was special.) This was their song. It’s poignant and yearning. He recorded this the month after they broke up. Imagine being poor tear-drenched June, driving around Biloxi, and hearing this song come out of the radio. OUCH.

“Real Man” – Bonnie Raitt. I hear ya, Bonnie. I need one too.

“Florence Quits” – Adam Pascal & Idina Menzel. Chess in Concert.. Bossy bossy bossy Chess.

“Lollipops and Roses” – Jack Jones. Listen, I love Eminem, and I get he’s offensive, I don’t care, but I do get it and I get that he’s not to everyone’s taste. However, nothing he has ever sung is as offensive as this bullshit.

“Heavy Metal Heart” – Sky Ferreira. A new discovery for me. This album, Night Time, My Time made it on a lot of Best of 2013 lists and I can see why. It’s fantastic.

“Strange Movies” – The Troggs. Hot. He’s grunting and sighing. Hot.

“Hymn to Chess” – the cast of Chess in Concert. No comment.

“John Henry” – Pete Seeger. I love Pete Seeger. Good of him to finally repudiate Stalin. Idiot. Or, as Stalin would have referred to him, “USEFUL idiot.”

“My Dad’s Gone Crazy” – Eminem. Pretty nuts, with a sneaky creepy beat, the whole thing punctuated by Eminem’s actual daughter, Hailey, shouting, “I think my dad’s gone craaazee” along the way. I’ve said before that I think The Eminem Show is an example of a good post-9/11 album, a reaction to that event. It came out in May of 2002 when the wounds were still fresh. It’s on Eminem’s mind. The images from that day comes to bear in the lyrics here in a sudden and heartbreaking way. Frightening.

“Peace of Mind” – Count Five. Awesome. Of course I think of Lester Bangs’ essay on them.

“Lacrymosa” – Evanescence. Her voice is phenomenal, and is at its best in melodramatic almost-violent and eerie numbers like this one.

“Hold On” – Michael Buble. As mortifying as it may be to admit, this song helped get me through a rough couple of days.

“Today I Started Loving You Again” – the irreplaceable Merle Haggard. His voice melts me. I go weak in the knees.

“Rigney’s/Ambrose Moloney’s” – Paddy O’Brien, the great Irish accordionist.

“America the Beautiful” – Willie Nelson. This was part of the fundraising telethon put on quickly in the wake of 9/11, which I donated to. I can’t listen to this without welling up with tears. My God. It’s perfection, it’s so FULL of what those days felt like.

“Hold It Against Me” – Britney Spears. Don’t worry, Britney, I don’t hold any of it against you. You rock.

“Anything For a Friend” – Faye Adams. Her vibrato is just so out of control, it’s an assault, filled with emotion and intent. Not to be attempted by amateurs. She’s so great.

“Mr. Blue Sky” – ELO. This song features heavily in the final scene of my script. I’m very attached to it.

“It’s Lonely At the Top” – Randy Newman. I adore him but sometimes the sound is too sad for me, I have to skip over it. I have to gear up to make it through one of his songs. Of course there’s all kind of irony and satire and humor going on there, but it’s the melancholy that emanates.

“Tough, Tough, Tough” – Andy Anderson. One of the Sun Records artists. You could pick that Sun sound out of a lineup. Blind.

“Big River” – Johnny Cash. Authenticity like his cannot be manufactured. Don’t even try. Just stand back in awe of his sense of self and how he expresses it.

“You and I” – Josh Groban & Idina Menzel, Chess in Concert. At some point, you just get beaten down. You start to accept. I’m almost there.

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6 Responses to iPod Shuffle

  1. Cousin Mike says:

    “In the Bleak Mid-Winter” – Shawn Colvin. From her suicidal holiday album.”

    HA! But it was in the bleak mid-winter LONG LONG ago….

    Here’s to all bleakness being long long ago cuz!
    xo
    Mike

  2. Dg says:

    Someone in my household was watching the Golden Globes recently and I thought I would try my patience and watch a few minutes… I see Bono sitting at a table… I ask what’s he doing there? Nominated for best original song for the Mandela movie… Oh well he is going to win…how do you know? …Bono is like a world leader these days he’s not going to go to the Golden Globes to just sit there and when he wins he’s going to preach about Mandela. Well that’s exactly what happened and I guess that’s why I could be considered a difficut person to live with.

  3. mutecypher says:

    I was unaware of Patty Griffin until you mentioned her in an earlier Shuffle. Her Silver Bells album is just great, I love “Little Gods.” Thanks for turning me on to her. I haven’t spent a lot of time with Living With Ghosts yet.

    Now I’m thinking I need to learn more about this Chess of which you speak.

    • sheila says:

      Oh I’m so glad to have introduced Patty Griffin to you! That Living with Ghosts album is crazy – just her and her guitar and that voice. She had an interesting history after that. She was put on a big label, and she put out an album called Red which totally changed her sound – there are some good songs on there (“Tony” is one) but you could feel they were trying to commercialize her. And then came years of silence from her – she was in a war with the label, she was trapped. She didn’t want to do what they wanted her to do and she refused. But that meant no more Patty albums – for her fans it was horrible. And Dave Matthews came to the rescue. He bought her out of her contract at the label, put her on his own label and basically said: “Make your music. Do whatever the hell you want to do.”

      And she was back in business. I’m not a huge Dave Matthews fan but I will always love him for that.

      Chess is a musical. There are three versions of it: a London recording, a Broadway recording, and then a concert version with Josh Groban. The music is great. I have a lot of associations with it – my father loved the musical – so do I. But it is so over-represented on Shuffle – it’s a conspiracy!! It’s become a joke that I have with myself. :)

      The concert version with Josh Groban is great.

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