Good morning,
The spring in Austin has been long and beautiful. We’ve had storms and baseball sized hail in places, but luckily our home and car have been spared.
But you can feel the heat coming now. The temperatures are starting to touch and reach into the nineties a bit more frequently. And you find yourself saying, “OK, 92, that’s still pretty cool” out loud when you look at the Weather app on your phone.
We’ve been in Austin for about a year now and have started to have friends and family visit over the last few months. It’s starting to feel like maybe we actually live here. Though, I’m still trying to decide what it means to actually live anywhere. We have not been planning our wedding but we have been planning a month in Europe.
This month, I read a post by Ted Gioia, which was a helpful reminder to keep writing what entertains me. Which is why I even do this Substack these days. I spend too much time at work thinking about where the media is going to not write about it some. And I like music and movies and other things that make life worth living too much not to write about them some.
And, because it's May, I read this transcript of Chuck Klosterman’s commencement speech at the University of North Dakota. I shared this with my reports at work. As I told them, your mileage may vary with a) commencement speeches and b) Chuck Klosterman but I happen to like both.
The crux of the speech is that most of us will be forgotten to time so what matters is how you remember yourself and your own life. This is the thrust he ends the speech on.
Try to remember everything. Try to remember every detail of your life, even if it seems kind of unimportant. You know, you’re moving out of an apartment or a dorm now; remember what that place looked like. Remember who were the people you interacted with on a day-to-day basis. You’re going to have to get jobs, and you can remember those first days for a few weeks, and they might just dissolve; but try to hang on to them.
Maybe I’m getting sappy or even more solipsistic as I tuck into middle age, but I found this moving. And it’s kind of why I do these playlist posts.
See you next time.
“Mother and Child Reunion” by Paul Simon
Paul Simon knew what he was doing when he made this the first song on his self-titled solo debut. He also knew what he was doing when he enlisted members of Toots & The Maytals to play on it. No matter how many times I listen to this song, it sounds incredible. Sometimes my mother will tell me she’s dreamt of me. And in her dream, I am who I was as a child. In my head, I picture myself at 5-7 years old in her dream. I imagine my mother dreaming of what it was like to be who she was when I was that age. I imagine my mother dreaming of the child I was at that age and the fact that her dream allowed her to be briefly reunited with a person she loved that no longer exists. I think of that whenever I hear this song. I think of the pain and joy that so many mothers must feel at time passing all the time.
“Mama’s Little Girl” by Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney is absolutely insane. This song was never released, but it could have fit on any album from The Beatles (The White Album) to Band on the Run. From the late 1960s through the early 1970s, Paul could just knock songs out like this effortlessly. Hearing this next to “Mother and Child Reunion” puts the fundamental differences between Simon and McCartney’s greatnesses on display.
“Romantic Ageru Yo” by Kim Bo
When it comes to this song: if you know, you know.
“Play The Game” by Queen
I was putzing around my kitchen one day and this song came into my head like a little miracle. I’d forgotten about it for years. Just an absolute peak Queen production. Though it does share a little DNA with some of ELO’s best stuff. Only got to number 42 in the U.S. in 1980. What was everyone doing?
“Clash City Rockers” by The Clash
I love The Clash and I think Joe Strummer is a comic genius for the way he chooses to emphasize the syllables in every verse on this one. A GREAT and barely-hinged rocker.
“Everybody Needs Somebody to Love” by Solomon Burke
Back in 2002, I may have been one of the only 17-year-old guys on the planet Earth to ask for Five Guys Walk Into a Bar…, the comprehensive box set covering the brief run of the legendary boogie rock band The Faces. In that box set, I was introduced to “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love” via a mini-medley of “Hi-Heeled Sneakers/Everybody Needs Somebody to Love.” Hearing Rod Stewart sing the song, you know it had to come from somewhere else. And I fell in love with the Solomon Burke original soon after. Less a song and more of an undeniable sermon, this track serves as the bedrock upon which so much music of the 20th century was built.
“Opportunity” by The Jewels
A little chestnut, as they say. This one pops up in The Last Days of Disco (1998) when the characters leave the club to hang out in a regular old bar. Genius needle drop selection by Whit Stillman.
“Knock on Wood” by Amii Stewart
This one was also on The Last Days of Disco soundtrack. An absolutely inspired cover. Should’ve been putting this on playlists long ago.
“So Many Planets” by St. Vincent
St. Vincent has had a very interesting career. I first heard about her when she asked an acquaintance of mine, who was also a musician, to drive her to the airport in 2008 or 2009. And then I heard about her again when she played some songs on the Comedy Bang Bang podcast in 2012. I started listening to her records as they came out. I think her self-titled record from 2014 may still be her best—“Severed Crossed Fingers” is an all-time song for me. Saw her at King’s Theater in 2017 and she was great. But she’s kind of been workmanlike for the past seven years or so. Maybe I just got older. She’s a big artist, but is anyone talking about her music these days?
“The Weakness In Me” Joan Armatrading
I’ll admit, I don’t know a ton about Joan Armatrading except that whenever I hear her songs, I like them. This one is tucked into 10 Things I Hate About You (1999).
“Trouble Me” by 10,000 Maniacs
This song came on the radio one day and it was like the second time in a month I’d heard Natalie Merchant’s voice after not hearing it for maybe almost 20 years. I tried to explain to my fiance how present Natalie Merchant was in my life from about 1995-1998. This is an absolute jam from her 10,000 Maniacs days.
“Losin’ Patience” by GospelbeaCH
Don’t know much about GospelbeaCH. Saw their latest album on AllMusic’s Editor Picks and checked it out. This is a nice jangly one for high spring.
“Mandolin Wind” by Rod Stewart
Man, I love Rod Stewart. He’s going to be lost to time for sure (will “Maggie May” survive?) but people shouldn’t overlook the quality of the albums he was associated with from 1968 through 1976, whether with the Jeff Beck Group, The Faces, or on his own. No matter how many times I listen to Every Picture Tells a Story this song always sneaks up on me. It may be his best.
“Miss O’Dell” by George Harrison
Living In the Material World (1973) is probably my favorite George Harrison album. This track was tacked on as a bonus on the CD version I got back in 2007. A little joy of a song.
“My Golden Years” by The Lemon Twigs
The Lemon Twigs wear basically every musical influence from the 1960s and 1970s a band could possibly have on their sleeves. Nothing is subtle. But what can I say? I love it. These guys are from Long Island like me. If I had any musicality at all, I’d probably make music like this.
“The Hum” by Margo Guryan
A great songwriter in the Carole King vein, Margo Guryan is kind of a cult figure. This is a good example of what she’s capable of. A singalong track that basically summarizes Watergate. Once this song builds momentum you can only be carried away.
“World on a String” by Jessica Pratt
This one is from Pratt’s new album Here in the Pitch (2024), which was an AllMusic Editor’s pick. In the AllMusic review, they cite Pet Sounds as an influence which OF COURSE hooked me. But while there are glances and nods toward that album’s sound in the song arrangements, it's nothing really like that. But this is a quiet, tender listen. Good one for when you open the windows and clean the apartment or house.
“Look to the East, Look to the West” by Camera Obscura
I’d heard of Aztec Camera, but Camera Obscura!? Another Allmusic Editor’s pick, this album of the same name is one of those very solid and very good middle of the road contemporary rock albums that seem to come and go these days. (You could call them alternative rock or indie rock or whatever but this is just a solid rock album that’s a bit on the softer side.) This is the title track of the record and it concludes the album. A great album closer that fits here too.
“Ready or Not” by Shakey Graves
Heard this one in the car on the way to Alamo Drafthouse on the way to see Civil War and then heard it in the bathroom of the Alamo Drafthouse after seeing Civil War. Strange coincidences like that warrant inclusion on a playlist. Plus I think it fits in on this last leg.
“I Need Love” by Barbara Mason
Another chestnut pick from Whit Stillman. This one’s from Metropolitan (1990). Can you tell I was brushing up on my Whit Stillman this past month?
“Nothing to Say” by The Kinks
This may be the most devastating set of lyrics that Ray Davies ever wrote—and that’s saying something. To me, this is the closest that any song comes to a Joyce short story: the blunt reality, the specific details of time and place that tell you something even if you don’t know exactly what they mean, the sadness. For years, I listened to this song and always thought about it from the point of view of the son character, but now I’ve started to listen to it from the perspective of the father character in the song. And it makes it even more devastating: imagine being faced with a child who feels this way about you and not understanding why and feeling somewhat disappointed with the cruel and judgmental person they’ve become. And all of this happening while The Kinks are just absolutely rocking through a textbook production from their peak era. What a song.
Maggie May will forever be my karaoke go to because most of Rod Stewart is in my register.