Today I embark on one of the most ambitious projects I’ve attempted during the almost nine years I’ve been posting a Song of the Day.
I was inspired by my favorite podcast, Filmspotting, which (inspired by March Madness) has run a Filmspotting Madness competition each year to determine the best [fill in the blank].
Here’s a nice song from Guster’s 2015 album Evermotion. Guster is a band that just doesn’t seem to record bad music, even if I don’t fall in love with everything they do.
When this track popped up as today’s Random iTunes Selection, I didn’t know it. I haven’t listened to Evermotion much and this is a deeper cut. But I knew it would be a perfectly enjoyable song, with pleasant vocals and an easy groove. Because that describes every Guster song.
John Mayer has a knack for making me like genres I don’t usually dig.
Take ‘Vultures,’ a song from Mayer’s excellent 2006 album (Continuum), which sounds like a lost Steely Dan track.
I hate Steely Dan. OK, that’s a bit strong, but I definitely don’t like them. And yet I love ‘Vultures,’ and the rest of Continuum, which has the same general vibe.
My final Chuck Berry song of the week was released in 1963 and has a different feel than the rockers I’ve featured so far.
‘Memphis, Tennessee’ is a nice showcase for Chuck Berry the storyteller. It’s about a man trying to track down a lost love, Marie, who turns out to be his daughter, taken away by her momma.
The Beach Boys scored a 70s hit with yesterday’s Chuck Berry classic, ‘Rock & Roll Music,’ but it was a 1963 release, ‘Surfin’ U.S.A.,’ that really owed its success to Berry.
Berry’s 1958 song ‘Sweet Little Sixteen’ will sound awfully familiar even if you’ve never heard it. Brian Wilson liked the tune so much he wrote his own, surfing-inspired, lyrics to it and turned it into a #3 hit for his California band.
Meet Me In Montauk 