Music
Crucial Track for May 23, 2025
"We Are Family" by Sister Sledge
What song best matches the energy of today? We Are Family by Sister Sledge - Just to prove I'm not a music snob, I'll readily admit to having a few disco favorites and this is one of them. It captures today's mood because my son, who lives 1,000 miles away, is coming for a visit. Even though Wonder Woman and I weren't married until he was an adult, we're still family and they adore each other, which makes me happy.
Crucial Track for May 20, 2025
"You Never Even Called Me By My Name (The Perfect Country and Western Song)" by David Allan Coe
What’s a remix or cover you like more than the original? "You Never Even Called Me By My Name by David Allen Coe" is one of my all-time favorites. While I have it on pretty good authority that Coe is a bit of a rough character, his rendition of Steve Goodman's original is classic. I was lucky enough to hear Hootie and the Blowfish perform this live at a free convert my hometown sponsored. Darius Ruck explained that being from the south, the band like to play the song for souther audiences.
Crucial Track for May 19, 2025
"Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" by Bob Dylan
What’s a song that grew on you over time? **Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts by Bob Dylan" - It pains me to think this song is 50-years-old now. I was 10 when it was released and to me, it's always been one of the songs of "The New Dylan" which I roughly define as anything not from the 1960s. The music and lyrics to the tune are just a master class in how to win the Nobel Prize. Along with Hurricane, I think this is some of his best work of the 1970s.
Crucial Track for May 14, 2025
"Jesus Christ" by Woody Guthrie
What’s a lyric that resonates deeply with you and why? I'm far from religious, but I pay attention to the effect that religion plays on society. Although the utter hypocrisy of the Christian right-wingers seems like a fairly recent development, it really isn't. Woody Guthrie was singing about the dividing line between God and mammon 85 years ago. This song was written in New York City Of a rich man, preacher, and slave If Jesus was to preach what He preached in Galilee, They would lay poor Jesus in His grave.
Crucial Track for May 13, 2025
"Authority Song" by John Cougar Mellencamp
If your life were a movie, what would its theme song be? Authority Song by John Cougar Mellencamp - I swear, if there is a truer lyric than "I fight authority. Authority always wins>", I don't know what it is. IDGAF, though. I'm going to keep doing me, until I die. I have never been able to play the emperor has no clothes game. I value honesty and transparency in a world that prefers to keep secrets as a power play and to pretend that certain truths don't exist. I'm good-natured, but outspoken. I don't expect to totally change the culture, but I strive to make my mark.
Crucial Track for May 8, 2025
"She Thinks I Still Care" by George Jones
What’s your favorite love song, and why? She Thinks I Still Care by George Jones - anyone who has ever gone through a reluctant breakup or two can relate to most of the lines in this classic tune by George Jones. It has also been recorded by Elvis, James Taylor, Merle Haggard and many others. I love to sing along with this one because It's one of the few songs that fits my voice's ability to harmonize.
Crucial Track for May 7, 2025
"Welfare Music" by Hard Working Americans
What’s a hidden gem or underrated song you love? I don't think I've ever heard any of the Top 10 Most Played songs in my music collection ever played on the radio. My all time #1 most played is Welfare Music, a song I learned to love by listening to The Bottle Rockets but one that has been recorded by several other artists, notably John Hiatt and The Hardworking Americans. The tune has a nice guitar lick and some biting social commentary at the expense of the loathsome Jesse Helms and Rush Limbaugh.
Crucial Track for May 6, 2025
"Convoy" by C.W. McCall
What's a gulity pleasure song? - Convoy by C.W. McCall - If you were a kid in the 70s, you probably thought this song was cool too. It's a tune about CD radios, a brief national craze during the decade. They were even options on high-end automobiles like Lincoln Continentals and Cadillac El Dorados. There is a certain beat poetry vibe to the lyrics, characterized by the unforgettable line "eleven long-haired friends of Jesus in a chartreuse microbus." I recently heard this played on the Muzak system of a barbecue joint in Salem, VA and my respect for the owners grew in that moment.
Crucial Track for May 2, 2025
"This Land Is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie
Which song would you use to introduce yourself to someone new? -- This Land is Your Land by Woodie Guthrie - This is one of those songs that few people have ever heard all the lyrics to. Woody Guthrie was a 100% radical human being, a friend to the working man and an enemy of the bosses. Joe Klein's biography, Woody Guthrie - A Life, is one of the most beautiful books ever written.
Crucial Track for May 1, 2025
"Highway Patrolman" by Bruce Springsteen
Share a song that tells a great story. Highway Patrolman by Bruce Springsteen on Nebraska - In just a few minutes, the narrator of this song lays out a tale that would be hard for a director to capture in a two-hour movie. It's about brothers who took different paths in the 1960s. One of them got drafted and went to war, coming home damaged. The other could have played it safe at home, but didn't. He took a job as a cop. On the fateful night the song is about, he gets called out to a crime scene of his brother's making. Instead of arresting him, he just chases him to the Canadian border and watched his tail lights disappear.
This Week's Bookmarks - Famous Literary Couples, Stalingrad Incident, Web Design Museum, Unusual Landscapes, Eternal Helpdesk, Film Mistakes, Crucial Musical Tracks
F.Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald
Famous Literary Relationships from Best to Worst ‹ Literary Hub - There have been plenty of great legends about literary love affairs over the years, though of course a great legend doesn't always mean a great love affair. In fact, it often means just the opposite. Here, I've collected a few of the worst (and a few of the best)—from what we can tell from our outside vantage, at any rate. You never do know what goes on in other people's homes. But you might have a better chance if they happen to be writers.
The Stalingrad Incident - In a historic depression, a black american seeks freedom from discrimination and professional limitations in an unlikely place: Russia. The forces of racism follow him overseas, putting his reputation and life in danger.
Web Design Museum - Discover old websites, apps and software - Web Design Museum exhibits thousands of screens and videos of old websites, mobile apps and software from 1990s to mid-00s
24 of the world’s most unusual landscapes - While there are plenty of awe-inspiring man-made destinations around the globe, nothing is as creative as nature. From trees that resemble monsters, to colorful sinkholes, towering rock formations and waterfalls of molten lava, these are some of the most unusual and fascinating landscapes in the world.
The Alabama Landline That Keeps Ringing - If you sit at the James E. Foy Information Desk in the Melton Student Center at Auburn University, answering the phones on a Wednesday night, you might be responsible for answering a question like this: “If you died on the operating table and they declared you legally dead and wrote out a death certificate and everything, but then you came back to life, what are the legal ramifications? Do you technically no longer exist? Do you have to be declared undead by a judge?”
FXRant The Movie Mistake Mystery from Revenge of the Sith - Not just Star Wars - this site has mistakes that made it on to the screen of Goodfellas Aliens, Glory, The Dark Knight, The Abyss and more
Crucial Tracks – the songs that made you - There are points in your life that are defined by music. Whether it’s a song that introduced you to a genre of music that changed the direction of your tastes and style, or a lyric that made you think about the world in a different way. Songs represent relationships. Songs trigger memories. These are all crucial tracks.
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