Today’s Random Weekend selection is the opening track of Bob Dylan’s Planet Waves.
Planet Waves came out after Self Portrait, New Morning and Dylan, three of the man’s least understood and appreciated albums. And it was followed up by Blood on the Tracks, The Basement Tapes and Desire, three of his best.
The Random iTunes Fairy first served up Brad Paisley’s ‘Accidental Racist’ for today and I was delighted, as few songs provide so much fodder for discussion and ridicule.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Brad Paisley. But by now, even he must realize how laughably bad a song he released in that case.
Alas, I have featured the song on the blog already, so I had to skip to the next random track.
‘All Down the Line’ is one of the greatest songs on one of The Rolling Stones’ greatest albums, Exile On Main Street. It bursts with the energy and attitude of all their best work.
This was the first track recorded for Exile On Main Street and Mick’s pick as the first single, though he was overruled when the band went with ‘Tumbling Dice’ instead.
I was happy to see Alfonso Cuaron take home the Best Director Oscar for his work on Gravity, even if it’s only his third or fourth best film.
I’ve been a Cuaron fan since 2001’s Y Tu Mama Tambien, and an even bigger one after Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (the best book and film in the series) and especially Children of Men.
In all of those films, his fondness for long takes deepens the drama and heightens the viewer’s emotional connection with the characters. He did it on the shoestring budget of Y Tu Mama Tambien as effectively as he did with the next-generation VFX tech of Gravity.
This is my 221st Random Weekend post and only the second kids’ song to show up during that span. The first was by Raffi.
When I launched Random Weekends, I feared I’d wind up with a lot of Laura Berkner and Raffi and the like, not because they dominate my music collection but because it’s inevitable that when you want the process to deliver something cool like Miles Davis or Talking Heads, it will instead serve up The Wiggles.
Meet Me In Montauk 