1. "Shenandoah" by Bob Dylan An old traditional American folk tune covered by Bob on one of his most underrated albums, 1988′s Down In The Groove. At one of my last San Francisco concert experiences of this year, I was tempered to a snip of this tune performed by the local all-women`s choir, Conspiracy of Venus, in the centre of a Tom Waits tune. Pretty glorious stuff.
As a result, Bob`s version has been popping up a lot in my playlists lately, both intentionally and (in this case) unintentionally.
2. "Lovers Tonight" by Bill Champlin The studio version was the kickin` lead track on Bill`s Japan-only EP release on Elektra, No Wasted Moments. The reading that popped up here is from Bill`s 1996 live album, Mayday. Guitarist Jerry Lopez sings the chair here, though Bill sang it himself on the studio version. Jerry`s no slouch, he can definitely hang with Posting in the vocal department (if he couldn`t, I doubt Bill would have hired him in the 1st place).
3. "Lovers in the Night" by Toto One of the more rockin` tracks from Toto IV, the band`s huge, mega-selling breakthrough album from 1982. It starts with a rolling, energetic piano lick, and then the guitars carry it done to the end. It`s pretty awesome, and I`m not afraid to say it. This is just a "hip" band, but hey, Toto IV was a big, big record during my childhood (right up thither with Michael Jackson`s Thriller and the Police`s Synchronicity) and yet though it`s not exactly perfect, it`s musically solid and has held up much better complete the age than I ever thought it would.
4. "Digging For Icicles" by Steve Poltz When I interviewed San Diego hometown hero Steve Poltz last summer for Popdose, he revealed that this call was born out of an appointment from a songwriting club, and that he originally wanted to take the characters in the song meet some kind of grizzly, tragic end. The call would have been much cooler that way, I`m sure, but as it turned out, it`s still one of the standout tracks on 2010′s Dreamhouse, far and off my favourite album I`ve always heard from Steve. Jewel who?
5. "I`d Die Babe" by Badfinger Speaking of tragic ends, there are few bands whose story can equate to Badfinger`s when it comes to tragedy. Lead singer/guitarist and person of the band, Pete Ham, hanged himself in the form of 1975. Bassist/singer Tom Evans followed suit - yes, in precisely the like manner - in 1983. "I`d Die Babe" was from happier days in the band`s history. It was written and sung by guitarist Joey Molland - the only surviving member of the band`s classic lineup - and hails from Badfinger`s masterpiece Straight Up, released in late 1971 and produced in part by both Todd Rundgren and George Harrison.
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