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.)
As with the Doobie
Brothers and Jesse
Winchester, sometimes it’s better not to grab the first “best-of” compilation
that appears on the market. (Same with the Eagles: the one to pick up is the
2003 2-CD set Eagles: The Very Best Of.)
As was the case with Winchester, I skipped Buffett’s Songs You Know by Heart because it omitted my favorite song of his.
Finally, I purchased this later 2-disc set, which did feature “Havana
Daydreamin’” among its 38 tracks. For me, whose familiarity with Buffett was
limited to the tracks that got some radio airplay, this collection was a
revelation. Well over half of the songs were new to me, at least as performed
by Buffett. Five of them are included in the list below, and the rest aren’t
bad either.
“Condemning the United States as a force for repression
didn’t work for Democrats in the Nixon or Reagan eras, and it won’t work as a
reaction to the Trump moment, either. Left unchecked, it would almost certainly
lead Democrats to ruin in next year’s elections.”
“He may have been thinking of Donald Trump when he talked
about a “battle for the soul of America” during the campaign, but I suspect
that Biden is just as determined to save it from those who would recast the
United States’s founding as a cynical exercise in subjugation.”
#3 – Kyle Finnegan. After Nats starter Patrick Corbin
stumbled a bit to start the 7th, giving up a Pete Alonso homer that
cut the Nats lead to a single run and then walking Kevin Pillar, Finnegan
entered the game and emphatically snuffed out the Mets’ momentum, needing only
5 pitches to retire left-handed pinch-hitters Dominic Smith (on a double-play
grounder) and Billy McKinney (on 3 called strikes).
#2 – Patrick Corbin. On an extremely hot and humid
afternoon, Corbin was nearly flawless for his first 6 innings of work, allowing
a leadoff Pillar HR in the second but otherwise giving up only two harmless
singles while fanning 7.
#1 – Kyle Schwarber. Continuing his ridiculously hot
homestand by homering to lead off the 1st and the 5th,
and adding some badly-needed insurance with a 2-run shot in the bottom of the 7th.
Moment of the game – “Baby Shark” Gerardo Parra, in his
first major league game since the 2019 World Series, received an extended,
enthusiastic welcome-back from the largest Washington crowd when he pinch-hit
in the bottom of the 7th. Naturally, he doubled on the second pitch
he saw, just ahead of Schwarber’s third blast of the day.
It’s hard to find much to complain about after a 3-1 series
win over the first-place Mets and an 8-3 homestand overall. Even the heat wasn’t
too bad (for us, anyway) once the shade reached our seats a couple of innings
into the game. True, Nando’s online ordering system didn’t work for us at all,
but our food was delivered quickly. And Google Maps again provided a different
(and reportedly quicker) trip back, keeping us out of Virginia entirely (via
Independence Ave., the Whitehurst Freeway, Canal Road, and the Clara Barton
Parkway).
