In the totality of all these mixes, these are only 2/3 of the versions I've used. But there are six: the gentle piano take by George Benson, the sublime original by The Beatles, George Harrison doing a live acoustic version, the rightly famous reading by Richie Havens, Nina Simone's warm take and an unlikely but wonderful cover by Peter Tosh.
Other upbeat songs: Glen Campbell's buoyant "Southern Nights", Pharrell Williams with Jay-Z on the summery "Frontin'", Phil Collins teaming up with Philip Bailey of Earth, Wind & Fire singing about a woman who's an "Easy Lover". Known plenty of those! Todd Rundgren's "I Saw The Light" is the world's most perfect pop song. Not far behind is Belle & Sebastian's live rarity "Paper Boat".
Getting into a more night-time vibe: Tom Waits' "Jockey Full Of Bourbon" is one of the first songs of his that made me want to go out and seek more, The Velvet Underground's "After Hours" is sweetly sung by their drummer Maureen Tucker, and the spooky and haunting "Ashes To Ashes" is probably my favorite David Bowie song. Damon Albarn's "End Of Democrazy" has a great homemade feel to it very far from the sound of Blur.
I have two very different versions of the traditional old cowboy ballad "Spanish Is The Loving Tongue", both sung by Bob Dylan. One is with the outtakes off the released bootleg with The Band, The Basement Tapes. Off The Basement Basement Tapes, I suppose. The other take is a more light-hearted romp off that infamous album called Dylan, of him goofing around in the studio. The record label released this out of spite, against his wishes, when he left them. It was a hard album to track down on cd, as it was only available in Australia, for some reason.
The two fiercest songs on here have to be GZA's "Fam (Members Only)", in which GZA's cousin RZA brags "my girl stays in the bed and she loves to lay the eggs" and John Lennon's "Give Me Some Truth".
John Lennon's spiritual godson could be Joe Strummer. I have here The Clash's unedited version of "Straight To Hell" as well as Josh Rouse's stunning acoustic cover.
I have to say without the least bit embarrassment that I have, at times, taken the news of a relative's death without blinking an eye. But when I heard about Joe Strummer, I was a wreck.
