My Tribute to the Aughts - Second in a Trilogy

The above video by Alice in Chains features Layne Staley singing lead. He passed away on April 5, 2002.

Here's the second installment, taking us from October of '03 through the end of '07. There are some heavy hitters on this comp, and it may be my favorite of the three. I'd love to give you a little blurb on each and every track, but in the interest of time I'll just pick three.

"Teenage Kicks" by the Undertones is on this to honor the late John Peel, who often said it was the greatest single ever recorded.

If you're my age (forty-something), then there is no way you escaped Boston's first, self-titled album-- one of the biggest selling debuts in history. I remember having a gestalt experience when I was in sixth grade, and my brother was playing it on our crappy record player. "There's not a bad song on this album!" I thought. True enough, but 30 years of Classic Rock radio have certainly caused me to feel as if many of those songs had worn out their welcome. Listening to it again recently in preparation for this tribute, I was able to forget how many times I'd heard "More than a Feeling" and I enjoyed the album all over again. Especially, "Hitch a Ride" which is really just a fantastic Power Pop tune-- think about it, harmonies, handclaps, guitar solo, all the elements are in place.

Finally, I know that what Ike Turner did as an abusive husband should never be forgiven. I hope, though, that we can also appreciate him as a very talented songwriter and an important figure in the History of Rock & Roll. I still have no idea how "Crazy in Love" wasn't a massive hit. I wish the Detroit Cobras would cover it.

Happy listening!

R.I.P. 2000’s – Disc 2

26. “Speed Trials” by Elliott Smith (10/21/03)
27. “Like a Summer Rain” by Jan & Dean (Jan Berry, 03/26/04)
28. “That’ll Be the Day” by the Crickets (Nikki Sullivan, 04/06/04)
29. “I Got a Woman” by Ray Charles (06/10/04)
30. “Personality Crisis” by the New York Dolls (Arthur Kane, 07/14/04)
31. “Flying on the Ground is Wrong” by Buffalo Springfield (Bruce Palmer, 10/01/04; & Dewey Martin, 01/31/09)
32. “Teenage Kicks” by the Undertones (John Peel, DJ 10/25/04)
33. “Just Like Yesterday” by Bread (Jimmy Griffin, 01/11/05; Mike Botts, 12/09/05; & Larry Knechtel, 08/20/09)
34. “Means to an End” by Traffic (Jim Capaldi, 01/28/05)
35. “Sister Madly” Crowded House (Paul Hester, 03/26/05)
36. “Reach Out I’ll Be There” by the Four Tops (Renaldo “Obie” Benson, 07/01/05; & Levi Stubbs, 10/17/08)
37. “Back Again” by Badfinger (Mike Gibbins, 10/04/05)
38. “Raw Hide” by Link Wray (11/05/05)
39. “Big Houses” by House of Freaks (Bryan Harvey, 01/01/06)
40. “634-5789” by Wilson Pickett (01/19/06)
41. “(I Wanna) Love My Life Away” by Gene Pitney (04/05/06)
42. “One Thing Can Hold Us” by the Go-Betweens (Grant McLennan, 05/06/06)
43. “You Can Get It If You Really Want” by Desmond Dekker (05/25/06)
44. “Do What You Want” by Billy Preston (06/06/06)
45. “Octopus” by Syd Barrett (07/07/06)
46. “Can't Explain” by Love (Arthur Lee, 08/03/06)
47. “Whenever You’re Around” by the Dave Clark Five (Dennis Payton, 12/17/06; & Mike Smith, 02/28/08)
48. “Out of Sight” by James Brown (12/25/06)
49. “Hitch a Ride” by Boston (Brad Delp, 03/09/07)
50. “Crazy in Love” by the Ike-Ettes (Ike Turner, 12/12/07)

Total Time: 1:12:03

Download it here: R.I.P. 2000's - Disc 2

We Interupt the Trilogy for a Special Bulletin

Hey folks, I'll get back to the R.I.P. trilogy by the end of the week, promise. I just wanted to share a short compilation I made a while back, after I picked up Joe Pernice's last album, It Feels So Good When You Stop. I put "I Go To Pieces" (see video above) on the 2009 covers compilation, but I really didn't mention much about the album. Cover albums are generally pretty novel, and this one is no exception (pun intended!). It is actually billed as a soundtrack to the book (same title) by Joe Pernice. I haven't actually read it yet, but the excerpts on the CD are pretty great. So this morning I was fishing around and found it at Amazon for the ridiculously low price of $9.97. That's for the hardback edition (paperback comes out later this year). Anyway, here's a link: Joe Pernice Book at Amazon. I have no idear how long it will be at this price, so snag it while you can (the Kindle download is more expensive).

Happy Listening!


It Feels So Good When I Stop: The Originals

01. Plush, "Found a Little Baby"
02. Peter & Gordon, "I Go to Pieces"
03. James & Bobby Purify, "I'm Your Puppet"
04. Sebadoh, "Soul and Fire"
05. Sammy Johns, "Chevy Van"
06. Dream Syndicate, "Tell Me When It's Over"
07. Dick Van Dyke, et al, "Chim Chim Cher-ee"
08. Tom T. Hall, "That's How I Got to Memphis"
09. Todd Rundgren, "Hello It's Me"

Bonus Track:
10. Plush, "Found a Little Baby (Instrumental)"

Total Time: 32:48

Download it Here: It Feels Good When You Stop: The Originals

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

Jay Reatard R.I.P.

Waiting For Something - a short documentary about Jay Reatard

Jay Reatard | MySpace Music Videos

Weird, I was going to post my tribute to the decade on Friday (still am, actually). Instead of making a compilation of a bunch of bands I loved from the decade, I decided that I was going to make a compilation of all the Rock and Roll related deaths that happened during the Aughts. Here we are two weeks in and the first significant death of the Teens (?) happens, to a fellow Tennessean, no less-- one day after that rat bastard Lane Kiffin decided to bolt to the left coast. I digress. R.I.P. Jay.

New Spoon!!

Just in case you haven't heard it yet, NPR is streaming Transference. Listen to it here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122279793