Dichroic Reflections

adjusting attitude

I'm thinking I need to make myself an Attitude Adjustment CD, and I was having some fun figuring what should go on it. I need something for driving home on a Friday afternoon with the windows open after a rough week, the kind of thing you can crank up and get in the mood to kick ass. I want something for road trips, to add energy when that white line gets to looking endless, something to kick a mood into overdrive. I've been having some fun trying to figure out what should be on it. What does it for me is old rock with attitude, happy pop beats joined to folkie sensibilities, ad the kind of thing that can only be properly listened to with the volume up while singing along. Driving-related music is a plus, obivously. And it should be stuff I have so I don't have to go looking for file-sharing. I'm cheating a bit, though, by including songs I only have on tape, even though I have no idea how to get those onto a CD.

To start with, I'd have to honor my blue-collar Philly with my all-time favorite bit of Bruce, Thunder Road. Then I'd continue in a similar mood with something by Gearge Thoroughgood -- probably Bad to the Bone. As a companion to that, I'd dig out that four-CD set of Last Waltz and burn in Ronnie Hawkin's cover of Who Do You Love. While I was in the Dixie rock vein, I might include something else from that set, maybe The Night They Drove Dixie Down. Or maybe some Creedence. And then if I wanted to mellow out a bit as I moved along the coast, some Parrothead music. I like singing along to Jimmy -- no idea what song to pick though. Maybe A Pirate Looks at 40. Or maybe something I'd pick completely different and go with his cover of Brown-Eyed Girl, which I've always liked since I am one.

My choices so far might not be too PC, but Jimmy would be my sole representative from Alabama -- no Sweet Home Alabama for me. I've never understood why a pro-segregation song is still getting airplay; I can only assume no one else listens to lyrics. Since I'm doing attitude adjustment, a little Hank Jr. may be appropriate, but definitely not the song of the same name (it hints at wife-beating). I have a soft spot for Bocephus though, the song, rather than the man.

While I was in Texas, musically speaking, Bonnie Raitt's got lots of good road songs. My favorite of hers is Angel from Montgomery but for this CD I'd go hunt up something livelier. Next I'd go into the heartland for some Melissa Etheridge, either Yes I Am or maybe We've Got Nowhere to Go. Or both. I like Melissa. And probably the Grateful Dead's Wharf Rat which is not terrribly upbeat but which has good associations for me.

I'd be unlikely to make any mix without something at least a bit folky on it. Great Big Sea's album Rant and Roar always makes me happy or at least happier so I'd have to include something from that. I was thinking Ordinary Day, but for real clout I might do better with the brilliant combo (not my brilliance; they're back-to-back on the album) of Mari Mac and their cover of REM's End of the World as We Know It. Or maybe for contrast I'd include REM's original, which I like just a hair better anyway. At similar speed, Stan Roger's Acadian Saturday Night. And then something from Pete and Maura Kennedy, likely Life is Large from the album of the same name, because I love the cameo of Roger McGuinn playing just a bit of Bach.

ANd maybe some blues, because this is the sort of thing the blues were invented for, after all. But it should be something loud and upbeat, so maybe Koko Taylor singing Let the Good Times Roll The rest of the album would probably not be in the order described, but I'm thinking of some obscure white-boy blues to end it: Dave MacKenzie playing Stumbling Home. Or some not-so-obscure: David Bromberg on I will Not Be Your Fool, to make me laugh.

Gah! I knew I forgot something! How could I have left off AC/Dc's You Shook Me?? And I think I need some Metallica, too, like maybe Gasoline ("Give me fuel, give me fire, give me that which I desire"). Of course, for sheer ear-filling power, that would have to be from the S & M album, where they played with the San Francisco Orchestra. I know I've forgotten something else obvious though....what?