Episode 41
My first month of being 50 comes to a close. Overall, it's no different, but it did lead to some self-reflection and processing my own mortality. This playlist is just a collection of songs that relate to that. Nothing more than that, so there isn't anything to read into this. Just a fact of life.
Who Wants to Live Forever - Queen
ONE MORE TIME - blink-182
Landslide - Fleetwood Mac
I Will Follow You into the Dark - Death Cab for Cutie
Dream On - Aerosmith
Solsbury Hill - Peter Gabriel
Forever Young - Alphaville
In the End - Linkin Park
Sinking - The Cure
Do You Realize?? - The Flaming Lips
Episode 40 - New Music
Decided to do another new music playlist and just 10 songs given that the last playlist was 50 songs with an average age of 30 years old.
I still kick myself in the ass for getting into Ghost this late in the game. For a long time, I drifted away from metal and there is just something so fun about Ghost that I wish I latched onto earlier. I really want to see them in concert, but my wife is a) not a fan of metal and b) doesn't like the fact that the current tour is a cell phone free tour. I can get behind people not having access to their phones during a concert, but that would be a major ask of my wife.
Overall, this playlist is both great and weird. It's great because it features artists that I didn't realize were still putting out new music (Suzanne Vega, Death in Vegas, Morcheeba, and Goldie to name a few) and while it's not too wild of playlist, it does cover pretty diverse genres, which is what gives this playlist it's weirdness. Suzanne Vega has that alternative folk pop thing going and then Goldie brings the Drum and Bass action. I did try to space the songs a bit so the contrast between them isn't too out there, but preferences are subjective and there is a chance you'll be digging one song and then the next one catches you off-guard. Which is why Goldie's song is at the end. Drum and Bass was probably one of the fastest flashes in the pan when it emerged as it's a bit of an aquired taste.
Lastly, I do love Death in Vegas' slight homage to "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". If you're new here, I have a weird view of The Beatles; I understand and acknowledge their significance in music history, I just tend to prefer when other artists cover their songs rather than listening to The Beatles' versions. To that, if you haven't seen the George Harrison tribute at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony featuring Tom Petty, Steve Winwood, Jeff Lynne, and--more importantly--Prince performing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", I highly recommend you check it out.
Satanized - Ghost.
Lose It - A7S & Paul Oakenfold
Speaker's Corner - Suzanne Vega
Strong - London Grammar
While My Machines Gently Weep - Death in Vegas
Turn of Fate - The Album Leaf
We Live And Die - Morcheeba
Trapdoor - Fluke
Little Dusty Dreams - Keep Shelly in Athens
Still the Same - Goldie, Rufige Kru, Submotive, CASISDEAD
Episode 39 - 50 for my 50th
This is long, so take a seat.
For 2025, I set the goal of putting out a playlist on the 1st and 15th of each month. Given that my birthday is close to March 1st, it felt right to put together a list of songs that have some meaning in my life as I turn 50. Now I won’t bore you with details of each and every song but I do think a few songs here deserve a note to explain why they’re here. It should be noted, this isn't a list of songs that I think are great (most of them are though) or my favorite song from a particular band. These are just songs that have some significance in my life or a song when I hear it, it draws me back to a moment of time in my life.
First up, “Funkytown” by Lipps Inc. I will admit that this may seem like a really weird inclusion, but this is the first song that I’ve heard that registered in my mind that I was listening to it. At the time, my mother and I were living with my grandpa and she went out on a date. I was put to bed before she went out, but I couldn’t sleep and ended up just sitting next to the window, waiting for her to come home. By the window was an AM/FM clock radio and I turned it on and “Funkytown” was what was playing.
“Another One Bites the Dust” by Queen. This is the first song that I became obsessed with. My mom was dating an architect/construction company owner (one of the original people involved with The China Club in NYC) and he was working on a club around the corner from my grandpa’s house. One afternoon, we went to the club while work was being done on it and I was asked what I wanted to listen to. Naturally I said “Another One Bites the Dust” and he went up to the DJ booth and put it on. Just hearing the song fill the club was a pretty amazing experience for a 5 year old.
“Sweet Young Thing” by The Monkees. I fucking love The Monkees and I lean more towards the Michael Nesmith songs. His songs were a little more rock focused than the more sugary sweet stylings of The Monkees’ other songs, especially the Davy Jones led songs. I also think Nesmith’s songs opened the door for metal to grab a hold of me.
“Shout” by Tears for Fears. I had my first ‘job’ at 9 years old. On Fridays and Saturdays, I would be folding boxes, sweeping, or learning how to knead pizza dough in the basement of the pizzeria that my mom worked at. And it was amazing money for a 9 year old ($50 for the 2 days) but I never really got to see that money because my mom would take it and ‘hold onto it’. If I wanted to buy something, I had to ask for money and one day, I asked for money to buy “Songs From the Big Chair”, which is the first time I bought an album with my own money. I walked to Kings Plaza and picked it up there at Sam Goody.
“Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth)” by Metallica. This is the song that made me realize that I love it when bands throw in the occasional instrumental track. Not only that, but this is the song that made me later buy a bass guitar.
“Monochrome” by Lush. So much to unpack here that I could probably write a whole chapter to explain what was going on and this song’s weight on me. Keeping it simple, this song helped me through the most turbulent time of my life. Bono wrote about the songs that saved his life and I’d consider this the song that saved my life.
“Persephone (The Gathering of Flowers)” by Dead Can Dance. I don’t know about you, but I’ve always had a movie in my head. In junior high school, I thought I’d write a book, but that never got anywhere. However, scenes from that book/movie would always linger in the peripheral of my mind. Later, in high school when I first heard this song, something about it just opened up a flood gate of detail about that movie’s world and characters in my head. Every time I hear this song, my brain goes quiet and I just see scenes of that story that’ll probably never leave my head. This song needs to be experienced via headphones or speakers at a very loud volume. Even if you use headphones, turn the volume up louder than you normally would. There is just so much emotion to this song.
“Cübik” by 808 State. The song that made me realize I really like techno. What probably did it for me is how the song starts with a guitar rift that you would expect from a metal band and then it totally transitions to synths pretty bluntly. Loved the contrast and as I mentioned before, I have a thing for instrumentals.
And speaking of instrumentals, “Soviet” by Electronic. If you don’t know Electronic, it’s a side project of Bernard Sumner of New Order and Johnny Marr of The Smiths. The songs from this project never made it past alternative radio and I knew of no station that would play an obscure instrumental song from non-mainstream act. When this song was featured as the music bed during a puff piece on a Russian gymnast competing under the Unified Team in the 1992 Olympics, I was shocked and excited. It was also the moment that I discovered what my dream job would be; the person that gets to choose music for shit like that.
This list could’ve easily been 500 songs, but I set a rule that only one song per artist to prevent myself from putting full albums on it. It took me about 45 minutes to get around 100 songs on the list and then a few days of listening to it and painfully removing songs to get the list down to 50. As I spent some time with this list, I realized that it’s not as diverse as I would’ve expected it to be. I know someone is going to text me and be like “WTF do you mean this list isn’t diverse?”, but it really isn’t. Also one song that should be on here but isn’t is 相逢何必曾相識 by Ram Chiang and Rita Carpio. It’s sadly not on all streaming services. I still find it weird that K-Pop took over the world but Canto pop never got the love it deserves.
Anyway, thank you for reading and I hope there are some songs here that you enjoy. If I’m around when I’m 75 and 100, I’ll be sure to take a stab at repeating this, barring senility.
Funkytown - Lipps, inc
Another One Bites the Dust - Queen
Sweet Young Thing - The Monkees
Shout - Tears for Fears
(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth - Metallica
Monochrome - Lush
Persephone (The Gathering of Flowers) - Dead Can Dance
Cübik - 808 State
Soviet - Electronic
Killer - Adamski featuring Seal
Missing - Everything But The Girl
Breakin' Me - Jonny Lang
Until the End of the World - U2
Dirty Epic - Underworld
The Thrill Is Gone - BB King
Soldier of Love - Sade
Strangelove - Depeche Mode
From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea - The Cure
Wish - Nine Inch Nails
How Soon Is Now? - The Smiths
Everyday is Halloween - Ministry
Somebody to Shove - Soul Asylum
West End Girls - Pet Shop Boys
Running - Information Society
Far Away - Cranes
Dreaming - BT
Keep Hope Alive - The Crystal Method
Getting Closer - Nitzer Ebb
Dear God - XTC
Summer in the City - Quincy Jones
Trouble Man - Marvin Gaye
Unfinished Sympathy - Massive Attack
Come Undone - Duran Duran
Swords - Leftfield
Insomnia - Faithless
Peace Sells...But Who's Buying - Megadeth
Evil Never Dies - Overkill
You Can't Bring Me Down - Suicidal Tendencies
As Heaven Is Wide - Garbage
Street Spirit (Fade Out) - Radiohead
Eleanor Rigby - The Beatles
Gimme Some Lovin’ - The Blues Brothers
Midnight in a Perfect World - DJ Shadow
Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division
Finished Symphony - Hybrid
Cities In Dust - Siouxsie And The Banshees
Principles Of Lust: Sadeness / Find Love / Sadeness - Enigma
Ceremony - New Order
To Look At You - Inxs
Antisocial - Anthrax
Episode 38 - Black History Month
So why is a nearly 50 year old white kid (I still consider myself a kid) doing a post for Black History Month? I'm doing it because I'm not fucking stupid and know that without the passion and creativity of Black Americans, we wouldn't have American music. It really is as simple as that. I honestly struggled with this playlist because I know there are glaring omissions; James Brown, Miles Davis, Prince, John Coltrane, John Lee Hooker, Nat King Cole, Jimi Hendrix, Muddy Waters, Tina Turner, Frankie Knuckles, Ella Fitzgerald, Sam Cooke, Billie Holiday, Michael Jackson, George Clinton, and Bootsy Collins. Not to mention contemporary artists within Rap and Hip Hop; Jay-Z, Tupac, Biggie, Run DMC, Grandmaster Flash, and Dr. Dre. I really wanted to put Christone "Kingfish" Ingram on this list because I think he's a great young bluesman, but I'll save him for a Blues playlist.
I did toy with the idea of a 249 song playlist; one song for each year of this country's founding, but that may be excessive (I also know it may have been a little too much on the nose, but I'm not above that). I'm also doing this post because, let's be honest, things in this country are getting worse, but they're really going to get worse for those that don't fit the white male mold. For those of us who probably won't suffer the worst of this degrading administration, we should be figuring out ways to reduce the blow and burden that will be thrust upon our fellow humans.
That said, the other fear I had about this playlist was that I didn't want it to be viewed as white saviorism. I know that acknowledging contributions and advocating for the deserved appreciation doesn't fit the definition, but we're human and unified interpretations aren't our strong suit. I mean, we're partly in this mess because we can't agree on the meanings of U.S. Amendments. Shit, after the 1st and 2nd ones, most people will get the others out of order. Did you remember that the 3rd Amendment bars soldiers from staying in your house during peacetime without your consent?
Anyway, my favorite song and artist on this list is "Summer in the City" by Quincy Jones and his recent passing really sucked. Also, I'm well aware of "Strange Fruit". I won't deny that some of these songs were chosen for their political connotations.
America the Beautiful - Ray Charles
Superstition - Stevie Wonder
Summer in the City - Quincy Jones
Where Do We Go From Here - Charles Bradley
Chains and Things - B.B. King
Trouble Man - Marvin Gaye
Ain't No Sunshine - Bill Withers
You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine - Lou Rawls
Walk On By - Issac Hayes
Strawberry Letter 23 - Shuggie Otis
Strange Fruit - Nina Simone
Maiden Voyage - Herbie Hancock
Are You Hep to the Jive? - Cab Calloway
Stormy Weather - Etta James
What a Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong
Episode 37 - Hotel Lounge
I had a long-ass intro here originally, but I just couldn't get it to work. It talked about my love of instrumental songs, how I prefer cities over nature, what my favorite cities are, the period in my life when I would be on staff at a night club, a memory of a night in Washington D.C. where I learned about Thievery Corporation as I was seated in one of the lounges they owned, how I'd go to a hotel lounge at 1am in the middle of the work week because I found it easier to pull an all nighter there than at home, and 20 other things that would seem random to you, but are all connected for me. Yes, that's a long run-on sentence, but you can't deny the build up.
Anyway, this episode is just a selection of songs that I'd imagine would be played in a really cool hotel lounge that leaves you with the mixed feeling of "man, it feels great to be here" and "I'm so not cool enough for this place, what was I thinking".
Edge Hill - Groove Armada
Midnight in a Perfect World - DJ Shadow
Sola Sistim - Underworld
Suzuki - Tosca
Padadam - Yonderboi
Lebanese Blond - Thievery Corporation
Rose Rouge - St. Germain
Someone - Hooverphonic
Ken Tavr - Ishome
Les Nuits - Nightmares on Wax
All I Need - Air
Moan - Trentmøller
5 23 - Global Communication
Glue - Bicep
Tessio - Luomo