The Friday Five: April 30, 2010
Friday Five : ‘frī-(,)dā,-dē ‘fīv : On the sixth day of every week, I hit the shuffle button on my iTunes, then share the first five tracks and thought for each track. Sometimes there is a playlist involved, occasionally we’ll have a guest, but most of the time it’s just me. The rest is up to you, our friends and readers! Fire up your media player of choice and share the first five random track of your shuffle in the comments.
The Five:
Would you believe I actually forgot it was Friday? I was able to sneak in a quick listening session during a short break between meetings, here’s what I heard:
“Let Me Love You Tonight” by Pure Prairie League (from The Best of Pure Prairie League, 1995)
“A Matter of Trust” by Billy Joel (from The Bridge, 1986)
“Rapture” by Seed (from Ling, 1994)
“Stars Fell on Alabama” by Cannonball Adderly & John Coltrane (from Cannonball & Coltrane, 1960)
“3×5” by John Mayer (from Room for Squares, 2001)
What’s on your shuffle today?
9 Comments
Jason
Random selections from my letter “C” shuffle…
“Love Removal Machine” by The Cult
“Vital Nerve” by Company Flow
“Crazy for Leaving” by Catfish Haven
“Strangers in the Night” by Cake
“I Put a Spell On You (Live at Woodstock)” by CCR
Mike
Today’s five:
1) “Let the Beat Build” by Lil Wayne
2) “Life is a Circle” by Teddy Pendergrass
3) “Pass the Plugs” by De La Soul
4) “Redemption Song” by Bob Marley & the Wailers
5) “True Colors” by Phil Collins
Bill C
Four Strong Winds-Johnny Cash-American V. I love the entire American series with Rick Rubin producing. This is a typically rugged, poignant Johnny Cash. He will never be duplicated.
Raunchy-Alex Chilton-High Priest and Black Light. A short instrumetal piece which lives up to its name.
Don’t Need No Doctor-Ray Charles-Genius. Great song, done well.
Call My Name-Van Morrison. I should have more Van Morrision music than I do. This is a great song.
What Did You Think-Kelly Willis. Kelly Willis is one of our best country and western singers. It is a shame she is not better known. Great pipes.
Jason
Oooh, I love “3×5.” Here’s my most recent five!
1) Novillero, “A Little Tradition.” Yet another song on my iPod that I’ve never heard before, but my metadata tells me this was taken from the 2008 best-of post on a blog I read called Fingertips. Actually, at the time, it was just a Yahoo group, but now it’s a blog. I don’t get much of a chance to read it these days, although I was psyched to see him recommend The Silver Seas this week.
2) Barenaked Ladies, “Care Less.” This song is from one of their early demo tapes when the band was just Ed and Steve, entitled Buck Naked. Or maybe it’s Bucknaked, I don’t know. The song is cutesy, with lines like “I couldn’t care less/How old are Ernie and Bert/I couldn’t care less/What’s under k.d. lang’s skirt,” but it never made it past the demo stage for obvious reasons. The one thing I love about most of the songs on this demo tape is that Ed and Steve frequently crack each other up.
3) Jeff Beck & Billy Gibbons, “Rice Pudding/Foxey Lady.” This is taken from the 25th Anniversary Rock & Roll Hall of Fame show. I like both of these artists, but this version does nothing for me, really.
4) The Beatles, “Within You Without You.” I recognize I’m probably in the minority, but I hate this song.
5) Joe Jackson, “Breaking Us In Two.” Ahhh. Now that’s more like it!
Shannon
Dave Alvin/Rosie Flores, “Goodbye Again.” I just downloaded King of California onto my iPod a few weeks ago. Classic.
Robert Palmer, “Get Outside.” Those who only know Robert Palmer from the “Addicted to Love” period should dig up his 70s albums, especially Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley. So groovy.
Rolling Stones, “Parachute Woman.” Not my favorite song from Beggars Banquet (that would probably be “No Expectations” or “Prodigal Son”). Still great.
Emmylou Harris, “Lovin’ You Again.” From Cowgirl’s Prayer, a good, solid tune but not as good as “Prayer in Open D.”
Marti Jones, “Tourist Town.” Marti Jones is one of my favorite singers. She put out some fantastic tunes in the 80s. This is a live version of a song from Used Guitars. The live album is “Live From Spirit Square”.
Anne
OK, here we go…
1. “Sexy Thing” — Hot Chocolate. Cheesy? Yes! But I love it!
2. “Winter Winds” — Mumford & Sons. Great album that came out last year in UK and this year in the US.
3. “Sky” — Joshua Radin, ft. Ingrid Michaelson. Great voices, great song. Love it. From a 2008 EP.
4. “Man on the Side”– John Mayer. Live version.
5. “Home”–Sheryl Crow. From her self-titled album, 1996. People love to hate her but some of her music is very good. No music is good when it is played to death.
whiteray
1. “Love Abductor” by LeRoux from “Louisiana’s LeRoux,” 1978. Decent pop-rock with a little bit of bayou funk and tight vocal harmonies. Kind of like a funky Pablo Cruise.
2. “Theme from ‘Charade'” by Henry Mancini from the soundtrack to “Charade,” 1963. Very, very old school beautiful music stuff, but man, could Mancini craft a melody!
3. “Jamaica Farewell” by Arlo Guthrie from “Power of Love,” 1981. Arlo goes reggae, but it doesn’t work that well.
4. “Ondulé” by Mathieu Boogaerts from Putumayo’s “French Café,” 2003. Like spending a few minutes on the boulevard sipping something sweet and strong.
5. “Break of Day” by Howlin’ Wolf from an unreleased Chess session, 1956. “One of these mornings . . . I’m gon’ make my getaway.” Nasty and sublime.
EightE1
I’m Gunky, Sneezy, and Lethargic — my three favorite of Snow White’s dwarves.
Beatles, “Eleanor Rigby.” McCartney was so good at this kind of thing — the melancholy life, encapsulated in two or three minutes. This one actually has a couple melancholy lives represented, plus one of the great string arrangements in pop.
Neil Diamond, “Love on the Rocks.” I will defend The Jazz Singer, bad as it is, til my dyin’ day. And I will defend “Love on the Rocks,” melodramatic as it is, just as long. Remember the first time the song is played, with some punk doing a coked-up rock version of it, and then Neil says, “Naw, bitch, dis is how REAL pimps do it.” And he plays this version of it; if I recall correctly, a string section appears out of nowhere. Hey, man, anything to fuck Lucie Arnaz, right? Whenever I do my bad Neil Diamond impression, its usually either this song or “Heartlight” that I use.
Jennifer Hudson w/ the Roots, “Let It Be.” Another Beatle song, from the Hope for Haiti Now telethon. It doesn’t take much imagination to turn this song into a gospel number, but Hudson can certainly sing the shit out of it, you know?
Centro-Matic, “Twenty-four.” “Well, I never felt this way at twenty-four / With the fiends and ghouls and darkness at my door.” Ain’t that the truth? Ain’t that the God’s honest truth?
Olivia Newton-John, “Magic.” I remember hearing this song on the radio when I was a kid; I really liked it then, and, to be honest, I won’t turn it off if I hear it these days. Usually this or “A Little More Love” will come up on playlists on the occasions I make disco mixes, for myself or others. Not really a disco song, but it’s from the latter part of that era.
Pete
1) “Unsuccessful Club Nights” – Cadence Weapon.
2) “Stuck Inside of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again” – Bob Dylan
3) “Daphnia” – Yo La Tengo
4) “Keep Askin’ (Acoustic Version)” – Citizen Cope
5) “The Necromancer” – Rush