Shuffle #41 (December 28, 2014)

I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry – B.J. Thomas

Only A Memory – The Smithereens

Closer To Fine – Indigo Girls

Zydeco Dog – Zachary Smith & The Dixie Power Trio

Wouldn’t It Be Nice – The Beach Boys

The Price You Pay – Bruce Springsteen

Love Shack – The B-52’s

Tunnel Of Love – Dire Straits

Favorite 100 Songs Trivia

Total time of all songs – 6 hours, 25 minutes

Average song length – 3:51

 

Shortest songs:

    2:07  #65  Do You Believe In Magic -- The Lovin' Spoonful (1965)

    2:08  #72  Mama Said -- The Shirelles (1961)

    2:10  #46  One Fine Day -- The Chiffons (1963)

 

Longest songs (all in my top 20, for whatever it’s worth):

    7:43  #19  Bustin' Loose -- Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers (1979)

    6:59  #5  Slippin' Into Darkness – War (1972)

    6:22  #7  Canadian Railroad Trilogy -- Gordon Lightfoot (1967)

    6:14  #1  Stay In My Corner -- The Dells (1968)

 

Shortest song title:

    #67  Mystery -- The Manhattan Transfer (1984)

Longest song title (tie):

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

    #35  Neither One Of Us (Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye) -- Gladys Knight & The Pips (1973)

 

Songs by decade:

1950s – 2

    #93  Fools Fall In Love -- The Drifters (1957)

    #83  This I Swear -- The Skyliners (1959)

1960s – 37

1970s – 23

1980s – 21

1990s – 11

2000s – 4

2010s – 2

    #86  Wide River To Cross -- Diana Krall (2012)

    #91  The Walk -- Mayer Hawthorne (2011)

 

Year with the most songs – 1965:

    #8  You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' -- The Righteous Brothers

    #9  A Change Is Gonna Come -- Sam Cooke

    #21  Ride Away -- Roy Orbison

    #33  I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better -- The Byrds

    #57  New York's A Lonely Town -- The Tradewinds

    #61  The Carnival Is Over -- The Seekers

    #65  Do You Believe In Magic -- The Lovin' Spoonful

Shuffle #40 (December 14, 2014)

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes – Patti Austin

Seen And Not Seen – Talking Heads*

Rainy Days And Mondays – The Carpenters*

I Feel The Earth Move – Carole King

Did It In A Minute – Hall & Oates

Dance To The Music – Sly & The Family Stone

Try Me – James Brown

I’m A Man – The Yardbirds

Someday, One Day – The Seekers

Shower The People – James Taylor

Sledgehammer – Peter Gabriel

* -- Probably the only time in recorded history that these two songs have been played back to back.

#1 Stay In My Corner -- The Dells (1968)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPJKRRbjw0U

 

The Dells first recorded and released “Stay In My Corner” in 1965. It’s relatively unremarkable, checking in at a tidy 2:58. It reached a modest #23 on the Billboard R&B chart, and did not crack the Hot 100.

 

A couple years later, the group was looking for some additional songs to fill out their debut LP after moving to the Cadet record label, so they rearranged and re-recorded the song. Unexpectedly, the album cut started getting so much radio airplay despite its length (over six minutes) that they put it out as a single. It wound up being their biggest hit ever, reaching #1 on the R&B chart and nudging into the top 10 of the Hot 100. I first remember hearing it when we were down at the Jersey shore in the summer of ’68. (To my shock, Dave Marsh’s listing of “Stay In My Corner” in his book of great singles references the original 1965 version.)

 

Of course, this ranks as my all-time favorite not because it’s a great story, but because it’s a great song. Although the Dells were a traditional R&B vocal group, the song is anything but traditional, with a coda that has to be heard to be believed. I’m convinced that somewhere in the world there exists a musical dictionary where there’s a link to this song next to the definition of “soul”.

#2 Stones In The Road -- Mary Chapin Carpenter (1994)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CPMWyiAESo

Back in the day (mid to late 80s, I think), a group of us started going to see Emmylou Harris at Wolf Trap every year. One particular year, her opening act was someone we had never heard of, named Mary Chapin Carpenter. We were so impressed that we started going to Carpenter’s annual performances instead, although a few of us kept going to Emmylou’s shows as well. By now, I’ve seen more performances by her than by any other artist – in addition to the shows that she does almost every summer at Wolf Trap, I’ve caught shows by her at other local venues (Birchmere, 9:30 Club, Lyric Opera House in Baltimore), and one each in Philadelphia (WXPN annual summer music festival) and Elmer, NJ (Appel Farm Arts and Music Festival). I actually started going to the WXPN festivals in the summer of 2000 to see Carpenter, because for some reason she wasn’t going to be at Wolf Trap that year.

Carpenter wrote “Stones In The Road” during the heyday of her period as an unlikely country music superstar. The song is certainly more folk than country – it was actually first recorded by Joan Baez – which helps explain why her record company never released it as a single. Unlike “Slippin’ Into Darkness” and “Thunder Road” it follows the traditional verse-chorus-bridge structure, but like the latter the lyrics are outstanding, a parable of growing up in a comfortable white middle-class environment, for the most part touched only indirectly by the chaos of the late 1960s, and seeing youthful idealism replaced by the cynicism of the grownup rat race. It’s interesting that while the references in the first verse of the song (Pledge of Allegiance, starving children overseas) are common to many of us, the second verse is intensely personal, as Carpenter was growing up in Princeton NJ when Robert F. Kennedy’s funeral train traveled from New York down to Washington after his assassination in 1968. And as with “Canadian Railroad Trilogy”, the final lines pack a real punch. (Carpenter was always best when her political points were subtle):

"And the stones in the road leave a mark from whence they came / A thousand points of light or shame, baby, I don't know."

 

#3 Thunder Road -- Bruce Springsteen (1975)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGBXnw86Mgc

Picking a single “favorite song” isn’t the easiest thing in the world; probably any of the top 9 on this list could make a strong case for the honor. In particular, the top 3 are really more like 1A, 1B, and 1C.

In general, I get annoyed when people pull out the lyrics from rock (or other) songs and point to them as poetry. Song lyrics aren’t meant to stand alone. Rather, they’re designed to work along with the musical elements of the song. So, there are many great songs with wonderful lyrics that work well in the context of the song, but aren’t necessarily impressive if pulled out and viewed on their own.

There are, however, certainly some songs whose lyrics alone could stand on their own merits, and Springsteen has written more than his share of these (as has Joni Mitchell). “Thunder Road” for me tops the list, not least for its relative brevity (as early Bruce goes); as he himself said later in “No Surrender”, “We learned more from a three minute record than we ever learned in school.” (OK, “Thunder Road” actually runs 4:51, but you get the point.)

My college roommate and I were introduced to Bruce’s music by our next-door neighbor in the dorm, who hailed from the Philadelphia suburbs. The three of us wound up developing a Sunday night ritual of listening to one side of a Bruce album – there were only two at the time – every Sunday night, and on October 20, 1974 we made the drive from Lebanon Valley to Dickinson College in Carlisle to see him perform, in what appeared to be the college dining hall / multi-purpose room. For some reason, I have never forgotten that the opening act was (as introduced by Bruce) Hange Range, from Schooley’s Mountain, New Jersey. Don’t think he did “Thunder Road”, but we do remember him doing “Jungleland”.

Best Music of 2014

Here’s my annual list of favorite songs and albums. I’ll update this post once the results are in from the three radio station polls in which I voted. [DONE]

Songs (WXPN list) 

1. Happy – Pharrell Williams (#20 WXPN Top 200)
2. You Go Down Smooth – Lake Street Dive (#14 WXPN, #48 WTMD Top 89)
3. After The Disco – Broken Bells
4. The Moment – Toad The Wet Sprocket
5. Coming Of Age – Foster The People (#111 WXPN, #38 WTMD)
6. Bad Self Portraits – Lake Street Dive (#6 WXPN, #31 WTMD)
7. Holding On To Life – Broken Bells (#65 WTMD)
8. Turn It Around – Lucius (#113 WXPN)
9. Black & Blue – The Secret Sisters
10. Modern Blue – Roseanne Cash (#199 WXPN)

Other Favorite Songs (not played on WXPN) 

1. Use Me Up – Lake Street Dive (album track)
2. Love Never Felt So Good – Michael Jackson
3. Classic – MKTO
4. Ain’t It Fun – Paramore
5. The Story Of My Life – One Direction
6. All About That Bass – Meghan Trainor
7. American Dream – MKTO
8. Problem – Ariana Grande 

Favorite Albums

1. Bad Self Portraits – Lake Street Dive (#1 mvyradio Top 25)
2. Into The Mirror: Del Amitri Live In Concert
3. The River & The Thread – Roseanne Cash (#2)
4. Put Your Needle Down – The Secret Sisters
5. Twelve Stories – Owen Danoff
6. High Hopes --  Bruce Springsteen (#25)
7. Bluesamericana – Keb' Mo' (#6)
8. Give The People What They Want – Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings (#8)

Shuffle #39 (December 6, 2014)

Shake It – Iain Matthews

Yesterday Girl – The Smithereens

The Real Feeling – Ace

Back To Black – Amy Winehouse

I Wish It Would Rain – Rodney Crowell

Can’t Depend On Love – Gordon Lightfoot

Sunlight – The Youngbloods

Greenback Dollar – The Kingston Trio

Red Rain – Peter Gabriel

#4 Fire On The Bayou -- Neville Brothers (1981)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJpzNfao8X4

I’ve seen the Nevilles a few times, including at least twice at Wolf Trap, but my favorite show by them was at Rockville’s Hometown Holidays (annual Memorial Day weekend celebration) in 2000. I think the guys realized that many in the crowd for the free show on a drizzly Saturday evening didn’t necessarily know any of their stuff, so they stuck to their best material, rather than going off on any tangents (political or otherwise).

This one is the best of their best. If you can listen to it for more than a few seconds without getting an irresistable urge to get up and shake your booty, consider yourself clinically dead.

#5 Slippin' Into Darkness – War (1972)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L-2IQMDwcA

For my money, War is the best funk band this side of James Brown. Calling them a “funk band” really doesn’t do them justice, however, with the way their sound frequently features Latin rhythms and the harmonica work of Lee Oskar (probably the only Dane ever to play in a successful American funk or soul act).

While the group is best-known for top 10 hits such as “Cisco Kid”, “Why Can’t We Be Friends”, and “Low Rider”, “Slippin’ Into Darkness” is their masterpiece. Dave Marsh writes that the lyrics “evoke the dissolution of the civil rights movement into the drug-laced daze of the frustrated early seventies.” I’m not sure how much of that was intentional – the lyrics are certainly opaque in places – but “You’ve been slippin’ into darkness / Pretty soon you’re gonna pay” definitely does hit home.

Shuffle #38 (November 29, 2014)

Looking For An Echo – The Persuasions

Hold Back The Night – Graham Parker

Up The Junction – Squeeze

You Keep Me Hanging On – Joe Simon

Telegraph Road (LIVE) – Dire Straits

They Can’t Take That Away From Me – Patti Austin

Johnny One Time – Brenda Lee

#6 Over The Rainbow -- Eva Cassidy (1992)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGaVQN-en2A

With the possible exception of Sinatra, I’ve never heard anyone approach Eva Cassidy as a singer, in terms of voice quality, phrasing, and the overall ability to interpret a song, whether it be a standard like this one, a blues classic like “Stormy Monday”, a soul number like “People Get Ready”, or a folk tune such as “Who Knows Where The Time Goes.” I first saw her on a side stage at the Wolf Trap Jazz and Blues Festival one year, when she was performing with go-go legend Chuck Brown, and was instantly hooked. I was fortunate enough to see her a few more times before her untimely death from melanoma, once more with Chuck and a couple of times by herself at free summer/fall concerts outside the old Silver Spring Armory and at A Taste of DC downtown.

A few years after her death, BBC Radio 2 and the Top of the Pops British TV show picked up Cassidy’s recording of “Over The Rainbow”, eventually sending her Songbird album to the top of the British charts and bringing Cassidy much more fame and appreciation than she ever had during her lifetime. The posthumous success is richly deserved, not just for her stunning version of this song but for her entire body of work.

Serendipity #27

(I’ll Never Be) Your Maggie May – Suzanne Vega

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFs4isCJQEI

Heard 11/25/2014 around 5:30, at Jerry’s Subs (Fallsgrove)

Shuffle #37 (November 23, 2014)

Red Sails In The Sunset – The Spaniels

Sunny Came Home – Shawn Colvin

Do What You Want, Be What You Are – Hall & Oates

Leader Of The Pack – The Shangri-Las

Let’s Say Goodnight – Los Lobos

Caroline No – The Beach Boys

In These Shoes? – Kirsty MacColl

Twilight Zone – Golden Earring

Feel A Whole Lot Better – Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

Some Enchanted Evening – Jay & The Americans

Shuffle #36 (November 22, 2014)

Come Out And Play – The Offspring

Strength – The Alarm

Born To Run – Emmylou Harris

(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone – The Monkees

Let The Rough Side Drag – Jesse Winchester

Use Me – Bill Withers

Black Coffee In Bed – Squeeze

I’m A Good Woman – Cold Blood

Yakety Yak – The Coasters

Jimmy Ruffin

I wanted to be sure to note the death of soul singer Jimmy Ruffin on Monday. The older brother of Temptations singer David Ruffin certainly wasn’t one of Motown’s biggest songs, but he did record “What Becomes Of The Broken-Hearted”, one of the greatest Motown singles ever.

#7 Canadian Railroad Trilogy -- Gordon Lightfoot (1967)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzo6Otpgj-E

This song is the masterpiece of Lightfoot’s illustrious career, which is certainly not damning with faint praise. The song was actually commissioned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) for a special New Year’s Day broadcast kicking off Canada’s centennial year. It’s an extremely ambitious work, with three distinct parts (hence the “Trilogy” in the title), with the initial two reprised at the end. Starting with the opening line – “There was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run” – Lightfoot describes the majestic beauty of his native land, the excitement of its growth and development, and the promise that the building of the Canadian Pacific Railroad would bring. Many might have stopped there, leaving things in a feel-good, heart-warming bowl of mush. Gordon, however, spends much of the song recognizing and celebrating those who were on the front lines of the operation, and shying away from neither the physical (“Swingin' our hammers in the bright blazin' sun … bendin' our backs till the long days are done”) nor emotional (“Across the wide prairie our loved ones lie sleeping beyond the dark oceans in a place far away”) costs. And I don’t think anyone else would have ended a commissioned song for a government agency with the line “Many are the dead men, too silent to be real.”

With apologies to Little Feat, Warren Zevon, Steve Goodman, and many others, this one gets my vote for the best train song of all time.

#8 You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' -- The Righteous Brothers (1965)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbg1gkWb0Wo

Phil Spector may not be the world’s most saintly human being, but he certainly could produce great records, and Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil could write great songs. Put them together and add the Righteous Brothers to the mix, and you have one of the all-time classics of the rock era. The Righteous Brothers had a few other great tracks during the year or so they spent with Spector, and did some nice work afterwards, but they never surpassed this one; they own the song to such an extent that it makes the 1980 Hall & Oates remake, along with every other version ever recorded, completely and utterly gratuitous.

Serendipity #26

1952 Vincent Black Lightning – Richard Thompson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5V0RkCIaXo

Heard 11/13/2014 around 6:00, at Potbelly (Rockville)

The Chad Mitchell Trio and Friends: The Farewell Concert, Bethesda Blues & Jazz Club, 11/15/2014

The Chad Mitchell Trio was one of the better-known groups of the late-fifties-early-sixties folk music revival, although they never achieved the crossover success that was enjoyed by The Kingston Trio or Peter, Paul and Mary. (They actually recorded “Blowing In The Wind” before PP&M did, but their record company didn’t want to release it, and the rest is history.) The current incarnation includes original members Chad Mitchell and Mike Kobluk, who alternated on lead vocals, along with Ron Greenstein. There’s a lot of biographical material on their web site, and a nice third-party take on their career by MTV.

The show was, in a word, wonderful. They did a nice mix of material, and the voices of Chad and Mike are amazing for anyone, much less for a couple of guys born in the 1930s. The set list, which I believe I have correct, is below. After they finally left the stage, the organizers ran some video highlights of their career, after which all of the evening’s musicians came back on stage to send everyone home with “Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream”.

Note that this was actually only their penultimate performance; they will be doing their “Farewell At Sea” on a Traveling Troubadour cruise in March. 

Chad Mitchell Trio set list:

1. Mighty Day
2. My Name Is Morgan
3. Alma Mater
4. Four Strong Winds
5. Blowing In The Wind
6. The Tarriers Song
7. The Whistling Gypsy
8. The Sinking Of The Reuben James
9. What Did You Learn In School Today
10. Business Goes On As Usual / Johnnie (my personal favorite)
11. Vaichazkem
12. Unfortunate Man
13. Tell Old Bill
14. James James Morrison Morrison
15. Lizzie Borden
16. The Marvelous Toy 

Three acts opened the evening. CMT contemporaries The Gaslight Singers started things off with two songs, followed by local duo Side by Side, who did a well-received seven-song set, highlighted by a couple numbers I hadn’t heard them do before (Donovan’s “Catch The Wind” and Del Shannon’s “Runaway”). Tom Paxton then wowed most of the crowd with a ten-song performance including the classics “The Last Thing On My Mind” and “Ramblin’ Boy”.

This was our first trip to the Bethesda Blues and Jazz Club, which is the latest reincarnation of the old Bethesda Theater. There is still some theater-style seating in the rear, along with a bar, although the front two-thirds or so is filled with tables, most of which seemed to accommodate four people. You can take the “filled” literally, as the tables were placed so close together that getting in and out was quite a challenge. Fortunately the sound was good, as was the food (we tried the seared grouper and stuffed chicken breast), although at $24-26 the entrees were more expensive than at other venues we’ve visited recently.

#9 A Change Is Gonna Come -- Sam Cooke (1965)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbO2_077ixs

This classic civil rights anthem, which wasn’t released as a single until a few weeks after Cooke’s untimely death in December of 1964, is in the National Recording Registry maintained by the Library of Congress. It’s also been recognized as one of the greatest songs of all time by NPR and Rolling Stone magazine, and is in the Grammy Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Hard to believe, then, that RCA Victor threw it out there as the B-side of the record (“Shake” was the A-side), and it only reached a modest #31 on the Hot 100.

Serendipity #25

Unchain My Heart – Ray Charles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp_bI2vU7dE

Heard 11/10/2014 around noon, at Zoe’s Kitchen (Kentlands)

Stevie Wonder “Songs in the Key of Life” Tour, Verizon Center, 11/9/2014

The legendary Stevie Wonder doesn’t tour all that often, and I had never seen him live, so it was a no-brainer to get tickets for the Washington stop of his latest tour, which was dedicated to performing the entirety of his Songs in the Key of Life album. The three seats we wound up getting (Section 211, Row L, 10-12) turned out to be not bad at all. They were relatively far back (right side facing the stage, probably at around what would be the far goal line for hockey), but at the end of a row, with an unobstructed view of the stage and video screen, and in the last row of the section, so we could stand up at will without having any guilt feelings about blocking anyone else. Getting in and through security didn’t take all that long, and even the Metro on the way home was surprisingly uncrowded, especially since the concert appeared to be sold out. 

Needless to say, the show (which ran close to 3 hours) was fantastic. Wonder started by joking about “losing his voice” and having to cancel the show, and gave special thanks to band members Greg Phillinganes and Nathan Watt, both of whom were also on the original recording. He and his large cast of musicians (including horns, a string section, and backup singers) launched into “Love’s in Need of Love Today”, which is the first track of Side 1 of the album. The crew then moved through Sides 1 and 2 of the first record in the set, winding up with the first two songs from the 4-track bonus EP, “Saturn” and “Ebony Eyes”. After intermission, they resumed with the crowd favorite “Isn’t She Lovely”, where Wonder featured his now grown-up daughter and backup singer Aisha Morris, who inspired (and appears, as a baby, on the original). After finishing up Side 3 (the first side of the second full-length record in the set), Wonder wisely chose to do the two remaining songs from the EP (“All Day Sucker” and the instrumental “Easy Goin’ Evening”) before moving on to the final side, concluding with the favorites “As” (which I’m still puzzled was not titled “Always”) and the driving “Another Star”, which fortunately was long enough to give Wonder time to introduce all the numerous members of his backup ensemble. After the lengthy standing ovation had died down, he teased the crowd by playing the first few bars of “Do I Do” and “Master Blaster” before sending everyone home happy with a full performance (and crowd singalong) of “Superstition”. 

Stevie alternated between keyboards, standup vocals, and harmonica throughout the evening, and seemed to be in fine voice throughout, despite his joking around at the beginning. Highlights included several appearances by special guest India.Arie (in a variety of colorful outfits), and the one-two punch of his #1 hits “Sir Duke” and “I Wish” near the beginning.

#10 Brian Wilson -- Barenaked Ladies (1997)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51zsxbB8WS8

Semi-biographical ode to the troubled musical genius of the Beach Boys – great enough that Brian Wilson himself started doing a cover version of the song in concert. I don’t often listen to the Washington rock station (DC 101), but for some reason I had it on one night in the late 1990s and they played the live version of this from BNL’s Rock Spectacle album. This is definitely one of those songs where the live version far exceeds the original studio recording, so much so that it’s the version that the band included on their best-of compilation.

Serendipity #24

Silver Lining – Rilo Kiley

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVtSSCzASR0

Heard 11/5/2014 around 12:15, at Boston Market (White Oak)

The James Hunter Six w/ Emily Elbert, The Hamilton, 11/1/2014

If you’ve never seen James Hunter and his band live, put it on your bucket list. Immediately. The best description of his style I’ve found was in a New Yorker article from earlier this year – “rooted in American soul music without being bound to it”. Their CDs are great, but they’re even better live.

As usual, Hunter and crew – Kyle Koehler on organ, Jason Wilson on double bass, Jonathan Lee on drums, Damian Hand on tenor sax, Lee Badau on baritone sax – were at the top of their game during their 100-minute set at the Hamilton in downtown DC (14^th & F NW). They hit most of the tracks from their 2013 Minute by Minute album, a number from the earlier CDs People Gonna Talk and The Hard Way, two or three I didn’t recognize (new?), and the usual knockout cover version of The “5” Royales’ 1953 smash R&B hit “Baby Don’t Do It”. They did do my all-time favorite (“I’ll Walk Away”) near the end of the set, and finished with an audience call-and-response on “Talking ‘Bout My Love”.

Emily Elbert did about a 35-minute solo opening set – has some background (and awards) in both folk and jazz, along with a great voice. She particularly wowed the crowd with cover versions of “Whipping Post” (with a couple bars of “Manic Depression” in the middle), “Crazy”, and “The Wind Cries Mary”. Her originals weren’t bad at all, although on most of them I felt that a somewhat more sedate guitar style might have allowed her vocals and lyrics to come through better. She also provided more evidence for the maxim that it’s generally a bad idea for anyone to cover a song that Aretha Franklin has made famous (“Until You Come Back To Me” in this case).

This was my second trip to the relatively new Hamilton, both times for the JH6. We arrived about 20 minutes before the downstairs doors were scheduled to open (actually opened about 5 minutes after we arrived), with the line about halfway up the steps to the performance room. (The stairs are black and lighted in a domino pattern, which is much more attractive to look at than to navigate.) We sat in the row of tables closest to the stage, with the dance area in between. Although this did somewhat hamper our view of the stage from time to time, a couple of us had as much fun observing the dancers as watching the show. The downstairs menu is relatively limited (there’s a separate restaurant upstairs), but the burgers and pizza were at least serviceable.

#11 The Summer Wind -- Frank Sinatra (1966)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug8cBIbxDaY

Sinatra has to be my favorite male singer of all time. (My favorite female singer would be Eva Cassidy.) This is such a great summer song, I really regretted leaving it out of the top 10, and almost wound up doing a last-minute switch. Having said that, it was a close call selecting this as my favorite Sinatra song over some other worthy contenders.

I was surprised and delighted that this song came in at #133 on WXPN’s recent countdown of the “885 All Time Greatest Songs” – the highest entry of 3 Sinatra songs to make the list.

#12 Red Streamliner -- Little Feat (1977)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMDYo4N5aNY

 

Little Feat almost certainly has to be the best rock-era act that not only never hit the top 40, but never even had a song in the Hot 100. To be fair, back in the day you actually had to release a song on a 45 RPM record (or, later, as a 12-inch, cassette, or CD single) to get onto the Billboard chart, and as far as I can tell Little Feat never did anything of the sort, certainly not during their 1970s heyday. Nevertheless, they got quite a bit of airplay on FM rock and alternative stations with such classics as “Fat Man In The Bathtub” and “Dixie Chicken”.

 

“Red Streamliner” is not as well-known or catchy as those two, with much more complexity in both the melody and chord progressions, but it has a haunting beauty, and is one of the two best songs of all time about trains. (The other one will appear at #7 on this list.) Michael McDonald’s backing vocals also help tremendously.

Shuffle #35 (November 1, 2014)

Nowhere Man – The Beatles

F.M. – Steely Dan

Fill It Up Again – Indigo Girls

No Smoke Without Fire – James Hunter

El Salvador – Garland Jeffreys

Welcome Back – John Sebastian

You Know I’m No Good – Amy Winehouse

Always The Last To Know – Del Amitri

Hello It’s Me – Todd Rundgren

#13 Try A Little Tenderness -- Otis Redding (1966)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnPMoAb4y8U

There aren’t any “really old” recordings (defined here as “a lot older than I am”) in this list, but there are a few really old songs. Most of them, such as "Georgia On My Mind" and "Beyond The Sea", are generally recognized as classics. That’s not so much the case for “Try A Little Tenderness”, although it has been recorded by Bing Crosby and numerous other folks starting in 1932. No one, however, did such a radical reworking as Otis – not particularly tender, but definitely soulful.

#14 Am I The Same Girl -- Swing Out Sister (1992)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3dkLr1yFps

This one has an interesting history. It was first recorded in 1968 by R&B singer Barbara Acklin, but became a big hit as the instrumental “Soulful Strut” (credited to Young-Holt Unlimited) when a revised version was released later that year with Acklin’s vocals removed. Both Acklin and Dusty Springfield released the vocal version of the song in 1969, neither with much chart success.

Swing Out Sister finally rescued the song in its full glory from obscurity in 1992. The Acklin and Springfield versions aren’t bad, but Corinne Drewery and crew really make it their own.

Incidentally, one of the best CD bargains I ever picked up was in the mid-1990s in Clearwater FL (down mainly for spring training, naturally), where I found a Swing Out Sister “In-Store Play Sampler” for a mere $1.99. I don’t think I gained a lot of cred from the clerk with my purchase, but the 7 tracks proved that SOS did some great stuff beyond their few hit singles.

Shuffle #34 (October 26, 2014)

Speed Of Sound – Coldplay

The Twelfth Of Never – Johnny Mathis

Ready To Take A Chance Again – Barry Manilow

Am I The Same Girl – Swing Out Sister

Sweet Emotion – Aerosmith

Rock Skippin’ – Jim Hall

Solitary Man – Neil Diamond

The Edge Of The World – Sonia Dada

You’ll Never Get To Heaven – Dionne Warwick

Shuffle #33 (October 25, 2014)

Love Sneakin’ Up On You – Bonnie Raitt

You’re The One – The Vogues

War – Edwin Starr

F.M. – Steely Dan

Give Him A Great Big Kiss – The Shangri-Las

Not Where It’s At – Del Amitri

Riders On The Storm – The Doors

I Want A New Drug – Huey Lewis & The News

Serendipity #23

Second Chance – 38 Special

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flIPKGbj9-0

Heard 10/24/2014 around 12:30, at Wegman’s (Germantown)

Serendipity #22

Trust In Me – Etta James

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

Heard 10/20/2014 around noon, at Thai Express (Kentlands)

Shuffle #32 (October 18, 2014)

All I See Is You – Dusty Springfield

Losing My Religion – R.E.M.

Happy Hour – The Housemartins

There She Goes Again – The Beat Farmers

Violet Hill – Coldplay

Money’s Too Tight To Mention – Simply Red

Fire On The Bayou – Neville Brothers

Shining Star – Earth, Wind And Fire

If You Could Read My Mind – Gordon Lightfoot

#15 Going In Circles -- The Friends Of Distinction (1969)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBkYN7wYQFk

My most vivid memory associated with this song happened about ten years after its release. I was living in an apartment in Rockville, lying awake in bed with the window open, while somebody either outside or in a nearby unit had tuned in legendary area DJ Melvin Lindsey on WHUR. Lindsey was just finishing off a countdown of listener favorites, and “Going In Circles” was #2 on the list. (Oddly enough, the #1 song is also my all-time favorite.)

#16 Hello Stranger -- Barbara Lewis (1963)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-VDbbjIto4

I actually never heard this song until I got to Lebanon Valley College in 1971. The freshman class decided to have a dance marathon, and since I had been elected President of the class (a long story ...) I certainly wasn’t going to miss it. Most of the live entertainment was provided by a freshman-based “grease band”, which played 50s and early 60s rock songs (“Teen Angel”, etc.) along the lines of Sha Na Na. At one point, however, Jane Garlock (a junior) went to the piano and did a version of “Hello Stranger” – I fell in love with the song immediately. Yvonne Elliman and Queen Latifah have both done nice cover versions, but Lewis’s original (she also wrote the song) remains definitive.

#17 Ridin' In My Car – NRBQ (1977)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRK2o3EkOUw

NRBQ never had much commercial success in terms of selling either singles or albums, but in their heyday they had a well-earned reputation as a great live band. I saw them once, at Wolf Trap on a double bill with Los Lobos. I was surprised when Los Lobos came out first, since they were certainly the more famous of the two, but after NRBQ’s set I understood the reasoning; you really wouldn’t want to have to follow these guys on stage. “Ridin’ In My Car” may be the greatest road song of all time – if you have a convertible, be sure to listen on a gorgeous summer day with the top down.

#18 Someday Soon -- Judy Collins (1969)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Jn90y9H9S4

In late 1968, folk singer Judy Collins (to whom Stephen Stills paid tribute in “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”) had her only top 10 hit with Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now.” In August of 1969, she released “Chelsea Morning” (another Mitchell song) as a single; it didn’t do much on the charts, but is well-known for inspiring the name of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s daughter.

In between these two, Collins put out “Someday Soon” as a single. This one didn’t have much commercial success either, peaking at #55, but this poignant ballad written by Ian Tyson (of Ian and Sylvia fame) is my favorite Judy Collins recording (although her version of “Amazing Grace” comes close).

Shuffle #31 (October 11, 2014)

Groovin’ – Booker T. & The MGs

Fire On The Bayou – Neville Brothers

Manic Monday – The Bangles

Which Way Does That Old Pony Run – Lyle Lovett

Saved – LaVern Baker

You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me – Dusty Springfield

Three Little Birds – Bob Marley & The Wailers

Johnny B. Goode – Chuck Berry

Ruby Baby – Donald Fagen

#19 Bustin' Loose -- Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers (1979)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwHi10qX8u8

While “Bustin’ Loose” is certainly one of the best-known examples of Washington’s go-go music, for me it’s a great piece of music regardless of genre. I was only vaguely aware of it when it first came out – it only reached #34 on the Hot 100, although it topped the R&B chart for four weeks – but it grew on me the more time I spent in the DC area, especially after seeing Chuck live a few times.

Prior to moving into their new stadium for the 2008 season, the Washington Nationals had fans vote on ballpark music – home run song, seventh-inning stretch song, and victory song. When I saw that “Bustin’ Loose” was one of the nominees for the song to be played every time a Nats player hits a home run, I did a little gentle lobbying with all the baseball fans I knew to urge them to vote for the song. I’m not sure how many of them went along, but in the end justice triumphed, and to this day it’s played whenever a National hits one out of the park.

#20 The Curtain Falls -- Kevin Spacey (2004)

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

“The Curtain Falls” was the song that Bobby Darin used to close his shows in the 1960s. Not being that much of an expert on Darin (and never having seen him live), I wasn’t aware of this until I saw Kevin Spacey’s 2004 Darin biopic Beyond The Sea. It doesn’t show up until near the end of the film, at which point the audience knows that Darin is ill and doesn’t have much longer to live. (He died at the age of 37, after his second open-heart surgery.) The song is the closing track on the soundtrack album, but to avoid sending the audience bawling into the lobby it is actually followed in the film with the far-more-upbeat “As Long As I’m Singing”.

The song itself is an amazingly poignant ballad, even without the foreshadowing. I had initially assumed it must have been written by one of the classic songwriting teams of the 1930s or 40s, and was surprised that none of the crooners of that era had a hit with it. It turns out that it was written in 1961, not by a well-known musical legend but by a guy named Sol Weinstein, who couldn’t read or write music or play any instruments. While this song seems to have been Weinstein’s only musical legacy, he did have a notable career as a comedy writer (and at one point had a call-in radio show on WCAU in Philadelphia).

#21 Ride Away -- Roy Orbison (1965)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8jkPsFy2Lk

Roy Orbison started out doing rockabilly, with one minor hit (“Ooby Dooby”) on the legendary Sun record label. He achieved his greatest success and fame in the first half of the 1960s, mostly with ballads (“Only The Lonely”, “Running Scared”, “Crying”, “In Dreams”), although his biggest hit was the atypically upbeat “Oh, Pretty Woman” (which Van Halen would desecrate quite a few years later) in 1964.

I didn’t really start listening seriously to rock music until late summer 1965, just in time for “Ride Away”, which is still my favorite Orbison track, as well as the first single I remember buying. It was the first single he released after his ill-fated switch from the Monument record label to MGM; he had 9 Top 10 hits on the former, while not even cracking the Top 20 with any of his MGM singles. It’s still one of the great road songs ever; its melody is deceptively simple, but I once spent hours trying to work out all of its chord changes on guitar, especially the song’s bridge. (Give it a try, but no fair looking it up on the Web.)

[UPDATED 3/11/2015 -- now a Geico commercial!]

#22 She's Gone -- Hall & Oates (1974)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpR8r0D2EyY

Not surprisingly, Central Pennsylvania where I grew up was not among the first areas in the country to get a progressive rock radio station in the latter half of the 1960s. Around 1970, however, “Starview 92.7” made its debut, to my great joy. Its name came from its frequency on the dial and its location. I had never heard of Starview PA and had to look it up on a map – turns out it’s near York, and is (or at least was) basically a trailer park. At any rate, it had a signal strong enough to cover York, Harrisburg, and Lancaster, which was good enough for me.

After high school, I went to Lebanon Valley College in Annville, which is maybe 35-40 miles northeast of Starview as the crow (and the radio signals) fly. The only window in my dorm room faced north with a nice view of a mountain range that was accommodating enough to bounce the WRHY signal back to the T-antenna that I taped to the window. Things worked great except for the times when a freight train rumbled by on the tracks just across the parking lot outside my window; the tunes were so great, however, that we tolerated these disruptions to our reception. (Yes, kids, there was no Internet back then.)

Daryl Hall and John Oates released “She’s Gone” as a single in early 1974. It wasn’t a hit, but Starview played it. I fell in love with the song and bought the Abandoned Luncheonette LP, which frequently found its way onto my (Technics SL-5) turntable for many years thereafter.

Hall & Oates followed up Abandoned Luncheonette by collaborating with fellow Philadelphian Todd Rundgren on their next album, which although interesting was so commercially unsuccessful that Atlantic Records dropped the duo. Two years later, after they were signed by RCA and had a big hit with “Sara Smile”, Atlantic re-released “She’s Gone”. Be warned, however, that the 3:28 edited version that they sent to Top-40 radio stations to induce them to play it* is an atrocity – the intro and the bridge are shortened almost to nothing, and as an additional insult half of the first verse is mashed together with half of the second. You need to hear/get the original version, which is over 5 minutes long, to hear the song the way it was intended.

* - It did work. The song hit the Top 10 in 1976.

October 4-5, 2014 – Giants 2, Nationals 1 (18 innings, NLDS Game 2) – Nationals Park

Bummer of a decision, Matt (with apologies to Gary Larson)

Ejections: Washington Nationals second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera ejected by HP umpire Vic Carapazza (10th); Washington Nationals Manager Matt Williams ejected by HP umpire Vic Carapazza (10th)

Umpires: HP: Vic Carapazza. 1B: Tom Hallion. 2B: Hunter Wendelstedt. 3B: Mike Winters. LF: Brian Knight. RF: Laz Diaz.

Weather: 61 degrees, partly cloudy.

Wind: 7 mph, Varies.

T: 6:23.

Att: 44,035.

It’s impossible to beat the first paragraph of Adam Kilgore’s game story in this morning’s Washington Post, so I will repeat it here:

“Saturday night was about heroes and ghosts and everything in between. The marathon at Nationals Park included mastery and meltdowns, players warming their hands by a heater in the dugout and little-known relievers pitching their guts out. The Washington Nationals and the San Francisco Giants engaged in the kind of game that makes you love baseball and curse its existence and pace around the living room and ask the person next to you, what inning is it again? They played the kind of game that makes you feel alive until it makes you sick to your stomach.”

Incidentally, I have been hard on the Post in the past, but I was astonished to retrieve my newspaper around 8:00 this morning and find full coverage of the game, which went a couple of minutes past midnight – front page photo, box score, game story, columns, complete play-by-play, the works. Way to go guys! I hereby forgive them for running the same page of comics on two consecutive days earlier in the week.

For those of you living either on another planet or in a sterile sports-free environment, the Nats and Giants yesterday (and early today) played the longest postseason game in recorded history (breaking the previous record by more than a half hour), tying for the most innings at 18. We should have all been home at a decent hour, enjoying a 1-0 Washington victory, but Nats manager Matt Williams lifted starting pitcher Jordan Zimmermann in the ninth inning, one out away from victory. After the game, Williams justified his ill-fated decision as follows:

“Hindsight is a great thing. You know, if our starting pitcher goes out there, and he’s at 100 pitches, third time, fourth time through the lineup, he gets in trouble in the ninth, we’ll go to the guy who was perfect for us since he has been in that role.”

Well, Matt, here goes:

·        In the first place, it’s not “hindsight” for the many of us who questioned his call even before Drew Storen reached the mound. And that’s not a knock on Storen – I wouldn’t have taken JZim out at that point even if I had Mariano Rivera warmed up in the pen.

·        “100 pitches” is hardly an evening-ending load for a veteran stud starting pitcher (with an extra day of rest, no less).

·        They weren’t even particularly stressful pitches. The Giants never had more than one baserunner in an inning against Zimmermann, and the only runner to even reach second base was back in the third inning.

·        He wasn’t exactly struggling. Prior to walking Joe Panik with two out in the ninth, Zimmermann had retired 20 (!) consecutive batters. Giants starter Tim Hudson was quoted as saying the Nats “probably could’ve brought in Sandy Koufax and we would’ve had a smile on our face.”

·        You want “perfect”? Zimmermann entered the ninth on a streak of 19 consecutive scoreless innings, during which he allowed a total of 4 hits – all singles.

·        Today’s closers much prefer to come in to start an inning, rather than in the middle with someone on base. I haven’t checked, but I’m sure that most if not all of Storen’s regular-season saves were of this variety.

Williams also took another risk. If he leaves Zimmermann in the game, he gives up the lead and the Nats lose, JZim gets credit for a valiant effort, and the Nats have their backs up against the wall needing three straight wins. As things unfolded, not only are their backs up against the wall, but they once again have a potential problem at the back of the bullpen, since it’s hard to imagine that Storen could be completely unaffected by being one out away from victory in his last two postseason appearances and unable to close things out either time.

Tom Boswell put it much better than I have in his column in this morning’s Post.

To add injustice to injury, Williams got ejected in the bottom of the tenth inning. So, rather than freezing like us innocent victims, he had a presumably warm and comfortable seat in the clubhouse for the final eight innings.

If Williams is goat #1 in the defeat, the Nats “offense” comes in a close second. Their only run came in the third inning on a leadoff double by Asdrubal Cabrera and a two-out RBI single by Anthony Rendon. Rendon wound up setting a franchise playoff record with a total of 4 hits in the game. Everyone not named Anthony Rendon managed just 5 singles in 55 at-bats, with 19 strikeouts. They were particularly feckless (fecklesser?) in extra innings, with only two hits over the final 9 frames.

There were a few moments of one kind or another, other than the second consecutive transcendent performance by Zimmermann. DC Washington did his usual superb job with the National Anthem and God Bless America. The Nats ditched Garth Brooks and Taylor Swift in favor of Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough” for the 7^th and 14^th inning stretches – great song, albeit one whose lyrics rival “Take On Me” in terms of being difficult to sing along to. The oddest sight was when at some point in extra innings I left my seat (right after the Nats finished “hitting”) for the men’s room, only to see about a dozen other men literally sprinting across the concourse in that direction. I had the same luck getting in the slow line as I usually have at the grocery store, with the guy at the very front resembling the Dice-K of urination. By the time I finished, it was completely SRO, with a five-yard line out the door.

Given our loss in Game 1, I decided to change things up for Game 2 – drove down myself instead of catching a ride with the Pierce clan, walked down to Subway to pick up a sandwich, bought a bottle of Coke instead of bringing in water. I did forget to pick up a new rally towel on the way in, so maybe that was the problem.

The drive home actually wound up being quite an adventure. Washington Ave. was completely messed up -- the section leading up to where I get onto 395 South seemed to be closed, so I wound up getting routed in the wrong direction, eventually getting into the 3rd Street Tunnel, going north under the Mall, winding up on Second St NW not too far from the Capitol. Pulled over to get my bearings, decided that trying to get back on the Freeway was too dicey, so I headed west and south, eventually finding my way to Constitution Ave. and then to 14th. Even with that, I got home around 1:20 after leaving the lot at 12:30, which I guess isn't too bad all things considered.

Now we just have to hope that the Nats can pull off what would be a miracle comeback, beginning against the formidable Madison Bumgarner. Otherwise, they may be well on their way to joining the Caps in the local pantheon of perennial postseason underachievers.