The high sheriffs have determined that I should provide a daily list of what I’m listening to on the road, which is not difficult…but I’ll keep it to five songs per day, mostly stuff that pops up on my iPod as it shuffles through the library. On the first day, however, the tunes also include stuff I heard on my home channel, the brilliant WFUV in New York and WXPN, the radio station of my alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania–which is every bit as good as WFUV when it comes to diversity and intelligence. On Labor Day, XPN was playing a Springsteen marathon, which could easily have consumed all of my top five. But that wouldn’t be much fun.
In any case, yesterday’s five…in the way I’d order them as a playlist:1. Graceland–Paul Simon…not just a great song, but a transcendent road song.
2.Six Days on the Road–Taj Mahal’s driving, bluesy version.
3. 1952 Vincent–Richard Thompson…a great song that ends with the line, which I’ll paraphrase because my memory is getting swiss-cheesy: “All I need in this world/ is a 1952 Vincent and a red-headed girl…” So therefore…
4.Red-Headed Woman–Springsteen (the joyous live acoustic version)
5. Pour Me Another Cup of Coffee–Uncle Tupelo (live). I can see the caffeine-intake going through the roof this month.
This post is part of my Election Road Trip 2010 project. To track my location across the country, and read all my road trip posts, click here.