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

Feb 10

#LOTD2013: January Playlist

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!