Throwback Tracks -- Oct 5, 2017
David R. Smith
My friends, I am absolutely gutted. As the entire western world is fully aware, we lost an incredible human and artist this week. Tom Petty passed away earlier this week and I am devastated. One of my favourite artists, and another one whom I never got a chance to see before he passed. There were a couple of chances, but I never was able to make it work. So we say hace to say goodbye to this remarkable human being and that's the way we're going to kick off this week's TBT.
This week's theme is songs by artists I never got a chance to see, but could have.* So while I'm sad because I missed opportunities, I am grateful for the music they gave us.
*Note, I'm adding "but could have" in here because I'm referring to artists who died while I was born and attending concerts. Sure, I would loved to have seen Jimi, or Kurt but those don't count because Jimi died well before I was even a consideration, and Kurt died before I was going to concerts and well before I found myself interested in grunge music.
The Guys From do not hold the rights to any of these songs, it is more our hope to expose our readers to new (*cough*) and different retro music, or re-expose them to things they may have forgotten about.
At the top of each section, will be the song name, followed by the artists' name linked to their website (if possible...which is totally hit and miss with oldies), so you can fall down the rabbit hole, finding and supporting what you dig.
American Girl - Tom Petty
As I prepare my template for each TBT, I generally add the embedded videos and underneath, I just write "words" which acts as a placeholder until I can get my description of the song, or what have you.
Today that seemed harder than normal. Words are hard to come by at the moment. This isn't affecting me in the same way that Chris Cornell's death did. Or even the announcement of Gord Downie's terminal brain cancer. But it's still so hard.
I grew up on Tom Petty. Well before I knew who the Tragically Hip, or Pearl Jam were, I was listening to Tom Petty sing with the Travelling Wilburys. I was hearing his songs on the radio because that was what was on the station my parents listened to. He was a part of my childhood.
And now he's gone. And my heart hurts. For me, because I loved him. But also for his family. Because losing somebody is never easy. I never got a chance to see him, there was no way I would have ever met him. But I can tell you this: I will miss him. Greatly.
RIP, Mr Petty. Thank you for everything.
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down - The Band
Remember 2 months ago when I used the Joan Baez version of this song and said I would inevitably use the Band's version on a playlist? Well apparently that proved fairly prophetic.
In all honesty, I would have rather been able to put The Weight on here today, as that is (in my opinion) one of the greatest songs ever written.
But that said. Here we are. Listening to another amazing song. Sung by the just wonderfully talented Levon Helm. Mr. Helm passed away in 2012 when I was in BC working on a show. Up until that point, during my stay, I was listening to nothing but Pearl Jam (having given them up for lent, I needed to make up for lost time.) When I found out about Levon, I immediately switched over to The Last Waltz soundtrack. Because it's one of the best soundtracks ever. Period. I mourned his death and still do. The man was super cool and I am tremendously sad I never took the opportunity to see him live.
Fame - David Bowie
Man this list is making me sad. So many tremendous singers and writers who passed well before their time.
Who wasn't heartbroken when David Bowie died? Anybody from my generation or younger likely had some sort of connection to this man, even if they didn't know it. The guy transcended music and pop culture in general.
He was cool, he was weird, he was unique, he was eccentric... He was just Bowie. And that's why this song is perfect as his dedication.
When Doves Cry - Prince
This is a very 80s song. And that's okay. Because it's great.
It took me a long time to warm up to Prince. I don't think I "got" him when I was younger, even though he did the music and score for one of my favourite movies as a kid (Batman.)
This song is so interesting to me. With the title, it feels like it should be slow and mournful. But how can a person listen to this song and not bob along to the music? I think that was part of Prince's charm, am I right?
I have a soft spot for this song for 2 reasons.
One is because I used to live with a bunch of fellas from Halifax and we'd have a party at our house every weekend. This song was always one of the songs that got cranked in the kitchen. (As well as Nothing Compares To You, also written by Prince, as it turns out!)
My second reason is because it helped spawn one of the best moments in TV history:
Sabotage - Beastie Boys
Cancer sucks. Like seriously. Fuck Cancer.
MCA was the man. I wasn't the world's largest Beastie Boys fan. And I mean that in the sense that I liked the songs of theirs that I heard but never actively sought out any of their songs.
But the thing about music is that one's tastes are ever-evolving. Despite not being a massive Beasties fan as I was a younger kid, I appreciated them more and more as musicians as I grew up. Their styles changed, they had interesting music and they evolved as a band. They guest-starred on Futurama which is amazing.
While I was growing up, I wouldn't have been all that interested in seeing them live, but the older I get, the more I'll just go to random concerts because you don't know who is going to convert you into a fan of theirs just by the way they play. I regret that I wasn't able to go see the Beasties.
Sure, they could tour without MCA but, much like Soundgarden, do you really want them to?
So it's been a bit of a cluster-cuss of a month and my time has been sparse. I don't have it ready for you but I'll try to get the September playlist up soon. To tide you over, here are all the rest of the playlists for you to enjoy
August 2017 TBT Playlist (and the August Spotify list), July 2017 TBT Playlist (and the July Spotify List), June 2017 TBT Playlist (and the June Spotify List), May 2017 TBT Playlist, April 2017 TBT Playlist, March 2017 TBT Playlist , February 2017 TBT Playlist
2016
Throwback Playlist for Dec 16/Jan 17, October 2016 Throwback Playlist, September 2016 Throwback Playlist, August 2016 Throwback Playlist, July 2016 Throwback Playlist, June 2016 Throwback Playlist, May 2016 Throwback Playlist, April 2016 Throwback Playlist
-D (@davidronn)