Best Of Radiohead: Think Of It As A Mixtape, Not A Label Blowoff

Music Review: Radiohead - The Best Of Radiohead (2 CD Special Edition/Single DVD Edition)

I have to admit that I was a rather late arrival to the Radiohead party -- having not fully embraced them until they released their semi-electronica trilogy (minus one), in the form of the albums Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001).

Don't ask me why, but it wasn't until the release of those two albums that I really first started to "get" the band, with my first live Radiohead concert -- in 2001 under the starry skies and picturesque setting of the Gorge Ampitheatre in Eastern Washington state -- pretty much sealing the deal.

Even though I've long since gone backwards and absorbed the rest of the Radiohead catalog, it is these two albums that remain among my favorites by the band. Don't get me wrong here. I think OK Computer and The Bends are every bit as brilliant as everybody else says they are, and the current In Rainbows is a stunningly gorgeous piece of work as well.

But for all their icy, mechanized sounding loops, bleeps, and beats, you'll also find things like the jazzy, borderline flamenco guitar runs of "Knives Out," and Thom Yorke's haunting, anguished sounding vocal on "Pyramid Song" on those same two albums I first discovered this great band with.

More than anything else, Kid A and Amnesiac represent a defining moment of musical discovery for me. Call them sentimental favorites I guess.

"Knives Out" and "Pyramid Song" are among the tracks which each show up on both the double CD and DVD versions of Radiohead's first official retrospective set, Capitol's The Best Of Radiohead. The double CD edition also features cuts like "Optimistic" and "Everything In It's Right Place" from my two favorite albums. Unfortunately, the DVD doesn't include promo videos for either of those.

Still, as easy as it would be to dismiss The Best Of Radiohead as one of those releases designed to blow off the band's contract with its former label (in this case EMI/Capitol), both the double CD and the DVD editions do a surprisingly great job in compiling a satisfying overview of the band's career up until just before In Rainbows.

You could actually call the double CD a really great Radiohead mixtape. In the thirty songs represented on the two discs, it really misses very little, while hitting almost all of the high points from Radiohead's amazing career at EMI/Capitol. I've already covered the highlights from my two favorite albums. But for fellow late bloomers, this is also a great chance to go back and do a quick catchup without having to buy the entire back catalog.

The hits are covered nicely in the form of songs like "Creep," "Paranoid Android," "The Bends," "Karma Police," and "No Surprises." Meanwhile, the deeper and rarer cuts are also represented well by "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" and its rarer B-side "Talk Show Host."
You'll also find the best tracks from Radiohead's final EMI album Hail To The Thief like the magnificently textured and guitar driven "There, There" and the frenetic "2+2=5."

The DVD compiles 21 of Radiohead's promo videos together on one disc for the first time, ranging from the still getting their feet wet at the time "Creep" all the way through to their final videos with EMI in the form of Hail's "There, There," "Go To Sleep," and "Sit Down, Stand Up." There is also a great live clip of the band performing "2+2=5" from the Belfort Festival. All told, nine of the videos here are seen on an official DVD release for the first time.

Always considered as much of an innovator in their videos as in their music, this set also features Radiohead's groundbreaking work with such directors as Jonathan Glazer ("Street Spirit," "Karma Police"), Shynola ("Pyramid Song"), Jamie Thraves ("Just"), and Jake Scott ("Fake Plastic Trees").

As much as both of these sets might look like (and probably are) a blow off designed to satisfy a former label obligation, The Best Of Radiohead does a great job of summing up their association with Capitol/EMI. Both the double CD and the DVD appear to have been compiled with both a sense of Radiohead's history thus far, and it would appear the sort of loving care that any fan would hope for and expect.

Together, they not only accomplish the mission at hand, but do so with results that are as satisfying as they are surprising. Both make worthy additions to any Radiohead fans collection.

Before There Was Kiss & Marilyn Manson, There Was Alice Cooper

Music Review: Alice Cooper - Along Came A Spider

Before there was Kiss, before there was Marilyn Manson, there was Alice Cooper.

Back in his seventies heyday, as the guy who more or less grandfathered the whole concept of rock theatre (or as it is most commonly known, "shock rock"), Alice Cooper was regarded as a genuine threat to the youth of America by just about everyone in a position of authority -- from parents to the clergy to the law.

Which of course meant that the kids loved him. During their brief run on top in the mid-seventies, behind such classic albums as School's Out and Billion Dollar Babies the original Alice Cooper band was the biggest concert attraction on the planet. No small wonder, considering that the group's stage shows were grand spectacles that always ended with Alice himself being executed onstage -- usually either by hanging or guillotine.

Unlike Kiss and Manson though, Alice also backed up the theatrics with great songs like "I'm Eighteen," "School's Out," and "Billion Dollar Babies."

In real life however, that same dizzying experience took its toll on Alice and nearly did him in for real. As the lines between the Alice Cooper character and the actual human being with the Christian name of Vince Furnier became increasingly blurred, Alice sought his own refuge in a bottle (actually, make that several cans of Budweiser) on pretty much a non-stop basis. Eventually, Alice had to check himself out of the game and into the hospital.

Alice has since comeback a couple of times, garnering hits with the solo Welcome To My Nightmare album, and then once more in the eighties with the song "Poison." But he never really did match that original run in the seventies when he was the single most feared man in America (well, by the adults anyway).

These days, Alice is clean and sober, a born again Christian, and a family man (Alice's daughter is even part of his stage show as a dancer). But even though he's toned down his act some (the sexier, x-rated gender bending bits are gone these days), he's still pushing the horror rock angle, touring the country six months out of every year. The venues may be smaller, but they are still nearly always sold out, and in addition to the old classic rock dogs you'd expect, Alice is also reaching a newer, younger group of fans.

On the new Along Came A Spider, Alice has also returned to what he does best, and that is crunchy riff-rock with hooks, while also spinning a pretty gruesome little horror tale. The album is told from the perspective of Spider, a serial killer who wraps his victims in silk. As the bodies stack up throughout the course of the album, the killer eventually is done in by falling for one of his victims.

For the album, Alice has recruited producers Danny Saber and Greg Hampton, and is backed by members of his longtime touring band including drummer Eric Singer, bassist Chuck Garric, and guitarists Keri Kelli and Jason Hook.

The songs themselves are also surprisingly good. Songs like "I'm Hungry" and "Vengeance Is Mine" (which features a guitar solo from Alice fan Slash) show that Alice still has a way with a good hard rock hook in the songwriting department. "The One That Got Away" even sounds a bit like vintage Killer era Alice -- kind of a cross between "Under My Wheels" and "Be My Lover." Alice also still shows he can write a great ballad on "Killed By Love."

Alice's voice -- once, one of the best and most original sounding in rock -- also appears to have held up quite well, although you don't hear as many snarls and screams here as in the old days. And his band serves him well here too, sounding both young and hungry. The hard rock guitars crackle with fury and the rhythm section holds it all down like a well oiled machine.

Still, there's really nothing here as memorable as "I'm Eighteen" or "School's Out." But while I don't expect Along Came A Spider to be returning Alice to the glory days of platinum records and packed arenas (and at 60 I doubt he would want, or could even take another wild ride like the one he had in the seventies), it's still good to know that the master is still out there practicing the art that he more or less single handedly created.

The Rockologist: The Beach, The Sea, And The Who

When I was growing up in the seventies, I can honestly say that there were few artists that affected me in quite the same way that the Who did.

On the surface, you had the fact that these four guys made one hell of a big noise. Yet in spite of the unhinged chaos that characterized their live performances, there was something lying underneath all of that which made complete, perfect sense.

The sheer, off the rails power of the Who's live concerts was certainly a major part of it though. Even today, when you listen to something like The Who Live At Leeds -- which I will maintain to my grave was, and is, the single greatest live rock concert album ever made -- there is no getting around how raw and primal these guys sounded, even by todays modern punk-rock standards. In terms of pure, unbridled, and unrestrained noise, nothing before or since comes even remotely close.

But underneath all the ungodly racket, there was a perfectly ordered sort of sense to it -- even if that sense comes in the sort of chaotic wheels about to fall off the wagon way it does. On albums like Tommy in particular, Townshend's bludgeoning power chords play in perfect counterpoint to Entwhistle's fluid bass runs. And even in the case of Moon the Loon -- for my money, the greatest pure rock drummer who ever lived -- the all over the place drumming could actually serve as an instrument of melody, just as much as it could one of simple, primal beat.

For anyone who doubts me about this, I would direct you towards the song "Underture" from Tommy, where Moon's fills are every bit as crucial to that songs melodic structure as Townshend's simple, stunning chord progressions.

But beyond all of that, were Townshend's songs. When I was a teenager growing up in Seattle, if Alice Cooper ("Public Animal # 9") and David Bowie ("Rebel, Rebel") fed the sort of fuck all disdain for any establishment authority I felt, Pete Townshend's songs were the ones that fed my actual soul. From "My Generation" to the "teenaged wasteland" of "Baba O'Reilly," nobody captured all the confusion, alienation and angst of youth the way Townshend did.

Outside of wanting nothing more in life than to become a rock star (and looking and dressing the part), I was a pretty typical teenaged kid trying to make sense of all the usual raging hormones and unanswered questions most kids have. I knew I wasn't anything like the callous jocks I knew in high school who used to pick on the weird kids. But deep inside of me, I also knew that I really wasn't the sort of rock star material who would go through hopeful groupies the same way that some people go through toilet tissue.

I was a sensitive sort of kid. I had feelings. I had doubts. I had questions.

This is where Pete Townshend's songs really spoke to me directly. In that respect, there was never an album that hit home quite like Quadrophenia. There were times back then that I would go down to Lincoln Park in West Seattle, and just sit on the beach with a six pack of beer, watch the ferry boats go to and from Vashon Island, and listen to the songs on that album. The beach just seemed like the perfect place to listen to lyrics like "Here by the sea and sand, nothing ever goes as planned" or "Only love can make it rain, the way the beach is kissed by the sea."

Diehard, if closet, romantic that I was, these were songs that made absolute, complete sense to me. Roger Daltrey wasn't just singing those lyrics, he was speaking directly to me as a then sixteen year old. As I grew into my twenties, later Townshend songs like "How Many Friends" from The Who By Numbers would have an equally resonating effect on me.

Of course, every bubble must eventually be burst.

That's exactly what happened when I met Pete Townshend at the bar of Seattle's Edgewater Inn after a show the Who did here. As I extended my hand to shake the same of my teenaged hero, he drew his away. Townshend was apparently far more interested in the groupies who were lined up in waiting than his wide-eyed biggest teenaged fan, and I guess in retrospect I can't really blame him for that.

I'd have no doubt done the same thing in his position. But at the time, it shattered my image of the hero I had so worshiped in my youth. How could this guy who wrote songs that spoke directly to my heart be such an asshole, I immaturely wondered to myself?

Even as my best friend at the time joked for weeks afterwards about just why my hero hated me so much, I later learned Townshend was going through his own rather considerable issues of addiction and such back then. But this would be the end of my perfect, if unrealistic image of the guy whose songs for me epitomized everything about the passion and the promise of rock and roll.

Townshend continued to disappoint me throughout much of the eighties and the nineties when he seemed to turn his back on the legacy of his great band, and in fact seemed to be running furiously away from it. I just couldn't understand how this guy who to me had represented everything that makes rock and roll such a liberating force of nature, could turn into such a bitter old curmudgeon.

Anyway, I'm not sure if it was the death of John Entwhistle that knocked Townshend out of his post-Who funk or not, but in recent years Townshend seems to have been reawakened creatively.

More importantly, he seems ready, along with his longtime partner Roger Daltrey, to reclaim control over the legacy of the Who. Their last album Endless Wire, wasn't Quadrophenia or even Who's Next to be sure, but it did show that there is still some creative fire burning there.

VH1 is currently running one of those Rock Honors tribute shows they do from time to time on the Who. Check your local listings, as I'm sure they will be repeating this one into submission, but it is not to be missed. A slew of modern bands including Foo Fighters, Flaming Lips, and Pearl Jam pay tribute to the venerable British rock institution, showing their love for the band with some truly electrifying performances.

The Foo Fighters roar right out of the gate with a straight from Live At Leeds rendering of "Young Man Blues." Flaming Lips bring the house down by destroying all their instruments Who fashion at the end of a letter perfect "Overture" from Tommy.

But it is Pearl Jam who really walks away with this one, and appropriately they do so by knocking two songs from Quadrophenia right out of the park.

Backed by a full compliment of strings and horns, Eddie Vedder nails every impossible scream on "Love Reign O'er Me," proving he may be the only man alive, outside of Daltrey himself, with the voice to do one of Townshend's most poignant songs the justice it demands. It is a performance that damn near brought tears to my eyes.

As for the Who themselves? Clearly they are no longer the band they once were (with both Moon and Entwhistle gone, how could they be?). But to their credit, they still give it everything their sixty something year old bodies can muster.

Performing hits like "Behind Blue Eyes" and "Who Are You?", Roger Daltrey has a tough time hitting those high notes he once did so easily as a bare chested, golden maned rock god. But God bless him, he still gives it his all anyway. The voice may not still be quite all there, but the passion certainly is. It shows in every pained expression on his face as he attempts to do so.

For Townshend's part, he windmills the ass off of that guitar here. The backing band, including bassist Pino Paladino and drummer Zak "Son Of Ringo" Starkey also fill the rather large shoes of Entwhistle and Moon admirably.

As an old Who fan, I couldn't be happier that the band's two surviving members have apparently come to terms with whatever personal problems once separated them, and seem ready now to reclaim, re-embrace, and perhaps even expand upon their legacy. They may have broken their original promise of dying before they got old, but the Who seem ready to put an exclamation point on their amazing career and history, by going out with the fire still in their eyes.

Check your local listings for VH1's Rock Honors: The Who. But if you love rock and roll, don't miss it.

The Rockologist Gets A New Home Page, And A New Gig At Cinema Blend

Don't look now, but the reach of the World Wide Glen just got a little bit wider.

First off, I've taken on a new writing and editing assignment over at Cinema Blend Music, where I started writing articles for their music section earlier this week. And if all goes according to plan, I will soon be named their new music editor. Whoo-Hoo!

Much like Blogcritics, Cinema Blend is an online entertainment magazine, but with a narrower focus strictly on entertainment. In other words, no politics, sports or any of the broader topics you'll find at BC. Also, unlike Blogcritics, the folks at Cinema Blend are actually paying me...though it's not enough to actually justify ending my search for full-time work (which incidentally, hasn't been going very well but that's another story...).

Cinema Blend is basically your beer money sort of gig, but just the fact that somebody wants to pay me to write is encouraging news for this starving writer.

Speaking of Blogcritics, I'm also not going anywhere as far as that gig goes. So you will still be able to find me parked tightly in my seat over there. However, the Cinema Blend gig does come with one caveat in their exclusivity clause. Which basically means, you may not be seeing quite as many of my music reviews here at the mothership as usual. But I will still be reposting my reviews for Blogcritics here at The World Wide Glen.

Got all that?

The other news is that The Rockologist now has it's own webpage, as in an actual Rockologist.com address. So the column I started two years ago for Blogcritics will still be there (at BC), and I will also repost those articles here. But they now also have their very own website which you will find by directing your browser here.

So a good week all in all for this starving writer, at least on the writing front. I'm still not rich, but at least I can sleep knowing that I'm getting paid something a bit more substantial than all of those promo CDs I've been plying my trade all these years for.

Now, if only somebody would actually hire me for a real job...

John Mellencamp's Latest Strips Things Right Down To The Bone

Music Review: John Mellencamp - Life Death Love & Freedom

As an artist, John Mellencamp has come a long way. From his earliest days as Johnny Cougar (the name given him by David Bowie's former manager Tony DeFries), John Mellencamp has most often been dismissed as an artist who, despite the sort of common man concerns expressed in songs like "Jack And Diane" and "Hurts So Good," was just never taken all that seriously.

As much as he may have aspired to the loftier songwriting standards of his peers like Dylan, and especially Springsteen -- and as much as those songs may have resonated with the sort of everyday Joes they were so clearly directed towards -- from a critical point of view, the former Johnny Cougar was a guy who basically couldn't get himself arrested.

Which is something I'm sure really ate away at the "little bastard" way back then.

But when he finally responded, he did so in a big way. With 1985's Scarecrow, coming as it did on the heels of Springsteen's own big commercial breakthrough on Born In The U.S.A., Mellencamp served notice to the world that as both an artist, and as a great songwriter, he was certainly no mere "cornfed Springsteen," as some of his loudest critics had so long proclaimed.

He also put his money where his lyrics on that album about the plight of the American farmer on that album were, by getting directly involved in Willie Nelson's Farm-Aid benefit concerts. Mellencamp remains a Farm-Aid board member to this day.

Although with that album he did finally gain some long sought after respect, Mellencamp's recorded output since Scarecrow has been spotty at best. For every great, but overlooked record like Human Wheels, there have been just as many missteps like Dance Naked.

Last year's Freedom's Road however, signaled a clear return to both artistic and commercial form. And even though a song like "Our Country" may deliver mixed messages through its widely seen use in those truck commercials, there's no mistaking the message found elsewhere on the album in songs like "Ghost Towns Along The Highway." That the country is in some deep shit rings loud and clear in the songs on that album.

Like we didn't already know, right?

Typical to form, Mellencamp sends mixed messages on Life Death Love & Freedom, which is due out in stores this upcoming Tuesday on the Hear Music label. For starters, there's that association with the Starbucks funded label. Not exactly a way of sticking it to the man for sure.

But I'm willing to cut Mellencamp some slack here.

In an age where traditional music marketing through the usual channels has bitten the dust, an artist like Mellencamp who is most often associated with the classic rock tag has gotta do what he's gotta do to get his songs out there. Rock radio was corrupted long ago, the labels have all been co-opted by corporate shareholders, and outside of the precious few independent avenues remaining, music retail is all but dead.

As I said, ya' gotta do what ya' gotta do, even if it means shaking hands with a new devil.

Looking past that, I've also gotta give Mellencamp his due on where he chose to actually take the new songs found on Life Death Love & Freedom. While last year's Freedom Road was hardly a runaway hit, it still brought Mellencamp the most commercial attention he has seen in a very long time (albeit largely due to those truck ads for the song "Our Country"). It would have been both easy, and commercially prudent, to follow that up with some radio-friendly hits, which I am absolutely sure Mellencamp can still pull out of his songwriter's ass on a moments notice.

Instead, on Life Death Love & Freedom, Mellencamp has stripped the songs down to their barest -- and quite frankly, very dark sounding minimum. Although, this isn't quite Mellencamp's Nebraska, the feel here overall is still very stark, folkish and bluesy. The characters who populate the songs here are likewise simple folk in search of something as seemingly universal -- yet, nonetheless hard to find -- in their everyday lives as just finding a way out. If there is a unifying theme here, it is one that is deeply personal, and cuts right to the bone.

Speaking of the songs themselves, lyrically speaking they are populated by characters searching for redemption anywhere they can find it. Like the guy "handing out scripture like we wrote it ourselves" on "Without A Shot." So, in that respect the landscape found on much of this record is a bleak one, but not one without hope. Most often, the characters here are simply looking for "A Ride Back Home." On this particular song, in a plea to Jesus, the subject even adds "I won't you bother you no more."

On perhaps the album's most widely publicized in advance song, "Jena," Mellencamp doesn't dwell on the specific events of the whole Jena 6 deal, but rather cuts to the core of racism itself in the line, "Jena, take your nooses down."

Just for the record here, not all of the songs on Life Death Love & Freedom feature stripped down arrangements, and in fact many of them are performed full-on by Mellencamp's crack touring band. The current single, "My Sweet Love" (do those even really exist anymore if you're not somebody like Lil Wayne?) for example crackles with a rockabilly feel, set to great gospel backing vocals. Likewise, "Troubled Land" has a nice Dylanesque keyboard riff that punctuates its message of "judgment day closer all the time."

The bottom line is I really like this record. A lot.

And T-Bone Burnett has done one hell of a job in stripping Mellencamp's great new songs down to their barest core in the interest of getting their message -- starkly out there as it often is -- across.

The deluxe edition is also the first to be recorded using the CODE technology, which is said to capture the warmth of the original recordings like nothing else has since digital became the standard.

I'm not sure I'm ready just yet to buy into the hype about this being Mellencamp's best since such and such an album. But Life Death Love & Freedom is, at the very least, a pretty great sounding record.

The Rockologist Puts Together A 4th Of July 2008 Mixtape

By the time most of you read this, I'll be on my way to spend the 4th of July holiday with my buddy Dave at his cabin up on "The Lake."

Dave and I are best friends dating back to our high school days, and our 4th of Julys spent at "The Lake" are a tradition dating back at least that far.

Over the years, the stories from our summers at "The Lake" are both numerous and quite memorable.

At least the ones we can actually remember. The area is also about as remote and picturesque as it gets -- and for any of you reading this who are into stargazing, the blanket effect you get there on a clear night is ummatched anywhere.

Me and Dave have seen some really wild things in the skies at "The Lake" over the years, including meteors, shooting stars, satellites, and a few things which quite frankly, don't fit into any of those categories -- or for that matter any other.

Nevermind the fact that the UFO's were usually seen after draining a few beers...

In years past, the 4th of July holiday weekend was usually but one of several weekend trips to the rustic cabin located on a private lake on Washington's Kitsap Peninsula. These days, we don't make it up there nearly as often, as both times and priorities have a way of changing as you get older. Such as the fact that in my own case, I am once again in between fucking jobs.

But the 4th Of July is still a constant. I won't be spending the entire weekend there this year as I have so many times in the past, as my current economic situation and today's gas prices pretty much prohibit my doing so. But there is no way I am missing the annual 4th Of July blowout.

To understand this, you have to understand something about "The Lake" itself.

You see, being that it is located about as far away from the bright lights -- and increasingly restrictive laws as pertains to everything from smoking to fireworks -- of Seattle as it gets (we're talking the boonies here), what the city folk would term "lawlessness" pretty much rules the day at "The Lake."

There aint' a cop within miles. And on the 4th Of July, what this means is that you will find the locals drinking beer, raising hell, and blowing off all manner of bombs and explosives on the private lake.

They've even been known to shoot their guns off on a few occasions.

In short, we're talking about the party of the year here. This unofficial fireworks display -- consisting of illegal contraband mostly obtained at the neighboring Indian reservations -- beats the pants off of the so-called "firepower" of the two official Seattle celebrations, hands down.

So anyway, it usually falls upon me to put the official 4th Of July mixtape together. Now of course, I realize that the term "mixtape" is something of a misnomer these days, and perhaps even the CD I'll actually be making tonight is a bit outdated, at least in today's MP3 terms.

The idea here however, is to share our music with our neighbors. Sound is something which really carries on a private lake out in the boonies, and if we don't do it, someone else will. Like that year the jackass across the lake played Jethro Tull's Aqualung over and over until like 5 A.M.

MP3 downloads just aren't gonna' cut it here. Nope.

Putting together a 4th Of July mixtape isn't as easy as it sounds either. The mission at hand -- putting together a selection of songs with themes about America, our independence, and the holiday itself -- is of course an obvious one. And therein lies the problem. The one thing you don't want to do is include anything too obvious. The other, is you want to avoid repeating too much from the past thirty or so years we've been doing this.

So what do you include regardless of all those past mix tapes? I think Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner" goes without saying. That's the one you use for the grand finale to be timed with the fireworks.

In porn terms, this is what you would call the "money shot."

Other decisions are less easy.

Take songs like Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The USA" or John Mellencamp's "Rockin In The USA" for example.

Both have been done to death, and in the case of Springsteen's song, it has also been just as often misinterpeted. Fortunately, in the case of Springsteen, there are a wealth of other choices.

So this year, I'm going literal and picking "Independence Day" from The River, and in honor of the late, great Danny Federici, "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" from The Wild, The Innocent, And The E Street Shuffle.

As for Mellencamp, "Our Country" might be a good choice, although thanks to those truck ads, that songs meaning has been misconstrued to death as often as Springsteen's most famous song has. So I'm going with "Pink Houses." The locals will certainly recognize and appreciate it's good old boy patriotism, and the whole "aint that America for you and me" thing.

Speaking of America, there have sure been a lot of great rock songs written about this great land of ours haven't there? Two of our very best songwriters, Neil Diamond and Paul Simon, have both written standards with that very title. I'm especially partial to the Yes' version of the Simon tune.

But speaking of Yes, Jon Anderson once did this dandy of a tune on an album he did with Vangelis in the seventies called "State Of Independence." The song was later covered by Donna Summer, but I've always liked the version Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders did on one of those Moodswings albums best. So, I'm going with that.

There have also been a number of songs written with the actual title of "4th Of July." We've already covered the one by Springsteen, but did you know that there was also a song by that name by Soundgarden? Or an instrumental with that title by U2 on The Unforgettable Fire? I may just have to include both of those.

"Beautiful Day" is also an obvious choice when it comes to U2. However, I think I'm going to go with "In God's Country" instead. I love the irony of the way Bono's lyrics show his unabashed love for everything that is America, while at the same time peeling away the injustices found in those "sad eyes and crooked crosses" found on some of our more remote backroads.

Of course, no 4th of July mixtape would be complete without throwing out a few curveballs. Hopefully the local folk will be too drunk by then to notice.

So mine come in the form of "Louie, Louie" as covered by Iggy And The Stooges on their classic unofficial live bootleg Metallic K.O.. Since the Kingsmen's frat-rock classic is widely regarded by us Washingtonians as our unofficial state song, the patriotic theme also fits. And the Stooges version as is chaotic as it gets, complete with Iggy dodging bottles from the audience after verbally abusing them. For much the same reason, at the risk of dodging a few bottles of my own from the drunken locals, I'm also going to sneak in a few protest songs. I figure I'd start with the Byrds version of Dylan's "Chimes Of Freedom," soothe them with Marvin Gaye's "Mercy, Mercy Me," and then fire the killshot with Jefferson Airplane's incendiary "Volunteers Of America."

So this by no meams constitutes a definitive 4th Of July mixtape, and shouldn't be regarded as anything of the sort. I know I've missed a ton of songs here, but I'll also betcha' dollars to donuts they've been there in years past. Anyway, by all means feel free to add your selections in the comments section.

Here then, is the official setlist of the 2008 4th of July mixtape. Oh, and happy Independence Day everyone.



Beach Boys "All Summer Long"
Rascals "People Got To Be Free"
John Mellencamp "Grandma's Theme"
John Mellencamp "Pink Houses"
Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers "American Girl"
Bruce Springsteen "Independence Day"
Neil Young "Rockin In The Free World"
The Byrds "Chimes Of Freedom"
Marvin Gaye "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)"
Jeferson Airplane "Volunteers (Of America)"
Bruce Springsteen "4th Of July Asbury Park (Sandy)"
Creedence Clearwater Revival "Proud Mary"
Chrissie Hynde "State Of Independence"
Yes "America"
Soundgarden "4th Of July"
Iggy And The Stooges "Louie, Louie"
U2 "In God's Country"
Brian Wilson "Rio Grande Suite"
U2 "4th Of July"
Bob Dylan "Blowin In The Wind''
Richie Havens "Freedom/Motherless Child"
Jimi Hendrix "The Star Spangled Banner"