‘Tonight’ is a track from TV On the Radio’s 2006 album Return to Cookie Mountain.
This album received a ton of critical praise, ending up at or near the top of many year-end best-of lists. It doesn’t work for me, though. I picked up the record after really liking its follow-up, 2008’s Dear Science, but this one didn’t have the same effect on me. Dear Science still holds up, though.
Going strictly by the numbers, ‘Small Town’ is tied for John Mellencamp’s fifth-biggest hit.
The first is 1982’s ‘Jack & Diane,’ his only song to reach #1 on the Billboard charts. ‘Hurts So Good,’ from the same album (American Fool) reached #2. The amusingly titled ‘R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A. (A Salute to 60s Rock),' from 1985's Scarecrow, made it to #2 as well.
Mellencamp’s Van Morrison cover ‘Wild Night,’ a duet with Me’Shell Ndegéocello, made it to #3 in 1994.
Shea Seger last popped up on the blog on another Random Weekend, seven years ago, with the song ‘Walking on Rainbows.’
In that post, I pondered why her official website would be absent of updates since early 2011, especially if she was still performing in any capacity. Frequent commenter Dana chimed in to report that she was active on Twitter.
In a nice bit of Random Weekend serendipity, today’s 4th of July selection starts with the line “We carried you in our arms on Independence Day.” Funny how things work out sometimes.
‘Tears of Rage’ has shown up as on Random Weekends once before, only then it was the version performed by Bob Dylan on The Basement Tapes. As I wrote back then, Dylan wrote this song with The Band’s Richard Manuel.
Two Josh Rouse songs over the past three Random Weekends. Can’t complain about that!
Today’s track comes from Rouse’s 2015 album The Embers of Time, which he described as his “surreal expat therapy record.” These tracks find him battling depression and coming to terms with his own mortality. But while a couple of songs are on the morose side, this is mostly a life-affirming collection.
Meet Me In Montauk 