Shuffle #80 (January 6, 2016)

Think For A Minute – The Housemartins

It’s Gonna Take A Miracle – Deniece Williams

Raise It Up – The IMPACT Repertory Theatre & Jamia Simone Nash

Trampled Under Foot – Led Zeppelin

Can We Still Be Friends – Todd Rundgren

Real Love – The Doobie Brothers

Driving With The Brakes On – Del Amitri

Hungry Heart – Bruce Springsteen

Rattle My Bones – The Secret Sisters

Favorite 25 + 5 Albums Trivia

Top albums (25 studio + 5 live) by decade:

1960s – 3

    #14  The Temptations – In A Mellow Mood (1967)

    #17  Gordon Lightfoot – The Way I Feel (1967)

    #24  Cold Blood (1969)

1970s – 11

1980s – 9

1990s – 3

2000s – 3

2010s – 1

    #4 [LIVE]  Into the Mirror: Del Amitri Live in Concert (2014)

 

Top year – 1971:

    #10  Carole King – Tapestry

    #11  Who’s Next – The Who

    #19  John Prine

    #2 [LIVE]  The Youngbloods – Ride The Wind

    #3 [LIVE]  The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East

Natalie Cole

2015 ended on a sad note with Natalie Cole’s death on December 31^st at the age of 65. She began her career as a successful soul singer – “This Will Be” is one of the sassiest and best examples of that genre – and later moved on to perform the standards of an earlier age. For better or worse, she’s probably best known for her posthumous duet “Unforgettable” with her father, the great singer and pianist Nat King Cole. I’m normally not a fan of virtual duets, especially when one of the partners has to be summoned back from the grave, but this one’s a glorious exception.

 

My personal Natalie Cole favorites:

 

This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)

Unforgettable

I’ve Got Love On My Mind

Inseparable

Someone That I Used To Love

Shuffle #79 (January 3, 2016)

Careless Love – Madeleine Peyroux

Darkest Hour – Arlo Guthrie

This Is How It Feels To Have A Broken Heart – Guster

Similar Features – Melissa Etheridge

Deep & Wide & Tall – Aztec Camera

Train In Vain – The Clash

Broken Down Cowboy – John Fogerty

Scared To Live – Del Amitri

Let’s Go Crazy -- Prince

Best Music of 2015 (Update)

I’ve updated my Best Music of 2015 lists to include where the songs and albums wound up in the WXPN, WTMD, and mvyradio countdowns.

Not as much overlap with the crowd this year, especially on the albums. (However, I predict that “Uptown Funk” will win the Grammy for Record of the Year.)

UPDATE: A friend of mine (thanks Linda!) called my attention to Public Radio's #1 Songs Of 2015. Honestly, most of them I’m not familiar with. I was glad (and somewhat surprised) to see that “Lean On” made the list. There were also some good songs I heard on WXPN and WTMD, notably “Satisfy Me” (Anderson East), “24 Frames” (Jason Isbell), and “Getting Ready To Get Down” (Josh Ritter).

Shuffle #78 (January 1, 2016)

Shuffle #78 (January 1, 2016)

 

What’s Going On – Marvin Gaye

Personal Jesus – Depeche Mode

Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ – Michael Jackson

Cooksferry Queen – Richard Thompson

There Goes My Baby – The Drifters

You’ll Never Get To Heaven – Dionne Warwick

Stuck With You – Huey Lewis & The News

Fresh Air – Quicksilver Messenger Service

Let Her Dance – The Bobby Fuller Four

LP #1 Daryl Hall & John Oates – Abandoned Luncheonette (1973)

There have been quite a few performers with long and successful careers who nevertheless never topped their debut albums – Marshall Crenshaw, Graham Parker, John Prine, and Sade come to mind. Hall & Oates, however, hit a home run with their second LP rather than their first. (Whole Oates, their debut, has a clever name and includes the brilliant “Fall In Philadelphia” but is otherwise pretty unremarkable.) Every song except for the final track is a pop classic, the production by the legendary Arif Mardin is impeccable, and the album cover is wonderful. I like a lot of their later stuff, but this is by far their best. (And you can still find the CD in some store bargain bins or at Amazon for $5.00!)

 

Favorite tracks:

She’s Gone

Las Vegas Turnaround (The Stewardess Song)

Had I Known You Better Then

When The Morning Comes

I’m Just A Kid (Don’t Make Me Feel Like A Man)

Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, Rams Head On Stage, 12/27/2015

Table 102, Row A, Seats 2 & 4

 

Rams Head has a row of 4-person tables right in front of the stage and perpendicular to it. Table 102 is dead center; we had the rear two seats, which was still as close as I’ve ever gotten to the stage at a show by a well-known performer.

 

Started by promising not to do any Christmas songs, but did begin with a great tune by the underrated 60s-70s soul singer William Bell, “Every Day Will Be Like A Holiday”

 

Personal favorites – best version of “Walk Away Renee” I’ve ever heard, plus a remarkable cover version of Jimmy Cliff’s “Many Rivers To Cross” by keyboardist Jeff Kazee

 

Usual crowd-pleasers such as “Love On The Wrong Side Of Town”, “Broke Down Piece Of Man”, “Talk To Me”, and “This Time It’s For Real”. Also did some tunes from his new Soultime album – I particularly liked the disco-flavored (!) “Looking For A Good Time”.

 

Led up to “The Fever” with a nice sing-along on “Up On The Roof” (preceded by a few bars of “I Feel The Earth Move”), then concluded the main set by turning “I Don’t Want To Go Home” into a hilarious tale of an ill-fated trip to Vegas. Second encore (after over two hours of music) was “Without Love”, during which they put the main mic stand up on our table for an interlude by the three horn players and Southside’s final vocals. Amazing show!

 

Setlist

LP #2 Donald Fagen – The Nightfly (1982)

Steely Dan, the long-running collaboration between Fagen and Walter Becker, put out some great albums in their time, but Fagen’s first solo effort actually outshines the best of them. Fagen completely nails the loose concept that he puts forward in the liner notes: “The songs on this album represent certain fantasies that might have been entertained by a young man growing up in the remote suburbs of a northeastern city during the late fifties and early sixties, i.e., one of my general height, weight and build.” “Walk Between Raindrops” would have been a great song for Sinatra – it was actually recorded by Mel Tormé – while “The Goodbye Look” spins a wonderful tale of Caribbean political intrigue. Fagen also does what for me is the definitive version of the Leiber-Stoller classic “Ruby Baby”, eclipsing the fine earlier recordings by the Drifters and Dion.

 

Favorite tracks:

Walk Between Raindrops

The Goodbye Look

Ruby Baby

New Frontier

I.G.Y.

Celebrating Sinatra

Since yesterday was the 100^th anniversary of Frank Sinatra’s birth, I figured I’d mark the occasion by listing my five favorite songs by the man who’s probably this country’s greatest singer ever, if not necessarily its most exemplary role model.

 

The Summer Wind (#11 on my list of all-time favorite songs)

All My Tomorrows

Softly As I Leave You

High Hopes

The World We Knew

 

“High Hopes” and “All My Tomorrows” were both featured in Sinatra’s 1959 movie A Hole In The Head, which I vaguely remember seeing as a kid. “High Hopes” was the anthem of legendary Phillies radio announcer Harry Kalas, so after Kalas’ untimely death on April 13, 2009 (as he was getting ready to broadcast the Nationals’ home opener with the Phillies, a game which we attended) I decided to watch the movie again. That is when I fell in love with “All My Tomorrows”, which plays over the opening credits and fits the movie perfectly. It’s one of the greatest songs to ever languish in near-total obscurity, and I admit to blubbering like John Boehner for some reason whenever I listen to it.