The Lemonheads’ Evan Dando has a birthday today. Lotsa Lemonheads on today’s playlist.
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Your (Almost) Daily Playlist: 9-22-23
“I love rock ‘n roll, so put another dime in the jukebox, baby”
Would the youth of today understand those lyrics from Joan Jett & the Blackhearts’ cover of The Arrows’ “I Love Rock ‘n Roll?” “What’s a jukebox? What’s a dime?” I hear them asking. If that song were written today, how would it go?
“I love rock ‘n roll, so stream your favorite song on your smartwatch, baby”
“I love rock ‘n roll, so send payment via Venmo so you can unlock the playlist you want to hear, baby”
“I love rock ‘n roll, so tap your phone to connect to the speaker’s Bluetooth and hit play on your selection, baby”
“I love rock ‘n roll, so say ‘Hey Siri, play some rock ‘n roll and feel free to include women and Black artists because you’re not Jann Wenner, baby’”
“I love rock ‘n roll, so use your smartphone’s camera to scan the square-shaped QR code to be redirected to a website or an app where you can choose from a variety of songs and see the ratings, reviews, and popularity of each and select the song you want and it will be added to the queue and play when it’s your turn, baby / I love rock ‘n roll, so come and take some time and dance with me”
That last one just rolls off the tongue. So singalongable!
I love rock ‘n roll and I love Joan Jett, who turns 65 today. A handful of tracks by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts are on today’s playlist.
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Your (Almost) Daily Playlist: 8-21-22
Today’s playlist celebrates the August 21 birthdays of Kelis, The Clash’s Joe Strummer, The Prodigy’s Liam Howlett, Kacey Musgraves, System of a Down’s Serj Tankian, Jackie De Shannon, Kenny Rogers, Ernie Maresca, and David Morales; and the August 22 birthdays of Wu-Tang Clan’s GZA, Tori Amos, John Lee Hooker, Tears for Fears’ Roland Orzabal, Craig Finn, Alice in Chains’ Layne Staley, Bangles’ Debbi Peterson, Living Colour’s Vernon Reid, Dale Hawkins, Dua Lipa, The Archies’ Ron Dante, Chuck Brown, and Evelyn Thomas.
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Throwback Thursday: 1986
For many years I’ve been saying that 1986 was a crap year for music. I prove myself wrong with this week’s Throwback Thursday playlist. Listen to these gems! How did I get this so wrong until now? My theory is this: In 1986 I was still listening to top 40 radio more than other formats. While there were many great hit songs in ’86 (as evidenced by the playlist below), there was also a lot of garbage songs that were successful on the pop chart. My thoughts of all those garbage songs outweighed my fond memories of all of the good songs. Well, no more, missy! Nineteen eighty-six was a good year for music. The proof is in the pudding (pudding meaning this week’s Throwback Thursday playlist).
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A Prince Playlist
I missed Prince’s debut album, For You, when it was released in 1978. My first exposure to him was hearing “I Wanna Be Your Lover” on the radio. It became a hit when I was in high school. Good song. Then I saw the video. Not what I expected. Before then I thought Prince was a trio of Black women, like The Emotions. My first visual exposure to Prince and already he was throwing my expectations.
His third album, 1980’s Dirty Mind, got a fair amount of press in music magazines, and its cover art made an impression. I was interested in the guy.
“Controversy” was a single my freshman year in college. The song grabbed me, and so I bought the 45, my first Prince record.
The life-changing moment came the following year, when I heard “1999” on KISS-FM in Boston. Holy crap! It blew my mind. It sounded like nothing else on the radio at that time or any other time. At that moment I became a big fan. I got a ride into Harvard Square, went to the Harvard Coop (the university’s bookstore/ record store/ probably other things I can’t remember store) and bought the 1999 album. (The same day I bought Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Can you believe the two albums came out a month apart? What a time to be alive!)
From that point on I was a certified Prince fanatic. I bought the first four albums. I bought subsequent albums on the days of release. I bought the twelve-inch singles, and eventually the CD singles. And for quite a stretch there Prince continued to blow my mind. I’m still awed by his genius and marvel at how he thought to do unconventional things with his music, such as removing the bassline from “When Doves Cry,” the only number one on the dance chart to not have a bassline.
I’ve met many great talents over the years. Brian Wilson. Tina Turner. Smokey Robinson. Norman Fell. But nothing compared 2 meeting Prince. It was in 1988. He didn’t say a word, though he did sign my work stationery:
Putting together a Prince playlist and disciplining myself to keep it to thirty songs is a tough task, especially as a Prince fanatic, but I persevered. I’m not saying these are his thirty best songs, nor are they his thirty most popular songs, nor are they my thirty favorites of his songs. It’s a mixture of all three of those categories (which, of course, have a lot of overlap). I threw in some of the hits others had with songs he wrote. It’s by no means complete, but it’s a start.
(The Spotify embed feature is STILL broken. Here is the link: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3TrbpWDHR6CzcYRHmvSrRA?si=4367f868ddcf4e52)
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Throwback Thursday: 1988
Nineteen eighty eight was, on the US pop music chart, one of those in-between years. The “New Wave” British invasion had greatly subsided and England wasn’t as much of a presence on the charts as it was a few years earlier. Rap was increasing in popularity and hitting the top 40 more frequently, though it was still a far cry from the dominant position it holds today. Of the hip hop song’s on today’s playlist, only two made it onto the Billboard Hot 100 – LL Cool J’s “Goin’ Back to Cali,” which peaked at #31, despite selling a million copies, and Rob Base & D.J. E-Z Rock’s “It Takes Two,” which peaked at #36, despite selling two million copies. Alternative music lived up to its genre name as an alternative to the music on the pop chart, so if you wanted to hear Sonic Youth or The Dead Milkmen or The Primitives, you had to tune into college radio or the stations on the left side of your FM dial. Those artists, alongside U2, R.E.M. and INXS, could be found on Billboard’s Modern Rock chart, which premiered in September of 1988. New Jack Swing tracks from artists such as Keith Sweat remained popular on Black radio and crossed over, while Black artists such as Tracy Chapman and Living Colour failed to make much of an impression on Black radio. So-called Hair Metal was a presence on the pop chart; grunge would help fix that in a few years. Configuration-wise, CDs outsold vinyl LPs for the first time in 1988, though cassettes outsold both.
Here are thirty of 1988’s finest:
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