Take a Ride

Three Hundred Eighteen

Artist - Journey
Album - Escape
Released - 1981
Label - Columbia
Genre - Hard Rock

Tracks:
Side One
Don't Stop Believin'
Stone in Love
Who's Crying Now
Keep on Runnin'
Still They Ride
Side Two
Escape
Lay It Down
Dead or Alive
Mother, Father
Open Arms

The seventh studio album by San Francisco rockers Journey, Escape catapulted one song into karaoke mainstream heaven.  Don't Stop Believin' has to be one of those songs that never seems to die.  It's the most powerful motivational song next to a few other greats out there, but for the most part you put this record on, pump up the volume and sing your lungs to capacity.  Another great song on this record which is a lovely love/sad song is Open Arms.

Enjoy!

Contemporary

Three Hundred Fifteen

Artist - Debussy
Album - Debussy's Greatest Hits
Released- 1972
Label - Columbia Records
Genre - Classical

Tracks:
Side 1
Clair De Lune
Golliwog's Cake-Walk
Reveire
Abraesque
The Girl with the Flaxen Hair
Side 2
Afternoon of a Faun
Fetes
Dialogue of the Wind and the Sea

Enjoy!

So Free

Three Hundred

Artist - Andy Williams
Album - Born Free
Released - 1967
Label - Columbia
Genre - Pop

Tracks:
Born Free
Somewhere, My Love
Spanish Eyes
Strangers In The Night
Sherry
Music To Watch Girls By
I Want To Be Free
Alfie
Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye
Sunny
I Will Wait For You
You Are Where Everything Is

Enjoy!

On The Wire

Two Hundred Eighty-Eight

Artist - Leonard Cohen
Album - Songs From A Room
Released - 1969
Label - Columbia
Genre - Folk

Tracks:
Bird On The Wire
Story of Isaac
A Bunch of Lonesome Heroes
The Partisan
Seems So Long Ago, Nancy
The Old Revolution
The Butcher
You Know Who I Am
Lady Midnight
Tonight Will Be Fine

If you don't know much of Leonard Cohen, then it's not too hard to get involved.  Leonard Cohen is one smooth singing guy and his voice is just as calm as can be.  Songs From A Room is Leonard Cohen's second album, which in 1969 it reached #63 on the US Billboard Charts and #2 on the UK Charts.  I am starting to think I need a little bit more Leonard Cohen in my life to calm me down, bring me back to reality.

Enjoy!

The Boss Part Deux

Two Hundred Fifty-Nine

Artist - Bruce Springsteen
Album - Born to Run
Released - 1975
Label - Columbia
Genre - Rock

Tracks:
Thunder Road
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
Night
Backstreets
Born to Run
She's the One
Meeting Across the River
Jungleland

Enjoy!

The Greats

Two Hundred Forty-Seven

Artist - Simon and Garfunkel
Album - Greatest Hits
Released - 1972
Label - Columbia
Genre - Folk Rock

Tracks:
Side 1
Mrs. Robinson
For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her
The Boxer
The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)
The Sound of Silence
I Am A Rock
Scarborough Fair/Canticle
Side 2
Homeward Bound
Bridge Over Troubled Water
America
Kathy's Song
El Condor Pasa (If I Could)
Bookends
Cecilia

Enjoy!!

Folk

Two Hundred Twenty-One

Artist - Simon & Garfunkel
Album - Bookends
Released - 1968
Label - Columbia
Genre - Folk

Tracks:
Side One
Bookends Theme (Instrumental)
Save The Life Of My Child
America
Overs
Voices of Old People
Old Friends
Bookends Theme
Side Two
Fakin' It
Punky's Dilemma
Mrs. Robinson
A Hazy Shade of Winter

On a day like today, I felt like playing this record.  It brought me into a state of calm and after today, I'm glad I decided to go with this record.  In life, nothing is every easy, but you have to make the most of it, regardless of the circumstances.  As heavy as today was, it came to me that I'm alive, I am free and I  have loved ones around me.  Nothing could be better.  I even have my music, my records and just the comfort of that made this evening a good one.

The fourth album by Simon & Garfunkel and also produced by them, Bookends has two of my favorite Simon and Garfunkel songs ever.  Mrs. Robinson and A Hazy Shade of Winter are my all-time favorite. Also, when listening to this album, it reminds me of when I used to work at the law school some years back and I would get these random voicemails with Simon  Garfunkel songs.  Of course I never discovered who it was, but I just thought that was the oddest thing.  All is well in the land of Rachel today and every day after today!

Enjoy!

Phemonenal

Two Hundred Nineteen

Artist - Johnny Cash
Album - I Walk The Line
Released - 1964
Label - Columbia
Genre - Blues/Folk

Tracks:
I Walk The Line
Bad News
Folsom Prison Blies
Give My Love To Rose
Hey Porter
I Still Miss Someone
Understand Your Man
Wreck of the Old 97
Still In Town
Big River
Goodbye, Little Darlin' Goodbye
Troublesome Waters

A phenomenal probably unique to the Country and Western and fold song fields is the composer who is also the best singer of his own songs.  One of the notably gifted - and most successful - examples in recent years is Johnny Cash, whose hit recordings of original compositions have appeared repeatedly on national best-seller charts.  Endowed with a vibrant, virile baritone voice, he is one of the best songwriting talents since the legendary Hank Williams.

The title of Johnny's new collection, I WALK THE LINE, is also the title of the million-seller that catapulted him into the national spotlight only a few years ago. Appropriately, the song leads off this album which includes six Cash originals and one collaboration.  After he sings Bad News ("I'm bad news, always gettin' into trouble"), the effect of which Johnny heightens by a devilish chuckle, he follows with three other famous Cash originals, the grim Folsom Prison Blues ("I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die"), the poignant Give My Love To Rose ("the words a dyin' fella said") and Hey Porter ("tell me the time, how much longer will it be till we cross the Mason-Dixie line?"), a jubilant going-home song.  I Still Miss Someone is a sentimental song Johnny wrote to brother Roy's words.

I WALK THE LINE offers Johnny Cash, renowned story-teller-in-song, at his creative and performing best.

Enjoy!

Funk-A-Fied

One Hundred Seventy-Third

Artist - Earth, Wind & Fire
Album - Spirit
Released - 1976
Label - Columbia
Genre - Funk

Tracks:
1
On Your Face
Saturday Nite
Imagination
Biyo
2
Burnin' Bush
Departure
Earth, Wind & Fire
Spirit
Getaway

The seventh studio album by Earth, Wind & Fire, Spirit is FUNKY!  After a mix of records I've been listening to, I wanted to change it up with something waaaay out of left field (using the baseball reference in honor of the Post Season Playoffs), so here we are or here I am blogging about this.  This is a record that makes me think about the younger years of my life and how growing up this was a big influence on my outlook on music today.  Growing up listening to a variety of genres makes me appreciate music a lot more.  So listening to this record made me smile and think of how I use to always dance around in my room as a kid listening to music.  Earth, Wind & Fire is a band to enjoy, play and have fun to.  

Enjoy!

Where to Begin

My heart melted in 2002 when I heard his angelic voice, read those wonderful lyrics and set eyes on that beautiful face.  My one hundred sixty-third pick:

Artist - Jeff Buckley
Album - Grace
Released - 1994
Label - Columbia
Genre - Alternative Rock, Folk

Tracks:
Mojo Pin
Grace
Last Goodbye
Lilac Wine
So Real
Hallelujah
Lover, You Should've Come Over
Corpus Christi Carol (For Roy)
Eternal Life
Dream Brother

One of my ALL-TIME favorite records, Jeff Buckley's Grace is the epitome of what I love about music and lyrics, HANDS DOWN.  Another artist gone too soon, this record is the only complete studio album by Jeff Buckley.  Let me start by saying when I first heard this record, I swear I had it on repeat for months.  When I make mix CDs for my car, I always date them and I know between 2002 - 2004, Jeff Buckley's music was definitely on heavy rotation.  For that long until today, I've always been in love with his voice and his music.  Lover, You Should've Come Over, I think is what did me in.  How can a voice so angelic and so peaceful be so mesmerizing?  Not only that, Grace, Last Goodbye and Eternal Life round up more of my favorite songs.  A little quote about Eternal Life that I absolutely love, "This is a song about...this is an angry song. Life's too short and too complicated for people behind desks and people making masks to ruin other people's lives, initiating force against other people's lives, on the basis of their income, their color, their class, their religious  beliefs, their whatever..."  If that isn't the truth for you, than I don't know what to say.  A man who speaks his mind through his heart and his music definitely reflects that.

Enjoy!

Roots

One Hundred Fifty-Sixth

Artist - Taj Mahal
Album - Satisfied 'N Tickled Too
Released - 1976
Label - Columbia
Genre - Blues

Tracks:
Side One
Satisfied 'N Tickled Too
New E-Z Rider Blues
Black Man Brown Man
Baby Love
Ain't Nobody's Business
Side Two
Misty Morning Ride
Easy to Love
Old Time Song - Old Time Love
We Tune

Enjoy!

While I'm Packin

Nothing makes me feel more tense while I'm packing than my twenty-sixth pick:

Artist - The Dave Brubeck Quartet
Album - Gone With The Wind
Released - 1959
Label - Columbia
Genre - Jazz


Tracks:
Side One
Swanee River
The Lonesome Road
Georgia on My Mind
Camptown Races
Side Two
Camptown Races
Short'nin' Bread
Basin Street Blues
Ol' Man River
Gone With The Wind

As I pack for my somewhat short journey to Seattle, Washington this weekend, I decided I needed a little instrumental music playing at the moment.  Dave Brubeck is a very talented man, putting together quartets and working on orchestras in the span of his illustrious musical career.  Believe it or not, born in 1920, he is still alive and still receiving recognition on his amazing work.  This record will relax you with the flow of melodic sounds. There is no words that can describe this album, it basically speaks for itself.

Enjoy!