The Random iTunes Fairy has pulled this “two days, same artist” routine often enough on Random Weekends that I’m tempted to suspect foul play. As much as I know about the apparent patterns that show up within random distributions, sometimes it just seems fishy.
Today’s selection is one hop in the time machine away from yesterday’s. After hearing Bob Dylan croaking through a cut from the 2009 album Together Through Life, here we find him kicking off a famous concert in 1966.
Today’s Random Weekend selection is a by-the-numbers blues song from Bob Dylan’s 2009 album Together Through Life.
Dylan was 68 when he released this album, a rowdy boot-stomper of a record that came on the heels of his marvelous late-career trilogy of Time Out of Mind, Love and Theft and Modern Times. At the time, it wasn’t out of the question that this would be his last album.
While I won’t argue with anybody who names 2016’s Lemonade as Beyoncé’s masterpiece, I do feel respect must be paid to the icon’s 2013 self-titled album.
The daring and sexy Beyoncé was the artist’s first “visual album” and the first she dropped unannounced, two tactics she repeated with great success on Lemonade. In ‘XO,’ ‘Drunk in Love’ and ‘Flawless,’ the album offered up three tracks as iconic as anything on its follow-up.
‘Chinese’ is one of my favorite tracks from Lily Allen’s 2009 album It’s Not Me, It’s You. I like it even more after learning, just now, that it’s about her mother.
I always assumed it was about a romantic relationship, but the lyrics about returning home to a comforting meal, relaxing, and being lovingly reassured make a lot more sense when you know she’s writing about a parent.
‘What is This Thing Called Love?’ is a Cole Porter tune written for the 1929 musical Wake Up and Dream. It was first performed by Elsie Carlisle, and you can listen to that version here.
The song has been recorded by plenty of artists over the years, and was particularly popular with jazz musicians in the 30s, in versions both fast and slow. Billie Holiday put her indelible stamp on it in the 40s.
Meet Me In Montauk 