Your (Almost) Daily Playlist: 10-2-23

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In the same room where Ian Fleming wrote James Bond novels Sting of The Police wrote what he called a “nasty little song” about his feelings of jealousy and obsession over his first wife following their divorce. I’m not sure if hearing the song everywhere helped him get over those feelings, but the money the song generated may have lifted his spirits.

Sting was born on this date in 1951. Lotsa Police songs on today’s playlist.

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Your (Almost) Daily Playlist: 7-28-23

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Devo’s “Whip It” was inspired by a magazine article about how to be a better wife. The song’s cowriter and bassist for the band, Gerald Casale, said he’d found that story in a 1962 issue of The Family Handyman and thought it was funny. He decided to write a song that parodied the idea of whipping your problems away. Casale also drew from communist propaganda posters and a 1973 novel by Thomas Pynchon called Gravity’s Rainbow, which mocks capitalist slogans with satirical limericks.He wrote lyrics that taken out of context sound like motivational clichés: When a good time turns around, you must whip it. Give the past a slip. Whip it into shape. Get straight. Go forward. Move ahead. And my personal favorite: Before the cream sits out too long, you must whip it.

Jerry Casale turns 75 today. A couple of Devo tracks, including their biggest hit, “Whip It,” are included on today’s playlist.

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Your (Almost) Daily Playlist: 5-14-23

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In 1988 or 1989 I saw Talking Heads’ David Byrne walking around in NYC’s Greenwich Village. In my memory of this he was wearing his big suit from the Stop Making Sense movie. That can’t be, though, right? He wouldn’t walk around the city in that get-up, would he?

David Byrne turns 71 today. Lotsa Talking Heads on today’s playlist in his honor.

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Your (Almost) Daily Playlist: 10-2-22

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Today’s playlist celebrates the October 2 birthdays of The Human League’s Phil Oakey, The Police’s Sting, Genesis’s Mike Rutherford, Richard Hell, Badly Drawn Boy, Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard, Don McLean, The Diamonds’ Dave Somerville, Hoodoo Gurus’s Dave Faulkner, Tiffany, Mousse T, Redbone’s Lolly Vegas, Aqua’s Lene Nystrom, Foxy/OXO’s Ish Ledesma, and Abbott & Costello’s Bud Abbott.