Next, The Ikettes with the catchy "I'm Blue (The Gong-Gong Song)", Bob Dylan and George Harrison goofing around in the studio with a cover of "Da Doo Ron Ron", Stevie Wonder's Latin-tinged "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing", and Mick Boogie remixing Kanye West's "Flashing Lights" with a guest appearance by 50 Cent.
I finally got to see Slumdog Millionaire today before tomorrow's Oscars. Great music. Along those lines, here "One Two Three" by Asha Bholse & Mahendra Kapoor is a breathlessly fun track from a late 60s Bollywood film.
"Code Of The Streets" by Gang Starr is more evidence of DJ Premier's genius. Then modern funk from Dudley Perkins with "That's The Way It's Gonna Be". I have both The Staple Singers and then later on Willie Nelson singing his song "Uncloudy Day". Bruce Springsteen's yearning "Hungry Heart" precedes underground hip hop from The Coup, with "Me And Jesus The Pimp In A '79 Granada Last Night".
Screaming Lord Sutch was a very eccentric British rock performer in the 60s and 7os. He is the guy who shows up uninvited to Mick Jagger's room "all dressed up like a Union Jack" in the song "Get Off My Cloud". "Flashing Lights" features guitar by Jimmy Page.
"Throw Some D's" is Them Jeans backing Rich Boy with Spinto Band. For any reader who is not normally a fan of rap, this song needs to be heard. It's soaring, funny and makes you want to turn the dial to eleven.
Also here: old gospel blues from Mother McCollum with "Jesus Is My Air-O-Plane", Van Morrison's recent take on "There Stands The Glass", an alternate version of the Donovan hit "Epistle To Dippy", and the church organ of Bjork B-side "Lilith/Plaid".
Billy Joel albums were constantly played by my father and his new wife in our house during my 70s/early 80s youth. Much of this music seemed barf-worthy by the time I was in college, but for my money "Just The Way You Are" is his prettiest and most enduring tune. I used versions by Frank Sinatra and Barry White in other mixes, and finally got around to this. The lyrics can be a little revealing about some meat-headed notions of the ideal woman, like his aversion to "clever conversations". I guess that's why he married Christie Brinkley? Regardless, it's a pretty song.
So is, in its own poignant way, the posthumously leaked "Wastin' Time No More" by Ol' Dirty Bastard, where he makes promises to change his life over the haunting piano of Billy Joel's "The Stranger".
Alas, like the title of the melancholic Tom Waits instrumental that closes this mix, he was "Just Another Sucker On The Vine".
