Ladysmith Black Mambazo - Nomathemba

From the Long Walk to Freedom soundtrack.

Getting ready for the real start of the baseball season

FARK.com: Fark YouTube Player (3493646) The King covers "Sweet Caroline." Complete with sweet dance moves

Gnarls Barkley - Who's gonna save my soul

Modern R&B with a classic Al Green feel.

Electric Flag - Another Country

As with so many talented folks, Mike Bloomfield died too young, died of just too much of too much. He founded the Electric Flag after leaving the Butterfield band in 1968. The one album, A Long Time Comin', had rich talent - Nick Gravenites, Buddy Miles, Harvey Brooks - and laid out a rich set of complex tunes with amazing blues threads holding it all together. The sweetness of Easy Rider sits up there with Peter Green's Albatross in my blues licks hall of fame.

Wormtown Underground Radio Network

Wormtown Underground Radio Network

3 Mustaphas 3 - Soba Song

Let's see, we have a west Texas swing song extolling the virtues of a Japanese noodle soup, modulo some klezmer and middle Eastern woodwinds. It's like tuning into four or five radio stations at once.

Buena Vista Social Club - Chan Chan

Back in the day, before iPods, I had small MP3 player that could hold four CDs. Most commonly, I'd put the playback on a loop and listen while trying sleep on the red-eye back from California. This was one of the albums, along with Jimi Hendrix's Blues, U2's Rattle and Hum, and Peter Gabriel's live album.

WBCN-FM: March 15, 1968 - New England Music Scrapbook

Happy Belated Birthday, 'bcn. WBCN-FM: March 15, 1968 - New England Music Scrapbook

I found the station late one night in April of '68. They played the long version of The Doors' Light My Fire, which caught my attention as I was spinning the FM dial. The next song, Paul Butterfield's East-West, is a permanent fixture in my playlist.

Thanks to Laughing Goose the Weatherman, aka Charles Laquidara, for posting this.

Van Morrison - Hymns to the Silence

Title track from one of The Belfast Cowboy's best albums.

Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense

The sound track to their concert film is a great collection of music for walking or other exercise. The rhythms are strong and the musical and lyrical hooks are great. For example, here's Life During Wartime.

Jimi Hendrix: Hear My Train A Comin'

Sleeps with Butterflies: Hear My Train A Comin'

Rolling Stones - favorite albums

It's a coin-toss between Exile on Main Street and Beggar's Banquet. The former is a bit stronger musically, while the latter tells better stories.

Marvin Gaye - What's Going On

As with Curtis Mayfield around the time of Superfly, this song and album is a deep and unending ache for what's happening on the street corner. Gaye, however, not only looks at the drugs and gangs and violence, but also looks up and around to see the bigger issues of the environment and the economy and how they, too, are destroying life in the city.

Interesting, too, how the background strings add sweetness while the lyrics and rhythm section keep punching forward. By comparison, here's Freddy's Dead without strings.

YouTube - Vampire Weekend- Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa

Great guitar hook: YouTube - Vampire Weekend- Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa

Van Halen - Dreams

Most of VH's best stuff, of course, comes from the David Lee Roth years, but Dreams is great showcase for Sammy Hagar, as well as Eddie on keyboards. (DLR's Jump also includes a good keyboard-as-rhythm-section.)

Dreams came out about the same time as the Challenger explosion and I still associate the tune with the images of the twisting smoke in the sky. This video shows the Blue Angels in their maneuvers with the song as a backdrop.

YouTube - Jonathan Richman- Roadrunner

Probably the only song that mentions Stop & Shop: YouTube - Jonathan Richman- Roadrunner

YouTube - The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again (live)

Happy Birthday, Roger Daltry - YouTube - The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again (live)

Best rock 'n roll scream evar.

OH, BY THE WAY, DID YOU KNOW THAT PETE TOWNSHEND IS ALMOST DEAF?