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The Mixed CD cavalcade

“new” music

The Mixed CD cavalcade solves two of life’s little problems for me. But first, what IS it?

In 2005, when I first started blogging, I went to my friend Fred Hembeck’s roster of links. I visited several of my fellow bloggers, often leaving comments.

One of them, Lefty Brown, organized a mixed CD swap with a bunch of us, including Fred, Eddie Mitchell, SamuraiFrog, Mike Sterling, and even Greg “living in a desert” Burgas. I reviewed some of these collections back then in my blog. We almost always created a list of the enclosed songs.

Fred and I also had our private exchange of music. Several of Fred’s involved Beatles covers, so I reciprocated.

Then, I got so into curating music that I started making mixed CDs for myself. Oddly, though, I never included a playlist. So I have about 30 discs, and I have no idea what’s on them other than the title. (1966/67, War, Troublemakers)

Also, I need “new” music to augment the playing of albums tied to the artists’ birthdays. So I’ll play some of these, and they’ll become blog content. And when I run out of mine, I’ll play those discs from Fred and probably the others. Some of them are very good. Some are weird. These are not mutually exclusive terms.

One reality is that I have no computer with a disc drive presently, so I can’t make more of these. I suppose it could make me sad. Instead, I’m grateful for the ones I already created. Call it a smidgen of musical nostalgia.

1966/67

If I had to play only one year of music, it would be 1966. It was the year I turned 13. When I used to listen to an oldies station in the early 1980s that played songs from 1955 to approximately 1974, about 30% of my favorites were from 1966. I’m not saying the music was better, but it did resonate more for me.

Here are the first ten, with the remaining 16 coming up soon—all of them I still own on CD.

Cool Jerk – the Capitols. I wrote a whole post about this track. My, I love this song. Incidentally, Grammarly wanted to change Cool to Fantastic.

Keep On Running– The Spencer Davis Davis Group. This song has long been in my head. This is the first song of an unauthorized collection called Winwood, which I bought in a store then.

Along Comes Mary– the Association

One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer – John Lee Hooker

Till The End Of The Day – the Kinks

I Feel Good – James Brown

Got To Get You Into My Life – The Beatles. It’s probably my second favorite Fab Four song.

Hold On, I’m Coming – Sam and Dave

Everlasting Love – Robert Knight. This song by Jamie Dornan was one of the best things in the movie Belfast.

Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart – the Supremes. This is my favorite Supremes song, and I never understood why it only went #9 pop, #7 RB on the Billboard charts. I have this extended version from a Supremes anthology.

November rambling: can we talk?

Apollo 13

per Bizarro.com – https://www.bizarro.com/faqs

Behind the Curtain: Trump allies pre-screen loyalists for unprecedented power grab.

Takeaways from the November 7 elections

Israel-Hamas War War: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and Can we talk about Israel and Palestine?

A settlement marks a step toward ending abuses at for-profit immigrant prisons.

Sesame Street Getting “Reimagined” for Season 56

Hollywood Reacts to Tentative SAG-AFTRA, AMPTP Deal

Anonymous Strike Diary: A Writer’s Back-to-Work Hangover

Why the Dying DVD Business Could Be Headed for a Resurrection

US Census Bureau: Interracial Couples More Common Among Same-Sex Couples and U.S. Population Projected to Begin Declining in Second Half of Century

Health and more

COVID Immunity in 2023: Guide to Weathering the Winter Resurgence

Vision Impairment May Raise Your Dementia Risk, Research Suggests

In a Comment Submitted to U.S. Copyright Office, FTC Raises AI-related Competition and Consumer Protection Issues

Stand Up To Cancer and the Trebek family have launched The Alex Trebek Fund to accelerate critical research with the goal of better treating pancreatic cancer, which has the highest mortality rate of all major cancers.

Astronaut Frank Borman was the commander of the Apollo 8 mission, humanity’s first mission around the Moon in 1968. He passed away at the age of 95.

Thomas K. Mattingly was originally part of the 1970 Apollo 13 mission but was bumped 72 hours before takeoff due to his possible exposure to rubella. He helped to guide the Apollo 13 crew as they returned to Earth after an explosion compromised their lunar mission, then flew on Apollo 16. He died at age 87.

Peter S. Fischer, ‘Murder, She Wrote’ Co-Creator and ‘Columbo’ Writer, Dies at 88

Condolences to Kelly and his family upon the passing of his mom, Theresa Sedinger

Trevor Noah Sort Of, Kind Of Misses ‘The Daily Show

Why note-taking apps don’t make us smarter

Hey, writers! It’s NaFaDoYBIMSCoM

How Netflix Conquered Hollywood — And Then Broke It

The 2023 Gold Glove Award winners

CDTA’s New BusPlus Purple Line BRT commenced on Sunday, November 5, 2023. Service along the Washington & Western corridors will be enhanced from downtown Albany to the University at Albany and Crossgates Mall.

Now I Know: The Man Who Sued Himself (and the IRS) and Won and The Girl With Two Twin Sisters and New Jersey’s Fake Sister and The Problem With 500 Pounds of Pennies and The United States/North Korea Alliance of 2007 Am I happy about Christmas television ads starting on November 1st? I am not.

MUSIC

A friend wrote about Now and Then, “It’s a trap! It’ll get us marveling at how cool it is to hear The Beatles again and use that feeling to lull us into ‘AI complacency.’ I am deeply suspicious.” AI is so suddenly ubiquitous that I understand the confusion. I saw Tony Dokoupil raise similar concerns on CBS Mornings, with his co-anchors explaining the process, which you should see on the Beatles website. Rick Beato’s reaction to the recording is similar to mine: I’m glad it exists.

Now and Then – the MonaLisa Twins

Sweet Sounds of Heaven – The Rolling Stones & Lady Gaga (Live from Racket NYC)

Eve Was Black-Allison Russell

Quiet City by Aaron Copland

Cast Iron Skillet – Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

Another Wasted Life – Rhiannon Giddens

El Dorado – Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway

Work Until My Days Are Done – Blind Boys of Alabama

De todas las flores – Natalia Lafourcade

K-Chuck Radio: The cheapest knockoffs.

Dymaxion – Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society

Woven Song – Ólafur Arnalds (Hania Rani Piano Rework)

Dracula OST by John Williams

What Now – Brittany Howard

Coverville 1463: The Johnny Marr Cover Story II and 1464: The Joni Mitchell Cover Story IV

18,000 strangers sing Africa by Toto

Jenny– The Mountain Goats

Goodnight, My Someone – Voctave from Meredith Willson’s The Music Man

Dumb Guitar – Mount Kimbie

Decimal – Tom Lehrer

When You Wish Upon A Star – Dave Koz

Songs about war and peace

“The latest things in clothes will be black.”

I made a series of mixed CDs from my CD collection in the first decade of the 21st century. (The whys I’ll write about next week.) They are songs about war and peace in honor of the Veterans Day weekend.

A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall – Bob Dylan. This is the Rolling Thunder Revue version from 1975.

Shades of Grey – Billy Joel. I was surprised I went with this song instead of his Goodnight Saigon.

The Ostrich – Steppenwolf. I’ve loved this song and the eponymous album it comes from for a long time.

The Call Up – the Clash. Here’s what the song from the triple album collection Sandinista! is about.

One More Parade – They Might Be Giants—the great Phil Ochs song.

The big fool says to push on.

Waist Deep In The Big Muddy – Dick Gaughan. This is from Where Have All The Flowers Gone: The Songs of Pete Seeger, a compilation double CD that I bought at the Old Songs Festival near Albany in the early aughts. For a time, Seeger was banned from singing it on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

War – the Temptations. Recorded first by the Tempts, Berry Gordy thought the song might be too controversial for one of Motown’s premiere artists. But Norman Whitfield was allowed to get Edwin Starr, a second-tier in the Motor City hierarchy, to release it as a single, which went to #1 pop for three weeks.

Wooden Ships – Jefferson Airplane. The song is credited to David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and the Airplane’s Paul Kantner. But on my CSN LP, it lists only Crosby and Stills.

If I Had A Rocket Launcher– Bruce Cockburn. I have a LOT of Cockburn on vinyl. Grammarly wants me to change the first word to Suppose.

The Unknown Soldier – the Doors. From the Waiting for the Sun album, the first Doors album I owned.

The War Is Over – Phil Ochs. I didn’t have my first Ochs album until after he died in 1976.

Talkin’ ‘Bout a Revolution – Living Colour, live at The Ritz. The great Tracy Chapman song. I have this on some compilation CD.

Business Goes On As Usual – Roberta Flack. It’s a great song on her Chapter Two album, written by Fred Hellerman of the Weavers and Fran Minkoff. It was recorded by The Chad Mitchell Trio; John Denver, David Boise & Michael Johnson; and others.

Give Peace A Chance – Louis Armstrong. And why not? (I didn’t pick Mitch Miller, thank your lucky stars.)

Most awarded songs #15

no relation

The finale of the most awarded songs #15. In honor of that, I’ll note some of the awards they got. RS is Rolling Stone 500, RIAA is Recording Industry of America, NPR is National Public Radio 100, BMI is Broadcast Music Inc, and RNN is the National Recording Registry.

10. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction– The Rolling Stones, #1 pop for four weeks pop, #19 RB only #3 in the UK in 1965. RS #2, RIAA #161, NRR. One of the most familiar hooks in all of pop music.

9. Blue Suede Shoes – Carl Perkins, #2 pop for four weeks, but #1 in Detroit, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Cleveland, St. Louis, and Chicago; #2 RB for four weeks, #3 country in 1956. RS #95, RIAA #78, NPR, NRR. A serious car accident prevented Carl from fully capitalizing on this hit.

8. Let’s Stay Together – Al Green, #1 pop, #1 RB for nine weeks in 1972. RS #60, RIAA #145, NPR, NRR. Despite what I might have joked in the past, Al’s NOT my cousin, to my knowledge.

Timeless

7. What’s Love Got To Do With It – Tina Turner, #1 pop for three weeks, #2 for five weeks in 1984; Grammys for record and song of the year and pop female vocal; RS #316, RIAA #38, ASCAP #8. A return to form. Tina “was 44 when the song hit number one, at the time making her the oldest female solo artist to place a number-one single on the US Hot 100.”

6. Mack The Knife – Bobby Darin, #1 pop for nine weeks, #6 RB in 1959; Grammy record of the year, RS #255, RIAA #15, NPR, NRR. This is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their 1928 music drama The Threepenny Opera. It was translated into English in the 1930s. But the best-known translation was by Marc Blitzstein in 1954, which Darin adapted.

5. Oh, Pretty Woman – Roy Orbison, #1 for three weeks pop in 1964, #4 UK, RS #24, RIAA #43, BMI #26, NPR, NRR. The song was used in a 1990 film and a 2018 Broadway musical.

Posthumous

4. (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay – Otis Redding (pictured), #1 for four weeks pop, #1 for three weeks RB in 1968; Grammy RB song, RB male vocal; RS #26, RIAA #22, BMI #6, NPR. My wife and I were at Capital Rep seeing a musical about Janis Joplin some years ago, and I noted that Me and Bobby McGee was the second posthumous single to top the charts in the US. Dock was the first one.

3. My Girl – The Temptations, #1 pop, #1 for six weeks RB in 1965; RS #88, RIAA #45, ASCAP #2, NRR, NPR. Smokey Robinson and Ronald White of the Miracles wrote this. Smokey was inspired by his wife, Claudette Rogers Robinson, who was also in the group. This was the first of four #1 pop hits by the Temptations.

2. Rock Around The Clock – Bill Haley And His Comets, #1 pop for eight weeks, #1 for nine weeks UK, #3 for two weeks RB in 1955; RS #159, RIAA #12, ASCAP #86, NPR, NRR. Though it was released in 1954, it didn’t become an iconic hit until it was included in the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle.

1. Respect – Aretha Franklin, #1 for two weeks pop, #1 for eight weeks RB in 1967; Grammy RB record, RB female vocal; RS #5, RIAA #4, NRR, NPR. QoS and her sisters rearranged the song Otis Redding had written and recorded, and turned it into an empowerment anthem.

October rambling: Three Chaplains

“he pledged to donate almost all of his money to causes before he died”

I’ve seen and recommend that you watch the hour-long film Three Chaplains. “Muslim chaplains aim to make change in one of America’s most powerful institutions—the military.

“For them, the fight for equality and religious freedom begins on the inside.” Broadcasting on PBS, Independent Lens, November 6, 2023, and available elsewhere after that date. Here’s a review.

“The Lie Detector Was Never Very Good at Telling the Truth”

Per Giffords.org, there have been at least 565 mass shootings in the United States this year. Five hundred sixty-five mass shootings in the first 299 days.

Legal Eagle: When Police Raid A Newspaper for No Reason

There Is No Such Thing as Cancer (Hank) and A Tale of Two Cancers (John)

The Census Bureau has posted a new Federal Register Notice inviting public comments on proposed changes to the 2025 American Community Survey (ACS) and Puerto Rico Community Survey (PRCS) questionnaires. Comments are due on or before December 19, 2023, and, once submitted, are part of the public record.

NYS geographic primer Food Safety and Prison Health Care and McKinsey consultants and chocolate: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

The GOP bets on extremist Mike Johnson (LA) as Speaker, risking 2024 prospects; also, his positions on health issues, his impossible agenda, and his belief that separation of church and state Is only a ‘shield for people of faith.’ A blistering rebuke from his hometown newspaper’s op ed. He is worse than you think.

Using Learning Styles to Your Advantage: the Complete Guide.

Early History of Bedloe’s Island, now known as Liberty Island.

When Hybrid Works … But Doesn’t

Culcha

An early name for Albany and how it’s pronounced

How Lena Horne Won Over MGM — and Became a “Test Case” for Hollywood

Hasan Minhaj Offers Detailed Response to New Yorker Story: “It Was So Needlessly Misleading”

Oscar Winner Buffy Sainte-Marie Responds to Questions About Her Native Heritage: “I Know Who I Am”

The 100 Greatest Film Books of All Time. The only two I’ve read were the annual Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide (#17) – I’ve had at least a half dozen iterations over the years, and Life Itself by Roger Ebert (#45)

Interview with a SamuraiFrog by Splotchy

Opening titles for 18 situation comedies of the seventies. I watched two of them, both on CBS, on Saturday nights at 8:30 p.m.

“The kick is up … and it’s … CLANG…”

Now I Know: The Halloween Costume You Can’t Buy and When Science Gets Unexpectedly Expensive and An Awkward Phone Call from Mom and The Giant Pink Bunny in the Middle of Nowhere and Everybody Was Kung Fu Panda Fighting and Paved With Good Intentions and Why Dorothy Couldn’t Surrender

Obits

Charles Feeney, Who Made a Fortune and Then Gave It Away, Dies at 92. “After piling up billions in business, he pledged to donate almost all of his money to causes before he died. He succeeded and then lived a more modest life.”

Kevin Phillips, who died at 82, published his first book at 29, a landmark work, The Emerging Republican Majority, which “presciently predicted a rightward realignment in national politics driven by ethnic and racial divisions and white discontent.”

Richard Roundtree, Suave Star of ‘Shaft,’ Dies at 81. I never saw Shaft, but I did watch him as “the disgraced doctor Daniel Reubens on the NBC daytime soap opera Generations,” c. 1990.

Matthew Perry, Chandler on ‘Friends,’ Dies at 54. He “Masterfully Walked the Line Between Mirth and Melancholy.” All spiders are named Phil.

Burt Young, Oscar-Nominated ‘Rocky’ Actor, Dies at 83. I saw the initial four Rocky pics, the first one with my mother

Richard Moll, Bull the Bailiff on ‘Night Court,’ Dies at 80

MUSIC

Ghost Story soundtrack album

Celtic Rock – Donovan

Bless The Child OST suite

Songs from the Woods – Jethro Tull

The Great Pumpkin Waltz – Vince Guaraldi

Theme From Shaft – Isaac Hayes. My sister got this double album, but it contained two copies of the same record (Sides 1 and 4, I believe), and we had to get it replaced.

Somebody Like You – Giant Rooks

Coverville 1461: Cover Stories for Ultravox and Thomas Dolby and 1462: The Natalie Merchant & 10,000 Maniacs Cover Story

Closer To Fine – Indigo Girls

Honky Tonk Heroes – Waylon Jennings

Greg’s Drinking Song from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

The Beatles’ ‘Last Song,’ ‘Now and Then,’ Is Set for Release (Nov 2), Along With Expanded, Remix-Filled ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ Hits Collections (Nov 9)