I recently celebrated my 45th birthday with family and friends and needed to put together a playlist for the evening. I decided to embark on a musical journey through my entire rock ‘n’ roll listening life, starting, literally, with Journey (“Escape” was the first album I bought) up through some of the songs I've discovered through Fine Tuning, with many stops along the way. Each one of these songs has profound significance for me, whether it be the first 45 I ever bought (“Surrender” by Cheap Trick at the long-since-closed Disc-O-Mat on Lexington Avenue in NYC), the first Clash tune I became obsessed with (“(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais”), my gateway drug to Dylan (“Tangled Up In Blue”), the first song I learned to play on guitar (“Sweet Jane”), songs that saw me through particularly dark periods (“Release” by Pearl Jam), the song my wife and I first danced to at our wedding (“Emotionally Yours” by the O’Jays), to the first song I sang to my son after bringing him home from the hospital (“Brokedown Palace” by the Grateful Dead). I had hoped to write liner notes for each track, but that Herculean task is incompatible with holding a day job. Maybe one day.
1. “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey 2. “Surrender” by Cheap Trick 3. “Come Sail Away” by Styx 4. “Keep On Loving You” by REO Speedwagon 5. “Bat Out Of Hell” by Meat Loaf 6. “I Don’t Like Mondays” by The Boomtown Rats 7. “High ‘n’ Dry (Saturday Night)” by Def Leppard 8. “(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais” by The Clash 9. “Safe European Home” by The Clash 10, “God Save The Queen” by The Sex Pistols 11. “Out of Control” by U2 12. “Radio Free Europe” by R.E.M. 13. “Tangled Up In Blue” by Bob Dylan 14. “Visions of Johanna (Live)” by Bob Dylan 15. “Up to Me” by Bob Dylan 16. “Sweet Jane” by The Velvet Underground 17. “Rock and Roll” by The Velvet Underground 18. “Kill Your Sons” by Tommy Keene 19. “Welcome To The Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses 20. “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses 21. “Baba O’Riley” by The Who 22. “Left of the Dial” by The Replacements 23. “She Talks To Angels” by The Black Crowes 24. “Thunder Road” by Bruce Springsteen 25. “I Am A Patriot” by Little Steven 26. “Stir It Up” by Bob Marley 27. “Jack Straw” by The Grateful Dead 28. “Sugar Magnolia” by The Grateful Dead 29. “Scarlet Begonias” by The Grateful Dead 30. “Statesboro Blues” by The Allman Brothers Band 31. “Dixie Chicken” by Little Feat 32. “But Anyway” by Blues Traveler 33. “Free Fallin’” by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers 34. “The Weight” by The Band 35. “Moonlight Mile” by The Rolling Stones 36. “Like Suicide” by Soundgarden 37. “Release (Live)” by Pearl Jam 38. “Killing in the Name” by Rage Against The Machine 39. “Without Letting Go” by Laurie Sargent 40. “Recovering The Satellites” by Counting Crows 41. “Pink Moon” by Nick Drake 42. “I’m Waiting For The Man” by The Velvet Underground 43. “Running To Stand Still” by U2 44. “Don’t Leave Me Now” by Pink Floyd 45. “He’s Gone” by The Grateful Dead 46. “Walk On By” by Dionne Warwick 47. “Astral Weeks” by Van Morrison 48. “Angel From Montgomery” by Bonnie Raitt 49. “Rain King (Live)” by Counting Crows 50. “Emotionally Yours (Live)” by The O’Jays 51. “Going To California” by Led Zeppelin 52. “Sugaree” by The Jerry Garcia Band 53. “The Things We’ve Handed Down” by Marc Cohn 54. “The Only Living Boy in New York” by Simon & Garfunkel 55. “Brokedown Palace” by The Grateful Dead 56. “Take It To The Limit” by The Eagles 57. “Racing In The Street” by Bruce Springsteen 58. “He Went to Paris” by Jimmy Buffett 59. “First Night” by The Hold Steady 60. “Hold On” by Alabama Shakes 61. “Skin and Bone” by Heartless Bastards 62. “Birmingham” by Shovels & Rope 63. “Blue Eyes” by Middle Brother 64. “Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going to Be a Long Long Time)” by Elton John
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