A handful of Johnny Cash tracks on the playlist for what would have been the man in black’s 91st birthday.
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Your (Almost) Daily Playlist: 9-11-22
Today’s playlist remembers the events of September 11, 2011; celebrates the September 11 birthdays of The Kingsmen’s Jack Ely, The Verve’s Richard Ashcroft, Moby, Metronomy’s Joseph Mount, Ludacris, Ted Leo, The Monotones’ Charles Patrick, and Styx’s Tommy Shaw; and the September 12 birthdays of George Jones, Barry White, Ben Folds, America’s Gerry Beckley, The Foundations’ Colin Young, BTS’s RM, Maria Muldaur, Judy Clay, Mount Kimbie’s Dom Maker, The Gentrys’ Larry Raspberry, The Free Design’s Chris Dedrick, Jennifer Hudson, and Kelsea Ballerini.
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Your (Almost) Daily Playlist: 8-26-22
Today’s playlist celebrates the August 26 birthdays of Garbage’s Shirley Manson, The Velvet Underground’s Moe Tucker, Cassie, Ashford & Simpson’s Valerie Simpson, The Treacherous Three’s Special K, and The Cowsills’ Bob Cowsill; the August 27 birthdays of The Stanley Brothers’ Carter Stanley, Ma$e, The Captain & Tennille’s Daryl Dragon, and The Bloodhound Gang’s Jimmy Pop; and the August 28 birthdays of The Velvet Underground’s Sterling Morrison, The Stranglers’ Hugh Cornwell, Florence + The Machine’s Florence Welch, Shania Twain, David Soul, The Crew Cuts’ John Perkins, The Olympics’ Walter Ward, Phranc, and Mel & Kim’s Kim Appleby.
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Throwback Thursday: 1999
The music of 1999 shows the century coming to a close in grand style, as if to say the next year the party will be over, oops, out of time, so this year we better party. Latinx artists were crossing over to the mainstream pop chart. Cher and Santana, who first charted in the 1960s, scored the biggest hits of their careers. Artists who made their chart debuts include Eminem and Britney Spears. Pure pop exploded, though the charts made room for country, hip hop, electronica, and big beat. As one who values diversity, I loved hearing all these different genres and styles bump up against each other on the radio. Here are 30 prime examples of the music that hit in 1999.
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My Top Songs Of 2020
I’m not going to write an essay about 2020. That’s been done elsewhere and I have nothing to add to the conversation. Though the three words that best describe you are as follows, and I quote, “stink, stank, stunk,” there were some bright spots. Here are 85 things that brought me joy. Happy New Year, everyone!
- everything i wanted – Billie Eilish
- WAP – Cardi B feat. Megan Thee Stallion
- deathbed (coffee for your head) – Powfu feat. Beabadoobee
- Savage – Megan Thee Stallion feat. Beyoncé
- Stay High – Brittany Howard
- Dynamite – BTS
- Shameika – Fiona Apple
- Tap In – Saweetie feat. Post Malone, DaBaby & Jack Harlow
- Delete Forever – Grimes
- Mariners Apartment Complex – Lana Del Rey
- Polyaneurism – of Montreal
- Didn’t Want To Be This Lonely – Pretenders
- Stupid Love – Lady Gaga
- Call My Phone Thinking I’m Doing Nothing Better – the Streets feat. Tame Impala
- Surrender – Will Butler
- JU$T – Run the Jewels feat. Pharrell Williams & Zack De La Rocha
- BLACK PARADE – Beyoncé
- Lifetime – Romy
- Fool’s Gold – Lucy Dacus
- Identical – Phoenix
- ilomilo – Billie Eilish
- Hallelujah – HAIM
- Quarantine Boogie (Loco) – Walter Martin
- Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America – the 1975
- Texas Sun – Khruangbin and Leon Bridges
- Ghosts – Bruce Springsteen
- Settling Down – Miranda Lambert
- He Loves Me – Brittany Howard
- Pictures of Flowers – Jess Williamson feat. Hand Habits
- The Valley of the Pagans – Gorillaz featuring Beck
- my future – Billie Eilish
- hot girl bummer – Blackbear
- Drinks – Cyn
- I disappear in your arms – Christine & the Queens
- Say So – Doja Cat
- Sea Salt & Caramel – Dent May
- Gaslighter – The Chicks
- 4 American Dollars – U.S. Girls
- No Time to Die – Billie Eilish
- Murder Most Foul – Bob Dylan
- Lockdown – Anderson .Paak
- When the Way Gets Dark – Lucinda Williams
- Straight to the Morning – Hot Chip feat. Jarvis Cocker
- Sleep at Night – The Chicks
- Jason – Perfume Genius
- Black Qualls – Thundercat feat. Steve Lacy & Steve Arrington
- Smiley Face – Duck Sauce
- Blinding Lights – the Weeknd
- Country Radio – Indigo Girls
- One and Done – Bright Eyes
- Hole in the Bottle – Kelsea Ballerini with Shania Twain
- Bluebird – Miranda Lambert
- FTP – YG
- You Can’t Rule Me – Lucinda Williams
- Don’t Wanna – HAIM
- Rager teenager! – Troye Sivan
- SUGAR – BROCKHAMPTON
- Bad Decisions – the Strokes
- Miracle of Life – Bright Eyes feat. Phoebe Bridgers
- Dora – Thierra Whack
- On the Floor – Perfume Genius
- Don’t Stop – Megan Thee Stallion feat. Young Thug
- Front Lines – Conway the Machine
- xanny – Billie Eilish
- On My Own – Shamir
- Without You – Perfume Genius
- Why I Still Love You – Missy Elliott
- The Streets Where I Belong – Annie
- Leader of the Delinquents – Kid Cudi
- Song 33 – Noname
- Anthem – Father John Misty
- Lilacs – Waxahatchee
- Body Memory – Jess Cornelius
- Come Thru – Summer Walker with Usher
- Aries – Gorillaz feat. Peter Hook & Georgia
- Riding Solo – Hinds
- Cool Off – Missy Elliott
- Sweeter – Leon Bridges feat. Terrace Martin
- Video Game – Sufjan Stevens
- Love Is a Drug – Empress Of
- Kyoto – Phoebe Bridgers
- ATM – Too Free
- Momentary Bliss – Gorillaz feat. Slowthai and Slaves
- Harlem River Blues – Steve Earle
- In My Bones – Jacob Collier feat. Kimbra & Tank and the Bangas
Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (8-28-20)
Inspired by the August 28 birthdays of Florence Welch, Shania Twain, The Stranglers’ Hugh Cornwell, Phranc, David Soul and Kim Appleby.
Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (7-23-20)
Inspired by the July 23 birthdays of Guns N’ Roses’ Slash, Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore, Tony Joe White, The Penguins’ Cleveland Duncan, Manhattan Transfer’s Janis Siegel, Travis’ Fran Healy, Orleans’ John Hall, David Essex, Alison Krauss, Starpoint’s Renée Diggs, and Blue Mink’s Madeline Bell.
Happy International Women’s Day!
March 8 is International Women’s Day. Here is your soundtrack:
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Throwback Thursday – 1999
Eminem has often been accused of being homophobic. Maybe it’s because he rapped “I’ll still be able to break a motha-fuckin’ table over the back of a couple of faggots and crack it in half.” Maybe it’s because he rapped “My words are like a dagger with a jagged edge / That’ll stab you in the head whether you’re a fag or lez.” And “All you lil’ faggots can suck it / No homo, but I’ma stick it to ’em like refrigerator magnets.” And “Little gay-looking boy / So gay I can barely say it with a straight face-looking boy / You witnessing massacre like you watching a church gathering taking place-looking boy / ‘Oy vey, that boy’s gay,’ that’s all they say looking-boy / You take a thumbs up, pat on the back, the way you go from your label every day-looking boy.” And “You fags think it’s all a game.” Anyone can see how the artist born Marshall Mathers got labeled a homophobe, even if he pretends he doesn’t see it.
So it’s ironic that in his first hit single, the song that put him on the map and into the international consciousness, the music bed is based around a sample from an openly gay singer-songwriter.
“My Name Is” became Eminem’s first single to crack the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #36. Its music is taken from a 1975 release called “I Got the…,” written and performed by Labi Siffre. Siffre, who was born in England in 1945, says he knew he was gay since age four. He met his life partner, Peter John Carver Lloyd, in 1964. They remained a couple for 49 years, until Lloyd’s death in 2013.
Before Siffre would allow Eminem to use the sample, he made the rapper change some of the words on “My Name Is.” The lyric “My English teacher wanted to have sex in junior high / The only problem was, my English teacher was a guy” became “My English teacher wanted to flunk me in junior high / Thanks a lot, next semester I’ll be 35.” The lyric “Extraterrestrial killing pedestrians, raping lesbians while they’re screaming, ‘Let’s just be friends!’” became “Extraterrestrial running over pedestrians in a spaceship while they’re screaming, ‘Let’s just be friends!’”.” Said Siffre, “Dissing the victims of bigotry – women as bitches, homosexuals as faggots – is lazy writing. Diss the bigots, not their victims. I denied sample rights till that lazy writing was removed. I should have stipulated “all versions” but at that time knew little about rap’s “clean” & “explicit” modes, so they managed to get the lazy lyric on versions other than the single and first album.”
For Throwback Thursday this week, Tunes du Jour revisits some of the musical highlights of 1999, kicking off with Eminem’s “My Name Is.”
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