40 Song Memoir
Norman Greenbaum "Spirit in the Sky"
The first song that I truly fell in love with. I must've been five or six. My mom bought me the 7" the day after I told her about my newfound love.
Roy Orbison "Only the Lonely (Know the Way I Feel)"
My mom absolutely loved Orbison. This is the song that educated me on the expansiveness of music. It could touch emotions: sadness, despair, isolation -- the things we didn't talk about.
Elvis Presley "Suspicious Minds"
Man, playing this right now transported me right back to 1979 or so. My mom and stepdad would play CBS 101.5 over dinner, every night. When Elvis came on, my mom would light up. Especially during this song.
The Everly Brothers "Cathy's Clown"
Her favorite band, by a landslide. Whenever this came on, she'd turn to me, "'Cathy's Clown', named after me, but with a C." She really thought this was hilarious.
Bruce Springsteen "Jungleland"
My experience with music at my father's house was far different. At my mom's, I was usually in the same room as my mom as we listened. At my father's, I'd hear it streaming through the house at all hours. I latched onto "Jungleland." It always came on very late, sometimes early in the morning. The magic rat over the Jersey state line, drinking beer in the soft summer rain, taking a stab at romance and disappearing down Flamingo Lane. A song that's so damn good, it's almost hard to process. I didn't know what it all meant, but man it hit me.
Bob Seger "Against the Wind"
My dad loved music, and probably loved this song more than any other. Every single time I hear it, I get knotted up in my throat, and I'm not even sure why.
Bruce Springsteen "The River"
Even at the age of seven or eight, this song nailed me in the gut. Whenever it came on, deep into the night, it would challenge my spirit a bit. A gorgeous song, heard and absorbed under trying circumstances.
John Cougar "I Need a Lover"
One of the first songs I recall loving, without an assist from someone else. Never really got into Cougar's "hits", but man, I wore this one out.
Boston "Foreplay / Long Time"
Yep, loved these guys. Used to crank this record, on tape, while driving around Jersey in my brother's Camaro. Rock n' roll.
Elton John "Funeral for a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding"
Whenever WNEW would go through their Top 100 (or was it 200?) songs of all-time over the 4th of July weekend, I'd call in repeatedly and vote for this song. It usually cracked the top ten.
Bruce Springsteen "My Hometown"
One of the first songs to cause me to take a look at my own life. And belonging.
Michael Jackson "Thriller"
Michael Jackson literally took over the planet, right beside Springsteen. I sided with the guy from Jersey, but man, Thriller was an exceptional record.
The Commodores "Nightshift"
I remember listening to the radio when Marvin Gaye was killed. When I learned that his father was the man responsible, I simply couldn't make sense of it. When this song came out, paying tribute to Gaye, Jackie Wilson, and others, I was hooked.
Big Daddy Kane "Ain't No Half Steppin'"
And then I discovered hip hop. I was 14 or 15, basketball was my life, and hip hop was the backdrop to basketball.
Public Enemy "Don't Believe the Hype"
And then I discovered hip hop that had a message. A political and societal message. And it wasn't just a compliment to hoops; it was making me look at the world differently.
Steely Dan "Midnight Cruiser"
Probably listened to Fagan/Becker more than any other artist during high school. Pretzel Logic got a few thousand spins, but it was Can't Buy a Thrill that was my favorite. Still sounds incredible to this day.
Jimmy Buffett "Migration"
My good buddy, George DiCostanzo, absolutely loved Jimmy Buffett. We'd drive to the shore and he'd be ready with ten Buffett mixes. Deep cuts. Everything. Although Buffett remains an easy end to a music punchline, he has a number of very good, if not great, records. AIA is his best.
Phish "Chalkdust Torture"
We probably played this roughly 25x over the course of each party. Few guitar lines excite me as much as the one here. As I've recently started to rediscover the Dead, I'm now moving on to Phish.
Neil Young "Long May You Run"
As we wrapped high school, this was the song we played over and over and over. My buddy Jay even grabbed the intro. line as his yearbook quote, despite having no clue about the song. You're welcome, Jay.
Jerry Garcia "The Wheel"
My high school friends listened to endless Grateful Dead. The whole catalog. Hundreds of live shows. My favorite was always Jerry's solo record, Garcia. Still dig it to this day.
Pink Floyd "Mother"
My freshman roommate was a monster Floyd fan. He had all of their records, plus a ton of live shows, lined up next to bed, in some sort of order. I never took to Floyd, but when he put them on, I always requested this.
Counting Crows "Round Here"
Loved this record then and I'm ok admitting that I still love it.
Uncle Tupelo "New Madrid"
When our good friend from Maine, Andrew Flanders, tossed this song on one morning, everything changed. All the above music took a backseat, and Uncle Tupelo bridged me to a world of music that would literally change my life. I owned all four Uncle Tupelo records within days, and then came what happened the next 20+ years. Probably the most transformative song of my life.
Uncle Tupelo "Watch Me Fall"
And this is the song that took a bourgeoning interest and made it an explosive lifestyle interest.
Son Volt "Tear Stained Eye"
It was summer of '94 or '95. I flew to Cincinnati to visit my brother for a few days. When he picked me up at the airport, I got in his car and we said not a word. He just shot me a grin, slid a blank cassette into his tape player and on came 3-4 demo tracks from Son Volt's yet-to-be-released classic, Trace. I knew what it was without him uttering a word. We drove through the scorching Cincinnati streets in an A/C-less Accord, and it remains one of the happiest moments and days of my life. We picked up some beer and drove to his apartment, where we spent four straight days drinking, listening to music and talking about the things we loved. It's how I remember my times with him.
Vigilantes of Love "Sick of it All"
Maybe it was the trip just referenced, or maybe it was later, maybe 1998 or so. I was in Cincinnati again, and my brother and I had bought tickets to Vigilantes of Love, one of our favorite bands. When we arrived at the venue, there was no one there. Well, the band, a bartender, and the two of us. That was it. VOL played a solid 90 minutes for the three of us. And it was incredible. For reasons that would require a second memoir, my brother and I haven't spoken in close to 20 years, but this is a day I'll never forget. This and the day we saw Wilco and The Jayhawks in the Cincinnati Zoo. Wait, I need a song for that....
Whiskeytown "Inn Town"
Representative of the move from college to real life. I recall there being a Jeff Tweedy vs. Ryan Adams rivalry at the time; of course, I sided with JT, and although I never took to Ryan, Strangers Almanac is a masterpiece.
Slobberbone "Barrel Chested"
It was really their cover of Neil Young's "Powderfinger" at SXSW '99 that lifted me out of a rough spot, but I clearly recall "Barrel Chested" getting things started. I was going through some awful family issues at the time, and this set, in the pouring rain, ripped me out of my malaise.
The Strokes "Is This It"
Living in NYC at the turn of the century, these guys were inescapable. And deservedly so. One of the best debut rock albums of all-time, and drenched in everything New York.
Radiohead "Let Down"
When the subway made its way above ground a little after 8am, on the morning of 9/11/01, I turned off my portable CD player and sat there utterly confused. We then sat under the World Trade Center for at least 30 minutes, likely while the first tower collapsed. It took me four days to listen to music again, and when I hit play on the CD player, this song came on. And I lost it. Musically, this song is 9/11 to me.
Wilco "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart"
And then there was the aftermath. Wilco wouldn't release Yankee Hotel Foxtrot until 2002, but the album was done way prior. The echos of 9/11, written well before that awful day, are incredibly chilling. "I assassin down the avenue / I'm hiding out in the big city blinking" and later on "Jesus, etc.", "Tall buildings shake / Voices escape, singing sad, sad songs." A few thousand of us saw Wilco play Town Hall just a few weeks after 9/11; it was one of the strangest shows of my life.
Solomon Burke "Don't Give Up On Me"
Probably the song my girlfriend and I listened to the most while living in Brooklyn in the early/mid 2000s. We both fell in love with Solomon Burke.
Josh Rouse "Rise"
Standing on the F train platform, hating my job, needing a change and looking for answers. Rouse sings, "Catch the last ride on the Brooklyn train / Thirty years old and nothing's changed." I stood there stunned. I had to make a change. Within a few weeks, I would quit my day job, sign up full-time for a political campaign, and within a year, relocate to California. This song truly may have been the impetus for this change.
Arcade Fire "Haiti"
They were everywhere. And at first, I didn't take. And then I was suddenly living in Sunnyvale, California and I tossed it in the CD player and I was hooked. I can remember exactly where I was: Corner of El Camino and Wolfe, when the album hit.
Apollo Sunshine "Phyllis"
A few nights into SXSW, a few friends and I stumble upon the SpinART party, knowing nothing about the acts on the bill. I step into the room and there's a trio onstage playing some of the craziest, rowdiest rock n' roll I'd ever seen. Apollo Sunshine. The best set I've ever seen by a band I didn't know beforehand. Absolutely mind-blowing. Went on to see them 10 or so more times before they called it quits.
Aimee Mann "I Can't Get My Head Around It"
Maybe the most underrated album in my collection. This is pretty darn close to Blood on the Tracks of the 2000s. Twelve short stories that add up to a punch to the gut on repeat. This album was the soundtrack to my drives to Las Vegas to see my brother.
Josh Ritter "Right Moves"
The soundtrack to three great years. This was her favorite song...
Jay Farrar & Benjamin Gibbard "One Fast Move or I'm Gone"
A weekend in Big Sur. Many weekends in Big Sur.
LCD Soundsystem "Dance Yrself Clean"
Flew back to New York to catch what was supposed to be their last ever show. It wasn't, but it was one of the most exhilarating shows I've ever seen. With 40 not too far off, age just didn't matter.
The Monkees "Me and Magdalena"
What a shocker. The Monkees, coming in at 70 years plus across the board, release the best song of 2016. It's the perfect bookend to where I'm at in life, a direct line back to my mother playing The Monkees on repeat when I was a kid.
Listen.
