Dave Elder's Favorite Songs Playlist
What's my favorite song? That's a tough question, and this playlist is my answer. I don't know that I could ever pick just one song. These are the cuts that I listen to, and that mean something to me. I have lots of memories and stories tied up with them, and I share a portion of those tales on this list. Surely you will recognize some of the tracks here, but probably you'll find some that you don't, and hopefully I can help you discover some good music. You might notice that some numbers are missing, including number 1, and that's because the linked videos are no longer available, so those songs have been removed from the list.
This page only includes a few recent bits. If you'd like to read some older ones, the previous link below will take you to the post before the last one, on my Blogspot runway, which has links to earlier writings. The Master List page has links to all of the playlist Blogspot articles. However, my earliest playlist rambles, before Song 185, only live on this website, since I didn't start posting on Blogspot until February of 2014.
-Dave
Recent Songs
(Sunday, 11/17/24) Song 746: November Rain by Guns N' Roses, written by Axl Rose. You can find a cool YouTube video of it here. I had moved from California to Brooklyn a few years before this snappy forecast came along and I hung out with the Fast Folk bunch a lot, but I also still listened to the radio and got moved by some of the more magnetic chart toppers. This piece actually became the longest song ever to reach the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 at the time in early 1992 and would hold that distinction for a number of years. Of course, nothing lasts forever and over time, hearts can change. Meanwhile, given the weather forecast in my area, I'm not looking forward to it, but it seems quite likely that at least once or twice this week I'll have the privilege of walkin' in the cold November rain.
(Sunday, 11/10/24) Song 745: Out of Luck by Ilene Weiss, who also wrote the song. You can find a YouTube video of it here. Seven weeks after my previous personal friend song post, this week's roaming ballad comes from another one of my Fast Folk colleagues. In the summer of 1987 I did a trip to NYC, intending to move there the following year, and during that visit, I got to see Ilene do a set at Folk City which quickly turned me into an IW fan. Not long after I moved to Brooklyn in September of 1988, I joined the Manhattan Fast Folk circle and soon had a copy of Ms. Weiss's Nine Songs Basically cassette, which included this moving excursion, and which got a lot of spins on my player. It didn't take long to understand how it might feel if I made a crazy deal but I also figured out that after my loss of innocence, I would want to say la la la la la la la a lot!
(Sunday, 11/3/24) Song 744: Autumn Leaves by Roger Williams, written by Joseph Kosma. You can find a cool YouTube video of it here. Anyone living in the northeast area of the U.S., or somewhere else with a similar climate, can understand the implications of this tune's title, and has probably seen plenty of examples of the term in the last few weeks, as I have. The YouTube video here comes from an appearance by Roger Williams on the Ed Sullivan Show on January 1, 1956. At some point in that era, my folks got our family's first TV, and very soon, we got to see the Ed Sullivan Show regularly, so it's possible that we might have witnessed that appearance. However, I'm not sure if we even had the tube when Mr. Williams appeared on the show on the first day of 1956. The descending piano riffs he features in the piece do sound quite familiar, so it is possible that I did get to see and hear that segment, though I also might have experienced a rerun of the sequence on a later date. My family at the time had an upright piano sitting next to the TV back then, and even before we got the tube, I had spent some time pounding my fingers on that keyboard, so it's possible that I might have figured out those descending riffs myself and given my own family a musical sense of autumn leaves.
(Sunday, 10/27/24) Song 743: Spooky by Classics IV, written by James B. Cobb Jr., Buddy Buie, Mike Shapiro and Harry Middlebrooks Jr. You can find a YouTube video of it here. With a ghostly holiday set to arrive this week, it seems like the appropriate time to feature an eerie narrative that got us all shaking along back in February of 1968. While I don't think I ever added the 45 to my hidden collection, I did get to sing along with the haunting rhythm when I had the transistor radio in hand and the touching phantom came rocking across the airwaves. A few months earlier, I had indeed had my first date with an attractive young woman who was actually a year older than me, and I had enjoyed our time together in the cool of the evenin' on that night, but I would never have asked her if she would have liked to go with me and see a movie because the church we both attended (and where we met each other) did not approve of movies, and actually classified viewing a movie in a theater as being A SIN! Some of the older generation of that church also raised the idea that observing the 10/31 holiday might violate fundamentalist principles, but fortunately for me and my brothers, our folks DID let us play the Halloween trick or treat game.
(Sunday, 10/20/24) Song 742: Smokestack Lightning by Howlin' Wolf, who also wrote the song (credited under his name Chester Burnett). You can find a YouTube video of it here. The first version of this song I heard came along in 1972 when Chicago radios introduced me to the Mike Harrison renditon, which I applauded on this list as Song 158. Soon after that recording roped me in, I found out about the Yardbirds one (Song 691) and also became aware of this original one. During the 1970s, some Chicago radio stations featured rocking classics from the 1950s, so I may very well have heard it from them, though I don't recall the details now. I definitely did get to know this recording in that era, and when I got to hear it, it felt like it was shinin' just like gold. Of course, even in the previous decade, growing up in a house near a railroad line, I knew that whether or not the engineer might stop the train, even to let a poor boy ride, I would never see a smokestack, since those fuming pipes did not appear on the diesel electric locomotives that had taken over the train tracks by then.
(Sunday, 10/13/24) Song 741: Here Comes the Night by Them, written by Bert Berns. You can find a YouTube video of it here. While this informing uplift came along in the early spring of 1965, it seems more appropriate to applaud its observations during the early fall period when days have begun to get noticeably shorter. A year before these attentive notes arrived, the Fab Four had rocked my world, and after becoming a fan of that moving quartet, I soon got to know and appreciate a bunch of their fellow British Invaders, including Them. I could understand how seeing another guy holding a former lover the way I used to do could make me wonder what is wrong with me but experiencing such sadness still would never make me want to die.
(Sunday, 10/6/24) Song 740: Dancing in the Moonlight by King Harvest, written by Sherman Kelly. You can find a YouTube video of it here. Around this time in the fall of 1972, as my wife and I searched for an apartment on the south end of Evanston, IL, we started hearing about how making certain moves after dark could and would alleviate particular types of anxiety. I did not at the time look forward to the coming Windy City area frigid season, but it did feel good to imagine that on a somewhat-cool night, dancin' in the moonlight could make someone feel warm and right. The fundamentalist family where I grew up had not approved of dancing, and had never allowed my 2 brothers and/or me to ever do it in any way, but soon after I had left that home a few years before this hit arrived, I got to appreciate how sharing moves with a special attractive partner could feel like a supernatural delight.
(Sunday, 9/29/24) Song 739: Daydream Believer by The Monkees, written by John Stewart. You can find a cool YouTube video of it here. This musing vision came along around this time in 1967, soon after I began my junior HS year and our school's football team had their homecoming event (which it again had a couple of days ago). While my parents and grandparents did not approve of the devil's music, I did get to experience the Monkees more than a lot of other rockers I liked because of their TV show, which I sometimes got to watch when the folks were not around. That being the case, I quickly learned a number of their tunes and could soon sing along with them. Back then, my good times would often start and end without dollar one to spend because my family had very little money available for entertainment, but they did manage to figure out inexpensive ways to generate pleasure, such as by hiking in the Adirondack Park. I also appreciated my folks providing me with an electric shaver in my last year or two of HS, so I never had to use a shavin' razor that was cold and that stings.
(Sunday, 9/22/24) Song 738: Diamond in the Rough by Shawn Colvin, written by Shawn Colvin and John Leventhal. You can find a cool YouTube video of it here. Seven weeks after my previous personal friend song post, this week's ruffled gem comes from one of my Berkeley, CA, comrades. She and her musical partner Jim Bruno had both moved from Illinois to the East Bay area around the time that I did that in the summer of 1978, and in the spring of 1979, I met them at this small folkie spot in San Francisco. I had already gotten roped into the Berkeley singer/songwriter circle, and I invited them to do the same thing, which they did do after their second open mic performance at the pizza place where we all hung out. Shawn soon became one of the stars of that circle, but then in the summer of 1986, she moved to NYC. When I did a trip there the following summer, I got to see her perform at The Bottom Line in Manhattan, and I really enjoyed her set. A year later, I moved to NYC, and soon after I did, I had a copy of Shawn's LIVE TAPE cassette, which opens with this melodic rhinestone, and it didn't take long to start singing along with it. Even in the present, every now and then I can see that I'm getting somewhere, and though last night I lost too much sleep, hopefully tonight I'm gonna find it.
(Sunday, 9/15/24) Song 737: Can't Get Enough by Bad Company, written by Mick Ralphs. You can find a YouTube video of it here. My wife and I fled the frigid Windy City region in February of 1974 and soon found a really pleasant spot to reside in the milder area of Atlanta, GA. Our attractive apartment had a nice comfortable front porch where I often spent time strumming my 6-string axe and also listening to the local radio station sharing the current chart toppers, which included this melodic deficiency compliment. Back then, I could not picture how a romantic partner might hang me up in a doorway, or even how love could break me in two, but as a typical young male with high testosterone levels, I sure did know how it feels when you can't get enough of someone's love.
(Sunday, 9/8/24) Song 736: Red Rubber Ball by The Cyrkle, written by Paul Simon and Bruce Woodley. You can find a YouTube video of it here. Initially when the Beatles rocked my world in February of 1964, I mostly paid attention to them and their fellow British Invaders, but by the time this single came along in the summer of 1966, I had widened my ear radar to whatever climbed into the Top 40, and it didn't take long to learn the chorus of this chart topper and sing along with it. During that stretch, as a young male teenager I admired the attractive females that I shared HS classtime with, but I did not have a romantic connection with one, or even a focused amorous dream, so when I mouthed the tune I didn't picture anyone in particular as its target. In fact, at the time, it bothered me that I hadn't yet had a rollercoaster ride, regardless of the outcome, and I hoped that soon I might get to find a starfish in the sea.
(Monday, 9/2/24) Song 735: Three Dollar Bill by Maria Muldaur, written by Mac Rebennack. You can find a YouTube video of it here. Ms. MM started grabbing our ears around the end of the summer 51 years ago by telling us about an evening excursion at a haven, and not only did I like what I heard, but I pictured a very attractive young woman mouthing that melody. Soon enough I got a copy of her initial LP and her appearance on the disc's cover did look erotically-appealing to a young man in his early twenties. That 33 got a lot of spins on the turntable, so when this third hit from the album climbed the charts, I could already sing along with it. I had decided back then that whatever I could afford to spend on music I liked I would put towards records I could hear repeatedly, so I went to very few concerts in my younger years, but around the time I turned 30, while living in the East Bay of CA, I did get to see a show Maria did, so she became an exception to that rule. When growing up, my parents had regularly gotten me copies of Mad Magazine, so I did know about their three dollar bill, and when doing research for this piece, I found images of such a currency with a picture of Bill Clinton, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, so I guess now each one of them is a three dollar bill that spent some time kissin' babies and hustlin' votes.
(Sunday, 8/25/24) Song 734: Hot Fun In The Summertime by Sly and the Family Stone, written by Sly Stone. You can find a YouTube video of it here. Around the time this scorching anthem started climbing the charts, I joined a bunch of my fellow HS vocalists in riding a bus to NYC and then riding a plane to Switzerland. Our select choir group did a European tour that lasted about four weeks. Them summer days sure felt good to us all, and gave us a lot of memorable moments that we could treasure for the rest of our lives. We got to ride cloud nine to get back to NYC, and as we rode the bus back to our hometown, we saw a bunch of fellow teenagers hitching for rides in the Bethel area. Our bus driver explained that a major music festival had just happened in that area, and I later found out that the performers on that Woodstock stage had included a certain crafty fellow and his rocky relatives. When we got back to our neighborhood, we all sure did feel like everything is cool, and we could smile at each other as we waved Bye, bye, bye, bye there.
