100 Songs To Hear Before You Die

Okay, I finally had to nick this idea from Bruiser. I had to comment here and there though.

1. Alejandro Escovedo – “Ballad of the Sun & the Moon” I swear this is about the Conquistadors or something.
2. Alice in Chains – “Don’t Follow” How many times and ways did Layne Staley sing about his impending death? This one strikes me as being particularly gripping though.
3. Allman Brothers – “Don’t Want You No More/It’s Not My Cross to Bear” The first lyric from the first Allman Bros album was, "I have not come to testify about our bad, bad misfortune." And Duane wasn't even dead yet.
4. Atomic Bitchwax – “Kiss the Sun”
5. Bad Brains – “Sheba” Only HR could sing about, what, some sort of ancient ruler of the Copts? Is that who Sheba was? And do it in the context of a Rastafarian hardcore song.
6. Bevis Frond – “Stain on the Sun” Gorgeous, just gorgeous
7. Buick Mackane – “Loose” Yeah yeah, I know this is an Iggy/Stooges cover. There’s just something so damn great about hearing Escovedo wail, “I’m feeling fine… going down on you…” It just feels so GUY.
8. Chris Whitley – “Poison Girl” from Chris Whitley at Martyrs. He sounds like she’s waiting for him in the dressing room…
9. Conjunto Cespedes – “Flores Para Tu Altar” has one of the catchiest horn riffs ever
10. DeVotchKa – “We’re Leaving” If Roy Orbison had provided vocals for all the old Clint Eastwood spaghetti Westerns, perhaps it would have sounded like this.
11. Femi Kuti – “Beng Beng Beng” Sultry Afro-funk from one of the most charismatic performers you’ll ever experience
12. Helmet – “In the Meantime”
13. Jason Falkner – “Eloquence”
14. Jeff Beck – “Where Were You?” Heartbreaking, and there’s not a single lyric
15. Jellyfish – “The Glutton of Sympathy”
16. Junior Kimbrough – “You Better Run”
17. King’s X – “Lover” Very few lyrics in this one, but they make their point: “You wanna be my friend, but I wanna be your lover.”
18. Living Colour – “Nothingness”
19. Lyle Lovett – “She’s Already Made Up Her Mind”
20. Merle Haggard – “Holding Things Together”
21. Metallica – “Stone Cold Crazy” Their cover of the Queen song is their greatest moment if you ask me
22. Motorhead – “Ace of Spades” Seriously, everyone on the planet should hear this.
23. Otis Taylor – “Few Feet Away” I had a 20 minute crying fit the other day that started with hearing this song.
24. Peter Gabriel – “Biko” Shakes me up every single time I hear it
25. Pugwash – “I Want You Back in My Life”
26. RL Burnside – “Come On In”
27. Randy Newman – “Louisiana 1927”
28. Rory Block – “Titanic (When That Great Ship Went Down)”
29. Smashing Pumpkins – “Drown” Nothing like an 8-minute feedback solo to clean out the ol’ synapses
30. Soundgarden – “Boot Camp” What a longing, melancholy, overlooked classic from a great band
31. Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs – “Good Morning”
32. Townes Van Zandt – “Waiting Around to Die”
33. Varnaline – “Sweet Life” Who needs morphine when this song’s readily available?
34. Wayne Kramer – “Poison”
35. The Bellrays – “Black Honey”
36. The Beatles – “Tomorrow Never Knows”
37. Primus – “As the Toys Go Winding Down”
38. The Jackson 5 – “Dancing Machine” Seriously, do you realize how funky this song is?
39. BB King – “Chains and Things”
40. Billie Holiday – “Don’t Explain”
41. Charles Brown – “I Cried Last Night”
42. Dr. John (with Double Trouble) – “Baby, There’s No One Like You”
43. Hound Dog Taylor – “Crossroads” Want to hear an amp cry out in pain?
44. Johnny Cash – “Hurt” Okay, so you’ve probably heard this. Seriously though, how remarkable was it for him to take THAT song by THAT artist (Nine Inch Nails) and make it his own at THAT age?
45. Muddy Waters – “Mannish Boy” from the Hard Again CD. Yeah, I could go the purist’s route and go with his original recording of this from the 50s, okay, but really, THIS is the one that’ll grab you by the lapels
46. Nick Drake – “Black Eyed Dog”
47. Otis Redding – “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)”
48. Patsy Cline – “Sweet Dreams”
49. Porcupine Tree – “Arriving Somewhere”
50. Ramones – “Teenage Lobotomy”
51. Stevie Wonder – “I Wish”
52. Replacements – “Can’t Hardly Wait” Going with Bruiser’s pick here. I know this isn’t the purist’s choice for best song or even best album from the ‘Mats, but I’m sorry—this is one flawless piece of music
53. Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. – “The Land of Pure Imagination”
54. Van Morrison – “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You”
55. XTC – “Your Dictionary” A great kiss-off to an ex
56. MC5 – “Kick Out the Jams”
57. Dash Rip Rock – “I Saw the Light”
58. The Reivers – “Lazy Afternoon”
59. Bruce Daigrepont – “Le Diable Est Lache (The Devil is Loose)”
60. Mary Coughlan – “Woman Undone” Please do not listen to this within reach of razor blades or a bottle of sedatives. Or near a cliff.
61. Boozoo Chavis – “Dog Hill”
62. Jeff Buckley – “So Real” Love it, just love it
63. Robert Bradley’s Blackwater Surprise – “Higher”
64. Drivin’ ‘n’ Cryin’ – “Honeysuckle Blue”
65. Imperial Drag – “Illuminate” Can the human voice really do this??
66. Howlin’ Wolf – “Evil” Still gives me chills
67. Lightnin’ Hopkins – “My Starter Won’t Start This Morning”
68. Buddy Guy – “I Smell a Rat”
69. Courtney Granger – “Depuis l’age de Quinze Ans (Since the Age of Fifteen)” A nephew of the great Dewey Balfa realizes his prodigious talent
70. Jimmy Dale Gilmore – “Tonight I Think I’m Gonna Go Downtown”
71. Blind Willie Johnson – “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground” Why this was even recorded I don’t know. Chilling slide guitar.
72. Dock Boggs – “Pretty Polly” One of the darkest songs ever, and it’s set to a banjo.
73. Eric Johnson – “Trail of Tears”
74. Minor Threat – “Out of Step”
75. Los Lobos – “Will the Wolf Survive?”
76. Lazy Lester – “Nothing But the Devil”
77. Los Natas – "Patas de Elefante"
78. Michelle Shocked – “Making the Run to Gladewater”
79. Social Distortion – “Under My Thumb”
80. Stevie Ray Vaughan – “Life by the Drop”
81. Asie Payton – “I Love You”
82. Robert Belfour – “My Baby’s Gone”
83. Material Issue – “Valerie Loves Me”
84. L.E.O. – “Goodbye Innocence” Andy Sturmer finally opens his mouth again.
85. Chris Lee – “Sail On” I’d listen to this man sing his grocery list
86. Kyuss – “50 Million Year Trip”
87. Albert King – “I’ll Play the Blues for You”
88. Freddie King – “Have You Ever Loved a Woman?” This isn’t blues; it’s pathos
89. Joe Ely – “Me and Billy the Kid”
90. Archie Edwards – “I Had a Little Girl”
91. Concrete Blonde – “Tomorrow, Wendy”
92. Brendan Benson – “Sittin’ Pretty”
93. Beausoleil – “Hey Baby Qua Ca Dit?”
94. Badfinger – “No Matter What”
95. Chet Baker – “My Funny Valentine”
96. Robert Johnson – “Hellhound on My Trail”
97. Son House – “Death Letter”
98. Hermano – “The Bottle”
99. Fishbone – “Sunless Saturday”
100. Sugar – “If I Can’t Change Your Mind”

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That was fun!

If I had half a brain I could make some Bruiser/bruise joke about the photo below, but I believe too much Black Sabbath rendered me incapable.
That's the kind of cool bruise one gets in Krav Maga. Specifically, today we worked on "360 defenses" (among many other things).

This is the result of going forearm to forearm with an "assailant" over and over and over. Bone to bone. Yes, it hurts. Fun though!

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MOBB and I sat down and listend to the Beatles' LoveCD tonight. I finally bought the doggone cable necessary to get 5.1 audio here on my Hi Fidelity Briscoe-matic sound system.

It's a brilliant re-interpretation of the Beatles stuff, I must say. And it sounds great.

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Guess I'd better sign off before I go on some tangent about square waves or the infield fly rule. Night night.