Autumnal iPod Shuffle

Been a while since I’ve done one of these. I am working 3, 4 jobs and my writing career has morphed into a semi-regular schedule of work – expected and unexpected – but I will NEVER give up this blog. To quote Don Music: NEVER NEVER NEVER, head crashes on piano. Speaking of music, let’s get to the iPod shuffle that has accompanied me through the last couple of weeks.

“Baby Don’t Do It” – 5 Royales. Dreamy single from 1953.

“Pain Killer” – Little Big Town. I’ve recently gotten into them. Good lyrics, country & western playbook. Whiskey, lonely beds, country churches. I love her voice too.

“I Got a Woman” – the great, the irreplaceable Howlin’ Wolf. This is slooowwwww, sexxxxxxy and raw, with really simple accompaniment behind him. Harmonica. A wandering honky-tonk-sound piano. Electric guitar. Nobody like him.

“So Serious” – ELO. I guess I just have to admit that there’s not one song of theirs I don’t like. Even this which is kinda … stock.

“Walk a Mile In My Shoes” – Elvis. Live. Always a rousing number live. His philosophy made manifest through someone else’s lyrics. Similar to “In the Ghetto.”

“Big Me” – Foo Fighers does a slowed-down simplified live version. Poignant.

“On the Jericho Road” – Elvis and Carl Perkins, hanging out at Sun Records. Elvis on guitar, joking, “We should have Johnny Cash do this one” (evidence that Cash only showed up for the photo of that mythical night now known as “The Million Dollar Quartet”)

“Toot, Toot, Tootside Good Bye” – Jerry Lee Lewis. Another member of the fabled quartet. This a really fun jam from a 1980 album. His band, man. World-class.

“Mission Impossible theme” – Danny Elfman (from the movie). I have no memory of buying this. My music collection is so weird. But it sure is exciting stuff!

“Support System” – Liz Phair. My spirit-sister. I’m so glad that SHE was my aspirational figure when I was in my 20s. Or, not even. I was already LIVING the truth she wrote songs about when Exile in Guyville came out. I’ve written about this before. Listening to that album, start to finish, gave me almost an embarrassed feeling of being revealed. She was saying what it was like. This song is from Whip-Smart, an album I really love. I mean, how do you even go ON after Exile in Guyville? That’s a FIRST album? A double-album? A rejoinder to the Rolling freakin’ Stones? I’d say “BALLS” except for the unfairness/bigotry/BULLSHIT that there is no equivalent analogy for brave women. Screw that. This is a bold radical artist.

“Honesty” – the Glee version of the Billy Joel song. I must be honest. I was a huge Billy Joel fan in my teens. HUGE. But I have grown out of him. It’s nice to hear these covers, where I can enjoy the songs but I don’t have to hear Billy. I’M SORRY. I don’t hate him I just can’t deal anymore.

“Little Saint Nick” – The Beach Boys. CLASSIC.

“Trust In Me” – the great Etta James. I love where she starts here … and then where she GOES!

“Crazy Arms” – The Cactus Blossoms. I love these guys and their Everly-Brothers-inspired harmonies. I was into them BEFORE they appeared on Twin Peaks: The Return, in one of those end-credits roadhouse performances. I was so excited for them that they showed up. They’re lovely.

“Nutritious Treat” – GodheadSilo. Wow. Where did YOU all come from? Where’s the mosh pit? Need to throw myself in there RIGHT NOW. (Side note: I got a black eye the first time I ventured into a mosh pit. I was proud of it.)

“Highway to Hell” – AC/DC. Crank it up.

“I Need Your Lovin’ Kiss” – Harold Jenkins. Recorded at Sun. You can hear the unbelievable and impossible influence of Elvis that spread into EVERYTHING. He’s basically doing an Elvis imitation, with the little catches and jiggling vibrato. Just doesn’t have the same … sound. The magic isn’t there. But it has that Sun in-the-moment sound, with Jenkins shouting “YEAH” during the sax solo.

“Fall Breaks and Back to Winter” – The Beach Boys. These guys were so freakin’ out there.

“I’m Gonna File My Claim” – Marilyn Monroe. While “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” is rightly famous, my favorite number of hers performed in a film is this one from River of No Return. If you want to see her TRUE magic, watch THIS. All she does is walk back and forth on the stage, do a couple shimmies, interact with her audience, a couple of knee dips. And she is TO DIE FOR. And that is magic. The magic of her performing ability and her enjoyment of herself and her effect on others.

“Tell Me Why” – The Beatles. From A Hard Day’s Night. I love how some of their lyrics can sound so … manipulative and almost scary if you really think about them. This is one of those songs. It’s like: Listen, dude, she doesn’t love you, leave her the fuck alone.

“Do You Believe in Love?” – Huey Lewis. My first live concert. Years later, I was an extra in his TV special. It was too perfect.

“Please Don’t Die” – Robbie Williams. I love him so much. Even more so since his vicious song “Party Like a Russian,” released presciently last year (maybe inspired by Pussy Riot?) about Putin (implicitly, he is never named) – released right before all the bullshit started happening when a certain political candidate was actually CALLING for Russian interference in the election DURING a campaign speech. And the party behind him was … okay with this. Putin is a murderous fucking autocrat. Read Masha Geller’s books. Fuck Putin. The Left and the Right have a long history of love affairs with autocrats because the power these dictators wield is so tantalizingly absolute. I remember when this song came out there was a bit of “controversy” surrounding it. Russians being offended, etc. Listen: the target of the song is clear. Robbie Williams is an old-school superstar. The official video for the song is killer.

“Mysterious Ways” – U2. Nothing like those opening licks. Ear-grabber.

“True Love” – The Everly Brothers. Perfection.

“Just Call Me Lonesome” (takes 3, 4) – Elvis, digging deep into his country roots. It’s beautiful.

“Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” – The Leftover Cuties. They are my new favorite thing. Their covers … heart-stopping. HER VOICE. They are earnest in their approach, they maintain their unique sound, they are filled with love for the songs they sing.

“Heavy Metal Heart” – Sky Ferreira. I adore her and I adore this album. I was so excited when SHE appeared in Twin Peaks: The Return and am haunted by her tormented armpit-scratching character.

“The Late Great Johnny Ace” – Paul Simon. A terrific story-song with a beautiful and mournful structure.

“What’s The Matter With You?” – Split Enz. This album was the soundtrack of my freshman year of college.

“Deserted Cities of the Heart” – Cream. I listen to their stuff, and clearly everyone is awesome, but my main impression is: EGO. Not that there’s anything wrong with that … You don’t become a rock god by being humble.

“Gone Away Walkin'” – Harmonica Frank. You need a guide (in my opinion) to listen to these scratchy old tracks and hear the birth of something new. Once you hear it, you cannot unhear it. It’s hillbilly. There’s a slight yodel going on. It’s also blues. It’s a white guy singing the blues, with his own backcountry vibe. I thank Greil Marcus for walking me through it in Mystery Train.

“Heartbreak Hotel” – Elvis. Live in the 70s. He had this way of doing the song … going with it … while also lampooning it. He slows it way way down. James Burton KILLS on that famous guitar break.

“Invisible Man” – The Breeders. What an epic album.

“Paint the Pictures” – Verona. Haunting. From the great Sucker Punch‘s great soundtrack.

“Jesus Gave Me Water” – Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers. One of their best.

“You’ve Got a Friend In Me” – Michael Buble. I realize that Randy Newman fans may find this completely risible. I love Randy Newman but I still kind of like this.

“Happy in the Sorrow Key” – Indigo Girls. Jeez, who predicted they’d still be around so many years later? I sure didn’t. I loved that first album. And they’re still on my radar and I always check out their latest. Some of their stuff is hit or miss. But boy, they do yearning bittersweet heartbreak like nobody else. This is from their 2015 album which I recently bought and so haven’t had much time with it. I like this.

“Ex’s & Oh’s” – Elle King. You could not escape this song for about 6 months. Every radio station playing in every car, every store, every public space … played this song twice every hour, three times. It was like “Poker Face”. And I loved it every time I heard it. So I bought it.

“21 Guns” – Green Day. This is my favorite from that already-classic album.

“I’m Your Dog” – Mike Viola. A favorite. A New York scene staple. My sister opened for him! Brilliant song-writer.

“Mother Nature’s Son” – Sheryl Crow. From the I Am Sam soundtrack, a movie I didn’t even see, but I liked some of the covers included. I just saw her perform at the Outlaw Fest. As I said in my post about it – what really struck me about her is that her voice is just as clear, as powerful, as intact as it is in her recordings. This is clearly not the case with some of the little sexy snow-bunnies who become famous now in the age of auto-tune.

“One Day” – Barrett Doss as Rita in Groundhog Day: The Musical, which blew me AWAY.

“Glory” – Liz Phair. From Exile in Guyville. How does this album even exist? I still can’t believe it happened.

“Drastic Measures” – Eminem (and Dangerous Tribe). Early-ish Eminem. Late 90s. It’s really raw. The background track is … pedestrian at best. I’m a completist.

“Sleepwalk” – Brian Setzer. Hypnotic. His guitar! It swoops and swoons. You just want to be slow dancing with someone at a lonely roadside bar somewhere.

“Livin’ With A Heartache” – The Beach Boys. Carl Wilson wrote – and sang – this one. It sounds almost Don Henley-ish.

“Big Time Sensuality” – Bjork. God, remember the summer of “Big Time Sensuality”? This song was everywhere. I had it on my workout cassette-tape mix back then and it’s still on my workout mix now. Listen, if it works … Her voice is celestial. The song is nuts.

“King of the Road” – Jerry Lee Lewis. He really was. Still is. His piano is nuts here.

“The Hook Up” – Britney Spears. Peak Brit-Brit.

“Honky Tonk Night Time Man” – Merle Haggard. This one MOVES. When I just saw Eric Church, he played his tribute song for Merle Haggard called “Pledge Allegiance to the Hag,” the entire joint raising their glasses of beer to the memory of Merle Haggard. Pretty awesome.

“John Henry” – the legendary Furry Lewis.

“Price Tag” – Sleater-Kinney. Rock stars.

“Why Don’t We Just Dance” – Josh Turner. What a sexy voice. Rowr.

“The Mercy of a Letter” – Jerry Lee Lewis. One of his sweeping country ballads, when he “came back” from all the scandals and took over Nashville.

“You’ll Never, Never Know” – The Platters. I was into them early, even though I grew up in the age of Devo, Adam Ant and the Go-Go’s. Know why I fell in love with them? Because I saw American Graffiti. That was IT.

“Milky White Way” – Little Richard, in his gospel period. It’s to die for.

“Reminiscing Time” – Pat McCurdy. Old friend. This song is too intense for me to listen to – I usually skip it. Recently, we “reunited” after about a decade of no contact and obsessed about Elvis. It was so much fun.

“Sixteen Tons” – Frankie Laine. Honest to God, if you went by my music collection you’d never know I was Gen-X. But come on, this swings.

“Polk Salad Annie” – Elvis. In one of his dirtiest dirty performances … a staple of his 70s show. He always went ape … SHIT. I mean, watch this.

“You’re Nobody ‘Til Somebody Loves You” – Dean Martin. Essential. It’s the kind of thing that seems so easy. Everything seemed easy to Dean Martin. And … it WAS easy. FOR HIM. But this kind of ease is as rare as the rarest gem. It’s my opinion that you either have it or you don’t. You can’t LEARN it. You can watch him and study him and perhaps improve your relaxation techniques, your sense of self-confidence, etc. Trying to learn from the master. But only Dino can be Dino.

“Sweet Little Sixteen” – Chuck Berry. The father of it all. My friend Charlie Taylor compares him to Mark Twain, which I love. An American storyteller.

“Roam” – The B-52’s. My boyfriend and I listened to this album (on cassette tape) during our months-long cross-country trip. We also broke up DURING that trip, so it took me a long time to be able to listen to this album again.

“I’ll Never Tell” – the great Brendan Benson, a favorite of mine for a couple of years now. I have everything he’s done. He’s always on my radar.

“Lovefool” – Haley Reinhart. I tripped over her stuff one day. I had no idea who she was. I think she was a contestant on American Idol or The Voice. Post all of that, she’s been performing big-band songs, jazz classics, or contemporary songs re-made into a jazz-standard etc., in small simple videos. I tripped over them one day on a Youtube jaunt and I fell in love with her.

“New World Rising-Ocean Breakup Reprise” – ELO. Because of course.

“Sunshine Superman” – Donovan. GROOVY. My parents had a couple of his albums so I was introduced to him early. There was something I sensed, even as a kid … a certain kind of hip-ness, maybe even a sexual knowingness (even though I would have no words to express that) … that made me keep him at a distance. The Beatles were more accessible to me (although I will never forget the first time I heard “Eleanor Rigby.” I don’t know how old I was. 9? And the sadness/loneliness of the song impressed me on such a deep level that it haunted me for days. I WORRIED about it. Just another chip away at my innocence. Thanks John/Paul/George/Ringo!

“It’s All Too Much” – The Beatles. Speaking of John/Paul/George/Ringo. From Yellow Submarine. Meet the Beatles/Revolver/Rubber Soul/Sgt. Pepper was my gateway. Other albums came later. I was so young when I got into them. Of course they had long broken up by that point, but their albums were everywhere.

“Harbor Lights” – Elvis Presley. One of the first songs he ever recorded. Before the Mother Lode of “That’s All Right” when everything changed, for him and for us. It’s amazing how un-formed he is – as well as how quickly it took to form himself. Maybe the best way to describe it is: Almost overnight he got rid of the container holding him back. Here, he’s still finding his way. You can hear the echoes of his influences.

“Merry Go Round” – Kacey Musgraves. Another recent discovery. There are some young women coming up in country music whom I really love. She’s one of them. Good lyrics:
“Mama’s hooked on Mary Kay
Brother’s hooked on Mary Jane
Daddy’s hooked on Mary two doors down”

“You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby” – Michael Buble. Big-band arrangement. Creepy as hell lyrics!!

“Muleskinner Blues” – Chet Atkins & Jerry Reed. Two daunting geniuses.

“Teach Your Woman Well” – one of my favorite songs written/performed by my sister Siobhan’s songs.

“Ten Wheels for Jesus” – Elvis Hitler. Thank you (??) Greil Marcus for mentioning these guys in Dead Elvis. It’s all rather insane. From the album titled Disgraceland.

“Do I Love You?” – The Ronettes. Phil Spector is a psycho but – like Sam Phillips/Sun or Muscle Shoals – you can pick his “sound” out of a lineup. So influential.

“You Know What They Do To Guys Like In Prison” – My Chemical Romance. They are so MELO-DRA-MA-TIC. I want to tell them to chill, have a burger, get laid. I am obnoxious.

“I Just Don’t Know” – MC5. So ferocious. And it doesn’t really have a verse/chorus/verse structure so you get lost in it.

“Infinite” – early Eminem. One of the things that hooked me in with him so early is the intricacies of his internal rhymes. He rarely just rhymes the ending syllables. Everything has a counterpart somewhere else, vowel sounds, vowel-consonant combinations. It’s breathtaking and complex. The lyrics are his typical “GET OUT OF MY WAY NOBODY IS AS GOOD AS ME.”

“The Sky Is Crying” – Stevie Ray Vaughan. Classic. Searing. I always associate Stevie Ray Vaughan with this guy because he was at Vaughan’s final concert and told me the story in intimate detail. He was there with his anorexic girlfriend at the time, who was practically fainting from hunger, so he basically dragged her out to the food area to force-feed something down her throat, thereby missing some of Vaughan’s most classic hits. He could HEAR the incredible sounds coming from down on the stage, but he was busy arguing with his girlfriend about her refusal to eat. “Of COURSE you’re fainting. YOU ARE STARVING.” I don’t know why these meaningless facts are burned into my brain. So ridiculous! But he was the most important man in my checkered passionate lunatic history, so I remember everything. So does he, incidentally. Hence: Every single time a SRV song comes on, I think of my guy arguing with his anorexic girlfriend while SRV – who only had 24 more hours to live – shredded it up on the stage.

“Time Will Tell the Story” – Waylon Jennings. He’s the best. My blood pressure instantly regulates itself when I hear his voice.

“Grocery Store” – Angaleena Presley. She’s awesome.

“Master Crowley’s/The Jug of Punch” – Joe Burke. He’s a world-famous accordion player. Irish traditional music. I was wondering when my people would show up. So, welcome, Joe Burke.

“Every Ghetto Every City” – Lauryn Hill. My God, that album took over the world. Great great album.

“Me and My Drinking” – Mike Viola. This song does not paint a pretty picture. I love him so much, I hope he’s okay!

“Going Down” – Leslie West. Loooove him. Rough, raw, macho, HARD. Does the trick sometimes.

“Uber Everywhere” – Madeintyo. While American Honey tried my patience at times, the soundtrack is world-class. I barely had heard of most of these people – my bad entirely – and it’s thrilling to now know about them. Like this.

“Promised Land” – great raucous “late” Elvis, covering Chuck Berry. Don’t let anyone tell you Elvis didn’t make any good music after he got out of the Army. It’s simply not true. This is 1975.

“Down By The Riverside” – Charlie Rich. Oh, Charlie. Talk to me. I SWOON for you.

“Right Hand Man” – Hamilton cast. When Washington taps Hamilton as his “right hand man.” A thrilling portrayal of Hamilton’s actions during the earliest days of the Revolutionary War (in New York, anyway). His daring feat of stealing the cannons down at the Battery, under fire. A death-wish. But blazing courage too. Ambition. God, this show was so good. I feel so lucky I saw it before it became such a phenom that people had to wait years to get to see it. This is an enormous and complicated number, involving many of the main cast numbers. I am all over goosebumps listening to it.

“The Lady Is a Tramp” – Frank Sinatra. Nobody swings like Frank.

“I Want To Be Free” – Elvis Presley. From Jailhouse Rock, Vince’s performance from prison. Elvis is so young, so fearless.

“Jive After Five” – Carl Perkins. Perkins’ lyrics are filled with details, objects, specifics that ground the song in time/place. Clothes, locations, cars … It’s an aggressive assertion of identity: “This is me. This is how I dress. This is what I do. This is the car I drive.” Moving out into unknown territory of identity requires such assertion.

“Abandoned Love” – The Everly Brothers covering Bob Dylan. Perfect.

“Flower On My Grave” – The Revenants. I believe they came onto my radar because of Justified. The music on that show! Treasure trove!

“Sweet Nothings” – Brenda Lee. The woman set records not broken until Madonna came along. RESPECT.

“Cadillac” – Miguel. Very good for any workout mix you are compiling. It’s practically a disco beat. It’s also nice to know that having sex in the back seat of cars will never go out of style.

“Walking In Space” – the cast of the Broadway revival of Hair. I didn’t see it. I like some of the songs although it’s all super dated. I do remember that during the run there was some huge protest in Washington – I think about gay marriage – and the producer of the production canceled the show for one day so the whole cast could attend the protest. It was a huge publicity thing, a piece in The Times. “Look at us, carrying on the legacy of Hair.” I know I’m a bitch but I rolled my eyes. Nothing says “revolution” and “the spirit of the 60s” like COMPULSORY attendance at a protest, publicized by The New York Times in a big puff piece. So self-congratulatory. Yuk. Like I said: I know I’m a bitch. I’m at peace with it.

“Whatever’s Right” – from The Monkees’ new album. I can’t believe I lived to see the day where I would say “the Monkees’ new album.” It’s such an awesome album though!

“Brown Sugar” – The Rolling Stones. The more queasy-making every time you listen to it.

“Gather Round Children” – Jerry Lee Lewis. From his gospel album. He’d always wanted to do one. His domination of country charts – post his fall from grace – is fascinating to me, and not all that surprising. He brings to country a burlesque-honky-tonk sound – with that crazy piano up and down the scales – that is very much his own. And here, it’s a gospel revival sound, not a hymn in a church … punctuated with a swoony fiddle, and his flourishes on the piano. It’s so HIM.

“Love Field” – Elvis Costello. Those opening strains make it for me. The chord changes.

“Save Me” – Bleu. One of my all-time favorite people right now – well, for years, actually. Like, I signed up for his newsletter, which I never do. But I want to know what he’s doing, when he’s releasing stuff, if he’s playing near me. What a voice. What a songwriter. I saw him in November 2012. Post-Hurricane-Sandy, when New York was still recovering. I was in full-blown suicidal ideation when I went out and saw him, and when I wrote that post. I look at the post and am amazed – as I often am – to see how much I was able to write, even with the despair I was in. Language was still accessible to me. In 2009, language left me in June/July – totally obvious when I look at those months on my site. Shivers. I was still posting but I had no more words. I’m not saying writing the essay about seeing Bleu saved my life or anything like that but it definitely gave me a small PROJECT to focus my mind on. His songs mean a lot to me.

“House of the Rising Sun” – Jerry Reed. Haunting. He was such a maestro.

“Batdance” – Prince. I was wondering where he was. And this is the song that comes up. Brill.

“I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man” – Muddy Waters. You hear it, and you’ve got to MOVE.

“Immigrants (We Get the Job Done)” – K’naan, Snow Tha Product, Riz MC & Residente (from The Hamilton Mixtape). I love this whole project. In re: the most famous line from Hamilton about immigrants getting the job done: It’s a huge crowd-pleasing moment in the production. When I saw it everyone erupted into cheers. It really is a good moment! And I agree entirely with the sentiment expressed. However: I hate (not really) to be pedantic but: the line is said by Lafayette and Hamilton. When the two of them said the line, and high-fived each other, I – from my spot in the balcony – thought:

1. Wait. Lafayette may have a French accent but he was not an immigrant. He was a French citizen who came over to assist in fighting the Revolutionary War. I believe he was granted honorary citizenship … but that’s not the same thing as being an immigrant.
2. Hamilton wasn’t technically an “immigrant”, either. He grew up in a British colony and he moved to another British colony. Yes, he was an “import” and an “outsider” but you wouldn’t really call what he was an “immigrant.”

FACTS MATTER NOW MORE THAN EVER. #sorrynotsorry