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Middle Aged Dummies!! Artists #1's have been posted!! (1 Viewer)

My Taylor Swift exposure as she hit her zenith came mostly from my constant late night talk show watching. To me it just wasn’t my style, kid stuff, no disrespect.

Later after I started losing jobs due to my trainwreck substance abuse I was driving Lyft in SF for a while, and I usually had pop radio on because I was usually driving rich kids around. There were a couple of Taylor songs I really started to dig. But I left it at that.

This is a good place to be hearing somebody’s honest take on her best stuff, nice work and a solid change up from all this crustiness
I don't know her stuff very well at all. I think some people our age are exposed to her due to their kids listening to her. When my nephews would ride with me on road trips to the beach, they listened to a lot of rap. No disrespect to rap, but I'd rather have heard Taylor. I'd make a deal with the kids that we would listen to their music for most of the trip, but the last 45 minutes we listened to my music. They would agree, but it was a chore trying to get them to listen. I remember one ride, it was time for my music. All of a sudden they all put their ear pods on. I told them all to get those things out of their ears and listen to mine, because I had to listen to theirs. Three of them took their ear pods out, but when I looked in the review mirror at the one sitting directly behind me, he put a towel over his head so I couldn't see he had his ear pods in. :<_<:
 
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My Taylor Swift exposure as she hit her zenith came mostly from my constant late night talk show watching. To me it just wasn’t my style, kid stuff, no disrespect.

Later after I started losing jobs due to my trainwreck substance abuse I was driving Lyft in SF for a while, and I usually had pop radio on because I was usually driving rich kids around. There were a couple of Taylor songs I really started to dig. But I left it at that.

This is a good place to be hearing somebody’s honest take on her best stuff, nice work and a solid change up from all this crustiness
I don't know her stuff very well at all. I think some people our age are exposed to her due to their kids listening to her. When my nephews would ride with me on road trips to the beach, they listened to a lot of rap. No disrespect to rap, but I'd rather have heard Taylor. I'd make a deal with the kids that we would listen to their music for most of the trip, but the last 45 minutes we listened to my music. They would agree, but it was chore trying to get them to listen. I remember one ride, it was time for my music. All of a sudden they all put their ear pods on. I told them all to get those things out of their ears and listen to mine, because I had to listen to theirs. Three of them took their ear pods out, but when I looked in the review mirror at the one sitting directly behind me, he put a towel over his head so I couldn't see he had his ear pods in. :<_<:
Damn kids. Aunt simey is going for the belt, you are gonna listen to the Avett bros and you are gonna like it punk
 
#23 You Don’t Know My Name (1972 - Everybody’s in Showbiz)

This is one of just a few songs in the Kinks catalog written by Dave Davies instead of Ray. The album, Everybody’s in Showbiz explores the trials and tribulations of life on the road as a rock star, a theme prominent in several Kinks tunes. This gem provides a little musical twist with the infusion of a flute, likely inspired by Canned Heat’s Going Up the Country.

Of this track, Dave Davies writes “I was going through a tough time emotionally during ’71, early ’72, and it came to a head toward the end of that tour. I felt psychically, spiritually and emotionally kind of crippled in a way. My mental health was horrible. Then, really, [there were] the inner-observations I had about my own life. Sometimes you feel so crazy. You’re rushing around, getting on planes and trains. You sometimes even question your own sanity. Is it me? Does anybody know my name? Who am I? Weird and wonderful – but a crazy world.”


I've been traveling on this road
I get the feeling its getting on
I keep moving on
I keep rolling on
But does anybody know my name

Traveling oh so long
I get the feeling that something's wrong
I keep rolling on
I keep rolling on
But does anybody know my name?

How could you believe when you don't know my name
How could you believe when you don't know my name
I see life is such a simple game
I sit and watch it from my moving train
A bumpy ride to-day
I'm not alone this way
Does anybody know my name?

Arrested in '69
For upsetting a tourist guide
Well pay the fine or jail
I just smiled and said
That I'm oh so glad to be alive.

How could you believe when you don't know my name
How could you believe when you don't know my name

How could you believe when you don't understand.
 
Damn kids. Aunt simey is going for the belt, you are gonna listen to the AVETT bros and you are gonna like it punk
:biggrin: One of them liked singing to the Bee Gees in a high voice. I had to pull the car over one time with them. We always stopped at a blueberry farm and got a lot of blueberries. Two of the brothers got into a verbal fight, and the one sitting in the back of the station wagon with the blueberries started throwing them at his brother (who was in the front with me). I pulled the car over and gave him a big tongue-lashing, and I made him pick up all the blueberries that he threw. I told him I better not find any blueberry stains on my seats, and the dirty blueberries would be his lunch. To show off in front of his cousin, he crammed them all in his mouth.
 
#23 Ray Charles - Do I Ever Cross Your Mind - Spotify

This song is off Ray's 1984 album of the same name. The album has long been out of print along with so many of Ray's albums. Even Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music was out of print for a long time. It wasn't until 2019 when Concord Records re-issued that as Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, Vols. 1 & 2.

I had this song on my America countdown list that k4 led. I have a sentimental attachment to it, and I wasn't going to leave it off of this countdown. This is a nice country soul song, and Ray sounds as great as ever on it.
 
23.
Drive All Over Town- Elliott Smith
from Roman Candle Album


"Two dollar color pictures from a photo booth
Dirty stepped on lying out on the floor of their room
Faces fell long in the half light
He looks all wrong but that's her alright"


Drive All Over Town is an under rated song that sees Elliott fooling around with different harmonies based on a simple melody and just a gentle progression and rhythm. So minimalistic. . . and that's really the great charm about Roman Candle in general.

"I knew exactly what you meant
when you said you were an accident
but when it's 3 AM he wonders where in the hell she went"


The content mixes both searching for something and being lost, and these two concepts often go hand in hand. If what you are looking for is completely out of your grasp, you have no idea where you stand. The imagery of "driving all over town" really is the perfect imagery of combining these two topics. That's really a beautiful talent of Elliott.
 
@KarmaPolice there are 2 Chicago songs on the playlist
The songs are a part of one another. They go together like rama lama lama ka dinga da dinga dong.
Gotcha. I didn’t look close but only saw one link to YouTube in the post. Now I see YouTube has them paired together as one.
Yep. Heads-up, there's going to be another like this, and another that is even more complicated. Thanks to Spotify's rigid format.
 
23. Motorboat to Mars / Free (parts 2 and 3 of Travel Suite)
Album: Chicago III (1971)
Writers: Danny Serapine (Motorboat to Mars) / Robert Lamm (Free)
Lead vocals: Instrumental (Motorboat to Mars) / Terry Kath (Free)
Released as a single? Yes (Free, US #20)

On Chicago's highly ambitious third album, all of side 2 was taken up by something called the Travel Suite. I'm treating it differently from their other suites because unlike them, where the sections segue into each other and tell a consistent story, this one is really just a collection of six songs that have a similar vibe and a vague theme about being on the road, and most don't even segue into each other. In addition, unlike with the others, there is no YouTube file with the whole thing, and from what I can find it has never been played live in its entirety. The best representation of it is the second and third sections, Motorboat to Mars and Free -- the former is a 1.5-minute drum solo that segues into the latter, providing a great kickstarter to one of the band's most energetic tracks.
Free is a fireball for its entire 2:18 running time, with bursts of horns and percussion driving it and Terry Kath's soulful vocal carrying it across the goal line. If What's This World Coming To was Chicago doing Stevie Wonder or Sly Stone, this is them doing Ray Charles or Otis Redding. It was also reinterpreted as jazz on a Stan Kenton album: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Kenton_Plays_Chicago. It has by far the most live performances of any song from the third album and was included in the setlist of the 1995 show I saw.

At Carnegie Hall version: https://youtu.be/vL0oTNfdOKk?t=227
Leonid and Friends version of Free (@krista4 : with extra sax solo!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njZHiCdVQN8

At #22, a song about being down, but you wouldn't know that from the music.
 
@KarmaPolice there are 2 Chicago songs on the playlist
The songs are a part of one another. They go together like rama lama lama ka dinga da dinga dong.
Gotcha. I didn’t look close but only saw one link to YouTube in the post. Now I see YouTube has them paired together as one.
Yep. Heads-up, there's going to be another like this, and another that is even more complicated. Thanks to Spotify's rigid format.
Thanks for the heads up. I just thought KP was super stoned.
 
Um, my #23 seems to have missed the list. Here it is:

I.G.Y.

From his first solo album, The Nightfly, the abbreviation I.G.Y. stands for International Geophysical Year. You can read more about it if you like, but the TL;DR version is that the 'scientific community' declared 1957 to be a year of unprecedented cooperation/idea sharing within the international scientific community. Our little Donnie Fagen would have been 8 or 9 at the time, so to me this is his reaction to this 'event', and as such, he really keeps his sense of irony mostly in check, save the line "By '76 we'll be A-OK."

Having not even been born yet, I can't really emphasize with him here, but given the build-up of optimism in young Donnie's (and presumably others of his generation), it's tough to fault him/them for their disillusionment and carrying that into the 60's and 70's:

Standing tough under stars and stripes
We can tell
This dream's in sight
You've got to admit it
At this point in time that it's clear
The future looks bright

On that train all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail

Ninety minutes from New York to Paris
Well by seventy-six we'll be A-OK

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free


Get your ticket to that wheel in space
While there's time
The fix is in
You'll be a witness to that game of chance in the sky
You know we've got to win
Here at home we'll play in the city
Powered by the sun
Perfect weather for a streamlined world
There'll be spandex jackets one for everyone

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free

On that train all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from New York to Paris
(more leisure for artists everywhere)
A just machine to make big decisions
Programmed by fellows with compassion and vision
We'll be clean when their work is done
We'll be eternally free yes and eternally young

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free
 
Green DayMAC_32Platypus (I Hate You)
It only felt right to follow up Green Day at one of their more sentimental moments with arguably the nastiest song in their entire catalog. An ode, if you will, to one of their harshest critics that led the charge to their banishment of Gilman Street, who was on death's door when this was released. It's not just the speed of track, but the lyrical content.

I heard your sick
Sucked on that cancer stick
A throbbing tumor and a radiation high
**** out of luck
And now your time is up
It brings me pleasure just to know you're going to die


...and it gets worse from there. They were barred from guest appearances on terrestrial radio for almost 2 decades because of a performance on Howard Stern of all shows in which they were asked to play something else (probably Waiting) and decided to play this instead. I don't think they like this guy
 
Bruce SpringsteenDrIanMalcolmWreck on the Highway
:wub:

Loving the deep cuts!

Sometimes I sit up in the darkness
And I watch my baby as she sleeps
Then I climb in bed and I hold her tight
I just lay there awake in the middle of the night
Thinking 'bout the wreck on the highway


An epic closer to an epic double album...
 
@KarmaPolice there are 2 Chicago songs on the playlist
The songs are a part of one another. They go together like rama lama lama ka dinga da dinga dong.
Gotcha. I didn’t look close but only saw one link to YouTube in the post. Now I see YouTube has them paired together as one.
Yep. Heads-up, there's going to be another like this, and another that is even more complicated. Thanks to Spotify's rigid format.
Thanks for the heads up. I just thought KP was super stoned.
Well, you thought correctly (family was out of town), but I didn't make a mistake there. ;)
 
I've lost count of the number of times I've been listening to the playlist, and stopped and said: "who is that!" and its Frank Black. (OK, I lied. It's been 9 times.)

I don't know what I Selkie Bride is, but I like it. Hope to see the complete playlist when we finish this exercise sometime in early 2024. :thumbup:
Glad you like the song selections. It was fun creating the playlist even though a lot of great songs were left on the cutting room floor.

You can find out what a Selkie Bride is here.
 
Green DayMAC_32Platypus (I Hate You)
It only felt right to follow up Green Day at one of their more sentimental moments with arguably the nastiest song in their entire catalog. An ode, if you will, to one of their harshest critics that led the charge to their banishment of Gilman Street, who was on death's door when this was released. It's not just the speed of track, but the lyrical content.

I heard your sick
Sucked on that cancer stick
A throbbing tumor and a radiation high
**** out of luck
And now your time is up
It brings me pleasure just to know you're going to die


...and it gets worse from there. They were barred from guest appearances on terrestrial radio for almost 2 decades because of a performance on Howard Stern of all shows in which they were asked to play something else (probably Waiting) and decided to play this instead. I don't think they like this guy
Green Day is always such a punch in the face following Sigur Ros in the playlist.
 
Foo FightersJust Win BabyI Should Have Known

This is the first song I chose from Wasting Light, the Foos' 7th studio album. Wasting Light won the Grammy for Best Rock Album and was nominated for Album of the Year. The band took a different approach to this album:

Instead of recording the album in a modern studio, Grohl decided to record in his garage in Encino, Los Angeles. Grohl said: "There's poetry in being the band that can sell out Wembley but also makes a record in a garage. Why go into the most expensive studio with the biggest producer and use the best state-of-the-art equipment? Where's the rock'n'roll in that?" Grohl felt it was a way to make an innovative "primal sounding" record, subvert expectations, and "make records the way we used to ****ing make records".

Wasting Light was recorded using entirely analogue equipment until post-mastering. Grohl said he felt digital recording was getting out of control: "When I listen to music these days, and I hear Pro Tools and drums that sound like a machine it kinda sucks the life out of music." According to Grohl, the analog strategy would make the record "sound rawer and somewhat imperfect; Chris Shiflett agreed that "rock n'roll is about flaws and imperfections". Hawkins wanted to avoid the "artificial sound" of contemporary recording and believed an analog project would help the band reclaim artistic freedom.

Vig initially thought the idea was a joke. He warned the band that they would have to play well, as mistakes were not easily corrected without digital technology. The band spent three weeks in pre-production and rehearsals at their usual studio, Studio 606, where the composition was completed, going "from forty songs to fourteen". They rehearsed the songs with the intent of recording them live in Grohl's garage, unlike their previous approach of coming up with parts during the recording process. The band committed to not changing what they recorded; according to Smear, "Whatever we did, we didn’t change it. If a distorted vocal went through a pedal, that’s what it was going to be.”

I Should Have Known is raw and emotional, at least for the Foo Fighters. It examines the conflicting emotions felt by Grohl following the loss of his childhood friend Jimmy Swanson to a drug overdose in 2008.

Grohl described it as follows:

"With every album, if I ever sing a song about losing someone or death, most people really just sort of assume that it's about Kurt," Grohl said. "And I have wonderful memories of Kurt. Kurt was a great dude. He was a really sweet guy. And it's heartbreaking still, what happened. But unfortunately, it's happened to me more than once in my life. So when I first started writing that song, I was writing it about someone else."

The song eventually took on even broader meaning, as songs often do, beyond the initial inspiration. "The idea is really more that you don't think about the specific person or who it's about. It's just about what it's about.

"I don't want to take that connection from you because it might have happened to you," he continued. "So when you're listening to it or singing it, you're doing it for your own reasons, not mine."

Here is a video about the making of the song, in which Dave admits that, though he wrote it about one experience (presumably Swanson), it is hard for him not to think of others (presumably including Cobain) when he sings the song.

This excerpt from the lyrics could apply to Swanson, Cobain, now Taylor Hawkins, or people any of us may have lost to suicide or a tragic death like a drug overdose:

I should have known that it would end this way
I should have known there was no other way
Didn't hear your warning
Damn my heart gone deaf

I should have known, look at the shape you're in
I should have known, but I dove right in
One thing is for certain
As I'm standing here
I should have known

Lay your hands in mine
Heal me one last time
Though I cannot forgive you yet
No, I cannot forgive you yet
You leave my heart in debt

I should have known, I was inside of you
I should have known, there was that side of you
Came without a warning
Caught me unaware
I should have known, I've been here before
I should have known, don't want it anymore
One thing is for certain
I'm still standing here
I should have known

Lay your hands in mine
Heal me one last time
Though I cannot forgive you yet
No, I cannot forgive you yet
You leave my heart in debt
No, I cannot forgive you yet
No, I cannot forgive you yet
You leave my heart in debt
I should have known

Maybe you was right
Didn't want a fight
I should have known
Couldn't read the signs
Couldn't see the light
I should have known

Here is a live performance from Dave's garage.

Here is a live performance on Letterman.
 
I finally had a chance to listen to the #27 playlist.

Excluding my own song, I already knew that I liked these songs:
  • Modest Mouse - Float On
  • AC/DC - T.N.T.
On first listen to this playlist, these were the unfamiliar songs I liked the best:
  • Warren Zevon - My ****'s ****ed Up
  • Doves - Prisoners
  • Spoon - No Bullets Spent
  • The Tragically Hip - So Hard Done By
  • Deadmau5, Collen D'agostino - Seeya
I have made a post like this for the first 5 playlists so far, and highlighted unfamiliar songs I liked the best from 16 artists:
  1. Blur
  2. Ryan Adams & the Cardinals
  3. Elliott Smith
  4. Big Thief
  5. Alice In Chains
  6. Green Day
  7. Phish
  8. Spoon (x2)
  9. ...And You Will Know...
  10. Daft Punk
  11. Stranglers
  12. Decemberists
  13. Warren Zevon
  14. Doves
  15. The Tragically Hip
  16. Deadmau5 (x2)
That is a lot of good stuff from artists mostly unfamiliar to me. 👍
 
I've lost count of the number of times I've been listening to the playlist, and stopped and said: "who is that!" and its Frank Black. (OK, I lied. It's been 9 times.)

I don't know what I Selkie Bride is, but I like it. Hope to see the complete playlist when we finish this exercise sometime in early 2024. :thumbup:
Glad you like the song selections. It was fun creating the playlist even though a lot of great songs were left on the cutting room floor.

You can find out what a Selkie Bride is here.
Somehow we got the seal wife before we got the crane wife
 
#23 Genesis - More Fool Me

Album - Selling England By The Pound
Year - 1973

One of only two Genesis songs sung by Phil Collins on Peter Gabriel fronted albums. This serves as a nice brief breath of fresh air in the middle of the other power Prog songs on this masterpiece album. I love the harmony between Collins and Gabriel on this short and sweet acoustic classic.

I warned y’all I was a sucker for some of the sappier songs.
 
I finished the 24s.

Of the less/un-familiars, these were my favorite songs from this list:

My Song (by Carlile, not my song I listed 😀)
Coma
Too Long/Steam Machine
Duchess
Halfway to the Moon
Now the Struggle Has a Name
The 16th Hour

And Rock ‘n Roll Fantasy is such a great song from one of my favorite bands.
 
Green DayMAC_32Platypus (I Hate You)
It only felt right to follow up Green Day at one of their more sentimental moments with arguably the nastiest song in their entire catalog. An ode, if you will, to one of their harshest critics that led the charge to their banishment of Gilman Street, who was on death's door when this was released. It's not just the speed of track, but the lyrical content.

I heard your sick
Sucked on that cancer stick
A throbbing tumor and a radiation high
**** out of luck
And now your time is up
It brings me pleasure just to know you're going to die


...and it gets worse from there. They were barred from guest appearances on terrestrial radio for almost 2 decades because of a performance on Howard Stern of all shows in which they were asked to play something else (probably Waiting) and decided to play this instead. I don't think they like this guy
Green Day is always such a punch in the face following Sigur Ros in the playlist.
I thought about that on the 29's with Brat. Knowing more of the punk-heavy tracks wouldn't come til later I wondered when someone else would bring this up. Feels like my heart rate drops several beats during those Sigur Ros epics and then...
 
23 Sigur Ros - Von (Hope) - Hvarf/Heim

Von is a song from their first album of the same name, but has been pretty much rewritten when performed live. This is a live performance featured in their concert film Hvarf/Heim.

I'm including the video link below. I rank this song higher than most fans because of the unplugged version here. Their concert film was a bunch of recordings of the band giving free, secret concerts all over Iceland as a thank you after one of their early worldwide tours. They played everywhere from the top of a glacier, to small village squares. This one takes place in a coffee shop in the town of Borg (population 100). According to the invite, the band welcomed friends and family to enjoy some unplugged music with waffles and pancakes. I can think of few better ways to spend a morning.

https://youtu.be/afxiUrfhF8A?t=2014

The song is slow and haunting consisting of primarily strings, light drums, and Hopelandic vocals. I think it is one of their most beautiful performances. The harmony between the vocals and strings gets me everytime. But it's a slow burn and something that may be difficult for newcomers.
 
Green DayMAC_32Platypus (I Hate You)
It only felt right to follow up Green Day at one of their more sentimental moments with arguably the nastiest song in their entire catalog. An ode, if you will, to one of their harshest critics that led the charge to their banishment of Gilman Street, who was on death's door when this was released. It's not just the speed of track, but the lyrical content.

I heard your sick
Sucked on that cancer stick
A throbbing tumor and a radiation high
**** out of luck
And now your time is up
It brings me pleasure just to know you're going to die


...and it gets worse from there. They were barred from guest appearances on terrestrial radio for almost 2 decades because of a performance on Howard Stern of all shows in which they were asked to play something else (probably Waiting) and decided to play this instead. I don't think they like this guy
Green Day is always such a punch in the face following Sigur Ros in the playlist.
I thought about that on the 29's with Brat. Knowing more of the punk-heavy tracks wouldn't come til later I wondered when someone else would bring this up. Feels like my heart rate drops several beats during those Sigur Ros epics and then...

Haha, especially today's. The Sigur Ros song may as well serve as a lullaby and then Green Day comes to slap you awake. I love it.
 
Going to see The Cure tonight. The part of me that still wants to be young is like "Wow, they're playing for 2-and-a-half hours! " The old part of me is saying "Ugh, how am I gonna make it through 2-and-a-half hours, especially with a morning flight to Atlanta the next day."

Lookin really forward to listening to the 23s, especially given one of my all-time favorites is on it. As for the Hold Steady:

The Hold Steady “Realistic” Dream Setlist Song 9: Hostile, Mass

He said, "Hey my name is Corey
And I'm really into hardcore
People call me Hard Corey"
Don't you hate these clever people
And all these clever people parties


Album: Almost Killed Me (2 of 5)

Year: 2004

# of Times Seen Live: 0 of 37

The Story: Heading back in time from one of their newest songs to one of their oldest. Almost Killed Me is undoubtedly the rawest and most fun of THS’s albums and that’s all showcased in Hostile, Mass. The guitar and bass riffs are both huge and Craig sounds like the homeless guy yelling on the corner (to refer back to an earlier MAD thread), plus we get a sax solo and more mentions of all those damned “clever” people.

Live Notes: One of only two songs from the first seven proper THS records that I’ve yet to see live. If setlist.fm is to be believed, they’ve only played Hostile, Mass 24 times in total, but they’ve pulled it out once or twice per year since 2020.

Mrs. Scorchy Notes: There’s one lyric that Mrs. Scorchy loves because she claims it reminds her of us, only with the roles reversed:

They met as kids he was angry and angsty
Yeah, and she was a damned good dancer
 
Um, my #23 seems to have missed the list. Here it is:

I.G.Y.

From his first solo album, The Nightfly, the abbreviation I.G.Y. stands for International Geophysical Year. You can read more about it if you like, but the TL;DR version is that the 'scientific community' declared 1957 to be a year of unprecedented cooperation/idea sharing within the international scientific community. Our little Donnie Fagen would have been 8 or 9 at the time, so to me this is his reaction to this 'event', and as such, he really keeps his sense of irony mostly in check, save the line "By '76 we'll be A-OK."

Having not even been born yet, I can't really emphasize with him here, but given the build-up of optimism in young Donnie's (and presumably others of his generation), it's tough to fault him/them for their disillusionment and carrying that into the 60's and 70's:

Standing tough under stars and stripes
We can tell
This dream's in sight
You've got to admit it
At this point in time that it's clear
The future looks bright
On that train all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from New York to Paris
Well by seventy-six we'll be A-OK

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free

Get your ticket to that wheel in space
While there's time
The fix is in
You'll be a witness to that game of chance in the sky
You know we've got to win
Here at home we'll play in the city
Powered by the sun
Perfect weather for a streamlined world
There'll be spandex jackets one for everyone

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free

On that train all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from New York to Paris
(more leisure for artists everywhere)
A just machine to make big decisions
Programmed by fellows with compassion and vision
We'll be clean when their work is done
We'll be eternally free yes and eternally young

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free
Love this song, @KarmaPolice add it to the playlist!
 
Going to see The Cure tonight. The part of me that still wants to be young is like "Wow, they're playing for 2-and-a-half hours! " The old part of me is saying "Ugh, how am I gonna make it through 2-and-a-half hours, especially with a morning flight to Atlanta the next day."
They are playing in Atlanta in a couple days. I wish they were playing in NC. The closest to me they are playing is Atlanta, and Columbia, MD, is only a thirty minute longer drive. I saw them back in '89 (I think) at Duke, and they were so good. I'd love to see them again. I hope you have a great time!
 
#23- The Stranglers - Sometimes

Year - 1977
Album - Rattus Norvegicus
UK Chart position - Non Single
Vocals - Hugh Cornwell
Key Lyric - Someday I'm going to smack your face
Someday I'm going to smack your face
Somebody's going to call your bluff
Somebody's going to treat you rough
Sometimes there is only one way out
I've got to fight

Interesting Points

1- This track was the one that fell in at the last moment. After realising I had 8 of the 9 Rattus Norvegicus tracks included, I had to complete the set. Goodbye Toulouse, Ugly and Princess of the Streets were lineball as well, but the songs that missed out were more of the 80s stuff. The reason I was probably going to exclude it was that its just sounds like so much of their other stuff, but not as good.

2- This was chosen as the lead song to their debut album. It established who they were. Thats not a good thing. If I am being kind, it has problematic subject matter

3- I will let this songfact describe it in greater detail
This aggressive track finds lead singer Hugh Cornwell itching for a fight with his girl. It was inspired by a real-life incident when Cornwell hit his girlfriend after he discovered her cheating. He recalled in the 2011 book The Stranglers: Song By Song: "After a year or so together I suspected she was seeing someone else and went round to her house at about ten o'clock one morning, but she wasn't there and hadn't been back all night. When she turned up I could smell sex on her and slapped her. I didn't beat her up because I don't think violence is a solution to anything, but I did get angry and slapped her. I was using violence as a release of emotion and the lyrics to 'Sometimes' came out of that."

4- While the song was inspired by a violent act between lovers, it was also influenced by the volatility of society at large. Says Cornwell: "A lot of the lyrics in this song are reflecting the state of play when we were starting out. There was a lot of aggression at our gigs, with people throwing things at us, and altercations with members of the audience. There was a very aggressive reaction to our music and the more aggression there was towards us the more aggressive we became. But you get to a situation in writing lyrics where one idea feeds another and it's not clear which is creating which. It's the chicken and egg situation.

5- Cornwell on why the band chose the punk-influenced track as the opener to their debut album: "Maybe that was another reason for putting it as first song on the album, drawing people in so they thought they had bought a punk record, and then giving them something a bit more intelligent afterwards. It's a perfect opener for the album in that sense."

Summary to date
Year

1977 - 4
1978 - 2
1979 - 2
1980 - 0
1981 - 0
1982 - 0
1983 - 0
1984 - 0
1985 - 0
1986 - 0
1987 - 0
1988 - 1
1989 - 0
1990 onwards - 0

Where to find
Rattus Norvegicus - 4/9
No More Heroes - 0/11
Black and White - 1/12
The Raven - 2/11
The Gospel According to the Meninblack - 0/10
La Folie - 0/11
Feline - 0/9
Aural Sculpture - 0/11
Dreamtime - 0/10
All Live and All of the Night - 1/13
10 - 0/10
1991 onwards - 0
B Sides - 0
Greatest Hits - 0
Standalone Single - 1

Running Vocal Count
Hugh Cornwell - 6
Jean-Jacques Burnel - 3
Other - 0

Rundown
#31 - Walk on By
#30 - Ugly
#29 - All Day and All of the Night
#28 - Meninblack
#27 - Goodbye Toulouse
#26 - Princess of the Streets
#25 - Sweden (All Quiet on the Eastern Front)
#24 - Duchess
#23 - Sometimes

Next we have a 7 minute song sung entirely in French. It was chosen as the follow up to their biggest hit. Needless to say it didnt do well. It is also the last song that could have been interchanged with a song outside the top 31. The top 21 were set in stone.
 
Um, my #23 seems to have missed the list. Here it is:

I.G.Y.

From his first solo album, The Nightfly, the abbreviation I.G.Y. stands for International Geophysical Year. You can read more about it if you like, but the TL;DR version is that the 'scientific community' declared 1957 to be a year of unprecedented cooperation/idea sharing within the international scientific community. Our little Donnie Fagen would have been 8 or 9 at the time, so to me this is his reaction to this 'event', and as such, he really keeps his sense of irony mostly in check, save the line "By '76 we'll be A-OK."

Having not even been born yet, I can't really emphasize with him here, but given the build-up of optimism in young Donnie's (and presumably others of his generation), it's tough to fault him/them for their disillusionment and carrying that into the 60's and 70's:

Standing tough under stars and stripes
We can tell
This dream's in sight
You've got to admit it
At this point in time that it's clear
The future looks bright
On that train all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from New York to Paris
Well by seventy-six we'll be A-OK

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free

Get your ticket to that wheel in space
While there's time
The fix is in
You'll be a witness to that game of chance in the sky
You know we've got to win
Here at home we'll play in the city
Powered by the sun
Perfect weather for a streamlined world
There'll be spandex jackets one for everyone

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free

On that train all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from New York to Paris
(more leisure for artists everywhere)
A just machine to make big decisions
Programmed by fellows with compassion and vision
We'll be clean when their work is done
We'll be eternally free yes and eternally young

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free
Love this song, @KarmaPolice add it to the playlist!
I will wait until I'm super high and add it twice. ;)
 
Some thoughts on the 23s:

- I’m enjoying the rocking’ Todd Rundgren songs

- Jorge Ben Joe - beautiful song, loved it

- Donald Fagen - welcome to the party! Great song.

- Green Day - one of my favorites of theirs

- Stranglers - this has been a fun revelation to me so far. Never listened to them too much before.

- Stevie Wonder - one of those “perfect” songs for me. Just beautiful.

- ELO - ♥️

- Dino Jr - this song gave me big Replacements vibes. Great stuff.

- Gorillaz - I know their big hits, but this is another song from them that makes me want to dig into their albums more.

- Simon and Garfunkel - this was great. It sounds like it could have been released in the past decade by an indie band.

-Tragically hip - I really liked this one despite the fact that the vocals sounded a bit like REM to me (who I don’t like - but I liked this)
 
Some selected (‘random’) #23s

Do Ya - ELO. This probably shouldn’t feel like a particularly deep cut, but it hits me like meeting up with an old but familiar friend. Energetic and powerful as so much is with this group.

Heart Cooks Brain - Modest Mouse. The drumbeat grabbed me instantly. I was more mixed on the record-scratching, but it doesn’t dominate. I get a strong sense of isolation and introspection from the lyrics, too.

Mr. Bad Example - Warren Zevon. Sounds almost like a march, mixed with an over-the-top evil character. And I love every second of it. This one’s going on a list for at least a second listen.

No Reason - Big Thief. A slow, thoughtful song that hit me exactly in the right spot today. I’d have to review whether this is my favorite from them so far, but it’s definitely up there.

Mama Weer All Crazee Now - Slade. Definitely a familiar song, if not exclusively by this band. Still great to hear it again, though. A straightforward structure, a driving beat, and a very catchy tune.

You Don’t Know My Name - The Kinks. There was a moment where I wondered if this was Rod Stewart. If done better. Still, a short simple song that I enjoyed, and shines a light that I know some of The Kinks but by no means most/all.

Sometimes - The Stranglers. Part of my brain is convinced that “L.A. Woman” is about to happen at any second throughout. I say that in a complimentary way though, since at minimum I enjoyed the verve/vibe.

Black Maria - Todd Rundgren. Very psychedelic 70s. A little Floyd-ish, or is that the other countdown talking? Great guitar work here, and I liked the vocals. So yep, I really like this.


A strong round, really! Other artists I considered spotlighting this time included Jorge Ben Jor, Trail of Dead, Sigur Ros, and Frank Black. Plus certainly much love for songs from Stevie Wonder and The Police.
 
Stranglers - this has been a fun revelation to me so far. Never listened to them too much before.
Next 3 might test you out, but the top 19 are better than what youve heard. Maybe Duchess was too low judging by the consensus, but im happy where I put it.
Sometimes - The Stranglers. Part of my brain is convinced that “L.A. Woman” is about to happen at any second throughout. I say that in a complimentary way though, since at minimum I enjoyed the verve/vibe.
Im hearing She Bop by Cyndi Lauper, but thats the prominent bass line. I did say the comparison to the Stranglers was the Doors. Mainly the keyboards. Dave Greenfield, the Stranglers keyboardist was a bit autistic. When asked about the Doors similarity, he said he had never heard of them. In fairness to him the Doors were only slightly more popular in the UK than the Stranglers were in the US. Only 1 top 10 hit and one top 10 album in the UK. Largely anonymous.
 
The band name Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr still cracks me up. Okay, perhaps it was a winking-nodding hipsterism, but it got me to laugh.

Just figured I'd leave that here. Guess what track off of the list i just listened to? Man, the solo on that one. Dinosaur Jr. Figured I'd check out an earlier track of theirs.

Then the algorithm gave me Sloan's "Money City Maniacs." Man, the riffs on that one. That's not a song anybody picked here but that I let roll along when it came up. Personal choice.

So I migrated to ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail Of Dead's "Wasted State Of Mind" - dig the chorus, incredibly catchy sing-a-long. caught in a stasis/feel like I'm wasted all this time/with people and places/who've never related or desired

Next up was deadmau5 - I really like this. I'm hoping for a breakdown or payoff after the two and half minute mark...we shall see if I get it. I see at around the five minute mark we start to get a bit of it...nice...then we drop back down to the original element of the song. Not pyrotechnical, but pretty enjoyable.

Prodigy to follow with "Android." I generally like/love what Prodigy does, so it's no surprise I like this. Definite early '90s house/techno grunting effects in place here. KLF gonna move you! Surprised this is 2004. Maybe a throwback.

Then it was Frank Black sounding a lot unlike Black Francis. If he ever did Yacht Rock, then this would be it if only we could get rid of all that instrumentation and make it more sparse.

ELO came along with a nice riff and professional competency. WAIT, I REMEMBER THIS SONG! I LOVE IT! ELO RULEZ! In and out at 3:45. Thank you, boys! Love that riffage!

But I never seen nothing like ya

I also listened to Chicago (those drums), Gorillaz, The Police, The Stranglers, and The Tragically Hip. Don't have a ton to say about them except that I did enjoy them. Will post more later if I get to more songs.

Peace.
 
Just figured I'd leave that here. Guess what track off of the list i just listened to? Man, the solo on that one. Dinosaur Jr. Figured I'd check out an earlier track of theirs.
I caught that last part - are you not familar with their earlier stuff, or was it more to check out what I liked of it?

ETA: but yeah, the last minute of Freak Scene is awesome. 🎸
 
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I caught that last part - are you not familar with their earlier stuff, or was it more to check out what I liked of it?

I'm not familiar with Bug, You're Living All Over Me, and Dinosaur, really. I only know the "hits" or the most played off of the middle period, too, so I'm interested to see what those have in store for me.

I knew I was cool with their mid-period stuff, but it wasn't until the later period that I began to take notice (probably because Barlow was back in the band and I think I like Sebadoh's more famous songs than the mid-period known songs of Dinosaur Jr.)

I saw Jr. at Toad's Place in New Haven in the later aughts. Great show.

Of course, even if I liked it I'd check out what you thought, but this was because I was unfamiliar with it.
 

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