My Tribute to the Aughts - First in a Trilogy

Okay, here's my tribute to the first decade of the 21st Century. As I mentioned in yesterday's post instead of compiling my favorite songs or artists of the decade, I've decided to post three compilations worth of Rock and Roll personalities who passed away during the decade. I'll post one new compilation every Friday (or Thursday night!) until the end of January.

I started filing away songs into an R.I.P playlist about six months ago. About a month back I figured there had to be a good resource on the interweb, which would remind me (and in some cases, educate me!) as to who exactly died over the last ten years. Say what you will about Wikipedia, but they have a great page devoted to Rock and Roll deaths: List of Deaths in Rock and Roll. While it's not complete, it did help me come up with more than 75 great tunes to share with you here at Burn and Shine. The first of which is Jim Carroll's "People Who Died" (see video above). JC left us on September 11, 2009.

I've sequenced the comps in the same order as the deaths. I know it sounds morbid, but I really hope you'll see this as a celebration of their work. I also hope these comps will stir up some comments. If you happen to scroll through the list over at Wiki and see a glaring omission (about a half dozen or so on my three comps aren't mentioned on the Wiki page), please leave me a comment here-- as I'd love to make a bonus disc and round this sucker out to an even 100 songs.

Just a few comments as to the songs I chose to represent the artist (or in some cases, artists). In almost all cases the person who passed away is either one of the performers, the writer and/or singer or producer of the song. When two or more people from the same band had passed away, I tried to use a song that featured both (or all three). For instance, the Ramones track, features Joey, Johnny and Dee Dee and the Mamas and the Papas track was co-written by John Phillips and Denny Doherty). There is one exception that won't show up until Disc 2, and I'll explain that one once we get there. Disc 1 takes us about three quarters of the way through 2003.

Happy Listening!

R.I.P. 2000s (Disc 1)

01. “Searchin’” by the Coasters (Will “Dub” Jones, 01/16/00; & Billy Guy, 11/05/02)
02. “Boys” by the Shirelles (Doris Kenner-Jackson, 02/04/00)
03. “Little Demon” by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, 02/12/00
04. “Sex & Drugs & Rock’n’Roll” by Ian Dury & the Blockheads (Ian Dury, 03/27/00)
05. “Let’s Go” by the Cars (Benjamin Orr, 10/03/00)
06. “A New England” by Kirsty MacColl, 12/18/00
07. “Hey Jack Kerouac” by 10,000 Maniacs (Rob Buck, 12/19/00)
08. “Respect Yourself” by the Staple Singers (Pops Staples, 12/19/00)
09. “I Saw Her Again” by the Mamas & the Papas (John Phillips, 03/18/01; & Denny Doherty, 01/19/07)
10. “I Don’t Care” by the Ramones (Joey, 04/15/01; Dee Dee, 06/05/02; & Johnny, 09/15/04)
11. “Dimples” by John Lee Hooker, 06/21/01
12. “What is Life” by George Harrison, 11/29/01
13. “In Fields of Fire” by Big Country (Stuart Adamson, 12/16/01)
14. “The Wurlitzer Prize (I Don’t Want to Get Over You)” by Waylon Jennings, 02/13/02
15. “Doctor, Doctor” by the Who (John Entwhistle, 06/27/02)
16. “You Didn’t Have To Be So Nice” by the Lovin’ Spoonful (Zal Yanovsky, 12/13/02)
17. “Johnny Appleseed” by Joe Strummer, 12/22/02
18. “Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You” by the Bee Gees (Maurice Gibb, 01/12/03)
19. “Finger Poppin’ Time” by Hank Ballard & the Midnighters (Hank Ballard, 03/02/03; & Cal Green, 07/04/04)
20. “Castles Made of Sand” by the Jimi Hendrix Experience (Noel Redding, 05/11/03; & Mitch Mitchell, 11/12/08)
21. “I’m Into Something Good” by Herman’s Hermits (Mickie Most, Producer, 05/30/03)
22. “(Making) Teenage Faces" by The Exploding Hearts (Matt Fitzgerald, Jeremy Gage & Adam Cox, 07/20/03)
23. “Empty Hearted Town” by Warren Zevon (09/07/03)
24. “So Doggone Lonesome” by Johnny Cash (09/12/03)
25. “Johnny & Mary” by Robert Palmer (09/27/03)

Total Time: 1:15:09

Download it here: R.I.P. 2000's - Disc 1