Dystopia Falls

I hope this holds together musically and is entertaining and enjoyable. I don’t normally name my Xmas mixes beyond identifying the year, but this is what I found myself calling this mix. It’s funny, for me personally overall this has been a fine year, I turned 60, celebrated my 20th wedding anniversary and am blessed with a comfortable home to stay in and good company while I am here. But out there in the real world there is so much going on, and so much of it is so hard to believe or process that I found myself using this mix to process a lot of what happened. BEWARE - much of the content in the mix and in the notes is pretty adult.

If this all feels too dark please enjoy the earlier mixes here as they are not as impacted by events as this year’s is.

Gimmie Shelter

Rolling Stones - If there has ever been a year when we needed shelter 2020 was it. This is the first of several songs in this list inspired by the documentary 20 Feet from Stardom. In the movie they tell the story of how Merry Clayton was woken up at 3 in the morning to go down to the recording studio and add some backing vocals. Her killer singing makes the song iconic even if she was asked to sing under what is clearly less than optimal circumstances.

In My Room

Pleasant and comforting to be in your room, and those wonderful Beach Boy harmonies.

Brian Wilson

Barnaked Ladies - The dark side of Brian Wilson’s life “in his room” - the 2 - 3 years he spent isolated in his bedroom fighting demons and mental health issues. Steven Page, a huge Brian Wilson fan wrote and sang this song when he was the band’s lead singer.

Strange Fruit

Billie Holiday - OK, now it gets dark - a song about lynching, the imagery is stark and painful and very real.

River

Leon Bridges - A song about redemption and washing your sins in the river.

Richard Pryor

I posted this at work to a Black Lives Matter chat at work and was very politely asked to take it down. I guess I’m pigheaded and want to share it here. Richard Pryor nails the issues we have seen over and over recently, and particularly in 2020 between black people and the police: in 1974. His insights are timeless and if his use of the “N-word” bothers you read here about how he took ownership of the word to take the pain from it.

In the Air Tonight

Another song inspired by 20 Feet from Stardom - Judith Hill is another voice you have heard on many different songs - she has a connection with “Gimmie Shelter” similar to Merry Clayton listed above because she spent many years touring with the Rolling Stones and singing it with Mick. This song should be familiar to most of you, this version is from “Little Fires Everywhere” which used it to great effect in the show. Judith sings beautifully here and if you have Hulu and have not seen Little Fires Everywhere I highly recommend it.

Pray for Me

Kendrick Lamar and The Weeknd - From the movie Black Panther - befits the theme. Musically interesting, the lyrics have some hope but not a lot - mostly just hard.

What’s Going On

Pretty easy to argue that this is the title track to Marvin Gaye’s very best work. A full on concept album far removed from the early Mowtown boy meets girl type stuff. There is so much in this song and it’s so easy and enjoyable to listen to.

Jesus etc.

I honestly can’t explain how this song by Wilco got here - it showed up as a Spotify suggestion, I don’t even remember adding it to try it out but once I heard it a time or two I just fell in love with it and now I get a chance to share it with you. Just tried to parse out the lyrics and looked at some comments online - might be apocalyptic or opening up to a loved one - something between those poles it’s pretty safe to say.

Billy Green is Dead

I never ever ever put two songs by the same artist on a single Xmas mix but Gil Scott-Heron is just so spot on with how shallow our perspective is, and then for a mix like this you just can’t skip “The Revolution will not be Televised” so there ya go - two songs by Gil Scott-Heron. Not exactly difficult to understand but that is part of what makes it so powerful.

This is America

So - I got hooked on this song by Childish Gambino. A lot of it is pretty easy to figure out and it’s classic Donald Glover, at times funny, then dark. Looked up the lyrics just to check ‘em out - that led me to the video he posted on this WTF…. Here is the link. WTF - that is crazy - WARNING - it’s all fun and games until he starts shooting people - so the DARK is DARK. I don’t think I needed to do this whole playlist - he just said everything that needs to be said in a 4 minute video.

Fever

Fever - get it? COVID - fever? I know, right? OK lame but the song is great, old, classic and very light. Used very well in “The Queen’s Gambit” which is truly fantastic and I recommend you drop everything and watch it if by chance you haven’t seen it yet.

Fast Car

This dark, brooding, beautiful song was how Tracy Chapman burst on the world. Trapped, trapped and never getting out.

I’d Love to Change the World

I think about this song a lot these days “I’d love to change the world, but I don’t know what to do, so I’ll leave it up to you” - 2020 was a great year for that feeling. So hard not to just throw the towel in sometimes

Mississippi Goddamn

Nina Simone at Carnegie Hall in 1964 - found this looking for songs for this mix - her ability to make you smile when she is this angry is immense.

Glory

From the movie Selma - John Legend & Common - something on point, positive, and uplifting.

Easy to be Hard

Three Dog Night pulled songs from so many sources and made them their own. This time from the soundtrack to Hair. In some ways this ties to Gil Scott-Heron above - white guilt - just cuz you are helping the needy does not mean you are living the life the world needs you to live.

Southern Man

Another visit with Merry Clayton - this year hearing a black woman sing Neil Young’s song puts a level of meat and angst in it that was kind of lost for me given the cute, kinda bitter Lenard Skinner reference to this song in Sweet Home Alabama, not Neil’s fault but this version made me realize I was not taking it as seriously as I should have. Also, her diction is much clearer - I now understand some of the words that I just kind of mumbled my way through in the past.

Living for the City

Another of the amazing, deep work that some of the Mowtown stable created in the mid 70s - Stevie Wonder this time - Talking Book, Innervisisons, Fulfillingness’ First Finale - has anyone every put out three consecutive albums of this quality? if so, I don’t know who, most of it performed by Stevie himself

Dear Theodosia

Let’s go a few years further back, you know to the US Revolution. I wish I had that same feeling that Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton have that they had really created something special for their children to share. I hope the tradition of leaving your children a better world than we started with can continue - hard to keep the faith in that sometimes.

Stuck in the Middle With You

Hopefully, you are luck enough to be stuck with Someone - sure makes this all easier to take.

All I Wanna Do

This will always be my favorite Sheryl Crow song - I’m sure there are a lot of people at her concerts that smile and scream and sing along to the chorus without a clue as to how dark the song is and how hopeless the life of its protagonist really is. You can check the lyrics out here if you like.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Here is the second Gil Scott-Heron song - the song is 50 years old so many of the references are obscure to an old fart like me but the meaning rings through loud and clear - such a great summary of the frustration, desire, and determination of the Black Lives Matter movement. Really kind of drops the mic and ends the playlist - but there is a bit more.

Lean on Me

We lost Bill Withers this year - another reason that 2020 sucks. Hopefully, this can feel like a big hug after a long and pretty challenging playlist this year.

It’s All Over Now Baby Blue

When you hear this song at a Grateful Dead concert, you can bet its the encore and that this really, really is the end this time. This version is by Them with Van Morrison - I fell in love with it and then dicided his careful diction kinda ruined a Dylan song, and then I got used to that and decided it was pretty kick ass so this is how we end our mix - I hope you enjoyed it - please let me know.