What kind of music do you listen to?

One of the writers I follow on Substack, Michael Rand, recently answered the question, “What kind of music do you listen to?” by creating a ten-song annotated playlist. I define myself as a musichead.  I have a vast vinyl and CD collection and have been writing this music-focused blog since the fall of 2011. Yet I am paralyzed by the question: “What kind of music do you listen to?” My snarky comeback is “I listen to good music.” But that is just an evasive move. I have thought about making a list of my 100 favorite albums and/or my favorite 100 songs, but that has been daunting. I often think about what four musicians would be on my musical Mount Rushmore – but four is not enough. This post is inspired by Michael Rand’s post – here are a dozen songs that define my taste.

“The Moontrane” by Dexter Gordon from the album Sophisticated Giant (1979)

I didn’t listen to much pop music when I was a kid. Instead, I listened to big band and classical music. When I arrived at college, my musical horizon expanded, and I discovered classic rock (which was simply rock in the late 1970s and early 1980s when I was in college), as well as jazz, folk, and country. One of my discoveries was with Dexter Gordon’s big band album Sophisticated Giant. I fell in love with Dexter’s gorgeous tenor sax tone and the sense of melody in his improvisations. This album had the sophisticated swing of big band music, with a bit of the edge of bebop. This song has a great melody, cool arrangements, and epic solos.

“Testify” by Ronnie Wood from the album Slide On This (1992).

By the time this album came out, I was a huge Rolling Stones fan, and Ronnie Wood was my favorite Stone because he seemed like both a journeyman and at the same time his own guy with his own musical vision. This song is a cover of a George Clinton/Parliament song, which is the perfect blend of rock and funk.

“San Lorenzo” by Pat Metheny from the album Pat Metheny Group (1977)

In addition to big band and classical music, Muzak (AKA elevator music) was a guilty pleasure as a kid. As my musical horizon expanded in college in the late 1970s, jazz-rock fusion and light jazz were popular, and I was drawn to these new genres. The Pat Metheny Group album, part of that jazz-rock/light-jazz genre, was the best elevator music I had ever heard. In the nearly fifty years since I first heard “San Lorenzo,” I have never tired of it.

“Visions of Johanna” by Bob Dylan from the album Blonde On Blonde (1966)

Bob Dylan is on my musical Mount Rushmore. I struggled to decide which Dylan era to highlight, let alone which song to include here. I settled on this one from the end of his “Dylan’s gone electric” era. Dylan reminisces about a former lover/muse (maybe that is what he is singing about) in a weary psychedelia haze backed by Nashville’s finest studio musicians. It is just another tossed masterpiece from his catalog.

“So What” by Miles Davis from the album Kind Of Blue (1959)

Whenever someone asks for an introduction to jazz, I suggest Kind Of Blue. I suggest it because it is both accessible and challenging. It is smooth, yet has sharp edges. Most of all, it radiates a cool vibe.

“Twist and Shout” by David Lindley from the album El Rayo-X (1981)

Lindley was Jackson Browne’s guitar player in the late 70s. Lindley teased that there was more to him than wicked slide guitar riffs when he sang a falsetto verse on Browne’s Running On Empty’s “Stay.” This goofball cover of the Isley Brothers’ hit (although most readers are more familiar with the Beatles version) is almost a novelty song, but I love it.

“Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” by Joni Mitchell from the album Mingus (1979)

Joni is another head on my musical Mount Rushmore that I struggled to decide which song to include here. I chose this one because it was from a time when I was experiencing Joni’s music firsthand, in the late 1970s. The jazz great Charles Mingus, who was dying, reached out to Joni to write lyrics to his songs. Joni was incinerating her pop career and was game for the assignment. “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” is the diamond from the album inspired by the collaboration of Joni and Mingus. Somehow, she managed to get Herbie Hancock and half of Weather Report to help her.

“Box Full of Letters” by Wilco from the album A.M. (1995)

When Uncle Tupelo’s leader walked out of the band at its peak, second banana Jeff Tweedy decided to make another Uncle Tupelo album (A.M.) under the Wilco banner. Wilco would soon become Wilco, but this last gasp of Uncle Tupelo’s alt-country genius is a cool footnote to the Wilco catalog. It also has one of my favorite lyrics:

“I just can’t find the time
To write my mind
The way I want it to read”

“Sign O’ The Times” by Prince from the album Sign O’ The Times (1987)

I generally categorize rock stars as artists (for example, Dylan and Joni) and entertainers (for example, Elton John). Prince is both an artist and an entertainer. He is the greatest performer I have ever witnessed.

This song was a shift in his sound to a sparse electronic arrangement seasoned by a funky lead guitar part. Lyrically, it is almost a protest song as Prince addresses HIV/AIDS, gang violence, natural disasters, poverty, the crack epidemic, the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, the Strategic Defense Initiative, and the threat of nuclear war – pretty cool for a dance song.

“More Than This” by the Charlie Hunter Quartet from Songs From the Analog Playground (2001)

I was initially going ot include the Roxy Music original. However, I picked this cover as an excuse to include one of my favorite singers and still acknowledge my love of Roxy Music. Charlie Hunter plays custom-made seven and eight-string guitars on which he simultaneously plays bass lines, chords, and melodies. His guitar sounds more like an organ than a guitar. He primarily plays instrumental jazz, but on this album, he had a then-unknown female vocalist cover this Roxy Music classic. That unknown female vocalist was Norah Jones, about eighteen months before she exploded onto the pop scene.

“The Rooster” by Atmosphere from the EP Sad Clown Bad Fall 10 (2007)

As a 66-year-old white guy, I was aged out of the pop scene when hip-hop got big. But I still managed to sample it occasionally. Given that Atmosphere was a Minneapolis band (more specifically, Southsiders like me), I took a shine to them. This is a song I play for people my age who say they hate rap. It has never failed to get geriatric rap haters to second-guess themselves. “The Rooster” describes a couple’s rough night at a bar.

“Skyway” by The Replacements from Pleased To Meet Me (1987)

This gorgeous piece of jangle folk rock showed songwriter Paul Westerberg’s true colors: he is not a punk but the ultimate sensitive singer-songwriter. Only a Minneapolitan (yet another Southsider) could use the city’s raised, building-connecting walkways as a metaphor for unrequited love.

There were so many artists and songs that I wanted to include here*. My method was to not think about it much and just go with my gut. I assume if I did this again in a month, the list would be different, so this is of the moment. I also resisted trying to be cool, that is, making choices that would impress. I did my best to stay true to my heart.

*Goose, Ryan Adams, more Miles, more Dylan, more Joni, Parliament/Funkadelic, Neil Young, Jerry Garcia, Tedichi Trucks Band, Margo Price, Jackson Browne, Bruce Springsteen, Sturgill Simpson, Lucinda Williams, Rolling Stones, Jonathan Wilson, Father John Misty, Elvis Costello, The Jayhawks, John Coltrane, just to name a few.