My friend Richard describes his perfect day as gardening and painting while listening to Milton Nascimento. My perfect day is when I think, “I made it to bedtime and didn’t say one critical or snarky comment to my kids all day.” On balance, I think Richard has it pretty good.
Author: Joe
Miles Davis
I once read that Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue is the best-selling jazz album of all time. In the 50+ years since its release, it has sold over 3 million copies. 3 million. Taylor Swift sells that many albums in the time it takes for her to pick which ex-boyfriend to diss in her next song. Wake up, America.
Michael Jackson
I could just cheat and put all 10 tracks from Thriller on here, but that would mean a) including the lousy McCartney duet (not “Say Say Say”—the other lousy McCartney duet), and b) skipping “Smooth Criminal,” which Daveon danced to and came in second in the All-Oakland Talent Show when he was about 10. On the plus side, Jackson has enough hits that I don’t need to include “Ben.”
McCoy Tyner
Based on McCoy Tyner and Keith Jarrett, my next blog is going to be “Jazz Pianists Who Were Quite the Lookers in Their Younger Days.” The only problem is that I would spend so much time looking at the photos, I’d never get around to posting them.
Mary J. Blige
My friend Jim has an intense and possibly unhealthy passion for Mary J. Blige. He considers it a major failure of my parenting that my kids don’t know all her song titles and lyrics by heart. Bonus points for scoring hits with one dramatic tale of unhappy love after another, and then titling a song “Be Happy.”
Marvin Gaye
Is it OK to admit that I like Gladys Knight’s version of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” better than Marvin Gaye’s? But I like his version of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” way better than Diana Ross’s, so it all evens out, right?
Madonna
I totally called it. When Madonna’s Erotica album and Sex book flopped (relatively), I predicted she would disappear for a year or two and then return all mature and matronly. And that’s exactly what she did—with an actual kid, no less. I did not, however, predict the pom-poms at the Super Bowl. That was just embarrassing.
Louis Jordan
I am embarrassed to admit that I learned about Louis Jordan by name only after Joe Jackson pretended to be a jump blues singer on Jumpin’ Jive. I am not embarrassed to admit that I think song titles like “Ain’t Nobdy Here But Us Chickens” and “What’s the Use of Getting Sober” are awesome.
Louis Armstrong
Following up Lou Reed with Louis Armstrong is like watching a Quentin Tarantino marathon and then switching to the collected works of Shirley Temple. If you could capture sunshine and package it in musical form, you’d basically be listening to Louis Armstrong.
Playlist of the Day 