Playlist for 8/26

Reinventing Elvis: The '68 Comeback  (2023 Documentary)

Tony Bennett & Count Basie - Basie Swings, Bennett Sings

Tony Bennett - Art of Excellence

Tony Bennett - Beat of My Heart

Tony Bennett - Hometown My Town

Tony Bennett - Bennett/Berlin

Ryan Bingham - Watch Out for the Wolf

Hives - Death of Randy Fitzsimmons

Jon Batiste - World Music Radio 

Rhiannon Giddens - You're the One

Hozier - Unreal Unearth

Remembering My Sister: 5 Years Later

Two days after my sister died on August 24, 2018, I wrote this short remembrance:

  My Sister, Linda Louise Lane, passed away on August 24, 2018.  She was only 59 years old.  There were many times I wanted to talk to her like siblings should always do.  But she drifted away from her family.  We seem to forget that life can be short and fleeting. To forgive should never be a hard thing to do.  What I've written about below may seem trivial, especially if you knew about the last years of her life.  I think about her often. And hope she reads this and smiles. With love from her brother.

  One of the earliest memories I have of hearing music came from my sister's bedroom in the mid to late-60's.  She was barely 10, and I was 5 years younger.  But she either had the radio tuned to an AM Top 40 station, or she was playing a 45 (and sometimes an album) she had on her turntable.  As the 60's rolled along her tastes remained with Top 40 Pop.  It was during these years that I heard the Beatles, Elvis Presley, the Monkees, Tom Jones and many more. She had a carrying case for her singles. It was inside that case that I first played “Whiter Shade of Pale” and other late 60’s singles. By the early 70's her records included Teen Idols, Motown, Philly Soul, Carpenters, Elton John, the Eagles and many One-Hit Wonders.  When she reached her High School years in the late-70's there was Michael Jackson's Off the Wall, Disco, future Classic Rock artists and 8-track tapes. All those different sounds. I soaked it all in. 

  Much like my Dad's Country and Pop albums, my sister's listening habits had a profound mark on the eclectic taste in music I have today. She was unaware, but it was one of the greatest gifts she ever gave to me. 

Tom's Top 30 Rap Albums Of All-Time (Updated 2023)

With August 1973 being designated as the birth of Rap, I'm reposting my own Top 20 favorite Rap albums that I originally posted in 2022. 

Time for another Rolling Stone list that no one will agree on.  In June (2022) they put out 200 Greatest Rap Albums which received mixed reviews from the rap community. Some of my own choices below didn't even make their list (PM Dawn, Grandmaster Flash).  For me the Golden Age of Rap was the 80's/90's.    

For this list I've kept it to one title per artist. And I steered clear of Greatest Hits albums, except for one DJ retrospective.  Compilations were also eligible. 

1.  LL Cool J - Mama Said Knock You Out

2.  Run-DMC - Raising Hell

3.  Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique

4.  De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising

5.  A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory

6.  Outkast - Stankonia

7.  Eric B. & Rakim - Paid In Full

8.  PM Dawn - Of The Heart, Of The Soul and of The Cross

9.  Queen Latifah - All Hail The Queen

10.  Hip Hop Greats: Classic Raps - Various (Rhino)

11.  DJ Shadow - Endtroducing

12.  Lauryn Hill - Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

13.  Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly

14.  Digable Planets - Reachin'

15.  Nas - Illmatic

16.  Notorious B.I.G. - Ready to Die

17.  Madvillain - Madvillainy

18.  Steinski - What Does It All Mean?: Retrospective 1983-2006

19.  Jay-Z - Black Album

20.  Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - The Message

21.  Millenium Hip-Hop Party - Various (Rhino)

22.  Salt-N-Pepa - Very Necessary

23.  Streets - Original Pirate Material

24.  Snoop Dogg - Doggystyle

25.  Missy Elliott - Supa Dupa Fly

26.  Dr. Dre - The Chronic

27.  Jungle Brothers - Straight Out The Jungle

28.  Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang

29.  Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back

30.  Ice T - O.G. Original Gangster

Music Years Of My Life: Elvis Presley Edition

This is what I knew about Elvis Presley when I was 13 years old in 1977:

1.  He made a lot of movies.  And they were shown often during the afternoon movie of the week.  Sometimes they would show five in one week.

2.  My Dad had a bunch of his 70's studio albums, plus Elvis' Golden Records.

3.. Elvis wore lots of jump suits.

4.  Elvis imitators were on TV before 1977.  I saw one on a show months before he died.  

5.  I knew most of his hits, but not much else.  And his Sun Records era was still new to my ears.

  The Summer of '77 wasn't a bad time on the charts for Elvis.  He was now charting better on the Country Top 100 then on the Billboard Pop 100.  "Moody Blue" went #1 Country earlier in the year.  And in August, "Way Down" also hit #1 Country the week he died.  But on the Pop charts he couldn't get out of the Top 30 with either of those songs.

  That year I got my first job.  Help cleaning rooms (mostly taking out trash) at the Hotel where my Mom worked.  It was mostly weekends, school breaks, Summertime. It was small change, but I used the extra money to buy albums or movie tickets.

  August 16, 1977, happened to be a movie day.  Star Wars was all the rage that summer.  Released in late May, I had already seen it but wanted to experience it again.  As luck would have it, there was a theater in the area of my mom's hotel. 

  Getting into the car to go home that afternoon, I did what I normally do and put the radio on.  The Top 40 channel was playing an Elvis song.  Odd, he never got played on it before.  The other station was doing the same.  Something wasn't right.  I kept changing channels and finally landed on a news station.  Elvis Presley was dead.  A jolt.  My mom couldn't believe it.  It couldn't be true.  

The 1977 Elvis wasn't like the ones we remembered.  He was overweight.  That's not the Elvis I knew. There was a book published in July called Elvis What Happened?  The rag mags had all the gory details. This is pre-Internet before we knew everything about someones life. 

That day set off my fascination and love for Elvis Presley.  It continues through this day.  He's my #1 artist.  I've been to Graceland three times and each stop is a reminder of all he gave us and what might have been.  It's both a sad and exhilarating tour stop.

One other life changing moment occurred that Summer.  My first trip to Tower Records in July.  A road trip with friends resulted in a pit stop at a restaurant in a shopping mall.  And what just happened to be across the street?  I even remember the album I bought.  Go For Your Guns by the Isley Brothers which was Top 10 on the album charts.  

But I also remember looking at the Top singles section and seeing Elvis' last Top 40 hit while he was alive at #36, "Way Down".  By this time I was an avid American Top 40 listener, so the song was familiar to me. I vividly remember looking at the picture sleeve for a few seconds more than usual.  Three weeks later, Elvis was dead. 

Playlist for 8/15

Anohni i & the Johnsons - My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross

PJ Harvey - I Inside The Old Year Dying

Corook - Serious Person Part 1 

Corook - Best of So Far

Cory Daye - Cory and Me

Joanna Sternberg - I've Got Me

John Coltrane & Eric Dolphy - Evening at the Village Gate

Vince Gill & Paul Franklin - Sweet Memories

The Band - To Kingdom Come

RIP Robbie Robertson

  They may have started off as Bob Dylan's backing band on tour in 1966 and the music recorded for the 1975 album, The Basement Tapes, but by the time they released their first album in 1968, Music From the Big Pink, the Band were primed to craft their own legacy.  Their second album, The Band, was even better.  Put together both albums, as well as The Basement Tapes, were landmarks of a new kind of roots music, Americana. 

  Robbie Robertson's songs were a major factor in making the Band pioneers of the genre. That's not to diminish the rest of the group.  Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson and Richard Manuel were superb talents.  

  Robertson wrote the majority of the Band's songs.  So, his major contributions of American roots music, later named Americana can't be denied.  A superb, but underrated guitarist, Robertson was blessed to have Helm, Danko and Hudson to bring his songs alive. 

  After the Band broke up in 1976, Robertson got into scoring music for films often for Martin Scorsese. In 1987 he released the first and best of his six solo albums. The self-titled Robbie Robertson. "Broken Arrow". "Somewhere Down The Crazy River" and "Showdown at Big Sky" are some of his best post-Band songs. 

  In the end, it's the songs he wrote with the Band that define his legacy.  There's no denying the brilliance of "The Weight", "Up On Cripple Creek". "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", "Ophelia", "Rag Mama Rag", "Chest Fever", "Shape I'm In", "Arcadian Driftwood" and many more. 

Playlist for 8/8

Drew Holcomb - Strangers No More

Amanda Shires & Bobbie Nelson - Loving You

Lucinda Williams - Stories From A Rock n Roll Heart

Brennen Leigh - Ain't Through Honky Tonkin' Yet

Watson Twins - Holler

Tommy Prine - This Far South

Fever Ray - Radical Romantics

Barbie the Album - Various

My Favorite Albums of 1973

Aerosmith - s/t

African Dances - Various

Al Green - Call Me

Al Green - Livin' For You   

Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies

Allman Brothers Band - Brothers & Sisters

Asleep At The Wheel - Comin' Right At Ya

Bachman-Turner Overdrive - BTO II

Barry White - I've Got So Much To Give

Barry White - Stone Gon'

Beach Boys - Holland

Bill Withers - Live at Carnegie Hall

Billy Joe Shaver - Old Five and Dimers Like Me

Billy Joel - Piano Man

Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

Blue Oyster Cult - Tyranny and Mutation

Bob Marley - Catch A Fire

Bob Seger - Back In 72

Bobby Bare - Sings Lullabys, Legends and Lies

Bonnie Raitt - Takin' My Time

Bruce Springsteen - Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.

Bryan Ferry - These Foolish Things

Can - Future Days

Carly Simon - No Secrets

Carpenters - Now & Then

Charley Pride - Sweet Country

Charley Pride - Amazing Love

Charlie Rich - Behind Closed Doors

Chicago - VI

Conway Twitty - She Needs Someone To Hold Her

Conway Twitty - You've Never Been This Far Before

Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn - Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man

Curtis Mayfield - Back To The World

Daryl Hall & John Oates - Abandoned Luncheonette 

David Bowie - Aladdin Sane

Deep Purple - Who Do We Think We Are

Diana Ross - Lady Sings The Blues (Soundtrack)

Diana Ross & Marvin Gaye - Diana & Marvin

Dr. John - In The Right Place

Dolly Parton - My Tennessee Mountain Home

Donald Byrd - Black Byrd

Donny Hathaway - Extension Of A Man

Doobie Brothers - Captain and Me

Doug Sahm - Doug Sahm and Band

Eagles - Desperado

Earth, Wind & Fire - Head To The Sky

Edgar Winter Group - They Only Come Out At Night

Electric Light Orchestra - ELO II

Electric Light Orchestra - On The Third Day

Elton John  - Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only The Piano Player

Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Elvis Presley - Aloha From Hawaii

Elvis Presley - Raised On Rock

Elvis Presley - Elvis (1973)

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery

Faces - Ooh La La

Frank Zappa - Over-Nite Sensation

Funkadelic - Cosmic Slop

Genesis - Selling England By The Pound

George Harrison - Living In The Material World

Gladys Knight & The Pips - Imagination

Gladys Knight & The Pips - Neither One Of Us

Gram Parsons - GP

Grand Funk - We're An American Band

Gregg Allman - Laid Back

Harder They Come Soundtrack - Various 

Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes - Black & Blue

Hawkwind - Space Ritual

Herbie Hancock - Head Hunters

Herbie Hancock - Sextant

Ike & Tina Turner - Nutbush City Limits

Intruders - Save The Children

Isley Brothers - 3+3

Jackson Browne - For Everyman

James Brown - Payback

Joe Walsh - The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get

Kinky Friedman - Sold American

John Cale - Paris 1919

John Denver - Rocky Mountain High

John Lennon - Mind Games

John Martyn - Solid Air

John Prine - Sweet Revenge

Johnny Mathis - I'm Coming Home 

Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge - Full Moon

Lavender Country - s/t

Led Zeppelin - House Of The Holy 

Linda Ronstadt - Don’t Cry Now

Little Feat - Dixie Chicken

Loretta Lynn. - Entertainer of the Year

Loretta Lynn - Love Is The Foundation

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Pronounced 

Mahavishnu Orchestra - Birds of Fire

Maria Muldaur - s/t

Marshall Tucker Band - s/t

Marvin Gaye - Let's Get It On

Merle Haggard - Christmas Present

Merle Haggard - I Love Dixie Blues

Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells

Miles Davis - Black Beauty

Montrose - s/t

Mott the Hoople - Mott

Move - Split Ends

New York Dolls - s/t

Nilsson - A Little Touch of Schmilsson In The Night

O'Jays - Ship Ahoy

Olivia Newton-John - Let Me Be There

Paul McCartney & Wings - Band On The Run

Paul McCartney & Wings - Red Rose Speedway

Paul Simon - There Goes Rhymin' Simon 

Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon

Queen - s/t

Raspberries - Side 3

Return to Forever - Light As A Feather

Ringo Starr - Ringo

Roberta Flack - Killing Me Softly

Rolling Stones - Goat's Head Soup

Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure

Slade - Slayed?

Sly & The Family Stone - Fresh

Smokey Robinson - Smokey

Spinners - s/t

Steely Dan - Countdown to Ecstasy 

Steve Miller - Joker

Stevie Wonder - Innervisions

Stooges - Raw Power

Stylistics - Rockin' Roll Baby

Tanya Tucker - What's Your Mama's Name

Temptations - Masterpiece

Three Degrees - s/t

Todd Rundgren - A Wizard, A True Star

Tom T. Hall - Rhymer and Other Five and Dimers

Tom Waits - Closing Time

Tower of Power - s/t

War - Deliver the World

War - World Is A Ghetto

Waylon Jennings - Honky Tonk Heroes

Waylon Jennings - Lonesome On'ry and Mean

Who - Quadrophenia

Willie Nelson - Shotgun Willie

Yes - Tales From Topographic Oceans

ZZ Top - Tres Hombres

Playlist for 8/1

This Is Sinead O'Connor (Spotify Playlist)

Sinead O'Connor - Throw Down Your Arms 

Esther Rose - Safe To Run 

Jenny Lewis - Joy All

Laura Cantrell - Anniversary Sessions

Jess Williamson - Time Ain't Accidental

Tracy Nelson - Life Don't Miss Nobody

Kara Jackson - Why Does the Earth Give Us People To Love

Bully - Lucky For You 

Rufus Wainwright - Folkocracy