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Entries categorized as “Friday MP3 Shuffle” 276 results
Mike Bennett writesJanuary 10, 2014 iPod/MP3 Shuffle—Happy Birthday Jim Croce Edition
Today we pay tribute to one of my first favorite singers, Jim Croce. I got an AM clock radio (with a light up dial!) as a first communion present and it was tuned to the Top 40 stations and on a lot. Which meant I heard a lot of Jim Croce. He had a nice voice and could alter it to fit the mood of his song, singing with tenderness on love songs like “Operator”, while jiving on the song I loved, such as “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” and “Bad Bad Leroy Brown”. His Life and Times album was my favorite of my dad’s 8-track tapes, where I heard his mix of love songs and story songs, often from a working class perspective. This perspective was earned – he did a stretch in the National Guard to avoid going to Vietnam and worked various trucking and construction jobs. And he drew from that environment in his music. Moreover, as I revisited his music as an adult, buying a 50 song compilation that had pretty much all of his studio work, I appreciated his facility with country, blues, pop and classical music. Songs like “Time In a Bottle” and the amazing, non-single “These Dreams” show a composer who combined directness and economy with subtle sophistication. His death in a plane crash in 1973 robbed pop music of someone who still had scads of untapped potential. Thankfully, his recordings still have the warmth and vitality they had 40 years ago. In honor of Mr. Croce, please grab your iPod or MP3 player, hit shuffle, and share the first 10 songs that pop up.
Mike Bennett writesFriday iPod/MP3 Shuffle—Happy Birthday George Martin Edition
Today, let’s celebrate one of the most important producers in pop music history, Sir George Martin. (NOTE: If you haven’t read the new Tune In book about The Beatles and want to do so, this post will reveal a key fact from the book. So Spoiler Alert!). Martin had musical inclinations, and after serving his country, became the top assistant to the head of Parlophone Records, learning how to produce records with a label that was an afterthought in the EMI Music empire. While working on a wide variety of genres (and excelling at comedy records with The Goon Show with Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan), he developed an experimental bent. This served him well when, after originally turning The Beatles down, the head of EMI assigned the band to Martin and Parlophone as a form of punishment – the boss found out George was having an affair with his secretary. Martin quickly warmed to The Beatles on a personal level, but wasn’t sold on the material. But the success of the Fab Four’s first 45, “Love Me Do”, proved him wrong. But he soon found Lennon-McCartney material up to par and forged a new type of producer-artist relationship. Instead of finding material for the band, he helped them cultivate their own songs and sound. Basically, Martin and The Beatles were perfect for each other, because they both were innovators. He helped them accomplish any wild sounds they wanted depicted. Yet, one of the things I love about Martin is that in documentaries, as he sits at a mixing desk playing parts of Beatles tracks, he still is amazed that he was a part of it. And an essential part. So let’s pay tribute to Martin by grabbing your iPod or MP3 player, hitting shuffle and sharing the first 10 songs that come up.
Mike Bennett writesFriday iPod/MP3 Shuffle—Happy Birthday Lenny Kaye Edition
Today, we celebrate a real renaissance man in rock music history, Lenny Kaye. Kaye, first and foremost, was the lead guitarist in The Patti Smith Group, producing her earliest work and playing with her throughout the ‘70s, and then rejoining her in the mid-‘90s. He also played in other bands, including the Jim Carroll Band. Before his professional rocking days, he was a music critic and magazine editor, publishing some of Stephen King’s first work. He later put together the historic double album compilation Nuggets, spurring the first garage rock revival. He is also an accomplished historian and author, writing books about everything from Waylon Jennings to ‘20s and ‘30s crooners. In honor of this fascinating career, please grab your iPod or MP3 player, hit shuffle and share the first 10 songs that comw up.
Mike Bennett writesFriday iPod/MP3 Shuffle—R.I.P. Larry Lujack Edition
Born in Iowa and raised in Arkansas, Larry Blankenburg dreamed of going into wildlife conservation when he entered the University of Idaho. He got a job at a local radio station just to pick up some cash. His original dreams were put on hold as he worked his way up the ladder to become perhaps the biggest rock 'n' roll DJ in Chicago history. Along the way, he changed his last name to Lujack, after the star Notre Dame football player. Nine years after he got his start in radio, he made it to Chicago, ending up on both sides of the dominant rock stations of the late '60s and early '70s, WCFL and WLS. He started at CFL, quickly moved to WLS (both during 1967), and then jumped back to WCFL, where he was their afternoon drive time star. By the fall of 1976, he was back at WLS and became a morning star, and eventually created his popular Animal Stories feature. What made Larry Lujack great? In an era of fast talking, jiving DJs and nice guys, he dispensed with all apparent artifice. His style was relaxed yet commanding, as he'd praise songs he loved or go off on tangents about things bothering him. He mastered the skill of making it seem like he was talking one-on-one with the listener. This conversational approach became very influential and arguably paved the way for shock jocks, though Larry was merely irreverent. Larry Lujack passed away last night after a long bout with cancer and I went back and listened to some airchecks. Back in the day, he wasn't my go to DJ, but listening now I remembered how great he really was. Let's pay tribute to this Chicago radio legend by grabbing your iPod or MP3 player, hitting shuffle and sharing the first 10 songs that come up.
Mike Bennett writesFriday iPod/MP3 Shuffle—Happy Birthday Tom Verlaine Edition
Today it’s the birthday of one of the most talented performers from the incredible CBGB’s scene of the ‘70s, Tom Verlaine. Born Thomas Miller, the future Television guitarist made friends with Richard Meyers a/k/a Richard Hell in boarding school. They ended up leaving school, moving to New York City, where Tom appropriated the last name of French poet Paul Verlaine. After forming The Neon Boys with Hell and Billy Ficca, they eventually added guitarist Richard Lloyd and became Television. While uninformed writers, to this day, talk about the CBGB’s scene as punk, it was really where ideas from the ‘60s were retooled into something contemporary, and Television combined some Velvet Underground, some precision sophisticated composition and an amazing instrumental attack into two classic albums (and their later reunion album was quite good). When Verlaine left, he carried on with a terrific solo career, with great art-pop songs, amazing guitar playing and odd but compelling lyrics. Let’s salute Tom by grabbing your iPod or MP3 player, hitting shuffle and sharing the first 10 songs that come up.