Inspired by the August 20 birthdays of Boogie Down Productions’ KRS-One, Isaac Hayes, John Hiatt, Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott, The Knack’s Doug Fieger, Demi Lovato, Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst, Jim Reeves, Hawkwind’s Dave Brock, and Nikki Leonti.
Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (8-8-20)
Inspired by the August 8 birthdays of U2‘s Edge, Joe Tex, Kool Moe Dee, and The Stylistics’ Airrion Love; and the August 7 birthdays of B.J. Thomas, Stan Freberg, Positive K, and Throwing Muses’ Kristen Hersh.
Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (8-1-20)
Inspired by the August 1 birthdays of Public Enemy‘s Chuck D, Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia, Robert Cray, Coolio, L7’s Suzi Gardner and Luna’s Dean Wareham.
Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (7-20-20)
Inspired by the July 20 birthdays of Carlos Santana, Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell, Kim Carnes, The Exciters’ Brenda Reid, Buddy Knox, JoBoxers’ Dig Wayne and The Dandy Warhols’ Courtney Taylor-Taylor; and the July 19 birthdays of Queen’s Brian May, Eagles’ Bernie Leadon, and Commander Cody.
Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (3-4-20)
Inspired by the March 4 birthdays of Bobby Womack, Lemonheads’ Evan Dando, Jon Fratelli, Chris Rea, Miriam Makeba, and Brand Nubian’s Grand Puba; and the March 3 birthdays of the Searchers’ Mike Pender, Jennifer Warnes and Tone Loc.
Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (3-2-20)
Inspired by the March 2 birthdays of Lou Reed, Wu-Tang Clan’s Method Man, Karen Carpenter, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Jay Osmond, Boogie Down Productions’ Scott La Rock, Missing Persons’ Dale Bozzio, Musical Youth’s Dennis Seaton, UTFO’s Doctor Ice, the Kooks’ Luke Pritchard, and composer Kurt Weill (“Mack the Knife”).
Songs Of Great Social And Political Import (1980 – 2011)
Today is the birthday of Natalie Merchant, former lead singer of 10,000 Maniacs, whose 1987 album In My Tribe is one of my favorites. The album opens with “What’s the Matter Here,” a song that addresses child abuse. That inspired the theme of today’s playlist – songs about social or political issues.
While such recordings seemed more commonplace on the radio in the sixties and early seventies, there remain plenty of songs that speak to topical issues. I decided to make 1980 my starting point, with that year’s “Biko” by Peter Gabriel being the oldest song on the list. As the studio version is not on Spotify I used a live recording. The most recent recording included is Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way,” from 2011. Lots of great songs of different genres about a variety of topics populate the program. If you’re so inclined, let me know what favorites of yours I missed.
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World AIDS Day
Today Tunes du Jour observes World AIDS Day with a playlist of diverse genres – pop, hip hop, rock, dance, r&b, gospel and whatever you call what Ween does.
Thematically there are songs of reminiscence, reunions, safe sex, politics, pride, goodbyes and whatever you call what Ween does.
Give it a listen and let me know what songs you discovered and if there are any great ones I missed.