Monday Random 10

After a week--a week that felt like a year--off, it was back to the grind, so we cranked up the Skinny Blue Touch to see what solace it could offer.

Let's...Hit...Shuffle!

Paul Westerberg - It's a Wonderful Lie
Paul Westerberg - C'mon, C'mon, C'mon
Joe Henry - Beautiful Hat
Pete Townshend - Face the Face
Simon & Garfunkel - Song for the Asking
This Train - A Million Years
Bob Dylan - Lay Lady Lay
Neil Finn - Addicted
The Hold Steady - You Did Good Kid
Aretha Franklin - Soul Serenade
 Bonus 11
The Replacements - Hitchin' a Ride (Live)

Weird how a couple of tunes from the same "Best of" collection showed up consecutively at the top. (We double checked to make sure we'd hit shuffle correctly.) And the bonus track was more Westerberg, from the fun Live at Maxwell's 1986 set from a couple of years ago.

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question ("What? Now we're replaying 1968?"), already in progress.

Monday Random 10 (Memorial Day edition)

We've got the week off at TWDQ HQ, so we slept in and didn't fire up the Thin Blue Touch until this afternoon.

Let's...Hit...Shuffle!

The Tragically Hip - Escape Is At Hand for the Travellin' Man
The Meters - Out in the Country
Roger Miller - You Can't Roller Skate in a Buffalo Herd
Steely Dan - The Fez
Linda Ronstadt - Love is a Rose
Cyndi Lauper - Time After Time
Bo Conrad - Fiddler Spider
The John Sally Ride - The Girl You Won't Leave Your Wife For
Bruce Springsteen - Hitch Hikin'
Sharon Van Etten - No One's Easy to Love

Bonus 11
The Roots - No John Trumbull (Intro) (from The Hamilton Mixtape)

If you haven't already, check out the fine documentary on The Hip's final tour. The Meters tune is not the Three Dog Night hit. Roger Miller into Steely Dan is quite the transition. Bo Conrad led a terrific jug band (The Bo Conrad Spit Band) of fellow students from a local college in the late 60s/early 70s. This tune's from an album made a few years back. The John Sally Ride have produced a couple of excellent albums of clever power pop and their drummer is our favorite music blogger. 

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question ("Hard to breathe in a mask? How about a ventilator?"), already in progress.

Monday Morning Rock (Belated Edition)

Forgot that we hadn't posted Monday's tunes. (Yeah, like you know what day of the week it is anyway.)

Let's...Hit...Shuffle!

Dan Zanes - Cuckoo Waltz
The Beatles - Junk (Esher Demo)
Bob Dylan - Quinn The Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)
Dwight Yoakam - Honky Tonk Man
Yes - Roundabout
Buena Vista Social Club - El Carretero
The Jayhawks - Poor Little Fish
BeauSoleil - Valerie
Tegan and Sara - Closer
Old Crow Medicine Show - Just Like a Woman

Bonus 11
Elton John - Crocodile Rock

We've gone on at length about Dan Zanes' wonderful Parades and Panoramas album of songs from Carl Sandburg's Great American Songbag. It came out a few months before Springsteen's Seeger Sessions album and was so loose and fun that it made the latter sound like Bruce was telling you to eat your vegetables. Sir Paul tries out a tune during the White Album prep that would eventually land on his first solo record. BeauSoleil cover a Richard Thompson tune, and the OCMS tune is from their excellent live romp through Blonde on Blonde, which is every bit as loose and fun as the aforementioned Zanes record.

Also, the iPod Touch is apparently aware that we're currently reading Sir Elton's autobiography. (Apple just knows stuff, I tell ya.)

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question ("25th Amendment, anyone?"), already in progress.

Monday Random Ten (Ernie Banks edition)

Did the random ten last Monday but forgot to post it, so in the immortal words of Ernie Banks, it's a beautiful day, let's play two!

Let's...hit...shuffle!

Monday 5/4/2020
Dave Brady and The Stars - Ridin' High
Bill Staines - Eyes to Eyes
A Girl Called Eddy - Did You See the Moon Tonight
Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit - Dress Blues (Live)
Aretha Franklin - You Send Me (mono)
The Beatles - She Loves You (Live at the BBC)
Southside Johnny with La Bamba's Big Band - Shiver Me Timbers
The Suicide Commandos - Burn It Down
Rosanne Cash - Price of Temptation
Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi - He Will See You Through

Bonus 11
Jeff Lynne's ELO - Time Of Our Life

Dave Brady's tune's from the great Twin Cities Funk & Soul:  Lost Grooves from Minneapolis/St. Paul 1964-1979 compilation. We've been really digging A Girl Called Eddy for the last couple of months. We also think Jason Isbell has written the most powerful song about the endless war in the Middle East. 

Monday 5/11/2020
Dwight Yoakam - Ring of Fire
Fleetwood Mac - Sara
The Jayhawks - Darling Today (from "Blown Away" soundtrack)
Howlin' Wolf - How Many More Years
Jackson Browne - Rock Me on the Water
Neil Young - Southern Man
Vigilantes of Love - Version of the Truth
Peter Gabriel - This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds)
Rosanne Cash - Paralyzed
Mark Heard - Tip of My Tongue

Bonus 11
Ray Charles - I Can't Stop Loving You

Dwight Yoakam's debut, Guitars, Cadillacs, etc. etc. is still fantastic. The Jayhawks tune is from the "Blown Away" soundtrack, which also has Aretha doing the great "If You Lose Me". I feel bad for Jackson Browne, having to follow Wolf. Interesting that Ms. Cash shows up batting ninth again.

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question ("Really, Ray? We know everyone was doing it, but you thought that chorale singing backups sounded good?")

Monday Random Ten

As we continue to shelter-in-place, the Thin Blue Touch is a source of comfort and joy, so let's see what it's offering up this week.

Let's...Hit...Shuffle!

Bruce Springsteen - Land of Hopes and Dreams
Crosby, Stills & Nash - Suite:  Judy Blue Eyes
John Prine - Speed of the Sound of Loneliness
Our Native Daughters - Quasheba, Quasheba
Steve Earle - Here I Am
Rod Stewart - Tonight's the Night (Gonna Be Alright)
Dolly Varden - Mouthful of Lies
Peter Himmelman - Only Innocent
The Beatles - Across the Universe (Past Masters, Vol. 2)
Beki Hemingway - Don't Let It End

Bonus 11
Bob Dylan - Joey

A friend recently wrote that "Land..." is the best gospel song written in the new millennium. It may have been penned on the cusp and a centerpiece in the '99 E Street reunion tour, but he's otherwise correct. We're still processing John Prine's passing. Our Native Daughters is a terrific record from a quartet of African-American women featuring Rhiannon Giddens. Beki is covering the Styx hit, and Bob's recent 16-minute release about the JFK assassination shouldn't have surprised anyone, because the bonus today is all eleven minutes of him from 45 years ago, singing about a mobster.

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question ("Sarcasm? In the middle of a pandemic?"), already in progress. 

Monday Morning Rock!

Time to find out what the Thin Blue Touch served up as we start this sixth week of staying at home.

Let's...Hit...Shuffle!

Vigilantes of Love - Real Down Town
Adam Levy - How I Let You Down
Gordon Lightfoot - The Patriot's Dream
Joe Henry - Widows of the Revolution
The Rutles - With a Girl Like You
Vince Guaraldi - Cast Your Fate to the Wind
Bob Dylan - God Knows
XTC - I'm the Man Who Murdered Love
Peter Frampton - Baby, I Love Your Way
The Clash - Hateful

Bonus 11
Lake Street Dive - How Good It Feels

("God Knows" was preceded by a 21 second track of Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash studio chatter from the latest Bootleg Series, but we're not counting that officially as part of the ten.)

The Adam Levy song is from "Naubinway", a deeply moving album about the loss of his son, who took his own life. Lightfoot's anti-war tune is the closer to the underrated "Don Quixote" album. The Rutles twist "If I Fell" ever so slightly into a delightful new song. If all you know if Vince Guaraldi is the Charlie Brown soundtracks, you owe it to yourself to check out his other material. The XTC song is from "Wasp Star (Apple Venus Pt. 2)", their terrific swansong, "Baby..." is from the monster "Frampton Comes Alive" set, and "Hateful" is one of the "18 New Songs From The Only Band That Matters" from the album with the best cover photo ever.

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question ("Where are the tests?"), already in progress.   

Monday Morning Rock (Three straight weeks!)

We're starting our fifth straight week of working from the home office at TWDQ HQ with the Thin Blue Nano connected up to the big stereo system, so let's see what it's offering for takeout service today.

Let's...hit...shuffle!

Spinners - I'll Be Around
The Frames - People Get Ready
The Beatles - For You Blue (from Anthology 3)
Van Morrison - Come Running
Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Rock Me
Indigo Girls - Closer to Fine
Billy Bragg & Wilco - All You Fascists
Little Richard - Keep A-Knockin'
The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again
Sam Cooke - Chain Gang (Live at the Harlem Square Club)

Bonus 11
Poco - Keep On Tryin'

Nice mix there. Just finished reading that Sunday was Amy Ray's birthday, so the Indigo Girls is very appropriate. The Frames tune is an original, not the Curtis Mayfield classic. Bragg & Wilco remind us that Woody Guthrie was warning us about fascists decades ago. The Sam Cooke live album is from a tough, gritty small club performance that is light years away from the slickly-produced singles or Sam's set at the Copa. Sam could bring it.

We now return you to This Week's Discussion Question ("What the...it's snowing AGAIN?!?), already in progress.