Feb 10

#LOTD2014: March Playlist

Continuing to push through the way-overdue Lyric-of-the-Day project recaps from 2013-2014 with the March 2014 playlist. As a refresher, each day from Jan. 1, 2013 through Dec. 31, 2014, I posted a lyric on my Twitter feed. At the end of each month, I created a Spotify playlist of the songs featured, and throughout much of 2013-14 here on the blog.

Here’s March’s #LOTD2014 playlist (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.

  • “I’m filling a need/I’m plugging a hole/My mama’s so glad/I ain’t on the dole” #RollingStones “When The Whip Comes Down” #LOTD2014 3/1
  • “All my friends know the low rider/The low rider is a little higher” #WAR “Low Rider” #LOTD2014 3/2 #BeALotCoolerIfYouDid #McConnaissance (Matthew McConaughey wins the Best Actor Oscar for “Dallas Buyers Club”)
  • “For the millionth time askin’ me/Questions like Wendy Williams harassin’ me” #JayZ “A Million & 1 Questions” #LOTD2014 3/3
  • “I have no fear of falling/But I hate hitting the ground” #TheBadlees “Fear Of Falling” #LOTD2014 3/4 (I took a tumble while jogging in downtown L.A. and broke my left pinkie.)
  • “They can plead/But they can’t see the light/Cause the boy with cold hard cash/Is always Mr. Right” #Madonna “Material Girl” #LOTD2014 3/5
  • “Bend my finger back (snap)/Wrap it in a paper towel/Break a twig in half and set it straight” #VampireWeekend “Finger Back” #LOTD2014 3/6 (Surgery on that broken pinkie with my long-time hand and wrist specialist, Dr. Shin.)
  • “Light up, light up/As if you have a choice/Even if you cannot hear my voice/I’ll be right beside you dear” #SnowPatrol “Run” #LOTD2014 3/7
  • “The infrastructure will collapse/From voltage spikes/Throw your keys in the bowl” #Radiohead “House Of Cards” #LOTD2014 3/8
  • “Take the water prisoner/Fill the sky with screams and cries/Bathe in fiery answers” #TownesVanZandt “Lungs” #LOTD2014 3/9 #TrueDetective (HBO airs the last episode of the amazing first season of “True Detective.”)
  • “Hey brother, do you still believe in one another?/Hey sister, do you still believe in love I wonder?” #Avicii “Hey Brother” #LOTD2014 3/10
  • “Headphones are loud/Chilling on a pillowy cloud/Comfort of codeine & Springsteen pristine” #KurtVile “Snowflakes Are Dancing” #LOTD2014 3/11
  • “Sun’s brighter than its ever been/Why ain’t I?/Cause I’m a Son of an American/ That’s why” #TheSoSoGlos “Son Of An American” #LOTD2014 3/12
  • “Ain’t nuttin goin on but the bomb-ass rap song/Hittin all night long” #IceCube “You Know How We Do It” #LOTD2014 3/13 (cc: @danny_mendoza)
  • “I forget to forget nothing is important/Holding back the fool again” #SmashingPumpkins “To Forgive” #LOTD2014 3/14
  • “Shoefly, dragonfly/Get back t’your mother/Pick up a flat rock/Skip it across Green River” #CCR “Green River” #LOTD2014 3/15 #StPatsChicago (In Chicago for work, but spent the day enjoying the city’s incredible annual St. Patrick’s Day celebration.)
  • “I need a garden/Where nothing’s forbidden/I need an apple/That no one’s been eatin'” #TheWallflowers “When You’re On Top” #LOTD2014 3/16
  • “When the night has no end/And the day yet to begin/As the room spins around/I need your love” #U2 “Hawkmoon 269” #LOTD2014 3/17
  • “Cannonball and rifle/Rifle and cannonball/That’s the way the thunder rumbles” #EchoAndTheBunnymen “Bedbugs And Ballyhoo” #LOTD2014 3/18
  • “We live for just these twenty years/Do we have to die for the fifty more?” #DavidBowie “Young Americans” #LOTD2014 3/19
  • “Does your imagination try to make you what you wanted to be/I’m sorry I do what I did but it came naturally” #Haim “The Wire” #LOTD2014 3/20
  • “Moons and Junes & ferris wheels/The dizzy dancing way you feel/As every fairy tale comes real” #JudyCollins “Both Sides Now” #LOTD2014 3/21 (Attended the “Mad Men” creator and cast roundtable at Paleyfest at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood.)
  • “Hold back the dam/Fill these bags with sand/Every boy, woman, every man/Has got to…” “Lend A Hand” #JakobDylan #LOTD2014 3/22 #SCervice (Worked with a group of underprivileged junior high and high school students interested in journalism as part of USC’s annual Day of Service.)
  • “Put our heads together/Start a new country up/Our father’s father’s father tried/Erased parts he didn’t like”#REM “Cuyahoga” #LOTD2014 3/23
  • “Lake made of sand/And the milk don’t pour/And the honey don’t dance/And the money ain’t yours” #ChanceTheRapper “Pusha Man” #LOTD2014 3/24
  • “Did I tell you how much I miss your smile?/Did I tell you I was okay?/Well no way” #AdamAnt “Wonderful” #LOTD2014 3/25
  • “You wake and let’s wait to start the morning process/Rebuilding & you’re still a work in progress” #Eminem “Beautiful Pain” #LOTD2014 3/26
  • “I’ve been watching you/Think I wanna know ya/I’m a little dangerous/I’d love to show ya” #MorrisDayAndTheTime “Jungle Love” #LOTD2014 3/27
  • “There’s a brand new groove goin’ round/In your city, in your town/And the kick drum is the fault” #Prince “Housequake” #LOTD2014 3/28
  • “Lay your cross down/And let the long reaching arm/Of hope bring you around” #TerenceTrentDarby “Dance Little Sister” #LOTD2014 3/29
  • “Now I’m lookin’ at a flashback Sunday/Zoom lens feelings just won’t disappear” #JGeilsBand “Freeze Frame” #LOTD2014 3/30
  • “There’s music on the station/But I’m just listening to cold wind whistling” #ArcadeFire “Cold Wind” #LOTD2014 3/31

Here’s the Spotify playlist if you’d like to listen along: #LOTD204: March

Nov 01

#LOTD2013: July Playlist

Clearly, it was a heck of a summer. Just as I am playing catch-up with my Photo-A-Day project right now (the last blog post got us to mid-July), so too am I woefully behind on sharing the monthly #LOTD2013 playlists I’ve been working on. But, the time is now to move ahead! Here are July’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!

  • “We all live under the same sky/We all will live, we all will die/There is no wrong, there is no right” #Travis “Side” #LOTD2013 7/1
  • “You’re a needle in the hay/The water at the door/You’re a million miles away/Doesn’t matter anymore” #TheNational “Fireproof” #LOTD2013 7/2
  • “This crazy fog surrounds me/You wrap your legs around me/All I can do to try and breathe/Let me…” #Live “The Dolphin’s Cry” #LOTD2013 7/3
  • “This train/Hear steel wheels singin’/This train/Bells of #freedom ringin'” #Springsteen “Land Of Hope And Dreams” #LOTD2013 7/4 #Happy4th
  • “Be the sun that bursts through my clouds/It’s hard enough just living on this ground” #BlackCrowes “She Gave Good Sunflower” #LOTD2013 7/5
  • “You were better to me than I was to myself/For me, there’s you and there ain’t nobody else” #MarvinGaye “How Sweet It Is” #LOTD2013 7/6 (Celebrated the engagement of friends Seggie and Jamie on the Sunset Strip)
  • “Running from the law the press and the parents/Is your name Michael Diamond/No mine’s Clarence”#BeastieBoys “Shake Your Rump” #LOTD2013 7/7
  • “You know the night time, darling/Is the right time/To be with the one you love” #RayCharles “(Night Time Is) The Right Time” #LOTD2013 7/8
  • “Got a revolution behind my eyes/We got to get up and organize” #LoFidelityAllStars “Battleflag” #LOTD2013 7/9
  • “If you hear him comin’, won’t you say for me/That I just don’t want to go” #Coldplay “Death Will Never Conquer”#LOTD2013 7/10
  • “Thinkin’ of a few/Taboos that I ought to kill/Dancin’ on their face/Like a stage on vaudeville” #RHCP “If You Have To Ask” #LOTD2013 7/11
  • “I was crowned with a spike right thru my head/But it’s all right now/In fact it’s a gas” #RollingStones “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” #LOTD2013 7/12
  • “By the time Paul McCartney’s microphone failed/We are all well into the Live Aid groove” #JohnWesleyHarding “July 13th 1985” #LOTD2013 7/13 (The 28th anniversary of the Live Aid concerts in London and Philadelphia)
  • “First I’m gonna make it/Then I’m gonna break it/Till it falls apart” #EchoAndTheBunnymen “Bring On The Dancing Horses” #LOTD2013 7/14
  • “There’s one in the spotlight/He don’t look right to me/Get him up against the wall!” #PinkFloyd “In The Flesh” #LOTD2013 7/15
  • “Now when I was a little boy/At the age of 5/I had somethin’ in my pocket/Keep a lot of folks alive” #BoDiddley “I’m A Man” #LOTD2013 7/16
  • Must play catch-up for #LOTD2013. Here’s 7/17: “Break me down, got a lovely face/Goin’ to your place” #Buckcherry “Crazy Bitch” #RiverRock (Ah yes, the annual Mississippi River houseboating excursion … and its de facto theme song)
  • “My nerves is wrecked/Heart beatin’/My hands swollen/Thinkin’ of the Gs/I’ll be holdin'” #2PAC “Picture Me Rollin'” #LOTD2013 7/18 #RiverRap
  • “I travel from Maine down to Mexico/To find that girl that loves me so” #TheBlackKeys “Have Love Will Travel” #LOTD2013 7/19 (Sure it was in reverse, but over the course of a few days, starting in California, I was in eight states to make my way to a wedding in Maine the following day)
  • “Hey little sister who is it you’re with?/Hey little sister what’s your vice and wish?” #BillyIdol “White Wedding” #LOTD2013 7/20
  • “Was in the spring/And spring became the summer/Who’d have believed you’d come along?” #NeilDiamond “Sweet Caroline” #LOTD2013 7/21 (Saw five hours of Red Sox-Yankees at Fenway, capped off by a Mike Napoli walk-off HR)
  • “So much for the city/Tell me that you’ll dance to the end/Just tell me that you’ll dance to the end” #TheThrills “Big Sur” #LOTD2013 7/22
  • “Camera got them images/Camera got’em all/Nothing’s shocking/Show me everybody …” #JanesAddiction “Ted, Just Admit It …” #LOTD2013 7/23
  • “It was just a man with something to prove/Slightly bored and severely confused” #ThePostalService “Sleeping In” #LOTD2013 7/24 (Postal Service concert at the Greek Theater in Hollywood)
  • “Promise not to sell your perfumed secrets/There are countless formulas for pressing flowers” #Nirvana “Scentless Apprentice” #LOTD2013 7/25
  • “Straight off the f**kin’ streets of CPT/King of the beats you ride to em in your Fleet” #DrDre #SnoopDogg “The Next Episode” #LOTD2013 7/26 (Back in Palm Springs for a couple nights — will always associate this song with the desert after Coachella 2012)
  • “Don’t come back anytime/I’ve already had your kind/This is your payback” #FitzAndTheTantrums “MoneyGrabber” #LOTD2013 7/27 (Fitz And The Tantrums concert at the Wiltern Theater in L.A.)
  • “You wear a mask/An equatorial haze/Into the past/A colonial maze/Where there’s no more confetti to throw” #Beck “Tropicalia” #LOTD2013 7/28
  • “Do you sometimes lust/For the grace that others have inside/The simple peace they make with life” #Cracker “I See The Light” #LOTD2013 7/29
  • “Even saw the lights of the Goodyear Blimp/And it read, ‘Ice Cube’s a pimp'” #IceCube “It Was A Good Day” #LOTD2013 7/30 (Bumped into Cube outside Dodger Stadium after the Dodgers beat the Yankees and my buddy Danny asked, “Is this a good day?” The response: “Hell yea!)
  • “Oh man, I think the clock is slow/I don’t feel tardy/Class dismissed!” #VanHalen “Hot For Teacher” #LOTD2013 7/31

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

Jul 07

#LOTD2013: May Playlist

#LOTD2013: MayThanks to the long holiday weekend, I’ve been working on pulling together my Lyric-of-the-Day (#LOTD2013) playlists. Here are May’s 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!

  • “Start again in the month of May/Come on and blow the wires away” #ArcadeFire “Month of May” #LOTD2013 5/1
  • “The stars are blazing like rebel diamonds cut out of the sun” #TheKillers “Read My Mind” #LOTD2013 5/2 (Another great Killers show, tonight at the L.A. Sports Arena. And this one’s always fantastic live.)
  • “There was so much space/I cut me a piece/With some fine wine/It brought peace to my mind” #JanesAddiction “Summertime Rolls” #LOTD2013 5/3
  • “I’ve got more rhymes than I’ve got gray hairs/And that’s a lot because I’ve got my share” #BeastieBoys “Sure Shot” #LOTD2013 5/4 #RIPMCA (A salute to Adam Yauch on the one-year anniversary of his passing, far too soon.)
  • “Singing songs of passion/It’s the truth they all look for/One thing they must keep alive” #LosLobos “Will The Wolf Survive?” #LOTD2013 5/5 (One of the best from some of L.A’s favorite Latino sons on Cinco de Mayo.)
  • “We’ll be playing and having fun/And it makes me feel so fine/I can’t control my brain” #Weezer “Island In The Sun” #LOTD2013 5/6
  • “Baby, stop me when I’m passin’ by/See now all my flavors are guaranteed to satisfy” #VanHalen “Ice Cream Man” #LOTD2013 5/7
  • “Happiness will make you wonder/Will I feel OK?/It scares the disenchanted/Far away” #SmashingPumpkins “Hummer” #LOTD2013 5/8
  • “Everybody, get on the beat/We’re gonna show U mothers how 2 scream/People everywhere, loosen up your hair” #Prince “D.M.S.R.” #LOTD2013 5/9
  • “Listen to my gearshift/I’m blastin, outlastin/Kinda like Shaft/You could say I’m shaftin” #LLCoolJ “Mama Said Knock You Out” #LOTD2013 5/10
  • “Look now, look all around, there’s no sign of life/Voices, another sound, can you hear me now?” #DuranDuran “Planet Earth” #LOTD2013 5/11
  • “I’m all 6s and 7s and 9s/Say now baby, I’m the rank outsider/You can be my partner in crime” #RollingStones “Tumbling Dice” #LOTD2013 5/12 (This song could be my #LOTD pretty much any day that I hear it. I love it that much.)
  • “Love myself/Better than you/I know it’s wrong/So what should I do?” #Nirvana “On A Plain” #LOTD2013 5/13
  • “And when I look in my window/So many different people to be/It’s strange, sure it’s strange” #Donovan “Season Of The Witch” #LOTD2013 5/14
  • “Free to fly the crimson sky/The sun won’t melt our wings tonight/Oh now here she comes” #U2 “Even Better Than The Real Thing” #LOTD2013 5/15 (On my 42nd birthday, a song from my favorite band relating to how I feel about someone rather special.)
  • “If I could just be/Everything and everyone to you/This life would just be so easy” #INXS “Not Enough Time” #LOTD2013 5/16
  • “Mr. Wendal, a man, a human in flesh but not by law/I feed you dignity to stand with pride” #ArrestedDevelopment “Mr. Wendal” #LOTD2013 5/17
  • “I like you and I’d like to/Be free, be free, be free, be free/Yeah, I like you and I’d like to/Be free” #Travis “Quite Free” LOTD2013 5/18
  • “I got a new suit of clothes, a pretty red rose/And a woman I can call my friend” #BruceSpringsteen “Better Days” #LOTD2013 5/19
  • “Dance on fire as it intends/Music is your only friend/Until the end/Until the end” #TheDoors “When The Music’s Over” #LOTD2013 5/20 #RIPRay (A salute to Doors’ keyboardist Ray Manzarek on his passing. I grew up with The Doors, thanks to my dad, and Manzarek’s sound will always remain distinct.)
  • “Blindly snap the broken beats/Said it’s cut with a dirty trick/It’s taken all these days to find ya” #Kasabian “Club Foot” #LOTD2013 5/21
  • “I’m your conscious/I am love/All I really need is 2 know that/U believe” #Prince “I Would Die 4 U” #LOTD2013 5/22
  • “Turn the crowd up now/We’ll never back down/Shoot down a skyline/Watch it in primetime” #SwedishHouseMafia “Save The World” #LOTD2013 5/23
  • “Keep your head on tight/Make it thru the night/You gotta make a friend along the way” #BlackCrowes “Movin’ On Down The Line” #LOTD2013 5/24
  • “Have another beer/What’d we do without all these jerks anyway?/Besides all our friends are here” #DonHenley “Sunset Grill” #LOTD2013 5/25
  • “I’ll go away/And I’ll turn around this little game/Cuz I don’t need your praise” #Cracker #FlaminGroovies “Shake Some Action”#LOTD2013 5/26 (Saw a screening of “Clueless” thanks to Cinespia at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, and remembered Cracker’s version of this little gem popping up in it.)
  • “They send you down to war/When you ask them/How much should we give/They only answer more” #CCR “Fortunate Son” #LOTD2013 5/27 #MemorialDay
  • “Drove down the hwy/Til I came to Los Angeles/Town of the angels/Best this country can do” #Mellencamp “Hotdogs & Hamburgers” #LOTD2013 5/28
  • “How long do I have to climb/Up on the side of this mountain of mine?” #Coldplay “Speed Of Sound” #LOTD2013 5/29
  • “No longer overwhelmed & it seems so simple now/Funny when things change so much/It’s all state of mind” #PearlJam “In Hiding” #LOTD2013 5/30
  • “As it was again it will be/Though the course may change sometimes/Rivers always reach the sea” #LedZeppelin “Ten Years Gone” #LOTD2013 5/31 (My wedding was 10 years ago today. Though things have changed and divorce came down the line, it’s not a day I regret in the least.)

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