iPod Shuffle

From last week. Things going well. Juggling about 3 different jobs right now. Managing. Getting ready to go on vacation with my family in a week. Music accompanies me wherever I go. Especially in the summer in New York City which, frankly, I find unbearable. The sticky subways, the stink, the humidity. I walked to work one day from the bus station. It’s 8 blocks. By the time I arrived at my destination, I looked like I had swum the Hudson, fully clothed, to get to work.

“The Beatitudes” – Noirin Ni Riain & The Monks of Glenstal Abbey. She’s an Irish singer, the monks are … well. They are a force to be reckoned with. Noirin and the monks pair up for an album. The Beatitudes, of course, are a list. “Blessed are …” I listen to this album sometimes when I have to calm my spirit. Or pray.

“Bitter Sweet Symphony” – The Verve. It’s not a very good song. There is also no reason for it go on for almost 6 minutes. But the “hook” is killer, that repeated theme. The hook is the only reason I own the song.

“Mean Mean Man” – Wanda Jackson. I love how she breaks up the word “man” – mah-yan! Also, the way she roughs up her voice … Hot. A rock ‘n roll classic giving the all-important Girl Side of things.

“Airbag” – Radiohead. I associate this whole album with a specific season in my life, and one particular guy. Radiohead was on at all of those parties. It was such an intense time, for multiple reasons, global, political, historical, and personal. I was playing with fire every time I saw him. And that’s just one example of many. I also always seemed to run into him right before or during some world-wide or national cataclysm. I’m not making any inappropriate connection with said events, I am just stating the coincidence. I’m “friends” with him on Facebook but I keep far far away from him other than that. So yeah, that was good times all around, and yeah, I can’t really listen to Radiohead anymore.

“Shit Stained Moon” – the wonderful Bleu, one of my favorite singer/songwriters working today. Wrote about seeing him at Rockwood Music Hall here. He’s a great pop-song writer. “Shit Stained Moon” is a perfect example. It’s about a breakup and trying to survive while single. He obsesses about a diner waitress. He’s falling in love with her, but only because he misses his girlfriend. And boy, he can sing. LOVE HIM.

“Love Child” – The Supremes. Classic. The little whispery “tenement slum” that starts off the whole thing …

“Wilkommen” – Alan Cumming in the Roundabout revival of Cabaret, starring Cumming and Natasha Richardson, which I was so so lucky to see with that original cast. One of the best live performances I’ve ever seen. It was so intense that my friend Brooke reached out to grab my hand at one point, gripping tight.

“I’m a Rover” – The Dubliners. Part of the soundtrack of my childhood.

“I Spy” – my awesome sister Siobhan O’Malley. A song about her days as a bartender. Very funny. “I Spy” was used in a promotional spot for a paper goods company, you can view it here.

“Why Did You Waste My Time” – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins asks a very valid question. He has a moment during the bridge where he breaks down into wild howling sobs. He’s so out there. I love him.

“The Stolen Child” – The Waterboys. Yeats’ poem set to music. I was haunted by this poem when I was a kid (especially since we visited Glencar as a family, where there’s a plaque with the poem on it). There was something about that repeated line: “For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand” that spoke to me. Even at age 11, 12.

“Portland Rain” – Everclear. Sexy-as-hell song. R-rated.

“In the Garden” – Elvis Presley, in his most holy aspect. There’s a slight echo on his voice. He sounds gentle, sincere, as he sings this classic hymn. And when the chorus comes in behind him … One of the ways to really understand Elvis is to really really grok that he meant everything. And I mean everything. Elvis’ gospel stuff have helped me get through some pretty dark days. I mean, not really. But they are still very soothing.

“This Too Shall Pass” – Ok Go. I was a fan before they really “hit.” I love their spirit. And their videos are cool, yes, but the songs are fantastic even without the videos.

“Finale” – from the Broadway original cast recording of 1776. The roll call. Goosebumps.

“Love Is Like a Butterfly” – Dolly Parton. She’s perfect. A living legend. I love her latest album, Blue Smoke!

“Marian the Librarian” – Robert Preston, in The Music Man. As the daughter of a librarian, this song was always a huge hit in our household. I was vaguely obsessed with The Music Man as a child. We all were. We could recite it from beginning to end.

“I’ve Just Begun Having My Fun” – Britney Spears. Yes, Brit-Brit, and that’s what’s worrisome. No, just kidding. I love her.

“Sing! Sing! Sing!” – the great and sexy sexy sexy Gene Krupa. Maybe his most well known recording.

“Tremolo” – Bleu. See comments above. Sing OUT, Louise. He sings the hell out of it.

“Tragedy” – The Bee Gees. Until my dying day, this awesome track will remind me of Michael and our night at an underage dance club in Ithaca, New York. The two of us huddling in the alley where we could hear the music they were playing so Michael could decide if it was worthwhile to go in. All hell broke loose when they played “Tragedy.”

“The Bitter End” – Scala & Kolocny Brothers, this awesome all-girl choir from Belgium, I believe. They do covers, awesome arrangements. You may remember their cover of Radiohead’s “Creep.” I love them.

“Old Shep” – Elvis’ drippy ballad about a boy and his dog. He loved the song. He sang it in a talent contest in Tupelo when he was 9 or 10 years old. He had to stand on a box to reach the microphone. So here he is, a huge superstar, and he records it. I mean, he was so sincere about things, about the things he loved. “Old Shep” is a bore, but it’s sweet because Elvis obviously loved the song so much and it connected him to his childhood. That little boy standing on the box at the fairgrounds.

“I Beg Of You” – Elvis Presley. One of his sexiest tracks. Bratty, sexy Elvis. Recorded in 1958, when he was on leave from basic training. A very productive recording session, every song that came out of it was a classic.

“Bijou” – Queen. Awesome. Instrumental. DRAMA!

“By All Means Necessary” – the great Robbie Williams, who is, frankly, the best damn entertainer today. He is doing something very very old-school with his career. He is doing whatever he wants. His journey is fascinating to me. He was definitely someone who could have flamed out, a la Amy Winehouse. He hasn’t. He has survived. He has thrived. I LOVE him.

“The Way of Love” – Cher. She literally could not be more melodramatic if she tried. And with Cher, Melodrama is always 100% sincere. That’s why it works. “The Way of Love” is crazy! We used to blast it at parties in college and all sing along, because we were Nerds.

“Drop Dead Beautiful” – Britney Spears. “and yeah your body looks so sick I think I caught the flu.” That’s some Pulitzer Prize shit right there. This song is on my workout mix.

“Surrender” – Cheap Trick. Good advice, guys, thanks!

“Wolf Call Boogie” – Hot Shot Love, old-school gritty blues, harmonica, recorded at Sun Records. This is the kind of stuff Sam Phillips felt an almost messianic mission to record. You can see why. It redeems the cat call.

“Don’t Stop Believin'” – Journey. Getting our daily dose of classic rock.

“Get Here” – a heartbreaking and sweet ballad by Oleta Adams, a singer I have always loved. “I don’t care when you get here, just … get here when you can.” Amen.

“I Got Stung” – Elvis Presley. Again, from that productive RCA recording session in 1958, recorded under great time-pressure because Elvis was disappearing into the Army for 2 years. No recording during that time. So RCA felt a huge pressure to get as much of Elvis down as possible to release during his time away. A great track. Elvis is on fire. And the entire session is available for purchase, each failed take, etc. But Elvis, in take after take after take, is perfect. But the arrangements were complex, lots of instruments, the Jordanaires, it took a lot of coordination to get everyone on the same page. But listening to those tracks, sometimes 30 takes per song, and hearing how consistent Elvis is … it’s awesome.

“I’m So Blue” – Katie Thompson. I can’t remember why I bought this or how I heard about it. She’s got a great voice, kind of country-ish.

“Just Because” – the ferocious Lloyd Price. His voice LEAPS out of the speakers.

“Hurt” – Elvis Presley. One of the great tracks from the 1970s. A howl of pain. The control of his extraordinary voice, what he makes it do, where he goes … is nothing less than awe-inspiring.

“Fashion Victim” – Green Day. I wondered when they would show up. Hi, boys.

“Small Hours” – The Pogues. God, we were obsessed with them in high school. I still love them.

“The Fool” – a great rockabilly track from Sanford Clark. Pretty much everyone covered this song, and you can see why. That guitar part … kind of helps make the song. And it just is on eternal repeat. Doesn’t matter: that’s why it works.

“Funny How Time Slips Away” – Elvis, performing in 1975 in Shreveport, the city that helped give him his start, when he was a regular on the radio show the Louisiana Hayride. Elvis loved this song so much. It’s also good to hear these live tracks from the mid-70s, where he is totally on point, totally in charge, in control. He is having a blast with his performance, he’s so EASY with it, it’s like he’s alone in his living room. But he’s not. Anyway, this is 1975. He has less than two years left to live. But he sounds like he’s at the top of his game. A good reality check for those who think the 70s were a constant downward spiral.

“Polythene Pam” – The Beatles, from Abbey Road. Those opening chords sound almost Rolling Stones-ish.

“Christ for President” – Billy Bragg & Wilco. I love this album so much. Billy Bragg & Wilco covering Woody Guthrie songs. We played this all the time in the first couple of months following the birth of my nephew Cashel, who is now in high school. And little baby Cashel would lie on his little rug on the floor, in his onesie, wriggling around whenever this song came on. He loved it.

“Comin’ Home” – Mel Torme. Sooooooo smooth.

“Shot Through the Heart” – Bon Jovi. I am not ashamed.

“Darts of Pleasure” – Franz Ferdinand. I was really into them for a hot second. Kind of lost track of them.

“Up ‘n Down” – Britney Spears. Lots of Brit-Brit on this shuffle. I ain’t complaining. I love how all of her songs are like, “I’m so hot, you know you want me, but you can’t handle me.” It’s okay, Britney. Relax.

“Rock of Ages” – Def Leppard. I literally could not be happier with the character of this iPod Shuffle if I tried. This song must be blasted at volume eleven.

“Love Buzz” – Nirvana. From Bleach. It’s one of my favorite tracks from Nirvana. Ferocious. Its own thing, but also a call-back to punk rock, metal, pop rock, the whole shebang. It’s all in there.

“Medley: Blueberry Hill /I Can’t Stop Loving You” – Elvis Presley, playing Memphis in 1974. Another example of how awesome these live performances were. And here he is, playing his hometown. I love this entire concert. It is Elvis at his very best. And “I Can’t Stop Loving You” always propelled Elvis into some other level of commitment altogether.

“Minnie the Moocher” – Robbie Williams from his latest album Swing Both Ways. When I learned that Robbie had actually recorded Minnie the Moocher I felt like I had entered into some alternate reality where everything was working out just as it should.

“All You Need Is Love” – The Beatles. My cousin Liam learned that I did not have “the Beatles in mono” so he sent me a gigantic file via Dropbox with many of their tracks in mono. It does make a huge difference in the sound. This is the mono track. How many times have I heard this song? 500? More? Never get sick of it.

“It’s Only Love” – The Beatles. Listen to the subtle shit Ringo is doing in the background.

“One Fine Day” – Robbie Williams. He is incapable of writing a boring song. At least I don’t find any of his original songs boring. I find them to be pop classics.

“Volvo Driving Soccer Mom” – Everclear. Super-mean.

“The Ace of Sorrow” – Brown & Dana. Earnest folk duo. I have just this one track. I think my parents had one of their albums when I was a kid.

“O Mary Don’t You Weep” – Bruce Springsteen from The Seeger Sessions, an album I adore. This is my favorite track. RAUCOUS.

“Jesus Gave Me Water” – Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers. If I recall correctly, this was their first hit in the vibrant and active gospel circuit. One can see why.

“True Colors” – Cyndi Lauper. How I love her. Then and now. Her Tony-award acceptance speech made me cry.

“Young Blood” – The Beatles, from those crazy and rough and gritty “Live at the BBC” tracks. So sexy, so alive, so fresh.

“Empty Sky” – Bruce Springsteen, from The Rising. And that’s what it felt like. The sky was empty. It was empty for years. Now it’s full again. And I’m not used to it yet. I am happy the new tower is there. I am happy it is taller than what was there before. But there were years when downtown looked … truncated, cut off, wrong. Empty sky.

“Princes of the Universe” – Queen. Freddie Mercury is irreplaceable. Sui generis.

“Vision of a Kiss” – The B-52’s. This particular album, Good Stuff, was on all the time during a time of gigantic upheaval in my life. Driving cross-country with my boyfriend, the two of us breaking up HORRIBLY, as we did so. Then I had a crackup in Los Angeles. One of those times, looking back on it, where I think, “I should have been in a hospital.” But I wasn’t. I was out amongst the English. Finally, I decided to save my own life, and I sold all my possessions, and moved to Chicago, with two suitcases of belongings. That was it. Best move I ever made. Good Stuff was the soundtrack to that time.

“I Will Always Love You” – Dolly Parton. I am sure everyone knows the story. In the 70s, Dolly Parton got a call from The Colonel (Elvis’ manager). It was last-minute, a kind of ninja attack. He said that Elvis had fallen in love with her song “I Will Always Love You” and wanted to record it. The way Elvis was set up as a musician was that he got half of the publishing rights of any song he sang. HALF. Publishing was where the real money was at, and Colonel Tom knew that. The 60s started to break apart that situation and it became harder and harder for Elvis to find good songs, and people who were willing to give up half their publishing rights: singer-songwriters started rising, people who wanted to retain their own rights to their own material. Elvis’ Achilles heel was that he didn’t write songs, and this publishing agreement was something set up to protect him. Anyway, Dolly Parton got the call from Colonel Tom, saying, “Elvis is set to record your song this weekend – if you could just sign over half of the publishing rights that would be great, kthx.” And Dolly refused. Considering what ended up happening with that song, when Whitney Houston turned it into one of the biggest hits ever, Parton was smart to refuse. But she has always expressed sadness that the situation was as it was, because she loved that Elvis loved something she had written, and she still wishes that she could have heard him sing her song. I wish it too. She said in an interview once, “I hope that he was as disappointed as I was.”

“You Don’t Know Me” – Ray Charles. I basically can’t take it. It’s so perfect.

“(Ghost) Riders in the Sky” – Johnny Cash. Very Spaghetti-Western-ish. He’s awesome.

“Women Do Know How to Carry On” – the great Waylon Jennings. Wow, that’s a great trifecta of testosterone right there.

“Besame Mucho” – The Beatles. Gloriously goofy.

“Go Go Go” – Roy Orbison, recorded at Sun Records. Classic. Hot. That guitar background. It has everything in it. The blending of genres, the history of music, and its exciting future.

“I Should Have Known” – Foo Fighters. Angsty male melodrama. Great stuff.

“Goddamn Pusher Man” – Nina Simone. She is so damn intense. Her voice is so lived in, she’s been there, she’s experienced it, it’s there in her voice.

“Revolution” – a Nina Simone cluster. In this track, she coaches the musicians. Stops the song and tells them the feel she needs. I love it. She was a musician. And then you can hear the musicians adjust, following her lead.

“Something’s Got a Hold On Me” – Etta James. When she screams? The hairs on my arms rise up.

“Walk This Way” – Aerosmith. Don’t tell me what to do.

“Amy Amy Amy” – Amy Winehouse. Dammit. Still pissed. Still miss her.

“I Who Have Nothing” – Shirley Bassey. Mitchell’s obsession with her, my friend Alex’s obsession with her, rubbed off. This track is out of control. Tom Jones would listen to the performance and think, “Wow. Someone who leaves me in the dust. I better up my game.”

“Same Girl” – Randy Newman. He breaks my heart. And my heart has been broken so many times. I can’t take much more.

“Purple Haze” – Jimi Hendrix. Good fucking music, if you’ll forgive me. There’s a biopic coming out. I’ve seen trailers. I wonder. I hope. We’ll see.

“The House Is Rockin'” – Stevie Ray Vaughn. He always makes me think of M. Otherwise known as Window-Boy. Or Tough Guy. My most important relationship. Healing. How on earth that worked out I have no idea. We were two messed-up wild uncontrollable people, who cut each other MILES of slack. Slack that no other potential partner EVER gave us. We were always in trouble with other people, but never with each other. It lasted for years. Over a decade. I am thankful for him. I will always wish him well. We listened to a lot of Stevie Ray Vaughn. And watched kung fu movies at 3 a.m.

“Paradise” – The Ronettes. Magical sound.

“Surfin’ Safari” – The Beach Boys. They make me so happy. It’s almost physical. A happy pill.

“Something In the Air” – Thunderclap Newman. Of course immortalized in Easy Rider. Haunting somehow.

“Only When I Walk Away” – Justin Timberlake, from his latest album, which is pretty damn great.

“Smile Away” – Paul McCartney, from Ram, a pretty classic album. He feels set free, unleashed. “I could smell your feet a mile away …”

“I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got” – Sinéad O’Connor. She’s so light-hearted, so carefree. I kid, I kid. It’s rather amazing, in retrospect, that someone so … brutally dark … would become so mainstream. I mean, this track, for example. A cappella. Repetitive. Creepy. Almost 6 minutes long. And it’s awesome. That album was a juggernaut. Then of course she torched her own career and I don’t fault her for that at all. She has a new album coming out and I am looking forward to it.

“One More Try” – George Michael. Beautiful. I love him.

“In the Misty Moonlight” – Dean Martin. The absolute BEST. Here’s a big post about him.

“Life In the Fast Lane” – The Eagles. I remember hearing this song when I was a child. “Good in bed” baffled me. What did THAT mean? And what did THAT have to do with anything?

“In My Life” – Bette Midler. One of those situations where the cover is almost as good as the original. Or, hell, as good. She sings it as an internal monologue, a soliloquy. It’s amazing.

“Unchained Melody” – the incomparable Charlie Rich. Recorded at Sun Records. The music those walls have soaked up. Jesus Mary and Joseph.

“Future/Now” – the white-hot fierce MC5. Boys swinging their cocks around. Rock ‘n roll.

“Never Been to Spain” – Elvis Presley, the midnight show on Feb. 16, 1972, at the Las Vegas Hilton. Elvis in high form, as he always was when he sang this song. It has a slow build, starting slow and groovy, before it EX-PLODES.

“If Teardrops Were Pennies” – Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton. One of the best duos ever. The ultimate masculine and the ultimate feminine. They find the balance. They meet in the middle. Incredible sound together. Robert Redford had this to say about working with Barbra Streisand (and I paraphrase): “She’s so masculine that I get to be feminine. And she’s so feminine that I get to be my most masculine.” This is something that today’s rom-coms and romances do not understand. It’s almost a lost art. And that’s what’s going on with Porter and Dolly.

“Leper Messiah” – Metallica. Listen to Lars. Methodically, fiercely, he creates the space where the song can happen. It’s crazy what he’s doing back there.

“Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. His voice. Good Lord. He lives his songs. Which makes it sound like he has climbed out of Hell, or fallen from Heaven. These are real things to him.

“The Night Hank Williams to Town” – Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings. Now that is some heavy-hitting name dropping there, all around.

“The Morning After” – Count Five. Loopy and silly and catchy. I love Count Five, and of course I always think of Lester Bangs’ crazy piece about them.

“Heroin” – The Velvet Underground. Terrifying.

“Antiques” – Pat McCurdy. I was wondering when he would show up. An old old friend of mine. I’ve written about him before. He thanked me in the liner notes for this album (Fainting with Happiness) and I’m not sure why and he never said. It was a difficult time. This is a great album, one of his best, so I’m strangely moved that I was acknowledged, even though I did jack-squat. “Antiques” is Pat’s nod to “Norwegian Wood.”

“Of Wolf and Man” – Metallica. They’re doing this crazy great tour now, where every set is different: the audience votes en masse on what they want played and Metallica comply. I have no idea how they are organizing it. Are audience members taking a survey online beforehand? It’s such a cool idea though. I’ve been following the whole tour on Facebook.

“Look At Her Face” – The Coral Sea. You know how some songs insert themselves into your life and take on meaning that goes far beyond the lyrics? The song becomes representative of something essential? That’s how certain songs work for me, and this is one of those songs. 2009 was a terrible year. Months were lost. I was so out of my mind at times that I have no memory of it, but I do remember driving and driving and driving in my car, randomly, aimlessly, for HOURS – almost an entire day – I remember I had to re-fill my tank so I could keep driving – I drove up to the Tappan Zee area, I drove around through North Jersey, never stopping. And I played this song the entire time. It felt like it was keeping me alive. So it’s a little hard to hear now. But it also reminds me of my script, which I finished in 2009 and despite all of my problems, managed to organize a New York reading of it, as well as a reading of it in Los Angeles. This song has a lot to do with my script. When I listen to it, I think of what I was trying to express. So yeah. That’s a hell of a lot of associations to put onto one song, but that’s the way it works sometimes.

And the LYRICS. BAH.

I’ll end there.

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11 Responses to iPod Shuffle

  1. JessicaR says:

    You gotta see this, Tina Turner and Ann-Margret tearing up shop on the latter’s variety show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxTCHg0r9uY

  2. Lizzie says:

    The finale to 1776 is so powerful and so audacious. Who ends a musical like that?! It’s not even a song! And yet it works so well. Goosebumps, shivers, you name it, those bells and low brass bring it!

    Just by cultural osmosis I had heard a few versions of “And I will always love you,” but I remember listening to Dolly Parton’s version for the first time. When she got to the spoken section, I was caught totally off guard and I actually started to tear up. I only fought back the urge because I was in the car, driving, and I needed to see! The ability speak with that kind of directness and lack of self-protection or self-consciousness is so, so special.

    • sheila says:

      Lizzie –

      in re: 1776: I know!! And the bell clanging. And the names. I have goosebumps just thinking about it.

      in re: Dolly. So so true. She is so sincere, so truthful.

  3. mutecypher says:

    Re: Airbag and Mr. “Why Are You Ignoring Me.”

    Thankfully the experiences didn’t spoil Enter Sandman for you. That’s almost too terrible to contemplate.

    I always enjoy your comments about Britney. She really is the perfect amount of Muchness.

    • sheila says:

      Oh yes, Metallica is untouchable! Thank goodness! Radiohead I can live without.

      There was a recent thing going around – a track of Britney before the Auto-Tune was used and she sounded pretty bad. My response to it was basically – Leave Britney alone. Let her be Auto-Tuned and get on with her life. She’s not supposed to be Maria Callas. She’s a pop-goddess, and I hope she’s happy and her songs are ridiculous and catchy.

  4. Barb says:

    On Britney–my brother dropped this version of one of her songs on a cd he sent me a few years ago. What do you think? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4WGsMplGxU&feature=kp You might want to ignore Thompson’s talk of “putting the song back in the proper hands” and just enjoy his version. It made me laugh out loud when I heard it.

    • sheila says:

      WOW!!

      I love Richard Thompson, I didn’t know he did this – thank you so much!

      Fountains of Wayne covered “Hit Me Baby” and turn it into this acoustic thing and it’s great. They were like, “We’re not doing this as a joke. We think this is a classic pop song.”

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6g4t93uuus

      • sheila says:

        Also – I love how the Richard Thompson crowd, a very specific demographic, all sings along. They know all the words too. Great!!

  5. mutecypher says:

    Barb – That was great! Richard needs to do Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance .

  6. Barb says:

    Shelia and mutecypher–Glad you liked it! I would certainly pay to hear Richard Thompson sing “Bad Romance”. I don’t know if it was the same set, but my brother also included him singing Bowling for Soup’s “1985” on that cd, which is now my favorite version of that song.

    I love it, too, that Thompson’s fans know the words! These things work by osmosis, don’t they?

    Thanks for the Fountains of Wayne link also–that was great. Just slowing the song down, so the lyrics take front and center–wonderful.

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