Inspired by Black Music Month, LGBTQ Pride Month, and the June 15 birthdays of Harry Nilsson, Ice Cube, Slade’s Noddy Holder, Waylon Jennings, Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody, Erroll Garner, Neil Patrick Harris, Kansas’ Steve Walsh, Meri Wilson, Ruby and the Romantics’ Ruby Nash, Alien Art Farm’s Dryden Mitchell and Girls Aloud’s Nadine Coyle.
Inspired by the May 27 birthdays of OutKast‘s Andre 3000, TLC’s Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, Crowded House’s Neil Finn, Siouxsie Sioux, Spoonie Gee, Ramsey Lewis, Bruce Cockburn, Detroit Emeralds’ James Mitchell, and Vincent Price.
Inspired by the May 26 birthdays of Stevie Nicks, Ms. Lauryn Hill, The Band’s Levon Helm, Peggy Lee, Lenny Kravitz, Swinging Blue Jeans’ Ray Ennis, Alphaville’s Marian Gold, Nashville Teens’ Art Sharp and Black; and the May 25 birthdays of The Jam’s Paul Weller, Disclosure’s Guy Lawrence, Tom T. Hall, The Tokens’ Mitch Margo, and Jessi Colter.
Inspired by the April 27 birthdays of The B-52’s‘ Kate Pierson, Lizzo, Sheena Easton, Badfinger’s Pete Ham, Ann Peebles, The Main Ingredient’s Cuba Gooding Sr., Ace Frehley and Robin S.
Inspired by the April 26 birthdays of TLC’s T-Boz, Giorgio Moroder, Duane Eddy, Claudine Clark, Maurice Williams, Olive’s Ruth-Ann Boyle, and Ms. Dynamite.
Inspired by the April 14 birthdays of Arcade Fire’s Win Butler, Spoon’s Brit Daniel, Loretta Lynn, Da Brat, Edison Lighthouse/FirstClass/Brother of Man’s Tony Burrows, and Mike Brewer.
Inspired by the February 24 birthdays of N.E.R.D.’s Chad Hugo, Manfred Mann’s Paul Jones, M People’s Mike Pickering, George Thorogood, Rupert Holmes, Plastic Bertrand and Barry Bostwick.
Happy Sunday! I hope it’s a fun day. An I-don’t-have-to-run day.
Here are some songs to play while chillin’ in the crib:
Run the Jewels featuring Zack de la Rocha – “Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)”
Today is the birthday of Zack de la Rocha, best known as the singer for Rage Against the Machine.
Beck – “Black Tambourine”
Mary J. Blige – “PMS”
Ruth Brown – “I Can’t Hear a Word You Say”
Today is the birthday of the late Ruth Brown. She had so many best-sellers on Atlantic Records in the 1950s that the label became known as “the house that Ruth built.” You may know her from the original movie version of Hairspray, in which she played Motormouth Maybelle.
Marvin Gaye – “Hitch Hike”
With backing vocals by Martha and the Vandellas.
Ray Charles – “Drown in My Own Tears”
Stevie Wonder – “Love Having You Around”
Aretha Franklin – “Spirit in the Dark”
Aretha’s son Kecalf doesn’t want you to see the new biopic of the soul legend, which hits theaters sometime in 2020. He says her family wasn’t consulted about what is in the movie, aside from Jennifer Hudson as Aretha, which was the Queen’s choice.
King Curtis – “Memphis Soul Stew”
Kendrick Lamar – “Hiiipower”
Lamar’s first single, from 2011.
Amerie – “1Thing”
Today is Amerie’s birthday. This song sat on the shelves at Sony Music for a year and a half, at which point Amerie herself leaked it to radio stations. It reached #8 on the pop chart.
Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott featuring 702 and Magoo – “Beep Me 911”
Madonna – “Take a Bow”
This song went to #1 in the US. In the UK, it peaked at #16, ending her record-breaking streak of 35 consecutive top ten singles.
The White Stripes – “Black Math”
Foo Fighters – “This Is a Call”
Foo Fighter Dave Grohl wrote this song, sang it, and played every instrument on it.
Janet Jackson – “Throb”
Boom boom boom until noon noon noon.
OutKast featuring Raekwon – “Skew It on the Bar-B”
Today is the birthday of Raekwon, best known as a member of the Wu-Tang Clan.
Big Star – “In the Street”
Today is the birthday of Big Star’s Chris Bell. This song was used as the theme for That 70’s Show. The soundtracks to that television sitcom were the first projects I worked on upon getting a job at Jive Records.
Spice Girls – “Say You’ll Be There”
Today is the birthday of Mel C (Sporty Spice).
Sly & the Family Stone – “Dance to the Music”
Today is the birthday of the late Cynthia Robinson, trumpeter and vocalist for Sly & the Family Stone. She and Jerry got a message that’s sayin’ “all the squares, go home!”
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My favorite song of 2019 came out in 2016. Like most people, I slept on Lizzo’s “Good as Hell” upon its initial release three years ago. I also slept on her “Truth Hurts,” my #4 song of 2019, when it was released in 2017. Lizzo’s first track to make Glenn’s Ten was “Boys,” which hit #1 in July 2018, just two months before my favorite 2019 artist after Lizzo, Billie Eilish, made her Glenn’s Ten debut with “You Should See Me in a Crown.” Eilish’s “Bad Guy” is my #3 song of this year, breaking up Lizzo’s hold on the top four. L-to-the-izzo’s “Juice,” my #2 song of 2019, debuted on Glenn’s Ten on January 12, kicking off 49 consecutive weeks with at least one Lizzo track in my top ten, 22 of those weeks at #1. I’m sure both of those are records, something I would confirm if I weren’t too lazy to look it up.
At #5 for the year sits the only artist in my year end top ten who made their Glenn’s Ten debut in 2019, Megan Thee Stallion. (Megan’s her real first name; Thee is not her actual middle name and Stallion is not on her birth certificate. I’m a Megan Thee Stallion truther.) On that hit, “Hot Girl Summer,” Megan T. Stallion is assisted by Nicki Minaj, who is also at #55 with a solo number, and Ty Dolla $ign (Ty is short for Tyrone, his real first name; Dolla is not his actual middle name and $ign is not on his birth certificate. I’m a Ty Dolla $ign truther.), who is also at #100 assisting Kehlani. If you need assistance, call Ty D. $ign.
The remainder of the top ten boasts career bests for 21 Savage, Ariana Grande, Teyana Taylor, and Vince Staples, plus the first Glenn’s Ten entry for Vampire Weekend since 2013. Other Glenn’s Ten veterans making appearances this year include Bruce Springsteen, Liz Phair, Beck, Missy Elliott, Morrissey, Beyoncé, Rufus Wainwright, Smokey Robinson (yes, Smokey Robinson!), and Belle & Sebastian. Recent favorites such as Courtney Barnett, Cardi B, Grimes, Christine and the Queens, Robyn, Miranda Lambert, 21 Savage, BROCKHAMPTON, First Aid Kit, Chance the Rapper, Angel Olsen, The National and Kacey Musgraves are represented as well.
Enough blather. Here is my top 105 songs (5 by Lizzo, 100 by others, though one of those others with an assist from Lizzo) of 2019:
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2019. I’d understand if you spent the year in your bed curled up in the fetal position, shutting out the world, gorging on gluten. That sounds like a splendid idea, as the year was an endless barrage of horror. Mass shootings, human rights abuses, fires, forced family separations, suicide bombers, extreme weather, bald-faced racism, the US government keeping children in cages, wars, unscrupulous politicians, sexual assaults, and a Jonas Brothers reunion. It’s enough to push someone over the edge. Coupling all that with my personal issues of anxiety, diminishing self-confidence, uncertainty about my future, feelings of isolation and helplessness, and a desire to spend my days in my bed curled up in the fetal position gorging on gluten, and it’s clear I could use a therapist.
Lizzo is 100% that shrink. She told me “You know you’re a star, you can touch the sky. I know it’s hard but you have to try.” She advised me to “Boss up and change your life; you can have it all, no sacrifice.” She said “it’s time to focus on you.” She convinced me to “Keep pushing like ay-yi-yi.” I’ll admit I don’t know how ay-yi-yi pushes, though it sounded like good advice. “Go on, dust your shoulders off, keep it moving,” she told me at more than one session, and I did. I said to her “Dr. Lizzo, I envy you. You’re so smart and so cute!” You know what she said? You know what she said. “That’s cool, baby, so is you.” That’s how she rolls.
Lizzo made my 2019 infinitely better. I sing along with her songs and for those three or four minutes, my feelings of anxiety and low self-worth subside and I feel good as hell.
Years ago Chris Rock had a routine about how nobody likes who they are except fat black women. Said Chris a fat black woman doesn’t care what you think. She’s getting done up and going out on Friday night. That’s Lizzo, though it must be said that being a fat black woman doesn’t inherently make one self-confident. Not seeing people who look like you represented in ads or in the arts can make someone feel there is something wrong with them. For Lizzo, add to that being broke and living in her car. Add losing her father, who encouraged her flute playing and was extremely supportive of her musical pursuits, when she was 21. Add years of releasing music that mostly went unheard, and her struggles with depression are more understandable than the self-confident star with whom we’re now familiar. The realization that she’s not going to look like the women in ads and the advice from her producer to make music for herself and not the world at large helped flip her mindset. Lizzo has been and is on the road to self-love and wants all of us to be on that road. She wants people to love the person they see in the mirror. In a culture where people are jealous of others who have more “likes” or followers, where people get dragged for expressing an opinion that not everyone shares, Lizzo tells us that we are more than okay being who we are. As she said at this year’s MTV Awards, “It’s hard to love yourself in a world that doesn’t love you back, am I right? So I want to take this opportunity right now to just feel good as hell. Because you deserve to feel good as hell.”
If you’ve made it this far in 2019 (if you’ve made it this far in this blog post!) without being exposed to Lizzo (or having Lizzo expose herself to you), here’s a few things to know: 1) she’s a fat black woman, and none of those descriptors are negatives; 2) her album Cuz I Love You was released in April and peaked on the Billboard 200 at #4; 3) her single “Truth Hurts,” released in 2017, hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 this past September; 4) her single “Good as Hell,” released in 2016, currently stands at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100; and 5) she’s my artist of the year, having spent a staggering 22 weeks at #1 on Glenn’s Ten, the only chart that really matters.
Other tidbits about Lizzo: She’s been playing the flute since sixth grade and went to the University of Houston to study classical music on a music scholarship; while she was living in Minneapolis earlier this decade, Prince invited her group GRRRL PRTY to perform at his Paisley Park compound and on his album Plectrumelectrum; she received eight Grammy Award nominations this year, more than any other artist; in 2014, Time magazine named her an artist to watch; in 2019, Time magazine named her Entertainer of the Year.
There is a Lizzo playlist at the end of this post. Check it out, though I should note that she sometimes uses a certain word that starts with “n” (not nectarine) and a certain word that starts with “b” (not broccolini).
I heard someone say that the only reason Lizzo is so successful is because of her size. Right. Society places so much pressure on women, particularly in entertainment, to become and stay heavy. That’s why the pop chart is full of plus-size women. Nectarine, please, the broccolini has talent! She can sing. She can write. She can rap. She can twerk. She can play the flute. She can twerk and play the flute at the same time. In your face, James Galway! On top of that, she’s charming. She’s intelligent. She’s funny. She’s my therapist. She’s my cheerleader. She’s my rabbi, my role model, and my best friend. She empowers me. I’ll just come out and say it – I’m proud to be a Lizbian.
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