The Friday Five: May 20, 2011
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:
“Touch of Madness” by Night Ranger (from Midnight Madness, 1987)
Discussion around the Popdose water cooler has been buzzing about Night Ranger’s upcoming release, Somewhere in California, touting the return of “classic Night Ranger.” Perhaps predictably, Matt Wardlaw and Dave Steed are in a tizzy and Jeff Giles (Y’all) has to replace his monitor.
Oh, and will you look at that; Matt even wrote about it!
“Dance the Night Away” by Van Halen (from Best Of, Volume 1, 1996)
Since we’re all doomed in the next 48 hours, I might as well go ahead and let you all know that this is, hands down, without a doubt or question, my favorite Van Halen song. It’s the perfect example of the band’s ability to balance pop perfection and hard rock hooks.
“Can’t Buy Me Love” by The Beatles (from A Hard Day’s Night, 1964)
I’m debating listening to Abbey Road, Let it Be and Purple Rain all day Saturday. I’m not buying into this rapture bullshit, but if something is going down, I might as well go ahead and listen to my favorite records, right?
“Porch” by Pearl Jam (from Ten, 1991)
“What the fuck is this world running to?” Okay, enough of this end of the world crap.
“The Best of My Love” by The Eagles (from The Very Best of The Eagles, 2003)
When I heard the first strum, I was reminded of a story I read once. You should go and read it, but make sure you come back and leave your five!
What’s on your shuffle today?
15 Comments
dslifton
“Not Where It’s At” – Justin Currie (Edinburgh 3-24-08). Perfect pop from Del Amitri performed at a Currie solo gig.
“I’ve Been Away” – The Who. One of the bonus tracks from the mid-90s reissue of A Quick One. Entwistle wrote this.
“Burst” – Darling Buds. Mrs. Cooney made us memorize Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 in 9th grade English. If you know the sonnet, you’ll understand why this song makes me remember that.
“Another Girl, Another Planet” – Paul Westerberg. I never get tired of hearing Westerberg or the Mats cover this. Love the original, too.
“Stephen Stephen” – Apples In Stereo. Silly little song they wrote for Stephen Colbert.
Chris Holmes
1. Chic, “Le Freak” – If anyone deserved to beat the Big C, it’s Nile Rodgers.
2. The Steve Miller Band, “Take the Money and Run” – I never moved beyond a greatest-hits sort of appreciation for Mr. Miller, but damn those are some good songs.
3. Manic Street Preachers, “4st 7lbs” – Oddly enough I came to love the Manics in their post-Richey James life, with a lot of the rougher edges smoothed away. There’s no denying the power of their early material though.
4. Jimmy Page & Robert Plant, “Thank You” – I love the No Quarter album. How can you not give props to Page & Plant’s ability to make “Kashmir” sound fresh all over again?
5. Irving Berlin, “Easter Parade” – Well isn’t this perfectly pleasant.
Michael Parr
It’s not Friday until I hear some Chic!
steph326
Listening to a “new” playlist today. All newish except the last one in this random sampling.
Arlandria – Foo Fighters
The Same Way – The Damnwells
Oh My Heart- R.E.M.
Not Out Loud – The Wellspring
I Didn’t See It Coming – Belle & Sebastian
Anonymous
“Magic’s Wand” by Whodini from Whodini (1983). “Oh my god! I think I’m having a rap attack!”
“Violet” by Hole from Live Through This (1994). Courtney Love may be batshit insane, but this album still fucking rules. It’s one of the albums that shaped my high school experience and it’ll always hold a special, angry place in my heart.
“All Mine” by Portishead from Portishead (1997). One of my favorite songs of theirs. Beth Gibbons’s voice almost always gives me chills.
“Never Be Mine” by Kate Bush from Director’s Cut (2011). I wasn’t sure what to expect from this album, but I love it. I should’ve never doubted Kate.
“Bleed to Love Her” by Fleetwood Mac from The Dance (1997). I love this song so much. I saw Lindsey Buckingham in Indianapolis on his last solo tour and these two women a couple rows in front of me kept screaming for this song. Like, every time there was a moment of quiet. He laughed at them for most of the set and then, out of nowhere, just started playing it. Just him and the guitar, since that wasn’t a song he’d rehearsed with the band. The crowd lost their damned minds. It was awesome.
Jeanne Marie
1. Earth Gently Rolls – Abbot Hayes
2. Bells Ring – Mazzy Star
3. I Found A Boy – Adele
4. Creep – Stone Temple Pilots
5. Come Away With Me – Norah Jones
Have a fun weekend
Michael Parr
You may win the “one of these things is not like the other” award this week!
Anonymous
“Awesome Sound” – Ween.
Live in the studio from the All Request Live album. YEAH! I love how these guys can play a 3-hour show without breaks and sound fresh the entire time.
“Telecide” – The Tubes.
From the Todd Rundgren-produced Remote Control album. This was the big album closer, tying together the record’s story, ending in a “television suicide.” Nice. It also appeared on the b-side of the single for “Love’s a Mystery (I Don’t Understand).”
“Seems Like Old Times” – Paul McCartney.
Ah, yes. Unreleased McCartney! This is a demo from around 1978 or so. Kinda has a “London Town” vibe to it. Did he write this for the movie of the same name? Can’t remember. Whatever. I love it.
“Gangsta” – tUnE-yArDs.
Gettin’ excited to see ’em at the Pitchfork music festival in Chicago this summer. I haven’t listened to tUnE-yArDs since they came up in my shuffle last week. Today feels like a good day for the whole record.
“It’s Only” – The Cars.
This is from the new album, Move Like This. It’s a solid record, far more enjoyable than the band’s last record, 1987’s Door to Door, and easier to listen to than Heartbeat City which had some of their biggest hits but didn’t flow all that well as an album in my opinion. It can’t touch the first four albums though, not that we expected so much. I’ve been listening to LOTS of Cars music since this album came out, and seeing them live last week only made me hungry for more. Gonna have to take care of that soon, maybe pick up some DVDs or something…
de10ero
Edgar Winter Group-Frankenstein
It’s alive!
John Hiatt-She Loves The Jerk
Be that way sometimes
Tony Z-Something Funky About Your Love
Hammond B-3 par excellance
Gary U.S. Bonds-Club Soul City
Where folks from the Heartbreak Hotel hang out
The Pretenders-Back On The Chain Gang
A better song for a Manic Monday perhaps?
Anonymous
1. “Tube Snake Boogie” – ZZ Top (Late Happy Birthday wishes to Dusty Hill!)
2. “Domino” – Van Morrison
3. “Who Do You Love” – Bo Diddley
4. “You Won’t See Me” – The Beatles
5. “Statesboro Blues” – The Allman Brothers Band (Playing this song cost me my job at WXUS in West Lafayette, IN way back in 1971. It’s still one of the best songs ever recorded and WXUS has long been defunct.)
Anonymous
1. “Wild Billy’s Circus Story” by that Springsteen fella from The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle (1973)
Wild etc. is the one Broooce album that I’m less familiar with, since it is the only Classic Broooce that I didn’t own until many years after I first heard it…so curiously it remains fresher for me than many other, better albums.
2. “Say You Will” by Maria Muldaur from Southern Winds (1977)
Pleasant little reggae-ish tune from Ms. Muldaur. I recall this record generated a little bit of controversy among her fans (really, nobody else cared because c’mon, it was 1977 and Punk & Disco was all the rage) because it sported a painting of the still-lovely Maria on the cover rather than a photo like the last two albums, causing speculation about her looks and aging and so on and is she unwilling to put a photo up and so on. 30+ years later, she’s still active and still looks pretty good for her age…
3. “So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright” by Simon and Garfunkel from Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970)
A devotee of Simon and Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits, I realized recently that I had never heard this record in its entirety. I have always been amused and frustrated in equal measure by Christgau’s one-word review of the album: “Melodic”. That does indeed apply.
4. “Indian Summer” by Poco from Indian Summer (1977)
This is a quite lovely little country-rock tune from a record that seems to have come at a time when this perpetually mellow country-rock outfit was searching around for a way to coexist, like so many artists of their ilk (see Maria Muldaur above) with the aforementioned prevailing Punk and Disco trends. At the end of this record, they went Disco, and the results were Beach Boys-like disastrous. This track is more like what fans got with the albums previous, and I like it quite a bit.
5. “Wishful Thinkin'” by Sly and the Family Stone from Small Talk (1974)
Small Talk, recorded as the Family was falling apart, was Sly’s first real flop album, and meandering, tuneless cuts like this one were the main reason why. Small Talk isn’t without its highlights, but this isn’t one of them.
Have a good weekend, everyone!
Shannon J
“Movie Star,” Cracker, from Kerosene Hat, one of the best albums of all time. And one of the worst for importing into an online library.
“Black Cow,” Steely Dan from Aja. How would you put the awesome intro to this song into words? “Beow, bomp bomp… “?
“Space Captain,” Black Crowes, from Freak ‘N’ Roll…Into the Fog. Great live album.
“Weed Party,” Band of Horses, from Everything All the Time. See, the problem with Band of Horses coming up in a shuffle is that you want to stop shuffling and only listen to them.
“Water,” The Who, from Who’s Next. Sometimes there’s nothing better than blasting The Who.
Good start to the weekend!
EightE1
The “Pre-Rapture” Edition:
Michael Bolton, “A Love So Beautiful.” I want to kill myself. I want Roy Orbison to come back from the afterlife and kill me.
Rush, “New World Man.” I’d rather hear “Tom Sawyer.”
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Here Comes My Girl (Live).” You know sometimes I don’t know why but this old world just seems so gloomy. Yeah, I’m not really sure but it seems I remember the end times were just a little bit less doomy.
Bob Dylan, “Beyond the Horizon.” THIS is what should be playing in my chariot as I’m whisked away to the netherworld. In fact, someone should use this in a movie in which someone dies or is raptured, and gets whisked away to the netherworld in a chariot. One with surround sound.
Eagles, “The Long Run.” And this is what’s playing at the after-Rapture party when we get there. And those “left behind” will be playing the original version of this song, Otis Clay’s “Trying to Live My Life without You.”
Mike
Happy Last Days, Y’all.
1) “Lovesexy” by Prince: You guys choose “Come” as the most unfairly maligned Prince album, I pick “Lovesexy”. I’ll admit, it took a LOOONG time to get me to appreciate this one. Being able to chop it up in iTunes helped.
2) “I Could Have Danced All Night” by Jamie Cullum: What kind of world do we live in where Michael Buble sells millions of records and this dude can’t get arrested?
3) “Don’t Say” by Jon B.: I bet this guy listens to Robin Thicke records and goes “what the FUCK, man?!”
4) “A Love of My Own” by Eric Benet: Not much to say about the former Mr. Halle Berry (and current husband of the second Mrs. Prince Rogers Nelson) except he obviously knows how to mesmerize the lay-deez.
5) “Sony” by Big Audio Dynamite: I swear I didn’t plan this.
Dennis Corrigan
Here’s what my iPhone served up while climbing to altitude toward home:
1. “Here’s Where The Story Ends” by the Sundays from Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. This record always reminds me of London. Had it on constant rotation on the walkman(!) my first ever visit. One afternoon in tube station I happened upon a busker singing this one – perfect
2. “Baby Boy” by the Vibrators from No Thanks! The 70’s Punk Rebellion biz set. Love the Rhino box sets focused on genres/periods and keep this one, the Brit Box (the Sundays track above actually came from that), Nuggets & the Children of Nuggets sets on my phone at all times.
3. “House of Cards” by Robert Plant from Band of Joy. Another thing I do on my iPhone (32GB iPhone 4) is keep anything releases in the current year & previous year. Really enjoyed this Robert Plant release from last year.
4. “Four Strong Winds” by the Band & Neil Young from The Last Waltz. I also keep a lot the Band and a lot of Neil Young on my phone, too.
5. “Hold On, I’m Coming” by Sam & Dave from the complete Stax/Volt Singles Volumes 1-9. Best $100 I ever spent and very appropriate way to end tonight’s Friday Five since I haven’t seen the wife, kids & dog since early Tuesday morning.
Have a good weekend and if the nuts are right, hope you have something good playing when the rapture comes!