Randy Newman was born on this date in 1943. Lots of songs from him on today’s playlist.
https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/2U2ab5KT0a5uNLFha5cWSU?utm_source=generator
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With its songs about war, addiction, loneliness and death, John Prine’s self-titled album is just what I need to take my mind off all of the horrible news these days.
The late John Prine was born on this date in 1946. Several of his tunes are included on today’s playlist.
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I just learned that Robbie Robertson, who was the lead guitarist and songwriter for The Band, is of Cayuga and Mohawk descent and has supported causes such as the American Indian Movement and the Native American Rights Fund. He has also spoken out against the misrepresentation and appropriation of Indigenous cultures by non-Native people.
Robbie Robertson turns 80 today. Some of his work is included on today’s playlist.
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As today is the birthday of Cowboy Junkies’ Margo Timmins, several songs from their breakthrough album The Trinity Session are sprinkled throughout today’s playlist.
Some of the accolades earned by Lucinda Williams (b. January 26, 1953):
Seventeen Grammy Award nominations resulting in three wins – Best Country Song (1993) for “Passionate Kisses,” Best Contemporary Folk Album (1999) for Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance (2002) for “Get Right With God”
Made VH-1’s ranking of the 100 Greatest Women in Rock and Roll
Named America’s best songwriter by Time magazine
Appears on Rolling Stone’s list of the greatest songwriters of all time
Car Wheels on a Gravel Road named the best album of 1998 in the annual Village Voice poll of nearly 500 music critics
Is included on Glenn’s list of his 100 favorite artists
Here are thirty of her finest recordings:
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Nineteen eighty eight was, on the US pop music chart, one of those in-between years. The “New Wave” British invasion had greatly subsided and England wasn’t as much of a presence on the charts as it was a few years earlier. Rap was increasing in popularity and hitting the top 40 more frequently, though it was still a far cry from the dominant position it holds today. Of the hip hop song’s on today’s playlist, only two made it onto the Billboard Hot 100 – LL Cool J’s “Goin’ Back to Cali,” which peaked at #31, despite selling a million copies, and Rob Base & D.J. E-Z Rock’s “It Takes Two,” which peaked at #36, despite selling two million copies. Alternative music lived up to its genre name as an alternative to the music on the pop chart, so if you wanted to hear Sonic Youth or The Dead Milkmen or The Primitives, you had to tune into college radio or the stations on the left side of your FM dial. Those artists, alongside U2, R.E.M. and INXS, could be found on Billboard’s Modern Rock chart, which premiered in September of 1988. New Jack Swing tracks from artists such as Keith Sweat remained popular on Black radio and crossed over, while Black artists such as Tracy Chapman and Living Colour failed to make much of an impression on Black radio. So-called Hair Metal was a presence on the pop chart; grunge would help fix that in a few years. Configuration-wise, CDs outsold vinyl LPs for the first time in 1988, though cassettes outsold both.
Here are thirty of 1988’s finest:
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