As a fan of a wide variety of popular (and not-so-popular) music from the 1950s (and sometimes even earlier) up through the present, one of my bucket list projects for years has been to put together a list of my 100 favorite songs of all time. At some point I decided that, once I got around to figuring that out, I could put it out on a blog, for the infinitesimally small proportion of the Internet world that might be interested. So, here we are. While the Top 100 will be a major focus, I also plan to post on a variety of other musical (and occasionally non-musical) topics, in which you may or may not be interested. (If a particular posting doesn’t ring your bell, you’re only a few clicks away from a dancing cat video on YouTube.)

Friday, July 28, 2017

July 26, 2017 – Nats 8, Brewers 5 – Nationals Park


 
Attendance: 35,296
Game Time: 2:58
Weather: 84 degrees, partly cloudy
Wind: 8 mph
Umpires: Home Plate - Chris Segal, First Base - Mike Everitt, Second Base - Jordan Baker, Third Base - Bruce Dreckman
 
Notes – Brewers jumped on top in the first on a monster HR by Domingo Santana and a second run when Travis Shaw doubled, stole third with no resistance and scored when Wieters couldn’t corral a third strike … Gio blanked Milwaukee for the next 6 innings, fanning 8 and allowing only 3 more hits and 1 walk … after being shut out Tuesday night, the Nats continued their offensive futility for most of the game against Jimmy Nelson, who fanned 10 … Murphy finally broke the spell with a seventh-inning homer … Nelson was pulled after walking Wieters to lead off the 8th, and the Nats tied things up on a Goodwin double and Difo single … with 2 outs, Zimmerman gave the Nats the lead on a 2-run double, although Difo fell on the way home and barely managed to get there safely … after an intentional walk to Murphy, Nats extended their lead on run-scoring hits by Rendon, Lind, and Pedro Severino … in the middle of everything, Harper struck out, threw a temper tantrum and was ejected for the 10th time in his career and the 4th in the past two seasons … Brewers made things a little interesting in the 9th, as Doolittle yielded a walk, homer, single, and double before finally getting the final two outs
 
Other – another long, slow drive to the park (about an hour and three-quarters), with a circuitous route to our usual parking area as the southern section of Half Street SW is now closed due to construction work on the new stadium for DC United

Monday, July 24, 2017

#154 Girlfriend – Matthew Sweet (1991)


 
The quote from the CD packaging – “Don’t be afraid to play it loud!” – couldn’t be more appropriate, at least when applied to the title track from Sweet’s 1991 album. The song itself and Sweet’s vocals are great, but what really makes the track is the searing guitar work by the late (and largely unknown) Robert Quine. If you ever feel like entering an air-guitar competition, you couldn’t go wrong with this.

#153 Dark Necessities – Red Hot Chili Peppers (2016)



Intro that gradually builds for 40 seconds. That bass line. Ominous lyrics. Best song in the Chili Peppers’ 30+ year career.

Yes, despite rumors to the contrary, rock and roll is still alive and well.

#152 Train In The Distance – Paul Simon (1983)


 
In commercial terms, 1983’s Hearts and Bones album is one of Simon’s least successful, both in terms of its own sales and its failure to produce a Top 40 single. It did produce my two favorite Paul Simon songs of all time: the title cut and “Train in the Distance”. I avoided choosing between them for a long time, and even then it was basically a coin flip. Simon apparently liked them as well, as he included both in his 1988 collection Negotiations and Love Songs (whose title is taken from the lyrics of “Train in the Distance”).