Possible set list

On 17-Mar for the departmental retreat party, I'll be opening up for Megachild and Rocio's new band (calling themselves Electric Platypus at the moment). I'll have a short set. Here's what I am thinking so far:
Ghost Riders in the Sky
American Girl
Straight Into Darkness
Roxanne
Smells Like Teen Spirit
Smoke on the Water
Antarctica
Last of the Famous International Playboys

Young Boys - 805

(I always thought it was Young Boy singular but the poster on Youtube seems to be in the know about the band and posted it as Boys.)
A period piece from 1982 from Syracuse band 805. I really like this song. Today we would describe it as progressive or "proggy", in this case because of its highly precise orchestration, especially in the instrumental section. Never saw these guys live. I was too young. But there were a lot of bands in western NY that were trying to achieve this kind of sound. Songs like this had to be pulled off exactly the same way every performance and every fan of progressive bands like this (supreme example = Rush) knew every single lick of every beat and measure of the song and expected no alterations. Very interesting looking back on this sound and era.

Roxanne - Police

Learned it tonight.
One of the most recognizable of their early songs. I'll have to sing it an octave lower than Sting. Should be a good one for gigging.

Russian Christmas Music - Alfred Reed

Of all the music I played in band in junior high and high school, this was one of the only pieces that at the time I found to be sublime. And it took a long time of playing it (it was a pretty challenging piece for that level) to appreciate it. I played chimes and tympani, which were at different ends of the percussion section, so I was going back and forth a bit. But there was also a lot of time to just sit and listen. The atmosphere is definitely wintry. Still sounds quite epic, actually.

Smells Like Teen Spirit

Never was much into Tori Amos or Nirvana. But I've always really loved this Tori Amos cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit, which was a B-side of one of her singles. Much better than the original, in my opinion.
I tried this song on the uke last night. Looks like a keeper. However, now that I know what the lyrics are, I'm underwhelmed by them.

Leipzig - Thomas Dolby

Great little obscure Thomas Dolby song from 1981. Has his signature lonely, techno-alienation, atmospherics. The chorus makes it. Great chords. Sweet transitional synth flourishes against a droning bass line.

Magnificent Seven - The Clash

One of my favorite Clash tracks, from 1981.
This TV performance is at a breakneck pace that must have been difficult to pull off. Emphasized by the jumpy, low quality video. The vocal is breathless. The studio version sounds very downtempo and spacious by comparison. Idiosyncratically atmospheric.

Good practice

The Megachild threesome of Pat, Rocio, and myself had a really good practice tonight getting ready for our dept retreat party gig in March. Ru-Jun was really good keeping Mommy company upstairs and not making too much of a mess painting and eating snacks. This bodes well for future practices.

Cemetry Gates - the Smiths

This song was the first Smiths song I ever heard, probably around 1985, and remains one of my favorites. The tight strumming, the chord changes, Morrissey's velvet lilt. A completely new sound to my ears then and has yet to be duplicated by anyone. I built a mystique around this sound. It seemed so sophisticated. It helped that artsy college kids who I thought were immensely cool liked this music. But it was still mostly the music itself.

A Forest -the Cure

From 1980. Pretty close to being a pure mood. It actually moves non-slowly underneath in the bass and guitar. Restrained. Gothic chord progression. A great example of stripping down the idea of pop, going somewhere no one has much before (the chords), capturing a narrative essence, and exploiting the hell out of it to very rich effect.

Getting difficult

To reanimate the Megachild corpse these days. We will one more time for the dept. retreat party sans Steve who will be out of town. Pat is finishing and heading to the west coast. Rocio is playing with a different band these days. And Steve is pretty busy. I've had a musical reawakening of sorts with the uke and am still interested in new instrumentation possibilities. I'm thinking about recruiting some players on campus and getting a new band thing going there.

Tom Petty songs

While I was waiting in the car for my eyes to undilate after my ophthalmology appointment, I started to work out some Tom Petty songs on the uke. These are some of my favorites and it's really cool to know how to plan them:

American Girl

One Story Town

A Woman In Love

Straight Into Darkness

Gotta say though, some other songs that have relatively easy chord progressions are really hard because of the way he phrases his lyrics. He sometimes jams a lot of words into single lines.

Martin Briley - The Salt in My Tears

From 1983, this got some airplay (or I wouldn't have known about it). But it remains a pretty obscure song. Great little guitar-figure driven pop song. Nice vocal harmony in the choruses.

For pure wistfulness

The Korgis 1980 hit Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime was a revelation. Nothing sounded like it, either in its production and instrumentation, or more basically in its chords and structure. This song is pure mood. The sound anticipates an entire swath of pop that came after, encompassing bands like Tears For Fears and Dream Academy, the latter being one of the army of artists to have a hit covering the song (unfortunately that version is apparently not on youtube).

The essence

Of course the essence if this dual embrace/dread of the hyper-modern can be thoroughly felt in the seminal Computer Love by Kraftwerk. It's not just the synthesizer instrumentation. It's the wistful narrative of the chord changes. Sweet sadness.

(I Love You) Miss Robot - Buggles

I really love the whole Living in the Plastic Age album. The atmosphere, especially of Miss Robot is simultaneouly a utopian and dystopian vision. It's Euro and modern, like International Style architecture. But it's knowingly over the top. Falling in love with the perfection of a robot who cannot love. It's nostalgia for a future that never was and can never be. It's so damn lovely...

Kihns other big hit

Jeopardy. I didn't like it for quite a while. Not enough of a change into the chorus. But years later I came to really appreciate the incredibly solid rhythm track of this song. Laid back, subtle, funky, just cool.

Breakup Song - Greg Kihn Band

From 1981, couldn't escape this song and didn't want to. Terrific chord progression hooks in both the verse and chorus. Nice harmony in the chorus. A near perfect song.

Fire Lake - Bob Seger

Not many rock artists had more huge hits than Bob Seger in the 70s and early 80s. Fire Lake from 1980 is by far my favorite. The chord progression of the verse (of the whole song really) and the backing vocal harmonies (which included Glen Frey and Don Henley of the Eagles) make the song.

Marys Danish - Dont Crash the Car Tonight

From 1989, the beginning of my peak college radio listening period. Tight tight boppy guitars and rhythm section. Great vocal harmony.

Dramarama - Anything Anything

Great band name. Did very well on college radio in the late 80s and 90s. Here's the iconic Anything Anything from 1985. Classic thrashy dynamic oscillations.

The Lemonheads

I've always liked their songs, raw and simple but usually hooks lurk in them. Gotta work one of their songs into my uke playlist soon. Here's Stove.
.

Some songs I am working on

To play with the uke

Last of the Famous International Playboys - Morrissey
Smoke on the Water - Deep Purple
Working on My Tan - Tim Curry
Substitute - the Who

songs I will try to tackle soon
Hang Fire - Rolling Stones
Careless Whisper - Wham

Right Down the Line - Gerry Rafferty

From 1978, this is a beautiful song. I especially like the smooth keyboard chords driving the rhythm section on top of the textural Latin percussion instrumentation.

My Favorite Eagles Song

New Kid in Town
Laid back tempo, prominent keyboards, nice harmony. It must have been the winter of 1976-1977, my family spent the winter break helping clean out the basement and fellowship hall of our church. My brothers and I were too young to help much and were bored out of our skulls. All we had was Mom and Dad's old green AM transistor radio listening to WHAM, then a top 40 and news station. New Kid in Town and Abba's Dancing Queen played at least once every hour.

Van Halen

Most of Van Halen's work as a band I can take or leave. The David Lee Roth era was far better than the Sammy Hagar era. From the earlier stuff, there are three songs I would want with me if I got deserted on an island or planet somewhere:

Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love

I'll Wait

Panama

Another very cool instrument

The bowed psaltery.
Very sweet and beautful sound. Looks like a lot of fun to play.