Fire and Rain, by James Taylor.
Somehow, summer camp took ownership of James Taylor songs for me sometime around age 14 or 15, wrestling it away from soft rock radio and planting this song and that other one everyone knows into my teenage psyche as songs that bring up a very particular gym in a very particular location with very particular people.
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Back at Mom’s studio this week for Thanksgiving, natch.
Alex Chilton, by the Replacements.
I crossed the Replacements off the list earlier this week, with two of their songs done in this project, and struggling since then to pick a favorite and do it justice, but I was listening to the Bandsplain episode about them and hearing this again, with some context, made me insist to myself that I needed this song back on the list.
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These are probably… not the original chords. The version online says something about using a capo so you can stay in standard tuning, which, to me, is like, an interesting hint that there’s a rabbit hole to go down trying to figure out how they played it, but then again, I would think the volume of alcohol they consumed at their own live shows would not mix well with too many complex tunings? Or is that just me…
Wanted Dead or Alive, by Bon Jovi.
This song is an all-time wishlist song, like, one that I imagined playing a thousand times but never learned. Was I “over” Bon Jovi at 13 when I started playing guitar? I don’t think so? Maybe? It seems weird that I overlooked this one. The riff that I mess up like four different times is A LOT like the descending thing in the coda of Patience, just before Axl and I hit the big finish. I did not attempt to play the guitar solo correctly, but I lucked out a couple times and played a right-ish thing.
If you’ve ever seen me sing this at karaoke, first of all, I’m sorry, but second of all, I think you’ve seen me sing it better than this, despite the doubling and autotune and reverb and delay and whatnot. But we’ll take it. Full send, dead or alive, rocked them all, etc.
Gouge Away, by the Pixies.
This song is one of more than one canonical examples of Pixies doing the whole quiet/loud thing, pre-Nevermind, and I managed to mess it up thoroughly, but had a lot of fun getting the fuzz pedal set just the way I wanted it, and playing mostly the right chords nice and loud. (I mean, I’m missing Kim’s bass, which is the quiet part, really.)
We Sing Hallelujah, by Richard and Linda Thompson.
This song is probably, maybe, but not promised to in fact be, the last Richard and Linda Thompson song of this project. I had a list of other songs from this record to do, and this one popped into my head, so here it is. Not sure this is exactly the right key, but it worked for me.
These Arms of Mine, by Otis Redding.
I’ve had this song on the list from nearly the beginning, and just went for it today. We can’t have a horn section every time we want one, right?
Careless Whisper, by George Michael.
Somehow, this is TikTok’s fault?
This song is one I’ve imagined singing since I was little enough to sit in the back seat of dad’s 280ZX, but it was obviously my George Michael tape we were playing. I acted out the sax solo, surely, and probably, maybe, kinda, there was some choreography? I remember some choreography.
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I did a George Michael song at karaoke once, though, and quickly discovered that my range was a lot better in my head. Likewise on this occasion!
The Gambler, by Kenny Rogers.
This song is one I’ve heard a thousand times, but, as usual, for whatever reason, I am transported to one particular evening in the first house I lived in as a kid, but after the studio addition was built, but after that room had been converted into the TV room, after mom’s first retail storefront studio had been built out, etc., but we still had the old brown radio tuner and speakers (though the 8-track had been retired) in the old wall unit, I think. So it must’ve been playing on Love 94, though it seems unusual we had the radio on at night. That’s how I remember it.
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An increasingly rare cowboy hat appearance, because how could I not?
Making Love Out Of Nothing At All, by Air Supply.
It’s been a bit of a day, and I’m pretty fried, so this song is just the kind of easy listening for the job. The hardest part about remembering which Air Supply song was my favorite is the massive amount of overlap in the lyrical content. Did you know that “Here I Am” and “The One That You Love” are two completely different songs? What is that about, exactly? Did you know that Air Supply is Australian?? Did you know that the guy who wrote this song (not in the band) also wrote TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE HEART?) Dude had a wicked year in 1983. But didn’t we all.