The Songs I Listened to In July 2023
The first of hopefully many monthly playlists I'll share here.
Good Morning.
One of the Substacks I discovered and have been inspired by over the last year is Matthew Schnipper’s Deep Voices.
The main value of the Deep Voices is getting curated playlists delivered directly to you, playlists that feature music that you most likely would never listen to on your own. (Another reason to subscribe is to be moved by the sincere and vulnerable writing that Schnipper often shares.) I know that’s true for me. But maybe you’ve got more wide ranging tastes than I do, maybe you’re still good at really digging for and finding new music.
These days, my primary way of finding music is looking at the updates to AllMusic’s Editor’s Choice archive at the end of every week. It’s a good way to keep up on all the new releases that come out each month. I read the reviews, then go into Spotify and save the albums, and then go back and listen.
To help document the music I’m listening to, I’ll put together a playlist for each month. My playlists are usually built from songs from new albums I’ve listened to, old favorites that feel right for the given month, and songs that I’ve just heard out in the world somewhere during that month.
My playlist for July 2023 is here. Check it out if you need to kill some time. I cribbed two songs from Deep Voices #67: “Horse Guitar” by John Lurie and “Mother of Pearl” by Scribble, which is a Roxy Music cover. But the one track from the playlist that’s kind of been stuck in my head each day for the past month or so (and may end up being my song of this summer) is “Tragedy” by Paul McCartney and Wings.
Earlier this year, I read the 700+ page McCartney Legacy, Volume 1: 1969-1973 by Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair. That’s right, the entire book is over 700 pages and it only covers about four years of Paul McCartney’s life. As you can imagine, its a fucking amazing book.
I paired reading that book with listening to the entire archive of the Take It Away podcast hosted by Ryan Brady and Chris Mercer. Finding that podcast has been one of my true joys of 2023. Brady and Mercer manage to blend stunned admiration for McCartney’s sheer talent with wry (and very honest) observational humor. There are some times when they discuss an individual track on a McCartney album and succinctly review it by saying, “Now, I just didn’t like that song at all.” Writing about it doesn’t do it justice, you just have to listen to some of their (genius) dry remarks.
But through McCartney Legacy and Take It Away I learned about “Tragedy” which was a rare Wings song recorded during the Red Rose Speedway (1973) sessions in 1972. “Tragedy” is a cover of a song written by Gerald H. Nelson and Fred B. Burch, which was recorded by Thomas Wayne and The DeLons in 1959. That version made it to number 5 on the Billboard Top 100.
McCartney wanted Red Rose Speedway to be an album that showcased all the styles Wings could play and and decided to record “Tragedy” for the album. Red Rose Speedway was originally planned as a double album and “Tragedy” was part of the original track listing. But it was cut when McCartney had to pare the record down to a single album.
Why do I love it? Because it feels like a summer night blowing in. Because the opening guitar sounds like some kind of wind chime hanging from a back porch. Because McCartney is in absolute top vocal form, covering his entire range (save his rocker voice) with seemingly little effort. Because as soon as McCartney starts singing you realize that he is the summer breeze blowing the wind chimes. Because the use of sitar is a genius arrangement touch. Because, as I’ve learned, Wings’s vocal harmonies are underrated. And, because, it even has that nice little 1950s doo-wop ballad ending.
For me, one of the true joys in the world is finding some new gem, some rare artifact created by a musician or musical group you love, no matter how much you know about them and their work, and having it remind you of why you love that artist and that music so much it borders on insanity.