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I played several themed or connected blocks this week. I opened with a trio of New York punk (but not quite punk) artists - the Dictators, Blondie, and David Johansen. Then I tried an experiment that failed on several fronts. I was a teenager in the late seventies and early eighties, and much of the music I loved was, if not Top 40, popular radio tracks. My plan was to play several songs not usually heard by various bands. The primary failure was in my basic intent. There's no real reason to play bands you can hear on any rock station around the world on pretty much any given day. So, Boston and Styx will probably never show up again unless I can really argue it out with myself and make sense. As to Supertramp and ELO, well, definitely, but in a different context, most likely as part of a prog set. The second failure came when I couldn't play the Supertramp song ("
Oh Darling" for you who care), and I stepped all over the end of the Styx song. Total crap performance on my part.
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The short folky set was drafted to surround Y'all's "Mamaw." They were a folk/country/gospel duo who lived and played in NYC back in the 90s whom I saw several times and contributed money to releasing one of their albums. Their songs make me incredibly happy when I play them, on their own, and as links to a past in NYC before 9/11 and insane gentrification and overbuilding.
Next came the Mod/Modern block. Paul Weller and others in the nineties were moved to create some great music with roots in the Mod and freakbeat sounds of sixties London. So, I several tracks from the Small Faces and similar bands followed by Weller and several similar artists. It was easily the tunes I've loved putting together and playing most of all so far at Music I Like. Those who know me know I ain't no dancer, and yet I found myself bopping along to these songs.
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Finally, before ending the show with a Broadway-style track from Alice Cooper's
School's Out, I mixed things up with funny songs and very British songs. A mixed and enjoyable lot I have to say.
Music I Like, vol 1, #5 - Beneath the Backstreet Light
1 | New York, New York | Manitoba's Wild Kingdom | And You? | 1990 |
2 | Fan Mail | Blondie | Plastic Letters | 1978 |
3 | Frenchette | David Johansen | David Johansen | 1978 |
4 | Something About You | Boston | Boston | 1976 |
5 | Oh Darling | Supertramp | Breakfast in America | 1979 |
6 | Haven't We Been Here Before | Styx | Kilroy Was Here | 1983 |
7 | Since You've Been Gone | Rainbow | Down to Earth | 1979 |
8 | Rockaria! | ELO | A New World Record | 1976 |
9 | Brand New Cadillac | Vince Taylor | single | 1959 |
10 | Please Don't Touch | Johnny Kidd & the Pirates | single | 1959 |
11 | Mull of Kintyre | Wings | single | 1977 |
12 | Be Still | Los Lobos | The Neighborhood | 1990 |
13 | Mamaw | Y'all | The Next Big Thing | 1994 |
14 | Waiting for the Great
Leap Forward | Billy Bragg | Workers' Playtime | 1988 |
15 | All Her Favorite Fruit | Camper van Beethoven | Key Lime Pie | 1989 |
16 | Song of a Baker | Small Faces | Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake | 1968 |
17 | Coloured Rain | Traffic | Mr. Fantasy | 1967 |
18 | Butchers and Bakers | Les Fleur de Lys | single (as Chocolate Frog) | 1968 |
19 | Changingman | Paul Weller | Stanley Road | 1995 |
20 | Timeless Melody | The Las | The Las | 1990 |
21 | The Riverboat Song | Ocean Colour Scene | Moseley Shoals | 1996 |
22 | Mankind | Cast | All Change | 1995 |
23 | Goodbye, Eddie, Goodbye | case | Phantom of the Paradise | 1974 |
24 | Rubber Bullets | 10CC | 10CC | 1973 |
25 | Vicky Verky | Squeeze | Argybargy | 1980 |
26 | See Emily Play | David Bowie | Pin Ups | 1973 |
27 | It Must Be Love | Madness | single | 1981 |
28 | Prince of the Punks | The Kinks | single | 1977 |
29 | Girl of My Dreams | Bram Tchaikovsky | Strange Man Changed Man | 1979 |
30 | Rat Patrol | Naked Raygun | Throb Throb | 1985 |
31 | Still There's Hope | Young Fresh Fellows | This One's for the Ladies | 1989 |
32 | Grande Finale | Alice Cooper | School's Out | 1972 |
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