For that new creator owned book I mentioned, I put together the following play list. The book's got a weird inner city 70's vibe to it, despite being modern, but, it's not in the Parliament/Chi-Lites mold, so much... there's a sense of history and decay to it that most 70's stuff doesn't quite capture. So instead, I built it mostly from blues and jazz from the mid 50's to the mid 70's, the kind of music that you might hear on a small power AM station back in my hometown.
The key song, from where I built the entire playlist, and mood of the book, is one that I've been moderately obsessed with every since the first time I heard it used, which was on a production of a couple of Richard Wright One Act Plays that I was the Assistant Director of as a teenager. The song was David "Fathead" Newman's version of Ray Charles' Hard Times. It's a song, that as performed by Ray is a sad, solitary little song about the shit life can throw at you. The Fathead version (from the album "Fathead Ray Charles Presents David Newman") is the opposite. It's about triumphing over adversity and telling it to go fuck itself. For a simple little blues song, it really drives it home. You can actually listen to it on Newman's Myspace Page.
Here's twenty of the tracks, after the jump.
Song/Time/Artist/Album
Big Black Cadillac Blues 6:59 Lightnin' Hopkins The Best of Lightnin' Hopkins
Fathead (Remastered LP Version) 5:21 David Newman Fathead Ray Charles Presents David Newman
That's Enough 2:46 Ray Charles The Best of Ray Charles: The Atlantic Years
Blue Monk 5:19 Thelonious Monk The Columbia Years (1962-1968) Disc 2
Six And Four 7:18 Oliver Nelson Straight Ahead
Brand New Car 5:32 Lightnin' Hopkins The Best of Lightnin' Hopkins
Now She's Gone 2:19 Ray Charles Blues Is My Middle Name
Walkin' Blues 2:58 Muddy Waters The Anthology: 1947-1972
Epistrophy 4:30 Thelonious Monk Quartet With John Coltrane At Carnegie Hall
Mean Red Spider 2:20 Muddy Waters Muddy's Blues
It's Alright 2:18 Ray Charles The Best of Ray Charles: The Atlantic Years
Goodbye Pork Pie Hat 5:45 Charles Mingus Ken Burns Jazz Series: Charles Mingus
Red Sails In The Sunset 3:07 Jimmy McGriff Groove Grease
(I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man 6:00 Jimmy Smith Got My Mojo Workin'
Time After Time 7:24 Oliver Nelson Nocturne
Epistrophy 2:24 Thelonious Monk Quartet & John Coltrane Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall
She's Nineteen Years Old 3:20 Muddy Waters The Anthology: 1947-1972
Misterioso 3:22 Thelonious Monk Ken Burns Jazz Series: Thelonious Monk
A Little Max (Alternate Take) 2:56 Duke Ellington With Charles Mingus & Max Roach Money Jungle
Baby Please Don't Go 3:48 Muddy Waters Muddy Waters Blues Band
