My top 10% of the top 10% in the previous post of the "best of" music on my mixes in 2006, or just the top 1% of the whole year, for a total of the best eleven songs of 2006. Counting down to my favorite, here goes.
11. "Didn't I" by Darondo
He was such an obscure soul singer from the 70s that he was not just forgotten, he was never really known. When his work was rediscovered in 2006, I was thrilled to hear this guy who sang like Al Green's tougher, more street-wise cousin. "Didn't I" is just a marvel, a song I can hear different things in every time I hear it.
10. "Every Night I Die At Miyagis" by Ariel Pink
Nearly as obscure as Darondo is the low-fi genius of Ariel Pink. I fell in love with this song in 2006, finding it so mysterious and catchy. It sounds like something you'd hear on a radio in a strange country, someone else's stab at American pop. Like a Fleetwood Mac song with a surreal bent.
9. "Kid (demo)" by The Pretenders
I've always loved this song by The Pretenders but the discovery of this demo version of it in 2006 had its hooks in me. Their playing is looser and more ragged, and Chrissie Hynde's voice is all over the place, in the best possible way. It's the greatest showcase for her singing I've ever heard and the longer wordless coda she sings near the end always gives me goosebumps.
8. "Sappy" by Nirvana
Their catchiest song, more than "Smells Like Teen Spirit", and one of their heaviest. The catchiness, as in other songs, is the sweet to the sour in the lyrics that seem to be concerned with being trapped in a bad relationship, or life even. I love the melody, the heavy guitars, the singing, the drums, everything. This was a b side but I think it's as great as anything they ever recorded.
7. "Let The Rhythm Hit 'Em (original Omega One remix)" by Eric B. & Rakim
I have always loved Rakim but this remix brings a whole ethereal element to his lyrics. His lyrics are always grounded and earth-bound, as clever and great as they are, and this production gives it this spacey other-worldly feel, very cinematic. I think I played this song more often than any in 2006, I could never get sick of it.
6. "George Jackson (Big Band ver)" by Bob Dylan
This is one of the great lost Bob Dylan songs, and as much as I just love the lyrics and the acoustic version the "Big Band" version here, with steel guitar and gospel back-up singing sounds like something that would be playing in heaven. So that when he muses "sometimes I think this whole world is one big prison yard/ Some of us are prisoners, some of us are guards" it sounds as deep as philosophy and as comforting as religion.
5. "The Girl In Saskatoon" by Johnny Cash
This is a little-known song that Johnny Cash wrote with Johnny Horton and it was one of my absolute favorites of 2006. It's so simple, but his playing and singing convey such longing and regret. It just has such a beautiful late-night feel to it, and I love the metaphor of burning love in the face of a wintry world.
4. "Don't Know What You Got ('Til It's Gone)" by Cinderella
By now, you must realize that you are not on a public radio blog, with music tastefully curated as on KCRW or NPR. I think I have great taste in music or else I wouldn't spend so much time cultivating it. But I do not choose music to like out of fashion or to otherwise impress. This song, like the last one or the next few, could have easily been my number one song of the year. Not ironically. I grew up in the era of hair metal and hated most of it. I had forgotten this song until late 2006 when a friend at work played the video for laughs. Heavy metal band on the beach, a ridiculous wind blowing. But this song knocked me on my ass. Brought back a lot of memories. Not great ones mind you, bad keg parties in predominantly male dorm rooms with bad lighting. But precious memories just the same. And this song, good god. His screaming is a force of nature. It's such a stirring song to me and I can't explain why except that now that I found it again I won't ever let it get too far away from me.
3. "Best Friend" by 50 Cent
This song was on one of my 2006 mixes, but bled over into 2007 to become a very big song for me that year. It's lewd but incredibly romantic. A song I remember from long car rides, playing on repeat by request. I can't say much more about this song except that 50 Cent had to have created something amazing here to get away with lyrics like this, as women love this song.
2. "I'm Still Here" by Tom Waits
It's hard for me to hear this, even years after falling in love with it in 2006, without getting a lump in my throat. For some reason, I have always associated it with the monkey and the fox for whom this blog is named. It's something about their inability to speak, and my ability to take them for granted. Ok, better move on before my eyes start to water.
1. "Love Is Lyrical" by Marlene Dietrich
So this little snippet is a very rare movie soundtrack piece by Marlene Dietrich. And my favorite track by her and the most romantic song I have ever heard. I love the big band horns and the way her breathless singing slows it down, and the strings beneath it. When or if I fall in love for good, this will be the song.
