Today's Shuffle: What is really what

A brief one, a head-clearing walk around the block (twice) to take in bare trees and holiday lights.

Yim Yames, All Things Must Pass Tribute To
Cocteau Twins, A Kissed Out Red Floatboat Blue Bell Knoll
David Bowie, Queen Bitch Hunky Dory
Digable Planets, Examination of What Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space)

 

Today's Shuffle (Evening Edition): You must fly closer to the sea

I thought about simplicity today, in terms of letting go of everything that is not needed. Worn-out but still admired shoes. Faded papers. Flat pillows. Old, unloving thoughts. 

Then I heard Sinead's a capella koan, which I probably haven't heard in a couple of decades.

No other words needed. 

Sinead O'Connor, I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got 
Nneka, Africans Concrete Jungle
George Harrison, Beware of Darkness All Things Must Pass
Willie Nelson, One in a Row One Hell of a Ride
Rufus Wainwright, Go Or Go Ahead Want One
David Bowie, Five Years Stage 
David Bowie, A New Career in a New Town Low
Matthew Sweet, Divine Intervention Girlfriend
Depeche Mode, Halo Violator
Angie Stone, 20 Dollars Mahogany Soul

Today's Shuffle: The door always must be left unlocked

God, just when I was about to replace my old iPod with the new one that's been in its packaging for over a year, it gives me a good commute shuffle, good thoughts under blue skies.

Improbably, it's worked its ish out and cranked on for most of this year. 

So I should document this one, though brief, wide as the November sky.


David Bowie, The Stars (Are Out Tonight) The Next Day
Wilco, Muzzle of Bees A Ghost Is Born
Pixies, All Over the World Bossanova
Howard Jones, What Is Love Human's Lib
Beastie Boys, Finger Lickin' Good Check Your Head
Rufus & Chaka Khan, Once You Get Started
Nirvana, Scentless Apprentice In Utero
Common, Track 9  Electric Circus
Jimmy Cliff, My Lucky Day This Is Crucial Reggae
Mandy Patinkin, Finishing the Hat Sunday in the Park with George Original Cast Recording

Today's Shuffle: See our marvellous leaders quiver

What if we joined together and said we'd had enough with all the bullshit? We need a union against those trying to divide us in the socio-political realm, not just/solely employment.


If we spent the energy absorbing ludicrous sideshows on perceiving and acting against the insidious ways these circus acts divide us.

Also, I'm sick of working to work.




To put it more hopefully, it's the other side of the "Imagine" coin.

Today's Shuffle: Show me what I love, and who I'm supposed to be

It ain't no "Bastards of Young"* -- Johnny takes a lot of words and a lot less poetry to say the same thing ("Just look at all the washed out Hippie dreams")-- but Summer-of-1995 nostalgia reached up and tugged on the edge of my skirt when I heard this on the iPod this morning.

I had no idea how much things would change after that summer. Not a clue.



Anyway, watching this video...it got me today. I'm sure if I saw it then I was all, oh, nice, look how we've been  c o m m o d i f i e d   for the Goo's  m a j o r   l a b e l  release, those are models, blah blah blah, but now I just simply miss the freedom to stand in front of humans grinding on electronic musical equipment and shake one's long, long hair.

And to wear any kind of shoes I wanted to.

*I swear to God, I did not know until this minute that there was a(n official) video made for this song. God. God.

We're only living this instant

Elvis at his lyrically dense finest.

Today's Shuffle: But if I'm faced with being replaced

My poor 6th generation iPod Classic is on its last legs. I have to charge it daily, it immediately expires and displays a frightening symbol on its screen if I skip too many songs or dare to play Solitaire on it. I've given it some palliative care, a couple of restores and charging only the the computer. But it's slowly slipping this vale of tears--and this barrel of laughs. Don't think my iPod is solely a conductor of woe and wistfulness. Much joy, much of it documented here where no one traveler goes, emerged from this flat, silver pocket bird.

Since I bought the iPod in 2009 after leaving my first 6th gen in a condo in Lido Key, Sarasota, Florida, it's crossed the continent to California multiple times, jogged along the Pacific and Atlantic, shot down to the Carolinas in a small jet and to Hawaii on a great, big one, joggled at my waistband on Kentucky subdivision roads and pockmarked Wicker Park/Ukie V/Bucktown streets, in half-marathons along the Lake and Tampa Bay, brought peace and comfort on planes, in the middle of a sleepless night, and each and every day trodding the same route on the Chicago grid and L. And, much of that time, Shuffling into undiscovered country.

But the Shuffle function has--well, it's not stopped functioning entirely, but it shuffles only the same small group of songs. It's true, I click up Shuffle only on train rides, during reading, having lately turned to podcasts for long treks and commutes.

This song has, oddly, turned up in that malfunction-created set, itself a stand-alone, random kind of track.

The kind of chunkily layered 80s track (1983, to be exact) that I still love beyond taste or reason. I mean, look at its chart peers. And I won't lie, I dig H&O.

Kind of perfect.



In September, I chased down and bought a brand new Classic upon the news that Apple was discontinuing its venerable and voluble and original iPod. It's sat in its sealed box since then, waiting to take over the job of distracting from and connecting me to the world and into daylight and nighttime dreams. I'm glad I made the purchase when I did.

Will I have a little ceremony for my old friend? Most likely, no. But I will keep it, and let it sleep, with its tired OS and frozen-in-time Shuffle set, and by sleep, I don't mean end.

Today's Shuffle: Til the evening is complete

A new commute means new sky and new trees to take in, and a revival of Shuffling off to work each weekday. I have a longer walk to and from transit, but, overall, a trip that isn't disjointed, like the previous decade has been, and is pleasant, even relaxed, at least so far.

Of course, don't let all of this tranquil repose indicate that this post is being posted on the day the Shuffling occurred--but within the week is fine when you're still pulling cookware and curtains out of boxes.

Here's how the first, almost-full week of a new journey began*:

Take It Away, Paul McCartney Tug of War
Not Turning Off, Spoon Telephono
Clean Money, Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Armed Forces
Michael Jackson, Billie Jean Thriller
Talkin' 'bout Hey Love, De La Soul De La Soul Is Dead
Fooled Around And Fell In Love, Elvin Bishop Struttin' My Stuff
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Lauryn Hill  The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors, Radiohead Amnesiac
Hollywood Freaks, Beck Midnite Vultures
This Mess We're In, PJ Harvey Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
Journey To Arnhemland, Jamiroquai  The Return of the Space Cowboy 
Fleur de Lys, Julianna Hatfield Become What You Are
Troubled Girl, Karen Ramirez Sunlounge Sessions, Vol. 1 
Dig A Pony, The Beatles, Let It Be...Naked
West End Girls, Pet Shop Boys Please
Mariposita de Primavera, Omara Portuondo Buena Vista Social Club
Lady Grinning Soul, David Bowie Aladdin Sane




*most appropriately: with Macca

Today's Shuffle*: Buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight

*Internet Radio Edition

The video is cheesy, but I can't say no to sunset skies--especially when I won't be viewing any tonight as I head home from the workplace. Instead, I go to the theatre for a long-put-off event.

Thankfully, I remembered to remember this song about remembering before I rush off and (thankfully) shut down the machines for a night of liveness.

Today's Shuffle: Everybody wants to look the other way

Periodically, this blog is about how I (still) like Sting when I shouldn't.

My return to Shuffle coughed up my favorite track from The Soul Cages, the tour of which I actually saw almost exactly twenty-two years ago. I managed to miss most of Don Henley, who opened (hah, post-punk rules!) that night at Alpine Valley. My roommates bought me a ticket for my birthday earlier in the summer and then set me up to travel to East Troy with some of their friends.

I haven't forgotten that show, mostly because someone had a reserved ticket stub and each person in the group (who the hell they were, I have no idea now) used it to travel into the rarefied air of the Reserved Covered Area. I made to row 8 and was able to get an up-close with a forty year-old and still incredibly hot Sting and his big ol' Doc Martens.

Now, of course, I look at the footage of it from my desk (and imagine not being able to comprehend that 22 years ago--I mean, did I know an Internet existed in 1991?) and see that Sting, as usual, positioned some incredible musicians from across genres to deploy his cross-genre music, his music that, in the immortal words of Branford Marsalis, "is a motherf*cker."


Love, Erykah Badu New Amerykah Part Two
Lithium, Nirvana Nevermind
Pass the Plugs, De La Soul De La Soul Is Dead
Pursuit of Happiness, Weekend Players Pursuit of Happiness
Ships Passing Through, Jimi Hendrix Valleys of Neptune
Everybody Wants The Same Thing, Scissor Sisters Ta-Dah
My Time, Kaskade It's You, It's Me
Summertime, Sarah Vaughn The Very Best of Sarah Vaughn
Uncountable (Feat. Tomomi Ukomori), Hideo Kobayashi A Drama
Fin, Supergrass Road To Rouen
Don't Lose Your Temper, XTC Black Sea
You Can Get It If You Really Want, Jimmy Cliff The Harder They Come
As, Stevie Wonder Songs In The Key Of Life
Baby Britain, Elliott Smith XO
Seen Your Video, The Replacements Let It Be
Bombers, Gary Numan The Pleasure Principle (30th Anniversary Edition)
Can I Get A Witness, Marvin Gaye Greatest Hits
Fire Island, Fire Island Hed Kandi: Back To Love - True Club Classics 2
West of Hollywood, Steely Dan Two Against Nature
Hoover Dam, Sugar Copper Blue
Jeremiah Blues, Sting The Soul Cages



Addendum:

I just found this, and, despite afternoon dyspepsia, I've become happy as a pig lolling in jazz-rock poo:



By the way, is Branford wearing the first iteration of a WHO DAT t-shirt, or what?

Today's Shuffle: And lessons of the day on a blackboard night

Two-Day Shuffleganza! It took me two weeks to get back in the groove.

Oh, last week, I had such a beautiful list going, ready to transcribe--and then I clicked one too many clicks on the 'pod, and it vanished.

That was the start, I think, of getting in my way here and there over the last week. Wires crossed, assumptions made, poor transit decisions, words best left unspoken, fears cresting, so on.

I've had enough of that. Thus I post my list, because done is good enough, as my wise friend Robin looked into my eyes and told me when I spilled that I had a whole thesis ahead of me to write, and remember these words by the brilliant and who-gives-a fuck Bill Murray:

"Living life, the game of life, you can make it a lot more interesting if you make it a game for yourself. It's not a rehearsal. It's not practice. It's real. This life is real. This is the real thing, and if you can stay light and stay loose and stay relaxed, then you can play at the very highest level, in baseball or as a human being. …"

And that, friends, makes Shuffle what it is: the algorithm-powered ability to read into what you are hearing.

No--not read into. To believe.

Because, some days, when the train gets stuck in the tunnel and you're mired in the past-drenched much of your conditioned responses, you need some faith in a bigger thing--from a little, handheld thing.



The Police, Voices Inside My Head Zenyatta Mondatta
Beck, High Five (Rock The Catskills) Odelay
Rufus Wainwright, Rebel Prince Poses
Paul Westerberg, These Are The Days Eventually
Beastie Boys, Triple Trouble To The 5 Boroughs
Steely Dan, Your Gold Teeth II Katy Lied
The Smiths, There Is A Light That Never Goes Out The Queen Is Dead
The Rolling Stones, Can't You Hear Me Knocking Sticky Fingers
Beck, Lost Cause Sea Change
Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Big Boys Armed Forces
David Bowie, All the Madmen The Man Who Sold The World
Pixies, La La Love You Doolittle
Beck, New Round The Information
Seal, Dreaming In Metaphor Seal
Jamiroquai, Journey To Arnahemland The Return Of The Space Cowboy
Crowded House, Dr. Livingstone Afterglow
AC/DC, Hells Bells Back In Black
Chicane, Already There Far From The Maddening Crowd
Public Enemy, Welcome To The Terrordome Fear Of A Black Planet
Jamiroquai, Didgital Vibrations Traveling Without Moving
Beastie Boys, Bodhisattva Vow Ill Communication
Electric Light Orchestra, Wild West Hero All Over The World
Kaskade, All You Love Mysterious
Gary Numan, Random Demo Outtake The Pleasure Principle
Billy Joel, All You Wanna Do Is Dance Turnstiles
LCD Soundsystem, Tribulations LCD Soundsystem
Andre 3000, Hey Ya! The Love Below
Finn Brothers, Part of Me, Part of You Everyone Is Here
Public Enemy, Power To The People  Fear Of A Black Planet
The Kinks, Animal Farm The Village Green Preservation Society
Trip Shakespeare, Bachelorette Lulu
Joan As Police Woman, Human Condition The Deep Field
Crowded House, Fame Is Woodface
Madonna, Sorry Confessions On A Dancefloor

Today's Shuffle: I know I know I know

Shuffle, my friend, you've been scurrying down a strange street during the last week, so much so that I've not wanted to record your steps.

New week, new day (and possibly a mid-run meltdown yesterday) have righted your navigation.


Blondie, Heart of Glass Parallel Lines
Beastie Boys, Nonstop Disco Powerpack Hot Sauce Committee Part Two
Sting, They Dance Alone Nothing Like The Sun
Sentenced, Suffocated Beginning of Life Cafe Mambo Ibiza 2006
Nirvana, Rape Me In Utero
Me'Shell Ndegeocello, The Way Peace Beyond Passion
Andre 3000, Happy Valentine's Day The Love Below
Michael Jackson, Wanna Be Startin' Something Thriller
Chaka Khan, Never Miss The Water I'm Every Woman: The Best of Chaka Khan
Iron and Wine, The Rooster Moans The Creek Drank the Cradle
Roxy Music, The Main Thing Avalon
Jose Gonzalez, Killing For Love In Our Nature
Sam Cooke, You Send Me Portrait of a Legend 1951-1964: Sam Cooke

I don't think I need to say more than that I've been thinking about Sam Cooke since yesterday afternoon.
 


       
 

Today's Shuffle: I'm movin' past the feeling and into the night

Wherein (once again) I respond to Shuffle:

Neil Young, Broken Arrow Decade
This track led me to an interview at Neil's Broken Arrow Ranch--where I can finally see the damn Lionel trains and maybe get back into his memoir that I started at Christmastime.

Angie Stone, Come Home (Live With Me) Stone Love
A beautiful thought about moving forward from the past. Not so sure about the headspace girl is in when she's singing it.

Sweetback, Round & Round Stage 2
Once again, Sade's backing band. I need to play this album all the way through this week.

Mary J. Blige, Not Looking Mary
I'm not looking for no player shit.

Royaal, I Ain't Stoppin' (feat. All Rize) Hed Kandi World Series Miami
If I lived another life, I'd be at all of these (now designated as EDM) events, the biggest of which in the States appear to happen in Miami. Ultimately, the lifestyle that goes with this music is a bit too shallow. Or I'm a bit too much of the cynical generation to be in the jet set.

Alex Dolby, Hazy Way Hernán Cattáneo Renaissance: The Masters 
One of my favorite running songs, especially suited to night or sunless days.

Electric Light Orchestra, Telephone Line All Over the World: The Very Best of Electric Light Orchestra 
I always think of this observation when this song comes on. (Gawd, I am self-referencing). Funny, though, since today I noticed that the work phone system has new feature whereby I'm notified by email of the crazies who call every 15-30 minutes and don't leave a voicemail.

Paul Westerberg, Good Day Eventually
Paul remembers Bob.
  
The Roots & Cody Chestnutt, The Seed (2.0) Phrenology
One of Kerri's favorites!

Missy Elliott, Work It Under Construction
Ahem. I like Missy, and this track is one of her best.What happened to her? I like the manifesto at the end of the album version. It's hip-hop, man, this is hip-hop.

Elvis Costello & The Attractions, The World And His Wife Punch The Clock
...followed by the world's worst Elvis Costello song. Sorry, but he has one, and this Shuffle is insistent on playing me every track from Punch The Clock, my least favorite EC album. I mean, I like Goodbye Cruel World better.
 
LCD Soundsystem, Beat Connection LCD Soundsystem
That's it. The LCDS is coming off the 'pod. You've tried one too many times to get me to care. SKIP.
 
The Jam, Smithers-Jones Extras: A Collection of Rarities
Oh! That cruel turn at the end! There's no longer a position for you! Sorry, Smithers-Jones. Work and work and work til you die.
 
Led Zeppelin, Immigrant Song  Led Zeppelin III
What the---did Youtube change the rules or is there a dispensation for honoring a Kennedy Center Honoree? In any case, watch this. It was silenced for four years. SILENCED.
 
Smashing Pumpkins, Soma Siamese Dream
Not in the mood. SKIP.
 
Fleetwood Mac, Gold Dust Woman Rumours
Pick up the pieces and go home! 

Arcade Fire, The Suburbs The Suburbs
Sometimes I can't believe it.

   
   
  

Today's Shuffle: Out the blue, life's energy

The Brand New Heavies, Dream Come True The Brand New Heavies
The Cure, Lullaby Disintegration
Elvis Costello, TKO Punch The Clock
Gadjo, So Many Times (Club Mix)  Hed Kandi: Disco Heaven
India Arie, Beautiful Acoustic Soul
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, I'll Still Be True I Learned The Hard Way
David Bowie, Hang Onto Yourself The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
MGMT, Time To Pretend Oracular Spectacular
David Bowie, The Man Who Sold The World  The Man Who Sold The World   
Duran Duran, Secret Oktober The Singles 81-85
Me'Shell Ndegeocello, Outside Your Door Plantation Lullabies
Beck, Where It's At Odelay
Size Eight, Baby Crying Soundtrack from The Age of Entitlement
Stephanie Cooke and Diephuis feat. Han Litz, Beautiful Life Hed Kandi: Beach House 2011
Crowded House, Weather With You Woodface
Wynton Marsalis, Melancholia Hot House Flowers
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Me And Mia Shake The Sheets
Iron and Wine, Faded From the Winter The Creek Drank The Cradle
John Lennon, Out Of The Blue Mind Games

Thank you for this big heart sandwich, Shuffle.



      

     

Today's Shuffle: It's a loss, it's a find

Wilco, Spiders (Kidsmoke)  A Ghost Is Born
Nirvana, Scentless Apprentice  In Utero
Amadou & Mariam, M'Bife  Dimanche a Bamako
David Bowie, After All  The Man Who Sold The World
John Hartford, I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow  O Brother, Where Art Thou? Soundtrack
Pixies, I Bleed  Doolittle
Elis Regina & Carlos Jobim, Aguas de Marco   Elis & Tom
Ike & Tina Turner, Acid Queen  Proud Mary: The Best of Ike & Tina Turner
Radiohead, Give Up The Ghost  The King of Limbs
Madonna, Skin  Ray Of Light
Michael Jackson, I Can't Help It  Off The Wall



I distinctly remember this song issuing from my Granddad's console stereo when I was a child. And Hearing it now, I realize it has the sound of a nursery rhyme--for adults. That must have attracted my attention, along with its downward steps, the throaty Portuguese, and especially the way they crack up near the end. It was some kind of dialogue, I'm sure I perceived, but about what?

And an aside about that console. It was beautiful. Walnut, or something like that. Not particle board. He paid a lot of money for it, Granddad did. During the holidays, my uncle relayed the story of how he sold the stereo to a guy recently and in cleaning it up (or getting it cleaned up) its bill or invoice was found. It cost several hundred dollars, and this was in the sixties, I think. I'm kind of sad that a stranger has it now. Granddad liked his music, and he purchased a nice piece of equipment on which play it, and listen to it.

So this song, rolling out of those textured fabric-covered speakers like waves of rain down the streets of Rio, you must understand, sounded lush, ambrosial--and from another world.

A few years ago I was researching songs to use for a dialogue-free comedic sketch in which we would battle a rainstorm with unwieldy umbrellas. We'd done a series of these, the two of us uniting against a natural or unnatural foe--cabs that won't stop, disgusting ladies restrooms, and so on. Seriously, I could do a whole show of nothing but physical bits and lazzi set against obscure music (don't say I didn't warn you). For some reason, I remembered this song, and, somehow, I traversed the Internet and found it--I should say, not knowing the title, or the singers, or anything besides the fact it was a goofy gibberish song that I was pretty sure was Brazilian jazz.

I love the lyrics. It's a nonsensical list that slowly makes sense, that, as I found pointed out this time during my Internet search, flows downward, like rain.

No, wait, I have to excerpt some:

A fish, a flash,
A silvery glow,
A fight, a bet,
The range of a bow

The bed of the well,
The end of the line,
The dismay in the face,
It's a loss, it's a find

A spear, a spike,
A point, a nail,
A drip, a drop,
The end of the tale

A truckload of bricks
in the soft morning light,
The shot of a gun
in the dead of the night

A mile, a must,
A thrust, a bump,
It's a girl, it's a rhyme,
It's a cold, it's the mumps

The plan of the house,
The body in bed,
And the car that got stuck,
It's the mud, it's the mud

Afloat, adrift,
A flight, a wing,
A hawk, a quail,
The promise of spring

And the riverbank talks
of the waters of March,
It's the promise of life
It's the joy in your heart

Footnote: and this video? Dude, at some point she picks up a freaking cig because at the 2:30 mark she's waving one around with abandon in her right hand. I mean, did she interrupt the whistling bridge to go grab a Pall Mall? God. The Seventies.

Today's Shuffle: And if you're lucky

De La Soul, Do As De La Does 3 Feet High and Rising
Japandroids, I Quit Girls  Post Nothing
Stevie Wonder, Love Having You Around  Music Of My Mind
Chicane, Saltwater  Behind the Sun
Thin Lizzy, Jailbreak Jailbreak
Kaskade, The X  Love Mysterious
Billy Joel, If I Only Had The Words (To Tell You)  Piano Man
Boukman Eksperyans, Zan'j Yo  Libete
Stevie Wonder, Saturn  Songs In The Key Of Life
AC/DC, Big Balls Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Flavor  Orange
Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Girls Talk  Get Happy!!

How did you know I was obsessed with this song from December 13 - 21 and had forgotten about it while I was away?

Today's Shuffle: Life is beautiful.

Damn, you're good. You're really good.

David Bowie, Rock n Roll Suicide  The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
Grand Resonant, Central  Hernán Cattáneo Renaissance: The Masters
Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Sleepless Nights (live) Goodbye, Cruel World
New Order, 5 8 6  Power, Corruption and Lies
The Replacements, Talent Show Don't Tell A Soul
Tears for Fears, New Star  Saturnine Martial and Lunatic
Radiohead, Go To Sleep (Little Man Being Erased)  Hail To The Thief
LCD Soundsystem, All I Want  This Is Happening
Radiohead, Ripcord  Pablo Honey
Weezer, Undone (The Sweater Song)  Weezer
Erykah Badu, A.D. 2000  Mama's Gun
Roxy Music, More Than This  Avalon

I queued up this track for the last several meters of the half marathon I ran on Saturday night in Los Angeles--on my other iPod.  Damn, you're good.

This track pushed me to finish mid-sized to long runs when I had just started doing them two years ago. March, April of that year I was dragging my arse out Cortland to Lincoln Park and back at night, running at 8 or 9 pm when I just could no longer deal with the day. One night I got out of bed, where I'd climbed in immediately after work to completely shut down, and ran this five-miler.

Finishing 13.1 in Los Angeles to this tune, then, and looking up at the downtown skyline from the finishers' corrall, was a sort of completion. Hearing it again today was euphoric.

Today's Shuffle: Home again and feeling right

It's good to be in sunny C....hicago. It's good to be home. Maybe I'm not absorbing as much vitamin D was I was through the windshield the last six days, but it's still shining.

I'll take it, 2013, I'll take it.

Level 42, Something About You  World Machine
U2, Pride (In the Name of Love)  Unforgettable Fire
Talk Talk, It's My Life  It's My Life
Beastie Boys, Jimmy James Check Your Head
Lauryn Hill, Doo Wop (That Thing)  The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Carole King, Home Again Tapestry
Elvis Costello & The Attractions, I Hope You're Happy Now  Goodbye Cruel World
Juliana Hatfield, Stay Awake  Made in China
Nickel Creek, Beauty and the Mess  This Side
Uncle Tupelo, Watch Me Fall  Still Feel Gone
The Whites, Keep On The Sunny Side  O Brother, Where Art Thou? Soundtrack
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Keep On Looking  100 Days, 100 Nights
Late Night Alumni, I Knew You When  Hed Kandi: Beach House
Beck, Strange Apparition  The Information

Today's Shuffle (Shopping Edition): I'm gonna walk by myself to prove that my love is true

Clever Shuffle! You found two versions of the same song and almost bookended my pelted tromp around the Loop. Which actually was lovely--downtown was deserted due to an impending storm that, like an indifferent friend, never showed up, and lights were lit, and store clerks were warm friendly despite being tired, and, even though I was steaming like frozen vegetables in a bag in my down coat (thanks, forecast) and was shopping (thanks, Christmas), I was happy.

I love the Loop. I have the lake literally in my face every workday now, and god, I need that, but I do miss the Loop.





I think Stevie's version (recorded 1967 but not release until a decade or so later) edges out Aretha's, in which there's a bit too much going on--strings, synths, back-up voices. I wish it'd stick with the piano that starts the song. Stevie's is pure heart.

Stevie Wonder, Until You Come Back To Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do), Anthology
Led Zeppelin, Black Dog Led Zeppelin IV
My Morning Jacket, Touch Me I'm Going To Scream, Evil Urges
Kraak & Smaak, Danse Macabre Music for Cocktails: The Silver Edition
The Lonely Island, Dick In A Box Incredibad
XTC, Don't Lose Your Temper Black Sea 
Ike & Tina Turner, Sexy Ida Part 1 Proud Mary: The Best of Ike & Tina Turner
Sarah Vaughn, Sometimes I'm Happy The Very Best of Sarah Vaughn
Bomb the Bass, Bug Powder Dust (Kruder and Dorfmeister Dub) Chill Lounge 1
Sade, Feel No Pain Love Deluxe
Rockpile, Now and Always Seconds of Pleasure
English Beat, End of the Party Special Beat Service
Beastie Boys, Say It Hot Sauce Committee Part Two 
Beastie Boys, Right Right Now Now To The 5 Boroughs 
Radiohead, Planet Telex The Bends
Jimmy Cliff, Hard Road to Travel This Is Crucial Reggae
David Bowie, All The Madmen The Man Who Sold The World
Aretha Franklin, Until You Come Back To Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do) Let Me In Your Life
Billy Joel, Travelin' Prayer Piano Man
Lady Gaga, Paparazzi The Fame
Beck, Lost Cause Sea Change 

p.s. Thanks for the holiday tunez!

 

Today's Shuffle: And my imagination will make that moment live

Reconstructed from memory. Ack. It was a good'un, so I had to.

Janelle Monae, Come Alive (The War of the Roses) The Archandroid
Willie Nelson, Stardust One Hell of a Ride
Outkast, Spaghetti Junction Stankonia
Estelle, Wait a Minute (Just a Touch) Shine
Nick Drake, Which Will Pink Moon
Louis Armstrong, Kiss to Build a Dream On The Best of Louis Armstrong

Field Music, Is This the Picture? Plumb

Me'Shell Ndegéocello, The Way Peace Beyond Passion