Tag Archives: Better Than Ezra

Jul 09

#LOTD2013: June Playlist

Posted on by

#LOTD2013: JuneThere’s no doubt: it’s a heck of a lot easier to catch up on the #LOTD2013 playlists on a monthly basis than it is to do so on the weekly Photo-A-Day posts. Without further ado, here are June’s Lyric-of-the-Day Tweets (find the Spotify playlist I’ve created from these lyrics linked at the end of the post or on the clickable image at right), with some brief explanations (in italics) for a number of the lyrics. Remember, if you want to see the lyrics as they pop up daily, just give me a follow on Twitter!

  • “Stretched to the limit attention spans/Snap back retract/Collapse into laugh tracks/Noise response applause” #Beck “Hell Yes” #LOTD2013 6/1
  • “Laughing on the bus/Playing games with the faces/She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy” #SimonAndGarfunkel “America” #LOTD2013 6/2
  • “If there’s something inside that you want to say/Say it out loud it’ll be okay” #TheBetaBand “Dry The Rain” #LOTD2013 6/3
  • “She looks me in the eye & says/We’re gonna last forever/And ya know I can’t begin to doubt it” #TomPetty “Here Comes My Girl” #LOTD2013 6/4 (The most special and personal treat of a great Petty show at the Fonda Theater in Hollywood.)
  • “Under a big old sky, out in a field of green/There’s gotta be something left for us to believe” #TPATH “Kings Highway” #LOTD2013 6/5 (And the second best personal treat from the night before.)
  • “Stand up and deliver/Your wildest fantasy/Do what the fuck you want to/There’s no one to appease” #Muse “Panic Station” #LOTD2013 6/6
  • “Our god is a sinner, our king is a con/The room’s about to crumble as I burst into song” #TheHives “Go Right Ahead” #LOTD2013 6/7
  • “Sold me out for chump change/Told me they had it all arranged/You handed me down, that’s a fact” #JamesBrown “The Payback”
  • “Eight miles high/And when you touch down/You’ll find that it’s/Stranger than known” #TheByrds “Eight Miles High” #LOTD2013 6/9
  • “Love don’t play any games with me/Anymore like she did before” #RyanAdams “New York, New York” #LOTD2013 6/10 (A week of NYC-related tunes kicks off with a rocking choice for the arrival in town.)
  • “There’s a woman/On the outside/Looking inside/Does she see me?” #SuzanneVega “Tom’s Diner” #LOTD2013 6/11
  • “Wearin’ the cross of my calling/On wheels of fire I come rollin’ down here” #BruceSpringsteen “The Rising” #LOTD2013 6/12 (After a business meeting in lower Manhattan, I got a chance to walk down and check the progress of the new World Trade Center building.)
  • “Subway steam, like silhouettes in dreams/They stood by me, just like moonbeams” #TheWallflowers “6th Avenue Heartache” #LOTD2013 6/13
  • “Tom, get your plane right on time/I know you’ve been eager to fly now” #SimonAndGarfunkel “The Only Living Boy In New York” #LOTD2013 6/14 (Got my plane back to L.A. on time. Unfortunately, American Airlines was into their own delays — as usual — on this long Friday.)
  • “It’s the room, the sun and the sky/It’s the room, the sun and the sky” #SilversunPickups “Lazy Eye” #LOTD2013 6/15
  • “You’re the reason I sing/You’re the reason why the opera is in me” #U2 “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own” #LOTD2013 6/16 (For my dad.)
  • “The first mate he got drunk/Broke in the cap’ns trunk/The constable had to come and take him away” #BeachBoys “Sloop John B” #LOTD2013 6/17
  • “I knew it when I met you/I’m not gonna let you runaway/I knew it when I held you I wasn’t letting go” #Killers “Runaways” #LOTD2013 6/18
  • “What a gas it was to see him/Walk her every day/Into a shady place/With her lips she said” #ThePixies “Gigantic” #LOTD2013 6/19
  • “Before anybody wanted K-West beats/Me and my girl split the buffet at KFC” #KanyeWest “Touch The Sky” #LOTD2013 6/20
  • “At the drive-in/In the old man’s Ford/Behind the bushes/Until I’m screamin’ for more” #Poison “Talk Dirty To Me” #LOTD2013 6/21 (Thanks to that post-game jukebox in Wrigleyville.)
  • “People talking, people laughing/A man selling ice cream/Singing Italian songs” #Chicago “Saturday In The Park” #LOTD2013 6/22 (As I posted that day, I was eating brunch in Chicago on a Saturday in Wicker Park when this song came on the diner’s loudspeakers. The start of a really good day.)
  • “Mercury is rising still/Turn the fan on high/I won’t step on my own shadow/No one wants to cry” #REM “Summer Turns To High” #LOTD2013 6/23
  • “And I’ll be workin’/From sun up to midnight” #MichaelJackson “Workin’ Day And Night” #LOTD2013 6/24
  • “There been times I thought I couldn’t last for long/But now I think I’m able to carry on” #SamCooke “A Change Is Gonna Come” #LOTD2013 6/25 (After this day’s, um, amazing(?) Voting Rights Act decision by the Supreme Court, I guess the change is going to have to come … again.)
  • “But no matter what you do/It always feels as though you tripped and fell” #TheRaconteurs “Steady, As She Goes” #LOTD2013 6/26
  • “She’s a Georgia Peach never within reach/He’s a felon from Baton Rouge” #BetterThanEzra “A Southern Thing” #LOTD2013 6/27
  • “Door is locked just you and me/Can I take you to a restaurant that’s got glass tables” #EnglishBeat “Mirror In The Bathroom” #LOTD2013 6/28
  • “The temperature’s about 88/Hop in the water plug just for old times sake” #DJJazzyJeffAndTheFreshPrince “Summertime” #LOTD2013 6/29 (SoCal’s first summer heat wave of 2013 hit hard on this sunny Saturday.)
  • “Maybe you’re the same as me/We see things they’ll never see/You and I, we’re gonna …” “Live Forever” #Oasis #LOTD2013 6/30

Here’s the Spotify playlist if you’d like to listen along: #LOTD2013: June

Feb 10

#LOTD2013: January Playlist

Posted on by

Along with the Photo-a-Day project I launched on Jan. 1, I also decided to take on a daily Twitter project: sharing a Lyric of the Day (hence the #LOTD2013 hashtag that goes along with each Tweet).

I wasn’t sure which direction this was going to go when I started. Would it be more affected by just songs that popped up that day for me, whether on an iTunes shuffle, on Spotify or in the car? Or would it be something that would speak more often to a happening on that day or some other theme?

Spotify PlaylistTurns out — like most things — it’s fallen somewhere in the middle. Here’s the list of January’s Tweets (find the Spotify playlist I’ve created from these lyrics linked at the end of the post or on the image at right), with some brief explanations (in italics) for a number of the lyrics. I’m planning on recapping monthly in this space, but if you want to see the lyrics as they pop up daily, just give me a follow on Twitter!

  • New on my feed for ’13: lyric of the day. “I want to be with you/Be with you night and day/Nothing changes on New Year’s Day” #LOTD2013 1/1
  • “I go to work/Like a boxer/Train the brain and aim/To outfox ya/Like a punch my rhyme knocks ya” #KoolMoeDee “I Go To Work” #LOTD2013 1/2 — First day back at work in 2013 gets one of my favorite rap songs from way back when.
  • “I’ve got a handful of this/What do I do with it?/I’ve got a barrel of this/What do I do with it?” #Echo “Do It Clean” #LOTD2013 1/3
  • “I’ll eat the lotus and peyote/I’ll want to hear the caged bird sing/I’ll want the secrets of the temple” #REM “Be Mine” #LOTD2013 1/4
  • “Cause he had to run, run, run, run, run/Take a drag or two/Run, run, run, run, run” #VelvetUnderground “Run Run Run” #LOTD2013 1/5 — Ran my first competitive race, a nighttime 5K through downtown L.A. on Jan. 5
  • “Beans and Cornbread had a fight/Beans knocked Cornbread outta sight” #LouisJordan “Beans and Cornbread” #LOTD2013 1/6 — Someone made me homemade chili and cornbread for dinner. 🙂
  • “They call Alabama the Crimson Tide/Call me Deacon Blues” #SteelyDan “Deacon Blues” #LOTD2013 1/7 — Alabama 42, ND 14 in the BCS title game.
  • “Bound with all the weight of all the words he tried to say/As he faced the sun he cast no shadow” #Oasis “Cast No Shadow” #LOTD2013 1/8
  • “You’re an idea man not a yes man/With a point to make you’re bound to take a stand” #BeastieBoys “Finger Lickin’ Good” #LOTD2013 1/9
  • “I remember running through the wet grass/Falling a step behind/Both of us never tired” #BetterThanEzra “Desperately Wanting” #LOTD2013 1/10
  • “I’m on my way/Can’t settle down/I’m stuck in ways of being an ass/And I got a lot of nerve …” #TheHives “Main Offender” #LOTD2013 1/11 — Tickets were acquired for a Feb. 17 show from Howlin’ Pelle and his band at the House of Blues Anaheim.
  • “And I’m floating in a most peculiar way/And the stars look very different today” #DavidBowie “Space Oddity” #LOTD2013 1/12 — Visited the Space Shuttle Endeavour in Exposition Park.
  • “Paris was a place you could hide away/If you felt you didn’t fit in” #RodStewart “Every Picture Tells A Story” #LOTD2013 1/13 — Spent a big chunk of the day editing pictures taken in Paris last October.
  • “I’m gonna pack my pa and I’m gonna pack my aunt/I’m gonna take ’em down to the Cadillac Ranch” #Springsteen “Cadillac Ranch” #LOTD2013 1/14
  • “In the dark of night/By my side/In the dark of night/By my side/I wish you were/I wish you were” #INXS “By My Side” #LOTD2013 1/15
  • “Where are you now?/All alone/And I wonder what you’re thinking?/You don’t say anything anymore” #Solarcade “Imaginary Girl” #LOTD 1/16 — The day we all found out about Manti Te’o and his fake dead girlfriend.
  • “Me used to be angry young man/Me hiding me head in the sand/You gave me the word/I finally heard” #Beatles “Getting Better” #LOTD 1/17
  • “Shoulda been coulda been woulda been dead/If I didn’t get the message goin thru my head/I am what I am” #RHCP “Suck My Kiss” #LOTD2013 1/18
  • “Will you defeat them/Your demons and all the non-believers” #MyChemicalRomance “Welcome to the Black Parade” #LOTD2013 1/19 (#GoKingsGo) — Pretty much the only way to get me into a MyChem song was for the Kings to set an awesome pregame video used throughout the playoffs last year to this one and create an emotional tie. Jan. 19 was the day the Kings raised the 2011-12 Stanley Cup Champions banner.
  • “It’s on the outskirts of town, by the railroad tracks/Where the country moon shines.” #SocialDistortion “Prison Bound” #LOTD2013 1/20 — Saw another great Social D show at House of Blues Sunset Strip.
  • 1/21 #LOTD2013, a shout-out to small-town Wisconsin bars: “Watchin’ the world go by/Surprisin’ it goes so fast” #BadCo “Shooting Star” — Yes, I was at Lucky Mojo’s in Burlington, Wis. Yes, it was 1 degree Fahrenheit. Yes, this song came on.
  • “His little brother came in/Holding the milk man’s hat and a bottle of gin/Singin’ la la la la” #Raconteurs “Carolina Drama” #LOTD2013 1/22
  • “I need a lil money/I knew I could count on you/After that night in Vegas/And the hell we went through” #TomPetty “Swingin'” #LOTD2013 1/23
  • “He floated back down coz he wanted to share/His key to the locks on the chains he saw everywhere” #PearlJam “Given to Fly'” #LOTD2013 1/24
  • “Save some face, you know you’ve only got one/Change your ways while you’re young” #Killers “Smile Like You Mean It” #LOTD2013 1/25
  • “When you’re down, it’s a long way up/When you’re up, it’s a long way down” #LoveAndRockets “No New Tale To Tell” #LOTD2013 1/26
  • “California sunlight, sweet Calcutta rain/Honolulu starbright …” #LedZeppelin “The Song Remains the Same” #LOTD2013 1/27
  • “Then the door was open and the wind appeared/The candles blew and then disappeared” #BOC “Don’t Fear the Reaper” #LOTD2013 1/28 (#Cowbell) — Went to see Jeff Garlin in conversation with Will Ferrell at the Largo. The subject of cowbell came up.
  • “The laws of man/Don’t apply/When blood gets in/A woman’s eye” #TheBlackKeys “Ten Cent Pistol” #LOTD2013 1/29
  • “Why don’t you tell me what’s goin’ on?/Why don’t you tell me who’s on the phone?” #FleetwoodMac “Tusk” #LOTD2013 1/30 #FightOn @USC_Hoops — USC 75, UCLA 71 (OT)
  • “Her green plastic watering can/For her fake Chinese rubber plant/In the fake plastic earth” #Radiohead “Fake Plastic Trees” #LOTD2013 1/31 — Scottsdale bars, folks. Like if a cougar bar in Newport Coast had a baby with a cougar bar in West L.A. and it moved to the desert.

Here’s the Spotify playlist if you’d like to listen along!