Playlists Within Playlists To Survive The Trump Presidency

55 years later, the prophecy is being fulfilled

At the suggestion of my friend Chauncey DeVega, I am sharing some songs that have been important for coping with the current Trumpian nightmare. These songs are spread across multiple playlists I've made, here I decided to make a playlist with playlists inside of it. Enjoy, and feel free to add your own.

Late Night Dread
Some nights under Trump I sit in front of my computer, speechless and sad, unable to believe this is all actually happening. I call this "the late night dread." Here are songs I listen to in those moments.

"Weightless Again" by The Handsome Family
This alt-country band likes to keep it dark, and no song has spoken to me in recent months like this one. Dread personified.

"Windowsill" by Arcade Fire
It was written as a response to the Bush years, but now things have returned to that state, but worse. Key line: "I don't want to live in America no more."

"Mind Playing Tricks On Me" by The Geto Boys
A song about ghosts and questioning reality. The feeling that nothing makes sense is a big part of the late night dread.

"Footsteps In the Dark" by the Isley Brothers
Not a political song, but the feeling of midnight doom is pretty thick on this one.

"Smiling Faces Sometimes" by The Undisputed Truth
One of the all-time great early 70s dark soul songs, about the feeling that snakes are everywhere and honest people are hard to find.

"Backstabbers" by The O'Jays
The song definitely resonated with Watergate, when it came out, and with our own current Watergate echo.

Time to Cry
Sometimes I need to have my emotions really shaken up to the point of tears. I have found it cathartic, a way to get all the negative feelings out of my system so I can conquer The Fear and be ready to get back out and fight again. These songs help bring the tears.

"Intervention" by Arcade Fire
"Working for the church while your family dies/ Singing hallelujah with fear in your heart." The song I listened to as my commuter train entered the tunnel the day after the election and I lost it.

"End of the Rainbow" by Richard and Linda Thompson
A song of a father sung to his infant child about how this world is a vail of tears. Gets my every time.

"Adagio For Strings" by Samuel Barber
Classical music hits emotional places for me that other music can't reach. This song, written in the dread on the eve of World War II, seems to scream the undying scream of the universe.

Third Movement of Shostakovich's Symphony #5
In the midst of a symphony meant to appease Stalin after being threatened with being sent to the gulags, Shostakovich wrote this dirge as a way to mourn his friends who had been cut down by the Terror.

Reflecting On Absurdity and Greed
Other times I feel less like crying, and more just staring out at the greed and awfulness and absurdity of our current situation. Some songs help with that, too.

"Lawyers, Guns and Money" by Warren Zevon
The song's narrator is a callow rich kid abroad who gets caught up far too deep in international intrigue, and is calling his dad for help. Always reminds me of Jared Kushner.

"Political Science" by Randy Newman
Newman is famous for writing songs from the perspective of reprehensible people, in order to satirize the stupidity of their outlook. This song, about nuking the world, is a parody of dumb American nationalism that sounds frighteningly like Trump.

"For The Love of Money" by The O'Jays
The filthy, throbbing crotch of our current administration is greed most foul. This is perhaps the best anti-greed song every written, and a helluva tune.

"Mad World" by Gary Jules
I like this cover of the Tears for Fears song, which has a more melancholic tone than the original. The corrosion of greed we were warned about in the 80s has met its full flowering.

Motivation
Other times I need to be ready to fight. When it's time to get my protesting shoes on, there are certain songs that I turn to.

"Fight The Power" by Public Enemy
I blasted this one during a "drive by" protest at Trump's Bedminster, New Jersey, course.

"Fight the Power" by the Isley Brothers
I blasted this one going back the other way for good measure.

"For God's Sake Give More Power To The People" by The Chi-Lites
Great message, great marching beat. I listened to this one on the way to the Bedminster protest.

"What's So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding" by Elvis Costello and the Attractions
This song was originally meant to be kind of a parody of hippies, but in this incarnation I take it as a call for all of us to come to our collective senses. Sometimes after listening to the late night dread songs I'll throw this one on and pump my fist.

"Keep On Knocking" by Death
These Detroit proto-punkers laid down many scorching tracks, but this is one I put over my headphones when it's time to get out there and fight.

Playlist: Early 70s Boogie Piano Rock

Listening to pop music today, it seems more and more divorced from the roots of American music, with hardly a trace to be found of soul, blues, jazz, or country.  This isn't necessarily a diss, I can enjoy a good Top 40 song in the current computerized mode as much as the next person.  However, when recently listening to some Allman Brothers Band records, I looked up their charting positions, and was amazed to find music so rooted in traditional modes to have charted so high.  I also got to thinking about how one particular roots music tool, the boogie piano, enjoyed a crazy kind of popularity in the early 1970s.  Without further ado, here are some fine (and some merely representative) examples of piano boogie rock.

Allman Brothers Band, "Ramblin' Man"
I mentioned the Allmans in my intro, a band that managed to combine jazz, blues, and rock into a really enjoyable combination.  Sadly, the tragic deaths of Duane Allman and Berry Oakley cut that project short.  The band could not help to have a different sound, and that sound produced their biggest hit, "Ramblin' Man," which climbed all the way to #2.  I am not sure they even allow musicianship in the Top 40 anymore, and certainly not the boogie piano at the base of this song.  It's ironic that "Ramblin' Man" is not representative of the Allmans' usual sound, but it's a song that never fails to bring a smile to  my face.

Bachman Turner Overdrive, "Takin' Care of Business"
Regular commenter Brian I. told me the back-story to this song, one of my favorite rock and roll recording stories ever.  Due to the "husky" size of its members, wags often referred to BTO as "Bachman Turner Overweight."  As the story goes, they were cutting "Takin' Care of Business" in the studio when they got some pizzas delivered (natch, although my internet research tells me they were being delivered to the Steve Miller Band.)  The pizza guy heard the playback, and told them they could use some boogie piano on it, which he provided, being that he was an accomplished musician.  Not only that, he did it in one take.  This song is one of those lame warhorses of classic rock radio that needs to be put out to pasture or put out of its mercy, but that killer piano still stands out.

Led Zeppelin, "Boogie With Stu"
Ian Stewart is one of my favorite figures in rock history.  He was an original member of the Rolling Stones and an absolute beast of a boogie piano player.  Unfortunately he was a square-jawed Scot who did not fit the Stones' hip, bad-boy image.  That led to Stu being dropped from the band, although he did become their road manager and played on many Stones tracks.  However, I would like to highlight his cameo on Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti album.  When I first heard it I thought of it as a minor track on a double album that contained the likes of "Kashmir" and "Ten Years Gone."  Nowadays it's one of my favorites, mostly due to Stu's relentlessly driving, rollicking piano, which gives the sometimes portentous Zeppelin a fun break from hobbits and demons.

The Faces, "You're So Rude"
The Faces were the kings of 70s boogie rock, and keyboardist Ian McLagen could lay it down like few others.  On a rare Ronnie Lane vocal (as opposed to Rod Stewart), McLagen's gutbucket piano perfectly compliments Lane's raunchy story of interrupted love on a rainy Sunday.

Elvis Presley, "Burning Love"
Hey, even Elvis got in on the early 70s boogie wave with his last great single, "Burning Love."  It's got a great Presley vocal, but the chugging piano pretty much makes the song.

Playlist: Soul Covers Rock

As readers of this blog know, I love vintage rock and classic soul.  I also think that performing original material is an overrated fetish.  A good song is something that ought to be cherished, shared, and played around with.  Just because someone recorded it first shouldn't mean that the song gets frozen in the vinyl amber of the original record, never to be altered again.  A great illustration of how songs can be reinterpreted in thrilling ways comes from covers that soul artists did of rock songs back in the 1960s.  Back then a popular song would be covered by lots of different people, often with great results.  Here are a few of my favorite covers in the specific souls covers of rock genre.

Wilson Pickett, "Hey Jude"
Let's start with Wilson Pickett, perhaps the most muscular soul singer that ever walked the planet earth this side of Levi Stubbs.  According to the story, he was cutting a session in Muscle Shoals, and sessions musician (and later Allman Brothers Band founder) Duane Allman suggested they do a version of "Hey Jude."  It was an audacious move that paid off with a supremely funky groove and some great singing from Pickett, especially when he screams as the band goes into the long "na na na na na" fadeout.  Allman's guitar solo is also just absolutely killer.

Aretha Franklin, "The Weight"
Aretha Franklin went from peak to peak in the late 60s and early 70s, including on this cover of the Band.  The original combined the voices of Rick Danko, Levon Helm, and Richard Manuel, but Lady Soul's pipes can carry the whole darn thing by themselves.  (Since it's a collaboration rather than a cover I couldn't include the Staples Singers doing this song with The Band on the formal list.  Nevertheless, Mavis Staples' singing here is some of her best.)

Otis Redding, "Satisfaction"
I've heard Keith Richards say that when he wrote "Satisfaction" he envisioned it as a soul song, with the loud, fuzzy guitar taking the place of a horn section.  Otis Redding obliged Keef by dropping this killer cover, complete with horns.  Instead of Jagger's punky sneer, Otis gives the song some of his patented sweat, making the frustration of the singer much more palpable.

Stevie Wonder, "We Can Work It Out"
Might as well end with where we started, with a Beatles cover.  "We Can Work It Out" has the distinction of being both one of my favorite Beatles' songs and one of my favorite Stevie Wonder songs.  Wonder gives the song an absolutely killer groove and some great "hey!"s to punctuate the song, not to mention a soaring harmonica solo.  Like all great covers it stays true to the song while still managing to turn it into something new, and I would argue, better.