Because I am a shameless name-dropper, I will let everyone know that in my sophomore year of college, I lived across the hall from Alison Stewart, who later became a news correspondent for MTV and MSNBC, among others. She once gave me a tour of MTV Studios in New York, and also hosted an MTV event at a warehouse in Oakland—back when we had real warehouses, before they all got converted into lofts going for $2,000+ per month. When I walked into the party in this almost pitch-black, cavernous space, the DJ was blasting “Welcome to the Terrordome.” In that moment I honestly felt for the first time that music could bring about profound—if not necessarily peaceful— social change.
top 10
Prog Rock
In the early days of rock, the definition of a great song was, “It has a good beat, and you can dance to it.” By the time the prog rockers came around, their definition was “It has 17 key and time signature changes, you need an Oxford unabridged dictionary and a Tolkien companion to decipher the lyrics, and you couldn’t dance to it if you had 135 legs.” Personally, I’d rather listen to the Miracles.
Prince
His name is Prince. And he is funky.
(Plus: Of all the giants of 80s pop—Springsteen, Michael Jackson, etc.—Prince is by far my favorite. And not just because he made it safe for grown men to wear all purple.)
Pretenders
My friend and co-worker Lori was a dead ringer for Chrissie Hynde. Lori and I saw the Pretenders at the Tower Theater in Philly sometime around 1984. Lori also introduced me to Joy Division, New Order, Echo & the Bunnymen, and others. Yeah, Lori was pretty cool.
Police
Before Sting went solo and decided he was the reincarnation of Shakespeare (or, you know, the guys who wrote the Bible), the Police wrote sharp little pop tunes about stalkers, prostitutes, and pedophiles—not to mention the one about logic that “ties you up and rapes you.” I guess the band name was meant to be ironic.
Pink Floyd
For our 8th grade graduation from my Catholic elementary school, the teacher asked the students to nominate a class song to be played at the ceremony. Sean Dougherty suggested “Comfortably Numb.” This suggestion was rejected.
Philly Soul
Musically, the 70s get pretty trashed for being a lousy decade. For the most part, they deserve it. On the other hand, I’m pretty sure Philly soul is the music they play in heaven, so these songs single-handedly redeem (pun intended) everything else that was on the radio for those 10 long years.
Pharoah Sanders
I was curious whether “Pharoah” was a given name or stage name, so I looked it up. Turns out, it’s a little bit of both—his birth name is “Ferrell.” I also found out he lived in Oakland as a teen, so clearly he is awesome.
Pete Seeger
Doing this lists makes me realize that I know almost nothing about the protest/folk singers of the 50s and 60s. Sorry about that, Pete. I do know that he is not Bob.
Pet Shop Boys
Pet Shop Boys are so ridiculously over the top, they are in their own category of awesome. Their music is the fluffiest kind of dance-pop, their singer can’t sing … but their lyrics are so sad, and angry, and true. “She’s made you/Some kind of laughingstock/Because you dance to disco/And you don’t like rock” pretty much sums up my life ages 11-14.
Playlist of the Day 