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 09

#LOTD2013: June Playlist

#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

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