Weekend Shuffle

“I’d Give Up All My Sins and Serve the Lord” – Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers. So smooth, so powerful.

“Good Golly Miss Molly” – Jerry Lee Lewis. Love the saxophone. Sexy. And of course the piano. He’s nuts.

“The Lion Sleeps Tonight” – The Kingston Trio. WTF. I have this?

“Murder” – Justin Timberlake (featuring Jay Z). This is from his latest. It’s great.

“You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me” – Elvis, live in Vegas. The rhythm of this one is quite complex – it took Elvis and the band a while to get in sync on it in rehearsals. He loved this song. He sings the hell out of it.

“If I Didn’t Care” – the great Ink Spots.

“Any Time At All” – The Beatles. It’s ferocious, it still leaps out of the speakers.

“The Fool on the Hill” – The Beatles. Speaking of The Beatles, both of these tracks are “mono”. My cousin Liam just sent me hundreds of Beatles tracks in mono, something I did not own before. The difference in quality is startling. Almost a whole new song in some cases. Thanks, cousin Liam!

“Frankie & Johnny” – Brook Benton. Soooo hip.

“Yesterday” – The Beatles. A perfect song. I grew up with the Beatles (even though they had already broken up). My parents had all their albums. They were surrounding me in the culture in a way that made them feel current. And I remember vividly my reaction to this song, She’s Leaving Home and Eleanor Rigby. They felt … too grown-up for me to be listening to. I felt the sadness. It was in the lyrics, it was in the music. It was a grown-up brand of sadness that seemed to reach out its tentacles towards me. Of course there’s all kinds of “grown-up” things in Beatles songs, but Yesterday, Eleanor Rigby and She’s Leaving Home frightened me. I didn’t want to understand the sadness expressed in those songs.

“I Feel So Bad” – Elvis Presley. In the horribly titled buffet-style album Something for Everybody. He sounds awesome though. I like this one.

“…And Justice for All” – Metallica. Old-school. I love the opening. You know something huge is coming. And it does. It’s almost 10 minutes long.

“Empty Boxes” – The Everly Brothers. This sounds like Simon & Garfunkel, only way way better. These guys were so influential, so excellent.

“Damn it, Janet” – the Glee cast version of the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” song. It just doesn’t … cut it. The original is so nuts.

“Sit On My Face” – Monty Python. Hahahahaha.

“The Call of the Ktulu” – Metallica, from their brilliant concert with the San Francisco symphony. The whole thing is on Youtube.

“Charlie’s Soliloquy” – Stark Sands, from Kinky Boots, a show I haven’t seen but which I love because … Cyndi Lauper. Great cast, great songs. I love this kid’s voice.

“Powerman” – The Kinks. Have you read the aforementioned cousin Liam’s two essays about The Kinks on my site?

“Just Because” – Lloyd Price. He’s so awesome. What a voice.

“Be Careful What You Ask For” – Everclear. This is from their latest, I think? I went through such a heavy phase of listening to Everclear, when everything was falling apart in 2009. I associate them with that time. They helped. They really did.

“Dive” – Nirvana. I was just thinking about him the other day. Wondering, what-ifs, pissed off, etc., my normal thoughts when he comes up. You can hear all of their influences in their music, and then you hear them blow right on past those influences. It’s kind of amazing. Like this song.

“Christmastime Is Here” – from Shawn Colvin’s suicidal holiday album.

“Until It Sleeps” – Metallica. Again from their concert with the San Francisco orchestra. What a sound. And you know, when I hear Hetfield’s voice, sometimes I think of that moment in Some Kind of Monster when he describes his vocal warmup. He had lost his voice during the tour for the black album and it freaked him out so much that he went to a vocal coach who gave him warmups. Hetfield is such a tough motherfucker (even with that sensitive little-boy still inside), but he knew he needed help. And his voice really is indestructible. He screams, he makes his voice guttural, all of these things could RUIN his voice, but since he does those warmups, his voice can survive. Smart man.

“The Acid Queen” – The Who, from Tommy. Classic.

“I Heard Mother Pray One Day” – the great Wynona Carr. She shows up on occasion in Peter Guralnick’s Sam Cooke biography and I was so excited to get more backstory on her. Her trajectory was similar to Cooke’s, except that she has sunk into almost total obscurity. It’s a sad story. She was a serious gospel singer, who then went “pop” (one great album). But it somehow never worked out for her, and I’m not sure why. She’s awesome. Here is one of her rough gospel numbers. Just her and gentle drums and a piano. Her voice is incredible. Rough and thick. I was so thrilled that the film 42 ended with a Wynona Carr song! Yay!

“Everybody Knows (Except You” – The Divine Comedy. I have Siobhan to thank for introducing me to this guy. What a voice.

“Twilight” – Squirrel Nut Zippers. I was really into them for a hot second.

“Somewhere Only We Know” – the Glee cast. Beautiful arrangement. Emotional.

“Happyland” – Amanda Jenssen. Now let me trace my steps. How did this get here? Who is this person? The song is kind of fabulous.

“She Ain’t Hooked On Me No More” – Merle Haggard & Toby Keith. This is real melancholy country. I love it when men do duets. I wish they did it more.

“Girl Next Door Went a’Walking” – Elvis, from his awesome Elvis is Back! album, released when he got out of the album. Not a bad or boring track. Amazing.

“I Still Miss Someone” – Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison. The audience is just such a visceral presence in the album, it really makes it. Their cheers sound like they could easily tip out of control into … a riot? Something bad? I don’t know. They love him so much, and he validates them so much, and it’s POWERFUL, a powerful sound and feel.

“Thank You For the Venom” – My Chemical Romance. You’re welcome! Enjoy!

“I Saw the Light” – Hank Williams. So excellent. Such a superstar.

“God’s Gonna Cut You Down” – Johnny Cash. So powerful it’s scary, actually. That’s what being authentic can do. (This has been a pretty macho Shuffle so far, hasn’t it.)

“So Much Love” – Jon Paris. I bought this album after seeing James Burton. Jon Paris was the lead singer that night, and he was awesome!

“The Castle of Dromore” – The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem. I was wondering when the Irish would show up! This is lovely and soothing and soft.

“Sixteen Tons” – Frankie Laine. Finger-snappin’!

“Hold Back the Night” – Sinéad O’Connor. Although she definitely should stop writing open letters to Miley Cyrus, I still love that crazy Irishwoman! I love the Faith and Courage album.

“The Hard-Knock Life” – all the orphans in Rob Marshall’s Annie. My Annie roots go back to the Dark Ages. It was my first Broadway show. Sarah Jessica Parker played Annie. She was wonderful.

“Pathetic” – from the Broadway musical Matilda. I am more in love with it the more I listen to it.

“We Need a Little Christmas” – the adorable Glee cast. Their Christmas album. Do those kids ever sleep? I don’t know how they do what they do. Hardest working kids in show business right now.

“Rock Star” – Everclear. Good stuff. Making fun of his own business, his own ego.

“Stop When It Hurts” – Mike Viola and the Candy Butchers. If you are not familiar with Mike Viola, then do yourself a favor!! One of the best songwriters working today.

“The Outlaw Torn” – Metallica. From the infamous Load. The album stands out like a sore thumb in their work. A beautiful rocking sore thumb. Such a divisive album. I love it, though.

“Versions of Violence” – Alanis Morissette. This has a great sound. Creepy, gloomy, hard.

“Every Breath” – Tracy Bonham. Finally some women are showing up in this Shuffle! She’s so good. This is from The Burdens of Being Upright, a fantastic album.

“So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright” – Simon & Garfunkel. Lovely. But they can be a bit of a Shuffle Buzzkill.

“Easy, Easy Baby” – the sexy Varetta Dillard. Made to dance to. Real close.

“Words” – Elvis Presley, from That’s the Way It Is. This is live, early on in his Vegas days. One of those big sweeping horn-filled ballads that some people don’t like. I love it. His voice, my God. It’s just perfect, easy, simple, open.

“(Such an) Easy Question” – Elvis. This came out in the early 60s, and then was used in Tickle Me. I love the sound here. Listen to how he sings “such an easy question”. There’s a hint of brattiness in his tone. Sexy as hell. I may love Bratty Elvis the best, although I change my mind all the time.

“Trial Before Pilate” – from the movie Jesus Christ Superstar. “We turn to Rome to sentence Nazareth. We have no law to put a man to death. We need him crucified! It’s all you have to do!”

“Isaac” – Madonna. I’m not sure what is happening here and if I’m being recruited into the Kabbalah while listening to it, but it’s beautiful and haunting.

“Take a Bow” – the Glee cast. Very very sweet.

“Didn’t It Rain” – the irreplaceable Mahalia Jackson

“My Lagan Love” – Sinéad O’Connor. From her Irish traditional music album. I adore it. Enough with the reggae, Sinéad. I appreciate the experimentation. Bored me to tears!

“Lawdy Miss Clawdy” – Elvis, live onstage in Memphis (I think it’s 1974). While nothing can compare to his earliest Sun version which still stops me dead in my tracks when I hear it, I do love the later version he came up with for his stage shows. It’s a burlesque. With horns, piano. A strip show.

“Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da” – The Beatles. I’ve said it before, but I love it when they really go 100% English. Marketplace, etc.

“Get Up” – Bleu. This song helped me get through some rough moments, and it also was one of those inspiring tracks that kept me going with my Script.

“You Won’t See Me” – The Beatles. The harmony! Still pleasing on almost a cellular level. Rubber Soul, what an album.

“Wild Honey Pie” – The Beatles. This song still needs to be rescued from Charles Manson and his merry band of sociopaths. Leslie van Houten was just denied parole for the 20th time. Good.

And on that cheerful note, the Shuffle comes to a close.