Okay, you know I'm a sucker for music games like this. My friends Caitlin and Jeff posted the game on Facebook— "15 Songs Shuffled from my iPod." Here's how you play:
1. Turn on your MP3 player. 2. Go to "shuffle" songs mode. 3. Write down the first 15 songs that come up— song title and artist— NO editing/cheating, no matter how embarrassing. 4. Choose 25 (or so) people to share your results with. In Facebook, you can "tag" those people, but as you can see, I'm just blogging for the whole world to see!
Feel free to "friend" me on Facebook if you want to join my daily insanity.
1. Bemsha Swing Steve Lacy and Gil Evans That’s the Way I Feel Now: Tribute to Thelonious Monk
2. Darkness on the Face of the Earth Willie Nelson Teatro
3. Baby, It’s Cold Outside Ella Fitzgerald & Louie Armstrong Ella and Her Fellas
4. Sirata Habib Koite Mali to Memphis
5. Casey Jones Dave Van Ronk Somebody Else, Not Me
6. Drift Away Dobie Gray 1970's R&B Classics
7. Right, Wrong, Or Ready Karen Dalton It’s So Hard To Tell You Who’s Going to Love You the Best
8. These Days Nico Chelsea Girl
9. Bob Dylan's 115th Dream Bob Dylan Bringing in All Back Home
10. Shake Your Hips Slim Harpo Best of Slim Harpo
11. It Ain’t Me, Babe Joan Baez and Bob Dylan Folk Duets
12. Lazy Bones Jackie Mittoo Keep on Dancing
13. Ode to Billy Joe Ellen McIlwaine Up from the Skies
14. You Are My Sunshine George Russell Sextet The Outer View
15. We’re Desperate X Wild Gift
Notes:
I have a bazillion songs, so this list was full of surprises for me— and "long time no hear's!"
I burst out laughing at Dobie Gray's old hit, which is definitely the "hook" of this whole set. Now I can't get it out of my head.
The song I actually listen to the MOST on this list? "We're Desperate," by a landslide.
Most transcendent song on this list, that you probably never heard of: the jazz version of "You are My Sunshine"
My all-time favorite artist who didn't make the big-time: Ellen McIlwaine. I know you will fall in love with her when you hear the tidbit of "Billie Joe." She wrote with Jimi Hendrix, she's the daughter of missionaries, she was one of the first women in the 70s to just tear up an electric guitar.
Jackie Mittoo is here because of Professor Tom, who reported on our Mary Kay LeTourneau disco night! He is "all Mittoo, all the time."
"Ella and Her Fellas" is not on CD, it never even made it to tape cassette. I have it on vinyl and converted it. It is an awesome record of Ella singing with some of her favorite men. My Amazon pick is a close cousin.
Have you marked your calendars? I'm coming up to my annual trap-door of wisdom, free-falling next Wednesday.
I started my foray into Birthday Music with nothing more than the weirdness of my impending number, 51. It's too many candles for a cake. Apparently it's the dialing code for Peru, a famous fountain pen, an iconic Dylan song... and a rare brand of Pastis liquor. That's a decent start!
I started searching for songs that had "51" in the song or album title— there are thousands! Then the real listening began.
These songs are my groove to slide into the next year of revelation and revolution. Light a match, and let's begin, shall we?
1.
Area 51
Mango Pirates
Surfer Groove Mood-Setting!
2.
5 & 1/2 Minute Hallway
Poe
This whole album, "Haunted" is the most intense concept album I have listened to since Tommy.
3. Psalm 51
Charlie Peacock
I couldn't stomach most of the self-hating gospel versions of this bible passage, which run thick in Xtian contemporary music. But this fella... wow, what a voice. It's so sexy, it's like he turned it into a soulful bottom's prayer. I'll take it.
4.
Swing 51
David Grisman
This was part of Grisham's introduction to the world in the 70s, his album of marvels.
5.
51 Division
Four80East
Canadian Beats you can't break.
6.
Parker 51
Stan Getz
This is a Getz-ian ode to the best fountain pen ever made, the "Parker 51." It's the object d'amour I want for my birthday.
7.
Let It Be Me!
Betty Everett & Jerry Butler
Belt it out, babies!
8.
Someone To Watch Over Me
Blossom Dearie
From her Verve 51 album, our dearly departed Dearie is peachable in each glorious tune.
9.
Highway 51
Homesick James
Mr. Homesick gives Dylan a subterreanean run for his money.
10.
Politicians In My Eyes
Death
These three brothers from Southeastern high school in Detroit invented punk rock before it had a name, in the early 70s. They were totally rejected for it except for other teenage nuts like me who were living in Detroit at the time. I grew up, left Detroit, and forgot about them... never thought I'd hear their names again.
Their unearthed studio recordings, discovered by their now-teenage kids this year, after the death of the oldest brother, are heartbreaking mindblowers. Thank god someone at the NYTimeswrote about it.
11.
Goin' Down Highway 51
John Lee Hooker
The roots of our 51 odyssey, raw unyoked Hooker.
12.
Highway 51 Blues
Bob Dylan
Hey Bobby, Wisconsin-love for you!
13.
Highway 51
Timothy Langford, Tim Langford Tim Too Slim Langford
Is this three Tim's, or one Tim in a trio of guises? It's got the Trans-Am feeling I was looking for.
14.
12:51
The Strokes
The last nine minutes before the hour that always get to you.
15.
Freedom Highway
North Mississippi Allstars
I love these guys. They came to Santa Cruz and I had the grippe. Come back again, I promise to break the fever! This is from their Phantom 51 motorcycle album.
16.
Viola Concerto in G (51:G9) - 1. Largo
Florian Deuter
The beginning of the classical section. Slow down, honey.
17.
Viola Concerto in G (51:G9) - 2. Allegro
Florian Deuter
18.
Viola Concerto in G (51:G9) - 3. Andante
Florian Deuter
19.
Viola Concerto in G (51:G9) - 4. Presto
Florian Deuter
20.
Rondo in C, Op.51, No.1
Alfred Brendel
And we end with a romp! Rubber never burned so sweet!
Name that tune, you say? Okay, now name the erotic legend that goes with the tune...
I have a new book out for the holidays, a fancy-pantsy slip-covered hardback called X: The Erotic Treasury, with forty stories from my favorite erotic literary fiction authors.
I asked all my writers, "What song would you like to dedicate to your story?"
Twenty-three of them answered— fiends like me, who invoke a lyric to every new inspiration!
Above is my "jukebox," where you can hear snippets of all the songs.
Below is a list of all the stories, with the title, author, song, and synopsis.
I loved doing this... it gives me another insight into what each author was thinking as they twisted the short and curlies!
1. Wish Girls by Matthew Addison "Wished for You" by the Squirrel Nut Zippers
This autobiographical-based story was made into a film for the Canadian TV series Bliss, which is devoted to women's erotic memoir. Rita's song was used on the soundtrack.
Photos: Rachel Kramer Bussell hitting the bowl again, and P.S. Haven, coloring outside the lines.
Feel free to copy this post and its contents anywhere.
If you want the javascript to put my jukebox widget on your blog, just email me.
Lesbian Pop historian Rabdrake has posted a remarkable contribution to the rarefied world of lesbian erotic music and video: The G2G Love Song List.
All the songs are by female vocalists singing love songs to other women— "Not friendship love, but undisguised sensuality, an open expression of same-sex attraction."
Every tune links to a video featuring the likes of Patti Smith, Lisa Lopes, Janet Jackson, Ani DiFranco, Laura Nyro, Melissa Ethridge, The Butchies, Katy Perry, Joan Jett, Amy Winehouse, and Marlene Dietrich.
It's interesting to look at that group of names, isn't it? Some are outspoken dyke activists, some are "it-ain't-no-big-thing" bisexuals, while others are persistent closet cases who nevertheless make these videos which reveal their true affections.
My personal favorites are Amy's "Valerie," Marlene Dietrich's montage, and the concert clip above from Sarah Jane Morris.
I was always interested in "straight" pop songs that crossed over into the once-dynamic lesbian bar scene. It often had to do with a play on words, like "Me and Mrs. Jones."
"I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)," with Aretha Franklin wringing it out wet, has to be at the top of that list. I just had another little gasp listening to Allison Crowe's cover of the same.
Rabdrake is the researcher behind the story of "Emmie," Pop music's first lesbian love song, composed by Laura Nyro, who wrote it for her lover, Maria Desiderio.
The reason Nyro must've been so secretive about her lover wasn't because they were gay in a not-so-friendly time— but because they were 13 and 18 when they met and fell in love. That's when Nyro wrote "Emmie."
Later, she wrote "Desiree," another devotion to her partner. Both women died, still together, in middle age, of ovarian cancer, just a few years apart. It reminds me of the rose and the green briar in the lyrics of "Barb'ry Allen:"
They grew and grew to the steeple top Till they could grow no higher And there they twined in a true love's knot Red rose around green briar
Today, in honor of my mom and dad's birthdays, (August 12th and 13th, respectively) here's a playlist I made while I was on the train to Santa Fe last week. There is nothing like the percussion of a locomotive to set your mind to music!
I learned a lot of these train songs from my relatives. My mom used to like to grab my hand and swing me around to the Chattanooga Choo Choo. My aunt Frannie used to work me up singing Rock Island Line, faster and faster and faster. My dad was the font of all Holy Modal Rounders recordings.
Enjoy! And if you have never heard Lord Buckley's "Train" Recitation, you are in for a treat. —You can play clips of each song at the bottom of the post.
1. The Train Lord Buckley
2. All Down The Line (Exile on Main Street, only!) The Rolling Stones
3. Baby Ride Easy Carlene Carter
4. Blue Railroad Train Jorma Kaukonen
5. Cannonball Rag The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
6. Chattanooga Choo Choo The Andrews Sisters
7. Choctaw Hayride Alison Krauss and Union Station
8. Choo Choo Ch'Boogie Clarence Gatemouth Brown
9. Rock Island Line Devil In A Woodpile
10. Freight Train Sonny Terry
11. Ghost Riders in the Sky Mary McCaslin
12. Hear My Train A Comin' Jimi Hendrix
13. Hobo Bill's Last Ride Jimmie Rodgers
14. I'm Going To The West Mike Seeger
15. I've Been Working on the Railroad Pete Seeger
16. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry Bob Dylan
17. Last Train To Clarksville (Album Version) The Monkees
As Mr. Brown used to say, "I am going to make you sweat."
Below is a widget of fourteen songs I've been dancing to, nonstop, for the past few weeks. It's your basic Funk African Latin Island Fever Detroit Brooklyn Lunacy.
Tell me what you think of it... and what's greasing your heels lately?
I was reading about the recent SXSW conference, and how musicians are making a living with their talent. We know the recording industry has melted like the Wicked Witch of the West under a hot bucket. So musicians are touring their tuchises off, and selling fan merchandise, such as ringtones. People note that ringtones cost a lot for a few seconds of sound, yet they sell better these days than many other aspects of a musical career!
Writers read the news about musicians like a crystal ball, since we're having the same problems, only slightly behind the catastrophic curve. I wondered, "Why can't spoken word performers and authors have ringtones, too?" There's lots of beautiful voices I'd like to hear coming out of my cell phone, people who are familiar and inspirational to me.
I'm a virgin at this. I've made six ringtones so far:
Bright Love: This is a classical choral piece by David Meckler, with the libretto based on my story, "BlindSexual."
I have some ringtone questions for you experts out there:
Do you enjoy other spoken word ringtones— or are they nonexistent, or unappealing?
If I make a short ringtone, will it repeat itself when your phone rings? I want it to!
What makes the "perfect" ringtone?
Do you change yours all the time, or keep to a couple favorites?
Of course this is a wild author scheme to make money, and to play upon your worst impulses to buy nonessential items for your hedonistic pleasure. The noble part is that you are supporting the artists you respect, who need you like lambs need their milk!
If you are a paid subscriber to my blog already, please let me send you a ringtone for free. I appreciate your support so much, and I'd love you to have any of these new toys. Just email me, with the subject: Ringtone Club, and tell me which one you want. I 'll email it to you.
If you'd like to subscribe to my blog, and get everything for free that I cook up, please do join our merry band, for $5 a month— and we're talking dollars, people— practically nothing! The photo of me in the Ringtone pic, btw, is by Della Grace...
This spring marks our first St. Patrick's Day without singer and storyteller Tommy Makem... since his birth in 1932. He died last August— and I bet a lot of people are toasting Tommy with more than a few tears this weekend.
Tommy Makem, and the Clancy Brothers, sang the songs I was put to bed with, as a child, my lullabies. Not all of them are sweet, or sad like this one— Tommy is just as famous for his dancing tunes. I remember my mother grabbing me up into the air and starting an Irish jig at the first chord of Finnegan's Wake, or O'Reilly's Daughter.
These Irish folk songs are the first lyrics I learned by heart, the kind of tunes a toddler warbles without having any idea what the words mean!
Mary Mack, Mack, Mack All Dressed in Black, Black, Black With Silver Buttons, Buttons, Buttons Going Down Her Back, Back, Back
Now way down Yonder, Yonder, Yonder, In the Jailbird Town Town Town Where the Women All Work Work Work When The Sun Goes Down Down Down
You know, it wasn't until I was 32 years old, and singing my infant to sleep, that I realized that song is the story of a singular streetwalker!
I was watching the Pete Seeger documentary the other night— The Power of Song— and contemplated his remarks on the fate of music's communal memory:
In 1943, when he was in the Army, Mr. Seeger conducted an experiment on his fellow soldiers, asking them to write down the names of the songs whose words and tunes they really knew. In his own memory file he counted about 300, but he was impressed by the competition.
“I was surprised how many the average person knew back then,” he said. He supposed that the number of songs crossing lines of generation, class and sex would be much lower today, outside of “Over the Rainbow” and “Happy Birthday to You.”
Ouch. That's sad but true. I think how many songs I know by heart, and they pale in comparison to my parent's musical memory. My mom not only sang all the songs, she knew all the dances that went with them.
Sometimes I get in a panic, when I realize that the days when I sang my daughter every night are long behind us. At a certain point, she became embarrassed by my singing— Mom! Stop it!— and since the rest of the neighborhood wasn't crooning their own tunes, voices floating out the windows, kids singing harmony in the streets, there's been no peer support for it.
You have to go out of your way to find a singing group now— in my childhood, I can't recall going over to someone's house where people didn't dance and sing as a matter of course.
The other night I went to a dinner party followed by the roll-out of a home karaoke machine. I noticed that anyone who knew the song, would rather turn around to the crowd, and belt it out, without the lyric prompt. The microphone's the fun part, not following the bouncing ball. My friends were shocked that I knew so many old country tunes, like "Your Cheatin' Heart," or "Jackson."
I don't know how I know these songs; I can't remember a time when I didn't know them. I realize they go so far back in my mind, because I learned them from my family's singing, not from a recording. I didn't know who "Patsy" or "The Carter Family" was. It was only when I when I got older, and bought my own 45's and records, that I learned lyrics from the original recording artist.
This song, The Butcher Boy, is the lament of a young girl who's found herself knocked up by the butcher's helper, who's abandoned her. She contemplates her and her baby's fate, and hangs herself, with her last poem tucked in her pocket.
Tommy is singing it on Pete Seeger's wonderful old TV program, Rainbow Quest.
The tragic splendor, if not the narrative, of the tale, is an inspiration to Patrick McCabe's novel, The Butcher Boy, and Neil Jordan's movie of the same name. In the case of the McCabe's tale, it's as if the young girl had birthed her child after all, and named him "Francie Brady." His story makes his mother's look like a walk in the park— one of the most damning stories about religion, poverty, violence— and Ireland— I've ever read.
But back to Tommy. What a passion for life. His poems will be sung for very long time. I hope you don't mind if I change the lyrics to another one of his favorites, this time, a Scottish one:
Now Tommy is a bonny lad, he is a lad of mine, I've never had a better lad and I've had twenty-nine...
And for you, and for you, and for you, my Tommy lad, I'd dance the buckles off my shoes wi' you my Tommy lad!
