"Early In The Mornin'" Johnny Lee Moore & Prisoners Southern Journey Vol.5: Bad Man Ballads
"Go Outside" Cults Cults
"Iko Iko" The Dixie Cups Chapel of Love
"All Eyez On Me" 2Pac All Eyez On Me
"Grown Up" Danny Brown
"Bhangra Fever" MIDIval PunditZ Six Degrees 100
"Boe Money" Galactic Ya-Ka-May
"Theme from Black Belt Jones" Dennis Coffey Can You Dig It? Music & Politics of Black Action Films
"Higher Ground" Stevie Wonder Innervisions
"Get Some" Lykke Li Wounded Rhymes
"Racehorse" Wild Flag Wild Flag
"Whole Hog" (live) Sebadoh Lounge Ax Defense & Relocation CD
"Precious Lord Lead Me On" Sister Gertrude Morgan/King Britt King Britt Presents Sister Gertrude Morgan
"Midnight City" M83 Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
"You Put A Smell On Me" Matthew Dear Black City
"Help I'm Alive" Metric Fantasies
"Thunder Road" Bruce Springsteen Born To Run
"Growing Old Is Getting Old" Silversun Pickups Swoon
"Post Acid" Wavves King of the Beach
"Georgia" Yuck Yuck
"Ladyflash" The Go! Team Thunder, Lightning, Strike
"Gentlemen" The Afghan Whigs Gentlemen
"Freak Scene" Dinosaur Jr. Left of the Dial: Dispatches from the 80s Underground
"Heads Will Roll" Yeah Yeah Yeahs It's Blitz!
"Within Your Reach" The Replacements Hootenanny
"Big Poppa" The Notorious B.I.G. Greatest Hits
"Dead Pontoon" Toro Y Moi June 2009
"I See You Baby [Fatboy Slim Remix]" Groove Armada Vertigo
"Hott Bizness" Lyrics Born Later That Day . . .
"Check The Rhime" A Tribe Called Quest The Low End Theory
"Angola Bound" Aaron Neville The Very Best of Aaron Neville
"Don't Miss That Train" Sister Wynona Carr Dragnet For Jesus
"Hard-Core Troubadour" Steve Earle I Feel Alright
"Heroes" David Bowie Changesbowie
"Simmer Down" Bob Marley Songs of Freedom
"Let The Good Times Roll" Harry Nilsson Nilsson Schmilsson
"Whipping Post" The Allman Brothers Band At Filmore East
Still not posting enough here - it has been difficult to prioritize this little project the way I would like. Anyway - I just ran a half-marathon with my son (and about 20,000 other people, but really - it was with my son). Since I figured he would leave me behind, I made a race-day playlist so I would have something to listen to while I ran, and rather than my usual alphabet crawl, I just put that up here. He did stay with me for the first hour of the race, but then he set off and ultimately finished about 10 minutes ahead of me. We were both hoping to break two hours - he came close, and I was at about 2:11.
Before I got the boy to run with me, I always described running as my best opportunity to listen to hours of music without interruption (I have been a runner of questionable consistency for about 6 years, when in a fit of turning 40, I ran a marathon). I leave it to the iTunes shuffle to pick the shorter runs, but if I set out for over an hour, I find iTunes likes to say things like "shorter of breath and one day closer to death" a little too often, so I try to lay out the tracks ahead of time. It helps me mark pace as well if I know what song should be playing when.
The goal in making a playlist is to put some interesting stuff on here that was basically up-tempo enough that I wouldn't fall into a stupor. While I try to pick songs that are thematic and make me happy to hear, I try not to pick anything to cliched or ridiculously "inspirational." The obvious exceptions are "Thunder Road" and "Heroes" - which I have put on my long run lists for years. "Thunder Road" marks my halfway point, and "Heroes" marks where I want to be crossing the finish line. Yes, totally over-the-top and idiotic to want to run under that clock with "we could be heroes just for one day . . ." I balance that out with a few cheerful prison songs and a few songs about growing old or dying. "Simmer Down" and "Let The Good Times Roll" serve double duty as either cool-down diddies or cushion between my target time, and when I would start to feel like I might suck as a runner and a human being - 18 minutes of "Whipping Post" is there for that.
Race as metaphor . . .
This was the second half marathon my son and I have run together. He has always been more physically capable than me - when he was thirteen he ran a 5K at a sub-8 pace, just by waking up and saying "okay lets go ahead and do this." The only thing I can give him is guidance. When we ran the first half, he stayed with me the whole time, and if he needed to slow down or rest, we stopped together. This time, he stayed with me out of courtesy and affection. This time though, it was clear to both of us that I was holding him back and at about the halfway point he just took off and left me to my playlist. He ran off, disappearing into a crowd of people. But, after it was all done, he found me and we left together. I guess that is just how things are going to be now.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Saturday, May 5, 2012
J'Ai Passe Devant Ta Porte to Jailhouse Rock
"J'Ai Passe Devant Ta Porte" Michael Doucet & Cajun Brew A New Orleans Visit: Before Katrina
"Jacqueline" Franz Ferdinand Franz Ferdinand
"Jacques Lamure" Of Montreal The Gay Parade
"Jag Vet en Dejlig Rosa" Robyn Body Talk: Pt. 1
"Jaguar" John Gregory The Sound Gallery, Vol. 1
"Jah Live" Bob Marley Songs of Freedom
"Jail Guitar Doors" The Clash The Clash
"Jailhouse Rock" Dean Carter Instant Garage [Mojo]
"Jailhouse Rock" Elvis Presley The Complete '68 Comeback Special [x2]
"Jailhouse Rock" Elvis Presley Elvis 75
MCA died. Junior Seau did too. I am pretty upset about them both. Mostly for selfish, self-absorbed reasons though. Junior Seau killed himself at age 43, after a long, successful career in the NFL, and he is not the first to do so (or even the first recently). Given the increased awareness of head injury and the long-term impact of the game on the people who play it, I am wrestling with whether a sport I have been an avid fan of my entire life is actively killing people. I am also concerned that if that is not the point, there has been very little concern for whether it is the case. Professional football is a spectator sport - it doesn't exist without people watching it. The point of it is so that people will spend their money in order to witness it. Stadiums seating nearly 100,000 people and billion-dollar television contracts attest to this. So the violence, the speed of the game, the crushing blows, are at some level because I want it (not me alone, but y'know . . . this is my navel-gazing so just accept some melodrama). I can say that I did not know, and that is both fine and true. The issue is now I do know. So do I stop watching, do I insist it be fixed, or do I merely live with my own hypocrisy. (as I sit here today, my money is on the latter). I honestly live in fear that I will see a young man killed one Sunday afternoon, and I know that is the last time I will watch football on any level. I also feel like that will be too late.
Adam Yauch died of cancer at 47. This makes me feel old. (I am not alone - a lot of my peers commented on the death that a part of their youth or adolescence died with him). I have now reached the point where my peers are dying of natural causes. No longer restricted to violence or drugs, now we face the everyday presence of death by just no longer living. This is the territory of Baby Boomers and Classic Rockers. I am not ready for an extended future of maintenance prescriptions and annual check-ups. My least favorite phrase, which I started hearing at the doctor's office a couple of years ago, has to be, "It is a natural part of the aging process." So now I not only hear it in my creaking bones, or from the doctor when he mentions the disappearing cartilage in some joint or another - now I am reminded of it as the rock stars of my youth shuffle off this mortal coil like Frank Zappa (just shy of age 53, but somehow suddenly almost 20 years gone . . . that went by fast too).
"Jacqueline" Franz Ferdinand Franz Ferdinand
"Jacques Lamure" Of Montreal The Gay Parade
"Jag Vet en Dejlig Rosa" Robyn Body Talk: Pt. 1
"Jaguar" John Gregory The Sound Gallery, Vol. 1
"Jah Live" Bob Marley Songs of Freedom
"Jail Guitar Doors" The Clash The Clash
"Jailhouse Rock" Dean Carter Instant Garage [Mojo]
"Jailhouse Rock" Elvis Presley The Complete '68 Comeback Special [x2]
"Jailhouse Rock" Elvis Presley Elvis 75
MCA died. Junior Seau did too. I am pretty upset about them both. Mostly for selfish, self-absorbed reasons though. Junior Seau killed himself at age 43, after a long, successful career in the NFL, and he is not the first to do so (or even the first recently). Given the increased awareness of head injury and the long-term impact of the game on the people who play it, I am wrestling with whether a sport I have been an avid fan of my entire life is actively killing people. I am also concerned that if that is not the point, there has been very little concern for whether it is the case. Professional football is a spectator sport - it doesn't exist without people watching it. The point of it is so that people will spend their money in order to witness it. Stadiums seating nearly 100,000 people and billion-dollar television contracts attest to this. So the violence, the speed of the game, the crushing blows, are at some level because I want it (not me alone, but y'know . . . this is my navel-gazing so just accept some melodrama). I can say that I did not know, and that is both fine and true. The issue is now I do know. So do I stop watching, do I insist it be fixed, or do I merely live with my own hypocrisy. (as I sit here today, my money is on the latter). I honestly live in fear that I will see a young man killed one Sunday afternoon, and I know that is the last time I will watch football on any level. I also feel like that will be too late.
Adam Yauch died of cancer at 47. This makes me feel old. (I am not alone - a lot of my peers commented on the death that a part of their youth or adolescence died with him). I have now reached the point where my peers are dying of natural causes. No longer restricted to violence or drugs, now we face the everyday presence of death by just no longer living. This is the territory of Baby Boomers and Classic Rockers. I am not ready for an extended future of maintenance prescriptions and annual check-ups. My least favorite phrase, which I started hearing at the doctor's office a couple of years ago, has to be, "It is a natural part of the aging process." So now I not only hear it in my creaking bones, or from the doctor when he mentions the disappearing cartilage in some joint or another - now I am reminded of it as the rock stars of my youth shuffle off this mortal coil like Frank Zappa (just shy of age 53, but somehow suddenly almost 20 years gone . . . that went by fast too).
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