Fourth of July Playlist

Independence Day, irony-free. Have a great Fourth of July.

This Land Is Your Land; Woody Guthrie: Forget the millennial irony; this is the truth, and we're allowed to act like it. Never settle.

Good Timing; The Beach Boys: 🎶We're all learning.🎶

Saturday In the Park; Chicago: Here's to a real celebration, and a different kind of jazz fusion.

Philadelphia Freedom; Elton John: By, for, and about immigrants, whose experience should never not be this joyful. It's on us.

Free To Be You and Me; Marlo Thomas and Friends: Organ (Just listen to that intro), banjo, and string orchestra. It doesn't get more American than that.

You Go To Your Church; J.D. Crowe: Bluegrass, that most conservative of genres, is also the most traditional. Accordingly, here's a song about freedom of religion.

Crow Black Chicken; The New Lost City Ramblers: From hunger. The exultations and sorrows of growing your own food, and the fantasies born of food insecurity (🎶If I had a big frame house/Eighteen storeys high/Ev'ry storey in that house/Be packed with chicken pie🎶).

Pretty Saro; Elizabeth LaPrelle: Most of our folk songs are immigrants, too; as is this Gaelic singing style.

Dancing In the Streets; Martha and The Vandellas: A roll call of America's great cities, with an acknowledgement of the struggle. If "It doesn't matter what you wear/Just as long as you are there", then it's okay to be poor and still show up. 

Black Coffee; Humble Pie: Because we're inveterate self-promoters, too. Steve Marriott's joyously confident take on the Ike and Tina Turner classic is a terrific example.

Ten Favorite Bass Lines

As if anybody with any musical knowledge could only choose one!

So, I chose 10. Here they are.

Inner City Blues; Marvin Gaye: Funk Brother, Bob Babbitt, borrows rhythms from the classic drum pickups of late, fellow Funkster, Benny Benjamin, to kick things off. As the song progresses, Babbitt works subtle changes on the central melodic figure. His endlessly inventive playing calls to mind the tenuous, slippery, constantly-shifting nature of inner city life. More thoughts on this song here.

Roll Over Beethoven; The Beatles: Paul McCartney takes inspiration from James Jamerson -- and his own time in the clubs of Stuttgart's Reeperbahn district. Notice how he switches up the bass line in the last verse, giving a fresh burst of energy to flagging dance floor denizens.

Monkey Man; The Rolling Stones: Bill Wyman was part of one of the greatest rock rhythm sections of all time. But, sometimes, you need to shake loose and have fun. This is fun -- perhaps inspired by Jagger's loopy lyrics. Was it magic mushrooms, or just Laffy Taffy?

Tales Of Brave Ulysses; Cream: Jack Bruce's colorful playing here says everything about going on a life-changing journey -- the tentativeness; the over-confidence; the rebellion; and, finally, the wholesale rejection of everything you ever thought you wanted. The most emotionally-truthful work on this list.

Linus and Lucy; Vince Guaraldi Trio: This bass track was most likely recorded by Fred Marshall, who doubles Guaraldi's piano so closely that they sound like one instrument. They break away from each other in the sparkling improv section, then reunite when the A theme returns. The buzz of Marshall's bowed bass strings is the last thing you hear as the track fades out. More about the song in this playlist.

I Ain't Superstitious; The Jeff Beck Group: Listen to the heavy, heavy syncopation; [bassist Ron Wood spends] so long on the dotted eighths that the sixteenth notes almost come too late. The hard, un-syncopated triplets in the instrumental breaks that follow make for a stunning rhythmic contrast with the slinky groove in the verses. More on his performance here.

Let Him Run Wild; The Beach Boys: Fuzzy, happy bass work from both Jimmy Bond on acoustic bass, and Carol Kaye on electric, guides the rest of the band through some wicked changes said to be inspired by the sounds of Burt Bacharach. Bonus: Steve Douglas, picking up the bass line on tenor sax. More thoughts on the song and the band here.

5:15; The Who: John Entwistle, who was also an accomplished french hornist, doubles his fellow brass players on the song's distinctive, jazzy riff; driving the rest of the proceedings with an almost Baroque countermelody. Yes, Virginia, classical and jazz music can play very well with rock 'n' roll.

Going To A Go Go; Smokey Robinson: Silky and snake-hipped, thanks to the mighty James Jamerson -- surely one of the greatest musicians who ever lived. His sinuous bass line evokes the luxurious, low-lit confines of an exclusive club packed with Motown's cool kids, but somehow, open to everyone. 

Too Much Girl; The Resonars: Rippling bass by Matt Rendon fuses The Who and The Hollies in the greatest power pop act you've never heard.