Friday Collective Mixtape

FCM #7 - SONGS THAT TELL A STORY Plenty of sad tales in this weeks edition of FCM. This week's cover art is inspired by the true story of Marie Prevost outlined in Jane's contribution. Click here to download the entire FCM #7 - SONGS THAT TELL A STORY or hunt and peck below. If you like something or hate something or whatever, please make a comment! Some of these files are m4a format, so you should download them all with the link above or right click and save them to your machine.

Next week's theme is for Labor Day - bring out those songs about loving work, hating work, just about work (or being off work!) or the work-a-day life. Labor! Work!

"Levon" Elton John - 1971
Chris writes: My mom was a fan of Elton John. She was particularly fond of the early Rock 'n Roll Elton that I still enjoy today. She played records quite a bit at home when I was growing up, the same ones in a continuous rotation, and this song found a particular place in my heart. Maybe it's the epic strings, the drum flourishes peppered throughout nearly every change, or the earnestness in Elton's voice as he sings - whatever it is, it captured me every time it came on the stereo. It wasn't until later in life that I really heard the song and appreciated the story that went along with it all. For me, it's all about the relationship between father and son, tradition and change, dreams and reality. The words are few, but they paint such a perfect portrait of the kind of man Levon is and the kind of man Jesus is afraid of becoming. It poses a question about truly living and the unspoken rules that govern what being a "good man" is all about. Is it following tradition, fighting for your country, earning money and raising your kid the same? Or is it about living life your way, traveling to Venus and disregarding your past? That's a question that only Jesus can answer.

"Real Talk" R. Kelly - 2007
Jennifer writes: When Ben said this week's theme was "Songs That Tell A Story", I immediately thought of all the folk and country singers that fit that criteria. Would I pick a song from Neil Diamond, Tom Petty or Johnny Cash? Did Pete Seeger seem appropriate? Or was Barry Manilow too much? Then it all became clear to me...... a modern day story teller is what we needed. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you R Kelly.

The obvious choice was a song off the monster that is "Trapped in the Closet" However, after listening to the thousands of ditties in Chapters 1-22 - such luminaries as "The Package", "You Can Do It, Pimp Lucious" and "The Reveal of the Little Person/Cherry Pie" - I realized I couldn't parse down such a classic at my whim. No - this story is best enjoyed in its entirety. I will leave that to Ben's New Hire Induction for the 25 or so people that have been hired since Allison had her Induction/Viewing Party of the Chapters.

I have selected one of R's newer songs that covers all the bases. "Real Talk" tells a story but also is a bit of a tale of morality - much like the Greek myths or Viking sagas of yore. Listen and learn, my friends. (Just don't listen to it too loudly as R has a potty mouth on this one)

"Don't You Want Me" The Human League - 1981
Christine writes: This week's submission come s with the assistance of my sister, Betsy. I was talking with them about how, with the exception of maybe the "humpty dance", most songs tell some sort of story so I found this week's topic difficult. She suggested this song and I have to agree with her for a few reasons. One, it's an awesome song from the 80's. Two, it's definitely got a story line - albeit the typical love and loss. Three, the unique (and sometimes comical if you think about it) two sides of the story line that are presented. I can picture these two going at while listening to this song.

"A Postcard To Nina" Jens Lekman - 2007
Nick writes: My selection this week is Jens Lekman's "A Postcard to Nina," the greatest song ever written about faking being someone's fiancee to their father. In 2007.

"Marie Provost" Nick Lowe - 1977
Jane writes: To lighten up this pack of (what I know will be) terribly depressing songs... because aren't most songs that tell a story depressing? I mean, who writes a song where the plot is running to the Jewel to pick up cheese and TP? Anyway, I'm bringing you this TRUE STORY song about Marie Prevost, a silent film star in the 20's/30's who turned to booze and eating disorders when the double-whammy of prohibition ending and the "talkies" beginning left her washed up and quite alone.

This isn't just a fallen star story though... in fact, many may have forgotten her amidst the other debaucherous tales of Hollywood Babylon except for the post-mortem scene she left behind after drinking and starving herself into an early death in 1937.

You see, she was found in her bed by the police almost two weeks after her death, HALF EATEN BY HER DACHSHUND.

"She was a winner/Who became her doggie's dinner."

So, yeah, I was just kidding about this not being depressing. It's crazy depressing. But like I said, no one writes story-telling songs about the mundane.

"Tennessee Waltz (Live)" Dax Riggs - 2008
Brian writes: Okay... I've stayed away from contributing any of my bootleg recordings in the past, but I guess that ends here. Some of the "best" songs I possess were never properly recorded, and they should be shared...crappy quality or not. Anyway, songs that tell a story...

Tennessee Waltz, was written in 1947 by Redd Stewart and Pee Wee King. It was made popular in 1950 by Patti Page. It's been covered a zillion times since then. Leonard Cohen performed it live on occasion, adding an additional verse. His version was performed live by my favorite singer/songwriter, Dax Riggs, on May 1, 2008 at Chelsea's Cafe in Baton Rouge, LA.

Here's the audio and video of that performance. It's a great song, with a great melody, that tells the classic, universal story of having your heart broken (but it's told from a very unique perspective), and I've never heard anyone sing it quite as good as Dax.

"Last Kiss" Pearl Jam - 1999
Renata writes: Nothing against Ricky Nelson, but I’m partial to Pearl Jam’s rendition of Last Kiss. I’m one of those people who easily becomes fixated on one song and runs it on repeat for weeks. This was one of those tunes. The painful, yet everlastily-love-saturated lyrics hooked me. I want to say I stumbled upon Last Kiss sometime in Junior High, but could be totally lying to you right now—I really can’t remember! This is one of the few MP3s that has survived two computer swaps. Enjoy.

"Ghetto Cowboy" Mo Thugs - 1998
Margaret writes: I first heard this song the summer before I started high school. My friend's and I made it our mission to memorize all of the lyrics - and we sang it all summer long, usually in parts. It's ridiculously awesome.

"Stagger Lee" Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - 1996
James writes: Parental warning: If profanity, violence, and deplorable sexual acts upset you, please don't listen to this song.

The story of Stagger Lee was first put to song close to 100 years ago. Since then, a variety of artists have put their spin on Stagger Lee; who, considering the time, has to be considered the "O.G."

Of all the versions that have been made, none leave a mark like Nick Cave and the Bad Seed's 1996 take on it. The Stagger Lee of this story could wipe the floor with both Bad Leroy Brown and Manowar with his shooting hand tied behind his back.

"Waterloo Sunset (Live)" The Kinks 1996
Walt writes: Ray Davies is a master storyteller and this is one of his masterpieces. While I've always loved the original 1967 version of this song, The Kinks performed acoustic versions of many of their songs in 1996. I really like Ray's vocals on this "newly" recorded version. The melancoly of song really gets me even through the veil of paranoia.

"My Sister" Tindersticks - 1995
Allison writes: My selection this week is from Tindersticks, one of my absolute favorite bands in the dark, lovely chamber pop category. "My Sister" is a shimmering, tumbling, Edward Gorey-esque narration of the life of vocalist Stuart Staples' fictional sibling. Staples lets loose quite an ode to this ill-fated lass, who among other things goes blind at age 5, burns down their house at 10 (inadvertently killing mum and the cat in the process), falls down the well on a drinking binge at age 13, moves in with her gym teacher at 15, and so on... I'll leave the rest to the song.

One caveat: the vocals are often hard to distinguish, so I'd recommend taking a gander at the lyrics online while listening. Otherwise you're liable to miss gems like these, her description of what she sees while blind:

I can see little twinkly stars, like Christmas tree lights in faraway windows / Rings of brightly coloured rocks floating around orange and mustard planets / I can see huge tiger striped fishes chasing tiny blue and yellow dashes, all tails and fins and bubbles.

"1000 Times A Day" The Early November - 2005
TJ writes: Sappy sappy love song about a boy and a girl who start going out when they were kids, breaking up and then getting married in the end. I like the fingerpicking in this song a lot as well as the melodies. The random trumpets at the end are nice too.

"Elizabeth Childers" Richard Buckner - 2000
Ben writes: Richard Buckner's The Hill consists of one single audio track that weaves through alt-country instrumentals and song versions of some of the poems from Spoon River Anthology (1915, Edgar Lee Masters). Each poem in Spoon River is an epitaph of a dead citizen (from Spoon River), delivered by the dead themselves. This is my favorite of Buckner's songs on The Hill (which I have liberated from the rest of the record). It's the story of Elizabeth Childers... a woman who died in childbirth along with the baby she was carrying. She sings about how it is well that her child did not come into the world, and tells a story about what hardship that child might have endured had he lived. It's tragic and even as I write this I feel tears welling up in behind my eyes!

"Medication" Damien Jurado - 2000
Felix writes: I first heard of Damien Jurado from Ben, and got entranced with this song. I have a thing where I'm able to loop a song, incessantly, for more times than is healthy. I mean, like a lot. What gets me most from this song is how all the characters intersect through the speaker, and the complexities/similarities between all the relationships.

"Tecumseh Valley" Townes Van Zandt - 1969
Ben writes: Townes Fan Zandt is one of my all-time favorite songwriters. This is from a live album where Townes plays by himself called A Gentle Evening WIth Townes Van Zandt. The story this song tells is tragic - quite possibly the saddest song I've ever heard. It's country folk, and in it we hear of financial hardship, affection death, depression, whoring, and despair. Sounds kind of like a joke about country music, I know, but Townes writes it real and sings it realer. I can barely get through singing this song without crying.

Labels: country, cover, folk, mixtape, pop, rnb, rock

Jane sent me a list last night of some potential future themes. I wanted to keep them handy so i'm posting them here. This friday will be "Songs That Tell A Story." The following friday will be a Labor Day theme (think blue collar, work, hate-work, labor etc...) Here are some fresh ideas for the later ones!

* Ladies First
* Guilty Pleasures
* Novelties
* Great Instrumentals
* Break Up Mixtape
* Love You Mixtape
* Get Political
* From the Movies
* Colors
* Numbers
* Animals
* Geography
* Biographies 
* Fight Songs
* Metaphors (a la "Ignition" - may be tough)
* Foreign Lands (or Language)
* Heaven & Hell
* Delicious Duets
* Planes, Trains & Automobiles
* Best Covers
* One Hit Wonders
* School Days

Labels: text only

FCM #6 - INSTRUMENTALS Shut your trap! You can't sing along to this mix unless you're really fond of humming. A big hearty welcome to Felix who joins us for the first time on this mix. Click here to download the entire FCM #6 - INSTRUMENTALS or hunt and peck below. If you like something or hate something or whatever, please make a comment! Some of these files are m4a format, so you should download them all with the link above or right click and save them to your machine.

Next week's theme is still up for grabs - post a comment to cast your vote for (a) Girls Rock! (b) Love and Loss (c) Songs that tell a story. Voting ends on monday at noon so get on it!

"Better Go Home Now" Dirty Three - 1995
Jennifer writes: Dirty Three signed to the record label I worked for at that time. Right after they signed on with the label, they played a show in town and we all went to check them out. Earlier in the day, Warren, the violin player, had broken up with his girlfriend and proceeded to get drunk on Jack Daniels before the show and was smashed by the time they hit the stage. Right before launching into "Better Go Home Now", he rambled poetically (yet nonsensically) about his girlfriend and clouds and airplanes then fell to the stage and played this song from his back. I thought it was the most amazing performance ever.

Flash forward a few months... as it turned out, Warren had a lot of personal issues and was on again/off again with his girlfriend all the time and it turns out that the poetic ramblings was something he did for every show. So it wasn't really all that special after all but every time I hear this song, I think of that one performance.

"Rumble" Link Wray & His Ray Men - 1958
Jane writes: My dad had this one in his jukebox when I was little, and I used to play it and think it sounded dangerous and "dirty" compared with the other 60's pop that made up the selections. And I guess I wasn't the only one who felt that way -- it was actually banned on radio stations back in the day just because it sounded so menacing... "A rare feat for a song with no lyrics."

An iconic instrumental from an iconic artist who grandfathered the overdrive and distortion effects we hear in music everyday now. I had the honor of seeing Link Wray live about 11 years ago before he died, and I was absolutely starstruck.

"Closet Quencher" Eschatol - 2007
Justin writes: So this week because since it's instrumentals I decided to go with a selection from a band I know very well. The band is Eschatol (es-ka-tall) and I currently play guitar in this particular group.

About a year ago we were offered free recording time from The Playground studio over on west Grand. So we went in for a few days and cranked out a 4 song demo. It was our first recording experience that actually ended in a decent sounding demo. We have always tried to take these matters into our own hands and ended up failing miserably. This song is a part of a newer style we began writing in and will also be featured on our new album that we are preparing to release.

This song and the rest of the demo is available for listen and download at our website, eschatol.com

"The Haul" Calexico - 1995
Jennifer writes: They were on the same label (see Dirty Three above) and to this day are still my all time favorite artists to work with. They have since developed a fuller sound but this is off their first CD when they were just two guys playing multiple instruments.

"Mess Around" Professor Longhair - 1985
James writes: There was a brief time in my life when I wanted to learn how to play piano. Professor Longhair's the reason. His music is the Rosetta Stone that all New Orleans piano players learned from, and, decades later, still a great listen.

"Orion" Metallica - 1986
Brian writes: Man, these guys used to be so good. The whole song is great, but at about 4 minutes in you will find some of the greatest music ever written, in my opinion anyway. Man, these guys suck now...

"Invention No. 13 in A Minor, BWV 784" Glenn Gould
Felix writes: In college, I watched a film called "Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould" and got interested in Glenn Gould's music - specifically his Bach/Goldberg Variations. I'm not a huge Classical Music fan, but I really dug Gould's abilities on the piano - particularly with really fast pieces.

I got obsessed with doing a visualization of one of his pieces (the one I chose), and ended up creating a Flash project that displayed every note he played. I got so wrapped up in finishing the thing that I actually called in sick to work one day, just so I could stay at home and work on the thing. Gould Project

"The Pink Panther Theme" Henry Mancini - 1963
Walt writes: Well, first I was going to go with the Batman Theme song from 1966, but of course that's not an instrumental ... right? Not according to Adam West, who claims the the female-voiced "Batman"s in the tune were actually done with instruments. I'm not one to argue with Adam, but I still thought it was cheating. My next choice was "Green Onions" by Booker T and the MGs and while I think it's a great instrumental, I'm going to hold that one back until a later date. Which brings me to Henry Mancini. Once decided on the great Mancini, I had actually chosen a different tune, which I'm also going to hold back until we hit the Halloween-themed FCM. That in no way diminishes the Pink Panther theme, one of the greatest movie themes ever and instantly recognizable! I like this version because it's a bit longer and gets jazzier in latter third of the piece.

"Cavatina" Stanley Myers - 1976
Christine writes: My dad liked to play the Deerhunter soundtrack while we had brunch. Weird, but it's a very pretty instrumental. There is actually a lot more to the whole movement but I didn’t want to overburden anyone with it. If you would like the whole thing, let me know. As a side note, we used to call the soundtrack to Clockwork Orange the "silly record" ... I've had to revisit a few childhood memories because of that one. Enjoy!

"Stairway To Heaven" London Symphony Orchestra
Renata writes: For the life of me, I can’t remember if I heard the Chicago Symphony Orchestra perform Stairway to Heaven … or if, after hearing one of their performances, I obsessively downloaded a bunch of their performance tracks and their rendition of Stairway to Heaven was one of them. ANYHOW. I wasn’t able to find the CSO’s rendition on my computer or iTunes, so the London Symphony Orchestra’s version must do for now. Nothing like the power of a symphonic orchestra to add to the existing awesomeness of a classic.

"Palladio (1st Movement)" Karl Jenkins, London Philharmonic Orchestra & The Smith Quartet
Margaret writes: This one is a bit of a novelty - it's the song from the De Beers commercials in the late 90's. I played the violin when I was growing up, and we begged our orchestra conductor to let us play this song...she conceded, and we proceeded to butcher it because it was waaaaaaaaay too advanced for us, but we had a good time anyway. I love the cello and violin solos that take place after the first minute.

"Marche Slave, Op. 31" Gennadi Rozhdestvensky & London Symphony Orchestra
Margaret writes: I first heard this song from an episode of "Salute Your Shorts" when I was a kid. I loved it at the time, but had no clue what it was or how to get a hold of it. Then, as fate would have it, my jr. high orchestra conductor handed it out to us for an upcoming concert. I don't know exactly why I love it, but the first movement is one of my favorite pieces of music of all time. It just sounds so mischievious and sneaky.

"Built Then Burnt - On The Nature Of Daylight" A Silver Mt. Zion - Max Richter 2001, 2004
Ben writes: One night in 2004 I was working late and listening to music but zoning out in code-land. I had the crossfader set to several seconds in iTunes (the feature was new!) and this wonderful thing happened... "Built Then Burnt" by A Silver Mt. Zion transitioned into Max Richter's "On The Nature Of Daylight" and i didn't notice. BUT then I did notice. A week later I manually faded the two tracks into eachother to create one consistent file and that's what i've posted here. Two excellent songs that form one amazing journey. Unless you know where one starts and the other finishes it'll be hard to tell. wonderful.

"White Lake" Deaf Center - 2005
Allison writes: Deaf Center is a Norwegian duo on UK ambient/electro-classical label extraordinaire Type. Their 2006 full length, Pale Ravine, feels as if it could have been a soundtrack specifically scored for the dream I had the other night about walking through a fog-laden ancient forest (only I was hovering a foot off the ground) when an owl perched on my left shoulder and began cawing secret messages about buried caches of treasure. I highly recommend listening to not only this track, but the entire album, late at night while on the brink of sleep.

"Konigsforst 5" Gas - 1999
Nick writes: My contribution this week is a short-ish piece by Wolfgang Voigt, who recorded several influential deep techno albums in the late nineties and early 00s under the alias Gas. Voigt later went on to found the techno label Kompakt with Michael Mayer, which some years later released last year's Metacritic best-of album "From Here We Go Sublime" by the Field. Connections!

Contrary to the ID3 tag, everything he recorded was untitled. This is the fifth track from his 1999 album "Konigsforst" - his most critically celebrated, but probably not his most popular - later remastered and issued under the box set Nah und Fern.

Labels: classical, dreamy, electronic, folk, gypsy, instrumental, neo-classical, pop, rock

FCM #5 - DRIVING SONGS Start your engines! Make one last weekend road trip - at least to the Mars Cheese Castle. We've put together 15 driving songs to go along with you. Click here to download the entire FCM #5 - DRIVING SONGS or hunt and peck below. If you like something or hate something or whatever, please make a comment! Some of these files are m4a format, so you should download them all with the link above or right click and save them to your machine.

Next week's Theme - Instrumentals! Sometimes it's time to tell the vocalist to shut up. Scour your collections for that brilliant instrumental!

"Intro / Sweet Jane (Live)" Lou Reed - 1973
Christine writes: Road trips... lot of memories I’d love to block out and some I hope to never forget. The essential roadtrip survival pack had to include mutually agreeable soundtracks for everyone in the car. Not an easy task when one wants to listen to their entire collection of Guided By Voices, the other wants nothing but Japanese Ska, and I just want to know if anyone has EVER heard of the radio. So, compromises were made prior to takeoff on what was even allowed in the car. One song everyone agreed to as the perfect “takeoff” song is what I present to you now. It’s this particular version that starts off low and unidentifiable and then rises to the culmination of Reed in one of his finest performances that sets off a great tone for any roadtrip... check your mirrors, peel out and enjoy.

"The Body Says No" New Pornographers - 2000
Nick writes: So here is a somewhat long story of the last time I got behind the wheel of a car, which was in April 2007.

My girlfriend Erin and I were still long-distance, and what had been the longest period of our not seeing each other was about to end with my flying to Chapel Hill on a Friday so we could drive up to DC and see the Dismemberment Plan's reunion show that Saturday. I get to O'Hare at 5:30p for an ostensible 7p departure, and by this point storms are pounding most of the eastern seaboard. My flight is cancelled, as is the next flight, and the next eight flights into RDU are booked solid with standby. So I ask about flights to several other airports around Chapel Hill and DC, figuring I can find some way to get up to DC by Saturday night. Turns out there is a 8:32 flight to DCA that I can get on. They book me for that and a DCA-RDU flight at 4:12a. Fine.

(In case you're wondering, I'm checking all of these numbers against an old blog post. I am not that good at remembering things.)

So waiting at the security barrier I start calling people I know in DC for crash space. One of my friends says he's game to have me crash, but he will also offer his car for me to drive down to Chapel Hill to see Erin. I take up the offer.

Of course, the ORD-DCA flight is delayed until 12:15a. Also, as if this couldn't get any more ridiculous, I get airsick for the first time in my life because we're flying through 850 miles of violent thunderstorm, and puke for two hours straight. At this point I miss my girlfriend a lot. Also, flights into DCA involve flying a really wonky path over the Potomac and then nosediving right at the end, cf.

wikipedia.org - Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (The River Visual approach)

, which doesn't help my stomach very much. Touch down at ~3:15a eastern, chug two venti mochas on an empty (emptied, ahem) stomach at the sbux kiosk, grab my luggage, take the car keys from Dave, promptly almost run his car off the 395 bridge into the Potomac in a panic - and drive the entire way to Erin's house through the storm, blaring bombastic, noisy rock at full blast, yelling the words to every song. Including this one.

Got there at sunup, around 7a.

flickr.com - photo of nick in sweaty crowd

I know that this song was featured on a CD Thursday some months ago, but I don't care.

"Roadrunner" Joan Jett - 1986
Walt writes: Hey, I'm on vacation -- so what better week for driving songs. Since we generally drive when we holiday, this one's a great rocker to get the blood pumping on the road. The cool thing about this song is that Joan Jett did quite a few local site drops in for it for many different cities.

"Little Honda" Yo La Tengo - 1997
Masha writes: It's as fun as a barrel of monkeys on a two wheel bike!

"Strange" Wire - 1977
Jane writes: Hey gang, remember cassette tapes back in the day? Remember how there were 3 or 4 cassette tapes that sat in your glovebox in case of driving emergencies where you forgot to bring along one of your supercool NEW cassette tapes? For me, one of those was a wonderful compilation of Wire. I even had a back-up of this compilation in the case that the tape would melt in the hot car (it happened twice!).

So my selection was the song that I would inevitably rewind and play at least one extra time whenever it came up. It's a song that accompanied me through happy drives and sad. The trip home from Six Flags, feeling so triumphant that I finally conquered the Giant Drop; or driving home from "the city" (downtown Peoria, at the time) bawling my eyes out over some loser guy...

The cadence lends itself well to driving too. It's a head bobber. This, and "The Zoo" by the Scorps may be my favorite head bobbers ever.

"She's Tight" Cheap Trick - 1986
James writes: Cheap Trick was (and remains) a big Midwest band whose songs are built for speeding on big Midwest roads (I-90 from Chicago to Rockford being the obvious choice here). Come for the sexual frustration and innuendo, stay for the arena-ready riffs.

"Punk Rocker" Teddybears - 2006
Chris writes: This song gets double points because it's both a driving song and a song ABOUT driving (and looking good). It's a silly little sing-a-long courtesy of the Teddybears, and everyone's favorite punk rocker Iggy Pop leads the charge. Just try to get that synth hook and chorus out of your head after driving to this one for a few hundred miles...

"Living is A Problem Because Everything Dies" Biffy Clyro - 2007
Justin writes: A while back I had to return to the world of auto theft after my brother breached a contract with a Russian crime lord to deliver high end cars. So I had call up all my old friends for a one night 'boost' to grab all these cars all the while avoiding apprehension by this dirt-bag auto-theft cop whose wanted to nail my ass for years. Needless to say when that pig of a cop got close, I was outta there in a minute! Boooyah!

Uh, this song reminds me of then.

"Boys Peel Out" Mercury Rev - 1993
Allison writes: Mercury Rev, in their early/mid-90s heyday, seemed to be most often described as space rock, though I'd place them on the more earnestly psychedelic Flaming-Lipsian side of the spectrum as opposed to the shuffling shimmering shoegaze of the day. This track is from their second album, Boces, and it made multiple appearances on a couple of my own roadtrip mixtapes. It's sweetly buoyant and fizzy, and a bit more suited for winding local highways (max speed 45mp/h) as opposed to a high speed tear down I-35.

"Mighty Good Leader" Audio Adrenaline - 1999
Sean writes: This song brings back good memories of our first ever roadtrip here in the States. We had just bought our first van in 1999 and our best friends from South Africa were visiting. We drove them around the Midwest and Audio Adrenaline's new album Underdog was blaring for a lot of that trip. This is the first track from that album.

"Undiscovered" Ashlee Simpson - 2004
Margaret writes: I know what you're thinking - more crappy music from Margaret - but just give this one a chance! I always listened to this song on the way to and from my crappy waitressing job, and although it's a bit sad (think unrequited love), the lyrics struck a chord with me at the time. Aside from the bit of scream-singing at the end, her voice sounds pretty good, and I love the intro music.

"Don't Stop" ATB - 1999
TJ writes: Well well, I'm going to go in a different direction this week. ATB, I don't know anything about them honestly, for the most part I only know this one song because many of my friends in high school loved this song and we'd always play it on the weekends when we were hanging out. Techno-ish but addicting as hell, and awesome driving music.

"Jack and Diane" John Cougar Mellencamp - 1982
Renata writes: To me, a great driving song is one that all passengers are able to sing along with. For my friends and I, Jack & Diane always hits the spot. Why? Well, it doesn't hold any particularly deep meaning for us, but it’s damn catchy and always a great excuse to stretch otherwise unused vocal chords …

"The Golden Age" Beck - 2002
Brian writes: Beck used to pick me up from my house every morning around 3:10am. He would drive me around wherever I felt like going. One day I told him he should mix it up and do a mostly-acoustic album. He asked what he should sing about? I told him to sing about driving me around empty highways in the middle of the night and early morning. He then started writing the first song off of Sea Change, The Golden Age... Right there behind the wheel! Guitar and all! That is, of course, all bullshit, but I think Sea Change is the perfect driving album, and The Golden Age is the perfect driving song (especially on late nights, early mornings or really anytime you just feel tired/defeated).

"Range Life" Pavement - 1994
Ben writes: In the summer of 1996 I took an impromptu road trip with two friends to northern California from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. My friend Jim brought a couple of Pavement CDs and I fell in love with the music during my driving shifts. I have a particularly vivid memory of coming down from the mountains into San Francisco just after sunset with my two friends sleeping and "Range Life" playing.

Labels: cover, mixtape, pop, rock

FCM #4 - CHILDHOOD MEMORIES We've collectively contributed those musical gems that stir up and inspire the child in each of us. Click here to download the entire FCM #4 - CHILDHOOD MEMORIES or hunt and peck below. If you like something or hate something or whatever, please make a comment! Some of these files are m4a format, so you should download them all with the link above or right click and save them to your machine.

Next week's Theme - Driving Songs! Submit that song that pumps you up for the long drive or keeps you rolling along through tired plains and mountain passes.

"Sesame Street Theme" - 1970
Jennifer writes: When I was 2 or 3, my parents had a turntable in my bedroom that I shared with my little sister. We listened to 3 records every single day when we were put to bed. Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book/Disney songs, and Sesame Street. To this day, whenever I hear a song from one of those records, I get extremely nostalgic. While my song may be an obvious choice, it had such a strong impact on my childhood that it has become a part of all my young memories.

"Downtown" Petula Clark - 1964
Walt writes: I grew up on the south side of Chicago in a working class family. My only real trips downtown were to accompany my dad to pick up my uncle from his elevator operator's job at the Tavern Club and driving him home. Most of the time I was asleep on these trips. Occasionally when I was awake I was transfixed by the lights of Mr. Kelly's night club, the 666 Club, George Diamond's Steak House, enormous ads for Cutty Sark Scotch and the glistening marqees of the Oriental and State-Lake theatres. So whenever I hear Petula Clark's Downtown it brings me back to my childhood and it doesn't hurt that it came out around the same time as my those trips. My only quibble with this song I love, is that it inadvertantly dated itself. Other than that, it's a true classic.

"Jump" Van Halen - 1984
Ben writes: I remember being 9 or 10 years old, dragged to some adult party with my parents, bored as could be. This song came on the big stereo, and I remember being TOTALLY enthralled by it. The synth line was envigorating. It seemed like the best_song_ever at the time. MONUMENTAL.

"Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)" C+C Music Factory - 1990
Margaret writes: Every year my elementary school had a carnival in the spring, and they always had this booth set up where you could create your own music video. I was already looking glamorous with my big poofy bangs, acid washed jeans, L.A. Gear light up shoes and fanny pack - the next step was obviously to get me in front of a camera. My sisters, their friends and I danced around to this song, and it may have been the best 4 minutes of my childhood. I still have the VHS copy if anyone wants to experience the awesomeness for themselves...

"What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy)" Information Society - 1988
Allison writes: I was not raised with pop music. My father was a pianist and my mother, apart from a few Barry Manilow 8-tracks, played nothing in the house. Around age 10 or 11 I finally got my own clock-radio, and hours of obsessive listening to Dallas' pop station at the time (Y-95) commenced. Blame it on some amalgam of Manilow/Streisand as my sole prior musical exposure, or blame it on the 80s, but my young mind found Information Society's "Pure Energy" to be nothing less than a REVELATION!

"Send Me an Angel" Real Life - 1983
TJ writes: This song brings me back to my endless times of watching "The Wizard" on VHS that I tapped form TV. I watched that so much and this song used to pump me up like no other. I'm sure you all know it and love it as much as I do.

"What's Next to the Moon" AC/DC - 1978
James writes: I don't believe in "best bands." Truth is, there's never been a band whose output has been consistently flawless from debut-to-demise.

Instead, I rank bands by specific clusters of years. Take, for example, the Rolling Stones, who have sucked for the past 30 years, thus negating their "Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World" tag. I think it makes more sense to say that the Stones from 67-78 were one of the best bands of all time. The same holds true for Led Zeppelin from 71-75, U2 from 85-91, and the Ramones from 76-81.

Add to that list AC/DC from 76-79. Discovering the Bon Scott-era AC/DC when I was attending Lincoln Junior High (go Spartans) was a revelation. These were ugly, blue-collar guys, singing songs about drinking, gambling, and sleeping with anything that moved (as with the Rubenesque "Rosie"). Forget sports heroes and champions of social justice, the members of AC/DC were my boyhood role models.

AC/DC from that period was rock and roll at its archetypal grittiest and greatest. Pound for pound, Angus Young's riffs were the ones that defined the misanthropic and misspent youths of myself and thousands of others.

As for Brian Johnson? Feh. I know "Back in Black" has its fervent loyalists, but once Bon checked out, the party was over for me.

Submitted for your pleasure, "What's Next to the Moon," a favorite from "Powerage."

"Look What the Cat Dragged In" Poison - 1986
Chris writes: When I was a youngster living in Alaska I had two best friends, Ben and Robin. Nick, Robin's older brother, was our idol - at 10 or 11 years old, he was the coolest, rawest dude around. He skateboarded, he had ripped jeans, and he would make us do terrible things like eat dog bone treats (Robin threw up). He let us hang around him sometimes, and for that we were grateful (and willing to do things like eat dog treats). He also provided my first mind-altering introduction to music thanks to a big silvery-metal boombox and a Poison tape. I distinctly remember him marching up to the lot of us as we sat in the bed of a truck, swinging that boombox in front of him and dropping it with a thud onto the tailgate. He punched the play button without saying a word and "Look What the Cat Dragged In" came thudding through those tinny speakers and straight into my heart. 2 years later someone else's older brother introduced me to Ice-T. Music owes a lot to older brothers.

"Shake Your Rump" Beastie Boys - 1989
Nick writes: Paul's Boutique was released when I was seven years old. I am offering absolutely no further explanation as to why this is on here.

"Two-Headed Boy" Neutral Milk Hotel - 1998
Brian writes: When I first started thinking about "childhood memory" songs, it was really only a question of which Bon Jovi or Guns N' Roses song I would choose. The more I thought about it though, the album that takes me back to my childhood more than any other is one I never even heard until about 2000 or so (maybe later). That album is "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" by Neutral Milk Hotel. The entire album has an innocence to it that brings back so many memories, and it just sort of reenergizes that childlike perception that sometimes gets lost as you get older. In particular, the song Two Headed Boy really takes me back to being a strange kid...

"Lay Lady Lay" Bob Dylan - 1969
Christine writes: Everything I listened to as a child was because my dad’s direct influence. Thankfully, he has great taste in music. One artist he played often when my sisters and I were younger was Dylan. This is my favorite song by him so enjoy.

"Atlantis" Donovan - 1968
Jane writes: Realizing that "Hurdy Gurdy Man" drove me into fits of laughter when I was little, my Dad gave me all of his Donovan 45rpm's and set me loose into that crazy man's mind... funny thing is, much of Donovan's music reads like children's songs anyway if you take out the innuendo and drug references.

So the story part of "Atlantis" absolutely blew my 7 yr. old mind, and I'm sure made me a horrible burden at Sunday School where my questions were already notorious amongst the teachers. I became obsessed with living underwater... which was intensified a few years later by the release of the movie "Splash" with Darryl Hannah and Tom Hanks. Yeah, I was a weird kid.

"Wish You Were Here" Pink Floyd - 1975
Justin writes: I love music of all types, but what really gets my blood moving is good ol' rock n' roll. And my father played all types of it while I was growing up. So I have some fond memories of the records he played from my childhood. Now I don't have tons of memories living with him as my parents divorced when I was like 10 and I've been living with my mother ever since. So I decided to pick this track because it sticks out the most for me out of all the albums my father would play. It reminds me of watching him attempt to play this tune on the guitar and sing it. He wasn't awesome at it but he always impressed me when he did. It will always be my favorite song Pink Floyd ever.

"Bein' Green" Kermit The Frog - 1970
Jennifer writes: (see her write-up for song #1)
 

Labels: folk, mixtape, pop, rap, rock