Welcome to 2021

Nemisis

Benjamin Clementine - Sad to admit that I learned about this song because it was used as the intro for the “Morning Show” on Apple TV - but its a very cool song about being dumped by the girl you dumped someone else over. The first of at least two karma songs this year, the second is more obvious. Benjamin Clementine is quite a story unto himself, having made it from a mostly homeless busker to playing at the Montreux Jazz festival. He missed a chance to perform at the North Sea Jazz Festival after he got kicked off the train for not having a ticket and tried to walk 45 miles to Rotterdam. His story is as compelling as his song.

I’ve Been to Memphis

Lyle Lovett - I’m not sure I’d say he has a great voice but singing this song is an endless joy - it builds and is so fun to sing.

What I’ve Got

Sublime - Bradley Nowell died of a heroine overdose about two months before the “Sublime” album was released, their third album and first major label offering. On the power of this song and several other great songs on the album the record was phenomenally successful selling over 5 million copies. The rest of the band refused to play again as Sublime after Nowell died.

BK Twins

Ball - My son created and released an EP this last year with accompanying videos for two of the songs, he wrote, and produced this and plays all of the instruments save the drum. This is the title track - if you watch the YouTube playlist you will see the video he made using my parents wedding video from 1944. It’s a beautiful song about a long term love that was inspired by my parent’s 73 year marriage and my wife’s parents 63 year marriage. Proud papa moment.

Memories are Made of This

Dean Martin - Keeping the long relationship theme going - I assume its about his marriage which I know lasted many years.

High Sierra

Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton - Just listen to those ladies sing - Linda’s powerful lead and the beautiful harmonies.

Creep

Rozzi Crane - Two songs from “The Morning Show” - kinda hard to admit but this cover of the Radiohead song was used in the background of a scene in the show and it really hooked me so I needed to share it here. Rozzi has a beautiful voice that gets kinda strained towards the end but that befits the song and the Radiohead aesthetic.

A Song for You

Leon Russel - This was the song of the year for me. I consider myself a good solid Leon Russel fan for decades but for whatever reason I did not recognize this when it showed up as one of his most popular songs. From the opening piano run through the sweet lyrics sung in his strained style I have been enchanted and have probably listened to this song more often than anything else out there this year. If you listen on Spotify you can see their notes about his writing of the song it was an attempt to rescue a relationship - sounds like it did not work out in the long run but we all got a great song out of it. It’s been covered over 200 times, most notably by Donny Hathaway, but also Ray Charles, Andy Williams, and many more.

Wildflowers

Tom Petty - Recently I put the cover of this by the Waillin’ Jenny’s on the 2019 mix and I just love this song so much that I had to go back to Tom Petty’s original this year. The Wildflowers album was produced by Rick Ruben. I don’t know how to give Rick Ruben his full due in a couple of sentences here, as a founder of Def Jam records produced and released a number of seminal punk works in the early 80s and then moved on to Hip Hop later in the decade including Aerosmith and Run-DMC’s recording of “Walk this Way” which was critical to the mainstreaming of Rap Hard Rock and revitalizing Aerosmith. A short list of some highlight bands he has worked with: Beastie Boys, the Cult, Slayer, Meat Puppets, Husker Du, and on and on.

I Won’t Back Down

Johnny Cash - Okay, more Rick Ruben. In the early 90s he saw Johnny Cash playing at a Dinner Theater for a small crowd that was more interested in their not so great meal than in hearing Johnny Cash. Ruben was able to connect with Cash and they recorded a series of albums up until Johnny passed. The most notable song from that is the cover of “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails, but there is a rich trove of other great songs there. This is kind of a double Ruben as it is a cover of a song from the Wildflowers album that he produced as well.

Move On Up

Curtis Mayfield - Uplifting song, the lyrics seem almost more timely today than they would have in 1970, but I guess people feeling unaccepted for who they are is a timeless issue. Funky and upbeat and beautiful, just a great song.

Your The Best Thing

Style Council - Once I heard the Move On Up I knew this had to follow. Musicians from different generations and genres but it sounds like they could be two different songs from the same album.

Mona Lisa’s & Mad Hatters

Elton John - “For unless they see the sky, but they can’t and that is why they know not if its dark outside or light.” The single most convoluted and odd sentence in the history of music. Gotta love Bernie Taupin. I’ve spent a lot of time mulling the lyrics to this one, financial stratification, a real love/hate paen to NYC, and a blast at the bloated, rich phonies of the world. There is a lot to unpack here and it took me until this year to actually pay attention to what Elton was singing.

Karma Police

Raidohead - The other Karma song duh, goes along with Nemesis above… If you watch on YouTube there is the video they originally released with the song, dark and foreboding as the entire album is.

Cigarettes on Patios

BabyJake - I just found this on a search of “good new music” - most of the stuff I found sounded the same and bla bla bla - but this was cool and fun and interesting so it made it to this year’s list. I get a sense of someone who goes out and parties all night every weekend and is starting to grow up a bit and rethink the value of doing that. Interesting and the music is very cool.

Vienna

Billy Joel - I guess lockdown has led me to find much of my music through streaming services did you watch the Politician? It’s a Netflix show where Ben Platt plays an insanely young alpha male type who is convinced he will become president of the United States very soon. As he moves from running for class president to local office in New York you come to accept and like the crazily motivated kid. Into the second season there is a scene where he plays Vienna in a bar in New York. The performance is amazing, and the song is so perfect for the character and the moment, he’s everything Billy Joel says in the song. After seeing that I looked up Mr. Platt and realized he has already won a Tony, Emmy, and Grammy award, all that aside Vienna is a great song.

Eagle Eye

Con Brio - Let’s get funky!!! Con Brio is a great band from the bay area and this is one of their best.

Love Will Tear us Apart

Joy Division - Another song released shortly after its writer and singer’s death, this case it was released about a month after Ian Curtis committed suicide. Apparently, epilepsy played a hand in his death and in the lyrics of this song. Had an email exchange at work recently where I realized just how much of a “Punk Tourist” but at least I can pull out Joy Division’s greatest hit for what that is worth.

Ode To Billy Joe

Bobby Gentry - This is the first song I remember from my childhood that I learned about from a friend and listened to on the radio. I have Davey Diegelman to thank for turning me onto this song. It’s a story - another suicide in fact, but this time its just the character in the song, not the singer.

Our Day Will Come

Ruby & the Romantics - An old classic, a Ruby and the Romantics are a true one hit wonder - they stayed together for quite some time but only really had commercial success with this one song.

This Life

Vampire Weekend - I’ve not heard too much of Vampire Weekend but many people who’s musical taste I respect are into them so I decided to check them out - damn good stuff, particularly this song.

Higher Ground

Stevie Wonder - Stevie Wonder can really just thump you in the chest sometimes - this song for example.

Fare Thee Well

Marcus Mumford & Oscar Issac - Music is very important to the Cohen brothers and you can see that in pretty much any film they put together. In the Case of “Deep Inside Llewyn Davis” they took it to a crazy extreme putting together a concert that included musicians from the NYC folk scene of the early 60s (Joan Baez, Patti Smith) and an amazing cast of current folkies (Marcus Mumford, the Avett Brothers, the Punch Brothers, and the Milk Carton Kids). The concert was filmed and the result is the most compelling concert film I’ve seen since The Last Waltz. Here is the Fare Thee Well from that concert. At one time the whole video was on YouTube, you can only get bits and pieces there now, looks like it’s on Vudu if you want to watch the whole thing which I recommend highly!

Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright

Bob Dylan - Well, I don’t think its alright at all for the guy in the song, he sure sounds bitter. My sister had the 45 of “Blowin in the Wind”, this was the B side of the single and I remember listening to both sides over and over - in the end I think I prefer this to that iconic song.

Going to California

Led Zeppelin - Okay, now we take a little trip to Laurel Canyon and the LA scene around that time. This song started with the acoustic guitar from Jimmy Page and Robert Plant added the musing lyrics reflecting back to the southern California scene from the late 60s.

California

Joni Mitchell - This is the 50th anniversary of Joni Mitchell’s Blue album, one of the greatest records ever and very much part and parcel of the Laurel Canyon cannon. Even if she wrote most of it in Greece and Malta.

Queen of California

John Mayer - Another song about Laurel Canyon and the so cal music scene, John even has specific mention of Joni and Blue. 3 songs is a long run thematically and musically for one of these mixes so enough of that.

Windy

The Association - Thank you so much if you actually got this far through the mix and this doc. Ending with something upbeat and fun from the Association. If you have any thoughts to share on the mix I’d love to hear them.