The Friday Five: June 11, 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.
Editor’s Note: I have to go ahead and thank all of you for keeping the Five alive these past couple of weeks, especially my Popdose brethren Jason Hare, Rob Smith, Mike Heyliger and of course all our readers! – Michael
The Five:
“Canned Heat” by Jamiroquai (from High Times: Singles 1992-2006, 2006)
“She Has a Girlfriend Now” by Reel Big Fish (from Turn Off the Radio, 1996)
“Alone” by Heart (from The Essential Heart, 2002)
“Already Free” by The Derek Trucks Band (from Already Free, 2009)
“Haunted Henry” by Roger Manning (from Catnip Dynamite, 2009)
What’s on your shuffle today?
10 Comments
Kristi
On my shuffle:
1) Owsley – Rise (live)
2) Sally Jaye – Amarillo
3) Hall & Oates – Have You Ever Been In Love
4) Bill Deasy – Who We Are
5) Cowboy Junkies – You’re Missing
Have a great weekend, Michael!
twojams (Shannon)
Yay – just finished my last meeting of the day and am ready!
“Out of the Woods”, Nickel Creek. I think this is the second week in a row that they have appeared in my 5. Nice mellow little song.
“Superstition”, Stevie Wonder. One of the great riffs of all time.
“Your Song”, Elton John. Meh. It’s a great song and all that, but long ago, when I heard more of his early 70s stuff, I wondered why this one was the big hit.
“You’ve Been In Love Too Long”, Bonnie Raitt. Soulful and funky, a remake of a Martha & the Vandellas song. Love to sing along with this one, but who can keep up with her? What a range.
“Custard Pie”, Led Zeppelin. Love the rhythm section and guitar solo on this one. Harmonica too! Not sure I understand the lyrics, though… these guys sure do like baked goods!
“Life is Bad”, Shelby Lynne. Nice bluesy song, compares with some of Lucinda Williams’ stuff.
Can I cheat and add a sixth? It was such a good segue from the last song:
“Don’t Go No Further”, Tracy Nelson. She has one of the biggest blues voices I’ve ever heard. Don’t know what she’s doing these days. This is from the mid 90’s album I Feel So Good.
OK, I’m done now.
twojams (Shannon)
Oh crap, I just realized I did 7. Sorry!
Michael
Seven, Goodness!
Every once in awhile I’ll sneak an extra in there.
Bill C
Trashville-Hank III. I really like most of Hank III’s work, but I am not crazy about this song. Sort of your obligatory “put down Nashville” song.
She’s The One-Bruce From one of my numerous Bruce boots. Don’t even know which one or what year. But a great version of a great song.
Oh Bury Me Not-Johnny Cash From Love, God, Murder. Mostly spoken words. Very poignant and lovely piece.
Searchin For a Rainbow-Marshall Tucker Band. I loved this band when I was young, and still love it when they come up on my shuffle.
The Love in Me-Lisa Stanfield. I am not sure what happened to her, but she used to rule the radio (especially in Europe) and for good reason. Think Amy Winehouse without all the drugs.
EightE1
“Searchin’ for a Rainbow” is terrific.
EightE1
Avoiding work with my Friday Five:
Jerry Garcia, “How Sweet It is to be Loved By You.” Ah, this is from the Legion of Mary disc from a few years back. What’s this I hear? A pulse? The idea of Garcia covering Motown is sketchy, but this actually works. I credit Merle Saunders, whose keyboards breathe life into just about every track on this live album (culled from shows in ’74 or ’75, if memory serves), and Ron Tutt, a wonderful drummer who wound up on Elvis’ final tours and Vegas shows. Garcia is in good voice, as well, and that can’t be said for every track on this record. That the song goes on for ten minutes without so much as a wasted note is pretty damn cool.
Talisman, “Lost in the Wasteland.” Sweet. Modern melodic rock from the late great band, featuring the awesomest of singers, Jeff Scott Soto, and the late great bassist Marcel Jacob. This is from their Cats and Dogs album, which I paid import price for, and which is worth every blessed penny. Had this come out in, say, ’85 or ’86 (when Soto and Jacob were bouncing in and out of Yngwie Malmsteen’s band), they’da been arena gods. Music like this should still fill arenas, dammit; bands of this ilk tend to not tour America, though. The real markets are Europe, South America, and Japan. Shame.
Dennis Wilson, “Only with You.” From the Pacific Ocean Blue reissue, which, once again, was worth every penny I spent on the double-disc super-duper package. My God, he sounds so damaged here. “All I want to do is spend my life with you,” he pleads, and his gruff, gruff delivery makes you believe every desperate word.
Foreigner, “I Want to Know What Love Is (Live).” From the cheapo Extended Versions disc with Kelly Hansen on vocals. I’ve commented in Popdose previously that I would rather see Foreigner with Hansen sing Foreigner songs these days, than to suffer through watching Lou Gramm blurt out the low notes and not quite reach the high notes, even with the songs transcribed down two or three steps. I know it’s not Gramm’s fault — the brain tumor, the difficult recovery, the medication, the weight — but from a purely musical perspective, the Hansen-fronted band does these wonderful rock songs and ballads more justice than the original guy can anymore. I’m willing to bet that if Steve Perry ever gets off his retired ass and makes new music, we might have a similar situation in the Journey camp — Arnel Pineda hits all the original notes in all the original keys with, if anything, more muscle than even prime-era Perry was able to do. Would a fifty-something Stevie P. be able to do his legacy proud? Will we ever get to hear that?
Jayhawks, “The Man Who Loved Life.” The kickoff of Sound of Lies, Gary Louris’ first record without Mark Olson, and the one that moved the Jayhawks from alt-country to alt-something else. Maybe alt-alt. This is a cool track, with a killer chorus and wonderful harmony vocals. I don’t go back to Sound of Lies that often; it reminds me of Golden Smog a bit much, sorta experimentation merely for the sake of experimentation, with little regard for why people dug the Jayhawks so much in the first place. Coming as it did after Tomorrow the Green Grass, one of my favorite Nineties records, period, it was all a little too deflating. Decent song, though.
Mike
“Sister” by Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds-From the Radio City live disc. I was actually at this show. And my sister was in Iraq at the time. So this song makes me a little ‘motional.
“The Sha-La Bandit” by The Supremes-Diana was long gone by this time. This song has got a little bit of old school doo-wop/girl group flavor, but with a disco/funk groove. Not sure who the lead singer is, but apparently this bandit is from Westchester County (according to the lyrics). May it have been Joey Buttafuoco?
“I Am Woman” by MC Lyte-Good Lord, hip-hop production back in the day was so cheap-sounding. But I guess that was part of the charm.
“Who is It” (JHS Remix) by Michael Jackson-This remix is probably better than the original version (the original sounds a little too close to “Billie Jean”). There was a remix of “Beat It” by Moby that came out around the same time…that was some crazy shit.
“B.Y.O.B” by System of a Down-Serj Tankian scares me. That is all.
Michael
“Sister” kills me, I’ve seen him perform it half a dozen times and it gives me chills every time.
Mindy
Vivo Per Lei – Andrea Bocelli
X-Amount of Words – Blue October
If You’re Not the One – David Bedingfield
Judas – Depeche Mode
Almost Lover – A Fine Frenzy