Friday Mixtape - "Best of 2003"

If I had to hazard a guess, this one was probably created sometime in early 2004.  Let's do a track-by-track commentary:

Side One

Stones in My Passway, John Mellencamp.  From "Trouble No More," the album that Greil Marcus described as "old singer, old songs."  It's one of his best.

Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine, The White Stripes.  Jack and Meg at their rocking best.

This Boy is Exhausted, The Wrens.  I don't know what happened to this band, but the album they came out with in 2003 (I'd found it only because Christgau had given it an A) was great.

You Don't Have to Be So Sad, Yo La Tengo.  I've always preferred "soft" Yo La Tengo to "electric" Yo La Tengo, so this one was right up my alley.

Sacred Love, Sting.  This was from what is Sting's worst album.  I never listen to it anymore.

Lunch with Gina, Steely Dan.  I really enjoyed "Everything Must Go," the album on which this song originated.  Aside from a handful of tours, haven't heard anything from the Dan since then.

Don't Leave Home, Dido.  This is from the only Dido album that I own, but it is enjoyable.

Sweet Side, Lucinda Williams.  Lucinda Williams made what I consider to be one of the greatest albums of the last 30 years - "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" - but the rest of her work has been a little disappointing.  There's always a great track or two, but also some that really don't cut the mustard.  This falls into the former category.

Here I Am, Emmylou Harris.  This was around the time that Emmylou had stopped singing and was breathing in a very pretty way.  But it is a good song.

Last Stop Before Home, Rosanne Cash.  It's a great song, from what is probably one of her most underrated albums.

Side Two

Bandit, Neil Young and Crazy Horse.  This is from the "Greendale" album, which I suppose I'd put into the category of "noble failure."  Neil's one of my all-time favorite artists, but he does put out a lot of weird sh*t.

Goodbye, Patti Griffin.  An amazing song - this is the live version, which blows the original recording away.

Among the Living, The Thorns.  A "mini supergroup," The Thorns consisted of Matthew Sweet, Shawn Mullins and Pete Droge.  They made one album, and it was pretty good - reminiscent of CSN at their best.

Symbol in the Driveway, Jack Johnson.  I'm not sure how many Jack Johnson albums it is necessary for a person to own, but the two that I own are enjoyable.  This is a really cool song.

He War, Cat Power.  To be honest, I don't remember this song at all.

12:51, The Strokes.  The best song off of the Strokes' second album.

Firewalker, Liz Phair.  I'm a staunch defender of the "Liz Phair" album, but I'm not sure why I chose this song - it's far from being the best on it.

Thrown Down, Fleetwood Mac.  When this album came out, a friend said someone told her that it "was better than Rumours."  It wasn't.

Light of Day, Joe Grushecky.  An excellent, "acoustic rocking" version of the Springsteen chestnut.

Disorder in the House and Keep Me in Your Heart, Warren Zevon.  We still miss you, Warren.

Friday Mixtape: Johnny Cash, American Recordings

This one dates back to 2004, shortly after I had finally seen the light on the series of Johnny Cash's "American Recordings" albums produced by Rick Rubin.

I bought the first album when it came out and enjoyed it, but not as much as I should have.  And then it wasn't until the day I first heard "Hurt" playing on the stereo system at my favorite record store (the late, great The Beat on J Street in Sacramento) that I knew I had to have that one, too.  And after that, I knew I had to have them all.

If you're a longtime reader, then you know that I think the American Recordings series of albums represents one of the great musical stories of my lifetime.  It's rare that an artist - even a great artist like Cash - is able to write the last chapter of his/her musical legacy the way that Johnny Cash was able to do with Rick Rubin.  Essentially, it was "sing and play whatever you want, and we'll gather the musicians and get the tape rolling." It was a great gift from Rubin to Cash, and ultimately a great gift to all of us.

So this one is pretty simple - I picked out my favorite songs from each of the first four American albums, and there you go.  And back when I was still driving my '97 Honda Accord, I damn near wore this one out.

Johnny Cash - American Recordings, 1994-2003

Delia's Gone
Let the Train Blow the Whistle
Drive On
Thirteen
Oh Bury Me Not
Tennessee Stud
Redemption
Like a Soldier
Rowboat
Sea of Heartbreak
Rusty Cage
Country Boy
Memories Are Made of This
The Kneeling Drunkard's Plea
Mean Eyed Cat
I've Been Everywhere
Solitary Man
Nobody
I See a Darkness
Would You Lay With Me
Before My Time
Country Trash
Mary of the Wild Moor
I'm Leavin' Now
The Man Comes Around
Hurt
First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
Tear Stained Letter
Streets of Laredo
We'll Meet Again

Friday Mixtape: "Abel and Cain: Jackson Browne and Warren Zevon"

The origin of this one was Jackson Browne’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  That night, Bruce Springsteen gave a memorable induction speech, which included the following passage:

“The Beach Boys and Brian Wilson, they gave us California as paradise and Jackson Browne gave us Paradise Lost. Now I always imagine, what if Brian Wilson, long after he’d taken a bite of that orange the serpent offered to him, what if he married that nice girl in Caroline No? I always figured that she was pregnant anyway, and what if he moved into the valley and had two sons? One of them would have looked and sounded just like Jackson Browne. Cain, of course, would have been Jackson's brother in arms, Warren Zevon. We love ya, Warren. But, Jackson to me, Jackson was always the tempered voice of Abel. Toiling in the vineyards, here to bear the earthly burdens, confronting the impossibility of love, here to do his father’s work. Jackson's work was really California pop gospel.”

It’s not as if I needed an excuse to create a Jackson Browne/Warren Zevon mixtape, given that they’re both on my short list of pantheon artists, but Bruce’s speech was all the incentive I needed.  It doesn’t have a date on it, but I’m guessing sometime in late 2004.

Abel & Cain: Jackson Browne and Warren Zevon

Doctor My Eyes

Redneck Friend

Desperados Under the Eaves

Poor Poor Pitiful Me

Late for the Sky

Before the Deluge

Carmelita

Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner

Lawyers, Guns and Money

The Pretender

Running on Empty

Sentimental Hygiene

Lawyers in Love

In the Shape of a Heart

Bad Karma

The Indifference of Heaven

Sky Blue and Black

I Was in the House When the House Burned Down

My Ride’s Here

The Naked Ride Home

Friday Mixtape: Bob Dylan

Now, this one was damn near impossible.  Doing The Beatles was really hard, and they were making music for less than a decade.  Dylan?  Try 50-plus years.

I wanted to include at least some representation from each phase of his career, but as you'll see below, ended up pretending that the years between "Blood on the Tracks" (1975) and "Good As I Been To You" (1992) didn't exist.  That's probably unfair, but you tell me which of these songs to drop in order to throw in "Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar" or "Every Grain of Sand."

Here we go - 87 minutes of Bob Dylan:

The Times They Are-a-Changin'
A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall
Maggie's Farm (live version)
Like A Rolling Stone
Ballad of a Thin Man
Visions of Johanna
Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
Lay Lady Lay
Knockin' on Heaven's Door
Tangled Up in Blue
Tomorrow Night
Two Soldiers
Cold Irons Bound
High Water (For Charley Patton)
Thunder on the Mountain
Scarlet Town
The Lonesome River (with Ralph Stanley)

How does it feel?