A Playlist Series
American Crisis Playlist #31
A long, slow climb upward
Two days after the Inauguration of a normal, sane President and highly competent Vice-President, I feel like I have been dazed and confused into semi-oblivion. My wife keeps dancing around the house, and I want to dance, too, but after four-plus years of creeping into each day, I might have forgotten how to dance and how to express relief and joy.
“I’m happy and hope you’re happy, too.”
So says Bowie in a song to come a few moments from now. If I say it often enough, will I believe it? I’m happy, I’m happy, I’m happy.
And I am, but there is so much to worry about still, so much fear and trouble and depravity, all rolled up into Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley. Get rid of a major creep and all its tentacles keep writhing and trying to squeeze the life out of us. Even if the OP is convicted, we still have these guys preying on our collective refusal to understand history and denounce fascist bigots.
Hey, I got a Ph.D. from The University of Tennessee, guys, and your credentials don’t impress. I’m not sure mine do either these days when Dr. Jill Biden is somehow blamed and chastised for wanting to be referred to by a title she earned and deserves.
But really, I am happy. A dark pile of crap has been ushered off to a state I used to visit every summer. Does Florida deserve this? Well, for a few summers some shysters down there tried to sell my parents some swampland. It’s a sordid story, but one the OP would appreciate since what he sold us over the past half-decade is worth as much as the underwater world my parents naively wanted to own.
Even winter has moderated a bit here in South Carolina, where our greatest contribution to the post-OP era is to offer up a lawyer to defend the OP in his trial which will occur sometime in February, it seems. Maybe at Valentine’s Day. Wouldn’t that be lovely or nice or appropriate? What cards would Hallmark produce then?
So, since I’m feeling so good, I’ve come up with a few tunes to find a balance between happiness and crisis, whatever that means or looks like.
I’m trying and working and like our new President (thank God), I’m putting my entire soul into this list.
AMERICAN CRISIS PLAYLIST #31
- “Under Pressure,” Karen O and Willie Nelson, from a recently released single. Seems unbelievable until you hear it. After all, if a country music legend and the lead singer from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs can face the pressure and sing like this, melding their talents, what can’t the rest of us do? “I sit on the fence, but it don’t work.” No fences, no badges, except when violent mobs try to overthrow a country. “Why can’t we give love that one more chance?” I’m listening, and loving.
- “Oversharers Anonymous,” Wild Pink from A Billion Little Lights (2020). Though there were only 400 lights lit the other night around the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial, it felt like a billion. Check out this band — solid all the way through, playing with an ease and competence that we can only hope translates into defeating this virus. Thankfully, there’s a plan and more vaccine distribution on the way. And did you see Fauci yesterday? The guy looks two decades younger and even more energetic, which is good news for all of us, though the numbers will keep building. He thinks we might have plateaued now, and here’s hoping. Those billion little lights come with masks, too.
- “La La Means I Love You,” The Delfonics from 1968’s album of the same name. I fell in love with this song somewhere around 1971 when it played on a Solid Gold Weekend over the airwaves of WSGN-610 in Birmingham. There’s a certain kind of Soul Music that has always found me, and while this one might sound sappy to the cynics, I keep hearing those higher notes and keep wanting to reach them. Lyrics don’t have to be profound; they simply need to move us into what we feel matters most. During all the years of the Pop era, it always comes down to this, doesn’t it?
- “Ashes to Ashes,” David Bowie from Scary Monsters and Super Creeps (1980). I bet you could ad lib here from the title of this album, so I think I’ll just let you, knowing full well that we’ll be sharing the same sentiments if not the exact words. Aside from the “StaggerLee” lyrical myth, is any story in rock/pop more legendary than Major Tom? If there is, jump on in with your selections. Ah, those rumors from ground control “I’m stuck with a valuable friend…” actually, I’m “stuck’ with many, including the voices who appear in response to these lists. Thanks Steven Hale, Kevin Alexander, Jessica Lee McMillan, and Jim Whisenhunt.
- “Birthday,” The Sugar Cubes, harkening back to 1988’s Life’s Too Good. Bjork might be all things to everyone, but on this song, her growling angst works perfectly. I had only recently moved to South Carolina when I found this song and band and man, it hit just right, explaining how I felt almost daily in a new world where I was so young that hardly anyone else in my job environment had heard of MTV. I’m so glad to have rediscovered this song and after three decades and more, I’m happier and freer, and haven’t watched MTV for almost as long.
- “Dear Prudence,” Siouxsie and the Banshees, from 2009’s remastered Hyaena. I know that I risk much goodwill by listing a Beatles’ cover. Yes, yes, yes, I know that no one did it better, but come on. Siouxsie and her mates do this one justice, and “the sun is out, the birds still sing,” and it really is a good day “to open our eyes and look around” at this brand new day. Let me see you smile, and if for no other reason, go back and listen to Amanda Gorman’s poem again. The sun really is up…”it’s beautiful and so are you.” Look around.
- “Bohemian Like You,” The Dandy Warhols (2000) from Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia. Nothing sinister here, just fun and pop and being/feeling so like you. I do remember first hearing this song accompanying old Nate from Six Feet Under. Not to dwell on what happened to him, but he did have a good car. Play this loud and try not to dance too long, because it ends too soon even for me. Let’s all feel good for at least 3:32.
- “I Wouldn’t Be Surprised,” Bobbie Gentry, Touch ‘Em With Love (1969). This song opened the new film I’m Your Woman, starring Rachel Brosnahan from “Mrs Maisel” fame. Gentry had more famous songs, or at least one famous song, though “Fancy” also charted. When I heard her voice again, I couldn’t place her though I knew I knew her. What would surprise us these days? Did you know that a Republican lawmaker had his gun confiscated yesterday when he tried to enter the Capitol building with it? He also tried passing it off to another member who refused to take it because he didn’t have a carry license. Such is truth in the post-trump era.
- “Mario’s Cafe,” Saint Etienne from 1993’s So Tough. “Everyone is dreaming of all they have to live for.” Don’t these words simply mean more today than they did even last week? This band is growing on me all the time. So glad they showed up in my inbox, almost as if by magic (go ahead and take credit, you who offered them to me). I long for a cafe somewhere, like the one in Prague that summer when, wearing my Yankee cap, I was mistaken by an American couple for Steven Spielberg. I steered them toward The Golem Cafe, because they needed someone to watch over them.
10. “Cinnamon Girl,” The Gentrys from 1970’s The Gentrys. I mentioned this cover in my new series of perfect tunes,
https://terrybarr.medium.com/unforgettable-tunes-bfe40dba4854?sk=20887e1f1e23bd3aa70df0be5e11ccaf
and so I thought I’d add it here just to prove to myself and everyone else that I can stand covers of my all-time favorite artist. So maybe the guitar riffs aren’t as strong, but you get the picture. “Ma, send me money now, I’m gonna make it somehow. I need another chance, you see, your baby loves to dance.” What else is there left to say?
That’s it for this week, and Noah Levy, are you still out there?
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