Tick-Tock Shuffle

The clock winding down on the two new babies arriving in my family this month. Very exciting. I am juggling three jobs right now, and doing pretty well with it. My sleep is good, my moods are good, and I’m gearing up for some big activity in 2014. Got my plan going, working it out. Here are the songs that have accompanied me over the last 4 or 5 days, as we wait for news of new babies, as I go to screenings, as I set up meetings, as I wind down. The days are getting longer. That feels good, too.

“Better Be Good To Me” – Tina Turner. I saw Tina Turner in concert, during the Private Dancer tour. Wang Chung opened for her. And if that isn’t a time-travel detail, then nothing is. She was incredible live, of course. She’s so petite, yet her persona is so HUGE. You’d think she was over six feet tall. This song currently makes me think of this. Because how could it not.

“Spank Thru” – Nirvana, from their messy live album “From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah”. When Cobain screams, it makes every hair on my damn body stand straight up. Still true after all these years listening to them.

“Do What U Want” – Lady Gaga and R. Kelly, from her latest album, ARTPOP, which I haven’t really had a chance to absorb in full. It seems a bit of a mess, uneven, but with some good beats. I haven’t been paying attention, really, to the critical reception of the album. There are some songs I really love, the one about Donatella Versace in particular. This one isn’t really an ear-grabber for me.

“I’m Wrong” – Sharon Van Etten. My cousin Mike sent me one of her CDs. Beautiful songs, beautiful dreamy voice. Pretty intense, though. I have to be in the mood for her stuff. What is so great about this track is how small it starts, and then how big it gets.

“Tell Me Why” – The Beatles. “But you left me sittin’ on my own!” I love the harmonies there, the intensifying of energy. The whole thing has this insouciant innocence to it, a buoyancy, even though what they’re singing about is “why the hell are you such a Lying Liar who Lies?”

“The Wonder of You” – Elvis Presley, in rehearsal for the Vegas show, from the awesome album That’s the Way It Is. This is a rough rehearsal, Elvis doesn’t even know the words yet. I love listening to him work, in these out-takes and botched takes. It shows his professionalism and his workmanship.

“The Girls In My Life, Pt. 1” – Randy Newman. I am so glad he was “around” when I was first becoming aware of pop culture and music and entertainers. You know, when I was a child. I took him for granted. Which means I took weirdness for granted. Would that even happen now? Are we more homogenized as a culture? Seems so. But I grew up in a time when weirdos came through the cracks. Or, weirdos always come through the cracks, but they rarely reach mainstream approval in a way that it would filter down to a child’s perception. I hear his music and I see my whole life. I love that.

“Lodi” – Creedence Clearwater Revival. I love them. Music of loneliness, restlessness and the back roads of America. I can dig it.

“Don’t Pass Me By” – The Beatles. Creepy. It’s Charles Manson’s fault. But what a sound, that violin, the chugging of the background instruments.

“Mama” – Elvis Presley, from Girls! Girls! Girls! An absolutely ridiculous minor-chord folk-song type song that sounds vaguely Eastern European in nature. WTF.

“My Prayer” – the exquisite Ink Spots.

“Taking Over Me” – Evanescence. What a voice she has. It goes through me. It’s so honest, so real.

“Yeah Yeah Yeahs” – Sacrilege. I think this is Hella Sexy.

“Bitter End” – Paul Kimble & Andy Mackay. From the fun Velvet Goldmine soundtrack.

“Doth I Protest Too Much” – Alanis Morissette. She has that “Let me rattle off a list at you” structure that is so typical of her stuff, as well as the weird phraseology (“I am enrag-ed”, etc.) But I love her. I don’t care.

“Paper In Fire” – John Cougar Mellencamp. Holy crap, I totally forgot about this song and that I own it.

“Blasphemy” – Robbie Williams. How I love him. He’s got it all. My favorite Robbie anecdote: asked by an interview the question: “What’s the most interesting thing a fan has given you, Robbie?” Robbie answered, “Herpes.” He so easily could have flamed out. He hasn’t. He’s still here. I hope he lasts forever. “Was it a blast for you? Because it’s blasphemy.”

“He Touched Me” – Elvis Presley. Jesus-loving Elvis soothes my soul. Elvis is magnificent here. Just magnificent.

“Jigsaw Puzzle of Life” – the glorious Kate & Anna McGarrigle. If you haven’t seen Sing Me the Songs That Say I Love You, the concert film in tribute of the recently-passed Kate McGarrigle, I can’t recommend it highly enough. Directed by my kindred-spirit-in-all-things-Elvis, Lian Lianson – Please see it.

“Take It As It Comes” – James Lee Stanley & Cliff Eberhardt. Gorgeous. I wish more men sang duets with one another. This is beautiful.

“Search and Destroy” – Skunk Anansie, from the awesome Sucker Punch soundtrack. Speaking of Sucker Punch, one of these days I’ll write up my thoughts on that movie, which I thought was brilliant, dark, bold, emotional, and fiercely feminist. There’s been chatter on the movie in that regard, but I need to weigh in on it. It was in my Top 10 for that year. Which, needless to say, gives me Outlaw status. Kinda like my adoration of Pain & Gain from this past year. Regardless, Sucker Punch is great.

“Cinco De Mayo” – Liz Phair. From Whip-Smart, which, clearly, she is. I feel strangely connected to her for various reasons. She’s so tough, but then she has these shockingly romantic moments, like in this song: “I’ve never been to Rome … until you smiled.” And, kindred spirit again, I think her song “Supernova” is her most romantic, including the line, “And you fuck like a volcano and you’re everything to me.” Now that’s love.

“Mine” – the Glee cover of Taylor Swift’s sweet ballad with some great lyrics. Sung beautifully by Naya Rivera.

“New Orleans” – Elvis Presley, from King Creole, one of his bluesiest most over-the-top performances. I wrote a whole post about it. Let’s revel in him again.

“Leaving Home Ain’t Easy” – Queen. I was taking a brisk walk when this song came on, and it transported me into another mindset, another dreamspace. Beautiful.

“Cold Hands, Warm Heart” – Brendan Benson. Are you all aware of him? I think he’s one of the best things going right now.

“Grasping at Straws” – the awesome Bleu, from his latest album To Hell With You which I love. He’s so romantic. Almost girlie in his yearning for love, not to mention his masterful use of falsetto on occasion, but mixed with a macho performance-style, all aggression and striving … to speak in totally stereotypically gender-binary terms. But that’s at work with him: he mixes it up. I love him. And what a voice.

“Wind Up” – Foo Fighters, from The Colour and the Shape which was on constant rotation for me for well over a year. Similar to The Eminem Show and, once upon a time, Tori Amos’ Little Earthquakes. And others. Some of those constant-rotation albums I actually listened to too much and can’t really listen to them anymore (Tori’s being a case in point). So far still going strong with Foo Fighters. It was such a thrilling event, that album, and the one before it … especially to Nirvana fans. And how great that it wasn’t a one-time deal. Foo Fighters are one of my favorite bands, and they’re still with us.

“True Love Ways” – a sweet Buddy Holly ballad. I like his rougher sexy stuff, but he’s marvelous here too.

“Into Each Other” – Pat McCurdy. An old friend. I performed with him at the Milwaukee Summer Fest for 3,000 people. I’m on one of his albums, in a duet he wrote for me and him to do. It’s a bit intense to listen to that, an entire world and time re-erecting itself around my eyes, remembering recording that in a small recording studio in Milwaukee with him. It’s a live take, the two of us singing to each other. The first take. I admit I am proud of that because I was pretty out of my mind that day. I got sick in the bathroom of the studio before recording. I emerged feeling much better, and ready to get to work. But still. NUTS.

“Fool’s Paradise” – Buddy Holly. Love the beat here, the chugging boogie-woogie piano going on underneath it all.

“I Will Follow” – Katie Herzig, another one of those soulful female singers my cousin Mike is always introducing me to. I love her!

“I Want All My Money Back” – Lonnie Brooks. Great blues singer, great blues artist. This song MOVES. You MUST move when you listen to it. It’s live, you can hear the crowd screaming in response. Now THAT’S the blues. Reminds me of that great quote about the blues from Langston Hughes:

The Blues always impressed me as being very sad, sadder even than the Spirituals, because their sadness is not softened with tears, but hardened with laughter … of a sadness where there is no god to appeal to.

“Drama Queen” – Green Day, from ¡Tré!. Sweet. I love it when they get sweet.

“I’m With You” – Avril Lavigne. Boy, she really disappeared, huh. I have a really personal memory attached to this song, too painful to really get into, but a redemptive moment too. So I keep it around. As a reminder.

“Hell Is For Children” – the great Pat Benatar. I love that it wasn’t until she tapped into her anger that her career took off. Such a beautiful voice, made for ballads, but that’s not the way it went.

“All Is Not Lost” – Ok Go. I love these guys so much.

“Come On, Little Mama” – Homer “Ray” Harris, one of those nutso Sun Records rockabilly recording artists. Boy, you could pick that Sun sound out of a lineup.

“The One On the Right Is On the Left” – Johnny Cash. Speaking of Sun records … This song is funny. “And the guy in the rear … was a Methodist.”

“Bear Cat” – Rufus Thomas. Back to Sun Records! This song is crazy, Rufus Thomas is crazy, and so amazing. The sound JUMPS out at you in a way it flat out doesn’t with other recording studios’ output. That sound says “Sun”. If I could put my finger on it, it goes beyond the slap-back echo which richer studios spent thousands of dollars trying to replicate. What is going on is that Sam Phillips created a safe space where artists who were already doing their thing in clubs and juke joints could come in and freely BE THEMSELVES. You can’t manufacture that kind of authenticity.

“Mama Told Me Not to Come” – Three Dog Night. I wonder how many times this song has been used in a film. I am sure there is a website out there with the answer.

“Sacrifice” – from the awesome Clint Mansell composed score to Moon, a movie I LOVED. I love Clint Mansell’s stuff. Eerie.

“I’ll Get Over You” – Pat McCurdy. You keep telling yourself that.

“Please Mr. Jailer” – Wynona Carr. She’s got that great rough-ness to her voice that comes from a life of hard knocks, and a belief in herself. Her journey is a sad one. We don’t have much from her. Like Sam Cooke, she started out as a gospel singer (known as “Sister Wynona Carr”), and her gospel stuff is awesome. And like Sam Cooke, she switched to secular music, and this album, Jump Jack Jump! is the only secular album of hers in existence. She never “hit”. She sank into obscurity. But, beautifully, her song “Life Is a Baseball Game” was chosen to roll over the closing credits in 42. I hope that many more people will be introduced to this amazing artist!

“New Way Home” – Foo Fighters. Also from Colour and the Shape. See above comment. It’s one of those albums where I can still list the track order, because we still bought “albums” in those days, not just a collection of tracks. It’s one of the reasons why, when I buy a new album today, I always listen to it first in the order the artist intended. It’s still an ALBUM. Track placement matters. “New Way Home” was the final track on Colour and the Shape and what a way to go out.

“I Love New York” – Madonna. Great song. I love that whole album.

“Magic Man” – Heart. I love how so many of their songs are like, “Your name is irrelevant. Just do your thing and get me off, baby. You’re the best.” Sexy. And dysfunctional.

“Connection” – Elastica. I was in a show with an all-female cast and we would blast this song in the rehearsal room prior to every show, and dance. It got us in sync, and had the perfect energy for what we were attempting as an ensemble. I was dressed in a pinstripe suit and a fedora. Loved my costume and my part. Super fun show, won some script awards. Here are a couple of shots. So I always think of that show and all of those fabulous actresses when I hear this song.

“King of the Whole Wide World” – Elvis Presley, from the unfairly-maligned movie Kid Galahad. He’s wonderful in it. He should have played more boxers. He worked hard on that role. And there’s some good songs, this one being an example. Yeah, it’s “movie-Elvis” and not “sexy Sun Records Elvis” or “Superstar RCA Elvis”, but it’s also a valid Elvis, and he “shows up” here as fully as he did in every aspect of his life.

“Johnson’s Motorcar” – The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem, from their Carnegie Hall album, an album I had memorized by the time I was, what, 5? Probably early. Basically the album has always been there in my life.

“Purple People” – Tori Amos. WTF, Tori? What are you talking about?

“The Lady Is a Tramp” – Frank Sinatra. Swing it, blue-eyes.

“You Like Me Too Much” – The Beatles. That piano opening. It’s so innovative, so strange, a great way to lead in to the song. Unexpected.

“Say Yeah” – Pat McCurdy. I could write a 10-page essay on what this song means and where it came from. But I won’t.

“Tuesday’s Gone” – Metallica covering Lynyrd Skynyrd, so basically, put a fork in me, I’m done.

“I Shall Not Be Moved” – J.B. Burnett. Rough, raw, honest.

“Time Stands Still” – Pat McCurdy. Pat, it’s time for you to get off this Shuffle. NOW.

“Even Though” – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. My brother gave me a double album of his for Christmas and I have been having so much fun with it. He’s out of his MIND. So BIG, so dramatic, you can’t believe he gets away with it. But he believes every word, every choice. So much fun.

“I’m On My Way” – The Vocal Majority. This awesome men’s chorus out of Texas. I’m a tiny bit obsessed with them. Youtube them, watch their performance-style. It’s incredible. And what a sound. I love men’s voices blending together. Check it out.

“Eat What You Want” – my beautiful talented and about-to-become-a-mother-any-day-now sister Siobhan O’Malley. This is from her latest album. This song makes me want to cry.

“Into the Silence” – Robbie Williams. One of the best things about Robbie? He’s prolific. And he rarely disappoints. He basically has two albums out right now – his latest swing album and then “Take the Crown” – at least they feel like they came out simultaneously. I can’t keep up. And that’s such a great feeling to have with an artist one loves.

“Lonely Weekends” – Brian Setzer, who did a tribute album to the rockabilly giants of Sun Records, including this song, recorded of course by the great Charlie Rich. The whole album is awesome.

“Street Hassle” – Lou Reed, live. A 7-minute track that never loses its taut structure, its forward drive, its sense of an inevitable build. Exciting.

“Somewhere It’s Spring” – Pat McCurdy. You know, his songs come up a lot, because I have all of his albums and all that. But this Shuffle songs seems designed to kill me! Not a silly one yet.

“The Death of Queen Jane” – Oscar Isaac, from Inside Llewyn Davis. Great film, great soundtrack.

“Superblind” – Robbie Williams. He’s so dramatic. And he means it. You have to mean it.

“‘Cuz I Can” – Pink. Rocking, obnoxious, one of her many “I’m a big rude rock star, get out of my way” songs that I love. Great for working out.

“Keeper Of My Heart” – Faye Adams. Talk about “meaning” everything you do. She’s so awesome.

“Mother” – Tori Amos, from Little Earthquakes. See above comment somewhere about this album. I listened to it too much. It, and Annie Lennox’s Diva, were the soundtracks to my life when I first moved to Chicago, and met M., and began my years-long adventures with him. Time and place. I saw Tori Amos at the Park West before Little Earthquakes came out, right before it all “hit” for her.

“Candles” – a beautiful version of the Hey Monday song by the Glee cast. I like the Glee songs best when they are re-imagined in glee-club style, like this one.

“Louisiana 1927” – Randy Newman. So beautiful, why does his stuff make me so sad. Like, unbearably sad. I have to be feeling real strong to listen to Randy Newman. It’s the chord changes.

“Hocus Pocus” – Focus. This song should really only be played at 11. Any lower decibel just won’t do.

“I’ve Been Deceived” – Charlie Feathers, another one of those Sun Records compilations I have. A real country number, a wailing voice, a swoopy guitar. You can hear the world shifting beneath such songs, genres blending, the country blending.

“The Fairest of the Seasons” – Nico. Of course I can’t think about Nico without thinking of Lester Bangs’ essay about her.

“Heaven on Earth” – Britney Spears, from the appropriately-named album Blackout, during her worst period on earth thus far. I will always be a Brit-Brit supporter, not just because I have a fellow-human-in-pain empathy for her (and did then as well), but her songs are great, and Blackout, despite the horrible conditions under which she recorded these songs, is a lot of fun, with a disturbing undercurrent, making for interesting listening. This is my favorite track.

“The Black Widow” – Link Wray. So so hot.

“Blackened” – Metallica. From …And Justice for All (love those ellipses). Their first album with Jason after the death of Cliff. And Jason was (famously) unhappy with the sound of the album, the bass being indistinguishable from the other guitars. It’s almost an experimental album, a show-off album. The whole album is pretty extreme, these songs are FAST (except when they’re not, and the song shrieks on the brake), with all of these big ol’ mood changes mid-song. You can’t keep up. You are pulled along for the ride.

“The Night Before” – The Beatles. I can’t pick my favorite Beatles song. But this one would definitely be on whatever list I came up with.

“Hidden Charms” – Link Wray. Any Shuffle that features two songs by Link Wray has my vote as Freakin’ Great. Please read my friend Kim Morgan’s awesome piece on Link Wray.

“Never Been to Spain” – Elvis Presley, one of his more ferocious 1970s songs. Wow. This particular recording is from the Prince from Another Planet box set, of his 4 record-breaking shows at Madison Square Garden in 1972. He is so IN the song that the song obliterates all peripheral existence. That is what a great and powerful performer can do.

“Oh! The Breeches Full of Stitches” – The Chieftains. Makes me want to step-dance right on outta here.

“Kim” – Marshall Mathers. A masterpiece. Unsurpassable in imagination and execution. I said what I needed to say here.

“Lady Luck” – Lloyd Price. He’s so fantastic. A real showman. And the songs rock, making you want to MOVE, preferably pressed up close in a hot-and-heavy manner to some dude/broad you’re into.

“I’m Not Angry” – The Everly Brothers. That sound. It’s so THEM, and it is also an amalgamation of all of the influences pouring into their heads during their formative years. Country, folk, gospel, blues … the harmonies are so influential, perfect. Funny lyrics, too, that completely contradict the title. “I hope your records break … but I’m not angry. I’m just sad.”

“The Back Seat Of My Car” – Paul McCartney from his awesome first solo album post-Beatles, Ram. The song starts slow, and then changes, with a BANG.

“Everywhere I Go, Everything I Do” – Pat McCurdy. This is getting ridiculous. Weird memory attached to this song too. From a show he did at Hoghead McDunna’s. Crazy days.

“Hurry Hurry” – from the wonderful band Air Traffic Controller. I love them! Just wrote a post about one of their songs. I saw them open for Bleu. They’re great.

“Do I Love You?” – The Ronettes. One of the things I love about them, besides their songs and who they are, in general, is the SOUND of them. There’s such a sense of space around them, and I’m not sure how that was accomplished, in terms of recording them. It’s a really big sound, with a space between them and the background – but not too much space. They fill that space. There’s an echo, too. I love it. Anyone who knows anything about the Ronettes care to weigh on on that SOUND?

“Angels From the Realms of Glory” – from Annie Lennox’s awesome Christmas album. This was my father’s favorite Christmas carol.

“If I Were Brave” – Shawn Colvin. OUCH.

“Crackin’ Up” – Bo Diddley. Classic.

“Working on the Building” – Elvis Presley, in classic Jesus mode. One of my favorite gospel tracks of his. And when you can hear him start clapping? Kills me.

“Even Flow” – Pearl Jam. Boy, is this a time-machine or what. My coming-of-age years.

“The Past” – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. Those ladies wailing behind him, him wailing … Guy is a lunatic, an awesome performer. I wish I could “forget yesterday” too, buddy.

“Since U Been Gone” – Kelly Clarkson. She’s fine with ballads, but she kicks ass with “Puttin’ you in the rear view mirror where you belong, pal” songs.

“Cool, Cool, Considerate Men” – the cast of 1776. Goosebumps. Member what I said about how much I love men’s voices blending together? Not to mention the fact that I grew up with this album, and grew up knowing all of these stories by heart. Speaking of which, today is the anniversary of the Boston Massacre, where John Adams showed himself to be a “cool, cool, considerate man”, something rarely attributed to him.

“Baby, Let’s Play House” – Wanda Jackson, the queen of rockabilly, playing a cover of one of Elvis’ more controversial early hits. Of course, they dated. Elvis dated everyone. And she credits him with encouraging her to broaden her style outside of country into the rockabilly world. Saw her live. She’s awesome.

“Something In the Air” – Thunderclap Newman. Another song that has been included on more movie soundtracks than can probably be counted. I love the song.

“Summertime Blues” – The Who, live at Leeds. Pretty ferocious.

“Isn’t It Grand, Boys” – The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem. I was in some pub in Dublin, and someone started singing this song, the whole crowd joined in, myself included. Sometimes life really is a cliche, and it’s not only not awful, but it’s BEAUTIFUL. Holding up pints of beer and shouting, “Let’s not have a sniffle, let’s have a bloody good cry, and always remember the longer you live, the sooner you’ll bloody well die” with a group of strangers is one of the more beautiful experiences I’ve ever had. Then I made out with a big lug named Tom, and we had a blast, after chatting/flirting all night. Because that’s how Dublin usually goes for me. I really am long over-due for a visit.

“I Can’t Control Myself” – The Troggs. These guys have perpetual boners. Their music is filled with that kind of urgency. And they want to return the favor, which makes them gentlemen, in my book. Naturally, I must link to Lester Bangs’ extraordinary essay about them with what is, perhaps, the most combative title in the history of music writing.

“Hailie’s Song” – Eminem, from The Eminem Show. Track 14, if you must know. One of the first times where he actually sang almost the entire song. I remember discussing this fact, in awe, with my siblings – because he’s got a good voice, even though he says “I can’t sing”. Well, no, he actually can sing. The entire O’Malley family was OBSESSED with this album when it came out. We had loved his earlier albums, too, but this one blew the lid off. We were at a family wedding, with happy smiles and champagne and traditions and wedding cake and family chit-chat, and we all sat at the “cousin’s table” and didn’t even catch up with each other on our own lives – all we did was talk about The Eminem Show. Welcome to the O’Malley family.

“Columbus Day Parade” – the wonderful Mike Viola. Please check him out, both his solo stuff and the stuff he’s put out there with his band The Candy Butchers. Wonderful songwriter, singer, musician. My sister Siobhan opened for him once, and he’s an idol of hers, so it was one of those “wow, life is so COOL SOMETIMES” moments.

“The Way” – Fastball. Oh my word, remember when you could not turn on the radio without hearing this song? What happened to these guys?

“Dark I Am Yet Lonely” – from Sinéad O’Connor’s bore of a double album, Theology. I’ll buy whatever she does. I will give whatever she does a chance, because I’m a loyal fan. But this one got on my damn nerves.

“Scheiße” – Lady GaGa, speaking German in a deadpan voice. I find it so entertaining. I have zero idea what is going on and I don’t care!

“Look At Her Face” – The Coral Sea. Some songs get beneath my skin in a way that is obviously obsessive. Something is being worked out in me whenever the song comes on. I have written about this before. This is one of those songs. I associate it with the writing of my script.

“Blue Christmas” – Michael Buble. I winced when I heard he was covering this song of Elvis’, but surprise surprise, I really liked it, mainly because of the boozy floozy burlesque arrangement.

“Minnie the Moocher” – Robbie Williams on his latest swing album, Swings Both Ways (awesome). This is hot. I have about 6 different versions of this song by different artists. I was so psyched to hear that Robbie was covering it. It’s about time.

“You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” – Bachman-Turner Overdrive. Oh hell to the Yes.

“Land of Lola” – the amazing Billy Porter from Cyndi Lauper’s Broadway musical Kinky Boots. I haven’t seen it but the music is (no surprise) incredible. And the performances! Porter and Stark Sands – who was also so memorable in Inside Llewyn Davis as the sweet folk-singing soldier.

“Honey Don’t” – Carl Perkins, recorded at Sun Records. One of the chord changes that changed the world.

“V.I.P.” – Sinéad O’Connor, from her 2012 album. I love it. I know she will go her own way, and put out reggae albums or drippy religious albums like Theology, and I will follow, but I was thrilled to hear this album, song to song to song, personal and angry and bone-chilling. And funny, too. Here, she takes back control of her place in the music business. She calls a spade a spade. It’s almost 7 minutes long. There is no chorus. No real beat. It’s a monologue. A raging monologue. I love her.

“Kyrié Eléison” – Sinéad O’Connor, from Faith and Courage, another one of hers I love. She taps into something very primal for me. Faith, belief, Irish-ness, anger, love.

“Mad About You” – Sting. A great song about obsession.

“Mandinka” – Sinéad O’Connor. A Sinéad cluster! This one comes from The Lion and the Cobra, very early Sinéad, which has that sudden screaming thing she does, the switches in range, from belting to falsetto – a sound that calls to mind chanting monks in the early Christian days, as well as war cries. It sounds violent. Like she’s about to toss something up into your face.

“You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go” – Bob Dylan. I rarely feel strong enough to withstand listening to this song.

“Satan’s Jeweled Crown” – the Louvin Brothers. God, I love these boys. I love them for their harmonies, and I love them for this completely un-ironic album cover.

And on that disturbing and yet pleasing note, I will end.