My part of the deal was that I was supposed to make BadKitten a CD of great music from my generation. I think I mentioned that I forgot to bring it with me last week so I haven't been able to blog the playlist yet. For now, it's 13 songs. I think I'll go to 40 and when we finish 40 Days of BadKitten, we'll do 40 Days for BadKitten.
So my plan was to pick a bunch of songs from my (ahem--I'm not that old) generation that she probably hadn't heard. I spent a lovely hour just scrolling up and down my iTunes and picking out some gems.
I give you, BadKitten Vol. 1
Planet Rock, Afrika Bambaata & Soul Sonic Force. Arguably the first rap song. But I will win any argument to prove that this is definitely the first commercial rap song. It's a great beat and the beginning of an amazing movement in music.
Life on Mars?, David Bowie. I'm a huge Bowie fan. I'll save the story of the bus ride from Maine (and back) to see him at Madison Square Garden. This is such a stunning song. Bowie's voice is at his richest and you can't help but open your heart to this song.
Maria, Blondie. A late in career song for her but I just love it. She is now, always has been and always will be the coolest chick in Rock and Roll (Chrissie Hynde be damned).
Hip Hop Hooray, Naughty By Nature. It's just fun.
I Got You, Split Enz. Greg Honoshowski gave me this album for my 16th birthday. It was "laser etched" and had all these cool 80's iridescent shapes etched into the vinyl. It was just about the coolest damn thing I had ever seen. And this is a great song.
Tempted, Squeeze. Probably in the top two favorite bands of all time for me. You can't help but love them. They're like that kid that everyone had in their neighborhood who, at first, you weren't sure if they were really cool or really weird. And then you found out that they were really cool.
Red Shoes, Elvis Costello. If you are not truly, madly and deeply in love with Elvis Costello then there is something wrong with you. When I read Eat, Pray, Love, I thought that my version would be Eat, Squeeze, Elvis Costello. But that's just me.
I Confess, The English Beat. A definitive 80s band. These guys were amazing. I saw them open for Squeeze (big surprise) at Nassau Coliseum the night before Thanksgiving in my junior year of high school. Hell No--we're not naming years here. Suffice it to say, it was a long time ago. Stray Cats and REM were also on the bill that night. Ahhh--the 80s.
Me, Myself and I, DeLaSoul. Probably the nicest group of all time. And playful. And thoughtful. You just can't talk about music without talking about DeLaSoul.
The last two sort of go together. I love punk music and I love country music. Mary Gauthier, Your Sister Cried is a true, pure, old school country song. It harkens back to Patsy Klein and early mountain music. But it has a roughness and a true spirit to it that has such a punk feel to me. And let's stop for a minute and look at John Doe and the Sadies. John was 1/2 of the punk group X. They were amazing. As his career evolved, he has taken on country music with a purity and a rawness that takes (as I mentioned in the previous sentence) my breath away. His version of Help Me Make it Though the Night takes my breath away and brings me to tears.
Oh, and lest I forget. Here's BadKitten--Day 5
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