Songs of the Week from Saints and Spinners

I've published an iMix of all the songs to date that featured on Song of the Week and are available through iTunes. Just so you know, the "Bought Me a Goat" Project never took off. It's just as well-- I doubt any of the supposed revenue-earning widgits on blogs actually work. (Or is that just sour grapes?!) In any case, now you have 16 available songs grouped together for your convenience.

Road-Mix

I made you all a music mix to keep you company on your travels. I started out with 36 songs, and narrowed it down to 12. There are a few songs I wish I could share with you but can't, due to the fact that iTunes doesn't have them. "Day Tripper," by the Beatles, is the most notable omission.

Here's the breakdown of your mix:

1) Car Wheels on a Gravel Road-- Lucinda Williams
This is the song that made me a Lucinda Williams fan. In my mind, I can see the little girl in the song, hear the gravel under the wheels, feel the momentary freedom of getting away:
Child in the backseat about four or five years
Lookin out the window
Little bit of dirt mixed with tears
Car wheels on a gravel road

2) Ride--G. Love
I stumbled across this "slacker hip-hop" song while looking for something else. I don't remember what that something else was, but I like the easy-going, loping-along sound of this album.

3) Fisherman's Blues--The Waterboys
"With a light in my head/and you in my arms..."

4) City of New Orleans--Arlo Guthrie
Train songs make for good road-trip mixes.

5) I Know My Love--The Chieftains and the Corrs
This song is in a 6/8 meter, has two chords, and is a lot of fun to play. Like so many folk-songs, it offers bad relationship advice.

6) Jaan Pahechan Ho--Mohd. Rafi, Manoj Kumar, Nanda
This Bollywood classic first appeared in the movie "Gumnaam" and then later in "Ghostworld." It's got a beat. You can dance to it.

7) The Beat Goes On--Firewater
Updated lyrics from the Sonny and Cher original and a wicked bass line-- how can you go wrong?

8) I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to Be Free--Nina Simone
This is a song of yearning and longing. It's perfect for the road.

9) On the Road Again--Canned Heat
I'll bet you didn't know Kermit the Frog was the lead singer for Canned Heat. Listen closely. There he is!

10) The Truck Song-- Lyle Lovett
Turn down that highway
Turn up that dirt road
It's over three days
Since I left Houston
Old Black's my truck's name
She's held together
By B.F. Goodtire
And bailing wire...

11) I'm on My Way--Proclaimers
For some "500 Miles" is the definitive Proclaimers song. For me, it's this one. "I'm on my way from misery to happiness" says it all.

12) Drive--Joe 90
I first heard this song as at the end of the road-trip episode of "Six Feet Under." There are some good lyrics in this song, including the refrain, "Time doesn't know what it's time for us all to know." Amen.

Spinners, Volume 1

Here is my first mix-tape for you as part of the "Bought Me a Goat" Project:

Songs for goats (and lonely goat-herds)

I'm thinking of doing the iTunes affilates program to earn revenue on the songs I recommend on this blog. What do you all think? Have any of you done this? My first instinct is to funnel all the money into a non-profit organization, but part of me thinks, "If I earned money from recommending the songs, then I could use the money to buy... more songs!"

Still, I've decided that any money this site make from iTunes affiliates goes toward the purchase of a goat. Since I can't keep a goat in my own backyard for various reasons,* I'm going to donate the goat to someone else via Heifer. According to Heifer's catalog, each goat costs 120.00 USD. Of course, I can buy shares of a goat, but who really wants pieces of goat when a whole one works so much better?



*If I get a goat, then I'll have to hire a goat-herd so I can go away on weekends. Then, the goat-herd will get lonely, and I'll have to find a companion for the goat-herd. Then, the goat-herd and his or her companion will complain that there aren't blackberry bushes in our yard, and we'll have to grow some so that the goat can give sweet milk. And I just know that once the goatherd and the companion get milk from the goat, everyone's going to want cookies to go with it...