Well, it's Thursday. Life continues to be busy which I am considering a good thing, but it is sometimes hard to get done all the things I want to get done. When I got my 32gb card for Christmas, I hastily loaded about 20gb of music from my computer onto the card. Being semi-technologically impaired, I wasn't able to sync iTunes which I had been working for months on organizing and therefore I ended up using Windows Media Player. Well, lo and behold, somehow a bunch of songs got duplicated and I still occasionally find one I have deleted.
On the plus side, some really cool music that I hadn't heard in a while or which never got added to my old card due to storage capacity limitations has come up and I've discovered or rediscovered some cool songs and bands.
On the negative side, a bunch of recently added music got left off the initial load of the card. Then we began preparing for a move and are now in the post-move recovery period, and as a result, I haven't had a chance to mess around with the music on the card. Basically, that means, my memory card which I use for my Morning Shuffles is missing some great music including some recent stuff that I really want to get into the mix. But all in good time.
Have you bought the Sandy Hook single yet? Proceeds go toward the community through a couple of great agencies.
Thank you Dawn for the subtitle of today's shuffle.
Like we did last Monday, we shuffle up some of our classic tunes and play them back for you...
First up, we have one of the most exquisitely perfect Pop songs of all time by a master of the genre from his very first album. Marshall Crenshaw was released in April 1982 (30 years!) and Someday, Someway got played on Casey Kasem's American Top 40. Blah blah... let's get to the song (a nice way to start a cruddy Monday morning).
For our second song of the morning, we go back another 11 years or so for a song written by Kris Kristofferson. Janis Joplin died in October 1970, and her version of the song was released in January 1971. It turned out to be her only Number One song. It appeared on her classic album Pearl.
Now we go back another five years or so to a song released around the time I turned one month old. Since I seem to be unusually obsessed with Billboard chart positions, this song reach #5. So there.
Homeward Bound is from Simon & Garfunkel's album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. This song always comes to my mind when I am in the final leg of a return from a long vacation.
That last video was recorded at the Monterey Pop festival in 1967. The final song in this morning's shuffle was recorded just two days later. For What It's Worth was originally released on Buffalo Springfield's self-titled debut album.
"You say you want a revolution..." Lennon/McCartney
Continuing a tradition we started last month, we have a whole shuffle dedicated to our latest Band of the Month - The Gypsy West. Here in Nashville, the remaining Occupiers are vowing to stand and peacefully resist efforts by the State to remove them from the Legislative Plaza. All this makes The Gypsy West even more appropriate for today's shuffle.
Expect Resistance - a revolution begins with an idea... and it doesn't go down without a fight.
Richard Cory (Simon & Garfunkel cover) - money and power do not buy happiness and you shouldn't try to judge a book or a band by their covers.
All Along the Watchtower (Bob Dylan cover) -
“No reason to get excited,” the thief, he kindly spoke
“There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke
But you and I, we’ve been through that, and this is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late”
It's Monday here in Downtown Nashville, and Newt is going to be here today. Right across the street from me. Sooooo excited.... *yawn*
In other news, as we wrap up the month of February (I will be adding the last batch of songs for the month tonight), I thought we would hit the Way Back machine and head back to January 2012. Remember when...ah nostalgia..
Shuffle of songs added in January 2012...
The Only Living Boy in New York by Simon and Garfunkel from the Bridge Over Troubled Water album. "I get the news I need on the weather report."
<-----Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon and Garfunkel via Amazon.com
Three Times A Midnight by MAKAR from the Funeral Genius album. "I'll take you on a suicide drive."
<---- Funeral Genius - MAKAR (with the scary west coast aggressive panhandling bird) via Amazon.com
Have You Ever Seen the Rain? by Joan Jett covering The Minutemen Creedence Clearwater Revival from Joan's The Hit List cover album. "Someone told me long ago, there's a calm before the storm."
<----3 different versions of Have You Ever Seen the Rain? via Amazon.com
And finally, a song about the guy who walked on the moon and blew his lines at the very moment Burris Weems the protagonist of Greg Matthews' novel Little Red Rooster was born. Neil Armstrong by The Dexateens from their 2007 album Hardwire Healing. "Well it's cold in July when you're up in the sky..."
<-----Hardwire Healing by The Dexateens via Amazon.com
Yesterday was a good day for driving with the windows down and blasting tunes just up to the point where the sound begins to distort.
We've reached the end of another week. I know this is a symptom of old age, but man, time sure is flying. It's almost March. Later today or tomorrow, I will be unveiling our 4th and final Band of the Week for February, and next week sometime, we will begin the task of naming our Band of the Month.
Before we get to today's shuffle, I had a treat in my Inbox this morning - a freshly minted track from Band of the Year Runner-Up Ubiquity Machine - the first from a forthcoming EP. I can't wait for all of you to hear it.
To the Shuffle-------->
♫♪ #1 - It ain't no big thing... Do flip out... sweet, sweet beats - It's Just Stuph from Hayden Coleman Music - check it out!
♪♫ #2 - It seems like it's been forever since we've had The End Men show up in a morning shuffle, whatever, it's been too long. Build It Up is the title track from the band's excellent EP, and it is the song, I first heard, and I was reminded how, when I heard the first few bars, I KNEW that I had just discovered a new fave!
<-------Built It Up (EP) by The End Men - on Amazon.com
♪ ♫ #3 - I heard a couple of reports on NPR this morning about difficulties in other countries over elections. Here is the US - voting tends to divide us. But, here at Ear to the Ground we march to the beat of our own drummer(s). Less than a month ago, The End Men and this next band were engaged in a bitter, hard fought vote to be named Band of the Month, but at the end of the day, once all the votes had been counted and all the challenges and protests had been heard, the two bands were able to put aside their differences and come together....(I'm tearing up now which you can't see so it loses it's effect).
Belong Here comes from the Funeral Genius album by February Band of the Month MAKAR.
<------------Funeral Genius by MAKAR - on Amazon.com
♪♫ #4 - Finally - we go to the first EP of the Accomplices series by recent Band of the Week, The Gypsy West. Accomplices I and II are available from Bandcamp and volume III is coming soon. The concept series tells a story and amazing enough the first volume contains two covers which contribute to the overall tale being told. Today we have one of those covers - Richard Cory was originally on the Simon and Garfunkel album Sound of Silence - based upon the Edwin Arlington Robinson 1897 poem. Here the band makes it their own.
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<-------Built It Up (EP) by The End Men - on Amazon.com
