Monday Morning Music — #5
I Can’t Sleep
Playlist
I Can’t Sleep
I can’t sleep for shit.
Never really could.
The only recurring dream I’ve ever had in my life occurred when I was very young. The dream was that I would wake up and the house would be empty. I would then run down the stairs to the front door, open it and a figure would be there, tall, in a brown trench coat, and the figure would turn around …and then I would wake up screaming.
I can still see that dream vividly.
I was six-years-old then.
I am no longer six-years-old.
I’m not really sure what that dream means — never really tried to unpack that one in all my years of therapy. Not much of a stretch to say it has something to do with a fear of abandonment. Luckily, once I realized that the dream wouldn’t take place if I left the light on, my door open, and the radio on, that’s what I did.
By the time I became a teenager, the door closed (obviously), and the light went out but the music remained on. And I continued playing music to sleep well into my 20’s.
But sleeping the whole night through? Never really been my jam. I’m up two to three times a night.
I’ve tried everything. All the drugs, legal, prescription and others, all the non-drugs, all the activity, all the thought exercises, and non of them have allowed me to sleep the entire night.
It’s made it tough to have overnight guests.
Not surprisingly, it wreaked havoc on the relationships where I lived with someone. Often not so much for them as much for me. My typical pattern is that I can’t sleep and toss and turn, get up, eat, go back to bed, toss and turn some more. I’m plagued with not being able to sleep and those thoughts; and when I’m with someone, I get the additional anxiety of how disruptive and irritating it must be for them.
It’s a hoot.
I’ve learned to tolerate it. And the truth is, about one night, two if I’m lucky, I do get to sleep for a solid four or five hours. So there’s that.
What you’re getting this week is what happens when I can’t sleep and slam some songs on a playlist. No rhyme or reason here, just songs that, for whatever reason, were at the forefront of my head at 2:30am.
I’m not sure what any of it means — a playlist created in a not quite fugue state. If there is a story here in these songs together, hell if I know what it is. All I can say is that took my mind of not having any ice cream and prevented me from running across the street to get some.
SOME HIGHLIGHTS:
“I Left My Wallet in El Segundo” — A Tribe Called Quest
I was much too late to get on the Tribe bandwagon, but I’m glad I finally got on. This is just a fun little jam, that may be the first (and only?) buddy road trip hip-hop song. It tells a somewhat Robert Altman-esque story of the guys traveling from Brooklyn to El Segundo. It’s a boat load of fun.
“Every Picture Tells A Story” — Rod Stewart
Well, here’s one song that just hasn’t aged very well. It’s a great song …but lyrically? Let’s just say it’s not very woke …and I sincerely doubt Rod would ever include this in a set list today. But it’s worth noting that before he started singing that American songbook tripe, he was a full-blown rock start.
“Hello, It’s Me” — Todd Rundgren
Easily one of true genius’ working in music. Full stop. One of the running themes throughout rock and roll is the booty call. It goes all the way back to The Big Bopper with “Chantilly Lace.” Every good artist has a “booty call” song — this is Todd’s.
“The Weight” — The Band
Sometimes I wonder if people truly understand the scope of what The Band accomplished. They popularized, arguably created, a genre of music that did not exist prior to them. Anyway, this is the story of Miss Moses, Luke, Anna Lee, Fanny, and of course, Crazy Chester. Kinda makes me wonder would’ve happened if the boys from Tribe had run across these characters in some kind of hip-hop/classic rock crossover/mash-up. That’d be fun.
“Here Comes A Regular” — The Replacements
Perhaps one of the saddest songs in their oeuvre. The line that always gutted me was “I used to stay home, now I just stay in the house.”
“Dreams I’ll Never See” — Molly Hatchet
No, you read that correctly — that’s Molly Hatchet. The long forgotten unsung heroes of Southern Rock. The Allman Brothers wrote it and recorded it in 1969. Less then ten years later, the boys from Gainesville decided to cover it …and as far as I’m concerned, define it. Where The Allman Brothers version is more bluesy, Molly Hatchet’s version is not. And no matter how many times I hear this, it never gets old.
“Beginnings” — Chicago
Chicago is too often associated with the pop schmaltz of their 80s hits, but the band is so much more than that. Thematically, the songs are still lovey dovey stuff, they’re just better than the David Fosterized stuff from the 80s. And to me, the difference is original guitarist Terry Kath. When Jimi Hendrix first heard Terry Kath, he was quoted as saying he thought Kath played better than he did. Before he died, he would elevate that by referring to Terry Kath as the “Best Guitarist in the Universe.” So, yea.
“Up All Night (Frankie Miller Goes To Hollywood)” — Counting Crows
The bands fourth album, Hard Candy, was produced by the legendary Steve Lillywhite and harnesses the same kind of energy that T-Bone Burnett was able to do on August and Everything After. This album also contains two of my favorite Crows songs — “If I Could Give All My Love (Richard Manuel Is Dead)” and this one.
“Egg Man” — Beastie Boys
Buttressing the playlist are two songs from two of the most influential, arguably important, hip-hop albums, A Tribe Called Quest’s People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm and Beastie Boys Paul’s Boutique.
As usual, you’ll have to listen to the entire playlist to get the full benefit.