Category Archives: Playlists on Parade

Summer Songs – Playlists on Parade

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By Chris Moore:

As the summer months draw to a close, I figured it was about time to share my summer themed playlist.  What follows are twenty-five songs that celebrate the warmest season of the year, either in name or in spirit.

I’ve included the classics, like “Summer in the City” and “Hot Fun in the Summer Time,” as well as lesser known gems like America’s “Indian Summer” and the Prelude era Moody Blues track “Long Summer Days.”

Just for fun, I’ve thrown in “Summertime” by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, and I’ve made sure to update the list with the best song about summer to be released in years, the Barenaked Ladies’ “Summertime”

So, there’s a little bit of everything:  retro classics (Mungo Jerry), all-out rock (the Who), indie (Dashboard Confessional), acoustic (Jack Johnson), dated eighties pop (Miami Sound Machine), rap (DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince), and songwriter rock (Bob Dylan).

From me to you, I hope this’ll help you to keep on keepin’ the summer alive!

1)  “Indian Summer” – America

2)  “Summertime” – Barenaked Ladies

3)  “All Summer Long” – The Beach Boys

4)  “Summertime Blues” (Live) – The Who

5)  “Summer Skin” – Dashboard Confessional

6)  “Banana Pancakes” – Jack Johnson

7)  “It Must Be Summer” – Fountains of Wayne

8)  “Long Sweet Summer Nights” – The Thorns

9)  “Feels Like Summer Again” – The Wallflowers

10)  “The Other Side of Summer” – Elvis Costello

11)  “Hot Fun in the Summer Time” – Sly & the Family Stone

12)  “Summer in the City” – The Lovin’ Spoonful

13)  “Summertime” – DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince

14)  “San Francisco” – Brett Dennen

15)  “In the Summertime” – Mungo Jerry

16)  “Summer Means New Love” – The Beach Boys

17)  “Asleep on a Sunbeam” – Belle & Sebastian

18)  “In the Sun” – She & Him

19)  “Hot Summer Nights” – Miami Sound Machine

20)  “Walk in the Sun” – Bruce Hornsby

21)  “Keep An Eye on Summer” – Brian Wilson

22)  “Long Summer Days” – The Moody Blues

23)  “Keepin’ the Summer Alive” – The Beach Boys

24)  “Summer Days” – Bob Dylan

25)  “Your Summer Dream” – The Beach Boys

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Barenaked Ladies & Wallflowers Non-Album Tracks – Playlists on Parade

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By Chris Moore:

While I always have been and always will be an “album guy,” I have to admit that the ability to download singles does indeed have its merits.  Until recently, music fans haven’t had very good options when their favorite artists and bands record non-album tracks.  We’ve essentially had two options: 1) buy the soundtrack, import, etc. that the song was released on, or 2) wait years for an official compilation album to come out.  In the first case, you’ve spent more money than it’s probably worth and you’re left with a handful of songs that you don’t want and won’t listen to.  In the second case, well…

Who wants to wait that long?

So, I’ve just recently been putting aside my distaste for downloading music and started scavenging iTunes for songs I’m interested in.  What I never expected to find was a wealth of non-album tracks from two of my all-time favorite bands: the Barenaked Ladies and the Wallflowers.  I was thrilled to find twenty songs that weren’t forgettable throw-aways.  For the most part, the twenty songs I found and downloaded were well worth the price of admission.

Of course, I couldn’t help myself:  I just had to create a playlist!

The twenty songs you’ll find below run the gamut from demos to covers to generally unheard gems.  I couldn’t get enough of the Wallflowers’ take on the Rubber Soul classic “I’m Looking Through You,” so that quickly became the lead-off track.  Odd as it may seem coming from a guy who regularly contributes to a cover song music video blog, I don’t consider myself a fan of covers.  (You’d better believe, for instance, that I laughed out loud about two sentences into a serious article about an upcoming Phil Collins album of Motown covers.)  That being said, there are some phenomenal ones here, not the least of which are BnL’s cover of “Oh Yoko” and Jakob Dylan and Dhani Harrison’s take on “Gimme Some Truth.”  There’s something special about hearing a performance by the sons of two of the best singer/songwriters in rock music history, one of whom is a distinguished singer/songwriter in his own right.

I was blown away by the Barenaked Ladies originals that I found.  Typically, a band saves their crummiest little numbers for this sort of fare, so I certainly didn’t expect a BnL song on the Simple Life soundtrack to be anything stellar.  Go ahead, though:  listen to “The Other Day I Met A Bear” and just try to stop yourself from dragging and dropping it into your BnL music folder.  While “One Little Slip” isn’t anything outstanding, it’s a fun track, as much as “La La La La Lemon” is a funny track.

What weaves these covers and originals together on this playlist are the great live takes, particularly the iTunes Originals versions.  “After the Blackbird Sings” hails from the Wallflowers’ forgettable self-titled 1992 debut, but it is more than resurrected here.  I was thrilled to finally get a live version of “It’s All Been Done,” made all the more enjoyable for me because it reminds me of singing backup during MoU performances of this great track.

If you’re a Barenaked Ladies and/or Wallflowers fan, and especially if this year’s All in Good Time (BnL) and Women & Country (Jakob Dylan) releases weren’t enough to satiate you, then I know you’ll love the songs on this playlist.

1)  “I’m Looking Through You” – The Wallflowers

2)  “One Little Slip” – BnL

3)  “After the Blackbird Sings” (iTunes Originals Version) – The Wallflowers

4)  “The Other Day I Met A Bear” – BnL

5)  “Everything I Need” (iTunes Originals Version) – The Wallflowers

6)  “Easy” (acoustic) – BnL

7)  “6th Avenue Heartache” (Live) – The Wallflowers

8)  “La La La La Lemon” – BnL

9)  “God Says Nothing Back” (Demo Version) – The Wallflowers

10)  “Gimme Some Truth” – Jakob Dylan (feat. Dhani Harrison)

11)  “It’s All Been Done” (Live) – BnL

12)  “Whispering Pines” – Jakob Dylan

13)  “Sleepwalker” (iTunes Originals Version) – The Wallflowers

14)  “Oh Yoko” – BnL

15)  “Here He Comes (Confessions of a Drunken Marionette)” (Original Demo) – The Wallflowers

16)  “Into the Mystic” – The Wallflowers

17)  “Eat You Sleeping” – The Wallflowers

18)  “They Long to Be Close to You” – BnL

19)  “Letters from the Wasteland” (iTunes Originals Version) – The Wallflowers

20)  “Don’t Cry No Tears” (Live) – The Wallflowers

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Chris’ Mix (Vol. 1): Music I Discovered in 2008 – Playlists on Parade

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By Chris Moore:

As promised, this second edition of Playlists on Parade will feature my first “music discovery” playlist.  For those that missed the first post, I wanted to put together a series of my favorite songs of 2008.  Rather than restrict the lineup to those songs that had been newly released in 2008, I decided to include my favorite songs I had first heard during the year.

Now, I should note that I put this list together in late April of 2009, so I lumped in a few songs that were technically released in 2009.  That being said, I was careful this year (2010) to make a more pure 2009 version for the second volume.

I hope you’ll enjoy the brief notes I’ve included below, and that you’ll check out these great tracks if you haven’t already heard them!

1)  “I Got You” – Stone Temple Pilots

If you like “Sour Girl,” then this is a second STP song you should listen to.  Not as dynamic as “Sour Girl,” but a great track nonetheless.

2)  “Pot Kettle Black” – Wilco

Up until the 2010 release of BnL’s “You Run Away,” this was my number one most-listened-to song on my iPod hands-down.  And there’s a reason:  this is one of the best little numbers off Wilco’s turn-of-the-millennium classic Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

3)  “What Love Can Do” – Bruce Springsteen

(Okay, so this is technically from 2009 and should have ended up on Volume Two…)  Why this wasn’t the lead-off single for Working on a Dream, I’ll never know.

4)  “The Joke’s On Me” – Jordan Zevon

Compared to his father, a legend and a genius of a songwriter, Jordan Zevon’s album falls a bit short.  Still, there are some winners, like this wonderfully sardonic track.

5)  “Low Light” – Pearl Jam

I actually included this PJ song not because it was my favorite, but rather because it seemed to fit the straightforward rock and roll feel I was trying to set with this playlist.  A subtle, but superb track.

6)  “Come Around” – The Counting Crows

A great track off of what is perhaps the second greatest Counting Crows album, Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings – my choice for first would, of course, be Recovering the Satellites.  “Come Around” has it all: it’s upbeat, catchy, and is lyrically and instrumentally entertaining.

7)  “Supernatural Superserious” – R.E.M.

I was generally non-plussed by most of R.E.M.’s albums and deep tracks that I had heard before Accelerate, but “Supernatural Superserious” is an exemplary sample from what has quickly become one of my favorite rock albums.

8)  “At Least We Made It This Far” – Relient K

Relient K is a band that I grow fonder of with each new release, and 2008’s EP was no exception.  While my jaw dropping was reserved for a piano version of “Who I Am Hates Who I’ve Been,” the slot on this playlist had to go to this new track.

9)  “Brother” – Pearl Jam

What a lost gem!  It’s not so difficult to see why Jeff Ament almost quit Pearl Jam when Stone Gossard held firm to his desire not to play this song any longer.  Phenomenal.

10)  “Looking Forward to Seeing You” – The Golden Smog

This is a pretty good sampling of the Golden Smog sound, including some background work by Jeff Tweedy.

11)  “Impossible Germany” – Wilco

I discovered Wilco in 2008, and they were the band that I listened to more than any other that year.  I was going through some sadness, particularly in the last third of the year, and Wilco’s sound was what I needed for commiseration and for a rebirth.  For an example of the latter, I’ve included “Impossible Germany.”  Please take note of the beautiful dual guitar solos.

12)  “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye”  – Leonard Cohen

I went back in time a bit farther for this classic Cohen track.  He was a singer/songwriter that I had certainly heard of, but had never actually heard any songs performed by him.  This was one of my favorites, even more so after I figured it out on guitar.

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The Bob Dylan Concert Primer: November 2010 – Playlists on Parade

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By Chris Moore:

Since Mike, Nicole, and I are getting revved up for Bob Dylan’s upcoming November 27th concert at the MGM Grand, I’ve been designated the task of preparing a soundtrack for preparation.  I’ve been so busy that I’ve let time slip by since Mike asked me, but I couldn’t allow this to go any farther than tonight.

I started by looking up the set lists for Dylan’s past ten shows (this was made simple by them being easily available on Dylan’s Facebook page).  Each set list is comprised of between 15 and 17 songs, so I sorted through all of the songs and put a tally mark next to each track for each time it was performed.

Well, 53 songs later, it was only somewhat clearer which songs might be played at our November 27th show!

I’ve done my best here to put together the tracks that have been played most often, sorting through different versions I have on my iTunes to pick for not only the best versions, but also to add variety to the playlist.  And “Thunder on the Mountain,” “Ballad of a Thin Man,” “Jolene,” and “Like A Rolling Stone” have been played at every show in the same order, so those are a fairly certain bet (unless he switches it up in the next few weeks).  I’ve put them at the end of the playlist, as they were most often the end of the set list, so don’t stop before you reach those!

Once I compiled this playlist, I couldn’t help but post it here online…

Without further ado, here it is, my November 2010 Bob Dylan Concert Primer.  For all those going to see Dylan this month, I hope this is helpful!  🙂  (For the true Dylan fanatic, I’ve posted my raw data notes below this playlist.)

1)  “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat” – The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Live, 1966

2)  “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’” – Together Through Life (2009)

3)  “Highway 61 Revisited” – Highway 61 Revisited (1965)

4)  “Just Like a Woman” – Blonde on Blonde (1966)

5)  “Summer Days” – Love & Theft (2001)

6)  “Workingman’s Blues #2” – Modern Times (2006)

7)  “Tangled Up in Blue” – Blood on the Tracks (1975)

8)  “Cold Irons Bound” – Masked & Anonymous (2003)

9)  “Simple Twist of Fate” – The Bootleg Series Vol. 5: Live 1975

10)  “High Water (For Charley Patton)” – The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs (Live Version, 2003)

11)  “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” – Modern Times (2006)

12)  “Thunder on the Mountain” – Modern Times (2006)

13)  “Ballad of a Thin Man” – Highway 61 Revisited (1965)

14)  “Jolene” – Together Through Life (2009)

15)  “Like a Rolling Stone” – Highway 61 Revisited (1965)

Statistics compiled from 10 setlists of shows between Oct 19 and Oct 31, 2010.  Each night, Dylan played between 15 and 17 songs.

Leopard Skin                                                iiiiiiii

This wheels                                                i

stuck inside                                                iii

just like a woman                                    iiiiiii

beyond here                                                iiii

tangled up                                                iiiiii

rollin and tumblin                                    iiii

spirit on the water                                    ii

high water                                                iiiiiiiii

workingman’s blues                                    iiii

highway 61                                                iiiiiiiiii

ain’t talkin                                                i

Thunder on the                                     iiiiiiiiii

ballad of a thin man                        iiiiiiiiii

Jolene                                                iiiiiiiiii

Like a rolling stone                        iiiiiiiiii

senor tales of                                                ii

I’ll be your baby                                                 i

the levee’s gonna                                    iiii

i don’t believe you                                    i

honest with me                                                ii

a hard rain’s a-gonna                                    ii

cold irons bound                                                iiii

love sick                                                            ii

nettie moore                                                ii

rainy day women #12                                     i

Don’t think twice                                                ii

tryin’ to get to heaven                                    ii

blind willie mctell                                    i

summer days                                                iiii

cat’s in the well                                                i

it’s all over now baby blue                                    ii

things have changed                                    ii

desolation row                                                ii

not dark yet                                                i

all along the watchtower                                    ii

lay lady lay                                                i

Man in the long black                                    i

i feel a change comin on                                    i

visions of johanna                                    i

Masters of war                                                i

simple twist of fate                                    iiii

just like tom thumb’s                                    i

forgetful heart                                                i

It ain’t me babe                                                i

tweedle dee & tweedle dum                        i

if you ever go to houston                                    iii

when the deal goes down                                    i

the man in me                                                i

positively 4th street                                    i

the lonesome death of hattie                        i

forever young                                                i

queen jane approximately                                    i

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