Ever since the Tom Waits cartooning project, I've been listening to more Tom than I ever thought I would, but there's one song in particular that draws me back far more than all the others: "Ol’ 55". Even if you don't know it, you probably know the more popular, yet inferior Eagles cover. The original is so much better. It's just about a perfect song in my book.
One night K. asked me what I thought about "Love Song" by Sara Bareilles, so we YouTube'd it and lo and behold, I was delighted. I love me some pop music and this piano tune about how she refuses to write her boyfriend a love song does quite well by me.
No group makes me feel twenty years younger they way the Replacements do, so recently I compiled all my favorite 'Mats songs onto the old ipod for some serious re-listening. The one that gets played twice as often as the others? "Kiss Me on the Bus".
Last Halloween, I dj'd some 70s music for some friends and now I can't stop listening to my favorite old soul songs. And the first song I always play (and I usually play it twice in a row) is "Midnight Train to Georgia" by Gladys Knight & the Pips.
I saw the Fratellis at last year's WXPN concert and didn't find them that memorable, but ever since the trailer for Run Fatboy Run, I can't stop listening to "Chelsea Dagger".
I first heard the Ditty Bops's version of the old jazz tune "Sister Kate" in an episode of The L Word back in 2007. Since then, I doubt that I've gone more than a week without listening to it. It's just so damn fun.
While I listen to a lot of David Bowie just about all the damn time, there's one song that's become a mantra to me when I'm working on my novel, "Ziggy Stardust", particularly the line "He took it all too far, but boy could he play guitar."
(ETA: You can listen to a streaming mixtape of my seven songs here: http://radiofreeassmonkey.muxtape.com/)
In non-music news, yesterday one of my co-workers bought some makeup during her lunch break and was shocked (shocked, I say!) to realize she was walking about the city with a woman's partially-clothed bottom on her bag. I was less shocked and quickly negotiated for possession of said bag, which now graces my cubical wall and which I now present to you.