This was supposed to be the New World

Socially mediated, socially distant greetings to you all. How are you keeping? I am holding the terror and confusion at bay by spending even more time on the internet than I used to. (And sleeping less than I have since late 2016 but I don’t want to talk about it.)

Anyway, speaking of distance and alienation, of all the rabbit holes I have fallen down in the past two weeks and six days (what, like you’re not counting too?) this is the best so far: Radiohead’s new “public library” where you can stream approximately a zillion hours of concert footage, videos, all their albums and singles plus some raw material, and – my favorite – fan-made videos. Or maybe my favorite is all the crowd shots in the outdoor shows. All those sweaty people crowded up against each other in the summers of 1998, 2001, 2016. I haven’t been to that kind of show in decades but I hate that they won’t exist at all this summer or maybe ever again.

Well, anyway. I’ll be back eventually with some other stuff but since the last time I said that was October 2018 I don’t advise holding your breath, unless you’re within hockey-stick distance of another human, in which case definitely do.

Day 12 of 12: The New Pornographers, Mac McCaughan, David Bowie, Dolly Parton + Linda Ronstadt + Emmylou Harris

“Falling Down The Stairs Of Your Smile” The New Pornographers

Another delightful, nonsensical, there’s-no-way-this-is-not-the-single track from some of my favorite purveyors of modern harmonies.

“Happy New Year (Prince Can’t Die Again),” Mac McCaughan

Written and released at the end of 2016, this captures where we all were then, and maybe where we are now, too.

“The Man Who Sold The World (ChangesNowBowie Version),” David Bowie

According to the NME, this is a 1996 track that was released in 2020 for what would have been Bowie’s 73rd birthday. I don’t know if he went into the recording session and said “let’s make this sound like Nirvana’s Unplugged version” in exactly those words, but that’s how it came out.

“After The Gold Rush,” Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris

The recent documentary on Linda Ronstadt, The Sound of My Voice, showed footage of Parton, Ronstadt, and Harris singing this song. It also showed how Ronstadt befriended Harris; it seems she realized she’d need all the real allies and friends she could get in the music business. I’m glad she did.

Day 11 of 12: Joni Mitchell, Jamila Woods, The Dream Syndicate

“Cactus Tree,” Joni Mitchell

A friend once pointed out to me that this song has all of Joni Mitchell writ in six lines–“She will love them when she sees them / They will lose her if they follow / And she only means to please them / And her heart is full and hollow / Like a cactus tree / While she’s so busy being free” –and I’ve never forgotten it.

“GIOVANNI,” Jamila Woods

There’s a lot to like about this song, a tribute to poet Nikki Giovanni, but I think what makes it stick in my head is that you could have just Woods’ vocals and the bass and it would still be good.

“Black Light,” The Dream Syndicate

A riff to get lost in: repeated enough to lull you, syncopated enough to disorient you.

Day 10 of 12: Jimmy Eat World, Buddy Miller + Brandi Carlile, The Decemberists

“All The Way (Stay),” Jimmy Eat World

It’s good to know Jimmy Eat World can still write a major-key power pop song for you to sing along to in your car.

“Angel From Montgomery,” Buddy Miller, Brandi Carlile

I have sort of Boy-Who-Cried-Wolf myself into the position of saying good things about hundreds of songs every year, so I’m not quite sure how I can convey my feelings that this is one of the greatest songs written in living memory. This is far from the only version–and I’ve spent an afternoon listening to every version I could find on Spotify–but it’s the one that I thought best showed off. I’ve had mixed feelings about John Prine, but no longer. The line “If dreams were lightning / and thunder was desire / this old house would have burned down / a long time ago” is superb. Putting it in the same song as the line “How the hell can a person / go to work in the morning / and come home in the evening / and have nothing to say?” is brilliant. To put both of them in the same song as “Just give me one thing / that I can hold on to / To believe in this living /  is just a hard way to go” is absolute top-tier songwriting, best of the age. In contrast to my praise-belabored writing, look at what Prine does: “old,” “long,” and “one,” and “hard” are the only adjectives in those lines, a story unto themselves.

 

“January Hymn,” The Decemberists

By the time you’re reading this, it won’t be January (at least, not January 2020), but late January was when I added this track to the mix. Even when winter doesn’t feel pretty and sparkling, this song sounds like how a good January day feels.