ipod playlist

Playlist: Our Favorite Songs About… Flying

~ kcorsini ~ 13 Comments

SupermanMovie

“I like pleasure spiked with pain, and music is my aeroplane…” – Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Aeroplane”

I took a little time away from B&V to recharge the musical batteries. As it turns out I’ve also spent a little time in airports and airplanes recently as well… I am on record as admitting I chose the career of the itinerant sales guy. I have to admit, due to the pandemic, I hadn’t flown in quite a while. What a shitty experience flying is now. I’m old enough that I can remember when I was a real little kid, people used to dress up to fly. I remember the first time I flew, I was probably 3, my mom put me in a sporty red blazer and clip-on tie and shellacked my cowlick hair down with, well, mom spit. I don’t remember most of it, but I’ve seen the pictures. In those pics my grandparents, who only drove to the airport to pick us up, were also dressed to the nines. I can’t imagine seeing my Grandmother in yoga pants or my grandfather in a Budweiser t-shirt standing at the gate. We’re not even making the bare minimum effort folks. The last time I flew, I was sitting across from a guy who farted and pretended nothing happened. Thanks pal.

Ah, flying. It all seemed so glamorous when I was a kid. I remember it as being a lot easier. The Wright Brothers, who were the first to fly in 1903 probably never imagined having to take your shoes off to board the Wright Flyer outside of Kitty Hawk. I’ve spent my whole career hanging around airports waiting on a delayed flight or having made the mad dash to the airport and missed that elusive earlier flight. I can’t even begin to tally up all the time I’ve wasted sitting in the gate of some crowded, sweaty airport. I think the airlines only hire sadists these days. I had a flight cancelled recently and I’m certain the gate agent was a former prison camp commandant…There’s something inherently lonely about flying. I was always surrounded by people but had my head buried in my work laptop or a book and most always had my trusty headphones on to be transported out of that situation by rock n roll. What’s that old cliche about being “alone in a crowd?”

That’s the thing about flying somewhere. You are, by definition, leaving somewhere or some place. And flight allows us to travel great, great distances so you’re again, by definition, going a long, long way from home. While travel and traveling are exciting there is an underlying sorrow that always seemed to nag me. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy soaring above the clouds, looking down and trying to recognize landmarks, headed off to explore the world. I’ve been from San Francisco to New York to Barcelona and Rome. There is a freedom in being able to “fly away.” But that freedom also can breed isolation. Sometimes the person you’re flying away from deserves to be left behind. But, then again, now I do most of my fun travel with the Rock Chick and I find that immensely better than the old days.

I will admit, when anybody asked me – and strangely people seemed to ask me this a lot – what “Super Power” I would want if I could have one, I always said flying. Naturally most of my friends wanted to be invisible… something about sneaking into the girl’s shower and “observing?” I have always been surrounded by degenerates…thankfully. I always thought being able to fly – without a plane – was the Super Power to pick. I always said, “I want to fly like Superman,” as the Kinks famously sang. You could go anywhere and be there quickly. You didn’t have to check bags or sit in the middle seat. And who amongst us hasn’t admired the majestic flight of birds. I was standing by a pond once when a flock of ducks floated in and landed on the water in unison. I remember thinking, “Man, I wish I could do that…”

Of course, for me, the easiest way for me to get “airborne” is to slip those head phones on, much as Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers described above, and turn up the music. All of these thoughts about flying – whether in a plane or like superman or birds in flight – got me to thinking about all the great rock n roll songs about flying. I figured it all be “pedal to the metal,” hard driving rock songs. But like I was describing above, there seems to be an undercurrent of sorrow in some of these tracks. As with all of our playlists, we’re all over the board stylistically. It’s the theme that’s important. B&V playlists are best played on “shuffle.”

Without further adieu, here are our favorite songs about Flying. You can find our playlist on Spotify if you’re interested. As always, if there’s a favorite of yours we didn’t include, drop it in the comments. I like to think of B&V playlists as “our” playlists, not “my” playlist. I have left my thoughts on each track below…

  1. Pink Floyd, “Learning To Fly” – I know Pink Floyd purists don’t like the David Gilmour-led version of the band. I love this song. The way he describes flying, it doesn’t sound like he’s piloting a plane… Not every record is Dark Side of The Moon.
  2. The Byrds, “Eight Miles High” – Supposedly planes fly eight miles above the ground but I think the Byrds were likely thinking more about drugs here. Who can blame them, it was the 60s.
  3. The Beatles, “Back In The USSR” – McCartney seems very happy about getting back to the USSR. From The Beatles (aka The White Album).
  4. Eagles, “Earlybird” – From the Eagles debut LP. “He’s got no time for flying in the breeze…”
  5. The Box Tops, “The Letter” – From a young Alex Chilton who went on to form Big Star and record the legendary LP, #1 Record. “Gimme a ticket on an aeroplane, ain’t got time to take a fast train…”
  6. New York Dolls, “Jet Boy” – I just saw a great documentary about David Johansen, the lead singer of the Dolls. Great stuff!
  7. Lou Reed, “Fly Into The Sun” – From one of my favorite Lou LPs, New Sensations. Perhaps his happiest LP? I also love New York, of course.
  8. The Cult, “In The Clouds” – Great track only found on a greatest hits disc. If you’re in the clouds, I have to assume you’re flying.
  9. Jimi Hendrix, “Night Flying Bird” – Great posthumous tune from Jimi.
  10. The Black Keys, “Aeroplane Blues” – The Black Keys are so consistently kick ass. I loved their last LP, Dropout Boogie…
  11. Billy Joel, “Scandinavian Skies” – Billy Joel singing about a tour of Scandinavia where they flew from country to country? I had heard somewhere along the line that this song was about heroin?
  12. Slash (featuring Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators), “Bent To Fly” – My friend Stormin’ turned me onto Slash’s solo work with Myles. A soaring power ballad from World On Fire.
  13. Frank Sinatra, “Come Fly With Me” – I had to include a couple of tracks from the Chairman of the Board.
  14. Johnny Cash, “I’ll Fly Away” – Johnny singing from his mama’s hymn book. I’m at best a pagan and I whispered a little prayer the first time I heard this one.
  15. Elton John, “High Flying Bird” – Beautiful sad track from one of my favorite Elton albums, Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only The Piano Player.
  16. David Bowie, “Space Oddity” – You can’t fly much higher than outerspace.
  17. Chuck Berry, “Promised Land” – I wish I could time travel just so I could take this trip with Chuck. I should have found a cover of this track for my Chuck Berry Covers playlist…
  18. Howlin’ Wolf, “Mr. Airplane Man” – Howlin’ Wolf singing the blues, asking Mr. Airplane Man to help him find his baby who has taken off… Another mule is kickin’ in his stall.
  19. Sammy Hagar, “Eagles Fly” – Sammy giving us a somewhat patriotic vibe here.
  20. Peter, Paul and Mary, “Leaving On A Jet Plane” – This song, and this version of it, probably surprises some long time readers. My parents loved Peter, Paul and Mary. I grew up hearing this song. Not that my parents played much music.
  21. Frank Sinatra, “Fly Me To The Moon” – My favorite of the two Sinatra songs here.
  22. Marvin Gaye, “Flyin’ High (In The Friendly Sky)” – A track from Marvin’s landmark album from 1971, What’s Going On?
  23. Foo Fighters, “Learn To Fly” – I’m not a huge Fighter of Foo fan but I dig this one. Perfect for this playlist.
  24. Ozzy Osbourne, “Flying High Again” – From Ozzy’s second LP with Randy Rhoads on lead guitar… this song turned me into an Ozzy fan for life.
  25. Talking Heads, “And She Was” – I had originally heard that this song was about a woman who died and the “she” who is floating in the air was her soul. Turns out it’s a story of a chick who took acid and had an out of body, Sharky’s Machine experience.
  26. Steve Miller Band, “Fly Like An Eagle” – A 70s classic.
  27. Elton John, “Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going To Be a Long, Long Time)” – The first time I heard this track, from Honky Chateau, I was in the Smithsonian… Weird story.
  28. Buffalo Springfield, “Expecting To Fly” – Great Neil Young, trippy track from the Springfield.
  29. Paul McCartney, “Feet In The Clouds” – Again, maybe not exactly a flying song, but he’s in the clouds… how’d he get there?
  30. Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Travelin’ Band” – First line says it all, “Seven thirty seven comin’ out of the sky, Won’t you take me down to Memphis on a midnight ride…” I just included this in my playlist about the Music/Show Biz.
  31. Faces, “Flying” – I think this was the Faces first single? We do love the Faces here at B&V.
  32. REO Speedwagon, “Time For Me To Fly” – Another track about being time to go. So many times I stayed too long at the “party.”
  33. Iron Maiden, “Flight Of Icarus” – Only a metal band would take a story from Greek Mythology and turn it into a great rock n roll song.
  34. Mudcrutch, “Dreams of Flying” – I loved Mudcrutch. It was the perfect side project for Petty, Mike Campbell and Ben Tench. This is from the second album, creatively titled 2.
  35. Buffalo Springfield, “Flying On The Ground Is Wrong” – Great, great song written by Neil Young and sung by Richie Furay. I’d like to hear a version of this song sung by Neil… I’m sure it’s out there.
  36. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, “Little Wing” – One of my all time Hendrix favorites. “Fly on, little wing…”
  37. John Mellencamp, “My Aeroplane” – Great deep track from Mellencmap.
  38. Red Hot Chili Peppers, “My Zephyr” – “Fly away on my zephyr…” Does anybody know what Anthony is talking about?
  39. Paul McCartney & Wings, “Jet” – One of my favorite rockers from McCartney.
  40. David Bowie, “I Took A Trip On A Gemini Spaceship” – Bowie was always singing about space.
  41. Linda Ronstadt, “Birds” – Neil Young isn’t on Spotify, but Linda Ronstadt does a fine cover here. I loved her third album.
  42. David Crosby, “Sky Trails” – Brilliant title track from a brilliant album. Sung beautifully by David and Becca Stevens. So sad to have lost Croz this year.
  43. Stephen Stills, “Jet Set (Sigh)” – I loved Manassas.
  44. Queen, “Spread Your Wings” – “Spread your wings and fly away…” From my first Queen LP purchase, News Of The World.
  45. INXS, “Johnson’s Aeroplane” – Obscure early INXS but I dig it.
  46. R.E.M., “Alligator Aviator Autopilot Anitmatter” – R.E.M.’s last few lps were awesome. This fun track is from Collapse Into Now.
  47. Elton John, “Take Me To The Pilot” – I think if you asked to be taken to the pilot these days, the plane would land and an international incident would ensue. A great, great Elton track.
  48. David Bowie, “Like A Rocket Man” – Late period, fabulous Bowie. Bowie and Elton seem obsessed with flying. “I’m speeding like a rocket man…”
  49. Bad Company, “Movin’ On” – Sometimes you just gotta pack up, head to the boarding gate, and get outta there. I had to do this in Jamaica once. Luckily the embassy didn’t get involved.
  50. Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Aeroplane” – The true theme song of this playlist. Let the music help you soar, baby.
  51. Led Zeppelin, “Night Flight” – One of my all time favorite deep tracks from the mighty Zeppelin.
  52. Joni Mitchell, “Amelia” – Joni, like Neil is boycotting Spotify – rightly so – so I sub’d in David Crosby’s cover. But I had to list her name here as her version is definitive.
  53. Bad Company, “Seagull” – “Now you fly, through the sky, never asking why, And you fly all around ’til somebody, Shoots you down.” Heavy stuff.
  54. Elton John, “Daniel” – A lamentation about seeing his brother return to Spain on an airplane.
  55. Steve Miller Band, “Jet Airliner” – Another great 70s classic from Steve Miller Band. I’ve always loved this song.
  56. Lenny Kravitz, “Fly Away” – From Lenny’s great LP, 5.
  57. The Kinks, “(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman” – I think I included this track on my list of rock bands with a disco song? I was more of a Batman guy, but I did used to wish I could fly like Superman.
  58. Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Police Helicopter” – This is the only song I’ve ever known about helicopters so I included it. Not many people like early RHCP’s, but I do.
  59. Pearl Jam, “Given To Fly” – I consider this one of their greatest tracks.
  60. The Beatles, “Flying” – A spacey instrumental that I felt had to be included. There are some wordless vocals toward the end, but I consider it an instrumental.
  61. The Rolling Stones, “Flight 505” – You know how I love the Stones and it took me this long to include one of their songs? “Well yes I’ll have a drink.” A sorry tale about a man who decides to leave home and seek adventures, but the plane lands… in the sea.
  62. Crosby, Stills, Nash, “Just A Song Before I Go” – Sad track where the singer just wants to hear a song with his woman before he takes off for the “friendly skies.”
  63. The Beatles, “Blackbird” – “Take these broken wings and learn to fly, all your life you were only waiting for this moment to be free…”
  64. Mudcrutch, “Bootleg Flyer” – Mudcrutch having fun imagining flying a plane full of smuggled hooch really low, just above the trees.
  65. ZZ Top, “Flyin’ High” – Soaring arena rock from ZZ Top. Always a winner…
  66. Rush, “Fly By Night” – Another of my absolute favorite tracks… Can’t believe it took me this long to get it on the list.
  67. Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Free Bird” – If you have to have a good ending song, this is it. “Won’t you fly high free bird?” My wife hates this song.

There you go friends. A little playlist to help you as you soar above the clouds whether you’re in an airplane or in your backyard on the patio. Again, if you have a favorite I might have missed, drop it in the comments and I’ll add it on Spotify.

Cheers! And lets remember – Birds of prey know they’re cool (according to the Far Side anyway).

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B&V Playlist: For The Love Of… Money

~ kcorsini ~ 12 Comments

Money_Cash

“When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life. Now that I am old, I know that it is.” – Oscar Wilde

Before I met my wife I was always fond of saying, “Money and sane women have eluded me my whole life.” But since the Rock Chick never laughed at that line, I stopped saying it. It got a little awkward. And let’s be honest I wasn’t the most solid citizen in the old days – I’m happy to own my part in the craziness…bygones. Anyway, having been happily wed for a long time, I guess I would now amend my original statement to “money has eluded me my whole life.” I mean, I’ve been lucky professionally, but big money has always seemed just out of my grasp. I guess it’s like Springsteen once sang, “Poor man wants to be rich, rich man wants to be king, and the king ain’t satisfied until he rules everything.” The more you get the more you seem to want. The reach always seems to exceed the grasp.

I read recently that to be in the top “1%” you would need to earn on average, $823k a year. That’s some big bucks. To be in the top 5% in terms of earnings, you’d need to average $283k a year, again big bucks. I know income distribution currently is as out of wack as it was during the “Gilded Age” in the late 1800s. Back in the Gilded Age, like five families controlled 80 percent of the wealth and the rest of us, based on pictures I’ve seen, all lived in the same tenement house battling over what was left. I realize there was real wage growth in those days but there was a lot of terrible poverty especially for immigrants and minorities. It was overall a pretty awful time. It would appear that certain elements in this country are trying to push us back to those days. What they forget, as they siphon off more money for the super rich, is that without a stable middle class, democracy almost always fails. As someone said to me recently, “It used to be you could work in a factory your whole life and if you didn’t join a country club, you’d have a nice retirement.” Do we even have factories any more?

It’s no coincidence that I’ve got money currently on my mind and today is Tax Day in the U.S. It’s typically April 15th, but since that fell on a weekend, U.S. taxpayers were given until today to pay their federal and state taxes. I’ve posted about Tax Day Blues and even included a playlist but today I’m thinking more about money in general. There’s a high likelihood as a member of the middle class I’m paying more tax than Elon Musk which seems a little backward to me. I guess I’m like that song by the Stereophonics, “Every Day I Think About Money.” When I was young, I didn’t have any money so I worried about it a lot. Then I had some money and I constantly thought about how to get more money. And that’s sort of been the mindset I’ve been stuck in since I was 30.

There was a time when I was happy just to have enough money for beer and vinyl albums. Maybe some extra cash to take a date to the movies. I’d work summer jobs – mowing lawns or building tennis courts which afforded me a fabulous tan – which was the goal in the summer – or I’d work as a bus boy or a dishwasher which afforded me a legendary case of acne. As a friend once said to me, “It’s summer, you drink beer with your friends.” I’ve already chronicled my old days as a working stiff when I posted a playlist in honor of Labor Day last year so I won’t beat that drum again. In many ways I was a much happier guy in those days. Of course I was living at my parents house. My friend Arkansas Joel always said he was happier when he was flipping burgers in high school. As life went on, there were bills, mortgages or rents to be paid and car payments to be made. Responsibility costs money. No wonder there are so many t-shirts that say “Not Adulting Today” out there.

While Oscar Wilde is right, money is important, I hated starting with such a cynical quote. I did find it funny. I wonder if we’re measuring success incorrectly in the world. We’re all so focused on money and materialism we don’t think about the other ways to measure success. Money really isn’t everything – although it certainly seems like it in today’s society. I’ve never been one of those “he who dies with the most toys wins” kind of guys. Having a great, strongly bonded family or great relationships with friends and colleagues is just as big a sign of success as a McMansion. Doing good in your community or doing good unto others has to be a measure? When I was in college I considered becoming a history professor. I was passionate about researching and writing and let’s face it I look good in a tweed sport coat with those leather elbows. But I talked to one of the history professors and he said, “There are probably more history majors driving cabs than teaching history.” I didn’t want to starve so I joined the large rank of traveling sales people. It worked out okay but I can’t describe it as a passion. The best parts of the job were the relationships I formed with the people I worked with and the mentoring I’ve done over the years in management. When I think about it through that prism – the relationships and impact I had on people’s lives – I actually think I might be more successful than I allow myself to think I am.

As I sat around thinking about money and my decision all those years ago to be a “happy idiot and struggle for the legal tender,” I started to think about all the great rock n roll songs about money – dough, cashish, coin, cabbage and my favorite scratch – and suddenly to snap out of it I started to build this playlist. As always tempo-wise it’s all over the place. We aim to put a song you haven’t heard in a while back in your ear or better yet, turn you on to something you haven’t heard. I usually recommend hitting “random” when you play these tracks. It works in order, but hey, variety is the spice of life… and apparently money is the honey. Here’s the playlist and you can find my comments on each tune below. And no, I didn’t include any versions of “Shake Your Money Maker,” because let’s face it… that song ain’t about money.

  1. Warren Zevon, “Lawyers, Guns and Money” – Always a go-to tune for me when there was trouble… or when “the shit has hit the fan.” Zevon needs to be in the Rock Hall this year…
  2. Prince, “Money Don’t Grow On Trees” – Prince had so many great tunes. This was in the vaults for a long time. Originally recorded for 1999. And apparently he stole the title from a phrase my father was fond of repeating when I was growing up.
  3. AC/DC, “Ain’t No Fun (Waiting Around To Be A Millionaire)” – I’m stunned by how many songs AC/DC have about money. They truly have their “mind on my money and my money on my mind.” This song makes me smile.
  4. Ozzy Osbourne, “The Almighty Dollar” – Ozzy from the sadly overlooked gem Black Rain.
  5. Motley Crue, “Keep Your Eye On The Money” – Good advice from the Crue.
  6. Montrose, “Paper Money” – Montrose, Sammy Hagar’s first band, long before Van Hagar and Chickenfoot. With Ronnie Montrose on guitar.
  7. The Black Keys, “For The Love Of Money” – I like this song so much I stole the title for this post… from last year’s Dropout Boogie.
  8. Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Millionaires Against Hunger” – I wish there were more millionaires against hunger… or better yet a lot less hunger. I think this started as a charity single… Hillel Slovak on the lead guitar.
  9. Dire Straits, “Money For Nothing” – Iconic track from 1985. I can remember being in the car when I heard this for the first time and Sting came over the speakers and sang, “I want my MTV…” Mind blown. The next thing I knew I was going 80… but that might just be how I drove back then.
  10. Tom Waits, “’til The Money Runs Out” – Things are always bad when the money runs out, as Mr. Waits reminds us here.
  11. Randy Newman, “It’s Money That Matters” – Sadly, if you deign to look at any social media these days this adage seems to be true.
  12. The Firm, “Money Can’t Buy” – I’ve always felt that the Firm were slightly under-achievers considering the pedigree of Paul Rodgers (Free, Bad Company) and Jimmy Page (the Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin) but that didn’t keep me from buying both their LPs.
  13. The Black Keys, “Money Maker” – The Keys are just so solid. Do they have a bad tune?
  14. Queen, “The Millionaire Waltz” – Only Freddie Mercury could get away with a song like this. Brian May’s guitar work is, as always, spectacular.
  15. AC/DC, “What You Do For Money Honey” – The most hateful track on here. Used to remind me of someone in the 90s but those thoughts have long disappeared into the ether.
  16. Alice Cooper, “Billion Dollar Babies” – I’d put Alice Cooper in their prime up against any band from the 70s.
  17. Van Morrison, “Blue Money” – I doubt when Van wrote this song that “blue money” was slang for $100 bills.
  18. Robert Plant, “All The Money In The World” – Plant’s late work is all fantastic and should be played at maximum volume whether it’s with Alison Krauss or just by himself.
  19. The Who, “Put The Money Down” – Great deep cut from Odds And Sods.
  20. Bruce Springsteen, “Easy Money” – I know Billy Joel has a song with the same title from An Innocent Man, but I despise that album.
  21. The Beatles, “Money (That’s What I Want)” – So many versions of this song out there, I had to go with the Beatles.
  22. Crosby & Nash, “Take The Money And Run” – Love these guys as a duo and a lot of their solo work.
  23. Bruce Springsteen, “The Price You Pay” – Often the price we pay isn’t in dollars.
  24. Bob Dylan & The Band, “Million Dollar Bash” – Dylan with his best backing group, The Band… recorded in the basement of the iconic house known as Big Pink.
  25. Bob Seger, “Ain’t Got No Money” – “but I sure gotta whole lotta love.” That pretty much describes me from ages 16 to 35.
  26. Aretha Franklin, “Money Won’t Change You” – The Queen spreading truth. They say money won’t change a man but it only amplifies what was there before. Food for thought.
  27. The Who, “Did You Steal My Money?” – From one of those albums that perhaps only I love.
  28. Don Henley, “If Dirt Were Dollars” – Great Henley deeper album cut.
  29. AC/DC, “Moneytalks” – “Money talks and bullshit walks…” I wonder if they were inspired by Spinal Tap.
  30. AC/DC, “Money Made” – AC/DC have so many tracks on this playlist, I just gave up and put 2 in a row. There is nothing more satisfying than getting that paycheck when you’ve earned it through some good ol’ fashion labor.
  31. Annie Lennox, “Money Can’t Buy It” – One of music’s greatest voices.
  32. Peter Frampton, “(I’ll Give You) Money” – Frampton’s heaviest riff? Great guitar work here.
  33. Beady Eye, “Millionaire” – One of the Rock Chick’s favs.
  34. AC/DC, “Down Payment Blues” – Bon Scott giving us a little darkness on one of my favorite AC/DC LPs, Powerage.
  35. B.B. King, “Paying The Cost To Be The Boss” – I love the original but I almost went with B.B.’s version on Deuces Wild performed with the Stones. Mick and B.B. singing, with Keef and Ronnie Wood riffing… yummy. I do so love the blues.
  36. Scorpions, “Money And Fame” – What everybody wants but few work for…
  37. Bulletboys, “For The Love Of Money” – The Rock Chick turned me onto this 80s rocker.
  38. Black Crowes, “Downtown Money Waster” – Every thing about this tune is cool. And since I lived downtown most of my life, I can identify with the title character.
  39. The Beatles, “You Never Give Me Your Money” – From the second side medley on Abbey Road.
  40. Ray Charles, “Greenbacks” – Ray Charles singing about money is actually money!
  41. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, “30 Dollar Fine” – From the expanded/deluxe 50th anniversary edition of Deja Vu. Some times the Man makes you pay the fine.
  42. U2, “Silver And Gold (Live)” – This song is about so much more than money… I took any excuse I could to slip it onto a playlist.
  43. Dave Matthews Band, “Pay For What You Get” – DMB with some early career truth. If the price is too good to be true, turn and walk away.
  44. Van Halen, “Big Fat Money” – I’ve never had big or fat money but it sounds like fun.
  45. Spoon, “Rent I Pay” – The bill is always due, the wolf is always at the door.
  46. Randy Newman, “It’s Money That I Love” – This is true for quite a few people I know… sadly.
  47. Steve Miller Band, “Take The Money And Run” – Two thieves out on the road, running from the law. Ah, the 70s.
  48. Pink Floyd, “Money” – This iconic track is likely their most famous song. I’ve been listening to this a lot in the last few weeks as the band celebrates the 50th anniversary of Dark Side Of The Moon.
  49. Rickie Lee Jones, “Easy Money” – Also covered by Lowell George of Little Feat on his sole solo album.
  50. Rush, “The Big Money” – I knew a woman whose nickname was Big Money…
  51. Patti Smith, “Free Money” – Well I think we could all get on board for a little free money…
  52. The White Stripes, “Honey, We Can’t Afford To Look This Cheap” – Great little B-side from our friends the White Stripes. This track is from Icky Thump, but I’ve been listening to that new 20th anniversary edition of Elephant of late.

There you have it folks. If I missed a favorite song about money of yours, please leave it in the comments section and I’ll see that it gets added to our playlist.

For those of you bummed out about your tax bill today, I suggest turning this playlist up and pouring something brown and murky. For those of you getting a refund, my advice is well, turn this playlist up and pour something dark and murky. Isn’t that always my advice?

Cheers!

Playlist: The Ups And Downs Of… The Music Business/Show Business… Songs About Being In A Band

~ kcorsini ~ 7 Comments

Ahmet276

Music + Business

This may be my most eclectic group of songs on a playlist ever…

Who amongst us wouldn’t want to be a Rock Star? Even at work sometimes I hear people who are good at their job – or who have done something particularly well – described as a “Rock Star.” It’s looks like wonderful job from up here in the cheap seats. A friend of mine, who I worked with, was in a hotel bar out on the road. That’s the life of we Traveling Salesmen… He was sitting next to a group of guys with long hair who were drinking in the bar. There was a line of young women standing outside the bar making quite a commotion. He struck up a conversation with one of the long haired gentlemen whose name was Joe. He asked what my friend did for a living and asked how he liked his job? Typical “on the road,” hotel bar chatter. My friend asked Joe what he did, was he in a band? Turns out it was Joe Elliott of Def Leppard. My friend asked if he liked his job? Joe said, “Well, it’s a job,” and then pointed to the young women outside the bar and added, “but it doesn’t suck.” I’ve always loved that story.

I think it’s easy for we the fans to look at the Rock Star with nothing but pure envy. In the movies it always looks like an easy path to stardom and riches. “Money for nothing,” as the song goes. We see the Rock Star with a beautiful model or actress on his arm, living in a house with a pool in a sunny climate. They have the best clothes – Rod Stewart especially – and the best cars. It looks so easy we’re always surprised when an artist struggles with fame, or radically changes their music to avoid the pressure of having to repeat their success… pressure? for a Rock Star? Fame may be cool but it’s fickle and hard to maintain. Many Rock Stars begin to lament ever becoming famous. They just wanted to be musicians… bring a little joyous noise into the world.

That’s how it all starts, I assume. A young kid gets turned on by music or discovers he has a talent – singing or with an instrument – and wants to do that for a living. The kid gets an instrument and practices and practices. Maybe he puts the Malcolm Gladwell “10,000 hours” into it. Maybe in that little room the kid starts writing songs…  Pretty soon the young kid meets some like minded individuals and they form a band. Maybe they’re already friends or maybe they meet at a subway station like Mick and Keith. After line-up changes, just maybe the chemistry clicks. Joe Strummer always said, “Never underestimate the chemistry of four guys in a room.” Pretty soon this gang of guys/gals start playing in front of people. Maybe they’ve struck lightning and like Eddie Vedder once said, “I was on stage in front of an empty room and I closed my eyes… when I reopened them the room was full.” It’s music, it’s art, it’s performing… what’s not to love?

Ah, but then commerce appears. A manager usually shows up in the story at this point. And then the record company. You put out your debut song or album. It’s hitting “paydirt,” the dream of a lifetime. But if you’re successful there’s the pressure to repeat that. Behind the glamour, it really is a job. “You wrote “Let’s Dance” David, what’s next? We need another hit.” Or people start asking, “Oh and by the way, which one’s Pink?” The young kid who was sitting in his room, writing songs has become a product. I think artists today have more control over their careers. They can release music straight to the people. They don’t have to hear an A&R (artists and repertoire) man from the record company say, “I don’t hear a single.” As if they’ve come full circle, many of the Rock Stars simply write about it – whether it’s fame, crappy record execs, being on the road (enjoyably or fried from the miles) or the writing process… so many bands/artists have written songs about what it’s like to be in a band – or the process they took to becoming stars – I had to compile them. I thought of this playlist idea from hearing the Who’s “Success Story” and the line, “Remember when this used to be fun.” How many artists go through that? There are also so many songs that I call “origin stories” where the artist sings about his past or is self referential. Those songs seem to fit on this as well.

So here is my playlists based on songs about the Music Business/Show Business. You can find it on the dreaded Spotify. I always suggest shuffling the list vs playing it in order. Although, both ways work… whatever brings you joy. As always, our goal here is to put a song you haven’t heard in a while back in your ear or better yet – turn you onto something you haven’t heard. If you have a song that fits the theme, by all means drop it in the comments section. I like to think of these playlists as “our” playlists. Turn this one up loud… oh and by the way, “Welcome to the Machine.”

  1. Pink Floyd, “Welcome To The Machine” – When art means commerce. This describes Floyd’s harrowing experience of going from a cult band to a world wide phenomenon after Dark Side of the Moon. .
  2. The Band, “Stagefright” – Robbie Robertson’s ode to the pressure to write the next “hit.”
  3. John Fogerty, “Vanz Kant Danz” – Written for the music exec who “stole” the rights to his songs. He was actually sued for this song and changed the title.
  4. Eddie Money, “Wanna Be A Rock N Roll Star” – Eddie expressing the exuberance we all feel when we think about being the proverbial rock star.
  5. Paul McCartney, “The Song We Were Singing” – A great tune where Paul reflects on his first band, a little outfit known as the Beatles. He’s always said they could agree on music, it was the business stuff that made them fight. I don’t think this made Paul’s box set full of singles but it could have been a hit…
  6. Van Morrison, “They Sold Me Out” – Is there a rock star more bitter about the business aspect of things than Van?
  7. Boston, “Rock N Roll Band” – An origin story worthy of the Marvel Universe. I’d always been told that Boston’s first album was all Tom Scholz and Brad Delp. The record company recruited players to fill out the band so they could tour. This song makes for a better story.
  8. AC/DC, “Show Business” – I loved Bon Scott. This is from the EP ’74 Jailbreak released after their first LP with Brian Johnson, Back In Black, as a tribute to the fallen lead singer.
  9. Fleetwood Mac, “Show Biz Blues” – From the glorious, bluesy Peter Green-era of the Mac.
  10. Neil Young, “For The Turnstiles” – (*not on the Spotify list) A great, philosophical treatise on the perils and fleeting nature of fame.
  11. Aerosmith, “No Surprise” – Any song that mentions Clive Davis and Max’s Kansas City (the famous rock n roll bar in New York) had to be on this list.
  12. Elvis Costello, “Radio Radio” – From the era when radio was actually important before it became, as Bruce sang, “Radio Nowhere.” Classic Costello, “I want to bite the hand that feeds me…”
  13. Jackson Browne, “The Road” – A classic weary song from the road from a classic live album Running On Empty. But we do so love our live LPs here.
  14. The Byrds, “So You Want To Be A Rock N Roll Star” – Also done capably by Tom Petty. The classic “be careful what you ask for” song.
  15. Prince, “Baby, I’m A Star” – Prince’s happiest song? The joy of the artist who finally becomes a star. We still miss Prince here at B&V. At least we’ve his vault releases like Sign O The Times Deluxe Edition to keep us comforted. While most artists at some point lament their fame… let’s not forget, it doesn’t suck to be a Rock Star.
  16. Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Me And My Friends” – A song where the Peppers name-check original guitarist Hillel Slovak had to make this list. Often band members start as friends… Alas not every band stays friends the way Rush did.
  17. The Rolling Stones, “The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man” – A very funny Stones tune that was a send up of a record exec who thought he was as hip as they were. I don’t know if this made my Stones’ Deep Cuts playlist but it should be there.
  18. AC/DC, “It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Want To Rock N Roll) – A harrowing tale of slugging it out, smokey club by smokey club as an up and coming band.
  19. Neil Young, “Buffalo Springfield Again”* – (*Not on Spotify list) – Neil fondly remembers his first big band.
  20. Motley Crue, “Down At The Whisky” – The Crue fondly remember their days on the Sunset Strip. This song tells the story better than The Dirt did.
  21. Steely Dan, “Show Biz Kids” – “While the poor people sleepin’, all the stars come out at night.”
  22. Bob Seger, “Turn The Page (Live)” – Originally from one of Seger’s early, now out of print LPs Back In ’72. A song about the grind of the road.
  23. Motley Crue, “Welcome To The Machine” – It’s interesting that they use the same title as Pink Floyd but Nikki Sixx did that a lot. Same machine, different band.
  24. Soul Asylum, “Misery” – “Frustrated, Incorporated.”
  25. Paul McCartney, “That Was Me” – A 2:39 resume in song.
  26. Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Workin’ For MCA” – Skynyrd singing about their record label… reminding us that being a Rock Star is still a job… not a bad one, but still a job.
  27. George Harrison, “When We Was Fab” – George in a similar vein as Paul on #25 on this list.
  28. Van Morrison, “Big Time Operators” – Of all of Van’s “complaint” songs, this might be my favorite. But then, it’s kind of bluesy and I love rockers singing the blues.
  29. Paul Simon, “Late In The Evening” – Where Paul traces music history back to his infancy listening to the radio along with his mom all the way to playing guitar in a funky bar after getting high.
  30. The Clash, “Complete Control” – So pissed at the record company for releasing “Remote Control” were the Clash, they wrote this anti record company screed which became one of their most beloved songs.
  31. Billy Squier, “The Stroke” – From the gem Don’t Say No.
  32. Tom Petty, “Money Becomes King” – Dark record company juju from Tom. When commerce overwhelms art.
  33. Joe Walsh, “I Can Play That Rock N Roll” – He certainly can. Joe takes us through all the prevailing genre’s from back in the day to conclude that rock n roll is best. He’s not wrong.
  34. The Who, “Success Story” – “Remember when this used to be fun…” Says it all.
  35. Oasis, “Rock N Roll Star” – One of the Rock Chick’s favorite bands… seemed appropriate here.
  36. The Beatles, “Baby, You’re A Rich Man” – Not sure who this was for but it sounds like a record exec.
  37. Foreigner, “Juke Box Hero” – From kid outside the arena to the stage. Quite a musical journey.
  38. Joe Walsh, “Life’s Been Good” – The ultimate “this is how rock stars live” song.
  39. Rod Stewart, “When We Were The New Boys” – I like to think he was singing about the Faces here…
  40. Pete Townshend, “Sheraton Gibson” – Pete from his first solo LP, Who Came First, singing about the simple joy of playing his acoustic guitar (a Gibson) in a hotel on the road (the Sheraton).
  41. Van Halen, “I’m The One” – It’s always difficult to decipher the lyrics of David Lee Roth. On this track, from their debut, he’s singing to a woman, but then he says, “Look at all these little kids, takin’ care of the music biz, do their business take good care of me?” I’m always looking to include Van Halen songs on a playlist… so I did.
  42. No Doubt, “Snakes” – Brutal take down of their corporate masters.
  43. Randy Newman, “My Life Is Good” – A brutal, politically incorrect satire of the bloated life of the rock star. At the end of the song, Bruce Springsteen decides he doesn’t want to be the Boss anymore and turns it over to Randy.
  44. Billy Joel, “The Entertainer” – “Another serenader and another long haired band…”
  45. Tom Petty, “Into The Great Wide Open” – About a fictional artist’s climb to the top… “Their A&R man said, “I don’t hear a single.”
  46. George Harrison, “Cockamamie Business” – (*Not on the Spotify list) George was known as the quiet Beatle. Perhaps he should have been known as the grumpy Beatle.
  47. Heart, “Barracuda” – Had to be about a manager.
  48. Fitz & The Tantrum, “Money Grabber” – Had to be about a manager.
  49. Elton John, “Bitter Fingers” – About the difficulties of writing a song.
  50. John Mellencamp, “Pop Singer” – “Never wanted to be no pop singer, never wanted to sing pop songs…”
  51. Warren Zevon, “Even A Dog Can Shake Hands” – Had to be about a manager. Thanks to all of you out there voting for Zevon for the Rock Hall of Fame.
  52. Pink Floyd, “Have A Cigar” – The quote “And by the way, which one is Pink” was supposedly something a record company exec actually said to one of the band.
  53. Bad Company, “Shooting Star” – The careers of most rock stars, most bands really, is as fleeting as a shooting star…
  54. Genesis, “Duchess” – A great song about what happens to a band/artist when they stop making music from the heart and start chasing “hits” or what’s popular. U2 should listen to this song.
  55. The Who, “Guitar And Pen” – Another track about writing songs. To me the magic of writing songs is like alchemy.
  56. Bruce Springsteen, “Last Man Standing” – Bruce writing about being the last man left from his first ever band… as Dylan said, “time is a jet plane, moving way too fast.”
  57. The Who, “Daily Records” – Did anybody write more songs about being in a band than Townshend? This is a great song on one of the albums maybe only I like, about just wanting to go into the studio every day and record a new song.
  58. Bruce Springsteen, “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out” – On Born To Run, after the invitation to join him on his journey, “Thunder Road,” Bruce tells you the story of the band that’s going to take the ride with you on this song. “I’m gonna sit back right easy and laugh when Scooter and the Big Man bust this city in half…” I still tear up when I hear the line, “When the change was made up town and the Big Man joined the band…” We miss you Clarence Clemons…
  59. Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Travelin’ Band” – Sure, there are a lot of songs on this list about what a bummer it is to be on the road… but it’s not all bad. This is one of the most joyous tracks about being in…well… a traveling band.

That’s our list! Again, if you have a song that fits the theme, let us know in the comments section and I’ll add it to the Spotify list. As I said before, this may be my most eclectic playlist of all. If you’re out there somewhere on the road with guitars and drums and keyboards, headed to that next gig – or even if you’re just driving down the highway – I hope this playlists gets you a little further down the road. Whoever you are, keep rock n roll alive, support your local musicians.

Cheers!

Playlist…We Kick Off 2023 By… Looking Back 50 Years – 1973

~ kcorsini ~ 11 Comments

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I know we’re already a few days into this brand spanking new year and I may be late on this, but let me wish all of you a Happy New Year! It’s 2023 which when I was kid would have sounded like a date from the reruns of Star Trek we all watched religiously after school… I can almost hear Captain Kirk saying, “Star Date 2023… and I’ve just met a captivating green woman…” I don’t know if other families are like mine when it comes to Christmas, but right around Thanksgiving the Rock Chick suddenly morphs into Mrs. Claus. A tree pops up fully decorated and there are lights strung everywhere. Suddenly gone from the stereo are the latest LPs from the Cult or Bush replaced by (gads) Mariah Carey and Bing Crosby. Xmas is a terribly frightful time for me even if I am a reformed Grinch. I only like a little of the Xmas music…so I suffer most of it. But once the relatives have gone home and our daughter heads to the airport the Rock Chick shuts Xmas down like somebody threw a light switch or a referee has blown a whistle. Down comes the tree and the lights. The forest of poinsettias gets mowed down like somebody struck oil in the living room. That’s one thing about the Rock Chick, she’s not sentimental. Once Christmas passes, it’s pull off the red, green and white band-aid time.

Then we enter that weird week between Xmas and New Year’s Day. The Rock Chick, who literally single-handedly does everything for Xmas, sort of collapses in exhaustion. I wander around the house wondering which day of the week it is. It’s during this time that I go into a deep fog of heavy reflection. Typically that produces my year end “best of” list for the previous 12 months and 2022 was no exception. But of course the range of my reflection goes well beyond just music. I ruminate over tumblers of dark, murky liquids about everything. I think most people get a little reflective during that week between the holidays…nothing to do at work, might as well ruminate. There’s nothing that reminds us more of the ticking of the clock than the end of one year and the beginning of the next. As Jackson Browne famously sang, “I’ve been aware of the time going by, they say in the end it’s a wink of an eye.” Questions like “What did I accomplish this year?” or “How far have I come in life?” are naturally rolling around our heads during that time.

Then New Year’s Day hits and everyone is slightly hungover and it’s time to look forward towards the future. People start asking different questions like “What will I accomplish this year?” or “How can I improve myself this year?” and so on. This is the time that everybody starts making New Year’s Resolutions. I usually do the dreaded “Dry January,” but not this year. Dry January was easy to do when the Kansas City Chiefs weren’t competitive. Now that they’re in the playoffs most January’s it’s virtually impossible for me to stay completely sober down the stretch. I have to do my part to help them win, which typically means consuming beer and pacing in front of the TV.  I considered giving up coffee but… why? I have noticed my local gym is now packed with new people and will likely remain so until mid-February when all of this New Year/New Me mania wears off.

While most people start thinking about the future I can’t help myself, I’m always a little stuck in that reflective mode in January, looking backward. I’ve come to realize over the years that the only thing I can change about the past is how I look at it or how I react to it which helps frame it (or perhaps tame it is more appropriate). Naturally all of this reflection eventually leads me back to music. A couple of years ago (2021) I read an article about 1971 being the greatest year ever in music. Many of the albums released in ’71 were celebrating 50th anniversaries and I have to admit it was an amazing year for music. I actually put together a 1971 Playlist culled from those landmark LPs released that year and really enjoyed doing so. Last year, 2022, I looked back again to 1972 (complete with playlist) and again, I really enjoyed it. 1971 to me was really the last gasp of the era we identify as the 60’s and 1972, to me anyway, was the real birth of the 70s. I don’t subscribe to the theory that when the calendar goes from a year that ends in “9” to a year that ends in “0” music and culture just change on a dime. There’s usually a slow fade of one decade and a slow blossoming of the new.

In that spirit, I thought I’d look back 50 years again, this time to 1973. Let me be real clear though, in 1973 I was still counting years in single digits. I had very few clear memories from ’71 or even ’72. 1973 is the first year I can admit to remembering… well, I remember hearing some of the songs on this list anyway. So much of this music from 1973 was in high rotation when I started listening to music years later, it’s almost iconic. I joked when listening to all that great music from 1971 I needed a leather, fringe jacket ala David Crosby to satisfy my hippy Jones. Listening to music from ’73 makes me remember riding around in mom’s green Ford with the AM radio cranked. What I’d need to celebrate my 70s Jones would probably be a polyester leisure suit that curiously matches what my brother has on.

1973 was such a tumultuous time for the world. It started off on a bummer when Nixon was inaugurated for his second term. Even then Watergate hung over his Administration. Later in the year we saw what is now known as the Saturday Night Massacre where Nixon fired his Attorney General and Deputy AG in order to circumvent the rule of law. Fun times. OPEC started an oil embargo and I remember seeing long lines at gas stations. The Vietnam Peace was still being negotiated in Paris. Thug Spiro Agnew resigned as the VP of the U.S. and was replaced with clumsy Gerald Ford. Pinochet came to power in Chile to tragic consequences. There was a war in the Middle East on Yom Kippur. George Foreman beat Joe Frazier and became the heavy weight champ… Ali was watching and working up his rope-a-dope act even then I suppose. The Godfather, one of my absolute favorite movies came out that year. I still like to say, when something’s gone wrong, “You have to answer for Santino, Carlo.” We’d shifted away from the hippy good vibes of the 60s and the Me Generation took root. It all sounds like a drag… at least we had some great music in 1973.

There were a lot of great, legendary artists who put out their debut albums in 1973: Springsteen (who put out 2 LPs that year), Aerosmith, Tom Waits, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Queen. Talk about a list of artists who shaped the 70s, that’s it. Many artists put out 2 LPs in ’73: Elton John, Al Green, Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac (in pre-Buckingham/Nicks configuration), Bob Marley and Bowie. We got great LPs from huge acts like Zeppelin and the Who which didn’t happen in ’72. All four ex-Beatles put out solo LPs in ’73 as did other acts who emerged from 60s bands: Paul Simon, Gram Parsons (posthumously), David Ruffin, and Stephen Stills (with Manassas). The world discovered Bob Marley & the Wailers as they started their time with Island Records and went international. While many may crinkle their noses at 1973 as compared to ’71 or ’72, I have to admit there were so many great albums put out in that year I had over 110 songs to start this thing. I had to make really hard choices to winnow it down to these 70 tracks because as wonderful as my pithy comments on the tracks are, no one wants to read 110 song comments… That many great albums has gotta say something about the quality of the music from ’73. And I didn’t even include anything from Neil Young’s Time Fades Away or Bob Seger’s Back In ’72 because neither of those albums are available on Spotify…

As usual I based this list on tracks from LPs released in ’73. If a song was released in ’72 and reigned the charts in ’73 you won’t find it here. I’m into LPs. There are a few exceptions – singles I couldn’t resist putting on here – but they were all released in 1973. I tend to gravitate toward deep tracks but for ’73 I put more “hit” songs on here than usual. You can find this playlist on Spotify under “BourbonAndVinyl. 1973” and as always if you have additions you’d like me to make, mention them in the comments and I’ll add them on the Spotify list. I always look at these playlists as “our” playlists. I always play these on “shuffle.”

  1. Bruce Springsteen, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., “Spirit In The Night” – From the Boss’ debut. A group of youngsters go out to a local lake and party.
  2. Aerosmith, Aerosmith, “Dream On” – This song, which didn’t really get popular until a few years later when Aerosmith broke big in 75/76 may have invented the power ballad.
  3. Little Feat, Dixie Chicken, “Dixie Chicken” – I love Little Feat and this is their most famous song. Boy meets girl, girl leaves with a guitar player… a story as old as time.
  4. Elton John, Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player, “Elderberry Wine” – I went with this deep track that I’d also used on our Drinking Playlist because it’s one of my favorite Elton deep tracks. I like the line, “the bottle went round like a woman down south, passed on from hand to hand.”
  5. Gram Parsons, G.P., “She” – Gram Parsons, a Southerner, writing about his mama and how she could sing.
  6. Deep Purple, Who Do We Think We Are, “Woman From Tokyo” – One of my favorites from Deep Purple.
  7. Alice Cooper, Billion Dollar Babies, “No More Mr. Nice Guy” – I could have picked about any track off this album, my favorite from Alice Cooper. It does sort of capture the Alice persona.
  8. The Stooges, Raw Power, “Search And Destroy” – Iggy Pop and the Stooges with an iconic hard rock song that helped inspire a lot of punk bands.
  9. Dr. John, In The Right Place, “Right Place Wrong Time” – Sadly, we lost Dr. John recently (2020). B.B. King later did a nice cover of this. I have literally always been in the right place at the wrong time.
  10. Dusty Springfield, Cameo, “Tupelo Honey” – Dusty covering Van Morrison. Not as epic as the original but still a great song.
  11. David Ruffin, David Ruffin, “(If Lovin’ You Is Wrong) I Don’t Want To Be Right” – The former front man of the Temptations and one of my favorite singers. Rod Stewart covered this song later in the 70s and hearing this you can absolutely hear the influence.
  12. Pink Floyd, Dark Side Of The Moon, “Money” – The album that changed everything for Pink Floyd. Iconic.
  13. The Doobie Brothers, The Captain And Me, “Dark Eyed Cajun Lady” – I went with this deep track vs the myriad hits on the album as it’s just a great country rock track.
  14. Tom Waits, Closing Time, “Ol’ 55” – I love this LP, but I’m partial to debut LPs. This version is so much better than the one by the Eagles done a few years later.
  15. The Byrds, The Byrds, “Full Circle” – From the final reunion of the original members of the Byrds. It was a dud commercially but this is a great Gene Clark song.
  16. Led Zeppelin, Houses Of The Holy, “Over The Hills And Far Away” – Probably the best known track from the album. I almost went with “The Ocean” a favorite of the Rock Chick.
  17. Faces, Ooh La La, “Cindy Incidentally” – The Faces’ last gasp. It was the single, although the title track should have been. This LP is much better than it’s reputation.
  18. Fleetwood Mac, Penguin, “Remember Me” – A really pretty track from the late Christine McVie.
  19. Johnny Winter, Still Alive And Well, “Silver Train” – Johnny shaking his magic blues dust on a Stones track. Great Stones cover.
  20. J. Geils Band, Bloodshot, “Give It To Me” – This track starts off with a reggae vibe and turns into a guitar jam. It’s loose and perfect.
  21. David Bowie, Aladdin Sane, “The Jean Genie” – A song I used to nickname my good friend Jeanne… Aladdin Sane gets attention for it’s iconic cover, but trust me, pull the record out and put it on the turntable. I almost picked “Panic In Detroit” from this one.
  22. Bob Marley & The Wailers, Catch A Fire, “Stir It Up” – If you haven’t explored Marley any deeper than the greatest hits Legend, you need to. Start with this LP.
  23. Eagles, Desperado, “Tequila Sunrise” – From the second album. I left the title track for Linda Ronstadt below.
  24. Stephen Stills (Manassas), Down The Road, “Isn’t It About Time” – The second Manassas LP gets overlooked but this is a great Stills tune.
  25. Wings (Paul McCartney), Red Rose Speedway, “My Love” – From the first of 2 albums in ’73. Paul waxing on about his love does him good.
  26. Al Green, Call Me, “Call Me (Come Back Home)” – Even when he’s singing a break up song, Al sounds happy. One of his best tracks here.
  27. The Marshall Tucker Band, The Marshall Tucker Band, “Can’t You See” – Still one of my favorite train songs.
  28. Paul Simon, There Goes Rhymin’ Simon, “Kodachrome” –  I can close my eyes when I hear this and I’m in the back seat of mom’s car as she careens through traffic.
  29. George Harrison, Living In The Material World, “Give Me Love, (Give Me Peace On Earth)” – If you remove the ex-Beatle expectations Harrison faced, this album would have been much bigger. It’s fantastic a real gem.
  30. Joe Walsh, The Smoker You Drink The Player You Get, “Rocky Mountain Way” – One of the greatest rock anthems of all time.
  31. Sly & The Family Stone, Fresh, “If You Want Me To Stay” – I’m not a huge Sly fan but I’ve always loved this track.
  32. Bob Dylan, Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid (Soundtrack), “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” – Dylan’s iconic song later covered by Eric Clapton, Guns N Roses, and Warren Zevon to name a few.
  33. Queen, Queen, “Keep Yourself Alive” – I forget how hard Queen rocked in those early days.
  34. Grand Funk Railroad, We’re An American Band, “We’re An American Band” – A little patriotic rock n roll!
  35. ZZ Top, Tres Hombres, “La Grange” – From their best LP.
  36. New York Dolls, New York Dolls, “Personality Crisis” – I love the New York Dolls. This is basically early American punk rock.
  37. Steely Dan, Countdown To Ecstacy, “My Old School” – One of Steely’s best tracks from their second album. It’s based on a true story when Messrs Becker and Fagan were in college.
  38. Golden Earring, Moontan, “Radar Love” – This is one of those rock anthems that grabbed me in ’73 even before I’d started listening to music. I think this band had only 2 hits and this one is my favorite.
  39. Stevie Wonder, Innervisions, “Higher Ground” – Later covered by the Red Hot Chili Peppers which the Rock Chick likes better. Don’t tell her but I’m partial to the original.
  40. Lynyrd Skynyrd, (Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd), “Gimme Three Steps” – Great song about talking to the wrong woman in a bar.
  41. The Rolling Stones, Goats Head Soup, “Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)” – I could have gone with “Angie” but we’ve all heard that one 100 times.
  42. The Allman Brothers Band, Brothers And Sisters, “Jessica” – Their finest instrumental. I love when the piano solo kicks in, played by Chuck Leavell who later played with Eric Clapton and the Stones. I could have gone with “Ramblin’ Man” but this is a personal favorite.
  43. Marvin Gaye, Let’s Get It On, “Let’s Get It On” – Marvin has left behind the worldy concerns of 1971’s What’s Going On for more…temporal concerns.
  44. Van Morrison, Hard Nose The Highway, “Warm Love” – A great song from an uneven album.
  45. Bruce Springsteen, The Wild, The Innocent & The E-Street Shuffle, “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” – An epic that became a concert staple for years. This is my absolute favorite Springsteen album.
  46. Thin Lizzy, Vagabonds Of The Western World, “Whiskey In A Jar” – Thin Lizzy never got their due. This track was later covered by Metallica.
  47. Linda Ronstadt, Don’t Cry Now, “Desperado” – It was Ronstadt’s cover of “Desperado” that helped make the song a hit for the Eagles.
  48. Elton John, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, “Bennie And The Jets” – From his second legendary LP of the year. I could have picked almost any track on the album but I’m partial to this one for sentimental reasons.
  49. Fleetwood Mac, Mystery To Me, “Hypnotized” – This one is a great track from Bob Welch.
  50. Grateful Dead, Wake Of The Flood, “Eyes Of The World” – I had to have some Dead on here. It’s 1973.
  51. Bob Marley & The Wailers, Burnin’, “Get Up, Stand Up” – I may like Burnin’ even better than Catch A Fire.
  52. Montrose, Montrose, “Bad Motor Scooter” – The world’s introduction to Sammy Hagar. A young lad is afraid of his girlfriend’s dad but still wants her to come out for a motorcycle ride.
  53. Steve Miller Band, The Joker, “The Joker” – A song that takes me back to college… but those records are sealed.
  54. Peter Frampton, Frampton’s Camel, “Do You Feel Like We Do” – Frampton never seemed to find the magic in the studio but the more I go back and listen to original versions of tunes that we all heard live for the first time on Frampton Comes Alive the more I like them.
  55. Rick Derringer, All American Boy, “Rock And Roll, Hoochie Koo” – A song he originally did when he was in the Johnny Winter band.
  56. Jackson Browne, For Everyman, “These Days” – Jackson’s 2nd album was mostly comprised of songs he’d written for other people prior to getting his own record contract. “These Days” had been covered by Nico and Gregg Allman and is truly one of his greatest songs.
  57. Gregg Allman, Laid Back, “Midnight Rider” – A complete re-imagining of the original. I probably like the band version better but I love this version as well.
  58. Ringo Starr, Ringo, “Photograph” – It’s nice to think that Ringo used to have hits.
  59. J. Geils Band, Ladies Invited, “The Lady Makes Demands” – Another great song from J Geils Band. They were just too loose and groovy in the early days to hit it bit. Too bad, it’s all great music.
  60. Paul McCartney & Wings, Live And Let Die Soundtrack, “Live And Let Die” – The name is Bond, James Bond.
  61. Billy Joel, Piano Man, “Piano Man” – From his second album which is considered his debut by many. Autobiographical.
  62. John Lennon, Mind Games, “Mind Games” – Lennon’s solo work is often called “uneven,” but I love this song.
  63. Alice Cooper, Muscle Of Love, “Teenage Lament ’74” – A ballad from their second LP of the year.
  64. Electric Light Orchestra, On The Third Day, “Showdown” – I like to give my friend Doug shit about being an ELO fan but I love this song. A lover telling his lady, “there’s gonna be a showdown” baby. Sadly been there.
  65. Black Sabbath, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” – Such a great, heavy tune. Their first five LPs are perfect.
  66. Wings (Paul McCartney), Band On The Run, “Jet” – Again, I could have picked any song on this album. I just like this one.
  67. The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Ozark Mountain Daredevils, “If You Wanna Get To Heaven” – I live too close to the Ozarks not to have included this one. I took this as gospel… so I raised a little Hell. Well, maybe a lot of Hell.
  68. Sweet, Released as a single, “Ballroom Blitz” – A great great single. Iconic.
  69. T. Rex, Released as a single, “20th Century Boy” – I’ve only recently gotten on the T Rex bandwagon but I think this is one of their best songs outside of “Bang A Gong.”
  70. The Who, Quadrophenia, “Love Reign O’er Me” – The perfect end for this playlist and the album it came from. I remember feeling this way once upon a time…

There it is folks, 1973 in song. Again, if I missed one of your favorites – and believe me I had to remove a bunch of songs and this is still my longest playlist ever – just mention your tune in the comments and I’ll add it to the playlist.

Again, Happy New Year and I hope that 2023 is a serene and happy year for everybody.

Playlist: Happy Labor Day Weekend – Songs For All The “Working Stiffs” & The Saga Of My Summer Jobs

~ kcorsini ~ 12 Comments

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*Image above taken from the Internet and likely copyright

I can’t believe it’s already Labor Day Weekend. I guess Steve Miller was right, “time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’ into the future.” This coming Monday is Labor Day, a day to celebrate Labor and working people and is generally a day of vacation for people. Labor Day was established as a Federal holiday in the U.S. as the first Monday in September in 1894. Prior to that 30 states had an official state holiday honoring Labor. Oregon was the first state to declare a state holiday for Labor Day so good on them. Most other nations celebrate Labor on May Day, or May 1st. It’s comforting to know that we pause as a nation and celebrate working people. For a long time I thought Labor Day was just a holiday that signaled the end of summer. I mean, how else would local municipalities know it was time to close the city pool? Memorial Day is the start of summer in the U.S. and Labor Day wraps it up.

I’m a white collar guy now but I still consider myself a working class dog, as Rick Springfield once sang. As awful as my current job can be at times it beats being a coal miner but then I’m claustrophobic. I have the utmost respect for Labor – it’s working people who built this country. Organized Labor helped build the middle class in America between 1932 and 1980. Even though I’m now merely a traveling salesman (see playlist) I still think back to my younger, high school/college days when I had to work every summer to pay for school. I had a number of difficult, dirty jobs.

My first job ever lasted exactly two weeks. There had never been a discussion at the house with my father, nicknamed The Hard Guy, telling me I had to get a job. My buddies were starting to get jobs and they always had walking around money for illicit beer purchases and vinyl records. Ever ambitious I felt I had to follow suit and applied for and got a job at my local Dairy Queen. While the surprised Hard Guy muttered approvingly when I got the job, the owner/manager was a sociopath with eyes that looked in two directions at once. He was not a nice man. Were it today, I would have suspected meth amphetamine abuse. The heat and grease that hung over the grille while I attempted to cook burgers and fries did wonders for my acne. I looked like a burn victim. Finally after the boss descended into a screaming fit because I didn’t clean up something properly I decided the culinary arts were perhaps not my chosen path.

Despite that, my next endeavor was as a busboy at a steak joint in the mall. I wore a white shirt, a bow tie and a leather tunic. I was the fastest busboy they had. I could clean a table in the blink of an eye. Although I must admit I started having nightmares that I was trundling my cart out into the dining room and all the tables were covered in dirty dishes… I’d wake up sweating from trying to dream bus tables… dreams are crazy. Perhaps that was a sign I wasn’t going to handle stress well. The steak joint had the advantage of actually having female employees. I met a bunch of girls who went to different high schools than I did which was an advantage, believe me. The steak joint was managed by a bunch of reprobates which may explain why they’d only seem to hire pretty girls… The cops came into the restaurant during a lunch rush one Saturday and arrested one of the assistant managers… he’d found an abandoned car along the highway and allegedly stole the license plate. We never saw him again. We would typically spend our breaks at the restaurant on night shifts standing in the walk-in cooler drinking beer and talking trash to the hostesses. It was a tough job but someone had to do it. I worked at that place on and off even through my early college years.

While those indoor jobs were fine and dandy there wasn’t much over the “minimal” wage in those jobs. The real money lie in working outside. My buddy Brewster was always an enterprising young lad and he stumbled upon a yard crew mowing an apartment lawn and asked the guy for a job. The next thing I knew, Brewster got me hired and after school every day I’d jump in his car and we’d go mow lawns until it got dark. The guy paid like $5/hour vs the $3.50 an hour I was getting at the mall. I was in the tall cotton now. Never mind the fact that I ruined a number of pairs of blue jeans turning them green. Mom wasn’t thrilled but the Hard Guy seemed to enjoy those evenings at the house while I was out working a little more. The outfit was known as Lewis’ Quality Lawn Service (name changed to protect the innocent). His hiring practices were somewhat suspect… I’m pretty sure there were more than one convict on the crew. At one house in the rich neighborhood we serviced, an old lady approached Bob (the owner/foreman), Brewster and I and asked “Who took a shit in my window well?” Sure enough…someone did. Brewster always said it was a guy named Sanchez (name changed to protect the truly innocent) but I wouldn’t put it past him to do such at thing. Brewster, if you’re out there, time to confess.

It was in that lawn mowing job I began to realize the class system in the U.S. was alive and well. One house we mowed, the guy had a white Rolls Royce and he’d park it in the circle drive out in front of the house all the time to show it off, I guess? It was a Friday and one of the neighbors was throwing a party, merely houses away just down the street. I mean, even I could walk down there to the party and I’d been mowing lawns all day. The son of the Rolls owner was about my age. And he came out front cradling an iced tea, watched us mow for a second and then yelled in the screen door, “Daaaadddy are we taking the Rolls to the party?” I was like dude, c’mon, don’t be such a douche bag, you can walk. Or at least offer us some damn iced tea. Ends up the family took the Rolls to the party. I’m surprised they didn’t ask me to drive… probably because I was sweaty and dirty. It was tough work but man what a tan I had.

Finally, in college my best bud Doug saved me from hustling to find a job and got me work with his dad’s company. They built and resurfaced tennis courts. It was hot sweaty work on sizzling asphalt but it paid well and again, the tan was spectacular and that’s how I really judged these things. I typically worked with a guy named Howard and a couple of bikers he’d hired… well until one of the bikers was killed, but that’s another story… Dave was a nice guy and I was truly sad about that… Anyway, when I took the gig I thought I’d be working with Doug on a more regular basis. I love the man but frankly when it came to physical labor I realized he was insane. He would describe days where he put in 12 hours or more as “Iron Days.” I would describe 12 hour-plus days as a “Nightmare.” My job was to work hard for 8 to 10 hours and then go spend that money on beer. Or better yet, shower and take my girlfriend to the Motel 6, but those records are sealed.

The worst part of the tennis court gig was working with wet cement and this paint that was called, I believe, Plexipave. You mixed the Plexipave with sand and cement and if you got a dab of it on you it turned hard on your legs enveloping your leg hair. I’d come home with sandy, hard, green lumps on my legs. My mom would make me take off my work clothes in the garage. I’d wrap myself in a towel and head up to sit in a bath tub – and I was strictly a shower guy – so I could soak the Plexipave off my leg hair instead of tearing the hair out by the root. I don’t know how women get waxed… it’s painful. The struggle is real and beauty is hard, ladies.

Despite all of that pain, sunburn, acne and burns from a hot grille, I wouldn’t trade one day of my checkered history as a working stiff. Those were glorious summers either at the mall or in some giant rich guy’s yard, mowing or resurfacing his tennis court. I actually ended up at a party at one of the houses we mowed… I kept thinking, what if she found out I mowed her dad’s lawn. There’s something to be said about hard work and how good it feels at the end of the day to crack a cold beer and realize that you’d accomplished something. There was no worrying about the job at night – save for those crazy busboy nightmares. It was a glorious time.

I felt it was essential to honor all of you out there doing actual hard work with a Labor Day Playlist. It can be found currently on Spotify under “BourbonAndVinyl.net Labor Day” (I’m looking at moving off Spotify, finally, in support of Neil Young). Here are some of my favorite songs about working and working people. I’m not a “9 to 5” or “Take This Job And Shove It” guy, so those songs aren’t here. It works playing straight through or on shuffle, dealer’s choice. It’s not meant to be exhaustive and if you have a song you’d like me to add, please put it in the comment section. As you grille hot dogs and hamburgers and drink some cold beer this weekend celebrating the unofficial end of summer, enjoy cranking up these tunes!

  1. The Beatles, “Hard Days Night” – Always great to kick off with a Beatles track. “I’ve been workin’ like a dog…” I’ve always liked the Beatles but ever since the Get Back documentary, Let It Be box set and the roof top concert came out it seems to have reignited my Beatles fandom.
  2. The Clash, “Career Opportunities” – “Career opportunities, the ones that never knocks.” I can relate to that. I am currently at the zenith of a mediocre career.
  3. Dire Straits, “Money For Nothing” – Where two working guys delivering appliances envy the lifestyle of Rock Stars in videos. So 80s…
  4. Huey Lewis & The News, “Workin’ For a Living” – Rare that I’d turn to Huey and his News but couldn’t resist this track. “I’m takin’ what their giving as I’m workin’ for a living.” Truth.
  5. Styx, “Blue Collar Man” – As I’ve grown older I’ve grown more conflicted about Styx but this Tommy Shaw tune – like most of the stuff he wrote – is a little tougher and more guitar forward.
  6. Lou Reed & John Cale, “Work” – This is the weirdest track here. But I couldn’t resist Lou Reed singing about Andy Warhol lecturing him on his work ethic. Even artists have to put in the sweat.
  7. Bob Marley & the Wailers, “Work” – Everyone should explore Marley’s work beyond just the greatest hits compilation Legend. This is a great track that spirals itself around my mind. “Everyday is work – work – work – work.” Bob knew the struggle was real.
  8. Elvis Costello, “Welcome To The Working Week” – The ultimate Monday morning song.
  9. Bob Dylan, “Union Sundown” – Great blues-rock track where Dylan laments the decline of unions which fought so hard for the American worker, and the sad fact that most of what you buy is made elsewhere. “Well, my shoes, they come from Singapore, My flashlight’s from Taiwan, My tablecloth’s from Malaysia.”
  10. Randy Newman, “Mr. President (Have Pity On The Working Man)” – Randy Newman, the greatest satirist of his time, making a plea to the President for the working man.
  11. Pete Townshend, “Keep On Working” – Pete encouraging us all to just keep on working…
  12. The Rolling Stones, “Dirty Work” – Not exactly a fit but who can resist a great Stones’ deep track. “You let somebody do the dirty work, find some loser, find some jerk.” Somehow I can relate to this in my working life…
  13. The Who, “Dirty Jobs” – Great track about bad jobs from Quadrophenia, my favorite of their many “concept albums.“
  14. Genesis, “Just A Job I Do” – A song about being either an assassin or a spy or perhaps both. Collins hits the drums hard to simulate a gun shot. Impressive. It sums up how I feel about work, it’s not a career it’s just a job I do.
  15. Lou Reed, “Don’t Talk To Me About Work” – Sometimes when you get home you just don’t want to talk about your job. Time to crack a beer and forget about it. “I’m up to my eye balls in dirt, with work.”
  16. Chris Rea, “I’m Workin’ On It” – This is one of my favorite tracks here. I know I could say this to my boss, “I got eight little fingers and only two thumbs, Will you leave me in peace while I get the work done.”
  17. Van Halen, “Get Up” – One of those early “trying-too-hard” rock tracks from the early Van Hagar era. “Get up and make it work.”
  18. Rush, “Working Man” – This is the ultimate song for the working man. Epic rock from one of the greatest bands of all time. Check out the live version on the Moving Pictures – 40th Anniversary Edition.
  19. Bachman Turner Overdrive, “Takin’ Care of Business” – Who could resist a little Bachman Turner Overdrive, “B – T – O!”? “I love to work on nothin’ all day.”
  20. Bruce Springsteen, “Working On The Highway” – Great track about building infrastructure until a young girl enters the picture. Very similar story to “Darlington County.”
  21. Prince, “Let’s Work” – This work doesn’t sound like what I’m talking about here but it’s Prince… get funky, baby.
  22. Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Workin’ For MCA” – I would think having a record contract and “working” for a record company would be good news for a band but clearly Skynyrd didn’t dig it.
  23. The Police, “Dead End Job” – Rare early track about well, not wanting a dead end job. Sting was a teacher, maybe he’s talking about that? Helluva fast pace.
  24. Bob Dylan, “Maggie’s Farm” – Where our narrator laments the working conditions on a family-owned agriculture concern. “I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more.”
  25. David Crosby and Graham Nash, “Fieldworker” – Great track honoring the folks who work on big farms asking for dignity and to be “treated like a human.” Good stuff from Graham Nash here.
  26. Neil Young, “Union Man” – This track won’t be on the playlist because, well, Spotify. “Loud music is better, bumper stickers should be issued.”
  27. Jim Croce, “Workin’ At The Car Wash Blues” – This one is for my folks. My dad was a huge Jim Croce fan and he may have been the only artist who the Hard Guy owned more than one record from.
  28. Bon Jovi, “Livin’ On A Prayer” – Where a young dock worker and his girlfriend, a waitress, struggle against the vicissitudes of capitalism and turn to religion and prayer.
  29. Van Morrison, “All Work And No Play” – “All work and no play makes Jack a dull chap.” That sums it up. Slip out early and have some fun this Labor Day.
  30. Bob Seger, “Makin’ Thunderbirds” – Great track about the American autoworker and lamentations on how we don’t build Thunderbirds anymore.
  31. Gary U.S. Bonds, “Out of Work” – With unemployment at a record low, one can only hope that most people can find a job. And that it pays a living wage…
  32. Little Steven & The Disciples of Soul, “Solidarity” – This lyric means the world to me: “Everybody wants to work for a living, Everybody wants to keep their children warm.” Indeed, everybody wants to work and take care of their family and earn a livable wage.
  33. Warren Zevon, “The Factory” – Warren Zevon, backed by R.E.M. on this album, singing about the hard life that factory workers face.
  34. R.E.M., “Finest Worksong” – Speaking of R.E.M., this is a great song from the first LP from them that I ever bought, Document. It actually is a fine work song.
  35. Bob Dylan, “Workingman’s Blues #2” – Dylan returning to the subject of the workingman. Does Dylan get enough credit for his mastery of the blues?
  36. Paul McCartney, “On My Way To Work” – McCartney reminiscing about his pre-Beatles working days.
  37. Godfathers, “Birth, School, Work, Death” – I was late to the Godfathers’ LP Birth, School, Work, Death but the title track sums up the circle of life for most of us.
  38. Todd Rundgren, “Bang The Drum All Day” – While I have no rhythm I’d rather bang a drum all day than work.
  39. Van Halen, “Beats Workin'” – Whatever you’re doing this Labor Day, it’s gotta beat workin’. What’s that bumper sticker, “The worst day fishing beats the best day workin'”? Truth. While Roth’s vocals could be described (as they were by my friend Dr. Rock) ” as the sound of a pet store full of animals burning down,” Eddie’s guitar work is always singular.
  40. Sam Cooke, “Chain Gang” – Sam singing about the deplorable practice of putting prisoners to work in chains. Watch the movie Cool Hand Luke if you have any doubts that this was a horrible thing.
  41. The Rolling Stones, “Factory Girl” – Dedicate one to the ladies… Rosie the Riveter, may I have this dance?
  42. Bruce Springsteen, “Factory” – Bruce writing about his dad and how hard he worked down at the factory.
  43. Van Morrison, “I’ve Been Working” – A great track that Bob Seger used to cover live. Funky, powerful… “I’ve been workin’, I’ve been workin’ so hard.” Even after a day of hard work, Van just wants to come and get some love.
  44. Chuck Berry, “Let It Rock” – A track where Chuck describes railroad workers and an impending accident. Where was OSHA?
  45. Steely Dan, “Dirty Work” – Again, a bit of reach here, as this is about a relationship instead of an actual job. But, if you think about it, relationships can be a lot of work. One of those early David Palmer on lead vocals Steely songs.
  46. Tom Waits, “I Can’t Wait To Get Off Work (And See My Baby On Montgomery Avenue)” – Beautiful ballad. I remember getting off whatever job I had, running home to shower and heading to see my baby. I love the lyric, “Don’t do this, don’t do that,” and then he speaks the line, “Tom don’t do that.”
  47. Neil Young & The Bluenotes, “Ten Men Working” – I listened to this on vinyl last night. It remains amongst those records maybe only I enjoy. This is a great track though.
  48. Peter Gabriel, “Don’t Give Up” – Beautiful ballad with Peter sharing lead vocals with Kate Bush who has recently seen a resurgence through the series Stranger Things. The song chronicles the doubts and despair of a working man and his wife offering words of encouragement, “Don’t give up, I know you can make it…” The devastating loss of and search for work is palpable. It’s a dialogue between husband and wife that is so intimate it feels like eavesdropping.
  49. Pearl Jam, “Unemployable” – Great Pearl Jam deep track. About a man whose frustrations about his precarious work situation has led to violence and perhaps even a loss of his religious faith. That’s a lot for a 3 minute rock song to take on. “I’m scared of life, near death.” Heavy themes set to heavy rock.
  50. U2, “The Hands That Built America” – The ranks of Labor – many of whom were immigrants – built the skyscrapers the 1% could hide away in while forgetting about us.
  51. Billy Joel, “Allentown” – The classic Rust Belt song.
  52. Loverboy, “Workin’ For the Weekend” – I don’t like Loverboy although admittedly we all listened to them back in the day and this isn’t a bad song. I knew if I omitted this song, it’d be one of the first to be recommended so I bit the bullet and added it. More cowbell!
  53. Bruce Springsteen, “Workin’ On a Dream” – I included this on my Playlists about the Surreal Realm of Dreaming, and hesitated to add it to this one, but this lyric jumped at me, “Rain pourin’ down, I swing my hammer, My hands are rough from working on a dream…” That’s working, man.
  54. ZZ Top, “Just Got Paid” – Why do we work? To get paid. When I heard, “If you believe I like workin’ hard all day, Just step in my shoes and take my pay,” I realized it totally fit. This riff is greasier than a bacon sandwich on Wonder bread. Turn it up and pass the napkins.
  55. John Lennon, “Working Class Hero” – This is one of the most nakedly honest songs I’ve ever heard. It’s tough but he’s not wrong.
  56. Merle Haggard, “Workin’ Man Blues” – I saw Merle Haggard live opening for Dylan and his voice was like smooth, aged whiskey. I rarely include any country songs – outside of Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson – but this is a great song. Come for his voice, stay for lyrics like “I’ll keep workin’ as long as my two hands are fit to use, I’ll drink my beer in a tavern and sing a little bit of these working man blues.” Barkeep, another round for the working man at the end of the bar.

There you go! Again, turn this one up loud and enjoy your day off, God knows you’ve earned it. I welcome any and all suggestions for additions to the list in the comment section. Be safe this weekend!

Cheers!

Playlist: Our Favorite Songs About The Surreal Realm of Dreams/Dreaming

~ kcorsini ~ 6 Comments

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*Image of Freud (apparently interpreting dreams) taken from the internet and likely subject to copyright

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Editor’s Note: Right before I went to bed last night I saw the terrible, terrible news that the world of rock n roll had lost another bright light. Foo Fighters’ drummer Taylor Hawkins, dead at 50. Such terrible, terrible sad news. My condolences to Taylor’s family (especially his 3 kids) and to Dave Grohl and all the Foo Fighter’s family. I’m not a huge fan of the Foo Fighters but this one did hit me kind of hard… fifty is still so  young.

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“To sleep, perchance to dream” – Hamlet, William Shakespeare

I’ve always had a more classical bent to my reading. While the Rock Chick is prone to reading murder mysteries I’m more likely to be found reading ‘The Canterbury Tales.’ I’m not suggesting that’s better, it’s probably just weirder. Don’t get me wrong, any more I’m as likely to be reading Michael Connelly as Ernest Hemingway. I had a History Professor in college who, along with an English Professor, had published a reading list which I bought for $2 and it has provided me a lifetime of entertainment. That’s all well and good, but it gets me funny looks.

I was in an airport with the guy who hired me to my current company, many years ago, and I purchased Freud’s The Interpretation Of Dreams at the airport news stand. The guy I was with – we are both Traveling Salesmen – was horrified. My mom had a friend who was a psychologist and I mentioned to him I was reading Freud and even he shuddered…”Find a nice murder mystery, it’s easier to read.” He’d clearly been traumatized somewhere along his educational path by having to write a paper about Freud. In truth I only finished about 2/3’s of the book. Freud gets down in the weeds of trying to break dreams down into a mathematical formula.

While most of Freud’s theories have fallen out of favor amongst the psychological community, you have to give the guy credit. He was really the first person to delve into the surreal mental area of dreams. Freud theorized that the events of your day inspire thoughts and those thoughts are the raw material of your dreams. You eat an apple for lunch and it reminds you of your mother baking a pie and that night you dream your mother is smoking a cigar while juggling pies. Hey, “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar,” folks. I don’t know if anybody will ever be able to tell us why we dream what we dream but it’s certainly interesting to wonder.

Last year I posted a playlist of songs about Sleeping, or my inability to sleep anyway. Longtime readers know I’m a sucker for a thematic playlist… My playlists are really more about trying to expose people to deep tracks or songs they might not have heard (or not heard in a while, anyway). Like this post, I led it off with the Shakespeare quote from Hamlet, from his most famous soliloquy, “To sleep, perchance to dream.” Hamlet was actually contemplating death, that whole “To be or not to be” thing. By “to sleep” he meant “to die” and the dreams he spoke of, which actually terrified him, symbolized what you saw after death. Leave it to me to take a lighthearted rock n roll playlist and go heavy on you… but I guess that’s my M.O.

For this post, I don’t mean anything quite that heavy. I’m just thinking about dreams. It amuses me that they also use the word “dreams” for our aspirations. It makes our wishes seem unattainable. It was George Carlin who once said, “They call it the American Dream because you’d have to be asleep to believe it.” There are plenty of songs on this list that pertain to that whole aspirational dream thing. There are also a few tracks that are about day dreaming. But what is a day dream but a dream that you’re actually conscious for and can actively choreograph. For me, when I think of dreams, I’m thinking about the theater of the mind, when you’ve finally gone into that deep R.E.M. sleep and the subconscious takes over.

As an insomniac there are many nights I don’t dream. But when I do they’re vivid. And usually not hard to interpret. Many people have recurring dreams. I’ve had the dream of falling but not since I was a kid. I’ve had the dream where I’m being menaced and I try to run but my body won’t move… I usually start making horrible noises in my sleep and the Rock Chick wakes me, thank god. I used to have a recurring dream where I was naked in public – like down at the mall – and I was trying to get home… standing behind anything I can find so people can’t see me. I’ve never had the dream where my teeth are falling out but apparently that is a common one. Another common dream I’d like to have is the dream that you’re flying – without an airplane. How cool would that be?

The most common recurring dream I have is set in college. I’m my current age, yet I’m in college. I have to go take an English final (ironically, my weakest subject). But I haven’t been in the class all semester. Many times in the dream I struggle to find the right classroom. If I fail this exam I’ll have to stay in college another semester. In some versions of this recurring dream, I actually skip to the part where I’m looking to find a place to stay because I flunked the exam. The prospect of living with the Vikings I lived with back in the day horrifies me. These are not pleasant dreams. I’ve grown accustomed to an easier lifestyle where I actually bathe and don’t eat fast food all the time.

In good times I dream about being with all my old pals and drinking fine bourbon. Those are great dreams. I always know when I’m happy dreaming. Those are rare. My recurring bad dream involves loss. Sometimes I’m visited by dead relatives – or believe or not, a favorite pet – and they are trying to deliver a message. I’m lost in a parking lot, or some innocuous place and my grandfather shows up 40 years after his death to tell me I’m lost… yeah, grandpa I get that. There are some who might believe this is a visitation from the spiritual world. I just think those people we’ve lost symbolize something to us and their appearance in the dream is merely metaphoric, not some ghost contact. I lost my grandfather, my first close relative to pass, when I was in high school. It was tough. That left a mark and that wound surfaces in dreams…

The worst dreams I have are usually when I see a person whose relationship with me ended long ago. Sometimes it’s the deceased persons mentioned above but more likely it’s someone I’ve had a falling out with or a former lover I’ve broken up with. I’m not pining for anybody but those severed relationships, like the loss of my grandfather left a scar. Those people have come to symbolize loss and pain. Especially when the break occurred early on in your life. When things are going badly or I suffer a defeat or loss those “symbols of loss and pain” pop into my head to underscore the fact. My subconscious seems hell bent on torturing me. I struggle to sleep and if things are going bad my mind creates horrible dreams for me.

It’s not always a miserable dream like that. Last night I dreamed I was in a fine restaurant with the Rock Chick and some old buddies and we were eating and drinking and telling old stories – stories that didn’t really make sense in the context of the dream but hey, who cares. Sometimes things I see in my dream happen in real life later down the road. I know that sounds crazy. I used to think that was deja vu but I’m told it’s something called precognition. It’s probably just another trick my brain plays on me. I just hope last night’s dream was one of those that actually happen… it looked like a fun night.

Without further adieu, here are our favorite songs about dreams or dreaming. You’ll find this on Spotify under BourbonAndvinyl.net Dreams/Dreaming. I stand with Neil Young on the whole Spotify thing and that moron Joe Rogan but after all these years it’d be impractical to try and re-platform all our playlists. I’m still looking into it. Neil is on this playlist here in the B&V labs but obviously not on this playlist. As always, if you have a favorite “dream’ themed track, please put it in the comments section and I’ll add it to the playlist. The playlists are, as always, a B&V community thing, not just my purview.

  1. Rainbow, “Street Of Dreams” – I’ve always liked Rainbow, I need to get them on the playlists more often. For some reason this song always reminds me of ‘Nightmare On Elm Street.’
  2. Bruce Springsteen, “I’ll See You In My Dreams” – Great track from Letter To You about seeing his old bandmates in his dreams… I see my old pals in dreams as well.
  3. Alice Cooper, “Caught In A Dream” – Old Alice Cooper is just sooo damn good.
  4. Queensryche, “Silent Lucidity” – I know it sounds like a cop-out but this is my favorite Queensryche track.
  5. Fleetwood Mac, “Dreams” – This song has stuck with me from grade school and evokes the memory of being at the city pool and hearing it on the loudspeaker. I wonder if I’ll dream about that tonight…
  6. Arc Angels, “Living In A Dream” – I hear the Arc Angels (Doyle Bramhall III and Charlie Sexton w/ Stevie Ray Vaughn’s rhythm section) have reunited. I hope so.
  7. Neil Young, “Dreamin’ Man” – While not on the Spotify version of this list, this is still a great acoustic track from Neil.
  8. Ozzy Osbourne, “Dreamer” – I wanted the song “Nightmares” which is a bonus track and not on Spotify, so I went with this great, late-period, Beatlesque track.
  9. David Bowie, “Moonage Daydream” – Like I said, a daydream is just a dream we can choreograph…
  10. Fiona Apple, “Sleep To Dream” – One of two tracks that’s also on our Sleep playlist.
  11. Talking Heads, “City of Dreams” – Great track from an often overlooked LP.
  12. Depeche Mode, “Dream On” – The Rock Chick turned me onto this track.
  13. Alice Cooper, “Welcome To My Nightmare” – Sometimes dreams go bad… hence I had to include a nightmare track.
  14. Supertramp, “Dreamer” – You never hear Supertramp any more and that’s too bad.
  15. The Cult, “Dreamtime” – From their great debut LP. I’m going to see these guys later this spring.
  16. Cream, “Dreaming” – Surreal track fits this playlist perfectly.
  17. Judas Priest, “Dreamer, Deceiver” – An epic ballad with a great guitar solo. This one is for my friend Stormin’ as he loves this track.
  18. AC/DC, “Rock N Roll Dream” – Have AC/DC done a bad album? I think not. Great deep track here.
  19. Blondie, “Dreaming” – I’ve always dug Blondie.
  20. Stevie Nicks, “In Your Dreams” – Stevie Nicks is quietly having a late career resurgence that everyone should be checking out.
  21. Aerosmith, “Dream On” – Well, you knew this one was gonna be here.
  22. Talking Heads, “Dream Operator” – A second track from the aforementioned overlooked LP, True Stories.
  23. Neil Young, “Pocahontas” – This has got to be the description of a dream. There’s no way someone consciously comes up with “Marlon Brando, Pocahontas and me…”
  24. Mudcrutch, “Dreams of Flying” – Great track. I wish I’d have a dream like this.
  25. Van Morrison, “These Dreams of You” – Van in happier, saner days.
  26. Crosby, Stills & Nash, “In My Dreams” – Another great CSN track that you won’t find on Spotify.
  27. Bob Dylan, “Dreamin’ Of You” – Great, late period Dylan.
  28. Python Lee Jackson (Featuring Rod Stewart), “In A Broken Dream” – Early Rod Stewart before he was well, Rod Stewart. He just sings the crap out of this song.
  29. Dave Matthews Band, “Dreamgirl” – Great boozy love song.
  30. Elvis Presley, “If I Can Dream” – Elvis making a huge statement about racism and the state of the nation. The King goes big and kills it!
  31. Bruce Springsteen, “Book of Dreams” – A quiet track from Lucky Town. The ballads from that era tended to be better than the rockers.
  32. Van Halen, “Dreams” – Van Hagar era track with keyboards.
  33. Joe Walsh, “Dreams” – The Rock Chick has been getting into Joe lately, which is awesome. We saw him open for Tom Petty the last time we saw him and Joe delivered.
  34. Eurythmics, “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)” – Another perfect fit.
  35. Cheap Trick, “Dream The Night Away” – Cheap Trick have so many great tunes.
  36. Beck, “Dreams” – Great song from a bad album.
  37. David Crosby & Graham Nash, “Cowboy of Dreams’ – Seek this deep track out. You’ll thank me.
  38. Van Morrison, “Call Me Up In Dreamland” – Another track from Van’s prime.
  39. Randy Newman, “Last Night I Had A Dream” – I love Randy Newman. “Last night I had a dream… you were in it and I was in it…”
  40. Bob Dylan, “Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream” – Great track about Dylan and Captain Ahab finding America and getting busted by the cops.
  41. Cheap Trick, “Dream Police” – Great paranoid rock anthem.
  42. The Allman Brothers, “Dreams” – I shy away from tracks that run 7 minutes on my playlists but I couldn’t omit this seminal Allman Brothers track.
  43. Aretha Franklin, “Don’t Let Me Lose This Dream” – The Queen of Soul’s birthday was this week… had to include her.
  44. R.E.M., “I Don’t Sleep, I Dream” – The second track that does double duty on this playlist and our Sleep playlist.
  45. Pink Floyd, “The Gunners Dream” – I love this track. A guy dreaming about a fellow soldier’s dream… Roger Water recently re did this song.
  46. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Dreamville” – A lighthearted moment from The Last DJ.
  47. Dave Matthews Band, “Sleep To Dream Her” – This track always stuck out to me.
  48. John Lennon, “#9 Dream” – There are so many great Lennon solo tracks out there.
  49. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Angel Dream (No. 4)” – Beautiful song from the She’s The One Soundtrack and the recently re-imagined version of the album, Angel Dream.
  50. Green Day, “Boulevard Of Broken Dreams” – I’ve sort of lost touch with Green Day these days but this is one of their biggest tracks.
  51. CSNY, “Dream For Him” – Another great David Crosby penned track.
  52. Van Halen, “Little Dreamer” – From their legendary eponymous debut LP.

Reader Suggestions:

  1. Neil Young, “After the Goldrush” – A song that was on an early incarnation of this list that I just plum forgot. Great reader suggestion. Although you won’t find this on our Spotify playlist for obvious reasons.
  2. Lovin’ Spoonful, “Daydreamin'” – Another great reader suggestion.

That’s it folks. Let me know if you have anything to add! And, as always, may your dreams be pleasant and light… I’ll take care of the heavy bad dreams down here in the B&V labs…

Cheers!

B&V Playlist: Songs About Sleeping, A “Celebration” Of Insomnia… For My Fellow Insomniacs – If We Can’t Sleep, Let’s Rock

~ kcorsini ~ 11 Comments

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“To sleep, perchance to dream…” – Hamlet

I was on the road for work this week. That used to be a weekly experience in my chosen profession as a traveling salesman, but now it just feels weird. Everywhere you go there are different rules and protocols around masks and safety which leaves me feeling out of step with the locals. There are certainly more lax attitudes toward masks the farther below the Mason-Dixon line you travel. With all the work travel I’ve done in my career – and it’s a lot… I feel like I’ve spent half my adult life waiting around in airports trying to catch an earlier flight – you’d think I’d be used to staying in hotels. But as I was painfully reminded this week in Louisville (bourbon capitol of the world), I can’t sleep in hotel rooms. I don’t know if it’s the strange bed and surroundings that throw me off or if maybe flying does something to my inner ear that makes sleeping impossible on the road. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that I can’t sleep when I travel, Lord knows I don’t sleep much better when I’m home.

I’ve always had a precarious relationship with sleep. I’ve had trouble turning my mind off and getting to sleep since I was a kid. Any more I can get myself to sleep but if I awake in the night, and I often do, I really struggle to get back to blissful sleep. They say you should get up and go read a book or something if you’re awake more than thirty minutes but in this tiny rental that I call the van down by the river where we live, I can’t make a move without waking the Rock Chick. That only compounds the problem: I’m up which is a drag but if I wake her, now I’m dealing with an angry, awakened spouse. As much as I hated it when she used to wake me up at 5:30am when she’d get up for work – she was raised on a farm… country people just get up early – her anger is doubled when I get out of bed at 3am and “walk the perimeter” as she describes my midnight wanderings. It doesn’t help that the cat sees me get up and thinks it’s time to eat and goes off like a tornado siren. It’s like he’s thinking, “Hey, we’re all up lets eat!” I had to negotiate with her early in our marriage to let me sleep until 9 on Saturdays and Sundays… they were my “sleep catch up days.”

My parents are partially to blame for my idiosyncrasies around sleeping. We moved when I was in fifth grade. I hated the elementary school I was attending but transferring to a new school seemed like an infinitely worse option. Let’s just say I was adverse to change. We changed my stepdaughter’s school a number of times when she was growing up and she adapted wonderfully with nary a complaint. What we didn’t realize was that we were just expanding her “criminal” network. She knew all the party kids in every school in town. It’s amazing what an upstanding citizen she’s become now… but I’m off track. When my parents moved us I reacted with the angry melodrama of a teenage girl… and I was an eleven year old boy. All of my bitching must have gotten to my parents because my bedroom was the last one to get any furniture. I had a bed and all my clothes were in boxes. In a fit of over-the-top complaining, I accidentally tore the rolling blinds off the window. I bent the metal clasp that held the damn thing and we couldn’t fix it. The window faced east. When the sun came up in the morning it felt like it was rising in my bedroom. After two days of being awakened at sunrise, I went to the linen closet and got a spare feather pillow that night and wrappedit tightly around my head. That provided darkness and silence. It was my “head fort.” Sadly, I got used to it and have had to sleep with a pillow on my head ever since. Try to explain that when you’re an adult and… entertaining… a young lady friend. “Yeah, I’m a freak, I sleep with a pillow on my head.” I also folded my hands on my chest Lilly Munster style which only sparked rumors that I might be a vampire.

When I reached college the people I lived with enjoyed messing with the kid with the pillow on his head. I didn’t sleep at night so I’d often sneak off and nap. My roommates would vie with each other on who got to wake me up. If I was in a really deep sleep and you shook me awake or called my name it would typically result in my screaming and throwing the pillow. It’s like I was terrified about waking up. I once famously exclaimed, while being awakened, “Sleep is hell.” With all of these people hazing me when I was asleep, it’s a wonder that I was able to nod off at all. Drinking didn’t even help. It would help you get to sleep but once your body burns off the alcohol the sugar wakes you up and I mean WAKES you up. There’s nothing like being slightly hungover and wired at 3am sitting on the edge of the bed and re-litigating every bad decision you’ve ever made. I guess I would amend my statement from college to “Waking up is hell.”

Today it’s not much easier to sleep. Uncertainties in the political landscape, the pandemic still hanging on, the Chiefs playing like shit and work being more stressful than ever all combine to keep me awake for days. I literally can’t let my mind wander too far in any direction or I’m up pacing the floor until the cat emits his visceral “meow” and then the Rock Chick is yelling, “What the fuck are you doing,” and I’ve got a full scale insomniac disaster on my hands. People, the struggles are real. I can’t help but remember when I was a kid and it was bed time how I’d stall and stall. My parents would have to battle with me to go to bed. I’d beg to watch the news so I could see the sports… then it was Carson’s monologue… Finally my parents just put an old black-and-white portable TV in my room and hoped I’d eventually fall asleep. Anything to get me out of the living room and upstairs. Now, I can’t wait to lay down. From there I just have to hope my mind cooperates and I can drift off. I often do the B&V version of counting sheep – I name my albums, alphabetically by artist… I start with AC/DC’s Back In Black and if I make it all the way to Cream I know I’m probably not gonna go to sleep.

I was laying awake in a Louisville Hilton this week worrying about something or other and so I got up and fished out my iTouch from the computer bag. I was shuffling through some music. I started with some recent stuff, Mellencamp’s new song “Wasted Days,” and Bowie’s covers songs (“Trying To Get To Heaven”) but then started randomly selecting stuff. I heard the Beatles “I’m Only Sleeping,” and then “I’m So Tired.” I realized I might be onto something. If I can’t sleep I might as well rock and roll. I started stringing tracks together on the theme of sleep and waking up and pretty soon I had 50 songs. I realize that sleep can often be a metaphor for death so I ended up excluding the great blues rock track “Sleeping In the Ground” from Blind Faith. If there are any other great tunes on this subject, put them in the “comments” section and I’ll add them to the Spotify playlist. Here are my picks:

  1. The Beatles, “I’m Only Sleeping” – The track that gave me the idea… I’ve been listening to a lot of Beatles lately…
  2. Billy Joel, “Sleeping With The Television On” – I personally can’t sleep with any light or noise in the room so no TV for me. It’s hard to watch TV with a pillow on your head. From his great punk-influenced record Glass Houses.
  3. Audioslave, “Wide Awake” – Great rock song, “I found you guilty of the crime of sleeping when you should have been wide awake.” Rest assured Audioslave… I’m always wide awake.
  4. Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie, “Sleeping Around the Corner” – From their great self-titled LP, there’s also a Lindsey solo version out there.
  5. Smashing Pumpkins, “In The Arms of Sleep” – Deep cut from their magnum opus Melon Collie & The Infinite Sadness.
  6. R.E.M., “Daysleeper” – Oh how I miss napping. The Rock Chick frowns on the practice… marriage is a compromise. Y’know, Elvis was a “daysleeper.”
  7. The Beatles, “I’m So Tired” – Indeed I am…
  8. The Cure, “Lullaby” – A song about a man being eaten by a spider. Don’t even get me started on my dreams…
  9. The Rolling Stones, “Who’s Been Sleeping Here?” – I don’t think the person this is addressed to is doing much sleeping but I do think they’re having more fun than I am.
  10. Starcrawler, “Born Asleep” – Great song from a great new-ish band.
  11. U2, “Sleep Like A Baby Tonight” – People were mad about Songs of Innocence but there’s some good stuff on it.
  12. Jack White, “I Guess I Should Go To Sleep” – I love Jack White. Check out his new tune “Taking Me Back.”
  13. Smithereens, “Behind The Wall of Sleep” – I’ve only recently discovered the Smithereens. What a great rock band.
  14. Graham Nash, “Sleep Song” – From his first solo album.
  15. The Cult, “Wake Up Time For Freedom” – A very relevant call to arms in today’s troubled, divided times.
  16. Eddie Money, “We Should Be Sleeping” – A barrel-house rocker. I love the Money Man.
  17. The Pretenders, “I Go To Sleep” – From their great 2nd LP.
  18. Cream, “Sleepy, Sleepy Time” – So many rock bands have explored this topic.
  19. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, “I’m Tired Joey Boy” – A live cover of a Van Morrison song. I just like this version better.
  20. Pearl Jam, “Sleeping By Myself” – Also done solo by Vedder on a ukulele.
  21. Metallica, “Until It Sleeps” – My all time favorite Metallica song. I can’t explain it… this track gets me pumped up which perhaps means I shouldn’t be listening to it while trying to sleep.
  22. Norah Jones, “Wake Me Up” – That voice… I’d pay to have her come sit by my bed and sing me to sleep. Only B&V would put Norah Jones and Metallica on the same playlist. Open your minds, folks.
  23. Robert Plant, “Your Ma Said You Cried In Your Sleep Last Night” – I love this bizarre deep track.
  24. Beastie Boys, “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” – Iconic rap rock.
  25. John Mellencamp, “Warmer Place To Sleep” – I’ve always loved this funky rocker.
  26. The Modern Lovers, “I Wanna Sleep In Your Arms” – I love these weird bastards.
  27. Fiona Apple, “Sleep To Dream” – I’ve been a fan of hers since the beginning. This track is from her debut.
  28. Jack White, “Weep Themselves To Sleep” – I can’t wait for his next solo album.
  29. Warren Zevon, “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” – There’s so much essential Zevon out there.
  30. The Kinks, “Sleepwalker” – I feel like the Kinks don’t get enough attention on B&V. I need to work on that.
  31. Jimmy Page & the Black Crowes, “Woke Up This Morning” – Page & the Crowes doing a live cover of an old blues track.
  32. Nirvana, “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” – I think Cobain was secretly a blues fan.
  33. Bob Marley & The Wailers, “Wake Up and Live” – Wise advice from Bob.
  34. Leonard Cohen, “Lullaby” – I love late period Cohen. The voice is gravelly but his last few records are the type that B&V was founded to extol.
  35. Peter Wolf, “Sleepless” – Title track from his best solo LP.
  36. John Lennon, “How Do You Sleep?” – His angry song aimed at McCartney. This is just such a hateful track. But if I were to answer John, it’d be, “not very well.”
  37. Paul Simon, “Insomniac’s Lullaby” – This could have been the title of this playlist.
  38. Jackson Browne, “Sleeps Dark And Silent Gate” – This one is clearly a metaphor for death… in this case I believe written for his late wife after she committed suicide. It’s too pretty a song to exclude.
  39. Tom Petty, “Wake Up Time” – From his masterpiece Wildflowers.
  40. Billy Idol, “Endless Sleep” – Another great deep track.
  41. R.E.M., “I Don’t Sleep I Dream” – I don’t do either, really.
  42. The Romantics, “Talking In Your Sleep” – I sometimes wake up screaming… No talking, literally screaming. Sleep is hell.
  43. Billy Joel, “Lullabye (Goodnight My Angel)” – A lovely track written for his daughter.
  44. The Wallflowers, “Sleepwalker” – I always thought Jakob Dylan’s group was a solid rock band.
  45. David Bowie, “Let Me Sleep Beside You” – From the aborted Toy album which will finally see release this year.
  46. Ozzy Osbourne, “So Tired” – Produced by Jeff Lynne of ELO fame. Truly strange bedfellows.
  47. Eddie Vedder, “Sleepless Nights” – From the aforementioned ukulele based solo album.
  48. Tom Waits, “Midnight Lullaby” – From his brilliant debut album.
  49. Queen, “Sleeping On The Sidewalk” – This reminds me of a funny story about my brother in college, but those records are sealed.
  50. The Rolling Stones, “Sleep Tonight” – A perfect place to end this list… A Keith song and a ballad no less.

There ya go folks! Again, if I missed any, put them in the comments section and I’ll add them to the Spotify playlist. I like to think of these playlists as “ours” vs “mine.” If you’re an insomniac like me, here’s hoping that you’ll fall asleep soon. If not, hopefully these tracks will entertain you while the rest of the world is sleeping.

Cheers!

Playlist: Rock Songs About Dancing – For All The Wallflowers Like Me Who Can’t Dance

~ kcorsini ~ 13 Comments

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“Just like you I’m wonderin’ what I’m doing here, just like you I’m wonderin’ what’s going on, wallflower, wallflower won’t you dance with me…”

 I saw an article on-line the other day about common phobias. I was always under the impression that public speaking was the most commonly cited fear. I know the Rock Chick and my daughter would rather be scalded with boiling oil than stand in front of a crowd of people and say something. I do that all the time at work, well, I used to before becoming Boo Radley and hiding in my attic for a year. I’ve given speeches at work, wedding toasts and to date one eulogy in front of 100s of people. Public speaking wasn’t even on the list. Actually, the number one thing people fear is heights. I can understand that. I get a twinge of vertigo when I’m up high. They say that vertigo is really a fear you’ll jump rather than a fear you’ll fall which I find wonderfully dark. The only thing I would describe myself as “phobic” about wasn’t even on the list… it’s dancing.

Webster’s defines “wallflower” as “a person who from shyness or unpopularity remains on the sidelines of a social activity (such as a dance).” That pretty much describes me. I’ll even admit the “unpopularity” part of it hits closer to home than I’d care to admit. Dancing, in public anyway, was never much of an issue for me until I reached the seventh grade. When I was growing up, 7th grade through 9th grade was split off as junior high school. When we all reached junior high at the ripe old age of thirteen, they paraded us all into the cafeteria, which had been cleared of all the dining tables, and announced it was “the 7th Grade Dance.” They’d brought in a few girls from the 9th grade to “get the party started” as they say. These Amazonian women – and make no mistake there was a huge difference between 13 and 15, these weren’t girls in our eyes, they were young women – started knifing into the crowd like dobermans chasing a shoplifter searching for 7th grade boys to drag onto the dance floor. Sure, they were enticing but we ran like we’d just escaped a chain gang. I’d never seen boys scatter like that. I hid in the game room most of the day playing foosball. The last time I peeked into he dance hall, the majority of my class was just walking in a circle clapping rhythmically. It was traumatizing.

It was during those Junior High years that I discovered rock and roll. Sadly those years were the disco era. The Bee Gees and Donna Summer ruled the world. As a rock and roller and an unsure pubescent boy I wanted to avoid anything that was uncool or worse feminine. Disco was decidedly uncool. There were guys walking around with “Death Before Disco” t-shirts on and back then, they meant it. I remember seeing on the news some DJ up in Chicago did a “Disco Destruction” night at Comiskey Park in 1979. Seventy-thousand people showed up to blow up disco records. It turned into a riot and the White Sox had to forfeit the game. I was firmly with the rioters on that whole disco issue. I don’t know if that experience along with the horror of the 7th grade dance sealed my fate as a non-dancer or not. You can never be sure about these things. If you were as anti-disco as I was, it stands to reason that I’d be anti-dancing. I didn’t dance because I knew I couldn’t look cool doing it, not because I was a Baptist or anything weird.

Somewhere during those early junior high years – and I’m not proud of this – my friends and I discovered the joys of drinking beer. After one rather raucous night of beer drinking, which my parents caught me doing, I awoke hungover to discover my grandparents had arrived. No one had mentioned it but we had a family wedding to go to. I wanted to go out with my friends and run around the Ranchmart area and well, drink more beer and try to impress girls. I didn’t wanna hang out with my family. Once we got to the reception, my grandfather slipped me a glass of champagne. “One glass won’t hurt, you deserve this after your beer drinking adventure.” A short time later my grandmother dropped by and gave me another glass. “One glass won’t hurt.” To my surprise my mother came by and gave me a glass as well…”One glass won’t get you drunk,” At that point, I was smashed. I went up to the bar to get a coke and the cowboy dickweed bartender asked, “don’t you want some rum in that?” He later told the hostess that I’d been ordering drinks from him all night and he didn’t know they were for me. I had indeed ordered a number of rum and cokes, but hey, he started it.

The next thing I knew, I was on the dance floor, “cutting a rug.” I remember a lot of the extended family laughing. At one point I was up on stage with the band. They were playing some sunny pop tune and I was shouting the words to “Roll Out the Barrel.” The band did not dig me. I could see my father at the other end of the dance floor, red-faced glaring at me. I jumped back into the dance crowd and grabbed some guy’s stogie. I promptly burned a woman on the ass. I awoke the next day in my own vomit with my mother crashing into my room to announce I’d “disgraced my father and her in front of the entire family.” I had to go live at my grandparents for a week to avoid being flayed. I took shit about that for years, especially my “dancing.” Ironically, two years later, at the first family wedding I was allowed to attend again, I watched this young girl who was maybe 13 sucking down champagne. She hit the dance floor just like I had. She was spinning around in circles. I knew it was a matter of time… When she vomited, oh yes, it was explosive. She cleared the dance floor which was something I hadn’t been able to do and I’d literally scarred a woman’s ass with a cigar. The next day her parents were laughing about it. There’s a reason I call my dad “the Hard Guy.”

Being viscerally opposed to all forms of dancing really hurt me socially. I was single until I was 36 and not being able to dance was not an asset when trying to meet women. Every time I tried to dance it looked like I was running in place trying to gnaw my lower lip off. Either that or I’d only move my upper body, with my legs rooted to the ground like trunks of sequoia trees. I always moved with the grace of someone who had blown a hamstring. I half expected medical staff from the club I was dancing in to rush out, secure my neck and spine area, tie me to a board and drive me out of the bar on the back of a lawns keeping cart. I’d wave heroically to the crowd… The Rock Chick refuses to dance with me and I sense there was a time when she really did enjoy dancing.

All of that said, there are a lot of great rock tunes about dancing or dancers. Most of those tunes were not written with dancing in mind. Sure, there are a few you could probably dance to if you were, well, not me. I do think everything Motley Crue wrote and performed was likely intended to be played in strip clubs for exotic dancers. And yes, I get that many of these are merely thinly veiled euphemisms for sex. For the most part these tracks about dancing are upbeat, harder rocking tunes. I discovered a playlist I used to run to of about fifteen like-minded tracks about dancing. I blew that up here and extended it to sixty tracks that I believe actually hang together pretty well. As always with my playlists, it’s best to hit shuffle when you’re playing them. I have some recognizable tracks but as always I’m trying to expose folks to the deeper, album cuts that I’ve always liked in the hopes that I expose you to something new. As always you can find this playlist on Spotify under the title: BourbonAndVinyl.net Rock Songs About Dancing. If you have any suggested additions, please add them in the comments section.

  1. Aerosmith, “Same Old Song And Dance” – This may not exactly be about dancing but it was always the first track on my running dance playlist.
  2. Dire Straits, “Twisting By The Pool” – I’m reminded of a girl I met in junior high whose parents had a pool.
  3. John Lennon, “Do You Wanna Dance?” – From the covers LP Rock N Roll (B&V’s Favorite Cover Albums: Singing Other People’s Songs).
  4. Don Henley, “All She Wants To Do Is Dance” – Great little rock tune.
  5. The Rolling Stones, “Harlem Shuffle” – I love this track although I know many people do not. “Let your momma show you how,” indeed.
  6. Lenny Kravitz, “Dancin’ Til Dawn” – Somehow I don’t think Sexy Lenny is singing about dancing.
  7. Joan Jett, “I Love Rock And Roll” – Every girl in my high school would go nuts when this song came on. “Put another dime in the jukebox baby and dance with me.”
  8. The Traveling Wilbury’s, “Wilbury Twist” – Well now I’m just getting silly here.
  9. Van Halen, “Dance The Night Away” – I’m still not over the loss of Eddie Van Halen (Guitar Legend Eddie Van Halen Gone Too Soon at 65, RIP Eddie, #EVH).
  10. Motley Crue, “Dancing On Glass” – For the strippers out there.
  11. Sam Cooke, “Twistin’ The Night Away” – Rod does a really great version of this song, but you can’t beat the original.
  12. Mick Jagger, “Dancing In the Starlight” – From the great Goddess In the Doorway. 
  13. Tom Petty, “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” – “She had a good lookin’ mama who never was around.”
  14. The Donnas, “Better Off Dancing” – I love this girl band.
  15. Bob Seger, “Mainstreet” – Bob goes out and stalks a stripper in a melancholy manner.
  16. The Cult, “Dance The Night” – From the amazing Hidden City (Review: The Cult, ‘Hidden City’, A Late Career Gem). Looking forward to new music from these guys in 2021.
  17. The Rolling Stones, “Dancing With Mr. D” – Who doesn’t like a little dance with the Devil every now and again (Review: The Rolling Stones, ‘Goats Head Soup Deluxe’ Box Set).
  18. Neil Young, “When You Dance You Can Really Love” – Great, great Neil Young track.
  19. The Eagles, “Hollywood Waltz” – “So give her this dance, she can’t be forsaken…” Beautiful stuff.
  20. T. Rex, “Cosmic Dancer” – I’ve only recently started getting into Marc Bolan and T. Rex and I like what I’ve heard.
  21. Van Halen, “Dancing In The Street” – Nobody does this song better than VH.
  22. Bob Dylan, “Wallflower” – One for me…
  23. David Bowie, “John, I’m Only Dancing” – “It turns me on…”
  24. The Cars, “Shake It Up” – I actually am worried that I have “two left feet.”
  25. John Mellencamp, “Dance Naked” – Ok, now I’m interested.
  26. Paul Butterfield Blues Band, “Shake Your Money Maker” – Good ol’ blues to shake your ass to.
  27. Fleetwood Mac, “Tango In The Night” – Again, probably not talking about dancing here… Epic guitar solo from Lindsey Buckingham.
  28. David Byrne, “I Dance Like This” – I loved American Utopia (LP Review: David Byrne, ‘American Utopia,’ A Surprise Gem).
  29. Patti Smith, “Dancing Barefoot” – Also done quite nicely by U2.
  30. Paul McCartney, “Dance Tonight” – One of my all time favorites by one of my all time favorite acts.
  31. Warren Zevon, “Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School” – From his great, first comeback album.
  32. The Faces, “You Can Make Me Dance, Sing, or…” – Rod, Ronnie Wood and the rest of the gang. They had more great singles that should have been on albums than anybody else out there.
  33. Robert Plant, “Angel Dance” – A roots-y cover of a Los Lobos tune.
  34. Paul McCartney, “Ballroom Dancing” – From the great Tug Of War. 
  35. Motley Crue, “Come On And Dance” – More stripper soundtrack stuff from the LA bad boys.
  36. The Rolling Stones, “Shake Your Hips” – If I shook my hips I’d need a hip replacement.
  37. Thin Lizzy, “Dancing In the Moonlight” – Borderline disco but catchy as hell.
  38. Led Zeppelin, “Dancing Days” – Funky Zeppelin?
  39. The Rolling Stones, “Dance Little Sister” – Great, great riffage from Keith.
  40. Van Morrison, “Moondance” – Again, probably not the type of dancing I’m thinking of…
  41. Robert Plant, “Dancing In Heaven” – Great late period Plant.
  42. Bruce Springsteen, “Dancing In The Dark” – The song that made him a superstar.
  43. The Beatles, “I’m Happy Just To Dance With You” – I never was…
  44. Pearl Jam, “Dance Of the Clairvoyants” – From their latest album, Review: Pearl Jam’s First LP In 7 Years, ‘Gigaton’ – My Conflicted Thoughts.
  45. Steve Miller Band, “Dance, Dance, Dance” – The title says it all in this down home, front porch-y tune.
  46. David Bowie, “Let’s Dance” – Probably the most danceable of all the songs here. I love the line, “put on your red shoes and dance the blues.” Great Stevie Ray Vaughn guitar work.
  47. Billy Idol, “Dancing With Myself” – Early big hit. Originally done with Generation X.
  48. Otis Redding, “Shake” – Fabulous soul music.
  49. Pete Townshend, “Face Dances Pt. 2” – I’m too much of a fanatic for Pete’s solo work… I had to include this weird song.
  50. Bob Dylan, “Shake Mama Shake” – I love his raspy voice. I know it’s a lot like olives, an acquired taste.
  51. The J. Geils Band, “Southside Shuffle” – Funky, dirty, kinda bluesy.
  52. John Mellencamp, “A Little Night Dancin'” – From when he was still John Cougar. A great deep track.
  53. Joe Walsh, “Spanish Dancer” – I love Joe’s guitar work on this late period deep track.
  54. INXS, “Dancing On the Jetty” – Great early track from these guys.
  55. Lou Reed, “I Love You Suzanne” – “You broke my heart and you made me cry, when you said I couldn’t dance.” But, I can’t.
  56. The Ramones, “Let’s Dance” – Short, fast and hard.
  57. Rod Stewart, “She Won’t Dance With Me” – Containing the poetic line, “I’ve got a hard-on honey and it hurts like hell.” Ahem. Good Chuck Berry riff.
  58. The Beatles, “Twist And Shout” – Iconic.
  59. Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Fat Dance” – A bonus track from Californication that I read Anthony Kiedis describes as “fuuuunky.”
  60. Elton John, “Your Sister Can’t Twist, But She Can Rock N Roll” – Elton plays so fast we must suspect amphetamine usage.

There you have it folks A little something to wile away the hours over your upcoming Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. In the words of Neil Diamond, “some of you may have the guts to stand, but how many of you have the guts to dance?”

Playlist: Virtual Summer Vacation Tour – 50 Songs For 50 States

~ kcorsini ~ 6 Comments

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I only recently realized that the year is half over. I was terribly busy at work and knew that June was ending – its a big deal for my Corporate Masters when the first half ends – but it wasn’t until I woke up on July 1st that I thought, wow, we’re now starting the back half of the year. I can’t believe that the July 4th, Independence Day Holiday is upon us. It tends to sneak up on me. I’d like to wish all my American readers a happy and safe 4th of July. We posted a playlist for the 4th a few years ago, BourbonAndVinyl iPod Playlist: 4th of July, American Independence Day. Remember folks, watch those firecrackers, we want all of you out there to keep all of your fingers. And also – sparklers are really hot so be careful with those. I burned my hand really badly one year… #clumsy.

For years on the 4th of July, we used to take our daughter out to my sister-in-law’s house in the country for that time honored tradition of “blowing shit up.” Now that she’s grown and moved away that tradition sort of withered. At night, out on that little farmstead, we’d climb up on the roof of the house which was on a hill and you could see every small town fireworks display in the three county area. It really was awesome to behold. I don’t even know if in this time of pandemic that towns and cities will be doing fireworks displays? I know east of where I live somebody has been enjoying lighting firecrackers for a few weeks now. Usually at 2 a.m., thanks kids.

For me, the calendar rolling to July tends to signal the start of summer. I know that most people associate the start of summer with Memorial Day and the end of summer with Labor Day, but for me the start of summer was always July. By July school was over, when I was older I was into whatever summer job I had. I was a bus boy for a while, filthy work, really. I also did light construction at my best friend Doug’s father’s company building tennis courts. That was even filthier work. Dirty jobs seemed to be my specialty back then. As the Who sang, “I’m getting put down, I’m getting pushed around…” In the tennis court days I prayed every summer day for rain. Joe Zona was the weather guy on the AM station and I used to listen to him every morning like he was the Oracle of Delphi hoping he’d say it would rain so I could have a day off.

When I think back (mostly fondly) of summers I think of my father’s tradition of taking us on a family vacation. I was a…let’s call it… “difficult” child. My father, brother and I weren’t terribly close at the time. We weren’t a fly-on-a-plane somewhere family. We’d load up the car and drive wherever we were going. Locking me, my brother and my father in the same car had to be pretty tense for mom. A lot of testosterone in a small space. It’s a wonder we all stayed alive. We drove as far as Cape Cod to visit my aunt one year. Thankfully my grandparents were in a second car… we communicated with toy walkie-talkies I’d gotten for Christmas the previous year. My brother and I would switch cars every time we stopped, like a prisoner exchange. We were like Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold’s family in ‘Vacation.’ I will say, after that trip we only drove that far one other time, to Florida. I think everybody realized the long drive was a difficult plan to execute.

The place we went probably more than any other was in southern Missouri. It was a western/cowboy themed amusement park named Silver Dollar City near Branson. I think it’s still open. This was before Branson became, well, Branson. It was nothing tremendous but we really loved going there. The problem was the three or four hours in the car getting there. My father, the poor bastard, would load us up in the car and before we’d hit Grandview he’d already run through his greatest hits: “Stop jiggling my seat,” “Don’t make me come back there,” or my favorite, “If I have to stop this goddamn car…” That was the most menacing of threats. His face would be red and I couldn’t even imagine how batshit crazy he’d have gotten if he ever did have to stop the car. I imagined being flogged with a belt beside the highway until the cops showed up to drag our rabid-dog-angry father away from us to prevent our death. I was so obnoxious the cops might’ve helped dad beat me. We didn’t have iPods or iPads or TV’s built into the back of the driver’s seat. It was 4 hours of billboard bingo… I spot an A… These kids today don’t realize the struggle was real. I feel sorry for my dad having to work 50 weeks a year only to face his hostile family for 2 weeks while we vacationed “together?”

Here I am all these years later and “summer vacation” means taking a few extra days off around the 4th of July so I can sleep late and go for a walk. These days it’s more likely a “staycation” instead of actually traveling somewhere. This year there really is nowhere we can go. I have a brother in Houston… nope, COVID is spiking there… I hope he’s wearing a mask. My wife will go out and see our daughter at some point but I’ll probably hang here at the house… Usually when she leaves me alone like that for a weekend she finds me slathered in peanut butter and bourbon, weeping over an old video of Springsteen and the E-Street Band, muttering, “I can’t believe the Big Man is gone…” I need adult supervision.

I know some people are planning to travel anyway, despite the pandemic. I see those crazies at the Lake of the Ozarks. I was never really a “lake” person. My pal Doug’s dad had a boat and that was fun, but my parents never took us to the lake. For those of you who are stuck at home – or hell for those of you on a long car drive, threatening members of your family for invasions of your space (“he’s on my side of the car”) – I thought I’d put together a playlist that takes us on a virtual tour of the United States. I know it’s trite, and it’s been done before, but never by us down here at the B&V labs. I tried to pick one song for every state. Usually I looked for songs that had the state in the title but the rules were pretty loose, to be honest with you. I actually got the idea listening to Neil Young who seems to have more songs named after states than seems normal. And yes, there are many songs about states, but these were my favs… and as usual I’m all over the place stylistically. You can find this playlist on Spotify, just search on “BourbonAndVinyl.net” and you’ll find it. Wherever you are out there, traveling or not, I hope you all have a great and safe summer. We’ll be here at B&V listening to rock and roll, locked in our attic like a modern day Boo Radley. Leaving our little gifts in the form of these humble posts. Enjoy!

  • Alabama: Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Sweet Home Alabama” – Well, you knew I’d go here first. I considered Neil Young’s “Alabama” but I knew I’d be using him later.
  • Alaska: Maggie Rogers, “Alaska” – I actually stumbled across this tune by accident. I know nothing about her but I dig this track.
  • Arizona: Scorpions, “Arizona” – From their great album, Blackout. 
  • Arkansas: Bruce Springsteen, “Mary Queen of Arkansas” – I actually had the pleasure of seeing Bruce play this deep track live in Little Rock (aka La Petite Roche).
  • California: 2Pac featuring Dr Dre, “California Love” –  We like to turn this track up as loud as it will go. Simply brilliant.
  • Colorado: Stephen Stills with Manassas, “Colorado” – From the country rock side of the double album… I love Manassas.
  • Connecticut: Aerosmith, “I Live In Connecticut” – I totally cheated here… this is just a song fragment. I like Aerosmith tho…and there aren’t a tremendous number of songs about Connecticut, the Wonder bread of states.
  • Delaware: George Thorogood, “Delaware Slide” – A really long song for a small state. This is George’s first appearance on a B&V playlist, welcome George.
  • Florida: Eric Clapton, “Mainline Florida” – I stayed in the guitar hero area here. I love this track.
  • Georgia: Willie Nelson & Ray Charles, “Georgia On My Mind” – I had to go with this live duet as most of Ray Charles’ music isn’t on Spotify. I don’t know who is running things at his estate but they might wanna look into that.
  • Hawaii: Neil Young, “Hawaii” – From the brilliant vault release Hitchhiker, LP Review: Neil Young’s Album From His Vault, ‘Hitchhiker’.
  • Idaho: B-52s, “Private Idaho” – Fun song from a fun band.
  • Illinois: Tom Waits, “Johnsburg, Illinois” – I was late to the Waits’ party but I’m all in now.
  • Indiana: Melissa Etheridge, “Indiana” – Kansas lady singing about Indiana…I loved her debut LP.
  • Iowa: Mal Blum, “Iowa” – I only picked this track because Manfred Mann’s “Stranded In Iowa” is not on Spotify. Sigh.
  • Kansas: Big Country, “We’re Not In Kansas Anymore” – I considered cheating and putting a track by the band Kansas here, but I dug this song.
  • Kentucky: Elvis Presley, “Blue Moon of Kentucky” – Many have sung this song, but none like the King.
  • Louisiana: Randy Newman, “Louisiana 1927” – Newman was from southern California but he spent summers at his New Orleans’ grandmother’s house.
  • Maine: Rudy Vallee, “Maine Stein Song” – Consider this track “intermission.” It sounds like a school fight song. There just aren’t many tracks about Maine.
  • Maryland: Good Charlotte, “There She Goes” – I don’t know if these guys are from Maryland but this song is about it.
  • Massachusetts: Modern Lovers, “Roadrunner” – “I’m in love with Massachusetts” was not how I was feeling after the Cap Cod trip of 1976…
  • Michigan: Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Especially In Michigan” – Kiedis’ mother lives in Michigan… I’m so glad Frusciante is back!
  • Minnesota: Tom Waits, “Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis” – Minny is a jewel of a city and this is a jewel of a track.
  • Mississippi: Bob Dylan, “Mississippi” – This track was also covered by Sheryl Crow but Dylan’s version trumps that.
  • Missouri: The Beatles, “Kansas City” – I went with this because, well, I’m from KC and I feel that the rest of the state outside of Jackson County is a no man’s land.
  • Montana: James Taylor, “Montana” – That voice…
  • Nebraska: Bruce Springsteen, “Nebraska” – The title track from Springsteen’s bleakest LP, B&V’s 10 Favorite Grim And Sad Albums.
  • Nevada: Billy Joel, “Stop In Nevada” – From his Piano Man album, which not surprisingly I love.
  • New Hampshire: Sonic Youth, “New Hampshire” – It’s about time we get some Sonic Youth on a B&V playlist!
  • New Jersey: Tom Waits, “Jersey Girl” – I didn’t realize I had so much Waits on here… Obviously I could have gone with Springsteen’s version but I dig this one.
  • New Mexico: Johnny Cash, “New Mexico” – I considered “Albuquerque” by Neil Young but you can’t beat the Man In Black.
  • New York: Frank Sinatra, “Theme From New York, New York” – So many NY songs to choose from, B&V Playlist: Songs For New York City, but you have to go with the Chairman of the Board on this one.
  • North Carolina: James Taylor, “Carolina On My Mind” – I did research here and this song is about North Carolina…
  • North Dakota: Lyle Lovett, “North Dakota” – A song about the “girls from North Dakota” and perhaps the saddest track on this list.
  • Ohio: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, “Ohio” – Written by Neil…”Tin soldiers and Nixon’s coming, we’re finally on our own…” Powerful even today!
  • Oklahoma: Merle Haggard, “Okie From Muskogee” – I got to see Merle open for Bob Dylan. He had a voice like smooth whiskey. I’ve also been to Muskogee… a good place to be “from.” Merle was probably on the wrong side of history with this song, but I love the man’s music.
  • Oregon: Loretta Lynn, “Portland, Oregon” – From an album produced by Jack White. Great duet! Loretta and Jack, singing together? Yes, please.
  • Pennsylvania: Heart, “Pennsylvania” – A track I was unfamiliar with until I started researching this list a few months ago. Kind of a haunting track.
  • Rhode Island: Ike & Tina Turner, “Rhode Island Red” – Ike is a bad man but I dug this song.
  • South Carolina: The Raconteurs, “Carolina Drama” – From Jack White’s original side project. Great little band. This is my favorite song by the Raconteurs. And yes, he name drops South Carolina in the song so I’m good here.
  • South Dakota: Liz Phair, “South Dakota” – The 90s “It Girl” rocker.
  • Tennessee: Chris Stapleton, “Tennessee Whiskey” – On a blog with “bourbon” in its title you knew I’d be drawn to this track. My friend Drummer Blake turned me onto this one… This might be my favorite track on this list, right now anyway.
  • Texas: Stevie Ray Vaughn & Double Trouble, “Texas Flood” – The title track from the great bluesman/guitarist’s debut album.
  • Utah: The Beach Boys, “Salt Lake City” – It shows you my desperation on finding a track about Utah that I went to the Beach Boys (who I despise) for a track.
  • Vermont: Willie Nelson, “Moonlight In Vermont” – From the wonderful Stardust album. Willie was the first country singer I actually liked.
  • Virginia: Foo Fighters, “Virginia Moon” – Virginia is for lovers and fighters of Foo. Kind of mellow for them.
  • Washington: Nirvana, “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge Seattle” – I don’t know where Cobain got his inspiration for this song but the movie ‘Frances’ starring Jessica Lange might just be it… It was a harrowing, unblinking look at how Frances was just betrayed by everyone around her. I’ve always connected with this abrasive track.
  • West Virginia: John Denver, “Take Me Home, Country Roads” – The karaoke, sing along favorite. I had to reach deep on this state.
  • Wisconsin: Ben Iver, “Minnesota, WI” – Two states in one song…
  • Wyoming: Neil Young, “The Emperor of Wyoming” – From Neil’s debut album. 100% country-rock instrumental and a nice way to take us out of the 50 states.

Enjoy this little virtual tour of the fifty united states of the U.S.

Cheers!

Editors Note: No children were harmed or abused in the writing of this post, least of all me, your intrepid blogger. Corporal punishment was used sparingly in my house in the 70s and only when I deserved it. The threat of corporal punishment was used quite a bit. 

B&V Playlist: Happy Mother’s Day Playlist… Probably Safest To Not Play For Mom

~ kcorsini ~ Leave a comment

 

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“I hear “Mama” sounds the same in any tongue” – David Gilmour, “In Any Tongue”

I see that the calendar has rolled around to yet another “Hallmark Holiday,” namely Mother’s Day. I don’t know how this thing sneaks up on me every year. I’ll have to make the annual rush trip to the card shop, decked out in a mask and gloves… This year I’ll have to mail mom her card even though she lives in the same city as I do. Such is life in a pandemic.

I know there are all kinds of moms out there. Good ones, bad ones, tall ones, short ones, all kinds. When I refer to my mother, I tend to refer to her as “my sainted mother.” A lot of people say that about their mothers, but in this case, I really mean it. My mother is one of the nicest human beings you’re ever going to meet. If by chance I meet someone who knows my parents, inevitably the person says something along the lines of, “You’re mother is the sweetest person.” Which is probably confusing for most people  who meet me when they are forced to ponder how such a wonderful person (and she is wonderful) produced such a miscreant.

My first memory of my mother, and I’m willing to admit this may be apocryphal in nature, is riding in the back seat of a police car. No, I wasn’t arrested. I was probably two, which makes me think the memory was implanted in my head by hearing the story so many times. I was learning to tie my shoes. My mother was pregnant with my brother. For some reason my parents took me to the hardware store. They were looking for something and I wandered off. My shoe was untied and I swear in my mind I can see my tiny foot as I placed it on a stack of paint cans to tie my shoe. My father says he heard a crash, glanced down the aisle and all he could see were my legs sticking out from a pile of paint cans. I had a huge gash in my forehead, blood everywhere. My mom grabbed me and the cops grabbed my mom and rushed me to the hospital. I remember looking up at my mom’s face, bathed in the siren’s red glare as she tried to soothe me on the ride to the hospital. Maybe that’s why I’ve always thought of my mother as an angel. Paging Dr. Freud.

I feel bad for my mom. She had to play shuttle diplomat most of her life. She still does. She was the lone female in a small family surrounded by my father, me and my brother… none of whom got along particularly well in the old days. She would have to wander our house between whatever neutral corners that we’d all retreated to in order to avoid each other. I remember one Mother’s Day asking my dad what he was getting her for Mother’s Day… His reply always stuck with me, “Nothing…she’s not my mother.” There was none of that gross calling your wife “mother” at my house… Which, let’s face it, is super creepy.

I realize that the whole dynamic of mothers and daughters are completely different. Early in my tenure as the Evil Stepdad, I would drive my daughter to school every day. To torture her, I would tune the radio to NPR and make her listen to talk radio the bane of a junior high kid’s existence. I was the Evil Stepdad after all, so why not educate the child in the car. She would retaliate by wearing an entire bottle of perfume which was tough to stomach in a small car. One day on NPR’s ‘Fresh Air’ they had an author of a book about “mothers and daughters.” She was going on and on about mothers saying the most horrible things to their daughters because they thought they were “helping.” Stuff like, “I really liked your hair better when it was long,” or “Why in the world did you get bangs?” Usually when I pulled up to the school my daughter would spring from the car like she was being shot out of a cannon. On that day, as this lady author spun tales of mothers doing and saying horrible things, my daughter stayed in the car and turned up the volume. She and the Rock Chick were extremely tight even in those difficult adolescent days. I guess mother/daughter relationships are weird in their own right, maybe weirder.

In honor of all of you out there with complicated relationships with your mom (and whose isn’t?) we’ve compiled some of our favorite songs about moms. This isn’t going to be like a country song where it’s all sentimental misty-eyed love for mom. This playlist explores a lot of the more complicated emotions that are associated with moms. Some of my choices may leave you scratching your head, so I included an explanation of why I included it below. In some songs the mother might only be a part of a story with a broader meaning. I was surprised at how many songs about moms consist of conversations between sons/daughters and the mothers… maybe its the fact that so many of them are giving advice all the time, wanted or not. Maybe we just all have things we want to say to our mothers. There were a lot songs with “mama” in the title but they were mostly from the 70s where dudes called their girlfriends (or more appropriately their “main squeezes”) mama. I left those off the list, it was too close to that calling your wife “mother” thing. Creepy. In some of these songs the mother is only a peripheral figure in the story but if the vibe fit, I went for it. Again, these are just some of our favorites and it’s not meant to be definitive we’re just trying to put a smile on your face.

As always you can find our playlist on Spotify under the title “BourbonAndVinyl.net Mother’s Day Playlist…Probably Safest To Not Play for Mom.” As usual I’m all over the place here from country to heavy metal. Here’s the link, with our explanations below.

**Technical Difficulties Prevent Posting the Spotify Link**

  1. The Rolling Stones, “Mother’s Little Helper” – What mother doesn’t need a little “help” now and again?
  2. The Beatles, “Julia” – A song John Lennon wrote for his mother, Julia, who died when he was 17 when she was hit by a drunk driver… it was an off duty cop, no less.
  3. Norah Jones, “Tell Yer Mama” – A track in which Norah suggests to an ex that he should tell his mother he was raised wrong. Tough break-up tune. Mom is only a suggestion here, but it felt right.
  4. The Vaughn Brothers, “Baboom/Mama Said” – Where Jimmy and Stevie Ray trade guitar licks over the voice of their mother…
  5. Tracy Bonham, “Mother Mother” – I think Ms. Bonham captures the sometimes volatile nature of mother-daughter relationships here… but what do I know?
  6. The Rolling Stones, “Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby” – I’ve never understood completely why this mother was hiding in the shadows. It’s perhaps a mystery only Mick Jagger can solve.
  7. Cowboy Junkies, “Musical Key” – Beautiful song about both parents really. “My mother sang the sweetest melody, although she never sang in a musical key.” An ex of mine, back in the day, wrote these lyrics down in a homemade Mother’s Day card and that stuck with me…
  8. Bruce Springsteen, “The Wish” – Bruce wrote so many (angry) songs about his dad, I guess it was finally his mom’s turn. He did this in his On Broadway show so it must be important to him (Review: Netflix’s ‘Springsteen On Broadway’ – The Artist’s Dialogue With Fans Comes to the Great White Way).
  9. Cream, “Mother’s Lament” – Cream “taking the piss” in a little humorous sing-a-long that I like to imagine was sung in taverns in England back in the day.
  10. Tom Petty, “Southern Accents” – Weird choice here, I know. Mom only makes a cameo but what a powerful image: “There’s a dream I keep having, where my momma comes to me And kneels down over by the window, and says a prayer for me…” One of Petty’s most evocative tunes.
  11. Joe Walsh & Barnstorm, “Mother Says” – I love Joe Walsh’s guitar playing. His solo stuff deserves more attention.
  12. Queen, “Tie Your Mother Down” – I’m not sure why mom needs to be tied down, but what Freddie Mercury wants, Freddie Mercury gets.
  13. Danzig, “Mother” – I think this song is hysterical. Glenn Danzig singing to someone’s mother, “and if you wanna find hell with me…” just kills me. It was either going to be this song or that crazy song of the same name by the Police, but I hate that one.
  14. Paul McCartney, “Only Mama Knows” – Great, late period rocker from McCartney.
  15. Merle Haggard, “Mama Tried” – My favorite song by Hags.
  16. John Lennon, “Mother” – A truly harrowing song where Lennon employs techniques he learned in scream therapy.
  17. David Crosby & Graham Nash, “Mama Lion” – It was written about Joni Mitchell, but I like it on this list anyway. Whose mother out there wasn’t a lion when it came to protecting you?
  18. Social Distortion, “Mommy’s Little Monster” – A song best used to describe me or my wife’s cat.
  19. Warren Zevon, “Mama Couldn’t Be Persuaded” – The mother here was his maternal grandmother who was not crazy about Warren’s father.
  20. Randy Newman, “Mama Told Me Not to Come” – Mothers are always giving advice. Too bad we rarely listen. Three Dog Night had a hit with this but I prefer Randy’s original version.
  21. U2, “Iris (Hold Me Close)” – Bono writing about his late mother. It all reminds me of how lucky I was to have my mom.
  22. Ozzy Osbourne, “Mama, I’m Coming Home” – A phone call from a lonely pay phone that I made in college to my own mother springs to mind when I hear this song.
  23. Pink Floyd, “Mother” – “Mother should I build a wall?” A song about a, shall we say, overprotective mother?
  24. Dave Matthews Band, “Mother Father” – A nice little political rocker from DMB where the protagonist asks his mother & father, how did the world get into such a state? More relevant today than when it came out.
  25. Paul Simon, “Mother and Child Reunion” – Named after a dish in a restaurant that had both chicken and egg. Catchy, prime, rhymin’ Simon.
  26. Ozzy Osbourne, “Flying High Again” – This song sums up my entire adolescence…”Mama’s gonna worry, I’ve been a bad bad boy, no use sayin’ sorry, it’s something that I enjoy.” Perfect.
  27. James Brown, “Mother Popcorn” – I won’t even venture a guess as to what Soul Brother No. 1 is talking about here.
  28. David Gilmour, “In Any Tongue” – The best, most important track on this list. See the quote above.
  29. Metallica, “Mama Said” – Great deep track off of Load. 
  30. Elvis Presley, “That’s Alright” – Written for his mother. His first hit, I believe.
  31. Eric Clapton, “Motherless Child” – I think this is the first of two distinctly different versions of this song Clapton did. Or maybe both songs are from the same traditional song. I feel badly for those without a mother.
  32. Bob Seger, “Momma” – Great Seger from before Live Bullet made him famous.
  33. Bruce Springsteen, “The Hitter” – Another conversation with mom song. A burned-out boxer returns home and is trying to talk his mom into letting him in.
  34. Eric Clapton, “Motherless Children” – This one is from his comeback 461 Ocean Boulevard. 
  35. Neil Young, “New Mama” – “New mama’s got a sun in her eyes, no clouds are in my changing skies…”
  36. Aerosmith, “Mama Kin” – Steven Tyler’s favorite of their songs.
  37. Talking Heads, “Mommy, Daddy, You and I” – A disturbing tale of what sounds like a family of refugees heading north to escape… what?
  38. David Crosby & Graham Nash, “Carry Me” – This time it’s David Crosby writing about his newly deceased mother.
  39. Elvis Presley, “Mama Liked The Roses” – Hearing Elvis sing about his mama is almost as moving as hearing the man sing gospel.
  40. Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Mommy Where’s Daddy?” – Goofballs singing a goofball song. I always laugh when I hear this song.
  41. The Beatles, “Your Mother Should Know” – She should… and she often does know, just ask her.
  42. The Who, “Squeeze Box” – Why does the mother have a squeeze box? Why does she play it all night? What is happening in this household? So many questions.
  43. Bob Dylan, “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” – Epic song. So much more than a song about his mother, but I couldn’t resist. It’s another track where there’s a conversation between an artist and his mother.
  44. U2, “Mothers of the Disappeared” – A political track about the mothers under Pinochet’s cruel rule, dancing in the village square to symbolically shame the regime into freeing their sons who were “disappeared.”
  45. Van Morrison, “Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child” – Van Morrison closing us out on a soulful rendition of what may be the same song Clapton did… A perfect reminder of how happy we should be with having any mother at all.

I’m sure you all have a favorite song that makes you think about your mother. Or a song that reminds you of her… Let me know what it is in the comments and I’ll add it to the playlist on Spotify. I hope you all have a safe, healthy, socially distanced Mother’s Day out there… Hint though, you’ll probably have a better day if you avoid playing this playlist for mom…

Cheers!