I Feel Love - Songs 1977

More songs from 1977. Part 2 of 4. Continues where Part 1 left off and starts off with that incredible Donna Summer single with it's euro style electonica followed by Kraftwerk. Both these songs would go on to have a tremendous impact on music in the years and decades to come. After a bit of pure funk the mix gets into some reggae because in my world 1977 was full of those rastaman vibrations. Reggae had a lot of influence on punk back in that day especially with the Clash. The mix ends with some more disco from Saturday Night Fever and I guess you had to be there as they say but 1977 was all about the beat.

1.   Donna Summer - I Feel Love (I Remember Yesterday)
2.   Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express (Trans-Europe Express)
3.   Parliament - Flash Light (Funkentelechy Vs. The Placebo Syndrome)
4.   Bob Marley & The Wailers - Jamming (Exodus)
5.   Third World - 1865 (96 Degrees in the Shade) (96 Degrees in the Shade)
6.   The Congos - At The Feast (Heart of the Congos)
7.   The Heptones - Mr. President (Party Time)
8.   The Clash - (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais (The Clash)
9.   Elvis Costello - Less Than Zero (My Aim Is True)
10. The Jam - In The City (In The City)
11. Eddie & The Hot Rods - Quit This Town (Life On The Line)
12. The Stranglers - No More Heroes (No More Heroes)
13. Blonde - Detroit 442 (Parallel Lines)
14. Ramones - Sheena Is A Punk Rocker (Rocket To Russia)
15. Heatwave - Boogie Nights (Saturday Night Fever)
16. Bee Gees - You Should Be Dancing (Saturday Night Fever)
17. The Trammps - Disco Inferno (Saturday Night Fever)
18. K.C. & The Sunshine Band - Keep It Comin' Love (I Like To Do It)

Readings 2011 - Fiction

My favorite fiction book that I read in 2011 was a Nick Hornby novel from 2009. I've read several of his books and always enjoy them. This one was particularly fun and when I scanned my reading list for the year it quickly rose to the top. Last year my favorite novel was Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell so this year I went back and read an earlier novel and also his latest book which made my number 2.  The Passage was my favorite thriller for the year.

Overall I usually don't read a lot of series based on one or group of characters although over the course of several decades I've read a few. However, this year I read a lot more than usual. Last year I read several Philip Kerr books about a Berlin detective/private investigator that takes place in the 1930s to 1950s and I continued reading a couple more this year. They keep getting better and a new one has just been published so I'll have a least one more for next year's list. I also started reading another detective series but this was based in Bangkok. I read all four in the series and I think there has been a little drop off in quality but the characters and locale are very fascinating.

I also read all three books in the Swedish Millennium series. They were great reads but in need of an editor. I also saw all three of the Swedish films and look forward to seeing the Hollywood version although I think it would be very hard to top the original films. I read another Swedish novel, Let Me In, that also had two very good films based on the book but the book was much more intense than either film. A very creepy read.

And then there is the Song of Ice and Fire. I really don't like reading modern fantasy series and especially if they have anything to do with dragons. I read some articles about these books before embarking on the ride. I found that I really enjoyed the story and the characters in this strange world. I went through the first three books very quickly. The fourth book plodded along somewhat and by the time I got to the fifth book I was getting bored. After all the time and effort of getting through these books I started losing interest. I think Martin has lost his way and is just making it up as he goes along. I'm really not in any hurry to pick up another one of those books again although I would like to see the TV series sometime but certainly not enough to get HBO.

1. Juliet, Naked - Nick Hornby, 2009
2. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet - David Mitchell, 2010
3. The Passage - James Cronin, 2010
4. Field Grey - Philip Kerr, 2010
5. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson, 2005
6. Let Me In - John Ajvide Lindovist, 2008
7. A Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin, 1996
8. Bangkok 8 - John Burdett, 2003
9. Homer and Langley - E. L. Doctorow, 2009
10. The One Form The Other - Philip Kerr, 2006
11. Ghostwritten - David Mitchell, 2000
12. The Firl Who Played With Fire - Stieg Larsson, 2006
13. The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson, 2010
14. A Quiet Flame - Philip Kerr, 2008
15. Empty Mile - Matthew Stokoe, 2010
16. Bangkok Tattoo - John Burdett, 2006
17. A Clash of Kings - George R. R. Martin, 1998
18. A Storm of Swords - George R. R. Martin, 2000
19. Bangkok Haunts - John Burdett, 2008
20. If The Dead Rise Not - Philip Kerr, 2009
21. A Feast For Crows - George R. R. Martin, 2005
22. The Godfather of Katmandu - John Burdett, 2011
23. A Dance With Dragons - George R. R. Martin, 2011
24. Zero History - William Gibson, 2010

Readings 2011 - Nonfiction

This is my list of nonfiction books that I read in 2011, however, only one of these books were published in 2011.  This is not a best or favorites list for the year but rather a snapshot of some of my reading habits of the year. Actually I read more fiction this year but that is another list. It also doesn't count books I might have read for work or the many Drupal manuals I spent so many hours with this year.

Compiling this list is very easy because I've been keeping track of my readings for decades. I initially used notebooks but later in word processor documents to maintain lists of my readings. The lists contains the book title, author, date of publication and the month I completed reading it all separated by years. All fiction books are in italics to distinguish them from non-fiction at a glance. So it's easy to compile lists
.
1493 was a wonderful eye-opening look at how the world changed after the discovery of the New World and the resulting globalization that started then and continues today. It was a fascinating exploration of our world and contains an enormous amount of facts, insights, provocative arguments, great storytelling and mind boggling details. I had previously read Mann's 1491 which was a description of the New World before Columbus. I also thoroughly enjoyed Atlantic which I read right before 1493 and was what could be called a biography of the Atlantic Ocean. It was a book of history, geography, science and literature.

I'm always up for a good political tirade and Naomi Klein certainly provided one in The Shock Doctrine. The book was published in 2007 but it was very pertinent to the events happening while I was reading it in 2011 with the Republicans creating a fake disaster over the debt ceiling. This is required reading for anyone wishing to understand the motivation of the GOP as a control mechanism for the corporatist elite.

1. 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created - Charles Mann, 2011
2. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism - Naomi Klein, 2007
3. The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court - Jeffrey Toobin, 2008
4. John Coltrane: The Story of a Sound, 2007
5. A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage and the Quest for the Color of Desire - Amy Butler Greenfield, 2005
6. Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories - Simon Winchester, 2010
7. God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570 to 1215 - David Levering Lewis, 2010
8. Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin - Timothy Snyder, 2010

I only have 8 books listed here which is an usually small number of non-fiction books I usually read during a year. There is also only one biography but it was a good one. That one was the third biography of John Coltrane that I've read but the one that concentrated the most on his music. I got a couple of Coltrane box sets as a result.

I always enjoy reading history and this year's list as usual had a few. Bloodlands was the incredible story of suffering of Central Europe stuck between the genocidal policies of Hitler and Stalin. A different perspective on a war we think we know about. Sort of the same with God's Crucible which was a balanced perspective of Europe in the "Dark Ages" and the Islamic culture of the Iberian peninsula.  A Perfect Red is another one of the books I love to read that takes a simple thing or idea and exams all the historical and cultural possibilities. In this case the subject is red dye.

The Nine was a real eye opener. The Supreme Court certainly has it's share of political hacks. Scalia and Thomas most of all. I always felt that George Bush stole the election and now I know for sure that it was done. Activist judges indeed.

A post of my fiction readings for the year coming up with 25 books on that list.

What The Hell Is Wrong With Me - Songs 1977

Songs from 1977. An incredible year for music. This is Part 1 of a long mix of 60 songs that includes some of my favorite songs across many genres that make up this personal point of view.

These are songs from my collection but not everything here was pounding out of my stereo in 1977 although much of it was and all of it would be in a few years.

Many of these albums and bands would be the foundations of my collection for years to come and several of my all time artists are represented here such as The Clash, Talking Heads, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Television, and David Bowie. Many more will be in Parts 2 and 3. It was a year of punk, new wave, disco, funk, reggae and just plain great rock. This is a mix of some of the music that made 1977 a fun year in music.  We were in college and there were lots of house parties. Some of the art school dance parties exposed us to some cutting edge punk, disco and reggae sounds. 


1.   The Clash - What's My Name (The Clash)
2.   Ramones - Cretin Hop (Rocket To Russia)
3.   The Sex Pistols - Pretty Vacant (Never Mind The Bollocks)
4.   Television - Friction (Marquee Moon)
5.   Talking Heads - New Feeling (Talking Heads: 77)
6.   Brian Eno - King's Lead Hat (Before and After Science)
7.   David Bowie - Sound and Vision (Low)
8.   Iggy Pop - The Passenger (Lust For Life)
9.   Elvis Costello - Watching The Detectives (My Aim Is True)
10. Wire - Strange (Pink Flag)
11.  Suicide - Rocket USA (Suicide)
12.  Cheap Trick - I Want You To Want Me (In Color)
13.  The Damned - New Rose (Damned Damned Damned)
14.  Dave Edmunds - I Knew The Bride (When She Used To Rock & Roll) (Get It)
15.  Tom Waits - I Never Talk To Strangers (Foreign Affairs)
16.  Steely Dan - Josie (Aja)
17.  Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way (Rumours)
18.  Earth, Wind & Fire - Fantasy (All 'n' All)
19.  ABBA - Dancing Queen (Arrival)
20.  Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive (Saturday Night Fever)

Crazy Conservative Uncle

Everyone has a crazy conservative uncle. Sometimes more than one. Could be an aunt too. As a kid I remember having some crazy conservative uncles around but things were different back then because you really only had to hear their crazy rants or have to put up with their obnoxious pontificating at occasional family gatherings. Things are different now because they have our email addresses.

I'm talking about the constant flow of forwarded right wing rants, racists blather, and general hatred for fellow Americans that regularly appear in my mailbox from relatives that are trying to educate (brainwash?) the younger generation in conservative values. These things really took off during the 2008 presidential campaign in my family. All throughout that time period anyone with an email address was subjected to the newly discovered Internet by some of our elderly relatives who were on a mission to avoid what they thought would be the end of their world if Barack Obama was elected president. There has been a steady flow of forwarded emails on a large variety of topics usually describing urban myths, computer viruses and political conspiracy theories along with the usual outright lies about President Obama. Occasionally I would respond with the documented description of the falsehood from Scopes or another fact checking website. Sometimes one of my cousins' children would respond with a spirited denouncement of the obvious lie or misinterpretation of fact. However, the thing that bothered me the most about these emails was the mailing list of young people. People in my extended family that should be looking to their elders for wisdom but finding their email boxes filled with lies and hate.

Did I say Tea Party yet? The picture here is a typical tea party folks gathering to attack the government and complain about government spending. The crazy conservative uncle is a tea party person collecting Social Security and Medicare.

I've decided to devote a part of my blog to responding to these emails. Yes, every time I get one of those obnoxious emails I will post it here and comment on it. I was already going to be commenting on politics as part of my 60@60 blog but now there will be a section specifically called "Crazy Conservative Uncle" and I will invite all those who receive the emails to come here and read my response.

I just got another email about Soros funding Snopes. I'm going to have fun with this one but that will be for later.

60 Albums 2011

My personal favorite albums from my collection for 2011. These selections are based on my listening habits for the year and the higher ranked albums were the ones that I kept coming back to over and over.

Once again I couldn't stop at 60 but forced myself to end the list at 120. Bon Iver tops the list which also topped many people's end of the year list of favorite albums. I can't stop listening to it. I loved his first album but this one moved way beyond the song into pure sound. The War on Drugs was a close second for me. It sounded like so much that has gone before it but also utterly unique.  Fleet Foxes and Wilco both put out wonderful albums this year. I really liked the Jesse Sykes album which was very different than the previous album. This one sounded very California psychedelic retro... sort of like Moby Grape with a female singer. The California sound from the 70s is all over this list but especially the new Dawes album. The Radiohead album was another surprise that I kept on repeated play. The more I played it the higher it rose on the list. Most of this stuff is fairly mellow but... I'm 60 now.

1. Bon Iver - Bon Iver
2. The War on Drugs - Slave Ambient
3. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
4. Wilco - The Whole Love
5. Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter - Marble Son
6. Radiohead - The King of Limbs
7. The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow
8. Dawes - Nothing Is Wrong
9. M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
10. Atlas Sound - Parallax 
11. Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
12. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Holo
13. St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
14. The Antlers - Burst Apart
15. Smith Westerns - Dye It Blonde
16. Peaking Lights - 936
17. Middle Brother - Middle Brother
18. The Black Keys - El Camino
19. The Horrors - Skying
20. Tom Waits - Bad As Me
21. Charles Bradley - No Time For Dreaming
22. The Decemberists - The King is Dead
23. Cass McCombs - Humor Risk
24. Sigur Ros - Inni
25. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
26. Washed Out - Within and Without
27. CANT - Dreams Come True
28. My Morning Jacket - Circuital 
29. The Raveonettes - Raven in the Grave
30. Tune-Yards - Whokill
31. Panda Bear - Tomboy
32. Anthony Hamilton - Back to Love
33. Destroyer - Kaputt
34. James Blake - James Blake
35. Yuck - Yuck
36. The Stokes - Angles
37. The Kills - Blood Pressures
38. Adele - 21
39. Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't Know
40. A.A. Bondy - Believers
41. Cults - Cults
42. Dum Dum Girls - Only In Dreams
43. Gillian Welch - The Harrow & The Harvest
44. Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean
45. Joe Henry - Reverie
46. Ryan Adams - Ashes & Fire
47. Vetiver - The Errant Charm
48. King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Diamond Mind
49. Yellowbirds - The Color
50. Cut Copy - Zonoscope
51. Lucinda Williams - Blessed
52. Battles - Gloss Drop
53. Over The Rhine - The Long Surrender
54. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. - A Corporate World
55. EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints
56. Eleanor Friedberger - Last Summer
57. TV On The Radio - Nine Types Of Light
58. Real Estate - Days
59. Fucked Up - David Comes To Life
60. Alexi Murdoch - Towards The Sun
61. Hayes Carll - KMAG YOYO ( & Other American Stories)
62. Drive-By Truckers - Go-Go Boots
63. Thurston Moore - Demolished Thoughts
64. Death Cab For Cutie - Codes and Keys
65. Raphael Saadiq - Stone Rollin'
66. Joss Stone - LP1
67. Wye Oak - Civilian
68. Emmylou Harris - Hard Bargain
69. Cavemen - CoCo Beware
70. The Mountain Goats - All Eternals Deck
71. Black Lips - Arabia Mountain
72. Feist - Metals
73. Booker T. Jones - The Road From Memphis
74. The Cave Singers - No Witch
75. Okkervil River - I Am Very Far
76. Todd Snider - The Storyteller
77. Paul Simon - So Beautiful So What
78. Jolie Holland - Pint of Blood
79. The Low Anthem - Smart Flesh
80. Matthew Sweet - Modern Art
81. J. Mascis - Several Shades of Why
82. Ry Cooder - Pick Up Some Dust and Sit Down
83. John Hiatt - Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns
84. Cass McCombs - Wit's End
85. Steve Earle - I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive
86. Marissa Nadler - Marissa Nadler
87. Greg Brown - Freak Flag
88. The Airborne Toxic Event - All At Once
89. Elbow - Build A Rocket  Boys
90. Bright Eyes - The People's Key
91. Robbie Robertson - How To Become A Clairvoyant
92. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Belong
93. Telekinesis - 12 Desperate Straight Lines
94. Seryn - This Is Where We Are
95. Kate Bush - 50 Words For Snow
96. Ben Harper - Give Till It's Gone
97. Timber Timbre - Creep On Creepin' On
98. Danger Mouse - Rome
99. R.E.M. - Collapse Into Now
100. Akron/Family - S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT
101. DeVotchKa - 100 Lovers
102. David Lynch - Crazy Clown Time
103. Blitzen Trappen - American Goldwing
104. Wild Flag - Wild Flag
105. Radiohead - TKOL RMX 1234567
106. Still Corners - Creatures of an Hour
107. Charlotte Gainsbourg - Stage Wisper
108. Release The Sunbird - Come Back To Us
109. The Joy Formidable - The Big Roar
110. Sandro Perri - Impossible Spaces
111. Beady Eye - Different Gear, Still Speeding
112. Kathryn Calder - Bright and Vivid
113. Tyler Ramsey - The Valley Wind
114. East River Pipe - We Live In Rented Rooms
115. Bjork - Biophilia
116. Marketa Irglova - Anar
117. Pieta Brown - Mercury
118. Lindsey Buckingham - Seeds We Sow
119. The Nightwatchman - World Wide Rebel Songs
120. The Ettes - Wicked Will

There were some great collections this year too.

1. The Beach Boys - Smile
2. Rockpile - Live at Montreaux 1980
3. Various Artists - Rave On Buddy Holly
4. Various Artists - Johnny Boy Would Love This... A Tribute To John Martyn
5. Jimi Hendrix - Winterland
6. Primal Scream & The MC5 - Black To Comm: Live at the Royal Festival
7. Neil Young - A Treasure
8. Various Artists - The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams
9. Iggy Pop - Roadkill Rising... The Bootleg Collection 1977-2009
10. Etta James - Heart & Soul: A Retrospective
11. The Brian Jonestown Massacre - The Singles Collection: 1992-2011
12. The Hollies - Clarke, Hicks & Nash Years: The Complete Hollies 1963-1968
13. The Radio Dept. - Passive Aggressive: Singles 2002-2010
14. Neil Diamond - The Bang Years 1966-1968
15. Gorillaz - The Singles Collection: 2001-2011
16. Ty Segall - Singles 2007-2010
17. Ladytron - Best of Ladytron 2000-2010
18. The Vagrants - I Can't Make A Friend 1965-1968
19. Chicago - Live in 1975

60 Albums 1976

I stepped back a year to 1976 which of course was very different than 1977. I was in college and living in the Germantown section of Philadelphia which at that time was all about the funk. Parliament and Funkadelic was happening and disco was already becoming too mainstream to be cool anymore although Saturday Night Fever was just around the corner. We also had the very beginnings of what we would know as punk and new wave with the first albums my Blondie, Ramones, Patti Smith and the classic Modern Lovers which was actually recorded in 1973. Little did we know where things were heading.

David Bowie was entering his Thin White Duke period and this album really blew me away. Was this my all time favorite Bowie album? Not hardly. He had many great albums and this is another one.

Reggae was becoming a big part of my collection and we were going down to South Street to regularly see live reggae acts perform at Grendel's Lair. I was also getting into dub and loved to play it at house parties. Freaked people out.

That Joan Armatrading continues to be one of my all time favorite albums.

1. David Bowie - Station To Station
2. Joan Armatrading - Joan Armatrading
3. Bob Dylan - Desire
4. Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life
5. Ramones - Ramones
6. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Rastaman Vibration
7. Tom Waits - Small Change
8. The Modern Lovers - The Modern Lovers
9. Steely Dan - The Royal Scam
10. Blondie - Blondie
11. Joni Mitchell - Hejira
12. Marvin Gaye - I Want You
13. Electric Light Orchestra - A New World Record
14. Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action
15. Peter Tosh - Legalize It
16. Average White Band - Person To Person
17. Burning Spear - Garvey's Ghost
18. Patti Smith - Radio Ethiopia
19. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
20. Elvis Presley - The Sun Sessions
21. Jeff Beck - Wired
22. Parliament - The Clones of Dr. Funkenstien
23. The Wild Tchoupitoulas - The Wild Tchoupitoulas
24. Jackson Browne - The Pretender
25. The Heptones - Nightfood
26. Funkadelic - Hardcore Jollies
27. Toots & The Maytals - Reggae Got Soul
28. Stomu Yamashta's Go - Go
29. Hall & Oates - Bigger Than Both Of Us
30. Jimmy Cliff - Follow My Mind
31. The Mighty Diamonds - Right Time
32. Bootsy's Rubber Band - Stretchin' Out In Bootsy's Rubber  Band
33. Horslips - The Book of Invasions
34. Miles Davis - Water Babies
35. Bob Dylan - Hard Rain
36. Eddie & The Hot Rods - Teenage Depression
37. Bunny Wailer - Blackheart Man
38. Todd Rundgren - Faithful
39. The Runaways - The Runaways
40. Funkadelic - Tales of Kidd Funkadelic
41. Graham Parker - Howin' Wind
42. Laura Nyro - Smile
43. 801 - 801 Live
44. Earth, Wind & Fire - Spirit
45. John Martyn - Live at Leeds
46. The Beach Boys - 15 Big Ones
47. Ian Hunter - All American Boy
48. Burning Spear - Man In The Hills
49. The Rolling Stones -  Black and Blue
50. Santana - Amigos
51. Gary Burton - Dreams So Real
52. Steve Goodman - Words We Can Dance To
53. Warren Zevon - Warren Zevon
54. Linda Ronstadt - Hasten Down The Wind
55. Boz Scaggs - Silk Degrees
56. Soft Machine - Softs
57. Melanie - Photograph
58. Bryan Ferry - Let's Stick Together
59. J. Giles Band - Live: Blow Your Face Out
60. Diana Ross - Diana Ross

60 Albums 1977

My favorite 60 albums from my collection released in 1977. A lot of people say it was one of the greatest years for rock music. I certainly had my favorites. I was in college at the time and spending a whole lot of my income on records but I still collected a lot that year.

It wasn't just about the emergence of punk and what would soon be known as New Wave. For me it was also a continuation of my exploration and emergence in reggae and jazz. This list probably has my largest number of reggae albums of any year. There are also many albums that one would see on other 1977 lists that don't appear here at all. Oh well. This is my list of favorites and I wasn't listening to Billy Joel and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Here are some mixes of songs from 1977:

• Songs 1977 Vol. 1 - What The Hell Is Wrong With Me - List
• Songs 1977 Vol. 2 - I Feel Love - List 
• Songs 1977 Vol. 3 - Sex & Drugs & Rock n Roll - List 
• Songs 1977 Vol. 4 - Sun Is Shining In The Sky - List 

1. The Clash - The Clash
2. Television - Marquee Moon
3. David Bowie - Heroes
4. Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True 
5. Ramones - Rocket To Russia
6. Talking Heads - Talking Heads: 77
7. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Exodus
8. Brian Eno - Before and After Science
9. Iggy Pop - Lust For Life
10. Neil Young - Decade
11. Wire - Pink Flag
12. Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks Here Are The Sex Pistols
13. David Bowie - Low
14. Van Morrison - A Period Of Transition
15. Garland Jeffreys - Ghost Writer
16. The Saints - (I'm) Stranded
17. Joan Armatrading - Show Some Emotion
18. Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express
19. Tom Waits - Foreign Affairs
20. Steely Dan - Aja
21. Parliament - Funkentelechy vs. The Placebo Syndrome
22. Augustus Pablo - East of the River Nile
23. John Martyn - One World
24. Santana - Moon Flower
25. The Congos - Heart of the Congos
26. Dave Edmunds - Get It
27. Third World - 96 Degrees in the Shade
28. Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel
29. Ramones - Leave Home
30. Augustus Pablo - Augustus Pablo Meets King Tubby Uptown
31. Mink DeVille - Cabretta
32. Leonard Cohen - Death of a Ladies' Man
33. Iggy Pop - The Idiot
34. Eddie & The Hot Rods - Life On The Line
35. Peter Tosh - Equal Rights
36. Ornette Coleman - Dancing In Your Head
37. The Jam - In The City
38. Electric Light Orchestra - Out Of The Blue
39. Burning Spear - Dry and Heavy
40. Little Feat - Times Loves a Hero
41. Richard Hell & The Voidoids - Blank Generation
42. Jackson Browne - Running On Empty
43. Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers - Rock 'N' Roll With The Modern Lovers
44. The Jam - This Is The Modern World
45. Blondi - Plastic Letters
46. Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
47. Robert Gordon - Robert Gordon with Link Wray
48. Horace Andy - In The Light
49. The Beach Boys - Love You
50. The Stranglers - Rattus Norvegicus (IV)
51. Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers - L.A.M.F.
52. Culture - Two Sevens Clash
53. Suicide - Suicide
54. Cheap Trick - Cheap Trick
55. Earth, Wind & Fire - All 'n' All
56. The Heptones - Party Time
57. The Damned - Damn Damn Damn
58. Cheap Trick - In Color
59. Joni Mitchell - Don Juan's Reckless Daughter
60. The Kinks - Sleepwalker

More...

• The Rolling Stones - Love You Live
• Cluster & Eno - Cluster & Eno
• Neil Young - Decade
• Miles Davis - Dark Magus
• Charles Mingus - Three or Four Shades of Blue
• Eric Clapton - Slowhand

Spinning Out Gracefully - Songs 2011

The second mix of Songs 2011. Some favorite songs from some favorite albums of 2011. Another 60 minutes or so. It was a very good year for music.









1.   My Morning Jacket - Circuital (Circuital)
2.   Yellowbirds - Beneath The Reach Of Light (The Color)
3.   The War On Drugs - Come To The City (Slave Ambient)
4.   Over The Rhine - Rave On (The Long Surrender)
5.   Beck - Stormbringer (Johnny Boy Would Love This... A Tribute To John Martyn)
6.   Kurt Vile - Baby's Arms (Smoke Ring For My Halo)
7.   James Blake - The Wilhelm Scream (James Blake)
8.   Charles Bradley - I Believe In Your Love (No Time For Dreaming)
9.   Adele - Rumor Has It (21)
10. The Black Keys - Gold On The Ceiling (El Camino)
11. The Kills - Satellite (Blood Pressures)
12. EMA - California (Past Life Martyred Saints)
13. The Antlers - French Exit (Burst Apart)
14. Cass McCombs - Love Thine Enemy (Humor Risk)
15. Wilco - I Might (The Whole Love)
16.  The Decemberists - Down By The Water (The King Is Dead)

You Know What I Mean - Songs 2011

This is my fist mix featuring songs from my favorite albums of 2011. The 60 song mix didn't last very long and I changed this up to be multiple part mixes of about 60 minutes each so it's still 60@60.

This has been a good year and I have many songs and albums to highlight. Of course I started this off with a song from one of the great releases of the year... The Beach Boys' The Smile Sessions. It sets the tone for everything that follows but especially the first few songs.

This is the first 60 minutes of my Songs 2011 series. The songs are not ranked but are arranged to sound good together.

All albums released in 2011.


1.  The Beach Boys - Our Prayer (The Smile Sessions)
2.  Bon Iver - Holocene  (Bon Iver)
3.  Fleet Foxes - Lorelai (Helplessness Blues)
4.  Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter Here Comes Mary (Marble Son)
5.  Dawes - If I Wanted Someone (Nothing Is Wrong)
6.  The Civil Wars - I've Got This Friend (Barton Hollow)
7.  Middle Brother - Million Dollar Bill (Middle Brother)
8.  Atlas Sound - Angel is Broken (Parallax)
9.  Cults - You Know What I Mean (Cults)
10. Smith Westerns - Still New (Dye It Blond)
11. Girls - Honey Bunny (Father, Son, Holy Ghost)
12. Dum Dum Girls - Bedroom Eyes (Only In Dreams)
13. St. Vincent - Year Of The Tiger (Strange Mercy)
14. M83 - Midnight City (Hurry Up, We're Dreaming)
15. CANT - Too Late, Too Far (Dreams Come True)
16. Radiohead - Louts Flower (The King of Limbs)

Some videos from some favorite albums of 2011

60 Artist on High Rotation

I looked at my Last.fm listing of artists that is based on my iTunes play and here is a listing of my most popular artists as determined by Last.fm and iTunes. I set this up in early 2008 and it only counts plays on selected devices like my iPod and computers. It doesn't count CDs played anywhere and of course I still play lots of CDs but it is something of a snapshot of this recently tuned 60 guy.

So here is my Top Artist list from the last 4 years as determined by the number of times I played a song from these artists. David Bowie wins this contest by a landslide.

1. David Bowie
   
2. Tom Waits
3. The Brian Jonestown Massacre
4. Yo La Tengo
5. Bob Dylan
6. Neil Young
7. Jimi Hendrix
8. The Kinks
9. Robyn Hitchcock
10. XTC
11. Radiohead
12. The Byrds
13. Grizzly Bear
14. The Beach Boys
15. The Green Pajamas
16. The Rolling Stones
17. Julian Cope
18. Tunng
19. The Kingsbury Manx
20. Miles Davis
21. Fleet Foxes
22. Wilco
23. Blur
24. My Morning Jacket
25. Vic Chesnutt
26. Big Star
27. Eels
28. The Jam
29. The Clash
30. T. Rex
31. Damien Jurado
32. Over the Rhine
33. Alejandro Escovedo
34. The Kills
35. Otis Redding
36. Richard Thompson
37. Cream
38. Akron/Family
39. John Prine
40. Field Music
41. The Jesus and Mary Chain
42. Los Lobos
43. Brian Eno
44. The Cure
45. R.E.M.
46. Elysian Fields
47. The Besnard Lakes
48. Robert Plant
49. Six Organs of Admittance
50. Charlotte Gainsbourg
51. James Brown
52. The Stone Roses
53. Echo & The Bunnymen
54. Holly Golightly
55. Mavis Staples
56. M. Ward
57. The Detroit Cobras
58. Talking Heads
59. Joe Henry
60. Leonard Cohen
    

60 Albums 1982

My favorite 60 albums from 1982. In general I have not agreed with the common perception expressed by some people that the 80's was a bad decade for music. Like every other decade there was plenty of great music and lots of trash. This list of 60 albums released in 1982 was a little more difficult putting together. There a plenty of great albums to make a short list but 60 was a challenge within my criteria for inclusion.

I was very much involved in the music in 1982. I worked as a DJ, booked local bands in a club, hung out in record stores and bought lots of albums. This is also the year that MTV and music videos in general started making a big impact on the music scene. It would be a few more years before we started getting cable and the only place we saw the new videos was in some bars. It's hard now to imagine that there were some bars that had TVs showing MTV over the bar.

I picked Marshall Crenshaw for the top spot because this first album of his has stood the test of time in my world. I saw him touring with this album and I have seen him touring recently. This album led me to be a lifelong fan and I have over a dozen of his albums. This particular album is timeless with a great collection of pop songs. I still listen to it.

I also often still listen to my number 2 which is another timeless album full of great songs as is the number 3.

1. Marshall Crenshaw - Marshall Crenshaw
2. Roxy Music - Avalon
3. Richard & Linda Thompson - Shoot Out the Lights
4. XTC - English Settlement
5. Elvis Costello - Imperial Bedroom
6. The Clash - Combat Rock
7. X - Under the Big Black Sun
8. The English Beat - Special Beat Service
9. Talking Heads - The Name of This Band is Talking Heads
10. Prince - 1999
11. Dexys Midnight Runners - Too-Rye-Ay
12. The Cure - Pornography
13. The Dream Syndicate - The Days of Wine and Roses
14. Midnight Oil - 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1
15. Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
16. Lou Reed - The Blue Mask
17. Marvin Gaye - Midnight Love
18. The Church - The Blurred Crusade
19. The Jam - The Gift
20. ABC - The Lexicon of Love
21. Rank & File - Sundown
22. Wall of Voodoo - Call of the West
23. Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel
24. Laurie Anderson - Big Science
25. Squeeze - Singles: 45's and Under
26. The Gun Club - Miami
27. The Psychedelic Furs - Forever Now
28. Gang of Four - Songs of the Free
29. Tom Verlaine - Words From the Front
30. Squeeze - Sweets From a Stranger
31. Robyn Hitchcock - Groovy Decay
32. Grace Jones - Living My Life
33. Defunkt - Thermonuclear Sweat
34. Siouxsie & The Banshees - A Kiss in the Dreamhouse
35. Material - One Down
36. Yaz - Upstairs at Eric's
37. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Long After Dark
38. James Blood Ulmer - Black Rock
39. Pigbag - Dr. Heckle and Mr. Jive
40. Split Enz - Time and Tide
41. Kate Bush - The Dreaming
42. King Crimson - Beat
43. Roseanne Cash - Somewhere in the Stars
44. Mission of Burma - Vs.
45. Robert Wyatt - Nothing Can Stop Us
46. King Sunny Ade - Juju Music
47. Thomas Dolby - The Golden Age of Wireless
48. Van Morrison - Beautiful Vision
49. Donald Fagen - The Nightfly
50. The Bongos - Drums Along the Hudson
51. Ronald Shannon Jackson - Mandance
52. Hunters & Collectors - Hunters & Collectors
53. James White & The Blacks - Sax Maniac
54. Various Artists - Eraserhead
55. Hall & Oates - H2O
56. Gregory Isaacs - Night Nurse
57. Warren Zevon - The Envoy
58. Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - The Message
59. David Lindley - Win This Record
60. A Flock of Seagulls - A Flock of Seagulls
61. The Time - What Time Is It?
62. Michael Jackson - Thriller
63. The dB's - Repercussion
64. The Stray Cats - Built For Speed
65. Fun Boy Three - Fun Boy Three
66. Depeche Mode - A Broken Frame
67. INXS - Shabooh Shoobah
68. Simple Minds - New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)
69. The Associates - Sulk
70. Bauhaus - The Sky's Gone Out
71. Haircut 100 - Pelican West
72. Kim Wilde - Select
    

The Blog Has Moved

This blog has evolved into something new...
60@60 Sounding Booth

See you there.

60 what?

I said I was going to do mixes with 60 songs as part of my 60@60 theme and I just posted one. So now I'm having second thoughts. I still like the theme of 60@60 but the 60 songs thing is a little unwieldy. I really need to do something efficiently to make it work in my time restraints. Heck, I'm not retired yet.

Putting 60 songs together in a quality mix is very time consuming. I have several of them in various stages right now and I need to get them posted.

Here is the process. I choose the songs and place them in a carefully selected sequence. I move them to a different directory and run them through a program that equalizes the sound volume of the songs which are coming from a wide variety of sources with sometimes drastically different sound quality. I put each song into a sound editor program, blend the songs together and then save the results as an MP3 file. The file is then uploaded to Mixcloud and I fill out an online form with the song titles and artists. It includes a graphic and tags. I also post the mix to Zero to the mixing community and also to this blog. Maybe Facebook too.

So I'm looking for ways to streamline the process and I decided to go back to my standard approximately hour long mixes that I've been doing for years... decades. It's what I've been used to doing and it will still fit into my 60@60 theme. It will be 60 minutes of songs instead of 60 songs. Yeah. That works.

I can still make the larger collections but they will be broken down to parts like I just did with the House Party 1968 mix. Recently I had created these very large playlist on various themes that go on for hours. I can break them up and get them here soon. I will also continue to put together my 60 albums by year lists and I will be doing some single artists mixes too.

I will also be going back to my old blog and grabbing some lists and ramblings to post here. It's the end of the year with lots of those end of the year lists that I love and I'll be making my own and commenting on others. It's also an election year coming up and I'll have a lot to day about that mess. This is going to be fun.

House Party 1968

This is my first posting of an actual mix of 60 songs to this blog. This is a throwback mix to my very early days spinning records as a high school kid in Philadelphia. I was an obsessive collector starting in the mid 60s. I visited record stores and read everything I could find on new music. I had my first job in 1968 making decent money back then working in a machine shop shoveling the hot chips flying off the lathes. Most of my pay went for buying records and going to shows. During that summer I was checking out the West Coast bands playing at the original Electric Factory down on Arch Street, hanging out downtown at the head shops on Samson Street and groovin' at the Be-Ins in Fairmount Park. There were also many house parties in the neighborhood and I was the guy with the music so I got invited along with my box of 45s.


I had playlist of stuff that worked good at these parties but this was not some DJ setup that would evolve later on. There would just be a record player with a changer that would play a stack of singles in the order they were placed on the spindle.

So long before mixes were created on mp3 playlist, burned CDs and cassettes there was the carefully selected stack of 7" 45 rpm singles sitting on a record changer. The mix listed here is taken from my collection of 45s from 1968 which I still have. In fact I probably still have every single, album, tape and CD that I have be accumulating for about 46 years now. I've never sold or gotten rid of anything from my collection much to my wife's chagrin.

This mix here is a sample of our neighborhood party music. Lots of soul music and especially Motown. We also played lots of what would later be called Nuggets. People loved to dance so everything here had the house shaking. Not all the parties were non stop dancing and more and more albums of head music were getting played but that is another post and another mix.

So here it is. House party music from my stack of 45s in 1968.

1. Sweet Soul Music - Arthur Conley
2. Ain't Too Proud To Beg - The Temptations
3. You Can't Hurry Love - The Supremes
4. Too Many Fish In The Sea - The Marvelettes
5. I Heard It Through The Grapevine - Gladys Knight & The Pips
6. I'll Be Doggone - Marvin Gaye
7. This Old Heart Of Mine - The Isley Brothers
8. There Is - The Dells
9. Knock On Wood - Eddie Floyd
10. I Thank You - Sam & Dave
11. Land Of A Thousand Dances - Wilson Pickett
12. Funky Broadway Pt. 1 - Dyke & The Blazers
13. Boogaloo Down Broadway - The Fantastic Johnny C
14. Ain't Nothin' But A House Party - The Showstoppers
15. Mickey's Monkey - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
16. (Love Is Like A) Heat Wave - Martha & The Vandallas
17. Jenny Take A Ride - Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels
18. I Saw Her Standing There - The Beatles
19. Twist and Shout - The Beatles
20. Peppermint Twist - Joey Dee & The Starlighters
21. You Can't Sit Down - The Dovells
22. South Street - The Orlons
23. Keep On Dancing - The Gentrys
24. Dance Dance Dance - The Beach Boys
25. Barbara Ann - The Beach Boys
26. Shake A Tail Feather - Five Du-Tones
27. The 81 - Candy & The Kisses
28. Get On Up - The Esquires
29. Cool Jerk - The Capitols
30. Some Kind Of Wonderful - Soul Brothers Six
31. Gimme Some Lovin' - The Spencer Davis Group
32. Satisfaction - The Rolling Stones
33. Fire - The Jimi Hendrix Experience
34. I Got The Feelin' - James Brown
35. Think - Aretha Franklin
36. Reach Out I'll Be There - The Four Tops
37. Needle In A Haystack - The Velvelettes
38. Just A Little Misunderstanding - The Contours
39. Ain't No Mountain High Enough - Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
40. Uptight (Everything's Alright) - Stevie Wonder
41. Shake and Fingerpop - Jr. Walker & The All Stars
42. Expressway To Your Heart - The Soul Survivors
43. I'm A Man - The Spencer Davis Group
44. (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet - The Blues Magoos
45. Mony Mony - Tommy James & The Shondells
46. Nobody But Me - The Human Beinz
47. Over Under Sideways Down - The Yardbirds
48. Little Girl - Syndicate of Sound
49. 96 Tears - ? & The Mysterians
50. Suzie Q - Creedence Clearwater Revival
51. Little Bit O' Soul - The Music Explosion
52. Going To A Go-Go - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
53. Dance To The Music - Sly & The Family Stone
54. Devil With The Blue Dress On/Good Golly Miss Molly - Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels
55. Louie Louie - The Kingsmen
56. Gloria - The Shadows of Knight
57. I Can't Help Myself - The Four Tops
58. Nowhere To Run - Martha & The Vandallas
59. I Heard It Through The Grapevine - Marvin Gaye
60. Ooo Baby Baby - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles

Turned 60

Well, I've turned 60. Several people had been asking me what I was doing for my birthday since it was such a milestone. I had big parties at 30, 40 and 50 but I really didn't feel like a party. This birthday is different. Yes, it's a milestone but it is also the start of a new experience which is the approaching years of retirement and declining health. Best not to think about that. My health is pretty good right now and my accounts indicate that retirement is probably still a long way off. Oh well.

After a lot of thought and consideration I decided to mark my birthday and entrance into the decade of my 60's with this blog. I've had several previous blogs, personal websites and assorted online social media sites. I shut most everything down and I'm concentrating on this one blog which I'm calling 60@60. I added the Sounding Booth part because that was part of my last blog's title. The 60@60 came about because I decided to put together mixes and various other lists with 60 items. I've always been a great maker of lists and I have lots of resource material to draw from. I've also been a long time maker of mix tapes going back a few decades. I have literally hundreds of mix tapes stored in boxes and many more CD mixes shelved in my third floor music man cave.

So I thought I'd spend the year of 60 putting together various 60@60 lists. Most will be music oriented but there will also be lists of books, movies, etc. I'm also going to be continuing to make my rants and ramblings about politics. I started up this blog several weeks ago and began putting up some lists of 60 favorite albums from various years. This will continue for awhile. I will also be putting up playlists of 60 songs from a particular artist and theme mixes of 60 songs. There will be links to players that will allow you to listen to the mixes. I will also be creating more links and tweaking this site. This is where I'm going to document my experiencing the 60s's again.

I talked about the lists and the rankings in an earlier post here and I posted an intro to this blog here.

60 Albums 1971

1971 was another Navy year and much of it was spent at sea. I didn't have the opportunity to keep and collect many new albums except when we occasionally arrived back in Norfolk and I got some leave time.

Most of what I have listed here I acquired later in the '70s but there are a few scattered throughout the list that accompanied me on my voyages. Most of my time at sea was in the Caribbean sailing on the USS Portland. We spend time in Panama, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Aruba, Martinique, Curacao, Colombia, Venezuela and of course Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. We made several cruises back and forth and also took a quick trip to the Mediterranean Sea for my first of several crossings of the Atlantic. During this time I got to appreciate the cassette player.

So I did have a few of these albums on the ship in 1971. We could actually buy some albums from the ship store but of course they sold out very quickly. Cigarettes were .25 cents a pack.

Several great albums top this list starting with the Stones' first album using their tongue & lips logo and the controversial Andy Warhol crotch cover which wasn't Mick Jagger. My second pick could very easily be first. It is one of the greatest soul albums of all time.

1. The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
2. Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
3. T. Rex - Electric Warrior
4. Sly & The Family Stone - There's a Riot Goin' On
5. Cat Stevens - Teaser and the Firecat
6. Van Morrison - Tupelo Honey
7. The Who - Who's Next
8. The Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East
9. America - America
10. Yes - Fragile
11. Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells a Story
12. Mahavishnu Orchestra - The Inner Mounting Flame
13. John Lennon - Imagine
14. David Bowie - Hunky Dory
15. Elton John - Madmen Across the Water
16. Jimi Hendrix - The Cry of Love
17. The Beach Boys - Surf's Up
18. Flamin' Groovies - Teenage Head
19. Funkadelic - Maggot Brain
20. Joni Mitchell - Blue
21. Santana - Santana III
22. Isaac Hayes - Shaft
23. Carole King - Tapestry
24. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV
25. War - All Day Music
26. Traffic - The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys
27. Laura Nyro & Labelle - Gonna Take a Miracle
28. The Kinks - Muswell Hillbillies
29. Janis Joplin - Pearl
30. Jimi Hendrix - Rainbow Bridge
31. Faces - A Nod Is as Good as a Wink... to a Blind Horse
32. Jethro Tull - Aqualung
33. The Doors - L.A. Woman
34. Badfinger - Straight Up
35. Can - Tago Mago
36. Miles Davis - A Tribute to Jack Johnson
37. John Prine - John Prine
38. Leonard Cohen - Songs of Love and Hate
39. Frank Zappa - Fillmore East - June 1971
40. Roy Harper - Stormcock
41. Traffic - Welcome to the Canteen
42. Pink Floyd - Meddle
43. John Martyn - Bless the Weather
44. Miles Davis - Live-Evil
45. Harry Nilsson - Nilsson Schmilsson
46. Elton John - 17-11-70
47. Bill Withers - Just as I Am
48. David Crosby - If I Could Only Remember My Name
49. Gene Clark - White Light
50. Curtis Mayfield - Roots
51. Mott the Hoople - Brain Capers
52. Townes Van Zandt - Delta Momma Blues
53. Hawkwind - In Search of Space
54. Gong - Camembert Electrique
55. The Moody Blues - Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
56. Alice Cooper - Love It To Death
57. Groundhogs - Split
58. Howlin' Wolf - The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions
59. Judee Sill - Judee Sill
60. Chicago - Chicago III