Another Rambler

I wasn’t planning to post any more today, but I had to make a note of the 3 songs that WXPN afternoon host Dan Reed played this afternoon at the beginning of his Highs in the 70s segment:

• Ramblin' Man -- The Allman Brothers
• I'm A Ramblin' Man -- Waylon Jennings
• Ramble On -- Led Zeppelin 

Maybe he found the blog???

 

Notable Quotes #2

A former teammate of Michael Morse, referring to his reported one-year deal with the Giants:

"He'll either miss most of the season or hit 28 homers. But he's worth the risk."

http://m.mlb.com/news/2013/12/12/64622438/giants-agree-to-one-year-deal-with-outfielder-michael-morse

Notable Quotes #1

Republican pollster Glen Bolger, on the December 2013 budget deal: 

“We are either a party that is serious about governing when control of Washington is split, or we are an unserious party that doesn’t care about realistic incremental gains ... We have to stop being the dysfunctional equivalent of the Washington Redskins.”

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/house-republicans-appear-to-be-rallying-behind-85billion-budget-deal/2013/12/11/e26ce50a-629c-11e3-a373-0f9f2d1c2b61_story.html?hpid=z1

 

Best Music of 2013

(Updated 1/7/2014 to note how the songs/albums did in the radio station countdowns.)

I voted in 3 radio station “best of the year” polls recently, two for best songs and one for best albums. My selections were as follows: 

Songs 

1. From A Window Seat -- Dawes (#16 WXPN)
2. Can't Hold Us -- Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
3. Never Wanted Your Love -- She & Him
4. Feel It All -- K T Tunstall
5. Same Love -- Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
6. You Never Need Nobody -- The Lone Bellow (#6)
7. Good Things Happen To Bad People -- Richard Thompson (#32)
8. Heavy Feet -- Local Natives (#71)
9. Out Of My League -- Fitz and the Tantrums (#34)
10. Stranger To My Happiness -- Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings (#130)

Honorable mention: True Love – Pink

Albums 

1. Electric – Richard Thompson
2. Invisible Empire/Crescent Moon – K T Tunstall
3. Volume 3 – She & Him
4. Old Yellow Moon -- Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell (#24 mvyradio)
5. Minute By Minute – James Hunter 

Honorable mention: Stories Don’t End -- Dawes (#6)

#97 I Want You -- Marvin Gaye (1976)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RRCZ0QjM2k  

This was not Marvin’s biggest hit or most significant song, but it may have been his best groove (which probably means that Robin Thicke will borrow it for his next album). 

Memory can be a funny thing. I could have sworn that the song was performed on the legendary Motown 25 TV special, but I can’t find any trace of such a performance online.

Postie #2

(from a 12/11/2013 article on the Caps' 6-5 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/alex-ovechkin-scores-four-goals-as-capitals-rally-to-beat-tampa-bay-lightning-in-shootout/2013/12/10/2408e668-6210-11e3-94ad-004fefa61ee6_story.html

One of the paragraphs from my print version of the paper started out as follows:

"Ovechkin’s third four-goal game of his career and his 13th career hat trick."

There certainly does seem to be something missing from that sentence. To someone's credit, the online version was updated to add "It was" to the beginning.

#98 I'm In A Different World -- Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin (1985)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF68OyTlP4E

Like #99 and #100, this is a classic from back in the salad days of WHFS. This is a Holland/Dozier/Holland tune that was one of the less successful singles for the Four Tops back in 1968. Note that this Dave Stewart is NOT the David A. Stewart who was half of the Eurythmics.

 

Speaking of Motown covers … there was one small flaw in my methodology for coming up with the top 100 list. In order to be eligible, songs had to be in my iTunes library. Normally this is a low bar to cross, but there are a couple of worthy contenders for which I have never been able to find the “right” version in either iTunes or Amazon. "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell is the most prominent example. The killer version of this on the radio featured "Tainted Love," with the end running right into their version of "Where Did Our Love Go" (another Motown cover), with no filler or aimless noodling in between. You can find the correct version, at right around 4 minutes, on YouTube. 

#99 Only the Lonely -- The Motels (1982)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaPTELylZ1s

The more senior among you may remember that "Only the Lonely" was the first big hit for Roy Orbison, way back in 1960. This is a completely different (although equally great) song, although the last repetition of the title by Martha Davis near the very end has always brought back memories of Roy. 

For a great short set of related tunes, throw in "When You’re Only Lonely" by J. D. Souther. (And of course "Thunder Road.")

#100 Somewhere In America There's A Street Named After My Dad -- Was (Not Was) (1988)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PGV1Xofhcg

 

If you were alive and listening to any radio in the 1980s, you almost certainly heard “Walk the Dinosaur” by the “band” Was (Not Was). It’s a great song, as was their other (largely underrated) hit, “Spy in the House of Love”. Both of these are from their great album What Up, Dog?, all of whose songs are as quirky as the singles would suggest. In fact, a few of them make Dinosaur sound almost normal. Somewhere in America, while still a bit offbase, is surprisingly poignant as well, with a small touch of politics (“no showbiz beginners making global decisions”) thrown in.

I'm not sure there are very many great songs relating to fatherhood. "Let Me Be the Man My Daddy Was" by the Chi-Lites certainly qualifies.

Favorite 100 Songs

This is an admittedly imperfect, one-moment-in-time stab at my favorite songs of all time. It was inspired by Dave Marsh’s classic “The Heart Of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Every Made.” For much more information on Marsh’s list, see Lex Jansen’s great web site (another SAS guy).

Although I fully expect to live to a ripe old age, coming up with 1000 songs in order and with commentary felt overly ambitious to me. (Marsh is a professional music writer and critic, after all.) On the other hand, with all the great songs that have come out over the years, cutting down to 100 also presented a challenge. To make it easier, I instituted a one-song-per-performer rule. Once I finish posting the top 100, I’ll probably put up some mini-lists of favorite tunes by some of my favorite artists. I may also do some “honorable mentions” of other songs that didn’t quite make the main list.

 

I started out in November 2013 by putting together a spreadsheet with all of the 2800+ songs I’ve loaded into iTunes, and then did an initial cut, which produced 170 songs. On December 9, I cut the 170 down to 100 (certainly the hardest part), divided the survivors into 10 groups, and then came up with the final numerical order. Don’t take the latter too seriously; I don’t think I could actually argue that I like my #53 song better than the one that is at #67.

Postie #1

(from a 12/9 article on the Georgetown-Colgate men’s basketball game)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/georgetown-hoyas-do-just-enough-to-escape-colgate-despite-shooting-woes/2013/12/07/1ff9b612-5ee4-11e3-be07-006c776266ed_story.html

“But Colgate hung around, reeling off nine answered points to pull within five, 47-38.”

OK, I assume that they really meant “unanswered” points. But I am still baffled by the math.

Posties Intro

I’m a hopeless newspaper addict – have to have that sports section to read over breakfast, even when on vacation. Consequently, I’ve subscribed to the Washington Post for well over 30 years, pretty much since I moved to the area. While it still has much to offer, especially its coverage of national politics, the years and the Internet have not been kind to newspapers. Unfortunately there are times when the Post reminds me of an old, dear friend with a terminal illness, who is slowly declining without you being able to do anything about it. These entries memorialize some bloopers, blunders, and pet peeves. I don’t go out of my way to find these – they’re just there (mainly due to the apparent lack of attention to copy editing).

Serendipity #1

Whenever You’re On My Mind – Marshall Crenshaw (1983)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXo4vS-81a8

Heard 12/9/2013 around noon, Cosi restaurant in Rockville

Serendipity Intro

These entries exist due to the sorry state of music radio in Washington DC. For whatever reason, since the classic days of WHFS, Washington totally lacks any progressive or AAA (Adult Album Alternative) stations, such as WXPN in Philadelphia, WTMD in Towson MD, WRNR in Annapolis (the spiritual successor to WHFS), and mvyradio (Martha’s Vineyard). At the moment, there’s not even a real Oldies station.

Consequently, it’s not uncommon in the Washington area to wander into a restaurant or other retail establishment and hear in the background a great song that no local radio station would be caught dead playing. I thought it might be interesting to capture these serendipitous moments as blog entries.

Initial Post

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. 

 

I’ve never been particularly good about coming up with catchy names for things, so at the end of a business meeting this past October (“Blaise Technical Coordinating Committee” for you Westatians reading this), I started a “name the blog” contest. Thanks to Patrick Mayer for submitting the winning entry (along with many, many others). I expect that “rambling” will accurately describe the tone of these entries, along with being a good pun and a nice reference to a great old Nat King Cole song. Patrick’s prize is still TBD.

About me (answering Bart Simpson’s eternal question): 

• sexagenarian
• proud resident of Rockville MD since 1978
• Former Westat vice president (now retired)
• SAS guy
• Flying Dutchman, class of '75
• Split-personality baseball fan (Side 1 and Side 2) (my quandary set to music)

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