In honor of Mother’s Day, ten maternal songs:
1. Mother And Child Reunion – Paul Simon
2. My Old Mother – The Mollys
3. Sylvia’s Mother – Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show
4. I’ll Tell Me Ma – Flying Fish Sailors
5. Mommy Says No! – Asylum Street Spankers
6. Forty Years Old And I’m Living In My Mom’s Garage – Austin Lounge Lizards
7. Momma Don’t Like My Friends – Carolyn Wonderland and The Imperial Monkeys
8. So Long Mom (A Song For World War III) – Tom Lehrer
9. Mama’s Cooking – Marcia Ball
10. Make Your Mama Proud – Fastball
What does your iPod have for your Mom this week?
Entire song list report: Started with “Guess I Showed Her”, by Robert Cray. Finished with “Heaven Is A Place On Earth”, by Belinda Carlisle, song #1929. That’s 113 for the week, and we’re now about a third of the way through. The last G song was “Gypsy Woman”, by Muddy Waters. The first H song was “H-o Abha-Inn (Little One)”, by Kerstin Blodig and Ian Melrose. If you prefer a song that isn’t listed first because of iTunes’ weird sorting algorithm, try “The Haggis”, by The Mollys instead.
Along the way, both of my versions of “Hallelujah”, one by John Cale and one by Jeff Buckley, were played. I mentioned that specifically so I could link to this great blog post about the curious cultural journey of this song. Check it out.
Ripping vinyl report: I managed to get to “Stay Awake”, a wonderfully eclectic collection of Disney songs, performed by artists ranging from James Taylor and Suzanne Vega to Tom Waits, Sinead O’Connor, Bonnie Raitt, Was (Not Was), Los Lobos, Buster Poindexter, and Sun Ra. Of all the vinyl in my collection, that one was one of my top priorities for this project. It was a challenge, because many of the songs were recorded as medleys, with little to no breaks in the sound between them, so I had to stop the USB turntable at what I hoped was a decent spot in order to individuate them. But it was worth it.
I also got a few cuts from one side of “Queen’s Greatest Hits”. (Go ahead and insert your own “Good Omens” joke here.) Sadly, that record wasn’t in very good shape, so I wound up deleting a few tracks due to skips. I may or may not get around to side two – after 20+ years of listening to mostly classic rock radio stations, not having these songs in my collection just doesn’t feel like a void, you know? I’ll probably make a run at side two later, if only to get “Flash Gordon” on there, but for now it’s back in the pack.
Solid list, Charles!
Every Mothers Son – Traffic
Mother’s Little Helper – The Rolling Stones
Mother And Child Reunion – Paul Simon
Mother Freedom – Bread
Mother Knows Best – Richard Thompson
Mother Nature’s Son – The Beatles
Motherland – Joan Baez
Motherless Children – Rosanne Cash
Mothers Of The Disappeared – U2
No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature – The Guess Who
That Was Your Mother – Paul Simon
This Is To Mother You – Linda Ronstadt & Emmylou Harris
Welfare Mothers – Neil Young
Your Mother Should Know – The Beatles
Rats, I should have combined these. Here are songs containing “Mama:”
Mama Told Me (Not To Come) – Three Dog Night
Rag Mama Rag – The Band
Shake Shake Mama – Bob Dylan
Sugar Mama – Bonnie Raitt
Tell Mama – Janis Joplin
That’s All Right (Mama) – The Beatles
Your Mama Don’t Dance – Loggins & Messina