Ah Pennsylvania, home of Quakers, Rocky, and a baseball team that is currently surgically removing my heart, throwing batteries at it, booing it, turning on it because it's an african american, and leaving it for the vultures (Eagles). Needless to say, it took lots of restraint and artistic integrity to keep me from just filling this list with a bunch of weak ass Carly Simon songs. I DID manage to overcome my rage to put together 16 songs meant to progress from Philly westward.
1) The Roots - Essaywhuman??!!!???!
Has any band ever been more quintessentially Philly than the Roots? This early track from their 1996 album "Do You Want More?" has everything you want from the most creative force in hip hop and one of those bands that just about everyone loves. Instrumental noodling (check out Scott Storch on the keys long before he started crafting WACK beats), Black Thought spitting FIRE (the most underrated flow in hip hop), and ?estLove doing what he does. I can't imagine being in Phila... err... Illadelphia and NOT listening to the Roots
2)The Delfonics - Didn't I Blow Your Mind
Motown and Staxx get about 99.9% of the critical love for great soul music but Philly's soul tradition is easily on par with those locales if not in terms of quantity than certainly in terms of quality. Philly soul has its own distinct sound that separates it from its counterparts. Raw, rough around the edges, and sultry, the Delfonics embody this uniqueness.
3) Nina Simone - My Baby Just Cares for Me
Nina Simone is from Philly... she might have the greatest voice of any female vocalist in history. Is any other explanation required? You could listen to this song in a cell in Kandahar and enjoy yourself.
4) Boyz II Men - Motown Philly
So if I ever HAPPEN to find myself on a stoop and/or basketball court in Philadelphia and don't sing this song while doing the Stephanie Tanner dance from the dance recital episode of Full House then my body has been taken over by some sort of pernicious and sinister force. On a personal note, this is one of the first songs I remember TRULY loving. After its feature on Nickelodeon's Top 10 Music countdown and a Charles Barkley montage on NBA Inside Stuff, my Cooleyhighharmony cassette got serious wear and tear as it became the soundtrack to driveway basketball games via my dad's tiny portable radio/cassette player for months.
5) Kanye West ft. Mos Def and Freeway - Two Words
Philadelphia, in my limited experience, is a really quirky city. From the unique Philly accent and the dueling cheesesteak restaurants located literally feet from one another to the type of sports fanbase that creates the need for an in-stadium magistrate to certify arrests, it's one of those cities with an ever so slight leftward tilt. No current Philadelphia artist better encapsulates this than Rocafella Records artist Freeway. His nasally, stacatto, flow toes that line between grating and unique and in "Two Words" it steals the show from two of hip hop music's best M.C.'s.
6) Ween - Freedom of '76
Speaking of weird... try this on for size. Orginial freak folkies Dean and Gene Ween, writers of a song called "Pork Roll, Egg, and Cheese" create a falsetto, blue-eyed soul song about the bicentennial? Sure why not.
7) Standard Fare - Philadelphia
Because I'm saving Springsteen for later and I wanted a song with Philadelphia in the title.
8) Billy Bragg and Wilco - Walt Whitman's Neice
In spite of the fact that I have a deep seated and burning hatred for their athletic teams I really really like the city of Philadelphia... a lot. Any time you enjoy a city, I feel like it's the small things about the city that really push it into rarefied air. For Philly, the fact that there is a bridge named after one of my top 10 all time favorite poets is one of those small things. Also, read this.
9) Drive-by Truckers - Rebels
10) Neil Young - Are You Ready for the Country
My favorite quote about Pennsylvania (yes I have a favorite) is from political strategist James Carville who said of the Keystone State, "It's Philadelphia and Pittsburg with Alabama in between." Whether it's upstate New York, Bakersfield CA, or Harrisburg, PA, rural is rural. Country is country. Do you have to be - as the song suggests - born in Dixie to be a rebel? Not as I understand the word.
11) Mumford and Sons - Little Lion Man
First of all, after only a cursory search, I realized that I have a staggering number of songs with "lion" in the title. Why does this one fit so well here? Because I didn't go to college in an actual college town (ahhhh... Williamsburg) the idea of a town that is literally ALL college is very appealing to me. Big ups to Penn State, their awesome nickname, and their awesome football jerseys.
12) Billy Bragg - To Have and to Have Not
13) The Clash - Career Opportunities
My first inclination to represent the unemployment and general reaming central and western PA's economy took during the Reagan years was of course Allentown by Billy Joel. Something has always sort of bothered me about that song though (aside from... well... this guy) and that's the bouncy and jangly pop instrumentals of the bleak portrait of a dying post-industrial town. Billy Bragg's nasally folk snark and The Clash's work much better for me.
14) Bruce Springsteen - Highway Patrolman
So two of the things I love more than anything in the world are music and history. Occasionally, a song will speak so reverently/hauntingly of a historic event that I'll immediately try to educate myself as to said event. I know... I know... Springsteen's reference to the "night of the Johnstown flood" made me seek out all I could find on the historic Johnstown flood. An absolutely staggering event that makes this wikipedia entry WELL worth the read (2,000 people DIED!!!!). What else can you say about Springsteen's work on Nebraska? You'll see when I use what is perhaps the MOST predictable song of this whole project during next week's New Jersey post.
15) Rage Against the Machine - Fistful of Steel
I really... really... really hate the Steelers but I had to give love to such a great sports town. Especially after giving me the gift of my favorite sports memory ever that still makes me get a little teary.
New Jersey's up next... special TWO DISC edition... because I've been informed on... ummmm... several occasions that North Jersey is way different than South Jersey
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
Delaware... Hi, I'm in... Delaware.
1) Schoolhouse Rock - The Preamble
For a state that prides itself SO MUCH on simply being the first to ratify the U.S. Constitution that it advertises this fact on its license plate (this has ALWAYS bothered me... it'd be like someone saying they had invented golf simply because they'd stepped onto a golf course first, get over it Delaware)I had no choice but to add this RELENTLESSLY catchy musical version of the Preamble. Not only do I make my students in class memorize the preamble but I use this song in the process. This is both good and bad because it DOES help them learn it but their cadence when reciting it ALWAYS matches that of the song. Clearly this is what James Madison would have wanted.
2) Elvis Presley - That's Alright Mamma
Elvis DID NOT invent rock 'n' roll alright? He was simply the first to show up to the game and make himself known. MUCH LIKE (stay with me, I mean it's Delaware, what else was I supposed to do?) Delaware SAYS they're the first state but we all know that really they just managed to get their shit together quicker than everyone else. Okay I'm done with the ratification thing now... really I am.
3) The Beatles - Taxman
4) Kanye West - Gold Digger
5) Clipse - Dirty Money
6) Mase - Mo' Money, Mo' Problems
So apparently Delaware has created a pretty nice little financial game for themselves by essentially creating the taxation version of full-on prostitution. Sales tax? Hell no, please buy your school supplies and other big ticket items here citizens of Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Corporate income taxes? Lowest in the U.S., so please locate your garbage tax shelter "headquarters" here corporations (apparently 50% of Fortune 500 companies in the U.S. call Delaware home... and I'm guessing it's not for the vistas or ease of access).
7) Sam Cooke - A Change is Gonna Come
Naturally, when one thinks of strained race relations in the United States, immediate respsonses go toward southern states. Rightfully so. If I was actually an African American man (rather than just playing one while channeling Biggie and Kanye karaoke style) Alabama, Mississippi, and their bretheren (I'm looking at you Arkansas!) would be at the absolute bottom of my list in terms of retirement destinations. That having been said, Delaware's history on race relations is roughly equivalent to their history of preventing millionaire duPont heirs from kidnapping and murdering olympic caliber Greco-Roman wrestlers.
Two damning indictments here: 1. The fact that Delaware was one of those slave owning union states 2. The fact that the largely white bred (6%, black enrollment) University of Delaware persistently refuses to take on their neighbors, historically black powerhouse Delaware St. in football. I could explain the whole story but this ESPN.com article from Jeff Pearlman really says it all. The more I learn about Delaware, the more it sucks.
8) Drive-by Truckers - Outfit
One of my favorite politicians is without a doubt Joe Biden. Why? Because the more I find out about him, the more he seems to be as normal a dude as you can find in Washington, D.C. (admittedly an ENORMOUSLY qualified statement). More than the hilarious series of Onion articles about him, I find Biden's dedication to his family to be... well... touching. The guy was essentially a single dad who commuted from D.C. to Delaware in order to make his family work after the tragic death of his wife. So what does this song have to do with that? Lyrically, it's my favorite example of a normal dad being a good dad. The narrator is frank and completely without pretense in the way that he schools his son on some of the real facts of their life, not those that are generic and cliched. From "don't worry about losing your accent a southern man tells better jokes," to "call home on your sister's birthday," the type of advice imparted by the narrator transcends "Cat's in the Cradle" style platitudes and elicits visions of the kind of father that would commute from D.C. to Delaware to raise a family.
9)Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth
10) Beck - Novacane
11) The Buckinghams - Kind of a Drag
12) Kraftwerk - Metal on Metal
Whenever I find myself travelling through Delaware, without fail, I've been in my car for multiple hours and am simply ready to zone out and ignore the tedium of whatever journey I happen to be undertaking at the time. Starting with the sing-songy organ ditty Colossal Youth by the Young Marble Giants and progressing to Kraftwerk's attempt to actually reproduce the sound of the highway on wax, tracks 9-12 are aimed at establishing the type of drone and ambiance that allows their listener to simply cruise.
13) Sex Pistols - Pretty Vacant
14) Belle and Sebastian - Get Me Away From Here I'm Dying
But inevitably that drone wears off... you become increasingly aware of the fact that there's nowhere you'd rather be than your destination (Atlantic City? Philly?) but unfortunately you're cruising through the vacant, soulless, tax shelter that is Delaware
15) The Clash - I'm So Bored with the U.S.A
You know those moments on a road trip where you look around you and the road looks exactly like it looked hours ago and the entire allure of undertaking some Kerouac-style odyssey has completely lost its luster? Welcome to Delaware. I'll be honest, every single time I've driven through the state I've only found myself thinking about how horrible it would be to live in Delaware. I'm sure it has virtues (race track in Dover... Rich Gannon... ummm) but it fails to capture even the slightest hint of folksy charm. Even though your tenure there is, by the very nature of it's geography, brief, you find yourself completely and utterly bored with being in Delaware.
Up next: Quakers? Check. Ben Franklin? Check. Booing Santa Claus? CHEEEEEECK. What's up Pennsylvania?
For a state that prides itself SO MUCH on simply being the first to ratify the U.S. Constitution that it advertises this fact on its license plate (this has ALWAYS bothered me... it'd be like someone saying they had invented golf simply because they'd stepped onto a golf course first, get over it Delaware)I had no choice but to add this RELENTLESSLY catchy musical version of the Preamble. Not only do I make my students in class memorize the preamble but I use this song in the process. This is both good and bad because it DOES help them learn it but their cadence when reciting it ALWAYS matches that of the song. Clearly this is what James Madison would have wanted.
2) Elvis Presley - That's Alright Mamma
Elvis DID NOT invent rock 'n' roll alright? He was simply the first to show up to the game and make himself known. MUCH LIKE (stay with me, I mean it's Delaware, what else was I supposed to do?) Delaware SAYS they're the first state but we all know that really they just managed to get their shit together quicker than everyone else. Okay I'm done with the ratification thing now... really I am.
3) The Beatles - Taxman
4) Kanye West - Gold Digger
5) Clipse - Dirty Money
6) Mase - Mo' Money, Mo' Problems
So apparently Delaware has created a pretty nice little financial game for themselves by essentially creating the taxation version of full-on prostitution. Sales tax? Hell no, please buy your school supplies and other big ticket items here citizens of Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Corporate income taxes? Lowest in the U.S., so please locate your garbage tax shelter "headquarters" here corporations (apparently 50% of Fortune 500 companies in the U.S. call Delaware home... and I'm guessing it's not for the vistas or ease of access).
7) Sam Cooke - A Change is Gonna Come
Naturally, when one thinks of strained race relations in the United States, immediate respsonses go toward southern states. Rightfully so. If I was actually an African American man (rather than just playing one while channeling Biggie and Kanye karaoke style) Alabama, Mississippi, and their bretheren (I'm looking at you Arkansas!) would be at the absolute bottom of my list in terms of retirement destinations. That having been said, Delaware's history on race relations is roughly equivalent to their history of preventing millionaire duPont heirs from kidnapping and murdering olympic caliber Greco-Roman wrestlers.
Two damning indictments here: 1. The fact that Delaware was one of those slave owning union states 2. The fact that the largely white bred (6%, black enrollment) University of Delaware persistently refuses to take on their neighbors, historically black powerhouse Delaware St. in football. I could explain the whole story but this ESPN.com article from Jeff Pearlman really says it all. The more I learn about Delaware, the more it sucks.
8) Drive-by Truckers - Outfit
One of my favorite politicians is without a doubt Joe Biden. Why? Because the more I find out about him, the more he seems to be as normal a dude as you can find in Washington, D.C. (admittedly an ENORMOUSLY qualified statement). More than the hilarious series of Onion articles about him, I find Biden's dedication to his family to be... well... touching. The guy was essentially a single dad who commuted from D.C. to Delaware in order to make his family work after the tragic death of his wife. So what does this song have to do with that? Lyrically, it's my favorite example of a normal dad being a good dad. The narrator is frank and completely without pretense in the way that he schools his son on some of the real facts of their life, not those that are generic and cliched. From "don't worry about losing your accent a southern man tells better jokes," to "call home on your sister's birthday," the type of advice imparted by the narrator transcends "Cat's in the Cradle" style platitudes and elicits visions of the kind of father that would commute from D.C. to Delaware to raise a family.
9)Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth
10) Beck - Novacane
11) The Buckinghams - Kind of a Drag
12) Kraftwerk - Metal on Metal
Whenever I find myself travelling through Delaware, without fail, I've been in my car for multiple hours and am simply ready to zone out and ignore the tedium of whatever journey I happen to be undertaking at the time. Starting with the sing-songy organ ditty Colossal Youth by the Young Marble Giants and progressing to Kraftwerk's attempt to actually reproduce the sound of the highway on wax, tracks 9-12 are aimed at establishing the type of drone and ambiance that allows their listener to simply cruise.
13) Sex Pistols - Pretty Vacant
14) Belle and Sebastian - Get Me Away From Here I'm Dying
But inevitably that drone wears off... you become increasingly aware of the fact that there's nowhere you'd rather be than your destination (Atlantic City? Philly?) but unfortunately you're cruising through the vacant, soulless, tax shelter that is Delaware
15) The Clash - I'm So Bored with the U.S.A
You know those moments on a road trip where you look around you and the road looks exactly like it looked hours ago and the entire allure of undertaking some Kerouac-style odyssey has completely lost its luster? Welcome to Delaware. I'll be honest, every single time I've driven through the state I've only found myself thinking about how horrible it would be to live in Delaware. I'm sure it has virtues (race track in Dover... Rich Gannon... ummm) but it fails to capture even the slightest hint of folksy charm. Even though your tenure there is, by the very nature of it's geography, brief, you find yourself completely and utterly bored with being in Delaware.
Up next: Quakers? Check. Ben Franklin? Check. Booing Santa Claus? CHEEEEEECK. What's up Pennsylvania?
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Here's the idea...
In my universe, there's no better thing than when you're listening to music with perfect timing. I'm not referring to some sort of perfectly timed rhythm section that rattles off metronomic beats nor am I referring to that perfect 3:00 length to which all pop songs should aspire. I'm talking about those moments where a song seems to understand either the gravity or the frivolity of your current mental, physical, and/or emotional situation. Where music ceases to be background and becomes a co-focal point. When I'm pissed off about a girl and Bob Dylan sings "Don't think twice, it's alright"... When I'm driving on a shitty, rainy day and anything off of Low's "Things We Lost in the Fire" comes on... When I'm running and the hand claps start in "Rosalita"... Those perfect moments? That's what music means to me. It's all about those times when your gutteral connection to the material is at its most profound and raw.
So what is it exactly that I'm trying to say here but am obviously obfuscating for dramatic effect? A few weeks ago, I heard a friend complaining about a long drive that was going to take her through multiple states and promised to be cripplingly boring. Given the fact that I am... in fact... a bit of a list maker/dork, I immediately (not hyperbole... this was actually my first thought) suggested making a playlist for each state through which she would drive. Not just artists from the state or songs about the state, but music that really captured the way the state would FEEL. She acknowledged the coolness of the idea (humoring me? probably) but did not seem all that disposed toward taking the concept and running with it. So rather than let such a brilliant idea wither on the vine like so many bottles of Crystal Clear Pepsi I've decided to undertake this task myself. So for the next... well... long time, I'm going to make a playlist inspired by each of the fifty states plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, following the order in which the state entered the union (really just so I can maximize my time thinking of Sarah Palin jokes for the Alaska mix).
Cool right? I know. I thought so too. Get ready Delaware, time to throw down.
*They should... I mean I love Hey Jude as much as the next guy but couldn't you do without about 4 minutes worth of "Na na na nas?"
So what is it exactly that I'm trying to say here but am obviously obfuscating for dramatic effect? A few weeks ago, I heard a friend complaining about a long drive that was going to take her through multiple states and promised to be cripplingly boring. Given the fact that I am... in fact... a bit of a list maker/dork, I immediately (not hyperbole... this was actually my first thought) suggested making a playlist for each state through which she would drive. Not just artists from the state or songs about the state, but music that really captured the way the state would FEEL. She acknowledged the coolness of the idea (humoring me? probably) but did not seem all that disposed toward taking the concept and running with it. So rather than let such a brilliant idea wither on the vine like so many bottles of Crystal Clear Pepsi I've decided to undertake this task myself. So for the next... well... long time, I'm going to make a playlist inspired by each of the fifty states plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, following the order in which the state entered the union (really just so I can maximize my time thinking of Sarah Palin jokes for the Alaska mix).
Cool right? I know. I thought so too. Get ready Delaware, time to throw down.
*They should... I mean I love Hey Jude as much as the next guy but couldn't you do without about 4 minutes worth of "Na na na nas?"
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