My wife and I share a great love for Mahalia, though #3 is the only song I have on my Itunes (it’s my favorite.) In the 1990s, I listened to Liz Phair constantly, and now don’t seem to do so as much, but my fondness isn’t entirely gone. #4 was on the radio a lot when I first came back to Christ and gave up a host of destructive behaviors, and it was a signature song for that first year of recovery. #1 and #9 are, as I’ve mentioned before, favorite theme songs from an earlier time, when the behaviors I gave up in the late ’90s were what sustained me. And of course, if you’ve never heard of the Wailin’ Jennys or the Weepies or my newest discovery, Sarah Buxton, check them out.
1. “Don’t Follow”, Alice in Chains
2. “World Spins Madly On”, The Weepies
3. “Thy Will Be Done”, Mahalia Jackson
4. “Your Life is Now”, John Mellencamp
5. “Leap of Innocence”, Liz Phair
6. “Darling Nikki”, Prince
7. “My Antonia”, Emmylou Harris and Dave Matthews
8. “The Mighty Quinn”, Ian and Sylvia
9. “I’ve Loved These Days”, Billy Joel
10. “Firecracker”, Wailin’ Jennys
Bonus Track: “Stupid Boy”, Sarah Buxton
I read your title as “music for a restless tapir,” and I think I prefer it.
Believe me, if I could find a restless tapir willing to move in with the seven chinchillas, I’d welcome her or him.
I love the Weepies. Have you tried out Pandora.com? I have a Weepies station- although, now all my stations seem to be converging.
Doesn’t “Darling Nikki” kinda scuzz you out just a little?
Prince is incapable of “scuzzing” me out… while the vulgarity of a great deal of popular music often troubles me, I make a whopping exception for all of the Prince catalogue. Whether it’s “Erotic City” or “Soft and Wet”, Prince is the great bridge between the blatantly sexual and the genuinely divine.
If I were ever elected president, Prince and Emmylou Harris would headline my inaugural ball.
Somehow, I find “Erotic City” more agreeable than “Darling Nikki”. Maybe it’s more the music itself, or maybe it’s the scene I associate it with in “Purple Rain” and how Appolonia was so hurt and ran out of the club.
Do people not say “scuzz” anymore? I fear I still am dealing with a 10 year time warp in AMerican popular culture.