Phil’s Faves:Songs, July 22, 2012

This will be a personal weekly Top Ten list of what I consider to be the best songs that I listened to the previous week. Most songs will be current, but there are no boundaries. I’ve already stated on this web site that I am obsessed with music. I am constantly hunting it down whether it’s online, on CD, from my personal collection, from a library (Yes, I think the library is a great source of music–especially for music that you aren’t sure about.), TV, or radio. Since most of these sources mostly emphasize new music, the odds are pretty good that most of the songs on this list will be new. But in my search, I don’t use any boundaries for the other sources. I am just looking for good music that I haven’t heard, or happened to forget about. Everyone, including myself, has forgotten way more great music than they can ever remember-even if they are also music fanatics.
Also, there will be no rules concerning songs on this list. A song can show up or drop off a number of times. This will be the most volatile of my lists. It all depends on how much music I am exposed to during the week and what I find interesting. On really obscure stuff, I will try to include the source, if I know it.

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Love and Theft reclaim the top spot. You shouldn’t be surprised, though. Come on. They have “theft” in their band name…………………………………
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Top Ten Songs for the Week of July 22, 2012

1. Angel Eyes—Love and Theft
2. Summertime—Jessica Dayle
3. The Sun Is Shining—The Fireman (Paul McCartney)
4. The Doors Sing “Reading Rainbow”—Jimmy Fallon
5. Bright Red—Vanessa Peters
6. Pontoon—Little Big Town
7. (Kissed You) Good Night—Gloriana
8. Little Talks—Of Monsters and Men
9. I’m a Lonesome Fugitive—Dave Alvin
10. Leland, Mississippi—Johnny Winter

1) “Angel Eyes”Love and Theft’s retro country harmonies just sound new all over again! I think I also like songs about angels and eyes, so if you put the two together, it’s a pretty potent combination!
2) “Summertime”—I still have plenty to write and say about Jessica Dayle’s “Summertime,” but I’m going to go light this week—for a reason. The song fades out with some “na-na-nas.” Sometimes nonsense syllables seem kind of gratuitous and silly. Jessica has already said so much throughout the rest of the song that they just add to the cute quotient! It’s a totally perfect ending, and since it’s the last song on her self-titled EP, it leaves the door open for the promise of her next batch of songs!
3) “The Sun Is Shining”—The Paul McCartney “na-na-na” chorus is a real “simbie” for me! The second one on this list with na-na-nas……………
4) “The Doors Sing ‘Reading Rainbow’”—Ah, it’s just too bad that a video clip was never officially released for this brilliant Jimmy Fallon parody……………….
5) “Bright Red”—Wow! Another week on the list for Vanessa Peters! I’m right there with her when she sings about her tennis shoes melting because the summer was so hot!
6) “Pontoon”—I’m starting to get tired of this Little Big Town song. It’s had a good run but I thought it would have been bigger……………….
7) “(Kissed You) Good Night”—I’ve liked the video by Gloriana for quite awhile now so it only seems fitting that the song should appear on my songs list. It’s kind of intense…in a good way!
8) “Little Talks”—Of Monsters and Men’s marching melody with its great trumpet hook has finally won me over!
9) “I’m a Lonesome Fugitive”Dave Alvin has done a collection of Americana albums since separating with The Blasters, but I think this one is his best! It’s on a compilation called “The I-10 Chronicles.2” (I’m letting you know because I had a difficult time locating it.) His character is a “bad seed” who chronicles his lifetime of hard knocks–starting with his mother, and bad breaks. The chorus is his complaint that he’d like to stop this running but he knows they’ll catch up to him eventually, so he has to stay on the run. The song is a mid tempo country rocker with a lot of extended guitar solos. Forget “Radar Love” by Golden Earring and other songs like it. THIS IS THE GREATEST DRIVING SONG EVER! You may disagree, but all I know is that when I have a lot of driving to do, when the road disappears into the horizon, when there are mesas on the sides of me and white capped mountains in the distance, THIS is the song I want cranked up and playing in my car! (“I’d like to settle down/but they won’t let me…The highway is my home!”)
10) “Leland, Mississippi”—All I need from this Johnny Winter classic is the intro of the great song! The rest of it is a bonus! This is on Johnny Winter’s major label eponymous album, and I think it’s the best song! It starts with a bass drum and snare, bass, an awesome blues guitar lick, and Johnny Winter alternately growling “Oh, yeah” and “Uh, huh.” Then the song really kicks in to the groove. There is a really nice guitar solo with some syncopation and time changes! The reason why the rest of the song is a bonus because I honestly can’t understand anything else he says except “Leland, Mississippi.” Johnny Winter has recorded volumes of blues songs over the decades, some of it really good and some of it really bad. To me, this is Johnny Winter in his prime and it doesn’t get any better!
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One Response to Phil’s Faves:Songs, July 22, 2012

  1. Pingback: Phil's Faves July 2012! I'm on the list... - Jessica Dayle

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