172: The Royal You

I recently did personal pronouns, but today I will focus on the pronoun that can oddly be both very personal and very impersonal. You know what I mean, don’t you?

1. You — Marvin Gaye
2. You Know You Know — Mahavishnu Orchestra
3. You Can Take It With You — The Lemonheads
4. You Can’t Win — The Kinks
5. You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb — Spoon
6. You Drink A Lot Of Coffee For A Teenager — Don Caballero
7. You Bet We’ve Got Something Personal Against You! — Black Flag
8. You Must Respect Copyright — Negativland
9. Say You — U-Roy
10. Silence Sings You — Das Damen
11. I Know You Got Soul — Eric B. & Rakim
12. When You Smile — The Flaming Lips
13. Suck You Dry — Mudhoney
14. This Note’s For You — Neil Young & The Bluenotes
15. If You Fall — Steve Earle
16. If I Never See You Again — Teenage Fanclub
17. Theatre Is The Life Of You —  Minutemen
18. Why Do You Let Me Stay Here? — She & Him
19. Why Can’t You Be? — Shelby Lynne
20. Why Can’t I Be You? — The Cure

59:57

145: REGATTA DE NOT

Today I had intended to attend a Regatta. It would have been my first, and I was rather looking forward to it. And then yesterday, I put my back out, and have therefore instead spent today practically bedridden and in some degree of pain. You will, I hope, excuse my pithiness. The following selections then, include a soundtrack to the day I had hoped to have, along with a few tracks explaining why I didn’t.

145: REGATTA DE NOT

1. Ernest Ranglin – Row
2. Sigur Ros – Ara Batur (Row Boat)
3. David Bowie – Red Sails
4. The Pogues – Thousands are Sailing
5. The Lonely Island featuring T-Pain – I’m On a Boat
6. Bob Marley and The Wailers – Don’t Rock My Boat
7. Neil Young and Crazy Horse – Sail Away
8. Johnny Cash – Rowboat
9. PJ Harvey – Down by the Water
10. The Flaming Lips – Race For the Prize (Mokran Remix)
11. Julee Cruise – Falling
12. Tom Waits – Falling Down
13. Sam and Dave – I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down
14. Delroy Wilson – It Hurts
15. Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse – Pain

60:28

144: Lux Exterior

You know the old argument about waves versus particles, right? Well, me neither, which is why I traveled at 186,000 miles per second to put this list together. I also like to say “lumens”. The electromagnetic radiation is hurting my eyes. Hey head of hair, it follows!

1. You Are A Light — Pavement
2. Step Into The Light — Archers Of Loaf
3. Long As I Can See The Light — Creedence Clearwater Revival
4. Light From A Dead Star — Lush
5. What Is The Light? — The Flaming Lips
6. What Light — Wilco
7. Green Light — Sonic Youth
8. Shine A Light — The Rolling Stones
9. Follow The Light — Dungeon Family
10. Everlasting Light — The Black Keys
11. Scattered Lights — The Skatalites
12. Beginning To See The Light — The Velvet Underground
13. Light Of The Morning — Band Of Skulls
14. Wan Light — Orange Juice
15. Light — Meat Puppets
16. Blinded By The Light — Bruce Springsteen

59:34

141: SUMMERTIME

Well, I had to, didn’t I ? Today is, of course, the first day of Summer. Allow me to explain how and why this came to be. On June 21st 1487, one Reginald Stone, a farmer from Salisbury, Wiltshire, England ( a man, incidentally, who spent his entire life living on a Henge), erected a giant pyramid using nothing but the finest West Country haystacks. Climbing to the peak of this magnificent structure, he was able to determine that the Sun had in fact floated further North than it does on any other day of the year. He reported his discovery to the ‘Solstice Times’ (a sort of rural, 15th Century version of ‘The Guinness Book of World Records’), who, rather than publish his findings, immediately alerted the King of England. The King had Stone incarcerated and, having been found guilty of ‘Crimes against the throne of England’, namely ‘Not knowing one’s Place’, and ‘Causing a bit of a fuss’, the poor farmer was publicly executed, his discovery buried along with him. Until…..

In 1934, renowned American Scientist Henry Miller, using the modern technology of the day ( synthetic haystacks and a couple of telescopes), arrived at the same conclusion Reginald Stone had some Five Hundred years earlier. He named his ‘discovery’ ‘Tropic of Cancer’, which, when translated to ancient Latin, means ‘Summer starts now’ (though oddly, in the Southern Hemisphere  this day is known as ‘Tropic of Recnac’ – nobody really knows why.)

So there you have it. A little history lesson explained to me many years ago by my old Auntie Mildred (although she was on her fifth brandy at the time), and now, dear reader, passed on to you. But I’m not quite done…

The first day of Summer is also known as ‘The Longest Day’, though recent studies and research seem to suggest it is in fact no longer or shorter than just about any other day of the year.

The 21st of June is also referred to, at least by me, as ‘Oh bugger, I forgot to send my Dad a birthday card Day’. O.K., now I’m done.

141: SUMMERTIME

1. The Undertones – Here Comes the Summer
2. The B-52’s – Summer of Love
3. Roy Ayers – Everybody Loves the Sunshine
4. Martha Reeves and The Vandellas – Heatwave
5. Billie Holiday – Summertime
6. The Flaming Lips – It’s Summertime
7. The Divine Comedy – The Pop Singer’s Fear of the Pollen Count
8. The Durutti Column – Sketch for Summer
9. John Lydon – Sun
10. The Pogues – Summer in Siam
11. Nina Simone – Here Comes the Sun
12. The Velvet Underground – Who Loves the Sun
13. Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood – Summer Wine
14. Sly and The Family Stone – Hot Fun in the Summertime
15. Love – Bummer in the Summer
16. Bob Marley and The Wailers – Sun is Shining
17. Marianne Faithfull – Summer Nights
18. The Kinks – Sunny Afternoon

60:49

122: In 3’s

We’ve now arrived at list 122, which by my calculations is ever so slightly more than a third of the way through our year. I had imagined a few list subjects for this occassion — songs with “3rd” or “third” in the title (not enough out there), songs from my 33¹⁄³’s (done biweekly already), all songs by 3rd Bass (too narrow, and they’d give me the Gas Face), all songs by Third Eye Blind (too horrific) — but I decided on artists that like to title their songs in threes. So take these musical cubes and drop them in the drink that is your brain. Clink!

1. Baby, Baby, Baby — Aretha Franklin
2. Bed Bed Bed — They Might Be Giants
3. Blah, Blah, Blah — Hüsker Dü
4. Buzz, Buzz, Buzz — The Hollywood Flames
5. Dance, Dance, Dance — The Beach Boys
6. Dance Dance Dance — The Casualeers
7. Dance, Dance, Dance — Crazy Horse
8. Darling Darling Darling — The Meters
9. Dumb Dumb Dumb — Teenage Fanclub
10. Found Found Found — Morrissey
11. Hot Hot Hot !!! (Extended Mix) — The Cure
12. La La La — Segun Bucknor & His Revolution
13. La, La, La, He, He, Hee — Prince
14. Well, Well, Well — Le Tigre
15. Well, Well, Well — The Woodentops
16. The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song — The Flaming Lips
17. Youth Youth Youth — Generation X

59:06

106: Mystery Solved

Two days ago I posted a playlist that had a common theme, and you, Paul, guessed it correctly within a day (but did you, mythical puerile reader?). However, you (Paul) let me know that your guessing included subjects as varied as George Wallace’s assassination attempt, Wernher von Braun’s time with NASA, and the Manson killings, the convergence of which would make a wonderful conspiracy theory. Or perhaps provide lyrics for a Flaming Lips song. So you were correct, Paul, all the songs have been covered by The Flaming Lips.

In the interest of timing and mixing it up a bit, I omitted a few songs from the previous list, added a few different Flaming Lips covers, and added a few bands covering The Flaming Lips. A note: “Borderline” is by far my favorite on this list.

1. Can’t Get You Out Of My Head — The Flaming Lips
2. Borderline — The Flaming Lips
3. Seven Nation Army — The Flaming Lips
4. Summertime Blues — The Flaming Lips
5. Ballrooms of Mars — The Flaming Lips
6. Life On Mars — The Flaming Lips
7. Ice Drummer — The Flaming Lips
8. After The Gold Rush — The Flaming Lips
9. (What A) Wonderful World — The Flaming Lips
10. Strychnine / Peace, Love and Understanding — The Flaming Lips
11. (Just Like) Starting Over — The Flaming Lips
12. Nobody Told Me — The Flaming Lips
13. She Don’t Use Jelly — Ben Folds Five
14. Suddenly Everything Has Changed — The Postal Service
15. Waitin’ For A Superman — Iron & Wine

59:22

85: SO TELL ME, WHAT DO YOU DO FOR A LIVING ?

It always happens, doesn’t it ? A mutual aquaintance  introduces you to a perfect stranger, the question is posed, and before you know it you’re discussing those hours in your life you despise the most, that thing you do for no other reason than that you have to. Perhaps I’m being harsh. I suppose it’s not the worst question in the world, and I’ve probably asked it myself. I’m sure there are people out there who do what they love for a living. I, however, have never been one of them. There are, of course, a million occupations in the world, and I have been employed in about half of them, including two or three of the following;

85: SO TELL ME, WHAT DO YOU DO FOR A LIVING ?

1. The Divine Comedy – The Complete Banker
2. Elvis Costello and The Attractions – Town Cryer
3. Don Covay – Working in the Coalmine
4. Tennessee Ernie Ford – Sixteen Tons
5. Rose Royce – Car Wash
6. The Modern Lovers – Ice Cream Man
7. The Cramps – Garbageman
8. Patrik Fitzgerald – Babysitter
9. Monty Python – Lumberjack Song
10. The Clash – Bankrobber
11. Pete Shelley – Telephone Operator
12. David Bowie – Please Mr. Gravedigger
13. Wire – Ex Lion Tamer
14. The Flaming Lips – Mr. Ambulance Driver
15. Ronnie Lane – The Poacher
16. Ian Dury – Bus Driver’s Prayer
17. The Beatles – Taxman

59:19